Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Jon Decker, WOR White House correspondent interview

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Jon Decker, WOR White House correspondent interview · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, it's good to be John Decker. John Decker got
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: to go to Alaska with the president for his rally there.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Then he had a one-on-one interview with him. So let's
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: bring him in and find out how that went. John Decker,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: WOL White House and Washington correspondent. He's host of the podcast,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The White House Briefing Room with John Decker. That you
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: can find on the iHeartRadio app. So it seemed like
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: it was a pretty successful rally. I'd love to hear
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: about your interview with the president, but tell me why
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: this pipeline that he said is going to go through
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: now is so important to Alaska.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Well, it's important because energy prices are higher there than
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: pretty much anywhere in the entire country, Larry. It is
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: so remote that anything that can bring down energy prices
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: is welcome news. Now, the pipeline... It's not like you
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: snap your fingers and the pipeline is built. We're talking about,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: in a best-case scenario, it being completed by 2030. That's
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: a ways off four years away. That's a best-case scenario.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: So it's welcome news, but it's interesting that the news
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: is coming, you know, with 21 days or so to
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: go until the midterms. You know, I think that for
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: certain individuals, constituents in Alaska, They may be skeptical about
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: certain promises that are made by any politician being made
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: in the final weeks of a campaign.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: This happens all the time, though, during midterm elections. The
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: presidents come and they know what the local issues are
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: and they do something as a gift. to try to
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: help get votes, right? This happens years.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah, it's been happening probably since the dawn of
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: our country. You know, you make promises, you know, in
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  Speaker 2: the weeks leading up to an election. And President Trump
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: is no different than anybody else. You know, he's made
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: some promises as it relates to Iowa. There's a very
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: close Senate race in Iowa. You know, he's made promises
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: in other states as well. And of course, the big
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: promise is that if Republicans retain control of the House
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: and the Senate, the president says that will mean a
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: $ 5, 000 check to every American adult. So that's quite a
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: promise to put out there weeks ahead of the midterm
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: John Decker, while you were away in Alaska or on
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: your way to Alaska, we were introduced to the new
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: press secretary, Katie Zachariah. Seemed to me and a lot
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: of other people that she had a Rough ride on
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: her first day. You've dealt with so many press secretaries.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: What would you advise as she moves forward?
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Well, you're right. Katie, who I got a chance to
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: know and meet on this two-day trip, she was on
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: the trip, chatted with her for a little bit. She's
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: the 18th White House press secretary that I'm dealing with now.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: And I watched her press conference while I was out
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: at Andrews Air Force Base awaiting to board Air Force One.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: She only took three questions, had a 14-minute long briefing,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: and that's not going to cut it. You have to
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: take a lot more questions than that. You have to
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: get away from reading everything out of what you've brought
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: to the lectern. and you have to be comfortable with
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: speaking about domestic policy and foreign policy. It means working
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: really hard. Someone who appears on Fox News and does
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: a five-minute hit cannot jump in and be the White
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: House press secretary. It's not an easy job, and so
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I think that anyone that takes that job, including Katie,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: needs to recognize that you need to put in some
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: hard work if you want to be good at that job,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: and I must tell you that Caroline Leavitt, I think,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: set the bar really high. So I think she's being
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: judged by the standard that Caroline set. I said that
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: when she left in August, you may recall this, I
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: said she will have some big shoes to fill, whoever
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: is the person that the president names to replace her.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: And Katie has some big shoes to fill now that
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: she has that job.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: When you said that 14 minutes is not going to
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: cut it, I've heard that a lot. I've heard that
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: on CNN. I've heard criticism of her for that. So
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I take it you're not buying the excuse that the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: president said, no, I want to get you out there today,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: but they did have this flight that you had to
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: get on?
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Because there was a significant amount of time between the
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: conclusion of that press briefing and the time that the
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: president actually left the White House to board Marine One
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: out to Andrews. So she could have, you know, even
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: a half hour briefing. you know, 15 minutes longer, I
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: think she certainly could have done time-wise. And I think
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: it would have been more satisfactory for her. You know,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: you get better like anything, you know, whatever sport you're
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: talking about with practice, and you're just not going to
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: get better if you just do 14 minutes. You got
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: to take all those questions and get good in terms
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: of how you deal with the White House press corps. And,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: you know, I think that that is one of those
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: areas where I would recommend for her to have lengthier
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: briefings than just 15 minutes at length if she wants
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: to get better at the job.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: John, I noticed the president is barnstorming. He loves to
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: do this. This is the part of the job he
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: really loves, informing the audience, entertaining the audience, and engaging them.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: But I look at every race he goes to, Republicans,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: if they aren't ahead, they're like at 46, 47, 48,
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: tight races. His numbers are at 36, maybe 38. I'm
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: saying to myself, hey, wait a second. How is he
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: a help to the Republicans? Because the Democrats, they just
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: jump all over the fact that he's coming in and
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: hit him with his negatives.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Well, as the president has pointed out, you know, I
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: went to let's see, I went to one, two, three.
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  Speaker 2: Three campaign rallies in two days, one in Alaska, one
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: in Arizona, and one last night in Montana. I just
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: got back a few hours ago, by the way. I
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: landed literally three hours ago at Andrews. And I think
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: what the president points out is that he's really popular
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: within the Republican base. And he is. He's maintained that popularity.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: It's true. So the president believes that if he can
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: energize that base to get them out in the kind
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: of numbers that that they typically come out in a
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: presidential election year, Republicans will do well enough to maintain
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: control of the House and the Senate. And so that's
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: the reason behind these various campaign rallies, even in red
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: states like Montana and like Alaska. That's, I think, behind
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: the president's thinking. I asked the president, you know, yesterday
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: before we departed from Arizona to Montana, why are we
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: even going to Montana? It's a red state, Mr. President.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Why aren't you going to Michigan? You know, it seems
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: like I said to the president, it seems like you're
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: playing defense. And he gave me a lengthy answer. He said, no,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: it's important that I energize the base. It's important that
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: I energize the MAGA base. And so, that I think
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: is entering the president's thinking in this campaign schedule.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the MAGA base, like my wife, watches every
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: single one of these rallies because they're in that Fox
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: sub-channel that we get in streaming. So she's watching it.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter that he's in Montana. He might as
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: well have been in New Jersey because she's going to
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: watch it anyway. So I think, I believe he understands that.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: And John, and correct me if I'm wrong on this,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: but I thought always the traditional theory with midterms is
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: you've got to get your base out. You have to
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: get the people energized and out. And if he can
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: do that, he's going to win a couple races.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Well, that is the case. And I think that that
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: is correct. It's also correct to say that independent voters
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: typically decide elections. And that's the reason why the president
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: won in the manner that he won in 2024. It's
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: because independent voters... overwhelmingly broke for Trump over Kamala Harris.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: The problem now is that if you look at poll
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: after poll after poll, his public approval rating with independents
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: has declined precipitously. And that's the reason why you see
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: his poll numbers now in the mid-30s, even lower in
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: some polls. But they're not in a good place right now.
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  Speaker 2: And it's those independent voters that I believe Larry and
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Curtis will decide who controls both the House and the Senate,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: for the next two years.
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  Speaker 3: Now, one thing we're not hearing much about is what
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: we're going to do about the Iranian escalation of hitting
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: tankers in the Straits of Hormuz with rockets and how
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: their surrogates, the Houthis, are in an almost full-scale war
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: with the Saudis. It would almost seem to me, John Decker,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: they're daring the president to re-engage with before the midterm elections,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: do they have any plans at all to deal with
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: this growing problem?
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the president says he's evaluating that, you know, and
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: I don't think he has much time because, you know,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: we speak so often, Curtis, about the Strait of Hormuz,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: that impact of shutting it down and, you know, the
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: threat that Iran poses in the Strait is having on
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: oil prices. Well, the Houthis, they're threatening to essentially shut
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: down the Red Sea, and that also could impact in
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: a very real way oil prices as well. And the
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: president does not want to see that at all, especially
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: with the midterms, you know, now 20 days away. So, yeah,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: that could force the president's hand in terms of reengaging
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: with the Houthis, helping out the Saudis and their fight
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: against the Houthis. The president just simply hasn't made a
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: decision on that front just yet.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: All right, John Decker, why House and Washington correspondent, host
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: of the podcast, The White House Briefing Room with John Decker.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: You can find that on the iHeartRadio app. John, thanks
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: as always. Get some rest.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Will do.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Have a good one. Bye-bye.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: See you later.