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Election Day 2026 · The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College. All things
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hillsdale at hillsdale.edu. I encourage you to take advantage of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the many free online courses there and of course to
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  Speaker 1: listen to the Hillsdale Dialogues. All of them at hueforhillsdale.com
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  Speaker 1: or just google Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale. Morning glory and
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  Speaker 1: evening grace, America. Election day. And so, of course, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to bring some candidates your way. Beginning with my
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  Speaker 1: own state, Ohio. John Husted, great senator from Ohio on
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  Speaker 1: the Appropriations Committee. Done a great job up against a rerun,
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  Speaker 1: retread 50 year. Get them up. You know that song, Bad,
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  Speaker 1: Bad Leroy Brown. It should be old, old Sherrod Brown.
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  Speaker 1: John Husted, welcome, Senator. How's it feel in the great
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  Speaker 1: state of Ohio today? Great.
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  Speaker 2: We have a lot of A lot of momentum. Beautiful day.
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  Speaker 2: Sunshiny out there today. So there's no excuse for people
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  Speaker 2: not to get out to vote. We literally had people going, hey,
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  Speaker 2: Republicans win Election Day. But if it's bad weather, it's trouble. Well,
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  Speaker 2: if the Lord is shining on us today with a
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  Speaker 2: great sunshiny day here in Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we've got good turnout numbers out of Texas and Florida.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what it is in Ohio. But if
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  Speaker 1: we get good turnout from the Republicans, Ohio is an
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  Speaker 1: 11 point Trump state. We just need the people who
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  Speaker 1: voted for Trump to come out and vote for John Husted.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Senator, I'm quite serious. I'm 70 years old.
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  Speaker 1: I've never wanted to run for office. Sherry Brown's a
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  Speaker 1: lot older than me, and he's never not wanted to
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  Speaker 1: run for office. Isn't Ohio sick of that? I think
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  Speaker 1: they are.
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  Speaker 2: I go around the state and I ask people, hey,
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  Speaker 2: Sherry Brown's been in office for over 50 years. Can
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  Speaker 2: you name one thing he's done to make your life better?
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  Speaker 2: And no one can. There's nothing that he's done that
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  Speaker 2: would lead one to believe that, boy, we just, you know,
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  Speaker 2: if we can only get him back, that'll really fix things.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's just, it's just, that's kind of crazy,
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  Speaker 2: but they all know the long list of things by
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  Speaker 2: now that he's done to them from open borders to
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  Speaker 2: shutting down power plants that raise your electricity prices to
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  Speaker 2: crazy social policies, men and women's sports, transgender surgeries for kids,
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  Speaker 2: all these things that, they know are really out of touch.
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  Speaker 2: But look, he's also raised taxes over 50 times since
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  Speaker 2: he's been in office, including gas taxes, things like that.
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  Speaker 2: And they know me.
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  Speaker 3: I'm a job creator.
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  Speaker 2: I believe in freedom and I want people to keep
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  Speaker 2: more of what they earn to spend and save on
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  Speaker 2: their priorities. The contrast of that, I just believe that
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  Speaker 2: we've been able to get that out there. No matter
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  Speaker 2: how many lies he would tell, like personal lies that
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  Speaker 2: he knows that are verifiably not true, It just shows
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  Speaker 2: how desperate he is to try to get back there
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  Speaker 2: with his buddy Chuck Schumer.
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  Speaker 1: So, Senator John Husted, I was watching the Buckeyes disappoint
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  Speaker 1: on Saturday night, and they ran a few ads about
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  Speaker 1: how long Sherrod Brown's been around. They were very effective.
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  Speaker 1: I want people to know, though, you did two terms
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  Speaker 1: as Ohio Secretary of State. We had clean, quick, fair elections.
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  Speaker 1: You did two terms as lieutenant governor of Ohio. The
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  Speaker 1: tax rate got cut to 2.5%. You and Mike DeWine
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  Speaker 1: juiced the jobs number. Education got more money. Rural health
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  Speaker 1: care got saved. You've actually got a record in the
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  Speaker 1: Senate you've been delivering from the Appropriations Committee. Do people
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  Speaker 1: know that you actually know this state better maybe than
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  Speaker 1: anybody I know?
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  Speaker 2: Well, a lot of people do, but we'll find out
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  Speaker 2: if enough do. Look, I can go back to you.
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  Speaker 2: When I got into the legislature, I did school choice.
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  Speaker 2: I created the Ed Choice Scholarship. Now over 150,000 kids
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  Speaker 2: in Ohio go to a school of their choice. When
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  Speaker 2: I was Secretary of State, I coined the phrase, make
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  Speaker 2: it easy to vote, hard to cheat. And we won
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  Speaker 2: a precedent-setting case.
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  Speaker 1: At the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: Supreme Court, Husted versus the Philip A. Randolph Institute, that
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  Speaker 2: gave us the ability to clean up the voter rolls
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  Speaker 2: and get dead people, people who've moved out of state,
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  Speaker 2: people who are on there illegally, to get them off there.
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  Speaker 2: And then, of course, as Lieutenant Governor, we had the
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  Speaker 2: biggest economic growth in Ohio history in terms of new
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  Speaker 2: job creation.
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  Speaker 3: We now have more jobs.
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  Speaker 2: And the lowest unemployment rate in our state's history. Hugh,
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  Speaker 2: the last time Democrats, Sherrod Brown and the Democrats controlled Ohio,
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  Speaker 2: we had a 9% unemployment rate. We had 89 cents
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  Speaker 2: in our state rainy day fund. We were broke, and
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  Speaker 2: we were the 37th worst state in the country to
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  Speaker 2: do business. Today, we have record jobs, record low unemployment,
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  Speaker 2: $ 4 billion in our state's rainy day fund, and CNBC
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  Speaker 2: recently rated us the number one state in the country
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  Speaker 2: to do business. Why we would want to go back
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  Speaker 2: to the bad old days with Democrats ran Ohio, I
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  Speaker 2: have no idea. I hope the voters will do us
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  Speaker 2: right today.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we don't want to go back, and Ohio is cooking.
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  Speaker 1: President Trump likes to say we're the hottest country in
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  Speaker 1: the United States. I keep telling my friends at the
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  Speaker 1: American Legislative Exchange Council, Ohio is the hottest state if
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  Speaker 1: you look at who's coming in. But I've got to
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  Speaker 1: finish with you, Senator Houston, because my hometown's worn. I
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  Speaker 1: asked you when you first got into this. I've asked everyone,
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  Speaker 1: like Bernie Marino's coming up next. What's in it for Warren?
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  Speaker 1: I actually think you know the Valley pretty well. Warren Youngstown.
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  Speaker 1: We're on right now in Warren Youngstown. Let's go over
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  Speaker 1: what we talked about last week. We need jobs in
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  Speaker 1: Warren Youngstown. You're going to help bring them in. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: We have new investments there. Kimberly Clark is building a
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  Speaker 2: great new facility there. It has the town rising up,
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  Speaker 2: lifted up. We're doing all kinds of things. There have been–
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  Speaker 2: 10,000 manufacturing jobs added to Ohio in the last 18 months.
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  Speaker 2: And many of them are in the Mahoney Valley. Some
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  Speaker 2: of the jobs where you heard Hugh, the president announced
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  Speaker 2: that he's going to put a new submarine maintenance facility
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  Speaker 2: in Ohio. A lot of those jobs are going to
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  Speaker 2: come to the Youngstown Warren area. We're putting people to
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  Speaker 2: work there. And of course they are leading the nation
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  Speaker 2: and additive manufacturing using 3d printing and things like that.
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  Speaker 2: And more and more, more and more jobs are coming
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  Speaker 2: to the area through those innovations as well.
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  Speaker 3: So, We got it.
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  Speaker 2: We've got they know they know how disappointing people like
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  Speaker 2: Barack Obama were who promised, hey, the manufacturing jobs are
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  Speaker 2: going away.
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  Speaker 3: They're never coming back.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we proved him wrong under President Trump and Republican leadership.
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  Speaker 2: We're bringing manufacturing back to Ohio and back to the
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  Speaker 2: Mahoney Valley.
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  Speaker 1: So last question, John Husted, where do you and your
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  Speaker 1: family wait the returns and celebrate, I hope, with your family?
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  Speaker 1: Where's headquarters?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we're going to be down with the crew downtown
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  Speaker 2: Columbus at one of the hotels trying to just be
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  Speaker 2: part of the Republican team. We'll have everybody gathered together,
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  Speaker 2: but we're bringing the volunteers, the prayer warriors, everybody who
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  Speaker 2: worked on the campaign. We're inviting them to what we
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  Speaker 2: hope will be a celebration, but they're still out there
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  Speaker 2: working hard. Everybody's still out there on the ground until
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  Speaker 2: the polls close tonight.
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  Speaker 1: All right. That's why we're playing this three times. Look, Buckeyes,
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  Speaker 1: we cover the state. It matters. It's the control of
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  Speaker 1: the Senate. All right. I think John Husted, if he
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  Speaker 1: comes in and he's won by nine o'clock tonight, the
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  Speaker 1: Senate will be ours for another number of years. Do
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  Speaker 1: you agree with that, by the way, Senator Husted? If
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  Speaker 1: you win, we have control of the Senate.
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  Speaker 4: I do.
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  Speaker 2: I believe, you know, just among my colleagues. I believe
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  Speaker 2: Susan Collins is going to win. I believe Dan Sullivan's
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  Speaker 2: going to win.
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  Speaker 1: I believe I'm going to win.
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  Speaker 2: If we win those three races, we're going to keep
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  Speaker 2: control of the Senate.
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  Speaker 1: That is from your lips to God's ear. John Huston,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for being so easy to work with during
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  Speaker 1: the election cycle. It's like being easy to work with
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  Speaker 1: when you're an Ohio constituent and you need something. You
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  Speaker 1: call up John Huston. He answers the phone. He gets
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  Speaker 1: back to you, takes care of Buckeyes. Don't turn him out.
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  Speaker 1: For the oldest oldest, oldest face in Ohio politics who
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  Speaker 1: is looking like Joe Biden did in 2022. It's not good.
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  Speaker 1: Don't send Sherrod Brown back not to answer your phone call.
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  Speaker 1: Send back John Houston. Thank you, Senator. We'll talk again
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  Speaker 1: soon after the election. I appreciate the time today. Now
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  Speaker 1: I've got to go over to the copium, hopium desk,
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  Speaker 1: where we read the entrails of pigeons. Dwayne has been
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  Speaker 1: doing this. I've been doing this since 1992. but the
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  Speaker 1: X account and the various stuff he follows. Generalissimo, what's
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  Speaker 1: your hopium burst right now?
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  Speaker 4: I'm actually feeling a lot better about the day than
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  Speaker 4: I did going into the day, and I was cautiously
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  Speaker 4: optimistic going into the day. Looking at the returns of
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  Speaker 4: states that are actually reporting stuff in real time, like Florida, which...
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  Speaker 4: does a pretty significant comprehensive data dump as it's coming in.
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  Speaker 4: The votes coming in in Florida for the Republicans are
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  Speaker 4: something akin to the 2024 presidential cycle in a midterm year.
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  Speaker 4: And the state is actually about nine points redder thus
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  Speaker 4: far in the first four years. hours of voting compared
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  Speaker 4: to what it was in the presidential cycle. It's very
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  Speaker 4: diluted hopium.
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  Speaker 1: Have you been cutting your hopium with sugar?
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  Speaker 4: I have not been cutting my hopium with sugar. I've
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  Speaker 4: been going to other states as well, not just projecting
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  Speaker 4: Florida on the rest of the country. You have states
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  Speaker 4: like Texas, where they have about four hours, five hours
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  Speaker 4: of data in thus far. The two biggest counties that
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  Speaker 4: are strong Democrat, strong Republican are Montgomery County for the Republicans,
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  Speaker 4: Travis County for the Democrats. And thus far, compared to
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  Speaker 4: a 22 midterm cycle, the Republicans have put in close
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  Speaker 4: to 40% of what they took in all day in 22.
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  Speaker 4: Whereas in Travis County, the Democrats are at about a
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  Speaker 4: quarter of where they were.
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  Speaker 1: You're cutting it with flour now. What's the bottom line?
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  Speaker 1: The bottom line is.
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  Speaker 4: the Republicans seem to be voting in huge numbers. The
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  Speaker 4: raw vote in Georgia is on track to be a
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  Speaker 4: presidential cycle year of 1.4 million. And if the vote's
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  Speaker 4: that high, that's not exactly what you want to see
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  Speaker 4: if you're on the Democratic camp. In Ohio, the voting
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  Speaker 4: is up. We just heard that from John Husted. In Michigan,
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  Speaker 4: the vote is up. It seems to be Republicans are
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  Speaker 4: turning out in bigger numbers than any poll predicted.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I hope they continue to do that. We have many,
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  Speaker 1: many hours to go on Election Day on the East Coast, many, many,
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  Speaker 1: many hours on the West Coast. Of course, Alaska, I
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  Speaker 1: don't even know if they've started yet. Get out there
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  Speaker 1: and vote America. I'll be right back with United States
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  Speaker 1: Senator Bernie Marino right here on the Hugh Hewitt Show.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt on Election Day. Get
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  Speaker 1: out and vote. I'm joined now by United States Senator
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  Speaker 1: Bernie Marino from the great state of Ohio. Senator Marino,
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  Speaker 1: good to have you back. I think you're probably going
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  Speaker 1: to get a cot and just live on this program
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  Speaker 1: for the next two years. You're going to be chairman
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  Speaker 1: of the Republican Senatorial Committee, and I'm glad about that.
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  Speaker 1: How does it feel today, though?
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  Speaker 5: It feels really good, Hugh. You know, the reality is,
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  Speaker 5: as you know this state, you're a boy from Warren, Ohio,
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  Speaker 5: and The people here in Ohio understand what life was
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  Speaker 5: like under Joe Biden and Democrat control.
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  Speaker 6: They pushed a trans agenda. They pushed men and women's sports.
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  Speaker 5: They pushed the Green New Deal. They allowed fraud to
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  Speaker 5: go unchecked. They had USAID sending billions of dollars overseas.
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  Speaker 5: They don't want to protect our military. They don't want
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  Speaker 5: to have law enforcement. They'll shut down the government for
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  Speaker 5: socialized health care and amnesty. And the reality is Republicans
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  Speaker 5: have delivered historically low poverty, historically high wages, historically high
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  Speaker 5: number of Americans working. Crime is way down. The border
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  Speaker 5: is secure. Drug deaths are down. We have incredible amounts
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  Speaker 5: of investment. Prescription drugs prices are down. And tax cuts
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  Speaker 5: were delivered at the highest level ever in American history.
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  Speaker 5: I think Republicans have come to look at that and
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  Speaker 5: then concluded that The most important thing is.
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  Speaker 6: Democrats won't lower gas prices.
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  Speaker 5: So I think at the end of the day, I
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  Speaker 5: think what you'll see is a big Republican victory here
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  Speaker 5: in Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: So, Senator Marino, you dispatched Sherrod Brown two years ago.
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  Speaker 1: He's like Freddy Krueger. He's like Nightmare on Elm Street.
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  Speaker 1: He just keeps coming back for 50-plus years. Does he–
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  Speaker 1: do people not know that he's like 10 years older
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  Speaker 1: than me?
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  Speaker 5: Well, they know he's been in office since Gerald Ford
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  Speaker 5: was in the White House. There was a guy who
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  Speaker 5: just also failed miserably at his job. So this isn't
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  Speaker 5: a guy that was successful and was there too long.
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  Speaker 5: This is a guy that was uniquely unsuccessful and was
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  Speaker 5: there too long. The voters fired him two years ago.
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  Speaker 5: He's now making claims about what he can do if
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  Speaker 5: he comes back for six more years, which is patently absurd.
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  Speaker 5: I'll give you a case in point. He was the
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  Speaker 5: chairman of the Banking Committee, which you know how.
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  Speaker 6: Powerful that is.
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  Speaker 5: Me and Dave McCormick are the two most junior members
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  Speaker 5: in that committee. In fact, there's a separate table where
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  Speaker 5: we sit. We're so far away from the seniority, right?
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  Speaker 5: I got a bill passed that bans institutional investors from
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  Speaker 5: owning single-family homes. This is something Sherrod Brown talked about
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  Speaker 5: for decades. Never got it done. I got it done
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  Speaker 5: in my first Congress. There's a difference in D.C., as
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  Speaker 5: you know, Hugh, between doers and talkers. Sherrod Brown is
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  Speaker 5: a lazy talker. He doesn't do any of the things
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  Speaker 5: he says he's going to do. He just wants a job. So, look,
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  Speaker 5: after this election, I have a request for all your listeners.
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  Speaker 5: Please hire Sherrod Brown to do something for God's sakes.
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  Speaker 5: The man needs a job.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Bernie Marino, after this election, you're going to take
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  Speaker 1: the baton from Tim Scott. It's never too early, as
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  Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell used to say, You can start too late,
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  Speaker 1: but you can never start too early. Nobody except crazy
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  Speaker 1: people take the job you and Tim are doing. And
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  Speaker 1: before you, our friend out in Montana did it, Steve.
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  Speaker 1: What's it look like on the map on 2028, the
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  Speaker 1: job you're taking on?
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  Speaker 5: Well, obviously, I have to get elected by my colleagues.
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  Speaker 5: That happens a week from today. I'm obviously going to
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: make the case as to why I think that I
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: can do a good job. I wouldn't do it if
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: I didn't think I could do a good job. But ultimately,
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  Speaker 5: what we have to do is make the case to
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  Speaker 5: the American people why things are better when Republicans are
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  Speaker 5: in charge. And I laid out all the things that
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  Speaker 5: we've already accomplished. I think by then, you'll see gas
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: prices plummeting to historic lows. We had it at $ 55
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  Speaker 5: a barrel in January of this year. Gas was under
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: $ 2 a gallon. I suspect that CNN won't be gasbuddy.com
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: when that happens and have oil prices and gas prices
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  Speaker 5: every day. But we're going to remind the American people
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  Speaker 5: what success looks like and how our lives are better
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  Speaker 5: and how we've brought in economic growth that's been unparalleled.
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  Speaker 5: And we're going to continue to be the party that
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: advocates for war in Ohio. We're going to be the
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  Speaker 5: party that advocates for working Americans who feel that this
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: country wasn't working for them. And I think that's the
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  Speaker 5: case we'll make in 28. I think the map will
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  Speaker 5: look good. We have a couple seats to defend and
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: a few pickup opportunities around the country.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Senator, the hardest thing is to run twice in
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  Speaker 1: a row. Ashley Moody will be fine in Florida today.
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  Speaker 1: She'll be great again in two years. But John Houston's
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  Speaker 1: going to have to run again. Does anyone get tired
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  Speaker 1: of this? I mean, I never want to run for office.
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  Speaker 1: It's too much work. You worked really hard. Do people
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  Speaker 1: get it fatigued and just say, I'm done? Sherrod Brown
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  Speaker 1: obviously doesn't. It's all he's got to do.
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  Speaker 5: Well, again, he needs a job. It's probably how he
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  Speaker 5: feeds his lifestyle.
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  Speaker 6: God knows what he's charging his donors for.
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  Speaker 5: But, look, I loved running for office because I got
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  Speaker 5: the opportunity to meet so many people and visit every
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  Speaker 5: corner of Ohio. In fact, I already revisited all 88
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  Speaker 5: counties as a sitting senator, places that senators just don't
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  Speaker 5: go to. I think it's important that you go out
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  Speaker 5: there and talk to real people. John Huston wins tonight,
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  Speaker 5: and in 28, look, you never take anything for granted,
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  Speaker 5: but I don't see a scenario in which John Huston wins.
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  Speaker 5: has a tough race in 28 when he wins tonight.
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  Speaker 1: Who knows?
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  Speaker 5: Sherbrooke could run again against him in 28, against me
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  Speaker 5: in 20, 30. This guy's a perpetual candidate just because
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  Speaker 5: there's nobody else in Ohio. That's the problem that the
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  Speaker 5: Democrat party has. They have basically no bench, let alone
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  Speaker 5: a deep bench. So I think John will be just
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: fine tonight. And I think it would be just fine
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  Speaker 5: in 28.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I know you're talking with your colleagues in the Senate.
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  Speaker 1: I have a hopium desk here where we're reading pigeon
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: entrails on the national races. I'm very confident about Susan Collins.
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  Speaker 1: How do you feel about the country?
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: I feel good.
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: I think we stay in the majority. Susan Collins has
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: run an amazing race.
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: I mean, she's absolutely a phenomenal campaigner.
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: She's whip smart. She's a hard worker. She matches the
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: personality of Maine really, really well. I think Mike Rogers,
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: I campaigned with him last Monday. I felt a lot
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: of energy around his campaign. I think he's honed in
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: a very strong message. And quite frankly, people are making
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: a lot of the Haley Stevens endorsement for a good reason.
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: But she was not alone. There's been many, many... many Democrats,
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: elected officials and donors. Alyssa Slotkin's finance chair publicly came
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: out and said he's voting for Mike Rogers. So I
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: think Mike's running a great campaign, great outreach to the
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: black community. So I think we take Michigan. I think
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: the other races that people are kind of hatering about,
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: I think we win all those. And, again, I believe
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: we stay in the majority race. Look, polls aren't done yet.
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: People are voting right now. If you're listening to this
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: and you haven't voted, please go out and vote right now. Like,
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: literally do not do anything else. Go vote right this
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: exact second. The future of this country depends on what
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: good patriotic Americans do today and honor the fact that
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: people died so that Americans could have this right to
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: vote and self-govern.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Senator Bernie Marino, well put. And we tell you always
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: stay in line, stay in line, stay in line. Thank you, Senator.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: We'll be talking again a lot. After, as I expect,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: your colleagues ask you to run the NRSC for the
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: next two years. I look forward to getting an update
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: from you regularly. Thank you, Senator Bernie Marino. So I've
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: opened the show with my two Buckeye senators. No better
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: way to start a show. Come right back on The
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Hugh Hewitt Show. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt, joined
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: now by Bloomberg opinion columnist David Drucker. David, all over X,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: there's hopium dealers and copium dealers. I try not to
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: use any of that. So what is it at Bloomberg headquarters?
• 18:50
  Speaker 7: It's very quiet and people are working very hard. Not
• 18:53
  Speaker 7: a lot of chitchat, but, you know, it's election day.
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: And for those of us, and that includes you, Hugh,
• 18:58
  Speaker 7: who have done this long enough, you know that there's
• 19:02
  Speaker 7: really no reliable information except for a few exceptions. John
• 19:07
  Speaker 7: Ralston in Nevada is one where I don't. There are
• 19:11
  Speaker 7: a few others, but with the early vote data and
• 19:16
  Speaker 7: all of that, there's usually something for everybody. And so
• 19:20
  Speaker 7: I always say, go vote, and we'll know what happened
• 19:25
  Speaker 7: once we start to see the returns this evening.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Now, I know that Dwayne is over there reading pigeon
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: entrails at his desk. He's happy with Florida vote totals
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: and Texas vote totals. What's the Democrat... What's their hopium?
• 19:44
  Speaker 7: Look, again, I'm not actually paying too close attention to this.
• 19:48
  Speaker 7: I think there's... you could look at the vote totals
• 19:53
  Speaker 7: so far in Florida, and what you know is that
• 19:55
  Speaker 7: Republicans have an edge that's pretty decent, but it's not
• 19:59
  Speaker 7: as good as it was four years ago. And I
• 20:02
  Speaker 7: really haven't looked at much in Texas. But I think
• 20:06
  Speaker 7: the way we can look at this midterm election is, Hugh,
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: is that Democrats are very likely to have a good night.
• 20:13
  Speaker 7: The question is how good. And obviously, when you're looking
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: at the battle for control of the United States Senate,
• 20:19
  Speaker 7: Democrats are going to have to win in red territory
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: across the country. It's something we haven't really seen at
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: all in the Trump era and even sort of predating
• 20:29
  Speaker 7: the Trump era just a little bit. And so in
• 20:32
  Speaker 7: one sense, it would be a return to normal politics.
• 20:34
  Speaker 7: People upset about the economy. They throw the bums out
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: even in places where they normally don't But again, Republicans
• 20:41
  Speaker 7: have a built-in structural advantage in these states. So I
• 20:44
  Speaker 7: have been saying that the fact that Democrats are so
• 20:47
  Speaker 7: competitive in states like Alaska and Kansas and Ohio and
• 20:51
  Speaker 7: Iowa and Texas and even now South Carolina is evidence
• 20:56
  Speaker 7: that Republicans are on their back foot. Does it mean
• 20:58
  Speaker 7: Democrats are going to get over the top? No, it
• 21:01
  Speaker 7: doesn't mean they're going to get over the top. They
• 21:02
  Speaker 7: could lose by one vote in each of those states.
• 21:05
  Speaker 7: It'll be a big disappointment for them, but it still
• 21:07
  Speaker 7: will be evidence that of a huge overperformance on their part.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Now, David Drucker, let me give you my favorite bit
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: of ridiculous yet interesting information. Republicans won the Guam governorship today.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: It polled at 57 to 60 percent for Democrats. I
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: don't know how many polls there were, but it polled
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: 57 to 60 percent for Democrats, and the Republicans won.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: So the give-me-something people, you know, the addicts to data,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: are reading into that something. I don't Just don't think
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Guam matters much.
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: There's nothing to read in there. They threw out the
• 21:41
  Speaker 7: Republican delegate and replaced him or her with a Democrat.
• 21:46
  Speaker 7: And it actually doesn't matter, and it's just Guam. And
• 21:49
  Speaker 7: the only thing that I was promoting about Guam is
• 21:52
  Speaker 7: that they were already done very early this morning. And
• 21:56
  Speaker 7: I was very jealous that they were already done as
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: I was waking up.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I'm going to ask, I think Senator Ashley Moody's coming along.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Why does Florida... wrap things up by about 11 o'clock
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: at night, it's all over.
• 22:10
  Speaker 7: Because after Bush v. Gore in 2000, they fixed their
• 22:14
  Speaker 7: electoral system, they fixed their vote counting systems, and they
• 22:17
  Speaker 7: count votes before the returns are released, before the polls close.
• 22:22
  Speaker 7: So they're already counting votes as we speak. So when
• 22:25
  Speaker 7: the polls close, they start releasing counts. Whereas so many
• 22:30
  Speaker 7: other states, they wait until all the polls are closed
• 22:33
  Speaker 7: and they get all the votes, then they start the count.
• 22:36
  Speaker 7: And if every state did it like Florida, we'd know
• 22:38
  Speaker 7: a lot more a lot faster.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Now, last question, David Drucker. One of the things I've
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: heard my pals over at the Ruthless podcast say, the fellows,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: and I've seen Democrats say it, is that Kentucky 6th,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: which is Andy Barr's district, he's going to be elected
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: senator tonight, replacing Mitch McConnell in January.
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: Yep.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: But Andy Barr's 6th Kentucky District will tell us a
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: lot about the whole country, that if it's R plus 8,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: pack it up, it's a great night for the Republicans.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: If it's D plus 4, it's 2010, reverse 2010 for
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the Democrats, and everything in between. Do you buy that
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: about the crystal ball of Kentucky 6th?
• 23:21
  Speaker 7: Well, yes and no. In other words, let's say Republicans
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: hold the seat, but just barely. So that tells us
• 23:27
  Speaker 7: potentially that the wave is reaching into very strong Republican districts.
• 23:33
  Speaker 7: And we know, and I know from my own sources,
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: that that race is or has been or was very competitive.
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: Then Republicans saw that it was competitive and they rushed
• 23:43
  Speaker 7: in some of the cavalry. And so it's possible they
• 23:46
  Speaker 7: created some space. But remember, in 2018, I believe, or
• 23:52
  Speaker 7: was it 2022, there was one of these elections recently
• 23:56
  Speaker 7: where Florida, and I believe it was 22, Florida really
• 24:01
  Speaker 7: overperformed for Republicans. That was supposed to be a good
• 24:03
  Speaker 7: Republican year. It turned out to be an okay. Yeah,
• 24:06
  Speaker 7: it was 2022.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: It was a red thunderstorm, but there was no red wave.
• 24:10
  Speaker 8: And it was, here's the thing.
• 24:12
  Speaker 7: It was, but it was boom times in Florida because
• 24:15
  Speaker 7: Governor Ron DeSantis wanted to run up the vote as
• 24:17
  Speaker 7: he was preparing for a presidential race. He put in
• 24:19
  Speaker 7: a lot of resources, a.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Lot of time.
• 24:21
  Speaker 7: It didn't mean that everywhere else was as good for Republicans.
• 24:25
  Speaker 7: So sometimes these things are fool's gold. Sometimes they tell
• 24:27
  Speaker 7: us something.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Last chance for you to opine on Michigan, because I
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: have no idea.
• 24:35
  Speaker 7: Yeah, well, look, everything I know and look, I try
• 24:38
  Speaker 7: to talk to Republican sources who are really smart and
• 24:41
  Speaker 7: clearly want their party to win. I think we can
• 24:43
  Speaker 7: expect Jocelyn Benson to be elected governor. And everything that
• 24:46
  Speaker 7: I know tells me that Abdul El-Sayed is more likely
• 24:50
  Speaker 7: to win than not. But again, people are still voting.
• 24:53
  Speaker 7: We don't know. And we'll find out.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 24:56
  Speaker 9: David M.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Drucker, follow him on exit. David M. Drucker, read him
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: in Bloomberg Opinion. Thank you, my friend.
• 25:05
  Speaker 8: Morning, Laurie.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Evening, Grace.
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: America.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Election Day. If you're just tuning in, make sure you
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: get out and vote. If you haven't done so already,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: polls are open. Check your local listings. I begin this
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: hour with Brett Baer, host of Special Report, and he
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: will be anchoring Fox News Channel's election night coverage with
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Martha McCollum tonight. Brett, I assume you're in New York
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: City for the big festivities? I am.
• 25:25
  Speaker 10: I am walking the streets of New York currently just
• 25:27
  Speaker 10: to go get a cup of coffee and stretch my legs. But, yeah,
• 25:30
  Speaker 10: I'll be at election headquarters, which is New York City
• 25:34
  Speaker 10: Bureau here.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Brett, can you actually walk around New York without,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm a nobody and I get stopped in
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: New York, usually by people who want to tell me
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: I'm wrong. Are you able to do that, walk around
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: New York?
• 25:48
  Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, one viewer at a time.
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: One viewer at a time.
• 25:52
  Speaker 9: I shook some hands, took some pictures.
• 25:54
  Speaker 7: It's good.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: All right, Brett.
• 25:56
  Speaker 10: I need to stretch my legs and get ready for tonight.
• 25:59
  Speaker 10: You know, we're going to be probably 6 p.m. to
• 26:01
  Speaker 10: 2 a.m. Those are most the election days. we see.
• 26:06
  Speaker 9: And so it's a long night, but it's our Super Bowl.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: So I don't open up pigeons and read entrails. Dwayne
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: does that. He tells me the election turnout is high
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: in Florida and the voting is great in Texas. You
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: got any clues for us yet? You seen anything?
• 26:23
  Speaker 9: Well, both of those things are true.
• 26:25
  Speaker 10: Georgia's also super high for Republicans. They had an uphill battle,
• 26:30
  Speaker 10: if you believe the polls going in. But day of
• 26:33
  Speaker 10: vote in the states where it's close is suggesting a
• 26:39
  Speaker 10: big Republican turnout. Now, why do we know that? Well,
• 26:42
  Speaker 10: it's traditionally Republican counties in Florida, in Georgia, in Texas early.
• 26:49
  Speaker 10: And I mean, we're seeing much bigger numbers than we
• 26:52
  Speaker 10: did early in 22. And they're beyond, in some cases,
• 26:58
  Speaker 10: presidential numbers.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: You know, Brett Baer, I've got a theory about this
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: because I've been looking at that data, too. And my
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: theory is very simply put. We live in a new
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: world where people are wired into politics. They know the stakes.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: They are listening to me. They're watching you every night
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: on Special Report. They're listening to me on my program
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: when I appear wherever I appear on the Fox channel.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: And they know the stakes. And when you get races
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: like Michigan, Al Sayed and Mike Rogers, everybody kind of
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: looks at Michigan. I think they get a kick in
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: the butt no matter where they are or who they are.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Do you agree with that assessment?
• 27:30
  Speaker 11: No.
• 27:32
  Speaker 9: I agree with that assessment.
• 27:33
  Speaker 10: I also agree that, you know, you look at the
• 27:35
  Speaker 10: pollsters who now today are saying, well, I'm not so
• 27:40
  Speaker 10: sure about my poll.
• 27:41
  Speaker 9: You know, even the guys are putting out these.
• 27:44
  Speaker 10: Things saying, you know, I couldn't get a lot of
• 27:46
  Speaker 10: Republican callbacks and I'm not really sure I've touched all
• 27:51
  Speaker 10: the stuff.
• 27:51
  Speaker 9: And, you know, and you have a Democratic candidate leading by.
• 27:56
  Speaker 10: Outside the margin of error, I think that a lot
• 27:59
  Speaker 10: of these races are going to come down to who
• 28:01
  Speaker 10: shows up today. There was the most early vote total
• 28:05
  Speaker 10: we've ever seen in a midterm.
• 28:08
  Speaker 9: But, you know, you're going to put that.
• 28:12
  Speaker 10: Off to how many people show up today. And Republicans
• 28:16
  Speaker 10: traditionally have done, as.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: You know, day of voting. Now, Brett Baer, you and
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: I were with Brian Kilmeade. You were very funny, by
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: the way, telling Brian he's got more shows than you
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: do on Sunday night as the president did his 30th
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: rally in Kansas. And his voice actually started to go,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: finally a little bit, because it's a superhuman voice. I'm
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: very envious of that voice. But I don't think anyone
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: has ever left it on the field the way he has.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: What do you think?
• 28:44
  Speaker 10: Yeah, no, he played to the whistle, definitely. And I
• 28:48
  Speaker 10: think You know, Harold Ford Jr. has called him the
• 28:51
  Speaker 10: greatest political athlete he's ever seen. And whether that is
• 28:57
  Speaker 10: tremendously a benefit this year, I think is yet to
• 29:00
  Speaker 10: be seen. I know that it rallies the MAGA base,
• 29:03
  Speaker 10: and I know.
• 29:04
  Speaker 9: That it moves the base.
• 29:07
  Speaker 10: Does it affect.
• 29:08
  Speaker 9: Independence in those states?
• 29:10
  Speaker 10: You know, I think people like.
• 29:13
  Speaker 10: The ones that are in that room are cheering him on,
• 29:16
  Speaker 10: and clearly he's had big crowds in those stops.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Now, Brad, I went and wrote a column for Fox
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: News today. It's on the front page. About 2006, when
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: W was in his sixth year and the Republicans got
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: a thumping, to use W's term, and then inflation was lower.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: It's a little bit higher now. Gas is higher now.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: It was lower then. Interest rates were marginally higher. But
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: growth now is so much... stronger than it was in 2006.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Do you think that matters, GDP numbers?
• 29:47
  Speaker 9: You're taking photos. Yeah, they're still coming up.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I love that, Brad. I love that.
• 29:52
  Speaker 10: Listen, I think it matters. The potential is... You know,
• 29:58
  Speaker 10: you look at 2008, you look at 2010 for Barack Obama,
• 30:01
  Speaker 10: the shellacking.
• 30:03
  Speaker 9: You know, you look at different races, different midterms.
• 30:07
  Speaker 10: And it's a hinge point.
• 30:10
  Speaker 9: And, you know, America's going to speak tonight.
• 30:13
  Speaker 10: And what we do tomorrow and going forward, how Congress looks,
• 30:18
  Speaker 10: I think is going to determine the next two years
• 30:20
  Speaker 10: and really set the table for the 2028 election.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: So, Brent, let's land the plane by talking about the big...
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: overhang on this election, which is Iran. I am 100%
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: in favor of doing this. I want them to finish
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: it strong and I want them to finish it soon.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: But a lot of people disagree with me and I
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: understand that. Does it come up much in the Fox polling?
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Do you folks find that Iran is top of mind?
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: In 2006, when the Republicans got shellacked, in October that year,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: 100 service members lost their lives in Iraq and 10
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: lost their lives in Afghanistan. That's a very different conflict
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: than the one we've got right now. Does it come
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: up much in the Fox polling?
• 31:00
  Speaker 10: Yeah, it's about third or fourth, depending on the poll.
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: But it's up there.
• 31:05
  Speaker 10: And, you know, it's directly tied to the price of gas.
• 31:09
  Speaker 10: It's directly tied to what people feel about the future.
• 31:13
  Speaker 6: And, yeah, I.
• 31:14
  Speaker 10: Think the Iran war definitely crosses over Republicans, Democrats, independents.
• 31:19
  Speaker 10: So we'll see what happens. I mean, all indications are
• 31:23
  Speaker 10: they're moving a lot of equipment there. So I wouldn't
• 31:26
  Speaker 10: be surprised if there's.
• 31:27
  Speaker 9: Some additional action in the next few days.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: And a last personal question. I used to take the
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: week off after election day until 2000. And then I
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: stopped doing that. When does Brett bear and family relax?
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Because we're not going to be able to relax tomorrow.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Alaska will still be up in the air until when
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: we go to bed tonight. When do you take some
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: time off?
• 31:47
  Speaker 10: I'll take it at Thanksgiving week. You know, I'll get
• 31:50
  Speaker 10: my son home from college and my other son, I'll
• 31:53
  Speaker 10: start to look at some basketball games that he's playing in. And, uh, Yeah,
• 31:57
  Speaker 10: that Thanksgiving week, I'll take some days. But until then,
• 32:00
  Speaker 10: I think there's a lot of sorting out to do. And,
• 32:02
  Speaker 10: you know, we'll start talking about the future and 28
• 32:06
  Speaker 10: and what Congress looks like, what can get done and
• 32:08
  Speaker 10: not get done as of tomorrow.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: The news gets back to basics beginning tomorrow. Brett Baer,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: thank you. Have a great election night with Martha from
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: 6 to at least 1 or 2. And maybe they'll
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: go later. We'll see. He's not like me. Thank you, Brett.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Be well. Go take pictures. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Election Day. Always juiced up. I'll be back between 11
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and 1 a.m. in the studio with Carl Jackson on
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the Salem News Channel, the Salem Radio Network. Matt Continetti
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: joins us from his undisclosed secure location at the American
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Enterprise Institute with the magnificent backdrop. You know, Matt, can
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: we add the new East Wing into the backdrop? Do
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: you think we could do that?
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: I'll have to use a Sharpie, Hugh, to kind of
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: console it in here.
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: So vibes are all we have to trade on. Give
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: me the continuity vibes, and then I'll ask you a
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: couple of questions about them.
• 33:02
  Speaker 11: Well, look, you know, I think that Republicans in the
• 33:05
  Speaker 11: House are in for a tough night. Democrats only need
• 33:08
  Speaker 11: to net three seats, Hugh, to take over the House
• 33:11
  Speaker 11: of Representatives.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: That's a very narrow margin.
• 33:14
  Speaker 11: And I think with what we're seeing in the generic ballot,
• 33:17
  Speaker 11: even if there's a miss in the polls, that there's
• 33:19
  Speaker 11: enough for the Democrats to.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: Take the House.
• 33:21
  Speaker 11: But as you and I have been talking about for months,
• 33:23
  Speaker 11: the real story is the Senate. And there I still,
• 33:26
  Speaker 11: I really don't know what's going to happen in the Senate.
• 33:28
  Speaker 11: And I think some of these red states that have
• 33:31
  Speaker 11: voted for Donald Trump three times by double digits, I'm
• 33:34
  Speaker 11: just going to have to wait until I see it
• 33:37
  Speaker 11: to call it for the Democrats in places like Ohio, Kansas, Iowa,
• 33:41
  Speaker 11: and Texas.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: You know, it's an old saying, Matt Continetti, as Maine goes,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: so goes the nation. I think that might be true tonight.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: If Susan Collins does it again, and we can call
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: that early, it's one of the three races I'm watching
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: with focus, Texas being fourth, but it's Maine, Ohio, Michigan,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: and Texas. What's your thought about, the way I framed it,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and I'll get your comment on it, Michigan is the
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: most important race, Senate race, for the entire country. Maine
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: is the most important race for a particular state. Their
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: GDP is going to go down if they don't return
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Susan Collins. Michigan's just a canary in the coal mine.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: Talk to me about those two races.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure.
• 34:22
  Speaker 11: Well, I do believe that Michigan's the most important race
• 34:25
  Speaker 11: in the country because what it says about the potential
• 34:29
  Speaker 11: normalization of anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party, and that's why
• 34:33
  Speaker 11: we've seen the extraordinary events in Michigan over the last
• 34:36
  Speaker 11: 72 hours, Hugh, with Representative Haley Stevens, a Democrat, endorsing
• 34:41
  Speaker 11: Mike Rogers for Senate because Abdul Al-Sayed, the Democratic nominee,
• 34:45
  Speaker 11: refuses to take down an ad using Tucker Carlson in
• 34:51
  Speaker 11: his support, but also refuses to condemn the blatantly anti-Semitic
• 34:55
  Speaker 11: ad that Hassan Piker, his friend's uncle, Cenk Uygur, put
• 35:01
  Speaker 11: on the airwaves, blaming Jews for high prices in Michigan. So,
• 35:06
  Speaker 11: Haley Stevens was remarkably courageous, and I think the divides
• 35:09
  Speaker 11: in the Democratic Party show why that race is important.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: Maine, you know, you're right.
• 35:15
  Speaker 11: The outcome in Maine is going to be very important
• 35:18
  Speaker 11: for the economy of that state because Susan Collins, for
• 35:20
  Speaker 11: 30 years, has brought home the bacon, which is what
• 35:23
  Speaker 11: most voters expect of their senators. I would slightly disagree.
• 35:27
  Speaker 11: I think the Texas outcome has huge implications. If Texas
• 35:32
  Speaker 11: goes blue, either in the Senate or in the governor's
• 35:35
  Speaker 11: mansion or both, That will be a huge blow to
• 35:38
  Speaker 11: the Republican Party.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: Texas is the largest red state.
• 35:41
  Speaker 11: It's been a model of red state governance for decades now,
• 35:47
  Speaker 11: and to lose that would be extraordinary. So I'd probably
• 35:50
  Speaker 11: lean more toward Texas as being the second most important race,
• 35:52
  Speaker 11: but I understand your point on Maine. And just on Maine,
• 35:56
  Speaker 11: if it does look like Susan Collins is pulling it
• 35:59
  Speaker 11: out tonight, it means that candidate.
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: Quality matters, not just the partisan state.
• 36:06
  Speaker 11: And that could have implications around the country, but especially
• 36:10
  Speaker 11: in Michigan.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: You know, there is this early turnout buzz. And I am,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: I don't, I keep saying, I don't dissect pigeons and
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: go through their entrails. But if Minnesota's rural vote comes
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: in very strong, I'm going to be a little bit
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: optimistic about a quiet, a shy Republican vote in Minnesota.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: And that will also make me optimistic. I don't really
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: have a worry about Iowa, Kansas, or South Carolina. Do you? No.
• 36:40
  Speaker 11: South Carolina, I have a slight concern only because the
• 36:45
  Speaker 11: candidate there is so new and untested and the party
• 36:49
  Speaker 11: is divided over Darlene Graham. And that might have some
• 36:57
  Speaker 11: cause for worry. But I do think you're right. At
• 36:59
  Speaker 11: the end of the day, The partisan lean of a
• 37:02
  Speaker 11: state matters. And I do think that President Trump has
• 37:05
  Speaker 11: made the case to his voters for why they should
• 37:08
  Speaker 11: come out in these critical elections in red America. And
• 37:13
  Speaker 11: so I wouldn't be surprised if the partisan identity of
• 37:16
  Speaker 11: a state figures more in a lot of these races,
• 37:19
  Speaker 11: with the two exceptions of Maine and Michigan.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: So let me talk a little bit to close out
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: here about President Trump and J.D. Vance on the trail.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: I used Claude in ChatGPT to go back and ask
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: about the number of campaign events that W did in 2006.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: He did 16. Donald Trump has done more than 30.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: That doesn't count the teletown halls. It counts like Kansas
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: and Iowa on Saturday night. Does it matter? He's just
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: not leaving anything on the field, Matt Continetti.
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: He never does.
• 37:53
  Speaker 11: Trump always closes strong, Hugh, and Republicans always do a
• 37:58
  Speaker 11: little bit better than expected when Trump is their leader.
• 38:02
  Speaker 11: And I don't see any reason as we speak on
• 38:06
  Speaker 11: Tuesday afternoon to doubt that from happening again.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: But his energies have been extraordinary.
• 38:13
  Speaker 11: And I think that he's gone to the right places,
• 38:15
  Speaker 11: which is he's gone to the red states.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: He's gone to rural America.
• 38:19
  Speaker 11: He's told his voters, look, this is important, especially the
• 38:22
  Speaker 11: Senate is important for the next two years and beyond.
• 38:26
  Speaker 11: and I think it's resonated certainly with the audiences who've
• 38:29
  Speaker 11: come out to see him. They seem to enjoy the
• 38:32
  Speaker 11: show as always, but I think it has delivered the
• 38:35
  Speaker 11: message to the people who need to hear it the most.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Now, my audience in San Francisco, L.A., San Diego, the
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Inland Empire, I've had Ken Calvert on because it's important
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: that we send back the senior-ranking Republican now that Nancy
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Pelosi is retiring, but I don't talk much about California
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: because it's a, It's a lost land, right? Steve Hilderand,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: a perfect race. They're running a billionaire's tax. If that passes,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: what does it tell you about the golden state that
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: is golden no more?
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: Well, it tells me a few things.
• 39:07
  Speaker 11: It means that California is going to lose a lot
• 39:10
  Speaker 11: of residents, a lot of high net worth residents. They're
• 39:12
  Speaker 11: going to try to leave the state. Some of them
• 39:15
  Speaker 11: already have. You know, the film director Steven Spielberg moved to.
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: New York City.
• 39:21
  Speaker 11: Conveniently ahead of this vote on the wealth tax. And
• 39:24
  Speaker 11: of course, Spielberg is notoriously liberal. But by the way,
• 39:28
  Speaker 11: those high net worth individuals leaving California, they're also going
• 39:31
  Speaker 11: to shrink the tax base.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: So there have been scholars at the Hoover Institution.
• 39:36
  Speaker 11: Who point out that actually if the tax is implemented,
• 39:39
  Speaker 11: it will raise much less money than expected. And that's
• 39:41
  Speaker 11: exactly what happened in places like in Europe, like in France,
• 39:45
  Speaker 11: where the wealth taxes failed to generate the revenues that
• 39:49
  Speaker 11: led to a lot of avoidance, and were eventually withdrawn, repealed.
• 39:53
  Speaker 11: This is a terrible idea. I think it's a non-constitutional idea.
• 39:57
  Speaker 11: I hope it fails, and I hope it fails big
• 39:59
  Speaker 11: today in California.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: So we want Steve Hilton to win. We want Ken
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Calvert to win. We want Fordy to lose. Prop 38
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: is the voter ID. We have 30 seconds. Do you
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: think voter ID will pass, even though it's been disguised
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: and it's titled by the Attorney General Rob Bonta, who's
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: a hack?
• 40:17
  Speaker 11: Well, the language will matter quite a bit, but sometimes
• 40:19
  Speaker 11: on these referendums, you see people's conservative instincts come out.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: I think that'd be a great win if you get
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: voter ID.
• 40:27
  Speaker 11: By the way, we're going to be arguing a lot
• 40:29
  Speaker 11: about voter ID because at the top of the Democrats' list,
• 40:32
  Speaker 11: as always, is going to be an effort to abolish
• 40:35
  Speaker 11: voter ID nationwide. Trump will stop it, but a Democratic
• 40:40
  Speaker 11: president would sign it.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Matt Continetti, thank you for joining me from AEI Wall
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Street Journal columnist. Follow Matt on X at Continetti. Follow
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: me in the next segment, America. It's election day. Get
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: out and vote. Get out and vote. Get out and vote.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of one vote races to be
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: had tonight. Might be your town, your city, your county.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: And we need everyone to vote anyway. Republican, Democrat or independent.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Go vote. I'll be right back. Welcome back to America.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: I'm Hugh Hewitt reminding you I will be back at
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: 11 p.m. tonight on the Salem News Channel, Salem Radio
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: Network across the United States, many of our affiliated stations
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: as well, with Carl Jackson, my co-host, and many great guests,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: including my guest right now, Byron York. Byron, thanks for
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: agreeing to come on Decision 2026, sponsored in part by
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Conservative Caucus tonight. But, okay, Dwayne is manning our hopium-copium desk.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: with the entrails of pigeons and comes up with bits
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: and various magic tricks. What do you know thus far? Nothing?
• 41:41
  Speaker 8: I've never been very good with the entrails of pigeons,
• 41:44
  Speaker 8: and we will know more tonight. But, you know, right now,
• 41:49
  Speaker 8: I have to tell you, everybody has their sort of
• 41:51
  Speaker 8: Election Day rituals and things. And mine is to just
• 41:55
  Speaker 8: sort of keep track and see if there's anything extraordinary
• 41:58
  Speaker 8: happening during the day. And today, so far, as I
• 42:02
  Speaker 8: can tell, nothing has. And so we're waiting for the
• 42:06
  Speaker 8: first polls to close around 7 o'clock Eastern time tonight.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: By something extraordinary, you would mean an early vote that
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: jumped out at you and hit you in the head
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: with a hammer or an overperformance by Democrats or an
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: overperformance by Republicans. Is that what you mean?
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: What?
• 42:20
  Speaker 8: Or, you know, some protest over, you know, polling sites
• 42:25
  Speaker 8: or some, you know, legal fight brewing or, you know,
• 42:28
  Speaker 8: something that's going on during the day that makes you
• 42:32
  Speaker 8: wonder what's, you know, going to happen ahead. But, you know,
• 42:36
  Speaker 8: as far as today is concerned, I mean, we've had
• 42:38
  Speaker 8: some of the usual, you know, voting issues in various places.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: My favorite is Westchester County, one of the richest counties
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: in America.
• 42:47
  Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: They used... Paper that was too thick. The machine wouldn't
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: take high-quality bond paper.
• 42:58
  Speaker 8: Well, we all wanted to go back to paper, you know,
• 43:01
  Speaker 8: and give us a physical record of a vote. And
• 43:06
  Speaker 8: it didn't seem all that complicated, but I guess it
• 43:09
  Speaker 8: can be.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: Well, I am watching Michigan closely. I've got a lot
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: of tape. of Mike Rogers voters who used to be Democrats,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: and they're talking to every TV station. I don't imagine
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: a lot of LCAID people out there saying I'm for LCAID.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Do you think they are?
• 43:26
  Speaker 8: No, I don't think so. I do think that Michigan
• 43:30
  Speaker 8: has the possibility of having the greatest, the final result,
• 43:37
  Speaker 8: having the greatest variance with the polls ahead of time.
• 43:39
  Speaker 8: You have to remember that In the Democratic primary, Abdul
• 43:42
  Speaker 8: El-Sayed's margin of victory was one-tenth the size that the
• 43:48
  Speaker 8: polls had predicted. But he still won, but it was
• 43:51
  Speaker 8: one-tenth the size. So now, you know, we've seen, especially
• 43:54
  Speaker 8: with the New York Times poll that came out, CNN
• 43:57
  Speaker 8: poll that came out, showing him 11 points ahead.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: You've got people.
• 44:02
  Speaker 8: Like me thinking, whoa, whoa, whoa. And the Times actually,
• 44:06
  Speaker 8: you know, was kind of apologetic about the polls. and
• 44:09
  Speaker 8: they were trying to explain what's called partisan non-response bias,
• 44:13
  Speaker 8: which means Republicans won't answer polls and Democrats will, and
• 44:18
  Speaker 8: then the pollsters have to perform mathematical formulas on the
• 44:22
  Speaker 8: data that they do get to try to make it
• 44:25
  Speaker 8: all oranges to oranges, but they never really succeed. And
• 44:29
  Speaker 8: they said that if they'd used their old method, that
• 44:33
  Speaker 8: with the current data, El-Sayed would have had a 16-point lead,
• 44:36
  Speaker 8: but they couldn't face that, so they threw in some
• 44:39
  Speaker 8: new formulas and came out with an 11-point lead. And
• 44:43
  Speaker 8: you said, I'm not sure I would have a lot
• 44:45
  Speaker 8: of confidence in this.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: If I were them. Yeah, no one wants to be
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: Ann Seltzer, right? Ann Seltzer went out in a blaze
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: of non-glory, blew up a reputation. But it's hard to
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: kill a polling company because they don't have names on them, Byron.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: They're just companies.
• 45:02
  Speaker 8: Well, they are. And most of these polls, by the way,
• 45:06
  Speaker 8: are known, at least public polls, there are a lot
• 45:08
  Speaker 8: of polls that are used by campaigns, but the public
• 45:11
  Speaker 8: polls are more identified by the media outlet that's with them.
• 45:16
  Speaker 8: This is the New York Times-Siena poll, and Ann Seltzer
• 45:19
  Speaker 8: was the Des Moines Register poll, which was known as
• 45:24
  Speaker 8: the gold standard in Iowa until it wasn't. But most
• 45:28
  Speaker 8: of them are associated with media, which is, by the way,
• 45:30
  Speaker 8: part of the problem, because if you call a bunch
• 45:34
  Speaker 8: of Republicans and you identify yourself as being from the
• 45:36
  Speaker 8: New York Times... they're not going to help you. So
• 45:42
  Speaker 8: that's a polling problem that is probably not going to
• 45:44
  Speaker 8: be solved tonight.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, now I do try and read a candidate's vibe.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: John Huston was pretty upbeat. Not over the moon, but
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: pretty upbeat. I did watch a tape of Susan Collins
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: walk out, and she walked out like a boss. Maybe
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: she's just used to it. Say, yeah, we're going to win,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: and we're going to hold the Senate. Do you try
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: and read anything into that, Byron?
• 46:07
  Speaker 8: Well, I mean, as far as Collins is concerned, I've
• 46:11
  Speaker 8: had a lot of confidence that she's going to win
• 46:13
  Speaker 8: kind of the whole time, just because of the case
• 46:17
  Speaker 8: she can make. Not because of the fact that she
• 46:20
  Speaker 8: was down in the polls six years ago, like way
• 46:22
  Speaker 8: down in the polls, and then she turns out to win.
• 46:25
  Speaker 8: Not really just because of that, but because of, one,
• 46:29
  Speaker 8: the disarray on the Democratic side. And two, the fact
• 46:34
  Speaker 8: that she has really produced for Maine for years and
• 46:38
  Speaker 8: years and years and has kind of just a one
• 46:41
  Speaker 8: foot in front of the other method of producing for
• 46:44
  Speaker 8: Maine and making sure they know. And part of her
• 46:47
  Speaker 8: campaign has been making her letting voters know all the
• 46:51
  Speaker 8: stuff she's been doing for them. And and also knowing everybody,
• 46:56
  Speaker 8: I doubt that there is a small or medium sized
• 47:00
  Speaker 8: place that she could go in Maine where she did
• 47:02
  Speaker 8: not run into people she knew on the street.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: By the way, I've seen that. You're right. And her
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: campaign sign just says Susan, our senator. And that to
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: tell what I. What I also point out to the
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: very reality, I think Mainers know that their GDP would
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: go down if they swap out Susan Collins for Troy Jackson.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Their state would actually have a recession.
• 47:25
  Speaker 8: I don't know if we talked about this. Part of
• 47:28
  Speaker 8: her campaign was pointing out that some of the businesses
• 47:33
  Speaker 8: she has brought, New Balance Shoes are made in Maine.
• 47:38
  Speaker 8: And in late September, the Pentagon announced a contract for
• 47:41
  Speaker 8: 500,000 pairs. of New Balance shoes. Just happened to happen
• 47:46
  Speaker 8: during the campaign, and it was pretty clearly the work
• 47:49
  Speaker 8: of Susan Collins, and she made sure that people knew that.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: And they got a new destroyer. You know, the Bath Ironworks,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: a destroyer is 6,500 people work another three years.
• 47:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly.
• 48:00
  Speaker 8: So these are major, major business sources for Maine that
• 48:06
  Speaker 8: they get because Susan Collins is their senator and that
• 48:10
  Speaker 8: she works the way that she does work So, you know,
• 48:14
  Speaker 8: I've been pretty confident in that race for quite a while,
• 48:17
  Speaker 8: and I'm not surprised she walked out of the polls
• 48:19
  Speaker 8: looking like she was, it was just another day at work.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: Yep, that's who she is. I hope that Texas and
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Ohio go the same way, Michigan, anybody's call. It will
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: come down to the black community, I think. You know,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Mike Rogers told us last night, Byron, I didn't know that,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: there are 200,000 Chaldean Arabs in Michigan. Turn 1,000 Keldean Christians.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: That's something else. Byron York, I will talk to you
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: tonight between 11 and 1 a.m., 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: on Decision 2026, brought to us by the Conservative Caucus
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: in part. Don't miss that. Stay tuned to the Salem
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: News Channel. Hi, it's Hugh Hewitt. If you are self-employed,
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  Speaker 1: it's election day. Get out and vote. I am joined
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: by Senator Ashley Moody of the great state of Florida. Senator,
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: how goes it in Florida today? How's the turnout feel
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: to you?
• 51:23
  Speaker 12: Yeah, turnout is looking great today. We are very optimistic. But,
• 51:28
  Speaker 12: of course, people are still getting off work. They have
• 51:32
  Speaker 12: a couple hours to get to the polls. So I
• 51:34
  Speaker 12: am encouraging everyone in the great free state of Florida,
• 51:38
  Speaker 12: don't take anything for granted. Get out there and vote
• 51:41
  Speaker 12: like you have something to lose, because you do.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: You have a lot to lose. In your race, you're
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: running against, I wouldn't call her a communist. Maybe I could,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: but she's a DSA apologist, and she doesn't know that
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: Cuba's communist.
• 51:52
  Speaker 10: I mean.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Did you expect an opponent like that in your wildest dreams?
• 51:57
  Speaker 12: Not in the state of Florida. Absolutely not. As you know,
• 52:00
  Speaker 12: I was the attorney general here. And during a time
• 52:04
  Speaker 12: when the nation pretty much went mad and pushed a
• 52:06
  Speaker 12: lot of government mandates on states, we fought back. We
• 52:09
  Speaker 12: stood up for freedom.
• 52:10
  Speaker 9: We stood up for our people.
• 52:11
  Speaker 12: We stood up for their safety, passed common sense policies.
• 52:14
  Speaker 12: And because of that, we have just broken all expectations
• 52:19
  Speaker 12: in terms of public safety, in terms of economic growth.
• 52:23
  Speaker 12: We're number one in the nation from 19 to 25.
• 52:25
  Speaker 12: When I was in the office working with Governor DeSantis,
• 52:30
  Speaker 12: you know, we really did become the beacon of freedom
• 52:33
  Speaker 12: for the nation. We're proud of that. And so of
• 52:35
  Speaker 12: all states to have a self-declared socialist on the ballot,
• 52:38
  Speaker 12: one that when given a microphone quotes the Communist Manifesto
• 52:42
  Speaker 12: and cop killers, certainly was shocking to a lot of people.
• 52:46
  Speaker 12: And I think at the end of the day, Floridians
• 52:48
  Speaker 12: will vote to protect the state and everything that we
• 52:51
  Speaker 12: have built together.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: But I don't want them to take it for granted
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: that because you're running against a left-wing extremist that they
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: don't have to show up. They do have to go
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: out and show up, and they have to show that
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Florida is indeed the free state of Florida. Senator, I
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: got a question that may go back to your time
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: as Attorney General. Why does Florida... Why are you able
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: to count your vote and have it in by 11
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: o'clock and maybe earlier? And in California, it's going to
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: be two weeks.
• 53:21
  Speaker 12: I'm so glad you asked about this. I think that
• 53:23
  Speaker 12: being able to count your votes and deliver outside of
• 53:27
  Speaker 12: an extraordinary rare circumstance. by Election Day is so important
• 53:32
  Speaker 12: for the integrity of our elections, the faith in our elections.
• 53:36
  Speaker 12: Florida made it a point to make sure that we
• 53:39
  Speaker 12: allow our processing prior to Election Day. It can start
• 53:44
  Speaker 12: prior to Election Day. And folks have to return their
• 53:47
  Speaker 12: ballots by Election Day. They also don't allow folks to
• 53:51
  Speaker 12: bring their absentee ballots to the polling on Election Day.
• 53:54
  Speaker 12: You have to take them to the supervisor of elections.
• 53:56
  Speaker 12: That streamlines and it's more efficient, the voting process. But
• 54:01
  Speaker 12: for all of these reasons, and you know, Florida's had
• 54:04
  Speaker 12: issues in the past. Do you remember hanging chads, recounts?
• 54:08
  Speaker 12: So we have worked really hard to make sure we
• 54:10
  Speaker 12: have one of the most secure elections in the country,
• 54:13
  Speaker 12: and we also have one of the most efficient elections.
• 54:17
  Speaker 12: And I think all of that goes towards trust and
• 54:19
  Speaker 12: faith in the election process.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: You know, Senator Moody, the This program, this particular program,
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: has been on the air for 27 years. In the
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: first year, it started with 2,000, and I went on
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: vacation the day after election, and I spent my vacation
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: in the hotel lobby with the one hotel with the
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: dial-up modem trying to find out what was going on
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: in Florida. You were not the attorney general then, so
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: it's not on you. Tell me, though, how has the
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: electorate changed since you ran and won statewide twice in Florida?
• 54:48
  Speaker 12: You know, when we really stood up and stood strong
• 54:51
  Speaker 12: for sanity, and you remember when the nation was dealing
• 54:55
  Speaker 12: with COVID and a lot of states took a different
• 54:58
  Speaker 12: approach than Florida. You know, we didn't want to shut
• 55:00
  Speaker 12: down businesses or churches or schools. We kept everything open.
• 55:04
  Speaker 12: So a lot of people recognized our ability to stand
• 55:07
  Speaker 12: firm on those ideals when it wasn't convenient, when we
• 55:11
  Speaker 12: got politically attacked. And folks have moved here. So when
• 55:14
  Speaker 12: I have traveled around the state during this campaign, when
• 55:17
  Speaker 12: I'm at these different stops, you know, there'll be hundreds
• 55:19
  Speaker 12: of people there. And I'll say, how many of you
• 55:22
  Speaker 12: were born here, raised here? You know, and there's many
• 55:25
  Speaker 12: people like me. I love this state. I'm a fifth
• 55:27
  Speaker 12: generation Floridian. There's many families that want to protect this state.
• 55:32
  Speaker 9: The people that are.
• 55:32
  Speaker 12: Showing up and that are riled up and are really
• 55:35
  Speaker 12: upset about, you know, at least in my race with
• 55:37
  Speaker 12: the socialists on the ballot, they're like, we fled this stuff.
• 55:40
  Speaker 12: We fled these cities or states that enacted these insane policies,
• 55:44
  Speaker 12: put their people last in terms of their safety and
• 55:47
  Speaker 12: their rights. We don't want that here. That's why we're
• 55:49
  Speaker 12: in there showing up in droves, really passionate about this election.
• 55:54
  Speaker 12: And you've seen our voter advantage in terms of registration
• 55:58
  Speaker 12: really shift while I was attorney general. And we became
• 56:01
  Speaker 12: and we earned that title, the free state of Florida.
• 56:05
  Speaker 12: So I think, you know, again, we can't take anything
• 56:07
  Speaker 12: for granted at all. This is going to be a
• 56:09
  Speaker 12: challenging race. We're facing headwinds and we have challenges as
• 56:12
  Speaker 12: a nation. So we have to step up and talk
• 56:15
  Speaker 12: about what we're going to do about some of these challenges.
• 56:17
  Speaker 12: And we are. But in Florida, we really need people
• 56:20
  Speaker 12: to make sure if they want the state to remain
• 56:22
  Speaker 12: the way it is, to putting them, their freedom, their
• 56:25
  Speaker 12: safety first. We need them to get out and vote.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: So, Senator Moody, you were an executive. Attorney generals run
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: their state legal department. You make decisions. You file cases.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: You decide when to settle, when not to settle. Senators deliberate.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Do you like the change? Are you loving the United
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: States Senate?
• 56:43
  Speaker 12: You know, I think my prior experience as I was
• 56:46
  Speaker 12: a federal prosecutor, I was a judge before I was
• 56:49
  Speaker 12: the attorney general. And I think that experience, recognizing how
• 56:53
  Speaker 12: important it is that we get the policy right as
• 56:56
  Speaker 12: a people. And, you know, remember, I'm always standing up
• 56:59
  Speaker 12: for our military men and women, our law enforcement men
• 57:01
  Speaker 12: and women, because without them, without them willing to support
• 57:04
  Speaker 12: and defend the Constitution that protects our rights, none of
• 57:07
  Speaker 12: this works, right? But you have to have people that
• 57:10
  Speaker 12: are willing to go up there and really dig in,
• 57:14
  Speaker 12: roll up their sleeves, you know, making the people's laws,
• 57:17
  Speaker 12: agreeing what laws we're going to live under as the
• 57:19
  Speaker 12: free people. That's a messy process. It gets complicated. It's challenging.
• 57:23
  Speaker 12: But I think all of that experience gives me a
• 57:27
  Speaker 12: leg up, a perspective. And certainly when I'm running against
• 57:30
  Speaker 12: someone that wanted to attack our constitutional framework, wanted to
• 57:35
  Speaker 12: defund police, kneecap our military, abolish prisons, break back down
• 57:38
  Speaker 12: the border, all of those things which I truly believe
• 57:41
  Speaker 12: are an attack on those very things that I have
• 57:43
  Speaker 12: pledged to support and defend throughout my life, it gives
• 57:47
  Speaker 12: me this... this charge, this energy, this focus to get
• 57:51
  Speaker 12: things done and make sure we truly are living up
• 57:54
  Speaker 12: to being a government that protects the people's opportunity to
• 57:57
  Speaker 12: pursue happiness. And I've really loved that role. I truly
• 58:01
  Speaker 12: look at Floridians as my bosses and love reporting back
• 58:05
  Speaker 12: to them. And we actually earned best constituent service in
• 58:08
  Speaker 12: the nation. And I was the first senator to do
• 58:11
  Speaker 12: that after one year in Congress. I think all of
• 58:13
  Speaker 12: that experience allows me to have a very good perspective
• 58:19
  Speaker 12: and experience and makes me an effective senator.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Well, the data that we have from Florida show me
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: that Republicans are turning out. That's good. We want them
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: to continue to vote right up until and stay in
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: line if they're in line to vote for Ashley Moody
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: and Byron Donald. But I also saw Senator Collins coming
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: out of the voting booth. She looked like a boss.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: She looked so confident. I think Mike Rogers feels confident.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: I had John Huston on. I'm hoping that Texas comes through.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: How do you feel about the Senate majority right now,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: Senator Moody?
• 58:49
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I feel really good as long as the message
• 58:51
  Speaker 12: is getting out there that it's not just about, you know, look,
• 58:54
  Speaker 12: we're all going to fight for our individual states. We're
• 58:56
  Speaker 12: all going to fight for our constituents back home. At
• 58:59
  Speaker 12: the end of the day, we really are, I think,
• 59:02
  Speaker 12: now fighting against an enemy of our way of life,
• 59:06
  Speaker 12: our constitutional freedoms. And I think as long as people
• 59:11
  Speaker 12: understand that and are seeing that, some of the things
• 59:14
  Speaker 12: that these folks are espousing to support can really be
• 59:18
  Speaker 12: damaging and chaotic for this country. And I hope that
• 59:22
  Speaker 12: message is getting across. I have been talking about that
• 59:25
  Speaker 12: a lot. And at the end of the day, if
• 59:28
  Speaker 12: we can get voters to realize that their vote is
• 59:31
  Speaker 12: truly them standing on that line, them standing up for
• 59:34
  Speaker 12: our constitutional framework, them standing up for our national security
• 59:38
  Speaker 12: and safe communities, I think we're going to have a
• 59:40
  Speaker 12: good day. But we've got to get voters still out
• 59:42
  Speaker 12: there across the nation. I know people listen to you
• 59:44
  Speaker 12: all around the country. I'm hoping that this might encourage
• 59:48
  Speaker 12: them to understand that Every vote will matter in these elections.
• 59:53
  Speaker 12: And it's not just about the one state. In the
• 59:55
  Speaker 12: case of the Senate and the House, you're dealing with
• 59:57
  Speaker 12: majorities that can really affect the future of this country.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Great closing message. Senator Ashley Moody in Florida. Welcome back
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: to America. As I've been mentioning throughout the day, I
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: will be back tonight at 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: with Carl Jackson and a bunch of great guests. including
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: my next guest, Kurt Schlichter, who is my guest host
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: more often than not. Kurt Schlichter is in the great
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: state of, let me guess, based on that picture, Texas.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: Kurt Schlichter, I wonder, you know, I'm pretty good at Jeopardy.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: I wonder how you're feeling on Election Day before we
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: go talk about your new book, American Warlord, to get
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: people through the next two months.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 13: I'm feeling great, Hugh, and thanks for having me.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: Went out today.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 13: I live in a very liberal area of Houston, very nice,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 13: lots of affluent people, many of whom have Tallarico signs
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 13: out front. And I drove by the polls today, and
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 13: I know that anecdotes are mere evidence of anecdotes. I
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 13: was a trial lawyer.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: I get that.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 13: But there was no one there except a couple squirrels
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 13: and some tumbleweeds. I think they've spent their votes here.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 13: I think the city folk have voted. I think it's
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 13: the rural Texans, the great American Texans, who feed this country,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 13: who fuel this country, who defend this country, who are
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 13: going to turn out today on Election Day and bring
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 13: it over the top to keep that blasphemous little imp
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 13: out of the Senate.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: Now, just unrelated to the election, you're a Texan now.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: When you drive by and you see squirrels, can you
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: just shoot them with the gun or guns that you've
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: got in your front seat?
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 13: Well, look, I have many, many firearms, and I'm always armed.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 13: But if I shoot at the squirrels, I might hit
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 13: Barky and Bitey, who are always chasing them.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 6: Oh, okay.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: Let us then. Let us then promote American Warlord. Now,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: I know Kurt Schlichter turns out a book every two months.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: That's just what he does. He guest hosts on the
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: radio show, he writes for Town Hall, and he writes
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: books every other month. But this one I may actually
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: listen to because it's an audio book already. American Warlord.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: Tease me, Kurt. Tease me. I like the name Vic
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: as your hero.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 13: Vic Kincaid. Kincaid being Scottish, and I'm... about a third Scottish.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 5: It means battle chief.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 13: It just sort of works out. Now, I'm an old
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 13: school Hugh Hewitt guy, so I know the Frank Luntz rule,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 13: which is that you must say American warlord at least
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 13: seven times.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: And we've only done two, so say American warlord a
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: lot more.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 13: You mean American warlord? I also know the Andrew Breitbart
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 13: dedication rule and acknowledgement rule. And if you look on.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 14: Page 334... of this here hardcover, you will see an
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 14: acknowledgement of American Warlord, an acknowledgement to both Hugh Hewitt
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 14: and Dwayne Patterson.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Well, look, if you're going to make me slum with Dwayne, really?
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 13: I am not going to fall into the Andrew Breitbart trap.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 13: There's the Thucydides trap for emerging powers, and then there's
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 13: the Andrew Breitbart trap for not having a dedication to
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 13: Hugh Hewitt or an acknowledgment of Hugh Hewitt in his book.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 13: I have succeeded in avoiding that cataract.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: An American warlord. Now, what is the pricey of the book?
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get the audio book. What is in
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: it for the Kindle readers and the hardcover readers?
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 13: Look, I write a lot of books about America falling
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 13: apart because I think when you look at the pieces
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 13: of something in the future, you can look at its past,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 13: like archaeology. American Warlord is about normal Americans, Hugh, normal
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 13: Americans in a society that suddenly falls apart, both by
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 13: leftist government and by outside forces that they're absolutely unequipped
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 13: to handle since all the leftist government exists. cares about
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 13: is maintaining a leftist government. And who's going to save us?
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 13: Is it going to be the people from the Ivy League? No,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 13: I think William F. Buckley was right. I'd rather be
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 13: governed by the first thousand people in the Boston phone
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 13: book than the Harvard faculty and staff. Vic Kincaid is
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 13: a regular guy. He manages a trucking company. He would
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 13: not be out of place at Houston control during the
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 13: Apollo missions, you know, with the short hair and the
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 13: short sleeves. An uncool guy, but one who knows a
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 13: little about Roman history and has some common sense.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: Now, Kurt, I swore off writing books, and you began
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: writing four times as many books as I did. But
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: lately I've had an idea about a new book, Learning
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: to Shoot After 70. Now, you know I do not
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: have a reputation for being coordinated. And most people don't
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: want me near firearms because I'm blind and uncoordinated. But
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking maybe I'll learn to shoot after 70. What
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: do you think? Can Vic teach me something?
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 13: I strongly encourage it. And look, most people are not
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 13: trained in the sense. I was a colonel in the Army.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 13: I was in for 27 years, which means I absolutely
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 13: do not know how to shoot. So my wife and
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 13: I just recently went out and spent the afternoon with
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 13: a shooting expert to increase our capabilities. Everybody should train,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 13: and you should train on the weapon you carry. Now,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 13: I carry a weapon all the time in Texas because
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 13: that's just what I do, and I train on it.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 13: So if, God forbid, I ever have to use it,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 13: and I was so far in the rear in Desert Storm,
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 13: you'd have to FedEx bullets to hit me. And even
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 13: I managed to not shoot anybody during the L.A.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: Riots either.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 13: But if bad things go down, you want to be ready,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 13: and you want to be confident. So I strongly encourage
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 13: you to go out and build some confidence. It's also fun.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: So Vic is our hero in American Warlord. Is he
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: going to attract to himself a little battalion like Mad Max,
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: or is he going solo into the wilderness?
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 7: Oh, no.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 13: People start coming to him, and why do they come
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 13: to him? Because he's got common sense. Because he's courageous.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 13: He's not a Terminator guy. He's not a superhero. And
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 13: he tells you himself in the book, I'm not an
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 13: action hero. I'm just a regular American.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: But you know what?
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 13: You know who saved the world in World War II?
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 13: It was regular Americans, right? It was normal guys who
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 13: stormed ashore. Normal guys held the line.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 3: At Bunker Hill.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 13: Normal guys.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 13: You know, we're out there in the desert in Fallujah.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 13: It's normal Americans. And this book celebrates normal Americans.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: So American warlord. Last question, Kurt Schlichter. What time are
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: you coming back tonight to talk with me?
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 13: I've got it on my phone somewhere, and, of course,
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 13: my phone's out of reach because I am a media professional.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: Thanks a lot. Okay, well, that's good. Media professional, I
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: think you're doing the wrap-up, and you're going to be
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: honest with us. You're going to help us mop up
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: the blood or get the champagne off the ceiling. Kurt
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: Schlichter will be dealing in between 11 and 1 when
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: Decision 2026 begins. is underway here, brought to you by
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: the Conservative Caucus in part, and between now and then,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: go and order American Warlord by Kurt Schlichter, S-C-H-L-I-C-H-T-E-R, guest
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: host extraordinaire, author extraordinaire, trial lawyer, colonel, and friend of Dwayne, obviously.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: I'm going to have to see how that appendix goes,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: you know, before I really weigh in on that. Thank you, Kurt.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: Talk to you tonight. Don't go anywhere, America. I'm too good.