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

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: See.
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  Speaker 2: John Dickett was in South Carolina last night for that
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: US Senate to debate. Boy, I can't remember what was
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: your two thousand Larry King hosting the presidential Republican debate
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: between John mccame the Senate and Governor Bush and Larry
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: King shed to Governor Bush, you got a call from
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  Speaker 2: a constituent or a donor, which call would you take?
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  Speaker 2: And bushit, Oh, the constituent, you know if they came
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  Speaker 2: in first. And that's when the straight shooter tag went
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  Speaker 2: on mc kink because he interrupted and said, come on, governor,
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  Speaker 2: you know that both of us would take the call
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  Speaker 2: from the DONA. Classic moment.
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  Speaker 1: It was.
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  Speaker 3: It was classic. And I'll tell you what, this is
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  Speaker 3: a big debate and a big race because everybody wants
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  Speaker 3: to see how Senator Darlene Graham, who replaced Lindsey Graham
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  Speaker 3: and now wants to run, is going to be as
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  Speaker 3: a candidate. This is really our first glimpse at that.
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  Speaker 3: And John Decker was in person. John Decker wl R.
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  Speaker 3: White House in Washington, correspondent, what did you think? What
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  Speaker 3: can you tell us? Well?
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  Speaker 1: I was there last night. I'm still in Columbia, South Carolina.
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  Speaker 1: Head back to DC this morning, and I have to
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  Speaker 1: tell you, Darlene Graham, in my opinion, passed the test.
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  Speaker 1: You know, she was up there on that debate stage
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  Speaker 1: with a former South Carolina governor, two congressmen, and she
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  Speaker 1: held her own. So you know, if there were any
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  Speaker 1: doubts about whether or not she had the wherewithal to
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  Speaker 1: handle a political debate, and this was her very first one,
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  Speaker 1: I think she passed the test. You know. Now it's
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  Speaker 1: up to voters. Early voting in South Carolina for this
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  Speaker 1: Republican primary begins tomorrow and the primary is actually next Tuesday.
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  Speaker 1: The top two finishers in that no candidate's expected to
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  Speaker 1: get fifty percent, So the top two finishers will then
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  Speaker 1: head to a runoff, and the runoff will be on Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: August to twenty fifth, and we'll see what happens. We'll
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  Speaker 1: see if Darleing Graham, who has the endorsement of President Trump,
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  Speaker 1: makes it to the finish.
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  Speaker 3: Line, well she will. Now, I mean most analysts were
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  Speaker 3: looking at this saying all she had to do was
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  Speaker 3: prove she can do this. All she had to do
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  Speaker 3: was hold her own and from what you're saying she
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  Speaker 3: did with flying colors, I.
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  Speaker 1: Think so you know, she came right out. She addressed
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  Speaker 1: the fact that you know she is in this position
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  Speaker 1: because of the death of her brother, and she also
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  Speaker 1: mentioned quite a bit that she has the endorsement of
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump, the only one on that debate stage that
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  Speaker 1: can claim that. And as you know, Curtis and Larry,
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  Speaker 1: that's the golden touch. If you have the endorsement of
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  Speaker 1: President Donald Trump and a Republican primary, you're golden. You're
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  Speaker 1: as good as in I mean, now it's up to voters.
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  Speaker 1: We've seen South Carolina voters recently reject President Trump's endorsed candidate.
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  Speaker 1: That was for a gubernatorial primary, and that happened in June,
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  Speaker 1: that was here in South Carolina. So South Carolina voters
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  Speaker 1: sometimes essentially say to the President, thank you very much
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  Speaker 1: for your suggestion. We're going with somebody else, and we'll
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  Speaker 1: see what they do. In this particular case, whoever wins
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  Speaker 1: the Republican nomination, they will be the next Senator from
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  Speaker 1: South Carolina.
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  Speaker 2: John Dencobb, before you took off of South Carolina and
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  Speaker 2: the debate last night, I understand it was quite a
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  Speaker 2: shit down in the Oval Office in the White House
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  Speaker 2: involving the President of the United States Secretary of the
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  Speaker 2: Interior Doug Berghum, and US Attorney for the District of Columbia,
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  Speaker 2: Janine Piro. We're all three of them together at the
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  Speaker 2: same time.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I know that the President did meet with Jeanine
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  Speaker 1: Piro yesterday at the White House. I don't know if
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  Speaker 1: all three were in the room at the same time.
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  Speaker 1: The President is not happy with someone who's been a
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  Speaker 1: stalwart supporter of Donald Trump for quite a long time.
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  Speaker 1: She is a loyalist, there's no doubt about it. But
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  Speaker 1: on this particular issue in terms of what was the
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  Speaker 1: cause for that damage to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool,
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  Speaker 1: this is where Janeine Pierro and her office diverged and
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  Speaker 1: the president. The President maintains it was vandals that caused
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  Speaker 1: this damage, and Janine Piro's office in dropping charges against
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  Speaker 1: four separate individuals saying no, not vandals, This was just
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  Speaker 1: shoddy work that was done by the firm that was
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  Speaker 1: doing the work on this reflecting pool.
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  Speaker 3: Well, socialism is on the table as an issue now.
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  Speaker 3: Who would have thought that was going to happen, And
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  Speaker 3: it seems like the Republicans are just talking about this
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  Speaker 3: all over the place. Every single time they're on television.
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  Speaker 3: Donald Trump brings up communism all of the time and
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  Speaker 3: how it's going to happen. But now we're seeing all
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  Speaker 3: these Democratic office holders now condemning socialism. The latest is
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  Speaker 3: Josh Gotdheimer here in New Jersey. So this is going
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  Speaker 3: to be an issue at John, like Democrats have a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of a problem.
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  Speaker 1: They do have a problem. And it's not just this
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  Speaker 1: election cycle, Larry, It's not just you know, the midterms.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to be hanging over their heads all the
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  Speaker 1: way at least through twenty twenty eight and maybe beyond,
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  Speaker 1: because you're seeing these officeholders get elected who describe themselves
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  Speaker 1: as democratic socialists. Republicans call them communists, but you see
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  Speaker 1: them getting elected not everywhere but in certain places. New
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  Speaker 1: York City of course, very prominent example of that. And
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  Speaker 1: this is showing that there is a significant strain in
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  Speaker 1: the Democratic Party that is beyond progressive, it's socialist. And
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  Speaker 1: the question is do all Democrats in the midterms get
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  Speaker 1: painted with this broad brush.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the biggest issue John Deca, when I'm out in
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  Speaker 2: the streets, whether it's Republicans, Democrats, or independence, is this
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  Speaker 2: continued war in Iran and the mixed signals that our
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: president gives us another pivot in shift over the weekend,
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  Speaker 2: he said he was gonna bomb him as bad as
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  Speaker 2: we bombed our enemies in World War Two, and then
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  Speaker 2: all of a sudden he said, oh, no, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 2: we're talking to them. And then Ron goes, we're not
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  Speaker 2: talking to you, We're talking to Oman about passage through
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  Speaker 2: the straits of her moves. It's like this this has
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  Speaker 2: given me and I think a lot of voters whiplash. Vertico.
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  Speaker 2: It's almost like every week we can predict what this
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  Speaker 2: president is gonna say.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's exactly right there. There has been this whiplash,
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  Speaker 1: and we've seen gyrations in the oil markets as well.
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  Speaker 1: One day or one week there might be a focus
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  Speaker 1: on military operations conducted by the US. That's when oil
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  Speaker 1: price is set up. And then when the president announces
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  Speaker 1: that there will be a focus on diplomacy, that's when
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  Speaker 1: oil prices edged down. So the right now, the President
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  Speaker 1: says there are talks going on, but as you point out,
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  Speaker 1: these talks don't even evolve the US. They involve mediators
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  Speaker 1: from Oman, and it all focuses on one thing, and
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  Speaker 1: one thing only, and that's the Strait of Hormuz. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't focus on Iran's nuclear weapons program, which was the
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  Speaker 1: reason for beginning this conflict in the first place.
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  Speaker 3: What doesn't help the oil companies and all of this
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  Speaker 3: is just this week they announced record second quarter profits,
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  Speaker 3: the highest ever for Exxon Mobile and Chevron, And now
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  Speaker 3: I understand the president is calling on them to take
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  Speaker 3: a little bit less money and lower the prices themselves.
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  Speaker 1: Can you imagine if Barack Obama said that, what Republicans
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  Speaker 1: would say if Barack Obama said that. I mean, that's
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  Speaker 1: pretty remarkable. We live in a capitalistic society, and these
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  Speaker 1: oil companies are indeed making money, and they're making money
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  Speaker 1: because of the geopolitical situation in the world. It's unfortunate,
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  Speaker 1: but that's the way capitalism works. So to me, it's
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  Speaker 1: pretty remarkable that a Republican, a Republican president is saying
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  Speaker 1: that about oil companies that traditionally have been supportive of
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  Speaker 1: Republican candidates.
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  Speaker 2: Now this is a little complicated, this issue. The Todd
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  Speaker 2: blanche nomination has to go through obviously committee first and
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  Speaker 2: then will vote. But it almost has two dynamics, and
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  Speaker 2: one of it involves an agreement about the President and
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  Speaker 2: his family maybe never having to be audited by the
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  Speaker 2: IRS in the future. Can you explain where we are
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  Speaker 2: with that, because it's very perplexing for a lot of people.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's perplexing to me too. The reason being is
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  Speaker 1: because that agreement was an agreement that involved Donald Trump
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  Speaker 1: as a private citizen, the Department of Justice, and the IRS.
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  Speaker 1: And there are legal questions as to whether or not
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  Speaker 1: what Todd Blanche promised in a letter or a memo
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  Speaker 1: or a memorandum that he put out just yesterday actually
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  Speaker 1: is legally binding because it doesn't include the signature of
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  Speaker 1: all three parties related to this issue regarding the president's taxes,
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  Speaker 1: the taxes of his companies, the taxes of the president's sons.
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  Speaker 1: That being said, two senators that had objections to Todd
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  Speaker 1: Blanche dropped their objections yesterday based upon not only this
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  Speaker 1: memo that Todd Blanche put out regarding the IRS audits,
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  Speaker 1: but also the Anti Weaponization Fund. And what Todd Blam
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  Speaker 1: said is not something that the DOJ will be pursuing.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we have a strange family drama that is playing
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  Speaker 3: out in Ohio with Representative Max Miller. He was denounced
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  Speaker 3: by his former father in law, Senator Bernie Marino. His
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  Speaker 3: ex wife is accusing him now of basically child abuse,
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  Speaker 3: of abusing their children before you know, I don't want
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  Speaker 3: to get into the domestic back and forth of the
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  Speaker 3: whole thing. But is a Republican seat now in jeopardy
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  Speaker 3: because of this?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I've always thought that Ohio is one of those
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  Speaker 1: seats that is flippable for Democrats in this midterm election.
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  Speaker 1: As you know, there is a race going on. It
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  Speaker 1: doesn't involve Bernie Moreno, but that being said, it involves
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  Speaker 1: a Republican who is running to fulfill a six year term.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's Senator Hustedt who's doing that right now.
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  Speaker 1: He was named to that position after JD. Vance went
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  Speaker 1: on to be the vice president, but now he's running
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: for a full six year term. And I think even
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  Speaker 1: in red Ohio, I think that this particular year, given
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  Speaker 1: all the dynamics, a Democrat can actually win back that
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  Speaker 1: weal we and flip it. So we'll see what happens.
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  Speaker 1: It's Sherid Brown who's running, say, win back his seat
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  Speaker 1: in the US Senate.
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  Speaker 2: Do appreciate that John Decker from South Carolina back to
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  Speaker 2: the White House and the Reflection Pool and everything else
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  Speaker 2: going on in DC. We appreciate all the updates you
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: gave is here this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks Cerdis, Thanks Larry.
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  Speaker 3: You have a great day.
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  Speaker 1: I'll talk to you real soon. By Bi