Latest / Brian Thomas / Congressman Warren Davidson joins Brian Thomas this morning

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Congressman Warren Davidson joins Brian Thomas this morning · Brian Thomas

0:01
Speaker 1: It's 7 0 6 F 55 care CD talk station
0:04
Speaker 1: Friday Eve. And that time of week, we get the
0:06
Speaker 1: blessing of, and thankfully we will continue to get the
0:08
Speaker 1: blessings of Congressman Warren Davidson. Joining the program, Congressman Davidson,
0:11
Speaker 1: congratulations on your victory. One of the bright spots in
0:14
Speaker 1: Tuesday's otherwise dreary election results. Uh, good to hear from you.
0:18
Speaker 1: How are you feeling about it? Congressman Davidson.
0:21
Speaker 2: Well, I'm first of all, thankful to the people of
0:24
Speaker 2: Ohio's eighth district and all the people that were helpful
0:27
Speaker 2: to support our team. Uh, It's an honor to get
0:30
Speaker 2: to continue representing the 8th District in these new lines.
0:34
Speaker 2: We knew it would be more competitive, but that was
0:36
Speaker 2: a lot more competitive than even in our race. We
0:39
Speaker 2: had it kind of accurately pegged, but around the country,
0:42
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone had that kind of an outcome model.
0:47
Speaker 2: We thought, okay, well, we'll probably lose some seats. We
0:50
Speaker 2: started looking at some of the numbers and said, well,
0:51
Speaker 2: it's hard to believe these polls. This is looking more
0:54
Speaker 2: like 06 than 2018 polls. And the reality is it
0:58
Speaker 2: was a bigger shift than even 06. It was a
1:00
Speaker 2: pretty big shift all over the country.
1:04
Speaker 1: Well, and I suppose, and I've been talking about this
1:06
Speaker 1: this morning, I'm not the only one who's been commenting
1:08
Speaker 1: or editorializing about it. The Democrats, they're in a position
1:10
Speaker 1: now they're going to have to deliver. They ran on
1:12
Speaker 1: evil orange man and affordability, promising that they're going to
1:16
Speaker 1: make things more affordable. And of course, a vote against
1:18
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, a lot of people embrace that. And maybe
1:20
Speaker 1: that's exactly what Tuesday was, a protest against Donald Trump
1:24
Speaker 1: more so than any given election. Because some pretty piss
1:27
Speaker 1: poor candidates, if I can call them that. And I
1:29
Speaker 1: just did, uh, one and prevailed over otherwise more demonstrably, uh, uh, uh,
1:36
Speaker 1: well proven candidates, folks who actually can deliver folks who
1:39
Speaker 1: have knowledge and experience in the role. And we can
1:42
Speaker 1: point to Amy Acton, but more, more fundamentally, what are
1:45
Speaker 1: they now going to do in the next two years
1:47
Speaker 1: in a lame duck session? Are they going to deliver
1:49
Speaker 1: on affordability? Is that even possible? I mean, I, I,
1:53
Speaker 1: are they going to try to play nice with them
1:55
Speaker 1: or with the Republicans, or are they going to go
1:57
Speaker 1: full on woke and take this as a mandate for
1:59
Speaker 1: all of their lunacy? Congressman Davidson, I know it's a
2:02
Speaker 1: compound question question, but that's all just packed up inside
2:05
Speaker 1: my pea brain this morning.
2:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, look, they, they did campaign on affordability,
2:13
Speaker 2: but you know, in the, even as the polls were
2:16
Speaker 2: starting to come in, the first message was lawyer up, right?
2:20
Speaker 2: So they're going to continue the lawfare campaign. woke weaponized
2:23
Speaker 2: government is definitely part of the kit bag. They can't
2:27
Speaker 2: help themselves. That's what really fuels their rage. You know,
2:31
Speaker 2: it's orange man bad. And the good news is they
2:34
Speaker 2: ended moral relativism. They now agree in objective truth. They
2:38
Speaker 2: haven't calibrated it yet. For them, Donald Trump has become
2:42
Speaker 2: everything bad, right? And it seemed to be part of
2:46
Speaker 2: what fueled their turnout in this election. But I think
2:49
Speaker 2: there's more to it than that, because Republicans had big turnout, too,
2:53
Speaker 2: and a lot of places they changed their votes. J.D.
2:56
Speaker 2: Vance kind of gave voice to that. Hey, our polling
2:58
Speaker 2: said this would happen. We polled people and said, why
3:01
Speaker 2: did it happen? And particularly with young people, they felt
3:05
Speaker 2: betrayed on two things in particular, the war and on affordability.
3:10
Speaker 2: If you look in rural states, Ohio's rural areas, we
3:13
Speaker 2: saw it in our own district. I mean, Dark County
3:16
Speaker 2: in the north, huge ag county, normally the biggest ag
3:19
Speaker 2: county in the state of Ohio. Iowa, Kansas, they all flipped.
3:25
Speaker 2: So it's more than that on affordability. The tariffs and
3:29
Speaker 2: policies that are hurting them, people are saying, hey, we
3:34
Speaker 2: can't keep doing this. Gaslighting isn't going to lower the
3:40
Speaker 2: cost of gas, groceries, homes, or health care. And the
3:46
Speaker 2: reality is socialism won't either. So some of the protest
3:49
Speaker 2: vote wasn't like, oh, let's embrace socialism. It was, you
3:53
Speaker 2: guys aren't listening. You're out there saying everything's fine, just
3:56
Speaker 2: bootstrap up. I bought a house when I was 15%. Great. Well,
4:00
Speaker 2: the house was like two times the median income back then.
4:03
Speaker 2: Median homes were like two, three times the median income.
4:07
Speaker 2: Now median homes are six times the median income. That's
4:11
Speaker 2: a whole different equation. And I think a lot of
4:13
Speaker 2: young people felt Like they weren't being heard on that,
4:16
Speaker 2: and a lot of rural people felt they weren't being
4:17
Speaker 2: heard on that. And then the war in Iran, similar.
4:21
Speaker 2: People just said, hey, you know, the message in 24
4:25
Speaker 2: was clear. We don't want these wars. And it's unpopular
4:29
Speaker 2: with the young people who would have to fight them,
4:32
Speaker 2: but it looks like it's pretty unpopular with nearly everyone
4:34
Speaker 2: else too.
4:35
Speaker 1: It does. And, you know, my belief is, you know,
4:39
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump was able to cobble together a pretty–
4:42
Speaker 1: loose group of people, at least insofar as their political affiliation,
4:46
Speaker 1: that wide, ever-growing swath of independents. But he also was
4:49
Speaker 1: able to pull away a sizable number of Hispanic and
4:53
Speaker 1: black voters going into the presidential election, which helped him win. Clearly,
4:57
Speaker 1: that was not a lasting relationship. So independents are rather
5:00
Speaker 1: fickle folks, and when you don't deliver on your promise
5:02
Speaker 1: of no more wars and affordability, That's going to cause
5:06
Speaker 1: the fickle, unaffiliated to pivot over to the other side.
5:09
Speaker 1: I think that's what happened. So what the Republican Party
5:11
Speaker 1: needs to do is kind of figure out a way
5:13
Speaker 1: to reclaim those folks that it had temporarily. At least
5:16
Speaker 1: there was something appealing in the Republican message to get
5:19
Speaker 1: those people over on the Republican side of the ledger.
5:21
Speaker 1: How are we going to go about getting them back?
5:24
Speaker 2: Well, I think just candor. I mean, I think J.D.
5:26
Speaker 2: Vance laid out a good example of that in his post.
5:30
Speaker 2: You know, things that, oh, well, we don't really want to.
5:32
Speaker 2: touch that subject. We don't necessarily want to own this subject.
5:36
Speaker 2: He's just candid. Here's what our data was saying. And,
5:40
Speaker 2: you know, here's what we think that means so far.
5:43
Speaker 2: And I think that's the, you know, the start is,
5:45
Speaker 2: you know, bad news doesn't get better with time. You
5:47
Speaker 2: just got to take in the assessment and adjust and,
5:50
Speaker 2: you know, we'll see, we'll see where it goes. But
5:53
Speaker 2: I think, Donald Trump, to your point, put together a
5:57
Speaker 2: very fragile coalition. The GOP, really, that's been the challenge
6:01
Speaker 2: is we don't have a unifying theme. The Democrats don't either,
6:04
Speaker 2: but they were able to unite around Trump is bad.
6:07
Speaker 2: We weren't able to build unity around anything without Trump
6:12
Speaker 2: on the ballot. Unity was Trump is uniting us. Without that,
6:16
Speaker 2: we were seeing, well, that's not working. And even to
6:19
Speaker 2: the areas that it was, I mean, there was the
6:22
Speaker 2: little civil war. We saw that firsthand right there in
6:24
Speaker 2: the Cincinnati media market with an important part of the faction. So,
6:28
Speaker 2: you know, the more libertarian wing of our party, it
6:31
Speaker 2: isn't the majority of the party. No libertarian even did
6:33
Speaker 2: well in a race. But it's got to be part
6:36
Speaker 2: of it. And if it isn't, Well, then that's a problem.
6:40
Speaker 2: I mean part of the message with Donald Trump and
6:42
Speaker 2: certainly the J.D. Vance pick and his ongoing messaging is
6:47
Speaker 2: these neocons that are anxious for more wars in more places,
6:51
Speaker 2: they can't keep driving our agenda. They're bankrupting our country,
6:55
Speaker 2: and they're undermining everything about the coalition. And that's kind
7:00
Speaker 2: of a T-intersection. You can't have both wings of that.
7:04
Speaker 2: in an enduring way. Donald Trump did through the 2024 election,
7:08
Speaker 2: and he built that coalition. And I think he could
7:10
Speaker 2: have held it as long as he was at war,
7:12
Speaker 2: wasn't in another war. And the reality is facts change.
7:16
Speaker 2: Maybe sometimes you do need a war, but it certainly
7:19
Speaker 2: raises the stakes on explaining the war. And I think
7:22
Speaker 2: a lot of people felt like that still hasn't been done.
7:24
Speaker 2: So that's been my view is if you want a war,
7:27
Speaker 2: you're supposed to declare it. If you're responding to an
7:30
Speaker 2: imminent threat as an imminent threat, like you can't convene Congress,
7:35
Speaker 2: you can't explain it to the public, then fine. You've
7:40
Speaker 2: got 60 days under the law, and you've got 90 days, really,
7:44
Speaker 2: before you have to do it. Well, it's been way
7:46
Speaker 2: over 90 days. I mean, February 28th was a while ago,
7:49
Speaker 2: and I think people vented some of that frustration at
7:51
Speaker 2: the polls.
7:51
Speaker 1: No question about it. I thought it would be more
7:54
Speaker 1: that Republicans not bothering to show up, but there was
7:57
Speaker 1: apparently a sizable number of Republicans who actually voted for Democrats,
8:01
Speaker 1: I guess as a form of a protest vote. you know,
8:04
Speaker 1: and part of me wants to say perhaps rightfully so.
8:06
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm always the one that's going to go
8:08
Speaker 1: for the least worst candidate, so I never do that. But,
8:11
Speaker 1: you know, the dissatisfaction and just, I think a lot
8:15
Speaker 1: of people feel like they got stabbed in the back
8:17
Speaker 1: with this war because Donald Trump was the peacemaker. He
8:20
Speaker 1: was the one that said no more wars, period. And
8:23
Speaker 1: I think a lot of folks were counting on him
8:25
Speaker 1: for that.
8:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's certainly part of it. And that's one where
8:30
Speaker 2: we're going to try to figure out, well, how many
8:32
Speaker 2: people did that? And Boy, I hope it wasn't a
8:34
Speaker 2: lot because that's really consequential. It is. I mean, you're
8:36
Speaker 2: talking about in the Senate, it's going to take until
8:39
Speaker 2: like 2032 to fix that. And in the governor's race
8:42
Speaker 2: here in Ohio, I mean, four years, you can do it.
8:45
Speaker 2: The governor's office is a powerful position. I mean, the
8:47
Speaker 2: attorney general, the secretary of state, losing these offices in
8:51
Speaker 2: our state is huge. And then to bring it more locally,
8:54
Speaker 2: we lost all the Republican judges. I mean, we continued
8:57
Speaker 2: in the juvenile court to have someone in charge of
8:59
Speaker 2: the court that's basically handing out library cards to juvenile felons.
9:03
Speaker 2: I think everybody else is like– they can read while
9:05
Speaker 2: they're in jail. And that's not partisan once you get
9:10
Speaker 2: north of Hamilton County. If you go to Butler County,
9:14
Speaker 2: Warren County, Claremont County, you move anywhere north, Democrats and
9:17
Speaker 2: Republicans aren't divided on justice issues. But somehow in Hamilton County,
9:21
Speaker 2: it's become this thing, and that's part of the Democrat agenda.
9:25
Speaker 2: That's the people driving the national agenda in Congress.
9:32
Speaker 1: Well, and that's what blows my mind, because I think
9:35
Speaker 1: people are logical and reasonable for the most part, regardless
9:37
Speaker 1: of political stripe, and everyone seems to be in favor
9:40
Speaker 1: of having a safe neighborhood and community. But we'll see
9:43
Speaker 1: if they go full on with their woke agenda and
9:45
Speaker 1: their defund the police agenda. Honestly, Congressman Davidson, I sort
9:48
Speaker 1: of hope they do, because that spells better for the
9:51
Speaker 1: Republican Party, who maybe should be engaging in some self-reflection.
9:54
Speaker 1: We'll bring back Congressman Davidson and talk about more of
9:56
Speaker 1: these issues. It's 516-55KRC, the talk station. Let me recommend... 55KRC,
10:01
Speaker 1: the talk station. 719-55KRC, the talk station. Brian Thomas with
10:06
Speaker 1: Congressman Warren Davidson. Just doing a reflection on the aftermath
10:11
Speaker 1: of the disaster for the Republicans that Tuesday was and
10:13
Speaker 1: pivoting over. You mentioned neocons, and I know a lot
10:16
Speaker 1: of my listening audience has problems with the warmongers and
10:19
Speaker 1: those who engage in ongoing reckless spending. Well, it's our spending.
10:23
Speaker 1: It's okay, even though it's deficit spending. No one's ever
10:26
Speaker 1: gotten a lid on that, and we've inherited this problem.
10:28
Speaker 1: And I remember Ronald Reagan talking about deficits, and they
10:31
Speaker 1: were in the billions of dollars. Look at where we are,
10:33
Speaker 1: $ 42 trillion and growing. Is this time for the Republican
10:38
Speaker 1: Party to do a couple years' worth of reflection and
10:40
Speaker 1: maybe engage and get some better non-neocon candidates? I mean,
10:44
Speaker 1: is there going to be a push in that direction,
10:45
Speaker 1: introspection and an analysis, Congressman Davidson?
10:49
Speaker 2: I certainly hope so. And look, Mike Johnson kind of
10:53
Speaker 2: led by example here. I think he's, he's a class act. He,
10:56
Speaker 2: you know, I wish he would have played a little
10:59
Speaker 2: more offense. I think that was one of the key
11:01
Speaker 2: things is, Hey, we're on offense. We need to be aggressive. Uh,
11:05
Speaker 2: we had 700 bills that passed the house that couldn't
11:07
Speaker 2: get a vote in the Senate. I think Mike Johnson
11:10
Speaker 2: would have played far more offense. Uh, we ran into
11:12
Speaker 2: John Thune, John Thune still, as far as I know,
11:15
Speaker 2: planning on running for Senate minority leader, but, um, Mike
11:19
Speaker 2: Johnson just said, hey, we've seen the outcome here. I
11:23
Speaker 2: don't plan to seek a role as minority leader. He's
11:26
Speaker 2: stepping aside and basically taking some level of responsibility. I
11:30
Speaker 2: respect that. So we have a leadership race afoot. Jim Jordan,
11:35
Speaker 2: who's really exposed a lot of things, he's a bulldog
11:38
Speaker 2: out there, pushing a far more conservative agenda and more offense.
11:44
Speaker 2: He's running to be minority leader. And then Steve Scalise,
11:47
Speaker 2: who's been kind of a fixture of Republican leadership over
11:49
Speaker 2: the years, is fighting to be minority leader as well.
11:55
Speaker 2: So we'll see how that plays out. But I think
11:56
Speaker 2: those are the kinds of races. And we've got some
11:59
Speaker 2: other people that are interested in leading within the House GOP, too.
12:03
Speaker 2: And that's kind of behind-the-scenes fight that is going to
12:06
Speaker 2: start to shape, well, what kind of agenda are we
12:09
Speaker 2: going to have? What are we going to do? Do
12:11
Speaker 2: we have leadership that is going to rally and unite people?
12:15
Speaker 2: are banned there in the House. And in a way,
12:18
Speaker 2: it did sort of trim off the edges, these races
12:21
Speaker 2: between the primaries and the general. You know, you've got
12:24
Speaker 2: to make lemonade out of the lemons that we have
12:26
Speaker 2: right now. And the reality is you will, at least
12:30
Speaker 2: with the people, the incumbents that are coming back, who
12:32
Speaker 2: I know what they believe and what they've voted on
12:35
Speaker 2: in the past. You know, we lost a lot of
12:37
Speaker 2: the people that were, you know— reluctant to cut spending
12:42
Speaker 2: on anything. I mean, we had people that couldn't muster
12:46
Speaker 2: the strength to defund NPR, let alone do all the
12:49
Speaker 2: Doge cuts. And so, you know, let's make sure we
12:52
Speaker 2: get actual people that want to go fight the battle
12:55
Speaker 2: we're in and not just issue more statements that say, oh, yeah,
12:59
Speaker 2: we want a smaller, more accountable government. But if Republicans
13:02
Speaker 2: actually stayed united on that when we had the White House,
13:06
Speaker 2: the House and Senate we would deliver a smaller, more
13:09
Speaker 2: accountable government. And so far we have it. The debt
13:12
Speaker 2: keeps growing.
13:13
Speaker 1: Well, and over to J.D. Vance's comments about the war
13:16
Speaker 1: and just sort of laying the blame on this poor decision.
13:19
Speaker 1: I viewed that yesterday when I first learned of it
13:21
Speaker 1: as an opening in the what I think will be
13:23
Speaker 1: a constant, ever-growing number of people criticizing Donald Trump from
13:28
Speaker 1: the Republican side of the ledger. I mean, it was verboten.
13:30
Speaker 1: If you uttered a syllable, I mean, I'd problems with
13:33
Speaker 1: my listening audience over that. Anytime I was any remotely, anyway,
13:36
Speaker 1: remotely critical of Donald Trump, I'd be hearing from people,
13:38
Speaker 1: how dare you? You're a Democrat in disguise. And I
13:42
Speaker 1: don't buy into that. I'm allowed to be critical when
13:44
Speaker 1: I think criticism is worthy. But a lot of people
13:46
Speaker 1: cower along the ideas of criticizing Donald Trump. I think
13:50
Speaker 1: what I'm seeing here, J.D. Vance's first foray into distancing
13:54
Speaker 1: himself from Trump so he can call himself maybe not
13:57
Speaker 1: Donald Trump in 2028. DeSantis, I believe, came out swinging
14:02
Speaker 1: against Trump the other day as well. Maybe not harsh words,
14:04
Speaker 1: but at least, you know, critical words. There are others
14:07
Speaker 1: out there that are doing that. Do you see that
14:08
Speaker 1: the way I'm seeing it, Congressman Davidson?
14:11
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I've cast some of these tough votes
14:13
Speaker 2: in the past, but I've not criticized Donald Trump. I've
14:16
Speaker 2: just disagreed with him. You know, I was like, well,
14:19
Speaker 2: I still support President Trump. I look at the overall
14:22
Speaker 2: agenda and where we are as a Republican Party. The
14:26
Speaker 2: party was broken in 2016. That's why... The party hired
14:30
Speaker 2: Donald Trump to lead is we want to clean out
14:33
Speaker 2: the party. And he did. I mean, a lot of
14:35
Speaker 2: Republicans develop Trump derangement syndrome, too. And what we exposed
14:39
Speaker 2: is these guys are total. I mean, wolves in sheep's clothing.
14:43
Speaker 2: I mean, look at Bill Kristol. This guy, Liz Cheney.
14:46
Speaker 2: I mean, they're full on supporting Democrats now. And they
14:50
Speaker 2: were held up as the icons of the Republican Party.
14:53
Speaker 2: I mean, so Donald Trump was kind of the bull
14:56
Speaker 2: in the china shop, breaking through some things. And I
15:00
Speaker 2: appreciate him for the things that we've gotten done that, frankly,
15:04
Speaker 2: we would not have gotten done without his leadership and
15:06
Speaker 2: the coalition. So, yes, I still support President Trump, but
15:10
Speaker 2: I also disagree with him sometimes. And I've been able
15:13
Speaker 2: to do that without getting in the crosshairs of some
15:16
Speaker 2: of his very direct and blunt criticism. that he's had
15:20
Speaker 2: for others. And I think that's part of the distinction.
15:22
Speaker 2: You know, for Democrats, it's all Donald Trump's a bad guy.
15:25
Speaker 2: And a lot of times Republicans sort of join in
15:28
Speaker 2: piling onto that. If you will, CNN and MSNBC will
15:32
Speaker 2: have you on every day, right? And some of my
15:35
Speaker 2: colleagues have decided to take that path. I don't appreciate it.
15:39
Speaker 2: It doesn't help us fuel our agenda. It just draws
15:42
Speaker 2: attention to themselves. And I think we have to get
15:45
Speaker 2: results here. And just saying, hey, Donald Trump's bad. No,
15:50
Speaker 2: he's been great overall. I just disagree with the war.
15:53
Speaker 1: Well, I'm viewing it as a political strategy. I'm not
15:56
Speaker 1: suggesting they turn their back on all the good that
15:58
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's been able to do or just say he
16:00
Speaker 1: was a terrible president, period, end of story. But trying
16:04
Speaker 1: to harness the last gasps of Donald Trump, evil orange
16:09
Speaker 1: man that the Democrats have because they're not going to
16:11
Speaker 1: have that going into 2028. They're going to have to
16:13
Speaker 1: find a candidate that the Republican Party is advancing for president.
16:17
Speaker 1: That is, you know, the equivalent of Donald Trump or
16:20
Speaker 1: someone they can conceive. Well, this is just new Donald Trump.
16:23
Speaker 1: You know, the J.D. Vance is just Donald Trump with
16:25
Speaker 1: a different name. That's where I think the out loud statements,
16:29
Speaker 1: not damning Donald Trump, but at least out loud expressing
16:32
Speaker 1: some dismay over some of his decisions. That's my view
16:35
Speaker 1: of why it's coming in. I may be wrong. I mean,
16:37
Speaker 1: I'm no I don't label myself a politics expert. Yeah, maybe.
16:42
Speaker 2: But I think in J.D. 's case in particular, he's
16:44
Speaker 2: just like, this is what the data was telling us.
16:46
Speaker 2: I mean, we're just sharing what we had. This is,
16:49
Speaker 2: you know, pull the curtain back. Here's the facts. I mean,
16:51
Speaker 2: he's still President Trump's vice president. And I think that's
16:55
Speaker 2: one of the things Marco Rubio has done well. He said,
16:57
Speaker 2: you know, I'm not Marco Rubio's secretary of state. Donald
17:02
Speaker 2: Trump is president. I'm Donald Trump's secretary of state. And
17:05
Speaker 2: he's executed those policies, you know, very well. as has J.D.,
17:11
Speaker 2: as have some other people in the cabin. I mean,
17:13
Speaker 2: Scott Besson's been a real star in the administration. We're
17:18
Speaker 2: still on offense until January 3rd, so I hope we
17:21
Speaker 2: get back into town next week in D.C. We're supposed
17:24
Speaker 2: to be in session, and I hope we start playing
17:27
Speaker 2: some offense while we're still on offense and get as
17:31
Speaker 2: much good things done as we can and position ourselves
17:34
Speaker 2: to help shape the agenda, even though we're from the
17:38
Speaker 2: minority in the next Congress.
17:40
Speaker 1: All right. Can you stay over for just one more
17:41
Speaker 1: brief segment? Because I want to expand on that very point,
17:45
Speaker 1: because I think there is one area where there may
17:47
Speaker 1: be room for some bipartisan support. Can you hold on
17:49
Speaker 1: for another moment?
17:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure thing. Great.
17:52
Speaker 1: One more brief segment with Congressman Abby Thursday. We're talking
17:55
Speaker 1: to Congressman Warren Davidson here this morning and getting his
17:58
Speaker 1: thoughts and comments about the election and moving forward to
18:00
Speaker 1: the lame duck session. Will anything get done? I think
18:02
Speaker 1: most people think it's going to be gridlocked for a
18:03
Speaker 1: couple of years. Any legislation passed out of the The
18:07
Speaker 1: Democrat Congress is going to be vetoed by Trump. There's
18:09
Speaker 1: not a veto-approved majority. Trump has executive order options at
18:12
Speaker 1: his hands. So while the Democrats decide who they're going
18:16
Speaker 1: to be moving toward 2028 in terms of a far
18:19
Speaker 1: left-wing DSA group or a more traditional Democrat group, will
18:24
Speaker 1: there be an opportunity for anything bipartisan to come out
18:26
Speaker 1: of this? Because that is an option for them to
18:28
Speaker 1: sort of maybe try to play nice, a la Tip
18:30
Speaker 1: O'Neill back in the Reagan years. One thing which looks
18:34
Speaker 1: to be a growing collective of agreement is on artificial intelligence.
18:38
Speaker 1: It's one of the reasons they give a reason for
18:40
Speaker 1: the markets going up yesterday so much is that so
18:43
Speaker 1: many states and municipalities voted to curb AI, either completely
18:47
Speaker 1: or to pare it back. And one of the reasons
18:51
Speaker 1: the market went up, they say this is a good thing.
18:53
Speaker 1: Maybe government intervention will come about, maybe some regulation, giving
18:56
Speaker 1: people some comfort over the obviously perhaps devastating impact changes
19:01
Speaker 1: to our economy in terms of what ai can do
19:03
Speaker 1: for jobs um but also that uh you know since
19:09
Speaker 1: it seems to be bipartisan clamoring for some control over
19:11
Speaker 1: ai does that suggest that there will be legislation congressman
19:15
Speaker 1: davidson or am i just making all this.
19:16
Speaker 2: Up well uh we'll see i mean under the biden
19:21
Speaker 2: administration they wanted to essentially nationalize a few companies and
19:27
Speaker 2: till the market for everyone else. And the incumbent companies
19:30
Speaker 2: are kind of okay with that. I mean, that's basically
19:32
Speaker 2: what they're saying is, oh, this is too dangerous for
19:35
Speaker 2: just anybody to do it. We need to be protected
19:39
Speaker 2: in our market. And that guarantees, in a lot of cases,
19:43
Speaker 2: this is regulatory capture. You build a regulation around the
19:47
Speaker 2: existing market participants and no one can really touch them
19:52
Speaker 2: because you can't get the scale to be a real competitor.
19:57
Speaker 2: And so a lot of the market participants want that.
19:59
Speaker 2: They want especially no liability for their actions. That was
20:04
Speaker 2: where things were headed under Joe Biden. And frankly, that
20:07
Speaker 2: was part of the original version of the big, beautiful
20:09
Speaker 2: bill when it was in the House. There was a
20:12
Speaker 2: 10-year period where AI companies could do whatever they want
20:15
Speaker 2: across the country with no liability. And that was a
20:18
Speaker 2: terrible policy as we exposed it. The public said so,
20:23
Speaker 2: and we got it stripped out of the Senate version
20:25
Speaker 2: 99 to 1. So hopefully people still remember that we
20:29
Speaker 2: got it stripped out 99 to 1, and we do
20:31
Speaker 2: something sane on AI and privacy. I think privacy has
20:37
Speaker 2: been bipartisan. It doesn't really break on party lines. However,
20:41
Speaker 2: leadership in both Republican and Democrat parties have sort of
20:44
Speaker 2: accommodated the surveillance. And a lot of the public is saying, hey,
20:49
Speaker 2: stop spying on me. If you want to spy on
20:50
Speaker 2: our enemies, that's fine. But you're supposed to have to
20:53
Speaker 2: get a warrant to go after citizens. Why are you
20:56
Speaker 2: targeting me? And I think people are feeling that. That's
21:01
Speaker 2: part of, I think, the pushback on data centers is
21:03
Speaker 2: What are you doing with all this data? It doesn't
21:06
Speaker 2: look like it's targeting enemies. It looks like it's targeting Americans. Yep.
21:10
Speaker 1: And therein lies a challenge. Well, Congressman Warren Davidson, you've
21:14
Speaker 1: got a tough job on your hands, and I know
21:16
Speaker 1: that you are an optimistic guy. We're not throwing in
21:19
Speaker 1: the towel. Don't bring the flag out. We still can
21:21
Speaker 1: fight a fight and try to win back that tenuous
21:25
Speaker 1: collection of independence and fringe elements over the Republican side
21:28
Speaker 1: of the ledger. And to do that, we're going to
21:29
Speaker 1: have to come up with a plan that is appealing
21:32
Speaker 1: to And it should be– I would argue that it
21:34
Speaker 1: should be a pretty easy challenge considering how far left
21:37
Speaker 1: the Democrats are going. Congressman Davidson, my mind is just
21:40
Speaker 1: blown by that reality.
21:43
Speaker 2: Well, that was the thing. I kept holding out hope
21:45
Speaker 2: that even as I looked at the numbers and saw
21:49
Speaker 2: what was likely, it's like, no, I think the public
21:51
Speaker 2: is going to see through. I get that you're not
21:54
Speaker 2: happy on affordability, but the Green New Deal is not
21:56
Speaker 2: going to lower gas. It's a feature. To them, it's
21:59
Speaker 2: a feature that you have high gas prices. It's a
22:01
Speaker 2: feature that you can't generate electricity. I mean, their plan
22:05
Speaker 2: was to close the Miami Fort power plant and take
22:08
Speaker 2: power offline in Ohio. They didn't want to approve natural gas.
22:12
Speaker 2: They're opposed to nuclear, even though there's no carbon emissions
22:15
Speaker 2: from it, that the carbon is supposedly the most evil
22:18
Speaker 2: thing in the world other than Donald Trump. And it's like,
22:21
Speaker 2: this is terrible policy. And we'll see whether they've learned
22:25
Speaker 2: that the public agrees that it's terrible policy. Or they
22:28
Speaker 2: come back and decide they're going to try to impose
22:30
Speaker 2: their will on this on everyone. Certainly their original plans
22:35
Speaker 2: don't lower costs. That's why I was like people are
22:38
Speaker 2: going to see through this. They're not going to elect
22:40
Speaker 2: these guys because it's not going to lower costs. But
22:43
Speaker 2: here we are. They're in office, and we'll see if
22:45
Speaker 2: we can get them to adopt a more sane policy approach.
22:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, in a sane world, the Democrats would be cheering
22:52
Speaker 1: the fact that the war drove the price of gas up. Hey,
22:54
Speaker 1: he delivered on what we couldn't achieve legislatively, although Biden
22:57
Speaker 1: did manage to make the price of gas go up
22:59
Speaker 1: more than it is currently. Congressman Warren Davidson, I certainly
23:02
Speaker 1: appreciate your willingness to kind of freeform where we're going.
23:06
Speaker 1: It's just an open book, unwritten. The future is certainly
23:09
Speaker 1: unwritten along these lines. We'll see what the Democrats do,
23:11
Speaker 1: and we will see what the Republicans do in response.
23:13
Speaker 1: And we always have you, Congressman Warren Davidson, to provide
23:15
Speaker 1: some light on what's going on. And I know my
23:18
Speaker 1: listeners appreciate it, and I certainly do. We'll talk again
23:20
Speaker 1: very soon, I hope.
23:22
Speaker 2: It's always a joy to spend time with you, Brian.
23:24
Speaker 2: Thank you, and God bless you and all your listeners.
23:26
Speaker 1: And thank you, and congratulations again, and thank all of
23:29
Speaker 1: the voters for Congressman Warren Davids for doing the right thing.
23:32
Speaker 1: We'll talk again soon. Have a wonderful week.