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Navigating the USA Political Landscape with Joe Walsh · Kvetch & Release

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, we're back.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: John Lecky Am eight hundred CKLW Windsor, Ontario.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Ten thirty three.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Hey, we're going to keep our conversations about the United
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: States going right now.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: How could we not.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: It is a presidential election year, it is an important one.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: We are going to keep an eye and see how
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: things evolve. We've got a new report right now coming
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: out that President Trump in the past couple weeks has
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: reportedly in private called Vice President Kamala Harris a quote
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: bitch in private, which is not the most parliamentary language.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I suppose joining me right now to discuss this in
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: the state of the election and the tone of things
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: and what's going to happen is someone who understands it
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: having been involved in it himself.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Forkner.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Congressman Joe Walsh joins me right now, Hey, how you doing.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: It's so good to be with you, isn't it something?
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Think about this, the world's greatest, oldest democracy and this
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: utterly horrible human being has a chance to be president again.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: It tells you where America is right now. We're in trouble.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: It's entertaining for us here in Canada to watch it
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: from the sidelines, I suppose, Joe, but it's also concerning
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, a father of our current
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Prime minister Justin said that, you know, living next to
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: the United States, it's like being in bed with an elephant.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: No matter how small the move is, you're still being shaken.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: By it, right, I mean, we are the world's leader.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: I think this is no disrespect to Canada. I think
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: this has always been the greatest, freest place on earth.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: But I think the world needs to understand that America
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: for a while now has been going through a real
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: revolutionary period. And I was saying this before Trump got
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: elected the first time, went back when I was in Congress.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: I don't know that America can keep it together, can
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: stay together. I don't know that all fifty states can
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: stay together. And we're seeing a lot of that play
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: out right now.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: You know, it's concerning, And again it's ripe for late
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: night television, which I supposedly returning soon now that the
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Olympics are over. But I honestly I don't like it
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: as funny as it is to hear that. You know,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Trump called Kamala Harris a bitch, and it makes for
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: funny conversation. It's not great. It doesn't show that the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: state of discourse is good. It doesn't show that there
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: is respect for the opposing party. It doesn't, I think,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: in my opinion, show that the linkages that so many
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: hope you keep people together exist anymore.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: We're I've said this a bunch and others have said
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: it as well. We have not been this divided as
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: a people. I'm speaking about America. We haven't been midivided
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: since just before the Civil War one hundred and fifty
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: sixty years ago. It is that serious, and it is
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: that dire. Trump, by the way, didn't create this. He's
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: just an ugly outgrowth of how divided and broken our
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: politics are. But you're seeing this play out in a
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: number of countries around the world. Obviously it's very high
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: profile in America because we're such a big player. But
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: we're broken right now, very much so.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Well, it seems that way, and the world right now
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: is you know, we were going to talk about a
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: few other things in regards to the campaign, but you
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: know what, I want to just go with this right now, Joe,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: if you don't mind with me, and I know that
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: you're able to play improv with me off your feet here.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: The state of the world is really difficult. We've got
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: war in Ukraine continuing because of Russia. We've got Middle
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: East crisis between Hamas and Israel and Iran's proxies. The
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: world needs, in my opinion, at least as I think,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: a strong America. And I I worry that even though
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump is you know, very much full of bluster
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: and strength, it was a lot more unstable underneath him.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: And I don't know what the state of things would
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: be like under a new Trump administration.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: And I say this as a former congressman who was
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: not a Neocon, meaning I've never been someone who wants
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: America policing the world and having our troops everywhere. I'm
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: generally more of, you know, have a strong defense and
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: defend democracy, but we don't fight warse everywhere. Donald Trump
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: is a reaction to America doing too much around the world,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: and he represents a mindset in America which is, screw it.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: America shouldn't be a leader. Get out of NATO. Let
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: Europe take care of themselves. If China invades Taiwan, screw it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Let China take Taiwan. Putin invades Ukraine, screw it. Let
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Putin take Ukraine. Trump reflects that thinking, and it's a
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: major part of my former political party, the Republican Party's base.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: He reflects that, I think that's dangerous to the extreme.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: See I'm not going to speak for you at all,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: but I listen. I know where you come from, your background,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: and how your thoughts are. You know, far more libertarian
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: than the traditional Republican Party as a whole. But I
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: think that you would agreement with me in the sense
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: of I don't want the US going and getting involved
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: in every foreign geopolitical conflict that exists.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I don't think that that's the role. But I also
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: don't want to.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Be sleep walking into preventable outcomes or necessarily into a
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: far much broader geopolitical, you know, World war type situation.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: And that's what the US has quite frankly been able
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: to help us avoid globally.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: And you're right, and so Trump has been these past
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: eight or nine years a dangerous, you know, reaction to
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: the perception that, Okay, America, we've been a little too
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: overstretched and a little too involved. But it's not an
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: exaggeration to say if Trump were president back when Putin
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: invaded Ukraine, America would not have done what we've done
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: the past three years, leading a worldwide coalition against Putin.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Trump wouldn't have done that. When Trump says, if I'm
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: re elected, I'll get us out of NATO and screw it,
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Ukraine's on their own, Trump means that, and he will
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: try to do that. That's unbelievably frightening for the rest
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: of the world, and it's wrong.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: So when you look at the state of affairs and
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: the state of your country right now as a whole,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: do you ever think you know what I need to
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: get back into it. I want to go and run
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: and be able to affect things from the inside. Or
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: are you done with it? And the commentating is the
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: better side for you?
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Now?
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: I'm bored to hell commentating. I hate it and I
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: love but I always loved doing what you're doing now
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: outside of being in Congress. Having my own talk radio
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: show is just a guess. Talk radio is still the best. No, no, no.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: So I ran against Trump in twenty twenty. That was
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: a hopeless task, and then I left the Republican Party.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: I'm not a Democrat. I'm kind of like a lot
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: of Americans right now, I'm politically homeless. I'm an independent
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: in this country with two major parties. It's hard to
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: get elected right now if you're not part of one
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: of those two parties. So I would love to run again.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: I don't have a team right now, but I think
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: this is part of what's changing in America. I think
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: you're going to see a third or a fourth party.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: I think you're going to see independence running. I think
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: we're in for a lot of reform after this election, hopefully.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I think that that would be great to see and
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: probably necessary, some kind of a renewal under refresh, and
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: there is an appetite for listen. We've got a multi
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: party system up here in Canada, right And I look
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: to the US and I just I couldn't imagine being
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: politically agnostic in the way that you describe it and
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: going I look to the left and I don't want
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: to go there. And I look to the right and
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: I don't want to go there. But there's no space
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: for me to operate here in the middle. It must
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: it seems like it's just an operation and spinning your
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: wheels right now.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Quite frankly, my.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Friend, it's a one hundred and sixty eight year old
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: two party duopoly that we've had in this country. And
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: I know you know this. A lot of the rest
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: of the world doesn't know this. We have fifty states,
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: and each state party runs their thing. Each state, by
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: the way, is in charge of running our elections in
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: this country, which is why our election process is often
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: very messy. But the two parties, Republicans and Democrats, over
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: the last one hundred years, have made it almost impossible
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: for another political party to even enter the fray. But
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: I do think we're at a point right now where
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: most Americans now identify as independent. I think you're going
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: to see big, big, big money go toward another party
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: or something else again next year after this selection.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Well, something's got to break.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: It feels like it's a bit of a fever pitch
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: right now, just the back and forth and the back
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: and the forth. And we watch it here again from Canada.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: As I said, it's more of a sport for US
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: and entertainment, but it does actually it has very real ramifications.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: What's good for the US is good for Canada in
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: most cases, and what's good for the US is usually
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: good for the world. We can have disagreements about specific
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: policies and whatnot.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: But hey, you've got the front row to it.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: You're there, and we're gonna definitely come back to you
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: to talk with you more about this at another time.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: And hey, if you ever do decide to run and
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: you want some kind of outsider perspective, give up your
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Canadian a phone call here and I'd love to join
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: the team.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Deal. Consider that done. Excellent for speaking again, thanks my friend.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Joe Walsh is a former congressman in the United States.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Uh, we're gonna take a quick break right now. We
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: want to know what your thoughts are. Five one nine
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: seven nine two c KLW. That's the number to call
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: or text. We'll be back right after this