Democracy. Front row seat to democracy. Serves as politics editor at the washington examiner. Good morning. Your recent piece took a look at the contrast between how President Biden approached this Campaign Season and how President Trump approached it. Could you compare and contrast those . Guest President Biden cut a low profile on the campaign trial. He was active, but he tended to go to bluer states, states where democrats found themselves in surprisingly competitive races but were still favored to win. The big exception to that, the one swing state where he did make a lot of appearances was pennsylvania. John fetterman, because of his medical condition, was in need of Campaign Surrogates than some of the other Senate Candidates for candidates. The president usually made an official appearance where he would talk about some initiative of the administration, trying to tout the benefits for that state, area, city. Then there would be a more or less closeddoor Democratic NationalCommittee Reception where you do actual campaigning. All of that is covered by the press. He could still get his message out there, but in cases where the candidate would not and if it much from a photo op, there was not one, which is a contrast with donald trump. He was on the campaign trail for candidates a lot, maybe not spending much money on them, but certainly lending his appearance for them. The white house defended the current president s approach by saying when donald trump and barack obama held a lot of rallies for their candidates during the Midterm Election cycles, those elections did not go well for their party. Under trump, republicans lost 40 seats. Under barack obama, in his first midterm, 63 house seats. They viewed it is they were not repeating a strategy that had failed for the previous two president s. It looks like that went well. Come in a of cases ended up upstaging candidates he was supportive. There were rumors when he did his last rally for j. D. Vance that he was going to announce his did for the presidency that night. Even though he did not do that, that ended up being the headline. Bidens lowkey approach, which suited him well in the president ial campaign and worked well during the summer when they had their flurry of legislative action after a period where they had a lot of difficulty getting things passed, that lowkey approach worked well. He knows when to get out of the way. Host when it comes to the end result, what do you think was the main cause for the republicans showing and the democrats doing as well as they did . Guest independents did not shift as heavily toward republicans as expected and was seen in public. Polling, instead, they split down the middle, slight republican. Republicans were hoping that they would get a big advantage with independents. President biden is not popular with independents, but the big difference maker work voters who only somewhat disapproved of the president. They did vote for republican candidates such as brian kemp of georgia but they split amongst trumpendorsed candidates who were more controversial. Herschel walker ended up not carrying those voters even though brian kemp did. That was a difference in some of those races. Younger voters had heavier turnout then some polling indicated, but the structural disadvantage republicans have is they have difficulty energizing their own base and motivating swing voters at the same time. That is predated President Trump and has been at least a decade in the making. They have won some elections over that decade but also lost some. Not being able to get swing voters or getting their base enthusiastic enough to turnout. Host if you want to participate, 202 7488000 for 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488002 for independents. Heres a bit of what he had to say. When republicans knew what leadership has done since last year and our candidates have to be frustrated when Republican Leadership caves in on the debt ceiling, the gun belt, a fake infrastructure bill, we make it difficult for our candidates. We have to do it Stephen Miller said, give people something we hope to get done and fight for. That is what we do in florida. I did it as governor. That is why we have big wins in florida. We stand for something. Host that was rick scott. What do you think . Guest republicans have difficulty keeping the base engaged at the same time as they make overtures to swing voters. They have had some big election wins in the decade since the republican governing class has had difficulty maintaining the confidence level of the base, which ultimately culminated in the nomination of donald trump, this crisis of confidence in the republican establishment. They do not have credibility with rankandfile republican voters. That said, you saw some conservative candidates who were not for any of the things that senator scott just mentioned, you saw them at some trouble closing the deal in these races. They were competitive. Republicans were competitive in the number of races, but it is one of those things where we were expecting a red great red wave. It was expected that a lot of republicans would win by small margins. You only need to underperform somewhat in order to get that election results. That is what happened. A lot of us expected that most truly Competitive Senate races would go to republicans. They would either sweep those races or only lose one or two but a split that split them. They held in wisconsin, ohio, north carolina, went to a runoff in georgia, but they lost in pennsylvania and did not have pickups in nevada and arizona. You ended up with something closer to a 5050 senate, maybe 5149 based on the georgia runoff. We saw the same thing in the house. They should in the next day or so clinch the house majority, but the fact that it is a week afterward and we still do not know who controls the house for certain shows how much they underwhelmed. Host the Senate Majority and the house, what does it mean for Kevin Mccarthy as far as strategy and we heard a lot about what they want to do economically. Do those things stick . Guest they should be able to do investigations that they want. A more positive governing agenda becomes difficult because you are dependent on different factions within the House Republican caucus. The Freedom Caucus becomes important. Maybe even some of the surviving moderates House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy legs john like john boehner is going to have to do a lot of navigating to keep the conference together. When they thought they might have 230 seats, he had more margin for error. Now he is not an will probably face some kind of challenge for speaker. Youve got to forget your way to 218 your majority is hovering around 218 figure out your way to 218 when your majority is hovering around 218. Joe biden is not likely to sign many bills out of the republican house. The senate is closely divided. Republicans will still be able to filibuster most legislation. Republicans holding the house means that reconciliation, the main way they were getting around filibusters to past weeks ending bills, is effectively off the table. Not much can happen aside from 2020 for messaging. Over the next couple of years the big thing for the president retaining the senate is viewed should be able to fill vacant seats in the cabinet and dish area as long as he can get unanimous democratic support. Host brenda, pennsylvania, democrats line. Caller i wanted to talk about Donald TrumpsCampaign Strategy. His strategy in 2016 was to spend months condemning the Electoral College at rally after rally, he called the Electoral College a rigged system. It was unfair, should be done away with one person, one vote. His supporters jumped on the bandwagon. They called for the Electoral College to be done away with. They were complaining so loudly that washington journal actually had at least one colin showed dedicated to that topic. Every republican caller said the Electoral College was rigged and should be done away with. Days before the election, donald trump said that if crooked Hillary Clinton gets in the white house by the rigged, unfair Electoral College system, i am not sure i will accept the results. After all of that, when donald trump got in the white house by the rigged system that he condemned, Hillary Clinton graciously conceded. His Campaign Strategy in 2020 was to cast doubt on that election before a single vote was cast. He trashed mailin ballots and encouraged his supporters to vote in person. Mailin ballot thing was fraudulent and great that the same and rigged and at the same time, his postmaster general decided in december of 2020 that that was a good time to start dismantling and discarding mail sorting machines. Host that brings us to this potential announcement tonight. Guest it was central to their Campaign Strategy in 2016 and 20 trying to win the Electoral College. I have ever seen a National Campaign more than the Trump Reelection Campaign that was so focused on battleground states. It is an Electoral College based system, but most National Campaigns have operated on the premise that as long as they are covering their bases and the battleground states, if they win the national vote, they expect they will be fine in the Electoral College. It was clear that the Trump Reelection Campaign was placing all of its efforts on pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, georgia, arizona and ultimately into georgia, arizona, wisconsin, those were the states that decided the election. Trump ended up really losing in the Electoral College by 43,000 votes in those states, winning by 70,000 in the three states in 2016. Clearly, that was a big part of their strategy. Tonight, he is expected to get in for the third time. It is going to be an interesting dynamic. He has survived january 6 politically. He has survived the molar investigation, survived the access hollywood tape. The former president is more resilient in the face of adversity than any candidate i can remember, but he also creates more adversity than a typical candidate. He is talented he is like a talented but interception prone quarterback. He toys keeps both teams in the game. That has historically been true, but after the midterms and after his attacks on other, upandcoming republicans, are people tired of him . Host bill from texas, republican light. Line. Caller i am going to be opinionated. With the next three president s, they will beat tom, desantis, and then nikki haley they will be trump, desantis, and then nikki haley. A plane goes down every day filled with youngsters on this fentanyl situation. Fentanyl is killing our young people. Get with it. Worry about you all day uvalde later. I have great empathy for the people of uvalde, but think about all the people in that plane that goes down every day with 300, usually young people who for some reason get hooked into that deal. Host that is built from texas. He talked about trump, desantis and nikki haley. Lets talk about desantis. You wrote recently that the president needs to not use the strategy he used against jeb bush towards ron desantis. Guest one of the big things that broke trump out of the pack is that he made jeb bush a foil of his. He encouraged him to go after him in debates. It reinforced a lot of what trump was saying about the republican establishment in week, not effective fighters, not representative of the base. Bush represented dynastic politics, a point of view on immigration that was not popular with the base at that time, that was associated with failures in iraq. Trump was trying to differentiate himself from that and bush was past his prime. Bush, at one point, jeb bush, many thought he would eat president rather than his brother. That did not happen, largely because he did not win in florida in 1994. George w was by 1999 a twoterm governor and his brother was not , but jeb bush had been out of office, was resting on the campaign trail and was a good punching bag for trump. Not sure the same strategy works for ron desantis, incumbent governor, coming off a landslide reelection win and a very popular figure among that only republicans in general, but among the same size of the republican electorate that has spent close to trump navy you could analogize a bit to ted cruz who was also popular with the base at the time and trump had success taking him down. But this is the first time trump has tried to go after an ascendant figure who appeals to his own supporters in the same way without an argument other than i endorsed this guy in 20 and he owes me. I am not sure that that is great for the former president. I cannot think it will have the same effect as when he went after jeb bush. Host laurie, ohio, independent line. Caller i heard a couple of times how Hillary Clinton conceded. Yes, she did concede, but lets not forget what happened in the primary with bernie sanders. I voted for bernie, but i knew he was never going to get near the oval office. I knew that would never happen that would not be allowed cuts he because he cares about the people. Yes, she conceded, but we went on about how russia, russia and trump and i cannot stand trump polluted with pu coal looted with putin. That is a lie. People believe it and they beat the drums and now we have a proxy war going on between us and ukraine and russia, which putin had no right to invade, but there is a lot of history there. And a lot of people do not know it and they are just waiting their blue and gold flecks. I feel bad for the people of ukraine, but the bottom line is politics probably about a third of the population is really engaged. We have a twoparty system that is correct. They are really friends. It is just kabuki theater. They are not kidding me or a lot lot of people. I do not believe that a letter people who voted for bernie turned and voted for trump. Host any reaction . Guest a lot there. If you look at every residential election since 2000, with the expression exception of 2008 and 2012, where you had the birther conspiracy which is a roundabout way of contesting the legitimacy of the election. There have been some activists questioning the results of the election. George w. Bush selected there was a Smaller Group of people that raised questions about Voting Machines in ohio in 2004. The role of russia in 2016, Hillary Clinton saying that donald trump was not the legitimate president. None of their supporters attacked the capitol, but we were headed down the road of questioning of election results. That can lead to a dangerous place. It did lead to a dangerous place. We have seen a steady escalation. So far in the Midterm Elections we have not seen right as much of that. We will have to see what happens with kari lake in arizona, but by and large, republicans in close races have conceded when they have lost. Stacey then, trump as he tries to sort of make a comeback against figures who are not ready to overtake him but at least he would be threatening to do that as a large portion of the Republican Base and certainly most of the republican governing class is going to look elsewhere for leadership. Host President Biden is embolden second term do you think that is . Joe biden has been running for president consistently since 1987 it, that is a long time, most people run for president or aspire to be president for as long as joe biden never get it. The stations around the world are a trivia action and historically we treat them as a punchline. Joe biden got elected. I think it is going to be difficult for him to walk away from it even though it was closer to 90 than 80 that is uncharted territory before 70th birthday in president body took office before 70th birthday. We are in uncharted territory, a lot of democrats, that is a lot of democrats really wanted generational change in leadership because the leadership in the party but the congressional leadership is very old. The democrats view themselves with some justification to the young party and that is not reflected in that leadership, if you look at the exit polls and the election were democrats did a lot better than expected a lot of people dont want President Biden to run again but the bottomline results of that election should he want to and i think he does, he has signaled he will run as long as he is his health is what it is now, i think it would be very hard for somebody to dislodge him. Its less attractive to watch a primary challenger against him than it was two days before the Midterm Elections when things look like it was going to be a democratic disaster. So, even though i think the underlying sentiment of wanting to move on is still there, it is going to be a harder argument to make and i think biden is in a good position should he want to try to win it renomination. Host for jim mantel, this is edna from chicago, democrats line. Caller good morning, pedro. I would like to say i had five uncles will serve this country, all at the same time. Between 1940 and 1945. They volunteer, they were drafted. They served our country and they came back, thank god they are gone today. I dont know why all americans are so behind a man who has stirred up so much hatred in this country. My grandfather had a thing, the hate is so thick in this country you can cut it with a knife. That is bad. Trump is not fit to clean the toilets in the white house, wake up people. We have a right to vote. We never had a problem with voting, until trump came along. Why are the people who are in power allowing this man to destroy our country. Thank you for taking my call. Guest the fact that trump is such a polarizing figure is going to feature very proudly and republican decisionmaking about who to be the 2024 nominee. And perhaps especially after Midterm Elections to make big gains. But not really having no bearing on what happened in the president ial election two years later it was precentral to how the democratic incumbents adjusted and positioned themselves for reelection. In the case of the clinton that there was a course correction and he moved himself somewhat to the center, he worked with republicans in congress, both gains tax cut, welfare reform which had been a Key Campaign Promise of his in 1992 with barack obama i thought it was different. I think obama moved away from the no red states, all one america rhetoric and decided to join the side he was on. It was a polarized country. It is a polarized country. He represented when specific pole. He decided to take on that leadership role of that half of america against congressional republicans. Even though there was some compromise between the two, mostly it was a very adversarial relationship. Joe bidens position to do a bit of both, but democrats and the president do not see there being a need for a course correction. For republicans, the question is do you want to nominate a polarizing candidate against somebody who has already got problems with the fundamentals in terms of their popularity . Or would a fresher face give you a better chance . Host from north carolina, republican line marcy. ,go ahead and you are next up. Caller i do not think the American People know what is going on in the country. For 50 years, the Republican Party has been the go along, get along party and the democrats have taken over schools, the news media, social media, government control. Then we elected the president who said it is time to put america first. We had a president who said americans were smart enough to run their own lives and quit depending on the government to run their lives, take charge of yourself, america first. The swamp is losing their control and they do not like it. When i was growing up, my brother who is two years older than me would pick on me and i would go along with it. When i had finally had enough, i fought back