Juno News - February 27, 2020


Kangaroo Courts, Grooming Gang Coverups and American Socialism (feat. Michael Steele)


Episode Stats

Length

42 minutes

Words per Minute

166.96664

Word Count

7,081

Sentence Count

340

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

11


Summary

A Human Rights Commission says you don t have the right to fire a convicted pedophile, the British government puts political correctness above the rule of law, and could a national popular vote save American conservatism? The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.
00:00:06.760 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
00:00:12.740 Coming up, a human rights commission says you don't have the right to fire a convicted pedophile,
00:00:17.480 the British government puts political correctness above the rule of law,
00:00:21.020 and could a national popular vote save American conservatism?
00:00:25.080 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.
00:00:33.640 Hey everyone, welcome along to another edition of the Andrew Lawton Show here on the front lines of freedom,
00:00:40.740 or so we like to think sometimes.
00:00:42.820 Although today, very much so against the freedom killers that exist in government right now.
00:00:51.060 Not letting you fire someone for being a convicted pedophile.
00:00:55.160 This is not where I thought the freedom frontier would lead us, but it's where we are right now.
00:00:59.820 A decision from the Manitoba Human Rights Commission has found that you are not allowed to discriminate
00:01:06.340 against someone on the basis of them being convicted of heinous sexual crimes against children.
00:01:13.120 Now this really comes back to a University of Manitoba case,
00:01:17.000 where a man who's only identified as AB was fired after the university learned that he had been convicted of touching two children for a sexual purpose,
00:01:27.880 and also of making child pornography.
00:01:30.420 He served jail time, and he's got a lifetime ban from places where children under the age of 14 are likely to be present.
00:01:37.880 So the university fired the man and restricted his access to completing his education at the university.
00:01:44.680 It sounds like he had some agreement where tuition was part of him as employment or something like that.
00:01:51.340 I don't know for sure.
00:01:52.480 But we do know that he launched a complaint in 2015, but the university objected because they said,
00:01:59.220 you know what, you do not have the right to not be discriminated against based on your criminal record under Manitoba law, which is true.
00:02:07.320 But here's where it gets tricky, because he went to the Human Rights Commission,
00:02:12.460 which has now granted him the right to contest his firing.
00:02:16.300 So it doesn't sound like he's been immediately reinstated just yet.
00:02:19.920 But they've said that they will accept the complaint because this is, I think, the most egregious part of this.
00:02:27.260 The adjudicator of this panel, who's a government appointment,
00:02:31.900 says that criminal records are not specifically listed in the Human Rights Code,
00:02:36.940 but it should be protected by the code.
00:02:41.220 So you've got two injustices here.
00:02:43.080 You've got, on one hand, the fact that a child pornographer and convicted pedophile
00:02:48.020 apparently is owed an employer that's going to overlook these facts about him.
00:02:53.840 But also you've got these unelected bureaucrats in the Human Rights Kangaroo Court system
00:02:59.920 that are openly saying, you know what, this is not in the law,
00:03:03.480 but we wish it were in the law,
00:03:05.640 so we're going to act as though it is.
00:03:08.080 And that's insane.
00:03:09.280 I mean, imagine if a judge were, and don't get me wrong,
00:03:11.820 I have my fair share of issues with judges sometimes,
00:03:14.460 but if judges were to say, you know, we think this should be illegal,
00:03:18.280 so we're going to prosecute you as though it is illegal.
00:03:22.200 And you're like, well, hang on, I broke a law that isn't actually on the books.
00:03:25.920 So they're pointing to the fact that other jurisdictions in Canada have a prohibition
00:03:32.400 on discrimination based on criminal record, but Manitoba doesn't.
00:03:37.300 And for that matter, the university has said its issue is not that someone has a criminal record.
00:03:42.980 I don't think they'd have an issue with a guy who, you know,
00:03:45.720 maybe stole a pack of gum from the variety store a few years ago.
00:03:49.460 So they're saying that children are on that campus all the time,
00:03:53.480 minors are on the campus,
00:03:54.660 and they don't think that someone who is a convicted child pornographer
00:03:58.560 is necessarily the kind of guy you'd want around these children on a day-to-day basis,
00:04:03.980 which seems like a pretty reasonable proposition to me.
00:04:08.800 Now, look, I am a firm believer in second chances.
00:04:12.020 I'm a firm believer in forgiveness.
00:04:13.580 I'm also a believer in the right to freedom of association.
00:04:18.180 That includes for businesses to have the freedom to determine,
00:04:22.080 hmm, maybe we do not want a guy convicted of kiddie porn on our campus.
00:04:28.640 And this does not seem to be unreasonable.
00:04:31.860 Why are you denied the right to make that call?
00:04:35.280 And this is why human rights commissions and human rights tribunals across the world
00:04:40.680 are so dangerous because they oftentimes put this victim mentality
00:04:46.480 as being the primary role of importance that you could have in your life to be a victim.
00:04:52.360 And this trumps anyone's free speech rights.
00:04:54.980 This trumps anyone's freedom of association.
00:04:57.160 This trumps all of these other factors.
00:04:59.540 If you can say, no, no, no, I'm a victim of discrimination.
00:05:02.180 That's the most powerful thing that you can be in 2020.
00:05:06.360 So here's a guy who is facing so-called discrimination
00:05:12.880 because a campus decided this guy should not work here.
00:05:19.100 And they've now invented a new provision in law, which now is precedent.
00:05:25.660 This is now the precedent.
00:05:26.900 Now anyone else who goes through this can say,
00:05:29.080 ah, but in this case, you know, Manitoba versus AB
00:05:32.360 or University of Manitoba versus AB,
00:05:34.820 they've determined that this is now the way things go.
00:05:39.520 This is not a real court.
00:05:41.820 These are not real judges.
00:05:43.600 These are not real adjudicators.
00:05:45.260 These human rights bureaucrats are the same people
00:05:47.820 that went after Ezra Levant and Mark Stein
00:05:51.020 and the same type of people that have gone after
00:05:54.500 those who say things they don't like
00:05:58.060 because this is what the regime allows them to do.
00:06:01.680 It allows you to set a standard
00:06:04.120 that is lower than any criminal threshold,
00:06:07.400 but high enough that these bureaucracy,
00:06:09.740 these kangaroo court bureaucrats can go after you.
00:06:13.400 And people have to stop empowering these things.
00:06:16.200 Governments have to stop giving them legitimacy.
00:06:18.820 All of the people that sit on these panels
00:06:20.820 are appointed by the government of the day.
00:06:23.940 And in Manitoba, this is a conservative government
00:06:26.620 that's appointed at least some,
00:06:28.820 perhaps all of the adjudicators on this panel.
00:06:31.740 Same as the BC Human Rights Tribunal,
00:06:34.760 the Ontario Human Rights Commission,
00:06:36.260 the Canadian Human Rights Commission,
00:06:37.960 all of these human rights commissions
00:06:39.900 that have prosecuted people on so-called hate speech,
00:06:44.260 they have been appointed by politicians.
00:06:46.660 And in many cases, conservative politicians
00:06:48.960 who, despite saying the right things on free speech,
00:06:51.900 haven't actually done anything about this regulatory regime
00:06:55.680 that allows them to target,
00:06:59.200 that allows governments to target people
00:07:01.340 on the grounds of speech.
00:07:04.040 And I don't know where this is going to go moving forward.
00:07:06.640 I mean, the whole point that I thought we were past this
00:07:10.060 was when the Wax My Balls case in British Columbia happened,
00:07:13.800 when Jessica Yaniv or Jonathan Yaniv,
00:07:17.440 Jessica, a.k.a. Jonathan, or Jonathan, a.k.a. Jessica,
00:07:21.080 was demanding that all of these waxing parlors
00:07:24.280 were waxing her testicles.
00:07:27.360 And her testicles, as I believe Mark Stein had said,
00:07:30.720 are two words you don't expect to hear together,
00:07:32.780 but demanding that all of these different waxing parlors
00:07:37.080 and independent people waxing in their home,
00:07:39.780 demanding that they wax her testicles.
00:07:42.540 And the result of this was the Human Rights Tribunal saying,
00:07:47.340 okay, we kind of think you're trying to weaponize this.
00:07:51.020 We think that you're going too far.
00:07:52.940 And this didn't even strike a blow
00:07:56.460 to the end of these commissions.
00:07:58.540 This was not enough to put an end
00:08:01.000 to the extraordinary power that these commissions have
00:08:03.900 over individual people's lives.
00:08:06.180 This was just an anomaly.
00:08:07.820 Oh, okay, well, yeah, I mean, that was bad.
00:08:09.600 But no, no, no, there's real anti-discrimination work
00:08:12.060 that's being done by these commissions, folks.
00:08:13.900 And we've got to keep them going.
00:08:15.440 And we've got to keep giving them all this power
00:08:17.380 and all this license.
00:08:18.720 So I don't know if AB is at all reformed
00:08:23.140 in the sense of having moved beyond the things
00:08:26.520 that got AB arrested, charged, convicted,
00:08:29.480 and imprisoned in the first place.
00:08:31.760 But what I do know is that a vast majority of people
00:08:35.040 would be uncomfortable working alongside someone
00:08:37.660 who is, as a matter of law, a convicted pedophile.
00:08:41.180 And someone would be very unhappy
00:08:43.560 about sending their child to a university
00:08:46.900 knowing that there is going to be a convicted pedophile
00:08:51.740 who is in the staff of the university.
00:08:54.200 And we don't know the job.
00:08:55.660 We don't know if they're a janitor.
00:08:56.960 We don't know if they're a professor, no idea.
00:08:59.820 And it doesn't really matter all that much.
00:09:02.340 For the state to say that employers do not have the right
00:09:05.760 to decide for themselves whether they want to associate
00:09:10.720 with someone like that is for the state to say
00:09:14.360 that you do not have the right in your own life, basically,
00:09:18.120 to set boundaries that will extend
00:09:20.580 to your place of employment if you're an employer.
00:09:23.040 And look, imagine if this were a small business owner.
00:09:26.340 Imagine if this were a little coffee shop owner,
00:09:29.460 not a university that's publicly funded,
00:09:32.160 a coffee shop owner that said,
00:09:33.440 oh, you know what, I'm not comfortable.
00:09:35.280 You know, my child was abused by someone.
00:09:37.800 I'm not comfortable hiring someone who's been convicted
00:09:40.160 of sexually touching children.
00:09:41.880 And the state says, nope, that's discrimination.
00:09:45.300 You can't do that.
00:09:46.240 You cannot say that.
00:09:48.220 It would be horrible.
00:09:49.760 And oftentimes, the people that lose the most
00:09:52.220 to these human rights bureaucracy kangaroo courts
00:09:55.540 are people that don't have the means to fight back.
00:09:58.960 I'm not sympathetic with the University of Manitoba
00:10:01.920 because I care about the University of Manitoba.
00:10:04.900 I'm sure it's a fine place.
00:10:06.340 I don't know anything about it.
00:10:07.760 The reality is I'm concerned about the precedent
00:10:10.760 that this decision by the Manitoba Human Rights Commission
00:10:14.260 is setting, given that all of these government agencies
00:10:17.780 in Canada like to look to each other,
00:10:20.020 which is what happened here.
00:10:21.200 Manitoba said, oh, well, we see other provinces
00:10:23.200 are doing this, so we're gonna do this now.
00:10:25.520 And then another province is gonna look to Manitoba
00:10:27.720 and say, oh, oh, okay, well,
00:10:29.160 they've protected this guy's rights
00:10:30.900 and he's a convicted pedophile,
00:10:32.280 so we're going to now try to do this ourself.
00:10:35.300 And eventually, you've got these unelected adjudicators
00:10:39.200 passing things into law
00:10:41.540 that were never actually passed into law by anyone elected
00:10:44.540 because they've decided to read meaning into these things
00:10:48.940 that was never put there by legislators.
00:10:52.660 And look, I would love, I mean,
00:10:53.760 not that I would like it if legislators put it there,
00:10:55.900 but at least you'd have the ability to oppose it
00:10:58.740 if someone that you could vote out of office put it in
00:11:01.660 versus someone that most people have never heard of,
00:11:04.220 are never going to hear of,
00:11:05.860 and someone that no one can get rid of.
00:11:08.540 I mean, the people here, you can't vote out
00:11:11.540 if you're a taxpayer,
00:11:12.620 if you're a citizen that cares about this.
00:11:14.620 These people are,
00:11:15.620 and I don't like using the term deep state excessively,
00:11:18.900 but these are the people that are there
00:11:20.660 regardless of who's in power
00:11:22.600 because no one throws them out.
00:11:24.500 People just give them complete free reign
00:11:26.440 to do whatever they want.
00:11:28.160 And you have to say no,
00:11:30.220 not just for the immediate implications
00:11:32.160 of not being able to say,
00:11:34.340 I do not trust a pedophile,
00:11:36.440 but for the broader implications
00:11:38.920 of I do not want the government telling me
00:11:41.000 who I can or cannot hire
00:11:43.340 and imposing the heavy arm of the state's power
00:11:48.720 on me to make the determination
00:11:51.160 that the government wants me to make,
00:11:53.180 which is rarely going to be the right decision, folks.
00:11:55.740 It's rarely going to be the good call
00:11:57.640 when the government's the one making it.
00:11:59.940 In any case, we've got to take a break.
00:12:01.960 When we come back, more of The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:12:04.160 Stay tuned.
00:12:04.640 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:12:14.500 Welcome back to the show.
00:12:16.580 You may remember it was about a year ago,
00:12:19.140 maybe a year and a half ago,
00:12:20.300 I sat down with Tommy Robinson in the United Kingdom.
00:12:24.120 Tommy Robinson being now a former candidate
00:12:27.220 in the UKIP for the European Parliament
00:12:30.400 and ultimately someone who was subjected
00:12:34.300 to that heavy arm of the state
00:12:36.780 that I mentioned earlier
00:12:37.940 for daring to speak out against an issue
00:12:40.640 that the government was ignoring.
00:12:43.360 Tommy Robinson was,
00:12:44.700 for a great period of time
00:12:46.140 in the last several years,
00:12:47.560 the only voice speaking up
00:12:49.740 about the grooming gangs across the UK,
00:12:53.440 other parts of Europe as well,
00:12:54.740 but in particular the UK
00:12:56.340 that were predominantly Pakistani Muslim men
00:13:00.500 targeting girls, young women,
00:13:04.180 raping them, trafficking them,
00:13:06.500 kidnapping them,
00:13:07.360 the whole operation that was happening
00:13:09.900 under the nose of police,
00:13:12.780 politicians, other law enforcements.
00:13:15.440 And Tommy Robinson was the guy
00:13:17.180 that was saying,
00:13:17.800 you know what,
00:13:18.120 we're not putting up with this anymore.
00:13:19.680 Rough around the edges, sure.
00:13:21.160 But the only guy standing up for these people
00:13:24.540 and ultimately working to expose them.
00:13:26.860 Now, you fast forward to where we are now.
00:13:31.780 Tommy Robinson was thrown in jail
00:13:33.700 for contempt of court
00:13:35.020 because the state didn't like
00:13:37.020 that he was filming and commenting
00:13:39.200 outside a courtroom on this case
00:13:41.580 that the mainstream media was virtually ignoring.
00:13:44.560 And you also look at how even now,
00:13:48.320 even now that people know
00:13:49.940 these things have happened,
00:13:51.680 people know some of the names
00:13:53.020 of those involved,
00:13:54.020 people have seen some justice be served,
00:13:56.440 the government is still trying to keep this shut.
00:14:01.260 From the UK Independent,
00:14:03.080 grooming gang review kept secret
00:14:05.260 as home office claims releasing findings,
00:14:08.200 quote,
00:14:08.600 not in the public interest, unquote.
00:14:12.340 Now, this is from Lizzie Dearden,
00:14:13.860 who is the home affairs correspondent
00:14:15.840 for the Independent.
00:14:17.520 She says that a freedom of information request
00:14:19.920 was refused so that ministers,
00:14:22.300 cabinet ministers in the UK
00:14:23.560 would have, quote,
00:14:24.900 safe space, unquote,
00:14:27.000 to discuss policy.
00:14:28.740 So they've done the official research
00:14:31.040 on the characteristics of grooming gangs
00:14:33.560 and they're not releasing it.
00:14:35.500 Now, why could that be?
00:14:38.020 What characteristics are they trying to conceal?
00:14:41.600 Well, the fact is,
00:14:42.600 it is not politically correct
00:14:44.240 to talk about the reality of this
00:14:46.220 because it is one particular religious group
00:14:48.620 that is identified as being the culprit
00:14:50.720 in the vast majority of these cases
00:14:52.540 and that is Islam, Muslims.
00:14:55.360 And that's not to say that Muslims are violent,
00:14:57.340 it's not to say that Muslims are rapists,
00:14:58.900 it's to say that these rapists are Muslims
00:15:01.460 and these grooming gangs were Muslims.
00:15:04.260 And police have even conceded, by the way,
00:15:07.580 that the reason these grooming gangs
00:15:09.680 operated with impunity for so long
00:15:11.800 is because they were Muslims
00:15:13.740 and police departments didn't want to be seen
00:15:16.040 as racist or Islamophobic
00:15:18.320 to go in there
00:15:19.220 and start doing anything about it.
00:15:21.280 So it is political correctness
00:15:23.420 that cost so many people
00:15:25.760 their innocence
00:15:26.700 and in many cases, their lives.
00:15:28.780 Political correctness
00:15:30.800 that allowed these things to function
00:15:32.800 for as long as they did.
00:15:34.420 And even now,
00:15:35.960 political correctness is protecting
00:15:38.180 the culprits, the perpetrators.
00:15:42.220 Why is it not in the public interest
00:15:44.400 to have transparency?
00:15:46.080 We're talking about 19,000 victims,
00:15:49.080 at least.
00:15:50.060 19,000 victims that were identified
00:15:52.160 by authorities in just one year.
00:15:54.820 And the Home Secretary of the UK
00:15:56.680 said that there would be
00:15:58.180 no no-go areas of inquiry.
00:16:00.760 This is what Sajid Javid said
00:16:02.700 to the Independent.
00:16:03.560 No no-go areas of inquiry.
00:16:05.540 So everything was going to be open.
00:16:07.220 Everything was going to be transparent.
00:16:09.020 We're going to be able to see all of this
00:16:10.720 and really shine the light on it
00:16:12.660 to identify the problem.
00:16:14.320 And now they're saying,
00:16:15.200 oh, well, you know,
00:16:15.740 we can't release our findings.
00:16:17.500 So why not?
00:16:20.100 What are you afraid of?
00:16:21.920 What are you afraid of?
00:16:23.480 And why is it that those 19,000 victims
00:16:26.520 are less significant to you
00:16:29.780 than the hundreds and thousands
00:16:31.440 of just evil, malignant tumors
00:16:35.240 in society that were behind this?
00:16:39.380 Why are the victims not as important
00:16:41.660 to protect and stand up for
00:16:43.340 as the perpetrators
00:16:45.080 in the eyes of the British government
00:16:47.440 right now?
00:16:48.780 Because this is what he said.
00:16:50.080 I will not let cultural
00:16:51.720 or political sensitivities
00:16:53.240 get in the way of understanding
00:16:54.600 the problem
00:16:55.180 and doing something about it.
00:16:57.540 We know that in these high-profile cases
00:16:59.540 where people convicted
00:17:00.900 have been disproportionately
00:17:02.340 from a Pakistani background.
00:17:05.180 I've instructed my officials
00:17:06.400 to explore the particular context
00:17:08.420 and characteristics
00:17:09.260 of these types of gangs.
00:17:10.940 So they've conceded
00:17:12.040 they know where the problem is.
00:17:13.900 Why then not allow
00:17:15.300 the research to be seen?
00:17:17.700 There's been nothing since then.
00:17:19.220 That was almost two years ago
00:17:20.840 and the government has said
00:17:22.300 absolutely nothing since then.
00:17:24.520 They've given no more details,
00:17:26.140 no more information.
00:17:27.500 This story in The Independent
00:17:28.800 revealed that the paper found
00:17:30.380 the work had been completed
00:17:31.980 but would only be used
00:17:33.740 for internal policy making.
00:17:35.640 Now that means
00:17:36.240 that they have a report
00:17:37.420 that they're just going to bury,
00:17:38.780 shove it a corner
00:17:39.440 and never speak of again.
00:17:41.160 So that if anyone challenges them
00:17:42.780 on not doing anything,
00:17:44.100 they can say,
00:17:44.700 oh no, we spent a year and a half
00:17:46.600 commissioning a significant report on this.
00:17:49.480 Then release it.
00:17:51.320 Release the report.
00:17:52.720 If you don't release the report,
00:17:54.880 you are proving
00:17:55.860 that you actually do care
00:17:58.520 more about political correctness
00:18:00.080 than you do about
00:18:01.620 protecting the rule of law,
00:18:03.200 protecting the integrity
00:18:04.240 of your towns and communities.
00:18:07.000 And my goodness,
00:18:08.220 this is going to be
00:18:09.460 an absolute riot
00:18:11.320 on the hands of the British state
00:18:13.160 if they continue to do
00:18:15.000 exactly what happened
00:18:16.320 up until this point
00:18:17.320 that led to all of those problems
00:18:19.280 with the grooming gangs
00:18:20.300 in the first place.
00:18:21.140 If the government continues
00:18:22.640 to turn a blind eye
00:18:23.880 because of these cultural sensitivities
00:18:26.480 that they said
00:18:27.220 wouldn't play a role in this.
00:18:30.140 And the interesting thing was
00:18:31.820 when this started,
00:18:33.160 I didn't actually go into this.
00:18:36.540 When I started following this case
00:18:38.100 as a cheerleader of Tommy Robinson,
00:18:40.340 in fact, I said
00:18:41.440 I was quite agnostic on him
00:18:43.260 even if I think
00:18:44.400 that there are some problematic parts
00:18:45.920 of things he said in the past.
00:18:47.560 I also recognize
00:18:48.440 that he is
00:18:50.000 in this particular instance
00:18:52.760 being subjected
00:18:54.240 to something
00:18:54.800 that is horribly unfair,
00:18:56.420 horribly unjust
00:18:57.220 and horribly unproductive
00:18:58.880 at the hands of the state.
00:18:59.940 And I actually put my concerns
00:19:01.620 about Tommy right to him
00:19:02.980 and you can go back
00:19:03.700 and listen to that interview
00:19:04.720 if you'd like.
00:19:05.880 And I still remain convinced
00:19:08.600 that it's a travesty
00:19:10.020 what the British government
00:19:11.140 has done to him.
00:19:11.880 He has served more jail time
00:19:14.600 than many of the people
00:19:16.300 responsible for the grooming gangs.
00:19:20.400 And some of them
00:19:21.000 have been thrown away
00:19:21.980 and good riddance to them as well.
00:19:23.700 But there are others
00:19:24.480 that have never,
00:19:25.660 never been captured
00:19:26.740 where cases have not been investigated.
00:19:29.220 And Tommy Robinson
00:19:30.180 has served more time
00:19:31.600 behind bars
00:19:32.820 than many of the people
00:19:34.660 who were kidnapping,
00:19:36.260 raping,
00:19:37.060 and just destroying
00:19:38.960 the lives
00:19:39.800 of young girls,
00:19:41.680 not just young women,
00:19:42.540 young girls
00:19:43.220 across Britain.
00:19:45.940 And the one thing
00:19:47.520 that the government
00:19:48.140 finally did is,
00:19:49.560 okay, we're going to explore this,
00:19:50.920 we're going to do a report,
00:19:51.980 and this is now buried,
00:19:53.600 shelved,
00:19:54.160 never to be spoken of again.
00:19:56.760 And this is supposed
00:19:57.800 to be justice?
00:20:00.700 Political correctness
00:20:01.780 is the closest thing
00:20:02.700 Britain has
00:20:03.300 to a state constitution
00:20:04.760 right now.
00:20:05.280 My goodness.
00:20:06.040 We've got to take a break.
00:20:06.940 When we come back,
00:20:07.580 more of The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:20:09.040 Stay tuned.
00:20:10.900 You're tuned in
00:20:12.000 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:20:15.560 Welcome back, everyone,
00:20:16.740 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:20:18.400 This story,
00:20:19.360 I find,
00:20:19.980 actually quite amusing.
00:20:21.200 So Bernie Sanders
00:20:22.160 did a sit-down
00:20:23.240 with Anderson Cooper
00:20:24.240 on 60 Minutes,
00:20:25.620 and he did the whole
00:20:26.840 Mussolini made the trains
00:20:28.100 run on time thing
00:20:29.020 with Cuba,
00:20:29.660 where he said
00:20:30.160 it was unfair
00:20:31.240 to say that,
00:20:32.820 quote,
00:20:32.900 everything is bad
00:20:34.020 in Cuba,
00:20:34.800 unquote.
00:20:35.540 And he had talked
00:20:36.420 about the literacy campaign
00:20:37.760 that Fidel Castro
00:20:38.720 put in
00:20:39.320 and other things
00:20:40.320 that Cuba has done
00:20:41.460 apparently so well.
00:20:42.620 And he does this
00:20:43.980 just so brazenly.
00:20:45.980 And, you know,
00:20:46.340 for a guy who is
00:20:47.280 the closest thing
00:20:48.440 American political class
00:20:50.300 has had to a communist,
00:20:52.080 at least you can admire
00:20:53.420 that he's so brazen
00:20:54.640 about what he wants
00:20:55.700 and what he wants
00:20:56.720 to implement
00:20:57.220 in the United States.
00:20:59.340 But Bernie Sanders
00:21:00.160 sits down
00:21:00.800 and says out ironically
00:21:01.800 that you can't say
00:21:02.820 Cuba's all bad,
00:21:04.240 conceded that there
00:21:05.180 was an authoritarian
00:21:05.940 nature there,
00:21:08.080 but ultimately said
00:21:09.620 that Cuba
00:21:10.940 has just become
00:21:11.920 such a pillar of success
00:21:13.520 in so many other ways.
00:21:15.080 And what was interesting
00:21:16.260 is that this ended up
00:21:18.160 earning Bernie Sanders
00:21:19.980 not much love
00:21:20.740 in the United States,
00:21:21.620 but he was on the front page
00:21:23.160 of the Cuban newspaper
00:21:24.280 in a favorable way.
00:21:25.940 I might don't speak
00:21:27.000 Spanish at all,
00:21:27.820 but grandma or grant,
00:21:29.340 maybe it's just grandma,
00:21:30.740 which is the official organ
00:21:32.580 of the Central Communist
00:21:33.960 Party Committee of Cuba
00:21:35.360 had very favorably
00:21:37.280 written about Bernie Sanders
00:21:38.520 saying that he recognizes
00:21:40.040 Cuba's contributions
00:21:41.320 in education and health.
00:21:43.800 Now, of course,
00:21:44.960 when he is praising
00:21:46.060 a communist dictatorship,
00:21:48.520 the state media
00:21:49.560 in that communist dictatorship
00:21:50.980 is very fond of Bernie Sanders.
00:21:53.200 But again,
00:21:54.700 I find it very fascinating
00:21:56.200 that anyone in the United States
00:21:58.300 who is from Cuba,
00:22:00.260 who has fled Cuba,
00:22:01.800 they are just seething right now.
00:22:03.940 There was actually
00:22:04.760 a Miami Herald op-ed
00:22:07.060 from someone who said,
00:22:07.880 I went to school in Cuba
00:22:08.920 under Castro.
00:22:10.160 Here's what it's like,
00:22:11.300 Bernie Sanders,
00:22:12.080 from a Cuban national
00:22:13.220 who talks about
00:22:15.020 the cheap propagandist
00:22:16.960 talking points
00:22:17.860 that the American left
00:22:19.420 pedals on Cuba
00:22:20.400 and how that is so at odds
00:22:22.880 with what she experienced
00:22:25.060 and what actual Cubans experience,
00:22:27.080 which is why they flee
00:22:28.680 to the United States
00:22:29.680 on Javex bottles.
00:22:31.280 You don't risk your life
00:22:33.040 fleeing a country
00:22:34.220 when everything is as hunky-dory
00:22:36.120 as Bernie Sanders thinks
00:22:37.600 or a lot of the leftist politicians
00:22:39.620 in the West
00:22:40.260 that insist Cuba
00:22:41.520 is just this utopian paradise.
00:22:44.140 But the thing that I find fascinating
00:22:46.260 is that this guy's winning.
00:22:48.060 This guy's winning.
00:22:48.860 There was a time when this would be
00:22:50.460 like the kooky
00:22:51.300 Marianne Williamson
00:22:52.800 of the primary.
00:22:54.240 But Bernie Sanders
00:22:55.220 is in the lead.
00:22:56.620 The Democrats
00:22:57.100 are completely unfazed
00:22:58.720 and, if anything,
00:22:59.780 encouraged
00:23:00.500 when he talks
00:23:01.660 this way about things.
00:23:03.120 So I have to unpack
00:23:04.160 what's going on
00:23:05.440 in American politics
00:23:06.500 right now.
00:23:07.460 Former Republican
00:23:08.360 National Committee Chairman
00:23:09.620 Michael Steele
00:23:10.480 and I sat down
00:23:11.440 last week
00:23:12.340 when I was in Miami,
00:23:13.460 actually,
00:23:13.860 which has Little Havana.
00:23:15.220 This is where
00:23:15.760 most of the Cuban expats
00:23:17.600 in America live
00:23:19.000 or, at the very least,
00:23:19.980 the first place
00:23:20.660 they touched down
00:23:21.580 in America.
00:23:23.080 And, my goodness,
00:23:24.200 the riots
00:23:25.960 that,
00:23:27.560 well,
00:23:27.780 the opposite of riots,
00:23:28.800 actually,
00:23:29.120 the celebrations
00:23:29.940 in Miami
00:23:31.240 when Fidel Castro
00:23:32.740 died
00:23:33.380 should give you
00:23:34.340 an indication
00:23:34.980 that the Bernie Sanders
00:23:36.020 narrative of Cuba
00:23:37.160 is not accurate.
00:23:38.540 But I wanted to share
00:23:39.280 my interview
00:23:39.760 with former Republican
00:23:41.140 National Committee Chairman
00:23:42.220 Michael Steele.
00:23:43.220 We talked about
00:23:43.860 what things are
00:23:44.560 happening in the
00:23:45.800 Democrat primary
00:23:46.880 heading to November
00:23:47.860 when the election
00:23:48.600 takes place.
00:23:49.480 And we also spoke
00:23:50.540 about a reform initiative
00:23:51.920 that is ultimately
00:23:53.440 bipartisan
00:23:54.240 but could help
00:23:55.280 conservatives
00:23:55.940 to revamp
00:23:57.360 the way Americans
00:23:58.620 vote in presidential
00:23:59.500 elections,
00:24:00.220 embracing a national
00:24:01.600 popular vote.
00:24:02.480 So here's my sit-down
00:24:03.460 with Michael Steele.
00:24:05.140 I'm sitting down
00:24:05.840 with the former
00:24:06.480 Lieutenant Governor
00:24:07.140 of Maryland,
00:24:07.780 also the former
00:24:08.400 Chairman of the
00:24:09.240 Republican National
00:24:10.040 Committee,
00:24:10.500 Michael Steele.
00:24:11.420 Michael,
00:24:11.760 good to talk to you.
00:24:12.400 Thanks for taking the time.
00:24:13.320 It's great to be with you,
00:24:14.080 Andrew, absolutely.
00:24:14.960 Good to see you, man.
00:24:16.000 Let's talk first off
00:24:17.280 about where we are
00:24:18.500 in the course
00:24:19.340 of American politics
00:24:20.760 right now
00:24:21.260 because I think that
00:24:22.100 it's been an eventful
00:24:23.440 last four years,
00:24:24.560 certainly.
00:24:25.180 And as we look forward,
00:24:26.300 a lot of people,
00:24:27.560 I think,
00:24:28.380 on the left
00:24:29.200 are going down
00:24:30.300 that same road
00:24:31.000 that we saw
00:24:31.540 before 2016,
00:24:32.740 which is that,
00:24:33.900 well, there's no way
00:24:34.780 anyone can vote
00:24:35.480 for Donald Trump again
00:24:36.460 and we have to do this.
00:24:38.040 And then on the right,
00:24:39.040 you have, I think,
00:24:39.880 a lot of the resistance
00:24:41.300 to Donald Trump
00:24:42.500 from conservatives
00:24:43.460 seems to have
00:24:44.760 abated a bit
00:24:45.580 in my view.
00:24:46.240 And I'm wondering
00:24:46.580 if you'd agree with that,
00:24:47.520 the people that were
00:24:48.080 never Trumpers
00:24:48.740 that are now,
00:24:49.680 okay, well,
00:24:50.360 I guess it's not that bad.
00:24:52.180 Yeah, I think
00:24:52.760 on the first point
00:24:53.520 with respect to how
00:24:54.660 the left is
00:24:55.600 approaching this election,
00:24:57.860 they're turning
00:24:59.960 into a clown show.
00:25:01.140 I was just the tip
00:25:02.180 of, I think,
00:25:02.700 of what will be
00:25:03.160 a very dangerous iceberg
00:25:04.380 for them.
00:25:05.040 not just on the process
00:25:07.880 size and just getting
00:25:09.020 the vote out,
00:25:10.200 but just generally
00:25:11.040 in their understanding
00:25:13.220 of where the American
00:25:14.160 people are,
00:25:15.020 what the American
00:25:15.660 people are thinking
00:25:16.540 and how they feel
00:25:17.540 about the upcoming election.
00:25:19.160 There's a lot of
00:25:20.340 mixed emotion about it
00:25:21.700 in some quarters
00:25:22.460 and they're very strong
00:25:23.360 emotions in others.
00:25:24.280 There's no doubt
00:25:24.740 about that.
00:25:25.240 You have those who,
00:25:26.480 there's no way on hell
00:25:27.300 I will ever vote
00:25:28.040 for Donald Trump.
00:25:29.540 And then you even have
00:25:30.500 those who voted
00:25:31.000 for him in 16
00:25:31.660 who have peeled off.
00:25:32.880 But you still,
00:25:33.540 to your second point,
00:25:35.040 and it's not just
00:25:36.300 among conservatives,
00:25:37.540 among center-right
00:25:38.640 independents,
00:25:39.780 for example,
00:25:40.860 who are looking at this
00:25:42.320 and they are making
00:25:43.360 a different calculation
00:25:44.380 and assessment
00:25:45.060 largely based on
00:25:46.440 how they see
00:25:47.600 the Democrats performing.
00:25:49.260 So, you know,
00:25:50.160 the president,
00:25:50.940 in my estimation,
00:25:51.620 is in a very good
00:25:52.400 position right now.
00:25:53.560 He's very strong,
00:25:55.400 certainly on the economy.
00:25:57.220 He's over 50 plus,
00:25:58.540 52, 53 percent
00:25:59.980 approval on the economy.
00:26:01.660 I think that number
00:26:02.220 is actually a little bit higher.
00:26:03.680 His job approval
00:26:04.800 is at 49 percent,
00:26:06.360 two points higher
00:26:07.160 than Barack Obama
00:26:08.040 at the same point
00:26:09.440 in his first term.
00:26:12.020 So I think
00:26:12.820 where the president
00:26:13.720 is positioned,
00:26:14.760 you can say,
00:26:15.480 look,
00:26:16.220 Mueller,
00:26:17.380 impeachment,
00:26:18.340 all helped.
00:26:20.060 Because it really spoke
00:26:21.980 to a narrative
00:26:22.500 that conservatives
00:26:23.420 were saying
00:26:24.120 that you go down
00:26:25.400 this road on impeachment,
00:26:26.640 you're going to bite off
00:26:27.900 something you can't chew.
00:26:29.740 And I think
00:26:30.600 that's what's turned out.
00:26:31.620 because the American people
00:26:32.640 at the end of the day,
00:26:34.020 it wasn't in their mind
00:26:35.240 to sort of throw out
00:26:36.080 a president.
00:26:36.940 So all of these factors
00:26:37.940 have played into
00:26:38.880 where this election
00:26:40.380 is at this point.
00:26:41.420 The Democrats are now
00:26:42.320 going through
00:26:42.640 their primary process.
00:26:43.680 The president is just
00:26:44.380 sitting back
00:26:44.840 and enjoying the moment.
00:26:46.320 And we'll see
00:26:47.340 once there is a nominee,
00:26:49.340 who that nominee
00:26:50.000 is will matter.
00:26:52.100 How they perform
00:26:53.120 in the upcoming campaign
00:26:54.700 will make the difference
00:26:55.780 between whether or not
00:26:56.940 Democrats can recapture
00:26:58.760 those bricks they lost
00:27:00.620 out of the blue wall
00:27:01.600 in 2016
00:27:03.100 and whether or not
00:27:04.620 the president
00:27:05.100 is able to build
00:27:06.160 on the momentum
00:27:07.140 from a good economy
00:27:09.520 and the other things
00:27:11.180 that have happened
00:27:11.800 and turn it into
00:27:13.280 a victory in November.
00:27:14.800 You mentioned
00:27:15.180 that who the Democrat
00:27:16.140 is is a relevant
00:27:17.820 question here.
00:27:18.500 And I was wondering
00:27:18.860 if you could explain
00:27:19.460 a bit more about that
00:27:20.340 because right now
00:27:20.960 we see the Democrats
00:27:22.040 very much eating their own
00:27:23.820 and people that in the past
00:27:25.200 would have been,
00:27:25.700 I think,
00:27:25.840 very formidable candidates,
00:27:27.100 the more moderate among them
00:27:29.500 are now absolute jokes to it.
00:27:31.780 It seems like the Democrat
00:27:32.860 at the time.
00:27:33.760 No, you're absolutely right.
00:27:34.860 And so if they want to go,
00:27:37.400 if they want to go land
00:27:38.440 on Bernie Sanders,
00:27:39.700 thank you very much.
00:27:41.980 January 21,
00:27:43.300 we'll be watching
00:27:44.000 Donald Trump
00:27:44.700 re-inaugurate,
00:27:45.940 inaugurate as the
00:27:46.880 end of the second term.
00:27:48.340 If you want to,
00:27:49.020 if you want to dance
00:27:49.820 with Elizabeth Warren,
00:27:50.780 thank you very much.
00:27:52.040 Donald Trump will be
00:27:53.140 the next president
00:27:54.160 of the United States.
00:27:55.300 If you want to,
00:27:55.920 if you decide
00:27:56.700 to take the risk
00:27:57.700 and go with
00:27:58.580 someone like a Bernie Sanders
00:28:01.000 or,
00:28:02.180 I mean,
00:28:02.400 excuse me,
00:28:02.880 a Joe Biden
00:28:03.540 or Michael Bloomberg,
00:28:05.840 that's a different dynamic.
00:28:07.920 You know,
00:28:08.200 I've said for a while now
00:28:10.260 that the nominee
00:28:10.880 of the party should be,
00:28:12.020 of the Democrats,
00:28:12.880 should be,
00:28:13.480 if they want to be competitive.
00:28:14.740 It's not a guaranteed win
00:28:15.960 by no stretch,
00:28:16.700 but if they want to be competitive
00:28:18.140 against Trump,
00:28:19.560 Joe Biden is the one
00:28:21.000 who,
00:28:21.620 referring back to those bricks,
00:28:22.980 can grab those bricks back
00:28:24.360 that they lost.
00:28:25.600 And that's Michigan,
00:28:27.160 Wisconsin,
00:28:27.720 and Pennsylvania
00:28:28.280 in 2016.
00:28:30.460 Because he has,
00:28:32.020 he has that innate
00:28:33.460 sort of Uncle Joe charisma.
00:28:36.420 People know him.
00:28:37.560 They're very familiar with him.
00:28:39.740 Yes,
00:28:40.140 he can be a little bit
00:28:41.080 out there on various things,
00:28:43.240 but in their mind,
00:28:44.960 he's stable.
00:28:45.740 And the thing that a lot
00:28:47.020 of,
00:28:47.200 I've heard voters say to me
00:28:48.260 as I've traveled
00:28:48.880 around the country,
00:28:49.700 is look,
00:28:51.100 I'm not worried
00:28:52.360 about arguing
00:28:53.060 about the future
00:28:53.880 of the country
00:28:54.420 or the future
00:28:54.940 of the Democratic Party
00:28:55.880 or the future
00:28:56.360 of the Republican Party.
00:28:57.660 I'm looking at someone
00:28:58.760 who can take me
00:28:59.520 out of this spin zone,
00:29:00.820 out of this crazy space
00:29:02.140 that we're in right now.
00:29:03.240 I want a more settled presidency
00:29:05.460 that I can rely on
00:29:07.320 and I don't have to get up
00:29:08.420 and spend every day
00:29:09.600 and every waking hour
00:29:11.160 of that day
00:29:11.760 talking about
00:29:12.640 what the president's tweeted
00:29:13.880 or what the president's say.
00:29:14.720 So people are looking
00:29:15.600 for some degree
00:29:17.540 of normalcy,
00:29:19.640 if you want to use that word,
00:29:20.520 if I, you know,
00:29:21.000 go with that.
00:29:22.020 But it's going to be
00:29:23.280 a tall order for them.
00:29:24.480 And I think that,
00:29:26.080 you know,
00:29:26.500 they've got to figure out
00:29:27.900 whether they want to be woke
00:29:30.780 or if they want to win
00:29:32.260 because that's your only choice
00:29:34.440 at this point.
00:29:35.700 If you want to win,
00:29:36.940 then you're going to identify
00:29:38.180 that candidate
00:29:38.880 and I think they're easily identifiable
00:29:40.860 who can appeal
00:29:42.280 to the middle of the country,
00:29:43.220 who can speak to those farmers
00:29:45.360 and to those blue-collar workers,
00:29:47.740 to those moms
00:29:48.620 who are sitting around
00:29:49.140 kitchen tables
00:29:49.820 trying to balance budgets
00:29:51.020 with two weeks left
00:29:52.460 in the month
00:29:53.740 and no money, right?
00:29:56.520 So that's real life.
00:29:58.720 And Democrats have not been
00:30:00.500 very good,
00:30:02.080 in my estimation,
00:30:03.120 at speaking to real life.
00:30:04.580 They speak to the ideal life,
00:30:07.560 you know,
00:30:08.140 where, you know,
00:30:09.100 everybody's on the same page
00:30:10.400 on global warming
00:30:11.220 and we've got free education
00:30:12.580 and we're going to harangue
00:30:14.860 the hell out of billionaires
00:30:15.900 and grab all their cash
00:30:17.000 because they don't deserve it.
00:30:18.200 They never earned it anyway.
00:30:19.980 You know,
00:30:20.120 it's like you hear
00:30:20.620 on the debate stage
00:30:22.040 when they look at Mike Bloomberg.
00:30:23.480 Well, there were workers
00:30:24.520 that worked for you.
00:30:25.540 I was like,
00:30:25.980 look, dude,
00:30:26.540 yes,
00:30:26.800 because he employed them.
00:30:27.980 You get it?
00:30:28.800 He employed them.
00:30:30.100 When Obama had said,
00:30:31.520 I think it was 2008,
00:30:32.580 you didn't build that,
00:30:33.820 that was seen as a gaffe.
00:30:35.160 But now that standard
00:30:36.200 Democrat policy,
00:30:37.460 the fact that,
00:30:38.120 well, you didn't do that,
00:30:38.960 no.
00:30:39.220 Right, right.
00:30:39.820 No, exactly right.
00:30:40.560 So there is a,
00:30:41.920 in my estimation,
00:30:42.660 a complete misreading
00:30:43.880 of the electorate
00:30:45.060 that the Democrats
00:30:45.700 have been just,
00:30:48.280 they're very expert at
00:30:50.080 misreading the public.
00:30:52.400 They did it with Hillary Clinton
00:30:53.500 and to some extent
00:30:56.760 they did it with Obama
00:30:59.020 in his second term.
00:31:01.180 And that's what gave,
00:31:03.100 I think,
00:31:03.560 the fertile ground
00:31:04.580 for a Donald Trump candidacy
00:31:06.700 in addition to the sheer
00:31:08.400 incompetency of Republicans
00:31:10.140 to actually put the finger
00:31:11.280 and the pulse
00:31:11.740 inside their own ranks
00:31:13.640 to figure out exactly
00:31:15.160 how much on the heels
00:31:17.260 of the Tea Party movement
00:31:18.300 the base had shifted
00:31:19.760 and why that base
00:31:21.520 was still angry.
00:31:23.820 We had,
00:31:24.420 when I was national chairman,
00:31:25.920 had mitigated some of that.
00:31:27.400 We had,
00:31:27.840 I think,
00:31:28.340 a very good working relationship
00:31:29.820 with Tea Party leaders
00:31:32.280 around the country.
00:31:33.060 We elected a lot
00:31:34.400 of their candidates,
00:31:35.440 constitutional conservatives
00:31:37.660 to the Congress
00:31:39.200 and the state legislatures.
00:31:41.680 Some have retired since then.
00:31:43.920 A few have lost their seats.
00:31:46.080 But their frustration
00:31:47.900 grew anew
00:31:49.660 after 2012
00:31:51.120 and boom,
00:31:52.640 Donald Trump came in
00:31:53.760 and sort of picked
00:31:54.340 at that wound
00:31:55.160 and launched a populist,
00:31:59.100 not resurgence,
00:32:00.840 but sort of energy
00:32:03.740 that they were like,
00:32:06.080 I can ride with that.
00:32:07.580 And so now,
00:32:08.640 even internally
00:32:09.400 for the Republicans,
00:32:11.040 looking either
00:32:12.560 after 2020
00:32:13.920 or after 2024,
00:32:16.000 how does that ground
00:32:17.560 shift further
00:32:18.300 to sort of continue
00:32:20.460 the progress
00:32:21.400 of electing
00:32:22.320 national office
00:32:23.880 holders,
00:32:25.140 et cetera?
00:32:25.580 I'm actually glad
00:32:26.700 you mentioned
00:32:27.340 the populism
00:32:28.220 because I wanted
00:32:28.960 to talk to you
00:32:29.520 about the popular
00:32:30.840 vote shift
00:32:31.720 that we're seeing,
00:32:32.560 mostly from the left.
00:32:34.000 I mean,
00:32:34.260 certainly the Democrats
00:32:35.120 are saying they want
00:32:35.900 to tear up
00:32:36.300 the Electoral College.
00:32:37.800 There is another way,
00:32:39.200 and we're seeing this
00:32:39.820 in Virginia,
00:32:40.400 most recently
00:32:40.980 in other states,
00:32:42.140 to have popular vote
00:32:43.540 that uses
00:32:44.440 the Electoral College.
00:32:46.060 And I find it interesting
00:32:47.540 because most of the resistance,
00:32:49.260 certainly that knee-jerk resistance
00:32:50.680 to electing a president
00:32:51.860 by national popular vote
00:32:53.280 seems to come
00:32:54.460 from Republicans
00:32:55.360 because of the old
00:32:56.600 narrative that,
00:32:57.720 you know,
00:32:57.900 your states like
00:32:59.100 New Hampshire,
00:33:00.720 Iowa,
00:33:01.380 Wyoming
00:33:01.740 are going to be
00:33:02.560 overlooked.
00:33:03.500 But I think the populism
00:33:04.960 aspect is very interesting
00:33:06.400 because if populism
00:33:07.680 is where conservatism
00:33:09.340 is headed
00:33:09.780 in some form...
00:33:10.800 In the short term.
00:33:11.800 Yeah,
00:33:12.100 you'd think that would
00:33:13.300 actually invite
00:33:14.380 or welcome
00:33:15.140 a popular vote.
00:33:17.160 You do,
00:33:18.580 and it should,
00:33:20.940 but I think
00:33:21.560 what then clouds
00:33:23.240 that conversation
00:33:25.000 is a number
00:33:26.960 of things
00:33:27.480 that we've talked
00:33:29.260 about,
00:33:29.680 and that is
00:33:30.660 ballot security
00:33:33.240 and whether or not
00:33:34.220 this new approach
00:33:36.740 deals with the fraud
00:33:38.340 that can
00:33:39.060 and has taken place
00:33:40.420 in elections
00:33:41.720 in the past,
00:33:43.260 and not just in the past,
00:33:44.540 but in the recent past.
00:33:47.180 And also,
00:33:48.100 I think there is
00:33:48.820 this general idea
00:33:50.440 that,
00:33:50.980 well,
00:33:51.620 are we going to be
00:33:53.240 electing the opposition?
00:33:54.900 You know?
00:33:55.280 Well,
00:33:55.560 the idea of a national
00:33:56.600 popular vote
00:33:57.340 is that every citizen
00:33:58.560 has access
00:33:59.720 to the ballot,
00:34:00.760 their vote will count,
00:34:02.080 their vote will matter,
00:34:03.380 and it will be a part
00:34:04.720 of making a difference.
00:34:06.120 You then move away
00:34:07.240 from the situation
00:34:08.300 that we find ourselves
00:34:09.320 in where a candidate
00:34:10.760 wins the popular vote
00:34:12.300 but then loses
00:34:12.920 in the electoral college
00:34:14.000 because that is the way
00:34:15.060 the current structure works.
00:34:16.860 What we're looking at
00:34:18.300 with national popular vote
00:34:19.540 is sort of creating
00:34:20.580 a level playing field
00:34:21.500 where all 50 states
00:34:22.700 are competitive.
00:34:24.060 Why?
00:34:24.620 Because guess what?
00:34:25.600 Candidates now have to
00:34:26.680 campaign in all 50 states
00:34:28.260 because you're building
00:34:29.960 towards a national total,
00:34:32.240 not just winning Wisconsin.
00:34:35.060 You want,
00:34:35.540 yeah,
00:34:35.780 you can win Wisconsin,
00:34:37.220 that's fine,
00:34:37.940 or you can lose Wisconsin
00:34:39.280 as long as you're building
00:34:40.700 a number that is strong enough
00:34:42.380 to be added to what
00:34:43.380 you're doing in California.
00:34:44.940 Here's the other thing
00:34:45.680 that I think is very important,
00:34:46.820 particularly for
00:34:47.640 those jurisdictions
00:34:49.860 in the Southwest
00:34:51.880 and the West,
00:34:53.260 particularly Republican
00:34:54.260 jurisdictions.
00:34:56.460 And that is
00:34:57.460 when you're in that space,
00:35:00.320 all of a sudden now
00:35:01.760 when 8 o'clock comes
00:35:03.560 on the East Coast,
00:35:05.080 they're not shut,
00:35:05.820 they're not calling
00:35:06.400 the election.
00:35:07.580 They can't call the election
00:35:09.140 because there's still
00:35:10.340 three hours of votes
00:35:11.720 to be tabulated
00:35:13.620 and counted
00:35:15.020 in the Western part
00:35:18.360 of the country.
00:35:19.420 So for those
00:35:20.440 particularly Republican
00:35:21.740 voters
00:35:23.400 who are sitting
00:35:24.260 on the one-on-one
00:35:25.780 trying to get home
00:35:26.880 or try to get
00:35:28.020 to the voting polls
00:35:28.900 and at 8 o'clock
00:35:30.040 on the East Coast
00:35:30.820 in the past,
00:35:31.940 they're,
00:35:32.360 you know,
00:35:32.680 oh yes,
00:35:33.940 we call the race for,
00:35:35.240 they turn around
00:35:36.060 and go home.
00:35:37.000 I'm not going to vote now
00:35:38.100 because hell,
00:35:38.660 they just called the race
00:35:39.580 for the Democrat
00:35:40.640 or they called the race
00:35:41.660 for the Republican
00:35:42.320 and I'm done.
00:35:44.400 But now,
00:35:45.640 you want to,
00:35:47.240 you want that vote
00:35:48.120 to get to the polls
00:35:49.040 because that number,
00:35:51.320 no matter what it is,
00:35:52.720 is going to add
00:35:53.500 to a national number.
00:35:54.840 So when you look
00:35:56.040 at these elections,
00:35:57.260 there's a whole new dynamic
00:35:58.500 and Donald Trump,
00:35:59.540 to his credit,
00:36:00.720 has said
00:36:01.540 and acknowledged
00:36:02.340 that if there were
00:36:03.540 a national popular vote
00:36:04.760 in place in 16
00:36:05.700 or 20
00:36:06.760 or in any campaign
00:36:07.600 he's in,
00:36:08.120 he would campaign differently.
00:36:09.440 He would be campaigning
00:36:11.180 in states
00:36:12.200 that right now
00:36:12.900 are either flyer states
00:36:14.120 or the states
00:36:14.840 that they ignore
00:36:15.440 because there's no,
00:36:16.480 they're not a competitive
00:36:17.280 part of the battleground
00:36:19.440 calculation.
00:36:20.900 And that works both ways.
00:36:22.120 I mean,
00:36:22.300 states that aren't battlegrounds
00:36:23.420 because you know
00:36:23.800 you're going to win them
00:36:24.460 and states that aren't
00:36:25.460 battlegrounds
00:36:25.920 because you know
00:36:26.320 you're going to lose them.
00:36:27.340 So in the end,
00:36:28.220 you've got,
00:36:28.720 you know,
00:36:29.400 California,
00:36:30.020 New York,
00:36:30.560 which are the biggest states
00:36:31.560 in the union
00:36:32.060 that get no real campaigning
00:36:34.460 from either the Democrats
00:36:35.380 or the Republicans.
00:36:36.640 Right,
00:36:36.880 right.
00:36:37.100 And so to that point
00:36:38.640 as an example,
00:36:40.060 if,
00:36:40.460 you know,
00:36:40.940 typically there are,
00:36:42.400 I know that I'm just going
00:36:43.560 to play with the numbers
00:36:44.160 so go with me here.
00:36:45.300 If there are 3 million
00:36:46.480 California independents
00:36:49.960 and Republicans
00:36:50.560 who vote for the Republican
00:36:52.060 candidate
00:36:52.580 in a typical
00:36:53.300 presidential election
00:36:54.760 and you now
00:36:57.160 have the opportunity
00:36:58.140 where you've got
00:36:59.260 a million people
00:36:59.960 on their way
00:37:00.620 to the polls
00:37:01.260 at 5 o'clock
00:37:02.340 to go
00:37:03.160 and now all of a sudden
00:37:03.800 you've got 4 million,
00:37:04.840 now you've just added
00:37:06.820 another million
00:37:07.520 to your national total
00:37:08.680 and if you,
00:37:09.900 if you,
00:37:10.340 and you couple that
00:37:11.120 with places like New York,
00:37:13.740 New Jersey,
00:37:14.840 Florida,
00:37:15.880 Ohio,
00:37:17.040 elsewhere,
00:37:18.080 all of a sudden now
00:37:19.140 you can see
00:37:20.020 just where
00:37:20.820 you have now
00:37:22.060 created margins
00:37:22.860 for you to win
00:37:23.840 as opposed to,
00:37:25.880 well,
00:37:26.260 okay,
00:37:26.620 I got 3 million votes
00:37:27.680 in California,
00:37:29.100 whoopee.
00:37:30.020 So it,
00:37:30.700 for me,
00:37:31.480 again,
00:37:31.740 it changes the way
00:37:32.580 the game is played.
00:37:33.440 It is something
00:37:34.460 worth looking at
00:37:35.500 and I think
00:37:36.080 on the heels
00:37:36.800 of the,
00:37:39.260 certainly in the
00:37:40.940 Democratic primary
00:37:41.940 in Iowa
00:37:42.520 and the mess
00:37:44.240 that is,
00:37:44.960 I mean,
00:37:45.120 first off,
00:37:45.540 let's just do away
00:37:46.480 with the caucus system,
00:37:47.440 people.
00:37:47.900 Can we,
00:37:48.220 can we just be honest
00:37:49.440 and say the idea
00:37:50.660 that you're going
00:37:51.880 to engage
00:37:52.620 in the least
00:37:53.340 Democratic
00:37:53.980 aspect of voting
00:37:55.600 where you tell people
00:37:57.120 you have to be
00:37:58.200 in a location
00:37:58.980 between hour one
00:38:00.360 and hour four
00:38:01.260 and if you're not
00:38:01.920 there at hour
00:38:02.700 four plus one
00:38:03.580 minute,
00:38:04.200 you're not there,
00:38:04.880 we're going
00:38:05.120 to lock you out,
00:38:06.000 you can't vote.
00:38:07.220 That to me
00:38:07.820 is undemocratic.
00:38:08.720 And no secret ballot.
00:38:09.900 It's really the only
00:38:10.480 area where there's
00:38:11.300 no secrecy
00:38:11.940 of who you're
00:38:12.280 voting for.
00:38:12.700 You're literally
00:38:13.060 standing in the
00:38:13.980 corner.
00:38:14.480 Right,
00:38:14.900 so talk about
00:38:16.400 peer pressure
00:38:17.080 and your neighbors
00:38:17.920 are,
00:38:18.320 oh,
00:38:18.540 you standing
00:38:19.020 there for Trump
00:38:19.780 or you standing
00:38:20.480 there for Biden
00:38:21.340 or you standing
00:38:21.980 there for,
00:38:23.060 you know,
00:38:23.300 so it's,
00:38:23.800 it's,
00:38:24.060 it's ridiculous.
00:38:25.340 Go,
00:38:25.840 go to,
00:38:26.780 you know,
00:38:27.280 a primary system.
00:38:28.840 I think when I
00:38:30.220 was national
00:38:30.680 chairman,
00:38:31.200 I advocated for
00:38:32.400 a national
00:38:33.060 primary.
00:38:34.600 Pick a day
00:38:35.400 in April,
00:38:36.040 pick four weeks
00:38:37.040 in April
00:38:37.460 and each week
00:38:38.640 you have four
00:38:39.440 region,
00:38:39.940 you have a regional
00:38:40.820 primary over
00:38:43.240 those four weeks
00:38:44.100 and you're done
00:38:45.040 by the end of
00:38:45.640 the month
00:38:46.000 and you know
00:38:46.600 who your nominee
00:38:47.200 is going to be.
00:38:48.660 And so there
00:38:49.780 are a lot of
00:38:50.240 options and
00:38:50.900 opportunities.
00:38:51.480 I think the
00:38:52.060 Democrats are
00:38:52.640 certainly going
00:38:53.060 to look at that.
00:38:53.720 I think Republicans
00:38:54.360 should revisit that
00:38:55.460 as we did
00:38:56.340 when I was
00:38:57.160 national chairman
00:38:57.880 and made some
00:38:58.460 recommendations
00:38:59.000 on how our
00:39:00.260 primary should
00:39:00.880 unfold in order
00:39:02.960 to,
00:39:03.380 again,
00:39:03.660 the goal is
00:39:04.340 to get out
00:39:05.260 as many of
00:39:06.200 your voters
00:39:06.660 as you can't
00:39:07.300 possibly can
00:39:07.940 to identify
00:39:08.640 new voters
00:39:09.540 and get them
00:39:10.980 to the polls.
00:39:12.480 Do you like
00:39:12.840 a popular vote
00:39:13.700 because you think
00:39:14.380 it would favor
00:39:15.100 conservatives
00:39:15.740 or do you just
00:39:16.480 think it would
00:39:17.200 dampen an
00:39:18.480 electoral edge
00:39:19.280 that right now
00:39:19.940 the Democrats
00:39:20.440 have in your view
00:39:21.400 under the
00:39:21.780 status quo?
00:39:23.080 Oh,
00:39:23.220 I think it favors,
00:39:24.000 I think it favors
00:39:24.980 conservatives.
00:39:25.840 I think it,
00:39:26.440 it plays to
00:39:28.020 the idea
00:39:28.820 that the
00:39:29.520 nation
00:39:30.300 as a whole
00:39:31.980 is a center
00:39:33.400 right nation
00:39:34.000 and I think
00:39:35.320 that in a lot
00:39:36.080 of communities,
00:39:37.160 particularly when
00:39:37.780 you're looking
00:39:38.640 at minority
00:39:39.180 communities,
00:39:39.780 Hispanics and
00:39:40.340 African Americans,
00:39:41.480 the presumption
00:39:42.320 is that's an
00:39:42.960 automatic democratic
00:39:43.940 vote.
00:39:44.320 I can tell you
00:39:44.840 firsthand as a
00:39:45.580 black man,
00:39:46.080 that's not true.
00:39:47.160 I can tell you
00:39:47.980 firsthand as the
00:39:48.780 former county
00:39:49.760 chairman,
00:39:50.320 state chairman
00:39:50.880 in Maryland,
00:39:51.560 as well as
00:39:52.400 national chairman,
00:39:53.400 that's not true.
00:39:54.240 And we have,
00:39:56.680 I believe,
00:39:57.840 very fervently
00:39:58.640 still within us
00:40:00.100 the capacity
00:40:01.040 to make the
00:40:01.680 case to a
00:40:02.380 cross-section
00:40:03.000 of voters
00:40:03.540 that they
00:40:05.200 will find
00:40:05.640 appealing.
00:40:06.680 And this
00:40:07.140 new format
00:40:08.640 allows us
00:40:10.040 the opportunity,
00:40:11.180 again,
00:40:11.640 to go into
00:40:12.320 places that we
00:40:13.220 have just
00:40:13.660 regressed from
00:40:14.600 because,
00:40:16.200 oh,
00:40:16.320 it's a blue
00:40:16.760 state,
00:40:17.380 you know,
00:40:17.740 or we're not
00:40:18.180 going to win
00:40:18.560 that state.
00:40:19.080 Well,
00:40:19.600 now you're
00:40:20.340 going to play.
00:40:20.960 And guess what
00:40:21.500 else is essentially
00:40:22.860 important here?
00:40:24.280 Going back to
00:40:24.860 that California
00:40:25.420 example with
00:40:26.380 that million
00:40:27.500 extra voters
00:40:28.740 who decided
00:40:29.260 to continue
00:40:29.880 on to the
00:40:30.420 polls as
00:40:30.860 opposed to
00:40:31.280 turning around
00:40:31.700 and going
00:40:32.020 home at
00:40:32.620 five o'clock,
00:40:33.500 that helps
00:40:35.000 your down
00:40:35.400 ballot.
00:40:36.220 It helps
00:40:36.760 your down
00:40:37.260 ballot candidates
00:40:38.080 as well because
00:40:38.700 now you've
00:40:39.180 just added a
00:40:40.220 fresh one
00:40:40.900 million voters
00:40:41.840 for governor
00:40:42.760 and for the
00:40:43.700 U.S.
00:40:44.140 Senate and
00:40:44.680 for,
00:40:45.220 you know,
00:40:45.900 county commissioner
00:40:46.820 and so forth.
00:40:48.460 So I think
00:40:50.280 for Republicans,
00:40:51.500 we need to,
00:40:52.260 you know,
00:40:52.700 look at it
00:40:53.500 very objectively.
00:40:54.840 It makes
00:40:56.260 constitutional
00:40:57.160 muster.
00:40:58.240 It meets
00:40:59.440 all the
00:41:00.040 constitutional
00:41:00.800 requirements.
00:41:01.920 It's a compact
00:41:02.720 amongst the
00:41:03.520 states,
00:41:03.880 no different
00:41:04.540 than the
00:41:04.920 lottery compacts
00:41:05.820 that we're
00:41:06.060 very familiar
00:41:06.620 with.
00:41:07.220 Certainly those
00:41:07.960 in the western
00:41:08.600 part of our
00:41:09.480 nation who
00:41:10.620 are in
00:41:11.200 water compacts,
00:41:12.640 you know,
00:41:13.800 know what
00:41:14.680 that's like
00:41:15.240 if you're
00:41:15.720 sharing the
00:41:16.420 Colorado River.
00:41:17.540 So it's a
00:41:20.540 form of
00:41:21.000 cooperation
00:41:21.600 among the
00:41:22.120 states where
00:41:22.600 they say,
00:41:23.180 look,
00:41:23.860 we're going
00:41:24.420 to agree
00:41:25.000 that this
00:41:26.380 body of
00:41:27.420 us,
00:41:28.160 that total
00:41:28.820 270 electoral
00:41:30.300 votes,
00:41:31.760 agree that
00:41:32.800 whoever wins
00:41:33.700 that national
00:41:34.500 popular vote,
00:41:35.300 that grand
00:41:36.180 national total,
00:41:37.620 we agree to
00:41:38.680 commit our
00:41:39.580 electoral votes
00:41:41.120 to that
00:41:41.580 candidate.
00:41:42.280 Why?
00:41:43.220 Because that
00:41:43.640 candidate will
00:41:44.340 have competed
00:41:44.980 in all of
00:41:46.280 our states.
00:41:46.920 That candidate
00:41:47.420 will have
00:41:47.840 competed in
00:41:49.540 most of our
00:41:50.580 communities.
00:41:51.580 And I think
00:41:51.980 that more than
00:41:52.840 anything else is
00:41:54.240 how we begin to
00:41:55.100 re-engage
00:41:55.620 citizens in the
00:41:57.380 most important
00:41:58.120 franchise they
00:41:59.220 have.
00:42:00.120 Michael Steele,
00:42:00.920 thank you so much
00:42:01.500 for chatting.
00:42:01.960 I really appreciate
00:42:02.480 it.
00:42:02.800 I really enjoyed
00:42:03.480 it.
00:42:03.680 Thank you.
00:42:04.580 My thanks to
00:42:05.160 Michael Steele
00:42:05.740 and my thanks to
00:42:06.520 all of you for
00:42:07.660 tuning in,
00:42:08.360 writing in,
00:42:08.980 supporting this
00:42:09.600 show in
00:42:10.300 whichever way
00:42:10.960 you do.
00:42:11.720 We'll be back
00:42:12.340 in just a few
00:42:13.260 days with more
00:42:13.960 of the Andrew
00:42:14.540 Lawton Show.
00:42:15.260 Thank you,
00:42:15.820 God bless,
00:42:16.320 and good day.
00:42:17.260 Thanks for
00:42:17.640 listening to
00:42:18.120 the Andrew
00:42:18.520 Lawton Show.
00:42:19.360 Support the
00:42:19.880 program by
00:42:20.400 donating to
00:42:20.980 True North
00:42:21.420 at www.tnc.news.