00:01:18.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
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00:01:42.000We spend a fair amount of time talking about how Republicans don't do much of anything useful, but there is one exception.
00:01:49.000There's a few exceptions, but there's one senator that has just been so courageous and really ahead of his time on almost every single issue.
00:01:57.000And he is in a tough reelection fight in the great state of Wisconsin right now.
00:02:02.000Over $37 million have already been spent against him.
00:02:07.000And I have a feeling that they're going to find every single way to place more ads against the wonderful and the courageous senator from Wisconsin, Senator Ron Johnson, who joins us right now.
00:03:30.000I know this is a major issue for your campaign and something that is on the top of mind for voters.
00:03:36.000Violent crime is up in the nation's biggest cities.
00:03:39.000I don't know if it's up in Milwaukee or not.
00:03:41.000You'll be able to fill us in with that.
00:03:43.000We know you voted no on the gun control bill.
00:03:46.000Tell us why you voted no on that bill.
00:03:48.000And then just in general, talk about violent crime and how it's on the rise in America.
00:03:54.000Well, first of all, before we pass any new gun control laws, why don't we enforce the ones we've got?
00:04:02.000I don't believe, listen, we start spending tens of millions of dollars or tens of billions of dollars.
00:04:08.000You may have some impact on mental health issues.
00:04:11.000But again, I just don't see anything that we're passing in Washington, D.C. that's going to really impact these mass shootings.
00:04:17.000And let's face it, the vast majority of gun violence is occurring on the streets, oftentimes in the streets of cities governed by Democrats, oftentimes in cities with very strong gun control laws.
00:04:29.000So, bottom line, this is another one of these dysfunctional pieces of legislation.
00:04:33.000Didn't go through committee process, no chance for amendments.
00:04:38.000In this case, it's, I think, 15 Republicans joining with all 50 Democrats.
00:04:43.000So, a majority of our conference was opposed to this bill, partly because it did not offer due process protection in some of these red flag laws that it would be inducements, incentives for states to pass.
00:04:56.000So, across the board, I just do not think it'd be worthy of my support.
00:05:00.000Yeah, and thank you for that vote, which I consider to be courageous considering the amount of ads being spent against you.
00:05:09.000So, I do wonder, though, why is it always, it seems as if Republicans are quick to try to go in the direction of Democrats, but the Democrats never negotiate with us.
00:05:17.000I mean, we look at the southern border, which I know is a major issue for voters in Wisconsin.
00:05:22.000All we asked for was a couple billion dollars for the wall, could never get any movement on it.
00:05:26.000Why does it seem as if Democrats never budge an inch, but Republicans are quick to try to always appease Democrats?
00:06:18.000I mean, you ran a business before you went to the Senate.
00:06:20.000You understand what it's like to run a business, unlike most people in politics.
00:06:24.000I mean, over the last just 18 months, we've seen a massive increase in inflation.
00:06:29.000What role can a Republican Senate and Republican Congress play in putting an effective check and balance on this runaway inflation?
00:06:38.000Hopefully, if we do win the majority, if I survive my reelection, we'll all be William F. Buckley Conservatives and stand athwart history and just yell, stop.
00:06:49.000But the problem we have is that prior Congresses, and I would say this one as well, continue to grant their constitutional authority or transfer it to the executive branch and continue to make the president more and more powerful.
00:07:00.000So there's so many things the president can do legally with just executive action.
00:07:05.000And then, of course, this administration, like the Obama administration, was pretty lawless, and they're happy to push the envelope on that and enact executive orders that end up being slapped down by the courts.
00:07:16.000But it takes a couple of years for that to wind through the courts.
00:07:23.000We're going to really need to win not only 2022 and also 2024, but then have an agenda and be ready to act on it as soon as we would take control in 2025.
00:07:33.000Yeah, so what do you think that agenda should be?
00:07:35.000And also, I mean, taking power in 2022 is important, but just to manage the expectation of our voters, what is going to be the top of the list understanding that if we take back the Senate, we're going to be living under divided government.
00:07:47.000Well, let's take a look at what we need to do and the harm that's being caused right now by the Biden administration.
00:07:53.000Across the board, they are weakening America.
00:07:55.000Open borders, 40-year high inflation, record gasoline prices, rising crime.
00:09:16.000Obviously, deficits and spending is out of control.
00:09:18.000And we have a completely open border and a weaken America that our adversaries are taking advantage of.
00:09:23.000So something that I struggle with, and I know a lot of our listeners do as well, is the ideological component to this, because what you just articulated was a rather remarkable list of what seems to be intentional mistakes.
00:09:39.000I put in air quotes, open borders and inflation.
00:09:50.000Because it seems as if they're willing to break the back of American strength to try to usher in some form of a form of government that we've never lived through or under.
00:09:59.000Being in Washington, D.C., can you help make sense of that for me?
00:10:03.000Yeah, I've been saying for a long time, you know, there's no doubt that the Biden administration is incompetent, but that's being way too kind.
00:10:10.000You know, these policy disasters, the results of these policies are exactly that.
00:10:15.000They are the result of their policies.
00:10:19.000They have massive depths of spending that they knew would create inflation.
00:10:23.000Their own economic advisors were warning against that.
00:10:26.000But their war on fossil fuel is designed to drive up the cost of gasoline and energy, to force us all into electric vehicles and wind and solar power, even though we don't have the rare earth minerals.
00:10:37.000We're not mining enough copper to even produce all the electric vehicles and the wind towers and everything else that we would need.
00:10:45.000So their policies are designed on fantasies.
00:10:48.000They're not grounded in reality, but they sound good.
00:10:51.000And of course, they're backed up by the complicit mainstream media.
00:10:54.000So no, I think their policies are absolutely designed to have the impact they're having.
00:10:58.000They just don't want to be held accountable for it, but they rely on the mainstream media not to hold them accountable.
00:11:03.000And it's so dangerous to be dealing with an entire political party that lives in a fantasy or imagination world because then there's no counter to their failure because they'll just say their failure is actually a success.
00:11:15.000And Senator, that's a changing of the guard, isn't it?
00:11:18.000I mean, the old Democrat Party 20 or 30 years ago, did at least admit that high gas prices open borders and a destruction of a dollar, like, well, that's a bad thing.
00:11:26.000Now we're being told, no, it's actually a wonderful thing.
00:11:28.000I mean, it's maddening for those of us that don't live in Washington, D.C.
00:11:31.000I can only imagine what it's like in the Senate to have to deal with this where people say, well, actually, the good news about high gas prices is we get to have all these electric vehicles.
00:11:40.000Talk about you're traveling the state of Wisconsin.
00:11:45.000I think you're going to be able to survive this race for a lot of different reasons, but the money being spent against you is substantial and significant.
00:11:51.000But the voters of Wisconsin, it doesn't, I can't imagine they're thrilled with $550 gas and the price of goods going up the way it is.
00:12:01.000What are the voters of Wisconsin communicating to on a daily basis?
00:12:05.000Yeah, there's no doubt about high gasoline prices, record inflation is the number one issue.
00:12:55.000Then they elected Huger Chavez, put themselves on the path of income equality, which means equal misery.
00:13:03.000And you saw how in a generation, Venezuela went from an economic powerhouse to an economic basket case where they're slaughtering their citizens in the street, they're starving them, and they have a net outflow of about 10% of their population trying to escape that hellhole.
00:13:20.000So it's just, you know, it's, as Ronald Reagan said, freedom is but one generation away from extinction.
00:13:27.000I think people in Wisconsin do understand that.
00:13:29.000You know, Charlie, I can't tell you how many people come up to me literally with tears in their eyes saying we have to save this country.
00:13:35.000And I also have to believe, you know, I often say, you know, anybody that wants to fundamentally transform something doesn't particularly like it.
00:13:42.000But, you know, that's Democrat leaders.
00:13:44.000I think most Democrats, most independents, most Americans love this country.
00:13:49.000They are highly concerned about the path we're on.
00:13:51.000When you see, what, 75% of the American public believe we're on the wrong path?
00:13:56.000My message to Wisconsinites is, listen, if you love this country, if you're concerned about its future, join us.
00:14:12.000And there is no state, or there's a few states like Wisconsin, but it's top five of where you have these old blue-collar Democrats, and they're looking around.
00:14:20.000They're saying, what the heck happened to my party?
00:14:23.000Donald Trump really started that movement there.
00:14:25.000And I think, Senator, you've done a great job of channeling that.
00:14:28.000But especially if you look at places that used to be hardcore Democrat counties, I look at southeastern Wisconsin in particular.
00:14:38.000I think Kenosha and Racine, those areas are going to go red coming into November.
00:14:42.000And outside of Madison and Milwaukee, I think it's just going to be, I think it's going to be a landslide.
00:14:48.000From cringing at the pump to getting an eye-popping check at your favorite restaurant, inflation is hitting us all where it hurts, and it really hurts.
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00:16:03.000So, Senator, I want to ask you, a lot of people to kind of reinforce that point are wondering how to make sense of this idea that we're doing this destruction to ourselves.
00:16:12.000What gives me hope, though, is that anything we do to ourselves, we could stop doing to ourselves.
00:16:17.000What is the agenda to voters that we need to put forward in the next 5, 10, 15 years that show that we can actually reignite American prosperity?
00:16:25.000Well, again, we have to get deficit spending out of control, under control.
00:16:29.000And we do need to stabilize the Social Security and Medicare.
00:16:34.000We need to fix our health care system.
00:16:35.000It's a financing problem, the third-party payer system.
00:16:38.000So we have to take on these big issues, put America back on a path of fiscal sustainability.
00:16:45.000And then we need to start reducing the size of government.
00:16:47.000I'd love to have a presidential candidate run on a platform that, no, we're going to actually shrink government.
00:16:53.000We're going to take a look at these departments that have just sprung up that are not as part of the enumerated powers.
00:16:58.000We're going to send that governing authority back to the states.
00:17:01.000That was the foundational premise of this nation.
00:17:03.000Government close to the government to where it's more accountable, more efficient, more effective.
00:18:46.000And so they'll be dismissed, and we won't have those healthcare workers in a situation where we already have a severe shortage of healthcare workers throughout our healthcare industry, but we won't have them there to take care of our veterans.
00:18:59.000So no matter how you slice it, this is a travesty of an idiotic, stupid policy being pushed on by the Biden administration.
00:19:08.000I think they're primarily pushy because they just simply can't admit they've been wrong about their policies in the past.
00:19:14.000I really hope that's the explanation, Senator.
00:19:16.000I hope it's just kind of arrogance and pride.
00:19:19.000I hope it's not about an agenda trying to purge the military.
00:19:22.000I hope it's not about that because it seems as if we are trying to weaken the finest fighting force the world has ever known.
00:19:50.000It doesn't actually make us wonder, but how an 18-year-old says, yeah, actually, I'm not going to enlist in this.
00:19:56.000The military is now thinking of dropping the high school diploma requirement in order to get in the military to try to meet their enrollment numbers.
00:20:04.000I mean, this is a major national security issue.
00:20:07.000If we cannot build a volunteer fighting force, this should take pause.
00:20:11.000I mean, dude, Democrats seem to be unfazed by this, but I imagine this is something that the entire Republican conference is very worried about.
00:20:21.000And regardless of the intent, it's certainly having the impact of weakening our military.
00:20:26.000And let's face it, the Biden administration across the board, all their policies are weakening this country.
00:20:30.000Open borders, the 40-year high inflation, the rising crime, the record gasoline prices, this concentration on wokeness as opposed to military readiness.
00:20:40.000I'm highly concerned about our nuclear deterrent.
00:20:43.000We need to continue to modernize our nuclear weapons so that they're an adequate deterrent.
00:20:49.000And again, when you're focusing on, as you said, gender identity, those types of things, what is your pronoun?
00:20:56.000You're not concentrating on keeping our fighting force ready to really confront the adversaries that are taking advantage of our weakness.
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00:22:30.000Whether you're considering owning versus renting or seeking a safer haven for your family in a new state, now is the time to get a pre-approved loan to give you the edge over other buyers.
00:23:51.000So, you know, there are some out there that are having it hold around Republican plus five or six, others that are now down to two or three.
00:23:59.000That would still look any Republican popular vote victory is a gain.
00:24:04.000I do think it's a foregone conclusion at this point that Republicans are going to take the House.
00:24:09.000They're so shy away, even with redistricting, they're favored to net a few seats.
00:24:14.000But I mean, Charlie, with the president as unpopular as he is, and by that, historically unpopular, since Truman, nobody has been more unpopular this early in their first term as Joe Biden.
00:24:28.000He is the most unpopular new president in modern American history.
00:24:33.000Right track, wrong track is historically negative.
00:24:37.000These are all the metrics and the indicators that really matter most to forecasters.
00:24:41.000Economics matter as well, and they're abysmal.
00:24:45.000Now, there are caps because some districts, Republicans just don't have a prayer in, just like Democrats don't have a prayer in some districts under normal circumstances as well.
00:24:56.000But what they're doing right now, and what we're seeing in these battleground districts, is it's real convenient to blame abortion.
00:25:03.000It's real convenient to blame the January 6th committee, whatever it is that you want to blame.
00:25:10.000The fact is, Republicans are starting to say things to me like, What's the point?
00:25:20.000Kevin McCarthy is talking about constitutional protections for abortion after Roe v. Wade.
00:25:26.000So decades and decades of fighting these fights just to have their leaders within 24 hours stab them in the back to an issue that's near and dear to their heart.
00:25:38.000So it's the difference between, you know, a pickup in that, you know, minor pickup in the House and maybe a tied Senate or a blowout, you know, and a several seat Senate gain, you know, several seat Senate majority.
00:25:53.000That is really what they're flirting with destroying right now.
00:25:56.000So the conventional wisdom is what you articulated, where people say, okay, we can't, we can expect Roe v. Wade to hurt us as Republicans.
00:26:27.000I know this in Arizona, people that are Democrats are stopping me in grocery stores and be like, I hate you and I hate conservatives and I'm voting Republican.
00:27:00.000I've showed you Kevin McCarthy's favorability ratings, Mitch McConnell's favorability ratings.
00:27:07.000The devils are really, the devil really is in the detail.
00:27:10.000Mitch McConnell has a higher, very favorable rating among Democrats than he does among Republicans in our poll.
00:27:17.000Kevin McCarthy started the year with about 32, 31% saying they didn't know enough about him to form an opinion.
00:27:24.000We're now down to the low 20s and his very unfavorable has swollen.
00:27:28.000And that's because Republicans don't like their own leaders.
00:27:32.000Nancy Pelosi has the highest unfit, very unfavorable.
00:27:36.000But if you ask Democrats, they circle the wagon around her.
00:27:39.000Schumer, he's not looking great either, but at least his own party likes him.
00:27:43.000That's because Democrats feel represented and they are represented.
00:27:47.000Republicans feel like they're betrayed all the time because they are betrayed all the time.
00:27:52.000You know, so basically, you know, in the end, Charlie, I mean, people you need them pumped.
00:27:57.000You need your base pump and you need the independents that lean your way to be pumped.
00:28:03.000All you, you know, I would, you could stay quiet, but I would suggest more than that.
00:28:08.000You know, this leadership reminds the Republican and right-leaning voter every day in this country why they took a chance on Donald J. Trump in the first place, because at least he fought, because at least he defended them.
00:28:21.000You know, you gave you Democrats and you gave Republicans with a once upon a time Republicans now who have an identity crisis.
00:28:31.000They don't know what they identify as.
00:28:33.000You gave these people carte blanche in the January 6th committee to basically smear you as domestic terrorists, and you're doing nothing.
00:28:49.000And the more they do that, the more they try to distract away from ridiculously high gas prices, the more they try to distract away from $55 billion blown in Ukraine with no benefit whatsoever.
00:29:06.000This party is not a party for intervention anymore.
00:29:10.000Are there still some who, you know, well, Putin's a bad guy and we should back Ukraine?
00:29:15.000Yeah, but they were a 30% minority at best the entire time.
00:29:20.000And yet they govern like that's the majority.
00:29:23.000And again, Kevin, I've said this, and I know I've ticked, I got a lot of calls at the end of last week and over the weekend for running on shows and doing this, but it's true.
00:30:07.000And it's tragic for the Republican voter.
00:30:10.000You know, there's an article in Real Coopolitics, a great article.
00:30:14.000It says Republicans are capped at 247.
00:30:16.000I actually think that's a generally modest performance for an out-of-party power in a first-term incumbent midterm.
00:30:24.000If Republicans are going to break their 24-7 cap, this would be the year to do it.
00:30:29.000When they're swinging states, whole states by 12 or more points, when they're swinging states like New Jersey, especially in southern New Jersey, 20 plus points, this would be the time to do it.
00:30:41.000And instead, they are hell-bent on doing what they do best, which is snatch mediocrity from the hands of greatness.
00:32:11.000We're seeing all of the foundations that would mean a red wave.
00:32:16.000But if Republicans keep on betraying their voters, I know people that are similar to you, Richard, and they say, oh, what's the point in voting?
00:32:23.000Now, hilariously, the Republican establishment's been calling me the last couple of days.
00:32:26.000You know what they've been telling me?
00:32:27.000That it's my fault because I hit the Republicans so that I'm telling voters not to vote Republican.
00:32:33.000Like, oh, yeah, it's my fault that I expose the fact you betray your voters.
00:33:13.000They self-describe as either independent, maybe they describe as independent or something else.
00:33:18.000And ideologically, they're moderate to conservatives.
00:33:21.000Donald Trump thrashed Joe Biden with that group.
00:33:24.000They're low propensity voters on that spectrum, but Trump can get them out.
00:33:29.000Martha McSally split them with Kelly, which was the difference between, you know, that was a major reason for the difference in their margin at the presidential level with the senatorial level.
00:33:39.000Blake Masters is that kind of candidate that can win those guys.
00:33:43.000And, you know, with the help, he can get them out.
00:33:47.000But big war chest, and you've got to overcome it with a larger turnout.
00:34:22.000You can't win two-thirds of the white vote, win whites with college degrees and without college degrees, and be double digits in the state of Georgia among black voters and be down by 10 points.
00:34:33.000Quinnipiak should be investigated by the federal beer investigation for fraud.
00:35:59.000Fetterman, it's just as if you were to go to a Hollywood casting agency and say, give us somebody that can be a far left winger, but look like a radical Republican.