The Great America Show - A NEW ELECTION ERA： BOTH SIDES SO PARTISAN, TRIBAL AND ANGRY THAT NORMAL METRICS & RULES DIDN’T APPLY IN THE 2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS

00:00:00.000 Hello everybody, I'm Lou Dobbs and welcome to The Great America Show and here we are.

00:00:05.920 The world's only superpower, the greatest nation on earth, the most sophisticated,

00:00:12.180 technologically advanced society and economy, the only constitutional republic,

00:00:19.120 the greatest democracy, and here we are. But where are we exactly? Well, for all we're

00:00:26.900 supposed to be as a great nation, we don't rightly know. A week later, how that election turned out.

00:00:34.600 So we don't know exactly where we are. And that seems to be exactly the way the Marxist

00:00:41.400 dems want it to be. All right, we don't need to know exactly, but how about just approximately then?

00:00:48.240 I'll take our approximate whereabouts politically, because we are in a sea right now of ambiguity,

00:00:54.900 a dense fog of disinformation, and none of us seems to see any horizon, in any direction,

00:01:02.800 distant or near. And we could well be standing over shifting sands of time, of relativism,

00:01:09.620 and absence of both understanding and resolve. A vast, even endless void of values, perception

00:01:16.960 confused, knowledge lessening and all melding in a slow dimming of the lights of civilization.

00:01:23.300 A creeping darkness of indifference and ebbing national vitality. And the existential questions

00:01:30.600 seem to get larger and more complex. Is this really how our great nation ends? In confusion,

00:01:38.700 passivity, and surrender of our ideals, hopes, and dreams as Americans? The Marxist dems, the deep

00:01:46.200 state, the other enemies of freedom and individual liberty, enemies of the United States and of truth

00:01:52.020 and justice and the American way, want us to answer as weak and lost souls would. They want us to answer

00:02:00.140 yes, to surrender to the forces of darkness. Yes, to ending the fight for the American dream,

00:02:06.420 for our constitutional republic. As if 250 years of American history and conflict and sacrifice suddenly

00:02:15.260 matters not in the early 2000s. As if we have no responsibility, no obligation to preserve the United States

00:02:23.820 for our fellow citizens, for future generations of Americans. But to the Marxist left, listen to this.

00:02:32.380 We will prevail. No matter the Marxist left's catcalls and gnashing of teeth, nor their evil ways and deeds,

00:02:39.640 we must fight them to win. There is no path to a future of freedom and prosperity paved with yielding

00:02:47.280 compromise of all we are as a nation, surrender of all that was our legacy, the surrender of future

00:02:54.640 generations of Americans' birthright. Our duty is much higher. Our burdens, ours to carry and not 0.60

00:03:02.040 complain or succumb to fear, to weakness. Our duty is to overcome the Marxist left, to prevail.

00:03:09.480 To assure the survival of truth, of justice, and the American way. There is no other way.

00:03:18.780 Now about that midterm election that is still unfinished. We have with us today Tom Bevan.

00:03:24.780 He is the co-founder and executive editor of the important political media site Real Clear Politics,

00:03:31.820 an aggregator of polls, opinion, and analysis. Tom, always good to have you with us here on the

00:03:37.940 Great America Show. Welcome. And about that midterm election, what in the world happened on November 8th?

00:03:46.080 Well, that's a good question. I think, you know, typically in these elections, and I've been through

00:03:51.520 a few of them, there's a fog of war aspect to how the vote shakes out. And you need a couple days to

00:03:59.420 kind of dig through. And first of all, see, we've got a lot of races outstanding.

00:04:02.920 So we'll see where those come in and then kind of dig through and figure out exactly what happened.

00:04:10.360 I mean, this one to me is, was surprising. I mean, by all the metrics that we use to look at

00:04:19.120 midterm elections, historically speaking, whether it's the president's job approval rating, the right

00:04:24.980 direction, wrong track metric. You know, you look at voters were telling pollsters very clearly that

00:04:33.340 it was economy and inflation was the number one issue and that Republicans had advantages on those

00:04:37.660 issues. There was, this was a, almost a perfect storm, very difficult environment for Democrats to

00:04:48.640 run in. And yet they ran surprisingly strong all the way across the country, outside of Florida. I mean,

00:04:53.140 they won a lot of house races that were, that were toss ups, that were really competitive races that,

00:05:00.020 you know, you would think in an environment like this, that, that, that would advantage Republicans.

00:05:04.260 It, it didn't in a lot of these places. And so, you know, it's one of those things. I think the

00:05:10.160 biggest number that jumped out to me, Lou, looking just sort of at the exit polls,

00:05:14.600 independence voted for Democrats by two points, independence. And, and that's not,

00:05:20.980 that is a historical anomaly, uh, for a first year midterm with, again, those kinds of metrics

00:05:27.760 involved. I mean, usually independents vote with the, you know, whoever wants change, not for a status

00:05:34.020 quo in a, in a first year midterm. So, and I'm not exactly sure why that is. Uh, I think it'll take

00:05:40.040 some more digging. I don't necessarily buy the, the idea that it was, um, that it was abortion because

00:05:47.300 again, the data was pretty clear on this abortion motivated Democrats, uh, January 6th, you know,

00:05:53.580 threats to democracy motivated Democrats. It did not, it was well down on the list of, of urgent

00:05:59.880 concerns for certainly for Republicans, but even for independence by, by three to one or four to one

00:06:05.360 in some cases. So that wasn't it. Uh, but clearly despite the economy being their number one issue,

00:06:13.180 independence did not hold that against Joe Biden and the Democrats and a lot of these races, they just

00:06:17.660 didn't. And to me, that is among the chief inexplicables because he ran up a, uh, half a

00:06:29.100 trillion dollar tab just for the student loan forgiveness. Uh, we used to call that walking

00:06:34.520 around money. Do you remember that? Uh, only he's doing it in increments of millions of dollars,

00:06:41.360 uh, for the, for the, for the young voters. And apparently they turned out. So as bald, uh,

00:06:48.120 a bribe as it was, it apparently had some considerable positive effect for the Dems.

00:06:53.880 Yeah. I mean, that was a question, young voters, uh, whether they would turn out typically again,

00:06:59.640 they don't historically speaking in a midterm. And again, I think this means that, you know,

00:07:04.600 uh, we're in a new environment. I mean, maybe we've reached the end of history with regard to

00:07:10.620 how we analyze elections. We've entered an era where, you know, both sides are so partisan,

00:07:16.840 so tribal, so, uh, concerned about the, the quote unquote existential threat posed by the other side 0.83

00:07:24.800 that, uh, that the normal metrics and rules no longer apply. Um, that's quite possible,

00:07:31.920 or this could be just a, again, a historical anomaly. And we go back to sort of our, our regular,

00:07:37.820 uh, more regular patterns in, in future cycles. But, um, again, it's, it's, it's one of those things

00:07:45.220 we'll, I think we'll get a better understanding of it, uh, as time goes on. Yeah. When the anomalies,

00:07:52.940 uh, become the norm, I believe we have a, a new environment. And I, I personally believe that

00:07:59.680 there is a different field to it. I can't claim anything more than an intuitive response to all

00:08:04.900 of it has happened since 2012. Uh, that was an election that, uh, certainly Mitt Romney should

00:08:10.500 have won without question. Uh, this has very, I realize one is a presidential and the other is a

00:08:16.540 midterm, but it has a very similar field, a lot of unexpected results, a lot of, uh, disconnects,

00:08:23.580 uh, and anomalies. And, and for example, sitting now in Arizona, uh, something like 70% of the vote,

00:08:31.940 uh, uh, uh, counted, but my Lord, what is taking so long and why would there be machine failures? And

00:08:38.820 they ran a perfect election in the primaries and suddenly a fourth or fifth of the machines are,

00:08:45.060 go down, uh, in Arizona, uh, these all sorts of questions arise, uh, and, and again, without

00:08:54.640 explanation. Yeah. I mean, one of the more interesting aspects of this to me, so Joe Biden's

00:09:02.120 job approval rating in our, in our real clear politics average, it was about 42.3, uh, exit

00:09:08.320 polls from last night show it at 44 nationally. And if you go look at these individual States, it was

00:09:12.820 43 in Arizona, 41 in Georgia, 46 in Pennsylvania, 42 in Ohio, 45 in Nevada, 42 in New Hampshire,

00:09:20.140 43 in North Carolina, 45 in Wisconsin. So he was at or below his, his national job approval in five of

00:09:26.480 those swing States. Um, you know, Obama was at, uh, Trump was at 45 in 2018, lost 40 seats. Obama was at

00:09:34.920 45 in 2010, lost 63 seats. Obama was at 44 in 2014 and lost 13 seats. So, um,

00:09:42.820 one of the interesting things that when you look at this data is that the people who,

00:09:47.980 who were somewhat disapproval disapprove of Joe Biden, right? There's, they asked people to do

00:09:53.480 strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove or strongly disapprove. Um, the folks

00:10:00.040 who approved to Joe Biden, obviously voted overwhelmingly for Democrats. The people who

00:10:03.220 strongly disapproved of Joe Biden voted overwhelmingly for Republicans, but among the slice of people that

00:10:09.680 only somewhat disapproved of Biden more often than not, they voted for Democrats,

00:10:14.300 they disapproved slightly sort of mushy on, on Biden's handling, but they still continued to vote

00:10:22.500 for Democrats. And again, that's something that to me, I want to go back and take a look at that

00:10:26.800 historically. That seems like a, another indicator that, uh, you know, that the electorate did not

00:10:33.580 function in, in the normal pattern that we are used to seeing in these midterm elections.

00:10:39.660 Uh, either that, or the pollsters were not operating, uh, in an, uh, appropriately given

00:10:47.800 change, uh, atmospherics in our society, the, among voters, we are, you know, perilously close to

00:10:56.580 not having a Republican majority in the house. Although that does seem to be the, uh, the outcome once it's

00:11:02.380 all said and done, uh, and governors picked up, uh, two and Republicans lost two in the governor's

00:11:09.260 races. So it's, we are a divided nation as, as, uh, as cliched that is, uh, to say, uh, but it's more

00:11:19.540 than just hackneyed analysis. It, we are in a midterm that should have historically, as we've all said,

00:11:27.740 should have seen the Democrats punished for what was the wrong direction, uh, in the country for

00:11:33.660 the, uh, the disruption of, uh, of a prosperous economy. The list goes on and there was, there

00:11:41.380 was no punishment whatsoever that I can say. Well, I mean, they will not most likely not have

00:11:47.800 a majority in the house. Um, but obviously they, they, they did surprisingly well in holding down

00:11:53.920 their losses from what a lot of folks, uh, myself included, we're going to be significantly more

00:11:59.500 gains from Republicans. Um, as, as to the polling, listen, you know, we're going to go through once

00:12:05.620 these results are final and we're going to, and we're going to take a real hard look at the pollsters

00:12:10.240 and how they did and who was accurate and who was not accurate. And that's part of our pollster

00:12:14.140 accountability initiative that we've launched at real club politics. And, you know, there were some,

00:12:18.560 I mean, just broadly speaking, you know, the polls were generally accurate. Our averages were,

00:12:24.140 you know, pretty accurate in Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin. Um, you know, we had Maggie Hassan's

00:12:31.440 support was understated in, in New Hampshire, but it was also Marco Rubio's support was understated in,

00:12:37.000 in Florida. Um, you know, the Georgia runoff, the polls show that a tie basically going to,

00:12:43.760 um, or they had Herschel Walker, the latest polls had Herschel Walker up about a point,

00:12:46.880 but going to a runoff, which is where it ended up. Uh, the last polls had Oz winning and by,

00:12:52.120 you know, three tenths of a percent on our average in, in Pennsylvania, and he lost by two and a

00:12:56.640 half. So it, you know, some of the, the bluer the States got the bigger, the, you know, some polls

00:13:02.180 showed that Colorado was going to be close. It wasn't some polls showed that, uh, you know,

00:13:06.320 Washington state was going to be close. It wasn't. So in some of those blue States, 0.87

00:13:10.960 bluer States, Democrats really did flex their muscles and, and over perform the polls. But again,

00:13:16.700 we'll be able to take a, it'll take us a week or two weeks to kind of really dig in and see exactly,

00:13:21.400 uh, what went on with the polling. But at first blush, um, it wasn't like it was a complete,

00:13:28.040 you know, polling miss all across the country. No, no. Uh, and I, I don't mean to, to suggest that I,

00:13:35.660 what I, I'm, I considering is that there were polls, particularly in the Northeast, uh, that just

00:13:43.320 were, uh, had a wrong conclusion, but the margin of error is appropriate. Uh, and the idea of the

00:13:51.940 red wave became something of a, uh, uh, a myth that was being built, uh, every day, uh, larger and

00:13:59.780 taller. Uh, I think it got, it was a, perhaps a, a contrivance of the, of the national political

00:14:06.660 media more than anything else. What do you think? Um, I don't know about that. I mean,

00:14:13.020 obviously I think, I think, um, you know, from our perspective, again, we went through this very

00:14:19.760 methodically and looked at the polls and looked at the numbers and the metrics and, you know,

00:14:23.680 Sean Trendy is our senior elections analyst and he's, you know, we talk about the fundamentals

00:14:28.400 all the time. The fundamentals are what drive this election, right? Again, presidential job approval

00:14:33.660 rating, um, you know, the economy as being sort of the, the number one driver, which was clear in

00:14:41.020 the data. That's exactly what the case was. Um, and in this kind of environment, Democrats,

00:14:46.220 you know, should have, if they, if it followed historical patterns, um, they should have taken

00:14:52.500 much more of a losses in, in the house side and Senate side. Um, you know, the generic congressional

00:14:59.320 average, again, you know, our final average added Republicans plus 2.5, uh, right now. I mean,

00:15:04.940 if you look at these numbers that are coming in and again, there are a lot of votes to be counted

00:15:07.840 on the West close West coast. So this is going to, this is going to shrink over time, but

00:15:12.160 Republicans lead by five and a half million votes. It's 52 46 right now. Um, so that'll obviously

00:15:20.000 shrink, but I didn't realize that it expanded that much. Yeah. So Republicans will still end up

00:15:25.760 winning. I think the, the, the national house vote, um, which is again, the corollary to the,

00:15:32.020 the generic congressional ballot. Um, but, and, and again, typically, you know, a two and a half

00:15:38.860 percentage points lead in the generic ballot would have yielded, uh, more gains for Republicans in,

00:15:46.700 in this kind of environment. Yeah. It gets to be a little bit like, uh, president Trump, uh,

00:15:53.360 talking about, wait a minute. I, I won Florida. I won Ohio. I won all of these counties that are

00:15:59.040 absolutely, uh, uh, essential, uh, historically to winning the presidency. Why did I have the

00:16:04.660 presidency? Uh, those become, uh, sort of coincidental factors rather than, uh, determinate

00:16:12.500 agents. Uh, it's a, it gets a little, uh, tricky, uh, what, what you all do. I, I mean,

00:16:19.060 I respect the heck out of the, all of the pollsters, uh, nearly all of the pollsters. There's

00:16:23.060 some, uh, some that I don't, uh, but, uh, he overall, I think a good job is done, but it's

00:16:31.660 also interesting to me that there was an expression that I heard less in this election than I have

00:16:37.200 heard since, uh, well, uh, 1992. And that is, it's the economy's stupid. I didn't hear, uh,

00:16:46.000 that expressed. And I didn't see any evidence that it was preying, uh, actively on the minds of

00:16:53.980 voters of either party. Did I miss something? Yeah, I think you might've, I mean, look again,

00:17:01.440 from, from the data, from the polls, the economy was the number one issue. I mean, it wasn't even,

00:17:05.460 it wasn't even close. I mean, this is the thing it was. And I, I tweeted about this and I talk about

00:17:11.400 this. I mean, if you go back and look, um, in April, Quinnipiac had, uh, listed inflation. It

00:17:18.000 was the number one issue across the board for all voters, for Republicans, for Democrats and for

00:17:22.440 independents. In May, this was after the Dobbs decision dropped, it leaked in early May, May 2nd,

00:17:29.560 I think. Uh, so a few weeks after that, you can see inflation, the number one issue among Republicans,

00:17:34.480 among independents overall, but Democrats' priorities shifted immediately, understandably,

00:17:39.180 to, to abortion. It became their number one issue. Fast forward to August, late August. So now that

00:17:45.060 the Dobbs decision actually came out on, uh, in June. So here we are, you know, full two months after

00:17:50.960 that, uh, inflation was the number one issue by three to one for all voters, for Republican voters

00:17:59.360 and for independent voters, but still not for Democrats. It was like tied for fourth or something

00:18:04.480 behind, uh, abortion and some other issues. Um, so it clearly was a major factor in this election.

00:18:14.780 Uh, voters were telling pollsters that unequivocally like for months. Um, but, and again,

00:18:22.300 even though Republicans had big leads on that issue, think back to the NBC news, wall street journal,

00:18:26.760 I think it was something like 25 or 30 points on the economy that, that voters trusted Republicans

00:18:31.300 over Democrats. Um, it did not translate in, at the ballot box for whatever reason. Um, Democrats

00:18:38.760 were not held accountable, uh, you know, for, for what people said, you know, they, they think the

00:18:45.900 economy's on the wrong track. They were suffering, they were struggling to pay their bills and the

00:18:49.600 like. Um, but again, for whatever reason, they decided that, that, uh, they would vote for Democrats.

00:18:56.500 Well, uh, you know, I, I, I, I take your point and I, and I feel like definitely I did miss something,

00:19:02.980 uh, even though, uh, to me it was perfunctory the way the Republicans included, uh, high inflation

00:19:10.040 and the economy on their litany of grievances against the leadership of Joe Biden. Uh, and I think

00:19:18.800 it shows that whatever the problems we had with Joe Biden, if indeed there were significant, uh,

00:19:23.960 they didn't translate to district races and state races, uh, whether it be the Senator or the,

00:19:30.780 or the house, uh, I just didn't see that happen. Uh, I will, I will say this Lou. I mean, you might,

00:19:37.140 I think you're right in the sense that, you know, Republicans really did sort of hone in and,

00:19:43.200 and think that they were getting traction on the issue of crime. The crime was going to be,

00:19:48.440 you know, so they stopped talking about the economy so much and they really started hammering the issue

00:19:51.640 of a crime. And, you know, they thought that this was creating a surge for Ron Johnson in Wisconsin.

00:19:57.340 It was creating a surge for Lee Zeldin in New York. Um, you know, and look, Lee Zeldin finished

00:20:03.640 better than, I mean, I think that race is like five or six points. Um, so it obviously boosted him,

00:20:09.420 but it may have distracted, uh, Republicans from, from talking about in the same way that Democrats

00:20:15.000 shifted their entire focus to abortion, uh, and didn't really talk about the economy.

00:20:19.480 It may have led Republicans, uh, you know, to get distracted talking about an issue that they

00:20:24.840 thought was going to really help them when in the end, uh, voters, you know, wanted to hear more.

00:20:29.900 They could have done a better job messaging and driving home the message on the economy.

00:20:34.940 And of course, playing in all of this is, uh, 2024, the Republican Lieutenant Governor of Georgia

00:20:43.960 decided to, to get a, to get a jump and said, Donald is in the rear view mirror. It's time to move on

00:20:52.820 based on all that was transpiring. How does this play for 2024?

00:20:59.240 I mean, listen, it's it prior to this election, it seemed very clear to me that Donald Trump,

00:21:06.180 a was going to run. He keeps telling people and he set a date when he's going to announce. And,

00:21:09.980 and it seemed very, very clear and that Donald Trump would, um, you know, the data suggests that

00:21:16.520 he's, if he decides to run, he's going to win the nomination. I mean, Republicans still like him and,

00:21:22.640 and, uh, prefer him over many other candidates, including Ron, uh, Ron DeSantis. However, um, I,

00:21:31.320 I, you know, I think that might change the calculus a little bit. I don't think it's going to deter

00:21:36.040 Donald Trump from running, but it may, Ron DeSantis may be encouraged to try and, you know,

00:21:41.860 take on Donald Trump in a primary where, where I didn't think he was going to do that, uh, prior to

00:21:46.860 last night, but given how well he did, he's going to have a lot of people chirping in his ear saying,

00:21:53.080 listen, you're, you're the savior of the Republican party. You're the only guy who can do this.

00:21:56.860 Here's all the money here are all, you know, we're lined up behind you, et cetera, et cetera.

00:22:00.940 You got to do this. You got to do this to save the Republican party. Um, and he might be tempted by

00:22:05.520 that. He might be, you know, again, given, given how well things went for him in Florida last night,

00:22:11.980 um, we may have a different dynamic on our hands that we, that we would have had otherwise.

00:22:17.120 I mean, it was not a great night for Trump. Uh, you know, I mean, some of his candidates won,

00:22:23.040 some of them lost, but just generally speaking, I mean, he was, he was out rallying. He was,

00:22:28.100 he was playing in a lot of these primaries. Um, and it wasn't a great night for, for Republicans.

00:22:34.360 I mean, there's just no getting around that. So I think he's going to, again, I'm not sure that

00:22:39.020 changes his calculus, but it may change the calculus of, of some folks in the party who,

00:22:43.500 um, who would like to see Donald Trump's policies and his platforms without all of the baggage and

00:22:52.160 drama that, that he brings along, because it is clear that, that, you know, Donald Trump,

00:22:57.420 he motivates Republicans, but, but he also motivates the heck out of Democrats.

00:23:02.500 And Democrats, Lord knows, don't need a lot of motivation. I mean, they,

00:23:06.980 they, they outwork Republicans every election. I don't care whether it's a midterm, a presidential,

00:23:13.080 their ground game makes Republicans look like children, uh, playing at politics. Uh, we,

00:23:20.780 we, we've just seen too many times, whether it's Pennsylvania, you name this, almost name the

00:23:25.880 state, their ground game is superior to anything that the Republican national committee plays any

00:23:31.780 role in certainly. And most of the state, uh, parties are not particularly good at it. Uh,

00:23:38.080 we were told by the Republican national committee, boy, do we have a database? Oh,

00:23:42.180 you've got a database. Uh, what, what good was it? Uh, it's, it gets to the point that there's an old

00:23:50.300 saying, uh, it's mine. Uh, you know, when you cross the penumbra of the absurd, there's nothing to do

00:23:56.620 but laugh. Uh, we have to laugh at what, uh, at these excuses for a national committee, uh, that we've

00:24:04.040 seen since 2012. Uh, they are absolutely helpless and without the intervention of Donald Trump,

00:24:12.180 in 2016, uh, this would be really a woeful record indeed. Don't you think?

00:24:19.080 Well, look, I think Donald Trump did, I mean, he changed the Republican party. I mean, he, he,

00:24:24.280 he changed it fundamentally into a working class populist economic based party. And, and that change

00:24:32.580 is going to continue, um, whether he's at the top of it or not. I mean, because the, the plates have

00:24:40.380 shifted and I don't think there's, there's any shifting back that's going to happen anytime soon.

00:24:45.620 So, um, you know, I, I, I suppose Republican operatives would say to you, their response

00:24:52.600 would be, listen, you know, we just turned out 48 million votes across the country and we beat the

00:24:59.160 Democrats by, again, we'll see what the final number is. 2 million, a million and a half. Um,

00:25:04.480 they'll say they did their part. Maybe we'll see in the end that, that Republican turnout came up

00:25:10.680 short in, in some of these States. And that's really what, what had happened. I mean, Myra

00:25:15.380 Flores tweeted that last night. She lost her race in South Texas, um, to, uh, uh, what's his name?

00:25:23.160 I'm blanking on it, man. I've got two hours sleep. So I understand. Same here. My, Myra Flores lost her

00:25:29.280 race. And she said, you know, basically Republicans and independents didn't turn out and, you know,

00:25:34.760 stayed home and, you know, you get what you vote for. So good luck. Cause you got a Democrat now.

00:25:39.960 Um, again, it'll take some time to really sort of tease out exactly if that was the case. And,

00:25:45.780 and it was a, it was a Republican turnout problem as opposed to, uh, you know, uh, uh, an issue just

00:25:52.300 with independence that Republicans turned out and Democrats turned out and they were all fired up.

00:25:57.440 Both sides were fired up and independence just, just tipped the balance in, in a lot of these

00:26:01.940 races, uh, enough to, to give Democrats, uh, the, the votes they needed to win a lot of these close

00:26:08.820 races. Yeah. The, the winner was Vincent Gonzalez. Thank you. Uh, and, and, and one of the, you're

00:26:16.860 welcome. Uh, and, uh, and we, we see nothing but blue. Well, that's not true. There's one district

00:26:24.360 and I can't recall which it is along this, the Southern, uh, tip of Texas there with the border

00:26:29.940 with Mexico. It's blue, uh, uh, nearly all of it. Uh, so there's, uh, again, a misreading,

00:26:37.660 I think on the part of the Republican party when it comes to illegal immigration, uh, when it comes

00:26:43.060 to border security, uh, you know, that's a hard sell on that particular, uh, sector. If I can use the

00:26:50.540 border patrol, uh, term it, it, and I think, uh, frankly, Flores is, uh, misinterpreting as well.

00:26:59.160 Uh, there's a preference there and it's a preference for what is a, uh, a free flow of,

00:27:05.360 uh, illegals, a free flow of drugs and a tolerance, if not a preference, uh, for, uh, human smuggling,

00:27:13.940 sex trafficking. And it's that's that simple. The United States, if it does not have the courage

00:27:19.500 to secure a border and to stop all that is crossing that border illegally, uh, that we have huge

00:27:25.580 problems. Uh, it may, there may be a truce at the border on either side of it because the, frankly,

00:27:31.200 the cartels are now controlling both sides of that border. Uh, it is, it is desperately bad news for

00:27:37.760 the rest of America. Well, listen, uh, you know, this was one of the things we were talking about,

00:27:43.960 the Hispanic vote, which has moved to Republicans over the last couple of cycles, right? It looks as if

00:27:48.860 Republicans did, did well with Hispanics. I think it was 60, 40 in the exit polls. I mean,

00:27:53.500 that's nationally. So we'll see where, again, in some of these States, how, how those numbers

00:27:57.900 differ, um, but also seem to do, uh, well with African Americans, uh, better than they have in 0.99

00:28:04.760 the past. So, you know, I, I also saw, and I want to go back and again, look through this. Um,

00:28:11.920 you know, when you look through, I think the gender gap was not nearly what it has been in past as

00:28:16.700 well. And again, that might have something to do with Donald Trump, not being on the ticket himself.

00:28:21.500 Uh, but Republicans seem to recover ground there as well, but again, came up short in just a lot of

00:28:27.880 these close races. And, um, so I, we'll see what the, what the, uh, Republican party decides to do

00:28:36.180 moving forward and how it may adjust and, and it's, it's, it's messaging and it's, it's stance and what

00:28:43.400 lessons it's going to learn from, from what happened. You know, there are an awful lot of

00:28:47.520 people in the Republican party who were expecting a lot more, uh, a lot more, a red wave, a red

00:28:53.160 tsunami. Uh, and it just didn't occur. Uh, as you say, it's absolutely maddening that in this day and

00:29:01.180 age, we can't count in one day or frankly vote in one day, uh, for our, uh, our, uh, elected officials.

00:29:08.780 It is really stunning stuff. Uh, your thoughts on what changes have to be made in terms of the,

00:29:15.080 uh, of the operation and administration of, uh, the electoral, uh, system.

00:29:23.060 Um, well, I, listen, I do think, uh, it's, it is astounding. My parents live in East Mesa,

00:29:30.260 Arizona, and they be texting and said they went to two polling locations and the lines were so long

00:29:34.780 because the tabulating machines were broken. Um, and it is astonishing that in a, a, uh, after,

00:29:42.460 especially what, after what happened in 2020, you know, the, the, the state and the apparatus there

00:29:48.320 had two years to get their stuff together and to have 20 to 25% of those tabulating machines break

00:29:54.760 down on election day. Um, when, you know, the governor's candidate, Katie Hobbs is also the

00:30:00.680 secretary of state. And also when, you know, most Republicans are going to the polls on election day,

00:30:05.780 while Democrats have, have already banked a lot of their vote early, just absolutely invites

00:30:11.180 skepticism and questions about, uh, you know, why that sort of thing is occurring. I, and look,

00:30:18.480 we'll find out in the end. Um, I hope everybody who wanted to vote, got to vote. My parents ended up

00:30:23.020 getting to vote. So it, you know, doesn't seem like, uh, it may not have hampered or, um, dampened

00:30:30.160 Republican turnout. We'll have to wait and see, but I would hope, and again, it's, you can't really

00:30:35.980 federalize elections. That's going to be unconstitutional. It's reserved for the states.

00:30:40.900 Um, but it would be nice if, if all these states got together and sent folks down to Florida and learn

00:30:45.620 best practices, because they seem to do a pretty good job of allowing early vote, counting it, getting it

00:30:51.780 out and, and tabulating it and posting it in, you know, in real time so that we know, and it's just

00:31:00.500 the fact that we're waiting, we're going to be waiting for, for days to count votes in Nevada

00:31:04.900 days to count votes, even though the race is over in Pennsylvania. Um, it just invites, uh, you know,

00:31:11.280 it invites speculation and the idea that there's stuff going on behind closed doors that we don't

00:31:16.400 know about. And, and that's not good for the system. It's not good for the integrity of the system.

00:31:20.100 And, and it'd be better if, if everybody just, you know, again, did, did the best practices that

00:31:26.380 are out there so that, that even if we don't need a national law to, to federalize elections,

00:31:30.940 but everybody started doing it the same way because it's the best way to do it.

00:31:35.740 Yeah. Best practices would be a wonderful approach with it. And it doesn't happen. Uh, three

00:31:42.500 electronic voting companies, all private companies, not public, uh, process 92%, processed over 92%

00:31:53.620 of the votes in 2020. Think of that. And most secretaries of state and county clerks who administer

00:32:00.700 these elections have no idea what happens in that black box or how to assure the security of it,

00:32:07.580 nor do the federal agencies that are responsible for the so-called voluntary certification of such

00:32:13.920 machines. Uh, this is madness. Uh, and we're not going to re litigate here today, 2020, but it

00:32:21.840 overhangs everything. The lack of integrity in our electoral system. Uh, and with this, again,

00:32:28.140 a very close election where we thought there'd be a tsunami, uh, and wouldn't have to deal with

00:32:33.880 those questions. Uh, we're back dealing with them, whether it be in New Jersey, whether it be in

00:32:38.320 Pennsylvania, uh, or, uh, or, uh, Arizona. So I just want to say, Tom, it's great having you with us.

00:32:47.000 Uh, we really appreciate your insight and sharing your thoughts with us in the, uh, in the wake of,

00:32:52.740 uh, a tsunami that didn't happen. Uh, we always give our, our guests the, the last word. And if you

00:33:00.320 will, your concluding thoughts, my concluding thoughts are, uh, that we still have a month

00:33:05.820 to go because there's going to be a runoff in Georgia. Um, and depending on what happens out 0.73

00:33:11.760 in Arizona and Nevada, you count those votes out there. Um, that race in Georgia could mean a lot.

00:33:19.120 I mean, it could, it might mean nothing depending on how those are, but it could mean a lot. And so,

00:33:24.180 uh, that could also be a repeat of 2020. So get ready for that and, uh, prepare yourselves for

00:33:30.800 another, uh, you know, another month of, of madness. I think the American people, if they're

00:33:37.260 not prepared now, we never will be because we're getting so much practice. Tom Bevin,

00:33:43.120 real clear politics. We thank you so much for being with us. Uh, look forward to talking with

00:33:47.900 you again soon. All right. Thanks Lou. Tom Bevin, real clear politics. Thanks as always for your

00:33:53.800 astute analysis and insight. And thanks everybody for being with us. A reminder,

00:33:59.260 you can follow me on Twitter and truth social at Lou Dobbs. Tomorrow. Our guest is attorney Kurt

00:34:05.260 Olson representing among others, president Trump and Mike Lindell. Please join us tomorrow.

00:34:11.980 Until then, God bless you and may God bless America.

The Great America Show - November 15, 2022

A NEW ELECTION ERA： BOTH SIDES SO PARTISAN, TRIBAL AND ANGRY THAT NORMAL METRICS & RULES DIDN’T APPLY IN THE 2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS

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