The Great America Show - AMERICANS HAVE LOST TRUST IN THEIR INSTITUTIONS & THEY DON’T TRUST THEIR LEADERS

00:00:00.000 Hello, everybody. I'm Lou Dobbs, and this is The Great America Show. We're talking today with the

00:00:06.420 executive editor of Real Clear Politics, Tom Bevan, and we'll be talking about American politics

00:00:12.240 as they've never been before. A White House filled to overflowing with manic leftists who don't care

00:00:19.580 how radical, how wrong their ideas are, they and their boss are all hell-bent on driving America

00:00:27.060 into the Marxist abyss. President Biden's approval ratings are in the ditch and show no signs

00:00:33.540 whatsoever of recovering. Biden has screwed up, it seems, everything his administration touches

00:00:39.680 or even talks about touching. Biden appears intent on trying to get America into war with Russia,

00:00:47.080 talking regime change and then denying what everyone heard him say, including Mr. Putin.

00:00:52.840 That after, Biden intimated that a minor incursion could possibly be acceptable

00:00:58.280 to his administration. America's European allies are none too thrilled with Mr. Biden

00:01:04.480 and his salty attitude and reckless bravado. Biden's staying hard left and trying this week to drag the

00:01:11.960 country along with him into his culture wars. The president endorsed sex change surgery and hormone

00:01:18.940 therapy for children. For children. I repeat, for children. This president is out of control. His

00:01:27.620 agenda is a disaster. The American people oppose him on nearly every issue that he's driving.

00:01:34.100 And by a large margin, they say the country is headed in the wrong direction. And you would think our

00:01:40.560 entire population were transgender. A top Disney executive said she wants to see half of the studio's movie

00:01:47.540 characters be gay or underrepresented. Here is a sample of headlines over the past 24 hours.

00:01:55.960 Headline, Disney employees slams companies opposition to Florida's parental rights bill.

00:02:02.840 Headline, remember, parents are not entitled to know their kids' identities. That was an actual headline.

00:02:10.180 A school district ordering no parent knowledge of identity discussions with their own children in the

00:02:16.060 classroom. Headline, HHS becomes the first federal agency to fly trans pride flag. Whoever knew that the 1.00

00:02:25.540 federal government was authorized to fly such flags? Headline, U.S. State Department says people will be

00:02:32.200 able to select X marker and gender section on U.S. passports. That starts, by the way, April 11th.

00:02:39.840 And it doesn't matter what your birth gender was. You can always mark an X. The corporate news media is

00:02:47.520 crazed, it seems, and committed to daily coverage of gays and, of late, the transgender craze. This 1.00

00:02:54.760 headline from corporate media today about the corporate media. Caitlyn Jenner joins Fox News as

00:03:03.320 contributor. And a word to those editors. There is other news. A war in Ukraine. The Russians invaded

00:03:10.880 it 36 days ago, and they appeared to be locked in a stalemate with a stubborn resistance that has defied

00:03:18.000 Putin and his generals, who thought they'd easily take Ukraine. The Ukrainian military has been steadfast in

00:03:25.440 their defense of their homeland, and Putin is said to be as angry with his generals as he is with Ukraine,

00:03:32.320 and its valiant stand against his forces. Headline, Putin threatens to turn off Europe's gas supplies

00:03:39.860 tomorrow if countries refuse to pay in rubles. Headline, Xi Jinping encourages the world to embrace

00:03:49.740 Taliban. Headline, House Republicans asked Biden administration why it's not sanctioning North

00:03:57.720 Korea and China. That because, after North Korea fired a ballistic missile, they were in violation of

00:04:04.320 the long-standing congressional sanctions. There is obviously a massive divide between our government

00:04:10.200 and the American people, between globalist elites and our middle class and those who aspire to it.

00:04:16.740 There is also a great alignment among big government, big corporate media, big tech, big social media,

00:04:24.120 Wall Street and big business, the oligarchs, of course, and the Marxist Dems, all aligned together

00:04:31.120 against the American people, against working men and women and their families in small business,

00:04:37.600 and two political parties this year contesting in the all-important midterm elections. That'll be in

00:04:45.140 just seven months. And with us to take up these issues, to give us his sense of how this election is

00:04:51.340 going and how it will play out, is the executive editor and co-founder of Real Clear Politics, Tom Bevin.

00:04:59.500 Tom, it is great to have you with us here on the Great America Show. Give us, if you will, to begin

00:05:05.180 your view of where we are in the tension between these two political parties.

00:05:12.440 Well, I mean, obviously, we are a very divided country, more deeply than I think we've ever been.

00:05:19.840 We've become sort of very tribal. And there are a lot of reasons for that. I mean, that goes back,

00:05:26.420 you know, Pew has done some research on this, going all the way back to, you know, the mid-90s.

00:05:32.120 We've seen this sort of great sorting that's taking place within the country, but it's really

00:05:38.880 accelerated. It accelerated, I think, particularly during Obama and then followed by Trump.

00:05:45.640 And now even into the Biden administration, I mean, you look at a guy like Joe Biden, who for,

00:05:50.540 excuse me, for, you know, the long career that he had inside Washington as being, you know, this sort

00:06:00.860 of guy who's affable and works across the aisle. He was known as sort of a blowhard, but a likable one.

00:06:07.620 And even now, Joe Biden has, is deeply, deeply divisive. When you look at the, his poll numbers, his job

00:06:18.260 approval rating, he gets very low marks among Republicans right from the start, which is essentially

00:06:25.000 what happened to Donald Trump. I mean, Donald Trump got 8% of the Democratic vote in 2016, and his job

00:06:31.340 approval rating among Democrats for the entirety of his tenure in office was below, you know, 8% to 10%,

00:06:39.440 maybe 12% at most. But even when he, even when Trump did things that Democrats agreed with on trade,

00:06:46.180 for example, they would give him no credit whatsoever because it was all about his style,

00:06:52.000 his personality, what he represented. And Biden is very much the mirror image for Republicans.

00:06:58.060 And so that just goes to show you when a guy like Joe Biden, who's, who's been known as sort of being

00:07:03.860 not controversial, not, you know, not a particularly divisive figure, ascends to the highest office in the

00:07:12.820 land and is, is suddenly seen as a deeply divisive figure. That gives you a sense of just how hard in the

00:07:18.500 partisan lines are, the tribal lines are in our country.

00:07:21.080 Yeah, the, the tribal lines, as you put it, are, are, are vivid. And I wonder how much of it is

00:07:28.680 ideology. I wonder how much of it is just partisan politics. And if you will, highly intentional, that

00:07:38.660 is divisiveness has become a weapon of the left, I think primarily. And the politics of personal

00:07:47.560 destruction writ large, when we talk about the presidency, the vice presidency, and our, our

00:07:55.400 national government, it is, it is a, a different culture altogether than it was, say, really more

00:08:03.940 than 30 years ago.

00:08:05.120 I agree with that. And I do think, you know, part of this has to do with,

00:08:10.880 unfortunately, you know, politics has become our national religion, and it has seeped into

00:08:19.560 everything. It used to be, you know, politics was confined to a certain area, and we could have differing

00:08:27.060 opinions on things with our, with our fellow citizens without looking at them and thinking they were

00:08:34.860 bad or evil. That's no longer the case, right? And whether it's, and it's, and it's everywhere,

00:08:39.840 whether we turn to sports or entertainment or wherever. And, and it has become whether if you

00:08:47.820 disagree, particularly now, with someone on the left, I mean, just look anywhere, whether it's,

00:08:54.300 you know, what's going on in Florida, with the, the, the bill that Ron DeSantis just signed,

00:09:00.920 which the Democrats called the don't say gay bill, which was parental rights, which is exactly

00:09:07.780 parental rights, you know, climate change. I mean, you name it, certainly, you know, you talk

00:09:14.480 about CRT or any of these things. And it is not just, it's, it's not the same conversation that we

00:09:20.720 were having 30 years ago. It's not, I disagree with that because of X, Y, and Z. And now it's,

00:09:26.760 you know, you are, if you disagree with the, the, the left's view in particular, and a lot of times 0.97

00:09:32.920 that has to do with the way the media plays along and frames these issues, you are, you are an evil 0.99

00:09:38.880 person. You are a bigot. You are someone who should be canceled or who should be suppressed, 1.00

00:09:43.260 should not be heard from. And, and so it has become everywhere we turn. Politics has become this,

00:09:51.680 this sort of blood sport, which, which has the, all the hallmarks of, of being a religion. And,

00:10:00.420 and that is a problem. I mean, it is, it is really, I'm not sure that that's what the founders intended

00:10:06.120 or wanted at all, but that's where we find ourselves. And it's, it's hard to see how we

00:10:10.300 get out of this. It's hard to see how this changes. I don't know that it does, which is unfortunate.

00:10:15.720 I agree with you. I, and I think it doesn't, we don't get out of it without a reckoning,

00:10:22.320 if you will, an accounting. And that's going to be a very, very difficult point in our political

00:10:29.840 lives in this country, because it does mean that people have to make choices and, and decide what

00:10:36.280 values do prevail. And, and it, to me, at least is unquestionable. And I want to hear what you think.

00:10:42.060 It's unquestionable that the left primarily fits over that template of religion, ideology as

00:10:51.760 religion. In fact, Marxism is precisely that, even as it intends to destroy religion. And the left has

00:11:01.940 absorbed now, a Marxist ideology that is really heretofore been at the, at the extremes, and now

00:11:14.360 it has moved sort of center and forward in the Democratic Party, don't you think?

00:11:22.200 Yes, I think that is true. I mean, again, you know, if you look at

00:11:25.940 taking the Marxist piece out of, just look at the two parties. I mean, there's, it's, it's, again,

00:11:32.660 go back to Pew, they've done research on this, that the median Democrat, you know, now is way to the

00:11:39.780 left of the median Democrat from, from 25 years ago, based on their, their votes in Congress.

00:11:44.420 The same has happened for Republicans. They're much more conservative now. There are no,

00:11:48.740 there are no blue dog Democrats. There are no sort of moderate, I mean, there are a couple moderate

00:11:53.060 Republican, Susan Collins, you know, but, but very few and far between. So the center has not held.

00:11:59.340 And, and so you can say both parties have, have moved to their extremes. But I, I, I definitely

00:12:07.000 agree with you. I think right now, the energy on the, the progressive left, and, and some of these

00:12:16.440 people are openly socialists or Marxists, whatever you want to call them. They have, they have captured

00:12:23.540 the party to a, to a large degree, even though they may not represent a majority within that party,

00:12:31.120 but they are the ones who are driving a lot of, a lot of the energy and policies within that. And you

00:12:38.660 just, I mean, look at defund the police, look at some of these other things that have gone on.

00:12:42.780 And, and Joe Biden, though, he ran as the, the sort of opposite of that, the antidote to that,

00:12:48.800 you remember his line, he's, you know, he's an evolution, not a revolution, meaning, you know,

00:12:53.060 he, this, he was the, he was the, the, you know, he was the stalwart that was going to protect the

00:12:59.200 party from Bernie Sanders and his socialist revolution. Biden has not, by and large, stood up to

00:13:04.920 that wing of his party at any point during his first year in office. And even when he's been given

00:13:10.860 very easy opportunities to do so. And, and I think that just gives you a sense of,

00:13:17.380 of, and part of this too, is dictated by the fact that, you know, the, the margins in Congress are

00:13:21.840 so small in the house and the Senate for Democrats that to do anything, get anything done they need,

00:13:29.380 you know, they need all the votes they can get. And, and for that reason I think he hasn't been able

00:13:33.780 to, to stand up to some of the, some of the more, you know, worst impulses of the, the left wing of

00:13:41.600 his party. Yeah. And those worst impulses, I think, again, you're exactly correct. But those impulses

00:13:50.060 are driven as if the margins were wide and vast and commanding and, and without a question,

00:13:56.860 a mandate, a mandate, there's that word. There's no mandate in those margins and they are, they're

00:14:05.040 governing, they being the Democrats, in desperation to move a far left agenda through a, a center left

00:14:17.260 party. And I agree with you, the center is certainly not held in the Democratic party. And one could argue

00:14:24.000 the same of, of the Republicans, but this is, this is creating a friction and a conflict all of its

00:14:32.000 own, the manner in which we're being governed and the desperation to drive through this far left

00:14:38.920 agenda. And, and we are seeing a reaction in, in American society to it. Well, I think that's right.

00:14:47.500 And look, this is, this is commonly true of, of anybody who wins an election, right? They think

00:14:55.240 that they've won a mandate even when, and they misread what the public wanted. And that is

00:15:01.700 certainly true of Joe Biden. I mean, you can argue that the reason that he was elected was because of

00:15:06.720 the fatigue with Donald Trump and four years of the chaos. And Biden was seen as sort of a return to

00:15:11.280 normalcy. Um, but to your point, he somehow convinced himself and his advisors convinced

00:15:17.080 themselves and him that he was this historic FDR figure and that he was, this was the moment to

00:15:23.880 push through, uh, you know, this quote unquote transformative agenda. Um, but to do it with,

00:15:32.860 you know, a 50, 50 Senate and a couple of, a couple of seats in the house. I mean, it's,

00:15:37.160 it was doomed from the start. Um, and once Biden made that decision that, you know, he was, he was

00:15:44.700 heading down a path from which he is not recovered. He hasn't, there has been no reset. There has been

00:15:50.580 no adjustment. There has been no, uh, you know, moment where he's, he's sat back and heard what the

00:15:59.060 public said in, even in the Virginia, New Jersey elections of last year, even as we look at the,

00:16:05.540 the landscape right now, where his job approval is, where the generic congressional ballot is,

00:16:10.440 um, there, they do not seem to, uh, to be willing or able to change course. And I think that bodes

00:16:18.420 very ill for, for the Democrats. Um, you know, we're seven months away from the election. Uh, and,

00:16:24.820 and unless something changes rather dramatically, um, they're in for a, an historic drubbing.

00:16:30.400 Um, I, that is, you know, it is becoming so clear to me because I'm used to Republicans saying

00:16:37.760 in off year elections, as you know, uh, the, uh, the party out of power in the white house,

00:16:43.320 uh, does well. Uh, and, and the Republicans were initially saying, uh, as I listened to them,

00:16:51.220 you know, we, we feel very confident, but we don't want to say too much and we want to be constrained

00:16:57.000 and et cetera, et cetera. Now, uh, with seven months, as you say to election day, uh, they're

00:17:03.520 talking about wipeouts. They're talking about waves. I mean, it's, it's been a, uh, a, a journey

00:17:10.340 for them over the last really 60 to 90 days. Uh, that's remarkable to behold. Uh, they are very

00:17:17.660 confident of the result in November. They are. Um, and they have reason to be. If you look at some

00:17:24.320 of the metrics, uh, everywhere you look, it's, it's sort of doom and gloom for Democrats. However,

00:17:29.600 I will say, I mean, having done this now for 20 something years, you know, every, every cycle

00:17:36.180 Republicans managed to, uh, to, you know, shoot themselves in the foot and at least one Senate

00:17:43.220 race, maybe two, uh, there are races out there that they should easily win that they may not win,

00:17:49.160 depending on what happens in the primary. You go back to Sharon angle in Nevada,

00:17:53.460 Christina O'Donnell in Delaware, uh, you know, the race in Missouri against Claire McCaskill,

00:17:59.860 uh, Todd Akin, uh, the race in, in, um, Murdoch, I think it was in Indiana. So the landscape is,

00:18:06.520 is littered with, with, uh, easy wins that Republicans managed to screw up. And I suspect there are one or

00:18:12.840 two out there this cycle as well. That being said, um, you know, I mentioned Biden's job approval

00:18:19.740 rating, which is, you know, just in really bad territory. And he's at 41%, which is his low thus

00:18:28.600 far in our real clear politics average was 39.8. So he's, he's near his all time low. Um, you know,

00:18:37.480 the Republicans are leading in the, in the generic congressional ballot by three and a half points

00:18:42.040 at this point in 2010, uh, just to give you a point of reference, I think Republicans were up about one

00:18:48.780 and a half, 1.7 points in the generic congressional ballot and Obama's job approval rating was 47 and a

00:18:55.560 half points. And they still, you know, Democrats lost 63 house seats and six Senate seats, uh, in,

00:19:02.400 in that cycle. So, you know, they could be again, unless things change, the problem is for,

00:19:10.460 for the Democrats and for the administration in particular is that, and, and it's been this way

00:19:16.040 for, for a few, I would say a couple, at least a couple of months, if not longer is there, they're

00:19:21.520 just not in touch with the priorities of American people. I mean, it's very clear that the priority

00:19:26.380 and we see this in poll after poll after poll, it is economy is inflation. Um, it is jobs and,

00:19:33.500 and people are very worried about that. And for good reason, they're paying more for gas or paying

00:19:37.640 more for food, uh, as opposed to some of these, you know, theoretical policy issues about tax cuts

00:19:43.720 and deficits. I mean, they're living this, we are all living this every single day. I went and filled

00:19:48.120 up my car the other day. It was $127. Uh, you know, it's just crazy how much more things are costing

00:19:55.420 Americans in their everyday lives. And so they're, they're urgently asking the administration to address

00:20:01.880 these issues and the administration continues to not do that. I mean, at first they said, you know,

00:20:08.420 inflation doesn't exist. Then it was temporary, you know, transitory. Then, then, uh, you know,

00:20:14.540 they said, and most recently it's Putin's fault, uh, that didn't work. So they're not, they're not

00:20:20.480 doing, they're not doing what the American people want them to do. They're focused on other issues and,

00:20:27.700 and they're paying a price for that politically. And as I said, unless something changes, it's going

00:20:33.420 to remain that way, no matter what happens, Supreme court pick, you name the different things that have

00:20:38.040 gone on. And the reason it's not going to change is because what they would need to do to address

00:20:43.560 those issues, like increased domestic energy production and things of that nature, Biden has

00:20:49.140 shown he's not willing or able to do because it would ignite, uh, uh, just a rebellion on his left

00:20:55.620 flank. And so he's kind of trapped in a box. Um, and, and it doesn't look like he's going to be

00:21:01.620 getting out of that box anytime soon. And so that's one of the reasons that I think Democrats are

00:21:05.680 really, uh, rightfully nervous about what's coming their way in November. Yeah. It seems to me that

00:21:12.260 he's caught, uh, a bit by, uh, he's an old time old line Democrat with some new fangled ideas,

00:21:21.320 uh, with a party that has, as you said, uh, a center that's been decimated, uh, and a left

00:21:29.420 that is energized and even poetic, uh, in its, uh, ambitions, uh, AOC talking about, we have a problem

00:21:38.160 here. And when she said, we have a problem, she was referring to the democratic leadership's

00:21:44.520 penchant, as you put it for, uh, backroom deals, uh, which as far as I know, this president hasn't

00:21:51.520 even attempted with the Republicans and certainly, uh, hasn't, uh, been successful with his own party.

00:21:59.020 No, I think that's right. Um, and this is something that's becoming more and more clear. I mean, again,

00:22:04.580 if Biden had, had, had sat down and we see this reflected in the polls too, where people ask if

00:22:11.200 he's done a good enough job or, or made good on his promise to, to unite the country. And clearly

00:22:17.860 he hasn't. And he has, I mean, just take COVID for one example where, you know, during his first year

00:22:25.640 for the first, for the first year of his administration, where he could have sat down

00:22:31.140 with red state governors and said, listen, guys, we've, you know, vaccination rates are low. I need

00:22:36.240 your help. How can we work together to get, you know, you guys are all for vaccinations, but you're

00:22:40.820 not, you're not for the mandates. So how can we work together to, to really boost the, the

00:22:45.600 vaccination levels in your States, um, to protect everybody and, and all of that. And that's not

00:22:50.820 what he did. Instead, he went to war against those governors, called them out by name. If you remember

00:22:55.960 Ron DeSantis, he said, you know, if you don't get out of my way, I will move you out of the way.

00:23:01.840 And so he chose to be very aggressive and divisive confrontational, um, you know,

00:23:08.680 I mean, you could argue that there was another situation. I forget what it was exactly, but

00:23:17.420 it came to light that he, I think it was Mitt Romney. He hadn't even talked to Mitt Romney

00:23:21.700 about doing some sort of deal, um, on, uh, I think it was, I think it was the, the infrastructure.

00:23:29.480 Um, so he, he hasn't had any sort of any dialogue discussions, negotiations with Republicans.

00:23:38.360 He's had enough trouble just trying to get everybody on his, in his party on the same page. And so, um,

00:23:44.680 I think that's another reason that he finds himself in a, in a hole that is of his own making

00:23:50.740 by and large, and, and it's going to be very, very difficult to, to climb out of, because as you

00:23:55.680 said, uh, you know, he's got AOC, he's got other folks who, um, there was an, an op-ed in the Hill

00:24:02.680 this morning from, uh, you know, these wealthy democratic donors, uh, their answer, their solution

00:24:08.760 is to primary all of the centrist Democrats around the country who, who blocked his agenda

00:24:14.660 they say. Uh, so they're going to throw in with progressives in places like Texas and other

00:24:19.360 places, uh, to try and elect, uh, you know, oust people like Henry Cuellar and others. Um,

00:24:26.760 so you really have this riff that's, that's being laid bare now, and it's not going to be,

00:24:31.840 it's not going to be papered over by November. Yeah. It's, it is amazing because

00:24:37.560 somebody said to me, it, it, it's almost as though president Biden believes he really did get 81

00:24:43.980 million votes. Uh, and, and the truth of the matter is, uh, he is, uh, he's, he's governing

00:24:51.840 so ineptly, uh, he has most, most presidents and the situation he was in when he went to,

00:25:00.240 uh, over to, to Poland, to, to Belgium, I would, they were, they would be giving anything for that

00:25:06.980 opportunity to distract and to deflect and to hold up a shiny foreign policy object, uh, for all the

00:25:14.400 world to see. He goes in and messes it up. Like, uh, I, I, I, like I've never seen a president do.

00:25:22.200 I have never seen a president who was so inept in both language and performance and, and thought 0.60

00:25:29.960 process, uh, that he can't dig himself out of a hole. He just keeps digging a deeper and deeper 0.97

00:25:36.340 hole and, and new and novel ways. Uh, and I'm just stunned as I sit here watching, and I will tell

00:25:43.340 you, I don't want the man to succeed in any, any policy that he has put before Congress. Uh, because

00:25:51.820 I think they're mad. We're a 30, we have a $30 trillion in national debt. We have trillions of

00:25:58.520 dollars in deficits. And we have this, this president putting forth a quote unquote, $5.8 trillion

00:26:06.400 spending blueprint before the Congress. Uh, it's just sheer madness.

00:26:14.180 Well, listen, I do think in one sense, you know, it shouldn't be surprising that Joe Biden has been

00:26:23.400 in Washington a long time. He has a history of, of not being the, the sharpest, uh, most,

00:26:31.580 you know, adroit, uh, he likes to, he likes to talk. We know that. Um, but, but he often,

00:26:40.480 you know, puts his foot in his mouth or makes a gaffe or says something. And up until now it was like,

00:26:45.680 oh, that's, you know, that's, that's good old Joe. Um, it's, it's different. And obviously in,

00:26:51.880 in orders of magnitude, when you're dealing with a, a, a crisis, the size and scope of what's going

00:26:57.500 on in Ukraine, where Biden can't seem to, you know, he continues to say things that

00:27:03.120 seem to, uh, escalate the situation as opposed to deescalate the situation seem to prolong, uh,

00:27:11.580 the, the prospect of this war, as opposed to ending it in short order. Um, and the longer it

00:27:18.640 goes on, the greater chance there might be of some, some catastrophic mishap that gets us into

00:27:24.080 world war three. And, and so I think for that reason, and we saw this in the latest NBC news

00:27:29.140 poll, that's, you know, 70 plus percent of people just don't really have any confidence that, that

00:27:33.880 he's up to the task of dealing with, uh, this, this kind of situation. Um, so I think

00:27:41.540 that's a, that's, that's a big problem for him. I mean, one of the, one of the things that Biden,

00:27:46.200 you know, he made it, he made a couple of promises when he ran for office. One, he's not Trump. He

00:27:49.720 was going to get rid of Trump. He accomplished that too, that he was going to unite the country.

00:27:53.920 We already talked about that. He seems to have failed at that, uh, as far as the public polling

00:27:57.640 is concerned and three, that he was going to be, you know, the, the adult in the room, right.

00:28:03.480 The, the adults were back in charge and that was sort of a facade that lasted until Afghanistan,

00:28:12.280 even though, you know, he was dealing with a, a border crisis and all of the things that went

00:28:16.600 along with that Kamala Harris. But when, when Afghanistan happened and people saw, oh my gosh,

00:28:22.200 you know, what's going on here. This is a, this is just a catastrophe. Even as people, I think,

00:28:28.000 by and large agreed with the, the end result of the policy, which was, we should be getting out

00:28:32.260 of Afghanistan. You know, they supported that under Trump. They supported it under Biden,

00:28:36.560 but the way that we executed that the president executed it was, was just so poor that, that it

00:28:44.560 really called into question, um, you know, people, the perception of Biden as this, you know, this adult

00:28:52.300 in the room who had all this vast experience that was, you know, was, was going to be much more,

00:28:57.260 you know, much more prudent than Donald Trump, who was sort of, you know, prone to say anything and,

00:29:04.040 and tweet anything at any moment in time, uh, that all exploded. And, and he's never recovered

00:29:09.560 from that. It's only gotten worse. And on top of that, I think, you know, what, as, as the Biden

00:29:16.120 administration continued to, to try and assert to the American people, even while they were watching

00:29:21.220 on their TV screens, people falling off of, you know, the, the wheel wells of airplanes,

00:29:25.120 that this was some grand achievement, um, that, you know, he lost the trust of voters and, and he's

00:29:32.360 never recovered that either. And so you've got this sort of perfect storm working against him.

00:29:37.320 And even now, I mean, as he gets up there and says, uh, you know, of course I didn't call for,

00:29:43.960 for regime change when he clearly did just two days earlier. Um, they have this credibility gap now

00:29:52.260 that has emerged, uh, and, and it's, it's, it's making things worse. Yeah. He continues to lie

00:29:59.800 and to, and, and, and the, the, the, the silliest, uh, and most transparent of lies, uh, uh, you're 0.82

00:30:08.840 talking about when, when he was in Warsaw, uh, telling the 82nd airborne, uh, that they would soon

00:30:15.720 see what courage looks like on the part of the Ukrainian people when they meet them in the streets

00:30:20.140 and then tries to deny that, uh, tries to deny that he said, uh, that this man, uh, does not belong,

00:30:29.280 uh, in office referring to Putin, uh, that he should be removed from power, uh, and then denies it. It's,

00:30:37.520 it's one thing to have made the blunder, but he's no longer a sympathetic bozo. He is now a dangerous

00:30:44.780 clown. And that is a deeply, deeply difficult position for the entire, uh, uh, uh, democratic 0.99

00:30:53.900 party. And indeed for the, for the nation, most importantly, your thoughts. I, I do think again,

00:31:02.120 because of, you know, Biden could get away with some of the stuff when, when the stakes were lower.

00:31:08.100 Um, and Afghanistan though was a, was another, that was a, that was a pretty high stakes event.

00:31:12.920 And, and that was really when I think people, um, you know, go back to the border for a second,

00:31:20.500 because this is something that existed from the get-go, right? This was a problem and the Biden

00:31:26.620 administration, you know, denied that it was a crisis. They wouldn't use that word. Um, you know,

00:31:33.220 Biden was asked if it was a crisis and he said, no, of course not. And, and that was clearly not true.

00:31:41.160 Um, but it was something that, you know, the stakes weren't high enough. And, and I think in the media's

00:31:47.280 eyes and, and in many people's eyes that that didn't really cause that big of a, a ripple against

00:31:53.260 him. It certainly didn't dent his numbers. Um, but when it came to Afghanistan, uh, 13 American soldiers

00:32:00.200 killed, uh, as a result of that policy and the administration, again, trying to, trying to convince

00:32:07.020 the American people to assert to them that, that this was some huge victory and, and massive success,

00:32:13.800 uh, was, was so at odds with the truth that it, it, it all came crumbling down. Um, and I think,

00:32:21.180 again, in this environment where we, we are in a sort of high stakes global conflict, uh, for Biden to be

00:32:29.960 over there saying things and then coming back and asserting that none of them ever happened,

00:32:35.500 uh, as he did yesterday when Peter Doocy went through the list and he just said, none of those

00:32:39.740 three things happened. It's just the way you're interpreting the language. Um, it just doesn't

00:32:44.540 really, it doesn't fly with the American people. He doesn't have the, he doesn't no longer has any

00:32:49.480 sort of reservoir of, of goodwill or trust with the American people. Um, and again, you know,

00:32:57.480 Democrats still think he's great doing a great job. Uh, Republicans still think he's terrible.

00:33:02.740 And they've thought that from the very beginning where he's lost ground most obviously is with

00:33:07.280 independence. And that's no small thing because independents are going to, uh, are going to

00:33:12.800 determine, I think the outcome of this election in a big way in a lot of these swing States. And,

00:33:17.280 and right now, you know, he's in the, he's in the thirties, he's even been in the twenties

00:33:21.480 with independence, uh, their job approval rating. So it's a, it's a pretty serious situation for the

00:33:27.160 president because he, he just doesn't have the credibility. Um, and once that's gone, I mean,

00:33:31.900 it doesn't, you know, that, that doesn't come back. The economy may turn around, but, but people

00:33:36.440 won't trust him again. Yeah. There's, there's no resurrection awaiting a president, uh, who is

00:33:43.320 so transparently lying. I mean, the American people were used to politicians. Uh, we know they lie,

00:33:49.660 uh, but we're used to a higher class of liar, uh, one who can be inventive and, uh, and at least

00:33:57.100 pretend to be authentic. Uh, this man is, uh, none of the above. Uh, we much prefer a straightforward

00:34:05.540 fellow like Donald Trump, uh, who, who came at you that just exactly, I mean, he was the fellow you,

00:34:12.260 uh, the fellow you saw on television was the fellow that was, uh, sitting there, uh, you know,

00:34:18.600 on the, uh, on the bench talking too. Uh, it's a whole new world that we've seen invented here over

00:34:25.480 the course. It seems to me just since the first of the year, uh, we're looking at, uh, Vladimir Putin.

00:34:33.320 It's unclear where he's going. There is greater clarity about the relationship now between

00:34:38.660 communist China and communist, uh, Russia. They're both totalitarian countries. They now have a

00:34:44.460 strategic partnership and we know that they have mutual, uh, mutual aims, uh, and, uh, now have a

00:34:51.320 relationship that should strike some concern in the, in the hearts and minds of our, our Pentagon,

00:34:57.460 uh, as they start thinking about how to defend this great old constitutional Republic of ours.

00:35:03.580 And then we find out they don't have contingency plans for an outbreak of war in Ukraine.

00:35:08.160 Uh, it's very strange to see a, a military now that has been politicized at the top, uh, that is,

00:35:17.180 uh, inadequate to the challenges, uh, that are coming at them technologically. I'm referring

00:35:22.140 now to the hypersonic missile gap. Uh, it feels like the early sixties all over again. Uh, and we're

00:35:30.300 behind both communist China and Russia. What is going on in the nation's capital?

00:35:36.500 Hmm. Yeah. Well, there definitely is, uh, a sense that things have, um, particularly within

00:35:47.300 the Pentagon, uh, have gone a bit sideways, um, with regard to some of the woke stuff. But I also

00:35:54.140 think the problem is it's, you know, when you look at Ukraine, just, just as an example, um,

00:36:01.500 I'm shocked at the, the number of comments, whether it's coming from Republicans, Lindsey Graham calling

00:36:11.000 for assassination, right. Uh, you know, to Joe Biden calling Putin a butcher and a war criminal. 0.82

00:36:17.760 Um, and people say, well, that's true. Well, even if it is true, right. That doesn't mean you say it

00:36:25.000 out loud, particularly if it doesn't serve your strategic interests and what are our strategic

00:36:29.600 interests should be ending the war as soon as possible, not trying to prolong it unless, unless,

00:36:35.920 and this is the, this is the real problem. I think for 40 years, we've had this idea in Washington

00:36:39.880 that, uh, you know, regime change is, is a good thing. It's something that we should pursue. We

00:36:46.100 pursued it with Saddam Hussein and you see now folks saying, you know, this is our, this should be our 0.76

00:36:52.060 goal, or this is our goal, um, with, with Vladimir Putin. And, and for some reason, um, that, that is now

00:37:01.880 ingrained in our, I think partly at the Pentagon, certainly at the state department, uh, and within

00:37:08.420 Congress and, and this administration, uh, it's become, it's become, uh, I think the, the prevailing

00:37:19.620 view and, and unfortunately, and you have some of the same characters that every time a situation

00:37:25.500 like this comes around, they are out in front cheering for, for America to sort of get involved,

00:37:30.620 uh, in, you know, in a, uh, conflict. And that's not where the public is anymore. I mean,

00:37:38.200 we've spent 20 years in Afghanistan. We, you know, the public wanted to get out of Afghanistan.

00:37:43.600 Um, and I don't think there is any appetite for that. I think the administration knows that in

00:37:49.240 their, in their heart of hearts, even, and you can see they've resisted a call for no fly zones,

00:37:54.680 but again, then Biden turns around the next day and calls Putin a war criminal. Um, so I think

00:38:00.880 there's a, I think there's that, that conflict between what the public wants. They want,

00:38:06.360 they want our leaders to be, you know, stay away from conflicts overseas and try and focus on

00:38:13.160 fixing the stuff that needs fixing here at home. Um, but whenever, but, but that's not necessarily

00:38:18.580 where, uh, you know, the administration is or, or members of Congress. And it's been a problem for,

00:38:23.580 it's been a problem for decades now. Yeah. I think again, uh, that's exactly right. And,

00:38:29.740 and, and it's also, uh, an interesting way to sort of look at the architecture of the last 20 years

00:38:36.440 that the Democrats, uh, have, uh, been operating particularly since the Obama administration,

00:38:43.720 uh, with this, uh, sort of, uh, assumed a moral superiority, uh, somehow, uh, the left would be the

00:38:52.500 arbiter of what is racist, what is, uh, uh, uh, xenophobic, uh, whatever the, you know, the slur of

00:39:02.460 the moment would be. And they use that politically, but now people are realizing, you know, the left

00:39:08.420 isn't nearly as smart as they act and not nearly as smart as they want you to think they are. And they

00:39:15.300 lack both intelligence and effectiveness in governance. And therefore, why are we listening to

00:39:21.480 these people about really important issues like the education of our children, uh, like the direction

00:39:27.640 of our military, uh, and the way in which we conduct diplomacy? And this raises tremendous,

00:39:36.300 tremendous, uh, requires a tremendous suspension of belief on the part of the American people when

00:39:41.340 they see the empirical result of their governance and their nonsense that they spew and prattle on

00:39:49.420 about, uh, whether it's CRT, whether it's ESG, whether you, you name it, uh, it's one hackneyed, 0.84

00:39:58.060 silly proposition after another being funded by corporate America, which buys into Marxist leftist 0.97

00:40:05.260 nonsense. BLM is an example of, uh, an organization that wouldn't have existed without their largesse 0.94

00:40:13.740 and, and, and really ignorant largesse. So I think the Republicans have a great electoral opportunity, 0.76

00:40:20.540 uh, but first, how do they prevent another electoral assassination, uh, of a, of a candidate?

00:40:28.800 President Trump was electorally assassinated in 2020, and we have to change the, we have to restore

00:40:36.420 the integrity of our electoral system, don't you think? Well, I will say that the, the common thread

00:40:41.380 through your comments there is that there has been a, a, and this is again, something that's been

00:40:48.480 going on for, for a number of years. This is not something that started with Donald Trump or even

00:40:53.840 Barack Obama, a loss of trust in institutions. And, and Gallup has tracked this stuff since some of it

00:41:00.540 since the 1970s. Um, you go back and look, I mean, whether it's, you know, the education system,

00:41:05.840 whether it's, you know, uh, big business or banks, or certainly the TV news, um, you know, media, um,

00:41:14.120 the church, I mean, every public institution in this country has suffered a loss of trust over the

00:41:20.500 last 30 or 40 years. And it's becoming, I think to your point, Lou, uh, there, there's also this,

00:41:28.560 this distrust now in, in this particular moment of, of elites who, who, uh, you know, we trusted

00:41:36.480 elites for a long time in this country. And, and I think after 20, 30, 40 years of, of trusting them

00:41:43.180 and going along and watching as, as one example, uh, you know, American, uh, manufacturing and some of

00:41:51.200 these rust belt communities get hollowed out, uh, over the course of a generation or two. Um, 0.99

00:41:57.560 no longer blindly go along with the orthodoxy that, you know, this, this, uh, this, uh, you know,

00:42:05.900 global, um, integration is somehow an unfettered good for, for America and America's workers. Um,

00:42:13.040 so we've seen that across the board and, and it's, it's troublesome because it, it rips at our social

00:42:20.100 fabric when you can't trust institutions that, that you look around you and everywhere you see,

00:42:24.600 you see institutions failing you, you see elites failing you. Um, it adds to, I think this feeling

00:42:30.240 that, uh, that number one, your government and your elected officials are disconnected from you

00:42:35.520 on an everyday basis. They're not, they don't know, you know, what your, what your problems are.

00:42:40.100 They don't care about them. Uh, they're, they're off in Washington doing something completely

00:42:44.120 disconnected from that. Um, and it adds to this general sense of anxiety that the country is,

00:42:49.760 uh, you know, when we see this in, in various polls, that it's not heading in the right direction,

00:42:55.420 that the American dream is, is dead, that the next generation is going to, you know, have a, a less,

00:43:01.180 a lower standard of living, um, and not have access to the American dream like previous generations 0.98

00:43:06.400 did. I mean, those are, those are significant, profound changes in the psyche of the American

00:43:11.240 people. And, um, and again, you know, I don't know how you reverse those trends. Um, it's going to

00:43:19.400 take to your point, it's going to take a reckoning. It's going to take a remarkable figure, uh, political

00:43:25.940 figure that somehow, I don't even know if this person exists, but who would be unifying in a way

00:43:32.340 that other people have been again, divisive. Uh, so I don't know, maybe that's a unicorn and a fairy

00:43:39.860 tale. Um, but it, but the current trends are not going in the right direction. And, uh, and it's

00:43:45.340 troublesome because, uh, you know, when people don't trust their institutions, when they don't

00:43:49.860 trust their leaders, bad things happen. And we're learning, uh, that first elections do have

00:43:57.160 consequences, but so does policy. Uh, and when you have the two, uh, uh, grotesquely, uh, executed,

00:44:08.780 the result is, uh, is really, uh, a shambles, uh, to behold, uh, Tom, we always give our guests the

00:44:18.100 last word and I would like it very much if, uh, you could give our concluding thoughts here today.

00:44:27.060 Well, I mean, going back to what we started with Lou, I mean, I think that, you know, we're seven

00:44:31.540 months away from an election. It is going to be, I think a very consequential election in terms of

00:44:37.760 both the house and the Senate are up for grabs. And, and if you think about, uh, you know, moving

00:44:44.240 into, into the next presidential election, you think about where this administration has, has been the

00:44:48.880 first two years, where they're going to be able to go the next two years, um, having Republicans in

00:44:53.860 control of, of the house and, or the Senate, it's, it's, you know, a completely different path.

00:45:01.480 Um, so as I mentioned at the beginning, I think, uh, right now, historically speaking,

00:45:07.380 Republicans are in a very good position to win both the house and the Senate, unless and until,

00:45:12.380 uh, the Biden administration makes some sort of change in their, in their policies. And it really

00:45:19.020 realigns itself with where the American people are, uh, in terms of dealing with the issues back at

00:45:24.680 home, inflation, uh, jobs in the economy. And those are the, that's the ball game. And I think one of the

00:45:30.460 things that, uh, you know, has been really interesting to watch is the inroads that Republicans

00:45:37.340 have made with Hispanic voters in places like South Texas, um, and, and working class voters all

00:45:43.120 across the country. I mean, the Republicans have really become the party of the working class.

00:45:48.380 And, and that is almost entirely attributable to what Donald Trump did during his time in office,

00:45:55.520 um, and really changing the face of the Republican party. Um, and it, as you said, it's, it, it's become

00:46:02.040 more class-based than, than race-based, right? Hispanic voters, uh, African-American voters. Uh,

00:46:08.280 if you're working class, you look at the two parties and you think the Republicans, uh, are more

00:46:15.080 aligned with your interests right now than the Democrats are, because they're off talking about,

00:46:18.940 as we've mentioned, you know, uh, you know, CRT and fighting culture wars. Meanwhile, in your everyday

00:46:25.260 life, gas is $6 a gallon and you got to pay $10 for a pound of bacon. I mean, so, uh, we'll see what

00:46:31.860 happens, but, but I think right now, um, it's shaping up to be a good year for, for Republicans

00:46:36.400 and that will make the next two years and even the next presidential, uh, have real consequences for

00:46:41.980 the, for the next two years and the coming, uh, 2024 race.

00:46:45.060 Tom Bavin, thanks for being with us. Really enjoyed talking with you. And, uh, again, I, I think

00:46:52.700 that this selection is, it is going to be something to behold. We'll be, uh, reading RCP throughout,

00:46:59.420 uh, and I want to congratulate you on a tremendous, uh, business, entrepreneurial, uh, success that

00:47:06.540 is RCP. Uh, you've created an essential, uh, an essential, uh, product for the public, uh,

00:47:14.840 and anyone who's interested in politics has to go there. Uh, I guess that's, is the ultimate

00:47:20.600 test of value, uh, is, uh, how many, uh, how many people strive, uh, to, uh, to get there

00:47:27.540 every day. And, uh, most Americans, I think maybe not most, but most, uh, people interested

00:47:33.600 in politics do. I want to congratulate you for that. And for the editorial content, uh, it's,

00:47:39.440 uh, unmatched. So Tom, thank you, Lou. Appreciate it.

00:47:43.700 You betcha. Thank you.

00:47:44.840 Tom Bevin, real clear politics, executive editor, a programming note. President Donald

00:47:51.460 Trump will be our special guest here Tuesday, April 5th, right here on the great America

00:47:57.560 show. Please be with us for that. I know you don't want to miss that. It'll be a lot of

00:48:02.240 fun. And tomorrow we're joined by John McLaughlin, Republican strategist and pollster. He'll be here

00:48:08.320 with his latest reading on the American people, the latest presidential approval ratings, all

00:48:13.840 with his insight into this critical election year. So please be with us here tomorrow.

00:48:18.460 And until then, God bless you and God bless America.

The Great America Show - April 01, 2022

AMERICANS HAVE LOST TRUST IN THEIR INSTITUTIONS & THEY DON’T TRUST THEIR LEADERS

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