The Great America Show - MEADOWS： POLITICIANS CAMPAIGN AS HERCULES, GOVERN AS PEEWEE HERMAN

00:00:00.000 Hello, everybody. Great to have you with us on The Great America Show.

00:00:04.220 The Russians continue to bombard Ukrainian cities mercilessly. The death toll rising by the

00:00:10.880 thousands each week, and the Russian war on Ukraine has gone on now for 21 days.

00:00:17.260 Three weeks of unrelenting devastation and destruction in Ukraine. Against the overwhelming

00:00:23.420 Russian forces that Putin has thrown at Ukraine, the resistance and the military have held the

00:00:29.260 Russians off and show no sign of weakening. Neither does their leader, President Volodymyr 0.76

00:00:35.640 Zelensky, who yesterday offered some reason to hope negotiations with the Russians might

00:00:41.660 produce a way forward to a truce, a ceasefire. Zelensky says he sees no opening for Ukrainian

00:00:48.880 membership in NATO, the principal issue that Putin asserts in his motivation for the invasion of

00:00:55.780 Ukraine. So we'll see what, if anything, the talks in Geneva produce overnight. Both sides are

00:01:02.060 constructively, as the Ukrainians put it, negotiating a 15-item agenda that could lead to a ceasefire.

00:01:11.220 President Biden, who's now scheduled to attend next week's NATO summit in Brussels,

00:01:16.320 has escalated his rhetoric against Putin, now calling him a war criminal. And Biden approved

00:01:23.220 a tremendous shipment of arms to Ukraine, including five gunship and transport helicopters,

00:01:30.700 hundreds of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, 800 of them in fact, and 2,600 more Javelin anti-tank

00:01:39.400 missiles and tens of millions of rounds of ammunition. Within that context, European leaders

00:01:45.800 are holding their breath and hoping the talks can halt the war and lead to a peace agreement.

00:01:51.440 Putin can't be pleased with either his military's performance, in part because they haven't taken

00:01:57.520 control of any of the 10 largest cities in Ukraine, and they've suffered shockingly high

00:02:03.980 casualties and loss of equipment and supplies. And we do have some signals of expected progress in those

00:02:13.280 terse talks evident in the oil market, where prices have fallen by a third from recent highs,

00:02:19.920 and in stock markets, where stocks have moved higher, obviously because investors are hopeful

00:02:26.040 these talks will result in more than a simple stop to hostilities. Zelensky today said he believes

00:02:32.340 World War III is now underway. I infer from his remarks that he's looking at, of course,

00:02:38.160 the war that is so devastating and deadly in his own country. But at the same time, looking beyond

00:02:44.580 what is rapidly becoming a new alignment of powers, China and Russia, Russia and Iran, and India in

00:02:53.260 new energy trade relationships. And all four powers seem to be working toward building an axis that

00:03:00.780 would dominate the world, leaving Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia, and other countries

00:03:07.060 to fend for a geopolitical combination that would also be a military alliance. Those countries now are

00:03:14.960 engaged in global psychological warfare, propaganda and disinformation campaigns, as well as cyber

00:03:22.160 warfare. Sorting out and identifying truth in the midst of all of this is truly an immense undertaking

00:03:29.620 each day, and made all the more difficult in America with our highly divisive politics and

00:03:36.480 polarized society with now critically important midterm elections, just over seven months away.

00:03:43.540 And the left using their total control of government, including our legal system, to carry out the most

00:03:50.660 vicious persecution of American citizens in history. And there should be no mistaking the purpose of the

00:03:57.340 Marxist left in control of our courts, most of the attorneys in the country as well. They mean to destroy

00:04:05.180 President Trump through the Soviet-style January 6th committee to stifle dissent and lessen support

00:04:13.180 for Donald Trump throughout the country. To take up those issues, we're joined by Mark Meadows,

00:04:18.780 President Trump's former chief of staff. He served four terms in Congress, was chair of the Freedom

00:04:24.180 Caucus, now senior partner at the Conservative Partnership Institute. Mark has lived and worked at the center of

00:04:31.460 the nation's political battles for power for years. And now, Mark Meadows, great to have you here on the

00:04:38.520 Great America Show.

00:04:40.460 Lou, great to be with you on the Great America Show. As always, thank you for bringing truth to the American

00:04:46.340 people and consistently being willing to talk about those issues that candidly don't get referenced very

00:04:56.020 often. But it's great to be back with you. Well, thank you, Mark. And let's start with, you've been in the

00:05:01.980 crosshairs of the January 6th commission, or as I style it, the Soviet-style January 6th committee.

00:05:09.380 We're also watching Mark Elias, the Dem attorney, the leading Dem attorney, trying to disqualify

00:05:17.140 congressional candidates based on, quote-unquote, their support of either Donald Trump or just

00:05:23.960 calling them, terming them as insurrectionists. I mean, it's outrageous. Give us your thoughts on

00:05:30.860 all that and whether or not this is an outright coordinated effort on the part of the January 6th

00:05:36.840 committee, Mark Elias, his lawfare cronies who are taking these unprecedented legal steps trying to

00:05:43.840 stop Republican candidates. Well, obviously, when you try to stop Republican candidates and you don't

00:05:51.100 leave it up to the people, you've fundamentally not supported what our founding fathers believed that

00:05:59.900 was best for government, which is let we the people decide on the merits of who they should vote for,

00:06:07.840 how they should vote. And candidly, we start to see a whole lot more of that this time of year as you

00:06:15.480 look at redistricting. You start to see a number of challenges that go up that, generally speaking,

00:06:23.820 in those more swing states where they look to get an advantage on redistricting. But, you know,

00:06:30.940 you mentioned the January 6th committee. Obviously, a number of us have been outspoken that, you know,

00:06:38.640 those who broke the law on January 6th should be held accountable. But yet, at the same time,

00:06:43.700 we've seen a political operation that is far-reaching, Lou. And by a political operation,

00:06:52.320 the willingness by this partisan committee, and by that, I would suggest that

00:06:59.260 it is not just partisan, but it is a political committee that long ago abandoned any hopes of

00:07:07.420 having a legislative purpose, that what they're doing is digging in deep to try to look at aspects

00:07:16.820 that would never show up in any kind of legislation. You know, Lou, you and I, we go way back. And when I

00:07:24.440 was a member of the House, you looked at a number of issues as to what kind of legislation you would

00:07:32.720 put forward, how you would try to rectify a particular situation. But this January 6th committee

00:07:38.620 has gone well beyond that. And hopefully, the American people are seeing that.

00:07:44.780 In combination, then, with Mark Elias and his lawfare effort to disqualify Republican candidates,

00:07:52.940 I'm talking about sitting Republicans as candidates who are incumbents. I'm talking about Ron Johnson,

00:08:01.200 Senator from Wisconsin. How in the world can the Republican Party not respond more aggressively?

00:08:10.060 And I'm talking about Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, Ron McDaniel at the NRC. They're just sort of watching

00:08:20.400 this happen as it occurs. Well, they do need to respond, because I can tell you that if there is

00:08:28.640 silence, if the left and their attacks is met with silence, there will be more of it. Candidly,

00:08:36.700 there needs to be a real all-out effort, whether it's at the RNC or the NRCC or the NRSC, all three of

00:08:46.660 those, whether it's Ronna, Kevin, or Mitch, they need to have a plan that is not just a defensive plan.

00:08:54.520 I would encourage them to actually look at this and making sure that the voters' voices are heard,

00:09:01.740 not just in Georgia or Florida or Pennsylvania. But they need to also address that in states like

00:09:11.340 Illinois and in other states that a lot of your listeners may say, well, this is more of a left-leaning

00:09:17.780 state. It's important that on all of those fronts that they fight back and say, listen,

00:09:25.880 let's make sure elections are not decided by attorneys. Let's make sure that they're decided

00:09:31.480 by voters. Right. And we are seeing a number of attorneys start to get involved at the request

00:09:39.300 of the Republicans. In Wisconsin, for example, a special counsel there found considerable irregularities

00:09:46.760 and actually wants the state to decertify the 2020 election based on the discovery of the manipulation

00:09:56.700 of both the election itself and not having authority to do drop boxes and so forth. This is sort of a

00:10:09.440 problem for the for the lawfare people who want to disqualify candidates because of so-called

00:10:19.040 insurrection. First of all, it means that there were problems with this so-called perfect election

00:10:25.580 in 2020. Well, when you look at Wisconsin, and obviously Senator Ron Johnson is up for re-election

00:10:32.980 there, that will be the focus of a number of those on the left. They will see that as a Senate seat that

00:10:39.300 they can pick up. And so all of a sudden they will have a lot more attention there. But it is very

00:10:44.600 difficult to look at Wisconsin and Wisconsin state law and suggest that their state law was actually

00:10:51.820 followed. And that's what you're referring to is when you have have a special prosecutor that is

00:10:57.080 looking at their state law, the laws that were on the books and said these were were not allegedly

00:11:04.740 were not followed. And we we know that Zuckerberg's and and other nonprofit dollars flowed into many

00:11:13.920 states and in an effort to actually do what what some have suggested is, you know, electioneering and

00:11:25.020 working outside the scope of what a nonprofit would do. But but the bigger problem, Lou, is is when you have

00:11:34.280 state laws that were either ignored or put by the wayside, whether it's in Wisconsin or Pennsylvania,

00:11:41.240 that that really needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed now before the 2022 midterms.

00:11:48.840 Hopefully there's a number of people that are willing to look very closely at that and make sure

00:11:54.460 that it's addressed. The Republican National Committee is more of a bank, but these are new times.

00:12:01.040 And the DNC is obviously an activist organization. They even got involved in trying to overthrow a

00:12:07.680 president, namely President Trump. So I'd like to see a little more energy from Ronna McDaniel and that

00:12:14.160 group, particularly on this issue, that is, yeah, Republican candidates of being insurrectionists and

00:12:21.440 and, you know, you know, anybody of being an insurrectionist. Right. Lou, you know that a lot

00:12:28.480 of this is just because a lot of Washington, D.C. would prefer that Donald Trump had never been

00:12:37.200 president. They don't want him to be president again. And and that that still exists. You know,

00:12:44.080 I'm not one that normally looks at being someone who will take up for the RNC, but I will give a

00:12:51.920 little bit of good news. I do believe that Ronna has gotten the message from donors and from people

00:12:57.440 across the country that she and the RNC need to be engaged on this particular issue. And and they're

00:13:04.800 taking some meaningful steps and working with with others to make sure that not just states like

00:13:11.280 Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are addressed, but other states. And and I think it's it's wrong for us to

00:13:17.840 just focus on states where the vote count suggested that Joe Biden was the victor in some of these very

00:13:25.480 close states. I think we need to look at this broadly, look at audits broadly, look at make making sure that

00:13:34.000 it is easy to vote, but hard to cheat. And hopefully we'll start to see that. Well, if you're talking about

00:13:41.080 reform, certainly that's it. Frankly, I don't see I'm not nearly as optimistic as you because I don't

00:13:47.480 see any meaningful steps toward. I shouldn't say any. I don't see many meaningful steps toward reform.

00:13:54.440 I do think Arizona is trying. I do think George is trying. I think in Pennsylvania, I think in

00:14:00.920 Wisconsin, those two states, they're not doing nearly enough. And as a result, we're not we may have

00:14:08.520 shadows of 2020 with us once again, because of a lack of activism and energy and and sheer guts and

00:14:18.200 principle on the part of the RNC. Well, yeah, and I don't want to oversell their their initiative,

00:14:25.080 other than to say that I think that donors have gotten their attention. And so that's where where

00:14:30.880 that comes from. I will say that across the country, we're seeing more and more people get personally

00:14:37.920 involved and not necessarily from just a partisan point of view. Lou, it's it's from a voter integrity

00:14:44.640 point of view. They're saying, listen, whoever and whomever you vote for is is up to you individually.

00:14:51.680 But what we want to make sure is, is that it's a free and fair election. You saw a lot of grassroots

00:14:58.400 supporters come out in Virginia and making sure that they showed up at the polls. A lot of these people

00:15:04.320 volunteered for the very first time didn't have to have other jobs and and just wanted to make sure that they

00:15:10.560 showed up. I think we'll see much of that in in the coming midterms in 2022. And certainly again in 2024.

00:15:21.360 Well, I'll tell you for sure, and we're going to we're doing everything we can on this show to to elevate the energy

00:15:28.320 at the local level. I'm begging Americans to get involved in their school boards. I am begging Americans

00:15:36.400 to get involved in their city council and to get involved in politics at the community level where

00:15:43.200 they have the most influence, the greatest control over the quality of their lives. And we can assure

00:15:49.120 that once we're down to the precinct level, when votes come to pass, that we've got great Americans

00:15:54.800 watching over that boat. Bravo for you. No, you're 100% right. You're right. We can't afford not to do

00:16:01.920 that. And here's the interesting thing is, by you getting them involved at a local level,

00:16:11.120 it is not only their voice as parents where they're saying, we know what is best for our children to be

00:16:18.240 caught in in coordination with with great teachers and administrators. But the parents certainly have

00:16:26.160 the critical role in all of that as as they look at their children. But if they get involved,

00:16:31.760 it's amazing how a few hundred votes can make a big difference in a school board race. I don't know

00:16:37.440 about you. I've worked the polls for a long time and I would see people come up. They might know who

00:16:43.600 they're voting for for senator or for a member of Congress or the president of the United States.

00:16:49.200 But when it got down to school boards, oftentimes they were scratching their heads saying, well,

00:16:54.160 which one do I vote for? Who do I vote for here or there? And and so as we start to see that,

00:17:00.400 I think the biggest thing is having them involved, as you say, at a local level will make all the

00:17:06.720 difference in the world. We're watching a president who is saying some strange things as he discusses

00:17:14.880 Ukraine. He sounds at times like a neighborhood bully and then others. He seems like he's gone

00:17:21.040 off to a dark corner to suck on his thumb when President Xi or President Putin expressed themselves 0.86

00:17:27.360 or even President Zelensky. We have the newest poll from the Wall Street Journal saying 61 percent of

00:17:34.800 Americans don't have any confidence that this president can avoid an expansion of the Ukraine 1.00

00:17:42.880 war. What's your reaction to that? Well, I mean, the 61 percent, I want to find out who the other 39 1.00

00:17:50.320 percent are. You know, maybe they're the ones that would vote for Joe Biden no matter what. Listen,

00:17:56.400 this is this is a difficult situation. I don't want to suggest in our conversation that these are

00:18:03.120 are answering questions that are answered easily. But I will say this, that there is a trend. And

00:18:09.200 the problem is, is that we see for far too long that world leaders have listened to Joe Biden's rhetoric

00:18:18.080 and they realize that it doesn't necessarily get backed up with action. And and even when you looked

00:18:24.560 at the most recent sanctions, Lou, you know, where he was going to, I guess, sanction

00:18:28.880 uh, uh, um, shellfish, uh, vodka. And I can't remember one other, uh, one other thing they were

00:18:36.800 going to shelf, you know, to sanction. I mean, this, these are things that don't affect the average

00:18:42.320 American, but they don't also affect the average Russian. And so, uh, when you look at this, uh,

00:18:48.080 here's, uh, how President Trump would handle it differently. He would not only, uh, focus on our

00:18:55.120 energy dominance, which he did and brought gasoline prices down, which, uh, were extremely high. People

00:19:02.080 don't realize that when President Trump came in, the gas prices were really high. He brought them

00:19:07.680 to less than two, two bucks a gallon. So every time that, you know, somebody is filling up now

00:19:13.440 and they're paying, you know, four or five, $6 a gallon, uh, they need to realize that there was a

00:19:19.840 president in the Oval Office, not too many years ago that actually, uh, has a track record of getting

00:19:26.080 it down, but it's goes beyond just the energy dominance. It has to be an aggressive, assertive

00:19:32.240 plan that says what we're going to do is take an energy solution to Europe, get them off of Russian 0.98

00:19:39.280 oil. Now you can, you can do that through liquefied natural gas. You can do that through a number of

00:19:44.800 other, uh, American, uh, American petroleum products. If the left would allow Joe Biden to

00:19:51.040 focus on that, what we would see would be oil prices coming down immediately just upon the

00:19:56.960 announcement, but also on the fact that President Trump would follow through on those things, even

00:20:03.680 in spite of some of the political consequences. Uh, you know, he, uh, I've, I've seen, uh, far too

00:20:10.400 often, you know, uh, countries like Germany and, and others in Europe that he thought, uh, might

00:20:16.480 have been taking advantage of the good graces of the American people. And he would let them know

00:20:21.120 about it. And, uh, and that goes for Russia as well. And so it's not just the fact that Russia did not

00:20:28.240 invade when president Trump was in the white house. It's the fact that he would have taken action.

00:20:33.440 Uh, Vladimir Putin knew that Europe knew that. And quite frankly, both are, uh, our enemy

00:20:40.320 and our allies knew that. And that, and that's what we have to do. We have to follow up with a

00:20:44.880 real plan that actually puts American energy dominance, uh, back at the highest priority

00:20:51.600 for this solution. And President Trump, let's explore that just for a second, Mark. Uh, how

00:20:58.160 else would President Trump, uh, have behaved differently than Biden, for example? Uh, let's

00:21:03.920 talk about, first of all, his, uh, he, it seemed to me, he made it very clear. He wanted to coexist

00:21:11.520 with Russia, that he wanted to have a relationship with Putin, with President Xi, uh, even with Kim

00:21:18.960 Jong-un, uh, in North Korea, he was trying to have a relationship with people so that there would be

00:21:27.360 coexistence without conflict. Am I right? Without a doubt. I mean, there were a number of times,

00:21:34.160 uh, that he, he would pick up, uh, the phone, schedule a call, uh, whether it was with President

00:21:40.080 Xi or, or Vladimir Putin, uh, and other world leaders that he may not agree with. In fact,

00:21:46.320 oftentimes did not agree with, uh, but he wanted to have a relationship because he knew that what

00:21:52.240 happens is, is they depend on the American economy. They were instrumental as part of our American

00:21:58.880 economy, uh, like it or not. Uh, the supply chain, as we look at China is, is a, a very critical

00:22:06.800 com, uh, component of a lot of our manufacturing, uh, has some part or some part of it, uh, made in,

00:22:14.880 in China. And yet he was willing, he was willing to state the obvious. He says, I know you're for

00:22:22.080 China or you're for Russia, but I'm for America and I'm not going to let you take advantage of the 0.87

00:22:28.160 American people. And they knew that he, he meant that. And yet at the same time, wanted to establish

00:22:34.560 a relationship that did not escalate into, uh, you know, this, this cold war kind of foundation

00:22:41.520 that we're seeing right now with, with the Russia, Ukraine, um, uh, debacle. Yeah. And people,

00:22:49.120 of course, don't give him credit because they, the corporate news outlets in this country,

00:22:54.160 everyone from ABC to CNN, to you name it, all of them, uh, worked against him every step of the way.

00:23:03.840 He put tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States because properly. So, uh, to create a balanced 1.00

00:23:12.900 trade relationship. That's all. He didn't want to have the, uh, the, uh, greater hand. He wanted to

00:23:18.560 have an even hand in all of these trade relationships. You're exactly right. And, and,

00:23:24.720 uh, you know, everybody that, uh, is listening in may not understand, uh, uh, the, the prowess

00:23:32.960 that you have as it relates to economic analysis, but I do, I, uh, Lou Lou, you're, uh, one of the,

00:23:40.600 the best at being able to look at a situation economically and say, all right, this is what's

00:23:46.000 happening. These are the counter arguments. This is what's not happening, but you're right.

00:23:50.340 He was willing to put on tariffs. He was willing to use tariffs. And I, I must confess, I was not a

00:23:55.940 big tariff, uh, fan when I, I came in. In fact, it was something that, that the president and I

00:24:01.460 had talked about a number of times, uh, when I was a member of Congress and yet he was able to use

00:24:07.480 those, whether it was in dealing with China or our Southern border. If you recall, it was,

00:24:13.460 it was the tariff issue that actually made, uh, our, our Mexican government counterparts to our

00:24:20.500 Southern border. All of a sudden say, well, we're willing to help you try to secure that border.

00:24:25.240 Uh, it was, it was a, it was a breakthrough with the Mexican government like none in our history.

00:24:34.100 Uh, in fact, uh, and president Trump was understandably and appropriately proud of the

00:24:39.880 fact that, uh, Manuel Lopez Obrador, uh, put 26,000 of his troops into the deal to assure security and

00:24:48.700 the remain and, and to support the remain in Mexico policy that made all of the difference

00:24:53.720 in terms of illegal immigration. And those who were, well, well, you mentioned that and, and, uh,

00:25:02.840 he was proud of it, which was interesting because there, again, it gets back to what you were saying

00:25:07.420 earlier, Lou. It's a relationship between he and the leader of Mexico. Now here's the Mexican

00:25:14.000 president at that particular time, very much more, uh, a liberal, uh, someone, uh, leaning way to the

00:25:21.520 left, uh, president Trump leaning way to the right. And yet they had a relationship of mutual respect

00:25:28.420 where they could pick up the phone did had an admiration in spite of those differences to figure

00:25:34.520 it out. But yeah, he took great joy in that. And some of those who said, well, we're going to make

00:25:38.960 Mexico pay for our border security. They had to eat their words when, uh, when Mexico was actually,

00:25:44.980 uh, uh, putting so many troops on our Southern border to help us out.

00:25:49.340 Yep. Our, our, our Southern border and their Southern border as well with Central America,

00:25:54.540 trying to stop those caravans and successfully doing so, uh, as, as we consider this election,

00:26:03.200 this upcoming election without president Trump's presence in the Republican party, I will say this.

00:26:09.940 I don't believe that the Republicans would have a chance of winning it despite the historical imbalance,

00:26:16.080 uh, in, uh, the historic pattern of the party out of power in the white house, uh, winning 26 seats,

00:26:23.920 uh, and in the Senate four seats that on average, because the Democrats are so much smarter than the

00:26:32.120 Republicans, uh, in my opinion, whether they're leading the house or whether they're leading the

00:26:36.940 Senate, uh, your thoughts. Well, I think probably the biggest thing is, is Donald Trump has forever

00:26:42.640 changed the Republican party, uh, where it is one that actually identifies with the working man and

00:26:50.040 woman, uh, the forgotten man and woman. And, and president Trump was able to do that almost

00:26:55.180 single-handedly where people of, of a background that, uh, really didn't identify on a personal way

00:27:03.860 with president Trump, but they did when it came to the way that he thought the way that he loved

00:27:09.980 America, the way that he was proud of it. And, and they could identify, you know, I'm, I remember

00:27:14.640 telling a story, uh, uh, about, uh, a union worker that, you know, went up at one of the Trump rallies

00:27:20.560 and I said, uh, you know, what, what is it that you like so much about, uh, Donald Trump? And he

00:27:27.980 thought for just a second and he said, well, he's just like me. Well, it's interesting because here

00:27:33.520 was a union worker that was, uh, working, uh, on an hourly basis and a New York billionaire, uh,

00:27:40.520 that built, uh, skyscrapers. And yet the guy said, he's just like me. That's what has happened. It

00:27:46.800 has transformed us. And if, if the Republicans think they can run away from that and not lose

00:27:52.400 that forgotten man and woman, not lose that union worker and the hardworking American taxpayers that, 0.58

00:27:58.420 that identify with, uh, they're sadly mistaken. You know, I, I was thinking about exactly what you're

00:28:04.000 talking about there, uh, with the AEI, uh, uh, what would I call it retreat?

00:28:10.520 Yeah. Uh, their, their little get together. Yeah. Uh, Mr. Trump wasn't there.

00:28:17.360 Yeah. Not, not a surprise, not a surprise, but he wasn't.

00:28:21.640 But my point being that that's, that's corporate America. That's the old Republican party, uh, with

00:28:29.820 its hat in hand at the, uh, at the trough at the business round table, the chamber of commerce,

00:28:35.340 AEI and they brought all the regular fellows, you know, like Karl Rove and the bunch. And it's

00:28:42.540 sickening to watch because that forgotten man and woman, uh, who's, uh, who, who captured 0.68

00:28:49.480 president Trump's attention and, uh, and concern has been forgotten again by this party.

00:28:55.960 They're doing nothing for those people right now. Well, and we've got to, because here, here's the

00:29:02.840 issue is, is that when, when the person shows up to vote, um, the, the Republican brand, the Democrat

00:29:11.040 brand doesn't carry near the weight that it used to. And part of that is a podcast like yours, where

00:29:17.700 people can get their information directly from, uh, the newsmakers and from, from those that, uh,

00:29:24.000 are doing the analysis. Part of it is the, you know, the internet, the vast majority of information

00:29:29.680 that you can consume very, very quickly. But the other part of it is, is that they start to see a

00:29:36.340 divide, a divide between, uh, a president that they voted for and record numbers turned out, uh, they,

00:29:44.980 they love the fact that he is willing to, to, um, go and meet with them, you know, even, even with the

00:29:51.200 most recent rallies that he's at where you're getting record number, I mean, even with a sitting 0.96

00:29:57.400 president, you didn't get the kind of numbers that Donald Trump continues to get standing room and

00:30:02.840 only crowd in South Carolina a few days ago where, uh, you know, the wind chill was down, uh, at,

00:30:09.740 at the freezing level and yet, uh, record number of people showing up to support someone who has not

00:30:16.440 announced that they're going to run for president. I mean, it, but it's, it's the fact that he cares.

00:30:21.960 The other thing Lou is this, when he went to signing any kind of bill that had a dollar amount

00:30:29.200 attached to it, he didn't see it as the government's money. He saw it as the American

00:30:34.420 taxpayers money. Why are we paying so much? Why are we not getting a better deal? And he time and time

00:30:40.380 again, ask that question and they see it. Yeah, they do. And it's, and when I hear Mitch McConnell

00:30:48.780 say that he's not going to put up with Rick Scott and his, what is it? 11 point program. And he

00:30:54.400 shouldn't have said that. Well, and you've been one that has called that out time and time again,

00:30:58.940 on a regular basis. You haven't been a, a Johnny come lately on that. And the biggest issue that we

00:31:05.340 we've got Lou, here's, here's the interesting thing that we've got to make sure of is, you know,

00:31:12.160 being the leader of the Republican Senate or being the speaker of the house is not something that's

00:31:18.920 bestowed upon you as a right. It's, it's an earned privilege. And anytime that you think that you're

00:31:24.980 entitled to that, that somehow you're smarter than the American people, uh, it, it will not play well.

00:31:31.700 And, uh, Rick Scott putting forth an 11 point plan. God bless him. I'm, I'm glad, I'm glad he came up

00:31:37.960 with the plan. I mean, you know, what happens is, is that we, you know, so many people, they members

00:31:47.920 of Congress, they campaign as if they're Hercules and they show up here in Washington, DC and they're

00:31:55.120 Pee Wee Herman. And, and we've got, we've got to make sure that the Hercules on the campaign trail

00:32:01.280 is someone who actually shows up and is willing to fight for the American people in the halls of

00:32:06.360 Congress. Absolutely. And well said, I couldn't agree with you more. Uh, and by the way, I don't

00:32:12.840 agree with everything on, uh, on, uh, Rick Scott's list either, but at least there's enough concern

00:32:21.080 and pride and ambition and energy to put something down on paper and stand with it. Okay. Uh, and you

00:32:29.000 and I both know, you're one of the few people in Congress and yes, you know, your, your colleagues

00:32:34.540 whether the Jim Jordan, whomever, uh, you have made different, you've made a difference in that

00:32:40.500 Congress. Well, Jim Jordan and those like Jim, uh, know where their power comes from. And it comes

00:32:48.400 from the people that they have the privilege and honor to represent, uh, in Jim's case in Ohio,

00:32:54.940 Ohio, but it's even wider than Ohio. You know, people all across the country come up to Jim and

00:33:00.680 say, you know, thanks for fighting for us. Thanks for being one of the few that are willing to stand

00:33:04.780 up. And, um, and when you, when you look at boldness and when you look at courage in Washington,

00:33:11.500 DC, most of the courage that you see are for newly elected members of Congress who actually have

00:33:18.380 risked it all to try to come and make their country a better place. And sadly, the longer they're

00:33:24.080 here, the less courageous they become. And that's what we need to be. Listen, I call it the Potomac

00:33:30.720 fever. I've said that before with you, they come across the Potomac and they lose their ever loving

00:33:35.080 mind. We need to put something in the water when they come across the Potomac that they drink that

00:33:40.940 actually fortifies their backbone, but it doesn't make it quite as mushy. Yeah. Even if it's just an

00:33:46.800 antidote to whatever that is in the Potomac that they're, they're swallowing. Uh, I, I want to,

00:33:52.920 I want to get your sense of just what you think will happen here, uh, with the, with the election

00:34:01.400 itself. Are we going to see the rhinos prevail? Are we going to see them expunged? Do you think

00:34:07.400 the electorate is ready to say, uh, to the, uh, Kensingers and the Cheneys go away? Uh, we've had, 1.00

00:34:14.320 I know that, uh, one's retiring and the other is running against so far weak opposition, but we've got to

00:34:21.620 have, we've got to have a way to get rid of these, uh, milk toast, bland rhinos who just, you know, 1.00

00:34:27.800 they want every perk there is and power, but they want to kind of sit back and stand at the edge and

00:34:33.640 not be noticed and, uh, and, and use their power to please the vested interest, wall street, corporate

00:34:40.620 America. Yeah. Is there time over yet? I know it's not over. I wish, I wish I had better news for those

00:34:47.160 that are tuned in right now, but, uh, it's not over. I think that there is a real, uh, real push,

00:34:54.800 uh, to continue to, to consolidate power with those who are, uh, as you mentioned, rhinos, 0.99

00:35:02.160 Republican in name only. Um, and, and the other is, is that Joe Biden, you know, when you look at his

00:35:08.180 track record, everybody says, uh, you know, I, I, we, we can't have any more, uh, Joe Biden. So I'll take

00:35:14.680 whatever are that I can, uh, to make sure that we don't have to deal with that. Uh, and, and that

00:35:20.940 unfortunately creates a bigger problem because then you, you get timid people that get put into

00:35:27.880 office and, and people become disenchanted. What difference does it make? You know, if, if I'm

00:35:32.840 going to have a Republican that votes like a Democrat and a Democrat that votes like a Democrat, uh, most

00:35:38.340 people take the Democrat that votes like the Democrat, knowing that at least they're authentic. Uh, that

00:35:43.380 being said, there are some bright stars out there. There's some people that I think are willing to

00:35:48.340 fight the fight. Uh, if you are told, and if you are told by people that supposedly are in the know

00:35:55.560 that that person can't win for this reason, or that person can't win for another reason,

00:36:01.760 don't believe them because, uh, Congress is filled with people who could never win and who were willing

00:36:08.940 to show the courage to fight and stand up. And, uh, and I'm optimistic that a new day of an authentic,

00:36:16.800 uh, representative, uh, is, is coming to the halls of Congress, maybe not in 2022,

00:36:22.380 but it will start to purge itself by 2024. You'll get a kick out of this. I'm going to make this real

00:36:30.220 quick. Uh, I know you're pressed for time, but, uh, I was talking to a newly elected, uh, uh, official,

00:36:37.460 uh, I won't identify who, uh, I will admit he's a, uh, he's a male and he had just been elected.

00:36:45.220 And I said something about rhinos and he said, well, Mr. Dimes, uh, my consultant said, I can't,

00:36:50.900 I can't, uh, I shouldn't use that word. And I said, really? And I said, in effect,

00:36:58.660 well, then you shouldn't be using that consultant. Amen. I'm with you. Get rid of the consultant.

00:37:04.040 Listen, uh, if you're not willing to call it out for what it is, you shouldn't be trying to,

00:37:10.120 to, uh, be a member of Congress. Listen, for far too long, we've had people come of both parties

00:37:16.140 who've come to Washington, DC. They campaign one way and they legislate another and they listen to

00:37:23.040 their consultants because they think that ultimately that will get them reelected. And it does oftentimes

00:37:28.540 it does, but to what end, if you get reelected and you're not making a difference, I mean,

00:37:34.840 there's at least 20 to 30 members of Congress that have been in Congress for over a decade

00:37:40.840 that if I gave your listeners their name, they couldn't pick what state they're in.

00:37:46.520 Why show up for work if you're not making a difference? So, uh, your listeners, if they get

00:37:51.580 out and campaign for those that are willing to make a difference, um, ultimately it'll be their

00:37:57.000 voice in Washington, DC and not the special interest voice that carries the day.

00:38:02.440 Two other political questions. One, uh, you're in the arena. Tell us what you're up to.

00:38:08.920 You know, I'm working at, uh, the conservative partnership, uh, Institute where we are a nonprofit

00:38:15.160 that we're actually working with conservatives, uh, here on Capitol Hill. Uh, we'll have as many

00:38:21.540 as 30 to 40, uh, conservative members of the house, people of courage that we meet with every

00:38:27.700 single week, uh, to look at strategies, to, to actually help them. Uh, we work with about 10 to,

00:38:34.840 uh, to a dozen and a half, uh, senators, uh, who are willing to show boldness and, and work with all

00:38:43.280 the people across the country to make sure that the conservative voice, uh, is heard here. And

00:38:48.480 sometimes it's lonely. I mean, I've often said that there's not a, a, um, a fringe benefit of

00:38:54.840 being a conservative in Washington, DC, but the fringe benefit is the fact that you're willing to

00:39:00.200 be close, uh, with the people that represent you. And so we're trying to give training and unity,

00:39:05.280 uh, to a lot of the conservative voice here in Washington, DC. And finally, because, uh, you are a

00:39:13.400 veteran of the house of representatives served with great distinction and energy, uh, and success.

00:39:20.200 I want to ask you who you're, who you think would make the best speaker of the house.

00:39:24.680 I knew you were going to go there, uh, Lou, I tell you what, I will say this. I do not have a vote.

00:39:31.200 And so I'm going to equivocate on you, Lou, because I knew that that was going to be the final question

00:39:36.140 here. I will, I will say this, that it, it has to be, uh, it has to be someone who is willing to not

00:39:44.420 just talk the talk, but walk the walk. And, uh, and candidly, it depends on, on how many people,

00:39:52.220 uh, the Republicans win by, you know, if it's a slim majority, uh, it could be a vote that, uh,

00:39:58.480 would be very, uh, very difficult to, uh, figure out who's going to win odds on favorite are still Kevin

00:40:05.460 McCarthy. And, and I will say that, uh, if, uh, the Republicans win in a landslide, uh, Kevin

00:40:13.320 McCarthy will get the, the, uh, the gavel from Nancy Pelosi. Uh, and that would be the one, but

00:40:19.580 the, the key for Kevin and, and, uh, and those discussions are ongoing is let's have a plan. Now

00:40:26.400 it's not as important as who the speaker is. As long as you have a plan and say, this is what we

00:40:31.840 stand for. People are willing to rally behind a lot of people if they have a plan and the guts to

00:40:38.100 go after it. We saw that when, uh, Donald Trump was not supposed to be the 45th president of the

00:40:44.600 United States. And he came down an escalator and said, this is what I stand for. And this is how

00:40:48.860 we're going to get there. Uh, it was amazing how many people, uh, saw that authentic, uh, not just

00:40:56.420 rhetoric, but action and, and support it. So do you think that, uh, Kevin McCarthy can play the role

00:41:01.740 of honest, authentic conservative Republican? You know, I've got a lot of friends that, uh,

00:41:08.020 that serve with him now and that, that think that he can, uh, I will say he's, he's given Jim

00:41:13.920 Jordan, uh, much more of a role than, uh, I ever anticipated Jim Jordan to have and letting Jim use

00:41:20.100 his strengths. And as you know, Jim, Jim's my, uh, best friend in, in Congress and patriots and a real

00:41:28.380 patriot. And so, um, it is, it is important that we do what we do right now, Lou, we've got to come

00:41:36.580 up with a plan. We can't leave a plan to just Rick Scott or, or some lone member of the house. Let's

00:41:43.920 come up with a plan. What we, what we believe in, uh, you know, you, you and I are both, uh, old

00:41:50.580 enough to remember the contract with America under new Gingrich. Um, you know, their suggestions that

00:41:56.280 we can never do a contract again, but here's what we can do. We can, we can certainly come up with

00:42:02.040 five, 10 different things that said, if you elect this, this is what we will put, uh, before a vote

00:42:10.320 within the first 100 days, we can do that. And that's something that's doable. And, uh, I can

00:42:16.240 tell you we're working very closely to try to make sure that gets done. Well, good for you, Mark. Thank

00:42:21.240 you so much. I wish all the very best and great success. Thank you. Lou. Thank you. It was great

00:42:27.540 to be on the great America show. God bless you. God bless you, Mark. And thanks everybody for being

00:42:32.900 with us today. Tomorrow here on the great America show, our guests will be cash Patel. We'll be

00:42:38.960 talking about Ukraine, the deep state and radical dams. And of course the conflict over the realignment

00:42:45.340 of the world power order. Please join us here tomorrow. We want to invite you to sign up for

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00:43:06.660 and alerts as well as our weekly newsletter. I don't want to overstate anything, but I'm

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00:43:18.340 We invite you to join us and stay in touch. Thank you. That's Lou Dobbs.com. Thanks. God

00:43:26.040 bless you and God bless America.

The Great America Show - March 17, 2022

MEADOWS： POLITICIANS CAMPAIGN AS HERCULES, GOVERN AS PEEWEE HERMAN

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