WATCH LIVE: Exclusive interviews at Day 4 of RNC | Politico

e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e please welcome politico's defense reporter Paul McClary British ambassador to the United States Dame Karen Pierce German ambassador to the United States Andreas mckas Canadian ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hilman and Swedish ambassador to the United States Urban alen e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good morning everybody good morning if we could ask everybody to come file forward and take your seats we're about to begin the show the day's events we're really looking forward to it thank you all for joining us back in there in the back having your sandwiches come up and sit down and we'll get started right away thank you e e please welcome political Media Group CEO goalie Sho slami good morning good morning everyone and welcome to day four of Politico live programming from the CNN political Grill at the Republican National Convention it's been a one wonderful four days we have another day of amazing conversations for you we're going to kick off the morning with uh Playbook co-author Eugene Daniels interviewing governor sonunu and then we will end the day um at 1:30 this afternoon we will have speaker Johnson speaking with Playbook co-author Rachel bade so please stay with us all day it is going to be a really really wonderful uh session today thank you so much please welcome politico's White House correspondent and Playbook co-author Eugene Daniels hello hi guys hello hello everyone hi hello thank you for the feedback I appreciate that um as you can see I am alone up here but that's okay governor sinunu should be popping up on one of these screens any second there we go Governor cuno how are you hey good to see you Eugene good to see you how's everything going out there it's very quiet very quiet trip here quiet trip and nothing's going on very silent nothing's happening it sounds like you probably been sitting a lot of a lot of Milwaukee traffic or something exactly exactly lot lot of closures here but that's okay um Governor there's every time I sit down to prepare questions for you everything changes so we have a lot to get to um and I know you have a heart out so I want to jump into it um you have said in the past that um Joe Biden was not going to be the nominee of the democratic party the momentum is Shifting I'm talking to folks and people who at one point were very gung-ho about him staying on have even changed their tune behind the scenes are you feeling Vindicated does it feel like you were right this entire time time you want to take a victory well no one likes I Told You So M no one likes that I Told You So moment uh as much as a politician uh but yeah look we've been I've been saying this for well over a year um it's real it's happening I think what you're going to see is obviously this is a week of Republican unity and and I think what everyone is seeing is is really positive on the Republican side but as soon as this convention is done around Monday morning the whole world is going to put their cameras right on Joe Biden and say and now what are you going to do because clearly the numbers AR aren't there uh my message to the if I was the RNC my message to the RNC is find someone like Frank Lun pay him whatever that he wants and start pulling the messaging for a Camala Harris uh Andy Basher Camala Harris Josh Shapiro type ticket because I think that's what you're going to see uh materialize in the next few weeks and that is a very different race than running against Biden and and again I think Republicans have a lot of momentum and a lot of opportunity to win big in November right now but believe me if and when they make this which everything's going to change it's going to get very close in a lot of those uh tighter States is going to be more energy I think the Democrat Party would be effectively be rewarded if you will by Independence for saying hey we none of us like that whole Biden Trump ticket to start with you guys had the courage to change your your nominee out and it's almost like a rewarding and a re-energizing of the party there so um there's a 100 days to go a lot is going to happen in that 100 days and I just tell Republicans we want to win so you better run really hard and you better strategize for kind of those tough scenarios while we might not see them at this very moment that are likely to materialize in the next few weeks what were you seeing before everyone else right you talked about how you called this earlier um you politians do la a victory lab what were you seeing before the rest of I guess the Democratic party and and and Leadership we're seeing about Biden needing to to go possibly here well look I'll just say as a governor I'm on the ground a lot with my constituents and we're in a pry uh purple State a pretty independent-minded State and when you when you're talking to folks consistently you look at what their priorities are it's not just a policy here and a policy there or a party here and a party there um they want energy they want something refreshed they they want to be heard and and again especially in New Hampshire the Trump Biden ticket was nothing anybody wanted to see and I just I try to connect with people on on what drives them uh in the when they actually get into that voting booth so the one thing that drives a voter is anxiety so if people feel anxiety over inflation over the cost of living over rent over the Border that's going to drive them to definitely vote against the Democrat uh uh administration at this point and and Camala Harris is going to have to answer to that or or you know Joe Biden literally can't answer for it Cala Harris will have to answer for it at some point and that anxiety is is showing a shift the other thing they they will vote on is new energy and optimism and just they changed not they just want something that isn't the same old thing and so I guess I'll just tell you what I saw was was what what voters were feeling that's all and I think too much in the in the media and the Washington Elite they just kind of talk amongst themselves in their little circles without really getting out there and trying to getting on an understanding what voters want and then just the reality of look my interactions with Joe Biden have been fine um most of them have he's been on so to say a couple of them he wasn't on his best game and when you're dealing with issues of of you know Dementia or getting old or whatever this might be it was clear to me it was getting worse and worse and worse and a year ago you knew that a year down the road it was just going to be un they were going to be unable to contain it unable to hide from it anymore um so I think the Democrats have have made their own problem there's no question about that they should have had the courage to see this uh to react to it and move on from it before now but that doesn't mean they're not out there's still time to do it they got about two weeks to make a tough decision get Biden where he needs to be obviously there's a lot of pressure there it's happening and I think you're going to see a very reenergized potentially a re-energized Democrat Party um I don't want to see it cuz I'm a republican I want to win we all want to be running against Joe Biden but I try to be a realist about planning and strategizing for what's going to be a pretty wild last three months of this campaign yeah I want to jump into you said that when you've been with President Biden he's been on his game and off his game at times and the times in which he's been off his game tell me more about what those interactions have been like well I'll say this you know I you know we've been um I was with the governors in February uh at the White House and the president came in so physically you could see he does the shuffling thing right and he's an older gentleman and he's shuffling he physically doesn't have it to literally get from point A to point B very well you've seen the stubble on the stairs and all that um mentally um when you ask him a question what what is clear is he's trying his best to regurgitate what other people told him he wants to have a conversation to his credit but he's really trying hard to just regurgitate other people's answers and you can a you know as any anyone in a leadership position whether you're a dad a CEO or a governor you can tell when you're being given somebody else's answers and I could tell that wasn't that was was not a good sign I saw him get off a plane two months ago and we he we made a couple jokes we had a nice interaction I think he's a nice person disagree with pretty much every one of his policies but he's a nice person we had a nice interaction but two months before then uh again when we were talking to Governor like he he does the whispering thing a little too much and he whispers things that don't make any sense and and you're like boy this is not getting any better so that's all it's just it's good days and bad I see it with you know my my mom has dealt with this uh I saw it with my mom I I've seen it with other older individuals so look as an as a person I feel bad for the guy I do because when you get to that age and you're dealing with mental cognitive issues you're really relying on your family and your team to help you you know be the best version of yourself and running for president is not what this gentleman should be doing right now whoever's been telling him and pushing him to do that you know they there's a responsibility of the family to give good advice and I just don't think they've been giving him some very good advice so he's got a he's got a legacy decision to make he can be the Democrat that everyone remembers for getting R for you know moving Trump off the ballot in in 2020 or the Democrat that everyone remembers that overstate is welcome and handed it back to Republicans which is Vine by me I would love it if Trump won obviously but um you know I think that's kind of the tough discussion that some of his peers Pelos Schumer and others are are having with him right now and in my sense is they'll uh he he'll he'll be kind of pushed into the right decision for him himself in his party in the in the next couple weeks so as Republicans we better plan ahead yeah I know you politicians don't like to get specific so I'm going to try again on the question of what did the president say you talked about him whispering things that didn't make sense did he forget a name did he forget um a a policy of his number wrong I don't want to go into too many specifics yeah he well here's an example he turned to me at one point in front of everybody and said and all that money we gave to New Hampshire for for for police officers Governor right I I don't know I don't know what he's talking about I mean I was polite I didn't really say anything I didn't want to you know show him up in that moment I didn't know what the heck the guy was talking about um he he turned to the governor of of um uh Montana at one point and started talking about you know some of the the changing of the colors of the leaves and was implying that it was climate change driven when it had nothing to do with that it was it was some of these really awkward moments about specific things that he was trying to get specific on but clearly didn't know what he was talking about so that's all and we were all very polite about it we all had polite discussions he's the president you treat him with respect but then you kind of go off and go this ain't getting any better so yeah you just have those moments of interaction and discussion like I said sometimes he's on making making some jokes he's very nice and sometimes he's just not in the conversation that you're trying to have you know one of the things that has come out ever since the debate on June 7th was Republicans saying that Democrats have been a part of this cover up protecting this President you had interactions with him in February where you say he was off should have should you and other Governors have come out and say it as well and or were you holding it back because you want to keep him on the ticket so you guys can try to beat him in November I've been saying this for 15 months that he's but the specific but but the specifics of but the specific louder than me yeah but the specifics of the meeting where you say the specifics of Thee that you know you were saying that he should go but the specifics of the meeting that were behind closed doors that you could have shared before now okay I had I had like one or two meetings with with the president behind closed doors with other governors in the past year the guy has five meetings a day the Democrats Pelosi Schumer talk to this guy constantly they know exactly what's going on and it's their job to kind of talk to the media and have the media tell the real story he's been interviewed by the media he can barely keep up with these interviews guys this is not a new story this isn't a surprise if you're saying that we should have told America earlier that the president had cognitive issues what have you been watching for the past two or three years everyone in America sees it that's why they don't want them on the ballot it was the media in the Democrat establishment that refused to acknowledge what we were already seeing so I no you guys are the like apparently the last ones in the media to get the memo we've all two 350 million Americans have been watching this slow demise uh this very tough story for the for Joe Biden and his family play out for the past three years yeah well to be fair we don't get as much access as you guys do to him behind closed doors so those kind of moments that you're talking about we would have seen it no what wait whoa whoa whoa this guy's been having been cognitive issues outside of closed doors in the public for years again if you're saying that you haven't seen that I don't know what you guys are watching I I mean I've had a couple meetings with a guy but that shouldn't surprise anybody I'm just repeating that what happens has happened behind closed doors is exactly what America has already seen so if you guys don't want to acknowledge it that's on you but and the Democrat Party really the Democrat establishment they know this isn't a new thing Nancy Pelosi didn't watch the debate and go wow I'm shocked that he couldn't answer the questions she knew they knew exactly that they were just hoping for the best and that he'd get through an hour but a debate is really the interview you you you do to for the job with the American public that's what the debate is unscripted unprompted no teleprompters no set questions here here it is you got to be your best on your feet that's an interview would anybody for any job in America hire Joe Biden after that interview no like literally for not to even work at the hardware store so the fact that all of a sudden we're going to stay with him which what what everybody already saw we're going to stay with him to be president of the United States no way no way and that's why they're having this moment of Crisis this was self-created by the Democrat Party and liberal media that just they knew you guys knew everyone everyone saw it this is not there shouldn't be a shock yeah I want to move on you talked about um vice president kamla Harris and the possibility of her being at the top of the ticket and this kind of changing the race how should Republicans how should the RNC be preparing themselves to run against vice president kamla Harris yeah so that's a great Point uh I wouldn't do the uh Trump Harris poll I those polls right now are are are not as meaningful as messaging on wording on branding that's why I say you know you got to find a Frank lunson someone of that ilk that understands the value of branding wording messaging how they would uh recharacterize this it's not going to be over a policy or just an individual it's going to be over the brands of the party if you will as they emerge and and kind of redefine themselves uh where the Republican party is today is actually quite different than where it was just 3 months ago in terms of being unified in terms of being focused in terms of being issue driven where the Democrat Party I believe will be a month from now is very different than today it won't be about Joe Biden it'll be about I think a younger you know uh more energetic uh they still have a lot of problems on issues and a lot of problems on policy but that doesn't necessarily close the deal in November so I would be I'd be kind of testing out the brands and the messaging that potentially comes from that I think if Camala Harris does become the nominee and I think she's the only choice potentially she'd be smart to pick a governor uh probably someone from the east coast to you know compliment her uh on the west coast um you know someone that has a a bit of a different tact and style in politics as she does to kind of bring that that complimentary ticket there that that could be a strong potential ticket that just surprises and re-energizes the party uh just as you're hitting the election so it's that kind of messaging and branding that I would be testing and and and kind of sifting out right now and seeing how you'd you know what works going against that that type of new image that they have an opportunity to uh tap into if they if they have the courage to do it yeah Governor I I I hear um Republicans often mispronouncing vice president kamla Harris's name you've done it a few times is it a tactic or or do you guys is is it just a tough name to to pronounce I'm not in am I no if I'm pronouncing your name wrong I apologize I I I I say Kamala Harris what what I'm honestly telling you I would never I wouldn't disrespect someone by pronouncing their name wrong you say it Kamala Kamala Kamala La yeah yeah there's a couple different ways to say it that I'll go sorry I don't think anyone pronounces her name no that's no no one intentionally pronounces her name I don't think I I apologize if I was Kamala I'll stick with Kamala no worries um how would the g go react if dims changed the ticket would they call it unfair Shenanigans would they would they call it cheating we've been seeing and hearing from some folks that they would even want to try to Sue I don't know who they're going to sue but try to sue to keep Joe Biden on the ticket is it do you would you consider it cheating no it's not cheating but it's not Democratic right no one's going to no one will have actually voted for her if it's Cala then there's a I I think look she was the she's the vice president she's the number two she's been on the ticket technically you know she would be the one to step up so if they went with some somebody other than the vice president that might be a stronger argument to make if you know Gavin tried to jump in and no one has ever voted for gavan that would be a bit strange but it's really only Kam Kamala uh or uh or you know somebody else at this point so I think I think those those arguments those arguments would probably you know fall short it's um you know and and I can see people being frustrated but that's they the the Democrat Party has a process they're going to follow a process if that comes to be as long as they're following their own rules they can make their rules and as as long as they follow them that's it and at the end of the day those arguments would be I think I think it'd just be a waste of time energy and money on on the Republican side if they make the switch out and she's on top of the ticket she's on top of the ticket you're not going to win any legal battles on that one yeah would if you were talking to vice president comla Harris would you give what what running mate would you pick for her what running mate would I pick for her a um um I I'm not going to pick kamla Harris's running back the one I think I could beat the easiest how about that the one I I could beat we'll talkline from her point of view I mean yeah if the Democrat Party wants to make me a strategist I I I I always say that no one knows how to beat Chris anudo like Chris Seno I wish the Dem would um but a go I look I'm I'm I'm always partial to governors in an executive leadership role she does not have real leadership experience and I think if she chose a governor I think that would send a positive message um but again I I I wish it was Joe Biden I hope they stick with Joe Biden because I think he's going to be really easy to beat and I think it helps the Republican party up and down I'm just trying to be a realist and and and kind of tap into the reality of what might come I'm a strong believer especially as a governor uh you know you hope for plan a but you better be ready with plan b c and d and Republicans just need to be ready on that side yeah one of the things that um has we've seen around here and have been a big topic of of conversation is this idea of everyone need needing to tone down the rhetoric after what happened um on Saturday and I'm curious if you believe that both parties need to right you're a you're a governor in the Republican party so I'm only going to ask you to you know clean up clean up your own house but how should the Trump campaign and Republicans up and down the ticking around the country be changing the way they talk about their opponents um on the Democratic side yeah so I I'll say on the Republican side I think a lot of it will bear out tonight right to see where where the president's speech goes um I think it it's about Unity not of the unity of his base or something like that or just even Unity of the Republican party that's done he's done that he's done that very well and him and JD Vance I think bring a very interesting ticket that brings a lot of people together within the party uh former president Trump now has to talk about the unity of America and it's in the tone it's in allowing I think the best way to do that is embrace the individual we're not coming with big Government Solutions as Republicans we believe in the states we believe in individual rights we believe that a local control and local voices have more power right and by doing that you actually bring the temperature down things get heated when it's just in Washington and just in the media cuz you're pulled away from your constituents you're pulled away from the the real interaction with real people that are just trying to live their lives the more you return control and empowerment to that individual the more the more it gets normal I I'll bring an example up in New Hampshire We Believe very strongly in local control it's that Live Free or Die thing we got here and the most powerful meetings we have are town meeting and at a town meeting you go and you're sitting there arguing with your neighbor I'm arguing with my brother who lives down the road we're going at it on all these different issues but at the end of the day we're neighbors right we walk out we have our discussions our kids are at the bus stop together the next day and by by keeping things local you can still have heated tough discussion but you're all a community by keeping things big with big government it keeps things polarized so I think the opportunity at least on the Republican side is to talk about returning empowerment decision-making uh to the individual to states to local communities and that in itself I think brings a little more confidence into the system unless people want to engage more in a much more positive way yeah are you not worried that the the the you know the horse has left the barn or the train has left the station or whatever ID idiom you'd like to use on that in this country right like we're all on social media you know we're all talking to people in the way that people speak to each other does it feel like there I mean how don't most people I think don't understand or see how we could go back to kind of the idea of Civility in our politics well I'll say this look at States and I'm not just talking about myself but in this and when you look talk about government the most trusted politicians are Governors they're your local leaders they're people that have they have more connection with their brand and what they want to do the people of Mississippi believe in the governor of Mississippi the people of California at least temporarily believe in the galifornia and here and we can have that discussion and if we're not doing a good job there's more accountability at a local level now when you get to the National politics there's three things that are causing the real problem on the national side they need term limits because too many of them overstay their welcome they need campaign Finance reform because they can be too extreme raise money on that extremism without ever getting anything done right I could give you a handful of of of house members on both sides that raised millions of dollars yet have never passed a single bill in history right so you need campaign Finance reform that doesn't incentivize it um uh and uh gerrymandering and that's a tough one because gerrymandering is really done on the state level but gerrymandering is a problem it has made less uh what was 150 independent House Seats you know that could go back and forth closer to more like 50 or 60 that get that get fought for in any given cycle so um those three things can be fixed and if we have the courage to do it you can get back to more of a checks and balance a natural checks and balance less of a US versus them type mentality and at the end of the day that just that just gets more done for America Governor about 5 months ago you you were at our um Governor Summit um in Washington DC we did an interview similar but you were here that was great I would next time you have to come back um you said it won't be his Donald Trump's party forever it just won't at some point Donald Trump won't be here forever but you know looking around as we've been the last four days his choosing of JD Vance who seems to be a MAA era parent it seems like it will be his party for at least another day decade or so at the very least were you you were right about the you you say you were right about the Biden thing but were you wrong about this one no no no look look Donald Trump is is insanely unique right I mean there's no one like him there's no one that can replace him there's no Donald Trump light that's coming through the ranks JD Vance if if if Trump were to serve four years and JD were to come up and want to run and all that JD Vance is JD Vance he's not Donald Trump light he's not some version of magot and all this sort of thing he's his own person with his own ideas and his own vision for the country and he would have to talk to the Republicans about that um Trump you know whether you know how long he stays and how long he's around it's going he's going to be a huge voice in this party whether as president or post presidency whatever it might be there's no doubt doubting that but you know there's no replacing that so at some point if and when he's not here again that there's also a sense of a little bit of fear with the with the former president well if I don't support him you know he might come after me and all that we saw that with primarying and and some of the primary endorsements and stuff so people were more fearful there uh sometimes uh with him and his brand and all that but really only he truly carries that brand right um you're still going to have you know kind of the the ultra conservatives the anti-government people the more moderate folks we have still have a huge Spectrum within the Republican party that's a good thing by the way it's a really good thing because we're still all Republicans we all agree on a lot of the the basics you know of of 80% 90% of the policies want to see we can agree and solidify around but when but Trump's his own thing even that kind of floats above that he has ideas that I would say are not very conservative they're just of his brand right um I don't think he's a great fiscal conservative I think he borrows too much money I think he believes in debt too much I've always had this issue with that but that's okay um JD or or whoever comes up after that as a leader in the party they're going to have their own ideas and they're going to push that so now every individual and when it comes to politics even on the national stage has to be themselves they have to drive their brand and what they're about um so no I I don't think it's it's a problem per se it's just kind of the reality of the Republican party but the good news for Republicans is even with Donald Trump who again I ran pretty hard I tried to get Nikki to be the nominee but with Donald Trump up there he's beat a lot of my expectations a lot of other folks expectations and his ability to unite this party and ultimately unite the country that that's undeniable and and what you're witnessing this week in Milwaukee a lot of us never saw that coming but he's let's give him credit where credit is due he deserves it he and J have done a very good job uh talking about a unification of the party bringing the temperature down across America and finally getting stuff done that Americans want to see actually dealing with inflation dealing with the Border dealing with these everyday issues that too many of our communities are burdened with yeah when when you think about a possible second Trump Administration who are the top names for you that he should bring in you know do you have you talked to Nikki Haley and and asked her if she' she'd return um to a trump Administration would you serve in a trump Administration if he asked I don't know that he would but if he did well no yeah well I'm I'm just looking for a job in the private sector I'll send everyone in the crowd resumes after this interview um so I'm not looking to to stay in in in the in public life per se yeah look I to be honest governor governor X Governor Y and Governor Z you know for when you talk about secretaries in the cabinet those are CEOs those are executive decisions that's kind of the buck stops here type decisions especially when they looking at policy not just imp mentation of the law but you know creating and driving on a lot of the policies that come out of those hopefully minimizing the policies hopefully getting rid of a lot of the bureaucracy Having the courage to balance budgets within those agencies to help the president create a a more balanced budget to get out of this debt crisis that we're in things of that nature Governors know how to do that right virtually every Governor has a balanced budget amendment in their state right they have to live by the dollars they have to find good people they have to demand a better return for the taxpayer dollars in so that type of executive leadership would do him very very well um and so I could yeah I could list about 15 Republican Governors that would be wonderful in the administration and I'd hope it go out and find them as well as some folks in the private sector that's okay folks in the private sector though have to understand that there is a government process you can't run the government like a business I'd like to but you really can't because it's not our money right it's your money it's the taxpayer's money so you need there is a checks and balance process there but but again again executive Le level leadership out of the private sector can also be very very useful yeah last question obviously you're not here um in person um any reason why why why you're not at your party's convention in person should we read into that yeah I mean a couple look yeah no no no just look I'm a governor it's kind of a 247 thing I you know I was asked to do a lot of media which I love doing was here I talked to him on Tuesday and to be honest I think yeah well look I got to say I just think Milwaukee is a tiny town and I didn't want to sit in traffic and security and deal with all the hassle of it more than anything I'm it sounds like it's been a fun convention a lot of great energy out there that's all terrific but um you know I I could be just as useful about you know doing what having conversations here as anywhere else so no I just decided it wasn't worth wasn't worth the trip Governor suu thank you so much for your time and we'll see you soon thank you guys thank you you're good thank you buddy thank you thank you and thank you all very much thank you please welcome politico's senior political columnist and politics bureau chief Jonathan Martin and Republican National committee's Chief of Staff Chris levita how does he have a credential who gave him a credential brother good to see you man we got some hecklers in the room I hear I see oh outstanding my fan club besides lasita oh hello all right everybody grab a seat if you can find one grab a seat if you could find one um thank you for being here on the final day of uh the uh the convention uh that is suddenly the second biggest political story in the world um uh Chris levita uh senior strategist um in the Republic party uh and now uh helping to oversee the the Trump campaign is joining us and we're thrilled to have him um Chris let's just get to the news here right out of the gate right uh what would the replacement of Joe Biden on top of the democratic ticket mean for your candidate your campaign going forward and what are you guys planning to do strategy-wise to reflect that well from a strategic side wouldn't you like to know um I won't tell anybody yeah okay uh but well first and foremost the way we view it uh looking at it as you know uh from where we are I mean this is nothing more than an attempted coup by the Democrat Party they are actively engaged in an attempt in my view and a lot of people share this view in deposing the president of the United States because look you can't step down as a candidate for president because you're cognitively impaired while still being president so you know the two are linked and so you know Hunter loses all access do you guys really think that they're going to give it up that easy you know again it's it's literally a coup for everything that they accuse Republicans of they're actually doing it on on national TV every single day so that's first and foremost what what I think is developing right in front of everybody yep all right that's your punditry thank you for that it's it's it's it's an it's an actual part of the conversation okay what does it mean for your campaign going forward if kamla Harris becomes the Democratic standard Bearer how do you run against her and does it change the map that you're looking at no no it doesn't because uh the last time I checked it's Biden Harris okay right um so every single thing that Biden did is an issue that is uh uh that she is complicit in never mind the fact that she's Al you know the the uh gaslighter in Chief uh specific to oh he's fine he's in great shape I mean do you know how much tape we have on this so you know and that's a character issue so never mind the fact that you know we have them dead to rights on inflation National Security I mean let me go the border the borders are please I'd love it would you Chris consider any kind of uh legal recourse at the Democrat RS do try to dump Biden from the ticket well let's look at it this way um or let's not forget in 2014 in Kansas uh the Democrat yeah I know yeah he sort of had something to do with that being a race um in 2014 in the state of Kansas the Democrats had I think it was somewhere between 80 100,000 Democrats which I think that's all there are in in the state vote in in the Democrat primary nominated a candidate for the United States Senate then this guy named Greg Orman comes along as an independent Nic looking guy tons of money Democrats decide eh we don't like our guy so they sue they go to court the Supreme Court of Kansas allows the Democrat Party to remove their duly nominated person off the ballot so that it's just Pat Roberts versus Greg Warman an independent so there is precedent here there's history here the Democrats love to take out their sitting incumbents whatever and put somebody else on and and and and so the that's a you know that's a huge issue they're going to disenfranchise um you know millions of people that vote I don't know what the total numbers are but it's it's literally millions that voted in the Democrat but that's not our problem that's theirs but you're open to pursuing depending on the timeline some kind of legal recourse to keep them on the ballot no I didn't say that okay okay um I'm certainly and we are certainly not going to tip our hand what you know look this election is not going to be focused on legal battles they would to talk about other than inflation the Border Etc yeah Chris um a lot of the sort of bonus states that are being talked about right now which are states that that have been blue uh really going back to um uh in most cases President Obama's first election 2008 uh but that now are being talked about is coming into play uh our native state of Virginia New Mexico New Hampshire min Ina um potentially tell me of of those states which of them do you think become more appealing to you if Biden is not the nominee and KLA Harris is the nominee um well I mean well so right now as Emerson just came out with a slew of polls last night yeah um you know and have Trump up two or three uh in the Commonwealth um so look right now the we have about somewhere between 20 and 2 five different paths to the nomination I mean to the election yeah just flat out yeah and they have won sure they have one the three great lake States the blue wall right so but again do you think that um a place like New Mexico for example where you've got a lot of non- colge Voters a lot of multigenerational Hispanic voters does that become more appealing to you it does because it's also the I believe the second largest oil producing state in the United States second largest you think that you guys could run more competitively there against conell Harris than Joe Biden um I think it would be no I mean I look I think I think we're in a strong position to beat either one of them in New Mexico but yeah probably so because because not only is it just a a replacing of a name yeah right and and look I I'm not going to see this ground that you can talk about one without the other if he steps down as a candidate for president legy to defined by the fact that he bailed after 3 years as president of the United States because he's cognitively inable to do the job I I don't know you know your own party well but I I I take it that your working assumption is that she would be the nominee if Biden is not the nominee right well apparently to Nancy Pelosi that's not the case um you know there's reporting out there that she's not happy with having Cala Harris as the nominee so that will be fun but you guys are are yeah plan yeah okay I mean look we plan for everything um worry about everything plan for everything and and and then we execute so uh and and you know I know the one thing that this campaign and certainly uh led by Donald Trump uh has proven its ability to do which is to improvise overcome adapt and Achieve regardless of what the scenario that is thrown in front of us let me ask you one last thing on this topic just directly which is more of a challenge for you guys a a politically damaged Joe Biden or a politically healthy commer is well I mean look if if if if they depose um the sitting president of the United States as a candidate uh and they depose him as the President of the United States that's going to create a whole host of different issues I truly believe that well to some extent I believe that the Press no offense guys will give her a reset there's no press here you're okay that you promised me there would there wasn't going to be I mean he sent me all the questions ahead of time um he handw wrote them though uh you did a prep obviously for it no but you know so that just creates a whole new set of issues but I you know Chris um one of the themes of this campaign I think for a lot of folks who are watching closely is what the hell did you do with Donald Trump uh you know where did he go the the person who's firing off tweets at all hours weighing in on issues like the the quality of Diet Coke or a reality show outc legitimate that's come on but but but in all seriousness though I mean what have you guys done or has he basically realized that he wants to get the brass ring once more and that to get it back he's got to be disciplined what just take us through how you've gotten somebody who was famous for being a newsmaker in the most let's say extemporaneous ways somebody who's a much more uh focused at least for now politician um so I love how that you know anything positive develops in Trump World it can't not be him it just it can't be something that he came up with so um look you you you don't you don't run for president three times in a row and be president and not learned something uhhuh uhhuh I mean I'm sorry but you know this is something that that that you know um and so he has been you know and the fact that that we worry about things that we can control and and all of you in here have heard me say this on more than one occasion you know our Focus has always been and our our job had always been and he made it very clear give me the operation that I need uhhuh to be successful and so we worry about that we worry about the nuts and bolts we worry about the details these things matter I mean the convention thus far has been executed I think Rel pretty flawlessly um from the message discipline um to the visuals to the message obviously we're trying to um push to voters so we worry about those things that we can control that's something that we have a direct impact in on and and it's actually very important aspect of politics and so when when you have that level of of when the boss has that level of confidence in the operation it takes a little bit of the pressure off of him and but he has told me on more than one occasion you just secure the vote yeah I'll take care of everything else and Twitter did him a favor by throwing him off Twitter too I'm not going to go there yeah okay uh but he is obviously a much more truth yeah he's on Truth still but it doesn't have the same obviously impact uh what what keeps you up at or what wakes you up at night when you bolt out of bed at 3:00 in the morning besides the copious red wine and massive elk that you've shot and killed and eaten that day um what what wakes you up at three a copious amount very what wakes you up at 3 in the morning where you you say oh my God you know I just don't know uh what what is the one thing that could stop this from happening I mean obviously you guys are leading the polls now but what keeps you up as the the one big impediment to Trump winning again this fall well first of all I don't get up at 3:00 in the morning nothing gets me up and when I hit the hay I'm out okay um for 5 hours but when you do worry yeah um well we worry about everything I mean Susie and I worry about absolutely everything all the time but but well I I will tell you and I have said this weeks before I was always worried about safety just was and and unfortunately it was something that played out in front of everybody did you make inquiries about safety in the months before Butler no because we had no we have phenomenal detail you felt good about it but 100% but how was it on your mind like explain that well I mean it's just again there are things that you can't control right um and and and I worry about I worry about um you know I don't worry about these bigger things that are out there be that I know I have no control over and and all of you who've been through the presidential Cycles before there you know a campaign can control but so much in an actual presid presidential campaign I mean right I mean there you know and so we just try to take advantage of opportunities I worry about more than anything about our operation a being able to do the job correctly not missing an opportunity not being not taking advantage of an opportunity or a fast ball when it's thrown across the plate I want to attack every freaking day 12 hours a day just nonstop because that's the nature of the new cycle I don't want to miss anything I don't want to let anybody off of the hook and so I'm constantly you know harping on staff to make sure that don't miss anything attention to detail is the singular most important thing in my view so it's literally it's nothing big or I worry about you know you know Martian Landing or some crap I literally worry about these small things because seing opportunities yeah not being not doing the Small Things leads to missing the big thing so seizing opportunities is key key to go on the offensive in a campaign it's like a hockey game What's the best way to go on the offensive against K Harris what's the one best issue to go on the offensive when it comes to K Harris borders are border okay what what makes her slightly stronger than B that could create some challenges for you guys well I mean she's has an amazing ability to I think from a word salad standpoint make as much sense as Joe Biden so that's a good thing um for us anyway I mean all seriousness I mean she she obviously is a uh a younger person she'd be the first black woman president in American history she obviously could bring stuff to the ticket too right yeah I mean sure but you know at the end of the day you know the American public wants answers to inflation they want answers to the Border they want answers to insert issue they don't want to talk about issues and oh by the way this notion of oh this is a war against democracy that contrast is falling apart before our eyes because they're the ones conducting a coup Chris you weren't in Butler on Saturday thank God uh uh when I saw you uh savaging the media on on on Twitter I felt I felt relieved that uh you you were alive and well to be up to your old tricks um uh tell me about that first conversation you had with with the former president on Saturday when you talk to them I'm not going to I'm not I'm not going to some conversations are private I do know that yes yeah like do you say them or that guy I'm not going to I'm not going to go into specific bomb wasn't there I'm not going into any details but but you know I I was talking to Su uh you know and she and Chung were in the car and and uh the Dan cavino um they were in the in the chase vehicle on the way and and you know there was a very hurried um you know convers cuz I was on the phone with her and then just hung up when it all happened and I'm was actually watching it in my hotel room with my daughter and um you know but I I I'll be honest with you I had a little bit of guilt not being there why just cuz well when your friends go through something traumatic like that you want to be there with them you know yeah yeah when you talk to the staffers who were in The Chase vehicle afterwards uh what was their family you know Trump was defining you like you know what was the same the the same but I mean we had a few we have a few younger staffers who were in the line of fire uh we had a uh um one of our press Advance was her second day on the job and and there's just a horrific picture of her uh on the ground reacting to you know what was transpiring and so her mom and dad came and picked her up and took her home yeah Chris can can the former president use this opportunity to convey to his supporters that no this was not some kind of a democratic plot there there's so much circulating out there that frankly is detrimental to to the country politics aside can can the president use the opportunity to convey to his supporters who may be falling prey to some of that BS that that that know this was not a conspiracy by democrats or George Soros or whoever well I I think isn't that important for the country to hear that well yeah but it's what what's important is that um you know the the speech is very you know forward focused and and I and and um we're very happy with with where that is but it'll things will change cuz it's still early in the day yeah um but in terms of I mean look there are not enough facts um and and you know it's not just up to us yeah uh to talk about you know the facts resulting around what had happened it's also incumbent on the United States Secret Service and clearly the director has no intention of saying to anybody because she ran from five US senators last night here so I mean should she resign oh yeah yeah 100% was there Anger from your colleagues about the performance of The Secret Service not his detail personally but the broader service I mean I think that look I I'm not going to get into all the specifics of of that but I will tell you that the members of the United States Senate who were discussing with her yesterday I mean you can you can talk to Marsha she'll be you know the senator from Tennessee she'll tell you whatever you want to know um you know that they weren't answering the questions that they felt they needed answers to and that's a problem and Chris you aren't a doctor uh but do you have a sense for what the prognosis actually is on you know on his ear no no yeah no uh is there Pain still you know I don't know have you asked him hurts nope yeah n okay uh do you know how how long he has to wear the B hey look I got shot in the face yeah I know Chris want a Purple Heart in the first you win one you get one but so it was Award of the Purple Heart in the first golf War serving the yeah and and it took me it took me a good 30 seconds to get back up off my feet and I was I so I was like I don't know how the hell he did that I don't know how plus he had you know five grown men and uh uh and and and a a female agent on top of them so I you know it's kind of remarkable have you talked to the speech writers who are crafting president speech for tonight in the last day yeah um what are they doing to incorporate language into his remarks to reflect the uncertainty about who your opponent's going to be have you added language so you know going through the process of preparing a speech for president Trump you know I don't I'm not going to get into too much detail but I you know look it's a it's a process but I I don't think people what people don't know is that he spends he being the candidate the president the former president spends an enormous amount of time reading every single line and he'll change a period he'll change a comma he'll change a whole paragraph he'll take a paragraph and move it to this and because he wants the flow he wants the and what people don't realize either is that and we've tried to convey this um this whole debate about the um uh wasn't much of a debate uh for the platform I mean he he went through every single page up until till 10:30 Sunday night and I had to have the thing at the printer at midnight so it' be ready at 6:00 a.m. it was clearly his voice oh oh 100% see the but but yeah no oh no I know and well you know everybody wants to see the draft and I'm like well actually he was on the phone with Vince going Vince haly he and Ross the chief speech writers but I mean so it's a process he goes through every single line and and um I mean look there's a body of work with with President Trump and and in his speeches there's a bodyw workk in terms of his issues but you guys have had to update the remarks in the LA in the last day or you will today to reflect the uncertainty about who's going to run look I'm not going to I'm I'm not going to Yeah the speech is the speech it'll be fantastic we'll see tonight what he says beautiful yeah be beautiful um speaking of beautiful remarks did um what was that conversation like that he had with President Biden the other night wasn't there I just know it was you know short yeah yeah and President Biden inquired about him yeah I I wasn't there so I I don't try to you know insert myself and stuff like that speaking of conversation that that that uh clip of Bobby Kennedy Jr um and uh the Pres the former president talking on the phone leaked um um uh you guys think that that at some point here in the next 120 days that it's plausible that candidate can endorse I I mean look I that was obviously the ask yeah yeah I I mean it's it's a well you know the great thing was I was here yeah and so um I wasn't in the no I wasn't here no no no no um but it is the hot spot in town it's no doubt um but uh you know the conversation that they had was very straightforward and I thought pretty benign and you know I thought it was pretty shitty what he you know what they did but I mean that's what you get leak his son taped it apparently yeah that's apparently what what it was and then posted it on like uh like Facebook live or uh Myspace one of those PS okay good uh unclear what it was yeah um so you think though it's possible that you guys could land Kennedy right does he take more votes right now mid July from you or from Biden Kennedy it depends on the state okay let's go let go to michig uh Michigan probably a touch more from Biden than us like for one for every for every vote he takes from us he's taken two from B how about here in Wisconsin about the same Pennsylvania much more from us why I don't know I haven't figured it out yet that's for bro you might know yeah yeah uh maybe I know maybe I'm just not going to tell you it could be a possibility too so um better to have him on the ballot or off the ballot but I mean you know generally gener I mean what between he and Stein and and and and Cornell I I mean you know we're going to have four people on the ballot three people on the battle they just restored Kennedy on the ballot North Carolina right after they they made that that the the Board of Elections down there made that BS move um so I mean they the Democrats are really good at keeping people off ballots um Chris speaking of Michigan Wisconsin and Pennsylvania the three blue wall States what's the former president's floor in these three states what's the minimum percent of the vote is it is it 46 47 like like what's the floor in these three states um it's def I mean the floor is definitely the high very high 40s High 40s the floor in these three states yeah so what you're telling me in a multi-candidate ballot if president higher goes higher I mean look we're polling in some of these states a lot of these states we're in a head the head we already over 50 you know when you get over 50 I mean it it becomes increasingly difficult and you hold that but you know the numbers have fluctuated but they've only fluctuated by one or two points at most and all of the margins are plus or minus four so you're talking about statistically no difference the thing that we again track more than more than any anything else are you know the averages I mentioned Tony That's Tony fabrisio president former president Trump's pollster has he gone into the field yet to test the strengths and vulnerabilities of not just KLA Harris but other potential Democrats who could be the nominee no I'm not going to answer that why not cuz it's private polling I'm asking for the results I'm asking for the results I'm asking for if he's doing it yeah I mean look we do a lot of things okay I just don't always have a need to share it with the world yeah right yeah yeah would it be would it be safe for us to assume that in the near future your research team is going professional operation John what the hell do you think okay we'll take that as a strong yes that you're going to test the various strengths weaknesses of KLA Harris and the other possible Democrats who would run a roster that includes uh potentially JB priter Gavin Nome uh Josh Shapiro um you didn't think I was going to be easy yeah no I'm still working on you so uh are there any folks out there Democratic names Chris that that you think would be stronger or weaker than others if it's not Comm Harris I I mean look there's a lot of data public data out there that has shown you know a lot of different things I as a matter of fact I believe the White House did their own polling on this matter and released it publicly which I mean that was quite entertaining um but but and and you know I think basically the you know Cala is polling at about the same um in public polls um I've seen some data that suggest that she's actually pulling worse yeah um I think that's probably why Nancy Peli is talking about if you know Joe goes we can't have Kamala so um but I mean you know Nom is is it's kind of weak um the governor of California is kind of weak think yeah right yeah weak in a general election or weak I think so I mean if you love California and if you love everything that he's done for California you'll love what he'll want to do to America so you guys would love to run against new from this fall if you could any of them yeah any of them yeah we'll take any comers right you one of the things that I've said is that you um at this point perhaps the Democrats can't win the election any longer but that I don't I I look please yeah no I mean we don't we don't we don't even think that way I I mean our focus is our determination the way we're structured the way we're made in this you know our brains function we it just we grind every single day until it I mean it's not over until he puts his hand on the on the on the you know on the Bible and takes the oath it's not over till then it's not over on Election Day it's over on inauguration day cuz I wouldn't put anything past anybody what do you mean I just don't I don't put anything past you think you think Democrats are the court there is a there is a there is a well documented a well documented um report that talks about all of the efforts that the Democrats had in place uh in 2020 to despite all everything that had happened that there was a well documented about ways to prevent um if Donald Trump had quote unquote won so so you know we like I said we plan for every worst case scenario that way we're ready for it is that Molly Molly is Molly ball is that your story he's talking about no something else um I I wasn't finished with what I was saying I what what I was saying was that that Democrats can't win any longer but right it's also possible that Donald Trump can lose and he can give away the election that this is incumbent on Trump now to sustain his discipline for the next 120 days which leads me to a couple of questions see I look the campaign the election is about we keep the the the focus of the campaign on the issues that are in front of us okay that we're going to win okay and one of the issues one of the issues that I know is significant for a lot of Voters is he he keeps talking about pardoning the January 6th riers Chris is he going to stop doing that and does he understand why why that's politically self-defeating for him to keep saying well you know I always find it amazing that that you know your your guys are the ones that bring it up that's not true well I've been in a lot of interviews it's the first question you guys ask so he's volunteered any number of rallies over the years look again the what we're talking about right now are the issues that matter in that's Social Security protecting Social Security and Medicare it's you know closing the Border yes I mean we have so much to talk about and that's where our focus is in a perfect Chris La ofal world he would never say the words January 6 hostages ever again Social Security Medicade closing the Border deportation yeah I said it uh all of those things uh let me ask you about project 20125 um never heard of it yeah uh the president um uh to borrow a phrase from the great Haley Barber uh ran like a stalled dog uh about project 2025 when he was uh oh I consider that I never even heard I don't know anything about it which obviously is not true he knows plenty about it the Architects have it worked for his first term and are very likely to work for his second term if if he does win um what can you say to to voters who are concerned that he's going to implement some of the more extreme elements of that project I love the way you just structured that question cuz you made statements that are complete and utter just not true okay um starting with that that okay I think the only statement of fact in what you just said was they used to work for SC a dog well he know we're the ones that poured the water and and so this this oh that these people are you know they used to work for him so therefore they're the ones driving chis so what okay what makes you think he's going to run it again because because you're going to be retired block that's pure speculation on your part it's complete and utter for any reporter to write that this is the way it is because it's not that's what the left wants but I'm not going to give into that and sus is not going to give into it and the president's made it clear these people do not speak for him they do not speak for the campaign and I love the fact you call them grifters you call them grifters the Campa oh the campaign what do you mean campaign well yeah campaign is 100% focused on we're the ones that are putting out the Poli look I think that in the perfect world from their perspective they would love to drive the issue set but they don't get to do that now you guys sure as hell give him a lot of leeway because you're always writing the Trump campaign un is going to start with the next Trump they're hurting your campaign the next Trump they're jaming you the ne no they're a pain in the ass yeah yeah so the the because they change the the issues that are going to win us this campaign are not the issues that they want to talk about and you guys know it which is the reason why you're right about it have you told Steven Miller he's a pain in the ass no Steven's been great he's not part of project 2025 he's he's not part of you should spiritually part of spiritually okay no I mean pick up the phone and call him and you'll find out he's not has the former president told them to to knock it off that he that that these folks are hurting his campaign did you did you read what he put out I saw it yeah I think that was pretty clear he detached himself from it yeah yeah well no he made it perfectly clear they do not speak for me yeah Chris you serve the and usually usually that's enough right but no let's go find another guy who worked you know cleaning up uh uh you know the West Wing back office and who's going to write a policy statement and then you guys are going to write a story about this is the you know a new policy Chris you served in uniform you obviously GL for the country while you received a purple heart and you took an oath the Constitution do you believe that that former president Trump um has any grounding in the Constitution has any what grounding in the constitution is he I do I do I I think it's a um well obviously he's a big believer in the First Amendment okay uh clearly a big believer in the Second Amendment for for himself at least yeah okay so and well I mean says you yeah I mean you get to say something and so do I right so um you know I think that um um I think that and obviously the position that he's taken as Lisa relates to the do's decision uh from a tenth amendment standpoint but yeah I think clearly he has and he clearly he's taken an oath to the Constitution does he believe in the rule of law in this country 100% I mean he wasn't want to let the Cities Burn he's not the one that has I mean last time I checked it wasn't Republican Commonwealth attorneys or district attorneys that were letting criminals out on the street and not Prosecuting crime like last time I checked you know Minnesota was burning you know Kenosha was burning Seattle was burning I mean you know we have a lot of capital police officers here in in Milwaukee right now protecting attendees uh and a lot of them obviously were attacked in the line of duty some of them um Steve scales was almost killed some of them bitterly so Donald Trump so when I ask about the rule of law I say that because the former president is talking about pardoning criminals who beat in some cases almost killed uh dozens of police officers who were protecting the US capital I just don't understand how that how that suggests he believes in the rule of law if he wants to Pardon criminals who attack almost kill police officers in in there well first of all he said I think pretty clearly you know about protesting peacefully now granted you know everybody you guys have your opinion on that it's very well um based in your opinion but the fact of the matter is you know I think Nancy Pelosi's on tape and it's made perfectly clear she was the one To Deni the request for the National Guard so um I mean look there's a lot of back and forth but to make this broad statement that he's against the Constitution and against the rule of law when the body well you sure as hell alluded to it when the when the when the body of evidence from our standpoint shows the complete opposite me ask especially as it relates to the left yeah uh but for the record I you're eager to hear him talk about a set of policy issues not pardoning a bunch of criminals we're talking no the campaign is about a very specific set of issues um Chris you worked in politics for decades you worked for a lot of winning campaigns campaigns that were less successful um and uh kind of came up in the mainstream Wing the Republican Party um tell me about sort of how you have got to this place working for president Trump who obviously has taken over the party it's his party now but for a while obviously he was something of an outsider politically um do you think that your perspective on politics has changed in recent years after going to work for him so almost 35 years yeah um mostly Statewide races for Senate and Governor um a lot of super packs um my you know look I'm a political professional who gets paid to beat Democrats that's what I do right it's not difficult that's always how I viewed myself right sure it's not my name on the ballot but um you know when you but at the same time you in order to it's an exhausting business it's a very consuming um job really and consuming career because it's it it's almost cultural yeah I mean and so I mean we it just seems that my head seems to be hardwired a different way um but um in terms of changing I mean hasn't really CH I mean there the same things that I have always believed in and by the way you have to actually believe in what you're doing or you couldn't do this you just couldn't do this and that's why you don't find political Consultants who work for the right and the left they work for one side or the other but you work for a bunch of figures including Senator Mitch McConnell through the super Pacs who think that um the former president is somebody who is um well not fit for for public office he endorsed are they okay I know okay once believe that so I guess what I'm asking is you've obviously come to believe that a lot of those people in your party have it wrong right that they didn't understand well the last time I checked it wasn't a lot because you know well they retired or you or or or what or they were like oh yeah yeah I agree but like why is the CH he's sitting at he's sitting at 95% he's sitting at 95 why the chy family wrong about Trump I I I mean look I I don't know what liberals I don't know what what what Liz Cheney's problem is I mean oh yeah yeah I do I mean you know Donald Trump endorsed her opponent and she lost yeah that's that would probably piss her off she had problems before that too though right yeah yeah yeah so your perspective hasn't really changed your focus is still beating Democrats and Trump's the vehicle to do that now right well but and at the same time but it's he's actually the leader of a real movement yeah right I mean it's about it's undeniable I mean it it just is and nothing like this right you've seen right huh nothing like You' seen before i' no I've never seen was Obama the closest to this yeah probably but but but I actually think this is um it's just it's it it manifests itself on a level that Obama couldn't course what do you think it would mean if he not only won the electoral vote but if he won the popular vote victory that hasn't happened since 204 uh on your side right um do you think that that would strengthen his hand both in terms of politics and policy going forward and is that your goal to win not just the electoral vote but to win the popular vote well I mean look how much does that matter theal is the goal is obviously winning the White House I mean right that's the bottom line and and you know you've got to set a very specific goal because of the sheer volume of money that you're spending um and you got to make sure you accomplish it if those other things happen wonderful that's great right and that gives you you know clearly gives you added juice um but it still doesn't take away from the fact that you're the president so um you know it's it's we just don't spend a lot of time you want WIP about I mean who wouldn't yeah but that's the again the goal is 270 yeah Chris tell me about the the art of Donald Trump and working with Donald Trump and for Donald Trump how do you what have you learned about the power of persuasion of of making your case to him of of how to get through to him like tell us how that works how how do you how do you make a case to Trump I I mean it's it's it's um well most of the interactions um are on the plane um and and so you you have to make your case does he eat on the plane usually oh yeah yeah that's where he eats you never see him eating right yeah no never heard camera with him eating around that's intentional right what there's never a camera in around what he's eating right he's very careful about that right um yeah I mean I guess I mean I actually I never really thought about it but you know I mean we've had you used to have press on the on the plane quite a bit you don't Needmore why I think we'll get back to doing that at some he threw he threw somebody's phone right who was that he threw the pH I was there it wasn't he didn't throw his phone he was like whose phone is this oh it's mine like it was a mild toss yeah it was it wasn't even a toss the Press will come back on the plane the Press will come back on the plane before the election's over his plan I think so okay I think so so all right so so you're on the plane tell us about that we're on Trump Force One you got to get to him about something tell us how that works well you got to find a way to lower the music the volume what's he playing usually I mean his playlist I mean it's Jes Brown I seriously and not so much but Phantom of the Opera right uh well and then our favorite is is uh is uh Guns and Roses so you turn avoiding the music and then turn turn down volum what make sure that there's not a UFC fight on um um no I mean it's it's it's it look it's a very informal kind of thing and and and you know you have your you know you make your you have your conversations about very specific things you know got paper like do you give them a note card or a one pager or or is it all oral yeah no no it's it's combination of oral and it's also a combination of like PowerPoint kind of thing okay but but but you're not going to hand them 20 slides and say you know read this and make a decision because he the way he processes information it's completely just completely different is it better to do a one-on-one with him or is it more effective to have somebody or two people next to you talking to him I mean it's just depends on the situation I mean I've had private conversations with them about policy or about strategy and then Susie and I the vast majority of time do it together yeah he he he's such a fascinating figure in political history the sheer volume that he reads I don't I mean people don't understand I mean that stack of papers he carries around with them everywhere goes they're printing stuff out stuff he goes through all of that stuff and he's also a big phone guy when I say phone I mean the old the old the old term the old uh he calls people calls people yeah on their cell does he does he had number saved in his phone matter of fact John Carl calls him too yeah John Carl just left here because called Trump right now uh he's saiding you're going to carry New Mexico now apparently so all right so um he calls folks does he have the number saved in his phone how's that work yeah it's an iPhone he just yeah BS it up one of the things that that that was notable to me after the shooting was how many people he talked to on the phone it almost became a kind of sign of like being in the club and the giveaway of course was Kevin McCarthy America's thirstiest man who who said um who said that that he had just talked to Trump on the phone because that was sort of the cool thing to do but he he's an old school like LBJ style phone guy he's constantly up against the con yeah constantly does that does that help you in some ways because he gets Intel or does it kind of complicate your life I I don't worry about it because what are you going to do take his phone change his numbers tell him he can't make phone calls yeah what right yeah I'd be on the backseat of that plane and then out the door do he ever text at all or is it all is it all phone I don't see him text yeah do you text him no email him email yeah no right no right so it's all it's it's all I mean you you he's I mean he talks to so many people on a daily basis that you know he talks to you know corporate guys he talks to his friends golfing buddies it's a big phone Tre they call John Daly and just you know they'll just talk and stuff I mean he talks to people about all kinds of stuff somebody told me he calls Cindy Hyde Smith between the hours of 5: and 6: in the morning because he knows knows Senator Smith is a farmer and she's up between 5: and 6: in the morning would surprise me and Trump Trump's also up early knows that she'll be up too yeah um so he's calling all kinds of folks and he's getting all kinds of Intel all right so if you have to get to him on on policy versus politics are there different people that you deploy oh yeah yeah yeah I'm not I don't go and discuss the finer points of trade policy right you know but if you have to get to very self-aware you have your own phone tree of folks to get to them how yeah yeah well no I mean it's not a matter of there are a lot of people out there that you know obviously being a former president you have a a wealth of people that obviously were maybe in the administration or um that have a level of expertise so why would not you you know why wouldn't you go back to them but we're not picking up the Heritage Foundation and asking them right why not 2025 they just jammed you guys on that I'm not just not interested in talking to them yeah yeah there there it is again yep uh Chris uh we're winding down here um you got to have one really good really memorable Trump story that kind of reveals who who he is so far right tell us that that was compelling interesting amusing poignant whatever come on I I mean I look it's it's not so much I mean obviously Saturday's kind of shaded everything I I mean I puts because you're a lighthearted guy so and it's a more sober moment now right yeah it's a little different yeah it's a little different yeah and it's about you know the energy or the uh the emotion that you feel when something like that happens how do you how do you utilize it um how do you utilize it to get to where you need to be well how do you utilize it to win the election or how do you utilize it to bring the country together I think it's both can you do that you think yeah I mean a lot of folks in this room are very skeptical he's ever going to change at all from who he is that he is the most consistent man there is the presidency did not change Donald Trump the oil paintings hanging around him did not change Donald Trump that he's not going to change at all why are they wrong and why is this time different because on so many occasions they've proven themselves to be wrong there's a body of evidence that suggests a whole lot of idea I mean look let's just talk about the Russia stuff let's just I mean there's so many cases I can point to they were wrong so do you think that he has I reject the premise that the Press is always right I'm sorry from talking to him since Saturday Chris has he said that he wants to try to be more unifying in this speech and NBI look I'm not going to get in front of him on it watch it pay attention to it you know all right Chris one of the cool Parts uh of this campaign for you I know has been working with your daughter who's here with us today Victoria who is running comms for you guys in Michigan Michigan y tell us what that's been like work working with your kid on a campaign especially a campaign for president wow I mean I you know she was doing the coms for attorney general's race uh is she on message usually she a like well if she's not she's going to get a phone call from me um cuz she doesn't get treated any differently than anybody else and she'll tell you probably worse um uh no it's it is cool it is cool because you you know you never know what your kids are going to do and I've never put my finger on the scale of what they wanted to do just do what you want to do and and and be happy about it first and foremost love what you do I certainly do um I try to have fun in it I love it I'm passionate about what I do um so it's thrilling to be able to work with her and and uh and you put at no pressure low Stak State Michigan so I mean look you know yeah but it was a real pain in the ass driving 11 hours though to move her in on I think I had one the one day off and then we were having dinner that night Saturday night and I I realized that Biden was flying in on Sunday into Detroit so I just you know and I have I try to have a little fun on Twitter every now and then but I sent out a tweet something about going to Detroit my phone exploded because everybody thought maybe Trump was coming to Detroit and I did it on purpose but of course you're moving in your kiddo uh Chris bottom line here as we close January 20th 2025 you obviously hope that Donald Trump has has taking the oath to be president again what's the best case scenario if he does become president again in terms of the electoral votes how many could he win what's the best case scenario best case yeah it's over 320 over 320 yeah and the worst case scenario but still winning is what statewise two well I mean I need 270 I'm trying to think of what that last Model was our worst case scenario model Biden carried two but not three of the wall States yeah yeah and where is Biden the most B and and then he also watch what's going on in in Omaha the single congressional district in terms of legal issues correct in terms of does it stay so you guys think it's possible that that that the vote from Nebraska a special session in August so it's possible that Nebraska could give all of its Electoral College votes to the winner almost certainly Donald Trump instead of splitting it and having the Omaha based congressional district do its own Del that's interesting there's actually an effort I believe in Maine too to do the same thing they they also have a split congressional district issue and they're two seats uh and lastly which of the three blue wall States whether it's Harris or whether it's Biden which of the three blue wall states do you think today the Trump van sticket is best positioned in well right now it's all three I I know that sounds like a answer but it does but yeah I know but it I I mean the last time I checked we were up six in Wisconsin which I mean look that's rich right I mean I you know I know this state extremely well and and and that's a that's a that's a rich lead and I don't expect something like that to hold it'll be very very tight so all three you're feeling good but Wisconsin's really Wisconsin's a battle Mich Michigan's tough I mean Pennsylvania by the year size volume and I mean the and the spend right is is tough but um I mean I'm I'm I'm we really are bullish on all three and I'm we're just we're going to fight it out for all of them but you feel the best about Wisconsin right now probably Michigan and Pennsylvania Michigan First and Pennsylvania even though Wisconsin's plus six in part big Michigan Biden will or whoever it is will lose third party votes to they will yeah they will here so Michigan Michigan could be the blue wall correct back Democrats yeah guys Chris lasita give him a round of applause thanks so much for being here appreciate it good thanks guys okay please welcome politico's defense reporter Paul McClary British ambassador to the United States Dame Karen Pierce German ambassador to the United States Andreas mckas Canadian ambassador to the United States kren Hillman and Swedish ambassador to the United States Urban alen har everyone if you get back in your seats so we can we can get [Music] started see that pack Guardians wasn't for us absolutely but our advantage is usually that we can bring collaborators hi so we'll get started as as everyone as everyone files in uh thank you so much ambassadors for joining us here today I know you're all very busy uh this week uh and last week at the NATO Summit you know we're here in Milwaukee just a week after the end of the NATO Summit uh in Washington that really locked in some really key gains for uh for Ukraine and solidified uh kind of the the the NATO's role in coordinating aid aid for Ukraine and and and giving them some guarantees the irreversibility guarantee um that there'll be a member of NATO one day in the future that's that's still unspecified um this convention is coming at a time of some real political change in the United States and in Europe uh elections in the UK it's going to be an election in Canada next year uh obviously elections in in the United States um with some some big changes in in in in control over governments and the European Parliament changes there so there's a lot happening so um if we can just jump right in with the news of the week I guess pick one element of the news of the week that there's been a lot happening uh JD Vance being nominated as Trump's running mate uh he's made a lot of critical comments about um the US posture overseas militarily um he has criticized USA to Ukraine um saying when he's a candidate for Senate in February 2022 after the Russian invasion he said I got to be honest with you I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another um obviously president Trump if elected will be the president not JD Vance uh but he'll have a big voice of administration if the United States does pull aid for Ukraine and leaves it up to the Europeans uh Ambassador Pierce we start with you as the US America's closest Ally what would it mean for Ukraine and for NATO if the United States were to pull aid from from from from Ukraine well that's a big if right uh and it depends who is the next Administration obviously uh and people say things in opposition uh but when they're actually in power then they have the weight of that responsibility uh so I don't want to put words in president Trump's or JD B's mouth uh but I did want to say that Europe really is pulling its weight uh on Ukraine it's something like $193 billion doar given by Europe 15 billion of that has been from the UK uh and what we're really talking about isn't just the security of Ukraine we're talking about the security of all NATO Partners if Putin is seen to win in Ukraine that emboldens China which directly affects the United States uh but it also sets back Euro Atlantic security right back 30 years to the fall of the Berlin wall and I don't think anyone wants that uh and I don't think the next Administration would want it time in office to be dominated uh by that question of lost Euro Atlantic security and so Mr Ambassador do you how do you feel about this rhetoric about I mean it took months for the the last us assistance package for Ukraine to make it through Congress there's been some real issues in the United States about about funding here um what can you what what are your conversations like with the current Administration and with with folks in in the Trump Administration about Ukraine and about NATO and about about the alliance yeah um I think what is really important is that when you uh look at the last assistant package uh of the US for Ukraine that was actually designed for a longer period um so um don't mistake it uh for not having uh agreed on another package here um that is very substantial and I think the whole discussion about the supplemental was interesting for us uh because as you know that took a long time until it was finally adopted uh by Congress but during that time I think we had the opportunity of sharing arguments and uh as we can see uh because things uh went forward uh in the end um these arguments must have been must have been convincing so I'm not so concerned uh at this point uh about the level of uh support uh that comes from the US and I'm not certainly not concerned about the level of support that comes from the Europeans because as the UK Ambassador has said we are looking at two uh uh different levels um in which we have to uh produce convincing answers one is the direct support the military support and also macroeconomic support for Ukraine the other is how do we structure Al and also in terms of uh resources how do we respond at the level of NATO and I think we are responding at both levels just to give you an example um because we have been criticized for a long time Germany has been criticized for not reaching the 2% uh of GDP defense expenditure we now reach the 2% and if you translate this in absolute figures uh it it really gives the the relevant picture because since 2014 the world Summit when the 2% were agreed we we actually increased our defense ex uh expenditure threefold three times from3 billion us to 90 billion us so in terms of actual investment uh uh things are happening and we fully understand that the support of Ukraine hinges on a joint effort and to to follow up on that quick president Trump has said if elected he will negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine before he's he's sworn in in in January um that would complicate matters I would imagine politically as he is not yet president of the United States and he's he's he's practicing diplomacy um how as an ally would you would you prepare for this kind of extra diplomatic effort by by an elected official who's not yet sworn in um first and foremost this is a question you need to put the to the the Ukrainian uh president and the Ukrainian government because they are the shareholders here uh it's about their sovereignty it's about their territory it's uh about the war um that has been uh uh uh without having been provoked or in any way uh uh uh with a Ukrainian role uh uh uh brought about uh that has been Unleashed by by Russia as far as we are concerned of course at some point uh you also have to enter political game here um the question is uh do you do that uh in a unified in a well-prepared way on the basis of uh Ukrainian agreement and looking at the battlefield in a situation where you are not week so that you know uh that you will exit these negotiations with a wrong result I think that's very much um at this point in time the way I would describe it um and so uh by itself um the the ambition of also addressing these issues in a political way are not wrong but they should be done in a well-prepared way and if you ask me uh not in the open public uh because you're destroying the prices for a deal like this Ambassador Helman to kind of to to to keep on that subject for a moment um there's an element in the Republican party that rejects the notion that Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine is is an existential threat for one for Ukraine and and more broadly for the west and for NATO um how what what what are your discussions like in trying to make the case that that this is a threat and again to follow up on that how would you um talk to the incoming Trump Administration if they did pursue peace talks before they they're sworn in with between Russia and Ukraine okay so um I think first just on Ukraine in general just to add to my European colleagues I mean Canada has been there since the beginning and will be there until Ukraine prevails uh and is satisfied with uh the getting uh the Russian uh incursion out of their territory so we will be there we have we're the second uh largest country donor to Ukraine since the beginning of the the war and uh and we will not be leaving and to sort of pivot then to your the second part of your question obviously we are doing this because uh we are committed to peace in Europe we are committed to doing everything that we can to support the incredibly Brave Ukrainian people um but we're also doing it because it is essential that Russia and Vladimir Putin not be empowered through a victory and that is important for Europe but it's very important for North America so in our latest defense policy Canada has been quite tar targeted in our policy where we're putting our money and where we're putting our efforts and primary among that is in the Arctic and our Arctic capabilities our Arctic awareness uh our ability to defend our sovereignty in the far north the reason for that there's a few reasons one is because climate change is making those that area much more navigable uh which is opening it up to Commerce but it is also opening it up to a much greater National Security and sovereignty threat so to the Trump Administration that may you know that that may come in to those that we're talking to now within those circles but to all of our American Allies on the hill when these discussions are happening and when there are those who are questioning uh continued us support our message is this is also about North American Security this is also making sure that we are able to demonstrate clearly and for ful with our allies that this kind of incursion isn't possible because you know we have a a northern flank that requires protecting as well and protecting specifically from Russia and from China is the idea of the of the Russian threat to North America has that sunk in do you think uh in all Corners in Washington I know in in Europe it has U how about in Ottawa and in and Washington I think with many who are really thinking carefully about this issue I think we are making Headway with those who haven't hadn't thought of it before let me if I can put it that way I think it but these are things that require you know consistent and persistent discussions but I yes I do feel the message is getting through and and we're deeply committed to North American territorial sovereignty and North American protection in the context of NATO uh and Allied protection uh investor investor alen um at the NATO Summit last week there's a lot of talk about Trump proofing the alliance you know this is kind of opening up the new um the new NATO office in voten to help coordinate arms transfers to to to Ukraine uh the irreversible language things like that um what is your take on on how necessary that is and are these things NATO was going or should have done anyway or is there a concern about the isolationist T you know tendency in the Republican party and what might be in the the happen in the Trump Administration We join the military Alliance because it is a military Alliance uh we realize that Russia is a threat it's an existential threat if we don't stop them in Ukraine they will continue and will be a threat to us so for the first questions I would like to add to what my colleague said that if it's about the cost the cost will be much higher if we don't stop the Russians now so I mean if if United States would like to save money the right way to do that is actually to help the ukrainians to win this war and second I've heard on this Republican convention many times how important it is to you as a citizen abide to the law and I agree with that but it is also important that countries abide to the international law and the Russians have broken every law there is and of course there needs to be a reaction to that so we joined NATO because we think it's important having an alliance that can stand up for security in the world we want to be security providers we see the threat from the Russians uh and I think the NATO Summit was a success we were bigger more united and stronger than ever and I think it is logical that NATO actually plays a role in supporting Ukraine in many different ways and I think that is is really really good that we are doing that so you know when it comes to to the end of it all we need to understand that we are in this together uh as Karen my British colleague said if Russia wins this and it will be seen as has been winning this it will embolden the other countries like Iran North Korea and China and it won't stop in Ukraine and I I'm I really would like to say that to everyone this is listening here we should have learned a lessons from what Putin has done before in Georgia in Crimea and now it won't stop until we stop him and stopping him do you think that Ukraine can take back Crimea and can take back areas of the dbas or do you think that that would be bargaining chips in any any peace negotiation I think it's absolutely possible that they can do that it depends on how much support they can have but in the end it's like my German colleague said the question should be asked to the ukrainians they are the ones to decide when to stop this war or come into a peace agreement it's not up to us to tell them our work is actually to support them fighting off an aggressor uh and come back Ambassador Pierce uh we're talking about Republican party obviously the Democratic party Joe Biden's in in some trouble uh there's a lot of talk about him dropping out of the race as soon as this weekend uh possibly K KL Harris being being the the the Nomine for on the Democratic ticket does that change uh your interactions with the administration at all or how do you plan for that uncertainty in the White House at this moment I don't think it changes things to be honest Paul our job as diplomats uh my job as British Ambassador is to get to know American political leaders uh from all parties uh future possible leaders people who might have prominent positions uh in both parties uh and our job is to have the best possible working relationship with the American administration of the day under whoever each party chooses to to lead it uh so we will work just as well with with whoever is the next president uh as I hope we have done with past presidents and uh obviously Boris Johnson and and Liz truss are here does that uh have you met with them while you're here and does that how does that affect what you do in your conversations with with Southern Republicans that there are uh former Prime Ministers here speaking with even with the Trump team and and and making plans or or or hling with with Republicans um I think it's a a symbol of just how close ties are between parliamentarians and political leaders on both sides of of the Atlantic and when we all go to the Democratic Convention in Chicago uh there'll be people there uh who might have been British political leaders in the past but are certainly uh on the labor sister party side so it's something we do uh every time there's a convention uh Boris Johnson and Liz TR are not here with the government they're here as private individuals and so our convers ations don't impinge uh on each other but I will just say that you probably all saw the photograph of Boris Johnson and The caption about talking about Ukraine uh so just to underscore that at least in the UK but I think for my colleagues Ukraine is a bipartisan issue for us support for Ukraine is a bipartisan issue and Mr Ambassador the in the last Trump Administration uh he did call for pulling US troops out of Germany transferring the air wings to Italy and Belgium and other places that's something that that Robert O'Brien has brought up as former National Security advisor several times over the past few weeks um is there concern there that this would this issue will come up again and how big of an effect would that have on the relationship security relationship and political between Berlin and Washington if there was a big move of US forces into Poland and and other other places outside of Germany look uh we find ourselves uh in a different situation if you look at security in Europe um that was certainly a discussion that happened uh in an environment where an imminent confrontation uh with the Russian Federation was not foreseen so we find ourselves in a completely different scenario uh now and US forces certainly you made reference also to v sparten um are very much needed in Europe also uh to coordinate uh the support uh which we give to uh uh to you Ukraine during the war um and of course uh as a deterrence uh it's very important uh that they remain where they are um but you know um we also have eurocom uh besides eurocom we have africom uh that are based in Germany uh so if you look at military operations in Africa uh you also uh need us uh soldiers present uh in Germany at the same time so sometimes uh uh the story uh is a bit more complex but I think I understand the gist uh of your question um and here again what really matters is uh that if we keep troop presence for instance uh in Europe us troop presence we have to produce a convincing answer that we commit ourselves at the same time and here I have a uh very good example because Germany has just decided for the first time time in the history of post-war Germany to station on a permanent basis a brigade uh on the on the Eastern uh on on the Eastern front of uh uh or perimeter of NATO in Lithuania that's very meaningful I mean I served in the German forces I know what a brigade is we're talking about 2,000 Vehicles here this is really big in terms of actual deployment and it sends a very very important signal because up to that point and up to the attack of Russia on Ukraine uh we were honoring uh the so-called NATO Russia founding act uh which uh on the basis of an agreement between us and the Russian Federation uh uh contained a provision uh that NATO would not uh station troops uh in those member states of the aliance that had joined us uh after uh the end of the Cod War now that is completely different because the conditions that were defined in this agreement were changed by Russia and that's why we feel confident and Justified to actually push forward I think for the uh for the alliance uh that is a very very important move forward for us its new territory we never had German troops stationed on a permanent basis in another country um and so in a way uh we will go through a similar experience like the US goes when they station troops in Germany but for the alliance as a Total Defense uh uh uh entity I think it's very very important and does it make planning uh NATO planning more difficult that there is this there so many questions in the United States about who will who will be the next president Donald Trump KL Harris Joe Biden how do you move forward and how do you prevent Vladimir Putin from maybe trying to take advantage of the situation um pressing forward in Ukraine or you know mdova I mean all these you know these things you's been talking about uh nuclear exercises in bellarus do you think this is a moment where he can seiz on and and and create some more some more chaos you ask me yes yeah I think you know uh like like my UK colleague has said you know we will deal with those responsible uh in in the US in Washington and we've done it in the past the two of us if I may say when we were uh political directors of our foreign uh uh Services uh we were negotiating during the first uh Trump administration's aspects and important aspects of the Iranian uh nuclear program so we are not without experience when it comes to this um and certainly you know there will be different priorities most likely there will be questions um but we'll we'll take it on I think uh uh we are confident um that this most important uh bilateral relationship now speaking for Germany uh will certainly will certainly uh continue in a win-win context uh for both sides that's important and Ambassador Helman uh another proposal floated by um former president Trump is to put a 10% tariff on all Goods imported into the United States Canada being a huge trade partner um if this were to happen um what kind of effect do you think this would had on relations uh Canada's economy then and trade between the two the two countries um so I think I would start by saying that can us have the largest bilateral trade relationship in the world it's about $3.7 billion dollar a day in bilateral trade um and it touches every region and every community in this country We Are The Number One customer by far uh for the US and the that fact means that the relationship is a job Creator here in the US across the country um and we're also very deeply integrated uh in in our in our business relations so under the last Trump Administration and in fact this is why I was brought here to Washington uh well not here this is not Wellington but brought to Washington what um we renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement the NAFTA and that was under the trumpet Administration and it was a huge success and he deems it a huge success and rightly so it modernized this enormous um the rules governing this enormous trilateral relationship um and as between Canada and United States it brought us down to uh 99% tariff free relationship so 99% of the goods that cross between our countries are tariff free and that's a that's an outcome that was negotiated by former president president Trump himself so all of this is to say that if uh the if he is reelected and if this policy of 10% tariffs across the board is uh sought to be applied to us the NAFTA Partners I'll speak maybe just for my country for Canada I think we'll have an important conversation to have because we just negotiated something quite different um I think that we will be eager to point out how challenging that could be for us consumers not only because it will make the products that they seek to buy as I say uh $2.7 billion a day in trade more expensive but inevitably our government would be under enormous pressure to reciprocate so then we have a 10% tariff on that volume of trade for American Goods coming into our country um which is not a particularly constructive posture for us both to be in we were there before with this Administration and ultimately um it was through discussions with Americans around this country who were able to talk to the economic leaders within the Trump Administration to saying this is hurting our community this is challenging can we find a way to um achieve our policy goals with Canada and Mexico at the time um without engaging in this kind of back and forth on this just enormously important economic driver for our country so we're talking to Trump advisers on this we are really um urging them to consider what the implications of applying that would be and and I guess I would end by saying back to where I started with the very successful renegotiation of the NAFTA Canada and the US had the biggest year of bilateral trade in the history of our two countries last year and before that the biggest year was the one previous so we this this relationship is so strong and growing and it's frankly not exclusively but I think a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that we renegotiated this Foundation of our trading relationship and have stable secure predictable rules in place for our businesses so these are very positive things we will be very eager to urge the administration not to um disrupt this very positive uh trajectory that we're on um and I'm I'm quite confident because I find that when you when you talk in real facts about real world implications for communities I think that you know that's how we can get through ultimately the Trump uh uh Vance ticket and we heard it last night they're interested in jobs for Americans they're interested in prosperity for Americans and and we are too you know there's I don't think there's any country up here that doesn't want the United States to be prosperous and safe and secure right that's important for all of us thanks uh Mr investor new member of NATO you already hit the 2% of GDP on for spending so you're going to be in the good graces with the Trump Administration there right very robust defense industry um how would you approach this 10% tariff issue um if it happens it's going to be a sticking point there's going to have to be bilateral deals right I would like to start with the with a starting point there that Sweden has indeed a strong defense industry because when we were neutral military on align we wanted to be trustworthy neutrals and trustworthy military on the line so that's why we do our own fighter jets and submarines and tanks and so on um so I think we bring more than just 2% to the table uh and I fully agree with having you know the 2% as a floor I think most European countries do realize is that we need to increase because of the threat from Russia and from other in the world um but it is also that some countries have a lots of Defense industry capacity Germany is one um you know so it's you need to look at the whole mixture so to say uh also through operational planning since you asked that question about if people are concerned about Trump winning the election uh we are in the process of now being integrated into operational planning in NATO which goes very well uh and I can assure you that the operational planning that I have learned about doesn't take into account if Biden wins or Trump wins it's strictly military operational planning how we can be military Alliance you know deter the threats and and I think that is very reassuring you know they are not looking upon who will win the election in United States and we should change our military operational planning they don't do it like that at all which is which is very good um if uh Trump goes ahead if he wins the election and he goes ahead with increased tariffs the first effect will be of course that prices will increase for American consumers um Sweden as many other countries here on stage we are very export oriented uh we believe in in a market economy where companies are better because they are competing with each other in the long run you know the prosperity of a country can only be built if companies are producing better product to a cheaper price than others and to have that is not by being supported by ter s or political regulations it's actually out there in the market economy where you Foster um a product that is cheap and better than the competitor and that is the only way in the long run to create prosperity and and sometimes I'm surprised United States is the most Innovative country in the world the biggest companies are all here the unemployment is low you know and so on and we know that there are problems of course but if you look upon it on a global view uh United States is very well positioned and yet there's uh this talk of these tariffs and and U Ambassador Pierce how would you tackle this economic issue with with with the Tariff I mean that's going to hang over everything right if this happens um and it's going to require a lot of diplomacy on the ground right I mean a lot of economic talks is this something that that you're you've been working on or you you're concerned about uh it's something that we have talked to American successive American admin ministrations about over the years uh we have done sectoral deals the EU and the UK uh reached an agreement over what are called 232 tariffs that involved whiskey involved bourbon there was another deal on large civil aircraft there was another deal on steel so sector by sector you can tackle these things uh but I would say I think America has a different philosophy towards tariffs than Europe does uh going back hundreds of years American trade policy has often been characterized by tariffs in a way that that we do not uh apply so we've got to talk about that philosophical uh difference if you like uh the other thing I'd say is to encourage Americans to believe that it is strategically in their interests for their close allies to have competitive healthy Industries uh this gets us into the question of uh Economic Security uh friend Shoring rather than onshoring it's very much in America's interest that her allies believe in free enterprise and have healthy economies and an open trading system is a key part of that uh Mr Ambassador Germany also has obviously a strong defense industry uh and there's a movement to for strategic autonomy right in Europe for Europeans to buy more European weaponry and and and military equipment uh which kind of flies in the face face of the Joe bidens by America and also flies in the face of the Trump admin former administrations and possibly future their pushed for Europeans and others around the world to buy more American defense equipment um where there's there's going to be tension here no matter who wins the election uh it's amazing you're asking that question because um the facts are different um at least you know as far as we are concerned um because uh we were out uh shopping in the US you know heavily um because as I've said at the beginning uh we decided to invest seriously into our armed forces and address deficiencies uh so if you want figures like 60 uh uh uh uh uh 47 chinuk helicopters uh uh uh 35 uh f35s and we had not ordered we were not part of that group so all together we've signed contracts at the value of $23 billion US within a very short period so the picture is totally different why did we do it because the defense industrial base in Europe in Germany could not provide the equipment which we needed uh so we bought if you want off the shelf so what's the story here the story when you look at Ukraine because until August last year um as a deputy secretary I was in charge of our Ukraine policy in terms of the actual uh uh support measures which we adopted and which we needed to negotiate it so we held an ammunition Summit in the Chancellor's office because we couldn't procure ammunition because it wasn't produced so we had to bring industry around the table to encourage them to start to produce again I know from my time here that when you look for instance at ship building capacity for uh uh uh for the Navy there is very little in the US I mean you could spend more money on the Navy if you had more yards so we need to restructure and I think the story here is that we need to integrate across the Atlantic to an extent we haven't integrated in the past our defense Industries have to come together in terms of developing equipment jointly and in terms of providing production fac fa ities that give us a resilience uh which we absolutely need under these conditions those the issue of co-production is something that NATO's been talking about for several years now made some some gains but that's tough right because you're asking German companies to maybe hire Americans in the United States or Americans to hire in ger and in American companies to hire in Germany do you think this is feasible for private companies or state companies to really do this and really collaborate like that yeah it's already happening for instance if you look at the German company rhin metal for instance they are the guys uh who produced the German main battle tank uh they are part of now building parts of the F35 uh because they are into uh steel welding Etc um so uh if we um if we procure in the way we are procuring at the moment that will translate also in specific uh production decisions and structures um and at the end of the day there will certainly be also unique European developments it just depends on the kind of Defense equipment we're looking at uh but the more we can do together look at for instance um if I'm not mistaken I think soon a decision will have to be taken about the successor to The Bradley uh the Infantry Fighting Vehicle we've been trying to do that for 20 years so yeah but it has to happen right um so so why not do something together here because we have learned in Europe that one of the main obstacles really is that we have too many different weapon systems if you look at the artillery uh which we have given to the ukrainians and we are looking mainly at 155 mm artillery um they are just not interoperable in terms of the ammunition that is being used in these barrels and that should not be the case in in such an important Alliance as NATO and here we have a joint Way Forward very clearly yeah I think as uh NATO Secretary General Yen Stenberg and people in the Pentagon have said they want interchangeability not interoperability which very nerdy but can I can I add just something to this because I I think this is a really important point so last week at NATO the United States Canada and Finland we announced an icebreaker path and it's precisely what you're talking about it's so Canada has very um Advanced Icebreaker technology um uh Finland has its and we are deciding as a trio to get together and share information on that technology share information on how to be the very best uh among the three of us use all of our knowledge together and then manufacture in each of our three countries but by bringing our knowledge and experience together for ourselves and then for our allies I think that this is a a very good sign and I think you know there's no reason why we can't do this across the board with respect to military equipment production and uh to stay with you Ambassador Helman real quickly we only have a few minutes left so um Canada has a plan on at NATO to get to 2% by 2032 there's elections next year um I don't think there's a lot of details in the 2% plan yet uh how do you lock this in to make sure uh if the trudo government does change over to someone else that the next government keeps moving forward on these def long-term defense Investments well I think that the answer is that we we must we have capabilities that we must refresh it was a last week the our Minister of Defense announced that we will be um buying a new Fleet of submarines right and that Fleet of submarines in of itself he said will take us over 2% the that process has started now um and will continue on and that's just one of about five or six large Acquisitions that are coming down the line you know armored vehicles and I mean I could list it all but so I I think that it is a it is a path that Canada is on as a nation I don't think it's a partisan issue I think there is support across you know both of our major parties for Canada to continue down this past I don't think that that's really uh I don't think that that's really something of uh of real concern okay um and wrapping up m i uh easy one uh Donald Trump has called into question the Article Five the NATO Charter saying if there's attack on one country every country will will will defend um he's saying if you don't pay up pu can do whatever the hell he wants uh as the newest member of NATO how confident are you that the United States would come to your Aid if you were attacked by by Russia I'm totally confident and have you spoken to folks in the in the in the I am totally confident that everyone understands what a military Alliance is and everyone on stage you're confident that the United States will under any Administration abide by the Article 5 cuz I there's been some question from from the man who might be the next president whether you want to do that or not all right but thank you so much everyone I I appreciate your time during a very busy week uh and everyone thanks for coming uh please subscribe to the National Security daily newsletter for Politico comes out every day about 400 p.m. uh and has reporting from our whole team uh original reporting and links to stories that we had done throughout the day so uh please subscribe thank you very much [Applause] thank you so much well thank you thank you very much to our excellent panel of our ambassadors all the way from Washington and abroad uh little stage instruction for everybody we ask you to stick around in about 30 minutes is when we have our special guest speaker Mike Johnson coming here in person so enjoy yourselves don't go too far and we'll see you back here soon enough thank you very much for joining us e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e please welcome political Media Group CEO goalie SHO slami welcome back everyone I just wanted to quickly let you know that in a right now we will be having uh an interview by uh Playbook co-author Rachel bade with speaker Mike Johnson and right after that we will also have congressman Adam Smith um and Ryan lizza will be interviewing him so thank you for joining us again this afternoon and um I will let the show begin thank you please welcome politico's senior Washington correspondent and Playbook co-author Rachel bade and Speaker of the House Mike [Applause] Johnson okay so last time I sat down with speaker Johnson my colleague and I were told we'd have about 15 to 20 minutes with him but lucky for us he had just drank a massive cup of coffee and he stayed for an hour and talked for an hour I didn't know I could get out earlier somebody told me uh in that Vain and hoping we will get lucky today I have asked our events team to please bring out some coffee bless your heart thank you wow it's even steamy yes um great well thank you for being here um given that it seems increasingly likely that Republicans are going to have a trifecta in 2025 controlling both the White House but also Congress I am super excited to sit down with the man who is going to be driving that Republican 2025 agenda but before we get to that let's start with some news of the day it seems like we are now on the cusp of Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race we got reports uh last night that that uh Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Hakeem Jeff have privately asked him to end his campaign uh former speaker Nancy Pelosi also confronted the president uh and has been sort of working behind the scenes to get him out some Republicans including at the Heritage Foundation and at least one of my sources at the RNC have indicated that if this does come to pass and Biden steps aside to allow another Democrat at top the ticket that Republicans uh will fight this legally I'm wondering what you make of that given that you are an attorney is there a case to be made here it's a great question I mean we're looking into all the Alternatives um we we see to be amazed by anything anymore it's just we we live in surreal times I mean none of this could have been scripted even a few months ago but uh we adapt to it as it as it occurs look I will say the Democrats Pride themselves on being the the party of small D democracy you know they they talk about it incessantly and they claim that we are not which is absurd if they go about the process of having a few people in a back room make this magical decision and and kick their candidate off the off the ballot um it defies all the work that been done for 14 months I mean they went through the Democratic process the small D process and they chose Joe Biden I mean he's the duly selected candidate for president for reelection and I don't know how they can just wave a magic wand and make it all go away without violating at least some great tradition and probably some statutory law itself at least in some of these states so it'll be a very interesting turn of events we'll have to see what occurs do you know much about some of these laws in the swing states that you guys might be citing uh to say he can't come off the ballot well I mean there there's some preliminary research being done of course I'm I'm not election law is not my specialty although we all need to develop the specialty now um we'll see what happens I I think that you know every state has its own unique system as we know that's kind of the beauty of our system and our Federalist uh system and um there's some very unique statutes out there and there's some real impediments to just making an easy switch like that uh so I think in in the states where it could be contested I expect that it will be and they'll have an interesting battle on their hands is there a role for house Republican when it comes to any sort of legal challenge well I mean we'll see primarily this is handled at the state level and uh we don't federalize our elections we have some um some say constitutionally over Federal elections in terms of um some of the parameters but the the time place and Manner and the the details has always been left to the state so that's why there's 50 different literally 50 different systems on how it's done uh so it will take uh small armies of lawyers and all these different regions to figure this out so perhaps not the house Council um so when we last that down with you you mentioned that President Biden from your view and your sort of negotiations with him behind the scene he'd basically lost a step but you wouldn't disclose specifics now that we have all seen with our own eyes what is going on will you talk to us about specifically what you witnessed when you were in conversations with President Biden yeah I mean some of this has been reported not not by me it's just other people were aware of the conversations but one in particular that's drawn a lot of attention in fact was uh in in a big story in the Wall Street Journal that was maligned until everyone saw the debate a couple of weeks earlier they reported on this incident I had where I had been demand many of you know since you're in the hill press Corp you're in and around it uh for about 8 weeks beginning in early January uh or maybe late December uh the staff of the White House was unable to schedule a meeting at my request with the president and that was alarming first it was sort of frustrating and then it became rather alarming because we had some big matters of National Security that the Speaker of the House and the President should discuss and um The Border was one but there was some other really pressing matters and uh the subjects now don't matter so much as what happened I I for eight weeks they stonewalled me and I got frustrated and I went to our leadership uh press conference um that the next morning and I said hey everyone should be aware the speaker of the house is not allowed to meet with the president anymore apparently if that bothers anyone it should and maybe you should let them know about it they they caught some attention over that and then then he he called the the famous meeting um he he relented and invited me to the White House but that was U the meeting where Kam was there and and Chuck Schumer and hakee and and um leader mconnell and it was set to be an ambush about the Ukraine issue which was not even a necessary conversation at the end of that the middle of it the president famously said why don't youall just give the speaker and I a little bit of time together and it occurred to me they did not want that to happen now we all we all know why he's not on his aame I don't know I you know I try to practice Christian charity I don't want to be um this is not personal but we all see now what I saw and what all of us have been seeing for some time that are in close proximity that he you know he he just not he's just not I don't believe he's fit for the job right now I say it that way and so so we had this meeting and it was um I won't tell you all the details because it doesn't matter but the point is the subjects that we were discussing discussing it became very clear to me that he was not uh well in tune with these very important matters and in fact he had a great misunderstanding about a couple of very important matters and I walked away from the meeting feeling very alarmed about that because I know that our adversaries see that weakness as well and I take no pleasure in saying it I want the commander-in-chief of whichever party to be a strong individual that exerts strong leadership on the world stage because it's important not only for our national security but for the stability of our allies and freedom all around the world we just had the NATO Summit last week you know in in in Washington and the leaders of all of our Allied nations are just as concerned about this as we are or more because some of them are in closer proximity to the real danger and the aggressors that have uh been more provocative now because of this situation so it's got to be remedied it needs to happen yesterday and um the Democrats have a real problem on their hands so speaking of that uh you have suggested that the cabinet should consider invoking the 25th Amendment to force Biden out asking them to quote search their hearts and do their duty if Biden does decide to step aside from from the top of the ticket do you think that means he's got to resign right now from Office it's not my decision to make I mean obviously the 25th Amendment the fourth Clause is the one we're all talking about it's never been invoked before but it allows a break the glass moment where the vice president can consult with the cabinet of that President and they can make a determination that he or she is no longer suited for the office not not able to do the job um and then he can cont he or she can contest it at that point if there is an impass between the two constitutionally then it comes to the house to determine to Congress to determine it um until that step it's not really my my opinion doesn't matter I was asked I was pressed on the question I didn't really want to go there cuz I'm a constitutional law guy and I you know it's not my Lane but they said if you were somebody gave me the hypothetical if you were in the Biden in the Biden cabinet what would you do you know um well I I would be concerned about it and I would probably be contemplating the invoking the fourth Clause of the 25th Amendment and that's how that whole story started so um I'm not advising them that's their problem I think it it's a problem that they themselves created created because I think the people in his close orbit knew about his mental acuity when they ran him for office and U they've been hiding this for quite some time and so I think they created their own their own dilemma have you heard much from your Democratic colleagues on the hill private griping about this what are you hearing from Democrats specifically yes I mean you know they're they're very concerned they should be I mean last week was a phenomenon on Thursday and Friday I walked almost totally unimpeded through the hallways of Congress no the media wasn't chasing me with cameras and microphones for the first time since I became speaker in October and uh it was quite an interesting yes I it was great had a reprieve for two days um but I called hakee Jeff my kind ofart I said how's it feel man you know um uh they they' got a real problem on their hands and I think I think there's a lot of hand ringing because a lot of these people particularly those who are en tight races to be reelected they know that there's a real serious down ballot effect involved here and they're worried about their own political careers and so you know those parochial interests I think um take precedent in some of their minds and they're really worried last question on this then we'll move on your own members are a bit divided about how to handle this meltdown we're seeing in the Democratic party you have members like uh Jamie comr and Chip Roy who sort of want to seize on it have these high-profile hearings about Biden's mental Fitness for office maybe force some Democrats to take votes regarding a sense of you know the house on the 25th Amendment uh and then you have others like Jim Jordan who think that Republicans should just sort of sit back and let Democrat just sort of implode do you have I'm sure you have a thought on this what is it which which strategy is right I mean I have a lot of thoughts um you can look at it politically you can make an argument for either one but that the speaker of the house has a has a higher responsibility than just the politics I'm not suggesting those guys are just thinking of politics they want to do the right thing but the overriding concern in my mind is what is the what is the right thing the safest thing for the country we have ourselves an unprecedented situation here I mean there's never been a scenario like this you have hot Wars around the globe you have very aggressive adversaries they're ready to pounce Anything could happen at any moment and you have the weakest president in the Oval Office in memory probably in in the history of the country so what is the right thing for all of us as Americans put aside the politics of it what is the safest thing for us to do I'm not sure I know the answer to that but that ought to be the question that all of us are asking that sounds like you're open to hearings and making this a big part of the house what the house is going to do in the fall well look there's there's real vulnerability right now I mean I I've maybe some of you have seen some of these National interviews I've done when we talk about this I always try to clarify and look right into the camera and say China Russia Iran North Korea need to be aware the American people in the US military are ready to defend our interest at any moment do not do not confuse the uh Palace Intrigue around what's happening with Joe Biden as an individual with the resolve of the American people please I mean this is you know we we can't project um weak any for more than we are so by showcasing how weak he is that might have the reverse yes I'm probably telling you more than I should but I mean you know this is I mean these are the calculations we have to we have to think about the nation's best interest first and this is a serious situation and there is no Playbook that one can follow we we're in unprecedented times we're in uncharted waters we've got to think very carefully and decisively about how we proceed so last night we got to know JD Vance Trump's new running mate uh a little bit and I hear over the last few days you've had some private meetings with him tell us about these meetings with him I mean what what's your sort of chemistry well let me start with his address last night I thought was I thought was fantastic I I got to sit next to his mom and um they they came and sat here next to me in the in the box and I didn't I thought she was a donor you know some big heavy hitter donor or something and I introduced myself I said hello and she said hi I said where uh where you from I thought I was supposed to know her and she said I'm JD Vance's mom I said oh it's amazing Fant have you have you did you talk to president Trump she said I've never met him I said well let's remedy that so Mr President J's mom he's like oh it's fantastic great so you um and and then she sits down and she's you know she she reacted very much like my own mom would in that situation and so I I was just felt endeared to her and um what a story I mean what a life story he has it's incredible she had him she told me when she was I think 22 years old and you know he's his story is famous he shared it last night and she's been uh recovering from addiction for almost 10 years and here it is this journey of their lives from Appalachia and you know the humble beginnings and now her son gets nominated to be the vice president of the United States and she's just overwhelmed with the motion and I'm getting overwhelmed I'm like don't cry on National Television don't cry on National Television it such it was really a special moment she's like that's my baby boy I'm like yes ma'am he is you know and um it was great it was just a great it's a great American story JD represents that he's a super smart guy he's got deep conviction he's a great communicator and he understands the plight of the American worker and and and the middle class and the lower class and JD and I have very similar stories of our upbringing it's a it's a powerful thing to have somebody on the stage who can look right into the eyes and the hearts of the people and address the issues that concern them most and that that Rust Belt and that Midwest sensibility that he brings to it is really it's really a powerful thing and I think he's going to be a great addition of the ticket what about your personal conversations with him were you talking policy like you guys Bond over a certain Sports thing that is way over my head but you know I don't know yeah we we actually have a lot in common and um and we we Rift a little bit about policy but primarily because we just had abbreviated time here the last couple of days since this happened uh but but yesterday we met for I don't know a half hour and talked about the plan going forward that we should have a very we don't put the cart before the horse but if all this turns out the way that it looks that it may we'll have Unified Government and a real moment to unify the country and part of that will be our legislative agenda so we have to have a very well planned and aggressive first 100 days agenda for the Congress and then the days that follow and so that takes a lot of careful thought and planning and we're going about that right now and I told JD I said this could be a very powerful thing to have someone who comes out of the Senate and is fresh from the legislative process understands it and and is you know super intelligent about these things um that the house and the Senate aligning with the president he could be a very involved vice president many who hold that office have not been but he could be very instrumental and all of us moving the country forward together and I think that could be a powerful thing I told president Trump I said Mr President in your second term you could very well be the most consequential president of the modern era youall probably heard me say this because we have to fix everything but to do that we can't waste a moment and I think JD can be a very important part of preparing that Playbook so to speak and then running the plays when we get the ball so it's interesting to hear all this praise from you of Vance because you know he does have a a slightly different worldview from a lot traditional Republicans right I mean last night in his speech he railed against free trade agreements he didn't mention cutting taxes once which is a huge priority for for you guys and at times when he was sort of attacking corporations there was a lot of analysts on TV saying he kind of sounded like Bernie Sanders so I mean you are a self-described Reagan Republican I mean what do you make of that he I mean some of this conflicts with your own worldview yeah it does but as he said in his speech last night I I loved what he said he said you know debate and and thoughtful discussion and and even disagreement is part of the process and we embrace it I love when he said that I was probably the loudest Applause in the room that there's a Biblical admonition about this we you know we've talked about you know so so as iron sharpens iron so one man sharpeneth another um disagreement is part of the process I mean in a constitutional republic it anticipates it it's the way you have that you you you go to the table and you you arm wrestle over these issues and you reach consensus and you you reach the um the idea that the ball forward for the most people so it's a healthy thing to have that inside the camp and to have different perspectives on some of these issues I I welcome the debate and he's a He he'll be a formidable um debating opponent when we disagree but I think it'll be healthy for the party and um and I respect his views I'm going to come back to policy in a second but let's turn to a more sobering topic uh Saturday's assassination attempt of former president Trump a lot of Republicans um have told me and my colleagues that they've reached out to him send him text messages but you are one of the few elected Republicans who've actually had extended FaceTime with him this week from what you can see how is he doing I think he's in a I think he's in a great place I think um you know in his heart and in his head he's in a place where you would want a future president to be in a moment like we're facing for the country what do I mean by that well we're facing these we're in uncharted waters in so many ways we're facing all these unprecedented challenges you want your president to be deep and contemplative and you can see it on President Trump's face right now that's where he's at I mean anybody who gets shot in the face would you know that would be where where they are and he gave a little a brief remarks to a group I think yesterday morning and somebody sent me the video I wasn't in the room but he said um that get that going through something like that gets your attention obviously and it it makes you think about God in a different way I think it's I don't want to misquote him but it was something to that effect and he believes he was providentially spared for this moment and I do as well and I talked with him on Saturday Sunday um after the event about um the hand of Providence I certainly believe that I believe our first President George Washington believed it the founders did Washington was famously in the French and Indian War you remember the war where um we used to call him the bulletproof president and he went through this barrage of gunfire in an ambush in the woods in 1755 and the Indians all shot at him and he lost two horses beneath him grabbed a third horse finished the battle he was a young army colonel at the time it's a cool story from history he gets off the horse and he has bullet holes in his vest four bullet holes and he he was unscathed so he writes home to his family he's processing this and he says the Divine hand of Providence saved me on this day and his he further explains that he felt that he must have something more to do we know the story now I was so moved by that Saturday night as soon as we knew that President Trump was safe um I I remembered the story immediately and I went back pulled out the history book to read it because it had been a long time and it it struck me that event that I just described took place less than 50 miles from where Donald Trump was shot in Pennsylvania on Saturday it happened also in Pennsylvania also in July 1755 coincidence maybe but I told president Trump I don't think it I think it's Providence I think I think God governs in the Affairs of men as Benjamin Franklin said uh and um there's something going on here the president is weighing the history of the moment he's weighing his responsibility and his role in this and I am so looking forward to his address tonight because I think it's going to be momentous I think it's going to be historic I think I think he's going to talk about unifying the country which is what he's implied he changed the the content of the speech that's exactly what the country needs to hear right now and he's the person who could deliver that and it's going to be a very important moment for all of us you mentioned faith and God's guiding hand on the country do you believe that Donald Trump is a man of God uh well I look I'll tell you our conversations over the last uh well yes I do I believe uh he believes in God we've talked about that many times in the past I I shared a story I might as well say it here I shared a story to a big group this morning so sure it'll be out in November my son's almost drowned in the Atlantic um right outside maril Lago we were down there for uh I was doing some fundraising events at Palm Beach and we had dinner with President trump it was the week of Thanksgiving it's how I remember it my boys were out of school Jack and Will are 18 and 13 and they were with me on the trip and they wanted to have dinner with President Trump so he was gracious we spent a couple of hours dinner just a small Susie WS were there and a couple others maybe six of us um the next morning I was doing some fundraising events and the boys were on Thanksgiving break for school so they were out out on the beach and they're great athletes and they swim all the time in the ocean but a jet um a a current got them and pulled them out to sea a rip current and uh we lost almost lost both of my sons it was a heroine event I won't go into all the details but they both almost drowned my 18-year-old son was holding his 13-year-old son uh my 13-year-old son above the water the 18-year-old almost drowns and then and then little brother almost drowns and the only reason they're alive today is cuz right before the 13-year-old head goes under a Paras Hill or happens to be going by sees them goes to the beach jet skis go out many hours in hospital Vis visitations later they're totally fine wow so president Trump we go we we we DeCamp and go back to Louisiana to recover and the next night president Trump calls me he said Mike I don't won't do it in his voice I'm sorry here no do it please do it in his voice okay get so in trouble for this but he he goes he goes Mike Mike we almost lost those beautiful perfect American boys I'm like yes Mr President he said Mike they're say it's like America what happened so I told him the whole story and he said Mike I mean think of it it'd be so tragic I mean think of it she like you wouldn't even have Thanksgiving you know it was like Thanksgiving I said true I mean you might never have a Thanksgiving again that's true Mr President it resonated in his heart so deeply because he's so close to his boys to his to his children right and and um we talked about this multiple times after and the months after he was so moved by that as I was as a father and he said you know God saved your sons and I said yes he did Mr President so I reminded him of that on Sunday after his event said yeah just like God saved my my boys now he saved you as well and he agreed it was like a centimeters difference we're having a different conversation today um you know you get that close to death that'll get anybody's attention and I I think he's thinking very deeply about that I won't I'm not going to you can quote him in his own words I think he's going to talk about it tonight he said it in an audience yesterday morning um you you have a different perspective of God and he um I think that's real serious thing to him right now as it would be to any of us yeah I'm sure that's going to be met with some skepticism given he's not much of a churchgoer well you know people can sniff uh a phone and I think he's been very authentic about this and I think it's going to resonate with people so you've called for the secret service director to resign uh you're going to be creating this bipartisan task force in Congress well in the house to investigate um you've also been briefed on the Tik Tok of last Saturday uh from my understanding we are starting to see reports here and there of different things coming out right the shooter was researching Biden as well as Trump um we saw reports that the the secret service resources may have been diverted to protect Jill Biden was also in the state at the time um we've heard that local police uh told the Secret Service they didn't have the resources to uh protect that roof and yet somehow that roof was still not protected even though Secret Service knew this is there anything more that hasn't started to trickle trickle out that you can tell us to make sense of what happened on Saturday I wish I could the classified parts are even more alarming than what we've heard so far it's completely inexcusable I had secretary moorus on the phone Saturday within hours of the event he didn't have any answers for me I asked a very simple question that many of you would ask if you had the Secretary of DHS on the phone after that event Mr secretary where were the drones I mean we we do drones as standard practice for almost every outdoor event now a drone would have certainly spotted this guy on the roof I mean like what he didn't have any answers that night um look we have a lot more questions than answers um we are going to have a classified briefing next week ASAP I told the director of the FBI Christopher Ray and and um sec I mean director cheel of Secret Service they need to be prepared and be at our ready next week because we're going into the classified setting with all the house members are going to sit there as long as necessary to ask and answer all those questions we're putting together a task force it'll be bipartisan it'll have subpoena Authority so that can be strike quickly and get this done I think it's essential to get the answers to the American people they deserve it they're demanding it and if we don't do that then these conspiracy theories will flourish and that's even more dangerous clearly there were serious lapses I did say that secretary I mean I keep calling her secretary director cheel should resign she shows no interest in doing that and so this morning I called the White House and said the president needs to fire her show some leadership for goodness sakes Mr President I didn't talk to them they wouldn't let me on the phone with them of course but I left um I I let my word be known there my opinion uh I think he could do the country of service by giving us a new leader the accountability starts at the top we all believe that we say we do Now's the Time to show it I just wanted to follow up on that do you think that there's anything House Republicans can do if she doesn't resign whether it's just some sort of you can't censure I don't know if you can censure a member of you know pres internal security like is there something you're considering I don't know but I'll tell you what there's a there in a bipartisan manner there is a lot of frustration in question I think Democrats are just as concerned you know what this is a nonpartisan issue this is this is you know we protect Democrats and Republicans and everybody knows that we got to get down to the bottom of it this is a serious lap so we're going to use every tool in the Arsenal and and we'll get down to the bottom of it so my understanding is there's actually been a lot of tension between Republicans and secret service for a while now Beyond this incident on Saturday um Republicans here in town had been pushing Secret Service to actually do more since this spring to make sure this venue is locked down and safe uh that lot there was a lot of communication breakdown on that people refusing to take meetings from my understanding is there a concern that the agency's leadership has been polarized uh or about that there could be some sort of disparate treatment uh in how president Biden is protected and former president Trump is protected let me just say gosh I hope not uh I don't want to cast dispersions on Secret Service as an agency because I don't I've not done a deep enough dive into that to make that determination but that's what these investigations and the hearings will be about it'll begin next week um the the director has been subpoenaed and I think she's going to comply with that I certainly encouraged her on the phone yesterday that she better um so we'll get down to the bottom of it but I will tell you that there is a a high degree of mistrust in all of our institutions that were were once revered and are so important to our Republic and you cannot maintain a constitutional republic if the people lose their faith in these things you know the FBI has been through quite a trial here I I got a lot of my constituents and many of my uh colleagues who have zero trust in the FBI I'm almost there myself because of the leadership not the field agents but the people at the top so we need real reform we've seen the Department of Justice weaponized and lawfare engaged in against political opponents you cannot do this without having real adverse consequences and when you have leaders of the country doubting one of these critical institutions that we have the Secret Service for crying out loud used to be above above reproach it's a real problem and we're going to have a long time and a hard job I think a hard task to rebuild trust in these in these critical components of the government I paused before my last question because I had a a question pop up when you were talking and I couldn't remember what it was I just remembered you talked about you're going to get these classified briefings next week but I mean the American public really wants to know as much information as possible do you think that the administration should declassify this stuff yes 100% and I'll be pressing for that and we all will and and will demand that those answers get out it's in everybody's interest for the let's just admit that there were failures let's have accountability and move forward and make sure it doesn't happen again if you let if you let questions hover over this it's a dangerous thing right now because the country is in is a Tinder Box and people will draw their own conclusions the facts and the truth will set us free let's get it out there that's my position so Trump is now a survivor of gun violence and so naturally some people probably not here in Milwaukee uh are going to be asking about potential changes to gun control issues um former president Trump when he was in the White House you'll probably recall he did actually try to strike a gun restriction agreement with Democrats it ended up falling apart this is right before the first impeachment um and he even had that public uh meeting with some Republicans where he said you're afraid of the NRA you're afraid of the NRA uh it does seem like Trump over you know over time has sort of flirted with this issue you are obviously a traditional Republican um who is not interested uh in some sort of additional gun restrictions but I guess I'm wondering after being shot at and almost dying is there anything we could see in a trump Administration regarding uh reforms on guns I don't think anybody's blaming the gun here I think they're blaming the As salant and the breakdown in the system I mean look I I don't I think that's I I don't I haven't heard anybody talking about that on our side and I don't think president Trump will be an advocate for it um we we don't restrict freedoms of people because some people uh misuse it and this was a Terri this obviously this kid had serious problems we're getting down to the bottom of that but um I think that's C before the horse stuff at this point okay let's talk policy for a bit so former president Trump um has very much watered down some of the traditional anti-abortion language we have seen in the GOP platform this year how are you as a firm Pro life are okay with what we saw happen this week on the platform um well the platform doesn't determine our principles I mean the principles of the party I'm I'm proud that the Republican party is is pro-life and um we'll continue to do all the work we always have been to advocate for for young mothers and and all mothers for for strong families and human flourishing look in my speech in the floor I evoked the Declaration of Independence which I'm apt to do because it's our nation's birth certificate and it states the self-evident truth that uh all of us are created equal not born equal but created equal and that we believe and the founders believe that we are made by a Creator and that he's the one that gives us our rights why does all that matter to this argument because if you're made by your Creator and You're Made In His Image which they believe and I believe and most of us believe it means every single person you heard me say on the floor has inestimable dignity and value and your value is not related in any way to the color of your skin or what ZIP code you live in or where you come from or what your talents are what you can contribute to society your values inherent because it's given to you by God I the product of a teen pregnancy my mom was 17 years old when I was born they were high school sweethearts they dropped out of high school to have me and start a family I'm really grateful they did um this has always been a real um you know personal issue to me and um so it will be but I'm one of 434 colleagues in the House of Representatives you know none of us get uh we all come to congress with their own convictions but you have to build consensus and the reality is in America right now there is no consensus breitbard said politics is Downstream from culture well you can't have political consensus on on an issue that's this contentious until you get cultural consensus first so um as as as people who believe in the sanctity of life we have a lot of work to do to build a culture of life and in the meantime our policy will advance the ideals that are that are stated in the Declaration and I'm comfortable where we are there's a strong distinction right now I mean there's a strong distinction between where the Republican Party stands where the Democrat Party stands this is not your grandfather's Democratic party on this okay I mean they every sitting member in the house and the Senate voted for uh full-term abortion on demand up to the moment of birth okay that's Way Beyond where any European country is or anybody else puts us on par with China North Korea and some bad guys around the world I like our position better than the other and I'll stick with it so with the exception of late term abortion which the platform uh from my understanding does very very much call out explicitly this new position we're hearing from the Republican party on the issue is you know leave it to the states uh let them decide how to handle I know you just said you're comfortable where the party is right now but doesn't that position effectively mean that the part's okay with blue States deciding to give wide access to abortion no I don't think that's what that means at all I think it's a leave it to the states no I think it's a recognition of the reality of of the politics of the country I mean the states are handling it and that you know I was one of the lawyers who went into the courts for decades and argued that row was an egregiously unconstitutional decision and part of the argument was because nine unelected judges pulled the authority away from the states who were legis at in on the issue before they evoked row and made it a claim there's a constitutional right in the Federal Constitution which there's not that's been clarified now the situation goes back to the people through their duly you know elected representatives and that's the the way the process works no one who believes in the sanctity of Life calls himself a pro- lier is comfortable with where some of these blue states are going almost unlimited abortion access all the way to the end you know to the moment of birth like my Democrat colleagues have voted for um but I mean the reality is as Nikki Haley said in the presidential debate you know you got or one of them she said um there's there's a 60 vote threshold in the United States Senate when you can get 60 votes come talk to me I mean that's where we are um so you know this is a battle a discussion a debate that has to be had at a local community level through churches individuals communities and people have to talk about this who do we want to be as a people do we want to respect the the the Dignity of every single life I think we do I think that's what's best about America and we that's a that's important National convers that we'll be having now you said when you get 60 Senate Republican votes come talk to me are you suggesting that if there is a super majority then maybe we could see some sort of Nationwide abortion related something no I'm saying the politics the politics follow the cultural consensus and that's I mean that was Nikki's response in the debate I'm paraphrasing her right um but but when she said that everybody goes that's right you know it doesn't matter what anybody plans or wants you have to have consensus uh and and we're a long way away from that okay let's talk about some other um uh policy issues here Republicans have been hitting Biden and the Democrats on inflation for a while now um yet former president Trump wants to do a minimum 10% tariff on All Imports 60% tariffs on all goods from China this will make prices go up for Americans how are you okay with this as somebody who writes on your website free markets and free trade agreements allow for Innovation Improvement and economic expansion um these things are very much in a brilliant quote thank you for reading my um no um no look I don't think that's president Trump's plan he's floating a lot of ideas out there and he this is how he does this is how he makes decisions right he floats trial balloons and he gets he gauges reaction um there'll be a lot of thoughtful discussion about um trade policy tariff policy and all the rest there's a lot of interest in it obviously we have to take a hard stand against China they're our number one adversary and they are um they are they're trying to build an Empire again and they're being very aggressive and provocative and they're working in our own hemisphere to undermine us and trade policy is a big part of that um so there'll be lots of thoughtful discussion but I mean I he's not put out an economic agenda yet he's talking about broad ideas we'll see where all that goes I mean but he's said that that's what he's looking for are you trying to talk him out of tariffs I ain't talking him out of nothing yet wait we look I'm a we all believe in free trade he always adds free and fair trade I agree with that I mean we can't you know we can't compete in the marketplace with one hand tied behind our back that's what he's talking about when he says America First it comes from from a very honest Place deep in his heart and we we believe that and what that means is you put your nation's interest first it makes sense you take care of your own house before you go out and take care of others and and he's trying to be a good Steward of that and there are different ideas on how we achieve that end but that'll be part of the vigorous debate that we'll all have the national debt right now is $35 trillion or approaching it yet the platform doesn't mention it once I guess I'm wondering how you guys can call yourself the party of fiscal responsibility when you know this is not even being talked about anymore oh it's being talked about we talk about it all the time okay you are yeah well but leader of your party certainly isn't you judge a party by its actions and the uh and the policies it advances and the effects of those policies and that's why this is going to be a referendum in November and that's why we're going to win handily because right now the interesting thing about this presidential is you have two men who have actually been president you know even if they replaced Biden with Kamala she's been in the way they were a team right so you have two administrations that have actually served the people so people are looking Beyond rhetoric and talking points and even platforms and they're saying hm what how did both of these administrations do for me and my family it's not even close I mean after the first two years of the Trump Administration we had the greatest economy in the history of the world not just the US I mean we everybody was doing better wages were up every demographic was moving up all Boats were rising and the reason is because we implemented some of these policies that we've all believed in so it's not just talk it's action people can evaluate the actions and the results of each of those things for their own families and I think they're going to make the the right choice you mentioned action um Social Security and Medicare going to be running out of reserves in about a decade um and yet a at a time when these tough conversations really should be happening your part's not talking about this at all and in fact Donald Trump says entitlement reform should be off the table how is that realistic well U Medicare and Social Security are now I think within a 9-year window of insolvency it's very serious situation and we're about to cross the $35 trillion uh threshold 72 something 72 something per of federal spending is mandatory spending and so in order to write the ship you you have to evaluate all the factors and make sure that you're doing right by the people we we are the party and the reason Donald Trump is so insistent about this is he wants to communicate and I do too we are the party that wants to preserve Social Security and Medicare for the people you can't preserve a program that is insolvent and so there's a lot of ideas on the table that are that are bipartisan um that um that that the Congress the next Congress and the ones after that will have to have very thoughtful deliberate discussions and debate about to try to figure out how to fix these programs so that we can save them that's what's on the table and when he means we're not going to touch them he means we don't want to harm the programs or take benefits away from anybody there's a way to ensure it but it'll take bipartisan consensus to do that and and those ideas will will uh will will become more concrete as we go forward so I have a number of questions I still want to get to but I'm being told that I you know I need to start to wrap up uh we just ignore the events people um I want you to take us into the life of Mike Johnson I mean you are you've got two kids you just mentioned them um you got a bunch of kids oh okay more than more than two sons how many we have five really five how did I not know that okay um so you're doing the speakership thing you've got a family you've got a fundraise I mean what does your typical day look like um so n gri posted an noted uh uh several weeks ago in Washington times and he said speaker Johnson has the most challenging speakership since the Civil War 160 years ago and I picked up the phone I'm like n are you trying to encourage me in some Twisted way man and um he said no no I I I I said read the rest of the opet I said you're doing an excellent job it's just the job in the modern era is now impossible and he wrote he wrote a book um Road the majority and he noted in his opad he said before I became speaker of the house I had 16 years to build the infrastructure the plan the Playbook the you know the the fundraising infrastructure rure he said poor Johnson had 15 minutes and it's not he's not wrong about that um but he also noted and we talked about the Advent of the 24-hour news cycle and social media which is a toxin to politics we all know and and new and I've talked about this he said you know if if if my 18 seat majority I had a one vote margin for like five months you know he said if I I had 18 vote margin he said but if they could have gone online every two minutes and told everybody what they didn't like about the contract with America we probably would not have passed it I say that's fair um but we have to adapt to it this is a modern Congress so what is what is the typical day in the life I mean no one who is saying would want this job it's it it is it is it really is kind of crazy I mean this in the the way that it has evolved in the modern era is the speaker is responsible for such a huge breath of things and responsibilities it's maddening I mean it's the you know it's the legislative agenda it's the you know maintenance of the capital grounds you know it's the the fundraising apparatus it's the management of all the personal hes and you know all of that I spent half my day as Speaker of the House and the other half as a mental health counselor that's what my day is like and and I I sit down with everybody in the office and I'm like how can we help you be successful today and stay on the team you know what's your role on the field for this play you know and it's you know it just I don't sleep a lot because it's not allowed but um how many are you averaging enough night sleepwise I don't know my wife Kelly's here what is it I know four hours maybe I don't know four or five she says she says four or five and on a very good night maybe six Yeah we actually scheduled it you got to learn the power nap we at Playbook are really good at that given the hours if I go to sleep there'll be a coup um on me um no I can't sleep no no the um truly we we did schedule a nap um for de it's right after Christmas in December yeah yeah um no we it's a lot of work um but I people ask me all the time are you having fun this is not this not we don't this is not fun okay I'm I'm a I'm a wtime speaker um in in a very real sense and it's a heavy responsibility but I don't I don't feel burdened by it because I know we're I believe genuinely in my heart we're doing the right thing and we're doing it for the right reason and we got the greatest country in the world on our hands to save all of us not just the speaker all of us together and so it's it's a I I kind of feel contemplative like um like President Trump is feeling right now about the weight of history and where we are in this moment and what our responsibility is my great soless when I do get my four or five hours of sleep at night as I y'all heard me say before as I remind myself of the admonition of John Quincy Adams and he was the the hellhound of slavery you know he served as president and then then he went and ran for the house after that I mean talk about sick in the head right but he he went and served in the house for for a while and he he kept bringing the resolution to end slavery and he kept failing over and over and over and so I know where he was sitting on the old chamber house chamber floor which is now St Hall when they asked him the question this guy's a nerd man oh I know I'm sorry but but he but this is cool cuz they this young younger member of Congress goes up to them and they say Mr they still called him Mr Mr President why do you keep bringing it why why do you keep bringing it the the resolution in slavery is not going to pass and he sudden young man duty is ours results are God's and that's a very liberating thought right like all of us all of us all we can do is our duty our responsibility and then at the end of the day I'm so grateful that I'm Not The Sovereign and he's in charge you know and that's that's therapy in itself right so anyway I I I'm I'm very I'm very bullish about the future I think we've gone through a valley I think it's much brighter on the other side and I think the other side comes after November 5 so that's why I'm still in it well on that note we're going to have to leave it there Mr Speaker your security detail over here is giving the eyes I can see it I'm in big trouble thank you all for coming and thank you Mr Speaker for giving us the time to do this you got yeah am I Live Now all right guys if everyone wants to stick around we actually have have a special edition this afternoon since as a lot of you guys know um this is not the only story uh in America right now there's something going on in Washington and frankly rith um so we're going to talk we're going to have a little bit of a democratic rebuttal and talk about what's going on with uh Joe Biden and whether he will be the nominee at the DNC um and to have that conversation we're going to have one of the democratic congressmen who has called for Joe Biden to get out of the race and that is the ranking member member of the armed services committee Adam Smith Adam thank you so much for joining us at at this sort of last minute um well thanks we just keep you down a little bit in the back guys so we can hear so um welcome to the RNC Adam thanks for having me um let's start uh this morning with where things stand you went public last week calling for Biden to resign um not too many have your col colag have uh joined you publicly um but let's start with uh your understanding of where this dump Biden effort uh stands for you and uh and your colleagues well first of all having listened to speaker Johnson's comments a moment ago Mike's a good friend served on the armed services committee together but let's correct the record a little bit Donald Trump is calling for those massive increases in tariffs U to say well he says it but he doesn't mean it is not reassuring um to any American voter he's calling for massive increase in tariffs and massive tax cuts um to the American people as far as the debt and deficit are concerned no president in history in one term added more to the debt deficit than Donald Trump did and I know they want to talk about the first two years but arguably the first two years it was presidency had more to do with President Obama than not and let's look at the full 4year record and then what has happened under Joe Biden as president so that's the debate that I want to have um I called for President Biden to step aside side as the nominee because I think questions about his health and his ability to lead this campaign uh we going to dominate and get us away from having that discussion I still feel that way I feel like we would be better off with a different nominee um and I think the president is seriously considering where the campaign is at and we'll see where that goes but without any doubt I think Democrats had the better message I want to get out there I want to start pushing that message and pushing back on the spin like we just heard from from speaker Johnson Adam what is Nancy Pelosi's role in this process well you know Nancy is a senior leader and I believe the most talented politician in the Democratic party um she has great relationships obviously with the president and his team all the people in the house um she has been guiding and steering and speaking to people about what the best path forward is in a way that I think has been very very productive I mean I have an incredible amount of respect for Nancy um right up to the fact that you know she stepped aside you know you know she you know still was very capable but she passed the torch to the Next Generation so I think she's a good person to listen to about where we're at right now as a party you've had conversations with her about this I have yes can you tell us a little bit about what you told her and what her response was uh the first part yes the second part no uh because it was private conversations I made the case to her the same way that I'm making it to you and that I've made it since a couple weeks ago now um that you know those two issues one the president's ability to deliver the message which he did did not effectively do in the debate to put it mild he hasn't done since then and then the question is about his health those two factors mean that the time is right to have him step aside I made that case to Nancy she heard me and listened to me and like I said she's she's working this her own way so I'm not going to repeat back what she said to me do you have any doubt that Nancy Pelosi wants Joe Biden to step aside as the party's nominee you see now that's a trick little question there right and I admire it because that it implies a question now like I said no I'm look I'm not going to reveal what she she said to me because I think you know working with colleagues is really important to me and as you know strongly as I feel about you know the direction we need to go as a party I'm not going to violate confidences uh you know in trying to advance that goal but she's clearly working your understanding is that she is clearly working behind the scenes to convince Biden to step down that has been widely reported um you're you're not you're not getting it from me so that has been widely reported I think we've seen that in terms of where other people are at look you know I it's it's a core opinion that I've had about how we should approach this I felt like we needed to be more public and more forceful um so you know other thought that that would backfire Adam just talk about the public versus the private because some people say well uh going public actually is counterproductive because you know Biden doesn't want to be humiliated and this all has to be done through back channels but there's no part of this that is humiliating let's get rid of that right off the bat Joe Biden has been an able public servant for over 50 years vice president a very effective president for four years you know four years ago the party made a difficult decision about well who would be the best person to take on Trump and believe me somewhere around 30 people stood up and said me um so we had to pick from amongst those uh and the picked Joe Biden and that worked out now we're making that same choice and my opinion is it should be somebody else so the notion that this is humiliating I completely reject President Biden should be proud of everything that he's accomplished and everything that he's done so I I reject that formulation number one but it is clear that the campaign team around President Biden after the debate was not willing to have an honest discussion about what that best path forward was they were going to dig in and they were going to try to protect President Biden as the nominee and okay then I felt we had to make a public argument because part of the strategy was to ignore the problem and run out the clock and if no one was saying anything publicly that enabled the strategy one of the arguments that the people who continued to support Joe Biden made was well if it's such a big deal how come no one's saying anything publicly um so I felt that a balance between those two approaches was right and somebody needed to be public um and some of us did and I think that has helped forc the conversation forward number one but number two I I don't know I believe in criticism I've often joke that I believe in the power of negative thinking um you have to look at situations honestly most white houses don't view it that way they don't take criticism well as I'm sure you can relate but it wasn't until some of us started going public that they even really responded after the debate you know that they started having meetings with members that they started taking it seriously so part of it was well something John Stewart said in his take on this should we not stress test this process a little bit um so that's what I felt the public commentary did and I I stand by it I think it was the right thing to do um and I agree with the the people who join me in doing it speaking of stress testing there is debate now among Democrats if Biden does uh step down whether they should rally around kamla Harris or whether um they should stress test uh uh the next uh the replacement for Biden with some uh abbreviated version of a primary process um what's your thinking on that are you a only comma person or do you think that this should be um at least a somewhat competitive process I think the delegate should decide okay and I we i i i would support KL Harris as the nominee but I think she's got to earn it she's got to get the delegates to support her now you know I don't know if somebody is going to want to launch a presidential campaign in this particular environment so we may not actually have as many options as would be available if this had started say a year ago um but yeah me I think she should earn it uh I think she should absolutely um get the delegates on her side but look we've got a great message and you're seeing this in this whole Republican convention the Republicans are going to try to they're going to try to pull the wool over your eyes oh everything was perfect when Trump was President everything's terrible when Biden is President which is utter nonsense let's not forget that Donald Trump LED an attempt to overthrow the duly elected government on January 6th okay and Joe Biden actually has done a pretty darn good job of getting us out of Co we have the strongest economy in the world postco there's a lot more work to be done to be sure I want to make that case let's go and I think KLA Harris can make that case and frankly she has been stress T tested in the last gosh year or so she's been much more public go to the Munich security conference she has been the lead spokesperson for the administration at the Munich security conference making the case for our role in Ukraine in NATO and in the world and she's been really strong but yeah she needs to go make that case to the delegates and get the votes this a pretty straightforward election I forget the numbers but there's somewhere around 4,000 delegates go get those votes Adam what are the other names among your uh band of uh of brothers and sisters who have gone public with this who else is being talked about who would you like like to see jump into the process well there's a ton of talent in this in this part um you know we've got the governors you know Governor uh Cooper Shapiro Whitmer Nome uh West Moore um you've got people who ran last time Pete Buddha judge Croy Booker Amy uh cloar um you know Mark Kelly you know good friend of mine um great Senator great history you know fighter pilot um astronaut certainly everything he and Gabby have gone through together look there is a ton ton of talent in this party um and I think if the president does make the decision to step aside you will see that come forth in a very positive way there's two things that have come up at this convention Adam about what's going on in in your party um and about this process um one is uh Chris levita said here earlier today that if Biden steps down it amounts to in his words a coup um and that it's uh un undemocratic for the Democrats to overthrow him here uh the second thing that comes up is that if kamla is the replacement that it's no different than Biden that she's uh she will have to answer for all of Biden's and I run I'll answer both of those question they're both they're both frankly idiotic okay you know we have a process and that process is the delegates make their selection the delegates will make that selection calling this a coup is one of the dumbest things so you're not a coup leader here this is ridiculous he is the presumptive nominee not the nominee the delegates will make that decision and he is in there second of all KLA Harris is not the same person as Joe Biden oh that's a shocking statement clearly she is not um and again the two big things about kamla right off the bat number one you know she is a more articulate campaigner she will be able to deliver this message more effectively and more consistently and number two nobody is questioning her health okay so I think the argument that Comm Harris is just Joe Biden is ridiculous on its face um and second like I said the delegates will make their decision we as a party will decide who we're going to nominate and both of those things are perfectly legitimate but you're so just to be clear Adam your message though for Democrats who who might want to be president um is jump in don't uh there's no reason that this should be um uh that everyone should just rally around the the VP and look to the that the DNC listens to either you or me and I don't think they do um I'll just go ahead and say don't anoint anyone here you don't have to okay KLA Harris is a perfectly capable person she doesn't need your help you know go go out there make the case get the delegates on your side and I think that'll make her stronger and it'll make us stronger final thing I know you got to go um what's your prediction do you think a week from now Joe Biden will still be the nominee of the democratic party I try to stay out of the prediction business I always love a quote that I stole from Ram Emanuel I don't predict I affect um and I think that's the proper way to approach my job all well give us a probability look I mean you you don't need me to do that you see everything out there I mean the probability is it's it's more likely than not right now but but we'll see how that plays out and then final final thing is do you think there will be more Adam Smiths go going uh members of Congress Senators elected officials going public uh this weekend yes yeah Adam thank you very much thanks for giving me the chance I appreciate the last minute opportunity yeah appreciate it we elevated you to chair of the house armed services committee you're actually the ranking member sorry about that everyone hey once a chair always a chair that's right for I was thank you time thank you I know um thanks everyone we uh we addited that at the last minute thanks everyone for rolling with it um but you know the news isn't all here in Milwaukee thanks everyone for for being here this week [Applause] us apprciate it ladies and gentlemen just wanted to thank you for sticking around today and for everybody watching thank you for the entire week this has been quite the undertaking months months months in the making and so we want to take a minute to thank our our uh partners with CNN with uh the grill everybody's worked on this on our staff including our local staff who's here as well and uh invite you all to stay tuned we'll be back doing it all over again in a different different uh location in Chicago for the DNC uh it's been a great week so thanks to everybody for sticking around and we will see you [Applause] soon e e