National Review's Rich Lowry says Trump can win on character

get the latest weather traffic and news updates online at 560th answer.com now from the Signature Bank Studios only the biggest stories only the biggest guests and only the biggest opinions This Is am560 The Answer top of the morning Dan and in for Amy this morning is Charles Thomas former ABC7 political reporter good morning and Charles I think one of the things the the Trump campaign has to decide on in terms of its uh strategery is death of a Thousand Cuts or some sort of big ultimate question right the handle is that you want voters going into the the polling place which I think uh voting in some states starts in about five minutes um you want them thinking about one big question that you know they you want them to either answer in the negative to vote against your opponent or answer in the affirmative to vote for you and what we've seen since uh kamla's entrance in the race is sort of the death of a Thousand Cuts approach where uh we're digging up all of the things that she said when she ran for president 2020 things she said as attorney general and Senator and so forth the things she's done legislation she's sponsored or co-sponsored during her time in the Senate and it's you know just sort of bouncing from one issue to the other with the idea that at some point you're going to paint a more holistic picture of her for example the latest um clip of Kamala to be Unearthed and circulated goes back to law enforcement and we know we've you know um abolish ice is a discussion we should have defund police uh General antagonism in the direction of police general support for people who sacked American cities during the summer of 2020 her Minnesota Freedom fund or as she might say freedom fund support for people who were vandalizing and looting Minneapolis to help them make bail uh her latest is on the issue of uh cops in the classroom or cops in schools really not necessarily the classroom but the idea of hardening targets a conversation we've had intermittently over the last decade when uh you know a tragic school shooting would happen and what else can we do to protect kids at school and so forth well this is what she said being incarcerated for a couple of days is traumatic much less the weeks months and years that we're seeing that happen and so part of my plan is also a reduction of that and then also um again what we need to do about taking demilitarizing our our schools um and and taking police officers out of schools we need to deal deal with the the reality and speak the truth about the inequities around school discipline we're in par so get the cops out of the schools I mean that's the approach that Chicago public schools have taken that's the approach that uh the previous mayor and the current one certainly have taken um and is that right and proper is that and so is it that issue specifically by the way uh interestingly um the family member of a Sandy Hook victim my brother was killed in Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting because of liberal policies like the one Commish pushing here I wish there had been a police officer there to protect them students need more protection not less and that's you know in some of the the schools in uh neighborhoods that are not properly policed and not properly were where repeat violent offenders are not properly prosecuted in Chicago boy if I had a parent one of those schools I'd want somebody there uh on watch wouldn't you yeah well you know that but this whole notion of her not saying anything about her positions I think it it complement her um her strategy as it applies to to early voting think about it I mean you're going to have a lot of people who are going to be voting uh very soon who haven't heard her on anything knee-jerk vote yeah Dem that's it well that's that's one of the issues right we talk about it and you assum everybody knows the things she said about abolishing ice and about defunding police and about cops uh in schools and and they don't um now there are people trying to amplify it the Brotherhood the brother of that Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim the National Association of police organizations also issued an endorsement of trump they also endorsed him in 2020 unsurprisingly kamla har has shown once again that she simply has no knowledge of what modern American police officers do well she doesn't much care so the law enforcement is one of those and and violence in America's major cities in particular is one of those issues that's you know part of the larger conversation but the question becomes strategically is the Trump campaign and Trump himself are they missing an opportunity to make the more holistic claim and drive that versus going bucket by bucket to fill it and hoping that they can deliver all of this by well as you say by the middle of next month when early voting starts for more on that question we're pleased to be joined by Rich Lowry who is the editor of National Review he's also the author of the case for nationalism how it made us powerful United and free Rich thanks for joining us again appreciate it my pleasure thanks for having me so um so what about that I mean I don't know that the two are are are mutually exclusive you know going issue by issue or issue area by issue area and then arriving at sort of this holistic handle that you want people to have on your opponent um but I but there does seem to need there does seem to me a need to you know order that progression and maybe it's not as orders as it could be right now well they're definitely not mutually exclusive they're they're totally dependent on one another and I don't think it's it's that complicated I think it's it's Trump just calling her week 50 times a day and saying look look what she did in the Border she didn't care and she was weak you know look uh what she did in 19 and2 when she said everything left wanted to hear because she's weak you know she couldn't win a nomination fight on her own because she's weak you know just hit that over and over again in the phony thing because once you've re really fixed the idea that someone's weak or a phony it doesn't matter what your positions are if you're weak you're disqualified to be president or it's a major anchor on the the case to to getting there same thing with phony it doesn't matter whether your positions are popular or not if people don't believe that you you would carry through with them so I don't think this is hard I I think they'll figur it out some version of it I don't know whether it's exactly the version I'm setting out but this is how presidential campaigns are won they're not won just on policy they're they're won by disqualifying the other person yeah no I agree but and and you use that word phony uh in your piece in the New York Po in uh U the New York Times that is um and I that's what I've been fixated on too I I go back to this rally this Trump rally in Atlanta where he sort of was riffing as he has want to do and said fight fight fight versus fake fake fake everything about her is fake and fight fight fight sort of represents the strength so I like that dichotomy and I think it could be developed more but but but it also is is a there's a little bit of messaging uh dissonance there too because on the one hand you're saying she and and I'm saying she is a new Bolshevik who wants to tax unrealized capital gains on the other hand saying she's a phony she's not going to do she's not gonna do what she says yeah no definitely that there is that that tension and I I don't think I like the alliteration of comrade KLA I think it's kind of funny but I don't think people are gonna believe that she's a a communist I would go with calculating KLA or something like that you with a K calculating it with a K you know the C a do it but something to get she she's a left Winger you know that's where what her instincts are Biden you know gun to his head wouldn't have said most of the things she said in 2019 right because he's all his other faults he's still kind of a traditional Democrat but she she easily went there but she is a vacuous opportunist on top of that so there is a little little tension but you know this isn't like a a dissertation Trump's writing right you can have a little tension and it can be a little contradictory well the other thing I I wonder too you know in the June debate right um sing all this talk about Biden you he's probing he's exacting he's an intellectual Dynamo you should be in a meeting with him it's dizzying because he's such a brainia act and he's so on top of things and and and I was just okay that that's your handle on him fine so that's what we're going to expect when we get to onto that debate stage and then we'll see what happens I sort of think it could be a moment on September 10th similarly and just go with the DC press cor's star eyed coverage of her she is a once- in a generation force of nature with an unparalleled legal acument okay fine uh now let's just ask her some questions and Trump should spend most of the time on that debate stage just asking her substantive policy questions that the moderators won't and get her talking yeah so I I think clearly the the pressure for open mics from from Harris was they want Trump just interrupt her all the time then they'll make the debate about interrupting and then then they win a kind of victory so I think the close mics would be better the old rules would be better but this is the the only opportunity he's going to have to expose her like the Press isn't going to do it or at least is is not going to do it unless uh they feel real pressure to do it but he's got to do it directly and the job's much harder than Joe Biden Joe Biden was just getting out of the way right and he did it and and he fell on his face and that's not gonna happen here hey Rich this is Charles Thomas uh isn't this bottom line into a question of money and whether or not you're able to expose her in this new media Escape where you have to spend so much money in so many different places to combat what's happening in Main Street stream media I'm speaking of the Trump campaign yeah money's important they're there she may now you know out out raise him uh but they always figured they were going to be out raised and at least says K surge were exceeding their expectations where they would be on fundraising but he's going to have enough money you know it's it's not all about money money's important but it's the candidate what the surrogates are saying how you're performing in debates all that matters so if Trump is doing his job there's so much material to work with so much it will punch through and and this is one of his political upsides right I mean this is the formost showman and Communicator in our time so if anyone can can get above the media small it's him you know it's it's not even Labor Day yet and I got to think you got to keep your powder dry at this point I want to see what she says tonight how this thing goes and then you make your move I mean you really start going for it after Labor Day yeah you know they're not exactly firing on all cylinders yet but I think they they've gotten better and I would I would have I wouldn't be too excited about her to falling on her face in this interview I don't know how long it's going to be you know probably not much longer than 20 minutes Waltz is going to be there she's going to be prepared for to the gills and they're gonna try to say if she comes out at okay you know there there's your interview you said she can't do interviews she did one yeah I know right it's I mean by any standard of course that this is an event a Presidential nominee does an interview with a member of the press Corp wow yeah yeah exactly it's like they're doing the moon landing having a joint interview with the CNN right yeah with right it's not you know it's not Mark lvin either Ian right exactly it's a it's a friendly um I I'm still trying to get my handle on on RFK Jr and his potential impact on the the race and I would add Nicole Shanahan too because I I continue to think she could be an interesting surrogate and this is not seismic but you know it races states that could be decided by 10,000 votes were were operating on the cringes here and I just wanted to get your your take on the the RFK Junior endorsement roll out and and how um impactful you think he and and potentially his former running mate will be I think it can make a difference it's going to be a small one but small could matter but my my take on his vote always was that it was going to disappear these are the most disaffected people that that the likelihood of a lot of them showing up in the polls was was slim and the likelihood of them following afk's specific directions about where they should go is also slim all that said it doesn't need to be a percent in some of these states it could just be 2,000 votes in Wisconsin or Michigan and Pennsylvania and it could matter so yeah you want that endorsement you want to make the most of it it's not like you know the five points is being directly just directly transferred to you but some some thousands of Voters could be and it could matter you know the the other thing too it seems to me that um Trump has done effectively and perhaps the failed assassination attempt was part of this is you know all the talk of him being a Hitler and this and that the usual silliness that's that's largely not completely but it's largely subsided at the convention it wasn't he's Hitler pul poot Stalin it was he's a disreputable person he's a bad person he's disqualified because he's a bad person he's a convicted felon they didn't even use convicted felon that much which was interesting it's more just he's he's a bad person you you don't like him and you shouldn't like him and you can't vote for somebody you don't like and you like me because I'm full of joy that was basically it yeah yeah I I think it's smarter I think the whole threat to democracy thing was ridiculous I think you know you know my views on on January 6 but I think that's been kind of played out and and they they did some of that you know at the convention but most of it was look he wants to cut taxes for the rich uh he wants to cut Social Security and Medicare which he which he doesn't and he only cares about himself and these These are plausible cases you can make it make against them and again it's a character case and they use like the tax cuts for the rich they use it as a to make a character case he only cares about people like himself you know so that's again that's what Trump needs to be doing to her rich Lowry is the editor of National Review he's also the author of the case for nationalism how it made us powerful United and free Rich thanks as always thanks gentlemen talk uh Rich joined us on the.pro line the more you listen the more you'll know this is Chicago's morning and morning answer at a 560 the answer oil Investments involve a 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