Taking a respite from the campaign trail as our team continues on-leave efforts, President John Pudner called back into familiar territory in Birmingham, Alabama to not only dissect and analyze the stakes for both presidential tickets ahead of Tuesday's highly-anticipated Vice Presidential debate, but also dive deeper into an issue both at the center of the race for the White House and core to TBOR Action's mission - the influence of out-of-state dollars on election operations, campaigns, and ballot referenda.
As Pudner noted on air:
"...you see the millions being spent all these Senate races, all these battlegrounds. I mean, you've even got $15 million being spent by the left to stop Final Five in Nevada- they have so much money. They can spend hundreds of millions on campaigns and ballot referenda."
Pudner dives into how the approaches by both Vance and Walz are informed by these dollars, but also goes into how pervasive, widespread, and critical these out-of-state dollars have become, especially within today's campaign politics. This includes cases such as the over $15 million being spent in Nevada by left-leaning groups against the implementation of Final Five, a new approach to our broken election system that not only has broad, bi-partisan support from both grassroots activists and citizen legislators, as well as being a proven success in cases like Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, but helps to mitigate the influence of these dollars by removing the need for expensive, dirty, and divisive primaries, allowing candidates to instead focus solely on the big issues at play, giving them the best chance to win in a general election.
It's amazing, as Pudner notes, that all $15 million being spent to stop Final Five is coming from the left-wing, Harry Reid machine that some conservative groups raise money by sliding with the left in trying to stop Final Five.
As Pudner and host J.T. summarize, the mighty influence of these dollars infused across our Republic not only informs how grassroots activists will have to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of campaign politics, but also how they have an undue influence in even how both VP candidates comport themselves on the debate stage, directly affecting what is looking to be one of the most hotly-contested election cycles in modern history.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Tim Walz, JD Vance, debate, expectations, issues, voter appeal, policy, substance
SPEAKERS
J.T. and TBOR Action President John Pudner
J.T. 00:00
Joining us now to talk a little bit more about what the expectations may be is John Pudner, President of Take Back Our Republic Action, was also a Bush aide back in 2000. John, welcome back in, thanks for being here.
John Pudner 00:11
Thank you, and you said the magic word - expectations. Tim Walz is clearly the greatest debater in the history of the universe, and if he does anything less than that, it's a massive loss for him. That's how I would frame the debate. The old expectation game - set the bar as high as you can for the opponent.
J.T. 00:27
Okay, there you go! I'm like where's John going on this one here? I'm glad you got to the end of that sentence because the first part of it scared me to death there! All right, so the reality of it, listen to this guy - this is Tom Emmer, who is a Republican out of Minnesota, talking about Tim Walz and what this guy's really about, because most Americans aren't really that familiar with this guy, but being from Minnesota, Tom Emmer is certainly aware of him.
Rep. Tom Emmer 00:56
...Tim Walz plays the part of this folksy, ag-friendly outdoorsman when you first meet him, he's got these smiles, he's likable, but that's only until you start to get to know Tim Walz and his policies. He wants to give illegals free healthcare and free college, signed a bill to give them driver's licenses this year, which now we got to watch that in the voting process...
J.T. 01:18
I've seen some recent polls now saying some people think Tim Walz is more palatable than JD Vance in voters' eyes on both sides of the fence. You got to take polls with a grain of salt but is he spot on with this?
John Pudner 01:36
I think he's right. Walz can try to win the debate by doing the aw, shucks, I'm a likable guy thing, but JD, obviously, has to win it on the facts, and right now, all the facts that people consider the most important tend toward Republicans, so Vance just has to keep this discussion on immigration, on men in women's sports, inflation - keep tying that Walz's running-mate has been in the seat of power. I think they've done a better job of that in the last month, but you can't distance yourself from the failure of the last three and a half years. The debates are nice, because the first time you don't have hundreds of millions of dollars trying to make you look good, and trying to say the Republicans are weird and we're normal, and you see the millions being spent all these Senate races, all these battlegrounds. I mean, you've even got $15 million being spent by the left to stop Final Five in Nevada- they have so much money. They can spend hundreds of millions on campaigns and ballot referenda. So, this is first time you're on the stage, there's no money to back you up, no one's editing clips of what you said, and this is it. That's why I think this debate is more important than most VP debates.
J.T. 02:48
Who do you think has the better, I guess, presentation, if you will, to present, and answer questions, and deliver? JD Vance or Tim Walz?
John Pudner 02:59
I think JD does, and that is where I do joke that expectation game, but I don't see him getting off on topics that are irrelevant to voters. Trump did a little bit in that last debate when he started talking rally sizes and all, that doesn't really matter to people, but I think JD will be very disciplined, and he's just gotta keep hammering those issues home. But, I've been on the other side of this. I've been on the one where Al Gore was the policy guy, Bush was the feelings guy, and that went both ways. So, Walz wants this not about substance, he just sort of wants it those guys are weird, unlike normal people like us, and keep it very off the issues.
J.T. 03:49
Well, John, a lot of people say that this is not a Presidential debate. This is the Vice Presidential debate. We probably won't see the same viewership levels on this debate, but with that said, is there anything that could really shift the way people vote coming out of this debate if something drastic happens on either side?
John Pudner 04:11
Yeah, that's a big thing. Even though, obviously, Trump's second debate was not good, the first one was really good, and there, there wasn't just that huge flub that you fear when you're doing campaigns, just something Trump could say that would be just seem outlandish. If anything, Harris had things, I think, were more easily documented as lies during that debate, so you don't want the big mistake, but I do think this is more significant than most VP debates. This is going to be the closer, it looks like, unless something happens out of the blue. But also, since Trump did not have a good second debate, had a great first one, the VP can always do a little clean-up. I think Pence did that for the one bad debate Trump had last time, Pence had a nice follow up for it, and actually, you go back to Cheney, who followed-up the one bad debate that Bush had going way back, so I think the VP can come on strong in this one, and Vance can really advance the ticket.
J.T. 05:04
All right, very good. John Pudner, always good to catch up with you.
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