Traveling to Lansing, Michigan, President John Pudner continued his recent radio tour across our Republic discussing the recent controversy involving Special Counsel Robert Hur's investigation into Biden family business dealings and, more broadly, the increased chatter within Washington on potentially moving forward with articles of impeachment.
As impeachment articles are delivered to the Senate for DHS Secretary Mayorkas, Pudner and host Mike Austin discuss how, while House Republicans may harbor grievances against President Biden, the broad political support and lack of willingness of Senate Republicans to convict would likely make a Biden impeachment futile and perceived as politically motivated. Furthermore, impeachment proceedings could distract from the substantive policy debates that voters care about at a time when our nation is grappling with significant challenges on our southern border, with our economy, and with public safety in communities across our Republic. Voters may view impeachment as a partisan sideshow that not only detracts from addressing pressing issues, but also from President Trump's ongoing litany of trials, damaging electoral prospects for Republicans across the board.
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The following transcript from this interview is presented in its entirety with minor edits:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Biden, impeachment, Hur, politics, sides, legal precedent, approval ratings, story
SPEAKERS
TBOR Action President John Pudner and Mike Austin
Mike Austin 00:00
Justice Department has urged House Republicans to avoid conflict. There's a brewing battle and they threaten the possibility of contempt proceedings. This all has to do with the information surrounding Special Counsel Robert Hur's probe of President Biden and his handling of classified records. Monday, there was a letter from the Justice Department's head of Legislative Affairs. It said that the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees got information they requested when they asked for transcripts of Mr. Hur's interview with Biden. Well, let's take some of this apart here. The president of Take Back Our Republic Action is with us. We've had him on the show before. He's the only person ever in US history to run a campaign defeating a Majority Leader in a primary, John Pudner. Hey, John, how are you?
John Pudner 01:13
Oh, fantastic.
Mike Austin 01:16
Take this apart for us, because you can get in the weeds a lot. First of all, every time I've said Robert Hur, I always want to say Hurl as if he's related to our own but that's just me. Take this apart for us.
John Pudner 01:27
I think the big thing is he has to think politics here a little over legal right now. I don't think it would be good for the House to move forward with impeachment for a couple of reasons. One is, you know, the recent history is impeachment helps a president's political standing, happened with Clinton, Trump went to his highest approval ratings ever, so I think while you obviously want to keep these issues alive, and it's pretty clear on some of the money going into the Biden's, I think going all the way to impeachment would actually just be a political mistake. And also, this is at a time when a lot of President Trump's bounce has been just hese endless prosecutions against him, and I think you almost step on the story a little bit there if the average person see they're going after Biden, they're trying to impeach him, but we got an election and a few months to settle this. So I just think, politically, the time would be bad, but obviously, these are real issues. You want to keep the issues alive.
Mike Austin 01:28
That's a weird balancing act because I think the general American public just wants to get on with it. Not so much impeachment, but let's just get on with running the country. I know you can't turn a blind eye to stuff that's going on, but like you said, even with Donald Trump, he gets more of a bump from when they go after him, as opposed to when he goes after others. So is there support for just dropping it in laying the whole impeachment thing aside?
John Pudner 03:17
Sure, yeah. I think there is. I think most people don't want to go through it. They feel, of course, there is a double standard here, I mean, just the incredible array of cases against Trump going after everything from his property, to trying to keep off the ballot, which, as expected, was lost nine-nothing in the US Supreme Court, even the Liberals realized there was no kind of legal precedent you wanted to set there. I understand that and people feeling that, clearly, there was lying involved in saying there's no involvement of President Biden in the son's business when he clearly seems to have been involved in things, so certainly understand that, and some will say to throw politics out and we need to go after him, and clearly, there's plenty of material here. But, the swing voters that are out there who have shifted toward Trump don't follow that closely. Once I've tried to prosecute the other, and why step on their story? That was always our first rule in politics - if the other side's hurting themselves, please try not to get in the way their story, which is what they're doing with prosecution of Trump.
Mike Austin 04:41
Let's just put on your future forward thinking cap, I know you've got one - end to the election, day after the election, maybe the week after the election in November, I think a lot of people are actually just wondering what are things going to look like? Are we in a constant cycle, I guess you could say, of our side loses, our site impeaches, our site gets you removed from office, and then it back and forth, is that the way politics is going to be now? Who's gonna run the country?
John Pudner 05:14
Yeah, you're right. I think people are fed up, I always go back to the fact that, way back during the Bush vs. Gore days in 2000, we had two candidates a month or two out that both had a higher than 50% favorable rating. It was the last election that was not an election of the lesser of two evils. But, it's tough now, and it's like capitalism - the way voters act are going to drive how people act. Right now, this is how you win politics, you nail the other side, so the whole system is set-up to incentivize this kind of non-stop battle, and I think the scary thing is that both sides feel like the world ends if they lose the next election. That's always a scary place to be in any country.
Mike Austin 06:10
The rhetoric has been ramped up big time, and all the buzz phrases, the end of democracy, both sides use it. Both sides say that, if we're not in, it's the end of our country as we know it, and there may be some truth to that, but man, you hear very little about what they're going to do, here's how we're going to do it, and here's what I think ought to be done. Of course, we're gonna involve Congress, you're gonna hear every little of all that we're all fed up with.
John Pudner 06:39
That's right. I think, even to the point where Cuomo of all people coming through and saying we can survive another four years of Trump, for him to just say that for a liberal audience, and almost have shock on the other side, "What do you mean we can survived four years of Trump?", this is just hysteria, just the anti-Trump hysteria, and it's kind of cultish to say anything that Trump's doing has to be wrong and has to be a detriment of the country. Trump supporters get accused of being cultish to follow everything he does, but I think you can point right to the other side and say they assume everything Trump does is wrong. It's almost Pavlovian on the other side.
Mike Austin 07:21
I think you get both edges of it. I mean, I've got members of my family that virtually worship the guy, and I have several friends who are from New York, let's say, and this is in their circles, but not a lot of people in New York liked him as a guy, but as a person, as a businessman who was able to get things done, you gotta admit the guy is a hard worker and a deal maker. That's what he's known as. So yeah, I think you hear both sides. I don't know. I just wonder when we're gonna get past all of the garbage. Yeah, I think a lot of people do. Well, John, tell everybody where to find you on the web?
John Pudner 08:07
Starting place is takebackaction.org and that's where we keep up dates. Happy to come over the lake and see you. We're actually Wisconsin based so happy to come over your way.
Mike Austin 08:23
We moved here from Wisconsin. Where are you? Tell me you're not in Madison.
John Pudner 08:28
No, we're in Milwaukee, trying to stay away from Madison, and we're in a time of year where I can take the ferry over instead of driving through Chicago, so come on out!
Mike Austin 08:38
All right, John Pudner, it's always a pleasure. We'll talk soon. See ya, buddy. He's the only guy in Wisconsin I know with a southern accent!
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