And we're back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm at Kittle,
Senior Elections correspondent at the Federalist, and your experienced Shirpa on today's quest
for Knowledge. As always, you can email the show at radio at the
Federalist dot com, follow us on x at FDR LST, make sure to
subscribe wherever you download your podcast, and of course to the premium version of
our website as well. I'm joined today by the great Mark Hemingway, the
Federalist known Mark Hemingway, offering a little perspective on what it's like to be
at the Republican National Convention and what a week it's been. And it's hard
to believe, Mark, that it was just Saturday we experienced this nation experienced
what it did, a threat, a real and present danger threat against the
President of the United States, an assassination attempt. Of course, the accomplished
media had a tough time saying that for the first twenty four or forty eight
hours or so. But I think this convention, wouldn't you agree in Milwaukee
has that aura about it. And that aura has a lot to do with
what I keep hearing from delegate to delegate to people in attendance, kind of
a divine power over the former president and the Republican nominee. Yeah, as
a kids like to say, there's a there's been a real vibe shift.
It's it's pretty dramatic here. You know, this is my third Republican convention.
I was at the Publican conventions in two and eight and twenty sixteen.
I wasn't one in twenty twelve, but both of those conventions. I was
at two thousand and eight. You know, I don't think anybody was convincing
themselves that John McCain had any chance against Obama, and if anyone remembers what
a coronation that campaign was. And then in twenty sixteen, coming into that
convention, you know, there was still a lot of angst about you know,
Trump being the nominee, and there were you know, floor fights and
all this other stuff that was going on. You know, even the last
minute, even though you know Trump was inevitable, people were trying to,
you know, stir up tensions within the party. You know, this is
so different. I mean it's not just that the party is united and around
Donald Trump. You know, they certainly were, you know that way last
week. But you know, as you point out, you know, Trump
surviving that assassination attempt, particularly the way that he did, just has this
you know, uh, you know, just as this it feels like some
sort of you know, divine appointment almost. You know, we were already
united democratically, and now it feels like the particular way that you know,
he barely you know, survived that you know, makes it feel like you
know, He's God is blessing this or something. You know. I don't
want to get over my skis with that kind of analogy, believe me.
You know, politics are still pretty prosaic, and I don't want to get
it too mystical, but I mean there's a real sense that you know,
that that that that you know, something good happened here and we're all a
part of it. Yes, indeed, And I, like I said,
I've heard it from so many people that's you know, I don't even bring
it up. I just I'm talking about the convention, you and I and
of course Molly, Molly Hemingway, the great Mally Hemingway. Here you're you
know, you're talking to a lot of people, and I'm sure you have
experienced the same sort of thing. You can't help but not talk about faith
in all of this, And isn't it interesting? It is interesting to me
that faith is supposed to be at the forefront of the Republican Party, and
fortunately it's not always, but certainly is very important to a lot of conservatives
in this country. And you have a guy in Donald Trump who in twenty
sixteen the faith communities were very wary of, and understandably so. But you
see at this convention the first two nights, just as he came to the
floor, the sort of buzz that was there. Again, I don't want
to oversell this, but it has been a remarkable time, certainly in American
history, and it's all been very remarkable here at the convention. Yeah,
you know, like I said, you know one of the reasons, you
know, there's a real vibe here and one of the reasons you go to
a convention. You know, a lot of people at home are just watching
it on television. What's going on at the you know, on the floor
and the speeches that are given, and that's all great, and that's kind
of the centerpiece, but it's also true a big part of what happens at
a convention, and the reason why we're still having them in the twenty first
century, where you know, the trueditional nominated process could all be done virtually,
is because these events are you know, good for people's spirits. They're
good for you know, making business connections, they're good for, you know,
bringing the party together like physically. You know. One of the highlights
of this convention for me has been, you know, running around meeting all
these people that you know, maybe I haven't seen in years, or I
know them online and I've never met them, and you're just walking around the
streets and you know, everybody is, you know, sharing their views on
what's going on, and everybody's energetic and excited for the future, and it's
just a it's a real thing here to be here, let me tell you,
Yeah, it certainly is. There was you know, we know what's
happened in the last several weeks in this country. It's almost as if,
surprisingly the corporate or accomplice media has awakened to the notion that Joe Biden might
not be all there, might have some cognitive issues, something of course,
that a lot of us have been talking about not only for the past three
and a half years, but for several years before that, but his decline,
his cognitive decline, was on full display at that debate in late June
with Donald Trump. And now you have, of course the scurrying of Democrats,
the Democrat Party, trying to figure out what their next move is and
for a lot of them, how to get rid of this octagenarian, struggling
president and the candidate for the Democrats in the November election. You certainly see
a little different. You have a different feel at this convention and across the
country. I think in the Republican Party, Tuesday night was clearly unity night.
You had Donald Trump's rivals, political rivals, all of whom he has
vanquished over the years from twenty sixteen and of course this election cycle. But
they're all playing very nice, the likes of Nicky Haley and Ron DeSantis,
Veake Ramaswami, Marco Rubio of course, who was in the short list as
a vice presidential pick. How do you think this whole unity feel is translating,
particularly with the people who had to the spar with one of the best
combatants that politics has ever seen. Well, you know, it's interesting.
I mean, I guess it's been reported that following the assassination. You know,
Trump made big moves to get DeSantis and Nikki Haley here and you know,
patch things up because I guess he was feeling a little differently about stuff
or what. But you know, I think it was a good move for
all involved. There's no question that, you know, it's good to have
our unified Republican Party heading into November, you know, under any circumstances.
But having the Republican Party this unified when and when Democrats are in total disarray,
is you know, even better. You know that said, you know,
there's still tensions in the party. And when Nikki Haley came out last
night, you know, I was in the auditorium and there was she got
plenty of people cheered for her, but there was a fair amount of booze
mixed in there as well. People have not really forgotten or totally forgiven her
for opposing Trump, and I think it wasn't just that that she opposed Trump
by In fact, I wrote an entire article about this, I think it
was the December of last year for the Federalists, where I talked about how
Haley's argument about why you know she was a superior option to Trump was that
chaos follows Donald Trump wherever he goes, as if somehow it was Donald Trump's
fault that there were all these you know forces out there that were, you
know, opposing him and doing all these terrible things, Like it was Donald
Trump's fault that people completely invented a false narrative that he was colluding with Russia
to steal the twenty sixteen election. And then you think about that narrative in
light of the assassination attempt, you know, did Trump really invite something like
that? I mean, the assassination attempt was just kind of the the almost
tragedy, however dark it sounds to say this sort of like the logical end
of the assault on Donald Trump has been launched by you know, so many
people since he decided to enter politics. So I'm glad that we're kind of
putting that thing behind us, and the attention with the Republican Party is being
resolved in that way. But make no mistake, you know, Trump's with
his pick of JD. Vance and Trump, you know, you know,
so successfully captivating the party this time around. He is pretty decisively putting to
bed vise you know, establishment Republicans and taking the party in a in a
direction that's much more suited to him, much more suited to what he always
wanted all along in this you know, sort of populous direction. But you
know, events, whether or not it's the Trump assassination and attempt or you
know, Joe Biden really exposing how vital you know, Trump's desire to get
immigration under control was. You know, I think just events and facts have
overtaken that particular breed of established a Republican where they have no choice but to
get on board. Yeah, it's interesting. I know that you and I
have talked about this in the past, but let's let's talk about the vice
presidential pick. It's interesting for a number of reasons. Ohio's jd Vance.
You know, this is a young man in politics relatively speaking, certainly a
young man to me as a guy who's been in this business, and you
know how this business ages someone, just like the presidency in war. I
think this is the first time someone's been on a presidential ticket that was younger
than I am. I'm not a particularly you know, you know, young
man at this point in time. So yeah, it is a little surreal
to see someone like that, you know what it's like, It's It's like
when you know you're twenty five, thirty thirty five. At that point you
start seeing the college basketball players that you used to watch on TV retire from
the NBA. Then you go, Okay, this thing is getting real.
I'm starting to age. Well, that's happened to me. That happened to
me a long time ago, and that's I think that's the thing in politics
too. But obviously it's a move because while we talk about Joe Biden and
his age, we do talk about Donald Trump. Now, Donald Trump does
clearly not have the issues that Joe Biden is struggling with. His mental capacities
appear to be all there as opposed to the octagenarian. But at the same
time, good pick to look younger, very strong on the conservative base in
JD. Vance, not a lot of experience, but I think you've said
this before. You know, he must be a good pick for conservatives in
the grassroots if the established most of the complaints are coming from the establishment cats.
Yeah, that's exactly right. All of the right people are upset by
the JD. Vance pick, and I think that's sort of a good indicator.
I mean, I mean, he's good on several fronts. I mean,
you know, as you know, you've already mentioned he's young. We
talk about that he's young, but like just the sort of dynamism you know
of having a young candidate on the race. You know, we've been in
a gerontocracy forever. Now it feels like and I mean you see these photos
of Jade Vance, you know, walking around with us, you know,
playing with his really young kids and stuff. I think people are gonna respond
really positive to that, uh positively that to that on kind of an aesthetic
level, which is you know, something that Donald Trump sort of you know,
innately understands and appreciates probably better than anyone. And then just you know,
on the policy substance, you know, again this is you know,
like I said, you know, this is we're signaling here that you know,
Trump and his particular brand of populism is is vanquishing the establishment Republicans,
who, you know, I think it's fair to say have not been doing
a good job stewarding the party for some time on several fronts. And Jade
Vance is that you know, he's an interesting guy, you know, who
who represents a lot of different worlds here where he you know, he got
famous because he wrote a best selling book of Billy Elgy about you know him
growing up poor and and uh, you know, all of the struggles that
his family had as a result of that, where you know, he he
innately understands the struggles of Appalachia and the rust belt, you know, the
very much Donald Donald Trump's people that he's always tried to get. But at
the same time, you know, he was He's a Yale log brad who
went on you know, to do you know, pretty big things in the
world of finance and is reportedly very close with you know a lot of big
names like Peter Thiel and and you know all of these you know, tech
billionaires that are getting on board to fund the Republican Party. So it's a
bridge to those people. And on top of that, even though he is
comparatively inexperienced, he has you know, spoken a fair bit and and really
there's a lot of evidence to show that he's going to be able to have
the brain power to put real, you know, policy teeth on a lot
of you know, Trump issues where you know, Trump doesn't necessarily maybe like
to get into the weed. Jadie Vance is a guy that can follow through
and execute on a Trumpian agenda, So yeah, I think he used just
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your next month while your subscription is active. You know, after three and
a half years of Joe Biden, anytime you can get some brains in the
operations feels rather a rushing to Joe Biden. And to the point of where
we're at in America today, with the events last Saturday in Pennsylvania in fully
in mind, you know, it is interesting to hear from the President of
the United States after the assassination attempt against his number one political enemy, say
that we need to bring down the temperature of rhetoric of political discourse in America
they certainly they as in the Democrats, as in the Biden campaign. I'm
not seeing much evidence to the to point to them cooling anything off rhetorically speaking.
In fact, you walk just outside the security perimeter in downtown Milwaukee to
the five five Serve Center where the Milwaukee Bucks play and the Republican National Convention
is held, you'll see the Democrat Party, I believe, is sponsoring these
rucks with digital messaging on them with Donald Trump's face showing a dictator on day
one. You know, they've labeled him as Adolph Hitler for such a long
time now, I guess is it is it any surprise that we've reached this
very violent stage in American political history? And how much of that feeds into
this week at the Republican National Convention. Yeah, well, obviously there's you
know, some nervousness that hangs over things in terms of you know, the
assassination attempt and what it showed about the sort of you know, dark forces
that are out there. But you know, it's also true that this is
an opportunity for the GOP. Joe Biden couldn't wait seventy two hours, you
know, you give a speech about lowering the temperature and then like within a
day or so was giving a speech to the NAACP where he was saying Donald
Trump is going to take away your freedoms and that he was putting at lives
at risk. I mean, they're not at all lowering the temperature like it,
don't know how to do any other thing, and uh, you know,
I just don't expect them to do that because you know, the one
or one chance of getting elected is to make this a referendum on Donald Trump
and him being evil and all the terrible things that he's going to do.
Because if they don't do that, otherwise you're gonna have to run on Joe
Biden's record, and heaven knows they do not want to do that. So
it's just, uh, it's an opportunity for the GOP because you know,
for for years now they've been this has been this image that Donald Trump is
this crazy extreme guy who will say anything, you know, and he he'll
you know, he's gets in trouble with his mouth and all that, and
some of that stuff has definitely earned. But it's also true that this has
been a very different Donald Trump we've seen in this campaign. He's been much
more disciplined. Uh, you know, I think credit really goes to his
campaign managers, Chrysal Lasovita and Susie Wilds, who have you know, done
a really good job of making sure that Trump is playing into his best instincts
and straying staying away from his worst instincts. And he just seems like a
you know, a better and more focused version of himself this campaign and almost
before the assassination and after the assassination, reportedly, you know, he's reevaluating
a lot of things, and just like the look on his face, like
you know, he looks like a man who's you know, who's you know,
beaming with gratitude these past couple of days sitting in the box in the
stadium, and uh, it's it's it's a very different Donald Trump, and
I think it's one that people are can respond to. He's reportedly you know,
torn up his speech and the wake of what happened to this weekend.
And I don't know whether you know, we're going to see a kinder,
gentler Trump, or there's gonna be more of a play to to go after
you know, non traditional Republican voters or what. But you know, given
that Democrats all I know to do is demonize Donald Trump, and and they're
just lashing out and scrambling to throw anything against the wall and hope it sticks.
You know, if he comes out there and he draws a very strong
contrast between you know, Republicans having a positive agenda where Democrats don't have any
agenda other than the attack Donald Trump, then I think, you know,
there's a real chance to capitalize politically and and and hopefully that's where things are
headed. But you know, who knows. You know, Donald Trump is
nothing if not unpredictable, and I think that that's why everybody is so fascinated
by Donald Trump. Among other reasons, but that's a big one. Mark
Emmingway, the Great Mark Emmingway, the Federalist own joining us on the Federalist
Radio Hour. And you bring up a very good point. I see the
same thing you do. You can feel it in the convention hall, you
know, and when you get tens of thousands of people in a space,
you know, charged up and hearing you know, bold political speeches, some
of them bold, many of them not so bold, but you get the
buzz anyway. But I just think there is just a different feel at this
convention in Milwaukee than I have felt or seen for a long time. And
I when I say felt, I mean you can feel it. When Donald
Trump stepped into the hole, the cameras went trained on him, and you
could see it on the big JumboTron and all the massive screens in the five
serve forum. There he is another iconic image, if you will, standing
or with that bandage over his ear. I mean you could feel it that
first night. You could feel it again the second night. Do you believe
that he will campaign now differently? As you mentioned George H. W.
Bush kinder gentler conservative, if you will also I ask you that question in
reference to what appears to be an expanded Republican party tent where we've seen the
likes of Amber Rose and some others you wouldn't normally find talking about Donald Trump
and Republicans at an r NC convention. Yeah, well, there's a lot
to unpack there. You know. Look, fish gotta swim, birds,
you gotta fly. Donald Trump's got to keeping Donald Trump to the day dies.
But uh, you know, I think so, you know, I
you know, look, you're going to see Donald Trump at a rally and
doing his free wheel and shtick, you know, within a couple of weeks.
And and I'm not saying that you know, you know, Trump will
be mean or anything like that, but you know, he's going to be
Trump. Uh. The question is, though, is whether I think what
it's it's about Trump's mood and you know, whether or not Trump's going to
bree to be projecting you know, more optimism and other things like that.
You know, I think he's a pretty happy, go looky guys, it
is, but I mean, I think there is something that's kind of beaming
out of him right now, and and I think that that's going to be
you know positive. You we'll see if that affects things, you know,
through the campaign. So I'm going to be certainly looking for that and obviously
how that plays into his speech Thursday night. So there's you know, definitely
that. But it's also interesting in the sense that, you know, like
all of a sudden, you know, there's this just you know, we
keep talking to this vibe that's hanging over the entire convention. To remember,
coming to this convention, a lot of people were worried that whether or not
would anyone pay attention because of you know, the drama surrounding Joe Biden being
replaced in his age and all of that would completely overshadow things. Well,
this is the worst of both worlds for Democrats, where everybody's tuned in the
Publican convention because of the assassination attempt, you know, the vibe and everybody
feeling it. And at the same time, Joe Biden's age problems aren't going
away, so you know, it's just they're getting it coming and going in
in that regard. So you know, that's kind of a perfect storm for
Democrats. As for what's actually happening at the convention, you know, it's
not to say there are intentions here. I mean, they're very definitely tensions
Like I never in a million years imagined, you know, someone like you
know, Amber Rose, who is you know, you know, maybe one
of the most famous strippers in America would be speaking of the Republican Convention and
I'm not. You know, on one hand, it might well be good,
and there was actually a lot of positive response to her speech because the
content was in fact very good, and you know, I have to give
her credit for that. You know, I hear that she's I've heard from
a lot of people that she's a lot smarter and savvier than you know,
you would think given you know, Mark, I didn't think it was I
didn't think it was going to be successful until I saw Senator Chuck Grassley this
morning with with a forehead tattoo, and I knew then that something had There
was a sea change in America, right right. I never thought i'd see
to day there was someone with a forehead tattoo at the main stage of the
Republican Convention. But you know, here we are. But I mean,
I think the problem here is for you know, those of us that are
you know, social conservatives, you know, I'm resolutely pro life, is
you know, is that the Republican Party has become very reflective of the American
culture written large, which in political terms, is a good thing. You
know, that's how you win, you know, you you get yourself aligned
with the mainstream of American culture. The problem is is the mainstream of American
culture isn't nearly as you know, wholesome as it needs to be, euro
as it was thirty years ago. And so that is, you know something
that those of us that care about these issues, you know, need to
recognize that, you know, we can't really affect change unless you win.
But you know, hopefully if we win, we can use our levers of
power within the party or whatever to develop us leaves and do what we can
to fix some long to affect some long term solutions so that we have a
you know, a more moral voting populace and we're not you know, dealing
with these sort of internal contradictions. And you know, also there's a lot
going on, you know, just even within the party factions and that that
that front too, and obviously there's was a lot of tension over Trump ripping
up the party platform and you know, rewriting it and being very involved in
that process. On one hand, it's very good and you know, and
it's rewritten a very Trumpian fashion. Its easy to understand and could the point
too, and it's made the party platform something useful, you know, for
voters in that regard. But it's also true that you know, they took
out the pro a lot of the pro life stuff and other things in the
ways that are very concerning to socially conservative voters and pro life voters like myself.
So but you know, a lot of that has to do with internal
party factions. You know, I think a lot of the socially conservative organizations
and pro life organizations didn't handle themselves very well in the primaries. You know,
Trump was very good for social conservatives when he gotle liket in twenty sixteen,
because unlike previous candidates were like George W. Bush, who didn't do
a lot for social conservatives, everyone voted for him just because he was nominally
one of us in terms of being a social conservative. It was this evangelical
kui and people acted like that alone was going to be you know, enough
to get a social conservative on the ticket, when he didn't actually deliver politically.
Whereas with Donald Trump, because of his particular shady background in this regard,
everyone insisted on things being very trained and that was a languae Trump understood,
and he got out there and said, look, I'm gonna elect you.
I'm going to put these justices on the Supreme Court, and he gave
us a list, and sure enough, you know, Donald Trump ended up
being you know, almost personally responsible for repealing Roe v. Wade. But
you know, by then, you know, we'd lost the culture. And
so you know, Donald Trump expected more loyalty this time around, and I
think a lot of these organizations kind of set out the primary and you know,
felt out Ron DeSantis and things like that, and it was not a
good move. And so, uh, you know, but Trump understands that
transactional relationship. And if you know, I think these groups continue to support
Trump and he gets back in power and he will understand that, and I
think we can work with him. But you know, we've got to also
be honest about where the electorate is too. You Haul must really love Democrat
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podcasts. No doubt about it, and we have to be cognizant both you
know, the what was it? Richard Nixon said that you can't win with
just your base, but you certainly can't wigular walk. I know Democrats have
to do that now more than ever, of course, with a party that
has turned so Marxist radically left that the Democrat Party, of course that we
knew twenty five years ago, no longer exists. But I'll tell you I
have talked to some delegates who are very steam not only about the way that
the life issues kind of faded or at least were diminished and from their point
of view, uh, in the platform, they're also very upset of how
it was handled. Very they felt that it was strong armed, that there
was bullying, and in fact, one deligate I talked to from Virginia said,
you know, the the left accuses Donald Trump and Republicans in general of
bullying all the time. Well, that's what we received, you know,
in this battle for pro life issues in the platform. But as you mentioned,
you know, there are strategies and tactics, there are principles, and
you know, you have to look at winning before you can get to the
core of what you want to do, because if you don't win, you
don't get the chance. Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, they're
obviously, you know, we are having a moment of unity. There's no
question at this party. I'm at this sorry moment of unity at this convention.
But you know, you know, in a coalition in this large they're
going to always be some sort of tensions. We got to hire it out
and and uh, you know, I you know, you could point fingers
in both directions about who's to blame for this, you know, tension with
the platform and removing the pro life language and things like that. And I
think, like I said, I'm I'm very personally invested in concern in that.
But at the same time, I also know that the situation arrived this
way because there are people that and you know, even people I like and
know in the movement that didn't handle things as well as they did. But
we just have to, you know, roll up our sleeves. And I
think that that, you know, Donald Trump is not unappreciative of social conservatives.
I remember there was this one famous moment where Donald and I think it
was twenty sixteen, where Donald Trump was talking about how, you know,
the evangelical support he'd gotten from all these other people. And you know,
Donald Trump's not unself aware, and he was at one point he said something
he was like, he was like genuinely touched. He was like, I
don't deserve the support I've gotten from you people, you know, knowing that
it was uneasy for them to support him. And I don't think he's totally
lost touch with that, you know, And I don't know to what extent.
You know, people around Trump are more involved in strong arming things of
the platform than Trump directly. But I think we can get to a place
where, you know, social conservative have worked well donald Trump before, and
not just work well, but spectacularly well. And we've got Roe v Waite
overturned. That was it generational goal for conservatives and was fifteen years in the
making. That's not nothing. But I think and I think we can get
back to that place where social conservatives work well with Donald Trump. But we
do have to understand we're dealing with a transactional relationship. Yes, indeed,
well it is. It's a long convention. They all are. I you
know, I'm we're coming into the home stretch. But I feel like we've
been here for for several months now. That's just the nature of the beast.
But so far and There's there's more to come, that's for sure,
but you kind of touched upon it before. I'll ask you your your favorite
moment, and that can be measured by any number of ways. I will
give you a spoiler alert. My favorite moment was not speaker Mike Johnson's speech,
but I didn't expect to be What's what's your What's been your favorite moments
so far from the convention? Well, I mean I've had a lot of
like just sort of personal highlights. It's been really great to be here and
just meet a lot of people that I've really really enjoyed over the years,
either people I hadn't seen in years, of people I'd never met. I
just met Walter Kern, the novelist who's become a very sort of trenchant critic
of the left, even if he's not totally on board of Trump, who's
here and a very interesting guy. He wrote up in the Air the Move,
the George Clooney Move, the book that they based the George Clooney movie
on. Isn't that interests? Yeah? That one a bunch of oscars,
ironically enough, So Kern was very interesting and great. But yeah, there've
also just been a lot of like great smaller events than weren't on the main
stage. So like I'm a bit biased because my wife was leading the discussion,
but there was a wonderful Heritage Foundation policy fest program they've been running,
and my wife had this great talk with Senator Mike Leave Utah, who's like
one of the smartest guys in the Senate and knows everything about policy about what
to do about the deep state, and I really learned a lot from the
discussion. And there were some great other things that happened at that event where
Eric Prince, the Navy seal and the former Blackwater founder came on. He's
like, you know, you know, I think a guy that's been maligned
a lot in the press and a brilliant military thinker came on and then gave
a talk about the failures of the Secret Service and touched on a lot of
problems American form policy. That was really fascinating. So that that was that
event was a real highlight. And timing excellent timing on that front as well.
I don't know what he was probably scheduled before the session began. That
fortuitous to say the least. Yeah, almost certainly, But yeah, he's
a fascinating character all tell you my favorite moment so far. And there's been
some some interesting times, no doubt about. But I would say some extremely
powerful, meaningful, impactful speeches, not from the usual suspects in politics.
There have been some stem winders, that's for sure, and that's what you
find at these conventions. But I think the stories of the mother of the
fifteen year old boy in California who joined hundreds of thousands of victims of fentanyl,
victims of Joe Biden's open door policies, open border policies, I thought
it was extremely moving. And others who have been impacted very violently in their
lives by illegal immigration, the top issue, if not the top issue,
the top two, one of the top issues out there, and they told
their stories as real people, very moving in some cases, the cameras showing
just you know, the women in the audience, particularly the moms in the
audience, just feeling the pain of a mom who lost a child to something
so unnecessary. And when that mom turned to the audience and turned to the
cameras more so turned to Joe Biden and the Democrats and said, say his
name, talking about her fifteen year old son, I thought that that is
a moment that will absolutely resonate moving forward in this campaign. Yeah, I
didn't see that speech because I was at an event that the mother with the
son of the lost her so on the fent Noll. But you are,
like I said, You're the eleven y billion person to tell me that that
was a phenomenally affecting speech. So I'm gonna have to break down and find
the time to watch it online soon. Final question and for it as we
wrap up our conversation, the big speech is coming. You alluded to it
before, transformative moment for Donald Trump and for this country. What do you
expect to find in Donald Trump's opening or closing arguments, however you want to
deem them, and what's next as the Republicans move out of Milwaukee into the
general campaign sphere. Well, I think obviously we're in a real the Emperor
has no close moment. And it's not just that Joe Biden has been revealed
to be senile. We're also seeing a situation here where the thing about that
assassination attempt that was so powerful, and think of the assassination attempt that was
so powerful, was it was a moment of revealed character for Donald Trump.
Everyone just you know, had been you know, saying for years that Donald
Trump is this, you know, dishonest, you know, a coward and
all these other things. And the way that Donald Trump responded in that moment
was the reaction that one in a thousand men would have, you know,
if he hadn't stood up and you know, you know, pumped his fist
like that and and and behave that way, you know, he you know,
things could have gone downhill, you know, really fast. I mean,
you know, he calmed the crowd by showing him that he was okay
and by exhibiting like real leadership. I mean, you say what you want
about Donald Trump, but the last thing anyone can now say is that he's
a coward. And so I think people are you know, going to be
looking for Trump to affirm that that, you know, that vision of him
as a courageous guy and a guy that maybe you've been lied about this whole
time. You know, it turns out he's not a coward, and it
turns out maybe all the people that were lying about how great Joe Biden was
have been lying about Donald Trump too. So if he can come out there
and he can you know, re you know, establish that vision of himself
that has been there all along as being you know, a you know,
a fearless guy and a guy that is willing to do you know, politics
differently than usual and up end you know, a consensus that I think everyone
see, institutional consensus that I think everyone sees is broken in Washington. Uh,
you know, and and and merge that you know policy vision of We're
going to disrupt this country and start doing things the right way to benefit ordinary
people with you know something. It also affirms that he is in fact a
man of you know, you know, pretty steely character that can do that.
Then you know it's going to be appealing to a lot of people.
Good point, Saul, and I like anything quite frankly that keeps Lee Greenwood
gainfully employed. Just you know, that's one of the missions. I appreciate
your time. Believe me, I really appreciate your time. To the generosity
of your time. It's a bit of an inside joke, people, yes
it is, but just know that I do, uh and grateful to have
you joining us today. The great Mark Hemingway, the Federalist own Mark Hemingway
joining us on this edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. You've been listening to
another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, Senior correspondent at
the Federalist. We'll be back soon with more. Until then, stay lovers
of freedom and anxious for the frame. Heard the fame boy ser reason,
and then it faded away.