All right, Billy Cunningham, the great American. Of course, this Thursday
afternoon at the final day of the RNC, many say it was the greatest
RNC of all time. And then waiting for tonight for the political messiah,
Donald J. Trump to appear on stage in bandages having survived in the assassination
attempt, loud proud and Sassine. Of course, Governor Mike DeWine's been there.
The first convention he attended was eighteen sixty with Abraham Lincoln, which is
a very important one from Springfield, Illinois. And Governor Mike DeWine. Welcome
again to the Bill Cunningham Show. I'm sure you've been to dozens and dozens
of these conventions. How would you rate this one compared to the other ones
that you've attended? Yea, Bill, our first convention the frand I went
to. I was in the United States Congress and it was Reagan's second second
convention, nineteen eighty four, so it was you know, we've seen a
lot of conventions. I would say that, you know, this is a
very unified party that's come out of this convention. I think the fact that
you know, the president President Trump had Nicky Cayley. There had a lot
of the other people who ran against him in the primaries. You know,
he invited them to speak. They came and spoke, and everybody just had
a good, I think, a unified feeling about this this election. So
that to me is the biggest theme to really come out of this. I
think. The other thing, of course, is, you know, this
convention started literally, you know, right after the attempted assassination with the president.
So we've never seen, you know, anything quite quite like that before.
Well, I have coming up later in one of the head of the
Secret Service agencies a few years back, and more and more is coming out
about this assassination attempt. This morning, I try to watch everything, especially
MSNBC, so you don't have to. And even though you appear on MSNBC,
I thought last by a mistake. I'm thinking, what the hell I
watched Donald Trump Junior say, you're not a real news media organization. I
don't talk to clowns like you. I thought. But you're a kindly gentleman
from Cedarville. And the thing that's come out and you've been an attorney general,
you've been you have secret Service detail called the Highway Patrol in the state
of Ohio. You've been a prosecutor for a long time. You've seen it
all and done it all. Could you have imagined that the Secret Service would
be the management of the Secret Service, not the rank and file, would
be so inept that they knew the Iranians were planning to kill Donald Trump because
of what he did. Is Suleimani. That they knew ahead of time there
was a security breach with this guy walking around the building. They had the
unguarded building about five hundred feet away, which is like a two foot putt,
And they knew as Donald Trump took the stage that there was a major
security breach, and they led him to take the stage. And sadly,
today this morning was the funeral of that fire chief and it was I watched
some of it on YouTube and it was it's so sad to watch his family
and watch his children, and to have his friends and what we miss and
all this the death of a fireman who was simply there to support Donald Trump.
And could you have imagined, and you spent twelve years in the Our
States, Senate, could you have imagined a security breach of this consequence and
this ineptitude. No it's it is shocking. You know, I think this
investigation has to move forward very quickly. You know, how in the world
that rooftalk was not covered? I can I can't conceive of how that happened.
You know, Bill, You've been to many rallies, and I've been
to a number of rallies over the years with Donald Trump but with other people
as well, presidential candidates, and you know, you look around and the
security is always very very tight. You look on rooftops and you see that
those are in fact covered. You know, when the Secret Service comes in,
you know, the first thing they do days in advance is to go
into those businesses. Uh. You know, they secure access to the roof,
they do all the things that you would expect them to do, and
they're very very very good. So I don't know what happened, but there's
got to be seriously some reckoning here. H And you know, something like
this can just not not happening again. Again. It's just hard for me
to understand. You know, these people are very good, they do this
every day. They know what they're doing. But this is clearly a major
major security breach of of horrible magnitude. And yes, you know, we
are so happy that the president, you know it is alive and that was
just a matter of an inchure. Who knows how much. But as you
point out, you know, one person killed too, seriously injured. Just
a horrible, horrible tragedy. People who go to those rallies, you know,
they take their family, they take their kids. And you think also
about the people who were not kids, were not shot, but you know
they had their kids with them, and for the rest of life those kids
will remember that and not a good thing to remember. If you put together
four or five years ago a list of Ohio politicians that would be the vice
president of the United States in twenty twenty four, four or five years ago,
JD. Vance would not have been in the top fifty four or five
years ago. Are you shocked and amazed? I think Ohio is the breeding
ground some pretty damn good politicians and the bench is deep just in the state
of Ohio. How is it possible that a politician that I would say,
three or four years ago you never heard of named JD. Vance out of
a dysfunctional family in Middletown called Tony Bender calls it Middle Tucky. I don't
show it that kind of disrespect. It's Middletown, Kentucky. What would be
a heartbeat away from the presidency. How shocking is the arrival of Jdvans on
the scene when it was completely unknown, say four years ago, Mike DeWine
probably never heard of the guy. Well, yeah, Bill, you're absolutely
right. I mean, if you think about it, h you know,
I first knew about him when I read his book right after it came out.
I think I read a book review of it and said, hey,
that'd be an interesting book. I got the book, I read it absolutely
fascinating. So what I did is I called him up, and you know,
I wanted to meet him because it was just a fascinating book about his
growing up and had some I think, some real insights into some of the
problems that we have, some of the drug problems that we have in our
society. And so fran I have gotten to you know, gotten to know
him. We had JD and Usha over to the house of the Governor's residence
for dinner one night, and just you know, got to know both of
them very well. But you're right, if you go back, uh,
you know, yeah, I know you're not a betting man, but if
you'd gone on you know, the early morning the line you know, even
two years ago about who might be on on the ticket. Uh, you
know, you could have made a fortune if if even if anybody was taking
a beat, anybody would have even taken a bat, his name might have
not even been listened. That Bill Cunningham would be rich today. Now we
are rich, I know that Bill, you know, but you'd even be
rich. Let's put it that way. Why And let me ask you,
because you're a you've spent your life in politics, maybe as long as Joe
Biden. Uh. In fact, uh, JD is only thirty nine years
old. What is it about JD. Vance that has caused him to leap
frog hundreds or thousands of other office holders and politicians to get what is it
about him? Well? I suppose that there'll be books written about this,
and when they recount the presidential campaign, this will be a major, major
section in the book. You know, if you quite used to have the
series of making of the President started in nineteen sixty and whatever the newest version
of that, he's long gone. But whatever the newest version of that will
have a whole chapter or two chapters on JD. Vance. Look, you're
you're absolutely right. I think you've got a couple of things. You know,
first of all, he was able to win win a highly contested primary.
I don't think there's any doubt that the main reason he won was that
Donald Trump did in fact endorse him. And you know that he was elected
to the US Senate, been in the United States Senate for for a little
bit. But if you look at back the last two three four months on
the cable talk shows on sometimes on network, you know, the person who's
been probably the most most articulate in defending the Trump agenda has been JD.
Dvance. You know, he puts a very he's just very very eloquent.
He understands it and explains it exceedingly well. So my guess is that,
you know, I don't know what all went into the President's mind, uh,
President Trump's mind, but I think having someone with that life story,
someone who the president has gotten to know. Obviously the President likes him personally.
Uh, but some of this in politics, bills, you know,
is personal. You know, it's we take that for granted sometimes, but
a lot of life is personal and personal relationships. But I think also that
he looked at him as someone who's from the Midwest. If you look at
the battleground, where the battleground is, it's not going to be in Ohio.
Uh So it doesn't help him, really, hear that much. It
helps, but he's going to win anyway. But you know, if you
look at the other battleground states, whether it's Pennsylvania or Michigan, there these
are Midwestern states. Jd Vance's story I think resonates with people. So a
lot of different things coming together. I mean, what what what? What
do you think? I met him seven eight years ago. I got a
call from the Butler County GOP and they said they had a Lincoln Reagan Day
dinner and that they wanted jd Vance from Butler County to be the keynote speaker.
And he didn't want to speak, and he said, I don't feel
well doing that in front of a crowd. Could you get Cunningham to come
here and interview me about my book? We go back and forth. So
I get a call whoever was in charge of that point. It might have
been Dixon, I'm not sure who was in charge. It wasn't Jones,
it was somebody else. And he called me and I said you know,
I've heard about this book. And then I talked to JD and then I
put him on about the book, and then I went to interview him and
we about two three hundred people. It's a nice facility there in Fairfield,
and back and forth about the book, develop relationships. Met him at five
guys and nor would there a couple of times get burgers with the kids and
and he wasn't He didn't want to speak in public. So I reflected on
that conversation last night and I said, here, you got ten million people
watching the hall is just you know, I don't know how many twenty thousand
people. And I said, he's come a long way. And because you
know, you and I maybe not Tony Bender, because we're kind of geniuses
ourselves that we when I'm with someone that I say, you know what,
that guy's really smart. You can't have a conversation with ady Vance not coming
away with those pale blue eyes looking at you, thinking this this guy Summall
come loud from Yale. He went to Cambridge for a degree in philosophy.
And then he and I'm thinking, this guy's really smart. And I said,
he can't get into politics. He's smart. And he doesn't have that,
you know that conversational and the last eight years my god, and now
you get him on and he's slacky, knows what he's talking about. I
want to talk about something else. I know. The political answer is going
to be, well, you know, Willie, you we're gonna have to
you have a failings of individuals chewing on your ear. You have the power
to appoint the next US Senator, assuming the ticket is successful and no remember
or fifth and some of the names. Franklerosa is interested for ak Ramaswami,
a classmate of JD. You're going to be chewed on. May you take
the approach as the California governor did, which was there was three or four
really qualified Senate candidates from a California perspective to take over the seat, and
he appointed a placeholder until until the until the election or until a primary so
that people can vote on One category, is you can ordain Frank Lerosa avank
Ramaswami, I don't know. John Eusta just named the name. On the
other hand, you could do a placeholder and let the people decide who the
next senator to be. What is your thinking in each category without telling me
the conversational answer, Well, Bill, you know, we don't know yet.
Can you just tell me you're thinking in those two categories. Sure,
my thinking is that I would not do that. I would not put a
placeholder in. You know, I suppose there's a possibility some circumstances may come
up. I would do that. But you know, look, the person
that I would appoint. Here's the way it's going to work for our listeners.
Assuming that Trump and JD. Advance are elected, obviously Vance will have
to resign from the US Senate when he resigns. Then the law says that
I will appoint his successor, and that person will be in office basically for
two years, and then they go. They will have to be on the
ballot again in twenty twenty six in a primary, and then in the general
election. That person who's elected in twenty twenty six will only serve two years.
They don't have to run. If it's the same person, they're going
to have to run again in twenty twenty eight. So the Senate still operates
on some level of seniority. Seniority is important having someone who has committed to
go to the United States Senate to stay there. You know for a significant
period of time. I think is important any United States Senator. The day
they walk in, they're important, they have the ability to do things.
But the longer they're there, frankly, they're commit The assignments get better,
they move up, they get the opportunity to be a subcommittee chairman and then
committee chairman. All of these things are important to Ohio. I look at
this from Ohios point of view. Who do we want that can represent us
and you know, be are our person there and be helpful to the state
of Ohio. So what I'm taking bills that I should appoint someone who really
commits and says, yes, I'm not only going to serve two years.
I'm going to start running and try to try to get re elected and then
try to get elected again and and and sir. Second, we need to
have someone I think who fits kind of my understanding of what a United States
Senator should do and should be. One of the things you saw about Jdvance
that has not been talked much about. He has tried to put coalitions together
and get things done. You know, I want a senator who's going to
go there and be a workhorse and not a showhorse. I want someone who's
going to go there, maybe be a showhorse too, but I want mostly
to be a workforce and who's focused on has you know, an agenda,
conservative agenda and says this is where I want to go there and get accomplished,
and then work to get those things accomplished. That's to me, that's
the main thing. They've also got to be able to win a primary,
and they've got peoble win a general election. Then they've got to be able
to go back and do it again in two years later. Yeah, got
to run, run and run now. Secondly, as you know, because
you hold the job, that there's two or three stalwarts wanting to take your
position when you leave, which are John Houstead and David Yost and god knows
maybe two or three others. I'm not sure. Have you considered endorsing in
the gubernatorial primary next year, Well, there hasn't anybody announced that they're running.
Yes, that's a little premature, but I think you know my relationship
with John Houston. John Houston has been an excellent, excellent lieutenant governor.
He's focused on technology, bringing trying to bring technology to government, technology to
Ohio. He's someone who's really focused on economic development. But it's really been
my right hand person in just so many many areas. So he clearly is
very, very well prepared to be the next government of the state of Ohio.
Sounds like you're endorsing Houston. Lastly, about a minute, remaining public
life is difficult. The odds is some kid from Cedarville, Ohio could have
your career as almost impossible. The odds of jd vance heartbeat from the presidency
impossible. With all the violence happening in America, do you fear for your
own life? No? No, you know, look I don't. This
is something that you know when you get into a big crowd like you see
at one of the rallies, then you think you know something. You look
around, you think, well, something could in fact happen, And tragically,
of course, it did just a few days ago with President Trump's rally.
But no, I don't. All right, Governor Dwine, thank you,
good luck tonight. We'll see what happens is going to be extremely dramatic.
And keep doing those interviews with MSNBC and uh all comers, Bill CNN,
uh, you know, on and on and on whatever you go from
Breitbart to MSNBC, that's pretty good. Yes, yes, we had a
whole range left to right, you know whatever. All right, Governor,
we'll see you soon, and God bless you, and say say hi to
Frand for me. All right, Billy, thank you for talking with you.
God bless you. All right, let's continue with more your reaction next
plus later on, we've scheduled a secret Service agent to talk about all the
security failings that occurred. Bill Cunningham, News Radio, seven hundred Wlwchristy Cheap Wrangler buyers