Speaker 1: Hey, Michael Steele podcast listeners. Michael Steele here with another
quick take from the Michael Steel Podcast. Check out what's
going on right now. Welcome back, everybody to Michael Steele Podcast.
We are having a wonderful conversation with my friend Jennifer Horne.
She's the former chairwoman of the GOP in the great
state of New Hampshire. She is the host of the podcast.
Is it just me or have we all just all
lost our minds? I just I just love I'd love that,
and I look forward to coming in your podcasts. I
understand we're gonna be We're gonna be doing so yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, look for us next week on my podcast as well.
Speaker 1: That's right, it'll be good fun. So a lot can
happen between now and a year from now. A lot
will happen. Donald Trump will likely be convicted. But if
my little spidery sense is correct on that, it won't
matter that Donald Trump has been convicted, because you've already
had six out of eight Republicans running against him for
the nomination say that they will still endorsed and support
him even if he's convicted of felonies. So tell me
where I'm getting this wrong. And why there is what
do these numbers say today about the state of mind
of voters across the country.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, first I would say, I don't think that
you're necessarily getting it wrong. Everything you've said is actually correct, right,
But I admit that I look for the opening. Where
is her an opening that would make this okay or
it would convince me that we could end up being
back on a good path or taking a reassuring path
toward the next presidential election. And there were a few things.
The first is Obama was in this position once a
year out and didn't lose. You know, we know that,
and in a healthy manner both times. So that's a
little bit encouraging to me right there, that historically there's
an example that we can look at. And then I thought.
Speaker 1: Obama losing to Mitt Romney or oor generic Republican at
that time because Mitt Maromney was not the nominee. Necessarily
we're going into the second term at this point. It's
not the same as the guy's got ninety one felonies
against him. It's not now, I mean, it's not like
he could have.
Speaker 2: I am not making I will never make the argument
that what's happening with Trump is somehow normal and historically
reflective or anything like that. I am. I am as
opposed to Donald Trump as a person could possibly be,
And I'll be honest, I am horrified at what some
folks from my former party say and do and vote for.
It's horrifying to me. But I believe that there is
a segment of the American people who are who care,
who are bright, and who are looking at this through
a different lens. And if we're just looking for a
couple of little pieces of hope, Donald Trump was well
over fifty in New Hampshire. He's down at around forty,
ahead by forty instead of being over the fifty percent.
He's ahead by forty, but he's not over the fifty
percent mark. I can't got to speak clearly about it.
We see that DeSantis is starting to not starting, but
continuing to decline, and those votes aren't necessarily going to Trump.
We see Nikki Haley starting to move forward a little bit.
I don't know how important it is to me, frankly,
to have somebody other than Trump win the Republican primary,
because I think in the end, it's the same party
no matter who's nominated, no matter who's nominated. It's still
Trump's party, It's still Trump's people. It's still and the
only thing that I can imagine that would keep Trump
from becoming the nominee is if he was literally like
ailed and suddenly everybody else got behind one candidate to
prevent a jailed person from becoming president of the United States.
But we know there's thirty percent. Well yeah, but you
know that there are thirty percent of them out there
who are going to vote for him no matter what,
no matter what, you know. So so, but I do
think I have more optimism about the American people because
I think that a lot of people out there have
shown us clearly who they are, but that they are
not everybody. We know that we have a measurable percentage
of Republicans who voted for Biden back in twenty twenty.
We know that all the things everything you just said.
You know, I think that I hate to say this,
but I believe that it's true that too many Americans
have become entitled and lazy when it comes to democracy.
That they're sitting here, to your point, whining about things
that aren't even really accurate. You know, you know, we
have a lower rate of inflation post COVID than any
other country in the world. And people are complaining that
they're going to you know, they can't support Biden because
of inflation. They can't you know, thet everything you said,
it's all real, it's all true. And so I worry
about the laziness of so many Americans when it comes
to understanding what's actually happening in the world and how
it impacts us and all of that sort of thing.
But I believe that there are enough good people out
there who care deeply about the concept of democracy and
about what next year and two years and four years
and eight years after that is going to look like
for their own children and their own grandchildren. I feel
it deeply, and I think that it's very much a
part of the equation for a lot of folks out there.
So I'm not giving up on Joe Biden this early.
You know, we can have an argument or a debate
about should Joe Biden have one run to begin with,
because that but that's a different conversation, you know. And
now instead of just talking about the Republicans and the
idiocy you know that leads them to Donald Trump, we
also have to, you know, have a little firm talking
to with the farthest left of the Democratic Party, because
if you know who are refusing to stand up and
defend the president and stand with the president over a
single issue, granted a very important issue, but a single one.
So if Biden ends up losing next time around by
a couple of points, guess who we get to point
at when that happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, there's a lot more to it. You touch
on an important aspect of this when you look at,
for example, the gen Z voter who overwhelmingly supported Biden's
election in twenty twenty and now the prospect that they
could very well turn on him, literally having this conversation
today with with a gen Z er because they don't
want our money, US dollars being spent to support the
genocide of babies in Palestine. And so they're very much
it's not so much that they're anti israel Is that
they're pro the Palestinian people. So the fact that the
administration has not been able to create the appropriate nexus
between we stand with Israel to defend it against the
attacks of Hamas, as we also stand with the Palestinian
people to defend them against the attacks of Hamas Because
they live the way they live because of what Hamas
has done to them.
Speaker 2: The President has not has not done a good job
of expressing the narrative as it exists or as it
needs to be politically strategically for him, right right, And
I agree completely.
Speaker 1: So that lack of communication and inability to effectively communicate
the storylines for the administration, to me, has been it's damning,
has been a damning indictment since the very beginning, when
we spent the first eighteen months of the president's term
talking about Philibuster. And the only thing the American people
are asking themselves is well, who's phil and who's Buster?
Speaker 2: Because they exactly.
Speaker 1: They didn't know that that's not something that they're concerned
about in their everyday lives, particularly as they're still being
ravaged by the leftover remnants by the remnants of COVID.
They're still now moving into a space where their dollars
going farther, their gas prices are getting higher, and they're
concerned about whether or not their daughter who's getting married,
will be able to buy her first home. So you
have all of these other concerns that again not part
of the narrative for the Democrats. Not part of the narrative, specifically,
specifically for the president. So it begs, just how how
do they turn that corner to begin this conversation that
literally they only have ten months to make because you
and I know very well, by the time you get
to the conventions next year, voters start making up their minds,
and particularly when the decision is such a stark one,
they will decide fairly early on whether they're going to
vote what I would call and you know, I know
a lot of people hate me for this, but you
know what I would call a selfish vote because they're
concerned about things other than the democracy. Instead of saying, look,
I get it. Biden is not perfect. No one ever
claimed he was, and he even said himself, don't compare
me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative. And
there's good political sense in that, but I don't know
if it's enough to con vinced the American people to
use common sense when it comes to you have a
guy who's standing there with a hatchet and a chainsaw,
ready to go after you and the Constitution and your
rights versus the guy that you're having a spatover about
inflation policy and Middle East relationships. Hey, everybody, thanks so
much for listening today. Please go to Apple Podcasts and
give us a five star review. Hey, give us two
five star reviews. I love it or it catch us on,
stitch your iHeart, tune in or wherever you get that
podcast thing on. You know how that goes? Peace out?
Speaker 3: Is it just me? Or have we all lost our minds?
It's a question more and more people are asking themselves,
afraid to admit they already know the answer. It's also
a podcast one about people coming together in a time
of division and uncertainty to talk about culture and politics,
compromise and connections. It's about challenging the norms we've come
to accept as a society and working together to find
common ground. Fierce and unfiltered host Jennifer Horn is a
former Republican strategist and party leader turned independent sanity activist.
One way or another, we've all lost our minds. Joined
Jennifer Horn in the search to find them again.