What Dr. Fauci's Diary Reveals About Who He Really Is

- Welcome in everybody. I'm Mark Calprin. This is next stop with Mark Calprin.

“I'm Editor-in-Chief for the live interactive video platform.”

Two way and your host here to everything next up. Glad you're here. I'm fired up about the monologue, which I'll bring you in just a minute. It's about Dr. Fauci.

And then after that joining us, my friends, my co-hosts from the morning meeting on two way, Larry O'Connor, and Kevin Walling will be here. We gather every Monday through Friday,

9 a.m. Eastern Time on the two way platform and on YouTube and then at 10 on a serious exam. Looking forward to talking to them about the midterms. And about what you know to be one of my great interests, which is how do people see JD Vance?

We ask the non-musical question. Is JD Vance the most politically talented vice president of the modern era looking forward to that?

But first, my reported monologue on Anthony Fauci.

- Because a lot of what you're seeing as attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science.

“Because all of the things that I have spoken about”

consistently from the very beginning have been fundamentally based on science. Sometimes those things were inconvenient truths for people. And there was pushback against me. So if you are trying to, you know,

get at me as a public health official on a scientist, you're really attacking not only Dr. Anthony Fauci, you're attacking science. - His newly revealed diary entries from this week, I had a prairie to a hearing on Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

What those diary entries reveal to us about Fauci and about this situation? He finds himself in as he prepares to go back to Capitol Hill and to testify in front of Senator Rand Paul, who he is tangled with before.

Rand Paul is a doctor and Rand Paul has a pretty strong set of beliefs about how Dr. Fauci has performed over the years. A lot of people are casting this hearing as Rand Paul versus Dr. Fauci and make no mistake.

Rand Paul has teed this hearing up.

“Here's what he posted on Acts on eight one, please.”

Pre-viewing the hearing from Rand Paul. He's a picture of Dr. Fauci on instile magazine and we'll get to the celebrity Fauci in a moment. See in two days, and Rand Paul knows how to run a hearing. A very smart guy, very organized and as I said,

he's got a pretty strong point of view about this hearing. Now, again, you can cast this as Rand Paul versus Dr. Fauci, but there's a lot going on here. COVID is such a big and unexplored topic.

Amazing to have an unexplored topic that's one of the most

significant topics in American history. And Dr. Fauci's role and how he's performed and what he said is also undercovered. This is going to be hearing to some extent about science what was known in the United States

about public health decisions related to the pandemic. It's going to be hearing also about how the government performed it in trying to understand if we have another pandemic to deal with. Some extent it's also going to be hearing about China,

how the U.S. interacted with China before, during and after the pandemic. It's also, though, definitely going to be hearing about Dr. Fauci and celebrity. It's not really just about one doctor, right?

And his, what's revealed on these diaries. But it's also going to be a bad COVID. OK, so undercover how Fauci dealt with COVID,

how the government dealt with COVID, first with Donald Trump,

then with Joe Biden, but also how America dealt with it. And it's also going to be a hearing about this guy. It is going to be hearing about Dr. Fauci. Look, Dr. Fauci is someone I've known and covered my whole career.

I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. He's been involved in the government for nearly 40 years, more. One of the longest tenured people in Washington at senior levels of government alive today. Advisor to seven presidents dealing with major public health

crises in these countries in this country. Probably most prominently dealing with HIV/AIDS before the COVID situation. He dealt with Ebola, he dealt with SARS, he dealt with Zika. And he has been a hero inside Washington culture,

inside the executive branch, inside Congress. And in the public health world for my whole career, my whole life got the Medal of Freedom. And pretty much every president who Dr. Fauci has served with has said nice things about him.

Here is some of the presidents who said nice things about Dr. Fauci over the years as ten please. Well, thanks. It's one of the great public health officials a true hero who we've led this fight against HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Anthony Fauci. Oh, Tony Fauci. I said, what did you move to New York? Run against AOC, you will win easily.

to help others live longer and healthier lives,

“I'm proud to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom”

to Dr. Anthony Fauci. Was one of the people who was at the front lines of dealing with HIV/AIDS, one of the world's leading experts on infectious disease?

They get Dr. Fauci, probably never heard of.

You'd have, and heard of him. He's a very fine research top doctor at National Institute of Health. It's unusual. Try to go try to find people publicly praised

at that level of praise by presence over that period of time. You won't find many. I've been trying to think about it. I don't know the you'd find any. Being praised by, from George Dub H.W. Bush,

through Donald Trump and Joe Biden, kind of an incredible record. But as H.W. Bush there suggested, he was Washington famous before COVID. He was famous in the public health world.

He was not nationally famous.

“He could have walked down any mainstream America.”

People wouldn't have recognized him.

I knew him back when I was a dabble in Washington inside or dumb, but then came COVID. And COVID made him not just Washington famous, but famous famous. And it started with my colleagues in the media,

who, as COVID occurred, and he had a very prominent role, briefing at the White House and advising President Trump. They treated him like he was America's doctor. They treated him like the Norman Schwartz cough of the COVID crisis, and was welcomed onto news programs

like he was a hero. And it just, I could show you a hundred of these, but here's just some of news personalities falling over Dr. Fauci S1, please. - Then so much for this country in terms of this crisis.

So I really appreciate your insight. You are seeing too many as a superhero. - Well, thank you for your service, Dr. Fauci. And you've been working tirelessly for so many months now. And we really do thank you.

- Who better to give us answers that we can trust and Dr. Anthony Fauci? - He's the country's top expert on infectious diseases and has served as a scientific advisor for every president since Ronald Reagan.

- Straight to Dr. Anthony Fauci. We're lucky to have you back on prime time tonight. - Thank you for what you're doing. At the time, the energy, the effort that you're putting in. - Thank you for your 37 years of service.

I believe to seven presidents. And thank you for your work over the past here. - Now let's say Dr. Fauci had been flawless in this role. Let's say he had made no bad decisions. All he did, every decision he made,

every public utterance was perfect and helped us deal with the pandemic at a lowest cost possible. Even then, I would say that level of funding by journalists is not appropriate because he's a public official with a lot of responsibility.

Our job is to hold them accountable. But as you saw, it was all just funny. And that was across the board. You had more liberal journalists, yet, Laura Ingraham, people really respected the guy.

And he had years of experience doing this. I wanna show you one clip early in his career, just give you an idea of the range of Dr. Fauci's career. This is one of the earlier clips we could find of him. This is Dr. Fauci S9, please.

- Can you give any kind of an educated guess

“about how long it might be before some kind of cure is found?”

- Again, it's very difficult to do that. I can tell you that there are some agents that clearly have been shown to suppress the replication of the virus. This is a very unique virus

because even if you block its ability to replicate it, it also has the unique ability to hide or live within the cells, such that you might suppress its multiplication, but you might not ever be able to completely rid the body of the virus unless perhaps

the body's own defenses come in and do that. - So that's the guy in 1985 on the news hour on PBS. And that's the kind of performance the kind of attitude he had all the way through COVID. And then we get to COVID

and because of his prominence in the briefings with the president, President Trump and because of the country's panic and horror of trying to deal with an unprecedented public health crisis, all of a sudden,

the guy goes from dealing with news anchors, pretty heady for a public health bureaucrat to dealing with celebrities. And again, we could show you a fact

you with a million celebrities.

We tried to choose ones that everybody would recognize and you will recognize these people. Here's Tony Fauci going from the PBS stage to pretty much the world's biggest celebrities falling over him S2, please.

- Please welcome to the show, Dr. Anthony Fauci. - Well, I'm the only doctor.

Yes, as advised, 70 West President.

- The coolest man on the planet. - And here's Dr. Anthony Fauci. - Well, I love you. I think you are a godsend. - You've been amazing.

“I could talk to you for an hour on this,”

but I know everyone wants you a time. Are you nervous to give Anthony Fauci a shot? It's Anthony Fauci or you nervous? That's a funny joke for Jack Dan. - Truly have emerged as a personal hero for me.

- And to the real Dr. Fauci. Thank you for your calm and your clarity in this unnerving time. (audience applauding) - Now in those clips, he seems to be handling it well.

What's freaked people out, at least some people, is the diaries, a type written diary that he kept, the pain by Senator Paul, and released this week, that shows him obsessed with his celebrity.

Okay, he threw out the first pitch at a baseball game.

There were candles, there were bobbleheads, there were magazine covers. Okay, somewhere along the way, America's doctor became a celebrity, America's celebrity. And if he used that for good,

if he'd taken the platform he was given

“to simply spread the word and he hadn't made mistakes”

would have been a good use of celebrity. But this is why this hearing is different. In addition to the question Senator Paul and his colleagues are going to examine, did Fauci help fund gain of function research,

which he's been squirrely about? Did he disregard indications or evidence that the virus came from a lab by Chinese lab rather than organically from an animal? Did he give bad advice not based on the science

of masks and distancing and washing or groceries?

These are all serious questions that will be addressed. But hovering it over will be striking from the diary of this guy just being way too into the fame. And there's hundreds of pages and they're filled with this stuff of Fauci being

so excited about the attention, about all the ways in which he was fed it, being invited on TV shows, people asking for selfies. The language in these things is it's extraordinary, that are the things he wrote.

Here he is explaining A6, Barbara Strasain calls him up. And he says, I had a great call with Barbara Strasain. She called my cell at 605 PM. She has recently had talks about her health issues. She wanted to know if it was okay to get the MRNA vaccine.

I told her, yes, we then started discussing life in general. I told her that I work listening to her songs on Alexa. She really did not know what Alexa was. I accidentally butt dialed her later in the evening. And she said she was going to call me anyways,

and she wanted to know if there was any difference between the Moderna and Fitzer product, Pfizer product. I told her, none. I then explained her more about Alexa. I brought the phone over to Alexa and asked to play songs

by Barbara Strasain. When the song came on, loud and clear, she started laughing and absolutely loved it, exclamation point. The diaries are filled with things like this. They just filled with them.

Here he is writing about going to a book party, A7. I went to a book party last night for Jonathan Carl's new book about Trump. It took place at Kathy Mulano. The place was incredibly crowded.

And as I almost forced to take my mask off two-thirds of the time, I was there since they were serving drinks and people were talking about taking selfies. I was totally swamped all night by people wanting to say hello, shake my hands and take pictures with me.

I could not get away from it. Goes on. And again, I could reach 100 of these. The Fauci was obsessed with the celebrity. He was also obsessed with being on TV.

And would regularly complain in his diary that he was kept from being on certain programs because he seems just jealousy on the part of his colleagues. And being kept off television for him was like they were trying to drown him

and kill him underwater. Here he is telling 60 minutes on the record, not in his private diary, about being kept off of television has seven please. - Has the white has been controlling

when you can speak with the media?

“- You know, I think you'd have to be honest to say yes.”

I certainly have not been allowed to go on many, many, many shows that have asked for me. One of the most trusted voices in America, and yet you're not there. You're not allowed to talk with us.

So can you understand the frustration that maybe there's been a restriction on the flow of information on the transparency? - You know, I think there has been a restriction, John, but it doesn't, it isn't consistent.

in the New York Times, the Washington Post,

“the Wall Street Journal, have mentioned, is interesting celebrity,”

but they've downplated. They've made it a lot about his disagreements with Donald Trump. Okay, the diaries don't have criminal admissions in there. This is not water gate when it comes to his celebrity.

But what's so interesting is if this were about someone who wasn't as beloved by the media as fact she is, these diary entries, the guy's supposed to be running the response to the largest public health crisis in modern American history.

He shouldn't be spending 20 seconds chronically in his time with Julia Roberts, and yet he is. And he's doing it in a way that I just, every time I read one of these entries, I sort of can't believe it.

And what I also can't believe, although I can, is my colleagues in the media, not writing about this, like it is a scandal.

“And again, this is separate from gain of function research,”

it's separate from how he talked about the science, it's separate from the policy decisions you made about masking, et cetera, and closing schools. It's separate about the questions of whether he committed a crime by saying something false to Congress.

Brian Stelter, the media critic for CNN,

never misses an opportunity to protect liberals.

Never misses an opportunity to not do his job. This media story is incredible, because in addition to falling over the press, Fauci writes in his diary about hanging out with reporters, including Brian Stelter's colleague, J. Kapper,

about how close they were, says that becoming friends with J. Kapper, about Kapper, then interviewing a guy who he says he's trying to teach it. He says, "Trap her, trash Trump to him." Don't know if that's true or not,

but he writes in his diary. So Brian Stelter, in writing about the diary, instead of saying, there's a massive press story here about the relationship between this guy and the media, and how he was covered, and now you have senators

raising questions about it.

Here's what Brian Stelter writes.

While mega media ridicules Fauci's quote-unquote obsession with fame, the diary entries read more like someone documenting the objectively wild speed, at which a government immunologist in Beth inevitably became internationally famous.

This is such an outrageous sentence. You put it back up, please. It's such an outrageous sentence. Mega media ridicules Fauci's a quote-unquote obsession with fame.

Fauci, you don't need the quotes ladies and gentlemen, and they're not, and they are ridiculing it. But the story, if I were a media critic, my story would be, this guy's relationship with the media allowed him to get away with behavior

that the United States investigative senator says was outrageous and potentially in violation of the law, and it does not read like someone documenting the objectively wild speed. It did happen at a wild speed, but he's not documenting it.

He is leguriating in a level of fame that I still can't fathom he did. And I got to say, I don't typically like to put the media's failures in sharp relief by saying hypothetical.

But sometimes I have to. This is happening at the same time that there's new audio Joe Biden showing that way back,

well before he ran for president the first time,

he had cognitive decline in the context of taking classified information from the White House. It's exactly parallel to the media attempted to cover up Joe Biden's mental acuity decline. They failed because it was so obvious.

In this case, they're still attempting to hold Dr. Fauci blameless for the errors he've made and allegedly made some he made, some will see, by continuing to fawn over him, by continuing to hold him blameless for what he did.

Imagine, say, a Democratic senator released hundreds of pages of Stephen Miller's diaries. And imagine in those diaries is not Anthony Fauci's Stephen Miller and he spends pages discussing what television shows he's on, what celebrity admirers he has,

what parties he was invited to, calls from people in Hollywood, frustration that he's not getting enough TV here time. Imagine if Stephen Miller wrote in his diary about all that stuff at a time when he's overseeing a major crisis in modern America.

“What would the media cover that, the minute those diaries were released?”

There would be so many questions about the appropriateness of it. And instead, the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, they mentioned some of this stuff, but it's not cast as the narcissism, the ego, the attention-seeking, the celebrity obsession,

that Dr. Fauci engaged, the conservative media is doing it.

“I'm doing it because I'm an objective reporter.”

I asked a bunch of Democrats in reporting for this monologue. Why do you still defend Fauci? Why don't Democrats look at these diaries and say, "What a horror show this is," okay? Their view is he's a career public servant,

extraordinary scientific credentials working long hours,

and side by side, first with Donald Trump and then with Joe Biden,

he died in America through an unprecedented crisis, getting death threats, okay? Many, many of the Democrats I talked to said, he's become a political punching bag, because he stood up to Donald Trump, and he did have differences with Donald Trump. But one of those big differences was about whether to be optimistic or not.

That's the one he seemed to have a lot of friction with Trump about. Now, Joe Biden pardoned him, so this hearing, unless they can overturn the pardon somehow, by proving that the president alleges that the pardon was illegal.

“He's not going to go to prison for any of this stuff, okay?”

But the degree to which all these issues,

gain a function research, disregarding information about the origins

of the holding China, see me to want to hold China blameless as long as he possibly could, telling states and cities to close down schools, talking about masking in a way that turned out not to be supported by the science. All of that is going to come up.

Republicans see in this guy, not a hero, the way the Democrats do. They see an elected bureaucrat who had accumulated enormous influence and resisted accountability. And then to this day, to this very day, defended by the media, okay? I have to say, a lot of people asked me this week,

as I was talking to Republicans about it, why didn't Donald Trump fire him? According to a senior official who worked in the Trump administration during this time, they were worried that if they fired him, they would alienate independent voters to the presidential.

And that Fauci would become kind of like James Komi became an outside critic, the media loved, who would have a huge megaphone to say Trump was screwing up the pandemic. Okay? This moment for the press is an opportunity to make up for coddling him,

Fauci for so many years. Talk to people, go back to AIDS, talk to people about AIDS. It was the same thing, he was obsessed with getting credit, he was obsessed with going on TV. I have nothing against Dr. Fauci.

I'd buy dealings with him over the years, I've been very pleasant. He's by all accounts a very nice guy, but he has now demonstrated a history of not only seeking fame, but of questionable public policy decisions. The question of the lab leak, the question of masking vaccines,

lockdowns, none of that's going to be settled in this hearing tomorrow.

But what is going to be at issue is the question of whether the press will finally join in

and treat Republican investigators the way they would Democrats. This will be a media circus, it's going to people in the red and blue buckets in a lot of ways. But Anthony Fauci now, as he was during COVID, has become far more than America's top infectious disease expert. He's become a symbol now and right now, it's up to the media to decide,

are they going to continue to coddle him or are they going to pay attention to what comes out in this hearing and get accountability, not just for Anthony Fauci, but are they going to get accountability for the public health crisis we went through,

“where there are very reasonable questions, very important questions to be asked”

about how he made decisions, how did he make decisions about gain of function research, how did he make decisions about what to do, about explaining the origins of the virus and holding China accountable, how did he make decisions about masking it, about school closures, etc. All of that doesn't mean he has to be a villain, although for many he already is, but all of that needs to be explored and the onus is on the media to stop coddling him and

treat him like the celebrity he loves to be treated as and treat him as someone who has given extraordinary responsibility, extraordinary authority and spend at least part of that time reveling in being on the phone with share and on a zoom with Julia Roberts. I'm looking forward to the hearings and we'll have more to say about it here. All right, let me know what you think about all this. If you love or hate Fauci,

if you can explain why my colleagues in the media love to coddle Fauci besides the fact that he eventually opposed Donald Trump because they've been coddling him for years. Email me your thoughts

And I'll read them all. All right, we're going to take a quick break when we come back

“by colleagues from two ways the morning meeting will be here, Laryo Connor and Kevin Walling are next up.”

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go to www.Suer-centric.com. All right, next up, and joining me now, my good friends and colleagues from the morning meeting on two-way Laryo Conner and Kevin Walling, they are my co-host there. Laryo also does Yadiyada, town hall, and hosts a bunch of other shows, which we'll discuss, Kevin, and Demercreck. Yeah, we'll get into it. And Kevin, Demercreck, Stragista, and they join me every Monday through Friday, three of us, nine a.m. on the two-way platform on on YouTube,

and then of course, on Series X and Metanic Clock. Gentlemen, let's talk midterms. I was talking to yesterday to one of the smartest Republican strategists I know, and he said he thinks Demercreck will pick up about 12 house seats and three Senate seats, which would give them the house

majority and not the Senate. And then I said, what about having a billion dollar cat, an unprecedented

billion dollar cash advantage, and a very clean message that you hear from almost every Republican including the President, the other side are crazy commies. So, Laryo, if that's, if you think that's the right framing on the one side, you've got history and the presence approval rating, and then the other side, a huge cash advantage and a theme. I'm curious what Carl Rose response to you was. Wes and Carl Rose, but stop guessing because you get it before too long. Mike Murphy,

“my, no, I think you're absolutely right. And I think if you, in a way, a lot of the”

Democrat socialist members who have won some of these primaries, even though it's not going to affect the outcome because they're only winning in deep blue districts, it was a gift to Republicans, because for some of those close districts where it may be as a coin toss and maybe voters are not as motivated. This is going to motivate them. I've seen it from the leadership all ready from the President himself and from Speaker Johnson that this has become part of their

daily conversation when they do a media hit, which is these guys are lunatics. They're crazy, and they want to up in the country. You didn't help them to have their party co-chair on Susan Green this week, and we played the clip yesterday on the morning meeting, basically affirming all of the really radical things they want to do that don't fit with the Democrats, let alone the

“country. So it's going to, I think it is going to make a difference, but even a bigger difference”

is going to be the close to billion dollars they've got to play with when it's just concentrated

in about four or five states and about 20 districts. Kevin, I think the biggest mistake the press is made and the Democrats have made about Donald Trump in terms of elections is they take issues that are actually broadly popular or in the case of Democrat positions, sometimes broadly unpopular and they characterize them. So that's just for the mega base, that's just for the extremists. Getting rid of police is not something just the mega base oppose. This is probably

unpopular. So how does your party grapple with that going forward to make sure that the party is not defined by the most extreme elements? Yeah, we talked about it all the time, especially on the morning meeting. I mean, these are 80, 20 issues, maybe 90, 10 issues when it comes to abolishing police and certainly abolishing ice. We also talked about the fact that, you know, Republicans are obviously going to spend a lot of resources making this a choice election and putting out someone

going to see from Republicans, you also see members of the press asking kind of center of

left-centris Democrats if they agree with XYZ, if they agree with Shannon Breamed to interview with this DSA co-chair when it comes to abolishing this Senate or the Supreme Court, for example. And it's incumbent on Democrats in these last 100 days with you saw with the leader, I came Jeffrey's campaigning with Josh Shapiro and Bob Brooks, one of our key pick-up opportunities in the Commonwealth, talking about the economy and keep it a referendum on the president, as much as we can

to combat the massive amounts of ad spending that we're going to see from the other side. I don't think though, just real fast. Just saying that this is a mega base issue is not shouldn't be discarded. If the mega base shows up, Republicans will do just fine. They've got to motivate

“that base. That's what this midterm election is all about. It's going to be who's base shows up.”

And if the mega base shows up, I think we're going to be fine in these districts. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't just write it off by saying, oh, that issue is just for the mega base. It's a good issue if it's appealing to the base and it gets them to the polls. It's your point, Larry, too. I mean, that enthusiasm gap is real that we're seeing. And you're seeing, you know, red alert coming from AFT action and others that are doing this polling,

that, you know, one in five Republicans at that mega base are not enthusiastic about this election.

And Republicans have always struggled, right, to figure out election dynamics with Trump

not at the top of the ticket and getting some of that I heard folks out. Well, and that's why when both of you sort of question my president keeps pushing on the save act, the pushing on the save act because the message to the base right now is even when we're in the majority, we can't do the basics, the basics or, you know, photo ID. So if they show up dry, if they show up after he handed and said, sorry, we couldn't get it done, the base will stay home.

“That's a real problem. Yeah. Yeah. Here's another thing. Here's another thing. I think could”

depress the basic. And I think this is an issue hiding in plain sight. And Kevin, you're right, of course, the economy's friends center and every poll says that, but increasingly I hear Democrats

talking about the war. The war is not popular. The war is, the war is, uh, is, uh, doesn't poll well

against Iran. And, and we've now had votes in both chambers, seeing Republican defections against the president, not in huge numbers. But I suspect if there were a secret ballot, a lot of Republicans would vote against the war. And of course, it's effortless to link the war to people's unhappiness with the economy. This president is engaged in a war of choice that's caused us a lot of money, that's risen gas prices, et cetera. So how front and center do you think the war will be as

compared to the economy? And how would you talk about the war if you were running a Democratic race? Yeah, Mark, it's a good question. I mean, they're interlinked, right? And you've seen some

“Democrats really effectively, I think, John Ossof, especially making that link in those rallies,”

and, uh, and speeches, saying this is a direct result of our adventures in Iran these last five months and making the case both on the Iran war front, but then also on the terror front, too, that these are all policies enacted by this administration that are directly raising a cost across the board. Again, tackling that number one issue when it comes to affordability, and you're going to see a lot more Democrats making that connection in the last couple of months

of this cycle because it is so apparent. And you're also seeing not just bleed among independents, but you're also seeing some defections among the mega base that we just talked about, where there's a large percentage of Americans not just against this war, but also a good percentage of mega base supporters that want to hear a clear articulation from the president about our goals there. And that's interesting to see that kind of bleed. Obviously,

independents go back and forth, Democrats are siloed in our, in our camp, uh, rally against this president and against this war, but to see that bleed from the mega base is also interesting. Larry, what about the vulnerabilities on the war? There's a huge vulnerability there. And so far as it affects the economy, listen, if, if gas prices and, and what is affected by fuel prices in America, energy prices in America, uh, we're not negatively affected. I don't

think you would see it as big an issue and you wouldn't see as much cold feet from Republicans running for reelection right now, but it, but it is. It's affecting fuel, it's affecting energy prices, and that affects everything. And I think one of the challenges for Republicans is that one of the most effective voices in Congress for for increasing our presence and increasing our military and increasing our military strikes against Iran and sort of going further into this

engagement. Uh, one of the most prominent voices is as, as lying in, in, in state right now, Lindsey Graham. Uh, I think losing his voice in promoting the military incursion in Iran, I think is going to have a major effect. And now, uh, on that side of Pennsylvania

Republicans is let's wrap this up. Let's wrap this up sooner rather than later. They were hoping

“it would have already been wrapped up by now. And I think that that's that voice, I think, is winning”

the day right now, uh, with the President's influence. It appears. Blair, do you think that's two? And by the way, three weeks ago, do you think it's too late with, I know, I don't think it's already making up their impressions for the fall? I don't think so. Not if it affects gas prices. We've seen gas prices be affected pretty quickly and and see the results at the polls three weeks ago, four weeks ago, I think that it was 50, 50, if not the the more influential

voices were saying it's time to bomb more. It's time to get involved. You saw the President leaning in that direction. I wonder how much Lindsey Graham's voice not being part of that

conversation is having an effect on this now. I'm not sure. Kevin, if you take John also off

off the table, because I'm pretty sure that would be your answer. Who's, who's a, who's a Democratic nominee who, if you were running races, other places, you would show game film of and say, this, this gal or this guy, they're doing it right there, the right message, the right connection to social media, et cetera, who's who put candidate on your party has game this cycle. Besides.

“Well, I think, yeah, I think Roy Cooper in North Carolina has, has, has game both on the social”

media front, both on the, the fact that, you know, this is a Republican-held seat that we're no longer, even really talking about it being in contention. Is he on TikTok? I think he is on TikTok. He's had some, I guess. I got to explore that because he's older than TikTok itself.

He's older. He's older. Certainly. And I think Josh Shapiro too. I mean, let's not forget,

he's also up for reelection for the, this governor's race. A lot of eyes will be on the governor just to see how wide that margin will be against gravity in the fall for indications for 2022. He's really effective when it comes to social media. He does, you know, he's tuned in, and his team is tuned in to the latest kind of things that young people are interested in, in terms of memes and stuff like that. And he is a very effective communicator when it comes to that.

Larry, who are two or three superstar Republican candidates who you would show game film of others? I'd say right now, in terms of traditional campaigning, being disciplined on message, raising money. I'm liking Mike Rogers chances of Michigan right now. And don't ask me about TikTok, because I don't think he knows from TikTok. But Michigan is a different animal. Michigan, the 50 plus voter is going to be the most active and important influential demographic in

that election. So he's on, he's on my space. That's right. That's right. Friends star. He's on

“crazy. He's got the friends who have really liked it. And surprisingly, I think people were really,”

really impressed with Andy Biggs in Arizona. And that primary win, that was a, I mean, that blow was massive. Absolutely massive. And he's got because of his connections with turning point USA and the support he's getting from those guys, he does have a pretty good social media game. So that, that Arizona race is looking exceptionally good for Andy Biggs in Republicans right now. And Mark, you've already talked about how important that'll be for the

228 presidential election. Have you ever heard of any innovations in ground game and get out the vote? Anything that's happening that not been tried before technology or anything given? Not necessarily in terms of new technologies and things like that. I think AI is having more and more of an engagement when it comes to the voter file right and making election predictions in terms of turnout models and things like that. I know that there's a lot of data vendors out there

that are increasingly active with AI models. I will also say, and we talked about this on the morning meeting a few days ago, really interested to see what swing left is up to. They're well finance. They're doing a lot of ground game engagement in some of these key congressional districts and states with praying canvases that aren't out there just saying vote for Barack Obama, vote for Hillary Clinton. But actually having and spurring the conversation with voters,

they're going to every door, not just oftentimes you get a packet if you're a field organizer or a volunteer saying go to knock on this door, ask for this person. They're having conversations with everyone, the idea that there's some potential for persuasion for everybody in this electoral climate. So I'm super interested with what they're doing and that data is going back, not just like three to five voters and things like that in terms of likelihood to vote for

particular candidate, but they're getting the issue-based information as well, which will drive a lot of advertising to particular voters. So super interested with what they're doing. Larry, if you think about the groups on the Republican side that have been involved in voter engagement, voter turnout, the Coke group, turning point, some others. He's turning point, heritage action, of the big fee. Was he on fund a lot of field stuff or was it more ads?

Yeah, or though, I keep telling people, we need the voter registration data, because that's an early warning sign of things. I haven't seen much and we gotta go harvest that. But what do you see in terms of the two sides, this either side have an advantage on get out the vote? I see TPUSA up in their game. They learned a lot in 2004 and part of the process.

It was really the first major election where they were as involved as we saw with Dordidor,

with their iPads, with their devices, honing down that data. And we also saw, I keep going back to this. I sound like a broken record for those of you old enough to know what a broken record means. But that Indiana State Senate race, where James Blair and his operation focus on the voters in those state Senate districts and they were specifically voted targeting Republican voters who aren't usually engaged in a state primary and they got them

“engaged. That's what they need to do. They need to get Republicans who are Republicans and their”

passionate and they care about the issues, but they don't bother to vote or they don't bother to get engaged in a midterm. We're a notorious at that. Republicans are not creating getting involved when it's not a presidential race. And that caught my attention that they were able to get Republicans to unseat four out of five in common state senators in Indiana in a primary that most people wouldn't have paid a lot of attention to and they delivered. And that tells

me, they've got some data tools that are really effective. All right. I quick break when we come back more with the fun bunch from my morning zoo. Larry, Larry, the disruption of us. Larry, B. B. Larry and Kevin from two ways more emitting, more with them right after this next up. There's a question that runs under everything

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Folks who switch with chapter last year saved on average $1,100. So give my friends over a chapter a call. Their number there, 262, 454, 0503, 262, 454, 0503, people who check tell me the same thing. They wish they'd called sooner. All right next up back with Larry O'Connor and Kevin Walling of my program with me, my co-hosts on the morning meeting on two way, every Monday through Friday on two way. Larry, although we don't have four hours, tell everybody where else they can see your work.

Oh, wow. I am a naturally syndicated morning radio host on the Salem network, but you can grab it at Larryosho.com. That's my website. Mark time. Does that start Larry? That is 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Eastern time. But I'm on over 200 stations now, nationwide, but our flagship is WMAL in Washington, DC. We also stream that for video on Salem News Channel, which you can get at Roku, Samson, TV, and all the other places you get your video apps. And then, of course, the morning meeting every

day from 9 to 10 on the two way platform. And then I do a town hall streaming podcast at noon. That is on YouTube and every other streaming platform via town hall media. And I write a town hall as well, but I have been writing as much as much as helping the other writers at town hall. You can basically spend the entire day watching Larry Larry. I co-host the Kevin Roberts podcast for Heritage Foundation. We have one episode a week where we do that show as well. All right. So that's five hours a day,

ten five that's 25 hours a week plus the Kevin Roberts. It's 26 hours a week. Correct.

Yeah. Do you ever fall asleep on the year? Do you ever fall asleep on the year? Never. I've had a

guest fall asleep on the air, though. Michael Baronne. You got it. What do you mean? Yeah. I got it. Michael, absolutely. It's legendary. Michael Baronne was a guest in the morning and we were talking about, I don't know, pulling or some election that was coming up. And before you knew what I heard snoring on the other side of the phone. Yeah. I found it on radio, only on radio, but I thought audio, but I honestly bought camera because I'm tired. Larry, that's a lot. Kevin, you just do one hour

me the time to read all these books behind me so I can take on Larry in the morning every day. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about my favorite topic. This program is the leading chronicler of what people think of JD Vance. He's been a little under the radar because

he just had a kid. He spoke on Capitol Hill today on Lindsey Graham Flings. First time we've seen him

“in a bit. What is the status of how America feels about Vice President Vance right now?”

How would you characterize his place? Obviously, it's different across the political spectrum, but just almost taking the politics out of the Kevin. How do people feel about him? Is he enjoying a honeymoon at all with the American people? Is it totally bifurcated? Because a lot of people in the Republican party now don't like him, or at least some elites. Yeah. I think to some degree, interesting. I think he's still kind of an unknown figure, despite writing a best-selling

memoir of his childhood appearing across all these different programs, Bill Mar, the view. Other places, he turns 42 next week, which is my birthday as well when I turn 41. So there's, I think there's still a curiosity around him. And the fact that he only served in the Senate for a short time before being elevated on the ticket with Donald Trump, President Trump, that there are still a lot of questions. Again, he wrote this new book about his conversion to

“Catholicism. But I think there's still a curiosity and an interest to want to know more about”

what his actual core values are in a really good place to be potentially the next president of the United States. Larry, that's a hard thing. The exact thing Kim just said, letting people know your core values are, it's a hard thing for every vice president. It's just the nature of the office. And so if you think about, let's say every vice president since Bush 41 was Reagan's vice president, where would you rank J.D. Vance as a political athlete compared to those people? So we're talking

about Bush 41 and then we're talking about Al Gore and Dan Quail, Joe Biden, Dick Cheney, Kamal Harris, Mike Pence. That's a fine group of people. I've known all of them to a greater lesser extent. But I wouldn't say any of them was like a world-class political athlete. So yeah, where would you rank Vance? Where would you put him in that you were stacking them? Would he be the best political athlete, second best who's out of him?

It's astounding if you think about it because you look at those names and those are people who were had long. I mean, maybe not Kamala Harris, but everybody else has a pretty long track record in Washington, D.C. They had served in the Senate or served in George Herbert Walker's Bush's case, the CIA ambassador to China. I mean, they so he's a novice. People forget he was only

a senator for two years and never held political office before that. And I may surprise you.

But for one of the skill sets that I value pretty high and that is communicating your ideas and being able to to interact with the media and come across as a conservative Republican,

“but still and affable and likable individual, I think he's right up there.”

Honestly, now that's not the entirety of politics, but that's a big part of politics. I mean, yeah, I think you have joy bear saying nice things about him. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and you'll buy it. And in a related skill is given a great speech. I thought his speech to NATO at the beginning of the administration is literally one of the best speeches I've seen someone get. Wait in the light or the NATO speech of the Munich to

I mean, the Munich, sorry, Munich. Yeah, oh, a hundred of your stats. That was a speech of that speech largely about NATO. It's one of the best vice-presidential speeches I've ever heard for sure. And so I've been thinking about this, which was why I asked you guys, I think even though he's new to politics and even though he's he's rubbed some people the wrong way, I think he's arguably the most politically gifted vice president we've had, you know, I don't know, back to LBJ, maybe.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I think he's a pretty good fundraiser too. I mean, he's he's bringing in some numbers right now. Now a lot of that is because of his connection and his affiliation with Donald Trump and and one wonders what his political trajectory would be if we didn't have president Trump and if he wasn't selected is it, but he is the man in that position right now. And I think of the criticism of events and I, I tell my friends, I've got a lot of friends in this side of the,

you know, media world and the right world, really, really don't like him. And I've read, I said, what am I, what am I missing? I don't understand what the, a lot of it comes down to Israel and of the relationship with Tucker Carlson. But I think that's very much an intramural inter, uh, inter like when that conversation. Sorry. Huh? Yeah. Oh, 100% because I don't think it resonates with voters. Mark's question was with Americans, not with people who are living on

Twitter and have podcasts. But here, but here's the thing, leaving the small number of influential

he shouldn't be the nominee. Oh, yeah, they're never advanced. They're never, they're never advanced.

Yeah, they're never advanced. Leaving them aside and I don't minimize them and I continue to say

“the advanced people. I think you're underestimating the, the, the, the, the impediment that the never”

advanced people could be. I think about him in the context of the midterms. Kevin, if where could he go in what, which of the targeted has her Senator governor's raises? Where could he go where Democrats would say, uh, that's going to be a big, a big, a big advantage for Republicans. Because I can't really, I can't see that. What can be a race? I think he can go anywhere. Just like we saw the dynamic where, you know, folks didn't want Barack Obama in their district for the midterms, but they wanted Joe Biden.

And I point back to how effective he was in Maine, right? Most political prognosticators would say, okay, the administration should steer clear of Maine. But he actually helps Susan Collins by saying, we like Susan Collins. She also often often doesn't vote with us, emphasizing her independent streak, which is what she needs to do to win, and was really effective as a messenger there. So I think you can particularly if he calmerates his message as effectively as he did on the ground in Maine,

“he can go pretty much anywhere, I think. I think you'll see him in Ohio. I think you'll see him”

sure for Ohio. You'll see him in Georgia. Yeah. If Francesca Hongwinds and Wisconsin, I think he'll see him in Wisconsin. I think he'll see him in Iowa. And she's the former bartender. I know. She occurred bartender. No, got chef. She was a chef. Really? I thought she was bartender. No, you're thinking of the, there's a waitress in Wisconsin running for a house seat who's also

aligned with. She's definitely a chef. She was always the bartender. She's running,

she's the frontrunner to be the Republican Democrat Kubanitorial nominee. Yes. And she is she'll be a big target if if he's the nominee. And so you'll see in places like that where maybe Trump, you know, won't won't be as effective. I don't know if Trump going to Wisconsin, but be as effective at this point as Vance going to to Wisconsin. Similar news. So like I said, with a woman by. Yeah. Kevin, if if J.D. Vance is not the most politically counted vice president,

since Bush 41 who is. It's a good question. I think from a power perspective in terms of running government to Cheney. For the inside game. I think he's probably at the top of the list. Again, we tend to discount Al Gore because of what happened in 2000, but he had some political chops. Yeah. Didn't really be lectured that well, ran away from Bill Clinton and one of the reasons why he lost. But I think in terms of, I think in terms of a raw political challenge and to the point where he's

served only two years in the Senate is now the second most powerful person in the Western world.

I think does speak volumes to his political instincts. Totally agree. Larry, if he's not number one who is Dick Nixon. No, I go. I start with 41. 41 with Reagan. I think the answer to me is 41.

“Although I think Vance may be better. 41 is an underrated political answer. 41 was. You know what?”

Gore was pretty good. Gore would be the my other option. Yeah. Oh, it was good. Here's why I can't can't go. He agreed to go campaign in a Buddhist temple. That to me just like this qualifying right there. If the staff says Mr. Vice President, we need you to go raise some money in a Buddhist temple. If you got good political instincts, he said, you know what? I'll meet him a little bit. I'll keep him my shoes on. I'll keep him my shoes on.

I used to live. I used to live on the right down the street from that Buddhist temple. On Hossein, the Boulevard in the Hossein, the Heights, California. I used to drive past it, actually. Yeah, Kevin. Kevin, there are so many things that happened in the 2000, I'm sorry, 96 campaign for fundraising. You just wouldn't believe and you were, where were you in 96, even junior high school elementary school, where were you? Oh, yeah, it was like middle school.

Yeah, middle school. Anyway, Gore campaigned a Buddhist. Hold on. You're my wife's age, aren't you? Yeah, I'm 41. I'm 41. Gore campaigned a Buddhist temple and he went to a lot of fundraising meetings that were controversial stuff was discussed, but he said into the investigators, I missed a lot of those conversations because I was always so tired, I had to drink a lot of iced tea because I drank a lot of iced tea, I'd to excuse myself to go to the bathroom a lot.

And then when he got caught, caught making fundraising calls from his office, Kevin, do you know about no controlling legal authority? No controlling legal authority. But then also, too, offering up the Lincoln bedroom to donors, too, is also, well, I think. I think it really was totally illegal. That was 40. That was more of a clean thing. The no controlling legal authority, folks, if you haven't seen it, just go on your YouTube and take a look.

It's so. Greatest press conference. Press conference. You know what? Now that you remind me of that,

those three things that iced tea, the Buddhist temple and the no controlling legal authority,

“I must subtract points. I must subtract points. Now when he is home state, too.”

No, the East German judge is always the toughest. Gentlemen, pleasure, have you on.

A ladies and gentlemen, if this conversation had all resonated with you, if it made you say, like, but those guys are entertaining, I'd like more. Well, every Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time on the two-way platformer in YouTube. You can watch them on the morning meeting, where I just te up the topics and watch them go. Guys, thank you. Great to see. I'll see you at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Thanks, Mark. Thanks, Mark. All right. Next up, we take a look at the Democratic Party's current

financial woes, problems with the chairman of the DNC, and the implications that could have not just for the midterms, but for the presidential contest, looming. That discussion is next up. Hey, and if you have not subscribed to the next up Instagram page, please do. You can get bonus

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beast. So, follow us there at next up, Halpern. And, of course, you can listen to the program as a podcast if you don't want to see me, but just listen. Subscribe to next up with Mark Halpern, wherever you get your podcast and make sure you've got that downloads turned on. So, the episode has just come magically floating into your device, so get everything. New, fresh, and fast as soon as it goes live. Only here, on next up. You've heard it, everybody's now talking about those weight laws

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one, the Democrats set their calendar for the nominating process for present in 2020-28. That's not a final approval, but the committee that was in charge of coming up with something did. And it sets out as a series of the early voting state starting in Seth Carolina. The other DNC story around the same time was the chairman of the Democratic Party Ken Martin was exposed in a series of investigative pieces to have been the subject of a HR review

because he allegedly threw a phone. And he can't raise money which we've known, but a people openly expressing their concern about that. And some calling for his resignation, some strategist, one at least one member of the House Democrat, calling for him to go. Nice guy, but I've said from the beginning, did not seem up to the job. And here's the connection between the two. What the Democrats have proposed in terms of a schedule has some problems with.

Number one, New Hampshire has a state law that says they must go first. They must have the first

primary. They're currently listed as third. And if you campaign a New Hampshire as a candidate, in theory, you lose access to the debates. Then we get to the more general question of the debates. Keep in the calendar, in together, making sure the state parties are doing good contest because Seth Carolina has been an early state, but going first is a lot of pressure. And then the debates, who are the hosts, who are the moderators, what are the rules,

who gets to participate in those debates? What's the threshold, right?

“Everybody's expecting a big field, but what do you need to be in the debates? Do you need a certain number”

of donors? Do you need a certain number of poll results that are good? These are complicated tough issues to adjudicate. And they have huge implications, particularly in a party like the Democrats that doesn't like conflict, doesn't like exclusion, doesn't want, let's just say hypothetically, a lot of the candidates who don't make the debates based on the qualifications are women or Don White people. These are complicated issues. And what does it take to deal with complicated

issues like that, a strong share? Because you're going up against the campaigns and the campaigns are, you know, they're everything. They're the presidential hopefuls for your party. So what I think

a guy who's been a weak chair, weak as a fundraiser, weak on TV, weak convincing the party to

“do stuff and the donors and the politicians? How does that guy starting in a few months right after”

the midterms? How does that guy put together a debate schedule that holds a nomination calendar that holds and then gets executed on? Okay. In addition, I've written about this in the past

in 1992 and Bill Clinton won. Anybody who covered that race or studied it will tell you,

he won in part because Ron Brown, the chair of the party, put together an operation that the

“Clinton folks could inherit to get to the electoral votes you need. They don't control the”

White House. It's up to the DNC and again, what does that require? Influence, fundraising, organization, strong leadership. And so people are talking about Ken Martin being a weak leader now, unable to raise the money required to fund the midterms. Just you wait till he has to do two things at once. Immediately after the midterms, hold together the nominating process including the debates, choosing the moderators alone is a massive undertaking complex and lay the groundwork for an electoral

college strategy, which if the democratic nominating process goes deep into the spring,

“is more important than ever because the candidates are fighting for the nomination. They can't”

focus as much on the general election. So, this issue of whether Ken Martin stays and if he stays, if he can up his game and if he goes who replaces him. While people have talked about that in the context of the midterms, it's a massive issue for the general election. And I will make this prediction. If he does stay, he is going to be stunned by the complexities of just the nominating calendar of the early states and of the debates. God speed, good luck, break a leg, Ken Martin.

You thought the midterms were tough, wait till you see the presidential. That's it for today's program, grateful to you for being here. Appreciate you being the next or enlisting and watching. You can watch the program on YouTube at next up, Halperon. And you can listen to it as a podcast

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