It's not me who's changed.
It's the left
who is now made up of a small contingent
who've gone mental
and a large contingent
who refuse to call them out for it.
But I will.
Do you think Democratic politicians
have changed their views,
or do you think they're just afraid
of their
party's activists
the way that a lot of Republicans
are afraid of their party's
activists, the MAGA folks, be.
They're afraid.
They're just afraid.
Yes, I think I think both sides
I think, again, this
fought tribes, I think in this country,
I think there's old school
liberals and old school
conservatives, Republicans and Democrats,
the kind of people who used to.
I think that's the majority
of the country
like Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush
or something.
Yeah,
the kind of people
who never agreed on a hell of a lot,
but they found ways to work together.
They didn't hate each other.
It wasn't all about
making liberal tears
cry and all this stuff and,
you know, owning and destroying people.
It was just, yeah,
I don't agree with Bob Dole, but,
you know, we can work together.
We can get a grand bargain,
that kind of stuff.
And so I think that's the majority.
But then you have Trumpers
and then you have jokesters and
you know,
those fringes are not doing this country
any great favors.
If Donald Trump is challenged
for the nomination,
I mean, he's
obviously already being challenged
by Governor Haley, Nikki Haley.
And then there's talk of other people
that Governor DeSantis
and Mike Pompeo and others,
Vice President Pence.
Do you think any of them
can take him out?
No, but I think what they will do
is ensure him the nomination
by splitting all the alternate.
Absolutely.
Same thing that happened before. Yeah.
The only way
Trump doesn't get that nomination
is if it's just him and the Sanders,
if it's a bunch of people in there,
know they're going to split
the anti-Trump vote
because, you know,
Trump has a very hardcore following.
I mean, it's a cult.
And cults don't ever go away.
Look at Christianity.
So I,
I despair about
that because I think when politicians
smell the White House,
they don't care about the repercussions
for the country.
They just want to go for it.
Dissent is against Trump,
I think could get it.
You know,
somebody said to me
once, a conservative guy
said, the thing
you guys don't understand
about us is we don't really like Trump.
Now, that doesn't speak
for all the Trumpers.
He definitely has some real fans.
Oh, sure.
But there's a lot of people
who voted for him,
and that's their little secret.
We don't like him either.
We just vote for him
because the stuff
that you guys are doing on your fringe
is scarier to us than what he's doing,
which is saying a lot.
And I'm not quite with them,
but I get it.
Yeah,
I think it's also that
that he hates
the same people that they hate,
even if they don't agree. Yes.
And they love it
that he sticks his thumb in their eye.
Yeah.
Do you
do you think that DeSantis is part
of the old school Republican tribe,
or do you think he's more of a Trumper
to point out that's the great question.
I don't know if he's playing a part
or if that's really him.
You know, he's
the reason he's
so effective is
he does two things at once.
He can be a real
old school
Republican
who just takes care of business,
you know, COVID, the hurricane, stuff
like that.
He just goes about his business.
He doesn't do crazy stuff.
But then when he wants to throw red meat
to the base,
he's a performance artist
and he does a lot
of really outrageous stuff.
But I get it
that that's where the party is.
If you want a big future in that party,
especially if you want to take on
Donald Trump,
you got to ride
both those horses at once.
Everybody keeps saying to me,
but he has no personality.
I don't think people care.
Like a lot of politicians
don't have personality.
Nixon had no personality.
I mean, I could name some politicians
who have absolutely no personality.
It's not a prerequisite.
I mean, it's great if you have one.
Like Obama had a great one
and Kennedy had a great one.
But, you know, Biden is not
you know,
I mean, James Brown at the Apollo.
Exactly.
You know,
I mean,
I don't think that's going to hold
Ron DeSantis back.
You know, it's interesting.
I met this couple from Florida,
liberal Democrats, and then they told me
how much they loved
Ron DeSantis, really loved him.
And it's for the governance from Florida.
Yeah, they were from Florida.
The people in Florida like
he won reelection
with almost 60% of the vote.
Also, while the rest of the country
was overdoing COVID Florida,
I was there during COVID.
It was night and day from this place.
And you know,
I am not one who is ever on the page
with COVID paranoia.
So I thought it was a breath
of fresh air.
And the people there,
when they would visit me here,
sometimes they would say,
Oh my God,
in the middle of the pandemic,
what do you do?
You people live like this
and so unnecessary.
We don't live like this. Right.
And it turned out
a lot of what Ron DeSantis
did was smarter than what
the people
who are criticizing were saying.
I mean, he kept the beaches open.
Yes. You're not going to get it outside.
In fact, it's good.
Get some fresh air
and some sunshine
that would be better for you.
And he also protected the elderly.
It was much more targeted.
It's sort of the opposite
of what happened in New York State.