Welcome back to State of the Union.
Former President Trump
is attempting to defend a meal
he shared this week
with rapper
Kanye West, who now goes by Jay and white
nationalist and Holocaust denier
Nick Fuentes.
Trump insisted Friday that he hadn't
previously known Fuentes,
but a source tells CNN
he found the white supremacist
quote, very interesting,
particularly fantasies, ability
to rattle off
statistics and data
and his familiarity with Trump.
Here with me
now is Arkansas
Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson,
who is considering
challenging Donald Trump
for the 2024 GOP nomination.
Governor,
thank you so much for joining me.
I know as US attorney in Arkansas,
you personally prosecuted
white supremacist groups.
What's your reaction
to seeing a former US president
associate with someone like that?
Well, I hope someday we won't
have to be responding to what
former President Trump has said or done.
In this instance,
it's important to respond.
And as you mentioned,
the last time I met with a
white supremacist,
it was in an armed standoff.
I had a bulletproof vest on.
We arrested them,
prosecuted him and sent them to prison.
And so, no,
I don't think it's a good idea
for a leader
that's setting an example for the country
or the party
to meet with avowed
racist or anti-Semite.
And so it's very troubling
and it shouldn't happen.
And we need to avoid those kinds
of empowering the extremes.
And when you meet with people,
you empower,
and that's what you have to avoid.
You want to diminish their strength,
not empower them.
Stay away from.
Trump has released multiple statements.
What he's doing is he's denying knowing
Nick Fuentes,
but he's not condemning his views.
Let alone condemning
Kanye West's
history of anti-Semitic comments,
recent history. So it's a pattern
Well,
I mean, you can
have accidental meetings,
things like that happen.
This was not an accidental meeting.
It was a set up
dinner with Kanye.
And so this happened.
But you certainly have every occasion
that the question of white supremacy
or neo-Nazi ism
or denying the Holocaust comes up.
You've got to be absolutely clear
in your communication
that this is not acceptable dogma is not
acceptable, conversation
is not acceptable history.
And you have to disavow it.
It is as simple as that.
And I'm very proud
of the Republican Jewish Coalition
The former ambassador,
U.S.
ambassador in the Trump administration
to Israel has condemned this.
And so what
Donald Trump did
and his failure to condemn
it is really the minority of the party.
It's the extreme side of it.
And that's
what you've got
to distance yourself from.
And and he failed to do that.
You told CNN you are very seriously
looking at running for president
in 20, 24.
You're going to give a speech
this week at the Reagan Library.
And I want to show our viewers
an excerpt of what you plan to say about
why Republicans
didn't do as well as they had
hoped in the midterm
Here's a quote from the speech
you'll give.
Historically, Republicans
do not attack America's democracy.
Republicans do not denigrate
our political system.
Republicans do not undermine confidence
in America.
And Republicans do not attack
those institutions
that are fundamental to the rule of law.
What makes you think your party is
ready to hear that now?
Well, what preceded that quote?
And that's absolutely
what I intend to say
in part of my remarks
to the Reagan Institute
but I also pointed out
that this last midterm elections,
the we had a red wave in Iowa.
We had a red wave in Arkansas.
It was just individual candidates
that were disavowed and lost.
And those were those
that did what I just recited.
They didn't do
stick with Republican principles there.
They got into election
denying and undermining the democracy.
And they
and they're held accountable for that.
That's that's okay.
But we did have an election
in which Republican principles
were not disavowed.
Republican principles didn't lose.
In fact,
they were embrace
It is just that individual candidates
that strayed from those.
And so
the Republican Party
is in a good position
coming out of the midterm elections.
Not one incumbent Republican governor
lost it
as they ran for reelection
this last time.
These are good signs for the party.
Let's just stick with the principles.
I'm delighted to say
Ronald Reagan set a good example for us,
and I'm looking forward
to making those remarks
at the Reagan Institute this week.
Many of your potential 20, 24
rivals were once staunch Trump allies.
People like Mike Pence, of course,
is Vice President.
Mike Pompeo is Secretary of State.
Chris Christie. Nikki Haley.
What's your reaction to seeing them now
criticizing Trump,
trying to position themselves
as Trump alternatives?
You I just want to say that you have
positioned yourself like that
pretty much from from the start
coming on the show many times
Well, I think it is the
right thing to do.
And it is to me predictable that
in what we need as as you see the party
moving away from Donald Trump, as you see
as understanding
the cost of the last midterm election,
that we can't have candidates
that win a primary but lose in November.
You can't have a candidate
that can't attract suburban voters
and independents
and so everyone is recognize that.
Not so.
I applaud the Vice President Pence of
the others
that you mentioned, Chris Christie,
that's been very outspoken
we need more of those voices, not fewer.
And I expect those voices to increase.
And it shouldn't be in harsh terms, tone.
It should be in our
voice of reality
that this is exactly
where we are as a party
and where
we need to go to reach out
to those independents
and expand the base of the party
and move beyond the Trump era.
Governor, after five
people were killed at an LGBTQ nightclub
in Colorado last week,
you urged your fellow Republicans
to tone down the rhetoric,
particularly towards the trans community.
But just days after that
shooting, Georgia
Republican Senate candidate
Herschel Walker
debuted this ad
I want to play,
and it targets transgender athletes
for more than a decade,
I worked so hard for
I am practices to be the best.
But my senior year,
I was forced to compete
against a biological male
that's unfair and wrong.
A man won
the swimming title
that belonged to a woman,
and Senator
Warnock voted to let it happen.
Are you comfortable
with what Walker is doing there?
I am.
I signed a law in Arkansas
that prohibited biological males
from competing with women
and women's sports.
To me, it's about the tone
and about the broader arena.
We also passed a hate law in Arkansas.
We shouldn't be targeting
anyone because of their race
or their gender.
We also have to speak
in a compassionate way and
and to have an understanding heart.
And so these are difficult issues
that we're dealing
with as a society,
and it's fair to debate and discuss.
But what about the timing has said
that that's
a fair question,
but it happens to be in the middle
of an election
and you can't hardly
pull everything down.
That's that's a fair question.
But the substantive issue is one
that's on the hearts and minds of people.
And you've got to be able
to talk about it,
state your position on it,
and you've got to recognize
that these sensitive issues
have to be dealt
with by parents, by school officials,
by employers as well.
And what happened in that nightclub
is a human tragedy.
And we all have to be able
to express
ourselves with compassion
toward that understanding.
And we need to work through this
as a society.
These are challenging issues.
And what happened is just simply wrong.