Should Republicans Be Thrilled With Midterm Results? | Over The Target

Welcome and good morning to Over the Target Live. As you may notice, the set behind me is a little different. That's because I'm out of, I'm out and about. I'm reporting, I'm actually in Maricopa County, Arizona itself. And we'll be talking about that in a bit because here's a big post-election roundup. And we're speaking today with Professor Nicholas Giordano, a great guy, brilliant, brilliant political expert, political scientist, professor as well, has some very important insight generally in our post-election roundup. In particular, New York, that's where we're speaking with him from. And I can speak a little bit about what's going on here in Arizona and elsewhere. First, I want to remind you, though, at the 20-minute mark, we will be cutting away. If you are watching on Facebook or YouTube, and you shouldn't, you should be watching us exclusively on Epoch TV. But if you are, in the event you are, make sure at the 20-minute mark, cut off, make the jump because we'll be cutting away from Facebook and YouTube and going exclusively to Epoch TV at the 20-minute mark. I'll give you a countdown. You'll have a heads up. You'll know when to make the jump. And you have to make the jump because you're not going to want to miss a single second of this great conversation we're having with Professor Nicholas Giordano. And right now, without further ado, I want to introduce today's guest. Nick, welcome to Over the Target Live. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Thank you for having me. Well, let's just speak generally. Let's just take it generally. You and I have spoken a little bit about what happened here. There was, of course, a lot of expectation that the Republicans were going to run the table, that all across the country was going to see an enormous red wave from sea to shining sea, and it appears that that didn't happen. So if you can give us some insight into that, is this what you were expecting? And I mean, basically, just what happened here? Well, like everyone else, I was expecting a red wave, and there were a couple of indications that were leading me in that direction. So optics and perception, expectations, they all matter in politics. And when we look at the expectations and how high they were, the Republicans fell far short of that. And that is a problem, and we have to re-evaluate that. But most importantly, I compare it to 2008, right? So in 2008, we have the mortgage meltdown crisis, the economy's melting down, President Obama gets elected. In his first two years of office, he passes the $888 billion stimulus package, and he forces through Obamacare. And what happened? Well, in 2010, we saw a red tsunami, right? Republicans gained 63 seats in the House. They gained six seats in the Senate, six governors' races. They captured 20 state legislative bodies and turned them, and they flipped 680 state legislative seats. That's a red tsunami. If we look at 2022, things are far worse, right? The economy is in far worse shape than it was in 2010. Inflation was in existence in 2010. It's extraordinarily high in 2022. Gas prices are high. Crime's out of control. Immigration is a disaster. We have open borders. And then just two weeks ago, we had the Department of Education announce that the proficiency levels in the schools have dropped to historic lows over 30 years. And this is a catastrophic disaster. So it made sense, given that 75% of the American people are dissatisfied with the direction of this country. It made sense to predict the red wave. And then election night comes, and it was just sheer disappointment, right? So Democrats, they should be happy. They limited their losses to a very large degree. Republicans should not be happy. And I think it shows a failure of leadership within the Republican Party. I think the fact that Republicans have to figure out a way to break through the narratives that exist out there, especially given that the media is mostly an extension of the Democrat National Party. I think the problem that Republicans have, and there's a lot of times they don't focus on the right issues in this election. They actually did when you listen to the candidates. They were focusing on crime. They were focusing on the economy. Unfortunately, it fell flat. But I think really what this election shows is how ideological we've become, where people will vote for a vegetable in Pennsylvania over a qualified candidate. And I think that is eye opening. It is revealing. And it tells us a lot about how our standards have dropped, and we'll simply vote for a D or an R, whatever party we belong to. Well, I mean, that's an excellent point, I guess, as much as I hate to play devil's advocate, so I won't. I'll do it very briefly. But insofar as Republican leadership said, well, you know, Mitch McConnell in particular, there were some not great candidates. And I think that among others, he was referring to Dr. Oz and maybe Herschel Walker as well. So when you're talking about us becoming too ideological, you're saying this is true of Democrats and Republicans as well, that there might have been better candidates out there. But just because Dr. Oz had an R behind his name, then people are going to go pull the, you know, or push the button for Dr. Oz? No, Mitch McConnell, I mean, he should not be the Senate leader of the Republicans. That's for sure. The reality is that saying that, well, our candidates weren't that great. Federman is not a great candidate. I'm sorry, he is not a good candidate himself. Are we really going to say a guy that can't put together coherent sentences is a better candidate than a doctor who is one of the top heart surgeons in the country who actually practices medicine? So McConnell's just, that was a ridiculous argument to make. And not for nothing, I mean, even if we put up someone that was incompetent, they should have still beaten Federman. So rather than blame the candidates that we were running, well, no, look at their candidates. They were terrible candidates as well. Even if you go down to Warnock in Georgia and the Herschel Walker race, the reality is Warnock is the incumbent senator. 98% of incumbents won in this election cycle, which is an enormous amount. And yet he's still going to a runoff. So obviously he's not that great of a candidate either. It's not about the candidate. The problem that Republicans have is when they're targeting people to get out the vote, right? So Republicans constantly focus on areas where there's high Republican activity. There's a lot of conservatives. And in previous election cycles, that may have made sense, right? You want to get out, make sure you get out your base. That's what it's always about in the midterm elections. And if we look at this race, it's going to probably come in a little bit under 50% of those of voting age population actually turned out to vote. But the way the Republicans fail, so education was a huge thing in the last two years, right? Our schools are decimated. It's completely collapsed our system, especially in the urban areas where you had the teachers union and the Democrat officials locking down, kicking those students out for two years. Then we get the report by the Department of Education about proficiency levels. Why didn't Republicans go into those inner cities, into the communities that don't really vote for them and say, look at what they did to your children. Look at how they destroyed your children when it comes to education, but they also damaged your children's mental health. And you, the parents in these communities see this directly. They're the ones that are responsible, but Republicans don't go into these areas because they don't want to waste their time, money, and resources. Now, politics 20 years ago, that may have made sense, but it doesn't make sense anymore. You got to start winning over voters, showing the voters why they need to vote for you. And that's where I think Republicans failed because I do believe that given the turnout numbers that are going to be about 50% or a little bit below 50%, we could have turned out more. And given everything that goes on in our elections, even if Republicans think they're going to win by one or two points, they need to turn out 5% more to make sure that that covers any shenanigans that may take place. And let's be honest here, Democrats have a great ground game. I mean, they do have a great get out the vote on election day. So I think the idea that we didn't run solid candidates, I think that's a myth. I think we did run solid candidates. We did run quality candidates. I think that we've become much more ideological today, especially on the Democrat side, where they'll vote for someone that can't possibly perform in the Senate. We know that. And they don't care. They'd rather that be in charge. And I was looking at comments with the Fetterman-Oz thing, especially after the debate, where you had Democrat commentators saying, well, a Fetterman at 20% is a million times better than an Oz at 100%. And that tells you a lot of what you need to know. What's interesting is that people don't vote their interests anymore, right? So in any normal historical election, the midterms are always damaging to the sitting president in the first midterm election. That's true with the exception of FDR in one election and George W. Bush. This election looks like it's going to continue that trend. But then when you factor in the economy, when you factor in gas prices and inflation, it should have been, Democrats should have gotten decimated. But that didn't happen. And what actually did surprise me and caught me off guard. So over the summer, I said that abortion is going to limit a red wave. And I said that. But then I started seeing the abortion debate actually dying down in early September to mid-September. And it started dropping on the list of important issues. It was coming in sixth, seventh, and eighth. Education was ahead of it. Immigration, crime, all that was ahead. On election day, it turned out that abortion was the second most important issue. Now, when we look at this, most people will never get an abortion. The overwhelming majority of the American population will never get an abortion. It does not affect all Americans all that much. And yet it was the second most important issue to a lot of people. That doesn't make any sense. Gas prices, education, crime, the economy as a whole, that affects everyone. It doesn't sit there and discriminate against Democrat or Republican or independent or men, women, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, doesn't matter. And yet people went to the polls and a lot of them voted based solely on abortion in this state, and including my state of New York, where abortion is actually codified into the Constitution. And no sitting governor is going to be able to change that. So when we look at the way people are voting, people are voting based on emotions. They're not voting based on reason, logic, or self-interest. How do we get around that? Because, I mean, there's a couple different currents here, when you're talking about the Fetterman election. And I agree. I think it's frankly tragic for the country and tragic for the state of Pennsylvania. But how do Republicans or how do any candidates go and say, look, here's what's happened to you and here's how we plan to address that. And you're talking about a large number of voters like, you're not interested. We don't care. We're voting for John Fetterman. Why? Because he's a Democrat. And that's all we care about. If you look at what happened, Gavin Newsom was reelected even after a recall effort. How Gavin Newsom hurt the state of California. I mean, all these people in your state, in New York, Kathy Hochul. So I'm wondering, and also you're talking about abortion, you're talking about how people are voting in accordance with their emotions, right? I mean, you would want to know from New York voters like, well, wait a second. How does this affect you? Because here in New York State, especially New York City, I mean, it's not a problem getting an abortion. Are you telling me that you're worried that women can't get a partial birth abortion on demand in Mississippi or Arkansas? There's a problem with our country? I don't understand. That doesn't seem to me to be rational, but it seems to me to be that's the way people are voting. So how do you get around that? I should not call it a rationality, emotionality. How do you get around that and address people directly and say, wait a minute, slow down here? Well, here's the thing. So if Republicans put up a candidate like Fetterman here in New York for me, I would be extraordinarily mad at the Republican Party itself, right? So Democrats should be furious with the Democrat Party and they should punish Democrat officials. Fetterman had the stroke before the primary. They could have easily just removed him and let Conor Lamb have it. Conor Lamb I disagree with on everything, but he is a capable candidate. They could have removed him shortly after the primary. They had every opportunity to do it. But it shows who the Democrat Party is, the officials are. And so the voters should have actually sent the message to Democrat Party officials saying, hey, it's unfair that you made this our choice. But just look, Fetterman, you have President Biden, which to me is elder abuse, what's going on with him. But even Dianne Feinstein, nobody talks about it, but Dianne Feinstein is suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease. She doesn't know where she is. She doesn't recognize faces in the Senate. And she's just a vessel, right? Now, it's California, so she could easily be expelled from the Senate. And Gavin Newsom is going to appoint, obviously, another far left Democrat. So it wouldn't hurt the Democrat Party at all. But yet they'd rather the empty vessels that they could control, that they could direct, that they vote for. They'd rather that than competent individuals. And it tells you what you need to know. As far as Republicans go and how we get around that, like you're saying, I think that's where the Republican messaging has a problem, right? So take the trans issue in schools from kindergarten through high school. When Republicans speak out against this, they're labeled as conservative, they're labeled as far right. I will guarantee you that 90% of the American people, Democrat and Republican, will say it's inappropriate to sexualize, teach sexuality to children from in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, or third grade. 90% of Americans agree with that. So why are we allowing Democrats to label that far right? I mean, we wouldn't tolerate, you know, Playboy Bunny story hour. If we try doing that, there would be absolute outrage all over the place. So are we really going to say that drag time story hour is normal? Are we going to really say that taking children to drag shows is something that's acceptable? That's not normal or acceptable. And I would say 90% of Americans agree with me on that. So why are we allowing the Democrats to define this as bigoted, as far right? No, it's just common sense, right? We don't subject our kids to Playboy Bunnies, and we don't subject our kids to drag queens. It just, it does a little damage to them. Can we at least admit that? And I think that's where Republicans go wrong, where they don't push back enough. You know, Republicans should be going on the Democrat shows and start calling out the host, asking them questions. Well, would you take your child to a drag time story hour? Would you allow your child to shove dollars in a drag queen's garter belt and see what the host has to say? That's where you expose them to the left-wing audience, to the Democrat audiences. And maybe those audiences, the members would be like, you know, wow, maybe he's onto something. Well, I mean, we could reenact what that would look like. I'll play the CNN host for a second. And I'll say, I don't understand. Why are you a bigot? What's wrong with that? What's wrong with reaffirming trans identity? You sound like a bigot and you're hurting children. This is what they do all the time on TV. And that's where Republicans have to come prepared. And so they need to push back and say, okay, well, since this has been introduced to children, let's look at the numbers and see the mental health crisis that's currently going on in children. Now, it may not be direct causation, but you are confusing children that don't have the capacity to think critically. There's a reason that we don't expose children to certain issues when they're younger. We're not going to talk to children about the electoral college in first grade because it's very complicated and they wouldn't understand it. Are we really going to pretend that children will understand gender theory and gender fluidity? They can understand it. And that's where Republicans would win. I agree entirely with you. It's absurd, but a large part of it is, okay, we're talking about their press. We're talking about their networks, the way they blanket everything. I have a relative who tells me how much courage it took for a woman she knows in left-wing circles to stand up against trans stuff. I'm like, well, what do you mean courage? You're just taking care of your children you're supposed to be doing. She's like, you don't understand. Common sense today is courage. Exactly. It's nonsense. But you look at how they swarm stuff and you have no opportunity. So in every way, I agree with you. People on the right need to be able to make the case. The pro-America faction needs to be able to make the case. It's just logical. We'll support you. We are with you. And in some ways, that's the problem. I know I don't want your right-wing support. That's what's killing me. That's what will hurt us. All of this stuff is right-wing and you want to say as much as possible. It's not. It's just normal. And they can't hear it because of the incredibly powerful echo chamber. Even abortion. So take abortion. Republicans always screw up in the abortion debate. They stammer, they stutter, they don't know how to answer the question and whatnot. It's very simple. If I'm asked the question, would you support abortion in the case of rape and incest? I would say, OK, for the 0.00001% that that happens to, yeah, I'd support it for the 0.00001%. But let's be realistic here. And then Republicans should turn around on them. Do you support nine months of abortion up until birth, pretty much? Do you support post-birth abortion? And put it on them. Do you think taxpayers should be funding abortion? Instead, Republicans will stutter. They'll stammer when they're asked a question about abortion. Put the debate, the argument on them. Zeldin, I have to say, he did do a good job in New York where he said, I can't change abortion. So that's not what I'm going to talk about. I'm going to talk about education. I'm going to talk about crime. I'm going to talk about the economy. But he still allowed the abortion debate to be pushed on him, even though it shouldn't have been an issue. And he should have said, hey, New York state taxpayers, your property taxes are some of the highest in the country. Do you really want to fund abortions? Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of them, I think a lot of them would continue to say, yes. I mean, that's a New York state thing. Look, I want to get into New York state in some detail. We're going to cut away in about 30 seconds here. But I want to talk about New York state in some detail. As you and I have spoken about before, I mean, with the election, with the Zeldin election, look, Zeldin did a great job making the case, putting his case out there. And I think you can speak to a little more specifically about the different candidates that he helped, the congressional candidates that he helped get through. But we're going to cut away right now. We'll be back between 30 to 40 seconds, something like that. If you're on YouTube or Facebook, jump now, go to APOC TV, watch us. You don't want to miss a second of what Nick Giordano and I are speaking about. See you in a sec. What we're talking about is a COVID tribunal to bring to account the government officials and pharmaceutical executives responsible for the injuries and deaths of American citizens. These were documents that I guess they never intended to have released. But they're showing some really shocking things, like enormous amount of miscarriages. They believe that they were shielded by all these governments. And in fact, that's how they were able to roll out these vaccines so quickly. Embalmers, people who take care of the bodies of funeral homes, pulling out these stringy, terrifying looking clots from people's veins, from people's arteries that they're embalming. And this wasn't seen before 2020, 2021. It's a matter of now criminality. Virtually all of the Nuremberg Code has been overrun by American officials and the multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers. All right. Thank you for making the jump. Good call. All right. We're going to go back to our conversation with Professor Nicholas Giordano here. Just a couple of questions coming up. We'll be back in just a moment.