Mike Waltz Discusses The Second Day Of The 2024 RNC

President joining us this morning to talk more about all of this is Republican Congressman Michael Waltz. He is at the R. N. C. And is that a firsthand look at everything that has happened so far? Great to see you, sir. Good to be with you. Thanks. So let's talk first about about the V. P. Pick. What are your thoughts on J. D. Vance and your interactions with him up till now? Well, first, I'm thrilled to have a veteran on the ticket. So simplified all the Marines out there first time since 2000 and eight. Uh, and I look, I think at the end of the day, if you read his book Hillbilly Elegy, he encapsulates. He exemplifies the forgotten man and woman in middle America that President Trump has been winning over to the Republican Party for years now. I was the co chair of the party platform. When we introduced it Monday, we dedicated it to the working man and woman. So I think he is truly going to resonate. His life story is going to resonate in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania in those rust belt communities that have been so devastating by losing manufacturing, whether it was to NAFTA or to China. What did you think of DeSantis and Haley speaking last night in the name of unity of the party? Of course, Haley was sort of a last minute invite. Really? Well, I thought it was fantastic. I thought they were both incredibly gracious and, uh, and really laid out, uh, that where so many of us have been that our lives were better. Our wallets were fuller, our families were safer on the world was relatively at peace compared to where all of those things compared to where they are today. Uh, so it's fantastic to see the Republican Party so positive. So looking forward so unified. But it wasn't just at the elected level the night before. Uh, you had African American celebrity Amber Rose. You had a teamster boss. You had a priest holding up a cross and a a Sikh, you know, chanting in Hindu. So it truly has the kind of the full bench in the full 10 to the Republican Party on display. Uh, and I have to tell you I've smiled as it defies the narratives from the progressive left. Congressman Waltz, I want to talk about today's theme, which is to make America strong again. What does that mean to you? Well, I'll be I'll be speaking tonight to that. At the end of the day, the number one job of the federal government is to keep you safe. Almost everything else. I think state and local could do better and more customized to your lives, but they can't build an army and a navy and a space force. But it will be brought and secure our national borders. So this will be about border security. It'll be about the state of our military under Biden. That's more focused on pronouns and electric tanks than it is being as lethal as possible. But importantly, it's also focused on energy security. We are blessed with abundant oil and gas. Not only do you solve our inflation problem here at home, but you dry up the war machines in Moscow and Tehran. If you would simply export and flood the market with clean American gas. So all of those things will be key topics tonight, and we I'll tease. We may have a few surprises tonight as well. All right, looking forward to that. I want to talk real quick because you do have the hearing coming up next week on the assassination attempt on the former president. What are the questions you still have? We've been been sprinkled this week with a lot of details, and some of them are very disconcerting. Well, I talked to a number of agents the day after the assassination attempt. They are upset. They're frustrated because they have repeatedly requested more resources for the Trump protective detail and have been repeatedly denied by the Secret Service headquarters and by DHS. They have denied the headquarters has denied my assertion, but I think they're splitting hairs here in a really unhealthy way. They may have given him, say, two or three more agents, but it was not the 20 or 30 that were being requested. Trump is not a normal former president. He is not President Carter sitting in a you know, in an old folks home between his multiple residences, how active he is with these huge rallies, and he faces Iranian assassination threats on top of the local and domestic ones. So he needed a much bigger presence. What happens when those resources are denied? Then you have to be reliant on local law enforcement at these rallies, and we love our our cops, but they're not trained to the level as the Secret Service, and it was local law enforcement that was assigned to cover the building that the sniper was on. So I imagine you will have a lot of questions next week in this in this hearing. We have the Secret Service director coming to us Monday or Tuesday, and I have hours worth of questions and for her and my orcas to say, uh, that hey, we're not resigning. We're not going anywhere. I think just points the accountability problem in this administration, whether it's the Afghanistan withdrawal secretary of defense who disappeared for a week without telling anyone. I mean, there have been a series of major, major mistakes, and yet we don't see anyone. We don't see anyone fired or even laterally transferred. Well, we look forward to hearing your speech tonight and to the hearings next week. Congressman Michael Waltz, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us from Milwaukee this morning. Okay, thanks so much. Take care. All right.