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00:00:00 Speaker 1: The voice of free speech. The truth delivered. Common sense for the American people. Welcome to the Scott Jennings Show. 00:00:14 Speaker 2: Bloodbath for the Republican Party. Democrats wipe out the GOP across the country and in some previously deep red states. 00:00:23 Speaker 3: What happened? 00:00:24 Speaker 2: Where does the conservative movement go from here? 00:00:27 Speaker 3: We begin that conversation today. 00:00:29 Speaker 2: Post-election maneuvers already taking shape in Washington. House Speaker Mike Johnson will not run for re-election as leader of the House Republicans. Who will try to replace him? We'll tell you shortly. And Vice President J.D. Vance has a long letter out this morning squarely blaming the Iran war. for the Republican Party's losses in the election. We'll discuss that as well. It's Wednesday, November the 4th. This is Scott Jennings reporting for the Salem Radio Network, the Salem News Channel, and this week on C-SPAN, where our show is being simulcast. And if you're joining us on C-SPAN for the first time, we welcome you in. This is Common Sense for the American people. No matter what happens in any one election, the quest for common sense and to preserve the West and our great country continues right here on this show. 00:01:16 Speaker 3: We'll get to the news in a minute. 00:01:17 Speaker 2: But first, on this day, the first thing that the excavators found was a step, a single step cut into a rock buried beneath the remains of some ancient huts. Now, for years, an Englishman had been searching this stretch of the desert, digging, clearing rubble, looking for something that others believe simply wasn't there, an undiscovered royal tomb. The desert had yielded many disappointments before. But on this November morning, the Englishman's Egyptian crew uncovered something that told them, hey, we may be on to something here. And that one step, well, with a little more digging, turned into a staircase. And the staircase led down to a sealed doorway. Now, the discovery would take weeks to unfold. But later that month, the archaeologists finally made a small opening in the buried structure. And he held up a candle. At first, he could barely make out what lay beyond. Then shapes emerged in that long, sealed darkness. Strange animals and statues and a lot, a lot of gold. His financial patron for the excavation, waiting anxiously behind, said, Can you see anything? And the answer, very simple, yes, wonderful things. That answer came from the archaeologist Howard Carter. and the young king whose burial chamber would astonish the modern world belonged to. 00:02:46 Speaker 3: Tutankhamen, better known to you as King Tut. 00:02:51 Speaker 2: One of history's greatest discoveries began with a single buried step, and it happened on this day, November the 4th, 1922. All right, let's get to the elections. It was a long night. You probably turned in before midnight. I had to sit there at CNN and listen to the gloating until about 2 o'clock this morning. I told the audience, and I'm going to tell you the truth. There's an academic term for what happened to Republicans last night. A country butt whoopin'. Now, I may have been more graphic on television last evening. 00:03:22 Speaker 3: After all, it is cable. 00:03:24 Speaker 2: The Republican Party has been torn down to the studs. Democrats may control upwards of 259 seats in the House when all is said and done. That would leave Republicans with 176. There are still votes being counted out there. In the Senate, Democrats control at least 54 seats, and they lead in Mississippi of all places. 00:03:43 Speaker 3: Alaska, too close to call right now. We've got our eye on that one. 00:03:47 Speaker 2: When something like this happens, a friend of mine told me this morning, you have to worry less about pointing fingers and more about looking in the mirror. And this verdict from the American people ought to command the attention of every Republican in Washington, including the President of the United States. The voters have delivered their message, and the obligation now is to listen to them. There's no need to sugarcoat or overcomplicate this. People want to be able to afford their lives. They want to fill up the car and buy groceries and pay for health care and raise their children while still having something left at the end of the month. And they want to know what you are doing about it. Exactly what are you doing about it? You can spend a billion dollars on campaign commercials. You can put lipstick on pigs. And you can try to levitate lead, as our friend Brad Todd said here yesterday. But you cannot buy your way out of that answer on affordability. Now, Republicans did have accomplishments to defend. The economy is growing, manufacturing included. Violent crime has fallen. Donald Trump's delivered on his promise to close the border. These things matter. They're unequivocal wins for quality of life. But a voter can appreciate a safer neighborhood and still be furious about the price of gas. An expanding manufacturing sector does not erase the grocery bill. And the price at the pump, well, it's America's scoreboard. You see it on the way to work. You see it taking your kids to school. You see it coming home. And you don't need an economist to explain it. It's right there in numbers that are three feet tall. The war is on everyone's mind today. Vice President J.D. Vance has even written a letter blaming the war for the Republican midterm loss. He may be partially right, although if you want to connect it to the price of gas, you can't ignore the impact of tariffs on the price of everything else. The costs of the president's biggest gambles arrived before the benefits when it comes to both tariffs and the war with Iran. Trump accepted real economic and political risk because he believed a stronger industrial base and a more secure world were worth those risks. He may yet be proven right, but the bill came
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due first. A family paying more for life today cannot cash a paycheck from a factory that's been announced but won't open for a few years yet. 00:06:08 Speaker 3: That's a political problem. 00:06:10 Speaker 2: The benefits coming in a few years, according to the president, but the bills for most people are here right now. And then there's Iran. Iran's military has been shattered. Its economy is wrecked. Its currency is tanked. Oil is flowing out of the Middle East at higher volumes than before the war. The naval blockade has worked. We have deleveraged the Strait of Hormuz. In my view, the president has a victory he has every right to claim. So claim it. Now, he should not have paused the blockade in the summer. 00:06:40 Speaker 3: He should not have waited to declare victory. 00:06:43 Speaker 2: Those were strategic errors that cost the Republicans last night. Because Americans are still experiencing this conflict is open-ended. They want to know when it's going to end and what we have to show for it. And there is a message there. But you have to articulate that for the American people. All year, the question was whether the president could turn those sacrifices into benefits that Americans could recognize and how long they were willing to wait. Last night, we got an answer. Their patience has limits. Here's another note for you. Roughly 7 in 10 voters said Congress wasn't doing enough to restrain the president. Turns out the American people like the U.S. 00:07:22 Speaker 3: Constitution. They like checks and balances. 00:07:26 Speaker 2: You cannot claim credit for everything a Republican president is doing and then throw your hands up when people want a policy change. 00:07:33 Speaker 3: You're in Congress, for goodness sakes. You have a job. So do it. 00:07:37 Speaker 2: It's not disloyal to help steer the president or a policy idea in a better direction. Now, if you're a Republican looking for a way forward, it's time to study the people who survived. Byron Donalds, our friend here at the show, he won the governorship in Florida, and he'll become the first elected black Republican governor in American history. Florida felt the Democratic surge. Republicans suffered congressional setbacks there. But Donalds persuaded voters to continue Republican leadership, building on the governing record of Ron DeSantis. That deserves attention. Kelly Ayotte won another term for governor in New Hampshire. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has won another term in Arkansas to build on her excellent record. Senator Tom Cotton in the same state remains a consequential voice on national security and the direction of the party. And of course, there is J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio. The next nominee is going to have to answer three questions. What did Republicans learn? What did they change? And why should Americans, especially independent voters, trust them again? Those answers have to be better than, well, have you seen how bad the Democrats are? And to Republicans licking
their wounds today, remember 2010. Barack Obama's party lost 63 House seats and six Senate seats. He called it a shellacking, and two years later, he won re-election. Political fortunes change, sometimes dramatically and sometimes very quickly. But a comeback requires work, and that brings us to the president. And the two years that he has left, he still has the presidency. He has the veto. He has enormous power. Democrats will have the votes to block his legislative ambitions. And there will be investigations and confrontations, plenty of opportunities for everybody to yell at each other. But Americans, they still need to fill the tank. And the president has to decide where to fight and where to negotiate. It's time to start putting points on the board that people can see. Energy permitting reform, the Farm Bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, these are things Congress could finish in the lame duck session before the new Congress even arrives. Maybe you should even cut taxes again for the American people. We'll talk more all about the elections throughout the remainder of the show today. All right, let's talk about the holidays. They're coming up, and you know you look forward to holiday traditions, walking the grandkids, preparing the traditional family meal, decorating the tree perhaps. But everyday aches and pains have a way of getting in those traditions. Makes it difficult. Makes it feel like a chore instead of something you look forward to. That's why I have a message to you about real pain relief today. that can be brought to you by Relief Factor. It supports your body's natural response to inflammation. It doesn't mask the pain. It deals with it at the source. We're using it in the Jennings household. I'm just telling you from personal experience and from my dad, you won't regret it. Go to relieffactor.com or call them 1-800-4-RELIEF. For the holiday season, get rid of the inflammation, get rid of the pain. A three-week supply is just $ 17. 00:10:43 Speaker 4: 76. 00:10:43 Speaker 2: More news after this. It's Scott Jennings on Salem. 00:10:48 Speaker 3: Stay with us. Who answers America's call for more energy? People do. 00:10:53 Speaker 2: Chevron is helping fuel national energy security. 00:10:57 Speaker 3: Their U.S. 00:10:57 Speaker 2: Production has increased by nearly 60% in the past three years. And with plans to invest over $ 10 billion in U.S. energy projects in 2026, they're helping boost economies, create better jobs, and build an America powered by America's own energy. Learn more about what Chevron's people do at Chevron.com slash America. 00:11:24 Speaker 5: Common sense for the American people. This is the Scott Jennings Show. 00:11:30 Speaker 2: Wednesday, November the 4th, picking through the rubble of last night's midterm elections. You know, our friends at Politico, Dasha Burns and her team, while the election results were coming in, just dialed the phone, and guess what? The president actually answered. It's
about a five-minute call. I thought it was pretty instructive about how he's viewing things. Let's listen to the whole thing here on the Scott Jennings Show. 00:11:52 Speaker 6: Let's try to... Call the president. I think it's time. We've been talking about him. Let's see if he picks up. We've called everyone in J-Mart's Rolodex. Let's see what happens. 00:12:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, but we're getting there. 00:12:05 Speaker 2: You're asking that Israel PM question. 00:12:09 Speaker 5: Yeah, actually, yes. 00:12:10 Speaker 1: Might be a little busy. 00:12:15 Speaker 7: Busy, though. 00:12:18 Speaker 1: Hi, may I ask who's calling? 00:12:20 Speaker 6: Hi, this is Dasha Burns with Politico. 00:12:21 Speaker 7: Hello? 00:12:22 Speaker 8: One moment, please. Hey, Mr. 00:12:34 Speaker 6: President. I'm doing well. 00:12:35 Speaker 7: You're on with me and my colleagues here at Politico. I'm just wondering, what's your message? What do you think happened with your party tonight? 00:12:43 Speaker 9: I wasn't on the ballot, and we didn't get the people out. 00:12:47 Speaker 1: But I wasn't on the ballot. If I was on the ballot, we would have won. 00:12:50 Speaker 10: We would have won it all. 00:12:51 Speaker 1: All very easily. 00:12:52 Speaker 6: But you know, Mr. 00:12:52 Speaker 7: President, you told voters that you were on the ballot to go vote as though you were on the ballot. 00:12:56 Speaker 9: Yeah, I said, say you're on the ballot. 00:12:58 Speaker 1: Think about me being on the ballot. 00:13:00 Speaker 9: But they didn't agree and they didn't like the candidates in most cases. 00:13:04 Speaker 1: Just one of those things. 00:13:06 Speaker 9: Are there certain people elected, by the way, too, but not enough. 00:13:09 Speaker 7: Are there candidates that you think didn't do enough in this election? 00:13:14 Speaker 3: I don't want to blame anybody. 00:13:15 Speaker 9: I just want to say, you know, it was a very interesting period of time. 00:13:19 Speaker 1: I watched with Great interest. Learned from it. 00:13:23 Speaker 6: What did you learn, sir? Curious what you learned. 00:13:26 Speaker 9: Well, we're going to work with the Democrats to make sure things go well for our country. 00:13:30 Speaker 1: Very important. 00:13:31 Speaker 9: They've already called and they want to work with me. I have the right to veto everything. But I don't want to be just sitting there for two years vetoing everything. They want to see things happen, too. I've already spoken to certain leaders of the Democrat Party. 00:13:45 Speaker 1: And we'll probably. 00:13:47 Speaker 6: You have a. 00:13:47 Speaker 1: Lot of friends at the Democrats also. 00:13:49 Speaker 7: Has Hakeem Jeffries called? 00:13:53 Speaker 6: I don't want to say. 00:13:54 Speaker 9: Who, Tasha, but we'll work with the Democrats and we'll make things. 00:13:58 Speaker 8: Work out well for the country. 00:13:59 Speaker 6: Would you consider doing an immigration deal with Democrats? 00:14:02 Speaker 9:
Consider doing whatever I think is appropriate and good. 00:14:05 Speaker 1: For the country. 00:14:06 Speaker 6: Have you spoken to Chuck Schumer? 00:14:09 Speaker 9: I don't want to tell you, but I have spoken to him. 00:14:14 Speaker 6: So you're willing to do some bipartisan work? 00:14:16 Speaker 9: Over the last 20 minutes, actually. I'm always willing to do that. 00:14:23 Speaker 1: I'd be willing to do. 00:14:24 Speaker 9: That any time, including two years ago, I would have done that. 00:14:27 Speaker 6: How much do you think, Mr. 00:14:28 Speaker 7: President, this changes the trajectory of the final two years of your administration? 00:14:34 Speaker 9: I'll let you know a year from now. We have a powerful. 00:14:41 Speaker 1: Veto power, the ultimate. 00:14:43 Speaker 8: It's the ultimate power. 00:14:45 Speaker 1: And if I think it's not good, we're just going to veto. 00:14:47 Speaker 3: They're going to come back and say, how do we get it done? 00:14:49 Speaker 9: We'll see if we can get something done. 00:14:52 Speaker 7: Does this change your thinking about 2028 at all? Marco Rubio, J.D. 00:14:55 Speaker 6: Vance, some of the other people that have been thinking? 00:14:58 Speaker 8: We'll have to see. That's still a long way off. 00:15:01 Speaker 1: That's a long way off. 00:15:03 Speaker 7: What is your message to the Republican Party now in this moment? 00:15:07 Speaker 9: All you have to do is come together. 00:15:09 Speaker 8: You have to just keep good policy. 00:15:11 Speaker 1: A lot of people say the. 00:15:12 Speaker 9: Oil price because of Iran, but I'm very. 00:15:17 Speaker 9: I am totally convinced that my decision on Iran for the long-term good of our country and even the world was an absolutely correct one, and it continues to be. 00:15:26 Speaker 2: Well, Mr. 00:15:27 Speaker 7: President, what can Americans expect in Iran? Are you going to escalate now? 00:15:31 Speaker 9: Well, we're going to take a look, and if we see any opportunity to do one thing or another, we're going to do what's best for this country. 00:15:39 Speaker 6: There's been speculation that he might be willing to use nuclear power over Iran. 00:15:44 Speaker 8: Is that a possibility? 00:15:45 Speaker 1: I don't need it. We've knocked him out already 90 percent. I don't need that. 00:15:50 Speaker 6: What do you think? 00:15:51 Speaker 7: We spoke to Byron Donald earlier tonight, who, of course, is someone you have endorsed and you have supported. He was a real bright spot for the Republican Party. What do you think he did to be successful where others weren't? 00:16:04 Speaker 9: Well, he's just a good guy and a good candidate and he ran a good race and I endorsed. 00:16:09 Speaker 8: Him, which was very important. 00:16:10 Speaker 1: He called me an hour ago and he just thanked me. 00:16:14 Speaker 9: And we had the senator, Ashley, also elected with my endorsement. 00:16:19 Speaker 8: You know, my endorsement elected a lot of people. 00:16:22
Speaker 7: Do you think, sir, that Mike Johnson should stay on as minority leader in the House? 00:16:29 Speaker 8: I think he's done a very good job. 00:16:32 Speaker 1: I think he's done a very good job. 00:16:34 Speaker 7: So you think he should keep a leadership position? 00:16:36 Speaker 1: Well, I think he's done a good job. 00:16:37 Speaker 8: I mean, they're going to have to make that decision. He's going to have to make that decision. But he's a good person and a good man, and he's done a good job. 00:16:45 Speaker 1: I'll see you. We'll do an interview. 00:16:47 Speaker 6: I've got to get out of here. All right. Thank you, Mr. President. Appreciate it. 00:16:50 Speaker 3: Bye-bye. 00:16:52 Speaker 11: Can't beat that. 00:16:52 Speaker 6: There you have it. 00:16:55 Speaker 3: That was last night. 00:16:56 Speaker 2: President Trump on the phone with the political team at Politico. That was Dasha Burns there talking to the president. And there's been some updates on what's going to happen to the Republican leadership in Congress. They were just discussing. We'll get into that with Henry Olson on the other side. More news after this. It's Scott Jennings on Salem. 00:17:11 Speaker 3: Stay with us. 00:17:27 Speaker 5: You want to drive a leftist crazy? Tell the truth and keep smiling. This is the Scott Jennings Show. 00:17:36 Speaker 2: And there's a few candidates out there that should be singled out. 00:17:39 Speaker 3: Paxton was a huge mistake. Vivek Ramaswamy. 00:17:43 Speaker 2: So twice now, he seems to have misunderstood the object of politics, which is to make people to like you and not be a human repellent. And that is what he has done in Ohio. And I think it hurt everybody else over there. I think it hurt John Husted. There's something to be said for just trying to be basically nice and basically approachable. And that ad that they ran is going to go down as one of the dumbest strategic blunders at a time when you could ill afford it because of the environment. 00:18:11 Speaker 10: Mr. President, I want you to hear from Florida that we are still ready. 00:18:20 Speaker 1: But Mr. 00:18:20 Speaker 10: President, I also want to tell you thank you for your support and thank you for being in my corner. I also want to thank Governor DeSantis. Because Governor DeSantis has done a great job leading Florida these last eight years. And now as your next governor, we are going to make sure that Florida remains the very best state in all of America. 00:18:46 Speaker 1: You know, you put out a message on True Social, Mr. President, saying I wasn't on the ballot. If I was, this would have been a landslide. I wasn't on the ballot. 00:18:53 Speaker 3: If I was on the ballot, they would have gotten out. 00:18:55 Speaker 2: Look, they got out for the rallies. 00:18:57 Speaker 1: You never saw rallies that big. I mean, outside of the rallies I have when I have, you know, the general election. 00:19:05 Speaker 10: All right. 00:19:05 Speaker 2: We've been listening to some sound from last night's political coverage on the 2026 midterms. 00:19:11 Speaker 3: You heard me from CNN there. and I believe we heard a little bit. 00:19:16 Speaker 2: Of Byron Donalds, a lone bright spot for the Republicans last night, winning the governorship in Florida and a little bit of the president. 00:19:22 Speaker 3: Calling into Fox News. 00:19:23 Speaker 2: To discuss it all, our friend is– do we still have Henry Olson connected, guys? Okay, Henry Olson from the Ethics and Public Policy Center is here, columnist for The Washington Post. Henry, we had you on yesterday, and you had some dire predictions for the Republicans. And, you know, some people may not have been happy about that. But what I like to do here is tell people the truth. And I think that's what you have been doing for several weeks. You've been trying to. prepare people that this election night may not be good. So I'm going to start here. Based on what you thought was going to happen, was it even worse than where you thought it was going to land, or did you foresee a possibility that the landslide could grow this big? 00:20:07 Speaker 12: No, I wish I could say I foresaw the possibility of 260 House seats and 56 Senate seats going to the Democrats. I thought the worst that it was going to be was maybe 54 Senate seats and 250 House seats. So I was directionally prepared for a really awful night, but even I wasn't prepared for the sheer awfulness from a Republican perspective of what transpired. 00:20:31 Speaker 3: Let's talk about how it happened. 00:20:33 Speaker 2: And we'll leave the issues aside for a minute. 00:20:35 Speaker 3: I just want to talk about the numbers. 00:20:37 Speaker 2: Just looking at it last night as I was sitting there at the CNN desk, am I generically correct if I said Democrats turned out at near presidential levels, independents swung hard against the Republicans, and a heck of a lot of Republican voters just didn't. 00:20:54 Speaker 3: Vote at all? Is that a basic, correct explanation of what happened? 00:20:59 Speaker 12: Yeah, with an emphasis on numbers one and two, you know, is that a lot of Republicans did turn out when you take a look at the voter poll, which is the new version of the exit poll. It was only a D plus one electorate. Republicans have won plenty of elections in the last 40 years with D plus one. Even if you throw in leaners, it was only a D plus four electorate. Again, Republicans have won plenty of elections in the last 40 years with a D plus four electorate. What happened was that some Republicans didn't vote Republican, but it was still not the reason of the loss. It was the wipe out among independents and the near unanimity among Democrats. And you throw all three of those things together and you've just got a toxic brew for team red. 00:21:44 Speaker 1: All right. 00:21:44 Speaker 2: Let's talk about the Republicans who did turn out. Obviously there weren't too many bright spots. They did
turn out a little bit in Florida and they saved Byron Donalds in Florida. 00:21:55 Speaker 3: He'll be the governor. 00:21:56 Speaker 2: But below the surface, several of those congressional races that Republicans redistricted and tried to put on the board, that all went back to the Democrats anyway. How do you analyze the Florida electorate? And I want to get into this because any time you get wiped out, you've got to look for some kind of bright spots. And right now what I'm looking at is Florida, Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, who I think we. 00:22:19 Speaker 3: Talked about yesterday. 00:22:19 Speaker 2: Arkansas was a bright spot where Tom Cotton and Sarah Huckabee Sanders were. 00:22:24 Speaker 3: Were reelected. 00:22:25 Speaker 2: Other than that, I'm not seeing a lot of light out there, but let's start with Florida and your assessment of the electorate there. 00:22:31 Speaker 12: Yeah, you know, the big problem there, Republicans had something like a plus eight or plus nine advantage in percentages on Democrats. If they had split independence, this would have been an easy win for Donald and Moody. It's quite clear that people who are not aligned with any political party overwhelmingly broke to the Democrats pretty much everywhere. You know, obviously, somebody like a Kelly Ayotte, a Phil Scott in neighboring Vermont, to a lesser degree, Susan Collins, she lost, but she well outperformed where a normal Republican would have. Those are the bright spots. could cross over and get people who didn't like what was going on in the White House to say, yeah, I'm going to vote for this Republican. But Florida is clearly an example of a state that has moved so far to the right that it's very difficult for Democrats to win statewide there. If they couldn't knock off Byron Donalds in a year like this in Florida, I think it's going to be very difficult for them to win the governorship in the foreseeable future. 00:23:31 Speaker 2: Henry, when you think about What happened last night versus all the other elections you've covered? 00:23:37 Speaker 3: What's most similar? 00:23:38 Speaker 2: I mean, for me, you know, I was in the Bush political affairs office in 2006 when that wipeout happens. And certainly we've seen some other, you know, 2010 was a bad move against the Democrats. Some people say this is more akin to the 1974 post Watergate wipeout. Where do you land on the historic analogy? 00:23:58 Speaker 12: Well, certainly with the numbers, as far as what the Democrats look like they're going to win the national House vote is, it's the worst for any party since the Watergate era, either 74 or 76, depending on how you take a look at it. And that's really stunning because those numbers in the 70s that Democrats were winning were in eras when Republicans were non-competitive in the South. So there's like 30 or more candidates that they didn't even feel and were able to run up that number. You know, what this really is, I think, is a probably the worst
defeat in a congressional election of any party in at least the last 50 years, perhaps going back to 1958 when Republicans were wiped off the board during a recession in the last term of the Eisenhower administration. But it just comes back down to Yes, Republicans didn't vote in the same frequency as Democrats. Yes, Republicans defected at a higher rate. But the real question is the middle of America, the independent voter who gave Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt in 2024 and made him president and made Republicans Senate majority and House majority overwhelmingly rejected both the president and the party last night. And that is the primary reason why we have the debacle for the Republican Party that has unfolded. 00:25:18 Speaker 2: Talking to Henry Olson from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, one of our favorite elections analysts and a columnist for The Washington Post. 00:25:26 Speaker 3: Henry, the vice president, J.D. 00:25:27 Speaker 2: Vance, has a letter out that he's released to the public today squarely blaming the Iran war and apparently only the Iran war for what he thinks happened. 00:25:37 Speaker 3: Last night. 00:25:37 Speaker 2: Do you agree with the vice president or is he oversimplifying this or choosing to ignore other issues? 00:25:43 Speaker 12: Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both. The president was in trouble and the party was in trouble before the Iran war. The president's job approval rating among registered and likely voters was between 44 and 45. Not terrible, but on par with the 2018 loss. And we all remember what happened in 2018. So clearly there were some difficulties. Clearly what happened with ice in 2025. A lot of Latinos and other non-white voters who had perhaps voted Republican for the first time in their lives in 2024. That was all going into the Iran war. But the fact is, if the president had not attacked Iran. his job approval rating would have been significantly higher. It was not in free fall, but it was in a continual downward movement ever since the Iran war started, and particularly after the first month when it became clear we had neither won nor lost. And I think that's the primary reason why you went from what would have likely been a defeat, as all midterms tend to be defeats, into one being a historic wipeout. And it's not necessarily the war. It's the fact that there doesn't seem to be a strategy for getting out of it. And it's caused a lot of economic pain with not a whole lot of gains so far. We'll see how the president seems to respond to it. But I do think that the vice president has a strong argument to make that that was a significant factor in last night's defeat. 00:27:07 Speaker 2: Would you say that the Iran war was a bigger deal than the tariffs? I've seen some charts showing the president's job approval and people's views on the economy really tanking almost the moment he announced the tariffs on Liberation Day. And although he does have a story to tell in the macro, there is manufacturing. 00:27:24 Speaker 3: Expansion, the GDP growth is good. 00:27:27 Speaker 2: You can't really cash a paycheck from a factory that's going to start hiring people in the 2030s when you need to pay for gas and groceries today. I think, to me, ignoring the tariffs and just fully blaming the war is being a little bit dishonest. 00:27:41 Speaker 3: What do you think? 00:27:42 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:27:42 Speaker 12: I mean, I, I was trying to say he was partly right and partly wrong. I wasn't saying he's fully wrong. Certainly the tariffs contributed to that, uh, and particularly among certain key industries. But, uh, you know, the thing is, again, the president had imposed the tariffs. He did take a popularity hit, uh, but it remained relatively strong until the end of October of 2025. And then the government shutdown kind of just push numbers down. And then we're coming up again among registered voters. Um, It was, again, not great, but the tariffs have hurt in particular industries. The tariffs have raised prices a little bit, but not a huge amount. But the real big issue, I think, is what happened with the war is that with the war, you had gas prices going up 40 to 60 percent. You had all of the effects that hit the agriculture industry. Take a look at where a lot of these really stunning losses happen. They're in agriculture heavy areas, whether it's wheat, corn. Peanuts, soybeans. I mean, all these places. There's a seat in Tennessee that Donald Trump carried by 24 points where the Republican incumbent is behind. There's nobody who would have thought that Scott Desjarlais is going to lose a Trump 24 seat. But that's what it looks like right now. And it's going to be because the margins in the agricultural regions cannot did not outweigh the Nashville area that the gerrymander added. 00:29:04 Speaker 2: More with Henry Olson right after this. First, a quick word from our friends at AARP. If you're like me, and Henry, I assume, you've been paying into Social Security your whole working life, and it's your money. 00:29:15 Speaker 3: You earned it. 00:29:15 Speaker 2: But special interest groups in Washington are pushing cuts to Social Security, and at a time when Americans are depending on it more than ever. That's why AARP is fighting to stop the cuts. If you agree that Social Security should be protected, go to aarp.org slash we earned it and take the pledge today. 00:29:32 Speaker 3: More after this. 00:29:40 Speaker 5: The very definition of never back down. Here's Scott Jennings. 00:29:46 Speaker 10: All right. 00:29:47 Speaker 3: Wednesday, November the 4th. 00:29:48 Speaker 2: We continue our post election analysis with our friend Henry Olson from the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Also read his columns in The Washington Post. Henry, even as we pick across the rubble here and still count votes from this election, we are looking ahead to 2028. Some people may be screaming into a pillow right now hearing me say that. But
there are a lot of Republicans asking, A, you know, how does the Republican Party dig out of a hole this deep? Can it be done in one election cycle? And B, a lot of Republicans are asking, well, who's going to lead the party? President Trump can't run again. And there's some empirical evidence now that some of his policies aren't all that popular. 00:30:26 Speaker 3: And so What does that mean for J.D. 00:30:28 Speaker 11: Vance? 00:30:28 Speaker 2: What's it mean for Marco Rubio? What's it mean for Ted Cruz, Glenn Youngkin and others? Brian Kemp, perhaps of Georgia. Let's tackle the first question about the Congress. It's a deep hole that Republicans are now in. Could they possibly dig out of it in one cycle or is this more of a four year project, in your opinion? 00:30:45 Speaker 12: It's probably more of a four year project, but you never know. And that is that if Democrats put up somebody who is particularly conservative, progressive at a time when people are feeling better about the Trump administration, that could very well spark a reaction in the back. There's going to be a lot of contested seats in the Senate. Don't forget, this is the 2022 cycle where there were a lot of purple states that were on the ballot and Republicans lost all of them. And if a year that turns out to be good for Republicans and get two years as an eternity in politics, you could easily see Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Georgia, flipping back in reaction against a ultra left-wing Democratic nominee and his or her party. So it'd be tough, but I wouldn't put it beyond the possibility. We've seen a lot of whipsaw in American politics in the last decade and a half. 00:31:41 Speaker 2: Henry, there's, well, let's look at it from this angle. Is there a historic analog of for the decision facing J.D. 00:31:49 Speaker 3: Vance right now. 00:31:49 Speaker 2: I mean, he's coming out of one term as vice president, massive beating for the Republicans in the midterm preceding the time when he would run. He's got another cabinet member sitting there that a lot of people want, and he's got some external agitators saying maybe we need to go in a different direction. Is there a historical analog for what's facing Vance? Do you consider him this day, following what happened last night, to be the frontrunner for the Republicans. 00:32:15 Speaker 3: In 28 or not? 00:32:17 Speaker 12: The first question on the historical analog, there's some close analogs. Richard Nixon was vice president to Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1958 midterm was an utter debacle for the Republican Party. It took them 22 years to dig out from the hole that happened after the 1958 midterm. So he had to figure out how do I separate myself from a very popular World War Two general two term president while also maintaining fidelity? It was a very difficult thing for Dick Nixon to do. Hubert Humphrey in 1968 would be another one that we'd like to forget that after the 64 huge landslide, 66 was a terrible midterm for Democrats after the Great Society passed. And with the bombing in Vietnam, Humphrey was all kind of tied. He knew he had to distance himself from LBJ, but LBJ was still conducting the war. It wasn't until the last week when LBJ did the political thing and declared a halt to bombing in North Vietnam. And many people think had he done it a week earlier, Humphrey, not Nixon, would have won that election. So those are two examples. And I'd say Vance. 00:33:21 Speaker 12: Has put out a statement kind of distancing himself from the president on the Iran war. And I think that is an attempt to manage expectations is that he knows that his fate is tied in some way to the president. He sees what the potential competitors have been doing in the last 24 hours alone, trying to put themselves as potential alternatives. And I think he's trying to put himself out there and say, hey, I am with this president, but I am my own man. And I think he's trying to salvage a frontrunner position. Right now, I'd have to say that that's too soon to say. 00:33:58 Speaker 3: 30 seconds to go here with Henry Olson. 00:34:00 Speaker 2: On the Democratic side, we're already hearing rumblings of Democrats who want to run in 2028. Did anything that happened last night give you any clues as to which of these potential candidates, maybe upwards of 20 of them, starts the race as a nominal frontrunner? 00:34:15 Speaker 12: Yeah, no, not really. The nominal frontrunner, according to polls, is Kamala Harris, but there's nothing that happened that hurt or helped her last night. The only candidate that I think clearly helped was AOC is that progressives are winning everywhere. And in the progressive mindset, if El-Sayed can win Michigan by seven points, if William Lawrence can win, if all these other people the DLC said or DTRIP said were too progressive win, well, why not AOC for president? 00:34:44 Speaker 2: Henry Olson, Ethics and Public Policy Center, columnist for The Washington Post, and one of our great friends here at The Scott Jennings Show for his expert election analysis and election forecasting. Henry, it's been a great honor and a pleasure to have you along for the ride the last few weeks, and I'm sure we'll see you again here in the next few days. We've got to take a break for the top of the hour news. We'll have more analysis after this on The Scott Jennings Show. 00:35:06 Speaker 1: The voice of free speech. The truth delivered. Common sense for. 00:35:14 Speaker 9: The American people. 00:35:17 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Scott Jennings Show. 00:35:21 Speaker 3: Alright, it's Wednesday, November the 4th. 00:35:24 Speaker 2: Welcome back here to the Scott Jennings Show on Salem radio stations, the Salem radio network, coast to coast on the Salem News Channel and simulcasting all week long on C-SPAN. If you're just catching this show for the first time ever on C-SPAN, we welcome you. We're grateful for our Partnership with C-SPAN, and we hope you stick
around after this week. Covering the elections today, let's see. We have a lot of things to go through, and I just kind of want to start with the news. You already know Democrats won last night's midterm election in a landslide. 00:35:57 Speaker 3: They'll have a huge majority in the U.S. House. 00:35:59 Speaker 2: There are still some votes being counted, by the way. And they're going to have a large majority in the U.S. Senate, at least 54 seats. Now, there are two Senate seats that are still laying out there, and I'm looking down here at my monitor. because I want to give you the latest vote totals on Mississippi and on Alaska. Right now in Mississippi, they have counted more than 95% of the votes. So virtually all votes have been counted in Mississippi. And what I am showing is the Democrat, Scott Colombe, 462,857, and the incumbent Republican, Cindy Hyde-Smith, 462,792. 00:36:42 Speaker 3: That is a very close race. 00:36:44 Speaker 2: Both candidates have 48.9%. 00:36:47 Speaker 3: Of the vote. 00:36:47 Speaker 2: Now, interestingly, this didn't get a lot of attention last night. There was a third candidate in this race, a man named Ty Pinkins. He ran as an independent. 00:37:00 Speaker 1: 19,938 votes. 00:37:00 Speaker 2: You wonder if he had not been in the race where those people might have gone because the number of votes he has is far more than what separates Colombe and Cindy Hyde-Smith right now. The Colombe story is interesting. Back during the Biden years, Mr. Colombe was nominated by Joe Biden to be a federal judge. Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent Republican senator, wouldn't return what they call in the Senate a blue slip, meaning she effectively acquiesces to or accepts the president's nomination. She wouldn't return it. So Colombe never went on the federal bench. Now he leads her in the race for the United States Senate. The other thing this race featured was creative advertising for Mr. 00:37:47 Speaker 3: Cologne. 00:37:47 Speaker 2: By the way, the National Democrats invested virtually nothing in this race. 00:37:51 Speaker 3: But they had a debate. And in the debate, the price of beef came up. 00:37:56 Speaker 2: And Cindy Hyde-Smith was asked about it, and she said, well, you know, you have so many proteins you can choose from. 00:38:01 Speaker 3: Pick another protein. And the Cologne campaign. 00:38:06 Speaker 2: expertly took that moment and put it in a now memorable ad. I can't play it because there's a little bit of cursing in it, but it was cleverly done and it's known now and will forever be known as the pick another protein, pick another Senator ad. 00:38:22 Speaker 3: And that also went. 00:38:23 Speaker 2: Viral and propelled Cologne's campaign. So we're going to have to keep an eye on Mississippi. I assume there's going to be a recount here because it's just tens of votes that that separate Colombe and Cindy Hyde-Smith. All right, let's zoom over to Alaska, where the, let's see here, checking the, yes, 77% of the
votes are in. Still a lot of votes to count. Well, a lot of percentage is still hanging out there. It's Alaska, so there's not that many people there. Right now, the Democrat Mary Peltola has 102,701 votes. That's good for 48.2%. The Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan, has 102,075 votes. So like 600 plus votes separates Peltola and Dan Sullivan. The next person on the list is a guy named Gerald Heikas. He has 4,821 votes. The next person on the list is the imposter Dan Sullivan, the supposed independent, the supposed, hey, I just woke up one day and decided to run for office guy, when we then found out it was the Democrats who put him on the ballot. 00:39:42 Speaker 3: He has 3,583 votes. So the imposter Dan Sullivan. 00:39:48 Speaker 2: Currently has more votes than what separates the incumbent, actual Dan Sullivan, and his Democratic challenger, Mary Peltola. But again, 77% of the votes have been counted here, more votes to count. Now, interestingly, nobody's at 50%. They have ranked choice voting in Alaska, so people could vote for their top choice. 00:40:12 Speaker 3: And then rank the other candidates below that. 00:40:14 Speaker 2: If nobody gets 50%, they start using those ranked choices to calculate additional votes. 00:40:21 Speaker 3: So we're going to have to keep an eye on Alaska. 00:40:24 Speaker 2: Right now it is unclear which party is going to control the Senate seats in Alaska and in Mississippi. But what is clear is that the Democrats are going to have a massive majority in the Senate. 54 could get as high as 56 here pending the outcome. Probably going to be a few days before we find out what happens next. in Mississippi and in Alaska. Elsewhere, other stories that I thought were interesting last night. Up in Ohio, you know my thoughts on this. I've said them on CNN and said them to you here on Salem Radio. The Ohio Republican candidate for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, lost to the Democrat Amy Acton. 00:41:09 Speaker 3: He ran. 00:41:10 Speaker 2: His campaign chose to run and spend millions of dollars on one of the dumbest, most despicable, strategically incoherent ads I have ever seen. 00:41:24 Speaker 3: You're certainly aware of it. 00:41:26 Speaker 2: They took the mother of Amy Acton, the mother who's clearly mentally disturbed, the mother who hadn't seen her daughter since she was 12, the mother who stuck with a stepfather that had been accused of and indicted of raping her own daughter. They put that woman, who the New York Times I think later uncovered was living in a car in Pennsylvania with a bunch of cats. 00:41:48 Speaker 3: It's a very sad story all around. 00:41:51 Speaker 2: They took that woman, interviewed her, put her on television, and spent something like four-plus million dollars on it. And for a lot of people who'd never heard of or at least didn't know the story of Amy Acton, they learned very quick that she had a terrible childhood and had overcome that. And they also learned very quick about the character
and strategic capabilities of Vivek Ramaswamy. Here's what I said on CNN last night, cut number six. And there's a few candidates out there that should be singled out. Paxton was a huge mistake. Vivek Ramaswamy. So twice now he seems to have misunderstood the object of politics, which is to make people to like you and not be a human repellent. And that is what he has done in Ohio. And I think it hurt everybody else over there. I think it hurt John Husted. There's something to be said for just trying to be basically nice and basically approachable. And that ad that they ran is going to go down as one of the dumbest strategic blunders at a time when you could ill afford it because of the environment. 00:42:54 Speaker 8: All right. 00:42:54 Speaker 9: Got it. 00:42:56 Speaker 2: All right, that was some conversation we had on CNN last night. Now, it's not all, it's mostly, but it's not all gloom and doom for the Republicans. You could look to Florida and say, what are they doing in Florida that makes voters there want to be registered Republicans and want to have Republicans in control of the state government? 00:43:14 Speaker 3: Florida used to be a purple state. 00:43:16 Speaker 2: Now, pretty solidly Republican, although the Senate race was close, Ashley Moody, The Republican was reelected, but in a very, very close race. And the redistricting gambit failed. Democrats won lots of seats at the congressional level in Florida. But for governor, but for governor, Byron Donalds was elected the governor there. He's the first black Republican elected governor in the history of the United States. Ron DeSantis is the current and outgoing governor of Florida. He has a lot of credit for making Florida such a stronghold for the Republicans. He's certainly alarmed by what he saw last night. 00:43:53 Speaker 3: Let's hear from Governor DeSantis in cut number five. 00:43:57 Speaker 13: You look ahead to the 28th election, a presidential election. You are not, as Republicans, going to be able to retake the Senate. under this current map just two years from now. And with all the House seats that have been done, probably not viable to take that back as well. So this is really going to have an impact two years, four years, six years, maybe even longer before Republicans could exercise unified control in Washington again, like we've enjoyed over the last two years. 00:44:29 Speaker 2: There's some people who are now promoting, as they did four years ago, the idea that Governor DeSantis should run for president in 2028, although he's made no announcements about that. We'll keep this conversation going after our next commercial break. First, I want to give you a message from our friends at Relief Factor. You know, they know that you're looking forward to the holidays and they know the traditions that we share with our families, walking the grandkids, making the family meal, decorating the tree. They know how much that means to you. And they also know that everyday aches and pains can get in the way. And in some cases, ruin the holidays. And that's why they're so committed to making real pain relief available to you. 00:45:10 Speaker 3: They have a product called Relief Factor. 00:45:12 Speaker 2: It is designed to support your body's natural response to inflammation. It doesn't mask the pain. It deals with it at the source. We use it in the Jennings household. My 68-year-old father's been using it for. 00:45:22 Speaker 1: Over a year. 00:45:22 Speaker 2: I watched this man drain jump shot after jump shot in the driveway with my four boys. It's worked for him. It's worked for us. It could work for you. Finding relief from pain is just the beginning. The real gift is what comes next. You get those moments and more time with the people that you love. Go to relieffactor.com or call 1-800-4-RELIEF. A three-week supply is only $ 17. 76. Get rid of the pain before the holidays. Call Relief Factor today. More news after this. It's Scott Jennings on Salem. 00:45:53 Speaker 3: Stay with us. 00:46:05 Speaker 5: He's the author of the best-selling book, A Revolution of Common Sense. 00:46:10 Speaker 1: Here's Scott Jennings. Wednesday, November the. 00:46:14 Speaker 3: 4th, here on Salem and C-SPAN. 00:46:16 Speaker 2: You're watching on C-SPAN. Thanks for joining us here. So we're tracking down the news on counting the votes. We're still looking at Mississippi and Alaska. And since I reported to you the vote totals in Mississippi, some of the tracking sites have actually reported that More votes have come in in Mississippi. I don't see them on the New York Times yet, guys, but I do see them here on Decision Desk and several other places, so I'm going to read them. The Democrat, Scott Colom, has expanded his lead over the Republican, Cindy Hyde-Smith. It looks like Colom now has 466,351, and Cindy Hyde-Smith has 464,487, so a couple of thousand vote lead. 00:46:58 Speaker 3: For Scott Colombe. 00:46:59 Speaker 2: And the independent now, Ty Pinkins, has just over 20,000 votes, 20,022. So a case where an independent, he got a little over 2% of the vote, but certainly bigger than the margin that separates Colombe from Cindy Hyde-Smith. Other things on my mind right now. Well, the Democrats have huge majorities, and a lot of people think they intend to impeach Donald Trump or possibly impeach members of his cabinet. Now, the president went outside this morning and made a few remarks over at the ballroom, but he did get a few questions about what's going to happen now. One of those questions was, are you worried about being impeached? I think we have that audio from the president. Let's hear his answer in cut number eight. 00:47:44 Speaker 3: No, no, no. 00:47:47 Speaker 1: Not even a little bit. It would I think it would. 00:47:49 Speaker 13: Destroy the Democrat Party if they did that. 00:47:54 Speaker 1: Impeachment for no reason. 00:47:55 Speaker 10: What? 00:47:56 Speaker 1: For having a successful country. Our
country is more successful now than at any time in its history. 00:48:02 Speaker 2: That was the president talking today. He did an event over at the ballroom. He took a few questions. That was one of the more interesting answers. Interestingly, and, you know, I've been asked this a lot. What would the president do if Democrats take control? And he has said now in an interview that we played earlier with Politico and some others, he wants to work with the Democrats. One thing about two-term presidents, you get down to the last couple of years, they start thinking about legacy. No longer has to worry about elections or being reelected. They want to know, how are people going to remember me? What are the things that I want to do before I leave office? It's obvious the president is still looking for some part of a legacy. Now, he's going to have to work with people who viscerally hate him in order to get it. 00:48:48 Speaker 3: And it's a good question for Democrats. 00:48:49 Speaker 2: If the president's willing to sign some things that would be a good deal for the country, are you willing to go along? Will your ego permit you to pass bills that will carry Donald Trump's signature? We don't know the answer to that just yet. The other things about accountability following an election have to do with, well, if you work for Donald Trump or you supported Donald Trump or you financially supported Trump and his party, what's going to happen to you? One of the leading voices On the American left is a podcaster named Scott Galloway. Now, Scott Galloway has time and again proven himself to be, he's one of those smart morons. It's like there are some people who make a living in this country pretending or trying to like cultivate the image of being a smart person, but then you listen to what they say. And you realize this person is the opposite of that. I put Galloway in that category. It's everybody's personal preference. 00:49:45 Speaker 3: That's my view. 00:49:46 Speaker 2: But Galloway is already talking about what to do to Elon Musk. What should they do to Elon Musk for the crime of supporting the wrong party? 00:49:56 Speaker 3: Listen to Galloway. Cut to. 00:49:58 Speaker 11: We have begun believing. through this ridiculous, unhealthy, and dangerous idolatry of innovators that they get to live by an entirely different standard. Elon Musk is a traitor to the West. We lined up the Rosenbergs against a wall. This is a traitor to the West, and you should be held to the same standards as every other traitor in the West. 00:50:24 Speaker 3: Now, understand what Mr. 00:50:25 Speaker 2: Galloway is saying there, that Elon Musk is a traitor to not just to the United States, but to the West, and he should be lined up. And if you don't, if you need me to spell it out for you, here it is. Lined up in front of a wall and shot. That's what Galloway, I believe, is arguing. 00:50:44 Speaker 1: Why? 00:50:45 Speaker 2: Because he started companies, because he is successful, because he supported the wrong political party. He decided to help Donald Trump win elections. That is what they are saying about Elon Musk. Makes you wonder, what are they going to wind up saying about members of the cabinet, members of the president's staff, the president himself? Now, remains to be seen whether Democrats who now control the Congress are going to go along with this sort of violent, reactionary thinking. But you can bet there are going to be more than a handful of people in Congress who want to go down at least some sort of a punitive road Did you help Donald Trump win in 2024? 00:51:30 Speaker 3: Have you helped him govern? 00:51:31 Speaker 2: Well, as one of the Democrats who will be running a committee tweeted last night, Law, you're up. The reprisals are at hand, according to their social media pronouncements. We'll have more news after this. It's Scott Jennings on Salem. 00:51:49 Speaker 1: Stay with us. 00:51:57 Speaker 5: The man who made CNN safe for conservatives again. 00:52:01 Speaker 1: Here's Scott Jennings. 00:52:02 Speaker 8: You know, I've. 00:52:03 Speaker 2: Got to look at the numbers, Hollywood Sean, but I'm seeing some tweets and some information that CNN may have been the most watched election night of the cable nets. I've got to track this down, but I've got to tell you, being in the studio there, they built a brand new election center. I was there with Van Jones, who was, of course, jubilant. Casey Hunt and David Axelrod, we were sort of the four analysts, and we were connected to Anderson Cooper. 00:52:29 Speaker 3: So we were sort of one end of the studio. In the middle, we had. 00:52:32 Speaker 2: Reporters and producers who were tracking down various aspects of the vote counting and legal issues. Then on the other end of the studio, we had Dana Bash and Caitlin Collins and Jake Tapper and John King at the Magic Wall. It was sort of a multilayered studio, and it looked pretty cool on TV, I've got to say. And I just wanted to congratulate CNN on apparently having big ratings last night and building a new studio that looked excellent and presented information to the American people in a very, very pleasing way. Other news items. Well, this is interesting. The markets, well, a lot of green here. Dow Jones up almost 3% right now, 1,500-plus points. NASDAQ up 1.75%, up 443%. S & P 500 up 1.7%, 128 points. And this is perhaps the most interesting, the only red on my market board here. 00:53:24 Speaker 3: Crude oil down 8.5%. Now a barrel trading at $ 87. 00:53:28 Speaker 4: 84, $ 87. 00:53:28 Speaker 1: Down 8.5%. 00:53:28 Speaker 3: Interesting. 00:53:29 Speaker 5: Interesting. 00:53:47 Speaker 2: I wonder why oil is falling today here on the day after the election. Other political notes out in California. It looks like the billionaire's tax is going down. Probably a good move for California. 00:54:00 Speaker 3: And in the L.A. mayor's race, it seems like the socialist is going to defeat the
incumbent Karen Bass. Rahman, the socialist, leading Bass, and it seems likely, according to the L.A. Times, that the odds favor Nithya Raman. Xavier Becerra was easily elected governor of California. 00:54:22 Speaker 2: We're going to talk about that. Plus, what is going on with House Republican leadership? Lots of news and maneuvering. We'll talk about that with our friend Cameron Arcand from Town Hall here in just a moment. First, you have been hearing me talk about, for many weeks now, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. And there's a reason I talk about them. There's a reason I brought them in as a partner to the Scott Jennings Show. It's because they get results In the real world, the team at Mackinac, you know, sometimes I think when you think of public policy centers and think tanks, you think, well, they just write reports and position papers. That's not what's going on at Mackinac. What they do is fight and win big battles. 00:54:59 Speaker 3: Here's an example. 00:55:00 Speaker 2: Mackinac was the driving force behind one of the most important victories in the history of workers' rights at the Supreme Court. It was called the Janus decision. It was a huge win for workers trapped in government unions. The nation's high court ruled that public employees, so cops, firefighters, teachers, nurses, corrections officers, cannot be forced to pay union dues to keep their jobs. 00:55:25 Speaker 3: So they get this incredible Supreme Court victory. But they didn't stop. 00:55:29 Speaker 2: They then embarked on a massive engagement effort, some might call it a campaign, with America's government employees to let them know, hey, you have rights. You don't have to pay these dues if you don't want to. Thanks to Mackinac's vigilance, now a million and a half workers, one in four government employees, has made the choice to leave their union. Big results from Mackinac, and they're just getting started. What I want you to do is spread the word to any friends and family who are in government unions who. 00:56:01 Speaker 3: May not know they have these rights. They may not know. You're free. Isn't that a terrible thing to be free and not even know it? You can tell them. Send them to this website, advancingliberty.us. 00:56:13 Speaker 2: Learn about the Janus decision and what it means for anyone who works for the government and is trapped in a government union. AdvancingLiberty.us. Send it to everyone you know, particularly if they work for the government. This is a project from our great friends and partners at the Mackinac Center. 00:56:28 Speaker 3: All right, let's get Cam in here. 00:56:29 Speaker 2: Cameron Arcand, senior Washington correspondent for townhall.com. Cam, I want to shift focus here from election results to consequences. And the dominoes are starting to fall in the House Republican conference. This morning, the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, said he will not return as leader of the Republican Party in the House. He's obviously
not going to be the Speaker. He's also saying he will not run for Republican minority leader. This has set off a little bit of a scramble for that office and others. Cam, what's the latest reporting on that? 00:57:04 Speaker 4: So it looks like we're going to have a setup between Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise for that minority leader race. as of right now, because Mike Johnson said, hey, I'm going to step aside. And I think it's noteworthy, given the fact that he was able to work with a very narrow majority in his time as Speaker, and he was able to get quite a bit past a lot of things that maybe didn't have as much success in the Senate. And to look at what the President has said, he said this afternoon that he is not going to get involved in this race. And he didn't It appears that he didn't tell Speaker Johnson to step aside either. 00:57:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a big deal. And, you know, Scalise has a lot of friends in the conference. Some people may be wanting to go a different direction. We've had them both here on the Scott Jennings Show. I don't know how this one is going to fall out. Trump not getting involved is a big deal. And I think we should just take a minute to praise Mike Johnson. I can't think of anybody who's had a harder job in Washington the last couple of years. 00:58:06 Speaker 3: A very narrow majority. 00:58:08 Speaker 2: And a lot of people inside that majority who just simply didn't want to be team players, who were out for themselves, who didn't want to help the Republican team. Then on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, he was constantly dealing with the wishes of President Trump. And oftentimes presidents, well, they have ideas and demands of the Congress that just aren't within the realm of the possible. He had a really tough job. But Mike Johnson pulled a lot of rabbits out of a lot of hats. He raised a lot of money. He traveled the country, did almost 100 events for Republicans in the weeks leading up to the election. I think Republicans are going to miss Mike Johnson. He's in politics for the right reasons. He's a decent man. 00:58:42 Speaker 3: He's a moral man. 00:58:44 Speaker 2: He wants what's best for the country. And I know why he doesn't want to run for this again. This had to have been a brutal. I guess he's been speaker now for three years. But, you know, when people like Mike Johnson step aside, you miss him because you immediately learn. But it's good to have people who are in it for the right reasons hanging around leadership positions. 00:59:03 Speaker 3: What do you think, Cam? 00:59:05 Speaker 2: The opinion of Mike Johnson is among the Republican conference. 00:59:09 Speaker 8: Well, I think it's. certainly positive. 00:59:11 Speaker 4: At least I also think from a public opinion standpoint, Speaker Mike Johnson is, at least in my view, has been looked at a lot more favorably than compared to some of the leadership we saw in the Senate, at least among the Republican base. And I think that might be playing a huge role here. But I also want to underscore that the role of the minority leader is going to look very different than the role that Speaker Johnson played. And I also think that that's going to, you know, they need to be someone that can be the rallier, right, and get their caucus united. And I think it'll be interesting to see what the tone is going into this new Congress for that. But I also think with Speaker Mike Johnson, you know, you look at the amount of tough votes that he dealt with and was able to get those out successfully. I'm curious if he's going to remain in Congress. He did get reelected. 01:00:02 Speaker 8: To his position. 01:00:03 Speaker 4: I know sometimes after people are speakers, you know, sometimes they might not want to stay too much longer afterward. But I think he's in a pretty good position right now to, you know, you want to leave while you're hot sometimes. 01:00:16 Speaker 8: And if you want to leave while you're popular. 01:00:19 Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know if he's made any announcements about if he intends to stay in Congress, but we'll keep an eye on that. Elsewhere in the Republican leadership in the House, other things are coming around. 01:00:29 Speaker 3: The whip position. 01:00:31 Speaker 2: So it looks like there's going to be a race between Tom Emmer of Minnesota and August Pfluger of Texas. Pfluger is well known to our audience here, Cam. He comes on often. He's the head of the Republican Study Committee. How do you handicap that, Emmer versus Pfluger? 01:00:48 Speaker 4: So there's actually two things here I want to point out. I think the first being is that Pfluger is kind of part of a newer generation of Republicans coming in to Congress right now. I think that's noteworthy. I think the second thing that could also be noteworthy in this regard is, you know, Emmer's already been in leadership. 01:01:07 Speaker 8: And I'm curious to see what, you know. 01:01:09 Speaker 4: Some of the debate is going to be there when Pfluger is making his case for this position. But I also want to stress that that Pfluger is in a very energy-rich, energy-focused district. And you're probably like, why does that matter in this regard? And it matters because that was probably one of the biggest issues of the midterm cycle just now. 01:01:29 Speaker 8: And I think it would be interesting to see. 01:01:31 Speaker 4: How maybe having someone from a district like that in a more focused spotlight, this cycle could play a role in the public perception of Republicans going into this conference. 01:01:45 Speaker 3: One other House leadership position here. It's very interesting. 01:01:49 Speaker 2: North Carolina's Richard Hudson is the current chairman of the NRCC. That's the arm of the Republican leadership that is tasked with getting Republicans elected. Richard Hudson lost his seat last night in North Carolina. Narrowly lost, but he has conceded his race, so he won't be coming back to the Congress.
01:02:06 Speaker 3: So that's now open. 01:02:08 Speaker 2: And we know that Brian Jack, The young congressman from Georgia intends to run for NRCC chair. 01:02:16 Speaker 3: Who else are you hearing may jump into that race? 01:02:19 Speaker 4: Brian Jack's the only name I've heard of so far. I would not be surprised if we see other names jump into that because that role is really an opportunity for newer lawmakers who have been around Washington for some time, but they're still fairly new to Capitol Hill. They then jump in. to some of these positions or seek after it because it's a good way to build out their network and kind of build their national profile here. So I wouldn't be surprised if we see other names jump into that. 01:02:50 Speaker 2: And Cam, are you hearing anything on the Senate side? Obviously, John Thune is the leader of the Republicans in the Senate. He's been the majority leader the last couple of years. He's now going to be the minority leader. I mean, let's face it, as a procedural matter, the House Republicans are going to have very little power. 01:03:07 Speaker 3: Over in the House. 01:03:07 Speaker 2: But in the Senate, even in the minority, the Democrats have a big majority, but they don't have 60 votes. So what the Republicans do and whether they can stay unified is really going to matter. Anything out of the Senate, based on your reporting today, Cam? 01:03:20 Speaker 4: You know what, Scott? It's actually been strangely quiet. I have not heard too much about what's going on in the Senate as of now. I mean, that's very Senate-ive, though, to kind of be a little bit more secretive compared to the House and kind of how they maneuver. But I'll say this. I think Thune is in an interesting position. I'd be curious to see whether or not he wants to continue in leadership. Sometimes he's gotten along great with the president. Sometimes they've had disagreements. Same thing goes between Thune and some of the Republican base. I'm curious if the Senate is going to want to see some fresh leadership there. But I think it's also important to keep in mind, and I can see Thune making this argument, is, hey, I voted. I wanted to protect the filibuster. I wanted to do that. We didn't get rid of it. Now we're going to be in the minority. And that's why you should be in this role. Hmm. 01:04:12 Speaker 2: Cameron Arcand is senior Washington correspondent for townhall.com. 01:04:17 Speaker 3: Cam, stick around. We're going to take a break. 01:04:18 Speaker 2: When we come back, I want to talk about what you're hearing from inside the White House. I know you've had some conversations with some of your senior White House sources. I want to hear about how they're processing last night's election. You're listening to Common Sense for the American people, coast to coast on the Salem Radio Network and on C-SPAN this week. 01:04:35 Speaker 3: Thanks for being here. We'll have more news right after this. 01:04:47 Speaker 1: Fighting the left with the best weapon we have, common sense. 01:04:51 Speaker 5: This is the Scott Jennings Show. 01:04:55 Speaker 2: Our election analysis here on the Scott Jennings Show with our friend Cameron Arcand, senior Washington correspondent for townhall.com. Cam, I know last night as the votes were rolling in, You were on the phone with some of your senior level sources in the White House. Take us through some of those conversations. How were they processing it last night? And what are you hearing out of the White House this morning? 01:05:19 Speaker 4: Yeah, so there was kind of two things that are key here. Last night, the White House put out a statement. They were telling us that the tone there is defiant. They said that the president was not on the ballot this cycle, but they're going to kind of maintain a tone of resolve and kind of how they navigate this new Congress. They mentioned candidate quality in that statement as well. I thought that was very interesting. And then you look at the tone from the White House today. Trump and J.D. Vance have been pretty consistent about what they've said. They said that the conflict in Iran played a role in this right now. And I think what that means is, and what Trump has been saying is, Americans might not see the juice being worth the squeeze when it came to some of the gas prices as a result of the conflict. And that's kind of the argument that the president said, short-term pain for long-term gain. And he he his postmortem on this is, oh, well, Americans maybe. 01:06:20 Speaker 8: Didn't necessarily agree with that. 01:06:22 Speaker 4: And so that seems to be the main takeaway from the White House here. 01:06:26 Speaker 8: But he was very it was very interesting today. 01:06:29 Speaker 4: Some of the stuff he was saying outside the ballroom, not very worried about impeachment and some of the other stuff that we could potentially see from Democrats. 01:06:36 Speaker 2: Cam, there seems to be a lot of conversation and reflection on the role of the Iran war and the election results. Are you hearing anything from the White House about reflecting on the role of tariffs and how that might have played into voters' views here? Because obviously people just think quality of life here or affordability of life is too expensive. And yes, gas prices due to the Iran war have been happening this year, but a lot of people also think tariffs, at least in part, led to some of this, and that began last year. Anything at all on tariffs, any reconsideration of that? My own view is He'll never reconsider tariffs. 01:07:12 Speaker 3: I'm just curious what your sources think. 01:07:15 Speaker 8: Quite honestly, I. 01:07:15 Speaker 4: Actually haven't heard too much in the discussions after this about tariffs. I think, you know, it might have played a factor in this, but I still actually don't think it was the big factor in this. And the reason why is because when you look at some of the actions that have been taken on tariffs
recently, it's been rolled back pretty significantly compared to what it was, you know, maybe about a year or two, about a year ago. Certain things with the Supreme Court and certain deals made with other countries. And I think that was part of the argument that Democrats were using on the campaign trail. But the reason why I still believe that gas prices were kind of the paramount argument here is, you know, you look at Americans who most people can't afford an emergency expense above a certain dollar amount. And you can't necessarily budget your way out of not needing gasoline the same way that you can maybe budget your way out of using certain products to avoid tariffs. And I think that's why we maybe haven't heard about it as much, because the tariffs aren't in their true form as they were originally planned either. 01:08:20 Speaker 2: Cam, a final question to you. Are you hearing anything out of the White House about what the president and his team intend to do here with the lame duck session of Congress? They've got the energy permitting bill that's teed up in the Senate. The Farm Bill is laying out there. The National Defense Authorization Act is also laying out there. Is the president looking to get these things done? What are your sources telling you? 01:08:43 Speaker 4: I think there's two other bills I'd be curious to see whether or not there's some motion on daylight savings, because I know that's been a big priority for the president. Also, there's the motion picture tax incentive bill. You're probably like, why am I mentioning that right now? That was something that the president has wanted to. 01:09:00 Speaker 8: See get done. 01:09:00 Speaker 4: There's pretty significant bipartisan support on that. And Tim Scott actually right before the election has said, you know, that is a priority, at least for him and some other lawmakers in the lame duck session. So I'm pretty curious to see that. I would also, this is kind of way kind of possibly long shot. But I'm curious to see if there's going to be any motion in the judicial branch wanting to get certain court appointees through as well before you're dealing with the Democrat majority. 01:09:32 Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that up. 01:09:33 Speaker 2: And that may be the most lasting thing they can do is get federal judges appointed here. The Democrats are obviously going to put a blockade on this once they take the majority. So I don't know how many nominees are laying there or could be put on the calendar. but I hope they confirm every single one of them before the end of the year, because that's all going to come to an absolute halt. Cameron Arcand, senior Washington correspondent for townhall.com. Cam, we thank you for all your reporting and analysis today. I'm sure we'll see you in the very near future as we continue to count the votes. Still no clear winner in Mississippi or Alaska, although Democrats have reason to be optimistic in both places. 01:10:13 Speaker 3: We're done for the day. Back tomorrow, it's Common Sense for the American People. More news after this. 01:10:18 Speaker 5: Common Sense for the American People. This is the Scott Jennings Show.
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