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It's a Numbers Game: Trump’s State of the Union Breakdown: Scott Jennings on Democrats’ “Stand-Up” Moment, Immigration Fight & 2026 Strategy
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Ryan Grudoski
welcome back to A Numbers Game with Ryan Grudoski, everyone. Thanks for being here. Happy Friday. We made it through the week. So the State of the Union was on Tuesday night and I had to go to tape for the Wednesday episode before it aired just because it was so late and you know Trump never stopped speaking. So we are taping our episode for the State of the Union today. I know it's a couple days old, but bear with me. I have the great Scott Jennings on the show, radio host Sam CNN Commentator, my favorite news network, but he'll be on to talk about it. But before I want to actually start digging a little deeper into the State of the Union. So Trump's not just the State of the Union speech, but the state of the Union and most notably the state of the Republican Party and Trump. Trump's approval rating, President Trump's approval rating are near all time lows. I put together a few aggregate polling services and that means it's a collection of recent polls, it's not just one singular poll. And they found that Trump's favorable number is around 41.3% to 55.6% unfavorable. That is not good, not where you want to be 248 days ahead of an election. And the problem for Trump right now is not that there's one singular issue guiding this, it's a bunch of issues. The most obvious one is the economy. In Trump's first term, Trump term won his numbers, the economy, the pro ratings. Even though his personal approval ratings were pretty low because of all the, you know, there was so much leaking going on and people saying that he was, you know, working with Russia and all the rest of it. But his numbers on the economy were good. Of the entire administration. A Reuters IPSA's polls found that they were always around or above 50%. Trump's current approval rating on the economy is a dismal 36%. That's nearly exactly where it was for Biden at this time four years ago when he was looking at his midterm elections. They both have a negative 20 point approval rating. Immigration, the issue that got him to the White House twice, is not much better. He's at 39% favorable. Favorable, ironically, that's basically where he was four years, or sorry, eight years ago rather, when his policies were not as aggressive as they are today, but they were equally as controversial. So it's funny because in my head he was very favorable. He had a favorable opinion on immigration during the first term. And then I looked up and no, it was actually kind of where it is today. It's at negative 15 according to that same Reuters Ipsus poll. That is nowhere near Biden's numbers. Biden's numbers at this point right ahead of the midterms was minus 30 by the end of his presidency, almost negative 40. That's also, that's, I mean, that's not great, but it's not the worst thing in the world is immigration numbers. The one thing dragging his numbers down across the board where it's really, really Awful is on cost of living. Trump is negative 33. According to a CNN poll, 68% of Americans believe his eye is on the wrong issue, that he's not focused enough of what they care about. You know, I'm going to say that Trump's conversations that he's had have made him look like he's focused on the wrong thing. A lot of foreign policy stuff, a lot of good foreign policy stuff, but America is not focused on foreign policy. But other things like trying to annex Canada or Greenland have been a negative distraction for the president. And they make people feel like, oh, he's talking about Greenland, he's not talking about my wallet. It makes people believe he's not focused on them. Once again, he's at negative 36. Biden was at 38. When it comes to are you focused on the correct issues? You shouldn't be where Biden is. It should be a rule. Don't be where Biden is. And when they asked Americans what is the issue you folk, you want Trump to focus on the most, it wasn't even close. It was 57% cost of living. Second highest was immigration at 13 points. I know some people will hear them be like, oh, Democrats must be saying, no, Trump, stop with immigration. It was actually Republicans that said that Trump wanted to focus on immigration. Immigration was their second issue. Democrats second issue, especially Democrats with a college degree, white Democrats with college degree, was the state of democracy that in completely made up issue that is not real whatsoever and that they are obsessed with. If they cared that much about it, they should have demanded Democrats, Democrats should have demanded that Bill Clinton stepped down when he perjured himself. But they truly don't care about the state of democracy. Okay, according to CNN poll, Democrats care about democracy as much as Republicans care about immigration. Republicans care about a real issue. Democrats care about a made up one. Now let's talk about the State of the Union. It was the longest state of the Union in history. It kicked the Democrat response out of prime time, which was smart. But Abigail Spamberger, the Governor of Virginia speech was so insanely boring, honestly, I don't think it would have really mattered whatsoever. So she had these weird like applause lines, but they were like the clapping stopped and started immediately as if someone was holding up a sign saying clap now and then stop, stop, stop immediately stop. It was very, very jarring. Also the fact, and maybe because I'm reading too much into it and I find a lot of Democrats being sufferable, mainly Abigail Spamberger when she said that the whim mothers who are illegal immigrants, living in fear. You know, have her heart. And as a mother of three, which I love it when they put up their own biography as that, you know, to show how much they actually mean about this. She wasn't so righteously indignation when, when her attorney General candidate was fantasizing about murdering children. She didn't have that same level of rage. I wonder why that is. Trump's speech was good, but it was much a blueprint for Republicans going into the midterms. He said, hey, this is the way we're going to talk about lowering costs, about making life more affordable, about raising wages. He talked about the Trump RX health care savings account, which sidebar, if you remember that part of the speech. He pointed to a woman in the audience who obviously he had brought there, and he said she was the first person to get reduced costs in health care because of the Trump RX account. And he said that she was suffering from infertility and she needed to use ivf. Okay, that's a little personal. Like, imagine if it was like, and Tom over here, he has an undecided testicle. He can't have children. Like, it was a lot. Like, that was a lot. I felt like America didn't need to know her entire health care history. I didn't think that that served necessarily a purpose, but whatever. I mean, I laughed. I just was like, wow, this could have gone sideways if it was many other afflictions affecting people anyway. And he had, he had a lot of shout outs. He had World War II veterans come out. He had a hockey team come out. I was like, if he has Savannah Guthrie's mother walk on out, pretty soon it's just gonna be non stop standing ovations. But he. It was good, but it's also a very aggressive speech. At one point, Trump referred to Democrats as sick people and he called them nuts. And he made an ad lib lie. I looked this up. It wasn't actually in the speech. He just made it up. He said, stand up if you think the government should serve American citizen over illegal immigrants. And I don't think a single Democrat stood up. Some people said a one or two stood up, but I didn't see any. Almost no Democrats, though, stood up when he said the government should serve American citizens over illegal immigrants. See, that is Trump at his best, because he orchestrated a moment. He produced something worthy of TV from a man who knows what television production looks and sounds like something that you will absolutely see on TV screens. When Republicans and their affiliated groups spend some of the billion dollars that they have on behalf of Republicans running for statewide and congressional offices. When Trump was calling them sick and nuts, he wasn't just insulting them, he was saying that they are beyond the pale. It's not that they just don't agree on one or two issues. It's just that they don't even see the purpose of government like we do. They do not believe it's there to protect American citizens. They are sick and, and nuts. He made. And that was very, very, very, very effective. Probably the most effective part of the whole speech. He made some claims that were obviously not true. I'm not going to fact check everything. One of those was that data centers and AI companies will be paying for their own electricity bills. That is frankly, completely untrue. And there was a bill to do that and congressional Republicans opposed it. But that's neither here nor there. The company Navigator Research was a pretty liberal organization, but they had Republicans and independents dial on how they reacted at certain things that Trump said. And amazingly, one of the things that they actually turned the knobs down for, including Republicans, was when he talked about foreign policy. I really just think Americans don't care about foreign policy right now. They just, there's no major terrorist attack, there's no major war that we're involved in. And he, you can't make Americans care about it. It's like fetch. It's just not happening. Overall though, the, and I don't mean to, to, to nitpick, I just, it was a very interesting observation. Overall though, it was very skilled speech and he outlined Republicans plan for a lot of things. Remember back a couple weeks ago, there was a conversation that the White House had with congressional Republicans and pollsters and said this is the way you need to talk about these issues. Right? So talking about the Trump accounts for children, which is probably the most brilliant policy outside of immigration that Trump's had this entire term, talking about the big beautiful bill and how it impacts taxpayers and cost savings to taxpayers. And the day after the State of the Union, the ABC Washington Post poll had a release on the congressional ballot and they found that Republicans are at a 2 point disadvantage. Overall, voters favor Democrats 47 to 45. That's not that bad. It's not where you want to be, but it's not, it's not horrendous. It's not as bad as other polls. Another recent Quinny P poll from just Pennsylvania gave Democrats a six point advantage. And a different poll in Texas found the loans found that in the Lone Star State they were tied generically. I mean, that's, that's ABC Washington Post poll is much better. The one big glaring red warning sign out of the ABC Washington Post poll that was worthy of paying attention to was voter enthusiasm. 79% of Harris supporters say they are certain to vote in the next election, compared to only 65% of Trump voters. Among young people, it's even more lopsided. 77% of young Harris supporters will vote. 51% of young Trump supporters will vote. And among those who are absolutely certain to vote, right now, it is an 11 point skew, 55 to 44 Democrats. There are a lot of Republicans who are just not amped up to vote this early. They're still very apathetic. That is why, aside from the economy, Trump was mentioning so many red meat issues for Republicans. Immigration, dei, culture issues, you know, the transing of children, calling out Democrats for refusing to stand up for America, Talking about the 205th anniversary America, you know, all those things were to say, hey, Republicans, wake up, there's an election and I'm still your guy. You may not have liked this thing or that thing. You may not like my policy on, you know, this or that. However, I'm your guy because I'm delivering nine out of the 10 things that you will, you know, you will support. He got one standing ovation. That was bipartisan, which was ending congressional insider trading. That's okay. It's not that big of a deal. But can it work? Can Trump's policies actually effectively deliver well and change Republicans, change Republicans course? As far as support for the midterms, a CNN instant exit poll found that 38% of people who watch the State of the Union found it was very favorable, 25% said somewhat favorable, and 36 had a negative reaction to it. You can guess how many Democrats, what percentage of the audience was Democrats or Democratic leaning Independents? Will we see a bump for Trump? I doubt it. Maybe a point or two. It doesn't say the union is not what it used to be. It doesn't provide the big bumps like it used to. It's free airtime for a president, which is why they haven't changed it back to just writing a letter to Congress. But that doesn't matter. It might give enough Republicans the enthusiasm they need and give the instructions to Republicans at whole saying, I am this country is better because I'm in charge and we are doing more for you on a myriad of issues because the Republicans aren't in charge. Keep us in charge with me to discuss the state of the union and Republicans chances in the midterm is Scott Jennings. That's coming up next.
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Ryan Grudoski
is the host of the Scott Jennings show on Salem Radio. He can be seen on cnn. Scott, thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it.
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Scott Jennings
Ryan, good to see you, my friend. Always a pleasure.
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Ryan Grudoski
So, Scott, what did you think of the State of the Union address? What was your big takeaway?
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Scott Jennings
Well, number one takeaway, I think the moment that will live on forever is when Donald Trump asked every member of Congress to stand up and affirm that their highest duty is to protect the American people. Is a simple question. And every Republican stood up and every Democrat sat there stone faced. Mark Kelly, you know, there was that cutaway with miserable Mark Kelly looking, you know, just miserable about it. I honestly couldn't believe it. This is a simple question that 100% of the American people could answer in the affirmative and not a single Democrat could do it. So that's the number one moment. Look, I interviewed eight members of the U.S. senate on my radio show today. Every single one of them was happy with the president's speech and they found individual things about it that really appeal to their constituents back home. For instance, Dan Sullivan in Alaska, love the energy stuff. Mark Wayne Mullen was really hot to trot on the public safety stuff today. Democrats couldn't even stand up for the mother of Irina Zarutska. And so you go around, you know, John Hustead from Ohio, he was really into the president's discussion of how we're growing the private sector and manufacturing jobs while we're shrinking the size of government. The speech was long, but that meant there was a lot in it for a lot of different Republicans. I haven't spoken to a Republican today who wasn't anything other than thrilled with the president's performance.
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Ryan Grudoski
Yeah. And I thought that it was kind of a blueprint for Republicans in the midterms because, I mean, there was this meeting that happened in the White House maybe about a month or so ago with Susie and with a poll with Tony Fabrizio and members of the Congressional Republican Caucus. And they said this is how we're going to address these issues. And that was really the outline of what he was saying on a number of things from Trump RX to the Trump savings plan and trying to really tell tell Americans like, hey, look, we are actually care about your cost of living. It is his biggest net negative and it is the biggest issue for voters right now.
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Scott Jennings
A couple of things on that front that jumped out to me Number one, this was actually a very disciplined Trump on messaging. To your point, they have a plan on messaging. He was very disciplined on it. He didn't really get off the script all that often. And when he did, I thought it was actually kind of effective.
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Ryan Grudoski
I heard the stand up ad libbed. Right. He didn't. He just made up on the stand up for, for the country. That wasn't in the script. That was brilliant. Trump, I'm a producer. I'm going to orchestrate a television moment right there, which he does best.
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Scott Jennings
But then you look at the policy stuff and this is where he got really specific. It wasn't just platitudes. I mean, it's talking specifically about Trump Rx. And then you have someone who used Trump Rx to get a massive discount on their IVF drugs talking specifically about how the Trump tax cut provisions from last summer helped an individual family. I mean, and then you had these specific people who were impacted by the immigration policies of the Democrats or the criminal justice policies of the Democrats. This wasn't really a speech about platitudes. It was about very specific things that, you know, any of us could point to and say, yeah, I could see how that would impact my own personal life. And so if you're, if you were looking for the president to tell you, here's what I ran on and here's how I checked the boxes. He really did do that last night. And in a very specific way. It was a lot of discipline for him to do that.
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Ryan Grudoski
Yeah, I, I kind of laughed when he said she has infertility issues. So that was like, imagine if it was like foot fungal cream that they needed or something disgusting. You'd be like, yeah, this man's body is a disgrace right now. And he has the Trump RX card. Yeah, I thought that was interesting and I thought that was very smart because in so many ways, Trump, Trump being Trump, he's kind of dismissed the cost of living as an issue many times publicly. And although, I mean, he has. It is what it is. And I think that he, I think that so often when he's got lost in comments about Greenland or annexing Canada or whatever the case is, Americans are really tired of foreign policy. We're not a foreign policy. We're not in a foreign policy moment. We're very much in a. I need some me time. Attention time. And, yeah, that's why I think that the speech had very little foreign policy into it. There was a little bit here and there, but not much. And I think it's why Americans have felt that Trump is not care on their care about the issues that they care about because he has had these moments that even though they're not big moments, they're, they're regurgitated in the media 75 million times. It's all they want to talk about is Greenland or Canada or whatnot. And I think that that was very, very smart. I think that it was more of his more principal time. There was an ABC Washington Post poll that found that Democrats have a two point generic ballot advantage, which is not that bad. Actually. It's a very good poll for Republicans. But I mean, as compared to other polls. Yeah, the one concerning thing was There's a big 18 point gap upon people who want to go out and vote. Democrats really are chomping the vote, which is, we've seen a lot of special elections. I think that's why interjecting bread meat into the conversation to say the union was necessary, telling Republicans, I know you may not love me for name it, you know, whatever, Greenland, Epstein, whatever the case which you're annoyed about me, I, it doesn't matter because I'm your guy. And these people, when he called them nuts, I thought it was a very choice series of words because it wasn't like, hey, we just disagree on the issues. They don't even see the same country that we see. Is that to you? Right?
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Scott Jennings
Absolutely. And that's what Republicans wanted to hear. And honestly, Democrats walked right into the trap. And of course, there's no issue on which there's a brighter line in this vein than immigration. And when you ask Democrats, can you just stand up and affirm that your highest duty is to American citizens and not illegal immigrants? And they can't do it. When you talk about that little girl Delilah and say, hey, maybe we shouldn't be giving, you know, CDLs to illegal immigrants who can't speak English or read the road signs or follow any of our laws. And they can't get into that even it is a bright line issue. I believe it's still his best issue. I know with the economy. I know affordability. I know these things are top of mind for voters. I still believe Donald Trump's reason for being on the national stage for the last 10 years is in large part because of immigration.
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Ryan Grudoski
It was a mess.
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Scott Jennings
People don't want all these illegal immigrants here. They not only connect it to public safety, they connect it to their economic conditions. They connect it to their own quality of living. And the Democrats are crazy on this issue. He is exactly right. And there's no issue on which they spend more energy. Can you think of an issue on which they spend more energy defending the 20 of an 8020 than trying to keep 20 million illegal immigrants here? Trump knows it. He is a dog with a bone on this and for good reason. It's good policy, but in this case, it's also good politics. So, you know, for all of the defense of illegal aliens and all the attacks on ICE and abolish ICE and defund ice, I think Trump knows Democrats have handed him another thing where, look, you know, the American people, you know, whatever they think about certain issues in the fall, they're going to look at these Democrats and say, well, wait a minute, they still care more about illegal immigrants than American citizens. They still care more about transgender surgeries for minors than they do about, you know, other things. They're just not normal enough for me to vote for. That's the Trump bet. And you saw it in the speech last night.
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Ryan Grudoski
And that's what Democrats did to Republicans in 2022. So often he said, they said these who are not normal. And, and I did it to like, you know, Carrie Lake or to other people where they sat there, the guy running for governor in, in Pennsylvania. And you're, you are, I mean, Im the issue that made him a president. There's not, there's no, there's not one thing that really differentiated Trump from, I mean there's a lot of things personally, but not on policy wise tariffs and, and immigration, but immigration the most was the thing that, that, that, that got him elected. And my friend Ann Coulter says this and I, and I never thought of this way, but I kind of agree. She said, how did you think that Biden's open borders were going to end? Like, where, what, how did they, where did they think that this was going to end after having 4 million people come in illegally, like just up another set of people we're going to give amnesty to will all be forgiven. Every. It's gonna, it's like the movie Men in Black where they, they have the little pen and it has a light and everyone just forgets what just happened. They really kind of expected, oh no, there's no ramifications for what we just
- [26:58]
Scott Jennings
did
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Ryan Grudoski
and openly let anyone in the world come. I mean, that's, that's really where it comes down to.
- [27:06]
Scott Jennings
They believe their own BS as it relates to illegal immigrant populations. I mean, they must really believe that illegal immigrant populations are somehow better for the economy than getting American citizens working again. They must really believe that there is no Fraud in the illegal immigrant community, say in Minnesota. They must really believe that the country would be better off if we imported the worst people from the third world all over this globe. They must really believe that because they are fighting tooth and nail to get them here and to keep them here. And I'll tell you one more thing, Ryan. I think people are connecting that posture to this debate over the Save America act. And they're asking themselves, oh, wait a minute. Democrats worked really hard to open the borders. They're working really hard to keep people here, and now they're working really hard to stop us from showing an ID to vote in a federal election. I. I think people aren't stupid. I think the American people are pretty smart, and I think they see the through line and all these, you know what I think are politically insane positions for the Democrats to take.
- [28:07]
Ryan Grudoski
Did you see the Democrats counter convention that they had with the people dress up as ducks and J. Pal, you didn't see that?
- [28:17]
Scott Jennings
Oh, I didn't see it. Oh, you did.
- [28:19]
Ryan Grudoski
Yes. Yeah.
- [28:20]
Scott Jennings
None of. None of this looks like. I mean, it's. It's crazy. And here's the thing. If you just, like, looked at a clip of it, you might say, wait a minute. Is this AI or wait a minute, national convention. Yeah. No, these are Democrats. This is how crazy. They dress up as things. They've got grannies out here doing aerobics in front of ice facilities. They're making up folk songs. These are not serious people. And then their elected representatives, that's who they're beholden to. And so then they go in the halls of Congress. And that's why they can't stand up when the President says, hey, are we all here? Do we all agree that we're. Our highest duty is to the American people? That's why they can't stand up, because they're beholden to these nutty radicals that you see doing all this performative crap on the streets of America.
- [29:07]
Ryan Grudoski
Yeah. Jay Powell, the Democrat from Washington, was screaming about transgender children. I mean, screaming. And I said, if you were to see something like that on a corner, you would tell your child to avert their eyes, because that is so insane. And I listen.
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Scott Jennings
Andy Beshear, my governor from Kentucky, who is the supposed moderate running for president, has apparently decided to make the centerpiece of his entire presidential campaign dying on the Hill of mutilating children. He goes, it's the number one thing he mentions in every interview. He will die on this hill. Now this is their moderate candidate for president dying on the Hill of transgender surgeries for minors, which, by the way, was one of the issues that sunk Kamala Harris. They've learned nothing, Ryan. They are doubling, tripling and quadrupling down on the stuff that makes them seem crazier than, you know, what rats and that. I don't get it. But that's what they've chosen to do.
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Ryan Grudoski
Yeah. And. And Jay Powell was the same Democrat, by the way, who said that America was built by Somali. Somalis. Africans. And I forget the third. I think it was probably Mexican. Mexicans, but definitely not white men. We were not included in that number whatsoever. We did not. We've been sitting here idly by just being fanned by our servants. What did you think of Abigail Spamberger's response?
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Scott Jennings
You know, she is. I don't know what to make of her. First of all, she's another one of these Democrats they like to position as a moderate.
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Ryan Grudoski
Yeah.
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Scott Jennings
She's been governor for a month or almost two months now and has been the most radical Democrat governor in the country. So that's number one. Number two, even when she talks about immigration, you know, she said, you know, she described illegal immigrants as people who aspire to be Americans. I mean, they keep coming up with these euphemisms to explain why they want to abolish ICE and not have any immigration enforcement at all. And they keep describing these populations in terms that they would never describe American citizens. They do not like American citizens. I don't know what has happened to Democrats. They are an American political party who hates their own constituents. And they love illegal aliens more than they love the people that are their own constituents. She fell into that trap last night.
- [31:24]
Ryan Grudoski
It's a fetishization of them. And here's the thing is they say the word immigrant as if it's like a bag of oranges, as if we want to take one, we got to take them all. And as if that there's equal outcomes among immigrant populations, which just there are. And certain immigrant populations are enormously successful. And other ones not so much. Been like that for a very, very long time. I thought you're. When your appearance on cnn, you had on the state representative from Texas, the guy who, the theater kid who's kind of pretending to be MLK Jr and you asked him, is there a single immigrant that you would. They're all theater kids. It's. It's unbelievable. Is there any immigrant you would deport? And he, he just started filibustering about killing Americans from ice. And also one other thing, and I want your Opinion of. There's been, I think, 200Americans detained by ICE who were legal Americans of several hundred thousand thousand encounters. So if you were to. If you were to make that a parallel to a major metropolitan city in the entire country, that's one of the better ones. As far as detaining someone who was not criminally charged or anything.
- [32:30]
Scott Jennings
Every.
- [32:31]
Ryan Grudoski
Every law enforcement agency in the country detains people at times who are not criminally convicted and innocent. And it just happens because no one's perfect.
- [32:41]
Scott Jennings
Some of the people being detained are actively trying to interfere with federal law enforcement, detaining people who are illegal immigrants. That's the reason they were detained, because they were part of, say, you know, an illegal immigrant sting situation. And they're interfering. They're in the middle of it. Somehow. They're part of it. And so, look, the Democrats throw out all these numbers and they try to act like this is statistically, you know, abnormal. It's not. You go back in the Obama years, they also would detain American citizens occasionally. They also, you know, again, they were having hundreds of thousands of interactions as well. And, you know, even people who died in custody, people who had things happen to them in custody, I think Obama had far more than Trump had, even by a percentage. And so I. Look, they are trying to paint an untrue picture for the American people about what's happening. And they want people to believe that no illegal immigrants are being detained, that only American citizens are being harassed. It's every illegal.
- [33:40]
Ryan Grudoski
Just a mother dropping her from school.
- [33:44]
Scott Jennings
Exactly. And that's not true. It's not true. And a lot of these people have very violent criminal histories. Some of them have nonviolent criminal history. Some of them are engaged in fraud. But you know what the bottom line is, if you're in the country illegally, Tom Homan has said you're on the board for us. You know, we're not really interested in giving a pass to anyone here just because you haven't committed additional crimes to the crime of coming into the country. That's what the American people voted for, because they know this. If you show leniency to any illegal immigrant population, that's when the border reopens. The reason the border is closed is because people know if they come here, they're not going to get across. They're going to be deported, they're going to be stopped. Under Biden, people came here by the hundreds of thousands because they knew if they could get across, it would probably work out for them. That is the difference in attitude. That's why the border is closed. The Democrats act like, well, you know, we should just leave anyone alone who doesn't have, you know, who's not a murderer. Let's just leave all the non murderers here. No, that's. That is an invitation to reopen the border. Americans are not stupid. They know this.
- [34:50]
Ryan Grudoski
Yeah, and it's, it's also. You're cutting a check for the drug card. So human smugglers and the cartel. The cartel made billions under Biden with human smuggling. And you are cutting them a check because people stop paying them because they know they can't get across the border. And I mean, that's. That's the truth. How effective in your mind would a message around we can't go back be for Republicans? Because even I sometimes forget the thousands of illegals crossing the border under Biden, what that looked like. I mean, I really. I saw a clip and I was like, oh, right, screw these people. They're all horrible. Everyone who advocated for this. But how. How effective of that kind of messaging go to. Because it's. It's because Covid and the years after Covid were so insane. Between blm, between Covid, between the open border, we kind of just can't believe we lived through it. It's like when you're dealing with a relative who's sick and your whole life is in chaos, and then they pass away and you're like, I can't believe that was my life for two years. Like, I didn't sleep for two years. That's. That's insane. That. That was my whole life. That was our life for four years. And I worry that too many Americans have just been like, oh, wait, this is normal. We're just talking about if Trump's too aggressive over trying to occupy Greenland. We forgot that, you know, we were having language codes and people were losing their jobs and everything was race based and, you know, boys and girls didn't exist and there was no binary on the gender scale. Like, we just. I think a lot of people have forgotten, and I think that's a big part of that. So how would effective, that kind of messaging go?
- [36:20]
Scott Jennings
I think if you just look at the immigration issue, it would be quite effective if only because Democrats cannot, in this moment today admit they were wrong and they cannot come up with a moderate or reasonable alternative to what Trump is presenting. The Democratic median position is abolish ice, abolish Customs and Border Patrol, deport no one, no one, even the most violent. Don't get deported and reopen the border. That is the Median Democrat position. And by the way, you look at these Senate and House races, who's winning? It's the people with that radical position. They're the ones with the energy in the Democratic primaries. So if they could even just bring themselves to say, actually, you know what, we went too far. We should deport X, Y and Z. When I debated that guy the other night from Tennessee, I thought for sure he would say, well, you know, anyone who committed a violent crime, they're out. He couldn't even say that because the Democratic base will not permit them to say that. So I think because they don't have a current position that's reasonable, you can pin the old position on them. Pin the current position on them and say, listen, whatever you think about immigration, whatever you think about ice, your choices here are close the border and deport illegals, reopen the border and keep everybody, rapists and murderers and child molesters and child traffickers included. I know where the American people are going to fall on that. They are going to back Trump. They will back him. And Democrats don't have the wherewithal to stop them because they can't admit how wrong they were.
- [37:53]
Ryan Grudoski
All right, I have one last question. It's immediate question for you just, and you don't have to answer it, but someone who, I'd be being the foil on CNN has been great for you because you get the most airtime because they have to. You get to be the bad guy. I got to be the bad guy for like a nanosecond, but you get to be the bad guy. So you get a lot more attention. Has there ever, what is the moment where you couldn't believe someone said something out loud where you were like, did you just literally, like, that's actually what you believe. Was there ever a moment you were like, this is the craziest thing I've ever heard? And you're just, you, you believe it and you said it on national television. Anything agreeing out to you?
- [38:30]
Scott Jennings
Well, I've been on for some crazy moments. A while back, I was on with a guy who literally sat there next to me. Terray is his name. He doesn't work for cnn.
- [38:39]
Ryan Grudoski
He's awful. Yeah, he got fired for something.
- [38:41]
Scott Jennings
He literally, he literally said he did not believe that Donald Trump was shot at Butler, Pennsylvania. So we were talking about political violence. And I said, well, you know, the president has some experience with this. And he said, well, I don't, I don't know if he was shot. And I, you know, I, I thought for a minute he Might be kidding. No, he actually does. He's a. An honest to goodness ear truther. He does not believe. And his reasoning wasn't there.
- [39:06]
Ryan Grudoski
I wasn't there.
- [39:07]
Scott Jennings
But he's an ear truther. I heard that. I was on the other night with somebody and I said, would you honestly advise somebody, if they witnessed a federal law enforcement situation to like, literally walk up to the middle of it and put their hands on a cop or get in the middle of it or interfere? And the person, yes, I would advise them to do that. I'm like, you would not advise somebody to commit a felony. Surely you didn't just say that. No, no, I really would. I've heard that. I heard all kinds of crazy kid
- [39:37]
Ryan Grudoski
who accused Trump of. I forget he. He had to apologize. Or as I guess his lawyers called more like, you have to take this back. You're gonna suit.
- [39:45]
Scott Jennings
Oh, he made crazy allegations. He made crazy allegations against the President that are not supported or corroborated by any evidence whatsoever. I've heard that out there. You know, even. Even the other night, that Pearson fellow from Tennessee, not able to come up with a single kind of illegal immigrant that you would want to deport that. That even to me. I mean, this guy's running for Congress. Oh, he is from Tennessee. No. Yes, he's running. He's running against Cohen, who's the only Democrat left in the Tennessee delegation.
- [40:17]
Ryan Grudoski
He's going to Memphis seat. Wow. The only Democrat seat in. In Tennessee. Yeah, he could.
- [40:23]
Jacob Goldstein
Well,
- [40:26]
Scott Jennings
I've heard a lot of crazy things out there, and when I hear them, it reminds me a couple things. One, liberals live in a very tight ideological bubble. Like, they talk only to each other and they say increasingly unhinged things to each other. And then, you know, when. When they end up interacting with a Republican or a conservative or even just a normal person, they're shocked at how people react, you know, to these positions that they hold. But understand, these are the median Democrat positions. This is what most Democrats actually believe. So it's not even like the things that I hear are outlandish or on the fringe. No, these are at the dead center of the Democratic Party. So when I hear Donald Trump at the State of the Union say, these people are crazy, it rings true to me because I'm the one sitting out there listening to it night after night after night.
- [41:15]
Ryan Grudoski
Yeah, it's the evolution of the governor of Minnesota, who went from a legitimate moderate when he was in the House Representatives, to being a complete nut bag as governor, is what happens when you govern via Twitter, like governing via Twitter is what has happened to the entire Democratic Party. They're like, we cannot get dragged.
- [41:32]
Scott Jennings
When Tim Walsh, who is the biggest buffoon in American politics, is openly fantasizing about. He's out here openly fantasizing about Minneapolis being the next Fort Sumter. This is something he said. Can you imagine if a Republican governor was like, I really, I really envision my state as being the tip of the spear in a new American civil war. We would be in 24,7 coverage of Republicans threatened civil war. Tim Walls is out here fantasizing about being the Jefferson Davis of the the modern era. And it's just not even like a blip. It's not even like a blip for people. It's crazy to me how nuts he has gone. Yeah.
- [42:16]
Ryan Grudoski
I mean, he is off his hinges. And also him surviving a civil war is slim to none. So I wouldn't recommend.
- [42:24]
Scott Jennings
He's nowhere, he's nowhere near as crazy as that lieutenant governor they got up there, Flanagan, and she's probably going to be the Senate nominee in that state. If you think Tim Walls is nuts, wait till you meet Peggy Flanagan. She, it might be the most left wing radical nut the Democrats are running anywhere and that is a high bar to jump over. But they might have it in planning.
- [42:46]
Ryan Grudoski
Well, I'm rooting for Jasmine Crockett in Tennessee to win the nomination from that role. Listen, my, my African queen, Jasmine Crockett, I'm all about it because I, she needs to be the Democratic spokesperson for 2026. I am, I am sold on that, that her black scent and everything else that she's got going on. Where can people go to listen to your radio show, Scott?
- [43:07]
Scott Jennings
We're on the Salem Radio Network, so we're on like 300 radio stations around the country, so terrestrial radio 1 to 3 Eastern live every day. If you want to watch it live but you're not near a Salem station, you can go to the Salem News Channel app. It's SNC TV and you can watch it live. And then we also post the, the audio and the video. Actually, it's now a video product. We post that on the SNC TV app every single day. I also try to stream it on my X account at Scott Jennings, ky. So we try to make it available. I also post the clips of the different people that I interview. It's become kind of a fun hang for a lot of conservative leaders and we're having great conversations and I'm, I'm pretty happy with it. It's two hours of radio in front of a camera every day is a lot of work, but it's a lot
- [43:54]
Ryan Grudoski
of fun as well. Yeah. Oh, Scott, thanks for on this podcast and fitting me. And I know you talk a lot, Don. This is a lot to ask for you, but thank you so much, Ryan.
- [44:03]
Scott Jennings
You're a great American. Thanks for doing what you do and I'm sure I'll see you soon.
- [44:07]
Ryan Grudoski
Absolutely.
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Ryan Grudoski
Now it's time for the Ask Me Anything segment. If you want to be part of the Ask Me Anything segment, email me. Ryan numbers gamepodcast.com that's Ryan numbers plural game podcast.com this question comes from Austin. He says congrats on the podcast success. Love listening Austin. Thank you so much for listening. Has there ever been an observable bump in election results for the party that embraces USA pride coming out of the Olympics or major Team USA sports like the Women's World cup back in 1998? The last two days have been nothing but videos of Olympic hockey games winning goals, celebrations of home videos, or Alyssa Lou's pure joy at winning. And then the lefts are just writing articles, posting about it or not being proud. Could Republicans do something up with the 250th celebration to bring voters out that they love the USA? As Charlie Crook said, men must vote and this could be a way to drive them out. Or is it a great or is it just a great time for the Team USA? So in 1998, well one, in past elections, when you go back decades, Democrats level of patriotism was much higher than it is now, right? It's difficult because it in the past there was different levels of patriotism for the Olympics though. I'm trying to think four years ago it would have been a presidential election with the Olympics removed because of COVID and then you have to go four years before that to 2016. I don't think that there's been ever been a bump because of the Olympics related to patriotism. Certainly patriotism has rallied people in the case of war to vote for Republicans. We've seen that in the recent past with George W. Bush and 911 and we've seen that all across Europe where the right wing parties were winning elections after terrorist attacks happen. But as far as it goes for I just don't think that they happen at the right time and even super bowl happens after the election day. I guess World Series does, but it's too regional. So no, I don't, I don't find that it's ever been the case that it drives people out to go vote it is an interesting thing. And yes, men do need to vote more. It is a big drag for the Republicans that men don't vote as often as women do. If they voted more often, I think that, you know, we would have won a couple more tighter elections than we did. If, if going into the summer, Republicans do need to bring out men, and advertising into men's sporting events will probably be a big part of it. But some people, especially in the south, where football is huge, I know people don't want politics intruding on their things at all, on their sports at all. I think that, you know, maybe trying to push into the. The frat societies and the frat culture, I don't know. It's very, very tough. How do you, how do you individualize for men? Obviously, gun shows are a big thing. Ob. Some other stuff is big, like men's groups and men's societies. But that's the problem with a bifurcate, with, With a. With a. With a culture that has very few unifying entities. Everyone has kind of their own thing. And most of the stuff's online. It's not in person. So, yeah, it's tough. But you're right about that. But, no, I. I don't know of any evidence. And it's. In 1998, in the women's World cup, the Democrats won that election because of backlash over the Monica Linsky trial that they thought it was going too far. So, yeah, I don't have any. I don't have any recent ev. But great question, though. Very smart. All right, Austin, thank you so much, and thank you guys for listening to this episode. If you like this podcast, please like and subscribe on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts. Wherever you get this podcast, and I will see you guys next week, you see it instantly.
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