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Sept. 16, 2024 - Doug Collins Podcast
46:32
Post Trump Harris Debate
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You want to listen to a podcast?
By who?
Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins.
How is it?
The greatest thing I have ever heard in my whole life.
I could not believe my ears.
In this house, wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule.
It has been said today, where is bravery?
I'll tell you where bravery is found and courage is found.
It's found in this minority who has lived through the last year of nothing but rules being broken, people being put down, questions not being answered, and this majority say, be damned with anything else.
We're going to impeach and do whatever we want to do.
Why?
Because we won an election.
I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
Hey everybody, welcome back.
After a long night, last night, debate night is now over.
And for many, it is now time to look at it, talk about what happened, and see if it actually makes a difference.
And I think this is the one thing Chip's on with me today.
Chip will be on here after the break.
As we turn into this today, you know, look, we're going to talk honestly about the debate.
I think there's a lot to be said here.
But I will say that, you know, in looking ahead, there are going to be discussions on how debates are done.
And I think, I want to say this and get it out front.
I don't think it is, and I know that the left is throwing out that if you complain about the moderators like playing about referees at a football game, I get the analogy.
I just don't think it fits here.
But also I always have to say, you know, the answers on Trump's side could have been tighter and any answer at all would have been nice from Harris.
That would have been, but it was very practiced and very, still, we've talked about this before on the podcast.
These are question and answer sessions, and, you know, they're designed to give you the moment or the point that you've memorized that makes a viral moment.
So, look, we're going to look at it.
Well, Chip and I will talk about this as we go.
Lots going on.
DougCollinsPodcast.com.
Go to the Comment button if you want to and send me an email.
Be happy to hear from you.
Make it light so you'll get it on Monday, Wednesday, Friday every time it comes out so we'll have the podcast ready to go.
But thanks to everybody.
Also folks down in Morgan County last night.
Had a great time with the folks down in Morgan County.
Talk to them down at The farming had a great reception.
We talked about a lot of things, but again, shout out to the Morgan County GOP. Great folks down there last night.
I had almost about 75, 80 people last night.
It was a good time before the debate as we went into it.
So with that, we'll take a break and we'll come right back and Chip and I'll dive in to the Harris-Trump debate.
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All right, folks, we're back.
Before we get into the debate, though, and I didn't want to take a moment here before this, and Chip and I both are, because today's 9-11, and it's a date that needs to be remembered.
I have been, I will say this to everybody out there, the families, it is still very fresh for our country.
It is very fresh for those of us who actually went to Iraq or Afghanistan or other places before Because of what happened on 9-11, these are very fresh wounds that are still there.
And I can still remember I was at my home, the kids were at school, Lisa was teaching, and a friend of mine who is now deceased called me and said, you need to turn on your TV. I was at home and it was going to be a quiet day.
I frankly was just praying and meditating because I had some things going on at church and I was just trying to find some direction.
And it became a day when I sat in front of the TV and watched those towers go down.
And as a former fireman who was actually, you know, had done firefighting, when I saw what was happening, I just, all that I thought about was the many, many lives that were just perished in that moment going forward.
And it's just, it's a day I am, Glad to see that people are now showing it.
Even Fox and some of the other networks have been actually showing footage again, because I do believe at times we've got a generation now, literally, that have grown up after 9-11.
And I think the situation of Israel and situation of Iran and situation in the Middle East and Afghanistan has to be understood through these lenses.
And the only way you can do that is remember the history on that.
So, look, my prayers and thoughts go to all the family members who are still suffering.
If you did not catch it, you'll rarely hear me say this, but I'm going to say it.
60 minutes after the football games the other night, did a wonderful piece on the 9-11 story in the New York City Fire Department.
It's worth going back, find it online, Paramount, wherever you can find it.
But that 60 minutes, they did the whole hour on it.
And it was actually really good talking about the fire department, what happened that day, and also the family members who joined the fire department since then that lost dads and others on that day.
So look at that.
Chip, before we get started, anything you'd like to say about 9-11?
Yeah, thanks for doing that, Doug.
It's just hard to believe it was 20...
23 years ago today.
I mean, I remember it.
You know, it is.
It's one of those...
My wife and I were living in our first house that we bought in 1946, Hopson Court in Marietta.
And I'll never forget, I was on the phone with a friend of mine named Patrick Millsaps when the second plane hit the tower.
We don't talk a whole lot anymore, but every 9-11, one of us will text each other and say, I remember where I was when the second plane hit the tower.
We didn't have any kids at the time.
We now have two boys that are 22 and 20 respectively.
It's just hard to believe that they weren't even alive when 9-11 hit.
Yeah, our thoughts and prayers go out to all the families affected by that, and it's just surreal every year.
It's so fresh in my mind what happened that day, but obviously as every year goes by, it's further and further away.
I can still remember that night with the TV on in bed, not being able to go to sleep, watching as they were doing recovery efforts and everything, wondering if they were going to get people out.
It was a time of stunning, and not only for the 3,000 or so that were lost on that day, You have to take into account all that were lost as a result of that as well in Afghanistan and Iraq.
And as someone who's watched some of those die, you know, it is a real thing.
And I'm glad we talked about it today.
I appreciate that, Chip.
And it sort of is a poignant sort of picture of where we are as a country because Even though we're going to talk about the debate tonight, it's amazing to me that we're still talking about issues that started on 9-11.
I mean, Afghanistan, you know, these things that are still there.
Iran, all these kind of issues are still there and in a world that...
I hate to say this, but it's true.
And we've seen this, and it was not even discussed last night in any kind of in-depth moment, Chip, that the Afghanistan government and the Taliban are stronger today than they were on September 10th, 2001. And nothing was discussed about that.
There was a little bit of fighting back and forth about getting out and all this, but really no in-depth discussion of foreign policy in that.
And that was a little bit surprising to me.
Agreed, 100%.
A hundred percent.
I was very surprised by that too.
Both sides in debates, and you and I have both been a part of this, will spin that they won, okay?
It happens every time.
I think both sides will say in this one, when they get behind closed doors, We could have done better.
I think that is a general.
I think the Trump team could say that.
I think definitely the Harris team could say that.
I was a little surprised at Trump's answers, especially when they were given an opportunity on immigration and some of the others were not a little, I guess, crisper.
There's ways to hit with our...
But Chip, let's start it off here.
I made mention of it in the introduction.
I don't think...
And you may disagree.
I don't think you can talk about this debate, and if you say Trump got off track, he didn't answer well, the moderator situation in this debate, as it wore on, Became more and more of a problem that I do believe did affect probably Trump's answers and also affected some of the way that the questions went with Harris.
And I don't think it's a blame.
I think you just, you got to look at it.
But also I'll say this.
I think you could have, I saw a tweet about this last night.
I think you could have just seen the last of traditional media debates possibly in presidential races.
Yeah, I mean, look, I'm going to go back a little bit, Doug, and we've talked about this ad nauseum.
You know, debates are about expectations, right, going into the debate.
And, you know, what your expectations are going into a debate has a profound effect, and what everybody else's expectations are, too, has a profound effect on You know, the after debate spin on who wins.
And I'll give you an analogy.
I'm an Auburn football fan.
On week one, Peyton Thorne threw four touchdown passes in one half of football.
In week two, he threw four interceptions and two halves of football.
So, you know, the coach is going to start him again this week on week three.
And so the expectations on week three are a lot lower than they were going into week two.
And let's be honest, the last debate that Donald Trump had against Joe Biden, there was a political homicide.
That was committed on that night.
It was really a murder-suicide, right, politically speaking, right?
I don't want the Secret Service knocking on my door.
Politically speaking, it was a murder-suicide.
I mean, look at the Democrats' posture after the last Trump presidential debate.
I mean, of course they were going to be in a better posture last night, and of course Republicans weren't going to be as good.
Look, it's also hard to debate a woman.
It's harder to debate a woman.
You know, and I think you can tell Trump has never really gotten his groove.
He was never comfortable with that.
So yeah, sure, great.
Okay, fine.
You know, good night last night for Kamala Harris.
I'm sure they're pounding their chest.
Dems are pounding their chest.
They're really happy.
Great.
You know, I'm still not sure.
Everybody says, you know, you got a message to the 10% in the middle.
I'm not so sure there's 10% in the middle in this race.
I think the middle's between 3% and 4.5%.
Now look, you know, That still might determine it.
But if anybody is out there and really believes that 3% or 4% is going to move and block, no, that 3% to 4.5% is going to vote 51% one way and 49% the other.
And that's just the reality of it.
And so, you know, I did something different last night that I... That I normally don't do when I watch debate.
I normally have the TV on and I have Twitter on.
Because Twitter is made for nights like last night, right?
I didn't do that last night.
In full disclosure, I'm in three fantasy leagues.
And everybody knows the free agent deadline is at midnight or 6 a.m., you know, Tuesday night, Wednesday morning.
And so I wanted to make sure I got all my free agents while I was listening to the debate.
And so I didn't turn Twitter on until two-thirds through the debate.
And yeah, look, I... I did think that, just like everybody else, I did think the moderators fact-checked Trump a lot more than they did Kamala Harris, of course.
Which is, I guess, it's not really a surprise to me, per se, because I just expect that for the national media and anybody in the national media to fact-check any Republican.
But I was surprised about how loud it was on social media.
And, you know, like it is.
I mean, you know, I'm a sports fan.
I complain about the umpires and the referees a lot.
You know, but normally when I'm doing that, my team can do better.
And I think it was.
It was a little bit of a mix.
But, you know, Trump did speak for, I think, eight and a half minutes longer than Kamala Harris spoke.
And that's one thing he didn't do in the debate with Biden, right?
And so I just think it would have been better to let her speak more because, you know, the more she speaks, the more she's going to make mistakes.
And look, let's be honest too, and then I'll shut up and kind of get your thoughts because I've kind of gone in a lot of different directions to answer your question, but I... You know, I do think, I don't want to say she rattled him because Trump didn't look rattled, but probably got off message a little bit coming after him on his debate, on his rally sizes.
And yeah, look, I wish his answers would have been crisper.
I wish he would have stuck more to the issues, but he's Donald Trump.
And at the end of the day, I'm not so sure this debate moves the needle one iota.
And we'll know, but look, we're still a couple months away from an election.
And if it does move the needle, it will be temporary.
And, you know, I have no reason to believe, at least from the data that I'm looking at, and I try to look at polling data every morning on RealClearPolitics and look at the aggregates.
And I just see this election, and I know it's hard for people to understand, but it could be a lot closer even than the last election, which was really close.
Look, I agree with you, and I think that's the part going into this.
And as someone who's done a lot of debates, too, you know, look, Everybody has always said, and I think this is the fact that nobody can account for it.
Donald Trump's not a traditional debater.
He's not a traditional person on stage.
And what you may think he would say, he may not say, and it come off and be received by the base better than if he had gave the answer that people would have thought he would have said.
I think what bothered me, and I'm gonna get into, here's my part with the moderators.
I watched last night.
Moderators can fact check.
And it's like the old saying is, everybody's entitled to their own opinion.
They're just not entitled to their own facts.
And when you start off the debate and the first question, I mean, again, it is amazing that the questions, and Chip, did you notice this as well, that all of the questions dealt toward what is perceived Trump weaknesses.
I thought that was really interesting.
Oh, yeah.
They never got into it.
But when you start off with abortion, Okay, Harris had her answer.
That was her wheelhouse.
But Trump had a decent answer as well and actually nailed her at one point.
By the way, we did it in the first debate.
We've done it in the second debate.
Democrats cannot utter the word restriction on abortion.
They cannot do it.
And I have a tweet out right now that just went, you know, completely nuts because basically he said Roe v.
Wade does not do anything with seven, eighth, and ninth month.
If you want to go back to Roe v.
Wade, then you can have late-term abortions.
That's why you had this stuff.
But when she comes out and says there's no state in the union where that could actually, you know, you can't have a baby Can't be killed after.
That's just not true.
It's just inherently not true.
And especially, you know, where there's one place that's inherently not true?
Minnesota.
Mike Wall's estate.
Tim Wall.
Tim Wall's estate.
Yeah.
Anyway.
I know.
Look, there's so many members of his family that haven't endorsed him.
I'm sure Mike's- Exactly.
They probably don't know him either.
But Wallace is his home state, okay?
Then you actually get into the next ones where, again, Taking the, well, I didn't, again, I've never heard a moderator say, well, I didn't read the inflection in that.
Are you kidding me?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, huh?
No.
Well, no, it was sarcasm.
He said it was sarcasm.
I didn't read the sarcasm in that.
But then, if you had fact-checked him like you were doing, fine.
But when Kamala Harris started talking about Charlottesville, And good people on both sides, which has been debunked by Snopes, been debunked by every major news outlet, has had runs in New York Times and everywhere else.
And you let her say it without any, any fact check.
When you let her say that, you know, questions on, you know, that Donald Trump would sign an abortion ban.
Nothing.
I mean, I think this is the one place, and I agree with you, I don't think the 3% or 4% probably were watching last night.
I don't think a Trump voter switched to a Harris voter last night.
I don't think a Harris voter switched to a Trump voter last night.
I think there's got to be a lot more to do here.
But what I think, if you did have people who were sitting there and watching this, I know from a Trump voter perspective, and I've heard from a lot of...
The debate performance, irregardless, the moderator performance confirmed their support for Trump.
They're not moving.
And Harris got by with stuff.
But I've heard from this a couple of folks, and I'll just say this.
When you saw the two screen pictures of Trump and Biden, everybody talked about the two screen and how Biden looked and that look was not good.
I think the similar thing that I've seen a little bit right now is the look last night with Trump who looked serious most of the night and Harris Who did not look serious at times.
Her facial expressions, the emotions, and I've had some people actually talk about, that again, it goes back to what you and I've talked about, about the gender divide here.
That the females, probably with the males, it didn't play with at all.
And I think the unspoken part of that debate last night could play into this.
But the real question is gonna come.
What does it do in actual voting numbers?
And I think that's the question that right now I would probably say, we've done it and it's over.
Now get back to the, you know, pardon the interruption.
Now let's get back to the real election.
Yeah, I mean, that's right.
I mean, and look, you know, before I make this point, to kind of go back to something you said just a minute ago, talking about the moderators.
It's really just David Muir, right?
I mean, Lindsay Davis, it was almost like she disappeared for 30 minutes in that debate.
Well, after she started off with the abortion one, she started and then she disappeared for a while.
She disappeared!
I mean, there were 30 minutes in that debate where David Muir was the only moderator talking and fact-checking.
And I didn't really...
I didn't really get that.
I mean, when I picked up on Twitter, I saw somebody kind of say, is Lindsey Davis still there?
And then I got to thinking about it, and I was like, wow, you're right.
I haven't really...
And when the pull feed camera that was facing the moderators was shown, it wasn't a wide shot that showed both moderators.
It was a tight shot that showed who was speaking.
Yeah, look, Doug, it's not...
Your expectations are always set by the last debate.
Just like Auburn football's expectations for our quarterback Peyton Thorne this week are a lot different than they were in week two.
In week two, he looked like he could be a Heisman Trophy candidate in week one.
We knew it probably wasn't realistic.
And so, you know, I would love to see another debate because Democrats are pretty cocky right now.
Even though I don't think they have a good reason to be cocky, but I don't know that we'll see one for the issues that you raised.
There was one issue, there was one thing of all the clips that were posted, and I kind of looked last night after the debate and spent some time kind of looking at it this morning.
There was one thing I think that Trump said that nobody's really picking up on That I, if you were, of course you have to be careful how you coach Trump, right?
You don't sit down and tell him things he did wrong.
You just, you know, you make suggestions of things that, you know, maybe in future debates that he can be sensitive of.
But, you know, he did say when talking about Israel, he did say if she gets elected, Israel won't exist in two years.
And then he followed that up with, I'm pretty good at predictions.
I hope I'm wrong on that one.
And if he's wrong on that one, that would assume that she's president.
The only way that we would get to see if his prediction was right or wrong, if she gets elected.
I tell you, Doug, of anything that worries me the most, because I think in the back of his head, I mean, usually Trump is always, always You know, always projects confidence and he projects...
He's a winner, right?
I mean, he's a winner.
I'm a winner.
You know, I hope, and I hope I was looking at that situation wrong, you know, but I wonder subliminally if he thinks in the back of his head...
That he's handcuffed a little bit in this race because he's no longer running against Joe Biden.
She is a woman.
It's more difficult to run against a woman when you have the M.O. that Donald Trump has, let's just face it.
And so, I don't know.
That's one of the things I caught live in the debate that nobody's kind of really talking about that I just thought was interesting that stood out to me.
Yeah, I think it's interesting in the choice of wording, and I think that was probably the way it came across.
Let's go back to just a few, only hit some just topics.
It was amazing to me that you start off the very first question, which if you want to defend your record or you wanted to say, I'm capable of, she couldn't have got a better first question.
And that was, if you want to dispute the fact that people are not better off now, and she just blew through the answer.
She never touched And it shows how, and it was nervous, and look, the nervous energy in Harris came across the first 30 minutes.
You could see it.
I think, like in anything, it died down.
By the way, on a quick side note, who would have put two commercials in the last 30 minutes?
And there were no commercials in the first hour.
Yeah, it didn't make sense at all.
Yeah, that really, that was weird.
Yeah, it was.
I didn't get it.
But anyway, Harris, did it surprise you that that question, knowing it was coming, and look, both sides always have this issue, but from Harris's perspective, it was amazing how she just did a standard, here's what I memorized, and just pivoted off of it completely.
Well, and Doug, let's be honest.
Have we ever seen Have we ever seen?
And look, candidates evolve.
You know that.
I mean, their policy positions evolve.
But I can't remember in recent history a candidate that has changed their positions on so many issues of significance While they become a candidate for president.
And I get it.
She represented California and now she's running for to represent the whole United States.
But, you know, usually when you get caught into that, the press makes you pay a price.
You have to be very creative in how you answer those questions.
And they ask her the questions and there's no follow up.
I mean, my values haven't changed.
Well, they certainly look like they have.
And it's just maddening.
I mean, it's maddening when you look at it.
It would have been the one time I wish that he would have said, well, then why have you switched to the wall?
Why have you switched on this?
Why have you switched on this?
And by the way, we've already heard from Bernie Sanders that you're still a liberal.
Yeah.
David, ask her that question.
Yeah.
That would have been the perfect, I mean, because Bernie blew the lid off of it on the Sunday show.
You know, again, It's like...
I like how you talk about...
Georgia in the last, you know, from my perspective, Georgia, Alabama, I've been rooting for, but I'll just use Georgia.
For years, you would have high hopes, high hopes, high hopes, and then we would, you know, we would lose the craziest game.
Or we'd do one or two games, we'd just show up, like Florida or Auburn or Vanderbilt.
We'd just, I mean, we'd, you know, we'd just not show up, okay?
And, you know, it's just got frustrating year after year.
And you want so much for your team to do what you think they should do.
And I think, and these debates now have become team sports.
It's team Democrat, team Republican, and I'm like you.
I think the middle is virtually nonexistent.
I thought it was interesting though.
I caught a little bit of this last night, or this morning, on some of the issues.
Two things.
One, I did Fox and Friends first this morning.
At an exceedingly early hour of 4 a.m.
If you want to know, if you want to go and get it, it's on at RepDougCollins.
You can go to my Twitter page.
We got it posted.
So it's been an interesting morning for me.
You know, James, by the way, James is resting right now.
For those of you in the same, James will get into Friday's finest on why he's resting this morning.
And he's finding the way in.
But I got up at Fort Worth, did an interview, and then went and run, and then came back in.
But it gave me a chance to look at, like you said, that overnight Twitter.
And CNN has always wanted to do the panels.
They do the supposedly non-committed voters.
And it was amazing to me how many of those uncommitted voters kept coming back up after just what we saw and were saying, I was better off under Trump.
I get what she's saying, but I'm better off under Trump.
And this was some female saying and males.
It does really sit back and you wonder about what is the benefits of this.
I don't think there'll be another debate.
I really don't.
I know that Paris and them want it badly now because they think that it's over.
I mean, I don't think you push Donald Trump that far.
But also, if I was Donald Trump, I would say this.
Okay?
And it's not going to be a slam dunk for him, unfortunately.
All you got to do is watch Fox News this morning.
But if she would not agree to do it on Fox News, I don't think they should do it at all.
And because they've already went through CNN, they've already went through CBS, they've already went through ABC, and she says, I'm not going to Fox News.
When do you get to determine that venue?
And I think for Trump last night and the Trump team, they saw the problem with that.
And again, but I will also say this, it could be a benefit If you were worried about some of the answers, you were worried about some of the both, the moderator situation is taking that out because people look at it and they don't understand why they would allow Harris, as you said, never to follow up.
Oh, you just changed your mind.
That's fine.
Can you imagine if Donald Trump had changed?
Look how they went after him on abortion.
And it wasn't even an honest abortion.
He said, I did what I had to do.
I said I was gonna send him back to the States.
He actually was pretty solid.
One of the solid answers he gave was on abortion, but yet they kept coming back at him.
Would you sign a national abortion ban?
I, you know, again, it's not any chip because I was so proud.
He said that when she answered the fact that I would sign it, he said, you know, that's not going to happen.
Thank God.
I've been saying it on the speaking circuit and everything.
I'm tired of politicians saying what they would do about something that would never happen.
You know, I would tell you if I had, if I won the lottery and became a billionaire, I'd buy 10,000 acres in Montana and move to the middle of it and become Yellowstone.
That's great, but I'm not going to win 10,000, 10, a billion dollars.
So I can do whatever I want because it's never going to happen.
And politicians do that straw man all the time.
And we're lying to voters.
And we do it Republican side, we do it Democrat side.
We're lying to voters by saying, oh, if this comes out, I'm gonna vote for it.
Well, it's never gonna work.
And I think we're seeing that right now with the CR struggle and everything in Congress right now.
As we go forward.
Yeah, and they also tried to hit Trump, if you noticed, you know, on that same question.
They said, well, would you sign a national abortion ban?
And Trump said, well, you said it's never going to happen.
And they said, well, your running mate J.D. Vance said that you would veto it.
It's like, well, I mean, you know, is it?
I mean, come on.
I mean, you know.
I mean, really?
Yeah.
But did you notice how he took that question?
Did you see his facial change?
Oh, yeah.
Well, J.D., I didn't talk to J.D. about that.
It was like, it was like, okay, how many times have you talked to your kids and all of a sudden they were going along fine and then they said something, you know, either you said no or you said something and you said, well, mom said and your face just go, all right.
You know, we ain't dealing with this.
And so that was pretty wild.
There was one area where I think he did misspoke because I'm still trying to follow the story because it's so bizarre.
But he said, in Springfield, the Haitian migrants are eating dogs.
I thought they were eating cats.
I thought they were eating cats.
Well, and now it's a fight.
And then, of course, David Muir.
Well, we talked to the, I mean, they planned this.
I mean, I knew he was going to go there.
And we talked to the city manager and that's not really been a problem.
And then you have all these social media issues with a guy speaking at the Springfield City Council about this issue.
I mean, it's just, but it's an issue of like, are you kidding me?
We're talking about this.
Why would the immigration answer be this?
I will close the border.
I have, David, I have a question.
We tried to work on the border.
We need a permanent immigration policy, but it starts with closing the border and closing it to illegal aliens coming across in drugs.
I would just love to know from Kamala Harris what she would have to say to the families of Lake and Riley and others who have been killed by illegal immigrants.
What would she say to the families who are dying from fentanyl?
Because of her open border policy.
And then I would like to ask her, and he tried this a little bit later, he said, I would like to say that if they wanted to do something about the border, they could start by going back and reinstating 89 executive orders that they overturned on day one.
They cannot run from this, David.
Why don't you ask them about this?
Not a bill that could never become law, but the actual facts of what they did.
That would have shut the entire thing up.
Yeah.
Because she can't answer that question.
110%.
And it just didn't happen.
We got off talking.
We never mentioned the victims.
We never did.
So, look, I think both of it, though, I think They were expecting ABC this to be a hostile interview.
I was even amazed.
And the reason I mentioned the Fox and Friends first interview, Carly and them, they played a soundbite of the moderator fact-checking.
And I'm sitting here and it's early and I haven't listened to it in this way.
And it was almost a 20-second soundbite of like eight different times.
They interjected themselves into this.
Oh, yeah.
I was watching and I knew there two or three times, but it was eight or nine different times.
Yeah.
And so I think it would have thrown me off and I've done hundreds of these.
Yeah.
Because you don't expect to give an answer.
You don't expect to fight the person who asks you the question.
That's right.
That's right.
And as we go through it.
That's right.
I think here's an interesting question for those maybe listening to the podcast.
We'll sort of sum it up here.
One, before everybody gets all ecstatic about the Taylor Swift endorsement last night, if you didn't see that one coming, you're really, really, really new to politics, okay?
And just let me say, I'll hear what you're saying, even with my own family.
Well, this could have made a lot of voters and could be.
Could be, should be, would be.
Let me see on November 6th how many of these young voters show up at the polls.
If they do show up, it's a real thing.
And Taylor may bring it.
At the end of the day, I don't think a lot of the celebrity endorsements on either side move the needle beyond what people think they would.
Chip, are you seeing the Taylor Swift train changing the dynamic of this race?
Not at all.
I'm humored by it because I think I think it was interesting that on the Kansas City Chiefs opener on the previous Thursday night when they played the Baltimore Ravens, you know, that...
Brittany and Taylor were in different suites, and there was speculation on social media that that was because of the presidential election.
And then it all got, you know, kind of put to bed when they showed up at the same suite in Flushing Meadows at the U.S. Open men's final on Sunday and looked to be getting along just fine.
But, no, look, I mean, Taylor Swift has always been a lefty progressive.
And that's great.
I mean, that's fine.
She, you know, to each his own.
And she's certainly allowed, like the rest of us, to express their opinions on public affairs and political elections than she did here.
But, you know, I mean, I feel pretty certain that a majority of her fans and supporters are most likely Republican.
And they are going to vote for Trump.
And they're still going to listen to Taylor's music and they're still going to go to her concerts, but they're not going to vote for her candidate.
I like bands that are far left politically.
They hate Trump or they hate Republicans.
I still listen to the band.
I still listen to the music.
I mean, it's like movie actors.
I get it.
Most of the movie actors are way off liberal, but I don't go to the movies to find out what their personal preferences are.
I go to the movies to watch the movie.
And again, that may be different.
I know some of you out there will say, I'll boycott everything.
Okay, go watch whatever you wanna watch.
That's also your freedom to go do.
But it's not affecting me because I actually deal in the substance of issues and if I can't convince people that conservative values and they wanna listen to a singer or a movie star who has about the depth of knowledge on most of these issues of a shallow stream, then I can't help you.
If that's where you're getting your, you know, and that's how they make a living.
As we go forward, I think one of the things, though, too, is let's sum it up with this.
Where do we go from here in this campaign?
I mean, I think before this debate last night, I think you were seeing it get into the after Labor Day rhythm.
OK, you were seeing the ads, you were seeing the buys.
I think it was settling in.
Does the debate change that?
Or do we go a couple of days in which you've now got 9-11 today, you've got a hurricane hitting New Orleans and, you know, we move through and by this time next week, there'll be some yaing about another debate and maybe a vice president debate, but yet you're back to that normal rhythm.
Where do campaigns need to go after this?
You know, I've only seen one presidential debate in my lifetime.
It really moved the needle, and it was the debate eight weeks ago between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
It ended Joe Biden's career, and that moved the needle.
I hate to say it, Doug, but last night's debate was kind of boring for me, right?
When you watch the debate two months ago, the anticipation of it, it was kind of a nothing burger.
I guess I fell into the same trap that a lot of us get stuck in from the expectations game and expected a heavyweight brawl.
And, you know, and I don't know that we got a heavyweight brawl.
We got a, you know, we got something different.
And that's great.
That's fine.
But, you know, I don't know that it moves the needle an inch.
And if it does move the needle an inch, the needle's going to move back an inch over course correction over time, you know.
And, you know, I still think, I mean, there's a scenario John King had it on CNN, had it playing out the other day.
I mean, there's really only six states that are going to decide this election.
Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and Michigan.
And maybe North Carolina, but I just don't see it.
But I mean, there's a math scenario where this comes down to the congressional district in Nebraska.
It could be that close from an Electoral College perspective.
And for those of you listening that don't know, there are two states in the country that don't award electoral votes on a statewide basis.
They award them proportionally, and that's Maine and Nebraska.
And wow, if that were the scenario, can you imagine, Doug, the chaos that would ensue?
And look, I think it could be that close of an election.
We're a divided country.
We're a polarized country.
We're a divided electorate.
We're a polarized electorate.
And, you know, it would just be like this election cycle to have that type of scenario happen.
And, you know, us to be, you know, sitting in the second, third week in November and, you know, still not really knowing who the president's going to be.
I'm not asking for that.
I don't want that.
You know, but, you know, it certainly to me looks like it's shaping up to be one of the closest presidential elections of my lifetime.
Yeah, it could be.
Well, and one of the things to remember out there, folks, you're about 55 days, 56 days, depending on how we look at it, I haven't seen the counter lately, but you think that that's a short amount of time and it is because voting has already started in a couple of places requesting absentee ballots, things like that you can get in North Carolina and some others.
But let me also just say, for those of you who think that not a lot can change in that, remember it was 75 days from yesterday that there was a debate with Donald Trump and Joe Biden in which we had two entirely different You know, candidates for president.
So, you know, one that was gone completely within two weeks after that happened.
So there's a lot that can go on here.
You still have a lot overseas.
You still have a lot of the October surprise.
You have, you know, a lot going on in Washington, D.C., which we haven't touched.
Chip and I'll touch on that on Friday.
Maybe Friday's finest for a little bit, but we got to see our, you know, it's not going to be a battle.
I'm going to sort of tell you how it'll end on Friday.
So team back in on Friday.
I'll tell you how it's going to end.
Pretty simple, the way they've always ended.
But, you know, there's a lot still left to go here.
So I think the biggest thing that I can tell, you know, for Trump supporters in particular, for conservatives, is this just doubles down on the fact that you've got to get out to vote.
You've got to, in Georgia, especially Pennsylvania in particular, because, you know, the question's gonna come down, folks, and Chip sort of outlined this as well, It goes to groups in what they believe.
And one of the things that was not fact-checked, really, or even pushed back on was Harris' issue of fracking.
That's 180,000 workers in the state of Pennsylvania that are involved in the fracking and oil and gas industry up there.
Do they believe...
She's not going to fulfill her new Green Deal promise and go against them.
Then you got Michigan.
Last night, I thought it was very interesting, Chip.
We didn't comment on this, but real quickly.
It was interesting how hard, quote, she was on Hamas last night.
I mean, because she got their terrorist organization, they're bad, but then she tried to double down with the two-state solution and everything else.
Her far lefties and the pro Hamas crowd are not going to like that.
Not at all.
Are you kidding me?
I mean, she's going like a pinball.
Yeah, so Michigan, and that puts Michigan in an interesting position.
Yeah, and what other issues is she going to change course on between now and Election Day?
I'm waiting for her to show up in a brick suit.
Yeah, she's getting a pass on all of it.
Look, we've all worked for candidates and you possibly.
Over time, my positions have evolved on issues.
As a parent, you change the way you view the world.
You get older, you have a new perspective.
I mean, it's natural to evolve.
But you've got to explain why you evolve.
And normally the press does a good job of forcing you to explain why you've evolved with the follow-up question when you don't answer the first question.
And she's getting away with, well, my values haven't changed.
Well, let me follow up on that, you know, Vice President Harris.
You know, what specific?
No, there's none of that.
None of that.
And while there's two or three follow-ups on Trump, you just don't get the follow-up.
She's playing with a different set of cards and a different deck and a different set of rules.
It's just the way it is.
And they're invested in it.
And that's why I say, to me, if you do another debate, fine.
But Trump would be, I think, would be ill-advised to go on to anywhere else Oh, a network variety like that.
And again, my question would be, if Trump will go on to CNN and Trump will go on to ABC, why can't you go on to Fox News that speaks to more of those every week combined than what you've got here?
And if Harris won't agree to that, which he's not, you know, She's going to say because I can't get a fair shake on Fox.
Oh, really?
Do you think we got a fair shake?
Come on.
Not a chance.
Alright, folks.
That's it for the debate wrap-up.
We've got a lot more coming this week.
We'll talk more about...
Where we go after this, by then, by Friday, we'll also have some polling in that'll show in the initial stages what the debate may or may not have said.
As we go forward, we'll talk and break that down even further.
Also, we have our fantasy football.
We got UFS coming up this week.
This is going to be a fun week for Friday's Finest.
Also, some other things coming up.
Come to the DougCollinsPodcast.com.
Hit the email button if you want to talk about it, comment about it, whatever you need to do.
But with that, Jeff and I are out of here.
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