[00:00:04] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West, you are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show. Republican Conventions, Judges, The Honeyman, The Moneyman, and The Funnyman. Welcome to the show, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Sam Bushman. Happy to have you along. Kirk Crosby's with me. Welcome to the show, sir.
[00:00:33] Kurt. Buenos Dias. Greetings and salutations. Howdy, howdy, howdy. Thank you, Sam. I went on the Front Runner, which is the big train in Utah going up and down the Wasatch Front. That's why they call it the Front Runner. And they do everything in English and Spanish, too. So we wanted to make sure we make, you know, follow that lead there and do everything in Spanish. Ladies and gentlemen, that's where you get the Buenos Dias from. Welcome, Kurt. We've also got an incredible guest with us, Nathan Worcester.
[00:01:02] And he's a senior Epoch Times political reporter. He went to Dallas at the Republican convention. We're going to broadcast live and then I got COVID and so I had to reschedule with Nathan. I apologize for that. But he's back in D.C. and he's going to do a look back for us on the convention, get his take, what he thought, etc. Welcome to the show, sir. Glad to join you. Yeah, I'd like to think I'm a funny man, too, but I suppose that remains to be seen.
[00:01:30] Hey, let's start with the convention, though. It was kind of wild and woolly a little bit. You had a Democrat kind of defect and kind of participate in some ways. He didn't convert to a Republican, but he did show up there. That caused a stir. President Trump spoke, caused a stir. What do you think of the whole event? Normally, they don't do midterm election venues like that, do they? No, this was really more of a rally and showcase because there wasn't any actual party business transacted.
[00:01:58] It wasn't a formal convention in that sense. There have been midterm conventions before in the 70s and 80s, but it was just Democrats who did that. The Republicans, this was unprecedented for them. So John Fetterman, senator from Pennsylvania, a Democrat, has become a bit of a wild card. Somebody who's been known to support President Trump's nominees, who has deviated from his party on issues like the border, Israel, foreign policy generally. He came and he introduced Dave McCormick.
[00:02:28] This is through a video message. He wasn't physically present, but that was, I think for the GOP, a high point of the convention. I will say one thing that stood out to me and then in the week succeeding has continued to stand out. There was not much on foreign policy. The president there and then in subsequent speeches like his U.N. General Assembly speech yesterday has defended the war, has said that despite any possible impact that it could have on things like diesel prices,
[00:02:56] on other issues that may be on voters' minds ahead of the election, this was the right decision going in the way that the United States has through airstrikes, and that ensuring Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon is warranted. But we can follow up on this. It's definitely something that was looming over not only the event, but also a series of nearby debates that I went to, where some of the issues right now, some of the big divisions, but also just kind of questions swirling on the conservative side,
[00:03:26] those got a hearing in nearby Irving, Texas at the forum debates. All right, Kurt, you want to chime in here real quick? Your thoughts? Well, you know, I know when it comes to President Trump, sometimes people, at least people like us who try to listen to him think, well, you know, he tells all the things that he's done and things like that,
[00:03:50] and yet, you know, he points out in one of his recent events that typically the old lamestream media gives him about 90-plus percent negative coverage. So I understand why he has to, I guess you could say, tout the good things that he's done. So it makes a lot of sense to me.
[00:04:17] I enjoyed the U.N. speech as well as the things from the convention. Yeah, we covered the U.N. speech yesterday with Sheriff Richard Mack in detail. He said and did a lot of interesting, good, and unprecedented historical things there as well, including signing a deal with Greenland and Denmark, which was incredible as well. So, Mr. Worcester, what do you think of the convention then overall?
[00:04:45] Do you feel like it changed the game and accomplished what they had hoped? Well, I think the real verdict will come in November. It was definitely an effort to put the president on the ballot for the base in a way that you just can't do during midterms. I think that there was an effort there that we saw to really make clear the record that the administration has on some of its signature issues, things like the border, the continuation of tax cuts through last year's one big, beautiful bill.
[00:05:14] There is, I think, a genuine beyond sort of the media spin, a set of headwinds on the economy that I sense on the ground. That I've sensed, for example, in various swing states going there over the past few months, mainly surrounding issues of affordability. And one can point out that a lot of this is a continuation of things that we saw during the previous administration, the hangover of inflation.
[00:05:38] There remains a persistent inflation issue, but nothing like some of the numbers that we saw posted under the Biden administration. That being said, I think that the events that I went to, including forum, some after parties, and then the second day of the convention, I sensed a very, very excited crowd, a fair amount of high morale.
[00:06:02] And also, and again, a lot of this remains to be seen what the long range impact of President Trump being reelected in 24 ultimately means. But maybe there is groundwork beyond the result of these midterm elections for a lasting coalition. Again, to return to the forum debates, which centered on issues like AI, data centers, affordability, these key concerns.
[00:06:24] There was, from my point of view, an attempt to bring together a coalition, ensure that some of the disagreements, some of the real sincere disagreements among people who tend to be on the right, that there is some forum, just to lay emphasis on the word, for those to actually get a hearing and be talked through without really suppressing those.
[00:06:47] That does, I think, offer space for a way for this kind of Trump coalition that we see to navigate. Let me throw out this idea, because this has been my contention. When Trump took office the first time and his last two years in office this second time, I believe Trump's put a lot of great things on the table. He's brought up a lot of discussions that we've all been wanting.
[00:07:14] He's put them on the kitchen table for us to discuss as a society and to discuss publicly. He's made things some top issues that others wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. For example, calling out the media for their dishonesty, etc. And I really commend President Trump for that. But what I've seen is Congress acts like they're supporting the president. But really, they've been on vacation more days than you can shake a stick at this term. Most things that President Trump wants to accomplish, you know what? If Congress was involved with the president to get those things done,
[00:07:43] the courts wouldn't be able to shut President Trump down on everything he does, tariffs being one of the top issues. If Congress just said, hey, we're going to back the president on tariffs, then there wouldn't be any real spot for the courts to dissent. They would have to basically obey the law that Congress puts forward backing the president. Is there a lot of talk about this? Because I believe that Trump's been undermined by Congress. And I think that's been the disappointment that we all pretty much see. Sadly, Trump's getting some of the blame for this. That's why he kind of says, hey, remember, think I'm on the ballot this time when you vote,
[00:08:13] because his agenda is really the discussion. Congress has kind of undermined that, in my view. Did you was that covered at all or focused on at all? Well, you've heard about the dog that didn't bark, right? And in the convention, the absence of Majority Leader John Thune, that was the dog that didn't bark. Whereas we did see on the House side, the Speaker, Mike Johnson. We saw various candidates, everybody from Ken Paxton, Senate hopeful in Texas,
[00:08:42] to Derek Van Orden of Wisconsin. He's in a battleground district, perhaps on track to win. But again, this is a challenging midterm cycle for the Republicans, as is generally the case for any party that is in control of the White House during that midterm cycle. My sense is, having again seen the end of Congress on the House side, Mike Johnson ahead of the midterms in that final series of votes, really emphasizing what the House has done.
[00:09:12] The number of bills they passed is apparently historic. I don't have the statistics or numbers offhand, but the point that he made is a lot of things have made it to the Senate and then have not made it further. Everything from the NDAA, that big defense blueprint, to repeatedly the Save America Act or the Save Act, this very signature voter ID and citizenship verification measure.
[00:09:38] And again, looking at it and trying to see it from a 365-degree perspective, it's true that the Senate tends to be less active, tends to be less supportive. Some of that might be in the case of, for example, a Susan Collins of Maine. The fact that she is representing a state that is less conservative, it's harder for her electorally, and I think the president and those around him recognize this, to really be somebody standing out as a strong Trump supporter.
[00:10:07] On the other hand, people might look at some of the other swing voters that we've seen. I mean, increasingly, John Cornyn of Texas, who appears to be very critical of the president after not getting the endorsement in his re-election bid. Paxton got it instead. Everybody from him to now Tom Tillis. You know, I can't look inside these men's hearts. I can't speak to their sincerity entirely. But we've definitely seen some heel turns, one might say,
[00:10:33] some rather dramatic shifts just in the past few months on the Senate GOP side, that if I were in the White House thinking about the agenda and what's moving it forward and what's not, I might be banging my head against the wall looking at what the Senate has done specifically. I think that's a valuable point. I also think, though, some of the attacks on Green and Massey and some of these different things have been, I understand the frustration by President Trump on some of these issues, but it's been kind of a misstep, and it's really divided MAGA.
[00:11:01] Were there discussions about that kind of division in MAGA and the MAGA agenda? Because I think that's kind of one thing that's been fracturing a little bit too, right? Absolutely. You know, and increasingly people in that faction, Thomas Massey, MTG, someone like Tucker Carlson, Joe Kent, from whom I've heard, the former counterterrorism official who has resigned and become a very outspoken voice against the Iran war,
[00:11:27] they're identifying, not necessarily in all cases, but as a general tendency, as America first rather than MAGA. And so from my perspective, yes, that is definitely an issue, that division that I'm looking towards in the midterms to see how might some of these independent voters who went for Trump in 2024, how are they feeling? Are they either not going to turn out, are they going to vote for Democrats, or will they just be able ultimately to go into the voting booth
[00:11:55] and despite any misgivings they may have, vote for the president's party again? One thing I will also just add is that we've seen a few attempts everywhere from Ohio with Putsch to Florida with James Fishback to put forth some of these America first rather than MAGA conservative candidates. And with the exception of Iowa, I believe all of them have floundered in primaries so far. So that doesn't necessarily mean there's nothing to this in terms of traction.
[00:12:25] Fishback, for example, and I can speak to this, you know, whatever you make of him, there's definitely a Gen Z contingent out there of conservatives who voted for him, who are eager, if only again in kind of the Trump way of sending a very strong message to what they see as the establishment of frustration with the status quo. There is a base there, but it is not enough at this time to, for example, capture primaries, especially when they're up against Trump endorsed candidates.
[00:12:52] And then even the midterm general election, if you will, not the primaries, but the real runoff is even more critical because people need to move more to the center, sadly, when those general elections happen. Kurt? Well, and the other, at least one issue I think is key here is you literally have, I don't really know what the Democrats can say as to the reason to vote for them,
[00:13:22] you know, except they say... Well, if you want a chicken in every pot and you want to promote socialism, that's really their shtick, right? Well, I mean, if you really highlight some of their so-called heroes, man, that's a rough sell, in my opinion. You know, especially when all you are really is anti-Trump. You know, I mean, at least President Trump,
[00:13:51] like, he's going against that by saying basically any American, any adult American, if we win the midterms, will receive a $5,000 check. So, now, I guess the Democrats could ante up and say, well, we'll give you 10. But, you know, who knows what's the reason you'd get out to vote for. Vote Democratic is hard for me to see.
[00:14:21] Mr. Worcester, it seems to me that the Republicans can say that. They can say, hey, we haven't accomplished as much as we hoped to because of the Joe Biden administration. We've had to turn a lot of this stuff around. We need more time. And, hey, at least you're not going to go just flat out off the rails with some of these wacky ideas that the Democrats are promoting, etc. Was that kind of a big thing? I mean, it's one thing to say we can accomplish all these things. It's another to say, hey, at least we're not running everything off the rails. And to a great degree, it's still maging on America first, right?
[00:14:52] Yes. We heard that pitch recently from Vice President J.D. Vance saying something to the effect of, please give us another chance. Give us time to remedy some of these issues that are, in fact, systemic, that might take time to implement. I'll just say as an example, any sort of push to reindustrialize. That is a generational task. And so we can look at things like the tariffs, things like incentives to build data centers. Again, wherever you fall on that, I think it's objectively true
[00:15:20] that any sort of push to reindustrialize in the 21st century is going to involve AI data centers, though there might be debates about where exactly lines around privacy and local control, where those are drawn. This push to reindustrialize will take time if it is going to succeed. Still an if, still an if, but certainly it would be, I think, a mistake to assess every single campaign promise from 2024 based upon what we've seen now.
[00:15:48] That said, I think there are voters who at least feel as though they have not gotten what they voted for on foreign policy, on the Epstein files, on a few of these other issues. And so the administration, the Republicans, they are running up against a certain amount of disappointment, if not buyer's remorse from, again, I don't think so much the core base as some of those independent voters or low propensity voters who were really disgusted in some cases
[00:16:15] by what they had seen under the Biden administration. And so they decided to vote for Trump. Last point I'll make here is that there's some polling indicating that young men who turned out and indicated through their votes that they were a strong and in some ways unexpected pillar of Trump support in 2024. There are indications that those young men either will be sitting out or might be tipping towards the Democrats.
[00:16:41] When I look at the long range trajectory of what has happened in politics over the past decade with Trump, that is definitely something worth paying attention to. If I were on the GOP side, if I were a GOP consultant, like some of the younger GOP consultants that I've spoken with, I would be concerned about, okay, what sort of policies, what sort of sales, and not just sales, but things delivered, can I show young men who might be concerned, for example,
[00:17:10] with sluggish job growth in that group? There were recent job numbers where at least the net job gains were among women, and in net men did not gain jobs. You have to put an asterisk next to that because it is in net, but at the same time that I think that for some young Trump voters that came as a frustrating moment. There are still issues with the cost of housing, and you're seeing, I think, also sort of a generational tension
[00:17:40] around housing. Yeah, people are feeling disenfranchised. Oh, please go ahead. People are feeling disenfranchised for sure. And you bring up some of those people, and I would like to remind them that, you know, going Democrat, you're just going to flat-out vote in socialism, and if that's what you want, that's what you're going to get, and it's not going to be fun. America was built on this idea that we're free and we can choose as we will. Socialism is not the answer. The Constitution is the answer.
[00:18:09] But what I've been saying for some months, even a couple of years now for Donald Trump, is what he needs is an absolute shot in the arm. You've got to shock the world, Nathan Worcester, of theepochtimes.com. And what I mean by that is we need to abolish the IRS and back tariffs and get Congress to promote tariffs and crank up the ERS and shut down the IRS. Something like that would really make a lot of these concerned people say,
[00:18:38] hey, Trump's for real. He's struggling to get it done or abolish the Federal Reserve. You know, they created this fiat money by fraud, and now we owe $40 trillion that we'll never be able to pay back. But if you created the Donald dollar, and it was really $40 trillion coin and paid it off and said if you create the debt by fraud, we can get rid of it by fraud. If he got rid of the Federal Reserve, got rid of the IRS, I mean, there's some significant things he could do that would really change the game. For example, a lot of us got him elected
[00:19:06] in the new media taking center stage. Well, he put out, you know, whitehouse.gov slash new media, had a bunch of us sign up for it and said he was going to work with us. Now he's basically been just doing interviews with the mainstream press and all this kind of stuff, and a lot of us are just going, what's up with that? And now he's creating Donald Trump TV, and by the time you start saying, I'm going to give you a $5,000 handout and I'm creating Trump TV, the question is, well, why get rid of NPR and create Trump TV? That's just government switching. You know, why, hey, say the Democrats
[00:19:36] are bad because they want to hand you money and then he hands money. And if we're not very careful, it's just like, hey, we don't want socialism the Democratic way, we want it the Republican way. But we can avoid all that, and we can shock the world and do something significant that would change the game in America. You could shut down the education department, which you promised to do. You could say, hey, we're going to get rid of gun-free zones, which he promised to do first day. There's so many things that he could do that could change that. And some of these disenfranchised groups
[00:20:04] could instantly go, hey, wait a minute, we're getting somewhere now. Your thoughts? Yeah, you know, to bring it back to a point that you made earlier about formally shutting down the education department, doing something like disassembling other parts of the federal government, the administration can do certain things. And one could say on the education department alone, there have been many steps taken in the direction of disassembling it. But ultimately, you do need Congress. They have that power of the purse.
[00:20:34] They have certain statutory powers that will circumscribe what one president can do. And so that is, along with some of these other issues where we've seen this contestation between Article II, Article I, and then we have the judiciary weighing in. Those have been constraints on what the president can do. I wonder to what extent voters are getting that message, especially on some of these. They're not. They're not because they're just Democrat media controlling everything. But if Donald Trump would work on using his own private money
[00:21:04] or Elon Musk money or third-party money, there's plenty of people that have got money. If you could fund some of us new media people like you over at the Epoch Times and us, and if we got some funding, and I don't mean from government necessarily. I'm just telling you, Donald could literally, among his rich friends, say, hey, we need to fund this. And if we all got money, we could tell that story way better than we can now. And that's what Trump really needs. He needs a shot in the arm. Something needs to change to make the American people believe Trump is with us.
[00:21:34] And right now, we're just kind of going, hey, he's doing crypto. He's getting rich. I don't know that he's done anything for me lately. I mean, I basically had Donald Trump Jr. on on Super Tuesday when he got elected the first time. Okay, but then I haven't been able to get a hold of a lot of Trump surrogates since. And I think a lot of us are just going, come on, President Trump. Let's work together. And I think that's what he's got to do. I don't know if he's listening to Susie Wiles and she's shutting everybody down, but he's got to get back to the grassroots. Nathan? Yeah, there's a lot of speculation
[00:22:03] to that effect. And I will say that when it comes to telling the story of what happens in Washington, there's definitely an advantage, I think, that we have not seen change with you have old media and then you have some what you could call new media outlets, but ones that are built around access, D.C., having been here as a journalist, I can tell you it is a very access-driven town, a town also where you have lobbying interests, you have other interest groups that can really throw their weight around
[00:22:33] in a way that I think the grassroots finds it more challenging to do. There's no question about that. What are your final thoughts? We know we've only got you for a minute or so left. What are your final thoughts of the convention? Do you think it accomplished what they had hoped? And what do you think needs to happen for the midterms if we're going to have the Republicans hold on to the Congress? Well, we're only a few weeks away from the midterms now. There was some talk back in May, back in June,
[00:23:03] about steps that could have been taken then. I think in particular finding some freeze on the conflict in Iran. Not that that's the only issue, but we could, in fact, now see a 90-day freeze on the export of diesel, which, again, might run into some obstacles in Congress or at least objections, but perhaps that could ease some of the immediate price pressures. We're looking at that. We're looking at some big spending now from MAGA, Inc., from America PAC, Elon Musk's group, and from some of these other PACs on the GOP side.
[00:23:33] Really, I think, seeking to animate voters, keep them informed, or at least persuade them of the value of going and voting for Republicans in the midterms. We'll see just how much difference that makes. That being said, we're pretty close now to the finish line. So right now, we're just kind of looking at what's going to happen based on what's played out so far, to a large extent. Well, I'm praying for success, ladies and gentlemen, because if we let these whacked out extreme socialists like AOC
[00:24:02] and some of these people, Kamala Harris, get control, they're going to come after folks like Nathan and me and you and everybody else, folks. That's just the way they do business. Our prayers are that we can hold on to common sense and have America first. Thank you so much, Nathan Worcester. Thank you. Does a great job, ladies and gentlemen, senior political reporter for the Epoch Times. Thanks for being with us. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we've got a whole another episode that's going to be incredible coming up
[00:24:32] here in minutes. Kirk Cosby will be with me. Hopefully, we can get Heath Piller from FreeWaterCoreyCo.com with us. We've got a whole lot to talk about. I'm Sam Bushman. We're everywhere. Spread the word and show the love and God save our constitutional republic. We're here.