There’s a lot going on in national politics.
The Supreme Court has made major decisions, the nation has marked a milestone birthday, the mid-term election candidates are coming into focus, and the presidency has been good for Donald Trump’s financial earnings.
Additionally, there are controversies over the reflecting pool and a phone call to FIFA.
We're discussing national politics with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast, on this hour of All Sides.
Guest:
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides with Amy Juravich. There's always a lot going on in politics. The Supreme Court has made major decisions. The nation marked a milestone birthday. The midterm election candidates are coming into focus. Donald Trump's endorsement has proven to be key to getting GOP candidates he likes elected and the downfall for those who have fallen out of favor with him.
However, as his approval continues to plummet and some in the party who are leaving Washington are standing up to him. Could we see the MAGA stronghold crumbling? We're gonna talk national politics this hour and with us is Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. Welcome back to All Sides, Ken. Amy, did you forget? I didn't mention Taylor Swift, would you like to talk about that?
Ken Rudin: Thinking. Well that's the biggest news. That's what America cares about. Yeah, of course. The wedding. Not the war, not the economy, no, it's Taylor Swift and the pre-nup, oh my god, the sort of thing that I have with WOSU.
Juravich: That's a show for another time about Taylor's whispering up.
Rudin: Okay, it's up to you.
Juravich: Um, all right. Well, let's talk about another scandal. Um, so Maine Democrats are scrambling this morning to replace Senate candidate Graham Plattner. After he announced plans to withdraw from the race following a series of scandals, the Maine Senate race is among the most important for the Democrats this election cycle as Senator Susan Collins holding her main seat would make it nearly impossible for the democrats to gain control of the it. So is this whole thing with Graham Plattner a disaster for the Democratic Party in their attempt to win the Senate?
Rudin: Well, it has been so far, and I would suspect that him pulling out yesterday was the best news the Democrats had in quite a while, even when he was at the top of the charts. And I'm talking about even last fall when the party establishment was backing Janet Mills, the 78-year-old governor that Chuck Schumer really wanted. The progressive left seemed to come up with this grand plattner who had never run before. He's an oyster farmer. He was saying things that progressives love to hear. And even though there were some troubling signs, you know, like, oh, oh well, he's wearing a Nazi tattoo. Well, everybody has a Nazi tatoo, right? And then, of course, he sent texts or he was sexting with women while he was married.
Well, everyone does that. And you know, he had some reddit posts that were really incendiary. But for some reason, the left was so desperate to beat Susan Collins because on paper she's vulnerable. She voted for Kavanaugh. She's voted for Supreme Court justices and other legislation backed by President Trump. And they wanted to beat her. So they were overlooking it. And it wasn't until a woman came forward last week or weekend, I guess, I don't know, It seems so long ago because so much has happened since. Who said that he raped her, and then Bernie Sanders said, oh, maybe we should pull away from it.
And that's, I mean, there was so many blame to be handed out for this catastrophe, but a lot of it is like, again, the left was so gung-ho on winning that they ignored all these signs, and that's pretty criminal especially because had this come out later, like everybody's saying this is the Republican's fault, I don't think The Republicans had anything to do with this because if the Republicans wanted to break this scandal, they would have done it after July 13th when it would have been too late for Platland to drop out of the race. So the fact that this was going on for so long, Platland knew this stuff had passed and decided, I want to go ahead with my candidacy anyway. It was selfish. It was self-defeating. Boy, the Democrats really dodged a bullet on this one.
Juravich: Well, but now they have to come up with a replacement. They have a couple weeks to do that. They're talking about possibly having some sort of convention. I mean, are they gonna end up with 78-year-old Janet Mills?
Rudin: Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not. First of all, she got clobbered. In the primary, you know, in the June primary by Graham Plattner, even when all these terrible things were coming out about him. But of course, she had already dropped out of the race. And the reason she dropped out the race is that he had huge, enormous poll leads over Janet Mills.
Look, you know she was a good governor. She got national attention in 2025 when she stood up to President Trump regarding trans athletes and federal funding. And she did that famous, we'll see you in court. And she became a hero among Democrats. And they said, wow, Chuck Schumer said, well, this is a woman who could beat Susan Collins. But 78 years old, her numbers were never really great approval ratings as governor. And Graham Plattler, with anemic background as far as in the record in office. Was so far better than she was on paper and in the polls, so no Janet Mills.
Juravich: Well, to pivot a little bit, we could take, you know, this moment of talking about the idea of winning the Senate and how important Maine is to that. But part of that path could be with switching control of the Senate. Maybe now it could come down to Ohio. Maybe Ohio is now a more important matchup. So just to pivot for a moment, current Senator John Husted is running against former Senator Sherrod Brown. The polling is all over the place. One poll shows Brown is leading, another shows Houston is leading. Either way, it's showing to be close, if you believe polling. So any thoughts on this matchup? Un, is Ohio now more important than Maine?
Rudin: Um No, absolutely not. They have to win Maine. And two, and I've said this before, I don't think Sherrod Brown wins this race. I think in this need for new and exciting, I mean, Sherrod brown is exciting because he gives a great stump speech and his supporters love him, but he's not, you know, he's just not, he wasn't born yesterday, shall we say. And Houston, I always felt was the kind of Republican that could not be pinned as a far right winger, even though a lot of his rhetoric has been very MAGA, pro MAGA pro Trump, but he's always been the kind of the Mike DeWine moderate establishment, moderate conservative establishment Republican that I think he doesn't turn off that many people.
I don't think Sherrod Brown does it. I think Sherry Brown is probably the best candidate the Democrats could have put up. I mean, I think Amy Acton has a better chance of becoming governor than he does becoming senator. But it is also Texas. Now, Texas never elects— a Democrat to the Senate. The last one was Lloyd Benson, and this was Lloyd Bentson's fourth term in 1988, so they just never elect Democrats. But my God, if you're going to criticize Graham Plattner, take a look at Paxton. Ken Paxton, the attorney general, has so many scandals. I mean, it's beyond belief, besides indictments and womanizing. His wife is suing for divorce on biblical grounds. James Tellerico. The thought of a Democrat winning in Texas, I still don't think he does it, but I think he has a better shot than Ohio. I know it's good to talk about Ohio because the O in W-O-S-U stands for Ohio, because I just looked that up.
Juravich: Yeah, well you don't want to talk about Ohio though. You're like, it doesn't matter.
Rudin: I did a lot of research before I came on the show today, but look, things can happen. This is usually a midterm election, it's the referendum on the president. Trump's numbers are going down. Now this ceasefire that he always claims he's conducting, and then a second later he's going to bomb these scum off the face of the earth. People are just watching it, they're watching the billions he and his family have gathered know, from crypto deals and and conflict of interest led to so-called conflict of interest deals. His numbers are going down and so that could topple Republican candidates in November. Again, we're talking about the July 9th. And we're four months away, so we'll see, of course.
Juravich: Well, we in Ohio like to think we're more important than we are, apparently, so, yeah.
Rudin: No, no, no. Don't say that because, look, Ohio is what the term, for example, the term Bush versus Kerry in 2024. If John Kerry got 60,000 more votes in Ohio, he would have been elected president in 2004. So Ohio used to be the ultimate swing state, but it's remarkable. Used to be, yes. Used to be. After two terms of Clinton, after two terms Obama. Then it became winning. Then Trump won it three times in a row. So Ohio's gone through major changes. It's not the same swing state as it used to be. And the days of Mets and Bauman, Glenn, oh my God, that's a million years ago. That's what I'm feeling.
Juravich: That's a child. That was when Ohio was blue, right? Yes. This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking national politics this hour with the political junkie Ken Rudin. And for lack of a better segue, since we're talking about the Senate, I'll talk about this now. I have to ask about Mitch McConnell. He's been hospitalized since June 14th. Very few details have emerged about the former Senate Majority Leader's health. While his health at the moment might be a personal matter. Why is it such a secret what's going on with Mitch McConnell?
Rudin: I don't understand what's going on. And it's not only Mitch McConnell. Remember Thomas Kaine, the congressman from New Jersey, disappeared for months and months on end, and then he suddenly came out of hibernation and said, I've been suffering from depression. Donald Trump, for the longest time, refused to allow any detailed findings about his health. Kate Granger was a long time leading congresswoman from Texas who, when it was missing from the House for a long time, and they found her at an assisted living home. I mean, a lot of them, and then Dianne Feinstein, too, was very secretive of her health, and she died in office.
There were a lot members of Congress who I guess because of pride, because they've been around so long. They are very sensitive about their health, but it's very interesting that, you know, both Senators John Thune and John Barrasso, the top two Republicans in the Senate, said they spoke to Mitch McConnell, and he sounded great, and it's amazing. If he sounds so great, why don't they release a statement? Why can't the governor get in touch with them now? It's interesting, you know, we say, well, the governor could, you know, if something happens to Mitch McConnell, the governor could replace, you know, appoint a replacement. But no, the Republican legislature took that away from Governor Andy Beshear. It's up to now they took it away. Now it has to be an immediate special election. Should Miss McConnell, you know, something untimely happened to him, it's out of Steve, Governor Andy Beshears hands.
Juravich: I didn't know that I must admit how you know, there's nothing going on. How did I miss that? So so any machine?
Rudin: Well, it's the, you know, it is the Taylor Swift thing, but no, really, he used to have the ability to do that, the Republicans took it away from him, and I'm sure once you get a Republican governor again, they'll do that again, and that's what... That's what actually Republicans did, that's what Democrats did to Mitt Romney in Massachusetts when Ted Kennedy died. Ordinarily, the governor would have made the appointment, but the Democrats took that power away from Mitt Romany and they took it and they gave it to themselves, you know, for the Democrats to name a special election. And then when the Democrats took back the governorship, they returned the power to the governor's hands. Both parties play that game.
Juravich: All right. So do we think Mitch McConnell is going to be just fine? No, no, no. I mean, I mean he's pretty old.
Rudin: I mean, first of all, I may be the only person whose sanity is unquestioned to be quoting Laura Loomer, but Laura Loomis, Laura Looma, I mean I'm quoting Laura Looman, God help me. But I mean she said, I think she said well, I heard he's brain dead. Who says these things? Well, Laura Loomis says these things. I don't think he's going to be fine, but we've seen several times where he fell. There was a time when he had a press conference and grew completely silent in the middle of it. He's had serious health issues. That's why he's not running for reelection this year. They've already had the primary, Andy Barr, the congressman who won the primary is going to the candidate for the election in November, but If there's a special election, you know, there may be another special election. And people saying, well, maybe Thomas Massey, the anti-Trump conservative Republican who lost his seat, maybe he'll want to run. So there's lot of possibilities that we don't know the end of the story just yet.
Juravich: We love to speculate, though, don't we? Before we take the break, I wanted to ask you about, last week, the nation marked a landmark 250th birthday. However, the excitement that surrounded the bicentennial 50 years ago seems to be a little bit missing leading up to this 250th Birthday, the semi-quincentennial. What did you make of events in D.C.? There's the Great American State Fair, there was the fireworks display, Trump made a speech after a weather delay. What did you think of the 250th?
Rudin: And there were white nationalists marching down the streets of Washington, which is beyond belief. I mean, history books will tell us that the German-American Bund had a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1938 that drew tens of thousands of people. But that was, and that was shameful, but the fact that you see these neo-Nazis marching down, it's unbelievable. You saw Confederate flags waving. Donald Trump decided to make, well, this is not a surprise, but he made this about him. Patriotism is love of Donald Trump. And if you don't love him, you're a communist. He said the word communist so many times. I thought it was a Joe McCarthy hearing. I couldn't believe how many times he mentioned the word communism. But, you know, if you do what he says, you do what he likes, he's a fan of yours. If you don't you're traitor and you're scum and things like that.
So I mean, I don't have, you know, my memory of 1976, which is not that long ago, only 50 years ago, but it wasn't a political partisan event. I mean Gerald Ford was up for re-election this year and he was being challenged by Jimmy Carter, but I don t remember Gerald Ford just ramming down patriotism down everybody's throats. I mean it was just a celebration of America, but there was very little I thought. So, I mean, a lot of people did celebrate, and the fireworks were wonderful, and wherever everybody was, I'm sure they saw magnificent fireworks. But he just, he the president, just decides that it is about him, and it's heartbreaking because there's much more about this country than Donald Trump, and yet, try telling that to the president of the United States.
Juravich: I found it interesting that he brought up communism so much. Is this a tactic to avoid talking about affordability or the Epstein files or whatever else is going on? Or is it to remind people of a time, because, you know, maybe we were more united when we're all behind anti-communism things. There's several periods of time whenever the United States has been more united than it is now. So what do you make of him deciding to go with that communism?
Rudin: Well, I mean, it's, you know, it just. It's just vintage Donald Trump. The fact is that I don't know if it's to distract from Epstein because the fact is nobody's talking about the Epstein trials anymore because we're talking about Iran. And was Iran a distraction from Epsteen? I mean, who knows? But when he says these things and people like he keeps talking about, he still spent a long time during the weekend talking about this stolen 2020 election, stolen in quotes. That is beyond comprehension.
And every... Every... Investigation into the 2020 election showed it was probably the most fairly conducted election in history, because it was just so investigated over and over, but he still can't accept the fact that he could lose in a fair election. So what he's doing, by telling everybody how fake it is, because if the Democrats pick up the House in November, and I still suspect they will, and I don't know if they'll get the Senate, but they could, Donald Trump is ready with fake elections and illegal votes and rigged elections. And that's what he's trying to convince the American people, that nothing is real. The only truth is what comes out of my mouth and not at the ballot box. And it's scary because there are many people, as you know, who believe that 2020 was stolen and the worst is yet to come.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking national politics this hour with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. Coming up, we're gonna talk about the influence of the mayor of New York City and whether that can carry the entire Democratic Party. Plus, we'll discuss why the SAVE Act is so important to President Trump. That is when All Sighs continues on 89.7 NPR News.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. Republican politicians on their way out of Washington are pushing back against President Trump. The Democratic Party is grappling with a surge of far-left candidates. And primaries are setting the stage for the midterm candidates who will be facing each other in the fall. Still with us to talk all things politics is the host of the "Political Junkie" podcast, Ken Rudin. Thanks for being here today, Ken.
Rudin: Thanks, Amy.
Juravich: So in last month's New York City primary, the candidates endorsed by New York city mayor Zorin Momdani won. They even beat two incumbent members of Congress. So do you think this was unique to New York? Could the Momdany tsunami, which I'm having trouble saying, become a national movement?
Rudin: I think it's a great question and a real question, because you could say, well, Mamdani is a democratic socialist, and he won the election pretty handily over Andrew Cuomo last year, and he knocked off two members of Congress and won a third primary against somebody who was favored. So he showed he showed that he does have. Political strength in New York, and said, well, it's only endemic to New York. But we looked at the Colorado primary, and another far-left candidate defeated Diana DeGette in the first congressional district in Colorado. And also she was pro-Palestinian rights and anti-APAC, and she gave a very strong heated campaign message on those themes, and it was a closer race, but she won in Colorado video.
And then next month in Michigan, it's for the Senate race that Gary Peters is giving up. There's a Democratic primary there between—I mean, this is basically the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. We always talk about the battle of the Republican Party between the so-called conservatives and the so called far-right conservatives. But the Democrats, you know, they have Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. Al Sayed, who is very anti-Israel, very pro-Palestinian, he says that his main opponent, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, she owes her political future to AIPAC. And you know, are those code words? I don't know. But it seems like more and more Democrats are more and willing, especially in the left wing of the party. More and more to be attacking Israel and the influence of AIPAC and Netanyahu and things like that.
So that a big debate within the Democratic Party. So I mean, just as the Democrats in Maine rejected Chuck Schumer's pick of Janet Mills and went with Graham Plattner because how dare Washington dictate who we nominate. That's what's going on in Michigan, because El Syed has a huge lead in the August primary, and one of the reasons is that he's being backed by Bernie Sanders, and Haley Stevens is backed by Schumer, Chuck Schumer. You know, the Bernie Krats versus the Schumer Krats. And it's a battle within the Democratic Party. Does it translate nationwide? I don't know. I don't think so. I think a lot of people are looking what happened with Plattner in Maine and saying, well, you know, something. I mean, it's nice to have a progressive. And it is nice to take on the establishment. But if nobody's doing any vetting, it maybe sends a bad signal about the progressive left.
And so a lot Democrats are suddenly very nervous about El-Sayed in Michigan and say, you know, if we lose that Senate race, and that's the one that Democrat Gary Peters is giving up, you can kiss the control of the Senate goodbye. Because Democrats have to win four seats, so they have to, they have win Maine. They have to pick up four seats. And I'm just looking at some of the lists of the seats that they have to win.
Juravich: Is Ohio on there?
Rudin: It's on the list. I don't think they do it, but Ohio is on the list. Iowa is on the list, North Carolina is definitely on the list. I think Tom Tillis wins that seat. I'm sorry, Tom Tillis is giving up that seat, Roy Cooper, the former governor, is going to win that seat that's a definite one and they have to and they and believe it or not they have to win in Texas. You know, I mean the thought of a Republican losing in Texas is quite shocking to think of, But again, Ken Paxton is a very a controversial candidate, and he could cause the Republicans big trouble. So they've got to win those seats. They've got to win Michigan, they've go to win New Hampshire, they got to win Minnesota, and of course they've to win Maine if they have a shot at taking back the Senate.
Juravich: Well, let's talk about this rift in the Democratic Party because there's the the rise of the socialists and is causing the rift Centrist Democrats like minority leader Hakeem Jeffries are downplaying the wins of progressive candidates I mean does the Democratic party need to change do they need to start taking more progressive? Stances to win back some of these voters that are maybe a little confused about party messaging
Rudin: you know, that's the question they're asking each other, and it depends on whom you ask. I mean, go back to, I mean there were so many progressives way before Joe Biden dropped out of the race, which was I think July 21st in 2024. I think, July is the is the month that Democrats drop out of the campaigns. But before, way before Joe Biden dropped out, they said, look, this guy is too old. He's too establishment. The time has passed him. He has got to leave the race. And, I mean, obviously you talk about, you know, the autopsy of why the Democrats lost in 2024. Joe Biden hanging around for as long as he did is clearly one of the reasons why the Democrats lost.
So you have to make—they have to decide. You want to go far left, you want to, you know, because then you have Donald Trump talking about communism until he's blue in the face, and people say, wow, we can't have communists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and all these far leftists in Congress. But But again, people, these liberals, these lefties who could win in New York and perhaps win in Denver and Boulder, that doesn't mean they win in Midwest. That doesn't means they win in the heartland of America. So I don't think there's a one size fits all for the Democratic Party, but they're clearly fighting with each other about what direction to take.
Juravich: Well, Ken, you as a political junkie, I mean, how do you define democratic socialism? Like, who is the poster child of it?
Rudin: Well, I guess it would have been, I guess, the squad. You had two Palestinian women. I guess Palestinian. You had a woman from Minnesota. You have a woman for Michigan. You have Arianna Presley of Massachusetts and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. And they all defeated the establishment candidates as being anti Netanyahu, anti what Israel did in Gaza know, you know, in the aftermath of October 7th. They just felt that, you know, Israel went too far, and that seems to be where the Democrats are heading.
And it may be where Republicans are heading, too, because you've seen criticism of Netanyahu from J.D. Vance that you wouldn't have seen in the past, because all the Republicans were in love with Netanyah. But Netanyahu obviously is not satisfied with just following Trump's lead. Apparently he wants to keep bombing Iran and keep bombing Lebanon and keep bombing Palestinians.
Juravich: But do enough Americans care about, not that I'm starting to say that Americans don't care about Middle East conflicts, but isn't it supposed to be that most Americans want the affordability and they want the gas prices down and that's what the Democratic party should be leaning into instead of worrying about all this Middle East stuff.
Rudin: Again, it's not one bumper sticker on this campaign. There's a lot of things, especially the economy, especially when Donald Trump promised all these things about cost of living and the price of medicine. And now he's saying, oh yeah, I got the medicine, the price medicine down 600%, 1,400%. How in God's name do you reduce anything by 1,500%. I mean, I was never good at math, but that seems to be impossible to do. Than he owes.
Juravich: Then he owes he owes me money for some of my medicine. Yeah.
Rudin: But that's exactly it. I mean, all these things, it's not just like, you know, attack him for his family's wealth. It's a combination of things. Look, Jerry Ford barely lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976. Was it just the debate? Was it Just Bob Dole? Was it a just a pardon? No. But when you add all these thing up, they contributed mightily. And I think there's no shortage of issues for the Democrats to run on as we approach the midterm elections, as I said, in four months.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about national politics this hour with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. I wanted to pivot to the SAVE Act, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, because everyone loves an acronym. This is all related to voting and President Trump has not signed some housing legislation that was actually bipartisan because he's wanting the SAVE Act to pass. Before their summer recess, the Supreme Court handed down decisions. That included a rejection of the Republican National Committee challenge about mail-in ballots. If they arrive after election day, they could be counted. So this is really, like, spearheaded President Trump in bringing back talk about the SAVE Act. Why is the SAve Act so important to this administration?
Rudin: Because Donald Trump wants to convince the American people that the elections have been tainted by illegal voting and illegal residents. He said that if the people who were American citizens were only, the only American citizens were allowed to vote in California, he would have won the state three times in a row, which is absolute nonsense. But he's trying to convince people that elections are being taken over and thwarted by illegal votes. Now, every study, I mean, maybe you can count on the number of you know, number of hands or number of fingers, how many illegal or suspected ballots have been cast in the last couple of years. It's never affected an election, but it's part of his theme that, yes, the left-wing is communist, yes the left wing is stealing elections, and this is what you have to be aware of.
And that's what he does. He just wants to issues where there are no issues. And again, it sounds very, you know... Epstein, you know, distracting. But basically there's no really there there. He's making it as difficult as possible to vote. He is making it difficult as possibly for blacks and people of color to vote, to register to vote to. He likes the fact that some of these lines that voters are waiting in for hours and hours, that's fine with him because it's, you now, people give up and walk away. So that's what he likes, you know, again. He's still fighting the 2020 election battle and he's still going to be fighting the 2026 midterm battle that has been being stolen. And if you question him on that, then he'll go to something else, I guarantee that.
Juravich: The fight over the SAVE Act is holding up a bipartisan housing bill, and that's just something with everyone worried about affordability, you would think that people would want this bill signed.
Rudin: It's petulant and it's childish and it is just cruel and it and it vintage Trump then okay if I don't get my way on this I'm going to take away you know your toys and and this is just crazy and that's what he does over and over again a lot of times he's not going to pass something because because one state one state has like for example with Maine when when Janet Mills stood up to Donald Trump in 2025 about trans funding. Donald Trump said he's going to take away all the federal funding to Maine if you don't go along with my views about having male athletes compete with female athletes or trans athletes. I mean, that's what he does. He says, well, I'm going to takeaway from you what you're entitled to because you don't see it my way.
And if we didn't have such a pliant Supreme Court, maybe there'd be more people speaking out on it. But unfortunately... We're now left to the only Republicans speaking out are those who are leaving, as you alluded to earlier. The Tom Tillis's of the world, or the other Republicans who are leaving office who are now courageous enough, but of course they're courageous because Donald Trump can no longer torture them when they're seeking re-election.
Juravich: Before we take the break, a few minutes ago you brought up the Democratic autopsy, and I just wanted to pivot back to that. The Democratic National Committee released the autopsy of the 2024 election. There was a lot of back and forth about whether they would or not. But some of the biggest takeaways were a lack of an affirmative vision. They blamed the Biden White House for not effectively supporting Vice President Harris, and then also the need to abandon identity politics. So do you think the Democrats, will the Democrats learn from this, these mistakes or is it still or, you know, too little too late?
Rudin: Well, I mean, I think they make valid points, although as far as I know, there was very little mention of Biden dropping out when he did end the autopsy. And I think that was a major part of it. And plus the fact that the Democrats learned a lesson, no, because they stuck with Graham Plattner in Maine, you know, far too pathetically too long until a woman came forward and said, he raped me. And then he said, oh boy, this doesn't look good for our candidate. So any lessons they learned? I don't know. Ken Martin is the Democratic National Committee chairman. He's not the most impressive guy on the block. And I think there's already some strong interest in many Democrats saying it's time for a new chairman already. But certainly he'll be gone if the Democrats underperform in November.
Juravich: Yeah, and there's that idea of the identity politics too. Not that bills related to trans rights are not important to discuss, but there's a lot of talk that in other elections that those issues have been leaned in too much and the Democrats lost their way with talking about the economy and affordability because there was so much talk of LGBTQ rights or something like that.
Rudin: Look, the Republicans were on the offensive. They set the agenda and the Democrats fell into the path. They fell into the trap of having to defend, you know, things like trans rights and things like that. I don't know how many people, I'm not diminishing the issue of transgender rights and I'm for a second minimizing it, but is it the kind of thing that it's like people voting illegally? Very few people. It affects very, very few people, but But if you keep saying it enough times, a lot of voters will say, hey, here, you're right. What about those trans voters? What about the illegal elections? The more you mention it, the more it becomes true.
But they just, Republicans seem to manage to set the agenda and Democrats seem to follow. And there are some Democrats who say, look, enough of this already. And that's why I'm convinced that win or lose the Senate, Chuck Schumer will step down as a Democratic leader this year, either before the election or immediately after.
Juravich: We are talking national politics this hour with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. And coming up, we're gonna talk about the reflecting poll, a FIFA phone call, and we'll get Ken's take on the Ohio governor's race. That is when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. Politics has become a national obsession. Unlike previous generations, we can't avoid talking about it, whether we like it or not. And thankfully, when it comes to talking national politics, we have Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. Thanks again for being here, Ken.
Rudin: Whether we like it or not. If we didn't like it, I would, you know, you'd have some of those other people that nobody can stand on your show. We'll be talking about Taylor's. I take that back. There several worthwhile guests you've had on your show, I take it back.
Juravich: Yeah, maybe one or two, but, you know, we'll be talking about...
Rudin: I think you but you're absolutely right. Like I remember like, you know, even even Clinton and Bush as controversial as they were and look a lot of people hated Bush late hated Clinton But it wasn't an obsessive conversation that everybody seems to have now It seems like it affects everybody affects everybody's mood I mean, there's some people who just couldn't shut it all out, which is remarkable. You're absolutely, right more people are are just watching it, because we've seen things that we never could imagine ever happening before, and I don't know how that changes. I Don't know if even in the aftermath of Donald Trump, whether that goes away. I Don't know.
Juravich: Well, one of the major events taking place right now is the World Cup, and a story that got a lot of attention was President Trump inserted himself into the coverage. He urged FIFA, the governing body of the World Cup, to suspend a red car ban, which allowed Team USA's player back on the pitch against Belgium. I mean, unfortunately, the USA lost that game horribly. But to add insult to injury, Team Belgium trolled President Trump doing his YMCA dance.
Rudin: I love that. I love it so much.
Juravich: They sent a message on social media said overturn this, you know, have you been watching the the World Cup Ken?
Rudin: Actually, I watched, what did I watch? I watched the Cape Verde Islands and Argentina. I mean, that was, no, it wasn't Argentina, was it?
Juravich: Oh, I don't remember now.
Rudin: No, no, yeah, no. It may have been. It was so exciting. And I watched the whole match. I didn't watch the American match because of, you know, I just wasn't available to watch it. But I am not a soccer player fan at all, to be honest with you. In the World Cup, I pay attention. I know who's playing, but, you know, I still love my Yankees. I'm still excited about the Knicks winning the championship.
Juravich: All right, well, so, okay, so. Yeah, wait, I'm talking about the Knicks. So the Knick's only lost one game and it was the one President Trump attended, as he may have said.
Rudin: This is what he does. He shows up at Madison Square Garden and everybody boos the Knicks. He decides that the red card against the American player was untoward, so he lobbies the president FIFA. And FIFA, FIFAA, what is it, am I getting it right? Well, he won that peace trophy for a reason, and the world resented his. He has to be involved in everything. He has be on the picture of a coin on a dollar bill. He has have that arch built. He has, I mean, the people who, the person who took out part of the reflecting pool
Juravich: Yeah, that's a good pivot. Yeah, let's talk of reflecting.
Rudin: I don't know, but I mean, this is what's so amazing about this. You know, the fact that you invade the Capitol on January 6 and you beat up cops, you get pardoned for that, and you get overturned and say, well, you know, you, you you know the government really went hard on you. But if you, but if you're defacing, you're not even defacing first of all, by all accounts, It was Trump and his tractors and his trucks that rode over the pool. That caused the damage. But anyway, it's just, it whatever you, and the rest of the world sees it.
I don't know why the rest the country doesn't see it. Half the country still is in Trump's, you know, in Trumps corner. But when you look especially, I mean, the world loves soccer. And the world loved, you now, this time of year. And when you have the President of the United States who's already... You know, picking on NATO countries and picking on Denmark because of Greenland and picking on Belgium because of this or that, the world reacts to him. And he's I don't know if he realizes what he's doing, but I don t think he cares. Well, I mentioned in the next one, the championship for the first time since 1973.
Juravich: I did hear that about the next yeah, yes. Yeah. Yeah, there's a parade even maybe So Well back like back to the reflecting pool, but also like the demolition of the East Wing the Rose Garden was changed Then the reflect the arch that's being built, but you know But his name was taken down from the Kennedy Center So so what do you make of like Trump trying to leave his mark on the nation's capital here?
Rudin: Vintage Trump, you know, it's ego. It's narcissism. It it's you know it's Heavy, you, know, he's it's a picture of him. I think out of the department of interior Giant pictures of what george washington and donald trump. I mean
Juravich: That's to show the first president and the current president, right?
Rudin: Right, no, no. The first president ever elected and the last president who will ever be elected because democracy will end in a couple of months. I don't know what the reason is, but the fact is he is, there's nobody ever been like anybody like him and just ask him. If you listen to these cabinet meetings, it's like Chairman Mao or Stalin. It's like, yes, you are the greatest. You are the best. You are. I love you. And so, oh my goodness, I mean thank God for people like John Stewart, because he will not let these people get away with it. Nothing that matters because nothing is changing, but we'll see. Maybe something is changing. You know, maybe something is changing in this country.
Juravich: Well, that is interesting about Jon Stewart, because when everything was happening with Stephen Colbert and, you know, Jimmy Kimmel and all of that stuff, Jon Stewart made a comment to say that Trump must not watch cable because he doesn't really talk about Jon Stewart very much. Maybe. So maybe he doesn' t have cable. I guess he watches Fox News on cable, but he doesn t watch Jon Stewart.
Rudin: But he should be careful because Paramount owns the Comedy Central and The Daily Show, so be careful.
Juravich: Be careful. This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking national politics this hour with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast.
Rudin: And that's the beauty and that's the beauty of public radio. Yeah, nobody owns it. No billionaires own it. It's it's it supported by. And we don't even have.
Juravich: And we don't even have federal funding anymore, so, you know. Right, right.
Rudin: Right, right. And when federal funding was taken away, people stood up and donated more than ever before. And I'm not doing this because I'm sold by sold to public radio. I'm doing this correct because nobody owns it. The service you provide, you, public radio, you, WOSU, is just, I hate to use this word again, it's not a pun, but it's paramount. It's paramouth, yes. It's desperately needed in these terrible times.
Juravich: Well, thank you. And our listeners have been very supportive, especially since the federal funding cuts. Okay, I wanted to pivot to ask you about Ohio's governor's race, because you briefly mentioned it earlier in the show. And the race to be Ohio's next governor has made some national news. It's expected to be one of the most expensive races for governor in Ohio history. Part of that is because the Republican candidate, the vague Ramaswami is a billionaire and he's putting his own money into the campaign. Lately, Democrat candidate, Amy Acton. Has been trying to point out that a billionaire doesn't really understand real Ohio issues. But Ramaswami has been countering her and saying that people should not be critical of someone just because they're successful. He says that a healthy society celebrates achievements. Any thoughts on that?
Rudin: Well, I mean, I guess Ramaswamy could have a point there that is, you know, you can't, you know. I mean Tom Steyer is a billionaire. Of course, he got clobbered in California when he ran for governor this time. But I mean he was he was certainly espousing progressive policies, even though he's a billionaire. So you can automatically reflexively, you attack billionaire candidates, although having Donald Trump in office does help. But Afton, and you mentioned this early about what the real issues that Americans care about, and that is the economy and the cost of living. And Aftin is doing a great job on it.
The question is, do these billionaires see people suffering and people going without? And more and more unemployment is rising, prices are rising, gas prices, which had down a little bit because of the last truce that Trump administered. Suddenly the truce went away. The gas prices are going up again. I think she's running a very good campaign. If you would if you would have told me a Year ago that that the governor's race would be closer than the Senate race I would have been stunned but I think he has a real good shot at it. I really do And I'm trying to think of the last time Well, I guess I don't know I don't want to go into history stuff because that's all I seem to care about is history but the fact is is that, you know, she's running on the right issues, and she's doing a good job, and I think, and I've seen a lot of the Ramaswami emails that seem to be almost desperate, like, we're getting our heads hammered, and we've got to do better than this, and we've gotta raise more money, and nobody in the world feels sorry for, you know, Ramaswami, in the need for more money. I think that's a campaign to watch. It could be one of the top three governor races, one of the top 3 gubernatorial races in the country, because I always want to see who the next gubernor will be.
Juravich: Yeah. Well, and it'll be interesting for Ohio, because no matter what, we're going to have someone who will be our governor who has not been elected in Ohio before. It will not be a white male. Like that's what's, yeah.
Rudin: It'll be the first female, I mean, we've had, I think you've had.
Juravich: We had a female governor appointed, like in an interim for like 30 or 60 days, yeah. First woman elected governor, and that...
Rudin: You know, I mean, to me, I still get excited about the Jackie Robinson things in politics and sports. You know? First time ever. That's significant, absolutely.
Juravich: And if Ramaswami wins, it would be the first Hindu, but if Amy Acton wins, it'll be the Jewish candidate. So there's a lot of firsts happening here with this governor's race.
Rudin: And he'd be the first person that needed two bumper stickers to say his name.
Juravich: Do you think because you already mentioned, do you think the governor's race would be closer than the Senate race? I mean, can Ohio become purple again?
Rudin: It could, and Donald Trump is doing everything he can in his power to make Democrats do better than they thought they would. I don't know what it was. I think, look, there's no question that Donald Trump touched the court in 2016, that Hillary Clinton was politics as usual. It was after eight years of Barack Obama. She didn't really represent new, and Trump, you know, got a lot of people who never cared about politics. But I kind of think that just like I mean, I was always fascinated by the fact that so many people who backed Bobby Kennedy in 1968 after he was killed, many of them voted for George Wallace. And you could say, how is that possible? But I think people are yearning for change. I mean it sounds like a platitude, but it's true. They're yearning something different.
And I think that if the Democrats are not going to give it to you, Republicans will give it too. And if the Republicans won't do it, they'll switch back. So I think. This is going to be, you know, it sounds trite, but it's very interesting to see what's going to happen again, because unlike Nixon in 74, for example, or even Obama in 2010, I mean, the country repudiated them both in the midterm elections. I don't see Republicans leaving Trump as they did with the parties leaving Obama and Ford and Bush in the earlier midterm elections. But we'll see, I mean, the numbers are not getting better for the president and Democrats are hoping to take advantage, obviously.
Juravich: Well, I want to thank you for your time today. Thanks for joining us, Ken. We are out of time. We've been talking national politics this hour with Ken Rudin, host of the "Political Junkie" podcast. Thanks for your today.
Rudin: And you know, seriously, there are a lot of good guests on your show. I'm not kidding. I'm really not kidding
Juravich: Thank you, Ken, and you're one of them. You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News.
And before we end, I wanna take a moment at the end of the show to say goodbye to one of our student producers. Thanks to Colin Simpson. He's been with us for about a year and a half, and he's done such great work for the show, and he has graduated. He is moving on to his next chapter. But thank you for all your hard work, Colin, and we will miss you, and best of luck.
You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. If you missed any part of today's show, listen back at our website, osu.org slash All Sides. Subscribe to the All Sides podcast. Every episode is available in our mobile app. I'm Amy Juravich. This is 89.7 NPR News. Thanks for joining us.