The Truth with Lisa Boothe: Midterms 2026: Can Republicans Win Without Trump? Turnout, Taxes & Voter Strategy Breakdown
2/19/202633 mincomplete
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0:33T's and C's apply. Welcome to The Truth with Lisa Booth, where we get to
0:36the heart of the issues that matter to you.
0:39Today, we're talking about the midterm elections.
0:43What the heck is going to happen?
0:44Right now, the polling doesn't look so good for Republicans, and even though we've seen
0:50economic gains because of President Trump's policies, American voters aren't feeling it yet, or at
0:56least it's not showing up in the polls.
0:58So why is that? What's behind the disconnect, and what can Republicans do about it?
1:04Also, we were told that President Trump was a drag on the ticket throughout the
1:08years, but it turns out he's not.
1:10But he won't be on the ballot this midterm election.
1:13So what do Republicans need to do to drive turnout?
1:17We're going to ask John McLaughlin.
1:19He is the CEO and partner of McLaughlin and Associates.
1:22He is also a Trump campaign pollster and has been an advisor since 2011.
1:27So who better to turn to than John?
1:29Stay tuned. Well, John, it's always great to have you on the show.
1:39You know, obviously, we're still a few months out from the midterm election, so a
1:43lot can happen. But we're trying to figure out what's going on right now.
1:47I guess if the election were held today, what do you think would happen?
1:51The Democrats would have a slight advantage, and that's what they're betting on.
1:54They're betting on the historical trends.
1:57Unlike, I'm an old -timer at this, that in 2002, when I worked for the
2:03Republican National Committee, Jim Gilmore was the head of it.
2:07Speaker Hassert was my client.
2:09Tom Davis, the chairman of the NRCC, was our client.
2:13And we defied history that year because we picked up eight House seats and two
2:19Senate seats. So we didn't have the midterm backlash.
2:23And, you know, right now, it's really a function of if the Trump voters come
2:27back out. And through 2025, most of the high -profile races and some of the
2:34special elections since then, they haven't been coming back out at the levels they came
2:37out at. So in 2002, well, actually, we started in 2001 with the Virginia House
2:44of Delegates. We targeted Bush 2 ,000 voters because it was a very close race
2:48between Bush and Gore. But we targeted Bush 2 ,000 voters.
2:51And so in, like, Virginia, we picked up 62 out of the 100 House of
2:55Delegates. We picked up 12 seats, 64.
2:57We actually went up from 52 to 64 seats, picked up a dozen seats.
3:02But we were coming out and higher shares.
3:05And Karl Rove took that, and he patented it to the 72 -hour program.
3:11And that's what we had happen in 2002.
3:13So we gained House seats and we gained Senate seats.
3:16The Trump voters, although we were out of the 156 million voters that came out
3:21in 2024, he got 77 million, 50 % of the turnout.
3:26And what you've seen in the high -profile races in 2025, the anti -Trump voters,
3:32the Kamala Harris voters, have come out at higher ratios, New Jersey, Virginia.
3:38The governor's race is there in special elections for Congress, et cetera.
3:42And special elections even in state senate in Texas.
3:45And the only exception was in Nassau County where Bruce Blakeman, the county executive, in
3:50a Democrat county, eight -point Democrat county, was able to win by double digits, by
3:5412 points, across the board, swooping everything, because Trump voters came back out in Nassau
3:58County because he ran against Hokel and Mondani on taxes and on crime.
4:03And now he's the nominee for governor, and he's got to, again, try to broaden
4:09the Trump base and get the Trump base to come back out in New York.
4:14You know, how do Republicans do that?
4:17Because, you know, it's sort of ironic because we were told for the longest time
4:21that President Trump was a drag on the ticket, and then it turns out that
4:26he actually is the ticket.
4:28And, you know, Republicans obviously owe their majorities to him in 2024, but he's not
4:33going to be on the ballot in November.
4:35So, like, what do Republicans do?
4:38How do they get people?
4:39Obviously, Democrats are really fired up right now.
4:41We see them rioting in cities.
4:43And, you know, so how do Republicans get their base excited to turn out?
4:48Well, it's the issues. And people forget this.
4:51I've worked for Donald Trump since I've advised him since 2011 when he first thought
4:55about running. And what made him unique and what propelled him in 2015 to the
5:00top of the race for the 2016 nomination was his issues, the issues that he
5:04selected. And it was, he was out there on immigration in 2015 as a hot
5:10topic issue. And the rest of the Republican field, you know, they were trying to
5:14do deals with the Democrats.
5:15And the vast majority of voters wanted to stop illegal immigration.
5:19And they wanted to deport criminal illegal immigrants.
5:23And by the way, I know.
5:23website. You know, we took a survey on January 27th nationally, 87 to 10, all
5:30Americans would still support deporting criminal illegal migrants.
5:33And you have that, and by the way, deporting all legal immigrants was 62 -32
5:40among a thousand likely voters.
5:42So it's issues. The Republicans, by the way, I think the Democrats may be overreaching,
5:47for example, and they're going to have this referendum in Virginia.
5:53And I think that could be closer than I expected because it's just unfair.
5:57People don't think that they don't want political gerrymandering all the time.
6:01And this is clearly a reaction to Trump.
6:03But the difference is what the Democrats are doing in Virginia now.
6:08Spanberger got elected governor and she was portraying herself as a moderate Democrat.
6:13And immediately what she's done is she's turned the state into a sanctuary city or
6:17sanctuary state. And she has proposed increasing a ton of taxes.
6:22So you have to get at what the Democrats will do in Congress, that they'll
6:26open the borders again. They'll let migrant illegals back in the country where they're terrorists
6:31and criminals. And what they'll do is they'll also raise your taxes because every Democrat
6:36for Congress and Senate last year voted to raise taxes when they voted against the
6:42Trump tax cuts. And virtually every Democrat for Congress and Senate is opposed to the
6:48Trump tax cuts. So that means instead of a $1 ,700 tax cut for the
6:53average American, you want to, and by the way, it was a $1 ,700 tax
6:57increase they were voting for.
6:58Instead, most people are getting back $1 ,000 extra or $2 ,000 extra in higher
7:03tax refunds with no tax tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax
7:09on social security credits. So it's the issues.
7:12It's not whether Trump's on the ballot or not.
7:15You know, I love Donald Trump because we worked together so well, but he created
7:20an issue set that blue collar voters across the country, whether it was the Rust
7:26Belt or the Sun Belt, he was their blue collar billionaire.
7:29And he was standing up for them when people were exporting their jobs, when they
7:34were raising their taxes, when they were taking away their health care.
7:37He was the one who stood up for them.
7:40And right now he's in charge, but the Republicans think, oh, Trump's endorsed me.
7:45I'm going to win the election.
7:46No way. You got to win on the issues.
7:48Trump is term limited. He's not going to be able to run again.
7:51So about the issues, then is it a mistake?
7:53Because we're starting to see Republicans hedge a little bit on mass deportations and really
8:01following through with the agenda that was promised in the presidential election.
8:06So would that be a mistake for Republicans to, you know, change their tune on
8:12the issue? It's a mistake not to fix the system.
8:14I mean, President Trump himself and a lot of his candidates have talked about work
8:17permits. If you're here legally and you have a job and the business needs you,
8:24we're not going to give you citizenship or reward you for breaking the law.
8:27But what we will do is we'll get you work permits.
8:30But you have to, again, you can't be a criminal if you're a criminal.
8:33And by the way, being a criminal means not just committing crimes here, but also
8:38coming in and having been embedded.
8:40If we know you're part of Trendeagua in Venezuela, why are you here?
8:46I mean, you're not here to reform your life.
8:48You're here. They're gang members that are bringing in drugs and human trafficking as they
8:52need to be deported. By the way, when you talk about the Republicans, the House
8:57passed the SAVE Act, which requires voter ID for voting, right?
9:01And proof of citizenship for voting.
9:03It's enormously popular. 80 % issue, right?
9:0780 % of all Americans support this.
9:09The House voted to pass it.
9:11The Republicans there, there were some Democrats, not many voted for it.
9:14I think, what is it?
9:15The one from Texas Square vote, maybe.
9:18But the Senate's not taking it up.
9:21That's a betrayal. If you're a Republican and you're in the Senate and you're not
9:27giving the Senate an opportunity to vote for voter ID for every election and also
9:33to require citizenship for every election, you have missed an enormous chance to say the
9:38Democrats are wrong on this because the Democrats support non -citizen voting.
9:42The New York City Council last year voted to legalize non -citizen voting.
9:48Fortunately, it was thrown out by a judge, a federal judge that was unconstitutional.
9:53But what I'm getting at is, how could they not vote for that?
9:56And if the Republicans think that, oh, I'll get Donald Trump's endorsement and I'll win,
10:00but I'm not going to let people vote on whether they need voter ID for
10:04an election or whether you need to be a citizen, you've just blown it.
10:07Lisa Murkowski, she should have run on that so the Alaskans could vote her out.
10:12I mean, it's just, it's a huge mistake not to fulfill the basic 70, 80
10:18percent issues that the vast majority of Republicans support.
10:22That was the RNC platform when Donald Trump got nominated in Milwaukee.
10:26I mean, all those issues were extremely popular.
10:29Going to take a quick commercial break.
10:31More with John on the other side.
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11:03T's and C's apply. Why do you think, you know, obviously we have seen real
11:09-world gains in terms of the economy, both in growth with inflation, cooling.
11:15You know, objectively, it's not perfect, but things are being turned around.
11:20But it's not yet hit with voters in polling in terms of their perception of
11:25the economy. What's with the disconnect?
11:28Why is that? Well, I think the first thing is the real damage that Biden
11:33and Harris did with their inflation.
11:35Because we still get 79 percent, four to five voters saying they were, you know,
11:39negatively impacted by the four years of Biden -Harris inflation.
11:43So it was deep. I mean, mortgages were, you know, up over 6 percent.
11:48Food prices went up and it's a lot, you know, and it's hard to bring
11:51them down. And health care prices went up.
11:55And, you know, you're looking at, you know, people said their rents went up, et
12:00cetera. Gas prices certainly went up.
12:02So it takes time for it to come back down.
12:05And as case in point, in our national survey of 1 ,000 likely voters that
12:09we had at the end of January, when we asked them about, is the economy
12:13getting better or worse, you had only 38 percent saying it was getting better.
12:20And over 50 percent were saying it was getting worse.
12:24But when you read them a list of things that, in effect, that you said,
12:30when we, and when I wrote the question, I had Steve Forbes and Larry Kudlow
12:35and Steve Moore help it.
12:37And Steve Moore says, and I'll read you the question, but he says, isn't that
12:43a leading question? Because you're telling them that the economy is getting better.
12:49And when we told them that, they said 63 to, pardon me, it was 62
12:56to 32. They said it was getting better.
13:00And let me just find the exact wording here because, yeah, now if you knew
13:05it were true that the economy is growing, inflation is being reduced, wages are rising,
13:10fast -end inflation, consumer spending is up, unemployment is low, interest rates are being cut,
13:15business investment is up, and the federal taxes are being cut, would you say the
13:19economy is getting a lot better, somewhat better, somewhat worse, or a lot worse?
13:2263, 32, they said it's getting better.
13:24And that's after they told us that it was getting worse.
13:28Pardon me, it was 39 getting better, 54 worse in January.
13:32So their opinion flips. They don't normally do that.
13:36And you know what the biggest difference was?
13:38The biggest difference was where they got their information.
13:42If they watch right -of -center cable news channels, which 4 out of 10 do,
13:46whether it's Fox News, Newsmax, 83 to 16, they said the economy is getting better
13:51when they were read that information.
13:54If they were left -of -center cable, it's split 46, 48.
13:59Don't watch cable, they flip 59, 35.
14:01So the majority of voters, before they got that information, didn't believe it was true
14:07because they're not hearing it.
14:08The Republicans are not telling them.
14:10We're in our little echo chamber of conservative news media.
14:14And unlike the campaign, when we ran the Trump campaign, we had these rallies that
14:19went around the media. We went, if not around them, we went right through them.
14:24Direct communication, social media. We would, when somebody wanted to go to Trump's rally, get
14:29100 ,000 people at the rally, we would have hundreds of thousands send us their
14:35emails and cell phones. And we would then send them information about how Trump's proposing
14:40to renew his tax cuts, how he's talking about growing the economy, holding down inflation.
14:45So what's going on right now is if you watch CNN or MSNBC or PBS,
14:52you're not getting any good information about the economy.
14:55You don't hear about how the consumer price index is getting better, confidence is going
14:59up. You don't hear about that, oh, by the way, the inflation index is lower
15:03than the growth of real wages now.
15:05But they need to see it themselves.
15:07And I'll tell you, another big thing is the average person who, they don't get
15:11pay stubs anymore. Like back in the 80s when Ronald Reagan had his tax cuts,
15:16you can see your net pay would go up.
15:18So now you get a transfer into your account for your employer or whatever.
15:21It's on your Apple wallet, your iPhone, your whatever account you have, your bank account.
15:28At the end of the month, you get your credit card bill and you look,
15:32how much do you owe?
15:32And it used to be maybe $200, $300, you know, after you bought groceries when
15:37Donald Trump was in his first term.
15:39And then after Joe Biden, it was going up $300, $400, $500 paying a bigger
15:43credit card bill. Of which the interest rates the banks are charging on average are
15:48over 20%. So people are not seeing the real economic benefit.
15:54Until now, you're going to see some people who go to their accounts, have their
15:57taxes done, which most Americans do.
15:59And instead of paying taxes, they're going to get a refund or a larger refund
16:04than they got last year.
16:05And they'll realize, hey, there was something going on here that's working.
16:08And then they'll also, they'll see that there's more opportunities for jobs and better paying
16:13jobs. And that takes time, but you got to constantly tell them.
16:17And I mean, when things are bad, people.
16:19And people. know it. And it's taking a long time to recover from the bad
16:22effects of the Biden -Harris inflation.
16:25But then how do you get the message out?
16:27Because, you know, I know that with the polling, when people were informed, their opinions
16:31changed, but you got to inform them.
16:34And if they're not watching Fox or they're not watching networks that are being honest
16:38with what's happening in the economy, how do you reach them?
16:41How do you get the message out?
16:43Well, in campaigns, you have to tell, point out, you have to raise the money
16:47so that you can run digital ads, you can run streaming ads, you can run
16:51paid cable radio, and also you can send direct mail for older voters.
16:55But you got to raise the money and tell them because the Democrats are going
16:59to tell them something else.
17:00And as a point in contrast, the Republicans ought to have an aggressive scorecard against
17:04the Democrats. But the key thing is, how can any Democrat win a race on
17:08affordability when they voted to raise your taxes?
17:12When they voted against the Trump tax cuts, you would have had the largest tax
17:16increase in the history of America, $4 .5 trillion, and raising taxes on the average
17:21person, $1 ,700. Instead, you're getting about $1 ,000 pay cut, which is $3 ,000.
17:27So the Republicans, instead of kind of getting on defense on the Democrats, they need
17:32to run against every Democrat saying you would have voted to raise taxes on everybody.
17:36You are against the tax cuts for Social Security recipients.
17:39You're against your four more taxes on tips.
17:42You're full more taxes on overtime.
17:44You're full more taxes on people's earnings and capital gains.
17:48You created the problem that the gas was $5 a gallon on average, and you
17:54created the problem that everybody was paying more.
17:57And there's no way we should be losing on an issue called affordability to the
18:02Democrats, because the Democrats are the most unaffordable platform that we would have.
18:07And we've got to turn around.
18:09We've got to hit them hard.
18:10And this is what they would do with them.
18:11By the way, the contrast, I mean, going back to history, when George W.
18:17Bush was able to pick up House and Senate seats in that midterm election, he
18:21had a tax cut that went into effect and grew the economy in the second
18:25quarter. He pumped the economy after 9 -11 full of money that he had a
18:29growing economy where we're in recession.
18:31And Trump, without a doubt, the president's always telling people that the economy's growing, it's
18:35getting better. He puts out things every day on true social.
18:38But they need to go back to campaign mode and have a contrast with the
18:43Democrats. If you're running for Congress or if you're running for Senate, it's your race.
18:49You set the agenda against your opponent.
18:51You need to let them know that your opponent voted to raise taxes on them,
18:55voted to increase inflation, voted to increase federal spending, voted for higher health you know,
19:03care costs and higher insurance.
19:06And, you know, it's just a matter of just direct communications.
19:10And you can do it now with social media.
19:12You can do it now with the, they should be on your podcast, calling out
19:16their opponents. You can get the message out.
19:18You just have to work at it.
19:22Excuse me. You know, when we look ahead at 2028, who on the left do
19:30you think right now has the best shot of becoming the Democrat nominee?
19:35Like, what do you think?
19:35I mean, it seems like right now the left is sort of going through an
19:39identity crisis. I don't know, you know, we're seeing progressives win this election cycle.
19:44I hope it's not what we saw with the Tea Party because the Tea Party,
19:47you know, led to, you know, Republicans picking up 63 seats in the House.
19:52I was at the NRCC during that 2010 election cycle.
19:54So I hope that's not the kind of energy that they're seeing on the left.
20:00But like, where do you think the Democrat Party, like, you know, who wins out
20:03in sort of this internal ideological battle that is clearly happening?
20:10You're right that they're having this huge battle and the Republicans don't know how to
20:14use it for their good.
20:17I mean, for example, the Republicans did not have a strong candidate for mayor in
20:20New York City last year.
20:21And Cuomo and Adams being so unpopular at the time, where the majority of voters
20:28in New York City wouldn't vote for them, whether it was a Democrat primary, whether
20:31it was the general election.
20:35You had, you know, you had a socialist, a Democrat socialist of America endorsed candidate
20:42and Zoran Mandami run. And he was able to win ranked choice voting.
20:47That's another dumb Democratic idea about work.
20:49It's actually smart for them, bad for us.
20:52That helps the far left win.
20:55Inside their party, you know, you're going to have a, you're going to have own
20:58progressives. I call them socialists, big government socialists.
21:01Well, yeah, probably. Or, you know, Marx, you know.
21:05No, big government socialists. It's because younger voters born after 1989 have no idea what
21:11communism was like. So they think it's Finland or Sweden.
21:15They don't know what the cruelty of the Soviet Union and, but they understand big
21:20government because they all lived through COVID and big government tells you what to do.
21:24And that's what you've got.
21:25So Zoran Mandami right now is, as the mayor of New York City, is telling
21:30Kathy Hochul that if she does not give him a corporate tax increase that'll kill
21:35jobs and hurt the New York economy or raise taxes on, they have a proposal
21:41to raise income taxes on people over $450 ,000, which will be a tax on
21:45subchapter of small business. If he doesn't get that tax for the spending he wants
21:51to have, he's going to have a 10 % property tax hike on homeowners.
21:57But this is the socialist, the big government socialist in the Democrat Party dictating the
22:02tail is wagging the door, but they're dictating their agenda.
22:06And that's going to happen nationally.
22:07But in the primary, to your original question, when we asked in this January, end
22:12of January survey among Democrat private voters nationally, Kamala Harris has gone back ahead.
22:16But Gavin Newsom was at one point in September ahead because of Prop 50 in
22:21California. So Harris, you know, national preference.
22:24Harris is 27. Newsom was 14.
22:27Buttigieg at eight. AOC, Alexandria Ocasio -Cortez at seven.
22:32So there's a socialist wing in that party that's younger and very active.
22:38The bad part is, for us, is that they could nominate a socialist, but the
22:44bad part is they could get elected.
22:47So, you know, it's a younger Bernie Sanders and they have them and somebody is
22:52going to come out of their primary and it's going to be more anti -Trump
22:56and more radical than we expect, which, you know, would be good for J .D.
23:01Vance leads the most policy was leading in our polls right now.
23:04But if we lose the House and Senate, I think we'll have more of a
23:06free fall in our primary and less structured.
23:10But we'll see. Oh, do you think it'll be, though?
23:12Because, you know, I like J .D.
23:13Vance a lot. He was very impressive during the vice presidential debate.
23:16Clearly a really smart guy.
23:18And President Trump seems to think a lot of him.
23:20But, like, President Trump is just such a unique force, like, even outside of his
23:25viewpoints on the issues, which obviously he completely changed, like, the whole entire, you know,
23:31structure of the Republican Party.
23:32Like, it was a complete realignment, as you know, someone who worked, you know, on
23:36the races, right, and with him.
23:38But he's so unique. You know, even just, like, the McDonald's thing and the Trump,
23:42like, no one else can do that, you know?
23:44Like, he's just, like, he's just so different.
23:47So, like, is it even possible for Republicans to carry that mantle forward?
23:52Because it's like, you know, who else?
23:54Like, there's just no one else like him, period.
23:57You're right. He's totally, he's truly historic and there's no one like him.
24:01But on the other hand, what's different is his movement.
24:04We created that movement. And that was by design.
24:08And it was when he got into the Republican primaries, we decided that he was
24:12going to appeal to blue -collar voters who wanted to, you know, there's a lot
24:17of men and women throughout America that feel we're being exploited.
24:21And that America's being exploited, that they're personally being exploited, their family, their opportunities, their
24:27standard of living. And that was his appeal.
24:30And it was his, he, those tens of millions of voters are there.
24:35And he decided he was going to be their leader.
24:38And at one point during the summer of 2016, we were up in his office
24:42and he says, in the 26th floor of the Trump Tower, and he's saying to
24:45me, he says, how are we going to win all these polls that have Hillary
24:48Clinton ahead? And he said, first of all, you're going to, you're going to maximize
24:53the anti -Hillary Clinton voter.
24:55Most Americans don't like her and you'll get 90 % of those voters.
24:58Then you're going to siphon up libertarian voters because Gary Johnson was running at 10%.
25:04And I said, you'll siphon up those voters because it's either you or Hillary.
25:07So there's no choice. They have to make a decision.
25:11And I said, the third part is millions of voters have been walking away from
25:15the Republican Party. Where, if you look at 2008, 2010 voters, they didn't vote in
25:222012 because Mitt Romney, they thought, was the guy that would fire out work and
25:25take away their health care.
25:26So the country club Republicans that were leading our party had lost touch.
25:32And Trump was our blue -collar billionaire.
25:34And I said, what you are going to do is you're going to motivate millions
25:38of new voters to come into the election with the Republican Party.
25:43And these new voters will help us beat Hillary.
25:45And that's exactly what we did, whether it was the Rust Belt or the Sun
25:48Belt. That's how he was able to, he motivated new voters.
25:52So you had a higher turnout.
25:54Instead of 130 million, like 2012, we had 139 million voters come out.
25:59And he was doing it ever since then.
26:01And we did it in 2024.
26:01So you'd had new voters come out, Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin.
26:07And it was all over the country.
26:08Even in New Jersey, New York, California, you had higher turnout for Trump.
26:12But there were blue -collar voters coming in.
26:15And the bad part about the Republican Party is it's still a country club where
26:19they don't understand these voters.
26:22They don't know how to appeal to them on the issues.
26:24And they're now, you're now seeing a process where in 2025, in a lot of
26:28places, they stayed home. And it's the issues.
26:31And if you cannot appeal to a blue -collar worker, like Trump, by the way,
26:36when he was, during the campaign in 2024, he comes up with these ideas because
26:42of his gut, his instinct, and because he loves working for his people.
26:45And he was like sitting there talking to a waitress in Las Vegas.
26:50And he got the idea for No Tax on Tips.
26:53And, you know, then we got a poll in it after the fact.
26:55I was like, oh, yeah, by the way, over 70 % support No Tax on
26:58Tips of all voters. It makes sense to working people that you give them more
27:02of what they aren't. And, but, you know, the Republican Party now, they think of
27:07ways not to give people money and not to help working class people.
27:13That's a huge mistake. So if whomever wants to win the nomination in 2028, if
27:18you can build on and keep the Trump coalition together, you have a shot to
27:23beat the Democrat coalition, which is, you know, Harris and Biden.
27:27So but you have to you have to appeal to them on the issues.
27:30You have to motivate them.
27:31Quick break. If you like what you're hearing, please share on social media or send
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28:06T's and C's apply. What do you think is going to happen this November?
28:11This November, it's going to be, I think it's going to be a close election.
28:14Our generic ballot through most of 2025, the generic Republican was leading the Democrats.
28:21And then at some point in January, it flipped.
28:23We had us down two points.
28:27And the end, I've seen polls where we're down two or three or four points
28:31right now. In the good polls.
28:33It's not, not like if you go to the Rio de Janeiro politics average and
28:36you look at the economists, you go full of adults.
28:39They have more Harris voters than Trump voters by like 10 or 12 points.
28:44It's like, how do you do that in a poll?
28:46We got 50 % of the vote.
28:48We've got only 34 % Trump voters.
28:50They have more liberals than conservatives, more, more Democrats than Republicans.
28:55So it's the opposite. You know, a lot of these media polls are the opposite
28:59of reality. So they're using the polls to kind of suppress us and see how
29:05stupid the Republicans are if they're gullible and believe this.
29:09And so I think what should happen is the Republicans should run a very issue
29:15-oriented campaign. They should follow up on Trump's suggestion to have a midterm convention.
29:20But the most important thing about that convention would be a midterm platform that every
29:25Republican would have to sign on to, like the Contract for America back in 94
29:30when they flipped the House.
29:31You'd have to have, you know, basically a contract that you support.
29:36You know, we need voter ID to vote in elections.
29:39We need only citizens voting in American elections.
29:42We need secure borders. We need to deport criminal legal aliens.
29:45We need to have an insurance system where the consumer controls the money, not the
29:53insurance companies, and certainly not the government.
29:57And we need to have, you know, even more tax cuts, like indexing capital gains.
30:04So if you sell your house, you keep more of what you earn so that
30:06people would sell our houses so you'd have more supply in the market so that
30:11the price of houses could get out.
30:13You'd have lower interest rates, which absolutely, banks should not be charging over 20 %
30:19interest rates on credit cards when there's, you know, inflation is less than 3 %
30:25right now. So why doesn't somebody have a credit card by the rate of inflation
30:32plus the rate of, you know, a couple of points above prime?
30:35I don't, you know, it should be, you know, it should be close to what
30:39you pay for a mortgage.
30:39I mean, it shouldn't be, in loan sharks, charge only 20%.
30:43You probably get a better deal from a loan shark than a bank on a
30:47credit card. And so this, the Republicans need to have an issue agenda that appeals
30:53to working class Americans so that they can come back out and vote against the
30:56big government socialists and the Democrat Party.
30:59And it's pretty simple. People vote for themselves and they vote on issues, what's best
31:03for their own interest. And the Republicans need to have that agenda and not let
31:08the Democrats run on free bus rides and taxing the rich, things that, things that
31:15appeal to the big government socialists.
31:16We can't let them take our country that way.
31:19And then before we go, is there, is there anything else you want to convey
31:21and get across? I think if Republicans, you know, if they're relying on Donald Trump
31:27to carry them this November, they've got it backwards.
31:32They need to get out front, run on the issues, play offense against the Democrats,
31:37tell the voters why those Democrats are wrong and bad for America.
31:41And guess what? But President Trump will be there backing them up the whole way
31:44and, you know, and leading the charge.
31:47But, but it's about the issues for the American people.
31:50I mean, if you, if, if, when you go to vote, you should feel you're
31:54voting for somebody who will lower your taxes, create jobs, keep inflation down, make sure
32:00America is strong and at peace, secure our borders.
32:03I mean, it's, there's, the issues will decide the race.
32:06If you, you know, if you're just going to, you know, worry about, you know,
32:12fake polls for the media and, and distance yourself from the agenda and from the
32:17working class people, we'll, we'll get buried in November.
32:21So we need to, we need to go play offense again and we need to
32:24hold the Democrats accountable. John, thanks for joining.
32:27Always appreciate your insight. Well, thank you, Lisa.
32:30And thanks for the opportunity.
32:32That was John McLaughlin. Appreciate him for taking the time to come on the show.
32:35Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listen
32:38throughout the week. I also want to thank John Cassio, my producer for putting this.
32:42together. Until next time. Be smart.
33:13Get wise. Download the wise app or visit wise .com.
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