WEBVTT - Mike Murphy: Rogue Republican 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:09.480 Hi, Brian Goldsmith. Hi Katie Kuric. So happy to be 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:13.760 with you and so happy to talk about politics. You know, 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:17.720 it's been a little over three weeks since election day 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.160 and people, I think Brian, are still trying to process it. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.480 It's almost if they're going through those stages of Greek 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.640 that Elizabeth Coopler Ross talked to us about. At least 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.200 if you're on the losing side, and many of those 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:35.080 folks are still at the denial stage, don't you think, Well, 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:37.680 that's clearly true because a lot of them are sending 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:42.640 millions of dollars to Green Party Canada Jill Stein Online 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:48.440 to pursue recounts in three places where the famous blue 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:54.000 Wall broke for Hillary Clinton, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. And 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:57.240 I am probably more likely to grow wings and start 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:01.840 to fly than for those recounts to overturn the results 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:03.680 of the election. It's just not going to happen. The 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.560 margins are too big. Meanwhile, Trump Tower has been the 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.960 site of very interesting comings and goings with a lot 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.840 of different candidates and almost feels like the dating game 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.240 where people are coming and they're courting Donald Trump, They're 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.280 having conversations with him most recently for Secretary of State. 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.440 And uh, it's been a fascinating thing to watch because 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.319 it's been so public, hasn't it. Brian, Yeah, it's it's 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.000 almost like a reality show, you could say. I mean, 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:37.319 normally this process is very hush hush. Certainly the president 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:42.200 elect doesn't communicate publicly about who the candidates are and 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:46.120 how excited he is to meet them or to interview them. 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:52.400 I know, it's like it's like he's sixty four. He 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.240 was a general, he was behind the Iraq Sir. He 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:59.880 had a bear with his biographer. Ladies and gentlemen, please 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:07.320 welcome dun dunt dun du. General David Buttres Now is 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.880 Chuck Woolery, the host of the Dating Go Oh No, 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:15.200 that was Jim Lange, Baby Jim Lang. Anyway, let's move 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:20.120 on to our guest. Brian tell us about him. Brian, Well, 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:23.959 I think he's a little bit better at breaking down 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.880 politics than seventies game shows. But we're gonna have to 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.720 sort of bear with him. Uh. He's really a central 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:35.320 figure in Republican politics. He's advised almost every big name 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:38.840 GOP candidate, from John McCain to Mitt Romney. He had 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.079 his own podcast earlier this year, and he offered a 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:48.160 very fascinating look into what Trump selection means, how it happened, 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:52.760 and the path forward for the country. Mike Murphy, Welcome 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.200 to our little podcast. We're so excited you're here. Thank 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:57.560 you for having me. I have a lot of time 0:02:57.600 --> 0:02:59.880 on my hands now I have to ask you, Mike, 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.120 how's it. What's a nice kid like you doing in 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.040 a profession like this? How did you get into political consulting? 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.440 For crying out loud? Well, I may be out of 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:10.880 it now because I was ethically wrong this year. I 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:15.280 was like the automic that's true, it's a big room. 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.600 But I was saying all year mathematically, I did not 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:19.920 think Trump could get enough votes to win. It turns 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:21.760 out that you can lose by doing half million and 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.480 still win. So it's been a character building experience. But 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:26.919 I got into this. I'm from Detroit. I'm from a 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:29.360 political family of Democrats, so I kind of grew up 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.040 around it, and I kind of got the bug for 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.680 domestic politics. So I was still a college student. I 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.240 worked for this congressman nobody thought could win out of 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.880 my dorm room making radio commercials. And he won, and 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:42.760 so one thing led to another, and now I'm a 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:46.160 political consultant. So I called back to Democrat headquarters at 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.880 our house in Detroit and told my parents I'm gonna 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:51.000 drop out of Georgetown and go run off and join 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:56.640 the Republican Party. And yeah, only converting to an Episcopalian 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.560 might have been worse. It was. It was a bumpy conversation. 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.800 So I took a leave of absence from Georgetown. Uh, 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.800 and I've never gone back. I do really more corporate 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.520 and kind of grown up stuff now. I pretty much 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:11.360 retired from doing campaigns, though Jeb did drag me back 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.440 for one more great effort because I believed in him. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.120 I thought he'd be the best president. So I ran 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.640 the Jeb Bush Superpack, which gives me the unique credential 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:24.520 of having blown over nine million dollars and not. And 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.560 we should we should let people know that Murphy's kind 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:31.120 of the Zelig of American politics. His clients have included 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:36.280 Jeff Bush, as he mentioned, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.640 Tommy Thompson, Christie Whitman, so many others. Um I'm always 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.200 very amused on Twitter when people give him suggestions about 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:48.440 how political strategy, strategy should be done, and his response 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.400 as always, well, how many senators and governors have you elected? 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:56.279 Which that I'm My specialty is winning governor races, which 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:58.240 I did, you know, worked hard to help Jeff Bush 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.760 win in Florida or Mitt Romney and Massachusetts. Then later 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.279 on when they lose the presidential stuff, I always take 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.400 my share of the blame, but I'm very proud of 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:08.200 the governor's I worked for in the senators. Well, and 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.080 you're more of a hopeless romantic, as you've described yourself 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.960 in presidential politics. What does what does that mean? Well? No, 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.560 and I have a rule that in the presidential field 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.320 you should not be mercenaries. So I always pick the 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.120 person I think should be president, regardless of where they 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.440 are in the pulse, which is not a great career decision, 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:29.000 but if you look at my record, I've done very 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.440 wealth senators and governors have about the best record in 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.560 the Republican Party. But at the presidential level, I worked 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:36.960 for Lamar Alexander. I thought he'd be the best guy. 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:39.760 We started one percent and got to nine. You know, 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:41.559 we never quite made it. I worked for John McCain 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:43.880 in two thousand because I thought he'd be the best. 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:46.359 I took two thousand and eight off because I was 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.000 close to McCain and Romney, and I thought it was 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.280 an ethical conflict to work for either one of them. 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.760 I did work for George H. W. Bush and eighty eight. 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.240 I also worked earlier in that primary for Bob Dole. 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.679 So I always think the presidential thing is a higher 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.279 level deal and you should really pick the best person, 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.960 regardless of Poleon, and you know, have the argument within 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.000 the party and see which faction wins. And I've been 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:09.520 less lucky at that, but I'm I don't regret working 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:10.960 for any of those guys. I think they all would 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.240 have been excellent presidents. So to take us forward to 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:18.359 this year, you you know the criticism, you know, raised 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.800 this historic amount of money, and Jeb Bush had the 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.120 name and the connections and the endorsements, and it was 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.520 a big flop and therefore all your fault. Um, what's 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:30.760 your what's your response to people who sort of questioned 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:34.680 your acumen coming out of the Bush Superpack experience, Well, 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.720 this job being a political consultant or running a big 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.320 play co operations, like being a Big ten football coach. 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:43.320 Everybody with a bar stool in fifty states thinks they 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.400 can do your job. I spent a lot of time 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.520 thinking about things we could have done differently, and I 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.120 imagine as there's other senior people at right to rise 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:52.800 have We had some of the best consultants in the 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:55.440 party with Larry McCarthy, Eliza Hickey had had a great 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:57.840 run at the NFCC, and we all think about things 0:06:57.880 --> 0:06:59.440 we could have done differently, but none of us come 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.000 up with the outcome of we win the primary. We 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.880 just weren't what they were looking for. And I would say, 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.080 in some ways, though, you know, you never want to 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.360 justify a loss his businesses about winning. Jeb stuck to 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.200 his principles and never had to apologize for anything you 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.280 did in that campaign. And I think if he was 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.800 a nominee, we would have won the general election and 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:20.360 the country would be united behind him. Today people didn't 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.400 take Donald Trump seriously, including you. How were you so wrong? 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:28.240 How were so many people so wrong? Might well, we 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.760 took him seriously, but not. I mean, here's our view 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:32.400 because we you know, we talked to a lot of 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.360 Republican primary voters, so we had a pretty good landscape 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:37.000 of what was going on and we saw there was 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.840 about a third of the vote that was interested in Trump, 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.360 and none of those people were interested in Jeff Bush. 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.600 We were never going to get Trump and Cruise voters 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.040 to vote for a guy like Jeff Bush. Uh. And 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:48.640 so there might have been things we could have done 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:53.280 better on Rubio, better on k Sake. Uh, we might 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:55.440 have sold Jeb in better ways, But Jeff was never 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.400 going to go to the border and start rounding people up. 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.640 He was never going to take that grievance message. To 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.280 his credit, I joked that we were we were selling 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:05.800 classical music records at the Tractor Poll, and sixty of 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.040 the primary was wasn't interested in what we were selling. 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.120 And so there it is. You know, I'm struck by 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.320 something you said a little bit earlier that you had 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.440 the best professionals and the party, these highly regarded consultants. 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:21.080 And Hillary Clinton also had the most highly regarded, highly 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:25.840 paid Democratic consultants working for her, and she Yeah, she 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:27.520 won the popular vote, but she's not gonna be the 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:31.560 next president. Do you think that the era of the 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:36.280 professional political tactician is coming to a close and being 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:40.120 replaced by something new and different. No, I think that's 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:44.840 a conventional. It's a very fashionable opinion. So I know 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.120 for pretty much a fact that the single most surprised 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.800 person on election night was Donald Trump when he won 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.200 and his staff, some of whom were embedding pools, taking 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.600 him as a loss among political consultants. So now we're 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.560 going to have kind of the classic process story of 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.240 let's throw out everything we know about politics because we 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.920 had this flukish kind of win and the things that 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.400 have been true and predicted for forty years no longer count. 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.960 And maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I don't believe that 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.600 we were involved in some senate races helping hold the Senate, 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:16.840 and a lot of the same political consultants are the 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:21.040 idiots who worked for losing presidential campaigns were running winning 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.559 senate campaigns. So I I've been around too long and 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.040 seen too many fads come and go, particularly in the 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:31.000 Easy magazine writing to believe a big indictment like that 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.760 that said we can learn things from the Trump victory 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.160 and get better at what we do. Didn't Donald Trump 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:40.320 only w the eligible vote. So when you think about 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.640 like a mandate or an overwhelming victory, isn't that a 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:47.400 bit of a misnomer? Well, He won about forty six 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.200 and a half percent of the people who did vote, 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.160 which is a lower percentage than Mitt Romney got four 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.640 years ago. It's a lower percentage than you know, many 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.840 losing candidates over the years, like Hubert Humphrey and Gerald Ford. 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.320 So yeah, I think you're right that the mandate question 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.160 is is a real one. What do you think, Well, 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:10.320 I think it's true. In percentages and raw vote he 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.280 did pretty well. I mean, this was not a freakishly 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.480 low turnout election. I think the real story of election 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:21.079 Day was the composition of the Republican vote that elected 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:23.800 Trump to the Electoral College was different than we've ever 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.280 seen before, and that's one reason a lot of us 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:28.439 missed it. So for people who are just trying to 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:33.200 kind of wrap their brains around what happened, Trump lost 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.640 a lot of the swing counties, He didn't perform as 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.520 well as winners normally need to perform, and Hillary hit 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.520 her marks and a lot of the Democratic counties. But 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:48.680 what happened was in Florida and in other places, Trump 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:53.040 got big turnout and big margins out of counties where 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.960 the Republican normally wins by fifteen or twenty. He would 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.120 win by thirty or more. He had huge spikes in 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.040 a relatively small number of places, though he got a 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.040 closer and many people thought to begin with. So you 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.800 had two things going on. Lack of enthusiasm for Hillary, 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:11.800 who was a pretty bad candidate. I don't know what 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.280 her messages to this day. Stronger Together sounds like a 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.040 glue slugan to me, um. But the point is, if 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.560 you were swinging a hammer bendon metal in Macomb County, 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.840 another county in north of Detroit, industrial county where Obama 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:28.640 won last time, and he won big this time, you 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:32.319 weren't that interested in the gender rules about bathrooms for LGBT. 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:35.040 You were wondering what people are gonna do about jobs 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.680 for blue collar people like you. Trump spoke to those people, 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.160 many of whom historically have been Democrats, many whom are 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.120 industrial union members. She did not, And I think that's 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.280 pretty big malepractice on the Democratic side, and you know 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.400 there will be some repercussions in their party. But she 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:55.079 rolled over when it came to blue blue collar workers. 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.720 I mean, it seems she just abdicated that whole voting 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.040 block to Donald Trump. If I was reading a piece 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.520 in the New York Times that Bo Copley, who we 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:05.880 had on Yahoo News the night of the election, a 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.440 coal miner. You know, people were saying in West Virginia 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.520 that all Donald Trump had to do was mentioned coal miners, 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:17.080 and they basically, you know, they flocked to him because 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:19.920 they have felt so marginalized and so out of the 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:24.439 mainstream for so long. Just a mere acknowledgement of their 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:27.959 existence was enough to win their vote. Well, there's no 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.600 doubt that the modern Democratic Party, and they've had some 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:32.520 success with this. But if you look at kind of 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.760 the intellectual elites that drive them, their thinkers, and you 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.800 look at the donor class that has huge influence, it's 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:43.520 heavily dominated by people kind of from the social issues 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.480 on the more libertarian i'll call it side uh more 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.680 equal rights for people regardless of sexual preference, things like that, 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.880 and the strong environmental groups. So if you're you know, 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.360 if you're working in a plant with a smokestack uh 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.160 running on coal powered electric city, it doesn't look like 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.920 your party anymore. And I think they paid a political 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.400 price for that. But I have no doubt this was 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:09.079 a real lockpicking of the electoral college. That's why the 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:11.720 Trump guys were surprised as the rest of us because 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.840 it was a very weird coalition he got and normally, 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.000 if you lose by two and a half million votes, 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.920 you lose. Um, So this thing, you know, the media 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:23.520 has to be careful about calling it a big mandate. 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.280 It's really still a divided country. But we saw a 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.800 pain scream, kind of a political riot of sorts from 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.679 about fifty counties where people have not had a raise 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:34.560 in real wages for a long time. They work in 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.280 the old economy, which doesn't seem hip and doesn't seem cool. 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:39.800 She didn't talk to them, and Trump did. Trump talked 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.360 to him pretty base language. I think there's some stains 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.200 on his campaign from the way he conducted himself, but 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.200 it worked. It was enough to get him close overall 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:51.760 and to trip those counties. Uh. And now he's the 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.520 president elect. Well, when we come back, let's talk about 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.280 how he's doing as president elect and about some of 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.520 the moves he's made us are both in terms of 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.679 personnel and on Twitter. But first we're going to take 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.160 a break to hear from our sponsors and from you. 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:13.000 We'll be back with Mike Murphy right after this. During 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:15.480 our last episode, we asked to hear from some of 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:20.240 our conservative listeners and here's what you all had to say. Hi, 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:24.920 Bryan and Katie, this is Margie from Mississippi. I am 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:31.000 a conservative voter, and in regard to the future of 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:35.560 the Republican Party, a couple of things. First comment is 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.880 that you're correcting your last podcast in saying that callen 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:47.920 uneducated white voters. Feels like it is an inferior vote 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:54.360 compared to others, and that characterization is seen negatively. The 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:59.240 second thing is in regard to the Republican Party, that 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:04.600 that continue to be based on economic progress. I have 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:11.240 post for a Donald Trump administration in those respects and 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:18.040 further the Republican Party on those bases. You know, it's interesting. 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.600 She says that she was offended by some pundon's talking 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:25.840 about uneducated voters or non college voters. Donald Trump himself 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.960 said I love the poorly educated, and nobody in that 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.240 camp seemed to take much offense. So I guess it 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:35.720 depends on the messenger as well as the message. Well, 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:37.920 I think we talked about it, and it does seem 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.760 sort of smug and patronizing, So I appreciate that Margie 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:47.200 feels that way too, because I've always felt slightly uncomfortable 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:53.160 with the overuse of that characterization personally. Hey, Brian and 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.640 Katie is Greg Gordon in Texas and I normally vote 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:00.320 for the Republicans for president. This time I couldn't do it. Um. 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:05.160 Donald Trump scares me. He scares me because he's not presidential. 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.440 As a kid, I mean even now as an adult, 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:10.480 I look up to the president not so much that 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:12.960 they're smarter than me or better than things, but they 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:18.600 just need to be presidential. George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt like, 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.680 and even Teddy Roosevelt, all those folks, Lendon Johnson, They're 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.800 just this big, humanous figure and I just don't see 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.680 it with him in his Twitter account. So anyway, thanks, 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.840 and I love y'all's podcast. Well, thank you Greg Gordon 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.520 in Texas for liking our podcast. You know, I wonder 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:39.600 if anybody can be larger than life and completely presidential 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.840 given the ubiquity of social media and how much access 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.720 the public has to these individuals. It's so accessible. What 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:50.320 do you think of that, Brian, I think there's something 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:52.360 to that. I think a lot of our greatest presidents 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.720 wouldn't pass through the filter of modern media. They wouldn't 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.040 get away with not being able to walk. Hiding their 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:03.160 physical infirmity is like Franklin Roosevelt did, or being as 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.880 as unfaithful to their spouse as John Kennedy was. But um, 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:10.040 there's something else there too, which is that if you 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.680 didn't like Donald Trump as a candidate, I don't think 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:16.520 you're liking Donald Trump as president elect. Right now He's 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.760 not operating in a dramatically different way than he did 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:24.520 before November eight. Meanwhile, for our next episode, we'll be 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:29.080 speaking with Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's longtime senior advisor and 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.200 very close and longtime friend. What questions do you have 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.880 for her about her eight years working closely with President 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:40.520 Obama in the White House. Please call us and leave 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:44.320 us a message at nine to nine, two to four, four, six, 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:49.080 three seven. If you're still struggling to find the perfect 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.280 gift for someone who has it all in socks aren't 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:54.840 exactly your thing, how about some meat for the carnivore 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.080 in your life? And that would be me, Brian. It's true. 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:02.800 Omaha Steaks offers unique gifts for gourmet food lovers and 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.639 just meet consumers like you. 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Yeah, I'm hungry. 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:06.920 Cook out at Katie's. So we're back with the GOP Svengali, 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.000 Mike Murphy and you go back a long way with 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.680 Mitt Romney. You actually were the consultant for the only 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:17.040 political race he's ever won for governor of Massachusetts in 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.840 two thousand two. When we first met, you were plotting 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.000 the early moves of that campaign. And you know one 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:26.520 I like to tease Mitt that I'm the only political 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.920 consultant has handed him a victory speech. Um, he reminds 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.159 me there were some primaries that he won in a 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.120 nomination that I did not help him with. So he's 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:39.040 a good guy, he's a patriot, and I think, um, 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.440 you know, Elect Trump would be well advised to bring 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:46.280 some people into actually know the world. Well, President elect 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:49.920 Trump is putting met Romney through the ringer right now 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:54.240 by encouraging or at least allowing some of his top 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:58.600 aids to throw mud on Mitt Romney. To mix my metaphor, 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.480 And do you think Romney, if he's offered the job 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.480 of Secretary of State, should take it. Do you think 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:08.920 he'd be positioned to succeed in that job or what's 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.880 going on? Well, if you watch the Trump campaign, there's 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:15.200 a juvenile culture of silly in funding among his staff. 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.080 You know that we had about five purges. It was 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.200 a banana Republic of a campaign. So now we have 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.960 somebody Kelly and Conway who comes from the bottom tier 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.240 Republican posters. So I think kind of one a lucky 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:30.760 lottery here, Uh is out trashing Governor Romney in the press. Well, 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:33.240 the President elect is trying to put his cabinet together 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.040 having a fairly thoughtful process. I think of meeting with 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.000 people and sounding them out. So I'm going to try 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.560 to set an example for Kelly and of how staff operate. 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:43.480 And I'm not going to comment or speculate at all 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.960 on what Governor Romney may or may not do. Uh, 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.560 just to say that, um, he's eminently qualified, and I 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:54.320 respect the president elexibility to make this decision not be 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.600 buffaloed by the public antics of staffers. But do you 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:00.560 think he's walking into a situation in which he's going 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:04.040 to be second guest and criticized and anytime he makes 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:06.840 a move as Secretary of State, Well, we know what 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:09.879 the Trump campaign culture was, we don't know what the 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:12.720 Trump white House culture is. It's either evolving toward a 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:14.480 better thing or it will be the same. So I 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.000 think it's an open question, and there's one person on 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:19.399 the planet who can drive that, which is the president elect. 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:21.960 He's got to choose and uh, I think a lot 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.159 of people are surprised that it's not been kind of 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:28.560 tightened up, but that it's his operation, his culture. He's 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:30.720 the one. So we're waiting to see. Well, reading the 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.880 Tea leaves. What do you what do you anticipating? Mike, Well, 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:36.439 I you know, I've learned not to handicap the and 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.040 predict the activity of Donald Trump. I thought he was 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:41.760 very gracious on election night, and I think he's had 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:44.280 days where he's succeeding. He's had days where he's been 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:47.439 tweeting silly things and shaking the confidence and some of 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:49.960 us who know what the job is. Uh So, I 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:53.320 think it's still an open question and these this silly 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.600 staff trashing nominees that the president elect is interested in. 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.240 I mean I saw even Axel Rod tweeted something about this. 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.120 None of us who have worked in serious presidential level 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:08.520 staff work have ever seen anything like it. So I, um, 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:10.240 you know, I'm not going to fuel that fire by 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:14.359 speculating about what Mitt might or might not do. I'll 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.160 just say he's a grown up who knows the world. Uh. 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:19.520 He was proven, right. I think some of his criticism 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:24.040 President Obama on foreign policy, so his wisdom is proven. 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:26.760 I'm a real fan of Mitt Romney's I mean, I 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.920 like him very much, but when I think of foreign policy, 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:33.640