Speaker 1: What a pleasure this is to chat with Brett Bear.
Speaker 1: Brett is the anchor and executive director of Special Report
Speaker 1: with Brett Baer, the best Damn newscast on the TV,
Speaker 1: cable or broadcast. Brett is also co moderating the first
Speaker 1: Republican debate of the cycle with the fabulous Martha McCallum.
Speaker 2: Brett, how are you, sir, Hey, how are you warning?
Speaker 2: We're pretty good.
Speaker 1: So let's get the big orange elephan in the corner
Speaker 1: of the room out of the way. Trump has announced
Speaker 1: he's skipping the debate in favor of an online interview.
Speaker 1: What do you think that says about his relationship with
Speaker 1: the Republican Party at this point?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know if I can divine what he
Speaker 2: thinks about the you know, the Republican Party or the relationship.
Speaker 2: I do think that there's probably disappointment at the RANC
Speaker 2: that he's not showing up. We were prepared either way,
Speaker 2: and really this is about, you know, all of these
Speaker 2: candidates getting a moment to introduce themselves and also to
Speaker 2: talk about substance. You know, it's a lot of time
Speaker 2: that now is the time that people start to focus
Speaker 2: in a presidential year, the kids back in school, you're
Speaker 2: done with summer vacation, and this is the first big event.
Speaker 2: And you know, if you look at poles, some sixty
Speaker 2: three percent say that they'll they probably or definitely are
Speaker 2: open to voting for somebody else besides the former president.
Speaker 2: So you know, whether it's his relationship, eventually, he's probably
Speaker 2: gonna have to get on more of these stages.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would like to point out that that first
Speaker 3: question was under protest from me. I didn't want to
Speaker 3: mention Trump at all because it's driving me crazy when
Speaker 3: I watched the Sunday talk shows that every candidate, many
Speaker 3: of whom I don't know at all, they don't get
Speaker 3: to talk about anything except for Trump, I mean, on
Speaker 3: face ination meet the presidenty of these shows, not the
Speaker 3: same one Fox Sunday, but the other show. So I
Speaker 3: look forward to some policy discussions other than that, for instance,
Speaker 3: And I know you know this because you interviewed Chris
Speaker 3: Christy a couple of weeks ago, and Chris Christie was
Speaker 3: the most pro Ukraine person maybe of anybody outside of
Speaker 3: President Zelinsky that I've heard, calling it a proxy war
Speaker 3: against China and everything like that. Know where Ramaswami is
Speaker 3: on that, and he's the flavor of the month, So
Speaker 3: I mean there's a great conflict there. Can you can
Speaker 3: you poke them with sticks and get them going with
Speaker 3: that that conversation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. And there's a number of those
Speaker 2: issues where the stage is split in these different candidates
Speaker 2: how they look at things. And this is not just
Speaker 2: a Q and A. You know, a debate is a debate,
Speaker 2: and so we're going to try to foster some of
Speaker 2: that back and forth between candidates and we'll let it
Speaker 2: free flow for a little while. We're going to try
Speaker 2: to keep him in the guardrails. But you know, we've
Speaker 2: done this kind of thing before and had some success.
Speaker 2: So we've been structuring questions like that so that viewers
Speaker 2: at home really get a sense of the different sides
Speaker 2: of the Republican Party on the same issue.
Speaker 1: We've observed on the show many times that this is
Speaker 1: kind of a strange time politically in that the party
Speaker 1: doesn't set the platform and then choose a candidate to
Speaker 1: reflect the platform. Often the candidate declares what the platform is.
Speaker 1: So I think these debates have elevated him importance. We
Speaker 1: might hear what the Republican platform is likely to be
Speaker 1: Wednesday night.
Speaker 2: Yes, one hundred percent. And I mean you look at
Speaker 2: controversial issues like Ukraine, as you mentioned, you look about
Speaker 2: you look at abortion, which Republicans have been you know,
Speaker 2: politically on the backside of as far as these referendums
Speaker 2: around the country, and they haven't really talked with one
Speaker 2: voice about how they're going to address that issue. And
Speaker 2: there's a few others and which these individual candidates have thoughts.
Speaker 2: And you're right, if they become the nominee, by the way,
Speaker 2: on the same stage that we'll be doing the debate
Speaker 2: on in July next year, they'll they'll take the party nomination.
Speaker 2: If they become the nominee, they'd essentially become the party platform.
Speaker 3: I know you've done this a bunch of times. How
Speaker 3: do you decide how closely to stick to the rules,
Speaker 3: because I always feel like a lot of candidates are
Speaker 3: rewarded for breaking the rules. You know, you're not supposed
Speaker 3: to jump in or whatever, but you jump in with
Speaker 3: your zinger in the crowd roars and it becomes the
Speaker 3: clip of the night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to listen. It's it's you have to
Speaker 2: see the moment and kind of feel the room. You
Speaker 2: are trying to keep them to time. You're trying to
Speaker 2: keep them by the rules. But there'll be certain times
Speaker 2: when you're trying to foster that interaction you've got. You know,
Speaker 2: we'll find out this morning eight or nine people on stage,
Speaker 2: and that's you know, a lot of folks. It's spending
Speaker 2: a lot of plates to make sure it's equitable.
Speaker 1: You know, one thing that's always driven us crazy about debates,
Speaker 1: especially on some of the other networks, is every single
Speaker 1: question is from a progressive point of view. Instead of
Speaker 1: asking why is it important to reinstall fiscal sanity in Washington,
Speaker 1: d C? They'll say, why do you want to starve
Speaker 1: old people? We're looking forward to hearing questions from a
Speaker 1: more conservative point of view. Are you conscious of that
Speaker 1: as you prepare? Does that just kind of come naturally?
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a little bit of osmosis. After being
Speaker 2: at talks for twenty six years, sure, and I get
Speaker 2: the other side. You know, there's always another side to
Speaker 2: the mainstream media's portrayal of some issue, and largely we're
Speaker 2: we're doing that every day. But right you're gonna hear
Speaker 2: questions that come from both angles, and definitely things that
Speaker 2: conservatives you know, want to hear if you ask Republicans
Speaker 2: in a separate poll what's most important to them, you're
Speaker 2: going to see and hear the buckets of questions that
Speaker 2: deal with those topics.
Speaker 3: How are they going to be lined up on the stage?
Speaker 3: I are you gonna have since Trump's not there? Are
Speaker 3: you going to have destantus in the middle and then
Speaker 3: like Ramaswami next to him and poor Asa Hutchinson down
Speaker 3: by the exit? Or how's that going to work?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Basically it's the top percentage. She gets closest to
Speaker 2: the middle, and then you go out from there. Uh
Speaker 2: and yeah, I mean the stage is really great. It's
Speaker 2: set up fantastic. It's you know, where the Milwaukee Bucks play.
Speaker 2: It's a great impressive facility. And you know Fox, our
Speaker 2: team does a really good job. So you'll be able
Speaker 2: to see it and hear it. That will look good.
Speaker 2: The question is how the candidates do, and that's up
Speaker 2: to them.
Speaker 1: Well, and we're really looking forward to seeing it. But
Speaker 1: just one more question about debates in general. We're both
Speaker 1: anti audience. Well, we think it's a distraction people yelling
Speaker 1: how about just let the ideas stand up for themselves.
Speaker 1: But we're we're probably going to tiny minority, I guess,
Speaker 1: because there's always an audience. Why is that, do you think?
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's a big event. The RNC is
Speaker 2: in charge of this operation. So they bring in people
Speaker 2: from around the country, all of their big donors, all
Speaker 2: their big rigs, and they want to pack the stands
Speaker 2: and show them a good time, etcetera, etcetera. So it's
Speaker 2: an opportunity for them. We're not running that part of
Speaker 2: the show, but I can tell you this that we're
Speaker 2: not going to let the audience, you know, get out
Speaker 2: of control. You know, I give a little speech before
Speaker 2: we start. The more time that we have to stop
Speaker 2: or audience applause or interaction, the left time you're going
Speaker 2: to hear from these can of it's on the issues
Speaker 2: that you want to hear about. Sometimes that works. Sometimes
Speaker 2: you got to stop and remind them, but we'll keep
Speaker 2: it going.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's worth mentioning all the time. You know, as
Speaker 3: a moderator, moderators get beat up bad. I mean, you
Speaker 3: know jankless task Yeah, no kidding, I mean I wouldn't
Speaker 3: want to read Twitter that night if I were you.
Speaker 2: No, that's right. If I can get out of this
Speaker 2: with Martha and I unscathed and not the focus.
Speaker 1: Right, We'll be a good thing, right, that's the goal, Brett.
Speaker 1: We are a big big fans of yours. Keep doing
Speaker 1: a terrific job. You've got a great team there at
Speaker 1: Special Report. And I hope this isn't our last chat.
Speaker 1: Good luck on Wednesday night.
Speaker 2: Well love it, Thanks, I appreciate it.