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Speaker 1: Hey, Selena Zito, Welcome to Battleground.

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Speaker 2: Hey Sean, how are you doing.

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Speaker 1: I am doing really really good. And for everybody that's

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Speaker 1: watching or maybe listening to this, like, I want to

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Speaker 1: give people a little bit of a background for you.

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Speaker 1: So you've been writing for decades now. You've basically interviewed

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Speaker 1: what is it, every president and vice president in the

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Speaker 1: twenty first century. You're a nationally syndicated columnist for The

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Speaker 1: New York Post and the Washington Examiner. You've worked on Democrat,

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Speaker 1: work for Democrats, work for Republicans. And the reason why

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Speaker 1: I read your stuff every week, Selena, and I think

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Speaker 1: so many people rely on you for news, is because

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Speaker 1: I think you're one of the last true beat reporters.

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Speaker 1: I think you're like the lowest lane of our time.

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Speaker 1: And you know what I admire the most about you

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Speaker 1: is the fact that you give a voice to people

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Speaker 1: who feel like they've been forgotten in this country. And

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Speaker 1: I think that's pretty awesome.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I try to approach covering American

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Speaker 2: politics but also covering American culture by taking the back

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Speaker 2: roads across the country. So it's not like a thing

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Speaker 2: I do, it's how I approach it. I never take

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Speaker 2: the turnpike. I never take an interstate. I always take

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Speaker 2: an old US route or a state route. Once in

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Speaker 2: a while, I've been on some crazy dirt road. So

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Speaker 2: I thought I had no idea what I was going

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Speaker 2: to end up being. I don't stay in major hotels.

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Speaker 2: I always stay in a bed and breakfast or an

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Speaker 2: inn because the first person I meet in the town

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Speaker 2: is a small business owner and they can pretty much

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Speaker 2: well small business people know where all the bodies are buried, right,

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Speaker 2: so I get to I get the first gossip about town.

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Speaker 2: But what's going on? But but traveling those back roads

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Speaker 2: are important because I can see how counties are changing

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Speaker 2: for the better, for the worst. What's going on, what's

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Speaker 2: the industry, what's the vibe, how's the community? Look, how

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Speaker 2: the church? You know, how's the How robust is the

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Speaker 2: is the faith community? How robust are the social fraternities

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Speaker 2: like Elks and Kwanas and rotary clubs, that the sort

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Speaker 2: of things that keep people connected in communities, and as

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Speaker 2: well as what is the economic driver. So that's what

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Speaker 2: really helps me understand, uh, what is going on in

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Speaker 2: the country. And I reported from that place.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I love that because you know, you hear

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Speaker 1: the phrase all the time that politics is downstream from culture,

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Speaker 1: and so if you know and there and by the way,

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Speaker 1: they're so, I think that we are awash with inside

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Speaker 1: the beltway type reporting. I think that we're a wash

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Speaker 1: with national news reporting, and people tune into national news

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Speaker 1: networks all the time to get their news. But the

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Speaker 1: reality is is so much of the news and the

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Speaker 1: culture is cultivated in spots that you go to where frankly,

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Speaker 1: most journalists don't. And so I think it gives you,

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Speaker 1: and luckily for all of us here in this great

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Speaker 1: country that we live in, it gives a lot of

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Speaker 1: us a perspective that we wouldn't otherwise have without you

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Speaker 1: out there doing it. And so I want to get

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Speaker 1: your thoughts on the can we first start with the

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Speaker 1: Republican vote for Speaker of the House that happened last week,

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Speaker 1: Fifteen rounds of voting. You know it, and I think

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Speaker 1: many people reported on it as if you know, it

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Speaker 1: was absolute chaos on the House floor and the Republican

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Speaker 1: Party is in total disarray. And I guess I I

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Speaker 1: want to ask you, do you think that those types

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Speaker 1: of debates on the House floor make the Republican Party

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Speaker 1: weaker or stronger.

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Speaker 2: I think it makes them stronger. I think if you

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Speaker 2: are looking at it from thirty thirty thousand feet and

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Speaker 2: you're not looking at the historical context of it, you

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Speaker 2: would think Republicans are in disarray. This is why I

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Speaker 2: never write a story that is for a clique, because

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Speaker 2: you have to dive deep in understanding why. Probably much

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Speaker 2: to all of my boss's consternations, but you have to

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Speaker 2: dive deep into why things happen. I think that last

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Speaker 2: week had something for everyone, and that's kind of important.

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Speaker 2: I think it was very reflective of who we are.

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Speaker 2: Also very important. The member of the House is the

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Speaker 2: one that is most like you, the one that is

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Speaker 2: most represents where where you're from. So of course there

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Speaker 2: was going to be a small percentage, nonetheless, a vocal

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Speaker 2: percentage that held things up. It's no different than if

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Speaker 2: you go out and have a conversation in your family

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Speaker 2: or with your friends. There is a minority that once

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Speaker 2: their voice to be held. I think it got to

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Speaker 2: a certain point though, where some people are like, okay,

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Speaker 2: now some of these characters are doing it for their

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Speaker 2: own glory, and that's when people got turned off again

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Speaker 2: completely normal because this think about anyone you have ever

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Speaker 2: interact with your in your day, there's always that person's like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: they're totally doing that for themselves. This is not about

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Speaker 2: the greater good of anything. And so I think it

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Speaker 2: was a mixed bag. And it's a week later we're

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Speaker 2: not even talking about it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's I think it's fascinating when you look

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Speaker 1: at the cultural differences between how, say, the Democrats do

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Speaker 1: things in the House of Representatives versus how the Republicans do.

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Speaker 1: It never seems like the Democrats have this problem. It's

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Speaker 1: it seems like they are always united in purpose, regardless

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Speaker 1: of what sort of legislation that they're putting forward and

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Speaker 1: and over. You know, having run two campaigns and gotten

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Speaker 1: an inside look at some of this stuff, it always

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Speaker 1: reminds me this is how I at least I at

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Speaker 1: least view the Democrat Party versus the Republican Party. The

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Speaker 1: Democrat Party seems to be the party of They the

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Speaker 1: people where they're messaging and their legislation are crafted by

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Speaker 1: two or three people in Washington, and those talking points

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Speaker 1: are fed down to both their members in the House,

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Speaker 1: in the Senate, and then also media outlets all over

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Speaker 1: the country, and you see those those talking points sort

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Speaker 1: of regurgitated time and again on Twitter from actual members

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Speaker 1: and and their cohorts in the national media, where Republicans

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Speaker 1: are the party of we the People, which is why

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Speaker 1: you have such vast differences between a Republican congressman from say,

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Speaker 1: western Pennsylvania, and a Republican congressman from say, southern California,

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Speaker 1: and a Republican congressman from say Florida. Because I personally believe,

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Speaker 1: and of course I'm biased, you're the journalists here, You're

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Speaker 1: you're the fair and balanced journalists here. But I think

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Speaker 1: that Republicans truly represent or at least try to represent

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Speaker 1: the people in the House of Representatives, which is why

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Speaker 1: you always have these little fractures and debates, which I

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Speaker 1: agree with you. I think ultimately they make the Republican

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Speaker 1: Party stronger. And as you mentioned, we're not even talking

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Speaker 1: about it this week, and Kevin McCarthy seems like, man

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Speaker 1: he's a Speaker of the House, is on a mission.

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Speaker 1: You know, they've already they've already they've already voted on

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Speaker 1: legislation which would stop funding for the eighty seven thousand

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Speaker 1: IRS agents. They've already created a special commission to investigate China.

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Speaker 1: It seems like they're on the right track.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. He brought a number of members to western Pennsylvania,

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Speaker 2: to Monongahela to roll out there. I don't remember there.

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Speaker 2: It was a really great event. It was right along

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Speaker 2: the Mount River in a place where half the people

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Speaker 2: couldn't if you went to Washington, d C. They wouldn't

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Speaker 2: even know how to pronounce the name of the town. Right.

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Speaker 2: It's important because everything they talked to about in that event,

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Speaker 2: they had a town hall event, and people ask questions

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Speaker 2: that they are now putting in place in their first

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Speaker 2: couple of days of Congress. That's really important. That is

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Speaker 2: incredibly important because they ran on something and now they're

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Speaker 2: doing it, and that rarely happens, right, that happens, and

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Speaker 2: so I think that that is important that they continue.

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Speaker 1: You do that.

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Speaker 2: Kevin McCarthy, I never thought he was going to lose

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Speaker 2: the speakership. I just he's resilient, he knows, he knows

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Speaker 2: not to back down, and ultimately you kind of want

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Speaker 2: that for your for the leader of your party. Now

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Speaker 2: he's the speaker of the whole House. He's got all

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Speaker 2: four hundred and thirty five of them. But I want

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Speaker 2: to circle back just for a second to your point

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Speaker 2: that you made about the Democrats versus the Republicans. The

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Speaker 2: Democrats always always call it, continue to consider themselves a

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Speaker 2: big ten party. And while that's true, they also make

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Speaker 2: their members fall in line, where Republicans sort of like

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Speaker 2: it's like festives, right, you can have like your airing

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Speaker 2: agievances before we all come together. So there's a very

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Speaker 2: big difference between falling in line and coming together. And

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Speaker 2: it doesn't mean there's not boys points within the Democratic Party.

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Speaker 2: There certainly is. You see that in primary races for

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Speaker 2: whoever is running for an elected office within the Democratic Party.

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Speaker 2: My profession tends to only focus on problems that are

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Speaker 2: happening within the Republican Party. But I think that the

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Speaker 2: Democratic Party has has the same has has the same

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Speaker 2: kinds of issues. Both these coalitions are changing. Politics are

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Speaker 2: like teutonic plates, and they keep moving very slowly in

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Speaker 2: one direction of the other. There's always movements politics within

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Speaker 2: a party. Some break off, some stay together. I think

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Speaker 2: we are witnessing that right now. There is a coalition

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Speaker 2: that makes up the Republican Party. I wrote a book

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Speaker 2: about it, and these people are from their there's blue collar,

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Speaker 2: there's suburban, there are upper middle class, there are people

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Speaker 2: living along poverty line who all identified as conservatives. They

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Speaker 2: don't all eat from the same buffet table, they don't

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Speaker 2: have all the same issues, but at their heart they're conservative.

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Speaker 2: And so that's what the challenge that you see in

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Speaker 2: that House race for speaker.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of the Speaker, I think he had one of

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Speaker 1: his first or maybe second news conferences today where he's

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Speaker 1: addressing the news of the day, which was Joe Biden.

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Speaker 1: They found another batch of classified documents and one of

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Speaker 1: Joe Biden's many residences, and I think, as someone who's

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Speaker 1: looking at this from a relatively cynical standpoint, it's like,

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Speaker 1: I think the real question is where hasn't Joe Biden

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Speaker 1: left classified documents at this point? But Speaker McCarthy said

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Speaker 1: that he thought that Congress needed to investigate that. And

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Speaker 1: I guess for me, as someone who served in the

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Speaker 1: military had a top secret government security clearance back in

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Speaker 1: the day, if I if I went out to the

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Speaker 1: podium and said that, hey, don't worry, I just had

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Speaker 1: top secret documents in my garage next to my car.

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Speaker 1: Don't worry. Everything's cool though everything's cool, that wouldn't fly

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Speaker 1: for me. And so especially when this is coming on

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Speaker 1: the heels of the FBI rating President Trump down at

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Speaker 1: mar A Lago, What is your take on all of

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Speaker 1: this craziness right now? Selena?

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Speaker 2: So let's go backwards for second. Our distrust with government

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Speaker 2: was at a peak in nineteen sixty eight, seventy two

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Speaker 2: percent of Americans trusted the government. That began to collapse

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Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty eight what happened the Vietnam War and

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Speaker 2: how Lyndon Baines Johnson was prosecuting it, but also sort

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Speaker 2: of what was really going on there that then began

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Speaker 2: to collapse more in nineteen seventy four with Richard Nixon.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't just Watergate. Was the CIA was involved, the

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Speaker 2: FBI was involved. Why are we supposed to trust these people? Right?

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Speaker 2: And so our trust with government has been collapsing for

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Speaker 2: the past forty years, and and so I think that these, uh,

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Speaker 2: these problems with the Biden White House and with Joe Biden,

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Speaker 2: it just sort of extend. I think you are going

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Speaker 2: to find that it's not just going to be Republicans

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Speaker 2: that are upset about this. I think you are going

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Speaker 2: to find the democarcrats are as well. It is the

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Speaker 2: one thing that we can be unified with in terms

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Speaker 2: of you what, what was the old saying when I

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Speaker 2: began as a reporter, follow the money. So you've got

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Speaker 2: to find out you got to get to the granular

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Speaker 2: reason as to why this happened. To Merrick Garland's great credit,

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Speaker 2: today he appointed a special counsel to this. Uh, and

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Speaker 2: I think that's important. I think it's also important that

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Speaker 2: that Congress takes a look at this, takes a look

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Speaker 2: at anyone who is mishandling things. The people that and

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Speaker 2: the people like you in the military put your lives

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Speaker 2: on the at risk to protect the essence of our government.

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Speaker 1: Well, I agree with you, and you know, and you

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Speaker 1: talk about the fact that Democrats and Republicans might unite

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Speaker 1: behind the need to look at this, investigate this and

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Speaker 1: draw a line in the sand and say, you know what,

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Speaker 1: like as Americans, our government needs to do better. In fact,

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Speaker 1: you addressed that sense of community in one of your

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Speaker 1: latest columns in Somerset, Pennsylvania, which is one of my

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Speaker 1: favorite places in Pennsylvania. Small town America, and the idea

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Speaker 1: that that bowling is bringing people together in ways in

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Speaker 1: Somerset that that was perhaps unexpected. And I like the

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Speaker 1: call them again because you're giving voice to the everyman

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Speaker 1: and woman, and you're highlighting those small town communities that

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Speaker 1: really make this country truly exceptional. And if you look

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Speaker 1: at some of the stereotypes, especially in communities in Pennsylvania,

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Speaker 1: it was people places like Somerset. The perception, I think

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Speaker 1: is that these are small post industrial towns that have

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Speaker 1: offshored their jobs. Communities are dwindling, and enrollment in clubs

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Speaker 1: and involvement in politics is going is dwindling because people

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Speaker 1: are moving out. Tell us about that column.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think on the bottom line about that storie.

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Speaker 2: I walk into this like just by happenstands, walk into

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Speaker 2: this Terras Lanes Bullying Center in the middle of Somerset, Pennsylvania,

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Speaker 2: and it is I walk in, as our grandmothers always say,

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Speaker 2: you could eat.

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Speaker 1: Up a floor.

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Speaker 2: That's how clear it was and vibrant, it was rocking.

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Speaker 2: And I would just thought about that book Bulling Alone,

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Speaker 2: and which which gave this idea that a Maria small

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Speaker 2: town America is falling apart, that our social fabric is

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Speaker 2: falling apart. And I think there's there is some of that. However,

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Speaker 2: I don't think we've been looking at all of it.

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Speaker 2: What is Somerset County? And I have a geography professor

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Speaker 2: that makes this point, What is the town of Somerset?

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Speaker 2: What if being the size that it is today, which

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Speaker 2: is about twelve thousand, what if that's what the size

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Speaker 2: it was supposed to be? Why does it always have

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Speaker 2: to be bigger? It did have a higher growth in

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Speaker 2: the sixties fifty, let's say, from the thirties to the eighties,

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Speaker 2: during the peak of industrialization, but then went back to

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Speaker 2: its to its original size. Why why can't we accept

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Speaker 2: that people are happy there? The faith community is strong,

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Speaker 2: the school districts are strong, the social is strong. Maybe

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Speaker 2: we've been looking at this the wrong way. Maybe they

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Speaker 2: shouldn't have to be big. People are happy there. And

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Speaker 2: by the way, you could be three years old, or

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Speaker 2: you could be ninety three years old. You could walk

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Speaker 2: into a bowling alley and I kid you not. I

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Speaker 2: saw examples of it that day. And you could walk

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Speaker 2: into a bowling alley, join a league, and be a

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Speaker 2: member of a community within seconds.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. I never thought I never thought of

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Speaker 1: the idea that bowling could be something that we're tying

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Speaker 1: people together in communities. But you're right, it's I think

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Speaker 1: I read in your article it's one of one of,

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Speaker 1: if not the largest large participation sport in the country,

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Speaker 1: in the world, in the world, in the world, in.

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Speaker 2: The country, and the sport is growing robustly. Go to

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Speaker 2: a bowling alley, meet someone, make some friends, go with

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Speaker 2: your friends, and just there is joy there. I guess

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Speaker 2: it's because everyone's you know, sort of there. You're being competitive,

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Speaker 2: but they're being friends and they're interacting with each other,

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Speaker 2: and you know, everybody is happy.

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Speaker 1: Well, Selena, this this is part of the reason why

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Speaker 1: I love you, and part of the reason why millions

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Speaker 1: of people around this country read your stories so they

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Speaker 1: can get a sense of what people in this country

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Speaker 1: go through. And it, as I mentioned several times already,

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Speaker 1: that's what part of what I admire the most about

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Speaker 1: you is that you just work so hard to get

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Speaker 1: these stories right and and we're so grateful. And if

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Speaker 1: you're interested in reading more of the great Selena Zito's

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Speaker 1: columns and her writings and her musings, you can look

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Speaker 1: out you can check out her book The Great Revolt

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Speaker 1: Right was a best seller. Uh really like you were

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Speaker 1: one of the one of the few people that that

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Speaker 1: saw the freight train of Donald Trump coming down the

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Speaker 1: railroad tracks. For sure. But your columns are great. They

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Speaker 1: each tell a story. Go to Selenazito dot com check

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Speaker 1: out her work. And I think we're going to be

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Speaker 1: having you back somewhat regularly on this program, which is

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Speaker 1: a very very awesome thing.

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Speaker 2: Thank you. I really would love to we do the

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Speaker 2: next show, and really I talked to poultry farmers across

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Speaker 2: the state in the past few days. I'll be writing

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Speaker 2: up a story and we're obviously as consumers feeling the

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Speaker 2: impact of the price of eggs, but they're going through

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Speaker 2: is devastating.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't wait to talk about it. So tune

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Speaker 1: in next week for your segment. I love it, and Selena,

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Speaker 1: thank you very very much for the time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. Sia