Speaker 1: Pennsylvania is one of the most important states for this
Speaker 1: presidential election and also for winning back the United States Senate.
Speaker 1: It's going to be one of the most expensive Senate
Speaker 1: races in the country, and it comes down to Republican
Speaker 1: businessman Dave McCormick versus Democrat Bob Casey. Now, Dave has
Speaker 1: been able to avoid a nasty primary because the entire
Speaker 1: Republican delegation of the state has gotten behind him. Now
Speaker 1: he's been an incredibly successful businessman. He also graduated from
Speaker 1: West Point, served in the military, earned a bronze star.
Speaker 1: But who is Dave McCormick. I want to introduce you
Speaker 1: to him In this episode. We'll get to know him
Speaker 1: a little bit better. I'll ask him about the state
Speaker 1: of the country, ask him about his views on abortion,
Speaker 1: get into his background a little bit. So who is
Speaker 1: Dave McCormick find out Stay tuned well, Dave, it's great
Speaker 1: to have you on the show. I know that campaigning
Speaker 1: is busy and so you're probably exhausted and out there
Speaker 1: working hard, so we appreciate you making the time for
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm glad to be on. Thanks Lisa.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you grew up in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Tell me
Speaker 1: about Bloomsburg.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I was a seventh generation Pennsylvania. My dad
Speaker 3: was born in Indiana County, which is out in the
Speaker 3: western part of the state. Mom was born in punk Satani,
Speaker 3: and I was born in Washington County, which is right
Speaker 3: next to Pittsburgh. But they moved around when I was
Speaker 3: a young kid. And I grew up in Bloomsburg, which
Speaker 3: is about fifty miles south of Scranton, and it's like
Speaker 3: the perfect quintessential small town. So my folks had a farm.
Speaker 3: My dad worked at the college, but they had a farm,
Speaker 3: and he was the president of a little state college.
Speaker 3: And so I grew up bailing hay and trimming Christmas trees.
Speaker 3: I was a bus boy at the local hotel. I
Speaker 3: was a paper boy, and I played sports like most
Speaker 3: young Pennsylvania boys and girls, and I wrestled and played football.
Speaker 3: And wrestling in Pennsylvania is it's.
Speaker 2: A big deal.
Speaker 3: It's in the Blood Street, it's on a Saturday night.
Speaker 3: If you walk into the gym during wrestling season, it'll
Speaker 3: be jam packed. And so wrestling kind of defined me
Speaker 3: and I wrestled in high school and then that got
Speaker 3: me to college wrestling. I was recruited to wrestle at
Speaker 3: West Point and I ended up wrestling all four years there,
Speaker 3: and I was the co captain of the wrestling team.
Speaker 3: And so wrestling in small town gyms like chic Alemmy
Speaker 3: and Chick Shiney and Sealings Grove and North Scoogle that
Speaker 3: was a big part of my growing up.
Speaker 1: So you grew up near scrant and Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know he's he claims, but you know,
Speaker 3: I think the office is probably a lot bigger connection
Speaker 3: to most people than them Bob are than Joe Biden,
Speaker 3: because I think Joe Biden left Scranton at the age
Speaker 3: of five or something like that, so he.
Speaker 2: His claim is limited.
Speaker 3: Although there is certainly, uh, there is certainly a highway
Speaker 3: up there that has Joe Biden on it, which I
Speaker 3: take note of every time.
Speaker 2: I drop by.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I would do something else, but you know
Speaker 1: it would involve two figures going out. But anyhoy e
Speaker 1: sadly exactly all right. So you have six daughters, So
Speaker 1: I have three brothers, and my parents told me that
Speaker 1: I was more difficult to raise that all three boys combined.
Speaker 1: So how was that that been.
Speaker 3: So I have four daughters, and then I remarried and
Speaker 3: I have two more daughters. So I have six in total,
Speaker 3: their ages twenty three to seventeen.
Speaker 2: And so we had a moment where we had six
Speaker 2: teenagers all at the same time.
Speaker 3: And essentially what I've said is, listen, I've done wrestling
Speaker 3: in college, I went to Ranger School, I served in
Speaker 3: the eighty second in Iraq. I've been in business, I've
Speaker 3: been in politics.
Speaker 2: Nothing.
Speaker 3: Nothing will test a man like being the father that
Speaker 3: to sixteenage daughters.
Speaker 2: Nothing.
Speaker 3: And so it's been a joy. And we're all most
Speaker 3: empty nesters at this point, and we're proud of all
Speaker 3: six of them. They're not so sure they love this
Speaker 3: political stuff. In fact, they're pretty much one hundred percent
Speaker 3: against their father running or their stepfather running. But but
Speaker 3: but they're loving and supportive.
Speaker 2: Nonetheless, Well you.
Speaker 1: Know the why? You know why run because you know,
Speaker 1: let's face it, look, you're really rich, which is a
Speaker 1: great thing everyone wants to be. You know, like before
Speaker 1: you quit your job in twenty twenty two, you're you're
Speaker 1: making twenty two million or more as CEO of Bridgewater Associates.
Speaker 1: So why, you know, why give that up, right. That
Speaker 1: sounds well, that sounds pretty good. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie.
Speaker 3: If you're rich, the best way to get less rich
Speaker 3: is to go into politics. That's that's the starting point.
Speaker 3: But all kidding aside, I feel like the luckiest guy
Speaker 3: in the world.
Speaker 2: I'm fifty eight.
Speaker 3: You know, I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and and
Speaker 3: didn't didn't you know, I didn't have I didn't have
Speaker 3: any money. I went to West Point and had that
Speaker 3: career that I talked about. I ran a couple of
Speaker 3: country companies. I ran a company in Pittsburgh that created
Speaker 3: about a thousand jobs, and six hundred of them in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3: And then I served in the government again and then
Speaker 3: went on to run Bridgewater. And so when I look
Speaker 3: at my life, I mean, I am so feel so blessed.
Speaker 3: And you know, the only person more surprised by my
Speaker 3: success than me as my dad. And so I look
Speaker 3: at it and say, wow, only in America.
Speaker 2: And it's the same with my wife.
Speaker 3: Dina's story was an immigrant from Egypt and you know,
Speaker 3: came to Dallas at the age of five and worked
Speaker 3: away through college and has had this remarkable career in
Speaker 3: government and business, and that America we love is in trouble.
Speaker 3: And so my simple answer to your question is, if
Speaker 3: you believe America is exceptional, if you believe that you've
Speaker 3: been benefited by the America dream, if you believe America
Speaker 3: is in trouble and you believe you can do something
Speaker 3: about it, then you're called to serve. And that's why,
Speaker 3: even though you know politics isn't the most pleasant thing
Speaker 3: these days, that I decided to do it, and I
Speaker 3: did it with full knowledge of what it entails, because
Speaker 3: as you know, I ran in twenty twenty two and
Speaker 3: lost a very close primary. So I'm in this with
Speaker 3: eyes wide open that it's it's a contact sport and
Speaker 3: it's tough. But if we don't have good people who
Speaker 3: frankly don't need the job, jumping in to take on
Speaker 3: these jobs, then I think we're going to be lost
Speaker 3: as a country.
Speaker 1: No, I agree, but I think we need I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, for instance, you you look at someone like
Speaker 1: Joe Biden. All he's done is government, Yet you know
Speaker 1: we send him when the country is a mess. You
Speaker 1: can't fix a problem that you know he's been a
Speaker 1: part of for for this long and part of that
Speaker 1: is really a chaotic world that we live in right now.
Speaker 1: I know you've got a big foreign policy background. You mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, you're a veteran, served in the Army, went
Speaker 1: to West Point. You know, you worked as a deputy
Speaker 1: National Security advisor for the Bush administration as well. How
Speaker 1: do you think we got here? How much of where
Speaker 1: we are now in this chaotic world has to do
Speaker 1: with Joe Biden? And I guess kind of what scares
Speaker 1: you the most about sort of this global unrest that's happening.
Speaker 2: Well, the you know, the.
Speaker 3: Career tician part about Joe Biden, I agree with him.
Speaker 3: That's the same with my opponent, Bob Casey. He's been
Speaker 3: the Senate for eighteen years, he's been in statewide public
Speaker 3: office for thirty years, so his entire life has been
Speaker 3: devoted to public service. So we should thank him for
Speaker 3: a service. But it's not it's not what we need now,
Speaker 3: and we need true change in leadership that's going to
Speaker 3: get the country back on a position of strength. And
Speaker 3: what's happened on the world stage under President of Byness
Speaker 3: in the world's increasingly complex. It's a tough neighborhood. We've
Speaker 3: got you know, adversaries around the world that are growing
Speaker 3: in power. But under Joe Biden, what's happened is we've
Speaker 3: lost to terrence. And deterrence is a combination of power,
Speaker 3: economic and military strength. It's a combination of will, the
Speaker 3: willingness to use that power, that strength, and of uncertainty,
Speaker 3: you know, whether the enemy or the adversary wonders what
Speaker 3: and how you'll do it, and that creates fear, fear
Speaker 3: of challenging us. And so you know, you and I
Speaker 3: learned on the playground we were kids that if the
Speaker 3: bully smells weakness, the bully is going to push the case.
Speaker 3: And right now what's happened around the world is our
Speaker 3: adversaries smell weakness. And it started with the botched withdrawal
Speaker 3: out of Afghanistan, which was an absolute disgrace. It continued
Speaker 3: with the very weak mixed messages that Biden gave putin
Speaker 3: the approval of the nord Stream two pipeline. The mixed messages,
Speaker 3: you know, will send Zelenski a plane when Russia invaded?
Speaker 3: You know Biden's remarks that, you know, how would he respond?
Speaker 3: What depends you know, how far Putin goes.
Speaker 2: It's the weak.
Speaker 3: Response to the Chinese surveillance balloon, which which may seem
Speaker 3: like a small thing, but you think about that that
Speaker 3: balloon was flying over our military basis for you know,
Speaker 3: the better part of a week and the week response
Speaker 3: to the terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East. There's been
Speaker 3: over one hundred and sixty attacks last year, many of
Speaker 3: them against US forces in the least and Biden's response
Speaker 3: every step of the way has been hamhanded, slow, weak, unclear,
Speaker 3: and that's made our enemies think now's the time, now's
Speaker 3: the time to push, now's the time to test. And
Speaker 3: that's what I think our biggest problem is. And unfortunately,
Speaker 3: deterrence is like your reputation. You know how hard it
Speaker 3: is to build a great reputation and how easy it
Speaker 3: is to lose a good reputation if you make a mistake.
Speaker 2: What's that way with deterrence.
Speaker 3: It's hard to build, it's easy to lose, and once
Speaker 3: you lose it, it's hard to get back. And I
Speaker 3: don't think we're going to get deterrence back under Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: I think we're going to need to get a new leader.
Speaker 3: I'm getting Preident Trump in the office. President Trump had deterrence.
Speaker 3: When you blow up a guy like Solo Moni. The
Speaker 3: folks in Iran are saying, wait a second, this guy
Speaker 3: means business and we need that kind of leadership in
Speaker 3: the Senate. And Bob Casey has been an absolute appeaser
Speaker 3: of tyrants around the world, most notably Aaron because he
Speaker 3: signed the JPCA in twenty fifteen, the Iran Deal, which
Speaker 3: gave Iran back one hundred billion dollars of sanctioned money,
Speaker 3: and that's it's used that money.
Speaker 2: To support these terrorist proxies around the world.
Speaker 1: No, my my favorite part is when Trump was talking
Speaker 1: about having chocolate cake with President She and then was
Speaker 1: telling him that he was setting the Tomahawk missiles to
Speaker 1: steer over chocolate cake, which is just kind of a
Speaker 1: you know, power move, and then dropping the mother of
Speaker 1: all bombs in Afghanistan after he took off, as I think,
Speaker 1: kind of just sending a message that hey, there's a
Speaker 1: new sheriff in town, like we're not messing around.
Speaker 2: You tell that story. My wife was at that table.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, no.
Speaker 3: Room in the in the subsequent meeting with the National
Speaker 3: Security Council, and she tells that story, and that's absolutely
Speaker 3: the case that that is uh that's that's that.
Speaker 2: That sends a message.
Speaker 3: And I think President Trump had a uh had a
Speaker 3: lot of success in demonstrating that deterrence. And you know,
Speaker 3: the thing about him which I which I agree with,
Speaker 3: he said, the last thing you want to do is
Speaker 3: broadcast how you're going to respond to your enemy. So
Speaker 3: he created a lot of uncertainty in how we would respond,
Speaker 3: and that's that's the key to deterrent. So I think
Speaker 3: that's our biggest problem on the world stage right now.
Speaker 3: That and the fact that China, you know, China's orchestrating
Speaker 3: a lot of what's happening around the world behind the scenes.
Speaker 3: And you know, it was notable a couple months ago,
Speaker 3: you may you may have seen it on the front
Speaker 3: page of the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 2: There was a.
Speaker 3: Picture of President Shei in Moscow, you know, standing behind
Speaker 3: Putin of course, supporting his efforts in Ukraine. And during
Speaker 3: that on that very same day, there was a picture
Speaker 3: of the Foreign Minister from China in Saudi Arabia welcoming
Speaker 3: the foreign minister from Iran and Saudi Arabia that we're
Speaker 3: in talks with China seeking to orchestrate that China is
Speaker 3: playing a role in the world stage, on connecting all
Speaker 3: the dots, underwriting and supporting many of the challenges to
Speaker 3: American leadership. And that's because China's explicit goal under President
Speaker 3: She is to displace America as the global superpower and
Speaker 3: challenge our interests and challenge our goals around the world.
Speaker 3: And so you know, we've got to have a tough
Speaker 3: minded strategy that not only returns to terrence, but also
Speaker 3: stands tall against China and holds China accountable.
Speaker 2: For bad behavior.
Speaker 3: Who the a strategy that make sure we're not dependent
Speaker 3: on China for key parts of our national security, make
Speaker 3: sure that our companies and our investors aren't supporting China
Speaker 3: by investing in the Chinese military or the Chinese Communist Party.
Speaker 3: So that's also a big, a big challenge on the
Speaker 3: global stage that the Biden administration has failed to address
Speaker 3: in any meaningful way.
Speaker 1: We've got to take a quick commercial break more with
Speaker 1: Dave McCormick on the other side, you can't really hold
Speaker 1: a country, you know, accountable when you know your son
Speaker 1: has profited off a bit business deals with China and
Speaker 1: you potentially have as well, right, I mean, he's the
Speaker 1: big guy potentially you know, God has been the recipient
Speaker 1: somehow of some of that money allegedly, you know, his
Speaker 1: son definitely has. Yeah, so you know, how does that
Speaker 1: shape Joe Biden's ability to deal with China?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: This is what this is one of the more disturbing
Speaker 3: things in the last three years, which is I mean,
Speaker 3: what you're referring to is just this two tier justice
Speaker 3: system where we see playing out in real time a
Speaker 3: political motivation behind prosecution prosecutions at President Trump, whether it's
Speaker 3: in the New York case or in Georgia where it's
Speaker 3: highly highly politicized. It clearly wouldn't be like this if
Speaker 3: the man that they were prosecuting wasn't Donald Trump. And
Speaker 3: then you see two cases that are pretty similar with
Speaker 3: sensitive doctor Humens, and the treatment of Joe Biden by
Speaker 3: the justice system and the treatment of Donald Trump by
Speaker 3: the justice system are dramatically different, despite very similar challenges
Speaker 3: or very similar accusations of of of misbehavior. And it
Speaker 3: gives us all pause, Wait a second, do we have
Speaker 3: a justice system that's actually gonna bring justice that's going
Speaker 3: to be fair to all involved? Or has it been
Speaker 3: hijacked and politicized? And I think the Hunter Biden case
Speaker 3: is a perfect example of that, where you know, you
Speaker 3: had this laptop, you had these accusations against President Trump
Speaker 3: of collaborating with the Russians, and then you know, out
Speaker 3: of hand, all these national security figures and intelligence figures
Speaker 3: slap down the accusations that that's Hunter Biden's that that's
Speaker 3: Hunter Biden's laptop, and you know, this is all this
Speaker 3: is all disinformation. And then with time we see that
Speaker 3: that that's in fact not the case. And with time
Speaker 3: we're finding that President Trump is being treated in a
Speaker 3: way that's not consistent. You know, this five hundre million
Speaker 3: dollar fine, I'm surd I've been in business. I've been
Speaker 3: in business for almost thirty years. I've been a CEO
Speaker 3: of two companies. I've never heard of anything remotely like
Speaker 3: that in terms of that fine, particularly when there's no
Speaker 3: one who's been damaged, so there's no damages that are
Speaker 3: being ruled against. And this is this is a fundamental
Speaker 3: fear because America is based on the idea of a
Speaker 3: justice system which is fair to all innocent until proven guilty,
Speaker 3: and that you'll get a fair shake. And I think
Speaker 3: we see that under President Biden and the Democrats leading
Speaker 3: the justice system judicial process. We're getting two very different
Speaker 3: approaches in Yeah, well, I.
Speaker 1: Think that's kind of all been thrown out the door,
Speaker 1: you know, sadly under this administration is sort of the
Speaker 1: direction the country is going in with you know, censorship,
Speaker 1: A lot of it happened during COVID and has just
Speaker 1: gotten worse since then. I wanted to ask you on
Speaker 1: China specifically, why do we have so many Chinese nationals
Speaker 1: entering the United States through the southern border, and with
Speaker 1: your background and working on Chinese related issues, why are
Speaker 1: they doing that? What's the objective?
Speaker 2: You know, I.
Speaker 3: Don't know the objective, although I can imagine what the
Speaker 3: objective is. I mean, I think the thing that we've
Speaker 3: lost sight of is that with ten million illegal migrant
Speaker 3: entering our country in a three year period, that those
Speaker 3: are not people from Mexico. Those are people from across
Speaker 3: the world, from Syria, from Central Asia, and from China.
Speaker 3: The last numbers I saw were twenty thousand or something
Speaker 3: like that in the past year, and it's hard to
Speaker 3: imagine that that's not part of a very conscious effort
Speaker 3: to infiltrate the United States, particularly given how difficult it
Speaker 3: is to get out of China, so hard to imagine
Speaker 3: the government isn't somehow behind this y'or sanctioning it. And
Speaker 3: that's part of a comprehensive approach to undermining, challenging and
Speaker 3: becoming integrated into America in a way for some Chinese
Speaker 3: nationals that is very, very counter to America's interests. Many
Speaker 3: Chinese nationals that come go to graduate school stay in
Speaker 3: America and or contributing citizens and become American citizens, but
Speaker 3: there are many that are part of an effort to
Speaker 3: undermine our national security by stealing state secrets and becoming
Speaker 3: part of a framework of compromising America's interest And you
Speaker 3: see these confusion centers around the United States, you see
Speaker 3: the infiltration into some of our cities. You see in
Speaker 3: our universities. There's many great graduate students who come from
Speaker 3: China with the best motivations. There's some that are very
Speaker 3: explicitly targeted by the Chinese government, and that's an enormous
Speaker 3: national security problem. When you think about twenty thousand coming
Speaker 3: across our border last year, I can't but imagine that
Speaker 3: there's a nefarious intention behind that, and I think it's
Speaker 3: really scary.
Speaker 1: We also know there's just a lot of foreign money
Speaker 1: going to our universities as well, which you would have
Speaker 1: to imagine shapes what happens on those campuses as a result,
Speaker 1: in the same way that you know, obviously the Biden
Speaker 1: family taking money from China probably shapes his positioning on
Speaker 1: foreign policy. You would imagine, what do you think the
Speaker 1: biggest issue we face as a country is right now?
Speaker 3: Well, I think there's there's sort of the fast burn
Speaker 3: and the slow burn. I mean the fast burn is
Speaker 3: we got two big issues that are affecting Pennsylvanians and
Speaker 3: Americans in a big way. One is the economy. And
Speaker 3: you know what's happened under Joe Biden and the enormous
Speaker 3: spending and the war on fossil fuels, is that prices
Speaker 3: have gone up by twenty percent, wages have gone up
Speaker 3: by fourteen fifteen percent. And so if you're of the
Speaker 3: sixty percent of Pennsylvanians who live paycheck to paycheck sixty
Speaker 3: percent most Pennsylvanians live in paycheck to paycheck, man, under
Speaker 3: Joe Biden, you're getting squeezed.
Speaker 2: Your life got hard or not easier. You're living paycheck
Speaker 2: to paycheck.
Speaker 3: If you have a bad day and your transmission goes down,
Speaker 3: you don't have a thousand dollars in your checking account
Speaker 3: to fix it. That is unacceptable. And that is the
Speaker 3: direct result of a set of policies that Joe Biden
Speaker 3: and Bob Casey have supported, which is the warrant energy
Speaker 3: and the EXCESSUS spending.
Speaker 2: That's a big deal.
Speaker 3: Well, the second the second big deal was the border.
Speaker 3: I mean that we talked about all the problems from that,
Speaker 3: the fentanyl crisis, the crime in our cities. That's the
Speaker 3: second big problem, and I think it's I think it's
Speaker 3: absolutely undermining the quality of life, the safety, the well
Speaker 3: being of our fellow Americans and our fellow Pennsylvanians. Now,
Speaker 3: the long burn problem is a bit what we were
Speaker 3: talking about. If you go to our college campuses and
Speaker 3: our young people only thirty percent of them, I think
Speaker 3: America is exceptional. If you look at our recruiting numbers
Speaker 3: for our military, they can't meet the recruiting numbers because
Speaker 3: our young peopleeople can't pass the obesity test or the
Speaker 3: physical fitness test, or they have drug problems. And of
Speaker 3: the few that are able to actually qualify, the majority
Speaker 3: don't want to serve. And then if you look at
Speaker 3: the statistics on TikTok and social media in terms of
Speaker 3: how our young people are spending their time. You know,
Speaker 3: these are the building blocks of or the key factors
Speaker 3: undermining the quality of our society. If our citizens don't
Speaker 3: want to serve, if they don't believe America is special,
Speaker 3: if they're being co opted by social media, some of
Speaker 3: it from a foreign adversary that is undermining our.
Speaker 2: Social norms or mores.
Speaker 3: That is the long run problem, and I think really
Speaker 3: undermines our ability to remain the greatest country in the world.
Speaker 1: How big of an issue in Pennsylvania. You know, Joe
Speaker 1: Biden has been trying to set all these deadlines for
Speaker 1: this big push for electric vehicles, even though the market's
Speaker 1: not really demanding it. How much is that going to
Speaker 1: impact Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: It's a huge impact.
Speaker 3: And I think when we look back on the Biden administration,
Speaker 3: we will talk about energy policy is the most significant miscalculation.
Speaker 3: And the reason it's such a big deal is that
Speaker 3: we are blessed with incredible natural resources in America, particularly
Speaker 3: natural gas. Natural gas in Pennsylvania is the fourth largest
Speaker 3: natural gas reserves in the world. I heard a statistic
Speaker 3: the other day but just put in perspective, if we
Speaker 3: developed our natural gas capability, we would be able to
Speaker 3: export the equivalent of another Saudi Arabia ten million barrels
Speaker 3: a day in natural gas equivalent from America alone. So
Speaker 3: it's enormous what we could do, and it's so critical
Speaker 3: to our national security to be able to put that
Speaker 3: natural gas in the hands of our allies. It's so
Speaker 3: critical for our economy because those fracking jobs in Pennsylvania
Speaker 3: are sixty seventy thousand for a nineteen twenty year old
Speaker 3: kid with the technical training and go to ninety or
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand a year with overtime. This is like
Speaker 3: the next generation of great middle class jobs, middle class life.
Speaker 3: You don't have that a four year degree. You get
Speaker 3: a one or two year technical degree. It's a huge opportunity.
Speaker 3: But here's the great irony. It helps our environment and
Speaker 3: reduces carbon emissions because our natural gas exports replace coal
Speaker 3: fired plants in India and China, which are the main
Speaker 3: carbon emitters today. And so this strategy has been a disaster.
Speaker 3: But here's the final straw. This mandating of evs is
Speaker 3: destroying manufacturing jobs and it's also making us more dependent
Speaker 3: on China. So these evs come with lithium batteries eighty
Speaker 3: percent of them are made from China, eighty percent of
Speaker 3: the lithium batteries in the world, and solar panels, the
Speaker 3: large majority of which are made in China. So we
Speaker 3: are making ourselves more dependent on our primary adversary at
Speaker 3: the same time we're hurting our security, hurting our economy,
Speaker 3: and hurting the environment. It's complete hypocrisy. It makes no sense.
Speaker 3: And I think what time is going to become clear
Speaker 3: how stupid this is, And it's already becoming clear in
Speaker 3: places like Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: You've got to take a quick commercial break. More with
Speaker 1: Dave McCormack on the other side, Obviously, Democrats are going
Speaker 1: to try to make abortion a key issue heading into
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. Are you pro life? Where do you stand?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm pro life. I'm in favor of the three exceptions.
Speaker 3: I'm not in favor of federal bands. I'm not in
Speaker 3: favor of the extreme policies of the Democratic Party and
Speaker 3: a Bob Casey which allows abortions up until the dow date.
Speaker 3: And so the way I say it on the campaign try,
Speaker 3: I say, listen, I'm not for either extreme. This is
Speaker 3: an era where we need to find common ground. And
Speaker 3: I think common grounds around widely available contraception, it's around
Speaker 3: support for adoption services for young families, and it's in
Speaker 3: support of restrictions on late term abortions. And Pennsylvania has
Speaker 3: a law. Here's the great irony of it. Somebody has
Speaker 3: a law that was signed by Republicans and Democrats alike,
Speaker 3: and the governor who signed it into place is a
Speaker 3: governor named Casey, the father of my opponent, and my
Speaker 3: opponent was a pro life ran on as a pro
Speaker 3: life senator eighteen years ago, and in two thousand and
Speaker 3: eight he flipped his position to be pro choice, and
Speaker 3: as recently as two years ago, when Roeve Wade was overturned,
Speaker 3: he signed legislation that would have allowed for abortions up
Speaker 3: until the due date. So I'm running against somebody here
Speaker 3: is who's truly been all over the place on the
Speaker 3: issue of abortion at a time when this is a
Speaker 3: big issue for voters across Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: You know, Pennsylvania is a critical state both for winning
Speaker 1: the White House as well as winning back the Senate
Speaker 1: male in balloting, and you go back to twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: I think Biden ended up getting something like three out
Speaker 1: of four mail in ballots that were cast in the state.
Speaker 1: Biden won by less than two two percent of the vote.
Speaker 1: What are you doing on mail balloting? You know? Do
Speaker 1: you think that Republicans are prepared in the state to
Speaker 1: win votes in the manner in which elections are conducted today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's two things, three things we got
Speaker 3: to get right structurally to win Pennsylvania. By the way,
Speaker 3: Pennsylvanya is becoming a red state. When Donald Trump won
Speaker 3: in twenty sixteen, there was a million more registered Democrats
Speaker 3: than Republicans. Today it's under four hundred thousand, and the
Speaker 3: gaps closing fast. So there's three things we need to do.
Speaker 3: The first thing is we need to accelerate that acceleration,
Speaker 3: accelerate that registration of Republican voters, and there's an initiatives.
Speaker 2: Underway to do that.
Speaker 3: Second thing we need to do is a whole set
Speaker 3: of efforts around election integrity. There's all sorts of problems
Speaker 3: in Pennsylvania. We got sixty seven counties. They all have
Speaker 3: different processes, and whether you think this is a big
Speaker 3: problem or a little problem, it's affecting the willingness of
Speaker 3: people to vote because they don't think they're voting count
Speaker 3: So we need to have a very transparent process of
Speaker 3: validating voting machines, of making sure there's chain of custody,
Speaker 3: on making sure there's oversight of drop boxes, of making
Speaker 3: sure there's the right observers and legal processes and challenges
Speaker 3: on election day. So election integris Number two third is
Speaker 3: the one you mentioned, which is mail in ballots, and
Speaker 3: that was a huge Democratic advantage on this. The Democrats
Speaker 3: have embraced mail in ballots and they're beating us now
Speaker 3: on average seven to one. And there's a huge initiative,
Speaker 3: arguably the largest in the country, many millions of dollars
Speaker 3: being invested by a number of groups to focus on
Speaker 3: low propensity voters. These are voters that vote zero, once
Speaker 3: or twice in the last four elections and get them
Speaker 3: registered for mail in ballots and then get them to
Speaker 3: submit their mail in ballots. And that effort I suspect
Speaker 3: will close the gap in Pennsylvania, but not close it completely.
Speaker 3: I think it's going to take multiple election cycles.
Speaker 2: To close it completely.
Speaker 3: And you know, part of it is convincing people that
Speaker 3: their vote's going to count. By mail in ballot and
Speaker 3: that there's a clear way to do it. And so
Speaker 3: we're closely coordinating with the Trump team, with the RNC
Speaker 3: and others to make sure that we have the right
Speaker 3: program in place to take advantage of mail in ballots.
Speaker 3: It's early on, but I'm encouraged that there's the right
Speaker 3: focus and the right resources.
Speaker 1: It's great to hear before we go. Where can people
Speaker 1: go to help?
Speaker 3: They can find me at Dave MCCORMICKPA dot com. I'm
Speaker 3: spending most of my time driving across the Great Commonwealth
Speaker 3: of Pennsylvania and my campaign bus, which gets me into
Speaker 3: every small town I can find. And you know, it's
Speaker 3: sixty seven counties and I'm in. I've this year so far,
Speaker 3: I've been in forty seven of them. I've done one
Speaker 3: hundred and forty events. I am running a campaign that's
Speaker 3: going to touch people all across our commonwealth and a
Speaker 3: good old fashioned retail campaign, and I'm excited about it.
Speaker 3: I feel like there's a real change of foot I
Speaker 3: can feel it in the air, and I'm excited to
Speaker 3: be part of it.
Speaker 1: Well, Dave McCormick, good luck. It's an important state. We
Speaker 1: appreciate you making the time for us today.
Speaker 2: Thanks for we have a great day.
Speaker 1: That was Dave McCormick running for Senate in Pennsylvania. Appreciate
Speaker 1: him making the time. You know, these guys have crazy schedules,
Speaker 1: so we really appreciate him making time for the show
Speaker 1: every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week.
Speaker 1: I want to think John Cassio for putting the show together.
Speaker 1: Until next time,