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Good afternoon and welcome to Milwaukee, host city for the Republican National Convention. This is a special presentation of here and now's 2024 election coverage. We are coming to you live from media row on Panther Arena in downtown Milwaukee. I'm Zach Schultz the senior political reporter here and now and I am joined as always with my two esteemed guest, Bill McCoss and Scott Ross. Thank you for coming back for day two.
Day two. Here we go. Here we go. We made it through the long day as Tommy Thompson described it on Monday. Let's start with the events of last night. The big thing that everyone is waiting for Donald Trump's appearance at the Pfizer.
What was your reaction to seeing him come through the hallway, come up and he didn't address the crowd, but he did appear in a big way.
Oh, it was powerful. I mean the place erupted. You could feel the energy in the room. It was exciting. It was powerful.
It was moving and you could tell it was moving for Trump. He's not easily emotional. He appeared to be a little bit emotional last night and that resonated with the crowd.
What do you think, Scott? Did this move anyone who we had not seen him? Really up close. This is the first time.
Yeah, no, I don't think anybody to be honest. What we saw yesterday was within two speakers, Trump's pledge to bring unity to the country was broken in a way that a lot of the promises that they've made to the people have been broken can go through that list at some point.
But I don't think there was anything, again, it's a convention, so there's going to be a lot of enthusiasm for their nominee for president.
But as far as Democrats and as far as independents goes, I'm not sure it really resonated.
What about you for the image of Trump in the booth next to JD Vance? The first time America got to see this new team, this new running team?
I liked it, right? I mean, we've talked about it. JD wasn't my first choice. I've had a chance to sleep on it and I'm coming around.
I see the value of it. He may not add states necessarily, although the Trump team thinks he can play well in Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin, and that's probably true.
But he sends a message to working people across the country, the forgotten men and women, that Trump's saying, I'm with you, my second administration will be with you, and so much so that I'm picking a guy who is one of you, who grew up like all of you did.
So I think that's actually pretty powerful, and I missed that the first time around, and he's the second he is the youngest person on a national ticket in my lifetime.
So I think that he's got an opportunity to appeal to millennials like nobody has in the past, so I'm excited about it.
We're already seeing a lot of the Democrats' greatest hits against JD Vance come out in social media stuff that he has said that, will he actually regret it, or will he just shrug it off?
So I think we'll see some of those things. And again, some of them are. He referred to Trump as quote unquote, America's Hitler.
He criticized him for the Charlottesville march with the Nazis and blamed him for that, and one of the allegations made against Trump of sexual assault, JD Vance said he believed that.
That's going to be without a doubt used in the campaign, but I think there's a lot where they come in to focus of being together, and that's on abortion extremism, on tax cuts for rich people.
And with all due respect to JD Vance's background, yes, he grew up poor, but he's a venture capitalist who's in billionaire Peter Thiel's pocket.
That's why he's on the ticket, because Elon Musk and Peter Thiel want this guy on the ticket because they know he's in there for big tech.
They know he's in there for tax cuts for rich people. They know he's there for hurting working people, and Musk has already pledged after this all happened, $45 million a month for the next four months to the super PAC.
That's $180 million.
Fairness, one of the things that concerned me about JD, and I'll raise it today, is he has not been tested on a national ticket, right?
The bright lights of a national campaign are far different than running statewide, but the adversity this man overcame as a child to get to where he is today.
You know, I think he's overcome bigger challenges than the bright lights of a national campaign.
Having said that, Trump is still going to have to play some defense with him initially.
The other choices he could have gone straight offense started putting more states in play, but I think on this one, JD's going to have to prove himself.
And as someone who's given a lot of opportunities from former Governor Tommy Thompson at a very young age, I like the pick.
The fact that the principal Donald Trump believes in this guy and thinks he's got the raw material to do the job says a lot, right?
But now it's up to Vance to prove it over the next 112 days.
So we saw a tone shift from the morning to the evening in terms of unity.
In the morning, in the delegate breakfast, in the afternoon session, all we heard was the chance for unity is a new tone and new sense coming from the Trump campaign.
And then Ron Johnson got on stage.
And whether it was a teleprompter or not, Scott, that sounded like the old Ron Johnson that we've always heard before.
Yeah, no. A tiger can't change its stripes.
And whatever this, you know, his claims about a teleprompter, it's the Ron Johnson we've come to know.
I think Ron Johnson's veracity has been, you know, in question more than one time.
I just want to go back to one point about J.D. Vance that Bill made.
It's really, really important to remember that J.D. Vance got into the Senate last year.
He's being hired because of his demographics.
Again, he's going to appeal to millennials.
That sounds like a DEI hire to me, which I think Republicans seem to oppose everywhere else when it's talking about affirmative action and bringing, you know, other demographics
into the workplace.
So on the unity, I think we have to talk about Lester Holt's interview with Joe Biden last night.
Where Biden waffled on the bullseye comment that he made just last week about putting Trump in the bullseye.
And he did a whole bunch of whataboutism that I didn't say crosshairs, and I didn't really mean it that way.
It was bad.
Frankly, I hope the Democrats put him on TV every single night because he helps us every time he does one of those interviews.
But he discounted the whole unity thing that he had talked about on national TV on Sunday night and went right to Trump's a threat to democracy.
And why can't I say that if it's true?
And listen, this is going to be a dog fight all the way, 112 days left to go.
You know, I'm still excited to hear Trump speak on Thursday night because I think there will be a different tone.
But having said that, listen, you play for keeps in politics, and it's all about winning.
Yeah, there is no second place. So, you know, it's a second place, but it belongs in the history.
Yeah, right. Buckle up.
In terms of that, what is the line, though, between legitimately calling out what people may believe are threats to democracy, threats to the future based on platforms and party positions.
You know, Trump's own comments of I'll only be a dictator on day one versus, obviously, the danger that comes with what we saw in Butler.
Let's hear what I would say about that. Democracy is the ballot in November. It's not on the ballot. Get out and vote.
Choose one of these people. Get involved. If you sit on the couch, you can't complain after the fact. Democracy is the ballot.
Nobody else in the world has the opportunity we do to express ourselves.
This experiment we call democracy is 248 years old. It's going to continue no matter which one of these guys wins.
And the nonsense the Democrats have been spewing that somehow democracy is going to go away if Trump is the president.
Well, he's got a first term that he can prove that didn't happen.
He tried. We did have January 6th. I mean, you can't discount the fact that that exists.
The election had already ended. The election had been certified. Joe Biden was going to be the president no matter what.
JD Vance is on the ticket because Mike Pence refused to overturn the results of a Democrat who decided to election.
And JD Vance is pledged that he will do that. That is why he is on the ticket.
It's not even an issue. It's not even an issue because Donald Trump can only serve one term.
That's it. JD Vance won't have that role.
You talked about serving multiple terms. Can't do it. The Constitution prohibits it.
But if this election would be for his second term, so he can serve.
So if he decides again if he doesn't win, that he wants to overturn the results of a democratically decided election.
When even conservatives in Wisconsin were saying there was no evidence of any problem with the vote tally in Wisconsin in anywhere else, you know, that's on him.
He did it once. I believe he'll do it again. And I think it's, you know, I think it's a very legitimate thing for us to discuss along with all the other policy things because democracy is we saw over and over again in 2021,
after the terrorist insurrection through the multiple lawsuits over and over Republicans trying to undo the results of a democratically decided election.
So that we're clear about this. Kamala Harris, under any set of circumstances, will oversee the counting of the ballots in January of 2025.
But that's not what we're talking about. That's a fact. You're fast forwarding four years. Yes, under the hypothetical.
Well, they're all. I can't run for a second term. For a third term. Third term. Right.
But what you were saying is that there's no way he would overturn an election coming out of that.
What election would he overturn? JD Vance's?
I mean, JD Vance told Trump earlier, ignore Supreme Court decisions you don't agree with. And I think that brings us back to why he's already done that on student loan debt.
Why people believe that? Why people believe that it is problematic to have Donald Trump as a president because we saw, you know, the central tenant is that every person, no person is above the law in America.
And the Supreme Court, three of six, you know, six justices, three of them who were appointed by Trump said that the law doesn't apply to him or Biden.
But it was because they don't want Trump to be prosecuted for the crimes. The 34 felonies he was convicted of.
We saw his, you know, his appointee, Aileen Cannon, you know, Aileen, let's talk in a second. Just give me this one.
Aileen Cannon, who is on the court to make those decisions in dismiss Trump's case, was put in there because Mitch McConnell pushed after the election to get her on.
And now they booed Mitch McConnell when he stepped on the stage today. I was disappointed in my fellow Republicans.
Yesterday when they booed Mitch McConnell. If there is a Hall of Fame for United States Senators, Republican United States Senators, Mitch McConnell would absolutely be in that, in my opinion.
Without him, Merrick Garland would be on the Supreme Court. Three brand new justices would not be on the Supreme Court. He is a hero.
Did he stay too long in the Senate? Yes, he did. I'm one of these guys who now believes we should have a mandatory retirement age.
I don't think we need octogenarians either in the White House or in the Congress.
What about the Supreme Court? But here we are. Well, they have lifetime terms. They have lifetime terms.
So I want to, one more person I want to talk about from last night was the president of the Teamsters. He closed the night with a pretty powerful speech.
He's made some appearances before Congress and if people follow social media they probably saw him ready to throw down against a GOP Senator who he named called out in his speech.
But what's your reaction, Scott, first of all, to having the president of the Teamsters at the GOP convention?
Well, Donald Trump is the most anti-union, anti-worker president we have ever had in American history. There is no doubt about that over and over again. He has, you know, just been awful on that issue.
You know, Joe Biden and the Democrats put $36 billion into the American Recovery Act to make sure that the 350,000 Teamsters, both current and retirees, will be able to get the pension back.
They're able to get the pension benefits that they've earned. So it was a slap in the face to the Democrats. I don't think it's going to make a difference because overall labor is with Joe Biden 100%. This guy isn't anomaly to that.
I loved it. As the son of a union president from Superior, I thought it was great. I think Donald Trump has transformed this party. We are now the party of working people, which I'm proud of.
I grew up one. And I think it was a powerful message to be fair. The Teamsters president did not endorse Donald Trump. Last night, I don't believe you will. I don't believe you'll endorse Joe Biden either.
But it's said to other working people out there. You know what? These guys are okay.
And the traditional union labor is a middle class or middle working class white male who has been drifting towards the Republican Party and has been attracted to Trump. So that seems like a natural fit for the Republicans.
I think it is. And the one that's a little odd to me is the UAW. So Sean Farrell, the president of the UAW, has already come out and endorsed Biden. Not a big surprise. Biden walked the picket line with them.
I think UAW members will be with Trump. And I'll tell you why. He's going to do away with this EV mandate that Joe Biden put in place that's going to impact their jobs in Michigan and send those jobs down to Mexico.
I mean, that's one of the reasons Trump got elected. One of the reasons I think he picked JD Vance, he came from Appalachia, whose entire region, Scott's not grew up not far from there, was hollowed out by NAFTA and trade agreements that were anti-American.
So I think that's going to be a powerful message across the country for the next 112 days.
First of all, if I'll do, the area where I grew up in steel country was because under Reagan, steel was the first American industry that was outsourced overseas.
You know, and people haven't forgotten that. But there are a lot older now because that was 40 years ago.
You know, the fact is, is that labor is always going to stand with Democrats because the Democrats stand for labor.
Look at roll call after roll call after roll call, you know, topped up on an every level of government.
When it comes down to it, Republicans vote against labor and working people, Democrats vote for them.
And you can't, you know, you can't argue with the record. And one guy who, my guess is this probably will be his last term elected as the Teamsters President.
You know, I mean, we come back in a couple years when he's up and we can, you know, you can call me if he still is.
But people are angry about that in the labor movement because, again, Democrats have stood up for working people across the board.
And Joe Biden's put in his policies, the American Recovery Act, you know, the Anti Inflation Act.
I mean, it's all there working towards putting more people to work and making sure those are good paying jobs because Democrats understand the economy.
Okay. They understand the economy.
When you put money into the pockets of working people, they spend that money in the community.
Tax cuts for the rich is one of the, you know, to whom you start with the promises they broke last night, tax cuts for the rich do not help working people.
So what are the other things that I wanted to get to yesterday that ran out of time is talking about the GOP platform.
And it kind of got fast-tracked last week and anti-abortion activists are upset because there is not a national abortion ban in the plank.
First off, doesn't matter. And is this showing Trump understanding the importance of Roe this fall? And that's why he's doing this?
Yeah, I don't think there's any question about that. He said it himself.
He takes credit for the three appointees on the United States Supreme Court that rendered the Dobbs decision that undid Roe versus Wade and sent it back to the states.
But he's also saying, we're not going to tell all of the states how to do this with a national ban. He's made that very, very clear.
And procedurally, to do that, he would need 60 votes in the United States Senate to make that happen.
And even if Republicans have a landslide victory in November, they're not going to get to 60 seats in the United States Senate.
Did this change anyone's views of Republicans in abortion?
Well, I mean, I think we should, you know, we should just talk about the issue for a second. You know, it's not just abortion.
It's whether or not women and, you know, we're three dudes, whether women have control of their bodies.
And that is why the fact that Trump's court overturned Roe versus Wade is why Democrats continue to win election after election, after election in Wisconsin.
I think Ron Johnson being the one exception, the one exception that Democrats weren't able to win.
But again, that's part of why JD Vance is on the ticket.
You know, Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council, who spoke, who was attempting to get the resolution, put it back into whatever your process is, where you get, you know, opposition view gets to put, an opposition view gets to be put in the platform.
It failed, but he tried to do that because he is, you know, he cares so much about a nationwide abortion ban.
JD Vance is the sort of message to those folks that that's happening.
Vance has called abortion murder. He said there should be exceptions for rape and incest.
He supported the Ohio version of six weeks with no exceptions for rape and incest.
He said that, you know, a woman choosing to end a pregnancy that happens as a result of those things is a convenience quote unquote his comments, not mine.
And so over and over again, that was a, you know, that was, you know, part of what he was able to do is, you know, we're talking about Republican unity, you know, not unity with the rest of us.
And that was part of what it is because if Republicans take control of the White House, they have already put the blueprint in place to have a nationwide abortion ban.
It won't happen.
It can't happen.
It can't happen.
And here's the deal.
There's some irony in this.
So pro-lifers for years wanted the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
They got it, right?
The dog caught the car, right?
And now they want a national ban, right?
When in reality, this is a state decision.
And there will be, there are potentially 50 different answers to this.
Today in the state of Wisconsin, based on some recent court decisions, there's a 20-week ban on abortion, meaning you can have an abortion up to the 20th week.
It's about the, you're right into the second trimester, I believe.
That could change over time with different legislatures or a different governor, but that's the law of the land.
And most polling zacks, statewide here, says somewhere around 15 weeks, most people think is reasonable.
What they think is unreasonable is abortions in the third trimester.
And Democrats, we're at large, are for that.
We're not.
We're not for that.
Sorry.
I'm sorry.
Just for one second.
Because most of the propaganda, sorry, most of the information that comes out of the Republicans, including the project 2025, calls for the 14th Amendment to see
fetuses as persons, the personhood amendment.
That means all abortions ban, no matter what.
It means an end to IVF, and it means your birth control is coming under attack.
Support for IVF is in agenda 47.
And without a doubt, they can, they can say it.
Why don't they pass it when it was on the table and the Senate?
Well, it's in, it's now the party platform.
But again, we just talked about, may not have much of an issue.
Well, I think it will.
I think Republicans will run on it.
So I want to bring you back to 2014, post act 10, Scott Walker's running for reelection.
And he has said over and over to the media, I will not sign a bill that does right to work because it will never reach my desk.
His promise was we don't have to worry about that issue coming up because it'll never make my desk.
Well, he couldn't control the legislature.
The legislature passes right to work legislation, and he immediately signs it.
Is there a comparison to Donald Trump saying, well, I don't have to worry about a national abortion ban because it won't get there?
Or you saying, well, there's not enough votes.
It couldn't get through a filibuster when there are ways for legislation to make it to a president's desk.
Do you honestly believe Donald Trump would not sign that bill if it somehow got to his desk?
I would say there are ways to make sure it doesn't get to his desk.
One of the tricks we used in the Thompson administration, as we told allies, get it to our desk and we'll sign it.
Knowing full well, we could kill it, and they would never know.
So I don't think there's any chance it could get to his desk for a couple different reasons.
Number one, we're going to have a different majority leader.
We don't know who that's going to be. It won't be Mitch McConnell. That's already been decided.
Mike Johnson may or may not survive as speaker.
My guess is he's had a better couple months. I thought he had a rough start, but I don't see him pushing it through their Congress either.
So the chances of something like that getting to his desk are slim and none, in my opinion.
Doesn't a new majority leader make it more likely that they could carve out a filibuster issue for abortion?
Absolutely. There's two parts to this. The first part is what Bill is saying about what he and Governor Thompson were able to do to stymie legislation.
The Project 2025 has an entire component of how administratively the executive branch can ban abortion.
Everything from the morning after pill to a whole slew of things.
If the executive wants to do this, it's going to be able to do it because they've always been able to do it.
And guess what? We've seen what happens if it goes to the Supreme Court. Trump gets his way with the Trump Supreme Court.
Simple as that. And so the second part of that question is, you know, I believe if the Republicans take control of the Senate this time with Trump in the White House and the House in control of Republicans, the filibuster's gone.
As gone as Mitch McConnell will be from leadership. It's as simple as that. They've changed the rules whenever they don't like the rules.
Actually, it was Harry Reid that changed the rules that allowed the Supreme Court justices.
Because Mitch McConnell is the one who changed the filibuster to the Supreme Court.
He changed it because there were nominees to the cabinet who were being delayed for years and years and years.
And let's just talk about that delay here. Ron Johnson helped Republicans delay a, so there's the Supreme Court and then there's the Court of Appeals.
We're in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Ron Johnson helped the Republicans stop an appointment, an opening that came in Obama's first year.
From being filled by Trump. 3,046 days. That, you know, that opened and then, you know, they filled it with, speaking of Scott Walker's old lawyer, filled that position.
And so that's, if the rules are inconvenient, they dispense with the rules. Through all means necessary. Again, it's not, you know, they're not playing show friends.
It's back to your example though. Your word is all you have in politics. It's your only currency.
So if the former governor made that promise, he wouldn't sign it, then he should have vetoed it.
That would have ensured his re-election in 2018 because the union's turned against him in 2018.
What he said was, I won't have to make that choice. It'll never make my desk. He avoided having to say...
Well, he said something stronger than that directly to the union bosses behind closed doors.
And then it got to him and he changed his position. So, you know, the Republican Party, ideological consistency is the hobgoblin of the small-minded.
I want to look forward to tonight. Eric Hubdey has a speaking slot. It's early in the evening.
Let's talk about this race because there was new polling from WMC that came out today.
That showed the Baldwin-Hubdey race and dead even.
It showed Trump up by a good number, probably outside the margin.
Yeah, outside the margin.
And for Wisconsin, do you believe that this race is tied?
Because everything before this poll had at least shown Baldwin ahead.
And around the swing states, we'd see Dem incumbents ahead of the Republican challengers, even with Biden tied or down.
I would be surprised if it's tied. And that's not an knock on Eric Hubdey or his campaign.
I think it's still a little early to be tied against an incumbent.
I think one of the things your viewers need to understand is zero incumbent United States senators lost in 2022.
It is one of the hardest seats to win. To beat an incumbent is one of the hardest things to do in politics.
So, Tammy Baldwin has some built-in advantages.
Having said that, I believe Joe Biden is going to have an undertow and pull her down a few points.
The question is whether he pulls her below 50 and gives Eric Hubdey a chance to win.
I don't think the race is tied, but I think it's getting closer all the time.
I think, you know, Tammy Baldwin has always run great campaigns, and Tammy Baldwin has always won.
And, like, in 2018, you know, when Tony Evers won by, like, what, half a percent or whatever?
It was 27 votes.
Yes, 21,000 votes.
She won by 11 points.
You know, so even if Biden gets across the finish line in Wisconsin, but it's just as close, you know, I think Tammy prevails.
There's no doubt about it.
I will say this.
I, you know, shameless self-plug.
I was at the gymnasium at one point yesterday, and the TV's in Milwaukee here non-stop ads against Tammy,
you know, both Hubdey and some independent, some pro petroleum independent.
Like, it was non-stop on the TV screens.
So, they're spending the lights on, but we expect that.
And, you know, one of the super PACs is controlled by Hubdey's brother, for God's sakes.
Like, so that's, you know, this is a, you know, a guy who owns a $3 billion California bank
who has a $7 million seaside California home, who's coming to Wisconsin to try and, you know,
it's basically out-of-state interests are trying to put an out-of-state guy in the Wisconsin Senate.
See nothing politics.
I think the, well, I think it's going to fail just like Tim Michaels did.
She's a tough out.
I will give her credit.
She's a hard campaigner.
I think we're in a very different situation than we are in 2018.
The thing she has going for right now, I haven't read the crosstabs of the WMC poll,
is she's currently getting about 5% of Trump supporters.
So, your viewers, their eyes are probably popping out of their head when I said that.
But there are some Baldwin Trump supporters in the state of Wisconsin.
For AirCovdey, she can't have any.
He has to get all of the Trump voters.
And I think, from this point forward, he's got to let people know they're together.
They're aligned on policy.
And once that happens, then I think there will be a true condensing of the race.
Now, I think the second, I'm sorry, I think the second advantage that Tammy has beyond
her campaigning is the fact that AirCovdey is in the race.
This is a guy who insulted, you know, he said that we'll raise health care prices on people
who are above a certain weight.
He said that farmers are lazy and they just quote-unquote drive tractors.
He insulted single moms and said that they're the cause of poverty.
You know, over and over again, this guy keeps stuffing his silver foot in his silver mouth.
And it is a challenge for him.
One thing you could say about Tammy Baldwin, she has incredible political instincts.
So, what can we read from that when she's the other end of the state when Joe Biden came to Madison after his debate?
Well, to be honest, I'll address that, because again, when you're running a campaign and you've been through this
and I've been through this, you know, you don't turn it, if you have a northern swing,
you don't just put that together.
It takes weeks and weeks to put some of that stuff together.
It was very clear that she was doing that.
I understand what you're saying.
I understand what you're saying.
And like, again, Tammy has, and I think I said this yesterday, Tammy has never been somebody to be the raw raw.
Let's get all the Democrats, you know, out there.
It's my job to make sure.
Her job is to get elected.
Her job is to support us in Congress and she's done that, you know, and she gets the job done.
And it's not her job to do the raw raw and the fire breathing.
So she wasn't there.
Again, people can take their own, you know, their own, get their own conclusions from that.
But she supports Joe Biden.
She said it over and over.
The optics are obvious, right?
She had access to a plane.
She could have been there if she wanted to.
She chose not to be there.
I get why as a former campaign manager, I would put my guy or lady on the stage with the president
if they were popular or if they helped me.
And I think she made the same calculation and decided he's underwater.
He's not helping me.
He's probably going to drag me down a few points.
So we'll see more over the next hundred and twelve days.
Biden's going to be here multiple times.
You ought to assume Vice President Harris will be here.
Does Tammy Baldwin show up at any of those?
I'm guessing no.
She doesn't.
She's going to try and stay separate from them so that she can maintain a few of those Trump-Baldwin voters out there.
Right now, the schedule says hubby's outside the primetime slot.
So is this just the hometown guy getting a shot to address the crowd in this inside visor?
I think it's, yes.
I think it is.
But he'll be able to use the video, you know, to raise money, to introduce himself to more voters.
So it's all, if you're on the stage, there are ways to use it.
So one other thing that came out yesterday has to do with Assembly Speaker Robin Voss.
And we've been talking about this earlier with the recall elections against you.
You said there would be an eye-popping number coming up for what he had raised.
And it was $600,000.
$500,000 came from Lizzie line.
Listen, Phil, I don't want to think, I don't want to say that I think of you early in the morning.
But when that came across on my thing with the report about it, I thought of you.
I missed it.
Yeah.
But I called it, right?
You did.
You said if you had an eye-popping number, that is an eye-popping number.
For a legislative candidate, that's off the charts.
So what does he do with that?
Is he just going to run all the Assembly campaigns himself against the Dems?
Yeah.
Well, he changed the laws so that he can do that.
I mean, again, it's one of those things, again, the Republicans changed the finance, they changed the campaign finance laws
and they changed the coordination laws in 2015 after Scott Walker, Robin Voss, and Fitzgerald were all under investigation
for potential violations of collusion.
Which Ben Wickler and Democrats have benefited from.
Yes.
Or Mar, far more than Republicans have.
Yeah, absolutely.
So again, they changed that.
And you know, the other thing that Voss changes, the change that you could coordinate with so-called independent groups
as long as you're not doing, you know, as long as you're not doing express advocacy.
That's huge.
I'm trying to put my hat on my old world of express advocacy, which is direct advocacy.
His wife happens to run, you know, be the bag person for one of those, the one that supports Assembly Republicans.
But what does he do with the money?
Where do you see that?
Does he get a strategically pick?
At least we know that he picks who he wants to run in a lot of these seats.
If you don't run the race that you need to run, you're not going to get the committee you want.
I mean, he runs the Assembly.
Yeah.
So how does he use that money to continue that story?
He can use it to support candidates.
So Democrats should pick up seats in the Assembly.
I think based on the new maps, there's no way they don't pick up seats, frankly.
They're going to pick up some automatically.
But as the polling changes, if Trump really is up six points in Wisconsin, and that's the best we've seen so far.
Others have it at three or four.
That potentially puts more legislative seats down ballot in play for Robin Voss.
And it probably protects a couple for Devin Lemihu in the state Senate majority leader that he didn't think he could get.
Green Bay and La Crosse being the two.
I'm going to agree with Bill.
If Biden's poll numbers dip in Wisconsin, turn out, I think that at most, I don't think it affects the Senate race, but I do think it affects state legislative races.
And I'll just ask, speculate, maybe Robin Voss will do a lobbying campaign to have the Supreme Court library, you know, since we had the dust up about that.
He can have it renamed after Mike Gableman.
I don't think that's going to happen.
David Prosser.
Yes.
All right.
Thank you.
We will leave it there for today.
I wish my father-in-law a happy 99th birthday.
99th.
Okay.
Same birthday.
Bill Kampf.
Brian Schimming had a birthday today, too.
Ah.
Birthday is all about.
World War II vet.
99th.
Happy birthday.
Happy birthday.
All right.
Thank you both gentlemen.
And thank you for watching this special presentation of here in now's 2024 election coverage.
Be sure to come back tomorrow.
You'll find us here each day this week.
And tune into PBS's evening coverage of the convention where here and now we'll have another update on the day's events.
Finally, join us on Friday to wrap up the week with a special one-hour presentation of here and now starting at 7 p.m.
I'm Zach Schultz.
Thanks for joining us.
Have a great day and we will see you here back tomorrow.
We were a little spicy today.