Not A Lot To Be Optimistic About: Sarah Westwood Talks to A&G

how everybody is treating the economic news. It's just come out because obviously economic news becomes political news very quickly. But CNN has been a neutral to positive on it. The Wall Street Journal was pretty positive. The New York Times I just read from, was very grim on the very same numbers that don't get excited. This still means a recession is coming. Was the New York Times version of it, which I thought was kind of interesting. But I suppose Biden will be talking to about it at

some point today. You have any thoughts on the economic news, Yeah, I think that there's not a lot of reason for optimism. I mean, whatever boost that the bind administration would potentially be able to get out of this politically, um, I think is mitigated by people's big exerience. You know, they can't they can't afford uh, you know, the same things

that they could two years ago. They're real income is therefore dropping, and the bind administration with when they have played up good economic news and when they have focused on their economic agenda, it's actually turned people off because they want to hear Democrats and Republicans, but they want to hear the president speaking to the problems that they're feeling and taking it seriously. And when he cherry picks good numbers that suggestings are better than they are, I

think that that can backfire. Do know it does on me if I if I get gas and go to the grocery store, any rosie talk about the economy doesn't make me happy anyway. UM, I just brought that up because it was kind of breaking news. You called Fetterman. We played a bunch of clips, just like everybody did, of the Democratic candidate there for the Senate in Pennsylvania who had the stroke. You called Fetterman's performance a disaster. That's a strong word. I think it's inappropriate word for

we saw on Tuesday. I mean, it was at times, you know, quite frankly painful to watch. John Cutterman struggled to keep up with the pace of the debate, to understand the questions, to remember his own policy positions, at least two of which he bungled. I think, you know, obviously there was a strategy behind waiting this long to have the debate with your the Sederman campaign, right, they wanted to sort of bank as many early votes as

they possibly could before they had it. More than half a million Pennsylvanians have voted already, in the vast majority of those are Democrats, so you know, potentially the damage from the debate could be somewhat limited. But yeah, I mean, to the extent that there were questions about his health before the debate, I think they were answered in a

way that's really unflattering for the Sederman campaign. Much how much do you think it would how much do you think it would affect his ability to be a U S Senator? Um, I don't want more brain addled people in the Senate. But is he worse off than Diane finds Stein or Jesse helms Back was back in the

day people like that? I mean, the problem is that part of being an effective senator is being able to, you know, speak on the Senate floor, to negotiate with your colleagues, to advocate for your state, uh in the media, and those are all things that he can't really do capable. I mean, it is fair for voters to wonder if he would be uh an effective advocate for Pennsylvania, if he would struggle so much on all of the you know,

the public facing parts of the job. And you know this this attempts by the media to shield him from criticism because he's had a health problem. Obviously, everyone who watched him felt sympathy for him and had you know, empathy and could relate to their own relatives having health challenges. But elections are about determining fitness for office, and so it's a completely fair question to ask whether he's physically

capable of doing the job. Yeah, that that NBC re order that said he struggled to make small talk before the interview, and you know, she got beat up for that pretty bad by the left leaning media for saying something so awful about him. But from watching c Span over the years, it looks like there's a lot of

quick little conversations that happen among senators. They're like when they're voting and all that sort of stuff, and he wouldn't be able to do that, right, I mean, that's that's an important part of doing the job, beyond just the facts that you have to represent the state to the public and sort of forums that he struggled with. But but yeah, deliberating with your colleagues, being able to strike deals, being able to participate in committee hearings, uh,

closed door and public. You know, those are all things that are required of a senator. That would be very difficult given his recovery. That's not to say that he could never do the job years in the future, but he's going to be expected to do it come January.

And you know, again, voters who may not have been tuned into the race, but who are seeing clips of the debate and watching coverage of it, maybe cluing in on it, just how bad is health problems are for the first time they have Obviously many Pennsylvania voters not been following the whole able ism debate and the naval gazing media story about the NBC reporter who made that quick about but they're certainly tuned into his health problems now.

So you have your ear to the ground there. Um. I've heard a couple of national reporters say pretty much two days after the election, So we'll have the election, will have the results the next day. Um, some of them, a lot of them, and uh, but then we're on to quickly and the conversations are going to be start to leak out about Joe Biden's ability to finish out his term, whether or not Kamala Harris should be the candidate, blah blah blah. Do you think that's the case that

that we're going to go? Presidential politics are really quick? I do. That's typically how it happens, right, and if, as expected, Republican take one or both chambers of Congress, then Joe Biden has sort of the ability to announce and open up the Democratic primary field that he's not going to run because it won't matter if he gives up some of his political capital by becoming a lame duck president Republicans control Congress and he can't get anything done.

I do think you'll you'll see that announcement sooner rather than later, because Democrats don't have a natural next successor and they really need that time to one out. We wait a second, here, sir, you seem to be you seem to be implying that in your mind or in your world of people you talk to, that's a done deal. He's going to do that, you think. I think there's an expectation that really, okay, more likely than not. Yeah, wow, and and and so the next step would be he

opens up the field. So when he makes some sort of speech races, I just think it would be good for the country to have a good, you know, vigorous debate about who should be the next president, kind of overlooking hiss president. You know, it's sort of a something that hasn't happened in a long time. So it's really hard to see exactly what would be the most politically

strategic way to do that. If I was the Democratic advisor, I would say, I think that the for the good of the party and for someone who is in his twilight years in it would announced that he's not running. As the other Republican candidates start to launch their campaigns, which you'll start to see next summer, right summer three fall, you'll see these candidates who have been sort of preparing start to to formally jump into the race. That would be a time for Joe Biden to sort of step

aside and let Democrats do the same thing. If he knows he's not going to run and and continues to maintain the pretense that he is, he sort of freezes the field and he lets Republicans be out there getting all the oxygen pushing their message and not allowing Democrats to do the same thing. That's really setting up a smooth trend into another Democratic president. The most bipartisan consensus we've had on anything in so many years is the

war in Ukraine. Is it starting to fractory? You had thirty progressive Democrats this week send a letter to Joe Biden saying, hey, let's tap the brakes on this whole Ukraine thing. You had Kevin McCarthy last week saying no blank check. Now the Democrat progressives pulled their letter. McCarthy, according to CNN yesterday, is behind the scenes trying to reassure people that no, no, No, will continue to fund re Ukraine. How how bipartisan is the support still for

Ukraine at this point? I think in the mainstream it's still relatively bipartisan, But there is, and there has been, of course, of Conservative House members who think that sending so much aid to Ukraine and seemed so little return is not worth it. And in a Republican Congress, you know, a group like the House Freedom Caucus, for example, of a voting block of conservative member would wield a lot

of influence on that issue. They could put pressure on a on a then speaker, Kevin McCarthy not to continue the funding. Um, it's it's certainly a populist position right to say that that funding should be directed within the United States when people are struggling, instead of being sent to Ukraine. So I do think in a Republican House you would see pressure on a speaker not to proceed

with more aid. How certain is it? Everybody, including me, talks about Kevin McCarthy being the speakers If it's a done deal? Is it pretty much a done deal? We actually have known Kevin McCarthy since he was an assemblyman from the Baker's Field area when we were all much much younger. He'll be the most powerful person I've ever actually known if he become a speaker. But is he a pretty much a done deal? You know? It seems

that way there's no natural challenger. The Freedom Cocus would be you know, has historically been the only real threat to the ascendant speaker, you know, Majority Leader and um and they have not threatened to withhold support. They threw vaguely said if some of their demands about process and committee assignments aren't met, they would consider it. But then who would they back. Right, There's no one right now in the conference who has as broad of an appeal

as Kevin McCarthy. So yeah, I think it's it's pretty much a lock, but anything can happen, right. Sarah Westwood is the investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner Era reporter, Do you make predictions or is that something uncool for for reporters? You know, I've been horrifically burned by making I said, and what do you know what year I said that about eating my truck, Michael, It was a long long time ago. I think it was like two

thousand twelve. Yeah, I think so. For some reason, But so Mitt Romney went to Trump Tower to basically get Donald Trump's approval to, you know, be the nominee or something like that, and I just I thought it was ridiculous. Why why do people care what Donald Trump thinks? Donald Trump is never going to be anything in the Republican Party. Blah blah blah blah. I said, I'll eat my truck

if he's ever the nominee of the Republican Party. And I don't know if you follow the newspapers, but how that turned out anyway, So yeah, that's a pretty bad burning people regularly, almost every day somebody says, hey, to eat your truck yet, you know, like in the grocery store, parking lot or something. So yeah, I understand making predictions like act burn. But it's Trump again. Trump gonna announce he's running or not. Do you think that is the

hardest question to answer. I think most Republicans, pretty much all of them in Washington are really hoping he does not. I think his base is so eroded by the way he's behaved since that, you know, I I don't know if that path to the nomination would still be there, especially when there's some really exciting populist alternatives for conservatives like um A, Rhonda Santists. And keep in mind, we're going to have another crop of Republican stars come out

of this election. I mean, Obama ran for president successfully, her winning, and you know, the mid terms right before, so you're gonna have a good point all over the country. Who could who could emerge. I'm amazed that that that that Trump won't pivot away from the election being stolen. Carry Lake, who was seen as a Trump protegee, she's she gets asked that on a debate stage, she immediately pivots the economy or CRT in schools. If Trump did

the same thing, I think he'd get elected president. But he wants to stay with the election. That's right, And I think that's frustrating for a lot of Republicans. And you've seen that there's a path forward, uh, for for people who sort of distanced themselves from Trump and rejects the election language, like Brian Kemp in Georgia for example, And so you know, I don't know that that is

the future of the party anymore. UM like talking to you about politics, Sarah Westwood, thanks for coming on, appreciate it. Thanks for having me