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