Bill cunning in the Great America. Welcome this glorious Friday afternoon in the tri States. Bengals Bengals kick it off plus Sunday key game. Of course, they are here to be a little bit more healthy, except for t Higgins and the Raiders are in town. They beat the Raiders, beat the Ravens. On Thursday night of next week. They go to the break. They're in good shape, and they come back and maybe, according to Joe Burrow, wins seven
of the next nine games. That means they win those two and they only have to win five of the next seven. They're in hog Heaven and away we go. But until then you may not know. The election al is hot and heavy. Every phrase, every apostrophe is being dissected by the mainstream media. But one person on the ground, like Willie Nelson on the road again is Brian Nton of News Nations starting in New Jersey, ending in California, and Brian Nton, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show.
And Brian, at this point, can you tell the American people about a week before you began your journey, what did you pitch to Sean Compton and other What was your mission when you started this a few weeks back.
My mission was to avoid going to the same political rallies on both sides over and over again, hearing the same speeches and talking to the same people. I just wanted to talk to everyday Americans and get a pulse of what was really going on in the country. And luckily they let me do it. And you said, we started in New Jersey and we drove all the way across the country. It took us about ten days, and we shot stories all along the way. We've got a big special it's gonna era Monday night on the CW
and it's awesome. I mean it just it was awesome. I had never done the cross country trip. I mean it was beautiful to see all the different parts of America and talk to people.
Did you spend time in Pennsylvania, which I g guess now is the state of interest And there's a poll out this morning the head the Trumps drew up about three points, which I don't believe. I think it's going to be one or two points. But when you got to Pennsylvania or so, what did you find, if anything?
Yeah, in Pennsylvania, we focused on black men just because there're been some issues with the with the polling for Harris and that department some surprises there. We went to a couple of black barber shops and sound and there was more Trump support than I expected in those areas. You know, there's been a lot of crime in those neighborhoods and small businesses that had been broken into and people are concerned about that, and we found a lot
of Trump support. So the poll you're talking about doesn't really surprise me. I think it's going to be close. I mean, after going through all the states, you know, that's that's I mean, it's no surprise there. But that's really that's really the feeling that I get.
And most of the polling in the past have had the black vote for Democrats above ninety percent. I think that the high mark was Obama in twenty oh eight. I think you had ninety three percent of the black vote, and it was like almost tribalism that if you're black, you've got to vote for the first black president, and therefore they did. Why doesn't the same principle apply because
Kamala Harris identifies either as African American or Indian. But was there a sense that's just like Charlemagne that God once was told to by Joe Biden, if you don't vote for me, you ain't black man. Was there a sense that they're a little bit of a rebellion against that, against the idea that because I'm a black mail, I'm going to vote for Kamala Harris Or was it gender based, race based, or policy based.
I think there was a sense that the black community in some ways feels like they've been taking advantage of by the Democratic Party, like they're automatically going to get their vote. And in Philly there were a lot of people who felt like, you know, the Democrats haven't really paid attention to their communities, haven't invested in their communities. Again, crime was a big issue, the same thing with Latito's.
I went through Nevada. We did a whole big series of stories in Nevada, and you know, they've traditionally voted Democrat over the years, and there's a lot of changes there. I mean a lot more. We went back dug to the voter registration numbers, a lot more switching over to the Republican Party, saying that you know, the family values they feel more in line with. And then you've got people though it was so interesting. I mean, you've got people who came to the country legally, you know, or
their parents did, and they're really the Latitas. A lot of them are really mad about what they see at the border, Like they don't like seeing people cross what they call the wrong way.
Going back to the black barbershop where the Trumpster was there, I think in the Bronx they went to a black barbershop and then Kamala Harris followed it up with a trip to another black barbershop. That's kind of the touchtone of the culture and urban communities, the black male barbershop where men get together, talk like men, act like men, hair as men, where men and the women go to
the beauty salon, which is different. But nonetheless, was there a sense in the black barbershop community that the Trumpster is more like them than Kamala Harris because he's a male, or because the policies, or and I think there's a sense that women feel the direct opposite. If you would have gone into a beauty salon well a whole bunch of women, I would think it'd be completely the opposite direction. And nonetheless, the experts, you don't watch all the cable
news shows as I do. I watch News Nation, I watch MSNBC, I watch Fox, I often record CNN, And all the so called pundits are saying, this is a head fake. It's not gonna happen when push comes to shove, and that's the election, about half the there's going to be seventy five or eighty million early votes, which is going to be half the total it's going to be done. That's a head fake, and that they really don't mean it,
They really don't mean that. I'm fifteen percent, eighteen percent of black males are going to vote for Donald Trump. Did your findings refute that notion?
I think so. I mean listening, we went to a couple of barbershops and I would say it was about fifty fifty in terms of who people were supporting, and and even some of the folks who didn't necessarily like Trump were still leaning towards voting form again just based on some of the policies. It was interesting. I hadn't gone back and dug into it, but people have. I mean, they don't feel like Kamala Harris treated black men fairly when she was the DA when you know, when she
was a prosecutor in California. I mean people feel that way, which I thought was interesting that came up. And you know, Trump was big on, you know, criminal justice reform and prison reform, which has reverberated through the black community, so I was surprised that some folks had even dug into that.
And in fact, she locked up a whole bunch of black men who were smoking pot for reasons unclear, because when she was the DA some twenty twenty three years ago in San Francisco, there was a sense that marijuana is a permissible drug. But according to the records, she went out of her way to cite and lock up if required, black males who maybe in San Francisco disproportionately
use marijuana. And now she pictures herself as somewhat different, and that anger in fact that at one point during the twenty nineteen debates, I recall Tulsey Gabbert, who was a Democrat at the time, taking her to task for locking up over one thousand black men in San Francisco on minor drug charges, which by twenty nineteen was you don't do that in the city of Cincinnati. You can
smoke pot openly in Washington Park, and downtown Cincinnati. It's no big deal, even though you shouldn't do it because the police chief tells the men and women in blue don't give people citations for that. So it appears that she went out of her way in San Francisco to lock up black men for minor use of drug offens.
These aren't the dealers. These are guys walking around. And is that feeling when you presented that questions in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Wyoming, all the way across, was that the same feeling you got that she said one thing and did another.
I think people are having a hard time figuring out exactly who she is. And in Pennsylvania, just back to Pennsylvania. You go to these swing states, Bill, and they're inundated with ads. You don't, I mean, you used to be in a swing statement in Ohio, But you don't realize until you're in the hotel room in Pennsylvania or in North Carolina or Nevada, that you know these the two live there. It's like they're living and breathing this all day.
They turn on the TV, that's all the time. The text message is non stop, the phone calls, the signs are everywhere, the billboards are everywhere, Like unless you're there, you don't feel that. And there were a lot of ads in Pennsylvania about her record in California when it came to some of the things you were talking about and the prosecution, So yeah, it was it was, it came up. I didn't hear it as much in other states.
There were some other issues that, you know, you went out to Michigan, it was kind of more about the economy there. I talked to a lot of African Americas there that worked at the car manufacturing plants who were excited by the idea of the first black female president. But again went, well, my paycheck was bigger under Trump, and you know, I need the money right now, can't afford the groceries. So that that was interesting, And yeah, we just kind of worked our way across it, and
we did we did latinos in Nevada. What struck me the most, kind of focusing, like thinking about now that it's over, is like you mentioned, you watch a lot of cable news, You watch THEMSNBC, you watch Fox. They make you think that everybody hates each other like that. It's just that nobody gets along nobody, and that's really not the truth. I mean, like when we're in the barbershops, half the people are Republican, half are Democrat, and they all like laugh with each other. And it was the
same for the most part everywhere we went. Uh So, I think, in like real American towns and cities, like, it's not as divisive as they make it out to be.
I don't think absolutely, I have believe it or not. I have friends that are liberals. I have friends who think abortion is a sacrament. I have friends who think it's the killing of unborn, healthy babies. And we get along fine, except I know how they're going to vote, and I try to persuade them a little bit, but at some point it's like, forget about it. I'm still friends with Democrats. I like Democrats. They're people too. I mean, Tony Bender is the kind of guy. He's a liberal
Democrat from Boone County. He believes in the agenda of liberalism. But he's still my friend. I still like him. But if you watch MSNBC, then watch Breitbart or Fox News, my god, you would think we're at each other's throats. This is the most supportant election in American history. We either become fascist or become a nation of he, she, and seventy four different pronouns. You have to go one
way or not. In reality, you can walk into a black barbershop and I'd say, Brian Innton, maybe you weren't around as a reporter in the eight when Obama ran, but that same barbershop and eight would have been for Barack Husain Obama and right now that's not the case. Is that fair to say?
That's totally fair to say, one hundred percent. And I think that's another way that people get tricked a little is they don't always portray that on the news. They that these minorities that there's a lot of them who support Trump or who are thinking about it, or who don't really believe that he's the bad guy that they try to make him out to be. That's the sense
that I got all across the country. Great, where there people who really don't like him, Yes, but there were a lot more people in the middle that weren't buying into you know, like for example, we were on the road, you know, when all this stuff came down about the Hitler remarks and the comment about oh, I can't remember exactly what was said, but oh, he wants generals like Hitler and so Leland, you know. On News Nation, one of the anglers said, hey, Brian, like, why don't you
start asking people about this. I'm curious what they think. And most people just were kind of like, well, did he really say it that way? I don't know that I really believe the context. I don't think you really mentioned that way. But if you turn on the news there, like everybody thinks he's Hitler, you know, right.
In Michigan. Michigan's another key state on the economy. The head of the OAW is a left right I think his name is Fane or something like that, endorsing completely Kamala Harris. On the other hand, the rank and file feel differently because they understand that the government mandates with EVS means EV's going to be going to be put together in Mexico. They're not going to be put together in Michigan, and so the rank and file feel differently
than the leadership with the team shirts, et cetera. Did the placement of the so called paroles from Cuba and from Haiti and from Venezuela, did they anyone bring up on the road again, about the the serious influx of so called paroles in a small town America was out of factor.
That was a factor. The border came up again and again and again. It was interesting that it is with Latinos a lot who are mad to see it happening, where I think some people think they be the ones like, oh yeah, I and granted we did here. We don't like the rhetoric that they're all criminals and that makes them feel bad, but they also don't think that people should just be able to walk in. But it's interesting
you talk about the auto workers and the unions. A lot of the auto workers were mad, Like you watch the news and you think that all the auto walk workers are Democrats. They don't like take a vote when they decide to endorse Harris, like there was like a voter or anything like that, which I just assumed like they must have done some kind of poll or something and that's how they decide who the endorsements going to go. Do that doesn't happen, So a lot of the workers
feel like underrepresented that. But then you know, on the other side, so we talked to a lot of Trump supporter auto workers, but there were some that said, look, if it wasn't for the bailouts, and we heard this a lot, if it wasn't for the bailouts after the you know, the recession in two thousand and eight, where you know where they saved all these auto companies Obama, a lot of these people felt like they wouldn't have jobs.
So they almost feel like they have to vote Democrat now, like they have this sort of allegiance to the party, which was interesting.
And lastly, the teamsters, they had to vote of the rank and file, it was like sixty percent teamsters for Trump, but the leadership said, wow, that's not enough. Wow, after all, we have a division here. We're not going to endorse Trump, but the truckers do. I thought sixty percent was a low number. Lastly, in Nevada, which is a key state. Most of the polling now has the trump Ster up in Arizona by a little bit more than Nevada, just badly. And I would have thought in the culinary unions, which
has thousands of members, they vote in lockstep. Did you have a sense this time they're not going to vote in lockstep for the Democrat.
Yeah. Again, I think it goes back to similar with the with the black vote. I think they feel like they try to put them all into one box and that they you know, I think people are over that. I think that they it's it's not I think they're offended by it. You know, they get offended that everybody
thinks that they're one way or the other. And you know, a lot of the Latinos we spoke to like Trump so and also the numbers show that in terms of the voter registrations ahead of the election, there were a lots switching over to the Republican Party. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens in Nevada. We went through Utah, which was beautiful after we uh, after we left Vegas.
Uh.
I don't know if you've been to Zion. That was all I mean, that's that's a red state. But it was just interesting to drive through. And then we ended in California, which everybody thinks California, you know, yeah, it's just a big bluestate wise. It interesting politically, but there were some interesting political storylines there too. Bill. You know, they've they've switched for House seats read since twenty twenty.
They're one of the reasons that that the House is read them in New York and the Asian community there is switching over to the Republican already like crazy, which no one really focuses on. We did a story on that. You know, they're they're transferring over in droves, upset about crime. I mean, we were in San Francisco. It's it's crazy, what's happening there, Bill, in such a beautiful city.
It's it's almost destroyed. In fact, aren't downtown businesses closed? Office buildings are empty. Fishermen's Wharf doesn't exist anymore. There's a hollywooing out of that city. Is that fair to say?
I mean, I will say it kind of reminds you what you always hear about Chicago. You go there and it is still a beautiful city, and I was. I've been there the last couple of days. I think some of it gets a little overhyped. It was Honestly, in some areas it wasn't as bad as I expected. But in other areas, yes, there's an open air drug market.
The weirdest thing. Bill my photographer were crossing the street and we accidentally jay walked, and there was police officers that like kind of got on to us about it, and there was a guy smoking mess right on the corner, and that's okay, you know, but like you get taught. It just it just hit me in that moment, like, wait, we just got a talking to for jay walking and
the guy's smoking mess. And then there was this other thing that kind of hit me, Like there's cars, the cars that are parked on the street, they have little signs in the window that they've printed out on their computer, nothing valuable inside, and they hang the sign on each door on each side of their car because that's what they have to do so that no one breaks in or people will leave their windows open. I just like I couldn't believe that.
Well, it's the way things are. And Cincinnati, we've had so many car break ins. I've seen many signs hung in windows, no valuables, and I tell people, don't lock your doors, leave nothing of value inside. We've had hundreds of break ins of car windows looking for guns and money and whatever. And the best thing to do is do not lock the doors and leave nothing of value in which case that's your best chance of not having a thousand dollars bill for a car window. It's everywhere
in America today. Well, once again Brian, then you've been fabulous.
Thank you. Bill.
Continue with more.
There it is.
Things are better than you think. It's not going to be a civil war. The Earth's not going to quit spinning on his axis. If Kamala Harris's wins, it's just going to be part of the world's going to be disrupted. We're all going to look like San Francisco in the wharf. Let's continue. Bill Cunningham, News Radio seven hundred WLW