Bill Cunningham, the great American. Of course. Leland Bitterer frequent guests of the Bill Cunningham Shows, one of the main anchors, commentators, etc. Of News Nation Monday through Friday. They've talked for politics and so many other issues. And Leland Bidder, welcome again to The Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all, are you somewhat amazed over the past ten days to two weeks the rise of Kamala Harris. In fact, she's given no news conferences. I'm not sure she could defend her
liberal record to a Midwestern audience. But if somebody had told you two weeks ago that the Democratic nominee is going to be at or past Donald Trump, would you have believed that what's.
Happened, Well, don't want to say we predicted it, but the meteor rise is because of the turning into the first living saint in here, right. So there has been a coronation. There was a coronation of her as the nominee, and then there was quickly identification of her as the savior politician. And you rightly point out she has given no news conferences. She is becoming effectively if you listen to her stump speeches. She's tried to walk back a lot of her positions, whether it be on healthcare or
the border, or crime or whatever it is. She's becoming an empty vessel in the same way that Joe Biden was in twenty twenty. It's a it's a non COVID version of the basement strategy, which is to allow people to grasph on to her whatever feelings they have that are anything but Donald Trump. And to be fair, we said for a long time leading up to this that whichever party replaced the unpopular I met, unfavorability candidate that was at the top of their ticket, that'd be neither
Biden or Trump. Whichever party did that was going to get.
A huge And in Kamala Harris's case, I've heard some of the commentators on News Nation and elsewhere and elsewhere said, well, this is a honeymoon phase, and this is a sugar high, and what's going to happen come end of October, first week in November. It's going to be different. And I see o contreer Mone Freyer, which is an Olympic reference.
I would say, not necessarily because I watched Joe Biden for a long time hide out in his basement, not conduct interviews, not campaign at all, Ridolf a few teleprompters. He got eighty one million votes and Trumpster got seventy four million, and it's about seventy thousand votes was the
real difference in the five or six states and he won. So, Kamala Harris will not be required by the so called mainstream me to sit down for an interview with you or any of the other cable news giants, because it's not in her injuries to do so. And if Trump or someone like that had not given any interviews for like fourteen days, by the time at the end the convention rolls around, is going to be almost thirty days, there'd be a countdown clock. CNN, MSNBC, maybe News Nation,
Fox would have a countdown clock. This is how long the Republican has not sat down for a broadcast interview.
But in her case, well, to be fair, we've talked about it on the show almost every night. What day it is that she has not given an interview or have or forget an interview, had a meaningful interaction with the press. And when you talk to her supporters they give you varying answers for that none of them answered the key question, which is what is she afraid of?
We saw and I don't know if you've played this clip for your listeners yet, but last night when she was on the tarmac and Andrews, she had to give unscripted remarks. And when the hostages came home and all of a sudden, the woman, who I think any fair arbiter of political skill would have to say a political acumen has gotten a lot better on the teleprompter, which she has, was right back to the circular word salads of Kamala Harris's past. That was last That was on
what would be Thursday night into Friday morning. So I think you hit the nail on the head, which is once she has been deified, then she becomes untouchable.
And at this point she is and I can't conceive. I look for the next week, getting ready in the next few days we're going to have the the and I want to talk with you about this. The Democratic VP nominee on paper, I said, it's going to be Mark Kelly, Senator Arizona or Josh Shapiro. Those are the two. And I'm watching on many cable channels how the radical left does not want Josh Shapiro because he's a Jew.
And I'm watching these emails and these texts and these TikTok videos about he's a Jew, support of Israel, and to me, being a Jew is a positive thing. I practiced law in a Jewey's law firm for twenty years, currently broaden my experiences. I went to Israel, as you know last year. I love going there. I have great respect for the Jewish people. My boss is a Jewish
carpenter and I have great respect. But there's an element, Maybe it's the AOC element, Maybe it's the extreme element of the Democrat party that want to hold his faith against him because he's going to hurt him in Michigan. Are you offended by the fact that we have a religious test by Democrat leftists They don't want Shapiro because he's a Jew.
Well, I live in washing DC. It takes an awful lot to get me offended. What I will say is I think it is quite interesting and to be I think sayer and give credit where credit is due. Adam Schiff and Moskowitz, the congressman I believe Florida, called out their own party on this, and they said the progressive say they don't want a Jew, say it out loud. Number one and number two to your point, can you imagine if this was a different minority that the Democrats
were discriminated against. Somehow, discriminating against Jews is the only one that is okay. I think this will tell us a lot about where Kamala Harris's head is. Kamala Harris is a political operator. We know that it does not appear as though she has any true norse. She seems to have some deeply progressive personal views, but appears willing to vacillate on the issues as she sees it and sees an opportunity. Why she ran to the left in
twenty twenty, which she had her own presidential campaign. Now she's trying to run to the center in a general election campaign. I think if she kicks Josh Shapiro will tell us an off a lot, and if she doesn't pick Josh Shapiro, it will tell us an awful lot both ways. So in a way, being president about leadership, this we will get a real sense of her leadership.
She has props with the radical left in her party. She came out of San Francisco. You know, on paper, if somebody would say to Leyland Vetter, we have, without a name or a gena, we have a candidate who's been a city prosecutor, who's been a county prosecutor, who's spent an attorney general, who's been a United States Senator, and who's been a Vice president. You would say, without reference to party, gender, or race, that's a qualified person.
So that's true. On the other hand, if I would say to Leland Vinter, there's a candidate without reference to gender or race, who most of her life opposed fracking, supported the Green New Deal, defunded the police, in private health insurance, transgenders in locker rooms in high school, having the government pay for gender reassignment surgery in California state prisons, to calls for an eighty percent tax rate, wants to eliminate automobiles that are not evs. Wants an open Southern border.
She wants illegals voting, she wants criminals to vote from prisons. You would say, basically, that person is unelectable. So on one hand, you have the Democrats see this extremely on paper qualified candidate. But on the other side, her policies over the last really thirty years of her life have
been on the far left joining the Democratic Party. So our average voter is going to focus on all these qualifications job wise or are they going to focus on her policies, which is to the left of Bernie Sanders. And I've said Leland Villart, she's like Bernie Sanders with lipstick and high heels. And the American people would say, we don't want that, and so is it which is it?
Well, Sarah Palin got an awful lot of lass with the line just like that in two thousand and eight, Yes, and it did not work out so well for her or Republicans. And I would warn Republicans that they have a candidate who is now historically unpopular. It was that Joe Biden was historically unpopular. Now they have the historically unpopular and older candidate who is prone to say things, uh that, shall we say, get coverage for for the wrong reasons or no, or get or get a lot
of coverage that is all negative. Joe Biden and you know, in the past couple of months said a lot of things. They got him a lot of negative coverage, and Donald Trump is now saying things they get him a lot of negative coverage. The American people are looky, you know, and told us over and over again, are looking for something different. And what Kamala Harris is providing with the help of the media, no question about it, is something different. And there's a lot of people who are quite excited
about that. And I think any fair look at this has to include that did Republicans picked Donald Trump knowing that he was historically unpopular with with moderates and independence and then Donald Trump two weeks ago? I don't think
we talked when I was at the conventions. Pick jd Vance could have could have pick Nicki Haley, could have picked Marco Rubio, could have picked Doug Bergham, and didn't tick jd Vance doubled down, and there was an awful lot of people at the conventions scratching their heads, going, what in the world does he add? And now there's an awful lot of people scratching their heads going, oh, what in the world did he do? And these are Republicans that I'm talking.
To Leland Venter and I for disclosure, I've been friends with jd Vance for a long time, have dinner with him, met him eight years ago. A little bit of the story in Butler County Ohio, which is the county directly north of Hamilton County and the Butler County. GOP wanted to have him to be their Lincoln Day Reagan Day speaker about eight years ago. It was twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, and he said to the organizers of that, can you get Cunningham to come? He and I can bat around
my book. He'll billy allergy. I said, I'm not good at public speaking, and I don't want to like speak, I said, And I thought, I said, okay, I don't know the guy. I said, I I'll go meet with him. And we sat up there with one of three hundred people. I had the book. I read it one over a chapter and it was a good presentation, and he thanked me. And since then we struck up a friendship and I liked the guy a lot. He was largely unknown on
the national scene. Believe it or not. Kamala Harris was also, until the last two weeks unknown on the national scene. News nations sent out reporters to people to say, hey, Kamala Harris, what has she done right? Give me one thing? In the end, it's a blank stare. So when JD was announced, they sent planeloads and bus loads of reporters all over parts of his life to find a text made or and email he had with somebody when they were at Yale Law School twenty years ago that is negative,
and they reported the negative stuff. The life story of JD. Vance is the American dream, the American success story. Kamala Harris, on the other hand, led to a middle class lifestyle. She at one point claimed to be an Indian American and then of course Caribbean American.
Still you seem to be under the mistaken impression that facts.
Matter, Well, well they should. I want each candidate to be scrutinized by the media by the standards of Sarah Palin and JD. Vance. But that doesn't happen.
What can can you just can you just imagine well, look all we didn't get to the National Association of Black Journalists, but can you just imagine for a second, Okay, if a white journalist had gone after and frankly, I thought it was it was rude, and I thought it was inappropriate the way the reporter Rachel Scott ABC, Rachel Scott went after went after Donald Trump, just just in terms of decorum, because the presidential nominee. This is a
former president. There's you can ask tough questions, but you can do so respectfully. You can follow up, you can do so respectfully. You know she was. She was there to make a point. You and I both done interviews to make points. We know what it's like. So that's what was happening. Can you imagine if a white reporter, a white male reporter, did that.
Tamala Harris, well, the section, the gender the reporter would be the main story, not the question. The question was asking such a way that couldn't be answered. And if and if he was, said, Rachel, I'll tell you what. I'm here to talk about the policies I've had that positive impact the black community when I was in office, talk about HBCUs, talk about enterprise zones, talk about appointments. He didn't do that. They set out the bait and he lashed onto it like a tuna and ran with it.
And I could not conceive of Kamala Harris ever going to an NRA meeting or Right to Life society and sitting there. She wouldn't put herself there because maybe she's better politically, but that Donald likes going into nasty environments. And interchanging in fisticuffs, which results in the occasional low information voter to think about feelings more than facts. So when you say to me, well, Billy, you're constrained by
the facts, yes, and the feelings about this. Many women especially, you know, most women are like some men, who care about the feelings and the presentation and the gender and the race, not the facts. If I line up the facts of what she said in the past, she's unelectable. But we're not going to get to the facts because because Donald Trump went to the napj and that reaction is all that matters, not facts. Care about facts. I
think you care about facts. Many care about feelings. And that's why Donald Trump might lose, is that he doesn't play to the crowd that demands a little bit of feelings and touch and feel and respect. Remember Bill Clinton could feel your pain. He understood you completely. You'll never get that from Donald Trump.
Well, look, Donald Trump sells himself as the master of the art of the deal and the master and the understanding of the media. And we'll see. You know, I'm old enough to remember twenty sixteen when there was a moment after the access Hollywood take the grabber by the fee take and guess what everybody said, Oh, this is it can't recover, and on and on, and he did and he won. So we've got a long time between now and November. Things change, Okay, I would return. I
make no casinist versions on JD. Vans As as a person, and you said he's the epitomed the American dreams. Great, Okay, Now, whether that makes you qualified to be president of the United States? Okay? Which is the job of vice presidents to be ready to be president? And whether he could connect with American people and convince them of that, And whether he, as a both in terms of policy and in terms of that ability, is able to connect with the people that Donald Trump can't to win two hundred
and seventy electoral votes. Those are two very different conversations.
And the other issue is I look at nineteen eighty eight when Bush forty one picked a person, Dan Quail of Indiana, that the media pummeled, and Bush forty one still won easily over Michael Dukakis, who who was behind fifteen points in the polls, came back and beat him. VP's honestly don't matter. The only time it might have mattered. Was nineteen sixty when LBJ brought Texas to Kennedy that might have mattered. But other than that, but Jdi Vance is the real deal.
Go ahead, I'm going to disagree with it. I'm going to disagree with you on when whether VP matters. I'll give you two other points that it matters. One it mattered in two thousand and eight, there were a lot of people who were uncomfortable with the idea of Sarah
Palin being one heart beat away from the presidency. What it was very old heart in John McCain and I would argue that now, especially given Trump stage, Biden dropping out, and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the public's focus on the concept of the VP. Am I comfortable with this person? It has changed. And look, you know, we can talk about how many you know, millions of votes, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of votes will be cast.
That's all true. As you pointed out, we're talking about one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand votes that's going to decide this, right right, Okay, So what you really have to think about, what are you going to make those people on the margins, those hundred thousand people who are truly on the margins make their decisions, and I think it is it's it's perfectly acceptable, but it is somewhat naive to assume that they make the decisions, their
decisions on the same point and give the same weight to things that people who are diehard supporters of either candidate do.
Anything could affect it, and maybe the event to determine this election has not happened yet, something could happen the rest of this month or September October that everything we talked about means nothing, and something's going to occur of such a quality, whether it's a terroristy doctor God forbids, some other nasty bomb goes off somewhere and all of a sudden, everything we've discussed means nothing. In America may want a tough guy instead of Kamala Harris. On the other hand, we don't know.
What about a couple what about another couple of nasty jobs reports?
That's the markets then meltdown. That's a bad thing too. That's not And Kamala Harris owns everything in the Bide administration, plus her her background, her policy backgrounds is far left wing, and maybe that's another issue. So all right, Leland, we got to run.
I'm gonna give you one more thing. I'm going to give you one more thing for your listeners to listen to. Listen to Kamala Harris's stump spyed, listen to the whole thing. We're fair our news nation. We broadcast rallies from both sides. Notice the one thing she doesn't say in her stump speech. You know what that is?
Immigration Joe Biden. Yeah, she's separating, not last night, but she's separating from Joe Biden because he's so unpopular. And last night was that was bad. I mean to look at Joe Biden like eleven thirty or midnight, that's bad. And she that's a pre phone calls, that was And if he steps down, she becomes the president acting president. Now we've got a whole new set of things and we'll see what well. Leland Vender, thanks for keeping the lines of communication open. Good luck to you, and have
a great weekend. Thank you, Thank you, my friend, God bless you. Let's continue with more your reaction five one, three, seven, four, nine, seven thousand. Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred WLW