¶ Teaching and Voting Update
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right . Well , I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right . There's only an up or down .
This is the no Doubt About it . Podcast .
No doubt about it .
Now your hosts , Christy and Mark Runcany . Wildfire , you can't catch us now , Running , running running dead .
Okay , okay , christy and Mark Runcetti , okay .
Okay , we are shooting kind of late night really , because we're kicking off fall break .
Yes .
Ava's pretty pumped about fall break starting , so we wanted to get this show ready in time for Thursday . Yes , I'm equally as excited about fall break now that I teach a little bit on part-time .
Yeah , I would say a couple things on your teaching career . It's off to a stormy start . We have some complaints from the classroom at what you're doing . We have a student revolt that is falling on your daughter's shoulders because Ella is in one of your classes Because Ella's leading the revolt .
Let's be honest about that . She is , yeah , she's going to lead the revolt .
They're a little upset at your grading style , meaning that she actually drills these kids . And we're talking kids that are getting some grades that are , let's just say , chrissy's like well , so you know , and this is not a math class . So let's just say , chris , he's like well , so you know , and this is not a math class .
So let's just say that it's not so that when you're grading them out of 200 and you're like well , I mean they got 120 out of 200 . I mean I don't understand what the complaints are , for that would be a D minus .
So I said I said you have to earn the grade . I don't think we're doing anybody any favors if we just slide these kids along right .
Social promotion is not on your docket .
As I say to the kids , I am not here to waste your time and you're not here to waste mine , right ? Oh , my goodness , that is well , it's true . Like you , you take this seriously because you're trying to help the kids out so they're ready for college , right ? That's the whole point of it .
You literally have had to get on the phone with some of the your daughter's friends who are in the class as they're melting down , because you're killing them on their grades leading right into fall break .
Okay , listen . So yes , they did have to write an essay and I was not . Some of them were not up to stuff , and but some of them were great and some of them just need to be tweaked . So I just said , hey , listen , I'm giving everybody an opportunity to get full credit and re do a rewrite , and I feel like that's more than fair .
But if I just was like , okay , yeah , this is fine and I just let it pass , that's not doing them any favors .
You're looking for excellence .
Well , I'm looking for them to do their best because that's what they're going to need to get into college . So I just don't think I'm doing them any favors if I'm in there like , ah , it could be better , but I'm going to let this slide . No , no , no .
These kids and most of these kids the reason they do melt down is because they do take their grades so seriously as they should and they try hard , and I have a great rapport with these kids .
So , yes , I just was like everybody calm down , like you're not working over fall break on this , but everybody's going to come back , hopefully , and you'll have a week to turn in a redo , I think that's more than fair . My teachers , I'm sorry . I don't remember a single teacher giving me a redo .
I mean it's like no , no agreed , you got like a .
C on an essay you got a C on the essay .
The part that makes this so delicious is the fact that your own daughter's in the class , your own daughter's in the class . She's getting heat from the other kids . It's coming down on you . All of a sudden you're on the phone talking to friends off a ledge . It's unbelievable , it really is . And to me I'm watching it going .
Yeah , this is what should happen . You should be scared of that grade when it comes out . That's what being a kid is all about . It's about feeling nervous , that pit of your stomach when that grade comes back and you're like , oh man , I got killed on this . And I think it builds character . I'm in . I am in for you doing this .
You would just be like no rewrites kids , it's . You should have done better .
I don't know . We don't know what kind of teacher I'd be , because I'd never take that gig . So I do say that teachers deserve a ton of credit , because a it takes a tremendous amount of time to do , as I'm finding out with you .
And then B , when they do commit to these things , it is . I mean , they live and die with the kids on on these things . So I have a great deal of respect for them . I care a lot about these kids and I just want them to succeed .
And I'm just there to try to help raise them up and do better . Yeah Well , right now you're raising something , but it's the stress level . It isn't raising them up . So we'll see what happens .
I did have a little . You know . Come to Jesus talk today to say hey everybody , hey everybody , it's fall break , take a break . Everybody needs a little bit of a break . We're going to get out of town for a couple of days .
We are .
We're going to go up to Angel Fire .
Yes .
And for a little new project that we are excited to tell you guys about . We can't drop everything out right now , but we're really excited about that .
Yes , we are starting a new project that will be still designing houses . Yes , so it's all happening , so it'll be exciting . We'll have something on that very shortly , but it's . But the process for us starts and the cameras start rolling coming up on Thursday up in the Northern mountains , so we're excited to feature New Mexico too .
So we'll talk about that more shortly , but let's get a couple of emails and this is going to be a shorter show , uh , because , uh , we were sticking this in before we're hitting the road , so okay .
Okay . So we got a few emails . So thanks so much for dropping these in . If you have an email that you want to send our way , it is info at no doubt about it . Podcastcom , and I try to read those , mark , and I try . I won't even give Mark credit . What am I doing ? I read these . Mark doesn't have Mark . Mark doesn't read these .
So just so you guys all know I read them and then I send them to him , just so you do know I make him read them , right ? Is that fair ? It is fair . It's fair . Okay . So this one comes in from Lisa . She said I enjoy listening to your podcast . You bring attention to important issues with a voice of reason Very refreshing .
I will vote for you again if you would consider it . I will definitely consider it , lisa . Thank you so much for writing to me . Just kidding , okay . She said it's so important that every conservative vote be counted . In New Mexico I got a warning to check my voter registration on nmvoteorg .
Nextdoor had several people that stated they were unknowingly not registered when they checked the website . Surprisingly , even after a consistent history of voting in both local and general elections , I am all of a sudden not registered . No changes to address or anything else .
I called the county clerk's office and they confirmed non-active status , couldn't provide a reason , nor did they seem to care . They just advised me to re-register , which I will do . So she's just basically saying hey , can you check into this ? I want to make sure that people are registered . We also agree with that . I went ahead and checked for us .
We are actively registered . But , um , that would be odd if I wasn't . Oh , I just think it would be fantastic . I would have been like , oh , this is go time , everybody . But anyway , uh , go to nmvoteorg . If you have a moment , it's really easy . You can click on that blue box . There's a blue box down in the middle square . There you enter your um .
That's to register , but the other one is to check your registration . Ava , on the far , on the yeah , find my registration .
Find my registration on the right . There you go .
So all you have to do is go on that . If you believe you're registered in the state of New Mexico , you can click on that . You just put your name and address something very easy and it'll check for you if you're active or not . Now just a reminder to everybody that online registration is officially closed .
You can't online register anymore , so your best option at this point is going to be to register on election day at a polling location or at a county clerk's office .
Which is completely legal . So you can , but it is election day . You got to go in on election day , to the best of our knowledge .
Yeah , that's our understanding of it . We've read through the documents . I wish they would make them a little cleaner to understand and a little easier , but from what we've gathered , you do need to go in on those days . You have to bring your ID to register and , I believe , a utility bill or something .
So more information is on nmvoteorg on that if you're looking for that information . Okay , number two this is again to do with online registration . It says online absentee application error .
This is from Laura Shapiro and she said we are experiencing issues where online requests for absentee ballot applications are rejecting out of the system , stating we are not registered . Secretary of State Office said our registration is so old the NMDL won't go through . Clerk's Office said yes , they are having trouble .
Other people are also being rejected out of the system and we looked to Nextdoor poll They've also contacted some various people system and we look to next door um poll they've also contacted some various people . So again there , there are some issues there . It appears we're trying to get your uh , your absentee voting ballot .
Unfortunately , I'm not an expert on that Um , I just know that things do get pretty , um more difficult to get these things the closer we get to elections .
Usually the cutoff dates for these things are 28 days prior to an election , which would have been Tuesday , october 8th , so your best bet at this point is , if you can't get an absentee ballot , is to show up to vote actually on voting day , which is- .
Or early vote , or you can early vote .
Oh yeah , early voting as well , but I don't know if you can register on early voting day .
I don't think you can register . I think you have to register on election day . That's what it said . Again , don't take us as the gospel on that .
Please go to it and vote , I mean that's where we got the information from .
But you know , I again , I think the best thing to do would either be to go vote early , bank your vote early , I think . I mean I gotta say I think waiting till election day this is fine , we always wait till election day , but because we always want to see what we're going to get in the mail , and especially during primary time , it's always fun to watch .
But I do think if you can get early , go vote early and if you find out you're not on the list and they tell you , then you can go on election day and then you can vote . But again , have your voice heard . You know , no matter what , Vitally important .
Okay , so let's dive in , because this has been some interesting it's interesting news .
Yeah , yeah . Yeah , we haven't done a ton of stories today , but but there was a deep dive . I want to start off right off the top with and it's something we learned along the way during races that is most important and that is in politics .
One of the best skills you can have is being able to look around the corner and figure out how is my response to something going to trigger events . Downstream , it's called second and third order thinking right , to be able to think okay , if I do this , then I'm likely to see this and then this .
Okay , it was just one of those things , and it's really helpful if you A are good at it yourself or , b you have people around you that are really smart , and sometimes in politics it's easy to jump out and have an emotional response to something and if you don't think it through , it can end up causing you huge problems .
Or if you do think it through , you can do something where everybody around you can say that's crazy , why did they do that ? And then it looks very , very smart in hindsight because you've thought it through .
¶ Political Strategy in Crisis Communication
Okay , so I want to get to the hurricane issue . It's Kamala Harris reached out to Ron DeSantis and called him about the hurricanes . Now I want to start with Harris's response first .
Okay , so I have to tell you , when I heard that Kamala Harris was upset with Ron DeSantis because he did not return her phone call and I heard she was upset about it it it immediately sparked the old Spidey senses because I was like , wait a minute , why , why is she saying this ?
And it hit like right away , cause I , you kind of jump into candidate mode for a second and go , you should not do that . Right , you should not do that . But we'll explain why she shouldn't do it here in just a second . But let's first get her response . So she allegedly calls desantis , desantis is like offer her to right , she's not the president , right ?
so ? No right , but anyway , let's , let's just well , let's , let's get to her response first and then we'll get to what happened downstream , second and third order , thinking beyond this , but here's the response from Vice President Harris .
You know , moments of crisis , if nothing else , should really be the moment that anyone who calls themselves a leader says they're going to put politics aside and put the people first .
People are in desperate need of support right now , and playing political games with this moment , in these crisis situations these are the height of emergency situations it's just utterly irresponsible and it is selfish , and it is about political gamesmanship , instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do , which is to put the people first okay .
So if you just listen to that , you think , well , is she right ? It kind of doesn't hit right . But you're just like , is she right ? I mean , why wouldn't he call her back ? What's going on here ?
Well , so then you start thinking if you're in the room with Kamala Harris , you start thinking what's he going to say back to us If I'm sitting across the table and Kamala Harris says I'm going to go blast him to the press table and Kamala Harris says I'm going to go blast him to the press .
Watch out .
Right yeah . So the first question I'd ask Kamala Harris is what's Ron DeSantis' response to you going to be ? Oh , what's it going to be ?
Well , you asked me that I'm like he's going to say I'm busy .
Right .
I'm actually really busy right now . In fact , we have a cat .
five devastating hurricane closing in on my state and you're most concerned that I call you back .
That's what you're concerned with . It sounds a little seventh grade .
It's crazy , Right ? So I would . I would not only do that , that to her , but then I would say not only is he going to drill you for that , he is going to minimize your role as well . Because what are you going to offer him ? A pat on the back . So he should call you back to get a pat on the back , while he's actually got real work to do .
Which is not his style .
Right Not going to work . So I will say this Ronnie D never misses on these . Okay , so he goes on Fox news and he responds to Kamala Harris , and he says exactly what I would expect him to say , and even more .
And have to also turn around and prepare for major impacts and maybe even more impacts from hurricane Milton , be able to have rescue personnel ready to help people and then , of course , help with the power restoration all these things to do . So that's been my sole focus . My focus has not been on dealing with Kamala Harris . I saw the news report .
I didn't know . She tried to contact me , but I'd also say it's not about you , kamala . I didn't know she tried to contact me , but I'd also say it's not about you , kamala , it's about the people of Florida . My focus is exactly where it should be and I can tell you this I've worked on these hurricanes under both President Trump and President Biden .
Neither of them ever tried to politicize it . She has never called on any of the storms we've had since she's been vice president until , apparently , now . Why , all of a sudden , is she trying to parachute in and inject herself , when she's never shown any interest in the past ? We know it's because of politics . We know it's because of her campaign .
I have zero time to entertain these political games . We're going to continue to do what we need to do to prepare and respond to what may be one of the most damaging storms in the history of the United States . So she says , focusing on protecting your people is selfish . I think she ought to look in the mirror , hello .
She's going to parachute in , so that is just extremely well done . So two parts of the calculus have to go into this , if you're Harris , which he completely botched right . Number one was what's DeSantis going to say , and number two is looking at the person you're trying to put on blast . Ron DeSantis is great at this stuff .
There are certain things DeSantis struggles with more than others . He's A , a great governor , and then B , he's great at this sort of thing . I mean great . So that's where you just let it go . If he doesn't call you , yeah , just let it go .
If you're asked which , by the way ? Why are they doing these presses ?
They only can get her right in front of the plane , where it's so noisy she can't even hear what she says all the time like that's got to be part of their little plan is like maybe you won't actually hear her answering , so we'll let you her answer a few questions here , but why would she not just rise above and be like I'm sure he's busy ?
We did reach out to him , we want to offer our support or whatever we do .
That's exactly what she should have done .
I mean that doesn't even take like I am not . I mean I am a political strategist . I like to pretend to be anyone on this show , but that's about it right , like nobody's paying me to think like that . That's about it right , like nobody's paying me to think like that . That's just common sense , right ?
Like if you want to be this leader , that you're trying to unify everybody together . You're going to work with everyone . Your first opportunity to talk to a governor who's in a major crisis preparation you blast the guy .
Yeah , it doesn't . It was such a poorly thought out move that I don't know if it was her off the cuff or they thought about it , but it shows a level of immaturity , I think , in her staff .
Her staff should have said to her no , you're not going to do that at all , cause he's actually busy and you're the one who's not busy , it turns out so it turns out .
You know you shouldn't be the focus I mean makes tremendous sense , but just in a campaign , that is one of those things that is irreplaceable and that is the ability to understand what's going to happen next . And then if she had asked the third order question , which is Biden , biden , if she doesn't consider Biden in all of this , she's not thinking it through .
So Biden gets asked hey , what's going on with DeSantis ? Does Biden stand up and go ? I DeSantis , he's blowing it . He's not even returning Kamala's calls . Is he going to say that ? Or is he going to say you know , ronnie D and I are working pretty well together . Let's go ahead and listen to this answer .
The governor of Florida has been cooperative . He said he's gotten all that he needs . I talked to him again yesterday and I said I said no , you're doing a great job , it's all being done well . We thank you for it , and I literally gave my personal phone number to call .
So I don't know , there was a rough start in some places , but every governor every governor from Florida to North Carolina has been fully cooperative and supportive and acknowledge what this team is doing and they're doing an incredible job . We got a lot more to do .
Okay . So , and if you really think about it , Biden has incentive to be like yeah , we're working well together . Because it reflects well on Biden Right ?
Because it turns out , mark , he's still the actual president , correct , correct , Like the fact that you just said oh , kamala's not really thinking of Biden in this situation . She's not thinking of Biden in this situation . She's not thinking of him in this situation because she knows he's not actively involved .
Well , he is not getting this aid there and so you know it would make him look bad if he were to jump in on her side . She had nowhere to go with this . So that's my point In these things and on this deep dive , just be thinking in politics . When you're talking about second and third order , thinking it's really important . What's DeSantis's response ?
How good is DeSantis at putting me on blast ? And what's going to happen with Biden ? Like all of those things have to go into that thought , and if you don't think about it and you just go screaming they're not returning my phone call . It doesn't work , okay , so that's just okay , I just think .
In general , it never works . I don't care if you're in seventh grade or older . True , but there are times this person can return my phone call .
Well , no , but there are times , right , there are times when you do have to call people out for certain things . But this was just a mistake and not thinking things through .
Right , absolutely Plus . You're not in charge , she's not in charge .
Right , no , no , no , there's no doubt . She does have no role there there , and that was another stinger yeah , I mean from desantis stepped in that yeah , yeah , it was tough okay . Uh , polling , uh , you know , look , this thing is coming down to the wire and there's no way to know how it's going to go .
But harry anton from cnn , who does a really good job of kind of breaking down both sides and and what could happen in this race , he starts to break down how close things look and polling error . Right , we talk about polling error where polls , if they're off a couple of points either way isn't going to change things and it will significantly change things .
Take a look at this .
Polls are exactly right . If the polls are exactly right , kamala Harris gets 276 electoral votes to Donald Trump's 262 because she carries those Great Lake Battleground states , despite losing North Carolina , georgia and Arizona . But let's say we have a polling miss like we had in 2020 . What happens then ?
Well then Donald Trump wins the election in a blowout with 312 electoral votes because he carries all these Great Lake Battleground states , plus Nevada , plus the other states he was leading in Arizona , north Carolina and Georgia . But 2020 is just one election . What happens if we have a polling miss like 2022 ?
Well , in that particular case , hold right there for one quick second .
He's talking about 2022 . It's not a presidential year , right ? So you only have certain selective states and certain selective races that are that he's drawing from . So it's a pretty inaccurate way to do it . But the point he's making is which I think is a fair one , which is this is all within the margin of error Nobody knows what's going to happen .
I mean , nobody knows this race is going to break in the next two to three weeks , and someone that I think is going to win comfortably in the electoral college and potentially , if it's comfortable , when in both , it would be Harris . Cause it , cause , cause . I don't think Trump will win comfortably in in the popular vote .
He may win it , but it's not going to be comfortable , right , and so Harris it probably was the only one who could win comfortably in both . But I think that really , you could be looking at a very narrow win for Harris in the popular vote and a comfortable win for Trump in the electoral college , if things break certain ways or you could flip that .
So we'll see , okay , but the point being , it's all so close right it's all so close because you're like a million people that have voted so far early vote is that right counted . Yeah , it was like 800 something on friday 800,000 um , and so I'm assuming that .
I'm just kind of adding to that a little bit , because they said that was going to be anticipated by monday . They'd be close to a million .
Yeah I mean in early voting and think that's a ways out , still a long ways out .
If I remember right , the split was like 30 , a little over 30% Republican , a little over 50% Democrat , and then you had quite a margin there , even for the independents . Yeah , it's so early .
Yeah , but yeah , early voting usually will skew a little bit further toward the Democrats and then day of usually skews a little closer toward Republicans , right . But I think one of the things we're noticing too is how the electorate is realigning . And you're looking at me like what do you mean , sean ?
So Sean O'Brien from the Teamsters has come out and he's the guy who spoke at the Republican National Convention . He's a union guy , right ? These are these are get your hands dirty people who for the longest time , have supported Democrats , and now we're starting to see that flip .
And again , then , you've seen on the other side , you've seen more of the country club set and the highly educated set shift to the left right . You're watching a whole realignment and one of the things that I think will be Trump's legacy is bringing back that working class voter that Reagan brought in .
That was lost after that , or Reagan brought in , at least temporarily , for about eight years , right . So listen to Sean O'Brien talk about the differences and some of the changes with his members .
I'll be honest with you . I'm a Democrat , but they have f***ed us over for the last 40 years and for once and not all of them , but for once we're standing up as a union , probably the only one right now saying what the f*** have you done for us ? And I'm getting attacked from the left .
You know , and we've given since I've been in office two and a half years , we've given the Democratic machine $15.7 million . We've given Republicans about $340,000 , truth be told . So it's like
¶ Democratic Party, Big Tech, and Shifts
you know . People say the Democratic Party is the party of the working people . They're bought and paid for by big tech , those big tech companies , yeah tech is the new fossil fuel man .
That's what I say .
Right . And you've got the Republicans who are now saying , hey , we want to be the working class party . Right and OK , you've got a great opportunity right now to do that . And the Democrats ? If 60 percent of our members aren't supporting you , the system's broken . They needed to fix it .
Stop pointing fingers at Sean O'Brien , stop pointing fingers at the Teamsters Union . Look in the mirror . I mean , I had a heated debate with heated discussion , two weeks ago with Chuck Schumer and it got ugly . Chuck Schumer is a piece of and it got ugly because you know these politicians . You know the one thing I've learned .
They walk in and they tell you I did this for you . Ok , great , let me tell you what you haven't done for us or our members . And we got into a pretty heavy and I'm like you had no problem taking five hundred fifty thousand dollars from me three weeks prior to me going on the Republican National Convention .
All right , so it was he's straight out of casting . Yeah , he's like straight out of uh casting .
He's just like I'm going to play the bad guy .
I'm just like I'm the tough guy , not bad guy but I'm the tough guy , like I'm the street smart , that's what they do . Uh , yeah , sorry for all the bleeps in there , the uh , the gaps in there . It was a . It was a spicy conversation .
We have to make it a little bit more family friendly .
Yes , yes , very true , but it just shows you some of this realignment , right , and I just think the parties are being thrown up in the air . It's been our theme for a couple of shows now .
I just think everything's being thrown up in the air , and what was once your parents' Republican party is no longer , and what was once your parents' Democratic party or whatever , is no longer .
Right . Things have , just really shifted so much Absolutely . And I think that they're starting to feel the pressure . I mean , we didn't see any interviews for quite a while .
Yeah , and I do wonder so my gut tells me because Harris has changed and she's doing more interviews now . I tend to think they're more concerned .
Well , they have to be , because I think if they weren't , I mean she wasn't really going to do many interviews . I think it's always a risk for her at this point to do the interviews , especially when it's , you know , there's no teleprompter .
Well , none of that , and even with friendly people , right .
I mean . So let's just take a couple . She's on a tour .
Okay .
It seems to me anyway , so let's let's take our first stop .
Let's take my favorite show . Okay , the view .
The ladies favorite show , the View , the Ladies of the View . What do you have to say ?
to them . Well , if anything , would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years ? There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of and I've been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact .
That is a her . That's a devastating response .
I'm just like , wait a minute . So you are trying to keep saying that your first day in office , right , cause she wants to make herself not be part of the Biden administration , right . And then she gets on the view and says I've been part of every major decision that's been happening .
So , it is day 4,000 or whatever , 1400 , whatever it is , it is a if you're her staffer there there's , there's .
You're like this .
Yeah , that is one of those that's in an ad . That thing's coming up in a Trump ad . If it's not out now , I'll be shocked .
Right .
There's no question .
Yeah , this is the risk a softball .
No , 60 Minutes yeah , 60 Minutes used to be just . You know , you go in there and you're going to get ripped . I don't care who . You are Right , it just doesn't matter they actually were legitimate , like they cared .
I think more about being 60 Minutes or being hey , we're going to actually do our job actually do our job .
Oh , it was legendary . The brand meant everything to them , so they made everybody pay when they went in there , Right ? So ? Or at least are you new , and sometimes it went great for you , but it just depends . Well , bill Whitaker did this interview .
He's done multiple interviews with a vice president Harris , and he started off and we'll show you just a few of these clips . But , but the border is something that that Whitaker has some knowledge and he chased her down a little bit . Now , this is not a it's not a tough interview .
However , there were some follow ups on these questions and they're tough to deal with .
Your critics and the columnists say OK . They say the reason so many voters don't know you is that you have changed your position on so many things . You were against fracking , now you're for it . You supported looser immigration policies , now you're tightening them up . You were for Medicare for all , now you're not .
So many that people don't truly know what you believe or what you stand for , and I know you've heard that .
In the last four years I have been vice president of the United States and I have been traveling our country and I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground . I believe in building consensus .
We are a diverse people geographically , regionally , in terms of where we are , in our backgrounds and what the american people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus , where we can figure out , compromise and understand . It's not a bad thing as long as you don't compromise your values to find common sense solutions and that , what , what ?
Okay , I mean seriously what .
Well .
What was that ?
Well , I think you have to say there I've been around the country and you know what I was wrong . I was wrong , I made some mistakes , but you didn't say that . No , no , of course not . So therefore it turns into an indecipherable mess .
Yeah , but you don't change your values . What into it ? An indecipherable mess ? Yeah , but you don't change your values . What are ?
your values Right . That's the problem .
What are your ?
values Paris . That's the problem with the tour right . That's the problem you're running into right now .
She still isn't answering anything .
I agree , so she's doing a tour .
That is just like la , la , la la . I don't know what she was saying there . I words yeah that sound good yeah and now she actually listened to him right and you're like wait , what did she actually ? What did you pull away ?
well , she tried to get around without saying , uh , you know what I've changed . And even if she changed , I mean such a flip-flop from just a few years ago . It's a tough thing to to even even try to get out of .
But the border one got even more difficult for years and so I know this is not a problem that started with your administration , correct , correct , but there was an historic flood of undocumented immigrants coming across the border the first three years of your administration . As a matter of fact , arrivals quadrupled from the last year of President Trump .
Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policies as much as you did ?
It's a long standing problem and solutions are at hand , and from day one , literally , we have been offering solutions .
What I was asking was was it a mistake to kind of allow that flood to happen in the first place ?
I think the policies that we have been proposing are about fixing a problem , not promoting a problem . Ok , but the numbers did quadruple , and the numbers today because of what we have done , we have cut the flow of illegal immigration by half .
We have cut the flow of fentanyl by half .
But we need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem .
OK . So the first of all he could have followed with you know , you have 94 different executive actions that Biden rolled back all this blow up , so he could have kept pressing and saying wait a minute , you've just admitted that you had all the tools to cut this back at your disposal . You just said it , you just did it .
Yet you didn't do it three and a half years before this . What's going on ? And there's no answer . There's just no answer to these things . So that's why , even in the in the gentle pushing and very respectful pushing of Bill Whitaker , it's still tough to answer .
Well , it's just , I'm sorry , but I think he was too soft on her , like he was too nice and I'm sure he's a nice guy and I'm sure he's a good reporter , but at some point it's like he's like yeah , but you know , even her saying we've cut it in half and you just did that so you would have a speaking point .
I mean , well , the other thing too is by the way she talks about this bill in Congress .
We need Congress , we need to hold on .
She said they introduced a bill . They introduced a bill , right . It was the first bill they introduced , right . Okay , who was speaker of the house when they introduced that bill in 2021 , nancy Pelosi . So they didn't get it through their own house of representatives .
Right , so this isn't like a hey , sorry , this is the Republicans and Trump and all that madness again , nope . Again , if you hadn't rolled back the executive orders none of this would have happened .
And why they again .
You know why anybody doesn't really call them on that Like why didn't you just keep the orders in place ? Or why , when you did roll those back and you saw the immediate rush of people and starting to see problems six months into making that ? Decision why did you not stop it ? Cause you could have stopped the flood right then ?
Well , yeah , that's the question to ask them . Clearly , there was no will to do that , right .
So , but why can't a reporter just ask them that ? Yeah , all right . So I found this interesting map on Twitter and I wanted to bring it to you because I think you can speak to this in firsthand knowledge , because you happen to have been right in the middle of this .
But this is basically a map comparing the 2022 gubernatorial results by county to the 2020 presidential election . And , since you were running for governor in the 2022 election , speak to us . Explain this map to us and what we're looking at when we see something like this .
Right , so what I think this does , if I'm looking at this , right , yeah , so this takes the baseline of 2020
¶ Volcano Activity in Washington State
. Okay , and says , if 2020 is your baseline , what direction red or blue did your state go in during 2022 ? Did you have more votes head in a blue direction , like Oklahoma ? Like Oklahoma was a bit more blue . Now it doesn't mean they're blue as a state . It just means the Democrats did better in Oklahoma than they did during the 2020 race , okay , okay .
So if you look in New Mexico , we have three counties where Democrats did better than they did in 2020 . Okay , that's San Miguel County , union County and down in Grant County , okay , okay . Otherwise , the rest of the state trended more red , so you got more Republican votes out of every other county . Little bit of a red .
You know leaning in in , you know a little more closeness in the state than there was in 2020 . So so , to give you an idea , like our gubernatorial race , the spread was six points . Trump lost the state by 11 in 2020 . So that shows you a tightening , right , it shows you a tightening . So that is effectively what that , what that means .
Okay , so it's an interesting , it's an interesting graphic .
Okay , yeah , a little bit .
It's kind of going a little bit .
Okay , here's another one . Okay , one final story that has your name written all over it , so we got to do it because it's ties a few of your favorite things . Okay , you're Washington state . Okay , nothing to do with cougars , I'm sorry about that part of it . Well , okay , and a volcano , which you love to talk about volcanoes .
I do , I love them , and so this one is about Mount Adams waking up .
Yeah , so Mount Adams , southernmost Well , mount Rainier down to Mount Adams , kind of the southern end of the big volcanoes in Washington State . Mount Adams is cool because it's kind of a mini Mount Rainier . Mount Rainier is 14,410 feet . Mount Adams is about 12,000 feet but it looks like Mount Rainier but it's just not quite as big . It's pretty awesome volcano .
My brother Andy and I hiked it .
Okay , yeah , you love volcanoes . I don't love volcanoes , because here's what I don't want them to do . Right , wake up . Okay , but yeah , agree I remember Mount St Helens as a kid . Oh yeah , that was horrifying and I lived in Colorado when I was a kid and that thing blew .
I know Well and I've hiked Mount Mount , st Helens incredible hike .
Axel and I went up Mount St Helens , which , yeah , no , you're right , you don't want to wake up .
So in Mount Adams usually they have a couple earthquakes a year , very low-end stuff , but now they're starting to see more . They've had six or whatever .
How many is it ? It says here that typically they experience one earthquake every two to three years , but in September it experienced six earthquakes in one month .
Okay , yeah , but that could still just be a little bit of steam and rock kind of moving underneath the surface . But this is a stunning mountain it really is , and so I don't want it to erupt either .
According to this article .
It says it's gotten our attention enough that we sort of see an opportunity here to get more information and put more stations out , so we do a little bit better job of tracking the earthquakes that are happening there and hopefully understanding a little bit more about what might be happening in that volcano , which is , hey , I'm all for them getting some more
information .
Yeah , this is actually fascinating . But , ava , that little graphic you just had up is pretty fascinating right there . So this tells you where and how concerned they are with the activity levels you know for the last , like basically the past few hundred years .
Well , it goes back to 5800 bc . Is that what it is ? Okay ?
so mount saint helens is the most active . Clearly lassen peak is up there . Three sisters is in oregon . That's up there . Mount baker is in northern um washington state another stunning mountain . Washington state has four killer volcanoes and the word killer is what .
That's not really really why I said that they are amazing .
And then , but look how far down the the list though , yeah , right , mount adams is , it's not very high on the list , right ? Activity ? Yeah , in fact , you know , like mount hood is much higher .
You know , occasionally mount hood you get a little belch out of mount hood and I'm trying to see on this list can we see where in Rainier is even a little higher on the list than Mount Adams ?
The real catastrophe in the Pacific Northwest , by the way , if you got an eruption and it was Rainier , because Rainier is the most glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states . So if you were to pop Rainier and melt all those glaciers , like what happened with Mount St Helens , it would be beyond catastrophe for Western Washington .
So we do not want that but they are amazing mountains If you ever get a chance to go out there . I know like hiking in Colorado is great and Wyoming is great . New Mexico Wheeler peak is great , but it's a whole different level when you hike Mount Rainier , mount Adams , mount St Helens , mount Baker . These are big volcanic peaks peaks .
they're glaciated and they're super cool oh , okay , and we in mark and uh , mark went off again ava , because we gave him a map . Yep , we gave him some numbers .
Well , you know , I'm gonna go ahead and support this here , because I also love volcanoes and I don't know how you don't like .
That's the coolest thing because I don't want them to explode and kill people . You don't have like a favorite volcano um , I can't know , dad , what's yours ?
oh , it's it , probably is , it , probably is . It's probably mount rainier , because it's so domineering right and in western washington . But but mount adams is close , and so st helens it's a good list .
I well , I like mount taylor because it's local , even though it hasn't been active that's true like millions of years absolutely and I like kilauea , because it's got a cool name , yeah , and that one's pretty active that's a shield volcano .
That's that's pumping out a ton of lava where these volcanoes are composite volcanoes , which will blow out ash and gas , along with a little bit of lava .
I'm sorry , I'll just pick a normal mountain that just doesn't erupt or belch or blow ash or anything else that you can just hike , you're blowing some ash . Yeah , you can just hike it and it's safe . That's what Scout and I she's chiming in . She's like let's just find a safe mountain to hike , okay .
I love it All right , all right .
So , on that note , I hope everybody out there has a great fall break . If you're on fall break , if you're enjoying the balloons here in Albuquerque , enjoy the balloon fiesta . Hopefully the weather cooperates and we will see you back here , scout , as well , on Sunday . Have a good one .
You've been listening to the no Doubt About it podcast . We hope you've enjoyed the show . We know we had a blast . Make sure to like , rate and review . We'll be back soon . A blast , make sure to like , rate and review . We'll be back soon . But in the meantime , you can find us on Instagram and Facebook at no Doubt About it Podcast .
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