Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
The 2022 political field was intense, so don't get left behind in 2024. If you're running for political office, the first thing on your to-do list needs to be securing your name on the web with a yourname.votewebdomain from godaddy.com. Get yours now.
Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck Warren and Sam Stone. Our first guest up today is going to be Dave Katanese, host of the Too Close to Call podcast, a Washington-based political writer. He's ready to feed your political appetite but also challenge you on some of life's larger quandaries, like how you survive 10 below temperatures in Iowa. And Dave was a North Dakota reporter. So Dave, first of all, tell us, how do you survive 10 below temperatures?
You know, not being there is a part of it. I'm not an icon. But what was the coldest it got when you were a reporter in North Dakota? What was the coldest it got?
Oh, I mean, it was below zero. I mean, you couldn't, when you're on the street, I couldn't look both ways because it's actually the wind chill that is the real bad part in North Dakota. It's like the temperature is one part, but it's the wind. It's like anything else. Like, the wind is so bad. And having been in Iowa in many previous occasions, it's very, very similar. And they've got terrible weather going now. I think they're going to be clear of the snow by Monday night, but
you know, it's not going away. It can be cold. It can be frozen. And that's a challenge for all these campaigns. Get older people out. Would you want to go out in that? I don't know. I live in Arizona. So my answer has been made clear for 20 years. Yeah. Everybody here moans. Everybody here literally moans are grown when it's 55. I mean, literally it's been going on. I get it. Under 60 people wear ski jackets for their morning walk. It's fantastic. So, yeah. So let's talk about it. It seems like Iowa, uh,
is a make or break for DeSantis. Is that a fair assessment? Yeah, I think if he's in third place, he will drop out before the next contest, which is in eight days in New Hampshire. Do you think he is running in third or lower right now? I don't I haven't seen what I would call really good data out of Iowa. And obviously with the caucus system, you kind of never know. A lot of it can be on the ground organizing that flies under the radar.
So there was a Suffolk University poll out, I believe yesterday, that showed Haley inching ahead barely. I think they had her at 22, DeSantis in the high teens, I think 18 or 19. But it's close. And...
You know it's close because of the rhetoric they're flinging at each other every day. They're not talking about Trump. I mean, everything out of Haley and DeSantis' mouth is about the other one. And Trump, it's sort of ironic that Trump's gliding above all this because the battle really is for second place. Now, I would say that it's mechanics versus momentum in Iowa.
Haley has the momentum. She is every interview here. You hear voters, you hear consultants saying more people are looking at her now because these debate performances, because they see her. If you're not for Trump and you want an alternative, they see, you know, DeSantis flailing all these bad stories about Trump.
campaign managers changing and operatives leaving, the super PAC in disarray. So she's getting that look. But I would say that Never Back Down has been there for a year. They announced that they've knocked on 1 million doors. They've hit their voters, targeted voters, five times. Haley's nowhere close to that organizationally. She got this surge late. She's peaking at the right time, which is what you want in politics. But
This is going to be a question of do all those door knocks back in May and June come through for DeSantis? He has more organization, caucus, precinct captains, which are important to get people to the caucus in the door, in that seat to vote for him.
But, you know, this is this is the question of the grand theory of politics. Would you rather have momentum or would you rather have the better technical, mechanical field organization on the ground? I think it's very, very close. And we're going to find out Monday night. Well, here's here's the one problem with the door knocking. I've talked to a lot of people on the ground who've done door. They do not believe that number has been hit.
And two, most importantly, let's say they did hit one million doors. OK, best case scenario in Iowa, they talked to one hundred thousand people. Right. OK, so let's just figure immediately 50 percent are Trump.
Well, right. So that that's that's the whole dilemma here. Right. I mean, why they did that. You know, let's say let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they really hit one million. And to give folks some background for people who may be tuning into our program in the last year or two, Chuck, you run these kind of door. Yeah. Many times. Yeah. So I know the numbers well. So here's the thing. They've hit one hundred thousand, fifty thousand. Probably they were open to talking about them. So let's go and say they had twenty thousand.
Then you've got to figure, okay, are they going to come through a 20-degree wind chill factor on Monday night? Right, exactly. That's the whole problem with all this. I saw that poll this morning by Sofax, so I had my assistant look up some numbers. In 2016, going in, the polling had Trump 28, Cruz 23, Rubio 15. It ended up with Cruz 28, Trump 24, Rubio 23.
Right. So and back then, Trump didn't really have an organization. My understanding and you tell me this, if this is true or not, my understanding is Trump is far more organized this time around than he was in 16. And he's also they're also bringing in new people. What I've heard from the Trump campaign and really the Trump super PAC, we spend even more money on the Trump campaign, which I think has gone under the radar.
But they are – it's sort of like this 2016 in reverse. In 2016, people came out organically for him that nobody saw coming. Now they're trying to enlist people organizationally that have just never participated before, that are just pumped up about Trump the last seven years, and they didn't participate the last time.
And they're bringing them into the fold. So the question is, are the pollsters capturing – it's always back to these pollsters. Are they capturing the right audience here of actual caucus voters? Are they capturing the new Trump voters that are on board? And we'll know the Selzer poll. Ann Selzer is the reviewer pollster out of Iowa. She dropped her final poll Saturday night. So we'll know this weekend.
And again, she was off in 2016, as you just recited. She had Trump up. It was marginal. It was a couple points here and there. She got the winner wrong because Cruz won. Cruz bested Trump. And she'll have that poll. It'll drop Saturday night. That'll be the expectation bar. If she's got Trump at 50 percent or 51 percent, that's a good indication that she's going to rout.
And then I think you'll see Haley and DeSantis bunched up. I don't think either of them are going to have a ton of space around the other one, and that's even a problem for DeSantis because if he ends up in second, say he's at 18 or 19 or 20 and she's at 19 –
Does that even matter? I mean, right. Basically, it's high. No. Yeah. I mean, he has to be. Don't you think for him to go forward, he has to be single digit second place behind Trump and Trump has to be below 50 for him to say, yes, I'm a I'm a sound alternative to this.
look, I think they can spin it. If they're within 10 and they keep Trump, if it's 45-35 and then Haley gets the rest or whatever, then they can maybe spin it and say, look at how we came. Trump didn't win the majority of the party. We
We can go on. The problem is his map is so terrible. He's got no game in New Hampshire. He's going to finish fourth in New Hampshire. Then they've got to go to South Carolina. And that's Haley's home state, obviously. And Trump's there. So where does DeSantis go for a win? I mean, it's like...
This is really, really hard because, remember, Iowa was supposed to be a win for DeSantis. And now the bar has been so lowered that it's like, can he get a second place that isn't a total thumping? So the bar has been really lowered for him. I just don't see how he goes on anywhere.
you know, beyond a huge miss on the polls. And he's within single digits, Trump, but the hairy part will be the most ambiguous outcome will be if he gets to like within 10, he's better than we thought he did. Haley's in a distant third. Trump is under 50.
And then maybe he says, all right, maybe I can get some of that. Maybe if I keep chipping away at this and maybe there is an incentive to go on. That's the Clinton formula, right, is is if you're just within shooting distance after those. Yeah. One question, Dave, I have is is Vivek Ramaswamy actually appears to be turning out fairly large, consistent crowds. He's obviously working very hard in Iowa.
I haven't seen that translating into the polls. Is he filling his rooms with Trump supporters who are just, you know, they like seeing him too? Yes. Yes. I think you just nailed it. That's exactly what I was going to say. Vivek is basically, you know, a mini Trump, Trump next gen. And, you know, he had a moment in the summer where,
Where I think people were really interested in him and he had a chance at a run at Iowa. And then he went that first debate and got so negative and looked like, you know, the smart debate coach that was just putting down everybody. Debates are the worst part of his campaign. I mean, when you listen to him in his town halls, he's he's interesting.
He's too smart and too smarmy, though. And he thinks and he just it kind of oozes that he's smarter than you. And like, nobody likes that. I don't care what your ideology. Right. Every voter I've heard is just like, yeah, I liked him at first, but he went too hard at Haley. He was too mean.
And so I think people are – I think he is interesting to listen to. He's obviously a very smart guy. So you can show up. I mean, these Iowans will just show up. Remember, this is part of like a social thing for them. They'll go to an event to listen to someone. That doesn't mean they're walking out of their – I can't tell you how many times I'd go to events –
for even Democrats in 2020, and Republicans would be there. They're just like, yeah, well, Bernie's here. I'm going to go listen to him. He's in my town. I'm not ever going to vote for the guy, but I'll show up. So crowds are a little bit misleading in Iowa because they take this as such a like,
It's like a social thing to do, but there's a candidate in town. I have no intention of probably voting for them, but I'll go listen. You know, I have a question. Have they done, has anybody seen any numbers ever about the average amount of coffees and cottage meetings Iowa caucus goers go to?
That would be interesting. That would be interesting number. That would be. It would be an interesting number. One thing I've heard, one thing I've talked to various of the presidential pollsters in the various campaigns on the Republican side, the one number they're really interested about is Trump just dominates with low propensity Republicans and first time Republicans. If Trump does not get above 50, can we assume that they just didn't show up based on what the polling would show their support is for?
Yeah, and I think there will be some argument that the caucus – there's a higher barrier of entry to the caucus. Remember, you have to go to a – it's not just you go vote and leave. You've got to invest like an hour and a half or an hour, depending on how big your caucus is. Remember, you go, you stand up, it's public. You go to a certain corner of the gym if you're a Trump supporter, if you're a Vivek supporter.
And people can try to convince you to move around. There's an advocacy part of it. It's time. So, I mean, if you're a low propensity person who doesn't really give a lot about politics, but you just care, you're like, ah, this is maybe too much for me. Or like, maybe that's when the weather does factor in. Like, it's too cold, not going out, but I do like Trump. So there can be drop off on, on,
on a candidate for small reasons. And I just think going in and voting for someone in the primary and then going up by your day is very different than committing to a caucus. Yeah, absolutely. We're going to be coming back with more here from Dave Katanese, host of Too Close to Call podcast. He is also a writer for McClatchy, The Atlantic, U.S. News, World Report and Politico. You can follow his work on Substack, davidkatanese.substack.com. Make sure you check that out.
Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be back with more here in just a moment. But folks, before we go, if you aren't already a subscriber to our sub stack, you need to go over there to BreakingBattlegrounds.vote. You can find all our content there. We will be back with more in just a moment.
At Overstock, we know home is a pretty important place, and that's why we believe everyone deserves a home that makes them happy. Whether you're furnishing a new house or apartment or simply looking to update and refresh a few rooms, Overstock has everyday free shipping and amazing deals on the beautiful, high-quality furniture and decor you need to transform any home into the home of your dreams. Overstock, making dream homes come true.
Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. Folks, you've been hearing us talk about why refi for a while now. You need to check them out because it's an opportunity for you to earn a fantastic return on your money while actually helping college students get out from under the unbelievable debt they've been accruing over the last few decades. This is a fantastic opportunity.
a way to do well for yourself by doing good for others. So check them out, investyrefine.com, that's invest the letter Y, then refy.com, and learn how you can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return. That's right, up to 10.25% fixed. You can get your principal back at any time with no penalties. You can have total flexibility, whether you want to take your monthly income or you want to compound it
Fantastic opportunity. So again, check them out, investwirefi.com or give them a call at 888-WIREFI24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you. I just want to go back to these low propensity folks real quick here. And because, Dave, you've been to these caucuses. I think the hard part for it is, is that it's scary, right? You have a lot of people who are fairly adamant. They know what they're talking about.
And you're the first time they've done this. And I remember in 2012, I was hired for the Utah caucuses to help Orrin Hatch, who was being targeted by the Tea Party. And, you know, he came and said, what do we do? I said, we just got to get more people to show up. And Hatch, to his credit, said, all right, let's invest the money. And so what I did is I worked with a psychologist and found two psychological questions to ask. One was if there is an argument in a team meeting at work,
will you make your comment, will you stay quiet or whatever. Everybody said I would stand up and make my point.
that's the one we recruited to go be the leader at the caucus meeting. Right, right, right, right. And so I'm not sure that type of thing's being done because, you know, we have Kylie now who has Kip's Corner here on our show on the podcast. We couldn't get her to talk on the radio for the first year, right? And that's the easiest thing. She's with two other friends in here, right? So that's the interesting point. I'm really interested. If Trump wins big, that means those low-propensity voters showed up. And look, the Trump people, for the most part,
I mean, you've got the Trump loudest supporters who are all MAGA in. They've got the flag on the truck. They've got the shirt. They've got the hat. But then you do have a good portion of the Republicans. It's like a lot of Trump people who don't want to talk about it, but they do like him. Are they willing to stand up? I mean, they don't all have to speak at this caucus. Right.
But, you know, you do need – there is a bit of verbal jousting at ease. I've been inside the rooms where, you know, you can make a case and people can move around. And if you're pressured by a neighbor, that's where, like, neighborhood relationships really matter. If Sally across the street – if you're unsure about DeSantis, you were for him, but now you see his polls dropping, you're like, I don't know if I want to be with a loser. It's more fun to be with the winner. Right.
I'll go over with Sally. And like, right. That can matter in the room. So you can move points around, you know, on caucus night, you can still have people moving around in those gymnasiums and those churches in those halls. And that's where Trump is, you know,
The Trump pressure could matter if you just want to be on the winning team and that could get him over 50. And I think that's what the Trump campaign wants is to get over 50 percent. Twelve points is the record for the biggest win in a caucus. So they're going to if they can get to 12 margin, which I think that's very, very possible. They're going to say this is historic. The prime campaign is over. It doesn't matter what happens in New Hampshire.
Like, pretty much, you know, pull up the tent and start driving to the general election. Well, if for New Hampshire and Iowa to matter, right? One of the things I keep thinking about is Nikki Haley has, as you pointed out, South Carolina coming up, potentially a strong state for her. Let's say DeSantis outperforms what are now his expectations. He comes in a strong second.
What is his next state? Because he's been dropping in New Hampshire. So what is his next state of that's a win or at least he's going to be a lot stronger than people would expect?
You know, they won't say that. I've posed this question to DeSantis officials, and they refer me to the candidates' comments saying, this is a long delegate fight, which is what they all say. Remember, a week ago, Chris Christie was like, I'm not getting out of the race. He had an add-up. So Ron DeSantis may say on caucus night, we're going to go on, or we're going to fight, we're going to go on to Michigan, we're going to go to Super Tuesday. But you guys know as well as I do that then you have to have a real conversation with
about money, about whether you want to drudge your family through it. Also, DeSantis is only 45 years old. Like, this has not gone great for him, but he does have a few, he's still the governor of one of the most important states in the country. And like, does he want to just take another L after L after L? Right. Like, you know, to me, you want to preserve your future. Like, you did it. You went up against Trump, the toughest president.
you know, maybe in modern history to run against if you're a Republican and you lost and you lost bad, why go and take a loss, take fourth in New Hampshire, finish third, you're going to, you know, preserve yourself. Yeah, go out there and just kick butt in Florida for two years and dominate the state. And then you could go recircle back. You may want to be done. You may want to try it again. Right. You know, the other point here, and Dave, if you can express this to our audience, explain it.
How big of a role will Haley and DeSantis donors play in deciding that these candidates go forward?
Because you can't do this without money. I mean, it's just what it is. You can't do it without money, and that's always what happens in these races. I mean, it's really, it's less of a decision. I mean, I shouldn't say that. There's somewhat of a personal decision here about whether you want to go on. We just talked about that, you know, the psychology of it, psychology of losing, preserving your future. But in the end, as you know, this is all about do the funds run out? Does the super PAC money run out? And if DeSantis is in third place,
in Iowa, who's writing him a check in mid January to keep going. I mean that it dries up so quickly, you know, and he can, he can go on New Hampshire and go on to South Carolina and,
But I mean, they're not even doing advertising in New Hampshire. That is a real red flag. I mean, they're not even up on TV. It's only, if you look at the numbers in New Hampshire, it's only Haley and Trump. Now, Haley has this huge super PAC. It's the biggest spender in Iowa, this SFA fund. She does have some money. She's a little bit of a longer tail in this campaign because of South Carolina. She'll have the home state advantage to go to. She can go a little bit longer. But again, she's,
This is a different topic. I think New Hampshire is a little bit distorted primary because she's going to attract a lot of independent Democrats who don't have anything to do, and that is not the median primary voter. She'll do well in New Hampshire, but the question for her is what's her next state?
Where does she go to if she loses South Carolina, her home state to Trump? You're done. What's going on? No, you're done. One thing I know about wealthy people, you know this as well. They don't like having bad money, you know, good money chasing after bad. Right. I mean, it's just like, look, that dog's cooked. Right. Dave, we got two minutes here. Can you stay with us on a third segment? Yeah. Perfect. So let me ask you this question here and we can extend it over to the next segment. Why does Donald Trump have such a hold on rulemaking?
voters. And you're seeing that in Iowa. Why do you think that is? Because I think they think their livelihoods are under attack by everything. They look at colleges and universities. They see woke, uh,
They look at the media. They think the media slanted against them. They look at government. They think even establishment Republicans don't understand them. So that's I mean, he's the he's their voice. He's he's willing to, you know, sling anything at anyone. And and they feel like they're outnumbered culturally in government, in education, in
I mean, they look all around. They feel surrounded by the culture, a changing culture. And they think that he's the warrior that's willing to take
to take on the rest of that culture for them. And they think he's tough. Everything I hear is he's tough, he's strong, he's strong. Look, we're at war everywhere. They're looking at someone who will fight for them. Folks, we're going to be coming back with more from Dave Katniss in our third segment here in just a moment. So stay tuned for that. You can check him out, davidkatniss.substack.com and check out his Too Close to Call podcast. Fantastic, fantastic work there breaking battlegrounds back in a moment.
Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. During the break, we were talking with Dave and he has been very gracious to continue on with us from a third segment. But he's been doing something really fascinating, Chuck, that is the kind of thing that warms the nerd hearts in this room. Yeah, Dave's gone all nerd, you know. He goes to Miami one weekend and dancing the night away. And next thing I know, he's plowing away at maps in Iowa. What is that all about, Dave? It's all about balance. It's all about balance. So tell us about what you've done. You've done a little project here about the maps and what to look for in Iowa.
Yeah, so there are five counties. I was fascinated because I didn't realize how close Rubio got to Trump back in 2016. He only finished a point behind Trump, which I think got lost a little bit in that night. He won five counties. And then looking at this, he's Nikki Haley in this campaign. Haley, she's sort of running the same type of campaign Rubio did, you know, center right, but
but sort of more establishmentarian, a little bit throwback to the old era of, you want to call it, you know, Bush, McConnell, Paul Ryan, politics. Reagan. Yeah, Reagan. It's the neoconservative lane.
Right. And so there were five counties that Rubio won. So if your listeners want to nerd out, look at these counties. Dallas, Polk, Story, Johnson, Scott. Of the 99 counties in Iowa, Rubio won those five counties. If Nikki Haley is winning or very close, if she's competing really well with Trump in those counties, these are suburban counties.
sort of more, you know, middle-of-the-road Republicans. I wouldn't say maybe middle-of-the-road. They're still conservative, but they're sort of that old Republican Party, pre-Trump Republican. They're wealthier. They're higher educated. They might even vote for a Democrat down ticket.
These are the voters that are going to be important for Haley. And if Haley is doing well in these counties, Dallas, Polk, Story, Johnson, Scott, I call them the Rubio counties, she's probably going to win second place and DeSantis is in trouble. These aren't necessarily DeSantis counties because DeSantis is sort of Trump-like, right? He is running. He's more ideologically pure and the Trump wing of the party. So he's fighting over Trump voters. I think Haley's sort of running in a lane of her own here.
And the question is, can she recapture that Rubio? Remember, he got 23% of the vote. I think if Haley ends up at 23% of the vote or in the mid-20s, that's a really good night for her. It's a great night. It will be powered by those five counties. That's a great night. Yeah, that's interesting. What it sounds like to me is that this nomination could be wrapped up very fast. I mean, by the end of February. Do you see any hope...
that the Biden Trump battle for 24 will bring out the better angels in America or is it just going to be totally nuclear warfare? I mean, you know, the Valley Ford speech by Biden, the black. I mean, I listen to that just like, man, this is nobody trying to unify anything and not that Trump's ever trying it either. I just I just I fear almost that it will be so bad it will suppress vote.
Well, and I think you're going to see lower turnout. I mean, we've had these high turnout elections really since in the Trump era, and they've gone higher every time. I mean, sometimes anti-Trump because people are coming out to vote against him in midterms. Obviously, there's the pro-Trump people there. You know, he has gotten the most Republican votes for any nominee. But I wrote about this at the beginning a week ago that this campaign is opening at the least –
inspiring, aspirational, even interesting White House race. I think maybe if you go back to 1996, when it was like Bob Dole running against Bill Clinton, to me, people are going to disengage. But this is where you got these third-party folks. I mean, I saw RFK was on the Hill the other day.
And he was meeting with like Rand Paul. I don't know if you guys saw this. Rand Paul tweeting like, Hey, I had a really good meeting with, I'm interested in his ideas. You're going to see some folks and there's probably gonna be another camp. I mean, there's already Jill Stein and Cornel West. This is the year that,
Where you kind of throw your hands up, you know what, see, screw these two guys. I'm going to go with RFK or, you know, does Joe Manchin run? He's in New Hampshire this week. What's Joe Manchin doing in New Hampshire? Is there a no-labels ticket? Joe Lieberman was on a show the other day saying, I want to recruit Chris Christie. Right, right. So there's the puck reporter that Chris Christie, they were talking to Chris Christie, and he downplayed it, but that would not surprise me. A Joe Manchin ticket would not surprise me one way or another.
And, you know, that's not going to win, but will that get 5%, 7%, 8%? I mean, this year of all the years? Yes. I'll tell you right now. If you do that, you have RFK and you have Jill Stein, see, 8% to 9%. It's gone. Just telling you right now. Put it down in your post-it note. Couldn't it be more? If you combine RFK, Jill Stein, I'm looking at some of these state polls. If you could get third-party candidates in totality...
getting 15, 16, 17 percent, that's a big impact on that rate. That brings both their numbers down. I don't know who it advantages. Huge. That's going to be the strategy. Yeah, that will change everything. David Katanese, I want to thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate having you on the program. Look forward to having you back in the future.
Folks, again, you can follow his work, davidkatnese.substack.com, and make sure you're checking in with McClatchy, Atlantic, U.S. News & World Report, and Politico, and also his fantastic podcast, Too Close to Call, Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be back with more in just a moment.
At Overstock, we know home is a pretty important place, and that's why we believe everyone deserves a home that makes them happy. Whether you're furnishing a new house or apartment or simply looking to update and refresh a few rooms, Overstock has everyday free shipping and amazing deals on the beautiful, high-quality furniture and decor you need to transform any home into the home of your dreams. Overstock, making dream homes come true.
Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. As rarely happens, but sometimes, we don't have a guest for this segment. It is just the three of us here in the studio and Jeremy in his booth having a little fun for this segment. We have a deep dive into Kipper's Corner. But let's first talk. We've got some good ones today. I think David Katanese is one of the best political reporters in the mainstream media out there. Oh, without a doubt. I think he just really cares about doing his job and he tries to be, which is hard.
Is that only, you know, Dave? You know, I think he's probably center left. He's not left, left, left of center. But I think he keeps it in check. And I think he just does these numbers. I think you and I and I don't remember if we talked about it on the air in the podcast segment last time we had him on. But that experience being a local reporter in North Dakota makes all the difference in the world. That's why I asked him the cold question. Yes. Well, I mean, you compare that to most of the the big national reporters who all worked in New York, Washington or L.A.
Right. Right. And that's it, basically. He was in he was in red, red states. And he was in the hinterlands. Yes. It doesn't matter red or blue. I mean, I don't care if you're in New Mexico. You're getting a very different appreciation and experience for this country than you do in those big coastal cities. So before we start Kylie's quarter, I have a trivia question for both of you. OK, who said the following that the Republican opponent is the front man for fascism?
and a crackpot forces of extreme right wing. Furthermore, this person said, I know that it is hard for Americans to admit this danger. American democracy has very deep roots, but if the anti-democratic forces in this country continue to work unchecked, this nation could awaken a few years from now to find that the Bill of Rights has become a scrap of paper. Who said it? Well, I'm assuming that was Biden at his thing. Yeah, I was going to say Biden as well. Truman.
The whole point about this, Jonah Kohlberg wrote this great story about, and the title of the story, the title of the article is Never Go Full Hitler. And his point was how they've done this with every Republican. As we all know, Jonah's not a Trump fan. Right. But he's just talking about the ridiculousness of it. So here's Truman, who, you know, they made a legend because of the biography and everything else. Right. And in fairness, he made tough decisions. But this is always...
This is always the playbook for Democrats, which makes them disgusting in this particular subject. The idea that Thomas Dewey was a fascist is contemptible. I mean, this is a man that he went and tried as the attorney and convicted Fritz Kuhn,
The head of the German-American Bund, which directed fundraising for the Nazi cause in America. He prosecuted him. And they do this all the time. You know, the other thing about it, and I always have this argument with people who really don't like Trump, is, look, I get it. I'm made uncomfortable a lot of times by the way he talks about things or things he says. But at the end of the day, if you looked at what he did in office yesterday,
He used executive authority in a much more limited fashion than every one of his recent predecessors. Right. Right. Right. I mean, so when you're talking about totalitarianism, fascism, all these things, he is not that at all. And, you know, the problem we have on our side is that there's some belief within the party that if you nominate a Mitt Romney type that they're not going to get called a fascist Nazi pig murderer anymore.
And that's just not the Democrat playbook anymore. They're going to throw the exact same accusations at 100 percent of everybody you put up. Here's one more. Here's one more point. In 1964, Republican convention.
CBS Evening News correspondent Dando Schor reported from Germany that Goldwater's rumored German vacation was a Nazi plot of some kind. It looks as though Senator Goldwater, if nominated, will be starting his campaign here in Bavaria, center of Germany's right wing, that Schor told Walter Cronkite, adding that the location was Hitler's one-time stopping ground. He goes on and on. The problem was it wasn't true.
It just never was true. They reprinted an old interview from years ago from Goldwater. Goldwater called it the damndest lie I have ever heard. Well, you know what the difference is? This is what they do all the time. It's so despicable. But Democrats, as you point out, have been doing this for decades upon decades. Right. But the difference now is that the majority of the media, the vast majority, 80, 90 percent goes along with those lies.
There's never any coverage that calls it out for being the fabrication that it is. And the things they're saying are not called a task. If Democrats were held to the same standard Republicans are, they'd never get anybody elected because they're half their people are bloody crooks. Absolutely.
Well, let's take this time for the radio audience to hear Kylie's Corner. Okay. What do we got today? Yeah, we actually have some very interesting ones today. We should note, if you are not a podcast listener, you might have never had the blessing of a Kipper's Corner podcast.
These are two good cases. And this is good stuff, folks. This is why you need to be tuning in. But we're giving you a little sneak peek of it today. She's got a full plate. Yeah. So this case just happened on Sunday of last week. And so three bodies were discovered in a scientist's backyard in Kansas City on Tuesday of this week.
I'm going to say his name is Jordan. I'm not going to give his last name because the police have not reported on yet. However, I did some sleuthing on Facebook and found the friends of this group of people and they're reporting on it as well. So I'll say what the police said. Anyone who ever needs a private investigator, we have one. Yeah. So Jordan had friends over on Sunday night to watch the Chiefs game. It was reported that there was probably a group of seven to ten guys there.
majority of them went home three stayed behind with Jordan and then they were reported missing the next day by their friends one of them had a fiance so she was looking for him they were calling Jordan knocking on his door no one is answering their friends cars were still in his driveway
It wasn't until Tuesday at 9.50 p.m. when the fiance broke into Jordan's house after he did not answer for two days now at this point. Which you expect a fiance to respond. Yeah, yeah. So she broke in and pretty much immediately she saw a body in the backyard. But there was also a snowstorm that just happened. So it was covered in snow. Covered up. Yeah. So she immediately left the house because obviously like she did. Jordan wasn't in there or if he was in there because the cops came, but she didn't see him.
immediately went out, called the cops, cops showed up and then found two other bodies in his yard further like in the back that were also covered in snow. And when he answered the door for the cops, he was just in his underwear holding a glass of wine and just was like, yeah, what's up? And he claims that he did not know about this, that there was his friends were in the backyard dead. He has two dogs. I found his Facebook profile.
So it is confirmed he has two dogs. I did go down on Reddit a little bit, and there was multiple reports of people saying that they knew him from high school. They didn't like him. Multiple people said they didn't like him, but he's really smart. On his LinkedIn, it states that he's a data ML-driven antibody and vaccine designer. So, yeah. So this is a mystery that is...
OK, well, I don't I don't think it surprises anyone on the right anymore that a vaccine designer is a mass murderer. There's been sorry. There's been many Facebook. There's been many Facebook posts where I click on the person and it does say they're from Kansas City, Missouri. And their profile has been alive for a while now that say, I know this kid from high school. He is a psycho, but he's really smart. So that's a scary thing.
But again, this is like the what was the one where he was a student in forensics or whatever that we were following earlier last year? The Idaho murder case. Right. So here's my thing. If these people are so smart, why are they so bad?
At this stuff. But it shows you, because he was working on his PhD in Idaho. Right. It does show you that education does not make you common sense smart. Because a lot of this is just common sense. He also has his PhD. I've read an article about him. There's a point. Does a PhD mean you don't know how to use a shovel? Yeah, I think there's. Well, look, I just think people are not. I think we make the mistake thinking because someone has a graduate degree that they're smart in all facets of life. And that's just not true.
Common sense. You either have common sense or you don't. You can't teach it. Yeah, so Jordan had told his family that they probably were just outside and froze to death. Other people have...
Speculated that they were drug users and so that they could have been laced with fentanyl. He may have passed out in the yard and snow came and he died. Yeah, so there's three of them. I mean, that's certainly possible. The fentanyl drug overdose angle, you would think, though, a couple of days later he would notice, especially if you have dogs. Yeah. That part of it just – He could have just been like knew it happened and was waiting it out. When you're not answering the phone.
Yeah, well, so they said that he deliberately was ignoring their, like would decline their calls or on Facebook it would show if you read the message. And so it would say read. So he'd read these messages that these friends were looking for their friends.
So he knew they were missing. So he's not even bright enough just to let it ring to voicemail. He declines it? Yes. Yeah, well, okay. Yeah, but... All right, what else do we got here? How much time do we have? Because this one's a little bit long. We have like five minutes. All right, perfect. Or we can go push that over to our podcast portion. You have two more things to do. We don't want to rush you. Yeah, that's true. But this one's kind of a long case. We can go into the podcast. But it happened in Jackson, Mississippi. Not sure if you guys have heard about it, but 215 bodies were discovered behind a jail.
Oh, wow. No, I didn't. Oh, my gosh. No, no, no. Oh, wow. Wait, what? So, yeah. So in Hines County Jail, there is a farm where the inmates will go out and work on this farm. And it was discovered that
Well, 250 bodies have been identified by the coroner's office that were in there. However, this woman's lawyer, whose son was one of the guys, one of the victims that was in this grave on this grave site, said that he was marked as 672. So he anticipates that there's 671 or more other. Were they mostly black? So, yeah.
There is. There's both. I was reading articles of both. OK. The mothers who have come out, two of them were black and one was white. OK. But the. No. I mean, legitimately, if someone dies in prison, they're responsible for burying them. This was not like a. There's. So these aren't people. So this is what I originally thought was these were people from jail or what. You know who. I assume that's what they were from. However, the woman that discovered this, her son.
was left her house on March 5th of this year at 7.30 PM. He was maybe in his forties left at 7.30 and was struck and hit by a off duty police officer in a police SUV and was told that she was told that he was, couldn't be identified or whatever, but this was prior to her finding out this. So she had reported her son missing, um,
So he left on March 5th. She reported him missing on March 14th after not hearing from him. They didn't live together. He was older. So she was like, finally, when I reported him missing... And most boys call their mom back. Yeah, yeah, occasionally. When she first showed up to the...
police station they were spelling his name wrong not taking it serious she had a call multiple times kept calling back and at this point they had already known what happened because an officer at their because they ran him over yeah they ran him over and then buried him in said graveyard um so what the hell yeah so it doesn't know we're in this because i listened to an interview with her lawyer and her and nowhere and it explains how they finally got past
like getting this information out of the officers. This is not the official like potter's field for the county or whatever. Yeah. No, this is just bodies in the back of the jail. Yeah. So then, so after this was discovered, so NBC has been reporting on it. They have like a six like part,
of different cases. So this mother, then a second mother was reading because they had done a records request and put out a list of the bodies of the 216. They think there's more. The coroner's office said that records before 2016 couldn't be disclosed.
discovered or identified so there's no records before 2016 because it was probably all paper they never did computer or anything yeah and so this mother mario moore this is actually a sister mario moore was found was also a guy in the grave and his family um found out from his death from the news article so his her sister sent the article and her brother was the second guy on this list and it was found that he was beaten to death wrapped in a tarp and found on the side of the road
And then they just burned his body and buried him in these graves because supposedly the cops have said we can't identify them. However, that's not true because the coroner's officer office said that the first guy, the lady who discovered all of these grave sites, his ID was in his front pocket and she had given that to the lead detective. Oh, my. And they did not.
call her or tell her, even though she had reported him missing, they never told him or told her. We should try, you know, folks, we air on in Mississippi in Tupelo at AM 1060. We should try to get a reporter or one of the talk show hosts there and talk to them about this case because this is... This is wild. It's insane. I feel this is a Netflix series waiting to happen and we have one minute here so why don't we wrap this up and we're going to carry this over into the podcast. Yes, indeed, folks. And if you're not, again, if you're not subscribed to the podcast...
And you liked this segment and you want to hear more, you need to do that. And then you need to start downloading and sharing it with your friends and doing all those good things that help us out so that we can stay on the air and continue to entertain you. And we can have more Kipper's Corners coming up. We are going to have more. If you download this podcast, we have more insanity. Yep, more insanity.
are on the way folks stay tuned for that or tune in for that and then tune in again next week we always appreciate all of you and having you here join us on the air and to all of our guests today David Katniss fantastic thank you so much to him Breaking Battlegrounds we'll be back next week
The 2022 political field was intense, so don't get left behind in 2024. If you're running for political office, the first thing on your to-do list needs to be securing your name on the web with a yourname.votewebdomain from godaddy.com. Get yours now.
Welcome to the podcast segment of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. We're continuing on with this crazy story that Kylie Kipper was telling us out of Jackson, Mississippi. The only thing I know about Jackson, Mississippi is driving through with some friends many years ago. Great barbecue. I hear there's really good barbecue out there. But now I'm going to stay away from any mystery meat selections there because. Yeah, they're just burning.
burning and burying bodies. Wait a minute. They're using the inmates to bury these bodies too. So wait, who is making the decision to let these people in this field? Yeah, currently the Hines County Coroner's Office and the Jackson Police Department are pointing fingers at each other, blaming each other, saying they did it, they did it. There's been reports that the Coroner's Office has given Jackson Police this information, or whatever information they would find, right, about the
person who had passed away and they just didn't do anything with it but i did find an article that came out in november on november 29th 2023 and uh it says police in jackson mississippi have adopted a policy outlining how officers notify families when a loved one has died um chief wade said you would think that we would have a death notification policy but we do not
Sounds like our Secretary of Defense, we don't have a policy when you go to the hospital for two weeks and no one knows what's going on. How do you not have a policy for procedures? It seems like a very police policy you should have. Well, it's not even a question. I mean, obviously, dealing with the city of Phoenix, everything police do is written out in a manual and in the ops orders, right?
Every single situation. And any time a new situation comes up, those are revised to address it. How the hell did you get to 2023? What city is this in in Mississippi? Jackson. Okay. It's not a small city. I mean, it's a small city, but it's not some, like, teeny little town. Well, especially because there's so many reports of these family members reporting this person missing. So I just pulled up an article here, and we can do this on the podcast. This is from January 9th.
So Jackson, in 2020, had to reach a record-breaking 128 homicides. In 2021, they surpassed the record, reached 155 homicides. So you're telling me they have experience with death. Yeah. And they don't have a policy? Yeah, we got to get on this more. This is an interesting story. Yeah, we do need a local reporter to fill us in because none of this makes any sense to me based on everything I know. Yeah.
about how government handles a death. Yeah, wild. Yeah, it's just strange. But again, it shows, I think, this, and I think our Secretary of Defense, Mr. Austin,
How he just disappeared. I keep telling Sam, we have a text thread with some friends and I just keep saying, the thing that bugs me the most is no one recognized he was gone. I mean, I can't believe Biden doesn't at least talk to him every other day on the phone because there's things going on in the world. Yeah, but see, here's the thing, Chuck. I have...
That presumes that Joe Biden is and functions as the president. And I agree, but it shows the inefficiency in the incompetence we have on government levels. Here's a local that they don't have a policy how to report a death of a loved one. And apparently Jackson has experience with death. And then we have a secretary of defense with the world sort of on fire. We'll call it a brush fire, a small brush fire right now. But.
How do you not recognize he's not there? But what I mean, what I think has happened is that you had when that when Biden first came into office, Ron Klain and a little inner circle were guiding him in the things. But Biden has devolved to the point where he is clearly not functioning as the president. And we don't know who is making the decisions. My guess, based on the way things are happening, is that it's a different person in every area.
And they're not communicating with each other. One of my favorite things that no one's talking about the Lloyd Austin story is no one's mentioned Kamala once. I mean, she doesn't know what's I mean, she's not a part of anything.
Well, because no one wants her in that chain of command. I mean, is there anyone on this planet that wants Kamala Harris in the nuclear chain of command? I honestly couldn't even tell you what she has even done in the past few years. Well, I don't think she could tell you either. I don't think I've heard anything. I don't think she could tell you either. All right, now I understand the other third positive. Occasionally we like to bring in some joy into Kylie's corner. For our dear listeners, I have to shoot it to her, but continue. Yes, yes, yes. Happier news out of Idaho. Yes.
Kylie is our lovely angel of doom and gloom. There's just so much that goes on and they're so crazy. Reading these stories, you're like, okay, my life, you know, we could have worse, right? It's like the great scene from Bad Moms when the one that seems her life's totally in disarray and she's listening to her two friends that supposedly have their life together and she's listening to the total cluster they have with their parents. She's going, you know...
I watch you guys and I'm doing okay. Yeah. I'm doing okay. Yeah. So, but anyway, so is Andrew. Everyone needs friends. Andrew is doing great. So he returns home from vacation, I'm assuming right after New Year's, was probably out and about.
He had three minutes before jumping on a Zoom call for work when he forgot that he had bought these lottery tickets and he was like, I'll just scratch one off real quick. Scratches the first one off, realizes he won a million dollars. But obviously in this quick of a time when he's like about to jump on, he's like, I don't believe it. I'm just going to give it to my wife and move on and go on to my call or whatever. So while he was on his work call, his wife had called the lottery department and confirmed that it was true.
And so as any loving wife would do, she sends him a text during his call and goes, I'm sorry to inform you. And then didn't respond for a solid five to 10 minutes. And then goes, it's confirmed. You did win. And so he's on a work meeting. He's on a work meeting and just found out that he won a million dollars. But he did say that he's going to use it for his kids' education. And he is awesome.
working with Wells Fargo advisors to invest it properly. And that's a funny point in that the following here, you can tell that versus some 20 something who has no children, no marriage, no contacts. And immediately this guy is, I'm going to use it.
to better my children and pay for their college education. Yes, because I do know someone that just won a million dollars on a sports bet. And what are they doing? Immediately bought a couple cars. So like I know for you, if you won a million dollars, that thing's going to a house. Oh, yeah. I know that immediately. So it's really funny on these lottery winners that you find out quickly what they think is important in life. Yeah.
Right. And this guy immediately is like, I'm just paying for my kids' college education. Now, no one's going to blame me if I have to buy a new SUV up in Idaho. Right. But that's what this guy's main purpose is. Thank you. So I want to go back to the Cantonese. We're talking about the third party aspect. OK. Yeah. So.
There is a new Gallup poll out with Americans' overall impression of the 2024 presidential candidates. Who do you think has the highest favorable rating? You can do all. Well, unfortunately, I've seen the poll, so I know. So who do you think, Kylie? Who has the highest favorability rating running for president right now? The Republican? No, anybody. All of them.
I feel like this is a trick question. It's Robert F. Kennedy. He's at 52% favorable, 34% unfavorable, which is, this is the number that impresses me. Only 14% don't have opinion, which means they don't know him. Right. Right. So then you have Donald Trump at 42% favorable, 57% unfavorable. Biden at 41% favorable, 58% unfavorable. Nikki Haley's at 33% fave, 34% unfave.
Ron DeSantis, 32 percent favorable, 52 percent unfavorable. OK, so first, the DeSantis number is a fake. And I don't mean to say that it's not true at the moment. But the reality is that as soon as he's not running against Donald Trump, it probably jumps up to 45. That number. No, I totally agree. Because I had friends that would.
rave about him during last, you know, last cycle or whatever. And now they're like, oh, like saying things. I'm like, you don't know that. It's really I got to say, I have been really bothered by both the DeSantis and Trump camps online because they have been so offensive. Both of them have been horrible. They're horrid. And they are so divisive to each other. Ron DeSantis is maybe the best governor in America.
Oh, bar none. I mean, well, well, look, I mean, I'm a big fan of Kristi Noem, right? I mean, there's a few others who are in that category. But there's a difference from managing South Dakota versus Florida. Yeah, I agree. I mean, it's night and day. I agree. And Ron DeSantis has been a warrior on conservative issues. He's fantastic. There's nothing wrong with Ron DeSantis other than a really bad campaign run by his super PAC and Jeff Roe.
I mean, that's really it. But the online vitriol between those two camps, I'm ready to strangle every F in one of them. Yeah, it's been pretty bad, and it's been disappointing. It's been hugely disappointing. Especially for people who I see attacking DeSantis, who I know are DeSantis homers during COVID. Well, I would posit that, but I'll point it in the other direction also, and here's my thing. If your issue with Donald Trump...
is that he is too outside the box, that he says mean things, that he's, you know, all of this. Then why are you, on behalf of your candidate, Ron DeSantis, embracing acting in the way that you object to?
Yeah. I mean, you know, if the DeSantis camp wanted to to separate itself from Donald Trump in this election, you would have done it by not throwing around a bunch of nasty bombs. Correct. And instead they went down that exact same path. And I'm just I'm grossed out by both camps at this point. No, it's horrible. Yeah.
Little tidbit here. So the Red Cross seems to be just a cesspool of corruption and political correctness in a lot of ways. Now, it doesn't mean, folks, you shouldn't go give blood. I mean, all those things. But internationally, they're a mess. So Jake Taper on CNN this week on the Red Cross. Family of female hostage being held in Gaza says when the parents told the Red Cross that she needed daily medication for her health.
A Red Cross worker told them they should focus their concerns on Gazans. Yeah. And then a UN watchdog, one of the UN watchdogs said the following. The Red Cross just named its next director, Pierre, I can't pronounce the last name, when he was forced to quit UNRWA after an internal ethics report implicated him in abuse of power, corruption, and alleged sexual affair with a staffer. He blamed the U.S.-Israel conspiracy.
And I think what's chilling about this is this is why people don't trust. This is just an example. But this is another drip in the bucket of distrust of institutions in the world. That you have something like this that should be just simply, look, we're the Red Cross.
We want people out. We want people safe. We want them fed. We're going to get them medicine. That's all they should be about. It doesn't matter what side they are. That's what the Red Cross is. But they're not that way anymore. No, and what's sad about that is I donate blood regularly. I actually donate plasma regularly because –
Given my blood type, that's actually good for you to reduce the – Right, the iron. Yeah. Here's the thing. When you just said that, my first thought was I am not giving blood to the Red Cross again until we drain every last drop from their new director first. Well, tough but fair. Yeah.
Yeah, it's just it's fascinating. But we keep seeing this and this is what's happened with these Ivy League schools, just the distrust for people in these institutions. And frankly, you should always have a degree of distress of any authority. I think that's important. Right. Sure. But. Absolutely.
The lack of complete distrust of these things now is just beyond horrible. I mean, let's use the perfect example as we wrap up here quickly. Let's look at what happened with Fauci this week. OK, he admitted to a congressional panel that the six feet social distancing sort of disappeared. It lacked scientific basis. Somebody made it up and they all went with it.
I don't think they are taking enough responsibility, nor is it being pushed upon them. How they have completely destroyed our culture
our health care system in a lot of ways in America and the distress people have for it. So now you have vaccines going lower on things that are important to actually work like polo. Right. I was about to say, we're not talking about COVID or the flu here. No, you're not talking about everything now. So a lot of vaccines that are really well proven, like polio, like the shingles vaccine, a lot of those. Well, we had eliminated polio. Is way down. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I just, I mean, is it fair to say Fauci's a criminal or he's just a schmuck?
Oh, no. I think he's a criminal. I mean, what do you think? I think he was a schmuck who became criminal through his schmucky. And I think he I think he I think he really took in and loved all the praise and accolades he received from the mainstream media. He has always been a media whore. Yeah. I mean, he's been since the AIDS crisis in the 80s when he got everything wrong then, too. But being government, you fail upwards. Yeah, it's just horrible.
Now, look, Anthony Fauci is someone I truly believe should be on trial for his life for what he did. According to Congressman Cloud in this testimony he gave, 14 hours, Fauci said literally he says he's still not convinced that there was learning loss, that in his view that's really open for discussion. It's not. He's a bad guy. He's an evil human being is where I'm at with it. That's one of those people that –
I truly believe should be facing very serious charges for his actions. And let's just break it down. Gain of function is bioweapons research. 100%. There's zero difference in the outcome of those two terms. 100%.
Well, folks, we appreciate you joining us this week. Next week, Kylie, we're going to have a reporter on from Iowa to discuss post-Iowa analysis. Yep. And I have another case I'm going to talk about next week. Just information's coming out now about it, so I feel like it'll be better next week. Oh, she'll be digging. She'll be digging. It's out of Texas. Folks, we want to thank our good friend Dave Katniss for being on. Folks, we will be posting on our social media where you can see the maps that he's telling you to watch for. And on behalf of Sam...
Kylie, Chuck, and Breaking Battlegrounds crew, including Jeremy. We're going to have the one last thing. We're going to leave you with a news clip here. Sam, who's the biggest plantation owner in America this week? Jerry Nadler. Jerry Nadler. He's our winner. Ding, ding, ding. Ding, ding, ding. Jerry Nadler, folks. We're going to play a clip from you. Just realize he said...
If we don't have illegal immigrants, our vegetables are going to rot in the ground. Apparently, that's all Jerry Naylor. And that's apparently all Jerry Naylor thinks they're good for. Those Democrat problems from the cotton that won't pick itself to the vegetables that don't cook themselves. And next week, we'll need to talk about the congresswoman, I believe, from New York who said we need the illegal immigrants for census so she won't be redistricted out. I mean, folks, Democrats tell you they care about the worth of human beings. Just know it's a lie. Yeah.
This is Sam and Chuck and Kylie breaking battlegrounds, policy, breaking battlegrounds, dot vote or anywhere you get your podcasts. Have a great weekend. And we need immigrants in this country. Forget the fact that the farm that our vegetables would rot in the ground if it weren't if they weren't being picked by many immigrants, many illegal immigrants. The fact is that the birth rate in this country is
is way below replacement level, which means our population is going to start shrinking. And the ratio of people on Social Security and Medicare is going to increase relative to the number of people supporting them.