BUCK: If Democrats have a choice between loyalty and power, they will choose power a hundred percent of the time, everybody. Welcome back to Clay and Buck.
So, this idea that Joe Biden, they voted for him, they’re gonna back him up through the rough times? Not if they think he’s gonna drag the party down. Not if they think that he can’t win the next time around, and Clay likes to go deep diving into the stats. He was sharing some earlier on today, sharing some of the latest poll numbers. I mean, Clay, this is stunning.
CLAY: Yeah.
BUCK: You got Biden job approval — there’s a Civiqs poll over Fourth of July weekend — job approval, 30% approve, 58% disapprove. With independents, 19% of independents approve, 68% disapprove. Independents are not only people who are obviously persuadable to one party or the other. I think they tend to be — and the data would support this — people who are, “What are the results,” right? They’re less ideologically inclined to one side or the other based upon ideas, beliefs, and rhetoric and more, “What’s the price of gas, what’s the economy like, what’s going on that affects me?” If those are your top concerns, Clay, the Biden administration is setting new records of awfulness.
CLAY: New records of awfulness — and, Buck, as bad as 30% approval is, Biden’s actually underneath that in a bunch of battleground states here. Arizona. We got a Senate race coming up in Arizona in November. Right now, they’re deciding who the Republican nominee is gonna be: 26% approval rate for Joe Biden right now be in Arizona. Georgia, big governor’s race and a big Senate race, 26% approval in Georgia — these are states that, ostensibly, Joe Biden won — 29% in Nevada, 30% in Pennsylvania, 31% in New Mexico, 32% in Michigan, 33% in Wisconsin. And, Buck, this one I saw, and it was a record-scratch moment for me. Joe Biden only has a 34% approval rate in New Jersey. New Jersey! Remember, Republicans almost stole the governor’s race there last year. It surprised a lot of people. But if Biden can’t get above 34% in New Jersey, that’s pretty much unbelievable.
BUCK: New Jersey is all like, “Hey, Biden, the price of gas is too high, buddy. It’s too high, too much.”
CLAY: They don’t pump their own gas in New Jersey. Makes it even more expensive.
BUCK: It is getting crazy. The taxes are too high, the pumping gas too expensive, Jersey’s had enough.
CLAY: But these numbers — and, by the way, this is Civiqs, as Buck said. They also had numbers come out in the Monmouth poll today. All of them are reflecting that Biden’s disapproval rating is about to hit 60%. That has never happened in our lives that a president has gotten 60% disapproval.
BUCK: It’s gonna get worse, by the way.
CLAY: It may well get worse.
BUCK: It’s gonna go down more.
CLAY: It may well.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
CLAY: We’ve been talking a lot about Joe Biden’s numbers and how they’re collapsing, and one of the arguments that the Democrats are still trying to make — did you see this? I’m down in Florida, and Val Demings is running for the Senate against Marco Rubio in what is not going to be a particularly close case, close election. Marco Rubio’s gonna win massively like I expect Ron DeSantis to win massively. We don’t even know who Ron DeSantis is gonna be running against yet. But Val Demings said, “Democrats will be on the right side of history. They’re the only party fighting for democracy!”
DEMINGS: Democrats will be on the right side of history because it is the Democratic Party! They are the only party right now that are fighting for our democracy, fighting for the middle class, fighting for our seniors, working to protect Social Security and Medicare, lower the costs, and keep us safe. Republicans have taken a — a vacation, or they’re permanently removed from any of those things! Yes, we have the majority in all places, but (sputters) the filibuster, as you all know, has been an obstacle to moving forth an agenda.
BUCK: I mean, this is amazing. It’s a reminder that for so many Democrats the best option for them going into this midterm election cycle is going to be, talking about everything other than what people actually care about. Find a way to make this about “defending our sacred democracy!” You don’t want it to be a referendum on covid policies if you’re a Democrat. You don’t want it to be a referendum on inflation and the economy and any follow-through from Biden based upon what we were all supposed to believe was going to happen. I mean, even some libs out there are saying, “Yeah, just hasn’t really turned out to be this amazing Biden presidency with all these great things happening.”
JACKIE KUCINICH: One of the other things that I think that young man are expressing is, “Yeah, we’re Democrats’ we voted for these people. And what are we getting from it?” They were promised a lot going into this — going into this Democratic controlled Washington. And not a lot has happened. And they’ve said, “Okay, well.” Yes. Kirsten Sinema, Joe Manchin. There are logical explanations to this.” But there were a lot of overpromising happening. And they’re having trouble explaining that to their voters now going into the midterms, and what did they — what did they get for their vote? Infrastructure.
BUCK: By the way, infrastructure and 8.5% inflation! (laughing) Infrastructure and a whole lot of economic decisions and vaccine mandates that, in retrospect, are indefensible, just indefensible.
CLAY: Also, if they had gotten more of what Joe Biden promised, things would be way worse. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema saved the Democrats from, at least for now, double-digit inflation. Buck, I mentioned this in the open to the show. That argument is actually why I’m concerned, and we got a lot of staffers — we got a lot of governors, senators — who listen to this show and their staff do. They’re gonna try to ram through a tax increase before July is over. And it’s under the radar right now because they’re trying to sneakily maneuver it through.
But I’m telling you, they are looking. They know they’re gonna lose the House, and when they lose the House, they won’t be able to change the tax rates. They won’t be able to pass any bills of any sort of substantial magnitude — and they think, if you look at the tea leaves, they probably have a got a chance to lose in 2024, too. So this is their attempt to try and make a maneuver to give to their communist base this tax increase on many Americans out there.
BUCK: And this is where I remind everybody, the system is working as intended.
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: Gridlock is good.
CLAY: Especially when it’s a 50-50 country!
BUCK: Most of the time. Right. This is the elected representatives. All this thing about, “Oh, we can’t get our agenda through because…” Well, win 60 Senate seats, libs!
CLAY: Yeah.
BUCK: It shouldn’t be that hard. You’re so popular, you’re so amazing with your ideas, right? This is exactly the way that it should be working, given the expressed desires through votes of the American people in terms of what the breakdown is in the Senate and the House which is that they can’t get stuff through because their ideas aren’t popular enough. Full stop. They can complain all day about Republicans.
They couldn’t even get through the Build Back Better agenda because of Democrats. So this whole putting it all on the feet of Republicans, it’s just not gonna fly. People realize that, and to change what our expectations are supposed to be after the fact — after all the Biden failures — people can see through that. But, again, Clay, there’s desperation. Honestly, do you even remember what the January 6th hearings were really about a week or so ago in terms of what was the…? There was some young woman who testified, right? (laughs) Who cares!
CLAY: It’s all a sideshow, but I do think that this is where the sideshow can provide them cover, and you know everybody’s gonna be cheering, “Oh, yeah, raise taxes!” The last thing we need is federal government to pass anything right now. Everything that Joe Biden has touched has turned to crap. That’s what I call the Bidas touch. The last thing we need to allow him to do is have even more control, and this is ultimately… The House is gonna happen, right? We’re gonna have the Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Nancy Pelosi’s gonna go back to being a regular congresswoman in some way from San Francisco.
And so if you’re living right now in Georgia — if you’re in Wisconsin, if you’re in Pennsylvania, if you’re in New Mexico, if you’re in Nevada, all of these places where the Senate is going to be decided — you need to be super active and you need to be super active with all of your friends and family. Because we need a check against the awfulness that is the Biden presidency, and a Republican Senate and a House would at least keep things from getting far worse over the next couple of years.
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