KJZZ’s Friday NewsCap revisits some of the biggest stories of the week from Arizona and beyond.
Marcus Dell’Artino of First Strategic and former state lawmaker Reginald Bolding joined The Show to talk about Arizona’s representation at the Republican National Convention, one Arizonan being floated as a potential replacement on the Democratic ticket and more.
Conversation highlights
On Trump’s speech at the RNC
BRODIE: So, Marcus, did you see [former President Donald Trump’s speech at the RNC] last night?
DELL’ARTINO: Yes, I did.
BRODIE: What do you think?
DELL’ARTINO: I thought it was long.
BRODIE: 90 minutes, right?
DELL’ARTINO: It was over, just over 90 minutes, covered probably everything under the sun, I think, what was most, you know, and this is complete sort of insider stuff. But the speech that was written, that's on the teleprompter, I thought was a pretty good speech but that he had, his tell is so obvious when he goes off script. Because you can see him clearly reading the teleprompter and then, and then pivot right to the center of the stage and look out straight in front and that's when he starts to go off script.
And I think that that's largely what made it a hour and a half-long speech rather than probably an hour.
BRODIE: Is the Republican Party as unified right now as it looked like it was on, on TV?
DELL’ARTINO: I would say it is definitely more unified than it was four years ago. There is absolutely no doubt about it and we heard a lot about unity. I think Nikki Haley's speech went a far way in, in sort of establishing that unity point. So all in all, I think it was a pretty successful convention, but I do point out to people if you need any further evidence of how different this party is from your parents’ Ronald Reagan Republican Party.
Let's just hit a few high notes here. We had the head of the world's largest union as a speaker at the Republican National Convention; a professional retired wrestler, Hulk Hogan; and an adult film star. And so this is not your parents' Ronald Reagan Republican Party anymore.
BRODIE: Reginald, at the Democratic convention, will anybody be ripping their shirts off on stage? Do you think?
REGINALD BOLDING: I don't think, I don't think so.
BRODIE: So, I mean, it obviously, as Marcus said, like this, this party is far more unified now than it was four years ago. At the same time, the Democratic Party seems pretty, I don't know, what is it, dis-unified, un-unified, whatever the, the word is, the Democratic Party is not necessarily on the same page at this moment.
BOLDING: Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that the Republican Party, everything is roses and flowers. I mean, if you, if you watch the Trump speech, which, you know, I know a lot of people started it. I don't know how many people finished it because it was very long. I mean, if I'm summing it up, I would say, you know, it was long, it was boring.
I thought, I thought it was supposed to be unifying. It started to lead more into typical Trump, more the divisiveness that we, that we come to be used to. I think in the Democratic Party right now, I mean, I remind people if you think about July of 2020 you know, you had all of these individuals in the Democratic Party who were running for office from Bloomberg to Harris, to Sanders to Warren. You had all of these folks.
So the Democratic Party, you know, you never had everyone all lined up behind Biden. But I do think at the end of the day, you know, this, this will get sorted out and I think Trump actually didn't make a great case for himself. He reminded people of why they retired him in 2020.
On Kari Lake’s speech at the RNC
BRODIE: Do you think that Kari Lake, we heard a little clip of her at the top there, do you think she made the case that she needed to make? She had a huge audience there.
BOLDING: Yeah, Kari Lake, I really think she gained zero voters, new voters based on that speech. I mean, look, she has consistently over and over again been given opportunities to show that she's grown from the Kari Lake that defined herself during the 2022 election. But time and time again, she continues to go back into this lane in which she's just divisive and Arizona to be a United States senator from Arizona. You have to be able to work with everybody and she has not shown that she has the ability to do that.
BRODIE: I'm curious, Marcus, what you made of her speech and then afterwards she had a couple of television interviews which I think could maybe kindly be called contentious.
DELL’ARTINO: Yeah, I think I would. That, that's a good descriptor. I, you know, I, there's a very, I don't think you gain Arizona voters by doing a speech at four o'clock on, for the RNC convention because really what you, you know, your target audience is an independent voter, right? Or maybe a, a moderate or a less general, a less primary voter, a, a general election voter. And so those people aren't going to be watching the speech.
There's no doubt about it, but, but it does appeal to a national audience.
BRODIE: Which helps with fundraising, right?
DELL’ARTINO: Which helps with the fundraising. And so really at the end of the day, the goal wasn't necessarily to pick up voters in Arizona as much as it was to, to pick up the fundraising base.
BRODIE: Are you surprised that she's stuck to a lot of the talking points that she has been using? I mean, we talked about former President Trump, maybe trying to be a little more unifying. Kari Lake talked about the, the media and talked about, you know, how horrible Democrats are, like a lot of the stuff that she's been talking about.
DELL’ARTINO: Yeah, the red meat issues I mean, I, I didn't hear anything that I haven't heard her say before,, you know, especially the Mama Bear speech. But, again, it's about the fundraising. And so that appeals to that fundraising base, not necessarily to the, to the independent voter in Arizona.
BRODIE: So Reginald, if you are Ruben Gallego in his campaign, what do you take from what you heard her say at the RNC?
BOLDING: You take every single clip that every single clip throughout the speech. I mean, you know what she's saying essentially is not what Arizonans want to hear. I mean, she's not talking about ways that she's going to improve the economy. She's not talking about ways that she's going to bring people together. When we think about the environment that we're in politically and the rhetoric that has been turned up, you know, consistently, you know, she's one of those individuals who has consistently been part of that, that using that language.
And, and I think if you're Ruben Gallego, you just continue to point out the Kari Lake that you knew in 2022 is the same Kari Lake in 2024. She hasn't changed and she's not going to be good for Arizona as the brand.
On if Biden will ultimately be the Democratic nominee for president
BRODIE: What do you make of the fact, Reginald, and, you know, we try not to get too much into, you know, individual polls, but we've seen over the course of several polls now over the last month, or let's say six weeks, that Democratic Senate candidates, in some cases, incumbents in a number of swing states are polling pretty far ahead, at least ahead in some cases more than a little bit ahead of President Biden, including Ruben Gallego here. Sen. Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin and some others. The Democratic senators and Senate candidates are doing better in the polls than the very top of the ticket.
BOLDING: Yeah, I mean, starting at the top of the ticket. I really think, you know, President Trump in football terms, he was on the 10 yard line to run, to run into a touchdown. He could have selected a VP candidate that was a moderate and I think his chances to win the election would have greatly improved. He ultimately chose someone in J.D. Vance who may be a little bit further right than him with his stance on the national abortion ban. His speech again, it could have been unifying, it was divisive.
I really think he fumbled and he's now allowing for those people who are Biden under performing folks. You know, Trump's not, when you look at all of these polls, Trump's not over 51%. It's just Democrats are underperforming.
So here in Arizona, you see Ruben Gallego, his numbers are greatly higher than Biden. It's because there's Democrats who aren't committing to Biden right now. I do think those Democrats will come along. But I do think that independents …
DELL’ARTINO: For who?
BOLDING: I think those Democrats are going to come along definitely for Biden. I think they'll come along.
DELL’ARTINO: You think Biden's going to be on the ticket in November?
BOLDING: You know, you know, I totally believe that at the end of the day, that the message and the policies that are coming from the Democratic platform, it fits main line what Arizonans want, no matter who that person is.
BRODIE: Well, so I mean that that is the big question, right, for Democrats, I mean, we keep hearing over the last couple of days, pressure is building, pressure is building, President Trump is reflective while he's at home in Delaware, you know, isolating with COVID. Do you at the end of the day, I mean, none of us has a crystal ball of course, do you think at the end of the day that Joe Biden is the nominee?
BOLDING: Joe Biden says he says he's running, he says that he's going to be there. I mean, if we spend more time looking at the policies and things that he's done and things that he wants to do instead of trying to figure out whether or not he's going to run. I think the Democratic Party would be in a better position right now.
You know, I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, there's literally 250 some odd Democrats in Congress, you have 15 or 16 calling for him to drop out just today. You have the speaker, you have the house minority leader. And Hakeem Jeffries said, hey, I'm going to Biden here’s ticket. So I think that until he says he's not doing it, we should assume that he's doing it.
BRODIE: Do you assume he's doing it?
DELL’ARTINO: Oh, he's dropping out Sunday.
BRODIE: That’s very specific, Marcus.
DELL’ARTINO: Listen, Chuck Schumer's talked to him, Nancy Pelosi's talked to him. Barack Obama finally broke. I mean, I predicted this all a year ago so it's just happening, you know, these couple of days are happening fast, but this has been going on for a solid year in D.C., talking about who's gonna be the replacement.
There's an all hands meeting with his campaign staff today. I assume that conversation is gonna be something like, hey, you get another 30 days of pay. And then we're folding up shop, but I expect a massive announcement coming out of Joe Biden that the Democratic National Convention is going to be an open floor fight. And man, that's gonna be fun to watch.
BRODIE: Fun to watch like as a country or as a Republican?
DELL’ARTINO: As a Republican.
BRODIE: Just wanted to clear that up.
DELL’ARTINO: To be clear that it'll be historic though. So from a country standpoint, I mean, it will be a history-making episode and you know, to, to the Lake point, what I would caution my Democrat friends about is that, you know, Trump enthusiasm, there is an enthusiasm gap with Biden versus Trump, there's no doubt about it. It's undeniable.
Trump's up in every swing state and what the, for Republicans, he's carrying that energy, that turnout model into the states, which will propel Republicans into office. So for those who are quick to say, you know, Ruben Gallego's got this locked up. You gotta, I don't think, I think this race is gonna be a whole heck of a lot closer than people think it is.
BRODIE: Is there a candidate out there or I before we even get into that, let's say President Biden is not the democratic nominee without knowing who might the nominee be. Does that change any of the, the pollings that change potentially the, the result in Arizona?
DELL’ARTINO: Yeah, I think it does. Well, it, it changes a whole lot of things. You know, to Reggie's point about J.D. Vance, I mean, the genius about J.D. Vance is he comes out of Ohio and you're watching this meltdown in these midwestern states where Democrats, traditionally a Democrat-leaning state is, is going with, with Trump. And so, you know, Democrats have to figure out how to stop that bleed in these northeastern states.
As far as Arizona goes. I mean, what happens if, let's just do an, if you know the ticket is Gretchen Whitmer. And, and, oh my God … Mark Kelly from Arizona. You know, would that, would that turn out change for Democrats in Arizona? And I would have to guess that it would.
BOLDING: I mean, look there, there's, if in the event that Biden does not remain in the presidential race. Absolutely, the Vice President Harris would be the person who Democrats are going to line up behind for the presidential, for the presidential candidate. You know, as much talk as people like to say that you open it up, the movement behind a Kamala Harris presidency in the event that Biden does not run. It's strong there.
I mean, you have almost $100 million inside of a campaign, a coffer that, you know, that the Biden campaign and or any Democratic presidential campaign would want access to. Harris is the only person that has access to that money. Do I think if you have a Harris-Mark Kelly ticket, does that change the calculus of Arizona? I think absolutely it does. He's, he's someone who's consistently been on the ballot. I think he can deliver for Arizona.
