KJZZ’s Friday NewsCap revisits some of the biggest stories of the week from Arizona and beyond.
To talk about former President Donald Trump and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz campaigning in Arizona, a court ruling in a legislative residency case and more, The Show sat down with Paul Bentz of HighGround and Democratic strategist Tony Cani.
Conversation highlights
On how the presidential debate played in Arizona
MARK BRODIE: Does [the presidential debate] move the needle in any way in a place like Arizona, which is expected to be very close again?
PAUL BENTZ: I, I would expect that [Vice President Kamala] Harris gets a bump after the performance. She did very well. I, I think [former President Donald] Trump looked not only unhinged, as Tony said, but unprepared, maybe a little tired, unwilling to look at her while she was speaking, something that she did very well. I, I think his biggest miss is that when it was time to talk about immigration, the thing that he wanted to talk about and brought up in all three questions prior to the immigration question.
When he got that chance, when it was his time to shine, he started talking about crowd sizes and eating pets. She got him so far off of his game that he couldn't even get back to the message that he's good at and that's very effective in the state of Arizona. And I also think he missed a lot of opportunities.
They were, they pushed some questions on her that really were questions that he could have followed up on, but he's so wrapped up in talking about himself or wrapped up in talking about the issues that he cares about. He wouldn't press her on the questions asked particularly among abortion and some other questions that there are places he could go.
But instead of talking about, you know, seven, eight or nine, what, where are you at on this? And trying to get her to ground on that. Instead, he talked about killing infants and the, even the moderator said that's not legal anywhere.
And, and I, I did an un unscientific focus group, talked to several older, older folks in the last couple of days. And the thing that I found from all of them is that, the people who are tending towards Trump think that the media was out to get him. And that, that really indicates to me that they know he lost that. That the deck was stacked against him. They think it was not fair.
I just don't think he performed very well. They asked her very difficult questions which she skated around and didn't answer but instead of him pushing her on those, he certainly came back to what he wanted to talk about, and his close was the biggest thing. He had a chance when you close the debate, when you have the closing statement …
BRODIE: He was the last voice.
BENTZ: When you get to go last, it is your opportunity to make your case and ask for the vote. He did neither. He ended with, he's the, Joe Biden's the worst president ever. Harris is the worst vice president ever. They're the worst. They're the worst. I mean, that's such a terrible way to end a debate. I definitely think it should help her in the state of Arizona.
What’s being said at campaign rallies in Arizona
BRODIE: So let's compare what we heard at the debate to what we heard from the candidates and, and their surrogates, in Arizona, both the day of and, and after, but also what we're going to be hearing from them coming up. We heard Tony yesterday, for example, from former President Trump in Tucson.
He, yes, he talked about the debate, he talked about a bunch of other stuff as he tends to do. But he also talked about, for example, not taxing overtime wages, he talked about affordable housing. He, he seemed a little bit more, at least on message. So I'm wondering how much does it matter what we heard in the debate and how much does it matter what we're gonna hear between now?
TONY CANI: And I think, I think they both matter. But one of the things about the debate is it's an opportunity to get something to sort of break in a pop culture or break into sort of the regular minds of regular voters aren't, aren't paying a ton of attention.
And so that's one of the, the challenges about a bad debate performance that goes as viral as some of the things that he said has. Some of these regular campaign stops are going to be consumed by people who are following the news. And so obviously that can have some impact, but it's just sort of two different audiences.
I think that, that, but, you know, in Arizona, as a Democrat, we won the last time by 10,000 votes. And so every single one of these events, every single one of these moments, if you're able to convince a couple of voters, it makes a big difference. This whole thing is gonna be so close that you really have to scrap out, and just try and get every single vote that you can.
BRODIE: Well, Tony, Tim Walz, the VP nominee was here on Tuesday before the debate. The second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, was in, in Tucson last night. Safe to say that we're going to be seeing more national Democrats in Arizona between now and, and Election Day.
CANI: Yeah. Absolutely. And you know, there's already, you know, things I'm, rumors I'm hearing about things that are coming up and, and they, they will continue to invest in our state and there will be a big presence here.
BRODIE: Paul, I'm curious what you make of some of the things that, that former President Trump said yesterday, talking specifically about economic issues, housing issues, which are, of course, really big issues here.
BENTZ: Absolutely. Those are some of the top issues facing the state and him being focused on issues would be helpful here. I don't know if Tucson was the best audience for that. But then you know, these audiences that we're talking about, it really speaks to Arizona being the ultimate battleground state. I do believe that the road to the White House comes through Arizona.
And I think both campaigns are realizing that. I think we're going to see a lot of visits to Arizona over the next 50-plus days because it's so important. And, you know, issue wise, I think Trump did a little bit better in the, in his speech than what he did in the debate. But that being said, he still talked about the Haitian immigrants and still brought up a lot of his quote unquote greatest hits, the things that I think hold against him.
But to Tony's point about the pop culture relevance, I, I don't know if “SNL” is live this week, but if it is, I suspect that we're going to see nice big debate performance and just like we saw with Sarah Palin where they were able to sort of capture this image of Sarah Palin and perpetuate it sort of, sort of the national audience. I think we're going to see that sort of rehash of the debate, full of jokes and full of things that really sort of cast the president's performance in a very negative light. And I think that will have an impact.
On how pop culture affects elections
BRODIE: It's interesting, I mean, we know that Maya Rudolph, for example, is coming back to, to play Kamala Harris. It's interesting sort of the pop culture because when, when Sarah Palin was running the whole, “I can see Russia from my house,” a lot of people thought she said that, but in fact, it was Tina Fey as Sarah Palin saying that. So it's an interesting, an interesting point about how pop culture can sort of seep into, seep into the campaign. Are you, are you seeing evidence of that happening in this election, Tony?
CANI: I am. And I, you know, I think that part of an interesting thing about this campaign versus when Sarah Palin, when “SNL” made such a big impact on, on Sarah Palin is that there's way more people using social media, there's way more viral video sites like TikTok. And so when some of these things hit, they hit and they go really, really far.
And I do think that you know, that's why both the campaigns are actively using TikTok to try and talk to voters, not just younger voters, there's a lot of users on that site. And yeah, I mean, that, that's the, the you got to talk to voters where they are. And I do think that these, this type of pop culture stuff is gonna make a difference.
BENTZ: And Taylor Swift for a great example. Same night as the debate, I think that is very impactful. Having Linda Ronstadt come out and decry Trump performing at the Linda Ronstadt Center. Stevie Nicks, these artists, these female artists, in particular, female artists that appeal to broad swaths. I mean, you, you see that they, they're going to have an effect talking to these female voters.
Plus we've got the abortion issue on the ballot here. I think there is a lot of convergence going on that's going to have people paying a lot of attention.
On Fontes in D.C. asking Congress for election funds
BRODIE: So I want to ask you guys briefly before we go to break. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes was in D.C. this week testifying before a committee, and one of the points he made was that, you know, look, we all want free fair elections to run smoothly. But you guys, Congress, you got to fund this, you got to help us do what we need to do.
Paul, is this something that you think the, the feds or really anyone is going to pay enough attention to?
BENTZ: I, I certainly think they should. I mean, the Center for the Future of Arizona is going to put out numbers about the confidence in the elections, and the majority of the electorate still believes that the elections are free and fair and conducted in a way that it gets the right results.
But the challenge is we are seeing a degradation of that, particularly among Republicans. The only way I think to continue to make sure as, as Tony pointed out, that if the former president doesn't win, he's going to cast even greater doubt on that. I, I think that investment is worth the time to make sure that we protect our elections.
BRODIE: I mean, it's kind of tough to get a lot of stuff through Congress these days. Any, any chance that, that some more cash comes Arizona's and other states’ way, do you think?
CANI: I, I don't have a lot of confidence that they will. I know that the, there are some people that just want there to be not any federal oversight of our elections, especially when it comes to funding. And, and, you know, that's one of the challenges is that I just don't know if they'll be able to get the votes through unless there's some sort of a major issue. And, but, but, but these departments are wildly underfunded. They don't have the resources they need in order to do the things that we want.
And, you know, this is the most important thing. We want as many people as possible to vote. It's better, period, you know, regardless of what political party it helps. And I think there's some debate in this election about if there is high turnout, who would it help, right. So that, but the point is, it doesn't matter in our democracy, we want as many people to participate as possible. It's the, it's the, the backbone of everything in our country.
