The New York Times, The Joe Rogan Podcast & The Early Vote – Top 3 Takeaways – October 28th, 2024
- Stronger than ever. I don’t know if Trump is the “Man of Steel”, but in one of two huge interviews that took place over the weekend – Democrat Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman told the New York Times in his 36-minute interview with them, that Donald Trump is “stronger than ever”. In fact, the headline to the Times story with Fetterman’s interview was: John Fetterman Fears Donald Trump is Stronger Than Ever. And while a Superman reference wasn’t dropped in reference to Trump – Ironman did make an appearance as Fetterman had these very interesting things to say in comparing Elon Musk to Tony Stark: And now Musk is joining him. I mean, to a lot of people, that’s Tony Stark. That’s the world’s richest guy. And he’s obviously, and undeniably, a brilliant guy, and he’s saying, Hey, that’s my guy for president. That’s going to really matter. Endorsements, they’re really not meaningful often, but this one is, I think. And for the level of Trump support, he currently sees in PA, he called it: “astonishing”. Here’s an exchange from the interview. Times question to Fetterman: You’ve said that Trump has a special connection with the people of Pennsylvania. Fetterman’s answer: One hundred percent. In elaborating when prodded by the interviewer he said this: And anybody spends time driving around, and you can see the intensity. It’s astonishing. I was doing an event in Indiana County. Very, very red. And there was a superstore of Trump stuff, and it was a hundred feet long, and it was dozens of T-shirts and hats and bumper stickers and all kinds of, I mean, it’s like, Where does this all come from? It’s the kind of thing that has taken on its own life. And it’s like something very special exists there. And that doesn’t mean that I admire it. It’s just — it’s real. As we’re just eight days away from Election Day – that sentiment from a Democrat Senator in the most pivotal swing state in the country seemingly mirrors the trends that we’ve been seeing in the political polls and votes at actual polls...that Donald Trump has momentum and also that he’s seemingly the best positioned to win that he’s been in at this stage in any of his three presidential runs. And that takes us to the “other” interview that was taken in by tens of millions over the weekend... The former and God-willing next president of the United States...the three-hour interview Donald Trump had with Joe Rogan on Friday. Within the first 24 hours of dropping, over 26 million viewers had watched the Joe Rogan podcast with Trump making it easily the most consumed interview of this cycle (it’s at nearly 33 million views currently). To put this into perspective – Kamala Harris’s recent CNN Town Hall grabbed all of 3.3 million viewers- or not even 10% of the audience Trump pulled in with Rogan within the first day. Notably Harris snubbed the Rogan podcast, presumably concerned about what would happen if she attempted three hours with Joe as Trump did. There were a lot of potential takeaways from the interview but the one that printed the most with me was a statement by Rogan in response to Trump during the interview. Quoting Rogan...
- The rebels are Republicans now, though, like you want to be invisible, you want to be punk rock, you want to like, buck the system? You're a conservative now. That's how crazy. And then the liberals are now pro-silencing criticism. They're pro-censorship online. They come in regulating free speech and now regulating the First Amendment. It's bananas to watch. The rebels are Republicans now. That’s one for the ages and truer words have never been spoken. This is a point I’ve articulated, although not in that vernacular, for many years now. The example I’ve used is Berkeley. Berkeley, California was the epicenter of the liberal movement and free speech in the late 60’s. In recent years it’s been the epicenter of censorship to the point where the University of California at Berkeley is involved in lawsuits for banning Zionists from speaking on campus. These administers are not the classical liberals of 50+ years ago. They are straight up Marxists. And that’s what the American left has become. They’re not liberals – they're they opposite. They’re Marxists. So yes, the rebels are more likely to align with Republicans now which is squarely where freedom of expression exists and the only political place where it isn’t under attack. One weekend. Two interviews. Incredible insight. From Fetterman we hear that Trump is stronger than ever – with the added bonus that Elon Musk is Ironman. From Rogan we hear that the Rebels are now Republicans and from the voters...
- We’re seeing something remarkable. With all partisan trends accounted for with early voting and vote by mail ballots we’re seeing one of the most remarkable flips in political trends I’ve witnessed. Four years ago, Democrats held an average 14.3% turnout advantage over Republicans with votes cast prior to Election Day. As of Sunday, with early voting underway everywhere, the partisan advantage for Democrats was down to only 2%. With Republicans performing over 12-points better thus far with the early vote – there is in fact reason to believe that Donald Trump after all that he’s been through is stronger than ever – politically if not personally. The important thing for Republicans and Trump supporters of all political stripes is not to let up at all before Election Day. This remains the most important election of our lives and it's critical that we vote like it. And if in doubt about how to vote you can just ask yourself what would Ironman do? He’s most certainly not some White Dude for Harris.