America Is Getting Lindsey Graham Wrong

**Michael Smerconish** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:33)
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**SPEAKER_3** (1:04)
Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast for Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (1:08)
In 2015, I had an interview on CNN with a Republican presidential candidate. And I remember this well. And by the way, in the newsletter today, we've linked to the aforementioned interview so that you can watch it. I look very young and very heavily made up. Wow. I thought the years had been most kind to me.
But when I look at that image of just a decade ago, I'm taking a back.

**TC Cannon** (1:35)
Really?

**Michael Smerconish** (1:36)
Yeah, I think I've got some miles.

**TC Cannon** (1:37)
I think the years are still kind to you.

**Michael Smerconish** (1:38)
I don't know.

**TC Cannon** (1:39)
Really?

**Michael Smerconish** (1:39)
Yeah. Take a look at that guy.

**TC Cannon** (1:41)
The candidate looks very much younger.

**Michael Smerconish** (1:42)
Definitely. And thank you for respecting the approach by saying the candidate. I did not give this gentleman much of a shot, but I was relatively new to CNN and just happy to have him. And I'll tell you something else that I haven't fact checked, but I'm pretty sure of. I think that on that one program, June 13, 1995, I think that I had not one but two presidential guests, both long shots.
The other one would end up ascending in that cycle on the democratic side of the aisle until he was thwarted by the democratic establishment, something that happened to this individual not only in 2016, but also in 2020
And what I remember on the democratic side of the aisle is nobody was putting him on air at the time on CNN, not because of any bias. They did this like nobody took him seriously and there were a lot of choices. But I put Bernie on the air and Bernie never came back to me. Bernie never came back because now he was getting on all the other shows and I was big-footed. We will talk about Bernie in the third hour of the program today. I'm so excited. This is why I so appreciate the POTUS Channel and SiriusXM generally.
On CNN on Saturday, Tad Devine was my guest and we gave him a lot of time. Thank you, Catherine. We gave him like seven minutes and in TV speak, that's a long interview. Tad Devine was the chief strategist for Bernie in 2016 and he just wrote a book, How the Democrats Screwed Bernie. And it's about the 2016 cycle and maybe your reaction is to say, well, that's old news. Who cares? Oh, no. It could not be more timely and prescient for what's going on in the Democratic side of the aisle. Okay, but as for the Republican who was on that same show, you know, one of the eventually 16 Republicans who piled on that stage, I don't remember if he made it as far as the Reagan Library debate. I should have checked that because I was at the Reagan Library for that debate, I can assure you if he was at the Reagan Library first Republican debate, he would have been on the B team. Do you remember? There was like a matinee and then there was the main feature.

**TC Cannon** (4:10)
I called it the kids' table.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:11)
The kids' table.

**TC Cannon** (4:11)
You know, at Thanksgiving, you always have the main table and the kids' table.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:14)
They couldn't fit them. They couldn't fit them all underneath the Air Force One. I remember it so, so well and was thrilled to be out there.
But anyway, doing this interview, June 13, 19, 19, pardon me, 2015, 2015, I had to read in on the candidate. And what stands out in my mind is that I was really impressed with the backstory. Grew up in a small town, a place called Central, even though it's not in the central part of his state.