Will The RNC Convention Make the Difference in November?

Josh Holmes (0:00)

The midterms in the era of Trump, the great challenge when his name is not on the ballot is to try to replicate a little bit of that energy to get turnout numbers of those low-propensity Republicans up to where they are when Trump's name is on the ballot.

Michael Duncan (0:12)

The rise of the DSA and the Democrat Party has given Republicans a historic opportunity, and that is the opportunity to make this a real choice election.

Comfortably Smug (0:21)

It's going to be up to a lot of those folks speaking at this convention to make sure voters see that contrast, make sure everyone sees, okay, yes, we did succeed in closing the border. The other side is going to try to open it right back up.

John Ashbrook (0:32)

It's quite a choice between communism and regular America that we all know and love.

SPEAKER_5 (0:40)

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SPEAKER_6 (1:30)

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.

SPEAKER_7 (1:35)

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SPEAKER_6 (1:39)

I love the personality.

James Blair (1:40)

You guys are killing it.

SPEAKER_9 (1:41)

I just saw your number one.

James Blair (1:42)

So congratulations. Thank you.

Josh Holmes (1:43)

It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity.

Mike Sommers (1:48)

Guys, I love you.

SPEAKER_12 (1:50)

Congratulations on all your success.

SPEAKER_9 (1:52)

This is why you listen to the Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question.

James Blair (1:56)

The only political podcast worth listening to is the Ruthless Podcast.

SPEAKER_6 (1:59)

It's time for our main event.

Josh Holmes (2:06)

The message, the golden age of America has just begun. The location, deep in the heart of Texas. Welcome to the Ruthless Variety Program in the midterm convention, fellas.

How about it?

John Ashbrook (2:18)

Dude, this is incredible.

Josh Holmes (2:20)

This is amazing.

John Ashbrook (2:20)

It is.

Michael Duncan (2:21)

Yeah. I mean, I wore my gold tie for the golden age in Dallas.

Josh Holmes (2:25)

Well, that was a thoughtful deal. At least you threw a tie on the guy in the end, treating this like an amusement park.

John Ashbrook (2:31)

It's a podcast. They let you do it.

Josh Holmes (2:35)

Well, listen, we've talked a little bit about this over the last couple of episodes and how we were coming down here, and typically speaking, conventions take like four years to plan. You got to pick a location, you've got to have a host committee raise a bunch of money for it. It takes an awful lot to put together a backdrop like this. President Trump once again defying all conventional wisdom, and in two months' time, look what we got.

Comfortably Smug (3:03)

And that's the thing, folks, this is a spectacular setup that we have. You can see behind us, this is incredible.

Josh Holmes (3:10)

Yeah.

Comfortably Smug (3:10)

Clearly, no expense was spared. It looks like a million, billion bucks. And our setup here, too, is incredible, by the way. Thanks so much to API.

It's exciting. So from the second, not even the second we got here, on the way over, we ran into like Spicer, we ran into so many friends. Everyone is very excited. And that seems to be the idea behind it. You know, President Trump, Republicans want to generate a lot of excitement because typically when you're the party in control, there's like a drop off in excitement when the midterms happen. Democrats are hoping to capitalize on that. The purpose of this midterm is to get all Republicans focused, get your head in the game, get locked in, let's win this.

Michael Duncan (3:49)

Yeah, because if we can match the enthusiasm of a presidential election for this midterm, Republicans are going to do pretty well. And just from being on the ground now for about 24 hours, you can feel that energy with not just like the people we've run into, but also the attendees we've seen around the hotels and stuff. We've stopped and we take a lot of pictures with people. You can feel that energy permitting through to the grassroots already.