What do you think, Cam, the opinion of Mike Johnson is among the Republican conference?

Well, I think it's certainly positive.

At least I also think from a public opinion standpoint, Speaker Mike Johnson is, at least in my view, has been looked at a lot more favorably than compared to some of the leadership we saw in the Senate, at least among the Republican base.

And I think that might be playing a huge role here.

But I also want to underscore that.

The role of the minority leader is going to look very different than the role that Speaker Johnson played.

And I also think that that's going to you know, they need to be someone that can be the rallier.

election analysis here on the scott jennings show with our friend cameron arcand senior washington correspondent for townhall.com cam i know last night as the votes were rolling in you were on the phone with some of your senior level sources in the white house take us through some of those conversations how were they processing it last night and what are you hearing out of the white house this morning

What do you think, Cam, the opinion of Mike Johnson is among the Republican conference?

Well, I think it's certainly positive.

At least I also think from a public opinion standpoint, Speaker Mike Johnson is, at least in my view, has been looked at a lot more favorably than compared to some of the leadership we've saw in the Senate, at least among the Republican base.

And I think that might be playing a huge role here.

But I also want to underscore that, um, The role of the minority leader is going to look very different than the role that Speaker Johnson played.

And I also think that that's going to you know, they need to be someone that can be the rallier.

Right.

election analysis here on the scott jennings show with our friend cameron arcand senior washington correspondent for townhall.com cam i know last night as the votes were rolling in you were on the phone with some of your senior level sources in the white house take us through some of those conversations how were they processing it last night and what are you hearing out of the white house this morning

But you could see from early on, the details of the plot were obvious, and it was definite confusion.

That was the goal all along.

That's definitely what it seems to be here.

I think there's going to be a lot more questions.

I think this story, I wouldn't be surprised if this opens the door to litigation in the future where we already have seen lawsuits and legal debate regarding this.

I'm very curious to see how Tuesday's results are going to shake out in this as well because when you have a state that's ranked choice voting, Are we going to see people who do not like the Democrat in this race rank him second? Are we going to see people who are outright confused by all of this rank him first? I think there's a lot of serious questions here.

And I think it goes to show that if candidates cannot stand on their own merits and this is what they're resorting to, this is what happens.

And based on your conversations with the first lady's office, what was it that spurred her engagement in this? What was it that caused her to get involved? Did she just pick up the phone and start calling people? Was this coordinated with the State Department? Kind of take us behind the scenes about how all this came together for Melania Trump.

But you could see from early on the details of the plot were obvious, and it was definite confusion.

That was the goal all along.

And that's definitely what it seems to be here.

And I think there's going to be a lot more questions.

And I think this story, I wouldn't be surprised if this opens the door to litigation in the future, where we already have seen lawsuits and legal debate regarding this.

And I'm very curious to see how Tuesday's results are going to shake out in this as well.

Because when you have a state that's ranked choice voting, Are we going to see people who do not like the Democrat in this race rank him second? Are we going to see people who are outright confused by all of this rank him first? I think there's a lot of serious questions here.

And based on your conversations with the first lady's office, what was it that spurred her engagement in this? What was it that caused her to get involved? Did she just pick up the phone and start calling people? Was this coordinated with the State Department? Kind of take us behind the scenes about how all this came together for Melania Trump.

But what's your take on that?

So what I'm thinking happened here was, you know, that diesel deal came right around the same time as special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with some Ukrainian representatives down in Miami a couple of weeks ago.

Now, Witkoff and Kushner have since spoken with Zelensky from over the weekend.

I believe Axios said that that was the case.

But when we talk about some of this and the frustration with Zelensky, something that the president said recently was that, Zelensky doesn't seem to be interested in wanting to make a deal, at least from the president's perspective here.

But it's also interesting, too, because there's also questions about what would a deal that Vladimir Putin would agree to, what would that entail, and would that be something that he would actually hold to be true? So there are a widespread range of concerns here.

But what I'm curious about and what I think is really hinging on this is, The status of those conversations with Wyckoff, Kushner and Ukraine, as well as these kind of parallel conversations the president is having with Vladimir Putin.

When it came to Putin, is there any way we could be seeing political theater play out just in time for the midterm elections?

But what's your take on that?

So what I'm thinking happened here was, you know, that diesel deal came right around the same time as special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with some Ukrainian representatives down in Miami a couple of weeks ago.

Now, Witkoff and Kushner have since spoken with Zelensky from over the weekend.

I believe Axios said that that was the case.

But when we talk about some of this and the frustration with Zelensky, something that the president said recently was that, You know, Zelensky doesn't seem to be interested in wanting to make a deal, at least from the president's perspective here.

And it's also interesting, too, because, you know, there's also questions about what would a deal that Vladimir Putin would agree to, what would that entail and would that be something that he would actually hold to be true? So there are a widespread range of concerns here.

But what I'm curious about and what I think is really hinging on this is, The status of those conversations with Wyckoff, Kushner and Ukraine, as well as these kind of parallel conversations the president is having with Vladimir Putin.

There was a time where it seemed like President Trump was playing nice with Putin, but honestly, he was basically giving Zelensky the go to go ahead and continue to kick some booty When it came to Putin, is there any way we could be seeing political theater play out just in time for the midterm elections?

Are you building up your, well, I'll age myself again, your Rolodex, your contacts list now that you're in Washington? Are you building up a bunch of people who you can go to to get the facts, maybe on background, but maybe for attribution?

Sure.

And I think the biggest thing, too, here is I've been trying to do for our audience, because the reason why people come to Town Hall, the reason why people come to people like us is they want transparency.

They want media they can trust.

And something that's been part of my philosophy with this role is making sure that things are done in a way that's above water.

Meaning if we can attribute something to a person, can we do that? And if we can't, why can't we? Figuring out the reason why we can't do that.

and still getting that info, but also making sure that we're reaching out to the right people and talking to the right people.

Are we looking for any kind of products or agreements or joint communiques coming out of this, or is this just sort of a meet, shake hands, talk about a few things, go your separate ways kind of visit?

Tell me what the mood was like in the arena during those powerful moments.

Well, there wasn't a dry eye in the room when the Gordon family came with the buddy bench and their harrowing story about their daughter.

And I think that was probably one of the most impactful speeches of the night because we weren't hearing from politicians.

We were hearing from real people who I remember there was an interview a few months ago where the family said that they were not explicitly political folks.

And then they did a hearing with the Democrats.

And quite honestly, you know, it did not play well.

Those Democrats were very dismissive of the Gorman family.

What what a moment to illustrate what this election is all about.

Where do we stand on the map in Missouri, and then we'll get to your information.

So yesterday was a really busy day.

Um, we had Justice Kavanaugh, who denied the stay that our attorney general had filed in regards to the Supreme Court decision from last week.

Um, but there was another lawsuit out there that the federal district court has now issued, um, an order saying that, that Missouri has to comply with the 7-1 map, which is opposite of what the Supreme Court...

And what the Missouri Supreme Court did has never happened anywhere in the country.

They threw out our congressional maps after the primary.

Um, what do you wanna hear out of the Republican National Committee, out of the speakers? What's the best vector, the best argument for Republicans to make to the American people over the next two days?

I think there's three things that have to be done.

What do you expect to hear from him tonight?

I think what we're really going to expect to see from him is making the dichotomy between some of the further left candidates that the Democrats are pushing and contrasting that with some of the wins that Republicans have had in the past two years, and I think especially we're going to see him nail down things like the tax cut extension, for example, right? And I also think we're going to see him highlight the border crisis and the fact that you don't really hear about it that much anymore.

The border crisis is now essentially a thing of the past, and this is something that the president will talk about all the time, that he, you know, would love to talk about it more, but, you know, people maybe want him to move on and discuss other issues.

And the reason why I say that is we're also going to be hearing from the family at Lake and Riley... tonight as well and I think that's going to be such a critical element of the night I think it's really going to be a standout thing at the convention this evening and I think that's going to draw into some of the broader themes

Do you think the Republicans have a shot in New Hampshire?

I absolutely think they do because this race was not on the map.

I've seen stories in recent weeks that New Hampshire is now a point of anxiety for them.

And it doesn't really surprise me from the perspective of the fact that, you know, they have a Republican governor.