What are your thoughts about this?

Uh, we're, we're the big spender party.

I mean, we, we spent more during Trump too than we did during Biden.

I mean, uh, Trump, one, was the biggest spender of all time, then Biden became the biggest spender of all time.

Now we're on, you know, the path to easily exceed what, uh, what Biden spent.

And, you know, the, the, the, the debt is $41.1 trillion.

I mean, 18 years ago it was $10 trillion, so we've quadrupled it in 18 years.

What are some of the other issues out there that you think, uh, is making the American public move away from the Republican Party?

What are your thoughts about this?

Uh, we're, we're the big spender party.

I mean, we, we spent more during Trump too than we did during Biden.

I mean, uh, Trump, one, was the biggest spender of all time, then Biden became the biggest spender of all time.

Now we're on, you know, the path to easily exceed what, uh, what Biden spent.

And, you know, the, the, the, the debt is $41.1 trillion.

I mean, 18 years ago it was $10 trillion, so we've quadrupled it in 18 years.

What are some of the other issues out there that you think, uh, is making the American public move away from the Republican Party?

But again, a lot of diversity, a lot of interesting thing happening on the Republican side last night in Florida.

Well, you know, Ashley Moody is in great shape.

Byron Donald's is in great shape.

I mean, it shows the strength of President Trump's endorsement.

I mean, not every single President Trump candidate does win, but he has a great batting average and it certainly is a big help in a Republican primary.

And you're gonna see these socialist positions, not just the label, but some of the things that they stand for, with the police, with borders, talking about Department of Defense getting rid of that, getting rid of prisons.

I mean, we're talking about extremely radical positions that are just way out of the mainstream, especially in a state like Florida, which has been trending a Republican.

But again, a lot of diversity, a lot of interesting thing happening on the Republican side last night in Florida.

Have sanctions worked? How long will sanctions take?

You know, sanctions have not worked.

I mean, we've had sanctions on Iran for decades, and it hasn't worked.

So, I mean, the only solution is a revolution that occurs within that country by the people rising up.

We cannot nation-build.

We should not be in the nation-building business.

We don't want to get into another quagmire.

We can't survive this kind of debt.

What stood out to you in terms of the content?

You know, what, what really stood out to me was prior to the president's speech, Wolf Blitzer got up there and gave all these awards to, uh, members of the media and, and many of them were given awards for writing stories very critical of, of President Trump.

And in some cases, the president would call it fake news, and he greeted them.

[laughs] He was very gracious with them.

I mean, and, and these were people that, uh, have been very, very, uh, strongly opposed to the president's agenda.

So that was interesting.

That happened prior to the president's speech.

... to hear from the president as this progresses?

So how do they kind of all match up?

Well, you know, Nancy Mace was gonna run, but I think she looked at it and said, no, she didn't have much of a chance, so she bowed out.

But Russell Frye is in there, Ralph Norman, two well-known, well-liked congressmen.

You've got a businessman who ran second to Lindsey Graham in the primary, Mark Lynch, who's still running.

So you're gonna have some prominent people in the race, and you've got various endorsements that have been lined up for those individuals.

The big one, of course, is President Trump.

So that certainly gives her a big advantage.

So given all of that, what impact might another Graham have on policy for the party going forward?

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THAT PARTICULAR VISIT?

You know, I think that was a big success because, you know, the president was frankly angry because obviously in the war with Iran, he had been counting on NATO allies to step up and to at least allow us to use military bases within their country.

That was denied in the UK.

So that caused a lot of tension.

When King Charles came, I think that helped smooth things over.

The president has a very close relationship with King Charles.

So, you know, that sort of, I think, got us through that period until, you know, the internal politics in the UK just sort of brought an end to Keir Starmer as prime minister.

YEAH, AND, JEFF, FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT TOO FAMILIAR WITH THE BRITISH STYLE OF GOVERNANCE, MAYBE YOU CAN EXPLAIN A LITTLE BIT WHY THEY HAVE HAD SO MANY LEADERS OVER A RELATIVELY CONDENSED PERIOD OF TIME.

Oh.

Uh, they, they were telling the lies, uh, during the, the entire debacle.

And, you know, they, they told us that w- what, what...

We had done our own research and found that things like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, uh, were effective.

That was, uh, you know, told to us that that was for, uh, animals, uh, that that was ridiculous, that that was crazy, uh, that that wouldn't help at all.

And of course, they force fed, uh, remdesivir and all of these other, uh, treatments from Dr. Fauci that were, in my opinion, deadly.

So they did a horrible job, uh, in telling the truth during this, uh, entire episode from the beginning to now.

Can you explain that to the American people?

Can you break that down a little bit as you look at the makeup of the Republican Party?

Well, the Republican Party is mostly a conservative party now.

You've got obviously still in the major metropolitan areas among Republicans, more of an establishment wing that still is in those areas.

The urban areas tend to be not as conservative as the rural areas.

So that's an interesting point because I would say that that probably helped Jackson here because you had those in these urban areas maybe wanting to send an anti-Trump message and vote against the Trump endorsed candidate.

It's not like he ran against Trump, but this could be these voters that don't support the president saying, all right, we're not gonna support his endorsed candidate.

We're gonna send a message to him by supporting the other candidate in the race.

Am I looking too much into this particular race, or does it signify any former beef that may have existed there with the president and the local government there on the Republican side in Georgia?

Is Maine potentially becoming like a swing state or if not a swing state, maybe a bellwether of what the midterms might dish out?

Possibly, I mean, you're right about the differences in these states.

And, you know, New Hampshire has that great reputation of being independent.

But Democrats have over the last, I'd say, decade pretty much had a lot of success in the Northeast.

The congressional seats are pretty much all Democrat.

You know, the state leaders are all Democrat.

But Maine, as you say, has a little bit more of an independence, not as progressive as Vermont and Massachusetts and some of the other states in the Northeast.

IS MAINE POTENTIALLY BECOMING LIKE A SWING STATE OR IF NOT A SWING STATE, MAYBE A BELL WEATHER OF WHAT THE MIDTERMS MIGHT DISH OUT?

But give me your take on what's happening in the Senate to the Republican Party.

You know, it and thanks for having me, Bill.

It reminds me of the first term of Donald Trump.

I mean, we we elected a Republican Congress and a Republican president.

We told them to get the job done and they didn't deliver.

And in 2018, Republicans lost 40 seats and the Democrats took control and they impeached Donald Trump and the rest is history.

And this time we gave him a Republican Congress and White House and President Trump's, I mean, executive orders.

And so who's going to sell better, Jill Biden's book or Kamala Harris's book?

What do you make of the security and the pageantry surrounding this event?

Well, that was really what, uh, struck me.

A lot of pageantry, a lot of, uh, ceremony, uh, a lot of rolling out the red carpet, uh, which of course President Trump likes all of that.

Uh, but I'm glad that security was heightened, because obviously the president, uh, has been receiving threats worldwide.

Uh, you know, he just had another, uh, assassination attempt at the White House Correspondence Dinner.

Uh, he's, uh, survived several others.

So we need to make sure that he's fully protected, and, uh, and that is certainly a concern when you go to a country like China.Where you have, uh, people in that country that, uh, we can't trust.

And Jeff, just wrapping up here, how does the, the meeting between Trump and Xi leave things with the Iran war?