'This Week' Transcript 1-28-24: Sen. Tim Scott, Gov. Gavin Newsom & Gen. CQ Brown
Interview
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Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we all should be. I mean, what -- what more evidence do you need? I mean, here's a guy who lost the election, Trump, and tried to wreck the country. He's lighting democracy on fire. He's making democracy a partisan issue. I never imagined that in my lifetime.
So the consequences are profound and pronounced. And that's why I'm down here, because this race has started, and we need to lift up the issues, the successes -- the extraordinary successes of the last three years, the Biden-Harris administration, and then we drive contrast.
It's not even a complicated campaign. We have the receipts. We have the best three-year record of any modern American presidency, period, full stop. And you look at the issue, issue by issue, they poll overwhelmingly, the American people support --
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... what Biden has done.
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Yeah.
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Everybody -- everybody -- we're all -- everybody's approval, across the spectrum. You find exceptions to that. Look, it's been hard, globally, the last six, seven years. But, again, America stands tall with a tent pole, the world economy, no peers economically, again, a master class of delivery. The economy is booming. Inflation is cooling. And of course, the economic strategy, as this president's put together, were all things Republicans dreamt of, but never delivered. He's delivered.
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Well, I think you have to deal with the cards that are dealt. You've got to deal with the reality on the ground. And you have to have a comprehensive conversation around this, across the spectrum, the push and the pull.
And that's around the fundamental issue, immigration reform. It's not just border security. The president put out a comprehensive strategy, a pathway to citizenship along with lines of their former hero, Ronald Reagan, to address the reality on the ground. We have a plan, a $14 billion plan, right now, to get more judges to process people more efficiently, more quickly, provide security down at the border, 2,300 new border agents.
That's what the president of the United States has put up in front of Congress. And they refuse to act. They're just promoting an agenda to disrupt and find a crowbar to put in the spokes of the wheels of the Biden administration to disrupt any progress on this because they don't want progress, period.
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Disqualifying.
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Laughable. Laughable.
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And we've also seen poll after poll -- I'm not naive about this. I take the threat of Trump and Trump very seriously. I've never been on the other side of that argument.
That said, this is the weakest candidate to run a major party in my lifetime. He's coming in deeply damaged.
Democrats, we win. We keep winning. We've won all these elections. Post-Dobbs, different -- but hold on.
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But look at the polling -- look at the polling.
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Look underneath the hood on the polling. Look at the New Hampshire polls. Look at some of the national polls.
Republicans say if he's convicted -- all those things you said are true and he's convicted and the likelihood of conviction is, what, 98 percent?
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We'll see.
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We'll see. But I mean, at least to one of those four, right, of the 91 charges, one of those four.
The vast majority -- I mean, yes, a substantial plurality of Republicans now, at least a large percentage say no, no go. I think that's a huge red flag for Donald Trump.
He is weak. He is more unhinged than he's ever been. He's less disciplined than he's ever been. He's less interesting.
I find him less interesting. It's not even as entertaining as he was in 2020 or 2016.
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I have to be, I'm worried. But you know what? You've got to control the controllables. Got to control what you have to control. Right now, it's getting the vote out.
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I --
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Yeah, I think when you -- again, when you try to suppress choice and voice, it tends to backfire.
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Yeah. So, I don't get consumed by that. And I'm not here on behalf of the Biden administration thinking about that. I'm a simple guy, and --
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But what I mean by that is I look at -- for example, let's look at No Labels. I took the time. I encouraged people to talk -- look up what are they for? And I thought, wow, this literally reads as the accomplishment list of the Biden/Harris administration. So, I -- they're a solution in search of problem I respectfully submit.
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I appreciate you noticing.
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It was a year, it was a year and a half ago, and I don't feel that way anymore. Absolutely not.
Look, the -- when Dobbs hit, that was a wakeup call because one thing we've learned with this anger industry on the right wing is illusion dominates facts. It's narrative trumping facts.
That's why Trump himself uses the courtroom as a campaign stop. It's to dominate the narrative, and I would hope that Democrats learn a little bit about communication strategy by flooding the zone and starting to get back on our feet in terms of dominating the air. That's exactly what Biden has been doing. It's exactly what Harris has been doing on issues related to choice and it's exactly why I'm here.
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Okay. What would happen to any of us?
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All right.
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Well, we know that. She's the vice president of the United States, absolutely, by definition. If something happens to me, it's the lieutenant governor of the state of California.
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Oh, come on.
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I mean, we spent -- and we've all spent time with Biden. Spent time with him for --
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I mean, three hours on photo lines and three events a day, and then giving speeches. Are you kidding? At 80 years old to be in that kind of health?
I have no issues whatsoever. And, by the way, I'm an old-fashioned guy. You know, I think Bobby Kennedy said it best. What the world needs are the qualities of youth. Not a time of life, a state of mind, a quality of imagination. That's Joe Biden.
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