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Frederica Freyberg:

For their take on the Republican presidential primary debate, two veteran politicos. Our political panelists Republican Bill McCoshen and Democrat Scot Ross. Thanks for being here guys.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Thanks for having us.

Frederica Freyberg:

First to you Bill, what was your take of the debate?

Bill McCoshen:

I liked it. As a former hockey coach, I like the fact that they competed for the nomination. You can’t teach kids to compete and six of them I think brought their “A” game. I didn’t think Hutchinson or Tim Scott did, but the other six really competed to try and get this nomination. My ranking of the debate the other night would have been Donald Trump number one. He didn’t get hit at all the whole night. Ron DeSantis, number two. I would have had Vivek Ramaswamy number three and Nikki Haley number four and Mike Pence number five. There’s a couple problems with a few of them. One was Trump. He wasn’t there, right? We’ll see over time whether or not this hurts his big lead nationally and in the key states. I think it will. Number two, Ramaswamy. He tried to fill the outsider lane which Trump has fully filled. The one thing the moderators didn’t ask Ramaswamy was when he said Donald Trump was the best president in the 21st century, the follow-up should have been, he’s in this race so what are you doing in this race?

Frederica Freyberg:

Exactly.

Bill McCoshen:

Nobody asked him that. The final one is Mike Pence. Scot Ross has more chance of getting the Republican nomination than Mike Pence does. The MAGA voters will never allow him to be the nominee, so I think it’s time for the former vp to exit stage left.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you think about that?

Scot Ross:

If this is just an excuse to try and get me to go to Milwaukee next year, that’s not the way to do it. What I saw was what the American people saw, which is agreeing with Bill on the fact that Donald Trump, you know, came in second. Joe Biden came in first in that debate because what you saw was a group of people trying to clamor for Donald Trump’s approval while issuing opinions that are just so beyond what the American people are supporting right now. The American people do support abortion rights. The Republicans will have a nationwide abortion ban. The Republican Party opposes climate change and doesn’t believe it exists. We saw that in the just terrible lack of raising hands and that sort of thing. Overall, I think the big news there was that Ron DeSantis turned out to be exactly the paper tiger that Donald Trump said he was because he had absolutely no impact in that debate other than letting us know that any single time he’s asked a question, he’s going to answer it in a very surly, snarly way. I will say the thing about Ramaswamy, when you get me to root for Mike Pence during a debate because you’re being so irritating, I think that’s a feat well done.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scot, I want to ask you this. Mordecai Lee just said in the report that we had on the debate that Republicans have a deep bench of impressive presidential hopefuls to the extent he said that Democrats should be very, very afraid. What’s your response to that?

Scot Ross:

The Democrats have Joe Biden to run this time. He is the incumbent president. He has created 13 million jobs. He has helped build an economy from the ground up and from the middle out that is helping all of Americans to try and thrive in these trying times. The fact is Democrats don’t need a good bench right now in 2024 because they’ll be running in 2028 with a whole new candidate.

Bill McCoshen:

Joe Biden is 106 years old. I mean, you have no bench at this point in time. I agree with Mordecai on this. The one actually who impressed me the most but probably won’t last much longer was North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. I thought he was authentic. I thought he had really smooth answers. The reality is he probably won’t meet the thresholds for debate in California in September.

Frederica Freyberg:

So Bill, how does Donald Trump maintain such a commanding lead even as he turns himself in for arrest on his latest indictment?

Bill McCoshen:

There’s too many candidates in this field. The reality is those that did not qualify for the Milwaukee debate should already be out of this race. Those who do not qualify for California when the standards get raised should also drop out. The notion that this will get decided in New Hampshire or South Carolina or on Super Tuesday is nonsense in this cycle. This cycle is moving faster than any in our lifetime. If those who want another alternative other than Donald Trump to be the nominee of the Republican Party, if you are supporting someone other than Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley at this point, you are wasting your time and your money. The others need to get out so that we can consolidate this race.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you say about Donald Trump having this commanding lead?

Scot Ross:

It shows that the Republican Party has lost its mind because this guy was unfit in 2016, he was unfit in 2020 and he remains unfit and indicted in 2024. The thing about — the debate the other night that you noticed is whenever, from my perspective, any of those candidates tried to articulate a position that seemed even reasonable, they disqualified themselves from winning the actual primary. The thing that Nikki Haley said about how she was trying to talk about abortion and talk process on it and why it might not be able to be possible. And, and Chris Christie, the things he said. They can’t win the nomination now.

Bill McCoshen:

You’re going to see Nikki Haley’s numbers move with women. She moved my wife. She had the right answer on abortion on that debate stage and the other seven boys on that stage ought to pay attention to what she said if they want to win.

Scot Ross:

She had an absolutely minority opinion. 70% of Americans support abortion rights. She may have had an effect on some women in the Republican Party, but the fact is the vast majority of Americans who are voters support abortion rights.

Frederica Freyberg:

Bill, I want to ask you this. Speaking of indictments, as we just were, Wisconsin’s false electors and the architects of that effort figured prominently in the Georgia indictment. Can Wisconsin retreat from the madness of all of this this time around?

Bill McCoshen:

Well, we’re still scheduled to be one of the five key swing states next year, but that could change. I’m not totally convinced Donald Trump could be competitive here. There’s no evidence to suggest that he’s grown his coalition, if he is in fact the nominee for the Republican Party. Moreover, his style, the sledgehammer style of literally smashing his opponents within the Republican Party is so against Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment, it does not play here. We may not be Minnesota nice, but we’re fair here and Republicans will not respond well if Trump destroys DeSantis or Haley personally.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scot, can Wisconsin retreat from the madness?

Scot Ross:

I don’t see how because Republicans are hell bent on keeping whatever power they have and gaining whatever power they need to gain. We’ve seen that across the board. I don’t see how, with the way the Republican media machine works in terms of articulating these things that seem — the Democrats aren’t just wrong on issues; they’re evil. That’s a problem and that’s not going to stop and Donald Trump, certainly at the top of the ticket for as long as he is at the top of the ticket, is not going to change that unfortunately, for all of us, for democracy.

Frederica Freyberg:

It is kind of true, people aren’t just wrong, they’re evil. Right?

Bill McCoshen:

Republicans have to get away from the notion of owning the libs. Let’s sell an agenda. I mean, you want to bring people to your side. Ultimately campaigns, winning campaigns are all about addition, not subtraction.

Frederica Freyberg:

We need to leave it there. Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross, thank you.

Bill McCoshen, Scot Ross:

Thank you.