Brian Schimming on 2024 RNC Impacts, Energy of Republicans

Frederica Freyberg:
The state Republican Party is riding high after the big event in Milwaukee. Its chairman, Brian Schimming, is here, and you do look like a pretty happy guy. A little exhausted.

Brian Schimming:
Yeah, I’m a little exhausted but I have to tell you. I’m so proud of Milwaukee. I’m so proud of the state of Wisconsin. We were able to pull off an excellent, four-day convention right here in Wisconsin. And as you know, Fred, I’m a native here. I’m a homer. So I wanted this to be good for the state, for the city of Milwaukee and it was. The security considerations, they were just — security was great. The cooperation between the city and the county, and of course, all the law enforcement agencies, the chamber, the visitors’ bureau, just fabulous. So I’m just so excited. And I had people after the RNC meeting this morning from other states — big, you know, convention states like Chicago and LA and Atlanta, whatever, coming up and saying this was the best convention they’d ever been to. So I’m so proud of Wisconsin this morning.

Frederica Freyberg:
Yeah, super high praise. So a month ago, could you ever have foreseen everything that has happened in this race for president?

Brian Schimming:
Right. I said at our press conference yesterday that they’ll be writing books, not about the campaign, but the last three weeks, you know, alone, much less the whole campaign. Of course, the tragedy of the shooting in Pennsylvania, which, which really pulls at you, you know. I mean, you have people that were there to support a candidate. It’s not a partisan thing. It’s people who came out to this rally. So the tragedy of that rally and then obviously the debate were within 90 minutes a, a political party, my friendly adversaries on the other side, the Democrats and their candidate completely collapsed within 90 minutes. I’m not sure I can think of a parallel to this in recent history. Anyway so the Democratic Party and Joe Biden went from the kind of confidence that Joe Biden would be the candidate to the calamity of that debate, to the crisis they now sit in, all within a couple of weeks. I honestly, I can’t think of another time in recent history where so much was packed into so little time. And then to top it off for us, having a successful convention, I think by any account, it’s really, it’s — we’ll be talking about it for years.

Frederica Freyberg:
What’s your comments on Wisconsin Congressman Democrat Mark Pocan telling Joe Biden it’s time to pass the torch?

Brian Schimming:
Well, what I would say to my friend Mark Pocan is, “Where have you been?” I think the truth of the matter is, my adversaries on the other side of the aisle have known all of this about Joe Biden for a very, very long time. And he’s incapable of being their candidate’s candidate. Frankly I’m not sure he’s capable of being president right now. And I don’t make that, I have relatives of my family who have memory and other issues, so I don’t make that charge lightly. I think you have an incapable candidate and an incapable president right now. And the dilemma that, that the Democrats find themselves in here is that we’re in July of the election year. We’re not in July of last year. We’re in July of this year. And the challenge that they face right now is we walk out of this convention unified and they’re spending the weekend not knowing what they’re going to do next. Historically, it’s an amazing moment.

Frederica Freyberg:
What would be your reaction to, say, Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket?

Brian Schimming:
Right. So I have been saying about the vice presidential — potential vice-presidential debate between her and J.D. Vance, that if people see me walking down the streets of Wisconsin with a folding table, it’s because I’m going to sell tickets to that debate. And so I think that would be the same case no matter where she is on the ticket. So here’s the Democrats dilemma. They have a four-year president who, you know, won every primary and caucus, is a sitting four-year incumbent, where now well over 70% of the people say he shouldn’t be running. The difficulty is, is Vice President Harris’ numbers are very, very similar. So they don’t really get some huge advantage.

Frederica Freyberg:
Brian Schimming. We leave it there. Thanks so much for your time.

Brian Schimming:
Thanks for having me.