Why Did Trump Pick This Loser to Run a Swing State?

Hey, everybody. It's Tim Miller from The Bulwark. We, this running series we've been working on about the craziest Republicans running across the country. There's been a lot of attention, a lot of conversation in the mainstream media. That's some of these lefty populist candidates and their streamer friends and there's a lot of back and forth about that and people like to talk about that and the crazy Republicans have become like this dog by its man story where it's like, "Oh, you have insane insurrectionists. They want to end democracy. They want to be governor of Pennsylvania. Why should that be on CNN?" We don't want to talk about that. That's not interesting anymore. We've been there done that for 10 years and so we want to highlight all of these people. So folks have a one-stop shop to learn about them. So far we've talked about Mike Collins. Interesting story today. He had a staffer who was a Nazi twink. So anyway, that sort of supports a lot of the white supremacist stuff he was doing. He has Zach Lane, the Kansas sex toy investor and then Andy Biggs, probably the craziest of all running in Arizona. We have a fourth candidate, the third that is running for governor. All these candidates have run statewide. We want to focus on Stacy Guarady. She is the state treasurer in Pennsylvania, which is a little concerning. She's kind of think about the book balancing in Pennsylvania. Luckily, she got Josh Shapiro to kind of check her math if necessary. And I've brought Joe Pertakone, our congressional reporter, author of the press pass newsletter on to help teach me about all the craziness of Stacy Guarady. He has an article out Teday says we are not prepared for election denying swing state governors. And if she was doing better than her polls say, Stacy Guarady would be one of those. Joe, thanks for helping me out on this one. Glad to be here. All right, Joe. I want to get into her election denial since that was what you wrote about. But just give me the basics on Stacy. She's she's the treasurer. Big Trumper. Big Trumper. The way she kind of became the frontrunner and then ultimately the nominee was very strange. She was at a dinner with Lancaster County Republicans and Scott Perry, one of the key architects of the stop the steel component on Capitol Hill. Well, the Randy Biggs, a previous focus of the series. Yes, Freedom Caucus guys. And he goes, hey, President Trump's got a question for you. And she's like, all right, I got to pick up the phone. It's got Perry. And there was one question. And she answered it correctly because after she answered it, 20 minutes later, Trump put out the endorsement on true social. We don't know what the question was. She hasn't said. I could guess who won the 2020 election. Will you approve the renaming of the finger lakes? You know, she she got here just by like doing the yes sir to Trump. But she did that long before. Very much into election denial. All of that. And now she's the nominee for a major swing state. Though of the big swing state, gubernatorial nominee, she's not doing so hot. Yeah. Latest pull has her down by 16 to Josh Shapiro getting mod. Yeah. I will use to be long to know it's mauged. Kind of we're just kind of updating what the word word of choice is if you're if you're losing that by that much. Guarantee. So when you talk about how she's been a yes or Mr. Trump. So for a while now, let's take the clock back to January 5th, 2021. This is something that people I think forget because you know, on January 6th of a mob of Trump supporters storm the Capitol beat up cops and you know, tried to hang my pants. But on January 5th, there were a series of rallies at state capitals. I'm trying to pressure the state legislators. And Stacey Garrity spoke at one of those in Harrisburg. And a lot of these candidates were very active and Garrity was just yet another one. And that's sort of how she got this start into being one of the big MAGA figures in a dwindling kind of MAGA world in Pennsylvania. Yeah, many insurrections, you know, little Harrisburg insurrections, a light, some light fair. Okay. Then in 2022, she's at a Dr. Oz campaign rally. And again, Trump is not on the ballot in 2022. Dr. Oz ends up losing, in case we all forgot about that. But she's one of its surrogate. So let's take a look. So I'm telling you, this is the first time we had a Republican treasure in 20 years. And the first time a Republican beat a Democrat incumbent since 1988. And I have President Donald J. Trump to thank for that. He gave me three shout outs. I spoke it to the rallies. I love the pledge. It was incredible. And we know that he won. We know that he won. That's our in 2022 years after he lost to Joe Biden. It's a little slip up there. John old Trump. Well, I mean, you heard it there when she was next to John old. She said, we know that he won. And that's how like this was like really early on. There were some people who were just like not talking about it. She, you know, was really carrying it on when he was very unpopular heading into those midterms and got much worse after. And she really didn't stop with the election denial, as I'm at that point. Kevin O.G. kind of a hipster election denier. She's like the January 5th election denier, not just January 6th. So good on her. The Epstein files. We had to kind of a series of issues this year. She's continued loyalty to Trump, no matter what. She's not distanced herself from him on anything. Like we've seen from some of the mega folks, one of the issues that we saw a handful of people distanced on was the Epstein files. Here was Guaradi on a radio show when she was asked about that. Jasmine Crockett. Did you hear her statement that she made a statement at a hearing and she went through a list. They're trying to, the, the Democrats are trying to fight back on this Jeffrey Epstein stuff. And she runs through a list of people who took Republicans, who took money from Jeffrey Epstein. It wasn't the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. It was people named Jeffrey Epstein. I did see that. That was crazy. I don't know why they're even making such a big deal about it. You know, that was kind of a miss by Jasmine Crockett. I will say several misses for her this year. But of note, Guaradi, not saying they're well, I think the file should be released. I'm concerned about the cover up. Her position is I don't know why they're making such a big deal about it. That was kind of how it was going on Capitol Hill. So it's interesting that and then definitely in like the conservative media sphere. So like on Fox, they were like, why are you guys still talking about this? It's part of the modern party lit mistest where everything the boss says you have to agree to. Or if the boss doesn't want to hear something, you can't say it. Data centers is another one that has been a hot button in these in these races. Earlier this month, she was asked whether she was out of line with Trump on data centers. It's an interesting way for the reporter to phrase that question. And Stacey says, of course, no, I don't think I am. You know, I think we need to get state culprits across the table, et cetera, et cetera. She is fine, you know, with data centers, as long as Mr. Trump's fine with them. Maybe if he changes his mind, she will. She also said that she was a chump for Trump. She called herself that. I mean, I don't know how much more analysis is needed here. Long story short, Stacey Guaradi running for governor of Pennsylvania, not like House, where she's saying I'm going to vote for everything that he wants. Like so many for governor of the state, saying basically whatever Trump wants, I will do. That's kind of alarming if you get into a situation in 2028, like we had in 2020. Yeah, you look at like chain of possession on ballots and things like that or or managing recounts or deciding whether or not the elections are certified at the state level. The fact that Guaradi is one of five election deniers running for governor right now, you know, she doesn't look like she's poised to win, but it could only take one. And so it is very concerning to see someone like her. She got the nomination because Donald Trump told the Republican voters of Pennsylvania to make her the nominee. That is basically how he's usurped the kind of state party system. This message is sponsored by Upwork. One thing I've learned from working in media is that you can't do everything yourself. I've tried. It sucks. I failed. 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But he said after 2020, when he lost to Gary Peters, he was like refused to concede and he was saying there are regularities, not just in Trump's election, but in his own. He's shown to, if he doesn't like something, well, then it can't possibly be real. And then the other state is in Georgia, where you have this healthcare executive, Rick Jackson, because he is from that business background. There isn't this deep legislative record. But one of his opening ads, when he launched his run for governor, was to compare Brad Raffinsberger at the Georgia Secretary of State, who did certify the election to compare him to Judas. So if you want, if you want a good understanding of how he feels about the 2020 election, there you go. So, Gary, total Trump loyalist election tonight, or just a couple of the other issues worth mentioning. And I guess all, all this stuff kind of is under the Trump loyalist umbrella, because all stuff that the administration has done, but she said it was absolutely the right thing to do to end the ACA subsidies, which had real impact on Pennsylvanians on how much they were paying for healthcare, access to healthcare, and economic stuff on the tariffs. Gary said that the Trump tariffs would be fantastic. And then on the economy broadly, she said that things are trending in the right direction. And so I, this is really a darling Graham situation. Some of these other folks who we've been talking about, like Zach Lane and Andy Biggs and Mike Collins, like they are terrible in their own unique ways. Stacey is kind of terrible just in, I will be a vessel for Trump in some way. Comparing Biggs and Gary, Biggs, I know, and have covered for a decade. Biggs is a true believer in all of this stuff. And Gary strikes me as someone who understands what the game is in the modern GOP, and what you have to say and what you have to do to get along. And I think that's a little scarier because you don't know what their limit is. I mean, you look at someone like Thomas Massey, you know, everyone, he thought he was very similar to the Freedom Caucus guys, and he clearly had a limit, Marjorie Taylor Greene, clearly had a limit, a lot of these true believers, they have like a line that it's very, it's very far away from everybody else's line, but it does exist. And I think with someone who has just a political opportunist, there is an align, there's just, I'm doing this because this is the only way to get ahead. And that's what they want. That's the end goal. Yeah. I talked to the Sun T and L a little bit about the Norman Graham race. And he was offering that like, well, since Norman is like so extreme, and this is a long record of far right views, like maybe Graham, you know, is more preferable. I give the counter view, which is like that, like, like Trump could try to whatever, make the Baron a dictator and stay security and darling Graham will go along with that. Like Ralph Norman, who is contemptible in a lot of ways, did, you know, vote to release the Epstein files. Most of the Hill Press Corps would have preferred Ralph Norman to win because he is very honest in candid when he talks. And that can help give you a better understanding on the actual pulse of the party and of the Senate Republican conference. And someone like darling Graham, you really don't know. You really have to wait till Trump tells her what to say. And and and Gary strikes me as the same, same breed. Since you covered Biggs for 10 years, since in the series, do you have any, any, well, Andy Biggs stories that you want to add to some land up to the video? He knew that I went to Arizona State. So despite working for the bull work, he was always very good about answering my questions. And he probably thought that like my family lived in Arizona, not true. So he was like worried about votes. Um, Biggs, oh, Biggs is always nice and candid. And I think that's it. That's another thing with members of Congress is like if they know that you have a connection in any small way to their state or their district, they are way more nice and amenable, even if they're not good people. You know, some of them, for example, Biggs is extremely nice and amenable to like the polygamous pedophile cult in Arizona, because you know, they're constituents too, you know, Joe. Some of the worst, uh, politicians in this country are the nicest people at least when you're doing your job. So Biggs was good in that respect. Um, but in terms of like, you know, how it applies to cut the country and the state of Arizona. Probably not too great. That's Joe Pertekom. We appreciate his reporting always on the hill. Go get that press pass newsletter. If you're looking for succinct manageable, dishy, fun, interesting update on what's going on on the hill. Joe Pertekom's got you covered. So go sign up for that at thebowlwork.com. Appreciate your brother and every subscribe to this YouTube feed. We'll see you all soon. Bye.