WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Hillsdale Interview: RNC Chairman Michael Whatley

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley joins WRFH to discuss the RNC's Protect the Vote effort, this weekend's "People's Covention" in Detroit, President Trump's visit to the state, and Michigan's importance to the 2024 election.From 06/14/24.

This is Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. I'm Scott Bertram. Join now by RNC Chairman Michael Watley. Michael, thanks so much for joining us. It's good to be on with you today. I appreciate the time. There is much happening in Michigan this weekend involving both the RNC and President Trump. Talk about that in just a moment. You've been on the job for roughly three months or so as the RNC chairman. How do you think things have changed? What's the R&C look like under Michael Watprey. Well, I tell you what, we are playing offense every day.

You know, Laura Trump, my great coach chair and I are working very hard across the country. You know, the biggest thing that we wanted to do when we got in, and we obviously sat down with the president and his team and the campaign team to make sure that we are fully unified was to merge our operations with the Trump campaign and the RNC in a way that really has not been done since President Bush ran back in 2000 and 2004, and it really makes a tremendous difference that we're operating with one campaign, with one message, with one, you know, grassroots plan. That's really significant. The other thing is, and this is just a philosophical thing that I've brought to the R&C, is we can't beat all things to all people. We really need to focus on what

is it going to take to win? And so we've kind of stripped down everything that we've done, and we've rebuilt it focused on two things, getting out the vote and protecting the ballot. So every operation that we have, whether it's fundraising, it's communications, it's digital, its data is being done in a way to focus on voter turnout and registration and then election integrity because when we get out the vote and we protect the ballot, that really is the blocking and tackling we need to win this election. Michael Watley is with us, R&C Chairman. It's a big weekend in Michigan for Republicans for the R&C for former President Trump. Let's start with today. You mentioned protecting the ballot is a major initiative of the R&C and Republicans. There is a

Protect the Vote Tour that debuts in Oakland County today. Tell us about election integrity. what it means and what you intend to do with this protect the vote tour? Sure. So we think when we look at election integrity, there's three things that really have to happen. Number one, you've got to have the right rules of the road in place before voting starts. So these are things like making sure that only American citizens can vote, making sure that we have clean voter rolls, making sure that if there is mail-in-balloting like there is in Michigan, that we have protections on it. you know, the signature requirement, a witness requirement, they have to be in by by Election Day, you know, basic things that the public really truly supports in terms of protecting those ballots, you know, and we are right now pushing very hard all across the country and here in Michigan

to make sure that we have the rules of the road in place before Election Day. If we can't get it done working with the governors and the legislators and the secretaries of state, then we're going to file lawsuits. We filed 91 lawsuits all across the country right now to make sure that these basic premises are going to be in place. Secondly, you need to be in the room. You've got to be in the room when people are voting and when the votes are being counted. So we are right now recruiting nationally 100,000 volunteers to serve as poll workers and poll judges and poll observers. We're also recruiting tens of thousands of lawyers. that are going to be able to work with us and make sure that we have a presence every time a vote is being cast or counted. And then third, we got to talk about it. We got to let people know that their vote is going to be protected, that they can trust that when they cast that vote, it's going to be cast vote right way because otherwise they're going to be less inclined to go out and vote. So we're spending a significant amount of time and effort, really talking with voters, letting them know what the

RNC and the Trump campaign are doing to protect the vote and make sure that they're going to participate. So we've created a website, protectthevote.com, and we're asking everyone, you know, all of your listeners and folks all across Michigan, go to protectthevote.com and sign up, and we will get you trained and we will get you deployed. And you can help be part of the solution in making sure that we're going to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. Michael, looking at some polls, they would say that perhaps President Biden is doing better among those high propensity voters, and President Trump has some support among voters who perhaps haven't voted in a number of cycles.

This protect the vote tour, the election integrity effort, is it a key cornerstone in the effort to convince voters who perhaps haven't done so in quite a while that now is the time and that their vote will count? Yes, it really is. You know, and when you think about low propensity voters, that's really a target audience that we're working on very aggressively. You know, these are people that we expect if they go vote, they're going to vote for President Trump. They're going to vote for Republicans up and down the ballot. We just need to dynamite them off of their couch. And so, you know, we're spending a very significant amount of time right now, building out programs that are going to communicate with voters early. You know, we want to make sure that we're, we're going to make sure that we're, we're going to be able to. And so, you know, we're spending a very significant amount of time right now, and so we're spending out programs that we're spending a very when voters go vote earlier, they vote by mail, that they're informed voters. So we have shifted our approach instead of just, you know, being on the ground and working in September and October, that we're now having conversations in May, in June, in July, with voters and getting them organized, getting them informed, and getting them to go out and vote. As President Trump has

said, it is great for people to vote early. It's great for people to vote by mail. It's great for people to vote on election day, but you've got to make a plan, and then you've got to stick to the plan and make sure you deliver that vote. Michael Watley is with us. He is Republican National Committee Chairman, and this is Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. This weekend in Detroit, Michael, starting on Friday, running through Sunday, the People's Convention, a turning point event. What's happening in Detroit? Well, I think that this is another opportunity for Republicans for the president. I'm looking forward to being there myself, but to go into areas that have not typically been Republican and to communicate directly with the voters, directly with the people.

You know, the president is doing rallies in Brooklyn. He's done a rally in New Jersey with 107,000 people. We were just in California last week. We raised $12 million at an event in San Francisco. We had multiple events up and down the coast out there. You know, this is a guy. that is going to play offense, and he is going to talk to communities, black communities, Hispanic communities, Asian American communities, and let them understand that he is fighting for them and their families every single day. And when voters actually have a chance to sit down and compare four years under Donald Trump, four years under Joe Biden, that's why black voters and Hispanic voters and Asian American voters are leaving the Democratic Party by the thousands,

and they're coming across to support the president. We're going to play offense in places like Detroit. We're going to play offenses, you know, in places like New Jersey and New York and the Bronx, because every American family deserves to be able to live the American dream. Voters who perhaps don't want to vote for President Trump may say, I don't like all the noise. I don't like all the chaos. If you look at some of the major issues, though, voters care about,

inflation, something the president seemingly is unable to control, the border crisis, which the president is unable to control, these protests, these pro-Hamas protests across the country, the president is unable to control. How do you convince voters that it's Biden, perhaps, who was the real chaos candidate this year? Yeah, there's no question that the return to normal that he promised during his last campaign was absolutely not going to happen, has not happened. And I would even argue it's not so much that he can't control these events. It's that he unleashed them. You know, this election really truly is going to come down to weakness versus strength.

And we are seeing America being weak right now. Our economy is weak. Our standing internationally is weak. The president has opened up the southern border and unleashed an immigration wave, 10 million illegal immigrants that we know of, let alone the number that has come across we don't know of. It's really, truly staggering to think through all of the implications that we've seen from him. So, yeah, there are groups of voters. We call them double haters that don't like Trump, that don't like Biden. And for those folks,

it's going to come down to the issue sets that are going to determine how they're going to vote. You know, most American voters vote and talk about politics at a family level. And when you think about what is affecting American families, the fact that rent prices have doubled and housing prices have doubled. The fact that gasoline prices are up 50%, the fact that grocery prices are up 20%, you know, these are things that really truly hit American families. And it's a very regressive tax when you think about inflation, because it's hitting poorer families, lower income families, much harder than it's hitting higher-income families. And so, you know, we had, you know, 1.4% inflation, the day that Joe Biden took over, it went up to 9%.

He's now bragging about 3% or 4% inflation. That's double what it was under President Trump. And everybody understands the aggregate cumulative impact of 20% inflation over his tenure is not being matched by a rise in wages. They're not making more money to cover the. these costs, it's harder for average families to get by. Former President Trump will be in Michigan for the People's Convention this weekend in Detroit. He's doing a roundtable separate from that in Detroit as well.

Does the president and his team understand the importance of Michigan this cycle? As it was in 2020, as it was in 2016, Michigan certainly could be that tipping point state. Does President Trump understand what Michigan means to this 2024 campaign? Absolutely, he does. And that's why we're here. That's why we are kicking off our national protective vote tour here in Michigan today. Laura Trump and I are going to be in Oakland County over, you know, this afternoon over in Bloomfield Hills. You know, and that's why the president is coming up here. We have already seen him up here twice over the last couple of months. Look, this is one of the most important battleground states in the entire country. You know, we were able to win it for the president by a narrow margin in 2016. We lost it by a narrow margin in 2020. We're going to win it back,

and it's going to be a very important state in putting him back in the White House. Michael Watley is Republican National Committee Chairman. You can find more about the Protect the Vote effort at protectthevote.com. President Trump in town this weekend, and I imagine many more stops before November. Michael, thank you so much for joining us here on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7.F.m. It's great to be on with you. Take care. More of our interviews and conversations on our website, Radiofreehillsdale.com.

Click on student shows and features. And I'm Scott Bertram on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.