Politician Refuses To Act Like A Pig, Returns Campaign Cash

0:00So generally, when you donate to a political campaign, you kiss that money goodbye. Yeah. You don't see it again. No, no. It's like a game. You don't think that you're going to, you're going to get it back at some point. No. Well, that's not what my cox is doing. Hey, you know, the former attorney general was running for governor here in the state of Michigan. He dropped out of the race. He said that once Donald Trump endorsed John James, it was, it was a snowball that just kept accumulating snow as it was rolling. And he said it changed the race. And he dropped out and through his endorsement behind John James. And of course, now John will lead the ticket for the Republicans here in the state of Michigan. But now my cox is actually returning campaign contributions in a unprecedented scenario. And my cox says that he is honoring the intent of donors who contributed to a like Tim governor, rather than using leftover funds for other political purposes.

1:02And my cox joins us this morning. Mike, it's good to have you. This is a, I got to tell you, when I read Nolan's piece, I had to read it three times because I didn't know what I was reading. What, what possessed you to do this? It's a sad day when you aren't being a pig and people think that's a big idea. Yeah. Now, I, you know, Nolan, I was kind of shocked when he called me. I just thought it's what you do, right? Every other race went down to the wire and quite frankly, I blew every dollar. You know, if you wake up the day after election and you have one dollar left in your coffers, there's something wrong, right? Because it's like, you go all out. And as I explained to Nolan, you know, I had a first horrible poll July 3rd, where John had jumped up 15 points. The first poll we had done after Trump endorsed it. We had been in a tie.

2:03And you know, and Perry and I both spent over four million dollars hitting John over the next two weeks. And we did another poll and it was exact same numbers. And I just knew I was cheating my donors, cheating my supporters to stay in to offer them a false choice. And you know, some people gave me flak, but I did everything like in the moment. And I went back and I thought to myself, I have some leftover money. And so I'm just going to return every dollar that I got from July 3rd on. You know, they took a chance on me. And when I got the, when I got a second poll, you know, I don't trust one poll, but you get a couple polls in a row. And we're hitting John and Trump has totally inoculated him. It was a sad day when I, you know, when I had to give up, but I didn't want those folks paying for it. And I just thought that had been wrong. And yeah, you know, Michigan candidates, you know, can legally redirect remaining campaign

3:05money in several ways should returning unspent donations, you think, be mandatory instead of voluntary? I don't know. That might be a little too hard and fast. I haven't really thought about it other than what I thought was the right thing to do. You know, you can like give it to party groups and things like that. And I think that's legit. And if you totally clean out your, if you totally wrap up your campaign, you could give the money to charity. But I just didn't want to be one of those people who is three years from now. I'm living off someone's dollar. Yeah, I'm taking my wife out to the, you know, Hyde Park for stake and someone else's dollar three years from now. That's just not me. And it was kind of embarrassing and became such a big story. Especially, you know, we got big stuff going on with, you know, our education scores drop in and people struggling for healthcare. So I hope this is just a one or two day story and people go back and say, hey, I, let me,

4:09you know, I think John James is the right choice for the next four years. So that's, that's what I hope. I'll be honest, like, I hope it's not a three day story. I hope that this permeates throughout the country. I hope candidates that are seeking a higher office and, and maybe don't end up in that spot. Look at what they got in the coffers and go, yeah, let's bring it back to the people because I don't need it anymore. Right? This race is over. And if I decide later on to run again, I'll go ask those people and you know what you've created goodwill with people. You created a trust with people that you're not going to take your beautiful wife out to for a stake and on their dime. So I, I, I, I, I really, I, I'm telling you, I, I couldn't believe when I read this. Now, my question is why not just then use this money in another way, in another political way. Why not throw it behind this candidate or this candidate that you're supporting? Why? Why actually take the step and return it? Well, I am, you know, I've been very fortunate since I left office.

5:10I had some big cases I did well. So, you know, two thirds of my money was my wife's in mind. And, and so I'll, I'll get like some TV money back because the nature and you, maybe you guys, it's probably similar and radio, you, you, you pay, you pay, you pay and the inventory doesn't all get spent. So I'll get some of that back. And I'm going to form a pack and, you know, I'm going to help Republicans like Tony, Fort Leigh, and Doug Lloyd, people in the house and John James. But, you know, like I said, so there, there's legit reasons. I just didn't want to be those guys. Like I said, three years from now, you, you see me, you know, getting a bottle service at some place. I don't, I don't even know what that I've been in a place with bottle service before. I'd have to ask you guys about that. I guess I don't know, but, but if, you know, I just didn't want to be that guy. And so if that starts a good trend, great.

6:12Well, that starts a good trend, great. And you know, we all know that you were the former attorney general. Are there any changes? Can you think of any changes you would make to, you know, Michigan law to give donors more control and hold these former candidates accountable for these leftover funds? You know, Lloyd, I don't know what the right role would be. I guess it would be that no more than X percent could be kept right after Election Day. But you know, usually people leave campaigns open. And like, for instance, Perry Johnson got knocked off the belt in 2022. This campaign still kept in, you know, it still had a little money, he kept money in it and stayed open. So I don't know, Lloyd, I have to think about that a little bit. And I say the, what, let's just let you try to look at that. But boy, they're having the hardest time just doing some simple things. So yeah, that's exactly right. But, you know, but I'm hopeful, you know, I'm hopeful, you know, that we get some new

7:15leadership. And I hope folks, and again, Chris, you know, I agree with you people. Not be pigs give the money back to donors, women, where appropriate. But, but like right now over the next, you know, five, six weeks, we something about, hey, do we want our kids to stay here? If we do, I tell people you got to vote for John James, right? If you really want education to change after eight years of sliding, why do more of the same? You know, if you want health care prices or become competitive like other states, you know, we need, we need an administration, a Republican governor, a legislature, they're going to push competition. And so we don't have, you know, we had 43 health care insurers in our state in 2013. Now we're down to 11. And, you know, you know what that means? That means less competition and more higher premiums. So it was a nice story that you got to want to reach out to me. But we got some, we got some big stuff to do here in Michigan.

8:16Yeah, there's no doubt about that. Like we appreciate you. Thank you as always making yourself available. We'll talk soon. All right. You thought I was taking care of you too. I agree with you, don't Chris man. Let this story continue because some politicians need to hear this. Now, unfortunately, that's not going to happen. No, I know. Unfortunately, that isn't what's going to happen. But that, to me, shows you who these leaders are. Sure. More than not. And of course, he's going to, he's got money that he's going to spend elsewhere. That's not, it's in this certain timeframe that he was, that he was still accepting donations. But again, it's irrelevant. The fact that you were turning any money is, is that spectacularly unbelievable? Come on, man. And again, like you know me, like I think one of the biggest issues in this country is all the money that's in politics. Yes. And then when you get to office, how you're able to somehow enrich yourselves and, you know, you don't have any sort of experience in stock trading AOC or Nancy Pelosi. But somehow you're multi millionaires.

9:18I don't, I just didn't think you made that much money. Coming up on the other side of the US military, discussing a smaller footprint in the Middle East, we'll talk about it coming up this year morning.