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

0:00Hey, everybody'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 lights of premise that stuff he was doing. He gives 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

1:01for governor, all these candidates have run statewide. I 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 today 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. Oh, I'd 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 the treasurer, Big Trumper. Big Trumper. The way she kind of became the front runner 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

2:03of the Stop the Steel component on Capitol Hill. Say, how are the Randy Begs 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 got here just by 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. So of the big swing state, Governor Toriel 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 shlong to know it's mauged.

3:05Kind of we're just going to update it. What the word of choice is if you're losing it by that much. Guarantee. So when you talk about how she's been a yes sir, Mr. Trump so for a while now, let's take the clock back to January 5, 2021. This is something that people I think forget because on January 6th, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol beat up cops and tried to hang Mike Pence. But on January 5th, there were a series of rallies at state capitals trying to pressure the state legislators and Stacey Garity spoke at one of those in Harrisburg. And a lot of these candidates were very active. And Garity 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, some light, some light fair. Okay, then in 2022, she's at a Dr. Oz campaign rally.

4:08And again, Trump is not on the ballot in 2022. Dr. Oz is in sublosing, in case you all forgot about that. But she's on the 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 at two of the rallies. I love the pledge. It was incredible. And we know that he won. We know that he won. That's her in 2022 years after he lost a 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 denialism at that point.

5:12Kevin Oji, kind of a hipster election denial. She's like the January 5th election denial, and 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-fogs, one of the issues that we saw a handful of people distanced on. It 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.

6:13I 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. You know, 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 and then definitely in like the conservative media sphere. So like on Fox, they were like, why are you guys still harken 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 cul-jeers across the table, etc.

7:15As she is fine 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 any 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 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.

8:16She got the nomination because Donald Trump told her 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. There's a point where you have to recognize what you're good at and then find people who are experts at things that you're not good at. That's where Upwork comes in. Upwork gives you fast access to highly skilled freelance professionals who can help fill critical skill gaps, who can launch projects faster and who can give your team the expertise that it needs without committing to another full hire. You can find specialists for everything from marketing and design to software development and implementation and business operations. You can browse profiles or review past work and hire people with proven track records. Also, you can feel confident that you're bringing in the right person onto the project. And if you need the best of the best, well, business plus gives you access to the top 1% of talent on Upwork. It's AI Power. Chart listing can deliver a curated list of top freelancers matched to your goals in under six hours.

9:22So you're not spending days scrolling through profiles. And folks, I've been there hiring is so difficult. I've scrolled through profiles and it is a pain. So visit Upwork.com right now and post your job free. That is Upwork.com to connect with top talent. Ready to help your business grow. That's UPWORK.com. Upwork.com. So, Gary D. Biggs and Tom Tiffany, who we get to in a future edition of the series, our running for governor of Wisconsin. The three of them were very enthusiastic. Like, election deniers, like not just going along with it, but at the rallies, you know, signing legal filings trying to cancel the legal votes of citizens of their states. Who are the other two that you're following? Michigan got John James, who kind of like has coded Normie sometimes. He lost two center races in a row, which usually is, you know, take the hint. We're not going to let you statewide when that happens.

10:22But 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 Raffensberger, the Georgia Secretary of State, who did certify the election, to compare him to Judas. So if you want to, if you want a good understanding of how he feels about the 2020 election, there you go. So, Gary, total Trump loyalist election denier, just a couple of the other issues worth mentioning. And I guess all of 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,

11:22which 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 that 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 as in life. The comparing Biggs and Gary, Biggs, I know, and have covered for a decade. Biggs is a true believer in all of this stuff. And GaryD 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 it along. And I think that's a little scarier because you don't know what their limit is.

12:26You 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 is 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 17L a little bit about the Norman Graham race. And he was offering that, well, since Norman is so extreme and has this long record of far right views, maybe Graham is more preferable. I give the counter view, which is like Trump could try to whatever, make the Baron a dictator and Stacey Garrity and Darley Graham will go along with that. Like Ralph Norman, who is contemptible in a lot of ways, did vote to release the Epstein files.

13:27Most 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 Darley Graham, you really don't know. You really have to wait till Trump tells her what to say. And Garrity Strikes me is the same breed. Since you covered Biggs for 10 years, in the series, do you have any, any, little Andy Biggs stories that you want to add or some Lan-Yap to the video? He knew that I went to Arizona State. So despite working for the Bullwork, 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. Biggs, oh, Biggs is always nice and candid. And I think 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

14:29not good people. You know, some of the examples Biggs is extremely nice and amenable to like the polygamist pedophile cults in Arizona because you know, they're constituents too, you know, Joe? Well, some of the worst politicians in this country are the nicest people. It means at least when you're doing your job. So Biggs was good in that respect. But in terms of like, you know, how it applies to the country and the state of Arizona, probably not too great. That's Joe Pertica. We appreciate his reporting always on the Hill. Go, 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 Pertica has got you covered. So go sign up for that at thebowler.com. Appreciate your brother and everybody subscribe to this YouTube feed. We'll see you all soon.