On "Forbes Newsroom," Steve Forbes gave his take on the first night of the RNC, how the GOP is leading a major political realignment that is seeing working class voters pouring in, the assassination attempt on former President Trump, and more.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis with Forbes Breaking News. Joining me now is a man who
00:07needs no introduction, Steve Forbes. Steve, thank you so much for coming on in.
00:12Good to be with you, Brittany. Thank you.
00:14Of course, we saw a historic first night of the RNC, and this came less than 48 hours
00:20after President Trump survived an assassination attempt against him. So what are your thoughts
00:25of the first day of the convention?
00:27Well, first, to me, it was a stark contrast to a previous convention in 2012 when Mitt
00:33Romney was nominated for president. That convention was dominated by appearances by entrepreneurs.
00:40Now, many of them were very inspiring and the like, but what Romney forgot is, yes,
00:46some entrepreneurs, yes, but people see these people as bosses, and most people aren't bosses.
00:53By contrast, this convention had plenty of everyday people, typical Americans from all
00:59kinds of backgrounds. You had the Hispanic lady later in the convention confessing very,
01:06very shyly that she had not voted for Donald Trump in 2020, but she's seeing the light
01:12and gave the reasons why she's doing it, supporting him, and speaking on his behalf in 2024.
01:17So it shows the difference in terms of the attitude of the candidate towards the base
01:22of the party, the evolving base of the party. So it was very impressive. You have Trump
01:27making an appearance, dramatic appearance, and people, he obviously was still shaken
01:34a bit by what happened, but the fact that he showed up, he climbed the stairs with no
01:39problem, that he sat through the talks for over an hour, I think demonstrated that he's
01:46very much in the game, and he didn't have to say anything. That'll come Thursday night,
01:50but I think that was a great capstone to an extraordinary convention evening where
01:56he had many interesting speeches, mostly short in length, but I think, and with the band
02:02in between, kept an audience that normally you'd quickly lose on these things.
02:08I want to touch on your point a little bit about the contrast to who the speakers we
02:12had last night opposed to the ones in 2012. Frank Luntz made this point on Twitter. We
02:18witnessed the realignment of American politics Trump-style. A, do you think that's true,
02:23and B, what do you think this indicates about the future of the GOP?
02:27Well, I think it reflects what started with Trump's candidacy back when he announced in
02:332015, a true broadening of the base of the Republican Party. Republican candidates in
02:38the past have done very well across the board among various American groups. As the Teamster
02:43president pointed out last night, in the past they've endorsed Republican candidates, going
02:48back to Richard Nixon. But I think there's a depth of support now. It's not just a one-off,
02:54but a depth of support for the Republican Party, with the Republican Party seen as the
02:58party of not only entrepreneurs and business people and middle class professionals, upper
03:03middle class professionals, but also working Americans, in a way that it had not done before,
03:09while still emphasizing economic growth. That's the key. I don't think Trump is ready to sacrifice
03:16tax cuts. He's made that very clear. He's going for deregulation, which is critically
03:21important. Boring subject, but absolutely critical now, with the regs that are now destroying
03:26the economy. So it's an effective broadening of the party in a way that you really haven't
03:32seen in that kind of depth, I don't think, since Franklin Roosevelt recreated the Democratic
03:37Party in the early 1930s. Everyone thinks the Democrats are always pro-labor, blah,
03:42blah, blah. But no, in the late 20s, it was a very different party than what Roosevelt
03:46created in the 30s. You touched on this briefly, but there was a historic first at the RNC
03:52last night, and that's Teamsters President Sean O'Brien was talking to the RNC. He addressed
03:58the RNC, first time a Teamsters president has done that in over 120 years. What are
04:03your thoughts? Well, I think it's very indicative that he realizes he's no dope, obviously,
04:09recognizes the sentiments among many of his members, that they don't feel they have a
04:14home in the Democratic Party anymore. They don't want to be taken for granted by the
04:18Democratic Party anymore. And so they're giving a very serious look to Republicans. So he's
04:24smart enough to know if you want to influence policy, you've got to show that you're willing
04:29to be there when they might need you. And so it's reciprocal. And the fact that he said,
04:36even though I know he's pounded tables, he said, that's not the way you get things done.
04:40You try to sit down with various people. And he also had said in previous cases, nice
04:44things about J.D. Vance, the vice presidential nominee, as somebody who's a different cut
04:50than what you'd normally find in the Republican Party. What do you make of J.D. Vance? Because
04:55yesterday, probably the biggest news of the day was former President Donald Trump officially
05:00announced his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. What are your thoughts? Well, Vance
05:06is, whatever you think of his positions, is a remarkably complex and interesting individual.
05:13The dysfunctional, very dysfunctional background he came from, he wrote a book called Hillbilly
05:18Elegy on it. Remarkable book. But thanks to a high school counselor, he then went in the
05:24Marines, straightened out his life, graduated from a college, summa cum laude, and then
05:31went on to Yale Law School, practiced in business for a while before he went into politics.
05:37A man trying to find himself. So a brilliant man, and I think that means that he brings
05:43a nuanced view of things that I think can bode well in the future. So I don't, he's
05:52not the cardboard caricature that you're going to read about, and I think he's a man who,
05:58as John Maynard Keynes said, when the facts change, he'll respond to changing circumstances.
06:03He's also a lot younger than Donald Trump. He's 39 years old. He's more appeals to the
06:10MAGA base than someone like a Governor Doug Burgum, who was a top contender as well. So
06:16given his age, given his stances, what do you think the future of the GOP is under a
06:22Trump-Vance presidency and administration?
06:25Obviously, that's going to depend on the success of Trump's second term, in terms of rebuilding
06:32a military that badly needs it. We live in a very dangerous world today, the most dangerous
06:37since the 1930s. And also, though, getting the economy growing again. So I think the
06:43Republican Party, in terms of its economics, in terms of other issues, is in a molding
06:49phase. And so that's going to depend on how that goes. As for his age, he is the youngest
06:54vice presidential candidate, I think, since Richard Nixon, back in 1952, when he was chosen
06:59by Eisenhower. He was a national figure for a variety of reasons, including finding spies
07:05in the government, won national fame, and survived a huge scandal. It was a BS scandal,
07:14but he had, on his own, Nixon to go on national TV, convince the Republican National Committee
07:20to buy the time to make a case. The Republicans were ready to dump him. So he showed his toughness
07:25and survivability back then, even though he was only 39, first time on that kind of national
07:31stage. I think Vance is exhibiting, looking at his past, that kind of inner toughness
07:37that can get you through the inevitable turbulence of national politics, especially these days.
07:44I want to switch gears a little bit, talk about Democrats, President Biden in particular.
07:49He has made increased calls for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt against
07:53President Trump. What do you make of President Biden's response to the situation on Saturday?
07:58Well, he gave a national speech on Sunday night. There were the flubs there. There was
08:05still the occasional vacant stare. And it did not come across as the kind of thing that
08:11you would have expected from, say, a Ronald Reagan, especially after the Challenger disaster,
08:17a very different thing. But it did not have the kind of gravitas. And then he goes on
08:23and does an interview with NBC, where he is back again using the same old rhetoric against
08:31Trump. And they did the same thing with Vance, oh, against the working people. So you expect
08:37some of that. But for a guy who's just coming off of what could have been a huge disaster
08:43for the United States, saying we must have unity and calm, he didn't exhibit much of
08:48that in that testing interview he had with Lester Holt. So I think that gets to a very
08:54real question. Will he be the Democratic nominee? The pundits are now saying he survived the
08:59crisis. I think events are going to eventually force him off. Don't ask me what they'll be.
09:06You can't predict these things. But I think the Democrats are going to realize you cannot
09:11have a man in his condition leading, thinking you can do another four years, much less getting
09:17through the next six months, especially when you have Donald Trump with what he did surviving
09:22on Saturday and how he quickly responded to it. And the young, vigorous J.D. Vance, who
09:28I think will do very well in a debate against Kamala Harris, a man of real substance. So
09:35I think people are going to say, where do we want to take a chance? Every vote in a
09:39presidential is taking a chance, like Reagan in 1980. Hard to believe he was portrayed
09:44as this kook from California, even though he successfully managed the largest state
09:48in the union. People have very real doubts about him. And we had that one debate with
09:55Carter, and people said, the country's troubled. We'll take a chance on him. I think people
10:01are going to now take a chance. Trump showed he could manage the presidency, so he's not
10:06going in as a rookie. And people are going to want to have something different, more
10:10positive. And one thing that got overlooked was a rally that Trump had previously in Florida,
10:15where he gave a very real pro-growth economic message. And people are looking, not just
10:21for specifics, you know, 10-point position paper and that kind of stuff. They're looking
10:25for, can we get this country moving in the right direction? They want to have a positive
10:31attitude. They're sick and tired of this name calling and the apocalyptic view that the
10:37world is coming to an end. It is not coming to an end. But this election has very, very
10:42real impact on what direction we're going to take, profound impact. And people want
10:48a positive approach, not the negative end-of-the-world approach.
10:53Steve, you've been calling that President Biden is going to drop out. He's not going
10:56to be the Democratic presidential nominee for well over a year now. After that presidential
11:02debate at the end of June, I mean, those calls were loud for two weeks. An assassination
11:07attempt against President Trump was the only thing that has quieted those. So you're saying
11:12you think those calls are going to be renewed?
11:14Yes. And I had to do a little laughing when some people said, well, it'll take Bill Clinton
11:21and Barack Obama to sit down with Joe Biden to get him to withdraw. Those are the last
11:26two people you want to go and just give you one little thing. When you had that op-ed
11:30in New York, the New York Times, by the famous actor George Clooney, producer, movie producer,
11:37saying, oh, Biden must withdraw. Everyone knew that was Barack Obama speaking. And I
11:45think that hardened Biden's resolve, certainly hardened the first lady, Joe Biden's resolve
11:52that they're going to stay in. Those are the last two. And Clinton worked against Joe Biden
11:57in 2016 when he wanted his wife Hillary to be the Democratic nominee. Biden's haven't
12:02forgotten those slights and those behind-the-scenes clashes. And so those are the last two you
12:08would send in. But I think circumstance, not pleadings, are going to force a change.
12:15Steve, before I let you go, we are now sitting in day two of the RNC. Former President Donald
12:21Trump is expected to speak on Thursday. He told a reporter he ripped up his speech that was largely
12:28critical of Joe Biden. He's going to be speaking on a message more of unity.
12:34What are you looking for between now and the end of the RNC?
12:38I think what we saw last night was a positive outlook from all parts of the nation. And on
12:45Thursday night, I think the tone is probably going to matter more than the words themselves.
12:51And what the unity shouldn't mean, we don't have debate. But what people want is a substantive,
12:57vigorous debate about the direction of this country on a whole slew of issues,
13:02national security to the economy, regulation, and the things that concern people. What direction
13:09are we going to take? Character of the American nation. That's what they want a substantive
13:13discussion of. And so they want it done in a civil tone. And so if Trump can lead the way on that,
13:20then the Democrats saying, oh, this is the end of democracy. We've got Hitler coming in and all that
13:25kind of stuff. They're not going to be able to play the scare card. They're going to have to
13:30respond with substance. And what's amazing, and I'll sound partisan, but so what, in terms of
13:37things like the electronic vehicle, EVs, that getting rid of the internal combustion engine
13:44has never been debated in the public square. It's been done by diktat, by regulatory decree.
13:53And if so, if you're going to make a fundamental change in transportation like that,
13:59that should be done with the consent, with the knowledge and consent of the governed. And that's
14:05what the Democrats have skirted, trying to do things through regulations in the old days,
14:11through court decisions, instead of appealing to the governed. And so I think that's going
14:17to put them in an awkward position, especially now that the Republicans have, I think,
14:24effectively taken the abortion issue off the table by not putting it in the platform.
14:29Even J.D. Vance, who's very pro-life, said, as an interim, you accept 15 weeks. You got to bring
14:36people along. Win people over. You can't do it by diktat. And so I think the Democrats are going to
14:42go for substance. And I think a lot of the substance people are going to say that's not
14:46the direction we want to go. Steve Forbes, I certainly appreciate your insights always. I
14:52know our viewers do as well. Thank you so much for coming on in.
14:55Good to be with you. Thank you very much for your time, Brittany.