Political Scientist: Trump Would Have Been 'Better Off' If He Cut Two Thirds Of His RNC Speech

5 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," political scientist and University of Chicago Professor Emeritus Charles Lipson discussed former President Trump's speech at the RNC.

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Transcript

00:00I'm yeah I mean well he walked out at the RNC to a different song twice

00:05Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA and Donald Trump many have pointed out he

00:13looked different at the RNC he looked like he was misty eyed at some points

00:18his smile he people have described him as more human what do you think of him

00:23at the RNC and the RNC as a whole especially when this event less than 48

00:28hours from the kickoff of the RNC was the backdrop I thought that the RNC but

00:36was a tremendous success for what they were trying to do and it was very

00:41focused and on point and the least focus and least on point was Donald Trump's

00:47the sort of second half of his speech I completely agree with you by the way the

00:52first part of that speech when he was recounting for what he says is the first

00:57and last time what that experience of being shot was like he looked reflective

01:05serious the the motto of Aristotle is know thyself that's what it looked like

01:15I didn't think that the second half of the speech did him any good because it

01:22ran on too long if he cut two-thirds of it he would have been much better off

01:27but my favorite moment I didn't watch all the convention as they say I have a

01:32life to live but but I thought my favorite moment at the convention was

01:38the priest who did the imitation of Donald Trump before he did the

01:44benediction and you could just see the smile on Trump's face and I thought

01:50having his granddaughter well there were two granddaughter moments one was a

01:55great speech by the granddaughter I thought the granddaughter speech was

01:58better than her father's or her uncle's but seeing Donald Trump with the young

02:06granddaughter on his lap was a very humanizing moment it's in a way it's

02:13kind of sad that we think about electing leaders because of these more

02:22personalistic elements but we do and and I think that helps Trump now and

02:29hurts Biden now I think that's a really interesting point because there were a

02:35few speeches like Laura Trump's like the granddaughter Kai Trump of hey despite

02:41his mean tweets despite maybe some tweets you don't like some rhetoric you

02:45don't like he's my grandpa he's like any other grandpa he sneaks me candy and

02:49soda he's a great father-in-law he's great with my kids so what do you think

02:55the strategy of like you said humanizing Donald Trump was well I think that the

03:04point the main point of the convention was to draw sharp policy contrasts with

03:11the current administration and to say as Reagan did in effect about Jimmy Carter

03:18are you better off now than you were four years ago or you're safer are you

03:22more prosperous and so forth and it's clearly now Trump's party and what what

03:29what strikes me is both the transformation of the party into a kind

03:34of working-class populist nationalist party under Trump that's by the way the

03:41reason I think that he picked JD Vance because he he is the emblem of that

03:50transformation and he will ensure that it continues into 2028 and beyond but I

04:00also think that the Democrats are still running against the party of George HW

04:08Bush every time they talk about tax cuts and so forth it's all for the rich

04:13they think they're running against country club Republicans but but

04:17Republicans don't think that and I don't think that independence in the country

04:24think that but I don't I a final point I don't think that this race will be

04:31fundamentally a positive race I think it will be a plebiscite in which people

04:37vote negatively either about Biden or whoever replaces him because Biden's

04:44policies are not idiosyncratic they are mainline Democratic policies and because

04:54of that I don't see Kamala definitely can't run away from him she's the vice

04:59president it's the Hubert Humphrey problem in 1968 how can you run away

05:04from Lyndon Johnson right and all the other Democrats supported it and they

05:10were part of a cover-up they all knew that Joe Biden was declining

05:15cognitively and physically and they and the mainstream media covered it all up

05:22so it's very damaging to them

Political Scientist: Trump Would Have Been 'Better Off' If He Cut Two Thirds Of His RNC Speech

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