Grace Curley

Where at this time, every Monday we're joined by Grace Curley. Good morning, Grace. How are you? Good morning, Josh. I'm great. Thanks for having me. How are you? I'm doing well. A little bit rainy here. Not sure how it is down where you are. It's the same thing. It's a dreary day here. Indeed, it is. I guess we need the rain, though. That's what Joe Lumberg tells us. Anyway, there's so much going on in the world here. But I do want to start on the political side. We got a big primary coming up tomorrow in the great state of Michigan, where a man, Abdul El-Sayed, is running against a congresswoman, Haley Stevens. Mr. Saeed has both Islamist and socialist leanings here. And I guess it's a toss-up, but... What is your sense of that race in particular and the rise of socialism within the Democrat Party? Well, it's a very interesting race. They're both extreme characters. I mean, beyond his politics, hold on one second, Josh. I'm sorry. They're both extreme characters. And what I find interesting about this. is that with the DSA candidates, we've seen a lot of this out of New York City. We've seen a lot of it in places where they've managed to do pretty well. This is one of the areas where I think Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are getting very nervous, and the establishment Democrats are getting nervous because just because you do well in New York City does not mean you're going to do well in a general in other places. And so that's why I think it's going to be, if it ends up being the DSA candidate, In the general, I think it's going to be a real test to see how that works out for Democrats. And it's either going to be something they're really going to regret. come to midterms or it's going to be, you know, the way forward. So I think depending on how this race goes, it could be the future of how Democrats run these races. Yeah, I mean, Mike Rogers, I think, is going to be the Republican nominee if he isn't already. And this is, I think, his second go-around at the Senate in Michigan. He was a former congressman, former chair of the House Intelligence Committee. You know, if it's Mike Rogers versus Abdul El-Sayed. You know, does the Republican have the advantage in that race, do you think? Or is it a toss up? What's your sense of that? I think it's a lot closer if it is Abdul El-Sayed versus Mike Rogers than it would be if it was Stevens. I think she would be the safer bet for Democrats. But it's hard to tell. Like this is the thing. A lot of this polling, and we see this every presidential cycle, but we also see it a lot in the midterms, a lot of this polling is very close and it doesn't tell you much. And oftentimes it ends up being wrong. So.

I don't know. I would say that, and I don't just mean this for Michigan, I mean this for any race. No Republicans should be confident that they can rest on their laurels here. Everyone has to be really going full court press because it's not enough just to say, oh, this person's a socialist, oh, this person's whatever. That's not enough anymore. You have to make a case as to why you're the better candidate because a lot of people are listening to these socialists and they're being won over by them. Yeah, I mean, it is a midterm election and the party in the White House historically does very poorly. So you got those headwinds. So I think you're right on about not taking anything for granted. So over the weekend with the rise of Democrat socialism, two boomer Democrats, very prominent, Bill Maher and James Carville have basically said if the DSA is the future, they're out. They're out. Carville has said he's leaving. Mar has even said he may vote Republican. Do you think, is this fissure real? I mean, could we see the breakup of the oldest political party in America, the party of Jefferson and Jackson? I mean, it's definitely possible. Again, I think that. Part of the issue here is that the Democrat establishment often doesn't let things just play out and let people decide. And so because of that, I think they've kind of created this problem where people who are leaning towards GSA candidates don't feel as though their voices are ever heard or listened to. And so they keep running these candidates and hopes they're going to get a shot at it. Now, as far as Bill Maher and James Carville go, I think they're right to feel like they don't have a place in this party if the DSA is really going to take over. Because one of the things that Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and other people keep saying is, oh, it's a big tent, it's a big tent. But if part of that tent is antithetical to... to so many things about being an American and, you know, some of the ways that people have been brought up to love this country, if you're allowing people in the tent who, for example, are anti-Semites, then that's a problem for people. That's not like a big tent. That's an identity crisis. And that's what we're seeing here. Yeah, I mean, the big tent, I mean, the tent will implode on itself. The DSA wants to get rid of the presidency, the Senate. They want to subvert the Supreme Court and basically, you know, have what they had in France after the revolution, the Committee on Public Safety. They want to turn the House into something like that and just basically run, yeah, it's not America anymore. It's not America anymore. So I think you're... You're right. I don't think you can have a big tent that includes people who are fundamentally anti-American. I want to switch gears a little bit here. Obviously, last week, one of the big stories was Anthony Fauci's testimony or lack thereof before the U.S. Senate, Rand Paul's Committee. What was your overall impression of that testimony from the outset?

Well, I was actually surprised at how satisfying it was to... have Dr. Anthony Fauci not responding. I know a lot of people were upset, and I understand that. He should have to answer for these things that he's done. He should have to answer these questions, whether or not he's even able to take a pardon when he was granted immunity is a different story. But I found it very satisfying, Josh, to watch him have to sit there and listen to these people that he is derided and that he has mocked. for so many years, go through all of the things that he's done and all of his diary entries and just slam him. And he couldn't really say anything about it. And so that was my takeaway. I found it very satisfying to watch him squirm a little bit on the hot seat. And I don't think this story is over, though. I think we're just getting started. Yeah, I do agree. It was somewhat satisfying to watch him have to just sit there and take it, you know, given... the fact that he exposed himself. You know, I learned that he, the committee got his diary because Anthony Fauci emailed the diary several times from and to himself on his government email, which is remarkable given the fact that he's been in government since I was in elementary school in the 80s. And he should know better that once you put that on a government server, it automatically gets archived. So the hubris of this man, it just rises to the level of stupidity where he put that diary where now everybody can see it. Yeah, I was very confused at first because I thought, you know. For as many things as Sauchi lied about, I don't think that he's stupid. And so I was confused by a lot of these things because I'm like, I don't think he's a stupid guy. I think he's a deceitful person. I think that he is an arrogant person, but I don't think he's stupid. And I think you're right. I think you just hit the nail on the head. It's like sometimes when you're so arrogant, it does border into stupidity because your arrogance, it kind of you forget. the way to be careful or the way to be paranoid or the way to have common sense because you're so kind of caught up in high on your own supply that it takes over your brain. And I think that's what we've seen. It's not the first time we've seen it. Actually, with COVID, I thought a very similar case of this kind of arrogance that turns into stupidity is Andrew Cuomo. He was so obsessed with his own image and, you know, getting all this praise and going on with his brother that he wrote a book. about his horrible mishandling of COVID, which then later could be used against him. But like this is the exact same thing. You're leaving a paper trail because you are so enamored with yourself that you don't even understand how it's going to come back to bite you in the butt.

Yeah, and both men were the darlings of the media, darlings of the Democrat Party. And, you know, we all know Andrew Cuomo went down, although he went down for different reasons. They got the right guy for the wrong reasons, I think, in New York with Andrew Cuomo. But Anthony Fauci's getting a taste of it too now, where he's no longer the darling, although the Democrats, I don't think have abandoned him quite the way they did Andrew Cuomo. But both men were put on a pedestal by the media and they believed their own press. Yeah, which is one of the worst things you can do. It is kind of like with Anthony Fauci, and you know what a great point on this was Britt Hume. He said a lot of people are upset, and I'm just paraphrasing here, but he said a lot of people are upset that they don't feel as though this is accountability for Anthony Fauci, but it's important to keep in mind that this man's reputation. And the public perception of him is what matters most to him. And so there is a level of justice here where he is now. I don't care what Dana Bash and Jake Tapper and all these people have to say about Anthony Fauci. There's no question that America is seeing him quite differently, and that to him is the worst punishment of all. I agree. I said the same thing last week, that there is an element of justice. He was humiliated in front of the world at that hearing last week. Last point on Anthony Fauci. Rand Paul is going to make a referral, he said, to the Justice Department. I don't think they're going to hold him officially in contempt, but they can make an independent referral to the Justice Department to prosecute Anthony Fauci for contempt, obstruction. Do you think, is that the answer, right, to try to prosecute this guy, even though he invoked the fifth, putting the legal issues aside politically, do you think that's a road Republicans should pursue? I don't know how. I don't know how helpful it will be politically. I will say I don't I don't dislike the idea because I found that the concept of like letting the process be the punishment for people who are otherwise not going to probably see any sort of punishment. That's certainly with something that Democrats have used against Republicans. And with Anthony Fauci, when you think about. just what a liar he was and what he put the American people through. If he has to lawyer up and, you know, show up for court hearings and deal with this, I think that's perfectly fair. I think what would be actually be fair is if he did have to, if he had to be held accountable for it, but if that's not going to happen, then having to go through this process, like so many Republicans, including Donald Trump, have had to go through, I think is totally okay.

All right, Grace, we appreciate it. What do you get on the show today? We have so much to get to. We are going to be talking about what's going on in Maine with Troy Jackson. We are also going to talk a little bit about the WNBA with Sophie Cunningham. So it's going to be a really great show. All right. Tune in with Grace Curley today. Thank you very much.