FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Alabama Republican Party's ALGOP Chairman John Wahl - Jeff Poor Show - Tuesday 9-17-24
I'll be dancing all upon the king. Let me drown town like the scalded. How with your talent between your religion, go to Jackson. You big talking man, and I'll be waiting man. Welcome back to the Japore Show. And if we talk 10065, they should stay with us on this Tuesday morning 251343 0106 time permitting. We will respond to any text messages you may send us away. Joining us now is Tuesday. We do this every Tuesday at 1130, typically. Sometimes we move the time around. But this is when we get to talk to the Republican Party chairman here in Alabama, Chairman John Wall. Chairman, good morning. How are you? I'm doing well. It's good to be on the show. Hey, thanks for making time for us. I always appreciate it. Let's kick it off here. Tell me the-- well, I guess we need to get to the news of the day first. Saturday night or Friday night, you have your big event. Laura Trump is there. Things seem to be going in a generally good direction nationally. Saturday, you have your meeting. But on Sunday, we got bad news. I mean, somebody else took a shot at the former president of the United States, the Republican nominee. What was your reaction? Well, I mean, at first, obviously, I think we were all shocked to say it, right? Hey, for me, it's just heartbreaking. That's 81 to think you had the first flight. So politically. I'm a highlight public, but in a very good day, especially our final feeders suppressed. The-- the-- look, the demonization of Laura, the-- the constant open hatred of him, and his policies, and his supporters. They've been telling people that he's worse than-- worse than you, a vicious world leader. So our history, he's another Adolf Hitler. He's-- he's horrible. He must be stopped. He's the enemy of democracy, all these things. And then we're surprised when the American public-- and, you know, especially people who, you know, may have some mental illness. Take that and run with it. And I think the answer is here is we have to hold those accountable for accountable. But it's not just the individuals who are doing this. It's the rhetoric coming from the Democrat party, coming from their talking and their-- their lackeys within the mainstream media, who are actually the ones who are pushing this agenda of violence and divisiveness within the American people and have really pushing a message to think. Well, Chairman, tell me this. I mean, I'm-- I guess I shouldn't be stunned, but I am. Once you see it, you're like, wow, did they really do this? Blaming the-- blaming Trump, blaming his own words, his over-the-top rhetoric, whatever it may be, they're blaming Trump for his-- the attempt on his own life. And they're not subtle about it at all. It's just, you know, Don Lemon. Trump doesn't want to be assault after as a threat to democracy. He will stop being a threat to democracy. I really-- and I don't know that this carries much weight among the American public, but I'm really kind of shocked about that reaction. Oh, absolutely. Look, we are dealing with some of the most corrupt and some of the most evil people in the entire world. They would stop at nothing to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. They genuinely believe in their rhetoric and their message to socialism. And they think that the end justifies the means. And I think this is a problem. They take a very clear issue. It's very obvious that there is a law-sidedness within the press today. Look at the debate. Look at the moderators that debate how they were clearly biased towards Kamala Harris and clearly were negative towards Donald Trump. It doesn't take a genius to know. There is a double standard. There is unfairness within our press today. And when you take that into consideration, then yes. And their immediate reaction, instead of remorse, instead of sorrow, instead of, oh, my goodness, this is a dark day in America, it's blamed Donald Trump. And I want to just ask everyone out there, your listeners, but the American public, how do we think the press would react if someone attempted-- if a Republican attempted to take Kamala here at this point? I mean, even when they get in that realm, it was funny, Chairman, Sunday morning shows. You had one guest on MSNBC outright compared to up to Hill. Or just, I'm just going to say it, whatever. Data Bash was sitting there with JD Vance and saying that by saying that these Haitian migrants are eating people's pets, that that was inciting the Proud Boys, that was inciting the KKK. They're going to show up at Springfield, Ohio. It calls all kinds of mayhem. And these are all hypothetical. We're all like, this is all possible because of you. And then it just sort of just is like this benign opposite reaction to when the former president of the United States actually gets shot at. Right, the double standard. And it's also a lack of accountability and a lack of personal responsibility. The threat somehow don't believe they need to take responsibility for anything. But I'm going to submit you, this is not the first time we've seen something in this magnitude that the press is responsible for it. So think back to January 6. This is their golden issue, right? Republicans, Trump supporters went against democracy on January 6. But when I'm at the question, what was that root cause? What made the people do what they did on January 6? My answer is very clear. I think it was the press. So for 18 months before that, the press had been telling people it was OK to riot, burn buildings down, take over full city blocks. They're heroes. It was OK to do that for a just cause. And then they were surprised when the other side of the aisle, they'd been praising Democrats for doing this. And then when we're public, if it's something similar, all of a sudden it's oh, it's horrible. They're being destructive. And I'm not necessarily defending what some of the people that on January 6. But the double standard is how the press treated it and reported on it goes just how out of touch they are with their power and what it can do. And I think this is the problem. They are the ones who incite things. They are the ones who propagate violence, propagate anger and hatred. Look, it's like you said, if you have a reporter on hearsane, I'm just going to say it. Donald Trump is bad as Adolf Hitler. Well, then is it not the duty of that? If that statement is true, and if that true, then would it not be the duty of people to try to kill Donald Trump? And I think that's where we're at. The press have reached such a frenzy in their hatred and such a frenzy in their demonization that it is literally inciting people to attempt to kill a leader and the nominee of the Republican Party and a former leader of the free world. And I think this is an incredibly scary kind and incredibly serious issue. And it's something where we need to hold the press accountable. They are partially responsible. This is the second time. They did not curb their rhetoric after the first one. And I think they need to be held accountable not governmentally, but by the American people for their action. They're joined by our Republican Party Chairman John Wall here on the program. Moving on here, and I think it's important to talk about, you had your big event over the weekend. Let's start out with the dinner. You raised a lot of money for President Trump and other Republican causes. But I mean, I mean, very, very, probably surprisingly, for me at least, a successful dinner. No, it was incredibly successful. And I love it because we do very well here in LA on the political, on the conservative side. We're winning a lot of races. And I felt it was very important. It was a little bit different model than the party would normally do. You know, the president's a race actually, having a fundraiser and helping raise money for a nominee. But I felt like it was incredibly important because what's good to do if we win, if we win in Alabama, if we lose the country. And I was very proud of the fact that we, you know, obviously, go to Trump with our speaker. She did a tremendous job. And we were able to work together with several partners and raise over a million dollars for Donald Trump campaign. That's a very good night. It's actually double what the Trump team were hoping to raise here. And I was glad to see Alabama deliver. And once again, raise our profile and make sure we're a part of the national conversation in spite for the future of the century. - Yeah. And then yeah, I mean, Bill, talk about that in a relationship. The state party has with the Tennessee Junior Center. Bill Haggerty, he has been out and about throughout the state of Alabama over the last six months or so though, but kind of fight the good fight. - Yeah, absolutely. And you know, what I like about Senator Haggerty is he comes from a background in finance and serves as Trump's ambassador to Japan. And he really does have a hard to make a difference in, you know, across the entire country. And he's been coming to Alabama quite a bit, just helping with things. And I think he has a bright teacher. You know, it would not be at all be surprised to see him serving in Trump's cabinet. Either as, you know, potentially Secretary of the Treasury or even Secretary of State. So I think he, you know, obviously he's ambitious. He's trying to help cause the conservative thought he's trying to help Donald Trump. And I was glad he was able to fake it to this event. And even more he introduced to the State of Alabama and also introduced Alabama a little bit to him. I think he's got a bright teacher. And I hope one day we see him in an actual position. - And then on Saturday morning, always an important part of your, you know, your twice a year gathering. You had your, you had your business meeting. Talk a little bit about that. You know, what's the mentality I was there? It seemed to be, it seemed to be very, I'd say optimistic where things were headed. You didn't have one kind of mildly controversial resolution, but everything else seemed to kind of go on and get along. - No, I look, the Alabama Republican party is very united. You know, we're not having issues that some parties are across the country where there's division between, you know, where the grassroots doesn't feel like they're listening to. That's not the case there. Alabama Republican party is a grassroots organization. I'm a grassroots chairman. We believe in fighting for our rights and freedoms and defending the principles that the party stands for, helping our candidates win. And building the bridges, the relationships with the across the board. And I think that's what you saw Saturday morning. You saw a party that was very united. You know what our goals are? Our goals are to help Donald Trump win, win at CD2. And then in districts across the state, as well as standing for good policy and making sure that our platform is strong. And if we're standing for the issues that Republicans will lead in. And I love some of the resolutions we passed. You know, we passed a resolution supporting women's rights and women's privacy as resolutions. You're talking about socialism, how that's not good for the future of our country. We passed a resolution of posing to decrease casinos across the state. And you know, asking for the state to crack down on the illegal gameplay that we have, that's, you know, destroying local communities. So I think overall it was incredibly good meeting. I'm very strong. We passed a lot of good conservative values that we're gonna fight for. And then also got organized to make a difference on the election front. - So what do you say to this? And this happens from time to time. And every time the party passes a resolution they've all a particular issue. In Saturday it was sort of the Jennifer Lovern position, the wife of Joe Lovern. But that you are by the party taking a stance on an issue and it was the gas tax at one time. I remember gambling this time. There's probably been some other things along the way that the party taking a stance sort of undermines those who are elected to make these decisions. I mean, you know, what's your opinion on that just as a general principle? That I think the party does play a role in policy but there's something to think you need to leave that up to the elected lawmakers, your Republican lawmakers, the officials to kind of determine. - Well, I would answer that with two things. The first being, the first being you don't hear that about any other group. You never hear about the state, you know, elected officials saying, oh, we don't wanna hear the business association, we don't wanna hear from the real letters association or the trucker's association or whoever it might be. Why wouldn't they wanna hear from the party? Every other group and organization out there elects their opinion, they don't. Why would we silence the Republican party, the most powerful political organization in the state of Alabama? Of course, we should just be able to hear our voice and have it respected. But the second part of that is good. The party itself in our opinion has no weight and should have no bearing on an elected official unless that elected official runs as a Republican. And if they choose to run as a Republican and use our brand that the party owns, then they do have a duty to listen to the party and to follow our platform. They can run as independent if they want, they can run as a Democrat. But if they choose to run as a Republican then there is absolutely a duty and a need to be respectful of the party and the value to represent because it is the party brand and it is the values that the party stands for that have saved our organization so successful. It's because we fight for people's rights and freedom to defend their values. - I mean, in the role of the party, I think in the eyes of a lot of elected Republicans is as such, like your job is to win elections and you're a political apparatus. When you start getting into policy, that becomes problematic. We're the policymakers. We're the ones who kind of set that course. Does the, should the, how invested in policy and thinking about positions on these things should party members be? - Yeah, okay, so I think there's a very different view traditionally and historically that's actually the opposite. It's always been the party that has set the platform. Both at the federal level and the state, that the party absolutely had the role in policy, otherwise it would not be a platform. People recognize the values that the Republican Party represents when they're going to the ballot box. They're voting for candidates who are Republicans because they deal with Republican Stanford. And so the party has always had a role in policy and it always has to in order to be effective. - Chairman, we gotta leave it there for, let you go. Folks will find out more about the Alabama Republican Party. How can they do so? - Well, we always love to interact with folks. We're on all the major social media at Alabama Republican Party. And then of course, our website is A-L-D-O-T dot org where they can sign up for updates for the help volunteer as we fight to take back this topic. - Chairman, we'll do it again next week. Thank you always for your time. - Good to be on the show. - Chairman, Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wall, we'll be right back. This is FM Talk, 1065. (upbeat music) ♪ And they go all of my defenses ♪ ♪ Just leave it up to you and get on ♪