The Big K Morning Show
An Hour With Political Analyst Lenny McAllister
And we'll see if we can do that. >> Welcome to Monday. This is it. The last day of September, Larry Richard with our resident political analyst who also wears many hats is Lenny McAllister in studio this hour. Lenny, good to see you. >> Good to see you as well. I like how you use that music to bring yourself in at the top of this hour. You're a force of nature. Come on in. It's just appropriate. >> Right. Like the wind. >> Indeed. >> It's been a very, very challenging weekend. You were just sharing that you spent a lot of time in North Carolina and the western part of that state was just devastated with Helene and the flooding. And you've seen, they described it as biblical two feet of rain plus. It's unimaginable. >> And the pictures that I saw on online, Larry, are places where my lovely wife and I have visited over the years. My wife's in North Carolina native. I went to college at Davidson College. The two of us had lived down in North Carolina in 2000. So a lot of the places that I have seen are completely underwater. Wendy's that we had gone to literally the whole building other than the roof is under water. There are pizza shops. One pizza place in particular that we used to love going to doesn't exist anymore. There's other areas that literally you can only see one landmark and then you don't even see the road. I-40 was shut down, a road that she and I had driven back and forth across the state of North Carolina for years. The devastation of what folks had gone through and all different types of people. I mean, there are college kids at Appalachian State University which is in Boone, North Carolina and other colleges western part of the state that are completely cut off from the rest of the world. They're literally saying that there are areas that the only way you can get in or out is through air travel. And I saw helicopter rescues and this affected at least ten states. The hardest hit, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas in particular but the flooding and devastation. Man, you just- and it just took off. I mean, it became a category for hurricane. At the last minute. Very quickly when it hit the what they call the big bend in Florida, as you know, that stretches to the panhandle which goes below all those states. And people told me that no or have relatives or friends. Some of these areas, they've lived their all their lives. They've never seen anything close to this. That surge is what it is. People were so used to talking about how hard the winds are blowing and how fast the gusts are. And look at somebody that lived through Hurricane Hugo as a college freshman. That's what we got caught up with as well. And then the debris flying around and the like. But the flooding. The periphery stuff. Tornadoes spin out of hurricanes. The flooding is a result of all the rain. And it's very easy to forget about all that when you're just trying to hunker your lawn furniture down because the winds are going to hit at 110 miles an hour. It's much more than that. Well, we'll continue to follow this story and the rebuild in many cases going to be years. In some cases, I saw before and after photos to your point of town, small little towns in the mountains and some of the valley areas where on the left you see the town that looks like a Norman Rockwell painting. And then on the right, there's nothing recognizable. The town is gone. And what's going to be very challenging and this is again, we forget about these things because our new cycles are so fast. These are towns that have maybe one or two employers in them. They only have about five to ten thousand people there. And those are folks that decided to stay there and have a very modest life there, but they enjoyed it. When you have something like this happen, there are going to be employers that say, "I can't rebuild. There's no need to rebuild." And they move on. Sometimes towns like these just don't recover and it's very easy and this is something we have to do as Americans. We can't forget about those fellow Americans that just have a different lifestyle than we do and go through something like that. And there will be, hopefully, a lot and there already has been an outpouring of willingness to help love and prayers for those people. And I know so many people here have relatives that are affected by it. If not directly, you definitely know somebody who does. And Larry, love and prayers, but also if you can afford to give up your coffee for the month. You know, $20 from everybody goes a long way. $10 from everybody goes a long way. So yes, love and prayers, but if you can't afford it, not if you can't, but if you can't afford it, please consider trying to help out. Meanwhile, over the weekend here, we continue to see candidates visit at a Christian Revival event in Monroeville, non-denominational. JD Vance was there, welcome guest. And really, whatever he had to say there was quickly. Quickly eclipsed by a visit to Premanis in north for sales, which apparently there was a level of misunderstanding and eventually he got into the restaurant. They had stopped there. I guess they didn't announce they were stopping. And the manager there apparently was really nervous about police and secret service and didn't let the men initially, but they did. And JD Vance actually was very gracious about it afterwards. He was. And that's a feather in his cap. Unfortunately, it's still a feather in his cap during the political times that we live in because a lot of people on the right, and I saw it in social media, I've seen it elsewhere, they harken back to a time, and people may have forgotten about this, but this is all baked into the political cake these days. Harken back to a time where the now governor of Arkansas, Sarah Harken be Sanders when she was press secretary during the Trump administration, was castigated at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., enjoying a dinner with their friends. They go back to a time where congresswoman Maxine Waters told people, "Don't be afraid if you see them in public to get up in their face. Don't let them in their spaces." People forget that when you have that in the background and then something like what happened at Permanis happens on Saturday, it's very easy for people to jump the gun, jump to conclusions, and just keep the animosity and divisiveness going. And unfortunately, I think that's what ended up happening on Saturday, where you have a little bit of confusion, a whole lot of hurt feelings that are in the background, and it just bubbles up to the surface all over again. That said, there is a vice presidential debate tomorrow night in New York. CBS will be carrying it here on K-T-K radio in its entirety with Lenny McAllister. We're going to have a little preview coming up next in what Donald Trump and Kamala Harris said over the weekend. They're always making news. Indeed. We need a president who cares more about solving problems than playing political games and demeaning people full-time. She's a stupid person. Stupid person. Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way. So the candidates over the weekend, just some sound bites that came out of conversations at their respective rallies. Larry Richard and with Lenny McAllister in studio, our resident political analyst. That said, Lenny, we get ready for the vice presidential debate tomorrow, live from New York 9 o'clock. By the way, Saturday Night Live started their 50th anniversary season and the premier was on Saturday and, of course, they came out with all the characters and added some new and old talent to the group. Joe Biden was Dana Carvey. Jim Gaffigan was Tim Walz. Maya Rudolph. >> Was Kamala Harris. >> Yeah, Kamala Harris and this was actually pretty entertaining, I thought. >> They were good and it's funny, you know, people will comment on the Dana Carvey Joe Biden impersonation. But again, he cut his teeth on two characters. One was the church lady, but the other one was Bush 41. And people forget about that impersonation that he did many, many years ago of at the time the sitting president not going to do it, not going to do it. >> Wouldn't it? >> Wouldn't be prudent. >> Wouldn't be prudent. >> Yeah, he actually did it so he got invited to the White House by the president and stayed in Lincoln bedroom. And then he gave a speech to the staff. >> Which is crazy. >> With Bush standing behind it, but that kind of political fun is understandable. Saturday Night Live 50 years and they kind of made a staple of, you know, doing the poking fun at all parties. >> Yeah, and that's the beauty of satire. If satire is a 360-degree view of where we are as a society, it works. And they have done a good job over the years of doing that. Now, some people are easier to do impersonations of than others. And then, of course, you have the physical characteristics. I mean, Tina Fey as Sarah Palin was just like -- >> Oh, she was terrific. >> -- comedic gold. It lined up perfectly based on everything that you needed for that to work. >> You couldn't tell the difference. >> No. They even had Ross Perot. >> Yes. >> That was Dana Carvey. >> Yes. >> Now, I remember they said it still resonates with me now. Mr. Perot, what are you going to do about the economy? Because running the economy is like having a crazy old ant living in the attic. You never knew what she's going to do. So, anyway, they're having some fun. Meanwhile, how serious business is this tomorrow night? Vice Presidents, typically, their debates don't get a lot of press, don't get a lot of interest, don't get a lot of viewership. This one may be a little different. >> Well, one, it will be different. It will give viewership. I think more Americans are engaged in the political process with these elections. I think the era of social media has allowed for sound bites from anything that you can get to be something that could be recycled in social media. Let's not forget that it wasn't that long ago that you didn't have, like, eight primary debates going into the primary elections, but with the era of the news networks and everybody being in a 24/7 news cycle, all of a sudden you start building that up and it gives candidates a chance to build momentum. I mean, that's how Barack Obama built his cache in 2007, 2008. I want to remind people that some of these vice presidential debates do make news. I mean, again, I mean, even though, in 1988, the Bush quail ticket won. Lloyd Benson told Dan Quail that he wasn't JFK. That's probably the biggest takeaway from that conversation and the fact that, yeah, he said, I know. I knew JFK. I work with JFK. I serve with JFK. And you are no JFK. I remember that. A lot of people. That was the money shot. You know, you have that. People forget the first debate in 2012. Romney beat Obama. Then you had Biden versus Paul Ryan, who was seen as the Wiz kid that was going to be the next generation of Republicans specifically on fiscal issues. He came in there nervous. He looked nervous. And Joe Biden basically schooled him. That helped turn some of the momentum around for that Obama Biden ticket. Obama goes into the next presidential debate, gets his footing again, ends up winning reelection. There are things that you can do in the vice presidential debate and either in still a better way for the ticket or cement some issues. People have issues with JD Vance right now. People had issues with Sarah Palin. That debate could either cement the concerns or give people a different perspective. And that said, I'm curious talking about vice presidential debates. Apparently, they didn't actually start doing these until 1976. Television to give you some idea of how unimportant they were believed to be. And then TV obviously gave rise to that. And television changed the tide for John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon because Nixon was sweating and looked nervous to your point. So visually, they did kind of a breakdown where they had people watching and then they had people just listening. And the people that were watching thought Nixon did a good job in that debate. The people watching said he looked shaky, shady. And people, and Larry, here's the thing. Oftentimes, folks remember the old axiom, you know, trust your lying eyes. People forget in 1960, who was the sitting two term vice president who had just had a kitchen table debate with the USSR not that long ago and did very well in that debate. That was Richard Nixon. People forget about that fact because of how they looked on television, who looked more like the next president. And it wasn't Nixon that night. It was Kennedy. We'll have more with Lenny McAllister in studio with us on the Big K morning show. And we'll do kind of a what they do in the NFL. Kind of handicap what you think is going to happen tomorrow night. Are we going to get the bookies involved? That's on you. Whatever you guys want to do. The Callister in studio are resident political analyst. I say you wear many hats. You do. I do. Literally. Plus, you're a dad. They're involved in sports bands. So you're running around seven days a week. Then you travel on top. So I really appreciate the time you're spending with us rolling into the election five weeks from tomorrow. And here we go. That said, tomorrow's next big item is the vice presidential debate. You talked about why you thought this would be of perhaps the greatest interest of one of these BP debates of all time. Let's kind of handicap it. So people around here, we don't really know too much about either candidate for that. It's hard enough that people get the details of Kamala Harris and certainly everybody knows Donald Trump. But J.D. Vance and Tim Walz. So if this was like an NFL today show, Lenny, we're asking you to handicap the game. How do you see this unfolding tomorrow night at nine? I think Walz has an easier game plan. I think Walz is -- if this were the NFL, Walz would be the team that basically says, look, just play good defense. Run the ball. No turnovers. Stay within yourselves. And you should win this game. You're favored. You have more experienced. And right now, you're kind of in pocket. Even if you look at the Walz image, he is a governor from a Midwestern state. J.D. Vance is from the Midwest-ish as well, Midwest. But he doesn't seem that way. He's a guy that comes from the venture capital world. He hasn't been in a Senate that long. He hasn't been in government that long. He doesn't have that image where as Walz does. So that, in that sense, Walz is like the home team. That has those built-in advantages. Vance is more like the upstart team that you could sit there and say, look, there's a lot of risk, a lot of reward. He's almost like the Justin Fields of this debate coming up where it's like, okay, look, that kid got an electric arm, that kid, he can run. But man, you got to make sure he doesn't turn over the ball and make bad mistakes. And that's what you've got to be mindful of. He has a lot to prove. That's J.D. Vance going into this, if it were a football analogy. So both are veterans, and I know they've kind of picked on Walz for his service for a sundry of reasons. But they're both vets. Yeah. And then he's his freshman Senator Vance. Would you say two years? Two years. Two years in. What did he do to get to where he is today? He was a mentee and a colleague of Peter Thiel, who is a student and a colleague of Peter Thiel, who is a rock star venture capitalist on the right. J.D. Vance made his rise being affiliated with him. He wrote the book that ended up becoming a bestseller, became a movie. I saw the movie before I knew anything about J.D. And so that was what launched him into winning his U.S. Senate race. And at the time when he ran in 2022, they didn't know if he was going to win, in part because they didn't know if he was going to either get the Trump endorsement or get the Trump bashing based on his prior comments. He ends up getting the Trump endorsement. He wins in November 2022. He's literally only been in the Senate for one third of his first term. But he was chosen even though, and in spite of, and obviously they're acutely aware of that, calling at one point Donald Trump ate all fiddler. This is J.D. Vance's words, not mine. But one could make the argument, and I think they did. He was more saying that as somebody part of the Republican party, not somebody as an elected official, and that was fading away as he ran for Senate, it went from there. Unlike if you look at Marco Rubio, who was also up, who I think probably should have been the VP candidate. Rubio had more experience. But Rubio also ran against Trump, also criticized Trump on a debate stage, also criticized Trump on the campaign trail as a peer. And although Rubio came with a lot more experience, and there were people within the Republican establishment that wanted Rubio to be that VP selection. And honestly, if it were Rubio versus Walls and this debate coming up tomorrow night, I think Rubio would have eaten Rawls for lunch. It's not going to play out that way with Vance versus Walls. I think Vance will get caught up in some of the pop culture and the cultural things. He's going to have to answer for Catless. Childless Cat ladies. He's going to have to answer for Springfield, Ohio in a way that Marco Rubio, who was speaker of the House in the Florida legislature before he became a U.S. Senator in 2011 and has done everything from foreign policy, a fair committee work all the way through to running for president. It's just a different dynamic because in my opinion, Donald Trump picked the wrong person. So who is Tim Walls? We know he's a governor of Minnesota. People have said that our critics that he's so far left, he's ruined that state. Minnesota was far left for a long time before he got into that office. People forget that Jesse Ventura, Jesse, the body Ventura was also the governor of that state. So everybody calmed down that this is when Minnesota has been off the rails since Walls. It's like, well, you know, you had a WWF wrestler. That was your chief executive. Hold off. We actually interviewed him here. And he's back in the game somehow. Where did I just see him recently surface? Jesse Ventura has just popped up again. Well, again, and once you're elected, they're going to come to you and people forget, by the way, he wasn't elected as part of the traditional structure. He was in a periphery outside candidate that got elected who basically kind of looked at the system and said, eh, never mind. I'm going to do it my way, which when you look at those type of examples, Larry, and they go, where do we get Donald Trump? That's an example. Arnold Schwarzenegger running in a recall election in California. That's, you know, these, we don't get places in American history just out of the blue. There are steps if you look in and, you know, back to Minnesota for just a second. I mean, Jesse Ventura is one of the steps that eventually got you to Donald Trump in 2016. So who wins tomorrow night? Not that there'll be a necessarily a clear winner. It'll probably go along party lines as to who does best. It's more along the lines of who loses. JD Vance, he has stepped in it more than walls has. These debates, particularly the vice presidential debates, are more along the lines of, do you say something in this debate that the top of the ticket now has to answer for? The number one job is to bolster the person at the top of the ticket and not create a controversy. Because if you're creating controversy as the number two, you're creating a lot of problems for the number one. And if you're looking at the polls, Trump is slowly fading behind. And the last thing you can afford coming out of Tuesday night is to have to answer for Vance and also try to bolster his case in swing states while at the same exact time trying to make people feel confident as to why he picked Vance over other candidates. Some final thoughts with Letty McAllister coming up next on The Big Game Morning Show. Now we're going to be joined by our first of five hometown heroes. You're going to meet John Vento right after the news at nine and the great work he's doing and has done. And also, Jeff Hathorn is going to break down the Steelers game in Indianapolis. I'm with Letty McAllister in studio. A little disappointing. You know, you get used to winning 3-0 and that game was within their grasp too. And they have no one to blame but themselves. You get used to seeing them play clean football games. Between the fumble at the two yard line, the fumble on the on the Fran Tarkington-esque scramble and then the snap off the face mask, you sit there and you say despite the very slow start at the beginning of the game, despite being down 17 to nothing at the beginning of the game. If you just don't do those three things, there's six points in there somewhere. And that's a win. Yep. That hopefully will be the last of that. Let's do it in September, not in December. You got the Cowboys coming Sunday night football to Acra Share this week looking forward to that. Meanwhile, want to congratulate Eileen D'Amico from Pittsburgh. She got a pair of tickets to see Stevie Wonder at PPG Paints. He's opening his 10-city tour, which is small, but his first stop is here a week from tomorrow. It's not small for somebody in their 70s, by the way. That's blind. You know, I mean, he is, you know, he's truly a wonder no pun intended if you think about his career and the stuff that he did with a disability at a time where that wasn't respected. No. And then he was not just there, which is plenty enough. He was a genius in the industry. A new podcast, The Wonder of Stevie, which is, I'm sure, really, it's amazing story. Meanwhile, electron election nomics. What is this? What is this? You're a part of election nomics. So to be a fireside chat on October 10th that is going to be hosted by Fort Pitt Capitol. It's literally going to be me and a few other experts talking about the impact on the economy and the markets based on who wins the election. And I want to make sure that people understand it's not just the presidential election. You know, the balance of the Senate is up and it's going to be a razor thin margin there. You know, the House can flip back and forth all the time. And that would also mean we might have a new speaker of the House of the Democrats retake the House. And that's going to impact economic policy for two years. And that's at a time where we're having tensions in the Middle East. We're having tensions in Europe with Ukraine and Russia. We're having markets that can be affected by that. And everything from technology to just goods and services, the transport of oil, the transport of natural gas across Europe, the transport of other resources that we need. And people need to know one, how do we shift our resources to protect our personal interests, but also our national interests, while also saying how will this play out geo-politically moving forward? Money is a big issue for almost everybody, right? Yes. Where we're going. So, Lenny McAllister, we appreciate your time this morning. You can hear Lenny Sunday afternoons here on Katie K. And in the meantime, you'll be back with us next Monday, right? I will absolutely be here with bells and whistles on Larry and of course, a cup of coffee. Outstanding. Thank you, brother. Thank you. God bless. [BLANK_AUDIO]