everybody. I'm Adam Sexton political director here at W. M. U. R. And
welcome to News Nine Politics Plus. Where we chat about the week's
political news bringing in my colleague john Distaso political reporter from
ensconced in his castle there in new uh new boston. And uh john let's just
bringing in some discussion of uh one of the biggest things that happened
this week are big discussion pieces. Was this a sit down meeting that corky
Messner organized of potential U. S. Senate republican candidates to take on
Maggie Hassan. This was something that ended up taking a lot of incoming fire,
basically a lot of criticism. What was the outcome you saw in your reporting
essentially from this meeting?
The outcome. That's a good question, adam, that's what we're waiting to see.
Uh I don't think there was an immediate outcome. Uh Several of them went into
the meeting, several of them came out of the meeting and went about their
business and continued to uh do the same homework research that they were
doing before uh to arrive at a conclusion as to whether they're going
to run. And those who those who were there of course were uh Corky himself,
Bill Binney, who was the host of the meeting at one of his office in
Manchester Senate President chuck morse frank into was there. And um that was
the extent of those who were in the in the room not declining to go, was
londonderry Town Manager kevin smith who had a previous commitment and
Commissioner of Education frank. It'll blue. Why understand? Just wasn't
feeling well, I I don't know really the details about why he was not there.
Uh, you know, what will happen as a result of that? Quirky says there will
be more discussions. I we shall see, I don't know that there's going to be an
arrival at, you know, Sort of white smoke rising where one candidate
emerges as the consensus candidate. I think we will see a primary and if
there is a lot, then we will see a primary anyway, because the general Don
Bolduc is in this race. But, um, whether there will be an additional
primary among this group remains to be seen. You mentioned the white smoke
there, this is the one opportunity. We would you be able to use the word
conclave, uh, in political coverage, probably, you know, democrats tried to,
you know, make some father out of this. They really felt like they had a wedge
here to say, oh, there's a closed door meeting, you know, to the extent that
people might care or not care, ultimately. Does this, does this hurt
them at all the eventual nominee? If it maybe if there's some sort of
appearance of a closed door meeting to decide the nominee? Well, you know,
closed door meetings are have happened in the past, maybe less so in recent
years, but it's just, this was sort of an open. That's true. Yeah. People were
taking pictures inside. Yeah, the door was not open. It was it wasn't a it was
still a closed door meeting, we're going on and it was publicized. So the
democrats had a tracker outside, they were filming videotaping, chuck,
Morrison, quirky and frank went well, hurt.
Sure, it will be a talking point. But ultimately, you know, next year from
now, I don't know that it's going to have a major influence on how the
voters vote. Uh, we'll just have to see if there's really gonna be a if there
really is a further discussion. I just think those who are, who are there are
there to be polite, corky's uh, intentions were, I believe true. Ah and
they showed up, they shared some information, they talked about the
vulnerabilities of Senator Hassan who obviously is the ultimate target and
probably got less mentioned than she should have in all of this. And uh, but
are they, will this result in, Okay, I'm gonna step back and you go ahead
adam, you know, I'm not gonna run at him. It's it's all you, you know, I
don't I don't I don't see that. I think they'll make their own individual
decisions based on their own circumstances, money,
you know, name recognition at center, all the factors right? And certainly
it's anything I don't know, it certainly was interesting, kept us busy
for a few days. Yeah, exactly. And you know, if there is a primary, I'm sure
these candidates will do a decent enough job criticizing each other that
potentially this would be maybe we'll look back on this and be like, well
what what if what could have happened had they all agreed. But who knows? Um
let's move on to a very interesting visit that we got from former Vice
President Mike Pence who made a very busy swing through new Hampshire
several meetings, some that were open to press, some that were a little bit
off the record. Um and you know, big speech in Manchester, big fundraiser,
you know, you've been doing this a long time uh and all offer my observations
here in a second. But what do you think about how the Vice president and former
vice president approached this visited at least stylistically. We don't
usually see when these, these sort of big time, big name people who come out
of a former White House, sometimes it's hard for them to reconnect. It doesn't
seem like pencils having that problem here. It was very retail for, for
someone who is a former vice president. Um uh you know, you were on the scene
so you can give me your your view as well obviously, but from what I saw ah
he was pretty laid back. He he had, there is goodwill here. I tried to talk
to some of the folks who were very much who are very deep um trump supporters
to see if there's any hard feelings. Now obviously I can't interview
thousands of people out there and there probably are some hard feelings still
from january 6th by some who felt that incorrectly, that Vice President Pence
should have somehow blocked the, uh, the, uh, the vote, the electoral vote
from, from being uh, finalized, but he couldn't do that. But if you, I talked
to Corey Lewandowski and uh, representative fred to set, um, al
Baldesarra who's about as hard for trump as you can get all three of those
are, and they felt that there'll be no hard feelings as for the style of Pence.
I think he's laying the groundwork in a very typical, but, you know, effective
way In case he runs and he's saying all the right things. I know I'm, I'm
thinking about 2022, which he is. So if he can help republican republicans here
all the better for him post midterm elections, it's something we've seen as
you well know at it happens all the time. Yeah, I would add in, you know,
in my observation, it seems like it's difficult sometimes for, you know,
those who are very high up in any administration, a former vice president
or a former secretary of state. Uh, it can be difficult for them to sort of
get back down to the grassroots level and really, you know, do what needs to
be done in new Hampshire in terms of, you know, events that may be small, you
know, and that was the event that, uh, the former Vice President did in Candia,
There was a home builders holiday party, that was, you know, low key and a nice,
you know, a few dozen people event, but it didn't have any pomp and
circumstance to it. People were enjoying a nice little fire outside and,
you know, charming fair farm, it was kind of a nice rural setting, you know,
there was no indication or anything like that, that, that this had to be
some sort of big event. Pence was right at home, love talking to people. So it
was interesting to see that he very has quickly, his sort of shedded whatever
need that any high level administration person might have for sort of, as I
mentioned, that sort of pomp and circumstance, it's generally probably a
good indicator for him as he moves to Lamar alexander. No, no plaid and
although, you know, he's being advised by chip Saltsman who helped out Lamar
alexander back in 96 so we'll see if the plan gets broken out. But you know,
that was, I think he was reminding people less of, you know, the
Washington service and he was telling one person I'm a Hoosier, you know, and
but I want, I want to, do you want to say one thing about, you know, it's
interesting, this sort of dual um interpretation or you know, what
happens to mike pence based on the anger that he aroused in the trump
based on january 6th, rightly or wrongly. And I've interviewed one
person at the heritage action event who uh had a very interesting reaction. He
said first and foremost, a tremendous respect for mike Pence. Really thought
he did a great job in the trump administration, but was still kind of
frustrated About what happened on January six and him not following the
wishes of President Trump to essentially overturn the results of the
2020 election. So, you know, this is uh it's one of those things where, you
know, it's going to be something that everybody is watching. I guess if he
does decide to run for president is how he's able to use that asset of the
respect that he has with the Republican base and still with a good chunk of the
trump base potentially versus, you know, whatever president trump does or
continues to do to him message wise about his dissatisfaction. And if I
could just add, let's say trump doesn't, doesn't run and it's Pence, but then
there's a lot of several other very hardcore trump supporters a tom cotton,
just for instance, will these folks attack mike Pence, claiming that he
should have done more to help trump. Will this become uh, well, they dredge
this up during, during the new Hampshire primary campaign? Or will
this be so far in the past that we'll move on to other issues. I did just
want to make one quick point. The democrats certainly took him seriously.
They added a news conference, uh that morning, they were hitting him on the
abortion issue. Of course, the, uh, and one thing I noticed from, from your
interviews with him, which I know where sunday, um, he's not backing down on
the, on the pro life Or really any of his hard, very hard core conservative
positions. So, um, it all there's watching and it'll be fun to see how it
all plays out, especially since we're probably gonna see a lot more of these
Republican folks in the quote unquote invisible primary coming up in 2022.
All right, John Distaso, thanks for Connecting with us here from New Boston
nine politics plus. And thank you everyone for watching. Have a great
friday.