Live from Virginia Wednesday morning on The John Fredericks Show – weekdays on WNTW AM 820/ FM 92.7 – Richmond, WJFN FM 100.5 – Central Virginia, WMPH AM 1010 / FM 100.1 / FM 96.9 (7-9 PM) Hampton Roads, WBRG AM 1050 / FM 105.1 – Lynchburg/Roanoke and Weekdays 6-10 am and 24/7 Stream – host Fredericks welcomed Congressman Ben Cline to the show to discuss what Virginia voters want and how Nancy Pelosi continues to campaign on the misery of the American people.
Fredericks: Joining me now Ben Cline. Ben congressman of re-election he’s going to win easily in the Sixth District. That’s the Lynchburg to Roanoke area. It’s a pretty big territory that Ben has. Hey, Ben great to have you with us.
Cline: John always good to be with you here three weeks for election day. It’s awesome.
Fredericks: I know even though you’re in the House and I know you’re following the Amy Coney-Barrett deliberations if you will. But just honestly just Ben to John, what do you think of the behavior of some of these Democrats like Senator Hirono in Hawaii asking Amy Barrett if she’s ever assaulted anybody sexually. Like what is up with that?
Cline: Yeah Hirono is an embarrassment. The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are just making fools of themselves and falling all over themselves trying to appease the far left which opposes Coney-Barrett. But they have no reason to oppose her. She’s doing a fantastic job. She’s a constitutionalist. I mean that’s why they oppose her because she actually follows the Constitution. And the left wants to make the Constitution into a malleable document that they can change at will.
Their goal is to pack the court to put on four new liberals if they can win back control of the Senate. Joe Biden won’t even stand in the way of that. He refuses to say no, I want to stand up for an independent Supreme Court. He just wants the election. But it’s not going to happen because the American people see exactly what Joe Biden’s about. It’s going to be the Harris-Biden administration as he said. And he’s just going to be a placeholder for the radical left.
Fredericks: Did you happen to see the Speaker’s meltdown yesterday on CNN fighting with Wolf Blitzer? Because you know they go on CNN and they expect that you know it’s friendly territory and everybody says how wonderful they are. And they ask them if they’re comfortable and if they like a cold soft drink or a hot cup of coffee. Blitzer actually asked her a legitimate question. Like why don’t you negotiate that CARES package down to what the President wants and give people relief? And she had an absolute meltdown. She was offended that CNN would even ask her a question. What was your reaction to that?
Cline: She threw moderates under the bus who won a deal. You know there are some who are pressing her to give in order to get a deal to actually help people. Like the people in my district who need some assistance for small businesses who are struggling to make ends meet. We’ve got great restaurants here in the Roanoke Valley that are closing even right now because they can’t make ends meet and they have to let their employees go.
And then their employees have to get on unemployment. And it just kind of snowballs. So Pelosi could get a deal with the president. The president wants to get a deal. But no she wants the issue to campaign on in these last three weeks. She’s campaigning on the misery of the American people. And it is sick and it is sad. And when she’s confronted about it not just by the right which she ignores but by the left Wolf Blitzer of CNN where she thinks it’s a safe space she gets pushed back.
And she goes unhinged. And it is a fantastic video. So I would watch it because this is how Nancy Pelosi really is. She can’t handle any pushback. She can’t handle any contrary position. And you know what we hope we can remove the gavel from her hands here on November 3 when we take back the House. It’s going to take Scott Taylor, Nick Freitas Aliscia Andrews, Leon Benjamin, and all these guys getting in the House. And Bob Good getting in there. Keeping the fifth red. It’s going to be great.
Fredericks: The relief for COVID. The CARES Act right? We talked about this a week ago. But now you’ve got Democrats that are saying hey let’s just get a clean bill and get this done. Let’s get these checks in the mail for $1,200. Let’s get the PPP done. And then if you win they’re saying if you win and Biden wins then you can go to act two and bailout all your states and there’ll be nobody to stop us.
And Pelosi’s melting down over that. When you’ve talked to moderate Democrats that want this relief, and remember it’s not like two-point two trillion and then the Trump administration wants 200 million. The Trump administration has gone with one point one trillion. She wants 2.2 trillion. So it’s a trillion-dollar difference but it’s still a trillion dollars. So that’s a lot of money. Why can’t they get this done?
Cline: You know it is a lot of money but we can get it done if politics weren’t the preeminent goal of those on the left. Those on the left recognize they do better without a deal than with a deal. They don’t care about their constituents or about their small businesses or about us actually getting beyond this coronavirus because the lockdowns help them.
The left actually benefits politically from keeping people indoors. Keeping people from getting out and actually starting back up again whether it’s economically or schools opening and things like that. The left wants you under their thumb. And that’s what they’re trying to do by refusing to get a deal here. They’re refusing to get any kind of deal on a coronavirus bill because they don’t think that it would help their electoral chances to have this economy humming again like it was back in February.
Fredericks: So what you’re saying is in reality the Democrats don’t want the relief to go out before the election.
Cline: Right.
Fredericks: I understand what you’re saying Ben the $2.2 trillion of Pelosi is demanding and of course the other trillion has nothing to do with CARES or COVID-19 or the pandemic. It’s got to do with bailing out various states and cities that are in the tank that have mismanaged themselves forever. And also bailing out her biggest donors which is part of the ploy. But what you’re saying is she doesn’t want any of it to pass so that people can continue to suffer going into November 3. Is that my understanding?
Cline: I think that she is willing to ignore the plight of working Americans who are desperate to get their businesses back on track. To get their employees back on track. To get their schools open. To get their kids educated. She’s ignoring the needs of this country in order to ensure victory on November 3. And it’s just sad.
Fredericks: Ben, how do you see Virginia now? I know we’ve got a great ground game. I know you’ve been involved in some of the things that we’re doing. You’re one of the incumbents that even when you’re the heavy favorite you’ll knock on doors and talk to voters. In your district Ben Cline, what are you hearing what are they saying?
Cline: Voters are exasperated. They just can’t understand why we haven’t done what we need to do to get this economy started again. And they are understanding that the CARES Act helped a lot. But they are concerned that especially with Richmond dithering around the budget. The governor ineffective Northam just kind of serving out his lame-duck term. And nothing happening in Washington because Nancy Pelosi would rather campaign on the issue.
They see politics not just not helpful but broken. Severely broken. And they are looking for folks that actually get in there and fight for them instead of New York or California to get their bailouts. They just want folks fighting for them. and the folks on the ballot in Virginia. Nick Freitas in the Seventh. Scott Taylor served with him. Leon Benjamin in the Fourth.
Aliscia Andrews in the 10th doing great things. And having Bob Good coming in and ready to fight with me and Jim Jordan and the other member of the freedom caucus for conservative values. I’m pumped to get him in there as well. We’ve got a lot of work to do but I think the folks in Virginia are ready for a good team to go to work for them after November 3.
Listen to the full show here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auazzopQ2fg&feature=youtu.be
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