On Friday’s one hour radio show from Star News Digital Media which is in the early stages of a national weekend syndication roll-out – The Battleground State Report with Steve Gill, Michael Patrick Leahy, and Doug Kellett chatted about what candidate could replace Donald Trump as a successor for the Republican party as a Presidential candidate.
Towards the end of the show, the three men were at a loss pondering who could possibly succeed this larger than life President.
Gill: What do Republicans do, again looking ahead assuming President Trump is renominated as I expect him to be. Assuming he gets re-elected as at this point looks like…
Leahy: It looks like it.
Gill: It’s likely. What do Republicans do next? I mean this is guy who when he walks in a room or walks on stage literally sucks all the oxygen out of the room.
Leahy: Oh yeah.
Gill: How do you, I mean that’s what the Democrats are going to face in a competition against him also. How do you compete with that large than life persona whoever comes up as the Republican’s candidates after Trump are going to look minuscule by comparison.
Leahy: Doug, is there any…
Kellett: Maybe a little boring too right?. I mean Pence would be your natural (Snoring sound) guy to run and Mike Pence in the room versus you know…
Gill: You see I don’t think the Trumpers’ embrace Pence.
Leahy: No.
Gill: The folks who have embraced and are energetically supporting Donald Trump. I don’t think they look at, “Oh Mike Pence is going to be our guy next.” I don’t think they see that.
Leahy: No. I don’t think so.
Kellett: When you say that, is there anyone that’s a natural for…
Leahy: Yes.
Kellett: The avid supporters of Donald Trump out there right now? Who would be next? And to answer your own question really.
Gill: I ask the tough questions, Doug. I do not answer.
Kellett: I know you always throw them my way. You don’t have to answer.
(Leahy laughs)
Leahy: I’m going to throw one name out that’s got the potential. Congressman Dan Crenshaw. He of the eye patch, and the veteran Iraq war. (Silence) He might.
Gill: Maybe you know he’s got attention now but it’s kind of like what we talked about…
Leahy: How long will he last.
Gill: Spotlight and their time. Can he move from being a congressman to showing he’s got the capability as a manager. Donald Trump came from the business world but he’d also been on television with The Apprentice. He’d been a high visibility personality for a long time.
Leahy: And he can take a punch. A lot of punches.
Gill: And I think Crenshaw’s smart and he’s capable. But there’s nobody that I can even see on either side of the aisle. Even Barack Obama who had a transformative, to use that word, capability of the glow factor I would say more than anything else. People put their own impressions of what they believed on him. With Donald Trump, he is a once in a millennial type of politician. He has withstood gravity. He has overcome his own self inflicted wounds in ways that have killed lesser candidates. And he’s done it repeatedly. There is an inexplicably to Trump that others just I think won’t be able to rise too.
Kellett: Steve, what I think what’s going to happen is once Trump is out the establishment wing of the Republican party are going to reassert themselves to try and retake control really of the RNC. The party in general that they will do whatever they can to kind of get back in control here. And if there’s not a natural sort of successor to Donald Trump, you know with the kind of charisma you’re talking about, then they may be able to do so. But that’s what I think. They’re going to reassert themselves or at least attempt to.
Listen to the full show here:
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Tune in every Friday morning and listen to The Battleground State Report with Steve Gill, Michael Patrick Leahy, and Doug Kellett.
