Sen. Steve Daines: “Winners make policy, losers go home.”

Montana Senator Steve Daines joins “The Brian Kilmeade Show” to discuss the importance of winning the majority this upcoming election. When speaking to Brian, Senator Daines says that “I told the president, the most important thing we can give you after you are elected is a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, because the first call you make to the majority leader of the United States Senate, why we’ve got to move through the secretary, Treasury secretary, defense director, CIA, these critical continuity of government positions. Imagine if Chuck Schumer were majority leader and Trump’s trying to work with you. It’s a disaster.”
The two also go into detail on winning battleground states, the twist the media has taken on President Biden and former President Donald Trump’s assassination attempt.
Watch the Full Interview Here:
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Rough Full Transcript:
Brian Kilmeade [00:00:29] Senator Steve Daines joins us now. He serves on the finance Housing Committee and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In other words, if the majority goes red, Steve Daines will deserve a ton of credit. Senator, welcome back first off. Van Jones said it. I know your thoughts about how it’s been going so far as contrast to what’s going on with Joe Biden.
Sen Steve Daines [00:01:07] I couldn’t say it any better. I mean, I think as we are waking up this morning, it is safe to say the Republicans are more united at this moment that I’ve seen in probably decades going into a presidential election. And the Democrats are more divided than I’ve seen in decades. It’s a unique moment, and nobody would have predicted this. Brian, you know, a year ago, if we were sitting here, if you would place some bets, which party would be really divided, which probably really united, you probably would have predicted the opposite.
Brian Kilmeade [00:01:37] I’ll tell you, if you play back my show, it would have been the rise of Ron DeSantis. Who else would take on former President Trump? He did not have a great 2022 in the midterms with some of the candidates that he backed. He was looking at for legal cases. He would be indicted and have mug shots taken in Georgia. That was the story you thought. You know what? These kind of keep him from running in. Can anyone would Ron DeSantis run against a guy that helped him get the job as governor? And the answer was, yeah, they would have a very formidable, group of senators and congressmen on the stage running for president. Nobody would touch Trump. He would gain power, push back or beat these cases. And with every mugshot, every indictment, he’d gain money and ratings. That was the unpredictable part of it. The attack wasn’t. The reaction was.
Sen Steve Daines [00:02:28] Yeah. No, it’s, it’s remarkable. I, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have.
Brian Kilmeade [00:02:31] I didn’t predict that.
Sen Steve Daines [00:02:33] Who could have predicted this, really. And we think about where the mainstream media is just pouring gas on that fire against president of stirring up the 91 indictments that the trials and so forth, stirring up division. And now where’s the mainstream media? They’re out there now, you know, challenging Joe Biden. I mean, this is something that none of us would have predicted. It’s a moment we’ve got to capitalize on Brian, though, and here’s here’s why I think that we can become overconfident three and a half months out there. Going to be some more dips and curves between now and November 5th. This is why we’ve got to keep our heads down. We’ve got to keep working really hard and make sure our people show up to vote.
Brian Kilmeade [00:03:09] So, I don’t want to get into that much detail of what’s happening on the other side right now, but just save it to say that Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff agree on one thing. Joe Biden’s got to go. And they don’t talk about his health. They talk about his ratings. Yeah, I just saw Reuters Reuters said 4341 Trump I mean, that’s with the RNC with winning on the you said surviving an assassination attempt and showing and showing great courage literally in the line of fire. It’s still just two points. Why are they panicking on the left? Have you ever seen anything like this?
Sen Steve Daines [00:03:44] Never seen anything like it today. What though? These national polls, you know, are at best a proxy for what probably is happening right now in the battleground states. What really matters, it’s what’s going on in Pennsylvania, in Michigan, in Wisconsin, what they’re saying. Georgia well, we’re looking at our own polling right now. Trump is looking strong in these battleground states. But here’s the problem. The Democrats have this potential pivot to Kamala Harris is not some kind of salvation for them. I mean, look at she had a miserable finish in that Democrat primary academic 3%. She can hardly straighten.
Brian Kilmeade [00:04:15] That turned on her.
Sen Steve Daines [00:04:17] And, you know, the the white House that the Biden team and the Harris team and their knives are out for each other. If you go back, you know, last few years, the Biden team has been, you know, blaming Kamala Harris for part of their plunge in their ratings, which is actually not true. She hasn’t held. But, you know, Biden has been his own worst enemy. But Kamala Harris is no friend of the president and vice versa.
Brian Kilmeade [00:04:37] So if we look at what’s happening right now, I don’t see him surviving, being literally he’s got Covid, so he goes into hibernation. But you have all the delegates, you know, the mechanics of this. He’s got 4000 delegates. He’s got 14 million votes. The DNC is geared for him in Chicago. If he doesn’t want to go, can you force somebody to go?
Sen Steve Daines [00:04:56] Well, look, they they’ve just got they’re in a really tough spot. It is not an easy pivot to make. They’ve got to switch those delegates. You know, they’ve got their 700 plus superdelegates. I mean, one thing, it’s crazy that the Democrats talk about, you know, we believe in democracy over there. The closing of a cigar filled room with a bunch of Democrat Chicago insiders of anybody to have to pick and power. That’s because the Democrats worship power. The power is most important thing to them. Freedom and liberty is what we’re about.
Brian Kilmeade [00:05:23] Here’s just, Jeff Zeleny of CNN reported this cut 17.
Speaker 4 [00:05:28] He’s being receptive. Not as defiant as he is publicly. Goes on to saying talking about Vice President Kamala Harris, who initially he wondered how she may fare in a campaign should it come to that. I’m told now he’s asking questions, saying, do you think Kamala can win?
Brian Kilmeade [00:05:47] So does that because you are among leadership. And I know President Trump really respects you. How much does that change strategy.
Sen Steve Daines [00:05:56] I like in the lane that I am focused on now to win back the majority control. It doesn’t. We’ve always been this. When I first went down to Mar-A-Lago, when I was elected to the leadership to chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee, whose mission is to win back the majority, when President Trump and I first met, we agree what we need to do is find the best candidates, the America First candidates who can win not only primaries, but general elections, because winners make policy, losers go home. And President Trump and I have flown like like the Blue Angels information very tight as it relates to what’s going on in these battleground states. Because I told the president, the most important thing we can give you after you are elected is a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, because the first call you make to the majority leader of the United States Senate, why we’ve got to move through the secretary, Treasury secretary, defense director, CIA, these critical continuity of government positions. Imagine if Chuck Schumer were majority leader and Trump’s trying to work with you. It’s a disaster.
Brian Kilmeade [00:06:51] So it means you have to flip your Senate seat that Jon Tester has held in one of the red states in the union. It is. And he has proved himself as a moderate. And he is not a model.
Sen Steve Daines [00:07:02] He’s not. Look, look. So, you know, we’re going to get to at least 50 because we’ve won West Virginia with Jim Justice. That takes the U.S. Senate to 5050 a coin toss. We need to win one more state to win the majority outright. That is Montana. That’s the most important next state to get. Jon Tester voted to impeach convict Trump twice. He voted against every one of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees. He voted against the Trump tax cuts. He has an F from the NRA. Tim Sheehy, our great Navy Seal, 200 combat missions, Naval Academy grad business guy, an eighth in the NRA. So it’s not just how he votes with Biden in terms of tester’s record as how he voted against Trump. Now, fast forward. You go. Take a look at his voting record with Biden 95% of the time. Brian, Jon Tester has voted with Joe Biden, right?
Brian Kilmeade [00:07:49] People say there’s some moderates who might stand up to pack in the Supreme Court. There’s some moderates that might stand up and stop Democrats from getting rid of the filibuster, adding two more states and the moderates that sit up and center cinnamon now gone. And Senator Manchin about to go. So they’re both about to go. Never was tester he did. They made Manchin and Silva take all the slings and arrows.
Sen Steve Daines [00:08:10] Yeah Brian, here’s an old, old principle of politics. Sometimes people vote with their eyes. When they look at Jon Tester. They see a crew cut. Pretty good sized guy. Farmer. He’s a dirt farmer. He wears that dirt farmer, you know, tag all the time. So they think he’s moderate. His voting record.
Brian Kilmeade [00:08:28] Is as liberal as in why is he keep winning?
Sen Steve Daines [00:08:30] Because he’s bought $42 million. Chuck Schumer has poured $42 million into Montana pounding Tim Sheehy. Brian, we have a million people and 3 million cows. A million people with $42 million poured in is like Dave McCormick in was in Pennsylvania, another great Senate candidate having $500 million dropped on him. So the problem right now, we have in Montana three and a half months left to go. It’s resources. It truly is. It’s a right. We’ve got a website that’s Senate 24.com Senate 24.com. We’ve got to get our patriots engaged behind this. So Tim Sheehy has what he needs to to pull this up. Right now. That race is tied. It’s tied three and a half months out. We’ve got a shot to win Montana with Tim. She we do that. You went back the Senate majority.
Brian Kilmeade [00:09:17] Well that would be it. The other place is Mike Rogers in Michigan. Mike Rogers 3 or 4 points down. So he every one of the Senate the candidates I mean they got really some great qualities. Tim. She seems like a fantastic guy. Mike Rogers got a resume that anyone would kill for. And then you got Dave McCormick, West Point wrestler. Outstanding business, 82nd airborne. Anybody second? Yeah, he’s a war veteran anywhere who worked in Treasury during the collapse. He was, wasn’t he? He was there, with Secretary Paulson.
Sen Steve Daines [00:09:45] Was he was. No. He’s got he’s got incredible experience. Exactly. Experience within the white House.
Brian Kilmeade [00:09:50] But he still got 3 or 4 points.
Sen Steve Daines [00:09:51] Know he does well. And these rates are all going to tighten up between now and November. That’s just the way it works as the ballots are tied between the presidential right. We get we got you know Bernie Marino in Ohio. Trump’s going to win Ohio by ten points. Britain’s got a great shot in Ohio Eric Hubbard in Wisconsin talked about Mike Rogers the open seat by the way.
Brian Kilmeade [00:10:08] So your job is to get them more recognize final thought and how to do that. And and out of those states you mentioned I know you care about all of them out of Pennsylvania, Michigan, out of Montana, those battleground states and Wisconsin. What are you most confident? What are you most worried about?
Sen Steve Daines [00:10:25] Well, I’m I’m worried about every one of them. You know, I truly am. And when you’re when you’re the head coach, you you’re keeping your head down here and working hard all the way to Election Day. Let’s just say what the prognosticators said. It’s tied in Montana, Nevada, cook political. Just move Nevada to toss up. They move Michigan to toss up on the Senate races. So just objectively you look at those states but we’ve got Kari Lake. In play in Arizona. She’s just two points down right now. Got you. So we’ve got a chance to have a really good night. But we’re behind in every race. Wake up.
Brian Kilmeade [00:10:54] Here’s what’s going to keep you up alive.
Sen Steve Daines [00:10:56] It will keep me up a lot.
Brian Kilmeade [00:10:57] And I know Steve Daines, and I know they’re talking about you. If a majority leader. I know you’re thinking about doing that. We’ll see. You’ll be an impact player, but you do have to go 3000 miles to go home. And I know that’s a that’s a stress on you and your family. So it’s great to see you. That’s been a great week for you guys. Thanks. Back in a moment with Steve Hilton. You’re listening to The Brian Kilmeade Show.