Battleground Briefer: Arizona

It is a big movement and it's a lot of independent women that are coming over and and right now supporting Harris.

I think you know to Jonathan's point when you look at who those undecided voters are or people who are still saying maybe I'll vote third party. They are very cross-pressured on the following. They feel very anxious about the economy. They do feel like inflation is getting worse at a higher level than the overall electorate.

They don't like Donald Trump personally. Right, but you have to somehow if you're Trump, it's Amy Walter of the Cook Report, but if you're Trump you have to say hey let's keep that out of it. Let's just talk about my economy compared to this one and don't let her say that wasn't my economy that was Joe Biden's because you can't say I'm the last person in the room.

Talk about how great Bidenomics is and say well that wasn't me. Joining us now is James Dixon. He covers Michigan for the New York Post, vital state for both, basically a dead heat. James welcome to Brian Kilmeachill. Hey Brian, thank you so much for having me.

No problem. First off on the economy, how much does the economy matter to the people of Michigan? Is it number one as far as you can tell?

It matters quite a bit. I mean so you know we come from the state that put the world on wheels. Auto heritage is a big thing, but here we have some of our biggest companies. You know Stellantis just had layoffs, slow sales.

Last year they had to lay people off because of California air emission regulations. So that's not the kind of thing that I think is going to look favorably on Kamala Harris as she tries to make that case in Michigan. And so I do think it'll be about a lot more than personalities. You know who can honestly say they're better off than they were four or five years ago?

We're going to find out Friday if the message is going to be yeah it was better, but I've learned a lot and those weren't my policies. I'm fascinated to see if she's going to begin to walk away from Joe Biden because nobody thinks Joe Biden's economy is better than Donald Trump's economy. Well Angie you'd have to sprint away from Biden and I don't see how you do that. The media somehow has let Harris off the hook for obviously being complicit and in America having a president who is not up for the job. We've decided that's no big deal.

Okay great. But you're responsible for the border, you have to have some say on the economy, and if you didn't have any impact on what's happened why were you the vice president and why should you be president? The argument either way you go it doesn't look good for Harris.

What can you say you will do for the American people other than not be Donald Trump? Remember John James got so close for that senate race and it's been close in the past. You've had Republican governors in Michigan. Right now Elise Slotkin is it looks like seven points up on Mike Rogers on an average poll but Rogers just got the nomination short time ago. So looking at the state of Michigan right now do you think they're open to the Republican party?

I think it is a huge uphill battle. Of the what seven million voter registrations, Democrats are in the fours, Republicans are in the twos right now. There basically is not a functional Michigan Republican party. Efforts are afoot to rebuild that but there's no infrastructure and a lot of the people who've been involved in the winning of the past some of them have become never Trumpers, some of them are just out of the game. Rick Snyder actually the entire Michigan house is up for election in November. Snyder's trying to retake the house on the theory that hey if you can at least slow Whitmer down, turn her into a lame duck, at least Michigan, at least you'll stop the bleeding in Michigan. But yeah a lot of the talent and the infrastructure from years past when Republicans dominated in Michigan is all gone now.

It would all have to be rebuilt. So what about the anti-Israeli movement, the pro-Palestinian, the pro-Hamas, the Muslim community that seems so adamant against Joe Biden and his policies, which are the same policies Kamala Harris when she went to Michigan. Yeah so I guess they're the, what do they call, they voted non-committed last time?

Uncommitted yeah. So how big is that and how different is it from Biden to Harris? So in February during the presidential primary Biden got something like 625,000 votes but a hundred thousand people voted uncommitted which was a large number. So obviously Biden got a lot more votes than the uncommitted but that's the kind of number you'd almost see for never Trump. I think about a poll I just saw in Oakland County where even among Republicans Trump had like a 15% unfavorable whereas Democrats are 99.1 favorable on Harris. So in effect it became like a never Biden wing within the Democrat coalition and so I was just out in Dearborn talking to those folks last week and basically what they had to say is they view Harris with fresh eyes but they need to see something different than what they've seen from Biden or she could well find herself in the same position uncommitted. Right, right now it's almost a generic Democrat that's running.

That's exactly it. So you've been given nothing to really rally around other than they wear our color blue no matter who and and Harris is not orange. James Dixon covers Michigan for the New York Post and give us an insight into that vital state to the outcome of this election. So when you look at Mike Rogers as a candidate as Senate candidate and look at a guy that was a congressman successful an impactful one an FBI guy with a military background who has a profile that was bigger because he was on a network I think CNN uh as a as a contributor for a while if there was somebody seeming to build to be successful in Michigan it's him. How quick do you if at all do you think that gap closes with Slotkin? I think it'll be a really tough one because those those very things you mentioned man in 2004 that would have been the ideal Republicans but in 2024 especially the FBI connection when that's the very organization that raids the Mar-a-Lago and that's been complicit and so much of this law fair that we've seen that's not necessarily viewed as a positive and so there's there's kind of a cynicism and conservative circles in Michigan that views Slotkin versus Rogers as a race of the security state.

Essentially it's the FBI versus the CIA. Those those aren't great choices uh to the freedom movement so it's tough to get people excited plus you have the fact that Rogers is a known commodity so there's not a lot of upside you can do no one no one's going to change their mind on what they think about Mike Rogers as this late face. So he would need Trump to drag him across the finish line? Absolutely that if Mike Rogers got across the finish line that would be that would mean that Donald Trump's coattails are so incredibly strong that it's just going to be a red wave. Wow that would be interesting if he could do it well he was en route to doing that against Joe Biden and I have someone here who's younger but has the same policies but has a record of just saying bizarre things when asked off script she's a train wreck but the media is spinning it as if she emerged out of nowhere with all the talent to spare a female Barack Obama as if we didn't think we don't remember that Jamie Raskin and Nancy Pelosi were on CNN saying you know maybe it's time if I could paraphrase for Joe Biden to pick another running mate. Right right and and so Harris has been extremely stage managed to that point but now even the media is getting restless I think about that Time magazine cover right so so the media tells us that Kamala Harris is the embodiment of black girl joy okay why then would Time magazine portray her as gray and flat and not even smiling uh Trump she said she looked like Melania Trump not like Kamala Harris so so so so what that tells you is that Time thinks that the only Kamala Harris that America will accept is that flat lady who looks like a British prime minister they wouldn't accept her as she is because if she smiles she might laugh and then she might cackle and then you'd see the real her so all this fear all this hiding and avoidance of the media tells me that Team Harris believes that the more Harris that the American people see they won't like her. Yeah I guess we're going to see what happens in terms of fundraising I know the president's going to the former president's going to be that back there as much as he as he possibly can we'll see what kind of crowds he gets I also am curious to see what's going to happen at the colleges you got this liberal campus at University of Michigan Michigan State and I think there's going to be a lot of sit-ins a lot of encampments and that issue of Israel is going to be front and center are we going to watch a party have to decide whether they're going to embrace the Muslim community by by walking away from by walking away from Israel or just stay pro-Israel like Republicans are and let the chips fall within May what do you expect in the fall because in New York here they expect even bigger riots. That would just be incredible and and that would be terrible for the Democratic coalition for one it turns off normal people I mean during the graduation at the University of Michigan you couldn't even walk on the diag you know the the main square of the campus because it was overtaken they waited until after graduation to clear it out this is a space that taxpayers pay for alumni want to enjoy and it's your right as a citizen to walk anywhere on public grounds but here you had an Ann Arbor Michigan of all places people basically thank you couldn't and so that's not good and if all those people are sitting around intense and not voting and they're uncommitted and they can only be placated by policies that America will never accept it leaves Democrats where they are now which is I think their best strategy is actually to do nothing they if you ask for a ceasefire you still won't get it so there's no point in asking for it just basically hope that people realize that the only alternative to Harris is Donald Trump and that you can freak them out to go into the polls anyway well he would definitely get their attention if he did come back and I know these colleges are gonna are not gonna pull back they have had plenty of time to design a strategy that won't embarrass the university but the one thing you'll see is the DNC if you see how big those protests are there there's four major organizations who have asked for permission to rally have parades we'll see what's going to happen in Chicago right next door uh James thanks so much look forward to your coverage of Michigan thank you Brian this is Jimmy Fala inviting you to join me for Fox Across America where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats dumb ideas just kidding it's only a three-hour show listen live at noon eastern or get the podcast at foxacrossamerica.com listen to the show ad free on Fox News podcast plus on apple podcast amazon music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts