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Erick Erickson Aspires To Be Heard on America’s Top Stations

“I learned almost everything I know about radio from Rush. I think they broke the mold when they made him. If I could get close, I would be honored.”

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There are dozens of conservative radio hosts in the U.S., but one of the most intelligent and easygoing with his audience must be Erick Erickson.

Erickson, a lawyer by trade, has been able to effectively use his courtroom skills to motivate listeners. The leading GOP voice for a decade has been hosting a show on WSB during that time.

Erickson took a step toward establishing a national brand when he brought his Atlanta-based show to Cox Media Group. He also moved into the noon-3p ET slot, to fill the void left by the death of Rush Limbaugh.

For now, they have cobbled together approximately 20 affiliates, through Cox and separately in Georgia, but Erickson has bigger dreams for his three-hour daily broadcast.

“I would very much love to be nationwide and on the big stations,” Erickson told BNM.

But the midday competition is tight for air space. iHeart has Clay Travis and Buck Sexton holding down the Limbaugh slot. Cumulus features Dan Bongino, and Audacy has Dana Loesch.

“It definitely puts me behind the pack,” Erickson admits. “I don’t plan on doing anything else for the rest my life, so I’m going to be here for a while.”   

Erickson is a native of Jackson, Louisiana, who has been tied to Macon, Georgia, for years, even winning a city council seat in that city. He is tied to his Southern roots and his listener base. However, for a successful syndicated product, he makes some production tweaks. Not only will he focus more on Georgia stories, but Erickson will also even localize with the weather, an element that wouldn’t work across a wider market scope.

As he builds the network, Erickson will drop the Georgia political angles instead because it has broader appeal.

Erickson followed the model of talk show host Neal Boortz, who he would guest host for early in his radio career. Boortz, who also was Atlanta-based and had a national presence, would find ways to use hyper-local stories for a larger audience.

Even before expanding his radio footprint, Erickson was already seeing a national audience from his livestream.

Rush

“I learned almost everything I know about radio from Rush,” Erickson said of his mentor.  

Limbaugh took Erickson under his wings, as the two became friends. The legendary broadcaster would be a sounding board for Erickson, who could “send him an email at 3 o’clock in the morning and get a response.”

The bond would lead to fill-in opportunities on Limbaugh’s show.

But more important, Limbaugh pushed the lawyer to forge his own path in front of the microphone.

“I was not going to go into radio, but he told me he would never talk to me again if I didn’t do it,” Erickson recalls.

Rush was integral in an Erickson morning syndicated show, helping connect him to his agent.

“I would not have been doing what I’m doing, but for him,” Erickson said.

Limbaugh is missed within conservative circles, even as the Travis/Sexton tandem gets established. But Erickson knows the broadcasting heavyweight is not replaceable. In one conversation between them, Erickson confided that he would rather back up Limbaugh instead of hosting his own show.

He didn’t want to compete against the greatness of Limbaugh and feared that no one would listen to him.

“Don’t worry about it. Even if I’m dead you still won’t be as good as I am. So just be yourself,” he recalled Limbaugh’s remarks. “There’s something liberating about that.” 

Erickson has a good rapport with his audience, something else he learned from Limbaugh. As the next generation of conservative talkers deal with the fractured market share, finding an heir apparent to the “Excellence in Broadcasting” great, who died in February, would appear to be a daunting task.

“I would like to think that I could be doing what he did and not just make it about politics,” Erickson admitted. “But he was very unique. I think they broke the mold when they made him. If I could get close, I would be honored.

Erickson’s key to growth is staying true to himself. He cautions that those who want to become the next Limbaugh by doing a version of him will not make a lasting “impression” with listeners.

“Radio’s very relational, so you’ve got to be as honest about yourself and as authentic as possible,” he said.

Touching All Bases

Even before Erickson started his radio gig at WSB, the conservative evangelical was an influential figure in the GOP.  By 2016, he was named the most powerful conservative in America, according to Atlantic Magazine.

Erickson, who is in the seminary, has a knack for engaging listeners in debate and conversation, not anger and vitriol. But in this heavily politicalized climate, started with the Trump presidential campaign in 2015, not all opinions are welcome.

Erickson has been a harsh critic of Trump. Although he did support the one-term chief executive’s re-election bid, Erickson was not in bed with every move Trump made. Most dramatically, would come after the 2020 election where Trump fought baseless charges of fraud.

“I told my audience, ‘No, it wasn’t stolen. Here’s why.’” Erickson said.

That take did not sit well with many of his avid listeners, but it has also brought some liberals into the flock, who “hate listen because I get email from them all the time.”

Erickson, 46, is sure there are moderates tuning in as well.

He took another controversial stance with his recent comments about the COVID-19 anti-vaxxers, calling them “idiots” for believing the conspiracy theories after saying on his show that an unvaccinated relative died of the virus.

“I never want to be held hostage by my audience,” Erickson said.

Making those remarks won’t be popular with his base, and could even potentially hurt worse if advertisers dropped him. But Erickson said that big picture concerns no longer enter his mind. What’s vital is building trust with the audience.

In 2015, while running conservative blogger RedState.com, Erickson was holding an annual conference, inviting the entire list of Republicans vying for the White House, including Trump.

However, as this was right after Trump’s infamous comment about Megyn Kelly at a debate, Erickson disinvited the future 45th president.

“I did it because I thought it would be a distraction if he came. Little did I know he would make me a distraction. He came after me in every way, shape or form,” Erickson recalled. “A lot of people were calling my station demanding I be fired.”

As his listener base grew, Erickson had the confidence to announce he would not endorse Trump in 2016.

“I know people who didn’t support Trump in 2016 and are no longer in talk radio,” Erickson said. “My audience and I–we have a relationship.”

However, Erickson has dealt with his share of people crossing the line in a dangerous way.

“Oh gosh, I’ve had people show up at my front porch,” he said. “When I didn’t support the president in 2016, we had to have security at our house for several months. My kids got chased through a store, a guy yelling at them that I was destroying the country by not supporting Donald Trump.”

His children’s schools were switched because of bullying based on their father’s position.

“I get hate mail all the time,” Erickson said. “At this point, it comes with the territory.”

A hope for syndication expansion brings the financial resources to protect his family “with a lot of land and a big high wall around the house.”

But any ugliness from listeners is not a deterrent to doing the job. “If anything it motivates me to double down,” although Erickson doesn’t make light of the serious incidents.

“It was definitely scary. They’re alarming,” Erickson said.

The impact is felt even more by his children, who are “less likely to want to go with me to Atlanta.”

The Erickson family lives about an hour away from the city.  

The heightened sense of fear would come to a head for his children as they shopped in Atlanta’s Lenox Square. A woman approached Erickson screaming his name.

“Both of my kids, at the moment, thought they were going to be dead,” he remembered.

It turned out to be just a “superfan,” who wanted to have a photo with Erickson. The lady was nice, but “it alarmed my kids so [badly]. That was three, four years ago and my now 12-year-old still refuses to go back to that mall.” 

Conservative Competition

When it comes to checking the rivals, Erickson follows the Limbaugh mantra, not listening to other hosts, including those who would fill in for him. Limbaugh would give that tidbit in response to Erickson, who had been guest hosting for him.

With that in mind, Erickson never heard Buck Sexton and Clay Travis, who launched their midday show on June 21.

“I’m the only talk radio show that I listen to,” he said.

The only person that Erickson will listen to on occasion is Mark Levin, because “I find him deeply entertaining and I like the guy personally. It’s not meant to be disrespectful of anyone else. I just don’t want anyone else’s voice in my head when I’m trying to shape my own voice for my audience.”

Dana Loesch is also a viable option for the right-wing side of radio. Erickson, who knows Loesch and her husband well, holds her in high regard, but “we do different things.”

Overall, many hosts are trying to keep the Trump supporters intact or have a bombastic delivery, he said.

Erickson incorporates his legal and seminary training to bring the most complete package.

While he admits to getting “preachy” at times, his most effective approach is to put all the details on the table — “the facts that help me, the facts that hurt me,”– before giving his conservative take on any specific story.

“I don’t want to think for anybody else,” Erickson said.

Another commodity among the conservatives is Larry Elder, who took his celebrity to the recent recall efforts against California Governor Gavin Newsom. 

“I think that Larry Elder had as much right to be in that race as anyone else,” Erickson said.

However, once Elder became the face of the opposition, Erickson said, he was doomed.

“The moment it became a race between Newsom and Elder was the moment that it became the race that Newsom would win,” he said. 

TV or Not TV

Before his radio days even began, Erickson was approached about an opportunity to join CNN as a contributor. From 2010-2013, Erickson was a prominent conservative voice on the cable news network, thought by many to have more of liberal slant.

He sought the counsel of MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Limbaugh.

They felt he could get a Fox deal where he’d be safe and comfortable or take the CNN job in “enemy territory” where it would be more beneficial learning to deal with people you disagree with.

“It gave me a fun role at CNN where I could talk about Republicans as a conservative activist who really didn’t care for the Republican establishment,” Erickson said.

He followed that with a five-year stint at Fox News.

Rise in Radio

A career path in radio happened by accident for Erickson. In his hometown of Macon, Georgia, a morning show host was arrested in a drug raid. The local Cumulus station needed someone for the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Erickson was already known for his CNN work and was a guest putting on his elections lawyer hat to discuss current events.

The host, embroiled in legal hot water, was fired. Erickson held on to the slot for three months. The positive feel for Erickson didn’t end there. As Erickson was told, Bob Neil, the former CEO of Cox Media, was driving his family to Disney World and heard Erickson’s show as they passed through Macon. Liking what he heard, Neil wanted to bring him into their broadcasting family.

“I had no experience in radio whatsoever,” Erickson said.

He declined a regular weekend show but was willing to fill in for Herman Cain. Shortly thereafter, with Cain running for president, Cox needed to replace him.

His hesitancy melted away with encouragement from Limbaugh, and Erickson never looked back as he polished his performance. 

In 2016, he had a health scare with blood clots in the lungs that nearly killed him. His wife has an incurable form of lung cancer.

“I try to live life and be as relatable with my listeners, maybe sometimes to my detriment,” he said. “[I’m] trying to just interact with my audience and make sure that they’re not alone.”

He recalls another piece of advice from his mentor Limbaugh: “Remember you’re not there to save the world; you’re there to keep people company.”

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Dagen McDowell Is Ready For A New Adventure With Fox Business

“Every decision in America is born of policy, On the show, we bring that to our show. Talk about the news of the day.”

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To know Dagen McDowell, you must understand what she comes from, where she comes from. You won’t know her until you know the lessons, kindness, and determination set forth by her parents.

Her parents operated a small grocery store, LW Roark and Company. Charles and Joyce McDowell were high school sweethearts and both went to college but decided to go back home and open a business. “This is in the middle of nowhere,” McDowell said. “It was a wholesale grocery store. They sold it in the late 90s.”

She said her parents were smart, encouraging, and took every opportunity to teach McDowell and her brother.

“They’d constantly talk up people who came into the store. Both of them have and had an insatiable curiosity about everything. They felt they learned things through their customers. It was more fun to learn about things from other people.”

McDowell’s parents never took a week off work. Never. The family took no vacations as most families would. Once while McDowell was in college at Wake Forest University, the family visited the Air and Space Museum on the Mall in D.C.

“Both of my parents were very interested in architecture and landscapes. We’d go to Williamsburg and just look at the buildings.”

McDowell joined FOX News Channel in 2003 and helped launch FOX Business Network as a founding anchor in 2007.

Her mother passed away three years ago and her father is still very much a part of her life. Her father was a constant teacher.

“One time my father, who we called Dowell McDowell, was putting up an outbuilding and asked me how long one line should be if the other line was such and such. He taught me the Pythagorean theorem when I was about 4 years old.”

McDowell was nurtured by parents with endless curiosity.

“I was raised by parents who would always debate and converse around the dinner table. We shared breakfast and dinner together every day. They loved learning, were always inquisitive, never afraid to ask a question. My parents shared a fearlessness and passed that on to me. I’ve never been embarrassed to ask people questions. I love talking to people and finding out about things.”

For a long time, McDowell had no idea what she wanted to do for a living. She knew if she worked at different jobs she’d eventually figure out what she was good at.

“I knew I was a decent writer, but I always tried to get information out of people, what they were doing. Ask if they were fulfilled and happy.”

At Wake, Forest McDowell majored in art history and had every intention of working in a museum, possibly as a curator.

“I interned at the Center for Contemporary Arts. I lived in Venice, Italy for a while. Wake Forest owns a house in Venice.”

After that it was Colorado. She moved back to New York during the recession of 1991 with a duffel bag. She took the Amtrak to New York City and sublet an apartment for six months.

“I had no TV, just a radio. I knew I could find something good to do in New York, there were so many jobs. I always wanted to live in the city. Either the city or way out in the country. Nowhere in between.”

She said being in New York made her feel anything was possible. This was January in 1994 when job ads were still in the physical newspaper, like the New York Times. McDowell interviewed at Institutional Investor through a referral from a friend.

“It was a brilliant magazine with terrific writing,” McDowell explained. “Very prominent in the industry. They were looking for someone to work with the newsletter written for the financial community.”

She’d cover topics like the bond business, Wall Street, and money management. The magazine made her take a reporting test where you’d make up a story and write it. She was offered a job and worked there for three years.

“I learned to be a journalist there,” McDowell said. “I could write but I became a better journalist. We’d break news, create our sources, and learn more and more about finance. People love to talk about what they do if you show interest.”

The next big job was SmartMoney.com, a resource and web newspaper for private investors. There McDowell wrote a personal finance column. She started doing commentary on television shows, the way a lot of people in different professions tend to do. “Then I started making more appearances on weekend financial or business shows,” McDowell said.

She got a call from Neil Cavuto about 20 years ago and he told McDowell, ‘Kid, you want a job? I know you don’t have much professional TV experience. We’ll give you some training and you’ll figure it out. If you do, you stay. If not, you go.’

McDowell said she was glad she was a writer first before she arrived at Fox. She writes her own scripts and has a background in finance and business writing.

“Before the business network was launched, they had only one business reporter and two senior business correspondents,” she said. “I’ve gotten to do so many different jobs, use different muscles, so to speak. As the years have passed I’ve discovered other talents I may have and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”

There’s a new show in town. McDowell and Sean Duffy will co-host The Bottom Line which will air on weeknights from 6-7:00 PM ET.

McDowell said she and Duffy come from extremely similar backgrounds. Duffy is from rural Wisconsin and McDowell is from Virginia.

“We know what small-town living is like, “McDowell said. “I might live in New York City but where I grew up affects the way I view the world. I’m still grounded in my hometown. On the show, we look south and west with everything we cover. You have to think of your audience. Rather than talking about them, we talk with them. That’s our shared background and vision. Sean is extremely down to earth and generous.”

McDowell said the show is not financially based, but steeped in business.

She said Duffy’s experience as a former U.S. Congressman, he understands policy as well as financial matters.

“Every decision in America is born of policy,” she said. “On the show, we bring that to our show. Talk about the news of the day.”

This is different from anything McDowell has done in the past.

“It’s a two-anchor show in the evening,” she explained. “This is not taking place during market hours. We tie all the business happenings together from the day. Again, it’s not about Washington or New York. It’s about the people we grew up with. We talk to them. Build a relationship with them on the air. For me, this is not just sitting in front of a camera. I can run off at the mouth as well as anyone, hang in there with the filibuster.”

McDowell says she is blunt, but hopes she isn’t rude. During a recent interview for the new show she used the terms ‘pig potatoes’ and ‘chapped backsides.’

“Those are terms I just made up,” she said. “I make up a lot of phrases and don’t always know what they mean. I have an entire repertoire of those kinds of phrases.”

Duffy assumed they were southern phrases he had to learn from McDowell, but she assured him she’d never heard them anywhere else.

“I’m just making stuff up,” McDowell said. “You can’t curse. Can’t say BS. At least you shouldn’t say BS on television. You don’t want to say manure. You never want to say something that makes people wince or evokes a smell.”

Dealing with people directly and bluntly seems to come from her mother.

“My mother had grit,” McDowell said. “She was also very kind, never syrupy. I used to say she had no magnolia-mouth.

That’s got to be a southern phrase.

McDowell said her mother was not a servile flatterer, but she was kind. Always there when somebody was in need.

“She had real grit. She’d stand and fight for her friends and family members.”

Her mother passed away after being diagnosed with stage-four cancer.

“She went through unimaginable pain,” McDowell said of her mother. “For nearly six years. You want to talk about somebody who was tough. There was nobody more pugnacious than my mother.”

She explained even with her illness, her mother was always on the go. Continuing to live her life. When questioned about being so active while she was ill, her mother continued to show grit.

“My mother would say she didn’t want to walk around looking like she had cancer. She asked, ‘What choice do I have? I could lay in bed and wait to die, or I can get up and do what I can .’”

McDowell said her mother’s illness taught her to be a caregiver in ways she never could have imagined. Her mother taught her to find moments of joy every single day, in the smallest of things.

“It can be as simple as telling a stranger to have a great day. Treat a perfect stranger with kindness. I do it all day long. I know it sounds corny, but I want to be known as a person who brings a casserole to a friend when they’re ill.”

A one-sheet from Fox tells you McDowell and the culmination of her background is perfect for The Bottom Line. The fact is, it’s true.

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Airing The Tyre Nichols Video Was A Necessity

There were hard moments to watch in those videos, hard sounds to hear. But they aired.

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Far be it for me not to address this outrageous and embarrassing instance in humanity. After the videos of Memphis police brutally beating Tyre Nichols were shown on television there really seemed to be more outrage emerging from society this time than from the media, for a change. One would think that’s how we wish things to be.

In instances like this, where the video and audio images are far from brief but are instead chaptered as they unfold, there are few options other than to let them run their course. Clocks — breaks hard and soft — are out the window, just as in live coverage.

Because that’s what this was, only the live this time was us, and as we all absorbed and reacted to actions disapprovingly familiar yet somehow foreign at the same time, the impact was still becoming apparent even though we already knew the outcome.

It’s happened before.

Not always like this but we’ve seen it before, police encounters shown on the news overtakes and become the news.

It takes effect as the sights and sounds are digested, dissected, and discussed, often before their potential impact could really be imagined.

In 1991, when the Handycam footage crossed screens for the first time and we learned Rodney King’s name, we didn’t know then but we had a feeling.

We were on the right track, though as newsrooms evolved and street reporting incorporated a different type of storytelling.

I was a cop in 1991. Changes came. Some.

It’s 2023, I’m no longer a cop. Changes will come again. Some.

Turning points — or the overused watershed moments — mean just as much to the news media as they do to law enforcement.

The “why’s” that make this a turning point are more society and community based this time around than they were in 1991.

At least I think so. And I don’t think it makes a bit of difference who’s involved this time.

There were hard moments to watch in those videos, and hard sounds to hear. But they aired. Where they couldn’t air, they were described in great detail; descriptions sometimes can be worse than the real thing. Sometimes, not this time.

And they should air, they shouldn’t stop airing. This is what happened and this is what people need to see and hear and this is exactly why we are here.

Warn them, provide them with a heads up that they’re not going to like what happens next. It’s life and we show life, and we show what some of us do with it when it’s someone else’s.

Overall, I would say the news platforms held their composure, even after the videos were released. I saw, read, and heard some refreshingly neutral coverage, even from outlets where I expected hard turns into the lanes on either side of the road.

Legitimate questions were asked by anchors and reporters and much of the time, the off-balance issues were raised more by those on the sidewalks and those on the other side of the cameras and microphones.

As much as I find myself in disagreement with what I often see on the cable networks — all the cable networks — I did find a sense of symmetry watching CNN’s Don Lemon speak with Memphis City Council Chair Martavius Jones in the hours after the videos were released.

Regular protocols be damned, Lemon and producers lingered patiently as Jones, visibly overcome by emotion, struggled to regain breath and composure enough to be able to speak. Rather than cut away or move to other elements, they stood fast and it became an example of what often requires no words.

There were fewer punches pulled on other platforms as well.

The sounds of the screams, the impacts, and the hate-filled commands were broadcast through car radios.

As were Tyre Nichol’s calls for his mom. They aired. They had to.

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Does the Republican Establishment Get It?

For many it seemed that the Republican establishment stood idly by as Democrats changed the rules and worked behind the scenes to alter elections.

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In a move that seemed to go against the wishes of the patriotic American grassroots, the Republican party on Friday re-elected RNC Chairperson Ronna McDaniel. 

The media immediately took notice, as many on television and radio are now wondering why the party would re-elect a chairperson who has been so unpopular with the base of its party. 

Grant Stinchfield discussed this issue Friday night on his program, Stinchfield Tonight, which airs on Real America’s Voice network.

“Ronna McDaniel holds on to her chairmanship of the Republican Party. By a whopping total of — what were the numbers– 111 to 54. Harmeet Dhillon only received 54 votes. Mike Lindell 4 votes. This is proof to me that the Republican establishment is dug in,” Stinchfield — formerly of Newsmax — said. “Don’t tell me they’re out of touch. See, you tell me they’re out of touch, that implies ignorance. They’re not ignorant about anything.”

As sentiment for Dhillon grew in the days leading up to Friday’s vote, many influential politicians and party donors publicly offered her their support and endorsement. These included Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), as well as donors Mike Rydin, Dick Uihlein, and Bernie Marcus.

Also on board were musician and outspoken conservative John Rich, along with the state GOP of Nebraska and Washington State. Countless journalists and media personalities, such as Charlie Kirk, Miranda Divine, and Lou Dobbs, also came out publicly in support of Dhillon. Former President Donald Trump remained neutral, not making a public choice of either of the three candidates.

For many of Dhillon’s supporters, the deciding factor was public sentiment across the party’s base.

“They’re reading the same chat boards. They’re getting the same emails I’m reading. I will literally post something about this race when I was supporting Harmeet Dhillon. There was not one comment – not one – that supported Ronna McDaniel. Everyone wanted change,” Stinchfield said, noting that the party elite saw the same groundswell of support for change.

“Now, nobody has an issue as Ronna McDaniel is some evil kind of person. I don’t believe she is. I believe, though, that she is part of the establishment. She’s been around too long as far as the establishment goes. And she’s been ingrained in doing business as usual. It’s not working.”

In making their choices known, many Dhillon supporters simply pointed to the scoreboard during McDaniel’s reign.

“Think about where we are. 2018, we lost the House. 2020, we lost everything. 2022, we won the House, but we should have really steamrolled the House and we should have taken back the Senate, which we didn’t do,” Stinchfield said. “That means we’re on a real losing track since she took over. I don’t like being on a losing track. I like being on a winning track.

“Something has got to change when you talk about all of this. So how does Ronna McDaniel get 111 votes and Harmeet Dhillon only get 54 votes, when everyone, every Republican voter I talk to said it was time for change?” pondered Stinchfield.

And even more than the losses, for many it seemed that the Republican establishment stood idly by as Democrats changed the rules and worked behind the scenes to alter elections. The most recent example of which came in Arizona, where presumptive gubernatorial favorite, Kari Lake, was “defeated” when countless voting irregularities occurred in some of the state’s most deep-red areas.

“Under her watch, Democrats instituted a mail-in ballot scheme. That may be even worse than losing, when you talk about the House and the Senate and all these things. The fact that we now have a junk mail-in ballot scheme across the country under Ronna McDaniel’s watch is serious trouble. Very serious trouble,” Stinchfield said on Friday. “And so the reason it is is because the Democrats are rigging the system.”

For years – until Donald Trump descended the golden escalator and took the world by storm – the Republican party had the reputation of being the party of the rich. Rush Limbaugh used to refer to this wing of Republicans as “the country club crowd.” President Donald Trump flipped the narrative completely, offering a clear vision of hope and patriotism to working-class America.

Reputable polling — such as Richard Baris’ Big Data Poll — consistently showed Trump running well ahead of almost every Republican candidate during the 2022 mid-term election cycle. In other words, Trump still maintains considerably more support across the country than most of the individual Senate or House candidates experienced.

Many experts believe this is because voters still view Trump as an outsider, while they view the Republican party much less favorably.

“Let’s tell you how out of touch they are, how elitist they are,” Stinchfield said, calling out the GOP establishment. “This meeting that went on, do you know where it is? It’s at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch in California. One of the most expensive resorts in America. You’re lucky if you get a room for a thousand dollars a night down there on Dana Point. Now, it’s a beautiful hotel, but why is the Republican Party holding an event there? Then I went back and I looked at what RedState did. RedState went back and looked at some of the expenses that the Republican Party under Ronna McDaniel’s leadership was spending money on.

“Take a look at this. $3.1 million on private jets. $1.3 million on limousine and chauffeur services. $17.1 million on donor mementos. $750,000 on floral arrangements. Now you compare this to the Democrats. The Democrats spent $35,000 on private airfare. A thousand dollars on floral arrangements. A thousand. Not $750,000. A thousand. And the $17.1 million they spent on donor mementos, the Democrats spent $1.5 million.

“Democrats know where to put the money. It’s not giving donors gifts. Donors shouldn’t want gifts. If you give money, give money. You don’t need the fancy pin to put on your lapel.”

Following her loss, Dhillon warned her party that it must listen to the base, saying, “if we ignore this message, I think it’s at our peril. It’s at our peril personally, as party leaders and it’s at our peril for our party in general.”

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