Episode 34 – Political Outlook from Chris Stirewalt

Welcome to the TRSA podcast. Providing interviews and insights from the linen, uniform, and facility services industry. Most Americans might not realize it, but they benefit at least once per week from the cleanliness and safety of laundered, reusable linens, uniforms, towels, mats, and other products provided by various businesses and organizations. TRSA represents the companies that supply, launder, and maintain linens and uniforms. And in this podcast, we will bring the thought leaders of the industry to you.

 

Thanks for joining us as we close out 20 20 with another episode of the Linen, Uniform, and Facility Services podcast, interviews and insights by TRSA. I’m your host, Jason Risley. And on today’s episode, we’ll get an update on the latest news from the nation’s capital and look ahead at what to expect moving forward as a new administration takes over the White House in January 2021. Joining us to discuss these issues and more is Chris Steierwalt, the digital politics editor at Fox News. Chris has worked at Fox News Channel’s Washington Bureau since 2010 and helps coordinate political coverage across Fox platforms contributing articles, video segments, an extremely popular newsletter, a weekly podcast with cohost Dana Perino, and regular appearances on Fox News Channel’s most popular programs.

 

Chris will give a keynote address at TRSA’s 11th annual legislative conference scheduled for March 24th 25th, 2021. You can find more information about the legislative conference on our website at www.trsa.org. Without further ado, let’s hear what Chris has to say about the latest news from Washington, DC as we close out 2020 and move forward to 2021. Things in Washington can either be interesting and uneventful or boring and eventful. You can only have stuff pass.

 

You can only have stuff take place when things are a little boring. When there’s lots of excitement and lots to talk about and all of this stuff, you don’t really pass a lot of stuff. Things don’t really happen because there’s too much focus on what it you know, all of as we think back on the last 4 years, there was lots to talk about, but it was a relatively unproductive period in Washington in terms of stuff. There was a lot of, judicial confirmations. There was a tax cut that was passed.

 

But other than that, Congress didn’t do a lot. There were a lot of dumb hearings and investigations. There was a lot of blah dee dee blah because throughout the process of the 4 years, both sides were focused on just preventing the other side from doing anything and trying to get attention and thinking about the next election. But we’re in a really interesting and by interesting, I mean, boring point right now where we have a the most conventional president-elect since George h w Bush. This is a, you know, a guy of Washington, 40 years in the senate, who likes the senate, who likes to legislate, who wants to do all this stuff, who wants to do bipartisan stuff.

 

So you have this very boring kind of traditional politician and you have the house and senate right teetering on the edge. Right? So bipartisanship will be much in demand. And you’ve already seen it with the gang that started out with 5 and then grew out from there in the senate as they talked about what they might wanna do in terms of COVID relief. And the house, you know, due to people going into the Biden administration, Pelosi’s majority might only be a few seats for a period of time.

 

So this puts a heavy emphasis on bipartisanship, which creates the possibility that you might actually pass some things. So could you see big coronavirus stimulus? Yep. Could you even and I know this will sound crazy. Could you see infrastructure week?

 

Could you actually see real movement on some sort of infrastructure package? I say yes. And I say that Biden, who is doing everything he can to try to give Republicans cover, I could definitely see Biden trying to make infrastructure part of a big package, a multi $1,000,000,000,000 coronavirus package, and he might be able to pull it off. We will know by March, certainly, whether this stuff is gonna dry up and blow away or whether it’s gonna be for real. There are deep divisions inside both of these parties, and there’s a lot of hurt feelings.

 

There’s a lot of bad feelings between the, between the two parties against each other and within the two parties. Deep divisions and a lot of acrimony. How much of that is gonna stick around? How much of that will go away? All of that stuff.

 

And a lot of that by the way will depend on the optimism of the nation as it relates to coronavirus. If people start feeling good again, and the and because of the vaccine and because of greater optimism and growing economy, then things are less likely to happen in Washington. If people remain concerned and people remain anxious, then the pressure’s on. If you if you see more unemployment numbers like the ones that we saw today, if you continue to see that, the power that senators like Joe Manchin, and the problem solvers caucus in the house, the people who wanna pass legislation, These folks will get the whip hand if people are really, really concerned. And that’s what Biden is betting on is that there’ll be a little window after his inauguration.

 

And maybe it’s only 6 weeks long, but that there’ll be a little window there that opens up that he can push through a bunch of stuff, and that’s what everybody’s getting ready for. So if you’re a big nerd like me, it’s exciting because in boring times, things can happen, so things might actually happen. Or we can just go back to shouting at each other and not doing anything. Now for a brief message from TRSA. Hi.

 

I’m Gina Radke, CEO of Gauley Support Innovations and author of More Than How to Be Bold and Balanced in Life and Business. I am really excited to come talk to you in January. We’ve got an amazing round table set up, and we’re going to talk about how to make allies in our field that’s male dominated, how to be bold and increase our profits and profitability and productivity, but also how to be balanced, to balance our life and our career and the things that really sometimes just drag us down. We are gonna go through that will improve your career and your home life, and I’m really excited to see you in January. Now back to the episode.

 

The past 3 presidents elect have had the same mandate, which is to not be the other person. Joe Biden will fulfill his first mandate on January 20 when he takes the oath of office. Just like Trump’s first mandate was to not be Hillary, and Obama’s first mandate was to be a turn from Bush. And so there’s that component of it. But there is if you look at, and I would point you to Maine, I would point you to Georgia, I would point you to Nebraska.

 

There’s some other places where it becomes very clear. The mandate from the American people is for governance. We haven’t had any governance for a long time. We haven’t had a real budget since 2007. This is a joke.

 

If you wanna think about an unworthy government, a government unworthy of its nation and its people, it is this clown college that we’re running here in Washington. And when you have people who say, yep. No more Trump. We don’t wanna do that anymore. And then they say, but I’m gonna vote for Republicans in the senate.

 

I’m gonna vote for Republicans in the house. I’m gonna vote the Democrats did not flip a single state legislature. After a concerted effort led by Eric Holder with a lot of help from Obama, a lot of fundraising. They didn’t flip a single legislative chamber across the country. So the mandate from the people here’s how I determine it.

 

Joe Biden ran at he he ran on not being Trump on, coronavirus. His his running mate was a mask. He and he also ran though on unity and healing. He heavily emphasized reuniting the country and he didn’t do a lot of attack ads on the Republicans. He, you know, he he attacked Trump for his stuff, but it wasn’t he wasn’t doing any broad spectrum attack on conservatism or republicans.

 

And if you’ve noticed in his picks and what he’s doing, he’s really trying to prop the door open. He and McConnell have a working relationship that dates back to the senate and to the Obama administration. I know McConnell is sick and tired of not doing their work. He wants the senate to get back to doing its work. So I think there is a mandate for governance to work together and do something.

 

I am relieved personally that it was not a big blue wave or a what it the red tide or whatever Trump called it. I’m glad that we didn’t have a wave election because wave elections let politicians off the hook, and they just say, well, next time we’ll come back and then we’ll get everything what everything that we want. Why should we compromise with these chuckleheads? The mandate from the voters was, we’re not gonna let you off the hook. You’re gonna have to find a way to live with the other half of the country and do something.

 

And I do believe that there are rewards for politicians who would try it right now. I think that the the national mood, people are so sick with the coronavirus, with all of the stupidity around how people and our leaders conduct themselves. I think there’s a real appetite out there. And if somebody can find a way to do it, we’ll get going. A strong united message on policy issues is increasingly important in order to have a voice in Washington DC and in state capitals across the United States, especially as we continue to battle the COVID 19 pandemic and its harmful effects on the economy.

 

This united voice helps policy makers enact legislation that is not overly burdensome or potentially harmful to the linen, uniform, and facility services industry. TRSA’s political action committee or TRSA PAC helps the industry present a united front on important legislative and regulatory issues at both the federal and state levels. For more information on contributing to the TRSA pack, contact TRSA’s vice president of government relations, Kevin Schwab, atkschwalb@trsa.org. That’s kschwalb@trsa.org. Happy holidays, and thanks again for all your support of TRSA and the Linen Uniform and Facility Services podcast throughout the last year.

 

If you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review our show on Apple Itunes, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher. Additionally, don’t forget to follow TRSA on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.