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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire, and I'm joined today by my co-host Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me, John.
--:-- John Bickley: Today, we're talking with the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Watley. Chairman Watley, thanks for joining us.
--:-- Michael Watley: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome back to Morning Wire. Today, we're joined by Michael Watley, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee. Chairman Watley, congratulations on taking over leadership of the RNC. What directional changes can we expect?
--:-- Michael Watley: Well, I think that most of the changes are going to reflect the fact that we now have Donald Trump as our nominee. And so anytime, you know, the RNC picks up a nominee like we have right now, those are the changes. We just want to make sure that we're working hand in glove with the president's campaign. And every single effort that we have is going to be focused on making sure that we win up and down the ballot.
--:-- John Bickley: One of the major focuses that we've heard from Trump's team and also a lot of the GOP leadership is election integrity. You've made clear that that's going to be an important aspect of the RNC under your leadership. What actions are you taking on that front?
--:-- Michael Watley: Well, there's really two places that we want to go when we talk about election integrity. The first is in every state, we want to have the laws, the rules, the regulations in place that are going to allow for a fair, transparent election. So we want to work with state legislators. We want to work with regulators such as secretaries of state or boards of election. And if those won't work, then, of course, we're going to have to go to court.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Chairman Watley, let's discuss some of those lawsuits, particularly the two you filed against the secretaries of state of Michigan and Nevada. What are the details of those cases?
--:-- Michael Watley: Well, the simple way to put it is that they have in many of the counties in each of those states more people on the voter roll than are eligible to vote, which obviously is a problem. So what we need to do is have those states actually comply with the National Voting Rights Act, NVRA, which requires the states to clean up the voting rolls.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to the Washington Times, the Nevada lawsuit is the 81st case of election integrity litigation that the RNC has put forth this cycle. What can you tell us about some of those other cases?
--:-- Michael Watley: Well, look, I think that we think about, you know, kind of buckets, right? 88% of Americans support voter ID. Well, we want to make sure that we have voter ID that's being implemented in states all across the country. We're currently involved in 20 cases there.
--:-- John Bickley: Chairman Watley, what about ballot harvesting? There's been a lot of controversy about that. And one of the things we're hearing is, look, the Republican Party needs to embrace it in certain states where it's legal. How are you guys approaching ballot harvesting?
--:-- Michael Watley: Well, ballot harvesting in some way, shape, or form is legal in about 14 states around the country. And where it's legal, we need to embrace it. We need to be doing it. I think that as a concept, we want people to handle their own ballots. We want people to do their own mailing. But where it is legal, we need to engage in it, right?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Chairman Watley, you've recently beefed up your legal team with attorneys Charlie Spies and Christina Bob. How do you plan to use them?
--:-- Michael Watley: Look, what I will say is that the RNC our legal operation is tremendous. I mean as you would expect when you're running a billion dollar operation, we've got a lot of things that are going on and we've got a great in-house legal counsel team, which I'm very, very proud of.
--:-- John Bickley: Chairman Watley, Republicans did not perform as well as they wanted to in the midterms and special elections. How are you planning to remedy that?
--:-- Michael Watley: Two things. First off, as we've already been talking about protecting the ballot, that's going to be an absolutely critical function for us. And secondly, we're going to get out the vote, right? And so, you know, what we need to do is take every voter that we can get our hands on, make sure that they are educated voters, and then make sure that they get to the polls.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Chairman Watley, you've locked in a nominee earlier than ever before this time with Trump. How does having more time before the general election affect the race?
--:-- Michael Watley: I think it helps us tremendously. And we're very excited that President Trump has clinched the nomination. He is the official presumed nominee earlier than we've ever had happened before, which gives us a lot more runway.
--:-- John Bickley: Chairman Watley, now, Trump's been under what Republicans have called lawfare from officials in multiple states and obviously the federal government. His legal bills are a huge drain on the campaign financially. How much of that tab is the RNC picking up?
--:-- Michael Watley: We're not going to pick it up. I think that the campaign has made it very clear they are not going to ask us to help cover the legal fees, and we're not planning that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Final question, Chairman Watley. In your view, what is the key for Republicans to win in November?
--:-- Michael Watley: We are going to have the resources that we need to be able to get our message out across the country. And we're going to talk to every voter. And the key is that Republicans are going to win because we are hearing the issues that the American voters care about. Issues like jobs in the economy, like education, like safety, like national security. These are issues that Republicans win every single poll, every single time.
--:-- John Bickley: Chairman Watley, thanks so much for joining us.
--:-- Michael Watley: Not a problem. We appreciate you guys. Look forward to doing it again.
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