The KSSZ radio show on August 23rd, 2023, featured an insightful interview with political strategist Raven Harrison. The discussion revolved around the upcoming debate and the aspirations of conservative candidates. One resounding phrase that emerged from the interview was "We Want Trump Ultra." This article highlights the key takeaways and provides a call-to-action for readers.
KSSZ August 23rd, 2023 with Raven Harrison
Wake Up Mid-Missouri with Branden Rathert
During the KSSZ radio show, political strategist Raven Harrison shared her perspectives on the current political landscape. The interview shed light on the anticipation surrounding the upcoming debate and the potential for conservative candidates to distinguish themselves from former President Donald Trump. The phrase "We Want Trump Ultra" encapsulated the desire of Raven and the host for a candidate who embodies the essence of Trump's leadership.
Transcript
- Announcer: News director Brian Houseward, John Marsh and Hannah the producer. This is why we listen to you. Get ready pal. And now here's your host, Brandon Rathert.
- [Audio Clip]: The cost of living is up. We know gas prices are up. We know families are dealing with financial death by a thousand cuts under Bidenomics, and they want to see us talk about issues.
- Brandon Rathert: At the same time, as all eight candidates perhaps fight each other for second place, well behind the person who won't be on stage tonight, former President Donald Trump, who's skipping the GOP debate.
- [Audio Clip]: Give Tim Scott, who's planning to roll out his debate strategy by trying to introduce himself to the American people as more than just Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina, and really somebody that can lead this nation. He really plans to just introduce himself and his message to the American people.
- Brandon: It's what, thirteen hours from now, 8 o'clock. This is going to be airing tonight on Fox, Fox Digital platforms. What is it you're looking for? 874-9390.
- Derek says, "I'm going to be watching to see who understands that we are in a life or death fight with communists. If we lose, we're going to wake up in Venezuela one morning." That's what he's watching for.
- Producer Hannah, 23-year-old conservative college grad. Big thing you're looking for tonight?
- Producer Hannah: Economy solutions, and I'm watching the underdogs.
- Brandon: Marsh, what about you?
- John Marsh: Yeah, kind of watching to see who might be there when the smoke clears.
- Brandon: Steph Bell, who is there tonight, live reports tomorrow morning following her visit there. What are you looking for?
- Steph Bell: I want to see someone fall on their face and get knocked out. No, I do want to see who the other candidates consider to be the front-runner, whoever one is attacking besides Trump.
- Brandon: The thing I am looking for, how does Vivek Ramaswamy, he is smooth, he's polished. But how does he do when he's in a debate format? You know, can he keep his cool then? Can he be as smooth and as polished now if he's not reading his stuff?
- Coming up at 8-10, be here at 8-10 this morning. US Senator Eric Schmidt, he's going to give us his take on what he might be expecting.
- Steph: I mean, it's a difference. I liken it to, you know, you can stand and shoot around all day, play a game of pig in basketball, right? And you can, you're like, "I am making every shot." And then the minute you go in the game and someone's in your face, a lot of people cannot handle game time play and tonight is officially game time.
- Brandon: Want to bring in Raven Harrison, political strategist, national level. What is it? What's the big thing you're looking for tonight, Raven?
- Raven Harrison: I'm going to be actually keeping a log of how many times each one of these candidates mentions Trump. So I'm going to be keeping track of how much airtime they get. Can these candidates actually distinguish themselves? Because the strategy of comparing themselves to Trump, attacking Trump, has been catastrophic. So can any of them stand out and make a platform for themselves and provide a winning argument to the American people that does not involve some manner of Trumpism?
- That's what I would be looking for. We know what Trump is. You know, we don't want Trump lite. We don't want Trump, you know, watered down. We want Trump ultra. So if they're going to make this play and vie for second place, it's really just heir apparent. We want to provide for them. They're going to have to do better.
- Brandon: We want all the carbs in Donald Trump. We want Donald Trump ultra. We want all the carbs right now as we're chatting this morning about this debate coming up tonight.
- Vivek Ramaswamy, obviously a lot of buzz, younger audience. We might talk about that for a minute to these younger folks. He's been to he's, and here's what he's been doing to get prepared. He's been doing burpees at the gym. Good, good, good on him.
- Here's, and Stephanie brought up this point earlier, Raven. I've been on this for a long time. Got a lot of friends in local pachyderm clubs, and I go to these things and a lot of times, Raven, I'm a 52-year-old dude. A lot of times I'm the youngest guy in the room, and I've been chatting with my conservative friends like, you know, we need to be thinking about future conservatives, things like that. I think, and have, I think Stephanie agrees, the idea that Vivek Ramaswamy could draw a whole bunch of young people to even watch the debate tonight. What are your thoughts on that?
- Raven: I think that's a good point. If you look at Ramaswamy's history, I mean, he's been compared a lot to Andrew Lang on the Democrat side. The difference is Andrew Lang has never been, has never been able to climb up to the level that Vivek has. I mean, he's actually now just pushed ahead of DeSantis in terms of the polling. So he's proven that he has the appeal. The problem is that he doesn't really have, you know, any battle scars in terms of, you know, he's a very polished candidate, but people are looking for a little scruff, what does he have in terms of actual experience, you know, in these kind of clutch situations as Hannah puts it. But that's what I think you're going to be looking at is he should present well. We've not seen it. It was a great analogy of what do you do when somebody's actually just actually defending you and has their hands in your face, and, you know, they're waving in front of the basket. And that's what we need to see right now because that's where America is. We were in a spiraling free fall. But how we fix this going forward, his appeal is going to be and his effectiveness is going to be dependent on how we clean house, you know, at the other levels of government. It's not just the presidency. We have got to get all the swamp creatures out of the swamp.
- Steph: I think it is going to be a make-or-break night for some of those folks on the stage tonight. But I also think it could be a make-or-break night for Fox and their future in media. They lost Tucker.
- Tucker's doing this other thing with Trump. I mean, you know, you do a lot of media, and you watch and consume a lot of media. How are you going to analyze Fox and the media, specifically the conservative media landscape going forward after tonight's debate?
- Raven: Well, as I already have, we're seeing they're going the way of Bud Light, which is, you know, let's just prove that we can woke ourselves into profitability. You know, Tucker, Tucker, you know, didn't just leave us, let go. And now same thing with Trump. They've had a very contentious relationship with Fox and President Trump. And he is basically showing he's taken the reins back on his celebrity and his power. The Republican Party has been doing this to him since he came down the golden escalators. They were horrible to him the first campaign, and this time he's just basically making a power play, which he does better than anybody I've ever seen. It's checkmate.
- So, I think you're going to see that this is going to throttle Fox News. You're going to have everybody who wants to see Trump is going to go to the Trump side. And this is going to be the other ones who are going to inadvertently fall into the trap of mentioning Trump all the time. Let's see if they can resist the bait.
- Brandon: All right, our guest, Raven Harrison, ravenharrison.com, political strategist. You see her on a national level doing a bunch of stuff with Fox all across the nation. And here's what, and I wish far be it for me, by the way, to offer advice to Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk. But if you're doing the Tucker thing, they recorded this yesterday, it's already done, it's in the can. Why gosh, if you would have done a live event on Twitter following the debate, turn the debate off and then let Trump go with Tucker, I think that would have been real impactful. But Elon Musk down Trump and then didn't pay attention to me.
- What about a second-place vice presidential aspirations? Tim says, my eyes are on Vivek and the Vietek, same thing. Vivek will mop the floor tonight. Like who emerges as the second-place finisher or a potential vice presidential candidate for Trump?
- Raven: I think in this field, you're not going to find you're going to find some pickings. It would not surprise me, just on how this has gone. Most of them attacking Trump at some point in their campaign. I would think of the field that currently exists, I think that Tim Scott looks the strongest for that position. Vivek would be a second, but we don't know how he performs under the pressure. But it would not surprise me in the least for Donald Trump to pick somebody nobody was expecting.
- Brandon: Doug Burgum.
- Raven: Somebody who has the ability to pull in a certain amount of support for it, and no, it's not me. I'm just telling you, it's got to be a shock position. And that's how Donald Trump loves to operate. He loves to come in where nobody saw it coming.
- Brandon: Well, and I think the other reason they wouldn't do a Twitter live event. I think the last time they did that in the political realm on a big thing to deSantis, that live event did not go so well for Twitter.
- Raven: It was a disaster.
- Brandon: It was a disaster. And maybe they're saying we're not taking any chances on this tonight.
- Raven Harrison, ravenharrison.com. Anything else you want to add to this? I'm loving, and this is impactful stuff, by the way because we're watching this is not just about. I, and sometimes I'm guilty of it too because of, you know, Trump and Biden and the debates on the GOP side over the years. I get too much into the entertainment factor, but there's important stuff that's going to be covered tonight. You know, you talk about your economy and some of these bizarre social things that people are trying to force on you.
- As a matter of fact, our Attorney General, Andrew Bailey, he's joining us on the show at 7:35 this morning. A story making national headlines. He's in a courtroom trying to protect little kids today as it relates to transgender issues. That's important stuff, single. I'm guessing I already know the answer. Single most important thing they'll be covering tonight. It's the economy, Raven. That's what it is for me.
- Raven: It is the economy. If we get a little shout out to the border, that's important. They're hand in hand at this point, but also for people to remember that this is going to be something that they're very much hiding on the Democrats' side because they've got to figure out a way to hide Biden. He can't debate, and they know it. So what they're going to be doing is everything and their strategy is predicated around protecting this man as he falls apart in real-time. So just look at what the stage the scape is tonight, what their actual solutions and remembering that if we don't fix this issue with President Trump, none of their platforms matter.
- If the Democrats are allowed to continue to persecute political opponents like they did in Venezuela and Brazil and some of these other countries, then we are going to wind up just like it. None of these matter. We can't figure out how to get election integrity and get our country back on track, and Trump is leading the charge on that.
- Brandon: And if you find yourself as one of those who typically wouldn't watch a GOP primary debate, I would suggest, you know, watch this because there are important things. You know, we're thinking, "Okay, it's August 2023, still a year plus from the general, a year from the primary." Things that are happening tonight on TV. These are going to impact not just the country, but you listening to Wake Up Mid Missouri right now. Raven, anything else that you'd like to add this morning before we let you go?
- Raven: That is to stay vigilant. I mean, we know voters tend to have notoriously short memories, and I just invite people to keep your eyes on the prize, get the popcorn, and call in and demand more from our elected officials. It's become a sideshow. We, these are prestigious offices. You know, the highest and most important person in the land, keep our eyes on the ball and don't give your vote away. People died for it.
- Brandon: Political strategist, Raven Harrison, ravenharrison.com. Thank you so much. We will look forward to hanging out with you last week. Raven said, "Joe, Joe can't debate. Joe can't even tell the truth." We highlighted what he said. He said the other day in Hawaii, how disheartening to joke and laugh in front of people in Hawaii. We're a hundred and at least 114 people have died. We have audio. We're going to be highlighting later this morning. He's told and we already know we did see he lied about how impactful that house fire was on his house.
We Want Trump Ultra - Wrap-up
As the interview concluded, it became evident that the phrase "We Want Trump Ultra" resonated in the interview. The passion for a candidate who can uphold the principles and values championed by Donald Trump was palpable. This fervor calls on readers to remain vigilant and demand more from elected officials. By staying engaged and refusing to compromise on core conservative ideals, we can ensure that our voices are heard and that our country continues to thrive.
In conclusion, the KSSZ radio show featuring Raven Harrison provided valuable insights into the upcoming debate and the aspirations of conservative candidates. The phrase "We Want Trump Ultra" encapsulates the desire for a candidate who embodies the strong leadership and unwavering commitment to conservative values that Donald Trump represented. It is now up to us, as engaged citizens, to maintain our vigilance and drive for political change. Together, we can shape the future of our nation.
We Want Trump Ultra!
