'We Have Not Seen That In Generations': Wesley Hunt Touts Key Trump Advantage Over Biden Amid RNC

2 months ago

Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the RNC, the attempted Trump assassination, and more.

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Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis with Forbes Breaking News. Joining me now is Congressman

00:07Wesley Hunt. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me.

00:11Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be here.

00:13You are joining me from Milwaukee at the RNC. And I do want to get into that. But before

00:18we do, over the weekend, we saw a tragic event take place. Former President Donald Trump

00:24survived an assassination attempt against him and a political rally. When you saw the

00:28news, when you saw the video, what was your reaction?

00:33I'm a combat guy. I'm an Apache pilot. I know what it feels like and what it means to be

00:37shot at. Fortunately, I've never been hit like he was. But we are trained to have resolve

00:42and we are trained to continue to get in the fight and to strive and courage under fire.

00:47What I saw from the 45th and what will be the 47th president is courage under fire personified.

00:54This man got shot inside of his head. And the first thing that he does is put his shoes

01:00back on and then turn to the crowd and say the three words, fight, fight, fight.

01:06I've never seen any leadership like that in my entire life. It is iconic. And so while

01:11it could have gone completely in a different direction, which would have been a dastardly

01:17place for this country to be, it didn't. And now he is here now, strong, coalescing around

01:23our party, bringing in Rhonda Sanchez last night, bringing in Nikki Haley last night.

01:28This whole thing, the whole attitude around this convention has been unity. And he is

01:33the one unifying our party and he will unify our country.

01:37What does that mean to see someone like Ambassador Nikki Haley speaking at this convention? Because

01:43I don't think she was slated to speech. She was running against Donald Trump. They sparred

01:49during the primary, as we all know. So what was that like seeing her speak last night?

01:53Well, I think it was it was an outstanding move by President Trump to extend the invitation.

01:59And she was very gracious to accept and give a very good speech. And if you listen to the

02:04speech, it was a unifying speech. And President Trump was paying attention to every word that

02:08she was saying. I was sitting next to him actually at the time of her speech. And I

02:12got to tell you, it was electric and it was electric to see the love being poured out

02:17toward the 47th president of this country. And again, I can't talk to you enough about

02:21how unifying this whole event was. That was a very special moment,

02:25not just for the party, but for the entire country.

02:28You actually posted a photo on X of you and the former president at the RNC.

02:33Can you talk to us about that moment about speaking with him just days after he was shot?

02:39Well, it's something it is a moment that I will never forget. And I will be sharing with my

02:43grandchildren and my great, great grandchildren. I can assure you that. And he's in good spirits.

02:49He is in a very genuine place. And I feel like he now has a reinvigorated,

02:54a renewed spirit of life, even at 78 years old. And now he knows what his marching orders are.

03:01God spared him for a reason. God is going to spare this country for a reason. And he is God

03:05has not done with he or this country yet. And I think President Trump is well aware of that

03:10after that near-death experience. I mean, that was really a harrowing

03:14event that we saw on Saturday. And I think both sides of the aisle really took pause there.

03:20Both sides of the aisle said, hey, we need to bring this rhetoric down. Your colleagues,

03:25Representatives Luna and Moskowitz, penned a letter calling on members of Congress to, quote,

03:30bring down the temperature and said it's, quote, time for our nation to come together,

03:34show courtesy to one another and usher newfound respect into our politics.

03:39Is that a message that you agree with? I am in complete agreement with that,

03:44and I support that. Nobody wants to see any president or really any leader in this country

03:51literally in the line of fire. And the next thing I will say is this. We have to get to the bottom

03:56of this because that can never happen again. The last time we saw an attempt on a president's life

04:00was 40 years ago before I was even born. And so we have got to prevent that for the future.

04:05It's going to take Democrats and Republicans to come together and realize that we can never put

04:10the leader of the free world, future leader or past leader of the free world in that position

04:14ever again. So I really applaud my colleagues moving forward on some legislation to make

04:18legislation and messaging to make sure that we tamp down this rhetoric and really talk about

04:22the issues and policies that are in the best interest of our country. I do want to ask you

04:27about that because I've spoken to a Democrat. I've spoken to Republicans and both have questions of

04:33how did this happen? What questions do you have? How does a shooter get within a chip shot 150

04:41yards away from almost killing President Trump? That is absurd. There was a clear there's a clear

04:48lack in leadership there. There was a clear failure there. And while I absolutely applaud

04:54the Secret Service men and women that did do their jobs, something went awry here. And we've got to

04:59fix this for the future. And we have to get to the bottom of this so that never happens again.

05:04I know this issue is going to be brought up with Jim Jordan on the Judiciary Committee

05:09that I'm currently serving on. Overtime is going to take this too. And again, we have to get this

05:13right as soon as possible. As we've been talking about, this was on Saturday, the first assassination

05:19attempt against a four or a presidential candidate since 1981. That happened less than 48 hours

05:27before the first day of the RNC. So how has the tenor of the RNC changed? And what is the

05:33mood like in Milwaukee? Well, everything's changed. And the mood here, again, it's a mood.

05:39It's a mood of unity. And when President Trump walked out on that first day, it was absolutely

05:45electric. We are following our leader in the battle to save the very soul of this nation.

05:51And every single person here that I have spoken to is on the same page.

05:55This is my first convention, but I've watched it on TV for years. And I got to tell you,

06:01this is the first time I've seen unity like this in our party in a very long time. I also want to

06:06say this. Even before the shooting, President Trump has outraised Joe Biden. He had probably

06:12way more now an $85 million advantage over a Democrat. We have not seen that in generations.

06:19So to give you an idea of how not just really us, but the country is coalescing around President

06:24Trump, it's a beautiful thing to see. I think it's going to translate very well in November.

06:29As you mentioned in this interview, there is a newfound theme of unity at the RNC.

06:35Both RNC co-chair Laura Trump, as well as former President Donald Trump,

06:40said that they changed their speeches to match this message of unity. You spoke at the RNC

06:46on Monday. Your speech largely focused on inflation, as well as the economy.

06:51Did you change your speech at all ahead of Monday?

06:56We changed a few lines in it. But again, the focus is to make sure we get to policy,

07:01no more rhetoric, no more vitriol. Let's talk about policy. Let's talk about inflation. Let's

07:05talk about the border. Let's talk about safety. Let's talk about fentanyl. These are the issues

07:09that the American people care the most about. And so I want to make sure that we kept my speech

07:15focused on those tenets. And again, my heart goes with President Trump and his family,

07:21and Barron, and Melania, and all the Trumps. I mean, they almost lost a father, a husband,

07:27and a grandfather. Let's keep that in mind. President Trump is a human being.

07:31And to a certain extent, the humanization of him after a couple of days ago was really good for

07:37the country. It's really good for the RNC. Everyone knows what happened. We all watched

07:41in horror what happened. So now it's time for us to, again, call us around President Trump.

07:46The day is always darkest before the dawn. I'm looking forward to the future. This is one of

07:50the few times in the history of this country where President Trump has the opportunity

07:54to dictate the future of this country for generations to come. And I think he is up for the

07:59job. Aside from your speech, other big news out of Monday is that former President Donald Trump

08:05has picked his running mate, and that is Senator J.D. Vance. What do you make of the pick?

08:10I trust President Trump's judgment. It's really good to see that we have a very

08:15deep and young bench. You know, when I was sitting next to President Trump,

08:18we were surrounded by Congressman Cory Mills, and Ana Paulina Luna, and Elise Stefanik,

08:24and Jim Banks. And one thing that we have in common is that we're all under the age of 50.

08:28Many of us are combat veterans that serve this country. And President Trump knows the importance

08:33of setting up the country for the future. And J.D. Vance fits that role as well. And I cannot

08:38wait to work with the new administration for the future for the betterment of our nation.

08:42As I'm sure you're aware, J.D. Vance has been critical of President Trump in the past.

08:48He has reportedly compared him to Hitler, said he was reprehensible,

08:51said he didn't vote for him in 2016. So how do you square away those past comments with him now

08:58being the running mate? Well, it's not about me squaring away

09:01anything with him being his running mate. President Trump chose him, and therefore,

09:04I trust his judgment. And look, if President Trump can get over some of those past comments,

09:09then so can we. And you're sitting at the RNC now. What do you think is the future

09:15of the Republican Party and this election going forward? Because as you said,

09:20it feels like after Saturday, everything in this election and really in the political

09:25landscape has changed. Correct. I think the future of our country, the future of our party

09:32is very bright. And we have to get back to the tenets of our constitution. We have to get back

09:36to the fact that this is not a democracy. This is a constitutional republic. And this is about

09:41ensuring the federal government does our job to keep our country safe without overreaching on

09:47other states. Keep in mind, every state has a governor. Every state has a state legislature.

09:52They have a state senate. They have a state house. And why is that? So that everyone could have power

09:58over their local communities. It's very difficult to get to the federal level and

10:03to speak to a congressman like me. I represent almost a million people in Houston, Texas,

10:08but all politics are local. So when we return the power back to the states, we're actually

10:12returning the power back to the people. That's what President Trump is focused on.

10:16Congressman, I hope you enjoy the rest of the RNC. Thank you so much for joining me.

10:21God bless you. Thank you so much for having me on.

'We Have Not Seen That In Generations': Wesley Hunt Touts Key Trump Advantage Over Biden Amid RNC

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