Live from Virginia Friday morning on The John Fredericks Show – weekdays on WNTW AM 820/ FM 92.7 – Richmond, WJFN FM 100.5 – Central Virginia, WMPH AM 1010 / FM 100.1 / FM 96.9 (7-9 PM) Hampton Roads, WBRG AM 1050 / FM 105.1 – Lynchburg/Roanoke and Weekdays 6-10 am and 24/7 Stream –  host Fredericks welcomed Morgan Griffith to the show.
During the interview, Griffith weighed in on Nancy Pelosi’s recent salon appearance on the owner’s security cams where she was not wearing a mask and found it of poor character to not own up to it. He later discussed how he saw the great possibility of Trump taking Virginia in the upcoming election citing many new registered voters.
Fredericks: Joining me now, Congressman of the 9th district of Virginia, Republican Morgan Griffith. Congressman, great to have you, man.
Griffith: It’s good to be with you! It’s been too long.
Fredericks: You are busy. You got a family going. Now, I understand yesterday was your son’s birthday. True or false?
Griffith: That’s correct.
Fredericks: And how old is he?
Griffith: 13.
Fredericks: Oh, a teenager.
Griffith: Yep. He’s our baby and he’s now a teenager.
Fredericks: He’s your baby? I remember when I first met you he was like four or five or something. Time fly’s, Morgan. I remember we had breakfast one day at your favorite place in Salem.
Griffith: New Mountain Coffee and Tea.
Fredericks: That was eight years ago and I remember he was like five.
Griffith: Oh wow. Well, time flies man when you are having fun. Did he have a good time with his dad and mom and everything?
Griffith: He did. He had a good day.
Fredericks: Excellent. OK. Well, let’s get to the deal that apparently Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, I guess she got her hair done and came out of the shop or whatever. (Griffith chuckles) I guess they agreed to pursue a clean bill.
Before we get to this, I mean c’mon? Congressman this is your Speaker. She gets caught without a mask going in to get her hair done in a salon that the owner has shut down because they won’t let her open. Then she goes in there, and she blames the owner for having a security camera like its the owner’s fault who’s going out of business!
Griffith: It’s absolutely ridiculous. Look, none of us is perfect and we’ve all made mistakes. And she wanted to get her hair done. She’s the third highest-ranking official in the country. She knew or should have known that under the rules put forth by her Democrat colleagues in San Francisco, that you couldn’t go inside a beauty parlor, and you are supposed to be wearing a mask at all times.
We were just talking about my youngest who had to get his hair cut one day and pouted about having to put on a mask, and we had a big spat over it. And that’s what kids do. But Nancy Pelosi did wrong. It doesn’t mean she’s evil. But then when she says they need to apologize to me, whoa whoa whoa. Take some personal responsibility.
You are the third highest-ranking government official in the federal system. And you can’t take responsibility that you went and violated the rules by going into a beauty parlor because they were are all supposed to be closed. You are only supposed to be doing stuff outside. And then secondly, not wearing a mask which you have fussed and fussed and fussed about everybody else who hadn’t worn a mask.
We are required to wear a mask on the floor of the House even though we go just go in and vote and leave. We don’t have big activities going on right now, unless you are involved in that specific debate. You aren’t on the floor but a few seconds to cast your vote. And you can’t follow the rules, and then when you do make a mistake, and we’ve all done it, just say, I goofed up.
I made a mistake. I wasn’t thinking. Everybody would have understood that. But instead to say I was set up? (Fredericks chuckles) I mean, you wanted your hair done, I get it. But you weren’t set up. You willingly violated the rules that your colleagues put into place. Just own it and be done with it. It’s not that big a deal.
Fredericks: I know. And she was mad at the owner and the owner was like, I can’t open my business. I’m going out of business. I can’t pay my rent. So yeah, I released the video because you won’t let me open, but you want to come in and get your hair done and in the meantime, I’m going out of business. That’s why the owner released the security footage video. I mean c’mon. She is really ridiculous. That was ridiculous. But see, they can do that.
Griffith: Here’s the problem. It also goes to the Second Amendment and the protection of your homes – do as I say, not as I do. That reminds me of the Chicago mayor who put 100 officers around her house. Not everybody has the ability to have 100 officers around their house, but they are totally against the Second Amendment, which is the right to protect yourself and your own property.
Fredericks: And they don’t do anything about the police situation in Chicago and everybody being shot there every single weekend. She doesn’t do anything about that, but she’s protecting herself. Hypocrisy.
Griffith: Yep. It’s a classic Democrat move. Do as I say, not as I do.
Fredericks: Alright. Before we get to this compromise here with Mnuchin and Pelosi keeping the government open. Trump’s support in the 9th district, in order to get the state competitive, we’ve got to have a massive Trump turn out in the 9th. How does that look?
Griffith: I think it looks pretty good. I keep getting anecdotal reports of people saying hey, I have been down visiting with a family member and a couple of their neighbors came over to tell me they have never voted, and they are getting registered because they think it’s that important. So we are hearing about a lot of new registrations. We have to hope that it happens.
I think the enthusiasm factor is huge down here for Trump. And we’ll just have to make sure we get the vote turned out. Yesterday I saw that Mark Rozell say it could happen! Trump could carry Virginia. And we posted that up on our website because in our district, that’s what they need to know. And that it does matter and it can help. And every person that’s for Trump needs to get out. Rozell I think was making a call to get the Democrats out. But the bottom line is that it can happen.
Is it easy? No. Is it something that would happen automatically? No. It’s going to take every single person getting out and voting, and then we have to hope some people realize that basement Biden can’t govern. And even if they don’t like some of the things that Trump says, that they’ll go in and vote for Trump anyway. And some people who just decide that they are going to vote for a third party because Biden is too far to the left.
Fredericks: Our analysis right now is showing us about a three-and-a-half point race. The Roanoke poll had 15. I blasted that. Christopher Newport University’s fake poll in a week that will show it at 25 or something. This is about a three-and-a-half or four-point race. People don’t realize that we lost by five in 2016 to Clinton.
But we were fighting Tim Kaine, who was popular in the VP. We were fighting McAuliffe, who was actively involved in getting people out. And there was a lot of enthusiasm for Hillary in Virginia. Not the same as for Biden. He doesn’t have that level of enthusiasm. Here’s the other thing. They’ve already topped out. We know all the cities we are going to lose and by how many we are going to lose. We know all that. It’s already done, right?
But what they are not taking into account is how many new people we’ve registered, and those that are registered, how many are going to turn out that didn’t turn out in 2016. It’s a massive number. We already know what their numbers are. Our numbers are going to be the shocker. I think right now this was within about three-and-a-half. Can we pull an upset? Yes. Are we the underdog? Yes. But right now it’s about three-and-a-half. When you are at about three-and-a-half, Morgan, as you know, anything can happen, right? Anything.
Griffith: Absolutely. Absolutely. I have been involved in many races including my own in 2010 where the 1st of October we were down double digits. But the cross tabs and the enthusiasm factors often are not taken into account when you read the bold headlines.
And right now, I would say at least in Virginia the enthusiasm factor is for Trump and not for Biden. He is, as the president likes to say, Sleepy Joe. That sleepiness does not instill people to feel like they want to get out and do everything they can in order to vote and make sure that their vote is counted. The folks voting for Trump, it’s exactly the opposite.
They want to get out. They want to make sure they get their votes counted. They want to make sure that every person who is pro-Trump is registered in due time and is able to cast their ballot for Trump. So I think we could possibly win Virginia? And if we win Virginia, it’s game-set-match.
Listen to the full show here:
https://youtu.be/fqLuoPy_FR0
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