Post Election Analysis with Jake Novak

JMM on a Thursday. Our good friend Jake Novak is with us live via telephone. He's a radio host at WABC. He's a political analyst. And he is brilliant as far as I'm concerned when it comes to political analysis. And as I jokingly said about an hour ago on the air, no doubt he is going to take this opportunity, likely, likely, to talk some of our listeners off the ledge. Jake Novak, a pleasure to welcome you back to JMM in the AM. >> Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure. Um, you know, on that note about talking people off the ledge. Well, the first thing your listeners, all the listeners can feel maybe better about. I mean, I don't know about feeling superior makes you feel better, but this is a scenario a that Jews are quite familiar with, which is seething hatred leads people to make very, very stupid decisions. You know, we've seen all the movies and heard the songs about how love makes people do silly things or stupid things. It's got nothing on hate as far as I'm concerned. And if you need one word or two or three words to summarize these election results here in the United States, hatred of of Donald Trump was was the absolute number one fueler of it. All these other excuses people are coming up with are are not true. Um, some of doesn't mean that they aren't important issues. It's just not the reason why you had this kind of a route. >> So, how do you How do you explain how well he did two years ago? >> Well, there's first of all, and this is really important for people to remember, whether you love or hate Donald Trump, you have to admit that he was helped to greatly in his victories in 2016 and 2024 because he was running against really lousy opponents. >> That's true. >> Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris >> Right. >> never connected with the American people, didn't seem to want to connect with the American people. And it didn't help President Trump and his supporters in this election that there was no lousy national person to look at like >> Right. Kamala Harris or Hillary Clinton. That's the first reason. >> This one was This one was like Trump versus the field and everyone took the field. >> Right. Right. So that's that's part one. Part two is the Democrats absolutely banked heavily on what I talked about before, the seething hatred of Donald Trump. There wasn't one TV or radio ad in this election cycle for any Democrat from dog catcher on all the way up to senator or governor that wasn't 90% about bashing Trump. >> And in midterm elections midterm elections are much more about resentment and hatred than presidential election years for a number of reasons. You know, you're not really You're not You don't really go all in on a personality. It's too small even in a large state for a senator or governor. It's too small a sample size to to focus on the positive, sadly. And it's angry voters who are the ones who are going to come out more likely in a midterm election where even though we've seen higher higher turnout rates for midterm elections lately, they're still nothing like a presidential election year. So it's It's the people filled with anger and hatred, I'm sorry to say, that are much more likely to vote in a midterm and that that was again a huge part of it. >> Yeah, interesting. Jake Novak with us. Um you know, and we'll forget for a moment the Iran piece to all this. We'll forget it for a moment. The reality is and and it's funny. I mentioned this on the air a couple of times. I've had this unique experience now because of my new granddaughter in Chicago including today I've been traveling back and forth by car to Chicago doing it again today for Shabbos. And and you cannot deny the fact that this country runs on trucks. It is unbelievable how many trucks you see on a typical ride cross country or in any direction in this country and it makes you feel and I mentioned on the air that I saw an interview I think it was on 60 Minutes. I saw an interview with somebody you know who's a farmer and he basically said you know and he was a Trump supporter. He said you have to understand every piece of equipment we use, everything, runs on diesel fuel. Yeah. So when those prices skyrocket and really make things unaffordable for a lot of people who didn't budget the way they would have a year or two ago, that is a major factor. >> Yeah, and you can use that. >> Yeah, and those who say the economy >> to to stoke the resentment, you know, everyone needs a a reason, you know, there's these these so you know, the the because the phony because excuse, you know, they have seething hatred of a personal Trump for President Trump personal hatred, so but they don't want to go to their dinner table and their cocktail party and say and say that. >> But there's a reason why we say the economy stupid, no? Isn't there a reason why that became a phrase? >> Yes, it it it it doesn't mean that wasn't an issue and but that that issue could have been taken advantage of in a number a number of ways by both sides. Nobody thinks that the Democrats are going to lower gasoline and diesel prices. They're they've been choking supply for for 30 years in this country and and deliberately doing so. So, these things are I that's the whole point. Like I'm not saying these issues aren't for real and don't hurt people. And by the way, I thought you were going to say that that farmer stole my line. I've been using a line for a long time saying that at the end of the day, despite all of our jets and trains and other technology, um just about everything that we get every physical item we get in this country is delivered by a truck at the end of the day or a van or a van or something. >> Yeah, and I By the way, that needs to change. We need to We need to find other ways to make that that final that final last delivery is by either a truck or a van in this country and that's so that's or or your own vehicle. So, >> By the way, someone asked me yesterday, you know, that now I've done all these trips sitting on the road for 12 13 hours each time, which trucks dominate the road? You want to guess which two brands are clearly the leaders in the number of trucks they have on the road? >> I would say Amazon and Walmart. >> Amazon and FedEx. >> Amazon and FedEx, okay. >> And Walmart is a distant third cuz I've seen a lot of Walmart, but nothing like the other two. >> Yeah, now Amazon for sure and that doesn't surprise me. I've made that I've made that drive many times myself and I'm glad that you're taking an educational view to it, you know, there's just too many people, especially from this area, who don't have that experience. There's so much to learn. Now, I didn't just do the drive. I lived in some of these places in the and I lived in a lot of I lived in a lot of small towns, um, both in my childhood and in my professional life. But, that's an important story. It's also actually a great way to learn about Jewish communities outside of large Jewish areas and how they operate. >> Oh, yes. >> uh >> I know a lot more now about Cleveland, Dayton, and uh and South Bend. >> Yeah, good. Good. It's a good thing. You know, there's there's there's Jews everywhere and uh they're not as constant You don't find as many of them in some of the places as far as there used to be because of the change in the economy. It's not really about anything else. But, yeah, I mean, uh whatever, we could have a whole other uh show about it. But, you know, just remember things like the fact that when the Civil War started, there were just as many Jews in the Confederacy as as in the Union. Um, any town that had any kind of major trade coming from land or sea needed a Jewish community. So, you had big Jewish communities in Mobile, Alabama, and Bangor, Maine. >> Where were you Where you you were you were from below the Mason-Dixon line, right? >> Yes, I was born in Oklahoma City, um, and I I but I spent a lot of my growing up years in Norfolk, Virginia, which was which had a large Jewish community. I lived there in Norfolk, Virginia, there were more than 50,000 Jews in Norfolk, Virginia. It's probably now in the 30s now, I I would assume. >> Interesting. >> It's gone down. Uh even though the city has grown. >> Jake Novack's with us. All right, so now, what about the ledge? I mean, what do you say to people who would think that, you know, now that a Muslim is serving it will be serving in the United States Senate and the people have this impression that, you know, there are different ways to infiltrate systems and obviously political victories is one of them. Uh what do you say to people who around the world are contacting me with tremendous worry and tremendous angst? >> Yeah, I'll give you the bad news first and then the good news. The bad news is we're very much on the precipice of the United States of America having a party that is overtly anti-Semitic. We've never had that in this country. We've had anti-Semitic candidates. We've had anti-Semitic media personalities, even 100 years ago we did. But, you know, people need to understand that even before the Nazis, the anti-Semitic political political major political parties with anti-Semitism as a major plank of their party started in Europe in the 1870s. So, we've had 150 years in this country of immunity from that, and we're close. I mean, I I think that the Democrats will now put in their permanent plank very, very viciously anti-Israel rhetoric. Not just things they're going to say once in a while, but make it an official policy. And that's extremely disturbing. It's And and it has a lot to do with what I was talking about before. One of the reasons why they It's not the Muslim thing. It's one of the reasons why they embraced so much anti-Semitism this election cycle is because they were stoking the fires of hatred and resentment, and that is of course at the core of anti-Semitism. It's got very little to do with us, as I'm sure you know. We We Jews should be We all should be better behaved because that's what we're commanded to do, not because we're trying to impress anti-Semites or just, you know, or or or dilute them. But, it's about hatred in general, and it just happens to be expressed towards us first, and then it moves on. But, so that is a big reason why they have embraced it. They They They are looking for resentment and hate, and hoping to stoke it. Um and so, that's that's the That's the bad And the bad news is there are so many Democrats from all sides who think that this is their ticket as well. This is And think that this is just what they were missing in 2016 and 2020. If we had just had more of an anti-Israel plank and and stoked the hatred of that and pinned Trump and his supporters to that somehow, we would have won. And then, that's the bad news. The good news is this isn't going to get them anywhere if this is what they focused on. I mean, maybe we should hope that they do this because >> Good point. >> if the next couple of years are just indictments, resolutions against Israel, then they'll become like the UN, which is also uh useless, and they'll be And they'll extinct themselves before they have a chance. And I see that as a very high probability. I don't see them putting forward anything positive. And And by that, I mean an actual policy that that is anything other than attacking Trump and or attacking Israel and things like that. If they don't have something along the lines of, "Hey, we wanted We have a whole new Obamacare, for example, or a whole new tuition thing." And they If they don't have that, which I don't think they're going to do, and then even if they try, it'll be drowned out by the hate the hatred stuff, then they'll extinct themselves at the same time. In the meantime, we Jews need to be prepared for everything. I think that our response to the rise in anti-Semitism in this country has been mostly pathetic. Pathetic and and not all all the >> I don't even I don't even see how it can get better, but all right. >> Yeah. Well, it can get better because we I mean, I obviously I I think that we're we're you know, putting commercials on with the little blue dot and all that kind of stuff. It's It's well-intentioned, but that isn't That's not going to work. And uh we can do Again, we can do another program about openly uh training and arming ourselves without being We don't need to, you know, have militias marching down the street, but openly making people afraid to mess with us physically and uh telling everybody that we're not looking for hate crime laws or special treatment, we're looking for our municipalities to simply enforce existing laws, which is the When when they stop doing that, also leads to anti-Semitism. >> Yeah, well. >> You know, when when New York got rid of cash bail, I told everyone attacks on Jews are coming fast. >> I don't know if you saw this item from Philadelphia that people are planning a uh >> Yep. >> Kristallnacht type uh >> Yeah. >> action against the Jews. And that's the question is, how will the police and the government officials handle this? That's really what it comes down to. >> the Jews handle it? You know, if the if the only Jewish response is to complain to the media and the local politicians and not to strike fear in the people who may try to do violence against us, that's the wrong response. It's It frustrates me immensely. You know, we've had the state of Israel as our shining example for 80-plus you know, basically 80 years, showing us what works and what doesn't work. And the cowering and the complaining and the crying does not work. And uh honestly, it would be really nice if some of these bicyclists or whoever they're calling themselves who are going to harass you which businesses over this weekend in Philadelphia if they came away feeling like they were lucky that they came out of that you know without a major injury. That really needs to be um the message there. >> Interesting. There are What's his name Bruce Blakeman um made a point of mentioning during his campaign how there was threats uh on Long Island of Jewish businesses and because of his insistence on a strong police response 15 minutes later it was over and they never came back. So you can't you can't minimize that local authorities do have a role in this. >> They do. Now this is one of the things that um so I just I I'm I'm still in Nassau County. I just moved from one town in Nassau County to another. But the town I was living in for many years was a town of Merrick and we discussed after October 7th and many of us got together and we discussed how we were going to respond to this and what we decided to do was to create a number of we got experts from all over the country to give us free seminars in self-defense, active shooter, most importantly first aid and also the legal rights that we have. And Bruce Blakeman immediately met with us and wanted to talk about all of that. And what was really important about all of that was to make it clear that this wasn't some kind of armed marching militia or paramilitary group but there were some of us who were armed and and trained and responsible and knew all the rules but everyone knew what to do. But one of the things that we said Nachman was that absolutely in individual isolated incidents you go to the police first absolutely positively. The problem is if you have a organized large-scale attack on a community with a number of flash points you cannot expect the police to be able to respond to more than one at a time and that has to be our concern. But the first thing we told everybody is that we are not here to subjugate the police. We are not some kind of armed militia. We're not doing anything else like that but the police can only do one at a time and if you have a major attack in New York God forbid like in October 7th or many October 7th where they're just attacking all the synagogues in a town for example or a school, the police will not be able to adequately respond to that in time. >> Understood. What was the final count with Hochul-Blakeman? Do you know what the final was? >> 60-40. >> It was 60-40. >> Which is exactly the registration numbers in this state, which is too much. You know, 20 20 percentage points. It might seem like, oh, that's not so much, but it is actually, that's a massive gap. And uh part of the general problem in New York, you know, you want to be a swing vote. And you want to be a state where it's a toss-up because for a lot of reasons, it's just for you. And you take a look at the demographic groups in this country who are swing votes, let's say Catholics, for example, old-school Catholics, uh billionaires, the you know, billionaires, people they don't vote one way. They they're right down the middle, and they always are. Well, that's why they're billionaires. They're smart enough to know. >> Yeah, they're smart enough to know uh not to have their allegiances, you know, we are you know, we Jews already have like a a many-millennial allegiance to one entity. We don't need to give it to anybody else. I always say that whenever tries to recruit me to a new cult. I I'm I'm the member of the oldest religious cult in the world. I gave it the office. Don't don't make me join another. >> remember you remember when they made an issue of Trump having having contributed to Hillary's campaign years before for the Senate? >> Yeah. >> Yeah, exactly. You know, I'm a businessman. I'm a businessman. I'm a I know who I got to support and then what I have to support so you know. >> No nobody there's only you know, we know who's the only entity that deserves our undivided um eternal allegiance. Everybody else has to work for it. >> Well, that's what I was hoping. I was hoping you'd say something that you likely would not say on WABC. You are after all Yeshiva Flatbush graduate. I think one of the things to talk people off the ledge is to remind them that there's one entity in charge of all of this with greater powers than any of those who've been elected to office. >> Yes, and and people need to remember that. Um these are still these are still a lot of people who got elected on Tuesday who are who are to be polite, not all that smart. Um and if they were, they'd be doing something more productive >> their lives than running for office all the time. >> That's funny. That's funny. Obviously, some individuals running are are smart, but but not a lot of them are. And um and also look, you know, uh it's I have a very good friend who I've known since going to Camp Massad years ago and he's a very successful guy in investments and but he's also a he he served in the IDF after college. He went over to Israel and things like that. He He told me something after I was the target of an anti-Semitic thing about a year ago. He said, "Listen, you know what? There's an aspect of this that is a part of our existence. Being anti-Semitism and dealing with it is part of being a Jew, not just in the modern world, not just since the Nazis or since the Crusades or the Romans. It's It's right there in It's right there in Breishit. I mean, it's really is the the unmitigated un- justified hatred of us, you know, that that moment when Jacob comes to Egypt and basically the Egyptians say, "Well, you guys are shepherds and we kind of don't like shepherds." You know, it's baloney. It's baloney. It's just It's just visceral hatred for no reason. And at least in since At least since then, I think that's part of who we are and that's what we've been chosen to to have to endure. And um and we need to but we need to respond to it better. I just don't think that the Jewish community in the United States responds properly to anti-Semitism. Mostly because it doesn't understand it. And that's okay not to understand it cuz you know, but they need to you know, wise up soon. >> Do you know um I mean, this audience wouldn't understand this. I don't think most people understand this. Do you realize how jealous I am every time you mention you went to Massad? Like I always say that's the one thing missing in my life is that I wasn't at Massad again. >> It crushed me when it closed, you know, It crushed me when it closed. It was beaten out by slightly better managed, uh fancier camps. >> Oh, I wouldn't I don't think that's the reason. >> out. >> I don't think that's the reason. I I I think um I think accelerated expansion did them in. >> Mhm. Uh that's true. >> I think I think Massad Massad Bet may have >> at one point. >> Correct. And Massad Bet may have destroyed Massad. I remember having this discussion with one of the legendary camp directors. I know a little something about camping. And uh he always said to me that uh when you when you break off to form a second camp, remember, you need to find enough people to be as high quality of staff as your first camp. And that's very The pool is very shallow. It's not that easy to find talented people like that. So >> And I'm one of the few people who went to more than one of my side. My first year was at Masada bet before it closed. And then I was at Masada olive for >> Wow. All right. That's This is really another conversation. >> Yeah, we've taken a different We've taken a different deep. >> And lastly >> things, you know, contribute to what I know and don't know. >> 100%. Are you kidding? That's why I said I regret it. Um are you Anything Has anybody asked you outside of this show? Has anybody asked you in a public forum about the Israeli election to make a comment or to give your assessment? >> No, I've done some interviews about it. >> me a sentence or two about what you expect to happen in Israel. >> Well, first of all, same thing. Israel's election was a failure for the same reason that this election had its results. Seething hatred of one man was the most was the biggest factor in that in that election. It's been going on in Israel even longer than it's been going on here. And it's very much debilitating the Israeli polity right now. Um I think there'll be bigger attempts There'll be There'll be sustained attempts to try to make some kind of workable coalition with at least some of the Arab parties, which won't work. It may work for a very brief period. But the reason why these elections aren't working is twofold. One is if you have an entire half of your electorate that's only based on the hatred of one man, there's nothing There's not You can't win that way. You can't consistently win or do anything positive. The second reason is Israel is allowing too many parties to exist. We have a great threshold that they have to actually win a seat in Knesset. But at this point there needs to be a much higher threshold to even register to run as a party in Israel. And that will solve the You can't have 37 parties running in a nation of what, 9 million people? It's not >> see this You don't see this dream that some people in America have of a of Eisenkot, Bennett, Netanyahu, Smotrich, uh and Lieberman forming some type of central centrist government that, you know, will have over 70 seats. >> Well, that's what should happen. That's what should happen if these people were all sane, but I think that Lieberman is dealing with this visceral hatred of Netanyahu that forces him to make It's It's, by the way, he he started all this back in 2019. >> Right. >> He He destroyed a coalition that was workable in Israel. >> That's true. >> And he's not going to be the one to end it, I'm afraid. >> And he did it because he thought it would lead to him becoming prime minister one day, and exactly the opposite happened. >> Yeah, but it's that now I think it's just it's it's, you know, just a seething hatred of Netanyahu, and look, people have the right to to do that. I'm not saying you don't have to like the guy. >> Right. >> But if that's the only reason you go out to vote, be prepared for complete and utter a stalling of your of your nation. >> Yeah, we call it chaos, right? Um, so the summer of 27, which is just a few months away, we're going to be seeing some major debate stages, Democrat and Republican, with a lot of people on each stage, right? >> I'm glad you mentioned that, you know, because I just posted something on my social media feeds about J.D. Vance. Now, what I've been saying about J.D. Vance and all of his shenanigans for almost a year has been what a The one thing you don't want to be, if you're running for president, is a frontrunner anywhere earlier than eight months before election day. Right. You know, to be to be your party's frontrunner this early, unless you're an incumbent or former incumbent like Trump was in 2024. There's exceptions for people like that. But you don't want to be the frontrunner now. It's the kiss of death. You never win. >> Yeah, you know what You know when Trump became the frontrunner in 2016? On election day. >> Yeah, yeah, pretty much. But for his But for his party's nomination to to further it down, it wasn't until June. That's a perfect time. Five months is a really, really good time. Same thing with Bill Clinton in 1992. He wasn't really the frontrunner until June. And that that really helps you. So, that's one thing. But I'll say this now, based on his statement yesterday and his post yesterday blaming the losses on the Iran war and really throwing Trump under the bus, then J.D. Vance, if he really believes that, he and he really thinks that this is the ticket to the presidency and this is the right and he's also saying this right on the facts, then he should resign as vice president right now. Otherwise, he's just another want-to-be social media influencer who's trying to throw chaos out there. And I think I I I I I presume it's the latter. He's He's too clever by half. Not saying he's a stupid person, but he's too But he's not shrewd as as He's not as shrewd as he think he is thinks he is. And if he really believes what he posted, how can he continue to serve in the administration? He should resign. >> funny you say that. Yesterday I heard someone say that uh his only path to becoming president is if God forbid something happens to Donald Trump and he ends up being an incumbent. And that's it's it's essentially the same thing you're saying, just the other extreme. >> Yeah, so if he's just going to hang around for that, then then he's a that is even more despicable. >> Right. >> And uh it really The reason he isn't resigning is because he's hoping that something happens to Trump, then my goodness, we're really dealing with a different >> he's thinking that way. I'm saying that if you analyze what his only path to the presidency is, it fits well with what you just said. That he he's >> Yeah, I'm calling him By the way, I have a new I have a nickname for him now, John Nance Vance. And the reason I'm calling him that is because John Nance, who was FDR's first vice president, was the last vice president to have so openly oppose his sitting president in this way. But at the time, you know, and then remember it's relative to the time. This is before social media. >> No, John John Nance Garner was was um FDR's first vice president. And 1940 was 1939 was rolling around and FDR started to tell everyone he actually was going to run for a third term. This infuriated Garner because he wanted to run for president in 1940, which he did anyway. But this is before primaries and things like that, so his presidential race isn't something that you can find on, you know, you can't really find like, oh, he lost a primary. >> Right. >> But during that last year of 1940, where he was still the vice president, he was running against his own president in an election. It's incredible. So I call J.D. Vance John Nance Vance because The reason why you've never heard of the guy is because he ended up really failing at that. >> Well, the real reason we never heard of the guy is because unlike Yeshiva Flatbush, we were not required to know who the vice presidents were in the FDR era. Was that a requirement in Yeshiva Flatbush? Because >> Well, let's just say that that was part of my education before Flatbush. >> When I say the name Spiro Agnew, I impress everybody. Then you come out and you completely you completely outdo me. >> Yeah, yeah. Let's just say that that my John Nance Garner is came before my Flatbush education. >> I hear that. >> But so don't feel bad if you >> I'm proud of the fact that I can name every vice president that served under Nixon and Ford. And it's not easy. It's not easy to do that. Trust me. >> No. No, that's right. That's right. >> Remember Remember at one time, it's the only time in American history, correct? Where we had a president and vice president who were not elected. Right? Ford Ford Rockefeller. >> Ford Rockefeller, yeah. >> How many people know that, Jake? Come on. >> Yeah, yeah. But But funny that you mentioned Gerald Ford because during the 1976 presidential campaign, Gerald Ford visited none other than Yeshiva Flatbush a couple of weeks before election day. >> Is that a fact? >> Yeah, yeah. >> Meaning in October of that year? >> Yes. He visited the Yeshiva Flatbush on his campaign swings in New York back when New York was was was up for grabs. Yeah. >> Wow. >> Yeah, you can look it up. >> Did we think in October that he would definitely lose? What did we think of that back then? >> Yes. That was a really interesting election because the more the public actually saw Jimmy Carter and didn't just see printed pictures of >> The less they liked him. >> And had that had that election been held 2 weeks later >> was the famous thing. That's where the whole 2 weeks thing always comes from. Right now at every election they say if they only had 2 more weeks. But in the Ford case, it was true. >> In Ford case, it was true. It was razor thin. And by the time Jimmy Carter took the oath of office, unlike so many other presidents who usually get a little bump in the polls in that transition period, Carter didn't get it. And he was already sunk the second people saw him. And you know, this is again in an age before the kind of media that we have now. >> Right. >> He had all these months where people just saw published pictures of him and then he looked like a nice >> Right. >> Even on TV. Even on TV. >> Yeah. Which is not what he was. Like love or hate Jimmy Carter, he was not a smiley um touchy-feely guy. He >> It's funny because because now we're sort of like closer to the old type of media. Now you really do get up close and personal with somebody. It's funny. I mean it happens through a phone, but it's much it's much different. Wow. >> Yeah. Yeah. You know, if people are interested in watching something that will tell you about some elections and how they may the this um Death by Lightning. I don't know if anyone saw it. It was a Netflix. It's one of my favorite kinds of things on Netflix. It's only four episodes. I love the ones that are short. And it's about James Garfield, our president who was assassinated even before he served his first full year in office. And >> by all accounts a truly good and great man actually. Um and how he campaigned. He He was He was drafted at the convention. He didn't He didn't go to the convention to run. They drafted him. And he would have been a you know, he did He was the president for however long he was president, but he he was a good man. But he basically campaigned for his friend Porch in Ohio. >> Would uh >> Which is all he did. >> That's unbelievable. Would Ford have won if they didn't pardon Nixon? >> Um No. No, he still wouldn't have won it. He He only would have won had we had a little bit more of a media looking into who Carter was. And again, I don't I think Carter became a much worse person after he was president. But so it wasn't that he was an evil It's just that Carter was not a likable candidate. >> Right. >> His The fact that he was under the radar worked very very well for him because once you saw him in public and heard him >> and geography worked well for him. >> Yeah. But once you saw him in public and heard him speak, you didn't like him. By the way, he was also short. >> Right. >> He was a shorter man, like 5'8". Um which doesn't you know, when he and Reagan met after Reagan beat him in the in the election and they and they met for the transition meeting at the White House. Reagan looked like he was a foot taller. Um and Carter had a just a squeaky whiny voice. It wasn't just It wasn't the Southern accent. That would That would have helped him. It was a squeaky whiny voice. And he was just an in in general not the most pleasant person. Not the kind of person who should be running for office for his life. >> Who did he Who he Who did he beat at the convention? Who did he beat in the primary? >> Well, the primary was very weak. You had people like Evan You had people like Birch Bayh. >> Right. >> for a for a short period of time, you had Hubert Humphrey before he got really sick running against him. You had Now, among the better candidates, there was talk of Scoop Jackson running against him, but that didn't get any traction. >> So, he really had very little competition. >> Yeah, when Ted Kennedy was considering running in '76, he was the presumed nominee in '76. He was presumed the nominee in '72 as well, and it wasn't just because of Chappaquiddick. He was having some incredibly difficult moments in his own personal family life at that time. And he was unable to run And he was he was dealing with severe alcohol- alcoholism at the time as well, and he was unable to really mount a significant effort. >> got over the threshold. >> His mother was very opposed to any more of the her boys running for office for understandable reasons. For president, yeah. For understandable reasons. So, those were all those That was really the biggest thing. Once he was out, then it was a free-for-all, and the person people knew least was likely to win because there was the least baggage on him. But, he came out of the convention 33 points ahead in the polls when they were much more reliable back then against Ford, and it withered to two two points once people got to see and look at this guy. >> All right, we just we just did a million shows in one. Thank you so much. I think you've calmed a few people down, and they've got to look at the big picture. They've got to remember that there's this is a ever-moving, years-long process. This is not just Oh, this happened on Tuesday, and now the world has come to an end. >> Yeah, but just you know, we we as Jews need to prepare more. You don't run and hide. We should be even more openly Jewish. That isn't the The response is not to hide. That never works. And yes, I'm not telling everyone to form militias. I will never say that. Just be prepared to protect protect yourself. If you want a weapon, your best weapon are a pair of sneakers, by the way. I I can't imagine how I can't believe how many people come to some of these things, and and you know, we tell them the first thing to do is to run away, and they come wearing, you know, nice shoes. I mean, listen, even Yeshiva Flatbush has a allows sneakers now, which they didn't when I was a student, which I highly resent that they didn't which now these kids get to wear sneakers to school, and I didn't >> Well, you got to be careful. There was a threat there the other day, no? >> That's right. Not that long ago. All kidding aside. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's no longer everyone needs to be much more vigilant, and if your first response is to complain or to call your congressperson as opposed to here's what our responsibility is, which is, by the way, part of our religious responsibility is in addition to our political responsibility, then you're barking up the wrong tree. People need to fear messing with us. It's as simple as that. >> Understood. >> Um >> Thank you, Jake Novak. Always a pleasure. >> All right. Same here. >> Always appreciate your insight. Jake Novak, everybody. WBC radio host, political commentator, and always I I get tremendous pleasure from these conversations. He's amazing.