Time now for a review of some major political developments this week in Kentucky with a real dynamic duo.

Without a doubt, we have the new executive director of the Kentucky Democratic Party.

Morgan is what she's not new to us are new to you.

You've seen her a lot.

And, of course, one of our other faves, Trey Watson, who is a former spokesperson for the Republican Party of Kentucky, and he is the founder of Capital Rains PR.

So let's talk about some national stuff first.

McConnell's endorsement of President former President Donald Trump.

You know, he criticized Trump over his part in the insurrection or the Capitol riot on January six, 2021, and called that shameful and disgraceful.

But yet here we are.

Trey Watson, there seem to be back in the fold.

Is it surprising that McConnell would come out and say he's supporting Trump as he is considered to be the presumptive nominee for president for the republic?

I'll say two things.

One, the endorsement was milquetoast best.

I think it was.

Basically, he has the requisite number of delegates.

Therefore I support him.

It was the it was the political equivalent of the animal House line.

Why not?

We need the dues.

You know, basically what it was.

But, you know, the problem for for Leader McConnell is when you are leader and they are the same thing when I was when I was at the state party and I'm sure you experienced and that's hurt the party, you lose some of your personal agency when you're in a leadership role like that.

Mitch McConnell is not just Mitch McConnell.

He's not just the senior senator for the commonwealth, Kentucky.

He's also the leader of the Republicans in the U.S. Senate.

And he's got to think about what's best for the body that he leads and what's best for the body that he leads to try to take the majority in the fall is is for him, as much as he may hate it to come out and have this endorsement, I'm sure it's something that Mitch McConnell, the person and maybe even Mitch McConnell, the senator, wouldn't want to do, but Mitch McConnell, the leader with with the agency afforded to him in that slot, it's it's the role that he had that he had to take here.

Which for some Republicans is disheartening.

Right.

That now is a chance for Mitch McConnell since he is not going to be the Republican leader after the November election to stand his ground and to make a principled point.

But I think he takes his his role in the caucus extremely seriously.

He has great respect for the caucus, great reverence for the chamber.

And if endorsing Donald Trump in whatever way they did, like I said, you wouldn't call it a strong endorsement.

It was an endorsement.

Endorsing Trump helps take the majority for the Republicans this fall.

It's what he feels like he had to do as a leader by.

Any means necessary.

MORGAN Is is that how the Democrats chalk this up?

No, I think there is always is a duty of a party, particularly a leader of a party, to recognize when a candidate is good and when a candidate is not good.

Clearly, Mitch McConnell as a person does not believe former President Trump is either a good person nor a good candidate.

This should have been his opportunity to stand his ground.

He didn't do that.

And I think that shows the rest of America why the modern day Republican Party is a party that's willing to fall in line, which is not a good thing for democracy.

But if the shoe was on the other foot and Democrats were in a similar situation, you would would would that not be what the Democrats leader would do?

I can assure you that if the current President Trump was in fact a Democrat, you would see Democrats standing up and not endorsing him because he's facing I don't know how many federal charges.

He's an election denier.

One, he's yes, he is someone that encouraged violence and tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

That is not someone we would want as a party representing us and representing our country on the world stage.

So, no, I think it would be a different.

That's easy to say now, but when you look at the primary results, the fact that forget the party apparatus, Republican voters are voting for the guy, whether we like it or not.

I think, you know, as a party, if you're a if you're truly a bottom up party, which is what I think both parties normally claim to be, I don't know how as a as a leader of the party in that position, I don't know how you can go the other way because your party is telling you and your voters are telling you this is the guy we want.

We may not like it, but it's what the voters are thrown at us.

And now it's the identity of the Republican Party that the shift has been punctuated for sure.

Now that it's not the party of Reagan conservatism, that it's now the party of Donald Trump populists.

We now, as of today, we now have Laura Trump as the as the national vice chair.

So, you know, the not to take over is complete.

Let's shift and talk about what's happening in Frankfurt.

So things are happening in Frankfurt, things.

Allegedly allegedly things are happening in Frankfurt.

So I hate to ask it this way, but like the favorite bill of the week, like the thing you think not just got attention, but should have got attention, Drew, Attention will get more attention and action.

You know, we're talking about four.

There's there's not much that's passed because the budget is kind of holding everything up.

I think an interesting bill is the adult business bill that got a lot of noise last year from Lindsey Tester that last year was almost solely focused, did drag brunches and drag book hours and stuff like that.

And I think it's an interesting example of how you can take a idea that might have a little bit of validity to it, but it's kind of out there and draw it back in to turn it into a relatively commonsense bill that basically just bans adult businesses, adult bookstores or toy shops or strip clubs or whatever for being certain distances from daycares and schools, which a lot of places already have zoning ordinance ordinances.

But, you know, some places don't.

So it just kind of formalizes that and makes it uniform across the state.

I think it's a fairly common sense, Bill, and it just shows that you can take some of these nuttier bills and turn them into something that that's relatively useful, that even a lot of the LGBTQ activists and they didn't have a problem with the bill this year.

That's right.

Yeah, it seems reasonable.

All right, Morgan, what do you have your eye on?

I think the most interesting bill this week was the veto override of House Bill 18, which was a prevent.

It was a bill that would prevent local, local cities, you know, municipalities from enacting source of discrimination bans for housing.

And it's so interesting because the GOP used to be the party of local control.

What that bill does is prevent local control.

So it's really interesting to see that shift and to see how the GOP clearly doesn't get that.

They don't get that they're moving away from the party of local control.

I think if you talk to people at the Kentucky League of Cities, they will talk about how they are constantly banging their head against the wall for that very reason.

So it's interesting to see kind of that a federal approach coming down to the state level because the feds have moved away, the GOP and and D.C. has moved away from local control as well.

So it's interesting to see that shift here in Frankfurt.

But I'll say, you know, I think that the Republican Party is about local and tribal.

We're also about individual rights and about and about property rights.

And that bill specifically was aimed at stopping local governments from taking away the property rights for for property owners to to manage who can and can't rent rent their property from them.

Based on their source of payment, such as Section eight, housing vouchers, etc..

So I think sometimes that's the that's a difficult part of being principled.

Sometimes you do principles but up against each other and you get to choose, choose which one you side with.

And usually the party, even when it comes to control, is going to is going to choose personal rights, personal property rights over the local controls.

I think that's what you saw here with the veto.

A lot to keep our eyes on.

You guys are always fantastic.

Love the energy.

Have a good weekend to get more energy to come here.

And I.