Guy Benson, Fox News Analyst and KCMO Talk Radio Host | 4-22-26

Guy Benson's here on KCMO. We got a lot to talk to him about. Of course, you hear him

every afternoon, two to five on 95, seven FM. Of course, a political analyst as well

for Fox News on the TV side. He's a Virginia resident. So we'll get to all the chaos that

happened there last night. But guy, you know, you're, you're on a gut felt show once

in a while. What should Kansas City and expect with Greg coming to town here in a couple

of weekends?

Oh, man. Yeah, it's, it's a wild experience beyond that TV show. Usually, usually once

a month, sometimes a little off and I'll be more often I'll be on this. You never

quite know what to expect. What he might throw at you at the last minute, how he might

introduce you in front of millions of people. He usually, I think for the live audience

shows around the country, he usually goes with Thomas Shaloo, who is just a fantastic,

wonderful, funny guy. So yeah, that, that'll be, that'll be great. So congratulations

to Kelsey. Yes, everyone else is going. Yes, Tom Shaloo will be here as well. All right,

last night in Virginia, point and a half was the margin of victory for the yes side redistricting

your home state or your state that you currently reside in from a six five Democrat to 10

one Democrat. How surprised were you by how close this was or is this what you expected

based on how things were trending over the final few days?

You know, I was basically expecting this to be mid single digits. Kamala Harris carried

Virginia by six points. Jay Jones are now attorney general who had said in text messages

to Republicans that he wanted to kill Republicans and their children one by six points. So felt

like that was kind of the ballpark that I was expecting. I didn't think that it would

be a blowout like Abigail Spanberger, the governor, her election last year, she wanted

by 15. I didn't think it would be that high. I thought there was a chance that it would

be this close. And I thought there was also maybe like a one in five chance that the

no side could actually win. And one thing that's I think really frustrating is given the

margin that we ended up seeing, I think the no side absolutely could have won actually

if there had been any sort of concerted effort, smart concerted effort by Republicans to

even remotely attempt to come close to the spending and advertising blitz that the Democrats

waged in this state and something I'll talk about later today on my show. You know,

some of the recriminations on the conservative side, the Republican side are going to be pretty

intense because I think this was a blown opportunity. The Democrats treated it like a really,

really important moment to get four additional House seats. And the Republicans, you know,

with a few exceptions, but largely the party in terms of spending and attention and any

of that. We're like, yeah, well, good luck. And I do think that given the fact that this

will end up being, you know, probably about half of Kamala's margin, the electorate moved

dramatically to the right, not just compared to last year, but compared to 2024. There

was there was a lot of movement already in that direction. And I think there was a very,

very straightforward case that was not partisan at all. Like I think the more the Republicans

fought this openly as Republicans, it might not have helped. But there was a nonpartisan

case to make here, which was we all voted, including myself. We voted in 2020 in a regularly

scheduled, high turnout presidential election to get rid of, to ban partisan gerrymandering

and replace it with this independent commission, which then created popular districts that

are like among the Ferris in the country. And this big scheme was a snap election to change

the Constitution by a bear majority to return the power to politicians to do partisan gerrymandering

for political reasons. That is a very unpopular position. I think there was a lot of persuasion

that could have been done. There just wasn't nearly enough of it. And I saw probably hundreds

of propaganda ads to vote yes over the course of month, starting with the Winter Olympics.

I never saw one no ad on television in Virginia. Never one. Wow. So and to lose that,

apparently some ads did run eventually. I never saw one. My good friend Mary Catherine

Ham who lives here never saw one. I talked to someone yesterday who's very plugged into Virginia

politics. He told me he saw two. And he estimated he saw probably 400 yes ad and literally two

no ads. So I feel like this actually could have been one. And now we wouldn't be talking about

a moral victory or putting our eggs in the basket of the Virginia Supreme Court to throw

this thing out because they decided in their infinite wisdom to rule on whether this whole scheme

was legal after the referendum happened. So I believe the case is being heard later this week.

Lower courts had already ruled this to be illegal. I have the Democrats did it illegally.

So you know, I'm not holding my breath on that front. But I've heard from people that there's

a very strong case to throw this thing out. We shall see. But boy, it stings a bit to go from

one of the fairest maps in the country to literally the least fair map in the country, the most

gerrymandered map of the country. And the word that they use Pete to market the whole scheme was

fairness for well and stuff. Yeah, it was guy Benson's here. He's on a two o'clock on KCMO.

In the last couple of minutes, you kind of alluded to it there guy. But before I hit the bottom of the

hour, the Republicans who, you know, some will say they started this with Texas mid district or,

you know, mid cycle redistricting, Missouri squeezed out a Democrat seat here in Kansas City.

But to your point, they should have seen the battle coming in some of these bluer states and

they didn't spend the money. The RNC didn't spend a dollar. The spend was 32 million on the S side

to eight million on the no side is what I saw. So how much blame did the Republicans deserve here

in the final minute or so for not planning for this the last year or so?

Yeah, I mean, they definitely deserve a fair amount of blame. I would say that New York

actually went before Texas. Texas, you could at least have defended. I was up in the air on

Texas, go either way. But California then swooped in and answered Texas five seats for five seats.

There were a single seat here or there, as you mentioned. This one was a real escalation

in Virginia, especially after Republicans in Indiana said, you know what? No, we're not doing

this anymore. Let's de-escalate. Virginia said, we're going as aggressive as possible.

And now we'll see what the Republicans do. There are some people saying, we're on to

Santis and Florida is now going to fight back. I mean, we could be in a spiral here. And I'm not

necessarily totally against that because I'm pretty mad about what the Democrats have done here.

But whatever Republicans have to do, they've got to do it smartly. And it doesn't seem like

that has been happening yet. Next role with Vernon Davis, the transformative journeys of athletes,

artists, and entrepreneurs in general. Lights out, Sean, Mary. I want to be the biggest

in the best when I do. And so whatever it takes, I'll get it done and business, everything else.

All I do is know how to fight and earn what I want. My man, Malik asks, what actor,

comedian would you want to collaborate with? Me, Jamie Foxley, Kevin Harry in the movie.

We said it on Vernon Davis podcast. So we'll circle back. Do that. Yeah.

It go to clear. Next role with Vernon Davis. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

Next role with Vernon Davis. I'm your host Vernon Davis.

Okay, y'all, thank you. Thank you. That's my today. We have Dietrich Wise through my

example on the field, off the field during gang day in practice. That was one way that I led

because then it led to success. Next role isn't about what's next. It's about why they do it.

My man, Bobbi Bones. Like I've had a lot of stuff happen, bad and good. And so I don't have

any fear of mixing up. That's powerful, man. Next role with Vernon Davis. Follow and listen on

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