00:00Talk us through about Cooper jumping in the race, what you think the impact could be.
00:05Well, you know, he left as a relatively popular governor.
00:10I had my disagreements with him on the date back to the time that he was in the legislature voting on policies that we reversed when we took a majority.
00:18I think if our candidate focuses on the economy in North Carolina, got put on steroids beginning in 2011,
00:26the tax environment, the most attractive place to do business, all of those things happen under Republican control
00:33in spite of Governor Cooper's efforts to hold them back.
00:37Again, in spite of his efforts to vote for policy that we had to reverse when I became Speaker.
00:41Get your thoughts on President Trump doubling down on Cooper.
00:44Say again?
00:45Your thoughts on President Trump doubling down on Putin drawing a red line in the sand,
00:49says that he has to come to an agreement with the peace.
00:51I hope it's a bright red line and it leads to Putin's demise.
00:55On Roy Cooper, really quickly, if we can go back to that, is he going to be a formidable candidate right now?
00:59No doubt.
01:00I mean, he's been very active in the Governor's Association.
01:03I think that he'll be able to do what another candidate would be able to do,
01:08but immediately reignite a national network that has helped him succeed in two gubernatorial races.
01:14And we shouldn't discount that he won when I did and the President did.
01:19So he's obviously somebody who knows how to manage the 60 percent,
01:23to get the vote of the 60 percent of the people in North Carolina who are unaffiliated.
01:27So last thing, how many opinions?
01:28Are you talking to Michael Watley?
01:30Michael and I spoke over the weekend, and they moved forward as a candidate.
01:34I was just advising him on things that he needs to be prepared for.
01:38There's nothing like running a Senate race.
01:40Probably a presidential race is the only thing that could be more difficult.
01:44I'm guessing it's going to be a half-a-billion-dollar or more race.
01:49And Michael's just got to be prepared for criticism he's going to get that is unfounded,
01:55the same criticism I would have gotten to not run,
01:57and things that are unique to him being the state party chair and the national chair of the RNC.
02:02He's just got to be ready.
02:03I mean, Michael's a pretty tough guy.
02:05I think he's up for it.
02:06Are you going to campaign with him?
02:07I'm going to do whatever is helpful to make sure a Democrat doesn't replace me.
02:11I worked hard to replace a Democrat in this role.
02:13This seat has never had two back-to-back re-elections before we accomplished it in 2020.
02:20It's pretty important to me to make sure that our legislatures remain in majority control down in the state
02:25and that this seat maintains its Republican.
02:28Senator, I'm always marking up a bill on a congressional stock trading ban tomorrow, the Pelosi Act.
02:34Do you support limiting what members of Congress and senators can do?
02:38The best evidence of that is me getting out of stock investments when I came here.
02:42You can do it just by simply making that decision yourself.
02:45If they want to stipulate it, I'd have to look at the bill.
02:47How much are you worried about the Republicans' take in the fact that the Democratic Party brand is worse than the GOP brand right now nationally?
02:54I would go back and remind everybody to look at roughly the 2009 timeframe
02:59when the same sort of assessments were being made and reversed,
03:02and then I became the second Republican speaker since the Civil War.
03:05You should take nothing for granted.
03:09We should all assume we're running from behind, because next year we may be.
