Medved: ‘People didn’t really know (or care) there was a primary’

“People didn’t really know there was a primary,” said conservative pundit Michael Medved of MichaelMedved.com. “Turnout was abysmal.”

Medved was referring to last week’s Washington presidential primary.

Appearing on The Gee & Ursula Show, Medved said there were many issues with this year’s vote.

“My wife was enraged about the way that the election was conducted,” Medved explained.

She did not like that you had to put your party affiliation on the outside of the ballot.

“And she is not proud to be a Republican right now,” Medved said. “We’ve both been Republicans for a long time but Diane won’t even call herself that designation anymore.”

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Medved votes for Nikki Haley

Medved said that he and his wife both voted for Nikki Haley even though he knew that wasn’t going to make any difference.

“You want to show your support for the ideas and candidates you believe in,” Medved said. “The idea that that you have to put on the outside of your ballot before you drop it in the mail, which party or you’re going to cast your ballot on. It just was, it could have been handled better.”

With more than 90% of the votes counted, Donald Trump got more than 75% with Haley garnering 20%.

On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden got 84%, with the category of Uncommitted trailing badly at 10%.

“I don’t think that most of the people who voted uncommitted were necessarily supporters of Hamas and the Middle East or opponents of Israel are opponents of American aid to Israel,” Medved explained. “It’s such a level of abstractions that you keep building on and building on. People were dissatisfied and wanted to vote uncommitted, because they wanted choices other than Biden and Trump.”

Medved believes that people are unhappy with their choices during this presidential cycle. He said that because both men were president, people knew what to expect.

“Especially because Trump talks about it all the time and talks about retribution. He talks about pulling out of NATO, and talks about a 10% tariff on everything,” Medved said.

All the talk from Trump could be an advantage

Medved all the talk from Trump could be an advantage come election day because “people say they don’t like the direction the country is going in.”

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He thinks people are also disappointed in the Biden administration.

In terms of who he believes will win the general election, Medved said it’s going to be all about turnout.

“So the idea is that we can get people to show up by scaring the bejesus out of them, you’ll pardon the expression,” he said. “And just indicating that if the other guy wins, it’s the end of America. We’re finished. No more history for our country. And both sides are doing this.”

Medved believes that we will have all kinds of problems the next president will have to contend with.

“We have all kinds of dangers abroad. We have dangers to the economy and dangers at the border. All of this is true,” he said. “But this idea that America is ready to split apart and have a Civil War and the country can no longer exist is overstated, to try to scare people to go to the polls.”

Listen to Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin weekday mornings from 9 a.m.- noon on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.