Diego Morales Refuses to Fold as Jim Banks’ Handpicked Candidate Struggles to Gain Momentum

So there was an event in McCordsville. You ever been to McCordsville? Yeah, McCordsville last night. And it was Diego, and it was Engling, and it was Shelton. I don't know where it now was. She was not a part of it, but there was like a room full of people. I don't know if they were all delegates. I don't know if some of them were delegates. I don't know if it was a GOP club. I don't know what it was, but they were all there together. The way the format worked was they all got up and gave like five minute speeches. And then afterwards they were said, hey, we'll hang around and we'll answer any questions you have now. I was told Diego, as soon as he gave the speech, he bolted out the door. Screw you people. I got places to go.

McCordsville Candidate Forum Raises New Questions About Strength of Anti-Morales Effort

But I watched the speeches, Abdul streamed all of this live, and I'm watching the speech, and I talked with somebody who is very knowledgeable afterwards. Like I was thinking this. And then I talked with somebody afterwards who was super into Indiana politics, knows all the players, is not affiliated with any of the Republican campaigns. And we talked for about 20 minutes about this. And this person said this unprompted to me. And it was exactly what I was thinking. When you watch the speeches last night, like, as weird as this sounds, I don't think it's over for Diego. Like, I'm watching this last night. And look, Diego is a complete bullcrap artist. Like, there's no doubt about it. There's no doubt about it. You watch him as an unaffiliated observer, right? I'm not as in like, I'm not working for any of the campaigns. Candidly, I'm probably not voting for whoever comes out of this this time. So I feel like I can, you know, watch this with an open mind. And I'm watching Diego and he's such a bullcrap artist like it's so obvious. If you take any sort of emotional connection out of it. But I'm sort of watching the response from people, and I'm realizing some of these people appear to be still eating this up, like he's going on about things that are just ridiculous. Like, I stood on redistricting, I stood with Trump, I foreclosed primaries, I raised the money. That's our new slogan with Diego. I raised the money. Diego's all about the money now. The money, Diego. That's what we're going to call him, Diego da money. And you're watching this and you're like, I think Banks might have screwed up big time. And hear me out on this watching Engling speak. You know, I'm watching this and I'm going, this doesn't seem like a guy who has a lot of fire to do this. It's like a guy they've told, you gotta find the fire. Because one of the things that Max Engling admitted last night, and by the way, if I were Diego or Shelton, I would be crushing Max Engling over the fact that he was a right hand man to Kevin McCarthy. For some reason. No one's talking about that. Kevin McCarthy, the former hated Republican speaker of the House. Why? He's getting a free pass on that, I don't know. But Engling gets up and starts speaking. And in this speech, he essentially admits he's only running because Banks told him to do it. Like basically what he said last night. If you guys want to see, Abdul live streamed all three speeches. You can go to Abdul's Facebook page. I think he's got a public page. You can see all the stuff. He essentially admits last night. Hey, some people came to me and they were asking me to run, but I went to Banks and I wasn't gonna do it because Banks endorsed Diego. So I wasn't gonna go against Banks and then Banks unendorsed Diego. And then I went to Banks and he was like, yeah, you can run. And I'm watching this going, you just admitted in real time in front of all of these people, and it's live streamed on the internet that you are completely subservient to Jim Banks. It's not like I'm running because I'm super passionate about it. It's not like I'm running because I felt called to do it. It's not like it's in my blood to fix all the stuff Diego's screwed up. Yeah, you know, some people came to me and I kind of wanted to do it, but I wasn't going to go against Banksy because Banksy's my meal ticket. And then, you know, Banks got sideways with Diego, and then I went to Banks and he said, go ahead and do it. What you're admitting you're admitting. It's not like it's some candid conversation. Engling admitted last night he's only here because Banks gave him permission to be here. He's not fired up about getting to work for you. He's not fired up about fixing anything. He's not fired up about being an independent voice for the taxpayers. He's telling you I'm here because Jim Banks, my sweet government meal ticket daddy, gave me permission to do it. And that's what you're going to get for four years if I'm a delegate. I now know that Jim Banks is running for secretary of state. And what did we tell you guys? We told you the moment Engling got in this race. Max Engling's entry into this race is about Jim Banks taking full control of the Republican Party. That's what this is about. Vote accordingly. The guy admitted last night he's only there because Banks said okay. So on everything he does as secretary of state, up to and including white between his butt cheeks, he's going to go ask Jim Banks permission. That's not the job of the Secretary of State. That is not the job of the Secretary of State. I heard nothing from this guy last night that is like, wow, he's really going to come in there and clean up the crap. And remember, that's what the Engling campaign is about. It's about getting rid of Diego yet not exposing the crap.

Max Engling’s Comments Fuel Debate Over Jim Banks’ Influence in Secretary of State Race

And so I'm watching these speeches last night, by the way. I talked to another person who is not affiliated with any campaign. This person is not really even super political. I told them, I said, hey, do me a favor. Watch these three speeches and tell me with no affiliation to anybody's persons, not a delegate, they're not an elected office person. I said, just watch these three speeches and you tell me of these three people. If it were a job interview, who you would hire. Like if you were saying, I'm hiring for a job and this is the job interview, the five minute spiel on why you should vote for me is the job interview. Who would you hire? And about 20 minutes later, the person got back to me and said, not even close. It's Shelton. I said, really? Oh yeah. Qualifications. The thing the person would do, the things they would do in the office, the reasons they want the job. He says, not even close. I would pick Shelton. And I obviously agree with that. We've talked about that. This person did not say that because that's what I want to hear. I said, what would you like? Who would you want? Because I'm going to talk about it on the show tomorrow. What does an outside person who's not super connected to politics or not invested in it in any shape, form or fashion? Who would you hire? Is it absolutely. Shelton. Not even close. And this is what's so frustrating about the Shelton campaign, is he is infinitely the most qualified. He is running for all the right reasons. He does want to take the politics out of the office. He does want to just administer the office. But he's so boring. And Dave, no sympathy for you, man, I love you. But I've been telling you for a year and a half, you gotta find a pulse because that's what the delegates want. And unfortunately, these convention races become a personality contest. And they should be job interviews, but they're not. They're not. And a guy like Dave Shelton is very quiet. He's very businesslike. He's very I just want to go in and do the job. You know what he said last night? This was interesting to me. And we'll get back to Diego. He said, after I'm secretary of state, I'll probably just go back to Knox County and be the clerk there again. And I was like, part of me was like, really? And then I was like, well, that's actually super endearing because he said, I just really love elections. Elections are my passion. Having integrity in our elections is my passion. And I'm watching this like, okay, I'm torn on this because you always expect like, secretary of state is a stepping stone position for many people or, you know, I'm using it for the next job. But this guy was like, Shelton was like, no, I'll just go back and be the Knox County clerk again. I'm really into elections. Like he was like, I volunteer my time to administer recounts in communities. Like, boy, I bet you're a barrel of fun on the weekends. But then it's like his wife owned the sex toy business, so he probably is a barrel of fun on the weekends. Why don't you be that guy, Shelton? That's what the people want. So coming back to Diego. I'm watching Diego give this speech last night. And of course, everything that comes out of his mouth is complete bull crap. But he is really leaning into the amount of money he's raising, which is fascinating to me because some of the money, as we've talked about in the past, comes from really sketchy sources. But he's leaning into this, he's going through all this and I'm listening to the, you know, the applause isn't everything. The applause isn't some end all, be all whatever. But clearly people weren't booing him as they should be. People are not, and I didn't get the feeling this is just some polite applause. I think there's people in there that are still eating up his line of BS. And the further you get from central Indiana, the more people are going to continue to eat it up because they're not going to be told what to do by Jim Banks, which is now clearly what the Engling campaign is. He admitted it last night. If I were Diego and I were Shelton and I were Ritenour, I would clip that speech, that part of that speech he gave of him talking about how he's there because Banks gave him permission and I would beat the hell out of him for the next three weeks. I would make sure every delegate know there are some delegates who will vote for him because he's a Banks yes man. There's no doubt about that. There's some delegates who will absolutely vote for him. They're the minions, the hangers on, the people who want to elevate themselves. They will absolutely vote for him because he's a Banks yes man. But for the independent minded delegate, especially somebody who's got to decide what to do if their candidate goes down on the first or second ballot, that's a great thing to have in your back pocket. With Engling, you're not voting for Max Engling to be secretary of state. You're voting for Jim Banks to be a U.S. senator and secretary of state. Oh, by the way, if I'm Greg Ballard, if I'm Beau Bayh, I'm clipping that as well and having that in my back pocket. And I will put that in an ad this fall. Absolutely. But as I'm watching Diego speak, I was thinking to myself and again afterwards, just happenstance, a very connected political insider, not affiliated with any of the campaigns, called me and said, you know, what did you think? And we were going through some stuff. And he said the exact same thing that I was thinking without me telling him, which is, I bet right now there's a part of Jim Banks that really thinks he may have made a big mistake. And what I mean by that is this. I think Banks and his people are stuck right now. Notice it's been a week and there hasn't really been anything hyper negative about Diego come out now. We'll get to this Capital Chronicle article in a second. But that's not dirt. Dirt like they're up off. They're working off public record stuff, stuff that anybody can find. There's been no real dirt come out on Diego. Like the India trip, like his palling around with the known felon. What's actually happened there that went down for federal bribery charges? All of the, the voting in the county different where he took the homestead credit. All the big stuff. There's been nothing. It's been relatively quiet. And I think that's because Banks and his people are stuck because I think Banks sold a bill of goods to a lot of people of, if we all bail on him, he'll drop out of the race. I don't think there was a plan B. I think plan A was the only plan and I think plan A because Todd Rokita and I've heard this from a couple people, I've not actually heard the interview, but I've heard this from multiple people. Now that Rokita was on, I think it was WOWO, the Fort Wayne radio station on Friday maybe, and he kind of started hemming and hawing about Diego. And the problem these guys have is there's probably only an extent to which they can indict Diego because there's a chance not only they might be implicated in something, but more importantly, their money might be implicated in something. And these guys are not going to choke off their money. They're not going to expose something on Diego that might look bad for a donor because a lot of those donors also give to them, which we'll talk about in the next segment. And so I think if you're Jim Banks and you sold a bill of goods to people saying, hey, if we all bail on him, he'll, he'll, he'll drop out, he's not going to have any choice. And we'll hook him up. We'll, we'll tell him we're hooking him up with something and he'll go for that. And then according to Abdul, Diego didn't go for that because Diego was like, I ain't taking your guy's word for it. You forget I'm a scumbag. You're a scumbag. We all know how each other operate. And I think right now there is probably, look, I don't know if panic's the right word, but I think there's probably some level of concern. This guy didn't go willingly. And as I said a week ago, a week and a half ago now, Diego called their bluff, saying, you're not going to expose me. You're not. You can leave me. You can unendorse me. But you're not gonna expose me. You're not going to demand Ryan Mears do an investigation into me. You're not going to demand the inspector general do an investigation into me. You're not going to expose the real dirt because it implicates you guys. Or more importantly, it implicates your money. And thus far, Diego's been proven correct because nothing has really come out on him of any substance that isn't available in the public record. And so now you enter a phase where watching that speech yesterday evening is passable, right? He's not going to say or do anything stupid, but he's also not going to wow anyone. It's not like you see him and go, and this happens all the time in Republican elections. Like if we amplify it, there were two Republican elections in a row where the voters were unhappy with the choices. Remember the Republican presidential elections. If you go back in the time machine to 08 and 2012. In 08, remember, it was like Giuliani. It was Romney, it was McCain, it was Huckabee. That election. So remember, they were like, we got to do something. And they're like, hey, let's get Fred Thompson to run. And remember, I got all fired up about Fred Thompson. Oh, he's an actor. He was a senator. He's great. He's the gruff talking guy on Law and Order. And they and Fred Thompson gets in and everybody's all excited. Yeah. We can match Obama's star power. And then, like, after two weeks, people are like, this guy's boring as hell. He's, he clearly can just read from a prompter and that's about it. And he's like falling asleep during the debates. And everybody's like, well, damn, that didn't work out. I guess we're going back to McCain. Then in 2012, they did it again because remember, again, it was Romney and it was Huckabee. And it was like, oh my gosh, these guys, we need some star power. And Rick Perry got in the race. Remember that? He was the governor of Texas. And everybody's like, oh, he's good looking. Oh, he's a tough talker. He wears a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. He's gonna tell Obama where to stick it. And then again, within like two weeks, everybody was like, this guy's a moron. He's like a Calvin Klein model that they just put in charge of a state. Remember? He forgot the agencies he'd cut. And in the middle he just pauses and goes, oops. And then two weeks later, we're like, okay, I guess we're going with Romney. That's what this guy reminds me of in like a, like a low level. Like everybody's like, oh, Max. Oh, Max. Oh, Max. You mean the guy that got smoked in his congressional race and just got defeated by his neighbors in a delegate race? Yeah. That guy, he's awesome. He was one of the most beautiful people in Congress. And then you watch him last night and you're like, that's it. That's all there is to this guy.

David Shelton Continues to Impress on Qualifications While Struggling With Convention Politics

I mean, it reminded me exactly of what the Republicans did with Fred Thompson and Perry where they just invent things now. It's a convention. So it's a totally different ball of wax. Right. You know, who knows how these people vote? Who knows what deals get done? Who knows? The guy could very easily win. I'm not saying he's not going to win. I'm just saying if I'm Diego, I'm roasting that guy. I saw that last night. If I'm Diego and I say, bring it on, buddy. I got a million large let's roll. And I think there is probably some people looking around right now at Jim Banks going, hey man, I thought this guy was getting out of the race. Hey, man, I thought you said this was going to be a piece of cake. Hey, man, I thought everybody was going to be behind this kid Engling. And again, it doesn't mean he won't win. It doesn't mean the way the convention is set up. Because what's going to be fascinating is you've got four people running. You've got Ritenour, you've got Shelton, you've got Engling, you've got Diego. They all don't like each other. Usually at conventions there are alliances that are formed, right? Like, hey, we're together, right? Or we're kind of close. And so whichever one, if there's a three person race, whichever one of us doesn't win, hey, our votes are going to the other person. You kind of know after the first ballot, hey, who's going to end up getting this? I have no idea on this one. Shelton can't stand Diego. Shelton can't stand Engling. So if Shelton is, let's say Ritenour's the first out, let's just say Ritenour's the first out. And let's just say because she clearly doesn't like Engling, she wouldn't even say his name in our interview. She has a nickname for him. New guy. She obviously don't like Diego. Let's just say her votes went to Shelton. And I'm not saying this is how it's going to happen, but I'm just saying theoretically, this could be how it happens. By the way. I heard the other day some guys were being real smartasses about how much time we spend on Indiana politics and government. I heard that the other day that they don't think this is a worthwhile conversation. Where else are you going to get content like this? And what would you rather hear? This or the 9,933rd conversation of the day about Iran? This takes effort. You can't just read it from the Fox News headline. So if you're right now and let's say your votes go to Shelton. So now you got three guys left. Shelton hates Diego. Shelton hates Engling. Engling hates Shelton. Engling hates Diego. Diego. We all know Diego's only in it for Diego. Where would whoever finishes last on the second ballot or the second round of elimination? Let's just say it's Shelton. Where would his votes go to Diego? He's certainly not going to tell people to vote for him to Engling. Certainly not going to tell people to vote for him. Do all of his people just leave? Same thing if it's Diego like there is. There is so much going on right now, guys. It's so juicy. It's so fascinating. We are seeing the implosion of the Republican Party potentially right in front of us. And the reason this is happening, and this is very important, is the prospect of Greg Ballard being in the race.

Greg Ballard’s Potential Third-Party Campaign Continues Reshaping Indiana Political Landscape

You guys know, for years I have talked about what would happen if a viable third party presented itself. Talked about it for years and years on the old radio show. It's why I tried to prop up libertarians for years, because I believed if a third party, a viable third party, emerged, you would see the implosion of the Republican Party, and then the Republicans would have to get back to start governing like Republicans, like conservatives, if they feared losing elections, they would start governing better, governing for the people above the special interest. And all it took was Greg Ballard trying to get on the ballot. That's it. The Republicans didn't freak out on Diego because of Bayh. Now, they're obviously worried about Bayh. But they're most worried about Ballard because Ballard will take votes from Diego. A lot of them. He'll take votes from any Republican. Look, I think this is getting so squirrelly at this point, and it's so public, and it's going to play out over the next three weeks and just keep getting worse. I think Ballard may get that 10% regardless if he can get on the ballot. Now there's no guarantee he's going to get on. He may fail at the signatures, which would be a horrible embarrassment and the end of the establishment, the old establishment order in the state if he failed. But I've been telling you guys this for ten years, and it's happening right in front of you. All it takes is the prospect of a viable third party. That's why the Republicans keep trying to make it harder to vote in Indiana. They don't want competition. It's a monopoly. As long as they have the monopoly, they can do whatever they want. But it depends on having the monopoly. And they create the monopoly by writing the rules to choke off the ability for outsiders to run. Ballard is just a very, very, very unique case because of his history with the city, because of his connection to money that can fundraise to pay people to go get those signatures. But if it were Bayh against Diego, this would not be happening. They one on one they think they could beat Bayh. There's enough wiggle room, you know, in a essentially 60/40 state, they could lose enough votes and they think they could get across the finish line. They can't do it with Ballard in the race. They can't do it. Everything I've been telling you guys for years is happening. That's why we spend so much time on this. This is years in the making. Everything I've been telling you and wanting to happen is happening in real time. In a matter of days. It just took a viable, a viable third party person to emerge. He's not even on the ballot yet. Can you imagine when he gets on the ballot?