Elon Musk's AI Could Transform Politics: Here's How | Cliff Maloney DSH #1047

Holy crap, PA for eight months.

What was that like?

Pretty crazy.

I'll give you a little background.

Pretty much since 2016, I've focused on building these paid door knocking programs.

The left has always had paid and volunteer, and the right has always had volunteer.

Yeah, hold on.

Why are we not doing what they're doing?

So, I've always been focused on doing state rep races across the country, putting these permanent on-the-ground teams together.

But then, in 2024, that all kind of changed.

All right, guys, Cliff Maloney here at AmericaFest, man.

Is this your first AmericaFest?

Second.

Was here last year, but 20,000 people, man.

Can't wait.

It's my first one.

I'm already loving it.

You know, I'm meeting some great people.

I want to talk about your past year.

Holy crap.

PA for eight months?

What was that like?

Yeah, well, it was pretty crazy.

I'll give you a little background.

You know, pretty much since 2016, I've focused on building these paid door knocking programs.

The left has always had paid and volunteer, and the right has always had volunteer.

Yeah.

Why are we not doing what they're doing?

You know, the community organizing, but paying people.

So I've always been focused on doing state rep races across the country and really having impact by putting these permanent on-the-ground teams together.

But then in 2024, that all kind of changed.

So I get a call from Charter Kirk and Tyler Boyer at Turning Point, and they're pretty much like, listen, you know, we're tackling Arizona and Wisconsin.

We need somebody that understands how to build these ground games to do the ballot chase in Pennsylvania.

So our group, Citizens Alliance, we launched the PA chase about a year ago now, and it was simple.

We said we're going to knock 500,000 doors, and we want to get Trump's share of the mail-in vote to 33%.

It was a wild ride.

Wow.

That's incredible.

I'm more curious how effective you think this actually is.

So if you knock 500,000 doors, how many votes do you think that leads to personally?

So the results were this.

We ended up knocking 510,000 and our goal was 33%.

Trump ended up getting 34.5% of the mail-in.

So that's up from the average of 20% for Republicans.

This is all just since they changed the rules.

Yeah.

Right.

So these rules changed during COVID.

It's supposed to be temporary.

Absolutely not.

It ended up being something that was, that was horrendous.

And it's, you know, if there's 50 days of mail-in voting.

So you're not a fan of mail-in votes.

No, I mean, I grew up in PA.

When I used to vote, it was election day.

Yeah.

Right.

But, you know, CNN and MSNBC made fun of me because they said, you know, the guy running Trump's Pennsylvania ballot chase effort says he hates mail-in ballot.

Well, I do, right?

But I'm not going to cede the election and just lose because I don't like the rules.

Right.

And so this is all about adapting.

I give Charlie a lot of credit, Charlie Kirk, for really pushing the party and pushing kind of the Republican apparatus to finally acknowledge we have to play when it comes to mail-in voting.

So you asked me a question.

How much impact?

You figure we probably talked to based on our numbers.

We knocked on 510,000 doors.

We probably talked to over about 200,000 people right because not everybody's home right and i'm gonna give you the honest numbers um and it's tough work you got people telling you get the hell off my lawn especially a pa

so the nice thing about chasing ballots is it's different from your typical door knocking okay typical door knocking in a primary it's hard you got to talk to republicans and say this republican's good this republican's a rhino scumbag that's a tough conversation In a general election, typically, not chasing, if you're knocking doors, you're talking to moderate Dems or liberal Republicans, these swing voters, and trying to get them to support your candidate.

Chasing is the easiest by far of the three.

You're going to people who want to vote for Trump.

They're a Trump supporter.

They're going to vote Republican up and down the ballot.

They just don't vote consistently.

And so we have to take these Trump supporters and get them to become Trump voters.

But it's not simple.

But I'm telling you, compared to other door knocking, it's very effective because you go to their house and you say, Bob, you got a ballot sitting there on your dining room table.

I need you to commit to sending that in today and voting Republican up and down the ballot.

Oh, crap.

Yeah, I'll get that in.

Great.

Bob, we're going to check with the clerk in seven days.

And if it's not in, we'll come back to remind you again and encourage you.

Hold them accountable.

The Democrats call this the power of annoying the voter.

It's a reminder campaign is the politically correct way to say it.

But they understand it's telling the person, hey, listen, the clerk, it's all public.

When your vote goes in, we don't know who you voted for, but if your ballot is returned, that's public.

And so you're going back.

Some people, I hate to admit on your show, we knocked on their door six or seven times.

Now they finally voted, which was great.

But that's the whole, the problem you're trying to fix with this chase effort

is in 2020, Joe Biden won by 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania.

141,000 Republicans.

requested a mail-in ballot and never sent it back.

Whoa.

We saw, though, I'm a former math teacher, right?

So I'm like, this is a problem we can solve.

You're not trying to add new voters.

You're not trying.

These are people that went through the process of requesting a ballot and never sending it back.

Right.

So

you look at all these different things.

The other things we asked were, I can't have Trump coming out in October and saying, don't vote by mail.

It's fraudulent.

Like that would have been a major problem.

So Charlie was really instrumental getting Trump on board, pushing the Republican apparatus.

But I think we won Pennsylvania by 120,000 votes.

We had conversations, actual conversations with over 200,000 of those voters that had a ballot.

I'd like to say that we had a significant impact on winning Pennsylvania.

Absolutely.

I would agree.

Were you guys knocking in the 2020 election too?

No.

No.

So we literally, we have never done a program like this.

Really, there's never been a program like this in Pennsylvania.

And the Democrats, look, everybody says, oh, well, the party should be doing it.

Why are you doing it?

I'm like, well, that's not the case.

The Democrats farm this this out to these 501c4 nonprofits because the money is unlimited and it's not reportable okay it's anonymous it's not tax deductible but what i'm saying is all the political gifts some of them have caps how much you can give to a campaign it's all reported and this is why people talk about you know george soros as is the the devil the reality is the left understands how to utilize organizational structure.

And we, this is the first cycle we started adapting to that.

And so you had super PACs, yes, but you also had 501c4s 501c4s that kind of run these operations.

But this was the first cycle, everybody was singing from the same song sheet.

I love it.

And you got another, you're not stopping here.

You guys got another campaign planned for 25, right?

Yeah.

So I won't reveal anything too detailed here because we're still putting the final pieces together.

But pretty much, yes, we are going to relaunch the PHAs.

I've got to figure out.

When we launched the PHAs, that 33%

number,

I was scared shitless.

Okay.

And here's why.

because in politics, just like in a lot of business ventures, people say, talk about action.

Don't talk about a measurable result.

I should have just, the political consultant class, most of whom are corrupt, they kept telling me, Cliff, just talk about the 500,000 doors you're going to knock.

Don't talk about what the result, you know, because then if you win, you can just say, see, we won.

I said, I don't think that's genuine.

I think, I think you need to share with your folks, your investors, your activists, your volunteers, your grassroots, what is the actual goal that you can measure?

And so that's why we did the 33%.

Well, now I've got to figure out for 2025 and 2026,

what is that measurable goal that I want to be held accountable to?

And so it's not something I take lightly.

I mean, we've been digging into the numbers.

In 2025, you have three Supreme Court retention races.

So voters will vote yes to retain or no to not retain.

They're all Democrats.

One of those judges

was writing the dissent to count legal ballots.

So like totally, totally corrupt.

But to not retain a judge hasn't been done.

It's only been done one time in PA's history.

Whoa.

So all of a sudden, it's like, do you take on after this huge win, do you take on a battle that you're guaranteed to practically lose?

Or, you know, do you say, no, we're going to focus on other things?

Down ballot, you have school board races.

Thousands of school board races in Pennsylvania.

We could go in against the woke stuff or the DEI school choice.

You have 9,000 judge of election races in 2025 in Pennsylvania.

9,000 judge of elections that will be elected precinct by precinct.

There could be an election integrity play there.

So these are all things we're looking at.

I'm getting phone calls daily.

Can you bring the PA chase to New Jersey?

Can you guys launch the Virginia chase?

Will you guys come to California, Georgia, Wisconsin?

You know, like...

All these great places.

And my answer is very simple.

When we launched the PA chase, I had to go out and raise $3 million,

and then we had to execute.

The money part is difficult.

Executing it is very difficult.

And my COO, Justin Grice, I gave him a lot of credit.

He executes everything.

I just have to go out and raise the money.

But the problem is when I launch a program, I own that.

It's on my back that it has to happen.

So people are saying, well, why don't you just launch the New Jersey Chase and see if there's interest and move all your team in?

I said, because each of these that I launch, I got to raise another $3 to $5 million.

Wow.

So what I'm saying to a lot of these folks, and this is to anybody out there listening or watching, if somebody has an organization or resources and you want us to bring in our skill set and our toolkit, happy to help.

And we'll do it at costs, right?

This is not about making money.

This is about winning.

But the problem is the consultant class doesn't want to move $3 to $5 million from their TV ad buy where they're getting 15 to 20% commission.

and putting it into doors, even though it's more impactful, they're not making their cut.

Wow.

I didn't know there was commission like that.

Oh, and TV ads, it is the worst kept secret.

Typically, 15 to 20% of every dollar spent on political TV ads is going to the consultant.

Now, some of them have an agreement with the ad buyer, so maybe they each get 10% or 7.5%.

But

that is the gravy train in politics.

And it has been.

It's slowly

coming down because just, you know, well, I shouldn't say that because with inflation, I mean, people are spending more, but what's happening is people are moving away from your traditional cable news buys or network buys.

And so that is, that is why people ask me all the time, why, you know, in 2020 or 2022, for some of these statewide races in PA where they spent 50 to 70 million, I say, how many ballot chasers do you guys have?

Not one.

And you're like, hold on, I can't, you know, John Fetterman spent $10 million.

just on chasing ballots.

Wow.

Right.

People are like, how'd you end up with Fetterman?

And this is not a shot at Oz.

Dr.

Oz is a great man, supporter of the PHAs, great guy.

But it's a shot at some of the consultant class, not just in PA, but in a lot of these states, where they don't want to make the adjustment because it doesn't line up with them making more money.

And, you know, people get mad at me, Cliff, don't call.

I'm like, I just don't care.

I want to win.

And let's allocate resources so we can be the most impactful to win.

I love that.

You start wondering how much of the billion Kamala Rays went into people's pockets.

So I think, think, and I got a little trouble because we were talking on Charlie's show the day after the election.

I think it is probably one of the most corrupt political campaigns when you talk about the total dollar spent.

And here's why.

How do they spend twice as much money in Pennsylvania on their ground game and get half the result?

Twice as much money, and we saw half the people that we saw in 2020.

Right?

It just doesn't add up.

Where were the people?

Where were these doors that supposedly their ground game was knocking?

Did your team run into any of their team?

I mean, we did in some of the swing counties, but like, you know, even in 2020, we weren't chasing ballots, but you have eyes and ears.

You talk to candidates.

You see what's happening in the field.

They just were non-existent.

I mean, in Philadelphia, I had 25 black men who were chasing ballots for PHAs.

We specifically put them in Philadelphia.

to target black men because we were seeing tremendous results with black men just not being excited about Kamala and much more excited about a Trump economy.

And we get daily reports.

And the best thing about when you'd run these huge statewide programs, forget the polling, forget the pundits, all the people on the news talking about, you know, oh, we have an inside source.

Screw your inside source.

I have data every day with all these results from these surveys at the door.

Every door we go to, we're capturing data.

And so I'm looking at these things in real time.

That's how we called Pennsylvania 90 minutes before mainstream media.

Because once Allegheny County hit, we were looking at Philadelphia County.

We already knew based on our survey responses where they were going to be and where our people were going to be.

Wow, and it was pretty accurate.

Oh, they had no chance.

We said we were going to win by about two points.

We're going to win by 1.7.

Wow.

I was on Charlie's show and it was funny because Charlie kept saying, no, no, no.

I'm like texting.

I'm like, Charlie, it's over.

Let's call it.

He's like, no, no, no.

We got it.

This happened in 2020.

I don't want to have PTSD.

We're waiting.

I was scared to go to bed that night, man, because I knew we were in the lead, but I was like, am I going to wake up to what happened last time?

You know what I mean?

Yeah, I think we all kind of had that thought.

But I mean, mean we once again i've never done a statewide campaign like this where you have all the data and so it was easy for us to just extrapolate it out and say okay there's no way they're going to be above this number in philadelphia or bucks or chester or delaware county and if they're not above that number they have no chance because that's where they have to make up the votes yep um

but i think you you talk about a billion dollars

I don't want to accuse anybody specifically, but how do you spend twice as much, have half the amount of people, and get half the the result?

Yeah.

Joe Biden beat Donald Trump just in mail-in votes.

It was 2 million to 600,000, meaning that Biden went into election day up 1.4 million.

Harris is only up about 400,000.

That's a million vote difference.

Crazy.

In your gap or your lead going into election day.

And that's why people were like, you know, how are you feeling?

And I'm looking at these numbers because they're all public, at least the returns by party.

And I'm like, I don't want to be too confident, but they need a record turnout on election day, which their whole system, this was the problem.

Biden built everything to be about mail vote.

And then Harris's people came in and they tried to do the switcheroo where it was like, well, we're going to do mail, but we also want to turn people out.

That wasn't the playbook.

The playbook in 2020 was run that score as high as you can on mail end.

They had the fear of COVID.

I mean, it was like, no one leave your house.

So they were able to run that up.

They needed those same numbers.

Harris's team completely just mismanaged that and tried to move to this election day model, which you can't do that when your whole apparatus is built for mail-in.

Yep.

Yeah, a lot of overspending.

I mean, as a podcaster, I saw her spend 100K for that setup with Call Her Daddy.

And that maybe would cost 20K max.

Like that's just going in people's pockets, you know?

Yeah.

It's crazy.

Well, and it's funny.

I mean, it's all legal.

I used to think that's wild, but to pay for access or pay for endorsements, you know, as a consulting fee, it's all legal, but it's pretty egregious that the, um, that the campaign thinks it's worth that.

No, they were paying some celebrities millions.

I know.

And that doesn't work anymore.

People want authenticity.

You just hit on it.

People ask me, what is the number one thing from this cycle that you would take away as the reason?

Authenticity.

And the reason for that is access to politicians.

Alternative media, podcasts, people getting their news on Instagram, getting their news on YouTube, getting their news on X, right?

On their phone.

Like my dad literally was a Trump voter because of TikTok.

Now, I'm not on TikTok, but I'll tell you, like, it's funny, but like he would watch these videos of Harris and he's just like, this woman is stupid, right?

And, and, you know, and he's, he's, he's in southeastern PA, you know, kind of a swing area.

But it's like, I try to tell people the authenticity because people have pretty good BS, you know, meters.

They know.

And if you watch Donald Trump for his three hours on a podcast, whether it's Rogan or Theo Vaughn or whoever, he's a real dude, right?

You might not agree with everything he's saying, but gosh, like at least you want to have a beer with them or sit down and

talk.

Where Harris, it was like,

can she put a sentence together?

I struggled.

I watched her podcast because I wanted to actually hear her perspective, but her answers were just so scripted.

I couldn't take it.

Yeah.

And I think that they made one of the biggest mistakes, which is they picked one of the most scripted,

just no talent politicians in the time when authenticity is now the most under the microscope.

Right.

That's why I think that I do think that Josh Shapiro is going to be the nominee in 28, if they're smart.

He's going to be one of the most, he comes across authentic.

He's a complete fraud, but he's the governor of Pennsylvania.

We deal with him all the time.

He talks like he's a moderate.

He presents himself like he's a moderate, and he is one of the most corrupt, far-left governors in American history, but he can raise money.

And man, when he talks, does he inspire?

Well, you got to pick between him, Newsome, or AOC.

So I think right now, Shapiro,

if I had to bet, I would say Shapiro is the front runner.

But once again, parties, you know, parties don't always pick the best person, right?

That's got the most, you know, the ability to win in the general or the ability.

But I just think if they go with him, based on my experience in PA, I mean, even in 2026, he's up for re-election in PA.

It's going to be a tough year for us.

I'm not even saying that we won't, I'm not saying we won't target him, but like even down ballot.

He just, he turns out a lot of people.

Wow.

And he has convinced a lot of the suburban women that he is this moderate Democrat.

So a lot of them that are, you know, would identify as Republican, they vote for him.

He's very talented.

Keep your eye on him.

Got to admit that.

Will we see mail-in ballots in 2028, you think?

I think the jury's out.

I think if I had to make a prediction, I think what everyone should be watching right now is Doge versus Thun and Johnson.

Now, this obviously blew up yesterday, but I've been saying this for three weeks, and it's becoming more clear.

Like this is going to be, and Trump, if Trump keeps his his full endorsement behind Doge with Elon and the Vake and Ron Paul and some of these others advising and they keep the heat on Thune and Johnson I'm fascinated to see where that breaks yeah um because there's a lot of ways that could go okay I worked for Ron Paul uh when I was uh in college I worked for him on the hill I got a little hill experience I don't recommend it to my worst enemy it's uh

the most corrupt people up there, except a handful that we can we can talk about that are patriots.

But, you know, know, you have all these people that are running around and really only four people write legislation.

I mean, it's the majority leader's office and the speaker's office, and yet all these other people are up there, you know, and they have to stay busy, right?

We call them process, you know, oh, I'm part of the process.

It's a lot of noise.

What is going to happen with Thune and what is going to happen with Johnson?

They have an opportunity.

And I think we're seeing with Johnson right now, he's getting called out right now.

It's probably time to go.

I mean, look at his voting record.

I've always been open-minded on Mike Johnson,

but look at his voting record.

The guy has like probably a 70% score on most conservative scale.

Like

rhetoric's one thing.

Being pro-Trump, rhetoric-wise, is one thing.

A lot of people will say that because they're hiding behind the fact that they have a horrendous voting record.

On all the key battles where it's like the Freedom Caucus representing we the people versus the corrupt unit party, it's like

98% of Republicans are over here.

Yeah.

Right.

Like it's really only five, 10, maybe 15 on a really firm day where they take a stance.

But I think thun and johnson have an opportunity to be the best speaker and the best majority leader in american history why

because trump got shot in the face meaning he has a bone to pick and you have elon musk the world's richest man working with a late ram swami one of the brightest men in american politics

and they're the shield right it's not just like some random piece of legislation and it's like oh it's like you have all this pressure of x you have all this pressure of trump elon Vivette that you're putting forward, and they're going to have an opportunity to do massive regulatory reform.

I mean, I'm talking about, I think Doge is going to come in and say, hey, cut these five departments completely.

We want you to cut these 12,000 regulations.

We want to cut spending across the board by 5% in every government entity, right?

I mean,

what are they going to do?

If Thune and Johnson push that through and get their people in line, that would radically change America for the better.

It would radically reshape government efficiency which is what they're trying to do but they're going to have to go against the swamp right they're going to have to stand they're going to have to decide with doge and we the people and say to their swamp creatures go pound sand that's going to take a lot of leverage a lot of pressure but that is the battle i recommend everybody stays not just stays in a loop on but gets involved yeah push your congressman push your senator on any of these things where you see elon and doge pushing you i mean right now as we're filming this they're talking about a potential government shutdown, right?

Because they can't figure it out.

Shut it down.

I mean, I hate that I always have to be the guys that say that and they call us radicals.

If you don't realize at this point, the DC is broken, right?

If we are really going to let the, I mean, the left's already coming out with it.

Jamal Bowman, the congressman is, you know, we're going to shut down the government and 900,000 families are going to put food on the table.

Okay, yeah, we just had a mandate that we need to change this whole system.

900,000 bureaucrats, let's, let's, let's ask them, hey, politely fire them and get them jobs in the real world.

I mean, obviously, you know, you need some people.

You got to have some system.

But I just think that just like their talking point of delay, delay, delay.

Oh, look, here's our 1,500-page bill.

Oh, Christmas.

I know you want to go home with your family.

So we're going to ram this thing through.

Oh, we're only going to give you two days to read it.

That's done.

That defense is now over.

We've got Grok.

We've got other AI that's tackling these things.

I can't tell people how big of a win that is.

For any of us that have like worked policy on the hill, that is like their tactic, their whole playbook just got lit on fire which is fantastic so now the government shutdown that'll be the new rhetoric yeah right and how much of that fear can they use and what is the x pushback or the the social pushback to kind of change the narrative we'll see if we can combat it because for years that government shutdown that fear you know you're going to send these grannies home that work at the post office and they're not going to be able to eat they're going to die right it's like are we really using that rhetoric but for years it's it's worked just like the delay thing for years nobody could fix it yeah so we will see just how much that pressure works i think now people are fed up you know economically times aren't as good we're paying a lot in taxes and we're seeing 99 of government employees work remote right it's like what's going on here and i think i think the elon twitter uh slash x comparison is brilliant uh let that sink in i mean when he goes in and cuts 90 but 90 of the staff

um

if i'm a bureaucrat in dc i'm scared to death right now yeah Yeah, I'm worried about my job.

Yeah.

I mean, and look, that's, that's, I get the incentive.

You know, you want to get in.

You want to get a promotion.

You've got these cushy pensions.

You want to stay for 20, 25 years.

The American people are sick of it.

We're broke.

And I think, I think this mandate is now, look, it's going to be uncomfortable.

We're going to have a lot going on.

And by the way, I don't think we have four years.

I'm a big believer in the first hundred days.

You know, if you really want to come fresh off the election with a mandate from the American people, you got 100 days.

January 20th, 100 days from then, you got to get everything moving because it's government.

It's going to take two years for these things to actually finalize.

It's going to take years for people to actually feel the implications, which in my opinion will be a better quality of life, a more efficient government,

you know, a better,

your inflation is not crushing you, right?

A better market in general.

We have 100 days.

And so I'm very excited.

You know, we're obviously focused on revamping MPA, but I'm also helping a lot of the transition stuff, pushing the right people, getting resumes in, getting plans in place.

But we have to act quickly.

If you try to drag this down and say, oh, well, year three, we're going to do this.

No, you got to get everything moving first couple months, and then you can figure out what you really put the pressure on to get done.

ASAP and what can drag out.

But I mean, some of these departments, we got to get them out of DC immediately.

We got to shut some of them down.

It's got to happen all at once and quickly.

It's going to be tough.

You got to be prepared for that.

It'll be tough, but I think that's where the most growth is, right?

In the toughest times.

There's been talks.

I've seen Elon tweet this out of a universal tax, like flat tax rate.

Are you in support of that?

So I'd like to abolish all taxes.

I'll start with that.

All taxes, I'm a fan of abolishing.

I do believe in a flat tax in comparison to our current system.

So if there was a flat tax,

you know, obviously people argue on what the percentage is or what the dollar amount is if they do a raw dollar amount.

But I think that, you know, our system right now, I mean, anybody that sees those memes about the IRS, you have to laugh.

It's like.

Yeah.

How, how much?

Yeah, exactly.

But my favorite one is like, how much do I owe you?

I don't know.

Well, how much do I send you?

You figure it out.

Okay, I'm going to send you this.

You're going to jail.

Like, it is so wild how that system works.

And like, some people, you know, just send it, you send in your tax return and it's like, you know, you're kind of hoping.

And then if you get audited, it's a nightmare.

It's expensive.

I believe in kind of a postcard.

You send in one postcard.

Everybody Everybody pays the same amount or the same percentage.

And I think you get rid of tens of thousands of bureaucrats at the IRS, if not maybe hundreds of thousands.

But the IRS destroys lives.

It destroys businesses.

It destroys, you know, the ability for people to have work.

So I think

we have got to fix that system.

And I'm excited to see what Elon does.

Yeah, it's way too stressful right now.

Even though I had accountants and bookkeepers, I'm still like, oh, like, you know, thinking about it.

You know, it sucks.

Well, Cliff, it's been fun, man.

Where could people find you and support you and donate and stuff?

Sure.

On X, just at Maloney, M-A-L-O-N-E-Y.

I like to keep it simple.

And then pachace.com.

If folks want to get involved, they want to apply to be a doorknob.

We're going to have a lot of jobs in the new year.

Folks want to sponsor one of our Bowet Chasers or some of our key races, just pachase.com.

Appreciate your show, man.

Keep telling the truth.

Yep.

Thanks for coming on.

See you guys.