Judge Susan Crawford on Wisconsin Supreme Court Race

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Speaker 3 Let's talk about the most important election taking place in the country right now.

Speaker 2 That if you don't live in Wisconsin, you may not know about. It's the race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, where currently liberals maintain a four to three majority on the court.

Speaker 2 I like to refer to that more as pro-democracy, but you have Elon Musk now spending a huge amount of money, I mean, millions in that state.

Speaker 2 It tells you how important MAGA and Musk and Trump think this state is.

Speaker 2 And they're running the playbook that we saw during the 2024 election, which unfortunately they had some success with, with these deceptive ads.

Speaker 2 But I think it's important that we now call out what they're doing.

Speaker 2 So the strategy by Musk and the MAGAs is they create these political action committees with kind of deceptive names that make it seem like they're supportive of a Democratic candidate or a liberal candidate or a specific candidate.

Speaker 2 And then they push certain messaging that they poll test to make voters not want to vote for that candidate, believing that it's actually that candidate sending that message.

Speaker 2 If you see, if you watch my reporting during the 2024 election, you would see that like in Pennsylvania, Musk would create these packs and they would push these things that they know would try to push voters away.

Speaker 2 So Elon Musk just dropped dropped another million dollars to buy off this guy, Brad Schimmel.

Speaker 2 He's the right-wing MAGA candidate who wants that Wisconsin seat because that would turn the Wisconsin Supreme Court into pretty much a far-right court.

Speaker 2 So, if you're upset at the way our United States Supreme Court looks like, they want the Wisconsin Supreme Court to look just like that.

Speaker 2 Now, if you're asking how MAGA is this guy, Brad Schimmel, well, Brad Schimmel says that the Wisconsin Supreme Court screwed Donald Trump over by not overturning the results of the 2020 election.

Speaker 2 As Judge Susan Crawford, who's circuit court judge from Dane County, who's running for that seat, says, Schimmel is all about partisanship, politics, and special interests, not being fair and impartial

Speaker 2 in the court. And here's the Washington Post article.
It says, in a meeting with supporters last month, Schimmel said the court had treated Trump unfairly.

Speaker 2 Quote, I think the odds of an endorsement are probably pretty high because, you know, one of the things he doesn't do is forget people that screw him over and the Wisconsin Supreme Court screw him over.

Speaker 2 So as Donald Trump is crushing our economy, as Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to federal workers, you got Schimmel really wanting this Trump endorsement.

Speaker 2 So why don't we bring in Judge Susan Crawford, circuit court judge who's running for this seat? Judge Crawford, Musk is spending millions against you. Why do you think that is?

Speaker 4 Well, it's not because he cares about Wisconsin. I'll put it that way.
He doesn't, you know, I don't think he's ever been here. I don't think he really knows who he's running these ads against.

Speaker 4 You know, the first ad that they put out against me had a picture of a different Susan Crawford in it that they, I guess, had found on Google.

Speaker 4 So I think he's doing it for a couple of different reasons. One is,

Speaker 4 And he's being pretty open about it. He's got paid canvassers going door to door in Wisconsin with flyers that say protect the Trump agenda.
So nakedly partisan reason.

Speaker 4 And then also I think Elon Musk is watching out for his own backside. You know, Tesla just filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin to try to

Speaker 4 throw out a decision by

Speaker 4 Wisconsin licensors saying that they could not open dealerships to sell vehicles directly to consumers in Wisconsin. There's just a state law that doesn't doesn't allow that.

Speaker 4 So he's got a personal stake in Wisconsin courts, and I think he thinks he can buy himself a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Speaker 3 So let's do this.

Speaker 2 Paint a picture, if you can, for us of what it would look like if Brad Schimmel gets that seat.

Speaker 2 Paint that picture first. Then I'm going to ask you, of course, to paint the picture of what it looks like if you get on.
But first, broadly, Brad Schimmel wins this.

Speaker 2 What should the people of Wisconsin be prepared for?

Speaker 4 Yeah, well, Brad Schimmel, depending on what group he's talking to, because he says different things to different groups, but he just said the other day when he was speaking to one of these turning point groups, far-right conservative groups, that he wants to provide a, be part of a support network for Donald Trump.

Speaker 4 So if he ends up on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, he's going to bring a far-right agenda. He'll lock in a very conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

Speaker 4 And honestly, I think he's the most extreme candidate to ever run for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. So any cases involving

Speaker 4 the rights of Wisconsinites, things like reproductive health care, access to health insurance coverage, protection of the environment,

Speaker 4 protection of public safety. I think those go by the wayside because Brad Schimmel has always been about protecting the big money special interests.

Speaker 4 That was what he was like as a Republican Attorney General, you know, rubber stamping Governor Scott Walker's agenda and going out actually around the country trying to eliminate abortion rights for people not even right here in Wisconsin, but people all over the country.

Speaker 4 So I think it would be,

Speaker 4 you know, he would help to really push a right-wing agenda in Wisconsin.

Speaker 2 You know, I also think that what Doge is doing is terribly unpopular now across the country. We're seeing in town halls, Republican town halls, in ruby-red areas.

Speaker 2 By the way, ruby-red areas in Wisconsin as well, where some of these Republican politicians are canceling the town halls.

Speaker 2 People are pissed that Doge and Elon Musk's crew of 19 to 25-year-old guys with these horribly misogynistic and ridiculous nicknames, whatever, they're going into people's private data, their medical info, their social security info,

Speaker 2 getting access to tax info and transaction data.

Speaker 2 And so, I mean, look, one could assume if Elon Musk was Donald Trump's backer and Trump and Trump's doing the Musk agenda, Musk's doing this with Schimmel.

Speaker 2 So, all of the things that I think people in Wisconsin hate about Doge and what Doge is doing to their lives, invasion of their privacy, will get a hundred times worse.

Speaker 2 It'll be a rubber stamp on Doge. What do you think about that?

Speaker 4 Oh, I think there's no question, Ben.

Speaker 4 I think that is exactly why Elon Musk is spending millions of dollars, you know, on these phony attack ads against me and trying to get Brad Schimmel on the Supreme Court.

Speaker 4 He's got a partisan agenda. Brad Schimmel is only too willing to help him out with that.

Speaker 4 I think they see completely eye to eye. And I, you know, as I've been out traveling around the state talking to voters, I think voters are, like you said, they are scared.
They're really concerned.

Speaker 4 They don't want these unelected people like Elon Musk and his gang of

Speaker 4 20-year-olds digging through their personal data. And people talk to me about that all the time.

Speaker 4 So, you know, we need to have, we need to have a Wisconsin Supreme Court that's working for the people of Wisconsin, not one that is working for Elon Musk and not one that's there as a, you know,

Speaker 4 support network for President Trump.

Speaker 2 Look, you're a former prosecutor, you're a circuit court judge, law and order person. I'm sure having to go through sometimes some of the campaigning stuff and talking about yourself is

Speaker 2 not your day-to-day stuff that

Speaker 2 you do, but that's what you got to do. And

Speaker 2 that's part of it all.

Speaker 2 So if you can, though, paint a picture for our audience, for our listeners and viewers, about what

Speaker 2 looks like if you are able to prevail.

Speaker 2 What are you telling voters as you tour the state?

Speaker 4 Yeah, well, you know, I'm running to be a fair and impartial justice and to decide cases, first of all, based on the facts. I think the truth is really important in our justice system.

Speaker 4 Apparently, it's not so important in our politics all the time, but it. it's really important in the justice system.

Speaker 4 And to interpret the law based on what the law says and to apply it fairly and impartially.

Speaker 4 I believe we have laws and we have a Constitution to protect the rights of the people of our state. And I never

Speaker 4 lose sight of the fact that the decisions I'm making as a judge involve real people and real problems.

Speaker 4 So I apply common sense and make sure that I am applying and upholding the law to protect the rights of the people in my courtroom. And that's what kind of justice I'll be on the Supreme Court.

Speaker 2 People want to learn more about you. Where can they go to find out more information?

Speaker 4 Yeah, they can go to our campaign website. That's crawford4wi.com.
They can also follow us on social media, all the usual places, and those counts are also called Crawford for Wisconsin.

Speaker 4 So hope people will check it out. As you said, Ben, this is a really, really critical race with ramifications that far exceed Wisconsin.
Really has it's this is a case with some national implications.

Speaker 4 And I hope people will tune in and get involved.

Speaker 3 Yeah, the election's right around the corner, April 1st, right?

Speaker 2 It's right around the corner. So, everybody.

Speaker 4 45 days

Speaker 2 and it'll fly like it'll fly like that. Although, I'm not sure if I'm aging in dog ears or something else under this Trump administration.
But

Speaker 2 we will leave that for another conversation. Everybody, hit subscribe.
Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Judge Crawford, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 4 Thanks so much, Ben.

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