Linda McMahon is the Chair of America First Action, one of the primary pro-Trump super PACs. She previously served as the 25th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). As a member of President Trump’s cabinet, she advocated on behalf of the almost 29 million small businesses in America. McMahon is the co-founder and former chief executive officer of WWE.
Transcript
John Catsimatid: Good morning America. This is the CATS Roundtable. John Catsimatidis here. What’s going on in our country? With me, this morning is Linda McMahon. She’s was the head of Small Business Administration and she did one heck of a job. And we have her here this morning. Good morning Miss McMahon. How are you?
Linda McMahon: Good morning. Please call me Linda, John.
John Catsimatid: All right, Linda. I hear you did one heck of a job running the SBA. Tell us about your experience in the swamp.
Linda McMahon: Well I can tell you the President when he asked me to take on that job, he said he wanted someone who’d actually built a business, who knew what it was all about, who’d been through the ups and downs, bankruptcy, everything, taking a company public. And so it was really in my wheelhouse to go to SBA. I traveled to all 50 states. I met with over 800 business owners. I toured small businesses. I was able to hear firsthand how much the President’s tax cuts meant to those small businesses and rolling back regulations. And I thoroughly enjoyed my time at SBA.
John Catsimatid: That… You traveled. You did a lot of traveling. You traveled all over the country and you met a lot of people. Was it a good experience?
Linda McMahon: It was a great experience. I saw businesses from two to three people up to 500 people. Mom and pop businesses up to manufacturing companies, a lot of brewers. That’s a big thing. The new craft brewers are everywhere now. Coffee roasters, those are really big businesses who utilize SBA loans quite a bit. And so, I got some nice free samples of things to taste while I was there, which was always fun.
John Catsimatid: Samples are always good. Being in the grocery business for a hundred years, samples led to a little bit to my overweight. You have left the SBA. You loved your experiences there. You did a great job. Now, you have a… President Trump is giving you a new task.
Linda McMahon: Well, I have a new task. I am the Chair of America First, which is the official SuperPAC to reelect the President of the United States. And so I’m going to be focusing on that. Again, as I visit many states around the country and talk to many donors throughout the country and continue to spread the President’s message.
John Catsimatid: Well, and where are you going to be headquartered? Out of New York, Washington?
Linda McMahon: The headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia. And so I walked out of the Small Business Administration on Friday afternoon, April 12th and Monday morning, April 15th, I walked into America First. And so there’s a small team there. They were in place during the midterms, but now the total focus will be on the presidential race.
John Catsimatid: So you… American First runs… does the presidential race. All the money goes to having Donald Trump win for president. Is that correct?
Linda McMahon: Correct. And there is a SuperPAC component. And there’s also a 501c4 component, which is more involved with policy, polling, registration of voters, et cetera.
John Catsimatid: And you’re going to be doing a lot of traveling in that too?
Linda McMahon: Yes. It’ll be nice to revisit some of the states that I’ve already been to.
John Catsimatid: President Trump… We have the lowest unemployment we’ve ever had. We have the lowest unemployment in the African American community, the Asian community, in Hispanic community. Why aren’t the Democrats not responding and realizing that that’s happening?
Linda McMahon: Well, because they don’t want to see the President get reelected. And they can’t really talk negatively about the economy because of these great numbers that we’re seeing. The jobs report that came out on Friday that showed 263000 jobs had been created. And again, unemployment at 3.6%. And as you mentioned, it’s the lowest since the 50s. It’s just amazing and when you look at African Americans today, when the President was running he said, “Hey, take a chance on me. What have you got to lose?” And look at where African Americans are today. The lowest unemployment rate in history on record. That’s really substantial.
Linda McMahon: So the Democrats can’t talk about that stuff because they want to elect a Democrat and they know that the President is on such solid ground with this booming economy.
John Catsimatid: You’ve got to be in close proximity of the President. What else… When you’re going out to the country and meeting people, what else can you tell them about the President?
Linda McMahon: Well, the President is incredibly engaging and he listens. He’s a quick study. He wants everybody to do well. One of the things that I liked about being in the Small Business Administration was that he’s a businessman. He’s an entrepreneur himself and he understands that small businesses are the backbone of this economy. He wanted to help them grow. You help small businesses grow, big businesses are growing, and he knew that the economy would flourish and he was right.
John Catsimatid: And the things I tell people is he has the courage to stand up and defend America where I don’t think previous presidents were similar to that respect.
Linda McMahon: You know, I’ve known a lot of military folks over my life, and you often hear military people say this, “He’s somebody that you want to be in the foxhole with, because he’s never going to jump out. He’s going to stay in the foxhole with you and defend you until the battle is won.”
John Catsimatid: I have heard that expression before and that’s so important. And like I told you, I knew President Trump 25, 30 years ago, 35 years ago. And I’ll tell you, whether he was having good days in business or bad days in business, even when he was having bad days he kept his head up high and he went to work every day. And he worked hard and he recovered from whatever it was. And I respected him for that.
Linda McMahon: Well, and that hasn’t changed. My goodness, the flack that he’s been under for the past two years. And he’s indefatigable. He walks out every day. He’s got great energy levels. He talks. He moves. He’s a shaker and he still continues to be a disrupter. But he’s getting things done. He’s getting things done that other presidents have said they were going to do and they didn’t get done. I mean, our economy is clearly showing that.
John Catsimatid: Well the other thing I jokingly say to people, he has terrorized the terrorists, that the terrorists are scared to do anything wrong because he’s the President.
Linda McMahon: Well I certainly believe that around the world they respect President Trump because they know that he will not hesitate to move in if he needs to.
John Catsimatid: Well Linda McMahon, we have a minute left. What would you like to say to the American people?
Linda McMahon: Well thank you so much for having me on the show this morning, John. It’s really a pleasure to revisit with you and to talk a little bit about how important I think this election is going to be. This is an election where we really have the basic foundation of our economy and Capitalism on the line versus the Socialism that is coming from the far left. And this is really a critical vote to make sure that our economy remains strong and that America remains the number one country in the world, not only just from the economy, but also from a defense position. And Donald Trump will continue to make us strong and continue to have our economy grow.
John Catsimatid: What I say to people is we’re fighting for the soul of America. Are we going to be a Socialist country or we’re going to be the same America me and you grew up in? And I think that’s so important that we get our message across right now. And thank you for what you’ve done for America and thank you what you continue to do for America.
Linda McMahon: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
John Catsimatid: Thank you. God bless.
John Catsimatid: This is the CATS Roundtable. We’ll be right back.
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