Okla. Gov. Stitt says GOP is 'clearly behind Trump' and has 'never been more unified'

Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma endorsed former President Trump after his first choice, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, dropped out of the primary race earlier this year. Stitt joined Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett at the Republican National Convention to discuss the presidential race.

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Geoff Bennett: Let’s turn now to Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma.

Amna Nawaz: He endorsed former President Trump after his first choice. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, dropped out of the primary race earlier this year.

He joins us now.

Governor, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK): Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Amna Nawaz: Thanks for enjoying this music with us as well. I see you tapping your feet.

Gov. Kevin Stitt: Yes, absolutely.

(Laughter)

Gov. Kevin Stitt: It’s pretty loud in here.

Amna Nawaz: I want to ask you about these calls for unity that we have heard again and again. And we have seen a lot of unity among the party right now.

All of Mr. Trump’s former rivals have shown up here to lend their support. There’s a lot of folks not in the room, though. And that’s fair to point out as well. His former vice president, Mike Pence, is not here. Your former presidential nominee Mitt Romney is not here. Former member of House leader Liz Cheney is not here.

Is this idea of unity only unity if you back President Trump and don’t disagree with him?

Gov. Kevin Stitt: You know, I don’t think so.

I think this is just a — obviously, I endorsed DeSantis early on. I thought we needed someone there for eight years. But the party is clearly behind President Trump. It’s a great night. The party’s never been more unified.

This is my first time to come here to the convention, and it just feels like there’s a lot of momentum on our side. I’d rather be our team than the other side right now.

Geoff Bennett: You know, Nikki Haley in her speech earlier this week, she really implored Republicans to grow the party, to expand it, to talk directly to voters who have major disagreements with the GOP.

Do you see that happening?

Gov. Kevin Stitt: Well, when we picked J.D. Vance as the vice president, you can look at him. He came from Ohio, was raised by a grandmother, mother had addictions.

You’re seeing us cast a wide net right now and bringing a lot more people into the party, Hispanic community, because, at the end of the day, most Americans know that the left has kind of went a little bit too far. And right now, we’re the party for the middle class, for the working people, people that are faith-focused, family-focused, that want a better economy.

Inflation’s killing Americans. And those are the policies that we believe are going to win in November.

Amna Nawaz: To Geoff’s point on the idea of debate within the party right now, though, we haven’t heard a lot of policy articulated just yet.

I understand it’s a convention and more of a rally. But there — it’s clear to say there’s some daylight on issues. I will even — I will point out, even you recently articulated, and you said in the past, you support U.S. supporting Ukraine aid and additional aid in the future as well.

That’s something Senator Vance has opposed. He led the charge to oppose that aid in the Senate. So where is the Republican policy on that right now?

Gov. Kevin Stitt: You know, I just — I have been asked about that. I think most Americans, most Oklahomans, at least, if we have got a $900 billion defense budget, it makes sense to us to use a little bit of that to support our allies in Israel and Ukraine and push back against some of these aggressions from Russia, so — or Iran or Hamas or some of these terrorist groups.

So, not sure exactly where the president is on that, but that makes a lot of sense to us. And I know Congress has been supporting Israel and Ukraine. And it’s a…

(Crosstalk)

Amna Nawaz: Well…

(Crosstalk)

Amna Nawaz: Former President Trump and Senator Vance now both articulate opposition to that aid. So that puts you on the opposite end of that, right?

Gov. Kevin Stitt: Yes, I haven’t heard them say that they’re opposed to supporting Israel.

Amna Nawaz: I’m talking about Ukraine.

Gov. Kevin Stitt: Yes. Yes.

Again, you will have to talk to them about that. But it makes a lot of sense to me, if we’re going to have a defense budget of about $900 billion, we’re not putting American soldiers in harm’s way, but we are pushing back against some aggression that might affect some of our other allies as well.

Geoff Bennett: This convention opened less than 48 hours after that assassination attempt in former President Trump’s life.

This week has been historic. It has been eventful. What do you want to hear, what do you expect to hear from President Trump when he accepts his party’s nomination later this evening?

Gov. Kevin Stitt: You know, I think he’s going to continue to cast a wide net, invite people into the party. There has been a lot of unity. We have been talking, he’s been talking about the Hispanic community being part of our voter base, the African American community, the working class.

It used to the Democrats claimed that they were for the working man, and that’s just not the case anymore. Those policies of the Democrat of bigger government, more regulation are really squeezing the middle class.

Inflation, when President Trump left, was below 2 percent. And we’re going to get back to those policies again, and part of it is an energy dominance, and making sure that American companies can innovate and meet the needs of Americans.

And Oklahoma does that better than any other state. We love our oil and gas industry, but we also are number three in the country in electricity generated by wind. And so we kind of have an all-of-the-above approach in our state, and I think that’s what you will see a Trump administration do as well.

Amna Nawaz: I hear you saying you’re expanding the party. We heard Senator Vance say it’s a big tent party.

I have to say there are a lot of folks who are hearing some of the messages and watching Republican actions, and saying, I’m not sure I feel welcome here. I will just point out, in your state alone, there have been over 50 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced by Republican lawmakers there.

We have got 150,000 people who identify as LGBTQ in Oklahoma. What do you say to them about a party that doesn’t seem to be welcoming them in?

Gov. Kevin Stitt: Well, I would totally disagree with you.

If you’re talking about boys going to girls bathrooms or boys playing in girls sports, we absolutely don’t want that to happen in Oklahoma. I’m going to support our young ladies in Oklahoma. You don’t know how many track athletes from the universities have thanked me for protecting their scholarships.

And we just have a disagreement…

Amna Nawaz: I’m talking about banning, for example, the flying of a rainbow flag outside of a state agency, limiting classroom discussion on sexual orientation or gender.

Gov. Kevin Stitt: No, nobody’s limiting discussion. But as far as flying a LGBTQ+ flag on state buildings, yes, we’re not for that.

Why would we do that in a public building and for taxpayer dollars? So, yes, that’s not something that’s going to happen in our state.

Amna Nawaz: Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, thank you so much for joining us today. We appreciate your time.

Gov. Kevin Stitt: Thank you.

Geoff Bennett: Thanks for coming by. We appreciate it.

Gov. Kevin Stitt: Thank you.