Newsmax host calls the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” the “big highly average mediocre bill”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the July 2, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Finnerty

ROB FINNERTY (HOST): Big Beautiful Bill — this test debate vote they've got to have tonight. So we spoke — we've talked to a lot of the people who might be a no on this. We could see a vote at around 3 A.M. this morning, maybe 5 A.M. In other words, we could wake up and this thing could either be back where we were when we started the day, or this thing could be on the president's desk. How do you think this plays out? We're going to be leading the coverage tomorrow night of the president's speech in Iowa on this program. I'll be here covering this 8:00 tomorrow night in the president's big 250th — 49th birthday celebration. But do you think he also is celebrating the passage of the first major piece of legislation in his second term? 

ANDREW KLAVAN (GUEST): Yeah, I'm not a gambling man, but if I were, I would bet he will. I think that the pressure is too great. The stakes are too great. I mean, Trump is winning and winning and winning. And are these guys going to show up and blow it? Are they going to drop the ball? You know, I said on my podcast at The Daily Wire today that the Big Beautiful Bill may not be beautiful, but it has a nice personality. It's actually nowhere near as bad as the people who say it's bad say it is. And while it may not be as great as we'd like to think it would be, it's politics. You know, he's getting something. And most importantly, he's keeping — he's making those tax cuts permanent, which I think is the most important thing of all. So I really think there's actually a lot of wins in this bill. And everybody is so busy complaining and so busy protecting his territory and so busy making sure that, you know, Republicans love to talk about cutting spending, but they never like to actually cut spending. And so they're so busy protecting their little territories that people haven't really noticed that this bill is OK. You know, it's not — it's a big OK bill. And I think that they should pass it. And I really strongly suspect they will. 

FINNERTY: You know what I like about Donald Trump? He calls it the Big Beautiful Bill. And he doesn't just lie to the American people like Joe Biden. Remember the Inflation Reduction Act —

KLAVAN: Yes.

FINNERTY: Which actually didn't do anything to reduce inflation? At least we're not just blackmailing the American people and gaslighting Congress to try to get things passed. So I have some Irish in me, and there is an incredible amount of loyalty that goes along with that. And I am just so upset that Republicans would cross the aisle and vote for Joe Biden's agenda. Not a lot, but a handful during every time he needed something passed in the House and Senate. And now it's like Donald Trump's turn, OK? He won every battleground state. He's got the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court. He won the popular vote. He has a mandate, OK? And this is his first major bill. And I sort of think it's time to vote for what the American people voted for on November the 5th. And that's just the Irish in me. Like, all right, enough. You did it for Joe Biden. Now it's time to do it for Donald Trump. No bill's perfect.

KLAVAN: You know, it's more than that, though. I mean, I wish there was some kind of machine that would let us clone Nancy Pelosi's brain but turn it into a Republican brain, because she certainly seems to have mastered the art of keeping Democrats in line, even when it costs them their office. They will vote. They will go right off the cliff like lemmings, because somehow they have got those people's arms up behind their back, and they have really learned the art of applying pressure. Republicans, not so much. Now we're obviously more independent people. We have more different opinions. We're a little bit more like cats in a bag, but still, still at some point you got to show up. I mean, it's politics. You got to get the win in the end. That's the name of the game is getting the win. And in this case, again, it is not that bad a bill. You know, it's nowhere near as bad as the people protesting —

FINNERTY: The big highly average mediocre bill.

KLAVAN: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.