Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Trump puts top Republicans in midterm panic

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Trump puts top Republicans in midterm panic · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: According to President Trump, all Republicans have to do is
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: talk about what he's done.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I think we have a chance of doing very well
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: in the midterms.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Look, history has said that the sitting president, Republican or Democrat,
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: no matter how, I don't think anybody's had a better
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: first two years than we have.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: So whether you just say I'm going to spend.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Whatever amount of money necessary to try and help us.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: But his actions and approval ratings are at an all-time low,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: from the Iran war to his trade war with Canada
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and handling of the economy and ongoing affordability crisis.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Ballots are already going out.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: North Carolina sent their first mail ballots to voters Friday,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: even as the Trump administration escalates its fight to restrict
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: mail-in voting. The administration was dealt another blow last night
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: after a federal judge extended a block on Trump's effort
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to use the U.S.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Postal Service to.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Restrict mail-in voting. Plus, new analysis of key midterm races
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: show bright spots for Democrats and new concerns for the GOP.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: The University of Virginia's Center for Politics Crystal Ball shifted
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: ratings in three governor's races further towards Democrats. Alaska, Iowa,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: and Pennsylvania. And MSNOW updated our own rating of the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Texas U.S. Senate race between Democratic State Congressman Rep. James
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Tallarico and Republican State Attorney General Ken Paxton, from leans
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Republican to now being a toss-up. To try and shore
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: up votes, President Trump is putting himself front and center
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: at the Republican Midterm Convention in the traditionally ruby-red Lone
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Star State next week. MSNOW has confirmed that Trump will
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: speak on both nights of the convention, next week in Dallas,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: both Wednesday and Friday night, while First Lady Melania Trump
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: will skip the event altogether. Some vulnerable congressional Republicans are
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: also planning to ditch the $ 25, 000 ticket event. And even
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: some of Trump's most ardent congressional supporters didn't seem especially
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: enthusiastic to be attending.
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: Right now, I've got other things scheduled in Nebraska, but
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: we hope to get there.
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: I'm going to be in my district.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: We're going to win. Is there any reason why you
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: decided not to go?
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Oh, because I'm in a district that I think it's
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: more important to be in my district.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: We're going for my folks.
• 2:18
  Speaker 6: Maybe.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Why maybe? I've got to look at it.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: I may or may not.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: You never know. I may just give them the money.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I want to be in my district. So we'll see.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I am going to be in my district. I have
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: to be campaigning. No one votes for me in Washington
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: or in Dallas.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Can you talk to us a little bit about what
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: what's going on and provide a little bit more context
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: to this conversation that we're all having right now about
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: the money and why the president and MAGA Inc., these
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: outside groups that have potentially close to, I think, what
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: is it, nine hundred million dollars to spend and why
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: they haven't spent it, if that's a reflection of Of
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: some unknown behind the scenes calculus or just a result
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: of a shifted timeline here where campaigns are coming to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: terms with the fact that more and more Americans have
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the attention span of a squirrel and that this this
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: is a. midterm that people are not really paying attention
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: to until now.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're in the TikTok era, in other words.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: That's a more elegant way of saying it.
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: Although I do think that, you know, traditionally Americans start
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: paying more attention after Labor Day, right? So I do
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: think we're going to see some potential announcements from MAGA Inc.,
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: also the Senate Leadership Fund, Senate Majority PAC, the Republican
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: and Democratic Leadership Alliance Super PACs for Senate races, and
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: the same thing for House races as well. They've just
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: got loads and loads of cash. And, of course, MAGA Inc.
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  Speaker 5: has the most of any of them. You know, the
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  Speaker 5: cash-on-hand disparity between the RNC and the DNC is vast
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  Speaker 5: right now.
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  Speaker 2: It's nine figures.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: It's a nine-figure disparity right now between the party committees,
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: which I think is something that Democrats should be alarmed by,
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: although they should be heartened by a lot of what
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: we're seeing lately with the president's sagging poll numbers. As
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: you saw there, Republicans, Republican members of the House especially,
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: saying that they have no interest in attending this midterm convention.
• 4:15
  Speaker 6: Well, we're going to talk way more about the money,
• 4:19
  Speaker 6: the money angle.
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  Speaker 2: On all this.
• 4:22
  Speaker 6: I want to talk about Republicans being scurred. Mark, listen
• 4:26
  Speaker 6: to Republicans like Karl Rove and Ted Cruz and John
• 4:31
  Speaker 6: Thune express their worries about the midterms.
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  Speaker 4: Time is running out.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: If the president wants to have Paxton win, he needs
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: to be tossing a lot of money Paxton's way. The Senate,
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: I'm really worried. North Carolina, the numbers are rough. Georgia,
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: the numbers are rough. But we have very competitive races
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: in Maine, Iowa, Ohio, Alaska, Nebraska, Kansas.
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  Speaker 2: Texas.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I hope it's not, but it could be a really
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: rough election.
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  Speaker 2: I worry about that, you know, for sure.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: I'm a realist and I just think you I don't
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: ever try.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: And sugarcoat things. I think it's a competitive environment.
• 5:17
  Speaker 6: It's interesting to hear Rove and Cruz and Thune express concern.
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: And yet the president doesn't seem to be as concerned.
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  Speaker 2: So which which camp is right?
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: I would say that the Cruz, Rowe, Thune camp is right.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's pretty jarring candor from Republicans there. I mean,
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: those three in particular, because, you know, usually happy talk
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: is sort of the way into these things. I mean,
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: the default is usually, yeah, we're going to win. We're
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: going to do well. I'm not worried about the polls, blah, blah, blah. And,
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: you know, like you said, I mean, Trump, the stark
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: contrast between what they're saying and Trump, is pretty telling
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: because it does seem like Trump has an almost perverse
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: enjoyment out of all of this, as if he thinks that, well,
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: if I'm not on the ballot, Republicans are nothing. And
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: I mean, that has proven true in the last few cycles,
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: not nothing, but I mean, their turnout really does suffer
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: when he's not on the ballot. And Trump, in a
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: weird way, seems to really get off on that. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: he really loves the idea that he is the only
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: person who can lead his party to victory. And he
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: seems to be sort of daring everyone to say, look,
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: let's just go see again how much impact I have.
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: And if you ignore me, bad things are going to happen.
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  Speaker 4: And he seems to want that to happen in a
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  Speaker 4: way to sort of furnish his own power.
• 6:41
  Speaker 7: Andrew, Trump said this week that control of Congress is
• 6:44
  Speaker 7: going to come down to about 35 districts. And he
• 6:47
  Speaker 7: promised to campaign on boots on the ground in each
• 6:51
  Speaker 7: one of those districts. Now, I talked to a Democratic
• 6:54
  Speaker 7: member of Congress yesterday. This is a guy who is
• 6:57
  Speaker 7: in a district that Trump won double digits. Public polling
• 7:02
  Speaker 7: has his race virtually tied. This guy was giddy with
• 7:06
  Speaker 7: the prospect of having Donald Trump on the ground in
• 7:08
  Speaker 7: his district. So that's the Democratic point of view. You
• 7:11
  Speaker 7: are well-connected with both Dems and Republicans. What is the
• 7:14
  Speaker 7: Republican point of view to Trump possibly spending— time on
• 7:19
  Speaker 7: the ground in these.
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  Speaker 2: Contested districts.
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  Speaker 5: One of those contested districts is right in our neck
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  Speaker 5: of the woods here, Virginia's first congressional district, where Congressman
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  Speaker 5: Rob Whitman, a traditionally moderate, you know, sort of like
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: defense-focused Republican who hasn't really had a tough race ever,
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: but now because of redistricting has a really tough race,
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  Speaker 5: And he was asked on another network the other day many,
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  Speaker 5: many times, you know, would you welcome the president coming
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: to your district? And he wouldn't answer the question three times.
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  Speaker 5: He said some variation of, you know, I'm going to
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: go out there and talk to people and hear their concerns,
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  Speaker 5: things like that, you know, generic canned lines. And I
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  Speaker 5: think that says everything you need to know about the
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: situation that Republicans are facing right now.
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  Speaker 2: And, you know, it's something that Mark said as well.
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  Speaker 5: It is it is kind of jarring that the president
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  Speaker 5: is is is adopting this posture of, well, I told
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  Speaker 5: you so.
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  Speaker 2: I'm the only guy who can help the party.
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  Speaker 6: Right.
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  Speaker 5: When it is in his direct interest for Republicans to
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: hold both chambers of Congress, because if Democrats take over
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: the House, for example, investigations, subpoenas, oversight, I mean, it's
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: going to be and an influx, a flood of all
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: that stuff. And the president could get impeached a third time, right?
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: That is a very real possibility.
• 8:37
  Speaker 7: Although Democrats will say that they— yes, that could happen, but
• 8:41
  Speaker 7: that is certainly not their number one priority, right?
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: Right, right.
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  Speaker 5: But it is in his direct— On paper, it's— It's
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: in his interest. It's in his interest for Republicans to
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: maintain control. So for him to be adopting this posture of,
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: you know, well, see, I told you so. I'm the
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  Speaker 5: only one who can help this party, you know, win
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  Speaker 5: elections— That begs the question of, OK, what what is
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: the viability of the Republican Party post Donald Trump?
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  Speaker 2: He's not going to be on the ballot again.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Can he continue to turn.
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  Speaker 5: Out those low propensity Trump voters in states like Michigan
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  Speaker 5: and in states like Ohio, Wisconsin?
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  Speaker 4: Right.
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: That is a big open question. And I know this
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: is getting to twenty twenty eight now, but whoever the
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: nominee is, whoever the nominee is, is going to have
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  Speaker 5: to actually show that they can turn out those voters
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  Speaker 5: and nobody can do it like Donald Trump can.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: What you just laid out there, isn't that the problem
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: that they're facing right now? Mark, if the president didn't
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: decide to take this approach to make this about himself,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: to tell people, hey, get out there and vote because
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: you're you're you're voting for me. Someone I talked to yesterday,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: a Trump campaign adviser, basically said that they're taking this
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: approach that, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: and that they recognize that Donald Trump's approval ratings are
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: suffering and that in order to try to bring up
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: everyone else, they need to try to improve his standing
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: first and get out those voters that Andrew was just
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: talking about. So it seems like there's sort of a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of a rub here.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: What do you make of this strategy?
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I think it's delusional in some ways because,
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: I mean, it predicated on his standing being really, really
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: high in the country, and it's really, really low. I mean,
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: if this is a course correction, I mean, it seems like, one,
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: it's extremely overdue, and two, it's sort of an odd
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: way of approaching it. And also, by the way, this
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: midterm convention thing next week could be a real fiasco.
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think the interviews that you showed at
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: the top of the segment showed that there's just a
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: lot of people staying away. And I don't know what
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: the crowds are going to look like. The visuals could
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: be embarrassing. So that could be a whole other thing. And,
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: you know, they're running out of time. But, I mean,
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: I think existentially, I mean, Republicans, even in the better times,
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: have a real problem in that they have not performed
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: at all, turnout-wise, when Trump isn't on the ballot. And
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: as Andrew said, he's not going to be on the
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: ballot again.
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  Speaker 2: So.
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  Speaker 4: So that's a problem in any midterm for them. But
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: it's particularly a problem when the existing president, when it's him,
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: is a drag on whatever they're running on. So, yeah,
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think the bad expectations are real and
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: I think they're justified. But, you know, we'll see, obviously.
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: Andrew, let's talk more about this midterm convention. I think
• 11:28
  Speaker 6: we played in the intro the members of Congress being asked, well,
• 11:33
  Speaker 6: are you going? And they're like, I'm going to I'm
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: going to I'm going to. Is there any real enthusiasm
• 11:39
  Speaker 6: in the Republican caucus? to go to this jamboree down
• 11:44
  Speaker 6: in Dallas? And are they asking, why are we doing this?
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: Well, they're not asking that publicly, but they certainly are
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: talking about it and gossiping about it privately.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I will say. But I had a Republican... We're going
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: to take this two-step to the corner, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: of course.
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: I mean, I had a Republican senator tell me the
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: other day that their concern is that this ends up
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: becoming the Save America Act convention. Of course, I'm referring
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: to the voter ID and proof of citizenship bill and
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: restricting mail-in voting, all of that, which the president has
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: tried to use as a way to essentially— he knows it
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: can't pass, right? It can't get through the Senate. It
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: can't get to his desk. But he's trying to find
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: a scapegoat for— eventual midterm losses.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: He wants to blame John Thune, for example, right?
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: That's the way John Thune is getting all of the heat,
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: all of the pushback over this when, you know, the
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: votes aren't there to pass that legislation. And Republicans are
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: genuinely worried that he is going to get up there
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: and make this all about the Save America Act.