Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Hank Sheinkopf | Veteran Political Consultant Speaks on 2026 Midterm Elections & "Blue Tsunami"

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Hank Sheinkopf | Veteran Political Consultant Speaks on 2026 Midterm Elections & "Blue Tsunami" · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hank Shankoff, good morning, buddy. How are you?
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Sid.
• 0:03
  Speaker 3: It's a wonderful morning to wake up in America.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: No, it's not. What are you, nuts?
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, it is.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: You know why? Why?
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: Because what happened yesterday is not necessarily the greatest thing
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: in the world, but it tells you that people, when
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: they vote, take action. And this is a message to
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Democrats the same way it was a message to Republicans
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: that people are just pissed off. And if these guys
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: don't perform, they're going to meet the same fate that
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: everybody met yesterday.
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: Well, they're not going to, but they're not going to perform.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: I mean, look, let me give you the governor, for example.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: How did she have any right I mean, I know
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: she was going to win. You had to be an
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: idiot to really think Boosie was going to win.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Let's be honest. OK, I love Boosie. We had a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: great campaign, but she's not losing in this state. Bottom line.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: But what has she done?
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: What has she done to deserve a victory by one point,
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: let alone 10?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: What? What has any of these people done overall?
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Look around the country. What is Tallarico's great claim in Texas?
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: What about the guys in Kansas and Nebraska? And I mean,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: the Democrat win is not about the Democrats. It's about
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: a revolt against government overall. And politicians should pay very
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: clear attention. It tells you several things. The era of
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: the baby boomers is over. The era of patriotism is over. OK,
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: the sense of unity is over. The anger of the
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: electorate is real. And if they're going to take it,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: they took it out on the Republicans, not because they
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: hated Republicans, because they hated Trump. And they'll do the
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: same thing to the Democrats starting in two years if
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: they don't perform. This is about holding government officials feet
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: to the fire. That's the lack of a better word.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, look, I've worked in 44 American states and
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I've worked for a president. So this is not just
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: about Democrats. It's about the whole political system. And it
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: should be a warning to Americans to wake up.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: You're a lot smarter than I am.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: And I think everything you said is right, except I
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: don't think it's a whole political message.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: You just named it. It's one guy. I'm sorry.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: Last night to me, and I'm still backing this guy.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: I refuse to stab him in the back. I put
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: it on Twitter this morning. I'm being called all kinds
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: of horrible names. Kike, Neocon, you name it.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: It's about Trump.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: That's it.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I don't care. You can talk to your
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: blue in the face about gas prices. You can talk
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: about Iran, which is a problem. And I've been saying
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: it's a problem for months. We never won that. Still
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: haven't won it. Came back to bite him in the ass.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: But in the end, it's about Trump. These losses last
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: night were both Democrats and Republicans that have had enough
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: with President Trump.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: How could you argue that?
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  Speaker 3: I'm not arguing that at all. I think you're exactly right.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: What is interesting to me is the intensity of the
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: almost violent response to Trump. And this is beyond imagination.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 3: Look at places where Democrats won unheard of before. The
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: nation had gone through a real critical realignment years ago
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: in the South. When Raphael Warnock, the senator from Georgia,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: said the road to renewal runs to the South from
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: his perspective, he was right. I mean, this is a
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: major earthquake, and Americans should pay attention because they are angry.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: And when people get angry, if that voting box doesn't
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: work and they can't get what they want, they're in
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: the streets next. That's what this is about, because the
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: civic culture that had people sit down and talk about
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  Speaker 3: things honestly and directly and create change is over. This
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: was a revolt. And people should pay very careful attention.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: It'll be in the streets.
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  Speaker 2: I agree.
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  Speaker 4: But I look at the city, for example, Hank, and
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  Speaker 4: you used to live in New York City and, you know,
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: everybody loves you.
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  Speaker 1: I get it. I love you. But here's Mom Donnie.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: He's not a good person.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: I don't care how much he smiles and how many
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: people love him. I don't care. He's not a good person.
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  Speaker 1: His wife is even worse. Letitia James, she's a waste,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: a complete waste.
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  Speaker 4: All she's done is go after Trump. Rapes all over
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  Speaker 4: Central Park. A kid shot last week. A girl training
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: for the marathon stabbed to death. James says nothing. She
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: does nothing. She still talks about Trump. She wins again.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: She wins easily. Hochul, you just talked about it. She's
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: done nothing. I mean, how do you feel good if
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: you live in New York City and you don't hate
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: President Trump?
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: If you hate Trump, great.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: But if you don't hate President Trump, how do you
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: feel good about these people remaining in power?
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: It's not about feeling good.
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  Speaker 3: That's the point, Sid. That's what's so distressing. It's not
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: about feeling good about any of these people. It's about
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump. It's all about Trump and the revulsion that
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: New Yorkers and people around the country felt about Washington.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: And they see Trump as the argument. And they went
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  Speaker 3: after him with an ax. This wasn't about, I don't
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  Speaker 3: like you. This was about, I hate you and I
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: want to kill you.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I hate you and I want.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: To kill you. And that's exactly what they did.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: They did. I told you that last night. It's not
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: about gas prices.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: So then if you're the Republican Party and you start
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: to plan now, Hank, for 2028, see, I think J.D.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: Vance gets hurt, even though I don't think President Trump
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: picked him. I'm on record three times saying. I think
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: it was Trump's kid and Tucker Carlson that picked J.D. Vance.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: And even though J.D.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: Vance disagrees with Trump on a bunch of stuff, including Iran,
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  Speaker 4: I still think J.D.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Is too close. Marco, a little separation, but any of.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: These candidates who are right there with President Trump may
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: have big difficulties now winning in 28, unless, like you say,
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: the Democrats have two bad years.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: But by then, it's going to be too late.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Well, the Republican Party is shattered unquestionably so. The Democrats
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: have gone through this in the past. The question is,
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: what is the Republican Party? What are either parties? If
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: the Democrats do nothing but spend their time whacking Trump
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: under leadership of Schumer in the Senate and Hakeem Jeffries
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: in the House, if that's what they do, they're going
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: to meet the same fate because the people are telling,
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: you know, it's less about partisanship than it is about
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: Trump and about telling those in power enough guys, we're
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: pissed off and we're not going to take anymore. It's
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: like the, it's like the character in network, you know, the, the,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: the guy paid by Finch. I'm fed up and I'm
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: not going to take anymore.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly what I did.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: That's what they did. This is not about ideology. This
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: is about Donald Trump and Medicare and Medicaid and the
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: cost of food and the cost of gas and the
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: fact that people are having problems feeding their families.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: It wouldn't matter if Trump was a socialist.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: They would have thrown it out and everything about it.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Let me ask you about the Democrats of.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: The city, though, because a lot of people are very
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: upset this morning. They're telling me about Ed Cox.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I like that.
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  Speaker 4: He's a good guy. And We have a good relationship.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: But a lot of people are very upset. They're like,
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: where are the good candidates in New York?
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Where are they? You know, Joe Cairo, he had a
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: bad day. LaPetri got killed. Janine Driscoll got killed. Bruce
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: got killed.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: So people are really upset, even with Curtis Lee with
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: that last ridiculous mayoral election. People are really upset with
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: Republican candidates in the city and the state. What would
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: you say about that?
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  Speaker 2: I would say that the era of the professional.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: Politician has overtaken the local patriot.
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  Speaker 2: And unless we bring patriotism.
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  Speaker 3: Back to our politics, we're going to see more of
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  Speaker 3: this kind of chaos.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: It can't be.
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  Speaker 3: About staying in power. It's got to be about doing
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: something for people. But the political industrial complex, which I've
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: called it on your show in the past, is taking
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: over our politics in a way that can do no good.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: Public financing has made sure not that government is better,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: but that people stay in government longer.
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  Speaker 2: It's just that simple.
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  Speaker 3: The growth of the political industrial complex, the amount of
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: money spent, the intensity of the consultant industry as its
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: own lobbying entity, they're going to start forming more powerful lobbies,
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  Speaker 3: you can bet.
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  Speaker 2: In the political industry.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: Why?
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  Speaker 2: Because they're making more money than they ever deemed possible.
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  Speaker 3: So you have people who produce nothing that of tangible
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  Speaker 3: good to the entire community, making more money by producing
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: more air. That kind of behavior can only result in
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: more revolts. You know, again, government has to do something.
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  Speaker 3: You can't be talking. Joe Cairo is one of the
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  Speaker 3: best people I've met in public life. He'll get past this.
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  Speaker 3: They weren't going to win those congressional.
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  Speaker 2: Races anyway, frankly.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Right. That's true. It wasn't going to happen. No. But
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: providing local services is what has to be done. And
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: that's the new thing that people should be focusing on
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  Speaker 3: because that's the old thing that government was supposed to do.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't supposed to keep people in office for life.
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  Speaker 2: It was supposed to force them to.
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  Speaker 3: Perform under the threat of loss.
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  Speaker 4: So in a practical conversation, if you were running the
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: Republican Party here in New York, not Long Island like
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: Joe Cairo, but at Cox's position, What would you do
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: moving forward to get better candidates and give New York politicians,
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: Republicans specifically, a chance to win?
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: I think you have to reorganize the parties at the
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: most local level. I think what you take the model
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: of what Jesse Garcia, the terrific chairman of Suffolk County
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: of the Republicans, and Joe Cairo, the extraordinarily talented chairman
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: of the Republican Party in Nassau and others have done,
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: which is they've organized to the bottom up. They found
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: young people and where they won, they put them in
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  Speaker 3: jobs where they can get something accomplished. I think you
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: have to have a new a new an entirely new
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: framing of what a Republican is. And by doing so,
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: you'll reframe who the Democrats are. And they're going to
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: be on, people are going to be watching to see
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: what the Democrats do. This isn't a free ticket. This is, oh,
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: by the way, guys, have a nice day and do
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: whatever you want. We'll pay for it.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 3: The warning here is that people are saying clearly, perform
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: or die.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: It's really that simple.
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  Speaker 3: And this is very violent. Very violent.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Now, it's scary, right? I mean, last thing, what were
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: your thoughts when.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: It became official that Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan last night?
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: I'm very concerned for different reasons. I'm concerned because, obviously,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: he is no friend of the Jewish people, and people
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: say otherwise are fools. You cannot say the things he said, like,
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: you know, it's okay to go and blow up, to
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: try to blow up a synagogue and kill people because
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: you were hurt in another country. By that logic, American Indians,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: indigenous people should go out and murder most of the
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: people in Wyoming and Montana because they were hurt once. And,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: you know, Catholics who have been persecuted around the world
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: should find those who did it and kill them. I mean,
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: it's idiotic logic. But what it tells you is that
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: there is a definite demographic shift going on in this
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: country that people need to pay attention to. We have
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: a population that is not integrated into Western political thinking,
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: which will frighten because they're angry. And history has to
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: somehow be modified. And what I mean by that is
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: we need to teach people the truth about what different
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: populations have done throughout the world. And we've got to
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: start to teach people to be Americans, which means we've
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: got to change the curriculum in our schools re-institute civic education,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: and get people to function as a country rather than
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: a bunch of sex.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: S-E-C-T-S. If we don't do that, that plus the revolt
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: we experienced yesterday.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: Could be the demise of the greatest experiment in the
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: history of politics, which is the American democracy. This is
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: that serious.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: Last one, I said last hour that with the landslide
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: win for the Democrats yesterday, I said this last hour,
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: I said, if I'm AOC, forget about Chuck Schumer, okay?
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Forget about that Senate race. I'm going for it.
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: I know Gavin Newsom, he's thinking the same thing, and
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Kamala Harris. But something tells me she's got the best
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: chance to win. Based upon what you saw last night,
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: if you were AOC, would you.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Start your presidential campaign? I'm being serious today.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: I don't know, Sid, if this was about left or right.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: This is about a left hook and a right jab.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: It's not about left or right politics.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: This is about Trump get out. and Democrats perform or else,
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: because the intensity of the rage was so extreme.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: It's not about the left winning. It's not about that
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: at all. It's not about the right losing.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: It's about Trump losing and people saying, stop talking, do something.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: I'm sick and tired of it, and I'm not going
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: to tolerate it anymore.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: And by the way, they said, you're next if you
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: don't perform.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Hank Shankoff, you're amazing. I love when you come on
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: this show. Willie, you really are the best. I love you.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: Thank you for your job last night, too. I was
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: told that you spoke fluent Hebrew with Noam.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: So thank you for a great appearance, as always, this morning.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: We'll do it again very soon, my friend.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Sid. Have a wonderful day. You, too.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: God bless you. What a great guy. What a brilliant man.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: Hank Shankoff right here on Sid and Friends in the morning.
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning weekday
• 12:45
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• 12:49
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• 13:04
  Speaker 5: and X.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: See you next time for.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: A new episode so you never have to wonder. What
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: the heck is going on here?