Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Republican revolt against Trump grows ahead of the midterms

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Republican revolt against Trump grows ahead of the midterms · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Republican revolt with just 47 days until the midterms. Major
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  Speaker 1: warning signs for the GOP as more Republicans are calling
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  Speaker 1: out Trump and the party. Republican Congresswoman Maria Salazar from
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  Speaker 1: Trump's home state, now home state of Florida, out with
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  Speaker 1: a new ad tonight criticizing Trump's immigration crackdown.
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  Speaker 2: Mr.
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  Speaker 1: President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.
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  Speaker 1: The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White
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  Speaker 1: House in 2024 feel betrayed today. Also tonight, the former
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  Speaker 1: Republican governor of Kansas, Bill Graves, backing the Democrat in
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  Speaker 1: a key U.S. Senate race against Republican incumbent Roger Marshall.
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  Speaker 1: Graves slamming the refusal of his own party to stand
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  Speaker 1: up to the Trump administration.
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  Speaker 2: Those dysfunctional groups in both chambers of Congress who have
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  Speaker 2: turned a blind eye to executive branch corruption, bullying and ineptness.
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  Speaker 1: Corruption, bullying and ineptness. The governor will join us in
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  Speaker 1: a moment to talk about this endorsement in a deep
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  Speaker 1: red state that Trump won by 16 points in 2024.
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  Speaker 1: And now Republicans are so worried about it, so worried
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  Speaker 1: about what, with that kind of a margin, should be
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  Speaker 1: a safe Senate seat that you don't have to think
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  Speaker 1: twice about. A Senate seat that has not gone blue
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  Speaker 1: since 1932. But they are so worried about it that
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  Speaker 1: Vice President Vance has been dispatched to the state to
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  Speaker 1: help boost Marshall. And then you have Karl Rove, former
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  Speaker 1: senior advisor to George W. Bush, longtime Fox News contributor,
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  Speaker 1: publicly announcing that he is going to vote for a
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  Speaker 1: Democrat for the first time in 32 years, specifically calling
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  Speaker 1: out Republican candidate Beau French, who posted a photo of
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  Speaker 1: non-white students watching the incredible Texas Longhorns game the other night.
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  Speaker 1: French's post was, problem is now obviously far worse than
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  Speaker 1: anyone imagined. Rove called it out, came out, called the
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  Speaker 1: Post bigoted, and warned it's a bigger problem for the
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  Speaker 1: GOP than just that race as Texas Railroad Commissioner. He
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  Speaker 1: writes in a new Wall Street Journal op-ed to follow
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  Speaker 1: up on it, I quote Mr. Rove, the GOP has
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  Speaker 1: a growing number of Beau Frenches. These people are diminishing
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  Speaker 1: the Republican Party, not building it. I'll have no part
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  Speaker 1: of it. The GOP stables need a cleaning. This is
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  Speaker 1: a good place to start. And if you look at
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  Speaker 1: Fox News, hosts are increasingly covering stories of that the
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  Speaker 1: president would rather not see. That would be a disastrous
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  Speaker 1: economic misstep. And all that comes as a new CNN
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  Speaker 1: report tonight shows that Republicans are actually avoiding showing Trump's
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  Speaker 1: face in their television ads, even though he's out saying
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  Speaker 1: that if he were on the ballot, if just his
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  Speaker 1: name were on there, there'd be no problem at all.
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  Speaker 1: It would help all the GOP tickets this year.
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  Speaker 2: Pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot.
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  Speaker 1: Pretend I'm on the ballot. I'm asking you to pretend
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  Speaker 1: that I'm on the ballot. It was former Republican Congresswoman
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  Speaker 1: Marjorie Taylor Greene, once Trump's biggest ally in Congress before
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  Speaker 1: their relationship imploded, who summed up what we're seeing from
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  Speaker 1: many Republicans today, saying, quote, war with Iran, national high
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  Speaker 1: gas prices, diesel crisis, data centers, flock cameras, not releasing
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  Speaker 1: the Epstein files to protect his friends. This is not
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  Speaker 1: what we're for. Kristen Holmes is out front at the
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  Speaker 1: White House tonight. And Kristen, how does... Trump planned to
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  Speaker 1: deal with this pushback from inside the GOP. Whatever they
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  Speaker 1: want to say, having Karl Rove write that about the
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  Speaker 1: GOP in The Wall Street Journal, seeing what they're seeing
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  Speaker 1: on Fox News, this is not what they want weeks
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  Speaker 1: before the elections.
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  Speaker 2: That's true.
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  Speaker 3: And President Trump himself will likely just ignore this. He'll
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  Speaker 3: continue to say how well he's doing. But for his
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  Speaker 3: political operation, this is a major concern, particularly this close
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  Speaker 3: to the midterms. I talked to a number of Republican operatives,
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  Speaker 3: including inside Trump's political operation, who were frustrated, who were annoyed,
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  Speaker 3: particularly over that Salazar video that you played of her
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  Speaker 3: standing in front of the White House. They believe that
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  Speaker 3: Republicans are already facing these tough political headwinds, many of
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  Speaker 3: them of their own making. If you look at the
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  Speaker 3: Iran war and, of course, those high gas prices, they
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  Speaker 3: don't need more Republicans pushing back on the political operation.
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  Speaker 3: But these candidates, they are just trying to win their
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  Speaker 3: races in this climate. And for some of them, as
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  Speaker 3: you saw there with Salazar, separating herself or separating themselves
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  Speaker 3: from President Trump is the way to go. Now, I
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  Speaker 3: also want to point out one other part of all
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  Speaker 3: of this, which is this kind of sentiment that I'm
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  Speaker 3: hearing from multiple leaders of Get Out the Vote groups
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  Speaker 3: who I've been speaking to over the last several weeks,
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  Speaker 3: there is a huge concern. Remember, one of the biggest
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  Speaker 3: things these groups do is they go door to door.
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  Speaker 3: It's called door knocking, trying to get people out to vote.
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  Speaker 3: When they go to these doors, they are telling me
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  Speaker 3: that there is just no enthusiasm there, that it is
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  Speaker 3: really hard to sell this administration, trying to get people excited, Republicans,
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  Speaker 3: to come out and vote. And that might be one
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  Speaker 3: of their greatest hurdles ahead of November.
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  Speaker 1: Out front now, the former Republican governor of Kansas, Bill Graves,
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  Speaker 1: as I promised. And I appreciate your time, Governor. So
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  Speaker 1: let's just be clear here. We're talking about a race
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  Speaker 1: that shouldn't even be in the conversation, OK, given the
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  Speaker 1: margin by which Trump won Kansas. In fact, you supported
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  Speaker 1: Senator Roger Marshall in the past when he first ran
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  Speaker 1: for Congress. So why are you choosing to speak out
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  Speaker 1: against his candidacy now?
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  Speaker 2: You know, Erin, I did support Roger initially when he
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  Speaker 2: ran for the House of Representatives. But I lost a lot.
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  Speaker 2: I'm a former secretary of state. I lost a lot
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  Speaker 2: of faith in Roger when his first vote as a
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  Speaker 2: member of the U.S. Senate was to not certify the
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  Speaker 2: election results from the state of Arizona, the state of Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 2: And even though he then voted to certify the 2020 election,
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  Speaker 2: it was a little bit like being proud of closing
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  Speaker 2: the barn door after you'd already let the cows out.
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  Speaker 2: I've always done, and I was successful for my tenure
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  Speaker 2: in Kansas because I tried to do the right thing
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  Speaker 2: for Kansas people. And it just feels like Roger has
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  Speaker 2: gotten lost in the swamp here in Washington and has
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  Speaker 2: walked away from Kansas people. And Adam Hamilton is a
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  Speaker 2: breath of fresh air. He is a remarkable candidate that
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  Speaker 2: has the potential to be a great bring people together
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  Speaker 2: in Washington. And I could not resist supporting him. So
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  Speaker 2: Roger lost my support. Adam gained my support. And that's
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  Speaker 2: the way the political process works.
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  Speaker 1: So Senator Marshall has taken you on. He posted today.
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  Speaker 2: Images.
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  Speaker 1: The first image is saying that you endorse the Democrat
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  Speaker 1: running against Marshall in 2020, as you're making clear, because
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  Speaker 1: you were you you were making a statement about his vote. OK,
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  Speaker 1: the second screen, though, shows that Marshall defeated the Democrat
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  Speaker 1: that you supported. Fifty three to forty two. So by
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  Speaker 1: 11 points, that's not close. Obviously, he's trying to make
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  Speaker 1: a statement of go ahead, governor. I'm still going to
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  Speaker 1: kill it. Why do you believe this time will be different?
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  Speaker 2: Well, Erin, my point is to reach out to Republicans
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  Speaker 2: and unaffiliated voters and make sure they know in our
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  Speaker 2: state it's OK to cross party lines. It's OK to
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  Speaker 2: vote Democrat in the Senate race. Kansas has a history,
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  Speaker 2: as you probably know, of doing some very unusual things politically.
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  Speaker 2: We've elected Democratic governors over and over again. And and
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  Speaker 2: so I don't I don't put much credence in the
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  Speaker 2: whole thing about, well, we haven't done it for 100 years.
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  Speaker 2: There's always a first time.
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  Speaker 1: So let me just ask you, because we played a
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  Speaker 1: clip of you in the introduction to the show. OK,
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  Speaker 1: when you were talking about the corruption and the ineptitude
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  Speaker 1: of this administration, there's a lot to talk about. But
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  Speaker 1: I guess let me ask about Beau French. and Karl
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  Speaker 1: Rove first, okay, and what's happened to the Republican Party.
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  Speaker 1: Eric Erickson's also talking about this. But, you know, Beau
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  Speaker 1: French posts that picture of the Texas Longhorns game and
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  Speaker 1: a lot of brown students saying, problem is now obviously
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  Speaker 1: far worse than anyone imagined, which Karl Rove just came
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  Speaker 1: out and said, that's bigoted, and there's far too much
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  Speaker 1: of this in the GOP. Do you agree, and do
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  Speaker 1: you recognize the Republican Party right now?
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  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I agree with Carl, and Carl
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  Speaker 2: is a friend, and he worked for me in my
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  Speaker 2: first gubernatorial election. Carl's right. The Republican Party to me
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  Speaker 2: today feels like sort of a bad frat party. Everybody's
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  Speaker 2: sort of just full of this joy and enthusiasm about
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  Speaker 2: how great things are going, and they're not really grasping
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  Speaker 2: the struggles that are going on every day for everyday Americans.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we have lots of problems in this country today.
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  Speaker 2: And the Republicans are not manning up in dealing with them.
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  Speaker 2: So Carl's exactly right. I don't recognize this Republican Party.
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  Speaker 2: I'm still a Republican, and I intend to be. But
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  Speaker 2: I'm hoping the Republican Party trends back more towards me
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  Speaker 2: than further away from me.
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  Speaker 1: So how much is Trump to blame for all of this?
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  Speaker 1: And when you talk about corruption and ineptitude, you know,
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  Speaker 1: Which of those words looms larger for you when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to Donald Trump?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not sure I can I can I could
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  Speaker 2: make that judgment. They all loom pretty large for me.
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  Speaker 2: I think the point I want to make is this
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  Speaker 2: is a senatorial election. Even though I was an executive
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  Speaker 2: branch official, I've got a tremendous respect for the balance
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  Speaker 2: of powers in our our nation. And right now, the
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  Speaker 2: Republicans in Congress have simply given away, have walked away
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  Speaker 2: from their responsibility to be the check and balance against
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  Speaker 2: this executive branch. And that is wrong. And it needs
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  Speaker 2: to be rectified. And again, I think Adam Hamilton is
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  Speaker 2: a guy who can be part of that solution.