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Brooks and Capehart on the Senate primaries in Texas · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: President Trump is visiting Texas today, where three of his
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  Speaker 1: supporters are battling it out in that state Senate primary
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  Speaker 1: election set for next week. That says the President also
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  Speaker 1: considers military action in Iran. Lots to discuss. And we
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  Speaker 1: turn now to the analysis of Brooks and k Part.
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  Speaker 1: That's with the Atlantics, David Brooks and Jonathan k Part
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  Speaker 1: of MS Now. It's good to see you both. So,
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  Speaker 1: as we said, President Trump in Texas were three Republicans
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  Speaker 1: to include the incumbent John Cornyn. They're locked in this
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  Speaker 1: competitive GOP primary. The President has yet to make an endorsement.
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  Speaker 1: The fact that he's inserting himself early and forcefully in
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  Speaker 1: this race, does that suggest that he's still the GOP
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  Speaker 1: kingmaker or that he's trying to demonstrate that.
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  Speaker 2: He is a little of both, maybe a little more
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  Speaker 2: of the latter. The Texas race, to me, is the
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  Speaker 2: most interesting Senate race in both parties because it gets
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  Speaker 2: at the core debate right at the middle of both parties.
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  Speaker 2: On the Democratic side, to your Jasmine Crockett, who's an
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  Speaker 2: aggressive progressive fighter, and then you have James Tallerico, who
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  Speaker 2: is more moderate, is trying to revive the religious left
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  Speaker 2: and so the argument on the Democratic side is do
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  Speaker 2: we want somebody who'll just go to the mat and
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  Speaker 2: take down these Republicans, or do we want somebody will
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  Speaker 2: be conciliatory and win over people from the center. And
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  Speaker 2: that is the coordinating the Democratic Party. On the Republican side,
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  Speaker 2: you've got Ken Paxton, who has been scandal plagued since
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  Speaker 2: nursery school. He's and then you've got John Cornyan, who
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  Speaker 2: is not the most exciting bulb in the in the Senate,
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  Speaker 2: but a standard issue Republican. And so the Paxton race
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  Speaker 2: in particular, and he'll probably come out first, but force
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  Speaker 2: a runoff shows that there's still some juice if he
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  Speaker 2: does really well in Maga. If he doesn't do really well,
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  Speaker 2: and if Wesley Hunt or Cornon do well, then that's
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  Speaker 2: a signed the Republican Party is beginning to move on.
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  Speaker 1: Jonathan, what stands out to you in the Crockett be
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  Speaker 1: Taller Rico matchup?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Look, the one thing I will say is that
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  Speaker 3: no matter which candidate wins, the Democratic nomination will be
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  Speaker 3: infinitely better than whomever the Republicans decide to nominate. So
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  Speaker 3: I'll just put that out there. But in this race,
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  Speaker 3: the polls seem to be a bit all over the place.
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  Speaker 3: There's one poll that came out from ut Tyler that
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  Speaker 3: had congress Woman Crockett up by twelve points, with the
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  Speaker 3: sample size is small, and other polls that I just
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  Speaker 3: took a look at have State Representative Talla Rico up
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  Speaker 3: by single digits, maybe six points eight points. I think
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  Speaker 3: both candidates are trying to win in two different ways,
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  Speaker 3: but I think in two legitimate ways. Congresswoman Crockett, she
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  Speaker 3: is going for disaffected voters, African American voters, voters who
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  Speaker 3: may not have voted in previous selections. In a lot
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  Speaker 3: of ways, she's taking a page out of Donald Trump's
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  Speaker 3: book Playbook when he ran in twenty sixteen, when he
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  Speaker 3: what I called fracking for votes, he got pulled people
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  Speaker 3: out who had not voted before. That's who Congresswoman Crockett's
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  Speaker 3: trying to go after. State Representative Taller Rico. He's going
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  Speaker 3: after more middle of the road, but really setting his
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  Speaker 3: sights on disaffected Republican voters who might not be too
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  Speaker 3: keen on what the president is doing and they might
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  Speaker 3: be gettable. So on Tuesday, I'm looking to see which
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  Speaker 3: tactic actually won and whether they can win enough votes
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  Speaker 3: to not be in a primary in a primary runoff, Well.
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  Speaker 1: Let's shift our focus back to this previous Tuesday, the
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  Speaker 1: State of the Union address, David, was there anything in
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  Speaker 1: that speech that stands out to you as meaningfully changing
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  Speaker 1: the landscape or President Trump's standing?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: I mean the question I'm asking is has Trump? Is
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  Speaker 2: he losing the country. A lot of people have been
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  Speaker 2: waiting since twenty sixteen for him to lose the country,
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  Speaker 2: but there's clearly some tide of slippage. Mike's colleague Russ
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  Speaker 2: Stout that issued a video of The New York Times
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  Speaker 2: saying He's losing the country and conservatives have to adjust.
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  Speaker 2: Is he losing the country or is this just another
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  Speaker 2: wishful film? And for people who don't like him, I
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  Speaker 2: think there's evidence that he is that if you look
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  Speaker 2: at particularly at Independence, they have swung sharply away from him.
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  Speaker 2: And then if you look at Republicans, does this a
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  Speaker 2: Pew research, does Donald Trump respect the country's democratic values?
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  Speaker 2: The number of Republicans who say that is down sharply.
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  Speaker 2: Should Republican members of Congress feel obligated to support Donald Trump?
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  Speaker 2: Sixty one percent of Republicans say they do not have
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  Speaker 2: any responsibility to support Donald Trump. These are all changing numbers,
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  Speaker 2: and so clearly there's a sense whether it's Minnesota, whether
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  Speaker 2: it's just general Michigos, which is yetis for crazy? I'm
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  Speaker 2: familiar just for for Jonathan. Jonathan's in New York. He
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  Speaker 2: definitely knows where is okay, and so I think that
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  Speaker 2: there's signs that even Republican support it's not going anywhere,
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  Speaker 2: but it's getting demoralized.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Jonathan.
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  Speaker 1: I will say the contrast in that speech really stood out.
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  Speaker 1: The President in one way, sounding like a conventional policy
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  Speaker 1: maker talking about making you know, tech companies pay for
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  Speaker 1: their own electricity bills because of the AI plants that
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  Speaker 1: they operate, and then in the next breath he would be,
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  Speaker 1: you know, shading the Supreme Court or calling Democrats crazy.
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  Speaker 1: There was you know, governance and grievance side by side.
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  Speaker 3: Jeff, I think are being charitable. I had actually forgotten
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  Speaker 3: about what he had said about AI paying its own
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  Speaker 3: electricity bills because the rest of the speech was nothing
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  Speaker 3: but a variety show where he trotted people out, used
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  Speaker 3: them as prompts, handed out metals like pez. Now that's
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  Speaker 3: not to take away from the people who got the medals.
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  Speaker 3: They deserve them, they deserve to be celebrated by the
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  Speaker 3: American people, but not like that, not in the way
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  Speaker 3: that the President did it. And also I thought there
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  Speaker 3: was a meanness to his address, and also the dabbling
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  Speaker 3: in just the language of violence, getting into just infinite
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  Speaker 3: detail about what people went through, the horrors and the trauma.
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  Speaker 3: I came away from the was one hundred and seven
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  Speaker 3: minutes of that speech just feeling worn down and wanting
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  Speaker 3: that the one hundred and seven minutes back and longing
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  Speaker 3: for the days of what that long State of the
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  Speaker 3: Union address that President Bill Clinton gave in the way
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  Speaker 3: way back, that was just chock full of politic proposals
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  Speaker 3: and ideas, to the point where you know, Washington reporters
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  Speaker 3: were like, my God, like this guy is so boring.
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  Speaker 3: I long for that kind of boring.
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  Speaker 1: In the time that remains. I want to have you
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  Speaker 1: both way in on Warner Brothers, Discovery reportedly agreeing to
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  Speaker 1: be acquired by Paramount sky Dance. This is after Netflix
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  Speaker 1: walked away from the negotiations, and if the deal closes,
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  Speaker 1: it means that one family, in this case, the family
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  Speaker 1: that has been so far deferential to President Trump would
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  Speaker 1: control CBS, CNN, HBO and TikTok. How do you see it?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've found media business incredibly boring and pointless. And
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  Speaker 2: I hadn't been able to do that because I've worked
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  Speaker 2: at Dow Jones News Corp, New York Times, PBS. I've
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  Speaker 2: worked at all these agencies, and the business structure of
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  Speaker 2: the business had no effect on me. There's never been
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  Speaker 2: a moment in my career where I have the sense
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  Speaker 2: that somebody on the business side of things was going
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  Speaker 2: to try to influence anything I ever did. But that
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  Speaker 2: seems to be changing. And in the malefactor here is
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  Speaker 2: Donald Trump. Once Trump starts playing political favorites among whether
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  Speaker 2: it's Anthropic versus OpenAI, or whether it's Netflix versus Paramount,
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  Speaker 2: then of course the companies have to be mindful of that.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm a guy who I don't know Barry Weiss particularly,
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  Speaker 2: but I support what they're trying to do. I think
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  Speaker 2: it's time to mix up the media that we got
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  Speaker 2: a little too progressive, a little too elite. And if
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  Speaker 2: Barry Weis can change the mindset, allpower tour. But if
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  Speaker 2: this is being done for lobbying and business which it
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  Speaker 2: sure looks like it is. Then that's the real deterioration
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  Speaker 2: in the business.
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  Speaker 1: How do you see it, Jonathan.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I would argue that, you know, the media isn't
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  Speaker 3: necessarily liberal when you look at the fact that you know,
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  Speaker 3: the number one cable channel, in the number one viewing
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  Speaker 3: channel is Fox News Channel. Of this idea that there
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  Speaker 3: are liberals out there running around through the media and
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  Speaker 3: doctrinating people and changing, you know, setting the narrative, I
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  Speaker 3: just think is wrong.
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  Speaker 4: And I think.
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  Speaker 3: Bringing a Fox like mentality, mentality, mentality, and demeanor to
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  Speaker 3: CBS News and potentially to CNN, I think in the
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  Speaker 3: end makes the American people worse off our job as
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  Speaker 3: as journalists and and and I'm speaking thinking specifically of
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  Speaker 3: CNN in this case, in this in this deal, folks
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  Speaker 3: turn to CNN for news. They turn to them for
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  Speaker 3: just what is happening in the country. And if what's
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  Speaker 3: happening at CBS is could happen at CNN, then our
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  Speaker 3: country and our profession will be in worse shape.
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  Speaker 2: David Well, the one reason Fox exists is because all
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  Speaker 2: the other mainstream networks don't have Trump supporters. I do
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  Speaker 2: think we have made a mistake over decades in shops,
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  Speaker 2: shutting out working class folks, and in not letting more
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  Speaker 2: Trump voices. And it's hard to get Trump voices on
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  Speaker 2: the air, I understand. But if you tell half the
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  Speaker 2: country that your voice is aren't worth her, they will rebel.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a bid on us. Trump is not to
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  Speaker 2: be defended, but he's never completely wrong.
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  Speaker 1: David Brooks and Jonathan Caeart, Thank you both.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
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  Speaker 4: Support journalism you trust, Support PBS News. Donate now, or
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  Speaker 4: even better, start a monthly contribution today.
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  Speaker 3: Assass