Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Peter King | Former Congressman Speaks on 2026 Midterm Elections & "Blue Tsunami"

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Peter King | Former Congressman Speaks on 2026 Midterm Elections & "Blue Tsunami" · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Peter King, amazing congressman, Homeland Security. Peter, take the floor, man.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Not a very good night last night.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: No, it really wasn't. Let me just say up front
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: about Bruce Blakeman. He ran a phenomenal campaign, and when
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: people say that he never had a chance of winning,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: he had more of a chance of winning in New
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: York than the Democrats did in Texas or Kansas or
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: South Carolina. So to me, and yet Kathy Hochul never
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: had an 50% favorable rating. Bruce ran a great race,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: and here in Nassau County, Even though there's 85,000 to 90,000
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: more Democrats, Republicans won the county legislature. Your friend Mazi
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: got over 60% of the vote. We kept the towns
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: of Oyster Bay. We did Phenomenal Inn and North Hempstead,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: which is a Democratic town. So we did well considering
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: everything else. But so I got to say, we have
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: to stop the personality cult with President Trump. I mean,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: that is the reason we lost. And listen, I consider
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: him a friend. I always had very good relations with him.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: But the fact is, you're talking about the price of gas.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: The price of gas was up. That was a metaphor.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: The price of gas was up because of the war,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: which I support and you support. The president never really
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: explained the war. He kept saying it was going to
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: be over.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Not only that, he had the opportunity to end it
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: when I wanted him to, that Tuesday night four months ago,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and it's still going on.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Right. Yet he somehow denies that. He said, well, that
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: actually is over. Iran doesn't have a Navy anymore. Who
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: cared about Iran's Navy? The fact is they still have
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: the missiles. We should have taken them out. We should
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: have gone after them. And then acknowledge that to the
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: American people. And don't deny the fact that the economy
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: is rough. I mean, the tariffs have caused tremendous loss
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: of jobs in places like Michigan and around the country.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: And the president, basically, he was, to me, the metaphor,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: what was really the icing on the cake or the
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: final nail in the coffin. was there was a day
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: before the election, his final speech, he's wearing a baseball
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: cap in front of the reflecting pool, talking about the
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: piping in the reflecting pool and the new grass on
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: the White House lawn. And when people are having a
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: tough time economically, he should always have the White Houses
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: decorated in gold. Every time you look, there's more gold
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: in there. And then also, we spent more time This spring,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: getting ready for the election, by going after people like
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: John Cornyn, Bill Cassidy, and others, especially Cornyn. He's a
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: guy who was 99% with the president, but it wasn't
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: a perfect match. So we actually took him out. He
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: would have won easily, I believe, and it wouldn't have
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: cost any money. Instead, we had to put hundreds and
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: hundreds of millions of dollars in there, money which could
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: have gone to someone like Janine Driscoll. I mean, Janine's district.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Anthony won it by two. We lost it by two.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: That was a swing district. She never got a penny
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: for Washington. Nothing. Zero. And so that's what we were
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: up against. And we have to start, I think, running
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: and separate ourselves. Listen, I agree with so much of
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: what President Trump has done on the other hand. He's
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: got to stop talking about he got robbed in the
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: last election. And we have to stop here in New
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: York saying that Ben Domi won because the election was
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: stolen because of money.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I never say that.
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  Speaker 2: I never say that.
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  Speaker 1: It's idiotic.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I agree with you on that. I've heard you say
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: that a number of times. We don't lose because of
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: stolen elections. We don't lose because of foreign money that's
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: sneaking into the country. We lost because they're getting the
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: better of the arguments. And we have to... to get
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: our good candidates out there. That's why, listen, George Carter
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: was a friend. I'm not saying all these things because
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: he's a friend, but the fact is, in spite of
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: all the odds around the country, I mean, again, a
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: person like Kansas never elected Democrats. Now they've elected a
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Democratic senator first time in almost 100 years. And there's
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: a county with 85,000 to 90,000 more Democrats. We kept
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: the county legislature. We kept almost all our candidates. Now
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: we lost in town, Hempstead, a town supervisor. But we
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: won in Northampton. We won at Oyster Bay. And that's
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Tom Swasey's district. Oyster Bay, Joe Saladino got like 58,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: 59% of the vote. He's great. Love that guy.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, love that guy.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: It can be done. And we focus on those issues.
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  Speaker 2: But instead, we have this loyalty test with President Trump.
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  Speaker 2: And you can't do that. The country is too... divided
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: to say you got to stay with Trump whenever you want.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Well, you heard me. I know you've been listening all
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: morning long. I've been very honest. I told you that
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I spoke to candidates who told me, first thing I
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: said was Trump. And these were Republicans who love him. Look,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Blakeman had a couple rallies with Trump. Maybe he wouldn't
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: do that again. Mike Lawler had a big rally with Trump.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Maybe he wouldn't do that again. I don't know. But
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not arguing with you. I love the president. I
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: think he's done more good than bad. But he picked
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: some really odd people. Odd is being nice, mind you,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: like Lindsey Graham's sister. He does tend to lose his
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: focus and talk about stuff that nobody cares about. In
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the Iran war, John and KT can talk to their
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: blue in the face. We won nothing. I said it
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: months ago. I took them both to task. We won nothing.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: And last night was a clear indication of that.
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  Speaker 2: And yet we have to do it. That's the tragedy
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  Speaker 2: of it.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: But finish it.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Finish it, though.
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  Speaker 2: It's absolutely essential. I agree. And we can face up
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: to the American people saying no war is easy. And
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: we're going to do whatever we have to do to
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: win this. We are going to win it. It's going
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: to take sacrifice. Your gas prices may go up. Things
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: may be tough, but it's going to save your children
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: and grandchildren. We've got to get it done. And no exaggeration,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: we're going to go into whatever we have to do
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: as long as it takes. And we have to stay
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: with our allies in the Middle East. Because those Arab countries,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: they will drop us in a second if they don't
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: think we're going to win. If they think we're going
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: to bail out or we're going to fall back, those
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: people will sell us out. The only real ally we
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: have over there is Israel. But as far as Iran, no,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: it's serious. I mean, you can't beat in 10 days
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: or 5 days a country of fanatics that has all
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: those rockets and missiles. But we can do it if
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: we stay with it, and we can do it with
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: a minimum of loss of life. One life is too many,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: but certainly keep it to a minimum. But it's going
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: to be sacrificed on the American people. 100%.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: So what do you think? I know that LaPetrie lost
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to Swazi and Driscoll lost to, what's her name, Gillum.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: She's now won two times in a row. Mazi did,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: when I do love Mazi, Philip. What do you think the...
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I guess, operation moving forward for Joe Cairo, even Republicans
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: on a national level, a federal level. What do you
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: think they do now, Peter King, moving forward?
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: It's really a slow fight forward. I mean, we did
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: this back in the early 1990s. You have to build
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: an organization at the state level. You got to set
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: recruiting candidates. You got to get out there. You got
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: to be serious about it. I mean, Joe Cairo, and again,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: I keep forgetting, also Jesse Garcia in Suffolk County. I mean, uh,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Andrew Garbarino, whose district now is mostly in Suffolk, he won.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Tight race, but he won. La Lona, who's entirely in Suffolk,
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  Speaker 2: he won. And they lost a few small legislative seats,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: but the fact is, overall, they did well. Nassau and Suffolk,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: it's a full-time job. Joe Cairo is 24-7, 365 days
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: a year. Garcia is the exact same way. And you
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: can't just be coming in and picking up some candidates.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: It's almost like some drunk ones in off the street.
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  Speaker 2: They give a nomination to run for Congress in Brooklyn
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: or the Bronx or something. You have to work on it.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: and you've got to be willing to take a few losses,
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  Speaker 2: and you've got to get people in there, and you've
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: got to stay on it. And we've got to get
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: away from people like Curtis, people running like that. Oh, clowns. Clowns. Yeah.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: And you can't even move with your beautiful daughter Erin
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and your great-grandchildren, those lovely kids, because Roy Cooper won there,
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  Speaker 1: and he's a monster.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he won by 20 points.
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  Speaker 1: I know.
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  Speaker 2: He won by 20 points, yeah. And also Virginia Fox,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: she's been there forever. It looks like she's losing her seat.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: We're losing all these seats. It's just that none of
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: them ever should have lost. We really shouldn't have. I mean,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: at worst, in an off-year game, we lost four or
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  Speaker 2: five seats. Okay, that's just part of the game, the
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: law of averages. But even with that, it wasn't like
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  Speaker 2: the Democrats. This is no FDR or JFK or even LBJ.
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  Speaker 2: They have nothing. They have Sayad. If you had told
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  Speaker 2: me that we're going to be running races and the
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: biggest names of the Democratic Party, El Sayyed and Mandami,
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  Speaker 2: I'd say, God, we're going to win everything. Right. Instead,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we didn't. We got killed.
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  Speaker 1: Killed. And the margin of losses was huge. Didn't just
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: lose races, but races you think, yeah, we lose by
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: four or five points. We lost by 15 and we
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: got killed. So like, what do we do for governor now?
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: We tried two great Long Island guys and it wasn't
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: their fault. They both ran great campaigns. Lee Zeldin and
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Bruce Blakeman. So what do we do next? Next time
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the governor position pops up again.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: We've got to, first of all, we've got to stop
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: having this exclusion policy. You don't have to support anybody 100%.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: You can't have a fear that if you say something
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: damaging to Trump, you're going to lose the nomination or
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: the base is going to come after you. Listen, there
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: are still people mad at Mazi. I mean, she should
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: have beaten Swazi in 2004, but you had Republicans undermining
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: her because she said something three years before. She was
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: still a registered Democrat. She got a better vote than
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: LaPetri got. And she ran it in a year, and
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: she's being undermined by her own party. I've used that
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: as an example. You get a good candidate, if you
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: agree with them on 50%, 60% of the time, and
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: they can win, support them, go with them, and also
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: get our candidates started early. Get them a year or
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: two out and start grooming them, getting them around. And also,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: there's no reason why any of those building construction trade unions,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: any of those members, any copper fibers, even think of
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: endorsing Kathy Hochul. I'll leave the Jewish voters to you
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: on how they can get involved. And to me, it's
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: just wrong. There's so many natural coalitions we could have
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: also in the White House. Get rid of a guy
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: like Stephen Miller. I mean, he's scaring people off. On immigration,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: we've sealed the border. What more do we have to do? Instead,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: you find families who have been here 20, 25 years.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: being dragged out. I have a friend of mine, his
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: wife was here since she's 70 years old. She's now
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: back in South America. Of course, and this is 35
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: years ago, she came here with a family. She didn't
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: even know that she was here. She was here, and
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: she raised a family. She said, leave the country. And
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: she tried to get back in. And when she got
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: out of the country, then they stopped giving visas. So
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: she is down there. Her husband is an extremely successful,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: great guy. I'm using that as a metaphor. So, again,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: we've got to comment on it. Be strong. Seal the border.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Stand with the cops. Stand with law enforcement. Stand with
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: the military. And, again, forget all the socialist stuff. Go
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: after the socialists. We don't have to compromise any of
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: our core beliefs. We can't have a personality cough. That's
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: basically it. And we can't have the perfect candidate, except
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: maybe Sid Rosenberg. But other than that, I mean, really,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: we've got to get out of there.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: You say that jokingly, but I keep saying, when is
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Joe Cairo going to call me? When is Ed Cox
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: going to call me? When is Tony Nunziata going to
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: call me? But on a serious note, I think you're
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: right about everything, Peter. I really do. And I would
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: just say to you and Joe Cairo, keep up the fight.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: You guys put a lot of winners out there. You
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: just mentioned a bunch of them. You guys still do
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: a tremendous job. We won a bunch of races on
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Long Island yesterday. And, you know, we got to keep
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the faith. You're right about Trump. You're right about Trump.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: And it's time for America to figure out what we're
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: going to do moving forward because.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: We hit the wall. Local organizations can only give so
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: much to a congressional candidate. You rely on, unfortunately, the
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: big money in Washington for your funding. She didn't get
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: a penny out of Washington. That money was going to
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Texas and other places like Mississippi.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it didn't work.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: It didn't work.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Janine did do a terrific job. I like her a lot,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: a lot, a lot. Hopefully she'll try it again. Peter King,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: excellent job as always. We need to hear your voice.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, my man. And give my love
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: to all the folks. No, thank you. There he is,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: the amazing congressman, Homeland Security, and one of our best,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: best people still, him and Joe Cairo out there on
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: the island do a tremendous job. Our dear friend Peter King.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 12:08
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• 12:11
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• 12:14
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• 12:29
  Speaker 3: and X. See you next time for a new episode
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: so you never have to wonder.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: What the heck is going on here?