District Club: GOP's Midterm Anxiety and Democrats' Leadership Battle

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Shop up to 50% off site-wide plus huge savings on door busters right now during the Labor Day Mega Sale at blinds.com. Welcome to the District Club, brought to you by The Daily Wire. I'm Ben Domenech, opinion editor at The Daily Wire, joined by my colleagues Mary Margaret Olihan, White House correspondent, and Tim Rice, D.C. Bureau Chief. And we're happy to welcome to our stage today for our opening inaugural episode. Rachel Bade, an incredibly accomplished writer, reporter, you know, long-time coverer of all the inner circle aspects of Washington, which is where you can find her substack, The Inner Circle. The Inner Circle. Yes, and you can watch her as a co-host on The Huddle, which is an excellent show that gives you the inside perspective from Washington, which is what we're going to bring you today, hopefully. This has been an interesting week in Washington for a lot of different reasons, but I think the big thing that's kind of looming over here is the fact that we're going to be talking about one of the things that's kind of looming over all of it is this upcoming Texas midterm convention, which, Rachel, is really unprecedented. It's not the kind of thing that you see a party do. And the thing that I think is really unclear about this is, is this just about the Texas Senate race and Ken Paxton and concerns that Republicans have about whether he's going to be able to pull off a critical win in a red state against James Tallarico? Or do you really think that it means that the GOP is going to have some sort of a win in a red state against James Tallarico? Or do you think that it's going to be some kind of reset that bucks historical trends headed into the fall that, you know, kind of really gives Republicans momentum and, you know, for a GOP that's been infighting, it brings the party back together in time? Yeah, I think, look, a lot of Republicans are asking themselves one question, and that is why you have a lot of vulnerable Republicans who, frankly, just don't want to go to this, right? They think their time is better spent back home in their districts, campaigning, doing events. You know, fundraising with donors, et cetera. They have to spend money to go to this. $25,000. And right now we are in crunch time in the midterms. People need money. Well, I mean, hanging out with Trump is not something you do for free, Rachel. Okay, but the money should be, the money in theory, guys, right, should be flowing the other way at this point, right? MAGA Inc. has $400 million. The president has said they're going to spend. His team has said they're going to spend. Where's that money? Well, this is, this is the thing, right? And I think this is also like, we can try to search for any number of reasons for why we're doing this, why their party is doing this convention, right? Why is it happening? And there's one answer, and it's Trump, and it's Trump wants to do it, and Trump wants to have an event. And I mean, again, it's who are the, they haven't announced any of the lineup yet. We know exactly two people who are speaking, and it's Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, two people who are famously not up for election in this midterm cycle, and not members of the legislative branch. And that's, again, I think if you start thinking about it less as anything that's actually going to help anybody, right? I mean, nationalizing the midterm election, it's probably a terrible idea if you're one of these vulnerable Republicans, but it's the Trump show. Well, yeah, and I mean, the president is always going to want to be kingmaker. That is his favorite title as of late. He wants the world, and especially Republicans, to acknowledge that he's the one that decides who wins or who loses when it comes to Republicans. Yeah, Kristen Welker learned that the hard way, man. He's not going to give that up. So I think this is just another opportunity for the president to remind Republicans, we still have two more years of the Trump-Vance administration, and you all need to fall in line. But is that good? Like, right? Like, I think you're right, Mary Margaret, but like, is that good for the Republican Party? They're freaking out about this. I mean, right? This notion that beyond this convention that they're having next week, this notion that, and you're starting to see it in some of the ads that they're cutting, the president putting himself front and center in the midterms. You have vulnerable members who are really worried about it. So let me ask you about those ads, because I think we saw those start to roll out this week. Those ads are just, I'm Donald, Trump, and everything's awesome. Like, I mean, that's the way that I read that. I mean, it's just Ron Ward's going great. The economy's banging. The stock market's up. You know, I'm sure they'll add the jobs number from this week to it. You know, if I'm a vulnerable Republican, it feels like this is just all about him. It's not about whether you should actually go to the poll and cast a vote to send someone back to the House. It's also a change in strategy from the Trump operation in recent months. I mean, go back to, I don't know, six months ago, I remember hearing from the Trump political orbit that they did not want this to be a referendum on the president, right? Midterms are usually a referendum on the person in power. They wanted to make this a choice, right? It's a choice between Republicans, the progress they've made so far, the progress that they're promising to make, and Democrats who are increasingly socialistic, who want to get rid of the Senate, who want to get rid of the Supreme Court, etc. But the president has come in, again, wanting to be front and center, totally changing that strategy with these ads. With what's going to go on next week in terms of the convention, it's a total pivot from what his team has tried to do for six months. But not opening up the checkbook, which you said earlier, and I think that's also right, that's the key, right? So it's, he wants to be front and center, but not necessarily taking that final leap of, well, I'm going to take the reins. Mary Margaret, you got an answer from the vice president this week when he was doing the briefing, which I think, you know, he misses Caroline Leavitt a little bit. He performed great, but you asked him to give his elevator pitch for why people should vote Republican in this election. What did you think about his answer? Well, you know, you and I were talking about how this elevator pitch was kind of long for an elevator pitch, but I just took a skyscraper. But I think it was really interesting and it did encapsulate a lot of the points that we've heard the Trump administration make and heard Vance make in recent months. But the big thesis statement of it was you're choosing between common sense and radical policies and measures. That will transform our country. And that's really the point that the vice president wants to drive home. And I think it's the point that on the president's team wants to drive home. We'll see whether that fully makes it into his speech. You know, he let the art of the weave. He likes to get a lot in there. But I do think that's what we'll hear from Vance on the first night of the RNC and hopefully from the president as well, because it is at least a cohesive message. You know, they're battling a lot of Democrat candidates who, you know, have these very radical policies. We have the DSA. We have Democrats who are panicking, trying to figure out whether they want to vote Republican or not. And I think that's really important. And I think align with these socialist candidates in their party. That's a very easy layup for Republicans to message on. Sure. But so let me ask you about that. And I'm curious, everyone, you know what you think about this. My own perspective is Republicans were handed a narrative by the outcome of these primaries that they didn't have at the beginning of this year. And it's an untested sort of thing to say on a national scale, we're seeing this type of radicalism. It's one thing to pick out big city mayors or AOC or something like that. But to see this kind of wide open widespread success of the DSA is not something that we have a precedent for. And we have this Michigan race now being one that every Democrat has to answer for in the same way that Republicans had to answer for Todd Akin or for some of these other nominees in the past. Do you all think that's going to work? Well, look, can Republicans keep the focus on that? And again, this gets back to like, can they keep the choice front and center? Or is Trump going to make this about himself? Because the DSA stuff is scary. I mean, the numbers, the number of socialists in the House that are going to be elected into the House next year is going to more than double. I mean, they're talking about capitalism being racist. I mean, like, this stuff is crazy. It is an easy layup, as you said, for Republicans. But the problem is they need to keep the focus on that. And they just, a lot of times, you know, it fears off script. And they've struggled with that. Does the Luigi Mangione, like, angle of the Democratic, Democratic Party, is that something Republicans can kind of lean into? I mean, I think they have to, right? And I think, obviously, they are. And it would be ridiculous if they didn't. But as to the question of whether or not that works for them, I mean, Abdul El-Sayed's going to win in Michigan, I think. I'll put my marker down right now. I think Abdul El-Sayed, he's going to win in Michigan. Place your cow sheep, that's now. I think it's interesting sort of to watch, like, him as the avatar of the socialists, the sort of the rising socialists in this election in the Democratic Party. And I think that we almost might get to a point where attacking him as this sort of avatar allows a lot of Republicans to win in the House, but then he still wins in the Senate. But so then I don't know how good of a long-term strategy that is, right? Because it'll get, it'll maybe get, yeah, sure. Maybe it gets a couple of congressmen elected. Maybe it helps Ken Paxton eke it out over James Tallarico. But if the big baddie gets elected, all of a sudden going into 2028, that's a very different. I think Tim just got over the mark on that because of the Tucker Carlson endorsement. that's what got him there well i think we're underestimating the power of the talafrico here when we have you know the president who will get up on that stage this week and he will be telling the whole world that james talarico is a freak well which he has repeatedly said on many occasions apparently is bulimic when it comes to that that was a new line from him about the ability to eat meat he's really not a fan of this candidate and we're going to hear a lot from the president on this this week so i wouldn't count out the fact that donald trump understands the conservative ecosystem he understands first of all that he will always make himself first and foremost he's in a very legacy building phase um that's what we see at the white house that's what we see and how he's messaging to the rest of the world but at the same time he still cares about republicans uh he actually hosted an event at the white house earlier this week where he brought in all these republican lawmakers and told them how to message and told them he was going to support them i believe he said he's going to 35 different states uh during the next um period up until the election and he did say and i thought this was worth noting that uh it's going to be the way it was when he was leading up to his own election he said he didn't really sleep he went to four or five rallies in those a day in those last couple days uh and that's what he's planning to do for republicans so he's getting ready to do his all out campaign he's been focused on other stuff whether it's iran or the ballroom but now it is going to be about republicans the one thing that i think is a risky aspect of this for republicans is that they basically are trusting that he can carry them over the finish line even if he's not on the ballot and they're they made the decision this week uh thomas massey won his polymarket bet or whatever uh they would leave town without doing a lot of things that critics including people like larry cutlow had been asking them to do in the run-up of the to the election to actually have a republican congressional agenda or experience uh to run on uh beyond what they've been sort of talking about for the last six months i feel like that's a really risky bet you mean not to stay in and actually do their job actually what how dare you i mean look they have a narrow majority and clearly speaker johnson that i'm not justifying this by any means they should be doing their job determined that they're not going to be able to pass a lot of these bills i mean there's they could be doing a ton of show votes to your point affordability housing health care like sure they're not going to make it to the president's desk but like staying in and trying to get something done but i mean just think about the housing bill um they tried to pass pass the summer housing affordability they tried to pass the summer they ended up passing it president said he was going to veto it unless he got the save act through like it ended up being a huge drama they lost the talking point on that like they could have passed it been unified and gone back and told voters what they did and instead like it ended up being an infighting mess so this is his calculation it's like nothing good is going to happen here go home campaign right the other thing is that right i mean this week we saw an infighting mess on the vote loss out of nowhere that involved Democrats, Jared Golden and MGP, who crossed over and saved Republicans in a way that was apparently unexpected by Democrat leadership. There's all sorts of infighting about the committee assignments that they've been making in anticipation of this BSA wave. Mary Margaret, what do you think about the possibility that Republicans are kind of missing out on something by not staying in town when Democrats look like they're in a moment of weakness? I think that this RNC is bigger than that. I think this is more important. Look, we're all heading down to Texas. We're all going to be there. Donald Trump's going to be there. He's going to be in attendance both nights, which he did this at the last RNC, although I believe he had a bandage on his ear from a recent assassination attempt, which carried a little more weight. But we're all going to be down there. And this is an opportunity for Republicans to unite, an opportunity for the president to unite. Everyone behind the same message. So I think that I wouldn't worry too much about that if I were Trump or other Republican strategists. But I do think this is a good opportunity to switch gears a little bit to the way Democrats are handling their leadership, the way Hakeem Jeffries is struggling right now, his meeting with Jared Kushner recently, the way he was lambasted by other Democrats, the influencers, all these activists on social media. It's such an example of how Democrats are struggling to figure out their identity. So I'm curious about that. I'm curious, Tim, maybe you can lead us off on this one. Do Democrats still have control of their own party or are things dramatically shifting towards that DSA leadership? I think that they have shifted, right? And I think one of the issues that we're seeing with Jeffries, right, is this isn't two years ago where it was, oh, no, it's the squad versus, you know, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer and whoever. It's what's happening now is that the vibe, to use a word, right, has shifted. But they're not there. Right. The DSA guys are not there yet. They haven't been elected. They haven't gotten their committee assignments. And so Jeffries, I think, is walking this almost impossible tightrope of he knows that six months from now he's going to have a very different caucus. So it's like it's not just the establishment leaders versus the new guard. It's Hakeem Jeffries, who's always sort of been in the middle, now trying to navigate who's there now, who's coming. It's like somehow worse than that for him. The headache for him. It goes beyond just DSA. It is a lack of respect from a lot of Democrats across the political spectrum for Hakeem Jeffries. I mean, if he becomes speaker, he's going to be limping into that speakership next year. That looked like a hostage video. Like, yes. Yes, we talked about that on the huddle and how it looked like a hostage video. But like the Kushner thing, just take the example of Mom Donnie, for example. OK, so Mom Donnie, super far left, Democratic socialist, goes to the White House, meets with the president, someone he has attacked personally, makes friends with him and the base cheer. And he's like, yeah, good for you. You like, you know, you found a way to go and sort of, you know, get him to do what you want. Hakeem meets with Kushner and the blowback is universal from Democrats. It's just a meeting. I mean, literally, they're talking about are there ways to work together if Democrats flip the House? Could they work with the administration in some fashion? And he got routinely just mocked for that. Tried to do, again, an apology video. Didn't turn out well. Losing the rule vote. Like this week where two Democrats voted with Republicans to advance a rule. You just don't do that. And to not even give your leadership heads up. This is lack of respect. OK, so it's not just DSA. It's like the pod Save America bros who are criticizing him. It just it shows that he does not have the muscle that not even close to the muscle that Speaker Pelosi had. But he's got a real leadership challenge here. Has he ever had that muscle, though? Has he ever had the respect that Pelosi had? Pelosi, to be fair, she had like years to sort of, you know, build those muscles and she enacted revenge on people. She you know, if you crossed her, you wouldn't get a committee assignment. Your bill wouldn't be advanced. She had time to like create that optic. Right. He's new to this. And I don't think he I mean, he's been watching her for years, but it's not like she was teaching him how to do this stuff. I do think one thing to watch is how he treats those two. Members who turned against him last week. Is there revenge? Like, can he actually make sure that they are punished in some fashion? Because he really needs to do that to flex in some fashion. I feel like one of the things, too, just to the point of him never having that muscle is that, you know, with Pelosi, she was battling against a group of people who were pretty disparate and also politically inexperienced, you know, people who hadn't really been around for a very long time. It's not like they won accidentally, but it's it's more that they came in without having that type of structure and organization and their own independent fundraising that the DSA wing now has. And I think that that's the difference between what Jeffrey's faces in terms of a challenge versus what Pelosi faces. He now is a situation where basically people can say we don't need leadership to fundraise. In fact, we can fundraise better than you can. And that's something that's very dangerous for a leader to face because of the power of the purse and the ability to prevent, you know, people from being able to fundraise. And I think that's the difference. And I think that's the difference between people from winning in some of these primaries just by dint of being able to spend that money. What should his move be then? I wonder. Like, I genuinely don't know. But like what if you're Hakeem Jeffries, what do you do? I think it's revenge. Like Rachel is saying, you have to be stronger there. You got to put some muscle into that. And the figure that always emerges in my mind when I think of Democrats who have muscle, who have, you know, the scary factor to make others listen is Ocasio-Cortez. She's still in there. She's very active in the game. She's got a lot of, uh, light on her right now. She's got a lot of attention from her recent social media. I don't know what you call them. Gambits, her, um, her new IVF push, uh, her, her engagement ending, all of these different things, which maybe you can say they're coordinated. Maybe you can say they're not. She's really got the limelight on her right now. And I think that she's very excited to put that to, to something, to maybe a presidential run soon. Um, but she's, she's got the focus on her and I think she's excited to use that. I think one of the things that we're also seeing is, is a lot of people driven out of the democratic, uh, coalition, just in the way that we saw, you know, people driven out of the Republican coalition, uh, over who are viewed as breaking too far from this DSA insurgency. Uh, and I don't think that anybody is a bigger name in that front than John Fetterman, who we saw, you know, people going after this week. Uh, Rachel, what were your thoughts? I know Tim has a ton of thoughts on the wall street journal story that broke on Friday. That, that story was brutal. Um, brutal. I mean, like for those who haven't read it, details about him skipping constituent meetings, having meetings with like paralyzed veterans that he skipped then to, go to like a Fox News interview I mean the whole thrust of the story was that he doesn't care about constituents doesn't want to do his job but he just wants to be a like you know a star for conservative media right but I and and Tim like I want to get I want to hear your take on this for sure because I think you're like welcome to the Senate like to me when I read this story I was like okay this is again a good example of Democrats pushing out um the center pushing out more uh centrist Democrats because like they cooperated with that his own aides cooperated with that there were screenshots and this was an internal hit job okay and as soon as the story came out immediately there was a reaction to it uh you know from all these different Democrat operatives and other people amplifying it etc yeah Tim this is your favorite story of the week oh no a United States senator doesn't want to meet with constituents who want to talk about Medicaid funding and veteran disability funding and instead wants to hang out by himself and go on cable news this is oh my god this is crazy I'm shocked that gambling's going on here no I mean it's that it's the fact that ever since look I think that the Fetterman situation is more nuanced than just you know Fetterman likes Israel so everyone hates him although that's obviously part of it but the October 7th split between him and his staff there has been like the Fetterman team in exile has been working to undermine him and he's been working to undermine him and he's been working to undermine him this whole time which is obviously where this story came from and I will also say look I obviously I agree with John Fetterman on the Israel stuff I think that to your point the Democrats are wrong to sideline a popular moderate in their caucus like this well popular sure and independence I will also just say that for all the Democrats are hand-wringing now maybe they shouldn't have pushed and pushed and pushed and untested um guy who had just had a stroke and untested um guy who had just had a stroke and every single person who has ever been in a position to have push and pushed and pushed and untested um guy who had just had a stroke and every single person who has ever been in a position to have push and pushed and pushed and untested um guy who had just had a stroke and every single person who has ever been in a position to have push and pushed and untested um guy who had just had a stroke and every and remember I mean it was you weren't allowed to say that it was if you opposed it was it was like you can oh my god that's so bad of course we need to get him he's the most important person we can have elected to the Senate and now it's like you played I'm not even gonna say stupid games but play this game win this prize I I just I mean I appreciate your acknowledgement of the actual level of work that senators like to do it's a time-honored tradition in the same vein as as uh the old uh line from a very famous magazine profile that summer didn't begin until Ted Kennedy had driven on the sidewalk so so the thing the thing that I think is the thing that I think is actually hard though for Democrats on this point is to a certain extent Fetterman acts as a lightning rod and a lightning rod is actually useful a lightning rod absorbs the energy that might be directed at other people and so there are a lot of people I think who are still generally pro-Israel in the Democratic coalition or pro-Israel in the Democratic coalition or conference there are a lot of people who are still kind of where John Fetterman is if they're not as vocal about it and he attracts attention away from that and if he wasn't getting that attention I mean would Elisa Slotkin be getting that attention would be some of these other people who are sort of not that much different from him would they be getting all that heat I just wonder if he's the shield essentially he's useful to them on some yeah it's interesting I think absolutely he's drawing a lot of the fire like you're saying that other people could be receiving uh one thing that I noticed from that story and I I caught this when I was getting ready it was a screenshot of a conversation he had with a staff member uh and I didn't get to verify this I'm sorry that's ridiculous that is crazy I saw that I know you said that that's ridiculous I know I thought that person now knows that Fetterman knows that that person leaked that to everyone and it was I believe it was about uh a very big funeral that happened recently did anyone else see this yes yes um really upsetting and he was talking about how he didn't want to sit there for three hours and how that would be a non-starter it was so bad yeah uh so I mean we've seen this a lot though on Capitol Hill of staffers recently who are taking matters into their own hands I think most recently perhaps with Nancy Mace uh where her team just got so sick of her that they went straight to the press with real screenshots and um that's that's kind of a a page turner to me uh indicating that we're in a different place on Capitol Hill than we were before I was gonna say you should always treat everyone treat them with respect in Washington because the intern is someday going to be your boss or they're going to leak I think this might be a good thing because congressional staff sizes have ballooned so much and it's so ridiculous and maybe now maybe now these lawmakers will sit back and realize well I could either have just like a body man and a press secretary or I could staff my office with a bunch of scheming viziers who are eventually going to leak my emails to the Wall Street Journal maybe this will maybe this will reign things in on Capitol Hill so it's the equivalent though of me texting Tim and telling him I don't want to go to a specific event and him leaking that to a publication I do leak all of our text messages though that's that does happen careful the the thing I'll push back against the idea that you have to show respect to these uh traitors interns uh but but but you're gonna be leaking his text very quickly I'd like to be nice everyone I'd like to take the anti-intern uh so so but what small town hey look I was I was an intern at the White House I was an intern at the White House I was an intern at the White House I was an intern on Capitol Hill I was I've been you know but the if you if you do something like that you should be fired and you should be fired immediately everyone should know about it and you should not get the opportunities that and I think that part of this is this assumption among a lot of of the younger people within the Democratic coalition in particular because they're less sort of structured than the Republican side that they know better than the olds the Democrats have an age problem the whole country has an age problem obviously has this octogenarian leadership problem but it's been worse on the Democratic side and the reason is just that they held back they didn't they didn't have the term limits for the different chairman they didn't have the kind of of turnover that you've necessarily seen and I think that there are a lot of these younger people who enough came in with the DSA and they're like enough get these guys out of here we know better and from their perspective that's that is something that they see completely endorsed and and bolstered by everything that they see on TikTok everything they see on Instagram everything that they see surrounding the most exciting campaigns they want their boss to be out there with El Sayed with Ahsan Piker etc they don't want them to be saying oh well you know it's just some California streamer well it's because attention is the currency that they value the most this this newer class of consultants or staff and they don't understand a world without social media and honestly a lot of older Democrats don't understand a world with it and the law I think there's there's no incentive to do that there's no incentive to do that for anybody on the Democrat side whether it's a lawmaker or their staffers to do to play within the bounds of what used to be done I was thinking about this Mary Margaret when you were talking about you know AOC she's blowing up on social media she's got the news cycle she's doing all these interviews and at no point I don't think did any of us think and she's going to use that to make a bid for speaker or try to be the Democratic whip of course not if you're Alexandria Ocasio Cortez if you're a rising star you have two goals and it's either the White House or just general media influence and fame and so of course if that's what the principles in the Democratic Party are doing of course that's how their staff is going to act why would anybody want to be minority whip right I mean you no one wants to put in the work no one wants to I think she'd do it I think she'd do it if she couldn't have president I think if she saw that the stars were not aligned for her presidential bid that's a different game that's the leadership the congressional leadership uh ladder that is an inside game of making friends with all the members versus the very little and your loss yeah your losses are public and your wins are quiet but you guys think she runs you think she runs oh I think she runs 28 I do too I think this is her moment I think she would be so foolish not she wants to run against J.D. Vance and she has made that very clear she she loves the thought of being up against him she loves the childless cat ladies theme to run against she's I'm prepping her whole social media and her whole aura has the kids say um for this moment and honestly she I think she deserves the moment she was smart she was the only smart member of the squad she knew when to pull away when to double down I like she's good at this she is good at this and it's she can appeal to that wonderful combo of of lindsey clancy tiktok and hassan piker viewers and uh which is the you know basis of the democratic energy right now and and run away with the thing and yet still kind of paint herself as a moderate I think yeah oh yeah well she never would be considered moderate but you're right she's played she has tried to play the inside game in a way that is much smarter than I think a lot of people expected when she came to washington I mean a lot of democrats hated her because they were jealous of her power jealous of her fame and she has made friends with a number of house democrats that you would think she never would have yeah there's an interesting uh dynamic that's going on in the election right now which is that we have some things and just to shift a little bit that have popped up basically as issues uh this year that have been unexpected we always expect that uh you know a midterm election is going to be about the economy it's going to be about you know whether gas prices are going up or down it's going to be about you know how optimistic people feel about their job or about losing it that kind of thing and connected to that we've seen two things come up as as really you know astonishing I think a little bit unexpected political issues perhaps earlier than they were going to be one of course is ai which is related to the to the job loss question and the other is this conversation around data centers tim we saw it this week uh democrats using kind of a new angle of attack on republicans on data centers related to opportunity zones. I did not expect that to happen. I don't know about you. What's the situation there, and what's their argument? I don't think anybody expected it. It's both smart and stupid. I mean, the Opportunity Zones are probably one of the things that Republicans have done the best and they've gotten the least amount of credit for, right? And so anyone who you'll be forgiven, Ben Carson will forgive you if you don't remember what an Opportunity Zone is. This was a program. It's administered primarily through Housing and Urban Development, 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Acts, basically developers get massive tax incentives to go build in underdeveloped areas. It's mostly been focused in urban areas, right? So you're seeing building up hotels, apartments, things like that. The Big Beautiful Bill, they sort of doubled, they re-incentivized the Opportunity Zones to fix on wider rural areas, right? And so now what's something that everyone wants to build in rural areas? Data centers. Democrats are saying they want to put a data center in your backyard, which is, I don't know. It's a smart, yeah, okay, Margo, it's a smart tactic. It's a weird, it's like a very disingenuous line, I think, but it's smart to get there. Like a Democrat, Republicans want to put data centers in your backyard. It's a very smart line. And actually, Ben and I were talking about this the other day because I was in this briefing with J.D. Vance and we were both saying this is a great opportunity to ask him about this because Republicans have failed so badly at messaging on data centers, in part due to how the president is messaging on this. And I think this is so interesting. Because Trump is no man's fool. He is a very effective messenger. But on data centers, he's not really reading the room. What they're saying is these will create jobs and they're going to be good for the country and just kind of plowing forward. Well, there's a whole lot of Americans. And if you're opposed to them, you're pro-China. You're dumb. No, he said you're a dummy. You're a dummy. You're a dummy is what he said, right? But there's also this whole condescending crowd that's like, oh, the only people that hate data centers are influenced by Chinese propaganda, which I, you know, as someone who has paid a lot of attention to this, this conversation, I don't think that is accurate. So, you know, Vance, when I was thinking about asking him, someone asked him before me, he didn't really take the road that I thought he would. He aligned with the president pretty strongly on data centers and talked about how they'd be good for communities. I believe he said, maybe I'm messing this up, that they should be listening to communities. But there wasn't the tone, which, you know, as an outsider on this messaging fight, I probably would have talked about, you know, the interests of Americans, and why they should be listened to, and their homes and towns should be protected. Things along these lines that I think Republicans are just missing out on. The thing that I think is interesting about this is a challenge for J.D. Vance. You were talking about how smart AOC has been. The, what AOC is doing and what Bernie Sanders is doing on this AI/data center front, and there are separate issues. Like, I don't believe in the whole, like, it's all about AI fear. I think it's actually a lot more nimby, you know, costs of power, costs of electricity, you know, costs of, you know, water, et cetera, those concerns. But the thing that I think is interesting about it is, we know that J.D. is very close with the tech industry. He's very much, you know, sort of a forward-looking guy in that area. But he also has these rural roots. And I think that it would be really helpful to the Republican Party if someone with his background and his connections who understands these issues could vocalize. Make the case. Make the case. Yeah. In a way that would be beneficial to a lot of these House and Senate candidates who seem to just run away from the issue because they're worried about offending the president. Absolutely. I mean, honestly, and I think someone asking the question to Vance, for example, can you speak to the people of a rural town in Ohio who feel like their town is going to be destroyed? Putting the vice president in the mindset of one of those people rather than just, how are you supporting the president's message on this? I think that would make a big difference, too. Yeah. I mean, look, I, you guys are all saying, like, Democrats smart to seize. I mean, look, I, you guys are all saying, like, Democrats smart to seize on this issue because there is this widespread fear of the of AI and data centers what it means for people's pocketbooks. But I also I am concerned about long term what that is. I mean, it just feels like a race to the bottom right now on the data centers. And like, if we're going to be competing for the future, if we're going to beat China, we have to be number one in AI, like, period. We have to. And you can't just say that, right? There is a nuance to this. And, you know, as an elected official, you're right, J.D. Vance, he would be the perfect sort of person to make this case being from having his rural roots, understanding the concerns of a small town America, but also like, you know, smart regulations, right? And then finding a way to make sure that we are number one, but also hearing the concerns of rural America. There was an interesting sort of story this week about the fact that in Frederick, Maryland, where they wanted to build a data center, they basically just threw everything and a lot, you know, and plus cake and icing with in terms of investing in the community, you know, they're going to build new parks. They're going to give money to the schools. They're going to do all these different things in order to basically buy off the community. The reason why I think, yeah, I actually think it's I do think it's smart. I think that's why the data center thing, I think they're ultimately going to prevail because they have the money and they do have the money. Sponsor every single little league baseball team, right? Exactly. Read you the local church. We will pay for your travel team. I think what's happening is that. The political dust up really kind of took everyone by surprise. Yes. And it's like to your point, Rachel, about the the long term effects, right? Usually these things sort of, you know, you get development backlash kind of coterminous. And then it's really just a matter of who's going to pull ahead right at the end. What I think happened here was like the data center. They just kind of started their initial push and everyone objected so quickly that then the parties were scrambling. And that's why you have these very blunt force. It started with we're pro we're anti. Now we're starting to see a little bit of nuance, right? We're sort of doing it from. The inside out. Democrats are going to have this nuanced thing. Maybe now this pushes Republicans to get the vice president or somebody else out there. And then eventually I think the the the development then is going to catch up to the rhetoric as the rhetoric kind of slows down. I wonder what just circling back to where we started this conversation. I wonder what we're going to hear from the stage, if anything, in Dallas about this issue, because obviously, right? Yeah. I mean, Greg Abbott, everything out and said, yes, it is a great guy that came out and said. That he wanted Texas to lead the country in AI and data centers and then called for it's not really a moratorium. It's more like a slowdown in terms of development. You know, we also saw things being said about this from Ron DeSantis and from Josh Shapiro. So this is a bipartisan thing where people thought it was just going to be a pro business. Yeah. And now they have concerns. I'm wondering if the kind of thing you're talking about, Mary Margaret, if that's something that we hear from the stage, from somebody to try to make this. I mean, I certainly hope so. But if you think about it, the president certainly won't be saying anything like that. And Vance is not really in a position to do that. I mean, maybe privately he agrees with what we're talking about here, but publicly he's going to align with the president. And that's what he's always done. But I was talking about this with a group of my friends the other day, and some of them were saying, look, this is an issue where sometimes government officials, the president know better than the public and they have to just carry the day and make this happen. And I thought. I thought to myself, that is what Republicans think right now. They're kind of trying to push this against the will of the people. And it's so contrary to everything that MAGA has stood for. You know, MAGA is a group that listens to the people, MAGA. Well, you know, we they posture is listening to the people, right? This is what MAGA is built on. We care about the people. Democrats don't care about you. MAGA is for you. Democrats are for them. They them. And that's how MAGA has really positioned itself. So in this situation, I think Republicans really need to take a. Beat and think about how to message in a way that data centers are for you. And we're going to make them exist in a way that only helps you. Otherwise, it's going to be a huge issue in the twenty twenty eight elections. And I think we're already seeing that crop up. I think you're right about the messaging thing. I think obviously it's just it's clear that in this instance, just sort of hammering, saying we know better, trust the experts is not going to work. But yeah, I wonder, though, if I actually think that this is less of a less of a sidestep for the Trump administration. And for the MAGA movement, broadly, than it has been. Right. There are a lot of instances where the president just sort of decides that he where he wants to be on a policy and plants. I saw that with the beef thing. Yeah, the beef act. I mean, honestly, all a lot of the stuff or the lack thereof on abortion and IVF. Right. I mean, he's sort of kind of planted his flag outside the party on that one. And it's either sometimes they rally around him, sometimes it's just like, let's not talk about it. So this is different. I know it's different, but I'm just saying I'm I'm not shocked. That the president is not like, well, let's listen to the people on this MAGA Inc. Broadly, I think the question is, which people, you know, the thing that I still think about is the, you know, the first inaugural. You know, he has he quotes Bain and he says, I give it back to you, the people. And and because I know who wrote that speech, that was a Bain quote and it got past them. But the thing that I think is interesting is that the second inaugural, he is surrounded by all these tech guys who have come around and who are there to. To pay, you know, sort of homage to him. And that means that they have his ear way more than they did in the first term. And so, I mean, I think that this is a big question and it's one that I don't think that we're going to see resolved. Certainly not in Dallas. We don't always know what the main storyline is going to be of the next week when it comes to a political party. In this instance, we actually do have the advantage of knowing that I'd love to hear from you just as an exit question to all of you. What do you think the headlines are going to be coming out of Dallas? vulnerable Republicans actually go? I think, like, everybody's going to be literally, like, counting. How many Republicans actually show up to this thing? What do you think? Well, it depends on who you're reading, Ben. If it's the Daily Wire, we might actually tell you what happened there. If it's legacy news, it'll probably be something negative. Tim, what do you think? I think it's going to be about how Trump's three-hour midnight speech is either going to— will it help or hurt the vulnerable Republicans? Who did or didn't show up? Also, are they going to actually start spending? Where's the money, guys? I think that's where the war chest opens. I actually think that that is going to be the headline, which is going to be Republicans talking behind the scenes. Hey, he's got this money. We need it if we're going to keep our jobs. You've been watching the inaugural edition of The District Club. I want to thank you for tuning in. For Tim, for Mary Margaret, and for Rachel, I'm Ben Domenech. We'll be back next week with more. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Head on over to puretalk.com slash Shapiro before this offer disappears. That's puretalk.com slash Shapiro.