Ouch...Trump's Midterm Problems Just Got Way Worse

like when it sort of seems like how the hell did we get placed in this part of the time space continuum where Donald Trump is our president and AI is coming to kill us all? Like what we're living through is an extraordinary civics lesson. And if you had told me there was going to be a grassroots effort for a state supreme court seat in Wisconsin. Right. 10 years ago, I've been like, you f*cking smoking crack. Okay, joining me, Alex Wagner in studio. She's a political journalist. You've probably seen her on MS now, but also the host of Cricut Media's podcast. And we are going to be on a panel at CricutCon. Yes, we are. The Saturday after Tuesday. Yes, hopefully celebrating. It's going to be one of us. It's either a high feeling or a very low one. I know, we got it. There's no middle ground. I know. I know. It's going to be a CricutCon is shaping up. There's amazing programming. We're going to have you on the panel. We have Jessica Tarlaw from Fox. The great director of democracy, Brian Tyler Cohen. I mean, we just, it's, it's, it is a stacked panel and we're going to be talking about how to break through the noise. And you guys are going to talk about how to sort of rally progressives. It no matter what happens in the aftermath of November 3rd. So I'm excited for it. Speaking of rallying progressive, let's just go ahead and get right to doing what we do best, which is magabashing. All right. So Fox News now is admitting that they think the Republicans are a little bit screwed this election. Play the clip. Hey, Cheryl. Hey, yeah, look at that number over my shoulder. There's diesel 667. You know, that's farmers ranchers truckers. The other number obviously is everybody drives a car. And when Fox asked, what is the driving issue for you this midterm election? Take a look at what was said, kind of a surprise maybe in some ways corrupt. Stop there and leave that up. This corruption number of 88% is massive. And then the gas prices 83%. Gas prices are just something you can't spend. No, because you go, you used to pay $50 to fill up your tank. Then it's $100. You cannot spin that away. What's your take on Fox preparing the Foxers that potentially the tsunami is incoming. They're dissent under earth one. The alien ship has landed in the plane of fact based reality. It took them long enough. Like you're totally right. It's in 7,000 point font. The prices of gas when you drive by on the highway. If you have a car, you know, exactly how much you're spending when you fill up your tank. And you know, Fox can't lie about the election being rigged the way they could in 2020. And so I think that they heard, you know, reality and financial prudence has done nothing. They have to prime, they have to prime, they have to prime the pump. So to speak, they have to prime their audience for what could be a major referendum on Donald Trump. But also Fox is a clearinghouse for Republican thought in as much as it is, you know, state-run media. They have to figure out what the party is going to do in the aftermath of this. And what a Republican party even looks like as it is steered off the cliff, cliff by Donald Trump. So yeah, like they need to, I think have people acclimate themselves to the reality that this could be democratic control of both houses of Congress. I mean, the committees are getting it fired up. The hearings are going to start. There could be another impeachment process. We don't know. But that's all going to take place on Earth one. And Fox News's audience needs to get used to that. And I hadn't thought about it until you just said it, but they have a billion reasons not to why you sure do. Yes, because they got popped for lying. But it seems that Fox is losing their swagger because I saw a report yesterday, viewership is down 27%. And for me personally, living in Oklahoma City all up until last year, Fox News has been such an integral part in the radicalization of the Republican party. I would say the moral faceplant of the Republican party is just given a permission structure for people that were a little greedy, a little selfish to just go full tilt on both of those negative character attributes. So I am tickled pink that 27% less people are viewing Fox News. Yeah, I mean, I think there's probably a broader moral question about whether we as a society should only be watching stuff that makes us feel good, right? That's validating for our particular worldview. And I think that's problematic when the news has to reinforce your partisan inclinations. But we are where we are. Right. And I think it's absolutely I mean, it makes complete sense to me that as the titular head of the party helps the nation morally faceplant, that a lot of people don't want to watch anymore. I mean, you see the evidence of this. I had to attend a lot of Trump rallies when I was coasting a show called The Circus, which was a documentary series on showtime. And those rallies back in the day, like in the late pre-pandemic and even right at the beginning of the pandemic were like church revivals. You know, there was a sense of belonging and camaraderie. Trump really is a cult like figure in his ability to mass a crowd. But you know, and obviously there's a ton of misogyny and racism and xenophobia, but there's also like a lot of joy and laughing and you know, enthusiasm. That is gone. Now you have like this old man who's the like the guy's lost his fastball. He's talking about John Houston's ass. Just right. Like just you don't know where the sort of latent homosexuality in the dementia intersect. I have been saying for a long time, probably a year and a half now. Trump is entering his deathbed confession. Yes. And so like if you go to the nursing home and you see your grandma and she says, now Alex, I always loved you more than I did your little sister. I thought your little sister was a little bitch. Everybody has had that experience. Well, when I've always thought Trump was a little gay, bisexual. I thought after the Arnold Palmer and then when he gave the microphone the blow job with the striking familiarity of how to perform the task. Do you remember that on the camera? I mean, yes, but and thank you for reminding me of that. And so I called this excellent gay. And I was like, something's going on here. And then he was listening to the fandom of the opera. And then we have, you know, the YMCA. I am stillage people. And then now we're just full blown. I mean, I've moved it from bisexual to where. Yes. Where have you moved it, Nate Silver? I've moved it to solidly gay. Yeah. Well, if he is and we're just spitballing here, Mr. President. But if he is, it would go so far in explaining his just deep wellspring of rage that he hasn't been able to live a full life, has really toxic, aggressive, some would say criminal behavior towards women. I won't say it engenders empathy, but it goes a long way in explaining the origin story of how one man can be so toxic because he's not living a full, truthful life. But I mean, that's just, you know, armature. You take it into the story of his life with Roy Cohn playing such an integral part of it. It just seems like, wow, I mean, this, it's really fascinating watching these broken people with massive inner child issues, major major problems with neglect, emotional neglect from their parents. And then secrets on top of that, how they find this cult or they find, you know, some fundamental as sect of some religion. And you see all of these things colluding together. Well, and I think you're so right about begging it to sort of deathbed confessional when all of the facade and all of the sort of self-discipline that's required to live a life of lies and corruption starts, the mind is incapable of erecting those facades anymore. And so you get these weird, erratic line of argument on the campaign trail, these comments that have no place really in political discourse. And I will tell you, I think we better buckle up for the last two years of the Trump presidency, because the powers of the presidency aren't diminished at all, right? He still has immunity. Thank you, John Roberts, but he also has the nuclear codes and the power of the one of the most, if not the most important global power on earth. And that is paired with an increasingly adult, desperate, delusional mind, full of, you know, dark dreams of retribution. I mean, I genuinely, this is why Democrats better show the F up now down on of January 4th, ready to, you know, really reign in someone who's abused power even in his most competent days. And all of the things you mentioned, he also has a gaggle of Republican cowards that could have stopped this at any time. Don't even get started. I believe that somebody who tries to cause play being a serious senator, like the majority leader right now, John Thun, I think that it is so disqualifying because the fact that he acts serious, and he acts like he is pro-America and he's pro-constitution and pro-the rule of law, and he has not shown a stance and shown conviction and shown that he is going to be a moral leader in this time, like the Republican Party was during the quaint crimes of Richard Nixon, is I think it's so disqualifying. And so, like you, I echo that it has to be such an exclamation point. It cannot be, I mean, I'll take whatever win we get, but I want to be a sore winner in this. You want retribution. I do. I really, really do watching this government kill American citizens and then seeing that the parents of Alex Pretty and the mother of Renee Nicole. good. Begging for justice. I know. And our government then calls these people terrorists, it's just horrific. And all the American children who are in detention because their parents have been stolen from them at school bus stops. Do you know what I mean? Like the amount of inhumanity is well beyond our most basic comprehension right now. Like there is so much stuff happening in the shadows to say nothing of the corruption and the graft and everything else. But like the depravity of this administration is I think truly unfathomable. The recreational cruelty. Yeah. The destruction of black and brown lives. Yeah. All of it. Yeah. It's just like and you get stories every now and again, first-person stories. And we try and do this on my podcast Run Away Country where we try and talk to the people at the center of all of this. But like they are sporadic. There is so much garbage that is spewed from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on a daily basis. It's really hard to keep a handle on all the sort of debased things this administration is engaged in. But I mean, again, this is why midterms really matter. Votes really matter. If you haven't voted, you got to vote. And oversight matters. Yeah. I have been so heartened and full of joy seeing President Obama fill up arenas unlike high school gyms. Yeah. Like Trump is now in Mississippi with a high school gym. Obama is filling up arenas. And it's number one. He's just one of the best orders ever. And I feel so lucky to be alive during, you know, when he was president and watching him come fight for all of us right now. But I want to show you the contrast that mightest touch put together of Obama v. Trump. And this just happened in the last couple of days. Play the clip. He named a lovely lake named like Lake Ontario. The president wasn't even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison. That part didn't bother him. But he was very upset about the cheesecake factor comments. He took great umbrage. He said I didn't understand. The work of the artisans in the wet house. It's all crazy. But this was the really crazy part. They mobilized a whole of government response to that joke. Not inflation, but to that joke. So we used to guys stand up, please. Everyone thinks they're my best friends. I don't know. Black social. There's only two tonight. What's going on? These are not serious people. They don't so I think that contrast is so fun to watch. But I remember I'm reminded of 2024. Kamala's rallies were huge. They were fun. They were joyful. Trump was given microphones blow jobs. And so I thought when I would see the side by side comparisons, I would be like, oh, we've got this. Like, I mean, like she's gorgeous and smart and accomplished in all of these things and been vice president. And then we've got this dip show. Yeah, this can fell in who did the insurrection. And so as much as I enjoy that, I caution you guys because we have to go vote as though we're 40 points down. All of these races are going to be really close. All of them are going to be really close. It could come down to votes coming in by dogs led in Alaska in three weeks. You know, we could be in a really extended liminal stretch where we don't know who runs a Senate, for example. And I think everybody has a fair amount of PTSD from 2020 and 2024. Yeah. The thing I will say and feel free to join me on election night on our cricket media live stream. Yeah. If you want to live through it all in real time. But I mean, I think the difference is obviously the American economy, the disastrous war in Iran that shows no sign of ending and if anything is going to ramp up that has cratered, you know, the his foolish war, tariff war with Canada. The fact that diesel is approaching $7 a gallon. I mean, there's just a lived reality, Americans are experiencing. That's very different from what they were experiencing. I mean, I would argue worse than what they were experiencing in the waning months of the Biden administration. And Trump owns all of it. I mean, this is all completely, these are own goals. This is just a completely self-created crisis because he's a malignant narcissist and is surrounded by stuages and lives in an a padded room of information, right? Like he does not understand the chaos he himself has wrought. And like the American public see it. You know, I think they, there were a lot of people that held their nose in 2024 and thought, I just like, I don't like where my job is at. I don't where, like where my income is at. I don't think the Democrats have it. They don't know how to manage the economy. I'll pull my nose and vote for Trump once more because he's just balls to the wall and we'll do anything. And like what they got is a sociopath that is completely mismanaged the American economy. And like also, by the way, is just an agent of shaman chaos. And I just think, you know, the other piece is going to make it easier for people to vote Republican is Trump isn't even on the ballot. So if you have some sort of cult like devotion to the man, like you don't have that kind of cult like devotion to Don Houston or Mike Watley or Mike Collins, I mean, it's easier for I think Republicans to castrate senators than it is for them to go after the Don. So do you think even though Trump is not on the ballot, he's ubiquitous and he's been ubiquitous since he came down that escalator. Do you think that the Republican electorate views voting for a Democrat as a vote against Trump? And that's the first part of the question. Number two, during 2024, there was a lot of people that are secret Trump voters. And I know these kind of people from my days in Oklahoma, these people are college educated, travel, consider themselves to be sophisticated. Know that supporting somebody as as impolite and as uncivilized as Donald Trump would not reflect well on them. And so they secretly vote for Trump every single time. And that was something that really didn't register in pollsters, the secret Trump voter. And I'm wondering if the secret Trump voter still exists because what motivates a secret Trump voter is not what the cultists do at the rally. It is their wallet. Yes. Oh, 100%. It's the feeling that they're their money's safe. And they're entitled to not pay taxes and they're entitled to have a system for the ultra ultra wealthy, right? Like they still could be secret to secret Trump supporters because he has done great things for people who can invest in the stock market and who have, you know, tax bills that have been lessened by the one big beautiful bill act, but for the vast majority of Trump supporters. I mean, this is why you see his numbers among the white working class, non college educated falling out. You see Republicans who strongly approve of Donald Trump in 2018 when he lost 40 seats in the house. That was that number was 66. Now it's 35 like there's a huge drop off in support. I don't know what that means for the secret, the secret voters. I would imagine there's still crust of wealthy Americans who are educated and who the vote is really about protecting their wealth. Yes. Who are still going to vote for him, but that's not the majority of the party. I mean, that's just not the majority of the Republican. That's not the majority of American society. And certainly not that of Republican. All right. Let's look at some polls for Democrats that are coming out right now. I just, I'm so nervous to even report on this step at Kansas plus four Kansas. Well, Adam Hamilton is a great great candidate and Kansas borders Oklahoma where I'm from. And they've been a little bit more independent than a total red state. I believe they have a female Democratic governor. And so they're that going for the main plus four Michigan plus seven in Texas plus six. If Texas can do this James telerico thing, the pain that that is personally going to cause people like Ted Cruz and Elon Musk is something that brings me great. Yeah. Oh, it will cause our first world's first trillion era. A lot of it brings me night sweats. Great joy. As it should. Yes. As it should. His involvement in this race has been so despicable given the fact that he has 90 companies in Texas. I mean, it's just pure pay for play. But it's also going to be a huge humiliation to Trump. Remember, he went and meddled in the primary and got kicked John, John Corning, who probably would have won this off the ballot in favor of one of the most corrupt actors on the political stage, Ken Paxton, who's been indicted for bribery and mortgage fraud, stolen penalty, stolen mom Blanc pen from nobody in particular, like hangs out with people who are on the most wanted list in Dubai. I mean, he is a grab us with this grab us with this mistress and she's like a Christian influencer. And like somehow made like $9 million as a public official clearly on the take, getting his beak wet from corporate interests. Like this and Trump has gone to Texas a lot, right? Like this is like his race. This is how much muscle just Donald Trump. He goes and it is such a lackluster endorsement. It is like John's hot. John has to just haughty as a great ass. He, I mean, he has great feet. He has big hands. You know, I say that Trump probably can't get a physical erection. So he's having verbal erections at his rallies. So he has this verbal erection. And then he goes over to Ken and then he's like, yeah, Ken, I don't think I can study your body. I mean. I know. I know. It's so embarrassing. But then they stand up and Ken will stand up and wave and clap for him. And then Lyon Ted was at one of these rallies. Ted Chris. Raphael is, I like to call him, is by his birth name. And Raphael's Standing up, you know, and Trump says, yeah, we're gonna send Raphael to the Supreme Court. All the Democrats have vote for him 'cause they hate him and all the Republicans will vote for him because they hate him and I'll be goddamned if Raphael didn't stand up, wave and smile to everybody. The humiliation kink that MAGA men have when Trump humiliates them. I don't know what kind of psycho-sexual mommy daddy issue situation that is, I'm not a psychiatrist, although sometimes I play one on the podcast, but it is fascinating to me. How submissive these men are to him, where the men that I know that I would say, he's a manly man would be like, fuck you, don't talk to me like that. - Luckily, it's an emotional ball gag in all of their mouths. Like it is. - It's stop, it's really crazy how becooked they are, you know what I mean? - Like just self-castration. I think it's the daddy complex. I mean, you and Tucker Carlson, you just stayed there. You know, talk of Trump as daddy coming home. And it's this desire. I do think it's a psycho-sexual thing that I can't begin to unpack. - Right, it's fine. - We need to read Freud. - It absolutely is. And like the, and often they don't even get the prize at the end. Like the likelihood of Ted Cruz become against Supreme Court justice is, I mean, never say never. Sam Lido is gonna retire at some point, maybe in the lame duck maybe after. And like maybe, but most of the time, he just dangles the carrot in front of their faces and slaps them across the nose with it. - He does, and they like it. - They're so shame. - And they love it. - It is humiliation, Kink. And this is most personified with a person who I have done a deep psychological analysis on, which is Moses Mike Johnson. - Oh, okay. - He is the speaker of the house. - I know. - All power, no balls, all gavel, no balls. And here he is saying that he's feeling confident about the midterms. Play the clip and then we'll psychoanalyze him. - Kim Jeffries will not have a race for a speaker because Republicans are gonna win. I'll be the speaker in the next Congress. I'll be administering the oath to some of these people who ran for Congress as Marxist. - I'll be a real boy in the next Congress. - You can see like the book. - The puppet strings, like, and I will be a real boy in the next Congress. - Isn't it just fascinating that you could be the speaker of the house? And I think about when Nancy Pelosi. - Oh my God. - I mean, she was a fucking fabulous speaker. - John Will's deal ball. - She wielded power, she whipped votes. I mean, she was just in charts little, but I would say large and in charge. And then you go to this guy. And this guy's really fascinating to me. Because he says on camera, when they're doing the vote for speaker of the house that God woke him up in the middle of the night. - Yeah. - God woke me up and said, "Hey, little buddy, wake up." You're Moses. And everybody goes about their lives in America. As though that's normal. And this cannot be normalized that we have Trump vans and then that Pipsqueak, who says God woke him up in the middle of the night, which is delusional. - Yeah. - And told him, "You're going to be Moses in God meant that Moses was speaker of the house." And everybody just goes about, is though, we're a serious country. And he's a serious speaker of the house. And this guy is in a state, in my opinion, of religious psychosis. - No, I agree with you. We have normalized the most erratic and delusional behavior this century. Like the things that are being said and accepted as just political discourse would shock the conscience of us 20 years ago, right? Mike Johnson is not going to be speaker of the house. I hate to break it to him. Hakeem Jeffries is going to be the speaker of the house. Now, play this tape back to me when the polls revealed to be just AI chat bots that had no basis in reality. But truly, I think the house is gone. And I think you look at all the money shifting around in these house races. And you can see that Mike Johnson's people, if not Mike Johnson himself, understand that. And, you know, what is so extraordinary about the house? The winds blow quickly and fiercely. You know, like the name placards come down. The committee chairs change hands. The gavel goes to someone else, Hakeem Jeffries. And, you know, you are no longer ranking. And that means Democrats. I mean, I can't, everybody's focused so much on the Senate. And it's very important and powerful about it. But the power that you have is an opposition party in the house. The idea that after all these, I would argue illegal, unconstitutional, amoral, mid-decade, jerrymanders that the Republicans did to try and steal the midterms that Democrats could still win and might win by. Double digits is an extraordinary rebuke of everything Mike Johnson has been doing and everything Donald Trump has been doing. And there is enormous power. I know people are like, they don't have to come in for subpoenas if the house, there is a lot you can do as the ranking chair Jim Himes on the House Intel committee can do in terms of investigating the collusion and corruption between Trump and corporations. The oversight committee is sure as hell going to be trying to drag up Trump children and find out the ways in which they have been using the federal government and its coffers as a piggy bank. Like, it is a very exciting time. - And Raskin. - And Raskin. - And Raskin. - You're just hearing Raskin. - He's already given a synaptizer, a teaser. - He's given us a little teaser. - Yeah, and so I had Robert Garcia on last weekend of the weekend before and we spoke explicitly like, are you guys fighting for this? Are you coordinating or are you organizing? And he is a star. He is sharp as a tack. He is a fighter and he told me that he and Raskin had been working for months and they are coordinated and they are ready on day one to go full tilt. And it's, I think it's just so important that the Democrats walk in Shugam. I think they have to, on the one hand, try to undo a lot of the depravity and try to deliver materially for people who need it. The big beautiful bill has taken from whatever they can do legislatively to help deliver for Americans. They have to do that. At the same time, this country has a long history before January 6th of letting elites off the hook. You know, if I think about Dick Cheney and the war crimes in Iraq and, you know, it's just administration after administration just kind of moves along and we let corporations and we let off people in government that commit what appear in my opinion to be war crimes. And I'm hopeful that that lesson has will be learned because maybe we get the house and then maybe we get somebody in 28. But if there is not a complete reckoning with all of these crimes and all of this fascism and the war crimes that I believe killing people out and boats in the Caribbean, I think that's a war crime. That's my opinion on that. If we do not, if we do not recommend up with those things, I think then after that you get a, you know, a president that's worse than Donald Trump. And so I hope that they learned, you cannot merit Garland. - Yeah, no, I think, I mean, I, I made, again, play this tape to me when like there's nothing being, but I genuinely think and you see this a little bit in their posture on shutting down the government over ice funding or healthcare subsidies. Democrats are, they are using their power in the minority as much as they, I mean, they're, there's always more to do, but they have taken steps that they would not have taken in the Biden years. And I am hopeful that they understand that, you know, corporations you talk about, like the corporations cannot be led to believe that it is okay to buy out the presidency and bribe the president for regulatory sanctions, so for regulatory approvals. Like the idea that Nvidia and Apple and huge multi-billion-dollar corporations are basically bribing the president using his ego and their coffers to get done the business that they need to get done, like that is not acceptable and Democrats need to drag all of those corporations before their subcommittees and ask them, why did you do this? What do you think you're getting? And ask the question, is that legal? You know, I mean, I think we have, they're just the corruption of our society has been, as you say, is longstanding, right? And the money to leads have gotten to pass for so long, but the Trump years represent, I think, in many ways, the apex of that corruption happening in open air at the same time that you have like a massive subsection of American society feeling like there is nothing we can do to ever get ahead. I mean, the sort of trail of broken dreams. And I genuinely think the reckoning will be forced upon the party if it doesn't take it, like if it doesn't children itself, independently. So I am hopeful that the change of power means something meaningful for real reform and tough questions and maybe some people going to jail. - I want that. And I think, I mean, we have to do it in proper investigations. They're talking about, we're asking, we're talking about a special prosecutor for all of the Epstein stuff, which the stuff that these claims against the president, or, yeah, women that signed this under oath that said these violent sexual crimes, the president committed against them. And I just think that we have to go full tilt on that, on the cover up, Todd Blanche, Pam Bondi. She can't be left to catch Patel, all of them. They lied, they went into rural America where these people don't have much in ways of culture, but they have their church and they have, I'm an American. And they use that. The Republican Party weaponizes two things that people in red states hold very, very dear. Their faith and their flag and their gun. - Yeah. - But not to sound like Obama, but it's true. They do cling to, religion and guns. And they know that. They know how important it is. And they weaponize it against them. And they Christian signal them, Mike Johnson, oh God woke me up. It's just such bullshit. You know, I mean, he's a nut. But they use that against these people. And then they lie to them and then they fleece them. And it is so immoral. It's a looking forward coming from a state that is Ruby Red, Oklahoma. I have been talking about, and a lot of my listeners are blue dots in red states. And it is the most frustrating thing on the planet to be a blue dot and go and vote all of these presidential elections. And your vote doesn't mean shit. You don't get any cool rallies. Nobody comes to see you. It's just the most depressing thing on the planet. And I feel like it disenfranchises so many Americans. And I do think it's why we have such a low voter turnout because in in Oklahoma, for example, a lot of progressive people or non-republican people, whether they're progressive or centrist or leftist or whatever. So I'm not going to vote in the states. It doesn't matter. And so I'm hopeful that the Democratic Party launches and fires back up a 50 state solution. And it might not, my goal, and I've been saying this a lot this week is we go from Ruby Red to pink, pink to purple, purple to blue, and then to blue. And it's going to take a couple of, you know, election cycles. But if you look at what Bernie has done for his movement, it paved the way for Zoran and other candidates they're popping up. But somebody to keep an eye on are these Democrats that win in red states that are turning purple. And one of those states is Georgia. Oh, yeah. And we've got powerhouse of a politician, a star, I mean, starting point guard in my opinion, not a bench player. John Ossoff, who was with Barack Obama at that rally that I showed you. And here he is. He is just hammering Trump on corruption, which is so smart because 88% of Americans say that's a problem. Let's watch that. Never before has so little effort been made to cover up so much corruption. And here's the bottom line. If you're involved in any of this next year, you'll be raising your right hand and swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is so help you God in front of the United States Congress. I love it. He's really good. I like first was on the campaign drill with him when he was running for the Senate seat back in. Now I'm going to get it wrong. 2019, 2020, Jesus. Yeah, 2020. Worthy or 20 time as a flat circle. And he's so come into his own as a public speaker. I mean, I think the big issue for John Ossoff, because I do think he's going to win reelection, is whether Keisha Lance bottoms becomes governor, because if John Ossoff wants to run for president, they need to make sure there's Democratic governor in the state of Georgia, so that they can appoint a Democrat to fill his seat in the Senate. He will be very handcuffed to a Senate seat if Rick Jackson wins in Georgia, the Republican, because Rick Jackson will appoint a Republican to fill John Ossoff seat. And I will say it again, these races are going to be close. It's hard to imagine Democrats have a majority in the Senate that allows him padding to lose a Senate seat in 2028, right? So it means something. It's, it's actually like if you want to get nerdy about it, like look at your favorite senators that you think are going to run for reelection and see who the governor is in their state. And that will all, that will be determinative, I think, in how aggressively they pursue the office. So you said you were on the trail with him. I read an article that he's very good in these stump speeches, but like the, the glad handing and the interviews that he doesn't have a lot of risk outside of that. And John Ossoff is relentlessly disciplined. And I think that discipline sometimes comes across as kind of wooden. Like one of the things about Obama who I've spent a lot of time with up close is like he's just naturally very at ease, right? And he can stay on message, right? He's disciplined, but he's incredibly comfortable. He's incredibly, I mean, confident, right? Right. It's not that Ossoff isn't confident, he's, you know, it hasn't, I think, yeah, he has to like let it go a little bit. And like that's learned, right? Like he's been in office, he was like a documentary filmmaker 10 minutes ago. And he's incredibly good on messaging. I think you've seen way more electric performances for him. This safer that seat has gotten, right? Like if you look at John Ossoff, even like in his first two, three years in the Senate, which was three years ago, he's way less aggressively going after Trump, he's not that guy. Yeah, yeah. He's learned, it's a steep learning curve and he's learning fast. So I think he can get there, you know, but he is, he's not trying to commit any errors. And up until like very recently, that was a tight Senate race. So it'll be interesting to see how and who he is. Should he win reelection and Democrats hold the Senate? And there's more room for him to be his full self. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's do, now let's talk about the breakdown of funding of Democratic and Republican races. Pop this up. This is crazy. Okay. So donations under $200. The Democrats are at $574 million. So funded by the people, individual grassroots donors, Republicans at $143 million. So the Democrats just kill him on that. Then you get to the big, big donors. Republicans are at $1.7 billion, which doubles more than doubles, the Democrats, $832 million. This is what I'm really hopeful for. And I've been thinking a lot about this. If, uh, Paxton loses, and if some of, if microaggers loses, we, the people are launching our own defense against the citizens United. It is a repudiation like Zoran's race. Yeah. What his victory was a repudiation on big money and politics is you can't get any bigger money than what went after him in this city. And so if you see like what happened in Wisconsin when, uh, Elon put all that money into that Supreme Court race. Yeah. And it didn't work. Nope. Until we can do something legislatively about citizens United. I like what, what we, the left is doing now is we are making it so toxic to receive money from Elon, from the tech industry, from APEC, from all of these lobbying groups that it is like, well, that person's a hooker. Yeah. They're bought and paid for. And so I think that we are starting to save ourselves. You know, we realize pretty quickly into Trump to to point out nobody's coming to save us. Like, this is, this is out of control. And right now you see every day Americans donating under $200. You say, you see every day Americans that are jurors that are saying, no, we are not grand juries, grand juries that will indict a ham sandwich saying, we will not indict this. So you have every day Americans showing more courage than these billionaires that have fuck you money that then don't tell Trump to fuck off. They are like, what else can I do for your sir? Totally. I mean, it is a story that is a moral indictment of the Republican Party to see how they are making their money. And then to see which party is has really been co-opted and corrupted by elites and the ultra wealthy, right? So that, that stands on its own. But to your point, I think it's really important to remember in these days of darkness and despair. Right. Ten years ago, I've been like, yeah, fucking smoking crack. Like they're right, but the reality is people who for so long I think had taken for granted the, you know, the functionality of our democracy, the idea that it was one person, one vote. In the last 15 years, I've understood just how tenuous all that is without civic engagement and, you know, without the people being engaged in their own government. And it has been remarkable to see the way in which people have educated themselves, the way in which they have taken precious resources and devoted them to the political process, whether that's their time or their money. I mean, people are so much more aware of how shit works. And I think that's why you see corruption as like the number one issue people care about. It's the combination of their lived realities being really difficult, but also they see the system. They understand the cogs and the wheels and the way they turn in a way that they didn't before, right? And they're just much more informed about why the government isn't working for them and what they want to get out of it. So like as hard as I see these years have been, like how great that people are focused and angry about redistricting. Like 15 years ago, people didn't know what gerrymandering was. Right. Right. Right. Now everybody knows what it is. Everybody knows about the department of justice and they know the figureheads at these cabinet agencies. They understand the way, you know, the balance of power works in the house of representatives in the Senate, but even at the local level, they give a shit about local officials. They're board of elections. They're school supervisor. They know things in a really piercing and in many cases, unfortunately, but nonetheless, they are wide eyed about the world. And you can't take that back from people once they have. Yeah. And one thing that I'm seeing in this is anecdotal, but I'm seeing so many people that I know and Oklahoma City that worked. moderate Republicans, maybe voted for Obama once, kind of flipped back and forth, but we're pretty down the center, who are completely radicalized to the left and who have pride in their political views because their political views are a source of pride because they are the exact opposite of everything that MAGA is. MAGA hates diversity. We love diversity. MAGA hates the LGBTQ+ people. We're like, fuck you, we stand with these people. And you can go down the list of all of the reasons, but I see people have pride in their politics now. It's not a secret anymore. People want other people to know, I am not for that. I want nothing to do with that. And that doesn't mean that pride is attached to the Democratic Party because these same people are disappointed in a lot of the Democratic leaders, strongly worded letters, you know, et cetera, et cetera. But it's a pride in being against the status quo. And I see this building all over the country anecdotally from my personal friend group to our audience in the comments section. So many people saying that they were maybe a no offense, an MSNOW liberal, just an MSNOW liberal versus now that the news has been democratized, that they're even have their own political identity as a source of pride. Yeah. I've never really seen that. I did during Obama, but it was very much attached to him and how aspirational it was, how full circle it was to elect a black man in this very complicated racist country of ours, how healing that felt. Yeah. But now this is even different. This is, people have this individual pride about their brand of politics that isn't really attached to any sort of mainstream status quo of the party. And our audience is full of people like that. Yeah, I mean, that's amazing, right? When it's not just about, I don't want to use the word cult, but it's not just about one person and one party, but it's about a set of values and ideals that transcend that that's a long lasting coalition, right? And that is exciting for 2028. Like it's wide open. Like I don't remember a wide open, really in my adult life, I can't think of a wide open presidential primary on the left. Like that's really exciting. And people are going to have, you know, there's not one person. People are all going to be drawn towards. It's going to be the ideas. And that is what we need in this country, right? That's how you really shatter monolithic institutions that aren't along or working for the people. I agree. All right. Let's, I could talk to you forever. I know Alex. It's just I can't wait. But if you want to see Alex and I talk more, we're excited to share that we're both going to be part of cricket media's 2026 cricket con. You can join us November 7th in Washington, DC, which we are manifesting will be a big celebration. And we will be sipping on magnateers, smug AF, the source losers ever. I intend to be not gracious. A sore. I intend to be sore. I love, I love, I love someone that goes into this with I intend to be not gracious. No, not gracious at all. And so we will be together on a panel. And it's a chance to join thousands of people who want to build this pro democracy movement. So a lot of people, I know you watch my channel, but then I know you might watch Brian tire co, co and you might watch cricket. You might watch all of these different America will help you there. Everybody is going to be there. And so you can get your tickets at cricketcon.com. And you can use my promo code, Jen to zero, J, E, N to zero for a discount. There are limited tickets available. Alex, thank you so much. And I cannot wait. Thank you for having me. I'm going to see you on the other side of all of this. Just sipping our magnateers with a twist. Thank you, Alex. Thank you so much.