Political Experts React to Republicans BREAKING with Trump Before Midterms

And this may be the first time that my graduate's been in a grocery store in a very long time. - There is a looming shadow ahead, and all these issues are gonna need to be actually tackled in a meaningful way ahead of 2028. - Welcome to Political Extracts React, a show where we look at campaign videos and ask to take whether they did a good job or not, I'm Dan Pfeiffer, from a communications director in the Barack Obama, the co-host of Positive NERGA, and joining me today, the one, the only, the host of Perky Media's Runaway Country, a brilliant, brilliant person in and of herself, Alex Wagner, Alex, thanks for joining. Be here on Political Extracts React for the, like, um,teenth time you've done this. - Oh, dude, I love the Mutual Glazing Society that we've established. - That's how we get each of those. - Come on our podcast. I'll say really nice things about you. Make you feel good and then, like, vampire sucky for insights. - It is mutual respect in my eyes, so. - Mutual respect, mutual glazing, mutual respect, but all founded in, like, goodwill and admiration. - Okay, today we're gonna look at a bunch of different answers, but I wanna start with a trend we're seeing among Republican candidates who are beginning to panic about Trump's poll numbers. They're beginning to try to distance themselves from Trump and his unpopular war. Here is a video from Michigan Republican Senate candidate, Mike Rogers. - Michigan families are struggling with the price of everyday life. Groceries cost too much. You have to bring prices down. The war with Iran needs to end and end quickly. When it does, energy costs will plummet, but Michigan families can't afford to wait for that to happen. We need to do something now. I've previously called for the suspension of the state and federal gas tax, 70 cents a gallon. In another place we can start, diesel. Diesel fuels the trucks that bring groceries to the store. If you have the tractors that grow our food, and when diesel costs more, it costs more to grow it, ship it, stock it, and ultimately buy it. So until this war is over, I'm calling for a temporary embargo on American diesel exports. Keep more American diesel here at home. Increase the supply available to our farmers, our truckers, and put downward pressure on diesel prices. Because lowering the cost of moving and producing our food can help bring down the everyday costs family sea right here at the grocery store. American energy should provide relief to American families first. And I'll fight to make life more affordable. Michigan, let's get to work. Okay, the most noteworthy part of this, other than this may be the first time that my graduate's been in grocery store for a very long time. Hard to agree. It is that he's calling for the Iran war to come to an end. We have seen Ashley Hinson, the Republican candidate, and I would say it's something similar. We've had some Republicans come out against Trump on immigration. What do you make of Rodgers' play here, and do you think it can work? No, and no. It's a hard no on this day, every level. Like just because you stand in front of a bunch of tomatoes with a vest on does not make you authentic. First of all, I don't think the vest has ever been worn. But anyway, setting grocery store fashion aside, it rings so hollow. First of all, the solution he's proposing is very much like out for debate, whether that's actually going to help anybody. There's like the oil industry is not happy about it, not just because it's, you know, a profit issue, but it's also a supply issue. And the reality is most Americans know why they're hurting. It's because Trump launched the country into a disastrous war that has raised prices on everything from fertilizer to a diesel and had a cascade knock-on effect, where goods are only getting more expensive over the course of the next several months. And like the idea that John Mike Rodgers has suddenly had a light bulb moment about restrictive diesel imports is like, it's all so laughable, and I think it's so pathetic, and truly smacks of desperation. I don't think it's effective at all. And I think that there's part of me that's almost enraged that this is the solution, this late in the game, and the solution itself is so won. - Yeah, I could put the agree. I think that they look ridiculous. Mike Rodgers is a uniquely ridiculous case because he was anti-Trump before, and then he became pro-Trump in order to win elections. And now he thinks that losing election because he's pro-Trump is a possibility. He's gonna try to be a little bit less pro-Trump. It just, he's just a weather vein, glowing with the wind here. The challenge for all these Republicans is the voters they need to win over. The ones who are most angry at the Republicans, the ones who are most skeptical of politics are also the most cynical. - Yeah. - And so they see through this, right? They automatically distrust every politician. That is their natural inclination and here. So now you have a politician who is clearly less like they're losing, trying to change the position. I cannot see a world in which this works. - No, I think it might make things worse. - Yeah, I think that's very possible. I think you're actually in the situation where you could deflate the base a little bit and gain nothing from swing voters. - If you've never been to a grocery store, don't start going with six weeks left in the campaign. - It did not did this one matter to any voter in Michigan, but it does feel like it looks a little bit like the Dr. Oz Crudite video from 2022. - It smacks of like the worst rich guys in like a normal person place, like Mitt Romney doing a thing or Dave McCormick doing a thing or Mehmet Oz doing a thing. Like these guys, they have personal shoppers, probably their wives or employees. They should stick to wherever they normally hang out because it's so awkward and it's so transparent. - You bring up the vests and the vests is important. And I don't really know why he's wearing a vest. I know it is chilly, often the produce section of my groceries isn't wearing the vest for warmth. He's looking approachable, grocery store approachable in the vest, Dave. - But the vest, he looks like he looks like a private echo, a private echoing guy on the weekend, right? It's the Glenn Youngkin lock, which is what he was sort of leaning into. - Although Youngkins would have been fleeced, this looks like a vest that serves no purpose other than in terms of insulation, other than to suggest I am not wearing a jacket. I'm wearing something more casual because I am picking out zucchini, nice try, Mike. - It's so, sorry, okay, let's go to our next step. We're probably in some Republicans who are breaking with Trump, but the strategy that most Republicans use to try to beat Democrats is to go after them, paint them as radical, particularly on trans issues. I want to show an exchange of ads happening in the Ohio Senate race. First, we're public in Super PAC ad about shared Brown and then the Brown campaign's response. - Abused and exploited by an extremist agenda, forcing childhood sex chain surgery, but shared Brown stands with these extremists. Brown supports sex chain surgery for kids, permanent surgical decisions with devastating consequences. The extremist demand it, shared Brown complies, and Ohio's children pay the price. Shared Brown, after 50 years in politics, the extremes he goes are just too much. SLF PAC is responsible for the content of this advertising. - Here they go again, those same attacks then shared Brown. - With everything going on, that's what they're talking about. - In Ohio, it's against the law to perform transgender surgeries on kids. - That's right, it's illegal. - John Heustead, why'd you vote to increase the cost of groceries? - To do nothing about the cost of gas. - To kick 490,000 Ohio and top their healthcare. - And John Heustead wrote the law on letting utility companies jack up our electric bill. - John Heustead, why don't you start working for us? - I'm sure Brown and I approve this message. - Okay, let's start with the idea that Republicans can use this sort of anti-trans rhetoric to help them select. And do you think it's gonna work? - No, absolutely not. Like absolutely not. And also cut and paste pictures of Brown and Black women into the photos with them. Like race-baiting and transphobia all at the same time. It's one of those ads that I think makes a problem worse for him just because to the Brown ad point, like the real problems facing the state and the country are so much more pointed. And like I think clearly diagnosed. Americans know what's happening and they're angry about it. And it's not gonna be solved by attacking trans teenagers. - The Republicans are trying to rerun the same play of these in 2024. There's the infamous "They Them" ad, which was obviously an incredibly effective ad, one of the more effective ads in recent political history. But I think they misunderstand what that ad is actually about. Which it is, yes, it is about not just being for trans rights or for any of these issues here, it's actually specifically about taxpayer-funded gender assignments, surgery for incarcerated individuals, which is a very specific issue. The ad is really about Kamala Harris being this radical liberal who was out of touch with mainstream American values. What's different between Kamala Harris to the country in the 170-day campaign and Shared Brown in this race in Ohio is, Kamala Harris was in blank slate to 99% of voters, right? She had 100% name ID and basically no depth of knowledge about who she was, where she stood for. Shared Brown has been running as the ad points out in Ohio for 50 years. People know him. They rejected him and tossed him out two years ago for a specific reason. They had to do with Joe Biden and inflation, but not because they thought he was some sort of radical, you know, cultural liberal, just all these other things. With long hair. They have all those photos of him in the 70s with the long hair as if people are going to be duped into believing that that's from recent history. I can also say to your point, I think part of the reason that trans stuff worked with Harris is because the Trump administration or the Trump campaign was really skilled at otherizing her and Democrats as being, you know, this menace, this liberal menace, the brown wave that was soon to wash over the country and change its racial and ethnic identity and the transphobia and the fear mongering around that fit into that portfolio. Well, we're living, you know, first of all, as you say, Shared Brown's a known entity. he's a white man from the state with a very high profile. The other is. doesn't work in the same way that it did with Kamala Harris. - That's a very important point here, which is just, it is, I mean, this is a depressing thing to say about the state of America, but it's much easier to otherwise a woman of color than a white, rough, old man. - Yes. - It's not too white. That's why it works. Why those things did not work as well with Joe Biden in 2020, say with color as a 20-degree work. Beyond, I think the very important fact that they will work better on any candidate who is less well-known. Ultimately, every campaign is a race between being defining yourself, the other side defines you and the Trump folks define Kamala Harris, who first we define herself. Sheriff Brown, there is very little white space on that canvas and so that makes this much harder. What do you think about the specific tactic? Because this has been some Democrats in red states have come out, it's sort of very aggressively, you know, come out against transportation sports. That sort of stuff. Sheriff Brown thinks they're different tactics here where he basically deals with the factual issue about the wall in Ohio and they quickly pivots to groceries and costs of the banks that are. - I mean, I think it's a cold calculation, right? I think it's probably the necessary one in a state like Ohio, but I do think it is to Democrats' peril to not directly address what's happening here at its root. And I think you see a similar thing happening on immigration where it's like the left is understands it's talking about secure borders is important, but at the same time, the thing that's missing from that platform is a robust defense of immigrants and a robust defense of an inclusive, like multi-hued, multi-racial, multi-ethnic society. Because when you just avoid talking about the essence of the root cause of this anxiety or concern, then you let it fester. And I think that makes it easier in future years to vilify or castigate subgroups of people in the United States. And that is not in the interest of democracy. So like, yes, I understand that going at this from a factual, rebutting it from a factual standpoint saying, well, we don't actually do that, is maybe the way you need to sort of cross your teeth and dot your eyes ahead of a contested midterm. But at some point, the Democrats are going to have to figure out how to talk about trans youth with a bit of empathy and a bit of truth. Because otherwise, we end up in a situation as we are now with immigrants where it's like, yeah, we're doing depraved things to immigrants in this country. And I don't know, like Republicans might pay a cost for it, but overall, we need to re-double down on our belief and understanding that immigrants make this country stronger and they're an essential part of our American fabric. - You know, it's really interesting because Shera Brown does not go as far as some other Democratic candidates like Rob Sand in a red state have gone to explicitly go out and announce opposition to transport participation. He sort of tries to say what you're saying is not true and here's why it's not true in this case. But what the real issue is, which is the point you're getting to, which is they're off the main thing. And the main thing is cost of living. And because they're so bad on the main thing, they're trying to talk about these other things. And so we're gonna try to give it back and forth. The immigration thing is really interesting because it is, I always can agree with you that the mistake Democrats made throughout the entire Biden era was they allowed the Republicans to say immigration is about border security and border security. So the way we're gonna talk about this is we're gonna go to the exact part of the issue where Republicans have an advantage. We're just gonna try to play there in the most defensive way possible. I'm a prosecutor. I got rid of, you know, I took on transnational gangs and traffic, you know, all that. As opposed to dealing with the implications of Trump's mass deportation policy. - Right. - Where we have an advantage, which is what is actually agree with us that the people who have been in this country for a long time, people who have been working, raising families part of the community deserve a path to citizenship, requires paying back taxes, requires going to the back of the line. But like that, we could have been talking about that instead of waiting for the people to see what Trump actually meant. - Yeah, I'm destroying black and brown lives. - Right, in to see what it's like. And I think in the long, and this is gonna be a big test in 2028, is how Democrats navigate these issues in a way that is not just, it's playing the long game. - Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupie setting mist from Mabelie, New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new groupie setting mist from Mabelie, New York. - Maybe it's Mabelie. - Yeah, well, if you want real reform, and if you want real rights, you have to convince, you have to make an argument to the American public. And right now, we're just playing at the far right end of the field, and there needs to be a fulsome discussion about what, actually, like what protecting these groups of people, or at least giving them a pathway to citizenship in terms of immigration, like what that actually would look like. - It requires a level of deafness that doesn't lend itself to a 30 second ad per se, but over the course of the campaign. - Which is why this makes sense for an ad. It makes sense in the last six weeks of this race. But, like, there is a looming shadow ahead, and all these issues are gonna need to be actually tackled in a meaningful way ahead of 2028. - Pots of America breaking news is brought to you by Zipper Cruder. With everyday interactions becoming increasingly impersonal, someone going just one extra step can be huge. Like when my doctor takes the time to call me with test results instead of sending them electronically, they came back positive for gay. It makes me feel like a human being again. If you're hiring, great candidates can also go the extra step and tell you why they're interested in your job on Zipper Cruder as a way to stand out from others in the pool. And Zipper Cruder has a new feature showing you the most interested qualified candidates first. So you can meet the right people faster. Zipper Cruder's powerful matching technology finds qualified candidates quickly. Candidates can tell you in their own words why they're interested in your job. 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He then took tens of thousands of dollars from China linked real estate developers. In other words, Ken Paxton. - Soul text sub-china. - Vote for James Talleriko. He's never been to China. All right, what do you think of this spot? - I mean, I've been to China and it's a wonderful place to visit. It's filled with a very rich history. I don't think there's anything wrong with visiting Shanghai and Hongzhou and Beijing. - What about Macau? - Macau's another to gambling house. We get a hotspot for gambling. There's a latent yellow scare element to this that I don't love, right? But if the essence of it is really to focus on the corruption of Ken Paxton, there's fertile ground there, right? There's golden there hills. - Yes. - And I like the kind of Ken Paxton is a bozo aspect to this, the sort of winzy here is good. Because if you think about Ken Paxton, again, a known quantity in Texas politics, he is a bozo. Like it's, I think, a better way of getting the message home than sort of dark, foreboding, nefarious pitch. This is kind of like, look at this, look at what this asshole's been up to. And in that way, maybe it's more resonant. - Yeah, the Paxton campaign and the Republicans here Paxton made this big issue that I don't even understand the merits of the argument, which I expect to be complete bullshit, but that somehow James Tolerico has pro-China and sold out, sold out Texas, the Chinese interest. - Yeah. - Doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm not sure it's entirely legal that a state rap can sell out a state to China, that people think that's possible. But I was interested, I want to play this ad because even though I generally don't love the, my opponent said this, I'm going to repeat the attack in my own ad that I'm going to rebut it ad, I do think that this is one of the first well-done versions of that very, very tired form of response set, which is, and what you said, it's not dark and foreboding, it doesn't use the same voice ever when it uses, then it uses cleverly Paxton's own voice to be sort of the via with the ad, and it's memorable in a way that most of these ads aren't. - Yes, totally. And yeah, the visuals are good. I mean, it drills at home and you can believe that Ken Paxton would be taking tens of thousand dollars in Chinese donations 'cause he's crooked because that's kind of how Ken Paxton do. - Yeah, it's like Trump is the compacts at the national level of this incredibly corrupt figure, but just because he's Trump, he's able to accuse others of being corrupt and have it not being able to family with his chin. Right, he's able to do it with Hillary, who was, you know, sort of uniquely vulnerable to that attack for reasons that are not entirely her own fault. He did have a Joe Biden, it didn't really work with Joe Biden, but Ken Paxton's not the Trump. He doesn't have the charisma, doesn't have the charm, and he doesn't have the billions of dollars that Trump had to sort of say, like, I can't be bought. Like, people sort of didn't really think Trump could be bought, that seems insane because he's being bought, you know, he's being, you know, purchased and sold every single day. - Not really. - Both in cash and crypto. But like Paxton, just by calling Tel Rico corrupt is meant once to make the campaign about corruption, which seems to be a mistake for Paxton and my deal. - Yeah, and also anytime you can show Ken Paxton speaking, the least electric public speaker ever, the Leaf compelling. speak or ever, I think that's a good thing. I just also like an ad for the calorie co-campaign that is predicated on Ken Paxon's terrible record, right? Yes. Because that's probably the most winning hand they have to play. He's just an abominable candidate. This is not for this video, but it really is worth exploring one day. How can Paxon got to be where he is? 'Cause there's like, it doesn't even read Texas. Yes, but there's like this long history of these like corrupt politicians who were filled with charisma. Donald Trump obviously being one of them, that our brand of charisma, but it is charisma. Oh, yeah. You know, like Huey Long just like Berlusconi across the world, they're all of a type. And Paxon is corrupt with zero personality, zero fame, and yet he kept getting elected. He's the kind of guy you would expect to wear a vest to a grocery store. I bet he and my graduate skin spend a lot of time hanging out at some sort of Senate Loser Support Club one day. Can't wait. It'll be right over by the Asparagus section to the left of the cereal. That's excellent. Alex Wagner, thanks for joining us as always. And before everyone goes, very important, very important mandatory requirement for having watched this video. Go by Alex's incredible. Go by my new book, The Deal. Tell people what's about real fast. It is about the corrupt, speaking of corruption. Yes. It's about the shadowy secret conservative plan to seize the judiciary as a partisan weapon. And it's a secret plot on the part of four Republican operatives takes place in the Reagan 80s. It's true, but it reads like fiction. And it's called the steel for Republican hardliners, one Republican presidency and the raid on America's court. Here's how it is private, informative, fascinating, and propulsive. All right, Alex. Thank you so much. Thanks, Dan. Thank you. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupy setting mist from Mabelie, New York. 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