Trump suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of his own acting attorney General Todd Blanch. He was forced by the Senate Republicans to terminate the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. Could this be the beginning of a full-on anti-Trump revolt in the GOP, or just a one-off moment of Republican defiance? Yeah, we have different views on that, Anthony, so tune in to listen to that. Meanwhile, over in Michigan, the Senate primary, turning into a crazy, vicious civil war within the Democratic Party, you've got the fire-grant, progressive versus the establishment moderate. Is this going to be the contest that decides the future of the Senate, but also gives us an indication of what 2028 is going to look like? So, Anthony, first of all, before we get to all of that, welcome back from your holiday. You're looking tanned, fit, healthy. You'll be glad to hear that we have started, canceled, lost, and won the war in Iran multiple times since you've been away, so I hope that you were resting and ignored all of that. Well, did you sign up for the $100,000 fast social media tweeting? Yeah, because we debated that here in the family, whether or not that was a good thing to do, but let me just say before we start anything else, I have buddies of mine that have screens, trading desk screens. One of the screen is a fast internet feed into Trump's truth social tweets. That's where we are in America. That's where we are globally right now with the President of the United States. And I guess the more time he stops and starts the war or says he's going to bomb and then doesn't bomb the more money they're making. And I was very happy to learn that we won the war again for the 107th time while I was away, Caddy. We have missed you. Let's talk about top lengths and I missed you guys too. I want to talk about the politics of leaving the Senate for one second. We have two men that are leaving the Senate, Tom Tillis and John Corning, they're leaving the Senate and guess what they have power over the President. Can you imagine that, Caddy? And so they are in a position of half you and this is the right thing to do. We weren't willing to do the right thing prior to this although Tillis was to be fair. Corning was not, but now we're both willing to do the right thing, F you and look at what happened, Caddy. I love the way you operate because you jump straight in with your analysis and takes on this and just assume that everybody knows exactly what's going on. That's the way your brain works. It's great. I like it. So tell us what's going on and then I'll bring in my analysis. Okay. Little rusty. I've been off for a week. I'm a little rusty. Itching to go. You've come back from Hawaii and you are itching to go, itching to jump in there. Okay. So what's happened is that here we are on Monday, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general is trying to get confirmed as attorney general. He was running up against opposition from Republicans because of this weaponization fund that would have given public taxpayer money to potentially January the sixth rioters, Republicans, including John Corning, the senator who was from Texas, who was kind of ousted by Donald Trump and Thomas Tillis, who's run up against Donald Trump. They were saying we can't confirm Todd Blanche until we know in writing that this weaponization fund has been canceled. They hated the idea of these people getting money. Anyway, so Todd Blanche then comes back over the weekend and says, yep, in writing it has been rescinded. The weaponization fund, this presumably, clears the way for him to be confirmed as attorney general. But I have a little bit of a different take on this than you. I'm not sure the Senate spine is quite as robust and ironclad as you're making it out to be. I didn't say no. There are two lame duck senators that push back on the situation and cause the president and Blanche to capitulate. That's terrible when you think about it. The lame duck status of these two people retires in January. What happens after January? I believe that he was dead as a doorknown prior to him sending that written statement. Otherwise they would have never sent the written statement because Trump has nowhere to go, Caddy. So who is he going to put in charge of the Department of Justice? Norm Eisen? Is that the person he's going to put in charge? He's been beating him with every court case. He has nowhere to go. There's no. He has his buddy willing to do his bidding, who is now being handshacked by two senators. And those two senators in January will not be there to handshack him anymore. Book out. But what's your take? It's interesting because legal analysts are suggesting this morning that actually there is nothing in what Todd Blant wrote over the weekend that would prevent Trump or the White House from settling individual lawsuits that had been brought by January the 6th rioters and paying them out of some general fund. And we know that Trump said on Sunday evening in an interview that a lot of people still like the fund and that the January the 6th rioters, this is how he phrased it, should have been reimbursed for the pain that they suffered. And he's clearly, okay, he's got a nod to MAGA there, yes, Todd Blant, he's going to come out and say that this fund has been rescinded, but don't worry, I still like the fund. I know that you still like the fund. And in a way that. And I think because there is this kind of legal ambiguity about, could it be invoked again? Is it dead forever? Could he really not make sure that January the 6th rioters on an individual basis were paid? The question for Tom Tillis and Senator John Corning is, did they want the optics of a battle with Trump to prove their independence and to piss off the White House and to show that they had a backbone, or did they want to win the actual battle and make sure that the January the 6th rioters never received a cent of taxpayer money? Because if it was the latter, I'm not sure they won that battle. Okay, all those are valid points. I guess the other question is, does the paper actually do what they asked? That's the other thing I'd be worried about with Trump, you know? And does it foreclose the payouts? And then, definitionally, this IRS immunity clarification is that his narrowest Corning wanted. Okay, when you read it, it's the little species to me. So. To explain that a little bit, just how what that means for Trump and for his family. Yeah, so basically what they're saying is that the forward immunity will not be standing, but the backward immunity, meaning his prior tax returns, they're leaving alone, but they're going to leave open the question of him and his family on his forward tax returns. So God only knows what he did as prior tax returns, but I don't know if that's going to stand either, Cadi, because like I'm going to get confirmed and then I'm going to do a switch or rule on you guys because I'm Trump's attorney general. And I have to blow with the wind the way that Trump blows. I mean, I'm not hearing Trump on Sunday in that interview, say, "Actually, you know what, that was a really bad idea. I think the Justice Department has to drop this and the senators are quite right. The January the 6th Patriots should not actually be getting taxpayer money." I didn't hear him say that. No, he's saying the very opposite. He's saying he wants it and he's going to want the states to keep it in place, blah, blah, blah. But Cadi, the thing about this is that there's never any teeth from the Senate, Republican, Democratic Senate, no teeth on the Iran War, no teeth on Todd Blanche. I mean, they pushed out Poulty and they beat up on Clayton to get the DNI job, but there's really no teeth here. And so my fear is that there will never be any teeth of these guys and Trump will run rampage even after the midterms. I would just say to these guys not that they would listen to me, "You got this guy. He can't go anywhere other than Todd Blanche. He does not have a number two. He can't draw somebody from the book." He figured out in his first term that Jeff Sessions wanted to do what was appropriate for the government. I.E. special prosecutors, I.E. some distance from the White House. He does not want that. He fired his first attorney general in this term, Pam Bondi, because Pam Bondi didn't get the memo. Pam Bondi thought, "We're ready to release the Epstein files." "Hey, dummy, I was just saying that in the campaign. We're not ready to release the Epstein files." And oh, by the way, your job is to protect my ass and to be my family law firm. And Todd Blanche gets that. And I'm just letting these senators know there's no other person out there that would take the role that Todd Blanche is in right now. Do you want to know what else has no teeth, Anthony? Janine Piro, the U.S. attorney for District of Columbia's case, against former Olympic canoes, David Hearn, for vandalizing the reflecting pool. Apparently, actually, this was not vandalism. This was just a really bad job by the president's hand-picked pool company. To repair the. I love this story so much about the reflecting pool because it is the gift that keeps on giving when it tells us about the incredible incompetence of the White House over things like this. Not to mention Iran, but over the reflecting pool. Anyway.
What happened was, quick update, the administration said that this guy, David Herne, former Olympic medalist, former Olympic canoeist had vandalized the pool on July the 2nd Janine Piro, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, comes out with a scathing criticism of Herne saying that he was a vandal. Anyway, now it turns out that he's not a vandal and that vandalism is not what the problem was on the pool and they have dropped the case for lack of evidence with Janine Piro dumping on the department of the interior and saying, well, I didn't have all of the evidence when I came out on July the 2nd in a kind of storm of, you know, heat and storm of, you know, anger and saying that this was all David Herne's fault. Actually, sorry, I didn't have the evidence from the Department of Interior. It's all their fault. But now I realize being a prosecutor, I cannot go before a judge with a totally made-up case because I have some self-respect as a lawyer, apparently, and I am going to drop this case at which point President Trump says, yes, of course, you should drop the case. There's not enough evidence and this was a very bad job that was done by this company, Mayor Cooper, right? And I think that's exactly what he says or not. Well, listen, she disqualified herself from being the Todd Blanche replacement. Actually, because what just happened was he's looking at his list. He's saying, okay, who are my lapdogs, Todd is my lapdog. Janine is my lapdog. Oh, wait a minute. Janine is pulling the case and she dismissed without prejudice, which means that they could file the claim again. What was left out of all of this, Caddy, is on June 11th. There was an email from the government's own engineer. It predicted the exact spot of the failure in the walls that would lead to this green effect on the reflecting pool. And so let me just explain this from a legal perspective because I used to be one. You know, I went to law school, took the ethics exams, et cetera. You can't bring a case like this, have that evidence before you, and not get disborded. Okay. And remember, they don't have presidential immunity. They have to follow the protocol of the American Bar Association. So those lawyers are going to Janine Puro and saying, I know the president wants us to bring this case. But here's all the evidence. And by the way, we can't destroy the evidence because they've got it anyway. Okay. You're not going to bleach bit the evidence from our own government engineer that said this thing failed and had nothing to do with vandalism. So Janine, what would you like to do? She's like, I got to drop the case. And then here comes Trump with the hammer. Now somebody said, oh, she's going to get fired over this. She's not going to get fired over this. I don't think she's going to get fired over this. She's got no, he's got nowhere to go, guys. Where's he going to go? He's going to put someone else in her job. But the hammer was pretty good. I mean, the way, because I was being a little facetious earlier when I suggested that Trump said, okay, there's no evidence. So you're quite right, Janine Puro to drop the case because actually what he did was on truth social. Because what he posted, I have to read this, I disagree 100% with Janine Puro. The major damage was caused by vandals. To me, it was a pure case of vandalism. I think that to me is doing an awful lot of work there. Because I don't know where he's getting his legal advice from. But what Janine Puro has realized is that loyalty to Trump only goes one way, right? Time and again, whether you are, I mean, name the host of former people in Trump's circle, Pompeo, I mean, the rest of it, who have realized Corning, Tillis Cassidy, who have all realized that you can be loyal to Trump. But if you're, if he deems you're not loyal enough, he pulls the plug on you. I just want to say before we go to another topic, there's no halo on Janine Puro. No, I agree with you. She did not find a conscience. She found exposure. She had that information from the beginning. She had all of that camera information. David home was never a vandal. It was very clear to the whole public, to the whole country. I mean, it was a joke, right? The case was a joke from the beginning. She came up against what's called the discovery calendar in a criminal lawsuit. And guess what? In this country, we still have criminal procedure. And we still have your innocent until proven guilty rights in the country. So even though the orange bloviator wants to put the guy in jail for absolutely no reason, so that he can have a scapegoat on this disaster. But whatever. Cady, I want you to address this because Maggie Heyberman said this over the weekend. I listened to her on an interview. And I was like, she is, I think she's right, but I want to get your opinion. She said that in her evaluation of Trump, he's spending 70% of his time on building renovation, reflecting pools, arc the triumphs, White House ballrooms, a gluing with a glue stick, a gold on places in the overall office and he's putting gold left for anymore gold. He can't do anymore. He's putting, he's talking about now putting gold on the first floor in the blue and the red room and all these different places. So do you think that that's right? That Trump is 70% focused on that? I mean, that's amazing. I mean, it's certainly something, look, he's tweeting about it even over the course of the weekend, tweeting out his, his Sundays are maximum truth, social AI slot reposting from the president. He did it again this weekend. He did it the weekend before this one where he suddenly gets into a slew of posting pictures of himself as Elvis or pitch themselves as George Washington or whatever it is. But another one he's posting, of course, is about the reflecting pool and also about the art to triumph with a great big gold set of wings on the top of it. Even that's not going to be enough. But he, I think, is it 70% of the time? I don't know, Maggie Habermann's a very sober journalist. She follows Trump's schedule much more closely than I do, but I know that it is causing a lot of frustration. I mean, you had John Kennedy over the weekend, Republican loyalist from Louisiana on Meet the Press, you know, saying the quiet part out loud, not knowing whether Trump really believes this or not and saying that it's all part of his political messaging. This was his words. He grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought. I thought that was really interesting to hear Kennedy, who's, you know, a fan of the presidents and is liked in Maga World, come out openly on air and start questioning the president's motives and basically saying, can you drop this? Let's just, this was a, what do you call it? Multi-vehicle pile up or something and that Piro is smart to drop the case. So he's not going to find much support. I think either for his DC building projects or for trying to stick by legal cases that don't hold water. So, so let me explain this to people. If somebody in the White House hates John Kennedy, they will take an iPad and they will take the clips that you're describing and they will bring those to President Trump. And he'll be sitting there with his Diet Coke, his 17th Diet Coke and they'll say, look at this guy and Trump will look at it and he'll get angry and then he'll turn to whoever gave it to him and said, okay, call Dan Scavino and let's have an angry tweet lacing into John Kennedy or Trump will say, hmm, I need the guy, right? Like if you notice Susan Collins, she excoriates Trump here and there. She's on the campaign trail beating up on him. New York Times did really good reporting on this over the weekend. Trump says nothing and there's no iPad presentation of what she's saying because they know if they present that the Trump Trump will look at them and say, hey, I got to have her win up there. Even though I hate her guts, I got to have her win up there. Keep your mouth shut. We go after Crenshaw. We go after Corning because they're in red states. You see what I mean? So John Kennedy is in Louisiana, but he's not stable. He's a red state. He's not going anywhere right now. Not being primaries. Not for reelection. So my guess is Trump will do nothing, but I just want to explain to people how the outrage goes inside the White House. They know exactly how to trigger Trump and would buttons to press. And so the Kennedy thing won't reach the button pressing for them. They're more into the AI kissing the crucifix right now and they're into the AI showing Trump leading the revolutionary war and the garb of George Washington or Trump with an alien in shackles. That was a funny one. Worth watch. I mean, you know, it's good entertainment, which again, you know, if you've paid $100,000 a month for your high speed, true social speed, you're getting a lot of entertaining AI slop, I guess. I don't know where the alien came from, but the alien came from the distraction business. They want everything that distracts from the affordability issue. They want everything to distract from the war. And so the alien is another good thing. Oh, maybe they're going to divulge more stuff about the aliens. Let's for they've divulged absolutely nothing other than a few pictures that don't even look like anything. So, so, so, Cady, recognize what he wants and don't ever forget this. Everybody listening, please listen. He wants money. He's accomplishing that and he wants your attention. Okay. But I think, Cady, we have reached peak Trump. We're coming down the other side of the mountain. I think we are watching Trump exhaustion syndrome. Yes, we have Trump derangement syndrome. We have Trump reality syndrome, but we also have Trump.
exhaustion. Sure. I think people are looking around saying enough guy. Okay. I got, you know, I was in Maui. It's $11.50 at the local supermarket to buy eggs. Okay. The guy that drove me from the airport, he said, "Hey, mooch, I've got 60 chickens on my backyard. I'm feeding my neighbors. I've got these chickens. They're running around on the backyard. I'm feeding them mostly, you know, organic stuff and they're making eggs for the neighborhood." Okay. $11.50 for eggs, guys. Okay. You got to pay attention. Okay. That's crazy. $7.00 a gallon for gasoline in certain areas because you got to, you know, you got to ship the gasoline into an island like that. And it's unfair, guys. And I'm not here to pat Joe Biden on the back, but let's pat him on the back for a second because you had a rising economy and you had lowering inflation. Dumb, dumb puts in the tariffs and then he starts an unnecessary war. Okay. And I'm going to submit to everybody listening. Those were distractions for the money machine that him and his family put together. Okay. And I think he disclosed some of it, not all of it, the $2.2 billion that he has supposedly disclosed that he's made. I believe he's made way more than that. And they're probably sitting in all. And again, I know this is a British podcast. So this is my personal opinion before Fiona comes on and says, you got to say it's your personal opinion. In other words, my personal opinion, the guy is going crazy on the money collection business. And you know, he's pissed off at the Lutniks because he's like, where's my big guys? The Lutniks are making money without me. I want my big from everybody. Right? The Wall Street Journal reported that. He's got that woman calling all of these people up and saying, "I need more money for this pool, the ballroom, this, that, and the people are getting exhausted from the guy, Katty." I think you're right. I think people have been exhausted by Trump, though, for a while. It doesn't stop him making money. And meanwhile, even if we've passed peak Trump in terms of popularity, which all of the opinions polls are showing, he's at record low popularity, even by the standards of other presidents, apart from Nixon just before he left office. No one's ever been this unpopular in office in American politics, in the American presidency. It doesn't mean that he isn't going to carry on making a ton load of money. I mean, there is, you know, if Don Jr. is out there telling everybody he wants to be the richest family in the world by the time Trump leaves office, you bet they've made more than $2.2 billion because that's not good. They'll get them anywhere near Elon Musk levels of wealth. So I suspect you're right. Other money is being made along the way. Meanwhile, the American legal system, time and again, acting as the only bulwark, we saw it with a reflecting pool. We are seeing it with Todd Blanche that actually it's the courts that are going and the legal system being put under enormous strain, but acting as the kind of bulwark against constitutional collapse. But I want to give good news before we take the break. I want everybody to remember this is he's not running for a third term. No, because he has set himself up in a certain way where he definitely is not running these poll numbers and his lack of regard for them is more evidence of that. Okay, we could take a break now, but I just want people, when he's putting up Trump 2028, that's to trigger you and to make you want to vomit before your breakfast, but he's not doing, he's not running. I just want to make sure everybody knows that. Just like when he puts up a post over the weekend of Trump looking covetously at the country of Greenland, Island of Greenland, that also is just to trigger you. Okay, we'll be back and talk about Michigan. This episode is brought to you by H sleep. Summer is here and while midterm election campaign dominate American politics, the rest of us are actually trying to enjoy the sun and survive those terribly hot sleepless nights. And you know, Caddy, how much I love air conditioning and this eight sleep for me and my family is an absolute game changer. If you want to wake up, not groggy for your morning meetings, that's where the pod five by eight sleep helps. It's a smart mattress cover that uses AI to track your health and sleep patterns. Even when it's hot out, you can manage the process of your spouse is cold. She can be warm on one side, you can be cold on the other side. It's just a fantastic thing. Use the code
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[email protected]/tripus. You even get 30 days to try at home and return it if you don't love it, but I'm confident you will. Welcome back to the rest of the politics us. Caddy, we're going on tour, Caddy. So exciting. Big, big tour. Lots of venues are sold out already, but they're still tickets left in certain venues. Where are we going, Caddy? We are going to Georgia and Toronto and Boston and Chicago and Minneapolis and D.C. and New York City. Go to the rest as politicsus.com and buy some tickets. Buy some tickets for a friend, a loved one. We're going to be there to answer your questions and hang out with you. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I can't wait to get to some of these cities, especially Minneapolis where I haven't been in a while, Caddy. I'm looking for you. Minneapolis has been so much in the heart of American politics over the last year and a half. It will be super interesting. In fact, more than that. Ever since the George Floyd killing, it'll be very interesting to see what's happening in Minneapolis. It'll be fun for us. We hope it's going to be fun for you as well. Talking of the midterm elections, let's talk about Michigan and the Democratic Senate primary that is happening there. It's now become a kind of unbelievably vicious civil war within the Democratic Party between Abdel El-Syad and the four-term congresswoman representative Haley Stevens, who are running sort of from the establishment wing of the party and the progressive wing of the party. All of the polls, Anthony, showing that Abdel El-Syad, who is advocating on a platform of Medicare for all against money in politics, against a American aid to Israel, that he is ahead of the polls. I spoke to a Democratic congresswoman Debbie Dingell from Michigan last night to get her thoughts on the race. She is worried about the fact that it has become so much of a bitter fight between these two slagging each other off on social media that how does the party unify? Because actually the challenge is up against the Republican Mike Rogers, who's going to be running for that Senate seat. And I think it's going to be difficult for the party to come back from this level of vitriol. This is the problem with the primary process, is it sets candidates against each other in a way that can get very intense and very personal. And I think whoever wins the primary, it looks like it's going to be Abdel El-Syad, is going to have a problem trying to get, you know, the whole of the party united behind them. There are going to be people who stay home with either candidate, because if Haley Stevens were to defy the polls and win, you're going to get a lot of that energy that Abdel El-Syad undoubtedly has. He's, I don't think his supporters are all going to turn out and vote for Haley Stevens, but you're going to have some of it vice versa as well. And the establishment Democrats are saying he can't win in the suburbs, he can't perhaps win with African American voters, that he is too progressive for some more conservative Democrats. How do you see this one shaping? I think it's a critical race. I think this is setting, in a way, this is the opening pitch of the 2028 presidential election, because if the progressives win, if Abdel El-Syad wins in November, then I think the progressives will have a lot more say in the nomination of who runs for the Democratic nomination for President come to 2028, don't you? I don't know. The reason I'm hesitating is there's a lot going on here, but the thing that I'm glaring at, Cadi, I'm going to give you this number. It's 30 million. 638,639. That's from the United Democracy Project, which is APEC, which is the, these are Americans, it's not a foreign entity, these are Americans that support Israel. It's the American Israel political action committees super PAC. It's the largest single race investment ever that they put into this race. So, to me, I'm not in love with that, by the way, because what Al-Syad is right about is the money. Why I think he's going to lose, and I'm just going to make this prediction. You think he's going to lose in the primary, or I think he's going to lose in the general? No, he's going to win the primary, for sure, but he's going to lose, he's going to win the primary, in fact, don't go by me, the calcium market has him at 97% to win the primary, but he's going to lose the general election. And I think this will be a blow to the democratic socialists. And remember, it's a swing state, but the reason why he's going to lose the general election, it has to do with the culture. And I think what these guys are misunderstanding about America is America is not ready. If they were smarter politicians, they would boil the frog a lot more slowly, Caddy. And so what Mike Rogers is going to do, and he's an effective politician.
He's going to play the culture card here and I think he's going to beat them, but what I don't like is the amount of money that's going into this race and because anybody that looks at this knows, if this money is incredibly corruptive to the society, we are legislative agendas are skewed to big business, big pharma, big food, tax cuts for the rich, corporate and crony capitalism, and this race is a representation of all of that. I think there is a risk for the Republicans and Democrats, by the way, if they lose in November, they don't take back the Senate. I think everybody is pretty much agreed on that. They have to hold this Michigan Senate seat, otherwise, they can't take over the Senate. So the stakes are incredibly high for Abdullah-Sahed. This is not just a kind of hypothetical test run on power, but I've been struck by how much this race has become to get your point about APAC and the money that has gone into it and the supposition is that if Abdullah-Sahed wins, there's a lot more money going into this race against him as well because he won't come out and say that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state and that has caused a lot of anxiety, obviously, amongst supporters of the state of Israel and America. But I think what the progressives might be mistaking here is a nationwide movement in favor of democratic socialist progressive policies. They might be thinking that is what driving this, and I'm just wondering whether actually what's driving this race and putting him ahead is that he is a candidate of exceptional political talent. Ron Fornier, who's such a good journalist, who's covered Michigan, lives in Michigan, is just so smart on American politics, has put out an article over the weekend saying that he hasn't seen this kind of talent since he first covered Bill Clinton in 1992. He's been around a while. He's looked at everybody. He said, you know, Abdullah-Sahed has it. He can command a room whether it's a small room of moderates or a big group of activists. But contrast, Haley Stevens, has been a terrible candidate, awkward, fumbling, bad team around her. And actually, maybe this is just a competition between somebody who's a really good candidate and somebody who is a really poor candidate and progressives are slightly a risk of taking away the wrong message, which is that this is, yes, there's dissatisfaction with money and politics understandably and there's dissatisfaction with the system not delivering for working class people. But I'm not sure that that's the nationwide message that they ought to take away from this. It could just be that he's really, he's a bit madani-like. He's really good. And I accept all that and people like that sort of feel good, get stuff for free message. But talk about the, like, the ability data, Caddy, you know, talk about how he compares to Rogers and how fumbling Stevens compares to Rogers from a polling perspective. Yeah. I mean, that's interesting because at the moment he is what he's got the final Emerson poll has him outside 15 points ahead of Stevens in the primary voters. But in a general election, Rogers leads L. Syerd, 49 to 38, Stevens ties Rogers at 45 to 45, pretty much 45 to 44. Bernie Sanders has been out on the campaign trail for a long time, particularly with the amount of base anger that there is in the Democratic Party, saying that the establishment of the party has got it wrong, saying that they should always go for the safe, moderate candidate, and that's who can win in purple states like Michigan is an establishment candidate who can win the suburbs. That's been the establishment's message for a long time. It's still the establishment's message. And there is actually no polling to suggest that Bernie Sanders is right because there is not a single poll showing L. Syerd ahead of Rogers in November. Now, maybe once he's the candidate, Anthony, that changes and the Democratic Party potentially rallies around him. We'll go given how divisive this race has been. That might be harder now. And he might get a whole load of money coming in and a whole load of media attention coming in. And Michigan Democrats may decide, okay, he is our candidate. We are going to go with him. But at the moment, there is not the polling data to support the L. Syerd argument and the Bernie Sanders argument that progressives can win statewide, let alone nationwide against Republican candidates. So he's kind of running on an argument that slightly doesn't exist at the moment. If you watch some of his videos, the great videos of him like water skiing and kind of, you know, with American flags. I mean, it's Kong's team are really good. And he is a natural light. Mamdan, he was a natural on social media too. He's really good at that stuff. So maybe he can do it. Maybe he can get the energy. I think it's important to let everybody know that this is the highest population of Arab Americans, the state of Michigan. And so his messaging in the state is, I think, ringing for a lot of those people. I want to talk a little bit about Governor Whitmer for a second. She obviously beat him in a primary when he was 33 years old. That was in 2018. So we're a waste from that now. He's a much more seasoned guy. And she did something very different than our governor here. Kathy Holkall endorsed, spiked the objection of Hakeem Jeffries and others that are more establishment in the Democratic Party, including Chuck Schumer. She endorsed Mandani. And I think that was a good move for her because I'm a Mandani one. I didn't like it because I was supporting Cuomo, but it was a good move for Whitmer went the other way and endorsed Stephen. So what do you think about that? Because I think he wins this and how does that affect her and him and does that matter, Kathy? I've been speaking over the weekend to people that have spent a lot of time in Michigan and to people who are from Michigan. And people are very frustrated with where Whitmer has handled this. They're also frustrated with Alissa Slokkin, the senator, the Democratic Senator from Michigan, the other Democratic Senator from Michigan who was elected a couple of years ago and the way that she has handled this. I mean, it's just a kind of vipers nest up in Michigan. I don't know what's happened to the Democratic Party. And I think Whitmer has damaged herself so much by that fateful trip that she did to the White House to try to negotiate a good deal for Michigan over tariffs, I think it was. And she's caught there in the Oval Office because they suddenly usher her in and she doesn't know there's going to be cameras and she puts up this binder to try and hide her face. I mean, it was just couldn't have been worse for her. So she is kind of out as a presidential candidate, but she's pissing off a lot of people in the Democratic Party by the way that she's handled this race in Michigan. I don't think it helps her necessarily all the Democratic Party the way she did this. What do you think? At least she got off the dime. Slotnik didn't make an endorsement. Yeah, she didn't make an endorsement at all. At the end of the day, if you have political capital, I think you have to use it. You know, she spent none of her political capital and it makes her look weak. Slotkin. So yeah, so I don't know. He's going to win. That's my prediction. Obviously 97% of the prediction market. So I don't think I'm being bold in saying that. But I think he's going to get his ass kicked by Rogers. And I think the Democrats are going to be scratching their heads saying, why did we do that one? Why did we let that one go? You know, Talleriko has a better chance against Paxton. I agree. And literally Paxton gets up in the morning caddy and says, okay, I've blown my left foot off. So let me get the shotgun out and see if I can take out the right foot. Okay, every morning he's trying to shoot a body part. I don't know what this guy is doing, but it just goes to show you about the machinery in Texas. It's still relatively tied. Talleriko has run almost a flawless campaign and is ahead and is ahead of some of the polling now. He's now about four points ahead. Could you imagine if Texas goes to the Democrats because of Donald Trump's super way thin skin? Could you imagine if Michigan goes to the Republicans because of this and Texas goes to the Democrats? We're in a crazy world, Anthony Scaramucci. Welcome to the rest is dysfunctional politics. U.S. My God. By the way, the Democrats have a chance. You know, Trump is super unpopular. The Iran war is super unpopular. The tariffs are unpopular. Prices are high. They're paying $11 in Hawaii for eggs. The Republican brand is unpopular. There is nothing that the Democrats shouldn't be able to seize on here. There should be a very good moment for them. And yet they are spending it, fighting with each other in ways that are going to make it hard for them to compete in the midterms, especially at the Senate level in November. There's a culture war going on. Yes, there's affordability and stuff like that, but there's a culture war going on and the Democrats wake up. Got to fight the culture. And maybe we could both be eating humble pie in November and Elsiad could win. In which case, the Republicans need to wake up because it could suggest that this whole progressive movement is a little bit like the Tea Party movement in 2008 that led us to the freedom caucus that led us to mega. And we may be missing. And the Republican Party may be missing the beginning of a huge national genuine wave and sea change in American politics. I'm not saying that's not possible. But what's going to be so exciting about midterms, I think, and races like this Michigan race, it's that will point the way. Are we at the beginning of a Tea Party movement? Or is this a flash in the pan of progressives thinking they can change America and fundamentally change American politics when they can't? They can change primaries, but can they win at the national level? I think we'll get a much bigger sense of that in November. How much will APEC spend in the general election? Oh, they are going to spend a fortune in this Michigan race. 30 million is going to look like nothing compared to what they will spend. It's going to be a way
Well, watch race, we'll see what happens. - And that'll give us some sense of which direction the Democratic Party is going in 2028, which will be watched by one vice president, JD Vance. Before we go, just to let you know that we have something very exciting for you this Thursday, we're gonna run the first episode of our brand new series on JD Vance that we've been recording. I'm excited for you all to hear this. Antony, I thought his story was fascinating. He comes from this background that inspires a lot of empathy. It's amazing that he's been as successful as he has, given the kind of childhood that he had and the amount of violence and his mother being in rehab, in an out of rehab and the kind of poverty levels that he grew up with in Ohio. And then you see him kind of explaining the American working class to American liberals after Donald Trump's 2016 win with his hit book, Hillbilly Elegy, and then you see him more again from being never Trumper to being Trump's most extraordinary ally and can he survive the Trump wrath that seems to be visited on anyone that gets too close to Trump and thinks they can ride Trump's coattails. I thought it was so interesting to go into his background and so helpful to understand him today. I mean, what we learn by doing this, though, is he's the identity chameleon. This is his third name change. He is now James David Vance. He took on his grandmother's name. He just celebrated his 42nd birthday. Imagine how young he is, Gatti. If he were to send the presidency today, he would be the youngest person in the history of the United States as an example. He just had a brand new baby. There's a lot going on in this guy's life and he is, 'cause we've done a lot of research on him. He's incredibly smart, Gatti. I think it would be hoove people as a sign up and listen to this four-part show, 'cause it'll give you a lot of insight to who this guy is and he is going to be a player in 2028 and he is where the people like it or not, he's one heartbeat away from the American presidents. - But we are running the first episode for everybody on Thursday, so you get a chance to listen to that. We hope you enjoy it. - Okay guys, we'll see you later. - Thanks guys. (upbeat music)
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