Transcript of 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.

Ten years ago, I'd have been like, you're 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 Cricut Con.

Yes, we are.

The Saturday after Tuesday.

Yes.

Hopefully celebrating.

It's going to be one emotional night.

Or pass us off.

Either a high feeling or a very low one.

I know. We got to.

There's no middle ground.

I know. I know.

It's going to be great. Cricut Con is shaping up. There's some amazing programming. We're going to have you on the panel. We have Jessica Tarlov from Fox.

I love the great designer.

Democracy. Brian Tyler Cohen. I mean, we just 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 no matter what happens in the aftermath of November 3rd. So I'm excited for it.

Speaking of rallying progressives, let's just go ahead and get right to doing what we do best, which is MAGA bashing. All right. So Fox News now.

Yeah.

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. 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, corruption is number one.

Okay, stop there and leave that up. This corruption number.

Yeah.

Of 88% is massive. And then the gas prices, 83%. Gas prices are just something you can't spend.

No.

Because you used to pay $50 to fill up your tank, then it's $100. You cannot spend that away. What's your take on Fox preparing the Foxers that potentially the tsunami is incoming?

Right. Their descent onto 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 7000-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 their, you know, reality and financial prudence has dawned on them. They have to prime.

That's such a good point.

They have to prime the 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. And 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.

And I hadn't thought about it until you just said it, but they have a billion reasons not to lie.

They 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.

Yeah.

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. It has 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 this you see evidence of this. Like, I had to attend a lot of Trump rallies when I was co-hosting a show called The Circus, which was a documentary series on.

Yeah.

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 guy's lost his fastball.

Just my.

Right? Like, just you don't know where the sort of latent homosexuality and 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.

Totally.

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. 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 campaign trail?

Yes.

I mean.

Yes. But and thank you for reminding me of that.

And so I called this of excellent gaydar and I was like, something's going on here. And then he was listening to Phantom of the Opera. And then we have, you know, the.

YMCA.

YMCA.

Village 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.

You moved it to the column of.

I moved it to solidly gay.

Yeah. I mean, 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. His really toxic, aggressive, some would say, criminal behavior towards women.

Yeah.

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, armchair.

Well, you take it into the the story of his life with Roy Cohn playing such an integral part of it. It just seems like, wow. I mean, it's really fascinating watching these broken people with massive inner child issues, major.

Absolutely.

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 fundamentalist sect of some religion. And you see all of these things colluding together.

Well, and I think you're so right about pegging 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.

Yeah.

Of of erecting those facades anymore. And so you get these we this 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 addled, desperate, delusional mind full of, you know, dark dreams of retribution.

No doubt.

On January 4th, ready to, you know, really rein 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 me started.

And I believe that somebody who tries to cosplay being a serious senator, like the majority leader right now, John Thune, 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.

I know.

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'll take whatever win we get, but I want to be a sore winner in this.

Yeah, you want retribution.

I do. I really, really do. Watching this government kill American citizens and then seeing that the parents of Alex Pretti and the mother of Renee Nicole Good begging for justice.

I know.

And our government then calls these people terrorists. It's just horrific.

Well, and all the American children who are in detention because their parents have been stolen from them at school bus stops, 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 un I think truly unfathomable.

The recreational cruelty.

Yeah.

The destruction of black and brown lives.

Yeah.

All of it. It's just like and you get stories every now and again, first-person stories. And we try and do this on my podcast, Runaway 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.

Mm-hmm.

Unlike high school gyms.

That's right.

Yeah. Like, Trump is now in Mississippi with a high school gym. Obama's filling up arenas. And it's number one, he's just one of the best orators 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 Midas Touch put together of Obama v. Trump. And this just happened in the last couple of days. Play the clip.

Hello, Atlanta. We named a lovely lake named like Lake Ontario. Trump went on the Jeffrey Epstein web. 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 Factory comments.

So I think that contrast is so fun to watch. But I remember I'm reminded of 2024.

Mm-hmm.

Kamala's rallies were huge. They were fun. They were joyful. Trump was given microphones blow jobs.

Right.

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, look, she's gorgeous and smart and accomplished and all of these things and been vice president. And then we've got this dipshit.

A felon.

Yeah, this fellon 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 dog's lead in Alaska in three weeks. You know, we could be in a really extended liminal stretch where we don't know who runs the 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 Crooked Media live stream.

Oh, yeah.

If you 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, his foolish war, terror 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.

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. Yeah.

From my days in Oklahoma. These people are college educated, travel, consider themselves to be sophisticated, know that supporting somebody as impolite and as uncivilized as Donald Trump would not reflect well on them.

Yeah.

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 their their money is safe.

And they're entitled to not pay taxes.

Yes.

And they're entitled to have a rent system for them.

Now, for the ultra ultra wealthy, right? Like they still could be secret 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.

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 a Republican society.

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 stuff. But Kansas plus four, Kansas.

Well, Adam Hamilton is a great.

Great candidate in Kansas borders, Oklahoma, where I'm from. And they have been a little bit more independent than a total red state. I believe they have a female Democratic governor.

Mm-hmm.

And so they have that going for them. Maine plus four, Michigan plus seven, and Texas plus six. If Texas can do this James Talarico thing, the pain that that is personally going to cause people like Ted Cruz and Elon Musk is something that brings me great joy.

Yeah. Oh, it will cause our first world's first trillionaire 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 Cornyn, 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, mortgage fraud.

Stole a pen.

Infidelity, stole a Montblanc pen from nobody in particular, like hangs out with people who are on the most wanted list in Dubai. I mean, he is a man.

A grab ass with this grab ass with this mistress in she's like a Christian influencer in London.

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 does Donald Trump have.

Alex, he goes and it is such a lackluster endorsement. It is like John's hot. John Husted is hot. He has 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, you're not hot at all.

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.

Yeah.

Ted Cruz.

Uh-huh.

Raphael, as I like to call him, is by his birth name. And Raphael's standing up, you know, and he and Trump says, yeah, we're going to send Raphael to the Supreme Court. All the Democrats have voted for him because 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.

Totally.

That MAGA men have when Trump humiliates them.

Yeah.

I don't know what kind of psychosexual.

Yeah.

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.

Yeah.

These men are to him, where the men that I know that I would say, oh, he's a manly man would be like, fuck you. Don't talk to me like that.

Totally. It's an emotional ball gag in all of their mouths. Like.

It is.

Nonstop. It's really crazy how beekucked they are. You know what I mean?

Totally.

Like just self-castration. I think it's a daddy complex. I mean, you and Tucker Carlson, you just, you know, talk of Trump as daddy coming home. And it's this desire. I do think it's a psychosexual thing that I can't begin to unpack.

Right. It's Freud. We need to read Freud.

It absolutely is. And like the and and often they don't even get the prize at the end. Like the likelihood of Ted Cruz becoming a Supreme Court justice is I mean, never say never. Sam Malito is going to 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 shamed.

And they love it.

It is.

The 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, beautiful.

Okay. He is the speaker of the House.

I know.

All power, no balls.

Mm-hmm.

All gavel, no balls.

Mm-hmm.

And here he is saying that he's feeling confident about the midterms. Play the clip and then we'll psychoanalyze him.

Hakeem Jeffries will not have a race for speaker because Republicans are going to 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 Marxists.

I'll be a real boy in the next Congress. You can see like the puppet strings. Like 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.

Such a.

John Wills.

Steel balls.

She wielded power. She whipped votes. I mean, she was just in in charge, 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 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.

No.

And this cannot be normalized that we have Trump, Vance, and then that pipsqueak who says God woke him up in the middle of the night, which is delusional.

Yeah. Yeah.

And told him, you're going to be Moses. And and God meant that Moses was speaker of the House. And everybody just goes about as though we're a serious country.

Right.

And he's a serious speaker of the House. And this guy is in a state of, in my opinion, of religious psychosis.

Mm-hmm. No, I I agree with you. We have normalized the most erratic and delusional behavior.

Yeah.

This century. Like it the things that are being said and accepted as just, you know, political discourse would shock the conscience of us 20 years ago, right?

Yes.

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 chatbots 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 the committee chairs change hands, the gavel goes to someone else, Hakeem Jeffries, and, you know, you are no longer ranking.

I see them.

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 to be there.

And Raskin.

And Raskin.

Judiciary.

Raskin.

He's already given us an appetizer.

A teaser.

He's given us a little teaser.

On the news booth.

Yeah. And so I had Robert Garcia on last weekend or the weekend before, and we spoke explicitly, like, are you guys fighting for this? Are you coordinating? Are you organizing? And he is a star.

Yeah.

He is sharp as a tack. He is a fighter. And he told me that he and Raskin were had been working for months and they are coordinated and they are ready.

Yeah.

On day one to go full tilt. And it's I think it's just so important that the Democrats walk and chew gum.

Mm-hmm.

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.

Yeah.

Who 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.

Mm-hmm.

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.

Mm-hmm.

And 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.

Yeah.

And all of this fascism and the war crimes that I believe killing people out in boats in.

The Caribbean.

The Caribbean, I think that's a war crime. That's my opinion on that. If we do not if we do not reckon with those things, I think then after that, you get a, you know, a president that's worse than Donald Trump. And and so I hope that they learned you cannot merit garland this.

Yeah. No, I think I mean, I I may again, play this tape to me when like there's nothing being but I I genuinely think and you see this a little bit in their posture around shutting down the government over ICE funding or healthcare subsidies. Democrats are they they are using their power in the minority as much as they I mean, there there's always more to do, but they have 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, for regulatory approvals.

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 I genuinely think the reckoning will be forced upon the party if it doesn't take it on like if it doesn't shoulder it 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.

Yeah.

Women that that signed this under oath that said these 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 Blanch, Pam Bondi.

Mm-hmm.

She can't be off the hook. Kash Patel.

No.

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.

Mm-hmm.

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.

I know.

This is 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.

Yeah.

And so 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.

Mm-hmm.

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 I feel like it disenfranchises so many Americans. And I do think it's why we have such a low voter turnout.

Mm-hmm.

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 this state. It doesn't matter. And so I'm hopeful that the Democratic Party launches and fires back up a 50 state solution.

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.

Yeah.

It paved the way for Zoran and other candidates that are 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. So help you God in front of the United States Congress.

I love it. He's really good. I I like first was on the campaign trail 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.

We're in the year 20. Time is 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 a 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 the Republican, because Rick Jackson will appoint a Republican to fill John Ossoff's seat.

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 rizz outside of that.

He 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?

Yeah.

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, but I he's, you know, it it hasn't, I think.

Little green.

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 the 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 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?

Yeah.

But he is he's not trying to commit any errors. And 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.

Yeah.

Individual grassroot donors. Republicans at 143 million. So the Democrats just kill them on that. Then you get to.

Mm-hmm.

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 Paxton loses.

Mm-hmm.

And if some of if Mike Rogers loses.

Mm-hmm.

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 in politics because 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 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.

From APAC.

From APAC, 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 2.0, nobody's coming to save us.

Yeah.

Like this is this is out of control. And right now you see everyday Americans donating under $200. You say you see everyday 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.

Totally.

So you have everyday 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 you, 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 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, 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?

Right.

10 years ago, I'd been like, you're fucking smoking crack.

Right.

Like they're right.

But.

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 have understood just how tenuous all of 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.

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 the House of Representatives and the Senate. But even at the local level, they give a shit about local officials, their board of elections, their school supervisor. They know things in a really piercing and in many cases unfortunate, but nonetheless, they are wide-eyed about the world. And you can't take that back from people once they have.

You can't. And one thing that I'm seeing, and this is anecdotal, but I'm seeing so many people that I know in Oklahoma City that were moderate Republicans, maybe maybe voted for Obama once, kind of flip back and forth, but were 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.

Mm-hmm.

MAGA hates diversity. We love diversity.

Mm-hmm.

MAGA hates the LGBTQ+ people. We're like, fuck you. We stand with these people.

Mm-hmm.

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.

Mm-hmm.

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.

Yeah.

And so but it's a pride in being against the status quo.

Mm-hmm.

And I see this building all over the country, anecdotally, from my personal friend group to our audience in the comment section. So many people saying that, you know, they were maybe a no offense, an MS Now Liberal, just an MS Now Liberal.

Yeah.

Versus now they're, you know, now that the news has been democratized.

Yeah.

That they're even have their own political identity as a source of pride.

Yeah.

And I've never really seen that. I did during Obama, but it was very much attached to him and and how aspirational it was.

Yeah. Yeah.

And how full circle it was to elect a black man in this very complicated racist country of ours.

Yeah.

And how healing that felt.

Yeah.

But now this is even different. This is people have this individual pride about their brand of politics.

Mm-hmm.

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.

Right.

But it's about a set of values and ideals that transcend that. That's a long-lasting coalition, right?

Totally.

And that is exciting for 2028. Like.

Is.

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.

Yeah.

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.

Joyful.

Celebration. And we will be sipping on MAGA tears, smug AF, the sorest losers ever. I intend to be not gracious. A sore I 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 Tyler Cohen. You might watch Cricket. You might watch all of these different.

Lots of America.

Well, I'll be there. Everybody is going to be there. And so you can get your tickets at cricketcon.com and you can use my promo code, Jen20, J-E-N20, for a discount. There are limited tickets available. Alex, thank you so much. And I cannot wait.

Thank you for having me.

To see you.

Can't wait to see you on the other side of all of this.

Just sipping our MAGA tears.

With a twist.

Thank you, Alex.

Thank you so much.