Transcript of Republicans Blame Trump for Losses and Turn on White House!

The blame game has begun. We're not even 24 hours away from polls closing across the country—Alaska polls closed hella late—and the blame game has already begun. Republicans privately are knifing the President of the United States, saying he's to blame, he's at fault for what they expect to be a wipeout in many respects tomorrow night. A significant development as privately Republicans are admitting the truth: that it's the President's fault. They once thought that they could have had historic wins, even because of the war in Iran, affordability crisis, and more.

So I've been speaking to sources inside the administration, outside advisors, folks who were down in Mar-a-Lago this past weekend, and across the board. Look, there is a sense that absolutely we're going to face losses. Some advisors even tell me, well, maybe we deserve this based on the policies we have and have not put forth. But what's interesting, despite everything at stake for the President, for his allies, potentially for his family when it comes to Democratic oversight, there doesn't seem to be a big focus on turning out that last handful of voters in Michigan or in Texas. Instead, the people I talk to, they're focused on themselves and their next move.

High-profile departures are coming. The closing message from some in Trump's family are going as well as this from Don Jr.

They want to pack the Supreme Court. They want to make Ohio a state, make D.C. a state, have permanent one-party rule. All, all, apparently. I don't know how it works, but.

Ohio, by the way, is currently a state. And activists like Scott Pressler on the ground in Pennsylvania say, "I know we didn't do enough, but please give us two more years."

I have a message to the American people. I realize that we haven't accomplished everything within two years. That's why we're out here asking for another two. Make President Trump a four-year President. Make sure that the job that we gave him in 2024, he can accomplish and use all four years to get it done. That means controlling the House of Representatives. That means keeping the United States Senate. And here in Pennsylvania.

Election day is tomorrow. How are you feeling?

Yeah, about my race, I feel pretty good. The question I get most frequently got asked is, "Who's running against you?" So we'll keep it that way. On the broader scale, I think we're going to have a good night as Democrats. You know, I feel pretty optimistic about the House. You know, I think we could pick up anywhere from 50 to 20 seats if we have a great night. It may go beyond that. And then the Senate looks like it's very much in play.

Let me tell you—let me talk to you about California, because this is a state that Democrats really fought back in. Governor Newsom threw a prop 50. You guys kind of redistricted, did that mid-cycle redistricting. How are things looking in some of those swing districts right now that a lot of folks are talking about?

Yeah, so in the districts that we redistricted, one of those was mine. We split my district in half. I think we're going to go 4-0. USC did some polling last week. All of our folks were up. Richard Pann should beat Kevin Kiley. Randy Vegas is over 50%, beating David Valadayo. And then, you know, further south, you know, we should pick up the ISIS seat. And I think we're going to have a good night.

That's pretty big. What are your priorities when Democrats take over the House of Representatives? What does January look like?

Yeah, so obviously there's a long ways to go. We anticipate President Trump could do some shenanigans on November 4th, and shortly thereafter we'll try to contest the elections. But let's say, you know, January 3rd, the new House comes in, Hakeem Jeffries is the likely speaker. I think, you know, there's going to be tremendous pressure for us to expose the corruption. But that's not all we can do, right? So I've suggested to Speaker Jeffries, or soon-to-be Speaker Jeffries, that we set up a select committee on corruption in government.

You talk about the shenanigans that Trump may try on November 4th. One of my biggest fears personally is California. The House of Representatives comes down to California. We're counting ballots in California for potentially a week, two weeks after Election Day. And he starts to try to play games, saying, "Well, nothing that's being counted after Election Day even matters. We're going to go and seize the ballots. We're going to do all these things, go to the courts." Can you talk a little bit about how California works when it comes to elections?

Yeah, so we've really pushed Shirley Weber, the Secretary of State, to speed up the counting. You know, what happens here in my home county, Sacramento County, is they'll count all the ballots that come in by mail up until the close of business on Friday, after which they spend the weekend getting ready for Election Day, you know, making sure everything's in place at the ballot places. So then those ballots that come in Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday don't get counted. They get set aside. And then, you know, on Election Day, they count the ballots that are coming in and are cast on Election Day.

Is it normal, say, for example, maybe there is a Republican up on Election Night, and then those ballots start being counted, and then over the next several days, that tally flips? That's normal, right?

Yeah, that's the way it used to be. That Republicans would be early voters, Democrats would be Election Day voters. Donald Trump's really flipped that upside down. So it's now Democrats that are voting very early, and Republicans have become Election Day voters. You know, if I look at the ballots in my district, you know, Democrats are voting in record numbers in the early vote. So you're seeing that all across the country. I was looking at some numbers from Texas. The early vote's through the roof right now. So I think, you know, it'll be a good night for Democrats.

Something that I've seen over the past couple of days, especially, and over the past several hours, is that internally, Republicans are starting to do this blame game, and potentially even throw some blame on the President for expected losses. Are you hearing that behind the scenes?

I am. So I think for a while now, Republicans have shown a lot of angst about President Trump's illegal war in Iran. This is the war that he started that he's continued. I think a lot of the Republican members of Congress are hearing back home of how upset their constituents are. They're reminded, obviously, every time they fill up their gas tank, they're reminded of this war, and they're really unhappy about it. And I think that's why President Trump's numbers are so underwater.

Do you think that they'll finally come out maybe publicly and start pointing these fingers? Because there's a lot of private finger pointing that's been happening over the past 18 months and over the first four years of the Trump administration. But it's very rare unless they either are no longer in office or are lame ducks themselves that they do come out and go against the President.

You know, it's my hope that they start pushing back. You know, President Trump will be a lame duck, you know, starting November 4th, and certainly January 3rd when the new Congress comes in. I would hope, you know, it starts with doing everything we can to end this war in Iran. I know many Republicans think this was a disastrous idea and want to figure out how do we get to a cease-fire. I mean, we do hear the reports of President Trump saying he's going to start attacking Iran again immediately after the midterms.

Would you support impeaching Hegseth?

I mean, I think he's been a disastrous Secretary of Defense. I think many of the actions he's taken have been illegal actions. And I, yeah, I wish we had a bunch of hearings and we exposed everything that then led to the impeachment vote. But Thomas Massey's pushing that impeachment vote. I think Hegseth's got to go.

Looking ahead to 2028, but just generally the future of the Democratic Party, I think this election on tomorrow is really a referendum on Trump, not necessarily a sign that Democrats are overly popular nationwide, because polling shows that Democrats are unpopular. Trump is just more unpopular in this moment. How do you get the party back on track?

Yeah, so they're calling it the red undertow. It's not the blue wave, but it's the red undertow. Trump's pulling a lot of Republicans down. I think we have to have an affirmative agenda. It's not that, you know, we have to actually tell folks how we're going to make their lives better. Now, it is going to be difficult. Trump will still be in office. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't put forth ideas to make healthcare more affordable. We shouldn't push back on Trump's tariffs, which foreign countries are not paying for those tariffs. Corporations aren't.

Congressman, I appreciate the time.

Great. Thank you. Have a great day, Arne.

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