In this episode of The Parnas Perspective, Aaron Parnas reports on growing infighting in Washington, including JD Vance's public post blaming the war in Iran for Republican losses and reports that Trump is weighing a purge that could include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The main interview is with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who discusses his large statewide win, the swing counties that supported him, and his plans to raise the minimum wage and codify abortion rights in Pennsylvania.
Shapiro argues that Vance is wrong and that Democrats can govern while holding Trump accountable. Listeners will hear both sides of the debate over what drove the midterm results.
In this episode Aaron Parnas, Josh Shapiro
This transcript of Aaron Parnas's interview with Governor Josh Shapiro after the Pennsylvania election was made with HappyScribe's AI note taking technology.
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The Republican infighting is exploding in Washington, D.C., right now. JD Vance just knifed his own president, publicly forcing Donald Trump into a box, all while Trump is effectively paralyzed. The White House is frozen. They are terrified of what's to come, so much so they may be purging, purging top officials. It is crazy town in Washington, D.C. I'm losing my voice, but I'm getting you the news in real time. Make sure to subscribe. We're on the road to a million subscribers. Like, comment, share. And let's jump right in, because this afternoon JD Vance just knifed the President of the United States.
JD Vance put this lengthy tweet out, out of nowhere, out of nowhere. Didn't have to do it. And then said, quote, "The reason we lost is the war." The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay, he says. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest, he says. But everyone knows why we lost. And any conversation about where we go from here—any conversation about where we go from here—must start there.
Putting all the blame on what we saw last night, on the war in Iran. Forcing Donald Trump to agree. Today, Donald Trump essentially said, "JD is pretty much right," coming out of hiding to do a quick press conference about the ballroom in Washington, D.C., standing in a structure in the ballroom talking about everything but Election Day.
Steelies are over 50 feet high. That's like a 5-story building, and I don't think there's any ballroom. I doubt there's a ballroom in the country with 50-foot ceiling. And you'll be able to have dinners for as many people as you want. We had King Charles here, and we could—we were very restricted. He asked, he said, "Could we have about 350 of our people?" I said, "We don't hold 350. We hold about 98." So having 350 is a little tough. But we had President Xi of China.
So that's what the president's been focused on today. His ballroom. His ballroom. But the war in Iran is what cost him this election, and he's considering a major purge. Right now, Donald Trump has been asking advisors around him and on the phone whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should stay in his job. Pete Hegseth could soon be on his way out. You have the vice president knifing the president. You have the Secretary of Defense on his way out. Chaos in Washington. Infighting is exploding. I spoke with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who had the opposite in Pennsylvania last night.
A trifecta. Take a listen. Subscribe. My conversation with the governor. Great to be joined this morning by Governor Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania Governor. I got to jump right in. You won last night in Pennsylvania statewide by more than 20 points, a state that Donald Trump won just a couple years back. How'd you do it?
You know, we showed up everywhere. We listened, and we delivered results. We got stuff done for folks. And I got to tell you, Aaron, no matter where I went, even in communities that voted for Trump with, you know, 70, 80 percent of the vote last cycle, I had people coming over to me in tears, just worried about our country. I had people coming over to me talking to me about higher prices, farmers getting screwed right and left because of these tariffs. And, you know, a lot of these folks voted for Donald Trump. They made a different choice than I did in the last, you know, many elections.
And the reality is, they were feeling the pain too. And I think they, along with others, just wanted to see real change. And so you see that reflected not just in my margin of victory in a state that Donald Trump has won 2 of the last 3 times, but importantly, we delivered all 4 congressional seats that we said we would. Would have been enough to make Hakeem Jeffries the speaker. It seems like they got a lot of help from other states too. And we did something for the first time in almost 40 years. We won our state legislature outright with a trifecta.
And so, you know, people all across Pennsylvania came together. I was proud to lead our ticket and proud to usher in this new era.
I'm a bit of an election nerd, and I was looking at your margin specifically in Washington and Beaver County along the Ohio border. Those are counties that Donald Trump won by 20-plus points. You're taking them by about 4 or 5 points each. What does that tell you? Because those are areas where, in 2028 and in the future, Democrats really have to win back to be able to win back the White House.
Yeah. I mean, you mentioned Beaver in Washington. I'd also throw in Lancaster, which has really been the core central hub of Republican, you know, party activities for years and years and years. And I won Lancaster County last night. Look, here's what I think it says. That, you know, folks kind of just took off the blue jersey and the red jersey and they voted for America last night. They voted to condemn those small, selfish men that are taking advantage of our country, that are plundering our nation.
And they sent a very clear message that they were sick and tired of it. Look, to be sure, there were a lot of Republicans who voted for me who disagree with me on some stuff and, you know, maybe don't share my views on protecting women's rights to choose. That's okay. But what they do understand is that I value decency and goodness and kindness, and I am the opposite of Donald Trump's chaos, cruelty, and corruption. I think that enabled us to bring people together and create this incredible coalition that allowed us to win and delivered these down-ballot wins as well.
Vice President Vance, before we hopped on, put out a lengthy tweet saying, and I quote, "The reason we lost is the war." And then he went on to say, "Any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there." What's your reaction to hearing that?
Well, it's funny. So I guess they're all starting to try and peel away from Donald Trump. But look, I think JD Vance, as usual, is wrong. I mean, understand that the Trump-Vance ticket promised lower prices, to drain the swamp, and an end of wars. And let's just look objectively at what's happened. Prices have skyrocketed. Wars have increased. And the swamp is more corrupt than ever before.
And that corruption isn't just about enriching Trump and Vance. It's that every time they put a dollar in their pockets, it's taken a dollar away from the American people. So I think JD trying to rewrite history here and somehow distance himself from Trump, it ain't going to work. He's got the stink of Trump all over him, and he ain't going to be able to wash it off.
You mentioned the Democratic trifecta that you all won in Pennsylvania. Unlike because you just ran for reelection and won, you're not going to have the traditional transition. You kind of can hit the ground running. What does that look like immediately now?
Well, I'm literally back at work this morning on about, I think, 2 and a half hours' sleep. But as we get these new members sworn in in January, we're going to hit the ground running immediately. The first bill that is going to reach my desk will be to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. And I know there are some people watching who are in states who are like, "Yeah, $15 an hour." We've had that for a while. And they're right. In fact, nearly all of our neighbors around Pennsylvania are at or above $15 or getting close to it.
The reason we haven't raised our minimum wage in 2 decades is because Republicans in our state Senate have blocked it. The same thing with making sure we codify abortion rights into law in Pennsylvania. That'll be another first bill that reaches my desk. To fully fund mass transit and other infrastructure. Fully fund our schools. Make sure that we're building more housing and a whole lot more. We've got an aggressive agenda for the first month or two, and then we'll get into our 100-day agenda.
We got a lot to do. And a lot of work that's been pent up literally over decades that we're now going to finally get to because we dispatched the Republicans who have really held Harrisburg hostage on so many of these important common-sense issues for far too long.
What do you need to do to make sure that some of these House races—Page Cognetti, Bob Brooks—some of these swing districts don't swing back in 2 years?
It's a great question. You know, it seems like we will pick up somewhere between 30 and 40 seats in the U.S. House. You may have a more precise number. But as I was looking at it real early this morning, roughly 2/3 of those seats that we will pick up are seats that Donald Trump won pretty comfortably. You mentioned Page Cognetti. Trump won the Cognetti district, if memory serves me correct, by about 8 points, right? So it is really important that Page and these others hold these seats and they not be one-hit wonders.
And the best way to do that is, yes, to bring accountability to Trump in Washington, Trump and Vance in Washington. But it's also about delivering real results and making sure that our party reflects these really tough districts if we're going to hold them going forward. And so that's a lot of the work I'll be doing. I know these new members of Congress will be doing. And I think it's important that we keep that in mind, that this majority that is going to make Hakeem Jeffries the speaker runs through these districts.
Donald Trump overwhelmingly won in the last election. And we got to make sure we put policies forward and actions forward that protect those seats for the long term.
And before I let you go, I do want to ask you, because going into the election, a lot of people predicted Democrats would perform well because of how unpopular Donald Trump was. But last night, to me, looking at the results, as long as you had a D next to your name, you were fine. And to me, that told me that, well, maybe the Democratic brand isn't as unpopular as many people had suggested in the first place. What are your thoughts?
Yeah. Look, I think the American people wanted something different than what Trump and Vance and their Republican enablers have given us. But now? Now we got the keys to the car. And so we've got to drive responsibly. We've got to govern effectively. And I believe Democrats can walk and chew gum at the same time. What do I mean by that? I think we can have real accountability for Trump and Vance and their cabinet and others who have engaged directly in corrupt activities.
And at the same time, we can put bills on the president's desk to lower costs, to end the war, and to do things that make the American people's lives better. If Donald Trump wants to be stupid and go ahead and veto that, then that's on him. Or he'll be common sense here and follow the lead of the new Democratic Congress and put his signature on those bills that will reduce costs. I'm hopeful, for example, that the Congress will roll back those Medicaid cuts, roll back those SNAP cuts.
That's something people can feel immediately. It can help people immediately. And so that's the kind of stuff that I hope we will do. And I think that will strengthen our Democratic brand. And again, to the question before, and I think it bears repeating, we have to remember about 2/3 of these seats that we won that put Democrats in the majority in the House came from districts that Donald Trump won just 2 years ago. And so we got to make sure we have an aggressive agenda that allows those members to defend those seats for the years to come.
Governor, thanks so much for the time.
Great to be with you.
Hey, folks. Thanks so much for watching. Feel free to add this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you watch for the latest breaking news and daily hits throughout the day. Make sure to follow, subscribe. See you soon for more.
Aaron Parnas reports on breaking news of JD Vance knifing Trump as infighting explodes within the White House, including an exclusive interview with Governor Josh Shapiro to discuss his victory last night, the future he is planning, and much more!
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