Right

... nations are with him, at least in that regard.

Most of our European allies agree they shouldn't have it.

So this is an opportunity to sell them and convince them the greatest power on Earth, the United States, actually has a plan, and this isn't as chaotic as it appears.

And he didn't do that.

There wasn't an explanation of, "This is how we're gonna keep the strait open, and we're gonna make, you know, the Strait of Hormuz available and accessible for the economies all over the globe." None of that was there, and then it kind of detoured into basically a campaign-style Trump speech.

Like, I've, I've attended the UN General Assembly a number of times.

... tell us what this ban really means.

How do you explain that shift?

The president and the White House have done absolutely nothing to sell this war to the American public.

I'm fairly hawkish.

I'm somebody who could be convinced that it was right to overthrow the Ayatollah.

It would be right to overthrow this regime.

And Iran, of course, should never have a nuclear weapon.

But the actions after that in selling what the process is, what victory looks like, what the timeline is, that's never been articulated.

energized about the war itself? It

Does that track with what you know about Trump?

Yeah, listen, this is something he tried in the first term when I was in the White House.

We all remember when he yanked then-CNN anchor Jim Acosta's credentials.

I remember when I was White House communications director, he at one point wanted to target Caitlin Collins and have her moved out of her seat in the front of the press briefing room.

We were able to resolve it.

But this is something that he goes with.

When he feels like his coverage is bad, he thinks of the James Brady briefing room as part of the White House.

Listen, what's in it for Trump, in your view, to have this meeting with Mayor Mamdani?

If you were advising the president, what are the top things you would tell him about midterm messaging as Americans struggle with these higher prices?

Well, listen, the president's got to get on message.

He has to acknowledge that people are economically suffering.

They're struggling right now.

It's kind of remarkable.

He's fallen into a similar trap that he was actually very critical of Joe Biden for falling into, which is saying things are actually getting better.

They're better than you feel that they are.

What does it say that this Republican who was just endorsed by Trump months ago is now criticizing him in this way?

I mean, listen to Tristan Harris' point, they are concerned about control of the Chinese Communist Party and don't want bots undermining them.

The ...

Yeah, that's a part that I think is, is probably underrepresented in this arms race.

I mean, Xi first and foremost wants to protect his own standing and his own power.

And I think that two things can be true at once.

I think David may be correct that this is some of the top companies wanting to kind of corner the market and box out competitors, but I also believe we have learned things that are terrifying, and I think some of these creators and these researchers are warning us of how quickly these capabilities are moving forward.

Listen, if Donald Trump wants to win a Nobel Peace Prize, which we all know he does, get together with Xi, get together with our European allies, and come to an agreement and a framework around AI regulation.

Joy send a lot

of things? Joy's a big texter.

She also watches the show days she's not on, which Whoopi would never.

So you literally see Whoopi has left the chat.

But she is the most reliable answerer of an individual texter.

phone call.

Like, she's my emergency contact calling her when I get arrested.

Do you feel like it's you versus all of them? I mean, that's a heavy weight to carry.

... taken out."

Take out the Ayatollah, I support, and destroying their nuclear program, if you in fact do it, is something I support.

My position has evolved in that I don't know what the current status is because our White House isn't informing us.

Have we destroyed the nuclear facilities? Because if not, we're now in a protracted war, we've lost 18 Americans, we're spending billions of dollars on it, we're depleting our munitions, and by the way, gas prices are high at home.

He talked about, like, this is something that ...

He basically talked about regime change.

He said that you need to arm the Kurds, you need to basically arm the resistance to overthrow their government.

Ex- explain for people who haven't heard this.

Why do you think, Alyssa, at an event honoring the victims of the worst terror attack in U.S. history, the president felt the need to inject himself into it?

this is classic trump just going off script because this should have been a nice event he gave the medal of freedom to wells crowther who saved 18 people on 9 11 and ultimately perished and this is a moment that should be unifying for the country and when i served in the first administration he attended a number of the events and didn't speak at them i went with vice president pence to the pentagon ceremony oftentimes these are usually very solemn traditions where officials show up and they don't give remarks but we know the president wanted to give remarks I would have advised him not to because we know he goes off the cuff.

We know he embellishes and we know that he tends to make things about him.

And the biggest terrorist attack in American history really is not about Donald Trump.

It's about the entire country.

does it make sense? I mean, there is a war going on, not according to the vice president, but according to the president, there is a war going on.

Well, listen, there was a stat that in August alone, he posted over a thousand times on his Truth Social.

And that's, to the best of my knowledge, only the president and two other aides have access to that.

What are you hearing from Republican candidates and maybe campaign staff about how excited they are at the notion of this Trumpapalooza?

So I've talked to quite a few Republican campaign advisors and consultants, and everyone's just kind of confused by it.

And let me tell you why.

This is going to cost a lot to put on, money that otherwise could be spent on winning races.

But most candidates who are in very competitive races right now are trying to create some sort of strategic distance from Donald Trump, not be walking in lockstep with him.

I think it's no surprise that Susan Collins has a conflict in Maine and is not going to be attending this rally.

And I think, listen, in terms of how resources are used, it would maybe make sense for the Democrats who are likely to win back some seats to have held a midterm convention, really gin up their base, talk about taking on Donald Trump and what their agenda would look like.

So how hard is it to send that message or sell it, you know, with gas prices high, with people saying they're concerned about their own money?

months.

He is like, time just flies.

They say the days are long, but the months and years are short, and time just flies by.

But I am so lucky.

I have to say, Sarah's one of my dear friends in real life, not just at the table, but getting to go through IVF pregnancy, having a baby with co-hosts who just have supported me through it has meant so much.

Because it's hard.

You know the transition back to work is tough, but nowhere I would have rather done it than at The View, honestly.

How do you keep that friendship so alive even when you disagree?

Elissa, what do you think, um, the resignation of the army secretary could foretell about He- Hegseth's-

It's a, it's kind of a significant moment.

Um, Driscoll was well-loved on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill.

He's somebody who learned how to navigate the Pentagon, despite being ideologically very aligned with Trump.

But he's a conservative who ran as a Republican for Congress, but he managed to be able to be somebody who could be a liaison within the Department of Defense and the Hill and the White House.

Who replaces him will matter.

They've named someone in an acting capacity at this point.

What, what do you think voters expect a victory to look like or the end to look like?

So where do, uh, you th- think, uh, this issue stands right now amid all the GOP's worries?

Yeah, listen, I have yet to find a Republican operative heading into these midterms who thinks that this GOP convention makes any sense whatsoever.

It's gonna be extraordinarily expensive for the Republican Party to put on, and what I keep hearing is every single dollar that the party has should be going toward fighting for vulnerable House Republicans to try to retain control of the House and supporting must-win Senate seats, again, to try to retain control of the Senate.

The other thing that's just fascinating is, Axios pointed out this morning, the two first two days of this convention are actually going to align with the beginning of NFL football season.

So you're gonna be counter-programmed by something that you just cannot pull Americans' eyes away from.

Even the most tried and true Republican voters, voters are probably gonna tune in to the NFL over this convention.

And then finally, I would say this, it's you have to have something to sell.

So what's your reaction to that, Alyssa?

Um, I, I guess I would just ask, like, what stands out to you about them?

A couple of things.

Um, so listen, first and foremost, the, the White House's PR handling of this made a way bigger story than it needed to be.

So Senator Ossoff knew what he was doing by dangling Natalie's name out there in the speech that he gave.

But the White House's decision to go full court press, pushing back, attacking anyone who criticizes, has just drawn more scrutiny to this otherwise, like, relatively unknown staffer if you're not in DC covering the White House.

So it made it a bigger story, and it made people look a little deeper into who she is.

Um, but the, aside from the more salacious innuendo that I think is floating around because of the way in which she writes these letters, what stands out to me is this is an individual with an incredible amount of influence and access to the president.

As somebody who worked in the White House during your first term, what do you make of the level of access to the president that she apparently has? Is it like anything you'd seen before with this team?

Uh, Alyssa, what's your view, kind of of the current state of the Democratic Party fight?

C- [laughs] couldn't say it better than Bakari.

Listen, the w- the Democrats are poised to win and to do well.

When Donald Trump's approval ratings are in the low 30s, they should.

But all they have to do is seem less weird than Donald Trump and the far right of the Republican Party.

In, in recent months and weeks, they often come off significantly weirder.

With this w- rise of DSA, you really are leaning back into this, this, this peak woke period of 2020 where a lot of people took really extreme positions that alienated a lot of the country, and that in fact actually led to Donald Trump's rise back into power.

Uh, Alyssa, can I ask, if you were a current White House staffer who was on what now seems like a decoy plane to Turkey, how would you feel, uh, uh, in this moment?

A- Alyssa, I mean, do you think this administration, especially the president and the HHS secretary, can be trusted to make the right decisions about childhood vaccinations?

vaccinations?Well, listen, I, I think your other guest said it perfectly.

There were no practicing physicians in that room, so you did not have the experts there to weigh in.

And what I thought was notable is, uh, Donald Trump's first term surgeon general, Jerome Adams, weighed in on this, and he, he questioned the science and the validity of it.

He said it would make it far more likely that, uh, patients, children would skip or miss getting vaccines by breaking them up into three shots.

But he pointed out something very important that I think we should note.

If, if, if this is a boon to anyone, it's likely insurance companies and big pharma, because you will be able to charge for every additional visit, uh, that people come in for to get their kids these three separate vaccination shots.

Do you think his char- his comments carry much weight with other Republicans?

Go ahead, Alyssa first.

Uh, go ahead.

I'd say it's happening behind the scenes.

Uh, thank you.

Um, it's happening behind the scenes.

Listen, uh, the President has not weighed in.

Um, I worked with Max.

The question is, are Republicans gonna come around to the same degree as Democrats did just last month? And Alyssa, without the President publicly saying it, do you think it matters?

What about the politics of this, Alyssa? What do you think?

think?I mean, it's not what the president should be focusing on.

As Kristen Holmes said, I m- imagine most advisors around him want him talking about the economy, what they're gonna be doing to jumpstart it, and instead, he's looking backward.

He gave his speech just last week on the 2020 election, and then now this.

But I do think this is a result of the news out of New Jersey about these 400 undocumented migrants who are able to register and ultimately vote.

As soon as that news came down, even though it was actually a very small number that in no way impacted the election, I thought, "This will be rocket fuel for the president and certain advisors around him," who have just really clung to this myth that there is widespread voter fraud and that it's undocumented migrants who are committing it.

Most people in the White House, I am certain, are advising him to focus on something else, but there are some true believers.

So you're getting sort of Republican-on-Republican tension here.

But do you think he can get reelected as a Democrat?

I don't.

And I think that there is, um, something happening on the right and the left that I'm...

I'll speak to it on the right.

Um, I would put Marjorie Taylor Greene into this camp, where people who describe themselves as America first, but it almost feels like they're becoming opposition to Israel first, where it feels like their biggest focus and identity and policy priority is focused around stopping aid to Israel.

You can hold that position, but there are about 1,000 things voters care about before that more: the cost of living, healthcare, gas prices, ending the war in Iran.

And I worry that there's this element of the left that is making opposition to Israel their litmus test and this element of the right that is making that their litmus test, and it feels very detached from what actual voters, median voters who decide elections, are prioritizing first.

Mm-hmm

Why is it so hard for people who work for Donald Trump, what are they worried about, afraid of, what's the right word, to say Joe Biden won the 2020 election?

It's essentially a deal breaker.

If you want the appointment, if you wanna get confirmed and get into that job, you cannot admit that.

Um, I think that's the only way you can really handle it.

But on Todd Blanche, I think from a performance standpoint, he did something markedly different than Pam Bondi.

Pam Bondi performed for the audience of one.

She was extremely combative.

Right.

What do you expect to hear from the president tomorrow?

So primetime address, I'm curious if he's gonna do it from the Oval, where in the White House he's gonna do it, but it's supposed to be, um, reportedly going to be on the notion that the 2020 election was stolen.

Like, I'm sorry, who is not exhausted by this at this point? Like, it is so exhausting.

It is 2026.

You won in 2024.

Maybe focus on the election you won.

Do what you promised you were gonna do because people are still hurting, things are still too expensive.

Right.

Right.

Um, I think it's a combo of the heat and then the divisiveness.

The 4th of July is supposed to be a day, eat your hot dog, enjoy the grass in your toes, you know, s- say the Pledge of Allegiance, and enjoy your friends and family.

It does not need to be a day of litigating politics.

Like, save fighting over politics with your family for Thanksgiving.

The 4th of July is a good celebratory day that's not divisive.

And when the president decided it was gonna be, um, his day to give his big speech, I think people were like, "It's just gonna be like every other Trump rally.

Right

Mm-hmm.

But he's, he's a young, smart, and really s- uh, really formidable candidate.

So now that race is in play.

There's, there's a poll that has, um, has Talarico up several points over Ken Paxton.

And so here's the thing.

The path for Dems to take the Senate isn't likely to run through Texas.

It could.

Right.

Yeah

... inevitable.

I think they're, the idea of the haves and the have-nots has gotten so far apart that there's a young group of people that I think have authentic reasons to like socialism.

The problem is, within that, they're scooping up a lot of problematic people that are feeding off the battle cries of these young people.

Remember, some of our biggest problems with this were on our college campuses.

Our institutions, our academic institutions, have had problems-

Yeah.

No, it's just watching, watching...

And it worked

...

it worked.

They know that they can do that, and I worry that they have tremendous leverage now.

That's kind of their trump card, if you will.

Um, and I was very critical of the, the O- Obama JCPOA because we unfroze their frozen assets, which then could be used for their terrorist activities in the region.

Now, this, the number that's being associated with this is even more money than the Obama administration ever unfroze in sanctions relief.

Yeah, we, we've invited the vice president several times.

Um, we've been talking about this for a long time, and I don't know that you were always there, so tell me ab- how you feel.

I wasn't, and honestly, maybe two or three months ago, I would've said pretty confidently that Democrats will take the House but won't take the Senate.

So basically, they need to win three seats, um, in order to take the Senate, and I feel that sentiment and that tide shifting, and I think there's a very strong chance Democrats take the Senate, and I do think that there are multiple paths that do not involve them having to win Maine.

Um, so what I would say is this: The most likely pickup, North Carolina, the Thom Tillis seat.

Um, the, the former governor is running, highly popular.

That's seen as a pickup.

Ohio, Sherrod Brown is running again, who's deeply popular in the state.

Yes.