it's gonna be an interesting new debate that's arising there Carlos a survey says a new survey that most Democrats and moderate Republicans like yourself agree that global warming is increasing the cost of living and Now, if you think about that, can the debate then switch from what it is now often, which is the cost of climate protection to what climate change really costs us?

Yeah, I think it's important, especially for the media, to cover the reality of extreme weather, of more intense hurricanes, for example, here in the Floridian Peninsula.

We know farmers all over the country are struggling with changing weather patterns or extreme weather as well.

So there is a real human cost here.

And the key is, though, to humanize it as much as possible.

Statistics aren't as moving for the average person.

How much carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere, that's not going to convince very many people.

What do you respond to these allegations?

from the

very high inflation of the Biden years.

One of the reasons President Trump won the 24 election convincingly was because of inflation.

One of the big reasons he got, for example, young voters and Hispanic voters to join his coalition was because of this issue of inflation.

So just as Americans had started recovering, now we get this big inflation again, driven by the global oil crisis.

So what does that mean? That means it's healthy to be diversified.

And this is not just true for this situation, but- just in business and life, right? And in personal finances, it's healthy to be diversified.

Do you see that happening this Congress or next Congress? Or maybe next year? I guess we're all in the same Congress this year, but...

What went wrong with that? Why wasn't that a, a solution? Why couldn't they have done this without so much pain for the Cuban people?

Well, there were two big problems with, uh, that whole effort.

Number one is that the Obama administration did not, um, require that the, uh, Cuban regime make any structural changes.

And I specifically asked, uh, Ben Rhodes, I was in Congress at the time, uh, "What are we getting in exchange? What are our demands?" And he said, "We don't have any demands.

We just want to change the policy." So that was a big missed opportunity.

Uh, the other problem with all of that is the nature of the Castro regime.

They did not open, uh, up the way that, uh, the Obama administration anticipated that they would.

So, w- what is the end game here if, if this pressure, this economic pressure doesn't work? Uh, would you support a military option? Would you support sending US troops in there to exact regime change? Uh, is, is that something that's, uh, that is on the table here?

What do you think about like how do you make sense of Republicans in the majority (laughs) just like peacing out, you know, mid-term?

Chris, this is remarkably similar to the environment that we were living back in 2017 and '18 as we approached the first mid-term election of President Trump's first term.

There was so much fatigue in the Congress.

People left early that year.

Uh, our friend who's on this panel with me, Charlie Dent, he retired early from Congress that year.

A lot of members decided not to run for reelection because the mood was just so sour.

Congress had become less and less relevant.

No.

Right.

It does seem that there are some red lines there.

But without a doubt, this is a Republican Party that is fully owned by the president, and they are very shy about speaking out.

I mean, the greatest fear for any Republican is being attacked in their primary by President Trump.

So, as long as that's the case, it's going to be very hard for a lot of them to speak out, right? As long as it's the most important thing is to get reelected, to get through that primary, uh, it's gonna be hard for them to speak out.

And I'll tell you, this is an issue, this weaponization of government, the president campaigned against this.

And by the way, he made a case to the American people that he was targeted.

He also promised retribution.

Elon Musk, the bedazzled chainsaw.

So the lesson is what we already know, that when it comes to Donald Trump and what he will do, what exceptions he will make to his own policies, his own orthodoxy, loyalty comes first, Steph.

He values Javier Milei.

He appreciates the way Milei has praised him, has celebrated him, and that is why he is willing to violate his own America first policy where we, under that policy, we really focus on our own country.

We don't go out of our way, uh, to help other countries.

We don't send our money to other countries.

But I do think that for Javier Milei, especially if Milei loses the Congress in October, they have midterm elections, I do think that the president will go out of his way and help his friend.

And while the president might not be looking to do that, is it possible?

Ah.

... that usually take all the punches, but now you have Freedom Caucus members taking punches from their base which they are very, very sensitive to.

So that's why you see all this pressure on Mike Johnson.

That's the only reason Mike Johnson comes out and says, "We need to hear from Pam Bondi," while Donald Trump is saying, "Let's stop talking about this," because Johnson was pressured by those members who constantly hold his feet to the fire and they don't want to deal with this.

So, at some point, either Pam Bondi or Kash Patel or someone is gonna have to come out and answer questions in a Congressional hearing or have a press conference.

C- Carlos, um, what is your reaction to the Wall Street Journal story yesterday? Like when, uh, I'm just curious when you read that like what went through your head?

I mean, it wasn't surprising.

I- I have no reason to believe it's untrue.

I mean, what could this potentially mean for Mr. Trump?

Well, look, I think it creates a lot of anxiety in the White House and in the Capitol.

Uh, we know that Elon Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars, right, trying to help Donald Trump get elected.

It's, it's pretty clear that that investment made a difference.

Whether it was decisive or not, who knows, right? But for a lot less, he can influence Congressional campaigns.

Uh, he can take out members of the House.

So, as these Congressional Republicans are trying to build the fortitude to pass this massive, uh, bill, uh, having this, uh, you know, cloud of Elon Musk hanging over them and what he might do next fall, that really could complicate things.

Does Musk's criticism of the Big Beautiful Bill and this entire episode only embolden those Republicans who say they cannot get behind this legislation?

Carlos, what is your takeaway? Especially in Florida, the president is marketing this like a grand slam home run for him.

Well, look, Steph, what you have here is a yellow traffic signal for Congressional Republicans as they think about what policies they're going to pass, especially this whole reconciliation process, one-party process, that they're undertaking to, uh, redo the tax bill from 2017.

These are districts that are very, very conservative.

I know some people on the left thought maybe they could eke out a victory in Florida 6.

I always thought that was gonna be impossible or at least very, very difficult, but when you look at the Trump margins from '24, uh, Democrats tonight, uh, about halved, uh, those, uh, margins.

Uh, these two candidates won by about 15 points.

Uh, the president carried these districts by about 30 points.

But what does being a little more careful look like?