What the hell is Vice President Vance thinking?

You know, listen, Republicans at this point, I think they've decided they've learned a lesson from the media over the past that if you just fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, never surrender, never walk back, you can move on.

But I think they're learning the wrong lessons from this because take the emotion out.

out of it.

It's political malpractice because you've got very close races in Ohio, and now every Republican in Ohio has been taken off their closing message to answer for Vivek Ramaswamy's closing message, which is to defend a mom who abandoned her child after the stepfather allegedly molested her.

And by the way, there wasn't an indictment and they fled.

So John, Houston, he's having the answer for it.

What is your response to that, Eric?

Where do you want to start with the Russian Ukraine war?

You know, listen, even Jimmy Carter knew the Russians weren't the good guy.

I don't know what the president's doing at this point.

This is all about diesel prices in the United States, but you've only got two weeks to the midterms.

You're sabotaging Ukrainian security and our relationship with Europeans.

for a diesel price fix that actually won't bring down prices before the midterms, and you're boosting the Russians.

This is a nonsensical position from the president.

I can't imagine that is still what's going on on the streets of Paris.

I didn't pay that close attention to it.

It's a garbage story.

So here's what we know.

A group of people claim to have called this particular hospital in Ohio pretending to be a relative.

They claim they were asked for a PIN number.

They just randomly made up a four-digit PIN that was randomly accepted by the hospital and told that James Tallarico had checked out earlier that day.

And then they tied it to a flight.

They would probably hold on to that seat, really change, you know, what could happen with the future of the Senate.

Now you know because of the Mark Arum Show.

I don't know that the debates at this point actually do move the needle.

I thought Rick Jackson handled himself well.

I do not think Mike Collins handled himself well.

But I just, you know, normally in the past there have been a lot of people who had a lot of buzz to say about the debates.

And I don't know how many people actually watched them this week.

Do you think that though tells us that, hey, the White House is privy to some internal polling we, we may not be seeing, and this could actually be pretty bad?

You know, if he's going to places like Tennessee, Alabama, no.

I think that what, what that tells me is they're trying to maximize base turnout for some of those congressional seats.

Uh, but at the same time, uh, he's going to South Carolina, the J.D. Vance going to Alaska, going to Nebraska to help, uh, Pete Ricketts out there.

Those are defensive moves.

They're spending money.

They are scared.

Do you think that's the right approach right now?

Are they wrong?

No, they're not wrong.

He's done the same thing with Vladimir Putin, who he says keeps wanting to end the war as he's escalating the war, now bombing trains with potential diplomats headed into and out of Ukraine.

The president keeps being convinced of his own charm and skill while he's losing the American people headed towards a midterm where the Republicans are being rejected because of the president believing that his charms can charm everybody when that's not actually happening.

Eric, does the president deserve to be graded on his accomplishments? If so, is he getting a fair shake?

I don't think he's getting a fair shake.

I actually approve of much of his foreign policy because I don't like the treatment of our allies.

What he has done, I think going after Iran's nuclear capability was good.

So Eric, w- uh, where are we in terms of escalation? Where are we in terms of oil and gas prices between now and the midterms?

I don't think, uh, gas prices at this point are gonna be salvageable for the GOP in the midterms.

I mean, they're already higher than they've ever been in the run-up to an election in American history.

That's gonna be a problem for the GOP, particularly as gas prices go up, uh, concurrently to them.

I mean, diesel prices are just overwhelming.

At the same time, uh, if the Iranians do unleash disproportional response, it gives the Republicans some ammunition to go to voters and point out again that this was about nukes, and y- maybe the president should or shouldn't have started it, but we're in this, and we can't allow Iran to win.

Uh, and maybe generate some goodwill from some portion of the elected, perhaps.

Why do you think, uh, j- just a quick question, why do you think we've allowed, uh, Oman to continue to negotiate for the, the, kind of the, the safe passage routes with, uh, with the Iranians, and haven't shut that down completely? I don't know where that stands right now, but it seems like, you know, this is supposedly an ally of ours in direct negotiation with Iran.

What is the breaking point for Tehran? Is it the people revolting, or is there no breaking

point? If they have their way, there's no breaking point.

The other notable story I think everyone missed is that the Supreme Leader's two houses in London have been foreclosed on because they can't make the mortgage payments.

That is actually a more substantial detail to me.

than a lot of the other stuff that's happening, that the Iranian officials' houses, they can't pay the mortgages.

I do think that the deeper political instability within the country rises.

You can't pay your military, and the people revolt.

Do you?

Please help me understand, why can't J.D. Vance quit Tucker Carlson?

I wish I knew.

You know, I'm seeing people saying he gave an A-plus response today, but what he did is he gave a script to Abdul El-Sayed to wrap himself around Hasan Piker and not distance themselves.

I mean, Abdul El-Sayed can say the exact same thing that J.D. Vance has said about Tucker Carlson without skipping a beat and move the conversation.

It's just wild to watch the vice president attach so much loyalty.

And remember, back in December of 2025, J.D. Vance said anyone trying to write Tucker Carlson out of the conservative movement was nuts.

So what does the conservative movement look like if Tucker Carlson could be in it? Is it anti-Semitic? And also...

What do you make of that? I mean, is this the end of left versus right, or do you think that this is sort of an isolated phenomenon of someone just getting monomaniacally obsessed with the Jews such that even people on the left now seem to him to be good people if they have the same obsession?

How does this happen? How could a secretary in the cabinet, how could they get away with doing all this stuff? How could no one step in and stop this in real time? How does that

happen? This is the Trump administration.

The seeming rules of politics hardly ever apply.

We had the problems with Nome.

We've had the problems there.

There are other problems with some of the cabinet secretaries that I believe will be surfacing at some point soon.

And they can get away with it because the president put her there out of deference to the union activists who supported him.

Eric, thoughts on what's going to be

Is that is that overstating the case or is it really an obstacle to someday being president?

I think it actually is an obstacle to him.

And, you know, we've talked about this.

I've written about it, that he, like Abdul El-Sayed, is tied to someone who is viewed as deeply anti-Semitic.

Tucker Carlson for the vice president is on piker for El-Sayed.

They won't distance themselves.

They're very loyal.

I mean, what is wrong with these people? They have all the money in the world.

Yes.

Eric? I wouldn't be surprised if he does.

He's definitely going to stay in the shadows of the vice president somewhere in the private sector until he can be brought back in.

I got to tell you, I'm continuing to be mesmerized by on this weekend.

We have the story in the Washington Post about the non-concur from the generals and the admirals and how taxed things are and worn out everyone is and demoralized.

And then Driscoll goes to the White House, according to The Atlantic, says to the president, basically, all this stuff is true and leaves.

And I'm actually kind of surprised there hasn't been more chatter, rightly or wrongly, with what was this Driscoll's parting shot.

Eric.

And that's $200 million that could be spent in New Hampshire, in Michigan, in Maine, both on defense and offense opportunities for the

Listen, this goes back to the primary.

I made the argument repeatedly on my show that you can get Ken Paxton across the finish line because it's Texas.

But to do so, you're going to have to pull money out of other states where you've got to win.

And now that includes Iowa and Ohio, places the GOP shouldn't be on defense, but they are.

Is it worth it to try to save Ken Paxton and lose the Senate? And I don't think the Republicans think it is.

Behind the scenes, there's a lot of animosity at the Texas Republican grassroots that decided Ken Paxson was the guy to get rid of John Cornyn.

How fundamental do you think they are? Are they wearing that Islamic cloak and really believing it? I mean, are they thinking that Allah will come and save them at the last minute or...?

Well, I'd love to hear you speak to that too.

Yeah, o- okay, so for those of you, and, and full disclosure, and, and some of you get tired of hearing me say this, but I...

So I grew up overseas.

I w- from 5 to 15 lived in Dubai.

I've, I've still been in more, I've been in more countries than there are states.

Uh, a g- come back to the United States.

My parents hosted the Fifth Fleet, enlisted while we were there.

... where does this, where does this go?

What's your read of, uh, obviously your home state Senate race?

Uh, listen, uh, I don't know any Republican in the state who thinks Mike Collins is going to win, uh, unless Rick Jackson can do something to pull him across the finish line.

Uh, he, he, I, as I was saying before we began when we were off air, that, um, there was a lot of buzz after the primary that Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms were gonna run a ticket together, an anti-corruption top of the ticket in Georgia.

Senate race will come before the governor's race.

Those are the top two races.

You'll have the US Senate race immediately followed by the governor's race.

And it looked like they were going to.

Uh, uh, [laughs] thoughts on this, uh, Eric, in terms of what the president continues to do in terms of saying e- everything is fine, mission accomplished, but ships are still obviously getting attacked in the Strait and, uh, and passages down.

What would you recommend in the situation that we're describing here?

I guess his situation sounds a little complex of what he wants, but actually, with you talking and with what Darren was saying, and you're showing your props, I realized I have all of those props sitting on my desk right now.

I've got a Naz raid with Synology, and I've got a Daz raid with OWC.

And then I've got a bunch of external drives sitting around too, including little SSD or NAND flash drives.

And I use all of them.

And I think the one thing I don't necessarily do all the time is share my external drives, you know, for my, you know, main computer right now, my main computer, desktop computer is a MacBook Pro M3, you know, MacBook Pro.

So that gets detached and moved around.

Are you thinking of upgrading any time, Eric? Because if your 10 bay was built in 2019, then how much longer support do you think it has, especially on the software side?

Do you agree it is the hardest of Trump's career, number one? Number two, can he leap the chasm in a single bound?

Uh, yes, it is the hardest.

It's not the most important.

Uh, it is the hardest because y- as you said, he does have to balance people who've gotten tired of him, um, people who love him.

He's gotta get everybody to turn out.

He's gotta give people a reason to vote for the GOP when there doesn't appear to be much of one.

Can he do it in one night? Uh, I don't know who all is even gonna cover it and who's gonna pay attention to it.

Mm-hmm

Is it because character is now in vogue or because we have finally gotten to the point where politicians have reached such rock bottom in their moral standing that people are forced to pay attention even by abysmally low standards?

I actually think it's the latter, that the politicians have fallen so far that the voters are starting to pay attention.

You want to get better outcomes in Washington, you've got to have better people.

So you've got Corey Mills, the voters of Florida will decide in Florida 7 on Tuesday whether or not they want that guy coming back who's accused of corruption, of passing contracts off to his business as a congressman.

revenge porn, assault of a woman.

You've got Max Miller in Ohio.

You had Graham Platner, the Democrats forced out of his race.

Why do you think that difference has happened?

Okay, I'm not sure he's really on one metaphor, wickedness, rot, and the rise of the rot, but all that aside, Can Donald Trump and Republicans turn all of these midterm elections from a referendum on Donald Trump and Republicans, which they lose, into a referendum on socialism because of what we're seeing in Michigan and soon to be in Wisconsin?

Yes, as a matter of fact, that's the common core Republican bolsters in Georgia and around the country and focus group.

People are all seeing that while people really don't like Donald Trump or the Republicans right now, they're really scared of what they're hearing from the socialists.

So it helps Republicans if Abdul El-Sayed wins.

It helps them with some of these other candidates who have won Democratic primaries around the country.

Republicans think they can nationalize this.

And for people who are skeptical about this, Consider 2018.

Help me understand, where is the overwhelming voice of the Republican Party to say and to cut Miller off from fundraising and from any kind of help?

What do you think?

Uh, the American people have given Donald Trump a pass on a lot that they don't give anyone a pass on.

Uh, the, Max Miller is no Donald Trump, and Donald Trump, by the way, didn't have physical abuse allegations against women, despite the various allegations.

I mean, Max Miller has physical abuse allegations, not just against an ex-wife.

People can say this is, this is some sort of messy divorce.

He's got physical abuse allegations against multiple women.

Uh, he's no Graham Platner.

... hurt him, hurt them?

I think this is a huge dynamic, but what are you looking at and why do it now? We're here in August, when it seems like people are still making up their minds.

Yeah.

Nationally, a, a, a lot of people are pointing out that as, as the state goes one way in one race, it goes that way in every race, and, and that's a growing trend.

If, if Republicans in Texas, or voters in Texas, if they vote Democrat, they're probably gonna vote Democrat down the ballot.

In, in Alabama, they vote Republican.

Uh, you pick the state.

Um, Texas, probably gonna vote Republican, and probably will help Ken Paxton, because people don't tend to split their vote.

Do you feel like the State of Georgia is still winnable for Republicans if they just go to gin up the base and just turn them all out? Do the numbers work anymore?

In the same sense that both sides have this mythology, this discussion is probably good for firing up both bases.

Yeah, and you know, the problem here in Georgia is that Ossoff's base is really fired up, and the Republicans not so much.

The Republicans had a very messy primary system.

They haven't completely united again.

This fires up not just the Democrats, though, but the independents.

Now, I don't know for certain the president's going to do this on Thursday.

Maybe he could be talked out of it.

So why offer something and be so intransigent on something when the alternative may not be perfect, but it is good, it gets you part of the way to what you say you need to do, which is protect elections?

So Why is it that it's an allegation of rape or is it the deadline? Why did all of them switch with the exception of at this hour of Bernie Sanders in one news cycle? I think it's

Fox News is why.

Because they just released a very credible poll in Maine that has Plattner behind Collins, which is an unheard of thing in Maine for a credible pollster to find.

until the polling shifted pretty decisively with the major credible pollster, they were willing to do this.

You do also now have the victim coming forward with a compelling interview.

But here's the thing, as well as how coordinated it was, I mean, Jake Tapper had an interview With the victim in Maine, clearly there was some level of coordination behind the scenes with PR people to make this happen at the end to build the steam to push him out of the race before the deadline.

But it all comes to a head after the first major poll from Fox News shows that the race has shifted in Maine.

What is it? Why does this happen that these people on the left and the right get such scrutiny?

They saved it

...

it would pass.

They did.

Um, it, it...

But yes, uh, does the president wanna hang out with Elizabeth Warren and give her credit? No, he doesn't.

Uh, the base does care about the Save America Act.

Eric, why do you say I'm naive?

Eric, tell us what you know, and tell us how you evaluate Platner's chances of being the nominee, and thank you for being here.

Oh, absolutely, and, and sorry for being late.

Stuck in traffic right as I was pulling in.

Um, e- so what I've been told for a couple of weeks now is that all of these point towards questions about how he, uh, was i- essentially pushed out of his elite school that he was in.

Uh, several students have, uh, come forward already and said they know these allegations are out there.

Reporters are certainly circling, and there are women starting to talk about the allegations.

And here's the thing.

I- is it possible that there's literally nothing that could come out about Platner that would stop him from winning? Is that possible, or do you think the stuff you're hearing about will be dispositive?