Who did the Democrats want to run against here? Well, Arizona

has proven that they don't like putting folks who deny the election into higher office.

It's just something that time and time again we've been asked this question specifically about this state because we have seen folks like Carrie Lake and others who have taken the mantle, taken up President Trump's to get that approval, his positions on these things.

And time and time again, Arizonans have rejected him.

Now, Katie Hobbs has a kind of mixed track record.

She is viewed by a lot of Democrats as probably the most vulnerable Democratic governor going into the midterm elections.

But just in the last few days, we know that they move that race from a toss up to now lean Democratic.

Did he move the needle on that? Yeah, I think one of the things that have been most interesting

Is the U.S. really going to give over hundreds of billions of dollars to the Iranians? That said, is the White House just going to declare victory and hope that the details work out fine later?

I think you're seeing them start that process now, William.

You've seen J.D. Vance, the vice president, who is leading these negotiations.

You've already seen him on CBS, ABC, CNN.

Maybe by the end of the week, we'll see him on PBS.

Going out and setting the narrative of what the deal is before the text actually comes out, because you're right, we haven't seen the text.

We haven't seen what this memorandum of understanding is that even gets you to the next phase of technical talks that U.S. officials say will last for 60 days, where they nail out all of those really hard details.

How do you see that playing out?

Is the U.S. really going to give over hundreds of billions of dollars to the Iranians? That said, is the White House just going to declare victory and hope that the details work out fine later?

I think you're seeing them start that process now, William.

You've seen J.D. Vance, the vice president, who is leading these negotiations.

You've already seen him on CBS, ABC, CNN.

Maybe by the end of the week, we'll see him on PBS.

Going out and setting the narrative of what the deal is before the text actually comes out, because you're right, we haven't seen the text.

We haven't seen what this memorandum of understanding is that even gets you to the next phase of technical talks that U.S. officials say will last for 60 days, where they nail out all of those really hard details.

How do you see that playing out?

And on top of that, you have the 6th Congressional District in California, which Gavin Newsom gerrymandered to be blue now with a Democrat not even making the runoff? Is there a discussion of that or just a disdain for the voters who would vote for Spencer Pratt?

Well, I think that there has been concern for months about the Democratic race when it comes to governor, especially because we know that there was a moment in time where there were five Democrats that were basically splitting the vote five different ways, getting about 10%.

And there was real concern from the top brass at the Democratic Party that they couldn't make the runoff in the governorship.

Obviously, that has changed.

And just to be very honest here, we don't know the vote count.

Tonight, it's expected that LA, Sacramento, and some other larger hubs are going to update their vote totals.

We won't know vote totals from some of the smaller states, so we're kind of pontificating here before we have the actual result.

Are there more like him? Is the party making any effort to try and recruit those candidates?

What's your latest reporting on

this? Yeah, backing away for how long, I think, is kind of the question that not just we at NewsHour are asking, but folks on the Hill are starting to ask.

We know, according to my colleagues at Notice, that the president met with Speaker Mike Johnson today at the White House, and an issue like this was raised, obviously, you know, I think for a long time, Republicans, particularly John Thune, has been saying that they don't have the votes for this.

Mike Johnson expressed that this was in trouble and kind of tried to convince Trump, according to a source told Notice, to back away from it.

And that factored into this decision, which led to that tweet by the Justice Department.

We'll see how long that lasts.

But, you know, this is something that the president wanted.

Are we at a point now where you can't really separate a national celebration from partisan politics in this Trump era?

Yeah.

Um, and so this is an important one for him.

Obviously, he's a devout Catholic.

But two weeks ago, I asked the president face-to-face, um, whether he believes that a comment that Pope Leo made, uh, was about him, and he kind of took the backseat and said that what, again, Pope Leo thinks that Iran should have a nuclear weapon, and I don't.

And I heard from a lot of Catholics around the administration after that who basically said to me, "Pope Leo," the Chicago Pope, might I add-

Um, but what do you think of this timing [laughs] with this person?

I mean, I think the constituent said it all when it comes to the timing, and these are the questions that the FBI and the larger Trump administration are going to have to answer, um, be- and show what they found via this raid, and try to make the case that it wasn't political as we've seen Todd Blanche, not specifically on this issue, but the attor- acting attorney general kind of going around and saying that he's not prosecuting folks who believe, who Trump believes and others in the administration believe should be prosecuted on political means.

Whereas Swalwell is facing actual sexual assault allegations.

Exactly.

Um, but fundamentally, Democrats for the last six months have been so focused on this idea of accountability, uh, stemming in part from their pushing of the Epstein files, for more to be released, for more to be redacted, really putting the onus on DOJ.

And so it would've seemed, uh, pretty hypocritical for Democrats not to call for the ouster and the resigning of Eric Swalwell, who again, was under threat of a expulsion.

That is what led to him finally leaving Congress.

Um, so it would seem hypocritical for them not to do so.

Um, and then you have now this balance, this, uh, in the House where you have one Democrat-

Mm-hmm.

Is the US already operating in bad faith on the world stage here, do you think?

I mean, that's what the Iranians are claiming.

I mean, one of the things that they've kind of repeated over, uh, state media over the last 24 hours is that there are a lot of reasons why the Iranians don't trust the US and negotiators, not just because the last two times that they entered into negotiations, the US then began bombing them immediately after.

I think that they have reason to be cautious, and they- that's what they continue saying.

But Lebanon is gonna be an issue.

Um, it's unclear to me whether the Iranians...

You know, they have to save face and show that they will support Hezbollah because they have this whole regional force, and if they're not gonna support them, then why would others in other parts of the Middle East support Iran, of course.

What is he supposed to do really to succeed where, in Trump's and the audience of one, as Christie said, eyes, y- she failed?

But the fact she did it, I think, is the most remarkable thing about the story.

I think that there's so many just, like, incredibly interesting vignettes into the relationships among the people that President Trump are talking to day in and day out, um, and if you are reading the digital version of the story, they're kind of placed all over in little corners and stuff and so you're really having to, like, look for it and read all of the text, just the way it's visually presented is so much part of the story.

I think my biggest takeaways is, and the conversations that I've been having since then are, of course, folks, not just on the left but of course on the right, uh, who like Susie, who feel that Susie has done a good job of- of keeping all of the cylinders rolling at the same time and on the same track questioning why she did it, what the motivation was.

Uh, but fundamentally I think that she speaks to so much about the way that she operates as a Trump s- chief of staff and how that is so different from his previous chiefs of staffs in the first year.

When I've talked to people in the past, they say, "The only way that Susie is gonna leave the White House is if she decides to leave the White House." And I think that you're seeing that play out in real time.

I mean, in this piece she talked about how she has been overruled on various things, and she seemed very comfortable with it, saying basically that's the way it goes.

She's made it clear that she's not, uh, looking to control Trump or to push Trump away from, um, his kind of worst instincts.

Guess, guess we're not number one threat."