But one beneficiary will not be Ken Paxson.

Well, look, the fundraiser was Monday night, and the former president had been asked by a variety of Republican Senate candidates if he would appear at a fundraiser for him, and he agreed.

Some of them, like Dan Sullivan, served in his administration.

Some of them, like John Sununu, served in the Congress while he was there.

And so, yes, he was glad to appear on their behalf.

Let me just say, for the last 10 years, Ken Paxton has been saying the era of George W. Bush is over.

So he's made it clear what he thinks of the former president.

Does Karl Rove think that?

... people have said to me that they use more g- uh, water for golf courses.

Yeah, that, that's true.

That's true.

I mean, if you got the local golf course and you have a, a...

if you have a, a data center that, that has a, uh, you know, a, a, a capture system that recycles the water, there's only one day in which that data center will have, um, more water use, and that's the day when they load up the system.

But otherwise, no.

Absolutely.

Where do you think it is?

Wow

... to make sure that the bomb is not gonna be, uh, gotten on the plane.

You get to the top of the steps, you turn to the right, there's a long hallway, um, and the president's office is, is the first door to the left.

And as we walk, as I walked by, I was on my way to the senior staff cabin about 15, you know, 20 feet bu- bu- further on, and the president whistled at me again and pointed to the seat across from him, and that's where I spent much of the day.

And you're right.

We get on Air Force One, um, you know, everybody's running down the hallway to get to their seat.

Uh, the, it's sort of loud, and I realize that's because they got the engines already revved up.

Yeah.

Common sense against crazy

crazyYeah.

Uh, two things.

One is, I think you're absolutely right.

This is a, a wonderful opportunity to, uh, expose the beliefs of the people on the left, particularly the candidates.

Look, it's, it...

Hasan Piker, everybody who ca- who he's campaigned with should be held to account for, for doing that.

Yes.

He took some criticism for not jumping up and doing something right away.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, if, if, if he had jumped up and, you know, there would've been criticism either way.

And when he walked into that staff hold, it was a different George W. Bush.

He was calm.

The voice was steel.

He said, "Give me the vice president and the director of the FBI," the FBI director.

Mm.

They got a major highway named the Ronald Reagan

Highway.

And he took a seat held by a Republican who was retiring, wonderful guy, Larry Gonzalez.

And so in his first race, he had to get Republican and independent votes.

Then he got redistricted, and his district got moved into Travis County, and his true colors came out.

And he had to out-progress about, he had to move further to the left than anybody else so that he could get votes in a Democratic primary and remain in office.

And look, to his credit, I think these are true feelings that he has, because he's said lots of crazy things over the years.

Does the Democratic Party's leftward lurch in the end help them or hurt them?

Is that your message?

Yeah, absolutely.

Look, an outside group is saying, okay, we're going to buy $15 million worth of advertising.

Now, that may sound like a lot to people who live in other states, but $15 million over two weeks is a pittance.

We're the second most populous state in the union.

We have a large number, over 20 media markets.

And Telerico, since the primary— has been up most of the time.

What happened?

The U.S. did retaliate against bin Laden after the embassy bombings and officials are not ruling out military action this time against whoever's to blame for the attack on the Cole.

As a candidate, Governor Bush had a pretty amazing set of in-depth policy briefings in 1999 and 2000 that dealt with these issues of foreign policy advisors and defense policy advisors.

Carl Rove.

Like Don Rumsfeld and Condi Rice.

Richard B. Cheney, former Defense Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, former Defense Department official.

They discussed these issues in depth.

And as a result, President Bush, then candidate Bush, gave a speech at the Citadel in the spring of 2000. in which he talked about the need to modernize the American military to meet the new challenges of the 21st century, which would increasingly include non-state actors.

Next thing you know, something flies into the Pentagon.

Normally, a motorcade goes 40, 45 miles an hour.

The, this thing went like a bat out of hell.

I mean, we were, we were ...

You know, it took us basically, you know, we were, we were doing 60 miles an hour, better than 60 miles an hour for the entire journey of about five miles.

But we were, once we got onto the highway, we were going, like, 80 or 85 miles an hour.

And we'd left, it's just, we'd left just after 9:30, and literally, while it, while we're pulling into the parking lot, Flight 17 smashes into the Pentagon.

Surely there could've been something you could've said or done that may have helped in this." That was just how I felt.

Suddenly, it was no longer a story just about New York City and the World Trade Center attacks, but suddenly they were tracking an airplane attack in washington dc next thing you know something flies into the pentagon

normally a motorcade goes 40 45 miles an hour the this thing went like a bat out of hell i mean we were we were you know it took us basically you know we were we were doing 60 miles an hour better than 60 miles an hour for the entire journey of about five miles but we were once we got onto the highway we were going like 80 or 85 miles an hour And we've left.

We left just after 9.30. And literally, while we're pulling down the parking lot, Flight 77 smashes into the Pentagon.

So on the way to the airport, the president gets word of the attack.

The phone in the car rings.

It was a small phone to his right up on the side of the vehicle.

He pulled it down.

That was just how I felt.

The president's coming.

I had to have an idea of where the president would speak.

And, you know, I didn't, you know, I looked around and, you know, I couldn't see him walking up one of these walls of debris because it was clearly, you know, difficult to navigate.

I couldn't see him doing it from the running board of the SUV.

But I happened to look just south of me and just to my left, and there was a fire truck, a pumper.

The debris had fallen on top of it and had literally flattened it.

The tires were blown out.

It was that powerful.

Yeah.

But...

And, and look, uh, first of all, I, I think the number of low propensity Trump voters, we, we tend to focus on them.

And don't get me wrong, they're important, but, uh, I, I, I think they're, they're less of a factor.

It's if the president basically says, as he did in the ch- in the runoffs in, uh, Georgia in 2021, that, that it's unimportant.

So as long as they think that he thinks that it's important, I think they're gonna turn out.

I think the key is three things.

What about 2018? Is there, is there any parallel to '18 that, that we can learn a lesson from there?

Is it yours?

Yeah.

Actually, absolutely.

But I'm, I'm writing about this because this is an opportunity.

Think about...

I put it in the context of Florida.

Think about Florida.

What's going on in Texas?

And what's remarkable, I think, about the moment, it's another way of capturing my, my opening question, is it's working for them, not against them.

Right.

And Republicans better, better wake up to that fact.

In fact, uh, you know, one, among the seven points I made was don't let, uh, don't just simply scream communist.

Call them by the name that they go by, socialist or Democratic socialist.

Don't let them disavow these past, uh, r- r- ridiculous and radical positions.

Uh, don't let them escape, um, associate their, their associations, uh, with, uh, people like Hasan Piker.

What's your take on, on, on the vice president being this person who is, you know, countering the DSA, at the same time seems to be, seems to be trying to have a conversation within the Republican Party as much as he's trying to counter what the DSA is putting out?

So what do you make of what happened with Florida lurching to the left, at least in the Senate race?

Well, I thought it was pretty amazing because, um, she-- Nixon is, is, was, is a Democratic socialist.

She had little money.

Uh, she, uh, was a state representative, so she knew people around the state and had been active in the Democratic Party.

But she was running against Alex Windman, who was recruited by, by Schumer and had vast gobs of money to spend, uh, but I think was fundamentally flawed.

And he, he-- first of all, he moved to Florida about three years ago, two and a half years ago.

And so it looked-- I mean, look, lots of people moved to Florida, but, but it's not like, you know, I'm moving to Florida and two and a half years later, two years later, I'm running, um, for the United States Senate.

Okay.

Karl Rove is a Fox News contributor, famous as the architect in the George W. Bush presidency as senior advisor and deputy White House chief of staff.

Say what you will, she knew people all around the state through her service in the legislature, had friends and allies in the Black Caucus, and, you know, uh, had more oomph.

And the establishment lost, and the DSA won, and the ultimate winner of that whole Democratic primary is gonna be Ashley Moody, the Republican United States senator, who now has an unabashed left-winger to run a- against in a state where espousing socialist views causes a lot of people who are Hispanic not to vote Democrat, but to vote Republican.

Ashley Moody is now gonna take all the crazy things that she has said and the crazy things she's endorsed and put them out there for K- for Floridians to look at.

And, and remember, Florida has a large number of Puerto Ricans, Cubanos, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, uh, you name it, from, uh, the h- Southern Hemisphere, whose families suffered from socialism and came to the United States for freedom.

Okay.

But look, the Democrats are gonna go hard after him.

Talarico, look, I live in Austin.

Yeah

... nomination, I think you're absolutely right, the nomination of a, a, avowed, openly practicing Democratic socialist in a state where you have Cubanos and Venezuelans and Nicaraguans and lots of people, as you point out, who've had an experience in their lifetime and in their family with the effect of socialism, is a, a big negative.

And you add on top of that the anti-Semitism of the DSA and their DSA-adjacent candidates, and, um, and this is a, a, you know, this is...

The, the state is trending r- red.

I mean, it was not too long ago that for the first time in its history it had more registered Republicans than Democrats.

Now the j- gap between the two is huge, and I think is only gonna get bigger this year.

And it's gonna be a little bit difficult for the Democrats because they have a gubernatorial candidate who's a former Republican and more of a centrist, and now they have above him on the ballot a Democratic socialist as their Senate candidate who, A, is not gonna raise that much money, and B, is not gonna step away from her, her leftist views.

Do you think it's a foregone conclusion, particularly when it comes to the House, the Democrats will win, or is it still an open question?

Uh, he does not-

Well, even more importantly for Michiganders, uh, he doesn't like Mackinac Island.

This is a f- a favorite of Michiganders.

It's a island at the north part of the peninsula, and it doesn't allow cars on it.

It's an island.

And so they only have horses and carriages, and he said, "I hate it." And, uh, they dug up that comment.

And I think it's good because it sort of...

And I actually think that the discussions that had, that were had in that time were quite fruitful.

I'm not standing in line two hours for this."

Yeah.

Well, and then, and to...

Let me...

I got two things to say to this.

First of all, a little bit of history.

We've seen this drama before.

... on the national level.

No matter which way I go, I'm not standing in line two hours for this."

this."Yeah.

Well, and then, and two, let me, I got two things to say to this.

First of all, a little bit of history.

We've seen this drama before.

You're absolutely right.

It, it's, it flows onto everybody else.

... on the national level.

Karl Rove is a Fox News contributor and a former deputy chief of staff under President George W. Bush.

What he says is largely in concurrence with the platform of the DSA, and Rogers is a smart cookie, and he's gonna go straight at all of these odd beliefs.

Remember, the Der- the, the DSA has been successful this year in places that are by and large very, very blue.

Uh, think about the New York congressional races, for example, where the D- DSA nominated people in the 7th, 10th, and 13th districts.

The 13th, Donald Trump got 11.1% of the vote.

11.1. You know, and the best, uh, of all of those DSA victories where they knocked off Democrat incumbents or took the nomination in an open race was Colorado 1, where i- in that district, Donald Trump got an amazing 21.1% of the vote.

One out of every [laughs] five people voted for him there.

And in that race, when we see the candidates that have lined up on the Republican side, does the Lindsey Graham legacy help them a great deal, or does the Democrat, Andy Andrews, in that state have any chance at all at lifting that seat?

How do you see this story?

Well, I take a lot of what, uh, I, I believe about it from the latest Fox poll, which says that, uh, the president's approval rating on this is in the 30s.

Uh, among Democrats, it's virtually in, in, it's negligible.

Uh, it's strong, very strong against self-identified MAGA Republicans, and, uh, a majority of non-MAGA Republicans support him on it.

But that support has dropped from nearly two-thirds, uh, in June to, uh, just about 51% today.

So l- I, I think, look, the, the, the president needs to lay out the, what his goal is.

He needs to remind us constantly of why it's important.

These messages on affordability and growth, as you put it, which I totally agree, um, are they, you know, are they being-- is the messaging being messaged properly?

Can you put this in perspective?

Well, yeah.

Look, the, um, the Democrats are unhappy.

They, uh, some part of the Democratic base is, wants more to be done to, uh, to, uh, deal with Donald Trump, attack him, stop him, keep him from doing what he's doing.

And, uh, when the Democrats are unable to do that or unwilling to do that or can't do it simply because they're [laughs] in the minority in both the House and Senate, uh, then, you know, you have people like, uh, Platner, Graham Platner in Maine, who, uh, seize on that angst and, uh, bend it their way.

So yeah, I understand it.

I mean, the, the...

... who seem to be the barbarians at the gate.

So it's a little bit broader than that, don't you think? Yeah.

Well, it is.

And look, but there's going to be a general election test here.

For example, you know, look, the DSAs are not going to get beaten in the districts that I outlined.

But in Colorado eight, which Donald Trump won by two points, they nominated a DSA guy who is.

I mean, he's a kook.

And it's going to be a question of whether or not they can begin to win in districts like that.

Andy.

Okay.

But he does, he does have an anger problem like Platner and, and, uh...

But yeah, but look, the, the, those...

It is well worth reading this, this, uh, manifesto of the Democratic socialists entitled, entitled Workers Deserve More because it is clearly a statement of what they intend to do and what they're going to advocate.

And Democrats would be smart to stand up to it and call it out for what it is, which is socialism.

And don't call them names.

Don't...

this sentiment?