Except it's Texas.

Well, and, uh, as Rahm Emanuel says, is, and you've, he's on CNN all the time, you know, "When you're explaining, you're losing." And he's explaining here, he's losing on that non-binary, uh, comment.

He's also losing on, on this particular issue.

I will, I will take exception on one thing.

I do think cost of living issues are gonna be paramount to most people.

But sometimes these secondary issues rise up in a voter's mind as they're going to the, uh, into the voting booth, and I, and I, I do think that his non-answer on trans athletes there, because he really did have all of these, uh, kind of extra, uh, conditions on his answer, is going to hurt him.

It's another thing to have a candidate doing something that you don't have, you have not captured [laughs] and just putting it out there for the public to see.

What, what is not deceptive, though, is the actual hit, and this is where I disagree with this premise about this being about masculinity.

Our bookie's listening right now [laughs]

I have paper.

So cost of, uh, in terms of, uh, taxpayers who owed, uh, last year, 97% of taxpayers got a, uh, tax cut of an average of $800.

Eight million, uh, filers filed, uh, no tax on tips.

29 million filed no tax on overtime.

35 million seniors claimed the enhanced senior deduction.

Refunds were up 11%.

[laughs]

So how do you square that with the rhetoric downplaying the problem?

Well, again, I think it's the White House recognizing that cost of living is an issue and is going to continue to be an issue for Republicans in these races around the country.

And for a lot of Republicans, it's thank goodness that the White House is engaged on this.

I think that's why you've had the Venezuela announcement.

You've got this meeting today.

And I'm sure you will see the president going out, either tapping into some of the money on advertising, talking about money, cost of living and lowering the cost of living for Americans in the near future, or him leaving Washington and going to some of these states.

They've got good stories to tell on tax cuts, on Trump Rx, the Trump accounts for newborns, all of those things, but they haven't been talking about it, and hopefully this is part of a new message dynamic for them.

What do you think? Should Americans be concerned about this?

Yeah.

I think the whole tying this into Kid Rock is the wrong way to look at it.

I'm gonna go back to Alex's point, which is really the chilling of frank and honest speech within the Pentagon.

We want that.

I think the downside of what we've seen here, and the real harm that Hegseth would be bringing with this, is chilling of that speech.

If you are a junior general who is rising up through the ranks, and you see everyone that's above you get tossed because they had the audacity of telling civilian leadership something they didn't wanna hear, what is that gonna do to you? That is gonna make you probably shut your mouth a little bit more and not give the honest assessment that we need, that the civilian leadership needs, that the administration needs to hear.

That is what's worrying to me.

There are people who could be involved in this in a solutions-oriented way that aren't.

We've got to see this through whatever the pain that you're feeling.

Listen, there has been some success out of this conflict.

One is degrading the support and the effectiveness of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, as Congressman Flood mentioned.

I don't think that we should treat that lightly.

I think that's incredibly important.

as we look at the conflicts around the globe, and especially in the Middle East.

We had a failure of policy prior to this, the JCPOA, in and of itself, which President Trump did pull us back from.

But in this political climate, that just there's no room for it.

Can they afford to wait with midterms coming?

Well, absolutely.

The president is his best press secretary.

He'll tell you that, and I think that's kind of the world that, uh, that we lived in.

Um, but to the, to the point that's being made about, um, about Leavitt is she really had this dual ability to stand at the podium and give as good as she got, as you all are saying, but then doing the background work and she came across as much better with the press and in a much better relationship than frankly most of the press secretaries I can think of in either, in Trump 1.0 in terms of, you know, being a different person when behind closed doors and up for press.

So-

Okay.

And I think term limits are terrible.

But I always watch which senators seem like a pretty sure vote all of a sudden asking very pointed questions.

He, he in the past should have been a, a sure vote.

But yes, when you get the rug pulled out from under you [laughs] by an administration, and now you're voting on, you know, that administration's, uh, nominees, you, you question this.

This is part of the kind of the long-term gain, short-term pain that I've talked about, that the Trump administration has created for itself by running primary opponents in Texas and Louisiana and elsewhere.

But, uh, Tillis, uh, also had similar questions and had a very different response while asking those questions.

But him bringing in the fact that he thinks this affects, like Trump going into different races and trying to make a difference, he doesn't see it as a good thing.

I, I think what we saw yesterday in the Clayton testimony, uh, with the Democrats one after the other, after the other asking the same question, that was, that was performance art by the Democrats.

Asking somebody who has been nominated for a job to say something that his, the new boss ... doesn't believe.

Mike Dupke, what lessons should Republicans take from the Graham Platner implosion here?

Well, first, vet your candidates.

I mean, I think that is a very, very good lesson for either political party to learn from this.

The second thing is stop sending your oppo research to the New York Times and others.

Hold it back until after July 13th when the Democrats can't do anything about it.

If you want to learn some lessons here, there's some gamemanship with this.

But I think the bigger lesson is candidates matter.

Mike Dubke, what are your thoughts on the communism message there?

And it sounds like they don't like the UMCA any much better.

So, so I think the, the, the most important part of this reporting is the unpredictability of what we're talking about here.

This trade agreement goes through 2036, I believe.

So if we didn't renegotiate and do this the way that they want to, which is every year, which creates that unpredictability, which is terrible for business, um, you know, looking down the road, we, we should know what the, the deal is.

But why is Trump doing this now? I think it's, it's the transshipment of Chinese goods through, uh, through Mexico.

He feels that they're cheating.

It is the trade deficit, um, that, that you're talking about, and he likes bilateral deals rather than these trilateral deals.

Go ahead.

So it's, it's w- essentially, what did we gain from this war with Iran?

Iran?I think what we gained in terms of, uh, uh, on the, on the battlefront, we decimated their navy.

Uh, uh, we took, uh, their military stockpile down, especially on ballistic missiles.

We disrupted their ability to, uh, fund Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

And we disrupted, uh, what has been a terror regime since 1979.

So if you look at what the president started with in 2020 with the killing of Soleimani, that might have been strike one.

Strike two was probably, uh, the bombing last year of the nuclear facilities.

Mike, a person close to the White House told NBC this deal is, quote, and I'm reading from, from our notes here, "embarrassing for the president," because the strait was open before this war started, as we all know, and some of the more complicated terms, they still have to be worked out, right? So how does the president convince Republicans that this is a good call to give some concessions to Iran and lift the US blockade?

As we look ahead now, do you think Trump's endorsement will help or hurt Collins against Ossoff?

Oh, I thi- well, look, he was five of six last night.

Uh, f- you know, four outright wins and then, and then, uh, a runoff in, in Oklahoma.

I think it helps just getting his candidate there.

What surprised me was how late that endorsement was.

But as it applies to Ossoff, um, and Georgia, I think Republicans, whether it was Dully or Collins, Republicans have a really good shot at, at knocking who the new darling of the Democratic Party is-

Appreciate you coming on.

And just ahead, breaking news in the Luigi Mangione trial, what lawyers will argue in his defense.

Um, there's a lot at stake

... here's the problem, though, with the setup on this.

There is bipartisan concern about Pulte, but there's also bipartisan concern about FISA, um, uh, expiring.

So if there's this level of bipartisan concern, hopefully we would see some bipartisan action on this.

Unfortunately, we're now in a game of chicken between the White House and Pulte and Democrats in, in Congress.

So my guess is, how does this play out, we're gonna go through the weekend, we're gonna have FISA expire on Friday.

Before Congress leaves for the, um, either, uh, the June 19th, uh, break, uh, or the Fourth of July break, we're gonna see some movement on this.

But, um, the fact that there is so much detail in this book, so many quotes, um, what does that tell you about how this, this White House is working?

I mean, that's not a president who sounds like the confident guy who just knocked these incumbents out and was feeling really good about it, Mike.

Oh, I think he's feeling really good about it, and I, I think that the larger question here is, does he feel like he can wait it out until the end of this Congress for the new Congress to start in the last two years of his, of his second term? Problem he's gonna have is there's, you know, historical precedent that at least one of the houses, probably the House of Representatives, will be gone even with the mid-season gerrymander that we-- that I know you've talked about on this program, uh, prior to that.

But it's even worse than that, David, because we've got, um, there are a number of HHS officials, Health and Human Services, that have either resigned.

We don't have a surgeon general.

Now Cassidy's in charge of the committee that will be, uh, reviewing that.

We don't have a director of the FDA.

Cassidy's in charge of that.

Like in a country like ours where, you know, we talk so often now about faith in politicians, faith in institutions like Congress is eroding, could we see some examples of this kind of thing?

What the voters have voted for is currently not applied.

Yes

YesWhat I find disturbing about this is exactly how you introduced this.

We don't know what these charges are, and that's what leads...

If, if I'm gonna a- a- agree with Jasmine on this, that leads people to question any move by the FBI or the DOJ when they don't clearly state why we took this action.

This is a very public action.

They very publicly went into, uh, the senators' offices, and they didn't have an explanation as to why, and we are waiting.

Yeah

... let's just say merit has very vague [laughs] I think requirements in this scenario.

Well, I, I, I actually wanna pick up on what, uh, was already spoken about.

I mean, the job that he had was procuring additional ships for the Navy, building out new ships for the Navy, doing all of those things, which you don't necessarily need...

You, you basically need to have a, a better understanding of how to procure things, put things together than actually, uh, when they go out onto the, onto the sea.

And our Navy is, i-i-is in need of a serious-

... too far in the past for people to buy that

... yeah, the further, the f- the further away you get from the Biden administration, the less salient that, that talking point is going to be.

I do think Republicans have some good things to talk about w- uh, of, of what they passed last summer, you know, the no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, the basically what, what Blair mentioned in that, the, uh, the, the, the tax hike that would've been if they hadn't continued the Trump tax cuts.

Mm-hmm.

That you've got to take into account.

That part of the reason that Iran hasn't been struck before is because of the Strait Hor- of Hormuz.

So it is on the opening and the, um, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is on both of the 10 point, 15 point, whatever peace plans we're talking about right now, but it is essential to the ceasefire.

I think the United States came to the table because of Iranian actions in the Strait of Hormuz, um, and without a free passage there, we are gonna see hostilities start much sooner than they, they would.

I think Lebanon is a, is a-

Right

... are really pushing for their own publicity.

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Would you agree?

Uh, no.

You don't want the National Guard at the airport?

Look, I don't want ICE at the airport either, and I've ...

And frankly, the TSA agents ...

I mean, here's the thing that we were talking about, you know, uh, years ago about, uh, air traffic controllers.

You know, they make a lot of money, so they had the ability to s- to save up some money.

These TSA agents do not.

They could easily quit and go and work somewhere else and make just as much money as they're making-

That they're all endless with such resignation.

I don't know how you're feeling about it, you guys.

No.

On the military question, I...

Look, uh, it is, it is a bit of mixed messaging.

We've won, but we need to finish the job.

I mean, which, which one is it? I, I, I still remember back to 2003 with the big Mission Accomplished banner that really haunted the, uh, Bush presidency for the rest of, uh, that term and then the next term.

Uh, so, uh, I, I am with the other Republicans [beeping] who are saying we really need to clarify this message.

And each day it goes longer, isn't that something you have to explain?

Okay, so say more.

It's supposed to set the agenda.

Now, I don't think it's gonna be a rally, given half of the people that are gonna be [laughs] in that room are not gonna be cheering wildly for, for Donald J. Trump.

Uh, but I do think that it sets the agenda, and this is, you know, what, what the State of the Union has been in the past, and what it can be for President Trump, is an exclamation point on what the next few months are going to be in terms of legislation as we lead into the midterms.

So this is a reset opportunity on affordability.

Whether or not he takes that opportunity w- is-

Two US citizens.

Yeah.

I mean, is it wise for them to- to be doing this on- on healthcare?

Well, I think we're at this point now because we- we lost the month of October basically because of the government shutdown.

We knew that these subsidies were going to expire.

Um, this is part of the typical Washington process.

I think when you look at, in your reporting, the discharge, uh, petition in the House for a two-year, uh, extension, um, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer knew that his three-year extension was untenable.

Republicans were not gonna go for it.

And when you had the four Republicans in the Senate that voted today, uh, for that plan, they were all saying the same thing, "We just want to bring something to the floor that we could then bring amendments to and negotiate." We're gonna get a solution here.

They're in a pickle because they understand that the midterms are coming up and not only do they have rising costs at the grocery store, but now rising healthcare costs.

... just, they set the rules.

A- absolutely.

State by state, they set the rules.

And in some states you even have absentee in person.

So there's multiple different ways, uh, to vote in different states.

I am concerned.

I am with you on the concern.

Potentially, yes.

But how, do you see that as being a- a- a workable comment? Praise the president and- and act like it's all Joe Biden's fault?

Well, I think there's a couple of things at work here.

I think some of the- the early, um, pronouncements by Senator Schumer and articles in The New York Times about, you know, whether DoS or other, uh, funding sources caused this disaster, which was totally inappropriate, so you see a White House reacting to that, and s- and in some cases, maybe this with- with, uh, uh, Secretary Noem, you're seeing an overreaction to the accusations that were made a couple of days ago.

But here's my- my answer to your question.

This is why government reform is so difficult, because as you try... whether you agree with what the president has said about, uh, FEMA and whether or not it's funded at the right levels or if it's got the right focus, when you have a disaster and everything is going wrong, somebody wants to blame somebody else.

And so trying to reform government in the middle, it's kinda like building that plane-

Did you mean that it's not, uh, an appropriate question because of the timing, like we're still in a search-and-recovery phase, or is the question itself to be asked about whether DoS cuts had any impact at these key agencies?

Frankly, if- if I was really going to be focused on this, I'd be looking at whether the- the- the cuts, the DoS cuts and others are still affecting California, the floods that we had in North Carolina.

Has he become a liability now for Donald Trump?

I think the difficulty...

I think the difficulty with what's going on in the Pentagon right now is less all of the strum and drong about, uh, SignalGate and more, uh, the chaos at the ranks, uh, underneath Secretary Hegseth, that he's lost...

He's reassigned his chief of staff, the deputy chief of staff has resigned, uh, the communications person has left.

These are not individuals in the military that, for whatever reason, the Trump administration wanted to push out for DEI or for other reasons to create a more lethal force, which was what they said when they went in, but it's the people that Hegseth brought in to surround himself with that are now gone.

And that, that's the turmoil that I think is infecting the Pentagon, and long term is the turmoil that the White House is going to have to deal with.

And at this point, we're getting to the area where the president needs to make some hard decisions.

And how is that going? (laughs)

Did you feel encouraged by what you heard?

[laughs] Well, I think riveted is a strong word.

I was, I was watching for a couple of tells, and it was whether or not the Democrats were going to move as a unified body in opposition, and that proved to be true.

They absolutely, uh, showed that they had organized their line of questioning.

They were very succinct in, uh, in their attacks.

And so that was one thing.

Generally, these nomination hearings aren't as straightforward as that.

Mm