Morning Wire - District Club: Congress Breaks, Trump Contemplates Iran and Kamala Hits the Trail

Episode Date: September 20, 2026

Congress leaves town for break as Americans grapple with higher prices and Pres. Trump contemplates how to deal with Iran. Meanwhile, Vice Pres. JD Vance continues to show signs of a 2028 run, and Fmr. Vice Pres. Kamala Harris plans to get back on the campaign trail for Democrats in Michigan. Guests: Ameshia Cross Democratic strategist X - https://twitter.com/AmeshiaCross Reagan Reese White House Correspondent, The Daily Caller X - https://twitter.com/reaganreese_ - - - Become a Daily Wire Member and watch all of our content ad-free: https://get.dailywire.com/infidels 40% off annual plans with code FIGHT 📲 Download the free Daily Wire app today on iPhone, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, and more. - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome back to another edition of the District Club. I'm Ben Dominic, opinion editor at the Daily Wire, joined by my colleague Tim Rice, who is the D.C. Bureau Chief. And we also have two guests today. We don't have Mary Margaret, a White House correspondent, but we do have a White House correspondent from The Daily Caller. And we have Democratic strategist and former Obama advisor Amisha Cross with us as well.

This was an interesting week in Washington for a number of reasons. There's certainly people who believe that the midterms do not start until the point when the members of the House of Representatives tuck tail and run back to their districts, afraid of what lies behind them there, especially considering the way that this Congress has behaved over the past couple of months. They seem to have no eagerness to stay here in the swamp, and they wanted to get back home because they are worried. They're worried for a number of different reasons, which we can get into. But Reagan, I'll start with you. When it came to the decision by Congress to head out of town this early before the November elections,

isn't that really a sign of weakness and frankly an incapability of the Republican leadership to keep their conference under control? A thousand percent. It feels like they just, I can't even really comprehend them leaving because I feel like they just got back and now they're out again and they were barely here and I barely even noticed they were here. I think that this is just it just adds to the negative vibes going into the midterms from Congress, from the geopolitics. from the GOP. It doesn't seem like they're operating from a position of strength. They don't want to stay. They don't want to fight. They don't want to pass anything. And I think after just the whole situation with the Save America Act and how that was flubbed, the least you could do was maybe stay a little bit longer and try to get something passed, try to get some win on the board for your team going into the midterms. But they don't seem willing to do that at all. Amisha, you saw a couple things happen this week in terms of that dynamic that Reagan's talking about. You saw a vote on Iran war powers where you had seven Republicans break with the president, including some Midwesterners, which is like a little bit of a surprise. You saw the remarks from Maria Salazar on the immigration issue.

Clearly, there's a lot of different frustrations coming both the administration and the Republican leadership from a couple of different directions. At the same time, a lot of Republicans are excited. about the fact that almost $100 million has been committed in the past couple of weeks from a major, you know, MAGA adjacent PAC spending in critical races across the country, not just Senate races, but houses as well. Should Republicans be coming out of this week feeling like we should be worried about this infighting? Or is it more like actually now this is the campaign is really starting? We're coming to it a little bit late. But post-Dalice, we can get our feet underneath us. I think the Republicans should be worried. And they should be

worried because Americans are still, you know, fighting the affordability crisis. We see that, you know, changes the pump, gas prices continue to go up. People's utility bills are rising like crazy. Congress letting out this week was a little bit wild. And I will say that to Reagan's point, because quite frankly, they kind of just came back. And for them to have some of the lowest approval ratings of any Congress, period, in American history, and to be at the face of the midterms, just a few months away, I think that there's a lot of frustration around people trying to figure out how to manage, you know, crises back home, respond to their district, but also in some ways running away from the crises that Trump has created for the entire nation and some of the

commentary he's had. I think one of the things that you didn't mention was also Thomas Massey making those calls to essentially have an investigation into Secretary Hickson. I think that that matters and that that was one of the trigger points to the, to them basically disappearing from Capitol Hill anyway. This is a president who's under fire and his stalwart are having a hard time explaining it to their general population because they honestly, affordability is at the top of the ballot. And it seems like everything else is at the top line of concern for the president I wonder, I think I agree that it's absolutely ridiculous than Congress would skip town, come back, one vote, skip town. But genuinely, do we, I'm, I really want, I don't know, do we think

that it matters that much to the American people that I think the Republican infighting absolutely is something that they should be worried about. And of course, it matters to the American people insofar as they think of it, right? If you think about my congressman or, you know, it's the classic they're more concerned with going home to their district and fundraising and running. Everyone's always running for re-election. But at this point, A, does anyone expect Congress to do anything? And B, how aware is the average voter of when Congress is in and out of session, right? I mean, I almost wonder if it's more when I'm thinking of what is my congressman doing for me. It's more congressional and action writ large, maybe not necessarily the voting schedules. But I don't know. I just, It seems to me to like... I'm just going to say no, maybe not, but I don't think it helps. I will tell you exactly how Congress skipping town impacts me directly. I am preparing to play in the congressional softball game. It's the female members of Congress versus female members of the press.

We've been practicing every Monday, every Monday morning for the last several months, getting ready for this game, batting practice on the weekends, scrimmage this weekend. And now, because Congress is out, there's been kind of some talk about whether this game is going to go on. Are we going to have players who are going to be able to play in this game? I love softball, so I want to play. And so it's kind of been like we're all on the edge of our sea. We're going to have a lot of playing away because they thought they were going to lose to you. Yes. So there is a little bit of a hot. I don't know. I'm not sure. They should be afraid. They definitely should be afraid. But that's how it's impacting me. So I'm particular, I mean, I'm going to just be honest about my bias. I'm particularly upset that Congress has gone because I need them to play this game. I want to play softball. I think I'm particularly surprised that the Democrats have not analyzed this more in terms and to your point. I do think that the American public probably isn't paying attention to congressional schedules in general, but considering all of the things that are on the table and the things that the American

public want to see changed and these are the people who hold that strength of power. And yes, elections are coming up. Obviously people have to fundraise. We know that they're, you know, stumping the ground in their home districts. All those things matter. However, the business of the American people still needs to be done. Amisha, do you think that part of it could be that Democrats want to run on the concept that this is an out-of-control administration fueled by the Congress versus a do-nothing Congress, which has been the way that they've kind of framed it in the past?

Yes. I think that is 100%. To a certain extent, Republicans are giving them a win in that. But I do not have, I think that sometimes the Democratic Party gives the American public in their consciousness around these issues way too much credit. There's a lot that has to be explained in real time and you have to keep hammering at home. The expectation that come November, they're going to say, okay, well, two and a half months ago these people left and just abdicated their duties, I think is going to be a problem. You have to in real time showcase what this actually means for people because the average American family is fighting to make sure they can put food on the table. Back to school for many people was this month for some states last month.

There's a lot that they're trying to figure out. A lot of people can't afford to pay their rent come the first of the next month. So there's a, they have to set that table. And I'm frustrated because they don't think they're doing it. And I think that's the key point because again, when I, when I'd say, you know, I don't think the average American is thinking of this. I don't think they should have to, right? I mean, that's, but, but you're right, it is, I mean, maybe not strange.

I think Ben's probably right of the reason why Democrats aren't hammering that message. But this is the sort of thing. I think we often, those of us in Washington, take for granted, like, we're here, right? We see, oh, they're in, they're out. Will there be a recess? This is like, obviously it does matter. But telling the story, yes, exactly right. And how it relates, how it's directly tied to the things that are making Americans' lives harder that prevent them from caring about things like when Congress is.

So we have this two-prong thing happened this week. And I want to get all of your takes on it because I think you could analyze them in different ways. One is the Massey thing related to Pete Heg-Seth that you made mention of. He's a weird duck. He's headed out at the door to say the least. I have respect for him. Any man who can build a Bluetooth-powered chicken coop is someone who I understand. Could be a good guy to know when the apocalypse happens.

But I do think that, you know, other than that, you know, he doesn't really represent the party or the main stream of the party. And Pete Hegshead is also, even on the Democrats list, I know that they like to complain about him. I actually think he's not even on the top rung of ones that they're going to go after when it comes to potentially impeaching cabinet secretaries. That's just me personally. Maybe you have a difference of opinion. But that to me was kind of a significant moment in the sense of it was giving voice to the same type of people that J.D. Vance was talking about in Dallas as we saw who are frustrated with his administration because they feel like Donald Trump ran on no more wars or even if he's not calling the more. towards tiny little military actions that are over, you know, kinetic actions, drop a bomb, leave, you know, et cetera. And there are a lot of people who are upset about that. Tim, do you, how

significant do you think this break actually? Is this kind of a point we're going to look back to and say, this was a moment in which Republicans made known to the administration for the first time that they really are frustrated? Yeah, I think absolutely. And I think we're also going to look back at it in retroactively in terms of the beginnings of the Vance campaign. Because I think that's the other things going on here. Right. As you just mentioned, this was the vice president addressed this in Dallas. The president didn't really talk about this at all. And I, Thomas Massey is an odd duck.

I don't think that I support what is probably a kind of punitive Yolo senioritis investigation. Well, one of his things was, for instance, kidnapping Duro, was like one of the reasons to impeachP. I'm sorry. Which was awesome. I don't think that there's anybody in the Republican coalition who would be on board with that. But that said, I have for months been, it's been driving me crazy.

And I understand why, and it's Donald Trump, but it's been driving me crazy that Republicans have just been really insisting on this. Everything is great. Don't look at Iran. Everything is great. Your gas actually isn't that expensive. When it's so not easy,

but obvious, in my view, for the messaging to be, we're asking you to make a sacrifice. Like, we need, we needed to do this. We can't have a... And that, I mean, it's a big play, but it's high risk, high reward, right? Say, my fellow Americans, we had to take out this evil empire.

We're asking you to, you know, shoulder the burden a little bit now, but it's going to be better in long term instead of just everything's amazing. So I, even though I don't necessarily agree with the position, I'm at least happy that Republicans are acknowledging that things aren't that great. Like, finally, someone woke up and was like, okay, let's have a message.

Reagan? I... Do you think that Republicans should follow Tim's... guidance, or should they instead lie and say, we're all about having our cake and eating it too? I will say that I think one of the great strengths that J.D. Vance does is he plays this empathy card, and he says, I understand you're struggling. And we've seen this on the campaign trail when he's talked about the midterms. He's talked about the state of economy. He's been the best spokesperson, I think, for the administration when it's come to the midterms. And he's played up this angle.

And I thought what he did at the RNC convention where he said he kind of extended that olive branch or that arm out to young men to young people who are upset with the administration. I thought that was really powerful. And I think that could be effective. I'm a young person. I'm Gen Z. I'm around a lot of other young people who are frustrated and angry with the administration, that exact coalition that he's talking to. And I think that was a great step in the right direction for that group. And I think that's one of the things that J.D. Vance does well.

And so, you know, I think it would be helpful. I don't think you're ever going to see President Trump say, like, I understand you're struggling. That's just kind of not in his nature. I think he likes to list his accomplishments. And I think pairing them together can be an effective team. Listen, I know that it's expensive, but the roof is caving it at the Kennedy Center. Yeah, I don't know if I, I don't know if that translation works. I get that J.D. Vance has.

his, the young people coalition of which he had when he ran when he was in, when he ran for president, when he was chosen as vice president as well. He is somebody who can speak to, you know, college students. He's somebody who can speak to recent grads. However, telling people to take more pain when they're telling you that they are at the brink is not a winning message, especially when that pain is, uh, it comes from a place where many Americans on the left, the right, up the middle, even non-voters don't really know why we're there to begin with. And I think that because the administration went back and forth on that, because, he gained a lot of voters who normally wouldn't have even given a second look, black men specifically

when you say no more wars, because a lot of them have fought in multiple American wars. Seeing that happen when, you know, the nation is already still trying to reel from what we saw with the pandemic. People's personal economies have not bounced back, unfortunately, and we're spending multi-billions of dollars a day somewhere where you cannot tell people when we're going to get out, why we initially went. And the frustration that many people have is that we have been, And there have been nations trying to pull America into war with Iran for the past 45 years, one in particular. And every single president on the left and the right has staunchly said no. So why is it that this one believes that he was smarter than all of the rest of them combined and walked us into something that was a red flag for multiple years?

Well, let me, let me suggest that there's kind of an alt history of this that I think the administration could have done that would have been both better in terms of their foreign policy. but also would have achieved a lot of their national security aims. And that's essentially to keep this to what the president promised from the beginning. What Secretary Rubio was saying from the beginning, we need to destroy their ballistic missile program because we don't do it now. We are going to face a situation where they have such heavy armament that we don't have any capability to go and hit their nuclear program. But he said that it was gone.

But that's the point. And then it wasn't. In part because I think we had bad military intelligence that suggested to us that they were weaker than they actually were. That's, setting that aside, though, I think that a major part of this, Ray, you talked about the younger sort of male set. I think so much of the driver of this

is just the cost that families are bearing. It's not actually a foreign policy decision. It's less, I mean, people aren't having a situation where you've got hundreds of people coming home in, you know, in flag-covered coffins, which is what turns people against war. I mean, I think that the truth is the denigration of the idea

that American working and middle-class families that voted for Donald Trump are pissed off about having to pay for expensive gas over the entirety of a summer that they did not expect to have to make those choices. I feel like that's what the big thing is, and they have messaged that terribly. Yeah. Well, Ben, I wonder, do you, going back to the JD Vance of it all and the sort of the political angle, where do you think this puts J.D. going into 2028? Does he pull it Al Gore? Does he try to run? I don't, I mean, I get.

My God. Oh, no. Well, there's a few heading heads away. Does he say, you know, hey, you know, Mr. President, please don't come out and campaign for me? Does he start running more and more away? Does he put distance between himself and the white, the rest of the white out of the West Wing? Or should he? That would just be political.

That would be political. suicide. But it was one of the arguments that people wanted for Kamala Harris when she was right. It was. It definitely distanced herself. This is not the first sign we've been in this. You're right. You're totally right. I didn't think about Megan. What do you think? Well, that's exactly what I was going to say. I said I think she might I think J.D. Vance could have a little bit of a Joe Biden problem where Joe Biden was in Kamala Harris's ear kind of saying, hey, don't put too much distance. Like, don't forget about me. And I think that it's going to be a hard position for J.D. Vance to create distance from President Trump and things that weren't popular while also

trying to hang on to him in a way simply because I don't think President Trump would take it well if J.D. Vance started to break with him. And I think that's fair. At the end of the day, Marco Rubio, he has better numbers. He's somebody who I don't know any Secretary of State in the history of Secretary of State who wasn't in doubt as front of, exactly. He is trying to stay away from some of this and stay above the fray. And I think that the fact that President Trump, even put his VP as essentially everything Iran, instead of making the frontal face his Secretary of State is a very interesting move. And it has implications for 2028. And not only keeping him or letting him say out of Iran, but then also allowing him to do this sort of like Cuba, South America thing, which is like obviously nothing's really happened there yet, but it's just like good positive Republican Secretary of State messaging.

saying like Cuba will be free in this century. Like, okay, Mr. President. I, you know, like, that's a good campaign line. So a basic thesis here that I've had for a while about 28. And feel free to call me crazy for thinking this. I actually don't think that President Trump cares about J.D. Vance, one way or the other. I just don't think he cares about him.

I don't think he cares about his political future. I don't think he cares about where he is. I don't think he cares about, you know, the distancing or anything like that that is going on on some level. I just think he doesn't care about. him in the same way he really didn't care about Mike Pence you know at all really until didn't have the courage or whatever but but how inconvenient but the thing that I do think that he cares about is I think he cares a lot about a Republican

winning in 28 I reject this idea some of the consultants advance that like Trump doesn't care about the Republican future at all it's all you know it's all dead after he leaves he spends money on his library etc I actually think he really wants a Republican to win because it gives him vindication yeah that is policies were right. So from from that perspective, if there comes a point where J.D, for whatever reason, is dropping below a potential other candidate, you know, TBD, is there a point where the president's like, hey, this is wide open. You know, let's come, let's pull the boardroom set out. We'll do this. We'll do this every night. Prime time on Fox. You know, I'll, I'll, you know, I mean,

a Trump moderated debate. Can you imagine? People told you this is crazy. I don't This is the least crazy thing I've heard. That's exactly going to have to say that I'm crazy all the time about this. That is literally exactly what is going to happen. It's going to be shady. It's over. It's not. And I'm like, why would it be over?

That is the least crazy thing I have ever heard. In fact, I think that is prescient. Like, that's what's going to happen. What was it? A couple months ago when they were talking about the, you know, the excess of gold that is all across the White House at this point. And Trump said, well, you know, Cubans really like gold. I'm not. You might want to, you might want the guy who's going to keep it, you know, as opposed to

read to it in Ohio style or, you know, make it look like his chicken coop that costs more than a G-wagon. What do you think, Reagan? I would, I just want to say on the gold part, I think it would be a shame if the gold got ripped down from the Oval Office, because I have to say it really looks great when you're standing in there. It feels like someone kind of breathed life into the Oval Office and it's decorative. So maybe for that piece alone.

I think that maybe that's an interesting theory then. And I like that because I think there's so much of the narrative right now that Trump doesn't care about 2028, that he doesn't like J.D. Vance. And I like that take because I'm not quite sold on that yet. I'm not totally sure what's going on right now, which direction the president's going to go. But I'm not also bought in on the fact that he just wants to throw J.D. Vance to the wolves and doesn't care what happens after him. Yeah, I think this cycle especially, I mean, you can critique. And I mean, also, I do want to note, right, that everyone was freaking out that the president's not going to spend any of his money on the midterms. MAGA Inc. isn't going to spend any money.

Oh, look, lo and behold, what happened this week? They spent the money. Of course they were going to spend the money. I don't think that we can see, you know, the president hasn't gone full, like, presidential. I don't think he's in the same mindset as, you know, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama and, like, I am now a steward of this party. But I think people really underestimate that he did make a lot. He moved on that front this term and this cycle. He definitely cares.

That's why he was getting involved in primaries, not in a way where it was like, this guy's MAGA, this guy's not. He was trying to pick winners. I think even the way that he needles, he keeps needling Ken Paxson on the stage, it's partially just because everyone loves that line. But it's also like, it's not like, it's not, it's not little. It's not little morco. It's not, it's not Lion's head. It's, hey, man, maybe put a tie on. Hey man, maybe get some energy or you're going to lose the Talibro.

I don't think he sees himself as a steward of the party. I do think that he sees himself as a steward of his legacy. Yes. And that these people after him are going to have to carry that on. The electoral politics is a means. Exactly. In the middle, it's still kind of the same thing, right? Like, it's, it doesn't, yeah.

I also need the presidential wall of fame to stay for whoever, because I played a role in helping with the presidential wall of fame when I interviewed the president. He asked for my opinion about whether he should hang the auto pen portrait in Joe Biden's spot. And I, you're fault. This is the breaking news. And he like, you know, he had Natalie Hart bring out these frames

to show me these photos. And he was like, and what do you think? Do you think I should unveil the auto pen in Joe Biden's place? And I was like, I think it's very Trump. And a couple weeks later, it was up there. So that's like my stamp on the White House. So I have to say that is that is a proud accomplishment. I, the only

thing I got out of my interview was I helped convince him to give the stadium land back to D.C. So anyway, Amisha, I want to ask you about the 2028 Democrat side of this, because we did see this past week this weird fly fishing-based conversation between Jake Tapper and Gavin Newsom, definitely looking like people who are not live. Never fly-fished in their live until that. Yeah, yes. They were even wearing waiters. What was the idea behind that?

Why flyfish? Appeal to men, which that's, you know, the fly-fishing males are their own democracy. I would probably something else. That is a specific demo. I will say, some of them are my friends, but I'm not. What was your take on the idea that the thing that would prevent Gavin Newsom from running in 2020 is that he has like shared consultants with Kamala? So, you know, not not breaking news necessarily, but he doesn't want to run the demo that they don't want to run the demo that they've been. both have fundraised from the same base.

They both have, you know, to a certain extent, their careers have been aligned in the sense of these are the people who they would be reaching out to the most are the people who have helped them both. And it was one of the reasons why during the 2020, during the last race in 2024, when people assume that it might be a food fight on the floor of the DNC, that there might be a mini primary, that a lot of conversation was if there is one, you know,

who cannot jump in, Gavin Newsom. because automatically the VP was going to run. I do think that there is a frustration amongst Democratic voters, though, who were still a little bit antsy about what happened in 2024, many of whom don't want to see Kamala Harris run again. Again, there's a certain demographic breakdowns where obviously she's trending higher amongst black women, but a lot of other people in the demo are wanting to see anybody that's not Kamala

run and be successful. And in large part because it is no new, to anybody here, but it is sensational to lose every single battleground state, especially as a Democrat. Is Kamala or Gavin a better block for AOC? That is a great question. I did not expect that. 100% Gavin. It's Gavin, right? Yeah, well, two to my women technically cancel themselves out.

I can see AOC tear Kamala part like warm. Oh, I know. I wonder, the actual the Tapper interview, right? There's sort of two competing questions or theories, I guess, of why would, why would he say that? Do, is this his way of, is he, did he throw the gauntlet down? Did he say, like, was he sort of challenging Kamala to say, like, don't do this or it'll be embarrassing, it'll be bad? Or does he know that she's not going to run? And so he's confident, because it seemed like, what do you think is going on there?

What do you know is? Kamala is traversing to every battleground state. She's traversing to areas that have large demographics of people who she lost in the last go-round. talking about going out to Michigan to campaign with El Sayed, which I personally don't think is the best idea in the world. At this point, all the signs show that Kamala is going to throw her hat in the rain for 2028. With that being said, I also think that Gavin may have some skeletons that we don't know about yet. The reason why you, when you are flying that close to the sun, when you're flying that close to the sun and you had such high pole ratings and granted, this was probably, you know, in the first year of the loss, At this point, we have more and more people emerging as potential candidates.

There's another reason, and it's not Kamala, that he is deciding that he may need to step back. All right. See, every time I ask this question, I get someone who gives a new theory of what it is, and I love all of them. I mean, they all make a little bit of sense. That's a good question. I think, Ray, I want to get your thoughts, too, but personally, I think you could be right that he is throwing the gauntlet down and basically indicating, I'm going to do this, and you've got to understand there's going to be overlap. you're going to look weaker than I am. I have better political judgment. I'm unblemished by the prior four years, which still people hate.

Like even if they, you know, we've not seen that upsurge. No. The positivity toward Joe Biden is largely out of a lot of people who have sympathy for him, given his health challenges and everything that he's been through, et cetera. It is not people going back and saying, man, those were a great four years. They were really awesome. So I think that the problem that she, that she faces now is trying to navigate this in a way that comes off as strong and smart,

I view the El-Sayed thing as being an indication of weakness. Like, I am vulnerable to this wing of the party, and so I need to bend over backward to line up with a Sond Piker and Tucker Carlson behind this guy. She also over-analyzes the effect

of a pro-progressive movement or a far-left movement in her presidential demise. It was not solely them that took her under. When we talk about, you know, the 2020 race, Democrats had more people that came out to the polls,

Democrats have more people excited about, excited about voting. That did not happen in 2024, irrespective to the fact that Trump was back on a ballot. Part of that does have to do with candid quality. And one of my strongest issues with Kamala Harris, aside from that book that should have never been written, is that she was so good. So good. It's just come from that book. It was awesome. My God, why.

Reagan has your copy all barked up. It's sitting on my desk back in my office right now. You were back everybody who you didn't, I could not run against. Except yourself. Except there was no personal response. taken whatsoever. And I think that for anybody who watched that campaign from the outside, for Democrats who really wanted to see a change in the administration, for Democrats who really wanted to see something positive happen and to have their policies projected, they were very

upset that in the look back, it was every single body else's fault, even people who, you know, had absolutely nothing to do with the campaign apparatus. And there's no look back on her at all. And that's a problem. Usually that's the kind of book that you get from, I mean, George Stephanopoulos wrote that kind of book. Right. Right. Right. left the Clinton administration. Like, and it followed him for like a decade. You know, like, you don't have that from the candidate themselves. And there's a reason why. That's why I'm just like, okay, because Democrats will run those ads against her. Republicans would absolutely run those ads against her. She has made it very easy to be a laughing stock. And I wish she, I wish her well

and whatever she decides to do. But 2028 people want to turn to pay. The energy is behind the AOC movement writ large. It's obvious. I mean, it's just they, not just in terms of engagement, but in terms of their ability to move the narrative. I mean, when you see Hakeem Jeffries move the narrative in a way that the media doesn't already want him to go, I feel like AOC is just going to be a much bigger challenge, and I think that the only way that you can beat her is if you are someone who is as ruthless

as I think Gavin Newsom has the capability of being when it comes to everything he's had to navigate in that blue-dominated state. AOC, by the way, sorry, just quickly Reagan before you go, who is spending the weekend, I believe, in and around Buffalo, which is, of course, just a little bit outside Queens. I wonder why she would be interested in going that far upstate New York. Well, best of luck to her in upstate New Yorker.

I am an upstate New Yorker myself. I'm from a pretty red area, and I don't know. It's interesting. The state of New York is so interesting. I think AOC probably won't play very well with upstate New Yorkers, but it really doesn't matter because you have the city. AOC is so kind of like spunky and cool. And I think she is what Kamala Harris wishes she was because some of those moments where

Kamala Harris tries to be funny or she tries to be kind of hip, it doesn't land well. One of the things that I think is really a nail in the coffin for Kamal Harris in her book is she literally, yes, blames everyone. She even blames her husband, Doug. There's like a section of the book where she has their knives out for her husband for forgetting their anniversary on the campaign trail. And it's like this whole crazy thing. And I was like,

God, what I would have made to watch Amisha read this book? It's terrible political instincts. It's terrible. But it's the best book of all the books that have come out from 2024. I read them all. Green Jean-Pier's book was one of the worst books I've ever read. Jill Biden's book was what I wish she did the Kamala Harris playbook. And I wish she kind of brought out the knives and told us all about what Nancy Pelosi did to Joe Biden.

And instead it was kind of like this delicate defense. Anyways, all that to say, I think that the, this kind of coalition, this Joe Biden, Kamala Harris going into 2028 is going to have an uphill battle. And you can't play back the greatest hits again. And one of the issues that Kamala has is not only messaging. It's actually not. And to a certain extent, every elected and people seeking office has to shape shape for different audiences. But for her, it becomes so inauthent because I don't think that she spends enough time with the people. And there's a level of frustration folks have with that because whether she's, you know, diving into Detroit, whether she is going to Georgia anywhere outside of Atlanta.

Atlanta is its own anomaly. There are questions as to who she is what she stands for. And it's not that the American public didn't know her. She was in the Senate for a minute. Then she was VB. It is, who are you beyond that bail? And I think that that's part of her issue. The other thing is she has a challenge, not only from the left, but younger voters, but also among male voters.

And there is an argument that it could be sexist. but then again, in places where women have done well, even where they're female governors, she was running in a different race from them and fell way behind. So it's not just that. I feel like she's gotten worse. I feel like she's gotten, like, so.

So let me give you an example of that. Let's work our thoughts back to the before time, okay, the long, long ago. Kamala Harris had one of the greatest campaign launches I've ever seen. A massive crowd. That's what I was just going to say. A great speech, like a personal story.

It was like, oh, you know, this is something. I don't know if she's going to be able to get through this field with all these other people, but this is something. And then everything went down and down and down and down. And then she ended up getting out before people were voting. And then it was the VP job. And then it got worse and worse and worse.

And maybe it was entirely fault. But no, that's exactly what I was the same thing. I remember that little girl was me. It was T-shirts. It was on everything. And then she got to South Carolina. The most African-American primary and came in like four people. When she put out the Kamala Harris for the people signs and that branding,

I mean, you know, I'm sure people criticize. but it was cool. And it felt like, yeah, that felt completely apace with everything else about her campaign. If she launches 2020, if, she won't, but if she launched 2028 with that same branding, everybody would be like, that's the phoniest thing. Well, you may mention something that I think is really interesting. And that is her lack of retail capability, her lack of ability to talk to people normally, which was something that really came through a lot in the social media.

Yeah. And one of the yellow school buses. But the thing that I find so interesting is we've had this run now with the inspirational approach from Barack Obama and then the heavy retail approach of Donald Trump, who is the best retail politician I've seen since Bill Clinton in terms of the presidency, just the capability to walk into any McDonald's and take it over and have everybody like him even if they didn't vote for him, the kind of thing. who do you think is the best retail politician on the Democratic side?

Because from my perspective, that is also one of J.D. Vance's weaknesses, is that he is not, he doesn't have that same capability. It's not as bad as someone like Akamo is. But when he goes into places, he often seems awkward. Because he has an extremely high IQ. He's very smart. He's very nerdy. He's got the Jab Bush problem. Yeah, exactly. And he hasn't been a politician for that while. Yeah. People are also true. Also true. So what do you think?

John Osso. Okay. I would say Asaph and then... So you think that's not just an act. You think that he has that capability. Absolutely. And, you know, whether it is in a deep red state, a blue state, a purple state, he has been able to draw people in in a way that is harder for some Democrats.

It is interesting when we were talking earlier about that, the PAC spending. I don't know if you've seen the states ranked. They're spending a lot in Ohio. They're spending a ton in Michigan. Everybody's going to be in Michigan. spending in North Carolina, spending in New Hampshire, Georgia is actually either fifth or sixth on the list in terms of the current spending nationally. That is a shocker for a state that Donald Trump won.

Yeah. Well, part of that is because of the Republican that Osop is running against. If the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, had to run against him, that would be a much different place. He's running against a much weaker candidate. And, you know, yeah, the wind is behind his sales. I don't know. I kind of feel like, you would know better than me, genuinely, but I do so.

I can't shake the fact that I feel like it's a little bit of an act with him. I feel like he thinks he's he's white Obama. I think he just thinks that everything he does is a stepping stone to the white. Or maybe maybe an act is even the wrong. Maybe there's a genuine courtroom with, but he's been so convinced that he sold himself on this narrative of I am going to be the next inspirational, Democratic presidential candidate for so long that I feel like. Yeah. They call Shapiro white Obama.

They did. I mean, he developed the cadence. It was a lot going on. It was kind of creepy. better retail politician than John Osso. I think that he's in an era where it would be extremely difficult. I love Josh Appear. However, I think that there are...

Is that more the Israel issue? Or is it more the... Just the nature of him being viewed as representative of a portion of the party that... The DSA hates. Sanders hates, et cetera. And he digs his heels in every time. And I stand true on what you know, ten toes down. However, it does have electability issues.

Does Josh Shapiro run in 2028? I'm wondering, like, because he seems like a good candidate. I don't know. I guess I don't know. The only good presidential candidate in Pennsylvania is a man named John Federman. And I would support that. Honestly, that is a great idea. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't, I, that's interesting. I both kind of forgot about Shapiro until we started talking about this. But when we're talking about inspirational candidates, someone who I thought was going to be more inspirational, who I think is running into way more roadblocks as weirder and weirder things come out is Tala Rico. I had to like pause for a second because I only hear Talafreico in my head.

They're getting to me. They're getting to me because he's, I think he's good and he seems authentic and he seems rather normal. But then there's all these weird clips that keep coming out about him and you're like, okay, now he seems a little creepy,

has these weird slip-ups. Do you think that this is, and I imagine it's probably a combination of both, but do you think that this is that he really does have? just such a huge backlog of weird stuff that's being exposed? Or do you think Republicans just so effectively backed him into a corner from the beginning of this campaign that now he's just playing defense fighting the I'm not a freak narrative? Yeah, you know, I think there's,

there is a lot of stuff on him. I had a scoop a couple months ago from a pack that ran a AI generated video of Talarico singing a rendition of favorite things about transgender children and how he loved transgender children. And I was happy to run it. because I was like, this is weird that you're using AI to create an ad about a guy who has so much about him and that you can, now there's all these clips. Oh, you mean, but it was a mistake for this group? Yeah, and it got a lot of attention because it was bizarre. I thought to do that. And I'm sure you have thoughts on this too. Part of this to me seems to be the unique weird dynamics of the politics of Texas. there are a ton of Democrats who are Republicans in Texas because of the dominance of Republicans.

So basically, you're actually a Democrat, but you're a pro-business chamber or a commerce person. So you go into the Republican lane, and that's the way to get up. That means that the Democratic Party in Texas tends to be freakier. Like the state ledge. Okay, okay. And full disclosure, I hated that job. But I worked in Texas for a bit across four of their major cities. And Texas is a very different place for Democrats to play.

One, even Democrats trend a lot more red. I wouldn't even say purple. They turn a lot more red than they do in other states. In addition to that, it is so pro-business. It is so private sector-friendly. It is so strong in that sense that if you want to get ahead in Texas, there are certain types of campaigns you have to run. And it has pushed certain Democrats who are just like, I'm not going to do it, to other states.

The former president of the Black caucus in Texas moved California because there's no shifting certain people in the caucus. And those are black people in Texas. I think that Texas plays weird politics in general in terms of the framework for national parties. But it is a place where it's going to be extreme. It would have been extremely difficult no matter who came out as the Democratic nominee, to be fair. But I do think that there's so much false information about Tala Rico that people are making for no reason. He's a little weird, but then there are a lot of weird people in Texas.

That is yet to stop somebody. He's also running against the guys. I will say that clip of him saying his favorite drag queen, like with no hesitation. I thought that was a little, that was a little free. No, but to Ben's point, that to me was, yes, like, and bad if you're trying to run for Senate in Texas and not a national political career. But the first thing I thought when I saw that was keep Austin weird. Yes. Yeah, exactly.

That makes sense for James Calerico as like a state official. Like, of course he does. Of course he does. It'd be like asking me who my favorite like Broadway singer. And it's like. And it's a very artistic place. Yeah, as opposed to a guy like Beto, who actually when he was in Congress, had a relatively centrist voting record was not. known as being a far left guy and then kind of had to go further left when he was running

statewide in ways that ultimately probably helped you know doom his candidacy well that plus that you know the photo with the truck and the dog and all oh it was a lot going on he did his own never never come out and to say that you're born to run no no no um with the time that we have left i'm curious amisha and and i'd like to get all you know all of your thoughts on this we had a lot of different issues percolate up in the past six months that last year were not really on the mindset of the people. You know, if you go back to pre-January, obviously, you know, Iran wasn't happening. Obviously, the price of gas while not low was much lower. The, you know, so those things were significant issues. Affordability was still an issue, but it was not the top. But then we've also had all

these weird issues come up that are now animating a lot of the conversation, including conversations about AI, conversations about data centers, people fighting over things that they weren't necessarily fighting about six months ago. Sometimes in weird midterm elections, there's an issue that sneaks up on you that comes out like kind of late in the game. You know, sometimes it's like a member of Congress getting a scandal that comes in late and that dominates something. Sometimes it's somebody saying something really stupid in debate, Todd Aiken. But it's also... Remember this wasn't midterms, but in 2016, Epipens. Epipen. Epipen. came out of nowhere.

Like, yes. That was wild. Yes. Yeah, yeah. But like, yeah, I totally forgot that. That's a perfect example, though. With the time that we have left, and I want to hear all your, all your votes here, but with the time that we have left, do you think that there's going to be some issue that percolates up right at the end of the game?

And if so, what do you think it is? Oh, God. Absolutely. I mean, the October surprise is typically talked about in terms of presidentials. But I think that for this one, it's likely going to be something healthy. related. I think that we're going to see a big, yeah, healthcare twist that is going to throw off both parties to have to address because Democrats don't necessarily have the strongest wins there either. And then Republicans are currently in office. So you're going to have to figure it out and

at least have a response. But I definitely think it's going to be health care. What do you think? I love the health care idea. I think that we also have, I think there's another AI issue that drops. And I don't know what it is. But I think the fact that we're going to take over our banking system. Something. Yeah. Like something work. like, yeah, maybe like a hack. I don't know. But yeah, something that I think there will be a lot of pressure. Obviously, AI is going to continue to be an issue, but I think there'll be another, if that makes sense.

There will be a lot of pressure from this administration, I think, to hold off for any companies announcing AI layoffs. Yeah. Right after the ad, until after the election. And that is something that I just think is the biggest percolate, because it's just the thing that comes first. It's like we can easily get rid of a third of our workforce and replace it with AI. That's something that hits every congressional. Yeah, I think those are both great answers because the only thing that comes to mind is one thing that's already bubbling up right now is the data center issue. And I'm working on a piece about the state of the midterms in Ohio. And everything I've heard from people on the ground is, yeah, we really don't know what to do with this data center issue. And we're kind of passing around messaging on the GOP side of what are we, how are we going to handle this? And it's making, I think, people less optimistic than they should be in Ohio with the state of both the government. in the Senate race because they don't know how to handle it.

So I think it's been a crazy week with AI and crazy past few weeks with AI and just all the fears around it. I refuse to believe that the Claude that is planning my wedding right now is going to kill me one day. I refuse to believe it. It's not even into it. It's going to be someone else. He would have to be wrong because you used claw. Yes. Is your answer the layoffs or anything?

I actually, so the thing that I. I actually think that could happen that could throw a wrench in the works here is we've been a little slow on lawfare lately. And it's been to my belief that we're going to see some advanced return of Democrat lawfare post-election one way or the other. And a lot of that could come in the form of looking at, you know, the president's family particularly. You know, we saw this latest report from ProPublica about Don Jr. that weird sort of wedding party kind of stuff. I think that there could be a push on sort of the financial fraud kind of front that Democrats seize on to as basically saying, you know, when Donald Trump ran for president

the first time, his answer to all these questions was, I'm rich, I can't be bought. That's how you know I'm incorruptible. I can't, you know, I am the one who's going to come in here and fix this and drain the swamp and all this other stuff. And then Boosie was on 60 Minutes talking about trying to buy a part. Yes, exactly. And so I think that that could be something that is seized. And I, yeah, I think also to, I think that's right.

And the confluence of the ProPublica story dropping and the 60 Minutes part in story dropping within a day of each other is, if not intentional, then there's momentum building. And if you're not going to have, I mean, you know, in the, in the 2006 midterm, it was sex scandals related to members of Congress. You're not going to have, if it's not going to be sex, it's going to be crime. Sex is still going to be there. Oh, but we're never going to, I mean, come on. We're never going to talk. Some of the ones that we've had in the last couple of years. We used to be in country.

So you've been watching another edition of the district club, brought to you by The Daily Wire for Tim, for Reagan, for Amisha. Thank you for tuning in. We'll be back with more next week.