Fox News host drops midterm BOMB on Trump, Republicans

[0:00] I'm joined now by the bravest person on Fox News, Jessica Tarlov. [0:04] After this midterm cycle, where obviously your colleagues on Fox are all very conservative, [0:09] very Republican, we're rooting for Trump and these Republican candidates in midterms, [0:13] what has the vibe been like behind the curtain in those rooms? [0:17] Totally fine. [0:20] They don't care. [0:22] What do you mean? [0:24] I've talked to you about this. [0:26] We're obsessed with politics. [0:27] It's a reflection of our souls, right? [0:30] It's our morals. [0:31] It's our values. [0:32] They don't feel the same way about it. [0:36] They can compartmentalize these things. [0:38] They can think about, oh, you know, another election will happen. [0:42] There can be some degree of self-soothing, which I think you saw a bit of in the election night [0:47] coverage. [0:48] But in general, their lives have carried on like usual. [0:52] Do you think it's because the asymmetry between the two parties is like when Trump and Republicans [0:57] win, things become really dire. [1:00] Obviously, you're going to have ICE agents deployed into neighborhoods that are going [1:03] to kill people with abandon. [1:04] You've got health care that's going to get cut. [1:06] You have food assistance that's going to get cut. [1:08] People's last lines of defense, their lifelines are going to go away. [1:12] And when Democrats win, like... [1:14] You're just going to get more health care. [1:15] Yeah, the most extreme policy that we can try to enact is to give those very people health [1:20] care. [1:21] And so do you think that that asymmetry on the agenda front is why they're not really worried? [1:25] There's no dread happening. [1:27] Well, Donald Trump's also still sitting there in the Oval Office and has said, just call [1:32] me Mr. Vito. [1:32] So I'm not sure that there's this feeling that that much more will happen. [1:37] I will say, though, to your point, like, oh, what could happen when we're in office? [1:41] If you talk to people who run small businesses, for instance, they would say that there are [1:47] probably going to be a lot more regulations in place than if there's a Republican president. [1:51] That's certainly one of the arguments that they make. [1:53] And I mean, you're an L.A. resident and have watched, you know, the beginnings of the [1:57] rebuild after the horrific Palisades fire and a lot of liberal people complaining about [2:04] red tape issues about how easy or not easy it is to build. [2:07] Exactly. [2:08] And that's something, you know, I'm a New Yorker that Mom Donnie has been very smart [2:12] about where he says we're not going to be those kinds of liberals. [2:15] Yeah. [2:15] Right. [2:15] We want stuff to work and to work quickly. [2:17] You need your protections. [2:18] I mean, what Trump is doing with, like, let's just get rid of, you know, any air quality [2:22] controls or anything like that is not the answer. [2:24] But they definitely feel that there is a threat to American life with liberal governance. [2:32] They just don't see this election as meaning that there's going to be liberal governance. [2:37] I get that because he has the veto pen. [2:40] But do they really feel like there's a threat to the way of life by virtue of liberal governance? [2:44] Or is it just part of the game? [2:46] Is it like kayfabe? [2:47] Right. [2:48] Like, I mean, honestly, when you look at Obama's presidency, millions more people got [2:54] access to health care. [2:55] That was his big that was his big thing. [2:57] And the scandals of the Obama era were conjured up by those very people about the color suit [3:02] he wore or the kind of mustard he ate. [3:04] Like it was even the scandals were just manufactured outrage. [3:07] And so is there really a belief among these people, like when the cameras are off, that liberal [3:12] governance is some threat to the American way, even though we've had more jobs added when [3:18] during Democratic administrations, we've had higher GDP during Democratic administrations. [3:21] We've had lower unemployment rates during Democratic administrations of the past 30 years. [3:27] I think a lot of it has to do with culture more than anything else. [3:31] And this feeling that conservative culture is demonstrated by, you know, how communities [3:38] work. [3:39] There are definitely people of faith who feel like, you know, church life or being, you [3:48] know, Christ loving, Christ loving folks is looked down upon in liberal society. [3:54] I don't know what they're going to do with Reverend Hamilton. [3:56] I was going to say, we have a mega church pastor and a seminarian. [3:59] But we don't usually. [4:01] Yeah. [4:01] And that is different. [4:02] And it's one of the big plot lines from this election. [4:07] They point to foreign policy choices. [4:11] I mean, there are liberals who, you know, didn't think that Obama made the right call, certainly [4:15] on the Syrian red line, for instance, or how seriously we took Russian threat. [4:21] Remember the Mitt Romney Obama debate about, you know, Cold War would like it's foreign policy, [4:26] but like, look what's going on now. [4:27] So they do have real complaints. [4:30] But I think a lot of it is cultural. [4:33] Well, on the point of the religious folks, I mean, is there, I know everybody watching [4:39] is going to scream through their TVs and their phones and say, how can you claim that you've [4:44] got some ownership over religion or religious ideals when all of these people have fallen in line behind somebody like Trump, who was found liable of sexual abuse, who was, you know, cheated on all of his wives. [4:58] You've got, you've got, you know, the Epstein files that are being suppressed right now that [5:02] would, that, that against our efforts to, to serve some accountability for the co-conspirators. [5:08] I mean, there's so much going on that, that flies directly in the face of those purported [5:12] values. [5:12] And so how do you juggle those two, how did those people juggle those things? [5:16] Well, I think that they can separate Donald Trump from what's going on on the ground. [5:22] Like none of them, I was just in Indianapolis two nights ago and, you know, Mike Pence's op-ed had just come out on the Wall Street Journal about the return to conservative [5:31] values and blah, blah, blah, like brought to you, brought to you by the party that tried to hang him. [5:35] I, he, he's definitely voicing his opposition to Trump and what Trumpism has done, but I do not [5:42] know how that man continues to have a fealty to these guys, you know, is a bridge too far. [5:50] Hang my pants. [5:51] Sure. [5:51] No problem. [5:52] Um, but I think it's less about who Donald Trump is. [5:56] They're not confused about that. [5:57] I don't know what those, you know, mega church folks are that go to the oval office and pray [6:02] over him, what they actually think, but the rank and file, not that. [6:05] I think it's more that there are folks in positions of power that are talking about Christianity [6:11] and the importance of keeping this as a Christian nation and our comfortability and excitement, [6:17] frankly, at, you know, having a Muslim Senator with Abdul El-Sayed coming out of Michigan and [6:24] the importance of elevating folks of faith, no matter how they pray and also saying it's [6:30] okay if you don't. [6:33] Is the fight going to continue exactly as it was? [6:35] I mean, there was a real, there was, there was a lot of leaning into culture war in 2024 [6:41] and rightfully so they won. [6:43] So it worked out for them this year. [6:46] They tried to do the same thing. [6:47] They tried to lean into Islamophobia. [6:49] There was some, you know, tepid though. [6:51] They may have been, there were some efforts to elevate the trans issue. [6:55] Once again, I don't think it was tepid. [6:56] I think it was massive. [6:57] I mean, perhaps, perhaps just the extent to which it didn't even break through on, on, [7:02] on left-wing media because they were just, it just didn't work this cycle. [7:06] But that seems to be the trick that's always pulled out of the hat. [7:09] To what extent is there going to be some pulling back from that, recognizing that, okay, it worked [7:13] in 24, but clearly did not work in 26. [7:16] And so, you know, maybe not worth it to continue attempting this strategy over and over and [7:22] over again. [7:23] Well, I think it depends on who they listened to. [7:25] If, you know, I guess it's not surprising considering just how blue Texas went, but I [7:30] think Ted Cruz has been one of the most lucid members of the Republican party in the aftermath [7:35] of this, where he is talking about the fact that this was an election about deliverables [7:40] and there were no good deliverables from the administration, especially when it came to [7:44] your pocketbook. [7:45] If you ask Trump, he would say that this is all about stupid culture war stuff all the [7:52] time. [7:53] And I think there will be a faction that does that. [7:57] But it is in our control how persuasive that can be from our candidate quality, how well we [8:03] govern with the power that we have. [8:05] He has the veto pen, but we can still do a lot. [8:08] Totally. [8:08] And by the way, make him veto. [8:10] I want him vetoing health care proposals, housing proposals. [8:15] Right. [8:15] So that Republicans have to go into 2028 explaining why their party that just vetoed pulling back [8:20] the tariffs, ending the Iran war, expanding Medicaid, how they have to defend that. [8:24] Obamacare subsidies, gas tax. [8:27] They'll probably go for the gas tax. [8:28] I love that that was James Tallarico's first thing. [8:30] He's like, I'd love to work with the president on that. [8:32] On the border and gas tax. [8:34] It's like, yeah. [8:34] Right. [8:35] But the vote on Tuesday, a lot of people, if you think in culture war terms, split ticket [8:43] voted. [8:43] Right. [8:44] They voted for the Democratic representative, but they voted for a more conservative leaning [8:48] ballot measure. [8:49] For instance, on transgender sports. [8:51] In Washington, I believe. [8:52] Yeah. [8:53] And voter ID, for instance. [8:55] Yeah. [8:56] And then there were the data center votes. [8:58] So in the more liberal category, I think it was 44 or 45 were yes to moratoriums on building [9:04] new data centers. [9:04] So there's a lot of information that we can take from this election to help us shape our [9:11] platform. [9:11] And I'm going to be interviewing Hakeem Jeffries next week. [9:15] So a lot of this is brewing in my head of, you know, how to get him talking about this [9:19] and not just in platitudes, but really talking to us about the brass tacks of what the next [9:24] two years is going to look like. [9:26] But we cannot ignore those results. [9:30] And these candidates were successful. [9:32] Even the most left wing ones, like Abdul, wasn't sitting around talking about culture [9:36] war issues. [9:37] He was downright annoyed when he got asked about it, whether he was on Fox News or by [9:42] liberal interviewers. [9:44] Yeah. [9:44] Last question here. [9:45] And I have to ask this for posterity. [9:47] I know that you get asked this in every interview, but you're sitting in inside the lion's den. [9:52] And so how are you? [9:54] How are you being in that world? [9:56] Like I know when I log on to a hostile environment, whether it's Twitter or, or, you know, whatever [10:04] it is, whatever social media, but like, I'm, I do go on News Nation or Piers Morgan's [10:09] show, but those are just momentary. [10:11] Piers's environment is the craziest. [10:14] I did that recently. [10:15] And I was like, oh my God. [10:16] But how, how are you doing being surrounded by folks who I think are pretty hostile to [10:21] your point of view? [10:22] Um, I am deeply unwell and extraordinarily happy. [10:28] Yeah. [10:28] Uh, these results feel like a major vindication of what sane Democrats have been telling people [10:37] since liberation day, not since Trump won, because we did the, the important hard work [10:43] of actually ingesting the lessons of 2024. [10:46] And it does not look like they are going to do it from their initial reactions. [10:51] Um, so I don't go to a therapist. [10:54] I'm not good at self-care. [10:55] I have two little kids. [10:56] Um, but I'm, I'm really good. [10:59] And I continue every year at Crooked Con, you can ask me this question and I hope the answer [11:04] will be the same. [11:05] I have the coolest job in media for a liberal and it is a front row seat to being able to [11:12] deeply understand what matters to the other side, how they're thinking about policy, what [11:18] might be coming down the pike and being able to formulate arguments that can resonate with [11:24] persuadable audiences. [11:24] Because there are a ton of people who voted in this election that we did not think could [11:30] be on the map for us. [11:31] Well, Jess, I'm going to share some Lexapro with you because we need you for the long haul [11:35] and, uh, and thank you for taking the time today. [11:37] All right. [11:37] It's great to be here. [11:38] And now let's go to our panel. [11:39] That's it. [11:40] Yeah.