'The reason we lost is the war': JD Vance

[0:00] So something has just come in. I just I just want to hold it up here. Okay, because it's a couple of pages. It's just happened. I want to share parts of it. This is from J.D. Vance. Okay, the vice president just said this about Republicans catastrophic midterm loss. I just can't read all of it, but there's some stuff in here. You've got to hear. Okay, he says the reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree. That's at least honest. [0:29] But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there. Kevin Liptak, you're at the White House. Obviously, we know who is watching those numbers more closely than perhaps anyone. That's the president of the United States who has been handed this resounding defeat. What are you learning? Yeah, and what you're hearing at the White House today is a very interesting kind of rupture. You know, the vice president just in the last hour putting out that six [1:01] 620 word post pinning blame for these losses very directly on the Iran war. And just in the last few minutes, the president's son, Donald Trump Jr. Endorsing that sentiment, saying every word of this 100 emoji, 100 emoji, 100 emoji, 100 emoji, really kind of kind of emphasizing what the vice president is saying there. And it is, I think, an extraordinary statement from the vice president. Now, he says that the president himself [1:30] both said that the Iran war was to blame. In fact, the president only said that that was partly responsible. And in fact, over the last several days or so, the president has said that the conflict should not actually be described as a war. [1:46] It does raise a lot of questions here. I think, one, you know, the Iran war didn't start on his own. So who exactly does Vance blame for the Iran war? And also the Iran war continues. It is not resolved. And so how does this affect the president's strategy there going forward? And so some very interesting questions emerging from here at the White House this morning is two of the very most senior members of Trump's orbit now say that the Iran war was to blame for these losses. [2:15] This is a campaign where I heard a lot. This is a campaign where I heard a lot about Tranny Annie and I heard about a jihadist in Michigan and a terrorist that needed a metal detector to go to work. [2:25] And I heard that James Tallarico was was Talafrico and weird and gay. And that was what we heard from the president, from the vice president. And now, J.D. Vance, let's be honest, it was the war. [2:37] Yeah. So prior is on the table. I think J.D. Vance is a very bad politician and an exceedingly deceitful one. What he's doing here is he is he's a theory of the GOP electorate that he needs to wrap up the sort of Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson, adjacent paleocon Steve Bannon wing of the Republican Party, the isolationist, recalibrate on Israel crowd. [3:02] And so what he's doing here is it's a sleight of hand where he's saying it was the war. What Trump said, it was the high gas prices, which were the result of the war. [3:10] He wants to make it, as it says in that post, it says it's two things. It's the war. We need to redo our relationship with Israel. He's making them the same thing. [3:18] That's what he's trying to do. He's trying to sound extremely reasonable while redefining what the Republican consensus position is around his sort of non-interventionist, anti-Israel, anti-foreign policies, anti-Ukraine kind of point of view. [3:34] I don't think it's going to work. I think the biggest single loser last night was J.D. Vance, because he is Donald Trump with twice the bigotry and half the charm. [3:46] And that is not what the country said they want more of for the next two years, never mind the next six. [3:51] I mean, I think you're right in that this is the death knell for J.D. Vance's political aspirations for 2028. [4:00] But beyond that, I think just in plain language, what he is doing there is trying to say, I was always against the war. [4:08] I'm not the president. The president in Israel got us into war. I was never for it. [4:14] And now I'm going to come out and say it publicly to see if he can rehabilitate himself in the public conversation. [4:19] And I'm with you. I don't think it's going to work. [4:22] I mean, best of luck with that. The reality here is we have said for months, if Republicans do bad on the midterm elections, [4:30] how bad they do will determine the size of the potential Republican field in 2028. [4:34] It was worse for the party than we could have expected over these last weeks and months. [4:38] So for J.D. Vance, he traveled to all of these states. [4:42] No one spent more time, even more than the president, invested in these. [4:46] And to your point, he injected the culture war issues in every place that he went. [4:52] I was thinking back to Adam Hamilton in Kansas. [4:54] He went there and he was one of the first to question the religiosity, the views, [4:58] the religious views of Adam Hamilton, who, of course, is the longtime minister, new time politician. [5:04] He's only run for office now. And that was J.D. Vance leading the charge. [5:08] That did not work. He went to Iowa doing the same thing to Rob Sand, Califrico here. [5:13] That became a rallying cry. So J.D. Vance fell flat across the board here. [5:18] The party has never loved him. He has been on all sides of every issue here. [5:22] So this is his trying to reset for 2028. [5:26] The people in Ted Cruz's world and other Republicans out there are going to eat his lunch if he decides to be a primary candidate. [5:32] And Ted Cruz, who, by the way, said on Friday there could be a Democratic sweep of the state of Texas. [5:37] And he was right. [5:37] Everyone thought that was a turnout ploy. [5:38] There was a complete Democratic sweep of the state of Texas. [5:42] But there's there's just so much in here, Lulu, in terms of what J.D. Vance is trying to do. [5:46] So he's he's after we hear about rigged elections, filing a lawsuit in Alaska. [5:52] If the Republican loses, the DOJ should be trying to say don't certify the election. [5:57] A thousand election monitors going up alleging for J.D. Vance. [6:01] No, it's fair and square. The main problem is not turnout. [6:04] The main problem is many people who voted for Trump, Vance, in 2024, voted for the Democrats in 2026. [6:11] What does it take to just kind of wake up and see reality all of a sudden? [6:15] I mean, it it's an about face, the likes of which I have interviewed J.D. Vance. [6:21] I don't see. [6:21] Just acknowledge the affordability thing. [6:23] No, no, no. [6:25] J.D. Vance is a political chameleon. [6:27] He has transformed himself a million times. [6:31] He was someone who called the president Hitler and then did an about face and became his biggest supporter and has been on the on on all the sides of every issue. [6:42] As you rightly say, I interviewed one of his supporters who might be a 2028 candidate, a former Fox News host. [6:51] And Tucker Carlson, who said that the Iran war was going to be the death knell for anyone associated with its political career and political aspirations. [7:00] And so you're now looking at the wing of the party of Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massey. [7:08] These are the three people, among others, who said, I told you so. [7:12] And he's trying to align themselves with them again. [7:14] But I don't think he's going to be able to do it. [7:16] And it's not that he's wrong. [7:17] I mean, the Iran war was a central issue. [7:19] But what he's not saying is his role in sort of chilling it. [7:22] I forgot one other thing on the list. [7:23] But they, Kramaswamy, I think we see it in giant letters. [7:26] He went to Ohio and tried to rally Republicans behind that despicable ad that fell flat. [7:33] I mean, within hours of doing so, it fell flat. [7:36] And look what happened in Ohio last night. [7:38] Yeah, that's a doubling down on the tariff policy. [7:40] He says basically that that, you know, the affordability, he wants to make the affordability [7:46] issue actually an anti-Israel, anti-war issue. [7:49] But if you just track the data on Trump's favorability, it's entirely based upon where [7:56] the economy was. [7:57] And that doesn't start with the Iran war. [7:58] That starts with Liberation Day tariffs and gets worse over time. [8:02] Chuck Schumer is going to be speaking in just a moment. [8:04] By the way, somebody who I think it's safe to say had no idea he'd be waking up. [8:08] Oh, Chuck Schumer, no one's going to challenge you, you're going to remain the leader of [8:11] a majority. [8:12] I mean, talk about a guy who's shocked today. [8:13] I mean, Democrats, a lot of Democrats, mainstream Democrats have been looking to replace Chuck [8:19] Schumer thinking that his moment had passed. [8:21] This has given him a new lease on life. [8:23] He can, he's going to take credit for this. [8:26] He's going to say it was candidate quality and that this was, you know, to do with what [8:30] he was planning. [8:30] It's possible enough Democrats got elected that they can actually fulfill their promise and [8:34] not vote for him. [8:36] And he still becomes the leader. [8:37] Correct, I was just thinking about that because there's no center of gravity around anyone [8:40] else. [8:41] I mean, that is what protects Chuck Schumer in this moment, that there's not a single [8:45] person running against him. [8:46] And it's never been about him per se for some people. [8:49] It's been about the idea of a Democratic majority here. [8:52] But I'm sure a lot of these, I guess, former Red State, now Democratic senators, Adam Hamilton, [8:56] James Tallarico, we'll see if they vote for Schumer. [8:58] My guess is no. [8:59] But to your point, they have a wider majority. [9:01] Can I just say something about J.D. Vance, because you brought up the ad. [9:04] That ad was one of the cruel, cruelest, most nasty things that I have ever seen. [9:09] And we have lived in a world that has become cruel and nasty. [9:12] There was something about that that was different. [9:15] And it didn't matter what your politics were. [9:17] And J.D. Vance did go and defend it. [9:18] And he doubled down and tripled down. [9:20] And he did that after Trump did that. [9:21] And Vivek, who could have said, oh, the super PAC did it, I didn't know anything about [9:24] it, doubled and tripled down because Trump did it. [9:26] He said what he was disgusted by was the Republicans not supporting it, not the ad. [9:30] Can J.D. Vance ever overcome that? [9:34] Is that the unforgettable thing, the unforgettable sin? [9:37] In my view, he cannot. [9:38] I mean, the list is long. [9:39] He's not been loved by the Trump base. [9:41] I like how he put in his statement, the Trump-Vance voters. [9:43] The reality is there are not voters who, you know, were voting for Vance. [9:47] They were voting for Donald Trump. [9:48] And that will not be an option the next time. [9:50] So, look, he's had many lives. [9:51] As you said, he's a chameleon. [9:52] Perhaps he can reinvent himself. [9:54] We'll be here to watch that unfold. [9:57] But I think that's a tall, tall order. [9:58] His real gift isn't appealing to voters. [10:00] It's appealing to whichever elite faction of donors and supporters. [10:05] Yeah. [10:05] So he says the things that either whether it's the tech bros or the anti-Trump people or the [10:10] pro-Trump people. [10:10] And I think that's probably where it may be. [10:12] I want to bring in our panel to discuss what's going on, a lot of dramatic developments. [10:16] And Bakari, let me start with you. [10:18] You know, we're hearing from the next Speaker of the House, Hakeem Jeffries. [10:22] Yes. [10:22] And we're also hearing from the current Vice President of the United States, J.D. [10:26] Vance, saying that the Republicans lost because of the war with Iran. [10:30] What do you think? [10:31] So with Hakeem Jeffries, I mean, I hope I heard Cory Booker. [10:34] It was a great interview you did with Cory Booker. [10:36] I don't know what hour it was because it seems like they're all running together. [10:39] But they talked about things around corruption. [10:41] The Fox News poll a couple of weeks ago had corruption as the number one issue for voters, [10:45] which it was my first time ever seeing corruption that high. [10:48] I do think an ethics package, no more insider trading. [10:51] I think it gets bipartisan support. [10:53] You still need 60 votes. [10:54] I know we have 55, 56 votes or we will have 55, 56 votes, but you still need 60. [10:58] I think you can go get those and put that on Donald Trump's desk. [11:01] I hope they I hope that's H.R. [11:02] One or at least a part of it right around health care. [11:05] The second thing is I love this jockeying. [11:07] I mean, the presidential campaign in 2028 has already started. [11:10] I'm not going to even tell you the number of people that I've spoken to who are running for president. [11:14] Cory Booker is going to be in South Carolina this weekend. [11:16] So that that is that is a fascinating, fascinating thing that that's happening. [11:21] But on the Republican side, look, Peter Hickseth is probably going to be a martyr after he is trampled by the Trump administration and maybe even impeached. [11:32] He's going to be credible. [11:33] Sean Duffy credible as a Republican presidential candidate. [11:36] Oh, he's I mean, he's making phone calls already. [11:38] I mean, I don't know if he'll win. [11:39] That's for David to decide. [11:40] But he's definitely going to be somebody out there who is going to run for office. [11:43] Sean Duffy, for example, handsome guy, bunch of kids. [11:47] You know, he's going to run. [11:48] I think you're going to have people, even people who we haven't heard from in a long time. [11:53] The face that popped up the most over the last 24 hours, Nikki Haley. [11:57] She's one of the best political athletes in the Republican Party. [12:00] She can compete in a new landscape that's absent MAGA. [12:03] So I think you'll have some people who are kind of retreads, but also kind of rebranding themselves. [12:09] So the only person that Democrats are afraid of is Marco Rubio. [12:12] And I don't think he's going to run. [12:14] You don't think he'll run. [12:15] What do you think? [12:16] Listen, I agree with Bakari in that. [12:18] It's going to be a wide commercial. [12:19] Why don't we have exactly violent agreement? [12:23] But I think it's going to be a wide open field on in both the Democratic primary and the Republican primary. [12:28] And look, the vice president is trying to distance himself right now from the thing that seems to have caused this catastrophe on the Republicans side. [12:37] The war, the prices associated with it. [12:40] And somebody is going to be held responsible for that. [12:42] And I suspect that it's going to be the current secretary of war because they're going to blame somebody. [12:49] And he's going to be left holding the bag. [12:50] I think when the music stops, he'll have no chair. [12:53] There will be a lot of folks getting in. [12:54] And, you know, I see on social media, I hear, you know, Ron DeSantis is the only kind of winner last night in the Republican Party in that his state performed. [13:04] It was close, but they still won statewide. [13:07] He was criticizing the administration kind of like softly. [13:11] But he's out there. [13:12] You know, he ran a strong second or third or whatever he did last time. [13:16] I think, you know, he'll be the top of the list again. [13:18] Glenn Young, there'll be lots of folks in this in this race starting starting shortly if they're not. [13:24] And that's good. [13:26] I think it's good. [13:26] It's good to have robust discussion amongst both the Democrats on your side and Republicans on our side. [13:32] If we're going to win, we have to have that kind of fulsome hot wash. [13:35] Why did we lose? [13:36] What can we do better? [13:37] How can we help the American people get to what they want? [13:40] It was interesting, Audie, because J.D. Vance, the vice president, said the Republicans lost because of the war with Iran, which is so unpopular. [13:48] What do you think? [13:49] He said the war with Iran and gas prices. [13:52] But the thing I noticed the most was the last point, the relationship with Israel. [13:56] I think there was this perception, given how Republicans campaigned against Abdul El-Sayed, that the war and the policy with Israel is a Democrat problem. [14:08] It's one that you can kind of shove off and say it's anti-Semitism and they've got to deal with it. [14:12] But it's not. [14:13] It's going to come back. [14:15] That relationship is important. [14:16] And we saw in the final stretch Trump himself saying that he wanted to end aid to Israel. [14:23] This thing that was so unbelievable, so crazy to think, Trump himself threw that spaghetti at the wall right in the final hour. [14:30] So to me, that is yet another thing on the table for 2028 or any of these candidates going forward on both sides of the aisle. [14:38] What do you think, Jim? [14:39] I think Adi is absolutely correct. [14:43] I don't know. [14:44] I'm very curious why Donald Trump did that. [14:47] It was Election Day. [14:48] Why he said that he was ending aid to Israel? [14:50] Probably because Netanyahu is still in the middle of trying to have a coalition, right? [14:55] I mean, he's looking at the landscape. [14:56] From a political perspective, I think someone got in his ear why the morning of Election Day he decided to throw that out there. [15:06] You know, eventually we'll find out. [15:08] But to go back to something we were talking about earlier, I just think what I'm hearing from Republicans is 28 is now wide open, is a text that I just got. [15:20] And, you know, we haven't talked about Ted Cruz. [15:22] But I think this is this we're going to see a reset after these midterms of different people coming in and trying to run for president. [15:35] You know, I'm struck by that press conference with Leader Jeffries. [15:39] I think there's it's an untold story in this election. [15:41] We think it's a wave. [15:42] Everybody was going to win anyway. [15:43] Everybody was mad. [15:44] Democrats were just going to walk in. [15:45] And there was work behind the scenes with Jeffries and the leadership team in all of these races. [15:50] We had learned some mistakes from the last time we've talked about the overperformance of Latinos moving to Republicans over the last few years with Donald Trump, because there's a lot of aggravation there. [16:00] There was a concerted effort with this leadership team to invest in that Latino community early and often in Texas and all of these redistricted places where there was no pickups, where it seems to be a wash. [16:10] There was work with African-American voters, Latino voters and folks out in the rule parts that I had never seen done in my 30 year career where the leadership was like, OK, let's step back and evaluate this. [16:21] We need to double down here and make sure they know who's in charge and what's going to happen if you don't elect Democrats. [16:26] And that was a big part of last night's results. [16:29] You think J.D. Vance effectively ended and he hopes he may have had to run for president with his statement today? [16:35] I think these two guys made two great points earlier about it being wide open. [16:38] There's going to be a piece of each one of these parties that are going to be in love with a little part of each candidate. [16:43] When you have this many people running, take it from the guy who ran Bernie Sanders campaign. [16:46] If there's a whole bunch of people in this race, anybody's got a chance. [16:49] Never say never. [16:50] I mean, J.D. may be rehabilitating himself and be the ultimate candidate at the end of the day. [16:55] But there are going to be other folks getting in. [16:56] If there's 10 people running, you can win with 25 percent. [16:58] That's one of the best points because we've seen J.D. become anything that the time requires. [17:02] I mean, J.D. was anti-Trump, Nazi, hillbilly allergy, and now he's MAGA. [17:06] So J.D. can do anything he wants to do. [17:08] The Democratic primary, though, is really, really deep. [17:10] It runs through South Carolina, runs through Hispanic voters, runs through college-educated white voters. [17:15] Both Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries mentioned they're battleground twinners. [17:19] Yes. [17:19] I felt like that was a message that said this isn't about your New York primaries. [17:23] Correct. [17:23] You don't. [17:24] Momdani is not the only kingmaker. [17:26] They're putting special emphasis on the red state winners. [17:28] Yes, sir. [17:29] I didn't know. [17:29] No, no, no. [17:46] I didn't know.