Ken Paxton's Struggles

0:00Pennsylvania, the fifth largest state and the biggest swing state in the nation, is under a attack by national progressive billionaires and millionaires. Why? Because as Pennsylvania goes, so goes the nation. That's what Matt Breiett explains in his new book, You Gotta Win Pennsylvania, called Entrepreneurs to Save America. Why entrepreneurs? Well, just look at America's history. Entrepreneurs founded this great nation. These were innovators banding together to launch an unprecedented experiment in liberty and self-government. Now, 250 years later, this same entrepreneurial vision is what will save America. And in You Gotta Win Pennsylvania, Matt explains how Pennsylvania is ground zero in the fight for America. But he doesn't just give the problem, he gives the solution, and that's you. You can be part of what entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania are already doing to win

1:00Pennsylvania and save America. Check out You Gotta Win PA.com to learn more and get a copy of this eye-opening book on how the future of freedom and prosperity in America runs through Pennsylvania. That's You Gotta Win PA.com. Welcome to Real Clear Politics on the Making Kelly Channel, Syria's XM 111. Welcome to Real Clear Politics on Syria's exam on Thursday, October 1st, Wallworth, and joining me are our CP co-founder and president Tom Beben and Washington New York Chief Carl Cannon. Guys, there was a governor's debate last night in Burbank, California, between Democrat Javier Bashera and Republican Steve Hilton. The debate was hosted by CNN and lasted about an hour. Here's just a little bit of the exchange between the two

2:04candidates. Listen to this. If you start making tax breaks for the wealthiest, you damage our working families like my parents. A simple point is that the quickest way to get more money in people's pockets is for the government to take less out. That's what I'm going to be doing, and it's not coming from the budgets that he describes. You know what it's coming from? Canceling high-speed rail. So Carl, interesting debate. Did anyone win it? Looking at the RCB average, Bashera is up about 22 points. So does any of this matter? Well, that's the key question, Andy. Bashera won the debate because he didn't drew on himself or fall down on the stage. All he had to do was not screw up, and he didn't. In terms of whether he made a compelling case to be governor, I don't think so. And this is some way objective response, but he didn't even really try. He just tried to act like the generic Democrat that he is.

3:09He talked about his family. His family's story is as Californians know, and I've talked about on this show. His parents immigrated from Mexico. He grew up Sacramento. He went to Macla恋ty high school where I went. He was a congressman. We did an event with him. A real clear politics did. Maybe a decade ago, and he was perfectly pleasant. He doesn't ever really deviate from the democratic party line, but last night he kind of did. He said he wasn't for this billionaire's tax. The question was asked either by Jake Tapper, Dana Bash. I can't remember who. 70% of Democrats in California are for this. He said, well, I'm not. So he showed a little bit of leadership ability. He'll, he'll who's an unlikely populist. He's got a British accent because he's from Britain. He showed up. He wasn't wearing a tie on the debate stage. That's how he campaigns. But he made a different point. He said, he said that these people have run California for 16 years,

4:14the Democrats, and all this highest taxes in this nation, hollowed out middle class. People leave in the state. Homeless problem just seems to defy solution. And he's the people that did it. And at one point in the debate, Xavier Viseras said, he said, well, you know, you know, he was talking about, that would be the same thing. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. And he'll turn that around on him and made that his, you know, key line of the night. So that would be voting Democrat in his state. And the other thing that Viseras did and I'll let Tom away. And is he just, he just kept mentioning Trump. He mentioned Trump seeing that by CNN's camp 40 times in the hour. And, you know, Trump's not going to be the governor of California. If you're watching this and you're really trying to make up your mind, I think at some point it would have been irritating. So okay, tell me what you're going to do. No. All right. I don't like Trump either. But why would you be a good governor for me of California?

5:15Tom Sussan Crabtree's got a great piece on this on the front page today. People should look at it. But she said that one of our lines was, Bashar al-Want's voters thinking about Washington, Hilton wants them thinking about Sacramento, where Democrats have held every level of power for 16 years. That sums it up, doesn't it? Yeah. I mean, the Trump mentions were ubiquitous on the part of Javier Viserra. And it's like, well, you mean it's in an hour. That's every, once every minute. Yeah. I mean, one of the questions that was as, you know, Steve Hilton asked him, like, all these people who fled California, who was governor, you know, or who's responsible for that? And he said Donald Trump, or who's been in charge for last at Donald Trump. Really? Donald Trump was governor of California didn't know that. So it's, it got to be, you know, a little bit absurd. But that's, look, that's what the Democrats are running on at all levels all across the country. And they will continue to do that until Donald Trump is no longer on the scene. And then they'll find another bogeyman that they can run against. But Sussan seems to me like, you know, he hasn't really

6:23distinguished himself. And you know, he's been in office for a long time. He pointed to that as, like, you know, I've got a record. But at the same time, he was like a complete zero as HHS secretary. People even forgot he had that position, right? California, AG, Congressman. So, well, Steve Hilton didn't forget. He reminded people that Besera recommended two and three worlds wear masks. Well, he reminded people in the clip that I saw, you know, that, that Sussan Rice had called him an idiot, which he asked him to explain why Sussan Rice is calling you a complete moron. So he's, he is. He's kind of, he doesn't, he fits a certain mold of just like he's a generic politician. He's been in office. He's, you know, for years and years and years. But has he really, what has he really done? And, and I do think there is a sense in California that that, look, Democrats have been in charge supermajorating the legislature for decades now. They've been in charge of the governorship for 16 plus years. And, and so it's like, you know,

7:29what have you done for me lately? How are things going? Not great. And this is going to be one of the, one of the things that Gavin Newsom is going to have to answer for when he runs for president, which I fully expect him to do, despite what he said about Kamala Harris. And he's going to have to defend the record of California. And we have a piece up on the site about from this interview with Newsom that's in Vanity Fair, where he talks about that a little bit. We can get to that in a minute. But, look, I thought, you know, Joe Pollock wrote a piece that said, Hilton crushed Bacerra in the debate. Susan was a little bit more like it was, it was basically a draw and that Bacerra came off as, as more articulate and, you know, a feisty than people expected him to be. So, Hilton, I'm so, Tom, Hilton also missed, not gonna change the race at all. Yeah, Hilton also missed a couple of opportunities. I thought maybe to flip the script. And one of them was when he was talking about the COVID, you know, the overreaction of COVID to inoculate children, mass children, close preschools, close the beaches, this kind of stuff that Bacerra,

8:31as HHS Secretary went along with. And he said, well, and Bacerra said, well, I think we get in trouble when we let politicians decide, you know, we should let the health experts decide. And Hilton, that would have been a good time for Hilton to maybe inject Tony Fauci into the debate. And also to say, to point out that Bacerra is a career politician and he Hilton is not. And he didn't. And so Hilton was subdued. He did that though during the debate, Carl. He didn't do it at that moment, maybe. Yeah, but he, that's right. But he, my point is that Hilton was, he was, he came across as likable, but he didn't really act like you'd act if you're 20 points behind what I'm saying. Tommy didn't really force the issue. Yeah. Well, Tommy mentioned that Gavin Newsom article in Vanity Fair. It's worth a read. It's there. It's by Joe Hagan. He has apparently, Tom says in the article, article, article, he has chosen Bill Clinton as his 2028 animal spirit. I thought that was, that was pretty interesting. What's your make of that?

9:37Well, so this interview was conducted during the summer. So it was, it just came out now, but Hagan makes it clear that he met with, he met with Gavin over the summer. So this is before Gavin said this, you know, what he said, well, on his fly fishing trip with Jake Tapper, which is I'm not going to run off Kamala Harris runs. Why would I do that? But then in this setting, he's clearly running for president. And, you know, and he talks about California derangement syndrome and how the, you know, Republicans and the Maga base, they all attack California. And, but, you know, where would the country be without California? It's the, it's the, he called it the tent pole of the, you know, economy. But he is going to have to, he's going to have to answer for, for his record. And, you know, we talked about Gavin before about him, not like, he's all over the place, right? He's a man of the people and he's this, he's that, he's, he's got no cook here at message. And this is another one. Like, he's, he's been a clear progressive, a clear leader in left

10:38wing. He was marrying Gays and California's mayor San Francisco long for, you know, gay marriage was law of the land, all that stuff. He's been sort of pushing the progressive envelope. And now, now he's going to be a Bill Clinton new Democrat. Like, he's going to, you know, execute, who was it, Carl? Was he was he retarded or was just the Ricky Ray Rector? Wasn't he? Yeah, he tried to commit suicide and shot part of his, shot himself in the head. I don't, he wasn't, I was mentally like, he probably wasn't 100% but he was probably about, I mean, probably a head of where Biden was last year of his presidency. So it's on this, who knows? But the point is he did that, you know, sister soldier, welfare, you know, all of this stuff. I mean, there's no way that Gavin Newsom is, is, is going to follow the mold of Bill Clinton. So I don't even know what he meant by that. Andy, man, I have a rebuttal. You made. Thank you. What Gavin, what, what, he didn't mean the, the bimbo eruptions. No, I saw that time and I thought, I thought, you know, taking at face value,

11:42what, what does that mean? And you're right. Gavin, as Marissa just go, conducted marriages, the California Supreme Court later through those out days that he, he, he didn't have that authority. California then legalized marriage on the ballot failed in California. People forget this. Newsom was ahead of his time on gay marriage and on certain, certain other social issues. But I think, but he's always been a free market capitalist. And I think when he, when he sees himself as Bill Clinton, I think that's a testament to how far the Democratic Party has moved left on foreign policy, on, on, on hosted. You know, they, they've got these Democratic socialists. You say they don't like the constitution and Andy says they should be called Marxist. Maybe Maoist is more like it. And these far left people really driving the party and Kamala Harris is there in Michigan campaigning for one of them. And I, I think that Gavin, I, I think Gavin Newsom is, is, is actually seeing something that's happening within the party that he's not comfortable with. And so I,

12:44I would actually take that at face value. And that's a, so you think he's the, in, with the overton window having shifted the new, the new, he's the Bill Clinton. He's on the, on the spectrum of where these current Democrats are. So you can be for a national wealth tax and still say that you're for capitalism. That's what you're saying in the Democratic Party, Carl. And that, that, that, yeah, yeah, that's right. Because that's absolutely right. That's where they are. Check me. So, you know, it's an interesting article. It's worth reading. Steve Bannon is, is quoted in it. And he says this about Newsom. Because if you remember, Bannon went on Newsom's podcast. Remember when he was reaching out to the, the podcast pros and seems like a hundred years ago now. But Bannon says this. He says, quote, he doesn't understand the moment he's in. Every morning, he's got to wake up and think about who he is that day and what he stands for. That's not the time we're in. He's trying to glide on the surface of a deep

13:46civil war within the Democratic Party. That sounds about right to me, Tom. It sounds like here's a guy who's trying to, you know, figure out where the wind is blowing when it's pretty clear where the wind is blowing. It's so advanced. He's saying he's trying to stay above it. No, I don't know about that. You wake up every morning, you got to figure out who you are and what you believe, what you, you know, and as you deal with the issues of the day, I mean, the one guy who, you got to give him credit because he is in all of his media appearances and the things that he writes and says he's, but he's consistent is Ramamanyal on being sort of like that voice of, of reason and centristism and all those things. And I grew with Bannon like that, look, part of, and this isn't, this isn't necessarily new, but it certainly has, has always been helpful, is voters can smell and see authenticity in a candidate and they can see in authenticity as well.

14:49And they will, when given a choice, almost always choose the authentic politician versus someone who is manufactured or slick or seemingly just, you know, saying what they think the voters want to hear. And we've seen that over and over and over again. We've seen it with, I mean, that's one of the one of Donald Trump's, I think, one of his biggest assets is he's just who he is. He's completely authentic. He goes to, you know, Iowa in a business suit, which, you know, everybody would put on their flannels and their jeans and try and pretend like they were farmers and Donald Trump was like, I mean, no, I'm going to fly over Iowa and Marine one and, you know, land down, like, like get off my throne. And Gavin Newsom doesn't have that. And that's not, it's not something that you can, you can have an entire career and then suddenly like flip the switch and be authentic. Right. It doesn't happen that way. You either have it or you don't have it. And he does not seem to have it. Well, you got to even borrow a rebuttal on that one. Come on. I'll just say you're wrong. That's okay.

15:53I want to talk about Pete Higgseth. He delivered this speech in Quantico last night. It's been, his speeches have been dubbed the state of the force address. I think this is the second one he's given. He's going to cut 20% of all the generals and admirals in the armed forces. And he described the future of the armed forces as he sees it. Here's a little bit of that speech. Listen to this. Well, maybe we don't have any access. Anyway, but it's worth saying again, so that the fake news understands it. We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation of that. No fanny. No fatties. No tranny's. No beardows. No weirdos. No wimps. No radicals. Just warriors. Just tough, ready, committed truths. The war department, as you know, is colorblind, gender neutral and merit based. Or as the president likes to say, we Pete central casting.

16:59So, Carl, you know, I got to say the fact that they're colorblind and that part of the speech kind of resonated with me, but that has nothing to do with central casting. And what'd you make the speech? I guess. Well, central casting was sort of a cell phone. He's played on Saturday, night live by Colin Jost. And Colin Jost, that almost defies parody. No trannies. No, what was it? I mean, it's not, it's not, he wants to be manly. He wants to, he wants to project strength. But belittling people doesn't do that in my mind. It doesn't, it comes across as bullying. Tom? Oh, Carl, come on. So many a couple of pounds overweight. They can't fight for their country. Come on, Tom. I think you'd be sensitive to that point. That's he is, he is.

17:59Listen, I get, I get why people, you know, Hegseth is leads with this chin. He's out there. He's, you know, quoting Bible verses and, and he is, you know, after he had his first speech last year, remember, he assembled all flu, flew everybody all the top brass from all over the world in. And people were like, you know, why is he doing this? And this is like just a, you know, self aggrandizing thing and he could do this on zoom and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I texted with some folks that I know that are in the military and asked them, you know, what they thought of. And they loved it. They loved the speech. They loved the re implementation of standards, everything from physical standards to, you know, like that haircuts and all these things, the beard thing, all of that. Because the department had sort of, you know, slowly these standards had slipped to the point where you did have you have people who were not physically able and physically fit. And I think that was part of, that was part of, you know, him trying to

19:06re-implement some of the stuff in the military, which again, most of the military folks I talked to liked it. Maybe the generals didn't like it because they're being sort of held to like a new standard. And so he did it again and I get it. His language, you know, is not for everybody. But, you know, woke up and read all the headlines this morning. Oh, you know, partisan speech, peach hegs that gives the partisan speech. And I'm like, I, you know, I don't remember the headlines talking about Lloyd Austin being partisan when he was like injecting all this trans stuff and woke stuff into the military. That was perfectly fine apparently. But like when Pete Hegseth is rolling that stuff back, suddenly it's like a partisan attack. He's bullying people. He's belittling people. I mean, we're returning to a standard of the military sort of pre-woke. Remember, we already know woke one was crazy. So, right? So why not return to a pre-woke time, particularly with the military? I agree with the one by the way, too. Yeah. The part that resonates is we don't give it, we don't give a crap about

20:10all this stuff. We just want people who are who, who, you know, we're colorblind, we're genderblind, gender neutral, whatever. We are just simply looking for merit-based people. We don't care what you look like as long as you can do the job that you are supposed to be doing. I get that, guys. But the one thing I would say is that it reminds me of the approach at the Justice Department. The Justice Department, in my opinion, had become politicized. But the antidote to that is make it non-politicized, not to politicize it in reverse in the other party. And I think that's the danger here. If the military had got soft and woke, okay. But if you're going to change the culture there, you have to be careful how you speak. You have to make you, you have to be an exemplar. You have to be an example. So I, he could do some of this without resorting to, you know, schoolyard taunts, I think. Well, we got to take a break. But before we go, we just got a minute here, Tom. And one of the news items came out of the thing is that there was something called Project Meridian.

21:12It's a 120-day initiative to study the future of war. And it's going to be headed by none other than Elon Musk, along with the Newt Gingrich and Palmer Lucky, who was a defense tech guy. And there is the beginning of something called the Autonomous Warfare Command, which is refining. But you put those things together and it looks like next 120 days, we're going to be talking about AI a lot and how it will be part of warfare. Why don't they just call it Sky Net and be done with it? Look, you know, Elon's a visionary in a lot of ways. You listened to some of these clips of speeches from like 20 years ago and he's talking about the stuff that he's doing now. So he, and that's it. I'm perfectly happy for him to be thinking about that and helping prepare us for that. I don't know if you've already seen the future of warfare with, with all of the drones and stuff. It's going to be very asymmetrical. And so it's good that we're spending time thinking

22:14about what's coming next because it'll, it's, it's, it's coming faster than we think. Yeah. All right, we're going to take a quick break. You're listening to Real Clear Politics on Sirius XM. I'm Andrew Wallworth. I would call Canon Tom Bevin with me and we will be back with more right after these words. Stick around. The fifth largest state and the biggest swing state in the nation is under attack by national progressive billionaires and millionaires. Why? Because as Pennsylvania goes, so goes the nation. That's what Matt Breiett explains in his new book, You Got a Wind Pennsylvania, called Entrepreneurs to Save America. Why entrepreneurs? Well, just look at America's history. Entrepreneurs found in this great nation. These were innovators banding together to launch an

23:15unprecedented experiment in liberty and self-government. Now, 250 years later, this same entrepreneurial vision is what will save America. And in You Got a Wind Pennsylvania, Matt explains how Pennsylvania is ground zero in the fight for America. But he doesn't just give the problem, he gives the solution and that's you. You can be part of what entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania are already doing to win Pennsylvania and save America. Check out You Got a Wind PA.com to learn more and get a copy of this eye-opening book on how the future of freedom and prosperity in America runs through Pennsylvania. That's You Got a Wind PA.com. Thanks for visiting our yoga class. Tap when you're ready. What just happened? It's my new BMO Angel City FC debit mastercard. Every time I use it, it taps me into the game. Okay, maybe don't do it again. Ooh, these socks are nice. I'm gonna go ahead and

24:21so sorry. The BMO Angel City FC debit mastercard. Tap into the game. A counselor specific to approval in our providing the United States by BMO Bank and Act. Remember FDIC. BMO! Informing you on the important issues of the day. Welcome back to Real Clear Politics on the Megan Kelly channel, Syria's XM 111. Welcome back to Riftler Politics on Syria's XM. I managed for wall worth. I've got Tom and Karl with me and we are joined now by Nicole Russell. She is a columnist for USA Today and a resident of the great state of Texas. Nicole, you have a column out, I think you might yesterday on Vice President Vance, who was in South Texas, headlining a midterm rally. You concluded this. You wrote, Vance's closeness to Trump and his rally could help the Republican Senate candidate, but it's too bad Republicans have to sink millions into a conservative stronghold at all. That's the price of nominating Ken Paxton. Let's start there. How much trouble is Ken Paxton

25:27in and related? What do you make of his decision not to debate? James Talleriko. This has been a fascinating race to watch because as I said, Texas is so conservative. It went for Trump by huge margins. Trump flipped several Southern Texas counties in 2024. You would not think that a conservative running for Senate would have any problems, but Paxton, according to all of the polls, including Real Clear Politics, which I cite all the time, he is struggling. He is behind Talleriko. His decision not to debate him shows a huge sign of weakness. If he felt confident in this race and confident in his beliefs that reflect Texans values, he would go ahead and do it. I'm disappointed that we weren't going to see him. Let me play one clip before I bring you guys in

26:29here. This is an unforced error. This is a little piece of tape that was recorded of Paxton talking about the Republican midterm convention of the other day. Listen to this. It's a little hard to hear that because he's a little bit off mic. The question to him is, do you feel like he, meaning Donald Trump, is a little bit of a drag that's a reporter? And Paxton says, so to be honest with you, the numbers, when we did that convention, it dropped our numbers. Everybody's number dropped right now. Yeah, not good. Is that even true? Well, that's my question for Nicole. I thought that was... I cited that in my newsletter that came out today. I think that is really interesting that he immediately deflects and says the reason

27:34his poll numbers are not doing well is because of Trump. So, of course, you could debate poll numbers all day long. Are they accurate? Remember, not October 2024, polls showed Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Neck and Neck. So, it is possible some of the poll numbers are wrong, but on the other hand, Trump isn't doing well. His pro ratings have plummeted. He's not on the ballot. And I think that Paxton just doesn't want to own the fact that he is not a great candidate. As I said in my column, he's carrying a ton of baggage when the New York Times asked several Texans, what they thought of Trump in a recent column. They all said the one word they would use to describe him is corrupt. So, he's taking his poor number, poor poll numbers, if they are, which it seems like they

28:35are. And just saying, it's not my fault. It's got to be Trump, which I think shows a little bit of short-sightedness and an ability to see how poor of a candidate he really is for Texans. Nicole, it struck me as singularly in grateful because he's only there because of Trump. Trump endorsed him in the primary. If Trump had really cared about carrying Texas, I've said this on a show before he would have talked Paxton out or he told him he should have said publicly, you can't run and endorsed John Corning. So, this idea that now Paxton wants to blame Trump. First of all, I don't know that it's true, but it also just struck me as bad form. It is bad form. I would disagree with you just slightly that I don't think he won that runoff because of Trump. Trump endorsed him. No, no, I didn't say that. I said Trump should have, I don't think Trump should have let him run in the first place. I need to agree with that. Corning has his own issues. The MAGA right here in Texas,

29:37they don't care for him. They view him as a rino, as an establishment Republican, but Paxton, on my other hand, has so many other problems. He was indicted. He was impeached, granted he was acquitted, but he doesn't have a great reputation among independents or among even like a regular, like I would consider myself sort of an average conservative, not really a MAGA conservative. So he's going to get that vote. He will get the MAGA conservatives, but I think he's really plummeting and being dragged down just by his himself. Nicole, do you agree with Karl Rove who said last week that if Corner does nominee, we wouldn't be talking about this race. We wouldn't really be in play. I would not have thought that mother two ago, but I do think that now because Teleriko has somehow kind of gained some momentum. He is, you know, he's very moderate. That's the only way

30:40a Democrat does well here in Texas. Well, do we lose Nicole? We may have, but Tom was just triggered in there. We lost you for a second to go. The last thing I thought I heard you say was that James Teleriko is very moderate, which I disagree. I mean, he's walked away from all of his positions that, you know, he's running as fast as he can away from them to appear moderate, but he's not really a moderate. I mean, he's pretty far left, wouldn't you say? Hopefully you can hear me. I agree with you. I should have definitely said that he does look that way. And he looked that way, especially at the beginning. And as we've kind of dug into his past, dug into his previous record, his, even his posts on Twitter or X, you can definitely see that he's truly a progressive. And that's what he wants for Texans. But at the beginning, I think that's kind of how he picked up some traction is that he did a good job looking that way, talking about

31:44his faith, talking about being, I believe he was a former teacher. So he picked up some votes that way. And now we're just, you know, we're getting really close to the midterms. And I don't see that Paxton's been able to pick up the momentum to push fast in. Well, one of the things that might be giving him some momentum is money. Newsweek reports that they've, over the last 17 days, $131 million in independent expenditures has been spent on the Paxton campaign. That's $7.7 million a day, they say. Is that money, I mean, you're down there. Are you seeing a lot of Paxton ads? And is it, isn't making any, any impact? I, the amount of money being spent here is extraordinary. I cited in my column that ran yesterday. One ad agency predicted that there will be 400 some million spent on these races by, by November. So that is, that's double what crews

32:46spent when he ran against Representative Allred. It is an extraordinary, it's, it's too bad. There should not be this amount of conservative Republican money being spent in Texas of all places. It's, it's awful. I think it's, it's such a waste. And again, not to beat it at a horse, but it just points to I think what a terrible candidate Paxton is because typically, you know, you would have just been able to see this race head off into the sunset and, and, and a normal Republican, I think, without all of the issues and the controversy of what have done really well. And to your question about whether or not it's actually helped, I mean, according to the polls, I don't see that it's helped. I still have a really hard time believing that most average conservative Texans are going to vote for Tel Rico, but at the same time, again, with the polling, you just, you're not really seeing a huge bump. He's either, he's either in a dead heat or he's behind. So Nicole, I posted something

33:49yesterday, I think it was on Axe about, about Paxton, not responding to Tel Rico's, you know, offered to debate and Fox News saying, Hey, we're open to it. And I said, you know, you can read this one of two ways. One is that, you know, he's, he's so far ahead or he thinks he's so far ahead that he's just doesn't feel like he needs to debate. Or two, that he's agreeing with what you just said. He's a week, it shows weakness. He doesn't want to stand on the stage. He thinks it's going to look bad for him for whatever reason. And I said, I think it's number two. Well, I got a bunch of responses and push back from mega folks in Texas, you know, to telling me, I'm an idiot and a moron and all this stuff. And their argument, so here's their argument, is that Ken Paxton has won three times statewide in the state of Texas, right? So he's proven that he can run and win statewide in Texas. And people are ignoring that and thinking somehow that, you know, he's a crappy candidate now when he's won three times previously. Now, so what's your, I have a response to that,

34:51but I want to hear your response to that. Oh, I'd love to hear your first, but I'll go. I don't think there is something to what they're saying. He has, he is popular here. When you take telerico away, he is known as a fighter. He often brags that he sued as AG. He sued the Biden administration over a hundred times. He's very much, you know, that kind of that kind of person as when he, when he governs that he looks to what the Texans want as far as, you know, limiting government or going after government overreach like the Biden administration has done many times here in Texas, particularly with the border. So in that way, it's true. He does continue to win. And I was amazed, I covered the impeachment trial for another outlet that I worked for then. I was amazed at how it, it really all of the evidence against him did not seem to hurt him. So I guess it's possible that

35:53maybe the mainstream media is kind of portraying this race as tighter than it is. And that your average Texan who appreciates what he's done as Attorney General will support him that, that is possible. Are you turned to him? I just think that, you know, I mean, I could give you, not I probably should have come prepared, but I mean, a list of probably 50 candidates I could come up with that, that had one statewide before in various races and then they get to this, they get to the level of a Senate race where the clean glides, you know, $400 million with their advertising, I advertise and get dumped on your head. And suddenly it's a different, it's a different situation. It's a different race. You're framed differently all that. And I think that's where Paxson finds himself. I mean, he's he finds himself in and some candidates can, can sort of rise to the occasion, but he doesn't seem like he's risen to the occasion to me. And if anything, it's gone the other way. He's getting he's getting sniped from folks saying he's lazy, he's not making the phone calls, he's not doing the stuff. He's, you know, and even Trump when he was there

36:54in the convention, you know, they're giving this backhanded compliment like, well, you don't like the way he looks or sounds or how, you know, any of that stuff, but he's a great Attorney General and he is a fighter. And so he eventually got around to that, but, but in a way that was disparaging of Paxson in how, how voters see him. So I just think it's a different situation. Winning Statewide, great, true, all that, but this is this is a sort of a next level. And it doesn't seem to be going well and he doesn't seem to be rising to the occasion. And he can't go back to what you were talking about. And now we'll probably win and make me look like a fool about the money candy because when I read Nicole's column, I was struck by the $155 million being spent on behalf of Can Paxson. And I, and I look at that map and I thought how far that money would have gone in, in Kansas and Nebraska and South Carolina. Alaska. Alaska. And, and, and, you know, and if they wanted to maybe flip a Democrat State, how much help they could have given Michelle to FOIA. And I thought,

37:55are they going to regret spending, you know, two and 200 million dollars to even if this guy eaks it out because this money could have really been used in all these other states where the Republican nominees in trouble. That was what I thought that's what I got for them. 100% I bet they regret it now. I regret it for them if they don't because, I mean, you really could not have chosen a worse person to represent Texas statewide at the federal level. There's so many amazing Texans here. You've seen them, you know, you've seen them on the, on the public stage, Brennan Gill is not ready. But, you know, there's all kinds of incredible conservative politicians here in Texas. And you're telling me that we've reached deep to the bottom of the barrel and said, let's try this guy. He doesn't have a bad bass. It's, it's insane. It's suck your waste of money. Part of why it costs so much money to support a candidate here, especially a bad one, is because Texas is huge. You know, you can drive in Texas for eight hours and still be in Texas. So it's a massive media market. But again, why didn't the GOP think of that? I'm sure you think

39:01someone did and weigh the risk and the reward of propping up a candidate that they were going to have to dump just millions and millions of dollars into. It's insane. I regret it for them. If he wins, it will just be by the skin of their teeth. We're talking to Nicole Russell. She's accomplished the USA today and she's from the great state of Texas covers it pretty closely. I was just wondering, we got a minute or two left here. I want to ask about the governor's race down there. How do you see that shaping up? That is also, again, according to polls, a lot tighter than I would have liked to see. I don't feel nearly as worried about that race. Governor Abbott is fairly popular here still. He's done really well. He addresses issues, I've interviewed him several times. I'm trying to interview him again before the election. He is, I haven't looked in the last couple of days, but the last time I looked, it is showing a tight race,

40:02but his opponent is not very well known. She's a classic Democrat. I don't think she has name recognition. I don't think she would represent what Texans want at all, especially on the issues that Abbott's hit really hard, property taxes. We have no income tax here. He's helped secure the border and he's hopefully dealing with some education issues. I don't feel as worried about that. It still is a little tighter than I like to see, but I think he's going to win. Can I just add one final thought here before we go? Sure. The entire root of this problem, the reason that Texas and the Republicans find themselves in this spot is because John Corning was so unresponsive to Texas voters. He was just this establishment guy and he was in his bubble. If it wasn't Ken Paxson, it was going to be somebody else. Ken Paxson was the only alternative that Texans had to basically register their

41:08displeasure with John Corning. That's why they're in this situation. Corning could have he could have been more much more response at the Texans. He wouldn't have gotten a challenge. Then this race would be in the bag. I think we should end there. 100%. I don't think all we're going to have to leave there. Just remember, everyone, Texas is not elected a Democratic U.S. Senator since 1988. They've not elected a Democrat to state-wide office since 1994. We have heard this kind of thing before and at the end of the day, often, Texas remains read. We're going to leave it there. Nicole, hey, thanks so much for being here. It's great to have you. I'll be back soon. You're listening to Rift Apolitics, then, serious exam. I'm Andrew Wallworth. I'm at Carl Tom with me and the three of us will be back with more right after these words don't go away. It's real, it's clear, and it's on the Megan Caljale. It's real clear politics. Serious exam, 111. Pennsylvania, the fifth largest state and the biggest swing state in the nation, is under attack

42:16by national progressive billionaires and millionaires. Why? Because as Pennsylvania goes, so goes the nation. That's what Matt Breiett explains in his new book, You Gotta Win, Pennsylvania, called Entrepreneurs to Save America. Why entrepreneurs? Well, just look at America's history. Entrepreneurs found in this great nation. These were innovators banding together to launch an unprecedented experiment in liberty and self-government. Now, 250 years later, this same entrepreneurial vision is what will save America. And in You Gotta Win, Pennsylvania, Matt explains how Pennsylvania is ground zero in the fight for America. But he doesn't just give the problem, he gives the solution, and that's you. You can be part of what entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania are already doing to win Pennsylvania and save America. Check out You Gotta Win PA.com to learn more and get a copy of this eye-opening

43:18book on how the future of freedom and prosperity in America runs through Pennsylvania. That's You Gotta Win PA.com. Thanks for visiting our yoga class, tap when you're ready. What just happened? It's my new BMO Angel City FC debit mastercard. Every time I use it, it taps me into the game. Okay, maybe don't do it again. Ooh, these socks are nice. I'm going to go ahead and... So sorry. The BMO Angel City FC debit mastercard. Tap into the game. Accountors are picked to approval and are provided in the United States by BMO Bank and I. Remember FDIC. BMO. Real Clear Politics. A neutral, even-handed arbiter of political data. You're listening to the Megan Kelly channel on SiriusXM-111. Welcome back to Rithleth's on SiriusXM. I'm Andrew Wallworth I've got Carl Cannon and Tom Bevin with me. Guys, you know, I was thinking that one of the themes

44:20of the week seems to be that the Republicans are in more trouble in the midterms than maybe they had hoped. But today we've got... That's why I want to do this story. This is kind of a bright spot for the Republicans right now and that's up in Maine where Susan Collins is actually a head in the RCB average today. She's up 0.2%. She leads in three of the last four polls in the average. And she's out with this new ad just in time for baseball or maybe she can't run it anymore after the last two nights. But listen to this ad. This is this round during the Yankees Red Sox game. The Red Sox know how to handle the Yankees and Susan Collins knows how to handle Yankee Superfan Chuck Schumer. This Yankees fan is spending millions on ads attacking Susan and ads that were proven false. Susan is the most independent senator in America. She calls her own pitches, works with both sides and delivers. So while Chuck Schumer roots for New York, Susan's team is Maine.

45:25So... The Red Sox had trouble getting a loud foul ball off Yankees pictures in the last two nights. So it would have been better for her at least for us the third game. But that's pretty good. And remember Grant Platner was running ads sort of... Gram. Blame... Gram Platner. Blame Susan Collins for the Red Sox being bad. And then they got hot when on historic win streak. So it's risky when you when you bring baseball into the mix. But it makes sense for her to bring Schumer into the mix. And that's... I noticed in Kansas, Roger Marshall, the Republican incumbent had a tough debate. But the one thing he kept he talked about when he was debating Hamilton Hamilton was Chuck Schumer who's like the new Bogeyman. Just as we talked about Bacera keep talking about Trump. These Republicans are out there talking about Schumer who is apparently unpopular. And it seems we were working for.

46:27Yeah. So this was best of three wild card series I guess. And Tuesday night they lost nine zip. And then it was nine two last night. So... Yeah. The Cubs didn't do much better. Cubs took it on the chin also. I'm not sure that matters in New England. I mean they're used to the Red Sox. They're used to this kind of thing. But what do you make of the ad Tom and what do you make of her chances? They're starting to look a little better, right? Yeah. I mean she's Tom was always so cool. Sean or even when she was behind. Yeah. You mentioned. So we've got six polls taken in the month of September and she's leading in four of them. So not by a lot obviously. You know, one two three points one of them's tied. I guess she's leading in three of the six and one of them's tied. So that is a pretty significant turnaround. I mean she hadn't really been leading in any surveys really. You know during this time certainly not with Platteur and even when they made

47:29the switch to Jackson. So and Jackson just put his foot in his mouth yesterday and said something about how he you know it's unfortunate that that Jews don't see Gaza as a genocide or something. I mean he had to apologize for that. Well that's because it isn't. Here's what he said. He said it is unfortunate that main Jews don't like to use that term. Only because they're Jewish and what means to them with the Holocaust. Yeah exactly. It's like come on man. Ugly ignorant remark. You know he's also she's also doing better and you sent me the poll with a story of among women voters. Yeah. And there's you know the latest poll shows she's losing a female voters 41 51 47 but the gender gap in the in this country so pronounced that that's actually good news for a female candidate who's a Republican. And you know I don't know what accounts for that partly what that what she said in that ad that she's the most independent

48:32moderate senator is you know empirically true by her voting record. The other thing is that maybe I don't know maybe main women don't think you should marry your cousin. I don't know why. Well it isn't that that number jumped out on me because the idea was that Platner the Jackson would be better than Platner with women because Platner was a disaster with him. But in point of fact that the numbers the main women are sort of moving in her direction. I guess her main problem there with especially with Luma Wynne there is her her Supreme Court vote. Yeah this is this is the first election that she said to where she said to stand for election post Roe v Wade. Right. Being repealed and and her vote for Brett Kavanaugh is obviously blame but remember we were just talking about this last week right there was this pro-publica piece you know the hip piece about her being you know the part of this scandal and Democrats were giddy they thought oh this I mean I remember reading people posing like this is the final nail in her coffin

49:35well you know yeah that's so fast apparently that didn't really do much damage if anything to her and and so again still a month left this is a close race she's only up by two tenths of a point and again margin of error these polls could be you know off by a pointer too and it's a good democratic year but again never ever ever count Susan Collins out ever the other issue people in point to do is a price of heating oil in Maine up to six dollars in gallon was three dollars and 33 cents a year ago so this is a record high for heating oil in Maine which as you can imagine in October more year round in Maine they think about these kinds of issues but high heating oil in Maine it's she's lucky the election is a month for now it's said two months for now gets really cold um you know we're learning a little bit more about the plumber who led this effort to save the that airplane airplane flying in from to buy to Tel Aviv 170 passengers aboard

50:42I was struck by this he this is what he said um he said um it was unpleasant to say the least but thank god he meaning the terrorist did not succeed we roughed him up a bit and he went on to say that he and his fellow passengers worked as a team we managed was the way he put it um something you know just some understated sort of heroism there Tom at a time when we could probably use something like that yeah he's the he's the Todd Deemer of the you know and we have a and live to tell the tale and live to tell the tale exactly he's so we have a piece on the leading the site about the you know the hero of Israel's 9-11 and it was remarkable I mean this the way this whole story unfolded starting yesterday morning when because we had video from inside the plane which was just riveting stuff and then you know they they they successfully you know um foil this hijack hijacking effort and then and then he's

51:43meeting with Netanyahu and I mean it was it was a really just remarkable story the way it played out over time and and yeah I mean well he said he said he wanted to meet yet Nyaahuic he asked kept asking to have to be able to change clothes into a suit and there wasn't time and Netanyahu we don't need that I don't know what happened to to giving this big hug folks who who take issues into their own hands in those kinds of situations yeah so we're just about a week away from the third anniversary of October 7th so this comes at a time when uh Israel is probably on on edge anyway um but when you look at that third anniversary coming up coral um what do you think well you know this thing has has played out in ways that that shocked a lot of people including me that this this genocide uh rap was ginned up before before the troop before Israel had even responded actually militarily and it's became this talking point it's now going to be in the United States

52:48Senate if if Jackson doesn't win looks like Abdul Al-Said will and you're you're starting to hear this and the universities in this country we kind of expose that they were teaching people to hate young people to hate Israel and really to hate Jews and this has been the great shock the other thing is you know it started this confrontation that uh we're the United States in the middle of and Iran had led to the decapitation of the leadership in Iran the killing of the of the ayatollah um a whole rethinking of what Middle East policy should be and and and and not to mention the horrific suffering of these of these Palestinian men were the Palestinians but but the Jews were slaughtered Israel is were slaughtered by these savages really who invaded a film festival music festival and you know kidnap babies and killed them with their bare hands and then and then Israel's response which a lot of people thought was an over-response and all these Palestinians killed it's it's been

53:51you know it's been the most bracing event since 9-11 for me and I we're and we're not we're not done with it we're in the middle of it Tom you know 10 seconds I mean Carl filibuster me out of a comment there I'll let that be the last word all right well that is our program for today if you're listening on the podcast apps or watching on YouTube be sure to subscribe likes send us at your comments we do read them it's great to hear from you I'm Andrew Waldworth half of Tom Carl everyone here are CP thanks for listening we'll see you back here tomorrow tomorrow is you cannot be serious Friday have a great day thanks for visiting our yoga class tap when you're ready what just happened it's my new bimo angel city fc debit mastercard every time I use it it taps me

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