Trump invents excuses for his 'Trump-a-palooza' dud

0:00For me, being a part of this place has always been about the people, not about the politics. From the field to the studio, Jacob is finding the heart of the story, connect with Jacob Soberov. Weekends at 10 a.m. Eastern on MS now. Donald Trump and the Republicans willing to be seen with him are gathered in Dallas, Texas tonight for the first ever Republican midterm convention. A convention that nobody asked for, which I should note the R&C chairman has generously dubbed Trump a polluza. But I think it's quite telling that the same guy who coined that term kind of stepped in it on live TV last night. And if you're unfamiliar with the R&C's relatively new chairman, Joe Brooders, here he is in all of his glory. We have the candidates, we have the resources. We're doing things like this midterm convention, which has never been done. We're going to use this and we're going to go attack the country with the president. I yes, there is nothing the American people want more than to be attacked by Donald Trump.

1:06I mean, you may not have minted quite that way. I'm sure he didn't even know it's probably closer to the truth than he's willing to admit. And the fact that they are holding this convention in Texas, a state that Democrats have wanted to flip forever since as long as I've been involved in politics before then, a state that hasn't elected Democrat statewide in 32 years tells you just how worried Republicans are about that state and states they shouldn't be worried about in general. So anyway, now Trump is expected to deliver tonight's headline speech, but not to worry everyone as the name Trump of polluza suggests. He is also expected to speak tomorrow night. Now, here's the good news. Our amazing producers, very eagle-eyed, very smart, are going to watch Trump's speech tonight so you don't have to. And we will update you with anything he says or does that is outside of his usual rambling and coherent, nonsensical talking points. Now, Trump's speech caps off a roughly five hour first day of the

2:07Republicans pitch for the midterms and boy, what a first day it has been. I said the heart of our nation, the Democrats, extreme candidates won't rip that heart out of our chest. They hate our culture. They hate what it means to be American. Hear me, Dallas. You okay there, Senator Trump's got? That guy wants to end for president. I'm going to just as a side note. But I mean, even the guy next to him that we just showed seems like he was wondering what the hell was going on there. I am certainly wondering what the hell was going on there. Now, that's just a sample of what's gone on inside that arena. And as an outside observer, I wouldn't say that Trump of polluza is what Trump hoped it would be. But that shouldn't come as a surprise, should it? I mean, for one, if you believe in signs of any sort, Trump had a bit of a

3:09bad omen on his way down to Texas. He was delayed on the tarmac outside Washington when an inflatable emergency slide deployed on his new cuttery gifted Air Force one just before he was supposed to get on board. You can see the inflatable slide right there. Now, Trump claimed, of course, it was just a routine safety check. Although, never seen that as a routine safety check on a president's plane. But the New York Times was quick to reveal that the slide was actually deployed by accident. Of course, it was. So things didn't exactly get off to a great start today for the president. Now, of course, Trump was accompanied to Texas by his usual teeny, tiny circle of advisors, including his very close personal aid, Natalie Harp, someone who has been described to have as his human binky and as the human printer. She's also been described as his gatekeeper and a one woman conduit of information. Now, last night, we learned that Trump gave a 45,000 dollar cash gift to Harp and two other young loyal female White House employees. According to

4:13financial disclosures released by the administration, those gifts were equivalent to nearly one third of each of their salaries. The White House, of course, defended the gifts saying that Trump has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit and that the 45,000 dollar gifts were entirely permissible under ethical standards. Now, I spent 10 years working in two different White House's for two different presidents and no, I never got cash gifts from a president. Maybe a gift when I had a baby, maybe a framed photo or flowers for a birthday. Nor have I ever heard of a single person who has received the cash gift from a president. Like that, who works for them. And there is no way that this is all permissible under ethical standards. But the sun even why I'm bringing it up, although that is important. The reason I bring it up is to highlight just how much Trump values the incredibly small circle of aid sets around them. And that's important because Trump's small circle has clearly become a sort of bubble for him during his second term, a kind of safe space he can just retreat into.

5:17This is one of several ways he's becoming more and more close off from the outside world. I mean, he's even cut back on the rallies that he used to love so much that he would talk for hours. As the New York Times points out back in early 2025, Trump made clear to several advisors that he did not want to keep holding rallies. Instead, he preferred to settle back into the West Wing and work on his gold trimmed renovation projects. To put it simply, Trump just didn't get out of a tiny curated bubble because he just created that bubble because he wanted that bubble. His domestic travel in 2026 has also included only roughly two dozen events that were strictly about policy or particular activity as administration worked on. And some of those trips were tacked onto his visits. He was making two his private clubs. Now, as the Times writes, Trump has been living an unusually isolated existence with an extremely small group of advisors and officials helping him arrive at decisions and a small group of aids providing him with constant positive

6:20feedback, hence the human printer. Now, that information ecosystem tends to override what the president absorbs from polling and focus groups conducted by his own team reactions that show voters are very, very frustrated. So I'm very pissed off. You see, Donald Trump is clearly more insulated than ever from the outside world. And that's part of the reason why he feels as free as he does to spend his days showing off his ballroom construction or say the latest piece of the White House he has gilded. It's why he spent the past holiday weekend posting just plain weird stuff. Like an AI photo of himself trading stocks in the Oval Office before and after picture of Iran with the country's shaped like his head. An AI photo of him standing over a fallen Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in a hockey game and multiple AI photos of him hanging out with George Washington. There is no one clearly telling this man that all of this makes him look like he has lost his

7:22freaking mind, especially when you consider this kind of behavior is happening amidst multiple crises that are sinking Trump's approval numbers. So it isn't hard to figure out why dozens of Republicans aren't showing up to this week's Trump-apolusic extravaganza down in Texas. But according to Trump, there's actually another reason why so many Republicans aren't there. The reason that some people are not coming is because we don't have a room for 500 politicians. We have room for the ones that have a close race if they're slightly behind or slightly ahead or tied. But we don't have rooms for people that are 35 points up and don't need to be there. We said stay back and campaign every politician that we wanted to be there is there. Don't have room for 500 politicians? The arena, which we're showing to you on the screen, where they are holding their convention concede over 19,000 people in total. That's a lot of space.

8:22And by the looks of the video coming out from earlier today, there you can see it. Looks like there were plenty of seats left over. Lots and lots and lots of them. Would you look at that? Space for all Republicans in Congress. And maybe their entire staffs to attend as well. Now, is Donald Trump just lying knowing full well that lots of Republicans don't want to go anywhere near him? Maybe. Is it possible that Donald Trump's tiny bubble of sick of fans told them that every Republican in the country wanted to attend, but they just don't have room at the arena? Honestly, I believe that too. Either way, it is striking how many Republicans in the most competitive races in the country wanted no part of this Trump-focused charade. An analysis based on race ratings from the Cook Political report found that fewer than half of the Republican candidates in competitive House and Senate races are listed as convention speakers. Some Republicans never quite committed one way or the other. And at least 45 Republicans said they're skipping the convention altogether. But the excuses they've been giving,

9:27well, they sure are something. Are you one of the mid-term conventions? No, I'm going to be in my district working to win. Still TVD, we're actually trying to work out our schedule right now. I can't go because I've been campaigning for you and I have. No, no, no, no, I'm not going to go to the convention. So, yeah, thank you. I had stuff already planned in my congressional district or I would be there, but got a lot going on back in Kentucky. Do you want to go? I want to be in my district. Yeah. So we'll see. Okay. I'll just wait. Why would you rather be in your district just to talk to your district? I always want to be in my district. Yeah. It's very rare that I go outside of my district. No, I am going to be my district. I have to be campaigning. No one votes for me in Washington or in Douse. I have to be in my hand. Are you planning to go to the mid-term convention next week? I'm not. Tell me why. My son's getting married. Oh, congrats on that. Destination wins. I have a good excuse, right? I want to get there, but I've got a few things on my son's playing high school football. I promised I would not miss any of his games. So you're going? Well, I may not. You never know. You never know.

10:29Donald Trump has made the Republican mid-term convention Trump pollusa. And Republicans wouldn't show up. They don't want to show up. And it's not just Republicans who don't want to associate with Trump at his convention. Some Republicans don't even want to associate with Trump on their own campaign websites. In Texas, Republican House candidate Eric Flores took out language in a section on his website about his priorities that said he would, quote, support President Trump's agenda. And that's not to mention his lawn signs. Here it is before. Notice the Trump endorsed. Rarely clear on the top. And here is one after. Notice what's missing from the top on that one. It's pretty clear. Now, in California, Republican Congresswoman Young Kim changed a banner on the homepage of her website that described her as a proven fighter who would stand with President Trump to deliver a bold America first agenda. To say that the Congresswoman is, quote, taking on career politicians to restore the American dream. There's a difference. Or this may be my absolute favorite, because in a Kentucky district that Trump won

11:31by double digits in 2024, this was Trump endorsed candidate Ralph Arvarado's Meet Ralph Section on June 9th, so a couple months ago. See it? Okay. And this was his Meet Ralph Section on August 24th. He scrubbed Trump. He scrubbed him out. With just 55 days to go until the midterms, Trump is doing the only thing he knows how to do. Insert himself smack in the middle of everything. And plenty of Republicans are really wishing he wouldn't. As one Republican lobby is close to the White House who attended an RNC donor event the Ritz Carlton last night told Politico, the vibes are very bad. My only hope is that no one watches it since it's competing versus NFL opening games. Hopefully nobody notices the embarrassing show. Not exactly ringing endorsement of the Trump-centered midterm convention. Can't imagine two people I'd rather talk to on a crazy night like this, 50 days out from the midterm elections. Mitch Linder is the former mayor of New Orleans and a former senior advisor to Joe Biden.

12:35He also is the host of the Long Play from Cricket Media where he visits Southern States. We're going to talk about that too. And Jim Messina is the former campaign manager for President Barack Obama. Okay, Mitch, I remember when we were working together in the White House for Joe Biden, you were one of the people we could send in there, right? And he, you weren't the only one. You could send in there and you could have a politician to politician talk with the president and say, look, this isn't working. This is what the perception is. That's clearly not happening here. Well, it's really important for the person who's sitting behind that desk to not be delusional and to care about the truth. Now Donald Trump has been the president for six years. Americans are now waking up every day and one of the first thoughts they have is what the hell did that crazy man do today? What do I have to deal with? That is not a good place for any elected official politician to be. And Donald Trump, he's got two major problems. One, he is either delusional or he doesn't tell the truth or he uses not telling the truth as a weapon. Neither one of those things is serving him well. Now, I don't want to give our opponents political advice,

13:36but essentially the American people are speaking loudly and clearly, especially working class people. They feel like Donald Trump has betrayed them. He said that if he won, he was going to get out of forever wars, he was going to reduce cost. And instead, he's governed basically raising costs, engaged in huge corruption and engaging in chaos. The American people are tired of it. And so all these other guys that are Republicans that are running, you know, and now said that Donald Trump owns a Republican party lock stock in barrel. And he doesn't have the presence of mind to do what like smart politicians do. And you've actually heard Joe Biden say this. Hey, listen, if you need to say that I'm against you, you know, go do that because we need to win because policy is really important and get the American people back on their feet. Donald Trump does not have the presence of mind to ever not be the center of attention at all times. And it's going to be very damaging for them right now. And they know it. That's why they're not going. They, most of them seem to know it, right? A lot of them didn't attend, but Missina, I mean, what is surprising to me about this is there are some Republicans in very competitive races.

14:36John, who said of Ohio is one of the mic cons of Georgia. They're speaking. They spoke today at this midterm convention. My suspicion is that they want, they're going because they want money. They need money for their races. And so they're going to go kiss the ring and ask for money later. I don't know. Missina, what do you think? Yeah, look, 55 days before the election, the last place in the world, a Republican candidate you want to be is with Donald Trump and Dallas, Texas. You want to be on your campaign and your campaign trail talking to voters and avoiding a national message. Midterm elections are about referendum on the president. And the last thing Republicans want to get is tied to Donald Trump and his failed policies. But, you know, I agree with you. Some of these people are looking at it and saying, look, I have enthusiasm problems. As you know, Jen, from when I run campaigns, I care more about voter enthusiasm than I do anything else. And when you start looking at the polls, Republicans have a real enthusiasm gap. So someone like Houston, if I was his campaign manager,

15:37there's no way I would put him in Dallas. But apparently their view is they've got to get Democrat Republicans excited about this guy. And they got to go beg Donald Trump for money. He's sitting on $400 million in MAGA Inc, which he's spent almost none of it. The only amount he spent is on a TV commercial praising himself. And with 55 days left, he's the last big checkbook out there to go beg. It's interesting. He announced a bunch of more PACs, money, but we don't know how he's going to spend every cent of the ads about himself. I got to ask you if I mean, that's now what they want. He generally says he's going to give people money and he doesn't. That's his whole life story. That is true. He won't in one pocket out the other. That's true. Politicians should be weary. Okay, I got to ask you about something I think Democrats have to be kind of clear right about. Because John Fetterman, Senator from Pennsylvania, still a Democrat. He stated again today in this video that played. He didn't embrace Trump in this video. I just want to play the video in case people haven't haven't seen it. Because this played at the convention today.

16:38A paid room of Republicans in Dallas. Yes, I'm Senator John Fetterman, Pennsylvania. Yes, I'm a Democrat. Why am I here talking to you today? Because well, I'm a common sense Democrat. I'm always going to stand with America. I'm always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life. I mean, his biggest risk right now is he's going to be primary. And like Crystal Luzio, who knows what he'll do, others may primary him. I don't understand why he's doing that. But to me, it feels like Democrats need to be clear, I'd that he might flip parties. But first of all, I just saw that. You hadn't seen it. I've not seen it. And I'm flabbergasted by it in this sense, that I'm a common sense Democrat that doesn't like the extremes either. But I would never do something as stupid as that. Yeah. And I am very clear, I'd, in the way that we count votes and whether we're going to win the Senate and not Senate, you got to put him in the questionable category. He has been flirting with, you know, changing and not changing and trying to explain why he does.

17:39But a second grader in politics would understand why it would not be why is for a sitting Democratic Senate and go address a Republican convention. Unless he was open to the possibility of changing. And I just think that reality being what it was, Democrats have to like take all the scales out of their eyes and, you know, be open to the possibility to send a Fed them in before. And so over, made the side to switch parties. Now he swears he won't, I hope he honors his word. He ran and got elected as a Democrat. But we've had people betray the public before. I hope John does not do that. I think what he did was a bad mistake and bad judgment. But to be clear, there are many Democrats in this country. Most of us at a very common sense, very practical. And the working people of this country are pissed. The Donald Trump is betrayed them. And we're going to, we're going to deliver for them, but they give us a chance. Take the scales out of your eyes. It's a very good Mitch Landers, fairies that I may have to steal from you or reuse. Okay, Missina, I've been dying to ask you just about. You've referenced the spending Trump has done on ads for himself. There was a new, so his, the New York Times reporting that Trump's political operation has created a brand new super PAC, which is spending now spending $49 million.

18:43I just wanted to get the number right to advertise in battleground states. I don't, why, what is your theory on why they created this super PAC? Is this something we need to take the scales out of our eyes on? Why a new super PAC? What do you think about this money? What are your thoughts on it? So they charted out a bunch of Republicans last week to say that the $400 million in the magazine super PAC was really Donald Trump's money. And he could do with whatever he wanted. John, I think this is more about his library and his foundation he wants to do after the election. He's obsessed with making it bigger than Barack Obama. He's talked about it like 10 times in the middle as Mitch says of tough economic times. You know what voters really want to hear? They want to hear the President of the United States talking about spending a billion dollars on a gold library for himself. So I think they finally said, okay, we can't get him to spend out of this. So we got to get a new PAC and we'll get the same donors to give money to this PAC. But $49 million is a lot of money, but it's not $400 million. And the fact that he won't part with any of his money this close to the election,

19:47I think shows you who he's in this for. And voters are so much smarter than people give them credit for. Right now they're saying, who's in it for me? Who's going to make my life better? And they've decided it's not Donald Trump or his party. I mean, I could talk to the two of you for an hour. And we didn't even get to your tour of the Southern States. So you have to come back. You got to come back and talk about it because I want to hear it. And I know you're bullish about Texas. But thank you both. We got to talk to Gina Hennahosa, who is running to become governor of Texas and is tied in a poll. So that's what we're getting to next. And thank you for being here. Thank you. Jim Messina, thank you as always for being here. Okay, coming up, the fact that Republicans are holding this ridiculous convention in Texas, as we've all just been talking about here, is a pretty big tell that they are very worried about what might happen in Texas come November. Gina Hennahosa is the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas. A new poll out today showed her tied with Governor Greg Abbott and she joins us next.

20:49Home to the Rachel Maddo Show. Morning Joe, the briefing with Jen Saki and more voices you know and trust. MSNow is your source for news, opinion, and the world. Learn more at MS.Now. So we watched Donald Trump at this midterm convention in Texas. It's important to remember that this convention is the Republican party's latest attempt to dig itself out of the enormous Trump size toll that exists in the minds of so many voters, including voters in Texas. Like I mentioned earlier today, you got in Univision released a new poll showcasing how underwater Trump is in Texas. 52% of Texas voters now view Trump unfavorably. And only 42% view him favorably. That 10-point gap is legitimately scary for Republicans. It should be. And again, things get even more interesting when you look at how some Democrats are performing.

21:52In the race for Senate in Texas, this poll shows Democrat James Tellerick go beating his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, by five points outside the margin of error. And in the race for governor, Democrat Gina Hennahosa and the Republican incumbent Greg Abbott are tied. And when this poll zooms in specifically on Latino voters, who in a lot of ways helped turn the tides for Trump and Republicans last cycle, Hennahosa is beating Abbott by a whopping 12 points. This of course is just one poll. Locke can happen between now and November, but it's worth noting that this week Axios also reported that dozens of Latino lawmakers and leaders are pressuring Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who chairs the Democratic Governors to invest $10 million in the Texas Governor's race, according to a letter to Beshear that Axios obtained. And hours ago, we learned that Hennahosa has been in talks with the DGA about potential investments, though the National Journal reports that she was unaware of that letter. So let's go on in Texas. And joining me now is the perfect person to talk about all of this. It's the Democratic nominee for Texas Governor, State Representative Gina Hennahosa.

22:56Okay, I want to ask you all about your race. It was a really exciting poll that came out for you today. But first I just have to ask, I mean, you have this debacle of a midterm convention happening in your state. As I've said throughout the show, I think it's because they're freaked out about the state of Texas and Democrats winning, something that hasn't happened statewide in 32 years, I believe. What do you think they're there? You know what, they're there to try to save a bunch of losers. They see Texas as battleground and that Republicans have just lost their mojo in this election cycle. Nobody wants them. This is the election cycle for change. People are tired of politics as usual. They're tired of what Republicans have wrought on Texas. And what we're hearing across the state, what you're seeing, the polling, not just the poll that was released today, but like eight polls in the last month. So we're in a virtual tie with Greg Abbott as people get to know who I am there with me. And so good luck Republicans trying to save these loser candidates. You got here

23:59in Texas, Trump's underwater too. So it's kind of a sad situation for them actually. It's kind of sad. Don't feel too sad for them. You got to focus on your race. So you've been, I mentioned this. You've been reportedly, and you've been asked about this in contact with the DGA about a potential investment in your race. You can't run statewide races without money. And certainly money and help from the national party. It does, it does a lot of work in this point in the in the process. Have you have you heard anything more from the DGA about an investment? I know part of it was also this letter that was written from a bunch of Latino leaders to the chair of the DGA. Anything you've learned about an investment in your race? I haven't learned anything recently. DGA has been a good partner to us in this campaign. We launched October. They've been there with advice, with support. And I have appreciated that partnership. But yes, we need an investment at this point. We are now in the final stretch. Greg Abbott had a hundred million dollars when he started this campaign. And then the more he

25:02spent the closer we got. So we have run a phenomenal campaign. And it is a winning campaign. That is what the polling has shown that that is undeniable. And yes, we need that investment. Look, when I launched this campaign shortly after I understood that this was not about me. It was no longer my campaign. It belonged to so many people who see hopes and dreams for the future of Texas, for the future in of this country in my canesy. And I am honored that people would be fighting for me, fighting for us to win this November. Let me ask you about one of the places where where a lot of this money is flowing into Texas from. And that is Elon Musk. And he is definitely putting his thumb on the scale again, the cycle. According to the Texas Tribune, his group America Pack has spent more in Texas than any other state this year. He of course also has a big financial stake in Texas. I talked about this a little bit last week, but the headquarters of Tesla, SpaceX, and his social media platform X are all based in Texas. He's also heavily invested in data centers.

26:07What do you make of his influence or his attempt to influence? And really the motivations behind his efforts to boost Republicans like Ken Paxson and of course Greg Abbott, who you're running against. Yeah, it is not surprising because Greg Abbott has given Elon Musk the keys to the castle here in Texas with tremendous tax breaks for his businesses with literally the power to shut down our public beaches, which by the way is against our Texas Constitution. He just awarded his agency just awarded a hundred million dollar, what was supposed to be a broadband contract to Elon Musk's change the rules at the end of the game. Everybody's angry about it. It is so correct. So corrupt the relationship between Greg Abbott and Elon Musk that even the Republican leaders of the legislature shut down the whole process for broadband in the state of Texas because it is so corrupt as to be broken and they even recognize it. So I'm not surprised that Elon Musk is trying to protect

27:09the investment he has made in Greg Abbott and that Greg Abbott sees him as essential to to his prospects because actually Elon Musk is who Greg Abbott works for, not the people of Texas. Gina Hanna-Hosa, you're in the home stretch ish here with like 50 days to go ish. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us. Yes, but everybody should care about this race. There are big national stakes and I welcome them to to see what we're all about at Gina4texas.com. Thank you, Jed. All right, thanks for joining me. Okay, coming up, we're going to show you some of what Donald Trump just said in Texas. We told you we'd be watching. Some of this is going to be music to Democrats ears. That's my little preview for you. We'll be right back. Ever since I was young, I've watched people working hard, chasing opportunity, making sacrifices, doing everything that can to build a better life. And now we're shining a light on what matters most. Our economy, our national identity, our democracy, our future.

28:13The stakes have never been higher. It's all on the line. I'm the line with Ombicia Menendez, weekdays at 12 p.m. Eastern on MS now. Okay, Donald Trump was very clear about his message for the midterms moments ago in Dallas. I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot. Just one more time. So which Democrats all across the country said what he said? Sure thing. Let's do that. Back with me is former Obama campaign manager Jim Messino, along with Eugene Janels. MS now senior Washington correspondent and the host of the weekend who has been covering things in Dallas for the course of the day. I've seen you on television all day today. So thank you for being here

29:14up with Lay With Us. All right Eugene, we've heard this message before from Donald Trump. It seems like the one he's settled on. What did you make of it? And what else have we you heard from him tonight that people should know? Yeah, I think the thing that's so interesting is every single year, the party that's in power and the president sitting behind the the the resolution that wants to make it a choice election in the midterms. And the other party wants to do the opposite. And Donald Trump is according to Democrats paying it to their hands because what they've always wanted is to run against Donald Trump to run against the Trump administration to force their opponents on the ground in all of these different states, especially in purple districts, purple states, and making sure that those folks hold Donald Trump as close as possible. You have this kind of cognitive dissonance that's happening in this room. I think, Jim, you asked what is the thing that folks should think about. You have Anna Paulina Luna talking about the fact that people

30:17shouldn't in public office should not make money. Donald Trump has made $2.2 billion over the first year in office that we know of. You have Scott Besen in here talking about things that he knows is it aren't true. You have the president saying that the country is going to be in hell if Democrats take the house in November and he's been president for more than 18 months. So it's this kind of strange world that they're kind of living in here in Dallas. I will say folks are excited. A lot of folks are, but I talked a bunch of folks today as we're walking around trying to get through security in different hotels as we got here. And the since I got from a bunch of those folks is that it feels a little bit forced festive, right? And the way I described it earlier is, you know, your mom takes you to your uncle's house and you have to pretend like you want to hang out with your uncle and that's not exactly what you want to do. You know, but you have to do it because it's family. That feels like a lot of a conversation that I'm having with a lot of folks over here. But again, this is a party. This is a president who clearly understand that the numbers are not on their side.

31:22We look at polling and these districts that are purple, but also in some of their redder states like Texas. And this is clearly a last-ditch effort 55 days out from the election to actually get people to pay attention to Donald Trump in a way that I guess he believes they were paying attention to him before. It is putting himself smack in the middle of the cognitive. This and this is sort of like a theme of this presidency. Okay, so, we both know that the worst thing of one of the worst things the president can do is kind of pretend like things are fine when things aren't fine. And on that point, I just wanted to play a little bit more of what Donald Trump had to say tonight. I'm asking you to let us finish the job we began with the greatest two years in the history of the presidency. This has been the most successful two years financially and every other way in the history of the presidency. I mean, there are so many things that feel damaging to Republicans' running. We've talked about

32:23some of them earlier in the show, but him saying, consider me on the ballot. He said earlier last week that he was going to go to every district. He's just claiming everything's fine when we know people don't think it's fine. What do you make of all this? And the impact is going to have on Republicans who are sitting there having to run tough races over the next two months. Jim, what I make of it is you're about to see those two clips you just showed in the main and Michigan Senate races by tomorrow. Like this is exactly what the Democrats want. Donald Trump is breaking the sacred rule of politics, which is he's making it about himself and not the voters. And the voters understand they look at the numbers. They look at their checkbook. They see $5 gas. They see how expensive things are at the grocery store. They see their utility bills. You can't hide that. And to have the president of the United States say that this stuff is is wrong and life is great. It makes them want to send a very clear message in November. He's doing Democratic turnout for the Democrats tonight in this speech.

33:27No question. I think people in the D-Triple C and the DSEC are all like cheering for this speech. I'm Jim Messina, Eugene Janinels. Thank you both for being here. Thanks so much for explaining it all to us. Okay, coming up, it is let's just say not great that one of the most serious issues facing the country right now is one that Donald Trump understands about as well as a first greater. We'll be right back. So you know there are sometimes polite kind of innocuous words for things like when you're trying to avoid saying something actually kind of bad. Like how we call getting fired downsizing sometimes or how we can call global warming climate change. Also alignment. Have you heard of this one? It gets thrown around a lot by people who work in AI. When you hear someone say that AI is not in alignment, what they are politely saying is that the AI

34:30is not quite working properly. Its goals are not aligned with what its human user is trying to get it to do. But what that actually means what alignment is polite code for is that AI could try to kill seriously. That AI could become so powerful, so autonomous that it could turn itself against humanity and there would be nothing we could do to stop it. I know this sounds like the stuff of a science fiction movie. But it's not as far-fetched as you think. A researcher who used to work in Anthropic, one of the big AI companies, he has now quit his job and announced on social media that he believes that AI could have the capability to end humanity in just the next 10 years. He writes, quote, AI companies are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. Do not underestimate the power of this technology. These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources. The people building AI earnestly believe that could kill us all by the end of the decade. And this is not

35:33just some disgruntled employee. A current employee in Anthropic jumped in on Twitter to agree with him. Saying, quote, we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans. I personally think the chance is greater than 10% within the next decade. So that, to use just another euphemism here, is suboptimal, we could say, as far as humanity is concerned. And when there is some kind of threat to humanity, a threat to the safety and security of the country, the government is supposed to step in and help, right? It's trying to solve the problem, maybe pass a lot of restrictor control, the person or thing or technology companies posing the threat to try and make it stop. Which leads me to a very serious question. Is our government and the people who are in it up to this task? Is AI really, AI really does pose this series of a threat? Who is going to step in and save us? Well, joining us now is one of the people who's been thinking a lot about this. Texas Congressman Greg Kizar, he along with Senator Bernie Sanders, have co-sponsored a bill that would ban AI companies from building tools that humans cannot control. Which sounds incredibly

36:35rational. Congressman, thank you for being here. I think we all saw, I don't even know how many views this this thread now. It was like a hundred million or something crazy earlier today. But we've seen this before. Maybe it's woken people up. Who knows? But this bill that you have introduced with Senator Sanders, tell people what it address the dangers that these researchers are warning about. And don't take this the wrong way. Present company excluded. I don't think Congress has a reputation for a lot of people really understanding these technology tools. What is your level of confidence that people understand the seriousness of it? So that was a two-part or a hard one. But go ahead. Well, I'm so grateful to the whistleblowers at Open AI and Thropic telling us about how serious these threats are. Again, a bit of a euphemism when they're saying about the deaths of billions or millions of people. And I think they're really waking Congress up. And that's why Senator Sanders and I have introduced the Ban Superintelligence Act, which just says no. These

37:38billionaires who want to become trillionaires cannot develop AI systems that could evade human control, break laws, take away our freedoms, or even cause mass casualty or national security events. It's that simple. And I have some hope here, Jen, despite how scary it all is, because we've faced the nuclear revolution or the generation before me did. And the country came together, created the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, passed nuclear non-proliferation agreements with other countries, and banned more nuclear weapons being developed by companies and countries or anybody else. And similarly, the CEOs of Anthropic and Open AI have said their technology could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons. Well, then we should treat it like that and pass a super intelligence ban and start working on treaties with other nations to make sure this isn't developed anywhere. We have seen bipartisan, I mean, not even in a partisan way necessarily, really from the American people, concerned in opposition to data centers, AI data centers. Have you heard from even privately

38:44in conversations with Republican colleagues a willingness to be a part of this? I hear from Republican members of Congress and corners at airport at the gym all the time that they think that this kind of completely unregulated AI is crazy, and their constituents think it too. But the problem is you've got Donald Trump over here who has taken loads of AI cash, appoints people like David Sachs who is just the scumiest AI investor to basically lead all of his AI policy. And so when you have whistleblower saying this could be a serious national security event, usually any president of any party would take that seriously. But instead, you've got Republicans who leave the Congress doing nothing. In fact, their main initiative is to get rid of the little state laws that we have. And so it's critical for Democrats to win back to House and the Senate in November and put forward a bold agenda that says, no, an AI billionaire can't become a trillionaire trying to take away your job, trying to take away your freedom with AI, trying to screw up your

39:48life or even put your life at risk. That's not okay. They can't control the world. The future is in our hands and the government can actually help with a serious of an issue as this. So on the point of party-conduroy elections matter, as we know, I got to ask you about what I'm just going to call a political masterclass going on in Dallas tonight because Donald Trump told Republicans to pretend he's on the ballot. I'm sure that to the delayed of Democrats running for office across the country, he also called concerns over affordability fake. And here's what he said about his pick for Senate in Texas. I don't even know if you've seen this. Maybe you have Ken Paxton. He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly. And he may not be the best-looking guy I've ever seen. But you know what he is? He's the greatest attorney general in America and he deserves to be your next senator. I mean, Donald Trump calling you the greatest

40:51attorney general should be a big freaking red flag for everybody. But what do you make of what you heard tonight? I gave you a sense of it from Donald Trump. And what it all means 50 days out or so from the election. I mean, Donald Trump is telling you to pretend people are on the ballot. He's telling you to pretend like he's on the ballot. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And he's telling you to pretend that Ken Paxton can talk good, apparently. And the thing is here in Texas, even my Republican constituents who might go vote for Ted Cruz have refused repeatedly to vote for Ken Paxton for attorney general. They skipped that race. That's just how corrupt. That's just how disrespected Ken Paxton is by Texas. And so the fact that you have all these Republicans running to try to stop Texas from flipping tells you just how unpopular Donald Trump and his agenda are across the country. And look, we have a real chance at flipping Texas in the United States Senate.

41:53So I think we're going to have a blue wave across the country. But here in Texas, I think it's going to be a blue tsunami. And if you need a proof point of it, watch this convention. There you go. And good polls today too. Congressman Greg, because our thank you for joining me as always. Thanks, Jim. That does it for me tonight. You can catch the show Tuesday through Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern on MS now. And don't forget to follow the show on Blue Sky, Instagram, and TikTok.