Trump gets the news FEARED with HUGE election update

I'm joined now by the US Senator from. California and the vice chair of the. DSCC, Adam Schiff. Senator, thanks for. joining me. >> It's great to be with you. >> So, we have some big news here as it. relates to this upcoming Senate map, which I think most people had initially. written off, but can you explain a. little bit about uh what this latest. class of candidates that have been. recruited is like and how you think. about their chances as we head toward. 2026? >> Absolutely. Be happy to. And and you're. right. I think a year ago if we had this. conversation, we would have probably. both agreed, look, it's going to be.

tough uh in the Senate. We have a good. chance of flipping the House, but it's a. tough road ahead in the Senate. A year. later, things look very different. Uh. yes, it still looks great in terms of. flipping the House. But now in the. Senate, there is a very clear, very. viable path to flipping the Senate, and. it's because we've had some. extraordinary recruitment successes with. people running in very competitive. states. Uh, and we're doing so well with. our incumbents in tough states like John. Oaf in Georgia, super strong candidate,

great senator, doing really well. The. Republicans failed to recruit Kemp, the. governor, who would have been their. strongest recruit. So, we're doing. really well with our our incumbents. We. have to defend, but it's our. recruitments that have really made. things competitive. So, in Ohio, for. example, we were hoping that Sherid. Brown would run for the Senate. He was, I think, looking at potentially running. for governor. Well, he's running for the. Senate again. He is very well known in. Ohio. He runs ahead of the top of the.

ticket. Trump not being on the ticket. Uh, that makes that state very. competitive. And he's running against. the senator who was appointed to that. position, who's not as well known as. Sherid. So, Ohio now super competitive. I think the polling there has the race. essentially tied. North Carolina, the. Democratic governor Roy Cooper decided. to run. Uh real patriotic duty to step. up after his terms and is a very popular.

uh governor in North Carolina. Um but uh. he is as strong a candidate as we could. possibly have. I feel very good about. winning in North Carolina. That's Tom. Tillis's seat. Tillis decided to retire. I think the the cuts to Medicaid and the. ACA pushed him over the edge and he's. retiring. So, it's an open seat. I think. we win North Carolina. uh in Maine where. Susan Collins is the incumbent and she's. been a very strong incumbent.

historically uh we have some incredible. and strong candidates running in the. primary including the former governor. actually the current governor Janet. Mills of Maine uh as well as Graham. Platner very popular among some of the. grassroots. so Maine is very much in contention and. then that final piece was Alaska. >> yep. >> Mary Pelola made the decision just a day. or two ago go to run. She's probably the. most popular politician in Alaska. Uh. she is now just by stepping into the.

race tied with the incumbent if not a. point or two ahead. So if we gather. those four states, if we flip them, we. would flip the Senate. We now have a. great prospect of doing so. There are. other places that will also be in. contention. Texas may be one of them. Iowa may be one of them. Florida may be. one of them. Uh, so this map continues. to grow and expand in a way that's very. favorable for Democrats. >> How are you thinking about these places. that are historically red areas? Because. on one hand, if you don't run.

everywhere, if you don't invest any. everywhere, then you can't win. everywhere. Uh, but on the other hand, the reality is there are there are real. limits to to resources that the DSC and. and any organization has at their. disposal. So, while it would be great to. say, yeah, let's invest, you know, as. much as we can in all 50 states, that. that money going one place is obviously. going to be uh to the detriment of money. going somewhere else. And so, how are uh. how are you thinking about where money.

is allocated recognizing that those two. things kind of have to have to um be. reconciled with each other? >> Uh you know, here's the way I view it. I. think we try to expand the field in. every way we can. Get the strongest. candidates to run everywhere in the. country. We're going to have to start. competing and winning in states we've. been losing for some time in the South. and in the West. Uh we're going to have. to be doing a lot better. Uh and the. good news is I think we can I think we. can grow in those areas.

>> But it starts with recruiting good good. people and make sure we have competitive. people. Uh yes, resources are finite, but what I've seen in the past is when. people are given some seed money and. some help and some early support and. gain traction and they suddenly put a. state in contention, the money follows. >> Yeah. >> And it's not uncommon that okay, you. think these states are going to be the. most competitive and then suddenly. another state emerges as a. supercompetitive out of nowhere race,

but if you didn't do the early work on. it, you wouldn't have that opportunity. So I think you start broad. You try to. compete in as many places as you can. Um. a lot is going to depend on you know how. how much the candidates can deliver. themselves, how much they can win over. the the population of their own state. When that happens though the resources. come and the grassroots in particular. has been really generous. They are very. uh energized and my guess is wherever we.

can be competitive. The grassroots is. going to provide the resources to make. sure that people can can win these. seats, win this uh incredibly important. midterm. I know we say every time. there's a midterm, this is the most. important midterm in our life. There's. no question about this midterm. >> And the fact that it's been true in the. past doesn't make it less true now, right? This. >> everything is on the line right now. I. want you to talk about that for a moment. because, you know, you're intimately uh.

familiar with with all of the threats to. democracy. Obviously, you um you know, led uh led one of Trump's impeachments. Um why is this midterm cycle so crucial. as we head toward uh a presidential. election in 2028 where we're now going. to determine who's going to control. Congress? like what are the implications. of Congress being in Democrat hands. versus Republican hands as we head. toward a presidential in 28? >> Well, just, you know, looking back to.

that first term where, as you point out, I led the president's first impeachment, he was abusing power in some of the. worst ways the country had ever seen. Flash forward to this term and now that. we're concluding his first year in. office, the abuses we've seen take place. in the last 12 months are beyond. anything we saw in the first term with. the exception of the insurrection. Uh. and there is more horror yet to come in. the next three years. Putting some check. on that, putting some constraint on that.

is absolutely essential. I don't know. what the country looks like if there's. no limit, no guardrail put up to this. president over the next three years. So, we have a vital opportunity to do that. We're seeing incredible censorship of. the press. He went after ABC and. extracted millions of dollars from them. He went after CBS and did the same. CBS. is now changing its content to try to. plate the president. Yeah, >> there are merger proposals for CNN and.

Warner Brothers. uh and the president is. trying to use the leverage of that. merger to exact changes in media that. will be more favorable coverage to him. We're we're living in a repressive. regime uh in this Trump administration. uh weaponizing the justice department, militarizing our streets, fmenting uh. protest and uh and and creating loss of. life, terrible tragedies like the one. we've seen in Minnesota. So this is a.

pivotal time in the life of our country. and the midterms give us an absolutely. essential opportunity to change course. If we gain the majority in the Senate or. the House or both, we get back in the. business of doing real oversight in. putting a real check on the president's. power uh in in preventing the. confirmation of a lot of these terrible. people they've nominated to the Justice. Department to frankly departments all.

throughout the government and to the. bench. So, hugely consequential. What. about in terms of what Republicans may. be able to do if they have majorities in. both uh in both chambers of Congress in. terms of certifying the election, for. example? I mean, that's it's we would be. naive to ignore that as a real threat. given the fact that it's not even it's. not just hypothetical. They've literally. tried to do it once. They've tried to do. it once and since that time they've used. all the instruments of power to try to.

revise history as to what they did. Uh. in the Senate Judiciary Committee, you. cannot get nominated, let alone. confirmed. if you acknowledge that Joe Biden won. the presidential election in 2020. You. can't say that Donald Trump lost if you. want to get confirmed for a position in. government. That is how much history is. being rewritten. people are being. censored. Uh so yes, we have to fully. expect they will try that again. They're. trying to change the composition of. local election boards. Uh and they have.

a more supine Congress than ever. We. have seen less willingness among. Republicans in the second term in every. respect to stand up this president. Uh. you'll remember in the first term when. Trump talked about firing Mueller, there. was an outcry outcry and even Senate. Republicans said, you know, you can't do. that and we stand up to that. Do any of. us think that that Republicans would. stand up to Trump in any decision like.

that ever again? >> Yeah. >> So, um the stakes are exponentially. higher. if they continued to control the. Congress after the midterms, if they. continued down this path of surrendering. all their power. Just this week, they. again surrendered our war power, the. power in Congress to declare war, to. refuse to declare war. Uh they've. already essentially surrendered. Congress's power of the purse, letting. the president impound and resend funds. and get away with it. So, um, yes, we.

can't afford, you know, three more years. of Republican domination of all the. branches of government. They they also. have the Supreme Court. Let's be faith. Let's be candid about it. >> So, I want to talk about um these. candidates on the campaign trail right. now. We've obviously, you know, there's. been a ton of ink spilled. We've spoken. a lot about um what Democrats need to. do, need to focus on as we head toward. 2026. um the the the the fact that this. administration has not only um not only. caused but exacerbated the affordability.

crisis that we're contending with right. now. There are the threats to democracy. There is the uh you know the complete. abandonment of America first in. deference to this you know George W. Bush uh uh redux where Trump is now just. engaging in foreign wars for oil or. trying to, you know, um basically uh. dominate the entire Western Hemisphere. by taking over sovereign countries and. and and doing away with NATO. All of. that, I understand, is going to be. potent as we head toward uh 26. And and. of course, that's not to mention ICE and.

the atrocities that they're committing. on a daily basis. But I'm curious, so. that we're well prepared for any attacks. that might come our way. What should. Democrats be wary of uh from the. Republicans that they're contending with. again? Like I I understand all of the. offensive attacks and it's smart to have. those at the ready, but I think we would. also be well served to to be able to. predict a little bit about what's, you. know, what may be a potent line of. attack coming from the right. And so in. your conversations, in your discussions. with these candidates, what seems to be.

the thing that we want to make sure that. we're prepared for as we head toward. this election? >> Well, I would say a couple things. First. of all, we need to continue to keep the. focus on affordability, on people's. inability at present to be able to. afford a home or to pay the rent or to. buy groceries. Uh the fact that people. are working harder than ever struggling. more than ever. uh this needs to. continue to be the focus. That is the. pressing concern of the American people. We also have to be mindful though that.

you know the other side gets a vote on. what the agenda is in an election and. they're going to try to make this about. anything but the economy, anything but. the cost of living. They're going to try. to run away from any debate over whether. Donald Trump has reneged on his promise. to low prices on day lower prices on day. one. So, they're going to come up with, you know, social cultural wedge issues. like they did before, like they've. always done and try to get Democrats.

talking about that. Uh, now we're going. to have to, you know, address those. attacks and rebut those attacks, but we. always have to bring it back to what's. on people's minds first and foremost. I. I look, no one is more vested in. fighting for our democracy than I am. I. believe in uh our country uh heart and. soul and the necessity of protecting our. democratic institutions and the right to. vote. But I think the economic issues are are. deeply intertwined with the democracy.

issues. I think the reason our democracy. is in trouble is that the economy has. not been working for millions of people. When millions of people see the quality. of life their parents had is better than. what they have, all too many of them are. willing to entertain any demagogue who. come comes along and promises they alone. can fix it. So, we need to keep in mind. we're not going to place the democracy. on a solid footing until our economy is. until it's working for people again. Uh. and and understand that these things are. really tied together.

>> We'll leave it there. Uh, Senator. Schiff, if for folks who want to uh help. these candidates who are running, where. can they where can they go? >> You know, the probably the you certainly. go to the DSC web page, but you can also. go directly to the candidates websites. and make d, you know, contributions. directly to these candidates. Uh, and. you know, again, uh, great opportunity. to flip the house, but now a great. opportunity to flip the senate. And, uh, and we should take heart from the. November special elections. They were an.

extraordinary sweep and Democrats. improved not just in kind of turnout of. Democratic voters but also we succeeded. in persuasion that is people that turned. out in the last election but voted the. other way. >> Yeah. >> voted with us this time. So lots of. reasons to be optimistic. >> We'll leave it there. Senator Schiff, thanks so much for the time. >> Thank you. [music].