Why Trump Is Entering His Worst Ever Doom Spiral | The Daily Beast Podcast

The page is turning. This is the beginning of absolutely lame duck Donald Trump. This is the beginning of Donald. Trump grappling not just with his mortality, but. seeing hearing the clock tick, tick, tick on the wall. And all of his behavior is going to be driven by this. How do I remain relevant? How do I use the power that I've got, particularly. if the Congress has taken away from him as an option? We're already watching the decay of this mind.

I mean, there are all these early signs of dementia and everything else, but the next couple of years are going to be. the watching a meltdown like a nuclear meltdown. The Chernobyl inside Donald Trump's head. David Rothkopf is in the studio. David, it's so exciting. Exciting. It's the day before the midterm. It's exciting. We're here. We're ready to celebrate. Yeah, we are gearing up. We've got the entire Daily Beast team ready and we're limbering up.

It's like a race. Well, you don't want to injure yourself celebrating? No. Well, we really don't. We really don't. And we have slightly different opinions on what's going to happen. I suspect you know much more than I do. I just feel like everything that people are saying. about, oh, the early turnout, it's very good for the Democrats. I feel like we were saying that about Carmelo. We were saying it about Hillary. And you're absolutely right. You know, in three years, like go on TV shows. And I remember seriously, like looking at the camera.

and going, Hillary is definitely going to win. Don't worry about a thing. And I get home to my wife who's from Michigan. She's like, well, I was just home in Michigan and she's not going to win. It's it's so anyway, where we are here to discuss it all, but how could we. how could we even go this far into the podcast without saying a. Feel free to share this podcast with your friends. We're independent media, so please subscribe to the Daily Beast. Become a Beast Tier member.

This is the perfect week to do it. And of course you can go to The Daily Beast, sign up and get. blow by blow accounts of what's going on. But what we really want to talk about, is there anything else to talk about. except Ali Stevens versus Al Sayad Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan? The Michigan meltdown, or as we might say, here in New York, the Michigan, Michigan, the Michigan and Michigan. So it's very good. I don't think it would like I don't think LCD would like you to say that.

No he would. He's embraced his embraced his inner diversity. Oh has he has he there. Controversial candidate. And I mean well start the story from the beginning. For those who aren't following this as closely as we are. Haley Stevens lost congresswoman in Michigan. Four term congresswoman lost the primary. Democratic primary for Senate to Abdul El-Sayed in the summer. Turns out she hasn't recovered from it.

Yeah, it's scarred her because for several months, everybody is saying Haley Stevens is going to win. She's the establishment candidate. Chuck Schumer loves her. Everybody loves her. And AIPAC brought a big dump truck over to her house. and dumped tens of millions of dollars. into her her campaign like 60 million. I think the total was right. Like, I think there was 30 million officially. And then there was all this money from these other. So she had a ton of money, no business losing.

because she had the establishment and so forth. But, she first of all, she wasn't a great candidate. Secondly, El-Sayed. took a different perspective, which is get the money out of politics. And, you know, APEC, APAC is, you know, the problem. And, you know, he was, you know, a very different kind. He was a progressive candidate at a moment. where progressive candidates were doing pretty well in a variety of places.

And he won, eked out a close victory very close. It was under 1%, wasn't it? Right. And but, you know, almost instantly, you know, the newspaper reporters were this is going to tear the party apart. He's a progressive. She was the establishment. This will you know, and that'll create the opening for the Republican. And maybe because they were writing that. But every single Democrat in the establishment, every single Democrat in Michigan, you know, Gretchen Whitmer and Jocelyn.

Benson, who's running. to replace Gretchen Whitmer and Debbie Dingell and Elissa Slotkin. Wherever they were in the spectrum, they said, I'm for Alcide, and they all fell into line. This must have really. roiled Haley Stevens. And we should say Haley Stevens. She was an advisor to Obama. She was involved in keeping the auto industry on its feet after 2008. She was, by all accounts, a good congresswoman. She was across the aisle, got shit done, which is all you want a politician to do.

Or perhaps you don't want a politician to do. That is what you want. And also, Michigan's. such an important state that people were, you know, invested on. Clearly Obama and the others, you know, came and and got into that. But I think something snapped in in Haley State. I don't, you know, I don't know whether she was like. percolating this for a while and I'm going to switch over. I don't know whether APAC was knocking her door and saying, oh, you got to stop this guy because he has an Arab name. And, you know, he said he wants there to be a Palestinian state.

as well as a Jewish state. And, you know, I mean, his views. I'm a Jewish guy from new Jersey, right. His views on Israel are the same as my views, which is, you know, Palestinians deserve their own straight. Treat them properly, you know, and, you know, let's find a solution. that makes them sense and context of international law anyway. You know, something happened, something really big. In fact, I think maybe the signature thing in this election happened.

Barack Obama went to Michigan. Like a week ago. And he got up and he did this and it was like. it was like Superman had gone into the phone booth, switched into his super costume and, and we hadn't seen him in it was right. But there has been like I do podcasts I make some movies. What has he been doing? Well, he has like a production company. He's been making his library happen for a lot of people. Honestly, a lot of Democrats think he's maybe been too low key,

not playing the leadership role that he should have for enough. But he stepped out onto that stage. and there was instant, you know, real chemistry between him and El-Sayed. And he got it. And he was old. Obama energized. Funny. This is where he made the joke about Trump and Saddam Hussein. and The Cheesecake Factory, which drove Trump crazy because not. I mean, you know, he was offended with being compared to The Cheesecake Factory.

He never brought up the fact that he was compared to Saddam Hussein, of course. Right. And but, but but he also, you know, I think. Obama. sent a message to the whole Democratic Party, which was, don't reject what you're hearing from these progressives, Alcides, message about everybody getting health care, the anti-corruption message, the get the big money out of politics message. Obama was the first big major. figure who said, yeah, I get it, I'm behind it.

And all of a sudden I think, you know, she was like, oh my God, the tide is really turning against this view. And maybe APAC was like, oh my God, he's actually going to win. Whatever it was. Something snapped and she's like, okay. And in a 24 hour period, because she called up a bunch of people. in the Democratic Party, James Clyburn, all these other. people, and said, no, I've got it. I, you know, I'm going to go there. I'm going to endorse him at the end.

I'm on team say it. And then in a in the course of like a 48 hour period, she switched over and endorsed Mike Rogers. Wasn't just withholding her support or being tepid or on the fence or whatever. She endorsed the Republican opponent who's a complete tool of Donald Trump. Who, you know, you know, and, you know, essentially at that point is saying I'm not a Democrat anymore. You know, I'm going to I'm, you know, I'm going to take fascism.

I'm going to take whatever comes with Donald Trump corruption. I'm going to I'm going to embrace that. If the person defuzing a bomb. said, red wire, blue wire, I'm feeling lucky. You'd said a personal record in the hundred yard dash. experience gets a lot more appealing when guessing isn't an option. That's why so many people turned to Morgan and Morgan, making it America's largest injury law firm.

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Well, and then she sort of threw in that she'd never liked Graham Platina either. I think she was getting at the brokenness of al said. Right. Well, maybe. But she was also she was trying because, you know, she did this interview. on Anderson Cooper afterwards and she was trying to make this message. I don't like what's happening within the Democratic Party. And essentially I'm an establishment dem, and I don't know if I like these. progressive deaths. But, you know, at the end of the day, she,

I think what's the political term? Shit, the bed, you know, I mean, because everybody instantly, uniformly came out against her, including Schumer, including Gretchen Whitmer, including Jocelyn Benson, including Debbie Dingell, who was very Debbie Dingell, the nicest. So nice, so nice, so practical. I adore Debbie, right. And she's like, salt of the earth. My my wife is from Ypsilanti, Michigan.

She's the congresswoman. Her husband, John Dingell, was the congressman there for a long, long time. And, and, and Debbie Dingell came down on her heart for, for doing this. because it was seen by all these Democrats as a huge betrayal. Well, it's also. the Democrats are always talking about where a big tent we can accommodate. Everybody. Turns out she couldn't accommodate them, I think. I mean, she also didn't keep her word literally day before. I'm I'm on team El-Sayed. I'm going to be the guy. I'm going to be bigger than this.

I'm going to do the right thing. I'm going to support the party. I'm going to do the right thing for Michigan. I'm going to do the right. And she did the wrong thing for Michigan, the wrong thing for the country, the wrong thing for the party. She lied to all her friends. She is on the out. They didn't interview with the head of the Michigan. Democratic Party and they said, what's your her fruit? In the morning, she sees that she's got no future in the party. Well, she does, however, have a friend still in politics. Can we play the clip? It was very brave in doing it. So I don't know Haley.

I've never met Haley, but Haley said what few people are willing to say. I think it probably I'd love her to join the Republican Party. Actually, I think that could happen. Maybe. kiss of death. So, you know, within every circle, like her whole staff quit, right? Her whole staff quit. But a couple of things. First of all, she may end up losing. El-Sayed, his Senate seat. He may go to Mike Rogers.

She may trigger other people to do it. And it's just possible. if because Michigan is a swing state. and the Senate races are so tight, she could end up losing the Democrats, the Senate. I mean, she kept saying, I must vote with my conscience. And you're like, well, that's a pretty big price to pay for your conscience. Well, but it's not vote with your party, but it's also complete BS, right? Oh. Your conscience. You mean you're okay with fascism? Well, you're okay.

with being against women's rights, women's health care, health care for everybody. Affordability for everybody. What is the part of your conscience that is motivating you. to support the most corrupt president in American history? Well, I mean, and she said, oh, the reason I'm voting against El-Sayed is that he's angry and he's not kind. And you're like, and you're voting for a Trumper. But that makes no sense. You're voting for Trump, right? And, and and frankly, who is the angry one who came out angry? They talk about projection. She comes out angry, embittered, left behind and so forth.

And, you know, the the alternative analysis is that El-Sayed. is going to get a little boost out of this because people feel this is backfired. And, you know, it really cast a light on her. and how she was the, you know, the wrong candidate, the wrong time and so on. and so forth, and how important it was to go and support El-Sayed. And it got, you know, I don't think Alcide would have in the last 48 hours.

of the campaign, gotten every Democrat to come out as forcefully for him. as they have in the past, you know, few hours and, you know, Gretchen Whitmer, we have to vote Democrats up and down the line. And, you know, everybody has been saying that kind of thing. So it's going to be very interesting to watch. And in the last days of the election, it has become. one of the signature stories, if not the signature story of the campaign.

It made me think that that Ed or his team. should have been smarter in handling Haley Stevens. I mean, sometimes, you know that phrase, bring the enemy. inside the tent, have them pissing outside the tent. She's unzipped that tent, she's pissing all over them. And I, I sort of think someone should have seen. Sorry, vulnerable. But all those business cliches come back. If you have an enemy, bring them inside the tent. And I think he underestimated her.

And I'm not saying that he he won't win because of this. She probably has much less influence than she thinks. Nevertheless, she had a constituency that voted her in. She lost by less than 1%. And it's tight in Michigan, right? It's tight. So if I had been on the LCD. campaign, I would have been nurturing her. I would have been trying to bring her in. Well, first of all, it's not that tight.

According to the polls. Now, again, you know, we could do the whole. Oh, the polls, the polls. Remember the last polls? No I do. I'm so not a believer in polls. I really am not. I know they've just been so consistently wrong. that I can't feel anything other than. let's hope. Well, I understand, but there's a difference between a poll. that says the edges 2% Mary. in Alaska, the 2% edge, or a poll.

that says the edge is 6 or 7%, like Talarico over Paxton in Texas, and a poll that says the lead is 11%. like Alcide over Rogers in Michigan. So it does seem like, you know, he has gotten some momentum going. And also as far as working with her, you know, one of the things that came out of the woodwork in the wake of her. betrayal of the party in the state and the country is.

she's quite an erratic person, and she has a history of going, oh, yeah, I'll do this. I'm for this. I'm against this, I'm for this, I'm against this. And it's not that easy to work for. And, you know, if you if you doubt it, who should be the most loyal to her, her staff. What happened? A millisecond after she did this, the chief of staff put out a statement. I'm out of here. Everybody's out of here. The whole staff quit. They'd be out of there anyway because she loses her Congress seat in January. Well, I see you totally support her decision.

I don't support her decision. Of course not. I think they both behaved badly. I think that she was a congresswoman who was popular and got elected. repeatedly. She lost by less than 1%. If I were l said, I would have tried to recruit as many of her. people as I could have done, and I would have had her on my side too. But this is just management 101. He did, did he? Listen, Slidin was super mainstream. Democrat Elissa Slotkin was very different from his positions.

on Israel in the Middle East and all of those things. And Elissa Slotkin said Kim wasn't his enemy. His enemy is Haley Stevens, but she's the one that he had to bring in the camp. I disagree. Of course, if you disagree and of course you're siding with him. He's one. No, but but the point was, you don't remember back to right after he won. The question was whether establishment Democrats would support him. And they did one by one.

And he recruited and developed a working relationship with Slotkin. and with Whitmer and with Dingell and with Jocelyn Benson, and with the mainstream Democrats and the party and with, well, eventually. Yeah. And and so the point is, did a lot of outreach. He built a built a big consensus around him. She wasn't part of it. Now, did that help trigger her? I don't know. Could he have done more with her?

I don't know. I do know this. We can debate this all we want. We don't know the inside facts. What we do know is this. She lied to everybody about what she was going to do. Lied within her own party in a reversed her opinion in 24 hours. And it literally stood up and said, I'm for the Trump guy. And you know, my, you know, my, my issues with al Qaeda are so significant. that, little more fascism, a little more corruption, a little less health care for everybody,

a little more grift, a little more, you know, doing the bidding of oligarchs and, you know, little more Iran war. Okay, I'll take it, you know, and and, you know, to the average Democrat, that sounds real cynical. You're shopping for everyone else, making holiday plans and somehow trying to squeeze it all in. But if healthier looking hair and skin have been on your own.

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door, Elite Helmet and the Illumina Face Mask. Whether you're checking off your gift list or treating yourself, just head to restore.com and use Code Daily Beast to take advantage of the sale. That's Daily Beast at Iris store.com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. I totally understand, I thought she was utterly erratic. on the excellent interview that Anderson Cooper did with her.

I mean, it was a train wreck. I mean, it was a train wreck of an interview. She doesn't appear to be that bright, frankly, or she should never have agreed. to do that interview when she was in some kind of emotional and I hate sound, you know, anti-woman about it or I don't want to fall for. many of those men have emotions, do they? Do they? I'm feeling some. Okay, but but I do think in politics, the most dangerous enemies, often the enemy within.

And I think El-Sayed can come across as overconfident. And Brody and I think that his team should have brought her into the tent. Okay. You know, maybe we'll we'll we'll see. The main thing is that, you know, we're. recording this on a Monday and it'll come out on a Monday night. And then starting a couple hours later, the final phase of voting. People have done early voting, but the final phase of voting will begin. And the, you know, the voters will decide, the voters will decide where.

this all comes out, you know, and and I wonder if people just stay at home. I mean, the whole point was they were all supposed. to be going to church together on Sunday, right, with James Clyburn, kingmaker of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, as we know. And by the way, kingmaker, you know, the first Democratic primary because. Right. It's been moved to South and moved to South Carolina. Right. And so he is like really, really important in the Democratic Party. And of course, you know, Wednesday is I mean, Tuesday's election day.

But Wednesday is a big holiday in America. Well, Wednesdays, the Wednesdays, the beginning of the beginning of 20, 20, 28. people are like, what are you going to do after the midterms? I'm like, seriously, what are we going to do? Everybody's going to be running for president. For president on both parties. You'll be we'll be sitting here going. Andy Beshear did what? You know, I mean, well, we'll be like RFK junior did what? Oh, well, we're still doing that, man. Yeah. He's a I mean, he brought measles back. I mean, how is he even thinking he can run?

How is he thinking regularly? Figures in what he's doing. Well, it's true, the brain the brain worm has gone goodness and and but but yeah. Measles. I came across a new index, which I thought was interesting and bodes. well for the Democrats at the weekend, which was the Halloween candy index. Halloween candy is something we just buy once a year. Friend of mine called from Arlington, Virginia, and he was. I rate that the price of Halloween candy has gone up so much. And I said, well, it's gone up. He was right.

He was irate. He was like, you know, I've had to put two bags in candy. Do you like what Halloween candy do? I'm not a big Halloween candy, but I hate that candy corn stuff. I don't understand, it's the most bizarre. I kind of like it. Do you? Yeah. No, no. This is a big divide in America. Like it's the dress yellow. Or is it the dress blue or whatever? Right, right, right. But it's a dress as it always blue. Yeah, but but in any event. Yeah. No, that affects a lot of people. I mean, the affordability thing, you know, you're saying things are good in America.

You know, the affordability thing is very real for a lot of people. And, you know, people feel it in different ways. And I think they may have felt it on in terms of how did you celebrate Halloween? Did you wear a costume? Did you go out? I, I thank you for asking because I wanted to get to Trump a Lago. and his costumes and the the party there. I had one Halloween. Well, it's been Halloween week in New York. I don't know, is it Halloween week in D.C.? No. Right. In a little bit too serious?

Well, no. It depends on where you live. I used to live in Georgetown, and all the students from Georgetown, you know, Halloween and and Saint Patrick's Day were the bad day. You didn't sort of go out into it that much. And, you know, I mean, kids go out and stuff, but it's not quite the same thing. because I lived in the village and I mean, the village. Well, the village. Yeah, the village in New York City, you mean. Yeah, the village in New York City. Fantastic Halloween parade, incredible puppets.

It's really tens of thousands of people and dancing, and everything shuts down. and you can't move. And yeah, there's barriers along the streets. You can't take a car into that. Yeah. Stupidity is that there's this sort of subtext in America. that a Halloween costume is any costume turned into sexy costume? Sexy nurse, sexy cop sexy. This. Right. I'm just going to wear a little less because I came into being at an. on Halloween and I was driving up the street.

and, you know, it looked. it was really something because there was a lot of that going on out there. You say sexy, I say slutty, there's a lot of slutty, which is slutty cats. Yeah, a lot of people dressed as doctors, I thought, and I wondered if that was. a reflection on the healthcare situation, that nobody can afford health care. So we dress up as. That's why you're never going to see a doctor in real life. That's a good point. And that's why. we were going to bring it back to El CID. I knew you were going to do that.

Well, he's a public health professional. He is a public health professional. What does that mean? Well, he restored the Detroit Public. Health System, which was bankrupt, to functioning again. 300,000 people got health care, weren't getting health care. You know, I used to be on the board of the Johns Hopkins. School of Public Health, the advisory board, and was immersed in. And I have to tell you, public health is underrated, totally underrated. And also a lot of it's common sense. Right? Right. But 96% of all the gains in life expectancy.

in the US in the last century were from public health. measures, not from doctors inventing new cures. It was washing your hands. You're right. Closed sewers that you have to wash your hands before you eat. Isn't that it? You wash your hands after you've been the part. I haven't been on this board for a while, but yes, you're absolutely right. Well, it's. But washing your hands and vaccinations, right, are the two things. And. and and how do you manage clean drinking water. Yeah. Exactly. But so anyway. And that's what he's focused on.

You know, a lot of people out there. Well he wasn't a doctor. That's not the important part. The pardon part is do you keep people healthier. And in this country we're not good at, you know, all the countries and the whole OECD, one country doesn't provide. health care as a right to everybody, and that's the United States. And I have to say, it was great watching, you know, zeroed in on that. You know, and remember, Obamacare was like a sort of halfway solution. And and he and he's sort of getting the vibe that there are.

a couple of big themes in this election. that really are resonating across Democrats, regardless whether you. call yourself establishment or progressive health care corruption, John, on that. You know, on on corruption, the immigration, you know, that Trump has abused it and that people are being dragged. when you're starting to see your neighbors. dragged away and see it, well, then that feels like. it could be a huge deciding factor if James Talarico wins.

that they Hispanic population in Texas, or too. many of their friends and neighbors and school friends being arrested. Yeah, no. And I know you hate polls. And I particularly I just I trust those early voting data. Yeah, the early voting data when they go, oh, it's a great sign for Democrats. It means there's huge enthusiasm. They said that. But in the last can I just finish you said it in 2024. They particularly said it when Hillary was running in 2016. They were like this is excellent. All these Democrats going to the poll and you're like,

actually Republicans just go out and vote on the day of the election. No, that's true. And people lie to the polls. But and nobody's going to work and Paxton rally. Here's my fear Ken Paxton well, you were nobody turning. You were talking to Texans, right? This is you're getting this. Well, I was, but I was in Austin. So you've got to, you know Austin the blue dot. But no one I understand that no one is going to a Ken Paxton rally. And indeed nobody has been going to Ken Paxton rallies. And there was a wonderful moment where he said something. He gets a solitary clap.

That was a clap for people are listening and not not being able to see me clap. And he goes, thank you for that clap. I understand no one is going to a Camp Paxton rally. They don't like him. He's a horrible man. It doesn't mean they're going to vote for James Talarico. That's all I'm saying. Well, we'll see, we'll see. But what I was getting at was that the early voting does. seem to show that Hispanics are showing up in bigger numbers, and the polling seems to show that they feel Trump lied to them, and that there are a bunch of Hispanics that supported him.

And so that becomes one of those issues. And and again, Obama and others have glommed on to that. And the final one is this war, because. people and people connect the war not just with another crazy war. where we're spending billions of dollars and we're, you know, blowing up schoolchildren and all this other stuff. They connect it to the price of gas, the price of diesel, the price of living. And so they see it as like, well, you fight this war, I'm going to pay the price for it. And and so these are the themes that have sort of evolved.

And we'll see. We'll see whether people care more about those things or not. I guess there's one other issue, of course, and that's Trump. I mean, and there's this kind of Trump fatigue and they feel lied to by Trump. And they think Trump is like, I mean, if you did, you watch his rallies this weekend? I watched been watching them. And it's incredible. You know, he was going to do rallies then he wasn't going to do rallies. Talk about Haley Stevens. I mean, maybe that's why she wants to go over to the Republicans.

because she likes the way Trump flip flops. But he wasn't going to go. Then people said, oh, you're not healthy enough. You're too exhausted. So he suddenly back out there. I mean, he's so reactive, right? He wasn't going to go to Kansas. It wasn't going to get where the guy is. The Senate candidate is losing big right now. And it's just thought, well, I'm not going to go right. But then people were like, well he is too. He's too old. You know, what is Trump's problem. And so he's he's he's showing up at these things. Then he gives these speeches where he's talking about John, who's not and he's not even in Ohio.

John Huston's ass is nowhere close. That is not in a higher right. But he's but he's talking about these things or he's talking about, I don't know, you know, golf courses or reflecting pools or his own. Well, he's aware recording this on Monday morning. and he's giving a speech at the reflecting pool this afternoon. And my. Are you. It's like someone going back to the scene of a crime, right? It's like the murderer saying on the. on the very part of the field where he dumped the body.

I'm here, you know, this is where I found the body. I don't understand what happened. It's exactly the motivation for Donald Trump. standing at the reflecting pool today. What is he doing? He's ruined the reflecting pool, and he's the murderer. Going back to the scene of the crime, my first reaction. when I heard that he was doing this was that it wasn't true, right? That this was crazy. My second reaction was, why wasn't Epstein Island available? Well, you know, in other words, this is like so dumb.

It's like, let's call attention to something profoundly stupid. Then went wrong where he made up, you know, first of all, didn't need to be done. Secondly, he then made up this thing about, well, he they arrested an Olympian. They arrested an Olympian, accused him of vandalism, of somehow single handedly ripping up these 220ft long. And and now everybody's going to be able to go back and see that. the guy who was given the no bid contract to do the reflecting book,

like a bad, bad experiences with the law. And then all of a sudden when you say reflecting pool, you can't say reflecting pool without thinking ballroom or helipad. or triumphal arch, or tearing down 400 trees in a golf course. And that Trump is the ultimate vandal of Washington, DC, and that he's. occupying himself with this cuckoo crazy stuff. Like there's a war. People can't afford what they're doing. The Congress hasn't gotten anything done.

He hasn't gotten anything done. Criminals get pardons, criminal money criminals. Well, they're selling them for a big, big, big, big pardon economy. Right. But all this stuff is happening, and he's like, I need more gold. I need more gold in you. And the gold, by the way, is apparently melting on the the horses. He painted all gold on the statues. What are those horses call valor? One of them's called valor. Right. What's the other one called? I don't know, Seraphim or something. We should. It's amazing that you know that.

Well, I know that one of them's called valor, but. But what is it like being in DC? I know you spend your whole time. wandering around those private clubs in the middle of DC. Yeah, I'm just meeting your sources. Limousines and, shady back, you know? I mean, we know that. We know that tourism has dropped by up to 50%. What a load of bullshit. I mean, to the United States, tourism is dropped. Why? Because nobody wants to go through to DC. Well, it's not significantly.

All I can say is I hear Trump going, tourism is up. I've fixed everything. I've got the troops people used to, they couldn't go to restaurants because they would. get robbed in the street before and all this stuff. And none of that's true. You know, people, you you sit in Washington. and you see the National Guard walking by with nothing to do. They're literally just there. We're paying millions and millions of dollars. because the president feels better about life, because the National Guard, it makes him feel like he's Kim Jong un.

He's right. He's a strong man. He's a military leader. But none of the things he's done. has improved his in any way. And nobody from DC says, oh, thank you. Thank you for bringing the National Guard in. Thank you for painting the tush of this horse gold. And as I said, apparently the gold is kind of melting off of. the touch of the course. That's unfortunate. That's unfortunate. Well, and also, you know, the minute you look at the white House, you see this.

the demolition of the East wing and you see this thing dwarfing the it's. twice it's bigger than the white House, 19 zero square feet. It's, it's it's ridiculous. It's obscene. And and and and it's a waste of money. And he's spending $1 billion renovating D.C. where we can't afford health care. And he goes he talks to people. He says, well, you know, we can't do health care. We can't do Medicaid. We can't do this because we have to fight these wars.

We have to do all this stuff. And, you know, neglecting the fact that he's blown up the deficit. because he's cut taxes for rich people and everybody else. is getting less services at the VA, or they're no services in a rural hospital. or, you know, less services in the school that they enrolled in or, or whatever. And, you know, there is you know, I mean, we talk about all these things. that figure in the news, but the American people are not like schmucks, right?

I mean, they've elected Trump. They have elected Donald. No, I do get that. But they also know that he's self-dealing, that he's made billions of dollars, that he's making billions of dollars for Ellen. Remember the slush fund that he was going to bring in at $1.8 billion, that he would decide where it would go, and it was probably going to go. And this was all a settlement that he struck with himself. on tax. fraud cases that were being brought against him.

But, you know, you also have in Texas now, Ellen, under of millions of dollars supporting Paxton. And a strange relationship between Ellen and the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, which, the, the Democratic candidate. running against Abbott is trying to have brought out. that she wants to see the emails and, you know. No, sir. Yeah. And and and and and Paxton all this dealing with Elon.

And it's like Elon wants to buy a state. Ellen wants to buy a senator. And this Talarico that's Talarico is lying. And people in Texas know that. They know that Elon is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy Paxton, because then he's going to make Star City or whatever he's calling. Is there is there an argument? So Elon Musk has given $450 million, right. It's by far the biggest donor for this midterm election. Is there an argument that people. like Elon in Texas because he's brought space X, he's bought.

Tesla, it's good for their it's good for Texas in terms of jobs. It's good for them feeling that they're on the cutting edge of Illinois technology. I mean, I mean, there may be some people who are there in those businesses, but they also, know. that Elon associated with giant data centers, and they know. that data centers don't create jobs and that they push the price of energy up. and that they eat up water and, and and so forth and so.

Well, they don't they don't have to. They don't have to. And also, we can't live modern lives without data centers. I always feel like I'm not trying to defend data centers, but I do think there is a sort of strange argument about data centers, because everybody's on their computers, everybody's embracing AI. Look, I love your need a data set. I love your pro Haley Stevens Pro data centers. before this two because I'm not pro Haley Stevens.

I think she did a terrible thing for her party. I'm just I'm just teasing it. The reality is this I. I spent a lot of time dealing with AI. And, you know, I do several podcasts. and I have been working this in these areas for a long, long time. And I agree with you. It's not, you know, that all AI is bad. and we do need to make progress in these things. I also know that the oligarchs, the tech bros behind this business,

have been trying to play a game, rammed down these big data centers are doing it. in ways that could push up people's prices of electricity, and not doing it in ways that use up a lot of water. And frankly, we don't know what the model. for data centers in the future is going to be. They are likely to be more efficient. And, you know they are. They can bring their own power sources. They're going to have to do proper open deals with the local communities.

so that they actually add to the tax base, don't detract from it. They're going to have to spend a lot of time figuring out the water issues. But if people did not rise up as they have in this election cycle and say, no, we're not just buying this whole hog, you know, Trump is like, this is the future, and it's going to create a lot of jobs. And then people see a data center built in their county, and it creates two jobs. And, and and it doesn't actually help them. And so I you know, there's been a, an awakening and awareness that something has got to change.

And we need guardrails and we need fair deals and we need to understand progress. Well, I agree with you about the fair deals. And clearly there have been all sorts of unfair deals done. There have been NDAs sign. There have been local politicians on the take. But but I was making a different point, which is all the stuff Elon is doing is not seen as a plus. If you're creating the biggest data center ever. and you're doing this and it's going to have negative consequences, people are skeptical and they're a little skeptical of Elon. You know, I mean, you know, and particularly skeptical of him.

after he, you know, raised his chainsaw and it was a poorly. at managing Doge and, and and destroyed a lot of services. People need may be responsible for the death of up. to 11 million people for the cuts that were made to USAID. Had a bunch of. incompetent 20 somethings going in that may have been resulting in data. breaches and may have been resulting in well and and writing. hundreds of thousands of letters to people saying, oh, you're going to be fired.

You're losing your job. Give us five reasons why you should keep your job. And we need them by insulting, insulting behavior. to public servants who've worked for the government for for their lives. Right. And in a number of cases, having to hire the people back. after they fire them because they realize they, you know, oh, you're. the people who take care of our nuclear waste in America. Let's not fire you because we got to deal with the nuclear waste, you know, and, and and so he did a terrible job on that and.

Oh, yeah. Hitler salute and. Yeah, kind of a racist and. Oh, yeah. Running a farm to, you know, raise little baby Elon someplace with multiple baby mamas and. Oh, yeah, ketamine and. Yeah, big weirdo. And, you know, there there is a reaction, I think, in a lot of people. that the richest guy in the world should not be able to spend. half $1 billion on an election to pick the officials. He wants to get the laws that he wants so that he can make more.

and more billions, right, to get the government subsidies he wants. Right. And so, you know, I think that's part of that's part of where we are, frankly, I think that's part of the watershed that we're in America. And I think we joke about campaign 2028, but a lot of it's going to turn on inequality. Corruption, whether the system is rigged, whether the system doesn't work for average Americans. And, you know, you say, you know, I know you don't like polls, but you saw the Harvard Youth voter poll and in the Harvard Youth.

voter poll that came out two weeks ago, they do this every six months. They asked them, you know, do you think we're on the right track as a country? 9% said they're on the right track. Do you think by the time your parents age, you're going to be better off. or worse off? The majority said worse off. You've seen other polls where young Americans don't think. they'll be able to buy a house, that the American dream doesn't apply to them. Well, in the the age of being able to buy a house has gone up to 40, right?

Right. And so, you know, I think these are, you know, these are the issues. that sort of bubble and fester beneath the surface. that are distant from the headlines, really, you know, because we're like, oh, yeah, let's have a fight with aliens or oh, the president's going to go and get, you know, they're two Dan Sullivan's on the ballot in Alaska. And this is going to cause, you know, great drama in the Democrats are, you know, they're behind this high corruption. And, you know, it's like everybody knows it's bullshit.

Everybody knows that happens all the time in politics. Everybody knows the Alaska Supreme Court ruled on it and said this is fine. You know, proceed. And they're the final authority. that the federal government has no authority over this. Heck, Trump has a candidate running for Senate in South Carolina. who changed her name. so that it would sound more like her brother's name so she could win his seat, despite the fact that she herself admits she doesn't know anything about the stuff.

she needs to know about. Right? You know Darlene, Graham, Darlene, which has now turned into a much, much tighter race. Right? It's. And. Yeah. Who's the Democratic candidate? You know who else we should mention, by the way? Because Haley Stevens is not the only person. who has really blown it in this campaign. And or Trump is not the Vivek Ramaswami. Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio, running for governor. Running for governor is now like ten points behind, act.

And who's the the candidate he's, he's running against. Because this ad that he ran and, you know, taking this homeless woman, Amy Acton's mother, Amy Acton, but but taking her in. and running this ad and stuff, it's just blown up in his face. And then, you know, what happens is there's this kind of knock on effect. Now, he's a serial bullshit artist, and everybody knows. he's a serial bullshit artist.

But I saw an article this morning saying, well, you know, in his bio it said he was a ranked tennis professional. or he was ranked an American tennis player. And then it turns out that in the Midwest, the only ranking that anybody could find. for him was in the Midwest under 16, he was ranked 46. There's a, you know, and it's like all of a sudden everything unravels. when you become associated with this kind of behavior. Well, he's he's not likable. Vivek Ramaswamy is he? That's an that's so much part of politics.

And Haley Stevens, it turns out she's not she just wasn't likable. And El-Sayed is funny. He was a podcaster with Crooked Media. So he's got a background in in being very good with the crowd. And that matters when you're campaigning. Yeah. In fact, it was kind of funny because when you did the you look at the Obama. rally in Michigan and El-Sayed came out and talked. and he started talking in these Obama rhythms. And I thought, well, this is like an Obama impersonator.

And, you know, then Obama came out and he was talking to the Obama rhythm, but. Well, and Jon Ossoff speaks in Obama rhythms. And he's a very slow talker, right? He's a slow talker. He says one thing. He lets the crowd catch up with what. what he said, he's a he's a very, very good speaker. Yeah. Now, Obama's the great orator of American politics in modern times. It's possibly not that surprising that these people. paved that way, but, well, you know that they've all been studying. You know, you may not wearing a tie that coming out with the shirt that's undone.

And they're good. They're good and they're also good on their feet. Very good on their feet. Very good. They go on interview shows and so on and so forth, and they get hard. And there are other people out there like Pete Buttigieg is really good. on its feet, you know, and we'll we'll see more of that as we get into campaign. I can't wait to our show next week on campaign 2028. Well, I know it will be very interesting to see who emerges as the kind of stronger. Well, and by the way, you know, everybody should watch this election. because we tend to over interpret the results.

and let that influence politics going forward. So in 2024, Joe Rogan. was the reason that Donald Trump got away. No, that's not true. Right. But but I never said it was the podcast election. And. Right. And that it was the young men who were the reason that Donald Trump got elected. And so then everybody was like, oh, you need a young man. And, you know, Hassan Piker comes and you know all that,

but we're over interpreting. Let's see what these results are. Because, for example, if the results are that voters of color, Hispanics and black voters, as the early voting shows, were the decisive voters in getting the turnout. that the Democrats needed to win. There's going to be a candidate of color on the Democratic ticket. You're going to have to win that. You know, you're going to have to win that vote.

You're if there were young people. and you know, and then people are going to start saying, well you got to appeal to those young voters. Now by the way, those things are they they make sense. Right. And and and and it's a, it's a it's it's a good thing in many respects. But watch the election results and watch the analysis. because that's going to determine the discussion of the next two. years as to well, as we know, you know, and. of course now Rogan is dump Trump.

You know, and those young voters, those young guys. who may not have been like, well super politically educated. Right. And that all coming off their parents healthcare insurance which hits 26. Right. They're all having to pay for their own healthcare. and realizing how expensive it is. And they're all trying. to look in the reflecting pool and think more about themselves. And there's no water in the reflecting pool. I'm being sarcastic, but young men. Beautiful metaphor. Thank you. It was beautiful. And the classical undertones tied back to your participation.

in the all night Odyssey raver that you went to, the Odyssey. The Odyssey was the most dramatic thing that happened this year. I wonder if there's such the Odyssey election. Can we draw? Can we draw a connection? Christopher Nolan's not a bad director. The odyssey. Such an overrated piece of crap. Oh, such an overrated comment, please. I know that's going to drive so many comments. Well, it just was.

And it was too long. And it was about the movie. Were you talking about the original poem? Oh, nothing. Retinal. Okay. All right. Not. Homer. No, no. The movie, the movie. The movie. I was like, oh, that really is provocative. I think I think we have a lot of the classicists. Yeah, we have a lot out there. No, no. Who read it? The original Greek. And you know, I know I love the Odyssey. I'm all for it. But the movie didn't capture any of what The Odyssey was about.

And it all became this Americanized story about this guy. And you sort of don't really sort of. get the other subtexts that we're in. I. And it was too long to indulgent. Well, everything's too long. Everything's 25 minutes too long. Used to be a movie. Could be made in 90 minutes, and you couldn't make it if it was longer than a few minutes. It was a good thing. Yeah. Now it's now. Now that Elon Musk movie, which I am trying to see, I thought to myself, I can't see that anymore. They've suppressed.

I cannot find it anywhere in Manhattan. How is that possible? Because they've suppressed it. Well, because rich people have a lot of power. Well, yeah. You want to see that, by the way? I do want to see. It's Alex Gibney. I totally want to see the Elon Musk movie. I'm prepared to take in or smuggle in a sandwich. and a cup of tea and and sit in the Melanie over me, didn't you? I remember you went undercover. I went undercover. Yeah, but it turned out that there weren't many. people in the theater, so it didn't matter. I'm dying to see the Elon Musk movie because I think he's emerging.

as the most important person, you know, possibly globally. Frankly, he's having so much sway over the election in terms of the. Well, we don't. we won't know until tomorrow, but he's putting so much money into it. Are his technologies are increasingly dominant. Look at Starlink. He's the guy that said, you know, switch off Starlink. So the Ukrainians don't have advanced knowledge of incoming Russian missiles. I mean, it's the most important war going on right now.

He doesn't innovate. He's not an engineer. He doesn't create these things. But he is a guy who's good at promoting things to Wall Street, which. enables them to fund them, which creates these sort of upward spirals of value. I think one of the things that we could be seeing, you know, is if there's fragility in the market, the AI boom in China. has already started to come undone. You know, in the past couple of weeks, I think they've lost 400 billion, $500 billion off the value of Chinese AI firms.

If that continues, the resentment against AI companies. and Elon and Zuckerberg and the others and all these, that's going to go back up and that's going to become. a central theme, because I think really, really, I don't think people like the billionaires that much. You know, there are some nice billionaires out there, but they're not that prevalent. Most of them are like bond villains, and Ellen is the bond villain iest of them all.

He really is. And also, it's the tech billionaires, right? If you think back to 2015, 20 years ago, people were so excited. about what was happening. Now people are much more suspicious because we've seen the overreach of, in. particular, matter and Mark Zuckerberg and people are much more apprehensive now. And we've seen it in the past couple of weeks. Right. Zuckerberg and meta, taking the side of Bolsonaro. and the Brazilian elections and making it harder for people to find out about Lula,

make it harder for people to find out about Angie Nixon, the Senate candidate in Florida. You know that he's playing the politics of this whole thing. Well, and also no Kings, right? The recent no Kingsport. Right. And he is just you know, it's it turned out remember the Social Network. and you watch The Social Network and you thought those winkle bosses. they're up to no good. I don't like those Vanco bosses you know. And but Zuckerberg he's a little nerdy. but like he's he's he's he's our hero right.

Well he wasn't it turned out they were all villains. They were the winkle, the Winklevoss, the Winklevoss. Yeah. And they were all bad guys. Now, of course, the the the sequel that they did has bombed. But it is interesting. You have the Musk movie and you have the sequel to Social Network. and you've got the, the Elizabeth Elizabeth Holmes there.

Yeah. We're starting to see movies about. The billionaires and that we don't like them. It's starting to become sort of woven in. to the public dialog and the culture that this, this marks our moment, that these are our robber barons, right? Well, and I mean, we've seen negative shows about the tech billionaires. We saw we crashed about, we work right. We saw super pumped about the founders of Uber.

And we had the drop out about Elizabeth Holmes, but now they're. sort of pivoting to focus on AI more, I think. Yeah. And I think the, the face of billionaires today is tech billionaires. These are the people that Trump invited to the season ping dinner. These are the people that Trump met with a couple of days afterwards and said, hey, I've got an agreement with them, and it's like a new constitution. And, you know, the those of us in this room have decided how AI is going to go.

You should trust us. You know, that's just going to be fine. Well, they're also the guys that circled around him at the inauguration, right? And they're the guys who backed it up. And if you look at the big spenders in this election cycle. for the ballroom, for the election cycle, you know, they're there. You know, every once, you know, I think, you know, I saw the list of them and it was almost all Republicans. The George Soros group was on the list. And you used to think, oh, Soros, he's the billionaire the Republicans go after.

Well, they were jealous and they want more of their own billionaires. And now Elon Musk has spent more in political campaigns. in the past two years than George Soros has in his whole life. You know, so things of the deck has gotten shuffled. But you know, there is also this other weird factor which I think. we've talked about in the past, which is Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, the Ellison's mark injuries and all these Peter Teal.

These are Sergei Brin, co-founder of Google. Yeah. But I'm not going to include him in that group so much. Why? Because he's always at those dinners. No, I understand, but what I'm saying is these people are odious. They're creepy. Their strength. You know, a lot of musk is strange. Peter Thiel is out there talking about the Antichrist. You know, you're like, what the heck? And he is like the guy who picked the vice president of the United States. JD Vance, right.

Peter Thiel is like, got, you know, super influence. with what Pete Hegseth is spending at the Defense Department. And his as strange as they come as our other people within his company. Bezos weird. Weird, you know, the world's most public and expensive midlife crisis. that ever took place. Zuckerberg. Everybody knows he's like the poster guy for weirdo. And and you know, the Ellison's are, you know, creepy in their own right. Somebody ought to advise Larry Ellison about the dying of the.

Yeah, it's not good. It's I don't the filler. The over filler. Yeah. It's just not it's not good, you know. But we maybe we could do a Larry Ellison makeover at some point. Well, I thought you could say we could do Larry Ellison special, which we could do. Larry Ellison. Yeah, yeah, well, he controls all the other media. He's doing his own, you know, constant Larry Ellison vision. But but in any event, I'm just saying.

we don't just have inequality. We have a cast of villains that have entered. and who are, you know, sort of. creating a narrative. with their personalities, which are awful. So, David, I know that, you weren't at Mar a Lago, but did you see the pictures of the people. at Mar a Lago? I mean, they were going, oh, you don't have Mar-A-Lago face. Okay, but people at Mar a Lago have moral go face.

We go. We're showing some clips. Now, for those listening, you can't see some of the wild costumes, wouldn't it? What? Mar-A-Lago faces. Mara Lago face where you could just. take anybody's picture and give them Mar-A-Lago face. I think you can do that. Can't you do that on existing apps? I think you can. But look at these costumes. We we did a story on the most heinous costumes, which we love to do on Mar-A-Lago costume party. And of course, Donald Trump wasn't in costume, but he said he was.

He said he was. He was dressed as Donald Trump. Yeah. Which he thinks is the most fascinating costume. that could ever be the most powerful man in the world, didn't he? I didn't I see a piece in The Daily Beast where he's now. like talking, comparing himself to, like, the most handsome man in history. And he's like, I mean, he's done. Well. You did see a piece in The Daily Beast about his hair, because his hair. has become a feature of the of the rallies, really. I mean, he points to it himself. There was the famous one where he was thinking Cleveland or was it?

No, he was in Texas. And he looks up and on the big screen behind him, he catches his bald spot. and he makes a thing of it. But his hair is has a life of its own, and it has for ten years because of you. Remember Trumpy cats where the people did cats with comb overs? Yes. That was. Yes. That was that was good. That was good. You know, when I was the editor of Foreign Policy magazine and I thought I was like. a genius of the foreign policy community influencing people's big decision.

The well, actually, this was even right before I was the editor, but nonetheless, the biggest article that we ever did. was called something like 17 cats that looked like Vladimir Putin. Oh, how funny, because he's got a slightly cat like face. He's got those kind of almond shaped eyes that go up. Yeah. That was what you were doing, was it? I can't take credit for that. Right. But but and and it was the big hit.

You know, we would do all these very thoughtful pieces. But people wanted. and you thought you were going to be running 15,000 word pieces on wither. and and yeah, new, new new clear triad and that kind of thing. Right. And you had no idea that the president was going to suck up to Vladimir Putin. But I did, you know, I have to say, you know, while we're there, let's give me credit, because in. for the first time ever in the history of foreign policy in 2016, it had never written an op ed, about a presidential election.

And I wrote one that said the biggest threat. to the United States of America is Donald Trump. That was ten years ago. Wow. 1010 I mean, you know, there have been many other people who've done the same thing. I'm just saying we've known this was coming. And, you know, we're sitting here and we're not talking about the fact that. Trump's got and deals with the Russians. Now Trump's, you know, doing all sorts of crazy stuff. Who knows what's going on with the Iran war at the moment.

It's either on or it's off. Did you see this post by Tucker Carlson, which suggested that Trump. had been contemplating using some kind of nuclear force. to get at Pick Ax Mountain, the nuclear facility, with apparently all the enriched uranium that the Iranians have, that he was considering this after after the election, I've heard. reports that he's considering an attack, that he's considering a big attack. I don't know that he would consider a nuclear attack.

That would be kind of. game changer in terms of America's role in the world and everything else. Also, there is no one place in Iran. where all the nuclear materials are stored there, stored in a variety of places. They know that these are risks. But Trump for years and years and years. has been behind the idea of more usable nukes, which ought. to scare the crap out of somebody, because the way our nuclear system works. is that the president of the United States can give the order,

and within four minutes, the missiles are coming out of their silos, and nobody can stop him from giving the order. And he. he is now wants to spend hundreds of billions of dollars. modernizing our nuclear weapons so that there are smaller, more usable ones, which is scary, you know? I mean, the last thing you want with nuclear weapons is usable nuclear weapons. And, you know, you don't want a president who thinks that's really an option,

because, of course, that just changes the nature. of conflict in thousands of important ways. And so, you know, it's not out of the question because he's been talking about it. for so long. And as you've talked about here and you talk about any other shows. or talked about with Mary Trump in the past, he's a narcissist. He just does not think the world will continue to operate after he's gone. And, you know, we are entering and I think this is. you know, this is a really important thing.

And maybe it's, you know, maybe it's maybe the last word you want to have. before we embark into election time. The page is turning. This is the beginning. of absolutely lame duck Donald Trump. This is the beginning of Donald. Trump grappling not just with his mortality, but. seeing hearing the clock tick, tick, tick on the wall. And all of his behavior is going to be driven by this.

How do I remain relevant? Am I relevant? How do I use the power that I've got? And particularly if the Congress has taken away from him. as an option and it's all going to be whatever goes on inside his head. And, you know, we're already watching the decay of this mind. I mean, there are all these early signs of dementia and everything else, but the next couple of years are going to be. the watching a meltdown,

watching like a nuclear meltdown when the Chernobyl inside. Donald Trump's head, it's if it weren't real, it would be. It would be funny. But it is. It's not funny. And I'm assuming Tucker Carlson did that. because he wants Trump to be dealt a blow at the midterm. Yeah. And look and Tucker Carlson is to attend. Yeah. And he's bitter for some reason or whatever. But there's a kernel of truth in this or two. One is Trump's thinking of attacking again.

And two, Trump has a relationship with nuclear weapons. That should scare the shit out of us all because he does consider it. He does want to think about it. And there are other stories of people saying, well, why don't we use nuke? Him saying, why don't we use nukes and military people saying, oh, do you think if he did do that? There is. a there are people around him who would stop him? Clearly not Pete Hegseth, but I think there are military people.

who have already deeply fed up with Trump. and has seen the damage he has done to the military in manifold ways where he, he and Hegseth have done to the military and a manifold ways. Who would resist? I just, I, I really do think that's a bridge too far. Well, if that doesn't get people to the polls. David Rothkopf, I don't know what does the threat of Trump. Well, yeah. But you know, you King again, ten years ago wrote something saying.

Donald Trump is the biggest threat that exists in the world. to the United States. And in the intervening. ten years, the American people have elected him twice. They saw him. They saw him do a terrible job. They said, okay, let's have some more of that. And so so we don't enemy within. It's always the enemy within. It is brings us right back to Haley Stevens, the enemy within. They're the ones you have to be careful of. Well, I thought it brought us back to Lincoln.

Who said that if we are brought down, it's going to be by an enemy with him. Okay, good. All right. Erudite, David. Always erudite. That's why we love having you on the Daily Beast podcast. I know you're going to be at many election night parties tomorrow. A bunch of nervous Washington Democrats. We're thinking, is this the turning point? Is this going to turn out the way everybody thinks? Will the Democrats get 235 or 240 seats in the House? Will the Democrats switch the majority in the Senate.

to what looks like now could be 5347? Okay, so we have the the final Senate polls in front of us. Let's just go through Alcide, 53, Rogers in Michigan. Is this the New York Times Siena poll? This is the New York Times Siena poll. Texas Talarico 50%. Paxton 40% Maine Jackson 51%. Susan Collins 45. I still think Susan Collins will win. Ohio Brown 49%.

So that Sherrod Brown was a former senator there, got voted out, but is now ahead of John Husted at 44%. Hamilton. Adam Hamilton in Kansas, amazing Democrat, at 49%. Roger Marshall at 44%. Shocking. That's shocking. Mary Powell Tola in Alaska up against Dan J. Sullivan or is it Dan S Sullivan who knows 46%.

That's tightened. That's tightened. It has tightened a little bit. I see. I mean, remember she's. an elected official like, you know, member of Congress and so forth. And but Alaska. is a pretty out there state, very tight. I'm still hoping it's Dan J. Sullivan who wins the reluctant candidate who through his. through his name in just to be a spanner in the works. I'm hoping that she gets more votes than the two Dan solvents put together.

Which ends any of this nonsense from Trump. No. I want Daniel J. Sullivan to win. The teacher who lives on an island. which is inaccessible other than by boat and plane. And then we've got in Iowa. Josh. Chuck. Very impressive candidate, 48%. Ashley Hinson at 47% a squeaker. My concern is this that nobody. wants to say that they are supporting the Republicans.

Nobody wants to say it in public. There's Trump shame, which we know. But. I think. that that people are lying even more to the pollsters. Who knows? You know, we don't know. We know that midterm elections tend to go against the incumbent. We know that the margins of the in the House are pretty small. So it wouldn't take a giant swing for the Democrats to take control. We know what the opinion polls say. And, you know, it's kind of amazing that The New York Times in Siena, whatever.

that is, came out with a poll of seven swing. Senate seats, and Democrats were winning in all of them. Nobody would have predicted no one would have predicted that even three months ago. Three months ago. And so there's something going on out there. There are people that say that these polls undercount Democrats. Now, of course, we've all lived through, you know, recent experiences. So, so, so who knows? But you want to know something?

We don't have to wait very long. We don't have to wait very long. You're going to election night parties tomorrow. We live with Michael Wolff. We will have cocktails and we will provide. views of inside Trump's head throughout. Well, I want to know what's going to be going on with Trump. and at the white House as they watch the results coming in is. this Trump has insisted he's on the ballot even though he's not on the ballot. He's been out rallying for people. We'll see whether or not it's had any impact. One of the interesting things, by the way, and I'll be interested to watch.

your takes on this, is he has started to rationalize a little bit. He has started to say things that say, well, we could lose. It could switch over. You know, I may have to deal with this. People have dealt with this in the past and. You don't see that. kind of resignation in him very often. And I think it's just. an interesting subtext that may be more telling than the polls. Well, David Rothkopf, always good to see you. Thrilling to have you, actually in the thrilling to be here reeling.

It's no, this is an incredible place. If people could only see it. Well, tomorrow night, they will see more of it. They'll see that our news reporters rushing. in and out with all sorts of updates on what's going on, who's one, who's not one. And I'm very curious to know, you know, what we don't have on this, on this a Siena poll from the New York Times. We don't have Darlene Graham and Annie Andrews in South Carolina. Another seat no one would have thought was winnable for a Democrat.

And now Darlene Graham, who was you say changed her. Her name looks vulnerable. Mississippi to Mississippi to who knows what's going to happen. It's it's very exciting, very exciting. So we'll be live tomorrow on YouTube and Substack. For hours. For hours. We're starting at 8 p.m. eastern time. And who knows when we finish? You guys, are you are you going to drink?

We're going to drink. We're going to eat. We're going to we're going to study what's going on. We're going to have as you know, the minute. the information comes into our newsroom, Hugh Dougherty, our executive editor, will come roaring in with pieces of paper, with texts. We're going to be taking your comments and your questions. So comment questions send us everything you want us to answer. Should be like, Anderson Cooper doing New Year's.

And they just get drunker and drunker as the evening goes on. And it just makes it that much more entertaining. And do you and Michael drink heavily throughout the podcast? If me and Michael drink heavily, we will both fall asleep. The question is, are we drinking champagne or are we drowning our sorrows. and whiskey? Well, that's a good question. We'll have both on offer, and maybe we'll have a drinking game. Every time someone in the comments says Trump, Michael has to take two fingers worth of whiskey.

He'll be able to just 15 minutes. He'll be unconscious in 15 minutes. Anyway, it's wonderful to see you, David. Thank you for coming into the office. Happy election night for tomorrow, and I'll see you next Monday. Can't wait. Big thanks to our production team. Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Pasa, Heather Pesaro and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many BBC tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.