Trump Drives Rift Within GOP

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Beat with Ari Melber

Episode: Trump Drives Rift Within GOP
Date: June 24, 2026
Host: Ari Melber

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Beat with Ari Melber explores a pivotal moment of division within the Republican Party as Donald Trump faces mounting setbacks from within his own Senate caucus, including both public and private opposition. The episode also covers the historic Congressional rebuke of Trump’s war powers concerning Iran, the cancellation of a major bipartisan housing bill for partisan reasons, polling trends showing Trump’s flagging popularity, and notable shifts within the Democratic Party spotlighting generational and ideological change. Guest interviews with Senator Raphael Warnock and Senator Dick Durbin, as well as political commentary on the Democratic left’s ascendancy, round out this eventful political news day.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. Historic GOP Infighting and Congressional Rebuke of Trump on Iran

• Republican rift over Trump’s leadership

  • Senator Bill Cassidy described a heated confrontation with Trump regarding the failed Iran policy:

    “I stood and said, you have not told the American people what's going on. It was supposed to last four weeks. This lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved… I made it clear that I wasn't going to be bullied and made it clear that I think we need answers.” (Sen. Bill Cassidy, 01:14)

  • Ari Melber highlights how such open dissent is rare and signals a deeper party fracture.

• War Powers showdown

  • For the first time since the Vietnam-era law, both houses of Congress (controlled by Trump’s own party) passed a resolution directing a president to end a military conflict.
  • Melber contextualizes:

    “Donald Trump is actually the first president since that Vietnam era law passed to ever actually see both houses of Congress use the War Powers act to reject him as commander in chief… No other president has seen this kind of opposition on record in the Congress to their ability to be commander in chief.” (Ari Melber, 03:59)

  • This is recognized as a “once in fifty years” historic rebuke.

• Implications for U.S. foreign policy

  • The failed Iran adventure, high gas prices, and a “shaky peace deal” have left the U.S. on “a worse footing than before Trump started the war.”

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2. Trump’s Abrupt Housing Bill Cancellation & Midterms Power Play

• Sudden cancellation of a bipartisan win
  • Trump unexpectedly pulls back on signing a widely celebrated bipartisan housing bill, insisting on last-minute demands for unrelated election law changes (the “Save America Act”).
  • Melber:

    “Trump’s plot is just a panicked midterm shakedown… a sudden, weak and incompetent legislative strategy.” (Ari Melber, 06:38)

  • Speaker Johnson describes being “blindsided,” with the bill’s bipartisan coalition left in limbo.

    “I would call it a blind side… I think it'll delay the signing, but I think we get it done.” (Speaker Johnson, 15:32)

• Political optics
  • The move is critiqued as both legally questionable and politically damaging to the GOP’s already difficult midterm outlook.
  • Warnock ties Trump’s actions to voter suppression:

    “He says it's more important to pass the SAVE Act. Give me a break. This is a voter suppression bill that's focused on a problem that does not exist. Everybody knows that housing is a real problem.” (Sen. Raphael Warnock, 17:30)

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3. Democratic Reactions & Progressive Momentum After New York Primaries

• Progressive victories signal party shift

  • Zoran Mamdani and other democratic socialists oust establishment incumbents in New York primaries, echoing AOC’s earlier breakthrough.
  • Mamdani:

    “We are showing there is a new path for politics in our city and in our country… last June was not the end, it was the beginning.” (Zoran Mamdani, 25:04)

  • Media begins touting Mamdani as a new kingmaker for the progressive wing.

• Party leaders seek unity but tensions linger

  • Hakeem Jeffries emphasizes efforts to keep Democrats unified while tacitly acknowledging internal disagreements:

    “We have agreed to strongly disagree, and we put it into the hands of the people of New York to decide what's the best path forward.” (Hakeem Jeffries, 27:18)

• Generational and demographic change in politics

  • Political strategist Che Komindori argues the energy for change among youth is “not just left-right, but generational,” and points out the optics and style of new leaders:

    “Change is not frightening to young people. Young people embrace it. They want the revolution. They want new ways of doing things.” (Che Komindori, 34:18)

  • Parallels are drawn to the “gerontocracy” of Trump and Biden, with younger leaders (Ossoff, Buttigieg, Mandani, AOC) embodying hope and change.

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4. Trump Cabinet Chaos & Confirmation Controversies

• Acting AG Todd Blanche's fraught confirmation
  • Senator Dick Durbin raises alarm about Trump’s candidate for Attorney General, pointing to ethical and legal concerns, and questioning the loyalty of Republican senators.

    “The notion of exempting him from any liability from the Internal Revenue Service for life, that has never been done in America before…” (Sen. Dick Durbin, 39:09) “It's hard to believe that some of these ultra maga nominees, the things that they've tweeted and said and still are being ignored by many Republican senators.” (Sen. Dick Durbin, 40:02)

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5. Polls, Public Opinion & the Obama “Obsession”

• Trump’s dropping approval ratings

  • Melber highlights national polling showing Trump with only about 35% approval, blurring the idea of a “50-50 nation.”

• Former President Obama chimes in on Trump’s fixation

  • Obama:

    “I obviously, you know, have a room in his head. Rent free... Constantly worrying about that is a strange thing to me. It shows me somebody who's not focused on the American people...” (Barack Obama, 22:03 / 43:50)

• Sen. Durbin on Obama era and current turmoil

  • “The Barack Obama era was a great era for America. And I think people, if they visit this presidential center, will understand the feelings I just expressed.” (Sen. Dick Durbin, 44:23)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Trump’s mounting opposition:
  • “He is not the communicator he once was. He's certainly not the planner he once was.” (Ari Melber, 07:21)
• On party fracturing:
  • “Trump somehow went from draining the swamp to creating one.” (Political Commentator/Guest, 11:17)
• On AI wealth and economic divides:
  • “Donald Trump's economy is working very well for people Like Elon Musk… there's a kind of soul weariness in our country.” (Sen. Raphael Warnock, 19:10)
• On progressive organizing:
  • “We also have to fight for something. It's just do we have the political will to deliver it?” (Zoran Mamdani, 32:19)

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• Open rift in GOP over Iran Policy: 00:56–03:56
• Historic Congressional rejection of Trump’s war powers: 03:56–07:00
• Trump cancels housing bill for election demands: 07:07–09:00
• Senator Warnock Interview on Iran, housing and private equity: 12:35–19:39
• Generational change and Democratic socialists' victories: 24:03–38:23
• Che Komindori on youth and change: 32:35–38:23
• Senator Durbin Interview (Trump's appointments, GOP splits): 38:53–44:23
• Obama on Trump’s obsession: 43:45–44:15

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Conclusion

This episode offers a comprehensive, insider look at deepening Republican divisions under Trump’s leadership, the extraordinary rebuke of his war policy by Congress, shifting strategies on domestic policy, and the generational tide rising within Democratic politics. Ari Melber and his guests use candor, wit, and history to illustrate a turbulent chapter in U.S. governance and electoral politics.

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Transcript

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[Ari Melber]

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[Ari Melber]

Welcome to the Beat. I'm Ari Melber.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

We're following what has become a series

[Ari Melber]

of Trump setbacks today. Republicans say the president has been hurting his party's midterms chances. And that's a complaint that obviously is often lodged in private or these sort

[Correspondent/Reporter]

of blind quotes, as they call them.

[Ari Melber]

But it burst into a direct confrontation

[Correspondent/Reporter]

today with Republican Bill Cassidy yelling.

[Ari Melber]

That's the word, we're told, yelling to President Trump to his face about the faulty war, the tenuous Iran deal. Retiring senator recounting his side today.

[Senator Bill Cassidy]

I stood and said, you have not told the American people what's going on. It was supposed to last four weeks. This lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved. He did not particularly care for my comments, praised his voice. I lost my temper. I made it clear that I wasn't going to be bullied and made it clear that I think we need answers.

[Ari Melber]

So you have, according to that account, two people yelling each other. We would have to amend Senator Cassidy's statement that he wasn't going to be bullied. I think an English teacher would say, well, if you want to be accurate, the full sentence is I'm not going to be bullied by Trump anymore because like a lot of Republicans, his word, they've been bullied a ton. And that was the scene at what was a rare visit by Trump to go meet with Senate Republicans in the group. And Trump was also, according to reporting, reduced to asking for more help from Republican leader Thune amid setbacks. Remember, lost that big Senate war powers vote with Republicans turning on it, and that was coming after he had squeaked by in prior votes. So if you're counting this as momentum, he's losing it. The anti Trump vote there was a huge deal. It shows the national opposition to Trump's Iran war as well as high gas prices landing in the Senate. This was the scene, as you see there, him losing the vote. Now, this shaky peace deal could leave the U.S. according to experts and now some Republicans on a worse footing than before Trump started the war. So he's reeling from a rejection by a Congress run by his party. You know, you can go all the way back to Vietnam, where the opposition actually took many, many more years to build to this level, to find this kind of united opposition. And I say that as a reference point because sometimes people think, well, is Trump getting away with everything? Or it all seems to just kind of happen and not matter? But it's actually quite the opposite. In ways we can measure, this is higher, faster opposition than other presidents have faced. Now, back then, it was Vietnam, you may recall, that led Congress to pass this new law, which was at least going to try to prevent future unilateral wars from running away from the American people by just a president. Because the power to declare war in our constitutional system is supposed to actually be with Congress, although that has been, of course, circumvented many times long before Donald Trump. But here's what I can tell you right now. Donald Trump is actually the first president since that Vietnam era law passed to ever actually see both houses of Congress

[Correspondent/Reporter]

use the War Powers act to reject

[Ari Melber]

him as commander in chief, to reject what he's doing abroad with, again, your tax dollars, your military, and of course, if you're in a military household, what he's sending young men and women to go off and fight. No other president has seen this kind of opposition on record in the Congress to their ability to be commander in chief. And this has happened despite his party controlling the Congress. Here's how the New York Times reported it. Trump's loss in this week's vote is the first time the enactment of the War powers resolution of 73 that both chambers of Congress have approved a resolution directing a president to end a military conflict. The Times reporting that the House passed the measure earlier this month after Republican leaders who tried to block it basically failed and were, quote, unable to keep the party unified. Now, you can say that again, those setbacks in a Congress that we're told is so partisan or so under Trump's thumb, those setbacks are on the biggest issue. And if you follow Republican politics, if you follow conservative leading podcasts, and you don't have to, we'll follow it for you and update you on the key takeaways. The headlines, this issue and Epstein, the Iran issue and Epstein have split this party unlike anything else in the last two years of this Trump's second term. The setbacks are also context for Donald Trump's odd retreat on a different issue. Today I mentioned he's got multiple problems. Well, Trump's Republican Party was actually excited about what they called a rare legislative breakthrough, passing a pretty silen sizable housing bill, which their leaders touted they had some Democrats on board. So as recently as last night, you had these kind of headlines that were kind of like celebratory, we're going to send this to Trump's desk. We got bipartisan support. Look, we're still able to do things on the domestic front. And then today, Trump abruptly canceling his own party's plan signing. And he added an unrelated new demand that Congress should bow to his plot to meddle in the midterms. Midterms that apparently he might realize he's doing worse in because of all these problems. Now, let me tell you what this means. Some stories are simple. We don't need a lot of D.C. analysis or jargon. Two points here on substance. Trump's plot is just a panicked midterm shakedown. He's just literally saying, give me what I want to distort, corrupt or disrupt what would otherwise be the looming vote, which he's worried about losing. Shakedown point number two, very simple on political strategy. D.C. insiders, legislative experts will note this was a sudden weak and incompetent legislative strategy because even apart from the strings that he wanted to attach, let's say it wasn't a midterm plot. Let's say it was just a legitimate request to fund something else. Everybody knows the time to attach those strings to a bill is before the lengthy process of passing it out of both houses of Congress. Not after, not on the signing day. And Trump had very little measures to explain himself when asked about it.

[Political Commentator/Interviewer]

Buying a home is unattainable for so many Americans. Is this election legislation more important to you than resolving this is?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Every election's important.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

We're doing very well.

[Ari Melber]

Yeah, sure, every election's important. But why would you need, in a panicked way in this summer period with just a few months to go, to try to change the rules of the law for the election? I mean, these are the same rules that Trump won the election in last time. Right? It's a panic move now because he is him and operates the way he does. He ignored what the Republicans said, what some of his own aides said, probably what he would have done in the first term, where you have something from your own party and you have a PR signing bill and you kind of do that while you make your other points. But this is second term Trump. He is not the communicator he once was. He's certainly not the planner he once was. And as I'm mentioning, even apart from the fact that it is unlawful to try to distort the vote while you're in government and there's many rules to prevent that, whatever the goal was, Donald Trump coming in the day of the signing and asking for something is ineffective. In other words, he's not getting any action on that today. So the move was ineffective at the thing he wants, but also canceled the other thing that Republicans say would help them in these midterms. Now, Trump is usually trying to focus on opponents. He sees them on the left, he sees them in the media. But I want to, I want to point out his opponents are increasingly obviously in his own party. Now, the conservative leaning Wall Street Journal put it like this. Trump is now living on a collision course with a newly defiant Republican Senate. And that is the battle ahead of the midterms. Now, that would be enough problems, but he has more. The polling shows that Donald Trump's second term has been rejected by the nation on many issues. We live in a 5050 nation. These debates sometimes about woke culture and liberal issues. They sometimes by some people ignore that, that there are plenty of people, sometimes 50% plus, that have a different view on some of those issues. So again, if we just measure where people are, you might want them to be in a different place. I can point you to issues that are 50 50. Trump is not a 5050 issue. He is crashing to new approval lows. This is a 60, 35 kind of issue now. And what's also louder in D.C. are these Republicans that are suddenly saying what they avoided or were afra bowing to Trump for so many years. And that goes to the narrative of this. So sometimes we report just what's happening, period. Other times we have the narrators. And so when people in Washington, people in power, say something more that's going to affect how it's covered, that's kind of pretty straightforward. And you might have noticed, as I'm alluding to, we're hearing more and more from at least some of the Republicans. And some of them are just talking because they're now retiring. So Trump can't touch them in a future election. That includes Senator Tillis, who's saying the party's got to get its act together, that it's had conflicting messages. And he's now speaking out against Trump's D.C. vanity projects,

[Political Commentator/Guest]

damaging a Lining in the reflecting pool is something that Pirro wants to prosecute to the full extent of the law if it's proven true. And yet they're releasing people who pled guilty to assaulting a police officer. What freaking parallel universe did I just wake up in?

[Ari Melber]

Okay, tell us. Trying to summon some outrage, but his metaphor might be a little more incriminating than he realizes.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Senator, do you feel like you just

[Ari Melber]

woke up to all this? This is the universe you woke up to. But this corruption, this anti police agenda as he mentions January 6, has been clear for years. And he was just trying to avoid upsetting its leader, I guess. Now, as he says, what has he woken up to? Then there's the smaller issue of the reflecting pool, which late night has been going at.

[Political Commentator/Guest]

Now you got people across the country coming over to gawk at the fact that you turned the reflecting pool into a Kool aid bucket.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Trump somehow went from draining the swamp to creating one.

[Political Commentator/Guest]

This is how far America has fallen. The last time we collected this many people around the reflecting pool was for civil rights. People were like, we must come out to support Dr. King. 60 years later, we're like a slimy pool.

[Ari Melber]

This I gotta see. So there are funny parts, except for the parts that aren't that funny. There is a war reckoning going on in this country even as the President tries to get us out of this war on whatever terms he can. And if you're sitting around going, okay, well when are they going to do anything? They have started doing anything. They have started doing things. I mean, the war powers vote is a once in a 50 year event. We know now how we got here. How do we get out of here? Senator Raphael Warnock. We'll ask him. And we're back together in 90 seconds. Joining us now is Democratic senator from Georgia, Reverend Raphael Warnock. He has a new book out the Crooked Places made. Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America out. Now you can get yours wherever books are sold.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Welcome.

[Senator Dick Durbin]

Good to be here with you.

[Ari Melber]

Good to have you.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

So I ran through a bunch of issues. Let's start with what is a historic

[Ari Melber]

rejection of the President's exercise of his commander in chief powers.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

You're in the body where that occurred. How did that happen?

[Ari Melber]

How did we get here? Does it matter?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Well, I think it's an important inflection point. We have watched this Congress under the leadership of Republicans, give over its power time and time again, confirming people who are egregiously unqualified for office, the likes of Pete xfl, you know, Robert F. Kennedy and then Trump dragged us into an illegal war of choice. We kept hearing different explanations for why we were there every day. And we committed as Democrats that we were going to hold our Republican colleagues accountable. We held vote after vote after vote. I sponsored one last week which was narrowly defeated. And finally this week we had the votes necessary with just enough Republicans to hold this president accountable.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

What comes next? How do you view the peace deal? Have they sort of kicked too many issues down the road?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Well, I mean, this is deadly serious stuff. I mean, we had an agreement to hold Iran accountable. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. We can't allow that to happen. And we had an agreement which held them accountable, which required regular inspections. And Donald Trump tore up that agreement because Barack Obama put it together. And here's where we are. And an issue as serious as that is outstanding, it's still unresolved. And he talked about regime change. The regime is very much in place. In fact, it's younger now and probably more radical. He has made that region even more unstable. And today Americans are a lot are less safe than they were before he ever started this war. Sending people into harm's way is the gravest decision an American president can make. And what we're seeing is that this president is unserious. Unserious about everything concerning the American people, including sending us to war.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

The other big news, of course, was this housing cancellation. I want to play a little bit of Speaker Johnson discussing it today and get your thoughts.

[Political Commentator/Interviewer]

While selecting the clerk blindsided Republicans on a number of legislative issues, including this morning's signing.

[Speaker Johnson]

I would call it a blind side. And he's been saying consistently for months that the same America acts a top priority. I talked to him about it this morning about an hour before he made that announcement. I convinced him that I thought the housing notes about the sense fills his priorities and his policy.

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[Speaker Johnson]

I need the time to go through with him the great policies and the changes we made from the original Senate bill, which was not a great product, finally passed his.

[Ari Melber]

But isn't this unhelpful?

[Speaker Johnson]

I think. I think it'll. It'll delay the signing, but I think we get it done.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

So what happened here and you were part of efforts to try to actually have more regulation to protect homeowners or would be homeowners over what might be a more Wall street system. So tell us about what you were working on and what's gonna happen here.

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Look, in this divided moment in our country where the partisan differences are real and deep, we managed to pass through the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which I'm a member of, a housing bill which hasn't been done in about a generation. And I mean, think about this. Tim Scott is the chair and Elizabeth Warren is the ranking member. It sounds like a joke that went bad. Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren walked into a bar, but they came out with a bipartisan bill. It passed unanimously through our committee. It passed overwhelmingly through the Senate, passed the House. Here is the thing. Americans are hurting. People are struggling. Housing is unaffordable. I have a provision in this law which finally stops private equity from sweeping into our communities, as they've been doing in Atlanta and in other places, buying up so much housing stock that they pushed up the price, sent rents and other costs soaring, pricing ordinary families out of the market. I mean, you're trying to buy a house in the local neighborhood and your competitor is a big corporation, private equity. And so it was past time for someone to do something about it. I'm glad that I got my provision in the bill and there's some other good provisions in the bill. It's bipartisan. Donald Trump was on his way over to sign it, and because he's so obsessed with himself, he keeps bumping into himself, tripping over himself. And here is where we are. He says it's more important to pass the SAVE Act. Give me a break. This is a voter suppression bill that's focused on a problem that does not exist. Everybody knows that housing is a real problem.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

And you mentioned what you were doing, which is looking at Wall street or speculators basically working against regular people who still have maybe the American dream of

[Ari Melber]

trying to get a home, which has gotten harder.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

And that's kind of work that, you know, we don't hear as much about

[Ari Melber]

in this era, but you're obviously doing it and you found a way to break through and get it in the bill. The other thing that's going on, of course, is a lot more speculation and AI related investment. On Wall street, we had Elon Musk at one point becoming a trillionaire on

[Correspondent/Reporter]

paper, the first in world history.

[Ari Melber]

That sort of moved around a little bit. But I'm curious, given your mention on private equity and what Musk has done just in the last week, and what two other big AI companies want to do in the coming year, we're told, is take up a few trillion dollars. Do you view that as risky for the public? Do you think there's enough knowledge and regulation on this? And should Congress do anything?

[Senator Raphael Warnock]

Donald Trump's economy is working very well for people Like Elon Musk, this announcement that we have for the first time in human history, something called a trillionaire, that's not good news. That is a reflection that because of deep structural issues in our politics, wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top. And the divide between the very, very wealthy and the rest of us has gotten wider and wider. People feel it in their pocketbooks and they feel it in their soul. There's a kind of soul weariness in our country because Americans are seeing the growing divide between the ideals of our country and where they actually live, their ability to keep the promises that all of us make to our children. And so they're soul weary, which is why I wrote my book, which is a kind of sermon to the country. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the country, the Crooked Places Made Straight, I can tell you that this town increasingly is owned by private equity, owned by the wealthy and the well connected. So much so that even when we get something done, you know, it's so incremental, in part because our system is awash in money. And so we've got to give the people their democracy back. Donald Trump has added to this problem and he continues to assault the voices of ordinary Americans with his foolishness about passing the SAVE act, with his audacity of sending the FBI into my Fulton County, Georgia, in order to snatch up ballots, subpoenas, harassing ordinary election workers. All of this are signs of the democracy being under assault. But we can't lose hope. Part of what they're trying to do is weaponize despair, convince us that they've already won and so we need not fight. I think we proved this week when Georgian stood up and frightened the Georgia legislature and its governor around this gerrymandering, that the people can make a difference. And it's time to straighten our backs and recognize that that's where the power is, is we the people. That grand American Creed stated 250 years. It's up to us to keep it alive.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

All big, big thoughts tonight, and I'm more than one issue. Senator Warnock, thank you so much. I'll remind, folks, the book which he

[Ari Melber]

was just referencing is called the Crooked Places Made Straight Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America. We've got a lot more common, including

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Obama saying Trump is obsessed with him.

[Barack Obama (clip)]

You gotta ask him what it is that. That.

[Ari Melber]

The obsession.

[Barack Obama (clip)]

The obsession. I know what it is. Yeah. I obviously, you know, have a room in his head. Rent free.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Rent free. We'll get into that. And the mom Donnie effect results coming out of New York that show Democrats, some of them, want to go more left.

[Ari Melber]

We're going to look at how that affects the midterms with Jay Komindori later tonight.

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[Correspondent/Reporter]

we just had some new elections, so what did we learn?

[Ari Melber]

Well, no House primary race is going to resolve every issue for the whole

[Correspondent/Reporter]

country, but these New York primaries last

[Ari Melber]

night had a pretty clear trend line, with voters greenlighting more of Zoran Mamdani's progressive push. In fact, three Mamdani endorsed Democratic socialists who often struggle in prior elections to win over older or less liberal Democratic voters. All three won last night, and two of the races actually ousted current incumbent Democratic lawmakers. Now remember, statistically, primaries usually do not oust the people who already have the job, and they have the advantage of name recognition, usually establishment money. They usually beat the lesser known candidates. When this happens, though, when they're ousted, people take notice. Remember, that's how AOC rose to prominence. Another New York liberal along with Mamdani himself, and he was unknown two years ago, the now surging mayor drawing a line from his upstart win to these brand new faces.

[Zoran Mamdani]

We are showing there is a new path for politics in our city and in our country. We are showing that last June, a year ago tomorrow, was not an anomaly. It was not the end, it was the beginning.

[Ari Melber]

Mamdani sang. His win was no anomaly. Now, you could see why a politician,

[Correspondent/Reporter]

of course, would want to cede that

[Ari Melber]

idea and connect himself to other victories here. But many in the media, and certainly the New York tabloids, they love a big, clear narrative. So today you can cue the new headlines crowning Mamdani a party kingmaker, including in the kind of political paper of record, the Washington Post, reporting on how his own endorsees share both his progressive economic platform and his fairly strong position on basically ending American support for Israel. And that's a shift from the traditional Democratic Party platform, which supported a two state solution. And supporting two states has historically meant support for both Israel and a Palestinian homeland. And the issues are complex. And three New York races do not ensure. Mom Donnie is now a national kingmaker. Doesn't mean that he would help. He might even hurt someone in a more conservative Democratic primary in some states. But on the evidence, it does suggest that he has this motivated and enduring base willing to turn out. And if you want to do apples to apples, that a popular mayor with a motivated base is already above the past two Democratic mayors of New York. Nationally, the party is debating the implications of all this. And this is a Democratic Party, which, remember, is currently already led by two New Yorkers and depending on how you count, of course, to members of minority groups, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, who was speaking about this today, by emphasizing the party's potential unity.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

I don't think we're on opposite pages. You can ask him whether he thinks we're on opposite pages. He doesn't believe we're on opposite pages. There are multiple races that I've gotten involved in supporting House Democratic incumbents, which is what I have done as leader and will continue to do. So with respect to races where he may have endorsed a different candidate, we have agreed to strongly disagree, and we put it into the hands of the people of New York to decide what's the best path forward.

[Ari Melber]

Jeffrey's there emphasizing the structural point that he leads the House Democratic caucus. So by definition, he works with and supports the members of that caucus. Who were these incumbents I mentioned? And that the mayor, who structurally is Not a part of the House obviously has a little more freedom if he wants to buck the party and pick the insurgents. And that is true. In other words, it's a true defense. But it doesn't capture the entire tension here because mom Donnie could be in the House and we might still expect him to be a bit more of a rabble rouser, certainly pushing for people who aren't just card carrying Democrats. That's what being a kind of democratic socialist or liberal and economic issues. That's what that means. And remember, it was also in New York where AOC went at a Democratic incumbent, creating a lot of buzz and ultimately ousting that longtime party leader. Even for Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, a stunning result.

[Political Commentator/Interviewer]

She accomplished what many thought impossible, beating out 10 time incumb Congressman Joe Crowley and a major upset for one of the highest ranking Democrats in the House of Representatives.

[Ari Melber]

Here's the important part. He's number four on the Democratic leadership chart. Crowley had aspirations to someday be speaker of the House.

[Political Commentator/Interviewer]

The shakeup raises new questions about the future of the Democratic Party and its leaders in the Trump era.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

That Trump era has continued.

[Ari Melber]

Of course. AOC was an immediate star in Congress, a big progressive doing things that did draw national attention, including her work with Bernie Sanders. But if you compare her to some of these figures today, they're different people and we'll have to watch what happens. But some of the early worry that she would as this outsider be too much of a rebel didn't really play out. She worked closely with Democratic leadership on many issues where they could find common ground. She buried the hatchet very quickly with Nancy Pelosi and showed that she understood how to govern, not just campaign. She of course supported the national ticket, something that you would expect from Mamdani as well. And that is just on the intramurals. On the big picture, if you move out of some of these primaries, Democratic voters look more motivated for the midterms. You can see the gap there. Polling also shows when you ask voters today a lot could change. But right now more say they plan to vote for Democrats by about that five point margin. The other big dynamic here is not just who's an incumbent versus a challenger. It's not just who's more conservative versus who's more liberal. Economic issues and affordability, though, those are issues that go well beyond just what liberals want these days. There is something else looming over all of this. With this elderly president who is so unpopular, but a lot of elderly Democrats. It is generational change. And our next guest says you can't understand any of this without understanding that Che Komindori is back with us next

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[Zoran Mamdani]

For too long as Democrats, we've thought that simply fighting back against Donald Trump is a sufficient political message. We also have to fight 4 something. It's just do we have the political will to deliver it?

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Mamdani speaking to us just days before

[Ari Melber]

that big election he won.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Let's turn to Che Ko Minduri. It's J Day here on the beat. Very fitting. After a primary, Election Day veteran of the Obama campaign, Che Komindori, is back with us. Che, what happened in New York and why do you argue that generational change

[Ari Melber]

is also part of the filter, not just left, right?

[Chumba Casino Legal Disclaimer]

Yeah, I think that there is a sense that, hey, those are just a bunch of lefty New Yorkers. It has no national invocations. I think that these elections and the popularity that Zoram Hamdani has shown in New York does have national implications for the country. There is a tremendous desire in this country for generational change. There is a sense that we now have a literal swamp. As AOC said in Washington, D.C. the status quo is not working. Capitalism has not worked for a lot of younger Americans. And it's been quite a long time since younger Americans have seen a capitalist economy that has worked for them. All of these things have led to a sense that the status quo is not working and that we have a politics that is run by a gerontocracy that has put us in this place. I mean, it's no coincidence that in 2016, Donald Trump became the oldest man ever elected president. That record was beaten by Joe Biden. And then Donald Trump came back and beat that record again. And that is a big part of where we are. Mamdani represents the opposite of that. He is youthful, he is energetic, he is exciting. The fact that he's Muslim and he's socialist also, I think gives him a countercultural feel. I mean, seeing all those old people freak out about him only makes him seem rebellious to young people and something cool that they want to attach themselves to. Young people do want to attach themselves to that. And young people are not afraid of change. They never have. I mean, I remember. I mean, not that I remember, but I remember reading a line from Wordsworth about the French Revolution and he said, bliss, it was that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven. I mean, change is not frightening to young people. Young people embrace it. They want the change. They want the revolution. They want the new ways of doing things and new ways of doing politics.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Jay, I don't know if anyone's quoting Wordsworth about the French Revolution over on Fox News tonight. Okay, you might only pull up here for that, but here's how they did sound on Fox.

[Ari Melber]

Take a listen.

[S]

Let us be very clear. The so called democratic social movement in this party, it's not a good thing. Now, you're looking at a group of people, they're driven by envy, resentment.

[Ari Melber]

A vote for any Democrat anywhere, for any office is empowering. A party that wants to strip this country to the bone to take away our security, our defense, our way of life. Tonight brings really terrifying evidence of, just as you said, how far this cancer has spread and is spreading.

[S]

It appears that, you know, a pretty scary transformation is now fully underway in the Democratic Party.

[Ari Melber]

Take it away.

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Yeah, I mean, they just simply. They're old men who. People who simply don't get it. You know, they look like Mr. Wilson yelling at Dennis the Menace to get off his lawn. But one guy who does get it, I would argue, is Donald Trump. You know, game recognizes game. You know, he has actually been very complimentary towards Mamdani. He understands his appeal.

[Ari Melber]

Striking.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

Yeah.

[Chumba Casino Legal Disclaimer]

Yeah. And one thing I'll Also say is it's not just Mamdani, you know, you see with aoc, but you also see with certain people in the center left. Look at the viral success of John Ossoff and of Pete Buttigieg. I mean, they appeal to the exact same things. Generational change, demographic change. Jon Ossoff is Jewish. Pete Buttigieg is gay. They're not doing your father's politics. They have dynamic communication styles, and they're huge viral successes as well. So it's not just about the ideology. It's about speaking to change and embodying that change yourself.

[Ari Melber]

And you're discussing also style and substance.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

And the Democrats have worried that they,

[Ari Melber]

for many elections, have been too much

[Correspondent/Reporter]

on substance in white papers and Washington language.

[Ari Melber]

But then when met with some of these people, and maybe some are too far and they'll burn out.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

I mean, not all the squad kept their seats. But AOC did emerge as a generational talent. Do you think here the style is important for even the concerned establishment Democrats to notice?

[S]

Yeah.

[Chumba Casino Legal Disclaimer]

And I think one person who actually, I will say did notice it way back in 24, was Jim Clyburn. He went to Joe Biden and said, my entire career, I have believed substance beats style. But Joe, right now, for the first time, I think style beats substance. And Donald Trump is beating you. That's what Jim Clyburn recognized and understood. And I think that the fact is, we live in a new age with a new messaging environment, and the people like Mamdani, like Ossoff, like Buttigieg, like aoc, who embrace that new environment, they are going to thrive and succeed. You know, another thing, I will say it's no coincidence this all happened after the Knicks victory. Zoramdani draped himself in that Knicks victory, and he understood what too few Democrats understand, which is the enormous political power of sports. Donald Trump understands that. Boy, he's at every sporting event, and it does work for him. Zorin understood it as well.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

That's a great final point you make, Jay, because there's how liberals sometimes conceive of themselves. They're for everybody, civil rights for everybody, jobs for everybody.

[Ari Melber]

But then it does creep in a

[Correspondent/Reporter]

kind of condescension of what a lot of people like, which could be the sports, wrestling, music, and Mandani, who clearly has political talent.

[Ari Melber]

He also has, of course, he's a Knicks fan. We don't have any reason to doubt that. Rode that wave with what you might call a dash of sprezzatura.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Che always classes up the play, so

[Ari Melber]

he makes me up My game.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Good to see you, sir. When we come back, Donald Trump has some Cabinet picks that are blowing up in his face. We'll get into that next. Been a busy day on the Hill. And we're joined by Senator Dick Durbin

[Ari Melber]

of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary community, who also sits on

[Correspondent/Reporter]

the powerful Appropriations Committee. Good evening. And how are you approaching the acting Attorney General's confirmation hearings? Todd Blanche, who's had a string of controversies in this period?

[Senator Dick Durbin]

Well, there's certainly many questions to be asked and answered. We have seen him before, talked to him before, but now that he's become the president's personal attorney, even in the administration, there are so many questions that have to be answered. This notion of exempting him from any liability from the Internal Revenue Service for life, that has never been done in America before that I heard of. And he, of course, is representing Trump and his family in that endeavor and many others.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Yeah. And you have Republican senators, including just today I showed earlier in the program referencing January 6th, the administration's anti police stance there and freeing violent convicts. Shouldn't that all be pressed on Blanche? And if he doesn't have good answers, then why would Republican senators who say that still confirm him?

[Senator Dick Durbin]

Well, I hope you're right, Ari, because it's rare that these Republican senators will stand up and say, I'm opposing a nominee. We had a nominee today that said that cops are dumb as dirt. And the program, he's trying to administer grants to police departments across America. I mean, it's hard to believe that some of these ultra maga nominees, the things that they've tweeted and said and still are being ignored by many Republican senators.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Yeah, the big war powers vote. We also covered. People are busy, people are worried about gas prices, it's summer. But this is historic, as you know. And I reminded viewers this is the first time any president has seen this

[Ari Melber]

rejection from both houses of Congress. How did we get here? Does it matter? And where do you see the peace deal going?

[Senator Dick Durbin]

Well, the Republicans have felt it. The word that came out of their luncheon today in the Senate with the president was they're going to try to get a get well vote even as early as this evening so that they can say to the president, no, we didn't disapprove of your war. But I think the American people see through that. Two out of three American people think it was a mistake for this president to attack Iran. And what has happened afterwards is no victory whatsoever as far as they're concerned. And now this notion that even when both the House and the Senate reject the President's initiation of a war, they're going to somehow get well politically. I don't buy it.

[Ari Melber]

I want to play some of the

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Republicans as well today discussing these various issues, including Donald Trump using a very kind of ineffective or tardy style, you

[Ari Melber]

know, saying, I have these requests on, on the midterm voting mess when the

[Correspondent/Reporter]

bill was already at his desk.

[Ari Melber]

Etc. Take a look at the reaction.

[Political Commentator/Guest]

His message today was clearly Save America Act.

[Political Commentator/Interviewer]

Did he say he won't sign the housing, the bipartisan housing bill until Save America act is passed?

[Political Commentator/Guest]

He's never said that today. What he said is that the Save America act is exponentially more important than the housing bill.

[Senator Bill Cassidy]

What are your thoughts about the fact that President Trump seems to be, you know, he pulled Jay Clayton's nomination last. Been doing that. He said he wasn't going to sign

[Ari Melber]

FISA without the Save American Act. Now he's stipulating.

[Senator Dick Durbin]

Well, this is consistent with that.

[Political Commentator/Interviewer]

Why do you think he's doing this?

[Senator Dick Durbin]

It's a mystery.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Is it a mystery? Is it incompetence? And what has it been like for you trying to govern with someone who, even when you get a bipartisan bill, the president sort of isn't, isn't there on the other side of the table?

[Senator Dick Durbin]

Well, I can tell you this. Housing is a problem for families across America. The fact that the average buyer of a home has to be over the age of 40 now to afford the cost of these homes is a clear indicator that a lot of families are struggling to make ends meet. They're struggling with rent payments, with mortgage payments. And we need a housing bill. So we put together a bipartisan bill, really bipartisan. Elizabeth Warren and Republicans as well, joined together. Find a bill, a consensus, a bipartisan measure, pass it in the House and the Senate. And what does the President of the United States say? Stop it. I'm not going to sign it. I refuse to until I get my wishes on this Save act for voter suppression. That just shows the extremes this man will go to. He may not have said it in the lunch today, but he said it very clearly in the tweets that he put out last night.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

And finally, as Illinois celebrated along with the nation, someone that you backed very early on, Barack Obama. I'm gonna queue up here one moment. Lighter moment from his recent interview. Take a look.

[Barack Obama (clip)]

You gotta ask him what it is that.

[Ari Melber]

The obsession.

[Barack Obama (clip)]

The obsession. I know what it is. Yeah. I obviously have a room in his head, rent free. The idea that I'D be worrying about came before somebody who came before and me trying to measure what's he done today. Look, constantly worrying about that is a strange thing to me. It shows me somebody who's not focused on the American people and the job they're supposed to do.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Just about 30 seconds. But your thoughts on his response to Trump's alleged Obama obsession and, of course, celebrating that library.

[Senator Dick Durbin]

Ari, let me just tell you something. I went into that library a couple weeks ago and I had a feeling I haven't had for month after month put up with this president and what we've gone through. I remember the president we respected, a president who had no scandals in his administration of any measure, a president who really led this country, even though he was controversial to some. And now look what we have. Even the Republican Party is split into pieces and meets behind closed doors. The Barack Obama era was a great era for America. And I think people, if they visit this presidential center, will understand the feelings I just expressed.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

There you have it. A little living history. I wanted to get that in. Senator Durbin, thank you very much. We'll be right back.

[Senator Dick Durbin]

Thanks.

[Correspondent/Reporter]

Thanks for spending time with us on the beat.

[T]

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