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A
Foreign. Welcome to the rest is Politics.
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US with me, Catty K. And I'm Anthony Scaramucci. How are you? Caddy?
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A
I am good. We are recording this Sunday evening, Europe time, Middle east time and Sunday lunchtime, US Time, day two of the strikes against the Middle East. I think it is worth giving an update now. I think we've got a better sense of why, you know, what was behind administration's timing in the sense of the day, how the U.S. administration had the Trump administration. I think Anthony is trying to frame this in a way that is already people are poking holes in and they're trying to frame it in a way that they can circumvent the demands of the American Constitution and the role of Congress, which I know you think is dangerous. And we should get into that a little bit more. We have got the news that three American service members have been killed and and others are seriously hurt in hospital. It's obviously a moving situation. There is also news coming out tonight, Anthony, that the Iranian foreign minister has reached out to his Omani counterpart. This is being recorded by Reuters saying that the what is left of the Iranian regime wants to de escalate. So let's see where that goes. But I think there's a lot of politics of this and there's a lot of moving parts in this. And there is still the overriding question of what does the White House want from this and what can they possibly get from this? Because I'm not hearing anybody, Anthony, that I'm talking to at the moment saying that there is much clarity about what kind of a regime takes place after this. We know now that the existing regime of the Islamic Republic as we knew it a week ago has been effectively decapitated, but we don't know what replaces it. We don't know whether the White House is going to really push for a total regime change and what would that look like or as Senator Tom Cotner suggested today, a Republican who is close to Donald Trump, or are they prepared to deal with remnants of the old regime as they've done in Venezuela? And what would that even look like, given that this is a regime that has been organized and committed acts of terror for decades now and has been committed to the destruction of both Israel and the United States? So I don't even know what that would look like for America to start working with the remnants of this regime. Regime. But I think there are still, as we're recording this, there are still an awful lot of unanswered questions. And members of Congress have a lot of those unanswered questions. And they want to come back and they want to. Democratic members of Congress in particular want to have a say because they're saying, look, America is at war now, and we have a process for dealing with this, and we have a Constitution that demands our engagement in this. And you can't have a president who just goes rogue and launches a, an operation on this scale saying this could last for a long time without the involvement of other branches of government. So what are you thinking? I know that you've been writing about this, Anthony. What are you thinking about this?
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B
Tonight, I want to step back. Trump is doing something very interesting, frankly, and no one's out talking about it. I've been listening to different podcasts and watching the television shows, and I'm going to try to describe to you what I think Trump is doing. And there's some actually smart people inside the Trump administration. We deride them often. But there's something going on here and it's deeply cynical, Katty, but let me just phrase it for you and then get your reaction. So the Trump administration has learned from Cheney and they've learned from Bush that if they're going to have military adventurism, they're not going to turn these things into democracies. But what they could do is because these regimes are generally corrupt, they could outbid the bidders and the corruption. So let's go to Venezuela. We go to Delsey Rodriguez. You're running a corrupt regime. You got black market oil activities, black market drugs. We're going to bid you higher than that. And you're going to get American treasure and American opportunism in exchange for that. And we're going to keep your regime in place because you know how to control the system in Venezuela. And we're less interested in the George Bush, Condoleezza Rice democracy. Were more interested in you being on side with Donald Trump and the Americans. Let's fast forward to Iran now. They want to use that same strategy. So they decapitated the top. They probably killed 20 of them. I found it very odd that they thought that they could congregate together during the daytime thinking, I guess the Americans and the Israelis only attack at night. That was a weird thing just to jump in.
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A
There is a theory there that Ayatollah Khamenei wanted to go. I mean, you know, he's in his mid-80s. He actually wanted to go out in a blaze of glo. He realized the Americans were probably going to get him at this stage. And he, I mean, it was odd, like you say, Iran experts that I've heard have said that it is odd that he was there, but they think that this could even have been deliberate on his part.
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And that could be the case. But I actually think it's something which I'll give praise to the Mossad for. I think that they, they are deeply entrenched in that government.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Ahmainejad once said that we went for counterintelligence to try to eradicate the Mossad. The person we put in charge of it was a member of the Mossad. And the Mossad knew exactly where these. And they knew exactly what was going on inside the regime. And so if you are somebody that supports the state of Israel, which I do, and I would like to see their survival and I think they have a right to survive. I think they have done an exceptional job because remember, in the Republic of Iran, in the constitution, first couple of sentences were dedicated to exporting the regime's cultism. And we're also dedicated to the eradication of Israel. Okay. So Israel doesn't have that in their constitution. Okay. But I want to go back to this decapitation strategy and I want to make it adjacent to corruption. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to decapitate you guys. Trump called into the Atlantic magazine journalist this morning at 9:30, said, I'm ready to talk to you. I'm ready. We're ready to open up talks. And here are the talks. Katie, you ready? Hey, guys, you guys like money? We like money. And we're going to offer you a proposal to you run the country. Dial down the radicalism, dial down the bullshit about taking out Israel. We'll give you lots of money. We'll let you get your oil back on the oil markets, we'll even help you with the Chinese. But we have to have some say and we have to be in partnership with you on the corruption and in partnership with you on the totalitarianism. And so we can deride this, we can look at this in a very cynical way, but I think this is a brilliant strategy for Trump if you are Donald Trump. Now, if you're wincing in the car listening to this or you're wincing on the. On your hike listening to it. I'm sorry, but I just need to explain to people the thinking inside the administration. I'd like you to react to that. Do you think I'm right on it? Do you think I'm wrong on it? Directionally? What are your thoughts?
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A
Look, so I wanted to do an update partly to be able to touch on what we taught, what we kind of talked about at the end of our livestream on Saturday, which is what if this works? What if this works in the context of what Donald Trump wants to get out of this? And it's interesting that we've been kind of thinking along the same lines over the course of the last day. I mean, I think there is a world in which moving the big figurehead like Maduro, like Ayatollah Khamenei, could give Trump domestically some political cover. I think he can say to the American people, we went in there, this was a massive shock and awe type military operation. We didn't put boots on the ground. Although it's interesting listening to Trump allies on the Sunday shows today, saying, framing this very carefully, that we're not going to have a large scale American presence on the ground. So they're not ruling out presence on the ground. But I think if he could remove the top of the regime as he has just done, and have a more Trump friendly kind of remnant of that regime, kind of Iranian Islamic Republic adjacent regime, if you like to call it that, that he feels he can work for, I think there is a way in which he can say this is a win for him. And I think there is a way. It's very interesting listening to Democrats today. They're being super careful about the way they talk, that they're talking a lot about the process. And I do think it's important that there is a process that works in democracies. And you've wrote, written about this and that there is a process for a reason. It is what makes democracies strong. And I think that is important. But I think there is, it's interesting listening to Democrats. They're not coming out in full criticism of the, of the act itself, of decapitating the leadership because they realize that there is a way that this could work out that is positive for the United States. Now, maybe Democrats hope that they can paint Trump as a king who circumvents a democratic processes, who expands executive privilege. But if this, if this leads to something that is more America friendly, even if it is in a kind of transactional, corrupt way that you are describing, I think that that is something that is going to be hard for Democrats to run against. I think that is there is a way that Donald Trump can paint this as successful. Now, I don't think that that means it's successful in a year's time, two years time, five years time, because There isn't much of a model in that region for a non hereditary monarchy that is stable and close to the United States. I'm struggling to find the model for that. Maybe it's Syria, I don't know. Iraq is not particularly stable. The Gulf states are all hereditary monarchies. So. So I don't know that this works in the long term, Anthony. I don't know that this produces a regime that is more America, Western Israel friendly in the long run. I just don't think we know the answer to that. But I do see a way in which Donald Trump can present this as a win to the American people.
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B
Well, again, I'm not saying it's going to work. I'm just trying to present to you what they're doing. They're taking the Venezuela model and they're trying to export it into Iran. One of the things I'm going to recommend to people that listen to us and read our newsletter and we'll attach this article from the New York Times over the weekend on Venezuela. The nightlife is returning to Venezuela and in Caracas, the club life, the restaurants, et cetera. And there seems to be a good symphony between the expats and the in country elites in Venezuela to helping the working poor. And so if you notice, it seems to be working in Venezuela and it's giving no political kickback or blowback to Donald Trump.
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A
And that is obviously the model. And it's a different country with a different population and different links to the United States. But that is the model that they hope they can make work in Iran.
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B
Listen, there's a lot going on here, Katty, so let's just talk about a number of things that are going on. The regime is grotesque on every level. It is definitely a terrorist exporting regime. You talk about Iraq, they've got lots of influence over the Iraqi government, much to the chagrin of the Americans in the West. They are no good and we both know that. But the question about what we're doing and why we're doing it and whether or not it will be successful now, I don't know. Ultimately will be the institutionalization of that regime. They killed 40 people, maybe at the top, but after 50 years, is there enough sediment in their governmental procedures where somebody rises to the top and they keep the regime going? Because I can tell you, without a land invasion, without soldiers on the ground, the rebel causes inside the government are not well funded. They're relatively unarmed. The citizens that want to overthrow the regime, not armed. Yeah, yeah. And they've been, they've been more or less from a terror point of view. And again, I don't know, the Iranian government saying 3,000 people died in the protests. The Americans are saying it could be over 100,000. And there's lots of disinformation, but there's enough information to know that they've done a very good job of repressing opposition in the country.
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A
And they also had done a job. They had an org chart. They knew this was going to happen. They had got layers of succession planned in the event of exactly this sort of decapitation. As you say, we don't know how deep it goes. We don't know. And the Americans actually don't have, I understand, very good intelligence into that org chart. Once you get down to the kind of 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th layer of seniority of the people that could do it, and we don't know how good they are.
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B
Can you, for all of us, what is the political cost to Donald Trump, if anything? And can you please weave into that the Epstein situation? Because I'm, you know, I guess I've become very cynical in my old age, but I do think that, man, if I want to get this Epstein stuff off of the front burner, dropping some bombs is a good way to do it.
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A
So look, on the timing of this, I do think it's worth a couple of minutes on the timing of this. The administration is making the argument today through its proxies. You heard Congresswoman Luna, who's an ally of Donald Trump's on the shows today, saying the reason we had to do this now is because Iranian missiles in the southern belt of Iran were poised to attack American interests in the Persian Gulf, particularly the 5th Fleet base down in Bahrain and in Qatar as well. So that is the official line, and they're trying to push that one really hard because they want to have cover for an operation that actually was a war of choice. Now, the reporting that is coming out is that there wasn't any imminent threat, which whatever the administration says, there is not the intelligence that those missiles, which have been pointing at American assets for years, if not decades in the region, were actually poised to strike. Obviously, we talked about the nuclear program. The nuclear program was in a worse position than it was six months ago, and there was no evidence. My understanding is that there were people going to dig up the uranium that had been enriched and that had been buried after the strikes last summer. So the only plausible explanation that I've heard for the particular timing of this, the day as opposed to the broader timing, and we can get to your Epstein point in a second was that between the CIA and Mossad, they had this intelligence that these group of leaders were in that building in the palace On Saturday morning, U.S. time. And so they felt that was the right time to strike and that they could get all of them. That may be the case. I think it's worth putting all of that out there. You know, Saturday Night Live is having a lot of fun with this. The late night comedians are having a lot of fun with this. That this is a great distraction from all of the Epstein files. And what we are still to find out. And then what we reported about last week, which is that we know, and it's been widely reported that the Department of Justice is under scrutiny for not releasing files in which there are accusations that Donald Trump abused a minor girl in the 1990s. That's just an accusation. We have to say we don't know whether that's true or not. We don't know the veracity of the interview. We don't know the plausibility of the interviews. We still haven't seen those files. But we know that those files were meant to be there and they haven't been released yet. And we also know that Donald Trump's approval ratings are very low and he's going into a midterms in which Democrats could win the House and he'll be investigated otherwise. For the president who has spent the last 10, 20 years railing against regime change and forever wars, and as recently as the Venezuela attack said, what are we doing in the Middle east that's 24 hour flight away. It doesn't make sense from a point of view of timing, this doesn't make sense. So maybe you're right. Maybe it's just the distraction, in which case people are dying, including American service members, for that distraction.
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B
I mean, again, I think your points are excellent. I think that there's a, a couple things going on at the same time. And I think Trump is cornered. And I think to Netanyahu's credit, he used the cornering of Donald Trump to get him to flex.
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A
NBS has been calling him, asking for this too. But that's not American interests, that's Israeli and Saudi interests.
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B
But I also want to address for people who ask about, well, why would the Iranians send missiles into the Gulf states that didn't attack them? Like, why are they hitting hotels in Iran or residential buildings in Bahrain? And I think you guys have to know the answer to that. The answer is that in those countries there are many expats as an example, the population in the UAE could be 10 million people caddy, but there's only a million of them are Emiratis. You know, it's one thing if you're French and you bomb France and It's World War II, the French are going to stay inside of France. But if you're bombing countries that are generally reliant on expatriates, there could be an expatriate migration. You know, people have said to me, wow, I saw Dubai as a safe haven, I saw it as a tax haven, I went there for a tax shelter. I'm now living in a bomb shelter. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a meme going around. But I think what the Iranians are trying to do is they're trying to tell you that, hey, we still get state sponsored terrorism and we still get the idea that we can strike fear in the hearts of your citizens, even though we ourselves are under attack. One other quick point, Katty, and I'd love you to address this. One thing Trump is letting the world know, and this is something the Americans have held back on, frankly, for, you know, 80 years, is that not only do we have the most powerful military in the world, and we probably have the best cyber capability and we have the, probably the best robotic drone usage in the world, and we probably have the best sonar technology, we probably have the best avoidance of radar technology, okay, with the stealth bombers, et cetera, that there's nobody close. And maybe I'm wrong about that caddy, but I think there is nobody close. And it worries me because when that happens, when you have nobody close, the other teams get together and say, okay, we gotta team up against this group of people because they're no longer acting with their military might with some level of benevolence. What is your reaction to that?
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A
I'm struck by how cautious everybody is being in their response to this. We haven't heard very much from the Russians and the Chinese, which is sort of interesting given that Iran was a client of theirs and a provider of theirs. I think everybody's kind of waiting to see which way this falls out. But however it falls out, a lot of countries are going to be thinking, yeah, that we don't want to be in the side of being a small country alone. We need to gang up with other countries. We need to be part of a coalition against the U.S. i think that is a possibility. On that point about them sending missiles into the Gulf, there's a couple of interesting things I've heard today. One is that there's a randomness to the way they're sending these missiles that suggests a certain amount of disarray in the leadership or whoever it is that's organizing. Maybe these were preordained bombing sites that they had before this attack that they had already put into place. But there's also the fact that they've been striking Oman. There was a report that a missile went near Cyprus. It does look like that was a kind of a fire at a ship, not necessarily at Cyprus itself. But they're going after America's allies. This is a regime that is prepared to take enormous risks at the moment because they feel they haven't got much to lose. And so they're going to go after America's allies, try and draw America's allies into this to try and broaden the conflict and to show that they can strive. You are close to the United States. You are vulnerable right now in the Middle East. I mean, I have a nephew who's living in Oman, in Muscat. He's lived there for a very long time. You know, it's a scary time to be a foreigner in the Gulf at the moment. So I think that's some of what's going on. And that we, I think, all have to hope that this doesn't escalate and that this doesn't result in a broader war, particularly that doesn't bring in, you know, the Saudis, because I think that would be the most catastrophic if that would happen. If there was a real attack on Saudi Arabia and this were to broaden, then I think then, then we are looking at a much bigger problem. And this is the problem with a war of choice, as America found out so much. Right. We, we've spoken about this so many times, you and I. America found out in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Libya, things don't always turn out the way you think they're going to turn out. We have to make the case that this could work for Donald Trump and this could. And there's a lot people who are happy about seeing the ayatollah deposed today. But there is a reason that you work with allies. There's a reason that you work within the processes of the United States as well.
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B
I just want to add one last layer to the Iran discussion, and that is the Pope and the pope. Pope Leo is out this morning denouncing the attacks. And obviously he's doing it in about as polite and as a diplomatic way as he can. But there's a problem here for J.D. vance and I just want to remind people I am a practicing Catholic. And probably the one Catholic who has been the most prominent convert to Catholicism in political life is J.D. vance. And J.D. vance has also lined himself up with the incredulous, if I'm pronouncing it, right wing of the Catholic Church, which is the wing that emphasizes deference to Rome. And so I just want you to hear me out for a second. The pope is Pope Francis no Mas does not like Donald Trump. Pope Leo I'm really not in for this authoritarian stuff that's going on in my home country. I'm the first American pope. And this is going to cause a problem for J.D. vance because, you know, Caddy, I can tell you about Catholics. The pope still has that doctrine of infallibility from most practicing Catholics. And it's going to hurt Vance. Coming up into this potential 2028 election. I think people need to know that there's been a revealing tell here in Vance's relative silence on the critiques of these policies by the Pope. And don't underestimate that. If you're not a Catholic, you may not get this, but I'm just telling you that the Pope has a lot of power.
- [23:36]
A
And Donald Trump has spent the day in the kind of weird, kind of criminology of the White House and succession. Donald Trump has spent this weekend elevating Marco Rubio on his social media feed, which is interesting. Also a Catholic, but not in the way that J.D. vance, with his conversion.
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B
This is why I keep telling people he's gonna kill both Vance and Rubio, because this is exactly what he would do to those people. And then, and then six months from now, he'll be praising Vance and decapitating Rubio. That's what Trump will be doing.
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A
We said earlier this weekend this is against international law. I mean, there's no doubt about that. This administration thinks we don't care about international law. A lot of Americans may not care about international law, but to have somebody who has the stature of the pope say this is not okay, I do think that could kind of make a difference as well. Okay, we're going to take a break and come back and talk about an election in Texas on Tuesday that is really worth you knowing about because it lays out the model that Democrats think they need for the midterm elections and for the 2028 election. And whoever wins this race in Texas, this primary race on the Democratic side for the Senate seat, I think is going to give us an indication of which way the Democratic Party is going. And Potentially. Which way that great state of Texas could go too foreign.
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B
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- [26:43]
A
So there's a Senate race going on in Texas. The Senate seat is up for grabs. John Cornyn, the senator is due up for election in November, but the Democrats think they have a chance to win this Senate seat in Texas. And there is a primary race between Representative Jasmine Crockett, who's on the progressive side of the Democratic Party, and James Talarika, who's a state representative. He is a seminarian more in the center of Democratic politics. And I think the reason this primary on Tuesday is worth all of you watching and why we want to just talk a little bit about it and not let it all slide by is because it's emblematic of the fight that's going on in the Democratic Party at the moment. I don't know, Anthony, that the Democrats can win Texas this time around. We spoke earlier about the Republican side of this primary process, which plays out actually in May, later this spring, May, June. And they've got somebody who's very unpopular and the sitting senator, John Corner, and running against each other. And if the unpopular guy, Ken Paxton, who's also been done for corruption, is the Republican nominee, as it looks like they could be, and the Democrats nominate somebody on Tuesday who is a centrist who has appeal, this could be a moment. This could be the moment that the Democrats at least make a good showing in Texas, which of course has 40 electoral college votes. Huge state wants Democrats hope they flip Texas. They think they can keep winning the White House for years and years to come, and that's why this race is interesting. So we're going to what do you make of the matchup from between Talarico and Crockett?
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B
Well, you know, I mean, this will be a litmus test, right, because Talarico is a sober centrist. Talarico, when I hear him talk, I'm like, okay, wow, he makes common sense. He's a guy I would hire at Skybridge. He's a rational person. But she is a dramatist, right? And she knows how to play the strings of the media and she knows how to play the strings of the left. And so are we over that? Are we wanting to move as a group of people, at least the people in that district, or do we want to want to move them into what I would call sober centrism? And if the answer to that is yes, we want to move it into sober centrism and he wins, that's going to be very good for the Democrats, right? Because as you've talked about, you want to look at Madame Unique to New York, but you want to look at the races in New Jersey and the race in Virginia and say there's where sober centrists sort of won. So it's interesting and I'm going to make a prediction on the show. I think Talarico is going to win.
- [29:18]
A
He's 10 points behind at the moment. He was ahead in January, and then he had this appearance on Colbert's show, and he suddenly picked up a whole load of money. Democratic early voting in this primary has been through the roof way higher than it is historically. And the question is, which way are those early votes going? And particularly which way are the Hispanic votes going. But it's interesting that you think he's
- [29:41]
B
going to win, but can I just tell you why? Because I think he's going to get crossover Republicans.
- [29:44]
A
I think this is the theory of the case. Her theory of the case is Democrats will win whether it's in the Texas Senate rates in November or whether it's in the midterms in November or whether it's in the presidential race in 2028. Democrats will win by firing up the base in getting out voters of color and getting out the left. And the base has to turn out. And that's how we're going to win. And you're unapologetically a progressive fighter. His theory of the case is no, that's not how Democrats are going to win. Democrats are going to win in November this year and in November in 2028 by having crossover appeal. And actually what's interesting, Anthony, I've listened to the two of them quite a bit. They are not very far apart on policy. He sounds in some ways like a fight, the oligarch Democrat. The way he talks about top down Americans versus bottom up Americans. And it's the top is the ones that are screwing us every time. He actually has quite a lot of economic populism about him. But he presents because he's in a seminary, he talks about his faith a lot. He's very opposed to Christian nationalism. He presents much more mild mannered, much more centrist. I think he's more progressive than he presents. But we live in a world where style matters an awful lot. And so I think, I think, I think if he wins, watch James Talarico. Watch Texas. See, even if they don't win that Senate seat, which I think is still a push for Democrats in November, it's going to be a very interesting race to see them give the Republicans a real run this time around. Right.
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B
So, yes, and so I'm predicting that the crossover will happen. And if I'm wrong, when the results come out, caddy light me up because she is 10 points ahead. So it is an audacious prediction. But can we go to Cornyn's race for a second? Because I obviously brought this up a few shows ago to point out the Trump factor here. I think this is so much more interesting for me. This is a 35 year incumbent. He's never lost the race in 35 years. He's getting beaten right now. It's a tiny amount of beating. It's 37.3 to 35 in terms of the polling.
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A
But he's been pretty consistently. Ken Paxton has been pretty consistently ahead for a while. Even, even by a little bit. I mean, the polls have been consistent.
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B
Yeah, that's, that's, that's correct. And, and, and I'll point out to people, since nobody's going to be above 50% in this race, I mean, very likely because Wesley Hunt entered the race as well. So nobody's going to be above 50%. So the great irony is here, they spent $95 million on the contest, and they can't even approach 50%. So there'll be a May 26 runoff. But just hear me out for a second. Cornyn has spent 70 million of the 95 million, Caddy. And he's losing right now, as you're pointing out, fairly consistently to a man who has been impeached, indicted for securities fraud.
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A
Who cares about corruption these days? That's fine, whatever.
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B
I hate to bring this up because, you know, it's, it's personal, but his wife filed for divorce on him on biblical grounds. Okay? I mean, this is all the stuff that's going on. And Cornyn is still losing, and he's in hot water with the Republican base over his bipartisan support of this gun safety bill. Go, Caddy. Tell me how you would describe his relationship with President Donald Trump.
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A
Well, okay, so Cornyn has only really stuck his head above the parapet and opposed Donald Trump on one issue, right?
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B
I think it's really one issue, but I think he's had some soft remarks, marks on other issues because he used to be a normal George Herbert Walker, George W. Bush, Republican. And now, you know, by the way, is Susan Collins concerned about the Iranian invasion? I'm just wondering, is she concerned out there measuring her concern? I just would like to register my concern. I'm Susan Collins from Maine.
- [33:41]
A
In any other time, you would rank John Cornyn as a conservative Republican. He's not squishy, he's not liberal. He's not one of those Republicans who you can rely on like Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, Tom Tillis, to oppose Donald Trump overtly. He's done it on one clear issue. And occasionally, maybe he's been a little softer in his support. But when you oppose Donald Trump, to get right back to what we were talking about at the beginning, when you oppose Donald Trump, you get the wrath of MAGA coming down on you. And now you have the prospect. And I've spoken to Republicans in Texas who are kind of appalled at this. You have the prospect of the Attorney General, Ken Paxton, who's been impeached Whose wife filed for divorce on biblical grounds. Who most Republicans in Texas would say is not a good, solid character person.
- [34:35]
B
You know, when my wife filed for divorce on me, she filed for divorce that I want to effing kill you grounds. It wasn't. I don't remember it being biblical. Yeah, I don't remember being biblical.
- [34:44]
A
And just to be clear, the biblical grounds were adultery. Let's just, you know, make that very clear before anyone thinks there's anything else.
- [34:50]
B
By the way, she didn't divorce me. Here we are eight years later, thankfully happily married. But, Katty, just go back to this for one second. Okay? This is a four term senator from the great red state of Texas that has voted. And I'm looking at the voting record, Katty Kim, 99% of the time he has voted with Donald Trump. And he's running the risk here that he can't survive the primary. So please comment on that.
- [35:18]
A
99% of the time isn't enough in Donald Trump's world. It has to be 110% of the time.
- [35:24]
B
So many years ago, in 2019, I'm on the Bill Maher Show. I said one thing that the President didn't like. I said they didn't like the nativism. I didn't like him saying that the women in the Congress had to go back to the countries they originally came from. And we're in the after party and Bill looks at me, he says, oh, Trump's gonna light you up on Twitter tomorrow. And I said, he is. Why would he do that? I was here supporting him. No, no, no, you were 7 for 8 for Donald Trump. Anthony, you gotta go 13 for 10. There's the insight from the great comedian Bill Maher. But by the way, as you know, that's mathematically impossible unless you're cutting drug prices 600%. Unless you're bringing down drug prices 600%.
- [36:07]
A
If John Cornyn wins, it will be because he stood up that 1% of the time and it will give the Democrats a chance of winning Texas. I think you're right. Talaria might win in the primary, but I don't think Democrats win Texas in November. I think they're a little way away from that. They haven't won a statewide race in three decades.
- [36:26]
B
Make a prediction for us. Caddy. Yeah. Will Cornyn be the nominee for the Republicans going into November?
- [36:32]
A
Ken Paxton's to be the nominee.
- [36:34]
B
Okay. And he'll win. He'll win.
- [36:36]
A
And I think he could win.
- [36:37]
B
Yeah.
- [36:37]
A
Yeah. I don't think Texas is there yet.
- [36:40]
B
Right.
- [36:40]
A
But it's going to happen, and it has a chance of happening, because the way it's going to happen is because the Republicans nominate somebody who's not very electable.
- [36:48]
B
Before we go, there's one sneaky thing that I know about the gop, having lived there for three decades process in the GOP matters and the machinery and the procedures around the incumbency could still save Corbin. I know that sounds crazy. It didn't save Eric Cantor in Virginia on that fateful day when we knew people were going full rogue. But it just might because he has the money behind him. Gatti. But I'm going to go with you. By the way, though, having said what I just said, I'm going to agree with you that Paxum will likely be the winner there.
- [37:25]
A
And a Paxton Talarico race is going to be a fascinating one to watch if that's the way these primaries shake out. Super interesting race to watch. A seminarian against a guy who was impeached and his wife accused him of adultery. There you go. That'll be a fun race.
- [37:41]
B
It's interesting times, Caddy May, you live in interesting times.
- [37:45]
A
We'll be back soon, guys. We'll be back later this week. And of course, if anything dramatic happens, well, I don't know why I'm even saying that if anything dramatic happens, dramatic things are happening. Dramatic things will happen. They are happening every day. But we'll be back later this week. So thanks for listening.
- [38:01]
B
Thanks, guys. We'll see you later in the week.
- [38:08]
D
Did Vladimir Putin interfere in the US 2016 presidential election? I'm Gordon Carrera, national security journalist.
- [38:17]
E
And I'm David McCloskey, author and former CIA analyst. And we are the hosts of the Rest Is Classified. And in our latest series, we're going deep inside the 2016 election to reveal the true story of whether the Russians helped Donald Trump take the White House.
- [38:31]
D
This is the unbelievable story of how Russian spies first hacked and then leaked emails belonging to Hillary Clinton's campaign, how Julian Assault got involved with Putin spies, and how 2016 marked the point that the world changed forever.
- [38:49]
E
Get the full insider scoop by listening to the Rest Is Classified. Wherever you get your podcasts,