Brooks and Capehart in the Texas Senate primary

Jeff Bennett:

President Trump is visiting Texas today, where three of his supporters are competing in the state’s Senate primaries scheduled for next week. This comes at a time when the president is also considering military action in Iran. Lots to discuss.

We now turn to Brooks and Capehart’s analysis. This is with The Atlantic’s David Brooks and MS NOW’s Jonathan Capehart.

Good to see you both.

So, as we said, President Trump is in Texas, where three Republicans, including incumbent John Cornyn, are locked in this competitive GOP primary. The president has not yet approved. Does the fact that he’s inserting himself early and aggressively into this race indicate that he’s still a GOP kingmaker or is he trying to prove it?

David Brooks:

A little of both, and maybe a little more of the latter.

To me, the Texas race is the most interesting Senate race in both parties, because it gets to the core debate in the middle of both parties. On the Democratic side, you have Jasmine Crockett, who is an aggressive and progressive fighter. Then there is James Talarico, who is more moderate and is trying to revive the religious left.

So the argument on the Democratic side is: Do we want someone who will go into the arena and take down these Republicans, or do we want someone who is conciliatory and win over people from the middle? This is the crux of the debate in the Democratic Party.

On the Republican side is Ken Paxton, who has been plagued by scandal since he was in kindergarten.

(He laughed)

David Brooks:

And he–and then we have John Cornyn, who’s not the hottest guy in the Senate, but he’s a standard-issue Republican.

And so Paxton’s race in particular, potentially getting out first, but not — but forced into a runoff — shows that there’s still some juice left if he does well in MAGA. If he doesn’t do really well, if Wesley Hunt or Cornyn does well, that’s a sign that the Republican Party is starting to move forward.

Jeff Bennett:

So, Jonathan, what stands out to you about Crockett vs. Tallarico?

Jonathan Capehart:

Well, the only thing I will say is that whichever candidate wins the Democratic nomination will be infinitely better than whoever the Republicans decide to nominate. So I’ll put that in there.

But in this race, the polls look a bit mixed everywhere. There was one UT Tyler poll that showed Congresswoman Crockett leading by 12 points, but the sample size is small. And the other polls I just looked at showed State Representative Talarico leading by single digits, maybe six points, eight points.

I think both candidates are trying to win in two different ways, but I think in two legitimate ways. Congresswoman Crockett, she’s turning to disaffected voters, African American voters, voters who may not have voted in previous elections. In many ways, it’s taking a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook, the playbook, when he ran in 2016, when he launched what I call fracking for votes.

He pulled out people who had never voted before. This is what Congresswoman Crockett is trying to pursue. But then State Representative Tallarico, he’s going after more of a middle of the road, but he’s really setting his sights on disaffected Republican voters who might not be so keen on what the president is doing, and he might be able to get them.

So, on Tuesday, I’m looking forward to seeing which tactic actually won, and whether they can win enough votes to sit out the primary – in the primary runoff.

Jeff Bennett:

Well, let’s return our focus to last Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

David, was there anything in that speech that stands out to you as a tangible change of scene or standing for President Trump?

David Brooks:

Yeah, I mean the question I’m asking is, has Trump lost the country? Many people have been waiting since 2016 for him to lose the country. But there are clearly some signs of slippage.

My colleague Ross Douthat released a video in the New York Times saying he’s losing the country and conservatives need to adapt. Is he losing the country, or is this just another wish fulfillment for people who don’t like him?

I think there’s evidence that it is, and if you look at independents in particular, they’ve moved away from it quite sharply. And then if you look at Republicans, does — there’s the Pew Research Center, does — does Donald Trump respect the country’s democratic values? The number of Republicans saying that has declined sharply.

Should Republican members of Congress feel obligated to support Donald Trump? 61% of Republicans say they bear no responsibility for supporting Donald Trump. These are all variable numbers. And obviously there’s a feeling, whether it’s in Minnesota, or just general absurdity, which means madness in Yiddish.

(He laughed)

Jeff Bennett:

I’m familiar.

David Brooks:

Just for – Jonathan.

(He laughed)

Jonathan Capehart:

No, oh, I know. Oh, come on.

David Brooks:

No, Jonathan is a New Yorker.

Jonathan Capehart:

I know.

Jeff Bennett:

This is correct.

David Brooks:

He certainly knows what absurdity is. Well, l…

(He laughed)

David Brooks:

And so I think there are signs that even Republican support, it’s not going anywhere, but it’s becoming frustrating.

Jeff Bennett:

Yes. Yes.

Jonathan, I will say that the contradiction in that speech was really clear, in that the president somehow sounded like a traditional policymaker talking about making tech companies pay their electricity bills because of the AI ​​plants they run, and then, in the next breath, he’s going to shade the Supreme Court or call Democrats crazy. There was judgment and grievance side by side.

Jonathan Capehart:

Jeff, I think you’re doing charity work. I actually forgot what he said about the AI ​​paying his own electricity bills, because the rest of the speech was just a variety show where he encouraged people, used them as prompts, and handed out medals like PEZ.

Now, that’s not to take away from the people who got the medals. They deserve them. They deserve to be celebrated by the American people, but not this way, and not the way the president did. And also, I thought there was a meanness to his speech, and also just indulging in the language of violence, going into endless detail about what people went through, their horrors and the traumas they went through.

I came out of that speech, was it 107 minutes, and I was feeling exhausted and wanting to go back to 107 minutes and nostalgic for the days of that long State of the Union address that President Bill Clinton gave on the way, and the way back was so full of policy suggestions and ideas that the Washington reporters were like, oh my God, this guy is so boring.

I crave that kind of boring.

Jeff Bennett:

In the remaining time, I want you both to have your say on Warner Bros. Discovery has reportedly agreed to acquire Paramount Skydance. This is after Netflix withdrew from the negotiations.

If the deal goes through, it would mean that one family, in this case a family that has so far respected President Trump, would control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok. How do you see it?

David Brooks:

Yes, I found media work to be very boring and meaningless. And I’ve been able to do this because I’ve worked at Dow Jones, News Corp, the New York Times, PBS. I’ve worked at all of these agencies. The business structure of the company had no effect on me.

There was never a moment in my career where I felt like someone on the business side of things would try to influence anything I ever did. But that seems to be changing. The culprit here is Donald Trump. Once Trump starts playing political favorites between whether it’s Anthropic versus OpenAI or whether it’s Netflix versus Paramount, companies should of course be mindful of that.

And I’m a guy — I don’t know Barry Weiss specifically, but I support what they’re trying to do. I think it’s time to mix up the media, where we’re becoming a little progressive, a little elitist, and if Barry Weiss can change the mindset, all power to her.

But if this is being done for the sake of lobbying and business, which it certainly appears to be, then that is the real downfall of the business we are in.

Jeff Bennett:

How do you see that, Jonathan?

Jonathan Capehart:

Well, I would argue that the media is not necessarily liberal, when you look at the fact that the number one cable channel and number one viewing channel is Fox News.

This idea that there are liberals walking around in the media indoctrinating people and changing — defining the narrative, I think is wrong. I think bringing a Fox-like mentality and behavior to CBS News and perhaps to CNN, I think ultimately makes the American people worse off.

Our job as journalists – and I’m specifically talking about CNN in this case in this deal. People turn to CNN for news. They turn to them only for what is happening in the country. And if what happens at CBS can be constrained by what happens at CNN, our country and our profession will be worse off.

Jeff Bennett:

David?

David Brooks:

Well, the only reason FOX exists is because all the other major networks don’t have Trump supporters.

I think we’ve made a mistake over the decades in shutting out working-class people and not allowing more Trump votes — and it’s hard to get Trump votes on the air. I understand that. But if you tell half the country your voices don’t deserve to be heard, they will rebel.

This is too little for us. Trump is not to be defended, but he is never completely wrong.

Jeff Bennett:

David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, thank you.

Jonathan Capehart:

Thanks Jeff.