Trump Scraps Two Rallies, First in Kansas & Now Iowa

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1:04Out front next, the breaking news. Trump bailing on Republicans, canceling a rally in Iowa hours after canceling a trip to Kansas. Both states where Democrats seem to be surging and Trump is lashing out. Plus, Vivek Ramaswamy no longer airing that vile ad featuring his opponent's estranged mother. As a major election forecast removes 63 races, 63 in the Democrat direction tonight. And a K-File exclusive this hour, an Elon Musk backpack using AI to attack James Tallarico on, ironically, the topic of AI. Let's go out front.

1:52And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett and welcome to this special edition of Outfront Countdown to Election Day. And we begin with the breaking news. Trump bailing tonight, scrapping not one, but actually two rallies in two different states moments ago, dropping a campaign trip to Iowa. The CNN poll of polls finds essentially a dead heat there. That's a state that Trump won, by the way, by more than 13 points. And that Iowa cancellation just breaking now, coming right on the heels of the president canceling a trip to Kansas where he was going to campaign for the embattled Republican Senator Roger Marshall.

2:25Now, Marshall won his seat by more than 11 points in 2020, is now, of course, at serious risk of losing that seat to a Democrat. The latest CNN polls show Marshall trailing Democrat Adam Hamilton by four percentage points there in Kansas. Now, Trump says he's going to hold tele-rallies this weekend instead of actually going to the ground. So when he was asked about it, specifically before we even knew about Iowa, he was asked about Kansas. Why are you not going anymore? So the president told the reporter asking the question that the reporter was disgusting and looked like hell. Look at this guy.

2:58He's way out of shape. Look at how badly he comes to me. Sir, you're not going to go to Kansas. I'm not going to Kansas because he's doing very well. I'm going to do a teller round. Tomorrow I'm doing Florida. He said, what's the reason? After doing, what, 28? He says, what's the reason for this, sir, that you're not going to Kansas? You know what the reason is? I don't feel I have to go to Kansas. I'm going to Florida tomorrow, and I'll do if something else comes up. But he said, you're not going to Kansas, sir. Are you feeling well? You've been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect. You are disgusting.

3:35Put yourself in shape. You look like hell. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell. Of all the things Trump said today, that's what the White House rapid response team clipped and proudly posted on X. And Trump's decision to suddenly nix that rally in Kansas seems to have caught Roger Marshall, as I mentioned, the incumbent that he was going to be something for, off guard. Senator, any reaction to the president canceling the in-person rally this weekend? I'm not sure yet. I think they think that by doing so well in the polls that he's probably got better places to spend his time.

4:11I'm not sure. Well, just to be clear, Trump and the vice president, J.D. Vance, have spent plenty of time trying to defend the Kansas Senate seat, three visits in just the past few weeks. OK, so they were already there a lot. And Marshall clearly expected another visit. And it's not just Kansas where numbers have deteriorated. In Maine, Democrat Troy Jackson, also slightly ahead of Susan Collins in our poll, 49 to 45. I want to note, though, that is within the margin of error. So you can call that a dead heat. In Michigan, the numbers suggest a bigger climb for Republicans. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed leading Republican Mike Rogers, 49 to 42.

4:48We'll see if that happens. In Texas, we'll see if this happens. Democrat James Tallarico is leading the Republican, Ken Paxton, 49 to 43. However you want to look at this, Republicans cannot afford to lose these races. They cannot lose all these races and keep control of the Senate. It cannot do it. And with just five days before election day, 40.6 million Americans have already voted. 40 points. Actually, that's 40.7. I can round. And to put that into perspective, in 2022, just over 46 million early ballots were cast in total. We're 6 million away from topping that number and there are days to go.

5:21I mean, that is really incredible. We're just on early vote. This is stunning in terms of the turnout. And in Georgia tonight, a new early voting record. As of right now, more than 2.4 million ballots have been cast in the state of Georgia. And Georgia's high profile Senate race is between Democrat John Ossoff and the Republican Mike Collins. It is now among the 63 races, which have just been shifted in the Democratic direction, according to Inside Elections. 63. That, of course, is a blow to Trump, who has been out there saying this. We had two big rallies. They were packed. I think we've made a big impact.

5:58And I think we've really turned it around. And I think the rallies have turned it, frankly. The rallies have been very successful and they've changed the whole ballgame. Well, we'll see if they change the whole ballgame. And by the way, in what direction? But one thing we do know right now is that Trump's closing message is avoiding the issues that Americans say in poll after poll that they care the most about. The economy, corruption, the war. Here's Trump today. He's a guy, but I love him anyway. He's a guy. He's a guy. He's a good looking guy. He said, I'd love to have a steak. He's puking all over the place.

6:39I'll tell you, you're all apple pie and that's good. That's what we want. We want apple pie. How come we always take people from shithouse countries? Why can't we take free people from good countries? So we have now a straight, Trump straight. Now I need a river and an ocean. Kevin Liptec is out front live outside the White House. Kevin, you're the one learning all these details about where rallies are being canceled. What more are you learning about why Trump is canceling these rallies. Yeah, and officials are insistent that this very sudden shift in strategy has nothing to do with the electoral prospects of Roger Marshall or Ashley Hinson, who's the candidate in Iowa.

7:18They insist that they, in fact, have been fielding calls from candidates in red states around the country trying to get the president to come before Election Day. And their rationale for canceling these events is to try and spread out the president's time for these tele-rallies. But I have heard from numerous GOP operatives who are pointing out that these tele-rallies, one, are pretty scripted. You're not gonna hear President Trump go off on tangents about other men's bodies or about cognitive tests or about shithole countries. They're also pretty short. They don't last for 90 minutes. And of course, they're not on camera.

7:53And so a lot of Republicans are looking at this and seeing a major shift in how the White House is approaching these final days of the campaign. And it is a very sudden shift. You know, the president has been on this blitz for the last several weeks, and the White House had signaled that he would still be out in the days before Election Day. As of now, the only in-person event that he has planned is tomorrow. That's in Daytona Beach, Florida. Everything up until Election Day is now canceled. It's possible he goes back out on Monday. We just don't know. But for now, he's scheduled to be here at the White House on election night.

8:29I do think it's also notable and very telling, the president's defensive response to that question about his health. You know, the president himself has admitted that this has been a grind. He's been traveling 22 of 29 days of October so far. He won't be doing most of the next several days in person. He will be rallying over the phone instead. Right, right. And in Florida. All right. Kevin Liptak, thank you very much. And everyone's here with me. Essie, it's true. 22 out of 29 days or whatever it is. Kevin just said that's a grind for everyone. But when you're in the final days and you think you might have a chance at all these polls being wrong, you get out there and you're pedal to the metal.

9:07So the way that Kevin described the cancellation of these rallies is the operative word, sudden. Iowa and Kansas, what's happening? Well, it's fun to speculate. Let's go through some of the reasons this could be. He's tired, we'd understand, and he's not making a ton of sense on the rally stages, right? The crowds are small. He doesn't want that optic. He's getting heckled at a lot of these rallies, and that's getting picked up. Maybe people like Roger Marshall and Ashley Hinson said, no, we're better. Maybe we're better without you in these closing. Who knows? But none of them are good news. There are no good explanations, including his, that he's needed in Florida.

9:46That's not any better. So none of the explanations are good. It's not a good look. I think the reality might be setting in that those two races in particular are probably set. They're set. They're locked. This is where they're going to stay. Yeah, and if those are set and locked, I mean, what does it mean for everything else, Governor? Well, a couple of things. I wouldn't read into Kansas in particular. As you said, he was there three times in like the past week or week and a half. So they're plenty saturated. And as a candidate, I can tell you in the last week, you're not it's the base is locked in.

10:15You're absolutely right. I see the bases are locked in. You're going after those last undecided voters. And that's not necessarily, you know, where Trump is going to have. Maybe nobody feels there's any of those left this time. Oh, there's plenty left. I think especially in a place like Kansas where there's normally not a tough race. But now people are like, oh, wait, there's a race. Well, Democrats are going after independents. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. They are. Republicans seem not to be. Well, and that's maybe the pivot here. Hey, let's just in a place like Kansas, the numbers say we still have a decent undecided that those aren't necessarily our base.

10:42Let's pivot there. Yeah. So, Jamal, the same thing when Trump responded to the reporter, he's asked, right, When you suddenly cancel a rally and you've been out there, people want to know why, especially when it's, you know, almost the penultimate day before the election. So they clipped themselves the White House and put this out as the rapid response clip of the day. Here's his response. He said, what's the reason after doing what, 28? He says, what's the reason for this, sir, that you're not going to Kansas? You know what the reason is? I don't feel I have to go to Kansas. I'm going to Florida tomorrow and I'll do if something else comes up.

11:18But he said, you're not going to Kansas, sir. Are you feeling well? You've been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell. And they reposted that. They reposted it. Listen, before he really took after the reporter, he sounded a lot like my eight year old son trying to explain why he popped his sister's birthday. birthday balloon, right? He's just spinning around in circles coming up with something that he thinks might work. Listen, I think that what happened in Kansas is that they got a poll back because we're going into the last week.

11:53A lot of these campaigns, they do one more poll. They're seeing internal, right? There's no there's no reason to poll like after Saturday because there's nothing you can do if you find out something. What are you going to do? You can't buy more TV time. You can't do anything else. I bet you they got some numbers back that said Trump is not helping. In fact, probably he's hurt. He's hurting. And they're trying to keep him away from And you've got this side-by-side that's happening right now between Donald Trump and Barack Obama on the campaign trail. And I'm telling you, Trump is not coming out well.

12:19When you see the two of them, mano a mano, the way many of us have wanted to see it for a long time, when you see the two of them together, Trump doesn't come out well. Well, because they're actually both literally, I mean literally, we're on the stage at the same time. David, what do you read into this? I think we're looking at it through the wrong end of the lens. The question is not why is Trump suddenly not campaigning for these candidates. The question is why was he ever campaigning for them? Okay. So normally when you have an unfavorable environment, 2006 for the Republicans, 2014 for the Democrats, a president who cares about his party says to at-risk incumbents, especially in the Senate, look, you need to denounce me.

12:53You denounce me. You need to make some space. Go ahead. My feelings won't be heard. This is about something bigger than myself. Because of Trump's malignant narcissism, he had to make himself the candidate in every one of these races. And he's not helping. Well, in fact, he many times said, if I were on the ballot, this would all be great because they want me. But if there were an environment where John Cornyn had prevailed in Texas and John Cornyn had been allowed to say, you know, I'll be with the president when I agree with him. But I'll be as you've seen, I often disagree with him. He might have a chance of holding Texas.

13:24That's the stance he would take in a place like Kansas, you know, with the president some of the time, other times. And meanwhile, he's in Washington. And in fact, I've even staged maybe some incident this year to show my independence. Trump would not allow the Republicans to do that. and he is dragging down people because of his pathologies, which I'm sure they would all have wished the president never came in the first place. Well, maybe this is when you were saying maybe it's Roger Marshall who was saying, I don't need you. So Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran that vile ad and originally had a space to get out of it, sort of, to say, well, I didn't know about it and it was a pack or something.

14:00He could try to find a way. Trump, you know, said it was great and Vivek tripled down and now here we are. Finally, it's no longer airing. The ad is no longer airing. And Rameswamy said at a campaign event today, is this your eight-year-old son? Quote, it ran to completion and we put up four other ads. You know, it just ran its cycle. Yeah, right. No issue with it. I mean, they can say anything because nothing matters. But no, if this were working, they'd keep it up, period, full stop. Again, none of the explanations are good here. And these are politicians. They're going to spin it. We should expect that.

14:32that doesn't make them crazy or unique. But no one's buying this because we can all see, we've been seeing in real time the effect of an ad like that, the effect of the things that Donald Trump has been saying on the campaign trail. We're all ingesting it in real time and we're watching the polls react. So, Governor, you know, it was interesting, David Frum said something there about you could even stage an incident. You would have something to show I'm myself when I want to be myself. So your brother's running for Senate in New Hampshire. Sure. OK. And this is what I was saying. Oh, that I love.

15:06I love this. It's my favorite ad of the whole cycle. OK, so we played it one night. It is one of our it is one of our favorite ads of the whole cycle. OK, so here is part of an ad that your brother put out recently on this very subject. The way Chris Pappas tells it, I'm President Trump's long lost son. I've never even met the man. I'm so happy right now. So Trump didn't have to cancel a rally there because your brother made it clear that he didn't need him. Well, yeah. So, I mean, every state's different. Maine, I would even argue Michigan, New Hampshire right now. You're trying to get that independent vote.

15:44And places like South Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Texas. Trump is going to go for the sole purpose of driving the base out. I think what they're finding, Turning Point USA is out there. They're knocking on more doors than ever before with the base, with the low propensity voter, the low propensity midterm voter. And what they're finding is a lot of those Trump voters are like, yeah, I'm good. And so what they're trying to do is drive those Trump voters out in a midterm that normally wouldn't come out. And that's why he's been focusing in these conservative states. So I don't want to like nose into your Thanksgiving dinner.

16:14Go where everyone else has. OK, OK, OK. No, but now I say that and then I'm going to do it. OK, so you said if voters thought they were voting for you, that your your brother be. Oh, yeah. And and and that your own brother hasn't asked you to join him on the campaign. Oh, no. Sure. So a couple of things that was people saying, well, you know, people are going to confuse the two. There's no way people are confusing me and my brother. Right. So that's that's where the statement came from. And it's true. As an eight year governor, I was in people's living room every night. Everyone knew who I was.

16:44And it's a whole different different dynamic. My brother's very independent. He's running his own race as I ran my own race. He's on his own two feet. He's winning it with shoe leather. He's not relying on outside endorsements. Anything he asked me to do, I would do. So you guys don't have a problem. Oh, my God. No, are you kidding? No, no, no. And he's going to win. I think he and Susan Collins are going to win. I'm just, I'm struck by that. I'm from Massachusetts. I've spent a lot of time in New Hampshire, as you know. There's still time to fix. Right, to fix that part of me. Yeah. But the idea that Osununu would distance himself in such a way from a two-term Republican president, it's just remarkable.

17:22I'm not mad at it. I understand why he did it. But it's a remarkable statement of where the Republican Party is right in this moment, I thought. Oh, sorry. Okay. No, it says a lot about the president of the United States that we have. I think a lot of Americans are done with the cruelty, with the meanness. It's just kind of a mess. And they are living it every day. Listen, if you are doing okay in your life, if you've got the money you need, your kids can go to school, all those things are working, you'll tolerate a little foolishness from the politicians. But if your life is going in the wrong direction economically, you really don't have time for the politicians to be doing the kind of things that President Trump does.

17:59But were Democrats begging Joe Biden to come campaign for them at the end of the 24 race? No. No, and save Obama. And save Obama in his second term. situation. No, no, but Joe Biden didn't try to go either. Obama listened. That's the difference. Trump isn't listening. To David's point, Trump has insisted on making himself with his 30 percent approval the face of everyone else's face. If you're rallying your base at this point in the campaign, if you're rallying the base, that means what you're saying. I know we're going to lose. I'm hoping for not a debacle because if we're OK, if we're touching, go.

18:32You say, OK, lock base locked in. They're all showing up. Now I have to go to the people. Because when you win, you don't win with the people who like you. You win with the people who dislike you somewhat less than they dislike your opponent. Those are the people who put you over the top. The people are not crazy, but okay, lesser evil. If you're rallying, if you're sending out the turning point USA people now, it means you're trying, you're hoping at least maybe we can come out of this with some dignity, maybe keep our deposit, because otherwise we're facing wipeout. And that's, And again, some of this is the Republicans' self-inflicted wounds.

19:02I mean, if John Cornyn were there, this world would be very different. But one point about the Republicans and their choices, I did a little tally on the way over here. In the cycles from 2010 onward, I count 14 cases where Republicans threw away winnable races by nominating dud candidates, the Sharon Angles of the world, and only five cases where Democrats did. In this cycle, I count two cases where Republicans have thrown away the race, Ramaswamy and Paxton, winnable races, and three cases where Democrats have put at risk. And the disease that my former party had of not having quality control on the way in, 14-5 bad Republicans from 2010 to now, this time three to two bad Democrats to two bad Republicans.

19:41All right, well, we'll see. And as I can say, just looking at that, and we'll see how many people vote in Election Day, right? But you might top the entire turnout for the midterms last time in early vote alone. I mean, it is incredible. All right, thanks so much to all of you who are going to stay with us here. And next, Trump making a last-minute push to save Pennsylvania Republicans. Will it work? John King on the ground in Pennsylvania. King Country is next. And one of the nation's top election forecasters tonight shifting more Senate races democratically. Larry Sabato is on deck. And we caught up with the people who are at our town hall with James Tallarico, who told me at the time they were undecided that night.

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21:35And welcome back to a special edition of Outfront Countdown to Election Night. We have breaking news out of the White House. President Trump canceling two trips to pivotal red states, Iowa and Kansas. But Trump tonight trying to save Pennsylvania Republicans. He's been flooding his social media site with a flurry of endorsements. reinforcements. And his 11th hour push comes as Democrats are also zeroing in on Pennsylvania, where about a million ballots, as you can see, have already been cast. An overwhelming majority of the early votes so far are from Democrats. Only one in four ballots cast from Republicans so far.

22:07Democrats need to pick up three seats overall to win the House. So they're looking at Pennsylvania. And if they flip their three districts, the 7th, the 8th and the 10th, they could potentially take back the gavel, never mind anything else out there. Those districts are all now leaning to the left, according to Larry Sabato, who'll be with me in a moment. And Pennsylvania's first district, another GOP seat, is a toss-up. And that is where we find John King in tonight's King Country, where, John, you spent the day talking to Pennsylvania voters. What did they tell you? It is just fascinating here.

22:41And as you know, this is a state that doesn't have a big Senate race, doesn't have any Senate race. In the governor's race, Josh Shapiro is heavily favored to win. But as you know, there are four Republican House incumbents here. Democrats think they can flip all four of those seats. One of them where I am, let's go through them quickly. We'll hear from some voters. This is Pennsylvania first, and this would be the most difficult. You see Brian Fitzpatrick in 2024 winning by just shy of 60 ,000 votes. He did that at a time Kamala Harris was carrying his district. He's one of only three Republicans in a district that Kamala Harris won in the presidential election.

23:10So he is a survivor. But we're here in the district tonight, and there are some Democrats who think it's actually going to happen this time. Maybe they can get Brian Fitzpatrick. If that happens, Aaron, then we're having a blue wave. That would just be a fact if you can beat someone who has withstood the national dynamic in the past. So let's come back out and look quickly at a couple of other districts. Another one at play, the Democrats would love to win this one. Scott Perry is in the Freedom Caucus. He's a key ally of President Trump. He joined the election denial after the 2020 election here.

23:37Democrats believe they can win that district as well to get Pennsylvania's 10th district. Two more quickly. One, you go right up along the New York border here. But this district also includes the eighth also includes Scranton. The popular mayor of Scranton is the Democratic candidate. They're hoping they can run up turnout there. A big question for me. Can Democrats begin to make a modest rebound in rural America, farm country, Trump country up by the New York state border in this case? We'll watch that on Tuesday night. And then I want to come down here to the seventh district. This one, like the eighth, has a freshman Republican who came in on Trump's coattails.

24:08In the seventh, though, Ryan McKenzie came in in part as Donald Trump increased his support among Latino voters. I visited a barbershop today. Four conservative Latino voters, three of them, said they still plan to vote for Congressman McKenzie. One was undecided. All of them agreed, though, in the community right now that the president's aggressive ICE enforcement is causing the political problems. If you think the ICE enforcement has been overly aggressive, raise your hand. Yeah, a little bit. In certain cases, I think. I don't think as a whole, but I definitely have seen some things in certain cases where I believe it was overly aggressive.

24:50And so, Erin, again, three of those votes there say they will stick with Ryan McKenzie, but all of them conceding that others in the community may be open to swinging, in part because of ICE. One of the women there at the table, Ashley, said she actually thinks divided government wouldn't be such a bad idea. She also says she's trying to afford a home. She hasn't been able to do that under President Trump. So she's open to voting Democrat. And, you know, obviously, Pennsylvania, Trump won it in 2024. And in part, that was due to turnout of his base. And you spoke to some of the MAGA base today.

25:16What did they say? We had a stunning conversation with a couple of MAGA voters. One of them you're about to hear from here, Jason Lavinia, stunning, who says he doesn't think Mayor Momdani should be allowed to be mayor, that he's un-American in his view and he shouldn't be allowed to be mayor. I pushed back on that saying he won a democratic election. He doesn't think Abdul El-Sayed should be allowed to be in the United States Senate. He said we're reaching a breaking point in America where he thinks people might have to take to the streets if people he views as unacceptable keep winning elections.

25:46Listen to just a snippet of that. What is happening with this country? Okay. I am so not for that. Okay. That, when you have a democratic socialist or somebody who is a communist like that, They should not be able to run for office. Didn't we used to lock these people up?

26:07It's just stunning to listen, Aaron. And sitting there on the couch with him was a Democratic Latino voter who later in the conversation turned and said, you know, we have a constitution. People are allowed to win elections. You hate people just because you disagree with their politics. To me, it told me about two things. Number one, mega voters are worried. They think their big night is coming Tuesday and they don't like some of the people who are going to get elected. They don't like the overall result. Number two, it tells me that, yes, this election will settle a lot on Tuesday, but there are huge unanswered questions in both parties going forward and a very raw anger in that voter that is not going to disappear on Tuesday.

26:41Yeah, raw anger. Describe sort of that, the intensity and the tension you could hear in his voice. John King, thank you very much in Pennsylvania tonight. And more breaking news. One of the nation's top election forecasters shifting two major Senate races in the left. Larry Sabato's crystal ball moving Minnesota and Louisiana in the Democratic direction five days before Election Day. And Larry Sabato is out front now. So good to talk to you again. OK, so let's talk about Louisiana first. Outgoing Republican is Senator Bill Cassidy. This is his seat. Lost his primary after Trump endorsed his challenger, Julia Letlow.

27:13Now, this has been a quiet race. Now you're moving it to the left. I mean, you're not. That doesn't mean you're saying the Democrats are going to win. I mean, let's just be clear here. Explain exactly what you're saying. But also, when you're moving a race like this at all, what are the implications of that? Well, the implication is very clear. The Republican candidates in the South of all places, in Louisiana, Mississippi, and especially, who can believe this, South Carolina, are in trouble to one degree or another. Now, Julia Letlow is going to be elected to the U.S. Senate, but it's not going to be one of those blowout Republican elections that Louisianans are used to, it's going to be probably single digits.

27:57And again, that's the essence of the blue wave that spreads across the country. Even in the South, it's going to lower Republican winning margins. Now, it doesn't matter in terms of control of the Senate, but it suggests, and South Carolina could really make a difference if they ended up electing the Democrat, Andy Andrews. I don't think she'll win, although if you had to pick an upset of those three, you would pick South Carolina. And it's just a tremendous shock to everybody who follows elections. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you're talking single digits, possibly, in Louisiana. Definitely a shock there.

28:32All right, you're also shifting in Minnesota, the Senate race between progressive Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan and Michelle Tafoya, a very well-known former NFL reporter. You're shifting that one to the left. Tafoya's been tamping down questions about why her website doesn't say anywhere that she's a Republican. Listen to this exchange, Larry. Your website doesn't say you're a Republican anywhere on the website. Is that because, what, Republican's a dirty word in Minnesota? Honestly, I don't think it was intentional. Really? No, I don't. No, I really don't. Yeah, she's running, obviously, you know, as a Republican.

29:09Is a Republican brand that bad? I mean, I'm just thinking to Byron Donald, right, when he kind of basically took almost all references to Trump off his site, right? That wasn't as far as the Republican brand, right? But what do you see here? Well, Michelle Tafoya just forgot. I mean, you have to give her that. Who would think to mention your party as you're running for the U.S. Senate? I'm being sarcastic, obviously. She knows that Donald Trump is not only unpopular in Minnesota, he's unpopular in virtually every state. He is way below 50 percent in at least 47 of the 50 states. So that tells you something.

29:46And the ones who are removing the pictures of Donald Trump, again, they're just circulating different slogans and photos. That's all it is. That's what they're trying to tell you. It's ridiculous. The truth is Donald Trump is costing Republicans from one coast to the other. He costs them different margins in different places. The deeper red the state or district is, the more that Republicans can survive. But it's significant. Michelle Tafoya is a good candidate. She's well known because of her sports casting career. In another year, she could have won in Minnesota because it's a marginal state in some elections.

30:27Leans Democratic, but not this year. Now, you're close to shifting. I know the key Texas Senate race between Tallarico and Paxton. Not there yet, but you've been looking at it. What do you see there? Yes, at an advanced age, Aaron, you move slowly. You try and move as fast as you can. We're not quite there yet, but we will by Monday. You know, I've been skeptical all along. I think virtually everybody in the political community just can't believe it when a Democrat says, it's the year, we're finally going to win. After 30 years, you get tired of it. He's closer than Beto Verwerk was, who nearly won a Senate seat back in the last part of the previous decade.

31:10He's close. He's not fully there. It's still a marginal race. But if you forced me to pick today, I'd pick Tallarico. And I could never have imagined myself saying that. Why? It's because a slice, not so much of MAGA, but of the Reagan Republicans, who are still a third of the party, even in Texas, are saying that Paxton is just too corrupt. And that's what's costing him. And that is totally due to Donald Trump, who insisted that Republicans nominate him over incumbent Senator John Cornyn. Right, right. When you say we wouldn't be having this conversation if it were John Cornyn on that ticket.

31:48Thanks so much, Larry. I'll talk to you soon. And next exclusive K-File reporting about that Texas Senate race, a PAC backed by Elon Musk blanketing the state with anti-Talerico AI robocalls. He took$11 million from data center special interests and gave them 20-year tax breaks. Musk using AI to attack AI. Plus, breaking news, Trump's Justice Department ramping up its investigation into Alaska Democrats tonight, filing a new lawsuit to block the results if the Democrat wins there.

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33:03Welcome back to this special edition of Outfront Countdown to Election Night. And tonight, we've got a K-File exclusive on what is shaping up to be perhaps the hottest Senate race in the country, Paxton versus Tallarico in Texas. So listen to this. Hi, is this Julio? Hi, my name is Jennifer, and I'm a virtual staffer with Lone Star Liberty calling in support of Republican Ken Paxton. You know, at least she identified herself as a virtual staffer. That voice is not a real person. It's an AI, you know, I don't want to personify it. It's an AI calling voters in Texas on behalf of a super PAC backing Republican Ken Paxton.

33:44And the point of these calls is to slam the Democrat James Tallarico for allegedly taking money from AI data center special interests. Which is kind of interesting using AI to slam AI, especially given the big donor to Paxton, Elon Musk's point of view on AI. K-File has obtained recordings of these calls, which can actually lead to prolonged conversations with voters. That's different than the robocalls of the past. And here's the twist, right? The billionaire helping bankroll the super PAC is Elon Musk. He runs an AI company. He gave the group$10 million. Wow. But now he's criticizing Tallarico for, he says, supporting AI.

34:19Up front now, Andrew Kosinski of K-File, who, along with his colleague, M-Stack, broke this exclusive reporting. What else did you find? Aaron, you are right. And the irony here is very thick. This is a super PAC bankrolled in part by$10 million from Elon Musk, A billionaire with his own artificial intelligence company using AI to attack Tallarico for taking money from another tech billionaire who supports data centers. And those data centers are the very infrastructure that are powering the AI making these calls. Listen to a few more of these lines that we found. Okay, great. Now, in terms of who you plan to vote for, will you be supporting Ken Paxton?

35:01James Tallarico voted for taxes on Social Security, overtime and tips, and he's pushing even higher property taxes. He took$11 million from data center special interests and gave them 20-year tax breaks. Now that$11 million claim seems to refer to money from tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, who is a supporter of data centers. But that money is actually going to a super PAC backing Tallarico. It's not money that was given to Tallarico directly in Aaron. We obtained these recordings through NoMoRobo. That's a robocall blocking service. And what is remarkable is that unlike traditional robocalls, you know, everybody gets them.

35:36These AI calls can actually have conversations with voters. They can ask who they support. They can respond to their questions. But this technology we found is really not perfect. Listen to a lot of these calls. In some of them, the AI caller seems to get confused when interrupted. It stops. It starts over. It repeats the same question again and again, Aaron, on all these calls. that we review. I like this. No more robo. No more robo. I get it. You get it. I get it. And it does work. It does block the calls. Okay. So they are mostly limited to landlines right now, you know, which obviously puts you in a specific pool of people.

36:13Is that about to change though, this go more broad? Possibly. The FTC is considering a petition that could allow political groups to make large scale unsolicited AI robo calls to millions of cell phones without prior consent. And that could actually take this tack from something that is a relatively small number of calls to something much bigger. Now, the pro-Pax impact defended its tactics, telling us that they were, quote, using every tool available. Tell Rico's campaign we reached out to fired back saying that the only volunteers, that was their quote, the only volunteers that were even willing to make these calls for Pax and what they said were AI robots.

36:54Erin? Okay, I get that. They were basically, they were saying Paxton has no friends and needs robots to make his calls. Right, and needs them. Needs his agents. Yes. All right, thank you very much, K-File. I appreciate that. And we've got breaking news, actually, because Ed Lavendera, on the ground in Texas, just caught up with James Tallarico, who literally is just responding to K-File's exclusive reporting. Wait until you hear what he has to say. A whole conversation here. We're going to play it all for you right after this. And Trump and his Justice Department trying to make the most of the allegations.

37:22the Democrats recruited a Senate candidate in Alaska with the same name as the Republican incumbent. A front legal analyst, Ryan Goodman, though, says there's no legal there there.

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38:46And welcome back to this special edition of Outfront, the countdown to election night. James Tallarico is about to take the stage, okay? He's at a rally in Dallas. And our Ed Lavendera just spoke with him about the K-File reporting that you just heard about the AI robocalls financed by Elon Musk attacking Tallarico. So Ed Lavendera is out front. Ned, I know you just had this conversation with Mr. Tallarico. What did he say? Right. As you mentioned, Aaron, he is just moments away from taking the stage here at this rally at the Dallas Convention Center in the heart of downtown. the venues filling up here.

39:20But we were able to speak with James Tallarico just for a brief moment before he takes the stage here. We asked him about this story. He says that it is rich that Elon Musk and this Ken Paxton-aligned Super PAC would be going after him in this way. There's just a few days left in this campaign. I was with you at a pub in Frisco, I think, back in January. It's been a long journey. It was a lifetime ago. How are you feeling about things, and what do you have to do to convince those voters out there who are still maybe skeptical about voting for a Democrat? Well, I'm feeling great. The momentum on the ground is incredible.

39:55Everywhere we go, we have thousands of Texans showing up to rally with us. I can't tell you the number of people who come up to me at the end of these events and whisper, I'm not a Republican, or I'm not a Democrat. You know, these are people who have just been left out by both political parties, and they are ready for someone who's going to actually represent them. And so I am reaching out to everyone, no matter their political affiliation, no matter if they've been involved in politics before, so that we can actually build a movement that takes power back for working people in our state. I think you've seen the story today that this group, Lone Star Liberty Super PAC, has taken a$10 million donation from Elon Musk, and you built an AI-powered robocall that criticizes you for taking money from data center groups.

40:43How do you respond to that? Yeah, I mean, that's pretty rich that they are using AI bots to attack me over data centers, when in reality, I'm the only candidate in this race who has a plan to crack down on big data center companies. Ken Paxton has taken nearly half a million dollars from big data center companies. And so he's bought and paid for by that industry. I've said that if data centers can't meet the demands of Texans, they can't meet the demands of the people who live in these communities, if they can't pay for their own energy instead of jacking up utility bills, if they can't recycle their own water, then they shouldn't be built, period, full stop.

41:17And we've yet to hear that kind of clear stance from Ken Paxton. The Paxton campaign made a lot about you disappearing from the campaign trail when you were sick. Paxton has canceled a campaign event in El Paso. When you hear that news... Well, I mean, Ken Paxton is canceling rallies because no one's showing up to his rallies. He can't recruit volunteers, and so he's using AI bots. He doesn't have any grassroots donors, so he's relying on the richest man in the world to fund his campaign. And so this is just an indication that there is really a lack of enthusiasm for electing another crooked politician to the U.S.

41:57Senate. People are ready for change. They're ready for something different. They're ready for a servant leader who's actually going to serve them, not billionaire megadonors. And I have a history, as you know, Ed, of working on a bipartisan basis in the Texas House. I brought both parties together to pass 60 bipartisan bills, bills that lower our costs, the cost of housing, the cost of childcare, the cost of prescription drugs, including insulin. And I think that's the kind of record of service that people are looking for in their next U.S. senator. We have a poll out today that shows that you seem to be doing pretty well with Latino voters, voters of color, a huge change from what Donald Trump did in the state two years ago.

42:32Are you seeing those same numbers in your internal polling? Yes, we are. I mean, the momentum on the ground is incredible. Everywhere we go, we've got folks showing up at our events. And I think we're bringing in people who are new to this process. And that includes a lot of our young voters, our young black and brown voters across the state. Our Asian American voters across Texas are showing up in record numbers. And so we want to have a coalition that looks like Texas. We want to bring together everybody across race and culture and religion and party so that we can take back powerful working people.

43:04Because as I've said many times in the campaign trail, the real fight in this country is not left versus right. It's top versus bottom. It's all of us versus the crooked politicians like Ken Paxton, the mega donors like Elon Musk who are screwing us over. What do you do in these final days of the campaign? There's one day left of early voting and then it kind of goes quiet for a little while. What do you do? Yeah, I mean, we're going to go to every corner of the state. I've got a jam-packed schedule in the final days. We're going to barnstorm Texas. We're going to show up in every major region of the state, and we're going to speak to voters about this cost of living emergency and how this corruption crisis that we have in Washington is raising our prices, raising our costs.

43:45And that the only way to bring down those costs is to end that corruption. We can do that here in our state by defeating the most corrupt politician in Texas on November 3rd. What do you say to those voters who are listening to Donald Trump over the last few days? Ken Paxton, they described you as a freak, someone who's crazy, someone who is radical, and that there are people out there who think that you're pretending to be more centrist than you are. What do you say to those voters who have that skepticism? Well, I want people to know that they can purchase their own I'm a Tala Frico t-shirt on our campaign website.

44:15It's our best-selling item in our web store. So we're trying to take this in stride. People are tired of the professional wrestling of politics. They're tired of the name-calling. They're tired of the attacks back and forth. They want someone who's actually going to focus on them for once, someone who's going to work with both parties to bring down costs, get this economy back on track, and allow families to live the American dream. And people don't have to listen to anything I say. They don't have to listen to anything Ken Paxton or President Trump says. They can just look at our records, right?

44:44Ignore all the noise. Just look at what we've done. Because the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. I have served for four terms in the Texas House. Before I was on CNN, before there were big rallies, I worked quietly with both parties to pass 60 bipartisan bills, bills that lower costs for working Texans. Ken Paxton's career has been spent enriching himself and his mega donors. He was indicted for fraud. He was reported to the FBI for bribery. He was impeached by his own party for taking bribes from wealthy donors while he gutted our overtime pay and blocked our health care. And so I think our records could not be could not be more clear and the contrast between us could not be more stark.

45:27And last question. Yeah, the are you ready to predict a victory? Are you that confident yet? We are the underdogs in this race until the last vote is counted. We are going up against the most corrupt politician in Texas who is backed by the most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world. And so we are the underdogs until the final moments and we are campaigning like we are five points down, regardless of what the CNN poll says. And Aaron, we end there on that note as the polls show a favorable position for Tallarico, but we should be crystal clear about all of this. Democrats have felt hopeful election after election for more than 20 years now.

46:05It's been more than 30 years since a Democrat has won statewide in this election. And the story has always ended the same way with Republicans winning. So it would be a dramatic change and a dramatic storyline if Tallarico or any other Democrat were able to win in this election cycle. We should also point out that we have reached out to the Paxton campaign about that event in El Paso. It was removed from their website, but we have not heard back from their campaign. But clearly here, the Tallarico campaign, trying to energize as many voters as possible. They're paying very close attention to the voters that are turning out.

46:39There's only one day left of early voting, and then we hold off until election day. So the full throttle is on here for all of the campaigns here in the state of Texas. All right. Thank you very much, Ed Lavendera, in an important interview. And next, Trump's Justice Department ramping up an investigation into Democrats in Alaska.

47:08OK, welcome back to the special edition of Outfront. The breaking news, the Justice Department dramatically are ramping up a criminal probe into Alaska Democrats. This comes after Democrats there allegedly recruited a Senate candidate with the same name as the Republican incumbent. That's Dan Sullivan. All in an effort to, well, confuse the waters. Harry Anton is out front. Add the magic. Well, Harry, this Senate race in Alaska prior to this was obviously polling very close. Alaska is a tough market to poll, but it was polling close. So if this backfires on Democrats, if they lose because of this, what does that mean in terms of taking control of Senate?

47:44Yeah, you know, you mentioned what the polling looked like. It was close. But look, Mary Patola was in the position to be the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alaska in a midterm election since all the way back in 1974. Mike Revell, some of our younger viewers probably remember, he ran for president in 2008 and a little bit in 2020. So, you know, if you take Alaska and you turn it blue, right, if that had matched the polling before this week, then Democrats only need to win in Maine, right, which obviously voted for Kamala Harris. You win in Ohio, where Sherrod Brown obviously has been polling quite well and, of course, have been a senator who was elected in Trump's first midterm election.

48:20And Texas, where all of a sudden, you know, we saw that poll today that had James Talley up six. And you got it. You get to 51 seats. Then all of a sudden, if you turn Alaska red, well, then, of course, you fall back to 50 seats. So Alaska is one of those paths that Democrats were really counting on. All right. So, but it's not their only path. It is not their only path. You know, another poll that came out today that to me really does tell a story. Hello. OK, this is a choice for Michigan Senate. You know, Abdul El-Sayed, I think a lot of people nationally have been critiquing his campaign. But you know what?

48:50He's actually been gaining ground. Look, in August, Mike Rogers in a Fox News poll was up by four points. Today we had El-Sayed up by seven points. That is a tremendous change, a lot of momentum on El-Sayed's side. And I will note that all of a sudden, you know, you could essentially turn Michigan blue. And there you go. You got back up to 51 seats that way. So I think Michigan's a real example of the actual facts on the ground don't necessarily meet the perception that we sometimes hear in the media. Right, right. And, you know, and we'll see. We'll see if the polls are right everywhere, if they're right some places and not others.

49:21And what all this what all this means. OK, tell me something. I don't know, Harry. I will tell you something you don't know. We were just talking about Michigan, right? Well, one thing that I think could be very good for Democrats is Donald John Trump. His net approval rating in our CNN poll. Look at this. It was 33 points underwater. What does that make Donald Trump the most unpopular president in Michigan going into a midterm election going back at least 35 years? It might be longer than that. It might be upwards of 50 years. So if we do see Democrats doing well across the map, like in what we see in the polling in Michigan, I think this will be the number one reason why a historically unpopular president in Donald Trump.

50:00Interesting. And maybe that's some of the context for why he's canceling those visits to Iowa and Kansas where we started the show. Smart, smart, smart. We will bring it all full circle. Wonderful to see you, Harry. And thanks so much, of course, as always, for all of you joining us tonight. AC 360 starts now. When you're building a company, you learn that trust is what closes deals. You may have the best product, but buyers won't sign without proof that your product is secure, especially if it has AI. Vanta gets you compliant fast with SOC 2, ISO 27001, and more, and keeps you secure with continuous monitoring.

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