Why Trump’s Panicked Goons are About to Lawyer Up

0:00This podcast is supported by Anthropic, the public benefit corporation behind Claude. Everyone's got a hard question about AI. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai slash Spotify and keep thinking. That's claude.ai slash Spotify. The implosion will be intense. We will return to the worst days of the first administration. Everybody's job will be up in the air. Everybody will be blamed by Trump for losing this election. And everyone then also will be facing the wrath of the Democrats. The day after, if they lose the Senate, the first thing that everybody is going to have to think about is getting a lawyer.

0:58It is existential. Everything changes. You could go from the most powerful people in the country to the most beleaguered people in the country in a matter of hours.

1:13Michael. Joanna. I'm Joanna Coles. You're Michael Wolff. This is Inside Trump's Head, where we go three times every week to ask what on earth is going on underneath that thatch of mouldy hay that he has on top of his head. Michael, what is the mood? Is there a mood? Is there a weather storm or a weather system, I suppose, in the White House right now? What's happening? What's happening i know you've been talking to people that's one of those those um those journalism questions which journalists asks ask when they have uh when there is no news because there won't be any news until election day uh but and in fact the mood in the white house did you just swap me away michael did you was that just the biggest well i in your defense i think the new york times asked that hoary journalistic question, the mood, earlier yesterday or the day before.

2:17So it's not just you are in the company of the New York Times, if that's where you want to be. I'm always happy to be in the company of the New York Times. Really? Well, at any rate. Sometimes. Anyway, anyway. The mood in the White House actually, you know, and alas, one might say, is not bad. I think that they've adjusted their expectations. House is lost, but they believe that they have a decent chance, maybe even a pretty good chance of holding the Senate. And they certainly do have a chance of holding the Senate. So I think everybody is holding their breath. That would be the mood. And so the better question would be, what will be the mood in the White House the day after if so much or all goes south?

3:15OK, so hold that question, because there are lots of things we're going to get to. And I just want to give people a sample of what we're going to be talking about, because Natalie Harp has been moved up even closer to the president. We're going to get into what on earth has been happening in Alaska. And we alluded to it last Saturday, actually, when we said we thought it was pretty odd that there were two people called Dan Sullivan, excuse me, on the ballot. But now we have a greater insight into it. We're going to unpack why Trump is so obsessed right now by other men. And is it some sort of weird disinhibition as he gets older?

3:52We're going to make some predictions, too. We're going to make some predictions about the Senate. And also we should remind people we are going to be live on election night. We're going to start at eight o 'clock. It's going to be Michael and I in the studio. We'll have constant news updates. Eight o 'clock Eastern time. Eastern time. Eight o 'clock Eastern time. But we'll have constant updates from our newsroom. So you can figure out with us what on earth is going on. But we'll also be inside Trump's head trying to figure out what what will be going on with him that very evening. OK, back to blow by blow, blow by blow by blow.

4:31We'll have some cocktails and I think it should be fun. It should be fun. Politainment, I think, is what it's called. Anyway, well, we'll see. It could it could be bleak, actually. You know, I've been to many an election party over the last decade or so, and they were not fun events. Actually, I'm grateful not to have to go to an election party per se this election night because, you know, depression comes on very quickly at some of these parties. Well, I think everybody, or at least the worst party I remember, I was hosting a party at Snapchat. The assumption was obviously Hillary would win. This was 2016.

5:17Everyone was clutching their tickets, high security passes to go to the Javits Center to celebrate her smashing through the glass ceiling. The reason that she was holding it at the Javits Center was apparently there is some part of a glass ceiling. It was all going to be symbolic. And then by nine o 'clock, everybody had left the building. Everybody had left the building. And there were all these gorgeous red, white and blue snacks. A night I remember well. God, yes. Sealed my fate that night. Many people's fate, I suppose. Yes, it did. You had no idea for the next 10 years you'd be inside Trump's head.

5:52But here we are again. And so we'll be working on election night, which is always the best thing to do, I think, work through everything. Just in case it doesn't go as we might have hoped on Tuesday, we are going to imagine the day after right now. We are going to imagine that actually the things that we had hoped for come true. And what will the White House look like the day after if it all goes south? If a genie gave me three wishes, I would use all my wishes to wish for my cats to live forever. But since genies don't exist, I feed my cats Smalls. Smalls is fresh, human-grade cat food that does so much more than just feed your cat.

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7:35Not for you, for your cats. When you head to smalls.com slash head, that's 60 % off your first order, plus free shipping and free treats for life. When you head to smalls.com slash head. OK, can we start in the in the presidential bedroom, which I imagine will be just, you know, the bed will be full of candy wrappers, hamburger plates, smeared old food. Well, let me let me set the scene, because, I mean, one of the things that happens here is is that there will be a an election room or a war room downstairs. And, you know, the whole set of political people in the White House will be will be working that working, working the phones, trying to be on top of the numbers before the networks are on top of the numbers, trying to figure out what's going on and doing this in conjunction.

8:34by the way, with the Justice Department and the legal staff, because they are going to be ready to pounce on anything that they might be able to to interpret as as problematic in any in any sense. And I mean, broadly, in any sense, if they can disrupt any of the elections that are close and seeming to trend against them, they will be doing that. But that's all downstairs. Okay, when you say downstairs, is that in the Oval Office? Where is it exactly? Well, it actually probably, no, it's not in the Oval Office, and it isn't in the West Wing. There'll be a room set aside. I forget actually what the name of the room is.

9:29It's in the White House proper, however, and, you know, where there's enough space and it's just converted into, you know, 50 or 60 people can crowd into this room. And there will be a lot of people working the phones all over the country. but Trump will be upstairs in the residence and, and there'll be a set of people who will go back and forth, bringing him, bringing him news, kind of giving him, giving him their sense of what's going on. You know, the data people, I mean, there are the data people and then there's somebody who can interpret the data people. He hates talking to the data people because he doesn't understand what they're saying.

10:15So someone will, will will be there to interpret that he'll be upstairs the people upstairs that's interesting um it will be suzy wiles will be upstairs or she'll she will be going back and forth but she will spend most of her time upstairs um natalie harp will be exclusively upstairs You know, I think Todd Blanche will probably be upstairs with the president. And does Donald Trump have a sort of laptop? I mean, actually, I realize we've never really seen him on a laptop, but is he monitoring this in real time on a laptop as well as having televisions? No, he isn't. This is all about television?

11:04He doesn't have a he doesn't have a laptop. And and this is all about I mean, he has a phone and and he'll be taking he'll be on the phone constantly. I mean, I mean, that will be it will be it will be the people in the in the room with with with Trump and they'll be on the phone. So they'll be getting information and they'll be relaying it to him. But he will be on the phone also with just, I mean, a variety of people, you know, other other billionaires, other friends, not he will not necessarily be on the phone with political people or numbers people or anybody who actually knows what's going on.

11:48So it will be Donald Trump on the phone telling things to other people. And what about J.D. Vance? Where will the vice president be? He may be there. I mean, he may be. He will also. I'll bet he goes back and forth. Back and forth between the residence and the room where everybody's working. Yeah. out. And what about our secretary of state, ruler of Cuba, national security advisor? You know, he may not be on the scene at all. I'm not sure. I mean, they must be wondering what on earth is going to happen and what that means for their own prospects. So there'll be lots of food. There will be lots of sodas, I guess.

12:34I mean, this is their super bowl right well i i don't i mean this is their i mean it's it's a lot more existential than that um i mean this is this is this is life or death for them um and uh and you know i mean it's if this is this this is almost everything and um and and it will it will be i mean everybody's careers are going to will pivot around what happens on Tuesday night. It changes everything for everyone or potentially changes everything for everyone in the White House. What are they assuming will happen, Michael? Well, I don't think that they're there. They're assuming that they will lose the house.

13:25That's going to happen. And then the issue will be how much do they lose it by? and if they lose it and they have a set of expectations. And if they meet those expectations, they feel pretty good, even if they lose the House. But the real issue now is the Senate. And the context here is nobody thought, you know, two months ago, three months ago, certainly six months ago, nobody thought that this would be an issue. Everyone thought that this would be, that the issue would be the House, whether they could come close to holding the House. And they still believed up until a couple of months ago that they would have a chance of holding the House.

14:13So expectations have dramatically shifted here. They are going to lose the House. And they are now looking at the Senate. They may well lose the Senate. What's the chance? I'd say certainly it's 50-50 that they'll lose the Senate. And I would argue that there's probably a greater likelihood that they will lose the Senate. So let's come on to our predictions in a minute for the Senate races because it'll be fun to make predictions now and then be held to account next Tuesday when we go live. Does Susie Wiles, is this the moment when she steps back, the first female chief of staff? Well, I mean, if they if they if they lose this, if they lose the Senate.

14:58So and this is this is going to be the pivotal question. Do they lose the Senate? If they lose the Senate, then everybody is everybody's fate is in the air. Everybody's fate. And I mean, include Susie Wiles. Actually, I think I would say her fate if they lose the Senate is written. She will go. But I think it's true about virtually everybody except Natalie Harp. Natalie is probably the only safe person in the White House. And apparently Natalie has moved into the president's private dining room where she's spreading out her endless papers and making endless piles of things to show him. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

15:44I mean, she was previously stationed just outside of the Oval Office and the dining room is just off of the Oval Office. So so in terms of of of proximity, number of feet from him, it probably really hasn't changed. But there is a certain kind of. You know, the dining room is becomes a kind of mini war room for him. And there's a lot of a lot of papers, a lot of stuff. There was a moment in which it was filled with it's often filled with with merch. Trump and MAGA merch. I was going to say, is it full of new deliveries of red hats or new deliveries of T-shirts or whatever Trump gives to people and signs for them when they come to visit him?

16:36Correct me if I'm wrong, and I may be, but was the dining room one of the Monica Lewinsky scenes? I don't know, actually. I don't know. But there isn't the closet where he keeps the merch, which he refers to as the Monica Lewinsky room. Possibly. It's like a little room. I mean, I've seen the dining room when it's filled with merchandise. Every day, your personal information is exposed somewhere online. Your email address, financial details, even your health information. It's not about being careful anymore. It's about the hundreds of data brokers who collect and sell your data without your consent.

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18:05That's incogni.com slash beast. well is this the moment that we we rattle through the seven um senate seats that really where it's really tight well let's just focus a little more on this day after just in case we may not have the opportunity because because you know maybe they'll do well and um and then they'll be celebrating but um i want to just think a minute about what it will be like if they are imploding which I think will happen. And I think the implosion will be intense beyond. We will return to the worst days of the first administration. Everybody's job will be up in the air. Everybody will be blamed by Trump for losing this election.

19:00Certainly, he will not take any blame. So it will be put on everyone else. And everyone then also will be facing the wrath of the Democrats. I mean, everybody will have to, the day after, if they lose the Senate, the first thing that everybody is going to have to think about is getting a lawyer. I mean, it is, I say, I think I said before, it is existential. Everything changes, which is such a weird, if you think about it, weird world to be working in that that you could go from the from from the most powerful people in the country to the most beleaguered people in the country in a matter of hours.

19:50I mean, Todd Blanche, for instance, I mean, I think I don't again, it would be interesting to be inside his head. He's made a bet here. And I think he's made a bet against all probably all his instincts, all the evidence. It was just to just to say, OK, you know, I have this opportunity that that I would have never imagined I would have in my life. I mean, I was just a kind of, you know, a white collar law lawyer in a, you know, in a blue chip firm. No one much liked me. I was just slogging along making my what was he making a good living. But, you know, not not, you know, no not stand out from the pack.

20:43Yeah. You know, and I commuted to the suburbs and that was that was my life. And then suddenly I'm trans transformed. transformed by Donald Trump because really no one else would take the job. And so it was like he must have had a moment. Should I do this? I mean, this could go way wrong, way quickly. But my life isn't so great. So I'm going to take a flyer on this. He's going to roll the dice. He rolled the dice. And then he became the attorney general of the United States. That's completely improbable. Todd Blanche, the Attorney General of the United States, just mind-blowingly ridiculous. It must have blown his mind.

21:28You know all his colleagues from the white-collar law firm are all like, can you believe Todd pulled it off? I mean, do you remember when he was on that case and he got it all wrong? He was a white-collar criminal lawyer at a white-shoe firm. Okay, white, sorry, sorry, white-shoe, white-shoe firm. A lot of colors here, yes. But the point is still the same, that you can imagine his colleagues saying, do you remember when he was on that case and he messed up? I cannot believe he's the attorney general. You know they're all saying that. And now what's going to happen to him? And they're going to feel semi-resentful and semi-relieved that they didn't get the chance to do the job.

22:07And then they're going to watch him struggle as the Democrats just start firing subpoenas at him, I bet. Yeah. No, if you think, I mean, Todd Blanche in the last number of months, I mean, most vividly has become the chief enabler of Donald Trump. And we should we should talk about this Cassidy Hutchinson thing, too, because just another example, they tried to prosecute her and the courts have swatted them down as so many times they have swatted effectively Todd Blanche down. And and Todd Blanche is swatted down because what is he doing? He's doing what Donald Trump has told him to do. And no doubt Todd Blanche is a you know, he may not have been the most brilliant lawyer in the world, but he certainly knows that these the actions that he's taken against these these these people who Trump has a grudge against have no chance of succeeding in in court.

23:15And so and so but he has to do them anyway, because Donald Trump tells him to do them, do them, do them, do them. And he is now the day after if if they lose the Senate, this is going to come on to him. I mean, I have a feeling that the Democrats this time around are going to be, you know, they may not be able to resist, but I think they will try to resist impeaching Donald Trump again or focusing all their firepower there. And instead, they will focus it on the people around him. Todd Blanche, I think they will try to impeach Todd Blanche. So Todd Blanche, we know they're trying to impeach already Pete Hegseth, as are several Republicans.

24:09And we should just remind people that Cassidy Hutchinson, for those who'd forgotten her name, was a junior staffer at the White House who gave evidence in the January 6 hearings and gave evidence against the White House, against Donald Trump, which is why they've gone after her. as they've gone after almost everybody who Trump believes have been personally disloyal to him. And they went after James Comey, former director of the FBI, for the third time this week, for the third time. So anyway, you know, I think everybody there the day after and there may not be a day after. I mean, they may actually hold the Senate and then everybody will be – it will be a celebratory mood the day after.

25:03But if they don't hold the Senate, it will be the exact opposite of a celebratory mood. It will be everybody's funeral. Everybody's funeral. But it won't be Donald Trump's funeral. He'll blame everybody. Except Donald Trump, yes. Except Donald Trump. Donald Trump will rise again. He will blame everybody. Will he clean house, do you think? I know you just said everybody's. I do think it will be a bloodbath in the West Wing. Without quite. He is just going to be a series of who does he blame. I mean, he will first blame the election system, and that is going to be several weeks of agony for the country.

25:51And then he's going to blame his staff. And then, of course, he will blame the Democrats and Congress, but he will also blame the Republicans in Congress. Again, just blame, blame, blame until there is no until, just ellipses there, until the end of time. What about the cabinet secretaries? Because we know that the war has been one of the most unpopular elements during this election. It's led to higher gas prices, something that Donald Trump has ridiculed most recently in his rallies, saying the country's made trillions and trillions of dollars. And who cares if the gas prices have gone up? It's only short term.

26:34And, you know, he's tried to create this idea that somehow we were facing an Iran that was about to drop a nuclear bomb on us. everybody everybody is on the hot seat again except natalie harp literally only natalie harp natalie okay so natalie harp is safe uh what about and donald trump is safe i mean he will he will um he will deflect blame he's incapable of taking blame so so it will it will fall on everyone else and he will be um what he will make himself even more trumpian than he has been and we will as we've discussed before go to war in cuba recommence war in in iran um um more what What happens to Ukraine, do you think?

27:32More Trump. He will further embrace Putin. So in some sense, life does not change for Donald Trump. He just gets more Trumpian. Does life change, I wonder, for Melania? Because we're assuming, and you haven't mentioned that she'll be in the White House. We know from her own documentary that she was going to watch. I will watch on news. I will see on news. the election results. She didn't even stay with him for election night. So do we think that she will be in Florida? She'll be living it up in New York? Well, she won't be in Florida. She doesn't go to Florida. Florida is, you know, she lives in New York.

28:19Will she be watching it? I guess she will. You know, will they try to recruit her for an appearance on election night in the White House. I'm sure they're trying to negotiate that now. I wish we could see that in her documentary series that she's supposed to be coming up with. That I would like to watch Melania negotiating as we know that she's negotiated peace in Eleshky, or a ceasefire at least between the Russians and Ukraine, and elbowed the Pope out of the way who first started it. Anyway, let's get to these specific races. Do you think that the Democrats will win Alaska after the shenanigans that were revealed in the New York Times?

29:09This was about the Democratic Party helping to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan, who is a spoiler on the ballot paper in Alaska, because the incumbent is called Dan S. Sullivan. We've discussed this before. I think it's confusing for the voter. You do? Well, I do think it's good. That's the thing. It's supposed to be confusing. If it's not confusing for the voters, then it was a wasted effort. But I think the reveal that Daniel J. Sullivan, who is apparently a man that lives on a place that is accessible only by boat or by plane, which sounds really nice for maybe two weeks of the year. I'm not sure I could commit to that for 365.

29:54I would vote for Daniel J. Sullivan. What if Daniel J. Sullivan gets elected and he's the one that doesn't want the job? Well, there's a plot point. We could write that film. That's fun. That is a brilliant idea for a film, isn't it? This poor man who gets sort of… I wouldn't go so far. It'd be pretty interesting that based on a true story of Daniel J. Sullivan, a man who lives on an island inaccessible except by plane and boat, who gets recruited, as it turns out, by a strange Midwestern operative who may or may not be using a pseudonym of Zane. But he gets recruited to run for Senate. So the idea of us, I mean, everybody, I don't, if I have to make the call here, I think that she will win.

30:52That would be. Mary Peltola we're talking about, the Democrat challenger to the incumbent. But the idea of a spoiler is a classic in American politics. Mary Peltola has dealt with dirty tricks from the Republicans before. I'm sure she has. I mean, I'm sure, you know, they're the Republicans. I mean, I, you know, I, I, there may be a some sense that the Democrats are finally, finally feel, damn, we're, we're finally playing this game properly and we're not chumps. But let me there's a there was a spoiler and, you know, a major spoiler. And it's good to call call attention to this again. And the spoiler was RFK Jr.

31:45So RFK Jr. Remember, in in 2024, RFK Jr. ran for the Democratic nomination for president. president. That was set up by Steve Bannon and Roger Stone. They had this thing. I mean,

32:05RFK Jr. had kind of become friendly with these right-wing guys and the anti-vax thing. They were, you know, they were, he was suddenly in their circle and Bannon and Stone conceived of this great idea. We'll get RFK Jr., a Kennedy, to run against Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries. Just by the virtue of being a Kennedy, he will embarrass Joe Biden. And that was the plan. Now, the plan went awry because RFK Jr. suddenly had stars in his eyes. You know, he was going to rallies. He was thinking, I like this. And so when it became clear that he had no future as in the Democratic Party and he would be defeated, Joe Biden would get the nomination and that would be it.

33:03He said, I'm going to run as an independent. And suddenly that threatened both the Democrats and the Republicans. But RFK Jr., his position in the 2024 election originally was as officially a kind of, we understand this, he's a spoiler.

33:52Well, I'll never forget. We did a wonderful piece at the Daily Beast about the woman who financed RFK Jr. And I've mentioned her to you before, but I was fascinated by her story because she came from very modest backgrounds. Her name was Nicole Shanahan. And on her bachelorette party to her first husband, she met Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google. Lo and behold, after she gets married, 27 days after she gets married, her husband files for divorce because he's discovered she's having an affair with Sergey Brin. She goes on to marry Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, so a very wealthy man. And who does she end up having an affair with but an even wealthier man, Elon Musk?

34:41And it was her divorce settlement. It was a very quick divorce. Her divorce settlement ended up funding RFK Jr.'s election campaign. And he selected her to be his vice presidential candidate. And she presented herself as an AI lawyer. We spoke to one of her friends who said she knows as much about AI as a tennis ball. So it was just, again, stranger than fiction. She would also make a great film alongside our Daniel J. Sullivan. This has little relevance to the story of the two Daniel Sullivans. But nevertheless, it should be repeated again and again because it is an American story at this point in time.

35:26It's an American story. And there was one some moment, apparently, where Elon Musk fell to his knees and asked Sergey Brin to forgive him because the two men had been friends up until that point. Great. Amazing. I mean, you just you cannot make it up. It's why I can't read novels at the moment unless they're old novels, because there's nothing matching what's happening right now. But let's go back to Mary Paltola. Okay. Well, let's go down the list here. Well, hold on. Let's just go back to Mary Paltola, who says that she didn't know this was going on. She fired a ton of her campaign staff, and it appears to have been a disgruntled ex-staffer who came forward and said, actually the campaign was involved in recruiting Daniel J.

36:23Sullivan. And then she tried to take it back from the New York Times, who said, not so fast. This actually matches with other reporting we've done. And my concern, you think it might make the Democrats think, you know, Democratic voters think, oh, great, the Democrats are finally matching or meeting the Republicans where they are. I worry that it's just going to make people think, oh, they're all at it. They're all corrupt. They're all as bad as each other. Well, they already think that. I'm not sure that that stops. I'm not sure that stops anyone from voting. I mean, there is. You only have two choices.

37:04Well, actually, in this case, you have three choices. You don't. You have four choices because there's another man on the ballot, too. I hope that everybody who votes for Daniel J. Sullivan and the man who is inaccessible gets sent to Washington and turns out probably to be an incredible guy. He's a former school teacher. It's just a great story. I mean, who would not be in favor of that? Yes. That's what we want. That's what I'm voting for if I were in Alaska. All right. So let's go to the seven races and let's place our bets. Okay, Texas.

37:44I think Tallarico is going to win.

37:50I'm not so sure. I feel I'm swayed by a conversation I have with a senior official at UT, University of Texas, on Saturday where he said, you know what, no one will tell you this, but the thing is things are pretty good in Texas right now. I don't think James Tallarico is going to get the vote. You've got to decide. I think it's going to be a squeaker. I think it's going to be a squeaker.

38:18Of course it's going to be a squeaker, but who's going to squeak ahead, according to Joanna Coles? You know what? I'm going to come down on Tallarico's side. Let's vote for the future here. Let's vote for the future. Let's hope that his combination of faith and kind of slightly holier than thou is going to work against the horribly corrupt Ken Paxton. We know you hope that he's going to win, but this is now a call. Joanna Coles is calling. All right. I'm calling it for Tallarico. Okay. Me too. I actually don't think Tallarico is going to win, but I'm calling it for Tallarico. Can I have it both ways?

39:01No, no, you can't. You can't. So you don't think he's going to win. So you're calling it for Paxton. I think Elon's money in Texas is going to make a difference. OK, Paxton. Joanna calls us Paxton. I'm calling it for Paxton. OK, Maine. I'm calling it for Susan Collins. Yeah, me too. And the thing you hear about Susan Collins in Maine, not only has she been there for 30 years at this point, but almost everybody in Maine has met Susan Collins. I mean, it's a tiny population, and she's been there long enough that everybody knows someone, if they haven't met her, who has met her. And that makes an enormous difference when you think about people.

39:46It lessens the gap between us and the politicians. Okay, what about Michigan, El-Sayed versus Mike Rogers? El-Sayed. I don't think so. I don't think Al-Sayed is going to. I think the vote. That's tension. You're Rogers. I'm Al-Sayed. Well, I'm not Rogers. I just don't think Al-Sayed is going to get the black vote in Detroit. No, no, no. Let me just go over what we're doing here. We're making our predictions. Who do you think is going to win? I think Al-Sayed is going to win. I think Mike Rogers is going to win in Michigan. Great. remember how i'm just going to defend my decision here this this is not what i necessarily want to happen i'm just going to say no we know that we know we know people have forgotten hayley stevens the congresswoman who got elbowed out of the way i know these are just we're just we're just making all right well i think i think detroit is not going to come out and vote for el sayed that's what I think.

40:51Okay, great, great. I mean, that could be perfectly reasonable and it may well be true. So you don't have to feel guilty for that. No, I'm just... If you do feel guilty. I feel... I'm with Mary. You're with... I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Daniel J. Sullivan. I'm going to say Daniel J. No, I think Mary's going to win. But if she doesn't win, and this is, I mean, how amazing would this be if the campaign has hired this Midwestern operative, political operative, they run a spoiler, she loses the election and she loses the Democrats, the Senate. Yep. Well, that would be painful. Ohio.

41:42Brown. Ohio. Yeah, Sherrod Brown. I think Sherrod Brown's coming back. Okay, now let's - Well, hold on. Hold on. We haven't discussed whether or not John Husted's amazing muscle ridden ass should be running its own campaign. They should have added the ass, John Husted's ass, as a spoiler because Donald Trump was so fascinated by it. Well, let's get, I want to get to that because I have a point of view on Donald Trump and his admiration for physical attributes, which I think is important political insight. But we will get to that. But first, let's do. Sherrod Brown, we're both on. That's the first one.

42:24But South Carolina, which I find really, really interesting. I think that's the most interesting call here, the most interesting possibility that Darlene Graham, who is Donald Trump, is 100 percent responsible for her. The fact that she could very well lose this race. Yeah, I'm going to go for Annie Andrews here. I think Annie Andrews, the doctor, is going to win over Darlene Graham. I think Darlene Graham is going to lose. Fantastic. I mean, just that would be – I actually think that Darlene Graham will probably win, unfortunately. But I think it's marvelous and remarkable that she might not.

43:17Anyway, I'm going to be on the Darlene. Well, she's clearly under pressure. I'm on the Darlene. Darlene is my call.

43:49We've been saying seven and we've actually only done six. But in fact, if we add Iowa and Kansas, it's eight. So Iowa is a very interesting one. Josh Turek, who's an incredibly impressive, he's in a wheelchair and he's a gold medal basketball player, I think, up against Ashley Hinson, who's a very effective campaigner. They're both good campaigners. Josh Turek is the Democrat. I mean, we can just we ought to just focus for a moment. I mean, Iowa and Kansas are interesting because the enormity of of the impact were they to elect Democrats is, you know, I think we're into the into unimaginable territory.

44:40I mean, what that means, what that would mean is that the distaste, the contempt, the hatred for Donald Trump is so much greater than I think anyone understands. That would be a measurement. Okay, so what are you saying? You're saying Josh Turek or Ashley Hinson? Ashley Hinson has been campaigning with Donald Trump. I actually think that in both cases, the Republican will win. Oh, I don't think that Roger Marshall is going to win in Kansas. Great. I think that you have, again, once, I mean, he's a slightly different generation than Al-Sayed, but I think Adam Hamilton, who's a pastor, is a once in a generation older, a boomer candidate, or I guess technically he's Gen X.

45:37But he is a phenomenal candidate and he's come from nowhere. And he speaks of really being in the middle of being moderate. He speaks as if he's an independent, which I think will appeal to the voters. And he's like James Tallarico talks a lot about his faith. I mean, I think the secret for these these Democrats in really Republican states is that they all talk about God and they talk about their faith. And Adam Hamilton. Well, it will be an interesting measure. I mean, these are liberal clergymen. So their faith is significantly different than the evangelical faith. So do they get to pass here in that amorphous world of Christianity?

46:29I would be surprised. Well, Adam Hamilton has a huge congregation. I mean, his congregation is, I think, 25 ,000, and he's a very effective speaker. You know, I hear, listen, I think it would be, yes, let's do it. That would be great. And that would be, as I say, a measure, a profound measure. So I will say I don't think it's going to happen. I think Ashley Hinson will squeak ahead in Iowa, but I do think Adam Hamilton's going to win in Kansas. Great. Okay. All right. So I've totally forgotten which our predictions are now. I can't remember if I went for or against Tallarico. You went for Tallarico.

47:12We both went for Collins. No, I went for Paxton. Oh, yes. Forced to decide, you went for Paxton. Susan Collins, we both went for. You went for Mike Rogers. I went for Al-Sayed. You went for Daniel J. Sullivan.

47:33I think Mary Peltola will win Alaska. Okay. We're both on Mary's side. This isn't about being on their side. It's about whether or not we think they'll win. I get it. I get it. Everybody gets it. But sometimes people don't understand. I get comments saying I'm a huge fan of John Thune. I'm not a huge fan of John Thune other than I know he secretly hates Donald Trump and he's taller than Donald Trump, which drives Donald Trump mad. Sounds to me like you're a huge fan of. South Carolina. I think Annie Andrews will win. You think Darlene Graham will win. Exactly. We both think Brown is going to win.

48:13Sherrod Brown. Yeah, I think the Republicans are going to win in Kansas and Iowa. And you think the Democrats are going to win. No, I think Ashley Hinson is going to win in Iowa. She's the Republican. But I think that Adam Hamilton is going to win in Kansas. And we will have on election night, we will hold each other to account. We should do the house races, too, because they're a whole set of screwball races thinking about future movie scripts. So let's do those on Saturday. What day is today? Thursday. Yes, let's do them on Saturday. Okay. And we can't forget Max Miller, who is just a grim character, and Lauren Boebert, famously seen on grainy black and white CCTV groping some guy when she went to the movies and vaping secretly.

49:11Save it. Save it for Saturday. These are all too good. And these are all, by the way, races in which these comic figures are deeply imperiled. But anyway, save it for Saturday. let's do Trump and physical attributes. Okay. Because there's a perspective here that I want to add. So anyway, we know Trump is one of his go-to things when he talks about anybody. And women and men. I mean, I think the bias was, well, we felt that he just talks about women this way. But he doesn't just talk about women that way. He talks about men, too, always, whether they're too fat or whether they're there or whether he admires them in some way, whether they're handsome.

50:05It is that it's a baseline for him. And when he says, oh, he wants someone from central casting, that's that's part of it. It's all about how people look. Did he ever say to you when you went to sit with him and then you stayed for seven months in the White House, did he ever talk to you? Well, no, but I wasn't sure if he ever commented. Did he ever say you're bald, why don't you wear a toupee or something? No, Joanna, he never said that. But he did say, I hear you have a hot wife. Interesting. Well, you do have a hot wife. Victoria is very hot. She's fantastic. So there's a perspective that I think we forget, but it is, I think, elemental to understanding Donald Trump, understanding how he sees himself and how he sees the world.

51:02And it is hard to appreciate because we see Donald Trump and he's a grotesque. I mean, look at this. over made up sweaty i i mean it's i mean it's it's it's horrifying and actually i i think he has put this to good use and and i mean he stands out among everyone um he stands out for his size he stands out for his hair he stands out for the absurd color of his skin he stands out for these the ridiculous way he wears his suits. Didn't he say to Stormy Daniels when she asked him, as they were lying in bed after a romantic encounter at a celebrity golf match, what's with the hair? And he said, people remember it.

51:52People remember my hair. Very much. He had a level. That's one of the few times when I found him to have a kind of level of self-awareness about himself and about the way he looks. because otherwise he carries himself as though he looks and everyone should look the way he looks. You know, that it's, I mean, there is no nod to the fact that he looks like a clown. But I want to just add a dimension to this, which again, it's hard to remember because of the way he looks and just hard to remember because his career at this point has been so long. But Donald Trump spent a long time, the 60s, the 70s, certainly into the 80s, as a kind of a beautiful boy.

52:49I mean, Donald Trump was good-looking. Donald Trump was kind of famous for being good-looking. And good-looking in that sort of, you know b movie star way he had sort of knitting pattern good looks yeah i i mean he was you know there was nothing distinguished about about about his looks except that they were they they were a kind of um they were kind of american you know um i i don't know maybe a a kind of classic you would cast him as the perfect playboy. So what are you saying that that he's now turned himself into a parody? But well partly I think I'm I'm saying that part of understanding Donald Trump what's in Donald Trump's head is that he sees himself as as as this as the as someone who people admire, who people look at.

54:00He wants to be looked at. He's used to being looked at. He's used to being an object of, dare I say, desire. That just sends a chill through me. But again, it's part of a sort of Hollywood through line, isn't it, that someone who starts off, as you say, with B-movie good looks becomes increasingly grotesque. It is like the old vaudeville entertainer. And it reflects on how he sees the world. That's why he's always talking about the way people look. That's what he relates to. It's a world. It's a superficial world. Well, it'll be so interesting to see if the candidates He's backed like Darlene Graham and like Ken Paxton.

54:49I mean, he's so rude about the way Ken Paxton looks. He's not, I don't think, commented on how Darlene looks because I'm sure she's not his feminine ideal. But Ken Paxton, he's rude about to Ken Paxton's face. And Ken Paxton just smiles and looks like he's enjoying the humiliation. That's all you can do. All you can do. Well, Michael, I can't wait to come back and talk about, as you say, the screwballs in the House that are going to be up for re-election. Lauren Boebert, Max Miller. And we'll be talking about Tom Kane from New Jersey, who disappeared for several months, told everybody that he was absolutely fine.

55:32Nevertheless, didn't seem to do any constituency business, was very busy stock trading and then came back and said he'd been depressed. Then we've got Ana Paulina Luna in Florida, and we've also got Maria Elvira Salazar in Florida, who made a video imploring the president to stop ICE arrests in the streets, saying that all those Hispanics who'd voted for him were now going to turn against him. Which they may well do. Which they may well do. Anyway, we will come to this on Saturday and have some fun. we will all this is fun we get to have fun right up until election night and maybe we'll have fun on election night but as i say i've been to many election nights and they often end um it's not fun that's democracy in it it keeps you guessing it keeps you guessing let's just not forget katie zachariah i don't ever want to forget katie katie zachariah the short-lived press secretary who has been out doing a tour, a sort of motivational tour, I would say.

56:42So she reinvented herself within hours. As a motivational speaker, yeah. Well, I guess there's a model, so this is the Scaramucci of it all. Yes, yes, although she doesn't have her own financial company that Scaramucci does. He has Skybridge Capital, which is successful in his own right. Yeah, but he doesn't really want to have Skybridge Capital. So he wants, Anthony wants to be front and center. I think Anthony wants to run for something. I think that's what his latest book is. I think he's sort of laid out a platform for what he thinks should come next. But Katie Zachariah has interestingly been.

57:22Well, maybe Katie Zachariah will run for something. Maybe we will all run for something. Maybe Anthony and Katie could run together. Maybe Anthony and Katie should run together. Yes, they should certainly tour together. They should tour together. She's been doing the rounds of the MAGA press talking about how actually it turns out to have been a strengthening experience. It's been a bonding experience with her family, her neighbors batted away. What are they called? Those people when they come and sort of look at a car wreck. Rubber neckers. Well, sort of rubber neckers, but they're sort of disaster tourists.

58:01They found out her address was out there and people started coming and taking pictures of the house because, you know, because it was such a story. Anyway, the dearly departed Katie Zachariah, she's going to be back out there. She's not departing. She's not departing. All right, Michael, we will be back on Saturday. We'll give our race predictions for the house. and if you have been, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe to The Daily Beast to get all your up-to-date information about the election and the crazy that's going on right now and all the things that the White House are planning if things don't go their way.

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