Trump’s rough week: Primary loss, Iran crisis & GOP meltdown explained

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[00:00:00]Trump is has has been so victorious in so many Republican primaries that him losing one is kind of big news.

[00:00:07]>> A lot of them have been asked like Bennett in Colorado and and >> [music] >> and others, you know, what do you think of Planet? Doesn't it make it rather difficult for you to talk about moral issues in your attacks against both Paxton and then of course of Trump. What they've got is a situation [music] which is not troubling to them but very troubling to President Trump.

[00:00:33]>> Welcome back to Political Perspectives.

[00:00:35]I'm Bob Cusack with the Washington Examiner with my colleagues Hugo Gurdon and Byron York. Big elections on Tuesday night Byron, we'll start with you.

[00:00:45]Races in many states including California, Iowa, New Jersey. What What were your takeaways from the big night?

[00:00:53]>> Well, I was paying the most attention to California, but we can start out with a race in Iowa where Donald Trump endorsed Randy Feenstra, the Republican candidate for governor in the primary and Feenstra lost. It was very narrow, but he lost.

[00:01:11]So, Trump is has has been so victorious in so many Republican primaries that him losing one is kind of big news. So anyway, big loss for Trump in Iowa. Now, the other two are in California, the governor's race and the mayor's race. And I have to say I'm I'm just so irritated by the way California elections work.

[00:01:38]I mean basically we know as we speak, we know maybe 60% of the the votes in both the governor's race and the LA mayor's race. And the New York Times reported that in the 2024 primary, it took 10 days to find to get to 95% of the vote counted. That is because if you got your mail-in ballot into the mail on election day, uh you uh there you have 7 days for it to get there and be counted. So, it's a terrible system. We knew that.

[00:02:16]Uh what's what's interesting uh Spencer Pratt uh performed kind of as we expected in the mayor's race. He came in a solid second place, but that could disappear with these mail-in votes. Not not entirely sure. It seems to be pretty strong. Um and then Steve Hilton, the Republican, might make it into the uh the runoff in uh in uh the governor's race. Not clear.

[00:02:41]>> Mhm.

[00:02:42]>> Yeah, and well, speaking of elections, uh Hugo, want to go to you, uh Grant Platinor. Uh he's running for the US Senate and uh over the last week he's been running from the media uh since his uh sexting scandal.

[00:02:55]Uh adds to more uh adds more controversy to to his bid to defeat Susan Collins.

[00:03:02]Uh what do you make of him? And Democrats are in a real tough spot because how can you go after Ken Paxton with all his baggage? Uh and he does have a lot of baggage in Texas, but yet you're defending uh this guy, this Democrat Platinor, in Maine.

[00:03:16]>> Yeah, they're in a very difficult position, the Democrats, because they've really nailed their colors to the Platinor mast, let's say.

[00:03:23]Um and it's possible the ship will go down. Um although as has been pointed out by a number of people, you know, if you're not if you don't if you don't go down because you have a Nazi tattoo and because of extraordinarily graphic and revolting tweets uh or posts on social media relating to sex and descriptions thereof and all sorts of stuff like that, uh maybe sexting half a dozen women um in the year after you're married or so doesn't take you down either. It's certainly the case that the liberal Democrats of coastal Maine seem to think that Glenn Platner has lightning in a bottle and he's going to win and I know the betting markets still put him as possibly beating Susan Collins but she she's a very tough customer. She's a five-term senator and I think a lot of Democrats are concerned that Platner is going to blow their chances of taking the Senate.

[00:04:22]Now the Senate map was never really in their favor but without beating Collins, I think the Democrats are in a tough position.

[00:04:29]Pretty much impossible for them to take the Senate and you can see many of them or several of them hedging on this. They don't want to answer. There's a you know, a lot of them have been asked like Bennet in Colorado and and and others, you know, what do you think of Platner? Doesn't it make it rather difficult for you to talk about moral issues in your attacks against both Paxton and of course of Trump and they hedge and they haver and they can't answer. So he's an embarrassment to them.

[00:05:01]And we have also learned in the course of this last few days since his the sexting scandal came out that under Maine law he could still he could win the primary but he could still be forced out if his embarrassments to the party continue to rise. As long as they the party replaces him within a certain space of time, we could find Platner winning but actually him not being the candidate. Where have we seen that before? Of course, Kamala Harris replacing Biden.

[00:05:31]>> Yeah, and Platner has gone after the media and I I I don't think he's handled this this scandal well because if you admit mistakes, voters will will understand and and and most times forgive you. But but Byron, going back to what you said about Feenstra and his loss and this is such a rare loss for Trump in endorsements but but Trump has had a rough run. I mean he backed down on this anti-weaponization fund because he had to because it would have been basically was getting all messed up in the reconciliation strategy Democrats going after it so he backed off on that. Looks like he's not going to get his ballroom money. The Senate parliamentarian has ruled against that in this reconciliation measure which is really important on on funding CPP and ICE.

[00:06:16]Um but that's the other thing reconciliation is has missed the deadline was supposed to pass by now. Uh Trump's had a rough run and we haven't and not even mentioning Iran which which is looking pretty rough right now.

[00:06:30]Uh what what's your take of where the White House is as we get closer to the election?

[00:06:34]>> Well put Iran aside for just a moment but most of those are are setbacks on Capitol Hill where he has the tiniest Republican majority possible in [snorts] in the house and a number of senators who are pretty irritated with him over John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy and and other you know Republicans who have been poorly treated in their view by Trump. Uh but Trump was he was never going to be a legislative juggernaut after getting the big beautiful bill through that's been kind of it for him because because you know from the very first moment uh when he says so help me God and becomes president he has been depending on executive authority. He has [snorts] been basically everything that he has done that that we could talk about has been through executive authority and then he's been fighting in the courts over his authority to use his executive authority. Right. Uh but the point is is it's not a big um Capitol Hill thing. It's [snorts] it's going to come back and bite him at some point. Obviously, if he loses the house in the midterms, he could well be impeached. And if he did have a legislative agenda, it would be dead.

[00:07:52]And if he were to lose the Senate, I don't think he will, but if he were to lose the Senate, that would be even more disastrous, which is he has to get nominations through the Senate.

[00:08:02]So he has he's had a bad streak there.

[00:08:04]And as far as the Iran is concerned, I must say I watched a lot of Marco Rubio's testimony to the House and the Senate Foreign Affairs Committees on Tuesday.

[00:08:17]And it was not the most optimistic thing I ever heard. He said, "Basically, it's it's really great that that Iran is even talking about their nuclear program, but we really don't know how far they'll go. And boy, it's really hard to negotiate with them. I mean, you don't know who to talk to, and it takes forever.

[00:08:38]They're you know, they're all in hiding basically because the United States and Israel killed a huge number of them.

[00:08:45]So So there's you know, no deal as far as the Strait of Hormuz is concerned.

[00:08:53]They're kind of proposing a straight open the strait and we'll lift the blockade deal. That's not happening.

[00:08:59]So you're I think the worst part of his bad streak of late has been in Iran.

[00:09:04]>> If I could just jump in on Iran >> Yeah, absolutely.

[00:09:07]>> I think it you know, when Marco Rubio says it's really great that at least they're talking, I don't think it's really great that they're talking at all. I think the Iranians are willing to talk and talk and talk because what they've got is a situation which is not troubling to them, but very troubling to President Trump and to you know, if there's no resolution, oil prices continue to rise. In fact, they just wrote Brent crude is heading towards $100 a barrel. That's the benchmark. It's now at 97 something.

[00:09:38]Uh American uh consumers pumping gas at the at the pump are going to feel this and it's going to undermine Republican and Trump popularity in the run-up to the midterms.

[00:09:52]The the Iranians are perfectly willing to talk and while they're talking, it's they who are threatening to leave, but while they're talking, they were attacking Kuwait, they attacked Bahrain, the sirens were going off in Saudi Arabia. They're actually conducting military operations on a scale not dissimilar from when there was no ceasefire. So, they are getting away with it and what we've got now is you know, the administration which not many weeks ago was saying the Iranians are desperate for a deal. We now have the Trump administration getting more desperate for a deal and the Iranians being able to sit it out. And I think one of the things that you you mentioned the sort of streak of losses that President Trump has suffered just recently.

[00:10:37]One of the consequences of that, it's not an unusual one, is when he is not having a good streak, he sort of disappears from view and of course, he hasn't been doing very much the last week and it prompts the speculation and the sort of ridiculous speculation frankly about his health. We know he played golf a couple of days over the weekend, so his health is fine, but you can you can there's a sort of barometer of him not having a great uh news cycle again and again by the fact that you don't see him out in front of the cameras as much as you did.

[00:11:11]>> Last question to both of you, start with you Hugo. I I didn't mention Bill Pulte was is now the acting, he's got a top intelligence job and Republicans are nervous.

[00:11:19]Republicans are nervous about everything on Capitol Hill.

[00:11:22]They're nervous about this reconciliation being blocked. Bill Pulte, that pick while not while an acting and doesn't have to be confirmed, could imperil the FISA uh legislation cuz Democrats are saying they're not going to vote for that. I mean, uh but big picture, Hugo, can Republicans get past this and unite? Some of these are inside baseball fights, but if you're not united, you got a problem as a party, especially going into what's going to be a tough election.

[00:11:49]>> The lack of unity just keeps on building, unfortunately. I mean, this is just another issue which is separating President Trump from John Thune.

[00:11:59]Uh people don't There's a lot of people who don't like uh Paulty. They think, "Wait a second, he has no uh intelligence experience." It seems to suggest to a lot of people that uh President Trump, you know, just to confirm President Trump's dislike in the intelligence community, which he is justified in having.

[00:12:18]But yeah, I think that you're right.

[00:12:19]This is a This is a problem. There's the the the Republicans are at sixes and sevens right now, and uh and that is not a good look. Voters don't like to see a party that can't agree with themselves. Well, why should they agree with the party if they can't agree with themselves?

[00:12:34]>> Yeah, Byron, I'll give you the last word on that.

[00:12:36]>> Well, the best thing you can say about the uh Paulty appointment is it's acting.

[00:12:41]Uh he he's he's going to be in office. I think he's got about 7 months he can serve uh in office before he had to leave uh unless he was confirmed by the Senate.

[00:12:51]We haven't had any indication that President Trump intends to nominate him for the uh permanent job. Uh on the other hand, it is as Hugo said, it's just an irritant, and we got a number of uh of uh Republicans who who pronounced their irritation uh at this. One of them whom was John Cornyn, who's not all that high on Trump lately for some reason.

[00:13:14]Uh and there are other Republicans who are not happy about it. So, so I it's it's doesn't It looks like a pretty terrible appointment. I mean, I just it's you you need to know something about intelligence to become the Director of national intelligence. So, um bad bad idea and uh with a number of Republicans on Capitol Hill already upset with the president, not going to make them any happier.

[00:13:38]>> Yeah, very telling that Tom Cotton, the chair of the Intel Committee, would not comment on Bolton whatsoever. That is highly unusual.

[00:13:46]Uh so, anyway, thank you, Hugo and Byron, and uh we will continue to track the results from California, and uh hopefully we'll have them next week uh when we will be back with Political Perspective.

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