From the Senate races that move
from governors races to Senate races.
I mean,
thinking about the red wave
that never
manifested is causing a lot of reaction,
including Senator Ted Cruz,
who is pointing the finger
at the likes of Senator Mitch McConnell.
Listen to what he says about being
while his words truly pissed off
Let me start off by saying
I am so pissed off,
I cannot even see straight.
The country is screwed
for the next four years
because of this
Mitch would rather be leader
than have a Republican majority.
If there's a Republican
who can win, who's
not going to support Mitch
The truth of the matter is he'd
rather the Democrat win.
Do you agree with him or not, Doug?
No.
And this is an argument
that you've had in certain parts
of conservatives circles for a few years.
And Jim DeMint,
when he left the Senate
to go to the Heritage Foundation
and he was right
that he could be more powerful
outside the Senate than in it.
So I'd rather have 30 real conservatives
than a Republican majority.
Well, Republican
majority is committee chairs,
and it's how you pass things
through the Senate
or through the House, for that matter,
of having those 30 conservative senators.
It's nice,
but it doesn't get you what you need to
to pass things through.
And ultimately,
McConnell was right here
when he said, we have a problem
with the quality of our candidates.
And that was true in the House
and the Senate and the governor's races.
And Cory Lake
should be an example for Republicans
now of what not to do.
Don't tell your voters
to get the hell out of the party
because they're going to do that.
You know, one thing about the idea of
who might have been right
or maybe
vindicated in a subtle way
here is Congresswoman Liz Cheney, right?
Who has made a great deal of discussions
and points
about the idea of trying
to reclaim the Republican Party.
Listen to what she had to say
when she was speaking.
University of Chicago
just a few days ago
about what Republicans she said
need to do
Do you feel like there's
a stiff enough spine in the party
to stand up against future insurrections?
Or are we worried about January 6th?
20. 25?
No, we definitely need stiffer spines.
I mean, that's for sure.
And I think that
I think elected officials
need to understand that words matter.
And when you you sort of
see again and again
and again
people accepting things
that are indefensible.
You know, we watch what happens in our society.
And when you accept things
that you shouldn't
when you tolerate things
like January six,
then that can very easily
become the new normal.
Then it begins to be legal.
And I think that's a big
a big danger for us.
I mean, it's kind of fine
without actually to see her
sort of lurking in the shadows there,
because in many ways,
her shadow was cast on these elections
as somebody who even supported Democrats
in some instances
because she wanted people to understand
about democracy being on the line.
But her point is,
Republicans need to have stiffer spines
in order to even compete
in a future election.
You talk with a long game a lot.
Do they need swift response
and do they actually have it?
I don't know if
Republicans have it or not.
I do think
they need to condemn Donald Trump
across the board.
I think the reason why
you're seeing this split is
because there are there's still you know.
30% of Republicans
that support Donald Trump.
The election deniers
did not win this election, but they did.
Some of them didn't get blown out.
You mentioned
we're a week out
and we were waiting
for every single ballot to be counted
because there was still
a significant amount
of people in Arizona
who thought
Carrie Lake should be the governor.
And I think that's what Liz Cheney is
speaking to.
I agree.
I don't think anyone when the court
says, no, no, no, you did not win
and you don't have legal recourse,
but we can make it commonplace
where election deniers can still thrive
and be actual candidates,
because when they are let's rewind.
A year or so ago,
we have people like the cyber
ninjas wasting taxpayer dollars
running these sham
fraudulent audits that we know
didn't actually need to happen.
And the results still stayed the same.
So I don't know if Republicans
will have a stiff
enough spine to say no to Donald Trump.
We'll see tomorrow
after this announcement.
I mean, if he announces. Right.
And part of the issue,
I mean, the idea of having a spine, Alex,
these issues here and instances is it
really is contingent on whether
the so-called leader
of the Republican Party,
Donald Trump,
will vie to be the next president
yet again. And just listen to this.
You had a number of people
who have been saying
just today alone
that Trump is bad for the party
from Governor Baker to Larry Hogan.
Listen to this.
I think one of the
messages from the election
is for Republicans generally is
we need we need as a party
to move past
President Trump,
especially the third election in a row
that Donald Trump has cost us the race.
And it's like, you know,
three strikes, you're out.
I think what Republicans came to grips
with Tuesday
night was we're tired of losing
and we're tired of Donald Trump.
Dragging us to lose
because of his personal vanity.
President Trump had to insert himself.
There's a very high correlation
between MAGA candidates and big losses
or at least dramatically underperforming.
I mean, but having said that,
will the Republican Party quit Trump?
Well, what all four of those men
have in common
is that they're not facing
Republican primary voters again
any time soon.
Maybe Larry Hogan
will run for president in 20, 24
and we'll see how kind of how that
is for them then.
But yeah, I mean,
you know, Charlie Baker
declined to run for reelection
rather than face
a Trump endorsed primary challenger.
And that cost
the GOP really badly in Massachusetts.
I think the voices that it's worth
really watching out for
are the Republicans who got reelected
this month
without playing the Trump game.
Right.
So someone like Brian Kemp in Georgia,
Trump made it his personal mission
to destroy him
because he didn't try to overturn
the 2020 election.
And first,
Brian Kemp demolished David Perdue
in the Republican primary for governor
and then he beat Stacey Abrams
by a very solid margin
in the general election.
Does somebody like him speak up and say,
I know how to win,
I've done it better than Donald Trump
and it's time for the party to move on?
He hasn't said that kind of thing yet.
I do think that's the kind of voice
of Mike DeWine in Ohio,
Greg Abbott in Texas.
If you start hearing from people
who are
frankly closer
to the center of the Republican Party
rather than the center of the country,
which is where Charlie Baker is,
then I think that would send
a pretty powerful message
to Republican voters.