Donald Trump's power lies not in
government right now,
he's not president.
I know millions of Americans
don't think that's true, but
he's not the president, but what
he can do is support candidates.
And he has loved to
consider himself to be a kingmaker
in the Republican Party, wielding
the threat of helping someone be
primaried if they go against him or
boosting candidates so
that they win.
Well, earlier this week,
his candidate, Susan Wright,
in a Republican runoff in Texas,
a congressional race,
lost to Navy veteran, Jake Ellzey.
And he had supported Susan Wright.
He did rallies for Susan Wright.
He put out mailers and
did calls for Susan Wright.
He endorsed her more than two
months before the election.
And in fact, when he endorsed her,
some polls at that point had her up
as much as 17 points over Ellzey.
And yet the Trump-opposed candidate
ended up winning.
So my question to the panel is,
is this the beginning of the end?
Or more importantly, how many of
these sorts of picks would have to
go wrong for him before some
Republicans started to grow
something reminiscent of a spine?
And stopped fearing that if they
oppose him on literally anything,
that could be the end of their
career.
Do you think that that's
possibly coming?
How would that look if it were
to come?
>> Yeah, well look, I think this is
a really interesting story and
the jury's still out.
Look, one angle is what John is
talking about, where
the Republicans grow a spine, but
it's not really growing a spine.
It's just realizing he's not as
powerful as we thought he was, so
there's going to be less
consequences.
If I thought there was going to be
consequences, I would put away
my spine right away.
If you're a Republican,
they proved it, right?
But to me, the other interesting
part of it is, when can we start
ignoring Donald Trump?
Because the only reason I pay
attention to him is because I'm
worried he's going to win again.
I'm worried about his overwhelming
influence on the Republican Party.
And I'm worried that he can get any
Republican elected or unelected,
and hence his influence
on the Republican Party and
his influence on the country.
But if I thought he had no power in
the Republican Party, I'd drop him
like a bad habit and I would be
thrilled to do that, right?
And I'd never cover him again.
So this is interesting.
It's just one data point, but
if he endorses a bunch of people on
primaries and they don't win,
that's great news.
That's great news for everybody,
including our audience, because
then you'd see a lot less of him,
because then that means he's lost
his power and
he's lost his relevance.
But as to why this candidate lost,
that's a huge mystery, but
I'm going to let Maz weigh in.
>> Well, first of all,
I'll piggyback on what you said.
I will say, the moment he got
banned from Twitter, I just feel
like there was this big sigh,
world sigh of just ahh.
And suddenly my life was not as
stressful as it had been for
four years.
When the world is burning anyway,
and some nutjob wakes up
every morning with 50 new tweets
that have nothing to do with what's
going on in the world, but he's
going to throw right it in your
face, you're like, how dare he said
that, and now you're going nuts.
Thank God, first of all, ahh,
that made me do that.
Then when I saw more coverage
of him recently, I'm going, God,
let's not cover this guy anymore
because we've giving him oxygen,
but to your point, Cenk,
there is danger there, so
the danger needs to be covered.
And hopefully people start to
grow a spine,
they start to realize that this guy
doesn't have as much power.
They're saying in the article that
the organization that convinced him
to endorse the candidate who lost
was an organization called Club for
Growth.
Which always I find very
interesting that these clubs or
these organizations are very much
against things that are good,
always use these positive terms
like Club for Growth.
Unless you're LGBTQ or
women's rights or
people of color or
any of that stuff, Club for Growth.
You look them up because one of
the things they stood for is that
they're supporting candidates who
are not for COVID protocols.
So their Club for Growth, meaning,
okay, we want the economy to grow,
but we also want our people to die.
So not really for growth,
maybe your club for death,
I don't know, but
it's interesting with the name.
Now here's the most interesting
part, the dude,
I'm not going to say his name.
I'm trying not to say his name,
even though his guy lost in
the article,
because it wasn't really a loss, it
was two Republicans going against
each other, so it's a win win.
This guy uses a technique.
I use that technique with my kids
when they argue with me, I go,
no, no, no, this is my house, so
I'm right.
You're wrong, I'm right.
This guy thinks he's
everybody's dad.
He's not everybody's dad, and
we got to start pointing that out
to people and kick him the hell
out and put him wherever.
The only time I want to hear his
name is when it's followed by
guilty, that's it, namaste.
>> Yeah, namaste [LAUGH].
Club for Growth is, their only
purpose is to cut taxes for
rich people in this country.
And so that's why they do it, but
the Republicans are the exact
opposite of Democrats in one way.
It has an upside,
it also has a downside.
They rip each other to
shreds endlessly.
Democrats never, my God,
my beloved colleagues,
they never criticize each other,
very much to a fault, right?
Manchin and Sinema should be
criticized, Biden and
Pelosi should be criticized at
different times, right?
Whereas the Republicans are like,
you looked at me kind of funny?
I hate you, right?
[LAUGH] >> So now everybody's
out there going, Club for
Growth screwed Donald Trump,
David McIntosh, who runs it,
is the worst.
My God, Club for Growth,
Rick Perry's like, my God,
they should not darken the doors of
Texas anymore, right?
So they're like, it's not Trump,
because the beloved dear
leader can never be criticized,
he has no anus like Kim Jong Un or
Kim Jong-il, actually.
But since they can't criticize
Trump, they're like, this Club for
Growth, I'm so
mad at them because they gave
beloved Donald Trump bad advice.
Trump would have been perfect and
immaculate if it wasn't for
them, right?
But guys,
the most interesting question is,
why did Susan Wright lose?
Susan Wright had
won the first round in Texas.
Basically two rounds of elections,
two rounds of primaries, and
she'd won the first round.
She'd beaten the same guy.
And she was up by 10 to 15 in
the polling.
And Trump endorsed her many times
as John pointed out, there was no
reason at all for her to lose.
It was a kind of a safe thing for
Trump, you're up by 15 sure,
I'll endorse you and
then I'll pretend I did it, right?
So we're looking into it, and
we're going to try to get somebody
on the conversation to talk about
why this race turned
out the way that it did.
because if it's she lost because of
Trump, that would be a whole
different thing.
And that would be a massive
change within the Republican Party,
but we don't know that yet.