Anthony Zurcher

I think the feeling was that this was this was a prestige appearance and it did go off the rails in part, I think, because his hearing is not all that great either.

So the rain played a factor.

He looked uncomfortable.

He looked hot.

And then it just everything snowballed from there.

I think they are connected.

And I was at a Graham Platner, the Democrat running for Senate here, his event last night, and he made the direct connection.

He talked for an extended time about the Iran war, and he put it in the framework of the Republican leaders in Washington being out of touch with the people for decades.

starting a war that they didn't know how to end and for no clear purpose.

But then immediately pivoting to say that is why your prices have gone up.

That's why the price of gasoline at the pump has gone up.

That's why things are hurting more.

And it is just another illustration of

of the Republican leadership being out of touch with the concerns of Americans.

And that's something I hear Democrats talk about a lot on the campaign trail.

I think they know that this is an unpopular war.

This has been an unpopular war from the start.

And the reason it has been unpopular is because the Trump administration didn't really do a good job of explaining why

they chose to start this, and the economic impact of it because of the price of gas was felt so quickly that it was very easy to draw lines between Americans' concerns about affordability and prices, which they have had for quite some time, and Trump taking steps that are actually making that worse, not better.

Well, it's not unusual for Vance.