'Donald Trump is gonna hate it': Mobile Epstein files museum hits the road

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The Briefing with Jen Psaki 42 min 6 speakers 3 chapters transcribed 2 months ago
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Stephanie Ruhle 0:00
There's a lot of news to cover.
Unknown 0:01
Money.
Stephanie Ruhle 0:02
The economic fallout from the war. Is it temporary? Power. Is this White House for sale?
Unknown 0:07
Politics.
Stephanie Ruhle 0:07
What is your message to the country right now?
Unknown 0:10
Money Power Politics with Stephanie Ruhl. Weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern on MSNOW.
Jen Psaki 0:15
We are less than 100 days out from the midterms, and there are a lot of good things happening. A lot of good things. In Texas, a new poll out today shows Democrat James Tallarico leading Ken Paxton by five points. And while, yeah, it's still within the margin of error, it is the largest lead for Tallarico in any public poll taken thus far.

What’s the midterm landscape and why do Senate control stakes matter?

Jen Psaki 0:34
And that's a big deal. That same poll even finds Tallarico leading Ken Paxton by nine points. among voters without a college degree, a key part of the Trump-era Republican coalition, of course, and a group Democrats, of course, have had a hard time winning over in recent elections. That comes on the heels of a recent poll out of Maine where the state's newly-minted Democratic nominee, Troy Jackson, leads Susan Collins by three points. That's also within the poll's margin of error, But it's going to breathe a whole lot of new life into a race that, for a period of time there, left Democrats kind of freaked out about the prospects of defeating Susan Collins after the collapse of Graham Plattner's campaign.
Jen Psaki 1:15
Now, today, Democrats also got some more encouraging midterm news from kind of an unlikely source. A new analysis by the conservative group Americans for Prosperity finds that enthusiasm among core Republican voters is waning. And that analysis found that one in five reliable Republican-based voters are at risk this November, with consistently Republican voters in states like Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, Montana, New Hampshire, and Michigan either saying they may stay home or vote for Democrats. Those are all states, many of them, with big Senate contests this November. Now, at the same time, a new poll from YouGov finds that Donald Trump's approval rating with independent voters is absolutely cratering.
Jen Psaki 2:01
Look at those numbers on your screen. I mean, he is now underwater with independents by 53 points, which I would note is a record low. And just to put in context, because sometimes these numbers are like, what does this really mean? His approval rating with independents was just four points underwater a month before the Democratic midterm wave in his first term. So there are lots of reasons for Democrats to be optimistic about November right now, even when it comes to the uphill battle to retake control of the Senate. And yeah, Donald Trump is still going to be in the White House, but control of the Senate matters a whole lot. I mean, take what we're going through right now. Right now, the nomination of Donald Trump's personal attorney to be the next attorney general is hanging on the votes of two retiring Republican senators.
Jen Psaki 2:47
Meanwhile, just tonight, Republicans in the Senate voted to confirm Jay Clayton to be the next director of national intelligence, a guy who repeatedly during his hearing would not admit that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Trump has already nominated more than 50 judges to the federal bench, all of whom have also steadfastly refused to admit the outcome of the last election. And we are just one, a single retirement announcement away from Donald Trump having four handpicked justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. There is no reason at all to believe that Trump is going to stop nominating extreme or election-denying candidates to important positions after this year's midterms. It seems to be the primary qualification he's looking for.
Jen Psaki 3:32
So it will matter who controls the Chamber of Congress responsible for confirming those nominees. And if Democrats have control of the Senate, they will also have the power to block confirmations. But listen, preventing a total MAGA takeover of the Supreme Court and lower courts would certainly be a good thing, but it's not the only reason why Senate control matters. Today, a group of Senate Judiciary Committee members, led by Senator Adam Schiff, demanded answers from the Justice Department over the Trump administration's decision to subpoena journalists from The New York Times.

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