District Club: GOP's Midterm Anxiety and Democrats' Leadership Battle

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stories, and messages created to strengthen your faith. Whether you need peace, encouragement, or a fresh start, Pray.com helps you make prayer part of your everyday life. Download the Pray.com app today. Welcome to the District Club, brought to you by the daily wire. I'm Ben Dominic, a pioneer at the daily wire, joined by my colleagues, Mary Margaret Olahan, and Tim Rice, DC Bureau

Chief. We're happy to welcome to our stage today for our opening and inaugural episode, Rachel Bade, an incredibly accomplished writer, reporter, you know, long time cover of all the inner circle aspects of Washington, which is where you can find her sub-stack, the inner circle. The inner circle. Yes, and you can watch her as a coast on the huddle, which is an excellent show that gives you the inside perspective from Washington, which is what we're going to bring you

today, hopefully. This has been an interesting week in Washington for a lot of different reasons,

“but I think the big thing that's kind of looming over all of it is this upcoming Texas mid-term”

convention, which Rachel is really unprecedented. It's not in the kind of thing that you see a party do, and the thing that I think is really unclear about this is, is this just about the Texas Senate race and Ken Paxton and concerns that Republicans have about whether he's going to be

able to pull off a critical win in a red state against James Halarico, or do you really think

that it means that the GOP is going to have some kind of reset that bucks historical trends headed into the fall that, you know, really kind of really gives Republicans momentum, and, you know, for a GOP that's been infighting, it brings the party back together in time. Yeah, I think a lot of Republicans are asking themselves one question, and that is why you have a lot of vulnerable Republicans who, frankly, just don't want to go to this, right?

They think their time is better spent back home in their districts campaigning, doing events, you know, fundraising with donors, etc. They have to spend money to go to this, $25,000. And right now, we are in crunch time in the midterm. Well, I mean, people need money. Hang out with Trump is not something you do for free, Rachel. Okay, the money should be the

“money in theory, guys, right? Should be flowing the other way at this point, right?”

Magga Inc. has $400 million. The president has said they're going to spend his team has said they're going to spend. Where's that money? This is the thing, right? And I think this is also like, there, we can try to search for any number of reasons for why we're doing this, why that the party is doing this convention, right? Why is it happening? And there's one answer, and it's Trump, and it's Trump wants to do it, and Trump wants to have an event. And I mean, again, it's

who are that they haven't announced any of the line up yet. We know exactly two people who are speaking, and it's Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, two people who are famously not up for election in this midterm cycle, and not members of the legislative branch. And that's, again, I think if you start thinking about it, less as anything that's actually going to help anybody, right? I mean, nationalizing the midterm election is probably a terrible idea if you're one of these

vulnerable Republicans, but it's the Trump show. Well, yeah. I mean, the president is always going

to want to be a kingmaker. That is his favorite title as of late. He wants the world, and especially Republicans to acknowledge that he's the one that decides who wins or who loses when it comes to Republicans. Yeah, you're soon all kind of learning that the hard way, man. He's not going to give that up. So I think this is just another opportunity for the president, presidents who are mind Republicans. We still have two more years of the Trump Vance administration,

and you all need to fall in line. But they're not good. Like, right? Like, I think you're right, Mary Margaret, but like, is that good for the Republican Party? They're freaking out about this. I mean, right, this notion that beyond the, beyond this convention that they're having next week, the notion that, and you're starting to see in some of the ads that they're cutting, the president putting himself front and center in the midterm. You have vulnerable members who are

really worried about that. So let me ask you about those ads because I think we saw those start to roll out this week. Those ads are just, I'm Donald Trump and everything's awesome. Like, I mean, that's the way that I read that. I mean, it's just Ron Ward going great. The economy's banging, the stock markets up. You know, I'm sure they'll add the jobs number from this week to it. You know, if I'm a vulnerable Republican, it feels like this is just all about him. It's not about

“whether you should actually go to the poll and cast a vote to send someone back to the house.”

It's also a change in strategy from the Trump operation in recent months. I mean, go back to, I don't know, six months ago. I remember hearing from the Trump political orbit that they

referendum on the person in power. They wanted to make this a choice, right? The choice between Republicans, the progress they've made so far, the progress that they're promising to make and Democrats who are increasingly socialistic, who want to get rid of the Senate, who want to get rid of the Supreme Court, et cetera. But the president has come in, again, wanting to be front center, totally changing that strategy with these, these ads with what's going to go on next

week in terms of the convention. It, it's a total pivot from what his team has not opening up,

“but not opening up the checkbook, which you said earlier, and I think that's also right. That's”

the key. Very much. So it's key wants to, he wants to be front and center, but it's not necessarily taking the final leap of, well, I'm going to take the reins. Mary Margaret, you got an answer from the vice president this week when he was doing the briefing, which I think, you know, you miss his Caroline Levitt a little bit, you know, right on this, performed great, but you asked him to give his elevator pitch for why people should vote Republican in selection. What did you think

about his answer? Well, you know, you know, you know, we're talking about how this elevator pitch was kind of long for an elevator pitch, but it just took a skyscraper. But I think it was really interesting and it did encapsulate a lot of the points that we've heard the Trump administration make and heard fans make and recent months, but the big thesis statement of it was you are choosing between common sense and radical policies and measures that will transform our country. And that's

really the point that the vice president wants to drive home. And I think it's the point that on the president's team wants to drive home will see whether that fully makes it into his speech,

“you know, he let the art of the weave. He likes to get a lot in there. But I do think that's what”

we hear from Vance on the first night of the RNC, and hopefully from the president as well,

because it is at least a cohesive message. You know, they're battling a lot of Democrat candidates who, you know, have these very radical policies. They have the DSA. We have Democrats who are panicking trying to figure out whether they want to align with these socialist candidates in their party. That's a very easy layout for Republicans to message on. Sure, but so let me ask you about that. And I'm curious, everyone, you know, what you think about this. My own perspective is

Republicans were handed a narrative by the outcome of these primaries that they didn't have at the beginning of this year. And it's an untested sort of thing to say on a national scale. We're seeing this type of radicalism. It's one thing to pick out big city mayors or AOC or something like that. But to see this kind of widespread success of the DSA is not something that we have a president for, and we have this Michigan race now being one that every Democrat has to answer for

in the same way that Republicans had to answer for Todd Aiken or for some of these other nominees in the past. Do you all think that's kind of work? Well, look, can Republicans keep the focus on that. And again, this gets back to like, can they keep the choice front and center or is Trump going to make this about himself? Because the DSA stuff is scary. I mean, the numbers, the number of socialists in the house that are going to be elected into the house next year is going to more than double. I mean,

they're talking about capitalism being racist. I mean, like, this stuff is crazy. It is an easy

layup, as you said, for Republicans. But the problem is they need to keep the focus on that. And

they just, a lot of times, you know, it fears off script. And they're, they've struggled with that. Does the Louie G. Manjoni, like Angola of the Democratic Party, is that something Republicans

“kind of lean into? I mean, I think they have to, right? And I think, obviously, they are.”

And it would be ridiculous if they didn't. But as to the question of whether or not that works for them, I mean, I do all say, yeah, it's going to win in Michigan. I think that's, I'll put my marker down right now. Maybe so. Okay. I think that, I do all say, he's going to, he's going to win in Michigan. I think it's interesting sort of to watch like him is the avatar of the socialist, the sort of the rising socialist in this election and the Democratic Party. And I think that

we almost might get to a point where attacking him as this sort of avatar allows a lot of Republicans to win in the house, but then he still wins in the Senate. But so then I don't know how good of a long term strategy that is, right? Because it'll get, it'll maybe get, yeah, short. Maybe it gets a couple of congressmen elected. Maybe it helps Ken Paxton eat it out over James Talarico. But if the big, baddie gets elected, all of a sudden going into 2028, that's a very different.

I think it's just got, got over the mark on that because of the Tucker Carlson endorsement. That's what you got in there. Well, I think we're underestimating the power of the Talafrico here when we have, you know, the president who will get up on that stage this week and he will be telling the whole world that James Talarico is a freak. Well, which he has her hand also, that he has apparently his bulimic when it comes to that, that was a new line from him about the abilities

to eat meat. Yeah, he's, he's really not a fan of this kid. And we're going to hear a lot from the president on this this week. So I wouldn't count out the fact that Donald Trump understands

the conservative ecosystem. He understands, first of all, that he will always make himself

House is what we see and how he's messaging to the rest of the world. But at the same time, he still cares about Republicans. He actually hosted an event at the White House earlier this week where he brought in all these Republican lawmakers and told them how to message and told them he was going to support them. I believe he said he's going to 35 different states during the next period up until the election. And he did say, and I thought this was worth noting that it's going to be the

way it was when he was leading up to his own election. He said he didn't really sleep. He went to

“four or five rallies in those days in those last couple days. And that's what he's planning to do”

for Republicans. So he's getting ready to do his all out campaign. He's been focused on other stuff, whether it's Iran or the ballroom. But now it is going to be about Republicans. The one thing that I think

is a risky aspect of this for Republicans is they basically are trusting that he can carry them

over the finish line, even if he's not on the ballot. And they made the decision this week, Thomas Massey won his poll and market bet or whatever. They would leave town without doing a lot of things that critics, including people like Larry Kutlo, had been asking them to do in the run up to the election to actually have a Republican congressional agenda or experience to run on beyond what they've been sort of talking about for the last six months. I feel like that's a really

risky bet. You may not to stay in and actually do their job. Actually, what? How dare you? I mean, look, they have a narrow majority. And clearly Speaker Johnson, they're not just finding this money. I mean, they should be doing their job, determine that they're not going to be able to pass a lot of these bills. I mean, they could be doing a ton of show votes to your point,

affordability, housing, health care. Like, sure, they're not going to make it to the President's

desk, but like staying and trying to get something done. But I mean, just think about the housing bill, they tried to pass the summer, housing affordability, they tried to pass the summer. They ended up passing it. President said he was going to veto it unless he got the save act through. Like, it ended up being a huge drama. They lost the talking point on that. Like, they could have passed it, then unified, and gone back and told voters what they did. And instead, like, it ended up being

an infighting mess. So this is his calculation. It's like, nothing good is going to happen here. Go home campaign. Right. The other thing is that, right. I mean, this week, we saw an infighting mess on the Democratic side. I mean, I came Jeffries, you know, having this rule vote loss out of nowhere that, you know, involved Democrats, you know, Jared Golden and MGP, who, you know, crossed over and saved Republicans, you know, in a way that was apparently unexpected by

Democrat leadership, there's all sorts of infighting about the, you know, committee assignments that they've been making in anticipation of this, you know, say, wave, very market. What do you think about the, you know, the possibility that Republicans are kind of missing out on something by not staying in town when Democrats look like, and they're in a moment of weakness?

“I think that this RNC is bigger than that. I think this is more important. Look, we're all”

heading down to Texas. We're all going to be there. Donald Trump's going to be there. He's going to be in attendance both nights, which, you know, he did this set the last RNC, although I believe he had a bandage on his ear from a recent assassination attempt, which carried a little more weight. But we're all going to be down there. And this is an opportunity for Republicans to unite an opportunity for the president to unite everyone behind the same message. So I think that

I wouldn't worry too much about that if I were Trump or other Republicans strategists. But I do think this is, you know, this is a good opportunity to switch gears a little bit to the way Democrats are handling their leadership, the way you know, who came Jeffries is struggling right now. His meeting with Jared Kushner recently, the way he was lambasted by other Democrats, the influencers, all these activists on social media. It's such an example of how Democrats are

struggling to figure out their identity. So I'm curious, Tim, maybe you can lead us off on this one. I do Democrats still have control of their own party, or are things dramatically shifting

“towards that DSA leadership? I think that they have shifted, right? Like I think I think one of the”

issues that we're seeing with Jeffries, right, is this isn't two years ago where it was, oh no, it's the squad versus, you know, Nancy Pelosi and Steady Hoyer and whoever it's what's happening now is that the vibe to use a word right has shifted. But they're not they're not there yet, right? The DSA guys are not there yet. They haven't been elected, they haven't gotten their committee assignments, and so Jeffries, I think, is walking this almost impossible tightrope of he knows that six months

from now he's going to have a very different caucus. So it's not just the establishment leaders

versus the new guard. It's he came Jeffries who's always sort of been in the middle now trying to

neg navigate who's there now who's coming. It's like somehow worse than that for him. The headache for him goes beyond just DSA. It is a lack of respect from a lot of Democrats across the political spectrum for her keen Jeffries. I mean, if he becomes speaker, he's going to be limping into that speaker. That looked like a hostage video. Like yes. We talked about that on the hotdog and how it looked like a hostage video. But like the Kushner thing, just take the example of Mom Donnie,

meets with President, someone he has attacked personally, makes friends with him and the base

chairs and is like, yeah, good for you. You like, you know, you found a way to go and sort of, you know, get him to do what you want. Hakeem meets with Kushner and the blowback is universal from Democrats. It's just a meeting. I mean, literally they're talking about are there ways to work together if Democrats with the House, could they work with the administration and some for fashion? And he got routinely just mocked for that, tried to do again. An apology video didn't

turn out well, losing the rule vote like this week where two Democrats voted with Republicans to advance a rule. You just don't do that. And to not even give your leadership heads up, this is lack of respect. Okay. So it's not just DSA. It's like the pod save America, Rose, who are criticizing him. It just, it shows that he does not have the muscle that, not even close to the muscle that Speaker Pelosi had, but he's got a real leadership challenge here.

“Has he ever had that muscle though? Has he ever had the respect that Pelosi had?”

Pelosi to be fair. She had like years to sort of, you know, build those muscles. And she enacted revenge on people. She, you know, if you cross her, you wouldn't get a committee assignment. Your bill wouldn't be advanced. She had time to like create that optic, right? He's new to this. And I don't think he, I mean, he's been watching her for years, but it's not like she was teaching him how to do this stuff. I do think one thing to watch is how he treats those two

members who turned against him last week. Is there revenge? Like, can he actually make sure that they are punished in some fashion? Because he really needs to do that to flex in some fashion.

I feel like one of the things too, just to the point of him never having that muscle, is that

with Pelosi, she was battling against a group of people who were pretty disparate and also politically inexperienced. You know, people who hadn't really been around for a very long time, it's not like they won accidentally, but it's more that they came in without having that type of structure and organization and their own independent fundraising that the DSA wing now has. And I think that that's the difference between what Jeffries faces in terms of a challenge versus what

Pelosi faces. He now is a situation where basically people can say, we don't need leadership to fundraise. In fact, we can fundraise better than you can. And that's something that's very dangerous for a leader to face because of the power of the person, the ability to prevent people from winning in some of these primaries just by being able to spend that money. What should his move be then? I wonder, I genuinely don't know, but what if you're who came Jeffries, what do you do?

“I think it's revenge. Like Rachel is saying, you have to be stronger there. You got to put some”

muscle into that. And the figure that always emerges in my mind when I think of Democrats who have

muscle who have, you know, the scary factor to make others listen is a Cazio Cortez. She's still in there. She's very active in the game. She's got a lot of light on her right now. She's got a lot of attention from her recent social media. I don't know what you call them gambits. Her new IVF push, her engagement ending, all of these different things, which maybe you can say they're coordinated, maybe you can say they're not. She's really got the limelight on her right now. And I think that

she's very excited to put that to, to something to maybe a presidential run soon. But she's, she's got the focus on her. And I think she's excited to use that. I think one of the things that we're also going to see is a lot of people driven out of the Democratic coalition just in the way that we saw, you know, people driven out of the Republican coalition, who are viewed as breaking too far from this DSA insurgency. And I don't think that anybody is a bigger name in that front

than John Fetterman who we saw, you know, people going after this week. Rachel, what your thoughts, I know Tim, as a ton of thoughts on the Wall Street Journal story that broke on Friday. That story was brutal, brutal. I mean, like, for those who haven't read it, details about him skipping constituent meetings, having meetings with, like, paralyzed veterans that he skipped then to go to, like, a fox news interview. I mean, the, the whole thrust of the story was that he doesn't

care about constituents. Doesn't want to do his job, but he just wants to be like, you know, off the door for conservative media, right? But I, and, and Tim, like, I want to get, I want to hear

“your take on, he's for sure. Because I think you're glad to welcome to the Senate and for that.”

Like, to me when I read this story, it was like, okay, this is, again, a good example of Democrats pushing out the center, pushing out more, uh, centrist Democrats, because like, they cooperated with that. His own AIDS cooperated with that. There were screenshots. And this was an internal hit job, okay? And as soon as the story came out, immediately there was a reaction to it,

right? It's, et cetera. Tim, this is your favorite story of the week. Oh, no, a United States

Senator doesn't want to meet with constituents who want to talk about Medicaid funding and better than disability funding, and instead wants to hang out by himself and go on cable news. This is, oh my God, this is crazy. I'm shocked that gambling's going on here. No, I mean, it's that,

“it's the fact that ever since, look, I think that the federalman situation is more nuanced than just,”

you know, federalman likes Israel, so everyone hates him, although that's obviously part of it. But the October 7 split between him and his staff, there has been like the federalman team in exile, has been working to undermine him this whole time, which is obviously where the story came from. And I will also say, look, I obviously agree with John federalman on the Israel stuff. I think that at your point, the Democrats are wrong to sign line a popular moderate in their caucus like this.

Well, but popular, well, I love him. Oh, sure. I will also just say that for all the Democrats are hand-reading now, maybe they shouldn't have pushed and pushed and pushed and untested. Guy who had just had a stroke and every, I mean, it was, you weren't allowed to say that. It was, if you opposed, it was, it was like, oh my God, that's so bad. Of course,

we need to get him. He's the most important person we can have elected. You said it, and now it's like,

you played, I'm not even going to say stupid games, but play this game when this price. I, I just, I mean, I appreciate your acknowledgement of the actual level of work that senators like to do. It's a time-honored tradition. In the same vein as the old line from a very famous magazine profile that

“summer didn't begin until Ted Kennedy had driven on the sidewalk. So the thing, the thing that I think”

is, the thing that I think is actually hard, though, for Democrats on this point is, to a certain extent, federalman acts as a lightning rod. And a lightning rod is actually useful. A lightning rod absorbs the energy that might be directed at other people. And so there are a lot of people, I think, who are still generally pro-Israel in the Democratic coalition or, or conference. There are a lot of people who are still kind of where John Fetterman is, if they're not as vocal about it, and he

attracts attention away from that. And if he wasn't getting that attention, I mean, would at least a slot can be getting that attention. Would be some of these other people who are sort of not that much different from him. Would they be getting all that heat? I just wonder if he's the field. Essentially, he's useful to them on something. Yeah, it's interesting. I think I absolutely, he's drawing a lot of the fire, like you're saying, that other people could be receiving. One thing that

I noticed from that story, and I caught this one. I was getting ready. It was a screenshot of a conversation he had with a staff member. And I didn't get to verify this. I'm sorry. That's ridiculous. That's crazy. I saw that. I know you said that. That's ridiculous. I thought that person now knows the federalman knows that that person leached that to everyone. And it was, I believe it was about a very big funeral that happened recently. Did anyone all see this? Yes.

Yes. Really upsetting. And he was talking about how he didn't want to sit there for three hours and how that would be a non-starter. It was so bad. Yeah. So, I mean, we've seen this a lot, though, on Capitol Hill, of staffers recently, who are taking matters into their own hands. I think most recently, perhaps with Nancy Mace, where her team just got so sick of her, and then they went straight to the press with real screenshots. And that's, that's kind of a, a page turner to me,

indicating that we're in a different place on Capitol Hill than we were before. I always, always treat

everyone, treat them with respect and Washington, because the intern is some day going to be your boss. I think this might be a good thing because congressional staff sizes have ballooned so much, and it's so ridiculous. And maybe now, maybe now these lawmakers will sit back and realize, well, I could either have just like a body man and a press secretary, or I could staff my office with a bunch of scheming viziers who are eventually going to leak my emails to the

Wall Street Journal. Maybe this will, maybe this will rain things in on Capitol Hill. I mean, it's the equivalent though of me texting Tim, telling him I don't want to go to a specific event, and him leaking that to a public aid. I do leak all of our text messages. That does happen.

“Careful. The thing, I'll push back against the idea that you have to show respect to these”

traitorous interns. But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but take the anti-internance. So, so, but, what, but, but, hey, look, I, I was, I was an intern at the White House. I was an intern at the White House. I was an intern at the White House. I was at the White House. I was at the White House. But, but, but, if you, if you do something like that, you should be fired, and you should be fired immediately every one to know about it, and you should not get the opportunities. And I

think that part of this is this assumption among a lot of of the younger people within the

that they know better than the olds. The Democrats have an age problem. The whole country, obviously,

has this octogenarian leadership problem. But, it's been worse on the Democratic side, and the reason is just that they held back, they didn't, they didn't, they didn't have the term limits for the different chairman. They didn't have the kind of of turnover that you've necessarily seen. And I think that there are a lot of these younger people who came in with the DSA, and they're like enough. Get these guys out of here. We know better. And from their perspective, that's, that is something

that they see completely endorsed and bolstered by everything that they see on TikTok. Every thing they see on Instagram, everything that they see surrounding the most exciting campaigns, they want their boss to be out there with LSID, with a sonpiker, et cetera. They don't want them to be saying, "Oh, well, you know, it's just some California streamer." Well, it's because the tension is the currency that they value the most. This newer class of consultants or staff, and they don't

understand a world without social media. And honestly, a lot of older Democrats don't understand a world with it. And there's no incentive for anybody on the Democrats side, whether it's a law maker or their staffers, to do, to play within the bounds of what used to be done. I was thinking about this Mary Margaret when you were talking about, you know, AOC. She's blowing up on social media. She's got the new cycle. She's doing all these interviews. And at no point, I don't think

did any of us think. And she's going to use that to make a bid for speaker or try to be the Democratic whip. Of course not. If you're Alexandria or Casio Cortez, if you're a rising star, you have two goals. And it's either the White House or just general social media influence and fame. And so, of course, if that's what the principles in the Democratic Party are doing, of course,

“that's how their staff is going to act. Why would anybody want to be minority whip? Right?”

I mean, you no one wants to put in the work. No one wants to -- I think she do it if she she couldn't have president. I think if she saw that the stars were not aligned for her. Oh, I disagree. I disagree. That's the leadership, the congressional leadership latter. That is an inside game of making friends with all the members versus the -- I said this very little. And you're lost. Yeah, your losses are public. And your wins are quiet.

But you guys think she runs? You think she runs? Oh, I think she runs. I do too. I think she would not do foolish not. She wants to run against Jodie Vance. And she has made that very clear. She loves the thought of being up against him. She loves the childless cat-ladies theme to run against she's on prepping her whole social media and her whole aura has the kids say on for this moment. And honestly, she -- I think she deserves the moment. She was smart. She was the only smart

member of the squad. She knew when to pull away, when to double down. I -- like, she is good at this. She is good at this. She's going to peel to that wonderful combo of Lindsay Clancy Tik Tok and Hassan Piker viewers, which is the basis of the Democratic energy right now and run away with the

“fact. And yet, still kind of pain herself as a moderate. I think. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, a couch. Yeah. What should I be considered a moderate?”

But you're right. She's played. She has tried to play the inside game in a way that is much smarter than I think a lot of people expected when she came to Washington. I mean, a lot of Democrats hated her because they were jealous of her power, jealous of her fame. And she has made friends with a number of house Democrats that you

think she never would have. Yeah. There's an interesting dynamic that's going on in the election right now,

which is that we have some things just to shift a little bit. Popped up basically as issues this year that have been unexpected. We always expect that, you know, a midterm election is going to be about the economy. It's going to be about, you know, whether gas prices are going up or down. It's going to be about, you know, how optimistic people feel about their job or about losing it, that kind of thing. And connected to that, we've seen two things come up as really, you know, astonishing, I think,

a little bit unexpected, political issues, perhaps earlier than they were going to be. One, of course, is AI, which is related to the job loss question. And the other is this conversation around data centers. Tim, we saw this week, Democrats using kind of a new angle of attack on Republicans on data centers related to opportunities zones. I did not expect that to happen. I don't know about you. What's the situation there and what's their argument? I don't think anybody expected

it. It's kind of, it's, it's both smart and stupid. I mean, the opportunities zones are probably one of the, one of the things that Republicans have done the best that they've gotten the least amount of credit for, right? And so anyone who, you'll be forgiven, Ben Carson will forgive you if you don't

“remember what an opportunity is. This was a program. It's administered primarily through housing”

and urban development. 2017, tax cuts and job acts basically developers get massive tax incentives

to go build in underdeveloped areas. It's mostly been focused in urban areas, right? So you've seeing building up hotels, apartments, things like that. The big, beautiful bill, they sort of doubled. They re-incentivize the opportunities zones to fix on wider rural areas, right? And so now,

they want to put a data center in your backyard, which is, I don't know, it's a smart, yeah,

look at it, Margo. It's a smart tactic. It's a weird. It's like a very disingenuous line. I think, but it's smart to get there. Look, a Democrat Republicans want to put data centers in your backyard. It's a very smart line. And actually, Ben and I were talking about this the other day because I was in this briefing with Judy Vance. And we were both saying, this is a great opportunity to ask him about this because Republicans have failed so badly, messaging on data centers.

In part, due to how the president is messaging on this. And I think this is so interesting because Trump is no man's full. He is a very effective messenger, but on data centers. He's not really reading the room. What they're saying is these will create jobs and they're going to be good for the country and just kind of plowing forward. Well, there's a whole lot of merit. And if you're opposed

“to them, you're a pro-chan. Yeah, that's what you're dumbing. You're dumbing as many said, right? But there's”

also this whole condescending crowd that's like, oh, the only people that hate data centers are

influenced by Chinese propaganda, which I, you know, as someone who has played a lot of attention to this conversation, I don't think that is accurate. So, you know, Vance, when I was thinking about asking him someone asked him for me, he didn't really take the road that I thought he would. He aligned with the president pretty strongly on data centers and talked about how they'd be good for communities. I believe he said, maybe I'm messing this up that they should be listening to

communities. But there wasn't the tone which, you know, as an outsider on this messaging fight, I probably would have talked about, you know, the interests of Americans and why they should be listened to and their homes and towns should be protected. Things along these lines that I think Republicans are just missing out on. The thing that I think is interesting about this is a challenge for JD Vance. You were talking about how smart AOC has been. The, what AOC is doing and what Bernie

Sanders is doing on this AI slash data center front, and they are separate issues. Like, I, I,

“I don't believe in the whole, like, it's all about AI fear. I think it's actually a lot more”

than being, you know, a cost of power, a cost of electricity, you know, a cost of, you know, water, it's at those concerns. But the thing that I think is interesting about it is we know that JD is very close with the tech industry. He's, he's very much, you know, sort of a forward-looking guy in that area, but he also has these rural roots. And I think that it would be really helpful to the Republican Party if someone with his background and his connections who understands these

issues could, uh, could vocalize make the case. Make the case in a way that would be beneficial to a lot of these house and Senate candidates who seem to just run a, run away from the issue because they're afraid about fending the president. Absolutely. I mean, honestly, and I think someone asking the question to Vance, for example, can you speak to the people of a rural town in Ohio who feel like their town is going to be destroyed, putting the vice president in the mindset of

one of those people rather than just how are you supporting the president's message on this? I think that would make a big difference, too. Yeah. I mean, look, I, you guys are all saying, like Democrats smart to seize on this issue because there is this widespread fear of the of AI and data centers, what it means for, for people's pocketbooks. But I also, I am concerned about long-term what that is. I mean, it feels like a race to the bottom right now on the data centers. And like, if we're going

to be competing for the future, if we're going to be China, you know, we have to be number one in AI. Like period, we have to. And you can't just say that, right? There is a nuance to this and, you know, as an elected official, you're right, JD Vance, he would be the perfect sort of person to make this case being from having his rural roots, understanding the concerns of a small town of America, but also like, you know, smart regulations, right? And then finding a way to make sure that we

are number one, but also hearing the concerns of rural America. There was an interesting sort of story this week about the fact that in Frederick, Maryland, where they wanted to build a data center,

“they basically just threw everything and a lot, you know, and plus cake. And I think with with,”

in terms of investing in the community, you know, they're going to build new parks. They're going to

give money to the schools. They're going to do all these different things in order to basically

buy off the community. So reason why, yeah, I actually guess, I do think it's smart. I think that's why the data center thing, I think they're ultimately going to prevail because they have the money. And it's not a money question. Sponsored out every single little league baseball team, right, hey, hey, hey, we do the local church. We will pay for your travel team. I think what's happening is that the political dust up really kind of took everyone by surprise.

Yes. And it's like to your point, Rachel, about the long-term effects, right? Usually these things sort of, you know, you get development backlash kind of co-terminists. And then it's really just a matter of who's going to pull the head right at the end. What I think happened here was like the data center. They just kind of started their initial post. And everyone objected so quickly that then the parties were scrambling. And that's why you have these very blunt force. It started

from the inside out. Democrats are going to have this nuanced thing. Maybe now this pushes Republicans

“to get the vice president or somebody else out there. And then eventually, I think the development”

then is going to catch up to the rhetoric as the rhetoric kind of slows down. I wonder what we're just circling back to where we started this conversation. I wonder what we're going to hear from the stage of anything in Dallas about this issue because obviously, yeah, I mean, Greg Abbott everything out and said, yes, it is. Greg Abbott came out and said that he wanted Texas to lead the country in AI and data centers. And then called for, it's not really a moratorium. It's more like

a slowdown in terms of development. We also saw things being said about this from Ron DeSantis and from Josh Shapiro. So this is a bipartisan thing where people thought I was just going to be a pro business, yeah, yeah, yeah. And now they have concerns. I'm wondering if the kind of thing you're talking about, Mary Margaret, if that's something that we hear from the stage from somebody to try to make this. I mean, I certainly hope so, but if you think about it, the president certainly

won't be saying anything like that. And Vance is not really in a position to do that. I mean, maybe privately he agrees with what we're talking about here, but publicly he's going to

align with the president. And that's what he's always done. But I was talking about this with

the group of my friends the other day. And some of them were saying, look, this isn't issue where sometimes government officials, the president, no better than the public. And they have to just carry the day and make this happen. And I thought to myself, that is what Republicans think right now. They're kind of trying to push this against the world of people. And it's so contrary to everything that MAGA has stood for. You know, MAGA is a group that listens to the people MAGA. Well, you know,

we, they, they posture is listening to the people, right? This is what MAGA is built on. We care about the people. Democrats don't care about you. MAGA is for you. Democrats are for them. They

“them. And that's how MAGA has really positioned itself. So in this situation, I think Republicans”

really need to take a beat and think about how to message in a way that data centers are for you. And we're going to make them exist in a way that only helps you. Otherwise, it's going to be a huge issue in the 20, 28 elections. And I think we're already seeing that crop up. I think you're right about the messaging thing, right? I think obviously it's clear that in this instance, just sort of hammering, saying we know better trust the experts is not going to work.

But yeah, I wonder though, if I actually think that this is less of a less of a sidestep for the Trump administration and for the MAGA movement broadly than it has been, right? There are a lot of instances where the president just sort of decides that he where he wants to be on a policy and plans to start with the beef thing. Yeah, the beef, the same act. I mean, honestly, a lot of the stuff or the lack thereof on abortion and IVF, right? I mean, he's sort of kind of a planted his flag outside

the party on that one. And it's either sometimes they rally around him, sometimes it's just like, let's not talk about it. So yeah, but this is different. But I'm just saying, I'm not shocked that the president is not like, well, let's listen to the people on this or that MAGA ink broadly.

“Yeah, I think the question is, which people, you know, the thing that I still think about is the,”

you know, the first inaugural, you know, he has, he quotes Bane and he says, I give it back to you, the people. And because I know that speech, that wasn't Bane quote. They got past them. But the thing that I think is interesting is that the second inaugural, he is surrounded by all these tech guys who have come around and who are there to pay, you know, sort of homage to him. And that means that they have his ear way more than they did in the first term. And so, I mean, I think this

is a big question. And it's one that I don't think that we're going to, you know, see resolved

certainly not in Dallas. We don't always know what the, you know, MAIN story line is going to be

of the next week when it comes to a political party. In this instance, we actually do have the advantage of knowing that. I'd love to hear from you just as an exit question to all of you. What do you think the headlines are going to be coming out of Dallas? How many horrible Republicans actually go? I think like everybody's going to be literally like counting. How many Republicans actually show up to this thing? What do you think? Well, depends on who you're reading Ben. If it's a daily

wire, we might actually tell you what happened there. Like as he knows, it'll probably be, how dare you do that. I think it's going to be about how Trump's three hour midnight speech is either going to, what will it help or hurt the vulnerable Republicans who didn't show up? Also, are they going to actually start spending? Where's the money guys? I think that's where the war chest opens. I actually think that that is going to be the headline, which is going to be Republicans talking

behind the scenes. Hey, he's got this money. We need it if we're going to keep our jobs. You've been watching the inaugural edition of the district club. I want to thank you for tuning in for Tim, for Mary Margaret and for Rachel. I'm Ben Dominic. We'll be back next week with more.

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