The Senate Races That Will Decide Who Controls Congress

- Everybody, welcome here, Mark Halpern with you

on the host of Next Up,

“Editor-in-Chief for the Live Interactivity”

of Platform 2 Way. And your guide to everything next up. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for being next here. So, audience continues to grow,

but not fast enough for my taste ever. So, please, if you haven't already told your friends, families, associates, everybody in your life, about Next Up, please do, tell them it's a program you watch and listen to

and that they should as well. A great program for you today, we're gonna talk about the big fan favorite topic here. David Bozell will be with us, president of the Media Research Center,

which is a granddaddy of a mall

in looking at bias and media David and I will kick her out.

Some of the main storylines in the question of media bias over the last few weeks and months. Before David is here, though, my reported monologue. You know, I've spent so much time in the midterm, we were about 100 days away from election day.

And lately we've been talking a lot about some of the key races and you've heard a lot about Maine and about Michigan and South Carolina. Those micro looks and individual races are important. But today what I'm gonna do is step back,

give you the fruits of my reporting on the macro situation. Where do we stand on the midterms? And one strand that I pulled out,

“one theme that I think is super important”

that we're gonna focus on, which is on the Democratic side, is this question of the anti-establishment. And why I think that's so important in understanding where the country is right now. So quick break when we come back my reported monologue

on the midterms as a prism to understand where we are as a country, my reported monologue is next up. (upbeat music) Stop right now, think about the last 30 bucks you spent, maybe on a streaming subscription service

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Start stacking for just $30 at getacregold.com/markorightnow to getacregold.com/markorightnow. (upbeat music) Okay, everybody, let's dig into the midterms. About 105 or so days away from election day.

But that means early voting is gonna start sooner. The stakes here are very high on both sides. And we've got some primaries left. And a lot of the coverage of the midterms of late have been around these midterms,

particularly in the main race with the replacement of Platner by Jackson. And in set Carolina with the unexpected tragic passing of Lindsey Graham. But what I'm gonna do today for you is broaden out

“and talk to you about where I think we are in these midterms.”

They're fascinating. And they're hard to predict here. Nobody can really tell you exactly where this is headed. But what I did this week, I started at the end of last week,

but what I've done in the run up to today is I've asked my best sources in both parties. Where are we? What's your projection for where the Senate's gonna be and where the house is gonna be?

And I'll reveal the answer is no one I talk to said,

Democrats will almost certainly take the house, but there if you think it's not a sure thing. And people are less, they're very few people pretty think the landslide by the Democrats that some more before and I'll tell you why.

And in the Senate, even Democrats will concede now in the beginning of the cycle, looked far fetched that they could take the majority. Then it looked like they were on track too. Now it's back to,

I didn't talk to a single person, Democrat or Republican who was confident the Democrats would take the majority. Okay, both sides have things going for them, which is why this is a difficult one to predict,

because they're cross-currents. Republicans have a bunch of advantages. The Senate map continues to favor them. Of all the seats they're trying to win, to pick up net seats.

There's only one, which is main, that is a state that Kamala Harris want. And these days it's very hard to win states if in a Senate race, if the president's, if your presidential candidate didn't win it

in the last cycle. So the Senate map.

Again, that went back and forth

“in the beginning when a Republican started the process.”

People didn't really know it to make of it. This mid-Orthodox mid-decade redistricting to try to even operate Democrats had done. If a lot of blue states in the regular schedule, look, then it looked like Republicans

were going to pick up a lot of seats, then Gavin Newsom and others mobilized. And it looked like, well, Democrats might fight this through draw. Now it looks like Republicans

would still a little bit of stuff to play out. And then we got to see the actual races. It looks like Republicans gave themselves like a 10-seat cushion, about 10 seats. Maybe eight, maybe nine, maybe 10.

That's a big deal. And in fact, if it weren't for those 10 seats or so, many more people would be predicting a healthy, a Democratic pick-up. So that's a big advantage. Then a no doubt for all the stuff

with the award and gas prices and everything else and all the present Trump's troubles, there's no doubt that the Democratic brand is still problematic.

“They're thinking still of perhaps announcing some more policies”

to try to define themselves, but they're divided between the socialist wing and the more mainstream wing. And they're unpopular and for all of President Trump's poll problems, the Democratic brand is still a problem. Another big Republican advantage is cash.

So it's a little canoe-on, so they're fundraising in their committees, the Republican National Committee, the Maine Senate Campaign Committee, the Senate Campaign Pack, et cetera. All those committees are doing well.

And if there's more billionaire money to come into superpacks or other organizations that don't necessarily require disclosure, right now, both parties believe more of that money will come at the last minute from the right

for Republican candidates. On the other hand, the edge and money is a little bit diluted by the fact that in the campaign level, Senate candidates and house candidates, Democrats are doing better.

But the overall, if you stack all the money up into big, two big piles of red pile and a blue pile, Republicans are going to have more money, and they typically have it, and they can coordinate it because this recent Supreme Court decision

and James Blair, the president's political aid, is going to have more capacity to coordinate than any single democratic thought, leader, or active strategist would. There's another big pot of money

that adores almost everything else out there,

which is the $400 million or so

that the president's superpack has. Republicans are counting on Democrats, Republicans are counting the president's political team to spend that money, and I suspect they will, and that'll give them a big advantage.

$400 million is a lot of money. On the Democratic strength side, the president, as a messenger, is still not what Republicans want him to be. Talking about the 2020 election,

talking about the ballroom, talking about the Save America Act, which is no prospect of passing. All of that is something that they could be a Republican-advanced, Donald Trump is a great political communicator,

but they're not taking advantage of that. Where's the Democratic Edge? And I should say, by the way, this list, I'm giving you of the Democrat and Republican-adjust, taken largely from Carl Roe,

who wrote this in the Wall Street Journal, last week, very good at crisp analysis, even though Carl's a partisan, that tracks with all of my reporting, but Carl wrote it before I wrote my dance,

so I'm largely taking from him. The Democratic damages, most least familiar to all of you, historically, the president's party does not do well in the first midterm election or midterms in general.

Second, great number of the people will look at always,

is the president's approval rating and disapproval rating. That's an advantage for Democrats, because the president is still not very popular. Third is the president's weakness, particularly on the number one issue for voters,

which is the economy. Democrats haven't advantage on the so-called generic ballot question, the ask voters, would you,

“are you going to vote for a Democrat or a Republican?”

Sometimes the people like the question, which party do you want to have control Congress? Either way, there's a Democratic edge there, but it's not as great as historically, it needs to be for Democrats to have a tsunami election,

but it's still an advantage. And then, most polling indicates greater voter enthusiasm on the Democratic side, that's something Republicans are trying to work on. Okay, we stole some primaries to play out,

and that'll tell the tell to some extent to see what kind of candidate strength there is, what kind of fit there is for each of these nominees in the district or state in which they're running in. The low-approverating should be helping Democrats

and should be helping Democrats more than they are. But right now, the polls have changed from where they were, a few months ago, where Democrats were doing really well in some red places, districts and states, not as much anymore.

But the Republicans still have a problem with independence,

Democrats, poised in the house to pick up,

again, I always ask people, what's your floor

and what's your ceiling of net Democratic house pickups? Consensus view is about at least 10, and as many as 20. It could be lower, it could be lower than 10, and once it's lower than 10, we get into the range where maybe Republicans could keep their majority.

And it could go higher than 20. It could, we'll have to see. Republicans are targeting enough seats to keep their majority in the house, and they've got the messaging,

they know what they're gonna message on. They're gonna say Democrats are crazy communists, crazy communists. That's what they're gonna say. The president's already started saying it.

He've heard some of the house strategists say it. That's what they're gonna say. We'll see if they have some positive message to run on besides tax cuts,

“but that's what they're currently thinking about.”

Senate is always a, it's always a less of a national wave

and more about the individual states. We gotta see what happens with the Jackson, who's replacing Platner and Maine as a Democratic nominee. Let's see him nominated formally.

It's coming weekend. And let's see how he stands up as a candidate. Let's see what kind of opposition research comes. I've been telling folks on all my content. There's gonna be scrutiny of this guy.

And even though he was a leader in the state legislator, even though he just ran for governor, Republicans are gonna find stuff about him, trust me. And we'll see how he does. And then in Michigan,

we have to see who the Democratic nominee is for Senate there between Al Saad and Stephens and Democrats and the establishment will feel much better if it's Stephens. So we'll see what happens there.

Continue to keep your eye on the possible Democratic pickups

“or Republican pickups rather, New Hampshire”

and Michigan as the ones that they're watching super closely. Less so Georgia. And then the question is Maine and play. If Maine's not in play, if Susan Collins is gonna be able to win this race,

and that's not a foregone conclusion, but it's a possibility once we see how Jackson does had to head against her. Then that probably pick up North Carolina. They still need to pick up three more.

They need to hold Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire. And then they need to pick up three of some combination of Ohio, Iowa, Alaska and Texas. And none of those are foregone conclusions, none of them are. So that's kind of where we stand.

I would say chances are the conventional wisdom that's been true from the beginning of the cycle with the twists and turns is still true. Conventional wisdom is Democrats are gonna keep the Senate, or take the House Republicans will keep the Senate.

And both by narrow margins. So that's the macro playing field. Now, what's the macro of the thematic?

I've always told you before in the terms of what,

when people say to you cover presidential politics, I say, no, I cover America, and I cover it often through the prism of presidential politics, okay? So what are we seeing through the prism now

in these midterms? What are we seeing? A lot of strands that are kind of woven together, all these structural things redistricting in the Senate battle field.

And then the soap operas in various races and the personalities, the fundraising, all the interparty conflicts. Those are all kind of braided together to lead us to the conclusions about where it thinks stand.

And the Democratic side, and that's why I'm gonna focus on today is the strands of left wing, all these left wing positions on the economy, on social issues, on ice, on Israel.

That's a strand is the left wing positions,

“but the strand that I think needs to be separated”

from the left wing strand is the anti-establishment strand, okay? Republicans' intentions for months was a week, when the war ends, that I say, well, in the war and Iran ends, then gas prices will come down,

and President Kimu, back to talking about tax cuts and contrast on the economy. Well, it doesn't look like the war's gonna end. It could, but Republicans no longer say in the war ends, what they say is,

when we have our money to spend in the President's super PAC, we're gonna be able to both rev up our base and persuade independent voters back to our side by talking about how the Democrats are crazy communists, right? That's the goal there.

And we'll see if they can do it, but the Democrats, the energy they have, and the frame they're trying to put on the election for independence is about anti-establishment, anti-business is usual.

We've talked before about how similar that is to a Donald Trump ran on in 2016. The Democrats' anti-establishment view is so directed as much as their own party as it is on Donald Trump.

And you hear it from all their candidates.

to be anti-establishment of your own party?

“Well, it's to separate from an unpopular party”

'cause the Democrat brand is unpopular. And it's to rev up the bases, I said, because the base of the Democratic Party is anti-establishment. They don't like Chuck Schumer, they don't like a PAC, they don't like the traditional parts

of the Democratic Party. They don't like a lot of the interest groups that used to be considered the left wing of the Democratic Party, but now by a lot of voters are considered establishment.

What do they like? What revs them up is, they want it, they want candidates who say, we have to buy force, political force, take the power away from the establishment.

And the protectors of these establishment, big special interests, big AI, big tech, big crypto, big corporations. So Troy Jackson, Tony, Troy Jackson, running in Michigan now in Maine rather.

He won the nomination, and this was this message. Here, I could show you a hundred different campaign videos, but here's something from Troy Jackson running about this issue of the power of the people, as Bernie Sanders likes to say.

It's the money, instead of the money. Here's a number, about to be new nominee in Maine for the Democrats for Senate, Troy Jackson, S14, please. (audience applauds) - Power does not give work in people anything

as the voters of the charge.

“Sometimes you have to make the people in charge,”

so uncomfortable that they can't ignore you anymore. - So again, it's a very brute force thing, and the fact that he's got a blue-toler background, I think contributes to the power of his message to win the nomination, because that's what they want.

They want someone who seems tough and powerful,

because the people on the left and the anti-establishment wing of the party, they know how tough and powerful the establishment is and the corporate interests are. James Taloreco, the Democratic nominee in Texas,

same idea, but he's using, sometimes at least, the Epstein class, as his kind of shorthand for the powerful, the powerful interests that win while the people lose. Here's a Texas's Democratic Senate candidate, James Taloreco, talking about the Epstein class, S15, please.

- The Epstein class has no place in Texas, and if there's one thing that we can all still agree on, Democrats, independents, and Republicans alike, - Yeah, so he's saying, even Democrats and Republicans and independents,

or even Republicans and independents, like Democrats, they don't like the Epstein class, they don't like the powerful. Okay, now here's another insurgent candidate, I would say, Taloreco and Jackson, and Dr. Alsaid, who's running in the Michigan Senate primary,

they're all outsiders, two of them, have been state legislators, Taloreco and Jackson, but they're running against Washington, they're running against the establishment wing of their party. They're not supported by the establishment wing.

They are supported in the case of Alsaid and Jackson, by Bernie Sanders and by AOC. Here's Dr. Alsaid talking to Politico about how he sees the Democratic Party as too often, just like the Republican Party catering to special interests.

And he talks about how Marjorie Taylor Green agrees with them. Here's Dr. Alsaid S22, please. - But too often, the Democratic Party is more interested in continuing to take money from its corporate and special interests donors than it is

in speaking conventional truth. It should be an obvious thing that everybody agrees with, that we should keep our money here. It should be an obvious thing that everybody agrees with, that people shouldn't go into medical debt

in the richest, most powerful country in the world.

The fact that MTG agrees with those points should not be all that uncommon, 'cause it's just like obvious things to say, and the fact that neither party is willing to say that is a reflection of the amount of money

both parties take from the corporations and the special interests who, in effect, buy them off to be able to say that. Look, when you have a public consensus that's here, everybody kind of agrees on one thing.

And the point. - So, again, as much against the Democratic Party as the Republican Party, he couldn't be more outside than that to say our party that we're running for the nomination

“of his corrupt on these issues as the Republicans, right?”

But it's not just the insurgents, it's not just the AdCitors in Ohio, the Democratic candidate, Sherrod Brown. He was the United States Senator for many years, lost his seat.

Now he's running again. It couldn't be more established, right, than being the United States Senator, but Sherrod Brown, same thing, his advertising, is all about how the system is rigged.

Here he is with a message about how the system is rigged, this is as 11, please.

in the systems rigged against them. You work harder than ever before. Corporations are making more money.

The average CEOs now make in 17 million dollars a year,

300 times what the average worker in those places are making, and he says the work ethics broke it.

“The systems rigged, that's why we fight back.”

That's why I'm in this race for the Senate. - If there's four words that define the point I'm trying to make to you about how Democrats are running in this race, how their voters are seeing the nation. If forwards, the system is rigged.

That's what they see. And they see that. Again, it's a through line from the financial crisis in 2008, COVID. And now AI, the reason AI is so unpopular people talk about,

they don't like the energy use, they don't like the water use. But really it's about the system being rigged. They're saying, here comes a bunch of billionaires and trillionaires getting rich off putting some big data center in our neighborhood.

And they don't like it here. It's again, shared Brown running in OIO, going after data centers, S10, please. - Oh, I was electric grid. - Big corporations treat it like a game,

probably not better, G2 feed their data centers. No matter how much it raises our prices, it's the latest way they've rigged the system. Rigged the system, there's the word again. And cognitive game is also very resonant for folks,

'cause that's what people think, that the wealthy, the corporations, both political parties are playing a game, that's a rigged game where the establishment wins and real people lose.

“I asked Republicans, what do you think of this theme?”

And they said, well, I'll need to dial a Trump run on this theme. But you got establishment candidates running on as well because they know that a lot of people in the Republican party feel the same way, the system is rigged. But they need to be able to, it independence too.

So here's an ad for Dan Sullivan. He's the Republican incumbent senator in Alaska, running for reelection against Mary Patole. And honestly, he's out Alaska, he's kind of an outsider just 'cause he's from Alaska,

but he's an establishment candidate. He's a incumbent senator, he gets money from all these corporate interests, like most incumbents do. What's he running against the Democrat on?

He's running against the Democrat, the same thing. The system is rigged for special interests and the wealthy. Here's Republican, Dan Sullivan, advertising against his Democratic opponent as 16, please. - Mary cashed in, a job at a DC lobbying firm,

making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, using her campaigns as a personal slush fund, paying herself a salary and spending thousands jet-setting to luxury hotels.

For Mary Peltola, it's always Mary first, Alaska last.

- Mary first, Alaska is lobbyist, cash, luxury. These are all, these are all the symbolism, the the the the the the semiotics of the system is rigged. Okay, so everybody's running on it. And I think it tells you a lot about the times we're in.

Now, what I want to do next after quick break is I want to drill down on one particular candidate whose videos I think tell the story of using the midterms and the Democratic message and some Republican messages as a president to understand where the country is.

Inflation and gas prices and people's concerns about their kids' future, it's all tied up in these themes, the system is rigged. Take you quick break, we come back and we'll introduce you to do kind new Kirk.

Kai, New Kirk is next up. There's one question, it comes up over and over right here on the program, no matter what topic we're covering, the political parties, the media Washington.

There's always one question, it's the same one,

who's actually looking out for you and who's just looking out for themselves. I want to apply that exact same question to something a lot of you are dealing with right now and that is your Medicare coverage.

If you're on Medicare, you probably have people call you promising something better. And when you get those calls, you're right to be skeptical.

“The truth is, most people in the Medicare space”

get paid more to put you in certain plans. That just had the incentives work for most places. So the question isn't whether someone's selling you something is whether you can trust them. That's why I always tell my audience about chapter.

They're the only Medicare advisors that compare every plan nationwide and they're on a spokes. They're not paid to push one plan over another. They'll look at your doctors, your prescriptions, your priorities, and they'll show you what actually

fits best for you. If you're already on the right plan, they'll tell you that. But if not, they'll help you make the switch. No cost, no pressure.

They'll review your options in under 20 minutes.

Let them help you.

“262, 454, 0503, call chapter 262, 454, 0503.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

All right, next up, we drilled down on a particular candidate,

guy named Kai Newcurc, who's running as an outsider in Arizona primary today, Tuesday as I'm recording this. And this is a congressional district in Arizona. It's the fourth congressional district. It's Tempy around Messa and Chandler.

And Erase has gotten some national attention, but not enough. Guy Stan, a former mayor, Phoenix, is the incumbent Democrat. He's been there for about eight years. Pragmatic establishment Republican

has support from a lot of the business interests the Democrat establishment. He's out-raised Kai Newcurc. I don't know what he's going to win or not. There's almost no polling in the race.

Whether Newcurc wins this nomination or not, it's messaging. Well, I'm going to walk you through it. It tells you what you need to know

“about how the Democrats see being an outsider.”

Now again, a lot of it's left wing. A lot of it is, is, you know, about Israel, about immigration. But at the heart of it is that Democrats have not been tough enough fighters against the Trump administration

and are too controlled by their own special interests. And he just goes and all this stuff. Newcurc goes just savagely after Greg's stand on that frame and says Grant's stand is a bomb because he's controlled by the big money, the way the establishment is.

Newcurc has not been endorsed by AOC or Bernie Sanders. But he has been endorsed by the group Sanders has been associated with. He's a progressive, he's an organizer. Been involved with issues like voting rights and democracy.

He calls himself a Democratic socialist. And he thinks Democrats have been, again, too timid about going after the Trump administration and too controlled by corporate interests. So this is a pure ideological divide.

And like I said, I'm interested in the issue divisions on Israel, on immigration, on the direction of the Democratic Party. But to me, the biggest thing is the last one. The notion that you run as a Democrat

because the establishment Democrats have not lived up to what they need. Stand as all the endorsements from things like Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, the communication workers of America, the building and construction trades.

All these groups, which, again, used to be considered the left the Democratic Party, they're now with the establishment, OK? So I don't know who's going to win, but like I said,

“I think if you look at Newcurc's messaging”

it's so interesting. First of all, data centers.

The Democratic Party's divided on this, the governor of New York, band data center, building new data centers. But a lot of Democrats take money from the AI industry and a lot of them think AI is a big part of the future.

Newcurc has been way out there. Maybe it's signature issue. And while there's an economic issue here, this is really about saying, don't let this system be rigged. Don't let the big money AI, big AI,

continue to rig our economy, make the rich richer. Here is Kind Newcurc's video about AI data centers, S24, please. - I support Bernie and AOC and the moratorium on AI data centers. We need to make sure that that technology is regulated, and that these data centers are jacking up our utility bills more

for poisoning our water, our hurting folks in these neighborhoods. One of the citizens here told me that people are saying that we can't drink the data. And that's true, we need to put people first to put the essentials of life first,

enough corporate profits. - Essentials of life over corporate power, as Bernie would say, the money over the money. So there's the focus right there on the AI piece. This is more general, and this is just a brilliant video.

Newcurc is not in the video, it's a some young guy. For those of you who listen to the podcast version, you won't see, he's not dressed the way you'd normally be in an ad, he's wearing shorts and casual clothes. But the delivery is fantastic.

And just in a minute video, the number of hot buttons that get pushed, basically what he does is he holds up the mailers, the Greg Stanton sent it out.

People still send direct mail, it's an incredible thing.

So these are flyers that are showing up in people's mailboxes in the district, and Greg Stanton's saying, "I'm powerful, I'm trusted, I know how to do the job." And what the newcurc campaign is saying,

"make him good, all the things that Greg Stanton

"reelect me because this." They're saying, "These are all bad things. "Being powerful and well-connected. "These are all bad things." This is a video from the newcurc campaign,

released this week. Here is, this is S-25, please. - Rimer. Here's the video. The top MAGA Trump GOP Republican Party donors

are pouring hundreds of thousands into crypto and AI superpacks to back Greg Stanton Democrat, running against Kinyu Occurc in our Democratic primer. Not only this, but the state of Israel is paying Trump's former campaign manager, Radpar Scal,

to send AI text persuasion chats about Israel in our district. This is ridiculous. Greg Stanton, proven and trusted to what,

make ICE stronger, proven leadership that never backs down,

except when it's time to impeach Trump and you vote against a twice in 2025. Taking on special interests, paid for by special interests. Delivering for Arizona families. Yeah, maybe the four who like own Google or Meta.

“If you want to politics that represents your interests”

and not those of the wealthiest dudes in this country, vote for Kinyu Gurk and don't believe this Mueller. - Don't believe this, Melarkey. I love the fact that the guys were in shorts. It's just, I've never seen an ad like that, very modern.

But all the things he talks about in that ad, all the issues he talks about. To me, again, boiled down to what's the zeitgeist is anti-big, anti-wealthy, anti-special interests. And when he says that the Republican party's biggest donors

are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into crypto and AI superpacks to back Greg Stanton. That's true, those superpacks, a lot of the money comes from Republicans. But they're looking for Democrats to support,

because they want Democrats maybe in the majority in Congress. And they want Democratic allies who support their agenda on crypto and AI and a new Kirk's campaigns, right? That's a difference. New Kirk doesn't want to be owned by corporate special interests.

He doesn't want to be funded by them. He's been outspan. He might lose because of that. But that's a big difference. And just the whole thing, he says,

taking on special interests paid for by special interests.

“That's what he's saying is what Stanton claims”

to be against special interests, but takes the money. And that's the biggest complaint you hear from that wing of the party, which has such resonance including within dependence, that all the Democratic leaders, Chuck Schumer,

Aki Jeffries, all of them, they're no better than the Republicans. They just take the money. One more from New Kirk. This had his brilliant, this is on social media this week. And it starts with media clips and it chronicles

all the recent elections in which these underdogs of one. And New Kirk's team is trying to basically say, here's another one. Here's another opportunity to send a message to establishment as voters did in Denver in Colorado,

as voters did in New York to send a message on the issues they care about on what they call genocide and what they say human rights. But really, you'll hear it in here, send a message to billionaires.

That's the key thing, the oligarchs, send a message to them.

Here's one last video from the New Kirk campaign. They're all just so illustrative here. This is S26, please. - And the roof is collapsing on the Democratic Party establishment tonight.

All three candidates who may or mom Donnie supported emerged victorious last night. - Democrat social is collateral, speeding long-time Democrat Congresswoman, Diana DeGet.

- We can be the next big progressive victory. We can be the next big victory that says no to APEC that says no to the genocide. That says yes to human rights. It is time to flip the tables of what is a corrupt

and authoritarian status quo in our country. The threat that we pose to defeat Brexdant and is so strong that the billionaires and the oligarchs are coming in now with hundreds of thousands of dollars funded by AI

and crypto to try to prop up stance in the defeat me in this campaign because they see how close that we are. I'm fighting for many different things. To stop the abuses that ISIS has been carrying out,

“I believe that agency needs to be disbanded in the abolished,”

fighting to take on this cost of living crisis and which has been so much harder for everyday people just to get by. We live in a time in which there's more and more wealth and power going to the billionaires

and the corporations and it's harder for working class people in everyday quotes to get by, to prosper in this country. And I'm fighting for things like Medicare for All that will guarantee health care to all of us as a right, not as a privilege.

My name is Kai Newcurc. I would be honored to have your support. So here's the main point I want to make to you. We have good primaries to play out, including this one with Newcurc.

And we don't know, Michigan Senate race as well.

will be nominated? And then we don't know of those who are nominated, how will they do in the general election? How will Troy Jackson do in Maine? The Republicans tell you that these folks

are crazy communists. And some of them have issue positions that are further out. Like when we talk about abolishing ICE, when we talk about abolishing the police, those positions are going to hurt Democrats.

Not just the ones who take those positions, but they're going to hurt Democrats across the board, because those positions are not popular.

“But here's where I think if the Democrats,”

whether they're nominating a democratic socialist or not, here's where I think Democrats have a chance to perform better than the Republicans. Thank the ones who are calling him crazy communists.

Here's what that video said.

It describes what says a corrupt and authoritarian status quo in our country. The threat that we pose to defeat Greg Stanton is so strong that the billionaires in the oligarchs are coming. And now with hundreds of thousands of dollars funded

by AI and crypto to try to prop up Stanton. That's the message. And that message is heartfelt on the party's candidates. But again, use that as the prison to say, why are these candidates talking about this stuff?

Why are they attacking their own party? Why are they attacking wealth in this country? That's the mood of a lot of the electorate. That's the mood of a lot of people in maga. It's the mood of a lot of independence.

Because we've talked about income inequality here before, they think the game is rate.

They think that the status quo is unsustainable

because of all the economics they can't afford, a house, et cetera. But even on, even on Israel, for instance, they think the reason there's been support for Israel in the American government by both parties

is not because of, well, because of APEC. In other words, it is support for Israel has been driven, solidified, held in place by APEC giving big money to members of both parties in Congress.

“And honestly, ladies and gentlemen, there's some truth to it.”

You could be the most pro-Israel person in the world. In fact, I'm sure if you went to APEC meetings and sat in on, over the years, you hear APEC people bragging to each other and saying, yeah, we're not giving these campaign contributions

and sponsoring these trips to Israel for fun.

We're doing it because this is how we keep the policy

in place. So it's same with the corporations. If you go to a PAC meeting of the AI and crypto and traditional corporations, special interest corporations, you'd hear the same thing.

You'd hear it at the labor unions too, by the way. But you'd hear the same thing. Big money is given to these candidates and these politicians to try to keep them on the side of the establishment to try to keep them

from changing the status quo the way the progressives would like to see it done. So I want to see the primaries play out. I'll be fascinating to see if kind of new Kirk wins.

“But even if kind of Kirk loses an Arizona today,”

I bet you the great stand talks a lot about these same issues, just to a shared brown is talking about them. Because anyone running is a Democrat this year, whether it's attacking AI, more or less, whether it's attacking Israel, more or less,

whether it's attacking corporate interest, more or less. They're all going to be leaning that way. They're all going to be leaning towards saying, the status quo has to change the system is rate. That's the mood.

Not just the Democratic Party, not just the far left of the Democratic Party. That is the mood of the electorate in this country right now. You saw it with the Tea Party, you saw it with Magga. You're seeing it now.

And I bet you if you did a poll question, is the American system ranked for special interest in with a wealthy? I don't know what that would test. I'm going to see if I can get it on a poll,

but a lot of independence would say yes. A lot of Democrats would say yes. A lot of Republicans would say yes. And that fights the American dream, right? The notion the American dream is systems not rigged.

Anybody can succeed in our system. But the defining principle, which is why I'm using that as my prism today and to understand where we are in the midterms, to defining principle. And why the Democrats have more enthusiasm to vote

is in Donald Trump's America. They believe the system is rigged against the working people of this country. And you're going to see not just Democrats, but as I showed you, a lot of Republicans

making the same case, because that's the message that's resonating right now. All right, there you have it. There's my reported monologue on where we stand. Let me know what you think about my theory

that the prism of the midterms is leading inextrably towards those four words, the system is rigged.

Next up at devilmaycaremedia.com.

Next up at devilmaycaremedia.com. And let me know what you think about what I said. All right, next up, David Bozell be here. He's the president of the Media Research Center. Talk about the latest examples of liberal media bias.

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Our next up, one of the most important topics we talk here about here all the time.

A media accountability. When I was first in the news business at ABC News, pre-digital, there wasn't a lot of scrutiny of the media and I quickly learned that the place I worked was liberally biased and I learned that all the other major news organizations were and it was not discussed in the hallways. And on a regular basis, we got mail to the research department, a newsletter from a place called

the Media Research Center. And it was read by some, not by everybody. I read every issue and I was amazed at how openly and aggressively they laid bare the media bias. I didn't always agree. I thought sometimes they went maybe a little too far but most of the time the media research center newsletter would say, well, Sam Donaldson said this and it was biased and CBS said this and it wasn't just anecdotally. It was also statistical. They had, they had annotated, say this negative story about

the Republicans got 97%, 97 minutes and this negative story about the Democrats got zero minutes.

It was an incredible organization and it remains so. It has media criticism, including a lot from

the right, has proliferated. The media research center remains the granddaddy of them all and it's a family business. Our guest, David Bozell. David, welcome. David, you succeeded. You succeeded, you did it. You succeeded, you did it. Mark is not uncommon when an anchor would call us. I can say that and we just believe it. Yeah. David, it's funny because you, your career has been iconic classic. It's been going against the established order and yet your neppo baby. You took

it from your dad explain, explain your family history, not just your dad, but in fact you're

“related to William F. Buckley, the godfather of conservatism. Just explain growing up what life is”

like for you and how you got into the family business. Oh, gosh. Well, I mean, our grandparents grew up in Northwest Washington, so it was not uncommon to kind of go over there for Thanksgiving dinner and maybe Judge Bork would just stop by and have a glass of wine, Joe McCarthy. We have a Joe McCarthy couch in my grandmother's basement because Joe McCarthy used to sleep there overnight. Little no fact, Joe McCarthy's my father's godfather, so he shares the act with Jacqueline Kennedy.

I don't think Jacqueline Kennedy likes to brag about that, but yeah, Joe McCarthy is both of their godfathers. So it was just obviously different unique upbringing growing up. My dad was running a national conservative political action committee, Nickpack, for short, his mentor passed away. They wanted him to take it over, but his mentor's sister wanted to take over Nickpack. They had started as all good things MRC, the idea of MRC started in a bar in the late 1986. And he said,

look, I'll take, I'll leave Nickpack, but I just bring this thing called me to research center with me. And his mentor's sister said, sure, go for it. And all the staff went with my father. MRC was born.

“They made their bones. I believe it was the New Orleans Convention in 1988 in which they would”

slip these quotes underneath anchors, doorsteps in their rooms or hotel rooms. And that's kind

with the lifting of the fairness doctrine. So MRC and Rush were a simpatico. And every all the clips, those early clips pre-email, we had to quite literally mark. We would play a clip. We would put a phone up to a VHS TV, one box, and then blasted to Rush Limbaugh, who had his phone

“to his microphone. And that's how those things, those clips were aired in the early days of”

Rush's show, Rush does. So they were kind of, and then Fox comes along and the rest is history. Yeah, David's father, Brent Poza, was larger than life figure. And really pioneer in what has become an important part of the media ecosystem of explaining a liberal media bias and pointing it out. I've said it throughout my career even when I worked in these places that we have alienated half the country. And I said to liberals, if you don't believe the press is liberally biased,

you're ignoring the data. But recognize that half the country does. And you're denying half the

country these massive platforms. Because when your dad did it, basically it was covering the major

networks. They had him inopily. And those places alienated, a generation or two or three of conservatives, your career, you've taken over for your dad. But your career has seen the rise of two things. One is conservative media, Rush Limbaugh, and the history you just gave is extraordinary, how difficult and technologically challenging it was to get Rush the raw material he needed. The rise of conservative media, first talk radio, then blogs, now social. But also the large

social media institutions, which up until Elon and recent developments, and certainly in the 2020 presidential campaign, were just tools of the left. And the iron triangle between democratic operatives, the traditional liberally biased media, and the social media institutions, was an extraordinary advantage for Joe Biden. And some have argued, including the president, he wouldn't have won without the suppression of honor by laptop story and others. Where are we now,

in 2020, sex is compared to 2020, of that iron triangle? Is it just as powerful or has it been

diminished with Elon's takeover of ex, et cetera? Well, Elon's takeover of ex is certainly hell. To me, our attitude has been, you've got to fish where the fish are. You've got to go to where the audience is for starters, and if the conservative ecosystem, if given an equal opportunity to thrive, it typically wins. Rush Limbaugh taking over talk radio, that whole ecosystem, and all the many Rush Limbaugh's that he spawned over the years. And liberal talk radio just doesn't

“have, and they've tried, I think you probably remember, Air America, you get 10% in the 90s. Fox News”

coming along in 1992, Roger Ailes, and company see the opportunity that that Rush is created on talk radio. So they've taken over cable news, they own every single hour of every day, and they've done so for about 30 plus years. And so that balanced right ecosystem, that network has taken over that medium. So radio, check that box, television, check that box. We're digital is concerned, Obama used Facebook with weapons, great precision mark. And conservatives were kind of a sleep at

the wheel. Until the likes of Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk, and I've run an organization called

for America, a political operation that has an 8 million plus Facebook presence there. Until we

started planning our flag. And our attitude was more, if we don't plan our flag on the biggest communication vehicles that man has ever created, we might as well just take our ball and go home.

“So that's what a lot of these young upstart started to do. And then that's when Silicon Valley”

responded as you suggested by century anything and everything that we were trying to say. It's better, you still got a kind of color within the lines that they create and stay within their guardrails on certain topics and issues and how you say certain things. But it's certainly improved. Our focus at MRC are the digital news apps, the points of entry. Apple News Google News Yahoo and MSN. And those things have been, I mean, Reuters, the origin story of that mark was that

Reuters had a poll in July of 25 that showed the 58% of the country gets their news from the points of entry. Apple News Google News Yahoo and MSN. And that kind of makes sense, right? You know, I mean, and there was an interesting, I remember back in April of 25 from our bright part had a cool podcast. So I was driving down 81. And this was when Trump's numbers were going down a little bit with tariffs were on again, off again. And they took the five worst polls that

showed Trump's approval rating going down. And they overlaided on top and they looked at all the

inauguration. Now, remember, this is April of 2025. But 65 plus he was down 20 points. And so the

prevailing there are two prevailing theories on this podcast that I was listening to. One was that the tariffs were upsetting people's feelings about their social security, people want to keep what's there. And I get that. And that kind of amounted to about 8 to 10 points. But the other 10, you know, 12 to 10 to 12 points that he really couldn't really put their finger on it. And the kind of the throwaway speculation was, well, they must be do watching CNN and MSNBC all day long. But that,

those numbers don't bear that out. I mean, those numbers for those ratings have craters in the last month. Let me see in NSW 50% of its audience in five years. MSNBC is lost 43% of its audience in five years. So the number is kind of didn't bear that out. So that we started looking like, what is this demographic watching? And listening to and consuming for news. And it turns out it's the points of entry. It makes total sense. It's Apple news, Google news, MSNBC. And it's impossible for an outsider,

no matter how aggressive you are to understand, is it algorithm, is it human? How is it that these are deciding which stories people see? And I don't want to get into the specifics because it's also

“complicated. But there's no doubt that if you're suspicious of those institutions, you have to”

wonder how is it that you can find example after example where it seems that the news is being served up is sending people in the left or direction. I want to ask you about something. I say this all the time and people take issue with it. And I want you to tell me if you agree with me or not, and if you do agree with me, explain it to people better than I can. I call the major broadcast networks in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the news side of the Wall Street Journal. I call

them the dominant media. Some people call them old media or legacy media or some people call them

the mainstream media. I've always understood why a lot of conservatives don't like calling them mainstream.

I call them the dominant media because my contention and this is the thesis I want you to agree or disagree. I still think they're dominant. As much as there's been a rise of conservative boys feels they will foxes so well. Fox does so well for cable news, but it doesn't have the reach of the New York Times of ABC News. So explain whether you agree or disagree the calling them the dominant media still makes sense and why. Well, the dominant zero word of choice that's fine.

“I'll take it. I'll agree with that. I could go by the numbers mark and that's what we were”

really looking at this. We look used to press Gazette. I don't want to bore your very sophisticated audience, but the press Gazette has an awesome monthly breakdown of the top news websites in America. And I was, you know, as a conservative activist and someone who had just taken over the home of the

media research center, I was annoyed to see the New York Times. This is November of 25, 440 million hits

that month and they can wow. And that number one and number one by a country mile was more agrees with CNN.com at 300 months. It's a monster and it's all being helped by the aforementioned big four that we talked about. And Wall Street journals in the top, I think 1413 and still there. So if you just go by the numbers, you're right. They command eyeballs particularly in the long form format. But within that top 10 is where Apple sets and where Google News sets and where MSN

sets and where and where Yahoo's big and then all of them. If you combine all Yahoo's properties,

“you could make an argument mark that Yahoo is the most important news ecosystem in America.”

So you'd be at the family business if all this got fixed. So you were rooting for the press to be less biased or this keeps you fed. Yeah, so I've got four pillars. Number one does anybody watch the liberal media. Number two does anybody listen to them. Number three does anybody read them. And number four does anyone believe them. Number one is anyone watched these guys. The ratings are less. Less and less. They're thinking like a stone. Number two does anyone listen to these guys.

New York Times has a good podcast in the morning. It's very popular. You got podcasts in America. But beyond that, you don't have a really robust liberal media radio ecosystem. Number three does anybody read these guys? Yes. By the tens of millions every single day. And the number four does anyone believe them. I mean pick whatever poll you want. I mean gallops, probably the most cited. Gallop has total believability of the press at 8%. This was a poll last

year. Somewhat believability of the press is 24%. That's less than Congress. Mark, I mean this is less than some of those. John McCain would say they're down to paid staff and close relatives. That's exactly right. Exactly right. So so we're in terms of where I see

out of the four boxes checked. And I do think that if these apps were to allow. And right now,

“I think there's a blockade and we could prove it. There's a blockade of the conservative ecosystem”

at the point of entry. If we can, if we can level that playing field, then there's going to be a more balanced ecosystem across all devices. The thing that you got 200 times a day. And there's going to be all sorts of political. I'll give you a cherry, a rich example. The Minnesota Star Tribune in the month of January. Shot up to the top 50 spot, number 48, and the top 50. I don't know where. All because Apple linked to them 11 times and Google News linked to them six times

in that particular month. Now they've subsequently sink, they've subsequently sunk, you know, where they'd probably were. It was all anti-ice all the time. Okay. Not stories about welfare corruption. Not stories about where, yeah, nothing about what next early has covered none of that stuff.

“It's just all anti-ice all the time. Now, if you ask Breitbart, will you down and would”

did you have boots on the ground in Minneapolis in the Twin Cities? Of course they did. They in fact, I did ask the editors of Breitbart that and they said they were filing three stories today. Now, if you're going to cover the ICE protests, wouldn't have, wouldn't have approved any of these outlets to just pick up a Breitbart story for the, for the balanced equation. And so it has all sorts of political downstream effects. I mean, no surprise. That, I mean,

did ICE make mistakes? Probably. But to the extent that Trump needed to overhaul that entire program, if that was a more balanced presentation out there, probably not. So it's, there's issue after issue where that, where that presents itself. All right. Let's give that some awards real quick before we go, just so you can wrap up your head. And the answers can't be Trump or Vance. We can't believe that. What member of the administration is the most articulate

“and powerful on talking about liberal media bias besides the president, the vice president?”

Probably Caroline. And she's terrific. And yeah, she's okay. What Republican member of Congress? I was going to say Rubio, but he's in the cabinet. Rubio's going to remember Congress. My other speaker does a good job. Yeah. I'll give you a nominee, Tom Cotton. Tom Cotton does a great, and having been agreed. Exactly. He's the poster child. I haven't been ready. I don't know why you wrote that piece of the New York Times, but that's a separate issue.

How about a podcast or video podcast or who's the best? Oh, well, everyone's trying to be the next for us, Limbaugh. And Charlie was kind of well on his way when he could look at his audience side and he had plans, obviously. And I mean, specifically on calling out liberal media bias. Maybe that's a great question on the in the conservative center-right ecosystem. I am going probably Bungino. Yeah. And you know, there's a creative job with it. Outside the mainstream news

junky world is our clay and buck. They have to first get over the humor of it because it's so absurd before they can actually drill down and document it, but they're great. That great choices. David, we barely scratch a surface about all that exists in your empire. So I hope you'll come back and we'll walk through it. Absolutely. Particularly in the context of the presidential because my aspiration for America is that this is the first presidential election where there's

level playing field in the media. Absolutely. I concur. Yeah, let's see. Let's see if we can't team up and

pull it off. David was always a president of media research center. It's a family business. It's not a

baker or butcher. It's just a good nonprofit that does extraordinary work. David, thank you for being here. Thanks, Mark. Appreciate it. All right, that's it for today's episode. Make sure you subscribe to next up on your YouTube channel or watch full episodes there at bonus content. Everything we do. You can do that at youtube.com/atnextupalprin. Listen to the program. If you like the podcast, you don't want to see what shirts I'm wearing. You can do that to subscribe to next up with more calprin wherever you get

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