So election night in America continued as results are still coming in at this hour. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and all eyes remain on California as the governors races. Still too close to call. The latest projections show Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Javier Becerra at the head of the pack. It looks very much as if Californians really will have the chance to vote for change in November and take And take our state. And take our state in a new direction.
We will not be bought. We will not be bullied. Okay. Yeah. And we are never backing down. Still don't cone out billionaire Tom Steyer just yet. He still remains in a close third. And we are also still watching this LA mayors race. CNN projecting overnight incumbent Karen Bass will advance to November. We are going to build a city where parents and kids do not have to navigate tents because in the nation's second largest city there should never be anybody that is sleeping on our streets.
We are a city that can deal with this and we have been doing it and we are going to continue. The question has been whether she's going to face a city councilwoman or a former reality TV star. This city should be affordable enough to still be a place of real opportunity, where families are not pushed out, where artists can afford to stay and make their art. A place where working people can build a future. That is the vision that we have for Los Angeles.
I'm the Angelino who said enough is enough and I had to step up. I didn't know I'd be here tonight, but it's obviously God's plan and I'm gonna. Go all the way. And I'm gonna show it. about it. I want to bring in CNN anchor John Berman to break all of this down. Um we're gonna come back to the the mayor's race. Oh wait, we actually have news on the mayor's race. Sorry about that, John. Um what have you learned uh about the the second two in this race right now?
We're gonna start on the mayor's race right now. You can see Karen Bass, the sitting mayor, is out in front right now. About 35% of the vote. Spencer Pratt's in second just over thirty percent. And Nithya Raman, the city councilwoman down at twenty-two percent. Now, you don't run with party affiliation in Los Angeles. It's an open primary in that sense, but Karen Bass is a Democrat. Spencer Pratt
is a Republican and Nithya Rahman is a Democrat here as well. A couple things I want to point out. Number one, Karen Bass, who we do project will advance to the runoff. The top two candidates will advance to a runoff. She is going to people are actually touching my wall backstage. All right, CNN, way to go with uh with touching the magic wall here, but you can take my word for it, Audie, that the first two candidates will advance. Karen Bass.
who's at about thirty five percent will advance. But you can add up the two numbers below her and you can see more than fifty percent of people in Los Angeles right now More than 50% are voting against Karen Bass. That is notable. The other number I want to point to on the bottom of the screen is the 63%. 63% of the vote is in at that this point. Estimated, right? We're not 100% sure. That's a lot of vote. That is a lot of vote still remaining.
Okay, we are waiting for those votes to come in in California. If you mail your ballot by election day, postmark by election day, there are 13 days to count it. So there are many days still for more votes to come in and we do know that historically more Democrats vote late, more Democrats vote by mail. So those numbers for Neitha Raman at the you switch to governor here. For Nithya Raman, those numbers should grow, and there's a possibility she could overtake Spencer Pratt at some point.
But it seems like there's a lot of ground to cover. You know what, Audie? We're gonna get our wall fixed, I think, hopefully. Let me throw it back to you, because I don't have anything to show you just now. We'll get this fixed. Come back to me in a sec. Okay, John, thanks so much. Coming up on CNN this morning. We will have more from the wall, we promise.
Because the votes are still being counted in California. It looks like it may be the incumbent versus the reality star in the LA mayor's race. We're gonna follow those numbers and we've got the group chat to discuss. Next. I'm CNN Tech Reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast Terms of Service, the idea of riding in a car with no driver can feel daunting, and this technology raises questions about safety and the future of transportation.
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So it's understandable to me, but I also am concerned because what this does is it crowds out opportunity for real life connection, for exercise, for time in nature. I'm gonna be talking with board certified psychiatrist Dr. Sue Varma. It's gonna help us understand what is driving this, what to look for if you're starting to worry about someone else's screen usage in your own life.
60% of the time the phone usage is positive when it has to do with photo sharing, video sharing, and keeping in contact with people. Listen to Chasing Life. Streaming now, wherever you get your pocket. Thank you. The morning after election day, we know one of the candidates for mayor of Los Angeles this fall. CNN projects current mayor Karen Bass will make it to the general election in November. And right now former reality TV star Spencer
Prad seems to be in position to be her opponent. And even though Bass will make it to the next round, roughly three in five voters basically voted for somebody else on Tuesday night. What do you like? Uh Karen Bass. I think she's been an amazing mayor in a lot of ways. I think there's been a lot of misrepresentation towards her. I'm just hoping it ain't Karen. Yeah this But not a Spencer Prime. Not the not the reality TV star never held a job kind of changed, yes.
Well, anyone that'll keep Spencer Pratt's fascist ass out of office. What do you think about uh Pratt's unconventional I love it. Approach. I love it. He's another Trump. Joining me now in the group chat, Sabrina Rodriguez, politics reporter at the Wall Street Journal, Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, and Antoine Sea Wright, Democratic Strategist.
Um because right now we are still looking at sort of Bass, Pratt, but then also Nithya Raman. Can I start with you, Antoine? What did voters have, Democratic voters and have in Los Angeles? when they looked at these choices. How different is ramen from Bass? I think they look for two things, consistency uh and stabilization and I think that's What is Raman like the up and coming progressive type?
I think what she the campaign she tried to run is to the left of Care Mayor Bass, but two, I also think she tried to run as an outsider um and a voice of change. Because once you're an incumbent, and you're in the most powerful position uh within the position. uh you you have to run as an outsider in order to challenge quote unquote the status quo. And I think that's what she also what's what she tried to represent. The other aspect I think she tried to make it a generational race.
And we're starting to see that across the democratic ecosystem in these primaries, the seasoned versus not seasoned, Old Testament versus New Testament. type of as you said. And it's a and and and it's having mixed results, mixed success. Because when it comes to a mayor's race, that is about the trash
the zoning, the what it's like to walk down the street every day. And Terry, you you're one of these people who has been watching these kind of AI Spencer Pratt videos. And so you you think he really spoke to that in particular?
Yeah, so look, there's uh last few you know decade or so uh there's been the rise of the online candidate who doesn't really translate to electoral victories or have any real following. But what we've seen is that Spencer Pratt apparently is actually appealing to real voters and their Or Mam Dani, the Internet's mayor, from the United States. Exactly. Well I I will give you that. But yeah, no, to get thirty percent of the vote in LA I think is a very big deal for any report.
Here's one voter that spoke to CNN who said he was previously homeless, and here's what he said about Spencer Pratt. I do like his approach for the homelessness. As a person who used to be homeless myself, I was rendered the services that he's talking about. I was able to change my life. Ten years sober with no alcohol and stuff like that. So his approach is really good.
I do think it's fair for him to go off uh with the runoff with Karen Bass. This way both of them can go ahead and prove to me why they deserve my vote. So uh as of today I'm doing it, yes, because I do like his approach and I do think he deserves a fair chance. Yeah but come November it could be It could be different. Now there's affordability.
Generally. And then there's housing in California, which is a completely different beast, completely different level of frustration and culture war level fighting over how to solve it. How do you think that played into this race? I mean it was a huge part of this race. I mean, I think that Spencer Pratt's rise, of course we were talking about this off camera as well. I mean, I grew up watching him on the hills.
And I remember after the Palisade fires, like his videos coming up on my TikTok of him talking about, you know, losing everything and and the c you know, the story around what was happening to his family, what happened to many families in California, and then sort of how he pivoted that to to run for mayor wasn't totally surprising to me because you could courta sorty sort of see
the beginnings of it there. So he's talking about very real issues for people in Los Angeles. I think the question now will be if if he does become officially, you know, going into a runoff with Mayor Bass is of course him actually articulating what his plans are. He obviously doesn't come from any kind of government experience. In 2026, that doesn't mean that you can't be you can't run for office or you can't win.
We were just talking in Iowa about a farmer who advanced, right? Like it isn't guaranteed. Questions. there's a new model in the Republican Party, uh reality TV uh or trash TV, uh, and you uh don't have to have experience and you audition for the job. Uh and uh some wha some of what the primary process is about is name ID.
and whether people can relate to you from some other experience. I think that's part of the reason Donald Trump's rise in politics happened. I think there are others in the Republican ecosystem who feel like Trump maybe open up a pathway for them to try that same model. Because in in in reality, most people cannot articulate what his policy positions are and how he will seriously make a difference if you never been had your tires kicked or your hood checked in
Well it's a he's about to if he makes it through this process because once you go to November, that's when people start kicking tires. I have one other thing, which is the governor's race. Um Steve Hilton, the Republican, making some advances there. And then Javier Becerra, right? In the end, a kind of dark horse.
in a race that a few months ago people were talking about a Katie Porter, people were talking about a Eric Swalwell, both of whom basically fell down in the public's eyes. Did Bacera advance or did he take advantage of some people's failures? I mean he'd certainly took advantage of some people's failures. I mean I think look the bottom line when we when it's all said and done about this race, this California governor's race.
It has been a mess. I mean, we were talking over a year ago about about whether Vice President Kamala Harris would decide to run for governor. We talked about whether Senator Alex Padilla would decide to run for governor. Neither one did it. We saw, you know, Governor Newsom did not endorse, Nancy Pelosi did not endorse in this race. I mean we saw a sort of a free-for-all.
Which has allowed these Republicans to advance in a way, and obviously California can have a Republican governor, it's happened plenty of times. Um, what is it about Hilton that you think is striking a court? Because I we were talking during the break of like Who does he represent in the sliver of the Republican coalition?
Uh well uh as Antoine uh was saying earlier, I I I would have a more charitable view of it. These uh these outsiders, these independent people, these people that aren't in politics, that's what Republicans are looking for, is they're looking for someone that can speak to their concerns for their families. You know, it's really tough to get by for working families these days and they know that the current regime of Democrats are in California public office.
term is disruptor. Yeah. Uh from Silicon Valley, right? Like someone who's gonna come in and break a system they think is not really working. But there's such a coalition of Republican voters right now, when you look at him, is he like a banan MAGA? Is he a T P USA? Is he an i a free speech warrior? Like what am I looking at here? I think he's doing a good combination of of building a winning coalition, tapping into all of these different mini groups and and the podcast circuit.
Trump's policies clos. Uh no, I think he I mean I think he respects President Trump and how he's disrupting DC, but I think he's gonna have his own flavor and you have to in California. What I'm paying attention to though, Audi, and my team is
is we're analyzing the married vote in California. What we found is that the married vote, married men, married women, they are the real base of the Republican Party and it's a leading indicator for Republican success going into November. It's gonna determine whether or not Republicans have a good night election. Yeah, in California or in general,'cause when you once you start talking to married, you're also talking about upper class and more moneyed individuals.
Yeah, no, it's in general. So we're seeing across the board that it doesn't matter what state you're in, uh the married vote if if the intensity amongst married voters and the energy level enthusiasm is high, Republicans are usually gonna have a good night.
primary process is complete. Well this jungle primary, let me start here, is about survive in advance. It's like political uh June madness in California. But after that process is over, you're gonna see base consolidation. And that's where you're gonna see Democrats
independence, aligned with a serious candidate who we who not only can win, but who can speak directly to the issues and get something done. And that's why Steve Hilton does not even stand a chance of winning in November. However, I think competition is good for the marketplace. And I think you'll see the same thing. charitable of you, Antoine. They appreciate I think you see the same thing in the Mayors race, although it may be close because Karen Bass last race was close with a big
Well I'll be watching to see at what point does the race basically fundamentally become national or a referendum on Trump. You guys stay with me. We are going to talk about many other states here. We're also going to talk about the three candidates fighting for two spots to become the next governor of California as we have been discussing who will be left out.
And then I want to mention this, Scott Pelley, the journalist, fired after a heated argument with the new boss, the latest headlines coming out of 60 minutes. It's now 22 minutes past the hour. This is your morning roundup. President Trump's effort to create a nearly$1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund is now dead.
The IRS settlement, which helped create the fund, is still in place. On Tuesday, Acting General uh Attorney General Todd Blanche testified before a House subcommittee He told House members the provision which would bar the IRS from bringing claims against the president, his family, or his businesses for past tax issues is still in place. Anytime the IRS settles with an individual taxpayer or or another company as part of the settlement, it's standard. It's typical.
for to to to get rid of past ongoing audits. It's not a forward-looking document. It's nothing that gives any sort of immunity in the future to the president or his family or his organizations. The Justice Department is dropping the idea of the anti-weaponization fund, but Blanche said prosecutors will still take part in lawsuits that challenge the fund in Virginia and Washington DC. and the fight over New Jersey's Delaney Hall Detention Center facility.
Now going to the state. Officials are suing to gain access for health inspections. Protests over alleged inhumane conditions inside are still drawing crowds outside. And CBS has fired Scott Pelle from his role. On 60 minutes, the firing of the veteran journalist comes just 24 hours after he accused the current CBS news chief Barry Weiss of quote murdering the news program. This happened during a staff meeting.
Now in a statement after his firing, Pelle doubled down on his criticism of CBS management, saying, quote, the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.
The fallout continues in Maine for Senate candidate Graham Plattner, a member of his own party now questioning whether he can stay out of controversy and win a race that the party needs to potentially take back the Senate. But would it be better for Democrats if he was not the candidate? Uh all I'm saying it's like um you know when I was growing up if someone had a a clear Nazi tattoo on them you probably could consume uh conclude that there's a a nit a Nazi sympathizer.
Now his scandals didn't stop at the Nazi tattoo earlier this week. It was reported Plattner allegedly sent sexual text messages to women who were not his wife. Sabrina, this is the kind of story that politically it kind of goes on and on and on. um on the s scale of sort of Swalwell to to something else, at what point does this become damaging? Truly damaging?
I mean I think it's like the trickle effect that's concerning to some Democrats is is the feeling of like is there gonna be another story? Research, like isn't that what you're supposed to do? It's like prepare. But it keeps coming. And I th I and I think this is part of I mean I th I think some of the Democrats demif defending him argue, you know, he's a real person that has a real past, that has acknowledged the past that he has.
I think it is becoming harder for some Democrats to talk about it. We saw him meeting yesterday with some Senate Democrats and we saw Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer coming Now he's still on the ballot there where i very much the polling has shown that the voter has a different Yeah, and but we have like folks like Schumer coming out and saying like I will s we need to beat Collins in November.
I spoke to Graham Plattner today, period, end quote, and like was asked repeatedly about it, and just kind of like is not really trying to get into it. So I think a lot of people have The voters have the last say. Absolutely. Straight ahead on CNN this morning. We've got LA Mayor and Karen Bass fighting for re-election. Will reality TV star Spencer Pratt steal her thunder in November?
Plus he hasn't been seen in three months, so how did Congressman Tom Caine Jr. win the GOP primary last night in New Jersey's 7th district? Just. Hi. Thank you. Oh. You mean the house. competition of the summer. Three amateur renovation teams paired with a top HGTV mentor will transform Three Beach Houses into a life-changing opportunity. To win fifty $80,000 cash. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you say$50,000? Can we join? All new Battle on the Beach, Monday night at 9 on HGTV.
Welcome back to CNN's coverage of election night in America. They are still counting ballots in California, and while that drags on, the primary race for governor remains too close to call. Republican Stephen Hilton, a former Fox News host, and Democrat Javier Becerra, the former U.S. Health Secretary, they hold the top two positions, and billionaire Tom Steyer is in third place. Now only the top two finishers move on to the general election in November.
As long as we can make it into the top two, Californians will be able to change the trajectory of our state away from policies that have given us the highest poverty rate, the highest unemployment rate in the country, the highest cost of living, all the problems that we know about. but we can turn them around with common sense, practical ideas such as the ones I'm running on to make our state, in my word, cali affordable.
In the LA mayor's race, incumbent Democrat Karen Bass will advance to a November runoff. Republican reality star Spencer Pratt appears likely to advance alongside her. Winning streak stopped cold in Iowa's Republican primary for governor. Trump backed Randy Feinstra, uh conceding to businessman Zach Lane in the Republican primary.
And despite the fact that he has not been seen on the Hill for months and has missed more than a hundred votes, Trump-backed incumbent Tom King Jr. still won the GOP primary in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District. But not because of the president's endorsement, Kane ran unopposed. And in New Mexico, former Interior Secretary Deb Holland won the Democratic nomination for governor with more than 70% of the vote and hopes to make history.
We've never had a Native American governor in New Mexico. We're a multicultural state. I think it's important. I think representation matters, especially in a political era such as this one. We're gonna bring in CNN's John Berman at the Magic Wall. Good morning, John. Um let's get an update on Hilton and Becerra. We talked about them leading the pack for that governor's race. What are you seeing in terms of the numbers this morning?
Yeah, good morning to you, Audie, at the Magic Wall. And this time I promise it will be magic. You can see right here Steve Hilton, Javier Becerra in the top two positions right now in this. Open primary to be governor of California. And like Audi keeps saying, the key here is that the top two finishers in this election right here will advance. to November. So why aren't we making any projections at this point? It's because of this number down here. Just fifty seven percent at this point.
of the vote has been counted. An estimated fifty-seven percent has been counted. Why? Because in California, where there's a lot of mail vote, if your mail ballot is postmarked by election day yesterday, It can be counted for the next 13 days. So we don't know at this point how many more ballots will be mailed in. This is an estimate. There is still a lot of vote to be counted, so the rankings here could shift.
Um Javier Pacera could end up ahead of Steve Hilton, Tom Steyer. It's not completely inconceivable that he catches either Piserra or. or Steve Hilton. Still a lot of vote to go. And one thing we do know about California and this mail vote As it comes in later, it does tend to get more democratic, bluer. So it could very well be that Steyer gains and Hilton sinks. Just to show you what I mean here, I want to point out San Francisco if I can.
You can see San Francisco here, obviously one of the most democratic places in the country. Steve Hilton, the Republicans, not even among the top three. Candidates right now in the vote that has been counted in San Francisco so far, with 50% in, so a lot more potential vote. For Tom Styers in some more place like San Francisco where he is in the lead. So at this point, Audi, still a little bit early.
for us to call anything in California. We're watching it. These are the three to watch. You'd rather be Hilton or Becerra at this point. Steyr's got a lot of ground to gain. And no matter what happens here. The Democrat, if one of the Democrats is among the top two like we expect, they'll be the heavy favorite. They will be the heavy favorite in November because California is so heavily Democratic.
Um, we know California was also involved in this big redistricting fight. Are there any house races that people are now concerned about or any shifts on the ground there? I want to show you one race here, it's California's sixth congressional district, and this is really interesting.
Audi. Kevin Kiley is the incumbent. I know you've had him on your show. He is now an independent technically. He was elected as a Republican. He left the Republican Party after the redistricting. He is now an independent, but he's not a Democrat. Right, and Democrats want to pick up this seat. This was one of the districts that was redrawn to make it a democratic pickup, but you can see right now in this so-called jungle primary where the top two candidates will advance to November.
Right now the top two candidates are Kevin Kiley, formerly a Republican, now an independent, but definitely not a Democrat, and in second place is a Republican. So if it ended right now, these would be the top two to advance and the Democrat Richard Pand would be shut out. That's right now. I will tell you, there's only 48% in, and again, the late vote tends to be Democratic. Very possible, maybe even likely, that Richard Pan moves up.
But this is one of those things that's interesting about California. Sometimes you can get these anomalies and people can get blocked out if there are a lot of candidates on the ballot audio. Uh John, speaking of anomalies, can we just check in on the LA mayors race? Uh we talked about Karen Bass being in the lead that she is going to advance to the general. Um have any gaps closed there? What are we looking at?
These are still the numbers we're looking at right now. Karen Bass, the incumbent mayor, a little bit less than 35%. Spencer Pratt, the reality TV host, at 30%, and Nithya Raman down to 22%. This is last I checked with about 63% of the vote in, so still quite a bit more vote to count. Bass we do project will advance. to this runoff, uh to the election itself in November. We're still waiting for the second slot to fill in. A lot more vote to count. Is it possible that Ramen catches Pratt?
It's possible. Uh it is a steep hill to climb. And no matter what happens, one thing I want to point out is you do have a majority of people voting in Los Angeles voting against. The incumbent mayor, more than 50% voting against the incumbent mayor Karen Bass right now, which does tell you something. Although, once again, this being California and heavily Democratic, if she does end up facing off against Spencer Pratt,
This is a non-partisan race technically, but Karen Bass is a Democrat, Spencer Pratt is a Republican. If it is Karen Bass for a Spencer Pratt, she would be heavily favored, Audi, because Los Angeles is so heavily Democrat. Okay, John Berman, thanks so much. We're gonna check back with you a moment and I want to talk to my panel because California is expensive and so is its ad market and so is the spending to get your name out there in a crowded field of which it was for for both of these.
Um I know I was reading that outside groups in PAC spent seventy f seventy nine million dollars. much of that actually opposing Tom Steyr's campaign. We also talked about Styre reaching out to the Latino community um with influencers putting a lot of money there. Um is California just so big that this amount of money just kind of w washes away. It's not the same as dropping it in c like in Kentucky, the race we saw against Tom Massey.
I mean it's insane the numbers. I I just looking at a Tom Steyr's campaign ad impact had it was about a hundred and ninety five million dollars of his own money that he's put into this race in ad spending. I think it was interesting to see Becerra, for example, did ads where he like called out uh Becerra did ads where he kind of called Oh wait, what we looked it up. 213 million STIR donations to his campaign. Um so he still outspent the people. Money.
Lots of money spent on this race. I think a lot of people uh in California are probably exhausted with all the TV ads and digital ads that they're seeing from this race. And it's only the primary, so it'll be interesting to see if two Democrats do make it out of the race and what that's gonna look like heading to November. Guys have both been on campaigning sides. When you look at how the money was spent, ads versus I don't know, free AI slop, like it feels like there's
There's a new way to do this. Um and Syre's money, maybe'cause we're in an anti billionaire moment, is not exactly convincing people. Well I think that made a difference. Um certainly there are a number of people in our party who are rejecting this notion of the billionaire class existing in such a way that influence in political uh infrastructure uh But there's billionaires in the party. That's what I've always weighed, right? Like do you like a Pritzker and then you don't like a styre like
Again, I think there are certain segments of the Democratic Party who feel that way. I also think that Steyer did not have a base. You can argue that Javier Baser has a base where there's Latino voters. He's been elected in the state before, so people know him. He's a known commodity.
Tom Steyr did not have that experience. In a primary, you have to start from somewhere. You have to start with a base if you want a chance to be successful, particularly in a jungle primary. And I think that may be the difference between those two on as Democratic candidates. Harry, let me play something for you. This is Becerra talking just last night and he's not mentioning the other people he's running against. You can guess who he is talking about.
California means to America what America means to the world. We Have we have a responsibility. to revive California. So it is once again that symbol of everything that is great about our nation. California is America on fast forward. An economic engine so powerful, so diverse, with more jobs, more capital, more RD, more GDP. We lift up the entire nation. We are America's center tent pole.
So he goes on to say that he sued Trump more than a hundred and twenty times. He said I won and I won and I won. And how much did that make a difference that he could turn to Californians who have been hearing about the redistricting wars, hearing about Trump, hearing about Trump in all of these ads, and he can say like a Paxton does in Texas, I have represented you in that particular lane. Well I certainly think that that helped him uh do well with Democrats in the prime.
But it's not a random name. It's not a random name and he you know, but keep in mind Katie Porter had to blow up and uh um totally Eric Swal will had to blow up. But at the same time, Tom Steyr spent all that money, he doesn't appeal to anyone. And I think one of the weaknesses Of these self-funding billionaires is that they think they're really, really smart. But the way you become a billionaire is you specialize in one specific.
thing. And so I just I think the best the biggest winners for the Tom Steyer campaign are actually his political consultants. Uh can I say this th w respect to Javier Besser? He did not get pulled too far to the quote unquote left. He remained kind of center left, pragmatic among the other voices in the Democratic field, even when they tried to tear him down for not being pulled to the left on certain issues that bubble to the top as
uh defining issues in his campaign. He kind of remains steadfast. And I think there's a certain segment of the Democratic base who respects that. Like don't change Well it was one of the proxy conversations of the night, which is how would progressive candidates do? How would candidates do who are not necessarily backed by the establishments who are running to the left overall? We're only it's still early. We don't have the the pictures.
Yeah, I think it's still early, but I think it's interesting because so much of what we're talking about in this election cycle is sort of like the generational races, the new guard trying to come up, people trying to come up as outsiders. And in California we're kind of seeing that Becerra's rise is the opposite of that. Like and what we're seeing is and in all the stories coming out of California talking to voters, people saw in him someone who like, okay, he has experience.
He knows what he's doing, he's had all these positions. Like I kinda trust like he kinda knows what he's doing in this crowded filled with so many people. And I think that's gonna be an interesting dynamic coming out of this is clearly him having the resume and that does differ from other races where we're seeing the people come up and say I'm gonna challenge the establishment.
Okay, you guys stay with us. We're gonna talk about uh a little more detail what we've discussed here, the progressives and the moderates and what's dividing Democrats. We have enough millionaires in DC looking out for billionaires. So we're gonna talk about what Antoine had to say. Old Testament versus new, is that the term? We'll be talking about that next. And guess what? AI data centers are on the ballot. The city that just voted to never allow another one to be built.
Twizzlers keep the fun going. Yeah, I know. I just stopped whatever you were listening to to tell you that Twizzlers keep the fun going. Well, irony isn't my forte, but twisty, chewy, yummy Twizzler sure is. So think of Twizzlers as a little How? Cleanser for whatever's queued up, which by the way should be coming very soon. Like any second now. Okay. Time to keep the fun going. Yeah.
So we've been talking about progressives versus moderates, the new generation versus the old, or as Antoine calls it, Old Testament versus New Testament. So take the seat held for decades by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. CNN projects Democratic State Senator Scott Wiener will advance to the general election. Meanwhile, Pelosi's pick, Connie Chan, is in second. A former staffer for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is running third.
Group chat is back. I want to talk about this and a couple other races. Uh in this one it seemed as though Pelosi, her f like her former um the person she's connected to didn't necessarily advance. Is this a sign that Wiener just had More influence, the message was a better lock. Help me understand. Because we're talking San Francisco, so it's a spectrum of liberals.
Well I think the speaker came in late um to endorse. I think that matters. Uh I also think that there's a generation of people who want something different. Uh and when seasoned politicians weigh in on races, people see that as a continuation. um of their service and I think that sometimes can work against you, sometimes it can work for you. The other thing is I think local infrastructure matters. And there's a sense in the primary is this real sense of trust.
when people go and cast their vote and I don't know if the trust level is the same with those two candidates. Um, I also wanna talk about um Dr. Adam um Hamay in New Jersey. There was a lot of controversy over his past and it was like a battle over which part of the resume you wanted to cherry pick.
But you know what I mean? Like the parts that were sort of military leaning, the parts that people were arguing his connections and him saying, look, just because I am Arab does not mean I'm guilt by association to a variety of things. Is this another one of those candidates where it's a little bit of a proxy conversation for the pro Palestinian part of the wing versus um the part of the wing that is very strongly still pro Israel?
I mean I think yes. Uh there and we're seeing it play out in so many primaries across the country. I mean we're seeing it we're gonna be seeing it in the weeks to come and months to come. A big example is gonna be of course the Michigan Senate primary and and that's obviously a big focus for for Democrats in hopes of winning.
the Senate. But I think this is a conversation we're gonna keep having, both in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. I mean I think the conversation around Israel and support for Israel and and the Gaza War And I was watching it for spending'cause there's a pro Palestinian pact.
Now A lot of money that is going into this conversation adds a whole other layer to it that we're gonna be seeing and it's not just what voters are talking about or it's not just what pundits are talking about, but there's real money being spent to force this conversation to continue happening throughout the country. The other trend I'm watching for are candidates with military backgrounds. You've had a group like Vote Vets, which started back in 2006 as an anti-war movement.
come back to the forefront with this anti forever wars argument. In this case I was looking at Alani Bankhead who was set to win her Senate primary in Montana. There was a GOP super pack sort of running different ads. uh against her. It sounds like that didn't work. And she had a she has an argument that is very similar to even some right some on the right who are anti Forever Wars.
So I think this speaks mostly to Rahm Emanuel's growing influence within the Democratic Party. There's an excellent book out there about the 2006. Midterms. It's called the thumpin'. And it's all about Romm taking over the DCC and the candidates he was trying to recruit. He was tired of the Democratic Party getting branded as weak or too liberal and soft.
And so they were seeking out police officers. They were seeking out military members to help bolster the democratic brand and make it more masculine so they could appeal to the the But in this case, do they have to reach? I mean there's a lot of upset people who are upset over the president's war policy. I I also think Terry that um Republicans have tried to hijack this narrative around patriotism and the type of candidates who only subscribe to the Republican Party notion.
And I think Democrats are proving the diversity and the quality of our candidates can include those who are who have a military background and the military service and we also understand the arguments of freedom. Patriotism in the modern day Republican Party has not reflected that in this governing and the way they chose to run this country.
I just, you know, argue back, Antoine. It y you guys are making our lives easy and our argument easy when the focus is so much on condemning America as systematically racist and systematically evil and pressors all across the globe. I mean i it's easy to make these arguments that the Republicans are the patriotic ones that love our country when you hear so many Democratic high-level voices criticizing country without any real charity.
can't love your country only when you win and I would argue as a black man from the South, I would argue that systemic racism is true to America and we see that playing out in our military because there've been reports all week about the current Secretary of War, Secretary of Defense. not promoting African Americans within the military structure. So systemically that is true when it comes to racism.
For the viewers at home, you are watching like a proxy conversation. Uh what what Antoine is saying is true in terms of those firings, and I don't think it's an accident that there are quite a few women veterans who are running in particular, who maybe feel that they're looking at a country that is rejecting their patriotism um in the policies of the administration. Um but I don't want to step too far away from this kind of anti-war wing of the party. I was looking at Iowa.
and watching what was happening there where the president kind of put his chips behind uh Feinstra who is an incumbent and that is not the Republican who came out on top. What was the what was happening there? So I very interestingly, uh we endorse in races and I got a call uh late last week from uh one of the Moms for Liberty activists.
And she said, Terry, you've got to step in here, you've got to talk to Zach Lane because President Trump's getting the wrong advice. He endorsed the wrong candidate. Zach Lane's the right person. So there was this. Divide between the people on the ground, the populists, activists within the party who really know Iowa and love it, and where President Trump went. Um T P. USA, were they backing the same candidate as Trump or no?
No, TP USA uh had endorsed Zach Lane as well. Um, and I think that really speaks to this. I don't know. Iowa is that they think that the wrong people are giving the wrong advice to President Trump. She said, I love President Trump. I I don't know what he's thinking here. I I think someone's giving the wrong info. And so you're gonna continue to see this and and as Antoine was saying earlier, we might even see this in South Carolina next week.
Uh why? Why? What's happening in South Carolina where the President might put his chips somewhere that is not what the ground is saying? That's it. You said chips, I said Paul. Yeah, okay. The president endorsed uh our lieutenant governor who has a paper thin resume compared to the rest of the field, as some of my Republican friends in the state argue. And we have not seen the jump in the polls as it relates to his endorsement and the vibration of that endorsement now.
The endorsement is not enough. I think we all thought after the last round of primaries, just enough to have the golden touch from the White House put you over. Because all politics is local. And and I think that the president, I mean, l if we're honest, sometimes he does like a last minute endorsement when things are clearly already headed in a direction. I think we saw it in Texas where we did see that, you know, Attorney General Paxton Where the person was not doing
No, no. No, no. What's very interesting is that that race in Iowa was so close after the Trump endorsement, which means most likely that Zach Lane probably would have walked away with it which a mu with a much l marger large if had Trump not stepped into it. It when it comes to President Trump, there's endorsement and then there's support. And endorsement means that he's full throttle, he's cutting ads, he's using voiceovers, he is actively campaigning for the candidate.
Him offering his support maybe a post on X, post on True Social, just to check a box to say he's weighing in on a race. And I think that is the difference we're starting to see in some of these primaries. And I think that's going to be the measurement in South Carolina. And certainly that was the case in Iowa.
So let's talk a little bit about what's in your group chats. Um probably a lot of like sad, tired emoji because everybody was up trying to get some answers here and we'll have more for you today. Love the pivot. I'm sorry, Antoine, it's trash TV. New season of Love Island has just started. And I will be consuming all the trash that comes from it. Yeah.
But it's the time of the year that I hate the internet. It's the time of the year that I hate the internet the most because of just like the fandom around it is so intense. I like reality TV. Half of it is being in it for the memes. It's a good thing. All right, good morning to everyone but Antoine, who is Too much of a snob to care about reality TV. Um Terry, tell us about your show uh Eight is an Up.
Uh well uh it's my wife's birthday this weekend and I uh made the mistake of going to my guy friend's to get advice on what to get my wife for her birthday and uh Sounds like the actual plot of eight is enough, but continue. Well, yeah, y some of the suggestions were to get her an elliptical, to get her a vacuum. I know I have the worst friends ever. I'm probably gonna end up just getting her uh she loves to keep Your friends hate you. They do. Was it a Peloton at least?
Oh. She don't need an elliptical. We met nearly twenty years ago. Are you actual children in this? Uh. This is no. This is in college. We've been on the brown back for president campaign out in Iowa. Uh there's Bobby. He's my uh he's my firstborn son. He's eleven now, he's much bigger. But um I'm probably gonna settle with a uh a nice bottle of special expensive tequila tres padres or something like that. Okay, Antoine.
Um last night the Supreme Court ruled that uh Alabama can now um implement racism when it comes to a newly drawn map that would eliminate And by the way, a three-judge panel, two Trump judges ruled that this was the discriminatory map uh not too long ago. So here we are, once again, black voices in the South being silent.
sending that around in their chats actually certainly in my world I've seen people pass around these news stories. So thank you guys here for talking about all the trends that we're learning about out of these election results last night. I'm Audie Cornish. We're gonna have more Detail more headlines next. Yeah.
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