Special Report: Is Texas where MAGA dies?

0:00This is a global production. I'm working my ass off. You better get out there and vote. You think this is easy? James Tallarico is weird. Very weird. There are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six. Six sexes? Jesus a radical feminist? A Christian who hates Christianity? Ken Paxton says, I don't have his experience, and he's right. I've never been impeached by my own party, and I've never given a sweetheart deal to a pedophile. We are on the eve of one of the most important, I would actually say the most important, midterm election of my lifetime. Oil, beef, a way of life. But radical James Tallarico wants to set it ablaze. Elon wants to buy up our land. He wants to buy up our water. And now he wants to

0:55buy his own personal U.S. senator. I looked at his ass and it was all muscle. James Tallarico supports parents being charged with child abuse if they do not support transitioning their children. Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in Texas. He's got the white ass looking like Saddam Hussein opening a cheesecake factory. The people of Texas are going to defeat Democrat communist James Salafrico This is the last play of the last drive, A&M. This is the moment that we leave it all on the field. We are the underdogs. It's David versus Goliath. It's the powers that be versus the powers that ought to be. And it's time for us to start flipping over some tables. Because, because, as every Texan knows,

2:16clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. Thank you for being here everyone. That is the sound of a party, the Democratic Party, which is daring to be excited again, daring to hope again. In this case, about James Tallarico, the first Democrat with a proper shot at a statewide election win in Texas, ruby red Texas, for the best part of 30 years. But in a sense, what we're seeing in this state and across the United States during this set of midterm elections isn't really about Tallarico. And the intriguing thing is, it's not even necessarily about Trump. Some people are saying that these midterms are a referendum on the president. And to some extent, that will always be true. But what is so striking about being here,

3:07about listening to people like Tallarico, is how little Trump is even featuring anymore. This is a party, this is a country, that might, just might, about to glimpse what a post-Trump political world looks like. And in this special report from Texas, we'll be asking the question, in many ways, is it already here? Welcome to The News Agents from Texas. Tell Eureka, what do you find so appealing about him? Because he's against all the corporations and big money and I really like that he's honest down to earth and yeah I mean he just he's a trustworthy guy and he's not Ken Paxton. Corruption I mean that seems to be the big theme. Yeah it's because our politics are corrupt. This is the rot at the core of this broken system. It's why we can't

4:07afford gas or groceries or health care, because the system has been rigged by billionaires and crooked politicians like Kim Paxson. James Tallarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, in a seat the party hasn't won since 1988, before he was even born, feels a different sort of Democrat. But then again, the Democratic Party itself these days feels different too. I mean, he did a good job of focusing on that. The very rich billionaires are really buying up Texas. You feel like billionaires are buying Texas? Oh I feel that strongly, yes. It's so damn expensive where we're all going bro. And it's because of folks like John Deere, Tyson, Barry Monsanto. The list can go on and on and on. Those corporate monopolies, imagine an hourglass. Farmers, monopolies, everyone else.

5:03What do you find so appealing about Tallarico? I love his anti-corruption campaign. There's so much corruption in the United States government. We need to get rid of, like you said, super PACs. We need to get rid of the lobby trading, insider trading. We need to stop gerrymandering. All of this is impacting our government in horrible ways. I think James Tallarico is the guy to fix those problems. So they're packing up the stage at Texas A&M University here in College Station in sort of central Texas. Huge university, about 100,000 people, many of whom young students are out watching Tallarico tonight. The energy quite extraordinary actually. You can start to understand why some analysts are talking about this set of midterm elections,

5:44not just here in Texas, about not just being a potential blue wave for the democrats but a tsunami and the thing that really really struck me we're thinking in this episode about what the politics of america not just in the next two years but the next decade looks like and look at the transformation of the democrats. Hear it. What's the word? What are the themes that they keep returning to again and again? It's not just all Democratic stuff about health care or about better public services or education. This is a party which is and has been radicalized. They are now the populist party in a way that would have made early Donald Trump blush. Talking about effectively draining the swamp, transforming Washington,

6:32about coming down hard on corruption, on antitrust, on data centres, on billionaires. Barely a speech is heard, barely a sentence is uttered without the billionaire class being invoked. This is a party which is so much closer now to Bernie Sanders than it ever was to Hillary Clinton. And in a weird way, maybe that's Donald Trump's legacy after all. These are midterms like no other. It feels as if both parties of American politics' identities are in flux and there is no better race which embodies that state than the state of Texas. Hello, Texas. This is a very special place to me because, you know, I come back. It's an incredible state, which I won all three times with more votes than any candidate in history.

7:22Texas has been the central Jenga block of the Republican Party electoral map for a long time. And yet, in this cycle, with Trump historically unpopular and with a deeply flawed Republican candidate, Democrats finally believe they can seize it. Hope built this place. And hope still lives here. My name is Jonathan Ritchie. I'm a reporter and co-founder of the Texas Bullpen. It's a Texas media outlet. Happy to have you guys in the state. Today is the last day of early voting, Friday. And it is Ken Paxton, who is our Texas Attorney General. He's been the Attorney General coming up on 12 years now. He was a state senator and state house member before that. He's a Republican. He has been in office and very active, we could say, for over two decades.

8:18So as we leave here today, I'm going to ask you to do a couple of things. One, I'm going to ask you to pray. Pray for our state. Pray for our country. Pray that we will be delivered from socialism and communism. On the Democratic side, you have James Tallarico. He was a young state representative out of Austin. He has been generally a progressive in the statehouse, it has become you know obviously one of the headline races in the nation certainly in Texas and I think we've spent over a billion dollars on it so far and so very vicious. While you're working overtime just to survive James Tallarico is helping communist China. And Paxton had run a very competitive primary against the incumbent senator John Cornyn who was running for a fifth term.

9:06And that's important, isn't it? Because Cornyn was a sort of Republican, very conservative, but a Republican kind of establishment. Yeah, of an older of an older making model. And so Paxton's whole persona has been being to the right of that. And in a primary, the electorate is much more conservative and much more the party faithful. And so he... And Trump endorsed Paxton. And Trump endorsed Paxton about a week before the runoff election. And Paxton ended up winning by 27 points, setting up a general election. And generally, people think Paxton is a weaker general election candidate especially against somebody who's been able to fundraise and as as energetic as talarico it's sort of texas feels to me it's always been the kind of forever the bridesmaid for

9:53for democratic politics we always compare it to the dallas cowboys you know there's always next year for democrats right okay well someone have to explain to me that analogy at some point but why might it be different this time? Because you talk about Bito in 2018 and 2020. And there was even talk about, you know, at a presidential level over various cycles, maybe Hillary could turn it blue or Biden or whatever. Why might it be different this time? The big reason it might be different is because there is a big fracture in the Republican Party that was obviously highlighted during the primary between Paxton and Cornyn. And there are a lot of people who very much despise Paxton within the Republicans.

10:36He was impeached by his own party in 2023. He was acquitted by the Senate. But a lot of people just think he is a crook and a scoundrel. Is he? Tell them the difference between the parties and the difference between me and James Calrico. If everybody in this room does that. I, well, you know, he's never been indicted on anything. So he had federal charges hanging over him for years that was dismissed underneath the Biden administration or settled rather um uh you know with no admission of wrongdoing and stuff so there is a lot of clouds yeah there's a lot of clouds and so people view him as a faulty candidate and uh Tallarico has done a very good job of trying to shift the permission structure and say look guys

11:24I get it you're a republican but it's okay to vote for me this time because it's Ken Paxton. And that's the argument that's been coming down the homestretch, where he has a lot of people who at one point used to be Republicans coming out and saying, I'm endorsing, I'm passing on Ken Paxton. I'm going to go with something different to start. What's smart about what Tallarico is doing, how he's showing the way to other Democrats, is by threading together the two dominant themes of American politics in the second Trump era. Corruption, yes. Corruption and the cost of living. This is the rot at the core of this broken system. It's why we can't afford gas or groceries or healthcare because the system

12:06has been rigged by billionaires and crooked politicians like Ken Paxton. I came to Texas expecting to find a referendum on Donald Trump. What is so striking is that it feels less a referendum on him, but what for many he seems to represent, an instrument of an unchecked billionaire class and of the leader of that class in particular. Elon Musk is trying to buy this density in Texas. He is trying to buy Texas. But on November 3rd, we are going to deliver a crystal clear message to the world's first trillionaire. Texans is not for sale. Musk has, of course, become a fixture of American politics. But it is in Texas where his reach stretches farthest. He relocated SpaceX here. He lives near Austin.

13:00And he spent a quarter of a billion dollars supporting Ken Paxton. Consequently, it's become the most expensive Senate race in history, close enough to a billion dollars. And you can feel the must money everywhere. Every TV station blanketed with Paxton anti-Talarico ads. The Democrats have a weird, a weird candidate. Low-T Tallarico, two weeks from Texas. We've spoken to voters who are being bombarded every 30 minutes with phone calls, urging them to vote. Blocking these numbers has almost become a state pastime. And of course, there's Musk's own propaganda downloaded directly to our brains via his X-Feed. Here is a sample. Tallarico wants to open the borders and legalise everyone to gain a permanent majority to end democracy in America.

13:56And Tallarico will vote to take away your children and transition them. Indeed, you might argue that Elon has started to look a little obsessed. And it's not just Paxton he's backing. Musk's cash is making its way all the way through Texas politics. Elon Musk's personal political lawyer. He is the mastermind behind the America PAC and he is responsible for the special interests that have ruined what is happening in Washington and here in Texas. I'm Caitlin Rourke. I chose to enlist in the Texas Army National Guard to serve my country and my state. Caitlin Rourke is standing in Texas' 10th congressional district, a strongly Republican seat hitherto, and her opponent Elon Musk's personal lawyer.

14:47Keep up with costs and still save for our kids' futures. Elon Musk already had mega extremist Chris Gober as his lawyer. Now he wants him in Congress. AI-backed super PAC spent nearly $850,000 to help him win the Republican primary. So it's clear who Chris Gober will serve in Congress. And it's not us. So, Caitlin, you're a first-time politician. First-time politician, and it's been a whirlwind. Yeah, I'm running against a guy named Chris Gober, and he is one of those people who, he's in the shadows, and he has worked for Musk for several years. His law firm, where he still has a financial interest, is still working for Elon Musk for America PAC, which is, you know, spent upwards, I believe,

15:31of $260 million in the 2024 election. And it's just shoveling money into races across the country, especially here in Texas. That's basically Musk's money. Correct. It's Musk's personal money. I mean, it's, and, you know, James Tallarico at the rally last night that you attended talked about. There's this one guy who's trying to buy the seat and who's essentially funding it. And I think that's what doesn't sit well with people. I think that's that idea of a single trillionaire having such an influence in the outcome of an election versus why are the people who are, you know, going to be served by that person not having a voice. And Chris not only works for Musk, I mean, he has deeper connections, too.

16:12I mean, when they were thinking about the Doge program that was instituted last year, Chris got a call to help advise on that. When they were drawing those maps, this mid-decade redistricting and the prior more formal redistricting, Chris was at the table. He was a lawyer that was retained to make those, you know, as kind of bulletproof as possible from litigation. And he spent his entire career, I mean, he has so many financial interests and consultancies tied to defense technology, to his compliance firm works for all sorts of these you know packs and special interest groups so I mean he is really when we say Elon Musk is going to have a seat in Congress it's not just because Elon Musk is writing the check

16:54it's because Chris has been the mastermind of allowing Elon Musk's to play the role he's currently playing in our politics there's obviously been big money in American politics for a long time, but it does feel like it's taken, going to a new level with Musk. Yeah, it definitely does, and I think because he has, he plays such an outsized role, I think what I certainly have concerns about, and I think why Musk has become just such a unique figure is because he has so many interests tied to the US.S. government. And you start thinking about my opponent, what committee assignments is he going to be seeking? Is he going to upend campaign finance law to make Musk's role even more significant? Is he going to tether taxpayer dollars to Musk's projects? I mean, think of all of the different agencies that are now, I mean, the Department of Defense is now, you know, has these like new connections that have just come to be in this recent administration to

17:50Musk's portfolio of companies. And so I think when people start saying, this isn't just a guy that is ideological. This is somebody who also stands to make a lot of money off of U.S. taxpayers. What's it been like, personally speaking, to run against Goebbels and in effect, therefore, be running against Musk? Well, it's… So he's been running ads against you on TV. Very recently though. I mean, just in the past week or so. And they're both patently false, but they also allude to a lot of the things that he has even deeper financial interests in. Data centers, I mean, talking about me having ties to a firm that works for a Putin regime linked energy company. I mean, it's these things that are just kind of, I think, asinine to voters.

18:29But I think the association with Musk and just that clear contrast between the two of us. I mean, I've gotten messages and texts from people who have seen, you know, our ads, which are really focused on. Also attacking you for being connected with data centers or being too soft on Putin. Yeah. And it's a bit of a tricky one.'s a tricky one right yeah exactly it's and and i think too i think people have learned who my you they've understood my character and they know that i'm a you know i've i've worn the uniform of this country i'm an intelligence officer democrats have had to think hard about how they respond in a race that they've been outspent three to one so we've come to a teller eco tailgate for the big game tonight in um austin which is between the university of

19:12texas and mississippi state they'll tell me that that means something one day but what it is full of it's really sort of fun event where they've got the game playing people sort of coming and going loads of kind of like just fun very shareable stuff like kind of posters saying paxton still sucks hooked on talarico paxton's from oklahoma a big guess who game where you can just sort of knock over different sort of mega faces which all of whom they say are corrupt but there's one other big theme which is on nearly every bit of signage here and including this rather charming bucking bronco, which you'll see what it says here, farmland, not MAGA data centres. And this issue of data centres, I cannot tell you,

19:56it's only just sort of beginning to rear its head in British politics, but it is already absolutely pervasive, ubiquitous within American politics after very, very little time at all. And that is partly because the Dems are mobilizing this mobilizing it mobilizing the coming together something that wasn't there in Trump long but has been a big theme of Trump too which is massive corporate American tech power specifically of course must but others as well and and the Republican Party, and Donald Trump, and the MAGA movement in particular. And they are running it, threading it through that populist, anti-establishment, anti-tech, anti-billionaire message that, as you've already seen and heard,

20:39is threaded everywhere throughout left-wing politics in America right now. You have got a little thing that you're holding up here with that cowboy hat on. It says Farmland, not MAGA data centers. Yes. Explain to us why you're holding that. Why is it important? Well, Farmland supports the people of America, number one. Data centers do not support the people of America. Do we need food or answers from Chad GBT? Who knows? I say food. And this is becoming a bigger and bigger political issue? It is. A lot of people our age don't even know that data centers use water. I'm a teacher. I'm a grade four primary school teacher. And one of my colleagues did not even know that an AI data center uses water.

21:20She was like, oh, it uses water? It's sad. It uses a lot of fucking water. Elon Musk is trying to buy our election, and it's disgusting. And Texans have always been very Wild West. We're our own people, and I think it's also an insult that we're being controlled by Elon Musk. So I think that's— You think you're being controlled? Controlled with all of his crap that he's doing to our state. He's building SpaceX. He's trying to take over a public beach in South Texas, and I think that's backfiring. So that's the thing to get across, isn't it? In Britain, obviously we're very aware of Musk's influence, and we think about X and everything like that, but from a Texan point of view, it's a physical thing, right right he's building so much stuff all over the state he has baby mamas

22:09everywhere he's got like a house with all these women that are having his babies in the middle of town not far from where i live he's trying to bore a tunnel between austin and san antonio nobody wants that it's just he came in here and he's fucking it up and we don't want him here. So it almost feels like it's not just politically he's trying to take over the state or use tech. He's literally building all over the state like it's his own backyard. Yeah, exactly. And the current leadership is only too happy to let him do what he wants. And I think that, again, is background. But might he say that he was bringing jobs to the state, he's investment in the state and so on? He's not. He's not. I mean, there are probably some,

22:51but not enough to offset the damage he's doing and the tax breaks he's getting and the taxes he's not paying. What is the damage? The damage is environmental. He's building these huge facilities. He's not following any environmental rules. He's trying to take over Boca Chica Beach in South Texas for SpaceX. And that's a protected environment that he's going to just screw up. And it's going to harm wildlife and the atmosphere and just everything. In America right now, you can almost feel the post-Trump era honing into view in American politics. An era which, in a way, which will probably pain him, is both in his image and yet has escaped him too. Issues of which he probably has little conception.

23:41Data centres, wealth taxation, AI-driven unemployment, an AI bubble, an era where who gets to say they're the anti-establishment party isn't clear yet. In other words, a world away from Trump's first run over 10 years ago, an era where boomer politicians are mere memory. Tallarico, win or lose, just consider how ossified, calcified American politics has been these last few decades. We have had, of the four of the last five American presidents, three were born in 1946 and the other one, Biden, was born five years before that. Whether it's Tallarico or whether it's Abdul Al-Sayed or Andy Beshear on the Democrat side or AOC or on the Republican side Vance and the rest of them. We are heading for a generational shift in American politics which not only matters as

24:34we enter the millennial presidential era, not only matters in terms of the policy, matters in terms of the politics as well and the type of messaging, the type of way that they do politics. Look at this whole thing, this whole wheel exists because there's pictures of Tallarico's face on it that people can put on Instagram. All the responses that we're seeing here say, oh, I like Tallarico because I like his content. Not even just his messaging or what he has to say, but I like his content. Trump maybe was the burgeoning of the content era of politics around the West. But we're about to see it hit a whole new level. It'll be one of the many tests of Tuesday night. Can money on TV, on endless traditional political campaigning,

25:16still matter more than the equally endless online curation? The free content reposted again and again from younger, dynamic politicians who can break through party label, even through polarization, break through in states that are only ever supposed to vote one way. And if it works for Tallarico in Texas, the effect on national politics might be seismic. I don't know if I'd necessarily say he's substantially different from somebody like Beto, but he certainly has been running a very good race. Let's assume for a moment the Democrats, you know, they finally get their dream and this cycle at least. They turn that Senate seat blue. Who knows? Maybe the governor's mentioned as well. How big a deal would that be for the Republican Party?

26:01I mean, I don't just mean in Texas. I mean, nationally. Nationally, it'd be huge. I mean, obviously, the power of the Senate hangs in the balance, and everybody's maps go through Texas. And if Republicans lose that, then there's a very slim chance that they hold on to the Senate, which makes a big difference for judicial confirmations. It's looking like Alito might step down in the Supreme Court, and that's going to be a fight. And they would much rather have and Republicans would much rather have Ken Paxton there, a reliable vote than obviously somebody like Tallarico. For the state party, if Paxton loses, it will be an all-out civil war within Republicans, which has been brewing for over a decade now.

26:41And probably nobody will learn any lessons. They'll just go at each other on Wednesday. But it'll be an atomic bomb in Republican politics in this state, for sure. A civil war between what sort of factions? Between the more conservative faction of the Republican Party, which is very much, you know, what Paxton has rode into office, and that is his core. There's about 30%, 35% of Texans who will vote for Ken Paxton, even if he was in jail because of his record as attorney general fighting for these more conservative things. More sort of MAGA wing. Yeah, MAGA wing. And then there's more like Chamber of Commerce, Bush, Cornyn, you know, jobs, expansion, growth, open market, things like that. Country Club Republicans.

27:29Yeah, Country Club Republicans, Reagan-style Republicans, things like that. And so they have been fighting each other. That was the whole impeachment battle between Paxton and the Texas House as well. Do you think that if Tallarica does win, do you think that it will start a serious conversation about whether Texas could be competitive at presidential level? I think so, for sure. Because once it's been done once, it can be done again. And, you know, there was a lot of discussion and wonder if any D.C. money for Democrats was going to come in because Tallarico had basically raised it all through small dollars and out of state. And, you know, he's, I think, put up over $100 million fundraising. It's an unheard of amount of money that he's raised. And it was very much, will Schumer and the National Democrats

28:28look at this as a competitive race and start investing in it? And then if that investment pays off, you can be certain it'll happen again. And presumably, I mean, that will send shockwaves for the Republicans. Because I mean, you know, there is no electoral college win for the Republicans at the presidential level without Texas's force of influence. No, very, very narrow, very narrow. And it's been the anchor of Republican politics for the country. It's reliable. You've got Texas and you've got Florida, and that's kind of your farm team. It's psychological Texas more than anything else, isn't it? It's the sort of psychological homeland of modern Republican politics. Yeah, I would agree with that.

29:05I think it's starting to peek around the corner. I mean, everybody in the Republican primary ran on, President Trump likes me the most, so you should vote for me. Now, obviously, in the general, they start shifting away from that, but that was still the dominant argument that was being made. I'm the guy that Trump wants, and I'm the one that has the qualifications, and that's a big thing. What that next cycle in primary will be, especially depending on who wins the Senate race, could be totally different. Because Trump's endorsement might come to us, given that he endorsed Paxton, that could have gone wrong, cost a crucial Senate seat. Yes, I think... The currency of Trump's endorsement is something that's valuable.

29:49The Chamber of Commerce Republicans, if Paxton goes down, will view that as 100% proof that it's time for us to move on from Trump and the Texas Republican Party if we want to survive in the new political realities that are emerging in this state. Before Election Day, 51 million people have already voted in the midterm elections. To get a sense of where the Republican Party might be going after them, we decided to take a leap into the unknown and go to the Austinin young republicans halloween party so if you would like to be in the costume contest the grand prize is a 250 gift card that you can use for whatever you want so if you guys want to line up right here tell us what you are and then

30:37walk by and then we the judges will decide in the end who wins. Hello. I'm your worst nightmare. I'm a socialist from England who believes in somewhat high taxation. Does that affect my score? Boo! What score will I get? What are the outfits here? I'm just an ICE agent. Oh, you're an ICE agent? Yes. Not an actual ICE agent? Huh? Not an actual ICE agent? Oh, no. You're not going to deport me? I wish, right? That would be pretty great. Are you all Republicans? Are you all young Republicans? Yeah. What do you think the future of the Republican Party is post-Trump? Do you think MAGA's got a future post-Trump? I would think a one-star? Do you think MAGA's got a future post Trump do you think MAGA has a future post Trump yes what does it look like it looks like

31:30how it is right now it's the same it's gonna stay the same but it can't stay the same because Trump will be gone who's who's the next Trump you think it's Rubio yes absolutely not JD why don. Vance? I don't like J.D., yeah. Why don't you like J.D.? I don't think he has a strong enough foreign policy. It's interesting because Marco used to be mocked by Trump. They used to think that he was an establishment Republican, but do you think he's changed? Well, I think people have the right to change their mind depending on the circumstances. Politics are way more nuanced than people give it credit for. You a young Republican? Yes, I came here to hang out with the young Republicans, correct. And you are a young Republican?

32:09I am very young and I'm very Republican. What do you think the future of the Republican Party is? It's a real mystery because Trump has been the center of gravity for world politics for more than a decade now. So whenever his time is done I think literally anything can happen. Do you think that he'll continue to be the dominant force within the Republican Party even after he leaves office? I don't think so. He's pretty old. He definitely wants to retire when he's done. So, yeah. You know, a lot of people around the world look at him and they think he's senile. They think he's senile like Trump said Biden was senile. Are you still a fan of his? Do you think he's doing a good job? I really do love his work.

32:59He is a master class. He saved the Republican Party. He saved American values. Has he? Yes, like I really do appreciate that. He saved the Republican Party, he saved American values. Has he? Yes, I really do appreciate that. But he's enriched himself and his family to the tune of billions of dollars off the presidency, spending $700 million on a ballroom. You know what feels good though? Me and other Trump voters are only 3% of the world population, yet my boat is Mr. Worldwide, bro. It's fucking... What is in the power that you have? The power, bro? Dude, I'm 3% of the world population, and my boat's fucking up England, it's pissing me off Canada, because I'm pissed off, bro. I'm pissed off about these governments,

33:50these bureaucrats, these globalists, who don't give a shit about me. They never gave a shit about me once, but now they do. So you're pissed off, so you want the rest of the world to be pissed off? I just want the world to know that I was pissed off. I was pissed off, bro. You start by introducing yourself. Well, hello, my friends. My name is Benjamin Schrader. I'm the chairman and president of the Austin Young Republicans. And my last name is spelled Schrader. S-H-R-A-D-E-R. It's cheaper without the C. We'll make a note of that. Louis, make a note of that. What's the future of the Republican Party, Benjamin? Does it have a future? The Austin Young Republicans. Well, yeah, but post-Trump, does it have a future?

34:34Oh, yes, of course. Oh, it will be fine. Like, it will be different, but it will be totally fine. What does it look like, though? Because, I mean, he's dominated, you know dominated American politics, global politics, but obviously Republican politics for so long. Does MAGA have a future, or do you think it goes with him? We shall see. We shall see what form. I think MAGA will change. The spirit of it will still be around, just as the spirit of the Tea Party is still around in a way where it will evolve. The name will likely change, but it will likely be the same or similar value. Do you think if the Republicans lose badly this week, not just in Texas, but nationally? I don't. Do you think if they do, do you think that damages Trump's power on the Republican Party in the years to come?

35:18Trump is a force of nature. We have seen this again and again. He is, to be so confident in oneself is truly incredible. I mean, to withstand constantly being mocked and being dealing with people that don't like you all of the time. That takes such a force of will, such a personality. And I've had the pleasure to meet President Trump once. He was very nice to me. I call him Mohammed. He goes by Abdul. Abdul Ramadan. I called him Mohammed. Then I found out his name was actually his middle name is Mohammed. No, he's I would say he's changed. I would think equally as much these are people we can't have these people in the united states and with with with him i don't know if we have to do with telefrico but

36:12with the guy up in michigan we're gonna have to get do the you know the test the metal detector test before he's allowed to sit every day he's gonna have to go through a metal detector in the united states congress did you not say that what Trump's been doing is quite racist? I mean, when he says Abdel Al-Sayed, I'm going to call him Mohammed. Islam is not an immutable characteristic. And I do take real issue with Islam. But it's OK. Well, in that basis, if I was like, if I was like, oh, here's this Jewish person. I mean, he's called this, but I call him Solomon. Would you say that was acceptable? I would say you're probably being a bit rough on him, but it's not that deep. You wouldn't say it was anti-Semitic?

36:53It's not that deep. It's easier being a bit silly in all honesty. It's easy for us to say, I suppose, because we're not Muslim. I mean, people made fun of me my whole life for being dyslexic, not being able to read. I let it roll off my back. It's not that deep. Just because someone was mean to you doesn't mean it's okay for others to be mean to anyone dyslexic, not being able to read. I let it roll off my back. Like, it's not that... Just because someone was mean to you doesn't mean it's okay for others to be mean to you. We want to be nice to people. Like, I always tell my people, be the happy warrior. There were Muslim kids, Muslim Americans growing up, and Trump is their president too. And he's standing up...

37:17I feel bad for any child that feels, you know, that's dealing with that. But there are real concerns with Islam being antithetical to the West. He makes fun of everybody. Like, you know, it also, what matters is, is it coming from a place of hate? Like, I don't hate any of, I don't hate any Muslim. Why? No. I disagree with some of the TV. Can you understand why, given that he talks about Muslims so much in such pejorative and mocking ways, you could understand that why Muslim Americans might really feel targeted by the guy. Well, you know, we felt targeted when they brought down the Twin Towers. That wasn't American Muslims, was it? That was Al-Qaeda. Not the American Muslims, Al-Qaeda, backed by the Saudis.

37:56I mean, you wouldn't associate, I mean, the KKK, the KKK were really Protestant, but you wouldn't, you wouldn't criticise all Protestants for what the KKK did if they're not denouncing it if they are promoting these types of teachings and wanting to think most Muslim Americans would denounce that practicing Muslims they're not following the Quran and the hadith as it teaches so who have you come dressed up as tonight sir I'm a Nicholas Maduro the night he was arrested by President Trump, or kidnapped by President Trump. Some people may say that, but he was wanted for good reasons. Hey, it can be both, I suppose. OK. What do you think the future of the Republican Party is? I think that we need to get our act together.

38:44I think that there are people in the Republican Party that are a good future, but I do think the momentum is shifting away, and it's on the Republican Party to find people that can rally that momentum back. And I have no idea what it'll look like post-MAGA, post-Trump, but I do think that there is an optimistic future in some ways, but people just got to be able to figure out what that's going to look like. Do you think MAGA has a future without Trump? That's a really good question. I think that's going to come down to who Trump endorses and who is willing to pick up that torch. And if there's someone that's truly willing. I think that right now MAGA is a little fractured. And so I'm very curious, as much as I'm sure you are, to what that will look like.

39:26I really cannot speak into that as much as I wish I could. Do you think Vance could keep the coalition together? I'm not very optimistic. What we will see, part of that depends on whether or not Trump is willing to endorse Vance and whether or not that will be the torch. But I can speak as someone who recently went to both a Trump rally with thousands of people who couldn't get in the doors and a Vance rally where it was kind of empty and low energy. I'm not very optimistic that Vance would be the guy. It was low energy. You could see the difference was marked. I think that there is a very staunch difference between what we see with the energy brought on by Trump and the energy that we see by Vance.

40:13I also think that there's a lot of fracture right now amongst the right wing of America where they are constantly already in debate on who's going to take on that reign. There's what I would almost consider a power grab. And within that power grab, there's going to be a lot of attacks against the establishment, which now is Trump. And so it makes the power grab. Who's doing the power grabbing? So many factions, more than I can count. So many people that are jousting for the title of Make America Great Again or the title of America First or some of these other factions of the right-wing base that there's a lot of people that want to hold that mantle and I'm very curious to see where it ends up being. I can't say I know where it's gonna go but I'm

41:01hoping for something good. So look they they were great sports, even if, as ever with these things, there are some more eccentric views on display. What I think is really, really interesting is the extent to which you can hear the uncertainty about the future of the Republican Party. I mean, they are, for good or ill, the future of the Republican Party. I mean, they are, for good or ill, the future of the Republican Party. And I don't think that's surprising, that uncertainty. When you remember that Trump has dominated not only American politics, global politics, but in particular the Republican Party, for the best part, in fact, over 10 years. You probably have to go all the way back to FDR

41:40to find another American political figure who has dominated the American political cycle for as long as Trump has. And FDR was elected for four terms. And I think during that time, as I was saying earlier, you know, we are on the verge of a generational shift in American politics. And with the Democrats, you can see that bench, that deep bench of the candidates, some of which I said earlier, you can add someone like, you know, John Ossoff see that bench, that deep bench of the candidates, some of which I said earlier you can add someone like John Ossoff onto that list, Mamdani as well. And they've all come up during this age of Trump, their politics has been defined by Trump, their political reflexes have grown and been incubated by Trump.

42:20But during that whole time the Republican Party has had Trump. And it is therefore not surprising that their bench is nowhere near as deep because Trump has not allowed it to develop. He would never have wanted that. And I think the future of the Republican Party, so much of it will be determined by what happens on Tuesday in those midterms. Because if there is a blue wave, if there's a tsunami, if Trump loses badly in places like Texas and in the sort of states where the Republicans have dominated for decades, there may be that hold on the Republican Party that Trump has had for those ten years. Maybe, just maybe, maybe you could hear it in their voices there, maybe it finally starts to slip away.

43:06You can feel that battle brewing for the Republican Party in Texas, for whatever Trump leaves behind. These midterms will inevitably shape the debate about what comes next between the factions. The bigger the loss, the less control Trump might have. We will face the prospect for the first time in a decade where Trump's endorsement could be a debased currency. Because we're 10 years now into the MAGA radicalisation, the change in the Republican Party, and it's a process which is still ongoing in the sorts of candidates which are being selected. Paxton in Texas for sure, but it gets even stranger down the ballot. So we have come to the outskirts of San Antonio, to a place appropriately named for a Republican rally.

43:52Quite a small bar, it has to be said. Angry Elephant. And it is a rally for Ken Paxton, who is, as we've been saying, James Salarico's opponent in the Senate race. I think it does tell you something, how small these events are. Although, to be fair, it is also an event for a nominee, a Republican nominee for a congressional race here in Texas, a guy called Brandon Herrera. Just because you let somebody cream pie you doesn't mean I have to give a shit about your political opinions. The fact that you kept your c**t doesn't make you any less wrong about the dumb shit that you say. His noggin appears to already have arrived empty and is instead full of mush. Much like the average Austin feminist.

44:38So when a blue hair on the news says that a semi-automatic AR-15 is an assault rifle, she is both fat and wrong. These things weigh in at about 6,500 pounds a piece, or approximately four times as much as the average Austin feminist. I hate to see animals put down for no reason. Like, the very bare minimum, they could at least collaborate with a local Chinese restaurant and like, have some sort of like, yeah. I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm kinda retarded. Now, Brandon Herrera is sort of part of the phenomenon we've been talking about, which is slow radicalization of the Republican Party. As MAGA has entered its kind of late era, and they have become more and more eccentric, put it that way.

45:18Mr. Herrera is someone who is known as a gun-fuelled son. Someone who's very, very big on gun rights online, has amassed millions and millions of followers and has become very controversial, not least because of his success in his race, even though he basically supports almost unrestricted rules on gun ownership. He will be representing, among other places, the town of Ovaldi, where you may remember in May 2022, an 18-year-old former student killed 19 children and two teachers. He's also been controversial for some of his other comments, including jokes about the Nazis and the Holocaust, calling an MP40 the submachine gun used by the Germans in the Second World War, the original ghetto blaster. Later in the video, he and an associate

46:03goose to step to the sound of Eureka, the military marching song adopted by the Waffen-SS, and he's made highly derogatory comments to women, in particular, calling children or babies . So we're waiting to see if we can have a word with him and ask him whether these are appropriate comments for a member of Congress. We're from the UK. We're covering the campaign. Do you have two minutes for us? We've got to head out, man. I'm sorry. Can I ask you one question? Sorry. Can I ask you one question? We've got to go to the next thing, man. Can I ask you a question? Do you think that it's appropriate? I already said no, man. Do you think it's appropriate to call children... I think... Sir, we're not allowing press back in.

46:43You can't even get your own attack right, dude. Well, no, I'm just wondering if it's appropriate to describe women in that way. Is that... You're talking about your own country. You're full of rapists. No, well, is it appropriate to call women... Guys, I'm sorry, you have to leave. We already had press leave. Is it appropriate to call women... Sir, we already had press leave the building. We need you to leave. I thought this was a country of free speech, sir. Sir, we need you to leave. We had press leave the building. We need you to turn off your camera and we need you to... I thought this was a country of free speech. We're covered by the First Amendment, aren't we, like everybody else in the country? It's a political event. Oh, well, thank you for your time.

47:14It became clear quite quickly we weren't welcome to talk to Mr Herrera, but the radicalisation you might say he embodies, the potential of a Republican civil war to come, was on full display outside. What brings you here tonight? Ken Paxton and Herrera, yeah. Supporting the Republican Party, yes. Some people have said that Mr. Paxton and Mr. Herrera are very extreme. Really? What would you say to that? Oh my gosh, conservative, common sense. I mean, I can't understand why anybody's actually even considering Telafico, if Telerico, I don't even, I don't understand. I mean, I think he's very deceptive, and he's not pro-Texas, not pro-America. What do you say to people who say that Ken Paxton's corrupt?

48:00Oh, yeah, I don't understand that. He's really done great things for... He was impeached by some of his own colleagues In the Texas Senate, wasn't he? Yeah, we have a lot of rhinos Like Cornyn was one of them So I'm glad that he's out The former senator or the outgoing senator Yeah, yeah So rhinos are, you know what they are, right? Yeah, Republican in name only Why do you think Cornyn And why do you think they're rhinos? I mean, Cornyn's been a very conservative guy For a long time, hasn't he? Yeah, I don't know I think he was actually supporting the Islam, the whole, yeah. You think Cornyn was supporting Islam? I do, yes. Yeah. He is corrupt. Keep Texas, Texas. We don't want women in Texas wearing bikinis.

48:41We want to keep our bikinis in Texas. Texas women love Ken Paxton I love Brandon Herrera too he's good-looking as hell why do you think that in Texas women will be wearing burkinis if if tellurica we're real ah they're trying to sharia our Texas they're letting all the Muslims in we can't let that happen we got to keep Texas Texas tallow weirdo has got to go. But Tallarico doesn't believe in Sharia law, does he? Yes, he does. Yes, he does. He believes our border should be a welcome mat for everyone. And we've gotten more Muslims. Look in the Dallas area. Look at Frisco, Texas. It's all Muslims now. The Biden administration let in more Muslims because you know why? Because they vote Democrat.

49:27More and more, MAGA seems to be a movement drunk on itself and its successes. It feels very last days of Rome. There's a forgetting of what made it such a potent and powerful force to the average American in the first place. They came to drain the swamp they now swim in. Not just corruption, but perhaps an indifference to the ordinary things. Cost of living, prices, the ordinary rhythms of everyday American life. There's a decadence to it. White House is incredible, but it was never had a ballroom. And we're building, that'll be the finest ballroom anywhere in the world when it's completed. And I'm just looking at the construction. In fact, if you don't mind, I'll walk over there and look for a

50:06little while. President Trump is talking about all the money they're making while people are suffering at the pump. That'll be the headline. But I said, I don't give a damn. I'm going to say it will make it a frickin fortune. Quiet. And I never really looked at him because it's never been my thing to look at men. But I like men, but I've never been particularly attracted. Sorry. There are still so many unknowns about this election. A Republican wipeout is not guaranteed. Trump has a history of overperforming. He needs his base to turn out in its entirety, and they might yet, the Dems, still with a terrible brand, might underperform. And if there's one group who might give us a clue as to where things might be going, then it's

50:55the one ethnic minority which, to the surprise of many, flirted most with Trump. The incredible Hispanics, you know, there's lots of different names. Latinos, they call them so many different names, but I've used Hispanics when I got elected and I got a big majority of your votes. I'm going to keep using the same, the same way. Remember 2024, he achieved something remarkable. Hispanic voters, Latino voters, perhaps some of the most striking of all of this. Let's just go through, shall we, exactly what the lead was by party, by Hispanic voters for all the elections going back to 2008. We see huge leads for the Democratic Party with Barack Obama for Hispanics, 36% in 2008. Barack Obama actually builds on that in 2012 to 44% in that year.

51:412016, Hillary Clinton loses, obviously, to Donald Trump, but still has 38% lead. 2020, Joe Biden enjoys a 33% lead. So it's been going down a bit. But look at this. The Democrats now only have a lead of 8%. Nowhere did Trump do better with Hispanics than Texas. And Democrats were reeling. But everywhere here, there are signs post-ICE, post-inflation, post-Iran, that Trump may have thrown it away at enormous cost. So we are quite literally standing outside of the Alamo in central San Antonio. And frankly, if we can't extract a torture political metaphor out of this, then we don't deserve to be in this business. Although it's worth saying that Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate, was supposed to quite literally be doing a rally at the Alamo and decided to pull out of it,

52:27quite possibly because of the dwindling crowd numbers Ken Paxton pulled out of the Alamo, the gags write themselves. In any case, there can be no doubt that the Latino vote, as we've been saying, is really absolutely crucial if the Dems do pull this off. And it's worth saying that there are now a ton of early voting numbers that are now at the time that we're recording this at the weekend, Sunday. There are now 642,000 Texans who have voted who did not vote at all in the 2024 presidential election. 48%, so nearly half, are Hispanic. And 40% of those, 122,000 people, are under the age of 30. It seems that there is a wave, something that is happening over the last two years, which is potentially turning on Trump.

53:12And when you think about the potential advantages that Trump had, when Trump did so much better with Latinos in this part of the world and all over the country, particularly in the South and the West, it shows you the extent to which that potential for an historic realignment has been thrown away. Groups like the Heart of San Antonio, Hispanic Republicans have been working for that realignment for years. Might it all be for nothing? Hispanics, for the most part, I can say so. My parents are both, they're both passed away, are conservative, man, just conservative people to begin with. And the values that Donald Trump would come out with, he said, a lot, maybe he spent people related to that.

53:57Because, you know, we're hard workers. We don't need really handing down. We want to get to work and just give me a chance to work and I'll work. My family was that way although a lot of my family you know are are democrat that's fine but i i realized that you know as hispanics most of us are are conservative so so your family were democrats yes they were not and they still are but. But you've made the transition to become a Republican, as it were. And why was that? Why did you do that? When I stopped and I took it, I assessed who I was. I served the United States Navy for 23 years. And after I did my time with the Navy, I realized I still want to help out. And I got involved a little more with politics. I started realizing,

54:44wait, where do I identify? Do you do an assessment of your own values? Trump clearly had a big opportunity in 2024 to really hammer home his advantage with Hispanic voters. But is it not the case that he may be throwing that away? I mean, partly perhaps with the way he's dealt with ICE deportations, but also with prices as well. There is a backlash, isn't there, on among hispanics with the immigration policy it's become a political ploy neither party if you look at the grand scale of things neither party i don't um i don't feel like as much as democrats push on you know how bad ice is and immigration you know they didn't hit obama when he was deporting people and we had kids in chain in cages that year and it's like you know uh manny hit obama when he was deporting people and we had kids in

55:25in cages that year and it's like you know uh manny kind of alluded to the media the people get behind whatever the media is putting in your face as much as there has been some bad ice incidents there's been hundreds if not thousands more positive ice incidents where you know no one was killed or injured in those in those raids but it's what gets magnified is what continuously gets played on loop. And that's where people's passion comes out. Whether the media is hyped up or not, obviously, we could debate that. But the effect is the same, is it? I mean, it's clear that at least the impression of that, let's put it like that, that's driving a backlash among Hispanic voters against Trump. The thing is, things have risen as far as prices go.

56:07But we experience the same kind of fluctuation of prices every presidency. During Biden's presidency, I used to buy a five dozen pack of eggs. During Biden's presidency, that went up to $20, where now it's $9. So it's like some things have gone up. Some things have stayed the same like some things have gone up, some things have stayed the same, some things have gone down. So Hispanic voters, just like all other voters, are responding to the price pressures which have continued to exist. But do you not think, has not Trump made that worse? I mean, he started the war in Iran. That's added to prices. He's imposed all these tariffs. That's added to prices. I mean, aren't Hispanic Americans, like any other American,

56:43entitled to say the president has made cost of living worse, which is what he was elected to stop or to make better? The way I see it, what Trump getting into Iran, the Iran situation, it's a long term, not on the war itself, but it's a long term fix for what's been happening to us because of Iran. But in the short term, it's a long-term fix for what's been happening to us because of Iran. But in the short term, it's raised gas prices. Anytime we get into war or anytime of a conflict major like that, it's going to have an effect on our economy. So as Americans, we know what's happening, what's going to happen. But everything is politicized. If we were a patient people as a whole, we would get that resolved

57:29and we would go back to normal. But do you think the Iran war and cost of living, I mean, again, is it driving Hispanics away from Trump? You've been on the doorsteps, you must... Not in quarantine. If you're informed, you understand what's going on. And we had the same thing under Biden, except gas went up because the liberals are with the New Green Deal, and they were trying to get everybody out of their cars, and so they started refining the drilling. All that was stopped, which caused the gas prices to go up. Do we have a war going on? Yeah. But the real issue right now is Ukraine. They're bombing the refineries, each other's refineries, and that's causing the price of diesel because that's the biggest supplier of diesel,

58:19and diesel infects everything. So you think Trump's right to be tough with Ukraine? Absolutely. Absolutely. Right to be tough with Ukraine? Absolutely. Absolutely. Right to be tough with Zelensky? Both. We need to get that stopped because it's affecting the whole world's economy. You don't think he's been too soft with Vladimir Putin and Russia? No. No, he's got to. God, you know, there's two strong men. You know, all you got to do is break something loose and it's all over. Those two guys, they got to get along. Look, these elections matter. It matters in Texas, not least because it's just one state, but the Lone Star State for the Republican Party. It's the jewel in its crown. It's almost psychological anchoring, politically speaking.

59:02If they lose Texas, they'll be thinking we could lose anywhere. They'll be thinking, how do we assemble a winning electoral college victory for the presidential election, never mind Tallarico, in 2028? It will send shockwaves through the Republican Party, both in Texas, but I actually think nationally as well, psychologically and politically, for this party, which has dominated the state for a long time. But in a sense, as much as these midterm elections matter, and for all the reasons we've been discussing, they really do, there is a danger of over-extrapolation, of over-interpretation. If the Dems have a huge tsunami win on Tuesday night, they may well think they're set fair for another victory in 28 or for a realignment.

59:42But that's exactly what we were saying in 24, when Trump brought this extraordinary coalition of voters together, for another victory in 28 or for a realignment. But that's exactly what we were saying in 24, when Trump brought this extraordinary coalition of voters together, of Hispanics, more black voters, young men, traditional white voters of the Republican Party. And it's already crumbled. And why is it crumbled? Yeah, it's partly because of Trump's fecklessness and his uselessness and his lack of interest, but it's partly because of what we're seeing everywhere. In electorate after electorate, in country after country, electorates don't like incumbents. The anti-incumbency feeling is corrosive because no matter how many new forces come in or what party gains

1:00:18power, they never seem to be able to do the thing that each and every side promises every time, which is political change. In Texas, we found what remains of an old order without seeing quite yet what might replace it. Democrats are hoping they found the politics that comes after Trump, while Republicans are left wondering who could possibly replace him, what price they may have paid. These midterms will do much to influence the thinking of both. But whoever wins, they'll inherit the same problem. A whiplash politics. Polarised yet fluid. Voters in America who keep demanding change and keep finding reasons to believe they haven't got it.