| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Tariffs. | ||
| That's at four o'clock. | ||
| You can see that on C-SPAN and our corresponding social media networks and the like. | ||
| That's it for today. | ||
| Thanks for joining us. | ||
|
unidentified
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Later today, President Donald Trump lays out his plans for tariffs on imported goods. | |
| Our live coverage from the White House Rose Garden begins at 4 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN now, our free mobile video app, and online at C-SPAN.org. | ||
| Several special elections yesterday, and here to break it down for us, Kirk Beto of National Journal. | ||
| He's the editor of their hotline joining us this morning via Zoom. | ||
| Kirk Beto, thanks for your time. | ||
| Really appreciate it. | ||
| Hey, Pedro, thanks for having me today. | ||
| A lot to talk about this morning. | ||
| Definitely. | ||
| Before we go into the specific races, are there emerging themes overall from these races that you see seeing bear itself out? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| I don't think it'd be crazy to say that yesterday was Democrats' best day since Trump took office. | ||
| Between their overperformance in the two special elections down in Florida that we're going to get into, their big win in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, and Corey Booker giving Democrats a real shot in the arm with his record-breaking 25-hour plus-lawn speech on the floor. | ||
| Democrats are showing some fight right now. | ||
| And in terms of the elections, their overperformance in Florida and the big win in Wisconsin is continuing a trend that we've seen in every special election since Trump took office, and that is Democratic overperformance. | ||
| They're outperforming the baseline of these special election races by about 10 points each time out. | ||
| Yesterday, continuing that trend as well. | ||
| It was a really encouraging sign for Democrats to have them thinking that like it's 2018 again. | ||
| So you mentioned the Florida races, so let's start with that. | ||
| Two special elections for two seats for Matt Gates and Mike Waltz. | ||
| Let's start with Randy Fine. | ||
| Talk about the specific race and then what's the impact? | ||
| What do you get from the results of the race? | ||
| Yeah, so this is a district over in the Daytona Beach area, a little bit east of Orlando. | ||
| It's a district that Trump carried by about 30 points or so last time around. | ||
| And Mike Walls carried by about a similar margin. | ||
| This is the one that got the most attention because of the unique nature of both candidates here. | ||
| Randy Fine is a controversial state legislator who's very much in the image of Trump and very much thumbing his nose at the establishment. | ||
| You know, he got reprimanded in court for flipping off a judge. | ||
| He's filed some controversial legislation. | ||
| He's run afoul of DeSantis as well down there. | ||
| And he's not a great fundraiser. | ||
| He was outraised pretty handedly by Josh Wheel, the Democrat there. | ||
| He's a teacher. | ||
| Wheel said yesterday that he raised about $14 million for his campaign. | ||
| And there were trouble signs with this race for the last few weeks. | ||
| And in fact, it trickled all the way up to Washington where Richard Hudson, the chair of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, said that he really needs Randy Fine really needs to get his act together. | ||
| They were really worried, maybe not so much about losing the race because this is such a heavy Republican district, but having a really embarrassing showing out there. | ||
| Hakeem Jeffries similarly said, you know, I've donated to Josh Wheel, but no outside money from Democratic groups came down here. | ||
| And when the dust settled last night, Randy Fine won pretty comfortably, but not by the same margins that Trump won. | ||
| He won by about 14 points or so. | ||
| So half as well as Trump and Walls have done in that seat. | ||
| And that's, again, a really encouraging sign for Democrats. | ||
| Now, if you remember in 2017, during Trump's first term, there were a slew of special elections that were like this as well for Democrats overperforming, not necessarily winning. | ||
| Things like Georgia 6. | ||
| There was a race in South Carolina, a special election in South Carolina as well, where the Democrats did not win, but they cut significantly into the margins here. | ||
| And that's kind of what we're seeing throughout all these special elections now, that as the Democratic coalition gets older, gets wider, gets more highly educated, they're more likely to turn out in lower turnout special elections like this and the midterms as well. | ||
| Now it's going to be up to Hakeem Jeffries and the rest of the Democrats to parlay this momentum into wins in 2026. | ||
| So that was the one Florida race, the other featuring Jimmy Petronas. | ||
| Yeah, this one was a little bit more under the radar because Jimmy Petronas was a little bit more of a traditional candidate. | ||
| The Democrat in that race, Gay Valamont, did not raise as much money as Josh Wheel did in Florida 6. | ||
| Florida 1 is over in the panhandle. | ||
| That's the Matt Gates seat. | ||
| But actually, this did not get as much attention, but it was closer when the dust finally settled than Florida 6. | ||
| Trump won that seat by about 37 points last year, and Petronas won it by about 15 or so. | ||
| So again, Democrats had a larger overperformance in this under-the-radar race than the one that was getting a lot of headlines here. | ||
| So again, that's a very encouraging sign for Democrats that they didn't have to spend any money in any of these races right now. | ||
| And still, they're outperforming their baseline here. | ||
| And that's thanks to the changing nature of both party bases here, where Democrats are more likely to turn out in these low-propensity special elections. | ||
| But again, it's a very encouraging sign for Democrats and one that Republicans, I think, should start taking note of. | ||
| Several Democrats have called in this morning and particularly talking about that Wisconsin Supreme Court race, calling it a good night for them. | ||
| Give your assessment of that. | ||
| That's certainly my take as well. | ||
| Susan Crawford, the Dane County judge, the liberal candidate there, won by about 10 points. | ||
| And this is unlike the Florida races that did not receive a whole lot of national money. | ||
| There were over $100 million spent on advertisements alone in this race. | ||
| Now, Wisconsin Supreme Court races are nominally nonpartisan, but not so much the case anymore. | ||
| They might be that on paper, but the way things are campaigning right now, it's a very partisan race. | ||
| The conservative candidate there, Brad Schimmel, had the support of Elon Musk, who spent through his affiliated PACs about $25 million to get him over the line. | ||
| He held a rally up in Green Bay over the weekend, and he was raising the stakes so much where he was saying that it's the end of American democracy, the end of Western civilization, if the conservative candidate loses this race. | ||
| But when the dust finally settled, Susan Crawford wins by 10 points. | ||
| It was a very nationalized race. | ||
| Democrats weren't hiding from that as well. | ||
| If you look at their ads, they were really leaning into Elon Musk's involvement here. | ||
| Ben, the chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, was also nationalizing the race. | ||
| Ken Martin, who's the DNC chair, was also talking about the high stakes of the race in terms of sticking up to Trump and Elon Musk. | ||
| So this was much more of a testing ground of what the 2026 messaging could be for both parties here. | ||
| And if I'm Republicans, I'm worried about this. | ||
| Kirk Beto is joining us for this conversation about these special elections. | ||
| And if you want to ask him questions, again, different numbers, so you'll want to take note of them. | ||
| Republicans 202-737-0002. | ||
| Democrats 202-737-0001. | ||
| And Independents 202-628-0205. | ||
| So if you have questions about the special elections and the results, you can call in. | ||
| You can also text your thoughts this morning or questions at 2027. | ||
| I believe it's 202-748-8003. | ||
| Kurt Beto, you've referenced this already. | ||
| How does either side frame this going forward? | ||
| So, what's interesting is Republicans are talking about how Democrats lit money on fire in the special elections in Florida. | ||
| The NRCC released a statement last night criticizing the Democrats for spending and donating all this money to Josh Wheel only to lose by 14 points here. | ||
| But what we got to remember is no major outside Democratic group spent money here. | ||
| This is not like the Georgia 6 special election from 2017. | ||
| That was the most expensive House race at the time, where outside groups were campaigning for John Ossoff and Karen Handel down there, which ultimately the Republican Karen Handel won. | ||
| I believe over $55 million in outside money was spent there. | ||
| This is not the case there. | ||
| So Republicans, you know, and they're right about this. | ||
| At the end of the day, they are going to get two more members in Congress, bringing up their majority to 220 to 213. | ||
| It's much needed reinforcements for Speaker Mike Johnson. | ||
| And as soon as those guys get sworn in, he gets a little bit more breathing room, which is going to help him a lot. | ||
| Democrats are spinning this a completely different way. | ||
| The House Majority PAT, the Democratic-aligned super PAT, put out a statement last night talking about that if Democrats continue this same overperformance, if they performed in the same way that they did in the special elections in the midterms, then they could flip about 40 seats. | ||
| Now, no one is thinking right now that there's going to be a 40-sweet sing, a 40-seat swing in Congress like there was in 2018. | ||
| But Democrats only need to net three seats right now to flip the House. | ||
| They feel like the wind is at their back right now. | ||
| They feel like they have the momentum and they feel like they have a blueprint now between the Florida special elections and the successful anti-Trump, anti-Musk playbook in Wisconsin to really step into 2026 with a lot of confidence. | ||
| And what would elements of that blueprint be, do you think? | ||
| I think really leaning into the threats to Social Security, to Medicaid, to Medicare, leaning into making Elon Musk kind of the main character of this election, unlike Trump, which is really interesting. | ||
| I don't know what Musk's role in the midterms are going to be right now. | ||
| A lot of people were worried that his involvement in this Wisconsin Supreme Court race was going to be the blueprint for how he might invest in primaries next spring and eventually the general election as well. | ||
| Musk is a relatively newcomer to politics. | ||
| I mean, he spent a quarter billion dollars trying to get Trump across the line, spent $25 million on this race here. | ||
| I wonder if after his defeat here in Wisconsin, if he doesn't maybe reevaluate his involvement in electoral politics, maybe not so much what he's doing at the White House, but what he's doing, where he's spending his money in terms of what campaigns and candidates he supports. | ||
| And that's kind of the biggest unknown right now. | ||
| But in terms of the strategy for Democrats, I really do think it's hammering home some of the bigger controversies here that actually touch American voters. | ||
| Unlike Signalgate, for example, which is a little bit more of a beltway phenomenon, they want to talk about cutting entitlements, stopping Trump trying to curb government services, and to make them feel that that is going to be on the ballot this year or next year. | ||
| Again, our guest is Kirk Beto of the Hotline at National Journal. | ||
| If you want to ask him questions about these elections and the results, 202748, I'm sorry, 202737002 for Republicans, 202737, 0001 for Democrats, Independents, 202628-0205. | ||
| Kirk Beto, you mentioned it, but I want to roll it into the conversation as well. | ||
| The impact from Senator Corey Booker, this 25-hour marathon, breaking records. | ||
| Ultimately, what does that do for Democrats? | ||
| I think it gives it, first off, it does slow down and disrupts the normal business of the Senate, like Senator Booker said when he started the speech. | ||
| What I think it does, it shows their voters that they have a very visible, a tangible show of a fight. | ||
| Now, is this going to gum up all the works of the Trump administration? | ||
| No. | ||
| Is it going to stop the Doge agents from going into government agencies and certain kinds of things? | ||
| No. | ||
| But it is a very visible reminder that they can still fight. | ||
| If you remember where we were at two weeks ago here with a lot of folks in the Democratic Party calling for Chuck Schumer to step down after agreeing to the House budget plan, this is Corey Booker here putting himself through this incredibly physical and mentally demanding challenge to show people that Democrats still have a little pep in their step and can some way disrupt the normal business of government. | ||
| Millions of people watched that speech on social media. | ||
| I believe there was a TikTok feed of Corey Booker's speech that had hundreds of millions of views. | ||
| It's a real energizing moment for the Democratic base at a moment where they were been pretty lowly for the last few weeks here, and they've already started fundraising off this as well. | ||
| Again, it might not completely shut down the works of the Trump administration, but it's a very visible, tangible shot in the arm for the Democratic base that was really searching for some sort of energy. | ||
| Let's hear from Annie in Florida on our line for Democrats. | ||
| You're on with our guest, Kirk Beto of National Journal. | ||
| Annie, good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Good morning, everyone. | ||
| What an inspirationing, inspirational speech from Corey Booker. | ||
| That's amazing. | ||
| That was an amazing speech. | ||
| My question is about the governor of Florida. | ||
| How is it looking for Dems in Florida? | ||
| Who's going to run? | ||
| Who do you think is going to run against Byron Donalds? | ||
| Go ahead, Cory. | ||
| That's a great question right now. | ||
| One, the Florida Democratic Party is asking itself a lot right now as well. | ||
| The problem is the Florida Democratic bench is not as deep as it used to be. | ||
| I mean, I think Nikki Freed, who's the chairman of the state Democratic Party right now, is doing some outreach to candidates right now. | ||
| You could see someone like Val Demings jump into that race, even though she hasn't really given a whole lot of consideration to it. | ||
| There's Stephanie Murphy as well, the former representative, but she's not been a name I've seen floated around. | ||
| Right now, a lot of the action is on whether or not Casey DeSantis gets in on the Republican side and challenges Byron Donalds. | ||
| But for now, Byron Donalds seems to be on a blide path to the nomination. | ||
| And unless Democrats can find another candidate, I find a candidate, I really don't see much of a path stopping him, even in a year that should favor Democrats as a blowback to Trump in 2026. | ||
| Where the current governor, how much endorsement or how much support has he given to Donalds to date? | ||
| He has been very diplomatic and very political with how he's talking about Byron Donalds, because like we said, First Lady, Casey DeSantis is heavily considering a run as well. | ||
| She hasn't ruled it out yet. | ||
| I think she's still looking at her options. | ||
| And I think if I'm Ron DeSantis, I'm a little miffed that Trump tried to jump in here and anoint a successor to him, carpetbagging in here from New York when Ron DeSantis might have wanted to try and get his wife into the position instead. | ||
| So we're waiting for that to play out. | ||
| That's the big drama that I'm watching right now down in the Florida gubernatorial race. | ||
| You said that Democrats have to gain three in the House to gain control. | ||
| How many seats are up for play? | ||
| In the House, you know, every cycle, all 435 House seats are up, but what we've seen is just a real narrowing battlefield over the last few cycles. | ||
| In fact, you know, we said earlier that the land of 40-seat swings is probably not going to happen anymore. |