Trump's election temper tantrum - does he know he's toast? | The News Agents

How will Donald Trump intervene in these midterms? What might he do that would set an alarm bell ringing? This has, of course, led a lot of people to observe that it looks like the Trump administration is quite desperately trying to find a way to prevent the transfer of power to this Democrat if Peltola wins in the race. Because that is really the question. You know, why are these very, very red Republican races even in contest? The News Agency USA is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. This is a global production. That's very unfair. That's just outright cheating. So we're before the court to see what you can do. But people are totally confused. They shouldn't be confused when voting. At least let him use the name Senator Dan Sullivan as opposed to incumbent, because a lot of people don't know what incumbent means. That is Donald Trump and his Justice Department trying to intervene in the Alaskan Senate race, saying, well, if our guy loses just by a small margin, we're going to need to rerun the election. The point about the Alaskan Senate race is there are two guys on it with the same name. Is that a recipe for chaos? Or is Trump getting involved in something he shouldn't? Welcome to the News Agents USA. The News Agents USA with Emily Maitlis and John Sopel. It's John. It's Maitlis. And it's Miles. And a lot of people have been wondering, how will Donald Trump intervene in these midterms? What might he do that would set an alarm bell ringing? And at the end of last week, the alarm bell went off because Donald Trump has sanctioned the Justice Department. And make no mistake, it's not an independent Justice Department action. This is Donald Trump instructing the Justice Department that it needs to take a close look at Alaska and has said in terms. if the republicans lose by a small amount and let's face it it will be by a small amount because it's a closely fought race it's a split as a senate seat and it hasn't got a huge population alaska so he's saying if the republicans lose by a small amount that can't stand we're going to have to rerun the race let me tell you the story of alaska because alaska has become my favorite Senate race of all of them. And whilst Donald Trump is clearly getting involved because he wants a different outcome to the one the polls are forecasting, there is a little bit of legitimacy, some will say, to the argument that underlies it. And here is why. Alaska is a very deep red Republican state. It cares about mineral rights and fishing, and it has long been Republican voting. This time round, there is a woman, Democrat called Mary Peltola, who looks as if she is edging ahead of the incumbent, one Dan S. Sullivan. Dan S. Sullivan has been the senator there for the last three terms and he's trying to stay in the job. But Alaska has this curious list system, which means essentially that four candidates have all made it onto the ballot. As well as Mary Peltola, the Democrat, and Dan S. Sullivan, the incumbent, there is another guy who is also called Dan Sullivan. He is actually Dan J. Sullivan. He's a former teacher. He's been involved in logging. He doesn't have an obvious party affiliation. But there are a lot of questions around why Dan J. Sullivan has decided to enter the race. Now, there is nothing that stops a candidate, a citizen, from entering a Senate race to seeing if they can get momentum. And on this list system, he has managed to get enough momentum to get through to the last four. But there are plenty in the Republican Party and plenty in the MAGA circles around Trump who think that Dan J. Sullivan is essentially a vote splitter. He's been put on it by Democrats to confuse people so that when you come to voting, instead of voting for the Republican guy who's been in power, you vote for the other guy who's just got a different middle name. And that is how Mary Peltola, the Democrat, will get through. Now, this has already played out through the courts. It's already been through the Alaskan courts. It's already been through the judiciary. And it was certified. It was decreed that Dan S. Sullivan could stay on the ballot. So that is where we have been, frankly, until this weekend when Trump suddenly decided that it wasn't up to Alaska. It wasn't a state issue. It was for the Department of Justice, his old mate, personal lawyer Todd Blanche, to start an investigation. You know, Emily, I've got to say it's really tough to imagine a scenario here where the Alaskan Supreme Court gets upended by the federal courts. Federal judges have tended to be very deferential about races in the states, who is on the ballot. Why? Because the United States Constitution stipulates that it is the states and not the federal government that run elections. And so if the Alaskan courts up to the Alaskan Supreme Court say that this is legitimate and that you have a right to run for office under whatever your legal name is, then I suspect that's going to be what holds at the end of the day. So this is, of course, led a lot of people to observe that it looks like the Trump administration is quite desperately trying to find a way to prevent the transfer of power to this Democrat if Peltola wins in the race. And this is something that CNN's Dana Bash confronted the attorney general with on television. And you should see his response. And let's just talk Turkey, because one of the big questions is whether or not the president is laying the groundwork for a scenario where the whether it's Alaska or somewhere else, there is, in your words, a couple of days ago, a doomsday scenario. and we could be in a situation where President Trump tries to overturn the election and the result of that could be god forbid what we saw after January 6th That is one of the fundamental questions oh you gotta stop it with that you're not being a real person come on man come on that is crazy it is not crazy hold on a second wait wait stop stop i would have said that before January 6th you asked the question let me answer it hold on you you set me up you set me up with the following question okay Because the president, because the Department of Justice is concerned that there is an absolute fraud happening in Alaska and he wants to do something about it. You're saying, Mr. Attorney General, because the president of the United States wants to stop a fraud and confusion in Alaska, is he going to do something crazy? That is not that is not a real question. I wish it was not a real question. I wish it was. I'm sorry. But but well, if you're laying the groundwork for the president. I so enjoy the camp outrage of the DOJ who say, how could it even be conceivable that somebody would attempt something like that? Sorry, we're just remembering the attempt to do Did you ever try this before? I mean, the reason that Dan Abash has had to ask that is because it is no longer a hallucination. It is no longer in the wildest imagination that this could happen. It has happened. And I guess to that question that Todd Blanche raises of what did he call it? Absolute fraud. You then have to ask this question of what would you be allowed to be called? Like if Dan Sullivan is not allowed to stand on the ballot, would Danny Sullivan be allowed? Would Dan Sullivan be allowed? Or Dan Sullivan, like how different a name would it have to be for you to to get on the ballot let's paint a different scenario: what about you are supporting Donald Trump for election as the president in 2020 against Joe Biden and you get someone who is firmly allied to you to run as a spoiler to steal away black votes which is what Kanye West did when he put himself on the ballot in the president, is that a fraud? I mean he there was no chance he was ever going to be president, he didn't want to be president, he was just there as a spoiler to stop Biden winning the presidential election. Now you know, look, shenanigans kind of happen in elections, so you do think this is a shenanigan? Well, I mean do you think the Democrats have a come to answer for here? No we do, I think. Look, I think that if you were apparently Edward Heath in 1970, Miles, he was a British Prime Minister back in the dark ages, Edward Heath stood in the election you know when he was running to be Prime Minister and there was an Edward Heath running against him in Orpington and Sidcup or wherever, he did not know that, yeah and and and there was, you know, they had loud hailer vans outside saying don't vote for the wrong Edward Heath, make sure you vote for the right, and they put out all these leaflets for the right Edward Heath no I think there is potentially a point of a small point but it's up to the state to run elections as Miles says, I think Section One Article four of the Constitution says that it is for the individual state to run election according to federal election law, I I get excited when Brits quote the U.S. Constitution chapter and verse so that might have been the highlight of my day just then look, the faux outrage from Todd Blanche is so hard to accept when this year we had the the month of January start off with Donald Trump saying he wanted to nationalize elections in the United States which is just pure unadulterated fascism, that's what that would be, even Republicans were saying oh we can't associate with that and then he goes and snatches and grabs ballots in Georgia from the 2020 election his people say it's just to look into some fraud. He himself says it's to find out who won the 2020 election that he so clearly lost. And then Donald Trump spent the balance of this year trying to take over mail-in ballots, trying to change the rules of voting, trying to jerry-rig different primaries around the country, trying to gerrymander the general election. He has been on an election interference blitz. And the crescendo, or at least up until this week, was this moment where Todd Blanche also said, look, I can't tell you if Donald Trump had anything to do with this decision in Alaska. I don't talk about my conversations with the president. And then Trump himself just came out to say, no, no, that was me. I was the one that told them to go do this. Look, what I want to know is what is the step now that Alaska is meant to take or that the DOJ is meant to take because they can't they can't remove the Dan Sullivan from the ballot right he's he's going back to your point of what what name would be acceptable, I mean how do you put in a legal case what majority you were confused if it was if it's above 200 yeah a thousand five thousand but also how do you know whether people were confused or whether they just really liked the logger former teacher right how how on earth do you ever certify what that means so i don't know Miles, what is what happens now the case will get dismissed presumably well i'll tell you it's got the legal fortitude of a bowl of jelly and i think that's what we're about to find out we saw that in the previous cases against this love it or hate it voters two people with similar names can be on the same ballot it's happened in britain it's happened in the united states this thing is very unlikely to succeed and that's led others in the political opposition in the united states to observe the desperation. I want you to listen to what Gavin Newsom had to say about this, because in his mind, this action is the bell tolling for the Trump presidency. You're observing the end of a presidency as we know it. You're observing someone that's coming to grips that he's lost the American people. His time is up. The people around him are, increasingly starting to jump ship quietly, in many respects, some more publicly. You saw the act of desperation, which was in and of itself extraordinarily draw-dropping in terms of directing the DOJ and the United States Senate race in Alaska, saying they will not certify the outcome unless it's their outcome. This is the beginning of the end of Donald Trump as he's known himself. He's never experienced lame duck status. He's never experienced a kind of powerlessness that he's experiencing today. So let me underscore those words, the beginning of the end, because, you know, Emily, you mentioned that we saw in 2020 some pretty frenetic efforts to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. A lot of folks feel like Alaska is the opening salvo in what could be weeks or months of Trump administration action to prevent Democrats from taking the House or the Senate. Yeah, I mean, it's worth just dwelling on that a minute, Miles, isn't it? Because if you look at the legal maneuverings that could take place post-election about certification of results, seating the new Congress, will the kind of speaker appoint a new clerk of the house to be there to sort of suddenly say right well we've got a doubt over this delegation and therefore you keep the old house for a bit longer i mean are any of these viable legal strategies by which trump could in effect try to steal try to halt a democrat victory or is it kind of legally fanciful and will get knocked down just like all the other legal cases were knock down in 2020? Well, it's probably both. I mean, if you think back to 2020, it seems fanciful that Donald Trump would attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. But for all intents and purposes, it really came down to one person, his own vice president of the United States, who wouldn't go along with it. Otherwise, the United States would have truly been thrown into constitutional crisis on the eve of the inauguration of another president. Now, in this case, it does seem like Donald Trump and team are preparing to at least buy time and maybe in their most optimistic scenario, get a few of these races challenged in the long term such that Republicans can keep control of power and Donald Trump can hold off investigations into his misconduct and his corruption. But here's the thing that people should be looking out for, because the predicate that they have laid is all around the phantom menace of the non-citizen voter. And that's what's happening in Gavin Newsom's state of California. You heard him hinting at this is that the Justice Department has said, we believe there are thousands of non-citizens on your voter rolls. And they sued California over it to try to get them to not count ballots that they suspected were non-citizens. Just in the past 48 hours, a federal judge has shot that down. And one of the reasons for that, John, is because the Trump administration keeps producing these lists of alleged non-citizen voters that once those lists get investigated, turn out not to have thousands of non-citizen voters on them. Several have turned out to have zero, even though the Department of Justice has claimed the problem is widespread. So that's the predicate you're going to see the Trump administration lay in these contested races and states. They're going to try to claim that they weren't able to determine that the voter rolls were free of non-citizen voters and therefore that federal judges should halt the counting in those races. Yeah. And just to stand back for a second and ask the question, why are we even talking about Alaska now? Because that is really the question. You know, why are these very, very red Republican races even in contest? It's worth just having a look, getting to know the Democratic candidate, Mary Peltola, because she ain't like your normal Democrat. Just have a listen to her ad here. If it's not good for Alaska, it's not getting my vote. Forget party, forget politics. With me, Alaska comes first. I earned an A rating from the NRA. I took on Joe Biden to secure the border and pushed through Alaska's largest oil project in decades. And it's why I've got no tolerance for any politician who uses their office to get rich. Alaska first, Alaska always. I'm Mary Peltola, and I approve this message. Yeah, I like guns. I like oil. And I hate Joe Biden. I mean, as the message goes, it's not strictly. I don't think you'd hear that from Abdul El-Said in Michigan. I mean, it's a very different message, but she's tailoring it for her audience. And getting an A rating from the National Rifle Association essentially means you have supported all the NRA lobbying points of interest about what there should be in terms of gun control. It means, you know, broadly speaking, you're there for a free for all in terms of gun ownership and the loosest interpretation possible of the Second Amendment. And so you couldn't not be if you lived in Alaska, you know, this pioneer state of wilderness where everyone's kind of, you know, running around in their bison hats. You watch that ad and you see that she is running as a Republican so hard that the only thing I think she didn't do in that ad is declare she's changing her name to Dan Sullivan. I mean, she pretty much checked all of the boxes there. And I think that's why Republicans are so nervous is because the Democrat has really effectively co-opted their messaging, even making the message the campaign tagline Alaska first, which echoes Donald Trump's America first. They are nervous about this race, but the desperation is not just in deep red Alaska. It's in deep red Mississippi. It's in red Georgia. It's in red Florida. Across the country, Republicans are put on their back foot and having to defend what should have been otherwise safe territory. Look, we'll be back in a moment with more on what's going to happen over the course of the next week. But Miles has asked me to point out that Edward Heath's constituency in 1970 was not Orpington and Sidcup. It was, of course, Bexley and Sidcup. Miles, I'm grateful to you. Thank you. Thank you, John. Finally. One of the people that protect us. Go home. Go home. Go home. So if you missed that, Donald Trump, who's not used to hecklers, has a guy in the audience shout at him, shove that ballroom up your fat ass. That's what got shouted at the president. He, of course, sends the heckler out of the event. But John and Emily, this isn't the first time. In fact, Donald Trump has sort of been beset by hecklers while he's been out on the campaign trail confronting him about the Epstein files. That woman was punched in the face for standing up with a shirt on that said, release the Epstein files and shouting at the president. And now he's got a guy standing up and shouting at him about the ballroom, among other instances, as he's gone to these rallies. And these are at his events. It does seem like the populist fervor is reaching Donald Trump's own doorstep. It's funny, isn't it, that Trump is allowed to speak about other people's asses on the campaign trail, but he just doesn't want to be reminded of his own fat one. Exactly. There was some backlash. There was a clip we played yesterday on The Daily Show, which was about Obama giving it large about Trump's taste in interior decoration whilst on the subject of ballrooms. And he used this phrase. It's as if Saddam Hussein had opened a cheesecake factory. Now, we should explain, because I had missed this entirely, that Cheesecake Factory is like a chain restaurant, like a sort of flashy mall restaurant. Is that right? So it's kind of like it's the place that you go for a for a family celebration. But but actually, if it was done by Saddam Hussein. Now, I should just say Obama has actually started getting a bit of flack for this, that somehow, I don't know if this is kind of invented or created, that Republicans or at least MAGA influencers are now saying, are you talking down to Americans? Are you talking down to people who love to go out to the Cheesecake Factory? It's a bit like, is it like slagging off Denny's? I'm trying to work out. You know, here's the thing. The quip has gotten to Donald Trump more than it has gotten to anyone. I don't know if you guys saw this, but after Barack Obama said that at the next rally Donald Trump spoke at, he responded to Obama's joke, not with a one minute rejoinder or a two minute rejoinder. He talked about it for 10 minutes at a rally. He could not get over this. And there's one lesson in politics that when you are explaining, you are losing. And Donald Trump explained and explained how great that the White House is and why wouldn't anyone like the gold decorations. And it's unfair that Barack Obama would say this. I mean, it really, really got under his skin. So whether it's the former presidents heckling him or the people at the rallies, you can see this is getting to Republicans because it's hitting a nerve. And that nerve is that their numbers are slipping in these battlegrounds. And Trump is being forced to go to places and to defend seats that they did not think were in play this cycle. And they can see that the anger is seeping into their own base, that they are losing their own people. And that's why they are flailing in the lead up to this midterm election. The rejoinder I loved was when Scott Bessent, a multi-billionaire, was the one to accuse Obama of being patronizing to ordinary Americans. Because I bet you Scott Bessent has never been inside. Yeah. Inside a cheesecake factory, whether owned by Saddam Hussein or anyone else for that matter. And he lives such a gilded life. I mean, you know, for him to be the defender of kind of the ordinary Joe American just seemed a bit far fetched. I think the other thing that's interesting, which you just said there, Miles, about, you know, where Trump is campaigning. I heard a clip the other day, an interview with Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, where he was trying to say all the polls are absolute rubbish. We've been from coast to coast, and I'm telling you, the polling is inaccurate. The American people understand this is a contrast election. We do not want to go back to crazy. And I'm afraid if these Democrats took control of Congress, it would be crazier even than the Obama years and the Biden-Harris years, because they've taken a far lurch to the left. And people see that. And I think it's going to it's going to juice enthusiasm for our side. Look, we know that Mike Johnson is amoebic, to put it mildly, that he will form the very shape around Trump that Trump requires. But I guess the question I would raise is we know that Trump has in previous elections proved pretty adept at finding these votes down the back of the sofa. I mean, I don't mean the ones that he literally lifts out of, you know, ballots and polling stations in Georgia. But he has found the vote in places where people didn't naturally get off, you know, their sofas and come and vote. Is there a chance, do you think, that this talk of the blue wave is overhyped, that he knows what he's doing, that when he goes to Texas, when he goes to Alaska, when he goes to Montana, all these places that we think should be completely safe. He does see movement there and he is actually reaching voters that might have given up before he started entertaining them on the stump. Well, you know, John said it at the top of the episode that this isn't going to be a blowout election in terms of the number of seats because the American system has been so gerrymandered that there are far fewer competitive seats than the last time Donald Trump had to defend the House and the Senate in a midterm election in 2018. But that doesn't mean that the turnout numbers and that the total vote numbers won't represent a wave. And a lot of the pollsters are seeing that. Nate Silver over, you know, at his polling site on Substack told The New York Times that he sees Republican turnout collapsing. And you also see that when you go look at Donald Trump's own support. Last time, Emily, he pulled it out and ended up getting a lot more people than you expected to turn up in his favor. Donald Trump had, you know, mid 40s approval ratings. His approval ratings are down in the low 30s and in some polls in the 20s. So it's a very different Donald Trump right now. And these side by sides about corruption are really getting to American voters of Donald Trump talking about his gilded ballroom while prices keep increasing. In fact, today we talked about this last week. We released a documentary about corruption at corruptionland.org. And one of the headline numbers in that documentary is we looked at the hundred episodes of corruption, the top 100 episodes of corruption in the second Donald Trump administration, and they totaled three hundred and seventy seven billion dollars. We hear about a ten million dollar contract here and a five million dollar reflecting pool contract here. Three hundred and seventy seven billion. And that's just the top 100 episodes. Americans see that, including Republicans, and they are ditching Trump in droves. That's what Speaker Mike Johnson is worried about. Yeah, I mean, Miles, you very helpfully took us through the sort of the polling of that people's concern about the Epstein files is also married to the whole idea of corruption. You know, the fact that the Epstein files have not been released is part of the corruption of America. And it's interesting the millions of dollars that the Democrats are now spending on campaign ads to attack Republican candidates over this. And there was a particularly brutal attack on Roger Marshall, Senator who is running for re-election. Have a listen to this advert. She was a 14-year-old girl. He was a 65-year-old senator. She was drugged, molested and raped. And he helped cover it up. Roger Marshall took nearly forty thousand dollars from Jeffrey Epstein's associates then voted to keep the Epstein files sealed protecting pedophiles now Roger Marshall's asking for your vote but the only thing he should be asking for is forgiveness again Adam Hamilton shouldn't really stand a chance in this race in Kansas, Kansas you know the land of Dorothy is as deep red as it comes. But what this tells us, I think, is the way that the Democrats are thinking of rearming if they do get the House, if they do get the Senate, which is they will double down on everything that Trump has refused to acknowledge in the Epstein files. The predators that no one has gone after, the fact that Todd Blanche basically told us after the first tranche was released, we've had a look there's nothing to see here the fact that there are still we think between two and three million bits of files that have not been released they are they have redacted all the perpetrators names and they have left exposed many of the survivors and victims names so this is somewhere that the Democrats are saying look trust us on this you don't like the corruption that has led to one of the biggest cover-ups Peter Phillip cover-ups frankly in the history of the world let us take this on from now on and we will expose the wrongdoing here well and you look at the magnitude Emily and this resonates with Republican voters too that's why you see Democrats running those ads because the magnitude is so galling that even Republicans cannot turn away you talk about the Epstein investigation and up to 1400 victims women and girls who are alleged to have been sexually abused. I mean, that's such a big number. That's as if one of the Twin Towers falling was not investigated in the 9-11, you know, after the 9-11 attacks, as if we had just turned away. That is a huge number of victims. And people see a Justice Department that has taken its fingers and put them in their ears when it comes to this investigation. And remember, this was a major talking point for Republicans in the lead up to 2024. Donald Trump himself promised he would release the files. There was this photo op moment at the White House when he came back of conservative influencers walking out with white binders and saying they released the files. And it turned out not to be the case. And then their guy, Donald Trump, ran scared from the investigation and pushed very hard to prevent the release of those files. A lot of conservatives are telling pollsters they feel betrayed about that. And Democrats have seized that messaging that was once fertile ground for conservatives, the idea that the other side is protecting pedophiles and they are using it in race after race to great political effect. Yeah, it's worth hearing another attack ad, this time on the Florida senator, Senatorial Candidate Ashley Moody, highlighting her vote, which also blocked the release of the Epstein files. I was 13 years old when I met Jeffrey Epstein. I was told about an old guy that just liked to get massages from young girls. When Jeffrey gave me that $300, dollars, I was very vulnerable. Used me in every way. Senator Ashley Moody cast a deciding vote to protect the man who abused me. Why protect the pedophile? Ashley Moody, whose side are you on? Ashley Moody, how can you put your political career above abused children? New Deal for All Inc is responsible. I mean, these are really powerful ads and it's absolutely clear that this isn't a Democrat talking point. I mean, you just look at what Marjorie Taylor Greene has been posting and the the kind of fury that she feels that of the betrayal of Donald Trump not to release the detail of the Epstein files and the fact that she believes he is still protecting those close to Donald Trump when Donald Trump came to power on that promise to drain the swamp you look at the economy and the price of gas and the price of groceries and the effect that that is having on ordinary Americans lives and you kind of think well god the Democrats have got this all nailed down and yet you still sense that democrats are very nervous still about a number of the races whether it's michigan whether it's maine where they think they should be doing better and it is still neck and neck and i've got to say you know for for all the manifest faults of donald trump you cannot take away the energy with which he's campaigning because he is absolutely going around the country, not with any strong economic or political message, but trying to be the entertainer in chief, making people laugh, making people, you know, talking about people's arses and thinking that, you know, maybe that will be enough to get people out to vote. I think the Democrats are probably right to be a little bit worried. I do think, I mean, there's a really interesting asymmetry, which is that Trump is not only the president, but he is clearly the leader of the Republican Party. So he sort of feels like he's speaking as the leader of that party obviously commander-in-chief as well and he keeps on saying this line pretend i'm on the ballot as if he thinks that's helping what the democrats don't have is the equivalent leader figure and i actually think curiously that that is helping i think it allows the democrats to shape shift for this round of elections in a really interesting way you've seen what Peltola is doing i can be the gun loving the gun toting alaskan you can see what you know Abdel Sayed is i i'm going to be the guy that doesn't like money going to israel from american taxpayers you can see that James Talarico's i'm i'm the peace-loving preacher who just doesn't you know like the convicts that you've been offered by the republicans and i think it's allowed them to sort of fracture off into lots of different identities as a party which is probably good right now because i still don't think and maybe miles you disagree but i'm not sure the Democrat brand is strong. I don't think the word Democrat is a very strong brand at the moment. But I think if people are slightly buying into what individual candidates stand for, that is a safer way to win. That's right. This is not an election for Democrats. This is an election against Donald Trump and the corruption in Trump's Washington. And the mistake that Democrats will make is if they win one or both houses and they come in and they think they have a mandate for progressive policies. None of the polls show that. None of the polls show that voters are inspired to go and elect a progressive slate. All of the polls show that they are inspired to go out and vote as if Donald Trump is on the ballot. Unfortunately, as you note, Emily, that doesn't cut in his favor because the enthusiasm gap very much is in favor of Democrats right now. I mean, in some polls, double digit margins, Democrats have more enthusiasm to go out and vote in these midterm elections. And one of the things that has hampered Donald Trump is all throughout this year, he has told his side, don't worry, we've got this. And he's undertaken efforts to rig the elections in his favor, whether it's through gerrymandering or federal action. And he himself has said it. Remember, on July 3rd, just before America's 250th, Donald Trump stood at Mount Rushmore and said if he's able to put in place some of his election integrity measures, Republicans would not lose races for 100 years. Those were his words. So the president is telling his voters, don't worry, I got this. We've got these elections rigged for a century. And Democrats are telling their voters, your democracy is on the line and get out there. And that enthusiasm gap shows. You might remember last week we featured the excerpt advert from Vivek Ramaswamy in his bid to become Ohio governor, where he targeted his opponent with an ad from the woman's mother who'd been estranged from her daughter for decades and saying that she was a liar when in fact the woman who is running Amy Acton had been sexually abused by her mother's new husband new partner and he was then uh arrested and charged with sexual abuse allegations and it was just like the most morally disgusting advert i think anyone has witnessed anyway the fallout from it has been remarkable i mean for a start let's just listen to JD Vance who was saying no no it's all fine all fine nothing to see here whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern what is my concern is who's going to govern the next generation of American government? Who is going to win the Senate race in the state of Ohio? Who's going to win the governor's race in the state of Ohio? And I got to be honest that when I see Republicans, people in my party reacting so strongly, especially elected officials, look, have the opinion you want to have on that ad. If you think it was too tough, say it was too tough. If you think it wasn't tough enough, say that. But I have to admit that I'm a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America. So I would say to Ohio Republicans, do you actually think that Amy Acton is unfit to serve as governor of the state of Ohio? I do. Do you actually think that Sherrod Brown should not be given a 50th year in public service to ship American jobs overseas and to bring men into women's sports, because I do. I actually think and I would hope that my fellow Republicans think that the reason that John Huston should be a United States senator is because he's the right man for the job. And because Vivek should be the governor of Ohio, we should actually fight for these candidates. What is wonderful is to hear J.D. Vance actually telling off Republicans and Republican voters. I don't know if he's aiming that specifically at those who've taken to the airwaves to distance themselves from this ad and there have been many we should say um but it sounds as if he's actually giving his own party a bit of a hammering and that wonderful word whining whining about an ad that essentially condones the work of a sex predator and rapist just to put you in the picture Amy Acton uh is a really interesting character in Ohio actually she's not you know like she's she's not unheard of she is a doctor she was the former i think director of health she she led the state as director of health through covid right so she was the one that appeared like our Chris Whitty Patrick Vallance every night on the briefing so she has become this i think quite trusted figure to Ohioans they they're not coming across of the first time they're certainly not coming across the allegations that she made against her mother's partner for the first time they know this woman they have trusted this woman and she has been seen as somebody who actually guided them through a really tricky time uh in the pandemic who is now sort of saying well i did that come and trust me as governor and the fact that JD Vance has nowhere to go with that really yeah and i think it's interesting that he can't talk about Vivek Ramaswamy first he has to talk about John Husted who is the senate candidate because he he probably doesn't really have that much to say about Vivek at this point in the race, right? You can see in those remarks how nervous Republicans are about this race. I picked up on the same thing, Emily, when he starts flailing and looking for reasons to elect Ramaswamy and he lands on men in women's sports. You know what motivates voters more than men in women's sports? Men raping 12-year-old girls, OK? And the protection of pedophiles. I said it last week when we talked about this ad, is a very unusual choice for an advertisement for someone who wants to win in that race. And now we are starting to see some of the numbers shift because of that. In fact, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report has taken this race and said that the ad has had such an impact on it that they're shifting it from a toss-up race to now lean Democrat. It now leans in Amy Acton's favor. And if she does win, everyone is going to go back and say it was because of this choice from the Ramaswamy campaign to feature, effectively, a pedophile protector in an advertisement as some way to drum up opposition against their opponent. If this is a nail in the coffin in Vivek Ramaswamy's political career, I mean, he bloody well deserves it. But I'm interested in whether this has a long lasting effect on J.D. Vance, because I think it was really ill judged to come out and say, oh, stop whining, you Republicans. Stop going on. I'm disgusted at this. No, I mean, you know, J.D. Vance, you purport to be a man of God. You talk about your Catholicism. You talk about your deep faith. And here you are condoning an advert that is piling where, you know, you are piling on the side of the person who has conducted sexual abuse against a child. I mean, that is grotesque. And I do think that some of this may last around J.D. Vance because he's eyeing 2028. He's hoping that he'll be Donald Trump's successor as the Republican candidate. I think he made a really bad move in kind of getting involved in defending uh Ramaswamy and probably jinxed his poor son who he named after Vivek Ramaswamy Vivek right i mean that's not something you want around your neck right now you know i had a uh democrat pitch me on a 2028 election ad and they said if J.D. Vance is running all his opponent needs to do is run ads where people talk about being victims of abuse victims of Jeffrey Epstein victims of pedophiles and you intersperse it with J.D. Vance saying, stop whining, stop whining, stop whining. That is the type of thing you're going to see if he's on the ballot in 2028. One week to go. And next week, we will all be together as one happy little group in Washington, D.C., Miles, Maitlis and Sopal for the midterm elections. What could go wrong? Before we leave you, we should play out on the Democrats' response to that awful attack ad, which was to say, worse than that, Ramaswamy likes tennis. He spent more than a million dollars flying on private jets. His favorite sport is tennis, and he can't swing a bat for, well, you get the idea, the Vivek Ramaswamy, a con man who peddled a drug for Alzheimer's patients that didn't work. now he's a billionaire and his policies would be a disaster for Ohio families we'll see you next week we'll see you next week bye bye bye for now The News Agents USA is brought to you by HSBC UK opening up a world of opportunity this has been a global production