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PBS NEWSHOUR: David Brooks of The Atlantic and Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW join Amna Nawaz to discuss the week in politics, including how progressive wins in Michigan could signal a leftward turn in the Democratic Party's base.AMNA NAWAZ, PBS NEWSHOUR: In terms of that, David, what we have seen from Republicans on the messaging front so far is some anti-Muslim rhetoric already. Republicans are now using Dr. El-Sayed's full name in their ads, which they haven't used before, which is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, which I guess is supposed to scare people or something.But the president is also talking about a rising communism threat. None of these candidates are communists. Are those the strongest messages the Republicans have right now?DAVID BROOKS, THE ATLANTIC: No, they should just say, these people are too left-wing for you.The Democrats are doing the same thing they did in 2020. They're angry at Trump. I understand that. They're angry at their own leaders for not standing up to Trump in the way they think he should be stood up to. And so they're swinging left.In 2020, it was moderately left. If you remember the Democratic primary debate, presidential debate, almost all the candidates said, I believe in open borders. That was political suicide. This is political suicide times 10, because if you look, for example, there are 16 Democrats who have won in Trump districts, where Trump also won.What do those 16 Democrats have in common? They're all moderates. This is one of the firmest pieces of research across the board, massive amounts of evidence. Moderates do better than progressives. They do better in race after race and race by an average of maybe four points.And so if you want to win and defeat Republicans, nominate a moderate. It's not that complicated. You take a look at what happened in Georgia a couple of years ago. You had Raphael Warnock, a moderate, and Stacey Abrams, a progressive. Warnock wins, Abrams loses. It's the case over and over and over and again.But Democrats seem to have not learned this message, at least the kind of voters who voted for El-Sayed. He did very well in highly educated and more elite districts. He, like all socialists, did very poorly among workers. In the general election, there are going to be a lot more people without college degrees than with college degrees, or at least in this primary campaign.So this is bad news for Democratic electability.JONATHAN CAPEHART, MS NOW: I would just say Dr. El-Sayed is not a socialist. He's a progressive, just to be clear. He's not a member of the DSA.NAWAZ: He's backed by many Democratic Socialists.CAPEHART: Well, sure, he's backed by, but he's not like Mayor Mamdani, who is a member of the DSA.And I would push back on David. It's not just anger at Trump. It's anger at Trump policies. It's not just we don't like the president because he is who he is. We don't like the president, particularly in Michigan, because of the tariffs, because of the war. There are lots of tangible Trump policies that Dr. El-Sayed ran on to get people's votes.And that message that he's -- he argued during the campaign is one he's going to take to the general election. And it's just a matter of whether it will penetrate. And that's the big test here.BROOKS: Voters in almost every presidential race, I think, in every one of my lifetime, have always said, who's closer to the center? And they vote for that person. Trump seemed closer to the center than Kamala Harris. Biden seemed closer to the center than Donald Trump.Donald Trump over the last few years has run away from the center. He is handing this election to the Democrats. All they have to do is sit there and be couch potatoes. They do not have to support Medicare for all so that Republicans can go to them and say, you like your private health insurance? Mr. El-Sayed's going to take that away from you.That is politically bad news, and that's only one of the issues on which the party is moving further and further away from the center, and therefore...CAPEHART: I mean, I disagree that the Democratic Party writ large is moving far away from the center, and that a few races won by Democratic Socialists or people who identify as progressive, like Dr. El-Sayed, that -- to me, I just don't -- I do not see it that you can put this -- make this blanket argument that the Democratic Party is running far left.

Tou Thao is a former Minneapolis police officer convicted of the murder of George Floyd. Thao stood crowd control and was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison and 57 months in Minnesota state prison, served concurrently. Thao aappeared on "Yada Yada Gold," a Minneapolis-based podcast hosted by Schee Moua, along with brothers Kong and Seng Moua.TOU THAO, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Just me going to prison, I want to last 24 hours in general population until they try to have me killed. So it just, it just, I'm not surprised it happened to Derek. Obviously there's people in higher places in government that would want us dead. It's because if we die then the truth dies. So it's pretty obvious that that could be a possibility for Derek as well. So I wasn't surprised when it happened to him.You know there are people in government that would like nothing better than Derek to die because everything goes away. The cover-up just disappears and there's no one left to expose it. So now I mean do I'm not naive enough to know that if I'm here talking and speaking that they wouldn't want me to disappear as well.But you know as you know going back to my faith we're not worried about that. We know where we're going. So but then we also have a task that we have to accomplish. And that for me is to is to expose the works of darkness in Ephesians Chapter 5 and also speak truth. And it often time it's not going to be popular. I could have taken the easy way out and sided with the woke mob.HOST: When you say easy way out you do you specifically mean accepting the plea bargains, getting the lightest sentence, just sort of like let me just get through this process with the least damage possible so I can return back to my family? Is that what you mean by the easy way out or?THAO: The easy way out would just lie. Okay. Just basically lie and take the woke narrative and run with it. And you know what it might not be hyper I'm not trying to be hyperbolic. Yeah. But if I probably could if I would have went that way who knows I could have been a chief of Minneapolis. I mean it's it's not far fetched just how it is has become.

On FOX News Channel's "Saturday in America," veteran Democratic strategist James Carville comments on the Wisconsin gubernatorial campaign of Francesca Hong, a Democratic state representative and Democratic socialist, as well as other progressive candidates. Hong came under fire this week after 2020 comments resurfaced in which she called for Thanksgiving to be canceled. Now, Hong says Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday.KAYLEIGH MCENANY: On that note, you say you're a political animal. You just want to win races. There is a race Tuesday. Francesca Hong has a huge lead. Here's Francesca Hong.STATE REP. FRANCESCA HONG (D-WI), CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR: Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities. And so I think there I wanted to make sure that people understood that there are multiple views, but views can evolve.MCENANY: I mean, James, she says Thanksgiving is now her favorite holiday, but I imagine you don't like that as a political operative, that quote.JAMES CARVILLE: Look, I think that these progressive left, very tech people, I think they've come up with an A.I. random stupid idea generator, and I think the stupid idea generator can think of things that humans can't, like canceling Thanksgiving or being against interracial dating. So I'm just waiting to the next stupid idea, A.I. generator that comes out, spits out of that and probably go through the humanities faculty at the University of Wisconsin for it after it gets put in a can of dates.

Stephen Miller called President Donald Trump "the North Star" for the Republican Party and discussed plans for the first-ever midterm convention."Nobody has done more to rebuild and save the Republican Party than Donald Trump since Abraham Lincoln himself," Miller told FOX News host Laura Ingraham. "President Trump inherited a broken shell, a hollowed-out husk of a political party after the Bush years, after the Ryan years, after the sellout years, and he turned it into the working-class party, the middle-class party, and he took states that have been blue forever."LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: The truth is simple, Donald Trump cares deeply about winning the midterms because of ideas like that. He's never going to let that happen because he knows how much damage a socialist Congress will create. Thanks to President Trump, America is stronger. It's freer than it's been in many years. He and we have fought too hard to let anti-American socialists run the country into the ground.Here to tell us how the GOP will beat back the socialists in the midterms is Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy. Stephen, it's interesting to see how Hillary realizes that communist label is a disaster for them, and Bernie tries to say, well, I don't really know anyone who believes abolish the police, about defund the police. He's trying to do that whole shuffle thing.But what's the truth about where this leads and what the president is going to do from now until November to bring this home?STEPHEN MILLER, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Where does it lead? I mean, the answer is, look at the countries around the world that have the system of government that Democrats want. It leads to Haiti, it leads to Somalia, it leads to a failed third world state. Look what Democrats have done in the cities they control right now. I grew up in Los Angeles. It went from a gleaming paradise of prosperity, opportunity, a flourishing middle-class, to open drug dens, parks you can't take your kids to, your children can't walk home from school. You're going to get mugged and beaten up outside the place where you work. Miles and miles and miles of unremediated slums. That's what they did to Los Angeles. Look what they've done to Chicago. Look what they've done and are doing now to New York City.You don't have to use your imagination. You mentioned abolish prisons. That is part of their platform. Right now, the Democrat Party, the DSA, they want to abolish prisons. Think about what that means. Rapists, murderers, child predators set free to offend and reoffend and reoffend again. That's how you end up with these horrifying tragedies like we've seen in Charlotte, with Iryna, where you have repeat offenders set free over and over again. This is not imaginary. It's not hypothetical. It's what's happening in Democrat-controlled territory right now.And here's the other thing, Laura, keep in mind, there is going to be one group of people they will put in jail. They will put in jail their political opposition. Good communists and good socialists, they don't want police officers to put hardened criminals in jail. They want police and law enforcement to exist only for putting their political opposition in jail.INGRAHAM: Or the police.MILLER: That's the very real Hill.INGRAHAM: Yes, they also want ICE --MILLER: The very real Hill that we're facing.(CROSSTALK)INGRAHAM: Yes, they want -- they've already talked about putting ICE. Hasan Piker --MILLER: Yes.INGRAHAM: -- I believe he talked about putting ICE agents in jail, as did other DSA-ers. So that's the world we're going to live in. Stephen, the president did that interview with Punchbowl yesterday. It was released today, and they were on this narrative that he's basically giving the middle finger to Republicans in the midterms, which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. But they pressed him about whether the base, without him on the ballot, will turn out. Watch.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)TRUMP: If I don't run, will those people go out and vote? And that's the one thing I can't tell. I'm going to ask them to. The question is, will they vote? Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you, they're very angry --SHERMAN: Why is that?TRUMP: -- I don't know. I mean, they're angry at Republicans, but they're not angry --SHERMAN: That's some interesting thing --(END VIDEO CLIP)INGRAHAM: Well, of course, CNN or Politico, one of these guys responded to that and they said, well, all the polling shows in places like Michigan and Wisconsin, the voters are angry at Trump. The Democrats are motivated to vote against Trump, and only 44 percent of Republicans say, they're motivated to vote for Trump in the midterms. Are you buying that?MILLER: Where do I even begin with this? So let's start here. Nobody has done more to rebuild and save the Republican Party than Donald Trump since Abraham Lincoln himself, President Trump inherited a broken shell, a hollowed-out husk of a political party after the Bush years, after the Ryan years, after the sellout years, and he turned it into the working-class party, the middle-class party, and he took states that have been blue forever. He took the blue wall. He took states like Wisconsin, states like Ohio, states like Pennsylvania. He pulverized that blue wall.How many Senate races have we seen where President Trump won a state by 8 points, 9 points, 10 points, 11 points, and it was just enough to bring along the Republican senator by half a point or a point to build that Senate Republican majority. How many Senate candidates has he dragged along to victory, and how many rhinos has he forced out of the party to elect real working-class populist Republicans, people like, for example, Eric Schmitt, who represent the future of the Republican Party, where it is today.President Trump has raised more money for Republican candidates than any human in history. He has more enthusiasm and support from Republican voters than any candidate in history. I could keep going, Laura. The reality is, as he said, President Trump is dead on right here. What this comes down to is the Trump voter needs to show up in the midterms. It's about transferring the enthusiasm that the working-class has, the real Americans have for President Trump and turning that into midterm voters. That's the entire battle --INGRAHAM: Is he going to --MILLER: -- coming up here.INGRAHAM: Is he going to do rallies in Michigan and other key states as he did in other midterm election cycles?MILLER: Well, I'm sure that he will, and of course, he's already been campaigning all over the country, as has his cabinet, and of course, he's hosting the first-ever midterm convention. We're having a conversation --INGRAHAM: Oh, I can't wait for that.MILLER: -- about President Trump's enthusiasm on the midterms for the first time in history. He's hosting a midterm convention. President Trump --INGRAHAM: Great idea.MILLER: -- is the North Star of the Republican Party, and it all comes down to transferring that enthusiasm, that love that people have for President Trump into our candidates --INGRAHAM: Well, he's got to get out --MILLER: -- in the House and Senate.INGRAHAM: Yes, they need money. Open up the campaign war chest. Win this, otherwise, it's impeachment and nightmare. Stephen, one quick question on this ballroom. So, you had a D.C. Circuit opinion that came out today, 2 to 1. Neomi Rao wrote a great dissent, but Obama-Biden appointee said that construction in the ballroom, ballroom's already dug. They already dug the big hole. Lots of infrastructure already in there. East Wing gone. You have to stop construction. Stephen, what's next?MILLER: So, first of all, this is such an insult. The idea that you can have a private citizen in a fake group who says that they walk their dog near the White House, so they have standing to sue the President of the United States over a national security facility in the White House complex is such an insult to the legal profession, to our judicial system, and for the judiciary to go along with this is a blight. It is a blight on Article III. There's a crisis in the courts and the Supreme Court better get wise to it, because they are allowing these rogue district courts and these rogue circuit panels to undermine respect and the integrity of our judiciary.The Supreme Court has to step in and make the courts act within the bounds of the law to have a --INGRAHAM: Yes.MILLER: -- sound future for Article III. This is a national security facility to keep the president safe, to keep his family safe, to keep senior officials safe, visiting dignitaries safe. We just had the attack at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and we're actually having this conversation. Shame on these judges. Let's get real in this country. Let's have a court system that actually upholds the law instead of making it, Laura.INGRAHAM: Stephen, thank you so much. Have a great weekend.

Vice President J.D. Vance talks about the status of the Iran War in an interview with FOX News host Kayleigh McEnany on "Saturday in America."KAYLEIGH MCENANY, FOX NEWS HOST: It's Saturday in America. I'm Kayleigh McEnany. And in moments you will hear my exclusive interview with the vice president of the United States, JD Vance. It was wide ranging. We spoke about everything from Trump's efforts to finally put an end to the Iran war to the administration, which is now calling for Congress to do its part in protecting taxpayer dollars, your money from being stolen by fraudsters. The Vice President also responded directly to a comment that was made about him by the Democratic Senate candidate from Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed. It was pretty personal. And the Vice President's new book, Communion, which details his journey from atheism back to Christianity. Now, my interview with the Vice President. MCENANY: Vice President JD Vance, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it. JD VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning. Thanks for having me. MCENANY: Of course, I'm going to get to your extraordinary book here in a moment. I read it. I'm very taken with the stories and I'm fascinated by it. But I do want to start, Vice President, with some news of the day. And there was big news that you were in the Senate this week. You went to a lunch with senators. Iran dominated the conversation. So, I was hoping you could give us a readout of that meeting. VANCE: Yes, well, you know, love to go and hang out with some of my old GOP colleagues in the United States Senate. Great guys. People were trying to do the right thing by the country. We talked about a number of issues. We talked about the budget reconciliation legislation that we're working on. Obviously, the president's priority right now is to get the SAVE America Act passed. I think it's absurd that we're the most advanced democracy in the entire world, and yet we don't have voter I.D. that really has to change. We also, of course, talked a lot about Iran and where Iran is today, Kayleigh, is that we're talking to the Iranians, of course. We're trying to maximize the amount of oil and gas that are coming out of the Strait of Hormuz. That's the thing that we're most focused on right now. And you see, I think oil prices dipping around $80 a barrel today, sometimes a little bit lower. So, we're just trying to make sure that we get what we need out of this particular conflict. If you go back and remember what it is that we've done here, we've destroyed their nuclear program. We've destroyed their conventional military. We've radically reduced their, what you might call their asymmetric military abilities. And right now, we're trying to see if they're willing to make the kind of long-term changes that would be necessary to have a better relationship with the United States. And if not, that's fine, too. We're just going to keep on applying the pressure that we can apply and getting as much oil and gas out of the Middle East so that Americans can enjoy lower gas and energy prices. So, that's the delicate dance. The final thing I'll say about this, Kayleigh, is I try to remind people that we're really in the middle of the game here. This thing is not over. It's obviously not at the beginning. We're in the middle of the game, and we're applying a whole host of tools, diplomatic, economic, military tools, to ensure that we get the best outcome for the American people. I feel quite confident we will get there, but we're still a bit in the middle of the game. MCENANY: And the Iranians, through different methods, have broadcasted that they look to tighten their grip on the Strait of Hormuz. So, in a theoretical deal, what would an acceptable status quo be for the Strait? VANCE: Well, our expectation is you're going to see the same amount of oil and gas come out of the Gulf that you saw before the conflict started. That is what the Iranians have told us that they are going to do. That's what the entire Gulf coalition wants to do as well. But, you know, we don't trust. We verify. We actually look not at people's words, but at people's deeds. You see some people within the Iranian system, of course, talk about tolling. The Iranians have told us they have no plans to toll the Strait of Hormuz. But again, we're going to see what actions actually happen. What's been going on for the past week or so is that the Iranians and the Gulf countries, particularly Oman, have been talking about how to ensure the safe flow of traffic. The one problem, of course, is the Iranians laid a large number of mines at the beginning of the war. And so, what we're really working through now is how you can actually set up a traffic scheme so that the ships that pass can pass through safely. That includes, of course, demining. That also includes a commitment from the Iranians that they're not going to fire at commercial vessels. They're hurting in a big way. They want this thing to be over. The question is whether they're able, their system is able, to give the things that are necessary for us to be happy, for us to feel like we've gotten what we need out of this particular engagement. That is still to be determined, but I do think that we've made some progress over the last few days.

HBO host Bill Maher blasts Democrats for their obsession with race and whiteness and says the party needs to acknowledge and move beyond its “self-loathing.""It's just, it's weird that the far left liberals, the white, they seem to have this self-loathing. That's very important to their identity. That we know we're bad, that's how we know we're good.""Who is the Democrat who's going to stand up and say, I'm a white guy, I'm not a racist because I don't think white people are worse?" Maher said on "Real Time."BILL MAHER: The conventional wisdom is that Democrats walked into a trap, as often happens in the primary. The fringe candidate, the candidate on the far left, in the Republican Party, the far right, wins the primary, because that's who votes in primaries.I don't think that's the case. I think he's probably going to win Michigan, and I'll tell you why, because in the Democratic Party, when you're a person of color, it allows you to be more centrist. A lot of these people, they simply don't trust white people, and I'm talking mostly about the white people.MATT WELCH: Are you saying that he's...MAHER: They don't like -- white people don't like white people.WELCH: Are you saying that he's centrist, though?MAHER: I'm saying it allows you to be more centrist, like Obama was. They just trust you more. I mean, look at this, Francesca Hong. I mentioned in the monologue what she said about whiteness and toxicity. She described her son. Now, she has an ex-husband who is white.Okay, she's Asian. She described his wrestling with, this is her own son, being in proximity to whiteness. Of all the things I think the Democrats have to lose, number one, whiteness. It's not a disease. You look like nice people.You're nice people, right?TARA PALMERI: Yeah, kind of.WELCH: I think you she might be Italian, so.PALMERI: Oh, yeah. White ethnic. White ethnic, I guess.MAHER: Okay, well, I'm sorry, but that does not count as a person of color. That's a person with a good tan. That's a very different thing.[LAUGHTER]MAHER: But this has got to go, I think. I think this is their big flaw.WELCH: I think they're not running on that. Like she didn't run and campaign on abolishing...MAHER: No, but people hear it.WELCH: Sure, because it's in every single one of their tweets from 2020 and 2021. I mean, these grown-ass adults five years ago were saying and doing absolute nonsense, and now they're running in every Democratic race and distancing themselves from their tweets that they made as 35-year-olds.MAHER: Yes. Only in America can you be 35-year-old and be like, oh, I'm sorry, it was a youthful indiscretion. I don't know what I was saying. Yeah. I don't believe any of them. All the DSA people are saying, oh, these things you quoted last week, we don't say. Yeah, you said it. You meant it. Stop it.PALMERI: Yeah, flip-flopping, though. This is as old as politics.MAHER: That's not flip-flopping. That's lying. That's just pretending you don't. I know who you really are, and that's okay. Communism is an economic system. It always leads to a horribly corrupt, violent political system, but it is an economic system.You're allowed to vote for it. I'm not saying make it illegal or anything, but just own up to what it is. That's what it is. When you're talking about seizing the means of production, you are a communist. Okay. Just own it.WELCH: Yeah, I think the interesting twist right now is that they are trying to distance themselves from their tweets of five years ago, because they realize how just completely unpopular it is. And it also reminds us that, what did we do 12 years ago? Suddenly, we decided that biological sex was incredibly fluid, but race was cement.This was bizarre. I mean, race is a much more kind of variable, sometimes even fictitious concept, and yet we're going to die on this hill and then be obsessed over here with everybody's little single drop of whatever background that they have. It's madness.We need to get away from that madness. And these reminders that people were saying this five years ago, they are telling on themselves. A person who thought that five years ago right now is not going to be serious today, I don't think.MAHER: But who is the Democrat who's going to stand up and say, I'm a white guy, I'm not a racist because I don't think white people are worse. We're all the same. Humans are not good people. No. They just aren't. We've all done horrible things of every race.There's slavery. It wasn't invented in 1619. Everybody did it throughout history. They didn't even think it was wrong. In the Bible, there's lots of rules about it. None of them are, don't do it.WELCH: There's an additional burden that this places when you are thinking constantly in terms of race. Who gets off easy in this? White people do, actually.Because we're not obsessed with being white. We don't think about it. It's weird.Anyone who does think about it, we know is weird and we don't want to hang out with them. It's strange. But the burden of it is like there's supposed to be a black way to think or an Asian way to think.It's madness. We should think like individuals and not have to be always self-conscious of how we are different than some majority. That is a stupid way and an anti-American way of looking at things.MAHER: It's just, it's weird that the far left liberals, the white, they seem to have this self-loathing. That's very important to their identity. That we know we're bad, that's how we know we're good.

President Donald Trump talks about midterm elections and Abdul El-Sayed winning the Michigan U.S. Senate Democratic primary.JAKE SHERMAN, PUNCHBOWL NEWS CO-FOUNDER: Your critics on the Hill, Republicans say privately, you don't really care about Congress. We don't care about losing the majority. You'll do your thing either way. You're president. You could do it.PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, it's not right.SHERMAN: Is that not right?TRUMP: It's not. And I'd love to win. I'm fighting hard. I just get back from a trip. I was in California. I was in Nevada, all over the place. No, I'm going to fight. We have a, I don't even call it a mini convention, but it is.SHERMAN: Dallas, right?TRUMP: It's a mini convention in Dallas. That was an idea that I had. I think it's going to be terrific. We're going to fight hard. We raised a lot of money. I raised a lot of money for just this purpose. I'll put in a lot of money.It's very important for the country that we win because you have people getting in office right now who will destroy this country. Your person in Michigan that won the other night.SHERMAN: Abdul El-Sayed.TRUMP: He is a disaster for the country. Got a good line of stuff. I watched him. He speaks well, speaks okay. Seemed better, but I'll tell you what, guys like that get in, they'll destroy this country.

Cartoon by John Deering

For nearly two decades, Pew Research Center surveys delivered the same reliable finding: The world viewed the United States more favorably than China. That era is over. In its July 2026 report, Pew...

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