It's a Numbers Game: The Numbers Behind Texas Political Scandals, Primary Chaos & the Gonzalez Affair Fallout
2/20/202653 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed Human. Hi, I'm Lita, and my business, The Donut Mum, is backed by ComBank.
0:09When we opened, it was just me and my husband, Holly.
0:13No big team, no fancy systems.
0:16You see the big stores and think they've got people for everything.
0:19We've just got each other.
0:21But with ComBank, I know our business payments are protected.
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0:28Business security baked in, no doubt.
0:32Eligibility criteria and T's and C's apply.
0:37Welcome back to a Numbers Game Podcast with Ryan Gerduski.
0:40Thank you all for being here.
0:41Today is an action -packed episode.
0:43I have elections. I have early votes.
0:46I have polls. I have gossip.
0:47The tea is steaming hot right now.
0:50This is going to be a great episode.
0:52Okay, we're going to get to the story about Congressman Tony Gonzalez, who represents South
0:57Texas, and the death of his aide -slash -mistress.
1:02Now, I believe I mentioned it to you on this podcast.
1:04I went back for a few episodes.
1:05I couldn't find it. But I know I've tweeted about it.
1:07I know I've talked about it.
1:08And I heard about it when it first happened.
1:12Tony Gonzalez, for those who don't know, represents South Texas, is very disliked, allegedly, among
1:17colleagues in the Congress. He denied the allegations of this affair.
1:21Evidence is mounting that the affair was real, that he had ghosted his mistress, who
1:27ended up killing herself. It is wild, the claims.
1:30We will get to that during our interview.
1:32So stay tuned for that.
1:33I want to first talk to you guys about the state of polls going into
1:39this midterms. And I want to start about California, a state that I don't cover
1:44a ton. California has something called a jungle primary.
1:48Basically, every party candidate runs in the same primary, and then the top two go
1:53to the general. And, of course, there's universal mail -in ballots.
1:56So mail -in voting, big turnout, takes days and if not weeks to count all
2:01the votes, especially if elections are close in California because it's a third -world country
2:05over there sometimes. But this is the state of the race.
2:08There are 16 Democrats, nine Republicans, a Green Party candidate, a Libertarian, a member of
2:15the Peace and Freedom Party, four independents, and a partridge in a pear tree running
2:20for this June 2nd, 2026 primary.
2:23As I said, the top two go on to November.
2:27Now, on the Democratic side, there are multiple serious candidates running.
2:32There's Xavier Becquera, the state's former attorney general, and he was the HHS secretary under
2:37President Joe Biden. There's Ian Carlton.
2:40He is the former state assembly majority leader.
2:43Matt Mahan is the mayor of San Jose.
2:46He's, I wouldn't say a moderate, but he's more a quality -of -life issue candidate.
2:51He's focused a lot on improving the life of people in the cities.
2:54Katie Porter, a former congressman from Orange County who is insufferable.
2:59She is running, she also ran statewide once and lost.
3:02A former presidential candidate and billionaire named Tom Steyer is running.
3:07He's going to spend a gajillion dollars on this race.
3:11Congressman Eric Slawwell, he was the one involved with the Chinese honeypot, allegedly, where he
3:17was allegedly having an affair with a Chinese spy, possibly receiving something from her, not
3:23material -wise, sexually. Tony Thalman, who is the state superintendent for the public schools, is
3:30running Antonio Villegasso. He is the former mayor of L .A.
3:34and Betty Yee, who's the state's former comptroller.
3:37Those are the serious Democrats running.
3:39That's a huge field, and they are splitting endorsements from unions.
3:43They're splitting endorsements from elected officials.
3:45They're getting different PAC money involved.
3:48And then on the Republican side of this incredibly important race for governor, you have
3:52two candidates, former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
3:58Now, something that is very interesting as you examine the polling is that so far
4:04Democrats are splitting the support in the primary pretty evenly.
4:09The new Emerson poll found that the leading candidate for governor right now in the
4:14first round in the jungle primary is Republican Steve Hilton, with fellow Republican Chad Bianco
4:20and Democrat Eric Slewell tied for second.
4:23Now, remember, top two go to the general.
4:27There was some interesting points in the poll, in the Emerson poll.
4:30I'm not going to harp on this.
4:33I just want to mention them because I found them fascinating in the Emerson poll
4:35that looked at California voters super against new AI data centers being built in the
4:40state. That's not shocking. Gavin Newsom is underwater with California voters.
4:45He's a negative one with California voters.
4:48And independents prefer Trump's immigration policies to Biden's by 12 points in California.
4:54Okay. So far, independents are breaking towards Steve Hilton.
4:58He's getting 22 % of their support.
5:00Republicans are breaking evenly between Steve and Chad Bianco.
5:0522 % of Democrats are completely undecided, which is going to be the game changer
5:10in this election. This race is so neck and neck that while there, it's very
5:17unlikely. I want to emphasize this over and over again.
5:20It is unlikely, but it is a possibility.
5:23there is a shred of light coming through the doorway, that the top two contenders
5:28coming out of this jungle primary are both Republicans.
5:32What does that mean? It means there will be no Democrat on the ballot in
5:37November for governor of California.
5:41Once again, I'm not saying it is happening.
5:44I'm saying that there is a possibility of it happening.
5:48I want to emphasize that because I don't want you to come back and saying,
5:50Ryan Grodowski predicted this insane thing.
5:52I'm not predicting that. I'm saying the possibility is there.
5:56And will it matter for the whole country?
5:59No. Within 90 days, I'm sure Democrats will work to get him in a recall
6:03election. But why that matters for this is that to a lot of Democrats and
6:10Democratic -leaning independents, if there is no Democratic governor at the top of the ticket,
6:16right, which this is the highest thing, there's no U .S.
6:19Senate race, it's just governor, that's the top of the ballot.
6:22If there's no Democrat, many Democrats, Democratic voters will likely not show up in November.
6:29Why vote if there's no Democrat to vote for for governor?
6:35This is very important for Republicans who are in, there's two competitive U .S.
6:40congressional districts in California now because of the redistricting.
6:42There's a slew of state legislative seats that are very competitive.
6:47And in the last election for governor, Republicans got 41 percent in the general election.
6:54Steve Hilton and Bianco, Chad Bianco, need to basically split 20 to 21 percent between
7:00the two of them. And Democrats need to split the rest of the vote fairly
7:03evenly. And they have enough big contenders to make that happen.
7:08Enough people with big egos and big wallets to make that happen.
7:13And I cannot emphasize it enough to Republicans in California.
7:17Your election in June matters more than your election in November.
7:22If you don't know what to do because you're angry about the redistricting and California
7:26sucks and all the rest of it and you're angry, make sure every person you
7:30know votes evenly for Chad and Steve.
7:34If Republicans sit there and win this June election and come out with the top
7:39two, it will mean a lot for Republicans down ballot.
7:43It is the sleeper race of the summer.
7:46It is so important that they have high turnout, large show up.
7:50Democrats will split the vote evenly, but there's a lot of money going around a
7:53lot of attacks against Slowell, who is the leading Democrat.
7:56And you have the possibility of just two Republicans.
7:59OK, next up is the governor's race in Oregon.
8:02I have not covered this, but I got a listener, Jonathan, who's emailed me about
8:05this a couple of weeks ago, and I never could give him any information because
8:09there was no information to give him.
8:10So I'm going to answer your email now, Jonathan.
8:12There was a finally a poll done.
8:14It was by a Democratic firm called FM3.
8:17I don't know their reputation super well, so I can't say if they're super accurate.
8:21They found that Democrat Tina Koteca, the incumbent governor, is leading likely Republican challenger Christina
8:28Drazen by five points. That's not much, but I am not optimistic because Christina, who
8:34lost the governor's election in 2022 only by three points, only received 43 % of
8:40the vote. Why did she get that little and still only lose by three?
8:43Because there was a third -party progressive running with 9 % of the vote.
8:46In the last three consecutive governor elections in Oregon, the Republican has received 43 %
8:54of the vote. And even though Drazen earned enough votes to win the governor's election
8:58and many previous election, if the Republican had as many votes as she had, it
9:02wasn't enough to even get her over 45%.
9:04That's why I don't know if she could do it now, especially in a state
9:08that barely moved in the last election towards Trump.
9:11It moved less than the national average.
9:12It only moved two points towards Trump.
9:14I'm flipping just one county, so it's not looking good there.
9:17Voter registration's not looking good there for Republicans, but that is what it is.
9:21Next up, New Hampshire. I know some people may not, you know, think about New
9:25Hampshire much. It's a small state.
9:26They went for Kamala Harris barely.
9:28It was the biggest swing state that voted for Kamala as far as voting for
9:33Trump, which all the other big swing states did.
9:34But New Hampshire, despite voting for Democrats and having all Democrats represent them federally, is
9:40the most Republican it's been locally in the state since the Tea Party wave in
9:452010. Republicans have a 39 -seat lead in the state house.
9:49You're like, 39 in such a small state?
9:51New Hampshire has 400 seats in the state house representatives.
9:55I think it's like the fifth biggest in the world.
9:57And it's New Hampshire. They represent like 2 ,000 people.
9:59They all get paid 100 bucks a year.
10:01But they have that big, a decent lead in the New Hampshire state house.
10:05They have a super majority in the New Hampshire state Senate.
10:07They have the governor's mansion and four of the five executive council seats.
10:12So Republicans locally are doing very well.
10:14Early polling is out. And Governor Kelly Ayotte, the Republican governor, has a very decisive
10:21double digit lead against her likely Democratic challenger.
10:26Since that poll came out, I will say there was a more serious challenger, not
10:29a huge challenger, but another Democrat has also jumped in.
10:31But her lead is massive.
10:34Who knows if it will affect the open Senate seat in the state as well.
10:38While we're talking about New England, let's talk about Susan Collins up in Maine.
10:43She's trying, once again, to prove that she is unsinkable.
10:46Well, I have to tell you, we are being starved for polls over in the
10:50Democratic side. the aisle. There's a big, contentious Democratic primary, and there is no polling
10:54coming out. I've seen old polls from two or three months ago finding that the
10:58progressive candidate has a 15 -point lead or the incumbent governor has a 10 -point
11:02lead. A new Fabrizio Lee poll, which is the president's pollster.
11:07Tony Fabrizio is a brilliant pollster.
11:09He's found that in the current election, Senator Susan Collins has a one -point lead
11:14against each candidate. Now, I will remind you, a Democratic internal poll came out months
11:20ago and found that she had a three -point lead in the ranked choice voting.
11:24Maine has a stupid form of election called ranked choice voting, like some other states
11:27do, and that she has a lead in that primary, in that election as well,
11:32sorry, for that pollster. The Democratic pollster found her with a three -point lead against
11:35the governor and tied amongst the progressive.
11:37Fabrizio finds her with a one -point lead with both.
11:39Not terrible, but I want to point out Maine is a very difficult state to
11:43poll. In 2020, Susan Collins was down in 33 of 34 consecutive polls.
11:49She was as low as the low 40s in some polls, and she clobbered the
11:54Democrats with a nine -point lead.
11:56So we'll see if she's still unsinkable.
11:58Susan Collins also, unlike a lot of electeds who represent states of the opposite party,
12:04she's had very tough election cycles.
12:06She ran in 2020 with the president on top of the ticket.
12:09She ran in 2008 with Obama on top of the ticket.
12:12She's had tough election cycles that she's proven to be victorious in.
12:15So we'll see if she can do it, and a lot will depend on who
12:20polls out in the primary.
12:21Two more elections I want to get to, two more polling elections.
12:24I'm sorry, one more polling election and then an actual election.
12:26One is an Arizona center polling found incumbent Democrat Katie Hobbs holding a sizable lead
12:32against Republican Andy Biggs for the governor's race.
12:34She's a nine -point lead in Arizona.
12:37Andy Biggs is the presumptive nominee since the other major candidate dropped out.
12:42There's another candidate who's a member of Congress, but Andy Biggs is a very, very
12:45large lead in the primary and is likely the nominee.
12:48But let's do a lot for the general.
12:49Okay, we are done with polling.
12:51Now I want to talk about an actual election going on right now, and that
12:55is in the Lone Star State of Texas.
12:58First of all, turnout is gangbusters in the early voting.
13:02We are blowing past 2022 numbers by lightning speed.
13:07Travis County, which is where Austin is, is up 258 % in the early voting
13:12compared to 2022. Dallas up 234%.
13:17Tarrant County, where Fort Worth is, up 212%.
13:20Williamson County, up 212%. And Democrats are turning out in big numbers for this primary.
13:27They are jacked up. They are gin up.
13:29They are going to the polls.
13:30Currently, they lead in eight of the top 11 counties in the first two days
13:35of early voting. Republicans are outvoting Democrat in just Collins, Denton, and Montgomery County.
13:40This is good for Democrats, but it's especially good for Jasmine Crockett, because according to
13:45Zachary Danini, who I've had on this podcast many times, he's a brilliant kid from
13:48Yale. He said that black turnout in Dallas is experiencing super charged vote, which it
13:55doesn't usually do in the primary vote.
13:57Black voters usually vote closer towards election day.
14:00The fact that she is getting these voters out now is very good for her.
14:06It's not definitive that she's going to win everything that she's going to win this
14:10election, but she is doing what she needs to do in this early surge.
14:15And I think Democrats are a little worried by the fact that she may be
14:18the nominee because she's polling worse in the general election.
14:21I'm telling all my Republican friends, if you don't like Cornyn and you don't like
14:24Ken Paxton, go vote for Jasmine Crockett.
14:27Let's get this woman over the finish line, Republicans.
14:29We could all get in this together.
14:32Okay. And if you don't know, by the way, there's another candidate on the Republican
14:36side named Wesley Hunt. He's a perfectly fine person.
14:38I don't mean to dismiss him, but he's, and he could make it.
14:40He could make it. The polls on the Republican side are very tight.
14:44No matter what, I can definitively say one thing.
14:47There will be a runoff on the Republican side between two of the three candidates
14:52running on the Republican side of the aisle for Texas Senator.
14:55There's no way that it's not going to go to a runoff.
14:57And we will have more of an answer what happens, you know, if this run,
15:02when this runoff happens, the best thing that could happen to the establishment Republican party
15:06right now is if it's either Ken Paxton and Wesley Hunt or Wesley Hunt and
15:12John Cornyn. I don't think Cornyn can beat, can beat Paxton in a runoff.
15:17Wesley Hunt is much more well suited, I think, for the temperament of a lot
15:23of voters than Ken Paxton is.
15:24And he doesn't have the squishiness that John Cornyn does.
15:28So we'll see. We'll see if he ends up really making it.
15:32But that's what I think they are, they're up to right now.
15:36Okay. We are going to talk about the very entrenched, embattled, controversial Congressman Tony Gonzalez,
15:43the affair, the suicide, the death of his aide.
15:47It's all coming up now.
15:49Stay tuned. Hi, I'm Lita.
15:53And my business, the Donut Mum, is backed by ComBank.
15:57When we opened, it was just me and my husband, Holly.
16:00No big team, no fancy systems.
16:03You see the big stores and think they've got people for everything.
16:06We've just got each other.
16:08But with ComBank, I know our business payments are protected.
16:12That matters because this place is everything to us.
16:15Business security baked in. No doubt.
16:19Eligibility criteria and taste and taste apply.
16:22Tony Ortiz is the founder and writer for one of the best political gossip websites
16:26on the planet, Current Revolt.
16:28He was, I think you were the first journalist to even start breaking this story.
16:32You were definitely the first one to go in depth on the story.
16:34And I want to start, it's about Tony Gonzalez, Congressman Tony Gonzalez from South Texas.
16:39He represents the largest area stretching from to the U .S.-Mexico border in the country.
16:43And on September 14th, his aide, Regina Santos Aviles, I think I'm pronouncing her name
16:50correctly, she died, she tragically died by setting herself on fire.
16:56Take it from there, Tony.
16:58What happened in the immediate aftermath?
17:01What accusations were going about?
17:03How did the congressman respond to her sudden passing?
17:07Yeah, so tragic story, right?
17:09You know, it all started when I got the lead that this had happened.
17:13And we were the first ones to cover it, essentially reporting that, you know, this
17:17staffer had committed suicide. It was via self -immolation, so via fire, right?
17:23Which is a horrible, horrible way to die.
17:26And that there was an alleged affair between her and her boss, which is Tony
17:31Gonzalez. We were, again, we were the first report on it.
17:35And it was very interesting how it all played out.
17:38The mother completely denied not only the affair, but also denied that it was a
17:44suicide. The mother claimed it was an accident, which, you know, if you know anything
17:48about dying from lighting yourself on fire, it's kind of hard to do accidents.
17:53You can burn yourself, right?
17:54There's always plenty of burning accidents.
17:56I don't mean to laugh, but it is when you say it like that.
17:57It is, right? It just doesn't, it doesn't add up, right?
17:59And so, like, quite literally, like, imagine that somebody is giving you a lot of
18:04money to kill yourself with fire via just what's available in your backyard, right?
18:10Because that's where it happened.
18:11It happened in your backyard.
18:12It's not, and it's not like you can just light a match and throw it
18:15on yourself. That would not be, you need, you need something to keep the flame
18:19going. You need gasoline or alcohol.
18:22You need an accelerator. You can't just light yourself on fire by dropping a lighter
18:25or a match on yourself.
18:26Especially in like a backyard in the middle of the night.
18:29So, it just didn't add up.
18:30And, you know, I later learned that the mother was very Catholic.
18:33So, this is a reason to kind of maybe deny a suicide.
18:37And I understand it. I wasn't about to press that.
18:40But, you know, the way that it played out from beginning to end, and again,
18:45these are allegations. This hasn't 100 % been proven as far as the timeline.
18:50But essentially, what I've been told and what is alleged is that the daughter was,
18:55the woman, the woman, the staffer, Regina, was upset about the split between her husband
19:00and herself, right? She had been having, her husband had discovered.
19:04She was married at the time of the affair.
19:06She was married with a child.
19:07With a child. And the husband had discovered this affair.
19:11They had split. And they were living separately.
19:13And they were kind of sharing custody with their younger child.
19:17And it was, there, it was the husband's week to have the son.
19:23Regina was, and again, again, alleged, but she was upset.
19:26And essentially, not getting too much in gritty details had kind of threatened that, hey,
19:31she was going to commit suicide.
19:32The husband had notified Regina's mother, hey, your daughter's in a bad predicament right now.
19:38And, you know, you need to go get an eye, get a look at her.
19:42Mother rushed to the house.
19:44Regina was covered in gasoline.
19:46And something I didn't know, and maybe a lot of people know, but I didn't
19:49know, is that gasoline itself is inflammable.
19:51It's the fumes that are flammable.
19:54And I think that Regina didn't realize that.
19:56So she's holding this lighter.
19:57She's waving it around. She's thinking that, well, it needs to touch me in order
20:01to actually do anything. And I hate to laugh, but that's just, it's just so
20:05shocking. And then the vapors caught the flame.
20:09So the mother was present when she lit herself on fire?
20:12Correct. And when firefighters arrived on scene, the mother had hosed her down.
20:17She got the, you know, she got the garden hose and was trying to put
20:21the fire out. And Regina initially survived those burns.
20:25It wasn't an instant death, but I think it was anywhere between 10 to 12
20:28hours later that Regina sadly passed away from her injuries.
20:32Okay. You spoke to the husband, I know, immediately afterwards.
20:35What was his reaction to everything?
20:38You know, I, um, it doesn't feel good to call somebody about a story, especially
20:44for a loved one right after that.
20:46But I was trying to be as sensitive to the issue as possible.
20:50And I said, look, like, I believe that your wife's story deserves to be told.
20:54And, you know, these allegations that your, uh, that your, your wife had had an
20:58affair with her boss. And I wanted to talk to you about that.
21:01And he did not deny anything.
21:03He just said he wasn't ready to talk about it at that time.
21:06Okay. What was Tony Gonzalez's reaction when this happened?
21:10And the initial reports of an affair were going on?
21:13Yeah. I had reached out to his office about, uh, for comment, uh, about the,
21:17about the, the, the death and as well as the alleged affair.
21:21Um, there was basically just your typical political talking points where like, Hey, she was
21:25a great staffer. She did really great work and, uh, we're praying for her family,
21:29something to that effect. That was it.
21:31There was no, he didn't have the affair though.
21:33Not initially. Now, fast forward to, uh, an event called Tribfest that we have in
21:38Austin every year. Um, Bayless Wagner, who was a reporter that ended up following very
21:42heavily up on the story.
21:44Um, quite literally in front of me, she had a.
21:46approached the congressman and said, hey, you know, I want to talk to you about
21:49this affair and the and the allegations.
21:51And he categorically denied everything.
21:53He said this allegations are all false.
21:56And so, you know, it's kind of hard to argue with that.
21:59He's just flat out said there was no he was denied the affair, denied anything
22:02else associated with that. And then fast forward to what broke recently that actually showed
22:10there was an affair. Well, it's twofold, right?
22:13And this is doubly bad for Gonzalez.
22:16Not only did a staffer come forward.
22:18So initially, a staffer came forward, a former staffer of Gonzalez who had iMessages, text
22:22messages between himself and Regina.
22:25And Regina flat out admits, I had an affair with our boss, which is Tony
22:29Gonzalez. And, you know, just saying that she had an affair going on and alleging
22:35that Gonzalez pretty much just once like kind of ghosted her once this affair had
22:41gone on long enough, he just was done with it, right?
22:43He was just. And was she still employed when he ghosted her?
22:47That's up for debate. I think that's up to question right now.
22:50But I think I think that was the case because that that's a very awkward
22:54office when you're right. I mean, just an affair happening in the office is awkward
22:58as it is, and especially one that, according to the staffer, everybody knew about everybody
23:03in the office going on.
23:05Right. So what was the other thing that dropped?
23:08Well, this is even worse.
23:09The husband finally went forward and said he had, I think it was somewhere like
23:1330 ,000 text messages between Regina, his wife, and Tony Gonzalez.
23:19And he flat out said, yeah, I discovered that she was having an affair.
23:23And he said that, you know, they kind of black sheeped her where, you know,
23:27he was having this affair with her.
23:29And then he kind of just like, just dumped her and was like, no, I
23:32want nothing to do with you.
23:33And this caused her to be really unstable because, you know, I can understand this.
23:38Well, she lost her marriage, her son.
23:40I mean, I, yeah, I understand why you and her lover, right.
23:42And her lover and probably her job too.
23:45Yeah. Right. And so working at the same time.
23:48Yeah. I can imagine don't shit where you eat kids.
23:50It's never worth it. But that is, um, that is, yeah, that's crazy.
23:55Okay. So I know he got an endorsement pulled from him from a major newspaper.
24:01Where, what has the Texas politicos now that this is clear, Tony, Tony Gonzalez, Tony,
24:08Tony Gonzalez was having an affair with the staff or there's a lot of proven
24:12evidence. She killed herself after he ghosted her.
24:15What is the Texas Republican party talking about?
24:18I know he lost an endorsement from a major newspaper there.
24:21Is there, and he has a primary challenge.
24:23The primary is only a few weeks away.
24:25What are people talking about in South Texas now?
24:28Yeah. So this is major news, right?
24:30His primary opponent is, um, Brandon Herrera, who's a YouTuber, right.
24:33And, uh, very successful. He's a wild character on his own.
24:36I like him. He's, he's very funny.
24:38He's interesting, but yeah, he's got that political that you would imagine.
24:42You'd not, you wouldn't, if you ask Grok to make you an image of a
24:44candidate, it would never come up Brandon Herrera.
24:47I'll just say that. Right.
24:48And if he were to win, I think he may be the first YouTuber elected
24:51official, um, which is kind of interesting, but, um, yeah, that's his primary opponent.
24:56And for, for, for background, uh, this is not Herrera's first swing at Gonzalez.
25:01He went after him last election and I think he was within less than 500
25:06votes of action. Yeah. He came very close.
25:08And that was without this scandal, right?
25:09So now you've got this scandal.
25:10So what are people talking about?
25:12So, you know, this is, this has made major news.
25:15People are talking about it.
25:16You know, uh, politicians and major figures are kind of keeping quiet about it.
25:21Gonzalez did get the Trump endorsement, which is really disappointing.
25:24You know, love Donald Trump.
25:25He got it before all this news broke.
25:28Right. Yeah. And president Trump has not pulled that endorsement.
25:32I saw some tweets by some DC, uh, uh, journalists that were saying that they're
25:37hearing that everybody's kind of having a holding pattern, kind of waiting to see how
25:41everything plays out. But that was before the husband came forward.
25:45So now that the husbands came forward, you've got a Stafford, you've got a husband
25:48and with a lot of text messages and, you know, a lot of evidence and
25:52Gonzalez is he's, he's throwing it back at Herrera.
25:56He's saying that Herrera is capitalizing on this and using it for political gain.
26:00And he's trying to tweet his way through it.
26:02I mean, it was kind of embarrassing.
26:03This, this whole scandal came out and Gonzalez, the very next tweet was happy lunar
26:07new year with a, with a, it's the year of the fire horse fire.
26:12Cause you know, people in South Texas, there's so many people observing Chinese new years
26:15in South Texas. Right. Um, this is wild though, that he is, that he's just
26:21trying to tweet his way through it and hope it doesn't, doesn't get to him.
26:24And I mean, he's, he's, he's incredibly unpopular among Texas Republicans, very famously back in
26:322020, this is one to my audience and Tony probably knows the story in 2024,
26:35when Texas Republicans were, or probably before then rather, uh, Texas Republicans were supporting this
26:41bill for an immigration. It was before Biden was president and Tony was the sole,
26:48and they needed every Republican to support it because the margins were so tight.
26:51And Tony was the sole Texas delegate to oppose it.
26:54And allegedly when they got a meeting of the Texas delegation, he called them all
26:58racist for supporting an immigration enforcement bill.
27:02Um, it was definitely before 2024.
27:04It was like 2022, 2023.
27:06And there is a lot of bad blood allegedly between members of the delegation and
27:11Tony Ortiz and they would not be, not 20 or 20, sorry.
27:14Tony Gonzalez, and they would not be so upset to see him go.
27:19Yeah, and I was genuinely pretty shocked at the Trump endorsement.
27:23Although, you know, President Trump, his endorsements are not always as great as they should
27:28be. But we'll see what ends up happening.
27:31I'm curious if this gets more coverage and more news, if Trump pulls the endorsement,
27:37or how this affects Gonzalez's numbers.
27:40Again, last cycle, Gonzalez almost lost by 400, Herrera almost beat Gonzalez by like 400
27:46or 500 votes. Now you've got this huge scandal.
27:49Herrera's putting, in my opinion, a little more work into it.
27:51He's got a little more name ID.
27:53So Gonzalez may actually be in trouble.
27:54Probably running a more professional campaign, yeah.
27:56Okay, speaking of the Trump endorsement, there's two big other Republicans running, or three rather,
28:02that do not have the Trump endorsement.
28:04I want to go through them quickly.
28:05One is Dan Crenshaw, the congressman.
28:08And he is the sole incumbent in Texas to not get a Trump endorsement.
28:13He's a very good fundraiser.
28:15In my opinion, he's actually a very good speaker, too, in the media.
28:17I don't always agree with him, but he does his job well.
28:21Is there a real chance Crenshaw, who went to a runoff last time, he didn't
28:25even win his primary outright last time, and Trump was on the ballot, so it
28:29turned out a lot more MAGA people.
28:30Is there any real push to unseat Crenshaw this time?
28:35Yeah, so his challenger is Steve Toth, who's a former state representative.
28:39Toth is well -loved in the district.
28:41He's got a lot of name ID.
28:43He's substantially older than Crenshaw, but, you know, he's been around.
28:46And I am told by people in the area and consultants and everybody kind of
28:52surrounding both campaigns that there is genuine concern.
28:55It's kind of up in the air.
28:57This is, I think, Crenshaw's first real serious opponent and potential chance of losing.
29:02And Crenshaw's nervous. I mean, we did an article the other day.
29:05It was kind of funny.
29:06Crenshaw had hired an SEO company to do some SEO work.
29:09I think they paid them somewhere between $7 ,000 or less.
29:14And we caught the owner of the SEO company has a Wikipedia contributor account, and
29:21she was going in and making negative changes to Steve Toth's Wikipedia page and positive
29:28changes to Dan Crenshaw's campaign, which is not illegal, but it's generally kind of slimy.
29:33A lot of people do that kind of stuff.
29:35Yeah, so there's definitely concern there.
29:37Yeah, that's interesting. I mean, I will tell you, I went to an event in
29:412024. It was a social event.
29:45It wasn't a fundraiser with a Republican member of Congress in Texas.
29:49And a donor walked up to him and said, I will give you a million
29:51dollars to find someone to be Dan Crenshaw.
29:54And the congressman said, if you make it two million, I'll find someone with no
29:58eyes instead of just one.
30:03So anyway, the other person who did not get a Trump endorsement that surprised a
30:09lot of people is the very, very messy former congressman, Mayra Flores.
30:15She is running for, I think, her fourth run.
30:17She won a special in South Texas.
30:19Then she lost her reelection and she lost the third time.
30:22This is her fourth time.
30:23And finally, the Trump team cut her loose, endorsed her opponent in the primary.
30:30She is a very messy woman.
30:34Allegedly. Let's go to first.
30:36What is going on with her race before I get into all the alleged?
30:40Yeah, so, you know, Trump has endorsed her opponent, another Flores, Eric Flores, right, in
30:46that primary. She's, yeah, she's got a lot of problems, right?
30:50There's the alleged and, again, alleged affair between her and Corey Mills in Florida, right?
30:55That's interesting. We did a report the other day.
30:58We had found out that she had booked a couple flights to Florida.
31:01And then we've got a photo of her coming back from the airport with Disney
31:07bags, and she had expensed this trip to Disney Resort bags, and she had expensed
31:12this trip, plus a Disney hotel to her campaign report.
31:17She has got a substantial amount of friends and family and family's boyfriends on her
31:23campaign account. She is taking a substantial salary.
31:26She's taking a salary. That's what I'm going to say.
31:28It's so rare for a congressional candidate to take a salary, but she is taking
31:31a salary from donations. I literally, I probably, she's probably one of three I've ever
31:36heard of even doing this.
31:38Yeah, and a substantial amount, right?
31:40And, you know, we've kind of coined the term candidate as a career, and that's
31:43kind of what she's turned her race into.
31:45And she's faced a lot of embarrassing little mini scandals.
31:49Grubgate was a big one, I think, like a year or two years ago, where,
31:52you know, she loved, previously loved to post photos of her meals on social media.
31:57Things she had cooked and things she had going on.
32:00Millennials can be so embarrassing sometimes.
32:02Well, it gets much worse than that.
32:03Like, my generation is so embarrassing.
32:04Go ahead, yeah. It gets much worse than that.
32:07We had thrown her social media food pictures in reverse image search, and we determined
32:12that almost all of them she had, like, taken from other web pages and other
32:17things. She was passing them off as her own.
32:19In one case, she had taken food that wasn't even Latin American, and she passed
32:25it off as Latin American dish, claiming that she had cooked it.
32:28And she had stolen it from a Facebook page from, like, five, six years ago.
32:33It was super embarrassing. And even the mainstream media covered it, and it was called
32:37Grubgate. It was pretty weird.
32:38What is so embarrassing? That's so weird.
32:41Why would you... No one cares what your food intake.
32:43That's so weird. Allegedly, she was having this long -standing affair with Congressman Corey Mills
32:50while he was allegedly married.
32:52And once again, allegedly, that big fight that happened in Corey Mills' house between him
32:59and his girlfriend where the cops were called, that is because allegedly the girlfriend came
33:05home and Myra was there.
33:07And also, Myra allegedly went to the RNC with Corey, who had three hotel rooms,
33:14allegedly, for a different girl each night.
33:17None of them knew about each other.
33:19Messiest people on the planet.
33:22And Myra is crazy. I have so many stories about her and Corey, so many
33:29stories about her and Corey, and her divorce, too, and how insane that was.
33:33Because her ex -husband could come out with a real, real page -turner.
33:39Okay, last person I want to talk about when it comes to the Republican side.
33:42I want to ask about Jasmine Crockett in a second.
33:44But the last person I want to talk about is the incumbent Senator John Cornyn,
33:47who's in the fight for his life against both Ken Paxton and Wesley Hunt.
33:52Trump said he endorsed all three of them.
33:54He basically said, I endorse everybody.
33:57I guess a way to safeguard your win rate, you're always going to come ahead.
34:03But John Cornyn is really struggling, and donors are even thinking about cutting him loosing.
34:08It's just too expensive to keep him going, because he can come out in the
34:12top two of a runoff, but I don't see a single poll where he ends
34:15up winning a runoff. He's had a lot of scandals recently, too, and unfortunately, not
34:21of his own fault. His comms director recently faced a lot of heat because he
34:26had, quote -unquote, doxed Wesley Hunt.
34:29He had published Wesley Hunt's voter record and DD -214s and didn't redact any information.
34:35It had the last four of his social, had his date of birth.
34:38It had his full address on there.
34:40And Congressman Hunt filed a police report against that staffer.
34:45And, you know, it'd be different if...
34:47Is this when Ken Paxton tweeted Wesley Hunt saying, we're going to get to the
34:50bottom of this? Yes, it was very recent.
34:52I think it was last week.
34:53And, you know, it'd be different if Senator Cornyn had distanced himself for this or
34:57apologized for it. But he doubled down and he defended the staffer and was like,
35:01this is public info. And it's not a good look.
35:04People don't like that sort of thing.
35:06And, you know, Cornyn's always been labeled as kind of the, quote -unquote, rhino.
35:09And Ken Paxton is well -loved, beloved by a lot of the right here in
35:14Texas as he's been a phenomenal attorney general.
35:17That's not to say that Ken Paxton hasn't had his own slew of scandals himself.
35:20Can I tell you a Ken Paxton story?
35:22I was at an event in Texas maybe two weeks ago.
35:25I flew in and flew out, so I wasn't there for long, so I didn't
35:27see anybody. So I didn't call any friends.
35:29But I met the ex -wife, Ken Paxton's ex -wife, who's a state senator in
35:34Texas. And it was a public event.
35:38There were a lot of people there.
35:39It was a private event, rather.
35:40There was a lot of people there, nonetheless.
35:42And not the ex -wife, but her staff were speaking so openly about Ken Paxton
35:47in a way that I, who loved a little bit of drama, felt awkward and
35:52kept on trying to change the conversation to about school boards or something else.
35:58And I said, yeah, I've never met Attorney General Paxton.
36:01I've tried to meet him, but he was in Italy, I think, when I had
36:04the meeting time. And the staffer said, allegedly, the staffer said, yeah, with his mistress,
36:08with his girlfriend. And when on, I mean, every four - and five -letter word
36:14you could think of came out of their mouth to discuss Ken Paxton.
36:17It was, and at the end, I said, it was like, okay, well, lovely meeting,
36:21everybody. And they were like, don't worry, God will make sure everything gets right with
36:27him. I mean, they, the, I did not know how bad the blood was between
36:32him and his ex -wife or soon -to -be ex -wife.
36:35I don't know if they actually got divorced yet, but it was bad.
36:38Like, bad, bad, bad. And speaking very openly where people could hear about how nasty
36:44their marriage towards the end and their divorce was.
36:46And they had four children together.
36:47I don't know if the kids are out campaigning with Ken Paxton.
36:50I haven't seen them, but they, no, they're not.
36:51No, they're not. I don't, I, they, he, allegedly, I mean, I don't say it,
36:56but it's, he did their mom wrong.
36:58So I could see, I could see why they're not out there.
37:02And everyone in Texas always says the same thing to me.
37:05They say, you know, Ken's a crook, but he's our crook.
37:07Yeah, and here's the thing.
37:08Like when you say did it wrong, like you're, you couldn't be more, uh, right.
37:12I mean, you know, he had had that affair with the first woman and it
37:16became public. And, uh, to my knowledge, and again, all alleged, this is all alleged.
37:21Everything we're talking about is, um, to my knowledge, she kind of forgave him.
37:25Right. And they went to couples counseling together and, you know, it was very embarrassing
37:29because the staff was covered.
37:30His own staff was covering for him and there was photos.
37:33I mean, I've got a photo of this woman in lingerie in a hotel room.
37:38I'm like, it's just not, it's not a good look.
37:40Right. And, uh, you know, and then, and then he allegedly had an affair with
37:44the exact same woman. So it happened again.
37:47Right. And then the most recent one is this affair with, uh, well, I guess
37:51it's no longer an affair now, but with this Christian influencer.
37:54And that's, what's really crazy.
37:55I crack up because this Christian influencer is on her Instagram posting stories about God
37:59and Jesus. And, you know, God makes the greatest decisions and all this stuff.
38:03And I'm like, man, you, you, you slept with a married man.
38:06This is wild. Right. And, you know, Angela.
38:09paxton that is is now well soon to be ex -wife like she's out there
38:13and you could tell she's she's dressing a little bit nicer she's carrying herself a
38:17little bit more confidently the makeup looks a little more she was lovely i mean
38:20when i met her she was a very nice very nice he wasn't doing the
38:23bashing mode it was the staff talking but they all said if you want to
38:26she'll talk about and i was like i do not want this is getting this
38:29is like hearing mom and mom bash dad in front of me and i'm getting
38:32i'm getting ptsd right now so i need to stop this conversation absolutely so okay
38:37last thing is what's going on with the democrats jasmine crockett's campaign and her associates
38:42are i mean they're blatantly accusing the other democrat of being a racist they're saying
38:48that he's a racist and that he's been racial against blacks um in texas black
38:52turnout is through the roof right now in dallas i think it's a little lagging
38:56in houston but in dallas it's very high she came out with kelly roland's of
39:00destiny child fame to campaign for her she is pulling out the stops for millennial
39:05women and gen x women especially black women and saying now's our time like support
39:10me yeah they they tried manufacturing this uh this racism claim and it didn't really
39:15hit uh a a democrat or liberal influencer came out and alleged that uh james
39:22tallarico had had a conversation with her and said something along the lines that like
39:26colin allred was a disappointing black man colin allred was the democratic nominee last time
39:31in first senate by the way okay right and um you know colin allred posted
39:36a video and he always posts these social media videos of him in like a
39:39tank top in front of his garage gym workout session and he had he kind
39:43of had been attacking tallarico and the uh and jasmine crockett also tried to capitalize
39:48it and it didn't like i don't think i don't think it worked uh democrats
39:52didn't buy it and normally they do but this inner party accusations of racism it
39:57just doesn't work as well as like accusing a republican of being racist right and
40:01democrats have maybe discovered this this formula of they need to run like a decent
40:07looking white dude or at least a normal white guy to win races in texas
40:11that's how they got sd9 um and it didn't land so now you've got this
40:16this tallarico is attempting to get more name id um and he you have this
40:22another what i would call manufactured controversy where he was on the today show with
40:26john stewart and um i think it's is it today show i don't even watch
40:31john stewart no john stewart's on john stewart has a podcast okay he was on
40:35late night with stephen colbert stephen colbert see this is this shows you how i
40:39don't watch these these people i don't know who watches this today's show is the
40:42morning whatever some boomer stuff right and so anyway colbert claimed that he had to
40:48take or he wasn't able to to broadcast his interview with tallarico because the fcc
40:53had warned them about this and cbs came out and claimed that uh colbert was
40:58not telling the truth on this and so there's a lot of this manufactured fighting
41:01but he raised a lot of money oh he raised a ton of money and
41:04the controversy the democrats i was reading the reddit liberal forums and they were like
41:07oh they're trying to silence tallarico because he's the greatest threat to republicans and they're
41:12not half wrong about that i i democrat or republicans in texas are more concerned
41:17about a tallarico run than they are about crockett republicans are praying including myself that
41:22that crockett wins because it's not only is it entertaining but she doesn't really have
41:25a real serious chance of winning yeah i have listen i have said that jasmine
41:29crockett is a middle -aged woman who is faking her black sense i have said
41:33that she is the dime store cardi b i have said many things of jasmine
41:36crockett but let me tell you if you're a republican and you don't like ken
41:40paxton and you don't know who wesley hunt is and you know like john cornyn
41:43let's vote for our girl jasmine crockett i've gotten at least four republicans to vote
41:48for jasmine crockett in this primary i'm like guys just don't worry about the republican
41:52line get out there make sure jasmine crockett pulls over the finish line um anyone
41:56else that i've missed by the way tony that it's it's that's stirring right now
42:00in texas that's worth noting about yeah our attorney general race is pretty heated we've
42:04got actually we've cut a decent lineup um the good news if you're a texan
42:09is that the attorney general the the the candidates in the attorney general's race are
42:12all pretty decent they're all good we've got chip roy we've got maize middleton we've
42:16got aaron rights and we got joan huffman and they're all pretty great but they're
42:21battling it out pretty hardcore um paxton's endorsed era rights is a former staffer of
42:25his i know him yeah yeah um you know he's really popular on the internet
42:30the polls i haven't i haven't seen and there's been a lot of polls i
42:32haven't seen a single poll of him polling any anything higher than five or six
42:36percent um but on twitter you'd think the guy if if if elections were run
42:40on twitter .com you would already have it in the back where is ted cruz
42:44put his wait uh ted cruz's endorsed chip roy oh okay ted cruz's listen ted
42:50cruz's name id in texas means a lot it pulls a lot of support all
42:54right tony where people go to get the best political gossip website on the internet
42:58where people go to read your stuff if you're a texan and you love political
43:01gossip you have to subscribe to current revolt .com or on twitter at current revolt
43:06tony thanks for coming on this podcast thanks for having me hi i'm lita and
43:12my husband and i run the donut mom we're backed by com bank so every
43:16payment's protected we have the same smart security as the big stores business security baked
43:22in no doubt eligibility criteria and t's and c's apply now it's time for the
43:28ask me anything segment if you want any part of the ask me anything segment
43:31email me ryan at numbersgamepodcast .com ryan at numbers plural numbersgamepodcast .com first you mail
43:37comes from Joseph. He said, I'm worried Republicans are in for a big blowout in
43:41the midterms. Trump keeps endorsing bad candidates, and we haven't done enough to address the
43:44economy. Is cost of living and caved into the demands of immigration?
43:48How bad do you think it will be, Joseph?
43:50I think the economy is a big part of it.
43:52I know that Susie Wilds had a meeting.
43:55This was reported by, I think it was Politico.
43:58I believe it was Politico.
44:01Susie Wilds had a meeting with Tony Fabrizio, the pollster for the president, and members
44:05of Congress and candidates. And they emphasize that they need to get something done on
44:11healthcare, on the economy, and emphasize tax cuts and bring that up.
44:15I think that the economy is really where it is.
44:19And it's not because the economy is doing so badly.
44:22In some areas of the country, it's not doing great.
44:24But it's because anxiety over the country is real.
44:27And feelings, and I'm sorry about Ben Shapiro, but I like Ben a lot.
44:31Feelings do matter more than facts sometimes.
44:34I try to dismiss that in this podcast.
44:36I try to give you guys facts and numbers.
44:38But feelings matter a lot.
44:41And voters do feel anxious, whether we like that or not.
44:46And it's just a natural flip, though.
44:49This is what happens all the time.
44:51It shouldn't be this shocking lesson is that, oh, we're going to lose the house.
44:57This always happens. Like, this literally always happens.
45:01Obviously, redistricting adds a lot to this as far as how many seats are going
45:04to go which way. But the number of swing seats is much smaller than it
45:09ever was before. So the chance of Democrats getting 50 seats or 40 seats, whatever,
45:16very, very minimal to non -existent.
45:18Keep that in mind. On both sides of the aisle, the amount where people could
45:22swing is very, very, very small.
45:25There's actually more Democrats in swing districts than there are Republicans in the case of
45:29the next election. Next question comes from Greg.
45:32He writes, lately, I know you've been very supportive of J .D.
45:34Vann since you worked on his campaign before, and I could tell very much want
45:37to be the Republican nominee.
45:39European populist aside, since we clearly are not Europe, when you Google populism and what
45:44shows his definition of dividing the pure people versus the corrupt elite that represent the
45:49general will of the people, that's not what the term of populism is, by the
45:52way. Google is wrong. So by the standards, some notable populists would be Fidel Castro
45:57and Hugo Chavez. I mean, Fidel Castro was never elected, so also not really, not
46:03a fair assessment, Greg. The two of these people railed against American influence in politics,
46:08most notably Venezuela to kick out American oil and Fidel Castro to kick out the
46:11mafia who ran the casinos.
46:14Populism is not actual policy that puts America first.
46:16Donald Trump has been doing a very nice job with foreign policy, a la Marco
46:19Rubio, and I would definitely not call Donald Trump a populist.
46:23That's very strange. Okay, Greg, he's very much a populist.
46:27He's very much a realist.
46:28That is also true about populists, is that because you're not wielded to consistent ideology,
46:35like being a conservative, you have more room to sit there and decide how to
46:41handle an issue based upon the moment.
46:44Would then J .D. Vance run it completely away from Donald Trump's foreign policy, which
46:48is the foreign policy I believe will shape the next couple of decades, as opposed
46:50to say we will not interfere in anyone's problems, which always becomes our problem, regardless.
46:55What is your opinion, Ryan?
46:56Okay, Greg, here is, there's a couple things.
47:00There was a lot to chew on.
47:01So first of all, it's not, I am not rooting for J .D.
47:05Vance out loud to my audience, right?
47:08I know him. I've known him for a couple of years now.
47:10I still speak to him occasionally.
47:12He is the vice president, so it's not a lot.
47:14I am giving you guys the numbers, as they are.
47:17If J .D. Vance was polling at zero, I would tell you guys, he doesn't
47:20have a chance. I would be completely honest.
47:22I don't have, he doesn't pay my bills.
47:25I have a loyalty to this audience to tell them the truth.
47:29The truth is, is the newest poll that came out in the New Hampshire primary,
47:33J .D. leads 53 % to nine against Nikki Haley, and seven to Marco Rubio.
47:39This Rubio surge is single digits in the mind of voters.
47:44Voters vote for the vice president.
47:46By the way, on the Democratic side, that same poll had Pete Buttigieg leading everybody,
47:50but that's besides the point.
47:51I'm telling you the truth, is that if he runs, he will be the nominee,
47:54unless there is a major scandal in the Trump administration, unless something happens, there's a
48:01major scandal in his personal life that affects him.
48:03I don't know if that would even affect it.
48:05Or voters sour on Trump, because he is connected to Trump.
48:09Both those things are real, right?
48:11So let me get that part out on the flat.
48:15I know J .D. Vance.
48:16I like J .D. Vance.
48:17I would love J .D.
48:17Vance to be a president one day.
48:19However, when I'm narrating to my audience about something, I am telling you guys something
48:25divorced of my emotions, because I want you to come off with more knowledge than
48:31you have before this episode came through.
48:33So that's one. Secondly, when you're talking about populism, populism is a argument between those
48:41who are the workers and those who are the elite, right?
48:44That is the main essence of populism.
48:47Populism exists, though, in democratic structures.
48:51You cannot call Putin a populist.
48:54You cannot call Castro a populist.
48:56You cannot call, you can call Chavez a populist when he ran, not when he
48:59governed because he suspended elections.
49:01You cannot call people who do not have any forms of democracy.
49:04means populists, right? Orban is a populist.
49:08Le Pen is a populist.
49:09Farage is a populist. Bernie Sanders is a populist.
49:11You have both left wing and right wing.
49:13So it's accurate to call, but Trump is also a populist, right?
49:17It's not an ugly term.
49:19Don't feel it that way, that it's an ugly term.
49:21As far as J .D.'s foreign policy, I have to tell you, I have had
49:25very limited conversations with J .D.
49:28around foreign policy throughout all the years I've known him.
49:31We've never really talked about it.
49:32We talked about the Iraq war, which was, in my opinion, a mistake.
49:36In J .D.'s opinion, a mistake, I believe.
49:38That's what I believe he's said over and over again.
49:40In Donald Trump's opinion, a mistake, by the way.
49:43All these people have come to the consensus the Iraq war was a mistake.
49:46That's what I've really talked about.
49:47I don't know what his opinion per se is.
49:51I have policy disagreements with J .D.
49:53I have voiced them to him privately on a number of occasions.
49:56And I said, this is wrong, that's wrong, whatever.
49:58And we get into discussions and arguments.
49:59He's very open to hearing other opinions, which I like a lot about him.
50:03Doesn't always come out with the right answer, but he will hear other opinions aside
50:07from the one that he believes.
50:09Whether you like it or not, whether I like it or not, we are in
50:13a different phase of politics than we were 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30
50:19years ago. Rubio is doing a fabulous job in the job he has right now.
50:24He, however, is not the Marco Rubio of 2016, the Marco Rubio of 2010 when
50:31he was first elected. He's Marco Rubio 4 .0 right now.
50:34I don't know if there'll be a different Marco Rubio 5 .0 or whatever.
50:37I don't know if J .D.
50:39is fighting against military interventions everywhere or encouraging them.
50:45I know when they leave the room, they're all on the same ticket and I,
50:49or I'm sorry, on the same, they have the same message.
50:51And I would recommend holding back and waiting for J .D.
50:57to come out with his own foreign policy prescriptions for the world.
51:02I don't imagine he's going to leave the Trump administrations as vice, as just vice
51:07president, not being the nominee and not be endorsing Trump's intervention.
51:12I just don't, I don't see that that's a possibility.
51:14And I will say one more thing about Trump intervention.
51:17While he's been extraordinarily successful in a number of his interventions across the world, from
51:22bombing of Iran to the arrest of Maduro to the ceasefire in Israel, Trump has
51:29been less aggressive than past presidents, one.
51:33And two, I think that Trump is willing, Trump's willingness to make foreign policy his
51:39legacy making thing because he wants a legacy.
51:42Every president, by the way, makes their second term about foreign policy is also hurting
51:46Republicans because voters do not believe he is focused on the right issues.
51:51I think that that's actually a big part of it.
51:53But we will see, hold back, I don't know, and I just want to make
51:57that very clear. I'm not yelling at you, Greg.
51:58I'm just saying to you, I am never doing that.
52:02I will tell you when I work for Canada, when I'm getting paid them, unless
52:05you give me a paycheck, even if I know you, even if I like you,
52:09if you're screwing up royally, I will tell my audience.
52:12If you're pulling a zero, I will tell my audience.
52:14I'm not here to sugarcoat anything.
52:16I am a brash, you know, hard as nails New Yorker who doesn't.
52:22I mean, I get three Christmas cards a year for a reason.
52:24I don't sit there and put it on easy.
52:26My friend James Johnson was on this podcast last week, told me, I thought you
52:30were being mean, but you were just being yourself.
52:32So he said to me in private, but that is, that is just who I
52:36am. So I want to make that very, very clear.
52:38I think your terms of populism are not accurate.
52:42And I think that Trump is a populist.
52:44And I think as far as JD's foreign policy goes, we have to wait and
52:48see and hear more from the actual candidate himself.
52:50Remember also, foreign policy is constantly changing because the world is constantly changing.
52:54If you like this podcast, please like and subscribe on the iHeart Radio app, Apple
52:57Podcasts, wherever you get this podcast and on YouTube.
52:59It's always great when I see my YouTube numbers going up.
53:01I appreciate you all. I will talk to you guys on Monday.
53:04Hi, I'm Leta and my husband and I run the Donut Mum.
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