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00:00Vielen Dank.
00:00Vielen Dank.
00:03And out front next.
00:04It is election night in America.
00:06Polls about to close in Texas,
00:08where a bitter runoff race is
00:10dividing the Republican Party.
00:11Did Trump overreach this time?
00:14And is he about to give Democrats
00:15a chance to flip the Senate seat
00:18in Texas? Plus RFK Jr.
00:21and the snakes.
00:22The nation's top health official
00:23with his bare hands wrangling a
00:25pair of snakes squeezing their bodies
00:27in a video you have to see
00:29to believe.
00:30This is our HSA Secretary.
00:33And South Carolina, Republicans defying
00:35Trump tonight, rejecting his call to redraw
00:37the congressional map. Let's go out front.
00:42And good evening.
00:43I'm Erin Burnett and welcome to a special edition
00:45of out front election night in America
00:47as we are standing by for polls in Texas
00:49to close in the Senate runoff race
00:51that is dividing the Republican Party.
00:52This is a race that is testing
00:55Trump's grip on the GOP like never before.
00:58And that's saying something, right?
00:59Because, yeah, we can all remember last week.
01:01It was only a week ago when Massey went
01:03bye-bye.
01:04Incumbent Senator John Cornyn right now is
01:06fighting for his political survival
01:07against his Trump-backed challenger Ken Paxton.
01:10The state's controversial, to say the least,
01:12attorney general.
01:13It is a remarkable turn for Cornyn.
01:15Cornyn was elected 24 years ago.
01:18He has never lost an election in his life.
01:21This isn't a seat that, you know,
01:23would be really that challenged, right?
01:25He's a respected Republican.
01:26And unlike Thomas Massey of Kentucky,
01:28who was just defeated by a Trump-backed candidate,
01:31Cornyn has been in lockstep with the president
01:33100% of the time.
01:34Literally, his voting record is almost 100% with Trump.
01:38Not taking Trump on Iran.
01:39Never mind Epstein.
01:41But that apparently was not enough.
01:42Trump today firing off a last-minute push for the man he is backing,
01:46writing, Texas, vote for Ken Paxton,
01:48our country's best attorney general.
01:50Now, that endorsement is making many in his own party livid,
01:53because they think Trump may have cost them a Senate seat in Texas.
01:59My biggest concern is that we could lose a Senate seat if Paxton's the nominee.
02:05I think that the gentleman who will be endorsed
02:07should reasonably be indicted, you know, for felony.
02:11And so that's obviously going to have implications
02:13in terms of how the Democrats attack him.
02:15He is an ethically-challenged individual.
02:19Can you just respond to this endorsement of Paxton instead of...
02:23Disappointing, but not surprising.
02:25Supremely disappointed.
02:27Supremely disappointed.
02:30Just to be clear,
02:32every single one of those individuals are Republicans.
02:35And tonight, voters are finally getting their say
02:37after what has become one of the most expensive Senate primaries in history.
02:41And one of the nastiest.
02:45Crooked Ken Paxton cheated on his wife.
02:47She's divorcing him on biblical grounds.
02:50His agenda is on hold,
02:51because John Cornyn is on spring break.
02:54Ken Paxton says he's fighting corruption.
02:56But there's a problem.
02:58He's the one doing it.
03:00Senator John Cornyn turned his back on President Trump.
03:0315 miles to Kislev Shack.
03:07Kislev Shack, yeah.
03:10Yeah.
03:11Yeah.
03:12Yeah.
03:14Yeah.
03:14Yeah.
03:15Okay.
03:15Well, Democrats are hoping that this Republican infighting will help them pull off something
03:19that they have not done since 1994, and that is win a statewide race in Texas.
03:24Democratic Senate nominee there is James Tallarico, right?
03:28He's a rising star in the Democratic Party, and he'll take on whatever Republican wins tonight.
03:32And Tallarico has a lot of money on hand.
03:34$27 million just last quarter, according to his campaign.
03:38Democrats believe that the state representative, he's 36 years old, has a shot at defeating Paxton.
03:43Should he win tonight?
03:44Because of all of the ethically challenged issues there.
03:48Arlette Saenz is out front live at the Paxton headquarters.
03:50Madhu Raju is at Cornyn headquarters.
03:52As said, Essie, Jamal, and Harry are with me all hour on this election night.
03:56So let's start with you, Arlette.
03:57How confident is Paxton right now?
04:02Well, Erin, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's team is feeling very confident heading into tonight's runoff,
04:08in large part because of President Donald Trump's last-minute endorsement for Paxton in this race.
04:14Now, Paxton has long been popular with the president's MAGA base,
04:18but a GOP source aligned with Paxton told me tonight of the president's endorsement,
04:23quote, certainly it was a big help.
04:25Now, we spent the day speaking with voters here in Plano, Texas,
04:29who said that the president's endorsement did weigh heavily on their minds.
04:33But I want you to take a listen to two voters who said they were swayed by the president's endorsement
04:38for Paxton,
04:39but for very different reasons.
04:41Take a listen.
04:45When Trump backed Paxton, well, I went with Paxton.
04:49I listened to Trump. I like Trump. I like Trump a lot.
04:52I made one vote, and that was for Cornyn.
04:54And why is that?
04:56Primarily because he's not supported by Trump.
04:59I think he's ruined my Republican Party.
05:05Now, before the Senate runoff was even set, Paxton had already turned to general election mode.
05:11Both he, his campaign, and the Super PAC aligned with him stopped airing negative ads against Cornyn in this final
05:17stretch,
05:17instead training their focus on making their general election arguments against James Tallarico,
05:23the Democratic nominee who they are hoping to face off against in November.
05:26But for many Republican senators, they have been frustrated with the president's decision to ultimately back Paxton.
05:32But Paxton's team does believe that he will be able to get across the finish line and face off against
05:36Tallarico come November.
05:38All right, Arlette, thank you very much.
05:40Now, let's go to Manu.
05:41As promised, he's out front at Cornyn's campaign headquarters in Austin.
05:44So, Manu, does Cornyn feel he can win without Trump?
05:50And obviously, just to point out here, Trump got in on this really late.
05:53I think it was a week ago, right, around the whole Massey fiasco when Trump got in on this race,
05:58right?
05:59It wasn't as if he did this endorsement early.
06:03Yeah, look, Cornyn told me today that he is optimistic that he can win.
06:06But the reality is, in talking to people close to the senator,
06:10they realize that there is a path, but it is a very narrow path,
06:13and that election day voters, people who could be swayed by President Trump,
06:16ultimately could go towards Ken Paxton,
06:19which is why they recognize that if he wins tonight, he would be a significant upset at this moment.
06:24When I caught up with Senator Cornyn earlier today, I asked him,
06:27what's different now, given what happened to other people who went,
06:30who faced Trump's wrath and who faced Trump's opposition,
06:34like Senator Bill Cassidy or Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky?
06:37How will his situation be any different?
06:42My situation is different than Bill Cassidy's.
06:45I didn't vote to convict the president in his impeachment trial,
06:48or Thomas Massey in Kentucky, who opposed Trump at every stop of the way.
06:56I've supported the president's policies 99.3% of the time.
07:00He's depended on me and other Republicans to get his agenda passed,
07:05and I want him to succeed, and I don't know what more I could do to support the president.
07:12And Cornyn continued to unload on Paxton in the final hours of the campaign.
07:18Today, going after him on a whole wide range of issues, calling him an embarrassment,
07:22calling him reckless, even as Paxton has pivoted to the general election and has called for Cornyn to stop those
07:28attacks.
07:29I asked him about why he continued to go forward.
07:31He said that he wants to let voters know who they would be choosing if they chose Paxton as the
07:36nominee.
07:37And he bluntly warned, Aaron, that if Paxton wins the nomination, that it could cost the party, in his view,
07:42hundreds of millions of dollars to save the Republican seat here in Texas, and that could impact other states in
07:48this critical Senate election.
07:51All right, Manu, thank you very much.
07:53It's fascinating listening to Manu and Arlette with each of those headquarters.
07:57Everyone's here with me.
07:58So, Essie, interesting how Manu just described Cornyn's view of this,
08:02which is that he now believes a victory for a safe seat that he's held for 24 years in a
08:09primary would be a significant upset.
08:12Yeah, he won, okay? He didn't win by enough. That's why we're in a runoff.
08:16Trump endorsed the other guy, forcing Republicans to spend a lot more money.
08:21If Ken Paxton wins tonight and becomes the nominee, they will have to spend even more money.
08:26This is all a huge gamble.
08:28John Cornyn is popular in Texas.
08:31And I've been talking to Texas Republicans for the past couple weeks, and they are a house divided.
08:36They are a party divided in Texas.
08:38There are a lot of establishment Republicans who think John Cornyn is not only the safest choice to beat James
08:45Tallarico,
08:45but is the best protector of Trump's legacy and everything that's happening.
08:50But then there are others who think John Cornyn is out.
08:54He's like the Mitt Romneys of the Republican Party.
08:57And Ken Paxton is the new face of MAGA because you have to get extra MAGA, right?
09:03Now you have to be like Uber MAGA, and that's Ken Paxton.
09:06So there's a bunch of Republicans who are excited for Ken Paxton despite his ethical issues and how expensive he
09:14will be.
09:14It's a mess in Texas.
09:16But it's going to be a big night.
09:17It's going to tell us a lot about the future of MAGA.
09:21Yeah.
09:21But we really won't know what all of this means until November when...
09:27Yeah.
09:28Does this endorsement, does Trump's putting his finger on the scale actually hand this to Democrats?
09:34And you were nodding there, Ested.
09:36I mean, it's pretty interesting, right, that MAGA, someone who votes with Trump 99.3% of the time...
09:41...Trumped that Trump would put him in the garbage can.
09:43Yeah, I mean, if Trump's only goal was to pass legislation, if Trump's only goal was to shape Congress in
09:51its image or even keep a Republican majority, that would be one thing.
09:54That's not his goal.
09:55His goal is to reshape the Republican Party, and that requires some of these primaries which he has increasingly functioned
10:02as an open bully.
10:03And we're seeing that tonight.
10:04The seeds of kind of Cornyn's wrath with Trump weren't necessarily placed because he didn't vote with him on enough
10:10legislation.
10:11It's because he partnered with the Biden administration around gun safety reform.
10:14That angered some of the activists.
10:16He got booed in his own state convention.
10:18And also because he frankly just isn't Trump's type of guy.
10:21Ken Baxton has been busy on Fox News.
10:25What are you trying to say about who is Trump's type of guy?
10:27I mean, I think that that question of who is Trump's type is more important than if you vote with
10:32him.
10:33And that we're seeing that play out tonight.
10:34Well, that's a fascinating point.
10:35Exactly.
10:35Now, Harry, when it comes to winning, right, if that's what this is about, OK, John Cornyn wins.
10:42What I say, he hasn't actually lost an election.
10:44He hasn't.
10:45I mean, you know, you think about how long he's been in the United States Senate for.
10:48He was first elected back when I was in middle school, for goodness sake, all the way back in 2002.
10:53I'm dating myself a little bit here.
10:54And every single step along the way in these primaries, you know, 2008, 2014, 2020, they really haven't been competitive
11:02at all.
11:02I mean, you can see the primary performances on your screen right there.
11:05The worst he did was 59 percent in 2014.
11:07He still ran 40 points ahead of his competitor.
11:10He even got the most votes in round one here back, of course, in the primary, which feels like eons
11:15ago.
11:15But I believe it's at the beginning of March.
11:16So this will be the first time ever.
11:18If he does, in fact, lose tonight, it'd be the first election he's ever lost or gotten the not the
11:23most amount of votes in.
11:24And again, Trump waited to get in on this.
11:26Yeah, he waited.
11:28And Cornyn did come out ahead last time.
11:29So if this flips, even though Cornyn feels he's the underdog, it is pretty stunning, the power of a Trump
11:34endorsement.
11:35Yeah, but I got to tell you, I'm watching John Cornyn, and this is clearly a guy who's never lost
11:39an election before.
11:40I was talking to some friends about this earlier.
11:42It is good for politicians to lose, because when you lose, you learn how to get up and fight in
11:46order to win.
11:47If you look at all of our recent presidents, they've all lost.
11:49Even Donald Trump, who's never lost an election, but he'd gone bankrupt a couple times.
11:53So he knew how to get up off of the court.
11:56He lost an election.
11:56Well, let me just say.
11:57He lost an election.
11:57I mean the first time, 2016.
11:59What are you trying to say?
11:59Jamal, what are you trying to say?
12:01Jamal, I'm 2016.
12:02Now I'm going to miss you in a way I didn't expect today.
12:05In 2016.
12:06But he knew how to bounce back and come back.
12:09And you can tell somebody who's fighting for his life and knows how to do it.
12:12Cornyn looks like he's just trying to find his way.
12:15He looks like a guy who really has lost the scene.
12:17He looks a little shell-shocked.
12:19Very uncertain.
12:19And so we will see how that plays out for the rest of the night.
12:23I got to tell you though, I don't think Trump is just in this to reshape the Republican Party.
12:27They're in this to reshape the entire United States of America.
12:30They have said that the time they look back when America was at its greatest was basically
12:34during the Gilded Age.
12:35It was like the 1890s to around 1900 of the country.
12:39They want a country where wealthy people get to decide what's going to happen.
12:43Frankly, people of color have fewer rights.
12:45Women have fewer rights.
12:46And it's a country where people like Donald Trump are in charge.
12:50And we don't have all the public exposure that it is we have for public officials these days.
12:56Right now, they get to do so many things in the dark.
12:59And I think they like that.
13:00I think Kim Paxton's masterstroke, if there was one here, was right after that primary happened when he used the
13:06SAVE Act and what was happening in Congress to kind of delay Trump from immediately endorsing Cornyn in that moment.
13:13That extended his shelf life year and got him allowed to push some of the activists until he got Trump's
13:18endorsement on that front.
13:19But I think, you know, these are small, marginal differences.
13:22And so the real difference, I think, is in tone, is in performance.
13:26Right. Like it doesn't even just matter if you vote along with Donald Trump.
13:29It matters if you talk like he talks.
13:31It matters if you pick on his enemies.
13:33It matters if you do it in the with the right enthusiasm.
13:36And so, frankly, I think that's where Paxton has made his kind of inroads with the administration.
13:42And they're and they're teaching, I think, the Congress a lesson that you can have all the respect.
13:47You can have all the interrelationships.
13:48You can pass legislation.
13:50And if you cross Donald Trump, that's still in this version of the Republican Party where he functions, frankly, as
13:55the establishment, you know, that's going to be the biggest.
13:58And this is important because because this is about the leverage that Trump understands.
14:01And what he knows is he may not be able to get 55 percent of the American public to go
14:05along with him, but he can get a majority of Republicans to go.
14:09And then that majority of Republicans will exert their will on the rest of the country.
14:12All right. So, I see.
14:14I mean, I guess at the very end here, you had Corrin speak out.
14:18And again, I put the caveat what you said instead.
14:20I mean, it's and it's a Mitt Romney like speech.
14:23Right. He's not speaking the way Ken Paxton would say.
14:25Right. Okay.
14:26But he came out to Mono and he was direct about Paxton.
14:31Okay. Here's as direct as he got.
14:35Paxton, we'll call it for you guys to go positive in these final days of the campaign.
14:38You decided not to to continue to attack him. Why?
14:41Well, I think it's time for accountability.
14:43He's gotten away with so much for so long and not been held accountable for it.
14:49But I think he is a an embarrassment, his misbehavior and he's completely unrepentant.
14:57I mean, it's one thing for a person to make a mistake and then say, you know, I'm sorry.
15:02I'll do better next time. But that's not Ken Paxton.
15:05It's just emboldened him to the point of recklessness and now to the point of self-destructiveness, especially with regard
15:11to his own family.
15:14That's just not an argument that anyone certainly on the right in Texas cares about.
15:20Right? Like, do Trump, John Cornyn.
15:22Moral character.
15:22Right.
15:23Right. We're past that. I can lament that and we all should lament that.
15:26But I don't think that's John Cornyn's best attack on Ken Paxton in Texas.
15:34And let's remember, John Cornyn in recent weeks was, I think, so worried about this.
15:40He floated a bill to name a highway after Donald Trump.
15:44This was another sort of gift attempt to grease the wheels. It didn't work.
15:50And I really do think it's just because of what I said.
15:52Psychophantic placating at the last moment.
15:54Yeah, but it's just that he's not Trump's kind of guy.
15:58I think Trump is looking ahead to what do I do with the last two years of my term and
16:03who is going to help me do everything I want to do.
16:06He knows Ken Paxton's going to. He doesn't know if John Cornyn's going to.
16:11But one last thing to sort of leave folks with, for me anyway, is Donald Trump definitely has a great
16:17record when it comes to these endorsements.
16:19And increasingly so. It's not perfect. And his candidate selection meter can be off.
16:26Think about Herschel Walker. Think about Roy Moore.
16:29These are very Paxton-like candidates who were a bridge too far for voters in Georgia and Alabama.
16:36And they went a different way. And Republicans, I think, learned a big lesson from that.
16:41All right. Well, everyone, stay here. Next, our breaking news continues.
16:44John King standing by the magic wall. He's going to break down exactly which counties he is watching tonight in
16:48Texas to see if Cornyn can hold on and what this means for that rising star, Tallarico.
16:54Plus, RFK Jr. posting a bizarre video of him wrangling racer snakes.
17:02Okay. Okay. Are they biting?
17:04Yeah.
17:05Okay, honey. Let us go.
17:08That was Cheryl Hines' voice, I guess we heard there. And that was RFK Jr., Secretary of Health and Human
17:14Services.
17:14And the breaking news, James Tallarico, that Democrat who wants to flip the Republican Senate seat in Texas, just responded
17:20to Trump's claims that he is a vegan.
17:23And he is not holding back.
17:29Tonight, President Trump spending more than three hours at Walter Reed Hospital, his fourth publicly disclosed medical exam of his
17:35term.
17:36The president saying everything checked out all caps perfectly.
17:39Now, Trump is set to turn 80 in June amid growing questions about his health.
17:45Questions about the bruises on his hands, which he conceals with makeup.
17:49And photos also show the president with swollen feet, ankles and calves.
17:53And then there are the times he appears to be sleeping during meetings.
17:56Of course, at night, he spends many nights, it appears, awake, posting and reposting on social media.
18:01On May 11th, Trump posted that night more than 75 times, starting at 10 o'clock, including posting a picture
18:07of a $100 bill with his face on it,
18:09and Mount Rushmore with his face being etched into the stone, as well as an AI image of former Presidents
18:14Obama and Biden,
18:15along with the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi swimming in sewage.
18:18That all happened in the wee hours of the morning.
18:21And it's just one of 44 similar nights at Trump's White House, where he posts dozens of Truth Social posts
18:26between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.,
18:28according to an excellent analysis by The Wall Street Journal.
18:31Trump, though, says he is one of the healthiest, if not the healthiest, man to ever hold the office of
18:37the presidency.
18:38Out front now, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
18:41Okay, Sanjay, so there's no official medical report yet.
18:45But obviously, as we say, this is the fourth trip since he took office.
18:50So it's not an annual thing, obviously, because we've only been 18 months.
18:54Swollen ankles, bruising on his hands.
18:56Trump has talked about that, says it's from aspirin.
18:59You know, what do these images all say to you?
19:04Well, you know, I mean, some of this does track.
19:07I mean, these are reasonable explanations.
19:09I mean, we've been talking about the bruising on his hands since February of 2025 now, Aaron.
19:14I think if something else had come up to explain this, it probably would have declared itself by now.
19:19Every time we've asked, every time we've heard from the doctors, it's always the same thing.
19:23He takes a high dose of aspirin.
19:26His blood is thin, doesn't clot as well, and then he has a lot of handshaking.
19:30You know, he does have bruising on both of his hands, so I'm not sure exactly how that's explained.
19:35Maybe he's hitting his left hand on something as well.
19:37But it does seem to track when you look at that.
19:41He takes a dose of aspirin initially that is four times higher than the dose that is recommended for trying
19:48to prevent a cardiac problem, a heart problem.
19:51That could be part of this as well.
19:52But again, we've been talking about this for over a year now, and nothing else has sort of popped up.
19:57The ankles, this was something that came up before his last physical exam in April of last year, but it
20:04wasn't until July.
20:05You may remember that it was addressed, and at that point, the diagnosis was chronic venous insufficiency.
20:11And what that basically means, Erin, the heart's pumping blood.
20:14Blood goes all over the body, including to the lower limbs and legs.
20:18If it doesn't return from the limbs and feet as well, fluid can start to pool.
20:26Perhaps you've seen that after someone's taken a long-distance flight, for example.
20:30Yeah.
20:30Chronic means it's sort of happening to them all the time.
20:33It's fairly common, about one in 20 people, people over the age of 50.
20:37Again, it tracks.
20:40There are other things that, you know, you worry about.
20:42Someone developing clots in their legs, something known as deep venous thrombosis.
20:47Is there a cardiac problem, to explain this?
20:50They say no.
20:51They say this is simple chronic venous insufficiency.
20:53So, you know, we'll see what this report says later today, but if history is any indication,
20:59it's going to say that everything is fine, and that there are absolutely no problems.
21:04Right.
21:04I mean, that's what they've been saying.
21:05Now, I also wanted to ask you about the sleep or lack thereof, right?
21:09The post throughout the night, so many nights, you know, if he's up doing that, which, you
21:14know, then there's also the other flip side of it.
21:17During meetings several times, he does appear to perhaps doze off.
21:21So, you know, how do doctors take a look at something like this or view it when you're
21:27talking about someone who's turning 80 in a couple weeks?
21:31Right.
21:32Well, you know, it's interesting.
21:33I've talked to a few sleep specialists about this over the past bit of time now, having
21:38noticed this.
21:39And, you know, it can be explained, as you say, in part by age, the fact that he's obviously
21:44staying up late at night.
21:46And people, you know, sometimes if there's boring things, they get sleepy, they fall asleep.
21:50What is unusual is to fall asleep when you're talking to someone directly, you know, one
21:56on one.
21:57That's what's unusual.
21:58That's what all the sleep doctors said.
22:00And it warrants sort of investigation.
22:01Maybe it's nothing, but insomnia, it can be potentially problematic.
22:05It can worsen other underlying problems or something like sleep apnea.
22:11Sleep apnea, sometimes not recognized by the individual themselves, but would actually
22:15come out in a sleep study of some sort.
22:18So it's potentially problematic.
22:20Again, as you alluded to, there's lots of ways to explain it.
22:24But this is one of the things, reasons you have a yearly physical.
22:27What is going on in your life?
22:29What are these problems?
22:30Yeah.
22:30Let's make sure there's not something more serious that's sort of driving it.
22:34Yep.
22:35Yep.
22:35And obviously, as we said, this is his fourth trip to Walter Reed.
22:39So, you know, I guess he's been, he's calling it every six months.
22:42All right.
22:43Thank you very much, Sanjay.
22:44And everyone's back with me.
22:45So instead, you know, look, Trump's going to be 80 on Flag Day.
22:49That's his birthday, right?
22:50June 14.
22:51And, you know, in the context that Sanjay's talking about, yes, we've seen the bruises.
22:55They've got explanations for these things, the bruises or the swelling, the falling asleep.
22:59Um, they, they, they, they just mock people who point that out.
23:04But today, Trump says everything checked out perfectly.
23:07Does this, you know, are there rising questions about his health, do you think, among anybody,
23:13certainly in his base or anything like that?
23:14Or no?
23:15Well, I don't know about his base.
23:16But I think everyone with eyes asked us more questions than they did a couple years ago.
23:19I mean, Donald Trump's bruises is obvious for everyone to see, the falling asleep.
23:23He seems like someone increasingly not in control.
23:25He seems older.
23:26Like, and I think that that kind of projection of strength is, is something that he's used to being able
23:31to channel politically.
23:32That's also felt like it's somewhat diminishing.
23:35But I really think the important point is the lack of credibility the White House has on these questions.
23:39I mean, they, they, you know, everything worked out perfectly as he's posting through the night.
23:44It isn't, I think, a thing that passes muster and, and increasingly with the public signs that folks have seen.
23:50And so if this was the White House that had provided those answers, hadn't had kind of like given transparency
23:55on the topic, I think that will be one thing.
23:57But they frankly have shut this out, have mocked anyone who has really brought it up.
24:01And they're frankly banking on the reality that he's not running for a second term.
24:05And so I think even as those questions bubble up among the public, it's hard for where they go politically
24:10because of the incentives we all just talked about earlier.
24:13Not like what Joe Biden walked himself into.
24:15I mean, Harry, what do people, how worried are people about themselves?
24:18I mean, look, it's, it's one thing to mock the press for bringing up the questions.
24:20But what about the American public?
24:22And the American public certainly has far more concerns about Trump's physical health being good enough to be president than
24:27they did just a few years ago.
24:29I mean, the numbers are truly shocking in terms of movement that we're seeing in terms of believing that Trump
24:34is in fact physically capable to be president.
24:35Look at this.
24:36It was 64% back in 2023.
24:38It's now just 44%.
24:40That's a tremendous drop down.
24:42That's a drop of 20 points over just three years.
24:44The American people are seeing what they're seeing on their screens.
24:48They're passing judgment on this.
24:49And yet Trump is not running for reelection again like Joe Biden was running for reelection in 2024.
24:54But there is a midterm election that's coming up.
24:56And I think a lot of voters are saying, hey, do we want to continue to give Republicans power who
25:00will help, of course, to empower the president of the United States?
25:03And Trump's numbers on his physical health are starting to look an awful bit like Joe Biden's were going to
25:08the 2024 election.
25:09And that is not a comparison you want if you're the White House.
25:11They're getting down by his approval ratings.
25:13Yeah.
25:13We hire a president primarily for one thing, for judgment.
25:16We want to know that this person has a judgment to make our lives better and to save us from
25:21the things that we're afraid of and help us achieve the things that we want.
25:24And the problem for Trump is he's not making good choices that are making people's lives better, which means they
25:29care more about these questions about his health.
25:32Joe Biden, when Afghanistan happened and people watched that on television, he never really recovered from that moment.
25:39And after that, even when you would ask people questions or researchers would tell me they'd ask people questions about
25:44bills he was passing, they wouldn't give Joe Biden credit, even if they liked the bill.
25:48But they just didn't have confidence that he was the one who was in charge.
25:51This is trouble for Trump, because I think what's happened over the course of the last year is things have
25:56trended badly on all the fronts that people care about.
25:59Their lives aren't getting better.
26:00And now they're saying, hey, buddy, like, maybe you're not up for this job.
26:04Which is why who you surround yourself can really matter.
26:07Okay.
26:07And there's many, many ways I could go with this, but I'll go to the racer snakes.
26:14Because RFK Jr., who is HSS secretary, which is important in a time when you're dealing with hantavirus and Ebola
26:23and RSV on the rise and a whole lot of things.
26:27Okay.
26:28Yeah.
26:28This is a video that is out there now on Dr. Oz's patio.
26:37Okay.
26:37Okay.
26:38Are they fighting?
26:39Yeah.
26:39Honey, honey, let it go.
26:41Oh, my God.
26:42Jesus.
26:43The mouths are huge.
26:45Bobby, please.
26:47That's Cheryl Hines in the background, his wife, saying, honey, honey, let it go.
26:51My God, Bobby, please.
26:53Look, Essie, I mean, you can laugh.
26:56You can be shocked.
26:57But you have to acknowledge this is the sitting Health and Human Services secretary.
27:03Do I have to acknowledge that?
27:05Because that's painful.
27:06But you're right.
27:07I mean, listen, of all the things that bother me about RFK Jr., you know, suggesting aspirin leads to autism.
27:17Like, there are some really bad things that RFK Jr. has done in this position.
27:22This is just him being him, right?
27:24This is the brain worm.
27:26I'm going to get the bear carcass.
27:27The whale.
27:28The bear carcass.
27:29This is crazy RFK.
27:30What was the other one?
27:31The raccoon.
27:31Junior.
27:32The raccoon recently.
27:34I mean, we talked about performance earlier.
27:36I think this is a similar type of performance.
27:39Trump has really encouraged this kind of masculinity, chauvinism stuff.
27:44And I think that really the way that, I really think the way that RFK Jr. appeals to Donald Trump
27:49is in the hands-on nature of it.
27:52It's grabbing the snake.
27:53Yes.
27:53It's the fact that it's his bare hands with the snake matters more than the facts.
27:57I just want him to wrangle Ebola and coronavirus.
28:00That would be enough for me.
28:01He doesn't have to do snakes.
28:02Exactly.
28:03All right.
28:03Breaking news.
28:03James Tallarico pulling no punches tonight.
28:05He is speaking out.
28:06He is responding to the claims that were put out there by Republicans and Trump that he's vegan.
28:15I've been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment.
28:19Nice.
28:21Okay.
28:22Also breaking, Republicans in South Carolina breaking with Trump.
28:25Tonight, blocking Trump's effort to gain more House seats.
28:29Details on that breaking story ahead.
28:37And welcome back to this special edition of Out Front, election night in America.
28:41The breaking news right now, Texas, first results moments from now in a race dividing the Republican Party
28:47and giving Democrats hope that they can actually win statewide in Texas.
28:52Sounds surprising?
28:53Well, it would be the first time Democrats win in 32 years if that happens in the general election.
29:00Moments ago, the Democrat, who will take on the winner of tonight's primary, responded to Republican attacks.
29:06And these have been vicious that he is a vegan.
29:11I've been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment.
29:14And if all they have on me is lying about me being a vegan, I feel pretty good about our
29:20chances this November.
29:24As for the GOP tonight, Republicans are bracing for a potentially brutal fallout.
29:28As longtime Senator John Cornyn fights for his political survival against Trump-backed Ken Paxton.
29:33So let's go to John King at the magic wall.
29:36So, John, as you look at this, where does Cornyn need to win in the state of Texas, a massive
29:42state geographically, to have any chance of overcoming the Trump endorsement?
29:47Well, Aaron, it's great to see you. Let's make clear that any chance is a small chance, right?
29:51Now that Paxton has the Trump endorsement, Senator Cornyn is essentially walking in a wind tunnel with a parachute on
29:56his back, right?
29:56Trying to somehow get through that tunnel, even though the wind's blowing him back this way.
30:01254 counties in the state of Texas. If Cornyn is going to win, how does he do it?
30:05Aaron, he has to win, and he has to win by pretty good margins where the people are.
30:08Sounds like cliche, but Harris County. That's Houston. That's the most populous county in Texas.
30:13Dallas and Tarrant. That's Dallas and Fort Worth. They're up here.
30:16Then you come down here to Bexar County. That's San Antonio.
30:18Travis County. That's here in Austin. They are the most populous counties.
30:21They are places where you will find, in the suburbs outside of those cities, Republicans who might vote for Trump
30:26in November but don't like the way he conducts themselves.
30:29Republicans who might have some connections to the old Republican establishment in Texas that includes John Cornyn.
30:34Republicans who might be saying, I'm not listening to you, Mr. Trump, because I follow the news and I don't
30:37like Mr. Paxton.
30:38Not saying that's going to happen, but if Cornyn is going to get math to withstand the Trump endorsement, it
30:43has to be from Republicans in the biggest cities and the suburbs around them.
30:47It's a huge challenge. We'll get votes pretty soon.
30:50Now, I'm also curious, John, because Trump waited on this endorsement, right?
30:54It came in at the last moment, which sometimes is, you know, too little, too late, and other times is
30:58fires everybody up right at the right time, okay?
31:00How are you actually going to know, you know, mathematically, if the Trump endorsement flipped votes from Cornyn to Paxton
31:08and to what degree?
31:09So let's go back to the Senate primary. Remember, they're in a runoff tonight because there was a primary several
31:14weeks back.
31:15Cornyn actually came out on top of that primary, Paxton second, because no one made 50.
31:19That's why we have the runoff. So look at the results back in the primary.
31:22Look at these swats here. See, that's Cornyn red, the lighter red. That's Cornyn red, the lighter red.
31:26What are those? Those are the small rural counties where Trump runs up the numbers.
31:31The small rural counties where there are a lot of mega voters.
31:34In the primary, Cornyn actually did quite well there. Watch those circles, right? That is a couple weeks ago, right?
31:39Let's go back to the 2024 presidential election. See, this is Trump country.
31:43These are not just Republican counties there. Look at the numbers when you tap into these.
31:46Trump gets 92% in these counties. Move over here in the other circle.
31:51Trump gets, what, 75% there, 74% there, 88% there.
31:55So we know that in the primary, John Cornyn actually did pretty well in areas where Trump did very well
32:02in November 2024.
32:03The question is, now that Trump says vote Ken Paxton, is the Cornyn red from a few weeks ago, Paxton
32:09red in a couple hours?
32:11That's going to be really crucial. As you point out, incredible.
32:14If you have 92% for Trump and they voted for Cornyn a few weeks ago, if that flips, wow,
32:19what does that say?
32:20All right, John King.
32:21It says game over.
32:21Yes, it says game over. In summary. All right, thanks, John King.
32:27Jamal, it is pretty incredible, though, when you think about, to literally see the power of an endorsement.
32:32When you think about endorsements, who really cares about them anymore?
32:35But to think about how important Trump's might be, that you could have, a few weeks ago, one of those
32:41counties vote for Cornyn and now not vote for Cornyn?
32:44That's right. And then they could vote for somebody with securities fraud problem, corruption investigation, was impeached by the Republican
32:54House of the state of Texas.
32:58Not somebody who anyone would think should be in national leadership in normal times, but in MAGA times, Donald Trump
33:04says, this is my guy, this is the person that I want, and his people tend to follow.
33:08We'll see if that happens.
33:09So Tallarico is waiting in the wings to see who he's running against.
33:12Yeah.
33:14And, okay, let's get to the vegan thing.
33:17Okay.
33:18I mean, people have just been maligning vegans unfairly, but I'm just going to say it's unfair.
33:24I'm not a vegan, but I'm, you know, I'm a meat eater.
33:26It plays in Texas, but okay.
33:27I had steak for lunch.
33:29There you go.
33:29Okay.
33:29Some of our best friends are vegans.
33:30That's right.
33:33So, Trump and other Republicans have been trying to malign Tallarico and say he is not a man enough,
33:38and he is not a Texan enough because he is a vegan.
33:41Tallarico went with Obama to an Austin taco spot, and Tallarico ordered a taco.
33:47In his taco was potato, egg, and cheese.
33:50So then Trump said, guess what, he's a vegan.
33:53Which, by the way, shows Trump doesn't know what a real vegan eats, because there was cheese in there.
33:57Right.
33:57And eggs.
33:58And eggs, right.
33:59That's a double whammy.
34:01Not vegans.
34:01And Tallarico has just responded, I want to play it again.
34:08I've been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment.
34:11And if all they have on me is lying about me being a vegan, I feel pretty good about our
34:17chances this November.
34:21Listen, these are, this is a war in Texas, right?
34:25Like, calling someone a vegan or a vegetarian in Texas is kind of, you know, that's a big deal.
34:30I love barbecue.
34:31I love blacks.
34:32That's my, that's my Texas barbecue.
34:33Thank you.
34:34Um, but it's not true.
34:37Um, I think the, the interesting part is that when Trump tries to go after some of these folks,
34:43including James Tallarico himself, he ends up making them stars.
34:48James Tallarico, I think won in large part because Trump picked on him and Colbert in that interview.
34:53Yes.
34:54And made him an overnight sensation.
34:56Remember Jasmine Crockett was in that race.
34:59She was a huge, a much bigger name than James Tallarico was.
35:02And James Tallarico really made a lot, uh, with, with very little out of that.
35:06So, you know, I don't know how that, how well that's gonna, gonna hold.
35:11Um, but listen, James Tallarico wants to face Ken Paxton.
35:14That is who he is absolutely hoping.
35:17He cannot believe his luck that Ken Paxton got Trump's endorsement and could win tonight.
35:22That, I think he believes, and I, I tend to agree, sets him up for a very good shot at
35:28a very tough seat.
35:29So how popular is Tallarico in Texas?
35:31Yeah, this is not just about the fact that Ken Paxton's an unpopular guy when you're looking ahead to the
35:36general election.
35:37So James Tallarico is actually a popular guy in the state of Texas.
35:41I mean, you can look at, you can look at the numbers.
35:43His net favorability as we look ahead to the general election is not just not negative by a lot.
35:48It's actually positive.
35:49It's actually positive.
35:50Look at this.
35:51Plus 11 points on the net favorability in Texas for a Democrat.
35:55Compare that to Donald Trump who is underwater in Texas.
35:58This ain't 2024 anymore when Donald Trump won the state of Texas by double digits.
36:03Trump is underwater.
36:04Tallarico is possible.
36:05And that collision course could, in fact, set forth a proposition that maybe Democrats win their first Senate race in
36:12Texas since 1988.
36:15Can I just tell you why you want to go?
36:18I've been black my whole life.
36:19I've been a Democrat almost as long.
36:21Right?
36:22And white Democrats.
36:23But you're not a vegan.
36:23But I'm not a vegan.
36:24White Democrats have shown up in black churches and have talked about their values and talked about their faith and
36:30talked about vision for a long time.
36:32And then for some reason on Monday morning they go and talk to white people and it's like policy seminars.
36:37James Tallarico is one of the first white Democrats we've seen in a state like Texas in recent memory who
36:42speaks to white people on Monday the way he would talk to black people on Sunday.
36:46And I think Democrats will do very well if they listen to that and have that same kind of connection
36:51to their faith and their values when they talk about what influences their policy position.
36:55Does he have a chance?
36:56Yeah, I think he has a chance because of the reason Harry laid out.
36:58Donald Trump has created the conditions for that chance by being from his popularity rating in general but also because
37:04of the candidate that he selected there.
37:06But I think, you know, even to the white black calculation I think Jamal's making important in the way that
37:10Tallarico has talked.
37:12I really think it's about the emerging demographic groups in Texas.
37:15Latino voters, Asian voters, and I think you're increasingly seeing a type of Democrat who can put together that coalition
37:21and Tallarico wants to model that.
37:23I mean, Texas is going to be hard, but the conditions to be set have started.
37:28All right.
37:28Thank you all.
37:29And next, the breaking news, Trump suffering a major defeat in South Carolina.
37:33Republicans tonight rejecting a new congressional map that Trump backed.
37:38And we're also following another important runoff in Texas where Democrats are now accusing Republicans of propping up one of
37:43the candidates.
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