Ep 287 | Midterm Reality Check: Where Both Parties Stand | Mark Halperin | The Glenn Beck Podcast

Glenn Beck (0:00)

You advise Republicans to consider panicking about the midterms.

Mark Halperin (0:04)

I think there's just an enormously undercover story about the question of how far left the Democratic Party's gone.

Glenn Beck (0:11)

Where the hell have the Republicans been on anything?

Mark Halperin (0:14)

The main thing I hear from Republicans is...

Glenn Beck (0:22)

So Mark, you wrote a piece in The Daily Mail that I... I want to start here because I hope it doesn't get worse than this. You advise Republicans to consider panicking about the midterms.

Fill me in on how bad you think it's going to get.

Mark Halperin (0:39)

Well, things have gotten a little better since I wrote the piece in some races, like the Iowa Senate race. But when I wrote the piece, September was a very dark month. And this is not based on public polls. This is not based on media hysteria, including liberal media hysteria. This is based on talking to Republican campaigns.

They do not have an answer yet in most of these races for the economy, the sour mood voters are in, and the war and tariffs.

Glenn Beck (1:10)

You know, I have to tell you, it seems like the only person that is taking these midterms seriously is Donald Trump. But even Donald Trump, I don't think has the message. We are battling socialists.

And socialists are the only ones that are actually saying, hey, you're feeling it at the grocery store, you're feeling it at the gas pump, and I've got an immediate solution. And I don't hear a Republican actually sound like they're connected to the people at all. That's a real problem.

Mark Halperin (1:40)

Glenn, that's what I'm hearing from a lot of Republicans, including ones doing races. They want to blame the president, saying he and his team need a macro strategy.

Because what can they point to? They can point to the one big, beautiful bill. They can point to the flaws they see in the Democrats. But most Republican strategists, and look, they could win some of these races. They might have some few moments where they say, we should have won the state by 10, we're going to win it by one, but a win's a win. But what they're worried about is, both in the individual races and nationally, what's the message that trumps voters' immediate concerns? What does gas cost? What does diesel cost? What does food cost? What does housing cost?

Glenn Beck (2:19)

I have said this on the air over and over again. I have e-mailed it to people.

You can do certain things. Like, you could get rid of the gas tax. That's 25 cents on every gallon. You could get rid of it until February, until maybe this war starts to settle down. You can relieve the fuel standards. There are things you can do, but they just don't seem to, I don't know, care, be willing to put an hour's worth of work in. What is the deal?

Mark Halperin (2:52)

Well, some of these things like getting rid of the gas tax or stopping the export of diesel, there's division about whether they'd actually work. As you know, the gas tax goes to the trust fund to build roads, and some people don't want to mess with that. I think that, again, the challenge is it's too late. It's too late for some of these ads. It's too late for the spending.

They may be, again, the main thing I hear from Republicans is, it lasts winter rather than focusing on the Kennedy Center, rather than focusing on the different monuments, the ballroom. The president should have focused with his team on, okay, the war might still be going on.

The tariffs are still part of our long-term vision. We need to be invested in data centers. We need a big national plan for all those things. And instead, what Republicans say is he spent too much time on these other things. Now, I'll say again, it doesn't mean they're doomed, but it is why they have a problem.

Glenn Beck (3:52)

Wait, wait, wait, wait. You know what? I like the president, but I am not carrying water for the president. I think the president has done some great things. He's also made some huge mistakes. If he doesn't stop talking about renaming oceans, I think I'm going to lose my mind.

You know, so the president, the president is the president. But where the hell have the Republicans been on anything? I am so sick and tired of hearing these people in the Senate and Congress blame the president. The president has actually been working on a big strategy, a global strategy that I personally think is genius, but it's going to take us 10 years before anybody figures it out, if it works.