Transcript: Trump Rages as Awful TV Speech Ratings Humiliate Him Badly

As Trump’s efforts to salvage the midterms falter, the author of a piece on his political weakness explains why the enthusiasm gap now favors Dems—and how MAGA squandered its hold on the culture.

The following is a lightly edited transcript of the September 14 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.

Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.

Donald Trump’s effort to salvage the midterms for the GOP doesn’t seem to be going well. His make-believe proposal to send five-thousand-dollar checks to everyone has been widely panned, and even Republicans are leaking that they think it’s an act of desperation. Tellingly, Trump raged wildly at a reporter who asked a simple question: If your policies are succeeding, why pay people to vote Republican?

It all highlights a deep contradiction in Trump-MAGA psychology right now. Republicans are all required to pretend Trump has been a stupendous success, yet that very posture is dragging them toward electoral catastrophe. We’re talking about it all with New Republic senior editor Alex Shephard, who’s our go-to person when it comes to Trump losing the culture. Alex, thanks for coming on.

Alex Shephard: It’s great to be back.

Sargent: So let’s start here. Trump’s promise of a $5,000 check to every American if Republicans hold Congress is one of the centerpieces of their quote-unquote plan to win the midterms. But one Republican operative tells Politico, quote, “No one thinks it’s a serious proposal. It does reek of desperation.”

Another says it’s, quote, “obvious in its political calculation.” And Republicans are also leaking word that they were totally blindsided by the idea, pouring cold water on it, you name it. Alex, your reaction to all that?

Shephard: I think the question about this entire farce of a midterm convention was, what is Trump going to talk about, since his entire second term is up in flames right now? And what they’ve done is concocted, you know, I think a plan that’s a complete sham in a couple of ways, right?

One is just that Trump has said he does not need Congress to send these checks. And he’s sort of suggested—OK, some Republicans in the Senate have said, we’ll draft a bill—but they could just do this right now if they really wanted to. Of course. And they’re not. And I think that people are seeing through it.

But I think the other thing about it, to get to the point about losing the culture, is that Trump’s rise came from this idea that he was a different type of politician, right? He was not somebody who would say something just to get elected and then not do it. And of course, he’s governed in a completely different way. But to me, this is like the biggest possible version of that exact problem—that this is someone who’s just doing shameless electioneering.

And I think that people see through it too, which is the other part here, right? Which is that, you know, gas is rising again, is going to go up a whole lot more after what we’ve seen happen in Saudi Arabia on Friday. So, you know, this is just a mess. And I think the only thing that Trump can respond to—we’ve seen this going back before he was a politician—is marketing. This is marketing, but it’s not real politics.

Sargent: Exactly. And so this is the context for Trump’s bizarre eruption at a reporter. The reporter says, if your economic policies are working, why do you need to create an incentive for people to turn out to vote? Listen.

Reporter (voiceover): If your economic policies are working, why do you need an incentive for people to turn out to vote?

Donald Trump (voiceover): I think what you’re going to do—I didn’t do it for turning out to vote. I’ve done it as a reward for people having to put up with five years, and four years, of a horrible situation caused by Biden.

So you heard there that Trump denies that the money is an incentive to turn out to vote, and then spins a bunch of garbage about Biden. Then, amid some crosstalk, the reporter tries to ask a second question, and Trump erupts.

Trump (voiceover): It’s almost a reward for the people having to put up with Biden’s policy.

Reporter (voiceover): Yeah, but you—you also offered checks during the tariff refund—

Trump (voiceover): Not you. Not you. You’re the worst.

Sargent: So there you hear Trump saying, “Not you, not you, you’re the worst.” And he even leans in and glowers at her in this really menacing and creepy way. Alex, I think this is a critical moment because of the question that was asked.

Republicans fear that voters aren’t at all motivated to vote Republican because of Trump’s failures. And it’s the pointing out of that fact that got Trump so angry. Your reaction to that?

Shephard: Yeah, I would say that. And I think it’s a woman reporter who’s asking the question too, which I think is a classic. It’s reminiscent of the “piggy” moment to some extent. And I think, you know, you really see the kind of Roy Cohn outer-borough menace of Trump in that........

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