Hey everybody. Conor Lamb here, filling in for Adam today. I'm a former member of Congress from western Pennsylvania. Adam and I served in the House together. He was a Republican and I'm a Democrat, but we're both veterans, and we had the same understanding of our oath to the Constitution, and of the need for people to stand up and speak out on behalf of our democracy. So I'm honored to fill in for Adam today. With that, let's get started.
Our top story. Republicans are abandoning Trump’s party, and they’re doing it out in the open. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen dozens of Republicans endorse Democratic candidates. Former governors, party leaders, longtime donors. And it turns out voters are right there with them. New polls from the New York Times have Democrats ahead or within a point in four states Trump won easily. Four weeks to go, and the news for Republicans isn’t getting any better.
We’ll also get into Ken Paxton getting caught on tape again, Trump posting a Republican senator’s cell phone number over daylight savings time, what Kash Patel’s FBI is doing ahead of the election, and Trump asking Republicans to vote by mail after years of calling it a scam.
So do me a favor. Like this video, share it with someone who needs to see it, and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Let’s get to it.
1. Republicans Abandon Trump's Party in the Open
Over the last few weeks, a long list of Republicans have come out in support of Democratic candidates. Two former governors of Kansas. A former governor of Montana who used to run the RNC. And more than 20 prominent Texas Republicans backing James Talarico over Ken Paxton.
Some of these endorsements are bigger than others. But remember that a lot of voters in these states have never voted for a Democrat in their life. For many of them, that’s a big step to take. When you see a former party official or even someone you used to vote for take the leap, it becomes a whole lot easier.
More and more voters are taking that leap. You can see it in a recent poll from the New York Times and Siena. Talarico is up six in Texas. Sherrod Brown is up three in Ohio. Iowa is a one point race. And Kansas, which Trump won by 16 points, is a coin flip. When pollsters asked voters in those same states what they want from a senator, 49 percent said somebody who’ll stand up to Trump. 27 percent said somebody who’ll support him. Again, these are supposed to be Republican strongholds.
So think about where that leaves Republicans. It’s been obvious for a while they’d be playing defense. The guy in the Oval Office has made sure of that. What they didn’t plan on was having to defend states Trump won by double digits. Now they’re spending real money in places they aren’t used to worrying about, and every dollar that goes there is a dollar that’s not going to the races that are usually competitive.
For years, Republicans in red states have been able to count on one thing. Even if you don’t love Trump, you’ll close your eyes and vote for the team. Lifelong Republicans crossing the aisle is a big part of why that strategy is starting to crack. It’s one thing to hold your nose when everyone around you is doing it. It’s another when people you’ve been voting for are now saying the Democrat is the better choice.
2. Paxton Admits Washington Runs His Campaign
Last week, Adam covered leaked audio from one of Paxton’s campaign events, where he admitted that Trump’s big midterm convention sank GOP numbers instead of raising them. Over the weekend, more embarrassing audio went public. This time Paxton wasn’t complaining about Trump. He was complaining about his own campaign. Have a listen:
There you have it. This is Washington’s race, and Paxton is just along for the ride. He isn’t campaigning on the issues that matter to him, much less the ones that matter to Texans. He’s simply taking orders from the Trump political team and the national GOP. Considering the shape the national party is in right now, Talarico should be thrilled.
Keep in mind, Trump’s involvement in this campaign is nothing new. He was the one who picked Paxton in the first place and pushed him through the primary. Now that the polls have gone south, he’s trying to run the campaign himself.
What’s funny is the election hasn’t even happened yet and Trump can’t seem to say anything nice about the guy. He used his own convention speech to crack jokes about how Paxton looks. He knows he’s got a loser on his hands. Problem is, he’s the one who chose him.
3. Trump Posts Tom Cotton's Phone Number
That’s right. With prices up at home and war continuing abroad, the GOP is fighting tooth and nail over daylight savings time.
The bill in question is the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight savings time permanent. Trump wants it, but Tom Cotton of Arkansas has been blocking it, citing dangerously dark winter mornings.
It’s the kind of small, boring disagreement that used to be most of politics. Kind of refreshing, actually. But the President clearly doesn’t see it that way. On Saturday, he posted a rant on Truth Social, telling supporters that “Tom Cotton, a friend of mine, is holding up a very important Bill.” He then posted Cotton’s personal cell phone number and urged people to call it and convince him to support the bill.
Tom Cotton isn’t one of the moderates who break with Trump from time to time. He’s one of the most loyal Republicans in the Senate. He’s been with Trump on just about everything. His reward for that loyalty? A MAGA mob sent to his phone over clocks.
The insanity was obvious to other Senate Republicans. Here’s John Kennedy of Louisiana:
Zero to a-hole in about three seconds. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The story here is not about daylight savings time. It’s not even about Trump snapping at one of his closest allies. It’s about a president facing a wave election and focusing on all the wrong things. While Democrats beat the drum on the issues that really matter, Trump is burning the few bridges he has left over minor issues. That’s the help Republicans are getting from the White House with four weeks to go.
4. Kash Patel Turns the FBI Into Trump's Election-Conspiracy Unit
Five months ago, FBI Director Kash Patel vowed on Fox that he would pursue arrests over the supposed conspiracy to steal the 2020 election. “I’ve been with the president nearly since day one on this,” he said. And “it’s coming soon.” But there haven’t been any arrests. Because there was no conspiracy.
Still, according to a new report from The Atlantic, Patel hasn’t stopped trying to find one. The publication spoke with more than 40 officials, agents, and members of Congress. They describe how Patel has ordered staff to prioritize digging up nonexistent evidence of the conspiracy, often abandoning serious national security cases. And nobody is allowed to question the investigation.
Take the case of Fulton County, Georgia. In July, about 260 FBI employees were pulled off their regular work for two weeks to review ballots seized in the county. They found nothing. But two FBI analysts who questioned the process were swiftly escorted out of the office.
Many Trump loyalists are now walking away. Last month, a prosecutor quit overseeing Trump’s grand conspiracy probe. On his way out, he said: “If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem.”
But Patel is still pushing forward with Trump’s delusions, preparing to use his agency to sow chaos in the November midterms.
Inside the bureau, agents are worried about what they’re being asked to do on Election Day. A former senior FBI official told The Atlantic that he had received worried calls from former colleagues, who described “a real effort to bend people to the narrative” of the president’s election-conspiracy theories. Another agent said he contemplates Election Day and thinks: “I’m either gonna be sick that day or they are going to have to fire me.”
Patel would rather undermine our national security and our elections than cross Trump. So we have our answer: there’s nothing he won’t do for him. And he isn’t hiding why. In August, at an event with Trump on Long Island, Patel heaped praise on the president, then told him: “President Trump, I’m living the American dream because of you.” That says it all.
5. Trump Begs Republicans to Vote by Mail After Calling It a Scam
Let’s think back on the President’s angry tirades against mail-in ballots on Truth Social. In July, they were “inherently corrupt.” And just last month, voting by mail was “totally CORRUPT and out of control,” and a “Nation Destroying SCAM.”
And he tried, more than once, to do something about it. Trump has signed two executive orders to restrict mail ballots nationwide. The first would have thrown out ballots that arrive after Election Day. The second would have let the Postal Service refuse to deliver ballots to anyone who wasn’t on a federal citizenship list. Both got blocked in court.
But now Trump has reversed course, urging Republicans to vote by mail for Republican candidates in November. “Republicans must WIN the 2026 Midterm Elections, and we must use every appropriate tool” he posted on Saturday. “Whether you vote early, absentee, by mail, or in-person, we must swamp the Radical Left Dumocrats with massive turnout!”
This remarkable hypocrisy is an admission that the effort to kill mail voting has failed. But there’s more to it. For six years, Trump told his voters that mail ballots are how elections get stolen. Many of them listened and stopped voting by mail. That cost him in 2020, and it cost Republicans again in the 2022 midterms. Now he needs those votes back.
And let’s not forget: Trump votes by mail. He did it most recently in Florida this March.
So what’s changed since those angry posts? Nothing. The rules are the same. The only thing that has changed is that Trump has decided mail voting might help him this time. That’s how it’s always worked with him. Voting by mail was a scam when he thought it hurt his chances. But now that he needs it, it’s an appropriate tool. Funny how that works.
Some other stories that caught my eye:
According to the New York Times, NASA hopes to construct a nuclear reactor on the moon by the end of 2030. In late August, NASA asked contractors to prepare a reactor that could survive the trip and run without maintenance near the lunar south pole. The agency moved up its schedule over concerns that a Russian-Chinese reactor could create a de facto exclusion zone on the moon. Both Russia and China are already building a reactor called Selena to power a joint moon base, which they aim to have it running by 2036. All three countries agree that a permanent base needs nuclear power because solar panels won’t work through lunar nights, which last two Earth weeks. Moscow says it has the edge. The president of Russia’s Kurchatov Institute, which is helping design Selena, said “Russia has practically no competitors in the field of space nuclear energy.” It has launched more than 30 reactors into orbit. Meanwhile, the U.S. has spent over $20 billion on space nuclear programs since 1965, but it has not deployed a reactor. Scientists warn about the risks of moving too fast. In 1978, a failed Soviet nuclear satellite scattered radioactive debris across roughly 48,000 square miles of northern Canada. A similar risk continues to loom over this escalating frontier.
According to American officials, the U.S. has pulled all of its B-1 bombers out of RAF Fairford in England after a suspected plot to attack the base. Fairford has been the main European hub for U.S. bomber strikes on Iran, housing a dozen stationed B-1s up until this weekend. But the Pentagon now confirms the bombers “have redeployed to their home stations in the United States.” It added that they remain ready to strike from American soil. The move follows the arrest of six men last Sunday over a suspected attack on the base. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there were strong signs of Iranian involvement. A senior U.S. official went a step further, claiming that a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard recruited British nationals to target the aircraft. Iran denies involvement. The base has been politically sensitive in Britain. London first refused to let the U.S. launch strikes on Iran from it, then relented on the condition the missions be defensive. In July, the Revolutionary Guard warned that British bases used against Iran would be legitimate targets.
