The Dispatch
· collected 2026-09-04 · by Steve Hayes, Jonah Goldberg, Michael Warren, John McCormack
Steve Hayes is joined by Jonah Goldberg, Mike Warren, and John McCormack to discuss Trump’s role within the Republican Party in the upcoming midterms and the Democratic Party’s association with Hasan Piker.
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Hayes → join → Piker
On today's roundtable, we look at President Trump's role within the Republican Party as it relates to the upcoming midterms, and Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed's association with socialist streamer Hasan Piker.
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it → look → Piker
Then the panelists each choose a race we think you should pay extra attention to this November.
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you → choose → attention
I'm joined today by The Dispatch's Editor-in-Chief, Jonah Goldberg, Politics Editor Mike Warren, and Senior Editor John McCormack.
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I → join → Chief
Let's dive right in.
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's → let → ?
Okay, gentlemen, we are gonna spend some time on politics.
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we → go → politics
There are a couple dozen competitive House races, depending on how you count them, probably 6, 7, 8 competitive Senate races, maybe a couple more.
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you → be → them
And this is going to have significant potential consequences on the final 2 years of the Trump administration.
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this → go → administration
Although, as John wrote earlier this summer, it may not have many significant consequences on the final 2 years of the Trump administration.
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it → write → administration
Donald Trump had a good number of Republicans over to the White House last night to the new Rose Garden, where he had a dinner.
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he → have → dinner
He served them cheeseburgers.
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He → serve → cheeseburgers
They talked about the 2 months in front of us in the midterm elections.
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They → talk → elections
The Trump Super PAC released 2 new television ads pointing toward the midterm elections, featuring only Donald Trump talking about Donald Trump and Donald Trump's accomplishments.
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PAC → release → Trump
Donald Trump's overall approval right now, according to the RealClearPolitics average, is -16.7.
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approval → accord → average
His approval on what I think is his best issue, immigration, -9.8.
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I → think → ?
The country believes that the United States is on the wrong track versus the right track.
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States → believe → track
There's a 24-point gap there, and many Republicans in competitive races are doing what they can to localize the race, to make the race about their district or their state.
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they → be → district
And yet Donald Trump, in his comments to Republicans on Wednesday evening, promised that he would be campaigning in battleground states ahead of these elections.
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he → promise → elections
Mike,
is Donald Trump doing exactly what Democrats want Donald Trump to do at this moment, with somebody so unpopular promising to weigh in for the next 2 months on behalf of imperiled Republicans?
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somebody → do → Republicans
Yes, but I don't know if it's an irrational move on Trump and the Republicans.
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it → know → Trump
I mean, look, all of those numbers [chuckles] are very, very bad for Donald Trump, very, very bad for Republicans.
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chuckles → mean → Republicans
Okay, so Democratic voters are coming out in 2026.
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voters → come → 2026
I, I don't think there is any risk of that not happening.
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that → think → ?
That's the Democrats' challenge right now, is just to get them motivated to vote for Democrats.
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them → get → Democrats
What do the Republicans need to do?
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Republicans → need → What
They need to motivate their voters who are not motivated at all at this point in, in the race.
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who → need → race
So who is the best person in the GOP to unify Republican voters, to get them excited about voting when they otherwise have no good reasons to be excited to vote?
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they → unify → reasons
So I don't know if it's necessarily irrational.
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it → know → ?
I think that this is just the problem that Republicans are in when you have a very unpopular president who remains very popular, maybe not as popular as he was a year ago with Republican voters, but still popular with, very popular with Republican voters, the number one most popular person within the party.
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he → think → party
He's not wrong to think that, "Oh, it- it's all about me."
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it → think → me
The, the problem is just that, you know, whereas 2 years ago, Democrats were sort of down in the dumps.
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Democrats → know → dumps
There was no enthusiasm for the Democratic agenda after 4 years of Biden and then all of the mess with Biden being replaced by Kamala Harris.
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Biden → be → Harris
But on the Republican side, things really haven't changed.
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things → change → side
Voters still are motivated by him.
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Voters → motivate → him
The question I have, and the question I think I'll be watching in the next couple of months, is how good does he make on that promise to go out and campaign for people, and who shows up on stage with him in a lot of these battleground places?
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who → have → places
That's the thing to watch, I think, and to see if the rhetoric matches the reality.
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rhetoric → watch → reality
Yeah, John, there's this massive voter enthusiasm gap that, that Mike refers to, well-documented in a Fox News poll, in, in many other polls.
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Mike → be → polls
Pretty much every poll taken over the past couple months shows this, this enthusiasm gap.
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poll → take → this
Is that the right way to respond to it, for Republicans to push Donald Trump front and center, to campaign around him, to make arguments about what?
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Republicans → respond → what
I mean, if you're a Republican strategist, if you were talking to a Republican strategist and you're trying to come up with the best case for a Republican in a competitive House district, and you want to gin up Republicans, make them excited to show up at the polls,
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them → mean → polls
