The article reports on an interview with Chris Stirewalt on The Remnant podcast hosted by Jonah Goldberg. Chris Stirewalt is a guest commentator who will discuss various topics including politics and culture with a focus on the midterms, the Alaska primary, and J.D. Vance's presidential campaign. The key angle of this article appears to be an introduction to a new segment of the podcast where they will begin discussing the fall campaign season.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-09,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
President Donald Trump's midterms convention, a two-day event in Dallas, Texas, has become a focus of attention as Republicans gather to boost enthusiasm ahead of the November elections. However, the event is facing challenges, including low attendance from top Republican leaders, with some citing conflicting obligations or concerns about being associated with an unpopular president.
Only 45 GOP lawmakers are expected to attend, and at least 10 have already skipped the convention, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) who has opted out of making a speech but will still be attending. The convention is also notable for its lackluster seating arrangements, with New York's delegation placed in a less prominent location than usual.
The event, dubbed "Trump-a-Palooza," is intended to rally voters around Trump's record despite his low approval ratings. However, some Republicans are expressing concerns about the timing and focus of the convention, which comes as the party faces increasingly grim forecasts for elections that could cost it control of Congress.
In response, Democrats have announced plans to counterprogram the event, sending their top messengers to highlight the affordability crisis and expose what they call "Trump Cartel corruption." The Democratic National Committee has also criticized the Republicans' decision to hold a midterm convention, calling it a "waste of time" when voters are already making up their minds.
Written for “Trump's Midterm Convention” on 2026-09-09,
grounded in this article and the 22 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political
question, so it has no leaning score. That is an
answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly
or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it
anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political
position.
No political leaning scored for article 7228 · logged 2026-09-09
Today a *very sober* Jonah Goldberg is joined by the *mostly sober* friend of the pod, pickled alligator aficionado, and notorious West Virginian Chris Stirewalt to talk about the midterms, the Alaska primary, GOP expectations, J.D. Vance’s presidential campaign, right-wing social engineering, the Trump midterm convention, postliberal eggheads, post-Americanism, free money, America’s dirtbag political ethos, and … America the Sandwich.
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Goldberg → join → America
The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective.
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Remnant → cover → perspective
To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah’s twice-weekly G-File—click here.
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access → access → articles
Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member by clicking here.
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you → set → experience
Can you dig it?
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you → dig → it
This is Jonah Goldberg, host of the Remnant Podcast, brought to you by the Dispatch and Dispatch Media.
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This → bring → Dispatch
We can sense the end
of the Barton Fink season here in DC with the end of summer.
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We → sense → summer
It's coming.
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It → come → ?
Uh, like in the mornings, it's almost, almost necessary to wear a jacket, but not quite, but you can imagine wearing a jacket.
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you → wear → jacket
And we decided traditionally the Labor Day weekend marks the beginning of the actual fall campaign.
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weekend → decide → campaign
Some of this is a bit of a cliche and, you know, nostalgia as we're talking, but we-- we're gonna honor it, and so we figured we would need to do some serious punditry, particularly given the really shocking results in Saxony-Anhalt for the AFD in Germany-
[laughs]
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we → know → Germany-
