overlapping circles of advisers around trump and mccarthy right now. it s in both of their interests to keep this quiet. and for trump, it s almost like he has all the leverage over mccarthy at this point. right. he keeps him alive, and mccarty really can t go out of line as long as that s true. and kevin mccarthy, thest a testament to donald trump s continued influence over the republican party, which trump obviously cares about as much as anything else. every time kevin mccarthy has to bow and scrape to donald trump, it just reenforces the fact that trump has this grip on the republican party. trump, i think, loves this ongoing narrative. i think maggie is right, there s a long ways between now and the next congress. i think it s uncertain where the far right s loyalties are going to be. that was why kevin mccarthy was not offered the speaker when he tried previously six years ago. i think it s still an open question, and we ll see what happens between now and then. part of t
criticism the leveled a far right members of his own conference. and ginning me now, with their reporting and insights. ma ma maggie haberman of the new york times. the co-awe authority of the book, of the new york times. maggy, it seems that mccarthy is okay for now plartly buzz trump threw him a lifeline. do you think that that will hold with members of his conference? a lot is in question, abby, i think we ll see what ends up how many people end up getting elected after the november midterms, who those people are, whether there s anybody else making a credible case. it s not just the trump said i didn t like what he said, but he supports me now. jim jordan s support for kevin mccarthy was also notable. nothing is certain with trump, as anybody who has gotten his endorsement knows, ask mo brooks, it could go very, very quickly. so we ll see what happens in the fall. but for the moment, i think that there s a couple of factors at play, one of which there are
that s going to make things more interesting about 2024. i m skeptical that cruz would challenge trump. but cruz has said himself, abby, the most fun he s ever had in his life is running for president in 2016, and also one of the few republicans who ever beat donald trump. he beat him in iowa, as maggie well knows. i do recall. yeah, that s a fascinating point about ted cruz. there s also the matt dolan factor, he s not an anti-trump republican, but he s not a big lie republican. by the way, if matt dolan ends up winning, that is going to be a huge, huge warning sign for just sort of the immense chaos that exists on the right wing of the republican party, that this is a race where so many people are in the race. it is very crowded. and if that sort of that vote ends up being then he ends up winning, republicans are going to have to figure out a way to avoid that. we always tell people here, we don t know what s going to happen. people are going to go into
early. it s an increasingly red state. indicative of where things are headed in the gop. it is absolutely, abby, the field where you are seeing and most of these primary fields are basically 50 shades of trump. at least for these open senate seats. yeah. you are but it is one where he has dipped you know, dipped in, and these are basically candidates who are equal on issues, on where they are on trump, on a number of factors. so if trump does end up making the difference here, that will be telling. yeah. but to jonathan s point, it s hard to predict. i mean, you know, vance s team is feeling very good, but we re a couple days out. as much time as we re spending, you know, talking about is the trump endorsed candidate going to win, or the other guy that isn t endorsed by trump going to win, and that s obviously important, i also think the big picture here, that is worth us talking about, is that this is the seat to replace rob portman. that s right, that s right. tha
by the way somebody might force his hand. it wouldn t surprise me if some dekt got in the race in biden does not make a decision by spring of 23 #. bernie has said he wouldn t do it if biden is running, but there s a world in which other people say, and if it s trump, some democrats think biden is likely. is likely to run. what if it s not, what if it s desantis. we re not going to know if it s trump, unlike all of these other candidates, trump would kate until november of 2023, basically. he could wait as long as he wants. filing deadlines permitting in various states for primaries and caucuses. he could wait a long time. whereas the rest of us feel he s essentially freezing. it s a game of high stakes chicken. trump and biden will be watching each other after the midterms. the clock starts the day after the midterms on this question. exactly. it s going to start before that, i would argue, and one other point i would make, the thing that s unifying both parties