are adopting that sort of scorched earth strategy. and you see at least a third, maybe 40% of the republican base are going in that direction as well. that just that helps elect primary candidates that aren t going to win in the general election. yeah. but in many cases, as jonathan said you look at a candidate like herschel walker. he s up 50 points in that primary, hand-picked by trump because he liked him in the 1980s. if you watched just recently, david drucker there was a debate for the pennsylvania senate seat. and it was just a contest to see and declare who was closer to donald trump. dr. oz has been endorsed by donald trump but the other candidates are saying i was appointed by donald trump. i followed the trump legacy, i follow the maga agenda. there are many, many races
other thing that we have to do is, these members on either whatever position you are calling out other members that s got to stop. tension is too high. the country is too crazy. i do not want to look back and think we caused something or we missed something and someone got hurt. i don t want to play politics with a of that. joining us now, white house editor for politico, sam stein, former chief of staff, adrian elrod, she was a senior aide to the hillary clinton and biden presidential campaigns. and senior political correspondent for the washington examiner david drucker. and, joe, i ll let you take it away. it s just amazing, every time more tapes come out, kevin mccarthy just finds a way to pretend that they don t exist. or he meant something else, when it s right there. yeah. and then, david drucker, used to
out front about what he meant at the time, why he said what he said what he said. why he apparently changed his mind. we know, because the politics within his conference dictated that he change his mind. and you cannot, as a party leader, in this day and age, lead members where they don t want to go, because they don t need the party fundraising to get ahead. yeah. of course, you re so right about people in the trumpist part of right-wing media starting to attack mccarthy, maybe that will have an impact in districts across the country. that s all begun. david, it s worth noting you ve written about kevin mccarthy s public grudge to make good with trump after the january 6 attack. in your gook in trump s shadow the battle for 2024 and the future of the gop, here s what you wrote. the house minority leader aimed to keep trump focused and in the fold by collaborating with him