Democrats make moves in South Carolina

All right. So last week also in South Carolina, the Republicans there defied President Trump in blocking a redistricting plan, Robert, that would have dismantled Congressman Clyburn's majority Black district. This is sort of notable and perhaps a telling sign of a potential crack in President Trump's grip on the GOP. Do you read it that way, or is this just an anomaly? Well, this is an interesting situation because in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on the Voting Rights Act, you're seeing Republican legislatures across the South really start to rethink their maps. And majority minority districts like that of Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and others down in Alabama and Mississippi, really vulnerable to being kind carved out of existence by legislatures who are reacting to the Supreme Court's decision. But in South Carolina, it looks like Congressman Clyburn is going to be able to keep his seat. And part of this is a political calculation by the Republicans. They don't want, in South Carolina, to start having all of the Democrats who are very much crowded in the congressman's district, suddenly be part of their own districts. So it's really about their own preservation more than trying to keep Congressman Clyburn in office. Bob, I was just reading quickly about when-- remember when Biden helped change the order to move South Carolina, their primary up? That still holds for this primary season, right? Well, it's one of those fluid questions. It's a really good one question to raise because President Biden, knowing that South Carolina was so sweet for him politically, wanted it first in 2024, especially as he was facing possible primary challenges. But now it's not exactly set in stone because some states, whether it's New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada, they can try to hopscotch and get a different spot in line. But at this point-- when I spoke to Congressman Clyburn over the weekend, I said, where do you think this is all going? He said he just wants to be first in the South. He wants South Carolina to be a dominant state in the process. Does it have to go before Iowa or New Hampshire? Not necessarily. But South Carolina democratically is a place where Black voters have enormous sway. And if you're going to be the Democratic nominee, you really need to have a cross coalition showing in a lot of these primaries. And that's why Congressman Clyburn is confident, even if it's not first, South Carolina will be early and important in the 2020 primary race. And, Bob, just staying on Democrats here, it's been a rough few weeks for the party between the DNC autopsy, Jill Biden's remarks, which Democrats want to move past, and now you have Graham Plattner and the sexting controversy. What are you hearing from party insiders on their plan to try to move forward? Well, they don't necessarily look at those metrics and say, oh, that's the party in disarray, because so many Democrats at the highest level of the party, when I speak to them, they say, look, do they like this controversy or that controversy? Of course, not. But they don't believe that the 2026 midterms are going to be based on President Biden. They don't believe they're going to be based on Graham Plattner and his personal life. They believe it's going to come down to gas prices and whether the Democrats can make an effective argument or not about affordability in this country. And working Americans, middle class Americans, upper middle class Americans, those who might be feeling the pain at the pump or at the grocery store, those are the voters Democrats believe are vulnerable for Republicans that they can start to make some inroads with. So they're really trying to focus more on making a case against the Trump administration broadly in terms of its character and conduct and on the economy and hope, in their view, that these other issues don't bubble up and become defining.

All right. Bob Costa.

Bob Costa, always good to have you, my friend. Thank you.

Thanks, Bob. Thank you.