ED O'KEEFE:
00:00:51
Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie the latest in a long line of Republicans defeated after falling out of favor with President Trump. In his concession speech, Massie made a pointed jab at his opponent-- I would have come out sooner, but I had to call my opponent and concede. And it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv.
ED O'KEEFE:
00:01:11
--after more than $32 million spent by pro-Israel organizations and Trump-backed groups helped power Ed Gallrein's campaign. There is a yearning in this country for somebody who will vote for principles over party.
ED O'KEEFE:
00:01:24
Massie and Trump disagreed on the war with Iran, the Jeffrey Epstein affair, and foreign aid to Israel and Ukraine. He lost to farmer and former Navy SEAL Gallrein, who vows to be a reliable yes vote for Trump. I want to thank President Trump for his support-- [APPLAUSE] --his endorsement.
ED O'KEEFE:
00:01:45
The president, who encouraged those outside groups to spend all that money, showed no mercy. He was a bad guy. He deserves to lose.
ED O'KEEFE:
00:01:53
In Georgia, another one-time Trump foe went down as Brad Raffensperger lost his Republican bid for governor. The state's top election official famously defied Trump's demand in 2020 to find enough votes to help him win the key swing state. And even before last night's results, the president jumped into the next big contest, a Texas-sized Republican runoff between Senator John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, the state attorney general. Paxton's faced years of investigations and impeachment attempts over corruption allegations that he denies. Many Republicans fear his controversial record could lose the GOP a seat they've held for more than three decades. But Trump says he's endorsing Paxton because he's "always been extremely loyal to me." There are concerns across the GOP that they're now going to have to spend tens of millions of dollars to help Paxton defeat Democrat James Talarico, when they could have spent that money in easier-to-win, less-expensive Senate contests in states like North Carolina, Georgia, and Maine. Adriana, all this a reminder it's going to be a very expensive campaign year. Yep, it already has been. Ed, thank you so much. So, Major, you were here late into the night covering these primaries. What's your takeaway? So let's talk about Texas for a second. The president endorsed Ken Paxton. That's not a huge surprise. But to Ed's point, it is going to cost Republicans more to win that seat, which they probably will. But when you take money and you put it in Texas, you are taking it off the field elsewhere. Now, Republicans talking last night said there's plenty of money to go around. We'll have enough to cover all of our bets. But it is a complicating factor created by the president's endorsement. And the other thing it does is it creates more enemies within the Senate Republican conference for the president. So his legislative agenda trying to get through the Senate is now going to have some foes in the Republican ranks. Bill Cassidy lost on Saturday. John Cornyn is not going to have any loyalty to the president. Those might be surprising new votes for the president to have to deal with.
ADRIANA DIAZ:
00:03:48
That's an interesting point. Major, thank you so much.
