Trump influence prevails in several primaries

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.

--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.

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.

The president, who encouraged those outside groups to spend all that money, showed no mercy. He was a bad guy. He deserves to lose.

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." The concern many Republicans have is now they've got to spend tens of millions of dollars to help Ken Paxton defeat Democratic candidate James Talarico, who's also raised tens of millions of dollars. And the argument is if we didn't have to spend as much in Texas, we'd be able to spend it in less-expensive and equally consequential Senate races in Georgia, North Carolina, Maine, Michigan, and elsewhere, Errol. It's a concern about diversion of resources that the president could have avoided if he'd stuck with John Cornyn.

Interesting analysis there. Ed, thank you so much.