What the Hell Is Going On – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc discuss the disaster that was the first and likely only debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris came into the debate well prepped, articulate, and managed to dodge the few attempts to make her explain her flip-flopping on a litany of far-left policies. Trump, meanwhile, succumbed to his worst temptations, failing to take advantage of opportunities to knock Harris’s record. Worst of all, the moderators showed a clear and unabashed bias for Harris all night long.

Summer is over and the election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is right around the corner, with early voting starting this month in some states. Today, the election is in effect a tossup with highly possible paths to victory for both candidates. But this election is either’s to lose, with Trump struggling to stay on message and Harris unwilling or unable to speak alone and off script with the American people. What are Harris and Trump’s chances come November? Will the GOP keep the House and re-take Senate? What would a Harris administration mean for America?

Karl Rove is a Wall Street Journal columnist and a Fox News contributor. He is the former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush and is known as “The Architect” of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns. Rove is the author of The Triumph of William McKinley (Simon & Schuster, 2016) and Courage and Consequence (Threshold Editions, 2010).

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Following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life in Pennsylvania, the former president is moving full steam ahead with his campaign as the Republican National Convention kicks off in Milwaukee. Trump started the convention Monday off with a bang, announcing his VP choice, Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) – a controversial decision that promises handwringing around the globe. Meanwhile, the Biden campaign continues to flounder, struggling to reset post-debate disaster, with Democrats still speaking privately about a forced exit strategy for the ailing incumbent. How might Vance help or hurt Trump’s chances in November? And how are both parties shifting their tones following the tragic events of the weekend?

Brit Hume currently serves as a chief political analyst for FOX News Channel (FNC). He acts as a regular panelist on FOX's weekly public affairs program, FOX News Sunday, and contributes to all major political coverage. Before joining FOX News, Hume was with ABC News for 23 years and served as ABC’s chief White House correspondent.

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The 2022 midterms came as a shock to Ds and Rs alike: the Democrats did better than expected, and the Republicans did worse. Much worse. Last week, covered the reasons behind the Red Fail. But what about Democrats? The left ran a shrewd, if cynical, anti-MAGA campaign, and capitalized on weak GOP candidates. But it the aftermath, President Biden and his party seem to be learning the wrong lessons. Despite losing ground with women and minorities, the Democrats’ short-term vindication has encouraged Biden to announce he would make no changes. None at all. What he and his party don’t get is that the Democrats didn’t win, the Republicans lost.

Our guest this week is Ruy Teixeira. Teixeria is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where he focuses on the transformation of party coalitions and future of American electoral politics. He is the co-editor of the Substack The Liberal Patriot, and he previously was a scholar at the Center for American Progress and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.

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In the months leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, the Republican party projected a red wave of GOP wins across the nation. And the odds were good: Biden has delivered the worst inflation in 40 years, the worst collapse of real wages in four decades, the worst murder rate since 1996, and that's not all. His approval rating is abysmal, and of course, the party in power almost always loses seats in a midterm election. So why did the predicted red wave not only fail to materialize in full, but barely show up as a trickle? Although results are not final, one thing is certain: Trump lost big time, and DeSantis swept. While we wait for the runoff in Georgia (again), the GOP is asking itself what the hell is going on. Will someone emerge as a viable challenger to Team Trump? Can the Republican brand be repaired? 

These questions and more with our guest, Josh Kraushaar. Kraushaar is a Senior Political correspondent at Axios, and host of the Against the Grain podcast. Previously, he was Editor in Chief of the Hotline, and a co-author at the Almanac of American Politics.

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On September 13th, 22 year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested and subsequently murdered in custody by Iran's so-called morality police. Her abuse at the hands of the Islamic Republic regime sparked the nation’s biggest uprising since the 2009 Green Revolutions. Over a month later, the chants of "Women, life liberty" have continued, but so has the brutal crackdown by the regime, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Iranian society is making clear that it wants an end to the system and the people that have governed Iran since 1979, but is that possible? And would the fall of the regime mean a power vacuum filled by Iranian military leaders? Back home, will Biden's support for democracy prove more “ornamental than instrumental”?

These questions and more with our guest Behnam Ben Taleblu. Taleblu is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense for Democracies where he focuses on Iranian security and political issues. Prior to FDD, he worked on non-proliferation issues at the Wisconsin Project and has tracked a wide range of Iran-related topics including: nuclear non-proliferation, ballistic missiles, sanctions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Iranian security and internal politics. 

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The last four months have been, by any measure, incredibly tumultuous for UK leadership. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was ousted and replaced by Liz Truss, a new monarch took the throne, then Truss resigned from leadership in record time after plunging the UK economy into disarray... and this week Rishi Sunak was sworn in as the new Prime Minister. Americans, looking at their closest political and economic ally across the pond, have every reason to be nervous. What happened to the Tory Party in Great Britain, and how long can it survive this turmoil? Is Sunak up to the task? And, importantly, what parallels can we draw between the challenges facing conservatism abroad, and those facing conservatives at home?

These questions and more with our guest, Gerry Baker. Baker is the editor at large of the Wall Street Journal. He has a weekly column, Free Expression, that appears every Tuesday; he also hosts “WSJ at Large with Gerry Baker,” a weekly news and current affairs interview show on the Fox Business Network, and the weekly WSJ Opinion podcast "Free Expression". A former editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, he began his career working at the Financial Times, the Times of London and the BBC.

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A few weeks ago, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave a keynote address at the U.S. Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Given Orban's tight relationship with Putin and his aggressive brand of Euro-xenophobia, many American liberals and conservatives alike were shocked.  But Orban's speech at CPAC -- and CPAC's own meeting in Hungary -- is part of a larger shift on the American Right; indeed, this is a throwback to the Right of the 1930s. As traditional Reaganites wonder what happened to "peace through strength," is it time to ask how "national conservatism" and Reagan-conservatism can live together? And who is the leader that can show the way?

These questions and more with Matthew Continetti. Continetti is a senior fellow and the inaugural Patrick and Charlene Neal Chair at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of an important new book, The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism.

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Putin is incurring major losses on the battlefield. The strategic and symbolic Kerch Bridge connecting mainland Russia to Crimea was hit a few hours after Putin turned 70; Russian citizens are increasingly unhappy with their leadership; the Ukrainian counter-offensive is resilient and capitalizing on Russia's many military vulnerabilities. Putin has ramped up threats of nuclear escalation, prompting Joe Biden to warn of impending Armageddon at a recent Democratic fundraiser. Is nuclear escalation a legitimate fear? If so, how do we deter Russia from escalating without offering Putin a compromise or offramp? 

Fred Kagan on these questions and more in today's episode. Kagan is the director of AEI's Critical Threats Project. He, together with the Institute for the Study of War, release a live Ukraine-Russia war tracker. 

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We're just shy of a month out from the 2022 midterm elections, a race that promises the GOP at least a leading edge in the House, if not a tsunami. And perhaps even a Senate win. But there remain critical unknowns: What will happen with the cohort of Trump-endorsed nominees, none of whom seem the best and the brightest their state has to offer?  Trump cost the GOP the Senate once before; will that happen again, and will he pay for it this time? And then, the million-dollar question: depending on how this race goes, what will 2024 look like? 

All these questions and more on today's episode with Karl Rove. Rove is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He is the co-founder (with former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie) of American Crossroads, a major Republican 527. He is also the author of The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters.

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