Life after Trump: Elections show political adjustments as Trump fades from relevance

Hey everyone, it's Chris Hayes. I'm here to let you know the very first episode of my special mini-series, Why Is This Happening? The AI Endgame is out right now. In this series, I talk to a variety of experts each week about AI and what it actually is, what it means for us. To kick things off, I spoke with journalist Derek Thompson. He's been spending the better part of the last year trying to get his arms around the same question I am. Just how big a deal is this? These guys don't really know exactly what it is they're building. They don't know exactly what's behind the door that they're planning to open six months from now. Why is this happening? The AI endgame, a special miniseries. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. OK, everyone, obviously it is another election night in America. It seems like they're coming all the time now. They're all exciting. They tell us something every time. And there are a number of interesting races happening tonight that have been happening today. We're going to dig into a bunch of them and talk about what they mean for November and also talk to some of the candidates who are at the center of all of this action. But we just we just have to start with the state of Indiana, where the results of the Republican state Senate primaries are still pouring in and they will still continue to pour in through the course of this show. And that is a sentence that I never thought I would have to say on this show, because normally a Republican primary election for state Senate seats in Indiana is really not the kind of thing that would be national news. But this is not a normal primary because Donald Trump decided to put his political energy and an enormous amount of resources motivated by venom into an effort to oust more than a half a dozen Republican state senators who refused to go along with his plan to rig Indiana's congressional map. Now, as of this hour, and again, we're going to keep you updated as we learn more, four of Trump's challengers have managed to unseat incumbent Republicans, while one incumbent Republican has managed to beat their Trump-backed challengers and hold on to their seats. And we're still waiting on final results from two races, and we'll bring you those results as we get them. And just to be clear, as you're watching this and you're thinking, what does this mean? I just want Democrats to have some control again of some body of power in this country. To be clear, this is not a bellwether of anything other than the lengths a crybaby in the White House is willing to go to to take out people who cross him. I mean, what he set off is an absolute civil war that has been raging inside the Indiana Republican Party over these primary challenges since last summer. It's been ongoing for a long time. And outside groups burned a whole bunch of money on the airwaves with ads targeting Republican incumbents, most of which focus pretty heavily on Donald Trump. Holdman against Trump for China. No wonder President Trump endorsed Blake Fechter instead. Liberal rhino Linda Rogers. President Trump endorses Dr. Brian Schmutzler. Strong. Pro-Trump. Trump endorsed Michelle Davis will never let you down. Endorsed by President Trump. Soft on skin. Soft on bottoms. Soft on China. The last one's my favorite. It's a real leap there from bunnies to toilet paper to China, but that's political ads. Anyway, that is what it's been like for voters in Indiana over the last few months. Constant. Republican campaigns and outside groups spent a whopping $12 million on ads heading into this primary. And remember, that's not $12 million that Republicans spent against Democrats in an election year that their parties expected to face enormous challenges holding onto the House, maybe the Senate, and a number of gubernatorial seats. Again, that's $12 million worth of ads run by Republicans against Republicans because of Donald Trump's petty grievances. It's $12 million that Republicans could have spent in Ohio, where Democrats, as I was just talking with Chris about, have a chance to win the race for governor for the first time in 20 years after Republican voters in that state just voted today to make former presidential candidate and Dogebro Vivek Ramaswamy their nominee. That guy's still around. We'll talk more about him later in the show. Now, later on in this hours, I was just talking with Chris about him. I'm going to talk to the Democrat in that race, former state health director Dr. Amy Acton, about how she plans to run against Ramaswamy, how she plans to win in a state that Democrats have not held the governor's mansion for 20 years in. Republicans also could have spent that $12 million in Michigan, where today voters also went to the polls to vote in a special election that will determine control of the state Senate. Since Trump's election, Democrats have flipped 30 state legislative seats, while Republicans have flipped zero, a total of zero. And today's election in Michigan is basically their last and final chance to flip a seat. Now, the Democratic candidate in that race, Shedrick Green, will also join me here later on in this hour. Clearly, that $12 million, this is my point, could have been spent elsewhere. instead of pouring millions into Republican on Republican food fights at Donald Trump's behest. But Trump insisted on spending the last several months and a lot of Republican donor money to replace some Republicans with other Republicans in a state he won by almost 20 points less than two years ago. I mean, how would you feel about that if you were Senator Susan Collins in Maine in the fight of her life against Graham Plattner, who also outraised her by a million dollars last quarter? Or Senator John Husted in Ohio, who is barely holding on against former Senator Sherrod Brown, who also outraised him by $7 million this year. Or any of the more than 20 Republican House members who have been outraised by their Democratic challengers. Not great is the answer. Not great at all. I'm sure the White House political team is getting some calls about all this spending by outside groups and Republican donors. So why is this happening? Why was Trump so obsessed with these local races in Indiana? Why was he so dead set on replacing some local Indiana Republicans with other local Indiana Republicans? Well, it all started when Donald Trump demanded that Republican-controlled states start redrawing their congressional maps to give his party an advantage in the midterms. And we've talked about that a lot on the show. And of course, Republican lemmings in states like Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, dutifully followed Trump's command and redrew their maps. But in Indiana, a handful of Republican state senators pushed back on Trump and rejected his plan to redraw their maps. And the Trump administration did everything they could to court, pressure, cajole those Indiana Republicans back towards Trump's redistricting plan in order to get them to support it. They even enticed them with an invite to the White House in hopes that they would change their mind and then sent in their closer, the political extraordinaire that he is, J.D. Vance, to the state twice, twice, to try to seal the deal. But it didn't work. None of it worked. It was just one of many failed missions, I should note, that Trump dispatched J.D. Vance for. I mean, they also sent a member to Greenland as part of Trump's failed plan to take over that territory, to Hungary to stump for Viktor Orban's failed re-election campaign, and of course to Pakistan for Trump's failed effort to end the war in Iran. So far, J.D. Vance has failed every single one of his globetrotting assignments. We did a handy dandy little map there for you on the screen. And today, when J.D. Vance traveled to his home state of Ohio to vote in today's primary election, he notably did not stick around to campaign for any of the Republican candidates there. He did head to campaign in Iowa, though, today. And here's how that went. Now, when I see that, when I see Iowa farmers who need to get that E-15 to market, what is this? What is a? Zach, you're gonna have to help me out with her name here. I lost my page here. okay all right okay there we go sarah trone garriott there he is i i'm on the wrong page here you know when you're growing up and there's a part of a movie that comes on that's super awkward you put your head under the pillow it's kind of like that i mean that guy is the white house's political secret weapon everyone that guy look these guys are flailing they're as unpopular as they've ever been and when you look at what they're doing when you look really really closely what do you see? You see a petty revenge campaign against some local Republican lawmakers in Indiana because they wouldn't help Donald Trump rig an election, a prosecution of James Comey over some seashells, a nonstop fascination and an ever-growing price tag to a ballroom that no one asked for. None of the stuff they are doing is any way connected to what a huge majority of people in this country actually care about. And look, no matter how the vote in Indiana shakes out tonight in each of these races, Trump will almost certainly claim the results are a big, huge show of strength for him and his administration. But the reality is he's never been weaker, even within his own party. I mean, he and his allies had to spend a ridiculous amount of money in a state he won by almost 20 points just to get a sliver of his base in one bright red state again to come out and support his agenda. And every day we get more and more evidence that Trump's agenda is losing Republican support outside of the MAGA base. Trump angered members of his own party by mishandling the release of the Epstein files, an issue Trump blundered so badly that a majority of Republicans now say they think this government is hiding something. Look at those numbers. Trump launched a disastrous war in Iran, a war that is so unpopular that only 46% of Republicans think the operation has been successful. Trump's wardrobe up gas prices so fast and so high that even a majority of Republicans now say Trump is to blame. Trump is insistent on punishing Republicans who cross him because he knows that if he doesn't, they will have every incentive to turn on him in order to save themselves. Let's not forget that the entire reason today's contested primary is even happening is because Trump is scared of losing the midterms, so scared that he demanded Republicans rig their maps to engineer their victory. Here was former Transportation Secretary and Indiana native Pete Buttigieg on that very point at a rally in Indianapolis just last year. We are here because Indiana Republicans are being pressured by Washington Republicans to do something that they know in their hearts is law. They are being pressured to change the rules so that voters don't have a say anymore, and they know that that is wrong. and we know why they're doing it, which is because the agenda of Washington Republicans is so unpopular that even here in Indiana they afraid of losing if they have to run on a fair map That was back in September And joining me now is former Transportation Secretary and former mayor of South Bend Indiana Pete Buttigieg I mean, it is, first of all, it's great to see you. You are from Indiana. I just played that clip of you calling out what the Trump administration was up to way back in September. This has been going on that long. I think it's important for people to remember. And now five Trump-backed candidates have now won their races. One incumbent has hung on. One is still in the air. I wonder what you make of the results tonight. And more importantly, I wonder how you think about the significance of really what we've seen over the last several months in Indiana. Well, it was striking to see just how much money the Republican Party had to put into Indiana, millions and millions of dollars against Republicans just to police the boundaries of their own coalition, because a number of them blew off President Trump and blew off J.D. Vance for the reasons that, as we described in that rally, had to do with them knowing that they were being pressured to do something wrong. I think the biggest difference between what it felt like back in September and now is that it's not just a series of unpopular policies. That's been true the whole time. Most Americans disagree with the Republican agenda in Congress of cutting taxes for the wealthy and cutting services for the rest of us. But what's really mounted now is how much the results are also failing. We've lived with the price of the tariffs, and now we've also lived with the fact that they failed to restore manufacturing jobs in the country. We have now been living with the consequences of this Iran war and living with the increased price and everything from mortgage rates going up to diesel, where I live in Michigan, hitting an all time high, all is a direct consequence of the White House and congressional Republicans. So, you know, that dynamic continues. And it's why on a in a season when they should be doing everything they can to be Democrats, they instead had to deploy millions of dollars just to beat existing Republicans and replace them with other Republicans, all because the president was mad at them. Yeah, it's like congratulations on your 12 million dollars you spent to replace some Republicans with other Republicans. Good job when you're at risk of losing the House, the Senate and gubernatorial seats. Let me ask you something. We've talked before about sort of what politics could be, what we all hope it will be again. I mean, these Republicans in Indiana, you probably don't agree with them on much. I don't agree with them on much in terms of their policies. But they knew what was coming if they stood up to Trump. They stood up to him anyways. They decided, some of them at least, that there are worse things than losing an election. I just wonder how different you think our country and our politics could be if more Republicans had that in them. And do you think you've been traveling out there and the country that there are more of them out there? I do. I mean, I see it everywhere I go. We have been going to a lot of more conservative areas. We did a town hall in Oklahoma. It was great. We had about 2000 people come out. I was in Marjorie Taylor Greene's old district where we had hundreds of people come out and the Democratic candidate overperformed by about 25 points, headed to Montana soon. And there, there are a lot of people on all sides of the aisle who are set up with the role of money in politics and taking action to do something about it. So I do believe a different kind of politics is possible. Look, Democrats are always going to disagree with Republicans. I'm always going to disagree on a lot of issues with Republicans. But if we're all actually talking about what we believe in, that that is better than Republicans repeatedly having to feel pressure to either lose their career or do something wrong because the president is demanding it of them. And I think what we saw also, and this is a really important thing to think about as we go into the future, is there are a lot of Republicans in office now who are realizing that their political career, even if they do lose an election along the way, is going to last longer than Donald Trump's domination of the Republican Party. They are planning for life after Trump. Democrats need to learn to do the same thing, not only to vigorously oppose what he's doing wrong, as we must, but to make clear our constructive governing agenda for what we will begin to do on that day when he leaves the political scene. And if people feel what we are seeking to do to lower their health care costs, to lower the cost of groceries, to make sure that you can actually afford to raise a family and buy a home in this country, I think that's how we can build a durable majority in a country where people already largely agree with us on issues from from taxes to choice, but where they need to see that we're also prepared to deliver. Yeah, I think that's a big takeaway from the election in 2024. No question. I mean, tonight, and we're about to talk to Dr. Amy Acton. We're going to keep talking about politics through the course of the show. But one of the backdrops, and you alluded to this, is certainly the war with Iran. And there are so many impacts on the country. Obviously, the members of the military whose lives have been lost and gas prices skyrocketing. There are lots of impacts on communities across the country. It's just so rare for a national security issue to be a driver for voters. I wonder, as you're talking to people out there and just your political sense, how much do you think that is a driver right now for people in the country, Democrats, independents and others who are really deciding where they're going to be in this moment? Well, the reason I think this is driving so much right now is because the Iran war is affecting Americans' everyday life and people know it. This is not just a matter of agreeing or disagreeing about some academic question of foreign policy that only affects people in a far off land. This is something that has come home to us in the most immediate way. We are paying more every day for a war that the American people didn't ask for. You add to that the fact that it's so insulting to Donald Trump's own voters who believed him when he said he would keep us out of wars and to veterans who have put their lives on the line for this country. And I think that's also a reason why you're seeing a lot of extraordinary results for people who have served. Shedrick Green is performing very well. The numbers are coming in as we speak in Michigan. I had the privilege of campaigning with him going door to door in Michigan and in the community of Midland. And from what we can tell, there's been a dramatic swing toward Democrats in that district. Now, that's for the Michigan State Senate. It's not that people, I think, expect the Michigan State Senate to be voting on matters of war and peace. It's this expectation that we look for leaders who will do right by us, and that includes leaders who serve themselves. We're going to talk to him at the end of the show. That's quite a tee up for him as well. So we'll talk to him in a little bit. I don't know if you've noticed this. I'm betting you have. But the default defense from these guys is in the Trump administration. Others 18 months into their administration seems to be to blame Joe Biden and the Biden administration from inflation numbers to gas prices to an airline going under. They just want to blame the administration you and I both worked in, I think, because they don't want to acknowledge their policies are doing the damage. To me, it's pretty pathetic. But what do you what do you think it tells us about them? Well, it's an extraordinary show of weakness to see the Trump administration when you have something like Steward Airlines, for example, going out of business because of jet fuel prices, going through the roof because of the war in Iran. And they've made very clear that that's why that airline went under. To have the Trump administration desperately trying to say, oh, no, this is actually because three years ago the Biden administration got involved in an antitrust case involving the airline. When everybody can see that what is happening is a direct consequence of the unnecessary, unpopular and unsuccessful policies of the Trump administration. Look, when you are this deep into your second year, if your reflex is to still be trying to blame the previous administration, it really shows that you are out of ideas, out of solutions and unwilling to take ownership of your own choices like this Iran war that has cost so much already in this country and beyond. You mentioned, and I think this is so important, Democrats have to talk about what they're for and the contrast. And I think a lot of people are starting to do that more and more and more over the last several months. And today we learned that Republicans want to spend a billion dollars in taxpayer money to fund Trump's ballroom. I just it is which which last I checked was supposed to cost 400 million dollars in private funding. I would know it. But my point is, every day we get these new headlines about new vanity projects, new ways the president's family are enriching themselves. How much do you think that should be? Because you've got to decide what you talk about right out there. How much do you think that should be a part of the conversation right now? I think our job is to connect the dots. None of these things happens in isolation. And the reason why it is so infuriating to see this administration make the choices that it's making is that it relates to what's happening every day, right? every penny of your taxpayer money that the president tries to spend, not on security, to be clear, but on a fancy ballroom to host parties for VIPs in, is related to the dollars they are taking away from your health care. And every minute that they spend on things like the latest news today, renaming the airport in Palm Beach after Donald Trump, is attention and energy that is coming away from things like dealing with very real problems in the aviation sector today in America. So none of these things happens in isolation, but I think our job is to make very clear how everyday life could be better in this country, that it doesn't have to be this way. But that means addressing the corruption, addressing this mismanagement, the self-dealing and the plain old bad policy coming from this administration and replacing it with an agenda that will put food on the table, that will make health care more affordable, that will mean that you can get things like paid leave when you need it to take care of your family and a fairer tax code that will see to it that a teacher or a nurse or a firefighter in America is not paying, as it is today, a higher tax rate than billionaires. These are things the American people already agree with us on. We just got to make sure we keep the focus squarely on the connections among all these issues. Pete Buttigieg, Thank you for fitting us in, talking to us about all these issues, Shanae. I really appreciate it. Likewise. Glad to be with you. Okay we are just getting started tonight We got more results to get to more candidates to talk to Dr Amy Acton just became the Democratic nominee for governor in Ohio and delivered her victory speech moments ago in Columbus And that means the stage is now set for her race against one of the most annoying characters in the MAGA cinematic universe. Amy Acton is standing by and she joins me next. Stay up to date on the biggest issues of the day with the MS Now Daily Newsletter. Each morning, you'll get analysis by experts you trust, video highlights from your favorite shows. Voters weighed in. Donald Trump's dismissal of their concerns has been weighing on his political standing. Updates on our latest podcasts and election coverage, plus written perspectives from the newsmakers themselves, all sent directly to your inbox each morning. Get the best of MSNOW all in one place. Sign up for MSNOW Daily at MS.now. Okay, you may not believe me at first when I tell you this, but you're going to want to keep a very close eye on Ohio during this year's midterm elections, And that's pretty incredible because Trump has won the state handily in all three of his presidential campaigns, including in 2024, when he won by roughly 11 percentage points. But 2026 could be a very different election year in Ohio. Just a year and a half after winning the state by double digits, Trump's approval rating among Ohio voters is now underwater. And the two biggest statewide races this election cycle are in a dead heat. Both of them are. In the governor's race, Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy holds just a single point edge over Democratic candidate Amy Acton, which is well within the margin of error. It's basically tied. And that is a remarkable margin because Ohio hasn't elected Democratic governor in 20 years. And Amy Acton, the former director of Ohio's health department, looks like she has a real shot to win this thing. Now, you might recognize her opponent. I already mentioned him, so you already know who it is. And in case you justifiably memory hold this guy, Vivek Ramaswamy is, of course, a former businessman and a failed 2024 Republican presidential candidate who can forget how annoying he was on the debate stage. And after he dropped out, Trump tapped Ramaswamy to co-lead the so-called government efficiency project Doge, along with Trump's billionaire benefactor, Elon Musk. Now, Ramaswamy lasted about two months before being pushed out. And after that, he tried finding a new job in politics, first by vying for the appointment to the Ohio Senate seat that J.D. Vance vacated, and when that didn't all pan out, launching his run for governor. Well, tonight, Ramaswamy officially became the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, and that likely has more to do with being a MAGA personality and less to do with his actual political instincts, which just are not awesome. I was sitting next to Emily, who asked me what my favorite state was. Was it Ohio, where I'm from? And I said, Ohio's a good state. I can't say it's the best state. Again, running to be the governor of that state, the campaign ad kind of itself. Meanwhile, Amy Acton, who officially became the Democratic nominee in Ohio tonight, is making it pretty clear how she thinks about her state. I need you to know that I love Ohio. I love this state. It has given me the opportunity of a lifetime coming from one where I know it might not have gone this way. When you love Ohio, you do not move your business to Texas before running for governor. You do not tell Ohioans that affordability is a buzzword. And you do not pitch tax schemes that line the pockets of billionaires while raising costs for the rest of us. Joining me now is Ohio's Democratic nominee as of today for Governor Dr. Amy Acton. Thank you for being here with me today. Thank you, Jen. It's wonderful to be here with you. In 2024, Trump won. I mentioned this already. Ohio by 11 points. I think a lot of people watching are like, is there really a shot in Ohio? Is there really a shot? I promise you there is. But now a year and a half later, your statewide race is within the margin of error. It's basically tied. What do you what do you attribute that shift to in your state? Well, let me tell you, Jen, I am an Ohioan, lifelong Ohioan, and I am a doctor. I am not a politician, but I am a lifelong public servant. And I have been on the road traveling to every corner of the state, quite frankly, going places Dems haven't been in a while. and everywhere we go, people are showing up in record numbers. It does not know party. They are exhausted of trying to keep pace when everything is so unaffordable and they're exhausted by the hate and the chaos and the vitriol. They are longing for public servants again who actually solve problems instead of make them. And that is what we've seen everywhere we go. we are now seeing what looks like a movement of the people longing for change. One of the issues, I love talking to people like you, have been actually talking to voters and having conversations. You know, one of the issues we talk about a lot, and I know is on the minds of a lot of Americans and people in Ohio, is the war in Iran. And I know according to a recent poll, a majority of Ohio voters oppose Trump's war with Iran. From what you've seen and the conversations you've had with people, what is the reaction to the impact of Trump's ongoing war? How is it impacting people? How are you seeing it as an issue in this race? Well, I'll tell you, you know, what I'm mostly hearing from Ohioans is cost of everyday life. It is absolutely, people are doing everything right. They're working harder than they have ever worked, but there is no more breathing room. You know, it's the cost of housing and rent, 50 percent of most Ohioans income. It is health care costs in a big way. We're seeing a lot of medical debt. We're seeing a lot of folks not even having access to health care. Our educational programs are under attack. Our electric bills are up. Our property taxes are going up and our child care is unaffordable. People are really talking. Ninety five percent of what they say isn't controversial. and we're seeing this in our numbers too. You know, we're doing so well with Democrats, but we are solidly beating my opponent in independence. We're seeing tons of Republicans crossing over. People are longing for us to get back to the work of everyday life. So that's actually what I hear about. I mentioned it before, but it seems like the biggest thing your opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, is going for him is that he has a recognizable name among Republicans. But as I said, he doesn't seem to be exactly a political savant out there. He's frequently, not just the clip I showed, I mean, he's frequently floated ideas like a 365-day school year for kids and Medicaid and Medicare. He said Medicaid and Medicare are a mistake. That said, I mean, money and recognition are likely to make him formidable. This is a state Trump won by a lot less than two years ago. How are you approaching this campaign with all of that in mind? And, you know, I am running against a self-funding billionaire who truly has ideas that stun most Ohioans. You are right. Medicaid and Medicare are mistakes when we have 11 rural hospitals on the verge of collapse and people going an hour to an hour and 15 minutes just to deliver a baby. We actually have babies being born roadside. He says things like people are struggling because they're lazy and mediocre and not working hard enough. And that is absolutely not the Ohioans I know. The list goes on and on, but I can tell you, you know, our message is really resonating with Ohioans. We are up against a self-funding billionaire. We're blessed, if you remember the old adage, as goes Ohio, so goes the nation. That's what it's looking like in Ohio right now. We have a really great chance. We need everyone's help, of course. We actually outraised my opponent last quarter, but he self-funded quite a bit. So we're asking folks to come to actinforgovernor.com, learn more about our race. I've been a public servant my entire career. I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, pretty rough childhood. It actually was what drew me to become a doctor and a physician and has what's drawn me to be in this race. Ohioans are ready for change and we love everyone's help. This is very competitive. And when Ohio is competitive, that's a very hopeful thing for this nation. Dr. Amy Acton, I have a lot of family in Ohio. My husband's from Ohio. Thank you for joining us tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to everyone. Good night. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for being here. Okay. I'm going to show you just two headlines here. Here's the first headline from The Washington Post. White House lawyers prep staff for dealing with a Democratic Congress. All right, guys, it's six months away of the election, but they're prepping. Second headline from NBC News, Republicans propose one billion dollar in taxpayer dollars to secure a Trump ballroom. We talked to Pete Buttigieg about that already. I'm going to tell you what one has to do with the other when we come back. Ad-free listening and bonus content to all of MS Now's original podcasts, including the chart-topping series The Best People with Nicole Wallace, Why Is This Happening, Main Justice, and more. Plus new episodes of all your favorite MS Now shows ad-free. And ad-free listening to all of Rachel Maddow's original series, including Rachel Maddow Presents Burn Order. Subscribe to MS Now Premium on Apple Podcasts. Today, Republicans in the Senate took the giant spending bill they are trying to rush through Congress and added a billion dollars to it. One billion dollars of your hard-earned tax dollars specifically earmarked to build Trump's lavish White House ballroom. Now, that one billion dollar price tag would be eye-popping even if it came out of thin air, but it didn't. Somehow the cost of Trump ballroom just keeps growing I will build a ballroom free of charge We probably have some donors or whatever but it about million I think it'll cost $250 million. It's going to cost right in the neighborhood of $300 million. In July, the White House said it would cost $200 million. Yesterday, the president said $300 million. Is $300 million now the operative figure? And why did it go up by so much? $300 million is the figure. And again, it's not going to cost the taxpayers a dime. That didn't age well. I mean, first Trump was going to pay for it. Then donors were going to pay for it. Now you are going to pay for it. That's how it's all gone. And oh, by the way, now it's going to cost a billion dollars. And if the new taxpayer-funded billion-dollar price tag on Trump's ever-ballooning ballroom slush fund wasn't sketchy enough to begin with, which it is, that new price tag comes just a week after The New York Times got this scoop. Here's the headline from it. Firm building Trump's ballroom got a secret no-bid contract for a nearby job. All right, so here's the details there. Last summer, Trump chose a Maryland-based construction company to build his White House ballroom. And then, as the New York Times reports it, in January, government documents show that the Trump administration secretly gave the company a no-bid contract to do another job at a sharply inflated price. The National Park Service wanted to repair these two fountains in Lafayette Park, which is just right across the street from the White House. In 2022, the Biden administration estimated the work would cost about $3.3 million. The Trump administration paid $17.4 million. Now, to arrive at that much higher number, the Trump administration added work like building benches. What kind of a bench is that, by the way? And a kiosk. But the administration also did things like add more than a million dollars to adjust for inflation, which already sounds like a lot of money to add. they must recognize inflation is really, really bad under Trump. And then guess what? They did it twice. The Park Service literally increased the price by 27 percent to adjust for inflation and then took that number and increased it by another 24 percent to adjust for inflation again. Now, that is some creative accounting. Now, by law, federal agencies are supposed to seek competitive bids when contracting at work. Multiple companies compete with each other typically to try to create the best proposal at the lowest cost to win contracts like this one from the government. That's how the process is supposed to work. It's not how the process worked here, to state the obvious. The Trump administration just so happened to give this inflated contract to the same construction company that is building Trump's ballroom without considering offers from any other firms. And the administration cited a rarely used urgency exception to avoid the bidding process, an exception that is usually meant for emergencies like, say, war or natural disasters. But in this case, a spokesperson for the Department of Interior told the Times that, quote, the urgency is to ensure this project is done well ahead of America's 250th anniversary. She added that the way the contract was awarded was above board. The construction company itself did not respond to specific questions about the ballroom or fountain projects, but they told the Times that their track record reflects the quality of their work and their commitment to integrity. Okay, hold that in your mind. Now, on its own, that $17.4 million no-bid contract is suspicious, to say the least. But of course, that no-bid contract is not a one-off. Two months ago, the New York Times reported a whole slew of no-bid contracts from the Trump administration that just so happened to funnel $13 million worth of work to the firm that planned Trump's rally at the Ellipse on January 6th. Now, I guess that's what they mean by a record of work, an impeccable record of work, I suppose. Now, the White House told The Times that it was not involved in awarding any of those contracts, and the agencies that did award the contracts, the Treasury and the Navy, both justified the lack of a bidding process by saying that the projects were on condensed timelines, saying that the firm that planned Trump's January 6th rally was simply the only vendor capable of completing the job on time. Sure. Okay. And now, even with that incredibly recent history of the Trump administration handing out incredibly sketchy government contracts, Republicans want to earmark $1 billion of your tax dollars for Trump's ballroom, which he might just use as a giant slush fund. No, that's the bad news. All of that's a lot of bad news. The good news is this. Democrats might be able to do something about it. For 18 months now, Democrats have responded to stories about potential Trump grifts with lists of demands laid out in strongly worded letters. But they haven't actually had the power to force the Trump administration to comply with any of those demands. The midterms could change that. And the White House knows that. Now, yesterday, and I alluded to this reporting a little bit earlier, the Washington Post reported that White House lawyers have begun to prep White House staff for how to deal with a Democratic Congress. White House staffers are literally being shown PowerPoint presentations about how congressional oversight works, with the implication that that very oversight might soon be coming for them. Yeah, there you go. Now, coming up, Pete Buttigieg referenced a special election in Michigan earlier in the show, and it may just be the most important bellwether of the night. J.Drick Green is the Democratic candidate in that race, and he joins me next. We're watching a lot of election results tonight, including those coming in from the great state of Michigan, where a special state Senate race will decide whether Democrats retain control of the chamber ahead of the upcoming midterms. It's still very early in the vote count, but this is one of Republicans' last chances at flipping a seat in a special election before the midterms. 30? Democrats have flipped 30. It's Republican zero. And here's the thing. Having control of state legislative seats like this one in Michigan is now more important than ever in standing up against efforts by the Trump administration to mess with elections and with the rights of people across the country to participate in the process. But there's another really important reason to watch this particular race, because this district includes a chunk of Saginaw County, a bellwether county that has voted for the winning candidate in the last five presidential elections. Joining me now from Saginaw is Shedrick Green. He's a firefighter, Marine Corps veteran, and Democratic candidate for state Senate in Michigan's 35th district. It's great to see you. Thank you for being with me tonight. Good evening, Jen. How are you? Good. Okay. Well, tell me how you are. How are you feeling about the race tonight? As I mentioned, it's very early and votes and everything, our vote totals being counted, but how are you feeling about the race tonight? We feel great. You know, 30-year Marine, so I'm a little calm with it, but we feel very confident in the work that we put into this campaign. So we're just waiting for the results, but we feel very confident, very calm. We've done what we should have done. We reached out to all the voters that we can reach out to, and now it's in their hands and elected officials counting those ballots hands. I said this to Dr. Amy Acton earlier tonight. I love talking to people like you who are out there actually talking to voters about what they're thinking, what they're feeling. So tell us, when you've been talking to voters out there on the campaign trail? What's driving them right now? Well, the number one thing is affordability, affordability issues, right? Every day that gas price go up and we haven't hit Labor Day yet, and we know it's coming for the summer. So the gas price is the number one thing. When we talk about the working class people of our district, you know, driving to and from work, that gas really takes a toll when you go from $40 to $50 a tank of gas to $75, $80 a tank of gas every week. So that cuts it to a lot of disposable income that our families have to use to save and budget the rest of their bills for. So, affordability, affordability, affordability, and then the next thing is our democracy, right? We're in election season for me here in the special election, but coming into the midterms, the SAVE Act, our House Republicans in our state just passed some legislation in the Supreme Court Act that just passed recently. So, you know, we're scared of our inability and the stifling of us to be able to vote for our elected leaders coming up here pretty soon. Let's talk about that a bit, because I think this is impacting so many people across the country. And you as an elected official, I mean, you mentioned in your campaign that your parents left the Jim Crow South when they moved, I guess, to Michigan, right? Tell me about how you've thought about that, how you've thought about them as you're looking toward your race here. And just as you think about what you'd like to continue to do if you win reelection. Yeah, well, absolutely. You know, parents left Northern Louisiana early, you know, early 70s. And, you know, there were so many opportunities here in Michigan. a lot of automotive jobs and those second and third order tier jobs from automotives, auto suppliers. And so we just want to try to do our best to restore what we can back to this district. It was a huge manufacturing district where we're kind of getting into more of the medical field now. But we have the highest concentration of skilled laborers in this district. We have the highest concentration of veterans in the state in this district. So being able to pull some of those veterans in to get jobs, pulling our labors and our union people in where they don't have to drive two and three hours to work. We can have those jobs here for them. We can have we're building facilities for our residents to work in, you know, and working with our schools and make sure that our young people who aren't going to college, you know, are set up for success to take these jobs that we're looking to bring to our district. Patrick Green, we will be tracking your race from here. I know we'll keep people up gradated. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Jan. Thank you for having us. We have to take a very quick break, but the last word is former Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown standing by. He's in a dead heat race there after winning his primary. He just may become one of the most important candidates in the country. Can't wait to hear from him. We'll be right back. that does it for me tonight you can catch the show tuesday through friday at 9 p.m eastern on ms now and don't forget to follow the show on blue sky instagram and tiktok home to the rachel maddow show morning joe the briefing with jen sake and more voices you know and trust ms now is your source for news opinion and the world learn more at ms.now