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Hey, y'all. It's Eugene Daniels. And Simone Sanders Townsend. We're the hosts of a brand new podcast, MS Now Presents Clock It. We're starting this show because over our years in D.C., me on campaigns and working in the White House. And me covering it all, plus running the White House Correspondents Association. We've learned to see through political machinations and maneuvering, whatever that is, right, Eugene? Uh-huh. Because right now, we're watching the Trump administration try to legitimize itself by hijacking the arts, sports, basically the culture. See slapping Trump's name on the Kennedy Center, dispatching ice to the Super Bowl, uploading TikToks set to Nicki Minaj songs? It looks trivial, but this stuff matters. So we want to open up our off-air conversations, our group chat, if you will, to everybody. Every Thursday, we'll talk about what we see and hear in the news so you can start to clock it, too. Our first episode is out right now, and new episodes drop every Thursday. Subscribe to MSNOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to get the show ad-free. Plus, you'll get an exclusive bonus episode as soon as this weekend. And stay right here to get a preview of our first episode. Then search for Clock It and hit that follow button. No state's race, though, I think right about now is more interesting and more, you know, popping up in my group chats than what's going on in Texas in the Democratic primary between Congresswoman Jasmine Crocket and state representative James Tallarico James Tallarico The thing that I think is most interesting about this primary for Democrats is that the split in the party is no longer ideological right The actual split is whether you want to fight or not. And I think these two people show how different groups in the Democratic Party want to fight, right? Like James Tallarico, he's much more, you know, his demeanor is calmer. I got into this because of my students. I got into the classroom in the fall of 2011, right after the state legislature cut $5 billion from our schools. I had 45 kids in one classroom. There weren't enough desks for all those kids, so I had students sitting on the air conditioning unit. It's unacceptable. And that's why I ran for the state legislature. It's why I flipped a Trump district that no one thought was winnable. And you have someone like Congresswoman Crockett, and she is much more, I think, like a lot of members of Congress that are Democrats, much more in your face. They're killing people in the middle of the street. They decided to execute a mother of three in broad daylight. I don't understand how we are sitting here and acting like this is normal. Right. She's much more clear and concise. She seems much more ready maybe to fight Donald Trump the way Donald Trump fights. Some will call her unconventional. Some reports have called her and her campaign unconventional. Correct. This recently recently okay there was a controversy that popped off on the internet The fact that in 2026 campaigns are being and races are being appended by what happens on threads I don know if and TikTok I don't know if this was a scheme that Todd set up to encourage people to sign up for threads. Todd is busy, child. But if you weren't on threads, you were not understanding where this, what happened here. Exactly. So this is Texas-based TikToker Morgan Thompson. She said she met Tallarico, and this is what she says. happened. James Salarico told me that he signed up to run against a mediocre black man, not a formidable and intelligent black woman, Colin Allred, the mediocre black man that he's referring to as an attorney, a former professional football player and a former congressman. Up until this comment, the conversation was going well. That's why it threw me off so much to have a white man say this to a black woman who was coming to him with concerns in relation to him for black people. Child. Now, can I just say a lot of different conversations have sprouted out from this, But as a former comms person, I will say in this new media landscape where folks are making their candidates available to influencers, people, creators, right? People with platforms that have substantial social media followings, particularly in the state or the district that makes a difference. These are also not journalists. And this isn't a slight to Morgan. I not trying to slight her but it was a private conversation Like the creators don understand off the record No they do not So politicians take a note Come on take a note baby Okay if you start talking off the record They gonna tell They gonna tell it And so she told about a private conversation she had. And to be clear, his comments were problematic. I will say this. His team, when they sent out the sort of apology or whatever, what he said was, I did call him mediocre. I don't, it doesn't say. He said he called his campaign mediocre. And I mean, to be very clear, Colin Alra did not run a stellar Senate campaign. He's no longer running for Senate. Well, because Jasmine Crockett came in and kind of like, to be honest, big-footed him out of the race. And there were concerns. I mean, if you talk to Democrats in Texas, like strategists and whatnot, and people that do campaign work, there was a concern about the kind of campaign Colin Allred ran the last time he ran for Senate. When he lost. When he lost. And Democrats do believe that this is an opportunity, that this is one of the seats that they can take. Like Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, they are talking about expanding the map. So I just don't think it is ever okay, though. Like, yeah, was his campaign, was he running a mediocre campaign? Sure. Should a white man be talking about another elected official and feel comfortable calling him a mediocre black man? No. And trying to pump up a black lady? Hell no. That's crazy. It makes no sense. Thanks for listening. For more, search Clock It! and follow the show. Thank you.