Permission Slip

CAPUTO: At the beginning of the conflict, you talked about how you only wanted unconditional surrender. The MOU doesn't look like unconditional surrender.

TRUMP: It really probably is unconditional surrender

CAPUTO: It is? pic.twitter.com/D9zukOczLX

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 19, 2026

Rep. Claudia Tenney: "There are thousands and thousands of cases of people voting in the wrong place, at the wrong time. This happens all the time. But the Democrats want to tell you it doesn't happen because you can't prove it." pic.twitter.com/vBmFxqhfDD

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 19, 2026

BARTIROMO: Should Americans be concerned about this lapse in security because you were unable to get FISA extended?

REP. CLAUDIA TENNEY: I do think Americans should be concerned because of the policies of Obama and Biden pic.twitter.com/zMgDpzeA1R

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 19, 2026

It’s easy to forget that this kind of gracious rhetoric was once standard and expected for Presidents of both parties. https://t.co/tOuFKEsE2N

— Steve Simon (@MNSteveSimon) June 19, 2026

The new “received wisdom” is that Democrats are not appealing to the “Joe Rogan” voters or the disaffected, or just aren’t generating “enthusiasm.”

Was there a lot of enthusiasm for Trump in 2024, and I missed it? His campaign was so badly run (remember him standing and “dancing” to his ‘70’s playlist for an hour? At a political “rally”?) his victory convinced me campaigns are meaningless.  Nobody was excited by Trump, but they were less excited by Harris. 

It’s a binary system. Someone wins, someone loses. Enthusiasm might push the margin of victory, and is better than indifference, but enthusiasm can be negative as well as positive, against as much as for. And the sheer stupidity of the GOP, the pointless fight for things nobody gives a shit about (Sharia law? Banning IVF? I remind you Texas is the second most populous state in the union.). Constantly blaming Biden and Obama? The absolute disaster that’s been the Iran war? (Even with the Strait “open,” the supply chain is broken. This won’t be like turning your garden hose on. And there is no meeting in Switzerland today, because neither side wants to be there. Iran is already balking because Israel is. And Trump U.S. denying the $300 billion payout. Yeah, that issue is “solved.”). 

The point is, not voting is also voting. And you can vote for Talarico and Ossoff and Platner, or you can vote for the GOP. I think there’s more interest in voting for the former. And voters who voted for the latter in ‘24, and are “enthusiastic” now, may well vote against by…not voting.

And if Trump keeps insisting the elections are “rigged,” why should people who believe him vote at all? 

There isn’t a single national candidate to get excited about in a midterm. Then again, a presidential candidate is supposed to bring his party into power in Congress. When that doesn’t happen in a Presidential election year, we have an explanation for it. When it does happen, we have a different explanation. But we always address Congressional elections, which prove every two years that all politics IS local, as if it should be a Presidential election, as if all 435 representatives and 33 (or 34) senators should be elected because of party label, rather than what kind of candidate they are. When it’s really all about the candidates.

And the Republicans are getting their permission slips from Trump. They’re trying to run as if that’s all that matters. They’re also trying to give permission slips to Platner, and Ossoff, and Talarico. Or withholding them. We’ll see how that works out.