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Wednesday, September 2, 2026
The Iran War heated up again on Tuesday, with the US military striking Iran for trying to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran fired 13 missiles into Jordanian airspace targeting a U.S. base, 10 of which were reportedly intercepted. The politics of the Iran War are also heating up as the price of oil continues to rise, putting the rising cost of living front and center just two months before the midterms. Speaker Mike Johnson insisted to CNN’s Manu Raju that he had nothing to do with the war, which is a curious take for someone who oversees a branch of governement designed to check and balance the executive branch, and questions about the Trump adminstration’s handling of this operation, along with endorseing a controversial senate candidate in Ken Paxton, has moved the Senate race in long-time red state, Texas, into a toss up.
01: Texas Goes Toss-Up and Republicans Start Saying That Ken Paxton Is Trump's Mess to Clean Up
[Gaining Traction]. MS NOW’s election desk moved the Texas Senate race to toss-up this morning, just a day after Senate Majority Leader John Thune appeared on Fox News (for the second consecutive day!) to ask the White House to spend money in the deeply red state.
Texas suddenly becoming a battleground state is now Trump’s mistake to fix, or at least that’s the idea taking shape among the GOP. He picked Ken Paxton over John Cornyn in a $200 million primary, and now James Talarico is not just tied in the polls with him but also outraising him. Chris Hayes called it “the consensus among the Republican party elite” that “this race is Donald Trump’s mess, and therefore, he needs to be the one to clean it up.”
On Fox News, Thune said, “I’m hoping the White House will become engaged. Texas is an incredibly expensive state,” a clip that was so revealing it also earned airtime on Morning Joe. Senator Ted Cruz blasted Republicans for “throwing rocks” at Paxton. “Enough! Stop your bitching!” he said on The Ingraham Angle. Politico’s Jonathan Martin reported that MAGA Inc. is sitting on $400 million and explained: “If you want the president’s attention, you go on Fox News.”
TAKEAWAY: The polls might suggest this Texas race is a toss-up, but it still seems long odds that the deeply red state would elect a Democrat as senator. But the fact that there is even an appeal for money and support to help get Paxton over the line? Not great, Bob.
02: The Iran War Becomes a Cost-of-Living Disaster for Republicans.
[Going Mainstream]. A clip of Speaker Johnson being confronted about his promise to voters about gas prices, in part due to his insistence that it wasn’t his war. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent admitted to Fox & Friends that the Iran War is in fact driving prices up.
Erin Burnett opened her Tuesday show noting oil “close to $100 a barrel” and warning of a global bond selloff. She then said higher borrowing costs are “one of the ways in which Americans are paying for a war that Trump and those in his inner circle said would last just a few weeks.” Two hours later on MS NOW, Rahm Emanuel told Jen Psaki that the midterms look a lot like 2006. Both are about “an unpopular war, an unpopular president, a corrupt administration, rising gas prices.”
Speaker Mike Johnson was confronted by Manu Raju about his past dismissal of gas prices. “You said that this would be a temporary blip on short term on gas prices,” Raju noted. “It is more than six months. People are getting hurt still at the pump.” Johnson called it “one of the stupidest questions you’ve ever asked,” before insisting he had “nothing to do with the prosecution of the war across the globe,” which seemed a clear admission that the Iran War was all about said gas prices
TAKEAWAY: The numbers don’t lie, and it doesn’t take a world scholar to see the direct causation between an optional war with Iran and the rising prices at the pump. There is only one person to blame for this, and it's the guy in the White House. As Congress returns from its August break, with negative polling numbers and midterms around the corner, we should expect much more of this intraparty friction.
03: Ed Markey’s Primary Win Has Both Sides in Agreement: It’s A Big Win for the Far Left
[Going Mainstream]. Senator Ed Markey defeated Rep. Seth Moulton Tuesday night by a wide margin, which Fox & Friends called a win for the far left. CNN and Morning Joe called it a win for progressives and a generational shift.
Markey got outspent almost two to one on ads, per Morning Joe, but he had progressive stalwarts like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and AOC in his corner, and won easily. Markey is 80 years old, while Moulton is 47 and ran on that very age difference. By morning, Moulton was calling for new party leadership.
The adjectives being thrown around is the real story. Fox & Friends called it “another win for Progressives,” won “by leaning Progressive, gaining him the support of the far-left leaders like Bernie Sanders and AOC.” Morning Joe put Markey in a line with Zohran Mamdani and Graham Platner and called it “a generational desire.” A CNN panelist agreed with Markey himself that it’s “a sign that progressivism maybe trumps all.”
Nobody on any network disputes what happened Tuesday, but the fight over what words to describe it continues. And two Democrats are running with the same labels in November. One in Texas, where Talarico is answering for a potentially damaging recording, and the other in Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed spent the weekend apologizing.
TAKEAWAY: Are socialists and/or progressives taking over the Democratic Party, or are these elections outliers? Well, it depends upon the results of each state, which makes it more difficult to create an easy narrative to explain it.
"If I had any clue that anything remotely like this was even possible, I would never have got involved in supporting Trump in the first place, and I'm very ashamed that I did." Milo Yiannopoulos to Piers Morgan, in his first interview since ICE detained him in Louisiana and deported him to Britain on Friday, describing what Trump 2016 became as "this ugly, warmongering, whole mentally ill heap of crazy." Keep in mind that this is the very same guy who called for deporting “millions and millions and millions” just last summer, which Morgan confronted him with, and something he might have considered given his own immigration status in the US. What a fucking asshole.
The data tells the real, better stories beneath the headlines.
The Army Secretary’s Resignation Is BIG NEWS … for One Morning Cycle. The surprise Pentagon exit by Dan Driscoll was the lead story on CNN This Morning, and his name was mentioned 34 times on Morning Joe Tuesday, after he reportedly told Trump to his face that Hegseth was impeding the Army. But by Wednesday morning, the story largely disappeared, partly because of Driscoll’s social media post praising his work with Pete Hegseth. (Wall Street Journal)
Abdul El-Sayed Gets Cast as a National Security Problem, But Keeps Gaining. What if none of this is working as designed? Debbie Wasserman Schultz called his campaign partner an antisemite on CNN Monday; CBS ran a 9/11 headline that Bari Weiss reportedly directed herself; John Fetterman did his weekly Hannity bit; and he’s still running on “affordability in Michigan,” with the MSU poll at 50-45. (THR)
Charlie Kirk Murder Trial Splits Right Wing Podcasters Over Legal Process. Fox & Friends led its 6 a.m. hour with the Utah judge deciding on sending Tyler Robinson to trial with the death penalty for a second straight morning. Conservative infighting over this story continued as Matt Walsh blasted the defense for justifying political assassination. Candace Owens pushed back at Walsh, saying the lawyer was simply doing his job. (X)
Based on transcripts from the 6 and 7 a.m. hours of Fox & Friends, CNN This Morning, News Central, and Morning Joe.
Trump met with fuel retailers yesterday at the White House and barely received any cable news coverage. Turns out that this sort of story doesn’t suit a conflict-oriented cable news ecosystem. The right doesn’t want to admit gas prices are an issue, and the left has no interest in promoting Trump trying to solve the problem. Meanwhile, the price of gas is too damned high!
BREAKING NEWS: Cable news viewers can now tune into whichever political media ecosystem they want to get the customized stories and narratives they most want to hear. And that siloed infotainment world was on clear display Tuesday evening.
CNN’s Erin Burnett fact-checked Scott Bessent’s bond claim from earlier in the day, but when the Treasury Secretary appeared later on Hannity, bonds never came up. Fox & Friends correctly labeled Incumbent Senator Ed Markey as “far left,” after his big primary victory, while the other networks used the more charitable “generational.” The price of oil is, understandably, getting extensive coverage on CNN, but when it comes up on Fox News, the focus is how Democrats want to ban it and other fossil fuels.
The incentives driving this custom infotainment bubble have never been clearer. There is a deeply unpopular Iran War that is stuck in quagmire mode and driving up prices. Midterms are just two months away, and Fox News seems to be pivoting to true crime and Times Square stabbings. Give the people what they want!
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