Brooks and Capehart on Trump calling Iran war 'small potatoes'

0:00Now, to discuss President Trump's remarks today about the war with Iran and President Trump's influence over the midterm elections, we turn to the analysis of Brooks and K-Parte. That's the Atlantic's David Brooks and Jonathan K-Parte of MS now. It's always great to see you both. So we'll start with the war in Iran, because yesterday, JD Vance said he would not describe the conflict with Iran as a war. Today, the president was in the Oval Office. He was asked by reporters how he would characterize it, and here's what he said. A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing. We did Venezuela, and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody, and this we lost 18 people. And Vietnam, we lost 100,000 people, and in other conflicts, you lost tens of thousands of people. Small potatoes. How does that strike you? Good. Nice thing to tell the families of those 18 people. You know, this is a little flippin', but there's like a guy who started a race saying,

1:02I'm going to kill you guys in this race. It's a mile. I'm going to kill you guys. Third lap, he starts giving up. And so I didn't really want to win this race anyway, and it's not a race. It's just a contest. And so he's like trying to get out of being blamed for this. The more serious points are two. The first is that because of drone technology, it's too easy to go to war. And it's a temptation for residents to think that we can go to war. We'll bomb the heck out of another country, and we won't have to pay a price, and our folks by Com won't notice. And that's just a very perilous place to be, because it's so easy to start them, they're going to be tempted to do it over and over and again. And the second thing to be said, look on the ground who's acting with confidence and who's not acting with confidence. Iran is acting with confidence. They don't care what happens to their people, but they are acting with confidence in attacking and in defending and knowing how they can control the world economy. And Trump just doesn't have them around. John, the new assessment of President Trump's apparent effort to downplay this war that has lasted far longer than he initially said it would.

2:08I've given up trying to figure out what the president is trying to do, because earlier this week, he was threatening them once again with total annihilation. If he didn't get his way, now it's small potatoes. And I just want to echo what David said. David is reprehensible for the president of the United States to call a war. He started a war of choice now, small potatoes, when 18 U.S. service members have lost their lives, 50,000 service members are going to be in that region through the new year. So if this isn't a war, if this is small potatoes, then why are there so many troops in the area? Why is so much of the American military in that area? I wish the president would just make a decision, just declare victory and bring our service members home. Meantime at a Rose Garden event this past week, President Trump urged Republicans running

3:10in these tight races to run on his record saying that's all they need to do to win big is to embrace him. What's striking, David, is that the president seems to be arguing that the midterms should be a referendum on his presidency when so many other past presidents have basically argued the opposite. Yeah, I, I, I, Charlie Cook, uh, was pronounced to Katie the election, which was what he's really good at. Uh, and he said the Republicans have three likely outcomes. One is, uh, bad. The other is really bad. And the other is horrible. And so the, the, the winds are not on the Republican side. And so normally in these circumstances, the president lays low because he knows he's a problem for people in swing districts. But Donald Trump is incapable of laying low. And maybe they think he can bring out some base in some places, but I just, I think it, making himself the center of this is yet another wonder. In contrast, this Jonathan to what the former vice president, Kamala Harris, said, she was asked about the red state Democrats who have, and in most cases sort of shied away

4:16from her records, stayed away from her didn't, what didn't want to, uh, campaigning with them. And she said they need to do whatever they need to do to win bottom line. We need to win. Yeah, there's the exact same words Nancy Pelosi said to, um, members of our caucus and, and folks who are hoping to be a part of the Democratic caucus in multiple elections when she was minority leader and then when she became speaker because the, the, the mantra for Pelosi and the mantra I'm hearing from former vice president Kamala Harris is, when baby, when do whatever you need to do to get elected? And then we can sort out whatever stuff needs to be sorted out, but getting the majority is the number one priority of, of the Democrats. And David Republicans won in 2024 and parked by promising to bring prices down two years later, affordability of still a major concern. Of course, now you've got the war in Iran. How difficult is it for the GOP to tell voters just stay the course?

5:18Uh, it's pretty difficult. The country has not been happy with the way the country is going for a long time. The Democrats have made it so much a little easier by all these DSA candidates since they said it's like Michigan. Uh, but I have to say when I look at the Democratic side, I do see the, the more progressive sides, they are campaigning hardening to win and they have big ideas. When I look at the mainstream establishment Democrats, I think they have one really good policy, which they're talking about, which is the abundance agenda to change some of the regulation on how to make it more affordable, so there's more house building, but they don't have much beyond that. And what they don't have is what the mainstream Democrats used to have, which is a growth agenda, an economic growth agenda. We're going to need a lot more new jobs because AI is going to disrupt a lot of jobs. We need to produce new ones. And the Democrats do not have an agenda about that. And then finally, frankly, with the exception of Ramamaniwool, they are not talking about education. And test scores are collapsing. They're collapsing, especially in Rulustates. The red states are doing better in education than in the Lulustates. And Joe Biden did not have an education agenda. Kamala Harris did not have an education agenda.

6:19And I don't see too many Democrats having an education agenda with the exception of guess of Ramamaniwool. And so these are areas where the mainstream Democrats are not really being as aggressive on policy terms as the more progressive. Jonathan, what are Democrats offering voters and what would they do if they win the Amendment? And Democrats have been talking about affordability since what is this 26, since this time last year, I believe it was last year, maybe it was 24, but preparing people for the healthcare bomb that Republicans were about to set on the American people. And they've been talking about affordability ever since. And on my MSNOW show, when we talk to candidates around the country, and we ask them, what are you hearing from your constituents? What is your campaign message? And 201, it is about affordability, the prices at the pump, prices of healthcare, prices in the stores, inflation. And so that's what Democrats are running on.

7:20At least the Democrats I've been talking to over these last few months. As we wrap up our conversation here, I want to shift our focus to Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine. She sat down for an interview with our friend Jonathan Martin of Politico. And he asked her about this debate within the GOP over this idea of principle versus relevance. And he posed the question this way. Does she follow the model of former Congresswoman Liz Cheney who stood on principle and paid a price for it with her career, her political career, or does she follow the approach of the late Lindsey Graham who you could argue knew better but went along with President Trump because he wanted to keep his seat? So here's what she said. Where do you find yourself between those two? So I would say that I jumped at either of those models. With the case of Liz Cheney, what influence does she have today? Really not? It's not just that she lost her seat is that she has no impact in my view.

8:27Where do you come down on that tension that maintaining a voice in the party requires accepting things you otherwise would have opposed? First I admire Jonathan Martin for taking a big honking bite. I thought she handled that interview exceptionally well and it shows what a political pro he is. And I think what she told Jonathan about this, to parallel is accurate. She was a little rough on Liz Cheney. Liz Cheney did have an impact. It was important for the future of the Republican Party for some Republican conservators say, no, January 6th is not acceptable. That was very important thing to do for the future of the party. But Susan Collins is not Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham really had a first a close relationship with John McCain and then switched over and had a very close relationship with Donald Trump which involved a lot of moral compromises. Susan Collins has had a problematic relationship with Donald Trump the whole time. She stood up for Maine on the tariffs and other things. And in this stance, she's done, I think, as good a job as it's possible to do for a moderate Republican, the only one left, to stay relevant in political terms, be appropriations

9:33chair and not run to a foul of the Magical crowd. And I think she's handled a very difficult job quite exceptionally well. Jonathan, how do you assess all of this? I agree with David that Senator Collins was rough on Liz Cheney. But I bet if you were to go to Liz Cheney and ask her what she thought of the Senator's comments about her, I would suspect that Liz Cheney, former Congressman Liz Cheney is unbothered by the choices that she made and the consequences that she suffered as a result of standing up on principle. And I think there are a lot of folks in Maine who are wondering where were the Senator's principles when it came to standing up for her long held right of, you know, being pro choice and then voting for Brett Kavanaugh to be on the Supreme Court or her vote on ice funding and then running away from a reporter asking her about her stance when someone was killed in her state.

10:34I can understand her not wanting to choose either, wanting to choose either side, but again, David, everything that I said, Susan Collins is someone you cannot sleep on in the sense that thinking that she is up against the ropes and she's going to lose. She is a political athlete and we'll see whether the compromises, small see compromises she has made will be her undoing in this reelection fight. Jonathan K. Parton, David Brooks, her thanks as always to you both. Thanks, too. Thanks.