Tara and Lee examine SC Senate politics, CCP influence and box office news.

What this episode covers

Tara: Good morning, Lee. Lee: Hey there, Tara. Tara: Hope you had a good weekend. Lee: Yeah, it was... we worked it out. Tara: Good. Good. All right, so the battle begins as the Lindsey Graham machine, the Henry McMaster machine—which is really the Karl Rove-Bush machine, one of the few states that is still controlled by that network of donors, local and national, desperately tries to hold on to power. They already got drop-kicked when their girl didn't make it. Normally they tell us who to vote for and we listen. We stopped listening. Over the weekend, you saw more of their desperate attempts to hold on to power, to get people elected who in other states would run as Democrats, barely Republican, and they choose candidates for their ability to compromise. They like moderates and they've locked out an entire generation of conservatives. And you saw the desperation over the weekend. As we learned last week on this show, that it has been—and we've been trying to figure it out for a while—I thought Lindsey Graham was giving Donald Trump the list of people to endorse because they were so bad. But now we're finding out, no, it's actually the Graham donors. So kind of basically the same thing. So last week, we were told that Russell Fry was going to be our new senator, and that was the way that it was. And so Trump went out there and floated that. And then out of nowhere, he's now floating, "Well, hey, wait, let's hand the seat over to Lindsey Graham's sister, Darlene Graham Nordone, without having any idea how she'll vote. It'll be great. Everyone will love it." So he's floating his second candidate in a week. That's got to be coming from the donors. And the reason I think Russell Fry got drop-kicked all of a sudden—because remember, Trump was really into him last week—was that the polling is beginning to come out, and it doesn't look good. He was pushing for Russell Fry. The polling came out, and they really, I think, wanted to see what a Trump endorsement would do. Could it boost Russell Fry? Could it get him in there where they want him? No. No, South Carolina's starting to figure out Trump only endorses the absolute worst candidates. I mean, he just does. And so the new poll actually shows Ralph Norman in the lead. It's not a huge lead, but it's a lead: 16.4%. After that, Mark Lynch at 13%. Then after that, Nancy Mace at 10%. Keep in mind, Nancy Mace came in dead last in the governor's race, right? Then Pam Evette—this is an Emerson poll; I know she hasn't announced she's running, but I think they threw her in there anyway just to see how she'd do. And then Russell Fry at 9%. Then after that, Henry McMaster, who hasn't announced anything, but I think they just threw him in the poll at 7%. So that's a—I mean, that's a measure of the absolute unpopularity of the machine right there. And so I think they figured out, Lee, that Trump is not going to push their boy Russell Fry over the top, at least not yet. And they switched tracks to see, you know, could the public possibly be getting, you know, willing to get behind Lindsey Graham's sister? So we'll see. I don't know if by Tuesday or Wednesday Trump's endorsing somebody else, I'm not sure. But you can see, to me, this looks like weakness and desperation by the machine. And, you know, I always say this is the machine that has controlled South Carolina since Reconstruction. It was a Democrat machine. A lot of them switched parties in the late '90s, early 2000s, hung on to power till they were literally dying in office. They were Democrats; they never really stopped being Democrats, but they just switched their party affiliations. And that is the machine trying to hold on, and the voters aren't falling for it anymore. And, you know, when you have Henry McMaster in a Republican primary—this is incredible—our governor, in a Republican primary for Senate, and he comes in... wait, let's see what is this: first, second, third, fourth, fifth... sixth? Behind Nancy Mace? That shows ...

Distinct summary based on available episode metadata or transcript content.