April 2, 2025: Voters send a message to Elon Musk

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Government, Politics

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This morning, many Democrats are waking up feeling something they haven’t experienced since Donald Trump’s election in November: optimism. Yesterday, Democratic-backed Judge Susan Crawford won election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, ensuring a liberal majority that some Dems hope could throw out district maps that favor the GOP. Meanwhile in Florida, Republicans won two special elections for the House, but with margins that hint at the makings of a national Democratic wave heading into the 2026 cycle. Playbook deputy editor Zack Stanton joins Playbook author and managing editor Jack Blanchard to unpack what this all means for Trump, Elon Musk, and the rest of Washington. Plus, it’s “Liberation Day” at the White House, where a slate of major new tariffs are set to be unveiled this afternoon.

Transcript

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0:00.0	presented by BP.
0:06.0	Hello, good morning everyone. This is Playbook's managing editor and author Jack Blanchard.
0:11.1	It is Wednesday, April 2nd, and it is Donald Trump's Liberation Day.
0:16.4	Here is what's driving the day. We will be talking a lot later today about Donald Trump's
0:21.9	big tariff's plan, which he is going to be bringing in in a big Rose Garden announcement
0:26.3	at 4 o'clock this afternoon. But the thing that's really buzzing up Washington this morning
0:31.5	is last night's election results, the first significant election results we've had since
0:36.9	Donald Trump's return to the presidency.
0:38.9	And it was a pretty good night for the Democrats. I think it's fair to say. And it's sort of just
0:43.5	about acceptable but not great night for the Republicans who managed to retain the two house seats
0:48.7	they're up for grabs in Florida. In Congressional District 1, Jimmy Petronis will take the seat
0:53.1	formally held by Matt Gates. And in Congressional District 6 in Jimmy Petronis will take the seat formally held by Matt Gates,
0:55.0	and in Congressional District 6 in Florida, Randy Fine will assume the seat that was left vacant by Mike Waltz.
1:01.1	But up in Wisconsin, the Democrats are taking a victory lap after their Democrat-backed candidate.
1:07.0	Susan Crawford prevailed in the state's highly contentious, highly contested Supreme Court
1:12.9	election. And that means that the Democrats, or at least the sort of liberal side of the argument,
1:17.3	will maintain a majority on Wisconsin State Supreme Court. And here to talk with me about that
1:22.5	and what we can all learn from it is Playbook's Deputy Editor, Zach Stanton, a Midwest guy himself. Good morning. Zach. How are you doing? Good morning. I'm doing well. I am a Midwest guy. I'm from Michigan, but I have gazed upon the Alan Bradley Clock Tower in Milwaukee and visited the Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha. And that's about as good as you can do, I suppose. That'll do for me.
1:44.9	It's a lot closer to Wisconsin than where I hail from.
1:48.1	It's interesting last night watching all this play out on TV and social media.
1:53.1	And Zach, I saw something that I have not seen at all in the two or three months I've
1:58.1	been doing this job since Donald Trump's inauguration on January the 20th, which is Democrats celebrating something.
	...

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