Welcome to the beat, everyone. I'm Ari Melba. Happy summer. It is the official start after the long weekend, and we have a lot cooking tonight. Andrew Weissman on Donald Trump's efforts to enrich himself, to pay off criminals, and maybe to fund a future insurrection.

Andrew's a great guest on this. As you can see, he's joining me tonight. And later, we have a very special guest making

his beat debut to talk about John Stewart, the role of critics and music and dissent. As we look at

what free speech means in America today, very excited for that. I'll tell you more about it. Later, we begin

with the top story, the strain that Trump is putting on his own party with what Republican senators

call selfishness. The sound you hear

is, of course, Election Day in America, we'll keep following these primaries, and voters in Texas

are coming out in the Republican primary. And they are looking down the barrel of what some view

as a Mago Civil War, where Donald Trump has picked the anti-Republican re-election side.

That's what Senate Republicans even are saying.

So kind of an unusual headline if you think about it that way.

This is the runoff you might have heard about if you follow the news.

You have an embattled incumbent Republican John Cornyn.

And the very controversial, once impeached, scandal-plagued Ken Paxton, who netted

a Trump endorsement. And that's got Republican senators and strategists mad. They say it makes it

less likely that they'll hold the Senate. Some have called this a brutal primary that reads

Republicans in tatters. Of course, it all depends on whether the eventual nominee can win.

But it paves the way for a rising star in the Democratic Party to have what, again, even Republicans

say is potentially a better shot at turning this seat blue. Now, if you're watching the news going,

I feel like I've heard about this before. It is true. We have heard many times about efforts to turn Texas blue that have not actually won, or as the kids would say, manifest.

But why is this time different?

Well, Paxton has more than your usual amount of maga baggage.

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