Hello everyone and welcome to the focus group podcast I'm Sarah Longwell publisher of the

bull work and this week we are going to crawl into one of

the most uncomfortable places in American politics the gap between what the

Republican base voters demand and what swing voters will tolerate.

I talk about this all the time as one of my fundamental truisms

about the current state of the Republican Party, which is that the gap between what

base voters want, what swing voters will tolerate, has gotten very large.

And since Donald Trump's conviction on 34 felony counts.

Many of his most energetic supporters among elected Republicans

have condemned the entire justice system

as rigged, politically motivated, banana republic-esque. You the idea because that is what their

voters demand it turns out though that swing voters don't all like Republicans

behaving this way.

So we're going to get some reactions from both of these kinds of groups today

because these tensions within the Republican Party

are important, critical to understanding the current election and whatever happens to the GOP

if Trump loses. My guest today is Isaac Arnstorf, National Political Reporter for the Washington Post,

an author of the new book,

Finish What We Started,

The MAGA Movement's Ground War to End Democracy.

Isaac, thanks for being here.

Thanks so much for having me, Sarah.

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