Ten Biggest Stories After the Summer, Dems' Dreary Political Forecast, Trump’s SCOTUS “Weak Links”

Next Up with Mark Halperin

MK Media

News, Daily News, Politics

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mark Halperin opens today’s show with his reported monologue on the ten biggest stories of the summer and what they signal for a busy fall news cycle. From Trump’s crime push and the Democratic response, to the Capitol Hill fight over the Epstein files, Mark lays out the stakes ahead. He also explains how the Ukraine stalemate and Gaza escalation shape Trump’s foreign policy, and how the New York mayor’s race, Kamala Harris’s book tour, and Wes Moore’s national scrutiny frame the Democrats’ future. Plus, Mark (admitted Swiftie) reacts to the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce engagement news! Then, Mark is joined by his 2WAY co-host and longtime Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine, for a deep dive into why Trump keeps winning daily fights while Democrats stumble. They unpack the Left’s struggles on crime, messaging, and fundraising – and what they can fix now in order to effectively compete with the GOP campaign machine in 2026 and 2028. Finally, Politico’s senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein breaks down the legal landscape reshaping presidential power. From the “weak links” on the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court, to Trump’s White House counsel strategy, they explore upcoming fights over tariffs, the Fed, and the limits the Court may place on executive authority. Grasshopper Escapement: Go to https://amazon.com and buy your copy of CAPITALIST BABY! Delta Rescue: Visit https://DeltaRescue.org to learn more

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back. This is Next Up. I'm Mark Halper.
0:05.0	Happy to have you Nexters back. We were off for a week, much needed summer break, but happy to be back with you here.
0:14.0	I am your host, your humble host, your editor-in-chief of the live interactive video platform, two-way and here, your guide to everything that's next up in politics, media, everything else across the board.
0:25.3	Joining us today, Dan Turntine, a longtime Democratic strategist, my co-host on Two-Ways the Morning Meeting, weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern and the co-host of another program on Two-A, the group chat that airs Thursdays at 4. Dan will be here
0:38.4	and we'll kick around how his party is doing right now and countering Donald Trump for the
0:43.8	present in the midterms in the presidential. And then another longtime friend of mine,
0:47.9	Josh Gerstein, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico, straight down the middle reporter,
0:52.7	hard charger who understands the intersection
0:55.6	between politics and the law as well as anyone, literally I've ever met.
0:59.8	Josh will be here for that.
1:01.4	Before we get to that, though, grateful, as I said for you coming back.
1:05.2	I missed you.
1:05.9	I hope you missed me.
1:07.3	And lots happened while we were gone.
1:08.9	This has been a weird summer.
1:10.3	It's been a summer of lots of big news
1:12.5	stories. And some stories, Russia, Ukraine, California, immigration, the president in crime. I could list
1:20.2	20 more. Epstein, Maxwell, so many stories that were so big and seemed like they would dominate the
1:27.2	entire August. Typically in
1:28.5	August one, maybe two stories dominate. But what I see is a bunch of stories dominate. And most of
1:33.7	those are going to continue into the fall. So what I did while I was off, I did what reporters
1:39.1	call saving string. I collected little notes about things that I thought, huh, if I weren't off, I'd be talking
	...

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