The 2028 Invisible Primary, Economic Reality, and Booker’s Hamilton Audition with Meghan McCain

Next Up with Mark Halperin

MK Media

News, Daily News, Politics

4.8 • 846 Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mark Halperin officially kicks off the 2028 presidential race with the debut of his “Invisible Primary Rankings” in his reported monologue. Who’s really ahead to lead the Democratic Party next? It’s not just about early voting states anymore. Mark ranks the contenders across categories that matter — from who owns the digital space to who passes the “hang test.” Buttigieg or Shapiro? AOC or Newsom? Who’s connecting with the base — and who’s falling flat? This is your early, essential guide to the nomination campaign that’s already begun (even if no one’s admitting it yet). Then, it’s hot topics with Meghan McCain — starting with the rumored Katy Perry–Justin Trudeau romance and the “Trump trauma bond” that might explain it. Meghan also goes off on Sen. Cory Booker’s latest floor gambit, and why it is the perfect example of a man still auditioning for Hamilton. She and Mark debate the Sydney Sweeney/American Eagle backlash, and Mark shares why Meghan’s genes make her a “Gorgeous Maverick.” Plus: the one question Meghan would ask Trump about Epstein — and it’s not what you think. Finally, David Bahnsen joins with news you can actually use. Is the economy booming or busting? Mark and David cut through the noise to explain what’s really happening — and what the Trump administration is doing about housing, education, and other costs hitting your wallet.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome in, everybody. Thank you for joining next up. I am your host, Mark Halperin, editor-in chief of the live interactive video platform two-way and your guide, as always, to everything that is coming next up.
0:13.5	Joining me in just a bit, one of my all-time favorite people, Megan McCain, my colleague at Two-Way, she'll be here. She's very fun to talk to. She knows about politics,
0:21.4	celebrities, and best of all, on any topic, Megan knows what's what. We'll talk about the news
0:27.2	and also some relationship issues that I'm dying to hear what Megan thinks. She's been talking
0:32.4	on our own show about the Sydney-Sweeney matter, and I plan to hold her account for some of the things she said.
0:39.9	Don't miss that. Then later in the program, we're going to talk about the topic that's always on
0:43.6	everybody's minds, the U.S. economy. It's super confusing right now. It's a bit of a riddle wrapped in a
0:48.6	mystery, wrapped in a riddle wrapped in some bacon. And for that conversation to try to figure out whether the economy is on
0:55.2	the rise are dangerously imperiled, we'll be joined by the very brilliant David Bonson.
1:00.4	David will be here to explain it. And he's the exact person I'd want to talk to about all of that
1:05.0	because David understands both economics and politics and what happens at the intersection of the two.
1:11.9	So we'll have a conversation about fun stuff, serious stuff, interesting stuff, and two of my favorite people.
1:18.6	So stay tuned for that.
1:19.6	But first, I now have something first for you exclusively as a premiere for you Nexters, which is my 2028 invisible primary rankings for the Democratic Party
1:31.9	as they search for a presidential nominee. Not too soon to talk about it. There's lots of 2028 news
1:36.9	swirling about this week. First of all, Kamala Harris' decision to skip running for governor of
1:42.5	California. In theory, opens the door for her to run for
1:45.5	president. I'm still not sure she will. There's not much enthusiasm in amongst people I talk to
1:50.7	about her prospects of her running, but had she run for governor and lost, I think that would
1:56.4	have shut the door on running for president. And if she'd run for governor and won, also probably
2:01.6	shut the door to think that she could turn right around and start a presidential campaign
2:05.5	with the rigors of trying to govern a very large state. Seems impossible. So we'll see what
	...

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