Trump's Media War Strategy, the 2028 Dem Calendar, Immigration Narratives, with Jaime Harrison and Emma-Jo Morris

Next Up with Mark Halperin

MK Media

News, Daily News, Politics

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2026

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mark Halperin opens the latest episode of "Next Up" with his reported monologue on how President Trump’s decade-long war against the Dominant Media remains one of his most effective political tools. Mark highlights Trump’s unparalleled understanding of the news business, which, unbelievably, he gets better than journalists themselves do. Trump’s critique of the industry's flaws is as muscular as it is accurate, highlighting liberal bias, elitism, and a broken business model, all of which further erode the press’ credibility, which also energizes Trump’s base and conservatives at large. Then, former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison joins the program on a special occasion – his 50th birthday. Harrison offers an insider’s perspective on the Democratic Party’s fundraising challenges against the "billionaire class" of the GOP. He also dives into the heart of the 2028 presidential nominating process, noting that potential White House candidates do not yet seem to be lobbying for specific early states, and offers his prediction on the first-in-the-nation nominating calendar: South Carolina, New Hampshire, and Nevada. Finally, Emma-Jo Morris, Senior Consultant at Beck & Stone and co-host of The Group Chat on 2WAY, joins Mark to debate the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, arguing that the public supports mass deportation. She addresses recent criticisms regarding Vice President J.D. Vance’s temperament and stance on Israel, arguing that his "contemptuous tone" is a sensible and necessary reaction to hostile media frames. Morris also evaluates the current cabinet, offering high praise for HHS Secretary RFK Jr. while critiquing Kristi Noem’s performance. 120Life: Go to https://120Life.com and use code NEXTUP to save 20% Masa Chips: Ready to give MASA or Vandy a try? Get 25% off your first order by going to http://masachips.com/MARK and using code MARK.

Transcript

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0:00.0	everybody welcome to next up i'm mark cowper and editor-in-chief of the live interactive video platform
0:06.5	two-way host to this program and fired up about today's episode uh i've a reported monologue i think
0:12.3	you're going to really like about president trump and the media very grateful to have you here
0:16.6	and then jami harrison former chairman of the democratic party a guy from south carolina
0:20.7	who was just so insightful about the democratic party when he was a And then Jamie Harrison, former chairman of the Democratic Party, a guy from South Carolina,
0:24.2	who was just so insightful about the Democratic Party.
0:29.5	When he was chair of the party, like all chairs, a little constrained about what he can say about things because he's an official role.
0:31.8	But now that he's out, he's still a very loyal Democrat, but super important voice in
0:36.4	understanding what's going on.
0:38.3	He and I are going to talk about the nominating process for the Democrats and how things are shaping up for the party in terms
0:43.2	of fundraising and in terms of the all-important calendar of primaries and caucuses that will determine
0:48.4	who the Democrats will nominate. Historically, that's been as big as anything. Iowa,
0:53.2	New Hampshire, South Carolina,
0:54.4	what happens in those states. And I'm curious to see if he's hearing what I'm hearing, which is
0:59.1	dogs not barking of the prospective candidates. If this were Hillary Clinton or Bill Clinton or
1:06.9	other Joe Biden, super-connected Democrats in the old establishment era, they'd be jockeying to make sure the Democrats picked as the early states, states they could do well in. I've not heard that. I'm curious to see if he's heard whether they are. And if they're not lobbying, it's going to just be a wide open process. After that, I am a Joe Morris, my friend and colleague at two-way. She's a co-host of the group chat. She's a senior
1:28.7	consultant at Beckinstone, longtime conservative journalist and thinker and talker and commentator.
1:35.2	We're going to talk about immigration and whether that's dividing the party in the country and also about the Trump administration, what's going well, what's not.
1:43.2	And also I want to ask her about J.D. Vance, because my view continues to be that he'll be
1:49.2	the Republican nominee on this trajectory for 2028. But for the first time in the last couple
1:54.0	months, I've started to hear some negative things about J.D. Vance from the wider circle of
1:58.7	MAGA and the conservative movement, I'm going to ask her what she's
	...

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