Why Trump Isn't Joking About Canceling Midterms

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

News & Politics

4.6 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Congressman Seth Moulton joins Joanna Coles for a no frills, clear account of the Venezuela crisis — and why he believes the administration is lying to Congress at every turn. From chaotic briefings where officials dodge questions, to Republican colleagues privately admitting they would be outraged if a Democrat did the same, Moulton argues the United States has no real plan, only escalation. He connects the timing to distractions over healthcare premiums and the Epstein files, criticizes Democratic leaders for failing to level with voters, and makes the case for generational change, age limits, and his own Senate run — while warning that a weakened Congress and normalized “crazy” are far more dangerous than most Americans realize.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Donald Trump yesterday, talking to a lot of his Congress, sort of alluded to or made a joke
0:08.1	that the midterms might even get canceled. The midterms might not even go ahead. Do you think
0:13.4	that this is genuinely a possibility? Oh, absolutely a possibility. I mean, I would go further
0:19.0	and say most likely scenario that he tries to disrupt the midterms, cancel them, delay them, whatever else.
0:28.4	I mean, this is a guy who just took Maduro out of Venezuela.
0:33.8	I think we should take this deadly seriously.
0:36.1	And if there's one lesson I've learned from Donald
0:38.2	Trump over two terms, is that when he says he's going to do something bad, he almost always
0:43.8	does something worse. I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. And I can barely believe
0:52.3	these words are going to come out of my mouth, but I am so excited
0:56.7	to share a conversation with you that I just had with a congressman. I know, how is that possible?
1:03.8	Normally they speak in policy paragraphs. They seem inhuman. But Seth Moulton represents
1:10.0	District 6, I think that's what it's called, in Massachusetts,
1:13.7	and we had such a remarkable freewheeling conversation about the failure of democratic
1:19.9	leadership, about the kook that is RFK Jr, about Hegsef and how weak the actual army
1:27.1	regard him as. It was just a riveting conversation.
1:31.3	And then, of course, Donald Trump's clearly declining mental health and the big question
1:38.3	facing all of us, really, which is are we on the potential verge of a new world war?
1:45.1	Anyway, it's almost worth moving to Massachusetts for, let's get into it, Congressman South Malton.
1:57.6	World order is changing.
2:00.1	We're recording this on Wednesday morning for Wednesday evening broadcast.
2:05.2	And as we speak, US troops appear to be trying to onboard a Venezuelan tanker, which managed to evade the blockade and appears to be headed for Russia. Anyway, let's step back a moment and just
	...

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