Alex Salvi: Page Six now. A shakeup in the GOP could have bigger effects than people realize. Texas Representative Will Hurd announced that he would not be seeking re-election in 2020. So Hurt narrowly won his race in 2018 and now following his announcement many analysts say the district goes from tossup to leans Democrat. Joining me now is the founder of the American Truth Project, and Daily Ledger contributor, Barry Nussbaum. So, Barry, is this a big problem for the GOP moving into 2020? Do you think that this highlights a problem that they could be facing in Texas?

Barry Nussbaum: I don’t think it’s so much a problem with the GOP as it’s a problem with Congress, Alex. Congress has become increasingly not fun. It’s a hate fest on both sides of the aisle. And what used to be a job that was respected is somewhere between used car salesman and pawnbroker at this point. Someone like Hurd with an incredible resumé probably has half a dozen things he could be doing and should be doing that he will enjoy a lot more than being in a contentious closed district in Texas. Keep in mind, the biggest Senate campaign in world history took place last cycle, 2016. Beto O’Rourke spent more money than some small countries even have and lost as a Democrat. So I’m not ready to panic if I was GOP leadership. But it does show this is not the job that people enjoy as much as they used to.

Alex Salvi: I think that’s a good point too and especially when you acknowledge the approval rating by some members of Congress. I mean, you hear about the president’s approval rating, and they’re always complaining about how it’s maybe in the low 40s. Sometimes Congress as a whole, their approval rating is something like in the low 20s. I mean, people do not like Congress and especially the way you see it right now. I mean, no legislation is coming out of either body because the House can’t get along with the Senate and vice versa. It’s just a stalemate altogether. So I want to speak about this bigger picture of what it means entirely. Do you think that Americans are getting tired of the idea of just stalemates? Do you think that eventually this partisan gridlock will be put to the sides and people will want just a moderate person to get something done?

Barry Nussbaum: Yeah. People always say the smart pundits know what’s going on. America is a moderate country and significant political races, especially on a national scale like the presidential race, are decided from the middle. The partisans on the right extreme and the left extreme dominate the news cycles until the general elections, and then the moderates show up. And they’re the ones that elected Trump last time. They’re the ones that elected Barack Obama before that. So I don’t see it as panic as much as it is a news cycle that needs something to be controversial about. And by the 20 20 November election time, the moderates will win and the wild left and the wild right will probably not.

Alex Salvi: And I think I want to touch on that point, too, because we see people like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar, all these very loud voices who get a lot of the media attention. But for example, AXIOS, a couple of weeks ago released a poll saying the majority of Americans don’t support what they’re doing. They say that they may be popular in their individual districts, but as a whole, Americans really aren’t on board. So with that being said, do you think it’s the right move by President Trump to set up this fight with him against these very progressive, as he says, un-American or anti-Semitic, whatever claims he wants to put out setting that up to be the fights compared to against the president and the 20, 20 hopefuls?

Barry Nussbaum: If if President Trump can succeed in painting the Democrat Party as the party of the wild socialist, communist, progressive left-wing, he will win big in 2020. That’s why Nancy Pelosi repeatedly as leader of the Democrat Party, is running away from the squad. She knows as she’s been around for decades, Alex, she knows America is moderate, and they don’t want the crazy wing of the Democrat Party, even in the Democrat Party, running their party and setting policy that bans cows, bans cars, bands, trains, et cetera. Why? Because it doesn’t make sense. And they understand they will lose big should that become the rallying cry of the Democrats as they move towards the election. Trump is smart strategically to paint the party as the party of the left-wing crazies. And if he can do that and he can do it successfully how is the Democrat nominee, whoever it might be, going to disengage from that left-wing. It’s going to be a fight between the progressives who are virtually socialists bordering on communists in many cases and the moderates. And if they are factionalized and split down the middle, they won’t be able to organize to beat Trump in 2020. That’s my prediction.

Alex Salvi: And a lot of people always say to millennials, for example, are progressive. I mean, according to polls, most of them lean liberal compared to conservative. And it poses the question to me, too, because right now, President Trump is very much the face of the Republican Party. I believe his approval rating is something like 94 percent. And we know where the future of the Democrat Party is going. It is going in a more progressive direction, maybe more slowly than people would admit. But what about on the Republican side, who kind of carries that torch after President Trump’s time?

Barry Nussbaum: Boy, is that a great question. And I have some names but the problem, Alex, is Trump came out of virtually nowhere from outside the party. You know, among mainstream pundits, the comment is often made that the Republican Party is the party of old white men. I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing or just a realistic appraisal. But the fact is the youngsters keep quitting because they don’t like it and it’s not fun for them. And they’re under tremendous verbal abuse consistently in the press. And so they quit and do other things and make a lot more money and be a lot more successful and be a lot less stressed. The Republicans have a problem with their old white man image, and now the Democrats have a problem that they’re all crazy. Somewhere in between for both parties is a happy medium. There will be somebody that will come to the front of both parties. Right now, it’s not appropriate for the Republicans to discuss because obviously, Trump will be the nominee. And as the nominee, he is the face of the party until some time late in his second term should he win that second term. Should he lose in 2020, the fight will start the day after the election to see who will become the next leader of the party and the heir apparent.

Alex Salvi: Yeah, I think our representative will Hurd best demonstrates what you’re saying. He was the only African-American member of the Republican Party in the House, and now he’s on his way out a very up and coming star too on his way out, as we were saying, to join the technology company or something like that. Something tells me it’s a lot more lucrative and certainly more fun than being in Congress. But, Barry, thank you very much for joining us.