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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Thursday, February 26th, I’m Jane Coaston and this is What a Day, the show that thanks House Speaker Mike Johnson for sharing his deepest fears after the State of the Union Tuesday night. 

[clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson] If we lost the midterms, heaven forbid, if we lost the majority in the House, it would be the end of the Trump presidency in a real effect. 

Jane Coaston: Oh no, that would be terrible. [music break] On today’s show, South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace hopes to hold lawmakers accountable for sexual harassment violations. And Minnesota Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar’s State of the Union guest is charged with unlawful conduct after standing up during the president’s speech. But let’s start with Texas. The Longhorn State’s Senate primary is already setting money records for both Republicans and Democrats, with more than $110 million dollars being spent in advertising and reserved ad time. But on the Republican side, where Senator John Cornyn is facing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Representative Wesley Hunt, things have gotten incredibly messy. How messy? This is an ad released Wednesday by Cornyn and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. 

[clip of ad by Cornyn and the National Republican Senatorial Committee] It’s voting time, so let’s cut through the bulls**t. Crooked Ken Paxton cheated on his wife. She’s divorcing him on biblical grounds. So now Paxton’s wrecking another home, sleeping around with a married mother of seven. And remember this, Crooked Ken has increased his net worth by as much as 7,000% since taking office. And his actions in office? Even more troubling. 

Jane Coaston: Again, that is Republican on Republican violence. Woof. And President Donald Trump isn’t making things better. He’s refusing to endorse one candidate saying he likes all three men equally. You know, like how he definitely feels about his own children. But there’s at least one thing those three Republican Senate candidates can agree on. Islamophobic bullshit. Muslims make up almost 2% of the population of Texas. And yet, the threat of, quote, “radical Islam” has completely overtaken the Republican electorate in the state. Cornyn and Paxton have spent millions on ads accusing the other of being soft on Islam. One GOP consultant told Politico in January, quote, “the Muslim community is the boogeyman for this cycle,” adding, “this has been pulled up one side and down the other. And with Texas Republican primary voters, it works. It is a thing they are legitimately scared of.” And it’s not just a talking point in the Senate race. Here’s a campaign ad from a Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General. 

Speaker 4 Islam is not compatible with Western civilization. I’m Aaron Reitz, and that’s just one lesson I learned as a Marine in Afghanistan. But politicians have imported millions of Muslims into our country. The result? More terrorism, more crime, and they even want their own illegal cities in Texas to impose Sharia law. Not on my watch. 

Jane Coaston: Bullshit. It probably goes without saying, but just in case, there’s no mass campaign pushing for illegal cities in Texas to impose Sharia law. So why is the Texas GOP laser-focused on Islam? To find out, I spoke with Forrest Wilder. He’s a senior writer at Texas Monthly. Forrest, welcome to What a Day. 

Forrest Wilder: Good to be here. 

Jane Coaston: Obviously, after 9/11, the US has seen unprecedented levels of anti-Muslim rhetoric and Islamophobia in America has never really gone away, but it did kind of slip out of the GOP’s major talking points in a lot of places until now. Why is this resurfacing now and why is it so heightened in Texas? 

Forrest Wilder: I really think it’s because, I mean, look, fear sells, right? The culture wars sells. The border is not as salient of an issue, there’s just not that many people crossing. A lot of the ICE activity is not popular. The trans panic doesn’t have the same potency that it had. And so there’s really a need for GOP campaigning in Texas, at least, to grab onto something to scare the crap out of people. And a lot of, frankly, a lot of base voters, Republican voters in Texas are really scared of the quote unquote “Muslim invasion.” It polls well for primary Republican voters. And so the politicians are all in on it. 

Jane Coaston: Something that’s been that’s interesting to me, and if you just look online, you can see it, is that it’s not just about Muslims. It’s about South Asian immigrants writ large. Um. There’s a lot of concerns about, for instance, Hindu American folks in Texas. What do you think that says about how the GOP or how the right in Texas is viewing immigration? Because there’s also been a lot of concern about H-1B visa holders, for example. 

Forrest Wilder: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, these things, they seem disconnected. They’re really not. I mean I think that, you know you could say it’s anti-Asian and there is that, but it’s really anti-South Asian, Indians and Pakistanis in particular, some of whom are Muslim, some of whom are not. We have a candidate running for statewide office for the Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas, who is, for example, calling for 100 million people to be deported. That would, of course, include tens of millions of US citizens. He even wants to deport Native Americans. Not kidding. 

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Forrest Wilder: Um. And, you know, and so there is this very broad kind of xenophobia and bigotry. But right now, like yes, I think you’re right that it’s pointed squarely at Muslims, it’s pointed squarely at South Asians. We have another candidate running for attorney general who has said that South Asian people are unassimilated and unassimmilable. Um. Complained about, you know, suburbs in Dallas looking like, you know, Pakistan. Um You know, we’re used to a lot of xenophobia in the air in Texas, well uh you know, particularly among like Republican grassroots types, but even this is just like seems more extreme than I expected, to be quite honest. 

Jane Coaston: Republicans have had control of Texas politics for 25 odd years. You know, I’m aware that obviously there are Democratic mayors in several large Texas cities, but in general, Republicans have control here. So it seems very odd to be arguing essentially that Republican government wasn’t enough to stop this evil from growing. Is it just this kind of doubling and tripling down on fear-mongering? That in a sense would seem to work against the Republicans trying to fear monger. 

Forrest Wilder: Yeah, yeah I mean, you’re exactly right. And of course, people on the far right have noticed this, but it’s used as a cudgel against Governor Greg Abbott to ask for more and more and and more and to push elected officials to more uh to take more extreme positions. That’s how you end up, for example, with Greg Abbott designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations Care as a foreign terrorist organization, along with the Muslim Brotherhood, um and legally prohibiting this nonprofit that operates peacefully in Texas for, you know, 30 years from being able to purchase land. They’re trying to strip care, Attorney General Paxton, who’s running for U.S. Senate, um is trying to trip care of their nonprofit status and basically make it impossible for them to organize or to have a political voice in Texas. 

Jane Coaston: I’m curious, how are Muslim Republicans responding to this and how are Texans in general responding to this? 

Forrest Wilder: I mean, look, the Muslim community, if you can even talk about it as such, is extremely diverse. I mean there’s immigrants. 

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Forrest Wilder: There’s people that aren’t immigrants, there’s Black Muslims, there’s people from South Asia, Indonesia, there’s Democrats, there’s Republicans. But if you kind of boil it down, Muslims tend to be politically mixed and um you know tilt socially conservative. So there is a natural Republican constituency there. The two elected officials at the state house that we have who are Muslim are are both Democrats, moderate Democrats, and you know obviously they’re in touch with their communities and I think what they’re saying and others as well is that people are, you know they’re shocked uh and in part it’s because this is manifesting not just at a rhetorical level, but there are people that are being attacked. There was a woman in North Texas in Ulysses who some white woman tried to drown her kids in a public pool and then ripped her hijab off while she was trying to rescue her kids. I can’t say what how that’s going to manifest politically, but I would think that such a full frontal assault on people’s um rights doesn’t sit well with a Muslim person regardless of their political persuasion. But, you know, Texas is a really diverse state despite its status as a deep red state. In our cities, Houston and Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, these are incredibly diverse places. They’re immigrant gateways. Um. They’re very vibrant places culturally. And I think the disconnect is that those cities are not enough to counteract the huge rural and extremely conservative or red population that we have. So what the state politics that you see are catering to like the 3% of Texans who decide elections in the primary. They’re not catering to sort of the average average Texan. And so that’s why it can be kind of confusing or discombobulating or lead to a conclusion that Texas must just be this completely whacked out extremist place. That’s not exactly reality on the ground. 

Jane Coaston: I’ve been fascinated by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s primary run for Senate. You mentioned that earlier. Paxton is running to unseat longtime Senator John Cornyn and that race is strange for many reasons. We saw Cornyn, for example, brag about getting an endorsement from anti-Islamist campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is very anti-islam. And then Paxton responded by retweeting someone who said Cornyn was bragging about being endorsed by a Somali immigrant, like that to me was indicative of just how far this has gone, because it’s not actually about someone who is Muslim, it’s about a Somali immigrant who’s actually extremely anti-Islam. What do you think that that says about what this race is doing and how people are kind of doubling and tripling down on not just Islamophobia, but racism in this race? 

Forrest Wilder: Yeah, I mean, honestly, it’d be kind of funny um if it weren’t so serious, because it’s really absurd. I mean it’s basically you have like Islamophobia uh up in a cage match with like xenophobia and racism, like who’s gonna win, right? I mean all stemming from the same place. They need an other, they need a fear campaign in order to mobilize voters to come out to the primary and then maybe for the general election. And so, you know, it’s this kind of competition for who can grab the brass ring of the fear of the other that’s the most potent at the moment. That’s how you end up with these like absurd situations like as you describe where Cornyn is holding up this anti-Muslim activist to claim his bona fides as someone who’s gonna go after you know Islamist or whatever. And then you have his opponent, Ken Paxton, sort of you’ll say, well, how you know how dare you consort with this uh you know this this foreigner, even though she is an American citizen, by the way. Who’s more credible in the eyes of the Republican primary voter? That’s the question and I think the answer is going to be Ken Paxton. 

Jane Coaston: I’m curious in your view, whether or not we’re going to see this kind of Islamophobia become a mainstream talking point nationally. Because on the one hand you have Texas Republicans doubling and tripling down on it, but on the other hand, the Trump White House is, you know, hosting Ramadan and we saw Trump make a big effort with Muslims in Michigan and elsewhere in 2024. So is Texas kind of leading the party towards its next big battle cry, which would be the same battle cry it was when I was in high school, or are they out of touch? 

Forrest Wilder: I, you know, ultimately I’m not sure. I will say that Texas is the king of the red states. You know, we are the laboratory. Molly Ivan said we’re the national laboratory for bad ideas. I think that is like, that’s still often the case when it comes to Republican politics. You remember that a lot of the politics around the border and immigration um came out of Texas. You know Greg Abbott, for example, bussing migrants to blue cities as a political stunt. A lot of the rhetoric, the actual facts on the ground of the border wall that’s still being built here. That came out of Texas. So there’s a pipeline from Texas to national GOP politics and to the White House as well. With that said, I think there’s a lot of risks that come with this kind of rhetoric. Not necessarily so much in terms of an electoral price to pay, although that could be the case in a place like Michigan. But just in the sense of of of going too far and saying things, and maybe I’m being optimistic here, saying things that are so extreme, so divorced from reality and don’t comport with people’s lived experiences that it’s just not that potent of a message, particularly if there’s a counterweight on the other side of messages that more resonates with people actual you know needs and legitimate fears. 

Jane Coaston: Forrest, thank you so much for taking the time to join me. 

Forrest Wilder: Absolutely. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Forrest Wilder, senior writer at Texas Monthly. We’ll link to his piece in the show notes. More news incoming. I know, it’s a lot, but I promise I’ll try to make it fun. If you like the show, please subscribe. Leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. We’ll be back after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of Senator Bill Cassidy] Tough flu season this year, would you, as past Surgeon Generals have, encourage Americans to get vaccinated with the flu vaccine? 

[clip of Casey Means] At the risk of sounding repetitive, I do think it’s very important as a physician and to rebuild trust in public health to make sure that patients are encouraged to have informed consent with their doctor before getting any medication. I believe vaccines save lives. I believe they’re an important part of public health. I also do not wanna not encourage patients to have a conversation with their Doctor. I think it is incredibly important and informed consent is going to be part of building trust in Public Health. 

Jane Coaston: That wasn’t a yes to vaccines, and it wasn’t a no on vaccines from Surgeon General nominee Casey Means, who testified before the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday. She was questioned there by Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy. Means is a wellness influencer, surgical residency dropout, and a close ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In fact, when asked about why he nominated her last May, Trump said, quote, “I don’t know her. I listened to the recommendation of Bobby.” Her views on public health are, well very woo-coded. Lots of talk in her writing about the quote, “divine feminine” and in one newsletter how she wants to use quote, “divine intuition to decide whether or not to drink raw milk based on the look in the farmer’s eye.” Hint you don’t need to look in a farmer’s eye, don’t drink raw milk. All that woo-ness could explain why main Republican Senator Susan Collins asked about Means’ experience using psychedelics. 

[clip of Senator Susan Collins] You also said that you were inspired to try psychedelics in what I can only describe as an internal voice that whispered, it’s time to prepare. Illicit drug use remains a huge problem in this country and this didn’t happen in your teen years according to your book. In 2021, you began using illicit psychedelic mushrooms. 

Jane Coaston: I can’t verify this, but I would guess this is the first U.S. Surgeon General candidate to be asked about taking shrooms in a Senate hearing. The Health Committee would have to approve her nomination to send it to the rest of the Senate. Capitol police arrested Minnesota Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar’s State of the Union guest for refusing, quote, “to obey our lawful orders to sit down during the speech,” according to a statement. The guest, Aliya Rahman, was previously dragged from her car in Minneapolis by federal agents even though she told them she was disabled and driving to a doctor’s appointment. Of the arrest, Omar said, quote, “the heavy handed response to a peaceful guest sends a chilling message about the state of our democracy.” We spoke with Omar and Rahman Tuesday before the State of the Union. To watch our full interview with them, head to our YouTube page. 

[clip of Vice President J.D. Vance] We’re announcing today that we have decided to temporarily halt certain amounts of Medicaid funding that are going to the state of Minnesota in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money. 

Jane Coaston: Vice President J.D Vance was all self-important and smug Wednesday while announcing that the Trump administration is pausing some Medicaid funding to Minnesota because of fraud concerns. So what does that actually mean? 

[clip of Vice President J.D. Vance] What we’re doing is we are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American taxpayer. 

Jane Coaston: The drastic move comes after allegations of fraud involving daycare centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis prompted a massive immigration crackdown in the city. This announcement is part of a larger effort by the administration to spotlight fraud around the country, though notably not in the White House. In Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, he previewed what was to come by announcing that Vance would spearhead a national, quote, “war on fraud.” And clearly, Vance isn’t wasting any time doing his leader’s bidding. 

[clip of Representative Nancy Mace] I filed a resolution that would expose all of the sexual harassment records of every single member of Congress, regardless of party affiliation, because of the Tony Gonzales situation. I did call for his resignation, others have done the same. 

Jane Coaston: South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace told NBC News this week she plans on pushing a House vote on her resolution to publicly release all sexual harassment reports related to members of Congress. Her resolution comes as Texas Republican Representative Tony Gonzales continues to resist calls from fellow Republicans to resign. A report by a local Texas newspaper detailed allegations that Gonzales had an affair with a former staffer who later died after setting herself on fire. Gonzales has said he will not resign. Mace told NBC News both the right and the left are complicit in sweeping this kind of behavior under the rug. And that’s the news. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you liked the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, check out the nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how the list includes Joy Division/New Order, as it should, Lauryn Hill, New Edition, Sade, the Wu-Tang Clan, the Black Crows, Oasis, and a bunch more, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and according to the rules, artists must have released their first commercial recording 25 years before they’re eligible for induction. Which is how Pink qualifies. She’s on the list too. I know, elder millennials. I know. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily Fohr. Our producer is Caitlin Plummer. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters and Matt Berg. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]