The Erick Erickson Show

Erick Erickson explains why he will vote the whole Republican ballot but leave the Georgia Senate line blank over Mike Collins, takes pushback from caller Joy, and argues that Republicans cannot win the culture war while tariffs and diesel prices wreck the economy. He also covers the fake Dan Sullivan fallout in the Alaska Senate race, Chinese farmland purchases in Texas, Florida Amendment 3 on property taxes, and his case for expanding the House and paying members of Congress $500,000.

Erick Erickson uses Open Line Friday to go after AI hiring tools, from the Workday class action lawsuit over alleged age and race discrimination to the New York Times report on Gen Z job seekers rejected by chatbots, and he calls on Congress to ban AI from vetting job applicants. He also takes caller Vince on the Workday rejection loop, then turns to the collapse of SAT vocabulary rigor, his son's classical Christian education and senior thesis, Common Core and Singapore math, and the new data on toddler screen time.

Erick Erickson digs into the New York Times report that Mary Peltola's campaign, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee aides, and the Elias Law Group ran a "Ballot Composition Project" to put a second Dan Sullivan on Alaska's ranked choice ballot, and why he thinks the press is shrugging it off. He also covers Troy Jackson's Maine logging company that turns out to be a union consulting firm and the laundromat owner misled into his ad against Susan Collins, Abdul El-Sayed and Peggy Flanagan donor ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and why he is leaving the Georgia Senate line blank. Plus a salute to the Milwaukee Brewers' World Series win.

Erick Erickson sounds the alarm on early voting data in Georgia, where Keisha Lance Bottoms could beat Rick Jackson for governor if Republicans stay home, and where the same weak GOP turnout shows up in Iowa, Ohio, Texas and North Carolina. He weighs Patrick Ruffini's numbers against a 3.4 percent third quarter GDP report, a likely December interest rate hike from Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, and why tariffs, grocery prices and wages trailing inflation hurt Republicans heading into the midterm elections. Plus data center spending, the college work ethic problem, and a possible Canada trade deal.

Erick Erickson breaks down the New York Times report that Obama-era FBI and Homeland Security investigators found evidence Rep. Ilhan Omar's 2009 marriage was fraudulent, why the statute of limitations stalled the case, and how Chief Judge James Boasberg is handling the sealed search warrant fight. He also takes listener calls on the border wall, munitions production, and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey's case that America should build weapons with the factories it already has, plus China, the power grid, and Taiwan.

Erick Erickson breaks down Benjamin Netanyahu's surprise comeback in the Israeli election, why early exit polls got the Knesset race wrong, and what it means for polling ahead of the American midterms. Then he takes on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s comments about Arab nations a week before Michigan votes, Abdul El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood ties, the 2002 UN Arab Human Development Report, and JD Vance on the unrest in France. Erick also explains why he is leaving one Georgia ballot line blank, his predictions for the Senate and House, and the Atlanta Dream versus Golden State Valkyries WNBA Finals scheduling mess.

Erick Erickson breaks down the New York Times exposé on the Mary Peltola campaign's "Ballot Composition Project," which recruited candidates named Dan Sullivan to confuse Alaska's ranked choice voting ballot and peel votes from Senator Dan Sullivan. He then explains how Republican text message fundraising on WinRed is killing the small donor base while ActBlue surges, why early voting data shows Republicans not turning out in Georgia ahead of Keisha Lance Bottoms, and what the Wall Street Journal reports about a post-midterm Iran strike.

Erick Erickson digs into the Nielsen numbers showing Fox News headed for its lowest October in years, with just 98,000 viewers in the coveted 25 to 54 demo, and explains why populist movements like MAGA rarely survive the departure of the big personality, from Huey Long to Zell Miller to a post-Trump 2028 fight over Donald Trump's term limits and JD Vance. Then he takes calls on the Texas Senate race between Ken Paxton and James Talarico, why pastors stayed silent in the primary, early voting panic in Georgia and Michigan, and the Federal Reserve holding off on a rate hike until December.

One week before Election Day, Erick Erickson breaks down Donald Trump's nonstop midterm campaign swing, why 13 visits to Kansas is a red flag for Roger Marshall, and how tariffs, diesel prices, fertilizer costs, and Canadian aluminum are hurting Iowa farmers and Republicans. He also digs into Georgia early voting numbers, the Anthropic Claude voter data controversy, the Los Angeles early ballot court fight, and why he expects a possible Democratic House takeover while urging listeners to stay calm, vote, and look ahead to 2028.

Erick Erickson explains why the Senate candidates with their own brand, Susan Collins in Maine and Mike Rogers in Michigan, are beating the ones who are only known as Donald Trump's pick, from Mike Collins in Georgia and Michael Whatley in North Carolina to Ken Paxton in Texas. Then he turns to Florida, where Democratic socialist Angie Nixon's Cuba embargo answer and a criminal referral over $270,000 missing from her charity are dragging down the whole ticket, plus Attorney General James Uthmeier's Sinaloa Cartel takedown in Tampa Bay.

Erick Erickson unpacks Barack Obama's Cheesecake Factory joke from the Abdul El-Sayed rally in Michigan, why Donald Trump taking the bait four times hurts Republicans, and why the left's sneering at the middle class and small business owners is the real story. Then he reads the early vote one week before the midterms: Republicans leading in Nevada and Florida, the Texas Senate race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton tied, Susan Collins in Maine, Mike Rogers in Michigan, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and a first look at the Israeli election and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Erick Erickson opens an open line Friday revisiting the Ilhan Omar story, playing her own words to Chris Hayes and reading a Pirate Wires piece by Ashley Rindsberg that argues Snopes and the fact-check industry waved away questions about her father, Nur Omar Mohammed, while noting the immigration investigation began under the Biden administration. He then turns to the midterms: the Fox News poll with James Talarico and Ken Paxton tied in Texas, rural Georgia early voting down 50 percent from 2022, fake polls from firms like SoCal Strategies, Abdul El-Sayed on defense in Michigan, and farmer anger over tariffs. He also calls Vivek Ramaswamy's Amy Acton ad political malpractice for every Ohio Republican forced to answer for it.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott joins Erick Erickson to sound the alarm on record Democratic early voting in the Texas governor race against Gina Hinojosa, as a new Fox News poll shows James Talarico and Ken Paxton dead even in the Senate race. Erick then spotlights rural Georgia turnout down 50 percent from 2022, tells Republicans to skip the line they dislike but still vote, and makes the case that tariffs have become the Republican anchor with a net negative 39 percent approval. He also explains why he does not believe the Vanity Fair story on Jared Kushner and lays out what the data says about marriage, free markets, and a successful society.

Erick Erickson says he could hold his nose and vote for Ken Paxton just to keep James Talarico out of the Texas Senate, while refusing to back Mike Collins in Georgia, and argues voters must be earned, not browbeaten into voting the team. Breaking news that the Trump administration will cut 50 percent Canada tariffs to help Susan Collins in Maine leads into a hard look at Iran, with Brent crude near $117, the Dow down nearly 600 points, a working oil blockade, and reports the U.S. and Israel plan regime change after the midterms. He also covers the Defense Production Act for petroleum, bipartisan permitting reform, and New York City's nonprofit property bill.

Breaking news: Virginia Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas is arrested on federal drug trafficking charges tied to her marijuana dispensary, while Erick Erickson sounds the alarm on Republican early voting turnout in Georgia and Texas, where Rick Jackson is calling in Ted Cruz and Republicans risk handing Keisha Lance Bottoms the governor's mansion. Erick explains why every vote, and every blank line on the ballot, sends a message to the parties, and answers pastor Josh Howerton on whether voting is a message. Plus a Glasgow museum pulls its Egyptian mummies over "informed consent."

The New York Times confirms what Republicans said all along: Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed signed a letter defending the Muslim Brotherhood and urging Mohamed Morsi to purge Egypt's press and police, and Erick Erickson explains what it means for Mike Rogers. Erick breaks down early voting in Texas, where Greg Abbott looks strong and James Talarico is a problem, the Ken Paxton blame game, Rick Jackson in Georgia, and Susan Collins in Maine. Plus the Starshield blame game over Elon Musk and Ukraine, and a Czech president's claim that Trump's Russia sanctions waiver killed a peace deal.

Erick Erickson opens with rural Georgia voters staying home, then plays Harry Enten on CNN's new poll showing Trump at 32 percent approval and Democrats up 10 on the generic ballot. He explains why Vivek Ramaswamy's ad attacking Amy Acton's family history, and JD Vance's defense of it, has every Republican on the Ohio ticket playing defense in the governor and Senate races. Plus Abdul El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood letter, the Trump lame duck problem and the 2028 bench, the New York Times report on renewed Iran strikes after the midterms, and why California's $126 billion high-speed rail shows America needs competence in government.

Erick Erickson breaks down why Republican strategists are in full meltdown mode two weeks before the midterms after the New York Times/Siena College poll showed Democrats up 11 on the generic ballot, and why he thinks the polling, including the fake Wedgwood numbers, overstates the Democrats in key Senate races from Texas and Ohio to Iowa and Alaska. Then he rips Vivek Ramaswamy for doubling down on an ad aimed at Ohio Democrat Amy Acton's family, and ties it all to Trump's $5,000 payout pitch, his Putin and Ukraine moves, and the TikTok problem he says the president created.

Erick Erickson reacts to Volodymyr Zelensky telling Fox News he will accept a ceasefire that freezes the lines in Ukraine, while the White House, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and Elon Musk each give a different story about why Starshield and Starlink service went down. Erick then takes calls on JD Vance's post-liberal worldview of American decline and spheres of influence with Russia and China, argues that decline is a choice, and previews the feds' DNA evidence hunt in the Ilhan Omar investigation.

Erick Erickson, broadcasting from Louisiana, digs into the FBI's dumpster dive for DNA evidence in the Ilhan Omar investigation, Senator Elissa Slotkin's walkback of her comments about prosecuting Trump allies, and why he says corruption must be prosecuted on both sides, including the Trump family, Steve Witkoff, and Howard Lutnick. He also pitches a constitutional fix that suspends the presidential pardon power every October of an election year. Then he explains why young men are getting black pilled, from the Bloomberg story and the Cornell case to Nick Fuentes, Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories, C.S. Lewis, and the church's failure to mentor.

Two weeks before the midterms, Erick Erickson sizes up the Senate map: Abdul El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood baggage and shrinking lead over Mike Rogers in Michigan, Angie Nixon's police abolitionist closing argument against Ashley Moody in Florida, and why early voting numbers in Georgia, Texas, and Florida cannot be read yet. Then Republicans from Ashley Hinson in Iowa to Mike Rogers break with Donald Trump over Ukraine, the Starlink cutoff, and withheld Patriot missiles, while Kevin Hassett and Steve Moore defend an economy where wages still trail inflation.

Erick Erickson blasts Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign for an Ohio governor race ad that puts Amy Acton's estranged mother on camera, calls it a sign of a campaign in a bunker, and argues the White House paid for short-circuiting primaries in Ohio and North Carolina with Michael Whatley. Erick also takes on the Wired story of left-leaning Americans regretting their moves to the UK, Germany, and Poland, plus Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia and the Fox News look at who is really behind the French protests.

Erick Erickson makes the case that district attorneys, sheriffs, school boards, and city councils shape your daily life more than Washington does, with Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner, referred to a grand jury, and George Soros backed progressive prosecutors as exhibit A. Erick also takes on the Cornell fraternity case, arguing that the Judeo-Christian moral ethic, chivalry, and self-control got tossed out long before anyone got hurt. He closes from his family's farm in Louisiana, with prayers for a family land sale.

Broadcasting live from St. Francisville, Louisiana, Erick Erickson opens with a CNN clash between Scott Jennings and Ashley Allison over Islamophobia and AIPAC, then connects Abdul El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood to the French riots, the Palestinian flag as the new "omni cause" banner, and the red-green alliance of the secular left and Islamists. Then he turns to the midterms: a nine point Democratic generic ballot, Trump underwater on inflation, diesel at a record October price, and Matthew McConaughey's pitch for independents, plus Erick's theory that the president may want Democrats to win so he has someone to run against.

Erick Erickson says the Omni Cause has come for CBS News after Bari Weiss pushed reporters to dig into Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and his family's Muslim Brotherhood ties, and he plays Joy Reid and Hasan Piker as the perfect example of secular progressives and Islamists believing they are on the same team. He then breaks down the federal search of Ilhan Omar's home, the New York Times report on her sister's phone, and why an Obama-appointed judge signing off on the warrant matters in a possible immigration fraud and denaturalization case. Erick also shares a personal word on Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts going on injured reserve with a blood clot, and his own two scares with clots in his lungs.

Broadcasting from St. Francisville, Louisiana, Erick Erickson takes on President Trump's $27 billion in government equity stakes across 30 companies, including a nearly 10% stake in Intel, and warns that the precedent, plus a corruption problem that is now the number two issue for voters, opens the door to Zohran Mamdani style socialists and the next Democratic administration. He also breaks down Trump's sanctions waiver on Russian diesel, the Starshield cutoff for Ukraine, and the rumored Iran peace deal, with Republican pushback from Kevin Cramer and Mike Rogers. Then the Supreme Court takes up the 160-year-old federal ban on home distilling in Department of Justice v. McNutt.

Breaking news out of the gate: President Trump cancels the livestream of Nidal Hasan's execution, and Erick explains why turning an execution into content and memes would have been a mistake. Then the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency releases a sweeping report finding that all nine of the largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, used vague reputational risk policies to debank conservatives, gun sellers, oil companies and some progressive groups. Plus Jake Tapper and CNN take the Ilhan Omar search warrant seriously, and Abdul El-Sayed gets combative with NBC over his family's Muslim Brotherhood ties.

It is Open Line Friday on the Erick Erickson Show, and the hour opens with a trucker named Lewis explaining diesel surcharges before CNN's Matt Egan delivers a sizzling Producer Price Index report: 1.3% monthly and 6.3% annual wholesale inflation, with the Iran war, Saudi and Houthi strikes on refineries, and Ukraine all in the mix. Erick breaks down why he still expects Republicans to hold the Senate, weighs in on James Talarico's CNN town hall with undecided Catholic voters, and reacts to the new federal lawsuit against Matt Gaetz. He then makes the case, through the late pastor Tim Keller, that politics has become an idol on both the left and the right.

On the Erick Erickson Show, Erick takes a caller's question about why the U.S. military can no longer fight two wars at once and walks through the Pentagon procurement mess, the Navy's saltwater maintenance problem, cheap drones versus exquisite weapons, and the Trump administration's fortress Western Hemisphere thinking. He defends Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky against Russia and Vladimir Putin after the Starlink shutdown and Elon Musk's call for Zelensky to go, then holds up El Salvador and Nayib Bukele as proof that locking up repeat offenders works. Plus Georgia ballot advice, Angie Nixon and Chris Rabb wanting to lock up Republicans, and Abdul El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood ties in the Michigan Senate race against Mike Rogers.

Erick Erickson opens with a hot September CPI inflation report, a 3.7% annual rate, gas up 9.1% in a month and a 3.6% Social Security COLA for 2027, and argues the unfinished Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz tanker attacks are driving it. He then walks the global fire: Houthi strikes on Saudi Aramco, a drone attack off Bulgaria, protests shaking India's Modi, Ethiopia and Eritrea heading toward war, and the Starlink shutoff in Ukraine, all with midterm warnings for the White House and Republicans.

Erick Erickson takes a furniture store owner's call on how tariffs and fuel costs are squeezing Main Street, then makes the case for Anduril and Palmer Luckey: Ukraine will build five million drones this year while America builds fewer than a hundred thousand, and Patriot missile output and the Houthi missile threat show why defense procurement needs a shake-up. He also reacts to Shane Gillis, Dan Levy, and The View, plus a Bill Gates farmland call and a warning about population decline.

Erick Erickson opens by fact checking Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed after his Meet the Press denial of any Muslim Brotherhood ties, walking through his family history, his donors, and the Holy Land Foundation court record. Then a new White House press secretary debuts, Kimberly Guilfoyle is out as ambassador, and Erick makes the case against live streaming the Nidal Hasan execution after the fatal Goliath accident at Six Flags Over Georgia.

Erick Erickson sounds the alarm on the 2026 Senate map as Republican donors scramble to defend Nebraska, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina, and blames the Ken Paxton scandals in Texas for draining money from Mike Rogers in Michigan and handing James Talarico a path to the Senate. Georgia governor candidate Rick Jackson joins by phone to take on Keisha Lance Bottoms, with plans on affordability, data centers, mental health beds, and a Mississippi style push on third grade reading. Erick also plays Democratic candidates promising to abolish ICE, Vivek Ramaswamy's Ohio rally pitch against Sherrod Brown, and a pro-Trump Ohio voter, with Shane Gillis and the SNL monologue outrage teed up next.

Erick Erickson takes on the outrage over Shane Gillis and his Saturday Night Live monologue, explains the Streisand effect, and says the left cannot take a joke as Democrats close in on power. Then Erick breaks with President Trump over buying Russian diesel, arguing that Russia and China are helping Iran and that the money could get Americans killed, before a sober three week check on the midterms, the Senate map, Ken Paxton, James Talarico, and Ohio. Also: prayers for the Pope after lung surgery, the Greta Gerwig Magician's Nephew Narnia trailer, and golf with two NFL quarterbacks.

Erick Erickson opens a Columbus Day edition of the show with a told-you-so on Democratic midterm polling slipping after its Labor Day peak, then takes apart the viral rumor that Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was hiding in an Ohio mental hospital. He digs into Elon Musk's $276 million midterm push for Republicans, Speaker Mike Johnson's claim the GOP will hold the House, the federal search of Ilhan Omar's home, and the heated Fox News clash over Trump buying Russian diesel while Zelensky's drones hit Russian refineries.

Erick Erickson spends the hour on the Muslim Brotherhood and what he calls the soft jihad strategy, starting with a Wall Street Journal report on the little-known donors powering the Democratic Socialists of America, Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan Senate bid, and Zohran Mamdani. He reads from Michael Youssef's book The Unholy Alliance, takes a caller who left Salafism, and argues the answer is exposure and not a strongman on the right. He also covers Kimberly Guilfoyle's shaky ambassadorship to Greece, Hasan Piker, a Ukrainian strike on a Russian data center and the drop in bot traffic, and warning signs under the surface of the stock market.

Erick Erickson starts with why he does not believe the Durupinar site in Turkey is Noah's Ark, then turns to the Federal Reserve numbers showing one in five families behind on loan payments, trucking bankruptcies, and the Trump tariffs backlash from Howard Miller clocks to Bombardier in Kansas, with callers pressing him on where the tariff money went. He also covers Trump's Friday rally in Dalton for Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins, why the Nidal Hasan execution should not be live streamed, and Keisha Lance Bottoms and her "this city literally was burning" line.

Erick Erickson breaks down a brutal debate night in the 2026 midterms: Mike Rogers presses Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed on whether Israel or Iran is the bigger threat, his mother's ties, his Hasan Piker friendship and his Dubai property, while Susan Collins lands her sharpest blow yet on Maine's Troy Jackson. Erick also explains why Mike Collins is sinking in Georgia against Jon Ossoff, why you must vote all the way down the ballot, and remembers Chicago Bears legend Mike Ditka, who passed away today.

Erick Erickson welcomes State Department deputy spokesman Luke Ortega to unpack Secretary Marco Rubio's Acropolis speech defending Western civilization, the new Greenland deal with Denmark, and the 250,000 visas revoked under President Trump. Then Erick breaks down the New York ICE shooting of Oscar Bergall, Mayor Mamdani's attack on federal agents, and the Obama appointed federal judge who blocked his deportation. Plus Tommy Tuberville's 7 to 0 win at the Alabama Supreme Court, Iranian AI influence operations, a rant on "super intelligence," and the White Sox in the playoffs.

Erick Erickson makes the case, as a Christian who supports the death penalty, against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's plan to stage a public, live-streamed execution of Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Hasan, citing Army regulations, Tertullian, Augustine, Ezekiel 33:11 and the risk of turning a paraplegic terrorist into a martyr for Islam. Erick also explains how his faith has changed his politics, takes on progressives who twist scripture and conservatives who ignore the refugee on immigration, and then turns to TV: Slow Horses, 24, Silo, Severance, Game of Thrones and how pornography and gratuitous language coarsen the soul. Plus the Cornell seven text message, the Not Safe Radio Show, Hurricane warnings for the Southeast and a Friday round of golf.

Erick Erickson makes the case that the Republican midterm bloodbath is overstated, backing Ken Paxton over James Talarico in Texas and Mike Rogers over Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, with a look at Senate races in Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina. He then digs into the new CBS News report on the Iranian attack on Camp Buehring in Kuwait, the aircraft losses the Pentagon downplayed, and word that President Trump wants a plan to finish the Iranian regime before the midterms.

Erick Erickson opens with a Gulf Coast hurricane warning for Alabama and the Florida panhandle, then breaks down the New York Fed report showing tariffs raised prices on 67 categories of goods by 2.9 percentage points, plus Morgan Stanley data on the stock market slump and an AI boom holding up the economy. He defends Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent against a Wall Street Journal hit job, takes on the Kimberly Guilfoyle stories, and warns Republicans that corruption is now a top midterm issue.

Erick Erickson turns a left lane road rage story, complete with his Claude voice assistant joking about driver stereotypes, into a sermon on America as a low trust society, from McDonald's free refills to razor blades locked behind glass, with Jeff Bezos on Fox News defending success. He also takes on the code enforcers threatening a San Jose pastor's food pantry with $20,000 a day fines, Delta's Wi-Fi meltdown and the Starlink feud with Elon Musk, and the Wall Street Journal report on rogue pilots and intentional airline crashes. Joe Rogan's new Spotify deal and Marco Rubio's warning to Europe round out the hour.

On the third anniversary of the October 7th Hamas massacre, Erick Erickson takes on the genocide in Gaza propaganda campaign, the rise of antisemitism on Ivy League campuses and in the West, and the real history of Judea and the Jewish homeland. Former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren joins to discuss Hamas, Iron Dome, the Abraham Accords, Saudi Arabia, and why the Iran war and the Trump naval blockade have to be seen through.

Erick Erickson opens with Marco Rubio's Acropolis speech on the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto and October 7th, then covers breaking news from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney on an arrested ISIS-inspired plot to attack the Mall of America. He argues that a wave of parents killing their children is a sign of evil on the march, that pastors should preach repentance instead of partisan politics, and previews the midterm elections, Ken Paxton in Texas, and the polling unknowns.

Erick Erickson digs into the 2026 midterms and the CNN bloodbath polling, arguing that Republicans who refuse to talk to pollsters could leave the Democratic wave overstated, with Susan Collins, Troy Jackson, Abdul El-Sayed, Mike Rogers, Ohio and Georgia races in focus. He also covers the launch of Trump accounts for 70 million kids, the Michael Dell gift, and why the George W. Bush Social Security privatization plan still matters, then ends with a housekeeping note on ericerickson.com and the new text ERICK to 33777 landing page.

Broadcasting on location through a hotel hotspot, Erick Erickson defends President Trump's "let them take out Los Angeles" Nebraska remark in context, then warns that Democrats have 28 days of maximum outrage planned, from Karen Bass to the attack on Annie Andrews in South Carolina. Rick Scott on socialism and Abdul El-Sayed, the real story behind the France riots, Somali gang violence in Minnesota, and why America needs a melting pot, not a salad bowl.

Broadcasting from a secret location, Erick Erickson breaks down Russia's mysterious pneumonic plague outbreak at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia, from Marco Rubio's warning to the MIT bioweapon theory, and explains why panic is just herd mentality. He tells the foster care to 7-Eleven to postseason story of Atlanta Braves pitcher Ray Kerr, weighs in on the Cornell Seven fraternity case with Michelle Cottle, Letitia James and Byron York, and covers the diesel shortage with Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

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Erick Erickson, broadcasting from a hotel on assignment, tells listeners the midterm polling is bad but not as bad as the headlines, breaking down Steve Kornacki's NBC News poll on Hispanic voters (a 24 point Democratic lead on the generic ballot versus 22 points in 2022) and the cost of living and corruption problems dragging down Republicans. He then reports that James Talarico is now favored over Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race and that Paxton's campaign is being run from Washington, and he explains the fight between President Trump and Senator Tom Cotton over permanent daylight saving time.

Erick Erickson reacts to Southern Baptist Convention president Willy Rice telling Fox News that Christians need to step up in politics, and argues that believers cannot play team sport for the Republican Party while corruption is the number two issue for voters. Using the book of Lamentations, the Psalm 51 repentance of King David, and the 2000 Bush election and PEPFAR, he makes the case that Christians can be a prophetic voice to both parties, and that sitting out a race like Ken Paxton's Texas Senate contest can be a vote for better. A Braves upset of the Dodgers, a candidate quality warning for Mike Collins in Georgia and Max Miller in Ohio, and a Siberian plague rumor round out the hour.

Erick Erickson opens with breaking news that the US has cleared Iraqi airspace for Israeli aircraft after pulling American troops out of Iraq, as armed skirmishes spread inside Iran, oil falls to $100 Brent, and B-1 bombers leave RAF Fairford after a foiled terror plot. He argues the carrier group and 10,000 Marines headed to the Middle East are there to contain a destabilization campaign, then pushes back on Nate Silver's call that Georgia's governor's mansion flips, with Rick Jackson, Keisha Lance Bottoms, and Jon Ossoff in the mix. The hour also covers the Supreme Court's new term, Justice Samuel Alito, a University Heights, Ohio prayer meeting case, birthright citizenship, and the Cornell fraternity case.

Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday with a sweeping history of social contagion, from the 1518 Strasbourg dancing plague and the Salem witch trials to the McMartin preschool panic, then connects it to new data showing LGBTQ identification among kids in free fall and J.K. Rowling's take on the trans fad. He also reports that oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz has topped pre-war levels for seven straight days and takes calls on sanctuary cities, the Arizona immigration case, and CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Erick Erickson takes on a New York Times report that Anthropic quietly hosted religious scholars under nondisclosure agreements to discuss AI consciousness and Claude's moral status, and that the company reportedly considered pulling out of a Vatican launch event for Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI. Erick argues theologically that AI is a math equation that cannot have a soul, then takes Open Line Friday calls on the failed Tennessee execution of Christa Pike, the death penalty, and who funds American mosques, from the North American Islamic Trust to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Erick Erickson wrestles with the Cornell Seven fraternity case, arguing that society cannot prosecute bad or immoral behavior, only crimes, and walks through New York consent law, the Duke lacrosse case, the University of Virginia fraternity hoax, and the Lindsay Clancy insanity verdict. He also reports that national Republicans are pulling money from Michael Whatley in North Carolina and Mike Collins against Jon Ossoff in Georgia to save Ken Paxton in Texas, then takes Open Line Friday calls on Mecca versus Medina Muslims, football season, and President Trump's Oklahoma stop with Kevin Hern.

Erick Erickson opens with a blunt monologue on the Gaza genocide narrative and the violence it keeps inspiring, from a thwarted mass shooting plot at the Texas State Capitol in Austin to the Boulder attack and the Pennsylvania governor's mansion arson. Then he covers the botched Christa Pike execution in Tennessee and digs into the 2026 Senate midterms, with Harry Enten's polling data, James Talarico, Ken Paxton, Susan Collins, and why polls keep oversampling Democrats.

Erick Erickson opens with Senate Democrats killing the Stop Insider Trading Act and the Ratepayer Protection Act after both passed the House, then explains why the prepaid absentee ballot request forms in your mailbox are not ballots and how progressive groups use data brokers to target voters. He covers the deadly I-95 fog pileup over Lake Marion in South Carolina, the Flydubai hijacking and the hero pilot who saved the plane, the RAF Fairford terror arrests in the UK, and the left's political religion, including Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

Erick Erickson opens with a warning that progressive politics has become a religion, from the collapse of the United Methodist Church and other mainline denominations to Maine protesters harassing Chief Justice John Roberts, and why pastors who preach politics are hurting their churches. Then he weighs in on Steve Hilton versus Xavier Becerra in the California governor race, makes the case that Barack Obama pioneered the partisan division he now laments, defends his Hunga Tonga volcano climate call with a caller, and unloads on Delta for refusing Starlink Wi-Fi.

The President deserves a lot of credit in the middle east, Elon Musk's Starlink is awesome and more business should embrace it plus the current state of Senate elections around the country.

The President brings the heads of AI to capital hill plus the great success the Trump administration has had in almost completely wiping out muslim immigration. Good.

Erick Erickson takes on the online right's outrage over Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' welfare to work ad, calling out the grievance politics and white victimhood peddled by click chasing influencers. He then argues Donald Trump's Iran sanctions and economic pressure are slowly collapsing the regime even as gas prices and diesel costs threaten Republicans ahead of the midterms, praises Brian Kemp's gas tax suspension, and mocks the rush to rebrand artificial intelligence as "superintelligence." The hour closes with Senator Eric Schmitt's embarrassing Jack Smith "Hawks game" gotcha that blew up on live television.

Erick Erickson opens with the Speaker of the House's "common sense versus crazy" midterm pitch, then walks the 2026 Senate map from Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas to Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, and Georgia, warning that MAGA alone cannot win in November while farmers rage over tariffs and diesel prices. He defends Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' welfare to work campaign ad against a white nationalist backlash and takes on the grievance politics spreading on the populist right, with Brian Kemp's Georgia gas tax suspension, Texas dyed diesel, and Marco Rubio on the Strait of Hormuz along the way.

Erick Erickson breaks down the Pentagon data breach that exposed nearly 3 million people and the FBI job site hack, asking whether Iran is probing American defenses while Pete Hegseth's future gets shakier heading into the midterms. He also warns that the 10-year Treasury yield at 5.29 percent is squeezing mortgages and credit cards, holds up Argentina's Javier Milei as a lesson in fiscal sanity, and digs into Derek Thompson's data on the collapse of hosting friends at home and what it means for loneliness, faith, and community.

Erick Erickson uses the UK Home Secretary's new refugee sponsorship plan to warn that America must not copy Europe's immigration failures, then argues the GOP can build a multiracial coalition by rejecting identity politics and grievance grifters, with Sarah Huckabee Sanders' welfare ad still fueling the fight. He also takes calls on assimilation and the melting pot, shares his taco soup recipe and cookbook plans after a Low Country barbecue caterer calls in, and breaks down the Protect College Sports Act from Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell as an Auburn employee is charged with stealing athletic trade secrets.

Erick opens with the good news: Iran's economy is collapsing under U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz, and President Trump all detailing the pressure campaign as gas and diesel prices start easing on returning refinery capacity. He also covers SpaceX's historic Starship launch of the new Starlink V3 satellite and Scottie Scheffler's class act at the President's Cup. Then comes the bad news hour: Erick makes his case for why predictions of a GOP Senate wipeout in the midterms, driven by weak Republican turnout, Trump Jr.'s wedding scandal, and flawed candidates like Ken Paxton and Mike Collins, are overblown.

Erick Erickson breaks down agentic banking, the new Wall Street fear from Apollo Global economist Torsten Slock and Bank of America analysts, as Meta's Muse AI agent helps consumers cancel subscriptions and chase high yield savings account rates. He also reports on the Macon, Georgia park shooting that wounded 12 teens, three blocks from his studio, and on huge crowds of young people turning out for Pope Leo in France, arguing the real fight is between the sacred and the secular.

Erick Erickson makes the case that abortion is his red line and that voters have every right to sit out races like the Ken Paxton versus James Talarico Texas Senate fight, warning Republicans that holding your nose for corrupt or unworthy candidates guarantees worse ones, from Vivek Ramaswamy's struggles in the Ohio governor race to Trump's taxpayer funded campaign ad. He also defends Georgia governor candidate Rick Jackson against an AJC attack on the self-made man, plays the Saturday Night Live Dario Amodei parody, and shares a UK counterterrorism update on five men released on bail in a suspected foreign state operation.

Erick Erickson opens as President Trump welcomes Xi Jinping to the White House and the administration caves on its ban of CNN, MS Now, and Politico, then explains why a declining China, not a rising one, is the real danger: purged generals, a stalled Chinese economy, Iran's oil squeeze, and Beijing's push to get Trump to abandon Taiwan. Then Erick celebrates Argentine President Javier Milei's blistering United Nations speech, the free market results of ending rent control in Buenos Aires, and why EU bureaucrats, Adrian Vermeule's common good constitutionalism, and Abdul El-Sayed's word salad on Iran all point the same direction.

Erick Erickson reports from a Georgia fundraiser where Republicans finally felt some joy, as Rick Jackson's ad blitz on Keisha Lance Bottoms and the 2020 Atlanta riots moves the Georgia governor race while Democrats hold zero TV reservations for October. Then Erick sides with Judge Judy on retrying Lindsay Clancy, blasts The View for scolding Patrick Clancy for divorcing the woman who killed their three children, and argues true crime podcasts, Christian nationalism, and a Massachusetts mask bar are all symptoms of a society losing its mind.

Erick Erickson opens on Stanford University admitting its dining department used AI to turn a Hispanic male student into a Black woman in marketing photos, calling it DEI and identity politics run amok, and draws on his late friend Tim Keller's teaching that every person is made in the image of God. Then Erick turns to the farm crisis: Mike Rogers and Roger Marshall breaking with the White House on the Iran war as diesel prices top six dollars at harvest, why a diesel export ban would backfire, China reneging on soybean purchases, and farm bankruptcies piling up in Georgia.

Broadcasting from the home bunker on a day of runaway mattress deliveries, Erick Erickson breaks down President Trump's United Nations remarks: the Shield of the Americas alliance with Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent, renaming artificial intelligence "super intelligence," rejecting global AI restrictions, and a call for the complete economic isolation of Iran as Xi Jinping arrives at Joint Base Andrews. Then Erick explains why capping diesel prices or banning diesel exports would raise costs on everything shipped into America, how tariffs and the Canada trade war wiped out Vermont's Jasper Hill Farm, and why Kamala Harris may sit out 2028 while she campaigns for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

Erick Erickson says America needs litmus tests for crazy, starting with the Last Ditch lesbian bar in Greenfield, Massachusetts, where critics cried ableism and eugenics when the struggling bar dropped its N95 mask mandate one night a week, and moving to Bill Burr's defense of Luigi Mangione, Tyler Robinson and Charlie Kirk, and transgender athletes in girls sports. Then Erick explains why Xi Jinping is a real totalitarian, unlike Donald Trump, as the Chinese dictator arrives at Joint Base Andrews believing he can make Trump cave on Taiwan, plus the Paramount Warner Bros merger meltdown at CNN and the AI bubble coming for online retail.

Erick Erickson explains why Meta's new AI agent Muse, the number one app in the Apple App Store, has Amazon blocking it and Wall Street dumping bank, insurer, telecom, and travel stocks, and why he is fine with AI agents canceling unused subscriptions and hunting down better deals even as a Financial Times study finds ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and Grok get financial questions wrong most of the time. Then, with the 10 year Treasury yield at a 19 year high, Erick plays Rand Paul on CNBC blaming both parties for the national debt, warns of stagflation and a bipartisan fiscal cliff Mitch McConnell predicted, and asks listeners to pray for Ben Sasse after his liver surgery.

Erick breaks down President Trump's speech to the United Nations General Assembly, from calling the International Criminal Court a rogue institution and an evil group of people, to the Iran ultimatum (a deal or annihilation, with no thought given to the midterms), to the moment the Cuban delegation walked out. Then a searing hour on Canada's MAID program and the death of 83 year old Brigitte Stegman, a Christian grandmother who told her family she had made a mistake two days before doctors killed her. Plus Marco Rubio made permanent as national security advisor, Zelensky laying white roses at the 9/11 memorial, and why deregulating natural gas in 1993 proved the free market right.

Erick takes apart the online outrage machine after Converse pulled a Chuck 70 ad over absurd claims that a K-pop star's photo evoked a KKK hood and a lynching, and explains why Nike's habit of apologizing to the white wokes helped drop it out of the S&P 100 for the first time since 1998. Then the mob turns on Taylor Swift for cheering her husband Travis Kelce during the Chiefs' 33 to 30 win over the Colts, Rick Jackson's brutal 2020 riot ad flatlines Keisha Lance Bottoms in the Georgia governor's race, and General Motors delivers Patriot missile housings to Lockheed Martin just 22 days after signing the contract. His thesis all hour: the only way to play the outrage game is to refuse to play it.

Erick Erickson walks through the economic war on Iran, with Brent and West Texas crude back below $100, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC detailing five new sanctions authorities that shut down Iranian airlines worldwide and closed branches of Egyptian, Turkish and Russian banks, and Wall Street Journal reporting on the US Navy blockade, stranded truckers at the Pakistani and Afghan borders, and Iran's paranoia after the Hezbollah pager operation. He covers record diesel at $6.31 a gallon, JP Morgan admitting it has no model for the endgame, Steve Moore's deregulation case, and the breaking news that the Trump administration is weighing a diesel export ban. Then former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin joins to explain the Education Freedom Tax Credit and why 20 governors still have not opted in, and Erick closes on the Associated Press tying a Mississippi killing to lynchings and on Senator John Curtis demanding an investigation of the Don Jr. wedding.

Erick opens on the Nikole Hannah-Jones piece in the New York Times Magazine, where the 1619 Project author admits she sent her own daughter into a failing New York City public school as an act of collective good, then watched the girl move to a better high school and discover she had never actually learned algebra. Fresh off his debut on ABC's This Week, Erick lays out the three things Donald Trump must do before the midterms: go quiet, kill every tariff, and finish Iran. Plus the networks suspending the White House pool, a $35,000 per pupil system that cannot teach long division, and why Republicans on the ground are in all hands on deck panic.

Oil slips under $100 a barrel on talk of negotiations, but Erick Erickson argues the Iran story is Groundhog Day: the extremist faction now running Tehran has no interest in talking, is rebuilding its missile shield with Chinese technology, and is betting it can outlast Donald Trump until Democratic socialists gut the war. He walks the map of the world's great choke points, the Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandeb, the Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal, explains how the Houthi seizure of Perim Island closes the Red Sea, and makes a blunt proposal: buy drones from Ukraine, which will build over 5 million this year while America builds fewer than 100,000, and finish the job. Then a Cobb County mother named Harper calls with the story of a straight-A middle schooler who drowned in honors classes, and Erick returns to his most radical idea, abolishing public schools altogether.

Erick Erickson plays a new Great Lakes PAC ad in which David Beamer, father of Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer, confronts Abdul El-Sayed over his refusal to disavow Hassan Piker's claim that America deserved 9/11, and calls it one of the most powerful spots of the cycle. Before that, a full teach-in on vertical and horizontal federalism and the case every American should be watching, Suncor Energy v. Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County, where Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers is fighting a Colorado theory that would let one county regulate emissions produced anywhere on earth. Then Lincoln Public Schools, where the district quietly hired an LGBTQ+ advocate with a Luigi Mangione shirt while only 55 percent of its third graders read at grade level.

Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday with the Democratic pivot nobody expected: Lindsay James running ads on girls sports in Iowa's second district, James Talarico backing off in Texas, and Democrats all over the map fleeing open borders and defund the police with forty days left before the midterms. Then a caller on the Lindsay Clancy mistrial sets Erick off, and he makes the case that the lone Haitian American juror who refused to be browbeaten is the hero of the whole story. Plus the real driver behind gas prices at the pump, why Ken Paxton still has a path in Texas while Republicans quietly pull money out of Georgia, and Erick's Sunday debut on ABC's This Week with Donna Brazile and Frank Luntz.

Erick Erickson spends the back half of Open Line Friday on two collapses. Nike, the company named for the Greek goddess of victory, has been dropped from the S&P 100 after almost 18 years, having wiped out more than 200 billion dollars in market value since its 2021 peak, and Kylian Mbappe just walked away to On, the Swiss brand that hired Thierry Henry to run its entry into soccer. Erick argues the Colin Kaepernick lectures and the direct to consumer gamble did the damage the business press will not name, then turns to a New York Times guest essay arguing the University of California should stay away from the SAT, which sets up his case that poor black kids in Mississippi are out reading and out scoring rich kids in California.

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Erick Erickson closes Open Line Friday with the fight that earned him death threats this week. He plays Hassan Piker telling Axios the Middle East would be more stable with an Iranian nuclear weapon, watches Jake Tapper and Abby Phillip try to make Tucker Carlson the right wing mirror image of a man Tucker just endorsed in Michigan, and then walks through Charles Haywood, the shampoo millionaire whose foundationalist manifesto, praise for Francisco Franco and whites only Society of American Civic Renewal are quietly buying their way into conservative boards and church bodies. Then breaking news from the Department of Justice: the federal ban on handgun sales to 18 to 20 year olds is unconstitutional and will no longer be enforced. Plus F-35 stealth components that disappeared into Hong Kong, and callers on assimilation, refineries and six dollar diesel.

Erick Erickson opens on the Axios interview in which Twitch streamer Hasan Piker says the United States is worse than Al Qaeda pound for pound, and traces how Democrats built Piker into their answer to Joe Rogan before trying to walk it back. He ties Piker to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who deflects criticism of Sharia law as white supremacy and argues breast cancer research is overfunded because of white privilege, and to Michigan congressional nominee William Lawrence, who wants to abolish single family homes and heterosexual marriage. Then Erick turns the same spotlight on his own side, calling for the Republican Party to purge the white nationalists and Nazi sympathizers before independent voters decide both parties are crazy.

Erick Erickson devotes the hour to Greta Gerwig's new Chronicles of Narnia, beginning with The Magician's Nephew, and the decision to have Meryl Streep voice Aslan. He walks through why Aslan is C.S. Lewis's Christ figure, from the stone table in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, and argues that one small change guts the entire Christian allegory even if the movie sells tickets. He also defends Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey against critics on the right, and closes with a personal tribute to Dauvey Eisner.

Erick Erickson turns his equal opportunity offending on the left, taking apart Congressman Thomas Massie's House floor claim that Israel committed a genocide in Gaza, and arguing that what happened was a war Hamas started on October 7th, not a genocide. He walks through the New York Times piece on Israel viewing itself as a victim, the Macklemore antisemitism fight that got the rapper booted from Robert Kraft's Gillette Stadium and left Ed Sheeran's tour in limbo, and the Ms. Rachel YouTube backlash, then makes the theological argument that antisemitism comes from the devil and that no Christian can hate the Jews. He closes the hour on Constitution Day with a defense of compromise, federalism and gridlock, plus breaking news on a proposed U.S. Army base in Poland and Marco Rubio's new round of Cuba sanctions.

Erick names the names. He walks through his newsletter on Charles Haywood, the shampoo magnate turned self described would be warlord whose money runs through the Claremont Institute, the Society for American Civic Renewal, American Reformer, New Founding and American Moment, and who is funding a push into the Southern Baptist Convention, the PCA and the Global Methodist Church. Then the economy turns ugly: oil over $100 a barrel, diesel near $6.22 a gallon, and a Federal Reserve under Kevin Warsh widely expected to raise interest rates.

Erick breaks down the numbers in the Georgia governor race, where Republican Rick Jackson has reserved $40.5 million in ad time against Keisha Lance Bottoms and her $42,000, and calls Jackson's foster care and Atlanta riot spots the best political ads of the cycle. Then to Michigan, where Mike Rogers is sitting on opposition research that has Abdul El-Sayed in his own words saying the government overfunds breast cancer research, and to Texas and Florida, where James Talarico and Angie Nixon are handing Republicans the tape. Plus callers on Iran's enriched uranium buried under Pickaxe Mountain, why America cannot refine its own sweet crude, and Saudi Arabia firing a Chinese made Dongfeng missile in Yemen.

Breaking news opens the hour: the Federal Reserve under Chairman Kevin Warsh votes 12 to 0 to raise interest rates a quarter point, the first hike in more than three years, with the dot plot signaling another to come and the inflation target pushed out to 2029. Erick Erickson then turns to the horseshoe theory tying together the Nazi curious weirdos on the right and the effective altruism crowd at Anthropic who want you to worry about the wellbeing of AI chatbots, and why both groups are really just asking to be put in charge of your life. Plus Xi Jinping appearing to fall ill at the BRICS summit in India, the purge of his own generals, Mitch McConnell's decline, and Susie Wiles announcing she is cancer free.

Erick makes the case that the AI safety panic is regulatory capture dressed up as the apocalypse: Anthropic, racing toward an IPO and burning cash on GPUs and data centers, wants Washington to freeze its competitors in place before open source models from Meta catch up. He plays Kara Swisher's nuclear nonproliferation analogy on CNN and dismantles it with the history of the China Syndrome, Three Mile Island, and the 100 nuclear plants America never built, then plays David Sacks calling Dario Amodei's bluff. The back half is a full teardown of effective altruism, the Sam Bankman Fried utilitarian cult now running AI safety, complete with shrimp welfare and a Beth Barnes TED talk.

Erick returns to Beau French and the Indian American Longhorns fans in Stetsons to argue that a legitimate grievance about H-1B visa abuse is being allowed to rot into racism, and he warns that America is walking the same road that produced the AfD and Europe's far right. Then a hard look at the numbers: the New York Times and Siena College poll has Democrats up 51 to 43 on the generic ballot, President Trump at 38 percent approval, 31 percent on the war in Iran and 28 percent on cost of living, with Nate Cohn drawing the 2006 comparison. The bond market is doing its own voting, with the 10 year Treasury yield at a 19 year high, the Dow off more than 400 points, and crude at 106 dollars a barrel.

Erick opens on a religious liberty case the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear, and it is one he says he could not believe was real: University Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, threatened Daniel Grand with jail, sent police to monitor his house, and encouraged neighbors to report "unauthorized prayer activity" after he tried to gather ten Orthodox Jews for a minyan on the Sabbath, with neighbors telling him "we don't want your kind here" because they feared the neighborhood would be labeled Jewish. He walks it back through Kelvin Cochran, the Atlanta fire chief fired over his Sunday school book, Jack Phillips and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and RLUIPA. The second half is the Supreme Court blocking the Trump administration's Postal Service ballot mail rule, with Erick taking the side of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett against Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, and asking Republicans a simple question: do you want Barack Obama's Postal Service holding a barcode that says this ballot belongs to this Republican?

Erick walks through regulatory capture in real time: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's "We Must Pace the Frontier" essay, the coordinated Jacob Coxson resignation rollout in the Wall Street Journal, and the Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar bill to create a cabinet level AI agency. He traces the money from Dustin Moskovitz, Open Philanthropy, and the Survival and Flourishing Fund back to the same people who own Anthropic, then explains why Meta and Mark Zuckerberg's open source models are the real competitive threat and why nobody is asking for strict liability. In the second half he takes apart Texas Railroad Commission candidate Beau French for a racist tweet about Indian American students at the University of Texas, and argues the right is repeating the identity politics mistake that cost the left two elections.

Erick opens with a progressive tech writer's essay about neighbors named Bob and Van, men whose politics never came up because politics was not the whole of life, and turns it into an argument that social media has catechized both parties out of normalcy. He plays Bill Maher's Real Time monologue on radical Islamism, Osama bin Laden's polling among young Americans, and the parallel between 2020 stolen election claims and Gaza genocide claims as tribal loyalty tests, then walks the Senate Leadership Fund's $25 million ad buy across seven states and explains what the missing Georgia money says about Mike Collins, Jon Ossoff, and the AI generated attack ad nobody asked for. He closes on Ken Paxton's AI generated James Talarico ad, Abdul El-Sayed's refusal to answer for Hasan Piker in Michigan, and President Trump lifting tariffs on Irish whiskey as a favor.

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Erick Erickson takes a caller's tale of two Georgia ad campaigns, Rick Jackson's brutal and effective spots against Keisha Lance Bottoms versus the One Nation tax ads carrying Mike Collins against Jon Ossoff, and turns it into the central question of the 2026 midterms: a blue wave is coming, but is the red wall the GOP built taller than the wave? He stakes out his own call of a 10 to 15 seat Democratic House pickup with the Senate holding, walks through New Hampshire, Michigan, North Carolina, Maine, Texas, Iowa, and Kansas, and plays the Roger Marshall town hall where Republicans in the crowd, not just the progressive hecklers, start booing the moment he defends tariffs. In the back half he digs into the ProPublica report that a Russian oligarch quietly bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding, then explains in plain language why a $5,000 tariff dividend check would pour fuel on inflation right as the Federal Reserve decides whether to raise interest rates.

On the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, Erick Erickson opens not with the news but with Welles Crowther, the 24 year old equities trader on the 104th floor of the South Tower who tied a red bandana around his face, carried an injured woman down 17 floors, and went back up the stairs again and again until he died alongside firefighters in the lobby. Prompted by a question from his daughter Evelyn about whether Americans have turned misery into a way of honoring the day, Erick draws a hard line between grieving and honoring, reads the names of the 2,977 dead, and argues that the unity of September 12 was cheap unity because fear is free. He revisits Todd Beamer and Flight 93, the 343 firefighters and 71 police officers, Article 5 of NATO, Cantor Fitzgerald's 658 employees, President Trump's posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for Crowther, and the algorithmic outrage industry that now profits from keeping Americans sorted into factions.

Erick Erickson takes apart the Politico story out of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas claiming panic over the Senate map, siding with Chris LaCivita and walking through why a five point Democratic polling bias in September means Republicans in Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Maine, Alaska, and Texas are actually ahead, not drowning. Then the August consumer price index lands at 3.4 percent, Mark Zandi and Thomas Ryan warn the Federal Reserve may raise rates next week, the 30 year mortgage hits 6.76 percent, and Erick issues a direct challenge to President Trump: take every tariff to zero between now and Election Day and run the experiment.

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Erick Erickson closes the 25th anniversary of September 11 by playing the sound a camera crew heard at the World Trade Center that afternoon, more than 300 firefighter PASS device alarms sounding under the rubble, then turns the overwhelming weight of the news into practical advice out of Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Babylon: seek the welfare of the city in which you live, because Washington is not coming to help you. From there it is an Open Line Friday run through the Lindsay Clancy trial twist, where juror Paula Devlin told Gayle King on CBS that the lone holdout who wanted a guilty verdict was the only black man on the panel, plus Ted Cruz and Dave McCormick warning about a red green alliance of communists and Islamists at the Republican convention, President Trump's wardrobe jab at Ken Paxton, and the $5,000 Trump dividend that landed like a lead balloon with congressional Republicans. Erick ends where he began, with Welles Crowther, the red bandana, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Erick opens on President Trump's Dallas convention promise of a $5,000 "Trump dividend" to every adult citizen if Republicans hold the House and Senate, and calls it what it is: a bribe funded by the tariffs listeners are already paying, with JD Vance out on Fox News defending it. His counteroffer is zero income tax for married couples with kids earning under $200,000, money people keep instead of money the government prints and hands back. Then the real story of the hour, the Republican midterm message of common sense versus crazy, as James Talarico scrambles to walk back six genders and a non-binary God, Abdul El-Sayed runs from his 9/11 problem, John Fetterman cuts an ad for Dave McCormick, and a new Tony Fabrizio poll shows Talarico beating Ken Paxton in Texas by four.