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Midterm Blowout: Dems Batter GOP & Elon Musk Is Out $500 Million | Erica Chenoweth

November 5, 2026·38m

Michael Kosta recaps the 2026 midterm elections after Democrats’ historic sweep: Kansas’s last Democratic senator was born the year the light bulb was invented, Elon Musk is out $500 million after blowing it on failed campaigns, and the media cannot stop coming up with dumbass “blue” puns. Plus, Troy Iwata vents to Kosta about losing out on Trump’s $5K checks. The media and even some Republicans agree that the 2026 midterm bloodbath was a rejection of Donald Trump, but one political observer begs to differ: Donald Trump. Michael covers the president's insistence that he "wasn't on the ballot," his cope-heavy celebration of a GOP victory in Guam, and his renewed commitment to helping everyday Americans by continuing to obsess over the White House ballroom. Harvard Kennedy School professor and author of "Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know,” Erica Chenoweth, sits down with Michael to discuss their groundbreaking research on nonviolent resistance that led to the development of “The 3.5% Rule,” which found that no mass movements against dictatorships in the 20th century failed once they reached active participation by about 3.5% of the population. They talk about utilizing momentum, organization, and mass non-cooperation, along with protest, to achieve successful mass nonviolent resistance, and how the Declaration of Independence was the ultimate act of civil disobedience.