The media’s week of trying to focus solely on Republican gaffes and hot mic comments continued on Friday’s episode of PBS News Hour, but the tables turned as The Atlantic staff writer David Brooks flubbed two basic facts when trying to paint the GOP’s midterm outlook as dire.
Anchor Geoff Bennett began by recalling Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton’s recent remarks, “And looking down the ballot, you have someone like Ken Paxton, the Texas Republican Senate candidate, who, as The New York Times first reported, he was caught on tape saying that Trump's midterm convention that they had a couple of weeks ago actually hurt Republican numbers.”
After host Geoff Bennett tries to dunk on Ken Paxton for his hot mic comments, David Brooks has two gaffes of his own, "And then it looks like the Senate is going to go. And this is the kind of climate where people you don't think will lose, lose. You get some stray people who… pic.twitter.com/r8E2Wqo8SI
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) October 3, 2026
He then wondered, “His campaign, we should say, disputes that characterization, but it gets at a larger tension for Republicans right now. How do you run with Trump and away from Trump at the same time?”
Brooks was not optimistic about the GOP’s chances, “And the ones who are running away from Trump right now, and there are some, and I give them credit, but it's way too late. You might as well just live with the guy.”
He proceeded to predict that “midterms are generally about the president and his approval rating. It's very simple. Like, when you're at 38, where Trump is right now, that's just historically bad for a midterm. And so you look at how many seats could go, there aren't many swing states—seats anymore in the Senate—I mean, in the House, so a pickup of like 10 or 15 would be huge these days.”
Continuing with the predictions, Brooks made his first gaffe, “And then it looks like the Senate is going to go. And this is the kind of climate where people you don't think will lose, lose. You get some stray people who seem safe and they lose. I have got a sneaking suspicion. In Kansas, a guy named Adam Hamilton, Democrat, is running for governor.”
He then quickly followed it up with his second, “And that—a Democrat winning the seat of governor in Kansas? But that may happen this time. That's the kind of climate we're in.”
Hamilton is running for Senate, and Kansas currently has a Democratic governor in Laura Kelly. Yet, Brooks’s flubs went unmentioned, which is odd because it wasn’t that long ago when Bennett was talking with former Republican Governor-turned-longtime Democratic surrogate Bill Graves about how great Hamilton supposedly is.
Here is a transcript for the October 2 show:
PBS News Hour
10/2/2026
7:29 PM ET
Geoff Bennett: And looking down the ballot, you have someone like Ken Paxton, the Texas Republican Senate candidate, who, as The New York Times first reported, he was caught on tape saying that Trump's midterm convention that they had a couple of weeks ago actually hurt Republican numbers. His campaign, we should say, disputes that characterization, but it gets at a larger tension for Republicans right now. How do you run with Trump and away from Trump at the same time? DAVID BROOKS: And the ones who are running away from Trump right now, and there are some, and I give them credit, but it's way too late. You might as well just live with the guy.
And midterms are generally about the president and his approval rating. It's very simple. Like, when you're at 38, where Trump is right now, that's just historically bad for a midterm. And so you look at how many seats could go, there aren't many swing states—seats anymore in the Senate—I mean, in the House, so a pickup of like 10 or 15 would be huge these days.
And then it looks like the Senate is going to go. And this is the kind of climate where people you don't think will lose, lose. You get some stray people who seem safe and they lose. I have got a sneaking suspicion. In Kansas, a guy named Adam Hamilton, Democrat, is running for governor.
And that—a Democrat winning the seat of governor in Kansas? But that may happen this time. That's the kind of climate we're in.
