00:00 - Opening: Trump Admin Embraces Vivek RCP correspondent Carolina Lumetta joins Walworth, Cannon, and Bevan to report from the campaign trail with Vice President JD Vance as the administration embraces Ohio candidate for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, over an ad featuring Democratic candidate Amy Acton's mother accusing her of lying about childhood abuse. Watch: Ramaswamy Ad Featuring Opponent's Estranged Mother: "She's Lied Her Entire Life" "I was walking around asking Ohio voters what they thought about the ad -- and most of them hadn't heard it," she said. "Or in some cases they heard something about it, but thought: oh, just Democrats and Republicans fighting like normal." "One thing Trump said that I think is true is that if it was his mom, they'd definitely run it," Tom Bevan added. Watch: Vance to Republicans: "Stop Whining" About Ramaswamy's Ad And Focus On What Dems Want To Do To America *** 17:33 - Americans Aren't Afraid of Socialism? The panel turns to a Wall Street Journal report examining changing American attitudes toward socialism, and supporting NYC Mayor Mamdani and N.Y. Governor Kathy Hochul proposal for a universal childcare system. Do Republicans need a more compelling economic message than warnings about socialism? Wall Street Journal: "Is America Still Afraid of Socialism?" "At the end of the day, it's like, what is your vision for how to make people's lives better on a day-to-day basis?" Bevan said. *** 29:25 - Fraud: Wanted Deal or Alive President Trump awarded journalist Nick Shirley $10,000 while announcing a $25 million reward pool for people who report government fraud, celebrating Shirley's documentary on the fraud in the Minnesota Somali community. Is crowdsourcing fraud investigations a better way to hold government accountable? Watch: Trump Gives Nick Shirley First Payout From New Incentive Program For Fraud Tipsters And Whistleblowers: "Very Cool" "It's astonishing what he was able to accomplish just being a single individual," Bevan said about Nick Shirley. "I think he's owed a lot more." *** 36:52 - Big Spending Teams Didn't Make the World Series The Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers are meeting in the World Series this month. How did they beat teams that spend so much more money, and will their success help the league establish a pay cap? "The person with the most money doesn't always win the election," Carl Cannon said. "And thankfully, that's true in baseball as well." *** 42:23 - You Cannot Be Serious?! The episode ends with this week's "You Can't Be Serious" roundup, including Secretary Hegseth's office breaking a historic globe used by Dwight Eisenhower during the war, people who say the Atlanta Falcons' new logo looks a little bit Nazi, and a controversy in Oregon where new outlets reported that a real video was a deepfake.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But we had a little breaking news last night. It was just revealed that one of my favorite Congress people, a person I have tremendous respect for, Ilhan Omar. And I was saddened to hear that Ilhan Omar is not her name. It's not. It's not Ilhan Omar. The one she used to get elected and sworn into Congress, that's the one that she used for everything. Ilhan Omar, but rather it's an entirely different name named Ilhan Nur Said Elmi. It's close. It's close, by the way. It's very close. Not too far away. You got one that's four names, one that's one, and every name is extremely different. And the last name is incredibly, and this is going to be a shock to everybody in this room, but the last name is also, I hate to tell you because you wouldn't even believe this, because it's the exact name of her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. The person they said she married to come into our country and the person she had some lovely children with. Thank you very much. So when asked whether or not she married her brother, she said, not to my knowledge. That was her. No, she didn't know. She didn't know. She wasn't sure. Like, if anybody asked me, I told, sorry, today to the fake news when I walked out on that beautiful helipad. You know, we have the fake news. They've never been to hundreds, hundreds. I've never seen so many, but they're always, they're getting worse. That means you're doing really better when you get, when those groups get bigger and bigger and bigger, more and more fakers. And I shouldn't say, because you have, see all those? Wow, that's a lot. See all the people back there? Six, 7%, they're really fine journalists, six or seven. But, but they were screaming. They want to know so many different things. What about this? What about that? No wonder that poor young woman, she was a perfect, beautiful woman. When she walked into that press room and they started screaming at her, she freaked out. And I said, you know what? There are nicer ways for you to make a living. You want to deal with these maniacs? You can deal if you want, but there are easier ways for you to live. But because Ilhan used a fake name to be sworn in, I assume that she must immediately resign from Congress. So Byron and Ashley, please inform the Speaker of the House of Representatives, James Michael Johnson. You didn't know his first name was James, James, right? And we love James Michael Johnson. That the Democrat party has just conceded the seat of the former Ilhan Omar from the lovely country of Somalia, from the lovely country of Somalia, where they have no government, where they have no anything. All they have is crime. You know what their number one, you know what their number one industry is? Being pirates and robbing ships. No, all they have is crime. And she sailed, I don't know how the hell she got here. She sailed, but no, but sail is so nice. She sailed the seven seas and she arrived in our country. And the first thing she did, coming from a country with no law, no order, no politic, all they have is people that shoot you all the time. No anything, they have nothing. Probably the worst country on earth. There are a couple of that maybe could be right there, but it's among the worst in the world. She came into our country and she immediately announced that my constitutional rights allow me to tell you how to run the United States of America. She comes from a sh*thouse country and she's telling us and she's telling us how to run the United States. So Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, her real name is openly admitted to fraud and she will not be legally allowed to be a member of that august body that sits in Washington so beautifully, of which we have many members here.

BILL MELUGIN, FOX NEWS CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A new controversy is really starting to brew over Ilhan Omar concerning whether or not that's even her real name. Fox News Digital reporting that court documents identify the Minnesota Congresswoman as Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, also known as Ilhan Abdullahi Omar. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro sounding off on this bombshell discovery. U.S. ATTORNEY JEANINE PIRRO: Her real name is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi. You had it absolutely right. Her sister is Sahra Nur Said Elmi, and her sister actually wrote a book and talked about the fact that Ilhan is her sister. So that is her name... The question is, you know, who is Ilhan Omar, and has she followed all of the laws as it relates to naturalization and immigration? MELUGIN: And in the meantime, Omar's office is firing back. They're saying, quote, this is completely false. Ilhan Omar is her real name, end quote. Joining us now to talk about this, FOX News contributor Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. Jonathan, good morning to you. Good to see you on this Friday. Thanks for joining us. JONATHAN TURLEY, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW PROFESSOR: Thank you. Good morning. MELUGIN: So, in fairness to Congresswoman Omar, she hasn't been charged with any crime yet, but a D.C. federal judge did sign off on this federal search warrant, and there has to be some element of probable cause in order to do that. If Ilhan Omar isn't her real name, and she's been using some kind of an alias, what's the significance behind that? TURLEY: Well, it's very significant, and the fact is that you have to have your real name on passports, on filings for campaign, for official offices, for as a member of Congress. All of those types of filings come with a representation that they are true and accurate, and that can create potential legal problems. Now, obviously, we don't know what her name is in terms of her legal name, assuming she hasn't changed it. Now, what's curious is she sat for an extended interview with MSNOW, and they rather nimbly avoided asking her any direct question on these outstanding questions that have been lingering for many years. Now, this name business is something relatively recent, but we have had years of controversy. And Representative Omar often gives interviews in which she just denounces these as racist or Islamophobic, but what she doesn't do is offer her own exculpatory evidence, her own direct responses, and we saw none of that in this recent interview. AISHAH HASNIE, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jonathan, really quickly a follow-up on that before we get to the was she married to her brother controversy. The president last night at that rally in Iowa said that if she truly that wasn't her real name and she was sworn into Congress to serve as a congresswoman, that she would have to resign because that would have basically been canceled out. Is that true? TURLEY: Well, it could be true. You know, we have to look at, you know, the question is whether she could be stripped of her citizenship. That would obviously mean she couldn't be a member of Congress. But also, it's true that if she was elected on false pretenses, if she violated federal election law, that would also put her seat in danger. We just don't know. And we didn't get any closer after this interview. And that's what's so concerning here is that Representative Omar has the ability to put many of these things to rest. She's had that ability for years, and she really has done nothing but give these denials without offering anything to put them to rest. HASNIE: Okay. Really quickly, I want to go to this. This is the president yesterday telling me what he thinks of Ilhan Omar's curious answer, you can call it that, to whether or not she married her brother. Watch this. I think that she didn't just say no. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, if you ask me that same question about, let's say, my sister, I would say no. She said not to my knowledge. That tells you a lot right there. No, she's I've never been a big fan of hers. I'll be honest. Let's see how it all works out. But that statement tells you a lot. HASNIE: Her team says, Jonathan, that she was being sarcastic. Some folks out there are saying, well, that was that's not a very attorney like lawyer like answer. TURLEY: Yeah. The interview didn't strike me as a sarcastic answer, but I'm not going to put a whole great deal of emphasis on how she answered that. It was an odd answer to make. The real question is to ask her very clearly about some of these issues. You know, people have been asking for a DNA test for years. She could have easily offered DNA evidence and said, look, OK, here you go. Let's let's let's put this one to bed. But she did not. And so these these questions have been lingering. But there's also lots of questions about the original filings for citizenship. Was she, in fact, 17, like her father stated, or was she 18 where she would have had to file for herself? There's questions as to her father's representations, who was a colonel in a rather brutal regime in Somalia. And there was a there's a lot of concern that he did not reveal those facts when he himself became a citizen. So these are all snowballing. And the response from Representative Omar, rather baffling that she's really not addressing those specifics. And she certainly wasn't asked for specific answers in that recent interview. MELUGIN: We don't know what the feds have. They haven't shown their cards yet. But The New York Times editorial board, they're not waiting to find out. We got to leave it here, Jonathan. But they just put out a an opinion piece today saying the Trump administration is similar to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union for conducting this investigation. So we'll see where it goes. We'll see if that search warrant eventually gets unsealed. As always, great to see you. Thanks for taking the time with us today. TURLEY: Thank you both.

Arguing YES: Benn Jordan, YouTube Educator and Activist Arguing NO: Ramin Fatehi, Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney in Virginia

Here's the link. we're going to try not to make too much content only for paid subscribers, but since we did have to pay for the polls, we went ahead and did it here. https://t.co/79Gy5vdqaD

- Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) October 22, 2026

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It was just revealed just a little while ago that Ilhan Omar, not a person I've ever been particularly fond of, that her name is not Ilhan Omar, the one that she used to get elected and sworn into Congress. In other words, she used the name Ilhan Omar, but rather it's an entirely different name. Ilhan Nur Said Elmi. slightly different than Ilhan. And I don't know if you heard this also. Have you people heard this? Have you heard this, Ashley? And the last name is incredibly also the exact last name of her brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, the person that they say she married and had children with. Are you allowed to do that, Jeff? Are you allowed to do that? I don't think so. Joni, I don't know. You're an expert. Are you allowed to do that, Joni? When asked whether or not she married her brother today, they asked her, did you marry your brother? She said, not to my knowledge. That's one of the worst answers I think I've ever heard. You know, I've heard some bad political answers. I could go over a lot of them, but that would be about the worst. Not to my knowledge. I don't think so. Did you have children with your brother? I'm not sure. She didn't know whether or not she married her brother. She wasn't sure. So it's not looking good because she used a fake name to be sworn in. I assume she must immediately have to resign from Congress. So please inform our great Speaker of the House of Representatives, James Michael Johnson. I bet you didn't know that James was there, right? I just thought it was very classy. I was going to use it. He's great. He's a great guy too. That the Democrat Party has just conceded her seat. That Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, her real name is, openly admitted to fraud and she will not be legally allowed to be a member of that body any longer. She won't be able, I mean, I don't know. If you get sworn in with a false name, I would imagine that's pretty tough to remain. What do you think the chairman of our party? What do you think? You got two chairman's nation. I don't think, I don't think it's looking too good. The Republicans have just picked up a seat in the house. Now she's been a scammer. She's been a scammer for a long time. I'm pretty good at watching that stuff. And she's been a scammer for a long time. You know, she comes from a non-country basically. Somalia has no government, has no nothing, all they do is run around shooting each other. Then she comes over here. The constitution gives me absolute right to freedom of speech. She's telling us about, she's going to fix up our country. She comes from probably the worst country on earth. There are a couple of pretty bad ones. I'd say that's right there. How about what they've done destroying Minnesota?

🚨 LMAO! Donald Trump just responded to Ilhan Omar saying "not to my knowledge" about marrying her brother and it's pure gold: "Well, if you asked me that same question about, let's say my sister, I would say, NO! She said not to my knowledge. That tells you a lot right there!" 😭 "That statement tells you a lot." And it comes the same week Jeanine Pirro's DOJ filing called her "Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar" FAKE NAME. Elmi is the real one!

- Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 22, 2026

00:00 - Opening: Spicy Michigan Senate Race Walworth, Cannon, and Bevan discuss the spicy final Michigan Senate debate last night and how the race looks with less than two weeks to go. The panel asks if Rogers connecting El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood is effective -- or desperate. RCP Average: 2026 Michigan Senate - Rogers vs. El-Sayed | El-Sayed +2.0 Watch: Michigan Senate Final Debate: Mike Rogers vs. Abdul El-Sayed "Mike Rogers comes across as a little desperate for playing this Muslim Brotherhood card," Trende said. "But if he's already losing, then what difference does it make if it backfires?" *** 08:55 - Kansas Senate Race Dead Heat The panel turns to the unexpectedly competitive Senate race in Kansas, where Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton debated rising fuel costs, the Ukraine war, and their political independence last night. Could Kansas elect its first Democratic senator since 1932? RCP Average: 2026 Kansas Senate - Marshall vs. Hamilton | Hamilton +0.3 Watch: Kansas Senate Debate: Roger Marshall and Adam Hamilton Face Off Before Midterms "If Republicans turn out, Marshall is going to win," Tom Bevan said. "If they sit on their hands, Marshall will lose." "Hamilton will have to convert a huge number of triple-Trump voters to vote for him in order to make the sale here," Trende added. *** 19:45 - Dems Leading in Trump +10 Districts RCP senior elections analyst Sean Trende discusses new polling conducted with Emerson College in 10 competitive House districts, including some Trump won by double digits in 2024, and his new Substack: "Poll Vault" Poll Vault: Trende says the results in many of these districts suggest Democrats could win more than 30 seats in the House. "We found the Democrats leading in almost all of them," he explained. "You lose seats slowly and then all at once, once that Trump +10 threshold gets breached." *** 23:05 - Talarico and Paxton Tied New Fox News and Emerson College polls show the Texas Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico virtually tied. Will reluctant GOP voters show up to lift Paxton over the finish line? A small group of libertarian-leaning Republican voters may decide the outcome. RCP Average: 2026 Texas Senate - Paxton vs. Talarico | Talarico +1.5 "They may not like Paxton, but they're going to hold their nose and go vote for him," Bevan predicted. "But this race is going to be about as tight as you could possibly be." "If it comes down to your feeling for things, that's hard to measure, and my guess is many of those people will end up being nonvoters," said Cannon. ___ 29:20 - What Does Early Voting Really Tell Us? Sean Trende again warns against drawing broad conclusions from early-vote totals, explaining that partisan turnout patterns differ across states and may reflect changing campaign strategies rather than the ultimate election result. "Democrats are worried about Trump messing with the mail and aren't going to vote by mail early like they have in the past," Sean Trende said. "Republicans were pushed by the Trump campaign to vote early in 2024. Maybe they'll revert to Election Day. No one knows." "I tell myself, don't go out on Twitter. Don't make prognostications about it, because even the fact that you have everything pointing different ways should be a warning sign." *** 30:55 - Races to Watch on Election Day Sean Trende previews the election-night bellwethers he'll be watching, including Kentucky's 6th District and Virginia's 1st, 2nd, and 5th districts. "How those get called, how quickly they get called, I think will tell us a lot about the type of night it is," he said. *** 31:50 - Could the Polls Be Wrong Again? With Democrats narrowly leading several crucial Senate races, Republicans are hoping polling errors could once again work in their favor. Sean Trende explains why such a miss is possible but almost impossible to predict. And debacles like Wedgewood's fake polls add another layer of confusion. RCP Average: Battle for the Senate 2026 *** 36:25 - Powerful Virginia Democrat Indicted The episode ends with the indictment of Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas on federal bribery and racketeering charges. Virginia resident Carl Cannon describes Lucas as an influential political boss with enemies inside her own party. Is this another example of political lawfare or a legitimate corruption investigation? "This is a case that actually started under the Biden administration, and they got an indictment from a grand jury on October 14," Bevan reminds us. "She's like the de facto governor," Cannon explained. "She's like the boss, old-style machine party boss of Virginia, a state that doesn't have strong political parties." "So she's made a lot of enemies in the party, but people are kind of afraid of her and they don't speak against her publicly very often," he said. "Having said that, I don't know how we can take lawfare off the table."

MEGYN KELLY: Ilhan Omar went on with Chris Hayes on MS Now last night and what a debacle, holy cow. The principal question or at least one of the very principal questions in the case was posed to her messily, pathetically, poorly by Chris Hayes in his level best effort to diminish the whole story, and she couldn't answer it with a straight answer. It's unbelievable. He did ask her about her brusband, one of the longstanding allegations that she married her biological brother who'd been living in the UK in an attempt to get him a green card. This is the same guy who did get married to her, got a temporary green card, and then decided to apply for a permanent green card. And when immigration authorities started asking questions about his marriage to what they believed was a U.S. citizen, Ilhan Omar, he withdrew the application. That same guy, Chris Hayes, did his level best to give her a complete pass on it. But clearly he knew he would be an absolute laughingstock if he didn't raise it. It was truly the only substantive exchange of the entire half an hour interview. He completely fell down on the job. That's another thing which I'll get to in a second. But here in his one meager, pathetic attempt at journalism, he raises the issue of the brusband and she completely whiffed it. Watch this. CHRIS HAYES: There are right-wing people who believe that this man was your brother. You have called it a disgusting lie. Who was this man that was your husband? When did they start saying that he was your brother? Why? REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): I started with a Somali blog that I don't know if it still exists, but somebody put in there that he had to have been my brother or something to that effect. And right-wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis got a hold of it and they just kind of went and found random people who were like, she introduced us. She introduced him to us and said he was her brother, which is, you know, insane. I mean, I don't know those people that they talk about. HAYES: He was not, you were not related to him at all? OMAR: Not that I know of. HAYES: There's not some weird kernel of truth that's through some game of telepathy? HAYES: Not to my knowledge. HAYES: That was the big gotcha. Right. In terms of what you're talking about promising. Like we're going to nail her on the marriage. OMAR: Yeah. HAYES: That was the source of the immigration fraud. That no longer seems to be the issue that they are putatively investigating. Right. KELLY: Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Not to my knowledge. That's unbelievable. I mean, that's literally unbelievable. There's a reason she phrased it that way. She is trying to avoid criminal liability. That's why she said that knowing is an element of the crime that she's potentially looking at their statute of limitations or not to prove that she knew he was her relative would be an element of the crime. And she's clearly told the federal investigators that it's not to her knowledge that she married her brother, which is her only escape, because she very much did, according to all of the evidence that has been assembled by very strong reporters like Scott Johnson of Powerline and our friend from Alpha News the other day, like the evidence appears overwhelming that she married her brother. And now when the cameras are on her. That's the best she can come up with... KELLY: And the reason she had to wiggle as opposed to just say no is because of the criminal liability, because of the law. But before she was facing federal raids and a potential arrest and her sister's phone and her phone being in the hands of the DOJ, she was giving different answers. She was more explicit, clearly between a month ago and now she's been briefed by a legal team on her exposure because Lindell, you know, Mike Lindell of MyPillow fame, he has his little like TV outlet and he has reporters who go to Capitol Hill and ask questions and so on. And one of them asked Ilhan Omar last month, September of 2026, if she married her brother and listened to what she said. LINDELL TV: Can you just tell us straight up, did you marry your brother? OMAR: Absolutely not. What a ridiculous thing to ask. Did you marry your brother? LINDELL TV: Absolutely not. OMAR: Absolutely not. That's disgusting. Nobody should be doing that. LINDELL TV: Why are you being criminally investigated? OMAR: I am not. LINDELL TV: Yes, you are. OMAR: I am not. LINDELL TV: Well, then Tom Homan's a liar or what? OMAR: He is. He's been saying some dumb sh*t. Like you. LINDELL TV: Oh, thank you, Congresswoman. KELLY: Good job to that reporter and to Lindell TV. Absolutely not. That's disgusting. That is what we call in the deception detection business, a convincing statement. And it's problematic and it's a tell that you're a liar. As Phil Houston, you guys know, he and I go way back. We've had him on the show many times. He's the human lie detector, CIA, 25 years, discovering double agents working against the United States for half of it and discovering double agents within the CIA at Langley for the other half. He wrote the books by the lie, have taken his class many times. One of the main indicators of deception. Is convincing statements. Megyn Kelly, did you marry your brother? No, no. I married Doug Brunt. No relation. What? Seriously, think about it, you guys. Would you then feel the need to ask that's disgusting in the high inflection? Would you feel the need to convince someone that it's disgusting to marry your sibling? You would not. You would say no. Nope. Watch. Watch it again. LINDELL TV: Can you just tell us straight up, did you marry your brother? REP. ILHAN OMAR: Absolutely not. What a ridiculous thing to ask. Did you marry your brother? LINDELL TV: Absolutely not. OMAR: Absolutely not. That's disgusting. Nobody should be doing that. LINDELL TV: Why are you being criminally investigated? OMAR: I am not. LINDELL TV: Yes, you are. OMAR: I am not. LINDELL TV: Well, then Tom Homan's a liar or what? OMAR: He is. He's been saying some dumb sh*t. Like you. LINDELL TV: Oh, thank you, Congresswoman. KELLY: OK, so that's disgusting. Nobody should be doing that. Again, it's a convincing statement. And then the third indicator of deception there is he's a dumb bitch like you. Attacking aggression against the questioner and attacking the questioner and the questioner. These are classic signs of deception. Trust me, I know Phil Houston very well. I know his course material very well. I've sat for hours, I mean, almost 20 hours in his classes. It's called a cluster. The signs of deception have to happen within the first five seconds of when the question was asked. And they did. The high pitched inflection, the that's disgusting, a convincing statement. Nobody should be doing that. A convincing statement and attacking the questioner and the question. He's a dumb shit like you. OK. This is classic lying. That's what we just saw there. And now listen to her in the Chris Hayes interview where she's clearly been briefed by lawyers. Watch. CHRIS HAYES: There are right wing people who believe that this man was your brother. You have called it a disgusting lie. Will you? Who was this man that was your husband? When did they start saying that he was your brother? Why? REP. ILHAN OMAR: It started with the Somali blog that I don't know if it still exists, but somebody put in there that, you know, that he had to have been my brother or something to that effect. And right wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis got a hold of it and they just kind of went and found random people who were like, she introduced us, you know, she introduced him to us and said he was her brother, which is, you know, insane. I mean, I don't I don't know those people that they talk about. He was not you were not related to him at all. HAYES: Not that there's not a kernel of truth that through some game. OMAR: Not to my knowledge. KELLY: So it is a felony to lie to federal investigators. And she clearly told them that it's she didn't marry her brother to her knowledge. And she's trying not to tell a new lie because if you lie to federal investigators, it's a felony. She's trying not to do that because she doesn't want to rejigger the five year statute of limitations on on perjury, on lying. To federal investigators, which they've gotten, you know, that's what they got Mike Flynn on. So she's got to stick with that new story, not to my knowledge, when she's sitting across from MSNBC's Chris Hayes, it's as plain as the nose on your face. It is a very obvious lie. I'm going to get to Chris Hayes in a minute. I don't want to forget I'm making a note to come back to him. There's a reason we included his non follow up in the exchange that we just showed you. OK, back to him in a second. But this let's stay over the target. Ilhan Omar did marry her brother. She did. And there is overwhelming evidence of this. OK, first, let me refer you back to. Our guest, Preah Samson Dar, formerly of Alpha News, who was just on the program the other day. She was here on Tuesday. She's one of the three reporters who's been owning the Omar story for the past 10 years, 10 years. OK. Scott Johnson is the other one. And David Steinberg of Powerline, the latter two are with Powerline for the past 10 years. So these are the people who know more about this than anyone. And Preah told us, remember, on Tuesday when she was with Alpha News in 2016, she discovered the brother, the Bresbin's resume online, and she tracked him down via email and asked him about his marriage to his sister, Ilhan Omar. And his response on the record in an email was, she reported, quote, No way am I affiliated with anyone in your articles, nor do I recall being married to anyone, at least from what I remember.

DANA PERINO: Let's get to this story. It's getting a lot of attention, there's growing fallout over fake polls. Democrats are angry at a firm that admitted to making up surveys that boosted far left candidates. The outlets that ran those numbers are now doing some damage control. Tom Bevan is co-founder and editor at RealClearPolitics. I wanted to bring this up to you because here's two headlines, two recent instances. L.A. Times in August said, "Polls showing Bass leading Nithya Raman by double digits was bogus, the company said." "FiftyPlusOne just caught a pollster faking data, and they copped to it." Wedgewood said, "We just wanted to test a simple hypothesis. How easy is it for an entirely fabricated polling firm to gain traction?" The New York Times was one of those outlets, Tom, that factored in this poll to their average, and they said yesterday, "We've removed those polls Tuesday night and published an editor's note that said it had included them, 15 in all, after the pollster answered a series of detailed questions from the Times about the pollster's identities, methods, and funding." But Tom, that was after the fact. TOM BEVAN, REALCLEARPOLITICS CO-FOUNDER AND EDITOR: Yeah, everybody seemed to include these. We did not. They were never in any of our RealClearPolitics averages, and we have a very sort of stringent method for, it often takes years. We like to see these pollsters because, Dana, every year, every cycle now, there are these pollsters that pop up out of nowhere, and they get involved and produce numbers in key battleground state races, Senate, Governor, House races, and they try and influence the narrative. And so, we're pretty strict about who we let in. It often takes years before we'll let someone in our RealClearPolitics average for exactly this reason. And so, both of these companies said, well, we're just doing social experiments. Well, when were they going to let people know that? And as you point out, in some cases, damage was done, particularly in this case, on the Democratic side. DANA PERINO: Do we know who was funding them? TOM BEVAN: We do not yet, and I think a lot of people are eager to get to the bottom of that and find out whether it was, you know, whether it was a Democratic operation that was trying to influence the Democratic primaries, or perhaps it was a Republican operation, but we do not know the source of the funding for these polls. Some of them were crowdfunded, by the way. DANA PERINO: Do you think, or have you seen any evidence that one of these polls would have changed the outcome of an election? So, for example, I know that in Michigan, in that primary, Mallory McMorrow, who dropped out of the race, said she was a victim of one of these polls. TOM BEVAN: Yeah, there's no evidence that, I mean, especially if you're using them in an aggregate, I mean, they weren't that different, but to your point, Mallory McMorrow says her campaign, they released a poll showing that she had dropped down to the single digits, and she said it affected her fundraising, it affected her staff, she had people that were, you know, not eager to turn out for her, and she says it cost her that primary. Now, I mean, that's, you can argue that one way or another, but nevertheless, these polls were designed to influence and create narratives in these campaigns, and they certainly had some impact in that. DANA PERINO: In the minute we have left, I want to ask you about Texas. We talked about Michigan Senate earlier on Texas. Right now, you have this race tied, but Talarico is down two points from September. Republicans are maintaining that they are closing well, that their voters are coming home and they feel better, especially on the financial side of things, but when you look at the Texas Senate race, how do you size it up? TOM BEVAN: It does look like Paxton is closing and that Republican voters are coming home. The last three polls in this race, the Fox News poll had it tied, an Emerson poll had it Talarico up one, and another poll had Paxton up one, so it looks like this is going to be, go right down to the wire, and it's going to be very, very close. DANA PERINO: Do you sleep at all these last two weeks before an election? TOM BEVAN: Try to a little bit, but obviously this is our silly season, and so it's pretty much around the clock. DANA PERINO: It's great. RealClearPolitics, Tom Bevan, thank you so much for being here. TOM BEVAN: Thanks, Dana.

WILL CAIN, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Live from Texas, this is "The Will Cain Show." Well, after days of being asked about his sympathy and connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, Abdul El-Sayed finally gave a clear answer, with a follow-up question. "Are we good?" (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Clearly disavowed it. But here's the question. The implication of the question is that somehow I will have dual loyalties, right? And there's nothing about my history or record to imply that. So go ahead and watch where I clearly disavow. If it's not clear enough, I clearly disavow it. Are we good? (END VIDEO CLIP) CAIN: Let's see. Are we good? I don't know. It makes me feel like I'm the A-hole for asking. And that, in fact, is exactly what's intended by Abdul El-Sayed. The condescension drips off him like sweat in one of his workouts with his buddy Hasan Piker. His eye roll could literally turn back time. It's a style that many, even those on the left, like the Obama bros, are left wondering, are we good? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JON FAVREAU, HOST, "POD SAVE AMERICA": You have got to give the answer as if someone who might have a question about a Muslim Brotherhood tie is not necessarily like totally Islamophobic and like that kid or like Trump or like Mike Rogers, but like might have a question, and you don't want to -- and you don't want to condescend to that person or be like, no, you're a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) for asking, right? (END VIDEO CLIP) CAIN: Right, which is why the whole "Are we good?" thing really undercuts him disavowing the Muslim Brotherhood in the first place. Why does every one of Abdul El-Sayed's answers seemingly come with an asterisk or a parenthetical or a brushback pitch? How would you feel if you were asking your husband, who were you with last night? Why didn't you come home? Are you having an affair, and his answer was, I'm still married to you, are we good? It leaves you thinking, I don't know if we're good. El-Sayed makes it clear, he thinks, in fact, you are an A-hole if you're asking because you're implying that he has dual loyalties. He assigns you motivation just for asking. He suggests you're asking because he's Muslim and therefore you're Islamophobic. To him, there's no other explanation, no other motivation. To him directly, quoting us, this: "There's nothing in my history or record to imply that." So let's examine his record and see if there could be any other motivation for the question. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) EL-SAYED: Despite the fact that I may be an immigrant of North Africa. I am Arab. I'm also African. My family immigrated to this country from Egypt. I'm proud of my African heritage. I carry dual citizenship, right? And I grew up spending most of my summers in another country. (END VIDEO CLIP) CAIN: His campaign says he misspoke. He isn't actually a dual citizen. Common slip of the tongue. Who hasn't accidentally claimed dual citizenship? A bit more difficult to explain, El-Sayed's half-sister expressing support for the Muslim Brotherhood, specifically and on multiple occasions, back in 2012 and 2013. And then, add to that the fact that he campaigned with, traveled with, attended pool parties with a guy who spews anti-American rhetoric with pretty alarming regularity. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HASAN PIKER, TALK SHOW HOST: It's laughable to say guys like myself, guys like Abdul El-Sayed, we hate America. I say I hate America all the time, OK? America deserved 9/11, dude. (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I'm saying it. (END VIDEO CLIP) CAIN: Not to mention, he equated Sharia law to canon law and circumcision to genital mutilation. So, yes, the questions don't seem Islamophobic. They seem legitimate. The most pressing being, does he support the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: If you can't denounce the Muslim Brotherhood, something is really scary wrong with you. This is a terrorist organization. It's been banned in many, many countries. It's declared a terror organization here. And one -- the Muslim Brotherhood has been repeatedly prosecuted after 9/11, et cetera, for involvement, for laundering funds, for involvement in terror attack and terror planning. And in the documents that have been recovered in those that -- multiple times -- in those investigations, they talk -- the Muslim Brotherhood talks about a strategy of entryism or gradualism, those are their words, to take over the United States and impose Sharia law. (END VIDEO CLIP) CAIN: Entryism or gradualism to impose Sharia law. For the record, I would expect any candidate for office in America to not only disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, but Sharia law. And it should not be hard. And the question should not be controversial.

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): Hi there, Senator Elissa Slotkin here in my office in downtown Detroit. Over the last few days, I've been the target of attacks from D.C. Republicans and right-wing media. It culminated in President Trump just a few hours ago in the Oval Office saying that I should be tried in court. This time, it's because I dared to talk about the corruption coming out of the White House. This shouldn't be complicated. If you break the law or abuse taxpayer dollars, you should be held accountable, no matter who you are or who you work for. If you haven't abused the law, then no problem. This is not the first time this President has tried to weaponize the justice system against me. At his direction earlier this year, the Department of Justice took me to a D.C. grand jury to have me criminally indicted for sedition. If President Trump had his way, I'd be in prison. Thankfully, an anonymous group of Americans I will never meet voted unanimously that all I was doing was exercising basic free speech. So I know from experience, when it comes to weaponizing the government, the President says what he means, and he means what he says. Therefore, I'm prepared for his hand-picked Attorney General to salute this latest call to investigate me and do the President's bidding. Now, if you take a breath, this is all pretty crazy. A President from the Oval Office is weaponizing our justice system against an American who clearly gets under his skin. If he can do it to me, he can do it to anyone. His supporters use a coordinated play to threaten, intimidate, and silence anyone who speaks up. It's a play to distract us from failed economy, high gas prices, and the disastrous war he started in Iran. But if I've learned one thing from this past year, it's that you have to push back. These people threatening violence in jail do not represent the United States I believe in. It's not the America I love. So if the President wants to investigate and arrest me, and even worse, as so many authoritarian leaders do with their political adversaries, then do it. It's gotten predictable at this point. But I'm not going to be intimidated out of standing up for the rule of law and the country that has given me everything.

00:00 - Opening: Another Fake Poll RealClearPolitics president Tom Bevan and senior elections analyst Sean Trende discuss the Wedgwood polling hoax and explain why RCP doesn't include "fly-by-night" polling scams like this. "What does this have to do with the polling industry?" Washington editor Carl Cannon asked. "This wasn't a poll. It was a fraud. It was a hoax. It was a conspiracy. It was possibly criminal." "We do a very serious and thorough vetting of every pollster, and sometimes it'll take years for them to get included in our average, only after they've polled over multiple cycles, and we can see a track record and verify their work," Bevan said. Also: How much did their fake numbers impact real races, like the Michigan Democratic Senate primary? "But at the same time, I'm kind of like, if a single poll tanks your entire campaign, maybe it wasn't that great of a campaign to begin with," Trende added. *** 10:57 - Ramaswamy's Controversial Ad With Amy Acton's Mom Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is reportedly spending $4 million promoting an attack ad featuring his opponent's estranged mother calling her a liar. Watch: Ramaswamy Ad Featuring Opponent's Estranged Mother: "She's Lied Her Entire Life" "It's a nasty, nasty, nasty piece of political work, but I think analysts are so turned off by it, I don't know how it's going to play," Sean Trende suggested. "I think there's a very real chance of a backlash, but I also think the people I see who are the most horrified by it are people who, if they lived in Ohio, would probably be Amy Acton voters to begin with." *** 19:38 - Sean Trende's Pole Vault Sean Trende introduces Poll Vault, his new Substack, and previews the release of polling from 10 competitive House districts conducted with Emerson College. "We're doing it with Emerson, so these are real polls," he joked. Sean Trende, The Poll Vault: Level-Setting 2026. Part I: The House *** 20:26 - Trump's Approach to Putin James S. Robbins from the Institute of World Politics joins the program to explain the latest deal looming over Ukraine. Has the Trump administration gone too far in courting Putin? Does ending the war in Ukraine with an armistice now send a dangerous message to countries seeking nuclear weapons? Watch: Zelensky: Ukraine Would Agree To Freeze Front Lines To End War--If We Get Security Guarantee From US "You look at Qaddafi and say, 'If you want to wind up dragged through the streets, then give up your nuke stuff," James Robbins said. "If North Korea can get nuclear weapons, any country can get nuclear weapons, and the Iranians know that." *** 37:13 - 100% Inheritance Tax? The panel reacts to United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby's support for a national wealth tax and an inheritance tax approaching 100%. "I think maybe he should start by putting his money where his mouth is," Cannon said. "No one is stopping him from writing a check." *** 42:55 - Regret Fleeing America Over Trump The episode ends with reporting from Wired Magazine about people who regret leaving America after the election of Donald Trump: Wired Magazine: "They Fled Trump's America. Now They Regret It" "They let politics color their judgment about their home country, and then they get over there and they don't know what to do about it," Carl Cannon said. "And a lot of them, it sounds like a lot of them are moving back with their tails between their legs."