| | | |  | | By Brakkton Booker and Jesse Naranjo | What up, Recast fam. On today’s agenda:
- Mitch McConnell’s protege announces a run for his seat, then quickly disses him
- MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid’s final broadcast
- An endorsement and a diss — how will Byron Donalds respond?
| 
Then-gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron concedes to supporters during an election night watch party Nov. 7, 2023, in Louisville, Kentucky. | POLITICO illustration/Photo by AP | Move, Mitch! Get out of the way! The newly minted Senate candidate Daniel Cameron, 39, wasted no time showing Kentucky’s MAGA-aligned base he’s no longer a disciple of Sen. Mitch McConnell and is unequivocally on Team Trump. And he did so by torching the longtime Senate leader by name for casting “no” votes on the president’s Cabinet picks to lead the Pentagon, the nation’s intelligence agencies and the Department of Health and Human Services. “Now what we saw from Mitch McConnell in voting against Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and RFK was just flat out wrong,” Cameron said in a video posted Monday on X. “You should expect a senator from Kentucky to vote for those nominees to advance the ‘America first’ agenda.” For good measure, on what coincided with the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Cameron also created more daylight between himself and McConnell by saying “enough is enough” when it comes to funding Ukraine’s military efforts — something the longest-serving majority leader championed. Cameron’s rejection of McConnell is notable. Not only did McConnell, 83, play a pivotal role in his career — Cameron acknowledged as much in his acceptance speech when he became the state’s first Black attorney general, saying the senator “changed the trajectory of my life” — but it also signifies changing power dynamics in Kentucky. Cameron may see his best shot at achieving history again by fully embracing Trump. If he can earn the endorsement from the president, as he has twice before, it could propel him to be the highest-ranking Black official in the state’s history — even if it means hitching his fortunes to a man who has not had great success getting Black GOP candidates running statewide across the finish line. Remember that Trump-backed Herschel Walker’s senate run in Georgia in 2022 and last year’s endorsement of Mark Robinson in North Carolina’s gubernatorial contest ultimately ended in defeats — ones Democrats successfully point to as evidence that Trump’s ability to pick winners is deeply flawed.
| | | | 
| Was The Recast forwarded to you by a friend? Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter here. You'll get a weekly breakdown of how race and identity are the DNA of American politics and policy.
| | |
Before Kentucky’s 2026 Senate contest fully takes shape, there is another opportunity for Trump to reverse this narrative, if he decides to back Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia’s lieutenant governor who is seeking to replace the term-limited Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Distancing himself from McConnell will be a challenge for Cameron. He was part of the McConnell Scholars Program while attending the University of Louisville and later worked for the senator, a big reason he was viewed by many as heir apparent to McConnell's seat. But Cameron is expected to receive a serious challenge for the nomination from Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and businessman Nate Morris. They’ve both signaled they’re jumping in but have not yet made their candidacies official. | 
Cameron, then Kentucky's attorney general, speaks during a discussion with President Donald Trump and law enforcement officials, June 8, 2020, at the White House. | Patrick Semansky/AP | “If anybody tells you that a Trump endorsement doesn't matter in this race, they're just lying to you,” Kentucky GOP strategist Gus Herbert tells The Recast. “A Trump endorsement of any one of these candidates would be a decisive blow” for the others seeking the Republican nomination, he adds. Herbert, who also ran Cameron’s unsuccessful 2023 gubernatorial campaign against Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, added that Barr, Morris and Cameron all have ties to the president. And that’s where the Barr camp sees vulnerability. Not long after Cameron announced his candidacy, Barr’s camp slammed him saying he “embarrassed” Trump by losing his governor's race in a state Trump carried last year by 30 points. While Cameron has not called out any of his would-be challengers by name, he likely noticed that dig from Barr. It’s perhaps why in that social media video dissing McConnell, Caneron cast himself as a warrior on culture war issues, including his early opposition to environmental, social and governance investment theory, which some conservatives have derided as “woke.” He also claimed to be a “vocal opponent to DEI,” and perhaps most importantly to be the first elected officeholder in the state to back Trump’s most recent presidential run. At the conservative gathering of CPAC last week, Morris posted his own video taking aim at Cameron: “One of the things we can’t have in Kentucky is another puppet for Mitch McConnell.” In a later posting on X, he referred to Cameron as “Mitch's Manchurian Candidate.”
| 
Cameron speaks during the virtual Republican National Convention on Aug. 25, 2020, from Washington. | Susan Walsh/AP | Taken together, Tres Watson, another Kentucky GOP strategist who knows all three men, sees it as political posturing intended for an audience of one. “Kentucky has gotten very, very pro-Trump. The one place you don't want to be in this primary is probably being viewed as Mitch McConnell’s candidate, because that’s probably a one-way ticket to third place,” Watson says. Watson said Cameron, Barr and Morris need to tread lightly as they chase Trump’s support so as not to get on the wrong side of the president. “Being opposed by Trump is probably worse for you than not being endorsed,” Watson says. We’ll be watching to see how this all shakes out, but this very well could become the hottest and most contested GOP Senate primary in the next election.
All the best,
The Recast Team
| | | | Donald Trump's unprecedented effort to reshape the federal government is consuming Washington. To track this seismic shift, we're relaunching one of our signature newsletters. Sign up to get West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government in your inbox. | | | | | THE FINAL “REIDOUT”
| 
The final edition of Joy Ann Reid's MSNBC show aired last night. | Mary Altaffer/AP | After nearly five years, the final broadcast of “The ReidOut” aired Monday evening. Joy Ann Reid, the ousted MSNBC host, did not go quietly. She warned against the advancement of fascism and reminded her viewers of the long history of Black women being leading forces in the resistance movement from Harriet Tubman through the present day. She thanked her staff who had been helping her produce her primetime show. And she was showered with praise from her fellow anchors, Nicolle Wallace, Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow who expressed their disbelief about her abrupt cancellation. Reid didn’t directly take her now-former network to task. But when Maddow’s program began later that night, Maddow did it for her. Maddow called it “a bad mistake to let her walk out the door.” She later said the network’s shake-up was “unnerving,” pointing out that MSNBC had two non-white solo anchors in prime time who both lost their shows. She mentioned Alex Wagner and Katie Phang by name. Wagner, who hosted most weeknights in the 9 p.m. hour, has been reassigned as a roving correspondent. Phang, who hosted a weekend afternoon show which was cancelled, will also remain at the network. “That feels worse than bad,” Maddow added, “that feels indefensible.” Reid’s show is being replaced by a show hosted by a trio of anchors, including Michael Steele, the former chair of the Republican National Committee and Trump critic, Symone Sanders-Townsend, a onetime staffer for former Vice President Kamala Harris and Alicia Menendez, longtime journalist and daughter of former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat. The MSNBC lineup comes as ratings recently have slumped for the network prior to Trump winning the presidency and as MSNBC is preparing for a major spinoff from NBCUniversal later this year for a company being dubbed SpinCo. While some of the other moves by the network are still in flux, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki will take over the 9 p.m. hour time slot when Maddow returns to hosting just Mondays after Trump’s first 100 days. The reaction to the cancellation of “The ReidOut” was swift and targeted at MSNBC’s top brass, in particular from a disgruntled former employee of the cable network, Keith Olbermann. “BREAKING: MSNBC racist purge escalates. Ayman Mohyeldin, Katie Phang and Jonathan Capehart ousted along with Joy Reid and Alex Wagner,” he wrote Monday on X.(Capehart as well as Mohyeldin, who also hosts a weekend show on MSNBC, will remain with the network, but will no longer have their solo anchored shows). Civil rights attorney and activist Benjamin Crump didn’t go as far as Olbermann but praised Reid, who he said “amplified Black voices, told hard truths, & shaped political discourse.” The news of Reid’s ouster was met with cheers for her counterparts on the other end of the political media landscape. Megyn Kelly, who hosts a weekday program on XM Radio, mocked the outrage over Reid’s firing by saying: “Single tear. White woman tears,” as she pantomimed a tear running down her cheek.
| | | WHAT WE’RE WATCHING FOR THIS WEEK
| 
GOP Florida Rep. Byron Donalds departs a vote on Capitol Hill last month. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | Here are a few storylines The Recast is tracking the rest of this week.
- A Byron Donalds response: It’s been a busy few days for the Florida GOP congressman. Last week he got an endorsement from Trump for his yet-to-be-announced run for Florida governor. Days later, the current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refused to follow suit as his wife Casey DeSantis is seriously considering a run. Will Donalds make it official and announce or hit back at the governor?
- Trump’s Labor nominee prospects: Former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) had a relatively gaffe-free hearing before the Senate HELP Committee last week. With Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks already confirmed, could she get a quick vote this week?
- Trump to address a joint session of Congress: On March 4, Trump is slated to deliver a State of the Union-type address in prime time. With Democrats clamoring to show they can function as a loyal opposition — who does the party trot out to deliver the rebuttal? My suggestion: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries; it’s time to step up.
- New from POLITICO: My colleagues Dasha Burns and Myah Ward have details on mass deportation plans, which include a network of “processing camps” on military bases. Read their exclusive reporting here.
| | | TODAY’S CULTURE RECS Actress and singer Selena Gomez wins her first SAG award as part of the ensemble cast of “Only Murders in the Building,” in which she stars with Steve Martin and Martin Short. In Hoops news, we’ve been obsessed with the Lakers-Mavericks trade a few weeks ago. Tonight, Luka Dončić, now a Los Angeles Laker, faces his old team for the first time. Tip-off is at 10 p.m. The passing of a legend: Songstress Roberta Flack has died. The Grammy award-winning native of Arlington, Virginia, and former D.C. school teacher was 88 years old. Check out this remembrance from Rolling Stone, which gets you acquitted with some 18 of her most influential tracks.
Edited by Bill Duryea and Teresa Wiltz.
| | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | |
