Two days out from the election, Paul Rieckhoff sits down with one of his longest-standing mentors: Senator Bob Kerrey. Combat-wounded Navy SEAL, Medal of Honor recipient, former governor of Nebraska, former presidential candidate, and one of the sharpest no-BS voices in American politics. Kerrey lays out why trust, not ideology, is the dominant issue on the ballot, why Elon Musk’s $150 million bet on Ken Paxton in Texas should alarm every American, and why the unauthorized war in Iran may be the most tragic of the three forever wars this generation has lived through.
From Dan Osborn’s neck-and-neck race in Nebraska to the dark-money avalanche crushing independent candidates in every battleground state, Kerrey calls it straight. He talks veteran isolation, the vortex of self-pity, and why hanging onto your tribe is a matter of life and death. He makes the case for divided government, warns Democrats not to overreach if they win, and reminds everyone that the political leadership asking us to do easy things will never produce the America worth fighting for. Then Paul and Bob roll into Football Friday with Georgia-Florida, Nebraska-Washington, Lions-Vikings, and Chiefs-Broncos.
In this episode
- “How many senators did Elon Musk buy?” Kerrey opens with the $150M question hanging over the Texas Senate race
- Why trust, not partisanship, is the dominant issue on the 2026 ballot
- Kerrey on the unauthorized war in Iran as a textbook case of how not to send Americans into combat
- The veteran mental health vortex: how self-pity kills, and why tribe is the antidote
- Nebraska on a knife’s edge: Osborn vs. Fisher, farmer anger over tariffs, and the cattle market crash
- The case for divided government and a Congress willing to actually check the president
- Why dark money will outspend every Senate candidate combined, and what that does to democracy
- Pat Murphy, the Brewers, and what leadership that says “we” actually sounds like
- Football Friday picks: Georgia-Florida, Nebraska-Washington, Lions-Vikings, Chiefs-Broncos
- Kerrey on head injuries, Gale Sayers, and why the 150-pound center sometimes becomes the SEAL
