GEOFF BENNETT: President Trump is visiting Texas today, where three of his supporters are battling it out in that state Senate primary election set for next week.

That's as the president also considers military action in Iran.

Lots to discuss.

And we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and Capehart.

That's with "The Atlantic"'s David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW.

It's good to see you both.

So, as we said, President Trump in Texas, where three Republicans, to include the incumbent John Cornyn, they're locked in this competitive GOP primary.

The president has yet to make an endorsement.

The fact that he's inserting himself early and forcefully in this race, does that suggest that he's still the GOP kingmaker or that he's trying to demonstrate that he is?

DAVID BROOKS: A little of both, maybe a little more of the latter.

The Texas race to me is the most interesting Senate race in both parties, because it gets at the core debate right at the middle of both parties.

On the Democratic side, you have Jasmine Crockett, who's an aggressive, progressive fighter.

And then you have James Talarico, who is more moderate, is trying to revive the religious left.

And so the argument on the Democratic side is, do we want somebody who will just go to the mat and take down these Republicans, or do we want somebody who will be conciliatory and win over people from the center?

And that is the core debate in the Democratic Party.

On the Republican side, you have got Ken Paxton, who has been scandal-plagued since nursery school.

(LAUGHTER) DAVID BROOKS: And he's -- and then you have got John Cornyn, who is not the most exciting bulb in the Senate, but a standard-issue Republican.

And so the Paxton race in particular, and he will probably come out first, but not -- but force a run-off -- shows that there's still some juice if he does really well in MAGA.

If he doesn't do really well, and if Wesley Hunt or Cornyn do well, then that's a sign the Republican Party is beginning to move on.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, Jonathan, what stands out to you in the Crockett v. Talarico matchup?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, look, the one thing I will say is that, no matter which candidate wins the Democratic nomination, they will be infinitely better than whomever the Republicans decide to nominate.

So I will just put that out there.

But, in this race, the polls seem to be a bit all over the place.

There was one poll that came out from U.T.

Tyler that had Congresswoman Crockett up by 12 points, but the sample size is small.

And other polls that I just took a look at have state Representative Talarico up by single digits, maybe six points, eight points.

I think both candidates are trying to win in two different ways, but I think in two legitimate ways.

Congresswoman Crockett, she is going for disaffected voters, African American voters, voters who may not have voted in previous elections.

In a lot of ways, she's taking a page out of Donald Trump's book, playbook, when he ran in 2016, when he what I called fracking for votes.

He pulled people out who had not voted before.

That's who Congresswoman Crockett's trying to go after.

But then state Representative Talarico, he's going after more middle-of-the-road, but really setting his sights on disaffected Republican voters who might not be too keen on what the president is doing, and they might be gettable.

So, on Tuesday, I'm looking to see which tactic actually won, and whether they can win enough votes to not be in a primary -- in a primary run-off.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's shift our focus back to this previous Tuesday, the State of the Union address.

David, was there anything in that speech that stands out to you as meaningfully changing the landscape or President Trump's standing?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I mean, the question I'm asking is, has Trump -- is he losing the country?

A lot of people have been waiting since 2016 for him to lose the country.

But there's clearly some sign of slippage.

My colleague Ross Douthat issued a video at The New York Times saying he's losing the country and conservatives have to adjust.

Is he losing the country, or is this just another wish fulfillment for people who don't like him?

I think there's evidence that he is, that if you look at particularly at independents, they have swung sharply away from him.

And then if you look at Republicans, does -- there's a Pew Research, does he -- does Donald Trump respect the country's democratic values?

The number of Republicans who say that is down sharply.

Should Republican members of Congress feel obligated to support Donald Trump?

Sixty-one percent of Republicans say they do not have any responsibility to support Donald Trump.

These are all changing numbers.

And so clearly there's a sense, whether it's Minnesota, whether it's just general mishegoss, which is Yiddish for crazy.

(LAUGHTER) GEOFF BENNETT: I'm familiar.

DAVID BROOKS: Just for the -- for Jonathan.

(LAUGHTER) JONATHAN CAPEHART: No, oh, I know.

Oh, come on.

DAVID BROOKS: No, Jonathan's a New Yorker.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I know.

GEOFF BENNETT: That's right.

DAVID BROOKS: He definitely knows what mishegoss is.

OK, for... (LAUGHTER) DAVID BROOKS: And so I think that there's signs that even Republican support, it's not going anywhere, but it's getting demoralized.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

Yes.

Jonathan, I will say the contrast in that speech really stood out,the president in one way sounding like a conventional policymaker talking about making tech companies pay for their own electricity bills because of the A.I.

plants that they operate, and then, in the next breath, he would be shading the Supreme Court or calling Democrats crazy.

There was governance and grievance side by side.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Geoff, I think you're being charitable.

I had actually forgotten about what he had said about A.I.

paying its own electricity bills, because the rest of the speech was nothing but a variety show where he trotted people out, used them as prompts, handed out medals like PEZ.

Now, that's not to take away from the people who got the medals.

They deserve them.

They deserve to be celebrated by the American people, but not like that, not in the way that the president did it.

And, also, I thought there was a meanness to his address, and also the dabbling in just the language of violence, getting into just infinite detail about what people went through, their horrors and the trauma.

I came away from the, was it 107 minutes of that speech, just feeling worn down and wanting the 107 minutes back and longing for the days of, what, that long State of the Union address that President Bill Clinton gave in the way, way back that was just chockful of policy proposals and ideas, to the point where Washington reporters were like, my God, this guy is so boring.

I long for that kind of boring.

GEOFF BENNETT: In the time that remains, I want to have you both weigh in on Warner Bros.

Discovery reportedly agreeing to be acquired by Paramount Skydance.

This is after Netflix walked away from the negotiations.

And if the deal closes, it means that one family, in this case, the family that has been so far deferential to President Trump, would control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok.

How do you see it?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I have found media business incredibly boring and pointless.

And I have been able to do that because I worked at Dow Jones, News Corp, New York Times, PBS.

I have worked at all these agencies.

And the business structure of the business had no effect on me.

There's never been a moment in my career where I had the sense that somebody on the business side of things was going to try to influence anything I ever did.

But that seems to be changing.

And the malefactor here is Donald Trump.

Once Trump starts playing political favorites among whether it's Anthropic versus OpenAI or whether it's Netflix versus paramount, then, of course, the companies have to be mindful of that.

And I'm a guy who -- I don't know Bari Weiss particularly, but I support what they're trying to do.

I think it's time to mix up the media, that we got a little too progressive, a little too elite, and if Bari Weiss can change the mind-set, all power to her.

But if this is being done for lobbying and business, which it sure looks like it is, then that's the real deterioration in the business we're in.

GEOFF BENNETT: How do you see it, Jonathan?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, I would argue that the media isn't necessarily liberal, when you look at the fact that the number one cable channel and the number one viewing channel is FOX News Channel.

This idea that there are liberals out there running around through the media indoctrinating people and changing -- setting the narrative, I just think is wrong.

I think bringing a FOX-like mentality and demeanor to CBS News and potentially to CNN, I think in the end makes the American people worse off.

Our job as journalists -- and I'm speaking specifically of CNN in this case in this deal.

Folks turn to CNN for news.

They turn to them for just what is happening in the country.

And if what's happening at CBS is bound -- could happen at CNN, then our country and our profession will be in worse shape.

GEOFF BENNETT: David?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, the one reason FOX exists is because all the other mainstream networks don't have Trump supporters.

I do think we have made a mistake over decades in shutting out working-class folks and in not letting more Trump voices -- and it's hard to get Trump voices on the air.

I understand that.

But if you tell half the country that your voices aren't worth heard, they will rebel.

And that's a bit on us.

Trump is not to be defended, but he's never completely wrong.

GEOFF BENNETT: David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, thank you both.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks, Geoff.