PBS NEWSHOUR: David Brooks of The Atlantic and Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW join William Brangham to discuss the week in politics, including President Trump demonstrating his grip on Republican primary voters.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM, PBS NEWSHOUR: Jonathan, as I just mentioned, once again the president, faced with two Republican thorns in his side, Thomas Massie and Bill Cassidy, the president says, I want you primary voters to chuck these two guys out and put my loyalists in their stead. And they do. They get rid of two popular local political leaders. What do you make of this ongoing ability that he has? JONATHAN CAPEHART, MS NOW: Well, I mean, on one hand, this is nothing new. If you pay attention to the polls, you know that, one, the president only cares about his standing among Republicans, particularly MAGA Republicans, and, two, Republicans by and large are still lockstep behind the president, although overall less than they were before. But MAGA Republicans haven’t really moved. They have stayed with the president, and not just in getting rid of Cassidy in Louisiana, but also a few local legislators in Indiana who defied the president in his wishes for redistricting. So if you are a sitting member of any legislature and you have gone sideways with the president and the president then says, I’m backing your opponent, you have to — BRANGHAM: Quaking in your boots. CAPEHART: You have to fear. And that primary was Saturday night. And on my show, we were talking all about Louisiana. My thought immediately went to Texas, because if you were John Cornyn in that moment, you were quaking in your boots because you were waiting for the president to endorse you. And what did he do on Tuesday? He didn’t endorse Senator Cornyn. He endorsed Ken Paxton, a farther right Republican, in the race for the Senate. And so — BRANGHAM: With a fair amount of political baggage too. CAPEHART: So much baggage, he’s a Samsonite store. [LAUGHTER] And even Republicans will say that about him. BRANGHAM: What do you make of all this? DAVID BROOKS, THE ATLANTIC: Yes, Trump has done something previous presidents have not done, or at least not done effectively. He really cares about his party. A lot of presidents, it was all about themselves. And so, whether you’re like it or not, ever since the first term, Trump has said, I want this to be a MAGA party. And he’s willing to take a short-term hit, apparently, in the midterms, lose a few seats if he can maintain this will be a MAGA party for the next generation, the next 30 years. And that’s sort of an impressive calculation, but — because he really does care about the party and legacy. Where it’s going to hit him is short term, and I think the pain will be significant. You get rid of John Cornyn. John Cornyn was playing the game — sort of get rid of anyway. Was playing the game that I’d say two or three dozen Republican senators are playing, which is, I don’t love this guy Trump, but I will play along enough — BRANGHAM: Weather the storm. BROOKS: — and you don’t kill me. That’s the assumed, the unstated deal they have all made. And Trump says, throw out the deal. Cornyn, you have been pretty loyal to me. But you’re not 100 percent. I’m going with Ken Paxton. So every other Republican senator, who’s in that case, of which there are a lot, are looking around saying, what happened to our deal? And John Cornyn, by the way, is a pretty popular guy in the Senate. Remember, he came very close to winning the Senate majority leader. He’s got a lot of friends and supporters in the Republican Caucus, and he campaigned for a whole bunch of them. And so a lot of Republicans are looking around and thinking, whoa, this deal has been broken. I got to do some thinking here.

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