Saturday's episode of The Weekend: Primetime on MS NOW pretended to present a balanced discussion between a Republican and a Democrat strategist in cowboy hats about the Texas Senate race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton. Co-host Elise Jordan introduced one of the guests this way: “Joining us now is Mark McKinnon, former advisor to George W. Bush and John McCain… Mark, you have a long career advising Republicans in Texas.” In reality, McKinnon’s Republican credentials are extremely thin and dated. His last significant Republican work was on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, which he quit because he wanted Barack Obama to win, saying Obama’s election “would send a great message to the country and the world.” Rather than a "long career" advising Republicans, McKinnon has a far longer history working for Democrats, including Ann Richards, Lloyd Doggett, and others. During the segment, McKinnon made a point of saying he and [fellow] Democrat strategist Chuck Rocha “worked for the last Democratic governor, Ann Richards,” before he “crossed the bridge with George W.” McKinnon clearly enunciated “Democratic governor Ann Richards,” but then noticeably stumbled and failed to complete “Bush” at all, trailing off after “George W.” Both McKinnon and Rocha proceeded to bash Ken Paxton and express strong optimism about Democrat James Talarico’s chances, with McKinnon declaring it a “perfect storm” for Democrats in Texas. MS NOW’s Phony 'Balance': Passes Off Mark McKinnon as a Republican Strategist pic.twitter.com/fPnpnEs7ms — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) May 31, 2026 Rocha claimed that whereas the Republican strategy is to divide people, “James Talarico’s whole campaign is about bringing people together.” Ya mean, like all six genders? Passing off McKinnon as a Republican was as phony as his cowboy hat. MS NOW presented viewers with what was essentially a conversation between two left-leaning voices while dressing it up as a balanced “Republican vs. Democrat” discussion. Here's the transcript. MS NOWThe Weekend: Primetime 5/30/26 7:00 pm EDT ELISE JORDAN: Welcome back to The Weekend: Primetime. It's a hundred and fifty-seven days to the midterms, and one of the most closely watched races of this cycle is certain to be the high-stakes face-off between James Talarico and Ken Paxton, which could determine control of the Senate. And that Texas showdown is the subject of tonight's Primetime focus. Republican Ken Paxton survived almost everything politics can throw at a person, from his own doing, but now his own party is asking, can he survive a general election? The scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General defeated four-term incumbent John Cornyn in the Republican Senate primary, knocking out one of the most powerful Republicans in Washington with the help of a critical endorsement from President Trump.  Here's everything Paxton has survived to get to this point. First, felony security fraud charges indicted in 2015, charges were later dropped. An FBI investigation into bribery and abuse of office, no charges were brought. His own senior aides reporting him to federal investigators, impeached by his own party in the Texas House, but later acquitted by the Senate. His wife filing for divorce on, quote, "biblical grounds," and a settlement requiring him to pay nearly three hundred thousand dollars in restitution. Now Republicans have to decide that they keep spending heavily to defend Texas, a state that hasn't sent a Democrat to the Senate in thirty years, and concede other battleground states like North Carolina, maybe Georgia. Joining us now is Mark McKinnon, former advisor to George W. Bush and John McCain, and Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and senior advisor to the James Talarico campaign. So, Mark, you have a long career advising Republicans in Texas, and when you saw Paxton — his win and the margin on Tuesday night, what was your first reaction about how this is going to play out? MARK MCKINNON: Well, my first reaction is that it's the worst possible outcome for Republicans. John Cornyn was a long-standing, respected, Republican senator who had been attorney general, on the Supreme Court, and he was right out of central casting if he'd been nominated, Republicans could have spent money on races that are much more needed.  I mean, the fact that a Republican Senate race is competitive in Texas at all is — it tells you a lot because the last time a Democrat won the Senate seat was 1988. Chuck and I worked for the last Democratic governor, Ann Richards, before I crossed the bridge with George W. --.  But there's just no question that this is gonna be a very tough race for Paxton, and given what we saw in 2018, I'm usually one who taps the brakes, but that Beto race was close, three points. I think that now Talarico's already polling better than Paxton, so, again, I've always been the one to tap the brakes, but I'm saying this is a perfect storm lining up for Democrats. CATHERINE RAMPELL: Chuck, before I ask you my actual question, I would be remiss if I did not point out that the two of you have definitely raised the bar for headwear on our show. PABLO TORRE: Yeah, I feel naked right now. RAMPELL: All of us should have worn our matching hats. We'll coordinate for the next show.[laughter and brief banter about But the actual question for you is about how you think the Republican party is going to potentially message around this, let's say, flawed candidate? CHUCK ROCHA: There's gonna be a real big contrast, and thank you for the compliment on the brand-new straw cowboy hat I got at Cavender's today. I'm in Austin, doing some work. But there's two big differences. One is, the Republicans are gonna run on division. You have a party saying they want to separate people, and not talk about the economy. They want to talk about this social issue. They want to take a comment out of context. They want to splice things together. They want to make James Talarico be non-Texan. While James Talarico wants to bring people together. To my good friend Mark's point: even Republicans, independents, Latinos, who are normally drop-off voters in an off year. James Talarico's whole campaign is about bringing people together.