Washington Week with The Atlantic | PBS

We remember former West Virginia governor and longtime U.S. senator Jay Rockefeller, who has died at the age of 89.

“If you have told voters that you are not going to start an unnecessary war and then you go and start an unnecessary war, you can do a one-to-one of ’I have been lied to here, I’m going to vote against it,’” says @AdamHSays on Trump’s effect on the midterm elections.

On President Donald Trump’s appointment of Stephen Miller as the White House chief of staff, @peterbakernyt says, “you wouldn’t pick Stephen Miller if you really thought you were going to negotiate with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer.”

TONIGHT: @peterbakernyt, @LACaldwellDC, @AdamHSays and @stephenfhayes join moderator @JeffreyGoldberg to discuss the Republican party’s sweeping losses this week and where conservatism goes from here. Watch at 8/7c on @PBS

By this time next week, who will control Congress? "We'll know who controls the House, I think, very quickly. The Senate feels really uncertain to me," @asmamk told guest moderator @vmsalama.

Addressing the controversy in Alaska's Senate race, @sbg1 says, "I think the question is, 'Did Democrats through their own sort of stumbling hand Donald Trump an issue that he will use to more broadly call into question the legitimacy of the vote?'"

After traveling to cover President Donald Trump this week, @peterbakernyt says the message he heard "from the president is very jumbled because he brags that everything is great. People don't want to hear that."

"Two races that I'm really looking at because I think it will tell the story of the Senate battlegrounds overall are Iowa and Kansas," Carrie Dann told guest moderator @vmsalama.

TONIGHT: @peterbakernyt, Carrie Dann, @sbg1 and @asmamk join guest moderator @vmsalama to discuss the final scramble to Election Day and why, despite all the talk of a blue wave, the balance of power in Washington is anything but settled. Watch at 8/7c on @PBS

On Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother, @stephenfhayes says the Ramaswamy campaign and political advisers are “weighing in on this controversy from 50 years ago when there's all of this evidence that what Amy Acton said happened, in fact happened.”

"I think the challenge for Ukraine is when they're seeing sudden changes in their U.S. support with things like Starlink and Starshield because the war is being driven a lot by technology," says @nancyayoussef.

Regarding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, @LACaldwellDC says, "There is widespread belief on Capitol Hill that he will be impeached in November when the Congress comes back during the lame duck."

Why did President Donald Trump make remarks about Sen. Jon Husted's physical appearance? "I think this is about playing to the crowd. I think he sees that it gets attention. He sees that it gets a reaction from these rallies," says @KannoYoungs.

TONIGHT: @LACaldwellDC, @stephenfhayes, @KannoYoungs and @nancyayoussef join moderator @JeffreyGoldberg to discuss President Donald Trump's busy campaign schedule and whether his message is helping or hurting vulnerable Republicans. Watch at 8/7c on @PBS

"Just the talk of ICE officials showing up at the polls coupled with the arrests and some of the killings that is happening with ICE officials can have a chilling effect of a legal citizen who has brown skin, saying 'You know what? It's not worth it for me,'" says @AshleyRParker.

How did Texas Republicans select Ken Paxton as their U.S. Senate nominee? "Donald Trump got directly involved in the Texas race. He did not endorse John Cornyn as many were hoping he would, and he would have been a much stronger candidate," says @MarkLeibovich.

Evan Smith breaks down the competitive U.S. Senate race in Texas. "What will John Cornyn's voters do? That is the one unanswered question that we have right now," @evanasmith says.

Have Republicans in Texas “lit hundreds of millions of dollars on fire” running culture war campaign ads instead of focusing on issues voters care most about? The Atlantic’s @evanasmith and @AshleyRParker discuss.