AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The Kennedy Center Honors happen tonight at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts here in Washington. President Trump says he's hosting and emceeing the event himself, in yet another departure from tradition. But it puts the president in a familiar position as a showman and has the promise to be a pleasant diversion for Trump from some unwelcome political realities waiting for him offstage. And that's where we'll start with NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Good morning, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So January 6 has dogged the president since the attack on the Capitol in 2021. Now one of the major mysteries of that day has the potential, if proven, to be another drag on him. I'm talking about those pipe bombs found near the Democratic and Republican Party headquarters.
LIASSON: That's right. For years in the MAGA world, the pipe bomber, alleged pipe bomber, was described as an antifa plant or some kind of an inside job. It turns out that the suspect, from what we know - the alleged pipe bomber is a Trump supporter. And we also know that Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, before he came into the administration, trafficked in those conspiracy theories, claiming that the pipe bomb episode was an inside job. But now the facts seem completely at odds with what he used to say. And here's what Bongino told Sean Hannity on Fox to explain this.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DAN BONGINO: I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions. That's clear. And one day, I'll be back in that space, but that's not what I'm paid for now.
LIASSON: In other words, back then, when Bongino said he had no doubt that the placement of the pipe bombs was a setup, he says, now, quote, "I'm paid to be your deputy FBI director, and we base investigations on facts." In other words, before, the facts didn't matter. Now he's paid to pay attention to reality, and that is a startling reversal.
RASCOE: The facts of January 6 - many of them adjudicated by courts, many of them admitted to under oath by their perpetrators - they never have seemed to matter to the president. His blanket pardon, issued on January 20 of this year, requires the Justice Department to, and I quote here, "pursue dismissal with prejudice to the government of all pending indictments against individuals for their conduct related to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021," unquote. Would that include the case against Brian Cole Jr., the man who is - has been arrested for these pipe bombs?
LIASSON: It certainly sounds like it could. We know from reporting that Brian Cole has told law enforcement officials that he believed the claims put forward by Donald Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen. Those claims are false. So now does it mean that Trump is going to preemptively pardon him, just like he pardoned the 1,500 or so January 6 rioters? Some of them were convicted of assaulting police officers. We'll see. But we do know that the January 6 lie that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election is so fundamental to Trump's political identity and to MAGA's core beliefs that it suggests he might get a pardon.
RASCOE: Trump and House Republicans got good news from the Supreme Court about their efforts to redraw Texas congressional districts, to tilt them heavily toward GOP candidates. Does that mean the party in power, the Republicans, will defy midterm political reality?
LIASSON: And political gravity - it could. There are two big forces working at cross purposes in the 2026 midterms. The first one is the fundamentals, public opinion, turned against the Republican Party. Donald Trump's approval ratings are very low. Democrats so far have either won or overperformed in every single off-year election this cycle. But the other force is structural, and that's where Republicans have a lot of advantages, especially in this midcycle partisan gerrymandering, where they will be able to carve out more Republican-leaning districts in red states than Democrats will be able to carve out Democratic-leaning districts in blue states. And if Republicans can net five, six, seven, nine, 10 extra seats, they could defend themselves against a big blue wave if there is one developing.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Mara Liasson. Mara, thank you so much.
LIASSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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