KSEV Mornings · October 5, 2026 · Hour 2
Wayne is on special assignment, the third microphone finally works, and Craig has opinions about robots answering the customer service line.
With Wayne Dolcefino off on special assignment after wrestling the studio’s technical gremlins in the first half hour, Craig Coglianese had the second hour to himself. He celebrated the small victory first: the third microphone for his computer audio worked on the first try. “Oh man, I know why I’m so happy about that.”
How do you talk to the middle?
Craig opened with President Trump telling a crowd that his opponents had smeared him, impeached him, arrested him and even tried to kill him, and that they were on the cusp of beating “the communists, socialists, radicalized lunatics and villains.” Then he picked up a thread Wayne had started in the first hour. Craig said he largely agrees with Wayne that this kind of messaging isn’t reaching independents anymore. But he warned that dropping it could cost Republicans the base, the voters who think backing off the radical left is the same as bending the knee.
His answer: a multifaceted message, one that tells people who have stopped listening why it matters while reassuring the people who already know. And he noted the irony that the candidate doing this best right now is James Talarico, who he said is quietly promising the deep part of his party everything it wants while sanitizing his message for everyone in the middle. “He’s just a liar.”
Receipts on Talarico
That led Craig to a campaign ad he loves: Talarico delivering his own campaign lines, each one followed immediately by video of him saying the opposite. Talarico says he doesn’t support sex change surgeries for kids; the ad answers, “Kind of think you do though,” and plays him calling gender-affirming care for trans youth life-saving health care. Craig called the idea that Talarico has magically changed his mind “ludicrous.”
The rub, he said, is that a message running in some form since 2016 has lost its punch in the middle. Many swing voters, in Craig’s view, simply want to believe everyone is a good person, so the louder the warning about radicals, the more they plug their ears and move on. Reaching those people, he said, was the big question of the day.
He also played the President on Talarico’s diet. “A vegan is vegetables,” Trump explained. Craig loved that the President has no idea what a vegan is, “because meat is delicious.”
Go get your own oil
On Iran, Craig noted that the country’s oil minister resigned with no reason given and that Iran says talks with the U.S. are at a dead end. He read President Trump’s Truth Social advice to countries short on jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, including the United Kingdom: buy from the U.S., “build up some delayed courage,” and go take the strait, because “the US won’t be there for you forever.” Craig’s one-word review: “Brutal.”
He said Trump is right that the fight would be over sooner if other countries had acted. He sees two weak points for the U.S.: Iran hoping midterm politics forces America to give up ground it doesn’t need to give up, and the rest of the world sitting on the sidelines.
Outside money and “Get ICE out”
Craig turned to news that Latino Democrats are urging the Democratic Governors Association to put money behind Gina Hinojosa. His view: the outside money pouring into Texas races is about buying representation for other places, and once a candidate wins, “that’s when the favors start to be demanded.” “It’s very mob guys,” he said, except the politicians aren’t kidding.
He also described driving to breakfast Sunday past people gathering signatures that said simply to get ICE out of Houston. Craig said that misunderstands how government works: ICE takes its marching orders from politicians, so fighting the agents is fighting the lowest rung of the system. He said ICE is doing a good job, including in Texas, and pointed to places that pulled back police after COVID, including Seattle, as proof that those ideas fail in practice.
Rapid fire
Then Craig declared it was time for some fun. An AI radio DJ is co-hosting a Spanish-language country show in California that is picking up affiliates. Craig thinks it works partly because many of those listeners already feel disconnected from American-born hosts, and he believes most people will feel betrayed when they find out a host isn’t real.
His real pet peeve: AI customer service that fights harder than ever to keep you from reaching a human. When he’s mad, he wants someone who understands the frustration and says they’re sorry. His technique: “I just yell agent into the phone until a human being actually gets on.”
He also covered a Florida teen hospitalized in serious condition after being hit by a car while filming a haircut stunt in the middle of the road, and urged parents to worry when kids measure their worth in likes. And a study of 31,000 Americans found that people who eat breakfast between seven and eight are healthier, a fact Craig plans never to tell his wife, who will say she knew she was right.
Two things can be true
Craig closed with CNN’s Scott Jennings, asked by Jake Tapper whether holding your nose and voting for Ken Paxton is a winning message. Jennings said two things can be true: you can quibble with Paxton’s personal life, but that “doesn’t mean I have to turn the country over to people who hate it.” Craig called it a great message and said Paxton has been faithful to the Republican Party and President Trump as attorney general. Jennings also had the cost of living line of the morning: the people who dug the hole are promising to “go back to the shovels.”
Also in this hour
- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vouching for Attorney General Letitia James, and James answering, “I will not comment on a Facebook post.”
- A plug for more of the reporting from Wayne’s firm, including the weekend story on a Democratic candidate that Craig said would get far more attention if he were a Republican.
Hear Craig and Wayne live weekdays from 7–9 AM Central on AM 700 KSEV, The Voice of Texas. Visit the KSEV Mornings show page for live-listening controls and more episodes.
