Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer, hosts of the Pod Save America podcast and former officials in the Obama administration, sharply criticized Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, describing the Trump-endorsed Republican Senate candidate as floundering and mocking him for having the "personality of a snail." Both argued that Paxton has never had to face a genuinely competitive election.

On the latest episode of the show, the two hosts took up the most recent scandal surrounding Paxton and his midterm bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas. Leaked audio from a meeting with donors appeared to capture Paxton — who was carried through the GOP primary in Texas largely thanks to President Donald Trump's endorsement — explaining that the president's recent midterm convention in Dallas damaged his poll numbers, along with those of nearly every other GOP candidate.

"So to be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers. Everybody's numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good," Paxton said after one donor asked whether Trump was becoming a drag on Republican candidates. The admission stands out given how central Trump's endorsement was to Paxton's primary win: the president's Dallas convention is the event Paxton himself cites for the slide in his numbers.

Discussing the leaked recordings, Pfeiffer, a former senior communications aide to Barack Obama, said it was "just truly unbelievable" that Paxton has advanced as far as he has in politics despite a complete lack of "charisma." He observed that a deep well of charisma has helped many "incredibly corrupt politicians," Trump among them, succeed — but with Paxton, he said he was stumped trying to identify what the attorney general actually brings to the table.

"What does Paxton bring to the table that allows people to just go along with his corruption?" Pfeiffer asked with an air of exasperation. "He has the personality of a snail."

Favreau, who served as director of speechwriting for Obama, responded by pointing to the accounts of reporters and commentators who cover Texas politics closely.

"People who, you know, analyze Texas politics for a living and do Texas politics for a living have made the point that he has gotten as far as he has because of his corruption," Favreau explained. "And so because he has been so corrupt and gotten so much, so many people who are really wealthy in Texas politics to spend so much money getting him elected, he really hasn't had, like, a super competitive race, especially in a primary where he's had to rely on his charisma and talent for campaigning. All he's had to do is just be the guy who a bunch of, you know, wealthy special interests poured a bunch of money uh into making sure he got elected so that he could pay them back."

"Gosh, we really can't lose to this guy," Pfeiffer responded. "We cannot lose to him." The exchange captures the stakes the hosts see in the leaked audio: a Trump-endorsed candidate acknowledging to his own donors that his numbers, and those of his fellow Republicans, dropped after the Dallas convention is exactly the kind of remark opponents can amplify as the race heats up. How the fallout from the recording — and the drag-on-the-ticket concern it surfaced — factors into Paxton's Senate campaign as the midterms approach remains an open question, one the hosts made clear they are watching closely.