Trump Says He’ll Accept Midterm Results “If They’re Honest Elections”

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1:15With just a week to go until the midterms, the president says he will respect the results, but only, he says, if they're honest. Good evening. Thanks for being here. The president said what he said on the way to a pair of campaign stops in Texas, a state that is improbably, if not remarkably, now very much in play. And at this moment, he is holding a rally at the same time and in the same city. Lubbock is James Tallarico, the Democratic Senate hopeful, who is locked in a tight race against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Now, earlier, he was directly asked whether he'd respect the outcome of the election.

1:45His answer was similar to what he has said in past elections. Essentially, it depends. If you do not prevail in this election, despite having worked as hard as you have, how do you intend to work with Democrats if they have control of the House? We'll figure a way. Look, I have strong veto. I hope that that won't be the case. But if it is, that's happened before with many presidents. You have strong veto and you end up working out deals. And you'll respect the results, whatever happens? I will, if they're honest elections. If they're honest. If those words sound familiar, it's because the president has said similar things before.

2:20Can you give a direct answer? You will accept the election? I have to see. Look, I have to see. I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say no. That was in July of 2020. He said words like that over and over again. By January, of course, of 2021, his supporters were storming the Capitol. And he continues to make unverified and frequently debunked claims about widespread voter fraud. What the president said today hardly suggests he's changed his views about accepting defeat at the polls or that he's stopped sowing doubts about free and fair elections. He has not. Short time after, the president said if they're honest, House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked whether there would be a peaceful transfer of power if Democrats take the House next week.

2:57And though the question had to do with separate concerns about a number of actions the president has taken recently and not his words today, the fact that it's even a question at all says something. Of course, we'll have a peaceful transfer of power, but it will not be transferring because we are going to keep the majority, and I'm going to be the speaker of the House, and I will keep steady hands at the wheel. Well, today, the vice president continued the president's campaign to paint Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is Muslim, as a threat to the country. I think Abdul El-Sayed is a little bit of a psychopath.

3:29Is Abdul El-Sayed a jihadist like the president said? Well, look, he certainly has a lot of weird friends. A short time later in Michigan, the vice president continued to suggest that El-Sayed, who was born in this country, was somehow not of it and wished America harm. My friends, the scene of destruction in Paris may be an ocean away. But ask yourselves, are they really so hard to imagine here in the United States of America? And I guarantee you, if those rioters were burning down New York or Detroit, the Hassan Pikers and the El Syeds would be right there leading them and cheering them on. That hatred is downstream of leaders who stopped feeling any obligation to the people they serve, who threw open our borders, let our jobs leave, and taught our children to hate their own country.

4:27And if sovereignty means anything, ladies and gentlemen, it means that the United States of America belongs to its people. So a lot to get to tonight. You can weigh in on that tonight or send us a question. Just go to CNN.com slash engage politics for CNN's Arlette Saenz, who is at the Trump rally in Lubbock. What's the president's closing argument on behalf of Ken Paxton? Well, Anderson, President Trump's pitch on behalf of Ken Paxton tonight is really about himself. He's here trying to remind voters that they need to turn out to vote Republicans, going as far as telling them that they need to pretend that President Trump is on the ballot.

5:07It comes. There is real GOP anxiety about Ken Paxton's chances in this Texas Senate race against Democrat James Tellarico. Trump spent a significant portion of his remarks really laying into Tallarico over culture issues, citing some of his past remarks regarding religion and also gender that don't sit well with the entire base of Republican voters. This is where Trump believes he can really make this argument against Tallarico in this contest. But we have heard from a number of Republicans who've expressed unease about Pakistan's candidacy. There have been a number of high-profile Republicans here in the state saying that they would not be voting for him because of some of his past controversies.

5:48And so those are the types of people that James Tallarico is trying to make inroads with in this campaign. Trump right now is in a county that he won by 40 points back in 2024. He's trying to drive up turnout in these reliably red counties. But this is also where Tallarico finds himself tonight. He is just two miles away from this venue about to host an event of his own. What Tallarico is hoping is that he can make a dent in some of that GOP support in these more rural, more red areas of Texas to bring this race much closer as it heads into Election Day. But tonight, Trump clearly devoting a lot of his time and attention to this race in Texas, which has caused some anxiety for Republicans back in Washington.

6:30Arlette Saenz, thanks very much. Join us now, Republican strategist, former RNC communications director Doug High, CNN senior political commentator Anna Navarro, New York Times bestselling author Kirsten Powers, former federal prosecutor and CNN senior legal analyst Ellie Honig and conservative radio host Eric Erickson. Anna, one week out, is it any surprise the president's saying he'll only accept the results if they're quote unquote honest? No. I mean, you know, this is not we've seen this movie before. Right. We've seen this movie before where he places caveats on whether he's going to accept the results or not.

7:01I fully expect that if these elections are closed, there will be legal challenges, a multiple of them. I think he's already laying the groundwork in Alaska, despite the fact that this is not a state issue, that it's not one for his DOJ to be the one that should be filing, and that it's been litigated at the state level in Alaska. I fully expect him to question. Look, we have seen him in the last year weaponize practically every arm possible of his government in trying to influence the results of these elections, whether it was starting the gerrymandering fight in Texas that resulted in five new districts in Texas using the U.S.

7:44mail, the DOJ, the DHS. I mean, you name it, trying to intimidate the media. There's everything he's been able to do. He's tried to do. Well, to Ana's point about the lawsuit in Alaska, as we are seeing these challenges get into the courts, and we'll see more of them, always start with the U.S. Constitution, because the Constitution tells us there are two governmental entities that have any say over the way elections are carried out. One, the individual states, or two, Congress, if they've passed legislation. Notably missing from that list is the president and the federal executive branch. And the Alaska case, I think, is a perfect example of how this is supposed to work.

8:25This is the dispute about the two different Dan Sullivans on the ballot. That already went through the entire state process, all the way up to the Alaska Supreme Court, not some bastion of liberalism, which said we need to differentiate them with markings on the ballot, but the ballot can proceed. That should have been the end of it. But what this DOJ is doing in that case, which is so devious, is they're saying, actually, there's a federal law that lets us get involved. But there's not. The law they cite has to do with the specifics of voter registration. Nothing to do with this. And they rely on language in what we call the preamble to that law.

8:57That's just the fluff in the beginning that has no legal relevance. So this is a bogus lawsuit. And the reason they're going to lose is because of the Constitution itself. Carson, do you think he's trying to lay the groundwork for? Yeah, I think he is trying to, but I think it also tells us what the Republicans think is going to happen. Because if you're fighting over Alaska and you're worried that maybe Alaska is going to go to the Democrats, then that's saying that you think you're possibly going to lose the Senate, right? Because this is not necessarily, I mean, Mary Potala is a great candidate.

9:26She's a perfect candidate for Alaska. It's where I'm from. But it's not a state that's easy for Democrats necessarily. And so the fact that he has already decided to go ahead and try to do with this gambit, even before any votes. Well, I guess votes are being cast before we have the results shows that they're concerned that they're going to maybe have to be fighting on this on this ground of where they're fighting basically all over the country right now in places that they shouldn't have to be going. I mean, look where the president's spending his time. He shouldn't be spending his time in Texas or Mississippi or any of these other places.

9:58Right. Doug, how do you see it? Yeah, exactly. If we're talking about Alaska, we're also talking about Texas and Iowa. We're not talking about North Carolina because that race has already been put to bed. The political realities for the president are this is a referendum on him. His numbers are bad on the economy, his strong suit, bad on immigration, his strong suit. He's underwater everywhere. So clearly, if the referendum is going against him, he wants to cast doubt on that. We've said, as you said, we've seen this movie time and time again. Eric, you've said you will not be voting for the Republican candidate for Senate Mike Collins in your home state of Georgia, although you plan to pull the lever for the rest of the Republican ticket.

10:32Can you just talk about why you made that decision? Yeah, listen, I'm really concerned about the growing anti-Semitism in both parties in the country right now, left and right. There's something nasty festering. Mike Collins has a habit of hiring people who express racist views, white nationalist views, anti-Semitic views. I don't want those people in the U.S. Senate. We've already got enough staffers in Washington, D.C., who are Nick Fuentes fans, among others. So I don't want to play a part in it. And if that means I've got to withhold my vote for a Republican candidate, the fact is I think the market works over time.

11:04And if enough people on both sides decide I'm not voting for a bad candidate, the parties are going to have to be forced in primaries to get better candidates to win, whether it's the Democrats with Angie Nixon in Florida or Abdullah Sayyid in Michigan or the Republicans with Ken Paxson in Texas or Mike Collins in Georgia. There are plenty of bad candidates who never should have gotten nominations, and the parties are going to have to change if they want people to vote. I'm not voting for a cause. I'm voting for a person who's going to hire staff and take them to Washington. Eric, let me ask you, when you see the president campaigning in two rallies in Texas today, one week from the election, do you read that as, well, they really think Texas is in trouble?

11:42Is it they just want to do everything they can to just get out as many people as possible? Is it the president just loves to see packed stadiums? It's two things in particular. One is they're trying to maximize the congressional vote because when they redistricted, they took strongly Republican districts and made them weaker Republican districts. And now they've got to maximize the Republican vote because Republicans have not been turning out strongly. The other thing is what the Republican consultants know and the Democratic consultants know is when you have high undecideds at the end of an election, they tend to break for the incumbent party.

12:17like him or not in the last couple weeks the president's given a more compelling message for the Republicans than any Republican on the campaign trail reminding people about the tax legislation highlighting keeping Iran from nuclear weapons I don't think he's handled the war well but he's trying to make the case to people with the stamina that some of these candidates should have and don't so he wants to maximize Republican votes he knows that undecided this lady in a campaign to break for the for the incumbent party counterintuitively in a midterm. And that's what he's trying to do. It is a warning sign, though.

12:50He and the vice president had 13 visits to Kansas in the last three weeks. That's kind of an alarm bell going off when a Republican needs to go save a guy when Kansas hasn't had a Democratic senator since 1932, I think. And the president's message discipline, though, is not exactly, you know, on point. You think? You think talking about asses is not a good closing message? He's actually very consistent on that. He talks about them a lot, apparently. Listen, but I think the Texas issue, in addition to what Eric said, there's a few things, right? First of all, Tallarico is a good candidate, a good, solid candidate.

13:26Ken Paxton is a god-awful candidate, and that is all Donald Trump's making. Donald Trump owns Ken Paxton. If it was John Cornyn running right now for senator of Texas, all of those high-profile Republicans in Texas who are coming out publicly saying they are supporting Tallarico would not be doing that. And then you've got the Latino vote. 40 % plus of Texas are Latinos, and Latinos are angry. Latinos are hurt. Latinos are indignant, and Latinos feel betrayed. So many Latinos believed what Donald Trump was selling. He made incredible, eye-popping gains with Latinos, particularly in places like the Rio Grande Valley.

14:06And now I see people going to vote and taking their I voted sticker and going to the place that's been, you know, where Salgado, the man who was killed, there's there a place that honors him. And people are going and saying, I voted for Araujo Salgado. Remembering the people who have been killed by ICE. There's no community. Donald Trump has targeted a lot of communities, LGBTQ, women, blacks. But no community has been as humiliated and dehumanized as much as the Latino community and the immigrant community. And he's going to hear from Texas Latinos on that. We're going to take a quick break. Ahead, word that the Justice Department tried to secure a grand jury indictment of former White House staffer and January 6th whistleblower Cassidy Hutchinson, who you're seeing there.

15:03Also, RFK Jr. takes verbal aim at Abdul El-Sayed, but also centuries of Arab and Muslim civilization as well. Details on that ahead.

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16:16Two rallies tonight in Lubbock, Texas. The president, who won the state by 14 points in 2024, and James Tallarico set to speak soon, who stands a real chance of becoming the first Democratic senator elected there since Lloyd Benson in 1988. Just moments ago, the president weighed in with another attack on the Democrat running for the Senate in Michigan, Abdul Al-Sayed, who is Muslim, as the president seems to want everybody to know. He goes by Abdul. Abdul Ramadan.

16:48I called him Mohammed, Then I found out his name was actually, his middle name is Mohammed. These are people, we can't have these people in the United States. And with him, I don't know if we have to do it with Telefrico, but with the guy up in Michigan, we're going to have to do the test, the metal detector test. This is not the first time he has said that, nor is he the only one in the administration saying things like that. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also gotten in on this at a stop yesterday in Michigan. His attack on al-Sayed veered into far broader and factually untrue claims about Arab history and culture.

17:24And as we report in recent days, they're part of a series of remarks by members of the administration about al-Sayed, but also about Somalis and others. Here are some of them. There's 500 million Arabs in the world. Some people call him Abdul. I call him Mohammed. And yet they don't produce science. They don't win the Nobel Prize. His name is actually Abdullah Sabtadala. Someone who ruined the field prize. Abdullah, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. They don't win the Wolf Prize. He's a jihadist. They don't produce literature. He's a vicious, violent jihadist. All of that tradition has been destroyed by the Muslim Brotherhood.

17:58He would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate. They've created stagnant societies. I think Abdullah al-Sayed is a little bit of a psychopath. That and do one, two things. People that we have here now in Somalia. Hatred. Low IQ. And war. Shithouse countries. and victimization. Well, today, a spokesman for al-Sayed's campaign responded, quoting him now, it's rich to have an anti-scientist come to Michigan to lecture a doctor with two doctoral degrees who spent his entire career working on public health. Maybe Bobby Jr. should spend more of his time figuring out why have all these food recalls under his leadership rather than race-baiting Michiganders.

18:38Back now with the panel. And Kirsten, should anybody be surprised by this? You know, I have to say, I actually am surprised and shocked. I mean, it's not that I haven't seen this kind of behavior before, but it's been so relentless in this race. It's like they send out the talking points or something because it's you did the administration people. But pretty much anybody who shows up to represent his opponent, Mike Rogers, who I used to think was a normal person, you know, is allowing these people to call him a terrorist, call him a jihadist, say all these other horrible things and suggests that he's somehow dangerous.

19:15And I do find it shocking. And I find it appalling and disgusting, especially when you consider the fact of this person could not be any more mainstream, actually. And I think that's why they're going out of their way to try to other him, because he is a terrific candidate on a lot of counts. I think he really understands what's going on in this country, is talking about the affordability issues, is a capitalist who's critical of capitalism, which is something that you're not seeing a lot of. And so this seems to be the only thing they can say about him, right? Like they don't have anything else.

19:49This is all they do is attack him for being a Muslim and saying crazy things about the Middle East. I think there's so much that they could be saying about him and so much about his record that they can pick apart. But Donald Trump doesn't do pick apart. He does blunt force trauma. This is what we've seen over the years. And obviously now RFK is echoing it. But none of this, just to look at the brass tacks, none of this helps Mike Rogers win his Senate race. And by the way, if you're in Texas, none of this can. You don't think promoting fear helps? I think if you want to scare voters, talk about what his policies are going to do on affordability.

20:22Talk about the issues that voters are talking about and what impact his campaign would have on that. Talk about anti-Semitism for sure. But this doesn't help Mike Rogers just saying he's a Muslim. Muslims are bad. He should have a metal detector. That's all just, you know, your boilerplate racism that we get from Trump. now from RFK Jr. too, apparently, that doesn't help the cause that you thought that they'd be pushing, which is to elect Mike Rogers in Michigan. And again, he's saying this in Texas. So this is his message in Texas as well. He's not connecting with voters on what he needs to connect with.

20:53You know, we have to say that everything that RFK Jr. said there is patently false, that Arabs don't win field awards and Nobel Awards and Wolf Awards. That's just absolutely false. A quick Google search would disavow him of that lie. But you know what it made me think of? It made me think of 2008, when John McCain was running for president against a guy with a weird name, Barack Obama. And a woman came up to him in a town hall, asked him a question and said, I don't know that I can trust him. I don't because he's not from he's an Arab. And John McCain stopped her right there on her tracks and said, no, ma 'am, he is a decent man.

21:33He is an American. He is a family guy. I have disagreements with him, but no, ma 'am. And he stopped it right there. Where have those Republicans gone? And I agree with you. Listen, Mike Rogers was a contributor on this network. We sat with him time and time again. He's supposed to have a moral compass. I don't expect anything from RFK Jr. I don't expect anything from Donald Trump, but I expected more from Mike Rogers and that he doesn't stand up the way that John McCain did in 2008 is really disappointing. And more than that, it is shameful. Hey, Eric, I've got a question from a viewer. actually.

22:06And the question is, how can Democrats win over voters for the midterms when their only message is that Trump is bad? What people really want to know is how Democrats are going to make things better, such as lower gas prices and such. I'm a Democrat, but I've been disappointed with Democrats messaging. Do you see that by the Democrats? Listen, I think the Democrats have a problem, maybe not for this year, because a lot of it is about Donald Trump. But if they come out of this thinking it's an affirmation of the Democrats, as opposed to voters angst about Donald Trump not actually bringing down prices, they're going to go into 2028 and have a world of hurt for them.

22:38The Democratic message right now really is about Trump. I've kind of actually been stunned when you've got Gallup poll and the CNBC poll, both list corruption now as the number one issue for voters. The Democrats have had a divided message even on corruption when there's so much there for the Democrats to focus on. It's been very interesting for me to watch a very disjointed Democratic message this year, which doesn't really matter because the voter angst over the economy really dominates everything. And to the extent they focus on that, that helps them. They tie it to Donald Trump and the war.

23:08But this isn't a path forward for Democrats. What they shouldn't do is what the last Republicans and Democrats have both done, which is take this as an endorsement and a mandate when really it's just a rejection of the incumbency. Yeah, I agree with that to a point. I mean, I think that there's always a mistake to overread when you win, right, to believe that it's because you had the right message and ignore the fact of the environment, what's going on. That we're in a midterm election. The president usually loses anyway. Donald Trump's wildly unpopular. Gas prices are too high because of him.

23:41Usually you don't win when that's the situation. But I do think that there are a lot of Democratic candidates that are winning because they have good messages. And as Anna was saying, there are some really good candidates who fit the places that they're running. And I think that's what Democrats can take away from this, looking at this and saying, when we find the right person, we find like a Mary Potola in Alaska. You know, if she wins, we're not saying for sure. That's the kind of Democrat that can win. I live in District 27 in Florida. It's a very close race between Maria Elvira Salazar, the incumbent Republican, and Elliot Rodriguez.

24:16And I have been amazed by the discipline message, economic message of Elliot Rodriguez. In the meantime, his opponent is throwing out. He's a socialist. He's a communist. Very hard to argue about a Cuban-American who's stood up against the communism in Cuba. But I see a message, discipline, the understanding from the candidates that maybe we're not seeing nationally, but I am seeing it locally in the districts and in the ads and in what they're doing and what they're focusing on. Anna, thanks very much. Kristen Powers, Eric Erickson, Doug Haya as well. Thanks so much. Coming up next, we have breaking news.

24:52A federal grand jury rejecting an attempt by the Justice Department to indict this woman, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Also later, the surprisingly competitive Senate race in Ruby Red, Mississippi, will be joined by the Democratic challenger and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. We'll be right back.

25:11Shaq here. What's it like to buy a car from Carvana 100 % online and get it delivered to your door? Let me tell you. Your car is here, Mr. Shaq. Thank you, Mr. Carvana guy. Can't wait to take it for a spin. Only the best for you, Mr. Shaq. Hey, have you always been so big, tall, and handsome? Not always. I was 6 '10 once. Seven days to love it or return it, Mr. Shaq. Not that I would. You never do. No, I never do. So buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. See our seven-day return policy at carvana.com. More breaking news tonight. The Department of Justice tried and failed today to secure a grand jury indictment of Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide during President Trump's first term.

25:53That's according to sources. Her testimony in the January 6th hearings detailed President Trump's role the day of the Capitol riot. Specifically, she talked about this part where Hutchinson describes what she was told by someone in the White House, alleging that the president lunged toward a Secret Service agent named Bobby Engel inside his armored vehicle, trying to get him to take him to the Capitol after his speech. Hutchinson said the story was recounted to her by then White House Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Renato. The president said something to the effect of, I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now.

26:32To which Bobby responded, sir, we have to go back to the West Wing. The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engle grabbed his arm, said, sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing. We're not going to the Capitol. Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engle. And when Mr. Arnato had recounted this story to me, he had motioned towards his clavicles. Arnato denies her account after she testified. then-citizen Trump on social media also denied her story, calling it sick and fraudulent.

27:16CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez joins us now from Washington. So, can you just, I mean, you were always skeptical, Ellie, of the, excuse me, sorry, Evan, can you just walk us through what the Justice Department was trying to indict Hutchinson on? So, Anderson, we don't know the specific charge that they went after her for today in federal court, But we do know this. We know that they've been investigating whether she made false statements in some of that testimony in Congress. Now, we don't know if it's that specific bite that you were making reference to. And there was a number of other claims that she made.

27:50And, you know, one of the things that has always been a part of this story is the fact that, as you pointed out, Cassidy Hutchinson was retelling stories, things that she had heard from other witnesses, people who were at the White House on January 6th. And so a lot of her testimony was secondhand. And it's one reason why, you know, I think certainly Jack Smith, the special counsel who investigated the January 6th events, decided not to use, not to rely on some of her testimony because it wasn't firsthand accounts. And they had accounts from some of the other people. And so one of the issues that we know behind the scenes, Anderson, was being debated about this, was the fact that some people believe that it was a very thin case, that it was very little evidence.

28:36And so it appears that the grand jury in Washington, D.C. agreed with that assessment and rejected this indictment today. Is it clear if the Department of Justice is going to give up on trying to prosecute her, or will officials try again? Well, we see that they keep trying and trying again, right? Jim Comey, for the third time, was charged with a crime in the last few days. So we don't know whether they'll try again. Certainly in Washington, D.C., what we've seen is that they come back with another set of evidence that they believe might make the difference and try it once again. And, you know, we should also stop and point out how insane it is, right, to be in this era where grand juries are rejecting cases from the Justice Department.

29:23This used to be such a rare thing. It almost never happened. And what we've seen repeatedly in Washington, in Minneapolis, in Los Angeles, and other cities, we've seen that the Justice Department has lost a lot of its presumption that what it's doing is based on real evidence. And you're seeing juries react as a result. Yeah, which is devastating. I mean, just, it's incredible to have that. Evan Perez, thanks very much. Back now with CNN senior legal analyst, Ellie Honig. Did you ever think, I mean, it's really true. If you had a federal prosecutor presenting evidence, judges usually believe federal prosecutors.

30:00Well, it's almost impossible to lose a case at the grand jury stage. It is a completely one-sided process. The burden of proof is low. And to the bigger point about credibility, my first day ever with the Justice Department many years ago, I was given the speech, which essentially is this department has built up its credibility over decades. Don't be the idiot who loses it for us because it's real easy to lose. It's hard to gain, easy to lose. And up until this administration, this administration has squandered that credibility with grand juries, with juries, and with judges in not just this case, but dozens of cases.

30:32The DOJ is not giving up trying to prosecute James Comey, as we have seen now. Do you think they're going to give up on Cassidy Hutchinson? Yeah, I think the history tells us they'll try again. Remember, after the Letitia James indictment was dismissed by a federal judge, they tried to re-indict her two more times. And grand juries rejected that twice. And if they try again on Cassidy Hutchinson, I believe they'll fail again because this is a garbage case. It all comes down to Cassidy Hutchinson said this Secret Service agent, Tony Arnauto, told me this story. Tony Arnauto apparently denies it.

31:05At best, that's 50-50. Add in the fact that Tony Arnauto has his own credibility problems. Add in the fact that the Secret Service deleted internal emails among agents from January 5th and 6th. And you're never going to convict Cassidy Hutchinson. And I said earlier, I said to you, when this story first broke, don't be surprised if the grand jury doesn't even indict this. And that's what's come to pass. Wow. Eli Honig. Thanks very much. Appreciate it. Coming up next, we're going to take you to Mississippi. I'll talk with Democratic candidate for Senate, Scott Colombe, who is hoping to unseat the Republican incumbent and become the first black senator there since Reconstruction.

31:39And later, Ohio's Democratic candidate for Governor Amy Acton's new comments today about the controversial attack ad from her Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, featuring her estranged mother.

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32:42As the president stumps from what should be a traditionally safe Republican Senate seat in In Texas, Democrats are expanding their portion to deep red territory, including Mississippi. The Cook Political Report recently moved the Senate race there from solid Republican to likely Republican. District Attorney Scott Colombe is aiming to take down incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in a state that hasn't elected a black candidate in a statewide race since the Reconstruction era. President Donald Trump carried Mississippi by 23 points in 2024. He was there campaigning alongside Hyde-Smith just last night when he had this to say.

33:25JOHN BARRON - Well, joining us now is Mississippi Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Scott Colom and former Transportation Secretary and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who is rallying with him tonight. Mr. Cologne, you heard what the president had to say about you. How do you respond? Well, listen, it's full of lies. I mean, and I would tell the people of America, the people of Mississippi, you can't pay with gas, which are lies. You can't pay with grocery, which are lies. Your health care provider is not going to take lies to pay your bills. Your hospitals won't stay open with lies.

34:08I mean, he's the one that betrayed the voters. He promised them America first. he's giving them Mississippi last. No lower grocery prices. We're back at war. We don't end in sight. You know, he protected pedophiles with the F-15 files. And, you know, there's no concepts of a health care plan. The health care plan is Mississippians don't get health care. And that's why we're going in a new direction this November 3rd. And Mr. Colum, the president invited your opponent, Senator Hyde-Smith, to speak at his rally last night. I want to play what she had to say.

34:42Is this not the best president in our lifetime?

34:57Thank you, Cindy. I love that. You know, sometimes they get up and they talk for 10 minutes. I say, oh, that was one of the best I've ever... He did seem a little taken aback by that. I mean, to be fair, she also spoke at the rally before the president began. But did it surprise you that she wouldn't try to at least spend more time at the podium with the sitting Republican president? Not at all, because she didn't have a script. When she spoke earlier, they wrote down what they wanted her to say, and she just read it. When she had to be up there without that script, she had nothing to say. I mean, she hadn't done it until all in six years.

35:31She refuses to debate me. When President Trump brought her up there, she was scared as I'll be out. And, you know, listen, I walked the Trump rally. Before that rally, I went and walked the Trump rally. I talked to more Trump voters today or yesterday than she did. And if you want somebody that's willing to actually fight for this country, go to ScottColomb.com because I'm a fighter. Mr. Secretary, what does it say to you that Mississippi has tightened enough that President Trump went there to campaign for Senator Hyde-Smith? Well, it's extraordinary. Part of that's a credit to Scott Colomb and the race that he is running.

36:03And part of it reflects the fact that people have seen Republicans let them down. Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent here, voted for the bills that have made life more expensive. By allying herself, not just being a Republican, but taking marching orders from the White House instead of from the people of Mississippi, she actively increased the cost of health care, actively increased the cost of goods at the store with the tariffs, and is, of course, part of why gas and diesel are so expensive right now. So this is one of many places that I have seen around the country where there is extraordinary energy for change, not just Democrats, but independents, quite a few Republicans, like the Republicans that Scott Cologne, I think very impressively, decided to go shake hands with as they were lining up for that Trump rally to invite them to join his coalition.

36:49And that is the kind of campaigning that I'm very impressed by and that I think is going to make an extraordinary difference just a week from today. And Secretary Buttigieg, I do want to ask for your reaction to the attacks on Abdul al-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in your adopted home state of Michigan. The president has repeatedly called him a jihadist, RFK Jr., talked about Arabic people, saying they don't produce any important science or literature, which is not true. And the vice president says the Michigan Senate race is a proxy battle for America's sovereignty. Do you think attacks like that could resonate enough on the margins to matter in a close race?

37:25I actually think attacks that disgusting are going to backfire. For one thing, they demonstrate that the president cannot advertise his own record. Remember, if the results were any good, he'd be talking about that. If Republican policies were popular, they would be campaigning on that. But the American people are fed up with the Republican cuts to health care, the Republican cuts to tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country, the way that the deficit actually went up under this White House and these incumbent congressional Republicans, and of course a war that has us all paying more at the pump.

37:55The lower they go into the gutter, the more they resort to these demeaning personal attacks the more you can tell that they don't have any real argument about making people's lives better. The only way to make people's lives better is to get different and better leadership, which Mississippians and Americans have a chance to do in just one week. Mr. Colon, what are you hearing from voters in Mississippi that you're talking to in terms of what their top issues? There was a poll recently in which corruption was like number two for a lot of Democratic voters. What do you hear? I'm hearing that culture through the roof.

38:31You know, they were promised lowering grocery prices instead on day one. They got the greatest increase in sales tax in decades. And they, you know, basically everything is more expensive. I'm hearing that, you know, no more endless wars. That was a lie. We're back at war and it's got gas through the roof. It's got farmers struggling with high diesel, truckers struggling with high diesel. The next thing I'm hearing is corruption. I mean, people understand the values we were raised with, you know, honor, honesty, truthfulness. All that's being betrayed. People in D.C. are not looking out for our family.

39:00They're looking out for their families. And our junior senator, I call her Sydney High Prices, and that's all she's done for Mississippi, she has betrayed us. She's sold us out. And we got to go in a new direction. That's why I'm proud to be running in this moment. Mr. Secretary, the president again today in Texas, Bragg, the U.S. is, quote, making a fortune off the war in Iran. Certainly oil companies are not average citizens, obviously, trying to fill up their cars. Are you surprised he has not course corrected that message at all? Well, it's certainly strange that the president is just openly celebrating how a few people are making ridiculous profits off of the economic pain of the American people.

39:40And you can just tell he's on a completely different economic planet than where most people are. People are looking for help with paying the bills, paying their rent and mortgage. He's focused on building a ballroom. People are focused on whether they're going to be able to afford health care next year. Republicans are focused on defending the interior decoration of the Cheesecake Factory. Every single thing that is a source of pain for the American people is something that Republicans and the president are either ignoring or are actively making worse. And this is exactly why we are competitive in so many places.

40:13Look, frankly, even though I've known Scott Colom for a while and thought highly of him, If you had asked me six months ago whether we would be this competitive, whether a Democrat would be in this position to win in Mississippi, I would not have believed you. But we are where we are because of specific choices that have been made. And this is around the country, whether it's Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith or the incumbent congressman where I live in northern Michigan, Jack Bergman. What they have in common is things like promising not to cut Medicaid and then voting to cut Medicaid. Americans are fed up with that.

40:46Secretary Buttigieg, Scott Colom, appreciate it. Thanks very much. We should also point out we invited Senator Hyde-Smith to come on the broadcast, but have not heard back from her. Up next, the latest from Ohio's governor's race and the controversial ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mom. How the ad has left her, quote, stunned. She's making new comments about it and what Ramaswamy's campaign has done now to try to change the narrative.

41:14Ohio Democratic nominee for Governor Amy Acton says she is learning a lot more about the circumstances surrounding her childhood after her opponent Vivek Ramaswamy released a controversial ad that featured her estranged mother calling her a liar. I'm stunned by what I am learning and again someday my brother and I will unpack some of the things that we're yet learning. It's very clear that our mother, who I have not seen since I was 12, my brother was nine, is not well. And I do hope she gets the things she needs. Well, Ramaswamy, for his part, has continued to stand by the ad as both the president and vice president support him, while other Republicans, including the governor of Ohio, have criticized it.

41:57Meanwhile, Ramaswamy released a new ad today trying to shift focus back to the election. Relax. This election's almost over. Everyone wants a government that works so we can get on with our lives. Amy Acton had her shot. She failed us during COVID, then quit under pressure. When it gets tough, will Acton show up? Joining us now is Ohio Democratic Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. Congresswoman, I'm wondering what you're hearing from your constituents about kind of the repercussions of that ad from Rahma Swam. I mean, what do you think the final week of this campaign is going to look like? Well, as you know, first of all, let me just say thank you.

42:39We're six days out and people are disgusted. People are shocked that everyday American folks would have to hear this. Amy Acton has been very upfront. Her brother has also stated they haven't seen this lady since they were 12 and nine years of age. And think about it. This isn't just a story that someone's saying. This has been documented. It's been documented in the court system that he was found guilty, that he left the state and did not make his court dates, and her estranged mother left with him. And so I think it's sad that Republicans are stooping this low. I did send a letter out early on when this came up asking Republicans to denounce this, not to stand for this because we're better than this in Ohio.

43:35And I'm glad that Governor DeWine also stood up for Ohioans because we have a lot to offer. We're doing a lot here with affordability, affordable housing, putting millions of dollars into our community because we know people are hurting. And this is not how you win elections. I think it's going to backfire on them. Are you surprised at how aggressively the president has defended this ad? I'm not surprised with this president or anything he will do. And you have to remember, this is his candidate, his choice. If you think about it, we had a lieutenant governor, and traditionally the lieutenant governor that wants to be the governor runs.

44:22John Husted was thrown aside. The president has put the vet in this position, and so he has to stand by him. But the American people in Ohioans are coming out in droves. And this ad is really helping us stand up and fight that. Do you think this ad has backfired? Oh, I definitely think it's backfired. Quietly, you will hear Republicans saying that they're embarrassed, that they don't support this. People were in shock when we first heard it. And then if you watch the ad, you almost feel sorry for this estranged mother that they pulled her out of somewhere and put her with a script in front of her to clearly read all of these things.

45:18And it doesn't make a lot of sense with anything that she's saying and with her own background. I want to point out you're a congressional ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board. Your lawyers allege in a new court filing that the administration is withholding records that reveal the scope of the president's influence over the center's management. What kind of records are you looking for? It's not exactly a state secret that he has control of the Kennedy Center. What do you think these records will show? Well, we wanna make sure that we have all of the information that is due us. In September, the Trump administration filed a motion asking the court to lift the preliminary injunction and to allow the Kennedy Center to close.

46:01We got recovery, and so we got discovery, I mean, and so that would allow our legal team to examine all of the records. Well, when we started asking for these records, the president filed executive privilege, which, as you know, is an extraordinary presidential protection, usually for something like national security. So this Friday, my legal team will file our response explaining why we believe that there is more information that this administration is withholding. Well, Congressman Joyce Beatty, I really appreciate your time. We'll talk to you again. Thanks very much. That's it for us. The news continues.

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