Ohio Governor Denounces Ramaswamy Ad

0:02A Republican governor issues a stinging rebuke of the Republican trying to replace him. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and inside politics.

0:18There are 12 days until the election, and we're tracking the racist candidates and stories that could shift the balance of power in Washington and across the country. Here's what's on our midterm radar. We start with the breaking news out of Ohio. Republican Governor Mike DeWine is denouncing Vivek Ramaswamy. the Republican who wants to replace him, over the new ad featuring Democrat Amy Acton's estranged mother. Listen to what DeWine said just moments ago. The ad on its face is deeply, deeply troubling. But when you know the rest of the story, when you know the back story, when you know that the husband of the mom was indicted by a grand jury after hearing testimony and that he took off along with the mother and that two children never saw, I guess, the mother after that.

1:31When you know that, it just to me makes it more serious.

1:39It makes it just more wrong. So it's wrong to run this ad. And even at this late time, my wife friend saw the ad run this morning on TV. I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down. The governor is not rescinding his endorsement of fellow Republican Ramaswamy, but those are some tough words. We're going to have much more on this in a moment. Now to Michigan, where loyalty was a major topic in the final debate of the crucial Senate race. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed accused Republican Mike Rogers of standing, quote, hip to hip with President Trump, while Rogers is not letting up on his accusation that El-Sayed has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

2:27If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know, are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas? To bring into question, my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you. I am proud of America. I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray. And the question that you would ask that I think is actually really quite shameful as somebody who's actually served under that constitution. If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim senator. On the Kansas debate stage, Republican incumbent Senator Roger Marshall and his Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton clashed over what's driving high diesel prices.

3:09It's a critical issue for the state's agriculture economy. The real problem with the cost of diesel in particular is number one is the Ukraine war. And because of that, diesel production has gone down. He just said that the war in Iran is not the problem. The war in Ukraine is a problem. The Ukrainians trying to defend themselves are the reason why we have record diesel prices. Nobody believes that. This happened in response to the war in Iran that didn't need to happen. President Trump also blames Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil refineries for soaring diesel prices. And a new poll from Harvard shows young voters overwhelmingly breaking for Democrats in the race for the House.

3:49On a generic congressional ballot, voters under 30 picked the Democratic candidate over the Republican 63 to 26 percent. Now, the president's approval rating among young voters is just 21 percent, 25 percent among young men who were a key part of the coalition that helped return Donald Trump to the White House. I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here. And Adam Wren, I'm going to start with you. You live in the Midwest. You're not in Ohio. You're in Indiana. But you certainly, you know, understand the sensibility of the people, but the politics. The fact that Mike DeWine decided to walk out and talk to statehouse reporters and condemn the Republican who wants to take his job and say, take this extremely controversial ad off the air?

4:40I mean, just in terms of the sort of seismic nature of this political moment, put it in context. Yeah, you're exactly right, Dana. This is significant. You know, I grew up in Ohio, and Mike DeWine is really sort of the last gasp of an older school, kinder, gentler Republican Party. He's a Bush-era Republican. And you have to remember here, DeWine sort of moved behind the scenes to elevate Jim Trestle, the former Ohio State University Buckeyes coach, as his lieutenant governor, and ultimately, you know, wanted to see him succeed him and not Ramaswamy. The alliance with Ramaswamy was always delicate and fragile.

5:25And you have to remember, DeWine also spoke up and out against former Senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance, when it came to the Springfield disinformation about Haitian immigrants eating pets. And so this is something that morally bothers the governor of Ohio, who is a Republican. And he's always been uncomfortable with Ramaswamy and some of the leaps that Ramaswamy is willing to take to advance his political cause. So this is a significant break. And it does show that there is still a line in the sand between MAGA Republicanism and non-MAGA Republicanism. And look, non-MAGA Republican voters are going to be consequential in this midterms.

6:10We've seen them being won over by candidates in Texas, like James Tallarico, at a significant percentage. So they're going to be consequential. And Jeff Zalany, just sort of picking up on that, the fact that Ramaswamy ran this ad, which the shorthand way of saying it, it features his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton's mother, whom she's estranged from and was taken. Acton was taken away from her mother, along with her brother, when they were young because of accusations of sexual abuse and more, and has not talked to her. The fact that Ramaswamy, there's no question they understood there would be backlash and still went ahead with it, makes you think not just that there's a sort of a desperation because of where the polls are, but that they saw something to suggest that, out of context, If you just saw this ad, it would help them.

7:08I mean, one would hope otherwise just simply throwing up a really disgusting Hail Mary like this, you know, without at least hoping it would help them, I guess, would be even more disturbing than this. But the bottom line here is, as Adam was just talking about this, I mean, Vivek Ramaswamy has struggled throughout the year to connect with Ohio Republican voters. Vakramaswamy has always been a stronger candidate online than in real life. He was in his presidential campaign and he has been as the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio. But look, it is still a very divided state and Republicans have so many advantages there.

7:47So the question is, he clearly is trying to stop some people from voting for Amy Acton. But I think what he's done in the process here is just really brought this story to the fore, which most people did not have any understanding of. And he has humanized Amy Acton. I think he has made an incredible amount of empathy and sympathy for her. So look, we will see how this plays. But I think the most striking thing about Governor DeWine's comments this morning, I mean, he is a lingering Republican from a different era. There's no doubt. But the vice president's comments yesterday had zero effect on him.

8:22And they had zero effect on many other Republicans in Ohio. So to me, for J.D. Vance going forward with us, his comments will stick with him. But I think it's so interesting how they have had very, very little effect. He is not Donald Trump by any means. I've heard from so many Republicans saying exactly that, that they think that Vance totally misjudged it. And what Republicans, and now add DeWine to the list, are trying to do is give Republicans a warning, not admonish them. They're trying to help Republicans by warning this is not the right way to go. Lauren Fox, you have been covering the story on the ground in Ohio.

8:58You have talked to Amy Acton and also voters. And again, as I said, one of the things that I'm hearing from people in Ohio who want Acton to win is that they think that that their campaign, although they were on it, they put the ad out with her brother. She's been doing interviews. They need to continue to be more aggressive to push back on this ad so that people, even low information voters, can at least get an inkling that it's not as it seems. Well, she certainly isn't shying away from it. And yesterday when I was with her at this small farm event in Northwest Ohio, she actively addressed this issue after actually a woman in the crowd that she addressed said to her that she wanted to give her a hug and they sort of had this emotional moment.

9:48And after that, Amy Atkin said, look, I think this is the elephant in the room and let me tell you a little bit about my childhood. And that is when she talked about what she said was severe neglect and abuse that her and her brother suffered. And obviously her mother lost custody of her when she was just 12 years old. She has not seen her since. But, you know, Dana, I think it speaks to the fact that she is not afraid to talk about this because I think She believes that on the one hand, this helps her connect with voters. People have gone through things in their lives. And she argues that her talking about what her past experiences can actually help her in this race.

10:24And I have been talking to voters around the suburbs of Cleveland this morning. And I will tell you that every single person I've talked to has seen this ad, has heard about this ad. Some people have even started seeing it on television now. Obviously, there was a question of if it was going to air. It's airing. And a lot of people I talked to, some of them Democrats, some of them independents, say that they simply sometimes just want to turn the channel when they see it because they do know this backstory now. So I do think her team has been effective at starting to communicate that backstory.

10:56And I should note, like this is something she's talked about in the past. It is not something that she's hidden publicly from, but it is certainly something that is now a dynamic of this race. and her team believes that they are just going to continue talking about it, continue embracing it, because in isolation that Vivek Ramaswamy ad is misleading at best. I just want to quickly play a little bit of what Acton told Lauren yesterday. And Nia, you pick it up at the other side. I'd hoped he wouldn't sink this low, but of course he did. I had a childhood of extreme physical abuse and sexual abuse as a kid.

11:36My brother and I, frequent flyers and children's services, finally removed after a grand jury saw evidence that was so, so, so shocking that we were removed from my mother's custody. Age of 12. Nia? You know, it's hard to watch. This has stoked up for her. I'm sure some painful memories for her brother to, of course, cut that ad talking about himself being abused by the stepfather. Listen, I think if you're J.D. Vance, he has a theory which is no enemies to the right. So he is going to cover for Vivek Ramaswamy with this ad. But he also has a theory. If you think back to what he was doing in 2024, the whole idea about people eating pets, even when it was found out that that was not true, he essentially said, well, it doesn't matter because it points to a larger story that he wants to tell.

12:37And I think the story that Vivek Ramaswamy wants to tell in this is that Amy Acton is unfit to be governor because she's not well. She has mental health problems and she's unstable. Right. And that has been the tenor of a lot of their ads on a lot of their attacks on her. I think it is incumbent upon Amy Acton to do exactly what she's doing, which is to explain her story. It obviously humanizes her. It makes her connect with voters. And I do think it'll go back on the Deke Ramaswamy as well as J.D. Vance. This is going to have a long tail for him because it makes him look so tone deaf. They are using this woman.

13:16The mother herself looks unwell, seems unwell. And this is the face of the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign at this point, rather than what he wants to do for the folks in Ohio. All right, everybody stand by. Up next, I'm going to speak with a powerful House Republican fighting for something he likely never expected. His seat in Red, Arkansas. Congressman French Hill is my guest. next. Plus, why is the political world so fascinated on Michigan? Well, I went to the birthplace of the Reagan Democrat to explain what makes the state swingy and how this race could impact 2020.

14:03Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. My guest is Lil Jon. He's a rapper, DJ, and producer known for hits like Get Low and Turn Down for What. In February 2026, his 27-year-old son Nathan went missing near Nathan's home in Georgia. Three days later, his body was found in a pond nearby. Lil Jon has a memoir that just came out called I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me. It takes time to heal. And I kept myself busy that I didn't let myself mourn. I needed to laugh again. I needed to be silly and interact with people and feel other people's energy and make people happy too.

14:48We have to share so other people can see that they can get through it too. Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is all there is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. You may have noticed gambling doesn't require a casino anymore. You can just open up your phone. It's designed to keep us coming back or maybe never even leaving in the first place. We're going to talk to Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA's Gambling Studies program. You're going to learn what your brain is really chasing when you place a bet.

15:25And also importantly, how to keep the game from playing you. Gambling addiction, gambling disorder is the hidden addiction. You can't smell it. You can't taste it. You can't see it. You can't have a urine drug test. Who are we talking about here, Professor? Who's the most likely demographic to be affected by this? Literally any single human on Earth. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.

15:50It's been 16 years since the Arkansas 2nd District voted to send a Democrat to Congress. Incumbent Republican French Hill, who chairs the powerful House Financial Services Committee, has represented that seat near Little Rock for more than a decade with little Democratic competition. This cycle, it could be different. This month, the Cook Political Report moved the seat onto the battleground, shifting it from solid to likely Republican. Congressman Chairman French Hill joins me now. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. What is your argument to voters? Great to be with you. Thank you.

16:27What is your argument to voters who are exhausted by the war and tariffs and don't think the president is keeping a lot of his promises. Why should they still vote for you, a Republican? Well, Dan, it's good to be with you. I think the mission I have is to continue the incredible work ethic that I've had for the past decade in Congress to serve the people here. I was a community banker here. I was the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. I was the Rotary president on the board of the hospital. I've devoted my life to Central Arkansas, and people know that. They know I've brought$100 million back for our veterans in this district during my time in Congress.

17:06I brought the first Fisher House, which is for our veterans to be able to stay without having to have any overnight charges while their loved ones are at our McClellan VA hospital here in Little Rock. So it's my record of service, plus legislatively leading the Financial Services Committee that helps for a better economy, and passing 27 bills and having those signed into law by both Democratic and Republican presidents. So you just listed your very deep connection and credentials for your district. But if there are voters who maybe tend to vote Republican and are so annoyed with your fellow Republican in the White House that they either will just stay home or maybe an independent minded Republican would vote for the Democrat.

17:53What's your argument about that? Well, first, I've worked under President Obama, President Biden, and of course, President Trump in both his terms. And when they've taken actions that I disagree with or I don't think helps America or helps Arkansas, I speak out in the case of the current administration, as well as President Trump's first term. I don't support across the board tariffs. I think tariffs should be used very strategically to open up new markets, punish bad actors in order to benefit American producers. But President Trump has chosen that path. And where he's done that, I've disagreed with it.

18:28I think we ought to renew the USMCA, which is very important to about 30 percent of the GDP here in Arkansas. And so that's one example. I've differed with him, as I did with President Biden, as well as the conduct of how to best get Russia out of Ukraine. And those are just two examples. But my point is that when I disagree with the president, I speak up. And I think that was made abundantly clear across every front page in America this year. When my housing bill, he refused to sign it and he knew that we had the votes to override a veto. And that housing bill, which is the first in three decades, is now law and will benefit not only Arkansas, but communities all across our country.

19:10I talked to your Democratic challenger last week. Here's some of what he said. Prince Hill, who's the most powerful banker in Congress, used his power to remove the$5 cap on overdraft and junk fees. And so folks are wondering, if he's using his power for the big banks, then why is he not helping us? And they're ready for a new direction. So he's arguing that you care more about big banks than your constituents. What's your response? Well, I think it's ridiculous. And And clearly he hasn't read the Biden CFPB, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, rule there, which would, in my view, limit overdraft protection, which is essential to so many families across the country.

19:53In fact, when I was a community banker for 15 years before I was in Congress, we had banks locations in the poorest counties in my district, in my state, down in Ashley and Chico County. And I know how important overdraft protection is. A price cap that President Biden put out in his waning days of presidency would take that away from families who desperately need it. And my opponent talks about accountability. He doesn't even file his own House ethics form to tell us where his money is coming from that he's taking out of his election account. And I think that's disingenuous. And I don't believe that he's the right person to represent Central Arkansas.

20:40Congressman Chairman French Hill, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. Dana, good to be with you. Appreciate your show and the good work you do. Thank you. And up next, President Trump's red state rescue tour. The White House is adding new stops, including one of the reddest states in the entire country.

21:07Today, President Trump heads to his next red state and red city in that state, Sioux City, Iowa, which the president won by double digits in 2024. Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson will join him. Her race against Democrat Josh Turek is one of the many no clear leaders in this very tight race for control of the Senate. Hinson has walked a tightrope, appearing with the president, but distancing herself from some of his policies like the Iran war. CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House. So, Kristen, what are you hearing from your Trump sources about what we should expect today if they can give such a roadmap for any of the president's speeches?

21:48Right. We can give what they're thinking that could be expected today. But obviously, you know, comments about men's bodies or agility. I don't know if that's written down ahead of time. But just thinking about what we've seen for the past week, this is going to mirror speech like we saw in Kansas, a place where there is an enormous amount of farmers and farmers who are struggling because of President Trump's policies. You're looking at tariffs, trade war. All of that has risen the prices for farmers and the cost of diesel with the Iran war. Again, Trump's own policies, his own initiatives like the war in Iran are the things that have driven the cost up.

22:21So you're going to hear him talking about reimbursements and subsidies that he's given to farmers. He's going to talk about that$5 ,000 that he is loosely promising to all adults if Republicans win both the House and the Senate, trying to give some kind of financial incentives there. And this is a state, you know, you talk about Ashley Hinson. It was unclear she was going to appear next to Trump because Trump is just so widely unpopular in the state of Iowa. And Vance had been there earlier a couple months ago. Ashley Hinson did not appear. She said she had a scheduling conflict. We have seen Hinson standing next to Trump, but that's in the Oval Office, citing various different bills that do benefit Iowa.

22:59In terms of campaigning, it was a real question as to whether or not she was going to show up, because in the CNN polls of polls, which we've just pulled up here, there is no clear leader. In fact, you have one person, Josh Turek, the Democrat, leading by one percentage point here. And that is, again, in the margin of error. And I do want to show you something about the average gas prices in Iowa. And take a look here. This is what it is today,$4.12. What it was a month ago,$4.36, so it's gone down. But what it was a year ago,$2.81. Again, a lot of this is going to come down to no matter what President Trump says, people are feeling it on their pocketbooks.

23:36And it's hard to go against that when you're out there. Yeah, yeah, no question about that. And that doesn't even account for Diesel. The fact that he's now announced that he's going to Mississippi is a whole other discussion that I know will be happening. Wild. When he makes that trip. Kristen, thanks so much for that reporting. Appreciate it. Up next from Florida, Florida, Florida, and so goes Ohio, so goes the nation. It is all about Michigan.

24:12We've spent a lot of time in the lead up to this year's midterm elections on the all-important Michigan Senate race. Why is Michigan such a swingy state? I went to the Wolverine State to find out for the latest installment of CNN Explains on CNN All Access. Let's look specifically at the state of Michigan. If it's an election year, you'll probably find me in Michigan. And here I am again. And it's not just because I'm covering the 2026 midterm elections. It's because the day after the election, 2028 begins. And for the last five presidential elections, it really is as Michigan goes, so goes the nation.

24:53And what happens this year in this very competitive Michigan Senate race will almost certainly influence the Democratic presidential primary. One reason is a specific kind of voter. If he were on the ballot again, would you vote for him? No. Do you consider yourself a swing voter? I do now. So why does it always seem to be Michigan? And why are these voters so swingy? To be fair, it's not just Michigan. It's also Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. These three were the blue wall for years until... Donald Trump didn't just breach Hillary Clinton's so-called blue wall of defense. He shattered it. Winning these three states in their 44 electoral college votes is crucial to winning the presidency.

25:39And honestly, if there were competitive Senate races there, I'd be talking to you from Milwaukee or the suburbs of Philadelphia. But the competitive race is right here. You want to do it like this? Yes, of course. Michigan. Detroit. To find out who makes it so swingy, I spoke with data journalist and Michigan native Dante Chinney. Too much of the time, I think, we spend talking about red places and blue places. And places are red and blue for different reasons. His American Communities Project takes different demographic and economic factors and groups counties into 15 types of communities. With that, we can understand a lot more than just how they voted.

26:18We can try to understand why they vote the way they do. The fact that Michigan has eight of the 15, is that high? It's pretty high. I mean, for the size state it is, yeah. So that tells us why Michigan is so important. It's a pretty diverse place. It's like you've got Wayne County, where Detroit is, is always going to go Democratic. We have these types that we call college towns. The urban suburbs, like Grand Rapids on the western side of the state, those places are solidly liberal. On the Republican side, you've got all the rural areas up north, these blue places that we call graying America, this kind of aqua that we call rural middle America, and then these yellow places we call the exurbs.

26:53These are the Republican vote. It's a question of what you get out of these middle suburb counties. These are the swing counties, and they're the areas that tie the blue wall together. You look at the map, the middle suburbs are really... Oh, this is so... wait, I'm sorry. This is just the middle suburbs. Oh, that's so cool. So where they're clustered, right? It's Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Shockingly, those are some of the biggest swing states in the country. When I started just learning about politics, I heard about Macomb County, Michigan. It's the home of the Reagan Democrat, the ultimate swing voter.

27:27And so here we are again in Macomb County, because it is still the home of the ultimate swing voter. It's also the home of the auto industry. I stopped by Coonan Brewery, a favorite auto workers watering hole. Almost my whole family's been union my entire adult life. I was on the assembly line, 33 years. Economy changed, you know, competition globally. Three of the four plants I work with, they've been shut down. In Michigan, about a third of voters consider themselves independent And nearly everyone I spoke to, even if they had voted all with one party, would still often call themselves independent.

28:06Did you vote one way or another or have you gone back and forth? I generally vote Republican. I tend to be independent, but I would probably lay a little bit more Democratic. My parents are very purple, back and forth. They voted for Obama and Trump. If any Republican did something about health care, I have no problem voting for that person. I'm about who they are, not the letter behind their name, you know. Historically, UAW was, you're a Democrat because you're a union guy. Is that still the case? With me, yes, but not, I've noticed now, yeah, we have a lot of union workers have gone, and I think not per se the Republican Party, but Donald Trump.

28:50In my mind, there's a difference. These voters are not Republicans. They're Trump voters. Here's what the presidential vote looks like in the middle suburbs since 2000. Look at when Trump comes on the scene. That's a 13-point win for Donald Trump in 2016. We did some analysis looking at the average median household income in 2000 and then 2024. The middle suburbs, they are making, when you adjust for inflation, about$7 ,000 less. They've really taken a beating. The manufacturing jobs also have just disappeared. Like, 22 % of all the jobs the middle suburbs were manufacturing in 2000, it's now down to 16.

29:24That's a drop of about 6 percentage points. It's also a loss of about 200 ,000 jobs. They're angry, and Donald Trump coming along with his message, Make America Great Again, resonated with them. Are you angry? I'm very angry. I pass a homeless shelter every day on my way to work, and there are more and more people waiting on the outside to get in. I mean, there's a reason for that. People cannot afford to live right now. I watched a Senate debate with voters at the Detroit Bar and Grill, and it's clear that no matter how they vote, the frustrations that propelled Donald Trump 10 years ago are still palpable.

30:02Back in the day when my parents were Democrats, they represented the working class. They've lost that. They've moved so far to the left. You can love who you want. You can worship who you want. but it can't be things that conflict with the beliefs of true America. There's no reason to be ashamed to be an American. And I'm tired of the white guilt. I'm tired of all these things that are going on in this country. This is how the people that I work with feel. We love our country. We don't want to lose it. That's the truth. And you voted for Trump all three times. I did vote for Trump. How do you feel about how things are done?

30:44A little disillusioned these days. You are. Oh, yeah. We'll put it this way. I've got a Grand Cherokee, and I never had to pay$100 to fill it up until last week. A lot of over-promising, underperforming by Trump. Once you promise all that, and you don't deliver, this group of voters in these places has really been whipsawed back and forth by people promising to fix things for them, and it never quite works out. Sounds like you're saying that when you look at the data, what you're seeing is the reason Michigan is so swingy, it's because it's promise after promise made and promise after promise not kept.

31:22I think that's right. When Trump exits the stage, this is going to get a lot wavier again. My guess is these lines will come together closer again, and it's going to look a little different. After this election and when Trump is gone, there's going to be a reckoning not just about the Republican Party but about the Democratic Party. Fully agree. Because as sort of down on Trump as some people are, they're also pretty down on the Democratic Party. I think that's because people have seen that their lives have gotten harder and we're not talking about the problems that need to be solved for them.

31:58It has become almost impossible for one person or a family to have two jobs with their hands and survive in America. And the party that solves that problem is the one that will actually win moving forward. There isn't just a far-left Democrat testing whether his progressive ideas can win in a purple state. There's also a more moderate Democrat running for governor. And the question is, will these swing voters go for a Democrat and which kind? And by how much? Or will they vote Republican? And how each of them does in all of the key parts of this state will be picked apart. It will be analyzed.

32:39Donors will look at it. Potential candidates and campaign managers will look at it to try to figure out how they're going to run here in 2028 and whether they're going to run hard in 2028 in Michigan. Once you elect one person like that, people will then catch on. And we will start electing more people like that in the United States. It's not just the general election in 2028 that's going to make Michigan so important as it always is. This time, it's the primary for Democrats. In the last competitive Democratic primary, Michigan didn't vote until after Super Tuesday. In 2028, they'll be fifth.

33:21How important is the 2028 change for how the Democrats elect the next nominee for president? I think it's incredibly important. We are the most diverse battleground state in the country, economically, racially, geographically. And I think that's really, really important. If you want to win America, you have to win Michigan. Up next, two debates in two deadlocked Senate races that could have a major impact on who controls the Senate.

34:0317. That's how many times Republican Senator Roger Marshall name-checked Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, in last night's Kansas Senate debate, warning Kansans that a vote for his Democratic opponent, Adam Hamilton, could end up flipping the Senate. My opponent's going to say anything he can to lie to get into that office and give control to Chuck Schumer, then you would stand right there beside Chuck Schumer. He gets control of this seat. He'll give control to the U.S. Senate, to Schumer. If Chuck Schumer is in control, the Democrat Party, under Chuck Schumer, we've heard Chuck Schumer mentioned, I don't know, 50 times, maybe, I'm going to exaggerate, maybe 20 times so far.

34:42I find that interesting. I've already said I wouldn't support Chuck Schumer for the Senate Majority Leader if the Democrats to control the Senate. 17. Nia? Right. You know, listen, he's trying to sort of nationalize this race. Roger Marshall has had a very, very tough time there explaining some of the things that he's done as an OBGYN, suing patients and one woman arrested for failing to pay 50 bucks. So yeah, change the topic to Chuck Schumer because that helps him sort of nationalize it and make it bigger than himself. And Adam, just want to play a little bit more of the debate. And this is some questions to Hamilton, who is a pastor of a megachurch, never been in politics before, about some policy issues.

35:26Here's how he answered. To clarify, what federal regulations could you support? You clearly do, so which ones? Yeah, you know what? I'm not sure, to be honest. Where do you draw the line on providing that support that farms that can't year after year support themselves? Yeah, you know what? I'm not sure. I don't really have an answer to that. What about the retirement age, raising it for younger workers? I think that's something we need to look at, but I'm not committing to that right now. Adam, your takeaway? Yeah, I mean, he was Hamilton was very sort of short on specifics. It sort of underscores the fact that his campaign is very vibes.

36:04He's surfing a negative environment in Kansas and nationally. And that is why that is why his opponent Marshall is trying to nationalize the race, connecting him to Chuck Schumer. In fact, it felt like I was taking a time machine back to 2018 and those midterms. I mean, this is this is a line of attack that you would hear frequently back then connecting a candidate to Schumer. And so, yeah, I do think that Hamilton, his appeal is that he doesn't sound like other Democrats. But in this case, Marshall was able to put him on his heels when it came to policy specifics that he'll have to deal with in D.C.

36:41Yeah, nationalizing the race very much goes both ways. The reason this is even in play is because Donald Trump is so underwater. Jeff, you were in Michigan for several days. I want to play a little bit of the debate last night. You stand hip to hip with Donald Trump on all of his worst policies, the policies that are raising the price of your gas, making it impossible to afford your groceries. And you're going to hear a form of MAGA bingo, because the thing about MAGA is whenever they're talking, they are trying to distract you. The bingo game ought to be how many times can he put the word Trump in any answer?

37:19Any answer that he has given in the last, whatever, 30 minutes. It's ridiculous. This is really about the best way forward for Michigan. Jeff, I'm sensing a theme that crosses from race to race that are neck and neck. I mean, there's no question about it. I mean, really all the candidates are trying to dispatch with the political baggage from their own parties. I mean, that's what's so striking about this. But from the Adam Hamilton, his biggest challenge, there's no doubt, is being potentially a part of the Democratic majority. That is not Abdul Sayed's biggest challenge. His biggest challenge is sort of defining himself.

37:57But I was struck in Michigan last night by the degree to which just the disconnect between how Mike Rogers was describing the economy and the conditions of things sounds completely at odds with what the president says. There was no golden age of the economy. me. So all of that is going to sort of come to a head on Sunday in a Port Huron, Michigan, when the president arrives there. I'm told Mike Rogers will be on stage. He'll be at the rally. And that is going to be very interesting because Mike Rogers has been at the forefront of Republican candidates trying to move away from the president. The entire Democratic strategy is to tie him to the president here.

38:38So both parties have some baggage that they're scrambling to get away from. Yeah. I mean, if Mike Rogers is going around campaigning on the golden age of the economy in Michigan, he would probably be laughed at at the state, as you well know from being on the ground as I was. Thanks to you all. Really appreciate it. And before we go in this divisive environment, I want to take a moment and highlight a night where people came together to support an organization dedicated to fighting hate. The GOAT himself, you see him there, Tom Brady, legendary rocker Jon Bon Jovi, and so many others gathered to support the Blue Square Alliance, which was founded in 2019 by Patriots owner and philanthropist Robert Kraft, with the goal of combating Jewish hate and all kinds of hate.

39:24The evening raised an astonishing$32 million. Now, on this show, we report a lot on the hundreds of millions spent on politics. It's nice to see millions raised to promote projects to unite people and try to make the world a better place. Thank you so much for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

39:53I'm Adi Kornish. I'm Ari Shapiro, and it's Engagement Party. It is Engagement Party. And we get to talk about what we're obsessed with, what we're engaged with, what we need to process with a friend. Her name is Amy O'Dell. She is a fashion writer blogger. But the thing is, she's a journalist who's written about the sacred cows of fashion. And yes, I mean, Gwyneth Paltrow and Anna Wintour. She has done biographies of both. And she is also the sort of rare fashion writer who, at this point, kind of outside the system. And so the question that we're going to try to tackle is... Is fashion terrible now?

40:24Well, no, I mean, I would phrase it as how do you develop a personal style in the age of AI slop? You know, on social media, like creators have to try a whole bunch of different things and see what catches and then they make it over and over and over again. The same thing happens with clothing. So they're sort of seeding the market, seeding the Internet with all of these different ideas. And then they can see what sells and then they can just make them really fast. Follow Engagement Party. Wherever you get your podcasts.