Trump vs. the Press 

0:00You've been asked to run the company's social channels, But company content plays by its own set of rules. It needs a logo in the first three seconds. But it can't feel like an ad. It needs subtitles. Except when it doesn't. It needs to run at two times speed and deliver a complex message. Simply, of course, within 9x16. Thankfully, your company has Canva. So you can easily edit your video and every version of it. What will you Canva today? We are live from the Sam's Club Holiday Club Parade. Wait, are those guys? Just snoozing. It's the Food Coma Club. They might lose count of their helpings of turkey, but never their spending.

0:41Oh, you hear that? It's the Cool Ants Club, in their natural habitat of giving the trendiest gifts. It's the Deal Hunters Club. No sudden movements. They smell value a mile away. Whatever holiday club you're in, Sam's Club helps you make the most of your holidays. Come join us, Sam's Club. Trump versus the press. We've got new CNN reporting on why the president suddenly banned CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House. I'm Manu Raju, in for Dan Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and inside politics. We start with breaking news on the White House ban of several news outlets, including CNN.

1:22CNN, MS Now, and Politico are suing the Trump administration, claiming the ban is a direct violation of the First Amendment. We have brand new CNN reporting from CNN's White House team about the moments leading up to President Trump's ban. CNN's chief White House correspondent, Caitlin Collins, joins us from New York. Caitlin, we have new reporting about what President Trump's close personal aide, Natalie Harp, was showing him. Yeah, Manu, because this was a huge question. Why the president did this now? He is not someone who is new to complaining about his coverage, coverage that he believes is negative.

1:56And so it was really a question that we had, that we were being asked repeatedly over the weekend, ever since the president made this surprise announcement on Friday, which is why now? What had prompted this? And what we are told, my colleague Kevin Liptak and I, is that Natalie Harp, who is one of the president's closest aides, as you know, she's often in the Oval Office or on Air Force One traveling with the president and has worked with him for years now, was showing him graphics last week of negative Politico coverage. And the president was infuriated by that graphic that he was shown about Politico's coverage.

2:27He also was upset about several TV clips that he had seen of his coverage of his administration and his presidency. And that is why he looped these three outlets together and announced that he was banning them from covering the White House on Friday, from accessing the White House grounds, having access to the Oval Office. And that is really what we are told is the only thing that our sources had heard is what prompted the president to take this action on Friday. Something that I should note caught a lot of people inside the White House off guard. Several senior aides were not aware that the president was going to do this.

2:59It wasn't some well thought out plan that they had been working on. It's certainly something he had talked about, but it caught a lot of people off guard. And several people have highlighted that the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was not in the West Wing on Friday afternoon when the president suddenly announced that he was going to ban these three outlets from covering him. So, Kaylin, the vice president says the White House is not banning outlets, but revoking what he calls special access to the White House grounds. You were supposed to be traveling with the president today to New York as part of the White House travel pool, but actually the White House removed CNN from the pool.

3:33Yeah, it's not really clear what the vice president meant there in regards to special access. I mean, there are dozens, if not hundreds of outlets that have access to the White House grounds that have a hard pass, a badge that swipes them in through security and gets them access to the White House and obviously access to the briefing room, to the workspace, to the president and his aides when they are briefing reporters or holding gaggles. And so he was saying that this is not a ban of these outlets. They're just taking away their special access. It's general access. Everyone has it. Outlets from the left, from the right, from the mainstream in the middle.

4:07And the vice president disputed the term ban earlier when a reporter asked him, given his history of advocating for free speech. If he was comfortable with the president's move on Friday. But I should note, Manu, the president himself referred to this as a free speech ban on Friday when he was asked. And reporters were asking him follow up questions about how exactly this was going to work and what it would look like. So the president himself was saying that. And so, yes, we saw this announcement on Friday. Today was the first day it was really put into action beyond the fact that our team could not get access to the White House complex on Saturday.

4:40Betsy Kline and the team was credentialed and had a pass, but were not allowed access into the White House. Today at 9 a.m., CNN is the technically supposed to be the pool today. We were supposed to travel with the president and our cameras and our photojournalists on Air Force One here to New York for his trip, where he's got several big meetings, including with Mayor Zoran Mamdani and with other world leaders this week ahead of that big state visit that he's got going on with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. But right now, it's a question, Manu of what that coverage is going to look like because CNN is not alone here.

5:13Fox News, ABC, CBS and NBC are joining with us in declining to basically take our spot in the pool and to give the president a camera for a main major outlet that is going to travel with him on the plane. And obviously, as you know, Manu, this is a president who appreciates having his announcements, his statements, his meetings broadcast live on television. But there will not be a TV camera representing any of those outlets when the president boards Air Force One and makes his way here to New York today, which is incredibly significant. And it's hard to think of a moment in history since the pool existed in the way that it does in this modern form where this has happened.

5:48Yeah, no question about it. All right. Caitlin Collins from New York, thank you so much. And my excellent panel is here, including the aforementioned Betsy Kline of CNN, who was turned away from the White House over the weekend, a plaintiff in this lawsuit as well, Betsy. So talk to me. We know what happened on Saturday. You reported vividly about how your White House, you were denied access into the White House crown. But we're all learning about Trump's mindset going into this. What are you hearing about? What led up to this and where it goes from here? Well, I think this just follows a pattern of the president turning to a familiar tactic when things aren't going the way he wants them to go, and that is to attack the press.

6:26We are 43 days away from a midterm election. The president's approval rating stands at about 36 percent, according to CNN's Poll of Polls. We are seeing this increasing number of Republican lawmakers oppose his war in Iran, which has led to spiking gas prices just in the last couple of days. I think the national average right now is$4.47 a gallon. We are seeing the Federal Reserve raise interest rates. His$5 ,000 check to Americans is likely dead on arrival. There are a number of things, and the president now is choosing to focus on this. And how much of this, Sabrina, has to do with the fact that Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, was not there at the time that perhaps could have urged him to take a different course here?

7:07I mean, I think for a lot of folks that cover the White House closely and have followed this administration closely, it is notable that she was not in the room for this. But to Betsy's point, I mean, it just speaks to this moment for Trump. We have seen him since he came back for this second turn really push institutions to try and bend to his will. We've seen the pressure campaigns that he has launched against different institutions, whether it's the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department, the courts. When it comes to the media and it comes to these outlets in particular, that is not something that he has been able to successfully do.

7:38He cannot change the headlines and will them to existence unless he changes his policies and his actions. And Susie Wiles is not there, but Natalie Harve was there. Yes. And she was the one who was showing him some of these. And she has obviously increasingly become a flashpoint in Democratic politics and in the media, covering her presence or lack of presence in things. How much of this is also a distraction from the problems the president clearly has? His numbers aren't good. The Iran war is not going well. The environment is terrible for his party right now. Gas prices are so high. And that's part of what our colleagues write this morning.

8:11Trump has grown increasingly irate, they say, about these losses. Yeah, I think the perplexing part is, sure, if you want to distract from all of those negative headlines, there's other ways to do it than going after the press. As you noted, Betsy, like this is his one of many hits that he has constantly relied on when things are not going well. But, I mean, I'm sure you've heard Manu from some Republicans already privately wondering why he took up this case, why he is escalating it, when all they want and all they've been wanting is for him to just, like, stay focused. Talk about the economy.

8:43The economy? Yeah. I mean, there's not good news, though, about the economy. That's the issue, right? Right. This is also a very big week for foreign policy. And right now, there is not going to be a pool camera traveling with the president. And that is very notable. Now, interestingly, we do have one new data point, which is that my credential to cover an event with the First Lady on the sidelines of the United Nations tomorrow has been approved. So that's sort of an interesting space to watch. Yeah, interesting. We'll see how that plays out. And we're watching Trump's reaction to all this. And, you know, he puts up on social media this morning the kind of attack against the media that he's been doing his entire political career.

9:19But he also said this, which we thought was notable. He said, is a threat to our national security must be stopped now. He's referring to what he says is fake news. But the national security thing he's been now citing on the White House, building the White House ballroom, the arch, the triumphal arch that he wants to build by the Arlington Cemetery. It's national security he's citing this as a reason now, too. It's interesting to see that this is now the tagline for the president. I think the question is really how convincing is this to the American public as they hear these attacks. I think, you know, attacks get old over a certain amount of time, and I think there's a lot of questions around how effective that is going to be when people are questioning why are you doing this in the first place.

10:01Betsy, since you cover all these improvements in the eye of the beholder, I suppose, around Washington, D.C., what do you make of this national security argument he keeps making? And specifically with the arch, I think it's very notable that this is a messaging tactic he has used when there have been legal challenges to his construction projects. As you said, we saw that with the ballroom when that first started to have some legal challenges. He started talking about it as a, quote, ballroom slash military complex. Now he is saying the same of his triumphal arch. He says it's going to store very high grade ammunitions.

10:34Now, I think there are also a lot of questions for observers and people involved in this project about the idea of storing Ammunitions in this major high traffic traffic circle in the middle of Washington One other point we heard Barack Obama over the weekend. He was asked about what was happening and this is his response I'm trying to think what would have happened if I had said you know what Fox News You're out of here It's unimaginable So, but the point I'm making here is that if you have a certain cohort, let's call it 30 to 35 % of the country right now, which thinks that's okay. Now, as a point of reference, the Obama White House did try to ban Fox News from covering an event at the Treasury Department.

11:23The networks banded together, said no. The Obama administration relented. But his point is that 30 to 35 % of the country think these bans are okay. Yeah, when you said it was unimaginable, I was remembering when there were so many conversations among the network saying, OK, we need to stand up for Fox News. And hopefully one day, if anything were to get worse, Fox News and or others can also defend, you know, all these other networks. But there is a more amenable, I guess, base of voters who are negative against the press. Obviously, we've all in some form or fashion received that, whether it's from lawmakers or voters themselves.

11:57I still don't know if that's a winning argument or, you know, suddenly maybe you're going to gin up a little bit more of Trump's space, which Republicans want. But again, it's kind of a tired argument. Trump likes a foil. We'll see if it works this time in this environment. All right, coming up. How Ken Paxton went from begging for money to outspending James Tallarico 8 to 1 inside the 11th hour avalanche of Republican ad spending that has Democrats sounding the alarm? Plus, can Susan Collins defy the odds one more time? I went to Maine to put that question to the voters who will decide.

12:57pour your heart into, or have a laugh doing. Whatever you want to make, it's possible. So what will you canva today? The secret society of semi-homemade? Listen up. Sam's Club has pre-made dishes for a Thanksgiving feast that's ready in two hours, all while tasting suspiciously homemade. Come join us. Sam's Club. Individual oven times may vary. An SOS from Congressional Democrats. They say, we need more money fast. Two dozen Democratic sources tell CNN the party is increasingly worried that it does not have the cash to compete over the next six weeks. Republican super PACs have unleashed a tidal wave of spending into House and Senate battlegrounds that the Democrats are fearful that they simply cannot match.

13:43The head of Democrats' largest super PAC said this to her colleagues Sarah Farris and Patrick Sweetek, saying, quote, unless more resources come in in support for House Democrats, We will ultimately leave seats on the table. My excellent reporters are back. So, Mariana, there is a lot of panic in Democratic circles right now. There is. And it's coming at a time when Democrats are feeling so confident that they will flip the House and possibly the Senate. They are looking at their internal numbers and at least what I'm hearing on the House side. Every single Democratic incumbent, including those who have gone from a, let's say, a district Harris one by three points and now in a Trump plus 14 district, they are within the margin of error.

14:25That's why those alarms are flaring, because they want to signal to donors, you need to give us money now. And this is kind of uncharted territory in some ways for Democrats, because Republicans for the last several cycles have actually been behind on the money game. But this new Supreme Court case has now empowered Republicans. We're just seeing so much money being poured in just the last several weeks. And that is where Democrats are saying, we have the candidates, we have the environment. We even have the message that is resonating. But if we can't break through or we get all of those negative attacks on our candidates, we're going to have to defend some people instead of potentially expanding the map.

15:02Yeah, let's look at the map a little bit because these are the battlegrounds. You can see here that we have a number of states. Democrats have picked up four of those seats to hold Michigan, to hold Georgia, to hold New Hampshire in order to keep the Senate majority or to win the Senate majority, I should say. Now look at the future spending. That means from today until Election Day. Every single state that we just talked about there, Democrats are being outspent other than Georgia. That is the only one on your map there. Everything else, look at this. Ohio,$91 million. $41 million to$27 million.

15:36GOP to Dems in Maine. We talk about Iowa. Critical race,$39 million to$28 million. Every single state down the line. And then perhaps the most significant gap is what we're seeing between Paxton and Tallarico in Texas. The Paxton allies versus the Tallarico allies. $40 million compared to just$5 million for the Democrats. If you're a Democrat, you're getting very nervous. 100%. It's also, I mean, in talking to Democratic sources, there is still, in spite of this money gap, there is still this feeling and this confidence of, okay, we have the right message. We can win in November. we can flip the house, maybe we can make the Senate happen.

16:18But narrow majorities, we've seen very well under Speaker Mike Johnson, the struggle that he has had with his narrow Republican majority. Democrats don't want to find themselves in a situation where, yes, they successfully have flipped the house, and now they are not able to get anything done. Because then, for the big one in 2028 that everyone's also already looking to, there's the question of, you're going to have to talk to voters, and if you haven't delivered anything, if you haven't accomplished anything, We stay in this cycle where people are frustrated and don't feel like their politicians are actually getting anything done for them.

16:50Yeah, and look, the big question of this cycle, is it the environment that wins out or is it the structure that wins out for the GOP? They got the map advantage in the Senate. They have a map advantage in the House, all these gerrymandered districts, and they have the money. And if you talk about the environment specifically, let's look at Trump's numbers here. This was an interesting point from the NBC poll from this weekend, showing how voters view their vote and whether they'll use it as a way to signal opposition to Trump. Look at this. 43 % here now of voters say that they will send that message to Trump.

17:26The reason why that may be concerning is that that is higher than we've seen in other midterm environments, including 2018 when the Dems took back the House. 2010, that Republican Tea Party wave. 34 % wanted to send a message to Obama back then. Now it's nine points higher for Trump. That's a worrying sign for the president. Yeah, I mean, President Trump has essentially handed Democrats a path to midterm victory on a silver platter between the economy, gas prices, this war with Iran. And yet Democrats have this sort of identity crisis and leadership vacuum, and they aren't able to capitalize on this moment.

18:01The other interesting thing in that NBC poll is that 55 percent of voters say that they believe President Trump's policies have hurt the economy. I actually went back to our CNN polling from 2018 when the president was aggressively on the campaign trail. I mean, multiple stops every single week. Back then, the economy was actually a bright spot for him. It was like 50 percent approve at over 50 percent. That is, I think, the biggest difference right now. Yeah. And remember what Trump just a few weeks ago said, vote like I'm on the ballot. I mean, with numbers like that, I don't know if you Republicans want them to vote like he's on the ballot, but they had talked about putting Trump on the campaign trail and stumping with these candidates.

18:39What are you hearing, Sabria, from your sources about how they plan to dispatch Trump in these last two months? I mean, we've seen Trump himself talked about it at the convention. He talked about, you know, I'm going to be on the campaign trail, and he's promised that. And for a candidate like Ken Paxton, that is something that is welcomed. And in Texas, you know, someone like Paxton wants to see Trump. But I think for some folks, like we've been talking a lot about Congresswoman Salazar in South Florida, there is this reticence, this desire to maybe see a little less of Trump and see a little more strong Republican messaging.

19:10So we'll be seeing him traveling in these final weeks. There's no question about that. We hear that from his advisors. But the more that you see him in the last month, there are races where they don't want to. They don't want to be the issue. And before we go to break, Mariano, there was news about the crypto industry coming in Ohio. That's the critical race. Sherrod Brown trying to win back that seat for Democrats. There's a plan to spend$30 million against him after the Democrats blocked a crypto bill in the Senate earlier this year. They spent all this money in the last cycle to bury Sherrod Brown.

19:43Now they plan to do it again after this vote, and there's a lot more money coming in Ohio. Yeah, this goes back to bad environment for Republicans, despite them having so much money. For several weeks, I've been hearing that Republicans have been essentially begging all of these different crypto agencies to say, hey, we need help to defeat some of these very strong Democratic candidates. Please pour in money. So now that you're seeing that come in, that kind of opens up Republicans to use their coffers and protect candidates in Kansas, for example. A state that we wouldn't have been talking about even earlier this year is potentially being on the map.

20:17We'll see how they decide to move their money around the next couple of weeks, critical to those final spending decisions. All right. Next, two New Yorkers walk into a meeting. One is a Democratic socialist and one, he is the Republican president of the United States. Will the face-to-face love fest between President Trump and Mayor Mamdani, how will that take place? That's up next.

20:41You've been asked to run the company's social channels. but company content plays by its own set of rules. It needs a logo in the first three seconds, but it can't feel like an ad. It needs subtitles, except when it doesn't. It needs to run at two times speed and deliver a complex message, simply, of course, within nine by 16. Thankfully, your company has Canva, so you can easily edit your video and every version of it. What will you Canva today? Because of the White House press ban, another President Trump meeting you will not see him coming and going from. This is a sit-down with New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani.

21:23They are meeting at Gracie Mansion, head of the United Nations General Assembly today. This is the third time the two have met in person, but it's the first time that they are talking on Mamdani's home turf. CNN's Gloria Pasmino is live outside Gracie Mansion. So, Gloria, what is the purpose of this meeting? I don't think they're going to walk there. Well, Manu, when you ask Mayor Mamdani about why he meets with President Trump, he has always said that he sees it as an opportunity to highlight the needs of New York City and of New Yorkers. He sees it as his one chance to advocate, despite the fact that these two politicians have two very different worldviews, right?

22:02They are completely opposed. And we have seen that they actually have quite nasty things to say about each other. But that hasn't been the case in previous meetings. In fact, it's been surprising to see just how well the meetings have gone between Trump and Mamdani the last two times. They met the last time in February and the first time shortly after Mayor Mamdani's election in November. Both of those meetings took place at the Oval Office in the White House. What's different about today's meeting, and I think will provide for a different outcome perhaps, is the fact that this is very much happening in Mamdani territory.

22:40President Trump is literally coming to the mayor's doorstep. He will be meeting with him inside Gracie Mansion, which is the mayoral residence here in New York City. And all morning we have been watching as security preparations get underway. The NYPD is out in force. The streets are barricaded and we expect traffic to be closed off to the area as we get closer to the hour that the president is expected to arrive. Likely on his agenda, housing, immigration, and affordability, which is Mamdani's key issue. And Gloria, how does the mayor think that this meeting will be perceived by New Yorkers? Yeah, you know, Manu, I think that's an interesting question, because New York City is not a place that has a lot of love for President Trump, right?

23:30He is not very popular at all here. And I think there could be some perceived risk with Mamdani seeming to sort of open the door to him. Right. But Mamdani's aides say that they see this as nothing but a good opportunity for the mayor, especially because they feel like the mayor has gotten some real deliverables from the last two meetings. The last time he met with him, he told him about the case of a Columbia University student who was detained at the time by federal immigration agents. That student was detained shortly after Mamdani met with Trump. So they see this as a real opportunity to get some real commitments from him.

24:11We'll see what he is able to get, if anything, today. You know, Mamdani is hoping that he can get the mayor's support on a major federal housing project that has been in the works for multiple years here in New York City. It would require billions of dollars in federal funding. But he has pitched it to Donald Trump in the past as an opportunity to build for New York City. We know how much the president likes to think of himself as a developer, as a builder. So Mamdani is certainly trying to appeal to that part of the president. And just a bit of history for you, Manu. The last time we had a presidential visit to Gracie Manchin here in New York City, it was during the Ronald Reagan administration.

24:52So I think we could say that these presidential visits to Gracie Manchin are a little bit rare here in New York City. Yeah, no question about that. Gloria Pasabino, thank you so much for that report from New York. And for us, it's about Maine, a state that likes to call itself a vacation land. But one thing, it's not a vacation from politics. I hit the campaign trail from a closer look at the questions facing the candidates in this pivotal Senate race. You won't say it was a mistake or not to put Kavanaugh on the court. I believe that Kavanaugh was qualified.

25:31Kate holds the key to every brand asset your business has ever made. She's the only person who knows the difference between teal, turquoise, and the correct company blue. But she's going on vacation. Luckily, before the company falls into design disarray, you realize you can put Kate into Canva. Save every color, font, and logo to a brand kit everyone can access. And Kate can vacation happily in the knowledge that no one will ever use Comic Sans. What will you Canva today? The secret society of semi-homemade? Listen up. Sam's Club has pre-made dishes for a Thanksgiving feast that's ready in two hours, all while tasting suspiciously homemade.

26:12Come join us. Sam's Club. Individual oven times may vary.

26:22There's no one Democrats want to defeat more this year than Susan Collins. Is Democrat Troy Jackson the one to finally do it? Well, I hit the campaign trail in Maine and caught up with both candidates in this critical race. This is the home of the Boston Red Sox minor league team, a popular place to be on a Wednesday night. I've spoken to a lot of Democratic voters who frankly understand how hard it is to beat Susan Collins. She is someone who has been able to withstand the national environment in cycle after cycle after cycle. Do you think that she could do that again this time? Oh, she could.

27:01Absolutely. 2020 is haunting Maine Democrats. That's when President Trump lost Maine by nine points, while Collins won re-election to a fifth term by nearly the same margin, something she's done in other tough cycles for Republicans. This time, Collins is the lone incumbent Republican running in a state President Donald Trump lost, meaning flipping the seat is, once again, central to Democrats' path back to the majority. The national environment is bad for the GOP. Susan Collins is still within striking distance. Does that give you any pause? Oh, sure does. I mean, she's a U.S. senator. She's the chair of appropriations.

27:41Trump won the presidency. And now, two years later, people know that everything he was saying was bullshit. And she's helped him with all those things. With no clear leader in the race, a new CNN poll has this warning sign for Collins. Roughly two-thirds of likely Maine voters disapprove of Trump's job performance, and almost half say their vote for Senate would be to oppose the president. I actually see people around the state coming out like I've never seen before, and it's not about me, it's about her. Is your vote more about voting against Susan Collins more than anything else? Yes, I'm totally annoyed and frustrated and angry.

28:23I caught up with Collins during her bus tour at a stop in a GOP stronghold of Newport, Maine, as she greeted voters in a hunting supply store, fire station. I love helping our folks in the home. And dairy bar. For me, I think Susan Collins is better just because she's right here. She brought a lot of business to Maine. Collins relying on her influence, years of deal cutting with Democrats, and chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee. downplaying poll numbers showing a majority of likely Maine voters disapproving of her performance in office. What I look to is the reaction on the ground.

29:04And no matter where I've been in the state of Maine, the reaction has been terrific. So you don't think this is worse than the 2020 environment here right now? I'm saying that I go by the reaction that I get on the ground. I've participated in six or seven parades, for example, country fairs, community lunches, and the reaction has been very good. That doesn't mean that this isn't a tough race. And obviously the Canadian tariffs are a huge issue in Maine because our economy is so intertwined with Canada. But I've been able to make some progress there as well. Are you worried, though, that that issue, the Canadian tariffs, could cost you this race?

29:54I don't believe that the Canadian tariff issue is going to decide the race, even though I'm very unhappy, as are my constituents. The president's trade war on Canada, hammering some of Maine's signature industries, upsetting undecided voters like this one. It concerns me because we get a lot of stuff from overseas and even from Canada. Collins says she lobbied administration officials to win an exemption on tariffs for road salt and concrete, both with a direct impact on Maine communities. Now, obviously, I'd like to see more, but that's a good start. Jackson mocking that response. Thank you for the road salt.

30:37I agree. After losing a primary bid for governor, Jackson emerged as a Democratic nominee eight weeks ago. after Graham Plattner dropped out of the race following a swirl of controversy, including an allegation of rape that he has denied. Still, the episode remains a focus of Republican attacks. Jackson is like Graham Plattner, but worse. And continues to royal Democrats. I know there are people who feel that the division hasn't quite healed yet. A logger from the same northern Maine county as Collins, Jackson's political journey has seen him go from running as a Republican in 2000 to joining the Democratic Party in 2004, ultimately rising to state Senate president.

31:23Why'd you shift on abortion? Well, I mean, I listened to a lot of people over time. I may have made some votes that I'm not proud of now. While Collins repeatedly has broken with Trump, including to convict him during his January 6th impeachment trial, it's her pivotal vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court that could haunt her. Collins, who supports abortion rights, will be on the ballot for the first time since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Dobbs decision. That Kavanaugh voted for and that roughly two-thirds of Mainers feel negatively about. What Justice Kavanaugh said to me is he considered Roe v.

31:59Wade to be settled law. I assumed that that meant that he would not overturn it. But I would not ask, nor could he tell me appropriately what his decision would be. I would know that I'm the only Republican senator to have voted for the three liberal women on the court. I make the decisions based on the qualifications of the individual, and that is what I did with Brett Kavanaugh. You won't say if it's a mistake or not to put Kavanaugh on the court. I believe that Kavanaugh was qualified to be on the Supreme Court. Do I like his decision on Roe v. Wade? It's obvious that I didn't, Manu. Jackson himself is trying to keep his distance from his own party, saying it's time to boot Chuck Schumer as Democratic leader.

32:56Why do you want him out, Schumer? I just think the party needs a shakeup. But Schumer's outside group is spending enormous sums to elect Jackson, as GOP groups seek to define a man still unknown to many, with Republicans poised to pour in north of$135 million, including with attacks like these. Troy Jackson is just another dirty politician. It's about things that don't matter to the Mainers. What they care about is the fact that they can't afford the health insurance. Excellent. Panel is back. Mariana, one of the things that stuck out to me was what Troy Jackson said. He said, it's not about me, it's about her.

33:32very clearly the strategy for Democrats. Yes. And here's the thing. Voters, especially in a state like Maine, also want to know what a Democratic candidate like Troy Jackson is about. So I understand what he's saying, but he also needs to be out there talking about, well, here's what a Democratic Senate could deliver on. And, you know, the interesting thing for Susan Collins is that we have time and time again seen her prevail in incredibly tight races. this would be the environment where she could potentially go down. But I think, you know, she is someone who has been able to distance herself from Trump, make clear that she is not, you know, 100 percent part of the MAGA brand.

34:13And that's what I hear from a number of Republican strategists as we see Republicans trying to distance themselves. The ones who had convinced their constituents, honestly, more authentically, are those who have not been completely tied to the issue. The big question, is this finally the national environment that can take down Susan Collins? That is going to be the question. of this race and perhaps of the entire midterm cycle. All right, coming up, the ad wars are heating up. Coming up, we'll look at some of the recent ones making waves on the airwaves.

34:45What will you Canva today? What will you brainstorm, collaborate on, present today? What will you resize, post, edit, imagine? What will you research, test, switch, and finally have the courage to pitch? You got this. What will you visualize, design, brand, animate, create, generate? What will you translate, pour your heart into, or have a laugh doing? Whatever you want to make, it's possible. So what will you Canva today? There's really no where to avoid political ads these days, especially if you're watching football in a swing state. With the midterms just 43 days away, the games were campaign ads with a side of football.

35:30My panel of insiders is back to look at some of these ads, including the ones that ran in Texas just yesterday. Defending trans-Texas is something we have to do every day. Radical liberal James Tallarico. For they, them, not you. Billionaires are spending millions attacking me. Here's why. I don't take corporate PAC money. I'm running to ban dark money so billionaires can't buy our elections. Because if the billionaires are coming after us, we must be doing something right. What do you mean, could they add? And also doing it during the Cowboys-Commanders game. I mean, the Cowboys-Commanders game is like...

36:08You don't want to debate that? I had a bad day as a Bears fan yesterday, so I don't want to talk about that. But, I mean, clearly a target audience, a target demographic that they're trying to get out in November. Male voters could be who may predominantly watch, up for grabs in a lot of these races. 100%. What I found really striking was in the Tallarico ad, him not saying the word Republican, and the fact that the message was targeted on billionaires are trying to buy this election, we're going to get billionaires out of your politics. And that we have seen in race and race across the country, Republican and Democrat.

36:42We've heard voters talking about their concern about the influence of money in politics, of billionaires in politics. And I think for Tallarico, who's really trying to court these more moderate, disaffected Republican voters, him not just going to attack the president, him not just going to attack the Republican Party, was clearly a strategic choice to get the support of those folks. Yeah, populist message, and we'll see how that works. And we also saw in Ohio Sherrod Brown, the former Democratic senator, trying to flip that seat now occupied by John Husted. Remember the last cycle, Sherrod Brown ran.

37:16He got hammered on the issue of transgender rights. He is now facing attack ads on that issue again. And he had a response ad to an ad that came his way from the Republican side. With everything going on, that's what they're talking about? In Ohio, it's against the law to perform transgender surgeries on kids. That's right. It's illegal. John Hughes said, why'd you vote to increase the cost of groceries? To do nothing about the cost of gas. To kick 490 ,000 Ohioans off their health care. Mariana, what do you make of Brown coming out this early to defend himself? I've learned from last time, perhaps.

37:54That is the message. Democrats have to respond to a very successful message that Republicans pinned on them on the trans issue. We saw that in 2024. A lot of this reminds me of the environment of 2028 and where Democrats were even before that. Or I should say 2022, when Democrats were running on abortion. That was an issue that helped them. They said, wow, it helped us so much. We should run on that in 2024. But at that time, voters were screaming about the economy. And that's kind of where we find ourselves right now, where Republicans are still pushing these culture war issues. They think that this is what's going to really differentiate themselves from Democrats.

38:29But again, voters are still reeling about the economy. So that was actually a perfect way to say, hey, in Ohio, this is the law. What any elected leader should be talking about is the economy making ends meet. And the messages they're choosing right now are so interesting. We saw last week a congresswoman from South Florida put out an ad to push back against Trump on immigration. Now we're seeing one in Texas, one of the critical districts in Texas, Monica de la Cruz, who is running in one of the most competitive races in the country. She put out this ad on that issue. My husband and I did things the right way, but we were stuck in a broken immigration system.

39:07This immigration system is broken. So we reached out to Monica de la Cruz. She helped with my husband's immigration case. I voted Democrat before, but Monica puts people over politics. The thing that's so interesting here in this particular ad and in all of those ads that we just watched is there is no mention of President Trump by name. And that actually is very consistent with some reporting that we had last week, which was that in the 500 Republican ads in the first couple of weeks of September, just 12 of them mentioned Trump by name. And that also speaks to how toxic the president's brand is and how many of these candidates are trying to put a little bit of distance between themselves in this White House.

39:47And let's take a look at one that came out of Illinois from the governor, J.B. Pritzker, going after his Republican opponent, Darren Bailey. Dinosaurs and humans living side by side. Look silly, right? Not to Darren Bailey. Because Darren Bailey's school curriculum teaches dinosaurs and humans were definitely on Earth at the same time. But dinosaurs and men did not walk the Earth at the same time, right? Were you there? I wasn't there, but that's what the science says, though. That's settled, right? I wasn't there. Sabrina? Any comments? We can all collectively laugh at this one. But I mean, I think it's telling in Illinois.

40:26You know, you have Governor Pritzker, of course, the 2028 ambitions for president. But he's not running a particularly competitive race. So he has a little more runway to play. And we see that in an ad like this. He wants a big margin of victory. No question about that. Is it a possible 20, likely 2028 run? All right. Thank you so much for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a very quick break.

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