Trump's Financial Goody Bag 

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0:53Still haven't started? Hey, better late than never. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. President Trump is doling out goodies and promising Americans relief from high prices. But will voters believe him? I'm Manuraju, in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and inside politics.

1:20There are 28 days until the election, and we're tracking the races, candidates, and stories that could shift the balance of power here in Washington and across the country. So here's what's on our midterm radar. President Trump says he's taking action on rising costs right from the campaign stage. At a rally in Nebraska, he signed an executive order that he claims will lower near-record diesel prices by waiving restrictions on cheaper red-dyed diesel. The typical trucker will save over$100 every time they fill up, so it's more than$100 each time. And farmers will also save millions and millions of dollars.

2:00And this order will also drive down the cost of all goods, including grocery prices, very substantially. And it's an honor to do it. The price of diesel is up by nearly three bucks from before the war in Iran. Now to new polling on a major campaign issue for progressives. A KFF poll finds 66 % of Americans now support Medicare for All. That's the highest support since KFF started polling the idea in 2016, when Bernie Sanders made it a core issue. Among Democrats, support jumps to 84 percent. But perhaps more notably, the poll finds 72 percent of independents are now in favor. And over in Florida, the Democrat running for governor is defending his decision to skip debates with Republican nominee Byron Donalds.

2:50Here's what David Jolly said on MS Now this morning. If I platform debates where it all comes down to the vitriol and the division and the ugliness and the rancor, frankly, our seven-year-old and five-year-old are going to look at me and say, Dad, what did you contribute in this moment? And I don't want them to see a dad that just says division is OK, anger is OK. I want to elevate our politics, and I don't think debates do that for us right now. Donalds has said Jolly is ducking debates to avoid defending his, quote, crazy liberal agenda. And a new report shows Republicans are pouring money into another Senate race that they expected to win easily.

3:27South Carolina. According to Axios, the main super PAC backing GOP Senate candidates is injecting$5 million into Darlene Graham's campaign. A Republican briefed on the plan tells Axios it's a quote, insurance policy. A quick political report recently moved the state from solid Republican to likely Republican. I'm joined now by a terrific group of reporters who are diving into all of these dynamics, including these laundry list of promises that President Trump seems to be giving on a day-by-day basis. One thing for Alaska, another thing for Iowa. Oh, wait, there are some big Senate races there, too.

4:03Surprise, surprise. And also the price of diesel. I mean, look at it. The price of diesel has increased nearly$3 since the beginning of the war. So perhaps it's no surprise that the president had to do something to deal with the backlash that Republicans in particular are getting over the rise in diesel prices, promising an executive order, signing an executive order that he says would cut back on diesel prices. Should I sign it or not?

4:37So Pete and Jim should absolutely assure your election. I am going to give all adult citizens in the United States of America$5 ,000. I just sent out nearly one million refund checks for$500 each. The largest steel plant in American history in the great state of Iowa. This alone will be one of the largest energy projects in American history and a gigantic win for the people of Alaska. Gigantic win. Nia, are these election promises going to work for the president? You know, we'll see. I mean, so far, if you look at the polls, things are kind of getting away from Republicans. You know, you look at Donald Trump and you say, why didn't you attend to some of these matters earlier?

5:22Right. The party has been trying to tell him to grapple with some of these affordability issues. And he hasn't wanted to. He has wanted to pay attention to the ballroom or whatever it is, renaming a lake. And so here he finds himself down the stretch with these sort of October surprises, right, that he thinks are going to really change voters' minds. I think part of the problem is voters have been living with these high cost of living issues. They're not going to change overnight. And they really, I think, have hardened a lot of voters against this president. Another issue, I think, if you look at you talked about the KFF poll there, one of the affordability issues, obviously, is gas.

6:01Another is health care, right? You talk to people, I'll talk to some folks in Iowa about this. That one big, beautiful bill, a lot of those cuts to Medicaid have affected some of the rural hospitals. People are very, very worried about the present cost of health care, but also if they're going to be able to afford it in the future. And they're looking to Democrats to solve that problem and not really Republicans. And this has been a pattern with this, President Toto. You heard about this with the headline of the Santa presidency. Trump is trying to fix the economy by handing out cash. And that was in December 2025.

6:32And he's still doing it. He's still doing it. He's still the reality TV show star that wants to hand out sweep state style checks to people. And he believes that's going to win him votes. He's been doing it for a big chunk of his career. It's not really a Republican kind of policy. People talk about the$40 trillion debt. A lot of these potential programs are not paid for in any way. And so the president is going against the grain of his party to try to buy votes because he realizes that the image of the Republican Party, the image of his presidency, is the image of the war in Iran, the high costs that have not come down since the Biden presidency.

7:03And so there is an effort to try to change the focus of the American voter to, not to the cost, not to the high cost of the gas prices that you drive by every day, but to this check that has my name on it that's going to your account. And as I wrote about back in December, a lot of those programs were not programs that actually led to money actually coming to people. They were fantasies that the president kind of put forward. The$5 ,000 check that he's promised in the minds of Republicans and Democrats on the Hill, that is another fantasy that the president's cooked up that's not actually going to lead to anything.

7:33That they'll have to approve. Right. That will need congressional approval. Yeah, I mean, he's promising$5 ,000 checks. He's saying it so directly. I'm going to give everybody$5 ,000 checks, wave a magic wand, and he can do it. There's a Congress that, actually, Republicans control Congress. They could do it right now. Exactly, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they don't really want to, so that's kind of an issue for him. So while this is all going on, the fact, Jackie, that we saw the president backtrack on these ads that the White House had put out was pretty remarkable. Of course, they claimed that these public service announcements, these advertisements that very much look like a very political ad that was paid for by taxpayer dollars.

8:16And the president had defended it. J.D. Vance yesterday was defending it, saying that these were public service announcements. These are patriotic announcements. announcements. But the president said this yesterday. He said, the radical left is upset with the fact that I'm taking ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for a great USA and paying for them with USA money. He said, although nothing will make them happy, I've decided to do the patriotic ads, among others, and pay for them myself and with the money I raised from MAGA Inc. That is something you do not see very much from the president.

8:49There was backlash from Republicans too, not just the radical left, as he says. But what do you think is behind the president backing down here? I think Republicans in these states, which they wouldn't normally be fighting for their political lives, their constituents are seeing these ads during football games. They're seeing it, it says, paid for by the U.S. government. And they started hearing from them. Meanwhile, this was a Trump project for and by Trump. He wanted these ads. and he asked for money for these ads and they found it for him. He said he was going to be on the ballot and he wants to remain front and center even if he actually isn't physically on the ballot and that's really not good for Republicans.

9:31So yeah, you're right. It's very different that he backtracked here but I think it was because of an outcry from Republicans who don't need this right now even if he very much wants it. And you can't compare this. I think they were comparing it to like ads that helped people figure out Medicare Part D and some other presidents have pushed for helping with government programs, helping get the word out. That is not this. Yeah, it did not quite seem that way. Meantime, you talk about the president on the trail. He says, vote for him. And he says, pretend that I'm on the ballot. But then when he goes on the campaign trail, he says things like this that put Republicans in an awkward spot.

10:15And again, remember, with the word just artificial, it's a little bit high. It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They could take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay. And it's going to be over very soon. Patrick, that is not what Republicans want to hear as he says he's going to be on the campaign trail. It's another example of kind of Trump marching to the beat of his own drum with the midterm strategy and messaging here. Of course, you know, he's helping Republicans, I think, in that he is echoing some of their attacks on their Democratic opponents as, you know, crazy and too liberal and whatnot.

10:56But in terms of what he says proactively about his agenda, what he's doing, the way he discusses the war, the way he discusses the economic pain that Americans are feeling, it's often not totally in line with what Republicans in these tough races want to hear. There was another rally recently in Ohio where he talked about, talked very favorably about data centers in Ohio in that Senate race. That's obviously a political liability for the Republican statewide candidates. And so he's getting out there on the campaign trail, but he's not always saying what these Republican candidates want to hear.

11:23Yeah, and we've heard some backlash from some Republicans after the president's remarks there on us. And Stephen Chung, the White House communications director, put out a statement on accident. The media freak out over President Trump's comments is not rooted in reality. He went on to say that he clearly stated U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear run hadn't been stopped. So we'll see what voters ultimately think about the president's remarks. All right, coming up. Are Republicans really worried about losing a Senate seat in South Carolina? We'll have more on a$5 million so-called insurance policy.

11:53And what can Democrats do to make sure nothing interferes with next month's elections? Well, we have some new original reporting on those doomsday preps.

12:07Hey, 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.

12:52We 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, and also importantly, how to keep the game from playing you.

13:33Gambling 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. Tonight, Maine GOP Senator Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson will meet for their first debate. A new poll out this morning shows it's still a very close race with no clear leader. The debate tonight is the first of four.

14:08So what can we expect to hear? Here's how they both described their Maine messages to me on my recent trip to Maine. 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. They're upset with the government we have. They're upset with the fact that she's not doing more to push back on Trump. People appreciate the fact that I've had a once in a century opportunity for a Maine senator as chair of the Appropriations Committee to really deliver to the state of Maine, helping communities with wastewater treatment plants, with recreational facilities, with child care centers.

14:56All right, my excellent panel is back. So Jackie, when you look at the polls here, this is such a tight race right now. This is a Marist poll out today, 51-47. Look, the margin of error is 3.8 % on the top right of your screen there. That just shows you there's no clear leader in this race. The Times poll from over the weekend, similarly, was the other way around, also within the margin of error. But here's the thing that when you look at independent, this is how Susan Collins did back in 2020 when she beat Sarah Gideon in that race. She won an exit poll of 46-43. That's plus three to Collins with independent voters.

15:31This time in this mayor's poll, if you were to believe that, if that bears on Election Day, Joy Jackson is now up seven points. So that's a significant shift here when you look at the race. So, you know, Jackie, there's been this view that perhaps Maine is slipping away from Democrats or that Susan Collins is in a better position to win re-election. She's obviously going to be very difficult to beat, but it is anyone's race right now. It truly is. And she is being, I mean, as much as she does have that clout that comes from being the appropriations chair and her long record of bringing money home to Maine, she also has been undermined by the Trump administration by things like rescissions that just happened or tariffs.

16:13Canadian tariffs are a huge, huge issue up and down the state. Also, there was a Bangor Daily News headline just a week ago, or maybe earlier this week, 80 % increase on home heating oil. That's a huge, huge issue in a state where there's a lot of poverty, particularly as you go upstate. That's a huge challenge. Trump is a huge challenge for Susan Collins to overcome. Yeah, and look, it is all environment for Democrats. They want this to be a race about the national environment, tie Collins to the national environment. She has to defy that national environment, talk about what she has done and can she do that again.

16:48Patrick, you just have a story out this morning that headlines, Let's Troy Be Troy. A quote from a main organizer in that piece saying, obviously he doesn't carry the same energy as Graham, as in Graham Plattner, and he referring to Troy Jackson. And he definitely doesn't have the speaking ability that Graham did. I think that's kind of hurt him the most. We want someone who's fiery, had a lot of fight to him, to a guy who's a bit more on the calm side. So how much is that candidate quality issue in terms of the way that they portray themselves on the campaign? Never mind, Grand Platner, there's many scandals.

17:23But just the fact that the way they're able to deliver, how is that impacting this race? Yeah, his style is definitely a contrast with Platner's. He is more understated, not as flashy of a personality, not as strong of a public speaker. But what stood out to me overall about this race is something that we just heard from Troy Jackson in an interview with him, which is it's not about me. And that's because that speaks to the strategy ever since Graham Plattner left the scene in this race, which is make this, reset this as a referendum on Susan Collins. Let's stop having to argue about the Democratic nominee.

17:53And I think some national Democrats do believe Troy Jackson has made headway in making this race more of a referendum on Susan Collins. And their argument is, look, this is not a complicated strategy. Susan Collins is a Republican incumbent running in a blue state in a year when there was a Republican president who's very unpopular in her blue state. So keep the focus on Trump. Keep the focus on Collins and everything will be okay. Of course, Democrats are still on edge about this race. And today is the eight-year anniversary of when Susan Collins cast a critical vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

18:23At the time, Susan Collins, who supports abortion rights, she had told her that he believes that Roe v. Wade was settled law. She ultimately voted to confirm him. And, of course, Kavanaugh then voted for the Dobbs decision. I asked Collins about whether she regretted that vote. When you look back at your vote, was it a mistake to put him on the court? Well, let me make a couple of points to you. And the first is that you can never ask a judicial nominee how he or she is going to vote on any case. I believe that Kavanaugh was qualified to be on the Supreme Court. Do I like his decision on Roe v.

19:09Wade? It's obvious that I didn't. Nia, is she going to be able to navigate that? She opposed his decision on Dobbs, but she voted for Kavanaugh. And this is the first time that Dobbs is on the ballot. And the other question is, are the people who are voting because they're upset about her vote on Kavanaugh? They're probably voting for Troy Jackson anyway. Yeah, I think that's right. And, you know, if you look at sort of the issue set during this election, it has much more to do with heating oil, right, with these sort of bread and butter issues. The price of gas, of course, the price of groceries, the price of health care.

19:39All of these issues are going to be much more front and center. You see in Susan Collins really trying to localize it, right? She talks about her being the head of the Appropriations Committee and, oh, wastewater treatment plant and daycare and so those sorts of things. And listen, she is going to be a tough out, right? You look at some of these other races, they're sort of open Senate races or people who have only been in the Senate maybe one term. She's in her fifth term, right? She has her name ID is through the roof. And in Troy Jackson, you have a neophyte, right? Somebody who's a rookie.

20:09So she is going to be a really, really, you know, tough, tough person to beat. And she's proven time and time again. I do want to turn quickly to South Carolina because there's a story about the Senate Republicans sending$5 million to shore up Darlene Graham's campaign in South Carolina. And Trump yesterday used this transphobic slur, saying this about his opponent and her opponent, Annie Andrews, saying Darlene is a high-quality person, maybe the highest, and Annie Trani is not in particular. That's referring to Annie Andrews here. Toluse, what do you think about the Republican scramble here in South Carolina?

20:50Normally you wouldn't even hear from a Republican president weighing in on the South Carolina Senate race, in part because Republicans normally would have believed that race is already in the bag. They'd be focusing on a lot of these other competitive races. But the fact that the president put out that post, it shows that they are nervous. They are concerned. Maybe he's seen some polling. Maybe the reason that they're sending$5 million to the state is because they are worried that between the cost of living crisis, the depressed excitement among Republican voters because of the war in Iran and because of the cost of living, that could bleed into a state like South Carolina, which Trump won by double digits significantly.

21:26And so they are concerned that South Carolina and some of these other red states could be in play. And the big question is going to be, will Democrats respond with that kind of money? They haven't quite yet. That's a big question for them as well. All right, coming up, in the homestretch of a campaign, Democrats know who they're going to call. But can former President Obama still turn out the votes?

21:53Yes, it's that time again. The point in the campaign where Democrats turn to their go-to closer. Barack Obama, the former president, about to hit the campaign trail, the airwaves, and fundraisers. Political Playbook reports he already cut ads for two dozen Democratic candidates for governor and Senate. My panel is back. Nia, will this work? Will Obama be able to juice the base and change the dynamics of this midterm election? You know, people love Obama. I mean, he always is kind of funny and charismatic when he's out on the stump. He typically goes viral with some sort of shade or burn for the opponent.

22:32So I think this will be good. The thing is, not only does the base like him, independents still really like him, too, right? I mean, we sort of forget that Obama did really well with white voters, too, right? It wasn't just black voters and, you know, Latino voters who voted in him twice. He was very, very popular in places like Michigan. He won Indiana. He won North Carolina. He won Iowa. And so, yeah, put him out there, put him, you know, in front of all sorts of audiences. And, yeah, I mean, I think this is a move that was expected. You think about what they did in Michigan. Kamal Harris was also there, right, for Abdul El-Assad.

23:09But it was a very small event, right, because they know that she doesn't have the kind of popularity. I mean, it just shows you the Democratic bench, how thin it is, right? There's really not a whole lot of people who can have that kind of sway. Yeah, I was going to say, he's especially, I think, helpful in Michigan for Democrats in terms of bringing the party together. We forget about this now, but there was a massive Senate primary there where Haley Stevens and her allies ran millions of dollars of ads highlighting how she was chief of staff to his auto rescue task force, even though he didn't endorse in the primary.

23:38And so a lot of voters in that state equated Haley Stevens with Obama, not Abdul El-Sayed. So I think it's especially helpful for democratic unity in Michigan for him to go there on October 24th to rally with El-Sayed. Yeah. And you look at the polls of Obama and you mentioned the number of independents. He does have support, according to the recent CNN poll. Actually, that was a few months ago. But it's a 56 % view of Obama, a favorable view among independents. That's a pretty solid number for any politician. It kind of helps that he's no longer in public life. People's numbers, president's numbers tend to go up after they've left office.

24:13And then you look at the NBC poll asked recently, the view of possible candidate endorsements among registered voters. Let's compare Obama to Trump. Would you be more supportive if Obama endorsed? 43 % will be more supportive. 37 % say less supportive. And then the Trump number, just 30 % would be more supportive. And 52 % would be less supportive if Trump endorsed. So you're seeing the difference between the current president and the former president. I mean, as you said, when you're out of office, you do tend to have your numbers bump a little bit. But I think at this point, there's very little anyone can do to, you know, who's not running themselves to boost candidates.

24:55If it boosts enthusiasm, great. But I think Obama has been great at fundraising as well, which I know is helping Democrats. But at this point, it's going to be about affordability. Yeah. And, you know, oftentimes, as you said, he's known to throw shade. Look at what he said in 2024 in October of that year when he was in Detroit. If your grandpa was acting like this, you'd be worried. But this is somebody who wants unchecked power. We do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails. America's ready to turn the page. We're ready for a better story. And Tolu, they lost Michigan.

25:40So it doesn't always work to transfer how people view Obama to the candidate. That's right. And the party has changed in the last several years. They have shown some concern over the moderates within the party or the establishment. Obama seems to have been able to sort of float above some of that. And he's been able to keep support from some progressives as well as some moderates. And so that's part of the reason why he comes out at the final stretch of the campaign to try to unify the party and bring people together. It didn't quite work in 2024. Kamala Harris was up against sort of a shortened campaign and a little bit of a weird dynamic there, but they're hoping, Democrats are hoping, that Obama, as their closer with their very thin bench, can come and do what other Democrats can't do, which is bring progressives and moderates and win over some independents, even though in the past, Obama was sort of seen as the socialist and Republicans used to attack him as this left-leaning guy.

26:32Now, in hindsight, he's seen as more of a moderate figure. It's really remarkable because I remember the 2014 mid-term election cycle, and all the Democrats ran away from Obama. It had nothing to do with Obama. He didn't really campaign much for those swing state Democrats. But how times have changed, especially when you leave office. All right, coming up, Democrats think they can flip as many as four Republican seats in Pennsylvania. I'll talk to one of the GOP members fighting to hang on to his job, Congressman Ryan McKenzie. That's next.

27:07The House majority could come down to a handful of seats that Republicans won by just a few thousand votes back in 2024. Like Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district, centered around Allentown, one of the key bellwether races in the country. Republican Ryan McKenzie ousted incumbent Democrat Susan Wild two years ago, winning by just 4 ,000 votes. This time, he's facing off against Democrat Bob Brooks, a veteran firefighter. Congressman McKinsney joins me now live. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me this afternoon. Really appreciate your time. As you know, the key question in every election for voters are things are better than they were the last election.

27:45But now the cost of nearly everything is higher than it was back in 2025 when you and President Trump, others were sworn into office then. Gas prices are higher. Mortgage rates are up. And President Trump campaigned on lowering costs for Americans immediately. Are you satisfied with the job he's done on that? Well, I think there's certainly work that we want to continue to do. We started by putting more people money back in people's pockets with historic tax relief, which people really appreciate here in our local community. We've passed bipartisan housing legislation to bring down the cost of housing, which is a key concern for us in our local area.

28:23But as much as these races are about national issues, it's also a clear contrast between the two candidates that are on the ballot. We've been delivering for our community in so many ways over the past year and a half. And my opponent, Bob Brooks, who you mentioned, is a scandal-plagued individual who just recently is facing allegations of COVID fraud and are really dogging his campaign. So I want to ask you just more about the issue of cost and cost of living, because, yes, there are local issues. But, of course, people are just feeling the cost as well. According to the National Taxpayer Union Foundation, President Trump's tariffs have cost Pennsylvanians an additional$11 billion since January 2025.

29:00That's about$2 ,000 more for each Pennsylvania household. Has the president's trade war gone too far? Well, what you see in our local community is manufacturing is coming back. We are different than a lot of other places in the country where we have a lot of manufacturing. We have legacy manufacturing. And then also on a regular basis, we have new manufacturing that is being created right here in our community. We have Eli Lilly, who broke ground on an over billion dollar new facility to manufacture GLP-1s. I was just at Kerry Coffee, who opened a new manufacturing and distribution center for coffee production.

29:37So you want the President's trade war to continue then? I think it's critically important that you have an appropriate trade policy that brings back American jobs. for 30 years, we saw the flow of jobs go out of this country. Now what we're seeing right here in the Lehigh Valley is that jobs are coming roaring back in the manufacturing sector. So again, you always have to be careful when you're doing trade policy, making sure that it's actually helping those jobs and job creators in our local community. And what we're starting to see is we're starting to see those results right here on the ground.

30:10Pretty hard to argue with. I wanted you to respond to something President Trump said last night in Nebraska. Now that we're hearing pretty often for him on the campaign trail, just listen. I'm asking you to do me one favor, pretend I'm on the ballot, please. We got to go. So President Trump won your district by three points in 2024. You carried it by one. Do you want voters in your district to pretend that Donald Trump is on the ballot? Well, I think what we see, the reality is that Democrats have placed President Trump on the ballot. And we know that they have been fired up and energized over the past year plus since he defeated their handpicked candidate in 2024.

30:49And so what we need and what I think the president is saying there is that we need Republicans to see that he is going to be on the ballot in the sense that his policies and his agenda are going to be on the ballot. Because Democrats have told us we don't need to pretend it's anything otherwise. They have said if he is back in office, they are going to run impeachment. They are going to run investigations. they're going to do nothing but obstruct for two years. That's not good for the country. That's not an agenda that would bring down costs or help the American people in any way. So what we are seeing and hearing from the president is he's saying, Republicans, if you want to continue to advance positive policy to help our country, you need to actually get out and vote.

31:29But you're saying that his policies are on the ballot. Congressman, roughly 70 % of Americans think that his policies have increased prices. That's according to a recent poll. Do you really want his policies to be on the ballot when so many Americans are blaming him for increasing prices? I think we need to make sure that everybody gets out and vote. We saw in 2024 when we had the largest turnout in history, they repudiated the Democratic policies from the Biden administration and my predecessor. We want to make sure everybody gets out and vote in this election, and we are happy to let the chips fall where they may.

32:04But what we are also going to see is that voters do look here in our swing district. The reason it's a swing district is they go race by race and look candidate by candidate. So I appreciate that we're on a national show and you want to talk about national issues. But again, when you put up a track record like mine of delivering for our community, bring back over one hundred sixty million dollars for our local community against somebody like a con man and fraudster in Bob Brooks who defrauded his own family. And that was proven in court. He actually just repaid them after over a decade in the past week, over$162 ,000.

32:38And now he is facing allegations of COVID fraud because he didn't talk about that judgment on his COVID applications. That's lying to the federal government. These are the things that voters care about. So you can't disentangle national issues from local candidates because a candidate like Bob Brooks is a con man and a fraudster. And he is going to carry the democratic water. So some people might like that. But at the same time, we have to answer those charges that he's facing right now. And we'll hope to get a chance to ask him. We have invited him to come on and talk about the issues. But I do want to ask you, you talk about their national issues, because the national issues affect what's happening back home and your constituents back home, perhaps no bigger than the war in Iran right now.

33:21We are seeing such an increase in gas prices, in diesel prices, in fuel prices. So, Congressman, is it worth it for your constituents to pay higher prices because of the war in Iran? Well, we always want to see lower fuel prices. They were sky high under the Biden administration. And now that you see the Strait of Hormuz opening up, prices are starting to come down. Obviously, there were refineries. Diesel is still about three bucks higher than it was at the beginning of the war. The biggest constraint on diesel is refinery capacity. We haven't built refineries in this country in decades. And then when refineries are blown up in Russia because of an ongoing conflict in Russia and Ukraine, that's what really drives up those prices.

34:05The flow through the Strait of Hormuz is back to record levels and where it was previously. And so we have to focus on actually building American industry. We have to build refineries again in this country. But again, far left radicals have stopped that kind of progress for many years. And you don't think it's worth limiting the president's war powers at all? You've consistently voted against it. You don't think it's worth limiting his war powers at all, given the impact that this is having on your constituents. I think when you're dealing with foreign policy, there are four main levers. There's diplomacy, information, military and economics.

34:38And if you want to resolve a crisis, you can't go and take one of those levers of power away from an executive during a time of conflict. That is going to lead to a lesser outcome for our country because you've tied his hands in one particular area. So I don't think when you're involved in a conflict like this that is ongoing that you want to take any of those away. In fact, I'm glad that we added powers to the president and the executive by giving him additional sanction power, which had bipartisan support from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. So we are actually giving the president more ability to constrain Iran and also Russia in that instance, because both of those sanctions were included in that legislation.

35:19Congressman Ryan McKenzie, we're going to have to leave it there. I really appreciate your time. Thank you for coming on and giving us your point of view. And as I mentioned, we've invited the Congressman's Democratic opponent, Bob Brooks, to join us as well. And we hope to have him soon as well. Good luck getting him to answer any questions. Thanks, Congressman. All right, coming up next, the go-bags are packed. The legal briefs are drafted. We have new CNN reporting on how Democrats are preparing for any federal interference on Election Day.

35:56You could call it doomsday prepping. Democrats' intricate plan for what if on Election Day in light of fears that President Trump could intervene to subvert the voting process. In fact, more than 150 what ifs, like sending the National Guard to polling sites, or social media influencers spreading misinformation about where or when to vote. Even AI-generated videos claiming to show election fraud. New York Democratic Congressman Joe Morrell is at the center of the planning. We're talking to groups all over the country. We have literally thousands of volunteer lawyers who are drafting proceedings.

36:35All the allied partners around the country who care not that Democrats win or lose, they just want to make sure that the will of the American people is carried out. We're building the largest voter protection effort in American history. Hi, CNN's Annie Greyer is on that reporting. She joins us at the table. Annie, really good story this morning. Tell us about what you've learned about the actual preps that are underway and how serious it is. So these are really serious efforts that have been going on behind the scenes for months because Democrats do not want to leave anything up to chance here.

37:06And what I learned through my reporting is that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has been convening groups of senators, lawyers, outside experts, to do these sort of role-playing scenarios where they're given very specific scenarios to talk through how they would handle potential intervention from the Trump administration, what that intervention could look like. So this group has talked about what would happen if the National Guard showed up at polling locations, if the Trump administration tried to seize ballots from polling locations, or how they would handle different misinformation campaigns that took hold because of AI deepfake videos, all those sorts of things.

37:39And what I've learned is that the senators in these groups were even role-playing different figures in the Trump administration. So playing the role of attorney general, playing the role of director of national intelligence, playing the role of direct Homeland Security secretary to get in the position of what possible interference could happen and then talk through how they would respond to it as Democrats. And in the House, a similar effort is underway. Congressman Morelli, who you just played a bit of earlier has put together an assessment of 150 threats. And he's walked through with his colleagues all the different scenarios, how he would deal with them.

38:15He's taking his message around the country to tell Democratic voters, to raise awareness about these issues. And Senate Democrats have also built, are building the largest election observer program, the first time that we've seen that in the Senate, to send staffers out and around the country. And it's not just in Congress. I mean, what lawmakers realize is they couldn't rely on the national party here. They had to build something on their own in this off-election year for Democrats. So they've tapped into the legal community and built this really strong legal apparatus to be ready to respond at a moment's notice.

38:47I talked to one lawyer for this story who told me that she's a go-bag ready just in case she has to be deployed at a moment's notice. So Democrats, the lawmakers and sources and staffers who I talked to for this story, are confident in the election system, but they are not leaving anything up to chance here, and they are casting a really wide net about what potential scenarios they could be facing on election day and beyond. Part of the thing is that President Trump has not ruled out taking some action, some emergency action. This is what he said to Time Magazine on Thursday. He was asked, would you rule out declaring a state of emergency in the lead up to the midterms unless there's widespread violence in the streets?

39:22Trump, I don't rule anything out or in. We'll see. You mean the Insurrection Act? The reporter says, yeah, no, I've never used it. I could use it. A lot of people think I should use it sometimes. He continues to dangle using the Insurrection Act. Which is, I think, is what is mobilizing these Democrats. You see these sort of things during presidential years, but certainly, as Annie points out, this is unprecedented for a midterm election year. And listen, there are other things. Yes, the president is dangling out, but there are some more concrete things, which I know Toluse has reported about, some of the election deniers that are in places in power in various states.

39:56So there is reason for Democrats to be concerned and hope that elections hold firm. And Tolu, the White House said to Annie, said every American should be asking why the radical left and Democrats refuse to pass the Save America Act. That's what they say is what they're focused on. It's just the Save America Act, not this long-term effort that you've reported on to try to undermine some of the elections. Yeah, and the fact that the Save America Act did not pass gives the president potentially even more incentive to try to use executive power because he says, oh, Congress will not do what I ask them to do, so I need to use my executive authority to take over elections or to use the National Guard or to use the military or other parts of the federal government to interfere, even though there's not supposed to be a major role for the federal government in running elections.

40:40But I would not be surprised if the president tries to do it. Yeah, we'll see what happens. Any great reporting. Thanks for joining me. I want to know who played who in that role playing. That's my first question there. All right. Thanks for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

41:19Wintour. 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? Well, 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.

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