Vance Won’t Call Iran a “War” Despite Trump Calling it One

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0:34Tonight, six months in, America's Veep says the war is won. We have won almost none of them until Donald J. Trump. But says the war's not over. When will this end? You'd have to ask the Iranians. And then says it's not even a war. I wouldn't call it a war. Plus, we see it every day. Gas, groceries, everything's expensive. I've largely taken care of inflation. And the prices are all coming down. Republicans running for office are admitting what the president won't. And more than a decade after Trump insulted his wife, his father, and called him a liar. Did it piss you off at the time? No, because I respect the fight.

1:13And it was actually, it was political genius. Ted Cruz is plotting another run. Live at the table, Josh Rogan, Caroline Sunshine, Jenna Arnold, Hal Lambert, and Camille Foster. Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here they do.

1:45Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip in New York. Tonight, the vice president can't seem to get his story straight about the war in Iran. Six months in, J.D. Vance seems to suggest that the United States has already won the war. But the war isn't a war. And the war is also not over. Listen.

2:22shooting. I recognize there have been places where this has flared up. Major combat operations, again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks. You would have to ask the Iranians. Since the war began, Donald Trump and his administration have repeatedly offered arbitrary timelines for how long the fighting would last. Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks. The U.S. would be gone or done with the war. I think we're two or three weeks. We were in there for two months. And you know what? We're going to have victory very shortly. I thought it would take four to six weeks, and I was right.

3:04Today, apparently, Vance declined to continue that trend. Our attitude is we're not going to set an artificial timeline. Before we open it up to the table here, we invite you at home to join the debate. Go to CNN.com slash Abby way in there. We'll get to some of your comments throughout the show. Josh, it's almost as if the administration forgets that we have the tapes. We have the records of the things that were said over the last six months, which includes many timelines. And it includes the president until very recently calling this a war. Of course it's a war. and Vance saying that it's not a war will come as a surprise to the families of the 18 U.S.

3:49service members who have perished in this war. It'll come as a surprise to the 750 plus U.S. troops who have been injured in this war. It'll come as a surprise to the 50 ,000 U.S. troops that are right now deployed under wartime authorities and wartime conditions under harm's way every single day. And not to mention the Iranians and the people in the region were getting bombed all the time. So to gaslight the American people and say this is not a war is not going to work. People are not going to buy it. It seems callous. It seems to ignore the reality that America is in a war, even if it's just a blockade.

4:25Yes, three Americans died in Jordan in July. So, of course, that's war. But even if a blockade is an act of war, as long as we've got Americans in harm's way, that's a war for all intents and purposes. And the Trump administration is not going to be able to fool people into thinking that's not a war. Wait, so was Vietnam a war? Of course. We haven't declared war since 1942. What difference does that make? Well, because that's what he's talking about. Congress hasn't declared war. If he says it's a war. So you're saying that he's playing semantics in order to avoid the War Powers Act, which makes it worse.

4:53Everyone's played semantics for the last 50 years. Not me. I'm not playing semantics. I'm calling it like it is. Are you playing semantics? Every president. I'm not a president. Is it a war? I'm not a president or vice president. Let me finish. Is it a war or not? Let me finish. I'm not a president. Can you answer the question? I can answer it. What is the answer? Well, the answer, it's not a declared war. No, it's not. Okay. And so there hasn't been declared war. Wait, then why does the president call it a war? There hasn't been declared war since 1932. As I've said many times, the president has called it a war, including very recently.

5:18Well, we called it a war. All of your eyes. Wait a minute. We called it Iraq a war. Yes. We called all these things war. Those are all wars. Korean war. Yes. But they weren't official wars under the United States Constitution. What was J.D. Vance talking about when he said at the very beginning of the sound that we played. He said, in the 42 years that I've been alive, we haven't won a war. What is he talking about if there have been no wars in those 42 years? Because it's semantics. We all know it's semantics. So let's not play semantics here and now. We don't have to play semantics here and now.

5:50Why don't you want to call it a war? I'm not saying it's not a war. I'm saying semantically, he can't call it a war because then it goes back to Congress. Okay. This is not making a whole lot of sense because it does make a lot of sense. It's not making a whole lot of sense. But I do think that there are important factors here. You alluded to this. There were 18 service members who were killed. Okay. They lost their lives in this war. And one of them, their family member, was basically saying they can't get the benefits that they are entitled to. Caitlin Collins asked the vice president about that today.

6:29can you and the president personally ensure that the family of alex klinner gets all the benefits that they deserve given he died serving the country okay so what's her name you said his name is alex klinner yeah he was an airman who was killed in the plane that went down over west so what i'd say caitlin is is please if you especially if you have the private contact information we will reach out to her directly as soon as this is over and make sure that she gets, what she's entitled to. Obviously, you know, our heart breaks for every single person who lost their lives in this operation. I mean, Caroline, that's a mess.

7:07He's the vice president of the United States. There have been 18 people killed. Doesn't seem even vaguely familiar with the name. Asks a reporter to provide contact information that presumptively he should have. And this is only happening because they want to play a legislative game, not having to notify Congress that we're still in hostilities and potentially denying these families the benefits that they are entitled to because of a death in theater. Yeah, I wish the vice president would have taken the opportunity to thank that service member for their service and to thank his wife and to thank the family.

7:46That's the right thing to do. and I think it's okay to call it a war. It's a war. The president has called it a war. We've won the war according to the president so there's no need to play the legislative semantic games. If we've won the war, Congress doesn't need to reauthorize the war or authorize it or whatever it is. What is important is that when you win a war, which we have according to the president, you get to go home. You don't have to stay. You win the Super Bowl, you don't have to stay on the field. You get to go home. It's also important to remember that how you define a win in war is also based on depriving your opponent of what they want.

8:25And what Iran wants is for the United States to stay over there as long as possible. Iran is not worried about midterm elections. They don't face their voters. A win to them, the famous saying in the Middle East is we have the watches, you have the watches, we have the time. Winning to Iran looks like staying over there. It's very clear there aren't any more military objectives to achieve. The administration said even a year ago that we had bunker busted the hell out of their nuclear program. Anybody that said otherwise was fake news. It's very clear that any other efforts needed on this front are economic or that the surveillance efforts that we have through our Space Force can keep an eye on Iran.

9:03So take the win. And it's OK to call it a war and it's OK to say that we won. It is very significant, though, what the United States is actually doing right now. because I think they like to gloss over it. But there's a blockade, but they've also been escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz. That has taken an enormous amount of effort. They finally got to 18 million barrels of oil this week for one day, right? And in order to do that, they had to use a range of air, sea, and space assets to continue hitting Iran's capability to attack commercial vessels, while simultaneously fending off waves of drone attacks as it conducted the risky escort operations for the ships carrying millions of barrels of oil.

9:51The U.S. forces neutralized anti-ship cruise missiles during the escort operation. So, I mean, yeah, kudos to the United States Navy for making this happen, to get 18 million barrels of oil through. That's close to where we were before the war. But in order to do so, they were under heavy assault from Iran, it seems. No, we're expending a great deal of treasure. The president has expended perhaps all of what remains of his political capital. He is degrading further his popularity. And Republicans themselves are perhaps destroying whatever credibility they may have by having to stand alongside the president while this is happening.

10:33And certainly congressional Republicans find themselves in this horrible situation where they refuse to do their jobs, take responsibility for America's war powers and are similarly not willing to call out the president of the United States for what could perhaps be described as an unconstitutional campaign abroad. There are so many things that we could say about this conflict, and given that we've been talking about it for six months, I think we've said a great deal of it already. There's a great deal of exhaustion, and unfortunately, the American people have so many other things going on that they're barely paying attention to what's happening here.

11:08But I think it is vitally important that we try to extract some lessons from America's foreign military adventures abroad. We previously this week actually had a conversation about comparisons between the Iraq War and the Iran War. Obviously, this conflict is very different. But what isn't so different is the lack of perhaps foresight with respect to unintended consequences, with respect to the hubris that is required to presume that you can very quickly dismantle a regime and not have to think about what happens the day after. And here we haven't even managed to dismantle the regime. There is not the willingness to put boots on the ground to do the things that were actually necessary in Iraq to achieve that objective.

11:48So one does wonder when this ends, if they're unwilling to pull out. And I think the important thing about taking the win and going home is you're going to deprive Iran of their will to continue the fight. Because keeping our military over there allows Iran to keep striking us. They go back to their people and say, look, this is justification for us to continue the fight. That creates a rally around the flag effect in their country that only emboldens the regime, does not weaken it. So taking our military out with its win deprives Iran of its justification to keep attacking. We're not going home anytime soon.

12:19I mean, Hegseth has extended the deployment into 2027 for many of the troops that are still over there. And I will say, I don't actually think if we left the region, Iran would not have any more fodder to continue to get our attention. And Camille, I do think that there is one thing, many things, but I do think there is one specific subject, specifically on a day like today when we said goodbye to Gloria Steinem, that is often not discussed in this is the movement, the Women Life Freedom Movement, that has been fighting this regime for many, many decades. And while we're sitting over here splitting hairs about the definition of war, this movement that Trump, frankly, called on recently, saying, where are all the Iranians, has been the whole basis and the whole reason why there is any hope in the region that will not be militarily designed in Tel Aviv or in Washington, D.C.

13:15And this movement, led specifically by Iranian women, has been very explicit with the rest of the world about what it is that they need. They need additional Internet power. They need additional targeted sanctions at individuals with power. And they need more spotlights on the executions of political prisoners. And so I just want to make sure that that continues to be the tip of the spear on all things Iran. I totally agree. Trump said when the Iranians rose up against their brutal regime and were slaughtered in the streets, Trump said help is on the way and help was not on the way. And then he told the Iranians to rise up and then he threw them under the bus.

13:57Oh, come on. And that's exactly the same thing he did. And yes, he didn't give any economic or political support to the actual Iranian opposition. What's he doing right now? What he's doing is he's essentially trying to make a deal with the IRGC, which is the same regime that he killed the Ayatollah and now he wants to make a deal with the Ayatollah. The same thing he did in Venezuela. He promised democracy and he delivered an actual entrenchment of the authoritarian tyrants. And that is what Trump is about. He's about deals and corruption and not about democracy and human rights. We see it in Venezuela and Iran.

14:31So sitting on the sidelines in Iran was about democracy. For the last 40 years, we sat on the sidelines. No, we had a deal with the Iranians. That's not about, oh, to leave them in power. All the ayatollahs and everybody else. That's about democracy? For me, I'm for the people of Iran. So you would be against what the previous deals were. I would say that if you talk to the people of Iran, and you can talk to them because they're there to talk to them, what they will say is Trump gave them hope, and then he stamped out that hope by making a good change. And what did the previous administrations do?

15:00Do they give them hope? And Hal, I would also emphasize that how democratic movements happen is that it has to be led by people within that country. I know, but they don't have guns. They all got killed. That's why we have a Second Amendment here. That's why we have it. Okay, the Second Amendment has nothing to do with what's happening anymore. All right. It actually does. Next for us, Donald Trump goes to the Supreme Court once again for mail-in ballot restrictions. Plus, the president says the prices are down and America's in a golden age. But that's not what Republican midterm ads are saying.

15:39I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. We get to talk to the men's winner of the New York City Marathon, Andreas Almgren. He's a self-coached 31-year-old who was, get this, making his marathon debut. He never ran a marathon before he won it. If someone wanted to start getting serious about running and they wanted to approach it like a data scientist like you do, how would you suggest they start? Be patient. My peak weeks, I ran like 140, 150 miles per week or something. Wow. Either increase the distance or you should increase the intensity. You should never increase both at the same time.

16:18Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.

16:28Tonight, President Trump is asking the Supreme Court to let him implement sweeping changes to mailing ballots, setting up a showdown just weeks before the midterm elections. It all stems from an executive order that Trump signed back in March, and under it, the U.S. Postal Service can refuse to deliver ballots from states that do not submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal, or states that don't follow a uniform envelope style. But in an emergency filing today, the Trump administration argued that its rules are only modest requirements. It's not clear exactly how the justices will act.

17:02They set a deadline of Tuesday for the Democratic states to respond to the administration's petition. But just to underscore the urgency of all of this, North Carolina begins sending out its first midterm ballots tomorrow. So this is a live issue. And just to remind people, the Supreme Court previously said it was too early to deal with this just before the USPS put in place their final rule for how this would all be implemented. That rule is now out there. And so the states are saying, actually, it's not too early. Now's the time. Now's the time to deal with this. Yeah, I can't see anything other than Trump trying to change the narrative around mail-in ballots as being the reason why this is in the headlines.

17:50And I continue to ask, what is it and why is it that he doesn't want us to be able to vote as we have been able to vote for many decades in this country safely and securely under the auspices of Republican governors and Republican election officials? I'm curious to know why. Yeah. Can I add a quick question? I guess this is directed at me. I love this. I want to add an additional question to that. Does he realize that this hurts Republicans in rural places more than it hurts Democrats? Does he understand that? And is he trying to hurt Republicans or is he accidentally hurting Republicans because he wants to justify something in 2020 and in his head?

18:29Is that what's going on? So you're telling me the Democrats are all upset because they're hurting rural Republicans? I'm saying that like I don't love that y 'all are sticking up with these rural Republicans. Well, Democrats want everyone to be Does he understand that what he's doing is hurting his own party or not? I don't know. I don't know. The Democrats seem to be very supportive of Republicans now all of a sudden, I guess. I'm just asking a question. Well, I'm answering it, but I'm just going to say this. Here's what's happened. Mail-in ballots have multiplied by the millions. So it's not the same as it was just a few years ago.

18:58It's very different. They all seem to come in after Election Day, and they seem to change the outcomes of elections, and they seem to favor Democrats. And they seem to favor Democrats. So that's what seems to be what's happening. But that's just a lot of... There's not a allegation that anything's wrong with that. There's a lot of seeming happening. Listen, mail-in ballots are cast by Republicans and Democrats, including by your president. That's true. And military members. That's true. Donald J. Trump, who pretty much every time he votes, he votes by mail. I would hope so. And so, and then...

19:30He doesn't need to get all the security to go down the voting box. 58 % of Americans support mail-in voting. Why? Why? Because it is convenient for them. It was something that if you live in the state of Florida, they've been doing for a long time. They do it in Florida because there are a lot of seniors down there who vote Republican and they use mail-in voting. So that is what Josh is talking about. They want to put in place, though, these really significant changes. We've got 60 days before an election. It would require these states to submit these lists to the Postal Service, making the Postal Service, the arbiter of who gets a ballot and who doesn't.

20:10They have to submit an envelope that they have to get approved by the Postal Service. Again, putting the Postal Service at the center of a process that they have no role in constitutionally. And again, they're doing this with two months before an election. So you can see why there are concerns. I mean, great. This is the country that put a man on the moon. I think we can handle this. I think we're up to the job. And to answer everybody's question, this is about returning to normal. The fact is, the only reason we have the current iteration of mail-in voting that we have is because of the pandemic.

20:41And we have not returned to the normalcy levels that we had before the pandemic. Nobody's trying to stop military members from voting. Nobody's trying to stop college students from voting mail-in or seniors or any of it. But the fact is, I think we can all agree, mail-in voting did change after the 2020 pandemic. And it has not returned to – we're not in a pandemic anymore, guys. Everybody shouldn't be getting ballots. So this is about returning to normal. You want to go to normal? Let's get back to normal. A slapdash, haphazard rush towards normalcy is probably going to yield more problems. I don't think anyone should be more inclined not to see this happen than people who actually like the president of the United States.

21:18Even if he is doing what you imagine is the right thing, you need a hell of a lot more time than 60-odd days. If he creates a maelstrom at the end of this because of a rapid intervention into the election, that is going to be exceedingly bad for the country as a whole. It's not just going to be a circumstance where you can say, oh, look, they're trying to steal the election. It is going to look like he screwed up the election. This is bad for them. They should hope that the Supreme Court does not get involved and rule in their favor. This needs to get done, and it should get done urgently. In a proper country, this should get done.

21:53In a proper orderly manner, right? This is a properly orderly manner, and I'm confident the Supreme Court will rule correctly on this. They've been ruling correctly lately in regards to government overreach in January 6th sentencing, showing the Biden administration completely misused those statutes and was way too egregious in its sentencing. They just rule correctly on TPS. What's the basis, do you think, for the Supreme Court? I'm presuming you think ruling correctly in this case would allow the executive order to go forward. On what basis? The basis that before 2020, this is how we did things in this country.

22:23And we're no longer in extraordinary times. That's not really how the law works. I mean, what legal authority does the president have to give the USPS a veto power over how states conduct their voting? Again, we're not in extraordinary times anymore in a pandemic. But these are new measures. And I don't see any law saying that he can't. So I think the court will come down on his side. I see the Constitution saying that states are responsible for the manner of voting. That's actually, it's in the document. So that is the law. But the federal side controls the U.S. Post Office. So the Post Office isn't controlling it.

22:57So it's a power grab by the feds. But I thought conservatives were supposed to be for states. But the states are trying to use the Post Office to do what they want. And the federal government is saying, no, no, we control the Post Office. No, no, no. That's not how this works. When the Constitution says the states have a certain power, it means that the power is reserved for the states. That's how the Constitution works as a document. So if the president wants to claim a power, it's got to be given to him somewhere. Where does he get it from? No, but the federal government controls the post office.

23:26And at the state, he's not changing the rules of the state. He's simply saying, OK, if you're going to do it this way, you have to have measures in place to make sure there's not voter fraud. And he's putting measures in place through the federal government. By what statute? Through his control of the post office. Did Congress pass a law? No, but he controls the post office, the mailing of the post out to the people. I'll do respect to our postal workers, but I'm not sure we want to put the post office in charge of our election. Yeah, this feels a little duplicitous. And I remember when conservatives used to be skeptical of the federal government instituting these kind of sweeping changes.

23:56I'm just unclear about what the problem was that needs to be fixed. I hear your point about getting more people back into voting booths. I disagree with that claim. Why can't we have people mailing in their votes? Because there's no reason to. The only reason we did that is not reasonably. Okay, well, that's not the reason we did it. We did it because we had a once in a century. But if it's good, why not keep it? That is the reason. That is not a reason to keep that practice. Do we still wear masks? I mean, a few of you guys do, but there's no reason to wear masks. There's no reason to social distance.

24:32There's no reason to vote as if we are in a pandemic. If states pass laws allowing voting to be conducted a particular way, again, to answer her question, what is the actual problem that you're trying to solve? They've passed a law. It's valid because it's a law. What are you trying to solve for? The problem I'm trying to solve for is the 2020 pandemic has ended. It has been over for several years. And everything else that we did differently during that pandemic, including wearing masks, social distancing, we don't do that anymore. So we're not going to do voting that way anymore, guys. That's the only reason we did it.

25:07You want to go back to normal? This is what going back to normal looks like. Can I ask why I serve a time and place? Either you want to make it easier to vote or you want to make it harder to vote. but I'm for making it easier to vote. There are countries in this world where you can vote online. It's perfectly safe. Then you should want to have the SAVE Act pass if you want to make it easier to vote. No, that has all sorts of other weird stuff in it that I'm really against. So I'm really glad that we can come to a group that the SAVE Act would be a great way to make it easier for people to vote awfully.

25:30SAVE Act has a lot of weird stuff in it that I'm also against. But there are countries where you can vote online that's perfectly safe and 100%. Vote online? Yeah. You don't want to vote online. Yeah, there's a... And almost every country in the world has voter ID. We don't. Worth noting that we're not talking. Would you say that they have voter ID in every country in the world? Worth noting that we are talking about elections and not mail. So to the extent someone has authority here, it probably isn't the president of the United States. But I guess my... We've got to leave it there. Next for us, Donald Trump says that America is in its golden age and that prices are coming down.

26:00While Republicans who are running for office are saying the exact opposite. We'll discuss that next.

26:15Tonight, it doesn't look like President Trump and his party are on the same page about their midterm strategy. Just listen to what many Republican candidates are focusing on in their campaign ads. On our farm here in Belle Plaine, we see it every day. Gas, groceries, everything's expensive. Iowa families are hurting. Housing costs keep rising, and it's getting harder to afford a place to live. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, the last thing I needed to worry about was money. But bills are overwhelming and groceries, rent and gas are more expensive, too. It's hard for that message to break through when this is what the president has been saying for months.

27:00I saw polls today on television. I say Donald Trump polls on the economy are good. The economy is the greatest economy we've ever had by far. With the inflation, I've largely taken care of inflation, by the way. We have the greatest economy that I've ever had. We had one of the greatest economies in history in my first term. This is blowing it away. I should be at 100 % on the economy. And the prices are all coming down. Now, the word affordability is a fake word made up by the Democrats. If it's so good, Hal, why are the Republican candidates who are actually running telling people the opposite?

27:40Well, look, politics are local. But look, the reality is this. July to July, July of last year to July of this year, prices are up 2.7 percent and wages are up 3.3. So real wages are actually up over the last year, July to July. So Donald Trump is correct. President Trump is correct. He has gotten a lid on inflation. We have gas prices that are high because of the Iranian conflict. But that's that's the number one problem from an inflation standpoint, interest rates are relatively mild. Unemployment is low. The economy is growing nicely. So the economy is pretty strong. Unemployment's low. People are making money across the board.

28:16This is not some sort of disaster. Here's some other statistics. I'm not sure that's going to be a winning message. Everything's fine. Don't believe you're lying eye. Inflation is up from when Donald Trump came into office. Mortgage and mortgage interest rates just hit 7 % this week. Wage growth has been subsumed by inflation for the last two months. So the ads that you're seeing there from Republicans, they're not in a vacuum. These are people running in actual states and districts where Americans are telling them things are getting really expensive. Gas is over$4 a gallon. That's a real thing.

28:51That's not a made-up thing. I like how. I mean, you're in a very difficult spot. And look, I get it. You have to try to find the best possible. Abby quoted two months and I quoted a year. Abby quoted two months of wages. I quoted a year of wages. It doesn't make any sense, but it's good to try. I'm just saying, what is the current state of the economy right now? Well, the current state of the economy, according to the Donald Trump-appointed Fed chair, is that inflation is now the issue that might force them to raise interest rates. It is likely that they will raise interest rates because the inflation problem is not under control.

29:30I'm not saying that. The guy who Donald Trump put at the Fed to lower interest rates, he's the guy saying that. Well, I'm going to call it right now. They are not going to raise interest rates. I just tell you that right now. That's not going to happen. Fine. I'm just telling you what the guy said. We have a problem with energy prices, which resonates through the whole economy. I'll agree with that. That's all about what's going on in Iran. But by the way, we had higher oil prices under Biden and we didn't have a war in Iran. So, look, this is not that we have oil that goes up and down and up and down that affects the economy.

30:00We've got to get that under control. President Trump has put in place ways to drill more, drill more. Venezuela is going to come online. It's going to take two years. We all know that. But he's he's looking for the future of getting energy prices low for the for the country. 35 percent. That is what Donald Trump's approval rating is in CNN's poll of polls. And take a look at this chart because it tells you everything you need to know. That is the lowest number that we have seen since, let's go back to 2002, George W. Bush. So the president is actually, in fact, going into this midterm elections at a really low point.

30:38And we're starting to hear from Republicans. They're worried about this. Sure. I mean, I think the clear symbol was earlier this morning when Speaker Johnson canceled the September session of Congress. So when the Congress leaves this week, they're not coming back until November. They're not even going to come to work for two months. That's, according to my sources, because they know they have to be in their district because they're in trouble. And then he's going to hold this rally in Nevada where he's going to charge every member of$25 ,000 to attend a rally to help them. And they don't want to go, but they kind of have to go, but they don't want to go.

31:11And it just shows you that, you know, he's not really, he doesn't really care about what the Republican needs for this election are. He's got a big war chest,$800 million, something like that. They need it. And in order to do that, they're going to have to pretend that what he says is true about the economy, just like you just did, even though everybody knows it's not true. And it's not going to work. I don't think it's going to work. It doesn't mean they're going to lose the Senate. It just means it doesn't. This is a live question. Nobody believes it. Why won't he spend, he has almost a billion dollars.

31:43Why won't he spend it? Yeah, what's going on with that? Well, I would remind everybody that money alone in politics isn't enough to win. If that were true, Kamala Harris would be president. Kamala Harris would be president. Michael Bloomberg is better than my money. Really quick, really quick, guys. Is Kamala Harris president right now? No. Did she spend a billion dollars? Yes. But look, there's 60 days or less until these midterms. And I think on every question that the administration takes on the economy, the answer should be, hey, American people, we see you. We hear you. We're doing everything in our power to bring those prices down.

32:17You know what? In the meantime, in those 60 days, you didn't just elect us to bring your gas prices down. You elected us to close your border, which we have done. We will continue doing that these next 60 days. There was a report that the Federal Reserve put out saying that housing prices and rent under the Biden administration went up 20 to 30 percent in some areas because of the amount of illegal immigrants we took in this country. So don't ever tell me that it's just gas prices and groceries because housing is the number two most unaffordable cost for people in this country. Tell them how you brought down violent crime and that we're going to keep doing that these next 60 days.

32:48Also remind people that when you're looking for the solutions to bring down gas prices, looking for the solutions to bring down groceries, one way that you do not do that is just by electing people who say things like abolish ICE to the Senate and the House. That's not going to bring down your grocery prices. But in September of 2026, that's just going to put a bunch of people with pretty extreme beliefs in your Congress for two years. It's kind of up for grabs. That seems like it's an indicator of something. Not when people find out that you're listening. Mike Paxton, I'm calling her right now, will win by six points.

33:23But Caroline and Hal, I do question, like, at what point are we over the blaming Biden for the fill-in-the-blank? We're not blaming Biden. We're just pointing out that under Biden, inflation was at 9.1%. I know, but what you did was just say beautiful, and we're doing everything you can to get that lower, because that's what people want. You did a beautiful job of outlining all of those things. that the Trump campaign from 2024 was enthusiastic about articulating. The Dow Jones does not pay bills. And I admire and I continue to, I'm encouraging all the Republican candidates who are trying to meet your constituents where they are to do exactly what you have been doing and calling out their real struggle.

34:13And in some cases, it might be border related. In some cases, it might be gas price related. But nationally, it is entirely focused on the grocery bill. And instead of us fighting about who is who what talking points are correct in terms of who whether or not the economy is doing better. Let's just all be focused. How amazing would it be if we were sitting here talking about different policies to decrease the problem? The Democrats' solution for the grocery bill is for the government to run groceries, just like Mondomini wants to do in New York. That's the solution for that party, and that's why you guys are not going to run it.

34:49How about sending the Iran war? That might help. We'll see if that works as an argument in this midterm election, because you know it's going to be one of them. Next for us, Ted Cruz is openly plotting a presidential run. He says the party is not giving J.D. Vance a quick pass. Well, Vance is responding to that tonight.

35:17Senator Ted Cruz is teeing up a possible White House showdown with Vice President J.D. Vance. Both are seen as potential contenders in 2028, with Cruz already testing the waters. Now he's taking swipes. Is this a party that has coalesced already behind J.D. Vance? Oh, no. There's going to be a full discussion about who we are and what we believe. Are you going to be part of that? There'll be time to figure that out. I'll certainly be part of the discussion because I care deeply about economically. I think we should be a conservative party. And on foreign policy, we've got a debate. Are we an isolationist party that withdraws from the world?

35:55Or do we believe in American leadership? When asked if he would support Cruz's presidential bid, should he run? Here's how Vance responded. I'd encourage any Republican, if you care about the country, and I think all of us do, you should be focused not on a job a few years from now, you should be focused on the midterms. And that's the approach that I've taken. And on Ted Cruz, I mean, look, man, he's just clearly Ted is a very authentic and likable guy, and I'm sure he'll do great. As they say, it's on. So he said that, and one of his big boosters, Alex Brusewitz, Trump advisor says of Cruz, no one takes him seriously as a contender.

36:38Will he run? Absolutely, because his ego is 10 times bigger than the state he represents. He has no support, but he'll have a war chest and apparatus because he's done this before. Camille, what do you make of this? In fairness, it is early. Things change. It is entirely possible that the stars will align and Ted Cruz will be the guy. I don't know how likely that is. I would say that it does seem like his ego is doing a heck of a lot more of the talking. The thing that most stands out to me is the fact that he is willing to go after J.D. Vance. He'll talk about J.D. Vance being the guy who was supposed to negotiate the deal.

37:10Well, who gave him responsibility to negotiate that deal? He will not be critical of Donald Trump at this stage. And this is a point at which he could be distancing himself and perhaps even demonstrating that he has some kahunas and is willing to actually go after the standard bearer of his party because he's he's that guy. He's that honorable he has that much integrity instead it looks like he's playing a game here trying his best to angle for a position there's going after the second there's gambling in the casino there's gambling in the casino everybody in the casino there's gambling and there's this like assumption that people who run for president really think they're going to no 95 percent of the people who run for president know for sure they're never going to be president they do it because it's a good thing to do you get a lot of media attention maybe you sell a lot of books you get your profile race.

38:00Maybe you get a cabinet position. You get three or four percent. You get a bunch of money. You trade it for something. You become a kingmaker instead of a king. Ted Cruz will be running for president as long as he's alive. OK, just took a break for Trump in the last two. But everybody knows that he's going to run every time because why wouldn't you? It's a fun thing to do. It's a thing where you can get stuff for it. And yeah, I don't think anyone, nobody in the and Ruffin-Guard thinks Ted Cruz is going to be president of the United States. I don't know. How might he? I don't know. Do you think so?

38:31I think he's doing it to do it in no shade. You know what I mean? I would do it if I could, but I can't. I've been friends with Ted since 2006. So I've known him a long time. I helped him in 2016. You know, I said to your paper, I think that J.D. Vance is going to be the nominee. I think that'll be. I mean, if you look at it this way, you've got the two most important donors in the Republican Party already saying they're supporting J.D. Okay. That's Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. All right. So they've already said they're going to support J.D. Elon's going to spend a lot of money in this election cycle on a lot of candidates.

39:08When you run for president, you need endorsements from candidates. You need endorsements from senators. You need endorsements from congressmen. Who do you think they're going to endorse? So to me, I think it's an uphill battle. You've got President Trump, his number two guy. He picked J.D. Vance, when you pick the vice president, he's the person you think could be president. But nobody's clearing the field. Right. Except for Marco. If you think about Marco, if he wants to be president, the thing he does is not run and wait for 2032 and wait for J.D. to fall in his butt and then come in later. Or just stay out of the fray and let the other guys scrap each other up.

39:43That's what you do if you really want to. But, okay, let me just play this because this is J.D. Vance talking about Tucker Carlson, which is going to be an issue. This is going to be an issue if he runs. Tucker is a friend of mine. Tucker is a friend despite the fact that we disagree on a number of things. And I'm not going to play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political disagreements with them. And if you have a disagreement with somebody politically, even over a deeply held issue, you should still be friends with that person because the whole republic depends on people of different perspectives being able to talk to one another.

40:14That's how I try to live my life and I encourage everybody else to do the same. Well, Tucker is not a friend of Ted Cruz's. And he's going to make that an issue because the accusation against Tucker is not just that he has different views about Donald Trump, but that he is palling around with anti-Semites. That's the issue. And Putin. I think it's important that all of this plays out in a 2028 primary for Republicans. I think it is so critical that Republicans have an open primary in 2028. Donald Trump had to go up against 17 candidates to get the mantle. And whoever comes after him also needs to go up against everybody else.

40:52We need to have a sharpening of knives and make sure that we're putting up the sharpest person. Because the reality is in 2028, Gen Z and millennials combined for the first time in our country's history are going to have the most voting power. They're going to supersede the boomers for the first time ever and having the most political power. My guess is the Democrats put up AOC in 2028. Republicans have to be prepared to meet that political reality. I don't think Ted Cruz is the guy to do it, but I want to see that play out because the party will be better for it. And ultimately, hopefully the country will be better for it to have those debates wide out in the open.

41:28All right. Next for us, we're going to get to your feedback from CNN dot com slash Abby. We'll be right back.

41:42And now some viewer feedback from CNN dot com slash Abby. The first one, Trump has been president for six of the last 10 years. Time to stop blaming Biden for our troubles. When you put it that way. Biden had a horrible four years. But also take credit for not being Biden because Biden let in 10 million illegal immigrants and we're getting them out. We're not Biden, guys, and we deserve credit for that. At least I'm not Biden. I think you're missing the thrust of that criticism. Yeah, I think the point is the president has been president for most of the last decade. Maybe I'm making a suggestion.

42:17All right. The next viewer says, I live in Washington, and we have been voting by mail for years, way before COVID. I actually saw this comment in a lot of places tonight. People pointing out, Florida, you've got no excuse, mail-in voting. People have been voting by mail in this country for many, many decades. Yeah, and they can still continue to do that if their circumstance warrants it. Again, people in the military, people in college, seniors, but we didn't have it for everybody post-pandemic. That's not true. I voted for by mail in 2004. Yeah, that's the point of this year is... But why did you vote by mail?

42:48Because it was easy and cool. And I liked it and it worked. I don't know about that. And I got the vote and it was great. Okay. Nothing bad happened. That's it for us. Thanks for watching Newsnight. Laura Coates Live starts right now. I'm Audie Cornish. 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. We are going to be talking about the booming market of toys, games, puzzles, crafts for not children, but adults. OK, not just adults, kiddults. Kiddulting. This year, for the first time ever, a majority of toy sales were in adult-only households.

43:28And there are some other numbers to back this up. Like in a Harris Poll survey published this year, two-thirds of American adults reported spending$100 or more on playful activities and products like craft kits or action figures. 13 % of adults reported spending$500 or more on these things. So it's a massive market and I think also a massive change in the culture. Follow Engagement Party wherever you get your podcasts.