NYT: Democrats Secretly Led Effort to Stack Alaska Ballot

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1:14Hey, good evening, everyone, and welcome to a special edition of Laura Coates Live Countdown to Election Night. Yep, six days to go. And if you were waiting for an October surprise, I guess it arrived today, courtesy of the Alaska Senate race. And a simple question. How dirty is too dirty in politics? In just a moment, my panel will join me to break down what today's scandal means for Alaska and, of course, all across the country. And we want you to be a part of the coverage. Send me your questions, your comments. Just go to CNN.com slash EngagePolitics. We're going to answer them live on air this hour.

1:51Now, I know you probably know the story by now, right? The two Dan Sullivans from Alaska and the brouhaha over the other Sullivan being on the ballot. Well, enter today's major plot twist from The New York Times. It reports that aides aligned with Democratic candidate Mary Paltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent months recruiting candidates to siphon votes away from Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan. Daniel J. Sullivan was one of those candidates. The Times reports Paltola's former campaign manager says Paltola was not directly involved in the project, but she was, quote, definitely aware.

2:32The Paltola campaign and the DSCC deny any involvement with the Daniel J. Sullivan campaign. But President Trump is wasting no time. He is casting this as something beyond dirty politics. He's also calling it a crime. This is voter fraud at the highest level and the Democrat candidate who is involved in the scheme, Mary Peltola, who said she didn't know anything about it in court. She should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted. And so should the fake Dan Sullivan. Now, the political backlash from this is one thing. The legal fallout? A different question. I can tell you what we learned today does not actually strengthen the DOJ's lawsuit to block certification of Alaska's election results if Senator Sullivan does narrowly lose.

3:27And recruiting spoiler candidates is generally legal. That doesn't mean the DOJ is done with this, right? And Attorney General Todd Blanche is already teasing there's more to come, even if he can't seem to give a clear-cut answer to what I would describe as a basic question. I expect you're going to hear more from the Department of Justice this week as we learn more information. Is it illegal? Right. Absolutely. Well, think about what you just had to ask, Will. If it's cheating, if it's fraud, is it illegal? And the answer is it certainly should be. All right. There's a gap between what ought to be, what should be, and what is.

4:06Welcome to the system of justice. I want to meet my panel tonight, Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett, Columnist for the National Review, Carolyn Downey, former Deputy White House Press Secretary under the first Trump administration, Sarah Matthews, executive editor of the Washington Examiner magazine, Jim Antle, and former federal prosecutor, Shan Wu. I want to begin right where you are, Shan, because the president says that Peltola ought to be prosecuted. You heard Todd Blanche saying this should be illegal. You've prosecuted cases. Should is not really the criteria. But did the Peltola campaign or anyone else, based on what we know tonight, did they break the law?

4:45Based on what we know tonight, it looks like a political smash burger maybe, but it's a legal nothing burger. There just isn't any evidence of a crime actually being committed. And Blanche can say what he wants about, you know, should or maybe. But the fact is he can't point to anything right now that says that. And the idea of trying to go after the candidate himself, whichever Dan Sullivan it is, is just completely rife with problems. I mean, that's not going to go anyplace from the get-go because of First Amendment concerns. Because he's able legally to run for office no matter what his motivation was?

5:18Right. Might be one thing if that's not really his name, but his motivation, completely out of bounds. How about the idea of the certification efforts that the DOJ wants to freeze? Does this reporting impact that to you? No, if anything, if you want to give them a lot of credit, it's a bit nuanced. Maybe they want to use the civil suit to get some discovery to maybe discover something more that could lead to a criminal case. To me, the biggest problem with their civil suit is it's completely outcome determinative, which is they only want it to be stopped if their guy loses. That does not make any sense.

5:51That's a really important point because you can't just say, oh, hold on, never mind. There's no offense here if I actually win because then their argument has been there's so much confusion that you can't possibly have any reasonable voter be able to distinguish between the two. But if the person does win, whichever Sullivan it is, it's a different story. But let's talk for a second, guys. I raised the point about how dirty is dirty. And we've seen a whole host of things in the last two weeks alone. I mean, between the ads in Ohio, let alone the run-of-the-mill attack ads and beyond. Now you've got this new reporting.

6:21Democrats have been trying to say, and they've been pounding the table about election integrity and about the moral compass, Does this, do you think, for voters impact how people might view Democrats? I don't think so. And I think, honestly, that this has been the assumption for all voters since Dan Sullivan II jumped into this race. The assumption being that Peltola was there on it. That Dan Sullivan was entering the race as Dan Sullivan, and there's already a Dan Sullivan in the race. But I think, honestly, the reason the story is getting a lot of attention is because it's a disgruntled employee coming out and sharing all of these text messages and e-mails and all of this stuff.

6:54And honestly, it's about a very common campaign practice that has been going on for a long time. So common, in fact, that Republicans did it in this calendar year in the Democratic primary in 2026, putting up two candidates in the Democratic primary against Mary Peltola. And in 2024, they defended a candidate who was in prison at the time, who they wanted to keep on the ballot as a Democrat to run against Mary. So this is something that they're actively doing that they've done this year. And now they're trying to take Democrats to court. So this is a rose by another name. Had there not been the name Daniel Sullivan, the tactic would be fine.

7:27Well, so I think this represents some of the worst of politics. This is a transparently dirty tactic. But to your earlier point, this doesn't look outright illegal because the lawsuit itself from the DOJ doesn't actually specify which law was violated in the process. It's also premature. We have to wait until the election actually happens to determine whether this had an effect. That being said, zooming out here, I think what this does show is the folly of changing electoral rules to advantage a certain candidate with the jungle primary. It is the jungle primary system that allowed this other doppelganger, Dan Sullivan, to advance to the general with only 2.5 percent of the vote.

8:02That has unleashed Pandora's box, as we can see. The ranked choice voting system has done that as well. And so I think that's what our main takeaway should be. Be careful what you wish for. I guess you might just get it. Senator Tom Cotton calls this a scheme to undermine the integrity of the election. But the idea of the pearl clutching for many people, I think a lot of voters look at dirty politics. There's a reason that's a phrase. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but there's a reason it's a phrase. How do you see it? Yeah, I mean, obviously, I think dirty little tricks like this are gross and why people get grossed out with politics.

8:36And so looking at something like this, obviously, we don't know whether or not she was involved with it. She denies any involvement. If she were involved, this feels like a massive self-inflicted wound and it feels like a mistake that they they did this in the first place. But what I will say is that it's funny to hear Republicans like Tom Cotton and others talking about this and saying that this is fraudulent and all these things and that they're rigging an election when they didn't hold that same sentiment for Donald Trump, a man who cast out on the results of the 2020 election. And I would say perpetuated a much more pernicious fraud to the American people by trying to sow distrust in the results of that election.

9:13So I can say that both are bad, but I don't think a lot of these Republicans who are shouting from the rooftops how horrible this is can do the same. The main takeaway from here, the question I always have is, is hypocrisy incentivizing for voters? Because, you know, voters are obviously like, no, no, no. What do you think about it? I mean, the way I look at it is it sounds like the setup to a joke. You know, two Dan Sullivans walk into a bar and the senator is there. And I just think that, you know, when I was a kid, there was an Edward J. Kennedy who was always running for all kinds of offices in Massachusetts.

9:47Never seemed to get very many votes. People knew who the real Edward Kennedy was. But this is a very close race. And so every little bit matters both, you know, a little bit of confusion. You know, the 8 ,000 people in Florida who voted for Pat Buchanan probably didn't mean to vote for Pat Buchanan. You know, little things like that can matter. And that was in 2000, that state was decided by 537, I think, was votes. And that election ultimately ended up being decided by that. So I think, number one, the confusion factor is significant or can be significant. And number two, the fact that this story has broken, and it broke in The New York Times.

10:26It wasn't, you know, some blogger running with this. So it has some potential to maybe swing some votes to the real Dan Sullivan. Well, the real Dan Sullivan. Well, actually, you know what? I'm going to say, will the real Slim Shady please stand up? They're both real Dan Sullivans out there, OK? But Dan Sullivan, the senator, isn't buying it. Here's what he had to say. What's remarkable here is that even today, she has not apologized. Even today, she's kind of playing as if nothing happened. She's been lying for over a year. She's run a campaign about supposed corruption. election, she's the corrupt one working with D.C.

11:08insiders to trick Alaskans. All right. Well, sorry, I'm curious your take on that, because I do wonder she's of course, she's denied having the involvement in it. That person we already quoted in The New York Times saying that she definitely was aware, but she denies being involved in it. Will voters punish her for this at the polls? I think voters are just as likely to punish Republicans for having the DOJ sue on behalf of a partisan candidate, intentionally saying that if that candidate ultimately loses, that they'll drop their case. That's the DOJ admitting that they're involving themselves in the outcome of a race with the intention of affecting the outcome.

11:43And so I think Alaskans, they're sovereign people. They do not find that the DOJ intervening in their elections is a good thing. I think ultimately you can decide on the merits whether you think that this is a values-driven decision. But ultimately, I think Republicans have been doing this in Alaska for decades and, you know, Democrats doing it to win a slight partisan advantage in a ranked choice system, which ultimately will benefit both of them, I don't think is a problem. A viewer has a question on this. I want you all to weigh in. Why is what's happening in Alaska not OK? But when Republicans gerrymandered districts redistricting across the country, good things on the bottom of the screen, I just jumbled the way they said it.

12:20What do you guys think about this? I think that that's a perfect example of Donald Trump and Republicans trying to rig these midterm elections because he's been trying to interfere not just with this, but with trying to mess with the Postal Service and all these things that the Supreme Court knocked down. And so, yeah, I think that that's another gross trickery in politics is mid-decade redistricting. And it seems like it might have backfired on them a bit too. But I think that voters should be equally disgusted with both of these things. Well, the courts. And again, from a legal standpoint, the great part about that question is those are both perfectly legal.

12:54at this point under the system. You may not like it politically, it has different ramifications for the system, but there's nothing illegal about either of those examples. God, nothing illegal about gerrymandering. But it is an everybody-does-it kind of political problem. I mean, when you control state legislature... It's a game played by both parties aggressively. But one thing I will say that we should note is that it's important to assume intelligence in voters. And what about the ramifications of this lawsuit? If we take it to its logical conclusion, I would say that Republicans could run the risk of making the same mistake that Democrats do, which is basically assuming that voters are rubes that are incapable of deciphering language and names on ballots.

13:31And that is important here because obviously they can read Dan Sullivan versus this Dan Sullivan. And it says incumbent. So they know what that means. Stand by everyone and still ahead. Remember when Trump said he'd blame John Cornyn and Karl Rove if Ken Paxton loses Texas? Well, here's a question. Who would he blame if Darlene Graham loses South Carolina? We have the poll that's sparking GOP panic. next. Plus, the Cheesecake Factory, now part of Democrats' closing message as Barack Obama goes for another helping. They mobilized a whole of government response to that joke. Not to inflation, but to that joke.

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15:19President Trump set to rally in South Carolina tomorrow just as a new poll is shaken up the battle for Senate. It suggests the sister of late Senator Lindsey Graham, Darlene Graham, is tied with Democrat pediatrician Annie Andrews. A Democrat hasn't won this seat in almost 30 years, so this would be a seismic upset if it happens. My panel is back with me. I mean, we know the president personally endorsed, personally picked, really, Darlene Graham. And Congresswoman Nancy Mays, who, you know, was running at one point, she has some thoughts. She posted if Ralph Norman or any other conservative were on the ballot, they'd be winning this.

15:59No problem. These are just facts. This is data driven, not an opinion. So Trump is quick to point blame at others if a candidate he chooses loses. Is he to blame here? if she does? She's a weak candidate. She's a weak candidate. And the reason I say that is because she was appointed as this goodwill action after Lindsey Graham's death. But the best way really to honor Lindsey Graham's death would be to be well-versed on the policy issues he cares most about, such as national security, foreign policy. Darlene Graham hasn't really demonstrated either of those two things. So I'm not so sure that most of the Republicans in South Carolina are in love with her, mainly because they don't think she's a good enough heir to her brother.

16:40But I think the other part here is that the opponent, Annie Andrews here, she is radical for South Carolina, which is still the reddest of the red. She does support child gender transitions. That is pretty radical for a state like South Carolina. And she should know as a pediatrician that you take this to the extreme, affirming a child's gender delusion means them going under the knife. And sometimes that means long-term permanent consequences and damage. Well, I think she'd take issue with the word for a gender delusion and how it's characterized, but I'll have her speak for herself. Dr. Annie Andrews, there's a question from our viewers.

17:13What is Dr. Annie Andrews' path to victory in the South Carolina Senate race? Sawyer? I mean, I think right now her path is through independence. She's winning independent voters by, I think it's like 22 points at this point. So she's picking up a lot of those disaffected Trump voters. And I think at a time when voters are looking for a check on Trump, want somebody who's independent of Trump, the fact that Darlene Graham is Trump's handpicked candidate, voters are not finding that sympathetic. And I I also think, you know, you look at that poll, that New York Times poll, and it shows that voters don't find her qualified.

17:43And they think, you know, they're supporting her basically out of support for the Republican Party. So she's relying entirely on the strength of a Trump base at the time that they're extremely disillusioned and unenthusiastic. And that is what's putting South Carolina in reach for Democrats. I mean, this was barely on the radar last year as a race. Obviously, Senator Lindsey Graham was still living. But that same New York Times poll that you're talking about, it asked voters who had the experience who had the experience to be a senator and Annie Andrews leads over Darlene Graham. Graham, as you know, she does share her brother's last name.

18:15But how does she prove to voters that this is more than a nostalgic respect nod to vote for her? I don't know if she really can. I think that when that clip came out of her on the debate stage saying that she couldn't talk about foreign policy, that was pretty much, I feel like, something that actually penetrated through to voters and they realized, wow, she is not qualified. And put her in contrast to her brother. Exactly. That is his legacy. And so I think that it was a mistake on Trump's part for making her, endorsing her for the Senate candidate. I thought it was a nice act for her to be appointed to the Senate seat, but there is no reason she should be the Republican Senate candidate there.

18:54Them treating a U.S. Senate seat when the Senate majority is on the line was a historic act of hubris. And it could come down to if Democrats are able to win that seat, that could potentially mean them regaining control of the Senate. And Trump will have no one to blame other than himself. That could be in Supreme Court nominees if that's the case and a number of other issues as well. I have to tell you, it's not yet January, but if Cheesecake Factory does not have a Super Bowl ad come January, I'll be very disappointed. that they have not seized on this moment because the president, the former president, Barack Obama, did again tonight.

19:28I heard the president was not happy when I joked over the weekend that he's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory. They did not dispute what I said about them being directly responsible for rising prices. They did not argue with that. The president wasn't even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison. That part didn't bother him. But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory comments. That, I mean, gets to the heart of the matter. He didn't dispute these other aspects of it. He didn't go to what the substance of the joke was. Some say they actually proved what Obama was saying was true.

20:14If George W. Bush had never taken the Cheesecake Factory back from Saddam Hussein, Barack Obama would have never been president. No, it really is a throwback to a lot of these Obama-era controversies. They're kind of a little refreshing in a way where Obama says something. People who like Obama think it is the most profound and uplifting statement ever made. And in this case, really illustrative of Trump's bad taste and sort of dictatorial tendencies. and other people view it as so condescending and so elitist and smug and arrogant. And in this case, insulting their favorite restaurant. I mean, I love it, but this is more than the tan.

20:54I love the cheesecake factory, to be clear. It's more than the tan suit, though. I mean, he doesn't talk about the inflation, the war. I mean, he didn't go into those areas. He spent, we played the other night, almost like 10 minutes talking about this. And of course, what he thought were, you know, his opulence on display as a real estate developer in the White House But do voters realize he didn't talk about the issue that Obama was actually trying to point out? I think voters have seen that Donald Trump doesn't care about the issues that Obama pointed out. I mean, he's just said in the last week that affordability is a BS issue.

21:26You know, I think this is what you call in sports a flop. When you have nothing, when you're losing, when you're down in the polls, when you have absolutely nothing to offer in terms of arguments about your record, your agenda, you flop and pretend to be outraged about comments about the Cheesecake Factory. That's what this is all about. And I'm glad to see President Obama bring that back up to, you know, incorporate the argument about prices, because I think ultimately, like, it is not great to have that conversation be the dominating factor in this race. We want it to be about their record. We want it to be about prices.

21:54So it's great to see him kind of come back to that after hitting them the first time. And of course, Democrats want it to be more. When Obama's on the trail, they want to have his full speech played, not just these sort of hits that he talks about. Everyone stand by, because up next, it's been 24 years since Minnesota elected a Republican senator. And now the GOP believes a former sideline reporter could end that streak on Tuesday. The Democrats standing in their way. Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan joins me next.

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22:58You know, while Democrats are flocking south for a midterm upset, Republicans are actually looking north and hoping for a Minnesota nice surprise. Senate candidate Michelle Tafoya has been hoping to close the gap with Democrat Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. But a new poll from The New York Times suggests she's got some work to do. It says Flanagan leads Tafoya by 14 points, though we should note other polls do have that race much closer. Trump, he's got his eye on the race as well, and he claims that Tafoya will only lose if the Democrats, quote, cheat by playing games with the ballots as they come in.

23:37I'm Joy Soda, Peggy Flanagan. Thank you for joining. First, let me ask you, what is your response to the president's claim that the only way you can win is if you cheat? Are you preparing for any interference from the president as a result? So we have one of the best election systems in the entire country. MIT has rated Minnesota number one in safe, safe elections. So I feel confident that Minnesota knows how to do this. But what I will say is that, you know, this is nothing new from Donald Trump, right? He has claimed that he has won this state three times. We know that that is false. But that same kind of rhetoric is, you know, what has been underneath the January 6th insurrection, stoking violence with folks.

24:31And I know that, you know, this is absolutely not the first time that we've heard this kind of language from him. So I would just encourage Minnesotans to get out there, to cast your ballot, to vote early if you can. Make sure that it is in the bank and counted, and then spend the rest of the time talking to your friends, your family, your neighbor about the importance of this election. But this rhetoric from Donald Trump is completely unacceptable. And I would just say this is also, I think, why he's endorsed my opponent, Michelle Tafoya. She has platformed January 6th insurrectionists on her podcast.

25:08She's called them really good people and her brother. And so there's not a whole lot of light between Donald Trump and Michelle Tafoya. Well, let's talk about you as a candidate and how the polls are evaluating you. We talked about the race between you and Tafoya on the one hand from New York Times polling, finding that it was a 14 point gap. But that same poll found that 43 percent of voters believe you are too far to the left. Tell me, how do you convince voters that you are not too far to the left or are not an extreme candidate? Well, I think, you know, the choice in this race is pretty clear.

25:47Do you want, you know, a yes vote for Donald Trump and Michelle Tafoya, the literal candidate that he has endorsed multiple times in the last couple of weeks? Or do you want someone who is of Minnesota and will be beholden only to Minnesotans and not to Donald Trump? That's the choice. And I am running to make sure that people can afford the lives they want to live. things like Medicare for all, making sure that we end this war in Iran, which my opponent has been a champion of, and ultimately being a check on this president, the chaos, the cruelty, the corruption. I think Minnesotans have had enough.

26:29There have been questions about how you have performed as lieutenant governor. You know, Minnesota has been at the center of a fraud scandal. It's now facing DOJ investigations. your opponent is trying to paint you as somebody synonymous with fraud and standing by as lieutenant governor and doing nothing about what took place. Listen to what she said. Now, here's the thing. Peggy Flanagan has been attached to Tim Walls from day one. When they were sworn in together, it was the Walls Flanagan administration. We're going to do everything together. So she cannot cherry pick what she's responsible for and what she is not.

27:04This fraud happened under her watch. You don't get a promotion when that happens. You get a pink slip. Do you think that you could have, as lieutenant governor, done more to confront the issues that are the subject of that investigation? Let me be clear that fraud of any kind is completely unacceptable. And I know that Minnesotans are angry. I'm angry, too. That's why I supported the independent office of inspector general and why I've pushed for harsher penalties. But let's be clear. In Minnesota, Fraudsters are being prosecuted and sent to prison. In Washington, D.C., Donald Trump is pardoning fraudsters.

27:41Literally one guy who stole$1.3 billion in Medicaid. And Michelle Tafoya has nothing to say about that. So, you know, I know that her enforcement from Donald Trump is going to be and has been that while the president certainly has pardoned fraudsters, under your watch, you allowed fraud to continue and actually happen. What do you say to those complaints? I would say, again, that fraud is unacceptable and it should absolutely be handled, which is why I have pushed for the Office of Inspector General and for harsher penalties. What I will say is that, you know, that is where Governor Walz had oversight.

28:25And I want to be clear that what I worked on was things like paid family and medical leave and nation leading child tax credit and making sure the kids got breakfast and lunch at school. I'm proud of that work that I've been able to get done for children and families. And just one final question. One of the things that a lot of voters are concerned about is what comes after an election. Let's say you do win. What are your directives or perceived mandates from day one? Is it investigation based? Is it policy, legislative based? What is the plan? Well, I'm a Minnesota gal, so I can do more than one thing at a time.

29:06And I'm very clear what Minnesotans want, right? They want to make sure that we are fighting to lower their costs. I want to fight for Medicare for all. But before we get there, we got to roll back these cuts to Medicaid and to SNAP that have devastated our state. We also have to make sure that we are holding this president accountable. And I think that we can do more than than one thing at a time. And that is, you know, what we're going to do. Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, thank you for joining. Thanks so much for having me. Still ahead, new trouble for Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed. And this time it's not just coming from Republicans.

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30:54Michigan Democrat Haley Stevens is reaffirming her support for Abdul El-Sayed tonight after her fiance told a local paper in Detroit he's voting for Mike Rogers, saying, quote, We have never seen a candidate for U.S. Senate act so recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community as we have seen from Abdul. Here's what Stevens told my colleague, Caitlin Collins, earlier tonight. Look, I am the weirdest loser of this country. OK, that Senate race was months ago. I hugged it out. Of course, I'm voting, you know, for our Democratic nominee for Senate. I'm voting for the Democratic ticket. But I want to encourage, you know, this campaign to shut out the hate and to call it out and to make people who are in my coalition.

31:43Right. Make them feel comfortable about coming to the polls. Stevens is referencing a controversial ad in Michigan blaming Israel for high grocery prices, an ad that El-Sayed's campaign says they did not pay for. Today, she then learned Stevens and El-Sayed haven't spoken for months after he narrowly defeated her in the primary. Sources say there are no plans for them to appear on the campaign together before Election Day. My panel is back with me. I mean, should Stevens be doing more to help Abdul El-Sayed? I think so. And I think she should be more vocal about her support for Abdul El-Sayed.

32:17I don't think she should be couching that language in any way, shape or form, especially a week away from the election. I think that's ridiculous, honestly. But I think mostly this is a media narrative in search of a story. I think these are two bitterly opposed candidates in a primary from completely different wings of the Democratic Party. Ultimately, she did endorse him. She did campaign with him. She's now campaigning for candidates down the ballot, which I think is important. I just would like her to be a little bit more clear and unequivocal about this. because honestly, I think progressives have stepped up and campaigned around the country for a lot of like more centrist candidates, more pro-Israel candidates even.

32:51And it's kind of shameful to see her do this in the final stretch. Conceptually, you know, I always think to myself, you know, when people are bitterly, you know, competing and all of a sudden they go, OK, I lost. All right. Well, this person is the greatest candidate in the world for you should vote for that person. You know, it feels inauthentic. I remember not so long ago when we always, you know, compare the fact you had flip floppers, like all of a sudden Marco Rubio kissing the ring of Trump after their bitter disputes on the campaign trail and people criticize him. This is different. But do you think it rings inauthentic to voters if she does not have a more robust support or it doesn't reflect the idea of is it a bitter loss?

33:30It's really rich to see that interview and hear her say that she wants to see Abdul El-Sayed shut out the hate. What about Mike Rogers campaign? That campaign has been centered on racism and bigotry. They're not even trying to disguise it. That is the entire campaign strategy. Trump is calling him a jihadist, calling him Mohammed, tying him to 9-11, saying that if he wins the Senate, that he should have to enter through a metal detector when entering the Senate. I mean, it is absurd and disgusting. And so I think maybe she should have a conversation with her fiance about shutting out the hate, because I am more concerned with the hatred that we are seeing spewing from Republicans with Donald Trump leading the charge.

34:11And it's downright disgusting. And so she knows, too, what hangs in the balance if Democrats don't regain control of the Senate and that this race matters. And so I can't believe that she's not out there doing everything she can for this campaign. If she is campaigning for down ballot candidates, great. But she should be doing more and more vocal in her support for Abdul El-Sayed. She doesn't have to agree with him on everything. I certainly don't. But I'm very worried about the idea of what happens if if Republicans retain control of the Senate. And in twenty twenty eight, the results of that election or a Supreme Court justice getting appointed.

34:46There are so many bigger things than her being bitter and she needs to grow up. And I could say the same for Jasmine Crockett in Texas, too, because the same applies to her and her bitterness for being a sore loser there, too. Well, good. I was going to say she cooked with that. That's that's 100 percent correct. Can I just say, though, that's clearly begrudging support for Abdul El-Sayed. So, yes, it is bitterness, but maybe there is actual discomfort within her household. Clearly, her fiancé feels that there's reason to be concerned because of the Jewish issue. And look, Abdul El-Sayed, he's conflated Israel and Iran.

35:19It should be a very easy answer. Which one of those is our ally? Which one of those is our adversary? That should be a very simple answer. It would be clearer if Israel wasn't acting like an adversary at times. But what does that mean? But she definitely thinks that either he or people in his orbit are anti-Semitic. She strongly implied it throughout the primary campaign. It would be difficult, I think, if she genuinely believes that, to support him in a full-throated fashion. Some might say she should, in that case, support him at all. It doesn't necessarily mean she needs to endorse Mike Rogers or vote for Mike Rogers.

35:52but it's also similar to the race we talked about earlier where you have Ralph Norman is keeping his commitment to endorse Darlene Graham. He said he would support the nominee and he nominally has, but he always couches it in like, well, my family isn't going to vote for her and I don't think Trump should have endorsed her and she shouldn't be the nominee, but, and I won't appear with her and I won't campaign for her, but yeah, I endorse her. There's a, Haley Stevens I think has gone a little further in favor of El-Sea than that. but not much. Well, we'll see if the voters look at this as bitter or performative either way.

36:26I won't tell you that it's not just President Trump who's saying things. Did you guys see what Ted Cruz had to say about what he thinks would happen if Abdul Al-Sayed was elected to the Senate? Listen. If I'm correct that he is a passionate supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, there is a very real risk that americans will die as a result we have every reason to believe that abdul al-sayed if he found out okay they're about to apprehend these terrorists that he would let those terrorists know now to be even more specific he's talking about what would happen if he were even appointed the senate intelligence committee i mean this is the final few days, the number six up there, right?

37:14Final few days. Is this in any world the right closing message? Well, zooming out here, if you look at his policies and what he wants, if he were elected into office, he would be the most radical member ever elected to the Senate. He wants single payer health care. So just on the economic health care front. But that's American lives. That's the different. Well, say a traitor to the country. That is absurd. A statement like that should never be condoned and that we should condemn that. That is outrageous. He was born here. He's an American-born Muslim. So everyone saying that he's anti-American and all of these things, it's a bunch of BS.

37:49And I'm so sick of it because it's disgusting what they're trying to portray him as. He has denounced the Muslim Brotherhood. He has no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. And so for them to then say that if he's appointed to the Senate Intel Committee, that he would leak intelligence to terrorists, I mean, that is defamation, basically. I mean, Tim Scott did it the other day on Fox as well. He said that Abdul El-Sayed's parents have ties to terrorists as well. So, I mean, it's just gross. And I can't believe that this is the closing message. And clearly they think it's going to work. And I hope that Michigan voters prove me wrong.

38:24But the fact that this is what they're running with, they have to lean into fear mongering and racism and bigotry because they don't actually have a message to run on. If they had accomplishments to point to or a record of success, you wouldn't lean into those things. You would tout those things on the campaign trail, but they don't. All they have is a record of failure. Well, one, I would say that if Ted Cruz had relatives, and people have talked about Ted Cruz's family and their beliefs, that had a record of being part of Christian nationalist organizations, and that had, even if it was in the distant past, relatively distant past of 2012, written letters in support of such an organization, people would bring it up and not say that it's an attack on random Lutheran Sunday school children.

39:07But it's not just the closing argument of this particular campaign. I think this is part of the opening argument of another campaign. Ted Cruz wants to be president. He wants to be the 2028 Republican presidential nominee. He wants to be a kingmaker in the interim. And I think this is a big part of Ted Cruz 2.0, his next campaign. Well, we'll see. Obviously, Muslim Americans vote in this country. Is that lost on people in the conversations that are happening? Everyone stand by. When we come back, it's your turn at home to drive the conversation. The panel will be answering your questions, so send them on over.

39:45CNN.com slash engage politics.

39:56God, we've been getting a lot of great questions from all of you tonight at home, and let's get right to them. And you can always send them to us, cnn.com slash engage politics. Let's get right into it. Here's one. If the Democrats could do one big thing to solidify a win over Republicans, what would it be? Sawyer? I would argue that investing in Texas, in the Texas governor's race, the DGA has not invested anywhere close to the amount that they should for how competitive that race is. Polls show that it's within the margin of error. I think, honestly, if things go the way we assume in Texas, I think both of those races could go towards Democrats, but it's going to take investment.

40:31Obviously, we're in the final stretch here, and I think that was a real blunder by the DGA not to invest. All right. Here's another question. What's the purpose of Trump visiting all these states and not saying anything? It's more of a comedy show on tour. Carolyn, what do you think? Well, look, humor is one of his strong suits. He's a showman fundamentally, and the rallying in the past has worked for him, and this is his way of galvanizing the crowds, shoring up the base. Nothing really new here about that. All right. Well, number three, let's see. Where did the narrative that polls suppress the vote come from?

41:00It makes no logical sense. Jim, want to take it? We've seen a couple of actual fake polls released in this election cycle. We don't really know what the motivations were. The people who did them say they were conducting a social experiment to see if the media would publicize them. But they both said that right as they were on the verge of getting caught. So it does wonder. But most people who are involved in the polling industry want to be accurate. They have to want to be accurate because campaigns spend money and make decisions based on their data. So if they're not reliable, they won't get business.

41:32But it's a very tough business now because people don't answer the phone. It's expensive to conduct high-quality polls. And a lot of the polls you see conducted by smaller media outlets and by universities really aren't that high quality, really don't spend that much money. Interesting. I want to skip ahead because there's a question about Ohio, and I have a local Ohioan. Is that Ohioan? Did I get it right? All right, here's a question. Do you think Vivek Ramaswamy's ad could cost him Ohio's governor's race, or is its impact being overstated? Sarah, what do you think? Yeah, look, I'm from Ohio, and I've talked to Ohioans who live there, and this is something that's actually penetrating through with voters there.

42:12I think that Vivek's campaign was hoping that people wouldn't dig into the backstory. They would just see the ad and the mom calling Amy Acton a liar. But once people hear that backstory of why those two have not talked for nearly 50 years, I think that he's really dug himself into a hole there and it could hurt Ohio Republicans down ballot. Here's a good question. Why did Dems wait until the last two weeks to deploy Obama? He's still such an unbelievable communicator, maybe could have used him even sooner, earlier. Sawyer, what do you think? I know it's extremely frustrating, especially to Democratic voters, that they haven't seen more of Obama.

42:45But the fact that they haven't makes his appearances, makes his fundraising, makes his endorsements all that more important, makes them all that more valuable to these voters, especially in the final week of an election. He's also a former president. Can the man rest? I mean, anyway, how about this one? So Trump loves the failing NYT reporting now. Is he now acknowledging that all the other reporting about his corruption and all the other misdeeds is true? Can't have it both ways. Carolyn, why don't you weigh in? You know, I think it was always a better idea for him to have a general philosophy of let's just have as much news and as much information disseminated in the public discourse as possible.

43:21Like, let's not overly demonize any particular outlets. Obviously, some have an ideological bent and they're pretty transparent about that. Some aren't transparent about that. And that was typically what Trump's criticism was, was, look, if you're going to be left wing or right wing, just say it. Say the disclaimer instead of masquerading as an objective outlet. Interesting. Everyone, thank you so much. Way helpful to hear all of your questions out there. Remember, you can stream my show live on the CNN app. And we're now streaming in the United States, Canada, and the UK. Scan the QR code on your screen or go to CNN.com slash allaccess to learn more.

43:53And thanks for watching. Here comes The Story Is with Alex Michelson.

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