Trump Rallies in NC as Dems Eye New Midterm Targets in the South

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0:40Right. Okay, we can't afford that. You know what? Forget the music budget. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. I'm doing something different. I'm working like a dog. USA! USA! Republicans continue to play defense. One of the nation's top election forecasters moving 28 House races towards Democrats.

1:14Please pretend I'm on the ballot because in a way I am on the ballot. My opponent has taken advantage of someone who's clearly not well. You're going to leave this room. You're going to do paper as a child. Mega, Republicans, whatever you want to call them, If they get out to vote, we'll win in a landslide. Say whatever you want to say about my faith. At the end of the day, it's a distraction. Every poll in this race says we have a close race. It's going to come down to the wire. I feel it in my bones that we are going to win this election on November 3rd.

1:58Good evening, everyone. and welcome to the special edition of Laura Coates Live countdown to election night. And the countdown is on just 14 days to go. And tonight, President Trump and Republicans are dealing with some Southern discomfort because several races across the South aren't going according to plan. Trump is rallying in North Carolina tonight. He's trying to give Republican Senate candidate Michael Watley a boost. And the president wants everyone to know how hard he's working. I'm working like a dog. So I've done like about 10 rallies in about eight days. And now I'm scheduled to do, I think I'm even scheduled to come back here in another week.

2:41I come back here for my man. So we have like 15 days and I'm doing about 18 rallies. That's work. But Trump might have to work even harder if he wants to turn things around for Watley, because he is trailing former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper in the polls, not by a little bit. We're talking a double-digit deficit, 13 points in one recent poll. And now Democrats are trying to expand the map even further down south, and this time they're heading to Mississippi. Yep, the state that Trump won by 23 points just two years ago and hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982. Well, a top Democratic super PAC is launching an ad campaign to help Scott Cologne, who's challenging GOP Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.

3:29He'll fight corruption in both parties that drives up costs. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a do-nothing in it for herself. There's another sign this race may be getting more competitive. The Cook Political Report is moving it from solid GOP to likely GOP. And there's a similar shift in another southern state, South Carolina. Cook is moving that Senate race between Darlene Graham and Annie Andrews from likely GOP to lean GOP. But it's not all good news for Democrats, especially if you go further north. The Minnesota Senate race is going in the opposite direction from likely Democrat to lean Democrat. A possible contributing factor?

4:12The state's fraud scandal, which Republican Michelle Tafoya has been using to go after Democrat Peggy Flanagan. Peggy, Donald Trump isn't on the ballot. You and I are on the ballot. And only one of us let nine billion dollars walk out the door to fraud to suggest that we that she somehow is going to be a fraud czar all of a sudden. Talk about changing tax when it becomes politically expedient. My goodness. She was second in charge in this state. Let's see my panel for this hour. Senior advisor of the Texas Democratic Party, Kurt Bardella, Republican strategist, Leslie Shedd, CNN political commentator, Karen Finney, editorial board member for The Washington Post.

4:51Karin Hajar and White House correspondent for Bloomberg, Jeff Mason. And, of course, you're part of my panel as well. Be part of our coverage. Send me your questions and comments at CNN.com slash EngagePolitics, and the panel will answer them live on air this hour. All right. I don't know why you're all giggling. You're going to answer the questions. They're like, what? What? Here we go. Yes, we're going to answer questions, starting with this one, Karen, because you laughed first. Okay. So Democrats are making a last-minute move, you know, in deep red Mississippi. Yes. Is that about they think they can win or about peeling away Republican resources?

5:24I'll tell you, it's such an exciting race. Scott Colom has worked his heart out and he has actually been competitive for some time. I was on a call with him just a couple of weeks ago and they were like, if we just had 500 ,000 to get this one ad. And then the gift that keeps giving Cindy Hyde Smith had that horrible comment that went viral. And it made people take a look and say, wait a second, this is closer. maybe we could win in Mississippi. I'll tell you the other thing. We talked about this right after the Calais decision. You know, yes, the gerrymandering harmed the power of black voters throughout the South in the House races.

6:01But as I mentioned at the time, in these statewide races where we are seeing record turnout of black voters who are furious about what happened and the idea that you might try to take away power. And that is part of, we're seeing it across the South and it's part of what is fueling Mississippi. So, yeah, we really could win in Mississippi. It would be fantastic. How do you see it, Karine? Well, if you think about a lot of these voters in these deep red states, 2024 Trump campaigned on ending foreign entanglements, on, you know, ushering in an economic boom quickly, on tackling inflation. And on a lot of those, he's sort of done the opposite.

6:37And so I'm not surprised that some voters are sitting there saying, well, you know, these were very explicit promises that were made to us. And the president has double backed on has double backed on them. So I'm sure some independents are peeling away and it will be very interesting to see. I still think Republicans will be safe in those two deep red races in particular. But it will be interesting to see how their margins shift compared to 2024. I want to talk about the money in politics because, you know, it's always the ever present elephant or donkey in the room, depending what you're thinking about.

7:04And billionaires, they are flooding the midterms with cash. In fact, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is dropping 80 million bucks, everyone, to help Democrats retake the House. Democrats, of course, have long campaigned, as you all know, against billionaires for putting money into races and putting their thumb on the scale of elections. Why is it OK when it's helping or coming from Bloomberg's checkbook, you think? Well, again, I think we're seeing this massive cash. And we've been talking about this for a few weeks now, that Republicans have hundreds of millions more dollars in part by one single billionaire, Elon Musk particularly, and what we're seeing, what he's doing in Texas.

7:42And so this is a balancing of the scales. This is a reaction to something that we've been seeing play out for a few weeks now. And again, at the end of the day, we all believe as Democrats, yeah, campaign finance reform should happen. We should have a different court that doesn't allow unlimited, open-ended checkbook writing by one single person. But as long as the rules are what they are, we also can't just sit there, do nothing and say, well, because we're on our moral high ground, we're just not going to compete here and lose elections that we could win if we put the resources in. We've got to level the playing field somehow.

8:12The way to get the reforms that we want is to first take back power. This is one of the ways that we can do it. Does that make voters more angry, though, at the idea of because, you know, obviously that who has the biggest wallet often has the biggest say. And voters have been talking really all throughout this election cycle and before about feeling as though the powers that be are not the powerful for them. I mean, I think for sure that is something that plays out here. But again, you know, money has been in politics for as long as there has been politics. What's the old adage of trying to keep money out of politics is like water on concrete.

8:47It finds every crack and crevice. You have billionaires on both sides of the aisle, right? There are a bunch of different billionaires that are funneling money into Democrat campaigns. And there are Democrats. But, I mean, Michael Bloomberg has now, like, contributed over$100 million to Democrat cycles or to Democrat campaigns this cycle. He's not the only Democrat billionaire that has done that. So there's a lot of money that goes into politics. I agree. I think that it frustrates me with how much goes in there. If it were up to me, what I would say is anybody can write a check for as much as they want to any campaign, but every single dollar has to be disclosed publicly and easily defined online.

9:27Instead of having all of these super PACs and dark money groups out there, get all the money out there, they're going to get into the campaigns anyway. Let's just be transparent about it. I think one of the little subtle differences, too, though, with Elon Musk, he makes himself the center of the show. Like, I'm the guy that's going to be on the stage handing out checks and being basically a glorified used car salesman. But he hasn't been that way recently, which I know is recently. His political identity, though, has been very front and center. Whereas with Bloomberg, he's going to cut the check.

9:54But you're not going to see him on any stage at any rally at any ad doing anything. Yeah, but he cuts the checks so late, too. I mean, I don't even know if Democrats are going to be able to effectively spend this money this quickly and actually have any kind of impact. I want to bring you into this, Jeff, on a different issue, because the president says that he will, this is his quote, will be spending over$400 million by Election Day. And he likely means, of course, his super PAC, MAGA, Inc. If his message is strong enough to win on its own, why the half a billion dollar price tag do you think is necessary?

10:26Well, I mean, that question comes after a discussion about money and politics, right? It's just the reality of U.S. elections, that there's a lot of money in politics. And the question, though, I mean, the question that I ask is, having covered a bunch of campaigns over many years now, is, does it matter? Is it going to matter? It certainly can move the dial. We can see how it can move the dial. But President Trump won his first election on kind of a shoestring budget compared to Hillary Clinton. Kamala Harris in the last presidential election had, I think it was$2 billion in the end. And she lost all the swing states.

11:04So when there's a trend, and we seem to be seeing a trend right now, the money may not matter. Now, I don't want to say that it doesn't have any effect at all. Clearly, it can move the dial, as I said. But it may not be as determinative as inflation worries about the war and all of the issues. I would just make the thing I want to mention, because 20 years ago when I was at the DNC, culture of corruption, the reason that it matters now and what we saw then, it's not just the money in politics. People actually for years were like, yeah, yeah, Washington's corrupt. It's that they believe the corruption is what is keeping their prices high.

11:45So when you have Elon Musk out there making himself the center of attention and he's getting, people feel like, wait a second, what kind of tax breaks is he getting? What kind of sweetheart deals is he getting from Trump? and we see Trump making billions of dollars and building in ours and letting our prices go up. People are like, wait a second, who's looking out for us? That's the difference. It's not just the money. It's the corruptive, corrosive impact of those millions of dollars. And what did those guys get? And nobody's looking out for us. That's the cause. I mean, 2006 was the first Congressional race I ever worked on.

12:20It was the seat to fill. Rainey Duke Cunningham and the Jack Abramov scandal. He ended up going to jail. And it was, again, he's handing out appropriations, sweetheart deals, defense contracts to a lobbyist who's paying them off. And that theme cut so viscerally. And it's one of the reasons why we saw such major political activity on culture corruption back in 2006. We'll see what happens in 14 days. Everyone, please stand by.

12:46They confronted tonight over a stunning campaign ad using the estranged mother of his opponent. Did it cross the line? Is that a rhetorical question? Plus, new questions over just how much power Elon Musk has. As a new report says, he may have played a key role in disrupting a key satellite system for Ukraine.

13:11This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just$15 a month. A holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song, like all I want. Right. Okay, we can't afford that. You know what? Forget the music budget. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables.

13:44It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live U.S.-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plans starting around$1 a day. Right now, get 70 % off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com slash Spotify. Outdoor deterrence plans start at$49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com slash licenses for alarm license information.

14:17You know, an explosive ad is reviving the question that we've asked for a very long time. How low is too low in politics? The ad targets a Democratic nominee for Ohio governor, Amy Acton, and it uses Acton's own estranged mother speaking against her. She's lied her entire life. My daughter needs help, and she can't help you if she needs help herself. People can change, but first they have to tell the truth. All right, well, here's the detail and an important one the ad leaves out. When Amy Acton was a child, she says she was sexually abused by their mother's husband at the time. Ultimately, her mother lost custody of her children.

15:07And Acton says she hasn't spoken to her mother in decades. And after initially denying any responsibility for that ad, tonight her Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, confirms, yep, it came from his campaign. It's part of a$4 million ad buy that will run in the final two weeks of the campaign. Acton says Ramaswamy is exploiting her mother. My mother, I was removed from her at the age of 12. My brother was nine for child abuse and neglect that got bad enough. We were actually living in a tent in the middle of winter. She was eventually arrested in the court documents show from the tent. So, yeah, that's the last time I've seen her was in court when I was 12 years old.

15:57I find this unbelievable. I mean, I know that we're all accustomed and perhaps desensitized in many ways. And, yes, you can get very low in politics. But he was heckled at a town hall event even tonight. Doesn't this add, does this go too far? Absolutely. It's despicable. He needs to backtrack immediately. Why isn't he, though? I honestly don't know what he's thinking. In addition to the fact that this is just morally wrong and reprehensible, I don't think it's politically smart either. I think he thought that maybe this could fly under the radar and be this ad where her mother is, you know, on his side.

16:36But now the entire state of Ohio is going to be blanketed with news stories about the story behind this. Amy Acton reacted very quickly, got a good response ad up, like, from her brother. And now that's going to tell the story. This is going to backlash because people are going to think what I think, which is that this is gross and it's wrong. I want to play that ad that her brother, a portion of it, that her brother actually released as well. And honestly, it's heartbreaking. I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it. She continued to receive that abuse because she knew she had to protect me from that.

17:15And that if she hadn't done that, who knows where I would have ended up. I mean, again, not only I think the ad is is bruisingly low. Yeah. But if you had the whole context of it, it's one of those. Did was he not aware of the full context of it and went ahead with this as a part of it? What would have possibly been the political conversation behind the scenes to say, let's do this? It's so craven and disgusting that it is a failure of judgment on the part of his whole team. and like this to my mind the closing argument should be you can have a man who would who would put an ad on television about a woman who was raped not just because her brother said she was raped by their stepfather for years and the mother let it go on before they were removed from the you want that guy for your governor making decisions for you or do you want the woman who endured that protected her brother became a doctor and is now running for governor that's who i want Well, I also think that the political miscalculation goes deeper too.

18:20Ohio is a state where we're talking about agriculture, we're talking about manufacturing. I went to Ohio earlier in the year and I was in Middletown and talking to voters about tariffs, about inflation and this is a state where they need serious policy solutions. So not only is this just the type of mudslinging we've unfortunately seen throughout this race, but it's disrespectful to voters who deserve a substantive policy debate in the closing days of this election, and that's not what they're getting. Jeff, do you look at this and see, I mean, is it going to break through in terms of the noise of other regular voters who are, I mean, obviously, to Corinne's point and all of our points here, the idea of the substantive policy issues people want answers to, but is this, do they think somehow looking at other states and how there has been personal attacks made, whether it's Michigan and conversations about family members or in Texas about masculinity and beyond.

19:12Do they see this in the same ilk? I don't know. I mean, I think it's I think you were right to say that people have become desensitized. There are lots of things that President Trump said as a candidate in 2016 that many political watchers thought was going to be the end of his political career. And it did the opposite. It didn't hurt him at all. So that is just a different political time right now. But to your point, I think the polls also show that voters care about issues and they care about their pocketbooks. And that's the reason you see Democrats in many polls doing better than Republicans.

19:48But I will just say Trump in particular gets away with that more than others. People can't out-Trump Trump. And I don't think that Vivek Ramaswamy has, or the campaign really has that mystique, I guess. So I don't see it really paying off for him. Well, in a different state entirely, Abdul Al-Sayed has featured prominently an area that people have been talking at. And he says through Islamophobia or through criticisms of his faith, he has addressed the issue head on. Listen. My name is Abdul. It means servant. I pray every day. I reflect on my role in this life, on this earth, how we leave it better than we found it, to serve God, to serve our neighbors.

20:28All across Michigan, families pray. They feel hopeless. Faith is a thing there's just too little of in Washington. When you look at this, Kurt, do you think this focus on faith in particular, given the political journey in the last several months that El-Sayed has discussed, is this something that is going to be beneficial to Democrats at the polls? Yeah, I mean, he's not the only person we're seeing invoke faith and religion in a posway. We've seen James Tellerico do that all the time in Texas. I think for too long, Democrats surrendered faith, frankly, to the Republicans, and no party has a monopoly on what it means to have faith and what it means to believe in God.

21:07And when I watched that ad, that could have been a Republican ad in any district talking about Christianity. We see it all the time, the Republicans, when they invoke God and faith in tragedy in times of not acting on policy, but we need to come together and pray, no one bats an eye. No one attacks them politically. No one says, what's your background there? And do you care more about God than you do about the Constitution? They get none of that. So I think it's great that Democrats in these high-profile races are finally seizing that mantle refusing to let Republicans have that monopoly on faith.

21:37It doesn't belong to any party. It belongs to everybody. Why'd they wait so long? I don't know if I think they waited so long. I think the point is, you know, it's become so clear that the tactic is to other him and to use his faith against him. And I thought it was, you know, just as he did over the weekend. They tried the same thing with JFK. They tried these, you know, I happen to be Catholic. We used to be very verboten to be Catholics. We used to be wacky Catholics, right? He met Romney, and when he ran for president, his campaign contemplated whether or not he should do a speech, talking about what it is to be a Mormon, because at the end of the day, it's about your values.

22:12So it's a way to bring people back in that says, look, we may worship differently, but we still are people who are led by our values and we're led by our faith, and that that is a shared ground. I think it's important, though, to remember that, yes, there are some people on the fringe that are absolutely, you know, their attacks are based on the fact that he is Muslim, but not for everybody. And it's because of the answers that he has given on national security questions that should be very easy to answer, right? Like, do you contemn terrorists? He did though. He did condemn the Muslim brother.

22:45It took him a long time to do it. It took him way too long. He's been equivocating on this for a very long time on way too many issues. The answer he gave about the synagogue attacked, was offensive. And he apologized. The fact that he did not want to condemn the Ayatollah, who, by the way, is responsible for killing Americans. I mean, it's just one thing after another after another that opens him up to criticism. So just as much as it should be easy to criticize that Amy Acton ad and condemn it and say that's bad, it should be easy to condemn terrorists. And he hasn't done that. And that is why is it that the Muslim guy is the one who keeps getting asked the question.

23:21Let's ask all the white candidates and all the races, the same question. And I'm sure. That's the point he's been trying to make. It's like, why are we asking the brown guy? Why do we ask the black and the brown? But he's making this about his religion, but he's not. He can't answer these basic questions. Well, you know what? I interviewed him on Sunday. He did answer. Go to my Instagram. TheLaracos, the whole interview's right there. You decide for yourselves. Everyone stand by. Up next, as Trump fuels fears that he's pushing Ukraine to surrender, we have news on how Elon Musk may have put the Ukrainian military at a disadvantage.

23:50And remember, the panel is here to answer your questions tonight. You send them to us at CNN.com slash EngagePolitics. We're answering right now.

23:59This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just$15 a month. A holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song, like All I Want. Right. Okay, we can't afford that. You know what? Forget the music budget. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at MintMobile.com slash Switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for a 12-month plan required,$15 per month equivalent, taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms.

24:36You know, there is a significant new report from the Wall Street Journal tonight. It says Elon Musk personally ordered the slowdown of a critical military-grade version of Starlink that the very technology Ukrainian forces rely on for survival on the front lines. A source told the journal Musk and President Trump discussed the plan before the switch was flipped. But other U.S. officials claim that Musk acted entirely on his own. Musk and Trump have both denied any involvement in this, but it raises a key question. How could a private citizen execute an order of this magnitude unilaterally? Well, some experts have suggested it would be unlikely for the Pentagon not to have at least been aware, which is why lawmakers, they want answers.

25:22If it is, in fact, Mr. Musk that ordered this, that is likely a violation of the law. There's got to be consequences, Caitlin. The executive branch of government does not have a dime of their own money in their own right. The taxpayer money is sent to them through the legislative branch, and there needs to be financial consequences to any agency or any agency head that had any part in this. My panel is back with me, and you are a part of my panel asking questions. We just got one on this very topic. Karen, it came out. Yeah, the question was, why is no one talking about how Elon Musk owns three quarters of the satellites around the planet and has the ability to control all Internet?

26:03Dominance in this category is inevitable, and EM can have control that is dangerous. I mean, I think the point is the Wall Street Journal story makes people ask these kinds of questions and say, wait a second. this guy has so much power and control of our communication systems and may have actually impacted an outcome in this war. So it's a great question. And I basically said, I actually think it's going to get a lot more attention now that this story is out. And because as we saw over the weekend, there was an incident with No Kings having their Instagram account. Apparently, It was a glitch, according to Meta.

26:41I can tell you the lawyers are not buying that. And there are legal drafts being briefed and prepared as we speak because people are concerned. So it just raises the concern level on these things. And this, the context, this happened days after the president publicly warned Ukraine not to hit Russian refineries because of gas prices, which is, you all know, a major midterm issue. And meanwhile, Musk has spent more than$275 million in the midterms, and his company SpaceX, we're talking about, holds billions in U.S. defense contracts. I mean, conflict of interest comes to mind for people. But the president's also making a strategic miscalculation here.

27:18I mean, the Russians are the ones who are attacking civilian infrastructure, and that is what Ukraine is responding to. So if the president actually wanted to address the fuel prices issue, he wouldn't be playing nice and cozying up to the Russians, who cannot be appeased into good behavior. They've already proven that. The president floated this sort of energy infrastructure ceasefire and the Russians kept on doing what they're doing anyways. So if anything, this is making him look extremely weak. Any insight as to whether the administration will run any interference for Musk, knowing that Democrats have already signaled that they're going to try to investigate if they are able to retake the House at the very least?

27:53I haven't gotten any signal of that, but the president has certainly denied it, as we've already reported, and so has Musk. But Democrats, if they win the House, this will probably be added to their list of things they want to probe. Appetite for it? Yeah, I mean, I think you're going to see the House Home Services Committee under Democrat rule make this agenda item number one likely and find out, OK, you're saying one thing, he's saying another. We're going to find out and issue subpoenas to every single person at DOD who has any touchpoint with Elon Musk can find out who knew what when, what emails, what text messages, what conversations were happening.

28:23Did it reach the Oval Office? If it did, what were those conversations? We're going to make Donald Trump have to issue executive privilege to try to hide from that. And that in itself will tell us the full story about really what's going on here. Republicans care about this issue as well. They want to know. They're often, I mean, hawkish in a lot of these issues and have campaigned on such. So first, I do want to say, and I'm not saying it's not true, but this is one of many different, often conflicting reports that have come out about who was responsible for this. So This is one report Reuters has said it comes from the White House.

28:53There's been different kind of accusations here. But we need to get to the bottom of this, and not because of Ukraine. I'm a big, strong supporter of Ukraine. I care about Ukraine. But to me, this isn't about that. This is about U.S. national security. The United States uses Starlink for our military. So either one, there's some kind of a glitch in the system. Russia has hacked into it or some nefarious actor. We need to know that in order to protect our own troops. Option two is there's some defense contractor that has gone rogue here and is disregarding the instructions from the White House and from the Department of War and doing what he wants.

29:29And again, that is very concerning for me as well, because what happens if he doesn't agree with another decision that's made by the U.S. military or by a future administration? Or the third is that somebody within the U.S. national security infrastructure, the president said it's not him. The secretary of war said it's not him. Secretary of state said it's not him. So there's what some rogue deep state actor right now wandering around in the Trump administration that is disregarding what the commander in chief has said. Or and all of that should be concerned to Americans. So we need to get to the bottom of this for our own national security.

30:07We use Starlink. This is very. I was going to say or someone who's telling you they have anything to do with it is not being forthcoming. We have no idea. I'm just saying. It's stunning. I know. It happened. If a defense contractor getting taxpayer dollars from a taxpayer contract is disregarding the orders of the Secretary of War, the White House, they would lose that contract tomorrow. They would lose access to U.S. government resources. That would be the end of it. And that's what should happen. If that doesn't happen, if they're not doing that right now, then it tells you there's something else going on here.

30:39Well, my point, I mean, obviously I'm being facetious, but this is why credibility is so impactful, right? about Donald Trump. You know how important it is that, you know, if people think they can't believe in whatever institution, then they will have the type of questions and the press will be here. Everyone stand by. We've got a lot more, including your answers to your burning questions. Just a moment. But first, can a Democrat win in deep red Arkansas? My next guest is seen as the party's best chance in years to make history in a district they hope to flip. You're going to meet them next.

31:12The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables. It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live U.S.-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plan starting around$1 a day. Right now, get 70 % off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com slash Spotify. Outdoor deterrence plans start at$49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com slash licenses for alarm license information.

31:42This holiday, all plans, even unlimited, are just$15 a month. A holiday deal this good obviously deserves an enormously expensive holiday song, like All I Want. Right. Okay, we can afford that. You know what? Forget the music budget. We're going to stick with whatever's in the public domain. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for a 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms.

32:17All right, there are long shots. Then there are Hail Marys. And Democrats are hoping to land a Hail Mary pass in, of all places, Arkansas. In the state's second congressional district, incumbent Republican French Hill is facing a spirited campaign from Democratic nominee Chris Jones. Some polls suggest this race is closer than one would think. And if Jones wins, he would be the first black person to represent Arkansas in Congress. And Chris Jones joins me now. Chris, welcome. Look, we know you from running for governor in 2022. Again, Sarah O 'Keefe Sanders, you did not succeed in that election.

32:54Why do you believe this time is different? Well, thanks for having me on, Laura. There are a couple of things that matter now. One, the context is very different. You know, I was not running in a completely chaotic Trump administration with a completely feckless Congress at the helm with him. So that's different. The other piece is that now having run statewide, I have name ID and infrastructure across the district that's making a difference. And then the third piece I think that matters is that there are a lot of strong candidates on the down ballot that are helping to lift all of us up. It's surprising to many people, given the demographics and given the fact that it's 2026, that you would be the first black person to ever represent Arkansas in Congress.

33:36What would that mean to you? You know, it would mean a lot. In fact, you know, Arkansas is the only formally Confederate state that has never sent a black person to Congress and has never elected a black person statewide. It's also historic in that Congress itself has never had an ordained minister rocket scientist in Congress. So that would be a first as well. But at the end of the day, those historic firsts are only important to the extent that it eases the pain on people's lives right now and that it shifts and changes the future that they're facing. Ordained minister, rocket scientist is quite the flex.

34:11I'm just going to put that pause, mic drop for a second. That's very unique, sir, very unique. You know, a lot of people assumed efforts to gut the Voting Rights Act, and I do mean gut it, almost redistricting would mean that the South would not even be in play this cycle. So tell me, what are you seeing on the ground that might, in fact, change that perception? Well, first of all, across the board, everyone is feeling the pain at the pump. That's a result of these tariffs and this war of choice in Iran. That is impacting across the board, and it hurts. The second thing is Arkansas actually redistricted four years ago, gerrymandered.

34:47Let me be clear. They took 25 ,000 black voters, Democratic voters, out of the district and brought in 25 ,000 votes. There are three different congressional districts in Little Rock alone. So they've done it, and we've worked in those lines. But what we're seeing is a massive pushback across the board from this effectively cheating that the Republicans are trying to do. And, of course, the idea of having in one city those three different blocks, obviously trying to dilute is the assumption there, dilute the voting strength of particular voting blocks, used to be protected. Now, I will say that they're trying it, but on day one and day two, we saw historic turnout in this general election to the tune of the largest county in the district almost doubled its turnout from the previous four years ago.

35:33So we're seeing people actually show up to vote. Trump, he won your district by about 15 percentage points in 2024. So you, of course, may need GOP voters to get you over the hump. How do you appeal to them? You know, it's pretty straightforward. They voted for him, even though I didn't. They voted for him because they did not want any more foreign wars. He took them to war and Congress didn't stop it. They voted for him because he said he was going to bring prices down on day one. He's increased prices through tariffs and Congress didn't do anything to stop it. They voted for him to release the Epstein files.

36:09He hasn't done it, and Congress hasn't done anything to push him to do it. So in this environment, they're saying, what are we getting for our vote? And they're ready for a change. Gas prices, very important across the nation. They continue to burn a hole in the pocket of drivers in Arkansas and, of course, all across the country. Your opponent suggested people only want lower gas prices because of politics. Listen. I'm not on the side of Iran. And I feel like in this particular election campaign, many people apparently are in order to have a short term political advantage about fuel prices. None of us like high fuel prices.

36:47None of us want a war in the Gulf. What's your response to that, Chris? Well, none of us want high fuel prices, but but there's one person who could have voted to end the tariffs. And in six different times, he voted to continue them. I mean, in fact, one time the vote was 212 to 212. His one vote could have shifted things. So, you know, he can talk all day, all day he wants about wanting something. But his vote shows that he's actually OK with the war and OK with tariffs. And our Kansas are saying that's enough. Fourteen days from now, we will see the final verdict. Chris Jones, thank you for joining.

37:25Thanks for having me. Still ahead, your turn to drive the conversation. The panel is back and ready to continue answering your questions. Send this to us at thenmtoisatcnn.com backslash engagepolitics.

37:44Now, we've been getting so many great questions from all of you guys tonight, so let's start answering them, shall we? Here is the first one. Why won't Republican candidates just tell Trump that he is a liability on the campaign trail? Kurt? Because Trump is a child and they don't want to hurt his feelings and risk a tantrum on social media. Okay, there we go. From Mississippi to Minnesota to Kansas, here's one. The status quo is the common factor Americans are voting against. Karen, does this hurt Democrats as much as it hurts Republicans? So I look at it less as about the status quo as people are trying to figure out, can I trust you to fight for me to deliver?

38:18And when you are the status quo, it is, or in office, it's harder to separate yourself, as the Republicans are finding out from that question we just had. it's hard to do that. So I think ultimately it's going to matter whether or not you can deliver, because I think it doesn't matter. Are you new? Are you status quo? If you don't deliver, you'll lose the trust of the voters. All right. Another question. Why are political ads not subject to fact checking before they're allowed on air? I'll take this one. You know, political speech is kind of the highest level that the court will assign to being able to have First Amendment protection because you can't really have a court weighing in on the subjectivity or the accuracy without silencing the public debate.

38:58So that's part of the reason. And also you have the defamation law is that if you have invited yourself into the public square or public scrutiny, you have to prove that actual malice. So it's a little bit harder to do all of those things. A Democratic blue tsunami in 2026, how could it reshape the 2020 presidential election? Jeff, why don't you take that one? Well, number one, it would give Democrats a chance to show they can govern and what they would do in terms of their governing priorities. And that will either hand a bunch of material to Democratic presidential candidates to highlight or a bunch of material to Republican presidential candidates to criticize.

39:31What do you think, Karine? You're nodding. Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, Democrats have struggled to articulate sort of a guiding message. And there's still a lot of infighting. DSA candidates are still, you know, in the chat. So we'll see what's going to happen going forward. I think there's going to be a lot more infighting. about who wins and where they win. If someone wins in Michigan or Texas, for instance, like that's going to reshape the map too. All right. Don't forget the governors, by the way. It's not just about Congress, but the governors. The biggest thing too is if they take all of this too far, if they don't come in and govern like they should do and have proven actual results, I think that that hurts them in the long run.

40:06If they make this into nothing but just investigating Trump, that hurts them in 2028. All right. How about this question? Why is the Democratic pool of candidates always characterized as moving leftward when those candidates are not proven to win general elections. Karen, why don't you take that? Leftward, you know, the leftward thing is a spin. I mean, four DSA candidates won their House primaries. Thirty six new Democrats, centrists won. Six faith leaders won their primaries and are running. So if we do the math right there, I would not say the Democratic Party is moving to the left. I would say we are a Big Ten party and the country is electing candidates who represent them.

40:46All right. Here's another question. Do you think that Democrats are ready to counter the inevitable bogus voter fraud claims? They're going to come out of Trump's mouth in a few weeks. Karine? Well, I'm sure they're preparing, but three things they might look to. Inflation numbers, gas prices over the last year, and then a clip of, you know, surprisingly circumspect Trump. There have been a couple of these saying himself that presidents and the ruling party always struggle in midterm elections. There's a reality there. OK, how about this one? What happens if the Dems take the House and the GOP keeps the Senate?

41:19Will both parties put aside politics and bring civility to government? Jeff? Going with no. But what I would say to that broader question is it would be a gift to President Trump to at least hold on to one to power in one of those houses. And if he keeps the Senate, if the Republicans keep the Senate, that will certainly blunt the investigations and the momentum that Democrats would have if they won the House. Well, I was hoping for some stability. That'd be nice, right? OK, well, how about this? When candidates completely bypass the debate stage, does it actually hurt their turnout or has the traditional televised debate lost its impact?

41:57Why don't you take that one, Leslie? I do not think that debates matter anymore. I love them. I wish they did. I think that they're important. but at the end of the day, I just don't think that voters are watching debates on their local TV stations. If you're a really good debater, do your debate because you can clip that up and put it on social media. If you're not a good debater, don't do a debate. And that's why debates matter. It's not about what actually happens that night on that stage on that local TV station. It's the clips that play and get tens of millions of views after that can elevate someone like we've seen with John Ossoff in Georgia, or it can give you a really cringe moment like we saw Darlene Graham have in her primary.

42:33Let's open this last question up. Which Senate race do you think has the chance for a surprise and isn't getting enough attention? Who wants to take it? So I don't have a Senate race, but going back to the debate, the attorney general race in New York is incredibly interesting to me. If you haven't seen the candidate there, her name is Saritha Comitoretti. She is incredibly impressive. She just did a debate with Letitia James and wiped the floor with her, and a lot of the clips from it went absolutely viral. So that would be one where at the very least, I think she can overperform significantly there.

43:04And I'll be interested to see what happens. I have to take a point of personal privilege because Tess James is my cousin. And she's going to win because she kicks ass and delivers for the people of New York State. Sorry, I do have a very biased opinion, though. I'll admit that. So Karen says the floor was not wiped. Thank you, everyone, so much. Remember, you can stream my show live or watch on demand anytime with an all access subscription. Scan the QR code on your screen or go to CNN.com slash watch to learn more. I'm coming up on Instagram Live to talk to you all about more questions in a moment.

43:36And here comes Alex Michelson with The Story Is.

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