Trump in SC After Waiving Sanctions Lindsey Graham Fought For

0:01Tonight, what the president told me about why he waived those Russia sanctions as he's now rallying in the state of the late senator who fought so hard for them. I'm Kaitlan Collins and this is The Source.

0:28As we come on the air tonight, with just 13 days to go until the midterm elections, President Trump is back out on the campaign trail this evening in South Carolina. He's there to try to help Senator Darlene Graham hold on to her seat, the one that he pushed for her to be appointed to after the sudden death of her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham. After Darlene's brother, I loved her brother. That guy was a great guy. He was a seriously good politician, by the way, in case anyone's wondering. It was good. When I had little difficulties, whether it was on the right or on the left, I could go to Lindsey and say, Lindsey, I need a little help.

1:07Lindsey could always get it done. I don't know. He passed away unexpectedly. We love Lindsey Graham. The president's joint appearance with Darlene Graham tonight comes after the president had backed off a key part of Lindsey Graham's legacy. Those Russia sanctions that he recently signed into law. And as he headed for South Carolina tonight, I asked President Trump about waiving those sanctions, which he signed into law only a month ago in that law that is named after the late Senator Graham. You're going to South Carolina tonight and you're campaigning for Darlene Graham. What has she said to you about lifting those sanctions on Russia that her brother fought so hard for?

1:48Well, I'll tell you the interesting thing, as you know, we have a gentleman coming home from Russia that they've been after for years. He was captured or taken during the Biden administration. Wouldn't have happened if I were president, but he was taken. and he's a highly respected man, Mr. Hubbard, Stephen Hubbard. And we were in the midst of negotiating, and a lot of stupid people said, and people that don't know how life works, they said, why aren't you putting Russia's sanctions and all this in the midst of a negotiation to try and get a long-term hostage back from Russia? You said you didn't give Russia anything in exchange for his release.

2:27If I would have done that, you would not have Mr. Hubbard coming back right now. So you did give him something in exchange for the release. And you don't know anything. I mean, you're fake news CNN. Look, right now you have a man that's beautifully flying from Russia to wherever he's landing in the United States that I got out because I had a very good and very fast negotiation with President Putin. If you were to put those sanctions on or whatever you want to call them, you could forget about him. You'd never see him again. He'd be back in jail for 25 years. The other thing, very important, we're negotiating with Russia right now on Ukraine.

3:01We are maybe close to a deal for the first time in a long time. We're maybe close to a deal. When you're close to a deal and you have very delicate negotiations, you don't put sanctions on. And the other thing, we have decimated Iran. Russia has had very little input into Iran. They have certainly they could have done a lot more, but I'm not sure they did almost anything. That's something that you have to take into consideration also. So we've beaten Iran. We continue to beat Iran. And Russia and China, frankly, have not been certainly much of a player. And we appreciate that. So the people that say that, oh, let's put sanctions on, you know, I have the right to do them at any day.

3:45Well, you're saying you lifted the sanctions in exchange for his release, right, Mr. President? You don't know what you're talking about. You're a dummy. You're a low IQ person. and you're a dummy and you work for CNN. Let me tell you, if I'm negotiating to get a man back, a man that we've wanted back for years, a man that was a prisoner in Siberia or someplace in Russia, and we're getting him back because of me, should have been brought — it should have never happened, but it should have been brought back during Biden, because he was there during the Biden. He was captured or taken during Biden.

4:17When you're negotiating that and you're dropping, and I know that I'm doing it, And because a lot of people didn't know and they say, oh, let's put sanctions on Russia, the negotiation would obviously come immediately to an end. So use your head. Moments after that exchange, my colleague Karen Travers of ABC News followed up. How is we making a sanction from Russia to secure the release of Hubbard not giving something to Russia? Are you a stupid person? Who do you work for? You're a stupid person. And by the way, your network is the worst of all. Of course, the reality is even the candidate that the president is campaigning for tonight has disagreed with his decision to lift those Russia sanctions.

5:03Personally, I would choose to keep the pressure on Russia to end the war and get the gas prices down because I don't trust Putin and I don't trust Russia. It was the president who just three months ago encouraged Darlene Graham to run in order, as he put it, to honor the legacy of her beloved brother, Lindsey. And if the Senate election in South Carolina is about honoring his legacy, we should note the senator who held that seat for decades was very clear about what he thought of world leaders who make deals to buy Russian oil. You don't want to reward Putin for this invasion. You'll just get more of it.

5:42I understand wanting to buy cheap Russian oil, But I don't understand a country that buys cheap Russian oil knowing it's going to be used to kill innocent people and acquire land from others by force of arms. Don't fuel the flames of a bloodbath. Don't buy cheap oil from a despot because you can with a punity. And my source on this tonight is the Democratic Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado, who is a military veteran who serves on the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committee. And thank you, Congressman, for being here tonight, because I do think it's important to say there's no one who is not happy that Stephen Hubbard, an American, is free and on his way home after being kidnapped from his home in Russia, his home in Ukraine, taken to Russia, held prisoner there for the last several years.

6:37Of course, his family is also grateful that Steve Wyckoff secured his release. But when you hear the president say that he gave nothing to Russia in exchange for his release, do you think that's true? Of course, it's not true, Caitlin. I mean, I am with you. It's great that Mr. Hubbard is coming back. And by the way, President Biden got the release of dozens of folks around the world during his presidency and didn't give away everything in the process. The problem here is the message that Donald Trump just sent is that all you have to do is capture one U.S. citizen and we'll give anything that you want.

7:16This president will give you it all. And what's even worse in this instance is that the president of the United States is now actively supporting a brutal dictator, a war criminal, and an adversary of the United States that's actively trying to target U.S. troops. and kill U.S. troops and help other countries, Iran and others, also kill U.S. troops and just lifted sanctions to give them billions of dollars to support those efforts. Well, and I should note, President Biden did agree to prisoner exchanges for people who are convicted arms dealers that he agreed to have released in exchange for getting Americans released.

7:56He was criticized for that. But I mentioned Steve Wyckoff. That is the president's Special Envoy who was there in Russia negotiating the release and has been involved in these talks alongside Jared Kushner. I want you to listen to what he said about President Putin today, which is quite remarkable, and what the president said when he was asked if he agreed with Steve Wyckoff. You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir. And I salute that. I commend you. You mean Steve Whitcoff said he was a humanitarian? Yes. Well, I guess you could say for that particular purpose, for the purpose of allowing a man who was thinking he was going to be in prison for life out.

8:46But, you know, I wouldn't say anything one way or the other. Do you think Putin is a humanitarian? Well, absolutely not. I mean, this is one of the most brutal dictators of our time and of history. You know, he's kidnapped 30 ,000 Ukrainian children. He launched this invasion of Ukraine and has killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, committed any number of war crimes, and for decades has actually been trying to target and kill American citizens and U.S. service members. So that's where we're at. And then the last week, this is what Donald Trump has done. They have apparently restricted Starlink and Starshield for Ukraine, allowing Vladimir Putin to launch missiles and to lower the defenses of Ukraine against Ukrainian civilians, resulting in the death of Ukrainian children.

9:44They have eased sanctions and lifted many sanctions. And now Steve Witkoff sat across from Vladimir Putin and called him a humanitarian. That's just the last week. the damage that Donald Trump and his administration are doing to the U.S. standing in the world and our national security is incalculable. I thought the comments that we heard from Brian Kilmeade of Fox News on that comment specifically calling Putin, who of course has killed hundreds of people, they followed comments like these from Republicans saying it was a ridiculous statement, appeasement won in the war. Tom Tillis just said WTF.

10:20This is what Brian Kilmeade of Fox News had to say.

10:50Ladies and gentlemen, anyone listening, if you see Vladimir Putin, do not call me humanitarian. No one will take you seriously. I mean, between that comment, which I mean, I think is a pretty tough comment from Brian Kilmeade about something that Trump's top envoy said. The president's argument to me as we were having that back and forth earlier was you don't put sanctions on Russia if you're close to making an agreement with them. If you put the sanctions on, they're not going to release the Americans. They're not going to make an agreement. Do you think that there is any validity to that argument, Congressman?

11:27No. I mean, where I come from, when you're trying to make a deal, you don't give the person you're bargaining with most of what they're looking for before the deal is done. I mean, that's what's happening here. You know, and it's very clear whenever Donald Trump is backed into a corner and realizes that he looks like a fool and someone's pointing out that they're acting foolish, then he literally acts like a bully on a middle school playground and says, oh, well, you're dumb. You don't know any better. I mean, this is crazy. I haven't seen somebody say something like that since middle school. And yet it's the president of the United States.

12:00So clearly he's not making a deal. I, for one, want to retake control of Congress, conduct investigations, not only of Pete Hegseth, but what's happening with Starshield and Starlink, and actually figure out what really is happening with Russia here. You know, it is beyond perplexing why Donald Trump and the people closest to him continue to cozy up to one of the worst dictators in history, somebody who is actively targeting U.S. service members, actively supporting Iran and other enemies of the United States, and at the same time maligning our closest partners and closest allies. There is something really wrong here.

12:42And it's jeopardizing the safety and security of our service members. And we're going to be relentless digging into this and getting to the truth. Congressman Jason Crow, thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you. Up next, the vice president's response when he was back home in Ohio defending that ad by Vivek Romaswamy that a lot of Republicans are calling disgusting. Vance said, stop whining.

13:14Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. My guest is Lil Jon. He's a rapper, DJ, and producer known for hits like Get Low and Turn Down for What. In February 2026, his 27-year-old son Nathan went missing near Nathan's home in Georgia. Three days later, his body was found in a pond nearby. eye. Lil Jon has a memoir that just came out called I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me. It takes time to heal and I kept myself busy that I didn't let myself mourn. I needed to laugh again. I needed to be silly and interact with people and feel other people's energy and make people happy too.

13:58We have to share so other people can see that they can get through it too. Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is all there is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. You may have noticed gambling doesn't require a casino anymore. You can just open up your phone. It's designed to keep us coming back or maybe never even leaving in the first place. We're going to talk to Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA's Gambling Studies program. you're going to learn what your brain is really chasing when you place a bet, and also importantly, how to keep the game from playing you.

14:39Gambling addiction, gambling disorder is the hidden addiction. You can't smell it, you can't taste it, you can't see it, you can't have a urine drug test. Who are we talking about here, Professor? Who's the most likely demographic to be affected by this? Literally any single human on earth. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts. Vice President J.D. Vance went home to Ohio today with a plan to defend his law school classmate, the Republican candidate who is running for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy. Now the media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because guess what?

15:17Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar. I should note that came during the scripted part of the vice president's speech, and it happened after Vivek Ramaswamy himself doubled down on that campaign ad that features the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton. In the ad, which you probably have seen by now, Donna Arthur, who is Acton's birth mother, calls her a liar and insinuates that she has mental health issues. What the ad doesn't say is that the two of them haven't seen or spoken to each other in decades.

15:57That would be ever since Acton's stepfather was indicted for sexually abusing her when she was 12 years old. Acton's brother says their mother chose to stay with their stepfather for the rest of his life. Now that is the context around the ad that you just heard the vice president describe as, quote, a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar. Now, Amy Acton responded to her opponent embracing the ad this way. You know, I'd hoped he wouldn't sink this low, but of course he did. We had known that, as I shared before, my mother has not been seen by me since I was 12 years old.

16:43I had a childhood of extreme physical abuse and sexual abuse. As a kid, my brother and I, frequent flyers and children's services, finally removed after a grand jury saw evidence that was so shocking that we were removed from my mother's custody. Now, her response there brings me back to the vice president, who wrote an entire book about his own family struggles as he grew up poor in Ohio. J.D. Vance did register his discuss today, but not with the ad itself, but at the members of his own party who won't get on board. But I have to admit that I'm a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America.

17:40Politics is a tough business. And my message to my fellow elected Republicans is if you actually believe in the things you say you believe in, stop whining about an advertisement and go win the race in 13 days. Stop whining about an advertisement, the vice president says to people in his own party who are voicing their disgust about the ad. For Republican Senator John Huston of Ohio, who is running to hold on to his seat in this election, he told the Associated Press, quote, I would not have run that ad. Ryan Smith, who is the former Republican Speaker of the House in Ohio, posted, What happened to decency, to human decency?

18:15Stop normalizing bad behavior and embarrassing the party. Ohio deserves better than this. But of course, the reactions that matter most come from the Ohio voters themselves, who said this. I don't care if Ramaswamy's policies are the best. That shows just a judgment of character that I don't want to see anymore in politics. I would never say that about one of my children. And to go to that point, to do that, she must feel very strongly about something. I don't think it reflects well on Amy Acton, but I also don't think it reflects well on her mother. I feel bad for Amy in the sense that she was truly a victim, and that's not right.

19:00But I also don't want somebody running into the city or state of Ohio who's a victim and who's in victim mode because that makes the leadership seem like victim, and that's not good. That's what voters were saying in Ohio and Washington as he was leaving the White House today. The president was also asked about that ad and offered this take. The fact is I know nothing about it, but I hear the mother went very rogue on the daughter. doesn't have a lot of respect for the daughter. And I think the mother is a witness to things also. So who knows? And you'll have to figure that out. It's a very unusual situation to have a mother hate a daughter that much.

19:38But I don't think that has anything to do with Vivek. Of course, it does have a lot to do with Vivek Ramaswamy because his campaign is spending $4 million to run that ad as much as it can over the next 13 days. My political sources are here tonight, including Democratic strategist Amisha Cross, former Republican governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, whose brother John is running for the Senate in that state, I should note, and also former Trump campaign advisor, David Urban. David, do you agree with the vice president the Republicans should stop whining about that ad? Yeah, listen, I think it's the rule of holes.

20:15When you're in a hole, stop digging. I think they should apologize for running the ad. If I was Vivek Ramaswamy, that came out and said it was a mistake, shown some decency. As you pointed out, the vice president was a victim of abuse in his own childhood. He went and lived with his meemaw. It shows some empathy, right? I said this earlier. This makes the 1988 Willie Horton ad look kind of quaint and like a Hallmark movie almost, right? This has gone beyond and above and crossed a line that we probably shouldn't cross. This woman, look, I'm not an advocate for Amy Acton. I'd probably vote against her if I lived in the state of Ohio.

20:53But what this ad did is made her very empathetic. She's got a backstory now. She's just not some terrible Democrat that's going to ruin the state of Ohio. She's the woman that overcame a massive amount of abuse in her own life, went to medical school, has a successful career. The woman said she's playing the victim card. She didn't play the victim card. She didn't even mention it. So we've managed to personalize this woman, right, and a candidate and make her so much more than she would have been if, you know, they didn't mention it. It just backfired. It was a terrible decision to begin with, shameful, and it had the exact opposite effect.

21:29I mean,$4 million is going behind that ad. Yeah, look, it's content aside, you can debate that. It's just strategically stupid. In the last two weeks of a campaign, you want to end with strength. This is a weak ad. As you said, this is an ad where you're trying to stir something up. You want to finish strong. You want to finish with character. You want to embolden people, get people excited about something. That's how you close out campaigns. This does just the, I mean, whoever recommended he do the ad in the first place is just, should be fired. It's just an awful ad. And yes, he's going to double down on it and say he's going to keep spending$4 million.

22:03But believe me, if he could go back four days and see the outcome, there's no way he would be running that ad. Also, the doubling down feels like something that a lot of Republicans do in the style of Trump, but it often doesn't work for people who are not named Donald Trump. No, no. Look, you've got to be an individual. You've got to be what you're about. Candidate quality in the last couple of weeks is what drives this. And as David said, it shows a weakness. It opens up a character question on Vivek. It opens up some empathy for his opponent, and it's just strategically dumb. And so you can't run your race like Donald Trump.

22:37Donald Trump runs his race his way. You have to run your race your way. You have to be what you're about, be independent. And right now, it just, it was a mistake. I mean, and also the argument that Vivek Ramaswamy and the vice president was making today is that Amy Acton would be a bad governor, that her policies are bad. But if that's the case, why not run ads about her policies? Because he wanted that shock factor. I think that he saw this as a kill zone, a strike zone. And unfortunately, or, you know, unfortunately for him, that was very, that was a very misconceived notion. But as somebody who is a court appointed special advocate, I work with foster care children in those cases.

23:10In the majority of situations that young children are removed from the home, particularly when it's the mother, it is because of child sex abuse. And I think that when you see something like this, and this has happened to this, you know, a child who was at eight years old up until she was 12, there is a lot of heart that goes towards recognizing what that means for a young person, but also, and to a point made earlier, just her fortitude for being able to continue throughout life and be as successful as she is, because that is really demonstrably horrible. And to have her mother be a part of that campaign ad and say the things she did when her children were found by the state to be in danger, it says something.

23:45Vivek Ramaswamy is lower than dirt to have run that ad, to have thought that that was okay, and to defend it. And J.D. Vance is no better. Well, and I saw some allies of Ramaswamy today saying, well, other people have invoked family members before during races. You know, this isn't unusual. It's politics. But I mean, to your point, it's a different level when it's someone who's alleging child sex abuse. This isn't Billy Carter. There's been family scandals before. This is a young child who was abused, right? And clearly, her mother, if you watch the ad, when you see the ad, you know there's something off in the ad a little bit to begin with.

24:21And look, especially on the heel of the Epstein files, right? We've gone through this huge thing, this reckoning in America about child sex abuse and you have NCMEC. There's so many organizations that are doing good things in America to help rein this stuff in. And in here you have a campaign that's like touting, it's not, I mean, it's using it as a foil. It shouldn't be used in that case. This is, again, Republicans just missing the mark on this one. And if you're John Husted, like he said, John Husted's like, never heard of a fake Ramaswamy. Who's that, right? Were you surprised that the vice president defended it the way he did today?

25:03He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to do it. I think that's what surprised me. He could have just stayed quiet, moved on, you know, had his talking points, done his campaign stop, to dive in on something again on an issue like this when you're talking about potential child and sex abuse. And it's a line that a lot of people just you just it's a third rail. You just don't want to touch it. If you don't know the facts, you don't know the background. It's not a good look. I guess the question is, is this the death now? I think it is. The Republican Party has tried to stand on business when it comes to child sex abuse for quite some time and has made inroads in that, even though some of the people involved have also been kind of questionable in their own backgrounds.

25:37This is something entirely different because they're not only re-victimizing somebody who has lived through that trauma, but also in light of it, trying to act as though she was to blame or that it didn't happen at all. I think that's one of the worst things you could possibly do to somebody who has been a victim of sexual abuse. And we're not talking about how bad her policies are, right? We're not having a debate about why she shouldn't be governor. There's a lot of reasons why she shouldn't be governor. Now we're not talking about her. Everyone stick around. We have a lot more to talk about tonight because there were two big debates and two battlegrounds tonight.

26:08Things got interesting pretty quickly. We're going to take you and show you the highlights right after a quick break.

26:19I'm sure somebody at home has won MAGA bingo right now because it's all the buzzwords. because he does not want to actually talk about substance, does not want to own his own record. He wants to make this about Donald Trump. I mean, the bingo game ought to be how many times can he put the word Trump in any answer, any answer that he has given in the last, whatever, 30 minutes. Just some of the fiery exchanges between the Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, and the Republican Senate nominee, Mike Rogers, engulfed in their final debate before Election Day as Michigan's crucial Senate seat is on the line in that race.

26:52It was one question on the Iran war, though, that maybe became the night's most defining moment. Days after we saw Abdul El-Sayed denounce the Muslim Brotherhood with a voter exchange and later with reporters, Mike Rogers sought again to tie him to the Islamist movement, prompting El-Sayed to fire back with this. I want you to pay attention on Sunday when Donald Trump comes here at the invitation of Mike Rogers to remind you that, in fact, Donald Trump is on the ballot through Mike Rogers. They are hip to hip on this war, and you are paying the cost. So being bought off by the Muslim Brotherhood, having donors to his campaign from Hamas that support Hezbollah is not a problem?

27:33If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know, are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas? You can grin and you can smile and you can talk real pretty, but I'm going to tell you what, that is a risk to our national security. As a matter of fact, the New York Times gave him an option to condemn his comments supporting the Morrissey and the— We're going to have to leave it there so we can get other topics there. And he said no comment. Let's talk about this. He keeps raising this question about this association with an organization I've never been a part of.

28:06Because my mom, who's a nurse in Missouri, it doesn't make any sense. And it's actually really quite beneath you, Mike. It's really quite beneath you. To call into question my loyalty to the Constitution—I'm talking. Own up to. I'm talking. Excuse me. Yeah, go ahead. Can I have a few more seconds? Yes, go ahead. Thank you. To bring into question, my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you. I am proud of America. I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray. And the question that you would ask that I think is actually really quite shameful as somebody who's actually served under that Constitution.

28:42It is shameful. My political sources are back with me as well as our chief data analyst, Harry Enten. And Amisha, as you listen to that exchange, you know, El-Sahed has said before he doesn't know what his mom was doing in the 1970s in Egypt. He said he was primarily raised in Michigan by his father and his stepmom. What did you make of how it was used at the debate tonight? Well, I think that the only thing that Mike Rogers has and the thing that he thinks that he can latch on to the strongest is a him trying to create a connection between someone who is of the Muslim faith, is of the Islamic faith to terrorist groups because he knows that that rings in the ears of certain individuals.

29:19And I think that it's very frustrating. It's extremely unfortunate. And I think that El Sayyid does as best as he can in responding to that. We are a nation that does not have one religion. We are a basis of multiple religions and multiple cultures. And he should be able to practice his and honor his faith in the way that he is doing it. However, I think that trying to tie that to something that is terroristic is a real problem. And we continue to see Mike Rogers do this over and over and over again. There hasn't been a single debate, a single campaign ad, a single canvas effort or event that he has done.

29:50And the Republican Party as a whole when it comes to El-Sayed trying to tie him to something he is not a part of. I think that it's shameful. I think that it goes against what our Constitution is based on. And I think that El-Sayed responds every time with the right answer. What did you make of that moment? Look, I think there's enough to push back on El-Sayed. You've got to remember, this is a candidate that moderate Democrats were praying wouldn't win the primary because he was so, I'll call it progressive, socialist, DSA, whatever you want to call it. Just not in the norm, if you will, of where a lot of the independent minded folks in Michigan are.

30:23He is an extremist. There's no doubt about that. So take all that Muslim Brotherhood stuff aside, whether it's valid or not valid. It's Islamophobia. Well, no, no, that's not true. No, not true. Now, Amisha, this is the difference between religion. No one's saying he can't be Muslim or practice the Islamic faith. There's a question about whether he's a family member, was a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization. That's a yes or no answer, which he's never answered. No, no, no, hold on. This is somebody who wasn't even raised by him. Amisha, let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish.

30:55Okay, you have your time. His mother, all he has to say is, I disavow it. Of course it's a terrible organization. They're terrorists. I would have nothing to do with it. He has never done that, not once. So this isn't about Islamophobia. This is about terrorists who want to do harm to the West. And if Abdul El-Sayed can't condemn that, if he thinks that Iran is a bigger threat to America than Israel, then that's a guy who shouldn't be in the United States Senate. And if he can't say that, if he can't say that he's been given time and time again the option to do so, he's failed to do it, he shouldn't be elected.

31:27He has said multiple times that he does not support the Islam. He does not support terrorist regimes. But he's not denounced the Muslim Brotherhood. He's not denounced the emails. There's email traffic. It's the civic organization that comes. It's nothing to do with his faith. Nothing. Well, he did denounce the Muslim Brotherhood over the weekend in that exchange. But his point was, why am I being asked about this? Because there's emails from his family that say, our mom is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. It's not complicated. It's not basic. This is a guy who was not raised by his mother.

31:52It doesn't matter. I'm sorry. I am confused on how this has anything to do with him. It is. It's his family. But he was not raised by his mom at all. If it's your family and they're saying we're supportive, why doesn't he just come out and say, I disavow that. I have nothing to do with that. He's never done it until like this past weekend. Right. Why did he have a son Piker, a man who said not America deserve 9-11? That's who he campaigned with. Amisha, this is a this is an attack. This guy chooses who he campaigns with. If you're choosing to campaign with somebody who hates America, who literally says, I hate America.

32:24Do you really want me to quote all the people who campaigned with? I'm talking about this one instance. In this case, Hassan Piker, terrible human. I'm not standing up for Hassan Piker. I think that Hassan Piker is a bad person. I also think that all the people - By reference, you're standing up for him. All of the people who the current president of the United States campaigned with and allowed to endorse him were also extremely horrible people. He still became president of the United States, and you didn't call that out. Abdul El-Sayed, who's chosen, who his Democratic opponent, who he beat, Haley Stevens, she's not campaigning with him.

32:53She refuses to campaign with him. This guy's not going to win. He's going down. His ship is sinking fast. You think he's not going to win? No, not even close. Harry Intend is also here. Hi, Harry. Sorry, Harry. It's very tough to match the energy in that room, but I sure as heck will try. Although energy is not too tough for me. Yeah, we agree with that. I don't think anyone on the panel would dispute that. But Harry, you know, you mentioned you heard David's assessment of this race. And one thing that Abdul said, kept doing tonight and brought up there was President Trump tying Mike Rogers to him.

33:25It comes as the new CNN poll shows Trump's approval rating is at a record low, 32 percent. You're the pollster that Trump quotes all the time. What are we seeing in these numbers? You know, I've become part of his roadshow at the end of every rally, it seems like. Look, I'll take any of the press I can get. But at the end of the day, you know, if I were Abdul, I said, of course, I would be bringing up Trump every single moment I possibly can. You brought up that CNN poll, right? You know, this of me is part of a larger picture, historically speaking, where, you know, you go back in time. You look at any of the presidents who are anywhere close to how unpopular Donald Trump is at this point going into a midterm election.

34:01The only two I could find who had a sub minus 15 point net approval rating besides Trump are Harry S. Truman in 1946. How about George W. Bush going into the 2006 election? You know what happened to both those elections? Their parties lost not just the House, but the Senate as well. And of course, that's what we're talking about right here. And you mentioned that CNN poll. You know, to me, I'm always asking, hey, is this poll an outlier? Does this look like the other data points that we have out there? And you know what? There are a lot of data points that look a whole heck of a lot like the CNN poll.

34:33You know, we're talking about sub minus 30 net approval. That's approval minus disapproval. It's not just the CNN poll, right? What are we talking about? We're talking about the ABC poll. We're talking about the Ipsos poll. We're talking about the Pew poll where it was 38 points under order. That is the all-time worst for any president in any poll in the October pre-midterm. You have to go all the way back to FDR. And while I may sound like an elderly man, I was certainly not alive back in 1938, Caitlin. But here's the thing. Right. Here's the thing. It's all about the midterm elections. Right.

35:05Coming up. It's all about the House. It's all about the Senate. You know, that CNN poll that we had that came out today. Right. There was a generic ballot question on there. Right. You're going to vote for the Democrat or Republican for Congress. You know what's so important? Democrats now have a 10 point advantage on the generic ballot coordinator CNN poll. Pretty much very close to the New York Times is plus 11 points. Again, non-outlier. That is vastly different from what we saw two years ago in our final poll when Republicans were up by two. That is a huge shift. Now, whether or not we actually see that funnel down to a place like Michigan, I'm not sure.

35:36But it's going to be key. Yeah, and I would say this. I would say this. Harry, Governor, really quickly, Harry. On that CNN poll and that question, Democrats were oversampled 49 % to 39%. 10 % difference on that poll. So, you know, if you want to compare polls, you compare the midterm of 26 to the midterm of 22. And let's let's set expectations. If the Democrats don't win fairly handily, that would be an odd thing for a midterm election. Right. Midterm elections always see something to the other to the other side. It's just to what level. And that's why it is concerning for Republicans when the president has to go to places like Kansas or Ohio or things that should be absolute luck.

36:14South Carolina. That's the most disconcerting thing. But if you're going to look at poll numbers, 1938 polls mean absolutely nothing. They're pulled 100 % of a way. Mary, defend your analysis. I will defend my honor and the pollster honor here. I am just merely saying what we're seeing here is historically unprecedented. There is no president who has been anywhere close to this unpopular in a midterm election. And look, the president quotes me. I don't bring pleasure in bringing bad news to either side. It's just the numbers are what they are. And I will also note, Mr. Urban, what we're talking about here is party identification.

36:48That is you identify as a Democrat or Republican independent. Which way do you lean? That does in fact change over time. And our CNN poll is not the only one that says it. That doesn't guarantee the polls are going to be right. Polls are tools, but these, the numbers are the numbers on the numbers and they look ugly for Republicans nationally anyway. One thing I do have to ask though, I mean, speaking of that, your brother is running and he ran an ad this week. No, but I'm supporting his brother. The only person whose brother is running at this table is yours. And he said the way Chris Pappas, his opponent, tells it, I'm President Trump's long lost son.

37:23I've never even met the man, he said in a new ad this week. He's never met him. So, look, it's not about rebuking Trump. It's about saying, look, I've never met the guy. So as all the candidates, Democrat candidates across the country are doing the Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, they're trying to make it sticky. And those polls matter. Don't don't get me wrong. But I think just to talk about my brother, he's saying, look, he's New Hampshire first. He's a local guy first. I've never even met the guy. I didn't support the war in Iran. I don't support terrorists in Canada. Those are things that Republicans, Independent, and Democrats across the board in New Hampshire agree to.

37:56So he's just trying to show that that campaign tactic doesn't stick to him. And we'll see where it goes. By the way, John Sanuna is winning, too. Just put it on record. Also, I'm just saying, if someone says, though, I've never even met that person, as Mariah Carey did, it's usually a minute shade. What do you mean? Yeah, exactly. Everyone, thank you all for being here and for bringing the energy, as Harry said, disputing the polls. We'll talk about all that. Don't worry. We'll be keeping up with it coming up on the election. Up next today, we heard from Elon Musk today responding to that Wall Street Journal report about him throttling Starlink in Ukraine.

38:28At one point, he tweeted, live by the sword, die by the sword. Sounds like Swisher, as in Kara, really wants to go to prison. OK, well, we're going to ask Kara about that right after this.

38:43We'd like to know exactly who is responsible for what happened. If it is one man, Elon Musk, who is dictating our foreign policy. We absolutely should be looking into how Elon Musk, by trying to spend$300 million in the midterm elections, is trying to buy his way into billions of dollars more. And when we reconvene just after the election, that's two weeks from today, I expect action from my colleagues. As you see there, more and more Democrats are vowing to investigate Elon Musk should they win back control of Congress in just about two weeks from tonight. After that Wall Street Journal report that said that Musk personally ordered the slowdown of that critical military grade version of Starlink that is relied on by Ukraine on the battlefield.

39:28Now, the world's richest man is responding with his own threat. He posted today, live by the sword, die by the sword. Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets. His post was in response to Politico's report about the growing list of potential probes that Democrats might pursue. But the man who is also the Republicans' biggest midterm donor also responded to something that the tech journalist Kara Swisher had said about him. Under Kamala Harris, he might be in jail right now, right? He is correct.

40:04And that's not because she's some avenging fury. It's because there's a lot of questions around different companies of his. If Donald Trump loses the House and the Senate, I would worry. I'd be worried if I were him, you know, no matter how rich he is. He wrote in response to that quote, Live by the sword, die by the sword. Sounds like Swisher really wants to go to prison. Kara Swisher is my source tonight. Cara, first off, what is your response to Elon Musk? Yeah. He's a 53-year-old man. You know, he doesn't agree with someone. I was just saying what exactly what all those people you just had on said.

40:52Investigations again, that he managed to put the kibosh on through Doge and his son and Trump. And that's over if the Democrats win the House and the Senate. I was stating a fact. I'm not the clock. I'm just telling you the time. And he loses that kind of influence that he clearly has over the president. You were saying in that interview that Elon Musk is someone who might be in jail if Kamala Harris was president. What did you mean by that?

41:24i was talking about all the investigations that were happening and some of them you know including around tesla carried criminal problems they were looking at everything the trump administration and through doge he cut off a lot of those uh investigations and they just disappeared i don't know where they were going to lead um and this is just these are just these investigations and where they go. And so, you know, if there were problems with Tesla, for example, a lot of other car executives got in big trouble for problems with their cars and things like that. And it wasn't, I wasn't saying I was going to put him in prison, but I do think he's going to, those investigations are going to come back to haunt him in the way that he was trying to get rid of.

42:05And that's why he's spending this enormous amount of money. And now with this Ukraine thing, they're going to investigate that because that's even more problematic that a citizen should have so much power, a citizen, unaccountable, unelected official person should have so much influence over foreign policy in this way. And I mean, last night, Brian Fitzpatrick, he's a Republican, and he was saying that an investigation is warranted and that that would include Elon Musk potentially about going under oath. He said it would include everybody. You know, when you saw what Elon Musk was saying back to you today, what was your, I mean, what went through your mind?

42:42oh he does it all the time i thought he's a toddler it's ridiculous i mean he called he said my heart was filled with hate once um he called me a name that i guess i shouldn't repeat whatever this is how he operates which again let me just stress he's a 53 year old man and this is how he talks i just i don't even understand it i was just pointing out democrats take over he better you know they in fact one of them said preserve your communications um and and they were not just Democrats. They were also Republicans, people concerned about his influence over Ukraine. And the fact that he's doing this is just what can I do?

43:15Caitlin, you you're you're subject to all manner of like insults. And you just sit there and say, OK, that's how you want to play. Go right ahead. I'm going to continue, you know, calling people and trying to understand it and ask the questions is what's going to happen to Elon Musk in a situation where Trump isn't there to protect him. And that's that's a dicier situation for him than previously, which is, again, why he's spending hundreds of millions of dollars, whether it's in Texas or with the Senate or anything else. This is existential for him. And the money is hard. It doesn't matter. He's so rich.

43:47He's a trillionaire again because the SpaceX just shot up again today. So, I mean, I don't know. How do you respond to this kind of stuff? It's just, I guess I should smile more. I don't know. Kara Swisher, as always, great to have you. Thank you for joining us. thank you up next it is time for source code tonight's source code is 14 i'll be right back with the story tonight's source code is 14 because the vatican shared some good news today about pope leo the 14th the press office says that leo's lung cancer surgery last week was a success and that right now no further treatment is required the pope's announcement earlier this month that he needed surgery for a nodule on his lung came as a shock both within and outside the Vatican.

44:39After a short stay at the hospital in Rome though where doctors removed the lobe of his left lung Leo was able to return home on Saturday. He made his first public appearance the very next day for Sunday prayers and today Leo held his first general audience in St. Peter's Square. We're all wishing him good health and a speedy recovery. Thank you so much for joining us here tonight on The Source. CNN Newsnight with Abby Phillip starts now. So have I got news for your ears, the podcast. I am your host, Michael Ian Black. We are talking about the final polls going into the midterms, the hot races getting the most attention.

45:16Trump's final argument. Have I got news for your ears? Check us out on Apple, Amazon Music, wherever you get your podcasts. Even better, you can watch the podcast on Spotify.