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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

Now: Texas House Comes Into Session With Dems Absent; Trump Econ Adviser: Jobs Report Could Be "Politically Manipulated"; Just In: Two Epstein Victims File Letters To The Court Condemning DOJ Effort To Unseal Grand Jury Testimony. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 04, 2025 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:02]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The zoo says this actually helps mimic the natural food chains. No word on whether donations are tax deductible. I don't even know how you do that. I don't really know where to begin with this --

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: There is an IRS form, I'm sure, for donating your pet to be had by a lion at a zoo. I'm pretty sure about that.

KEILAR: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: What kind of person does this, though?

KEILAR: Two, three, four.

SANCHEZ: What kind of person does this, though? What do you think?

KEILAR: Someone you should be really worried about? That's who does it.

SANCHEZ: They should wind up on a list somewhere.

KEILAR: Yeah.

THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's wonderful to have you with us on this Monday.

It is 4:00 p.m. here in Washington. It is 3:00 at the Texas state capitol, the hour when state lawmakers are scheduled to start work or as the governor claims, face risking their jobs. This is a live look inside the Texas state house of representatives.

Lawmakers about to officially, officially gavel in for today's session. The lawmakers that are there in Texas, that is.

Most Democrats have left the state in an effort to block a partisan redistricting effort by Republicans for Republicans. The governor, Republican Greg Abbott, has given those absent Democrats up until right now to show up, or he claims he has the power to remove them from office.

Our panel is here, and we're joined also by CNN senior national correspondent Ed Lavandera, who is inside the Texas state capitol building.

Ed, we were just looking live at the floor. Take us through what's happening in the chamber behind you and what you expect next?

Well, we can hear the bells ringing from inside the chamber as essentially they're taking a roll, and it is an empty chamber.

So, it's clear that the Democrats are not going to be here. It's not exactly clear how long the this is actually going to last. It probably only last a few minutes before they gavel back out. If there is no quorum, everything comes to a grinding halt. And the political rhetoric around all of this has been escalating throughout the day, with Governor Abbott threatening to remove the Texas -- actually, we just heard the speaker of the house say that a quorum has is not present.

So, it is official at this point, and the governor has been threatening Democrats to be removed from office, also threatening them with charges of criminal charges of bribery for accepting donations and fleeing the state. So, all of that continues to escalate.

This is a little bit more of what Greg Abbott has said throughout the day today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: They're leaving and they've left because they're very un-Texan. Texans don't run from a fight. And there's a fight going on in the -- in the legislature right now about redistricting as well as other things.

To run to states like New York and Illinois to protest redistricting, it's kind of like running to Wisconsin to protest cheese. It's just kind of outrageous. Those are New York and Illinois, two hallmark states that have already done redistricting to eliminate Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And, Kasie, Democrats know that they don't have the votes to eventually stop this redistricting bill, but they are hoping to ratchet up the pressure on Republicans for continuing to go down this path as well. They believe that they're on the higher moral ground here in terms of what this means, and they describe it as a threat to democracy.

Meanwhile, Republicans say, you know, that these Democrats are acting like cowards, that they kind of heard what the governor there was talking about, and they should have stayed back here and had this fight on the floor of the Texas house.

But this is coming in the middle of this special legislative session. It's supposed to last about 30 days. We have about two weeks left. So, the endgame here is just exactly how long are Democrats willing to stay away from Texas and Austin? If they were to last through the next two weeks and get out of this special session, the governor of Texas could simply call a special session after special session to get this redistricting bill passed.

So, they know that this is really a public relations war. Several of the members have told me that this is about raising awareness for voters across the country about what this means, not just for Texas, but for other states across the country as well -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Ed Lavandera for us in Texas -- Ed, thanks very much for that report.

And I think we do want to listen in to what's happening on the floor for just a few moments. The speaker there, Dustin Burrows, saying that he's willing to sign warrants for civil arrest for the lawmakers that are not present.

All right. It sounds like they're about to begin a prayer there.

Marc Short, can I ask you here -- and then our panel is here. Marc Short, Ashley Allison, Elliot Williams, Kristen Soltis Anderson.

Marc, for the governor here.

[16:05:01]

This is a situation where there's clearly been pressure from the president to redistrict. The Texas leaders were actually fine with where they were. The Department of Justice actually came in and said, you've used race in a way that was inappropriate. When Texas Republicans had sort of been out there saying, these are fair. We didn't consider race in this. And now they've come under this pressure and Abbott is going along with it.

What do you think of that from a big picture perspective?

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Big picture, I think, that kind of opens a pandora's box. We have blue states trying to do the same thing. But there has been, I think, a lot of people and businesses that have fled California in blue states, into Texas and Florida, and there's nothing that prevents California from doing the same thing.

At the end of the day, I think it's a really bad look for Democrats because your chyron on CNN all day has said Texas Dems flee state. And that's -- that's basically what -- what's happened is they're basically running away from this just like they did in 2021. And it hurt Democrats a lot in Texas then, too.

And so, I think it's really bad look for them. But I think big picture case, your question is you might see other blue states now looking to do the same thing and probably wind up with some sort of parity here in the end.

HUNT: All right. Let's push pause on this conversation here at the table. I do want to return to that last point that you made with the rest of the panel.

But I do want to bring in Democratic Texas State Representative James Talarico, who did leave Texas. He's now in Saint Charles, Illinois.

Sir, very grateful to have you back on the program.

We spoke about this last week when it wasn't -- it wasn't clear that this was going to be the outcome. So, I think my first question to you is what pushed you and your fellow Democrats over the edge to do this? Because you clearly, even just days ago, hadn't yet decided that this was the right move?

STATE REP. JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS: Well, I know your panelists were talking about the optics of this quorum break. I'm less concerned about the optics. I'm more concerned about whether we are fighting for the democratic process and the threat that this rigged map poses to my constituents and their ability to elect the candidates of their choice. That is far more important than political optics, or what folks on TV think.

My colleagues and I left our beloved state to stop this rigged power grab from going through. Typically, we draw our district lines at the beginning of a decade to adjust for population changes after a census. The Republicans in Texas did that in 2021. Four years ago, we didn't break quorum.

But this is different. Trump, the president of the United States directly asked Texas Republicans to redraw the political maps in the middle of the decade to get him five more seats, kind of reminiscent of when he called the secretary of state in Georgia and asked for 11,000 votes. And so, we don't think that's acceptable in Texas. And we feel it is a threat to the American experiment, and it's why we've left the state. It's why we are stopping this map from going through.

HUNT: Do you think -- and this has been kind of an emerging part of the national conversation about what's going on here. Do you think that Democratic blue states obviously different than Texas, that have put into place independent commissioners to deal with redistricting, independent commissions, should they take the gloves off? Should they decide that those independent commissions are not actually generating a fair process at the national level?

TALARICO: Only if this power grab is successful in Texas. Ideally, we want citizen led redistricting commissions in every state because voters should be picking their politicians, not politicians picking their voters. I've actually introduced a bill to create a very similar setup in Texas, and it hasn't even gotten a hearing.

But if one side is intent on cheating, then the other side has to respond because I remember when I was younger and there was a bully on the playground, I figured out that you can't just lie down and play dead. You've got to look that bully in the eye and you can't blink.

That's exactly what happens here. If one side cheats, all bets are off. I hope we don't get to that point. I hope that these threats of retaliation and some of these states moving forward with retaliation, will convince my Republican colleagues in Texas to walk back from the brink.

HUNT: Where are you as a young, up and coming leader in your party on what has become something of a dividing question? A lot of Democrats here in Washington have argued for many of the most recent years that it's about norms. It's about institutions. And some younger people in the party have watched that, have watched what Donald Trump has done, have spent the last decade living in Trump's world and said, you know what? This isn't working. This isn't good enough for us.

[16:10:00]

Where are you in that debate about what the right way to fight this fight is?

TALARICO: Yeah, I think this redistricting power grab is a great example. This is clearly a broken political system. These democratic institutions are not very democratic, and they're not working for a lot of people, especially working people in the state of Texas. The system is rigged, and it's rigged for the people who have power, whether its political power or economic power. And this is exposing that.

And to be very frank, gerrymandering is a problem in a lot of states, not just red states, but blue states to Democrats and Republicans, both gerrymander. Now, this power grab in Texas is a different level. It is a more brazen, it is more egregious. It is more discriminatory.

And it's happening in the middle of the decade because the president of the United States directly requested five more seats so that he doesn't have to face accountability in the midterm elections, which is incredibly dangerous. If we expect that people can hold their elected officials accountable.

But I would say that this entire redistricting mess all over the country is the rot at the core of our broken political system, and it's why we can't make progress on housing, on health care, on education, or honestly helping the flood victims here in Texas who desperately need us to pass some relief for them and make sure that a tragedy like that never happens again. The Republicans are playing politics instead of putting the interests of our people first.

HUNT: So, sir, just in here, the Texas house has passed a motion for the speaker of the state house to be able to issue civil warrants for the arrest of Democrats who have fled the state, like yourself. Are you concerned that you're going to be arrested?

TALARICO: Well, I knew by breaking quorum that I was going to face certain consequences financial, personal, maybe even legal. We'll see. But I do know that it's the right thing to do.

So I can look myself in the mirror. I can lay my head down at night knowing that I have right on my side, and that we have right on our side.

You know, we're here in the land of Lincoln, and it's appropriate because Abraham Lincoln broke quorum as a state senator in 1840 by jumping out of a window in the Illinois state capitol. Thankfully, I didn't have to jump out of a window in Texas.

But we are taking part in a long American tradition of standing up to bullies, of speaking truth, to power, of civil disobedience, of good trouble. And I'm incredibly proud of that. Regardless of what consequences may come.

HUNT: Would you, if somebody tried to arrest you, would you resist that attempt?

TALARICO: No. If law enforcement arrests me, I will go peacefully. But I am doing this because I'm fighting for my constituents and their right to elect leaders of their choice. That is central to this American democracy. And if we hope to fix this democracy so that actually, everybody has to start right here with this rigged map in Texas, with the president, the most powerful person in the country, trying to manufacture an outcome that he wants in the next election.

That's not how any of this is supposed to work. I feel like we have all gotten numb to this, not just elected officials, but people in the media, too. We all sit around acting like this is a r versus d, a blue versus red fight, that it's business as usual.

This is not usual. This is very unusual, and it should be alarming to all of us, regardless of our political affiliation.

HUNT: All right. State Representative Hames Talarico, very grateful for your time, sir. Really appreciated the conversations recently. Hope we can continue chatting.

TALARICO: Thanks for covering this.

HUNT: All right. So, our panel is back. Apologies for the abrupt introduction.

But, Ashley Allison, I want to return to and we were just talking a little bit about this with the state representative, but Marc touched on it at the top of the show. And that is this question of what Democratically-led states should do in this situation.

And I want to show everyone, here's two Democratic governors, J.B. Pritzker, of course, of Illinois, Kathy Hochul of New York. Why are these states important? Because they're massive blue states with lots of opportunities to potentially do similar things like this. California, of course, the other one.

But let's watch what they recently had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JB PRITZKER (D), ILLINOIS: All bets are off when the cult leader and, you know, would be dictator of the United States tells Texas to midstream change the game when they know that they're going to lose in 2026. All bets are off. Everything's got to be on the table.

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D), NEW YORK: All's fair in love and war. That's why I'm exploring with our leaders every option to redraw our state congressional lines as soon as possible. This is a war. We are at war. And that's why the gloves are off. And I say, bring it on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:15:02]

HUNT: Ashley Allison, what do you make of that?

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Fight. We have to, as Democrats stand up for what we believe in. The thing about Texas is that people gerrymander for many reasons, partisan reasons, and sometimes discriminatory reasons.

What's happening in Texas right now is more discriminatory, racially discriminatory than actual partisan. There are more black people in Texas than any state in the country. The districts -- there are four districts that are actually being gerrymandered. Three of them are represented by black folks, and one of them is represented by a Latino.

Those districts could be non-coalition winning districts. What do I mean by that? I mean that it doesn't require Latinos and black people and white people to win a Democratic seat. Historically, civil rights organizations have fought for this.

Is it a coincidence that those are the four districts that are being targeted by the Trump administration? No. Is it a coincidence that it's Texas that he went in and asked for it? No.

The question is why? The reason why is politically motivated because they do know their favorability ratings are going down. They do know that they are likely to lose the House in 2026. So, this is an attempt mid cycle to try and power grab as the Congress -- or as the state representative said.

If Democrats don't stand up and push back for this, what are they going to be pushing back for? They have a responsibility. Greg Abbott is not just the governor of Texas for Republicans. He is the governor of Texas for all people. And he is disenfranchising black and brown voters with this act. And Democrats should be shamed if they didn't stand up and do something. And it shouldn't just be in Texas. It should be across the country. So I'm glad to see that the governors.

And quite honestly, the Democratic voters are looking for somebody to stand up for them. They're looking for a fight. We saw that in the midterms in 2022, with whether you like them or not. John Fetterman was a fighter. People wanted people to stand up for them. And I think that's what Democrats are doing.

SHORT: Is running away to Illinois a fight?

ALLISON: If you want to win a fight, you do it how you win. This is a David and Goliath type of situation. They know they don't have the votes. If I want to win a fight, I'm going to use the most strategic way to do it. And right now, getting out and breaking quorum is a strategic way because it's not actually --

(CROSSTALK)

SHORT: I love my state so much that I'm going to run to Illinois --

ALLISON: No, I love my voters so much. I'm protecting my voters. It is not -- it's not a runaway. It's strategic.

(CROSSTALK)

SHORT: We shouldn't be drawing on racial lines either, that -- we shouldn't be doing that anyhow.

HUNT: Well, again, to go back to -- I mean, before the president tried to weigh in, that's what the Republican leaders in Texas were saying. So why are they doing this now?

SHORT: Well, I mean --

ALLISON: Because of racially motivated discriminatory practices.

SHORT: Because of the pressure, because they know the margins, one in the house and they're trying to avoid making sure that they hold on to the House in the midterms.

ALLISON: I think both are wrong.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The other reason why we're even having this conversation is because the political geography of Texas has changed a lot, because Latino voters in Texas have changed their political preferences a lot over the last decade.

Hillary Clinton wins Latino voters in Texas, 61 to 34. Then you get to Biden-Trump 2020, it's a little bit closer. You get to the 2024 election, Trump is winning. Latino voters in Texas 55 to 54 -- 45.

So, in that kind of an environment, that's why they're looking at places like in the Rio Grande, where, suddenly, Republicans like -- they're able to pick up voters in places that would not have been in the conversation ten years ago. That's another big reason that we are even having this conversation.

HUNT: Last word, Elliot.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: This is all a consequence of every state having its own rules. Like to be clear, is Texas cheating? No, because Texas allows mid-cycle redistricting. Every state is going to be different. You know, we were talking about California, Illinois, New York. They all have different rules. Some of them have commissions. Some of them go up to the legislature.

And if this is where we are and if sort of as the senator was saying, if the norms don't apply anymore, then you're going to see 50 different fights playing out very differently. But this is sort of the biggest and wildest one and it happens to be.

ALLISON: But it's only happening because of Trump.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

ALLISON: I mean, so it's like not business as usual. Texas actually wouldn't have done it if their boss didn't call and say do it.

HUNT: All right. We -- it seems like we could talk about this all day, but we do have to take a break.

Up next, top White House officials are pushing baseless claims around Friday's jobs report while defending the firing of a top Labor Department official.

Plus, one of the country's most popular radio hosts is hitting back after a very personal attack from the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, CO-HOST, THE BREAKFAST CLUB: He called me a sleazebag. I looked up the definition of sleazebag, says it's a disgusting or despicable person. Depending on who you ask, that may apply to me. He called me a racist. I didn't mention race. Not one time on Lara Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:23:56]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: They could be politically -- politically manipulated because they're so untransparent. There's a black box system out there making the jobs numbers that needs to be improved.

It looks to again to partisans like they were jacking up the jobs numbers until Joe Biden was out of the picture. So, I think it's a massive failure of our data agencies to be making willy-nilly changes that are difficult to understand and often have apparently partisan patterns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: That was Kevin Hassett, National Economic Council director, this morning, defending the president's decision to fire the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after he didn't like the jobs report.

Democrats were quick to criticize the firing and even some in the president's own party were skeptical.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): The president or whoever decided to fire the director just did it because they didn't like the numbers. They had to grow up. SEN. CYNTHIA LUMMIS (R-WY): I think it's kind of impetuous to fire

the statistician without first knowing whether the numbers are inaccurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:25:02]

HUNT: CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny joins our panel.

Hi, Jeff. Wonderful to see you.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.

So, what's going on here? Because, I mean, these are not usually -- Thom Tillis has been willing to break with the president. We don't really hear very much from Cynthia Lummis, typically, that doesn't align with Donald Trump. It is fair to say that how this agency does its job is very opaque to most Americans, right?

But I talked to the last BLS commissioner on air yesterday, and he basically said when he was in charge, he didn't have any control over it either, right? The people that are -- the professionals that are charged with doing this job are the ones who do it. He sees it at the very end, sees the press release, and that's it.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I thought your conversation with William Beach was very interesting because you're right, we don't normally know what goes into the jobs reports. We await them the first Friday of every month, and then we kind of wait until the next one.

There are always revisions. It's what happens. But I think that Kevin Hassett comments were interesting. What he's saying this morning. He did not say that on Friday, he and other economists before the president fired the director, were explaining how these numbers actually were sort of good for the president. They were showing growth in some areas.

So, look, the bottom line is the president made this a decision. What's less clear, though, is, you know, not being talked about as much is the actual underlying numbers in the economy are what they are. So, the president can say this is rigged, but there's been no evidence of that. And I wonder if there are any serious advisers telling the president, look, there are blinking warning signs here if there truly are.

So we're beginning to see a narrative of another rigged thing without evidence. But I think the economy was something that the president was elected on. And that is actually the underlying concern. If Congress was still in session this month, if they weren't in recess, I think we'd be hearing a lot more about this from Republicans like Cynthia Lummis and others. HUNT: Yeah, interesting. So, I want to play a little bit of the

conversation I had with Bill Beach, the former BLS commissioner. It's worth noting he was appointed by Donald Trump, and he served until the beginning of the Biden administration.

But this is how he was very concerned about what the president did. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BEACH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FISCAL LAB ON CAPITOL HILL: There's no way for that to happen. The commissioner doesn't do anything to collect the numbers. BLS is the finest statistical agency in the entire world. Its numbers are trusted all over the world. So I will trust those numbers. I did -- I do believe, though, that the president's attack on the commissioner and on the bureau is undermining that infrastructure -- could undermine that trust over the long term.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Marc Short, what do you think?

SHORT: Look, I think your interview with Bill Beach is really important because he was not just the first Trump administration BLS director. For many years, he worked at Heritage Foundation and was a statistician that conservatives turned to on a lot of things to forecast growth in the economy on different tax cut bills.

And so, he's -- he's a reputable source on this. She was confirmed in January of 2024 with 86 Senate votes, including confirmation from J.D. Vance supporting her. The administration seemed fine with her numbers up until Friday. And so, it seems like this is pretty much a shoot the messenger.

Now, BLS numbers have been getting more and more revised over the years, because fewer and fewer people respond to the survey, and that is a challenge for them. But to Jeff's point, there's a lot of other economic indicators that are out there. It's not just this one you can hide.

The reality is that there's -- there's public earnings reports, there's a lot of different data. And it's not surprising that really when you backdate revisions down to May and June, it's right on the heels of liberation day. It's when you announce your trade agenda. And then all of a sudden, people stop hiring in May and June. Those numbers are coming down. And so this really isn't that much of an economic surprise.

HUNT: Kristen, you are a data professional. You understand the challenges of collecting data, the challenges of explaining it to people. Certainly, trust in elections-based data has had a lot of challenges in recent election cycles.

I mean, what do you make of it? Because it is important that we share information. ANDERSON: We're talking about low survey response rates. Got my blood

pressure all up here. Like, oh no, I come on air for to get away from that -- from that stress.

No, it's true. And I think you know, if you want to have a conversation about we live in a new world, the way we collect information and analyze statistics, we constantly have to be looking for new and updated approaches that can get around some of these emerging challenges, that technology and low response rates have created. That is fine.

That is a very different conversation than the jobs numbers came out. And a few hours later, I've decided to shoot the messenger.

I think that's what's so unproductive, and not only for that reason, but also, you know, these are numbers that these government statistical agencies put out that don't just affect politics, right? They don't just affect how people think about the economy, because that's also affected by what somebody's lived experience of the economy.

But it's the sort of thing that investors and businesses need to plan with. And if you don't have good, credible data that you know is untainted by politics, it's very hard for a lot of the machinery of our economy to work.

HUNT: And, Jeff, you actually found some sound of the BLS commissioner, now fired BLS commissioner addressing the Atlanta Economics Club. This was back in January, and she was talking directly about why these reports are so important and why, especially putting them out in real time and having this information come relatively quickly to Kristen's point, to help people make decisions about the economy matters a lot.

Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIKA MCENTARFER, FIRED BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS COMMISSIONER: The jobs report released by bls is arguably one of the most important economic indicators for understanding economic conditions. So why is that a key reason, of course, is it's giving us really important information about demand and supply conditions in the U.S. labor market. But another, maybe less appreciated reason is that it's very timely. So, it's more timely than other key economic data. We're going to get like GDP.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So why does that matter, Jeff?

ZELENY: I think it matters because I mean, she is a government professional. Yes. She worked was appointed by President Biden, but she's worked for the Census Bureau for the better part of a couple decades. Just watching all of that speech that she gave in January is about a 35-minute speech. Of course, it didn't make the news. It's just a normal speech to the Atlanta Economic Club.

But, you know, she's a professional talking about the challenges of reporting and the importance of these reports. So, I think that -- and we should say that we've tried to reach out to her for a comment. Understandably, she's not commented on this, but watching that speech was sort of interesting.

But look, now she's at the center of all this. It will be interesting to me when Congress comes back in September. Will there be any type of a move to investigate this? But I'm told that this is something the president wanted to do because he was told he could, and it's an easier person to fire than Jerome Powell.

HUNT: Well, that's --

ZELENY: And Jerome Powell, of course, has frustrated the president so much. This was sort of an easier thing to do. And I'm told it got very little pushback in the West Wing, if any at all.

HUNT: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much for joining us. Really great to see you. Appreciate it.

Our panel is going to stand by because up next, we're going to go back to our coverage of what's unfolding in Texas. We'll talk with one Democrat who could be forced to run against another member of his own party under this proposed new map.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:36:35]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

The Texas house this hour just passing a motion to allow civil arrest warrants for Democrats who did not attend the special session this afternoon. This is, of course, an attempt to block the Republican-led redistricting effort.

Joining us now is Democratic congressman of Texas, Greg Casar.

Greg, thank you -- Congressman, excuse me. Thank you so much for being with us today.

I want to start with this redistricting effort because the reality is, if it does go through, it may pit you against another Democrat in a primary situation.

Let's just start big picture. Your reaction to the Republican effort here?

REP. GREG CASAR (D-TX): Well, just imagine that in another country, a corrupt president was trying to drastically change the election laws. And then a political ally of that president threatened to remove from elected office. Everyone in the opposition party in order to get it done. You'd probably say that democracy was on its last legs in that country, but that's what's happening here in America. That's what we're facing today in Texas, and that's why we're fighting back with everything we've got.

Governor Abbott is not only threatening to arrest the Texas Democrats, who are bravely fighting for our democracy. This afternoon, he's threatening to unilaterally have them removed from office and to create a single party state here in Texas and then replace them with his hand-picked lackeys. And I believe that in the United States, voters should get to pick their elected official, not a governor and not a president.

HUNT: But there doesn't seem to be evidence that he actually can go ahead with doing what you have described here. I mean, he certainly can file lawsuits, but that's very different from what you have laid out.

CASAR: Well, what I've just laid out is exactly what Governor Abbott has said he is going to do this afternoon. And I just like it sounds like just like you believe that his deeply unconstitutional and illegal.

But we're living in a world where too many courts like the Supreme Court are complicit and compliant with Donald Trump and Greg Abbott. And so, we need to speak out, make our voices heard, and make sure that our court system and that our elected officials try to follow the laws of this land.

But what Governor Abbott very clearly laid out in his letter yesterday is that not only is he looking for the arrest of our brave Texas legislators, but that he's also threatening to remove them all from office.

And we just cannot let that happen. I'm worried that if they go through with this radical redistricting plan, they will drastically violate the Voting Rights Act. They will try to get the Supreme Court to uphold those violations of the Voting Rights Act, and then begin spreading this kind of voter suppression across the country, and then try to illegally intimidate any elected official who stands in their way.

We won't be intimidated. We won't be scared by this. I know these brave Texas legislators aren't being intimidated by this. We're trying to show the country what standing up and putting up a real fight is right now, when it's all on the line.

HUNT: So, speaking of fights, I mean, bottom line here, it's unlikely that Democrats can stop this because they don't have the votes. This is why they've left. What are you going to do if this new map puts you in the same district as Congressman Lloyd Doggett?

[16:40:00]

Doggett has already said that he is going to run for reelection.

CASAR: Look, merging myself and Congressman Doggett's district is a serious Voting Rights Act violation. And if they're able to go through with this, we've got a lot more to worry about than the political future of me or Lloyd Doggett. Weve got to be worried about the voting rights of millions of Americans across the country.

To be clear, my district here in central Texas has been upheld by the Supreme Court as a district essential to the voting rights of Latinos and Hispanic Americans here in Central Texas. If Donald Trump is able to shred the voting rights act here in Austin, he will try to spread that across America. He's already said he's going to Missouri next and then Ohio and then Alabama and Louisiana.

So, our concern has to be for protecting democracy and voting rights for millions of people. When the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed and signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson and LBJ handed the pen to Martin Luther King after having signed that law, he signed that law to prevent gerrymandered maps, racially gerrymandered maps like these. And we're not going to give up on that fight.

HUNT: So, what are you going to do?

CASAR: What I'm going to do is organize a picket line --

HUNT: Are you going to run or you're not going to run?

CASAR: -- right now in front of Governor Abbott's office.

HUNT: I appreciate that.

CASAR: I've already been very clear. I've already been very clear that that I'm running for office, just like I understand. Congressman Lloyd Doggett has been clear that he's running for office. But we aren't accepting these illegal maps. We're not going to just stand by and say were going to be pit against one another.

No. Instead, we're having a picket line in front of Governor Abbott's office. We are making sure courage inspires courage and are asking governors across the nation to follow Gavin Newsom's lead and fight fire with fire, because this fight is about something much bigger than the horse race between any particular politicians. It's about the future of voters being able to choose their member of Congress, not some president or not some governor.

HUNT: All right. Congressman Greg Casar, I'm sure we're going to be watching very closely how all of what you've just described unfolds.

So, thank you very much for your time, and I hope you'll come back.

CASAR: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. This news just coming in to CNN, two victims of Jeffrey Epstein have anonymously filed letters weighing in on the Justice Department's request to unseal grand jury testimony in the case.

CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid joins us now.

Paula, take us through. What do these letters say, Kasie?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Incredible statements from two victims of Jeffrey Epstein here, weighing in on the Justice Department's request to release some transcripts from the grand jury in New York that investigated Jeffrey Epstein. Here again, they both want to remain anonymous, but they both expressed disappointment and hurt over what they say is a lack of accountability in the case and a failure to protect victims, writing, quote, I wish you would have handled and would handle the Epstein files with more respect towards and for the victims.

In one letter, a victim says that she believes the Justice Department's priority is protecting the, quote, third party. So wealthy men, she takes a direct shot at President Trump, saying to learn that our own president has utilized thousands of agents to protect his identity and these high-profile individuals is monumentally mind-blowing. That is their focus. Wow.

The victims say their frustration, their anxiety is not aimed at the judge, but directly at the government. The ones asking to release these transcripts, exhibits, et cetera, of which the victims are not privy to. While they have concluded that there is nothing more to see in these files they hold. They write that the government doesn't even want their input, saying that they would rather ask a convicted imprisoned sex trafficker abuser for information.

That, of course, a direct reference to the Justice Department's meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell.

I want to note, neither victim is opposed to additional transparency, but they want to make sure that every precaution is taken to make sure that victims' identities are protected. In fact, they both appear to be in support of more transparency, saying why not be completely transparent? Show us all the files with only the necessary redactions. Be done with it. And allow me/us to heal.

Kasie, victims have until tomorrow to weigh in with their thoughts.

HUNT: Al right. Paula Reid, thank you very much for that update.

All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA, the new reaction today to that now famous/infamous Sydney Sweeney ad and how it's reigniting the so-called war on woke.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:48:58]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She's a registered Republican?

REPORTER: Yes.

TRUMP: Oh, now I love her ad. Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican. I think her ad is fantastic.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: It's the ad that continues to make headlines. That was President Trump praising Sydney Sweeney for her an American -- her American Eagle great jeans campaign.

He then followed those comments with a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform. He called it the hottest ad out there. He railed against Taylor Swift, saying she, quote, became no longer hot after he, quote, alerted the world that he can't stand her. And it all ended with this.

The tide is seriously turned. Being woke is for losers. Being Republican is what you want to be. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Our panel has returned.

Elliot Williams, our cultural critic extraordinaire.

WILLIAMS: Oh, my God. No, legal analyst about know talk.

HUNT: And yet and yet you always like want in on this stuff. Yeah.

[16:50:01]

Why -- why are we still talking about this?

WILLIAMS: This is everything that is wrong with our discourse, Kasie. It really is. No, no, it is. And because it always starts with a couple kids on TikTok who say something that someone can weaponize.

And literally, it was not -- I challenge anyone who's saying that this is the left run amok. I challenge anyone to point to the highest profile individual who's actually upset by the Sydney Sweeney thing, and what you will find is that it's a lot of kids on Tik -- or a couple kids on TikTok who made some comments and then it became literally the vice president of the United States weighing in and saying that there's a groundswell on the left calling American Eagle white genocide or whatever else.

And so, this is a rot that is far bigger than this one issue. This is not the last time it's happened. It's going to happen again.

HUNT: Ashley, do you agree with Elliot that like this is a nothingburger that's generated by people on the internet and that has been seized upon by the right? Or is there, there, there?

ALLISON: Well, let me say this. I've never bought a pair of American Eagle jeans, even when I was in high school.

HUNT: I tried once.

ALLISON: Right. They didn't fit me, right? So, I don't have those jeans and I wouldn't probably buy them after watching that ad. And I'm not sure they actually care if I do.

And it's the kids who didn't feel like they would be able to buy the jeans or the TikTokers you're talking about that now the president is weighing in on it. I would hope that a commercial ad would be so minimally important to the president of United States that he needed to weigh in on it, but here we are.

HUNT: Ashley, I want to ask you about something else as well, because Donald Trump weighed in on Charlamagne Tha God, who appeared on Lara Trump's show, and he wrote this on Truth Social.

He says his daughter-in-law is wonderful and talented. He called Charlamagne Tha God a racist sleazebag, called him a low IQ individual, had no idea what words are coming out of his mouth, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. He really just went there right out of the gate.

What does it say to you? I mean, Charlamagne Tha God has a sizable audience in the United States of America, and this is a president who has tried to tout the, you know, electoral achievements that he made with Black voters in the most recent election.

ALLISON: Yeah. I mean, when people say things that Donald Trump doesn't like, he says things like this. And I don't doubt that Charlamagne probably knew that this is not something that Donald Trump would say. I don't think Charlamagne cares either. But people are allowed to have his opinion.

I guess my question is like, what does it say about Lara Trump that he if this is what Donald Trump thinks of Charlamagne, what does it say about Lara that she would have him on her show? Is she like a bad journalist? Is she a bad tv host? I asked that question of Mr. Trump.

WILLIAMS: And moreover, one of the big points that Donald -- that Charlamagne Tha God raised on Lara Trump's show is that the least among us are being impacted the worst. It's a policy view. It's his opinion.

Not saying the word Black or race anywhere in there. At another point, he talks about Jeffrey Epstein in the conversation.

HUNT: This was probably it.

WILLIAMS: Right. But it's a pattern that the president has when black people disagree with him, he calls them racist. Like it's not, you know, whatever -- it's just -- no --

ALLISON: Anybody who disagrees with Donald Trump, he calls them a name, right?

WILLIAMS: But I mean -- but I mean, specifically the racist thing.

ALLISON: Yes, yes, yes. He talked about Taylor Swift. I mean, first of all, does anybody have a problem with a 70-year-old man talking about a young woman being hot or not on -- but that's a whole another conversation, I would say.

HUNT: So let's let Charlamagne Tha God speak for himself, because he actually addressed the point that you're saying, and who knows, maybe he cares, maybe he doesn't. But he did spend a lot of time on his radio show today talking to the president, basically in response to the Truth Social post.

Let's watch what he had to say in response to Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: His reaction to what I said on Lara Trump shows how authoritarians will attempt to bully people into pushing false narratives. President Trump, do you realize the best way to get the headlines you want is to simply do a good job, is to simply do right by all Americans? He called me a racist. I didn't mention race. Not one time on Lara Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I mean, Elliot?

WILLIAMS: Am I good or am I good? Cultural critic? Look at that.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: But no, but -- you know it -- the president is the one who racialized this debate that these two people were having. He doesn't have to like Charlamagne Tha God, doesn't have to agree with his politics. But the president went there and it's part of an ongoing pattern when it comes to feeling aggrieved.

ALLISON: Let me just clarify one thing about I know, Marc, you really this conversation. He's like dying to jump in, right?

HUNT: We need like a little camera of Marc's face for the whole --

ALLISON: He's like, how did I get here?

I want to clarify a point about Charlamagne not caring. I don't think he cares enough for him to change his opinion on -- Charlamagne --

HUNT: It's very clear.

ALLISON: Right? He's going to -- he's going to say what he thinks. And when you live in a democracy, you're supposed to be able to do it. I think what he's suggesting there is that there's a desire to try and silence people by bullying and talking about them poorly, but it doesn't work on a person like Charlamagne.

SHORT: I was more interested in the Sydney Sweeney conversation.

[16:55:02]

But anybody who calls himself Charlamagne Tha God doesn't really lack humility. And so, look, this is good for his ratings to, to have the president attacked him.

ALLISON: Fair enough.

HUNT: Fair enough. All right. Unfortunately, we have to press pause on this conversation. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Panel, thank you very much for being here on a wide variety of stories today. We really appreciate it.

Thanks to all of you at home for joining as well. And of course, if you missed any of today's show or any of our shows, you can always catch up by listening to THE ARENA's podcast. You can scan that QR code below on your screen. You can follow wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow us on X and Instagram @TheArenaCNN.

Don't go anywhere. Phil Mattingly is standing by for us for "THE LEAD".

Hi, Phil.