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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Democrats Seize On Win In Virginia Redistricting Push As Trump Allies Privately Strategize Around Midterm Messaging; White House: Trump Hasn't Set "Firm Deadline" For Iranian Response; GOP Rep. Cory Mills Tells CNN He Won't Resign Amid Ethics Probe. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired April 22, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT starts right now.
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KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's great to have you with us on this Wednesday.
Right now, Democrats are celebrating a major win on their mission to retake control of Congress, as some Republicans warn that what happened last night in Virginia could be a sign of bad days to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: You think we're playing by conventional rules? You think Donald Trump's in the White House because he's a conventional politician?
Your conventional politician is Glenn Youngkin. And look what he's done. Defeat after defeat. Now it's a crushing -- now he turned over the whole freaking state to them. It'll take us a decade to dig out of this, a decade of those grassroots going door to door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: With Virginians voting last night to temporarily approve a new congressional map, Democrats could pick up four more seats there later this year. Let's watch how James Blair. He's the man who recently left the White House to go and run President Trump's midterm political operation is spinning his party's defeat today.
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JAMES BLAIR, RUNNING TRUMP'S MIDTERM POLITICAL OPERATIONS: Last night, this was a three-point race. That's actually a three-point overperformance of the Trump 2024 -- historic performance in Virginia. So just as a baseline for all the Democrats crowing this morning, if Republicans perform anywhere near, on average the way they did in Virginia last night, we not only add seats to the Senate, but we add seats to the House.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: So, as is, Republicans hold the majority in the House by a razor thin margin. So come November, each and every single one of these House races is going to matter, especially to the -- for now, House Speaker Mike Johnson.
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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Democrats started this. The Republican states are doing what they can do lawfully under their state laws. The people are taking account of this. They're voting accordingly.
And we are on track to win in November. Watch. We are on track to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: We're on track to win. Well, time will tell.
Virginia is just the latest state to attempt to and successfully gerrymander before voters go to the polls. Republicans likely to pick up five seats in Texas. Four others across Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina. That's a total of nine Democrats now on track to pick up ten. That leaves Florida, the Sunshine State's Republican dominated legislature will meet next week to consider a plan that could net the GOP three or more seats.
But House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says bring it on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: Our message to Florida Republicans is f around and
find out the Republicans are dummy-mandering their way into the minority before a single vote is cast. Because they started this war and we're going to finish it. Go ahead and make our day. We are all in in Florida. We are in an era of maximum warfare everywhere, all the time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Let's get off the sidelines. Head into THE ARENA.
My panel is here. CNN political analyst, national political reporter for "Axios", Alex Thompson; CNN's special correspondent Jamie Gangel, CNN political commentator, former DNC advisor and communications director, Xochitl Hinojosa; and CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings.
We're also joined by former Republican governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory.
Thank you all very much for being here.
Jamie Gangel, I want to start with you big picture. I mean, you're watching Hakeem Jeffries right there. Clearly, someone who's riding high, but now, Democrats have to deliver. JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So that's a hold my
beer moment. Except, you know, let's wait and see. I do have to say Speaker Johnson said, you know, they're going to win. You never say you're going to lose. That is what he has to say.
But big picture, President Trump said today that Virginia -- the election was rigged. In the words of the great Yogi Berra, you know, deja vu all over again. At a certain point, you know, you really when you lose, you don't get to say it's rigged, but it is an example of how existential these, you know, the midterms are for both sides.
HUNT: Yeah. Governor McCrory, give us a view from North Carolina. This of course, you know, a swing state historically, obviously, trended trending Republican in in recent years, but one where you have a critical Senate race, you did see a gerrymandering effort there.
What are you picking up from voters on the ground there?
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What are you hearing in your communities about where things stand, especially -- I mean, the president's approval rating is, you know, absolutely in the tank, the war with Iran has pushed gas prices higher at exactly the wrong time if you are a Republican who is trying to hold or win a congressional seat.
PAT MCCRORY (R), FORMER NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR: I think, well, first of all, you have to remember North Carolina now has more registered independents than they do Republicans or Democrats, which is a sure sign that all the people that are moving to North Carolina in Charlotte right here, we're having 1,000 people move a week, and most of them are registering as independent. And that should be a strong signal to both parties that they're losing touch with the American people.
And I'm a Republican who believe in conservative values. But right now, by these quotes that we just played in D.C by the speaker and others, all they're interested in is power as opposed to problem solving. And I think this whole process is a black eye on the Constitution. And, you know, and now not just the politicians or the state legislators are voting for this, but now the people are actually going along with this. And it's all about power. It's all about blue and red jerseys.
And in the long run, I'm really worried about the democratic process. Is this -- is the House going to be the peoples house anymore or it will be the house? The two political party machines, which George Washington warned us about in one of his last speeches as president of the United States.
HUNT: Yeah, it's a good point. Alex Thompson -- I mean, what did you read into the results in Virginia? The margin here was relatively close. The vote. I know that a number of people I was talking to last night on the Hill, that's what they were focused on, right, was by how much were Democrats likely to win this? What are Democrats saying to you today? ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, they're obviously crowing
because they won. And there was a deep anxiety --
HUNT: Win's a win.
THOMPSON: And there was deep anxiety going into the race. You know, feeling that maybe Governor Spanberger had heard a little bit of her early polling lead by leaning so far into this when she was more running on electability last year.
But I will say more the drama was on the Republican side, where there is sort of a circular firing squad, because James Blair is right, the margin was better than it was in 2024. But then the question is, well, why didn't the Trump super PAC come in with any of their huge amount of money and didn't spend any? And then you even saw James Blair did not commit to spending all that money in the midterms either. And that's creating a lot of frustration and tension in the party.
HUNT: What's that about, Scott?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I do think we would have benefited from more spending early on. I think the yes campaign got out to a fast start. I mean, if you follow the race closely, you know, people had momentum at the end and maybe another week or two they might have caught them. It was about a three-point race.
Regarding the whole rigged conversation, I'll just say I think a lot of people in Virginia Republican circles think it was rigged in this way, that the referendum itself is a violation of the Virginia Constitution. I spoke to former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on my radio show just a few minutes ago. He thinks the Virginia Supreme Court may well throw this out because they violated the calendar rules that are in the Virginia constitution, among other arguments.
And so even though the Democrats won the race last night, this may not be over. If the Virginia Supreme Court were to toss it, maybe as soon as May.
HUNT: Yeah. Xochitl?
XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, there are two different things that are happening here. Democrats are taking these measures and putting them on the ballot for voters to vote on, and it is very different than what happened in Texas, where it was rammed through and voters did not get to vote on that. Donald Trump wanted it. They ended up delivering it.
And so, there are two very different -- and Republicans should be scared because they're two very different tactics. The voters are on Democratic side versus the voters did not vote for this in Texas. And then we'll see what happens in other Republican states. We'll also say about this in terms of the politics, yes, this should be eye opening for Republicans. It's not just this race. It's every special election that Democrats have been up in over the last year.
JENNINGS: It's not every.
HINOJOSA: Most of them Democrats have overperformed.
JENNINGS: We only cover the ones where Democrats do. But there have been some Republican overperformance.
HINOJOSA: Significantly. And so, looking into -- I think everyone looked at speaker Johnsons comments about how we're going to win. And I agree if he says that he's not going to win, he can't fundraise. So, he has to say that.
But everyone looks at that and no one believes it. No one. I cannot -- I don't even know Republican that believes that Republicans are going to win this November.
GANGEL: Can I just quickly add, I also think you may look at those three points, and it's so close because people don't like the redistricting big picture in general, gerrymandering, it may not reflect. We will see what the numbers are like when its congressional district by congressional.
HINOJOSA: Yeah, I think that's a really interesting point. And I think it speaks to what the governor was saying about people feeling like the -- like they are being lost in the process, in the process for power.
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And I mean, Scott Jennings, part of that, I want to play for you what Congressman Don Bacon had to say about the redistricting in Texas, which is a big part of where this all started.
Let's watch what he said.
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REP. DON BACON (R-NE): You got to play chess. You got to take two or three, four moves. And when you have an adversary or opponent, a political opponent, you got to always think, what are they going to do in response? So, I think this is foreseeable. That it wasn't just going to be Texas. It's going on for a while, but I think in the end, the Republicans may end up losing in the long run here.
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HUNT: There does seem to be a lot of regret about kicking off this mid-decade redistricting cycle. Do you regret it?
JENNINGS: I mean, at best -- well, do I regret -- I mean --
HUNT: Do you regret the Republicans kick it off in Texas? Do --
JENNINGS: I -- look, I think at best it's probably going to be a wash. We'll see what Florida decides to do. And I guess we're still waiting on the Supreme Court possibly changing the Voting Rights Act. We'll see -- we'll see what that leads to. But yeah, I think at best it's going to be a wash. A lot of money and
time has been spent on this. And I'm not sure it gained a huge advantage.
I will just say for Texas's part, the legislators in Texas, as far as I last checked, are elected by the people. So, these are the peoples representatives and be their maps in Texas are far more balanced and fair than what you now have in Virginia.
I mean, Virginia is now essentially ruled the Republican Party to be illegal. That's what Abigail Spanberger has basically done. This was the revenge of the D.C. bureau.
HUNT: I mean, Scott, no one has said the Republican Party is illegal in Virginia.
JENNINGS: I mean, go from six to five, to 10 to one, and you've got five of the 10 --
HUNT: I'm not going to --
JENNINGS: -- live within ten miles of each other.
HUNT: They drew the map in the most aggressive way possible. And that doesn't mean that it's illegal to be a Republican.
JENNINGS: Okay. Well --
HUNT: It's not --
JENNINGS: It's going to be -- it's going to be pretty darn hard to make it to the congressional delegation. And how do you think, outside of the D.C. suburbs? How do you think the rest of the state feels? They feel like they've been disenfranchised.
Look at the vote. Look who voted no. It's everywhere that's going to lose their congressional representation. How do you think the people in the military know -- feel?
HINOJOSA: But now you care about the democratic process and so did the governor. When where were we when we brought this up in Texas? Where were Republicans? They were not talking about the democratic process.
It was Democrats out there talking about it. So, it's funny that all of a sudden now Republicans are into it.
HUNT: Governor, I want to give you the last word here, because, I mean, as we look ahead here, there is this big question about Florida. But one other question that's also live is whether the Senate is really in play.
What -- what's your view of kind of where that stands as somebody who, again, I always love having folks on who are really tied into their communities. Obviously, we're here in Washington. We can read the polls, same as everybody else, but I imagine you're picking things up there that we're not.
MCCRORY: Well, first of all, everyone in D.C. is talking about winners and losers. I think everyone outside of D.C. is going everyone looks foolish, whether it be Texas, California, North Carolina or Virginia, because people have got some serious issues they've got to deal with and the House is not moving on many of those issues.
Regarding the Senate, I think everything is up in the air. I don't think anyone knows, and it's primarily because of the independent voter, and we don't know what they're going to do, especially in the Sunbelt States where there has been so much immigration, especially since covid, into these states in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Georgia.
I mean, the immigration from New York and California has been unbelievable. People moving here. The question is going to be how are they going to vote? And we don't really have a benchmark to measure that by past elections because of the migration coming to these states and the de-migration leaving other states.
So, it's going to be very interesting that the data is accurate this year in predicting outcomes.
And one other thing, just because political consultants and political scientists say we've moved the district, you know, even district one. And in North Carolina is now favoring Republicans. That does not guarantee a Republican victory. It's still going to be a very, very tight race with a pretty popular Democratic incumbent.
So just because a Democratic Republican consultant says these are plus five or plus ten, things can move quickly, especially with the independent voter.
HUNT: All right. Former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, thanks very much for joining the panel. Hope to see you again soon, sir.
The rest of our panel is going to stand by.
Coming up next here in THE ARENA, the latest member of Congress to resign under pressure. What Republican Cory Mills is telling CNN today about his future.
But first, the new CNN reporting on President Trump's next move with Iran and how it fits with growing tensions after Tehran claims it's taken military action in the all-important Strait of Hormuz.
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STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN: Whatever happens, folks, the clock is ticking because due to Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, airlines are about to run out of jet fuel, which is scary because if a plane runs out when they're in the air, you could be stuck up there forever.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:19:20]
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SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: I think the conflict will end. I think gasoline prices will come back to where they were, or perhaps lower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How fast will the price of gasoline come down?
BESSENT: Again, that is path dependent on when the war and the conflict end.
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HUNT: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent today insisting that gas prices will fall just as soon as the war ends, whenever that is.
Today, the CEO of United Airlines said they're raising prices 15 to 20 percent ahead of the summer travel season, citing in part the doubling of jet fuel prices. Other airlines are cutting down their flight schedules.
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As for when the war will end, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that President Donald Trump plans to give Iran a limited time frame to come up with a peace proposal.
CNN's senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes joins me now.
So, Kristen, what are you hearing about how limited this new time frame is?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it really depends on who you ask. I mean, behind the scenes, I was told by one U.S. official they were thinking more days than weeks or months. But the White House themselves are doing anything they can not to put a timeline on this ceasefire or blockade.
This is what Karoline Leavitt said when she was asked about how much time President Trump was willing to give the Iranians.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president has not set a firm deadline to receive an Iranian proposal. Look, again, I'm not going to set a timetable for the president. He has not done that, and I won't. I know there's been some anonymous source reporting that there was maybe a three to five-day deadline.
That is not true. The president has not set a deadline himself. Ultimately, he will dictate the timetable.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Look, it's not that surprising that the president the White House is choosing to do it this way. We've seen him on a number of occasions now set a ceasefire, say he doesn't want to extend it and then extend it right afterwards. Just yesterday, he said in the morning that he didn't plan on extending the ceasefire. And then, of course, now we have this kind of indefinite ceasefire. So, they're clearly choosing not to put any kind of actual time frame on this.
Now there's another series of questions that Leavitt was asked that were quite interesting idea of how do they know that they're negotiating with the right people? Well, she was saying, well, our team has sat down with those people. But just a reminder that part of the reason that were in this kind of indefinite space with the ceasefire is because inside of the White House, there is a belief the reason they're not hearing from the Iranians is because the Iranians are fractured and can't come up with a unified proposal, meaning they also aren't entirely sure who has the power to sign off on a unified proposal.
So that is still one of these kind of dangling questions. Who exactly does have that power? Is that power going to be something that these -- that these negotiators can get through on? And right now, we just don't have any answers.
HUNT: Indeed.
All right. Kristen Holmes for us at the White House -- Kristen, thank you very much.
Joining our panel is "The New York Times" White House national security correspondent David Sanger.
The rest of our panel is also still here.
David, I want to start with you because I'm really interested in your analysis of what we learned from the president yesterday, where he basically indefinitely extended the ceasefire. Then you have this aggressive action from the Iranians today seizing these ships. You know, the lead in in your piece of yesterday said that the president views himself as a master of coercive diplomacy.
Do you think what we have seen in the last 24 hours, bears out his view of himself?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think, Kasie, that the coercive part of his diplomacy here is keeping that embargo or the blockade in place. And his guess is that the Iranians will hit the point where they can't afford not to be getting any revenue from their oil shipments, that they have no place to store oil, and therefore they have to shut down a lot of their oil wells. And that has got all kinds of risks for them.
So, he believes the time pressure is on his side. But that story was also about the history of these negotiations over the years where the Iranians are really expert in trying to delay, stretch things out. They did this in the 2015 negotiations. You'll remember those took two years to get through. And so -- I'm sorry.
HUNT: They were basically endless. Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead.
SANGER: They were endless. And so, there's a couple of risks for the president here. The first risk is that in saying that he's going to maintain the ceasefire until they submit a proposal means that if they don't have a deadline, they may never submit a proposal. They may just say, we're not getting bombed. That's good enough. Now they are under some economic pressure.
The second risk for him, I think, here is that he's running up against his trip to China in mid-May. And the Chinese really want to see that oil flowing again. They get a lot more oil from Iran than we do, for example.
HUNT: Right. No, it's a really important point.
And I mean, Alex Thompson, the political reality too, right? Like the Iranians, there's time pressure in a certain set of ways. But the American elections are not one of them. Its very salient for the president.
THOMPSON: And you're already seeing complete disarray with inside the administration on particularly the topic of gas prices. That bit you played earlier of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent basically been like, well, I don't know when gas is going to come down.
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That comes right after the energy secretary over the weekend said on CNN that, well, it probably won't go below $3 until next year. And then Donald Trump had to come out and then said, no, no, no, that's not true. And I think this all represents the people in charge do not know when oil prices, gas prices are going to come down. Things are going to move through the Strait of Hormuz the way they were before the strikes. And that is a huge political risk for the Republican Party.
HUNT: Scott, what is your assessment of what the president is doing here? I mean, Lindsey Graham posted today about a call he had with the president and the secretary of war. He called it a very good call.
He says, "I not only expect this blockade to stay in place until Iran shows a commitment to change their ways, I expect the blockade will be growing and that it could become global soon."
I mean, how long do you think we have a tolerance for this as gas prices and affordability remains the center and we barrel towards the elections in November?
JENNINGS: Well, I mean, there's no time limit on what the president can do here necessarily. And I think there's actually more of a time limit on the Iranians. I mean, were draining their economy to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a day. I think with this blockade.
And as was stated just a moment ago, I think the Chinese are going to hopefully, maybe, probably put some pressure on the Iranians to try to come up with a settlement here because they need the oil more than anybody.
So, I don't think the president is feeling particularly hectic or pressured. I think he continues to want to get to the goal. Take away their ability to have a nuclear weapon. Its been confirmed they have enough uranium -- enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons. That was the reason we went. To me, it's worse politics to exit this without having met the primary goal because of some artificial political or polling timeline.
I would see it through because you need to be able to tell the American people we met the objective.
HUNT: Xochitl, hold that thought for one second because we have this new interview with the president from Fox News. It was not on camera, but the president confirmed to Fox Wednesday that there's, quote, "no time pressure surrounding the ceasefire". The president said this, quote, "People say, I want to get it over because of the midterms. Not true." And he added that he wants to get a good deal for the American people.
I'm sorry I interrupted you, Xochitl. Go ahead.
HINOJOSA: No, I was just going to say I agree with you. It's bad politics for the president to end this. And also not have an outcome that he promised the American people. At the end of the day, I don't know if the president can promise that Iran will never have nuclear capabilities. They are motivated now more than ever to rebuild those.
And so, I think he made promises that he honestly cannot deliver. At the same time, the indefinite ceasefire, the economic impact, the no deadline on talks and the sort of forever war is a terrible message heading into the midterm elections. And I think one of the problems that the president continues to make, which was similar to Joe Biden, which was not showing the urgency that he felt that people were feeling pain and that continues to be a problem for him.
And if he goes the next few months without that sort of urgency, without those deadlines, without saying, I understand your pain, this is terrible. I'm going to do X, Y, and Z about it and actually have and there are Democrats putting out proposals out there on what should be done then. I think it's a big problem for him for the midterms.
HUNT: Yeah.
GANGEL: We also have to consider Iran's capacity for pain. You're absolutely right, Scott. The blockade is causing pain there. But thus far they have seemed willing to string this thing out.
We really have to ask the question. And we don't know what's going on inside Iran.
JENNINGS: Yeah.
GANGEL: You know, how much of this is that they're fractured or do they think they have a read on President Trump, and they can play us and string it along.
But you know, we've said this before, there's the expression in the West, "Time is Money". In the Middle East, "Time is time". The Iranians have shown a capacity historically to wait things out.
HUNT: Yeah. So, speaking of the Iranians and what' s going on there, this was the former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, raising that very question.
And, David Sanger, I'll give this one to you. Let's watch that. We'll talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't know that there's anybody that can actually speak on behalf of them. I don't know who's going to sit across the table from him, nor who it is that could actually speak on behalf of the United States, is going to have to do what President Trump talked about and continue to put that pressure on until there's something that is akin to surrender. I think we can get there. I think we can do so with absorbable risk.
And I think that's what president Trump is going to be stuck with, because I don't see anybody showing up there in Islamabad to say, yeah, we're happy to get rid of our nuclear material.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: David Sanger -- I mean, do you think that there is someone that can really speak on behalf of them right now?
SANGER: You know, it's really hard because we tend to impose our system of government, you know, on others and think that there are sort of clear lines of decision.
[16:30:07]
But Iran has always been a place where there have been different power centers. And to the best that we can understand things here, what these attacks have done over the past month-and-a-half is increased the power of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which does not show up at the table.
So, there's always the possibility that the foreign minister, the speaker of the parliament, go back and the proposals get rejected. The IRGC also runs the nuclear program and the missile program. So, they have a lot at stake here.
HUNT: Yeah. For sure.
All right. David Sanger, thank you as always, my friend, for being here. Really appreciate your expertise.
SANGER: Thank you.
HUNT: All right. The rest of our panel is stand by. Coming up next in THE ARENA, we're going to talk with former supreme
NATO, supreme allied commander, James Stavridis, as the U.S. awaits a response from Iran to try to get these talks back on track.
But first, what Congressman Cory Mills is telling CNN as more of his fellow lawmakers call on him to resign amid a congressional investigation into allegations of misconduct.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CORY MILLS (R-FL): People resign when they go to an ethics investigation because they know they're going to be found guilty or people resign after the ethics investigation because they know they're going to be expelled.
REPORTER: He might be concerned about losing the majority because how narrow it is.
MILLS: I don't think that's his biggest problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:35:43]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And what did the speaker said? He said he told you not to resign. What did he say to you and telling you not to resign?
MILLS: He believes in due process. And he's seen and I've provided him with all the facts. I've provided him with all the documents and everything. And I think that the speaker realizes that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Congressman Cory Mills, defiant today in the face of bipartisan calls for him to either resign from the House or face the potential of his fellow lawmakers voting to kick him out. The Ethics Committee is currently looking into multiple allegations made against the Florida Republican, allegations that include sexual misconduct and campaign finance violations.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is, of course, navigating one of the slimmest majorities ever not yet convinced that Mills needs to go
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNSON: He has the right to answer to the allegations, and that's what they're doing, and I'm done commenting on it. I can't. The speaker of the House does not put a thumb on the scale for the ethics committee investigation. They do good work, as has been exhibited here in the last few hours. So let's let the committee process play out and see where it goes. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju is on the Hill for us.
Well, that -- that looked that looked like a man under no small degree, no small amount of pressure. Where do things stand for Congressman Mills going forward?
RAJU: There's so much hinges on the House Ethics Committee. If it does come out and reveal some significant areas of misconduct, sexual misconduct in particular, but even violations of campaign finance law or improperly soliciting gifts, among the allegations they are investigating. That could be the end of his political career, either forcing him to resign or facing an expulsion vote, but he is saying that he is innocent of all these allegations. He denies all of this.
And he also told me today that he plans to run for reelection, and he rejected the notion that he could put a critical seat in play in a midterm election that will be closely contested.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: Are you putting this -- your seat at risk here for Republicans?
MILLS: No, I don't feel so. Look, I'm the third lowest Republican seat in the state of Florida. It's always going to be a Democrat targeted seat.
The reality is this -- I have zero criminal or civil cases that are open against me. Now, many people who resign, they resign because they're worried about either the findings of their investigation, or they're worried about the fact that they've been found guilty and are looking for expulsion. Clearly, that's not the case.
RAJU: Are you supporting his reelection? Are you supporting his reelection?
JOHNSON: He is an incumbent, and I'm in charge of getting all the incumbents in Republican incumbents reelected. And so, of course, that was all done well before any of these allegations were coming out.
RAJU: Do you think that if he continues to run, he puts that seat in play?
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: And that last comment, of course, coming from the Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, who singled out Cory Mills among several other Florida Republicans who he says Democrats plan to go after in the fall campaign. But the question, too, Kasie, is, when will this House Ethics Committee inquiry conclude. There is a push from a lot of members on both sides of the aisle who want this wrapped up soon.
But if it drags on for some time, perhaps then more Mills will hang onto his seat as long as he possibly can -- Kasie.
HUNT: Messy, messy.
Manu Raju, thank you very much for that.
All right. My panel is back here.
Jamie Gangel, for Cory Mills -- I mean, this is -- he's clearly fighting in a way that, you know, others recently have seen three members of the house stepped down in recent weeks. Eric Swalwell was pretty quick once those allegations started coming against him pretty fast and furious. It, of course, led to Tony Gonzales, a Republican, also resigning his -- he'd been fighting for longer, right in the face of these things. Mills seems to be the most defiant here.
But what do you make of the big picture reality that, you know, I guess I always grew up being told that character was what you did when nobody was looking, right? And it seems like for a lot of the people here, for the way congress has been doing business lately, they're only going to hold anyone accountable when people are looking, right?
GANGEL: Right. No, it's a mess up there. And there was also a Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.
[16:40:03]
I'm not pronouncing that correctly.
HUNT: Cherfilus-McCormick, yeah.
GANGEL: Thank you.
Look, that is absolutely correct about character. But in addition to that, you look at Speaker Johnson and he's saying, oh, stay and fight. We do not know about these charges yet, but the charges, the allegations are not pretty.
Mike Johnson has a very small margin. If -- you know, Mills is willing to stay and fight. I think Johnson is happy to have that vote.
HUNT: Yeah. I mean, one dynamic here that the House Speaker Mike Johnson is dealing with. And that has really impacted kind of the way some of these decisions have been made have been Republican women in the House.
So, members of Johnson's very slim majority really pushing on this. Here was Nancy Mace. She posted this today, "Cory Mills is just one name on a long list of names of individuals I have exposed. Regardless of party, we need strong leaders willing to take on corruption in our judicial system and government and in life. America deserves leaders who offer nothing less."
This was also Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, also a Republican, who said she was open to voting to expel Mills from the House. Here's what she said when she was asked about it.
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REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): Yeah, I mean, you're beating women. I don't think that you should be a representative in Congress.
RAJU: He's denied the allegations. Do you not believe him?
BOEBERT: I mean, who hasn't denied allegations? Everybody does. So, I mean, you have temporary restraining orders. You have body cam footage of stories changing. I don't know. So, we'll see if the vote comes up.
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HUNT: And we also Scott Jennings saw Anna Paulina Luna taking a role in this as well. What does it say that these women are pushing for all of this?
JENNINGS: Well, it says they're taking it seriously and they should. I mean, we have 435 people sent up there to represent us. And you'd like to think that they're fully focused on the people's business and not focused on whatever they've done in their private lives and fighting off allegations. I mean, how much of your attention is spent on fighting your -- for your political life and versus spent on all of it doing the people's business?
And so, so that's a -- that's a legitimate question. I mean, we've seen some pretty bad scandals. I mean, the Cherfilus-McCormick scandal, she stole $5 million, according to federal prosecutors and the ethics committee of FEMA tax money and put it in her own campaign.
We're also well acquainted with what's going on with Eric Swalwell. He's under criminal investigation for rape, I guess, in two jurisdictions. So, these are not small potatoes.
HUNT: Neither is what happened with Tony Gonzales.
JENNINGS: Absolutely. And so, when you look at -- this is not -- I guess my point is this isn't like small potato tit for tat political, but these are really serious issues. And so, when you think about sending someone to Congress, what do you want them to do all day? Do you want them to represent you or do you want them to be finding lawyers to represent themselves?
And I think, you know, they've taken out a couple of pieces of garbage, and it may be time to take out the rest of the trash.
HINOJOSA: Yeah.
THOMPSON: Well, these are serious issues, but the reason why you're seeing Mike Johnson sort of squirm and also, you know, on the -- and also let the process play out on the Democratic side is because the margin is so thin in the House that every single one of these allegations has the capacity to potentially even change the majority before the midterms or make every vote so much harder. So, it's had this increased political effect that has made a lot of the leaders not speak as definitively as you just did. HINOJOSA: Well, it also shouldn't just be women speaking out. It
shouldn't be just Republican women speaking out when someone has assaulted -- a man has assaulted somebody else. And that seems that's how all of this starts.
On the Democratic side, we are quick to kind of call out our own, both men and women. And I think that this is just part of the way Washington has been run for so long. And I think Republican men and men in general just don't know how to deal with it on Capitol Hill.
HUNT: I mean, I will say when John Boehner was speaker of the House and later, Paul Ryan after him, they dealt with some significant issues. And frankly, they dealt with it quickly and dispensed with it. And it wasn't a thing.
I mean, this is a -- I think in some ways, what you're seeing is reflective of the nature of this close majority, the kind of house speaker that Mike Johnson is also, which I think is a departure from the way some other Republicans have managed things.
All right, ahead here in THE ARENA, we'll talk with retired Admiral James Stavridis about the president's new comments on the war in Iran and the future of peace talks
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[16:48:41]
HUNT: All right. Twenty-four hours after President Trump extended the ceasefire, the White House says it's still waiting to hear from Iran. And just moments ago, the president said in an interview that he is under, quote, "no time pressure on either the ceasefire or on new peace talks".
Joining me now in THE ARENA, former NATO supreme allied commander, retired Admiral James Stavridis.
Admiral, wonderful to see you as always.
Last time you were here, just days ago, you were relatively optimistic that a deal could be had. Now we seem to be in some sort of protracted limbo, with the United States maintaining this blockade, the president maintaining the ceasefire, saying there's no timeline on that. But also, with no indication from the Iranians about a timeline on their end.
Where does this leave us?
ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: I'd still say, Kasie, we've got a better than even chance of getting to a deal, because if you step back and look at it, both sides have a significant incentive to do so. President Trump has midterms coming, gas prices high, unpopular war. Iran has been beaten bloody, needs time to reconstruct and needs money to do that reconstruction.
That's the shape of a deal. It's basically a two-point peace plan. Open the strait and then stop striking Iran, but give them some sanctions relief, unfreeze some assets.
[16:50:06]
You can see the shape of that deal out there. And what's left to consider? Well, it's the enriched uranium. Got to come up with a plan for that. But it's buried. It's under a lot of rubble. I think you have time to deal with that.
So, I remain, again, cautiously optimistic we'll get there. Final thought, Kasie. So what's going on right now? Why this on again/off again back and forth. Both sides are posturing publicly. But I suspect behind the scenes there is some level of communication that ultimately will lead to talks.
What to watch, watch the location, the physical location of the negotiator. So I'm watching J.D. Vance and I'm watching Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran. When they get in their jets. Then, we're getting closer.
HUNT: Yeah. Admiral when the president said that there's no deadline for the Iranians, do you think it would make a difference if he did set a deadline? I mean, what is the negotiating sort of incentive behind that?
STAVRIDIS: Clearly, the president wants to put pressure on them. That's why the blockade of the Iranian coastline of the Iranian ports is still in place. But at the same time, he wants to give them an opening to get back to the table. He doesn't want this to go back to active combat, and I think he can avoid that. So again, watch the signals going back and forth here.
I think we're still in a zone where we can get to talks. I'm not willing to let go of that. Better than even prediction quite yet.
HUNT: All right. Fair enough. So, on the blockade, Senator Lindsey Graham, who, of course, has been one of the hawkish, if not the most hawkish voices in the room on dealing with Iran in this particular moment. He said that he spoke to the president and to Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and he said that the U.S. blockade, quote, "could become global soon." What does he mean by that do you think?
STAVRIDIS: He means -- and don't forget, Senator Graham is also Colonel Lindsey Graham, a retired judge advocate general. He knows international law, maritime law very, very well. What he's talking about, Kasie, is what's called a distant blockade. It means instead of parking ships in front of each of those Iranian ports along their coastline, you simply create a distant blockade where you are empowered to seize ships that are bound for Iran, have come out of Iran, are carrying Iranian goods.
In my view, this is legal under international law. You'll get some varying views of that. But that's what Senator Graham is talking about. And it's not a bad idea because it reduces the risk of having all those ships parked in the Persian Gulf. You get done what you need to, slowly choking off the Iranian economy, just like Abraham Lincoln did to the south, in the case of cotton. What the Trump administration is trying to do is choke the oil coming in and out of Iran. And you can do that right off the ports, or you can do it more safely for your ships, your marines, your seals out at sea in a distant blockade.
HUNT: Yes. So, speaking of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, where do you assess the state of readiness for the U.S. military to be right now? I mean, how long can we maintain the footing, the posture that we're on right now? And how does that play into the decision making here?
STAVRIDIS: Well, there's as usual, good news and bad news. I'll start with the bad news. Pretty obviously, we've depleted a significant chunk of some of the very high end weapon systems, think tomahawk missiles, high end air defense systems. These are crucial in any combat scenario. By some estimates, we've depleted as much as 50 percent of those inventories.
Here's the good news. We still have a lot of alternatives to those systems that are less expensive, perhaps a bit less precise, a bit less capable. But they're still formidable. And when you couple that, a big part of readiness is always how does the force feel? What's the morale?
Right now, the U.S. military is feeling strong, is feeling empowered by the combat operations they've been conducting.
[16:55:05]
So, although some of the high end systems are in short supply, I think morale and overall capability are still where we need them to be.
HUNT: We'll take that.
All right. Retired Admiral James Stavridis, thank you very much, sir. Always appreciate your insights.
STAVRIDIS: You bet, Kasie.
HUNT: All right. We'll be right back.
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HUNT: All right, thanks to my panel. Really appreciate you all being here.
Thanks to you at home for watching as well. Travel shoes. Skechers arch fit sneakers. Travel shoes. Skechers arch fit sneakers.
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