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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Trump's Pick Paxton Will Defeat Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) In Texas GOP Runoff; Kelly On Trump, I Didn't Expect Corruption To Be This Widespread; Trump DOJ Deletes News Releases On January 6th Riot Cases; Trump Says Iran Negotiations Proceed Nicely; New York Giants Quarterback Criticized For Mixing Politics And Sports. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired May 26, 2026 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Tonight, the results are in. The longtime senator snubbed by Donald Trump learns his fate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to stay with Cornyn and vote for him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were going to vote for Ken Paxton, even if Trump hadn't have endorsed anyone.
PHILLIP: Plus, even MAGA fans are shocked by the brazen presidency.
MEGYN KELLY, HOST, THE MEGYN KELLY SHOW: I didn't expect the corruption to be quite as widespread as it's been.
JOE ROGAN, HOST, THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE: That is so crazy.
And then he just goes straight Uday Hussein. Yes.
PHILLIP: Also, Republican hawks blast the rumored deal with Iran, calling it worse than Barack Obama's.
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): How does that make sense at all?
PHILLIP: And when a quarterback shows his political colors, his teammate questions the red zone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What an honor, what a privilege it is to be here.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: This beautiful guy has got legs like tree trunks.
PHILLIP: Live at the table, Keith Boykin, Marc Short, Deja Foxx, Brad Todd, and Jemele Hill.
Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here they do.
(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip in New York.
And breaking news tonight, in one of the biggest primary showdowns of the year, CNN is projecting that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will defeat longtime incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the GOP runoff for U.S. Senate. It was a blowout win and a massive victory for Trump that tested his grip on the Republican Party.
For months, Trump sat out this contest, but in a surprise move last week, the president endorsed Paxton, arguing that Cornyn wasn't loyal enough to him while was president.
So, here's what Paxton had to say about Trump's support just a few moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN PAXTON (R), TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and abandon the people of Texas, he didn't listen. Instead, he gave his complete and total endorsement.
President Trump is the leader of our party, and his endorsement is the most powerful force in politics.
Tonight, we just sent a Texas-sized message to Washington.
I said it in March, and I'll say it again now, today, change was on the ballot and change won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now, Paxton's nomination could ultimately complicate things come November. He is coming with, to put it lightly, a long, long laundry list of scandals that have plagued him, something that has worried some GOP senators who believe that Cornyn had a better chance of hanging on to this GOP seat in the fall.
Brad Todd, I mean, he's right that Trump's endorsement is king in the Republican primary, but I'm wondering, do you think he is right that Trump made the right decision here to endorse Paxton?
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first off, incumbents tend to get in runoffs what they got in the first, and so John Cornyn's camp was already concerned that he was under 50 percent in the first, and you don't tend to grow much as an incumbent the second time around.
But I think it's a big gamble by President Trump. Ken Paxton's a bad fundraiser. There's a lot of opposition research against him. He's a polarizing figure. His only saving grace in this is that he's running against James Talarico, who is the most radical person to ever run statewide in Texas. And this election in the fall will be a referendum on him more than it will be on Ken Paxton, I suspect.
KEITH BOYKIN, FORMER CLINTON WHITE HOUSE AIDE: James Talarico is not Ken Paxton, that's for sure, because James Talarico's never been indicted like Ken Paxton has. James Talarico's never been impeached like Ken Paxton has. James Talarico doesn't have any scandals of infidelity like Ken Paxton does. James Talarico is the antithesis of Ken Paxton, because Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in America, according to James Talarico's new ad they just released today.
So, Democrats, you know, don't really have a good shot usually in a state like Texas, but Donald Trump just gave Democrats the best possible hand they could by supporting Ken Paxton and not supporting his inc- his incumbent, John Cornyn.
TODD: I'll agree with you. John Cornyn -- if John Cornyn had won tonight, we would never talk about the Texas Senate race ever again, and Ken Paxton is the only way this could be an ongoing topic on this network.
JEMELE HILL, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Yes. And there is also the fundraising issue, as has been brought up, is that the Republicans are going to have to spend a lot of money on this race, and James Talarico I think already in the first quarter has raised like nearly $30 million. So, the Democrats can literally leave him alone and let him operate on his own, and that's a big win for them considering the amount of money they're going to have to spend in some other races.
So, from a strategy standpoint, even if James Talarico doesn't win, I think it still benefits the Democratic Party.
PHILLIP: Also, you know, I see Trump doing what he often does, which is deciding that someone's loyalty is not enough. Trump said in his endorsement of Paxton that John Cornyn is a good man and I work well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough. John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a historic run for the Republican nomination, and then the presidency.
And he's not wrong about that, but, I mean, comments dating back to 2016, you know, Cornyn is basically saying Trump would be a bad nominee, but so did a lot of people, so did Marco Rubio, so did J.D. Vance. So why is it that some people's loyalty is being held against them, and other people it's not?
MARC SHORT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS DIRECTOR, FIRST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: Abby, I don't think you have to go back to 2016. It was just a few weeks ago that Trump was on the precipice of endorsing John Cornyn. So, when you throw out the fact that he's not loyal, the reality is that he was basically prepared to endorse Cornyn.
There's no doubt that he has full grip on the Republican Party. I think you've seen that again in Indiana, you've seen that in Kentucky, you've seen that in Louisiana. In this case, though, I think he had clear evidence that Paxton was going to win this race, which is why he made the endorsement.
PHILLIP: He just kind of jumped on the horse that was already --
SHORT: He got in front of the parade as fast as he could. I mean, again, if this was about being loyal or not, then he wouldn't have been prepared to endorse Cornyn just a few weeks ago.
PHILLIP: You think that he's just trying to be -- he's trying to back the person who is likely to win?
SHORT: In this case. Now, again, I'm not questioning his command of the party, because he's shown it again and again. But in this case, I think he was trying to get ahead of the parade.
DEJA FOXX (D), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE, ARIZONA: I think Trump also has some unique insight here, that indictments and impeachments and infidelities and divorces don't really disqualify a candidate, right? This is a man whose the woman who was married to him for years won't even endorse him. But he's got that Trump endorsement, and, apparently, that is one of the biggest pieces of political capital we can have. They were just saying that in the clip we watched, but in truth, the biggest power is not a Trump endorsement, it's people showing up and voting.
I'm excited to see in this general election how the youth vote, how the rural vote, how people of color turn out. Because folks like Ken Paxton are running on a record where they've enriched themselves and lined their pockets, right? His net worth has grown $12 million since he's been in office in 2003, basically my whole lifetime. And while attorney general, he denied people water breaks, right? That was what he was running on. Meanwhile, he's got ten homes all across this country. And so him and Donald Trump have a whole lot in common, and this endorsement is no surprise.
SHORT: But Talarico doesn't have much in common with most Texans. I think that's going to be a real challenge. If you're basically saying that eating meat is such an existential threat to the environment, that's not going to play well in Texas.
TODD: The Texas swing voter is right of center. And the Democrats would've done themselves much better if tonight they'd nominated a Hispanic Catholic, tough on the border, tough on law and order, state legislator or sheriff or county commissioner in the border counties. I mean, Donald Trump carried the Rio Grande Valley. I think Republicans are going to carry most of the Rio Grande Valley in Congress races this year.
James Talarico is Austin. He is the left of the left of the Texas Democratic Party.
BOYKIN: It's funny the Republicans -- you know, I wasn't even a James Talarico supporter. I supported Jasmine Crockett in the primary. I've been in Texas the past five months because I've been there with my mom. And I'm telling you that Texas is ripe for the pickings. Democrats have to have the right candidate and the right time, and Democrats are excited this year in the way that they haven't been in any other year in recent memory.
So, I think there's a lot of opportunity. And the fact that they're going after James Talarico the way they are with these silly attacks about whether he eats meat or not or whether he eats beef or not --
(CROSSTALKS)
BOYKIN: I get it. I get it.
SHORT: If you want to say that Ken in Texas believes there're six genders, I think there's going to be a lot of issues.
BOYKIN: But, see, this, but this is the kind of the kind of nonsense the Republicans want to play. They don't want to focus on the real issues about what's going to be good for Texas? Who's going to put money on your table?
(CROSSTALKS)
FOXX: Now that we've seen Paxton coming through as the nominee here, I actually think this is going to be a race largely about corruption. And there's a hunger for moral leadership right now in this party and across this country that I think James Talarico is speaking to.
PHILLIP: Let me play some of the -- these are some voters were speaking earlier today during voting about their choice in this Senate race, Republican voters. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENA TATUM, TEXAS VOTER: I was torn because I was going to go with Cornyn --
REPORTER: Cornyn.
TATUM: Cornyn, but when Trump backed him.
I listened to Trump. I like Trump. I like Trump a lot.
RODNEY HALL, TEXAS VOTER: I made one vote and that was for Cornyn.
REPORTER: And why is that?
HALL: Primarily because he's not supported by Trump.
I don't like Paxton's history, and that combined with Trump's support makes it a non-starter.
[22:10:06]
I think he's ruined my Republican Party. I think he's divided America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So, that last gentleman, you know, I don't know how many Republicans in the state of Texas feel that way, but I wonder about the 30-something percent that Cornyn did get in this race, and whether that's a sign of trouble. Because, you know, Talarico, he had a statement tonight. He said he's thanking John Cornyn for his years of service. He says, we don't agree on everything, but we still believe in public service. To Senator Cornyn supporters, you have a place in our campaign. I mean, I do wonder -- look, Democrats have a long history of spending, wasting a lot of time trying to go after Republican voters, but I do wonder, I mean, how many Republicans, not only do they hate Paxton's history, but they don't like what Trump has been doing to the Republican Party and might be looking to send a message.
SHORT: Look, I think Paxton is a divisive and a weak candidate for Republicans. I still think it's Texas, Abby. And I still think at the end of the day that even that candidate is going to beat Talarico in November.
Will we spend a lot of resources in Texas that I wish we'd be spending elsewhere? Absolutely. Have we already spent a lot of dollars trying to support incumbent John Cornyn that some think maybe is replenishable, but some donors may feel like, I just spent a ton of money and lost in a primary? It may not be.
So, think this is --
PHILLIP: And a lot of people are loyal to Cornyn in terms of fundraising, which --
TODD: I think Cornyn is -- the donors in Texas love John Cornyn, but they also do not want a left-wing Democrat like James Talarico.
Now, I think he's a lift. I think he's a pretty big lift. But I think that the President has $300 million in his affiliated committees. There's no place like Texas to raise Republican money, because it comes out of the ground, and it won't stop coming out of the ground every day.
And so it's -- that's --
BOYKIN: I think the real danger here, though, for Republicans is that Republican voters just won't show up. Because, I mean, Ken Paxton was impeached by a Republican House of Representatives in Texas. It wasn't Democrats who impeached him, Republicans. He's not well-liked. He's not just scandal-plagued. He's disliked.
And the idea that Republicans --
TODD: Turnout's low tonight, too. You're right about that.
PHILLIP: Do you remember when back in the 2017 Alabama Senate race, Trump endorsed Roy Moore, who was accused of sexual encounters with young girls, teens, and he did so despite all -- everybody basically telling him not to do it. Roy Moore goes on to lose that campaign by a small margin, but loses it. I mean, there is a prospect that this could be a similar setup.
TODD: But Doug Jones promised he was a moderate in that race. James Talarico's not promising that.
PHILLIP: I -- you know, I mean, I guess the question is on what are voters going to be voting on? Are they going to be voting on the price of gas being $4-plus, or are they going to be voting on what people think are, you know, gender pronouns or whatever?
HILL: Yes, and I was just about to bring that up. I think the state of the economy is really going to play in Democrats' favor in this race, especially in Texas, where they love to brag about how cheap everything is, and now it's not looking that way anymore.
You also have, I think, the other issue is that because Trump has aligned himself with this person and they are like this is a historically unpopular president. So, while, yes, the endorsement was enough to carry him with Republicans, but there's a whole lot of independents and a whole lot of swing voters that are like out on Trump completely.
And I think that situation applies to Texas as well despite the fact that, on some level, I think you're right that the makeup of James Talarico is not what you would typically expect Texas to vote for. But considering everything that is happening in the country and all the issues, I think that this is probably as good of a chance as the Democrats have had in years to actually win this state.
SHORT: Abby, Texas may be one of those states where high oil prices maybe don't hurt you as much.
TODD: I was in Houston last week and gas prices are about 85 cents cheaper than they were in New York. In Texas they are, for sure.
PHILLIP: Maybe, but, you know, Ted Cruz posted a picture of the gas he paid. It was still $4 a gallon.
HILL: Yes, and for Texans, that's like --
PHILLIP: People don't like $4 a gallon gas prices. I'm sorry to say.
TODD: High gas prices are bad. We can agree on that.
PHILLIP: All right. Next for us, even some MAGA hosts are stunned by Trump's recent behavior and his slush fund deal, we'll discuss that.
Plus, Iran is threatening to retaliate tonight after the U.S. strikes during the ceasefire, even as the president is claiming a deal to once again just keep talking is in place.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:15:00]
PHILLIP: Tonight, even MAGA supporters are shocked by Donald Trump's brazen presidency. Here's Megyn Kelly, who endorsed and voted for Trump in 2024, campaigned with him, calling out the president and his family for, quote, self-dealing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY: I have to be honest, I didn't expect the corruption to be quite as, you know, widespread as it's been, and like the self-dealing and the lining of his and his family's pockets. Like that's been a little shocking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talking billions of dollars.
KELLY: And I just didn't expect Trump to be so disrespectful of his base.
I mean, you look at like across the board of the Trump family, I've never seen a family get so rich off of a presidency.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
KELLY: And it happened at the same time as we now have a Supreme Court ruling that basically says any official act he takes while in the White House is protected.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
KELLY: And those two things are -- you know, seem to be giving him some sort of a hall pass that could very much get abused.
Like this is not the way it's supposed to be. This -- even one of those would've caused a massive scandal 12, 13 years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[22:20:00]
PHILLIP: Joe Rogan, who is on a texting basis with Trump, slammed his $1.8 billion slush fund for his supporters that also bans the IRS from investigating Trump and his family for past tax issues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROGAN: That is so crazy. Imagine like somebody accused you of murder . And it turns out you weren't guilty of that murder, and then you sue them, and you go, you can never prosecute me for murder again, and then you just go straight Uday Hussein.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: The shock of some of these folks, actually, I thought it was interesting. Megyn Kelly says, I'm shocked that Trump is so disrespectful of his base. I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure what to --
HILL: Well, that's the thing, though, is it's really hard to take either one of them seriously for a number of reasons. The Donald Trump that is here today has been the same person. Like this is not -- maybe the grift is different, and maybe it's a little more polished, and maybe it's more well-executed, but he has been a grifter and a corrupt person his whole life. And so it's hard for me to believe in hearing them that this isn't another part of the scam, like oh, let me get off this train now because I see that he's a total train wreck. But you knew this before. There was plenty of reasons you didn't have to support him in 2024, and the same with Joe Rogan. Plenty of reasons, none of those reasons have changed.
And so it's almost like they're saying, oh, I knew he was bad. I just didn't think he was that bad. Well, if you knew he was bad, that's enough reason not to support him and not to help further his campaign. So, I don't know. It's just hard for me to take them seriously.
FOXX: I almost feel, too, that what they're saying is, I knew he was bad, I just didn't know he would be bad this loudly and embarrass all of us --
HILL: Correct.
FOXX: -- which we probably all at this table could have seen coming to some degree. But the way that he has enriched himself and his family over a billion dollars just this year, I think, his personal net worth, has been creative and various, right? Like through the courts, through crypto. There's nothing he won't try. And I think his base is starting to catch on that he is in no way working for them but is working for himself and his family. And even these commentators are looking at a presidency that is coming to an end while they still have to further their media careers.
PHILLIP: Well, you know, I mean, Marc, just -- I often point out, obviously, that Republicans made a whole career out of claiming that Joe Biden enriched himself off of his son's -- you know, whatever Hunter Biden was doing. We know that President Trump, his net worth has skyrocketed to $6.5 billion since he's been president. His sons are actively and openly in a whole slew of businesses that are regulated by the Trump presidency, cryptocurrency, you know, gambling or whatever you want to call it. Trump says it's not gambling but it is prediction markets, real estate investments, Truth Social, all of it.
I mean, how do you justify that if you're a Republican?
SHORT: Abby, I remember being on the campaign in 2016, and one of the most electric lines was the drain the swamp rally cry at the various rallies. I think American voters elected Donald Trump to clean it up. They viewed that Hillary Clinton and the Clinton machine was corrupt. I think it helped in 2020 that -- 2024 that the Biden family, I think, had taken advantage of taxpayers, with Hunter making money off the Communist Chinese and making money off his paintings.
I think that Republicans look inconsistent when we don't call it out as well on Donald Trump. I think when you see that basically it's not just -- it's Qatar that is funding much of their crypto investments, when you see that Jared is basically getting his money from Saudi Arabia, yet also simultaneously negotiating Middle East peace process if there's no conflict of interest there, that just today it came out that Kazakhstan has mining company that the Trump boys are invested in, and it's being backed up by EXIM Bank loans, taxpayer funded.
I think Republicans need to be consistent on this. And I think it could be a big detriment to them come November.
PHILLIP: Would you agree, though, that what we're talking about is orders of magnitude difference? I mean, let's put it -- let's stipulate, maybe it's millions of dollars that Hunter Biden made from his business dealings. We're talking about billions.
SHORT: I think it's bad either way, Abby. I don't want to get into comparison of one. I think it's bad either way. And I think Republicans are right to call it out with Hunter, and we should be calling it out this time, too.
BOYKIN: I will call it out as hypocritical, because what Donald Trump just did last week was, in my opinion, and according to many who've looked at it, including The New York Times, which I know you probably don't agree with, the most corrupt decision that any president has ever made in history, in American history.
I mean, first of all, he sued his own government for $10 billion. Then he negotiated a deal with himself, with his own lawyer for $1.8 billion, which he has complete control over with some fancy commission of people who his lawyer appoints and he can fire. That is the most corrupt self-dealing, most farcical operation I've ever seen.
[22:25:04]
And the idea that he was able to get away with it, and Republicans won't call him out on it --
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: Hang on. Let me just make sure. I just want to also just make a note of this. The Trump administration is also now actively, and they say this is not being done quietly, they are deleting indictments from January 6th convicts that are on government websites, erasing -- literally erasing history, and doing it proudly so, nothing quiet about it. We are proud to reverse the DOJ's weaponization under the Biden administration.
This is about one man who has an ongoing child solicitation case and came to the Capitol armed with bear spray.
TODD: I'm not familiar with that case or many of those other ones, but I've already --
PHILLIP: But does it even matter? I mean, why are they erasing history?
TODD: Most of those people shouldn't have been pardoned anyway, or at least the violent ones, like Enrique Tarrio, shouldn't have. But I'm going to go back to Keith's point. The Republican senators are standing up to this. That's why they left town.
BOYKIN: That's the reason they said, whoa -- TODD: That's why they left town.
BOYKIN: Whoa, they left town. Whoa.
TODD: And I think, by the way --
BOYKIN: Big action there.
TODD: I think that I would -- I don't like the $1.8 billion slush fund. I wouldn't like it if it was 1.8 billion pennies either. And I think most Republican senators feel the same way, that's the kind of thing you do through a court or through the legislative process, and not through a settlement. A judge could order it, but --
PHILLIP: What are they going to do about it?
FOXX: But also who's paying for that?
PHILLIP: What are they going to do about it?
TODD: Well, I mean, I can tell you right now that there is an extreme level of dissatisfaction within the Republican Senate conference. It's not just this. I think that's why John Cornyn got Trump's ire. I don't think it was anything about what John Cornyn had done or said himself regarding Donald Trump. I think that John Cornyn was the hostage that the president could shoot politically.
He's mad at the whole conference. He's mad that they haven't gotten rid of the filibuster. He's mad that they left town. I think this is --
PHILLIP: But I guess my point is they're not actually doing anything.
BOYKIN: They left town. Wow.
PHILLIP: I mean, and, honestly, they're not even really saying a whole lot about --
SHORT: I do think it sunk the reconciliation bill. It should be a big win for Republicans. It should be us being strong on border security when Democrats are weak, and instead it's been totally derailed.
But I'll go a step further.
PHILLIP: Listen, you guys would just --
SHORT: Abby, I'll go a step further.
PHILLIP: Listen, Republicans would impeach a Democratic president who did even one of the things that we discussed tonight.
SHORT: Abby, I'll go a step further. We keep talking about this as $1.8 billion. It's worse than that. It's 1.776, because some clown thought it'd be funny to say the people who rioted and assaulted police are equivalent to the people who founded our country 250 years ago and stood our country up. And so I think it's even more nefarious than that. I think that this whole notion of 1.776 is some clever fool in the White House thinking this would be funny, and it's not. But I think it has already derailed the bill.
FOXX: I also want to say that that 1.776 is our money, and this is a time at which people are feeling the squeeze. Gas is more expensive than it's been in recent memory. Our electricity bills are up. Places like Arizona, it is so hot, and we are spending more and more every year just to keep our houses cool. Groceries are expensive, and people are just barely making it by, and that is our money that he is making that decision about, right?
He's saying that our hard-earned tax dollars should go to these January 6th rioters. There's nothing patriotic about that, and it is insensitive in a moment like this when so many Americans are struggling.
PHILLIP: We got to leave it there.
Next for us, the president says that an Iran deal is close, but we have heard that before. Is this time any different? Some Republicans are getting fed up. We'll debate that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:33:07]
PHILLIP: Eighty-seven days -- that's how long it's been since the war with Iran began, as twice as long as Trump had initially said it would last. And after weeks of saying an end was near and a deal was close, Trump is again saying that negotiations are proceeding nicely. And he's insisting that it'll be a great deal or no deal at all. Marco Rubio says that both sides are just working on the particulars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I think there's strong alignment and agreement on what a preliminary draft should look like. I think like anything with something like this, it's going to take a couple days to settle on even down to the disagreements over a word sentence. So, we'll have to work through that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: They're calling that potential agreement a quote, "Memorandum of Understanding." Now, as for the details, those are pretty unclear, but the little that we do know appears to be more of a plan before the plan instead of a deal itself. According to our reporting, both sides would have to agree to stop fighting on all fronts.
The Strait of Hormuz would be gradually reopened. And once that happens, a 60-day process would begin to tackle the other pressing issues. Most importantly, the reason this war began in the first place -- Iran's nuclear program.
Now this weekend, Republican Senator and Chairman of the Armed Services Committee Roger Wicker says that the rumored 60-day ceasefire would be a disaster. He added that, "Everything accomplished in Operation Epic Fury would be for naught."
I'll crib Frank Luntz here and just read his tweet. Insider reporting from unnamed White House official says the Iran deal is 95 percent done. The remaining five percent of negotiations are focused on Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz and turning over all nuclear weapons. Seems to be a whole ball game.
UNKNOWN: That doesn't seem like five percent.
[22:35:00]
PHILLIP: I don't understand why we're even discussing this. Why are we discussing this as a deal if it doesn't deal with the core issues that caused the war to begin in the first place?
SHORT: Well, Abby, look, I think that there's been no president who stood with Israel more than Donald Trump. I think after October 7th, 2023, it became an existential threat for Israel if it hadn't already been. And he stood with them. But I have similar concerns as Chairman Wicker. I feel like at this point, history shows that peace deals work better with a defeated enemy. And I think peace deals with your current adversary, if you haven't defeated them, never work, as well.
And so, I have significant concerns about the administration negotiating some sort of temporary pause against, more or less, a ceasefire. And if you're going to basically unfreeze their assets, I don't see how this is different than what the Obama administration did in sending pallets of cash with the promise that one day they'll stop enriching uranium, too.
PHILLIP: Yes, I mean, and just to underscore what we know, it would stop fighting on all fronts. The Strait of Hormuz would be reopened. It would tackle some of the other issues later, like the nuclear issue. And the reporting is also that potentially there would be some unfreezing of assets. Now, the Iranians say that the unfreezing would happen in order to reopen the strait.
But even the administration officials are saying that once the strait is reopened, then they would unfreeze assets, which seems to be that we are paying them to do what they were doing before, which is to allow free transit in the Strait of Hormuz. How is that a win?
BOYKIN: Yes, this agreement deal or whatever we're calling it doesn't do much more than get us back to where were before at the cost of $29 billion we've already spent in the war, 13 U.S. soldiers, hundreds of Americans injured, 13 killed by the way, and gas prices at $4.50 a gallon.
So, I think with this deal, is supposed to do is to get Donald Trump out of a political slump. Every other major war I've seen with the American president usually results in some sort of upsurge in the polls. I mean, George Bush was, in the '90s, both George Bush in the '90s, when their wars took place. But this is the most unpopular war I've seen in my lifetime.
And Donald Trump is searching around for some sort of way to justify what he's doing here. But there is no way out because, as you just said, this basically puts us back to where we could have been with the JCPOA, with Barack Obama's deal.
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: -- would ever keep a deal.
FOXX: There's a cost, too. There's a cost, right, in terms of our tax dollars, money that we put in, right? There's a cost to human life. But there's also been a cost to Donald Trump's support. And this war, like you said, is incredibly unpopular. It's particularly unpopular with young people.
And I think some of the people who are the most angry about this war are young MAGA. In fact, Donald Trump stands to lose because he campaigned on an America First, anti-interventionist platform that these young people bought into in 2024. I think he stands to lose them.
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: I do a lot of survey work with the Republican primary voters and Republican base voters. The numbers don't bear that out, Republican voters want to take the Iranian government out. Period.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: I will say, I will say, Brad, there's a lot of polling that suggests that even among Republican voters, this war is not particularly popular.
TODD: No, I disagree with that. I think it will be unpopular if we leave too soon.
PHILLIP: Well, I mean that's a different --
TODD: And if we without achieving the objectives, that will make it unpopular among Republicans.
PHILLIP: -- that's a different question. The question is not, do we want Iran to be defeated? Yes, everybody wants Iran to be defeated. The question is, do we approve of how Trump is conducting this war? That is what I think --
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: Well, it's seven presidents too late. Every president that preceded him since 1979 has failed to do something very essential, which is take on the mullahs in Iran and stop them from being able to project terror in their region.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Sure, but I guess the point is, where we are right now, there's not much evidence that Trump has done what you're claiming the seven presidents also didn't do. And just to put a finer point on it, you know, Trump is saying very confidently that we're close to a deal. But he's been saying that since at least March 23rd. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We have points, major points of agreement, I would say almost all points of agreement. They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly but they're afraid to say it. They are begging to work out a deal. Most of the points are already negotiated and agreed to. We're very close to making a deal. I mean Iran is dying to make a deal. And who wouldn't when the military is totally gone? We're going to end that war very quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Maybe it'll be a good deal, maybe it'll be a bad deal, but maybe there won't be a deal because this is what he's been saying.
HILL: First of all, I don't think he has a clear idea of what kind of war he's actually fighting. He wanted this to be a war of strength. Iran knew head to head, no, right? So, if I'm facing a bully and we both fighting, and I know they're bigger than me, then I'm going to have to do something more psychological because I can't win the physical war.
[22:40:00]
Iran knows that this war is deeply unpopular in the United States because of the expense. They are fighting a war against economic chaos. That's the war they're fighting. Trump is fighting something different. And that's why he has put himself in a complete corner, because if you put that much force and the military did all that it did, it still didn't make them give in.
So now, you have no point of leverage. Now, you have to come to the table and make this look like a win for yourself and they know that. And it feels like whatever they're going to get out of this, it won't even be as good as the last deal.
PHILLIP: All right, we have to leave it there. Next for us, the New York Giants quarterback, (inaudible) for President Trump, gets a fast lesson about the cost of mixing politics and sports. We'll discuss that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:45:21]
PHILLIP: Tonight, New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart is facing criticism, including from one of his own teammates, for showing his political colors off the field.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAXSON DART, NEW YORK GIANTS QUARTERBACK: What a privilege it is to be here and without further ado, I'm grateful, I'm honored, I'm pleasured to introduce the 45th and 47th President of the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump.
TRUMP: I want to thank Jaxson Dart. This is going to be a future Hall of Famer in my book. Thank you. Thank you, Jaxson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Dart is a 23-year-old second-year player and his teammate, 22-year-old Abdul Carter took to social media to react. Quote, "I thought this shit (ph) was A.I. What are we doing, man?" Carter wrote before deleting that post. Then Carter says that he and Dart are on good terms and had a conversation as men. But Dart's appearance and Carter's response are prompting a national debate.
Jemele, what do you think? I mean, are we at a place where we -- and anybody can say that if you're an athlete, you shouldn't be up on a political stage speaking?
HILL: Well, sports and politics have always mixed. I mean, they've mixed since the days of George Washington. What changed about this narrative of sports and politics not belonging together is when frankly, black athletes started to show more agency and started to speak more about some of the conditions that people in their community were facing or even some of the experiences that they had. That's when it became, oh no, don't mix sports and politics.
In this particular case, this was an unforced era by Jaxson Dart. Again, Donald Trump is historically unpopular. You are the quarterback of the New York Giants. What was the point? What is the upside in appearing at this rally? Now, he has a right to support whoever he wants, but Abdul Carter has a right to criticize his support of that.
And a lot of athletes, partly what makes them hesitant about talking about their political beliefs is that they don't want the blowback, and they don't want the resistance, and how people might feel about it. So yes, his teammate who is a Muslim, who is a black man in America had every right to question him about what that support means, especially when you are considered to be the face of the organization and the, sort of default leader of the entire team.
TODD: They're both -- got the free speech rights to do and associate.
HILL: They sure do.
TODD: And neither one of them was using the football field or their jersey or their helmet as a platform.
FOXX: Well, he was actually leading a chant that was associated with the team at the rally and it was incredibly embarrassing.
TODD: It's not during the game. It's not people who've paid the -- I'm going to go watch Bruce Springsteen tomorrow night and I'm going to agree with none of his politics, but I agree with all of his songs and I'm going to enjoy that part of the show. And like he's going to use the whole concert for that. Jaxson Dart is not using the giant stadium, MetLife Stadium, whatever it's called now. He's a private citizen. (CROSSTALK)
HILL: But it's not really about that. He's not a private citizen. I mean, he's a public figure.
TODD: He's a private citizen. In his life, he gets to vote just like everybody --
(CROSSTALK)
FOXX: Of course, he's, you know, when we think about who is he accountable to, it's his teammates first and his city second, right? His state --
TODD: He's accountable to himself about his policies.
FOXX: Well, he's going to be accountable on the internet.
SHORT: I feel we're so hypocritical on this, Abby.
PHILLIP: Why is that?
SHORT: Because when Steve Kerr and the Warriors come out and condemn Trump, does anybody on this panel say, oh, that's out of line. They shouldn't do that. Jaxson Dart has every right to be there with the President of United States. And when people are invited and teams win national championships and they're invited to the White House, they should go.
And yet every time there's a political statement, we're not going to be there with Donald Trump, the media justifies it, says it's fine. Well, Jaxson Dart goes for a rally, all of a sudden we're going to criticize it? This is absurd.
HILL: This is about the person, though, not just the office, though. That's what I'm saying.
(CROSSTALK)
SHORT: (audible) was there a person -- was everybody okay? Was anybody going get upset with Steve Kerr?
HILL: Well, and by the way, all players didn't go see Obama. There were some that decided to sit out and not go because they didn't agree with his politics. And that's totally fine. I don't have anything to do that.
TODD: But it's not fine.
(CROSSTALK)
FOXX: You're talking about two different things, you know.
HILL: I didn't say he didn't have a right to go. What I said is when you do that, you're going to open yourself up to criticism. BOYKIN: I think what's hypocritical is that there's one thing that
distinguishes this from everything else. For me, in no other situation am I aware of has the President of United States ever come out and attacked someone, a professional athlete, for taking a stand except when Donald Trump did that with Colin Kaepernick and said, and I quote, "Get that son of a bitch off this field right now. He's fired."
That is an irresponsible, inappropriate thing, violation of everything the First Amendment is supposed to be about, to use your pressures, the President United States, to try to get a professional athlete off of the field for expressing his free speech. And for Republicans to even criticize anybody else after you have a Republican president who did that? You have no credibility --
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: He was using the game in the stadium and the uniform as a platform.
(CROSSTALK)
BOYKIN: That is not different.
[22:50:00]
The difference is the President of the United States was using his platform.
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: Kaepernick was using the stage --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: But Brad, I don't understand why is it that Colin Kaepernick suddenly doesn't have First Amendment rights?
TODD: He does, he does. He has First Amendment rights as soon as he's off the job.
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: That's not the way the First Amendment works, baby. That's not the way the First Amendment works.
PHILLIP: Do you only have First Amendment rights when you're not playing football?
TODD: No, this politics belongs off the field.
UNKNOWN: Oh, come on.
TODD: Jaxson Dart shouldn't be engaging in politics on the field either.
FOXX: And Donald Trump's threats went outside the White House, and yet here we are.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Since when is the football field a no-constitution zone?
TODD: So, wait a minute. Steve Kerr is -- to Mark's point, Steve Kerr is allowed to -- and every other coach who hates Donald Trump or player who hates Donald Trump, that's not politicizing anything. That's not inappropriate.
HILL: It totally is.
PHILLIP: I guess I think that yes, I think criticizing players right now on either side of the aisle doesn't make a lot of sense. But I also think you have to grapple with what he just said about the Colin Kaepernick of it all because what's different about that is that it's not just other players or random people on the internet.
It was the President of the United States, not just that one time, but repeatedly using his platform to attack an individual player for speaking out, not about partisan politics, mind you, but about social issues that he was -- that he thought was important, the President used his platform to do that. And that player was (inaudible), right? He was (inaudible) from the NFL.
(CROSSTALK)
HILL: -- NFL and by the way, wasn't able to settle with the NFL for his --
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: That's why he didn't get another --
PHILLIP: But I'll let you know who handled that.
(CROSSTALK)
BOYKIN: There's a lot of stinky football players who still have contracts.
TODD: The NFL will take the people who are guilty of serious crimes and put them on the field on Sunday if they think they can help them win. If they thought Colin Kaepernick can help them win, they will put him on the--
(CROSSTALK)
HILL: I'll tell you what the NFL doesn't do. The NFL doesn't typically settle collusion cases. They settled his. And why? Because they're -- the depositions -- Donald Trump made a call to Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys, and told him that this is a winning issue for me, Colin Kaepernick. Basically, he put the code red on why he doesn't have a job. And that's why Colin won the case.
SHORT: Colin Kaepernick wasn't playing for Jerry Jones. (CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Let me play this. This is what Joy Behar from "The View" said, which kind of underscores a little bit of what Deja was saying and what Jemele was saying about the politics of doing this in a state like New York. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY BEHAR, "THE VIEW" CO-HOST: There's somebody to back a guy like Trump, whose history in discrimination and racism goes back to housing discrimination.
UNKNOWN: In the '70s.
BEHAR: In the '70s, DEI attacks and posting pictures of the Obamas as apes, when he's on a team that's 55 percent to 60 percent the NFL is that many people -- that much percentage are black people. That is just the definition of stupidity and racist in my opinion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: There's a difference between what he can do, what he's allowed to do, and what might be the right thing to do. He's the quarterback for the New York Giants.
FOXX: Yes, I mean, you said that the NFL would put anybody on the field that could win them a game because that's their goal. But in fact, their goal is actually to sell tickets. And I think we'll be left to see.
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: It's hard to sell tickets if you're losing.
FOXX: Well, and, maybe --
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: It's reality.
FOXX: Right, right. But, you know, I think we're going to see how this plays out in the stadiums and online. And in fact, the discourse I've seen online is largely people saying that this was embarrassing and just an unforced error.
HILL: And I would disagree about the media part. Well, yes, because I would say I would disagree about the media part because I think the media actually has come harder at Abdul Carter than Jaxson Dart.
SHORT: Yes, just as we saw in that clip of "The View."
UNKNOWN: That's one show.
PHILLIP: All right, next for us. The panel is going to give us their nightcaps, "Impostor" Edition. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:58:39]
PHILLIP: "The Wall Street Journal" reports that Coke Zero is stealing sales and popularity away from Diet Coke, which many Diet fans are taking issue with. So, for tonight's News Nightcap, what knockoff would upset you if it overtook the original? Brad, you're up first.
TODD: Well, I'm 20 years waiting to do this. I am upset that this iPhone replaced my Blackberry. The tactile keyboard and the trackball, I love that. I didn't need this --
PHILLIP: The trackball was the craziest part about the Blackberry.
FOXX: I never had a Blackberry. I miss that entirely.
PHILLIP: All right, Deja.
FOXX: I never had a Blackberry. I miss that entirely, but I'm advocating for people keeping their therapist and not going to A.I. because I am very much within the A.I. generation and this gender split we're seeing, this dating problem is not getting any better.
HILL: All right. For me, if McDonald's Sprite -- if McDonald's ever changes their Sprite recipe, we ride it on. We ride it on. They have the best Sprite. I don't know what they did or what formula they concocted. It's the most addictive Sprite on the planet. McDonald's, never change it. If you do, I will be sending out with a picket sign ready to burn it all down.
PHILLIP: All right, go ahead.
BOYKIN: The Knicks finally won and made it to the NBA Finals. So, I'm so excited about that and they did it with the Nova three -- Josh Hart, Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges, and they did it ten years ago at Villanova.
[23:00:01]
And so, if you ever break up that trio, then we're in trouble. So, I don't want to ever change that.
PHILLIP: All right, Marc.
SHORT: Look, we're in the middle of baseball season and I still regret that Major League Baseball has adopted the D.H. in both the American and National League. I wish that the pitcher still got a chance to bat and made the game more strategic.
PHILLIP: I don't know what you were just talking about.
FOXX: It's been a lot of sports.
PHILLIP: Everyone, thank you very much. Thanks for watching "NewsNight." You can stream the show anytime with an all-access subscription in the CNN app or at cnn.com/watch. "Laura Coates Live" is right now.
