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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Trump Defends Promise to Give Away $5,000 if GOP Wins; Trump Downplays Midterms, I'll Just Block the Democrats; Trump Denies That His Supporters are Demoralized. Vice President J.D. Vance Closed Night Two of RNC Midterm Convention, His 2028 Plans are Looming; Sen. Ted Cruz Ties Muslim Democrats to Terror and Violence in Anti-America. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired September 10, 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, Donald Trump turns the midterms into a game show.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: If the Republicans win, I will issue a dividend for $5,000.
PHILLIP: The president plays Let's Make a Deal with cash he doesn't have, and his allies are left holding the bag.
REP. PAT FALLON (R-TX): Trump isn't saying that, if we win, we'll do this, he's saying, We'll be in a position to do this.
PHILLIP: Plus, as the Republican speaker plays up November --
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We are facing the most important midterm election that has ever been.
PHILLIP: -- the Republican president plays it down.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Your whole legacy is on the line.
TRUMP: Well, it's never as important. Look, I'm campaigning for other people.
PHILLIP: Also, will Republicans keep the veep?
J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: It's pretty cool to hear a crowd that is this fired up chant your name.
PHILLIP: J.D. Vance looks to take the baton, as new reporting suggests he's questioning the war strategy.
And on the eve of 9/11's 25th anniversary, the right likens the left to terrorists.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Communists and Islamists coming together and sweeping over the Democrat Party.
PHILLIP: Live at the table, Noah Rothman, Tara Setmayer, Elizabeth Pipko, Joe Cunningham, and Geraldo Rivera.
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.
Tonight, it's being called a $1 trillion bribe. In his latest pitch to voters, Donald Trump says, vote Republican in the midterms, and if the GOP maintains its majority, each of the roughly 270 million adults in the United States will receive a $5,000 check.
Now, as always, with these gimmicks, the details were few, and Trump didn't spell out where the money would come from or how the program would even be administered. On top of that, CNN reports that many of Trump's top aides were blindsided by his gambit, and they were forced to scramble today to backfill the proposal with specifics.
Given that Republicans control both chambers of Congress, the White House, even Fox News' Laura Ingraham offered her skepticism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Why not just give the money now? If you have the money, why not give it now?
TRUMP: Because they can't -- I'll tell you what, because the Democrats can't do it, because with them it's negative growth. With us, it's so positive. So, we're taking in $21 trillion. Nobody -- no country's ever taken in anywhere near that. It's four, five times higher than the next. All because of that beautiful word that you and I love more than most others, tariffs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now, if this whole stunt sounds familiar to you, that's because it is. Since taking office, Trump has repeatedly promised Americans cash in the form of rebates and dividends that never materialized.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: There's even under consideration a new concept where we give 20 percent of the DOGE savings to American citizens, and 20 percent goes to paying down debt.
I love it, a 20 percent dividend, so to speak.
There could be a distribution or dividend to the people of our country.
We're thinking maybe $1,000 to $2,000. I'll be giving back $2,000 or so to middle income people, low income people, everybody but the rich. It'll be next year some time.
Probably in the middle of next year, a little bit later than that.
We will be able to make a very substantial dividend to the people of our country. I believe we can do that without Congress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can promise some Americans will get those checks?
TRUMP: Oh, yes. Sure, I can do that. I haven't made the commitment yet, but I may make the commitment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Spoiler alert, it didn't happen.
Before we open it up to the table here, we invite you at home to join our debate, go to cnn.com/abby. Weigh in there. We'll get to some of your comments as we go throughout the show.
This $1.3 trillion promise from the president, Noah, is just one of many of these things that he does. But it's also particularly amusing, frankly, when they're arguing against socialism, but then he also is in the very same breath, arguing to redistribute money that he illegally took from the American people in the form of what he's calling a dividend.
[22:05:02]
NOAH ROTHMAN, SENIOR WRITER, NATIONAL REVIEW: Kind of muddies the message, doesn't it?
PHILLIP: Kind of, a little bit.
ROTHMAN: Yes. This is horrific policy if it were to happen, and it's not going to happen. But I don't even think it's especially savvy politics. So, obviously, it's not a dividend. There has been no windfall. We're $40 trillion in debt. This fiscal year's federal budget deficit may even exceed $2 trillion. It'll at least get really close. We're almost paying a trillion dollars on the interest on the debt. That's non-discretionary spending. We have to spend it every year, and that's the sort of thing that's eating up our budget.
So, if you're going to say, listen, we're going to spend all this money, that's -- $21 trillion is -- I don't know where he got that number. Took it about $300 billion from tariffs. Ten times that would cover this benefit. If it happened, it would be extraordinary inflationary. People know that. We lived through ten years of stimulating this economy and experiencing the inflationary effect as a result.
So, the bad politics of it are people don't really believe it. If they believed it, they thought it would create inflation, which they don't want. And now the administration's going to have to spend the next several weeks trying to make sense of this thing that people don't really believe, don't really want, and it basically means, we give up. We don't really know how to deal with affordability. We're just going to give you your taxpayer money.
PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, it kind of seems -- it really suggests that they're kind of unserious about this whole thing, and I do have to wonder whether now that they have to explain how this is all going to work, the American people are like, Are these people even governing? Do they understand how any of this works?
ELIZABETH PIPKO, FORMER RNC NAITONAL SPOKESPERSON: Well, clearly I'm on my own here tonight, and I'm looking forward to it. Look, I don't think it's fair to say that this was announced when, yesterday, and that all of a sudden we know that it's not going to work, it's not going to happen, or the American people feel any kind of way about it, unless there's polling that I'm not aware of that was revealed last night.
I don't think we know how the public feels about it. I don't think we know if it's possible. I think the statements have been greatly exaggerated. I think we know what the president was talking about. The White House has a page dedicated to investments in our country. It shows several trillions of dollars of what he thinks he's going to be able to bring in, and what he wants to give back to the American people.
And I think it's almost comical to argue that he both sprung this on people without anyone knowing it, and then to play clips about the fact that he's actually said for two years now that he wants to be able to get this money and then give it to the American public.
PHILLIP: But how does this -- I mean, how does it work?
PIPKO: I'm not the president. I'm not going to be the one doing it.
TARA SETMAYER, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, THE SENECA PROJECT: I mean, Abby, he doesn't know --
PHILLIP: How does it work?
SETMAYER: Abby, he doesn't know how it works.
PHILLIP: I mean, even if you took his investment number seriously, when companies invest in the United States, they're not pouring money into the Treasury, they're building factories, they're creating jobs, they're spending, they're doing capital expenditures. It's not just cash.
SETMAYER: No. I mean, you and I understand how this works, and the average American understands that the president just can't cut dividend checks to people. I'm old enough to remember when Republicans, when I used to be a Republican, the Republicans went after Obama for Obama phones. Remember that whole thing? It's a socialist program, you're giving phones away, you know, to poor folks. It was a whole thing. Republicans who were allegedly fiscal conservatives, their heads exploded when this happened. And if you, the reporting today, if that's true, a lot of people were thrown off guard. They're like, well, I'm sorry, what? Where did this come from? It's another one of these fantasies that Donald Trump makes up in his head, just like he says, I feel like I'm a billionaire. I feel like I'm worth this much.
PIPKO: Well, he is a billionaire.
SETMAYER: I feel like -- I mean, yes, yes, he is. He's a billionaire. He's also made $4 billion since he's been president. And it's all from the American people.
PIPKO: Okay, great, so he's a billionaire.
SETMAYER: No, I'm talking about back in the day when he would say what his net worth was, it was like, what I feel.
GERALDO RIVERA, PEABODY AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST: Kind of a sleazy feel to it, though.
SETMAYER: So, you know, it's ridiculous. He is -- it's desperate, and he knows that if he's like, okay, I'm going to try and sell it, because he's a professional con artist. That's how he got himself elected twice.
So, here's the next thing. He's going back to the old playbook. How can I con people this time? Oh, I'm going to give you guys $5,000, please vote for us. You can't -- but we can't do it now.
ROTHMAN: It's not like Democrats are going to balk at this. Last time he did this was in COVID. He was saying, we need $2,000. And the Republicans said no. And who got it done for him?
SETMAYER: He said he doesn't need -- but he said he doesn't need Congress.
ROTHMAN: Joe Biden.
SETMAYER: Yes, but he said he doesn't need Congress.
ROTHMAN: Joe Biden got that stimulus through in 2021.
SETMAYER: But, Noah, he said he doesn't need Congress. In the interviews tonight, when he was asked for more detail about this, he's like, I don't think -- people say I don't even need Congress. I don't need to do this.
(CROSSTALKS)
PIPKO: I don't think that's true because he also said he can't get it done without having both houses of Congress.
RIVERA: He didn't have Congress for the warrior dividend, where a couple of years ago you may recall he gave $1,776 to every member of the United States military from the rank of colonel and naval captain down. So, it was criticized as being the, you know, little, too little, you know, insultingly small --
PHILLIP: I think the real problem with that was that he took the money from another trunk of money that was meant --
SETMAYER: Right. It has to be appropriated and authorized.
PHILLIP: -- for relocation for military families, and then he used it to do this 1776 gimmick.
RIVERA: I agree.
PHILLIP: So, that was the real issue with that.
RIVERA: That is a distinction, but it's not a difference. He gave a dividend that I was not particularly, you know, rich or lucrative, but he gave to every ranking -- and it was criticized then, kind of some of the same language, and the total bill was $2.6 billion.
[22:10:07]
So, by orders of magnitude, this was a tiny little thing. This huge, what he's planning now reminds me of Tammany Hall in New York when corrupt people used to walk around cash, used to buy votes. I mean, it really has that kind of character to it.
PHILLIP: Let me just play one thing for you, Joe, before you jump in, because Trump was asked tonight on Fox News about this and he described it as entrepreneurship. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're making -- we're taking in money. Even like TikTok, we get a fee. Me, I get a fee for our country, $10 billion. In Intel, I made -- I didn't buy. I said, if I'm going to help you, meaning if the country's going to help you, I want 10 percent of the company.
INGRAHAM: They're calling that MAGA socialism in The New York Times, I think.
TRUMP: You know what it is? It's real entrepreneurship. That's really what it is. You know, I see that. Oh, some people saying, that's communism. It's not communism. It's actually good entrepreneurship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Yes, right. I mean, Bernie Sanders is happy because he had the 10 percent idea first.
PIPKO: But Bernie Sanders wants to take it from other Americans.
PHILLIP: Well, no. Bernie -- the whole idea of him taking a stake in companies like Intel, that was Bernie's idea first, before --
PIPKO: And Bernie wants to take from wealthy Americans and give to other Americans. PHILLIP: The actual very same thing that Trump is doing is the thing that Bernie proposed, which is why when Trump did it, Bernie put out a statement saying, hey, we've been asking for you to do this, and thank you for doing it.
So, again, what is the message, just a little bit, going into the midterms?
FMR. REP. JOE CUNNINGHAM (D-SC): I think it completely undermines the credibility, and I think we can probably mostly agree that no one should be expecting a $5,000 check anytime soon. You know, between the DOGE check that never came, the tariff check that never came, the $5,000 check, I'm starting to feel like George Costanza off Seinfeld, I can buy my fake house in the Hamptons with all this fake money, you know?
SETMAYER: Well, Donald Trump doesn't have a problem spending everybody else's money. And so that's something that, again, as someone who spent almost 30 years in the Republican Party on those battles about fiscal responsibility, and on the side of when people were saying that, oh, my gosh, if you know -- we can't have school lunch programs. We've got to cut those. We have to cut this and cut that. And then you've got a Republican Party now that is sitting back and letting Trump bankrupt this country while he enriches himself.
Yes, he's a billionaire off the backs of the American people, and so are his family and his children and all his cronies. So, he can't have it both ways.
RIVERA: I didn't mean to interrupt. You can't lose sight of the inherent dishonesty of this. This is clearly a bribe. This is a quid pro quo.
SETMAYER: Like everything Trump does.
RIVERA: I'm going to give you this if you vote for me. Not now.
PHILLIP: Except that it's not going to happen, which actually makes it worse, right? It would be a bribe, and you might be mad about that, but it's sort of an enticement that he knows is never coming.
PIPKO: I'm sorry, I don't believe that. I know we can argue this because everyone here hates Donald Trump, but I can't say it's --
PHILLIP: Where's the money going to come from, Elizabeth?
PIPKO: He very clearly explained that companies were going to bring in trillions of dollars into our country through investments, through tariff revenue.
PHILLIP: No. Okay, tariff revenue was $240 billion before it was struck down by the Supreme Court. A majority of that is supposed to be refunded. So, how are we going to get to $1.3 trillion? Where's the math?
PIPKO: First of all, many times in our country we give out money that we do not have, so I don't think it's --
PHILLIP: Oh, so we're going to deficit spend our way out of this?
PIPKO: We're going to -- I didn't get to finish my thought.
PHILLIP: So, where is it --
PIPKO: I'm saying if he believes -- for example, we're in a $40 trillion deficit, correct? Everyone agrees that's a really bad thing. Both Republicans and Democrats agree. There's only so much you can do. You can raise taxes, which he's not going to do, unlike Democrats. You can cut social programs, or you can try to grow yourself out of it, and that means possibly giving the American people $5,000 each to reinvest it into the country and try to outpace the pain.
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: Are you worried about inflation at all?
PIPKO: I'm worried about a lot of things. There's a lot of pros and there's a lot of cons. There's always pros and cons. But what's been going on before him hasn't worked either.
SETMAYER: So, what's the difference between this and reparations? I'm just curious. Since you want to start redistributing money, since this is apparently a Republican thing now, redistributing money, so let's redistribute money to people who were -- you know, didn't have a chance to invest, they don't have capital investments, redlining, all of the wrongs that were done with the fed (ph).
ROTHMAN: It is redistributionism.
SETMAYER: It's redistribution.
ROTHMAN: we don't pay a flat tax rate.
SETMAYER: Exactly.
ROTHMAN: If we did, then everybody would get $5,000. It would be a proportion of your tax rate.
SETMAYER: Yes.
ROTHMAN: But because we have a progressive tax rate, it's redistributionism.
I do love the outbreak of fiscal conservative prudence here. I do hope that we retain it when it's not politically convenient --
PIPKO: When we talk about Democrats in another segment.
ROTHMAN: -- to do so. Yes, I want to know what the fiscal or the philosophical objection that Democrats have to voting the Treasury for the base. They do it all the time.
PHILLIP: What she's saying about, I think it's actually a really important point. I think Democrats would actually make the argument that there is -- there are public goods, right, that the government should redistribute money in order to fund, and that is one argument to make, which is to say, look, you don't know when you're going to fall on hard times.
[22:15:08]
You still deserve healthcare whether you're rich or you're poor.
But what Trump is saying here is basically, I'm just going to invent money, because he's not even telling you where the money is coming from. It's not tariffs. And then I'm just going to hand it out in a blanket form to everyone in exchange for votes. Those are different things.
ROTHMAN: We do have a bit of symmetry here, though, when we have the DSA saying that, yes, we're going to deficit finance trillions and trillions of dollars of spending, way more than what Donald Trump is promising --
PHILLIP: But for what, right? Like, for what?
ROTHMAN: For illusory promises of social services that never perform right, and we're just going to throw money at services that already fail. And, yes, and what are they doing? They're trying to entice you to vote for them. They're giving you an incentive to vote for them with the public treasury. What's the difference?
PHILLIP: I think you're -- I mean, you're right. You are right. So, when Republicans say socialism is going to ruin this country, and then the president says, well, we're just going to hand you some checks, that's a problem --
SETMAYER: We're going to redistribute wealth. Let's like be honest about it. The whole redistribution of wealth thing was anathema to everything that Adam Smith free market Republicans were -- believed in. And now the leader of the party who -- what are we -- two months from the election, is literally saying, I'm going to redistribute wealth to everyone if, only if, you vote for me, or vote for us. Oh, me, because I should be on the ballot, too. Remember, I'm on the ballot also.
This is terrible messaging. It's desperate and people see right through it, and he's full of it. And so this is -- the Democrats should be able to run with this because it's the absurdity of it, the seediness of it, to Geraldo's point. It's so corrupt, and it lends to the theme of what's going on here, which is a lot of corruption. Donald Trump thinks the -- if Donald Trump thinks that affordability is a hoax and cost doesn't matter, then why -- and we're so prosperous, then why the hell do you need to give every American $5,000 to reinvest, which is not going to go far, in when inflation is as high as it is? None of this makes sense.
RIVERA: Why wait? Why wait? Why not give it to them now?
SETMAYER: Well, he budgets with a bribe. PHILLIP: Well, that's what Laura Ingraham was asking him, the president, tonight.
Next for us, the president is also downplaying the importance of the midterms at all. He's saying he'll just block Democrats on everything for two years.
Plus, there's new reporting tonight that J.D. Vance sought blunt war assessments from top commanders, and the answers he got left him alarmed. We'll discuss that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:20:00]
PHILLIP: After throwing Republicans an extravagant midterm pep rally, President Trump is now downplaying the importance of November's elections. Here's how the president responded when he was pressed on his campaign strategy this fall with his legacy on the line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Are you going to campaign harder than you've ever campaigned in this month?
TRUMP: No. The hardest I ever campaigned, because I had to win, was the last. I took four months, no empty days, no empty hours. I made speeches all day. I didn't want to have fundraisers. I had the money.
INGRAHAM: But isn't this just as important, Mr. President? I mean, your whole legacy is on the line.
TRUMP: Well, it's never as important. Look, I'm campaigning for other people.
The -- when you say my legacy, I'll be a block. I'll end up being a blocker. I'll block all their bad stuff for two years. It won't be the same, but I'll be a blocker. What can I tell you, and probably be able to make deals with them, you know? They're going to want some stuff, and we'll get -- you make deals. I mean, it's one of those things. So, it's not as dire. Maybe it is as dire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: And, Geraldo, not the answer that Laura was looking for there from the president but it does kind of track with how he operates. He does prefer being in a kind of defensive posture. Is it hard for him to understand the stakes of this election?
RIVERA: And I don't like to speak for him, but all what I saw over the 40-odd years that we hung out was that he really does care about how people feel about him, and he's very charismatic, and he's very effective as a campaigner, and he's very effective that he campaigns his life as a campaign. So, I don't -- I think the only thing different in the political context is he has to go to wherever the politics leads him, but he lives that way. He lives in a campaign, a perpetual campaign to get people to like him, to get people to think his brand is spectacular, the gold is great and --
PHILLIP: But what about the rest of the Republican Party is the question.
RIVER: I --
SETMAYER: They wish he'd stay home.
RIVERA: You know, I --
PHILLIP: Well, I mean --
RIVERA: I think that they think that he's the only thing that matters.
PHILLIP: I mean, he told them a couple days ago, I'm going to campaign like hell for you, and then now he's saying, maybe not. I'll just -- you know, Democrats, they're going to take over and I'll just block them.
ROTHMAN: And those comments are very weird because they come at a time when his PAC is unloading, you know, $50 million at reserving tons of ad time in these states. And it also comes at a time when Republicans are starting to feel just a little bit better about the environment, not much, but some. Enthusiasm numbers are ticking back up. What's the point of this convention but not to boost Republican enthusiasm, right?
In all these states, especially at the Senate level, a lot of this landscape is Trump territory, states he won. So, boosting Republican enthusiasm in those states, there's at least a theory of the case there. And then he comes out and he says, yes, I guess I'm resigned to losing both chambers of Congress, and it's not going to give anybody a lot of thrills.
But it's just strange. It runs counter to what his actual strategy is. And just maybe he was just talking --
SETMAYER: You're assuming he has a strategy.
CUNNINGHAM: I mean, he's been here before, right? I mean, in 2018, obviously, when I ran flipped a Trump district, Democrats retook the House. So, he's no stranger to this.
[22:25:01]
And, obviously, Republicans still had the Senate at that time. It may be a bit different now if Democrats take the Senate. I don't know if it's going to happen or not. But, I mean, this isn't anything new for him.
And every president in a midterm election suffers a lot of blowback in the House. It's not new.
RIVERA: I think this war has taken a lot of his zest. I think it's -- he's stepped into the Middle East. He didn't truly understand it. He didn't get advice from people, learned people who experienced combat people.
SETMAYER: Because he fired them all.
RIVERA: He didn't know that the rule of the Mideast is that the news always gets worse, you know, and he doesn't know how the hell to get out of it. And he's stuck.
PHILLIP: He was asked about what the actual midterm message is for Republicans, and here is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Since -- if you could boil down why Republicans need to show up in the midterms, one sentence to sum it up.
TRUMP: Communism. They are trying to turn this country around and destroy our country. And, you know, I used to say a lot this will never be a socialist country. We will never be a country of socialism, and I was right. They could be a -- I mean, they're going for the big one. They skipped socialism. These people are sick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So, just because Joe brought up the 2018 midterms, it reminds me in the lead up to that election, it was all about the caravans coming across the border, and it was all this like fear-based strategy, but it wasn't enough to overcome the sort of the natural urge of Americans to throw the bums out, abortion being a major issue. And this is not exactly an affirmative message to voters, here's what we can do for you.
SETMAYER: No, because Donald Trump -- the state of the country is terrible. And the age-old axiom of are you better off today than you were two years ago, four years ago? The answer is unequivocally no. And a lot of Donald Trump's own people feel that betrayal.
Everything that he promised them has not come to fruition. In fact, it's gone the complete opposite. You have 77 farmers filing for bankruptcy a day. You have tariffs that are bankrupting small businesses. You've got Trump supporters that are going, wait a minute. What happened? We were supposed to get out of wars. Why are we still in this war? I need you to explain to me what the hell we're still doing here. You promised us we wouldn't do this.
And Trump has changed his tune how many times? We still don't know about what's happening in Iran. What's the point? When are we getting out? He's saying, oh, it won't be until after the midterms. Some people are saying it could be after his presidency. That's not what they signed up for.
So, he continues your -- everyone here is -- not everyone, but most of the conversation here is assuming that Donald Trump is a strategic, rational actor. He is an actor. He's a con artist. And he is, yes, campaigning all the time in a reality series. Every day is a production. Meanwhile, the American people and real families are suffering under the failures of this presidency every day, particularly with the economy, and he can lie and do whatever he wants to try to bribe people, but that doesn't change the reality every day for families in this country.
RIVERA: I just think that you have a situation where the -- Elon Musk has a $100 million. So, $100 million he's investing in this campaign. So, you hear these big issues. What are the big issues? Instead of talking about the suffering and all the rest of it, they talk about trans athletes. Republicans will talk about trans athletes in girls' sports.
SETMAYER: Right.
RIVERA: And they talk about immigration even though the border's been closed, according to the president.
SETMAYER: And he's underwater now on immigration.
ROTHMAN: Well, Geraldo, those are the Democratic Party's biggest weaknesses. Of course, Republicans are going to talk about that.
SETMAYER: Not anymore.
ROTHMAN: No, they are. They really still are. The Harvard-Harris Poll demonstrated that was the strongest line that Republicans employ against. No, he's not making up the threat of socialism.
PHILLIP: That's not exactly --
SETMAYER: He's a threat now.
PHILLIP: That's not exactly a thing to crow about. I mean, the idea that --
ROTHMAN: These people self-identify as Democratic socialists, which is not social democracy in Europe.
SETMAYER: That is not the majority of the Democratic Party.
PHILLIP: The idea that --
ROTHMAN: Then you have to defend it. This is politics 101.
SETMAYER: I don't have to defend anything.
PHILLIP: But the idea that the most potent message --
ROTHMAN: You're the one who's offering this line and saying it's not going to work. Then you have to grapple with the substance of it.
PHILLIP: Noah, the idea that the most potent message is just about trans children --
ROTHMAN: That's one of many, but the most potent message in the Harvard-Harris Poll.
PHILLIP: That is not something to celebrate if you're a Republican and you --
ROTHMAN: Why?
PHILLIP: And the most important issue to Americans is the economy. It's just not.
PIPKO: It might not be, but I think it's representative of a bigger issue. I think, or at least I know, I've met enough people that have told me, it's not maybe the main concern in my life, but I can tell you I'll never trust someone who thinks that men can get pregnant, for example, to be in charge of the economy. So, I do think it's symbolic of a major issue in our country right now.
RIVERA: Wait till they worry about A.I. They'll change their --
PIPKO: I don't know about you. I have a young daughter. I'm very worried about this, and so are a lot of Americans.
PHILLIP: We got to leave it there.
Next for us, J.D. Vance is taking center stage in Dallas tonight, while a report reveals his concerns about the strategy for the war in Iran.
We'll be right back
[22:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, Republicans set the stage for the midterms and perhaps the next election too. J.D. Vance, along with President Trump, closed out the RNC midterm convention, just as speculation over Vance's 2028 presidential ambitions have shifted into overdrive. Here's part of the speech that he made tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Two years ago, we have to remember, our nation, ladies and gentlemen, was tired. We were tired of seeing our factories close. We were tired of our neighbors dying of drug overdoses.
[22:35:07]
We were tired of not being able to afford anything. We were tired of seeing the cartels and the criminals giving free rein over our great country. And we were tired of being called racists for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier, and poorer, and less safe, and less prosperous.
The radicals in Washington, they could take much from us, but they couldn't take our will to fight back. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So, some people are saying, Elizabeth, that Vance, at this convention, has really been trying to consolidate support, because there's been a lot of talk about, will Rubio run? Ted Cruz has said he might run. Do you think he was able to do that?
ELIZABETH PIPKO, FORMER RNC NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON: I do.
Look, I think a lot of what we're hearing is really just talk, because people are very curious about what's happening. In '28, obviously, President Trump is not running again. And so it does, you know, all eyes after midterms are going to shift to '28.
I think he's the obvious heir apparent. I think people at this point at least expect President Trump to endorse him. Things could always change.
We know in Trump's America and American politics in general, two years is a very long time. But I think at this point, unlike the Democrats, by the way, we have a very clear leader, and a very clear leader waiting in line to come next as well. And that's not going to change anytime soon.
PHILLIP: So while all this is happening, the "New York Times" is reporting that Vance, first of all, at the beginning of the Iran war was one of the voices privately opposed to it. But then since then, he's been spending time talking to generals to find out what exactly is going on the ground. And he's been hearing from them about munitions shortfalls, about how difficult the exit strategy is going to be in Iran, about how it positions the United States to face our other threats.
He seems to be trying to toe the line on this. He's cheerleading the war sometimes, but then also behind the scenes arguing against it.
JOE CUNNINGHAM (D), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, SOUTH CAROLINA: I think it's going to be a huge liability to any presidential aspirations he has. I mean, just based on how Americans feel about this.
GERALDO RIVERA, PEABODY AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST, AND NEWSNATION CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE: The war generally.
CUNNINGHAM: Yes, the war generally.
I mean, it's only got 30 percent approval right now. You compare gas, $2.40 before the war to average well over $4 now. Even Vice President Vance was very critical about foreign entanglements and engagements.
Lost 18 of our armed service members since it started. And so I think each day it goes on is continuing to undermine his credibility going forward to 2028.
RIVERA: I am not sure that. I don't think it undermines his credibility. I think that he's getting his message together. I was not a fan, I'm a Marco Rubio fan. But watching Vance, you know,
he's sober. You know, a tint of race baiting in that speech he made but his politics seem MAGA friendly.
If that's your thing, he's your guy. And he's also he can put a speech together in a way that a lot of people can't.
Ted Cruz is so off the charts. I mean, it's so mean spirited, so nasty. He's every you know, I just look at him and I say, this guy's going to insult somebody.
PHILLIP: Well, lucky for you, we're going to talk a little Ted here in the next segment. But I mean, he says it's not going to undermine his credibility. But Vance actually seems to think that maybe it will, because he wants to get to the end game of this war as soon as possible.
NAOH ROTHMAN, SENIOR WRITER, "NATIONAL REVIEW": I can't help but read that report like a little bit of Kremlinology here. This obviously informed by Vance world. It was not about Iran, it was about J.D. Vance.
And it was a very flattering portrayal of J.D. Vance in the "New York Times." Interesting that the Times decided not to cut the legs out from him in this one.
Interesting. Also, as we know, he's been cultivating this brand as somebody who's against the war. It's been very public.
His people have been out there telling anybody willing to listen he's against the war. And this one says, yes, he's a very loyal soldier. He's dedicated to the war.
So A, he's trying to appeal, I think, probably to some people in the White House who don't like him staking out that position, and B, establishing a little bit of distance from the people he's been cultivating. Ties within the world of alt podcaster types who are very against the war and very conspiratorial about the war. This is a brand makeover.
PHILLIP: Yes, I think that's probably a fair assessment in terms of what he's trying to navigate. But it would require you to forget the fact that for a time, he was supposed to be responsible for negotiating a deal to end the war.
TARA SETMAYER, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, THE SENECA PROJECT, AND SUBSTACK AUTHOR, "UNCOMPROMISED WITH TARA SETMAYER": That's right.
PHILLIP: And he championed this deal as the beginning of the new era of positive relations with Iran for a generation, only for it to fall apart in a couple of weeks.
SETMAYER: That's right.
I mean, that feels like it was five years ago. It was five months ago when J.D. Vance was supposed to be scrambling to go over to Iran to finish these Iran deals, because I don't know, maybe it was like the 10th, 11th, 12th time that Trump said that there was a deal that was imminent. And then he got pulled back, and then all of a sudden he went away.
[22:40:07]
Marco Rubio, where is he? Does anybody know where Marco Rubio is? I think he's down in Latin America somewhere. Like, what is happening?
Yes, but we've got a war in Iran, a war in Ukraine, and the Secretary of State should be there.
PHILLIP: That's probably exactly where Marco Rubio is supposed to be.
SETMAYER: Of course, because --
PHILLIP: He doesn't want to be anywhere near Iran.
SETMAYER: Because he knows that what's happening in Iran is a quagmire.
Well, instead of Donald Trump sending his real estate buddies and his son-in-law over to Russia or to Iran to negotiate things that they are clearly not qualified to do, that should be the Secretary of State's job.
But anyway, listen, J.D. Vance is a chameleon. He has reinvented himself multiple times, and we've all watched it. This is not the same J.D. Vance that we knew, who wrote "Hillbilly Elegy.", he's not the same J.D. Vance that called Trump America's Hitler, he's not the same J.D. Vance who changed his name three times and didn't used to be J.D. Vance.
He has reinvented himself. He's a chameleon to fit whatever lane he thinks is politically expedient for him. So once he's, now that he's bought and paid for by Peter Thiel and the tech bros and all those guys, he's got to figure out a way to navigate being the heir apparent. I don't think he's going to be, because MAGA World is not exactly keen on him.
They're suspicious of him in some ways, and he's trying to figure out his lane now, because he's a savvy operative, at least in that respect.
PHILLIP: All right. Up next for us, Islamists who hate America. That is what Ted Cruz is calling Muslim Democrats the night before the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Tonight, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Republicans use their midterm convention platform to try to tie some Democrats to terrorist groups.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): And on 9/11, could anyone have imagined that Comrade Mamdani would be the mayor of New York? The hate that killed Charlie Kirk, that knocked down the Twin Towers, that led to two assassination attempts on President Trump.
It just keeps getting worse and worse. And we are witnessing a new and dangerous red-green alliance. Communists and Islamists coming together and sweeping over the Democrat Party.
They are united because they share the same enemies. They hate Christians, they hate Jews, they hate capitalism, they hate the Constitution. And they hate America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So there's commentary, obviously, about socialism and communism. We've been talking about that. But the real theme there was Islam as the enemy. Why?
Why is an entire religion an enemy?
ROTHMAN: Because his eyes are open. He's been paying attention.
This is sharp-elbowed politics. It's tough rhetoric. I get it, why anybody's offended by it.
But he's giving as good as he got. He's talking about Mamdani, as well as El-Sayed, but mostly Mamdani.
And he's talking about Mamdani because Mamdani does things like campaign with Hasan Piker, like campaign with an unindicted co- conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, like an al-Qaeda lawyer. But when he said on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 --
PHILLIP: You didn't answer my question, which is why is the religion in and of itself being described as the enemy of the United States?
ROTHMAN: No. You're putting words in his mouth there. What he's describing is the Islamism that Mamdani and El-Sayed are both very comfortable with.
And then when these deliberate provocations are provocative, and people notice them, their fans turn around and say, well, how dare you? How have you the gall to notice this thing that we all noticed as well?
RIVERA: How do you figure the overwhelming success that Mamdani had, defying all of the pundits, all of the inside crowd, and here's this guy, a Muslim guy, 40 years old or whatever, not even 40, and he stomped Andrew Cuomo. He stomped him.
ROTHMAN: He didn't. He barely won 50 percent in the first round. It was not a stomp. New York City really did revolt against this guy.
RIVERA: That's absolutely untrue.
ROTHMAN: No, it's not true. He underperformed in a Democratic primary. I answered your question.
PHILLIP: What is true is that he's the most popular politician in New York right now. That is true.
ROTHMAN: He's very popular among Democrats. Do we think that NYPD Commissioner Tisch was a delusional bigot when she said, we all have to stop muddling the waters here. We all have to be clear about who the terrorists were, and shame on those who are saying that the terrorists and the heroes are one and the same.
Which Mamdani said in 2020 when he said, we mourn the 3,000 dead and the killing --
PHILLIP: I think you're the one muddling the waters the waters, Noah. You're the one muddling the waters.
Terrorists are terrorists. I'm asking why Ted Cruz and you seem to want to make an entire religion anti-American.
ROTHMAN: You're putting words in my mouth, and I can't say it enough.
The people who support radical Islamist violence are the people he's talking about.
PHILLIP: He didn't say radical Islamist violence. He said Islamism. That's what he said.
PIPKO: He didn't say Islam.
PHILLIP: What does that mean? He didn't say Islam.
ROTHMAN: You know the definitions.
[22:50:07]
PHILLIP: Excuse me? So you're saying radical Islamic terrorism and Islamism are the same thing?
ROTHMAN: Just like Palestinianism and being pro-Palestine are not the same thing.
PHILLIP: That is a ridiculous argument.
ROTHMAN: I'm surprised you've never encountered it.
PHILLIP: That is a ridiculous argument.
ROTHMAN: It is so common.
RIVERA: It's like a social studies class. ROTHMAN: I studied the subject matter. That's what we do here.
PHILLIP: By the way, as somebody who I'm sure would object to the idea of people considering Zionism and Judaism the same thing, I'm surprised you would make that connection about an entire religion that millions and millions of people in this world are a part of, and the vast majority of them are not terrorists.
ROTHMAN: They're distinct things, and they have distinctions between them. There are distinctions between Islamism and Islam and being a Muslim.
They're distinct concepts. Of course I would object to the distinctions being blurred, because they shouldn't be blurred.
PIPKO: Isn't that the exact point, that there are wonderful Muslim Americans who would never want to stand next to Hasan Piker?
PHILLIP: That's not the point that Ted Cruz was making. That is not the point that he was making at all.
PIPKO: The 25th anniversary of 9/11 is tomorrow, and we have over 100,000 names on a petition begging Mamdani not to show up, including the families of those impacted. Are they all racist, or are they insulted by him for a reason?
PHILLIP: Listen, I'm not arguing that you can't have objections to Mamdani specifically, or even El-Sayed specifically. I'm just asking whether the argument the Republicans are making is against an entire religion.
PIPKO: Certainly not. I'm telling you it's not.
PHILLIP: That's what I'm asking.
PIPKO: I'm telling you there are wonderful Muslim Americans who don't agree with Mamdani.
PHILLIP: So then why isn't he more specific? Why does he keep using the term Islam as a slur?
PIPKO: First of all, as Noah just pointed out, he didn't say Islam. He didn't say it as a slur.
Everyone knows exactly who he was talking about. We are campaigning at the RNC against El-Sayed.
We are indirectly, obviously, but campaigning against people like Mamdani, the ideology of both communism and Islamism that he brings to the table that countless people support. I saw a polling from Pew Research recently that said young Democrats believe Hamas is better than the Israeli government. There is a problem here, and it's nothing to do with being against Muslims.
ROTHMAN: And that's Islamism. That's not Muslims.
PIPKO: Nothing to do with being against Muslims.
PHILLIP: What about the young Republicans who are opposed to the war in Gaza?
PIPKO: Do they support a U.S.-designated terrorist organization?
PHILLIP: I don't know, but I'm just asking you because there are a lot of young Republicans who are opposed.
PIPKO: And they have every right to be against the war. That's not the same as saying our designated terrorist organization is better than the democratically elected government of one of our closest allies. It's not the same.
RIVERA: The voters in New York saw through it. They did.
In the final tally, he won so monstrously. I mean, the guy cleaned up. And the people who voted for him were not people that go around talking about Piker and these other radical stuff, they're the grocer and the student.
PIPKO: The grocers are suing him now, so I don't know if that's true.
PHILLIP: El-Sayed was actually on with our colleague Kaitlan Collins, and here's how he responded specifically to what Ted Cruz was saying about him tonight. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I mean, it's sad. He doesn't really want to talk about any of the issues people are really facing.
Because what I hear about is the fact that people can't afford their gas. They can't afford their groceries. They're worried about having to see a doctor.
And it all goes back to policies from the guy who summoned him. And I guess if daddy asks for a hug, you got to go give him a hug, even if it's in Dallas. But I don't know what he's doing in Dallas, because he's certainly not talking about the issues that Michiganders face, and he seems not to want to do that either.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: This seems to Geraldo's point that, I mean, they're personalizing this race about Hasan Piker, who's, you know, I guess maybe they're trying to make him a household name. And are they missing an opportunity to talk about what actually voters care about?
SETMAYER: Well, it depends on what side you're on here. Because for the Republicans and for MAGA, the culture wars and trying to scare people and painting broad brushes about certain ethnicities and things like that, religions, they've been doing this for years.
And it worked, helped get Trump elected again. This is the culture war stuff, and it's very ugly. I think that the American people are seeing through it, to Geraldo's point, because all of that, it doesn't change the economic situation and what people are facing every single day.
So, of course, they don't have anything else. They have to do this, because Trump is failing so badly, so they have to resort to this kind of nonsense.
PHILLIP: Next, for us, the panelists are going to react to your feedback from cnn.com/abby. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: And now some viewer feedback from cnn.com/abby.
Here's one that says, The GOP creates wedge issues and culture wars to distract from helping the poor and middle class. I'll give this one to you now, because you seemed eager.
ROTHMAN: The GOP didn't create the transgender sports issue. It fell in their lap, and they exploited it expertly. No, they didn't just make that up.
But if you think that they won that round --
PHILLIP: I think they probably also talked about some of the other stuff that we were talking about in the last segment. The Hasan Piker and whatever it is.
ROTHMAN: Again, that's so frustrating. As opposed to the issues that actually did.
He got the polling bump he did in the primary when he started campaigning with Hasan Piker. He apologized for the statement he made where he equivocated about the terrorist attack after the fact.
[23:00:08]
This helped him win the primary. It's helping him lose the general, but all of us are just noticing.
SETMAYER: Of course, again, to your point, every minute they're talking about Hasan Piker is time that they're not talking about how they're going to improve people's lives and not talking about what Donald Trump was supposed to do and has not done. He's betrayed the American people, and he's corrupt, and that is why they want to talk about everything but that.
PHILLIP: We'll leave it there. Thank you very much for watching "NewsNight." "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
