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CNN: Donalds To Face Jolly In Florida Governor's Race; Sen. Darline Graham: "National Security Is Not My Thing". Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 19, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:34]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, everybody. Welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York. It is straight to our top story, a number of key primaries and special elections in Florida, Alaska, California and the great state of Wyoming and what they tell us ahead of the November midterms.

CNN now projecting that Congressman Byron Donalds will be winning the Republican nomination for governor in reliably red Florida. President Trump endorsed him. As you may recall, outgoing Governor Ron DeSantis did not. Donalds will be facing former Republican Congressman David Jolly in the governor's race. Jolly, now a Democrat, broke with his party over differences with the president and he won his primary by a landslide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BYRON DONALDS, REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FOR FLORIDA GOVERNOR: David Jolly represents everything that folks hate about Washington, D.C. liberal David Jolly is the change that Florida cannot afford.

DAVID JOLLY, DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR FLORIDA GOVERNOR: Byron Donalds has sold the governor's mansion to the highest bidder and the special interests across the state have been happy to play ball. Folks, let me tell you something, Byron Donalds might be for sale, but Gwen Graham and David Jolly never are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Florida also held a bunch of U.S. House races on Tuesday. CNN projecting that Debbie Wasserman Schultz will be getting the Democratic no in the newly redrawn 20th district. She ran in a historically Black district and got quite emotional after her win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): Representation matters. It matters. And I will fight to make sure that representation counts again. We will make sure that we ban gerrymandering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: CNN Steve Contorno is in Orlando, Florida, beginning our coverage.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: The race to replace Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is now set. On Tuesday, voters for the Republican Party nominated Byron Donalds, the Naples area congressman, to be their party's representative in a race that will also feature Democrat David Jolly, a former congressman who once was Republican before changing parties. Donalds carried the endorsement of President Donald Trump to victory over a field that included Lt. Governor Jay Collins and former House Speaker Paul Renner.

Donalds did not have the support of the state's current governor Ron DeSantis, but he said he would carry his legacy if elected in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALDS: In Florida, we have built a strong foundation under former Governor Rick Scott. And under Governor Ron DeSantis, we have supercharged that foundation, making Florida the envy of every state in America. We are going to continue that legacy and take Florida to the next level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: If elected, Donalds would become the state's first Black governor. Jolly, meanwhile, is trying to reverse the trend of devastating losses for his party, and he says he believes he can change the recent fortunes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOLLY: They had an opportunity to listen to voters and deliver on the economy, housing, health care and education. Instead, they've chosen to double down on culture wars and defend Trump's economy. And voters aren't having it. We don't always get this cycle.

You're exactly right. But I'm telling you, voters know right now that our politics are broken and they're looking for change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Democrats, though, have little muscle memory for victories here. And they also have a significant structural disadvantage. Republicans have 1.6 million more registered voters than Democrats, a reversal of where this state was just a decade ago and a sign of how much this state has become red in recent years.

Steve Contorno, CNN, Orlando, Florida.

SANDOVAL: All right, let's bring in political and legal commentator Madeline Summerville. She's joining me live from Atlanta. Also with us is Republican strategist Katie Frost. She's joining me live from Washington. Welcome to you both. It's always great to see you.

MADELINE SUMMERVILLE, POLITICAL & LEGAL COMMENTATOR: Good to see you. Good morning.

KATIE FROST, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Good morning to you both. Let's start in Florida, where my colleague is was reporting from, starting with that race to replace Governor Ron DeSantis.

Katie, Byron Donald became the Republican nominee with obviously a huge advantage over his Democratic opponent, David Jolly. But it seems that when you look at the numbers, he is finishing slightly below that 50 percent threshold. He's a candidate that had the support of President Trump and certainly much of the GOP state establishment. Do you think that there are questions within the Republican Party about maybe, you know, why that number wasn't slightly higher?

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FROST: I don't see that being an issue at all. And you look at the fact that he was running against the sitting lieutenant governor and the overwhelmingly popular governor, Ron DeSantis, had not officially really weighed in to support Byron Donalds there. So I'm not surprised by that number. And what's really fun to watch is seeing the Democratic Party right now. They have nominated David Jolly.

As you mentioned in your coverage, he is a former Republican congressman, but he, to me, is just the second coming of Charlie Crist. We've seen this playbook in Florida before where someone who was elected as a Republican changes over to being in the Democratic Party and then tries to seek statewide elected office again. It didn't work for Charlie Crist. I don't see it working for David Jolly, even though, ironically, Charlie Crist beat David Jolly in a congressional race long ago and far away.

SANDOVAL: Madeline, to you. What are you closely watching, especially the governor's race? I mean, just off of what we've been talking about the last few minutes, it will certainly be quite the uphill battle for David Jolly.

SUMMERVILLE: It certainly will. And Katie and I are both from Georgia, so I will remind her that if we're going to look at some other important races from the past, we know that there are plenty where people have switched sides and sort of pretended, as Nathan Deal did, to be Republican when they were really Democrats. Because I think if there was ever a time when somebody could be successful and switch parties or run as an independent, it's now. And I think that we've seen that with the success of the DSA or DSA endorsed candidates, because normally somebody who had the label socialist next to their -- next to their name wouldn't be welcomed in the way that they have, especially like we saw with the race with Nixon in Florida. So I think that if ever was a time for there to be a crazy switch, it's now.

SANDOVAL: Katie, your thoughts on that? FROST: Well, I mean, I agree, Madeline, that we have seen a lot of people changing parties. But back in Nathan Deal, that was the old blue dog Democrat days when he was first elected as a Democrat and switched in the '90s. With -- how do you run a statewide ticket in Florida with this very disjointed message? You have one hand a former Republican who's trying to bring more moderate people into the party. And on the other hand, you have a DSA candidate in Representative Nixon who beat someone who was a bit of a folk hero, if you will, for the resistance in the first Trump administration (inaudible).

So this idea, this narrative that, oh, the DSA is not the future of the Democratic Party, it's just isolated in a few of these liberal enclaves like New York or California, Colorado, that's not proving to be the case here. When you have DSA backed candidates being nominated in a state like Florida, that really calls into question what is the future of the Democratic Party going to be. And I would just say when you go to the polls in November, the D next to a candidate's name might as well be DSA.

SANDOVAL: Madeline, I saw you nodding your head. Anything you wanted to add?

SUMMERVILLE: Yes, I'd love to address that. So I think with the major races that we've seen so far, we can try to predict how things are going to turn out in November and whether Democrats should have been moving to the center. First of all, I don't think they should have been moving center. I do think that the party is moving a little bit more to the left than the establishment might think.

Here's why. I think specifically the reason why younger folks, right, the one third of Americans who usually don't vote but are eligible to do so, the Democrats are usually targeting, right. The DSA was able to access that voter base that the establishment Democrats couldn't and they did that by giving them an inspirational message and now they're coming out to vote. And I think primarily the reason why is because of Medicare -- is because of Medicare for all. I think that's what they wanted.

And I think the Democrats, the establishment Democrats, if you will, never really had the courage of their convictions to say that's what they believe. Perhaps they were afraid of being called socialist. But I think what we've seen so far with the successes with DSA candidates in Michigan and Wisconsin doesn't necessarily demonstrate what we're going to see. Those are the closest races to look at. Even though the Democratic candidates in both those races turned out almost the exact same amount of votes for themselves, I think that we had such different candidates in those races, right, Francesca Hong was not the same quality of candidate as Abdul El-Sayed and then the one that we just saw with Nixon, right, these are all such different candidates and there is the full Carol (ph) element here.

So I don't know if we've learned anything from about how successful the DSA candidates are going to be other than the fact that undecided voters, usually the last two weeks before, will switch directly into the establishment column. That's the thing that we can take away from this. I wish there were more. SANDOVAL: Interesting. And we've seen already --

FROST: Well, listen, one thing real quick --

SANDOVAL: Yes. Sure, please.

FROST: I'm saying in Wisconsin we had two candidates drop out after the early voting period began.

[04:10:02]

SUMMERVILLE: Yes.

FROST: And their votes were more than the margin of victory for David Crowley. So if Mandela Barnes and Sara Rodriguez had not been on the ballot, Francesca Hong very well might have won.

SANDOVAL: Yes. It's just remarkable how narrow some of these margins have been. I mean, you've joined me for the last couple of weeks on these primaries, and it's just, it's so telling for both parties. I want to just quickly pivot to another -- to the future here in the coming week. This primary runoff election in South Carolina.

Interim GOP Senator Darline Graham. She said the following when asked about Taiwan and the South China Sea during a debate. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States? And if so, why or how?

SEN. DARLINE GRAHAM (R-SC): I'm just going to be honest here. I'm not on national security that -- I'm not that informed on national security, so. But I do support the military. My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years, so I will do everything I can to support the military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Of course, she's looking to be voted permanently or at least voted into the next term there, into the seat that her brother, the late Senator Lindsey Graham, held.

Katie, what are your thoughts on this? Do you think that response alone should disqualify Graham in the eyes of voters? I mean, public -- I mean, this was a kind of policy that her brother really focused on.

FROST: Well, you got the Southern girls on the panel -- you got the Southern girls on the panel tonight. So we know what I mean when I say, oh, bless her heart. That was an unfortunate moment.

SUMMERVILLE: Bless her heart.

FROST: Felt like -- bless her heart. It felt like a clip from "Veep" there for a moment. Because if you were going to run for the U.S. Senate and to hold a position that has significant consequence, especially when you're succeeding someone who was so deeply involved in national security issues, that does call into question your qualifications. On the other hand, I will say that did feel like a rare moment of authenticity, which you don't usually see, and candor from a candidate. So some people might find it endearing.

Definitely sounded like we all have an aunt who talks like that at Thanksgiving. So openly comes the question for voters in South Carolina. Do they want someone like Ralph Norman, who has a proven record, who has been a very conservative member of Congress, they all know who he is. Or are they going to follow the legacy of Senator Lindsey Graham and elect his sister? We'll see.

I'm sure we'll be talking about it next week.

SANDOVAL: No, you raised two -- you make two very important points there, too, Katie. Yes, it was -- she said it. She was being honest. And then secondly, to your -- that it will be up to the voters to decide.

I wonder if we can maybe close with just some final thoughts on this latest round of primaries. We'll start with you, Madeline.

SUMMERVILLE: Yes. So I'm excited. I'm excited to see how this is actually going to turn out with whether or not the Democrats should move more to the left or that they should have moved towards the center. There has been so much talk about the recommendations from people like us, talking heads on T.V. or from the, what do they call it, the, I can't remember the word for it, the people who make the recommendations. And I think that authenticity is always going to win at the end of the day.

A lot of these candidates that have been successful, including Jared Moskowitz, right, who's not -- who's an establishment candidate, have been successful because they've been themselves. And when you have a winning message, it is something that can be replicated, but only if you truly feel it. Only if, you know, some -- for somebody like Mamdani, who has been learning about this and talking about it his whole life, right, and Abdul El-Sayed, who's been working on this for a decade. It makes sense that when they deliver these messages, it's going to be successful. But when you have a candidate that's not as strong, right, like Francesca Hong, and again, I know the margins of victory for her -- or loss for her were quite close.

The thing is, each one of these races --

SANDOVAL: Right.

SUMMERVILLE: -- has had -- has had a special element to it, whether it's somebody on the other side dropping out at the last minute and coming back in, right, or whether it's being outspent 12 to one by the establishment because of issues with AIPAC or Israel. Each of these races has had their own little special issue with Florida as well, because, you know, there's that mix of that -- of those demographics. But I'm very excited to see what the real recommendation should have been. SANDOVAL: Katie, to you, closing thought.

FROST: You know, I came up in the Republican Party during the era of the Tea Party. And I remember that insurgent movement coming in and battling with the establishment. We're now seeing that happen in the Democratic Party, but with dramatically different results. So I'm fascinated to see what this election cycle means for the future of the Democratic Party, not just as a Republican, because I think the further left you guys move, hey, thank you so much. That's fantastic for us.

But also, just as someone who loves history and is fascinated by how all these things work out. But what I will say is you look at where the Democrats are already starting to indicate how they're going to handle things in 2028. We have seen the Democratic Party establishment not always be that Democratic. And when the people start to do something that the leadership doesn't support, we saw in 2016, we saw it in 2020, I fully believe we're going to see that again in 2028.

[04:15:17]

Just looking even at the way the calendar has been set up, they are definitely putting some things in place to protect themselves from an insurgent democratic movement from within the party. So let's see what we're talking about in 2028. But it's going to be fascinating to watch.

SANDOVAL: You have both given us a lot to look out for. Madeline and Katie, always a pleasure speaking to you both. Thank you so much for having this really important conversation for voters.

SUMMERVILLE: Thank you so much.

FROST: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Well, President Trump says that the U.S. and Canada have struck a deal to avert a new wide range in tariffs for at least three days. The announcement coming after days of negotiations that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called very delicate and intense. The U.S. president had threatened 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods that included dairy, alcohol and furniture. They would also likely have faced legal challenges in the U.S. And earlier this year, Carney denounced the tariffs as a, quote, "direct violation of the existing trade pacts between the U.S., Canada and Mexico."

Still ahead here on CNN Newsroom, President Trump says that there are no talks with Iran underway or even scheduled. How this is all impacting the price of oil and gas. Also, Ukraine faces mounting political pressure from within. Coming up, why the country's ousted defense minister is rallying support for wartime elections.

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back. Global oil and U.S. gas prices are climbing as hopes of a resolution on the U.S. war with Iran fade. Oil futures are up as traders anticipate the war. And the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will likely keep energy prices high.

And a day after claiming that administration officials were back channeling with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, President Trump wrote on social media that "There are no talks or conversations going on or scheduled with the Islamic Republic of Iran." CNN's Paula Hancocks joins me live from Abu Dhabi.

So, Paula, what's Tehran saying, if anything?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we've been hearing, Polo, is Iran effectively saying there have been no conversations ongoing. The Revolutionary Guard saying that just a couple of days ago when President Trump claimed that there were these back channels. But now what we're hearing from the president, according to a U.S. official, is that he has told his Middle East envoys to stop all communication with Tehran. Not clear what communication there was, but we do know both sides said that there were messages passing back and forth between mediators.

Now in this Truth Social post, he also said "The naval blockade remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated." So at this point, it is almost signaling that President Trump is disengaging from this conflict and really holding it at arm's length. And it comes just a day after we heard from Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, who had been in the Middle East, that the conversations had been probably more robust than ever between the U.S. and Iran.

We did hear from the Iranian chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, talking about the Strait of Hormuz, specifically saying it won't be open until the United States honors its commitments. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMAD BAGHER GHALIBAF, IRANIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER (through translator): And let me make it clear, until America implements its commitments under the memorandum of understanding, including lifting the blockade on the release of frozen assets, lifting the oil sanctions, ending threats and military operations on all fronts and other conditions that America has agreed to under the understanding, the strait will not be reopened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: So Iran's chief negotiator there negating what the president of the United States said, which was effectively the Strait of Hormuz open, although according to shipping data from marine traffic, only about seven vessels were able to pass in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, we also saw a post from President Trump showing a map of the Strait of Hormuz under the words U.S. territory. He has said that he believes the Strait of Hormuz should become a U.S. territory. We saw a fairly swift response from Iranian diplomats in India posting a map of the United States with California highlighted under the words new territory of Islamic Republic of Iran. So the tit for tat trolling is alive and well. Polo.

SANDOVAL: CNN's Paula Hancocks with that live report from Abu Dhabi. Thank you.

Ukraine's ousted defense minister is calling for wartime elections as the fight against Russia drags on. In a video address on Tuesday, Mykhailo Fedorov said that democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia. And he also called for Ukraine to resume its full election process. This is one of the sharpest internal challenges to President Zelenskyy's leadership since the Russia invasion started in 2022. Let's get more now from CNN's Sebastian Shukla, who joins me live from Berlin.

So Seb, I mean, this is quite the bombshell video. And at this point, do we know if Fedorov is still quite popular in Ukraine?

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, it really is a bombshell video. And it's a really fascinating development in the saga that's been unfolding for the last month or so in the spat between Mykhailo Fedorov, the former Ukrainian defense minister, and his president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

[04:25:01]

You remember back in July, President Zelenskyy dismissed him from his post. That's largely down to the speculation of internal antagonisms between the head of the Ukrainian -- the former head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, as he was then, and Mykhailo Fedorov, who led, at 35 years old, a huge revamp and reinvigoration of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, including piloting and beginning a program known as the Army of Drones. His ousting at the time resulted in protests across the country, and that showed just how popular he was.

This video that he released last night, albeit slightly unclear as to what exactly the ambition he's trying to achieve here was nevertheless full of bombshell announcements and requests, you know, calling for this wartime election to take place. That's something that just seems relatively unfeasible. But he also had critiques for the government to. Take a listen to a little bit more about what he had to say.

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MYKHAILO FEDOROV, FORMER UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): We're facing a systemic governance crisis. The old system lives by its own rules. Too often it protects itself, fears change, makes decisions slowly and may punish the initiative while rewarding loyalty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUKLA: So as I said, it's not totally clear what he's aiming to do here because those elections that he's calling for are simply not possible. And it should be noted President Zelenskyy has said himself that he is very happy to have elections in Ukraine held within 60 to 90 days. But that is predicated on whether the security guarantees can allow an election to take place in a country that is at war. And given the circumstances, given the attacks that we see happening every night across Ukraine almost, it makes running a plebiscite like this incredibly difficult, if not impossible.

And Polo, one thing that we are unlikely to hear from today really, is President Zelenskyy addressing Mykhailo Fedorov in this challenge directly. I think the Ukrainian president will be focusing on the met -- one of the main tasks today, which is getting the rubber stamping of his new defense minister through parliament so that he can really begin the process of taking hold of that ministry again. Polo.

SANDOVAL: Sebastian Shukla with that live report from Berlin. Thank you.

We have many more takeaways from election night in America, including a big win for Debbie Wasserman Schultz out of Florida. It wasn't in her normal district, we'll tell you why. Plus results from the special election runoff in California's 14th House district, the effort there is to replace former Congressman Eric Swalwell, or what's left of his term. We'll discuss that race when we return.

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