Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) is Interviewed about the IRS Settlement; Cassidy Breaks with GOP; Trump Pushes for Ballroom; Duffy Grilled on TV Show. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired May 20, 2026 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:31:41]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Turns out there was more to that settlement between President Trump and the IRS. The Justice Department is now forever barred from auditing Trump. The addendum, which was quietly added Tuesday, says that the government cannot examine tax returns of the president, his family, his company or related companies. It applies to anything filed before the agreement was reached, which was on Monday. And the settlement also creates a nearly $1.8 billion anti- weaponization fund. The president's acting attorney general was on Capitol Hill yesterday defending that fund.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Simple question, will eligible -- will individuals who assaulted Capitol Hill police officers be eligible for this fund?
TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, as it makes plain, anybody is --
VAN HOLLEN: Will they -- just let me know if they're eligible for the fund.
BLANCHE: As was made plain yesterday, anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they were a victim of weaponization.
SEN. JEFF MERKEY (D-OR): Will you encourage them to have a guideline that says those who have been convicted of violent acts against police officers are not eligible?
BLANCHE: I will definitely encourage the commissioners to take everything into account when determining who should get compensation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK, joining the group chat, we've got Democratic Congressman Joe Morelle of New York.
So, a lot of your colleagues took the opportunity to ask these questions about how the fund is going to work, who's going to get the money. But I want to play for you a Republican. It was Mike Rounds, who's on the Appropriations Committee, and he asked this question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): It would appear to me t hat Congress will have some say because there's an appropriation of funds someplace along the line. But, you know, right now it's just a matter of waiting for details from the White House to come out.
REPORTER: OK. So, you haven't gotten any documents or anything like that?
ROUNDS: I have not.
REPORTER: Yes. OK. But this is something that certainly has congressional authority?
ROUNDS: Well, we're not talking --
REPORTER: That saying (ph) --
ROUNDS: We're not talking a million. We're talking a billion. So --
REPORTER: Right.
ROUNDS: In this particular case, even Congress pays attention to that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Love that he says "even Congress," even though that's technically your job. But there have been funds before. 9/11 had a compensation fund. Can you all do anything if people like Mike Rounds start to raise questions?
REP. JOE MORELLE (D-NY): Well, typically, compensation funds are for people who have been wronged in some way. This compensation fund, it appears to be Trump's friends or other people who have violated the law and are offenders. And the fact that they can't answer the question about whether people who attacked the Capitol on January 6th are going to be compensated is astonishing.
CORNISH: Well, they've all been pardoned or --
MORELLE: Yes. Yes.
CORNISH: I mean they are now people with clean records.
MORELLE: Yes, we -- well, no, they have -- they don't have clean records. They've been pardoned.
CORNISH: Oh, fair.
MORELLE: But those -- I mean, let's be clear. And what we've done is now added complete insult to injury by doing this. This is Trump's personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, who maybe has a guarantee of future employment, who knows, who's the acting attorney general who has signed off on granting immunity to the president and his family and his organization literally forever potentially --
CORNISH: Yes.
MORELLE: In return for a $1.8 billion amount of money to go to people who have offended, who have broken the laws in the United States.
CORNISH: Let me play for you a conversation Kaitlan Collins had last night with the vice president, because she was asking the same question, almost the way you're framing it. It sounded like this.
[06:35:01]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You previously told me that anyone who assaulted a police officer on January 6th should go to prison. So, why not rule out giving them taxpayer funded money?
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, Kaitlan, what I said is, we're going to look at everything case by case. There are --
COLLINS: But why don't you rule it out?
VANCE: Because, Kaitlan, there are people who, I don't know their individual circumstances, and I don't rule things out categorically when I know nothing about a person's individual circumstances.
We're not making commitments to give anybody money. We're just making commitments to look at things case by case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Peggy, do you think he answered that in a convincing way for people? Sorry, Penny.
PENNY NANCE, CEO, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: Yes.
CORNISH: Do you think he responded in a convincing way?
NANCE: He -- he was --
CORNISH: He was sort of like, well, it's --
NANCE: He was great in the press conference yesterday, and I thought was very direct on a lot of this.
CORNISH: Yes.
NANCE: I mean, I think this is a culture change that's happening. And, listen, there are people --
CORNISH: In what way?
NANCE: Well, I think that DOJ has a long history of punishing with the process.
CORNISH: Yes.
NANCE: And this is setting a precedent, by the way, for a -- after this, after this administration. I think Democrats and Republicans have had enough of DOJ bankrupting people in their own defense and then perhaps these are cases in which they were politically motivated.
CORNISH: Yes. But I noticed you said after this administration. So, you're --
NANCE: Well, I'm --
CORNISH: Yes.
NANCE: No, I'm saying -- I'm saying that this will live on. This is a precedent. So, I'm saying that people like the congressman here maybe shouldn't be a little bit introspective in the fact that this -- this is about now, but we have set a precedent now about a culture change at DOJ.
I have friends who lost everything they had because they were targeted by DOJ under the Biden administration.
CORNISH: OK. Antjuan, let me let you have a word on it.
NANCE: And had -- and had -- had a heart attack because of it.
ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, this MAGA slush fund, first of all, unconstitutional. Congress has the power of the purse. But, clearly, this is to reward people who try to overturn an election. So, I'm not surprised by J.D. Vance, an election denier's comments.
The problem with this, not only it shows how morally disconnected Donald Trump and the Republicans are from the American people, because people cannot afford gas, groceries and goods. But it's also -- it's almost like the people who shouted, hang Mike Pence, the people who where officers died, where -- and people were killed, they're being rewarded for their behavior. And I think that's the --
NANCE: But not all the J-6 people did extreme things like that.
SEAWRIGHT: That's -- that -- let me finish. Let me finish.
NANCE: Some of them trespassed.
CORNISH: But anyone can apply.
NANCE: Right. That doesn't mean they're going to get it. They can apply, sure.
MORELLE: And, by the way, if I might just say --
CORNISH: Yes. Congressman -- let me let the congressman jump in. MORELLE: The vice president talks about doing this on a case by case basis. The president issued a blanket pardon to over a thousand people who were at that Capitol, who, as Antjuan has said, beat police officers, not all, you're right, but gave an -- issued a blanket pardon. To suggest that they're doing this on a case by case basis is ridiculous.
CORNISH: Let me play something for you guys, because more than once I have seen someone in the mainstream media describe this a very specific way. This time I'm going to -- yesterday I played "The View." Today it's going to be Charlamagne tha God from "The Breakfast Club" on Tuesday morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, RADIO HOST: Our taxpayer dollars going to this weaponization fund to compensate his allies should piss you off. OK. You should be outraged.
Not only is it corrupt, it is a blatant slap in the face to the economic hardships folks are facing. OK. Trump told you he don't care what you're going through financially, all right? He's not even acting like he sees what you're going through, all right? He's not even -- he's not even detached from peoples' economic struggles. He just doesn't care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: I am wild (ph) by this because when I try and get people interested in an IRS story, you should see the blank stare that goes across their face.
ELEANOR MUELLER, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC POLICY REPORTER, "SEMAFOR": Yes.
CORNISH: This story is traveling. It has legs. It's connected to the next story. You'll get a chance to jump in.
The vice president, as you said yesterday, answered a lot of questions. He also defended the president's stock trade. So, if you look at Trump's financial disclosures right now, there are 3,700 trades in his portfolio in the first three months of the year, and they are worth $220 million. So, he's trading on companies like Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Google. Back in April, for instance, he happened to post about Palantir right when Palantir was having a bad week financially. And then people saw this Truth Social post that says "Palantir Technologies have proven to have great war fighting capabilities and equipment. Just ask our enemies," which, of course, included the company's stock ticker.
So, these disclosures show that basically the president's portfolio has bought half a million dollars of Palantir stock the month before. And in the two weeks after that post, Palantir got a boost, 19 percent.
Here's J.D. Vance and his explanation for how this all works.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president doesn't sit at the Oval Office on his computer, on his, like, Robinhood account, buying and selling stocks. That's absurd. He has independent wealth advisors who manage his money. He is a wealthy person. He has had success in business. He's not making these stock trades himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Wanted to let you get a word in because, again, this is about, is the president enriching himself?
[06:40:03]
Is he enjoying wealth that the average American person right now feels like is wildly out of reach? Basic goods are out of reach.
SEAWRIGHT: Well, there's a question we should all ask ourselves every day when it comes to this. Would it have been OK if this was President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden? Conservatives, MAGA extremists, however you want to describe them, we all know what their response would be.
It is unheard of and unprecedented for a president, a government official, to be enriched the way Donald Trump and his family has been since taking over office. And I think there should be some sense of accountability from the legislative branch about this.
But I got to make one quick point. When you talk about weaponizing the Department of Justice, no one has owned weaponization of the DOJ more than Donald Trump. He prides himself on retribution from DOJ. Ask Tish James and others about that-- what that really means.
CORNISH: Let me play one more -- let me play one more thing for you guys --
NANCE: No one (INAUDIBLE) he said.
CORNISH: Because I do think this is important. And to let you have the last word. This was CNBC stock guru Jim Cramer, who also asked about this. And I always like to play the business press because they only care about the business part of this. And here's how Cramer had to -- what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARL QUINTANILLA, CNBC ANCHOR: According to the filings, the president's been trading some intel in the quarter. Yes.
JIM CRAMER, CNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. I -- well that -- (INAUDIBLE) trade. Yes.
DAVID FABER, CNBC REPORTER: Got nothing to say about that?
CRAMER: It's a -- well, it -- FABER: Hmm. Huh.
CRAMER: Yes.
QUINTANILLA: Yes. Yes.
CRAMER: Whoa. Yes. Whoa. Yes.
FABER: All right. Don't worry. We're not having technical difficulties here, everybody, but we've got to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Speechless welp basically from the business --
MORELLE: I mean we need to do -- end stock trading by members of Congress, by the president, by the vice president --
NANCE: For sure.
MORELLE: As we ought to get out of -- everyone out of prediction markets as well. This is insane. And the notion that the vice president would defend the president's actions, he should just be quiet sometimes and not sound so ridiculous. Like, we get that the president is sitting at his laptop. But if you don't think the president has the ability to affect the markets, you must live under a rock somewhere. I mean, this is obvious.
And the president has enriched himself and his family by billions of dollars and monetized the Oval Office, unlike any president in American history.
CORNISH: OK. We're going to leave it there. Thank you so much for being here, Congressman.
MORELLE: Thank you.
CORNISH: Next on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump's push for security upgrades to that proposal for the White House ballroom. It's actually getting some resistance. We're going to ask why some conservatives are suddenly raising concerns about that billion-dollar price tag.
Plus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-WA): This show is incredibly out of touch with where Americans are.
SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Welcome to MAGA.
MURRAY: Mr. --
DUFFY: Welcome to drill, baby, drill.
MURRAY: Mr. Secretary. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy defending his road trip reality show. Democrats blasting him for being out of touch.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:47:02]
CORNISH: I want to turn back to this issue the payback time for two Republican lawmakers just voted out of office after Trump campaigned against them last night. Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie lost his primary bid to Trump-backed candidate Ed Gallrein. And take a look at this. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy giving a thumbs up to help pass a motion that would rein in Trump's Iran war powers. And Cassidy lost to a Trump-backed candidate Saturday.
Now, Cassidy defended his vote in a statement, writing in part, "I've heard from people, including President Trump's supporters, who are concerned about this war. Until the administration provides clarity, no congressional authorization or extension can be justified."
So, the group chat is back.
I guess I want to figure out if we are now in the YOLO era for all of these lawmakers who are seeing the exits.
MUELLER: I think we're in the YOLO era. Massie was already in his YOLO era. That's part of the reason why he wound up losing last night. But Senator Cassidy very much was not. Senator Cornyn was not. These are folks who were carefully toeing the line while they were waiting for the results of their races. And now that Trump has tipped the scales against them, I think we'll see more and more moves like Cassidy's vote to advance that war powers resolution. We've already seen with Senator Thom Tillis just how much damage even one lawmaker can do, particularly in the Senate. He was able to single-handedly keep Trump's Fed nominee from advancing until he was satisfied with the Justice Department. And so, we may see some real hurdles for Trump's agenda in the next few months here.
CORNISH: Yes, I called it YOLO. Someone else, Nancy Vu, called it, "the senator is entering his 'Cassidy unchained' era," which sounds a lot more romantic, noting that since he lost his primary three days ago, this is in three days, he said he'd vote against the ballroom, defended the vote to convict Trump, said he'd look to hold RFK Jr. accountable, called Paxton a felon after Trump endorsed him, and now talking about this war powers resolution.
NANCE: Oh, my goodness.
CORNISH: So, Christmas is early for Democrats.
NANCE: Yes. I mean, no doubt his feelings are hurt, but he needs to look at it himself. I mean people were still angry that he had voted to impeach the president. He no longer matched his state of Louisiana. We were talking about this before. You may feel good on the national stage of what you do, but you still have to appeal to the voters. Politics is local. It's still local. And Cassidy no longer matched his constituency.
By the way, that the entire south has been realigned under President Trump. There is a complete change in the -- and remember, Mary Landrieu was senator from Louisiana. She's a moderate Democrat. Cassidy was a moderate Republican. Louisiana's changed.
CORNISH: Yes. Although I think people are going to argue there's a lot more reasons why it's being realigned under Trump, namely also maps, but, yes.
SEAWRIGHT: Well, I would agree with you that the south is being realigned. That's because the president and his allies are trying to exterminate and eliminate black political representation across the south by racial gerrymandering.
NANCE: Oh, come on. No (ph).
SEAWRIGHT: But the old adage that Republicans fall in line Democrats fall in love is true.
[06:50:02]
And it's playing out in these primaries.
CORNISH: And y'all almost be brokenhearted because I have not seen who Democrats love this cycle. It's hard to tell.
SEAWRIGHT: Well, love is a process. We're getting there.
CORNISH: Love is a process.
SEAWRIGHT: We're getting there. But --
CORNISH: Shout out to Antjuan's partner, wherever you are.
SEAWRIGHT: But it's true that I think that Donald Trump is putting his foot and hand on the scale in the primaries. I don't think that's going to be transferable in a general election when it comes to the map and the math.
CORNISH: Yes.
SEAWRIGHT: Because the people who will have to run on Trump's agenda and running in swing districts are not going to embrace Trump in the same way. And I think that's when it really matters.
CORNISH: OK. So, over and over again, we're sensing a trend here. The national versus the local. Do some of the things Republican primary voters enjoy translate to the rest of us, especially independents.
Senate Republicans, right now, they're looking to revise a proposal that would steer $1 billion in taxpayer funds toward the president's ballroom. So, the Senate parliamentarian has already ruled out language in that initial request, saying, look, this doesn't comply with budget rules.
The president claims the ballroom is still free to taxpayers and insists that the billion dollar add on is for security. And he's calling it a gift to America. You've got lame duck Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, of course, saying that he thinks the public isn't buying it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): By the way, while gas is almost $5 and diesel is almost $6, they're talking about this big ballroom they're going to build. And it looks -- it looks like Rome -- the Roman Empire. Architecture from the Roman Empire. I see a few analogies there. And people are just trying to make ends meet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Massie does seem like the kind of guy who'd be always thinking about the Roman Empire. But I also want to ask you, who's paying for this ballroom?
MUELLER: It's a complicated question, and it's not one that's happening in a vacuum, right? Trump --
CORNISH: Is it even happening in public? Like, are they donors? Are they -- who are they?
MUELLER: Very unclear. And so, that's part of the reason why it's been so politically difficult for Republicans on The Hill to advance this $1 billion, which would be maybe for Secret Service, but it would be for them to secure the ballroom.
CORNISH: Yes. Trump said it's also for drones, to, like, make it drone proof, but also house some drones.
MUELLER: Yes.
CORNISH: But, we dont know.
MUELLER: We're getting a lot of crossed signals. And I think that's why we've seen congressional Republicans, again, empowered this week to push back somewhat, particularly as their constituents are facing higher gas prices among the war in Iran, pre-existing inflation from Trump's tariffs, all of these things that make this really a tough sell to voters.
CORNISH: Yes. And the main Republican I care about here is Senator Thune. When he was asked about ballroom funding he said, well, look, "part of it involves the need to get 50 votes here in the Senate, and then 218 in the House. We're trying to sort all that out and figure out how we can land the plane."
Whenever someone like him starts giving you vote counts, the message is, we don't have the votes.
SEAWRIGHT: But, Audie, this is a different question. You asked, who's paying for it? I would ask, who's asking for this? The American people asking for relief in their personal lives. Forget about trying to make ends meet. There are people in this country putting two ends together hoping they meet because MAGA-nomics has been a failure and because Donald Trump has taken over this economy.
And I think when it comes to priorities, I think the Republican majority party are going to answer that question at the ballot box. And I think most Americans, if you ask them the famous Mitt Romney question, or Republican question, is your life better off because of the people in charge, the answer to that is absolutely not.
CORNISH: Yes. Here's some polling just even on the ballroom itself. You've got 56 percent who oppose it, and another 15 percent up for grabs. Maybe the drones will convince them.
But the reason why I'm bringing up polling is because we are seeing this movement away from Trump on the economy. And at what point does that become a concern given his actual promises, right? The promise was not explicit. It was implicit. It was explicit. I will do better than Biden on the economy.
NANCE: Well, the economy matters. It certainly matters in every election. Pocketbook issues always matter in every election. But if I could just go back to the ballroom. I think anybody that was at the White House Correspondents' Dinner understands there needs to be a large-scale location where we can keep people safe when the president's there.
And I will add that, this is going to be increasingly difficult because Elizabeth MacDonough, who's the White House -- or, excuse me, who's the Senate parliamentarian, has just declared that it's going to -- she characterized it in a way that's going to need 60 votes to pass in the Senate.
CORNISH: Yes.
NANCE: So, it's going to be increasingly difficult to do.
However, I think most fair-minded people recognize that the White House is -- changes. The White House Historical Society said the White House has always changed and met the needs of the people. I think future presidents will be very glad if this happens.
CORNISH: Yes.
NANCE: And I think people -- this is something both sides --
CORNISH: Unless they have to pay down the debt.
NANCE: Well, the debt is an issue, but I'm sorry, that's not going to be the thing that breaks us.
CORNISH: No, no. It's not going to be -- OK.
SEAWRIGHT: The White House Correspondents' -- that White House Correspondents' Dinner -- that White House Correspondents' Dinner would have never been at the White House ballroom.
CORNISH: But over and over again --
NANCE: Who says?
CORNISH: We keep doing stories today. Here I have another one. The president describing the -- Sean Duffy, I'm sorry, from the Transportation secretary, basically talking about his great American road trip, right?
[06:55:09]
Like basically talking about why he was filming this reality show with his wife and nine kids while there were all of these transportation issues that were going. And you had some senators ask him about this on The Hill. And here's an example of how he answered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-WA): Toyota, United Airlines, Shell, Boeing, Royal Caribbean and Enterprise all sponsored your show. It is literally your job to make sure each of those companies are playing by the rule.
SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Can I answer the question?
MURRAY: So, Toyota is sponsoring a show starring you and it is your department, Mr. Secretary, who decides --
DUFFY: Do you hate America? Don't you want to celebrate America?
MURRAY: Mr.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: That's actually what I say to my kids when they ask me for yogurt. I'm like, do you hate America?
But again, who's paying for it? This is a question people are asking over and over again. And that is a fair question to any person who --
NANCE: Not the taxpayers. The taxpayers aren't paying for this.
CORNISH: OK. And then once they aren't, we got a first answer.
NANCE: Right.
CORNISH: What kind of influence does that person have for making that spending?
MUELLER: Which is rich fodder for Democrats. I think they're very aware of the fact that voters picked President Trump because he would make the cost of living more affordable for them. And, you know, now they are doing everything they can to compare what the Trump administration is doing, like this show, like the ballroom, to the high price of gas, to the high price of groceries and so many other things.
CORNISH: Yes. Even though Sean Duffy needed a vacation. When I look at what was going on while he was filming this, what he was doing, you know, at the same time, he was dealing with the 43-day government shutdown, the crisis at Newark, right, the controllers, air controllers issue. There was a fatal runway strike in Denver. There was a deadly collision at LaGuardia. And of course, there was a crash at Reagan National that killed 67 people.
I know a lot of people were playing old clips of him criticizing Buttigieg for taking time off to be with his kid at the ICU. But, like, is anything allowed to be called tone deaf?
NANCE: I -- no.
CORNISH: Like, at what point is it OK to be like, why?
NANCE: I think -- I think this -- sorry, I think this is petty.
CORNISH: OK.
NANCE: I think -- he did this on his own time. He wasn't paid for it. It's an America 250 event, which everybody will be doing. I think the entire federal government is interested in this, in promoting this. And, you know, yes, you're right, Pete Buttigieg was gone a lot. He was on eight weeks leave when he should have been doing -- in the middle of a pandemic.
CORNISH: Why was he on the eight weeks leave?
NANCE: Because he adopted a kid.
CORNISH: OK.
NANCE: He didn't have a kid. He adopted a kid. It's very different.
CORNISH: Was he on vacation?
SEAWRIGHT: That makes it --
CORNISH: Oh, I don't -- I didn't say that. All you people who are in adopted families.
NANCE: The sound bite (ph). Well, I'm just saying. Like, if -- I've had two. And it's a little bit different.
SEAWRIGHT: Are you -- are you -- are you --
NANCE: No, I'm not against adopting and medical leave.
CORNISH: We're not doing that.
NANCE: I don't -- I'm not saying that at all. Please, don't write in. I'm not saying that.
CORNISH: No. NANCE: But all that I'm saying --
SEAWRIGHT: You said it.
NANCE: I -- all -- no, I don't. I'm not saying they shouldn't have it. I'm just saying that, yes, I think it's petty to pick up this one thing that he's doing in his own time, with his family, and it's a great thing to celebrate America.
CORNISH: Do you think we would have -- would we have not noticed if there weren't so many crises?
NANCE: Oh, I think the people would always notice.
CORNISH: OK.
SEAWRIGHT: I think they're running this administration like a reality TV show. And I think this is entertainment for them. They're trying to entertain the American people instead of govern the country. And that's why this country is falling apart.
But the sad part about it, there's no accountability, again, from the legislative branch, which is supposed to provide oversight to the executive branch.
CORNISH: Yes, it's virtually absent.
SEAWRIGHT: If this was Secretary Buttigieg, can you imagine the hearings that would be taking place on Capitol Hill by Republicans if this were a Pete Buttigieg -- a Secretary Buttigieg taping a reality show? I think we all know the answer to that. And that's where we have to draw the line of hypocrisy, straight down the middle.
CORNISH: OK. Are you not entertained? We're going to talk about what's in the group chats.
Eleanor, what are people gossing about over at "Semafor"?
MUELLER: So, what I personally am gossiping about is my --
CORNISH: You don't want to slurry your coworkers? You're like, just me.
MUELLER: No, they're not involved in this.
CORNISH: OK.
MUELLER: We are in the process of moving my grandparents into a skilled nursing facility.
CORNISH: Oh, my goodness.
MUELLER: And so my aunt has flown out to California and has painstakingly documented all of their belongings to see if any of us want to take them.
CORNISH: That is God's work.
MUELLER: So, everything from beautiful art to, yes, every single scarf my grandma's ever owned, to an inexplicable basket of pinecones. We don't know why they had those or what the plan was for them. So --
CORNISH: You know, shout out to the caregivers. That's amazing. Thank you.
MUELLER: Yes.
CORNISH: And, Penny, for you?
NANCE: I'm changing mine, actually. I'm going to say -- I am going to talk about adoption. I'm a big advocate of adoption. At Concerned Women for America we support adoption. You know, Christians are twice as likely to adopt and three times more likely to be foster parents. And everybody should have family leave.
CORNISH: OK. Antjuan.
SEAWRIGHT: I support Pete Buttigieg's time away to deal with his family issues, particularly his adoption of his child.
But my group chat is focused on the fear that black Americans are facing all across the country, particularly in the south, as they're trying to redraw lines, particularly in South Carolina.
CORNISH: What kind of texts are you getting? Are they memes? Or are people actually talking?
SEAWRIGHT: No, people are very fearful because it was my grandparents' generation that fought for voting rights and voting opportunities. My parents' generation were able to live it. And now my generation is seeing it being taken away.
[07:00:01]
So, that's three generations of progress and then backlash. And it's a real thing. It's real fear.
CORNISH: Yes. I'm not going to lie. The Cornish Hens WhatsApp group has also been lit with questions. Several people live in the south and they always ask their news buddy, which is me, what's going on? So, hey guys, good morning. See you in the chat.
I want to thank you all for being with us this morning. We've got a lot of news today, especially the outcome of some of those key primaries around the country. I'm Audie Cornish, and the headlines are next.
