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Erin Burnett Outfront
A Special Edition of OutFront, "Election Night In America"; RFK, Jr. And The Snakes; South Carolina, Republicans Defying Trump; Incumbent Senator John Cornyn Is Fighting For His Political Survival Against His Trump-Backed Challenger. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired May 26, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:31]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: And OUTFRONT next:
It is election night in America. Polls about to close in Texas, where a bitter runoff race is dividing the Republican Party. Did Trump overreach this time, and is he about to give Democrats a chance to flip the Senate seat in Texas?
Plus, RFK, Jr. and the snakes. The nation's top health official, with his bare hands, wrangling a pair of snakes, squeezing their bodies in a video you have to see to believe. This is our HHS secretary.
And South Carolina, Republicans defying Trump tonight, rejecting his call to redraw the congressional map.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett, and welcome to a special edition of OUTFRONT, "Election Night in America", as we are standing by for polls in Texas to close in the Senate runoff race that is dividing the Republican Party.
This is a race that is testing Trump's grip on the GOP like never before. And that's saying something, right? Because, yeah, we can all remember last week, it was only a week ago when Massie went bye-bye.
Incumbent Senator John Cornyn right now is fighting for his political survival against his Trump-backed challenger, Ken Paxton, the state's controversial, to say the least, attorney general. It is a remarkable turn for Cornyn.
All right. Cornyn was elected 24 years ago. He has never lost an election in his life. This isn't a seat that, you know, would be really that challenged, right? He's a respected Republican.
And unlike Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who was just defeated by a Trump-backed candidate, Cornyn has been in lockstep with the president 100 percent of the time. Literally, his voting record is almost 100 percent with Trump. Not taking Trump on Iran, never mind Epstein. But that apparently was not enough. Trump today firing off a last minute push for the man he is backing,
writing, "Texas vote for Ken Paxton, our country's best attorney general." Now that endorsement is making many in his own party livid because they think Trump may have cost them a Senate seat in Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): My biggest concern is that we could lose a Senate seat if Paxton is the nominee.
SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I think that the gentleman who he endorsed could reasonably be indicted, and you know, for a felony. And so that's obviously going to have implications in terms of how the Democrats attack them.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): He is an ethically challenged individual.
REPORTER: Can you just respond to this endorsement of Paxton instead of Cornyn?
REP. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): It's disappointing but not surprising.
SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): Supremely disappointed. Supremely.
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): I'm speechless.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Just to be clear, every single one of those individuals are Republicans. And tonight, voters are finally getting their say after what has become one of the most expensive senate primaries in history and one of the nastiest
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AD NARRATOR: Crooked Ken Paxton cheated on his wife. She's divorcing him on biblical grounds.
AD NARRATOR: His agenda is on hold because John Cornyn is on spring break.
AD NARRATOR: Ken Paxton says he's fighting corruption, but there's a problem. He's the one doing it.
AD NARRATOR: Senator John Cornyn turned his back on President Trump.
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Yeah. Okay. Well, Democrats are hoping that this Republican infighting will help them pull off something that they have not done since 1994. And that is when a statewide race in Texas, Democratic senate nominee there is James Talarico, right? He's a rising star in the Democratic Party. And he'll take on whatever Republican wins tonight. And Talarico has a lot of money on hand, $27 million just last
quarter, according to his campaign. Democrats believe that the state representative, he's 36 years old, has a shot at defeating Paxton should he win tonight because of all of the ethically challenged issues there.
Arlette Saenz is OUTFRONT live at the Paxton headquarters. Manu Raju is at Cornyn headquarters.
Astead, S.E., Jamal and Harry are with me all hour on this election night.
So let's start with you, Arlette. How confident is Paxton right now
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's team is feeling very confident heading into tonight's runoff, in large part because of President Donald Trump's last minute endorsement for Paxton in this race. Now, Paxton has long been popular with the president's MAGA base. But a GOP source aligned with Paxton told me tonight of the presidents endorsement, quote, certainly it was a big help.
Now, we spent the day speaking with voters here in Plano, Texas, who said that the president's endorsement did weigh heavily on their minds.
[19:05:00]
But I want you to take a listen to two voters who said they were swayed by the president's endorsement for Paxton, but for very different reasons. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENA TATUM, VOTED FOR KEN PAXTON: When Trump backed Paxton, well, I went with Paxton. I listened to Trump. I liked Trump, I like Trump a lot.
RODNEY HALL, VOTED FOR SEN. JOHN CORNYN: I made one vote and that was for Cornyn.
SAENZ: And why is that?
HALL: Primarily because he's not supported by Trump. I think he's ruined my Republican Party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Now, before the Senate runoff was even set, Paxton had already turned to general election mode. Both he and his campaign and a super PAC aligned with him stopped airing negative ads against Cornyn in this final stretch, instead training their focus on making their general election arguments against James Talarico, the Democratic nominee, who they are hoping to face off against in November. But for many Republican senators, they have been frustrated with the president's decision to ultimately back Paxton. But Paxton's team does believe that he will be able to get across the finish line and face off against Talarico come November.
BURNETT: All right. Arlette, thank you very much.
Now let's go to Manu, as promised. He's OUTFRONT at Cornyn's campaign headquarters in Austin.
So, Manu, does Cornyn feel he can win without Trump? And, obviously, just to point out here, Trump got in on this really late. I think it was a week ago, right, around the whole Massie fiasco when Trump got in on this race, right? It wasn't as if he did this endorsement early.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Cornyn told me today that he is optimistic that he can win. But the reality is, in talking to people close to the senator, they realize that there is a path, but it is a very narrow path, and that the election day voters, people who could be swayed by President Trump ultimately could go towards Ken Paxton, which is why they recognize that if he wins tonight, it would be significant upset at this moment.
When I caught up with Senator Cornyn earlier today, I asked him, what's different now, given what happened to other people who went, who faced Trump's wrath and who faced Trump's opposition, like Senator Bill Cassidy or Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky? How will this situation be any different?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): My situation is different than Bill Cassidy. I didn't vote to convict the president in his impeachment trial or this Thomas Massie in Kentucky, who opposed Trump at every stop of the way, I've supported the president's policies, 99.3 percent of the time. He's depended on me and other Republicans to get his agenda passed. And I want him to succeed. And I don't know what more I could do to support the president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And Cornyn continued to unload on Paxton in the final hours of the campaign today, going after him on a whole wide range of issues, calling him an embarrassment, calling him reckless. Even as Paxton has pivoted to the general election and has called for Cornyn to stop those attacks.
I asked him about why he continued to go forward. He said that he wants to let voters know who they would be choosing if they chose Paxton as the nominee, and he bluntly warned, Erin, that if Paxton wins the nomination, that it could cost the party, in his view, hundreds of millions of dollars to save the Republican seat here in Texas. And that could impact other states in this critical Senate election -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Manu, thank you very much. It's fascinating listening to Manu and Arlette with each of those headquarters.
Everyone is here with me. So, S.E., interesting how Manu just described Cornyn's view of this,
which is that he now believes a victory for a safe seat that he's held for 24 years in a primary --
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That he won.
BURNETT: -- would be a significant upset.
CUPP: Yeah. He won okay. He didn't win by enough. That's why we're in a runoff.
Trump endorsed the other guy, forcing Republicans to spend a lot more money. If Ken Paxton wins tonight and becomes the nominee, they will have to spend even more money. This is all a huge gamble.
John Cornyn is popular in Texas, and I've been talking to Texas Republicans for the past couple of couple of weeks, and they are a house divided. They are a party divided in Texas. There are a lot of establishment Republicans who think John Cornyn is not only the safest choice to beat James Talarico, but is the best protector of Trump's legacy and everything that's happening.
But then there are others who think John Cornyn is out. He's like the Mitt Romneys of the Republican Party. And Ken Paxton is the new face of MAGA because you have to get extra MAGA, right? Now, you have to be like uber MAGA, and that's ken Paxton.
So, there's a bunch of Republicans who are excited for Ken Paxton, despite his ethical issues and how expensive he will be. It's a mess in Texas, but it's going to be a big night. It's going to tell us a lot about the future of MAGA. But we really won't know what all of this means until November when -- does this -- does this endorsement, does Trump's putting his finger on the scale actually hand this to Democrats?
[19:10:01]
BURNETT: And you were nodding there, Astead? I mean, it's pretty interesting, right, that MAGA, someone who votes with Trump, 99.3 percent of the time --
CUPP: Isn't enough.
BURNETT: -- Trump -- that Trump would put him in the garbage can.
ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. I mean, if Trump's only goal was to pass legislation, if Trump's only goal was to pass, it was to shape Congress in his image, or even keep a Republican majority, that would be one thing. Now, that's not his goal. His goal is to reshape the Republican Party, and that requires some of these primaries, which he is in, increasingly functioned as an open bully.
And we're seeing that tonight, the seeds of kind of Cornyn's wrath with Trump weren't necessarily placed because he didn't vote with him on enough legislation. It's because he partnered with the Biden administration around gun safety reform that angered some of the activists. He got booed in his own state convention, and also because he, frankly, just isn't Trump's type of guy. Ken Paxton has been -- he's been busy on Fox News, was --
BURNETT: What are you trying to say about who was Trump's kind of guy?
HERNDON: I mean, I think that that question of who is Trump's type is more important than if you vote with him. And that we're seeing that play out.
BURNETT: Well, that's a fascinating point. Exactly.
Now, Harry, when it comes to winning, right, if that's what this is about, okay? John Cornyn wins. I say he hasn't actually lost an election.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: He hasn't. I mean, you know, you think about how long he's been in the United States Senate for. He was first elected back when I was in middle school, for goodness sake, all the way back in 2002. I'm dating myself a little bit here.
And every single step along the way in these primaries, you know, 2008, 2014, 2020, they really haven't been competitive at all. I mean, you could see the primary performances on your screen right there. The worst he did was 59 percent, 2014. He still ran 40 points ahead of his competitor. He even got the most votes in round one here back, of course, in the primary, which feels like eons ago, but I believe was at the beginning of March.
So this would be the first time ever if he does in fact lose tonight, it'd be the first election he's ever lost or gotten the -- not the most amount of votes in.
BURNETT: And again, Trump waited to get in on this, right? He waited. And Cornyn did come out ahead last time. So if this flips, even though Cornyn feels he's the underdog, it is pretty stunning, the power of a Trump endorsement.
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. But I got to tell you, I'm watching John Cornyn and this is clearly a guy who's never lost an election before, talking to some friends about this earlier. It is good for politicians to lose because when you lose, you learn how to get up and fight in order to win. If you look at all of our recent presidents, they've all lost. Even Donald Trump, who's never lost an election, but he's gone bankrupt a couple of times. So he knew he had to get up off the floor.
BURNETT: He lost an election, let me just say.
SIMMONS: Well, I mean, the first time 2016.
ENTEN: Jamal, I'm surprised.
BURNETT: -- on an issue in a way I didn't expect.
(LAUGHTER) SIMMONS: In 2016, but, you know, but he knew how to bounce back and come back. And you can tell somebody who's fighting for his life and knows how to do it. Cornyn looks like he's just trying to find his way. He looks like a guy who really is lost.
BURNETT: He looks a little -- a little shell shocked.
SIMMONS: That's right. And so, we will see how that plays out for the rest of the night.
I got to tell you though, I don't think Trump is just in this to reshape the Republican Party. They're in this to reshape the entire United States of America. They have said that at the time they look back when America was at its greatest was basically during the Gilded Age. It was like the 1890s to around 1900 of the country. They want a country where wealthy people get to decide what's going to happen. Frankly, people of color have fewer rights, women have fewer rights. And it's a country where people like Donald Trump are in charge, and we don't have all the -- all the public exposure that it is we have for public officials these days. Right now, they get to do so many things in the dark. And I think they like that.
HERNDON: I think Ken Paxton's masterstroke, if there was one here, was it was right after that primary happened when he used the SAVE Act and what was happening in Congress to kind of delay Trump from immediately endorsing Cornyn in that moment that extended his shelf life here and got him allowed to push some of the activists until he got Trump's endorsement on that front. But I think, you know, these are small marginal differences.
And so the real difference, I think, is in tone is in performance, right? Like, it doesn't even just matter if you vote along with Donald Trump. It matters if you talk like he talks, it matters if you pick on his enemies. It matters if you do it in the -- with the right enthusiasm. And so frankly, I think that's where Paxton has made his kind of inroads with the administration. And they're teaching I think the Congress a lesson that you can have all the respect, you can have, all the interrelationships, you can pass legislation. And if you cross Donald Trump, that's still in this version of the Republican Party, where he functions, frankly, as the establishment. You know, that's going to be the biggest.
SIMMONS: Erin, that's important because this is about the leverage that Trump understands. And what he knows is he may not be able to get 55 percent of the American public to go along with him, but he can get a majority of Republicans to go. And then that majority of Republicans will exert their will on the rest of the country.
BURNETT: All right. So, S.E., I mean, I guess at the very end here, you had Cornyn speak out. And again, I put the caveat what you said, Astead. I mean, it's -- and it's a Mitt Romney like speech, right? He's not speaking the way Ken Paxton would speak.
CUPP: Right.
BURNETT: Okay. But he came out to Manu and he was direct about Paxton. Okay. Here's as direct as he got.
[19:15:02]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: Paxton will call for you guys to go positive in these final days of the campaign. You decided not to, to continue to attack him. Why?
PAXTON: Well, I think it's time for accountability. He's gotten away with so much for so long and not been held accountable for it. But I think he is an embarrassment. His misbehavior, and he's completely unrepentant. I mean, its one thing for a person to make a mistake and then say, you know, I'm sorry, ill do better next time. But that's not Ken Paxton. It's just emboldened him to the point of recklessness and now to the point of self-destructiveness, especially with regard to his own family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: That's just not an argument that anyone certainly on the right in Texas cares about, right. Like, do Trump, John Cornyn.
BURNETT: Right.
CUPP: Right. We're past that. I can lament that. And we all should lament that. But I don't think that's John Cornyn's best attack on Ken Paxton in Texas.
And let's remember, John Cornyn in recent weeks was, I think, so worried about this. He floated a bill to name a highway after Donald Trump. This was another sort of gift attempt to grease the wheels. It didn't work. And I really do think it's just because of what Astead --
BURNETT: Placating at the last moment.
CUPP: Yeah, but it's just like he's not Trump's kind of guy. I think Trump is looking ahead to what do I do with the last two years of my -- of my term and who is going to help me do everything I want to do? He knows Ken Paxton is going to. He doesn't know if John Cornyn is going to.
But one last thing to sort of leave -- leave folks with for me anyway, is Donald Trump definitely has a great record when it comes to these endorsements and increasingly so. It's not perfect. And his candidate selection meter can be off. Think about Herschel Walker, think about Roy Moore. These are very Paxton like candidates who were a bridge too far for voters in Georgia and Alabama. And they went a different way. And Republicans, I think, learned a big lesson from that.
BURNETT: All right. Well, everyone, stay here. Next, our breaking news continues. John King standing by at the magic wall. He's going to break down exactly which counties he is watching tonight in Texas to see if Cornyn can hold on, and what this means for that rising star Talarico.
Plus, RFK, Jr. posting a bizarre video of him wrangling racer snakes. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHERYL HINES, ACTRESS: Okay, okay.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: Are they fighting?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
HINES: Honey, honey, let him go
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That was Cheryl Hines voice. I guess we heard there. And that was RFK, Jr., secretary of health and human services.
And the breaking news, James Talarico, that Democrat who wants to flip the Republican senate seat in Texas just responded to Trump's claims that he is a vegan and he is not holding back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:22:03]
BURNETT: Tonight, President Trump spending more than three hours at Walter Reed hospital, his fourth publicly disclosed medical exam of his term. The president saying everything checked out all caps perfectly.
Now Trump is set to turn 80 in June amid growing questions about his health. Questions about the bruises on his hands, which he conceals with makeup and photos, also show the president with swollen feet, ankles and calves. And then there are the times he appears to be sleeping during meetings. Of course, at night he spends many nights it appears awake, posting and reposting on social media.
On May 11th, Trump posted that night more than 75 times, starting at 10:00, including posting a picture of a $100 bill with his face on it and Mount Rushmore with his face being etched into the stone, as well as an A.I. image of former Presidents Obama and Biden, along with the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi swimming in sewage. That all happened in the wee hours of the morning, and its just one of 44 similar nights at Trump's White House, where he posts dozens of Truth Social posts between 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., according to an analysis by "The Wall Street Journal".
Trump, though, says he is one of the healthiest, if not the healthiest man to ever hold the office of the presidency.
OUTFRONT now, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
OK. Sanjay, so there's no official medical report yet. But obviously, as we say, this is the fourth trip since he -- since he took office. So it's not an annual thing, obviously, because we've only been 18 months. Swollen ankles, bruising on his hands.
Trump has talked about that, says it's from aspirin. You know what do these images all say to you?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, I mean, some of this does track. I mean, these are reasonable explanations. I mean, we've been talking about the bruising on his hands since February of 2025 now, Erin. I think if something else had come up to explain this, it probably would have declared itself by now. Every time we've asked, every time we've heard from the doctors, it's always the same thing. He takes a high dose of aspirin. His blood is thin, doesn't clot as well. And then he has a lot of handshaking.
You know, he does have bruising on both of his hands. So I'm not sure exactly how that that's explained. Maybe he's hitting his left hand on something as well. But it does seem to track when you when you look at that. He takes a dose of aspirin initially that is four times higher than the dose that is recommended for trying to prevent a cardiac problem or heart problem. That could be part of this as well.
But again, we've been talking about this for over a year now and nothing else has sort of popped up.
The ankles, this was something that came up before his last physical exam in April of last year, but it wasn't until July. You may remember that it was addressed. And at that point, the diagnosis was chronic venous insufficiency. And what that basically means, Erin, the hearts pumping blood, blood goes all over the body, including to the lower limbs and legs. If it doesn't return from the limbs and feet as well, it -- fluid can start to pool.
[19:25:00]
Perhaps you've seen that after someone's taken a long distance flight, for example.
BURNETT: Yeah. Chronic means it's sort of happening to him all the time.
It's fairly common, about one in 20 people, people over the age of 50. Again, it tracks.
There are other things that, you know, you worry about -- someone developing clots in their legs, something known as deep venous thrombosis. Is there a cardiac problem to explain this? They say no. They say this is simple chronic venous insufficiency.
So, you know, we'll see what this report says later today. But if the history is any indication, it's going to say that everything is fine and that there are absolutely no problems.
BURNETT: Right. I mean, that's what they've been saying. Now I also wanted to ask you about the sleep or lack thereof, right? The posts throughout the night, so many nights, you know, if he's up doing that, which, you know, and then there's also the other flip side of it. During meetings several times, he does appear to perhaps doze off.
So, you know, how, how do doctors take a look at something like this or view it when you're talking about someone who's turning 80 in a couple of weeks?
GUPTA: Right. Well, you know, it's interesting. I've talked to a few sleep specialists about this over the past bit of time now, having -- having noticed this and, you know, it can be explained, as you say, in part by age, the fact that he's obviously staying up late at night. And people, you know, sometimes if there's boring things, they -- they get sleepy, they fall asleep.
What is unusual is to fall asleep when you're talking to someone directly, you know, one on one. That's what's unusual. That's what all the sleep doctors said. And it warrants sort of investigation. Maybe it's nothing but insomnia. It can be potentially problematic. It can worsen other underlying problems or something like sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea, sometimes not recognized by the individual themselves, but would actually come out in a in a sleep study of some sort. So it's -- it's potentially problematic. Again, as you alluded to, there's -- there's lots of ways to explain it, but this is one of the things, reasons you have a yearly physical. What is going on in your life? What are these problems?
Let's make sure there's not something more serious that's sort of driving it.
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah. And obviously, as we said, this is his fourth trip to Walter Reed. So, you know, I guess he's been -- he's calling it every six months.
All right. Thank you very much, Sanjay. And everyone's back with me.
So, Astead, you know, look, Trump's going to be 80 on Flag Day. That's his birthday, right? June 14th. And, you know, in the context that Sanjay's talking about, yes, we've seen the bruises. They've got explanations for these things, the bruises or the swelling, the falling asleep. They just mock people who point that out.
But today, Trump says everything checked out perfectly. Does this, you know, are there rising questions about his health? Do you think among anybody, certainly in his base or anything like that or no?
HERNDON: Well, I don't know about his base, but I think everyone with eyes ask more questions than they did a couple of years ago. I mean, Donald Trump's bruising is obvious for everyone to see the falling asleep. He seems like someone increasingly not in control. He seems older, like, and I think that that kind of projection of strength is, is something that he's used to being able to channel politically. That's also felt like it's somewhat diminishing.
But I really think the important point is the lack of credibility the White House has on these questions. I mean, they, you know, everything worked out perfectly as he's posting through the night isn't, I think, a thing that passes muster and increasingly with the public signs that folks have seen.
And so, if this was a White House that had provided those answers and had kind of like given transparency on the topic, I think that would be one thing. But they frankly have shut this out, have mocked anyone who has really brought it up, and theyre frankly banking on the reality that he's not running for a second term. And so, I think even as those questions bubble up among the public, it's hard for where they go politically because of the incentives we all just talked about earlier.
BURNETT: Not like Joe Biden walked himself into. I mean, Harry, what do people -- how worried are people about it?
ENTEN: Look, it's one thing to mock the press for bring up the questions. But what about the American public? And the American public certainly has far more concerns about Trump's fiscal health being good enough to be than they did just a few years ago. I mean, the numbers are truly shocking in terms of the movement that were seeing in terms of believing that Trump is, in fact, physically capable to be president.
Look at this. It was 64 percent back in 2023. It's now just 44 percent. That's a tremendous drop. That's a drop of 20 points over just three years. The American people are seeing what theyre seeing on their screens, their passing judgment on this. And yet Trump is not running for reelection again, like Joe Biden was running for reelection in 2024.
But there is a midterm election that's coming up. And I think a lot of voters are saying, hey, do we want to continue to give Republicans power who will help, of course, to empower the president of the United States and Trump's numbers on his physical health are starting to look an awful bit like Joe Biden's were going into the 2024 election. And that is not a comparison you want if you're the White House.
BURNETT: Getting down by his approval ratings.
SIMMONS: Yeah, we hire a president primarily for one thing, for judgment. We want to know that this person has the judgment to make our lives better and to save us from the things that were afraid of, and help us achieve the things that we want. And the problem for Trump is he's not making good choices that are making peoples lives better, which means they care more about these questions about his health.
Joe Biden, when Afghanistan happened and people watched that on television. He never really recovered from that moment. And after that, even when you would ask people questions or researchers would tell me, they'd ask people questions about bills he was passing. They wouldn't give Joe Biden credit, even if they liked the bill, because they just didn't have confidence that he was the one who was in charge.
This is trouble for Trump, because I think what's happened over the course of the last year is things have trended badly on all the fronts that people care about. Their lives aren't getting better. And now theyre saying, hey, buddy, like maybe you're not up for this job.
BURNETT: Which is why who you surround yourself can really matter. Okay. And there's many, many ways I could go with this, but I'll go to the racer snakes because -- (LAUGHTER)
ENTEN: Our natural turn.
BURNETT: Because RFK, Jr., who is HHS secretary, which is important in a time when you're dealing with hantavirus and Ebola and RSV on the rise and a whole lot of things. Okay. This is a video that that is out there now on Dr. Oz's patio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHERYL HINES, ACTRESS: Okay, okay.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: Are they fighting?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
HINES: Honey, honey, let him go. Oh my God. Bobby, please.
KENNEDY: Jesus, the mouths are huge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That's Cheryl Hines in the background. His wife saying, honey, honey, let it go. My God, bobby, please.
Look, S.E., I mean, you can you can laugh, you can be shocked, but you have to acknowledge this is the sitting health and human services secretary.
CUPP: Do I have to acknowledge that? Because that's painful. But you're right. I mean, listen, of all the things that bother me about RFK, Jr., you know, recommend suggesting aspirin leads to autism. Like there are some really bad things that RFK, Jr. has done in this position. This is just him being him, right? This is the brain worm. I'm going to get the bear carcass.
BURNETT: The whale carcass.
CUPP: This is crazy.
BURNETT: What's the other one? The raccoon.
CUPP: Junior.
BURNETT: The raccoon, recently.
HERNDON: I mean, we talked about performance earlier. I think this is a similar type of performance. Trump has really encouraged this kind of masculinity, chauvinism stuff. And I think that really, the way that I really think, the way that RFK, Jr. appeals to Donald Trump is in the hands on nature of it.
BURNETT: So grabbing the snake.
HERNDON: Yes, it's the fact that its his bare hands with the snake matters more than the facts.
SIMMONS: I just want him to wrangle Ebola and hantavirus. That would be enough for me. He doesn't have to do snakes.
CUPP: Exactly.
BURNETT: All right, breaking news, James Talarico pulling no punches tonight. He is speaking out. He is responding to the claims that were put out there by Republicans and Trump that he's vegan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: I've been eating barbecue since before ken Paxton's first indictment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: Nice.
BURNETT: Okay. Also breaking Republicans in South Carolina, breaking with Trump tonight, blocking Trump's effort to gain more House seats. Details on that breaking story ahead.
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[19:37:19]
BURNETT: And welcome back to this special edition of OUTFRONT election night in America. The breaking news right now, Texas first results moments from now. In a race dividing the Republican Party and giving Democrats hope that they can actually win statewide in Texas. Sounds surprising? Well, it would be the first time Democrats win in 32 years if that happens in the general election.
Moments ago, the Democrat who will take on the winner of tonight's primary responded to Republican attacks. And these have been vicious that he is a vegan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TALARICO: I've been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment. And if all they have on me is lying about me being a vegan, I feel pretty good about our chances this November.
(EN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: As for the GOP tonight, Republicans are bracing for a potentially brutal fallout as longtime Senator John Cornyn fights for his political survival against Trump backed Ken Paxton.
So let's go to John King at the magic wall. So, John, as you look at this, where does Cornyn need to win in the state of Texas? A massive state geographically to have any chance of overcoming the Trump endorsement.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPODENT: Erin, it's great to see you. Let's make clear any chance is a small chance, right, now that Paxton has the Trump endorsement. Senator Cornyn is essentially walking in a wind tunnel with a parachute on his back, right? Trying to somehow get through that tunnel even though the wind is blowing him back this way. 254 counties in the state of Texas.
If Cornyn is going to win, how does he do it? Erin, he has to win, and he has to win by pretty good margins where the people are. Sounds like cliche, but Harris County, that's Houston, that's the most populous county in Texas, Dallas and Tarrant. That's Dallas and Fort Worth. They're up here.
Then you come down here to Bexar County. That's San Antonio, Travis County, that's here in Austin. They are the most populous counties. They are places where you will find in the suburbs outside of those cities. Republicans who might vote for Trump in November but don't like the way he conducts himself. Republicans who might have some connections to the old Republican establishment in Texas that includes John Cornyn, Republicans who might be saying, I'm not listening to you, Mr. Trump, because I follow the news. I don't like Mr. Paxton. Not saying that's going to happen, but if Cornyn is going to get math to withstand the Trump endorsement, it has to be from Republicans in the biggest cities and the suburbs around them. It's a huge challenge. We'll get votes pretty soon.
BURNETT: Now, I'm also curious, John, because Trump waited on this endorsement, right? It came in at the last moment, which sometimes is, you know, too little, too late. And other times is fires everybody up right at the right time. Okay.
How are you actually going to know, you know, mathematically, if the Trump endorsement flipped votes from Cornyn to Paxton and to what degree?
KING: So let's go back to the senate primary. Remember, theyre in a runoff tonight because there was a primary several weeks back. Cornyn actually came out on top of that primary. Paxton second, because no one made 50.
[19:40:01]
That's why we have the runoff.
So look at the results back in the primary. Look at these swaths here. See that's Cornyn red, the letter red. That's Cornyn red, the letter red. What are those? Those are the small rural counties where Trump runs up the numbers. The small rural counties where there are a lot of MAGA voters in the primary. Cornyn actually did quite well there.
Watch those circles, right? That is a couple of weeks ago, right? Let's go back to the 2024 presidential election. See, this is Trump country.
These are not just Republican counties, Erin. Look at the numbers. When you tap into these, Trump gets 92 percent in these counties. Move over here in the other circle, Trump gets what, 75 percent, 74 percent there, 88 percent there. So we know that in the primary, John Cornyn actually did pretty well
in areas where Trump did very well in November 2024. The question is now that Trump says vote Ken Paxton, is the Cornyn red from a few weeks ago, Paxton red in a couple of hours?
BURNETT: It's going to be really crucial. As you point out, incredible. If you have 92 percent for Trump and they voted for Cornyn a few weeks ago, if that flips. Wow. What does that say?
All right, John King --
KING: Game over.
BURNETT: Yes, it's game over, in summary.
All right. Thanks, John King.
Jamal, it is pretty incredible though when you think about to literally see the power of an endorsement, when you think about endorsements, who really cares about them anymore? But to think about how important Trump's might be that you could have a few weeks ago, one of those counties vote for Cornyn and now not vote for Cornyn?
SIMMONS: That's right. And then they could vote for somebody with securities fraud on problem, corruption investigation, was impeached by the Republican House of the state of Texas. Not somebody who anyone would think should be a national leadership in normal times, but in MAGA times, Donald Trump says, this is my guy. This is the person that I want. And his people tend to follow. We'll see if that happens.
BURNETT: So Talarico is waiting in the wings to see who he's running against. And okay, let's get to the vegan thing.
CUPP: Okay.
BURNETT: I mean, people have just been maligning vegans unfairly, but I'm just going to say it's unfair. I'm not a vegan, but I'm, you know, I'm a meat eater, but okay. I had steak for lunch.
CUPP: There you go.
SIMMONS: Some of our best friends are vegans, right?
BURNETT: So Trump and other Republicans have been trying to malign Talarico and say he is not a man enough and he is not a Texan enough because he is a vegan. Talarico went with Obama to an Austin taco spot, and Talarico ordered a taco in his taco was potato, egg and cheese. So then Trump said, guess what? He's a vegan. Which, by the way, shows Trump doesn't know what a vegan eats because there was cheese in there.
ENTEN: And eggs.
BURNETT: And eggs, right? There's a double a double whammy. Not vegan.
And Talarico has just responded, I want to play it again. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TALARICO: I've been eating barbecue since before Ken Paxton's first indictment. And if all they have on me is lying about me being a vegan, I feel pretty good about our chances this November.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUPP: Listen, these are -- this is a war in Texas, right? Like calling someone a vegan or vegetarian in Texas is kind of, you know, that's a big deal. I love barbecue, I love blacks, that's my -- that's my Texas barbecue. But it's not true.
I think the, the interesting part is that when Trump tries to go after some of these folks, including James Talarico himself, he ends up making them stars. James Talarico, I think won in large part because Trump picked on him and Colbert in that interview and made him an overnight sensation.
Remember, Jasmine Crockett was in that race. She was a huge a much bigger name than James Talarico was. And James Talarico really made a lot with very little out of that. So, you know, I don't know how that -- how well that's going to going to hold. But listen, James Talarico wants to face Ken Paxton. That is who he is absolutely hoping he cannot believe his luck that Ken Paxton got Trump's endorsement and could win tonight.
That I think he believes and I tend to agree sets him up for a very good shot at a very tough seat.
BURNETT: So how popular is Talarico in Texas?
ENTEN: Yeah. This is not just about the fact that Ken Paxton is an unpopular guy when you're looking ahead to the general election, is that James Talarico is actually a popular guy in the state of Texas. I mean, you can look at you can look at the numbers. His net favorability as we look ahead to the general election is not just not negative, it -- by a lot. It's actually positive. It's actually positive.
Look at this. Plus 11 points on the net favorability in Texas for a Democrat. Compare that to Donald Trump who is underwater in Texas. This ain't 2024 anymore when Donald Trump won the state of Texas by double digits, Trump is underwater. Talarico is possible. And that collision course couldn't set, in fact, set him forth a proposition that maybe Democrats win their first Senate race in Texas since 1988.
SIMMONS: Can I just tell you why you want to go? I've been black my whole life. I've been a Democrat almost as long, right?
[19:45:03]
And white Democrats -- not a vegan -- white Democrats have shown up in black churches and have talked their values and talked about their faith and talked about vision for a long time. And then for some reason, on Monday morning, they go and talk to white people. And it's like policy seminars.
James Talarico is one of the first white Democrats we've seen in a state like Texas in recent memory, who speaks to white people on Monday, the way he would talk to black people on Sunday. And I think Democrats will do very well if they listen to that and have that same kind of connection to their faith and their values, when they talk about what influences their policy position.
BURNETT: Does he have a chance?
HERNDON: Yeah, I think he has a chance, because the reasons Harry laid out. Donald Trump has created the conditions for that chance. I, being from his popularity rating in general, but also because of the candidate that he selected there.
But I think, you know, even to the white black calculation, I think Jamal is making important in the way that Talarico has talked. I really think it's about the emerging demographic groups in Texas, Latino voters, Asian voters. And I think you're increasingly seeing a type of Democrat who can put together that coalition. And Talarico wants to model that.
I mean, Texas can be hard, but the conditions to be set have started.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you all.
And next, the breaking news. Trump suffering a major defeat in South Carolina. Republicans tonight rejecting a new congressional map that Trump backed. And we're also following another important runoff in Texas, where Democrats are now accusing Republicans of propping up one of the candidates.
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BURNETT: Welcome back to a special edition of OUTFRONT, "Election Night in America". The breaking news, a major defeat for Trump in South Carolina tonight. Republicans in the state senate there refusing to act on a plan to redraw congressional districts to oust the states lone Democratic lawmaker. And that person, of course, is longtime Congressman James Clyburn.
This is just the very latest development in the redistricting fight that is playing out coast to coast in this country, a fight that actually started in Texas, where we are awaiting those first results and that Senate runoff race that has split the Republican Party. Any moment here now.
OUTFRONT now, Texas State Representative Gina Hinojosa, she is the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas.
And Representative Hinojosa, I appreciate your time. So look, were talking about what happened in South Carolina tonight. And that's a setback for Trump for now with the state senate there blocking redistricting. But all of this redistricting actually started in your state with Republicans in your state and Governor Abbott.
Are you surprised tonight by what has happened in South Carolina?
STATE REP. GINA HINOJOSA (D), TEXAS: Well, it is a big change from what's happened in Texas right. Here, we have Greg Abbott, who does the bidding of Donald Trump. And so he did mid-decade redistricting when Trump told him to.
Republicans in Texas have already said they will come back next year to redraw maps again, because after last month's Supreme Court decision on redistricting, basically saying there are no more rules when it comes to redistricting, they're going to come back and gerrymander Texas in a way we can't even imagine how bad its going to be. And so if they take out even half of our Democrats that are in Congress, that means that Democrats can't win Congress because the national math no longer works. Texas's impact is too big.
And because those congressional seats equate to electoral votes, there can't be Democratic control of the White House because of Texas being too big. I'm running for governor so that we can have a governor in Texas who will veto those rigged maps.
BURNETT: And obviously, you're talking about the stakes incredibly high. I want to ask you, is there are so many races going on in your state tonight. The runoff in Texas for the open congressional seat, as the Democrats hope to win, is happening as well.
And one Democratic candidate is named Maureen Galindo. She's been condemned by Democrats, including by you, for making antisemitic comments like vowing to turn a Texas ICE detention facility into a, quote, "prison for American Zionists".
Now, Galindo, tonight, Representative Hinojosa, is benefiting from nearly $1 million in spending from a rather mysterious super PAC whose website reportedly had at one time included links to a Republican fundraising platform. What do you think is going on here?
HINOJOSA: Well, Republicans are afraid. Greg Abbott said to his donors last week that they are at real risk of losing seats all throughout Texas and even statewide. And so Republicans are playing dirty. That's what they do. And it's important in Texas that we have everybody participating and voting because this is our best chance as Democrats in 25 years to win. And that's why you're seeing that kind of desperate effort by Republicans to try to influence a Democratic primary on -- for Congress.
BURNETT: You are a lifelong Texan, and the Cornyn Paxton runoff is now the top of the national conversation. It is a major test of Trump's grip on Texas Republicans. But you know, that state, John King showing us some of those maps of districts that Trump won by 92 percent, that Cornyn won a few weeks ago in that primary. But the question is, will Paxton win them tonight?
Do you expect Paxton will win? Like, frankly, so many other Trump backed candidates have in other states? HINOJOSA: Well, I cant predict what's going to happen. But what I know
is either way, it's a week ticket on the Republican side. Either you have Cornyn and Greg Abbott, both are tired and uninspired. Greg Abbott's been in office since I graduated from high school, or you have Paxton and Greg Abbott. Both are corrupt crooks.
Greg Abbott's given $1 billion in no bid contracts to his donors.
[19:55:04]
He rammed through $1 billion school voucher scam when he received the largest campaign contribution in all of Texas history, from an out-of- state billionaire. That's the Greg Abbott corruption tax. You can learn more about it on my website @GinaforTexas.com.
BURNETT: All right. Representative Hinojosa, I appreciate your time. Of course, the Texas Democratic candidate for governor. And thank you.
Next, breaking news. A life or death mission underway at this hour to rescue seven people who have been trapped in a flooded cave for a week.
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BURNETT: Breaking now a race against time. Look at these images. Divers right now, in a desperate attempt to rescue seven people who have been trapped for a week in a flooded cave. The divers are trying to squeeze through these incredibly narrow corridors. Some of them are less than two feet wide.
I mean, think about that. You'd have to go sideways to find the group who went searching for gold in central Laos. But then they were quickly stranded because heavy rain triggered flash flooding. So they got stuck in this cave system.
Three people involved in the search effort also took place in the dramatic and ultimately successful rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach, who were trapped for nearly three weeks in a flooded cave in nearby Thailand, one of them telling CNN that the stranded people are believed to be on a ledge above the water. Rescuers are hopeful that they will find them alive.
Thanks so much for joining us. Our coverage of election night in America continues now with "AC360".
