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Inside Politics

DeSantis Cuts Staff, Promises More "Nimble" Campaign; Americans Aren't Buying Good News On The Economy; Republicans Drag The Military Into Culture Wars; Republicans Accuse FBI Of Targeting Conservatives; "All The Demons Are Here" Dives Into Politics In The 70s; Rev. Jesse Jackson Steps Down From Civil Rights Group. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired July 16, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:42]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: Six months to Iowa are the caucuses still Trump's to lose.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Side by side, we're going to fight and we're going to win.

PHILLIP: And with Ron DeSantis struggling to break through, is he hearing footsteps from Tim Scott?

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): America needs positive, powerful, biblically sound leadership.

PHILLIP: Plus, wages are rising, inflation is falling, and stocks are booming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been a fabulous economic recovery.

PHILLIP: But why don't Americans agree? And can the president change their minds?

And how Republicans made the military the latest front in the battle over woke?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't know if you're a man or a woman, you shouldn't be going into war.

PHILLIP: The culture war comes for the Pentagon, the FBI and more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP: Good morning and welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY, I'm Abby Phillip.

Six months from this weekend, the very first votes will be cast in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, Donald Trump remains the prohibitive front runner. And there are some new signs this morning that his leading challenger is in trouble. Governor Ron DeSantis is facing a cash crunch and laying off a handful of campaign workers. And there are some reports that big donors even are starting to look for alternatives.

Last night, Trump taunted his rival and urged the party to unite behind him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: All of a sudden I'm getting calls from people that's saying, you know, sir, I just called to say hello. I said, I thought you were DeSantis follower. He goes, no, not at all. That was a false report.

DeSanctimonious and his establishment handlers are wasting such precious time and resources to divide the party that dividing the party. Although, he's dropping so quickly, he's probably not going to be in second place much longer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: But don't expect DeSantis to drop out anytime soon. And for now, at least, he's sticking to his signature message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): The left's religion is woke ideology. The family and parents are under assault by leftist ideologues. I did not take an oath of office to subcontract out my leadership to a woke corporation based in Burbank, California.

We oppose the sexualization of minors. And we will battle anybody who seeks to rob them of their innocence, even the biggest, baddest corporation of them all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: And there also may be signs today of a shift in media strategy after months of avoiding interviews with the mainstream press. He will sit down with our own Jake Tapper on Tuesday for an exclusive interview.

Let's discuss this and more with Margaret Talev of Axios, CNN's Alayna Treene, CNN's Jeremy Diamond, and Washington Post's, Rhonda Colvin.

DeSantis has been viewed for so long as the guy who has the best shot of taking on Trump. But now, the doubts are coming from inside the House, from outside of the house. And a lot of it has to do with what seems to me to be the campaign actually coming out of the gate viewing themselves as the front runner saying, oh, we don't have to talk to reporters. We don't have to answer questions. We don't have to broaden our appeal. That's changing.

MARGARET TALEV, AXIOS SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR: That's right. And what you're seeing is some minor shedding of campaign staff but also a move towards some of the policy issues' willingness to begin engaging with mainstream media.

And this comes amid internal criticisms from people who like Ron DeSantis, there was too much insularity in the campaign that sort of a formation in this was too far to the right, too much to the Trump base.

And -- but it's really more complicated than that, like Axios does the swing voter focus grouping. And the focus groups that we just did in Minnesota this week, these are people who voted for Donald Trump and Joe Biden. About a third of them say they don't know enough about Ron DeSantis to make a judgement.

But the other third saying, they don't like him. They use words like want to be dictator, wildcard. He just wants to take over. They said they viewed him as isolating. And these are overwhelmingly independent voters who could vote for a Republican for president, so.

PHILLIP: That's definitely not a good sign.

I mean, here's the other data point that we got this week. These are the fundraising numbers. DeSantis had a big number top line. But really, when you dig into the numbers, you're talking 19 million raised, 12 million in the bank, but three million of that is reserved for later, for the general election, if he gets there.

[11:05:16]

And look at that number for small donors, 15 percent. That's a very small, small donor number in a world in which Donald Trump is also in the field and raises so much money from small donors. A lot of DeSantis' donors, after this quarter, are actually already maxed out.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And this is another way that you can measure enthusiasm for a candidate, right? It's what you can look at poll numbers, but you can also look at grassroots donations, and certainly here, this suggests real problems for Ron DeSantis.

And not only that, but he's also burning through his cash. I think he spent $8 million the last quarter, and a million dollars of that was just on payroll, which is maybe why we've learned this week now that he has fired, I think, it's some good thing in the number of 10 campaign staffers, because he's just -- this is a campaign that is just far too bloated.

I mean, we talk about Joe Biden's campaign being skeletal, they are doing the opposite here with Ron DeSantis. Too big, too fast, spending too much, and most importantly, not getting the results. Instead, what we've seen is the gap between Trump and DeSantis actually widening rather than getting closer.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Right. And I think also the fact that this is so early is also what is so problematic for Ron DeSantis. And, you know, looking at, I mean, I think in the next few months, the next few weeks, they're going to have to start shifting strategy. I think that's why you're seeing him shed some campaign staffers while you're going to start seeing, I mean, already, he's leaning a lot on his outside political action committee, never backed down.

I think they're going to continue to see them having to do more work to help DeSantis on the outside. A lot of these outside groups really taking on a lot of the brunt of his campaign as they -- are we shifting? OK. How much travel can we do? How much can we be using the private plane that DeSantis uses and having to really scale back?

And we're still six months away from Iowa. So I think that the fact that this is happening so early is really a red flag for the campaign.

PHILLIP: Yes. One thing to know before you jump in Rhonda, the super PAC has -- they said a few months ago, they are going to build the biggest, strongest, like ground game in the campaign. And there are still questions today whether that is even feasible. I mean, there's a reason campaigns typically do that. And it's because some things money can't buy, and one of them is the conviction of your volunteers knocking on doors every single day.

RHONDA COLVIN, WASHINGTON POST CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: That's right. And I think these next weeks and months are going to be really important for DeSantis. Did this all in Iowa approach that he's been doing, his campaign has been doing and making sure he's there and building a base? Is that going to work?

And also, to Jeremy's point about grassroot donors, that's a really important gauge. So what you're seeing, you know, little donations kind of peter out, that -- that's an important flag to look at, as well as big donors. There are a lot of Republican inside donors where a lot of the candidates look too for their money. And they're now talking about potentially backing Tim Scott, or some of the other folks. So those are signs that the DeSantis camp is going to have to factor in moving forward.

PHILLIP: Yes. So you brought up Tim Scott. I want to play a little bit of an ad that Tim Scott's been running in Iowa as he tries to take advantage of what may be an opening here in the race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT: Our country is founded upon a Judeo Christian rock. Our rights don't come from a government. They are inalienable. We come from a creator. Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life. If we want a better America, I think it starts with faith in God and faith in each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: But what's so interesting about that ad is, Tim Scott is such a totally different candidate from most of the others in the field. And it's so different. It's almost like you're talking about apples and oranges.

But one other thing I want to show folks here, Tim Scott is not polling that high in the polls, but he is spending a ton of money. Look at this. He is at the second most spent in Iowa, only behind DeSantis. And if you combine the Scott campaign and the Tim Scott Super PAC, you are talking about a huge amount of money. And the DeSantis campaign has started attacking Tim Scott, worried about him.

TALEV: Right. I mean, in a way, that's what's so interesting about the conundrum that DeSantis faces. I think we have all been thinking about it in terms of, can he catch Trump. But for DeSantis, what you want to do is get rid of the rest of the field, scare the rest of the field away, show that you are such a dominant second, that no one else can possibly catch you. And then it's going to be a two-person race anyway.

And he cannot do that at this moment. And it gives a window -- a second window of opportunity for someone like Tim Scott who nationally may not have the hugest name recognition, but there's two really important states in the GOP primary, one's Iowa, and he can make the argument to evangelicals to the other South Carolina, his home state, so.

TREENE: Right. And I think the strategy, I mean, looking at those numbers and how much he's spending in Iowa is very clear what he's doing. I mean, he wants Iowa to be the place where he can make gains. I mean, as of now, Trump doesn't need to win Iowa, but if he does win Iowa, a lot of people are saying, it's over, like, he's going to be the nominee, be the nominee.

[11:10:08]

I think Tim Scott knows that and his background with evangelical voters, the pitch that he made on Friday at that conference forum this weekend, he's leaning in very hard to that and thinking, if I can make gains, like you said, in Iowa, in South Carolina, his home state, it could move the race differently.

And the other thing I want to note about Tim Scott, just from the Trump standpoint is, Donald Trump has not been attacking Tim Scott. He's told his team, we do not want to go after Tim Scott. He likes him a lot. And he thinks that he could potentially be someone who serves in his -- in his administration.

And I think that's something that is very different from the other candidates. You're seeing a lot of the other candidates kind of be afraid to go after Tim Scott in the way that they're going after the others.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, he's liked, but also Trump looks at him and sees maybe an administration, maybe even a VP --

TREENE: Right.

PHILLIP: -- potentially, who can give him some gains.

I want to play one more thing here that happened over the last couple of days. Tucker Carlson and Mike Pence on the same stage. This did not go, I think, the way that Mike Pence wanted it to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States of America needs to continue to project strength. But let me say one last thing on --

TUCKER CARLSON, AMERICAN COMMENTATOR: But we've run out of ammunitions, so we're sending them cluster bombs.

PENCE: The answer is not to shrink from America's role as leader of the free world, the answer is to invest in our national defense.

CARLSON: You are distressed that the Ukrainians don't have enough American tanks. Every city in the United States has become much worse over the past three years. Where's the concern for the United States in that?

PENCE: Anybody that says that we can't be the leader of the free world and solve our problems at home has a pretty small view of the greatest nation on Earth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: I don't know. Something tells me they're not going to see eye-to-eye on that one. But it's really just about, this is going to be a steep hill for Mike Pence to climb --

DIAMOND: And Tucker Carlson is not echoing a minority view in the Republican Party there. I mean, that is how a lot of the Republican primary base. What they actually think about Ukraine and why these notions that, you know, we -- there are several candidates in the race, including DeSantis, including Trump, who have talked to have questions future aids to Ukraine, and it's for this very reason, and Tucker Carlson is very good at kind of embodying that.

I mean, that looks like an interview that you would see Tucker Carlson do with the Democrat almost, right? In terms of --

PHILLIP: Body language.

TALEV: Doing eye contact --

DIAMOND: The body language, the kind of combative.

TALEV: Yes.

DIAMOND: The combative style and tone. And Mike Pence has big problems. I mean, you look at his, you know, fundraising numbers. We talked about that being engaged in political support. It's pretty, you know, not great fundraising though (inaudible)

PHILLIP: Yes. And Chris Christie says, he's going to be on the debate stage. That's that. But his fundraising numbers also very small raising questions about just the longevity for some of these candidates who are at the bottom of the polls -- polling, totem pole.

But standby. Coming up next for us, Biden tries to sell a thriving economy to voters, but they're just not buying it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:06]

PHILLIP: It's a tale of two economies what the numbers say and what people actually feel. Look at where we were last year compared to this year. Inflation is falling. Real wages, they're rising. Gas prices are down. And the stock market is up.

Those are numbers that by all means tell a story of an economy that is running just fine at the very least, and beating expectations. But members of a focus group in Minnesota have swing voters. These are people who voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. They say that that is not how they see things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have all these statistics saying the economy is doing awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the higher society, the upper class that are seeing that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unemployment is down 3.6 percent. That's unemployment. That's everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. But there's a lot of places that have closed and jobs are still out. When you look at the world around you, I don't think those numbers are all that accurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: There encapsulates the problem for the Biden White House, the Biden campaign, is that the numbers just objectively show an economy that if they have to thread a needle here between a recession and not a recession, they may be threading that needle.

But I think this Axios headline really captures what we might be experiencing here. It's the state of the economy, the vibes versus the data. A lot of bad vibes.

DIAMOND: Yes. And that is -- that is what -- that's a very difficult thing to be fighting against. And that is exactly what the Biden administration is fighting against. That being said, I think one of the things that Biden administration officials have pointed to and this the data bears it out, is that when people are actually asked about their personal finances, they tend to be pretty optimistic, pretty upbeat about their own personal financial situation.

So when you ask them to talk about the state of the economy around them, that is when they tend to have a more negative view. So there's a weird disconnect there that that exist. Biden administration is hoping that as we get into a territory now, where these good numbers are getting more consistent over time that this will kind of seep into the public sentiment. It's also why they launched this new Bidenomics messaging push, which is effectively a way to try and convince people that, guys, the numbers are really good.

But again, it's all about whether or not they can actually change that perception. Also, they can change the perception of the president's handling of the economy. So it's like convincing voters that the economy is good, and then also convincing them that it's because of President Biden.

TREENE: Right. That's the thing that I'm hearing a lot when I talk to Democrats on Capitol Hill, that they're worried about with this, you know, Bidenomics tour and him trying to tout the economy is. Even though the economy is getting better, it's stabilized since the pandemic, he's not getting credit for it.

And the economy is still one of the top issues that Republicans are going to be pushing as we head into 2024. And Democrats are really worried that even though this is one of the top things that Biden is hoping he can turn the tide with, turn, you know, the conversation around on the economy, they're not --Democrats I speak to are not as convinced that it's going to work.

[11:20:06]

And I think it's something that obviously he's associated the history of the pandemic, the hits that the economy took from that. Biden is still associated with that. And so I think we're going to have to see in the next few months, whether he can really turn the messaging around when it comes to the economy.

TALEV: The economy has just become polarized as an issue, like it used to be a thing that because it is quantitative and numerical was much harder to spin. And it's a completely politicized issue.

PHILLIP: Let me pause you there, because I just want to show what you're talking about here. This is a Reuters poll. It asks about Biden's handling of the economy. And it talks about polarization. Democrats are at 64 percent, saying they approve. Republicans three percent.

TALEV: Right. OK. So like Republicans and Democrats.

PHILLIP: It said 97 percent of Republicans agree on any?

TALEV: There's some variation between people who live in urban areas, versus suburban areas, versus rural areas, but Democrats or Republicans still live next door to each other and work at the same companies, their kids go to school together.

It's not statistically possible for your party ID to define that much of your economic experience, like it's preposterous. AP-NORC has a poll where the numbers are a little closer together, but it says 47 percent of Democrats say the economy is good, 13 percent of Republicans.

There's two ways to look at that, one is that's very polarized. The second way is that even the Democrats less than half --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's true.

TALEV: -- the economy is good. Seventy percent in that survey say that economic conditions of the country are poor. So Biden has to challenges, convincing everyone that things are better than they think they are. And then dealing with a media ecosystem where their echo chambers and silos and where the news you're getting about the economy is completely tilted, depending on where you are.

Can I put another possibility here on the table? I think that there's something happening in the country right now where people are starting to reevaluate what it means to be comfortable economically. Just listen to what some of these same voters said on that topic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's getting in the way of younger Americans getting to experience the American dream?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almost 20 years of laws that have been passed that are benefiting the wealthiest Americans.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The cost of education, the cost of living and, like, how does a student get themselves through higher education and then get a job?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inflation, the price of housing and everything else lack of financial literacy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So the data that backs that up is that real wages have not really changed for people. And when they look forward into the future, they're asking themselves, how can I afford to pay for college for my kids? How can I sustain this lifestyle as I get older? Those are real questions that are causing real concerns for voters.

COLVIN: And that's part of the uphill battle for the Biden administration. And the campaign is to read into those concerns that we just heard in the tape that people are concerned about those kitchen table issues. They see rising prices at the grocery store, even though inflation is still, you know, it's getting better, but it is still a looming concern.

Those are things you really can't fight with a speech on Bidenomics. You have to actually be with people and listen to them and address those concerns.

One of the other things to point out about Biden and the economy is that economists say a lot of the things that he has done aren't going to be felt for a while, and may not even be felt while he's running for this next term.

So that, again, is another part that the Democrats are going to have to build into their strategy. That a lot of the things that they want to tout just aren't being felt.

PHILLIP: I think the part that the Biden ministration, many economists think have gotten right, is that they've shut up and let the Fed do what it needs to do. There's that. But as we go into 2024, this is going to be a real messaging challenge. How do they address what's going on here with voters?

But before we go, I want to bring up one other thing about President Biden's reelection. This is how much money he has raised, $72 million between his campaign, and a Super PAC 97 percent of donations. Let's talk about those small donors are under 200,000 compared to Trump, 35 million. But Obama, $86 million. So what does that tell you, Jeremy?

DIAMOND: Yes. And Obama also had, I think, 150,000 more individual donations, individual donors to his campaign at that same cycle. Now, the Biden campaign folks that I've been talking to, they say, Obama had a three-week head start, you know, he started three weeks earlier in the quarter. And the grassroots fundraising picture is kind of murky across the board for both Democrats and Republicans at the moment right now.

But nonetheless, I think that it was obviously -- it was a substantial number, nonetheless. It's not going to entirely shut up the democratic anxiety about President Biden and enthusiasm about him, but it certainly is going through quite a lot of the -- of the anxiety. And it's a strong number.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, I can see it both ways. In some ways, Obama was just this small dollar machine even in -- into his second term, but it's going to take a lot of money in this race going up against another small dollar machine, potentially, Donald Trump.

[11:25:07]

But up next for us, the war on woke strikes a big target, the Pentagon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: This week, Republicans on Capitol Hill claimed a victory on a culture war at frontline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Stop using taxpayer money to do their own wokeism. A military cannot defend themselves if you train them in woke. We don't want Disneyland to train our military. We want our men and women in the military to have every defense possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Every defense possible. That suggests some kind of focus on war fighting or maybe ammunition. But the GOP is focused, instead, on erasing so-called woke policy from the Pentagon. That includes dismantling the DOD's abortion policy, eliminating its DEI, that's Diversity Equity and Inclusion office banning critical race theory and certain books, along with the pride flag and defunding transgender care.

[11:30:09]

Now listen to the Freedom Caucus who pushed the amendments and they're claiming that they're -- that they're making the military normal again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SCOTT PERRY, (R) PENNSYLVANIA: The House Freedom Caucus, America's Freedom Caucus is never going to stop to making every single bill that gets out here as the best it can be, the most righteous it can be.

REP. RONNY JACKSON, (R) TEXAS: The Biden administration has made it routine for a long time now to ignore existing law and the will of the people to push their woke social agenda in whichever way they see fit. Yesterday, we push back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So this is the military we're talking about, right? Almost nothing in the military changes overnight. And a lot of things that they're talking about there have been going on for a long time, including under the Trump administration. Just listen here to -- just listen here to Bob Good, he's one of the Republican lawmakers talking about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BOB GOOD, (R) VIRGINIA: This administration, as soon as they got in office, told our military, that the purpose of the military was to fight climate, that climate was the greatest threat to the country. And then right behind that, the greatest threat to the military was racism in the military, white supremacy, nationalist -- white nationalist, whatever that is in the military. God forbid, Trump supporters in the military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Oh, Trump supporters and white nationalism in the same sentence, it's very interesting and very telling in a lot of ways, but just as a point of fact, climate change has been mentioned by the military since the early 1990s?

TREENE: Right, right. I mean, a lot of this is, Kevin McCarthy was giving a lot to the House Freedom Caucus, or there's a lot of things I found very interesting about this vote last week. But one of the big things is that I think we very clearly saw House Speaker Kevin McCarthy caving to the right after being criticized for a lot of his handling of the debt ceiling negotiations last month, feeling like a lot of the Republicans felt like he gave too much to Democrats, this isn't doing the opposite.

And I think, you know, the NDAA is supposed to be a bipartisan defense bill. And clearly, this became a very far-right bill with all of these amendments that they added to it. Of course, I think we have to point out that this is going to go to the Senate. They're going to change a lot of this. And then they're going to go to conference, and a lot of these amendments are not going to make it in the final bill. But clearly, people in the House are staking their claims on these, you know, "anti-woke policies," and increasingly, the rest of the party is falling victim to it.

PHILLIP: And as the National Security Adviser for President Biden said this morning on State of the Union, he doesn't think this is going to make it to President Biden's desk, but nonetheless?

DIAMOND: Yeah, and I mean, look, it does present an opportunity for the administration to -- to point this out, right? So say Republicans are endangering national security, Republicans are putting, you know, there was a statement from the White House on Friday saying that they are holding military readiness hostage to these kinds of far-right issues. So it does give them a messaging opportunity, I think from a purely political perspective.

But I think what's interesting to me about this is that like, there are no more holy cows, right? Like there -- there are no more holy issues that you cannot touch anymore in the Republican Party. They're talking -- you know, they're holding -- they were threatening to hold up this defense authorization bill over these issues. They're going after the FBI and law enforcement. I mean, all of these issues that were traditionally kind of, you know, no go zones for Republicans now are no longer.

PHILLIP: Yeah.

TALEV: Here's the thing about the U.S. military. It has been declining in size over the years, but at the same time, it has been becoming more diverse. In today's military, nearly one out of five active duty are women. Only about 60% of the U.S. military active duty are white Americans. And so you've got about 15%, black American serving about 15% Hispanic. That number is only going to grow.

So when you talk about things like women's health care, and their right to get medical services and when you talk about things like Diversity and Equity and Inclusion, you're talking about an increasing share of the military. It's not about trading out national security issues for whatever the woke -- woke word of the day is, it's really not about that. It reflects the changing face of who is participating in a military, in a volunteer military force.

PHILLIP: In some ways, this whole debate and just the unruliness that, with which it unfolded, it just seems like the wheels are coming off of the train in some ways. And there was also this moment on the House floor on Thursday, a truly extraordinary moment. Just take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELI CRANE, (R) ARIZONA: My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or black people or anybody can serve, OK? It has nothing to do with color of your skin --

REP. JOYCE BEATTY, (D) OHIO: Mr. Speaker --

CRANE: -- any of that stuff.

BEATTY: I'd like to be recognized to have the words colored people stricken from the record. I find it offensive and very inappropriate. (END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:35:00]

PHILLIP: You would think that this was 1965 or something in some ways the debate itself is a little retro.

COLVIN: And that member, he's a freshman member from Arizona. He's in his 40s. So he did not grow up in a time where colored people was a terminology that people knew or recognized.

PHILLIP: That's a very good point.

COLVIN: So, yeah, there was a stunning moment on the House floor this week. I know the Congressional Black Caucus leaders have asked for an apology. Representative Crane did say he misspoke, he did acknowledge that he misspoke. But outside of the words, it's still stunning that the amendment that he was talking about, which was to stop the Pentagon from offering diversity training that passed along with other of the amendments that they tried to put in this bill that the Senate says they won't take up.

But, you know, we're in stunning times right now with the -- the House Republican leadership. We're seeing culture wars play out in almost all of the routine business that Congress has to do. And there was much more coming. There was an appropriations bill coming up where we could have a government shutdown in September. There was all sorts of reauthorizations that may, you know, fall prey to this type of situation that we've got.

PHILLIP: And the FBI, as Jeremy mentioned, in the crosshairs because of the Trump investigations, but generally, the Republican Party, in another case, shifting away from their long-standing allegiance to law enforcement. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM JORDAN, (R) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: American speech is censored, parents are called terrorists. Catholics are called radicals. And I haven't even talked about the spying that took place of a presidential campaign, or the rating of a former president's home.

REP. MATT GAETZ, (R) FLORIDA: People trusted the FBI more when J. Edgar Hoover was running the place than when you are. And the reason is because you don't get straight answers.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: The idea that I'm biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: It is a little wild. I mean, he's a registered Republican?

DIAMOND: Registered Republican appointed by a Republican president to this position, President Trump that is -- yeah, it's -- it's -- it's remarkable. And I think that it speaks to -- it's just one of many examples of Donald Trump's power on the Republican Party and his ability to shift its positions and its views on things. And I'm talking across the board everything from trade policy to whether the 2020 election was stolen and rigged to this very issue here, right? I mean, it's all in the same mold. And it all has to do with Donald Trump's influence on the party.

PHILLIP: Yeah, I mean, and I think that this is only accelerating as we go along into the 2024 field.

COLVIN: Absolutely. And if you were to watch that full hearing, which lasted hours, it went until about 4 p.m. in the afternoon. We heard these refrains over and over again, Democrats tried to push back a little bit and remind people that Wray is a lifelong Republican. He actually started his career under George W. Bush. So he hasn't changed in any way. But you're still seeing him and other administration officials be targets on the Hill right now.

TREENE: And I think to the interesting thing with that hearing, I mean, clearly, Jim Jordan, and many Republicans have made it clear that the FBI leadership is their number one punching bag and a lot of their investigations. But the other investigations playing out. I mean, we're going to see the IRS whistleblowers on the Hill this week. We're going to see the Judiciary Committee hold censorship hearing on Thursday.

And I think what we should note is, they're really ramping up and zeroing -- zeroing in on these investigations right now. And I think part of it is that they know that soon all of the oxygen in Washington is going to be focused on the 2024 election and they want to message against Democrats as much as possible and part of using these investigations to do so as we head into the next election cycle.

PHILLIP: Part of the problem also is that they need to actually come up with the evidence they have promised. I mean, you can say that you have the goods but if you don't show it to people, it's -- it's not going to work. That's been the central challenge, the bottom coming out from some of these claims that they've been making about President Biden in particular.

But coming up next for us, daredevils, disco in Washington D.C., a look at a devilish new read from a familiar face.

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[11:43:11]

PHILLIP: Are you in the market for stories about trade crime, mysterious media moguls or even raucous celebrities with presidential ambitions? Well, these days you could watch the news or even better you can pick up a copy of All The Demons Are Here. The brand-new novel from CNN's own Jake Tapper. It is the third of his political thrillers, starring the fictional politician Charlie Marder and his family and the hair-raising adventures through Washington D.C. in decades past. And Jake is with us right now. So Jake, this book, I've got it right here. It's set in the 1970s which turns out was a pretty crazy and historic year in America. Among some of the big events, Jimmy Carter was inaugurated. Elvis dies, the son of Sam's -- Sam murders happened and the release of Star Wars hit the movie theaters. But your character reacts to a lot of these events and they meet a lot of these real-life people. You must have, A, spent a lot of time doing the research and had a lot of fun doing the research for this one.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: And it was a ton of fun, 1977. The whole 70s are kind of underrated when it comes to how insane they were. But 1977 in particular, you just noted some of the things but -- but in addition to that we have Americans seeing UFOs all over the country. There's a rise in participation in cults. There is obviously Evel Knievel, the prominent stuntman all over America.

And the rise not just as the Son of Sam serial killer but of tabloid journalism in the United States. It was a tremendously exciting period to dive into end to mind for dramatic effect.

You also have -- I can't -- there's so much the opening of Studio 54, the celebrity just attack the -- the New York City blackout. I mean so many things just in this one year. It was so much fun.

[11:45:01]

PHILLIP: Yeah. I'm pretty crazy actually. I mean, I was -- well, I was not around for the 70s but it taught me a lot actually, about what went on during that time. One of the most interesting things though, about this book is that Evel Knievel is basically a character in the book, and the idea of him running for president and makes an appearance, and you make it a connection to the present day that might surprise a lot of people. I highlighted this in my book, you wrote here, about Evel Knievel, "He held up a mirror to the country revealing our national need for spectacle, the brutality of powerful men, the sycophancy of their followers. He was utterly shameless, tethered to neither decorum nor facts, and there was something refreshing about that about his admissions of infidelity as petty grievances. The country was waking up from years of being lied to by presidents and generals, but I couldn't tell if that realization was propelling us into a world of truth or a world where truth had no value."

You could have written that right now about a certain former President Donald Trump?

TAPPER: Right. Yeah, and they are, Evel Knievel and Donald Trump, quintessentially American characters in the same light of P.T. Barnum, or -- or Jesse James, these characters that are larger than life that are really amazing at captivating audiences, at getting news media coverage, at having their candor seem refreshing even when it was potentially outrageous and offensive. And there is a line directly between I think, Evel Knievel, and the celebrity he was able to achieve, and former President Trump. Interesting, I am -- I don't know anything about motorcycles. But motorcycles play a big role in the book. So after I wrote a first draft, I found this motorcycle expert this -- this writer named Mark Gardner, and he helped me make it seem as though I knew something about motorcycles because the characters who talk about them need to know. And after we were done with our business, I thank him in the acknowledgments, he sent me an essay, he had written several years ago, comparing Evel Knievel, to Donald Trump. So he got there before I did. But there is -- there is something there, something in the American DNA where these characters kind of emerge.

PHILLIP: And I was very impressed with your motorcycle knowledge, I have to say, in this book. So in addition to the fictional characters, you've got Ike, and you've got Lucy, and you have Evel Knievel, a real-life character. You also have some characters that are, you know, shades of other present date folks, The Lion Family, they are the British owners of this up-and-coming tabloid in D.C. and they are basically the Murdochs and his children.

TAPPER: Right.

PHILLIP: How did -- you tell -- I mean, you alluded to this, but tell us about how Murdoch plays such a role in the 70s and in this book?

TAPPER: Well, it's just so interesting because the Son of Sam murders is happening. And this is an opportunity for tabloids in New York City to really rise in their circulation, especially newsstand sales, rose dramatically, because the New York Times at that was -- was treating it kind of just like a local crime story. And not really talking about the fact that there was a serial killer in the outer boroughs, killing people. And this is an opportunity in real life for the real-life Rupert Murdoch, to take the New York Post into a place of prominence. And it's also, in my book, a place for his doppelganger, Max lion, this fictitious character, to try to do the same in Washington with a serial killer that my fictional character Lucy explores.

But this is really about tabloid journalism. This subplot in addition to being a who done it. It's about where American media has gone. Because she is put in situations. Lucy as a writer, as a journalist, where she is talking about things that really happened and writing about them, and her editors are goosing them to sell papers. And you know, there isn't that far distance between that and the $787.5 billion -- million settlement being paid by Fox to Dominion. It is all part of the tabloidification of the American media.

PHILLIP: Yeah, and I will say it's -- some of it is sort of this black and white, it's very clear how much there goosing the story, even maybe making things up. But some of it is also some interesting shades of gray there that holds a mirror up to the media industry writ large. Jake, first of all, this is a book that has footnotes in it so you will learn something but it's also a really fun, interesting read if you love a good thriller. Thank you so much for coming on and telling us a little bit about it. I hope everyone picks it up.

TAPPER: Thank you. Thank you, Abby, I really appreciate it.

PHILLIP: And coming up next for us, a star of the civil rights movement is stepping out of the spotlight.

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[11:54:00]

PHILLIP: A big change for one of the nation's civil rights organizations and its leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson will be stepping down from the day-to-day operations of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which he founded 52 years ago. Jackson is now 81 years old and he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease six years ago. But in those more than five decades, Rainbow PUSH was a sometimes controversial but persistent force in pushing for diversity and economic opportunity for women and for people of color.

I was there with Reverend Jackson this weekend in Chicago when dozens of former aides and -- to Jackson including the Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge gathered there to also mark 35 years since his two campaigns for the presidency in the 1980s. Now, after his 1988 presidential bid came to an end, Jackson delivered this powerful convention speech in Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE JACKSON: Conservatives and progressives when you fight for what you believe, right-wing, left-wing, oh you are right from your point of view but your point of view is that enough. But don't despair. Be as wise as my grandma, pulled the patches and the pieces together, bound by common thread. We form a great quilt of unity and common ground. We all have the power to bring about health care, and housing and jobs and education, and hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:55:40]

PHILLIP: Now, President Biden, who I should note also ran briefly in 1988. He praised Jackson in his statement this morning, saying, throughout our decades of friendship and partnership, I've seen how Reverend Jackson has helped lead our nation forward through tumult and triumph. I've seen him as history will remember him: A man of God and of the people; determined, strategic and unafraid of the work to redeem the soul of our nation."

And that's it for us here on Inside Politics Sunday. Coming up next here on CNN, State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. And thank you again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. Have a great rest of your day.

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