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Inside Politics

New CNN Poll: Democratic Party's Favorability At Record Low; Democrats Fume Over Schumer's Handling Of Shutdown; Dozens Reported Killed After U.S. Strikes On Yemen's Houthis; Judge Blocks Trump From Using Wartime Authority For Deportations. Trump Deepens Attacks on Perceived Political Enemies; Who Will Lead the Democrats?; New Moms in Congress Defy Speaker on Remote Voting for Parents. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired March 16, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:47]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST (voice-over): Outrage.

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): There's going to be huge backlash.

RAJU: Democrats anger boils over.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): There is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal.

RAJU: Brand new CNN poll results this morning have flashing warning signs for the party. Where does Leader Schumer stand?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Next question.

RAJU: And AOC having a moment.

And trade war.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think we're going to have an economy that's a real economy, not a fake economy.

RAJU: As stocks plunge --

LARRY FINK, CEO, BLACKROCK: I hear the economy is weakening as we speak.

RAJU: -- economic discontent spooks the GOP.

Plus, new reporting on Trump's quest for revenge.

And baby steps.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's really no excuse. RAJU: A rare bipartisan move may help new moms and dads on the hill.

INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU (on camera): Good morning. And welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Manu Raju.

First up this morning, a brand new exclusive CNN poll that paints a brutal reality for Democrats, as they struggle to mount a unified opposition to President Trump. Americans' favorable views of the Democratic Party's brand are at a record low, just 29 percent. That's compared to 36 percent for Republicans. It is the lowest ever recorded for Democrats in CNN polling, going back more than 30 years. As you can see, the party's numbers dropping a staggering 20 points in just four years.

The CNN/SSRS poll also found 57 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaning voters are more interested in seeing their party leader stop the GOP agenda, compared to 42 percent who are more interested in cutting bipartisan deals. It is a big shift from where the party stood at the start of Trump's first term in 2017.

Now, this survey was taken before this weeks tumultuous battle over funding the government, which resulted in one of the ugliest intra- party Democratic disputes in years and left many in the party lobbing furious attacks at Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who ultimately reversed course and let a GOP bill funding the government become law in order to avert a shutdown.

Now, a bitter round of finger pointing is taking shape after Democrats failed to get a single concession from the GOP, despite having their first piece of leverage to fight back against Trump. Now, the big question where does a party in deepening turmoil and an open warfare go from here?

To break this all down, I'm joined by a great panel this morning. "The Washington Post's" Paul Kane, Laura Barron-Lopez of "PBS NewsHour', and Alex Isenstadt with "Axios".

Good morning.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

RAJU: It's been -- it's been an eventful week, especially on the Hill. We're going to get to all the Chuck Schumer of it all in a moment. But just more about these really brutal numbers for Democrats in this reference. The poll that we talked about, the slide among Democrats down 20 points since January 2021 among all voters, that is their favorability rating from 49 percent to 29 percent.

And when you dig down a little deeper, the slide is a large part among Democratic voters who are just so dissatisfied with their leadership. Just in January, from January to now, they've already dropped nine points among Democratic voters who view them favorably. And that is significantly less how Republican voters view Republicans.

Paul, you've been covering Washington, Capitol Hill for a long time. Have you ever seen the Democratic brand in this rough shape at any point in your -- in your career?

PAUL KANE, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, WASHINGTON POST: No. And there have been moments, 2005. 2017, right after George Bush won reelection, right after Donald Trump won his first election, where they had this little power, where they were frozen out, essentially of -- of Washington.

I talked to Brad Schneider, a Chicago suburbs --

RAJU: Fellow Chicago suburbanites?

KANE: Yeah. Not a Bears fan, by the way, but I was out at the House --

RAJU: Good for him.

KANE: Out at the House Democratic retreat. We had this discussion and he -- he said the difference between 2017 and now is that in 2017, people thought of Trump's election as this like black swan event. It was a completely flukish thing.

[08:05:11]

You know, Hillary had won the popular vote that the Democratic Party was still good, that it was just some quirky Electoral College thing.

Eight years later, Trump won the popular vote. He swept all of the swing states. They lost. They only gained one seat, and they're still in the minority in the House. They lost four seats in the Senate.

So, all of a sudden, they're looking around and they're looking in the mirror finally, and they're saying, wait, there's something wrong with us.

RAJU: Look, I mean, it's -- it is the -- the direction that the party, the voters want their leadership to take. What are they moving in the right direction? That's one of the question that the poll asked voters here.

And look at this, the right direction, wrong direction. The slide 52 percent of Democratic leaning voters believe their leadership is taking the party in the wrong direction. That is a 16 point jump since the beginning of Trump's first term. And you go down across the demographics here, pretty much all age groups, you know, some view it a little bit better than others, but then underneath people less than 45 --

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah.

RAJU: -- not so good. Male voters, not so good. College grads, just 33 percent of college grads think the party leadership of Democratic- leaning voters think their party is doing the right thing. BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah, the younger you go, the less confidence those

Democratic voters have in the party.

And to Paul's point, Democrats may be looking in the mirror. But the question is, are they doing anything differently? And I think that that's the frustration that those young voters, that the younger members of the party have with the party leadership, which is, are we doing anything differently than we were?

You know, when Trump won the first time or even just a few years ago, and they aren't necessarily I mean, and this is -- the evidence of that is what they just did with the C.R., which was deciding, yes, we are going to provide the votes, which Democrats have routinely done. And I understand Schumer's hesitancy. He was worried that, like in past history, Democrats were going to get blamed for a shutdown.

But there are so many members of the party now that are feeling as though why not try something different than we did before, and they're not really getting any answers from leadership on what those new tactics could be.

RAJU: Yeah, and then how do they change things? That's an excellent point to the next point of this poll, because the question is, what do they want? How do they -- what do the Democratic voters really want their leadership to do differently?

Well, it's to stop the Republican agenda, 57 percent want them to stop the Republican agenda. And here's another thing to the shift among the view among the public, among Democratic voters back in 2014, 2017. They wanted just 23 percent wanted them to stop the Republican agenda.

More -- three quarters of Democratic voters back then wanted them to work with the GOP. That is a much different view among Democratic voters now. They want their party to fight Trump, not to work with him.

ALEX ISENSTADT, SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: Right. And you look at what's happened since November, and it doesn't feel like there is a clear strategy among Democrats about what to do. You did feel like 2017. There was a clear sense that Democrats were starting to make some inroads.

You saw some special elections that happened in 2017. Democrats actually had some traction. They won a Senate race in Alabama. It feels a little bit like the Democratic Party is trying to find its way right now. Doesn't feel like they have a clear electoral strategy, doesn't feel like they have a clear posture towards how to handle Trump after he had the sweeping win.

RAJU: Yeah, they certainly played out this past week, which was just such a brutal week in the way. They -- they knew this fight was coming. The deadline had been on the books for, what, three months that the government was going to shut down on March 14th if they didn't pass a bill to keep the government open.

Democrats had leverage in the United States Senate because it requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, 53-47 Senate. So they knew they had the votes, and it was the way that they handled this that Chuck Schumer ultimately said, we got to keep the government open. Even though he had went to the Senate floor and said the Republican bill is just not going to pass because we have the votes to block it.

And his reversal has just led to this angry round of finger pointing. Just look at some of the posts from the House Democrats over the last several days. Ro Khanna, said that that Schumer sold them out. Mark Takano is of -- Takano of California, called Schumer a rank and file member of the GOP. Norma Torres said that Schumer betrayed us all. Zoe Lofgren said Donald Trump has thanked Chuck Schumer for his help in dismantling the federal government.

So this spans the gamut of House Democrats. You were in the House Democratic retreat while this news was breaking. And how do they pick up the pieces from here?

KANE: I don't know. The issue is like there are big fights coming ahead. There is a fight about extending trillions of dollars worth of tax cuts, potential cuts to Medicaid. These are even bigger stakes than what they were battling over the last couple of days.

[08:10:00]

They've got to figure out how to get people back on the same page. You know, they woke up Friday morning and saw the -- the Trump social media post thanking Chuck Schumer. And, all of a sudden, we got notice out in Leesburg, a couple of members of the leadership team are going to appear.

Well, they appeared not on camera and they said lots of bad things, Pete Aguilar and Ted Lieu and --

RAJU: And then they did this hastily arranged press conference on Capitol Hill.

KANE: Yeah. They figured that --

RAJU: Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team.

We got to they got to get in the cars and drive back to the Capitol and put on suits and look more formal with the flags behind them and, and talk bad about Schumer.

Look, Chuck Schumer has been in Congress for 44 years. People forget this. He got elected to the House of Representatives in 1980. He got there like six months before Steny Hoyer got there.

He has never been the leading man before. Yeah, eight years ago, it was him and Nancy Pelosi and Pelosi had been speaker.

RAJU: She drove the strategy in so many ways.

KANE: She was seen as the national spokeswoman. Chuck Schumer is now the elder statesman, and he's the number one. He's not comfortable being the front man. It's not his nature. RAJU: And this rift between Jeffries and Schumer is so is real. I

mean, the fact that Jeffries couldn't say he had confidence in Schumer was striking.

BARRON-LOPEZ: The fact that he dodged it over and over and over again. Paul told us that he was chasing him into the hallway and couldn't get an answer. I mean, yeah, that is -- right. That's striking. That's -- that's incredible, especially since we're so early on also, in the second Trump administration.

I mean, I think that Democrats to what we've been talking about, they clearly have to find their red line. And that's what Senator Chris Murphy was talking about. He -- you've never seen senators like this before. Just going on Instagram live right after votes like this late on a Friday, which is what Chris Murphy did, saying, I have to talk to all of my, you know, colleagues about what our red line is.

RAJU: Yeah, and attacking their party's leader. And, you know, the question that I pose to Democrats this past week was, okay, what happens if you guys keep the government open but don't get a single concession from the GOP? And they got nothing from the GOP? How would your party react?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): I think they will be hugely upset and well- justified. You don't stop a bully by handing over your lunch money, and you don't stop an authoritarian president by giving him more power.

REP. HANK JOHNSON (D-GA): It would be a capitulation to the Trump style of democracy, which is the movement of democracy to a dictatorship.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): The right thing to do is not for this institution behind me, to give up for six months all of its power over to the executive.

RAJU: Politically, how do you think voters would react if you guys let this go forward?

SEN. JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D-CO): We're not going to get anything in return, no matter what.

RAJU: I guess some Democrats will say, if we're not going to fight here, where else are we going to fight?

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): What's fighting? How -- what's fighting? What does that mean?

RAJU: And Fetterman, there is the one outlier in that group of Democrats. He was saying, lets not shut the government down, but they wanted to get something out of it and they got nothing. And that's what's causing so much tension.

ISENSTADT: What you just saw is the split in the Democratic Party, right? Which is what do you -- how do you proceed? You have the people like John Fetterman and others who are saying, well, let's -- let's hold on here a little bit. And then you have others in the Democratic Party who are like, we need to fight. And so that's the split that's playing out and that's the split that's probably going to be playing out over the next year and a half.

RAJU: And that's what getting back to our poll numbers. I mean, that's exactly the divide within the Democratic Party. Fight or cut a deal. And you saw right there. They don't have a clear answer.

All right. Coming up, more from our news poll, what do Democrats think reflects the party's values? And is AOC having a moment?

Voters sent Trump to the White House to lower prices, but is he risking their support and the U.S. economy as his tariff threat spiral? New reaction from members of his own party. That's next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: On the tariffs, what is your level of concern at the moment?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:24]

RAJU: It's been a busy weekend for President Trump, sending a warning shot to Iran as he ordered what he called decisive and overwhelming lethal force against Houthi rebels in Yemen, in response to its disruption of international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. And trying to use an extraordinary, sweeping wartime authority under an obscure 1798 law to quickly deport migrants the U.S. has accused of being affiliated with a Venezuelan gang.

A federal judge then swiftly blocked that move, at least temporarily, and ordered any planes carrying some of those migrants to turn back to the United States immediately.

It all comes as Trumps trade war rocks the economy and has unnerved his party. Multiple polls out this week, including from CNN, show growing disapproval of his handling of the economy, including 56 percent disapproving in our poll, worse than at any point during his first term in office.

My panel is back with me now.

Laura, you cover immigration very closely. This effort to invoke the 1798 law that Donald Trump sweeping wartime authority to deport certain Venezuelan migrants who are here. What are the implications of this move if he is ultimately successful in the courts?

BARRON-LOPEZ: If he's successful, it is huge. I mean, it's big. This gives him tremendous authority to detain and deport not just Venezuelans who -- who are undocumented, who are here, but also legal Venezuelan residents that live here -- anyone, 14 years of age or older.

And so they -- and also it gives the president power to do that without really providing any due process. So that means that anyone that the president thinks is associated or deems associated with this Venezuelan gang, he can just say, were going to detain and deport them, and they get no due process and they don't have any time to prove that, no, they're not associated with this gang. So, tremendous authority.

And one of the big questions is, does he try to expand this beyond Venezuelan nationals in the U.S.?

RAJU: That's a big question. We're going to keep watching that. There's, of course, everything that's been going on with the economy and Trump's handling of tariffs, which has dominated this week, has gotten so much attention around the world and here in the United States.

Just, you know, it's hard to keep track because there's so much that Trump is doing and he's pulling back from. But he did increase tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25 percent this past week. The E.U. then responded by pledging new tariffs on U.S. spirits. Then Trump threatened a 200 percent tariff on European wine in return.

The polls, though, are now painting a pretty picture for Trump on this issue, particularly on Mexico and Canadian tariffs. Just 37 percent approve of the Mexican tariffs on Mexico imports. Canadian imports just 36 percent approve.

Alex, you talked to the White House and Trumps team quite regularly. Do they have -- does Trump have any concerns about the fact that there is so much concern within the country, disapproval of his handling of this issue?

ISENSTADT: Well, at least right now, it doesn't look like he's going to be backing down. Here's one of the really interesting differences between this White House and the last Trump White House, which is that he is surrounded by a team of loyalists who at this point, are at all costs, going to help him push forward on the agenda that he campaigned on. And he's determined to push forward on tariffs.

When he was president the first time around, there were dissenting voices in the White House, some of whom supported what he wanted to do on tariffs, some of whom were less supportive of what he wanted to do. And so right now, Trump is moving forward with what he sees as what he campaigned on and in his view, what he won on.

RAJU: And he's not hearing those dissenting voices within his administration, but he is hearing that among voters. Paul, you wrote about this, about Trump voters. There was a study, a multi-month study that highlighted how Trump voters are feeling about the economy.

This is some of the quotes that you wrote about from some of these Trump voters. I think our country may be in a worse position. I feel anxious, someone said, and says I still live paycheck to paycheck. I hope that changes. Everything costs more money. I would like Trump to focus more on the economy. If the economy is doing good, most people will be happy.

What else did you learn?

KANE: So this was a study where they talked to voters right before the election, right after the election, and then came back in late February. A lot of them were Trump voters. Some were Harris, some were sort of undecided ahead of time. And the economy was the overriding factor for all of them, inflation, high costs. And that's why they voted the way they did.

Right now, they feel as if Trump is distracted. They don't understand Canada. They couldn't pick Greenland off the map anywhere. They don't know why he keeps talking about Greenland.

This was a guy who was America first. Well, they thought America first was America and the Panama Canal, they haven't thought about that in their lives. They see him as distracted. They don't see him focusing on inflation at all.

That poll that you folks had, the CNN poll, his number on the economy was the lowest he's ever recorded in the history of your poll.

RAJU: Yeah.

KANE: The economy was always his strong suit. He was the businessman, the reality TV show guy. So it was like his thing that protected him. Even after January 6th, a lot of voters still said, well, the economy was kind of good when he was there, but he is not focusing on it.

Meanwhile, in the last month, the market has just tanked and steady decline, steady decline, down 3,000 or so points in the last month.

RAJU: Yeah.

KANE: As all of these tariffs are happening and voters don't understand it, they don't understand why he focuses on Canada and why he's trying to impose tariffs on Canada.

RAJU: Yeah.

BARRON-LOPEZ: And Congress just abdicated their authority to even check him on this. Republican said no, it's okay. We don't need to challenge him. And that was voted on in the C.R.

I mean, when it comes to the Canada question, you know, Canadians are very worried about this. And they take one of his reasons or one of his justifications very seriously. The one that they really think is driving this is that he wants them to become the 51st state.

And he says it over and over again. He mentions it repeatedly. He mentioned it this week that Canada only works as a state.

And so to Paul's point, that's clearly what voters are thinking. He's distracted with. They don't understand why the president wants to make Canada a 51st state, but it's something that he legitimately, clearly wants to do. It's something that his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, has said over and over again that that's what's driving this.

RAJU: And the question, as you saw on your screen there how consumer sentiment has plunged in recent weeks. And just in the past month alone, just so you can see how voters are feeling about where things are headed.

[08:25:00]

And the question that I head to is, look, Republicans, by and large, they support free trade. At least they did before Donald Trump became president. And the tariffs have caused so much unease. So the question I put to some Republicans on the Hill last week is, how long are you willing to stick with Donald Trump as he pushes forward on this trade war?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): I think one of the things that's important to remember about tariffs is they're disproportionately hard on small business. They want to support the president. They want to give him the space that he needs, but it's also very hard to navigate.

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): I think we're all uneasy about the fact that they're in and out back and forth. But what I think the business community really wants is some stability.

SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): Well, there's a little bit of anxiety about it, but for the most part, our, you know, our farmers are patient, in a couple of months. They're probably going to lose their patience.

SEN. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R-WV): I'm urging calm. And let's -- let's see how this plays out. Uncertainty is never good for anybody.

SEN. TODD YOUNG (R-IN): I've called for more clarity to be brought to individual tariff lines so that our farmers and manufacturers know how long this is going to last.

RAJU: On the tariffs, what is your level of concern at the moment about these?

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): I'm as concerned as the stock market is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: He said, I'm as concerned as the stock market is. So he is quite concerned. Do you think that Republicans -- I mean, how long do you think Republicans will stick with Trump on this?

ISENSTADT: It's a pretty good question. If -- it depends what the market does, right. If it continues to tumble even further and there's further backlash, and you're starting to see you start to see Republican voters start to revolt, and it starts to look like it could impact the Republican Party's hopes in the midterms. The Republican Party could start to turn on Trump in that regard.

RAJU: Yeah. ISENSTADT: That's going to take some time to figure out. But it could happen.

RAJU: Yeah, I think it certainly could. And I think you're right. The midterms will determine a lot of how Republicans respond.

All right. Coming up, new reporting from Alex's book out this week on Trump's quest for revenge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:20]

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: You are promising America tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Except for Day One.

We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST: President Trump has long made clear that retribution against his political foes is top of his mind. Just take the highly-unusual move on Friday, when he visited the Justice Department to deliver a grievance-fueled speech attacking what he called the weaponization of the justice system, but also signaling his desire for a political vendetta.

It's actually been a theme of his in his first two months in office, whether it was removing security detail from the likes of Anthony Fauci, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, retaliating against the press over coverage, or in recent days trying to cripple several Democratic- aligned law firms.

And now we have new reporting on Trump's motivation from Alex Isenstadt sitting right here, whose new book, "Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power", is out this Tuesday.

Alex, congrats on the book. We have a brand-new excerpt from this excellent book, which I'm very excited to read. Given your reporting and your sourcing, it should be something to look -- to go through.

This is what it says in your -- in this excerpt. "When Biden brought up revenge, Trump turned to those in the room. Listen, everybody, Trump said. There will be no retribution. There will be no revenge. Wink, wink.

Trump made the joke before many times. There will be no revenge, he said on the plane one day, his voice dripping with sarcasm. I will not allow revenge to be part of my white House."

Trump, though, left little doubt he wanted to exact revenge on the people who, in his view, had stymied his 2020 reelection campaign and were trying to block him this time.

So this suggests it really all feeds into what happened in 2020, how he's viewing things now.

ALEX ISENSTADT, AXIOS WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. During the campaign, it was this constant joke behind the scenes on Trump's campaign in his plane, where he would talk about revenge and how Democrats would accuse him of wanting to exact revenge, and he would joke about it.

And he was -- he was very sarcastic about it. But everyone around him knew that he was definitely going to be going back into the White House, bent on revenge. Not necessarily that he'd be locking up people and throwing them in prison, but definitely that he had an eye towards, you know, getting back at some of the people who he perceived as creating problems for him in the years prior.

RAJU: Who specifically was he most concerned about? Or did they think that he was going to go after?

ISENSTADT: Well, definitely the people who were focused on January 6th. That was definitely, you know, he talked about Liz Cheney a lot. Definitely prosecutors who worked against him on that front.

But then there were other people, people like donors. If you were a donor, you didn't support Trump in 2024, you might be in -- you might be in trouble.

There were any number of people who had opposed Trump, either during his presidency or after his presidency, who could potentially be in the line of fire.

RAJU: So and look, we're also seeing that play out through the course of his early term here in the second term. Just a look at some of the headlines on your screen about just how he went -- has gone after Democratic law firms that was something from this past week; of revoking security detail from some of the people that he has criticized in the past and the like.

This is what do you -- what's your takeaway, Paul, about how he has used the power of his office to go after people who he seems to -- he thinks are his opponents?

PAUL KANE, "WASHINGTON POST" SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of those headlines that caught me was D.C. federal attorney calls himself President Trump -- President Trump's lawyer.

[08:34:48]

RAJU: Yes. That's Ed Martin, who's been nominated to now be the -- to fill that role serving in an interim basis now.

PAUL: The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia -- and while the District of Columbia may not be a state, it is a very powerful post. You are the person that most often handles corruption cases against members of Congress. You're the person that handles a lot of federal cases.

That prosecutor also handled all of the January 6th cases. And this guy is -- I have to hold my tongue here -- this is not a serious lawyer. He is a political lawyer. He is a conservative TV gadfly.

He's from outside Saint Louis. This is not somebody who comes to this post with a lot of legal esteem. And he is doing things that are -- that are out of bounds. He was trying to --

RAJU: Do you think he gets confirmed? He still needs to get confirmed by the Senate.

KANE: I struggle to see how he can get 50 votes, but how long can he stay in this role? You know, I don't know exactly. At least a year or so, he can do a lot of damage as acting U.S. attorney for D.C. And he is sort of the tip of the spear right now on the retribution campaign.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, PBS NEWS HOUR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, were witnessing the president essentially blow through a lot of the reforms that were established after Watergate, after Richard Nixon tried to do a lot of this, which was use levers of the government to go after his political enemies.

And the president -- Trump made it really clear during the campaign, he said he may have joked behind the scenes about, oh, yes, I'm not going to do revenge. But in public, he repeated over and over again, I'll be your retribution. I'll be your retribution. He was talking about retribution for himself. And we are seeing President Trump essentially just get rid of any kind of guardrails, whether it's inspectors general, whether it's any kind of legal counsel that would potentially provide a check on him.

All of those people are fired, potentially going to be replaced with political appointees. And those are the people that would say whether or not he, people like Elon Musk, other members of his cabinet are potentially breaking laws or violating ethics.

RAJU: And that inspectors general firings, those happened despite the law requiring a note of detailed notification to Congress. That did not happen. That's being fought in court as well.

The question, too, is how does -- how do Pam Bondi the attorney general, Kash Patel listen to the directives that Trump laid out in his speech on Friday? Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: -- the chief law enforcement officer in our country, I will insist upon and demand full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred.

Unfortunately, in recent years, a corrupt group of hacks and radicals within the ranks of the American government obliterated the trust and goodwill built up over generations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: What do you think that Pam Bondi does now after Trump's speech -- rather unusual speech?

Yes, presidents sometimes go and deliver a speech at the Justice Department, but not like that.

ISENSTADT: But Bondi is, by all accounts, very aligned with Trump. And think about that for a second. You had the occupant of the White House go over to the Department of Justice.

Usually there is some arms' length between the between the White House and the DOJ, and went over and gave a speech talking about his desire, his vision for what the agency looks like. You've never really had that happen before.

RAJU: Yes. No question about it.

Well, I want to give you an update on a story that actually we discussed in the last segment after President Trump tried to invoke the Alien Enemies Act -- that's the 1798 law that would give him wartime authority to speed up deportations.

The Secretary of State Marco Rubio, just said in a statement that, quote, "Hundreds of violent criminals were sent out of our country." He added in a tweet that quote, "We have sent two dangerous top MS-13 leaders, plus 21 of its most wanted back to face justice in El Salvador."

Rubio's update comes after a federal judge yesterday paused implementation of Trump's order.

So Laura, what's your takeaway from that? Because the judge said you can't do this. And Rubio says, well, some of this happened.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes. Also, I think that some of the flights were turned around yesterday in response to the judge's order.

RAJU: At least they were told to turn around.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Told to turn around. I mean, look, this is a bit of a part of a pattern with this administration, which is a judge says you're not complying with the order that I just handed down, and the administration tries to find other potential legal loopholes to say this is within the president's authority, our statutory authority, and they're defying court orders across different cases.

RAJU: Yes, well see if that's the case here. A lot of questions that raises and we'll see what they give us those answers.

All right. Next a big headline from CNN's new poll this morning on Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. That's next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): What is inside this bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:39:31]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OCASIO-CORTEZ: The Republicans have the White House, the Senate, and the House. If they want to do this, and if they want to screw over the American people, they can do this with their votes and their party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: The question Democrats have confronted since election day is who actually is leading their party? Well, a new CNN poll out this morning gives us a sense of who Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters think best aligns with the party's core values. And that's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Democrat and progressive firebrand who was furious at Senate Democrats for allowing the GOP spending bill to become law.

Now it all comes as a slew of potential Democratic presidential candidates are already testing the waters for 2028.

[08:44:50]

RAJU: My panel is back.

So just to look at a little bit more in this poll, the question about who best reflects the core values of the Democratic Party. If you break down among age group, perhaps no surprise, Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez.

People who are younger than 45, 15 percent say that she does. That's more than Kamala Harris. And she's still with -- people above 45 (INAUDIBLE) reasonably well. Now, just to be clear, there are a lot of voters who have not -- did not offer a response. 30 percent of voters didn't offer a name in response of who aligns with the Democratic Party's core values.

But what's your -- what's your reaction to that? AOC, the progressive one-time firebrand of the party, still a firebrand.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes.

RAJU: Representing the core values of the Democratic Party.

BARRON-LOPEZ: I noticed that Chuck Schumer's name wasn't on that at all. No.

The congresswoman is clearly tapping into something across the Democratic base because she is someone who is -- knows how to -- unlike, I think, a lot of other Democrats -- knows how to operate in this new media ecosystem, right.

Which is that just traditional media doesn't work all the time. Reaching voters in that way doesn't work all the time. She is -- she blankets social media across the board and makes herself available to voters in a way that you don't see Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries making themselves available to voters.

RAJU: Yes.

BARRON-LOPEZ: And I think that that's also why you're hearing her voters are responding to her message, and they're feeling like out of everyone in the party, she is potentially the person who is -- who is giving voice to their anger in terms of why are you cooperating with the Republican Party?

RAJU: She's joining Bernie Sanders, who's 83 years old, probably not going to run for the presidency again. She's joining him in town halls next week in Nevada, Arizona and Colorado.

Is there a path for AOC in 2028?

ISENSTADT: Well, if that's what the party wants, then potentially, you know, her rise kind of reminds me of what happened to Republicans after Obama's election in 2008, where it was the loudest voices in the Republican Party, the Tea Party, that really gained traction at a time when the Republican Party was lost.

And maybe Democrats now find themselves in a similar situation. And AOC, maybe she best represents where Democratic -- where Democratic voters are.

RAJU: And go ahead.

KANE: Think of it this way. If you're a voter 30 and under, you've only participated in three elections. Two of them, Donald Trump won. One of them, Joe Biden won. They're all over 70 years old when they won. There is millions of voters out there craving something new, something younger, something closer to them.

RAJU: And meantime, there's all these potential 2028 contenders doing different things that suggests they may be testing the waters. As you can see on the screen, several of them have done things to raise attention.

Tim Walz being one of them going, doing these town halls, admitting that he did, they could have handled the campaign better. What do you think about the list of candidates that are out there? And just going to grow. It's going to grow.

BARRON-LOPEZ: It's going to grow. I think we don't know who is going to end up on top at all, obviously.

Gavin Newsom was also on that list. He's kind of doing the opposite of Ocasio-Cortez in that he has this new podcast where he's trotting out a lot of MAGA folks.

RAJU: Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes. And it's just -- it's enraged a number of Democrats.

RAJU: Yes. It most certainly has.

All right. A lot more to discuss about that.

And coming up for us, how a group of House progressives and GOP hardliners are teaming up to undercut Speaker Johnson on a sensitive issue.

[08:48:19]

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RAJU: It's not every day that the Speaker of the House gets rolled by the rank and file, but that seems to be Mike Johnson's fate as a bipartisan group of members are building support for their push to defy the Speaker and change how the House treats new parents.

Now, House rules prohibit any member from voting remotely, but a group of lawmakers, led by one Democrat and one Republican, both of whom recently had babies, have won enough support to force a vote to change the rules of the House, an effort known on Capitol Hill as a Discharge Petition that is very rarely successful but could be now, since 218 members, a majority of the House have signed on to the effort.

Democratic Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen gave birth in January and was back in the Capitol just four weeks later, bringing her newborn son to the House floor to vote against the GOP's budget plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BRITTANY PETTERSEN (D-CO): I rise today with My newborn Sam, who's just four weeks old. Unfortunately, I wasn't given the opportunity to vote remotely after giving birth, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from being here to represent my constituents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Speaker Johnson opposes the effort, telling CNN back in January that proxy voting was, quote, "unconstitutional", saying, quote, "It's a real quandary, but I'm afraid it doesn't fit within the language of the Constitution." That argument, echoed by other Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): I believe it's unconstitutional. I think the Constitution is clear about contemplating a quorum, present and voting. I think if you want to change that, then amend the Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: However, Pettersen, alongside conservative Republican Anna Paulina Luna, are bucking Mike Johnson, garnering enough bipartisan support that would force a vote on the new rule that would allow new parents to vote remotely for 12 weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Have you spoken to the speaker about this? He seems to be resistant to it.

REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-FL): He's resisting. But I like to remind people the Republican Party stands for pro-family values.

[08:54:48]

LUNA: We have a very pro-family approach to this. It's going to pass. I'm very confident of that. I'm just happy that it was done in this Congress.

I'd also like to point out that leadership did threaten some of our frontline Republican members for doing this. That should not be acceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, Johnson is adamant, though, telling "The Hill" this week, quote, "I've tried to discuss this with Anna, and she's pretty stubborn about it." He said "It would open up a Pandora's box."

But the Speaker may soon get rolled. A rare defeat, a rare feat for the rank and file given that just three times in the 21st century have discharge petitions been successful.

That's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X @mkraju. Follow the show @INSIDEPOLITICS and follow me on Instagram @manu_raju.

If you ever miss an episode, just catch up wherever you get your podcasts and search for INSIDE POLITICS.

Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Jake's guests includes U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, and Senator Mike Rounds.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. Enjoy March Madness and on Wisconsin, especially in the Big Ten championship game today.

See you next time.

[08:55:51]

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