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Inside Politics

Trump Nears Six-Month Mark Amid Immigration Crackdown & MAGA Divide; New Details On How Trump Shooting Shaped Him & His Movement; Sen. Murkowski Responds To Backlash After Backing Trump's Bill. Sen. Murkowski Responds to Backlash after Backing Trump's Bill; Newsom and Other Democrats Make 2028 Waves with Summer Stops; Lack of Mamdani Endorsements Highlights Democratic Divide; Trump Heads to Soccer Pitch. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired July 13, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:24]

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST (voice-over): Crisis control. As President Trump nears six months in office, he threatens new tariffs and ramped-up ICE raids.

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We have all the right in the world to go out on the streets and to uphold the law and to do what we're going to do.

RAJU: But amid backlash to his bill and a MAGA world mutiny, can the president take back the narrative?

And survivor. One year after he was shot, how has the assassination attempt shaped Trump? A new book has fresh details on that fateful day.

Plus, exclusive. As Trump hits the road to sell his new law, I caught up with Senator Lisa Murkowski facing heat for her vote.

What do you think people will say that it was naive to think that the House would make it better?

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

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

President Trump is entering the six-month mark in his tumultuous second term, with even more aggressive plans for ramped up deportations, even as the human impact of those plans now being felt more than ever before, and a significant escalation of his trade war against some of America's biggest trading partners with new threat this weekend against Mexico and the E.U.

But it's a fight in MAGA world that has become a major distraction for the president, who was forced last night to defend his embattled attorney general amid withering criticism from his staunchest allies.

All this as the deadly floods in Texas hill country have put new scrutiny on his administration and whether cost-cutting undercut the response.

There is a lot to discuss this morning, so I'm fortunate enough to be joined by an excellent group of reporters. CNN's Alayna Treene, "The Washington Post's" Isaac Arnsdorf, Cleve Wootson, also with "The Post", and Anna Palmer of "Punchbowl News".

Good morning to you all. Thank you for being here.

So, a lot of different threads this morning.

So, let's talk about immigration because it is obviously been central to Trump's political identity since he came on the scene more than a decade ago. And he or he's in this position now where he can actually execute much more when it comes to deportation and deportation policies because of this new law that just went into effect, because he signed it last week, $75 billion for ICE over four years. That is in this new bill significant ramp up in money to hire about 10,000 more ICE employees upgrade facilities and more.

You cover the White House, Alayna. What are you hearing from your sources about how Trump views this next phase when it comes to deportation and immigration?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, look, I mean, one that money is so critical for what they want to do. I mean, this has always been, of course, the big priority of this administration. And the thing you've heard repeatedly from Stephen Miller, from Tom Homan has been, we need more money. We need Congress to appropriate more money so they can actually move ahead with the scale of. The deportations that they really want.

One thing that's been really interesting this week, you know, amidst a lot of the MAGA backlash, we've been seeing to a lot of the different policies that the president or different things that the president has been doing. Epstein, of course, one of them is that, you know, I was catching up with Steve Bannon one day and he was telling me, there's this concern in the base about this idea of amnesty.

You saw some of the press conferences that they held this week, this idea that maybe the president wasn't going to be as harsh on immigration when it relates to, you know, H-2B visas, farmers, hospitality. You heard him earlier this month or last month, I should say, say that perhaps he was going to look to find a way to keep some of those, you know, immigrants who work on farms and things like that in the hospitality industry. That is something that really spooked out a lot of the president's

fiercest supporters, and that's why you've seen them actually really try to, I think, lean in even harder this week to say, no, no, no. We are definitely moving forward with our immigration plans. It's not just criminals. We want to deport as many people as we can who are here illegally.

RAJU: Because Trump had said suggested perhaps pulling back on hospitality workers, on farm workers. That does not necessarily seem the case right now.

Just look at how the American public views Trump's handling of immigration right now. This is significant because it's 62 percent, according to the recent Gallup poll, disapprove of Trump on this issue.

And then you get an independents, of course, the key demographic, the key voting bloc in elections, 69 percent of independents disapprove of Trump's handling of this issue.

[08:05:03]

That's significant given the fact that he a big reason why he won was the way he positioned himself in 2024.

ISAAC ARNSDORF, WASHINGTON POST SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, this is one of those examples of campaign promises running into the realities of the real -- the real world. You know, saying that they're only going to be deporting hardened criminals. They quickly found that despite the messages that they were putting out there, a lot of the people that they were deporting weren't.

And they couldn't get those numbers up. It just wasn't that easy as Trump made it sound of snapping your fingers, putting people on planes. So, now, they've gone into these communities, created all these disruptions, running into court challenges, and that's just getting harder, not easier.

RAJU: Yeah, and there's a human impact of this as well. There is reporting over the weekend that a farm worker in California became the first known person during the administration's ICE operations to have died amid that.

And then there's Trump also trying to suggest that even an American citizen can be deported. One of his critics, Rosie O'Donnell, the actress, he said -- he posted on Truth Social just yesterday that he's giving serious consideration to taking away her citizenship, calling her a threat to humanity. She was born in New York.

CLEVE WOOTSON, WASHINGTON POST WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, there is two things. One, there's this argument that Democrats want to make about Trump, that it is all chaos, that it is all craziness and all that stuff. And the more -- the more bad stuff that happens and immigrant are dying during an ICE raid, you know, this fight with Rosie O'Donnell that just leans into the chaos. But it also, you know, one of the things that can undercut the numbers

is the narrative. If these ICE raids keep going bad, or if other people are -- if there's just more disastrous effects and impacts, you know, that that gives all these opponents of Trump, whether they be in the Republican Party or Democrats writ large, you know, the ability to say, look, this is actually what is happening as opposed to what -- what Trump promised he would do.

RAJU: So while this is going on, as Alayna mentioned, there was this backlash from the base that's been intensifying over the past week or so about Jeffrey Epstein. Of course, the Justice Department had put out a memo saying there is no evidence that the convicted sex offender kept a client list or was murdered while in jail. That, of course, had been pushed by a lot of folks who said that perhaps there was a client list, or perhaps he was murdered to hide that client list. A lot of those folks on the right flank of the party had demanded action from the administration to release that. The president himself suggested that that would be released during the campaign trail.

So Pam Bondi, the attorney general, has been facing relentless criticism from the right over her their decision not to move forward with any of these things that people want released.

You can just see on your screen. There are some of the folks in MAGA world going after Trump. "Release the client -- Epstein client list," MTG says. "Who most fears the release of any client list?" Mike Lee. The one-time Trump ally Elon Musk said, "How can people expect to have faith in Trump if he won't release the Epstein files?"

But then Trump put out a post last night on truth social saying that nobody cares about Jeffrey Epstein, and he's defended Pam Bondi, "is doing a fantastic job." And he said, "We have a perfect administration, the talk of the world, and selfish people are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein". He asked, "What's going on with my boys and my gals?" Referring to his allies.

The big question I guess I have is how big of a distraction is this for Trump? How big of a problem is this for Trump on his right flank?

ANNA PALMER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS CEO & CO-FOUNDER: I mean, he sounded like a dad scolding his children on Truth Social. My guys. My gals.

I mean, he's clearly trying to say like let's get along. We need to move forward on some of these other things.

But this isn't just, you know, a little bit of a fervor among the MAGA world, right? I mean, this is Laura Loomer. These are some of his top key people who on the outside are, you know, bolstering him.

And this is because these kinds of conspiracy theories were something that Trump and his allies ran on, and now they're saying, oh, now, you're just going to forget about it?

RAJU: Even after they came into office, they were talking about it.

PALMER: Of course. And so, this is, you know, this is -- feeds into that whole conspiracy theory that the deep state and what are you hiding? And I don't know if Trump can put the genie back in the bottle here.

RAJU: How bad does the Trump White House see this for -- among his supporters on the right, how problematic do they think this is?

TREENE: Oh, they know it's completely problematic for him. And it's I mean, look, and as Anna pointed out, it's not just, you know, his supporters had been saying this. People in the administration, you had the vice president, J.D. Vance, Dan Bongino, of course, has been really at the center of a lot of this, you know, angst and disappointment and frustration that's been growing really rampant within this White House about how this was handled.

I mean, that's the thing here, when I talk to a lot of people inside the White House, inside the administration, not just outside the thing that they take issue with is like, sure, maybe there wasn't a client list.

[08:10:01]

They think that the Attorney General Bondi really botched that by saying in February, she had it on her desk. And then of course, now apparently no such thing exists.

But then also the way this was handled, you know, they leaked it to "Axios" on a Sunday, going back into the week, right after the Fourth of July. Then they put out this memo. It was like a page and a half, no answers.

And people are saying that is not how you handle this. Sure, the facts of the case may be what they are. Maybe we bungled it by talking about this for so long and making it seem like this was a bigger deal than it really was. And just as Isaac was saying before, this is another reality. They're having to face that maybe they weren't really prepared for, but the way it was handled is not.

I mean, they had to know that this was not going to leave his fiercest supporters satisfied, particularly when they've been saying, unseal these things, bring them to the court, redact. You know, the argument now is there's child pornography in these files. They can't release it because of that. People are saying, you should be redacting this.

This is not something that's going to go quietly and people are going to forget.

RAJU: It's pretty clear what he said on Truth Social is not quieting the storm, at least not yet.

But speaking of things you're not prepared for, the Trump administration and the handling of the aftermath of these deadly floods in Texas, just look at the headlines over the last several days about the FEMA's response to this. Kristi Noem's response to homeland security secretary and whether the cost controls she implemented undercut that response. "The New York Times" reporting over the weekend that FEMA didn't

answer thousands of calls from flood survivors. But the president has been very defensive about this. He clearly does not want this to be seen as his Katrina.

ARNSDORF: Right. But he has -- you have seen him change his tune from, we're going to get rid of FEMA. We don't need FEMA to were going to fix FEMA.

RAJU: Yeah.

ARNSDORF: Right. So that already is acknowledging that. And this is again, like we don't -- we should be clear that it is too early in the recovery and in the investigation of what happened to make direct connections between cuts or policy changes and things that that cost more lives or could have saved more lives.

But, clearly, with all the sweeping changes that DOGE and the Trump administration made in the first six months, every time there's an issue in the world, as there inevitably is -- there are, there are going to be these questions, is this -- does this result from changes that they made without really thinking them through?

RAJU: And as you said, on January 24th, Trump said, I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away. And on Friday he said, we have some good people running FEMA.

All right. Coming up, Senator Lisa Murkowski has said little to reporters since she took that pivotal vote to help past President Trump's agenda this past week. I caught up with her exclusively.

Plus, one year later. We have new reporting on the impact that the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania had on Donald Trump.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: How a sniper within less than five seconds was able to get him from a long distance with one shot. If he didn't do that, you would have had an even worse situation.

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RAJU: That was President Trump in a new interview last night, reflecting on the moment he was nearly assassinated at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Exactly one year ago today, the shooting is detailed in a brand-new book called "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America".

One passage says, when Trump was in the hospital, he kept, quote, "kept talking about the shooting. He couldn't believe it. He seemed to want to relive it over and over. The doctors told him he was so lucky they should go buy a lottery ticket."

I'm joined again by one of the authors of that book, Isaac Arnsdorf, of course, along with CNN's Alayna Treene. Both of you were there exactly a year ago, covering that rally.

And, Isaac, this is your new book. Congratulations on the book.

And you have a new piece out today about how the Trump shooting supercharged believes in a divine right of MAGA. What have you learned through all your reporting and this new reporting about how this impacted Trump?

ARNSDORF: Yeah. So personally, it changed the way that he talked spiritually. He kept in the day after the shooting, he kept saying, I'm not supposed to be here, like he couldn't believe that he was alive. And people were suggesting to him that that that was God.

And after that, he started saying, if you ever -- if anyone ever doubted there was a God, not saying that was me. But if anyone ever doubted there was a God, that proved that there was.

And so there's a direct line from -- from his experience there to what he said in his inauguration speech. I was saved by God to make America great again. And for many of his supporters who do believe in God, this you know, they always talked about God being on the side of their movement. But this was -- this went further than that in terms of seeing this as an act of actually divine intervention of God -- of Trump becoming an instrument of God's will.

RAJU: And you have some reporting, too, about reflecting on the year you were there, of course, as well, how it changed the 2024 race. What did you learn about from your reporting, when you were there, and in the aftermath, how it impacted the campaign?

TREENE: Well, I actually just spoke for this story with the White House official this week, who was also serving on the president's 2024 campaign, now in the White House with Donald Trump, who said it became so much more personal and it's similar. I heard the same things. I mean, and it's true.

Even today, Trump still believes that God had a role in this. But for his campaign team itself, they said it became so much more personal. He was this person, this official told me, essentially, you know, if they were going to try to do this to Donald Trump, we were going to have to go that much harder in making sure that we won the election. He essentially said that it was much bigger than the election at that point.

And one thing that still strikes me a year after, you know, after everything that had happened on July 13th last year, is that image of Trump.

[08:20:05]

I mean, it's still -- everyone knows what we're talking about. His hand is in the air. He has blood on his face. His clothing is rumpled. Secret Service is surrounding him. It became such a powerful image. They still use it today. It's hung in the east and west wings of the White House. That "fight, fight, fight" slogan has really taken over the MAGA movement. He still uses it and shares it at different private campaign events. When he had that crypto dinner, it was very prominently put everywhere, and it's now a symbol of the strength of the MAGA movement and the president himself.

And it's something Trump still continues to talk about. I mean, it's funny, I look back on that speech he gave at the Republican national convention just days later. He was wearing that, that bandage on his ear, and he said, I'm only going to get into detail about what had happened in Butler tonight during the speech. And then I'm never going to talk about it again.

RAJU: So much for that.

TREENE: He talks -- yeah, I mean, this is a story he continually talks about behind closed doors.

RAJU: And publicly.

TREENE: Of course. I mean, yeah, I mean, look, last week he was in Iowa the night before the Fourth. I remember he paused during his speech because fireworks were going off in the distance. And he was like, I don't like that sound either. I think it's just fireworks. And, you know, kind of talked about it lightheartedly.

But it really has become something that completely strengthened in the weeks after Butler, of course, and the months up to the election. But even after has really strengthened this idea that people believe that he is the person we need to coalesce behind. And he is, as you said, like divine intervention was at play.

ARNSDORF: It's not always so lighthearted, though. I mean, we have some reporting in the book that during the transition, he had a meeting at Mar-a-Lago with J.D. Vance and Mike Johnson, the speaker of the house, and said, you know, the three of us shouldn't be in a room together.

So, you know, he is thinking about his mortality and the danger. And that really redefined how they were operating the last few months of the campaign. And I think it sticks with Trump today.

RAJU: And speaking of today, there's a new report out from the Senate, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, a Republican-led committee. The chairman, Senator Rand Paul, really scathing report about the security failures and the lack of accountability that has happened so far.

And our colleagues also at CNN have new reporting out this weekend about the lack of accountability, says in interviews with CNN, a dozen current and former federal law enforcement officials and lawmakers describe an overall lack of accountability, especially for top Secret Service officials in those agents and Trump's detail during the rally in Butler. That includes Sean Curran. That's the top ranking agent on Trump's

detail that day, who has since been promoted to director of the Secret Service.

How does Trump see this? I mean, does he think there needs to be more accountability? Or is he fine with the way things have played out in terms of that?

TREENE: He actually addressed this in some of that interview that he did with Lara Trump where he said, you know, he believes that people were held accountable and he's looking for it.

And in my conversations, I'm curious if you've been hearing similar, Isaac, is, of course, he still cares so much about his security more than he ever did in the past. And he had always actually, even before Butler, he had worried about some sort of assassination attempt on his life. It was something he always feared. And then, of course, we saw what happened last year.

But now I do think they're looking ahead. He actually really likes Sean Curran. And also one thing that's been very clear, and I remember this in the weeks after Butler, when I was asking questions about how much is his detail going to change, the people the president loves the most. He was really angry at the Secret Service management, but the people who were actually on the ground and surrounded him, those are the people he was day in and day out with who were always with him, always with his team. They loved them. Those were the people Donald Trump wanted to protect and is still protecting.

What's still a frustration, even among some people in the White House, is it's that accountability at the you know, at the higher levels of really the almost like the bureaucracy in the Secret Service. Thats where there's more angst I think.

RAJU: That's where there's some criticism, particularly from this new Senate report out this morning.

All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks for sharing that.

You will have more to discuss in the segments ahead, including coming up, Senator Lisa Murkowski cast the deciding vote for Trump's mega bill. Amid the backlash, I asked her, does she regret that vote?

Stay tuned.

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[08:28:29]

RAJU: Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has long been seen as the most unpredictable vote in the Senate. So as President Trump's massive agenda was on the line this month, it all came down to Murkowski, who ultimately voted yes despite her concerns over health care and food stamp cuts.

And after Alaska won some big carve-outs and after Vice President Vance broke the tie to send the bill to the House, Murkowski said, quote, this bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the president's desk. But the House did not change the bill and sent it straight to Trump.

So this past week, I caught up with the senator who had said little about her decisive vote.

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RAJU: Given that it passed and the people can suffer health care cuts and food stamp benefit cuts, do you regret voting for the senate pass?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): Manu, I did everything that I could to try to improve that bill. And is it -- is it the bill that I would have designed? Of course not.

But I had -- I had a couple choices, either try to make it less bad, which I think that I did not only -- not only for the people of Alaska, but for the country when we were able to double the funding for the rural -- rural health transformation fund. I think that's -- that's going to be helped -- that's going to help not only these hospitals, but all of the 50 states.

RAJU: Do you worry that people may lose their health care because of this bill?

MURKOWSKI: That was what we were trying -- that was what I was trying to do, along with others, to make sure that that is not going to be the case.

RAJU: What do you think people will say that it's naive to think that the House would make it better.

MURKOWSKI: I don't think it's naive to suggest that processes like conference committees cannot happen. We do conferences. We haven't done them like we should --

RAJU: Didn't you -- didn't you think they were just going to jam it through?

MURKOWSKI: They jammed it through the House the first time. I thought that there was an opportunity for a conference and actually had that discussion with other members and the vice president as well.

RAJU: Did the vice president suggest that they would do it?

MURKOWSKI: The vice president did not commit to it, but he heard me out. And I think it's important to recognize that we have -- we have two bodies here. And when there are differences between the bodies, what happens is you work it out.

Sometimes it's an open conference process. Other times it's what we call ping-ponging back and forth.

And so no, it was not naive to suggest that it could have happened.

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All right. My panel is back.

Murkowski's handling of this was something to watch. I mean, she's someone always you -- you watch because you don't know how she's going to come down. She was someone who voted -- who opposed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. She voted to convict Donald Trump in the second impeachment trial. She voted thumbs down on the first Obamacare repeal on the first Trump term.

But what do you make of her handling of this issue? If it weren't for her, this bill would not become law.

ANNA PALMER, CEO/CO-FOUNDER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: I think she used the maximum amount pressure that she could in the power that she had. Or I think you just heard her defending it, saying, I did what I could for Alaska, making the bill as better as I could, but that that was my role.

She wasn't going to go further. She wasn't going to change it and that was made clear after hours of us all watching, trying to figure out what exactly was going to happen.

RAJU: Yes. And you can see on your screen some of the carveouts that she won after that 27-hour marathon session of voting on the Senate floor.

Now, the question is going to be about how this plays in the midterms. This is going to be the defining issue in a lot of ways next November. And already there's some suggestion about how Trump will message this on the campaign trail.

This coming week, he is hitting the road. He's going to Pennsylvania along with J.D. Vance. They're going to be traveling. They're going to be talking about this.

The question is, will Trump continue to try to sell this bill to the public? Remember, we saw Biden struggle to sell their plans, the Inflation Reduction Act and the like. There's a lot of criticism about him not doing that on the infrastructure law as well.

This is what Trump said to NBC News this past week. He said -- Trump talked about the bill. He said he would travel, quote, "a little bit". "But honestly," he says, "it's been received so well that I don't think I have to."

What are you hearing from your sources?

CLEVE WOOTSON, WASHINGTON POST WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: You know, one of the one of one of the -- there's a way that journalists and historians talk about the President Trump as the most consequential of the 21st century. But I think all presidents kind of want to be great.

And that's about more than just winning elections. It's about the impact of this bill. It's about, you know, a bill that has his fingerprints all over it, what impact it's going to have. And I think he has to go out and run some, some defense. You know, you

know, what Democrats are going to say. They're going to say that, you know, you're taking away Medicare. You're taking away health care, and you're giving tax breaks to the rich.

And I think that in part, as we talk about narrative, as we talk about the arc of the first six months, as we talk about legacy, Trump is going to have to go out there and sort of defend, you know, his argument, his theory of the case.

PALMER: And Republicans want him to be the messenger, right? This is his bill. They believe if you talk to Senate Republicans, House Republicans, they're concerned about what people are going to say when it comes to rural hospitals closing if they lose their benefits.

A lot of the bulk of that bill is just keeping things in place that people already had. You're not feeling the benefit of a tax cut this time.

And so I think Republicans are going to look really to him and to his team to say, ok, what do you think this is -- is this what is going to work in the midterm elections?

RAJU: And it's not just social safety net programs. It's the phase out of the green energy tax breaks. There are Republicans and Democrats who have enjoyed that.

And you mentioned the Democrats. What is their strategy? Well, yes, it is pretty obvious. Just listen to just some of the attack ads that have already been leveled against some House Republicans.

[08:34:53]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She promised to bring down our costs. But Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks just voted to make our electric rates skyrocket.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While Americans are celebrating our country with family, friends, and fireworks, Republicans in Congress just passed the largest cut to Medicaid in history.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the biggest cut to Medicaid in history and Congressman Rob Bresnahan just voted for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: That's why they need air cover from Trump to defend them from this. The question is that's going to be enough, given what we're already seeing?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, they know, I mean, and the thing too is we keep talking about, you know, how Democrats are going on the offense on this bill. There's a lot of Republicans who are very, you know, anxious about how this is, particularly on, you know, it's not just the different provisions in the bill that are, of course, going to play differently in different districts and states. But also this idea of more spending.

I mean, when I talk to people in the base, when I talk to other Republicans, they are very concerned about the impact this is going to have on the national deficit --

RAJU: Yes.

TREENE: particularly the most conservative. I mean, we saw the Freedom Caucus and others on the right really make that their stand. But that's something the president and his team knows they need to run cover --

RAJU: Yes. They needed to stand, but they ultimately caved and they gave him this, even though they had a $5 trillion debt limit increase.

ISAAC ARNSDORF, WASHINGTON POST SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: And between this bill and Trump's tariffs, it's his economy. You know, we were talking about this with FEMA. You know, whatever happens in the economy now he owns that.

And I think one of the things that Democrats learned the hard way in the last election is trying to advertise about the economy, telling people what to think about their own economic well-being is not as responsive to attack ads as maybe some other issues. You can't tell people what to think about their own wallet.

RAJU: Yes, no question about it.

All right. That's obviously the big debate over the next year and a half, a lot more to digest as that unfolds.

Another big race coming up, 2028. Is that picking up? There are some Democrats who are spending time in Iowa and South Carolina.

Plus, why are some Democrats steering clear from their candidate in New York City's race for mayor?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Are you going to get behind Mamdani in New York City?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, I'm late for (INAUDIBLE).

RAJU: Can you say that you're going to back him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not going to do an interview right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:36:58}

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RAJU: If you live in an early voting state, well get ready to see a potential 2028 Democratic candidate. Just take a look at the calendar for this past week through September. Several Democrats are visiting the likes of South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire. And that includes California Governor Gavin Newsom, who just road tested his messaging during several stops in South Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): What we're experiencing is America in reverse. They're trying to bring us back to a pre 1960s world.

On voting rights -- you know it well. Civil rights, LGBTQ rights, women's rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right. My panel is back. This is an interesting moment for Newsom, post -- as he battled the Trump administration over the National Guard and these ICE raids. He's now heading to South Carolina.

What do you make of his messaging there? Talking about trying to fight back against Trump.

WOOTSON: Yes, he's trying to position himself as a foil as much as possible as any -- as any Democratic candidate, as a foil to Donald Trump.

He's named in a lawsuit against Donald Trump about the National Guard. You know, Trump has threatened to arrest him, right.

And so I think as time goes on, we will see whether other Democratic candidates position themselves, you know, more conciliatory towards Republicans, more we can work with Republicans. Or if they do what Newsom is doing where he's just like, I am the antithesis of Trump, and I'm going to be the biggest fighter against him.

RAJU: And that is really what we're hearing from the base is they want to fight. They want someone to fight.

And this is -- there's also clearly an opening come 2028. There's -- look at all the candidates that you just saw on your screen hitting the trail.

There's also Senator Chris Murphy. He's apparently going to Ohio. There's Cory Booker is going to a bunch of states. Governor Wes Moore and Tim Walz were in South Carolina recently. Pete Buttigieg was also on the trail.

Then there's Ruben Gallego, the senator from Arizona, freshman senator, who put out this video last week ahead of his trip to Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): What we need is someone to look out for you, to fight for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: That was the promotional video about his trip to Iowa. I asked him about that. I said, why are you going there? He says, I like corn, is what he told me.

Yes, good answer.

Exactly. Me, too. But I'm not going to Iowa. At least right now.

Is there a path for someone like Ruben Gallego?

PALMER: I mean, I think when you look at that chyron and you have all of these different faces, it just showcases the vacuum in the Democratic Party right now. And everyone is trying to fill it.

There is no leader. There is no central message. And Gallego probably thinks he's got just as much of a shot as any of the other people that you mentioned that, you know, whether it's Amy Klobuchar or Tim Walz or Rahm Emanuel making a comeback.

I mean, there's a lot of Democrats. They're trying to figure out if they can be the next leader of the party.

RAJU: How do they harness the energy in the party? That's the big question, because we are seeing very clearly the energy is in the left flank and the party knows very clear.

That's what's happening in New York City with Zohran Mamdani winning the primary there to become the next New York City mayor.

[08:44:45]

RAJU: He's a Democratic Socialist. And his views are not in line with a lot of Democrats who are uncertain what to do about the fact that they have a Democratic Socialist who could be mayor of America's largest city.

Just look at the Democrats who have not endorsed Mamdani. This is not a comprehensive list, and these are some of the key Democrats here. Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are the Democratic leaders from New York and they still haven't endorsed Mamdani. And neither has Kirsten Gillibrand from -- also from New York.

ARNSDORF: I mean, it reminds me a little bit of where the Republicans were in 2021. You know, they were all talking about primarying each other because they were in this kind of same crucible of which direction is our party going to go in? Now, they decided to go back in the same direction with Trump, but that wasn't -- when we write about this a lot in the book -- it wasn't inevitable that they were going to do that.

And the challenge that all these -- these wannabe Democratic presidential hopefuls have is, you know, it's not just why it should be me. They need to have a whole theory of the case for who the Democrats are. What does that coalition look like, and why are they a credible messenger for that message? WOOTSON: Yes. And in rejecting, or not fully accepting Mamdani, they

risk losing the energy, the power, the vigor that comes from that flank of the party and from younger voters.

RAJU: And that's going to be the really interesting thing, the dance that someone will do around Mamdani. Some of them may embrace him, say Senator Chris Murphy, saying he's our nominee. There's some others who are worried about being tied too closely to him.

TREENE: Yes. And I think, you know, they only have so much time until they're going to actually be forced to take a real position on it. So it's interesting that they're waiting. I don't know what the thought process is on that. If it's better, you know, to get in later on this. And rather than, you know, at this point in time.

Look, I think something I've continuously heard and this is something actually Republicans, particularly people in the White House, when I talk to them about, you know, as we lead up to the midterms and the conversation will soon shift there is, they are loving that there is really a vacuum in the Democratic Party.

They think that it's something they can take advantage of because of course, you know, it's always -- the momentum is normally behind the opposite party when you're looking at the midterms.

But right now it's very unclear who is going to become the leader and what the direction of the party is. And it's something that, you know, we're getting closer and closer to the midterms. They are going to be forced to have to take a real position.

RAJU: Very quickly.

PALMER: Yes. I mean, I think the big question is Jeffries is supposed to be meeting with Mamdani next week. What does he do coming out of that? There's already, you know, kind of challenges of potentially of people saying, hey, let's get a Social Democrats to primary Jeffries.

That's the concern here. Do they go behind him or do they start to have a movement that tries to take out some of these other establishment Democrats?

RAJU: How does that play out in the midterms? All great questions. All right. Great discussion guys.

But coming up for us, what is Trump's goal when he attends a soccer match later today. And what we know about that major statement he teased about Russia.

[08:47:35]

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RAJU: President Trump says he'll have a, quote, "major statement" to make about Russia tomorrow. All of it is rather remarkable evolution over Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Putin respected me.

Putin would never have gone into Ukraine.

I believe he wants peace. I believe that President Putin, when I spoke to him yesterday, I mean, I know him very well.

We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin. You want to know the truth?

Putin is not he's not treating human beings right. He's killing so many people. So we're sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right. Joining me now is CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein. So, Betsy, what more do we know about this statement from Trump and whether it may involve Russia's sanctions?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well Manu, President Trump predicted that he could easily solve Russia's war in Ukraine. Of course, a resolution there has proven so elusive.

And as you just saw, the president's rhetoric has really shifted as he's become increasingly frustrated with Putin's increasing attacks. Telling NBC News, quote, "I'm disappointed in Russia" and that he would have, quote, "a major statement" to make on Russia on Monday.

The president later told reporters, quote, "you'll be seeing things happening" but he declined to provide specifics, Manu.

RAJU: All right. And Betsy, later today, Trump is attending the Club World Cup championship. Tell us about that.

KLEIN: That's right. The president is set to attend the FIFA Club World Cup final here in New Jersey just a few hours from now, as Chelsea takes on Paris Saint-Germain.

But it's significant for two reasons, Manu. Number one, this game is essentially a dress rehearsal for the main event, the World Cup gets underway next June across 16 cities in three countries -- the U.S., Mexico and Canada. All of this negotiated during the president's first term back in 2017.

Of course, it comes as the president has mounted aggressive tariffs against his co-hosts. It also comes as he has put into place travel bans from a number of countries. He did include carveouts for players, their coaches, staff and immediate family members for the World Cup.

The president hosted a meeting of the White House task force on the World Cup a few months ago, and he vowed that he would provide everything they need to have a successful event.

And separately, this really underscores the way with which the president has leaned into the trappings of office in his second term, compared to the first.

[08:54:43]

KLEIN: The president has attended a number of the country's premier sporting events -- the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, along with two UFC fights and now this World Cup event. Making clear how his standing in the public eye has changed and how he's enjoying it, Manu.

RAJU: Yes, Chelsea versus PSG. I'm excited for it. I know my son Sanjay absolutely is.

All right. Betsy Klein from New Jersey, thank you so much.

And before we go, 40 years ago this summer, rock stars Bob Geldof, Bono, Sting and more performed at a landmark music event to raise money for famine relief in Africa.

Learn more about that legendary concert in the new "CNN ORIGINAL SERIES, LIVE AID: WHEN ROCK AND ROLL TOOK ON THE WORLD", premiering tonight at 9:00 p.m. Central on CNN.

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". Dana's guests include border czar Tom Homan, California Senator Alex Padilla and Texas Congressman Tony Gonzalez.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.

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