Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Soon: California Democrats Expected To Pass Redistricting Plan; One-On-One With Kevin McCarthy On Redistricting; Soon: Vance In Georgia To Tout Signature Legislation; CNN Poll: 6 In 10 Americans Disapprove Of Trump's Signature Bill. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 21, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, Blurred Lines. Any moment, California plans to pass a new congressional map. Are Democrats making a mistake by joining the race to redraw the country? Former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of the State of California will be here live in minutes.

Plus, traveling salesman. Vice President Vance heads to a key congressional district in Georgia to pitch President Trump's signature law, and to do it by convincing voters, it's good for what matters most to them, their wallets. And a flashing red warning light for Democrats. New analysis on voter registration highlights deep trouble for the Democratic brand as America looks several shades more red.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We begin in Sacramento, California, where Democrats are right now set to gavel in and put their redistricting plan in motion. They're expected to vote today on a law initiating a special election for voters to decide via a ballot measure, whether to suspend the state's independent redistricting commission and allow politicians to temporarily redraw the congressional map.

Now the Democrats goal is to get them five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. It's a move, they say is a response to redistricting in Texas. There, state senators just advanced a bill intended to add as many as five Republican seats in time for the 2026 midterms. Now that could head to Governor Abbott's desk as soon as tonight.

It is a bitter, dirty fight between the two most populous states. Governor Gavin Newsom, leading the charge in California, said Democrats need to stop playing nice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I'm sorry. I know some people's sensibilities. I respect and appreciate that. But right now, with all due respect, we're walking down a damn different path. We're fighting fire with fire, and we're going to punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN's Steve Contorno is in Sacramento outside the state House. I hope nobody's going to be looking to punch you in the mouth, Steve. You're definitely -- you don't have a punchable face, and luckily, you're not on any side. What are you learning from your -- from your sources about where things stand right now?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTE: Dana, any moment now, lawmakers will begin debating this democratic redistricting plan, and we expect it to pass in the coming hours, and Governor Newsom will sign it shortly thereafter. But then the real challenge begins.

Newsom and California Democrats have just 75 days to sell California voters on this plan and convince them to override this very popular independent redistricting commission. And they will be going up against some significant opposition, well-funded opposition that will be organized by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as well as Charles Munger, Jr., the late -- the son of the late Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman.

I've actually been talking with organizers on both sides of this fight, and they said that they anticipate, when it's all said and done, this will end up being the most expensive political race on the ballot this year in any state. And Dana, that is quite remarkable when you consider this wasn't on anybody's radar just a few months ago. But because this is such a high stakes environment now, and because the future of the House could potentially come through California, both sides will be spending very, very heavily.

BASH: That's remarkable. All right, Steve, thank you so much. You mentioned House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, he is here right now, live in studio. Of course, he is a very well-known Republican from the great state of California. Thank you so much for being here.

Let's start and just to underscore the difference between Texas and California. In Texas, the new maps can and likely will be adopted by special session and signed into laws as soon as tonight. In California, it is the voters who are going to decide by a ballot measure in November. You are working to defeat it. What's your plan?

[12:05:00]

KEVIN MCCARTHY, (R) FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Well, let's also say, why is it different from Texas to California? Because we both have cut state constitutions, and the constitution in California says you have a commission, that was decided by the people in 2011 by 61 percent. It's even more popular today.

It also says in there that those on the commission cannot run for office of the seats for 10 years. But you know, what, these legislators who are voting on this are planning to run for these seats in a few -- in less than a year. But what we found is California, because Gavin wants to become the nominee for president, he's going to go against the constitution. He wants to now have individuals pick the voters, instead of the voters selecting who they are.

And if you think about it for one moment. In Texas, they have the right to legislators draw their lines. But even if this goes through in Texas, the Republicans will have about 70 some percent of the seats, already in California, where Republicans vote almost 40 percent, we only have 17 percent, Democrats have 83. It's more than five seats, it's nine seats, because in California you have nine swing seats. They changed that.

And remember, when they drew it this way and Democrats had the advantage, we were sitting in the minority. We didn't run away as Republicans. We won five more seats. Why Nancy Pelosi was speaker and won the majority. But this is something that could be very dangerous nationwide if the Democrats move forward, because Republicans could do this in more states than the Democrats can.

BASH: There's a lot to unpack there, and I want to follow up on a lot of what you just said. But just going back to my initial question, what is your plan? How are you going --

(CROSSTALK)

MCCARTHY: There are so many people in so many groups. It's not a Republican versus a Democrat. It is a united front with people all doing. Look, the former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's not tied with Republicans, but he has been fighting gerrymandering for 20 years. He was the governor behind doing this to let the people have the power. He's going to go out and try to fight the politicians.

You have Democrats who sat on the commission, who thinks it's wrong, who's going out there. You have Charles Munger, who is just a good government individual. He, along with legal women voters and others, have stood up again.

BASH: There's a report that he's going to give you -- well, first of all, are you planning on spending $100 million? Is that right?

MCCARTHY: Charles Munger is not providing money to me. Charles Munger is providing his money to fight what he thinks is wrong in his own entity.

BASH: Are you working with that entity? How are you connected with that?

MCCARTHY: That enemy goes and does what it's going to do. There's a lot of groups. This is so unpopular, so many groups that have come from different parties. They don't want to see California go against their constitution. They want to have a competition in their races. As voters, they want to be able to select who represents them instead of the politicians picking that.

BASH: So, I just want to be clear. So, you Kevin McCarthy, you're not raising money?

MCCARTHY: I will help another entity, raise money to do our part.

BASH: You will. And is your goal to help? What is that entity?

MCCARTHY: My goal is to help California to the voters pick their own elected officials, to keep the commission.

BASH: Through what entity?

MCCARTHY: We have right path that I will help with. Charles Munger and league of women voters have their own. Governor Schwarzenegger, he's off on his own. It's a unique group out there, they want to make sure.

BASH: Are you going to try to raise $100 million? That's been --

(CROSSTALK)

MCCARTHY: That's a lot of money.

BASH: No, I know, it's been reported. I'm just trying to figure out --

(CROSSTALK)

MCCARTHY: Look, I think there's a lot of these members, we helped be able to run. I want to be able to help them any way I can.

BASH: OK, so you are fundraising for it.

MCCARTHY: Yes.

BASH: And you're obviously speaking out. You're here doing it. OK. Going back to Texas, absolutely, there's a difference in the constitutions and how the lines are being drawn and whether they can. Just fundamentally, just back to basics, are you OK with the way that Texas Republicans are redrawing the lines mid-decade?

MCCARTHY: Look, I think any time people play with this, things move. You try to draw a line, because you think last election, President Trump did exceptionally well. That doesn't mean the Republicans did well. President Trump did well. Those were President Trump voters. I think that stuff always blows back on you.

BASH: Do you think it's a mistake?

MCCARTHY: Look, I'm a big believer in commissions. On my very first day, I first served in the state assembly. On your very first day, you're sworn in, you're allowed to introduce one bill. You know what my first bill was? A citizens' commission when it came to drawing the lines.

I believe in competition. I believe in voters. Make your elected officials compete for your vote. Have the idea win at the end of the day. Structure dictates behavior. But what California is doing after the voters voted for it overwhelmingly to pass with 61 percent, to just ignore that and say, oh, I don't like what some other state is doing. That's not who we are.

BASH: I just want to make sure I understand your answer before. Do you think that what Texas is doing is a mistake? MCCARTHY: Look, Texas has a right to do what they're going to do --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: No, what do you think? You were the highest Republican.

[12:10:00]

MCCARTHY: I'm a big believer in citizens commissions. I think that's a better way to go about doing it. But we have -- we have a 10th Amendment. Every state gets to determine their own way. Look, I didn't like it in the last cycle when New York went and redrew lines because they want to take more Republicans out. I didn't like what Pritzker did, when he took away, he had 83 percent of the vote, even though 40 percent is Republicans.

When he gerrymandered all the Republicans out, I didn't like that, and I fought that. I didn't like last cycle when Louisiana gave up a Republican seat and Garret Graves couldn't run again. And they drew a big, long gerrymander, picking out who could vote for it. No, I fought all those. I'm very consistent in this.

BASH: Can I just show because I'm glad you brought that up. We just were looking around, and Princeton has a really good map of the states and how they've gerrymandered. If we can put this up. And it does show, to your point, if you look at California right now, yellow means it's one of the best because of the independent --

MCCARTHY: Yes.

BASH: But if you look --

MCCARTHY: Illinois is an F, the worst.

BASH: Yeah. Illinois is in red. Red in this map, for everybody to understand, means it's the worst. It's terrible, gerrymandering, gerrymandering. But if you see there, for people who know their politics and know their maps, there are blue states and there are red states. This is a very real bipartisan issue.

MCCARTHY: Yes.

BASH: So, I just put that on the table. Do you think there should be an independent commission in Texas?

MCCARTHY: I think the states get to decide. That's not my role.

BASH: It's not your role, but you have a condition.

MCCARTHY: No, I -- but you have a 10th Amendment. I can't go in and tell the states what their speed limit should be, either. But the one thing I had a role in when I was a California state legislator, this is where I stood, and this is what I believe in. And I believe the California voter got to decide that.

So, this is what I believe. Let the voter decide. And if the voter changed the constitution for it, you don't have a right to over -- to throw it out. And you know what they have now done to these cities and counties that don't have a say. They have gone in and out of cities and counties more than a hundred different times, breaking them up. They make San Francisco tied to a city four hours away that they have nothing in common together.

BASH: You say that you work for a citizens' commission back when you started. Of course, this was -- and you're making this point. This was on the ballot twice in California.

MCCARTHY: You know who fought it when it was on the ballot? Nancy Pelosi and Gavin. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to defeat it. And if you looked at your New York map, you know why the New York map is yellow? Because the courts defeated the legislature from drawing a map that wanted to be partisan, but they went back the Democrat --

BASH: Did you support it? Did you campaign for it in 2008 and 2011?

MCCARTHY: Yes, I did.

BASH: Campaign for it?

MCCARTHY: Yes, for the initiative. But the Democrats opposed it. The Democrats are using this right now because they want to pick the voters instead of letting the voters decide.

BASH: Going back to Texas.

MCCARTHY: Yes.

BASH: They are doing exactly that.

MCCARTHY: Yes.

BASH: They are redrawing the lines.

MCCARTHY: Because that's what their constitution allows them to do.

BASH: But it's because mid-decade. It's because that's what President Trump is asking them to do.

MCCARTHY: No.

BASH: Let listen -- but just listen to what President Trump said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Texas would be the biggest one and that will be fine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, are you calling on for a complete redrawing of the congressional map ahead of next year?

TRUMP: No, no. I just did a very simple redrawing, we pick up five seats. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: If that was a Democratic president asking -- starting this whole thing mid-decade, asking a Democratic controlled legislature to redraw the maps and pick up five seats. You would understandably be hitting the roof.

MCCARTHY: OK. I would understandably be going. California, Republicans vote 39 percent, they have 17 percent of the vote, they'll now be down to 6 percent. Democrats have 83 percent. You're very upset about Texas. You know what Republicans will have in Texas after they have 56 percent of the vote, about 72 percent.

Do you know what the Democrats have in Illinois? They have more than 83 percent of the lines, and the Republicans --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Gerrymandering a mistake. That's not true. We do it all the time.

MCCARTHY: -- but Pritzker has. That's what Pritzker already did.

BASH: I just showed the map with all the --

MCCARTHY: You showed the map, but what did we do when Pritzker did with that? Each state has their right. And you know what, the Republicans in Illinois didn't run away from the state. You know what? In California, when they did that, we didn't run away. We competed. Nancy Pelosi was Speaker, and I won the majority by five seats. And you know what? I won those five seats in California, which people believe it would be very difficult to do.

So, I believe the voters should have to say, that's all this about. And each state has their own constitution. California has a constitution, and we now have a governor that wants to change the constitution for his own political belief. We have a governor spends more time on this, instead of trying to encourage Bed Bath & Beyond to move back to California.

BASH: Do you think that again, this is all going to be up to the people of California because it is in the constitution.

MCCARTHY: Yeah. I hope they take the -- what I believe is the right position, the position they've already taken once before with 61 percent. Uphold the constitution said, stop playing politics in California. We want to decide who is going to represent us. That doesn't guarantee a Republican or Democrat to win. What that means is the voters has the power to decide who that is.

[12:15:00]

BASH: Assuming that, Texas does what it, and maybe even California, maybe in regardless --

MCCARTHY: If California does what it does. BASH: Yeah.

MCCARTHY: What's going to happen is, you're going to see Missouri. Ohio has to do it because it's in their law that they have to go back and draw right now. But you can see Missouri. You can see Indiana do it. And what will happen here is, Republicans will have an advantage in doing this and they'll change. But we will be such a divided nation long term, it will be more of a red and blue state.

BASH: Oh, totally.

MCCARTHY: But your policies will be off. This is not what we want. I served in a Congress where I served in the minority, majority, minority, majority. I want the voters to decide. Are our ideas best? We should be in power or take voters out.

BASH: Do you think if those Republican legislatures in other states will move like Texas did, regardless of what California does?

MCCARTHY: I think those in Republican states will uphold their constitution. They won't do what Gavin Newsom does. I haven't seen one Republican state do something different than their constitution. The only person who is going around their constitution right now is Gavin.

BASH: Congressman Kevin Kiley, you know him?

MCCARTHY: Yes.

BASH: He's a fellow Republican from California. He's proposing a bill to prohibit mid-decade redistricting. He's urging your successor House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring it to the floor. If you were still speaker, would you bring that up?

MCCARTHY: I think if I still speaker, California wouldn't be doing this.

BASH: But you're not and it's still happening.

MCCARTHY: I don't think we'd be in this position, to be honest with you.

BASH: But what do you think that this should be a vote in the House now?

MCCARTHY: Look, I think states get to determine that. I think of a state --

(CROSSTALK)

MCCARTHY: -- what if a state, well, right now, look, Kevin has a bill that that's wonderful. But right now, the law in California, the constitution says, the legislature can't draw lines. And today, you're watching them do it. But they didn't even draw lines because the DCCC sent them the map. They won't even answer that simple question to your reporter. It says that you can't run for office if you draw the lines, but these legislators are voting and running for the office. You have a governor that's not even focused on bringing more jobs. California is going to lose more than four seats because our population is going down.

BASH: Yeah, it is. Just last question. I mean, I have been reporting on gerrymandering for a long time.

MCCARTHY: Yes.

BASH: I hear what you're saying on this. And I watched you as House speaker, and it seems to me, I just wonder what you think about this, that because of gerrymandering, your job was a lot harder.

MCCARTHY: Yeah.

BASH: And one could argue that you lost your job in part because you dared to work across the aisle with Democrats to get something passed but it's because there were so many people in such ruby red districts, just like there are in deep blue districts.

MCCARTHY: There are fewer competitive seats now.

BASH: Exactly.

MCCARTHY: There's only 30.

BASH: Yeah.

MCCARTHY: In 2010 when we won majority, we beat 63 Democrats.

BASH: Right.

MCCARTHY: What they're doing now is taking away nine competitive seats in California that have flipped. When I was in, we won five seats. We lost two in the last cycle. I didn't lose my job because I worked across the aisle. I lost my job because one person slept with an underage woman, and I wasn't going to do something different when it came to the ethics committee. And I do that exact same thing today.

I'll stand for what's right. Just like right now, I'm standing for the constitution of California. The voters decide. And you know what? When they drew the lines and I thought it could be more fair to Republicans, I didn't leave the state, I didn't try to change the rules. I sat and worked in competition and won five more seats to get the majority. I think that's what the voters expect of us to work harder, put better candidates up with a lot better idea.

BASH: But gerrymandering makes it harder.

MCCARTHY: Gerrymandering makes it very hard. I don't like the idea of gerrymandering. I like competition. Now every seat can't be competitive just because of the nature of where you live, but what they're doing now is going and breaking these cities and states up and these counties. That's going to destroy the voters even wanting to participate, but the voters of California have a say. And look, you don't have to be Republican, Democrat or others, but if you truly believe in your power of your own vote, you should vote against this.

BASH: Just so I can say for the record, he -- the congressman you're referring to, denies that that happened, but obviously --

MCCARTHY: Yeah. The ethics report came out, and the woman that he did sleep with said, yes, it did happen, and she was underage.

BASH: And we're going to leave it there. Thank you so much for coming on.

MCCARTHY: Thank you.

BASH: This is such an important topic. I appreciate it.

MCCARTHY: I believe that.

BASH: Thank you. Coming up. Vice President J.D. Vance is in the Peach State, pitching a purpley county in an effort to sell President Trump's signature bill. The pitch isn't just about President Trump's legacy. We're going to talk about the 2026 implications of where he is in Georgia, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Vice President J.D. Vance is taking a field trip in today's assignment, selling the president's signature legislation with a message that boils down the so -called one big, beautiful bill to just one part of it, tax cuts. Vance just arrived in Atlanta, ahead of an event in the Peachtree City, an excerpt of the ATL.

And one of the places in the Peach State that's trending away from President Trump. He won Fayette County by three points in 2024, but during the Trump era, Fayette moved 28 points closer to Democrats.

I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters today, Nia-Malika Henderson of Bloomberg and CNN, Eli Stokols of POLITICO, Olivia Beavers of The Wall Street Journal, and Sabrina Rodriguez of the Washington Post. Hello. How are you guys?

[12:25:00]

This is so interesting. And I'll start with you on -- Eli, on the destination where he's going. And just to kind of emphasize more what I just put up on the screen, and we can put it back up. The fact that -- and we're going to talk later in the show about the fact that democratic registration is like not doing well nationwide. But this is such a swing area that certainly wasn't swinging at all, not that long ago when Mitt Romney was on the ballot,

ELI STOKOLS, WHITE HOUSE & FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Right. I mean, the suburbs have long been a problem for Donald Trump, and Democrats have made big gains there as long as Donald Trump has been on the ballot. It makes sense why J.D. Vance would be going there and leading this effort to really emphasize the things that they think are political winners in the bill.

And as you pointed out, that sort of boils down to just the tax cut piece of it. I'm told that the vice president is going to go after Senator Jon Ossoff. That's another reason he's going there. This big Senate race coming up, a Democratic incumbent that's going to be very close. Ossoff has already been outspoken about this, talking about, you know, the Democrats are choosing to talk about the cuts to people's healthcare that will result from this bill.

So, both sides sort of focusing on different things. I was talking to a colleague who covers the vice president very closely about why J.D. Vance, what is he going to say? And this is someone whose biography is that of being a working-class person.

You know, we know his written biography. He has done speeches like this before, gone to factories. He's going to talk about how his paw- paw has worked in factories just like that. So, he's going to try to make a working-class pitch that could resonate in those blue-collar areas.

And, you know, we should point out, he's doing a lot of this messaging. Because one, they think he's a good messenger. But two, because President Trump, in this term, has really been reluctant to go out and do any of this.

BASH: Yeah. Right. And then just back to not only J.D. Vance, but what he's going to say in this very important part of a very important state, which is -- maybe he'll talk about his working-class background, but the whole strategy now at the White House in this big bill is -- and always has been, to not talk about the upcoming Medicaid cuts and other cuts, but to just talk about the more popular parts of the bill, tax cuts.

Except that, according to the last CNN poll on this last month, 61 percent of respondents said they disapprove of this one big, beautiful bill. Maybe that's because people know that there's a lot more than tax cuts in there.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, POLITICAL & POLICY COLUMNIST, BLOOMBERG & CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Listen, and people are going to feel these cuts. They're going to feel their hospitals overflowing. They're going to feel their hospitals may be closing down because of the things that are happening with Medicaid in terms of Obamacare, those subsidies are going to go up too.

And never mind what's going to happen with the bill. What's also happening is energy prices are going up, grocery prices are going up. So, they have a real job to do here in terms of trying to rebrand this bill. It's hard to rebrand people's reality, though, it's hard to rebrand people's receipts from the Piggly Wiggly or the Winn-Dixie, or wherever they go. I don't think those stores existed there -- buy low.

But wherever they go, Walmart, their prices are going up. And so, this was the fundamental argument that Donald Trump was making, was that he was going to make things better, and this bill doesn't seem like it will. So, they've got to go out and try to sell and convince people that it's good when in a lot of ways, it's not.

BASH: And this bill passed, what like six, seven weeks ago at this point. They haven't been. I mean, I think Vance has been out like one or two times, but it's not like there's a full court press. In fact, just the opposite when it comes to the people who are actually on the ballot that you cover every day on Capitol Hill. Listen to what Steve Bannon said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, PODCASTER: I noticed Speaker Johnson that, you know, on the August recess that everybody had to have. You had to have the August recess. You had to do it because you had to get back to your constituents. You had to get back to your town halls. I notice a paucity of town halls. I haven't seen a massive effort to sell the big, beautiful bill, and actually what it stands for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVIA BEAVERS, CONGRESS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I mean, I think Republicans are in this tough spot where their leadership has told them not to hold town halls because it could create a viral moment where the clips of them being booed when they talk about the bill. I was traveling with Lisa McClain. She's a leadership member, head of GOP messaging, early in August, and she was doing something similar to J.D. Vance.

She was traveling to a manufacturing aluminum powder plant up in rural Pennsylvania and talking to them about how the bill benefits them. But I went to a county fair just a mile down, and I started asking people who might benefit from no tax on tips or some other sort of benefits, and most people did not seem to know or hear about this bill in a battleground district for Congressman Ryan Mackenzie.

So, they really do need to be going out and selling it. It's just how do they do that if they are picking and choosing these smaller

[12:30:00]