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Zohran Mamdani Reaches Out To Police He Once Condemned; Congress Gears Up For Epic Fight Over Government Spending; Kennedy Family Grapples With RFK Jr.'s Impact On Their Legacy. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 01, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:30:50]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: The Democratic candidate for New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani is trying to make amends with the police force he could soon oversee. Mamdani, who once called to defund the NYPD now disavows that language and says he's just calling for sweeping changes. And he secured some key police endorsements.

Joining me now from New York is CNN Correspondent Gloria Pazmino, who has written an excellent news story about this on CNN.com. Gloria, so where do things stand between Mamdani and the New York Police Department right now?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manu, one thing that's important to highlight is that as we're celebrating Labor Day today, this is traditionally sort of, you know, the end of summer and certainly the beginning of campaign season here in New York City when we are in the middle of an election. But usually we have a quiet fall because the winner of the Democratic primary is expected to win in the general election.

But here we have this contest between Mamdani, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is still in this race as an independent, as well as the Republican, Curtis Sliwa, and, of course, the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, who is also running as an independent.

Now, policing and public safety has been a major issue in the reference. Mamdani previously called for defunding the police. In fact, there's a tweet that's gotten a lot of mileage by his critics where he specifically calls to defund them, calls them racist.

He has previously referred to them as being wicked. And so there's been a lot of criticism from people who are critics of Mamdani, as well as his opponents. But since then, Mamdani has really turned this around. He has said that he does not plan on defunding the police and that, in fact, he will keep the membership of the department right where it's at right now.

Remember, the NYPD is the largest police force in the country. And in the past few months, he's been trying to make amends. He's been reaching out to members of the policing community. He recently got the endorsement of a former top official in the NYPD who's working with him on the public safety platform.

So we are watching as he tries to reach out to this very important constituency, right, the New York Police Department, which he would be in charge of helping to run if he wins the election in November. So you have a big clash here.

Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who has previously called to defund the NYPD, and the NYPD, the biggest policing force in America, which has been resistant to change for a long time. Manu?

RAJU: And still no endorsement from the top Democratic leaders of New York, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. We'll see if that ever comes out.

All right, Gloria Pazmino --

PAZMINO: That's right.

RAJU: -- from New York, thank you so much for that report.

And up next, Democrats get another shot to block the President's agenda. But can they actually stick together? That's next.

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[12:38:18]

RAJU: Kids aren't the only ones heading back to school. Tomorrow, Congress is returning from recess with a massive to-do list. But one deadline looms above the rest. There's less than one month to avoid a government shutdown. And that will leave Democrats with a very big choice.

My panel is back. Now, of course, Republicans have control of the House and the Senate. The Senate is controlled 53-47 by the GOP, meaning 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster. Chuck Schumer, Senate Democratic leader, once again has a choice -- how to approach this moment to avoid a government shutdown.

Now, we don't know what the Republican plan is to avoid a shutdown yet. We will see. But if they move forward on something and try to jam Schumer at the last minute, does he block something or does he go along and avoid the shutdown like he did back in March?

BURGESS EVERETT, CONGRESSIONAL BUREAU CHIEF, SEMAFOR: The big dynamic change here is that we saw that the House of Representatives can pass, with only Republican votes, a government funding bill, which, if you had told me or anyone at this table 10 years ago, we would not necessarily have believed you, because of conservatives and the House Freedom Caucus.

Schumer now knows that, so he's building that into his decision- making. I think he's looking for a way to make this Republicans' problem. A way to do that may be to see if President Donald Trump will get directly involved in this.

They have a past history of being able to negotiate deals. It seems like a very long time ago, but it was during the first term, about eight years ago, that Schumer was able to cut deals with Trump. So, as long as Trump sort of outsourcing the negotiations on this to congressional leaders and OMB, which is run by very conservative officials, it's hard to see a way out of this jam for Chuck Schumer.

RAJU: Yes, I mean, politically, it's a different question. Perhaps they can cut a deal, but can he survive this? Politically, from the left, after the last time he handled this.

[12:40:02]

Remember back in March, this is when they were trying to figure out how to avoid a government shutdown back then. They agreed to pass the stopgap measure at the end of the fiscal year, end of this month. At that point, Schumer indicated initially that they were going to battle this plan, but ultimately voted for it.

This continuing resolution, as he refers to it as a CR here, saying that he had to do it to avoid a shutdown.

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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), MINORITY LEADER: Clearly, this is a Hobson's choice. The CR is a bad bill. But as bad as the CR is, I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.

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RAJU: And the blowback from the left was rather intense.

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REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D), NEW YORK: This turns the federal government into a slush fund for Donald Trump and Elon Musk. It sacrifices congressional authority, and it is deeply partisan.

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: You don't stop a bully by handing over your lunch money, and you don't stop Tyrant Trump by voting to give him more power.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D), NEW JERSEY: This is saying, let's just give up even more of our constitutional authority, because hey, he can do a lot worse later on. And so to me, that's capitulating to someone who's already showing that he's reckless and willing to do a lot of destruction.

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RAJU: And that's why Schumer's in a dilemma here, because they're going to make demands. Already they're making demands. They're saying, reverse the healthcare cuts that was in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill. Republicans are not going to agree to that. JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No.

RAJU: And also, Trump decided to bypass Congress and cut $5 billion in foreign aid funding. That's probably illegal, according to most experts. And Schumer's going to have to try to do something to respond to that. And the White House will say, go fly a kite.

KUCINICH: Well, Democrats are -- I mean, I've talked to lots of Democrats that are still angry -- are still holding a grudge against the last time Schumer did this. And nothing has happened. As you mentioned, you just listed off a number of things, to make it even politically tenable for them to do something else.

They have disincentivized any sort of compromise by rescissions packages and things that the White House just refuses to spend congressionally mandated funding. So this is going to be really -- I think this is actually going to be tougher for Schumer this time than the last time, just because of the hardening of the base and the number of Democrats that are like absolutely not voting no on everything.

RAJU: Yes.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: They lose credibility with their voters, too.

KUCINICH: Yes.

MCKEND: You can't really go home and say, this is a wannabe king. We are fighting a dictator, in one breath. And then in another, go along and confirm some of the nominees. And then also vote for these budget bills. So, they don't have much of a choice here in resisting this.

RAJU: And the question is going to be, how the White House handles this, too, right? Because the White House could decide, we're going to pass what's known as a clean spending bill. Meaning no restrictions, nothing tied to it at all, except this short-term extension of funding Chuck Schumer.

And Schumer and Jeffries will say, well, we want to do this. We want to constrain Donald Trump. We want to put this money back in foreign aid and the like. And the White House will say no. They're ready. The White House is ready for this fight.

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: I think that's true, but I think there are also risks for the White House. And there are risks for Republicans. They are spot on to be focusing on Chuck Schumer, given the history and what happened the last time. But if you look at the history of government shutdowns, writ large, a bunch of which most of us at this table have covered, the blame usually goes to the party in power. And to the party that's in power in Congress.

As you just rightly said, the Republicans control the House and the Senate, Donald Trump controls the White House. If there's a government shutdown, if we base it on history, it's pretty likely the public is going to blame Republicans. RAJU: Who are you going to be watching this month?

EVERETT: I'm going to be watching whether the Trump administration takes the hand -- takes the reins on this, or whether Donald Trump himself gets involved in this. And I think one thing to keep in mind, too, is that historically Democrats are more of the pro-government, pro-functioning government party.

RAJU: Yes.

EVERETT: When we covered the shutdown 12 years ago, at this exact same time of year, it was Republicans trying to defund Obamacare. So Democrats are not typically as comfortable having these fights. And I do think that's going to be something that rests on their minds.

RAJU: Yes. Remember there was a very short-lived Schumer, what was referred to later as the Schumer shutdown --

EVERETT: Shutdown.

RAJU: -- back in the first Trump administration. That was very short- lived.

EVERETT: Forgot about that pretty quick after the 35-day one --

RAJU: Exactly. And that was initiated by Trump, who rejected it. And ultimately Trump had to backflip. So, all right, big decisions and really a significant month ahead.

All right, coming up, a prominent American family and a Cabinet Secretary who couldn't do his legacy. A closer look at the existential crisis the Kennedys are facing as RFK Jr. steals the spotlight.

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[12:49:04]

RAJU: Consider this, after John F. Kennedy won election to Congress in 1946, there was at least one Kennedy, and often several, in federal office for the next 65 years. Today, there isn't a single Kennedy in any elected position of any kind at any level.

Well, enter Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic who, of course, cozied up to President Trump, and now serves as the Health and Human Services Secretary. A man who many in the Kennedy family now worry could unravel the legacy that generations of Kennedys spent decades building.

Joining me now to talk about this is Reeves Wiedeman, he's a featured writer at New York Magazine. Reeves, who wrote the cover story, "Of All the Kennedys: Inside a Family in Existential Crisis." An excellent piece.

And Reeves, thank you for joining me. You began, of course, working on this story in February. You've spoken with dozens of people in and close to the Kennedy family since then. So just how deep are the fears about how the family's legacy is effectively being rewritten in some ways?

[12:50:09]

REEVES WIEDEMAN, FEATURES WRITER, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: I think they're widespread throughout the family. I think it's been an incredibly difficult couple of years as they've watched their brother and cousin rise into this role that he's taken on into joining the Trump administration, an administration that pretty much everyone in the family opposes as they're watching many things that Kennedys throughout the years have worked on and built be torn apart and sort of deal with cuts that the Trump administration is pushing.

And some of the things that their cousin, RFK Jr., is doing in America's healthcare system, which many of the Kennedys have worked on for decades. So, I think there's widespread focused concern on what's happening now and the very real ways in which this is a family that cares about America. They care about American government and what it's done. And then big picture, I think there is some concern about what the future of the legacy will look like.

RAJU: A lot is understandably made of the Kennedy family as a unit, but in this story you include a great quote from JFK's grandson Jack Schlossberg, who told you, quote, "There is no family. It's not the godfather. We don't all meet every year and have a discussion about what to do. It's just a bunch of individual people."

Now another source described to you the Kennedys are more of a, quote, "holding company than a biological family." So, are there different factions within the Kennedy family? Describe it.

WIEDEMAN: Yes, I mean, look, this is a family with more than 100 adults in it now, so it's very different than the generation of JFK and RFK Sr., who had, you know, their siblings and parents and that was it. So it's just kind of a sprawling family in the way that any family that's big -- you know, I come from a big Catholic family with a couple dozen cousins, like, you don't talk to everyone all the time and you don't see eye to eye with everyone all the time.

So in certain respects, it's not a huge surprise that you would find one member of the family who's gone on to join a Republican administration. On the other hand, this is a family that, you know, everyone to different degrees connects to the legacy that their aunts and uncles and grandparents were a part of. And so I think it's been difficult in different ways for people to watch what's happened, even though they may not have a close relationship with RFK Jr.

RAJU: One of the more recent times that we've seen a large group of Kennedys in public together was on 2024 on St. Patrick's Day when they gathered at the White House and -- with then President Biden. This was in the middle of RFK Jr.'s failed presidential bid before he endorsed President Trump. Can you tell us how this photo came to be and what was going on behind the scenes in the family at this time?

WIEDEMAN: Yes, I mean, look, there was general agreement within the broad Kennedy family that they were not in support of their cousin's campaign, their brother's campaign. They were behind Joe Biden at the time and eventually behind Kamala Harris.

And the question was how exactly to push back. You know, there was some concern about getting too personal. This was, again, for a lot of people in the family, RFK Jr. is someone they were close to, is someone they cared about, is someone that they disagree with on a lot of issues.

So there was just questions of, could we all a hundred of us put out a statement that we could all agree on? So I think there was a lot of questions around that and exactly how to push back. The St. Patrick's Day event, this is a big Irish Catholic family with an Irish Catholic president that they had always been close to. It sort of came about as sort of the easiest way for a big group of the family to try to get together to sort of make the case that they were behind Joe Biden and not their relative.

RAJU: And of course, there have been Kennedys in public life for so many years, as you noted in your excellent piece. But what about now? Is there another politically ambitious Kennedy who may return to public office? And who are you keeping an eye on?

WIEDEMAN: Well, there's a few people in sort of the fourth generation, as it's called, who are sort of the grandchildren of RFK Jr. and JFK and their other siblings. Joe Kennedy III was a congressman in Massachusetts for a number of years, ran for the Senate in 2020 and lost in an upset in Massachusetts, became the first Kennedy to lose in Massachusetts.

[12:55:03]

So that was a big blow. And he was sort of seen as someone who, you know, had big ambitions and was generally admired, not just as a sort of standard bearer of this family, but as a politician on his own. Jack Schlossberg, JFK's grandson, he's become kind of a political social media influencer. He has been out there in kind of a different way over the past -- throughout the campaign, and has been in certain ways, the loudest voice amongst the Kennedys against RFK Jr.

Whether or not he has political ambitions, that he might run for something, I think that's in the distant future. And for now, he's choosing to sort of speak out in this different way, which is different for the Kennedys, but it's kind of its own sort of way of trying to do something.

RAJU: Yes. A very interesting piece. Excellent reporting.

Thank you so much, Reeves Wiedeman. Thank you for joining me today.

And thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a very quick break.

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