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Inside Politics
Sinclair, Nexstar Say They'll Keep Kimmel Off Their Stations; Harris Explains Infamous "Not A Thing" Answer On "The View"; Mamdani Meets With Black City Leader Ahead Of Election; Mamdani Still Awaiting Endorsements From Jeffries, Schumer. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired September 23, 2025 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
HANS NICHOLS, POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: And then Ted Cruz calls him a mafiosa, calls him a gangster, does the Italian accent, and Cruz is the first to kind of come out, and it seemed like all the Republicans, sort of -- most of them --
MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
NICHOLS: -- came in behind Ted Cruz. And to me, that was the more interesting conversation. I take it that First Amendment stuff isn't hugely important, and, like, I'm not trying to dismiss that, but what I know about is that Cruz was sort of out front, and a lot of folks fell into line.
And as you start thinking -- I know we've got to get through a midterm election -- but as you start thinking about 2028, and the role Ted Cruz might play in the Republican primary in 2028, it was an interesting week.
RAJU: That's why it's inside politics, always thinking ahead.
NICHOLS: We're going to do 2032 next, OK.
RAJU: Exactly, exactly.
Speaking of which, Mitch McConnell said, in reference to the Ted Cruz comment, "My colleague Ted Cruz said it looked just like Goodfellas. As a First Amendment guy, myself, I think he's probably got it right. You don't have to like what somebody says on TV to agree that the government shouldn't be getting involved here."
So you're seeing that split emerge on the right.
SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You also don't see McConnell and Cruz --
RAJU: Yes. Thinking (ph) the same exact thing.
KIM: -- get along. Just -- OK, just --
NICHOLS: I think he's right. It's like -- it pained him to say it. It pained him. KIM: He cannot always compliment him that much. But one of the -- actually, the most interesting thing I thought Ted Cruz said, obviously him and other Republicans are arguing the First Amendment principle, but what Cruz pointed out was that if and when Democrats are back in charge, and when there's a Democratic administration, or when there's an FCC commissioner that's appointed by a Democratic president, he says, quote, "They will silence us, they will use this power."
I think it's so much in politics these days, both parties kind of look at the immediate impact, trying to get that immediate win, whether it's on politics or policy. So it's really interesting to see, you know, politicians really see the potential long-term impact of taking a position at this moment.
RAJU: Yes. Go ahead.
AARON BLAKE, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: This is a really interesting point, because I think that you can place this alongside many of Trump's actions in a way that you can say, how is this going to, you know, impact things in the future when the shoe's on the other foot? Donald Trump doesn't care about what happens after he's no longer president, and how that could hurt Republicans, but those Republicans do care about that.
Ted Cruz has a career that is ahead of him. He's going to be around for a number of years. So it was interesting to see that argument start to be made --
RAJU: Yes.
BLAKE: -- in a way I think we haven't seen before.
RAJU: But then we're seeing some backlash on the right, and this is from Clay Travis. He's the OutKick founder, a very close Trump ally. His response.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
CLAY TRAVIS, OUTKICK FOUNDER: I think there need to be actual changes in the way this show is airing. And I think the Trump administration needs to look aggressively at that potential acquisition of the NFL network and say, wait a minute, is Disney/ABC really trying to speak to all of America? If they won't do it on a late night show, will they do it with sports? I think that's real questions that deserve to be asked.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
RAJU: Some on the right calling for backlash against Disney now.
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, but this is the entire spirit of the movement right now, to push it to the limit that they think that they can actually win. We've since seen Carr sort of step back his language that was giving, you know, mafia boss energy, even according to some Republicans. But, listen, what I'm hearing from Democrats is don't let up the fight on this. Yes, this was a quick victory with Jimmy Kimmel, but they can continue to make these free speech arguments, even for people who are not as high profile. And they should continue to push this argument. It's a popular one.
RAJU: We'll see what he says tonight.
All right. A surprising revelation in Kamala Harris's new book. The former vice president reveals some of her own regrets from 2024.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:38:07]
RAJU: Now, nearly a year after she gave that infamous answer -- I should say, remember this.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?
KAMALA HARRIS, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of -- and I've been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
RAJU: All right. Now, nearly a year after she gave that infamous answer, former Vice President Kamala Harris is back on The View trying to set the record straight.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
HARRIS: I'm a loyal person. And I didn't fully appreciate how much people wanted to know there was a difference between me and President Biden. I thought it was obvious. And I didn't want to offer a difference in a way that would be received or suggested to be a criticism.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
RAJU: Harris's book about the 2024 campaign officially hits the bookstores today. Some of my excellent reporters have read that book. What do you make of her being, I guess, relatively unguarded here? She's always been a guarded politician, but that moment from The View was such a campaign-defining moment where she couldn't really say anything different from Joe Biden, and she clearly regrets that.
MCKEND: She has the opportunity to have her say at this moment, and she's taking it. And, you know, but this really speaks to a central tension of the campaign. How much could she depart from President Biden? She didn't want to come off as disrespectful. Ultimately, in his framing, he brought her to the dance. And so she could -- she didn't feel like she could disrespect or insult him or his legacy while she was running for president. But in hindsight, it came at great cost to her campaign as Americans were clamoring for a new way forward.
[12:40:00]
And she sort of laughed about it today when she was asked about this by Sunny Hostin, one of the hosts of The View.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
SUNNY HOSTIN, THE VIEW HOST: Madam Vice President, since Trump has taken office, everything that you warned about has happened. Do you sometimes just want to scream, I told you all so, and feel free to do it right now? I mean --
HARRIS: Sunny, nothing comes to mind.
(LAUGHTER)
HOSTIN: No, there's nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
RAJU: Of course, that nothing comes to mind, remember, she said, I can't -- there's not a thing that comes to mind when it comes to Joe Biden.
NICHOLS: Yes, it was a central tension of the campaign. I mean, you know, sometimes reporters want to offset we have these great hypothetical conversations and the what-ifs, right? And let's just play out the what-if onset on live television.
What if she had clearly delineated her differences with Joe Biden? I think we all would have written stories about Democrats divided.
RAJU: Yes.
NICHOLS: I think we all would have, like, focused on those. And the next, it would have had several news cycles. Where else do you disagree with? Do you agree with him on Gaza? Well, we find out in this book that she had some differences in Gaza.
So, she was, yes, it was a done-braided campaign. It was very short. But think about her kind of -- the corollary to "107 Days" is if she had 321 days or three times as long, she might have been able to maybe finesse some of these differences. I actually think it would have been harder in a longer campaign.
RAJU: Yes.
NICHOLS: And --
RAJU: She might not have won the primary.
NICHOLS: And Biden officials always, you know, they privately say that, like, she can maybe win a 100-day campaign. It would have been harder for her to win a 300 or 400-day campaign because there would have been more opportunities for those differences to come out.
So, look, she had a nice moment there, like, making fun of it. But the thing is they're all chuckling. And yet Democrats, and this happened throughout the campaign, they're chuckling, but they also tell you deadly seriously that this is an existential fight and democracy is at risk.
RAJU: Yes.
NICHOLS: And then they --
RAJU: And they blame her for her handling of the Biden situation is a big part of it.
KIM: Right, right. And I think the former vice president really goes into that struggle when she talks, you know, going back to Eva's point about the loyalty issue. I mean, this is an issue for her going back to when she was chosen as the vice president. She really did feel that every turn she had to prove that she was President Biden's number two.
And I think she makes this point when she was starting to feel, or when the party was really starting to clamor for Joe Biden to drop out after that disastrous debate. And she makes it clear, she can't be the person to make that case to Biden because it would be seen as so self- serving, even if it was ultimately the right call for her to make.
So I do think she was in a really bit of a bind there when she was seeing all these things that maybe now, in retrospect, she says maybe I should have pointed out, but it wouldn't have served her well at the time.
RAJU: What do you make of all of her score settling here?
BLAKE: It's been really interesting because, you know, we saw the big early quote that came out about this was the idea that Joe Biden running for re-election was reckless. She called it recklessness. We talked about her -- she talked about her decision not to choose Pete Buttigieg as her running mate, kind of intimating that this was because he was gay and maybe the country wasn't ready for that.
And what we've seen, I think, over the last couple of days was she's kind of tried to massage those things a little bit more. You know, she's talking about the idea that the recklessness was shared in by her because she didn't come forward. She kind of tried to disown the idea that Buttigieg being gay was really a big problem. It was more a problem for the country than for her.
I think it kind of reinforces something that we saw in moments on the campaign trail, which was that whatever her talents as a campaigner there, the kind of big drawback of her was a lot of times the messaging just wasn't crisp. She didn't know quite of what she wanted to say. It wasn't put out there in a way that was going to be lasting. Sometimes she kind of went back on it later on. I think that really pointed to a lot of her kind of liabilities as a candidate.
RAJU: And, of course, one of the big liabilities was how she responded to some attacks. There was, of course, this viral moment, the viral ad that the Trump campaign put out about transgender issues in Kamala Harris's positions.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kamala is for they, them. President Trump is for you.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
RAJU: So Eva, you've read the book. How does she address that ad that got a lot of attention?
MCKEND: She addresses it head on. She says that the pundits' sort of reduction to this is the reason that she lost the race is not quite right, but she does acknowledge its impact. And to me, it was really striking in the book to read this robust defense of the trans community.
She says, "This is a community with which I have a deep connection. I know transgender people. I know the parents of transgender kids. Beloved kids, just like any other. I knew that Trump's increasingly hateful rhetoric was painting a bull's-eye on their backs and putting them in peril.
I do not regret my decision to follow my protective instincts. I do regret not giving even more attention to how we might mitigate Trump's attacks."
And listen, many on the right were marginalizing her as a DEI candidate. So she could not really weigh in forcefully on the campaign trail to some of these cultural debates, some of these debates really steeped in racism --
RAJU: Yes.
MCKEND: -- and discrimination.
[12:45:06]
But now, she can. She can have these more nuanced, difficult conversations. And it's clear that she was wrestling with it deeply.
RAJU: Yes. I mean, the other side of the coin is when you don't respond, you get defined, and that very much happened in a lot of ways in this campaign.
All right, coming up, the top Democrat who just threw support behind Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor's race. Hawaii may raise some eyebrows among fellow Democrats.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RAJU: With just over a month until New Yorkers can start voting, Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist who is currently leading in the polls for the mayor's race, is trying to fight rumors. He's on, quote, "team gentrification" in order to shore up support among black voters.
[12:50:13]
CNN's Gloria Pazmino is covering this race and has this new reporting. So, Gloria, how did this narrative come about, about this team gentrification? And what is Mamdani trying to do about it?
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manu, that is a term that comes directly out of Congressman Hakeem Jeffries' camp. People around him, as you know, have said that they have pointed out the fact that Mamdani's campaign and specifically the Democratic Socialists of America's association with the campaign is scary to a lot of people, and they point out that this is part of the problem and part of what so far has held back Congressman Hakeem Jeffries from endorsing him.
He is a very prominent Democrat who has yet to offer his support. Now, team gentrification is a term that Jeffries' world has used when referring to the campaign operation of Mamdani. And in the last few weeks, Mamdani's campaign has been working to shore up support here in New York City, specifically among black voters.
And that's significant because in the primary, Mamdani did not capture a majority of the black vote. And in previous years, you know, it was unthinkable that a candidate could win any New York City election, never mind a Democratic primary, without the support of black voters.
So in the last few weeks, Mamdani's been hitting the church circuit here in New York City. He's been meeting with clergy leaders, and he has also secured the endorsement of prominent black leaders here in New York, including the two majority leaders in the state legislature, along with Attorney General Letitia James. But the endorsement from Hakeem Jeffries remains elusive.
RAJU: Yes.
PAZMINO: Now, I should point out that in the last round of polling that was released, Mamdani has significantly gained ground with black voters. And this, of course, is important in the context of you have two other candidates, including the second black mayor of the city of New York, Eric Adams, and Governor -- former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who historically has been supported by black voters here in New York City.
RAJU: And Gloria, last night, Kamala Harris offered her support for Mamdani, but it wasn't exactly a full-throated endorsement. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
HARRIS: Look, as far as I'm concerned, he's the Democratic nominee, and he should be supported.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you endorse his candidacy?
HARRIS: I support the Democrat in the race, sure.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
RAJU: But Mamdani is embracing this.
PAZMINO: Absolutely. And you're absolutely right. You know, hands up, sure, I support the Democratic nominee. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it does highlight sort of this tug of war that's happening here, especially with some of the leaders here in New York, namely Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, who have yet to endorse Mamdani.
Here's the statement that his campaign released shortly after that statement from Harris, saying, quote, "I've been honored to receive the backing of leaders from across the Democratic Party, and Vice President Harris's support underscores that our fight for affordability is striking a chord not just here in New York, but with Democrats across the country."
So for Mamdani, this is just another prominent, high-profile endorsement that he can roll out. And for Jeffries and for Schumer, they continue to be the two leaders that have yet to get behind his campaign. Manu?
RAJU: All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much for that report.
Does Harris's endorsement move the needle at all with these Democratic leaders? I should say endorsement.
MCKEND: I'm not going to hold my breath. I think that if Hakeem Jeffries can run out the clock without giving a full-throated endorsement, he probably will, just because I think support from him comes in conflict with his donors and some of the people that have historically been his longtime supporters.
But the challenge is that this is where the party is right now, right? Mamdani sort of speaks to the energy and enthusiasm of the party, and leadership seems to be so out of lockstep with the grassroots of where the movement is.
RAJU: Would it have been really that hard for Schumer or Jeffries to give that rather weak endorsement, saying like, oh, of course, he's a Democrat, of course I'm going to support him? What would have been the problem?
NICHOLS: Yes, maybe a few weeks ago they could have gotten away with it. Now they're going to have to do something a little more fulsome. To answer your initial question is, will Kamala Harris's endorsement matter? I suspect not.
I don't think the mayoral election in New York City is going to be decided by the former vice president's lukewarm endorsement. But they want to get these so they can do exactly what we saw Mamdani do, which is seize that endorsement, run with it, and say, see, the party's united. But, Manu, on a case-by-case basis, color me skeptical.
[12:55:00]
KIM: Well, it clearly was a little hard for Jeffries and Schumer to do this, because you're chasing them around all around the Capitol asking them that question, and they can't quite get there. But, I mean, at a minimum, the vice president's statement just highlights what the two leaders of the Democratic Party, both New York Democrats, can't do at this moment.
RAJU: Prediction, yes or no, will Jeffries and Schumer endorse before the election?
BLAKE: I would think that once -- Mamdani's looking like a pretty strong favorite for this right now. If you look at the polls, I think they're kind of waiting to see if this kind of continues. Like, can they wait long enough?
RAJU: That was not a yes or no.
BLAKE: As long as Mamdani is looking like he's going to be the New York mayor, I don't think -- I don't know how they avoid at least a half-hearted --
RAJU: Yes.
BLAKE: -- endorsement like we just saw. You know what he means? He means sure.
RAJU: There you go. There you go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure.
RAJU: All right, guys. Great discussion.
Thanks for joining Inside Politics. Tune in tomorrow. Dana will be back with an exclusive with the Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, who will join Inside Politics.
CNN News Central starts after a quick break.
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