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Trump Announces Deal With Pfizer To Lower Drug Prices; NYT Poll: Trump Deeply Unpopular With Hispanics And Young Voters; Hegseth: Combat Troops Will Have To Meet "Highest Male Standard Only"; Romney Reveals He Personally Urged Biden Admin. To Pardon Trump; Romney Predicts JD Vance Will Be 2028 GOP Nominee. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 30, 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]

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- from 135 or whatever down to 18, I mean, that's a massive number. Remember, I was the one that held a news conference because I lowered drug prices by one quarter of 1 percent. I think it was one-eighth of 1 percent, but it was the only one in 28 years that brought drug prices down for the year, but it was a very small number.

Now we're talking about -- you're going to see one over 1,000 percent. Look at these numbers. So -- and this has a big impact, even on the discussion that we'll have with Chuck Schumer, who was here yesterday, along with the -- a very nice gentleman who I didn't really know, you know who I'm talking about.

The two of them came and they -- we had a good discussion and we're going to see what happens. We're going to see what happens. But this has a huge impact on that because these numbers are going to bring Medicaid. We talk about Obamacare, Obamacare is a failure. Obamacare is not good. It's not -- it's there, but relative to other healthcare programs, it's in the lower 20 percent. It's not good.

And I asked the Democrat representatives, what do you think about coming up with a better healthcare? This actually allows you to do that because the, you know, the cost of prescription medicine is a big, I guess, a very big, more than 50 percent the cost of what we're talking about. So we might be able to do something like that.

This is a big -- this is one of the biggest news conference from a medical standpoint that I think has ever been had by any administration. Yes, please?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. I'm curious, where are the other companies other than Pfizer? Are you expecting them to come later?

TRUMP: They're all with us. And I was honored to have Albert be the first. He's done a fantastic job with, as you know, with the COVID. He did a fantastic job with a lot of things. He's a leader and Pfizer is right at the top. You know, it's there.

Eli Lilly has been fantastic also, your friend, my friend. And they're all coming in over the next week. We're making deals with all of them.

And I said, if we don't make a deal, then we're going to tariff them an extra 5, 6, 7, 8 percent. Whatever the difference is, we'll take it that way. So we took away the advantage by the fact that we have tariffs. We took away the advantage that they would have of just saying no and we couldn't do anything about it.

If they do that, what we do is we'd put a tariff on them of an equivalent amount and we take it that way. And nobody wants to play that game, so. So they're going to be -- they're all going to be good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you --

TRUMP: We didn't have to mention that to Albert. I'm -- well, maybe I whispered it to him very slightly, you know. We had to give ourselves a little bit of an advantage. But, no, but the tariffs played a big role because they know that's what's going to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You mentioned the tariff -- the exemption of the 232s, but can you share a timeline for when we can expect the results of that 232 investigation?

TRUMP: Let Howard answer that question, please.

HOWARD LUTNICK, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: Sure. So while we're negotiating with these companies, we're going to let them play out and finish --

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: OK, we're going to continue to monitor this event in the Oval Office. As we do, Kristen, let's just get our viewers up to speed on this announcement that the President is making.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So he made it alongside the CEO of Pfizer, and there are two things happening here. One is that this is part of the Most Favored Nation initiative that he tried to start in his first term, came back to his second term. This is to lower prescription drug costs.

So there's -- you have Pfizer here agreeing to lower the price of some of their more popular drugs. The other part of this is something that they're calling TrumpRx, which is essentially a direct-to-consumer purchasing of drugs that would lower the cost by an enormous amount.

So that's what you heard him kind of talking there about healthcare, is that so much of what people spend and use their health insurance for is for drugs, prescription drugs. And so he's saying that he's cutting out an enormous amount of that cost by having this deal with Pfizer. He's been really pushing these companies to do that.

BASH: Yes. And let's just be clear, we started this segment talking about his approval rating, and I'm going to talk a little bit about the issues, obviously, that people care about. You were mentioning, as we were listening, the most important thing is the economy. Prescription drug prices are very much related to that because it's all about affordability. The question is, how much is this going to actually help people? We don't know that yet.

CARL HULSE, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Interesting timing. The Democrats are on the attack over what the Trump administration's doing to Medicaid and, you know, accessibility to healthcare. Hey, we're doing something over here, so look at that. But we have to see how this actually who works right.

BASH: And, by the way, I think we have the website, if we can put it up. TrumpRx, as Kristen mentioned, is the name of it. You know, again, we're going to have to monitor that to see. It would be great if people could get their prescription drugs in a cheaper way.

Before we go to break, I do want to just return to how we started this segment. And with you, Ayesha, talking about the President's approval ratings.

[12:35:03]

And I just want to look at some of the key swing groups, those that moved towards him and helped him become president again in 2024. And we're talking about Hispanic voters and younger voters. Net approval now is down 43 percent for Hispanic voters. People under 30, down 36 percent.

That's a big deal, particularly when you look at what we're going to see ahead of 2026, which is where the Democrats are on this. The Democratic, this is just a generic ballot, up 32 on Hispanic voters, up 23 on young voters.

AYESHA RASCOE, NPR HOST, "WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY" AND "UP FIRST": It's a huge deal. And because there was -- when Trump made those gains, especially with Hispanic voters and young voters, they were like, this could be a turning point. This will make such a huge difference for Republicans. But what we're seeing now, especially for Hispanic voters, is that they are very concerned about the way immigration policy is turning out.

They thought that immigration policy was going to be about getting those criminals and those bad guys off the street. And instead, they're seeing a much more indiscriminate, much more expansive form of getting people or trying to get people out of the country. And so I think that that is damaging. And I think some of those gains that he made are being eroded right now.

BASH: And affordability and inflation are still issues --

RASCOE: Yes.

BASH: -- particularly affordability, which is driving the point of view of every single voter in this country, no matter your ethnicity or your age. Everybody stand by.

Up next, Pete Hegseth says he doesn't care if his new push to make military macho means fewer means, excuse me, means fewer female troops. We're talking to an Air Force veteran and congresswoman after a quick break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:22]

BASH: So be it. That was the message from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as he issued a series of directives to top military leaders this morning, including this one.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: This is not about preventing women from serving. We very much value the impact of female troops. Our female officers and NCOs are the absolute best in the world. But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral.

If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: Here with me now to discuss this is Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, a member of the Armed Services Committee and an Air Force veteran. Thank you so much for being here. You obviously are a woman. As I said, you are a veteran. What do you think of the Secretary's message today?

REP. CHRISSY HOULAHAN (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Thank you once again for having me on. What I would say is that Secretary Hegseth and I have had this conversation in person face-to-face before. I have challenged him to explain what he means by standards and whether or not that means that women would be excluded from different positions. And he was terribly evasive at the time.

And right now, I think we're at a place where you didn't show the part of his conversation where he said that we were returning to male standards. So you can't be -- you can't have it both ways. You can't have standard standards and then male standards. Either it's a standard or it's not.

And where he and I do agree is that if people have to meet certain standards, they should have to meet certain standards. But he is very much, obviously, reducing the possibility that women will continue to be part of the armed services in those positions.

And what I would ask of him is what happens to those women who are currently there right now? What have you just said to them? What have you said to them about their ability to continue with their career?

BASH: Well, yes, I was going to get to that, so I'm glad you brought it up. What do you think the answer is? As somebody who served, you were active duty for three years in the Air Force and the Reserves for a very long time. If you were still serving and you heard that, what would the message be to you? HOULAHAN: The message to me would be, you're not wanted here. The message to me would be to get out. And we need every single person who wants to serve. This is an all-volunteer service.

And we need people who have all kinds of capabilities and talents. And this is a message to me that's chilling for people who are different than these kind of traditional white male Christian from the South, which I think is his vision of who should be the only people who serve.

BASH: One of the other things that he did is he talked about the cultural -- the way that the military has gone culturally over the years. He wants to change all that, what he calls woke, on a lot of different policies. And he was talking, of course, to the military heads, 800 of them, who in an unprecedented way were brought out of their posts from around the world to be in person with him.

And at the end of his riff, he said, "If the words I'm speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign." These are to the highest ranking military officials in the nation.

HOULAHAN: Yes. First of all, that whole meeting could have been an email, as they say. That was a ridiculous waste of time. It was, I think, an operational security nightmare. I think it was irresponsible for him to gather people in that way.

But secondly, what I would ask of those generals and admirals to whom he was speaking, I would implore them to stick and to stay. You know, I grew up in a military family, and my father would always tell me that you can't serve outside. I would implore them to stick and to stay.

[12:45:04]

You know, I grew up in a military family, and my father would always tell me that you can't serve outside. You can't solve from the outside what is going on on the inside. And so if the challenge was get out, then I would say to those generals, stay put, because we need you. We need you and your experience to counter the message of Mr. Hegseth and, frankly, the President himself as well.

BASH: Speaking of the President, listen to what he said about the military and American cities.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

TRUMP: San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they're very unsafe places, and we're going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war, too. It's a war from within. I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: You're on the Armed Services Committee, part of your job is oversight of the U.S. military. What do you think of that?

HOULAHAN: It's horrifying, and it should send chills down the bones, the spines of every American. This is not the way that our U.S. military is supposed to be used. It's designed to be used. In fact, I'm standing here in the Capitol right now because our government is going to shut down. There are no Republicans here.

On the Armed Services Committee, many of us put forward suggestions, amendments to the NDAA that suggested how we should properly use our military. Those were all denied a proper debate, and they were all denied a vote. And here we stand with our men and women being used in our own cities against our own citizens. And that should not be anything that anyone should tolerate regardless of their party.

BASH: Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan, Air Force veteran, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it.

HOULAHAN: You're welcome. Thank you again.

BASH: Who does Mitt Romney think will be the next president? He told me. And his answer might surprise you. Stay tuned for what it was.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:51:20]

BASH: Mitt Romney's back, at least maybe for one night only. I spoke with the former senator and presidential candidate last night. It was at an event hosted by Drew University in New Jersey about Trump 2.0 and revenge politics.

One of the things he revealed to me, he said for the first time publicly, was this. He said, "I called a member of the White House," this is back during the Biden years, "one of the senior advisers to President Biden. And I said, if the Justice Department decides to indict President Trump, I hope President Biden will immediately eliminate that and that he will provide a pardon immediately.

Why? Number one, I don't want the anger and the hate and the vitriol. But number two, we just can't begin to be prosecuting political opponents. Pardoning at that point would have been a way to make that very clear."

My panel is back. And Carl Hulse, you spent six years following him around in the U.S. Senate. This is fascinating to me, because the point that he was making was not that what Donald Trump is doing now, going after Comey and promising to go after all of his opponents, is a good thing. But he said it's because he was humiliated and that is a very, very real, raw emotion.

HULSE: Yes, I thought that that was interesting, right? The humiliation. My first thought of hearing Mitt Romney's name, though, was that, boy, I'll bet he's glad he's not here, right?

BASH: He is. HULSE: That he made the right decision. I mean, but it's -- it almost seems quaint, though, in a way, right? A throwback to a different era of politics when Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were having a fairly civilized debate, right, and running for president. And now that just, you know, the die is cast, right?

It's -- we seem to be in this cycle of going after the people who went after you. I think his sentiment is great, but --

BASH: Yes, I mean, and, you know, he also was talking about the fact that this is what the President promised he would do, that he would aggressively use his executive power. He also said that some of that executive power is going over the line, like he said that he hopes the Supreme Court rules against the President on firing Lisa Cook, Federal governor -- Fed Reserve governor, because he says the Fed should be independent.

He also weighed into politics, Republican politics. He, of course, was the nominee back in 2012. And he had told Jake Tapper at the end of last year that he thought JD Vance would be the 2028 nominee. He said he still thinks that's the case.

He said, "I think JD would be the Republican nominee barring some kind of black swan event. The parties have realigned in a way that I don't think is going back for a long time. JD has connected with non-college and blue-collar voters in a dramatic way, and in my opinion, a credible way. I think he becomes a Republican nominee and probably the next president."

HOLMES: I mean, I think JD Vance will be thrilled to hear that. I mean, he'll have to give -- you know, Marco Rubio will give him a run for his money. You know, we were just talking about this during the break. I think that it certainly is a possibility. We know that he is going to want it, that Vance is going to want it.

I think there's going to be a lot of questions, though. There's a lot of time to see what happens with the economy, what happens with the country, where we are at that point. And that will likely be what, like this election, determines who wins.

RASCOE: Well, I mean, I'm sure JD Vance, I don't know how much stock he'll put into Mitt Romney's prediction. I think Mitt Romney probably thought he was going to be president, right? And that didn't turn out.

BASH: And tried.

RASCOE: He tried, but it didn't turn out. But I do think that this idea of retribution, like we are at a point in this country where there is a real question of what a politician can do, what are the limits of presidential power.

BASH: But the Supreme Court says there are none.

RASCOE: And there seem to be none --

BASH: Yes. RASCOE: -- as a society. And so I could see a future going forward it becomes standard that you just pardon your whole administration when you leave office because to prevent this going back and forth, you pardon everybody who was involved in everything, in the DOJ or whatever.

[12:55:21]

I could see that because this is what happens when these sort of precedents break down, is that people just, you know, they look out for themselves and they say, OK, well, I'm going to pardon all my people. You pardon all your people. Like, that's what happens when systems and those things that we -- those traditions start breaking down.

BASH: Yes. He also had some really interesting things to say about social media, which you can see in our story on CNN.com. He very much agrees with his fellow Utahn Spencer Cox, who's the governor, that it is very corrosive. I don't think any parent here disagrees with that.

Thank you so much, one and all. Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.