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Inside Politics

Trump Says He "Could Be" Seeking $230M From His DOJ; Sen. Merkley In Marathon Speech Trump's "Shedding" Constitution; Trump Nominee Paul Ingrassia Withdraws After GOP Pushback Over Racist Text Message, But He Still Has White House Job; Maine Dem Senate Hopeful: "I'm Not A Secret Nazi"; Fed Workers To Miss First Full Paycheck This Friday. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 22, 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]

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: So, I think that's likely what we'll see in the near term. Although, we could see some of these bigger layoffs impacting more workers in the years to come, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: All right. Clare Duffy reporting for us. Lots going on. Thank you very, very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning, every weekday morning at 10 am Eastern for two hours of The Situation Room. Inside Politics with Dana Bash starts right now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, cashing in. President Trump wants payback, literally $230 million from the Justice Department for prosecuting him. We've got brand new reaction from the House speaker.

Plus, a troubling pattern. Why are public figures suddenly dealing with Nazi related skeletons not so deep in their closets? We're going to break down how it's impacting the White House and a rising democratic star.

And you'll hear from furloughed federal workers, lining up at food banks, struggling to pay their bills, while politicians here in Washington can't even agree on when or whether to negotiate a way out of the shutdown that is making things so hard for them.

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

The president of the United States wants his own government, and it appears his employees who run the Justice Department to pay him a whopping $230 million. The New York Times reports that before he was president again, Trump filed two complaints with the DOJ, alleging he was maliciously prosecuted while out of office.

Now, to be clear, any payment he gets would come from taxpayer funds, your money. Last night, the president acknowledged he could be seeking that money. He says he doesn't know the details of the complaint, but that the DOJ owes him, quote, a lot of money. Here's what the House Speaker said about it moments ago. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): I don't know the details about that. I've just read it. I didn't talk with him about that. I know that he believes he's owed that reimbursement. What I heard yesterday was, if he receives it, he was going to consider giving it to charity. I mean, he doesn't -- he doesn't need those proceeds.

But we're for the rule of law. We're for what is just and right. And it's just absurd that, yeah, I mean, as has been noted here several times this morning, they attacked him for everything he does. It doesn't matter what it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The Times says that Trump submitted official complaints to the DOJ in 2023 and 2024, again that was before he was reelected. He wants damages for the Mueller probe and the classified documents case. It's not clear what steps Trump has taken since taking office again for getting those payments.

The Justice Department told CNN, quote, in any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials. But in July, the attorney general fired the department's top ethics official.

I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters. Hello, one and all. Phil Mattingly, let's start with a little bit more news that we have from our friend Manu Raju, who is talking to Republicans on the Hill. We just heard the House speaker. And this is kind of a tale of two Republicans. I would argue, one not running for reelection anymore, and one running in a very tough GOP primary battle in Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Well, it seems odd, and I think he's in the difficult position where he's asking for something that he would approve. I think it's terrible optics, particularly right now. We're talking about a quarter of a billion dollars transferring, maybe to the president when we're in a shutdown posture. I want to find out more about it, because I don't know what the details are.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Does it sound -- does it pass a spell test?

TILLIS: I'm trying to figure it out. Yeah. OK, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: That's always the best for senators, like, ah, damn, I went the wrong way. Manu is still right next to me. And I can't get him out of my pocket, and he has his camera with me, which, by the way, is a bipartisan thing that we've all witnessed over the course of the last decade plus. Look, this isn't -- with all due respect to Thom Tillis for at least saying something. This isn't an optics issue. This is so nakedly rife with ethical concerns, pitfalls and unprecedented setting of new precedent that it's -- we're in this moment right now where things are happening, and people are like, oh well, yeah, that's kind of what they do. Because he's saying it out loud. He said out loud to Kaitlan Collins last night when he was asked about it.

And they have kind of this superpower of -- if we just talk about it publicly over and over again, everybody just kind of reverts to like, well, that's kind of what he does. This is a really great example of the thing that I've come to learn in these last nine months, which is with anything the Trump administration is working on.

You need to think through the idea of them asking the question, why not? Why not? Why can't we do this? And the answer, if it's well, Republican lawmakers are going to stand up and be really angry about. No, they're not well.

[12:05:00]

Well, according to guidance memos and legal opinions from past executive branches. You can't do that. Well, does it say that in the statute? Well, the political drawback of this is very, very significant. You're going to get really hurt in the polls. Are we? And if you keep applying that test to everything, why not? Is what they're asking. You realize that they're going to keep pushing forward with things like this.

BASH: And then if you sort of compound what you just described with the idea that the president back then, the first time, just as he is now, is pushing the envelope. And in these two cases, grand juries found that he pushed it too far.

You know, you can make the argument about the cases in the court of law, which was done, but this is a question of whether or not they should even have been brought in the first place. And I mentioned that even though the Justice Department says that the person in charge of ethics is going to figure this out. There is no person there who -- who is there?

Well, Todd Blanche is the deputy attorney general who was the president's personal attorney on one of the cases at issue the classified documents case. Stanley Woodward, who is the associate attorney general, who was a personal attorney for Trump's co- defendant, Walt Nauta, in that case.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST & WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: There was a great quote in my colleague's piece on this from a law professor who was like, you don't need to talk to a law professor to see how obvious this is--

BASH: Can I read that?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Absolutely. BASH: Because we have it. That's how great a quote it was. This is from Bennett Gershman. The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don't need a law professor to explain it. Then to have people in the Justice Department decide whether his claim should be successful or not, and these are the people who serve him, deciding whether he wins or loses. It's bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe.

KANNO-YOUNGS: I thought that got right to it, right? I remember, the people in the Justice Department we're talking about, Todd Blanche would be the one to approve this. Todd Blanche, who's the president's personal lawyer at one point as well. It really is -- maybe the most stark example we've seen of the ethical conflict that comes from installing loyalists, including your own personal lawyer, to lead a Justice Department that would proceed over something like this.

And it's worth reminding as well. We're talking about taxpayer money as well. You know, I think you're absolutely right. When you talk to White House officials, they'll kind of brush off the political consequences of something like this. But when you -- for this, when it's taxpayer money that would be paid out. And by the way, he said yesterday, I would, you know, use it for charity. Well, he also said, I would use it potentially for something like the ballroom.

He previously said weeks ago, when he announced the ballroom, that no taxpayer money would go toward funding that ballroom. Well, now it seems like taxpayer money may actually go towards paying for that ballroom. If he's using money from this settlement as well--

BASH: Right. So, it's - it's -- what he would do with the money. But let's take a step back, which is where the money comes from--

KANNO-YOUNGS: Sure.

BASH: --which is taxpayers. And Dave Weigel, you were out in the field a lot. You're talking to voters. I know this just happened, so I'm sure you don't have direct reaction, but this is the kind of thing that has impact or no.

DAVID WEIGEL, POLITICAL REPORTER, SEMAFOR: It could potentially have impact in general when people have less trust in the government, more of a sense that they're all crooks, quote, unquote, that the tie goes to Trump and tie goes to Republicans that people are -- you found this with even the new kings' rally. I found Republicans respond to that by saying, well, Nancy Pelosi has been office a long time, and she trades stocks. There's always a what about to answer this.

But the way that Phil and Zolan were explained, this was exactly it. There's a bit punch drunk attitude by Democrats that nothing breaks through. For some reason you can convince people that one of our candidates is corrupt, but not Donald Trump. But when Trump ran the first place, there was a sense by a lot of voters that we all talked to that he's so rich that he's uncorruptible.

And I've seen defenses of what he's done, keeping it to the last week in the ballroom, defenses of, oh, he's doing demolition. But even before getting taxpayer money, it's private money going into this. You can imagine any other situation where a private, private investors are funding something that a president or a governor or mayor wants.

Did the question not get asked? Are they going to get something from that? Are you going to get preferential treatment? There is a sense that he will get away with everything, even by Democrats. And that can lead to a little bit of callousness about whether everything connects. I can see this connecting in the totality of things that Trump is getting away with.

BASH: And Tamara, as we speak, Jeff Merkley, the senator from Oregon, is still on the Senate floor. He is just the latest Democrat to try to kind of seize attention by going all night and speaking on the Senate floor. Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut is asking him a question, but he's still there. Let's listen to on this topic how Merkley talked about this issue as part of his very, very long floor speech.

[12:10:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): I've come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells. We're in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the Civil War. President Trump is shredding our constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: By the way, he started speaking about 6:30 pm last night, so he's, you know, coming up on 18 hours.

TAMARA KEITH, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NPR: Yeah, don't make me do that math, and do I did it wrong. I'm sorry. He's been up for a really long time. Yeah. I mean, he is just the latest Democrat to try to use the floor of the Senate, you know, which is one of the tools that they have right now. They don't have a lot of tools at their disposal. They have their votes in the Senate, and they have the bully pulpit, which they are -- which he is using.

And I think that President Trump is doing a lot of things that are raising a lot of eyebrows, including the ballroom, including this possible settlement and what would happen with that, and Democrats are in this moment, trying to draw attention to it. The question is, is that the thing that's going to break through with voters, or is it going to be, hey, look at how much your home heating costs are or look at how much electricity is, or any of these other issues. There's a lot out there, but certainly, there are ethical concerns at the very minimum.

KANNO-YOUNGS: And you square those things, right?

KEITH: Yeah.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Like, do you actually message them on isolation, one as potential corruption, the other as affordability? Or do you say, there's a government shutdown going on right now? We're focusing on your affordability. And by the way, this the president may benefit from the settlement in which he gets all this taxpayer money.

BASH: Right. We're going to do a whole segment coming up about affordability and people's power and energy at home. So, we're going to do -- we can walk into chew gum at the same time. Coming up, though, a different topic. Why are so many public figures grappling with Nazi-related baggage? Cannot believe I actually said that sentence. We're going to break down a concerning tide that is making its way through politics, after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Apparently, having a "Nazi streak" can cost your Republican support for a Senate confirmation in this Senate right now, but not a job in the Trump White House. Paul Ingrassia is withdrawing his nomination to run the government's main whistleblower office after Politico reported on a series of utterly vile text. He allegedly sent a group chat, including one that we're showing on the screen. Quote, I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it. It seems Ingrassia, though, is still serving as White House liaison to the Homeland Security Department.

My panel is back. Zolan?

KANNO-YOUNGS: So, with Paul Ingrassia first, yes, the nomination has been pulled. I was at the White House yesterday. It seemed like the writing was on the wall there, particularly after Senate Republicans came out with comments, or at least a couple came out with comments, and it was clear he wouldn't have the votes.

But I don't think this is a moment to sort of draw the line that this administration has now, you know, this is a moment where they're condemning these--

BASH: OK. He's still working there.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Right. He's still working there. He pulled his nomination. And also the question comes up of, why would he be considered in the first place, even before these texts were revealed. This individual also met with Nick Fuentes, had writing that resembled that of white nationalist language, saying that, you know, people from around the world would -- and that almost cultural diversity would infringe on this country and undermine this country.

There's a pattern here as well, where we've seen other officials. A senior state department official was fired as a White House speech writer during the first Trump administration for attending a gathering of white supremacists. There's a pentagon spokeswoman now who has publicly promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Look, both of these instances are bad, but I do think we also have to square in. One, in Maine, somebody came out and apologized, also said he covered it up and said it was years ago. And the other, the lawyer for this individual in the Trump administration has come out and said, well, these might not be authentic, and even if they are, then maybe they were made in jest. That's -- I think there's a different situation between these two.

BASH: Yeah, absolutely. And let's stick with just for one more beat about Ingrassia, because you were nodding your head when Zolan was talking. And I just want to say again, I mentioned this yesterday, but I think because you talked about not just this guy, but other people with problematic feeds or things that they have said, you know, kudos to the Trump administration for trying to stamp out antisemitism, you know, and racism on college campuses. But it's not just the far left. It's the extreme right. And you know, let's acknowledge that.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. It's a bizarre split screen on some level, given some of the executive orders and the actions that the administration is taking, the Justice Department has taken, the Civil Rights Division, the Justice Department specifically as it relates to antisemitism, and then having people like this.

The thing I was nodding Zolan's great point about Ingrassia is, it's not just that he's had a pattern of stuff related to this prior. There's this great quote from James Lankford, the Republican senator from Oklahoma, where he's like, I don't really know that he was qualified -- he had no qualifications for this job to begin with.

[12:20:00]

And so, it's like, not only -- were there plenty of warning signs and red flags about this dude, like before he was nominated, some of the stuff he'd done in the administration -- in the early days the administration, leading this point. People knew who he was and knew who he was about -- what he was about before any of this happened.

It's also like he's just grossly unqualified for any senior role in government period end of story, based on his past and his resume, and the administration was willing to take that on and put him up for why?

BASH: Because there's not a lot of no coming from the Senate Republicans. And now there is. Hold that thought, because I do want to now turn to more Nazi-related political news. Again, I cannot believe that's something that I'm saying. But the Associated Press reports that Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner got a new tattoo to cover up one he had that resembles a Nazi symbol.

Now, Platner gave this video to Pod Save America. It shows his tattoo of a Totenkopf symbol that was used by Hitler's Nazi guard. The former marine an oyster farmer says he was disgusted to learn about the tattoos meaning and he explained why he got it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you a secret Nazi?

GRAHAM PLATNER, (D) MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: I am not a secret Nazi. We went ashore and split Croatia, myself and a few of the other machine gun squad leaders and we got very inebriated. And we just -- we did what Marines on liberty do, and we decided to go get a tattoo. And we went to a tattoo parlor and split Croatia, and we chose a terrifying looking skull and crossbones off the wall, because we were Marines, and, you know, skulls and crossbones are pretty standard military -- military thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: My panel is back. And Dave Weigel, you spent time with Platner. I just want to read one quote from your piece in Semafor. How do you expect to win back men when you go back through somebody's Reddit history and just pull it all out and say, oh my God, this person has no right to ever be in politics. Good luck with that. Good luck winning over these demographics.

I don't even know what to do with that, except for give a window to people who aren't familiar with this kind of echo chamber and atmosphere in Reddit and other places. That -- if that is commonplace, then society needs to really focus on that as much as these things that are sort of springing up into mainstream culture.

WEIGEL: This is first a reflection of Trump and the way Republicans have handled the sort of stories we were just talking about. I think J.D. Vance, getting the administration to rehire somebody who had posted racist thoughts online, you know, in the Wall Street Journal and saying the media doesn't get a veto over who can serve--

KANNO-YOUNGS: Gen X (Ph).

WEIGEL: Yes. That lowered, I think the bar for everybody. And Democrats listen to that and talking to Democrats this week, me and my colleague, Burgess Everett. No Democrat bailed on Platner because of this. For that reason, not the explicit reason, but for one, the idea that there are men who make mistakes and should be allowed in politics, and it's a problem that Democrats are seen as the cancel culture party. And two, look what those guys get away with.

There has been an exhaustion by Democrats at looking -- it is very situational, but you saw this with Al Franken's resignation. Years later, Kirsten Gillibrand gets hectored a little bit by people who don't like that Al Franken had resigned because Republicans don't have to resign. And there has been over -- overall diminution of the idea that there are shameful things that should take you out of politics.

The reason the Democrat Bernie Sanders, Ruben Gallego, Martin Heinrich, were saying, let's spot Graham Platner this is because they think that Democrats suffer if they're seen as the party that will make -- that will punish you for stupid things you did.

KEITH: Yeah. And there is absolutely a race to the bottom in our politics. When some of the things that Ingrassia said came up, or that other racist group chat that was going around, another political story a few days ago, the president's supporters and people on the right were like, well, look at what people said after Charlie Kirk was shot.

Basically, everyone's terrible. That what -- that is the message, if they're going to be terrible, then we want to be terrible. And if they're going to be terrible, then we want to be terrible. And it's a race to the bottom. So that's where we are, and so, you know, that that is absolutely the moment that our politics are in.

BASH: I have an idea. How about stopping terrible?

KANNO-YOUNGS: That would be nice.

BASH: I know. I know. You're laughing at me.

MATTINGLY: Shout out to the Senate for stopping the nomination.

BASH: Yeah. All right, everybody stand by. The real cost of the government shutdown. We're going to talk about that, look at that. Federal workers waiting in a massive line for hours just to get food.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have so many people that have no way of getting income or food or paying bills or anything. You know, it's not good. I never thought the United States would be in this place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: It's day 22 of the federal government shutdown. No sign of any progress, as some federal workers will miss their first full paycheck on Friday. Tomorrow, Senate Republicans will hold a vote on a bill to pay certain essential workers. Most Democrats say they won't support the bill unless all federal workers are paid. Offering little hope to the over 1 million federal workers who are working without pay or furloughed and are now struggling

[12:30:00]