Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Trump Confronts MAGA Rift AS Epstein Saga Enters Crucial Week; Is Schumer's Future In Jeopardy Amid Shutdown Fallout? Dem. Senator Fires Back at Heckler over Shutdown & Health Care; Michelle Obama: Country "Not Ready for a Woman" President; Why a Former NFL Star is Fighting Tight New Limits on Hemp. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired November 16, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:27]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST (voice-over): Breakup.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Marjorie Taylor Greene is not in any way -- I mean, she has a very different thinking than I have.

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I haven't lost my way. I'm America first and I make no apologies.

RAJU: President Trump fights off an Epstein onslaught.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): We need a full release of the files.

REP. DON BACON (D-NE): I will vote for it. I want transparency.

RAJU: And sparks and intra-MAGA war. But with more to come this week, can Trump stop the rift from growing?

Plus -- OK, Schumer.

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): Schumer has just snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

RAJU: A new reporting on the longtime senator's future after Democrats helped reopen the government. Will an angry base push out their leader?

Are you considering primarying him?

And -- in the weeds. Why is a former football star fighting a new ban from Washington?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is for my brothers. I've lost so many friends.

INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU (on camera): Good morning and welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Manu Raju.

President Trump is doing just about everything in his power to quash a story that just will not go away, the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. And that includes name-calling.

Just yesterday, the stunning fallout between him and one of his biggest loyalists intensifies as he attacked MAGA Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene as a, quote, "traitor" amid her push to release the Epstein files. This, after using the power of his government to try to change the focus of the story away from him, demanding a Justice Department probe of Democrats ties to Epstein, something Attorney General Pam Bondi quickly said she would do despite DOJ's past assessment that there wasn't evidence worth pursuing.

But to Trump's dismay, he's about to face the biggest rebuke from his party of his entire second term. When later this week, scores of House Republicans plan to vote to release the case files, all as some newly released Epstein emails show, Trump mentioned by name, though the president has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing. Still, he made clear this weekend he does not want to discuss any of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We think it's bad to talk about it because it gets away from the subject of how well the Republicans are doing. We have the greatest economy. We have the largest investment ever made in our country's history. We have all of these great things happen.

When you talk about the Epstein hoax, what happens is you're not talking about how well we've done this is a hoax put out by the Democrat and a couple of few Republicans have gone along with it because they're weak and ineffective. But this is a Democrat hoax to get away from the fact that they just lost the shutdown and they've lost the elections. They've lost the big election to me, in a record number.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right. We have an excellent panel to break this all down. Let's go -- "Politico's" Dasha Burns, CNN's Jeff Zeleny, CNN's Isaac Dovere, and "The Washington Post's" Marianna Sotomayor.

Good morning to you all.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

RAJU: Nice to see you all.

Okay. So, when Marjorie Taylor Greene first came to Washington in 2021 as an unflinching Trump loyalist, someone who was MAGA through and through wore a MAGA hat to the State of the Union on the House floor. And now, Trump is putting out messages like this over the last several days, calling her a ranting lunatic, saying she has gone far left. She's a disgrace to our Republican Party. She's betrayed the entire Republican Party. She turned left, and then calling her a traitor just yesterday.

Okay, first of all, wow.

DASHA BURNS, POLITICO WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF: Wow.

RAJU: I was not expecting that. What is he trying to do here? Is it just to send a message to the rest of the party that he will not take even an ounce of dissension here?

BURNS: Well, I think the big concern here is Marjorie Taylor Greene could be creating a permission structure for other Republicans, other MAGA Republicans to start to disagree with the president, to buck him on some of these critical issues.

I mean, look, Epstein opened the door, right? And it's still one of the one of the biggest concerns for the White House in terms of how these votes are going to go in the House and then in the Senate. But Epstein, followed by some dissension on the president's foreign policy. Now, most recently, the suggestion of a 50-year mortgage. Even Fox News, Newsmax influencers on the right are against that that policy.

We are seeing these fractures among the base that is just not something that the White House, especially President Trump himself, is used to.

RAJU: Yeah. And, you know, is it is it just what Trump always does here, which is anytime there's someone who criticizes him, he goes after them, whether it's Liz Cheney or any other, go back down the line of Bob Corker. And, you know, for many, many years this has been his M.O.

Is it different, though, because it's MTG who she represents?

ZELENY: I mean, I think actions of the president are similar. I mean, we knew obviously, as she has been sort of rising in her prominence going. On the view in recent weeks and really going after Speaker Johnson and then really not backing down at all on the Epstein matter and other things.

It's not just that. What I'm sort of struck by in this is her criticism is pretty broad based. She's talking about affordability.

BURNS: Health care.

ZELENY: She's talking about -- exactly. And things that, look, like, I still support you. She always sort of phrases it with I still like the president, but -- and those buts are getting pretty significant.

So, Dasha, to your point about the permission structure, that is going to be interesting to see how many Republicans obviously join the ranks of voting to release the Epstein files the White House still wants to keep that number down. But the reality is they know that there's very little they can do --

RAJU: Are they going to push very hard to try to do that this week, or are they -- are they --

ZELENY: It's unclear. The pressure campaign last week to try and get Lauren Boebert to not sign the discharge petition, it failed spectacularly and it was sort of an embarrassment. I mean, having a rank-and-file member of congress over to the White House in the Situation Room complex to have this meeting, she ended up not removing her name from it.

So we will see what the numbers are. But I am told the White House is still trying to keep them somewhat in check. We'll see if that's 75 Republicans, 100 Republicans. That would be extraordinary.

But you just get the sense that things are a little bit different now. It's too early to call the president a lame duck. There's no doubt. But you can just get the sense that things are slightly -- that's what's really scary for this White House about this is the idea that a lame duck period is looming here, and I think this gives that little flavor of it.

RAJU: And it could be a window into the post-Trump era. Here's what MTG said about in responding to all of this. Among the things that she said. She said the Americans wish he would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women who are fed up with foreign wars and foreign causes are going broke trying to feed their families, and are losing hope of achieving the American dream. That's what I voted for.

Is she more in line with the base in some ways than Trump?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, look, I think the problem that she's hitting at here -- is that there are -- Donald Trump has not been able to answer the question, why? Why is he fighting so hard to keep these files from being released? He's not explained that. He's also not explained why prices are not down when his entire campaign was really based on that idea that he would be attacking prices.

He has said, oh, maybe it's the leftover from the Biden days, but we are ten months into the Trump presidency and prices. It's not like they've stayed high. They've gotten higher. People are seeing electricity bills that are higher. They're seeing grocery prices that are higher, and the public seems to be associating that with the tariffs. And certainly, Donald Trump does, too, given that he -- despite this argument that the tariffs are because of a national emergency situation, that's how he gets around the law that he can just do it himself is just haphazardly lowering them, including on, groceries. Over the last couple of days. Just saying we're going to make coffee cheaper. Well, if the tariffs are making getting rid of tariffs are making coffee and other food and meat cheaper than the tariffs made that food higher the price is higher. And so that -- when Marjorie Taylor Greene hits on these things, it is

this like I thought that Donald Trump was saying he was the fighter for these things, and he has not shown it in her mind.

RAJU: Yeah. And this is -- obviously comes ahead of this vote that's happening. Expect on Tuesday in the House to call for the release of the Epstein file. The Republican leadership was forced to do this despite the push by the White House to try to kill this effort for months now, it is finally coming to a head on the house floor.

But look, I want to first look at the polling about where the public stands at large, about the issue of the Epstein files. Overall, just 19 percent of the public approve of Trump's handling of this, and that includes just 10 percent of independents. But that Republican number is pretty interesting. 44 percent of Republicans approve of Trump.

I mean, that is unusual because typically Trump is like that 90 percent on most issues when it comes to Republicans, 44 percent, but also speaks to why we expect in the House a significant number of Republicans to break ranks here.

What are you hearing from your reporting, whether they can reach that critical threshold, which is 290, which is a veto proof majority in the house, what is the likelihood of that?

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, WASHINGTON POST CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: I think it is possible. And the reason why is because the Epstein issue remains the singular issue that we have seen Republicans publicly flip on the president, publicly -- not attack him, necessarily, but want to continue releasing the files.

[08:10:07]

I mean, there are a number of even vulnerable Republicans who say, yeah, I'm going to sign on to this. And even some more hardliners who say that they will do this.

However, I think Marjorie Taylor Greene has also pointed out that Trump is using her as an example. If you start to speak out against him, it is possible that he's going to come after you the way that he is now coming after me.

So, she even herself is saying maybe the numbers are not going to be as high as we once thought, but the fact that Speaker Johnson is going to try and bring this up onto the floor to make sure has a two thirds majority, it's still putting Republicans on the record even if it doesn't pass.

ZELENY: You can still vote against the president though, without sort of doing what Marjorie Taylor Greene has done. She's sort of gone out there. But that's why the roll call is going to be interesting, particularly for Republicans like Ashley Hinson, for example, from Iowa, who's running for Senate. This is becoming an issue in the 2026 campaign.

So I think it's -- it will be interesting to see how many Republicans support this without ever sort of really talking about it publicly. And the president can't attack everyone to the degree that he's done Marjorie Taylor Greene.

DOVERE: But that's why the Democrats forced this to not be a voice vote, which is what Republicans want.

RAJU: Everybody on the record. So, then this will be an issue in the campaign.

ZELENY: For sure.

There is one thing that Republican lawmakers are more scared of than President Trump, and that's President Trump's base. And right now, Trump and his base are not on the same page about this issue. And a number of others. And that is going to have an impact on how they vote.

RAJU: Yeah. She talked about Marjorie Taylor Greene, H1-B visas and other issues that are Trump is breaking with his base on.

Okay, I do want to talk about one -- also a piece of information that came out over the last couple of days about texts that emerge between the between Stacey Plaskett, she's a Democrat. She's a non-voting delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands. She represents them in the House.

And her exchanges with -- in 2019 with Jeffrey Epstein himself. This was during a congressional hearing. Michael Cohen was testifying, a huge hearing, very high-profile hearing. And they were texting in the middle of this hearing as she was about to question Cohen himself, who was the witness saying, this is the text that said Cohen brought up Rhona, keeper of the secrets, referring to Rhona Graff, who's Trump's longtime executive assistant.

Rhona, Plaskett responded, quick, I'm up next. Is that an acronym? Quick, I'm up next. Okay. That's me saying that.

Quick, I'm -- quick, I'm up next. Is that an acronym? She asked, suggesting she would question Cohen soon. And then Epstein replied, "That's his assistant."

I mean, this is after he had that plea deal back in 2009 where he admitted to some sex crimes. And then there was this big "Miami Herald" investigation, too, into the sex trafficking ring. And she's maintaining this texting relationship with him during a hearing. And it seems to have influenced her questioning.

BURNS: Yeah, it's actually amazing to see. It makes me wonder who else was Epstein texting, who was on the dais and or in other places that, you know, Democrats are trying to get information from.

ZELENY: And she represented -- I mean, his -- the area where the Epstein island was. I mean, so that was one of their connections. But that is a great example of, of, you know, in this long list of people who communicated with Epstein. Larry Summers, obviously is there which has led to this call for an investigation from Trump. RAJU: Yeah. Unbelievable. The story just keeps on building and

really, really remarkable.

All right. And you won't want to miss state of the union this morning. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene will join Dana Bash exclusively. And that's coming up in the next hour.

Up next, as calls grow for chuck Schumer to step down from leadership, will he even run for reelection at all? We have brand new reporting this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Primaries. Are you considering primarying him?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:17]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: Republicans now own this health care crisis. They knew it was coming. We wanted to fix it. Republicans said no, and now, it's on them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Chuck Schumer has been moving behind the scenes to try to tamp down criticism over his handling of the government shutdown fight, which ended after a historic 43 days when eight members of his caucus broke ranks. Schumer voted no. But the way it ended has left him in a very vulnerable position.

My new reporting with Isaac Dovere this morning shows how Democrats believe Schumers days are numbered, that many don't think he can win a primary in New York in 2028, or he will even run. All is his fate is facing more dissension within his caucus than he has in his eight plus years as Democratic leader.

My panel is back, including the excellent Isaac Dovere, who helped worked on the story together.

A couple of conversations you had as part of our reporting here, one with the lieutenant governor of New York, Antonio Delgado, who is running in the primary to run for governor.

He said to you about Schumer, he said, I would hope he doesn't run for reelection. I hope that by the time we get to 2028, we're talking about different voices. We're talking about folks that are younger, that can bring a different kind of energy. J.B. Pritzker, the potential 2028 presidential candidate, Illinois governor, said that's an interesting question.

When you asked him if he's a Democrat leader for the Dems' future, a leader of the future. I mean, he's a reasonable amount older than I am, so it's hard to say about somebody. What is he in his 70s, leader of the future.

All right. Isaac, tell us more about what you heard from your conversations.

DOVERE: This has been rough. And when we get into the story is that from basically the moment that Schumer found out that these senators were going to break away and vote to end the shutdown, he got on the phone trying to get people, leaders of the party, governors, others to not attack him and not attack Democrats, even if they were attacking the deal.

[08:20:12]

He did not succeed in that.

And he also didn't succeed as he's tried over the course of the last couple of days. Since then, to soften the story about him or to convince senators in his own caucus. Other Democratic senators that he should be supported publicly. You don't see any Democratic senators who have said he should step down. But you also don't see many Democratic senators who said, we think Chuck Schumer did a great job here.

And this is a problem for him in Washington. But he's also got problems back home in New York. There is a lot of changing energy in New York. You see that with Zohran Mamdani winning the mayor's race in New York city this year, by the way, reached out to Zohran Mamdani spokesperson to see if he wanted to talk about Chuck Schumer. Schumer didn't endorse Mamdani, of course.

And Mamdani declined comment on whether Schumer should run and you mentioned the primary issue if he runs. One New York House member, Democrat said to me, he -- this is his last term, and he may be the only one on earth unaware of that.

RAJU: And he has not said if he's going to run again. He -- source close to Schumer told us that he is concerned about one thing right now, which is winning the Senate majority in the midterms. Then he will worry about his next steps afterwards. At least he'll announce what he will do afterwards. But that is what the source said. Quote, "his north star" right now.

But the question is that, look, there are already people that are being talked about who could potentially challenge him if he does run now, there's a wide expectation that he will not run. He's in his mid- 70s. He'd be 78.

DOVERE: Yeah. We're talking about 2028.

RAJU: 2028, if he runs for reelection, he would be 78 years old.

But one person to watch out for, of course, is Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, who has not said what she will do in challenging Chuck Schumer potentially in 2028. But I asked her that last week. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): Needed effort of eight senators with the knowledge of Leader Schumer, voting to break with the entire Democratic Party in exchange for nothing. We have a cycle coming up with many primaries, not Senator Schumer, but many Senate primaries that where voters are going to be deciding between candidates.

RAJU: Speaking of primaries, are you considering primarying him?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: He's not up for --

RAJU: He's up in 2028.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: But he's not up for election this cycle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So, he took a swipe at him for getting the deal with the knowledge, even though we were told Schumer made it very clear he was not involved in cutting this deal, but also very clearly not ruling out possibly running against him.

SOTOMAYOR: Yeah, I mean, AOC is absolutely someone to watch. She has a very long runway, which I think is why many here in Washington say she should run for senate. It makes sense for her to run for Senate. But I wouldn't dismiss, you know, her also thinking about 2028, possibly jumping in and running for president herself.

A big reason why is because she is young. She does have a lot of experience, and that is something that I would say the liberal far left base doesn't really have. Bernie Sanders, a torch more or less has been passed. I would say Elizabeth Warren's also getting up there in terms of age. And we're talking about this generational change.

She kind of makes sense if she wants to think about 28, she could fill that void if that void is there.

DOVERE: What's funny is that New York Democrats who are ambitious themselves, are kind of hoping she does run for president so that she leaves the Senate race.

RAJU: And you had news of possible Pat Ryan.

DOVERE: Right. Pat Ryan is one person that has been on a lot of people's minds in that in that conversation, he declined to comment for this story.

ZELENY: It's hard for House members to run for president, but this is a new era. So, history is not our best guide here. You're totally right. She has a tough choice in 2028. Almost hard to believe that Senate is her choice, but we'll see. It's too early to know that.

RAJU: Yeah. Look, Schumer has become obviously a litmus test in some of these Democratic primaries as well. These are just a handful of people who are running for senate who have not called on him to step down as leader. But Schumer got several key recruits into the Senate -- to run for Senate. Janet Mills in, the governor of Maine, being a big one.

BURNS: The oldest --

ZELENY: The oldest, oldest one, oldest senator she would be ever if she was a freshman. But, you know, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, they're trying to get, former Congresswoman Peltola to run in Alaska against Dan Sullivan this cycle as well.

So, if they do win the majority, that could change everyone's view about Chuck Schumer, potentially.

BURNS: Potentially. But it is, as you said, potentially becoming a litmus test I have on my latest episode of my podcast, "The Conversation", I interviewed Seth Moulton, who is primarying Ed Markey for Senate in Massachusetts.

And he told me, one of -- one of his things that he's campaigning on is that if he were elected, he would push for Schumer to step down. He is, of course, calling on him to step aside now, but that he is campaigning on this idea that we got to get Schumer out of there, campaigning on the idea of generational change.

And I think that that says a lot and should probably concern. Sure.

[08:25:01]

RAJU: Yeah, and if you look at the length of tenures among leaders here, Chuck Schumer has been leader for about nine years, just under nine years.

And you look at the other ones, recent party leaders, Nancy Pelosi, of course, for 20 years, twice being speaker. Harry Reid, 12 years, Mitch McConnell, longest ever leader in the Senate at 18 years.

But all of those leaders, including Chuck Schumer, are facing dissent -- face dissension at the end of their tenure. We'll see if this means the end of his tenure. He has not said if he's going to run for leader again. Remember, that is a secret ballot election. That would happen after the November elections.

All right. Coming up, what Michelle Obama just said about a woman president and why it has the political world abuzz.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Democrats failed to win any major policy victory despite provoking the nation's longest shutdown.

But in the long run, did they win the larger fight over health care affordability ahead of next year's midterms?

Right now, though, there's at least anger in the Democratic ranks, including this weekend when New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen was heckled during an event in her home state and she didn't hold back. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): Nobody wants to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits more than me or more than Senator Hassan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why didn't you vote for it?

SHAHEEN: You look at our record and you tell me what you've done to protect the health care of Americans. And it's not even close to what we've done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: You don't see that very often from Jeanne Shaheen. But it speaks to where -- yes, exactly -- and as Isaac points out, the heckler was running against her daughter for a House seat in New Hampshire.

Her daughter opposed the bill that she cut this deal -- that she cut to reopen the government.

But just look at the polls right now about how the views of the issue of health care, which, of course, was central to this government shutdown fight, is going to be a huge, huge fight in the next several weeks here overall, whether or not people approve of Trump's handling of the issue of health care.

65 percent disapprove, 72 percent of Independents disapprove. So is there something Democrats have said -- are saying, look, in the midterms, this is going to be the issue, and we put the focus on this issue.

So fine. It didn't turn out the way we wanted, but we have the issue.

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, "WASHINGTON POST" CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Yes. I mean, that's what Democrats are saying. We lost the battle in the short term, but we might just win the war.

And the reason why, I mean, the numbers you just showed about Independents disapproving Trump's handling of health care. Health care is the one issue. If you looked at polling from the summer that voters still trusted Democrats on. Everything else was on Republicans.

Now that were seeing Trump's numbers really dwindling on other issues -- the economy, crime, immigration. Like the fact that Democrats have a hold on this one issue, they're like, maybe we can start seeing how we can poke holes in the other ones.

But this is pretty significant, especially even if this ACA subsidies fight does not go the Democrats' way over the next month, the Senate obviously is going to try and hammer out a deal, we're already seeing House Republicans, especially vulnerable ones, saying we need to do something on this issue.

RAJU: Yes.

SOTOMAYOR: If not, the party will own it. RAJU: I mean, it's been 15 years since Obamacare, and they still have

not coalesce behind a single health care plan, the Republicans. And now this is going to come front and center by mid-December.

There's going to be a vote in the Senate. The House has not figured out how it's going to proceed. That's going to be a huge issue.

We'll see how it plays out.

All right. Now, meantime, there's also news over the weekend about the former first lady, Michelle Obama. She was on a book tour and she was speaking in Brooklyn. And the question about a woman president came up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, as we saw in this past election, sadly, we aren't ready. That's why I'm like, don't even look at me about running because you all are lying. You're not ready for a woman. You are not.

So don't waste my time, you know. We got a lot of growing up to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: You're shaking your head.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: I mean, this is -- Michelle Obama wasn't going to run for president anyway. I mean, it's not because Kamala Harris lost. And I think notably, and this is something that has come up a lot over the years that I've been reporting about the Obamas.

You see Democrats who are always asking for Michelle Obama to actually do more to help other people, including last year. She did, I believe, two events for Kamala Harris -- a total of two. They were very well received, but there was a hunger for her to do more.

That convention speech she gave last year was very compelling, but it even -- you go back to 2020, she was apparently so inconsolable, I reported at the time, about what had happened to the country, that she was having trouble getting herself motivated to do anything.

She recorded a speech for the Democratic convention in 2020. Obviously, it was COVID time, so everybody recorded speeches, basically. But she then didn't campaign at all.

So she's not wrong that --

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Her underlying point though, is not, I mean, just about her. Her underlying point, I think was some tough medicine for the country.

Thinking about the Hillary Clinton election, I think first and foremost, the country is not ready for it.

So I think that you're totally right. She's never going to run for president. And it's a fantasy that many Democrats have.

She didn't even want to be involved in politics at all. Obviously, she's benefited from the fruits of that.

[08:34:46]

ZELENY: But to the broader point, is the country ready for it? I don't know. I mean, you were out on the campaign trail as much as anyone, and you talked to so many voters and a lot of women voters recoiled at a woman presidential candidate. So --

DASHA BURNS, POLITICO WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, it's true. I mean -- and it's something that a lot of voters don't necessarily want to say out loud. They find other words for female candidates to find issue with, not necessarily their female-hood but other things that are that are euphemisms for it. Right. The fighter, the strength and weakness.

DOVERE: There's no question, right, that sexism played a big role in the 2016 and 2024 elections. The other question, though, I think that comes around this is when Barack Obama ran, before he was running people would say, America is not ready for a black president. They were ready for that black president.

And it's a question --

ZELENY: Black male president.

DOVERE: So that is --

ZELENY: For sure. Totally, totally.

(CROSSTALKING)

DOVERE: Is there a woman out there who will win at a point soon? Sooner than we think? Maybe. We don't know.

But Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris lost for reasons that are in addition to that, they are women. Being women does not seem to have helped them make their case.

ZELENY: There are a lot of people who think the first woman president in this country will be a Republican, and a lot of Democrats are also in that camp.

BURNS: Well, my colleague Adam Wren has some interesting reporting from Elissa Slotkin. The senator going out to Kansas City to listen to a focus group of low-propensity voters, voters that showed up in some elections but did not vote in 2024.

And it did show that Democrats -- really everybody, but she was specifically looking at Democrats have a lot of work to do to get voters excited about their platforms.

Voters are concerned about crime. They're concerned about immigration. They're concerned about the economy and health care. And some of these voters, one of the women who voted for Barack Obama,

said, hey, yes, National Guard, that could help with the crime in my area.

So there's this, like, muddy middle of voters out there that aren't super engaged. And it's really nuanced in terms of the issues that are going to drive them out.

RAJU: Yes, it's so interesting. All right. Well, we'll see.

Next for us, the politics of self-dealing. A Democrat accuses a fellow Democrat of rigging an election. And House Republicans, well, they're furious that GOP senators could win a big payday from the government on the backs of taxpayers.

[08:37:01]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: I want to zero in on two stories you may have missed this week that speak to a bigger theme here in Washington.

Members of Congress appearing to look out for -- well, you guessed it -- themselves.

First in the House, a centrist Democrat called out a member of her own party for announcing his retirement in a way that almost guarantees who his successor will be without voters having much of a say.

Then in the Senate, a provision quietly tucked into the legislation that reopened the government also allows senators to sue the Department of Justice for hundreds of thousands of dollars if their phone records are seized without being notified, and yes, all on the taxpayers dime.

It's something Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says he plans on doing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you be filing a lawsuit.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Oh, definitely. And if you think I'm going to sell this thing for $1 million, you know, I want to make it so painful, no one ever does this again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Ok, so this involves language that was included because some of these Republican senators had their phone records seized as part of the Jack Smith election interference investigation.

Those are the senators on your screen who would be affected by this. Some of them said that they will not really try to go after the government to get this $500,000 for each infraction, if they're successful, in court. And House Republicans were livid that this was included, including the

Speaker of the House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I was very angry about it. I was. And a lot of my members called me and said, did you know about it? We had no idea.

REP. AUSTIN SCOTT (R-GA): I think it's poorly worded. But I'm glad that other people were paying attention.

REP. TROY NEHLS (R-TX): $500,000. Now that was dumb. That was stupid quite honestly, to put that language in this bill, this $500,000.

RAJU: John Thune did that.

NEHLS: Well, I just think it's stupid because guess what? Everybody wants to talk about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And this came because Senate Majority Leader John Thune did it at the behest of GOP senators. But wow.

SOTOMAYOR: Yes. Wow. I mean, these are both two examples of just party cell phones. Honestly, House Republicans this week expected to vote to repeal that provision. Still a question mark whether the Senate will put it on the floor.

But a lot of those senators that you showed have mostly said that they would support either a vote to repeal this provision or haven't really commented yet.

Lindsey Graham is the one who's been most notably out there saying he's going to take advantage of this opportunity, but it really, at least that example goes to -- Democrats have been saying, look, Republicans shut down the government. You are not able to afford a number of things. And now this goes into their defense of look at the Republicans trying to give themselves more money.

RAJU: Yes.

ZELENY: I think we'll see if Senator Lindsey Graham keeps that position, because when he runs for reelection in conservative South Carolina, a lot of fiscal conservatives there.

I mean, we just heard kind of a smattering from the Republican base that you interviewed, you know, those very conservative Republicans saying this is stupid.

This is taxpayer money we're talking about here. So for all of the angst against the government, several of those senators, including Marsha Blackburn, who's running for governor, she said yes, she would sue but wouldn't take the money.

[08:44:47]

ZELENY: So my guess is that if this becomes an issue in South Carolina, Lindsey Graham may have a take two on that answer because that's going to be very controversial, saying, I'm going to take the taxpayers' money. I mean. Talk about like self-involved.

RAJU: Yes.

(CROSSTALKING)

DOVERE: So much for tort reform or even saying that they read the bill.

ZELENY: Yes, right.

RAJU: Speaking of self-involved, there was news from this past week of Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. She's a vulnerable House Democrat from Washington state.

She went to the floor of the House to put forward a resolution to sanction one of her Democratic colleagues, a Chicago area Democrat, Chuy Garcia, who announced that he would retire in such a way that his successor was the one that he had picked, his chief of staff.

And she was the only one who had filed in time to run in that race, meaning essentially in a Democratic district, she's probably going to be the next member of the House. And that prompted enormous blowback from Gluesenkamp Perez, rare thing you see on the House floor. Another member calling out one from their own party.

The Garcia spokesperson said that he followed every rule and every filing requirement laid out by the state of Illinois.

But this is what Gluesenkamp Perez said on the floor of the House.

REP. MARIE GLUESENKAMP PEREZ (D-WA): Undermining the process of a free and fair election, Representative Garcia's actions are beneath the dignity of his office and incompatible with the spirit of the constitution.

DOVERE: Hey, look, it's hard for Chuy Garcia to defend what he did here other than that he engineered the person that he picked to be the next congressperson. That's not the way the process is supposed to work.

I do think some of the blowback is interesting here. A lot of Latino members said, like, how dare you go after Latino. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez -- her birth name is Perez. Gluesenkamp is her husband's name. She is Latina herself. There's been some of that.

And then after she came out of him, Garcia issued a statement that he was sick with cancer. That was not something that he had said before.

But look, this is a guy who actually came up in Illinois politics running against the machine. And he has created essentially his own mini machine here to elect his successor. SOTOMAYOR: If I could just add very quickly about Gluesenkamp Perez,

she is someone to watch simply because she has been studying the legislative tools that she can use to do things like this.

I mean, this really angered House Democrats at a time when they were appearing united.

RAJU: Yes.

SOTOMAYOR; It's -- I think some of these younger members, you should watch them because they are starting to question the status quo.

RAJU: Yes, no question about it. And he denounced Garcia, said that it was his health, his wife's health, the death of his daughter in 2023, among the reasons. But the timing of it is what's caused so much blowback.

All right. Up next, it was a joint decision by Congress to take a whack at hemp. And now a towering former NFL offensive lineman is lit up. Why he's knocking on the doors of your senator?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYLE TURLEY, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I've seen the personal benefit of this in changing lives, saving lives. And that happened to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:47:46]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: People who have enjoyed gummies, vapes and THC-infused drinks are now on high alert. The budding industry and the millions who enjoy edibles are sending smoke signals now that Congress tucked in a provision in the bill to reopen the government, prohibiting the sale of many hemp products. And now they say, a nearly $28 billion industry may collapse.

In 2018, Congress legalized the cultivation and production of hemp, but that left -- the provision left the market largely unregulated.

Fast forward to now, when President Trump signed into law the funding bill that included a ban on anything more than a trace amount of THC. Two Kentucky Republicans now are lighting up their colleagues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Every hemp seed in the country Will have to be destroyed.

SEN. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): They're killing an industry here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But the senior senator from their state, the former GOP leader Mitch McConnell, championed the provision and said it would protect kids from getting stoned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCH MCCONNELL, FORMER KENTUCKY SENATOR: It will keep these dangerous products out of the hands of children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But there are high hopes that things could change and some heavy hitters are now joining the campaign.

Former NFL player Kyle Turley was going office to office on Capitol Hill last week, saying it was his mission to get the ban reversed. I caught up with him in the Senate and he was blunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TURLEY: This bill here is completely going to devastate the hemp industry. I've seen the personal benefit of this in changing lives, saving lives.

And that happened to me. I was suicidal, homicidal, just out of my mind because of football -- what it did to my brain.

This is something that is helping people, not hurting people. This is not killing kids. This is saving kids. This is for my brothers.

I have lost so many friends to this game, ok. To this dream, this dream. I can't stand by any longer. I've never stood by. And I can't do anything else. That's why I'm here.

And President Trump, this is for him. I brought this to give to him. And this has to change.

RAJU: Have you met with the president, or do you hope to meet with the president?

TURLEY: We've been trying? You know. There's been a lot of talk and, you know, were here for action.

[08:54:43]

TURLEY: A lot of my friends don't have that ability to be around anymore and experience this life and to wake up.

RAJU: It's because they made the wrong decisions.

TURLEY: That's right. Yes. They didn't have the opportunity to have their brain work correctly. And what cannabis has allowed me to do is operate under what happened to this brain underneath this helmet.

I'm here to expose that and get this game to where it can be so that kids can continue to play this game the way it should be played, the way you grew up watching it with the 85 Bears.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: Yes, what a team -- the 85 Bears.

Now the new regulation will go into effect a year from now. So that's why Turley and the multibillion-dollar hemp industry are getting rolling to reverse the ban and avoid their own shutdown.

That's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X @mkraju and follow the show @INSIDEPOLITICS. Also find me on TikTok and on Instagram.

And remember, in the United States, you can now stream INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY live or just catch up later on the CNN app and visit CNN.com/watchformore.

Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Dana's guests include CMS administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and former U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.

[08:56:05]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)