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Greene Apologizes For "Toxic Politics" Amid Trump Feud; Ken Burns' New Series Explores America's Founding; Trump Threatens Indiana Republicans Blocking Redistricting; Trump Sued By Preservations Over Plan To Paint Eisenhower Executive Building. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 17, 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]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: -- state of Ohio, trying to recruit the most likely people to flip seats or flip seats back because, well, let's just say he wins the Senate back which is a long shot but you never know. Maybe he could go out a hero or people tend to change their minds when their leader is successful.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they could be happy.

BASH: Yes.

RAJU: And when people are happy, maybe there's not an uprising.

BASH: Yes.

RAJU: But that's going to be -- you're right, it's going to be a call order to overturn to take back the Senate.

BASH: Real quick.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I was just going to say one of the things he's also facing is you have members having to say they're going to support him for leader next year if they are and that that'll be a litmus test amongst in some races going forward.

BASH: All right. Everybody stand by.

Coming up, will the real Marjorie Taylor Greene please stand up? We'll see what exactly happens in the future. What we do know is the remarkable thing she told me on State of the Union yesterday. Stay with us to hear that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:35:31]

BASH: A sweeping apology after years of pushing toxic and often violent political rhetoric, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is owning her mistakes. We spoke exclusively in her first interview since President Trump publicly cut ties with her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R), GEORGIA: I have something in my heart that I think is incredibly important for our country and that is to end the toxic fighting in politics. And this has been going on for years and it has divided our country, split up friends and families, neighbors, and it's not solving our problems.

The most hurtful thing he said which is absolutely untrue is he called me a traitor and that is so extremely wrong and those are the types of words used that can radicalize people against me and put my life in danger.

BASH: Obviously, any threats to your safety are completely unacceptable. But we have seen these kinds of attacks or criticism from the President at other people. It's not new. And with respect, I haven't heard you speak out about it until it was directed at you.

GREENE: Dana, I think that's fair criticism. And I would like to say humbly, I'm sorry for taking part in the toxic politics. It's very bad for our country. And I've -- it's been something I've thought about a lot especially since Charlie Kirk was assassinated, is that we -- I'm only responsible for myself and my own words and actions and I am going -- I am committed and I've been working on this a lot lately to put down the knives and politics.

I really just want to see people be kind to one another and we need to figure out a new path forward that is focused on the American people because as Americans no matter what side of the aisle we're on, we have far more in common than we have differences.

BASH: Yes,

GREENE: And we need to be able to respect each other with our disagreements.

BASH: So just to put a button on this, you regret the things that you have said and posted in the past, the Facebook post that was taken down of you in 2020 holding a gun alongside the squad encouraging people to go on the offense against the socialists, liking a tweet of somebody calling for the execution of Nancy Pelosi and former President Obama, just examples?

GREENE: Well, Dana, as you know and many people know, I addressed that back in 2021 and of course I never want to cause any harm or anything bad for anyone, so that was addressed back then --

BASH: OK.

GREENE: -- and I very much stand by my words I said then and I stand by my words today. I think America needs to come together and end all the toxic, dangerous rhetoric and divide. And I'm leading the way with my own example and I hope that President Trump can do the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: And my panel is back. Tyler?

TYLER PAGER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, remarkable interview. And just a sea change from what we've seen. In some ways, some of the rhetoric she was saying was sounded like Joe Biden of there's more that unites us than divides us. That is not the sort of rhetoric we are used to hearing from President Trump and the MAGA base.

And one of the interesting things she referenced there was Erika Kirk. And if you'll remember at Charlie Kirk's funeral, Erika Kirk said Charlie loved your enemy and Donald Trump got up there and said I disagreed with him, that's not true. I hate my enemy.

And so it's an interesting schism within the conservative movement right now about the path forward and to see Marjorie Taylor Greene, who, as we said earlier, was one of the President's most loyal and trusted allies, defending him at every twist and turn separating herself from him in this remarkable way is definitely not something I would have predicted. And also, you know, says something interesting about what the future of the party might look like without Donald Trump.

BASH: Manu, you have covered Marjorie Taylor Greene extensively since she was elected and sworn in, spent a lot of time talking to her, what's your sense?

RAJU: Yes. She says she has not changed ideologically. I think ideologically, that's correct. She has not really changed she came in. But her style and the way she presents herself has been -- there's been a marked shift over the last several years.

[12:40:05]

When she first came in 2021, she was confrontational with reporters. She was fighting, digging in. She was stripped from her committee assignments famously when Democrats controlled the House. Since then, she has -- she's made -- come across with a much more polished tone, much more measured tone, even though she can be very fiery.

And she can do things like trying to remove the Speaker of the House like she did with Mike Johnson unsuccessfully as well. So her positions have not changed. I think it's also just something we should note this last night how Trump responded to all of this.

BASH: Yes. Well, let's actually look at this. So, first that this is a post that he put up after this series of interviews, actually the only interview that she did but the series of comments that came afterwards. "Wacky Marjorie, quote, "traitor" Brown, Remember, Greene turns to Brown where there is ROT involved, is working overtime to try to portray herself as a victim when in actuality she is the cause of all her own problems."

Then listen to what he said to reporters when he arrived at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Marjorie Traitor Greene. I don't think her life is in danger. I don't think -- frankly, I don't think anybody cares about her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I mean that's -- she just said her life was in danger. She said her security and safety of her family was a concern and after Trump's remarks and this is what he does though, you know, when he -- when someone is criticizing.

PAGER: And also just quickly, if he's saying no one cares about her, he's posted about her four or five times in the last two days.

RAJU: At least.

KUCINICH: And clearly, he does and -- but when we've seen politicians who aligned with the President turn their back on them, they do get this kind of reception. My question is, I mean, you don't hear contrition very much from politicians these days. What does she want? What does she want next? Because rarely, do these things happen without a reason?

BASH: Well, Scott Jennings came on that show and said that the message that the President sent to her was polling, showing that she shouldn't run statewide because she would lose at least the Senate by 20 points. So, you know, maybe that's part of it, showing that she's a different kind of Republican.

All right.

RAJU: Right.

BASH: Don't go anywhere. Thank you so much.

Stay with us because Ken Burns describes the American Revolution as the most important event since the birth of Christ. And that's why he made a 12-hour documentary about it. He's right there and he'll be speaking to us after a short break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:46:52]

BASH: The year is 2015, Barack Obama is President and Ken Burns begins working on a new documentary project. Now, a decade later, just in time for America's 250th birthday, the American Revolution makes its debut.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Americans have made a discovery or think they have made one that we mean to oppress them. We have made a discovery or think we have made one that they intend to rise in rebellion. Our severity has increased their ill behavior. We know not how to advance. They know not how to retreat. Some party must give way. Edmund Burke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And the Legendary Documentary Filmmaker Ken Burns joins me now. Thank you so much for being here. I'm really excited to talk to you.

And I was fascinated by something you told Anderson Cooper. You said that you won't work on a more important film than this. I mean, your library is very, very big, very vast, and really acclaimed. That's a big statement.

KEN BURNS, DIRECTOR & DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER, "THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION": So the key is the word "more." I mean I felt this about the U.S. and the Holocaust. I felt this about other films. But this one, I don't know. It really snuck up on us. As you say, we've been working on it for nearly a decade.

Lots of water under the American bridge. Lots of things going on. Lots of rhymes to notice but ignore not to point fingers at because they always change. Trying to figure out how to master this complex narrative about something that's very, very superficially understood by us.

And so here we are. Last night was the premiere. Millions of Americans are beginning to have a kind of deep dive into our origin story.

BASH: And the first episode as you mentioned aired last night and I also caught it on PBS streaming. And I was really struck by how you started, Ken, because you explain how a powerful confederacy of native nations inspired Benjamin Franklin decades before the American Revolution.

BURNS: Yes. 20 years before the revolution started, Franklin was sort of impressed with Iroquois Confederacy. Six nations, five nations, and six nations that came together that created what they called the Haudenosaunee. It was an agreement that it worked for centuries.

Essentially a kind of Republican Democratic thing that allowed them to act as one in matters of international trade and diplomacy, but also maintain the individual identity of each of the tribes, each of the nations. And he thought why can't we do this.

Nobody wanted to give up their autonomy. But it does influence this American desire to sort of come together, to figure out how to get over their differences. And boy, if you lived in New Hampshire or Georgia, you were in different countries. You just felt you had probably different faiths, different kinds of ways of seeing things.

So the revolution is really this experiment at trying to bring back, and the native picture is always present. I mean, this is the fourth of the fifth global war.

[12:50:09] Our revolution is also a civil war and a global war over the prize of North America. When we say prize, you mean land. And when you say land, you mean that which has been occupied by thousands of years -- for thousands of years by other peoples.

And the film tries to acknowledge that complication in the midst of understanding women's roles and understanding black enslaved and free roles and Spanish and French and British and the developing story of the United States. So the Burke quote is great. It's escalating rhetoric that in some ways helps to start the fighting.

I mean if you -- if I tell you you're bad, you start acting better. And when you say I'm a tyrant, I start acting more like a tyrant. And it just got out of control. And that's how the revolution starts over also some of the noblest aspirations of humankind. And that's what makes our revolution a big deal in the history of the world.

BASH: That's right. You know the aspiration was equality and liberty and all the things that we've been learning about -- that we all learn about our whole lives. You have made documentaries about some of the most divisive times in American history. Vietnam, the Civil War, and now the revolution. How does the division we see today compare to what you have exposed and gone through in our history?

BURNS: So I don't want to disappoint the chicken littles in our midst but it's not that bad. It's bad. But I think that we can go back to our founding and understand how -- not only how divided we were back then. I mean this is a civil war. There were loyalists and patriots and they were killing each other.

This isn't just us against the bad Brits who come over from there to impose on us taxes and things like that. It's such a complicated dynamic. And we have a moment in the film in the fourth episode which will be Wednesday night where a loyalist kills his best friend, a patriot.

They'd grown up together in New Haven. He kills him at the Battle of Benning. It's that bad. And what also happens is that we figure out how to get along. And so, part of -- even what I'm talking about today is about this, this sort of realizing the dead end that this sort of my way or the highway represents with regard to a democracy.

It doesn't work in an autocracy. It does. But let's remember that the story of the United States and what makes it so important is that up to that point up, to July 4, 1776, basically everyone on Earth was a subject under authoritarian rule.

There were a few people on the east coast of the United States who were citizens with the great responsibility that that entails. And our founders said it. Pursuit of happiness was not the pursuit of material wealth. It was lifelong learning to be virtuous in order to earn that citizenship.

And so you figured out how to listen to the other, how to figure out how to compromise, how to work together. And this is like at the dog catcher level and of course at the national level. BASH: Yes. I mean, I have heard you say that this film was therapy about America looking back to its origin story and attempting to heal. And I don't think it's chicken little can. I think it's nice for us to know and understand history that yes these times feel awful and the most evasive ever, but they're not. And that's one of the amazing things --

BURNS: But they're not.

BASH: -- about you and your filmmaking. And we're very lucky to have you. You are a national treasure.

Ken Burns, thank you so much for being here.

BURNS: Thank you.

BASH: We'll be right back.

BURNS: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:58:30]

BASH: Topping our political radar, Senator Cory Booker is back in New Hampshire and it certainly sounds like he's someone interested in running for president and winning that state's primary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D), NEW JERSEY: This is my second favorite new state after New Jersey. I think the culture here, it blew me away when I was running for president. There's something special here in New Hampshire. I support their efforts to be the first in the nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And New Hampshire lost its first in the nation Democratic primary status in 2024. But the DNC may restore it for 2028. Booker ran for president in 2020, but dropped out before the primaries began.

And President Trump is lashing out in Indiana Republicans who rejected his effort to redraw the state's congressional map. On Truth Social this morning, the President said he'll back primary challengers to state lawmakers who oppose him, writing, "We must keep the majority at all costs. Republicans might fight back."

Now this is his second post threatening Indiana Republicans and one of them said that he name checked yesterday this person was a victim of swatting at his home within hours of the President's post.

Now, also, on the President, he may have demolished the East Wing, but he's now being told that he can't paint a building that is just next door to the White House. The D.C. Preservation League and Cultural Heritage Partners sued President Trump over his plans to paint the Eisenhower executive building white. The Eisenhower building was built in 1888 and now houses most of the White House staff. The lawsuit claims painting the granite exterior could irreversibly damage the building. And the proposal must go through the proper preservation review required by federal law.

Thank you so much for joining Inside Politics today. CNN News Central starts right now.