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Lawmakers Look To Reform Censure Process; Voters In PA Swing District Grapple With Rising Prices; Sen. Cruz Eyes Another Presidential Run In 2028; Reverend Shares Conversations On Faith With Well-Known People. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired November 21, 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: And the House wants to make it harder to punish its own. There's a new bipartisan push to raise the threshold to censure members. The House took up two censure votes this past week, one aimed at retiring Democrat Chuy Garcia for orchestrating his exit so he could pick his replacement, and the other against Democrat Stacey Plaskett for texting convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing.
The proposed change would raise the number of votes required to reprimand members from a simple majority to 60 percent. As for how the House got here, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Republicans are to blame.
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REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D), MINORITY LEADER: They've done nothing. And so all their members do is cook up these unhinged censure resolutions. Literally, week after week after week.
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BASH: Speaker Johnson told reporters he is, quote, "very interested" in the effort.
Coming up, the President is trying to brush off concerns about affordability as we were discussing, but voters in a key swing district in Pennsylvania tell John King they're not buying it. Up next, all over the map.
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[12:35:54]
BASH: President Trump may be trying to dismiss the affordability crisis, but as CNN's John King discovered, voters in the swing district of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania say they are struggling to make ends meet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bethlehem is blue collar, full of people living paycheck to paycheck. Full of people who come to Jenique Jones for help.
JENIQUE JONES, PENNSYLVANIA DISTRICT 7 VOTER: My business assists people in repairing their credit, managing their finances and basically being financially organized.
KING: So if you're busy, times are tough.
JONES: Absolutely, completely.
KING: And you're busy right now?
JONES: Super busy.
KING: What kind of stories are you hearing?
JONES: My husband lost all of his overtime. My kid's daycare went up. Can't afford the cost of food. Using credit cards for everyday expenses. No money left after their bills are paid. Pretty much just a whole bunch of financial mess.
KING: We changed presidents at the beginning of the year.
JONES: We did.
KING: And the guy who moved into the White House said that he was going to fix it. Several times he said it would be easy.
JONES: Absolutely.
KING: Has he fixed it?
JONES: Absolutely not. I'm definitely waiting for him to fix it.
KING (voice-over): Jones is a three-time Trump voter, but she says he has simply failed to keep his promise to lower the cost of living.
JONES: I'm very let down by that. Very, very let down because I feel like it's only gotten worse.
KING: Pennsylvania ranks highest among the states in terms of food inflation. Grocery prices here up more than 8 percent this past year. That is way above the national average.
Housing costs are another piece of the affordability challenge. A one- bedroom apartment here in Bethlehem runs about $1,900 a month on average. That is up nearly 6 percent from last year.
KING (voice-over): This is Gentleman's Barbershop. Customers gripe a lot about rising costs. Ashley Ruiz tries to help.
ASHLEY RUIZ, PENNSYLVANIA DISTRICT 7 VOTER: I'll tell the client, hey, if you get it cut a little shorter, the haircut will have a longer lifeline. Because I want them to feel like they're getting a service that will last longer so their money goes further.
KING (voice-over): She gets it because she does the tough math at home. Rent, food, child care.
KING: All high (ph).
RUIZ: They are a lot higher. So I try to make wiser decisions and hope that things will get better.
KING (voice-over): A mix of politics around this table, but everyone agrees costs are up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Insurance is crazy. It's coming on more crazy than next year.
KING (voice-over): Owner Ronald Corales is another three-time Trump voter. When clients or co-workers grumble about costs, Corales urges patience.
RONALD CORALES. PENNSYLVANIA DISTRICT 7 VOTER: Well, hopefully soon. I mean, like --
KING: But it hasn't happened yet?
CORALES: Not really. We don't really see it at the moment. Like I said, I think we have to give him some time.
KING: Back in Bethlehem's heyday, this was its economic powerhouse, Bethlehem Steel. But the blast furnace here last fired 30 years ago, November 1995. A lot of change, but Bethlehem still matters politically.
This is Pennsylvania's bellwether, Northampton County, a place known for picking winners. The winner here in Northampton has gone on to win statewide and win the White House in the last five presidential elections. And in 29 of the 32 presidential elections dating back to 1900.
Trump's win here in 2024 also helped flip this congressional district, Pennsylvania's seventh, from blue to red. Now, the margin in that House race was just 4,000 votes. And so, with affordability as issue number one, Democrats have this district high on the target list as they try to retake the House in next year's midterms.
KING (voice-over): John and Lisa Ronca own Cutter's Bike Shop. Their teenage daughter rides competitively. Sometimes gets injured. They get their health insurance through the Obamacare exchange, and their renewal letter just came.
LISA RONCA, PENNSYLVANIA DISTRICT 7 VOTER: It's going to be triple and --
JOHN RONCA, PENNSYLVANIA DISTRICT 7 VOTER: Triple this year.
L. RONCA: -- which equates to double the cost of what we pay for our mortgage for our house. So that's so we can't keep that plan, to say the least.
KING (voice-over): Health care costs going up, their profit margin already down.
KING: Why? Is this a tariff question?
[12:40:00]
J. RONCA: Every, like, two to three months, we get letters from the companies, you know, we got to increase. We're having a 10 percent increase, another 10 percent increase. And it just keeps escalating.
KING (voice-over): Sales tend to spike around Christmas, but they're worried this year.
L. RONCA: 20 inch single speed kids bike was $250, which is still decent, decently high. $400 just in the last couple of months. So it's kind of tough. I don't know how many kids bikes we're getting for Christmas. I mean, who's going to spend?
KING: From $250 --
L. RONCA: To $400.
KING: -- to $400 in a couple of months --
L. RONCA: Yes.
KING: -- this year.
L. RONCA: Yes.
KING (voice-over): The Roncas don't like Trump and tend to vote blue. But they did support moderate Republican Charlie Dent a few years back when he was the congressman here.
J. RONCA: And it's like I have no problem voting for either side if the person's good for the area.
KING (voice-over): But their stress this November shapes their early thoughts about next November.
L. RONCA: Yes, just this year, it's a big change.
KING: He keeps saying that that's a myth, that prices are down, that, you know, they're gone. Inflation's over.
L. RONCA: He doesn't go food shopping. I mean, I don't know. Yes, it's hard.
KING: How do you vote? Local or national?
J. RONCA: I would -- to me, I'm going to vote for a person who puts a check on them. You know what I mean? Who's going to --
L. RONCA: Yes. J. RONCA: -- reign --
KING: Right.
J. RONCA: -- the President in.
KING (voice-over): Frustration with prices and with the President in one of those places that tends to decide whether the country stays the course or shifts gears.
John King, CNN, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
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BASH: Up next, he's been called Lion Ted, Beautiful Ted, and President Trump's, quote, :very good friend." Is the senator once again envisioning President Ted Cruz? We'll talk about it next.
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[12:46:08]
BASH: Time to throw a log on the, will he run in 2028 fire? For Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who ran in 2016, it may be an ember that never died. He talked about it with Stephen A. Smith. It's worth a listen.
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STEPHEN A. SMITH, RADIO HOST: You running for President?
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: At this point --
SMITH: You're in the news.
CRUZ: -- I'm doing my job. You know, look --
SMITH: President Trump said that he supports you.
CRUZ: Well, I'm not sure he said that, but he did say we're good friends and we work together very closely.
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BASH: Now listen to his answer on Fox this week.
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CRUZ: I got a job. It's representing 31 million Texans. And it's fighting every day for 31 million Texans. And I'll tell you right now, the wins we are getting are historic. The One Big, Beautiful bill you were talking about just a minute ago, I was blessed to write major portions of that bill.
I authored and passed into law the single most far reaching federal school choice bill that has ever passed. I authored into law the so- called Trump accounts that starting next year, every child in America will have a personal investment account.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: And my panel is back. I mean, Lisa, why not? No, we were talking at the beginning of the show about the fact that, you know, things are changing and maybe there are some cracks in MAGA. And there could be some realignment sort of back to the future, you know, where the conservatives were before Trump. And that was in many ways where Ted Cruz stands on domestic issues and foreign policy issues.
LISA LERER, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I mean, I think it's hard to imagine a world where Republicans go back to those traditional, like generationally held values of like fiscal conservatism and conservative, you know, social policy and like a hawkish foreign policy, just because things don't move backwards. And Trump fundamentally remade this party in his own image, but he fundamentally remade this party in his own image.
So it's not clear what Republicans become when Trump is no longer, you know, on the presidential ticket. In 2020, it will be the first Presidential race in 16 years that Trump is not on. So it does feel like there could be space. It could be open. I mean, I think there's a presumption the Vice President would be the front runner. But --
BASH: Yes.
LERER: -- if you're Ted Cruz, why not sort of try some things out and see if it takes.
BASH: And he's definitely separated himself from people in the JD Vance wing on antisemitism. He's been very outspoken about his concern about what's happening on the hard right. He, you know, he talked about Jimmy Kimmel, which, you know, his office has -- and other people around him have said, you know, remember the right of free speech is something that he has been talking about since he was in college and written about.
But still, your news outlet NOTUS took notice.
EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, REPORTER, NOTUS: That's correct.
BASH: Is that what I did there?
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Yes, that's right.
BASH: Of this. "The White House believes Ted Cruz is working to undermine Trump due to his 2028 ambitions." A source close to Trump says, "He's used his role to stifle Trump's priorities. Ted is quickly going the way of MTG, and I can only imagine what fresh nickname Trump comes up with now to end Ted's career for the second time."
I mean, there certainly are people getting out there to --
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Yes, that's my colleague, Reese Gorman's reporting. And it really is about kind of their folks inside the Trump world orbit who absolutely think that Ted Cruz is trying to run against MAGA or JD Vance or whoever it is right in the next election cycle.
But you're right. You mentioned this thing. He was so forceful in that FCC issue with Jimmy Kimmel. Like, it wasn't just for criticism. He was the one that sort of said, you know, this is like a mafia, you know, this is the Godfather. It was really shut it down.
And it's interesting because, you know, if you think now it's so far away that it doesn't make any sense why you'd be talking about 2028. There is a vice President. There is a guy like Marco Rubio.
[12:50:02]
But, I mean, if you're a Republican and you're looking around at what has happened the last time there was a vice president for Donald Trump, or the last time there was Secretary of State for Donald Trump, you're thinking maybe there might be space that opens up for me.
I don't know -- I will say Cruz's office was very strong with us saying that this is all just rumblings of political staffers that are disgruntled with us. Trump and I are very good friends. This is not --
BASH: Yes.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: -- on our top of our agenda.
BASH: Well, speaking of good friends, when I first started covering them during the 2016 presidential cycle, the two of them started as very close and then their relationship had some rough patches. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Why do you have this bromance?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, that is a little bit of a romance. I like him. He likes me.
CRUZ: I like Donald Trump. And I'm glad that he's energized and excited a lot of people.
TRUMP: We call him Lion Ted.
CRUZ: Donald, you're a sniveling coward and leave Heidi the hell alone.
TRUMP: Lion Ted does not have the temperament to be doing this. He is choking like a dog.
CRUZ: The man is utterly amoral.
Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust.
TRUMP: He's not Lion Ted anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is it now?
TRUMP: He's Beautiful Ted.
CRUZ: At the end of the day, he won. And I had a decision to make in November of 2016.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Memories.
Up next, the unlikely bond that unites some of the world's most famous actors, politicians and humanitarians and the man who's talked to many of them. A special conversation coming up in minutes.
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[12:55:47]
BASH: What do Denzel Washington, Jane Goodall and Nikki Haley have in common? You might think not much. But, in fact, the thing they share is the bedrock of their lives and that is their Christian faith. And they explore that faith in a series of candid conversations with my next guest.
Russell Levenson, the author of "Witness to Belief: Conversations on Faith and Meaning." And he joins us for today's edition of our Have a Little Faith series. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.
As I mentioned, you have conversations with 12 prominent people on the surface. Don't seem to have a lot of connective tissue, different political ideologies, professions, ages, but they do have faith as the through line that connects them all. And you explored that.
RUSSELL LEVENSON, RETIRED RECTOR, ST. MARTIN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH: Yes, Dana, thank you for having me on today. Well, I would say that is exactly what unites them. It's not their politics. It's not their -- not even their theological perspective. I'm pretty careful to say this is a book that's not a prescription, but it is a description of 12 people who have found meaning and purpose, direction in their lives by a really strong faith in my house, which is the Christian faith.
There are other faiths, of course, but I'm a Christian pastor, and I really wanted to sit down and talk with these people in a time in which a lot of people are kind of confused about what the bedrock depth and meaning and purpose of faith is. And all 12 of these people really do have a vibrant faith. They pray, they go to church, they read their Bibles, and they are intentional about giving of themselves outside of themselves.
BASH: And your book includes a really fascinating conversation with Dr. Jane Goodall, who passed away last month. And you asked her --
LEVENSON: Yes.
BASH: -- about coupling the worlds of science and religion, about believing in creation and evolution. And I want to read some of what she told you. She said, quote, "Some will still hold to the theory of a Big Bang, and I do not dismiss that. But that was -- but what was before the Big Bang? I believe, as do growing numbers of people in the sphere of science, that creation by God is not only sensible, but logical."
And when you spoke with Dr. Goodall, she was 90 years old. She also offered her thoughts about the end of life. She said, quote, "I have never been afraid of death itself. Why? Because I do not believe death is the end. It is perhaps more like the beginning after the injustices and pain of this life that many must endure, then there will be peace."
Wow.
LEVENSON: Great conversation. She was -- she -- I like to talk about her in the present tense because she -- I believe she continues to live on. And she always kind of had a small smile on her face. And if you ask her about that, she would attribute that to her faith and her sense of closeness with God.
And indeed, I begin the book with a conversation with Francis Collins, who is, of course, is the head of NIH for many years, head of the Human Genome Project, who also believes in the bringing together of those two worlds, as do I.
Genesis is -- if people know their Bible as well, there are actually two Genesis, there are two creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2, and they're a little different. I believe in creation. I don't believe it has to be the way it's literally described in Scripture.
But again, the tenet that holds these folks together is they do believe in God, that God created us for meaning, purpose. I think Jane said that again and again, not too long before her death on October 1st, the afternoon of October 1st, she wrote a really sweet note to my wife and I.
She said, we live in dark times, we live in challenging times. But there's one thing we can do and that is we can pray to the great spiritual force of the universe, which we know to be God. But she would also say you back up that prayer with being active in your community, making a difference where you were.
She was a big believer, as you know, in hope, and her hope was founded in taking action to make a difference in the world around us. And of course, my faith says that really the chief ethic of our faith is to love other people, love our Lord God, and also love everyone God sends our way.
What better message to grab ahold of when we're just a few weeks away from Christmas and Hanukkah and Ramadan a few months after that. And people are looking for a good --
BASH: Yes.
LEVENSON: -- gift to give away.
BASH: Yes. LEVENSON: I suggest they pick this up and read these stories. Yes.
BASH: Well, here it is, "Witness to Belief." And you talked to Denzel Washington, Nikki Haley, Condoleezza Rice, and a few other actors (technical difficulty) so much for being here. Appreciate it.
Thanks for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.
