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Inside Politics

Trump's Affordability Disconnect Sends Tremors Through GOP; Hegseth Digs In On Strike: "I Would've Made The Same Call Myself". Interview with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA); Tomorrow, Are Dems' Senate Hopes About to Get More Complicated. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired December 07, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:47]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST (voice-over): "Con job". The GOP frets as the president downplays Americans concerns.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The word affordability is a con job.

RAJU: Can he turn it around by barnstorming a swing state?

I go one on one with the Pennsylvania Republican who's bucking Trump over high costs.

REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): I don't know where he's going with that. Affordability is the most important issue. Issue number one.

RAJU: Plus, deep in the heart. New reporting is an outspoken progressive considers a Senate run in Texas.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We should be celebrating and uplifting our young people who stand up and raise their hands.

RAJU: But could messy primaries hurt Democrats' chances to retake control.

And, under fire. After a week of bipartisan blowback, Pete Hegseth doubles down.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself.

RAJU: But are his days numbered?

RAJU: 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.

We begin the hour with the reality Donald Trump is trying to live in, versus the economic reality Americans feel more and more each day, and the political reality now confronting his party.

The disconnect has the GOP more worried than ever amid growing calls to shift their strategy on affordability ahead of the midterms, as American wallets get thinner, the essential stretched budgets and layoffs hit a post-pandemic high. But much like his predecessor, the president is digging in and trying to paint a very different picture, writing this weekend that prices are, quote, "coming substantially down," adding, quote, "Biden caused the affordability crisis. I'm fixing it along with everything else."

But according to a new survey, economic confidence is at a 17-month low. Sixty-eight percent of Americans now believe the economy is getting worse, 63 percent say it's a bad time to get a job. Meantime, Trump's focus was elsewhere last night with the recipients of this year's Kennedy Center honors and touting his push to remodel the White House to his liking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're bringing the White House back, room by room. But you had a lot of other presidents that weren't into that. I am, I've always been into it. I have two jobs. I have a construction job which is -- which is really like relaxation for me because I've been doing it all my life.

But I actually get great relaxation out of fixing the White House and fixing the Kennedy Center. We're putting up a large slabs of marble and a couple of the great halls, and it's already -- we did some testing. It's made it as good as it is. It's made it even better. Marble can do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right. Let's break this all down with my excellent panel. Anna Palmer from "Punchbowl News", "The Dispatch's" Jonah Goldberg, Zolan Kanno-Youngs from "The New York Times".

Good morning to you all. Happy Sunday.

Jonah, the president says he has two jobs. A lot of Republicans will say, you have one job. Focus on the economy and affordability. But Trump is just unable or unable to acknowledge people are feeling pain right now and wants people to believe the reality is different than what they're feeling. Can he actually make that case to the American public?

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, I think we got to get some marble in here. RAJU: Some gold columns, please.

GOLDBERG: I think -- look, he has a long history of thinking he can jawbone reality to his liking, right? I mean, going back to his depositions where he said his net worth depended on how he felt that way. He is a product of the power of positive thinking and the prosperity gospel.

And that attitude has worked pretty well for him politically over the years. The problem is, is that it can't work. Americans live -- we talk about the macro economy. American. Each American lives in a micro economy. And Joe Biden got in trouble for telling people not to believe their lying eyes, not to believe the headlines.

But people are actually experts in their own economic situation and telling them that they're falling for a hoax is political malpractice.

[08:05:04]

RAJU: Because -- and the polls bear this out. I mean, poll after poll shows Trump's position on the economy is deteriorating pretty rapidly among the American public. This is just the Marquette poll from -- between July and November. The approved, disapproved number 43 percent back in July. Not good back in July.

Even worse now, 36 percent and the disapprove number in November, 64 percent disapprove.

Zolan, you cover the White House. Does the president grasp how underwater he is on this issue?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think he's increasingly frustrated over the rising criticism that he's getting on this issue. Grasp is something else. When you're calling something a con job, I don't know if you're really grasping it.

I do feel like this is deja vu in a bit, talking about a president responding to economic frustrations of the American people by basically saying, by basically not empathizing with them, by saying, wait, the economy is actually very good. And by the way, the president, you know, a large part of his campaign was attacking Biden over that problem. So now you've exposed yourself to this issue. You ran on the economy, you ran on affordability and on helping the working class. That's a part of at least a stated populist message.

And now, as you see, grocery frustrations over grocery prices and the White House in turn say, well, look at energy prices or look at all we've done on inflation, even though people are still frustrated about inflation. That's where you get those poll numbers, right? That's where you get that.

There is frustration in the White House over this. There is frustration mostly, that Republicans -- there have been some Republicans that are also calling on the president to focus on this issue more, but that hasn't translated to a message of actually meeting voters where their frustrations are. I do think it's interesting that were getting to the point of a presidency where people are starting to say, don't worry -- his aides are starting to say, don't worry, he's about to travel --

RAJU: Yeah, yeah.

YOUNGS: -- talk about the economy.

RAJU: Yeah, right.

YOUNGS: I feel like we hit that point all the time.

RAJU: This is deja vu all over again. I mean, speaking of those Republican and concerns and yes, he is going to Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

One congressman, Jeff Van Drew, told my colleague Sarah Ferris for a story we did this past week about the concerns among the GOP and Trump. Van Drew said he talked to Trump. He said I would love him to go back to driving around in the garbage truck, going to McDonald's, go to a supermarket, go to a farm. That's when he's at his best. Next year, next year, we got to concentrate. The American people first. Next year.

ANNA PALMER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS CO-FOUNDER & CEO: I mean, I think its really difficult when you talk to members of Congress. They are looking at the election in the midterms saying, what are we going to run on? We've seen this frustration time and again, House Republicans in particular, basically having a lot of no vote confidence in Speaker Mike Johnson because they feel like they need to be doing something, not just passing, you know, NIL legislation, actually being able to bring something home.

And these -- this last special election in Tennessee, Manu, you know it as well as I do. I mean, they are nervous because they see this as being a massive problem for them.

RAJU: Yeah. And this is why I mean, look at just you know, the American people are feeling different feeling in different ways. And this is from a Gallup survey about holiday gift budgets. People are spending to anticipate less money this holiday season, spending roughly 230 bucks less than last season. So, the real people are feeling it immediately, especially this Christmas season.

And Trump, when he was asked about all this this week, this is what he -- how he messaged the concerns over affordability and the Republican agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The word "affordability" is a con job by the Democrats, which today, where they have a race going on right now in Tennessee, and this woman goes affordability, affordability, they're the ones that caused the problem. The prices were way high. Were bringing the prices down.

But they're like scam artists. You know, they're con. I call them con men and women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Con men.

GOLDBERG: Yeah. Look again, you can't tell people you're imagining things. Look, I will say there is a bit of a there's a bit of a point to this thing about affordability, insofar as there are lots of things where the prices are prices are improving. The problem is we've seen this many times in American politics. We come up with these different words and phrases to describe political or economic, economic anxiety, right? You know, and economic insecurity was one a long time ago. Its the economy, stupid. Whatever.

There's a lot of things happening in the economy right now that are making people feel anxious. And affordability just is a better word than most for capturing it. But it doesn't necessarily get at every aspect of it. And the problem Trump has, it's very rare for presidents to actually do something specific, which gives them complete ownership of the economy.

And his liberation day tariffs, where he said, we are now transforming the economy. We're making the economy better. It's very easy for Democrats to say, even when it's not true, this is -- all this is because of what he's doing.

PALMER: And don't you think? I mean, truly, though, the problem for the president and the White House right now is they have been saying this is the Biden economy.

[08:10:01]

Well, at some point, it's the Trump economy. And he promised it was going to be a different story under him. As much as he doesn't want to, you know, wants to call affordability a scam, it is the word of this election cycle, and he can't run away from it.

RAJU: Yeah. And one thing, while the economy, of course, is going to be the driving issue, come in the midterms, there's another way Trump is trying to hang on to power. At least have Republicans do in the House. And it's this gerrymandering wars. We're seeing district by district, state by state.

In Indiana, it is getting really, really ugly. The senate, the state senate controlled a supermajority of Republicans coming back tomorrow into session. Trump right now, at least 10 Republican senators have said they will not vote for this in the United States Senate.

Trump is calling these senators out by name, just over the last day. He's calling them out, putting their names out on social media, saying, were going to go out essentially threatening to primary them, defeat him in the election.

But it's getting even worse for some of these members who have who have said that they have gotten swatting incidents in their houses and bomb threats, violent incidents because of all this, for two more Republican seats, which is the ultimate goal here. So, they can have nine seats, clean sweep of House Indiana seats, all to the GOP. It's ugly.

KANNO-YOUNGS: It is getting ugly. You've had public officials in Indiana say that they're getting doxed, you know, as a result of this pressure. But even with this pressure, calls from J.D. Vance as well, Trump on social media, you are still seeing some senators oppose this. And it's going to be interesting to see how it ends up. All of this is because of the anxiety over the potential losses that the incumbency could have with the forthcoming midterms. So, you're seeing an end route trying to redraw the maps here to gain a political edge.

RAJU: Do you think Trump is going to win here in Indiana? Get these -- I mean, he tends to win all these fights with Republicans.

PALMER: We'll see. They seem like they are holding strong. I mean, the proof will be in the pudding. What happens next week.

But Indiana I think to me is a larger -- a larger message of Trump losing control of the fear or the mantle that say, people want to be with winners and people in Indiana senate House right now, and Republicans don't see Trump as the winner here.

RAJU: Yeah. And we'll see. Redistricting rolls right now. We our projections right now about 12 GOP seats versus 12 Democrat seats. And the Democrats have tried to fight back on this. But there's some other states that have not made a decision on how to proceed. So huge implications for the midterms.

All right. Coming up, new this morning, what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is now saying about releasing video of that deadly follow up strike in the Caribbean.

And "Saturday Night Live" had its own take on that mixed messaging coming from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any truth to the allegations that after an initial strike on a drug smuggling boat, you ordered a second strike to kill the survivors?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First of all, that kind of cruel, heartless act has no place in operation kill everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:14]

RAJU: Pete Hegseth is not backing down. Despite the mounting criticism in waning support from within his own party, the Pentagon's leader is following the Trumpian playbook, doubling down after intense controversy. The latest after that deadly double tap strike in the Caribbean that prompted bipartisan fury, but saying just yesterday he would have actually ordered the strike himself.

And days after a scathing inspector general report that said that could have endangered U.S. troops when he shared sensitive military info on the app Signal earlier this year, he said he had no regrets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MODERATOR: If you had to do it again, would you have used it before combat operations?

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I don't live -- I don't live -- I don't live with any regrets. It's not a healthy way to live. And I know exactly where my compass is on these troops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And again, that I.G. report said that it could have resulted in failed -- the failed U.S. mission could have led to potential harm to U.S. troops because of the sharing that sensitive information. But he was also asked about the video of these deadly, deadly strike from early September and whether they would in fact release that video to the public.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: From what I understood then and what I understand now, I fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself.

MODERATOR: Mr. Secretary, you will be releasing that full video?

HEGSETH: We are reviewing it right now.

MODERATOR: Is that a yes or no?

HEGSETH: That is -- the most important thing to me are the ongoing operations in the Caribbean with our folks that use bespoke capabilities, techniques, procedures in the process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Trump said on Wednesday about releasing that video. No problem. That was not a no problem.

KANNO-YOUNGS: A little bit different than his answer there, right?

RAJU: It's really just speaks to the mixed messaging of Hegseth through all of this.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Which has been consistent throughout, right? Even right after the initial "Washington Post" story on the second strike, you had, some you had a break between Trump's answer and Hegseth's answer.

Look, Hegseth's tenure as defense secretary has been marked by crisis and controversy. Right? The signal chat, his own spokesman, you know, leaving and then criticizing him publicly as well. These press rules as well, these restrictions. Were you removed most reporters from the Pentagon, including Fox News, which you used to work for as well. And the president's initial response to that, basically saying, well, wait, we love the press. There was a break there, too.

You know, the president has defended Pete Hegseth publicly here. You mostly have the frustration among the other members of national security team who, you know, wince at Pete Hegseth tendency to talk about lethality in the military, doing these push-ups, not talking about the rising threat of China as much.

[08:20:08]

The White House has tried to move ahead without having as many terminations. I don't have reporting that suggests that would be close here, but, you know, it has been marked by just tension after tension and you are seeing more criticism and backlash from fellow Republicans when it comes to this situation in Venezuela.

RAJU: And Trump's handling of this has been something to watch, too, because first, he said he didn't want to see that double strike attack happen. And then he sort of aligned himself with Hegseth.

We don't even know. Trump even seen the video. I mean, it's not even clear if Trump was, you know, in how much he has dug into this in the aftermath of all this controversy.

GOLDBERG: Yeah. I mean, in some ways, this controversy is helping them insofar as the -- as a legal and constitutional matter. It's the first strike that is that is more interesting to me, right? It is not entirely clear that this isn't an utterly lawless military campaign in the first place. And I would -- I would like to see the second video. I think what we're going to see is its going to be an image, and Trump cares about images that is politically disadvantageous to them.

But what I would much rather see is that the legal finding that authorizes this thing in the first place, because my understanding from people close to it is that it's super shady, not very persuasive. And the whole going after drug boats thing is obviously part of a larger strategy having to do with Venezuela. And they need to explain it to Congress, and they need to explain it to the American people. And the reason why their messaging is all over the place is because they don't want to do either of those things.

RAJU: Yeah. And that's why the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, has been calling for the release of that legal justification. We have not yet seen that. We'll see if they do that. But you had mentioned about the controversies that Hegseth has endured while being the leader of the Pentagon. Those are just a handful on your screen. Whether it's how he dealt with Ukraine, how he dealt with kicking out the press, the boat strike signal gate, military leadership being fired and the like.

The question that I had to a number of Republicans this week was, do you have confidence in Pete Hegseth? Yes or no? Yes or no question. What did they say?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: Do you have confidence in him? Would you say that? Can you say that you do?

Do you have full confidence in his handling of his job as the secretary of defense?

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Well, I think that the fundamental, question is, is the country safer than it was under the Biden administration? I think the answer to that is unequivocally yes. He serves at the pleasure of the president.

RAJU: Do you have full confidence in him right now as leader of the Pentagon?

REP. KEVIN KILEY (R-CA): I certainly have concerns about how that issue has been handled.

RAJU: Do you think you have confidence in his job as secretary of defense?

SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): Well, I have confidence in the Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And that last comment from Joni Ernst, I have confidence in the Cngress. And she, of course, was a critical vote, came under relentless pressure and voted yes. But that speaks --

GOLDBERG: And she's leaving Congress.

RAJU: And she's leaving congress. Yes.

PALMER: I mean, I think what you saw there is just a lot of pivot, right? Nobody wants to attack the president or be perceived as attacking Donald Trump, because they know he's going to hit back on Truth Social or otherwise.

But this is where you saw some joint statements after this attack where both all of the ranking Republicans and Democrats coming together to say, we need to investigate, we need more information here.

Clearly, one of those unraveling points with Republicans in Congress versus what the Trump administration is doing.

RAJU: Do you think that he can hang on here, or do you think Trump is going to say, cut ties here?

GOLDBERG: I think he could probably survive this period. Right? But I don't see him going the full four years of the Trump administration.

KANNO-YOUNGS: It's just worth reminding, folks. I mean, again, just on the firing, I mean, most White House officials, they've really tried to move ahead with not as many firings as the first term. They know that comes with bad press. What happens? Well, I don't know. We'll see. But it's worth mentioning those members of Congress, they have not

authorized a war yet as well. And that's also the concern here. You mentioned the legality. Very few legal experts actually have said this is legal.

RAJU: Yeah. And there's going to be a vote in the Senate coming up about this. We'll see how many Republicans actually vote to try to send a message to the White House.

All right. Next, my one-on-one interview with one of just three Republicans representing a house district, Kamala Harris one. She has some tough words for his party and President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: The president himself called affordability a Democratic scam this week.

REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): I don't believe that to be true at all

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:28:56]

RAJU: Brian Fitzpatrick is one of three house Republicans who represents a district that President Trump lost in 2024. He was also one of just two Republicans who voted against Trump's One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, and he's one of the staunchest defenders of Ukraine left in the House GOP.

Now, ahead of what could be a daunting midterm environment, Fitzpatrick is warning his party on issue number one, the economy. And he says his party needs to figure out how to deal with soaring health care premiums as subsidies for millions of Americans under the Affordable Care Act are set to expire at years end.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: So, on health care, you've been pushing very hard to deal with these expiring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, pushing your own plan for this. But you're encountering a lot of resistance from within your own party and within your own leadership. What do you say to them?

FITZPATRICK: Well, I say that if you don't have a better plan, then get on board with ours. But doing nothing is not an option, right? I mean, I've heard so many people in the Republican conference rail on the Affordable Care Act, rail on Obamacare, rail on the premium tax credits.

And if you want to criticize something, that's okay as long as you have a better alternative. They have never offered a better alternative. They -- we went down this healthcare path my freshman term. I voted against the repeal of the ACA. I thought the replacement was insufficient. It was hastily put together, not well thought out.

And here we are, you know, what -- eight years later, and they still have not been able to put together an articulate plan that's going to work for everyday Americans.

So, you know, is the premium tax credit structure perfect? No, it's not. I don't like the fact that there's no income caps. I don't like the fact that the money all goes to the insurance company, rather than having some go to the individual.

But right now, with a cliff upon us at the end of the year, I think we have to extend it out a minimum of two years with guardrails, with income caps.

RAJU: The Speaker is resisting you too, right?

FITZPATRICK: He isn't resisting me personally. I mean, I've seen the comments that he doesn't want to bring an ACA extension bill to the floor. I don't know if he just thinks he's representing the majority of the GOP conference.

I don't know that because I've spoken to so many members who you would think, you know, you would consider conservative, or coming from conservative districts that are very much interested in what we're doing because, you know, if you represent people of lower and middle income means and affordability is such a crisis in this country right now for everything from child care to transportation to housing to food to fuel and to health care, people are squeezed right now.

And to add this on top of that, you know, a significant increase in their premiums is not an option. So I think a lot of my colleagues are realizing that.

And, you know, time will tell next week. You know, when we -- when we introduce this, it will be bipartisan. You know, well see how many people get on board with it.

RAJU: Will you try to force this vote through a discharge petition?

FITZPATRICK: We never start there. We try to -- we try to do things through regular order, but we never take that option off the table.

RAJU: Politically, how problematic will it be for Republicans not to figure out a solution to this?

FITZPATRICK: Well, everybody's got to have an answer to rising costs across the board, whether it be health care or anything. This is what people voted on.

I believe this is what led to Donald Trump's election in '24. I believe it's what led to Mamdani's election in '25. I think affordability is the issue.

That's what Trump's everything else. You know, people care about these other issues. They certainly want, you know, us to have smart foreign policy and, you know, all of those things. But if you're living paycheck to paycheck, which most Americans are,

and you can't afford to make ends meet, nothing else matters other than that. And they want to know that people are going to have a plan to help fix that.

RAJU: Has your party been making this enough of a focus --

(CROSSTALKING)

FITZPATRICK: I don't think they have. I don't think they have.

RAJU: Because the president himself called affordability a Democratic scam this week.

FITZPATRICK: I don't believe that to be true, at all.

No, it's real, believe me. I hear it every day back home. It's real.

RAJU: Do you find those comments problematic?

FITZPATRICK: I don't know -- I don't know what he was intending. I mean, I've heard him say the opposite of that, that he wants to focus on affordability. I don't know if he -- I don't know where he's going with that.

But I can just tell you from my standpoint, affordability is the most important issue, issue number one.

RAJU: So in addition to this, you've been pretty adamant about dealing with -- on Ukraine. You've been very active on this issue.

So just on a number of things that have happened over the last several weeks and months. Putin comes to Alaska, they literally rolled out the red carpet for him. There was this 28-point plan that came out. A lot of people said that was in line with what the Kremlin wanted.

FITZPATRICK: It did. Yes.

RAJU: And then the president has not moved forward with Russia's sanctions, has really been waffling on this issue. Do you worry about the way he has been handling Putin?

FITZPATRICK: Yes, I've -- I have not liked the way either this or the prior administration has handled this. I think both have missed opportunities in different regards. I think we need a lot more. And we hear Don Bacon and Mike Turner, Mike McCaul -- a lot of my colleagues saying we need a lot more moral clarity out of the administration.

RAJU: Do you agree with that?

FITZPATRICK: 100 percent, 100 percent. Vladimir Putin invaded a peace- loving democracy. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a legitimately-elected president. Vladimir Putin is an unelected dictator.

Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia has kidnapped close to 20,000 Ukrainian children. It is genocide. It is war crimes. And we have to call that out for what it is.

You cannot equivocate between, you know, Zelenskyy and Putin and say, well, they just need to get along. They need to work it out.

RAJU: Has Trump been too deferential to Putin?

FITZPATRICK: I believe so.

RAJU: But do you think he's being played by Putin -- Trump?

FITZPATRICK: I don't want to -- I don't know if you want to use the word "played". I think that -- I think he's been too deferential to him. To say someone's "played" is sort of insulting their negotiating tactics.

[08:34:47]

FITZPATRICK: I think Putin is very, very wise. He's a KGB agent. And I think that we just need to take a much stronger tack to him, because dictators understand one thing and one thing only.

And look at what Putin -- well, look at what brought him to the table. It was the threat of sanctions, and it was a threat of Tomahawk missiles. That's what worked with him. That's the only thing that brought him to the table. So why don't we do more of that?

RAJU: You had mentioned Ukraine -- NATO membership for Ukraine. We saw Secretary Hegseth, right off the bat, take that off the table. You've seen him do a number of other things that have been obviously very controversial since then, whether it's Signal gate, whether it's these Venezuelan boat strikes and how that was handled and the like.

When you look at him and the things that he's done, do you have confidence in him?

FITZPATRICK: I would approach the job much differently. Listen, I'm not a military. I don't have military experience. I serve with the military as an FBI agent in Iraq.

But I think it's really, really important when you lead the United States military that you do -- you do so in a way that's deferential to the people that have higher rank and people that understand it.

And I just -- I wish that there was more of an approach by the secretary to listen more to the people that have been there a long time.

RAJU: How would you characterize the way people are feeling in the conference right now? Because there's a lot of concern about the way things are going. Why is there so much concern among Republicans about what's happening in the House?

FITZPATRICK: I think emotions are really high. You know, a lot of people feel a sense of urgency to get their pieces of legislation to the floor. You don't have opportunities in the majority very often. And when you

do, you want to be able to get your legislative items that you worked your whole life to the floor.

And I think a lot of our colleagues are frustrated that their legislation has not been brought to the floor, you know.

RAJU: Is there concern that they're missing the opportunity?

FITZPATRICK: Well, yes. And I think it's also a lack of priorities. Affordability should be the name of the game. Every bill, and I've told Leader Scalise this, every bill we bring to the floor should be focused on lowering the cost of living for people who need it most.

Not, you know, voting to, you know, condemn the horrors of socialism, not voting for NIL -- name, image and likeness for college sports. Why are we focusing on that? That's not what our constituents care about. So that's causing a lot of frustration for sure.

RAJU: Are you 100 percent running for reelection?

FITZPATRICK: Yes.

RAJU: You are. So you're ready for this environment. It's going to be rough.

FITZPATRICK: I've been through -- I've been through these environments before, but I'm very close with my district.

RAJU: Is going to be one of the toughest environments given --

FITZPATRICK: Yes, I mean, I think, you know, it's natural that the pendulum always swings back and forth in politics. 2018 was, you know, a tough election year. You know, mainly it's a turnout surge, that's generally what's going on there.

Angry people vote, happy people don't. So there's typically a turnout disparity in that regard.

RAJU: Trump will make things harder for you in a district that he loves.

FITZPATRICK: Yes. But I'm a -- I'm a pretty independent-minded person, you know, starting with voting against the reconciliation bill. And I voted against a Republican reconciliation bill my freshman term as well. I'm generally not a fan of reconciliation.

RAJU: Is that a tough vote?

FITZPATRICK: Substantively, no. I mean, I got a lot of heat for it both back home and from the White House and from some of my colleagues here.

But I politely reminded them that I don't answer to any person or any party in Washington, D.C. My bosses are back home, and that was the best advice my brother gave me. My late brother Mike, who was my predecessor.

He said, just remember who your bosses are and never, ever lose sight of that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: All right.

Next, new details on the next chapter for Democrats and the mess that they're confronting in Texas. Could it doom their chances of retaking the Senate? Stay tuned.

[08:38:15]

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RAJU: It is still a long shot for Democrats to take back the Senate in the midterms. But they do have a path. They need to win a net of four states, including in a red state like Texas, where the Republican incumbent, John Cornyn, is battling for survival in an ugly GOP primary.

But now there's news about Democrats and the potential of things getting even messier for them. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, a progressive firebrand about to make a big announcement tomorrow.

If she runs for Senate, she could be a favorite in the primary. But Democratic leaders are nervous about her chances in a general election.

And the former House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told me she supports another Democratic candidate, former Congressman Colin Allred.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Do you think she would be a good candidate to run for the Texas Senate seat, given that you're trying to pick that seat up?

NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER EMERITA: Well, Colin Allred is a great candidate, too. They both are. Jasmine Crockett is remarkable, and I have served for years with Colin Allred, and I support, I've been supporting him. I hope we don't have a costly primary there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right. CNN's Isaac Dovere joins me now with brand new reporting on Jasmine Crockett's deliberations. You spoke to her about this. What's she going to do?

ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. Look, I spoke to her at length on Friday afternoon, and I said, what's going on? She said to me, I have two cashier's checks ready. One is for the application fee for running for Senate. One is for the application fee for running for reelection to the House. And one of them is going back in the bank.

I said, which one? She said, I don't know. I said -- RAJU: Do you think she really doesn't know?

DOVERE: I said to her, you have an event at 4:30 on Monday. The deadline is 6:00 p.m. tomorrow, which one is it going to be? She said, hopefully I'll decide early that morning.

So look, that said, she has been, as a reporter in this piece it's up on our site, talking to a lot of people over the last couple of days, including Colin Allred and James Talarico, the two other Democrats who are already running and trying to arrange things to get her into the race, including as the report there, that she told Colin Allred he should maybe drop out of the Senate race and go run for governor.

[08:44:55]

DOVERE: And she talked to Stacey Abrams about what Stacey Abrams did to expand the electorate in Georgia. Obviously, it worked out for other Democrats in Georgia, but not for Stacey Abrams.

This is a lot of thinking going on here for Crockett. Trying to think, is she the right -- is this the right fit for her, and is it the right fit for Democrats as they try to put this race on the board?

RAJU: Is she concerned that she could, you know, maybe win a primary, but not a general election?

DOVERE: She said to me, I'm not crazy. I don't -- I don't know why anyone thinks with my record that, that I'd be considering this willy nilly or going at it willy nilly.

She's aware of all the stuff that would come at her, or at least some of the stuff, the complaints about some of the things she said and some of the ways that she's interacted with Republicans, whether that would be sellable in Texas.

She said to me, I don't know whether the stuff that I've said and having fights with Marjorie Taylor Greene in committee hearings would work in Texas. She's trying to figure that out.

One of the things I also report in the piece is that she's been talking a lot about poll numbers. This poll that she's basing on is a poll of 600 people, 600 people in Texas, which -- and I'm not a math expert -- has more than 600 people by a lot.

And so she's trying to figure it all out. But all of this, in this very last-minute way, that is Democrats thinking, ok, this is -- this could be complicated in a lot of ways, but also its complicated because it's down to the wire.

RAJU: Yes.

DOVERE: There is a meeting in June between Beto O'Rourke, Colin Allred, James Talarico and Joaquin Castro trying to figure out putting together a ticket. Then, it didn't work because none of them could agree about which race they were going to lose.

RAJU: Yes.

DOVERE: And now they're trying to put it together in the last few hours here.

RAJU: I mean, look, there's this divide, of course, progressives versus more establishment candidates. We've seen this play out on the Republican side. We've seeing this play out on the Democratic side.

This is what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said about that debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Is it a risk, though, to nominate more progressive candidates like, let's say, you know, Jasmine Crockett, your friend is considering running for the Texas Senate seat. Is that a risk to have a candidate like that?

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): You know, I think it's people want this to be about progressive versus moderate. Every community requires a different kind of candidate. We should be celebrating and uplifting our young people who stand up and raise their hand.

And I think trying to diminish this into some progressive versus moderate debate is so silly and small. And I just think that were bigger than that. And this moment calls for more than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I mean, is she right that this is now -- they're moving beyond these ideological divides within the Democratic Party?

ANNA PALMER, CO-FOUNDER/CEO, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: I mean, I think it's a nice selling point, but it's age and it's where do you fall in the Democratic Party? Those are the two things that we hear over and over again.

I think Democrats have been watching Republicans, right. We've been talking so much about John Cornyn and him as a weak candidate. And that Democrats might actually be able to turn Texas blue.

I mean, how long have we all been hearing this from Democrats?

RAJU: Yes.

PALMER: This is the year Texas is going to go blue, and it doesn't happen time and time again. And her coming in as a potential spoiler, right, it seemed like they knew what the Democratic field is.

RAJU: Yes.

PALMER: It shakes things up again.

RAJU: And it's Michigan. It's Maine. It's also Texas where Democrats are encountering these intraparty fights, could complicate their path back to the majority. ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, "NEW YORK TIMES": Yes, we have the potential to

see messy primaries throughout the country. But look, voters in the last presidential election, many of them thought that the candidates were chosen for them.

And in turn, they wanted a primary where you could have the opportunity to see different ideas, hear different ideas. Seems like we might be getting that. Whether or not its messy, though, and leads to debate within the party, we'll have to find out.

RAJU: Isaac, is she going to run for the Senate? What's your -- what does your gut tell you?

DOVERE: She wouldn't have talked to me for 45 minutes, I don't think, if she was not very close to saying yes.

RAJU: All right. That sounds good.

Great reporting from Isaac Dovere on Jasmine Crockett's decision. We'll see what she decides to say tomorrow.

All right. Coming up, this next story may have you seeing double. Why identical twins may make history in Congress.

[08:48:50]

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RAJU: Remember the movie "Parent Trap", where identical twins living in different places swap identities and try to pull off a harebrained scheme? Well, some version of that is coming to Capitol Hill. Troy Nehls, a blunt-speaking Republican who chomped cigars and has represented Texas' 22nd congressional district since 2021, is now calling it quits. And his identical twin brother, Trevor Nehls, is running for, you guessed it, the same seat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TROY NEHLS (R-TX): My twin brother. He's going to roll right into this thing, and he's going to do great. And I feel good about that.

I feel that we know a guy that's going to continue on with the -- with the MAGA movement and the America first agenda.

RAJU: Does he smoke cigars, too?

NEHLS: He does smoke cigars, not as many. His wife is going to say not so many cigars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: There appears to be no record of anything similar in history. Meaning if Trevor Nehls wins, this will be the first time twins hold the same seat in successive sessions.

Yet it's not the first time they tried to pull the old switcheroo. Back home in Texas, Trevor succeeded Troy as constable in Fort Bend County in 2013.

Trevor Nehls also tried to replace his brother as sheriff in 2020, but he lost in the general election.

Here on Capitol Hill, Troy Nehls admits we may have double vision very soon.

[08:54:48]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEHLS: I always said, you know, we're going to walk up the stairs. You guys are going to know who's who. He's probably half an inch taller and they say his hair gets parted the other direction.

He said, Troy, you know, you part your hair to the left. I said, I am not a leftist, don't get me wrong. But no, I think he may even have a little bit more hair on his head.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Nehls joins a growing list of 40 House members who are not running for reelection. But with President Trump endorsing Trevor Nehls for the seat, his twin brother is confident the switch will not spell double trouble for his party.

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

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

Up next "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Dana's guests include border czar Tom Homan, Utah Senator John Curtis and Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth.

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

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