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Inside Politics

Trump To Focus On Affordability Message After Calling It A "Hoax"; Trump: "I Don't Know" If I'll Ask Congress To Extend ACA Subsides; Can Crockett End Dem's 30-Year Losing Streak In Texas?; Talarico Welcomes Crockett To TX Senate Race, Digs In On Campaign; Miami Mayoral Runoff Between Eileen Higgins And Emilio Gonzalez Draws National Attention. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 09, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: I think every party involved wants a decision made, so that 2026 is about regulatory approvals and moving the deal forward.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Excellent analysis. Sara Fischer, thank you very, very much.

FISCHER: Thank you.

BLITZER: And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social medial at @wolfblitzer and @pamelabrowncnn.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: And we'll see you back here tomorrow morning and every weekday morning at 10 Eastern. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Dana Bash, starts now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: A plus, plus, plus, plus, plus. That's how President Trump rates the economy. But the real question is, what will mid-term election voters think?

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

For President Trump is heading to Northeastern Pennsylvania today, hoping to regain his footing on the issue that delivered him back to the White House. He keeps saying the economy is booming, even as poll after poll show Americans still aren't feeling it. Here's how the president explained that in an interview with POLITICO.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DASHA BURNS, POLITICO HOST, THE CONVERSATION: I wonder what grade you would give.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A plus.

BURNS: A plus.

TRUMP: Yeah. A plus, plus, plus, plus, plus, plus. It's a word affordability. I inherited a mess. I inherited a total mess. Prices were at an all-time high. When I came in, prices are coming down substantially. The Democrats love to say affordability, but then they never talk about. They're the ones who gave us the high prices. I'm the one that's bringing it down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters. Hello, everybody. Jeff Zeleny, you are out and about talking to real people. I like to call them the voters, the people who are going to determine, particularly next year, whether or not President Trump is right about how people feel. What are you hearing from them?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, incumbency comes with blessings and burdens, and this is one of the burdens of incumbency, where you own the economy. So yes, it's easy for Democrats to talk about affordability a year after their party left the White House. But the reality is, it is President Trump's watch, as much as he wants to talk about Joe Biden, and he talks about him endlessly at every public event.

This is the Trump economy, and people are not feeling it. So, President Trump is beginning something. It's a course correction, unlike really any we've seen this entire year. Going to Pennsylvania, that sounds so normal. He traveled a lot in the first term. He has done almost zero of that this term.

The last trip like this I can recall was on day 100 of his presidency, back at the beginning of April, when he went to Macomb County, Michigan. I was on that trip. He gave a rally. We haven't seen him do that yet. So, the White House says he's going back out in the country, traveling more. That's all good and well, but what is he going to say? So that's what worries some White House advisers.

But I've been struck by on the economy, just the differences in how President Trump talks about it, affordability and J.D. Vance talks about it. J.D. Vance openly asks Americans for patience. We know things are not perfect. We know things are going to get better. President Trump basically says, no, you're wrong. So, he sounds so much like his predecessor, Joe Biden, say, no, everything's just fine. And that, you know, he can travel every day between now and the midterms that message won't sell. So, we'll see what he says today.

BASH: Yeah, we will. J.D. Vance is listening to the political advisors on that note and Donald Trump--

ZELENY: Urging patient.

BASH: --and Donald Trump thinks that he is the best advisor and communicator that there is now, in fairness to him, he's done pretty well with that for the last almost 80 years. So, we'll see if it works today. Here is the answer to your question, according to our colleagues, their story up today about what they're hearing from White House officials, what they hope that President Trump says.

White House officials have advised the president not to brush away or outright dismiss that Americans are feeling squeezed by rising prices. They have pressed the president to express greater sympathy and adopt a message that contrasts his agenda with congressional Democrats, rather than with an ex-president who has little remaining sway even within his own party.

SUSAN GLASSER, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: You know, empathy is not Donald Trump's brand. You know, I've also seen those same anonymous White House advisers quoted saying that President Trump believes he has a communications problem rather than a problem, problem. And, you know, I think we all know Donald Trump is always a salesman, and I think he believes in the power of repetition.

So that's why it's not just an A plus. It's a, A with five pluses on the economy. You know, the question is whether Donald Trump's ability to project his own version of reality for himself, whether that has any resonance with people who actually have the reality, reality of going to the store.

And you know, the difference from Trump in his first term to right now is his sagging poll numbers. He's always been personally unpopular, but in the first term, it was the perception that Donald Trump was good for the economy, even if it wasn't the greatest economy in the history of the world, as he always said it. That helped to float him, even at times when he was seen as polarizing and people didn't like him.

[12:05:00]

Now, he remains personally unpopular to almost historic levels in terms of our presidents, but his ratings on the economy are even lower than his actual approval numbers. And I think that's a really striking thing. I don't know if he can get that back short of a really big change in his approach to the economy, which Trump is not prepared to make. Donald Trump isn't going to renounce tariffs because the voters are unhappy with him.

BASH: And on that note, let's actually talk about a big part of the affordability issue, which is and has been for decades, healthcare for people in their budgets. This is another clip from that POLITICO interview Dasha Burns did with the president it's about Obamacare subsidies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURNS: Will you tell Congress to extend those Obamacare subsidies while you work out another deal?

TRUMP: I don't know. I'm going to have to see. I'd like to get better healthcare. I'd like to have people buy their own healthcare, get much better healthcare. And what I want to do, for example, I want to give the money to the people, not to the insurance companies.

BURNS: So, right now, people are buying their holiday presidents -- presents. They're planning for--

TRUMP: Look, don't be dramatic. BURNS: No, no.

TRUMP: Don't be dramatic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, here's the thing. He doesn't have that much time to try and convince congressional Republicans to extend the subsidies, because they expire at the end of this month.

BASH: I think he's trying.

SOTOMAYOR: I don't think he's trying either. And the reason why is because a number of congressional Republicans last week, they were saying, hey, maybe we'll put out a plan, maybe we'll have a vote. That tone has changed pretty quickly, both in the Senate and in the House, because it is so hard, still, a decade later, for Republicans to come to an agreement on how to change healthcare, besides even the subsidies question.

So really, what it seems like this week is likely to play out, especially on the House side. Johnson said, you know, we're going to put out a plan. Now I'm hearing, it's just probably going to be a framework. Let's have this discussion--

BASH: Concept of a plan?

SOTOMAYOR: A concept of a plan. Let's have the discussion in 2026, but let's all remember, 2017 Republicans again tried to tackle healthcare that really played a role in 2018 in the midterms. Voters said, why are you -- why are you doing this to us? Voted for Democrats and an overwhelming margin.

BASH: Jeff, our friend and colleague, Manu Raju, caught up with one of the biggest populists in the GOP conference in the Senate, Josh Hawley. Listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How big of a problem would it be for your party if you do not come up with a plan for healthcare?

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): Well, I mean, I just don't know how Republicans would explain that. 24 million Americans whose premiums are going to double. We need to think about the human cost of this, I think, and Republicans need offer an alternative solution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: I mean, Senator Hawley, a Republican in Missouri, has been on the front lines of sort of knowing what people are thinking here. He was one of the most outspoken Republicans during the rural hospital cuts issues, but he went on to vote for the Republican bill. So, I think there are limits to his views there, but he is actually detecting something that is a real feeling here.

So, it is a huge challenge for Republicans, and it is just so shocking. It's more than 10 years later, actually. I mean, Obamacare is -- it's 15, and Republicans have always struggled with this. One of the reasons is this started out, it's a conservative plan. Sure, it hasn't played out all that way.

But, I mean, we all remember Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts. He had a similar healthcare plan. So, look, the perfect McKinsey way to fix healthcare would be a bipartisan way to improve upon what is there, but that, of course, is not the politics. But it's stunning actually in which Republicans are potentially repeating some of the mistakes of 17 and 18 on healthcare.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, Democrats insist privately and publicly that healthcare got them -- just like it got them back into the majority twice before.

ZELENY: It lost in the majority, and it got them the majority.

BASH: Yep, and they're just convinced that it's going to get them the majority back again. Speaking of that coming up, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, she's taking a page at a better or works playbook to try to win the Senate seat in Texas. He didn't, can she? Then parents around the world are watching to see what happens as the first countrywide social media ban for teens goes into effect.

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[12:10:00]

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BASH: It's a campaign launch, intended to get attention, of course, but also to make a very specific point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Crockett, oh man, oh man. She's a very low IQ person. Somebody said the other day, she's one of the leaders of the party. I think you got to be kidding. Now they're going to rely on Crockett. Crockett is going to bring them back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, I'm sure you've got this. That's a bunch of Donald Trump insults strung together. And my colleague Laura Coates asked the now Congresswoman about her strategy when she announced in that video for Texas senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX): If the president cannot keep my name out of his mouth, then who is it that would be better to make sure that they are in the U.S. Senate to hold him accountable. I am the one that he is afraid of. I am the one that the Republicans fear. (END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:15:00]

BASH: And our smart reporters are back. Marianna, you spend all of your time on Capitol Hill. I'm sure you've spent a lot of time chasing down or talking to Congresswoman Crockett. It is fascinating to me. Look, if she's going to run for Senate, she is who she is. It's not like she can do the old school, you know, run one way at one point, run another way at another point. There's no denying that she has a very specific point of view and persona. What do you make of the way that she's launching?

SOTOMAYOR: I mean, it's interesting because, I mean, not surprised at all that she's taken to social media because in the three and a half- ish years that she's been in the House. I mean, she has elevated her name ID, simply because she is so adept to this social media culture. You know, when other Democrats are trying to do creative and weird dances, they come off as weird. She comes off as way more authentic.

But what I'm interested to see is she's making this all about Trump. Democrats and you talked to number of Democratic campaign strategies. They say, obviously the midterms will be about Trump, but you have to talk about other things. You have talked about affordability. You have to talk about, potentially, how you could block votes. You could investigate Trump if you are in a majority. I don't know how much she's going to go there, and she's obviously a liability in this day and age. Some Democrats have said, because she is so far left, she is such an easy target in the general.

BASH: So, on that notion, first of all, let's just sort of set the table of this particular part of this discussion with the Texas results for U.S. Senate just in the past few elections. If you look up on the screen, there you go. The last time around, Ted Cruz beat Colin Allred, who dropped out. He was on this program yesterday, pretty handily.

2020, John Cornyn, the Republican, also won pretty easily. 2018 that's what I want you to look at. Beto O'Rourke, the Democrat, didn't win, but he came closer than a Democrat has come in decades. Jasmine Crockett said to Laura Coates that it's his campaign that she's going to use as a guide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROCKETT: What we wanted to look for is whether or not I could expand the electorate and get people motivated to vote who normally don't participate in the process. And our numbers say that we can do that. When Beto came really close. Beto, who is a progressive, we know that he got 65 percent of the Latino vote. So, what did they do after that? They specifically went after Latinos. We know that he got close to 90 percent or right there at 90 percent of the African American vote. So honestly, what we need to do is start talking for the vast majority of Texas.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ZELENY: Look, I mean, that is the only place to start if you want to win is that Beto O'Rourke's seat. And talking to strategists yesterday, they said one thing, if she would basically repeat his performance and then get a young black men and really younger voters across the board, she could win. And one other sort of factor here is the Republicans are having a complicated and messy primary all of their own.

So, if John Cornyn, you know, the long-time senator, he's struggling to take command of this race, and that has opened the door to Ken Paxton, the controversy -- the controversial attorney general, so that will factor in this as well.

But let's just talk about the Democrats for a second. There are many Democrats who have long thought that Texas next year is going to be the one. The next cycle is going to be the one. It hasn't happened yet. The reality is, it raises a question, we don't know the answer, what type of Democrat can win? Is it better to have a progressive to fire at the progressive base, or is it better to have more of a moderate?

And even though Beto O'Rourke was a progressive, he was still able to appeal to some moderates as well. He was not nearly sort of out there as much. So, we shall see. But there's a Democrat running as well. James Talarico, who's a very talented young state lawmaker. So that's what primaries are about to figure out what direction the party wants to go. But it's far from certain, if she has the majority view.

BASH: And yesterday on this program, Colin Allred, who had just dropped out of this race, said he's going to run for the House. Instead made it pretty clear that he thinks that his decision should clear the field for Jasmine Crockett. He wouldn't say James Talarico should drop out, but that was certainly the message. James Talarico, he's not going anywhere. Watch what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JAMES TALARICO (D-TX): We always knew this was going to be hard. We will make the case for why we are best positioned to win this race in November and take power back for working people, but we will always treat Congresswoman Crockett with the utmost respect. She is my colleague, and she is a leader in our state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:20:00]

BASH: I mean, this is going to be so fascinating, assuming that he does stay in because he is, you know, maybe more populist. He is a pastor. He appeals to not just the Joe Rogan voter, but like, literally, Joe Rogan, who is a Texan as well. And so, just that microcosm, in addition to what you were talking about, which is what's going to go on on the Republican side, because on the Republican side, you do have the incumbent, John Cornyn, Paxton, who's the attorney general in the state. He's the one Democrats really want to run against. And then, of course, Wesley Hunt is also running. GLASSER: Yeah, that's right. I mean, look, the Democratic primary at this point is shaping up in a way as a contrast between the visions of national Democrats. Crockett has made her visibility by jumping right into the very divisive and polarized national politics, you know, emerging as one of Trump's adversaries, embracing that label in that video.

I'm sure that may be popular with Democrats nationwide, outside of Texas, who want to take the fight to Trump and his accolades. I'm not sure that it's the best news if you're actually looking at how you want to win a Senate seat in Texas. The bottom line is the numbers are very clear here. Democrats, whoever they nominated, would have a very up-hill fight.

I think the view was really that if John Cornyn could manage to emerge from the primary that he was still going to be a pretty strong favorite in the general election. If Paxton were to win the Republican nomination, then you would be looking at a race between two very polarizing figures on the right and the left.

BASH: All right, everybody. Are Miami voters about to do something that hasn't happened in 30 years. That's next.

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[12:25:00]

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BASH: Right now, voters in Miami are headed to the polls to choose their next mayor. Now, technically, the runoff race is non-partisan. Practically, it's anything. But President Trump endorsed former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, while the DNC is pushing former County Commissioner Eileen Higgins for a role Republicans have held for nearly 30 years.

My panel is back, including Florida's own Marianna Sotomayor. So, you have the floor.

SOTOMAYOR: Thank you. I mean, honestly, I've been watching this race because it is so different from the last couple of years. I mean, even just growing up, I remember Florida trending Republican and the fact that we're even having a conversation now, after we've seen these swings that Democrats have a chance is pretty significant.

I think even if -- even if Higgins gets pretty close here, that is a sign maybe for Democrats to start investing in the state. One thing to note here is that kind of bringing in the Congress of it all, Miami is actually where most of the people who are on the Affordable Care Act subsidies live. This is a huge deal, and it's front of mind for a number of voters.

I don't know if that is going to be the issue that is going to propel people to vote, but we've even seen, a couple months ago, Democrats turning out for this race much more than Republicans. So, I'm going to keep watching it. We'll see what happens. BASH: So, Susan, here's what the president said about the candidate he wants. He said this is on Saturday on Truth Social. Miami's Mayor race is Tuesday. It is big and important race. Vote Republican Gonzalez. He is fantastic. You can also vote today. Make America Great Again. And here's Pete Buttigieg campaigning for at least posting a video campaigning for Higgins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, FORMER TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: I believe deeply in the importance of local leadership, especially right now. And Eileen has spent years showing up for this community. She has fought for more affordable housing, for better transit and for safer neighborhoods. She listens, she works hard and she delivers. And that's exactly what Miami needs right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GLASSER: You know, you look at the record in a lot of these very off cycle races, whether State House races around the country, the two governor's races, and we know who's motivated to show up to the polls right now, and so that's where I think you may see a bit of a national factor. Democrats are looking to cast their ballot anywhere if they have a strong candidate in this particular mayor's race. That's combined with the political headwinds for Republicans around the country right now, it's all going to be a question of who shows up. It seems to me, in this election,

ZELENY: it's also, obviously it's Miami, so major American city, but the mayor's position, as you well know, it's not ceremonial, but almost ceremonial. The head of the Miami Dade County and the whole county board is a much more powerful position. But that does not diminish the fact that Democrats, you know, they have it's been a long time since they won in Florida. Obviously, we three can remember when Florida was, you know, the battleground, Epic Royale. But we'll see, but certainly worth watching. It's going to be a sign of something.

BASH: Yeah. This is more about the voters than the candidates or the position.

ZELENY: Right.

BASH: Yeah. All right, President Trump is selling his economic vision in a Pennsylvania swing district tonight, but is the Keystone State buying it? I'll have Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, are next, to talk about that visit and the economy in Pennsylvania.

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