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Inside Politics

Trump Sells "Affordability" Agenda After Calling Issue A Hoax; Senate Votes On GOP Plan To Replace ACA Subsidies; Democrats Flip Elections For Miami Mayor, Georgia State House Seat; Democrats Pick Up State Legislator Seats In Four States; Governors Shapiro & Cox On Combating Political Violence. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 10, 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]

SAMUEL WEIDENHOFER, RAISED $1.9M FOR VETERAN ON GOFUNDME: I just had this feeling come over me. I honestly think it was God sent. Now, looking at the situation, how it's all come about, I just had a feeling. I have to go to Meijer (Ph) that day. I have to ask him about his story and that's what came out of it. And it just, you know it shocked me. To be honest. it still doesn't feel real. You know, having a community as strong as that, like, you know, you put a video out online and it can change someone's life.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Bambas wants to travel to see his brother and pick up golf again. As for work, he said he is not quitting his cashier post just yet. And just that moment, it was so touching when he asked him, you know, tell your story. And he started to cry. And you know, he felt seen. He felt seen in that moment. You imagine how lonely he's been since he lost his wife.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: And so much credit for doing what he did.

BROWN: Yeah, absolutely.

BLITZER: Yeah. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

BROWN: Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Manu Raju, starts right now.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: President Trump claims he wants to make America affordable again. Is it just lip service?

I'm Manu Raju in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start with the word plaguing President Trump, and that's affordability. The plan was to go to a Pennsylvania swing district and speak to Americans struggling with high prices. But with this president plans, shall we say, have a way of changing. Here's how the president went on and very off the affordability message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And I have no higher priority than making America affordable again. That's what we're going to do. And again, they cause the high prices and we're bringing them down. It's a simple message. And look at that chart. Let's see the next one. You have another one. I think mortgage rates. Even with a lousy Fed chair, you can give up pencils. That's under the China policy. You know, every child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two. You don't need $37 for your daughter. Two or three is nice, but you don't need $37.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right, I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters to break this all down and issue number one. Phil, Republicans--

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: Exactly, exactly. Republicans have been eager for Trump to do something, say something, get back on message, deal with the issue that they are confronting with back home as we head into the mid- terms. And we heard Trump do what Trump does, which is, of course, not stay out message. Is this -- what are the -- take us through what happened last night and what it means for next year?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: This is -- and I don't mean from like a broad political perspective, but just from an individual perspective, an Achilles heel for him, given the sense that he doesn't ever want to acknowledge that anything isn't going as well as he claimed it would, claimed it is, claimed it will be going forward.

RAJU: Because there was no acknowledgement that anything that he has done has caused these problems or any signs of a change in policy

MATTINGLY: Right. And the split screen, as you alluded to, is Republicans are hearing when they're back home in their districts, when they're getting protocols to their offices. Republicans many of whom on the House side, all of whom are going to have a race in about 12, 11 and a half months in the mid-terms, saying, this is what we're hearing about. This is what people care about. They're happy with all the other things you've done. Can you please focus on this issue?

Now, in the administration's defense, these are, I think, deeply interwoven issues that they're dealing with. We're talking about housing costs and issues like that, but there are some very specific elements from their policies that have at least added on the periphery to some of the price issues that people are dealing with right now and they don't feel like the president cares.

The one last thing I'd say is the Groundhog Day element of having covered the Biden administration and covered economic policy in the Biden administration. And the number of times you would get a furious phone call from a Biden administration, official saying, look at the macro numbers, look at the broader economy, everything's so much better. This is just consumer sentiment. You can't tell people how they feel. RAJU: Yeah, and because he's trying to distill to say, OK, Biden broke it, Democrats broke it. We're going to fix it. If you want to get into the one message he tried to actually focus on before speaking about a whole wide range of other issues in 90 minutes. But can that message, Biden cause the problem. I'm trying to fix it, be enough.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR & WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, every poll seems to indicate that the American people believe this is Donald Trump's economy now, and not Joe Biden's economy. So, while I think that that is -- as you note, I do think that is an attempt at a message that speaks to his belief in his program that you alluded to Phil.

I'm not sure it will get there with the American people because what's missing, and I don't think this will surprise anyone watching from Donald Trump's approach, here is the empathy piece, right, which J.D. Vance has actually been trying to incorporate into his public pronouncements on the economy.

I understand what you're feeling, but we have positioned ourselves to be on a better path. We don't really hear that from Donald Trump. I understand, because to your earlier point, Manu, that admits some bit of defeat. And so, Donald Trump now finds himself. After 10 years in this moment of dominance in American politics that he has had, he now finds himself in an actually quite familiar place for presidents.

[12:05:00]

And that hasn't been the story of Donald Trump politically, and that place is, you are unpopular with the American people in your second term now. Let's say, you are unpopular on issue number one to them, and your party, not you, is on the ballot this next year and you have to find a way to thread that and that is -- that is going to be the story of Donald Trump for 2026 how he does that.

RAJU: And there are signs that his party recognizes that they need to do something and go further than the president on issues like healthcare. There's a vote that's coming in the Senate tomorrow. Democrats have been pushing for the extension of the expiring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. It's a three-year plan.

This Democrat plan has no chance of passage. Republicans oppose it. Senate Republicans are putting forward now their own plan that will come to the floor of the Senate tomorrow. That will also fail, does not extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies. It does expand health savings accounts to pay for some Affordable Care Act plans, among some other provisions.

Now the House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated today they plan to have their own vote on a plan next week, not to extend the subsidies, but their own proposal. None of this is going to become law but is a sign of recognition of the GOP that they got to do something, at least look like they're doing something.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: It's so interesting because it does, I mean, clearly Republicans know that they need to have something to counter the fact that Democrats have made this such a topic of discussion. And they know there's not a good response to just voting no on the Democratic proposals.

So, they do want to put something on the floor, but what they're missing or what they're challenged by, is that a, many Republicans want the subsidies to end. They were enhanced during the coronavirus pandemic, just on principle. They think that it's time to let the subsidies go away. And so, you've got that faction.

You also have Donald Trump not really providing clear messaging to Republicans in Congress--

RAJU: Because he wanted to actually have a plan, then he pulled back from that.

MITCHELL: Exactly. And his plan was to temporarily continue the subsidies, and he got pushed back and immediately pulled back. I think, you know, David, you mentioned the empathy piece. But I think coupled with the fact that the perception is that the White House is not showing empathy on this issue, is the fact that the White House is just not showing leadership on the issue. They don't have a plan. They don't have clear direction.

And so, American people are watching this and saying, well, the only people who seem to acknowledge that we're concerned about health insurance costs are Democrats and maybe a handful of Republicans who dare challenge the status quo on that side of the aisle.

RAJU: I want you to listen to Susie Wiles, who is the White House chief of staff. And she had indicated their plans as we head into the midterms and what they want to do with Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSIE WILES, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Typically, you in the midterms, it's not about who's sitting at the White House. It's you localize the election, and you keep the federal officials out of it. We're actually going to turn that on its head--

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.

WILES: And put him on the ballot. I haven't quite broken it to him yet, but he's going to campaign like it's 2024 again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: OK. So, as we head into mid-terms, typically, it's a reflection on the presidency. It's a check on the presidency. It's the opposition party who is emboldened here, and the party in power runs away from the unpopular incumbent president. They are saying, we're going to go all in with Trump.

CHALIAN: Right. I mean, I thought that was such an astounding statement to come from the White House chief of staff. One, save it, because when Karoline Leavitt is at the podium in the fall and says, these are local races, this will be good video to have potentially as most White House press secretaries do.

But it is an intriguing strategy, because I think it gets at the conundrum, which is that they -- as Donald Trump himself has said, like when he's not on the ballot, the Republican Party in the Trump era has a really hard time turning out his voters.

And so, when the opposition party has the enthusiasm advantage, like you just described, you need to turn out your voters. The flip side of that. And the problem is he's at 39, 40 percent approval and that creates a problem, especially on issue number one, the economy, when you are trying to not just turn out your voters, but also keep some of the coalition together that delivered you the Oval Office just a year ago. And so, you say you're going to put him on the ballot, that presents a very tricky proposition.

RAJU: Will he be in those swing states, those purple states, that's going to be a big question as well. All right, coming up next. A surprise in Miami, keeps Democrats hot streak going. What does it mean for the mid-terms? And Dana Bash is a special bipartisan sit down. Governors Josh Shapiro and Spencer Cox talk about confronting political violence and finding a way forward.

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[12:10:00]

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RAJU: Democrats are on a roll electorally. The Miami mayor's office went blue for the first time in nearly three decades. Last night, Democrat Eileen Higgins won by 19 points over Republican challenger Emilio Gonzalez in a race for President Trump's immigration policies played a major role. And in Georgia, Democrat Eric Gisler flipped a state House seat in a district that went red by 12 points just over a year ago.

[12:15:00]

My panel is back. So, if you just look a little bit deeper into the shifts here in this race, in which the shifts from 2024 in Miami. They went from plus one in 2024 to plus 19 for the Democrat this year. And in these Dem pickups in state legislature races, as well as there's Kamala Harris' margin, I should say, compared to the Democrat who won.

And then in these democratic pickups in state legislatures, in these districts where Trump had won by an average of 10 points or more, other than here in Mississippi. Look, the Democrats have picked up these seats this cycle, this year in Iowa, last night, in Georgia, the state that you cover pretty closely. How significant is this?

MITCHELL: I think it's significant because it shows that where Republicans thought they were able to make gains, they're losing a lot of the ground in a year, you know, the gains with Latino voters, the gains with black men, the gains with young voters in particular are really eroding. I think, particularly in Georgia, it also shows the limitations of redistricting to try to benefit a political party because Georgia during the regular redistricting after the last census carved up the city of Athens to make it more -- to help Republicans win these state legislative seats.

And this is one of those seats that, yes, Republicans did win once, but when you came back around, Democrats were able to retake that seat. You can't do it all through redistricting. And that is a warning, particularly as we're looking at, you know, states like Texas, states like Indiana.

RAJU: And we're going to dive warn in redistricting later in the show. But this is just how the House special elections, just for the U.S. House. We just talked about the state races and the local race in Miami, but the state House specials in this year. So far, the shift has been all in the blue direction, 12 points in towards Democrats.

They didn't win the seat in Tennessee last week, but they improved on their margin there. They've improved all the down the line. There's an Arizona seat, there's a Virginia seat, and two seats in Florida, all democratic improvements from the last cycle. What's your takeaway from that?

CHALIAN: Yeah. I mean, I think we're seeing a consistent electoral story all year long. I mean, some of the -- some of the races you just showed, Manu, that goes back to April, the Iowa one back to the beginning of the year. This has been an instant response from voters. I mean, a year ago in American politics, we were sitting here, every arrow was pointing red and to the right electorally, in terms of margins and gains and all the gains you just talked about.

And now it is the exact opposite. And that is a huge, huge warning sign for Republicans, which historically, are facing a tough year anyway in the mid-terms. But it does seem there is something in the water electorally, which is, it's not just yes, not loving what Donald Trump is doing. It is actually as poll after poll tells us that American voters believe Donald Trump's policies in the economy are potentially making things worse and that is a really, really tough self.

RAJU: So, how do you adjust if you're the White House or the GOP and you're seeing this clear trend?

MATTINGLY: According to the White House chief of staff, send Donald Trump on the campaign trail everywhere, always--

RAJU: That's what's missing apparently.

MATTINGLY: That is what's missing. But I think not to trip off what David was saying in the last block, but this is the kind of catch 22 that they're dealing with, that the Republican Party is dealing with writ large. And I think at some level, it's an important contrast, because I think we all spent the better part of this year kind of intensely focused on the all consuming nature of the president's agenda and the president's being everywhere, always, all the time.

And then under the hood, there were trends that were starting to form. And to David's point, they've been -- they've been quite consistent. Same time your Democrats thinking the entire world was over and nobody in their party would ever win again and it turns out. That wasn't the case either.

So, I think the difficulty for Republicans right now, this is why you see Republicans willing to say, hey, can you talk about prices? Can you think about having, like, a strategy related to the issues we're hearing about? Because they're looking at these trend lines, and at some point, in the next couple of months, if something doesn't get changed, like there's going to be some pretty significant divergences from his party.

RAJU: Signs of rules of political gravity do apply to Donald Trump in a lot of ways here and we'll see if that plays out, of course, in the weeks and months ahead. Coming up, Dana Bash spoke to governors on both sides of the aisle about the lack of civility in our politics. On the same day, the president mocks a Muslim lawmaker. You don't want to miss her interview with Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania -- and Spencer -- of Pennsylvania, and Spencer Cox of Utah. That's next.

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[12:20:00]

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RAJU: It is a sad and sobering reality of our times. Political violence spares no one. Dana Bash spoke to governors from both parties who unfortunately have had firsthand experience in dealing with this issue. Here's part of her conversation with Democrat Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Republican Spencer Cox of Utah. Last night at the National Cathedral here in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST & CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You're both here at the National Cathedral and talking about something that is very tough to talk about, but you have, unfortunately, some experienced each of you with this political violence.

GOV. SPENCER COX (R-UT): Yeah, sadly, we do have an experience with this. Obviously, the firebombing of his home and then the attempted assassination of former president, now President Trump, of course, the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah. And we're seeing a rise in political violence in our country. It's deeply disturbing, and I know Americans are concerned about what's happening out there.

[12:25:00]

And so, this was an opportunity for us to come to this beautiful place, this sacred place in our nation's Capitol to talk about how a Republican and a Democrat people of different faiths, different, different backgrounds, can come together to work on problems, to solve things. I mean, we're going to agree on everything. We're going to disagree passionately about some things, but to show Americans that there's a better way to do this. We've done it before as a country and we can do it again. GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): I never imagined that speaking about political violence in the National Cathedral would be something I'd be called on to do. And even in the wake of the attack on me and my family at the governor's residence, I wasn't thinking about this kind of conversation. Honestly, I was thinking about being a good father and a good husband and a good governor.

It wasn't until I saw my friend Spencer, go through the tragedy in Utah with the killing of Charlie Kirk on a college campus, engaged in debate, and saw him rise to this occasion and see increases of political violence. The killing of speaker Hortman and other examples just in this calendar year in America that I realized, we not only have to have this conversation, not only do I have to be a part of it. I think I've got to be a part of it with Spencer Cox.

Why is that important? As he said, we're different parties, people of different faiths. People have different perspectives on different issues. And I think part of the antidote to the violence that we're seeing is for the American people to see that there are leaders who are able to disagree but disagree in a constructive way.

That hopefully they get a little bit of hope and feeling like there's some optimism in that for them to be able to find their voices and engage in debate and try and effect change in their communities or on their school boards and the Congress of the United States or wherever it is that they want to engage. Hopefully they can see this conversation we're having and be inspired to take down the rhetoric and take up the engagement in our democracy.

BASH: I mean, that would be amazing. Speaking of voices, sorry about mine, it's going. But as we speak, in your home state of Pennsylvania, President Trump is having a rally. He's talking about affordability, but he's also doing -- talking about other things. He just randomly talked about Ilhan Omar. He talked about the turban on her head. Said we should just get her out. And then there was a chant in the crowd, send her back, send her back.

So, while you all are trying hard to lower the temperature, lower the rhetoric. You have somebody with the biggest, loudest megaphone saying things like that in your party?

COX: Yeah, yeah, sure. Look, I disagree with Congresswoman Omar. I think she should be voted out of office, and I think I can do that without attacking her religion or her race or her ethnic background. I think that's really important. I know that the president disagrees with me. He and I have had these conversations. I have to say, during the Charlie Kirk shooting, in the conversations we had, he talked to me about non-violence and trying to be a voice for that.

I understand he's not interested in uniting the country and he would tell you that, I think, if you were sitting here with us, us tonight. But I would also say that it's not going to be a president who fixes this. It's not going to be two governors who fix this. It really has to be all of us. The politicians that we elect are a reflection of we the people. This is kind of what we want today. And I think both parties are guilty of it. And so, I'm going to do my part. I appreciate Governor Shapiro doing his part to tone down that rhetoric. Let's have the debate. Let's fight about the ideas. Let's fight about the issues. That's what we're supposed to do. And I believe that the best -- that the best ideas are going to win and that's fair game. But I truly don't like the personalization of these attacks.

SHAPIRO: I think leaders have a responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity. That's true of governors, and I think Spencer Cox meets that mark, I tried to meet it. And I think it's a responsibility that falls on the president of the United States as well. I think this president not only failed tonight to speak and act with moral clarity by attacking a fellow American, whether we agree or disagree with her positions in Congress.

But what he does when he attacks a fellow American like that is it sends a signal to others in this country that others can be scapegoated, others can be singled out, others can be targeted or worse yet, others can become victims of political violence. I think the president has a responsibility here.