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Georgia Voters Take Stock Of Trump's First Year Back In Office; Obama: MLK "Dedicated His Life Fighting For Equity And Justice"; Supreme Court's Conservative Supermajority Seems Open To Throwing Out Louisiana's Congressional Map; Pending Supreme Court Ruling Could Further Gut Voting Rights Act; Gov. Shapiro: Harris Team Asked If I'd Ever Been An Israel Agent. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 19, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: -- in the Republican base and you can't afford to go against them and that's going to play into these issues that we were talking about before about Greenland or --

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

COLLINSON: -- Venezuela. It's still a hard vote if you're going against the president.

CORNISH: And fewer and fewer of people who are willing to do that. We're just going to leave you folks with this scorecard. The number of people who had sort of voted to impeach or convict Trump, sheer volume of them who have retired, lost re-election, lost their primary. That number is dwindling and dwindling, especially in the Senate.

OK, coming up we're going to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I'm going to be speaking to Congressional Black Caucus Vice Chair Troy Carter. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:35:18]

CORNISH: Tomorrow marks one year in office for President Trump's second term and a new CNN poll offers a tough grade from registered voters on a key issue, the economy. 67 percent of registered voters say it is somewhat or very poor. By party, 43 percent of Republicans agreed.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny visited a key swing state known to be a Trump support barometer, Georgia, to hear how voters grade the president one year in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANZ ROWLAND, GEORGIA FARMER: I don't know who dropped the ball in Washington to allow these prices, its trade to diminish like it has, but somebody dropped the ball. Somebody wasn't looking out for us. JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On his farm here in southern Georgia, Franz Rowland is taking stock of the last year and fearful of what's ahead.

ROWLAND: Trump says, you know, be patient. The farmers are going to be better than ever. Well, you better hurry up because we can't stand this much.

ZELENY (voice-over): He voted for President Trump, hoping a stronger economy and better trade deals would follow.

ZELENY: When you hear politicians and others in Washington saying the economy is doing great, the country has never been better.

ROWLAND: They need to come out here. They need to come out here and live in my shoes. The economy may be doing better for some people, but on the farm, it ain't doing better.

ZELENY (voice-over): As the president begins his second year back in office, a majority of Americans call the first year a failure. Here in Georgia, a state critical to this fall's midterm elections, economic concerns are top of mind for Florence Allen.

FLORENCE ALLEN, TOY STORE OWNER: My economy is not hot. I'm paying the bills.

ZELENY: Cost probably across the board have not gone down on many things.

ALLEN: Oh no, my costs have not gone down on anything. Not here at the store and not at home.

Got it.

ZELENY (voice-over): Allen, a Democrat, has owned her toy store for 20 years and tried to navigate a whiplash tariff policy that's impacted much of her inventory.

ZELENY: When you've heard the president say, we're making all this money on tariffs.

ALLEN: Give it back to me.

ZELENY: Because tariffs are passed along or you swallow them, right?

ALLEN: Yes.

ZELENY: Yes.

ALLEN: Yes. Yes. So, you know, you've raised my costs. So I think for most people he's not fooling people with that line.

ZELENY (voice-over): Georgia has long stood as a leading barometer for Trump's performance. He won the state in 2016. Lost in 2020 and won again in 2024, flipping Baldwin County in central Georgia for the first time. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He gets A plus from me.

ZELENY (voice-over): Janice Westmoreland (ph) said she feels more secure with Trump in office, a sentiment reflected in many of our main street conversations.

ZELENY: Do you like having him back in office?

TONY AGEE, GEORGIA VOTER: I do. I voted for him. I'm tired of the United States getting pushed around.

ELINOR CARRICK, GEORGIA VOTER: Looking at where my 401(k) is, I'm going to give him an A.

ZELENY: Yes, it's done pretty well?

CARRICK: Yes.

ZELENY (voice-over): For Trump maintaining his coalition of Republicans and Independents will be at the center of the fight for control of Congress as voters weigh his broader actions, including deep cuts made to the government.

Vi Le was among the hundreds of workers whose jobs were eliminated at the CDC.

VI LE, FORMER CDC EMPLOYEE: Terminating me and my teams like, that's one thing. But CDC that remains what's happening there now, that is mostly untold. Like that's still continues to be really harmful.

ZELENY (voice-over): Back on Rowland's farm, the 72-year-old Republican is as disappointed as dismayed.

ZELENY: Were you expecting things might get a little bit better with Trump back in office?

ROWLAND: I did. Yes. I thought by now we would have a -- we'd have some really good trade. I did think there would be better by now. Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY (on-camera): And Rowland's disappointment is very clear there. Again, he does not blame President Trump for all of his economic difficulties, but he did think it would get better. And that is a central challenge facing the White House, trying to assure Americans that the economy will be getting better.

The president, of course, brags about the health of the economy. That's not what we heard in our conversations in Georgia.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

CORNISH: And next, I'm going to be talking to Congressman Troy Carter about the significance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s message in the age of Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:44:05]

CORNISH: OK, so you're looking at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial here in Washington, D.C. today, as we mark a day to not just remember the life and legacy of the civil rights leader, but a day to live out Dr. King's message of service. Former President Barack Obama put it this way, "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated his life fighting for equity and justice. He taught us that even in the face of intimidation and discrimination, we must never stop working towards a better future -- a lesson that feels especially relevant today."

Joining me now is Louisiana Democratic Congressman Troy Carter. He's also the vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Thank you so much for being with us.

REP. TROY CARTER (D), LOUISIANA: Thank you very much. Enjoy being with you.

CORNISH: Typically, this is a day where people might be able to enter national parks for free because it's a federal holiday, nodding to this hero. The president has revoked that and said you can go in free on his birthday.

[12:45:02]

But it's part of a wider sort of shift, getting rid of anything DEI, getting rid of anything that historically references many black figures. Were these symbolic moves or do you feel like there's -- it makes a difference in a way?

CARTER: It makes a huge difference because when you think about Dr. Martin Luther King and you think about the gains that we've had in the recognition of the work that he did for a better United States and a better world, a world that would would see people and include people and create opportunities for people.

Now, we have a president who wants to roll all of that back. A president that somehow sees words like diversity, equity, inclusion as bad words. President that seems to think that recognizing someone who stood for justice and equality is not a good thing.

The president has made it very clear that his project 2025 is a well thought out evil plan to reverse the gains of humanity, to disregard the Constitution, to disregard the tenets of the struggles of the 60s, the Voting Rights Act, health care for individuals, opportunity for people to be educated.

This president seems to think an attack on a democracy, an attack on the very people that our country has owed a great debt of gratitude to is something that is a good thing to do. And more and more people --

CORNISH: But, Congressman, can I jump in here? Because you have the Supreme Court also weighing in on these issues, especially like the Voting Rights Act. And the reason why I jump in is because a lot of what they say, they sometimes point to King's words, right, the idea that eventually the U.S. must reach this promised goal of sort of race neutrality. And this has been the argument backing things like gutting the Voting Rights Act.

I want you to listen to something that Justice Brett Kavanaugh said during arguments over -- I think it was a case involving your state. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT KAVANAUGH, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: This court's cases in a variety of contexts have said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time, sometimes for a long period of time, decades in some cases, but that they should not be indefinite and should have an end point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Can I get your response to that, because this is very common thinking that the U.S. is at the end of the road when it comes to taking race into account in public life?

CARTER: Quite the contrary. We're not at the end of it at all. In fact, in some cases, we've gone backwards. So yes, in a perfect world, we should not have to these remedies. We shouldn't have to have Section 2 to deal with discrimination. But we know that in 2026, discrimination not only is alive and well, it has been resuscitated by this president who seems to think that creating hate speak and to create further divisions among people is what a president should do.

Mr. President, no, that is not what you should do. You should unify. So when I listen to Justice Kavanaugh, he makes a very good point. There should come a day when it isn't necessary. Respectfully, that day is not now. It's not even close.

CORNISH: What do you think the on-the-ground ramifications would be if in Louisiana, for example, it got rid of its second majority black congressional district?

CARTER: It's far bigger than the seats in Louisiana. Of course, the math is the math, and we have reapportionment every 10 years to take into account the demographic shifts. So when you see those shifts that change, that's why we have reapportionment every 10 years.

So if you do this mid-term reapportionment, one, you are defying what was just done during a legislative session that was controlled by a Republican House, Republican Senate, Republican governor, and we passed a seat that's reflective of Louisiana. If you repeal that, you threaten not only the rule of law and the constitutionality, you threaten the balance of our country as it relates to the demographics of the individual states.

CORNISH: I want to ask you also about Justice Kavanaugh and what have become known as Kavanaugh stops, referring to the legal justification that ethnicity or how people speak could be considered a relevant factor by ICE and immigration stops. And now we're seeing this play out in videos around the country. What is your concern here?

CARTER: Well, you know, I had before our committee on Homeland Security, Secretary Noem came before us and I asked the question, what does an immigrant look like? What does an immigrant sound like? What does a documented versus undocumented person look or sound like?

[12:50:13]

No one at the table could answer that question for me. So then I asked the question, you're paying $50,000 bonuses to individuals to come and be ICE agents. What are you telling them to look for? How are you telling them to identify what a person looks like if they're undocumented?

We know that our citizens come in all shapes and colors and sizes. We come in all sorts of accents. We look in all certain ways. So to unilaterally just walk down the hall and pick people based on what you think is a very violation in and of itself.

This issue of dealing with undocumented individuals is a very complex one. Not one that you can unilaterally walk around and listen for accents or look at the color of someone's skin to determine if they're brown, perhaps they shouldn't be here. That isn't the way our country works.

This is America. We're not some third world country. So if the president really wants to root out the best -- or the worst, rather, the criminals, the rapists, the murderers, there's ways to do that. Coordinate with our local authorities.

CORNISH: Congressman, I want to ask you one more thing because it is Martin Luther King Day. And I think the legacy of many is of nonviolent protest. At the same time, that nonviolent protest was frequently met with violence. What do you look to from that period as you look at the news headlines today?

CARTER: Well, you know, obviously Dr. King made it very clear that nonviolence resistance is the way to go. And unfortunately, there will always be some people who are agitators who seek to go in another direction. And some are, in fact, goaded into going into another direction.

The message is still clear, that we must stand in a nonviolent way to defend and to stand up for the ideals of our country, to make sure that the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King is as real, that we all can work and live together and we can stand against tyranny. Those who would try to tear down our democracy, those who would try to roll back the clock on rights, rather, it's health care, education, environmental justice, or on and on and on.

We know that these things are at risk. And just as much as it was then as it is today. And we have to reboot, reform and fight back, but in a peaceful way.

CORNISH: All right, coming up -- thank -- first of all, thank you so much, Congressman. Appreciate your time. Thank you for being here on this holiday.

And next, we're going to talk about the question Governor Josh Shapiro can't believe he was asked when Kamala Harris was vetting him for VP.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:35]

CORNISH: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro says he was shocked by one of the questions he got during the VP vetting process back in 2024. In his new book, Shapiro says a member of the vetting team asked him, "Have you ever been an agent of the Israeli government? Had I been a double agent for Israel? Was she kidding? I told her how offensive the question was."

He goes on, "Well, we have to ask. She said, we just wanted to check. She added, have you ever communicated with an undercover agent of Israel?" Now, Shapiro is an observant Jew and a strong supporter of Israel who has have been critical of anti-Israel campus protesters. He's also condemned the Netanyahu government.

Back with the panel now. The dueling books out of this period, I have to say, I haven't piled up on them, but you guys have. What's interesting about this moment?

COLLINSON: Nothing says Washington like presidential candidates taking shots at each other in their books. It's amazing. One thing I've been struck with, and Governor Shapiro and the talk about him lately, if you talk to professional Democrats around town, they're quite lukewarm to his prospects as a presidential candidate.

And that's kind of surprising when you think this is someone that won the key state of Pennsylvania, has managed to be still popular in it.

CORNISH: Yes.

COLLINSON: And --

CORNISH: But also lukewarm about her, so --

COLLINSON: That's true. Yes.

MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, AP: Very cynically. There's reasons to do this and reasons not to do this. Reasons to do this as a Democrat. If you're going to run for president, you kind of have to answer for the Biden administration, for President Biden's brief campaign, for Vice President Harris's brief campaign, which voters rejected. So this is a way to also put some break there.

CORNISH: Put distance, yes.

PRICE: Some distance there. But we've seen, and this was actually an issue for Biden and Harris, when you have criticized somebody, if they end up being the nominee and then you end up becoming their running mate, let's say in 2028, that Josh Shapiro is the vice presidential nominee with Kamala Harris, then you have this uncomfortable thing where you've been on the record criticizing them and have to answer for it as you try to campaign with them.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes, I think, I mean, this is maybe another example of when Kamala Harris became the nominee and there was this 107 days of a rush campaign and things were done in a way that maybe weren't always the most delicate, weren't always the most thought out on approach or how to do things.

There might have been, you know, a better, more diplomatic way --

CORNISH: Yes.

MITCHELL: -- to get that betting done.

CORNISH: But it's pressing on a pain point for the party, specifically, around the issue of the Middle East and after October 7, so --

MITCHELL: Yes.

CORNISH: -- it's still very fresh wound.

You guys, thank you so much for talking with me this afternoon. Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central is going to be here with the headlines right now.