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Inside Politics

GOP Fuller Wins Georgia-14 Runoff, Defeats Dem by 12 Points; Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin Campaigns for Iowa Democrats; Michigan Democratic Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed Appears at Campaign Event With Hasan Piker. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired April 08, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:31:15]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Democrats may have lost the Georgia 14th special election for Marjorie Taylor Greene's old seat last night, but they had one of their best performances at the polls since President Trump took office for his second term in a special election. Now, last night, Republican Clayton Fuller did win. He got over 55 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Shawn Harris, who got 44 percent of the vote.

It's a difference of 12 percentage points. Again, that might not sound like a reason for Democrats to celebrate, but if you compare it to how President Trump performed in this solidly red district in 2024, he won by 37 percentage points. That was the biggest swing to the left since 2025, and it is part of an emerging trend for Democrats heading into November's midterms.

David Chalian?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah, so you see there, the Democrat was able to shave away two-thirds of that Trump margin from 2024. And as you noted, that is the best Democratic overperformance, as we call it, in a congressional special election since Donald Trump has taken office again. But it is the pattern that we've seen in every special election since Donald Trump has taken office.

And obviously, there's no denying that that is a good sign for Democrats. They're motivated. It is also true that we are seeing in these elections in the Trump 2.0 era some actual movement of previous Trump voters.

I mean, we saw this in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races with Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger's victories. They didn't just have a motivated Democratic base. They were also peeling away some people that had voted for Donald Trump.

So there are all the warning signs for the Republicans. That being said, November is going to be a different electorate than shows up in special elections.

BASH: Absolutely.

CHALIAN: That's important to say. And I would say that there are two things in the Republican toolkit still. One is an overwhelming financial advantage. So when you're thinking about the midterms -- and again, it's going to be a good year for Democrats, I imagine -- that is one piece that hasn't come about yet.

Like, Donald Trump has --

BASH: The president has --

CHALIAN: Do you have the numbers?

BASH: Yeah, $500 million in his war chest that has not been spent yet.

CHALIAN: That has not been spent yet. So we have to see how the Trump political team is going to deploy that as voters focus in on the midterms and how they are hoping that is going to help mitigate some of this.

And the other thing is the map itself. Obviously, in House districts, we're very gerrymandered. The battle for the Senate is taking place in red states. That being said, as I think we're seeing in places like ruby red Georgia, the map is also changing a bit here with the tide, and the map is not as fortified for Republicans, perhaps, as they thought going into the cycle.

BASH: And David was talking about the trend in these special elections. Yesterday, on Election Day, we had a list of the trend and showed the way that the margins for Republicans are shrinking and for Democrats are expanding.

Now, we've put the new one from yesterday in Georgia up there and you can see it even more starkly from 37 percentage points in 2024 to just 12 in this election yesterday and how that shows the trend right there on the screen.

SHELBY TALCOTT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, SEMAFOR: Right. Certainly, warning signs for the Republican Party and warning signs that the people around Trump are well aware of. So we've heard for months now that the president's top aides have been really pushing him to be out on the campaign trail more because one of the Trump administration's core concerns is that a lot of the voters who voted for Trump are not going to show up.

And that's been a struggle for the Republican Party, is that you have this figurehead who has been able to get voters who don't really vote otherwise in the presidential election. The question that the administration has is, how can we now get them to vote for other Republicans? And so you're seeing them sort of talk internally about that.

[12:35:00]

But I still think the president needs a little bit of convincing. And one thing that really stands out to me, when the president talks about this topic, we've heard him a few times kind of lament about how anytime there is a president in office, whether it's Republican or Democrat, they usually have a bad midterms and to me I wonder if he's almost a little bit resigned of the fact that maybe this will be a tough year for Republicans.

BASH: And if he doesn't go out and maybe he -- well, we could talk more about that another time. All right. Everybody, don't go anywhere because, up next, there's a question and that is, is Democratic Senator, Elissa Slotkin sizing up a potential presidential bid? What she's saying and where she's saying it, we'll explain after a break.

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[12:40:18]

BASH: Maybe there's another name to put on the list of potential 2028 candidates. Michigan Senator, Elissa Slotkin, she's campaigning for Democrats in Iowa this week where she sought to explain her brand of politics to fellow Midwestern Democrats.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Iowa too, where he caught up with Senator Slotkin.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, Senator Slotkin starts by reminding Democrats that she is one of the Democrats who actually knows how to win in Trump country. She's won in Trump country. Her entire career actually is through the arc of Donald Trump's own rise, starting in 2018, that first midterm election and winning ever since.

But it was that race in 2024, where Donald Trump won Michigan and she also won that she says offers a pathway forward to other Democrats. She said the warning is the party cannot be simply a candidate and a party of the coast.

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SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN, (D-MI): It can be easy sometimes to be a Democrat in a very blue state, not so easy in a purple and red state. People risk a lot to stick their necks out and be involved. I think what I've heard over and over is that, you know, we need significant generational change.

We need a change in our approach. We know that we didn't win the last election and we've had to deal with the consequences of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And she does offer a bit of tough medicine to Democrats saying they have to acknowledge the problem. So, Dana, on a very windy day here in Des Moines, she certainly was offering Democrats some hope, but again, offering them some concrete instructions for what she believes they need to do to revive their party.

BASH: And Jeff, the Des Moines Register, where you cut your teeth as a terrific reporter, that's reporting that Slotkin told them she would consider running for president. Did you talk to her about any 2028 plans?

ZELENY: We did, and there's no doubt that she is considering it. She's been hiring some staffers to work with her. The very fact that she is here, she actually sat down for lunch yesterday with five Trump voters to see what was on their minds and if Democrats could do anything to win them over. But we asked her directly about 2028. This is what she told us.

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ZELENY: It sounds like you're seriously thinking about 2028.

SLOTKIN: You know, I know the minute you step foot in the state of Iowa, this is my first time ever being here, that that becomes the chatter. I just want to be part of the change that I think we need in this party. I want to be a part of that new generation that's thinking differently and pushing my own party to figure it out and do better. I'm not so arrogant as to think it has to be me, but I want to be a part of that next generation, without a doubt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So it was Slotkin's first visit to Iowa, but Dana, as you well know, the calendar for 2028 is far from set. And one thing she would not talk about is whether Iowa should be included in that list of early states. Of course, Michigan, her home state, is also vying for that spot on the calendar.

But she gave a bit of an acknowledgment to Iowa has been a place where Democrats have won before. Barack Obama, a key example, won Iowa both in 2008 and in 2012. That has been a long time.

So her message going on is, yes, about her somewhat. That's the context. But really trying to give Democrats a shot in the arm and telling them what she thinks they need to do to win the midterm elections. Of course, that comes first. Dana?

BASH: Jeff, thanks for bringing us that "Inside Politics" exclusive. Nice to see you.

ZELENY: You bet.

BASH: Up next, how big should the Democratic tent be?

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[12:48:16]

BASH: Now to the Michigan Senate race where a Democratic candidate is forging a controversial alliance with a left-wing streamer who has defended Hamas terrorists. Abdul El-Sayed campaigned yesterday with 34-year-old Hasan Piker, who has more than three million followers on the gaming platform Twitch, as well as YouTube. Here he is at the El- Sayed rally in Ann Arbor. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASAN PIKER, TWITCH STREAMER: Every single person in here and myself included saw heinous war crimes take place every single day for the past two-and-a-half years and we didn't stand idly by, we spoke out. And in the beginning, it was a lot lonelier when we spoke out. They used the same exact heinous smears. They said you're anti-semitic. They said you were a radical Islamist.

You're a radical fundamentalist, but also really woke at the same time.

(LAUGH)

PIKER: It doesn't really make sense. And back then, I felt a lot lonelier. But I don't feel lonely anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That is Hasan Piker attempting to airbrush his past statements. Here's some of what he actually has said about the depravity of the October 7th terror attack, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the holocaust. Quote, "It doesn't matter if [expletive] rapes happened on October 7th, like that doesn't change the dynamic for me. The Palestinian Resistance is not perfect."

Now, let that sink in. Hasan Piker is excusing sexual violence by Hamas terrorists. He also claims Hamas is, quote, "A thousand times better than Israel." Hamas is a designated terror organization, not just by the U.S., but by the E.U., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, just to name a few.

[12:50:00]

And here's what Piker said about the horrors of September 11th, 2001.

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PIKER: America deserved 9/11, dude, [expletive] it. I'm saying it. We [expletive] totally brought it on ourselves, dude. Holy [expletive]. We did. We [expletive] did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, Piker did later call that comment inappropriate and said he didn't mean Americans deserved to die. Several progressive politicians have appeared with Piker on Twitch, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Congressman Ro Khanna. Other Democrats, including El-Sayed's primary opponents in Michigan, Mallory McMorrow and Haley Stevens, not only refuse, but both condemn Piker and his comments.

My panel is back now. David Chalian?

CHALIAN: I just think this is a fascinating bet that El-Sayed is making here, that, like, refusing to back down from his association with Piker, embracing it, standing with him, is a political bet. And it doesn't mean, you know, all those comments you went through, that will play a role here too. As you noted, McMorrow and Stevens, his opponents, are going to make this a part of the campaign.

But the Sayed operation is betting the Piker popularity with the base is the safer bet in the cost/benefit analysis to make for him. And I just think that that's a really interesting thing to have us watch, because the politics of Israel inside the Democratic Party, especially in the state of Michigan, with a big American population, as we saw in the 24th primary, this is still like a live wire inside the Democratic Party.

BASH: Yeah, I mean, it's also a state where there were almost 100- something preschoolers almost murdered by a terrorist who, you know, obviously was, thank God, stopped from doing it.

Piker talked to our colleague, Donie O'Sullivan a couple of weeks ago and I want to play what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIKER: I've spent my entire professional media career, and far beyond that, combating anti-semitism. I've been doxed, swatted by neo-Nazis for my consistent advocacy against anti-semitism. I just also happen to be an avowed anti-Zionist. I believe Zionism is a very racist ideology.

It's an ethno-religious supremacist ideology. And it's the underpinning ideology that has caused the genocide of Palestinians in the hands of Israel and also the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, just a little bit of sort of fact-checking here and context, because it's important, because these terms are thrown around without understandably people really knowing what they mean to a lot of people.

First of all, Zionism, what is it actually? It's a nationalist movement, an ideology supporting the notion of a Jewish state, the Jewish people's right to self-determination. He just called that a racist ideology, the right for Jews to have self-determination.

Deborah Lipstadt, who is one of the foremost experts, academic experts, who worked in the State Department on anti-semitism, I talked to her about this a couple of years ago and many times since. The difference between, "anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism." Here's how she answered that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH LIPSTADT, FORMER SPECIAL ENVOY FOR MONITORING & COMBATING ANTI-SEMITISM: Criticism of Israeli policy is not anti-semitism. But when you question the right of Jews to a national identity, when you question the existence of a Jewish state, you've moved beyond the political. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Shelby?

TALCOTT: Yeah, I mean, when you -- I think he's sort of intentionally trying to get in the weeds here to maybe shift the spotlight away from some of his past comments, which I think everyone can agree are unacceptable. But this is the broader issue, I think, in this day and age in particular, with everybody being so online, with a ton of younger voters starting to get in the mix.

On both sides of the aisle, the ultimate question is, how far do we want to go with this? And one of the reasons that Democrats lost in the last election was because the American people felt like they were too far to the left and they weren't necessarily representing the average American voter.

And so it's really interesting that you have candidates who are teaming up with people who are sort of on the very far left side of it. On the flip side, you have the same issue in the Republican Party, where you have fringe folks sort of trying to weasel their way into this "mainstream orbit."

And there's a question with both parties of what do we do with these folks?

BASH: Yeah.

TALCOTT: Should we be going on their podcast? Should we be denouncing them?

BASH: Yeah. I mean, it's such an important point. What was before thought of as fringe, here, both sides are definitely sort of moving into the mainstream slowly but surely.

[12:55:00]

On that note, you mentioned it is Michigan, but it's beyond that. Ro Khanna, for example, he said that he has no regrets about appearing on Hasan Piker's show.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: It's interesting because going back to the last presidential campaign, you were mentioning the Democrats moving to the left. Another reason they struggled is, you know, they often face criticism on not meeting people where they were, just communication-wise, right? And you know, Hasan Piker, other influencers, these people have millions of followers, right?

BASH: Yeah.

KANNO-YOUNGS: And Dems see it as a way to reach a younger, disgruntled base that is losing faith in their political system, right? But the dynamic that you're talking about, what comes with that benefit of reaching those folks? Yes, you had the interview there with Hasan Piker. I think what's even going to be more influential is the questions that are put to the politicians that choose to go on these platforms.

They're also going to face the questions of whether or not they defend these statements and these views.

BASH: All right, thanks to all of you. Thank you for joining us on "Inside Politics" today. "CNN News Central" starts after a quick break.

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