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Is The MAGA Coalition Cracking In Ohio?; Trump Calls New Iranian Leadership "Very Disjointed"; With No Trump Pick, Cornyn & Paxton Locked In Costly GOP Brawl; New Poll: Democrat Talarico Leads Both Cornyn And Paxton. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 01, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[12:30:00]

BOB SWAUGER, OHIO VOTER: -- 1,460 of us, I think there were all laid off in January 5th, officially.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And you don't know until when?

SWAUGER: Don't know until when.

J. KING (voice-over): Bob Swauger leads the campaign committee at Local 1112. Everyone here remembers when Trump told them not to sell their homes, and later when he said new jobs would replace the GM jobs. The union endorsed Kamala Harris, but a big chunk of its voters voted Trump. And then the UAW endorsed Trump's tariffs.

SWAUGER: They were hopeful that they were going to bring more jobs back to the United States.

J. KING: Has that happened?

SWAUGER: Not that I'm aware of.

J. KING (voice-over): Manufacturing employment is up a bit of late, but down 80,000 jobs overall since Trump returned to the White House. American auto manufacturing, down 25,000 jobs in Trump's second term.

J. KING: Do you believe in 2026, the Democrats can actually win statewide for the Senate and win statewide for governor in Ohio?

SWAUGER: Yes.

J. KING (voice-over): Mark Skonieczny served overseas in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, was drawn to the Tea Party and then Trump after leaving the Army.

MARK SKONIECZNY, OHIO VOTER: I let myself, I don't want to say get radicalized or anything, but I was very right-wing.

J. KING (voice-over): Skonieczny had a change of heart in 2020, calls himself an independent and is backing Democrats this year because he now views Trump and MAGA as dangerous to democracy.

SKONIECZNY: I've talked to a lot of people whose views are changing, even in my own family. So I am hopeful that that is starting to fracture.

J. KING (voice-over): Yet Skonieczny concedes many Trump supporter friends will not budge.

SKONIECZNY: And it's a lot harder than I thought.

J. KING (voice-over): Most of Ohio is rural, and rural America is Trump country. But rural also means you drive a lot, high gas prices hurt. Farms dot the rolling hills of Albany and southeast Ohio. This one is unique.

J. KING: The chickens are your supervisors?

BILL KRUSLING, OHIO VOTER: Yes.

J. KING (voice-over): 400 or so sheep on 100 grassy acres. Lambing season, these sheep are pregnant. 200 to 250 more little lambs do any day now.

KRUSLING: Stay, stay, stay.

J. KING (voice-over): Bill Krusling doesn't need much diesel or any fertilizer, so he's shielded from the Iran war cost spikes hitting many other farmers. He does OK, but is saddled by huge medical debts. His biggest complaints about Washington are corruption and deficit spending.

J. KING: Trump promised to change the health care system, and he hasn't. He promised to reduce the debt, and he hasn't.

KRUSLING: Well, it takes time. He had four years, but he was new to Washington. I don't blame Trump, I blame the Congress.

J. KING: Where am I riding?

KRUSLING: Right here.

J. KING: I'm going to take the dog seat?

KRUSLING: Yes. She's coming no matter what.

J. KING (voice-over): Krusling says no politician understands this life, and he's mad at both parties for not solving problems. But he will vote Republican in November because he's conservative and because he loves Trump, for the very reason so many people can't stand Trump.

J. KING: He seems to like the fights.

KRUSLING: Oh, he loves a fight. He loves a fight. And that's great. That's why I voted for him. This world's got way too many pearl clutchers. It's like, come on, people, give me a break. J. KING (voice-over): Back on the road heading south, Portsmouth is in Scioto County, along the Ohio River across from Kentucky. Trump won 74 percent here last time.

Dale King was already wavering on Trump. The Iran war, the last straw. King opened his Portsmouth gym 16 years ago, after returning home from two tours in Iraq.

DALE KING, OHIO VOTER: It's crazy because that's, like, 20 years ago.

J. KING (voice-over): His office is full of military mementos, and showing it to a visitor stirs emotion.

D. KING: Like, it's weird -- I don't know, 20 years and then we're dealing with Iran. So it's like, what the fuck is -- it's just a -- it's a unique timing thing.

Guys are trying to navigate their own healing journey, and now it's like, OK, we -- it's scratching that scab again.

J. KING (voice-over): King voted for Trump in 2016, again in 2024. But he's voting for Democrats in 2026 because he believes the country needs to send Trump a midterm message.

D. KING: I am pro-military. And I am -- we have a strong need to protect this country. I know there are threats, and I know there are enemies that want to see the downfall of this country. But you can't be flippant about war. You cannot.

J. KING (voice-over): Conversations with friends here, and fellow veterans across the country, convince him big change is coming.

D. KING: The shines kind of coming off the Trump presidency, really kind of see through the true core of who he is versus what he campaigned on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:35:09]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: John, absolutely fascinating. So many different characters with so many different perspectives, but the overall takeaway is the President and Republicans, they're in trouble there.

J. KING: Ohio is in play for the first time in a decade. That's all you have to say to tell you the President and his party are in trouble because it's been simply off the map. Now, it takes more for Democrats to win in Ohio. Trump won 81 of 88 counties in 2024. So be skeptical of Democratic chances.

You need a lot more people to peel off than you do, say, in a Pennsylvania or a Wisconsin, the states that are 50-50, because Trump has stretched it out so much there. But we show -- you see the Iraq War veteran there. You see some other Trump voters there who have some doubts. Here's the other big issue, affordability. In half of Ohio's 88 counties, half, the cost -- your costs are outpacing your wages by higher than the national average. So you drive through that. And a lot of that, guess what it is? A lot of that is rural America, Trump country, where your groceries, your energy, your housing, your other costs were already up, and now, as we talked about earlier, you're dealing with energy, gas, fuel.

BASH: Yes. The substance of that piece was great. It was shot so beautifully. I mean, that was a gorgeous piece.

J. KING: They're amazing.

BASH: Thank you so much for bringing it to us.

We actually have to go to the White House. President Trump is now leaving for Florida. He's on the South Lawn of the White House taking questions on Iran as he leaves. Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell us about the new Iranian proposal, please?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So they want to make a deal, but I don't -- I'm not satisfied with it, so we'll see what happens.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Iran wants to make a deal because they have no military left, essentially, and they want to make a deal, but I'm not satisfied.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: Because it's never been sought before. There's been numerous, many, many times, and nobody's ever gotten it before. They consider it totally unconstitutional, but we're always in touch with Congress. But nobody's ever sought it before. Nobody's ever asked for it before. It's never been used before. Why should we be different?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you willing to send anybody to Islamabad, your envoy?

TRUMP: We have great respect for Pakistan and Islamabad and tremendous respect for the prime minister and the field marshal, and they're working with us. They continue to work with us, but the trip is a very long one, and we're doing everything in terms of negotiating -- right now, in terms of the negotiation telephonically. They've made strides, but I'm not sure if they ever get there.

There's tremendous discord. There's tremendous -- they're having a tremendous problem getting along with each other in Iran. The leadership is very disjointed. It's got two to three groups, maybe four, and it's a very disjointed leadership. And with that being said, they all want to make a deal, but they're all messed up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, it's day 60. Are you going to seek congressional authorization for --

TRUMP: Well, no other country has ever done it. It's never been -- and as you know, most people consider it totally unconstitutional. Also, we had a ceasefire, so that gives you additional time. But no other country's done it. We're in the midst of a big victory. This is a victory like we haven't had since Venezuela, OK?

To be honest with you, we haven't had. But, you know, we have a country that lost its way. It really lost its way. That's our country in terms of the military. Now we have a great military.

We're on our way to another victory, a big victory. And I don't think that it's constitutional what they're asking for. These are not patriotic people that are asking. You know, when they say -- even the losers, even the ones that say all the wrong things, admit that it's been amazing what we've done.

The Strait is totally shut down. It's flawless. It's totally 100 percent shut down. Now, we've been dealing with Iran. They want to make a deal. They're not there. They're not with -- not -- they're sort of the -- they get close, and then a new group of people come in. They don't know who their leaders are.

They have no idea who their leaders are. But they're very confused. And that's because of the success we've had militarily. They essentially have no military.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Let me just tell you about the war powers. So many presidents, as you know, have gone and exceeded it. It's never been used. It's never been adhered to. And every other President considered it totally unconstitutional. And we agree with that.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will Iran affect your China trip, giving the blockade and ceasefire?

[12:40:12]

TRUMP: No, the China -- it's going to be amazing. The visit with China and Chairman Xi, that's going to be great. We have the trip with China coming up --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: -- and it will be -- I think it'll be an amazing event.

(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, if you can't get a deal on Iran, what next? What will you do?

TRUMP: Well, right now, we have negotiations going on. They're not getting there. They are very disjointed. They're extremely disjointed. They're not able to get along with each other. As leaders, they don't know who the leader is.

Their military has been defeated. We've had a -- if we left right now, it would take them 20 years to build back that country. But we're not satisfied at this point.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, are you considering new strikes on Iran? Are you considering new strikes on Iran?

TRUMP: Why would I tell you that?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spirit Airlines, what has been the hold-up on a deal? Are they blocking it?

TRUMP: We're looking at it. We're looking at trying to help them. Something we're not looking to get involved with, but if we can, it's 14,000 jobs.

We are -- I would say we're driving a tough deal, but it's one of those things. We will do it or we won't. We'll have something for you today or tomorrow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems like the other lenders are balking. They think they'll get bumped down in priority.

TRUMP: Well, they will, you know. We come first. Hey, you know what it is? USA first. America first, that's my point. Including with airlines. Including with Intel.

You know, we made an Intel deal. You know that, right? We made about $40 billion on that. And someday, Fox and Peter is going to talk about it.

We helped out Intel, and we ended up making $40 billion. So, we're looking at Spirit different kind of a thing. But we're looking at Spirit. If we can help them, we will. But we have to come first.

We're first. It's America first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The CEO of Anthropic came to meet Susie Wiles a week or two ago. What is the latest on your position on that company?

TRUMP: Well, only that they had a very good meeting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You had the FedCom commander come in here yesterday.

TRUMP: I did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was he briefing you on a different approach, options? What kind of options? How would it look different?

TRUMP: Well, there are options. I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever, or do we want to try and make a deal? I mean, those are the options.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want to go blast the hell out of them and finish them forever?

TRUMP: I'd prefer not. On a human basis, I'd prefer not. But that's the option. Do we want to go in there heavy and just blast them away, or do we want to do something? They're a very disjointed leadership, as you can understand, Peter. Very disjointed.

I mean, they -- they're not getting along with each other, and it puts us in a bad position. One group wants to make a certain deal. The other group wants to make a certain deal, including the hardliners. The hardliners want to make a deal too.

Why wouldn't they? They have no Navy. They have no airports. They have no anti-aircraft. They have no nothing.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are some reports this week that because of all the firepower required for Epic Fury, that there are people in the White House who are starting to worry about our inventory of bombs and missiles. Are you worried?

TRUMP: No, no. We have more than we've ever had, actually. Because all over the world, we have inventory, and we can take that if we need it. But all over the world, we have tremendous amounts of inventory, the best.

For instance, we're stocked and locked and loaded. Right now, we have more than double what we had when this started. But, you know, we're all over the world. We're in many, many different countries, many different places, all packed up.

Now, what happened is Biden came in like a stupid fool, and he gave a lot of what we had to Ukraine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

TRUMP: And the $350 billion they spent, we don't do that. Everybody has to pay. The European Union pays us, but Biden didn't get money. He got nothing. He got nothing. But he gave a lot of the inventory away.

Now, relatively speaking, it's not that. But it was a lot of inventory. He gave it to Ukraine. We built it up, but we have inventory from all over the world.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The G7 is in France in June. Will you go to it?

TRUMP: Probably.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President? Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Britain and NATO?

TRUMP: What about NATO?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the King change your mind? King Charles.

TRUMP: No, no, no. King and I had a great -- he's just a great person. He's a high-quality person. I love the job he did in Congress. He actually got the Democrats to stand. He's a wonderful person.

[12:45:05]

She's a wonderful lady, a wonderful queen. And we had a good time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, Mr. President, will the Lebanese and Israeli leaders be meeting here soon at the White House?

TRUMP: Yes, they're going to be coming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, when you go to a -- this is going to be your first big public event that somebody tried to kill you on Saturday. Do you feel safe going to something like this today?

TRUMP: I don't even think about it, Peter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about Pete Rose? Do you still support a pardon for Pete Rose, sir?

TRUMP: Oh, I think Pete Rose is great. I think --

BASH: OK, we're going to continue to monitor the rest of the President's Q&A with reporters there on the South Lawn of the White House on a beautiful day. A lot to discuss. I think obviously the takeaway, John King, is that the President is not happy with whatever -- we don't know the details of whatever it is that the Iranian leadership gave to Pakistan on their negotiation, what they're offering, but the President isn't happy with it.

And he went even further to say, I'm not sure they'll ever get there, repeatedly saying that he is not sure who's leading Iran. He called them disjointed. You know, there's a lot to read into that. Obviously, the President is trying to make public statements that send a signal to Iran, not sure how much is that, and also just the fact that he really isn't happy with what they got and he really isn't sure how they're going to get this done diplomatically.

J. KING: To the point that he said he's not prepared to send a delegation to Islamabad.

BASH: Exactly.

J. KING: The Pakistanis are trying to get the negotiations back, the people in the same room or at least in the same hotel, so they can shuttle back and forth between the two parties they're talking about. The President says he didn't see enough to do that.

So what does that tell you? It tells you there's no end in sight, at least now. Again, you're right. I think the President could be using terms in public words to try to force some sort of another compromise. But what have been the hang-ups in the past? You know, how much control does Iran have over the Strait of Hormuz? It's under U.S. military blockade right now, which is why the world's economy and U.S. gas prices are in such a disruptive state.

Will they surrender their nuclear materials? Yes, the President's right. They've been further buried, but they still have nuclear materials. The President keeps saying they've agreed to that. He did not say that today.

He has in the past said several times they've agreed to that. They have not agreed to that. So one of the challenges is, forgive me, that a lot of what the President says turns out to be not true or is different from what he says tomorrow.

But the big headline is, both from a geopolitical standpoint and from an economic standpoint, no end in sight --

BASH: No.

J. KING: -- to a war the President said would be over in days.

BASH: No end in sight. And the -- one of the questions is, what does that mean militarily? When or if the ceasefire will end? The President was asked about a meeting he had with the CENTCOM commander yesterday at the White House. And he said, yes, he got lots of military options, which is probably not surprising.

And he said, do I want to, what did he say, blow them out of the water? Blow them out? I prefer not to on a human level.

TARINI PARTI, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Right. And this kind of goes along with his tweets from Easter when, you know, he said he was considering, you know, decimating Iran. And he's now sort of taking it off the table, but the way he's talking about it is not very encouraging. And -- but he's also not talking about the peace talks in an encouraging manner.

So John is right. At this stage, it's kind of very unclear how this moves forward. We know he's essentially just blaming Iranian leaders for everything. And as long as the U.S. and Iran aren't sitting in a room and kind of hashing this out, it seems like we're pretty far off. I think the phrase the President used was telephonically.

BASH: They're doing it telephonically. PARTI: So that tells you where things are right now.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Just to kind of connect all the dots together, what you saw as a President who, and he actually said how, was very laudable in the ability of the United States to close the Strait of Hormuz. The reticence on military action, the annoyance and frustration with a negotiating process that isn't moving forward and not taking any tangible steps to try and meet them in person, which I think would obviously be, as he's done in the past, is a signal that they start to think things are real.

There is a view inside the White House that the President is quite pleased with the blockade that the U.S. has put on, and that a war of attrition based purely on economic means is where he is now in terms of what he views as the most plausible, successful path forward.

That's what I've been -- the way I would put it is buckle up. Buckle up, because all the political things and economic things we've been talking about are about to get really, really bad, and we'll see who breaks first.

BASH: Yes, All right, everybody stand by. We're going to take a quick break. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:54:27]

BASH: We've all heard silence is golden, but in a cutthroat Senate runoff, it's toxic. The day after the Texas Republican primary set up a Cornyn-Paxton runoff, President Trump promised his endorsement was coming soon. Here we are two months later, it hasn't happened.

And as CNN's new edition Patrick Svitek reports, Republicans are fuming. He writes, in part, "It's a mess." That's according to a national Republican strategist speaking on condition of anonymity in order to assess the race. The strategist blamed a failure by multiple entities to do their part.

And Patrick joins us now. Welcome to CNN. Welcome to Inside Politics.

PATRICK SVITEK, CNN REPORTER: Thank you so much for having me.

[12:55:10]

BASH: It is really kind of amazing because there was so much pressure on the President to make a decision. The thought was that he would endorse John Cornyn, and it hasn't happened. And one of the many reasons was money because it is going to cost, and it already is costing Republicans so much to keep this primary up in a race that is going to be real against the Democrat.

SVITEK: Yes, absolutely. I mean, this looks like a headache when this race was coming together over a year ago. And it's remained a headache. And I think one of the things that Republican leadership thought would ease that headache was if they could get President Trump off the sidelines and make an endorsement.

They obviously wanted him to endorse the incumbent, Republican John Cornyn. That hasn't happened, despite the fact, as you pointed out, that the President the morning after the primary said he'd make an endorsement soon.

BASH: Why? What is the why?

SVITEK: I think you saw a fierce -- there are a few factors here. I think you saw a fierce pushback from Paxton supporters in the broader MAGA world to the idea that he could endorse Cornyn. You saw that play out on social media and in conservative media. You also had this debate over the Save America Act, which is still going on in Congress but it is --

BASH: Which Paxton injected into this. Paxton injected.

SVITEK: Paxton -- I think it was two days after the primary --

BASH: Yes.

SVITEK: -- Paxton said, hey, look, I'll consider dropping out if Republicans in the Senate nuke the filibuster to pass the Save America Act, which is, as we know, it's highly unlikely. But even some Cornyn, you know, supporters that I speak to give Paxton credit for making that statement because they believe it kind of slowed down what, at that point, looked like an imminent Cornyn endorsement by the President.

BASH: And let's look at kind of the state of play right now and where we are on a hypothetical matchup, because we have -- it has to be hypothetical. We don't know what's going to happen on the GOP side. This is Texas, guys. Texas.

And James Talarico, who is the Democratic nominee, in a head-to-head with John Cornyn right now. He's up 40 to 33, and it's not that much different if he were to face Ken Paxton. Phil Mattingly?

MATTINGLY: I think the thing that is, when you talk to Republicans that they're concerned about, is time and money, right? Like, right now, they feel like they have -- if you talk to them, they've got reams of opposition research that they're ready to just unload on the Democratic candidate as soon as they have a candidate.

And I think as more time passes and people are focused entirely on a primary, which is nasty for all of the reasons that Ken Paxton's resume suggests it should be, more money is spent to the tune of $100 million-plus at this point in time. That's money that's not being spent. That's time that's not being spent defining.

That's air cover that your future Republican candidate is not going to have. And, oh, by the way, there's a possibility that Ken Paxton wins, like as real a 50-50 shot as anybody seems to think. And so I think right now Democrats are very kind of clear-eyed.

We've done this how many cycles now where they realize the great blue hope may not actually get over the finish line, but they recognize that there is a genuine opportunity here. They have the money. They feel like they've got the candidate. More importantly, they feel like Republicans have just wasted a ton of time fighting themselves.

BASH: John?

J. KING: Well, overlap, number one. There's a number of states where Republicans have been in power for a long time, right, in Iowa, in Ohio, in Texas. The electorate is in a mood for change. My home state of Massachusetts sometimes elects a Republican governor, not because it's becoming blue, but because it just says, we want some change.

BASH: Because you're talking about --

J. KING: Yes.

BASH: -- the bigger map. Let's pull this up here.

J. KING: Yes. So --

BASH: There we go.

J. KING: Yes. So you look at, you know, there's a mood for change out there, number one. So if you're in a mood for change in a difficult state, what do you want to do? Both parties, you want to get it over with as fast as possible. That's why what happened in Maine matters for the Democrat Senate race yesterday.

Stop an internal family feud that's going to cause bruising, might cause people to stay home. And stop spending millions of dollars. Now, Texas is a lot more expensive than Maine. Number two, Democratic candidate for governor. I'm not saying she's going to win, but a Latina from the Rio Grande Valley, going to drive up Hispanic turnout.

We've seen so far Latinos coming back to the --

BASH: You're talking about Texas.

J. KING: -- yes, coming back to the Democrats after going Trump's way in 2024. So this is another case for Republicans, and the reporting here is excellent, where it's pretty obvious, Mr. President, do something. We think Cornyn's the strongest candidate, but do something to help us try to keep this seat. And the President puts whatever his own thinking is ahead of what the people in the party say they need.

This has happened time and time again under Donald Trump. So it keeps on the table a potential seat. If Democrats are going to take back the Senate, you know, you've got to protect Michigan. But if you can flip Ohio, flip North Carolina, so then you're looking for another one. Alaska's in play, and Texas is in play. It's possible.

Six months ago, you would laugh to have that conversation. Now you're having a serious conversation --

BASH: Yes.

J. KING: -- that the Senate is in reach in part --

BASH: Can I just add another one?

J. KING: Yes. Yes.

BASH: Iowa.

J. KING: Right, because -- and again, gas prices, rural states. So people have another reason to be mad at those in power. And so you need to clean this up as quickly as possible. Take -- get the easy ones done. And I'm not saying it's easy, but it's easier than some of those others. And they just simply have left it on the table.

BASH: Tarini?

PARTI: Yes, I mean, I think just six months ago, or even at the start of the cycle, we were not talking about the Senate map, really. And now it tells you what the political climate is like, where we're talking about states like Iowa and Ohio and -- being in play. And it just tells you how Republicans and the President have not been able to get a handle on talking about the midterms and these issues like gas prices.

BASH: Thank you all for this rock and roll day. Thank you for coming in and joining us on your debut at CNN.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.