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Inside Politics

Inside The Trump DOJ's Quest To Indict Trump Critic John Brennan; Platner And Collins Unveils New Ads In Close Maine Senate Contest; Maine Dems Signal Trust In Platner Despite Past Controversies; A Look Back At The First Year Of Leo XIV's Papacy. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 08, 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]

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: And we'll see if they're right about this, but it seems like they have some reason to think that.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: And listen, part of this is Todd Blanche wants to get the big job, right? He's acting right now. He saw what happened to Pam Bondi. He wasn't able to deliver what the President wanted, what MAGA has always wanted, this idea that all of these people had a conspiracy theory against this President.

And they want to go big. They also want to punish and humiliate folks like Barack Obama. Obviously, Jim Comey has already been indicted twice now, Letitia James, Fani Willis, all of these people. So we'll see where this goes.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: And I don't want to talk about this as if it's just, like, normal.

HENDERSON: Right.

BASH: Because it's not. And so -- and, you know, Lauren, you talk to Republicans on the Hill all day, every day. We know that in private they know that it's not normal and probably not good for the system of justice. What are you hearing from them?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, and certainly they don't want to talk about this, right? They don't want to be weighing in on every single turn of the screw when it comes to these legal investigations because they know that a lot of these don't really have a basis in reality.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It's all retribution.

FOX: And -- exactly. And there also is a chilling effect here. And I think you cannot understate that which is --

BASH: Which is the point.

FOX: Exactly. Democrats, if they took back the House, which obviously we talked about prior, why that may not happen in November, they would probably launch several investigations into Donald Trump. But you can guess that they are going to be very careful about how they pursue that, how they go about their investigations, in part because there's a real fear that if you go after Donald Trump, he is going to find a way to come after you.

BASH: Thank you all. Please check out Evan and Hannah's great reporting on CNN.com. When we come back, Graham Platner and Susan Collins are both out with new ads in the marquee Maine Senate race. I'm going to speak to Sarah Longwell and what she's hearing in her focus groups from Maine voters about that contest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:36:30]

BASH: The general election race for Maine's crucial Senate seat is officially underway. One week after Democratic Governor Janet Mills dropped out of the race to set up a campaign between Democrat Graham Platner and incumbent Republican Susan Collins, both campaigns are up with new ads making their case to voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Susan Collins' charade is over. We don't care that you pretend to be remorseful at the start of a new forever war that you chose to let happen. We don't care that you are concerned while we go broke.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the breakwater collapsed, it brought a halt to most of our economics and brought a tremendous amount of uncertainty to our future. But prior to sunrise, we received a phone call from Senator Susan Collins, who assured us that she would be there to help see it rebuilt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Let's talk about this race and what it says about the overall political environment this year. You see her there, Sarah Longwell, she's the publisher of The Bulwark and host of the Focus Group podcast. Nice to see you, Sarah. Thanks for coming on.

Look, you have been following this race closely through your focus groups that you're doing with Maine voters. You started when Platner was just in a primary race with Mills. Now, based on what you're hearing, is Platner, do you think, the toughest reelection challenger that Collins has faced? Because I've been around long enough to know that she has had a lot of very tough challenges as a Republican in Blue Maine.

SARAH LONGWELL, PUBLISHER, THE BULWARK: Yes, I mean, look, Susan Collins sits on a throne of skulls of her enemies, right? People who take on Susan Collins, nobody has been successful yet. But it's not just that Graham Platner is tapping into something of the moment, which is a populist energy that isn't in every state, but is like a big strain in the Democratic Party. But it's also a moment when Susan Collins -- and you could sort of see

it in the ads, like the energy of the Platner ad feels new. It does feel fresh. And Susan Collins's ad feels stale, feels like old politics, feels like regular politician.

And we are in a moment right now where there is just a real pushback against regular politicians who are doing kind of the same old pork barrel favors for people versus kind of big picture. I'm ready to fight for you. I'm ready to fight for the working class.

We're done with these establishment politicians, like that's the energy that is framing up this race. And of course, Graham Platner has all of this stuff in his background that in a different environment might sink a candidate, might take them down, might be the kind of thing that voters would consider disqualifying.

But we are in a new post-Trump moment where voters have kind of decided that your vices or some of the negative things in your background, like that they almost confer a sense of authenticity, that you're a real person who's overcome challenges. And Donald Trump has really changed the way voters kind of engage with complicated and negative --

BASH: Yes.

LONGWELL: -- personality (INAUDIBLE).

BASH: Yes. And -- yes.

LONGWELL: Yes, go ahead.

BASH: Just to put a finer point on what you're saying, the baggage that Platner is bringing to this race, a tattoo that certainly resembles a Nazi symbol that he covered up when people found out about it, a long controversial history of writing on Reddit, including what appeared to be him blaming women for sexual assault. He has apologized for all of that, said that he has gone through tough times since he had PTSD after coming out of the military.

[12:40:12]

But just to kind of explain what you're talking about and show what you're talking about, what you're hearing from Democratic voters, I want to play some examples of them from your focus groups.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The controversies about the Nazi symbols and the Reddit posts seem very in line with someone from down east who's lived in a small town their whole life, went to the military.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll take him for his word and just chalk it up to something that he truly wasn't aware of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's explained that. That was a mistake. I think it was genuine about that. We all make mistakes. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It actually might be good that he's going to

bring in people that -- who don't believe in political correctness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I mean, there's political correctness and then there's having a symbol associated with Nazis that is forever put on your body. But, you know, that's a different thing. I think the most interesting part of what you're hearing is all of these sort of apologizing for those things or kind of throwing it under the rug and looking at the things that they really like about him.

LONGWELL: Yes, look, I mean, if you take Donald Trump, Donald Trump had a slew of offensive, misogynistic, racist comments, both in his past and in his current campaign. And he never apologized for any of it.

And so, I think for a lot of these voters, they say Republicans have been tolerating this kind of guy. We're looking at this other candidate. He's apologized. He's trying to -- you know, he's gone through this change. And I think that for them is kind of the difference that he's owned his mistakes and is trying to be better.

And people tend to sympathize with that. And so I've talked to a number of groups of Democrats in Maine. And, you know, the thing is, they all like Janet Mills. Fine, but they just saw her as an establishment, regular politician. And they wanted something new. And they were basically willing to forgive Graham Platner's past in favor of what he was pitching them for the future.

BASH: One of the things that Platner has had to sort of dodge or navigate in his campaign is something that I find fascinating, that some voters you talk to link him to another Democratic populist who they don't necessarily think lived up to that. And that's John Fetterman. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I sometimes think of him as John Fetterman. When John Fetterman got elected senator in Pennsylvania, I thought, oh, I like this guy's wearing a hoodie. You know, he's not going to be like the rest of them. And last I know, he might as well become a member of the Republican Party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And I should say that Fetterman has a op ed in The Washington Post today where he talks about how he would never be a Republican. He would be a terrible Republican. And he wrote, "I've always turned to those kinds of ideals that define being a Democrat. I remain strongly pro-choice, pro-weed, pro-LGBT, pro-SNAP, pro-labor, and even pro-rib- eye over bio slop. I'd be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats."

LONGWELL: Yes, except being pro all those things isn't so different from Donald Trump. And I think that what Donald Trump is also pro, you know, a very well-cooked rib-eye. He has, you know, refashioned himself as pro-labor, you know, not super pro-weed, but he -- when he ran the first time, he was pro-LGBT. He's subsequently become very anti-trans.

But I guess the point is, is that there's a new appetite across both political parties for these more populist candidates that people see as authentic to themselves, not like regular politicians. They want, like, the absence of the artifice that has dominated politics for so long.

BASH: Yes.

LONGWELL: And they want people to say, like, we're here for working class people. Now, Donald Trump has betrayed all of that. And I think that voters right now are nervous about the betrayal. Like, the Democrats feel like John Fetterman goes on Fox News all the time and trashes Democrats and that, you know, that he has betrayed them. And so that's the main thing that made them nervous about Graham Platner is that he might be another Fetterman.

BASH: They say you should live in interesting times, and boy, are we.

Sarah, thank you so much for helping make sense of all of it and bringing us some of your conversations. Appreciate it.

And from hosting then-Cardinal Robert Prevost for dinner to writing his first biography as Pope Leo, our next guest has known Pope Leo since his days in Peru. A very special moment to have a little faith, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:49:17]

BASH: Years ago, our next guest and her husband invited then-American Cardinal Robert Prevost to their Rome house for dinner. Then imagine this moment for them exactly one year ago today at the Vatican.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: There we go. That certainly looks like smoke and white smoke.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that white?

BASH: It is.

DOMINIQUE MAMBERTI, CARDINAL PROTODEACON: Dominum Robertum Franciscum.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Robert Francis --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first American pope has been elected. This is --

BASH: So history has been named today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is stunning. Absolutely stunning. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The entire world was surprised when a dark horse, American Cardinal Robert Prevost, emerged on the balcony now as Pope Leo XIV.

[12:50:02]

Elise Ann Allen was in the square for that moment. We spoke to her for a special edition of Have a Little Faith.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The first and only biography, "Pope Leo XIV," written by that one time dinner host, now papal biographer, and of course, still senior correspondent, Elise Ann Allen. Thank you so much for being here. Congratulations on this book. It's fascinating.

And I just want to start with how you got here, how you got to the point where you wrote a biography of him and that he cooperated.

ELISE ANN ALLEN, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, CRUX: Well, thank you, Dana. It's wonderful to be with you.

So this is a project that came about right after he was elected. You know, I -- me and my husband had a short history with Bishop Prevost. I'd actually met him first as bishop when he was in Chiclayo and then later as cardinal when he came to Rome.

Our paths crossed. You know, there are not that many Americans in the Vatican. So we just had occasion to meet and we eventually had more for dinner.

And so when he was elected, obviously, my husband and I were just sort of blown away. It was sort of surreal for us. But within a couple of weeks, I was approached by Penguin Random House, the Peru division, and asked to write a book on the new pope.

You know, they said I had connections in Peru. They said, you're American, you know, Peru and you know the Vatican, just like him, so we think you're the person to do it. So they asked me if I do this biography.

And of course, things just went from there. I agreed. And, you know, I couldn't imagine doing it without speaking to the subject himself. And then when I made the request, happily, he said yes.

BASH: It's wonderful. I do want to dive in because this is Inside Politics. So a little of the politics that we've been seeing, the back and forth with President Trump. I know you were also on the trip with Pope Leo to Africa where a lot of this bubbled up.

Before the back and forth over the Iran war, you asked the Pope about engaging with the President. And here's what he said. "When there are specific issues, if it were possible to engage with him, I would have no problem doing so. I think there are others who are doing that role fine, and makes his choices about who he listens to." Given what he told you before, did the sort of dust up surprise you?

ALLEN: Honestly, it did not surprise me at all. You know, Leo is somebody who said from the very beginning, you know, in this -- on our conversation last year, right, he wants to keep the door open, but he's not going to shy away from saying what he needs to say. And we saw that throughout Holy Week and Easter.

You know, he's very clear in condemnations of war. You know, those who use faith to sort of defend war or, you know, as sort of a holy act. You know, their hands are covered in blood. You know, he said that on Palm Sunday, which is very vivid language, you know.

So he really didn't shy away from that. And he's very clear about it. You know, so I think this sort of dust up was -- I think we all expected it. We all knew it was coming. You know, and he was very clear with us on the plane, you know, as we took off and were headed to Africa.

You know, that we asked him about it on board and he said, really, you know, I'm not trying to attack anybody. That's not my intention. I'm trying to preach the Gospel, which if you read it, it's the Gospel of peace.

You know, he referred to the Beatitudes. It's -- you know, he's -- this is the message that I have been called to deliver as pope. You know, and in reference to the political issues of the day, saying my role is really not to be involved in politics as such as, you know, the rest of the world might understand it. That's not my job.

My job is to preach the Gospel and I'm not going to back down. And I think that's what we've seen play out over the last few weeks.

BASH: You are a senior correspondent at Crux, in addition to being a contributor here at CNN. Your late husband, John Allen, a colleague to us here at CNN for many years, founded Crux. He also, of course, played dinner host to the then-Cardinal Robert Prevost. I want to play one of your questions for the Pope.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: This is John's question that I promised him I would ask, because he said this is more telling than anything else. Scenario, the United States is playing Peru in the World Cup. Who do you cheer for?

POPE LEO XIV, HEAD OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: Good question, probably Peru, just because of affective bonds, if you will. There was a case some years ago -- because I'm also a big fan of Italy. In World Cup, I would call it three teams generated, you mentioned two, and Italy would be the third one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And we should say that your late husband, John, was filming that. And obviously was, I'm sure, very excited to be part of this interview. ALLEN: He was happy to be a fly on the wall and he interjected

comments here and there, you know. And you could see the Pope look out the corner of his eye and smirk a little bit when John would throw something out there.

BASH: Yes.

ALLEN: So it was really a special moment to participate in, you know, as a couple, you know.

BASH: Yes. Well, we are so sorry about your loss. John was a big figure here around CNN, and obviously it's devastating. But we understand, I understand, you told me when you came and sat down that he was very excited. Not only about the Pope, but about this book that you worked on.

[12:55:13]

ALLEN: No, he was really, really ecstatic. You know, number one, I just want to say that John really saw CNN as his family up until the very end. So I want to thank you guys, too, for all the support, you know, you gave him over the years. It meant a lot.

You know, and he covered this conclave. He was so excited about it. He knew it would be his last, I think. And he just went full in and was so excited. And when Robert Prevost walked out on that balcony, he was just overwhelmed.

You know, he thought -- what he told me afterwards in our conversations, you know, just speaking as not just journalists, with our human cap on, you know, our friendship hat, you know, was not only is the new pope somebody we know, but he's somebody that's a truly good man. And I'm so glad that he is in this position because he could do a lot of good in the world today.

And I think that's the hope that John maintained to the very end, and I think the hope of so many.

BASH: Elise, thank you, and congratulations on this book.

ALLEN: Thank you, Dana.

BASH: Check it out. Elise Allen, "Pope Leo XIV" is out now. Go buy it.

Thank you so much for joining Inside Politics today. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

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