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Inside Politics

Today: Vance In Maine To Talk Anti-Medicare Fraud Efforts; GOP Voters Wrestle With Trump-Massie Feud Days Before Primary; JFK Grandson Jack Schlossberg Seeks Manhattan House Seat; Crowded Field NY Democrats Looks To Succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler; Mamdani Feuds With Billionaires Over Taxing Luxury Seconds Homes. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 14, 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]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: -- Jeff, and look at this the subject. So he's talking about fraud and, you know, there are a lot of Democrats who hear that and say, OK, that's rich, because they look at some of the things that the President and people around him have done.

They use different words and they use the Democrats, use the word corruption. But regardless of what you call it, it is I'm sure, you hear this from strategists, you all do who you talk to that when they talk to voters, particularly independent voters, the idea of corruption grift all of it is such a huge bone of contention and a driver for enthusiasm for voters because people are really upset.

They -- it's all feeding into the whole economy and people feeling bad if they can't get ahead and then they see other things. The Democrats are getting at this from obviously a very different perspective. They are -- this is a headline from NOTUS, that they hit a broken system from the corruption angle. Moderate Democrats vow anti-corruption agenda if they win the House in the midterms. That is a huge part of their strategy, the rhetorical strategy.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely is. And so one thing that Vice President Vance, you saw the clip there, saying red blue, red blue, it happens all over. I mean, so far he has traveled largely or more to blue states talking about the fraud.

But, I mean, there are examples in every state in the country of the fraud that came out of the the record-setting pandemic spending. I mean, there was just fraud everywhere. I mean, it was in the Deep South as well and deep red states but I don't think that that's quite the point here.

I mean, the point here is to muddy the waters I think a little bit to say, oh there's fraud on both sides --

BASH: Exactly.

ZELENY: -- there's a misspending on both sides. So that is what I believe that the Vice President is actually focusing on. I mean, a bigger question is in a Minnesota, like, that was a major issue here.

BASH: For sure.

ZELENY: And because of all of the immigration problems with ICE that disrupted the fraud investigations, we'll see what happens because of that. But it's absolutely an issue voters care about, there's no doubt but for both sides. So I think it's a little bit of obfuscation.

ASMA KHALID, CO-HOST, THE GLOBAL STORY PODCAST, BBC: But don't you think, Jeff, that voters also care right now in this moment about inflation, cost of living --

ZELENY: For sure.

KHALID: -- and I think that is --

ZELENY: They care more about that.

KHALID: -- like the -- yes, the perennial --

ZELENY: For sure.

KHALID: -- major economic issue and that's a challenge --

ZELENY: But he has less to say about that.

KHALID: Yes.

BASH: All right, coming up, what is the cost of defying President Trump? Well, Congressman Tom Massie could find out. Jeff Zeleny went to Kentucky to see what his constituents think.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:37:13]

BASH: It's a question dominating the GOP right now. Can you cross President Trump and survive politically? Well, Republican Congressman Tom Massie will find out on Tuesday when voters decide between him and his Trump-backed primary challenger.

Jeff Zeleny traveled to Kentucky to speak with some of those voters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Can you escape this --

JONI PUGH, KENTUCKY REPUBLICAN VOTER: No.

ZELENY: -- fight between Trump and Massie?

PUGH: No, it's everywhere. It really is. And that's what really worries me.

ZELENY (voice-over): Joni Pugh feels like she's stuck in the middle of a family feud between President Trump and Congressman Thomas Massie. PUGH: And I'm not putting Trump down at all because I'm very much a fan of his. But I'm still going to vote for Thomas. I think he's a great guy. He's very careful about he wants -- how he wants our taxpayer money to be spent.

ZELENY (voice-over): No Republican has infuriated Trump more than Massie.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We got to get rid of this loser.

ZELENY (voice-over): Who led the charge to release the Epstein files.

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R), KENTUCKY: I'm not going to give up.

ZELENY (voice-over): And voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

MASSIE: It's going to add to the deficit. It's all -- everything else is semantics.

ZELENY (voice-over): Two of many grievances the President won't forget.

TRUMP: He's disloyal to the Republican Party. He's disloyal to the people of Kentucky.

ZELENY (voice-over): That loyalty will be tested next Tuesday when Massie faces Ed Gallrein, a former and former Navy SEAL, in a district stretching from the Louisville suburbs up to Cincinnati and along the Ohio River. More than $29 million has been spent on TV ads in one of the most expensive House primaries ever.

STEVE FRANK, KENTUCKY REPUBLICAN VOTER: And the problem is Thomas Massie has burnt every bridge he could possibly have to be effective.

ZELENY (voice-over): Steve Frank is among the Republicans who believes northern Kentucky needs a member of Congress who's not a White House enemy.

FRANK: He will say in his own statistics he agrees with Trump and the Republican leadership 91 percent of the time. Well, hey, you know, a monkey shares 91 percent of our DNA with us, but they ain't the same thing.

ZELENY (voice-over): Massie has long stood up to the establishment of both parties after first winning 14 years ago in the Tea Party era as a deficit hawk. He defends his independent libertarian brand.

MASSIE: There's three branches of government, and we're supposed to keep each other accountable. And that's what we're doing here today in the People's House.

ZELENY (voice-over): In seven elections, Massie has never faced an onslaught like this, including an attack ad with A.I. images depicting a romantic relationship with two Democratic congresswomen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thomas Massie caught in a throttle in Washington.

ZELENY (voice-over): Massie blasted the ad from a Trump-aligned Super PAC as disgusting and defamatory.

Steve Doan, a Republican lawmaker and friend of Massie's, said some voters are torn.

STEVE DOAN (R), KENTUCKY STATE HOUSE: How do I square this? You know, Trump doesn't like him, but I like him, and I just don't know what to do. And I always compare it to mommy and daddy fighting.

You know, we love both of those people. We love Trump. We love Thomas. And we just have kind of figured it out here.

[12:40:06]

ZELENY (voice-over): Inside their shortstop diner in Garrison, Nedra Jamison said she votes for the person, not party.

NEDRA JAMISON, KENTUCKY REPUBLICAN VOTER: I like Thomas. I like Trump.

ZELENY: So if Trump came in here and said, don't vote for Massie, what would you say?

JAMISON: I'd say, well, if I want to vote for him, I'll vote for him. If I don't want to vote for him, I won't vote for him. It's my choice, not yours.

ZELENY (voice-over): Ramona Bivens believes the attacks on Massie could backfire.

RAMONA BIVENS, KENTUCKY REPUBLICAN VOTER: I'll go for Thomas, just because Trump's giving him such a hard time.

ZELENY: That's why you're going to vote for him? Why is that?

BIVENS: Yes, I just think it's silly. It's politics, and they're running for office. They're not running against each other.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Go Ramona. Jeff is here, of course. Talk about the money in this race.

ZELENY: Well, Dana, it is really remarkable. It is one of the most expensive House primaries ever. By next Tuesday, it may be the most. We're talking more than $30 million.

But if you look at the breakdown here, obviously, all of it is coming from outside the district. But the pro-Massie side is about $4 million less than the pro-Gallrein side.

So we have a breakdown of this here. I mean, it's really extraordinary when you look at this. I mean, and Massie is doing these money bombs, trying to get money in from the outside, which, of course, he's raising a lot as well, but just a variety of interest groups. The Republican-Jewish coalition is one of them, obviously. MAGA- Kentucky is a Trump-aligned Super PAC. The bottom line is President Trump has called out the cavalry to come in here and try and take out Thomas Massie.

So it's a battle between brands, there's no doubt about it. But people are fed up by it. So you just don't know. If Ramona is correct, all this may backfire --

BASH: Yes.

ZELENY: -- or not.

BASH: Yes.

ZELENY: But Republicans say he is in the fight of his life, the toughest race he's ever had. So we will find out on Tuesday if he survives.

BASH: Such an important piece. It's true. I mean, there are -- I can't think of a Republican who Donald Trump despises more than --

ZELENY: There is no one.

BASH: -- Massie. And clearly the feeling is mutual.

Thanks, Jeff.

ZELENY: You bet.

BASH: Thanks to you all. Don't go anywhere, after the break, Jack Schlossberg is running for Congress in a crowded and competitive Democratic New York primary. He's going to be here in the studio next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:46:45]

BASH: Jack Schlossberg amassed a substantial Internet following, being intentionally outrageous. Trolling and warning about his cousin, now HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reciting poetry on a skateboard, even posing a tongue-in-cheek question about the hotness of his late grandmother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, versus that of Usha Vance.

Well, since announcing his run for Congress several months ago, he's shifted that social media content to campaign stops and policy proposals. And he's campaigning, of course, for a very highly coveted open Democratic seat, the seat of retiring Congressman Jerry Nadler, competing for the Democratic nomination against an AI employee-turned- tech skeptic, an anti-Trump television star, and a Jerry Nadler protege.

Jack Schlossberg joins me now. Thank you so much for being here.

JACK SCHLOSSBERG (D), NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. BASH: OK, so this is a district where voters over 50 are expected to make up three-quarters of the electorate. And there is a New York AARP estimate that shows less than 10 percent of primary voters in the district that you want to represent are under 30. So what's your strategy to get the Democratic voters that really make up the majority of the district?

SCHLOSSBERG: Our strategy is to meet as many people as we possibly can of all ages. We've got a lot of support from young people, but older people, too, you know, being young is you can be young at heart regardless of your age. And people are starting to believe in our campaign because of the policies that we have come out with, like deduct your rent from your taxes, make sure that we invest in the federal nursing corps and send nurses to elder care facilities, rehab centers.

We've released more policy proposals than any other campaign running, and we're resonating with people of all ages in a district that is the center of so much of American political life. Our -- it is the media capital of the world, the financial capital of the world. We've got the U.N. there.

The whole world starts counting time every New Year's Eve from New York 12. We're really excited to run a campaign that is more accessible, that is people-powered, and that has support from every type of person.

BASH: Jack, I want to ask about The New York Times, which reported this morning it was a pretty tough article about your campaign. "Behind the scenes, a group of fellow Democrats, family, friends, union leaders, and others with direct knowledge of the campaign described an operation so erratic and plagued by turnover that it raises questions about how he might handle himself as a member of Congress."

And somebody who says he was one of your former staffers. "Jorge Muniz-Reyes, a canvassing coordinator, left the campaign last week. Comparing the campaign to a dollar-store flower bouquet."

SCHLOSSBERG: Yes, you know, I read the article, but it wasn't until the very end when Ron Klain, President Biden's former chief of staff, was quoted that I knew it was about me. There's a lot in that article that's not true, but you know how this works.

Once you're declared the frontrunner and early voting starts in less than a month, everyone's got something to say. People are trying to figure out how our campaign has been so successful and why we're winning in every single poll.

It's really not a secret. We've released, as I said, more plans to help New Yorkers. We've out-raised our opponents, met more people, and we're working 24/7.

I run an -- I'm a decisive person, and I run an operation that is nimble and small with a core group of young people, primarily women, who are running a campaign that is completely different with a different strategy and a pace that a lot of people can't actually keep up with.

[12:50:10]

BASH: Because there are a lot of pretty intense criticisms here. You're saying that none of them is fair.

SCHLOSSBERG: There's -- apparently I took a nap in November and that I exercise. Those are kind of the main critiques of me. I think that --

BASH: Well, and then there's campaign turnover and staff turnover.

SCHLOSSBERG: You know, I've had a core group of people who have been with me since the beginning, and I'm really proud of the fact that -- you know, not mentioned in that article is the fact that we have, again, released actual policy proposals, outraised our opponents, are winning in the polls, do more campaign events, and have succeeded in drawing distinction between ourselves and the opponents who are backed by billionaires who have false narratives about their own past.

I've worked at the State Department. I've got a law degree from Harvard Business -- from Harvard Law School, a business degree from Harvard Business School. I work harder than anybody I know, and we're doing it all, making it look easy, so that people can't figure it out.

I have four words for the pundits trying to understand our strategy, follow the bouncing ball.

BASH: Meaning?

SCHLOSSBERG: Meaning that we're going to lead you, and at the end, you'll find out exactly how the song ends.

BASH: Yes. One of the big questions, as you well know, because you're running in this very crowded field and this is Democrats, it's all about the Democratic primary because it's such a blue district, is that some of the people you've been running against, Micah Lasher in particular, is somebody who spent a long time working in Democratic politics.

And I know your argument is, well, we need somebody different from the outside. But the question being posed about your campaign and about you as a potential congressman is experience. I know you don't have traditional experience, but for people looking at someone like Lasher or others, they say, well, OK, maybe it's not the greatest thing to be in politics that long, but at least they have experience with the rules of the road once they get here.

SCHLOSSBERG: Right. I would say I think my experience is why people are so excited about our campaign. I have experience breaking through and bringing people into the Democratic Party, breaking through on messaging, on policy, and on persuasion in a way that Democrats haven't been able to figure out.

We do not have a response to President Trump yet. We have no control in our federal government. And I've been one of the few people who's figured out how to break through the noise of our new media ecosystem. None of us knows how to be a congressperson.

And I'm sure that experience was an argument made to Micah Lasher two years ago when he ran for his first race in New York City. So -- and I -- and my voters trusted him when he had no experience as an elected official just two years ago.

And I think that people can understand that we need leaders right now, in New York City especially, who know how politics is done in 2026. And they know that I get it and the others don't.

BASH: Can I ask you about some of the -- something that's going on in your district? It's not about Congress per se, but it's a big flashpoint. And that is the mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is kind of in a feud with Citadel's Ken Griffin over Mamdani's proposed pied-a-terre tax. It would increase property taxes on luxury second homes.

Now Mamdani announced the policy in a viral video, standing outside Ken Griffin's $238 million penthouse, which is in your district, and threatened to pull -- Griffin threatened to pull business from New York. Where do you stand on this? Do you support Mamdani's proposal?

SCHLOSSBERG: The pied-a-terre tax is going to raise $500 million for this city. And the city is in a budget crisis. So while I think that we can't afford to raise taxes across the board, as the mayor intended to do on a 10 percent flat property tax hike, as his original proposal, I support the pied-a-terre tax because the -- we need to raise money for the city so we can pay for services.

But I -- the -- would be -- I'm loathe to question Mayor Mamdani's political instincts and his social media strategy, but I understand why people were upset about that video.

BASH: What do you mean?

SCHLOSSBERG: Well, he identified somebody's home and address and stood outside of it, which I understand why people might be upset or find that inappropriate.

BASH: OK. Before I let you go, the President is in China right now. You warned in the past month that the President is, quote, "handing China the keys to the century." Are you concerned about what you're saying over there, particularly about what the Chinese have said about Taiwan versus what the President really needs with the Strait of Hormuz?

SCHLOSSBERG: President Trump has, since he took office for a second term, driven some of our closest allies and the rest of the world generally into the arms of China.

[12:55:03]

They're eating our lunch while we are rearranging our deck chairs here in America and we can't afford to waste any time here with a President who can't stay focused on basically anything and has no coherent foreign policy strategy. So I am very worried about the President's strategy in the Asia- Pacific. We have turned our eye away from there, and I don't think -- and we're losing leverage with China to be able to negotiate trade deals because of the President's insistence on alienating all of our closest trading partners. So I'm very skeptical of the President.

And, look, he is setting a standard with his lawless military action both in Venezuela and Iran that military might is the way to solve problems and that other countries are free to use their military, China and Taiwan, to upend international law.

BASH: Jack Schlossberg, we're out of time. Thank you so much for being here.

SCHLOSSBERG: Thank you.

BASH: Appreciate it. Thank you for joining Inside Politics today. CNN News Central starts after the break.