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Trump Exacts Revenge On Sen. Cassidy, Turns Eye To Rep. Massie; Rep. Massie Faces Trump-Backed Candidate In KY Primary; Trump Falls To 37 Percent Approval Latest Times/Siena Poll. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 18, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: If you come at the king, you best not miss.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

The next stop on President Trump's revenge tour is Kentucky. The president is hoping to continue his streak of ousting Republicans who break with him or challenge him, like this weekend when he got his supporters in Louisiana to vote out longtime GOP Senator Bill Cassidy. That, of course, was in a GOP primary.

Now it is Tom Massie's turn when he faces a Trump-backed challenger in tomorrow's Republican primary in Kentucky, and the president and Massie's frayed relationship has been going on for a long time. Massie forced the release of the Epstein files. He's been one of the biggest critics of the president's war in Iran, just to name a few issues between the two men.

Let's go now to Jeff Zeleny in Kentucky. Jeff, I think you're just across the river from Cincinnati, and a key part of that district. I know you've been talking to voters in the fourth district. What are you hearing today?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, for all the talk of President Trump wanting to unseat Thomas Massie, and there is considerable talk about that. This is going to be one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, House primary ever, more than $30 million already spent. However, there is another name on that ballot, that is the Republican who is trying to unseat Thomas Massie, his name is Ed Gallrein.

I'm outside an event that he's going to be hosting shortly with the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth. A very unusual appearance here by the secretary of defense weighing in in a midterm election campaign stop. But basically, this race is about Thomas Massie and Donald Trump. There is no doubt about it. But Thomas Massie is well known here. That's why voters are really weighing their choices between Trump and their congressman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KENNY CLAXON, KY REPUBLICAN VOTER: He's the right person for the job. It doesn't matter what Trump says, everybody else.

JONATHAN RUGGLES, LEWIS COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY VICE CHAIR: The one is that will not vote for Massie are voting for Trump indirectly.

JOE BENTLEY, KY REPUBLICAN VOTER: We like both of them. In general, for the community wise, there's a lot of Trump support here in the community. There's a lot of support for Thomas in the community. And again, there's -- they're different characters, but they're very similar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, it really is that loyalty test between Republican voters wanting to be loyal to their president, who they do support, and to be loyal to their congressmen, who they also like and have known for a very long time. But Dana, there is an unusual confluence of interest here, weighing in on this race. You mentioned the opposition to the Iran war. That is one of the biggest spending contingents here, at least on television, but again, for all the talk of the retribution tour, the president certainly views it like that.

The question is, do Republican voters here in Kentucky? There's no doubt the congressman, he realizes he's in the fight for his political life. He's holding a final rally tonight in Lewis County, his -- near his hometown. The question is, will he win tomorrow and go on to an eighth term, or for Massie, will that be the end of the contrarian road? Dana?

BASH: Jeff, thank you so much for that reporting. I'm joined here by the group of terrific reporters. Manu, you cover Thomas Massie day-in and day-out on Capitol Hill. What are you looking for in the next 24 hours?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I talked to Massie about this race at the end of last week. He said it was going to be close. He himself didn't exactly know how it would go down. He has been in fights before, but none like this. You know, he's got a unique personal brand in this district. So, if anyone could sustain the avalanche of Trump attacks, it could be him. However, there are so many that are coming his way Hegseth there, seeing Trump day-in and day-out attack Thomas Massie.

This is a district that is overwhelmingly supportive of the president, so it will be very, very difficult for him to hang on here, but if he does, that would be an enormous upset. I would say that right now Thomas Massie would be the underdog heading into this, particularly as we've seen Trump win time and again in primary electives like this, where the base is obviously very MAGA aligned.

BASH: Jamie, I just want to take a moment to -- I don't want to gloss over what Jeff was talking about and what you just alluded to, which is that Pete Hegseth is going to campaign for Thomas Massie. He's also going to participate in a Purple Heart ceremony, entirely appropriate, that's going to happen in Kentucky. Being on the campaign trail, I was racking my brain to try to remember the last time a sec def, anybody who was in-charge of the Pentagon at any point in time, never mind during a military conflict, ceasefire or not, went and participated in a very open political process.

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JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: So, I think it's stunning. First of all, it's not important that he's at the Pentagon in the middle of the war with the blockade, that says something either way. I also think it says how valuable the White House considers Pete Hegseth out on the campaign trail. So, for all these people who have been saying Pete Hegseth doesn't have long as secretary of defense, or for a couple of people I know who think they might be the next secretary of defense, don't hold your breath. I mean that the White House, that Trump thinks that Pete Hegseth should be down there campaigning right now, says a lot.

BASH: Listen to what Massie said yesterday about this Trump effort, this, you know, no holds barred effort by the president to try to defeat Massie.

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REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): They're desperate, that's why they're sending the secretary of war to my district tomorrow. That's why the president's losing sleep and tweeting about this, that's why APAC has dumped another $3 million into our race this weekend is because they're panicked, and they really haven't been able to gain a lead in this race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And Michelle, this is what the president said about Massie on Truth Social this morning. The worst congressman in the long and storied history of the Republican Party is Thomas Massie. He's an obstructionist and a fool. Vote him out of office tomorrow, Tuesday. It will be a great day for America.

MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, AP: Yeah. I mean, the congressman says desperate, one man's desperate is another is determined. This is personal. This has been going on a long time. Remember that Congressman Massie actually endorsed Ron DeSantis in the 2024 primary. He's one of the few congressmen to do that. So, there's a lot here. It wasn't just one issue that kind of set them up for this conflict.

But one thing to note about what Jamie pointed out, what's interesting is we've also heard that Pete Hegseth might be potentially interested in running for president. This is a very interesting kind of campaign debut, and I do wonder if on some level we know that the president likes to kind of test how people are on the campaign trail, if we're going to see some of that Hegseth campaign style today.

BASH: And, you know, just going back to the bigger picture of the loyalty test that has been in place ever since Donald Trump entered politics for him, and it's just gotten even more intense as the years have gone on. Thomas Massie, I was actually surprised by this, you're probably not. But if you look at his votes overall, because you think of Massie, you think he's not going to vote with Republicans. He voted with Republicans 77.6 percent of the time.

Now, he also defied the president about almost a quarter of the time, which is very out of bounds for a Republican, and of course, some of the things that Massie defied the president are really big, important pieces of legislation. He voted no on the so-called big, beautiful bill. He was the lone no on a federal stopgap spending plan, and he was the lone Republican to vote for the War Powers Resolution reigning in the president.

RAJU: Yeah. Look, he's consistent --

BASH: Not to mention Epstein.

RAJU: -- but he's consistent because he is a libertarian-minded conservative who typically votes against spending bills. He has a debt clock, a national debt clock that he wears on his lapel, showing how high the national debt is going every single second. He has been very much against interventionist policies, foreign policy of any administration. So, that's why you're seeing them constantly vote back and vote against Trump when it comes to Iran, but it was really his lead role on the Epstein files, beyond all those other issues.

Yes, he has the difficult vote to get, but it was his determination to be able to get this bill signed into law, that is was, you know, when you look back at this Congress, the way that he was able -- Massie with a bipartisan group of members, a small bipartisan group of members, to defy the president, to defy the House Republican leadership, get a bill passed with only one dissenting vote in both chambers of Congress, and enact that Epstein files law was a remarkable achievement, but it could end his political career.

GANGEL: Could I just add? There are hot button issues for Donald Trump. So, look at Senator Cassidy, he voted to convict on impeachment. Doesn't get much more sensitive than that with Donald Trump, except the Epstein files. So, it's true that Massie, you know, had all of these others, but the Epstein files sticks with Donald Trump.

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RAJU: Also, just remarkable to just how much focus in this midterm election season Trump is placing on vengeance politics. I mean, they could lose the House. They could lose the Senate. He's got so much money in his bank account that they could spend in other races to make the case about why Republicans should stay in power, go after Democrats, but instead it is purely focused at this point in the cycle, beating Bill Cassidy, beating Thomas Massie, and stamping out any dissent. It's remarkable.

BASH: It's such a good point, and there's so much money, like in some of the other races that you were talking about, interparty races. There's so much money being spent on this one congressional district in Kentucky and it's Republican versus Republican. I do want to show a little bit of an ad that is coming from a Super PAC, but it does speak to some of the -- not so subtle undertones in this race.

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BASH: It was pretty clear, maybe you have to look for it, but I think the point of it is it's supposed to be sort of a subconscious thing. You see that Jewish star behind Paul Singer, a Jewish Republican donor. And this again is an outside group on running an ad on behalf of Massie, and what Massie said to Axios is, I don't get to express my preference on Super PAC ads, but the fact that that is just kind of considered normal these days speaks volumes.

PRICE: Right. That's not a denunciation of it, and that is -- that's an ugly ad. I mean, there's no getting around -- that is not subtle whatsoever. The fact that this has kind of slid into this race just shows you that this -- there seems to be no bottom at this point, and you know, I mean, tomorrow we have this election, maybe this will stop, but it's not the end of these ugly attacks coming into some of these races, including party on party.

GANGEL: Can I just quickly add?

BASH: Yeah, please.

GANGEL: It's not alone. Axios did an extraordinary piece where they went through attacks on Jewish members of Congress, and they were provided with voice mails with texts to say it was horrific, it was -- it was beyond ugly. And at the end of it, Jared Moskowitz said it's now in the mainstream, and I think that's what's important, it's all gloves are off. There is no shame.

BASH: And Jared Moskowitz was on with Sara Sidner on Friday night, playing some of the voicemails that he got. Coming up. In politics, defeat sometimes brings clarity.

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SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): Our country is not about one individual.

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BASH: So, how is Senator Bill Cassidy going to use his final seven months in office? Plus, we have breaking news on the Trump administration's nearly $1.8 billion fund for allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration. We'll explain after a break.

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BASH: The latest victim of President Trump's revenge tour is Louisiana GOP Senator Bill Cassidy. And after finishing a disappointing third in the Louisiana GOP primary, Cassidy may be a little bit more unfiltered. Certainly, the way he talked on Saturday night in his concession speech -- concession speech actually suggested that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASSIDY: When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn't turn out the way you want it to, but you don't pout, you don't whine, you don't claim the election was stolen. You don't find a reason why, you don't manufacture some excuse. You thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you've had that privilege, and that's what I'm doing right now.

Leadership should be steady, not erratic, thoughtful, not impulsive, and leaders should think through the consequences of their actions before embarking on something, and then seeing the American people suffer those consequences later. That's how leaders should be judged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: My panel is back now. Michelle, he was very ready for that defeat, and for the speech.

PRICE: Right. He had some things ready to talk about, you know, who harken back to the 2020 election being stolen, that impeachment vote. This was not a surprise for him, but what it is interesting is that, you know, we're still seeing, like with Thomas Massie, like with the Indiana cases, the president. You know, this is five years ago now, six years ago, he's not letting this go.

There is -- there is no time limit to his wanting some revenge on some of these people who have, in very personal, embarrassing ways, gone against him and this is one of those instances. And one of the things my colleagues heard on the ground, you know, they were talking to voters in Louisiana, it wasn't just that there were voters who were upset that the senator went against the president.

But we also heard from people who said that they felt like, had he stood up more to the president on RFK Jr. as confirming him for health secretary, that at least it would have shown a spine. It would have done something that he kind of tried to have it both ways, and in the end, he didn't really have anything at all.

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RAJU: Yeah, I mean -- I was going to say that's exactly the issue, right? He tried to play both sides and eventually angered both sides, he ran ads and talked about how great of a worshiping relationship he has with Trump, trying to paper over his impeachment vote, but then you end up angering both sides, you've done really -- you don't have a base to rely on. He spent so much money on this -- in this race to Dana to lose by that amount, and for a sitting senator to lose a primary is so rare. It's just really staggering to see the outcome here.

BASH: Jamie, I want you to listen to what Republican Congressman Buddy Carter told me on State of the Union yesterday. He's on the ballot tomorrow in Georgia in a GOP Senate primary.

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REP. BUDDY CARTER (R-GA): I don't think you should ever go against the president and vote for impeachment if you're going to plan on rerunning and running for reelection. Secondly, this is just another example. Donald Trump is going to try to get rid of anyone who is not helping him with his agenda. That's why I'm running for the Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Again, Jamie, I am old enough to remember when -- if you're a Democrat or Republican, he used to say, I'm going to vote for my constituent -- the way that my constituents want me to vote. I'm going to vote what's best for my country. I don't think Buddy Carter is wrong in his political assessment of the time. It's -- that he's actually speaking the truth about the reality in the Republican Party right now.

GANGEL: So, this is Donald Trump's Republican Party, and that's what we're seeing. It is not the traditional Republican Party, where there was room. The problem is, if there's a primary and there's a general election, and for the primary you need Donald Trump. I mean, Senator Cassidy came in number three in that, for the general, and this is what the Democrats are hoping for. That can hurt you, because Democrats are running against Donald Trump, you know, whether it's the war, food prices, healthcare prices, the economy, you know, to paraphrase James Carville, it's the gas prices, stupid.

BASH: Yeah.

GANGEL: So, you know, it's fine for the primary. Let's see what happens in the general.

BASH: And we're seeing poll after poll after poll to that shows a blinking red, you know, danger zone light for Republicans. Just look at this -- from this morning, the New York Times/Siena poll. The president cracked his own floor. His approval rating is at 37 percent, disapproval is at 59 percent. Nate Cohn wrote, while recent presidencies have often been unpopular and polarizing, no president's approval rating has been under 38 percent for more than a few days in the last 17 years, according to our average. If there's been a floor during this partisan era of politics, Mr. Trump's ratings today have fallen to it.

PRICE: That's right. And there's no expectation that this is going to get better anytime soon. One thing we know about the way that the Iran war is going at the Strait of Hormuz, that those gas prices -- even if it reopens fully, there's still going to be a lingering effect on gas prices, but we're seeing it trickle into other things. I was back in Arizona last week, went out to a restaurant, and they had an inflation buster menu, marking just how expensive it is, and how this is on people's minds right now. So, I think this is going to be a lingering political problem for the president in the general election, even if there's some kind of magical solution in the next week or so to the Iran war.

BASH: I mentioned that Buddy Carter is one of the Republicans running for Senate. He's running in the GOP primary in Georgia tomorrow. Manu, Brian Kemp is -- he's term limited out, he's not running again. He is still very popular, even among Republicans. Arlette Saenz has a great piece out this morning.

I think people should look at Brian Kemp passes on a Georgia Senate run. Then he threw himself in the middle of the GOP primary, and he does not do that great, at least the person that he supported. If you look at these, Mike Collins, another Republican congressman, is currently sitting at 22 percent in the polls, Buddy Carter 13, Derek Dooley, he is Brian Kemp's candidate, not doing that well.

RAJU: Yeah. And they're struggling to field a top-tier candidate who can defeat Jon Ossoff, and this is a purple state that leans red, that Republicans should have a real solid chance of picking up, and maybe they still can. There's still a lot of time. This is still going to be a difficult race. But Jon Ossoff, the Democratic incumbent senator, has raised an insane amount of money.

He has anything, it's like 30 some million dollars or so. His war chest is really staggering amount, and this is viewed now by Republicans here in Washington as a less likely pickup opportunity than say, Michigan, where the Democrats have their own Massie primary to contend with, really just shows you how much they're struggling to coalesce behind a candidate in Georgia, had Brian Kemp run. That would have been a totally different picture heading into November.

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BASH: Run for the Senate, that was really -- that was the hope, and he said thanks, but no thanks. As we have been talking about, it is election day tomorrow in Georgia. Up next. I'm going to speak to a man who was Georgia's Republican lieutenant governor. Now he's running to be the Peach State's governor as a Democrat.

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BASH: Tomorrow will be a blockbuster day in Georgia. A slew of interesting primaries, including the race to replace term-limited Republican Governor Brian Kemp. There are two very full primary fields, including former Republican, former Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, now a Democratic candidate running for governor and he joins me now.

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