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Inside Politics

Trump's $1.8b "Anti-Weaponization" Fund Faces Bipartisan Criticism; Trump Aides, Jan. 6 Insurrectionists Could Be Eligible For Fund; Trump On Company's Foreign Deals: "Nobody Cared"; Today: Trump Looks To Pick Off GOP Antagonist Rep. Thomas Massie; Today: Georgia Republicans Choose Ossoff Opponent; Police Investigating Deadly Mosque Shooting As A Hate Crime. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 19, 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]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: The Justice Department digs in on taxpayer funded payouts for President Trump's allies.

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

There are so many unanswered questions and deep concern about the unprecedented nearly $1.8 billion pot of money, the president plans to dole out to people he calls victimized by the federal government. Democrats tried to get more information from the man in charge of it, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who will appoint the commissioners who will decide who gets paid.

He just wrapped up about three hours of testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee. They pressed him on whether violent felons pardoned by Trump would be eligible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Simple question, will individuals who assaulted Capitol Hill police officers be eligible for this fund?

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, as it makes plain, anybody --

VAN HOLLEN: -- just let me know if they're eligible for the fund.

BLANCHE: As was made plain yesterday, anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they were victim of --

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Will you encourage them to have a guideline that says those who have been convicted of violent acts against police officers are not eligible?

BLANCHE: I will definitely encourage the commissioners to take everything into account when determining who should get compensation.

SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-WA): The president has set up a slush fund, however you want to say that it got set up, and he literally will get to choose through his hand-picked appointees who gets paid that fund. That is absurd.

BLANCHE: The president did not set up this fund. It's not a slush fund.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: If it's a Republicans are wary of the idea, including a pretty important one. You see there, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters, yeah, not a big fan. I'm not sure exactly how they intend to use it, but my understanding is that was just announced. But yeah, I don't see a purpose for it.

I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here at the table. Zolan, you cover the White House. What are you hearing from sources about how this was set up? And more importantly, if there is any concern about any backlash from voters who see this and go, huh?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES & CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, yeah. Well, so how was this set up? I mean, initially, you had the president, who was bringing a case against the IRS, right, alleging -- the allegation from him was that it was about his handling of his own tax returns. He drops that. That case if he hadn't dropped it, it would have gone through an actual independent judge who was picked to oversee that case. By dropping it, though he avoids and circumvents that sort of independent check in a way and now you have this situation.

He also dropped the potential payout of 230 million from the Justice Department in the lead up to this. So, that's how we got to this point. This money would apparently be coming also from a pool of money in the Justice Department that would usually go to paying out people who would bring lawsuits against the government, much different than this situation here, which seems to be essentially setting up a pipeline of taxpayer money that would go to paying out people that potentially share the grievances of the president of the United States.

Now, the politics of this also that you're hearing, I do think this comes at a time. The reason you see a comment of like that from a Republican leader is this also comes at a time that the American people are also concerned about the economy, concerned that their elected representatives are focused on the issues impacting them. This news comes just a couple of days after the president dismissed basically, the economic concerns of Americans when asked if he was factoring in those concerns into how he's dealing with the war in Iran.

So, you pair all that with focus on the construction of the ballroom, the construction of these different sort of personal projects around Washington, and then you square that with the economic anxiety across the country, and you do see a contrast, you see a split.

BASH: And in the case of this fund, this is their money, this is taxpayers' money, and we cannot say that enough. One of the issues is we really don't know exactly who could get this, but we do know, based on the testimony that we got from the acting attorney general this morning that they're not ruling anybody out.

So, let's just put on the screen some people who would potentially fit the bill that the commissioners they will appoint will probably look -- at least look at. Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, Paul Manafort, Peter Navarro, Carter Page, Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keeper founder, Enrique Tarrio, Proud Boys leader, not to mention the January 6 insurrectionists. Jackie?

[12:05:00]

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: This is quite a campaign ad for Democrats. You have to admit, as Zolan said, because of all of the other things that are going on, because it was what the president himself seems to be more focused on, the reflecting pool ballroom. As you said, this seems to be more fuel for Democrats to point to as we get closer and closer to the midterms.

Now, it will be really interesting to see how many Republicans do speak out because we're seeing it play out, and we'll talk about it later in some of these states. People who speak out against the president, who are Republicans, do tend to, you know, attract his attention and desire. And is this the line? Is this what's going to make them come out and say, OK, no, we're not doing this? We'll see. Obviously, it was in line for Thune.

BASH: Let me just drill down on the January 6 people who were pardoned and their sentences were commuted. We're talking about a pool of 1,250 individuals whose convictions -- convictions, actual convictions by juries were -- they were pardoned, ongoing violent felony cases dismissed 175, and 14 people whose seditious conspiracy convictions were commuted.

John Bresnahan, you were -- you were there on January 6. These are people who were not tourists. They were not just there, you know, on a lark, trying to see what was going on while democracy was in action. It was incredibly violent, and they went through the justice system, and they were convicted in courts of law. Nevermind, were they already pardoned by the president. Now there's a question of whether or not they're going to get taxpayer money.

JOHN BRESNAHAN, CO-FOUNDER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Yeah, it's stunning. I mean, I was there, I believe it's the largest criminal investigation in Justice Department history, in U.S. history, in terms of scale, the number of people. Yeah, they were -- there to overthrow the government, you know, they were there to overthrow the election. You know, you can say, you can argue about Trump's role in what he did that day, but they were there, being in the building and watch what they're trying to do. They were there to hurt people and overthrow the election, they would have hurt Mike Pence, they would hurt Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer.

I do think this is, this plays into the theme of, you know, what Zolan was talking about. This is Trump doing his own thing, right? He has to put -- this has to be paid out by 2028 also. So, it's -- that's $50 million a month, you know, they got it -- they got to get money out the door once they got it -- once they get into the fund. So, they've got to move on this, you know, it's not going to last past his presidency.

So, look, this is him with part of his agenda, his revenge tour. What do you want to call it? He's -- and it's the other thing, he's just keeps pushing it, like one thing to pardon people, that was shocking itself. I was shocked. I think a lot of Republicans were shocked, but now he's got to pay. I mean, it just -- it just kind of boggles the mind. Where is the line for Trump? He will go as far. If they're not going to stop him, he'll keep going. Yeah.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, he's making it very clear that there isn't one, and you know, there are times when, like every day, when the president does something that smashes a norm or makes people's eyebrows raise, or even Republicans, mostly privately. And then there's this. Related is a report by Bloomberg about the president's trading pretty crazy amount, more than 3,700 trades that astonished Wall Street insiders.

I note the administration told Bloomberg that Trump only asked acts in the best interests of the American people and insists there are no conflicts of interest. And I want you to comment that -- on that Zolan, but I also want to sort of bring it to a quote that Trevor on our team sort of remembered from the interview that you and your colleagues had with the president back in January of this year. It was about foreign policy, but I think it could have been even more broad about how he sees these things.

Tyler Pager, what do you -- so why now are you doing the deals, because I found out that nobody cared, I'm allowed to?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yeah. I remember that moment, and we were having an exchange, basically, about also his family's business dealings overseas as well. And he essentially seemed to be making the argument that look, I had guardrails in the first term, although, you know, we do know that relatives, that his relatives went on to, you know, seek those business deals, including in the immediate aftermath of the first term. But he was saying, look, I held back in the first term, and I basically got no credit, so why would I do so now?

[12:10:00]

All of this, I think, amounts to a president that feels emboldened to pursue, whether it's retribution, whether it's his own sort of construction projects, whether it's business dealings as well that would benefit him or his family, you know, feels emboldened to basically override those independent checks and amass his power right now.

The big tension here, though, is not only the ethical concerns, but also, you know, on one hand you have Trump, on the other hand, you have the Republican Party and their needs as well, and what they're trying to -- and the message they're trying to send to the American people. Stuff like this doesn't help with that.

BASH: All right, everybody standby. Coming up. It is Election Day in many parts of America. As we just were talking a bit about the Trump revenge tour makes its way to Kentucky. Can Congressman Thomas Massie beat back the challenger the president is pushing in order to take Massie down? And deep in the heart of Texas, President Trump says he will finally make an endorsement in the Republican Texas Senate primary, and it could come any minute. Will it be Paxton? Will it be Cornyn? We'll see. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: It's Election Day. Six states are voting today in primaries for the House, Senate, and governor's mansions, and with key races in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. President Trump's eyes are squarely focused, though, on just one seat in one state. It's the fourth district of Kentucky, and he's hoping his revenge tour has at least one win left tonight as Congressman Tom Massie takes on Trump's pick, Ed Galbrain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Thomas Massie is a terrible congressman. He's been a terrible congressman from day one. Dealing with him is just a horrible. I don't think he's a Republican and I think he's actually -- I think he's actually a Democrat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Thomas Massie said this morning, bring it on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): Panicked because the president's done 11 posts about this race in the last 72 hours, and they sent the secretary of war. Their polling shows the same thing as mine. We're probably going to pull this off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Jackie?

KUCINICH: If he pulls this off, it would -- I mean, it would be a huge blow to the president, who really, I mean, not only the president, my gosh, they put so much money into this race. It's the most expensive House primary in history at this point. And this is something -- Thomas Massie has been this way. The entire time he was able to push back against Trump. The last time he targeted him, not with this full force that we saw, but I think he won by 81 percent -- it was 81 percent of the vote the last time.

And his pitch has just been to voters like, listen, I'm principled. I've been the same way the whole time. I have not changed. Whether that works or not, we'll have to see, because the pushback against him has been, well, you're not supporting the president's agenda and why are you saying no to everything. But I mean - actually on the daily this morning, they were talking -- you heard him, like engaging voters on that just depends on if they believe him. BASH: Yeah. And you mentioned the money, so let's put this up. Pro- Massie forces have spent nearly $14 million and those who are trying to take him out, $19 million. It's not that disproportionate, which is actually kind of surprising, given the fact that the president is very much behind Massie's opponent. Listen to some of what voters told Jeff Zeleny this morning as they were going to vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY BRANDSTETTER, KENTUCKY GOP VOTER: I don't like Massie's policies. I don't like him voting to impeach Trump. I didn't like him not voting on the tax cut, and he just tries to seem to disrupt things. I just don't think he represents this district.

JOE HICKS, KENTUCKY GOP VOTER: I like Massie. I know there's a lot of pressure to vote for Ed, but I don't know. I feel like -- feel like Massie is more for the constitution, so that's what I'm going with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And Brez, obviously Thomas Massie has voted against the president and pushed against the president in a lot of ways. He didn't vote to impede him.

BRESNAHAN: No, he didn't vote. I was going to say, no, he voted against the one big, beautiful bill that was, you know, a huge offense to them, because they have such a thin margin in the House, it matters. If you start for Speaker Mike Johnson in the White House, if you always start with one vote against you, when you got a two-vote margin, that's a big problem for them. And I think Massie just kind of flaunts it sometimes, he just kind of pushes it in their face. But the amount of spending is staggering, $32 million, that's a primary. It's a primary in a red --

BASH: In a red state, in a small district.

BRESNAHAN: And the other thing, there's a lot of money in there, going from pro-Israel groups, also, who don't like Massie. And they're dumping tons of money in there, and it's becoming an extraordinarily ugly campaign that, like, Laura Loomer was tweeting stuff, calling him a Nazi, you know, that's one of Trump's allies -- allies, and you know, he hangs out with white supremacists. I mean, they are throwing the kitchen sink at this guy.

And as Jackie said, if they -- if you know, Massie wins, that's a blow to Trump. I mean, that's real, you know, that's a prestige blow. It really -- it's just one guy, but it's still a prestige blow to Trump, yeah.

BASH: Yeah, because he's put so much effort on that. Let's just look at a little bit from the new poll out from your outfit, small organization called the New York Times. Should the next GOP presidential candidate, who should -- what should they do, I should say. And these are from Republican supporters. Should they follow Trump's lead 55 percent, move in a new direction, 37 percent. What do those numbers tell you?

KANNO-YOUNGS: I mean that -- this is the central sort of tension that this race gets to that, this race represents, that's emblematic of which is, you know, loyalty to the president, you know, support for the president, but also support for the president or his campaign promises, because, you know, increasingly now those are two different things, right? You know, you heard from voters there that don't like how Thomas Massie has at times departed from the president.

What Massie would say is and what he has been saying is, even if he voted against the president's bill at times or has disagreed with him, that he was always consistent when it came to the America First sort of promises here. I also just think this is an interesting litmus test for whether the frustration with Iran will factor into actually politics in electoral races. Foreign policy doesn't always do that, but gas prices are pretty high right now.

BASH: Let's talk about Georgia, because there is a GOP race among several candidates to see who is going to take on Jon Ossoff, who is the incumbent Democratic senator in Georgia. Mike Collins, what he has said is, you don't beat Jon Ossoff by having no record. Buddy Carter, if Derek Dooley, Derek Dooley is the man you see on the right there is our candidate we lose. If Mike Collins is our candidate, we lose. Derek Dooley, who I should say was endorsed by the sitting governor, said beating Jon Ossoff is not going to be easy.

Now, the fact, Jackie, that even one of the candidates says beating Jon Ossoff is not going to be easy, which is not wrong. If we take a step back, though, it's kind of -- we're talking about Georgia, where he had to run, you know, in a very -- he ran in a very tough race. I mean, look at the results, and this is from a runoff, which he had to go into. Jon Ossoff, 50.6 percent, David Perdue, who he finally unseated, 49.4 percent. It says a lot about -- I think it says a lot about Jon Ossoff and what he's been able to do in his term there.

KUCINICH: Absolutely, Georgia is a really interesting state, particularly how it's changed, but even the Republicans in Georgia aren't -- haven't always been in lockstep with the president. And I think, you know, the fact that Kemp has endorsed Dooley. How he does, will be -- will be a big test to see how Kemp, who obviously is term limited. How his legacy is in -- this is the Senate race, of course, but how his legacy and how his word still can spur voters in Georgia versus the president.

BRESNAHAN: Yeah. I mean, Ossoff is very cautious, he's extremely cautious. We've all talked to him, he --

BASH: Or tried.

BRESNAHAN: We all tried, you know, he doesn't like doing sit downs with reporters, especially national reporters, he doesn't want. He wants to criticize Trump, but not in a way that will antagonize voters.

BASH: Actually, hold that thought, because I do want to play a little bit of what we have heard from Ossoff recently on the campaign trail. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Rap dodging Donald loves sending other people's children to work. The Mar-a-Lago mafia has taken American corruption to spectacular new heights. Where in scripture are we commanded to deny care to the sick, to take from those with the least and give to those with the most, to hunt down the refugee and take her from her infant child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRESNAHAN: Yeah. I mean, drug going to his own point. I mean, it's easy to criticize the Iran war because it's wildly unpopular, but he's also talking about one big, beautiful bill, which is unpopular, despite, you know, being a tax cut. I mean, it's interesting to hear his language. The other thing, he's amassed vast amount of money --

KUCINICH: So much money.

BRESNAHAN: -- so much money, because he hasn't had to run. These guys are spending a lot of money. You know, but the thing was, we weren't sure about Ossoff, because, you know, he got in in 2020 was such a crazy year, there was pandemic and Trump and everything, but Raphael Warnock was also on the ballot. And there was a lot of people were like Warnock pulled Ossoff to this victory, because people -- especially black voters in Georgia are going out to make history, OK.

They're voting for Warnock, and they're going to vote for Ossoff, kind of pulled up. But he's run a disciplined, tight campaign, lot of weight, a lot of time to go, but he's put himself in a -- you know, like we had him as the most endangered Democrat, he still kind of is, but not that in danger.

BASH: Not as endangered as perhaps some other blue states, which is really remarkable, since we're talking about Georgia. OK, up next. The latest in the deadly San Diego mosque shooting. Why the mayor calls writings found at the scene damning in a hate crime investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Today, an active hate crime investigation is underway after three people were shot and killed at the largest mosque in San Diego. Two teenage suspects were found dead nearby with apparent self- inflicted gunshot wounds. The mosque, which is also a school, had kindergarten through third graders inside.

If you look at those pictures, it's just absolutely horrific. Teachers say that they were physically unharmed, all the kids and the teachers, but also, we know what this does to people's mental health. Listen to what one nine-year-old said, describing the incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt a bit scared. My legs were shaking. My hands and my head was like hurting me a lot. I felt like a rock.

[12:30:00]