Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Trump: Iran Deal Will Be Great Or There Will Be No Deal; Trump: Negotiations With Iran "Are Proceeding Nicely!"; GOP Iran Hawks Voice Concern Over Possible Deal; Trump Marks Memorial Day At Arlington National Cemetery; Cornyn On Paxton: He Has "Scandal That Follows Him Everywhere"; Speaker Johnson: "Kitchen Table Issues" Will Decide Midterms. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 25, 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]

ARI SHAPIRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Blue dot fever is when you click on an arena concert to buy a ticket. And it's a sea of blue dots, meaning the tickets are not selling and a lot of artists are canceling tour dates because nobody is buying the tickets. We're also going to be talking about the protein maxing trend that is overtaking not only social media, but also supermarket shelves. Did you know they're now making protein pop tarts? Protein added mac and cheese protein added cheerios? In my personal opinion, it's gone a bit too far. There's also a political overtone to it. We're going to talk about all that.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: I'm going to learn a lot from the next episode. Ari, thank you very much.

SHAPIRO: Thanks Wolf.

BLITZER: Ari Shapiro, appreciate it very much. You can watch and listen to the first episode of Engagement Party. Right now, new episodes dropping every Friday on the CNN app. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. Inside Politics today with our friend and colleague, Audie Cornish, filling in for Dana Bash, starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Good afternoon. I'm Audie Cornish, and this is Inside Politics. I'm in for Dana Bash.

We're waiting for President Trump to arrive at Arlington National Cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony to honor fallen service members. He's going to give remarks later this hour as well, and we're going to bring them to you live. Now, this is a very meaningful Memorial Day because the U.S., of course, is still at war with Iran, and 13 Americans have been killed since those U.S. strikes. And today we're hearing a lot of mixed messages from the White House over how close the U.S. and Iran are to ending it.

On Saturday, the president said a deal was quote, largely negotiated. We've been here before, President Trump claiming a deal with Iran was close, and then it all falling apart. Now, President Trump said this morning, quote, negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely. It will only be a great deal for all, or no deal at all.

Then the president added that he was quote, mandatorily requesting that several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan, sign on to the Abraham Accords in exchange for the U.S. negotiating a deal. This potential deal might include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, gradually ending the U.S. blockade, and providing 60 days to reach final points on a nuclear deal and other sticking points.

A senior administration official told CNN, and the framework said that the framework is simple. If Iran does not perform, they don't get anything, no dust, no dollars. This is trust but verify on steroids.

I'm joined by a great group of reporters here to talk more. We love a good trust with verify. OK, that's our mantra. We're all about it. Adam, can I start with you? In terms of what the White House wants to get versus how slow Iran is moving to get there?

ADAM CANCRYN, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, absolutely. There are these kind of two main points that that they're really trying to get, and they coincidentally are the hardest to the biggest sticking points. One, reopening the Strait of Hormuz fully, so that there's full traffic, and that alleviates some of this pressure we've seen on oil prices and gas prices. And then, secondly, the nuclear dust, as Trump puts it, that's the highly enriched uranium that they're trying to get Iran in some way to give up.

CORNISH: Yeah.

CANCRYN: And we saw there's --

CORNISH: And to be clear, dust is not a thing, this -- you know, what I mean, like I don't know if this is the new yellow cake, or what, but there's enriched uranium, and then there's the stuff that's under the rubble. Peter, help me out here. Is that true? Like, when we talk about what we're going for, what is it that the U.S. would be pursuing from Iran in terms of nuclear material?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: 970 pounds of enriched uranium, up to 60 percent, most of which is probably buried. And then there's 11 tons of other enriched uranium that is not as highly enriched, but theoretically all that back. Now, the way to get it back, you know, you're going to have to excavate it. You're going to have to, you know, this is not a trivial. This used to take many, many weeks.

CORNISH: So, to compare this to the JCPOA, which was, we'll just call it shorthand, the Obama deal, which at the time would have capped Iranian -- Iran's uranium enrichment for 15 years, and then the thing we all heard about all those years, the U.N.-led inspections. The inspections is what was going to make sure we were all on the up and up, and then the thing that riled up Trump and others to this day, the unfreezing of Iranian assets and giving them money.

I want to play for you, Sara, the response from some of the Republicans who I thought were pretty much on board with this whole shebang, and now, as it's getting towards what might be exchanged at the table, they're frustrated. This is Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and Senator Wicker.

One of the first things you hear from Cruz is, if the result of all this is to be an Iranian regime still run by Islamists who chant death to America and have effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then the outcome would be a disastrous mistake. Wicker saying everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught. Graham saying, it makes one wonder why the war started to begin with. These are not the questions I expected to be reading from war hawks on Memorial Day weekend.

[12:05:00]

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST & MEDIA CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: Yep. So, when you think about that 2015 era deal, the essential piece for -- framework for that deal was Iran is building a nuclear program, and we want to make sure that we create sort of standards and processes to contain it. What's different, more than a decade later, is Iran has, from the U.S. point of view, built up too much of a nuclear program and so now we need to stop it. And so, these are very different goals.

The challenge is the framework that's being discussed right now to end this war. It looks more like the 2015 deal than what these war hawks would want. And so, from their point of view, they're asking, why did we go in and do Operation Epic Fury? Why did we put boots on the ground, essentially? Why are we putting resources and asking Congress for billions of dollars of appropriations only to get back to the same place that we essentially were 10 years ago? That's where that frustration is coming from.

CORNISH: And lost American lives doing it.

FISCHER: Correct.

CORNISH: Tia, I want to turn to you, especially because, as we're speaking, the president is arriving at Arlington National Cemetery. They are going to be laying this wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. And the people who are with him are the faces of this war, whether it be General Caine, whether it be Pete Hegseth.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Yeah. I mean, I think you can argue that we're worse off than where we began when the war was started --

CORNISH: In terms of geopolitics.

MITCHELL: Well, in terms of geopolitics, and then domestically. I mean, look at the price of gas, look at farmers and producers saying the price of fertilizer has really affected their abilities, and therefore, it's going to trickle down to costs at the grocery store. And then, again the loss of American lives, as well, and we've got troops deployed now that have been, you know, kind of waiting for weeks, and they're on ships.

And in addition to that, the framework of the deal with Iran, the fact that we have not obliterated Iran's ability to build nuclear weapons the way we were promised, even before the war began. So, it's like, what was all this for? To those senators, point, why did we go to war? We should also mention that, you know, there wasn't a lot of justification provided before the war began.

CORNISH: But Lindsey Graham knew that.

MITCHELL: Right.

CORNISH: Wicker knew that. Like, these are the guys who are out there giving us the conflicting suggestions for why we are at war. While we're waiting for the president to speak, because again he's going to make some remarks today for this Memorial Day holiday.

We're also hearing from him today that he wants certain countries to kind of embrace the Abraham Accords, which was the sort of broad regional plan to normalize relations with Israel, and there's a couple folks that he's obviously hoping to see in at U.A.E., Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Sudan, Morocco. I just don't know how this list was made up but is this a little bit like the Board of Peace, like who's involved in this and how did they get there?

BERGEN: Saudi Arabia and Qatar are two of the countries that he said, you know, should sign the Abraham Accords. That's going to be like Pope Leo wearing a MAGA hat. I mean, the likelihood of happening is close to zero. They're very annoyed about two things. First of all, the Gaza war, where much of Gaza was turned into a parking lot. And then, of course the Iran war, which they were not consulted about, has basically tanked much of their economies.

And so, we're not going to reward Trump by saying yes, we're going to recognize Israel. That's not -- that's completely off the table. That might have been on the table before October 7, Hamas' attack on Israel. Saudi Arabia was making some efforts to perhaps normalize relations with Israel, but those days are long gone.

CORNISH: Especially, since Israel has used this opportunity to push further into Lebanon and take actions that the regional allies are frustrated with, right? And I think that's what I'm not clear about. When you look at this, and you hear him talking about the Abraham Accords, has there been a fundamental shift in the regional politic that we're not paying attention to because we're talking about gas prices.

BERGEN: Yeah. I mean, they -- what they're likely to do is to recognize that Iran basically has a stranglehold on their economies, at least for several years, because obviously they can start producing alternate routes for the oil over time, but that's not going to happen tomorrow. So, for the moment, a coal peace with Iran is probably what they want, and recognizing Israel is off the table, not least because, although these are absolute monarchies, their populations they do have to listen to, and their populations would be extremely unhappy with this.

CORNISH: The only thing I heard there is for years, because all weekend the White House was telling us this is going to resolve in months, and gas prices will be down. Sara, your face.

FISCHER: Well, just logistically, with -- when you have ships that are coming from the Strait of Hormuz, it's a very long route. And so, what happens when the Strait is closed? You have a backlog of ships that could take weeks, if not months, to get here.

CORNISH: Never mind the infrastructure that's been damaged by Iran in their counter strike.

FISCHER: Correct. So, let's say hypothetically we did achieve a deal. We are still facing this backlog of all the ships that should have departed from the Strait many weeks ago that are now not arriving. And so, I think even if you were to get a deal, it's not like a switching an on switch, it's going to take a long time for things to ever feel back to normal.

[12:10:00]

CORNISH: One of the things that's interesting to me is Democrats don't actually have like some alternative vision of how they should be fixed, because we're kind of just in it now. And over the weekend, we heard like, Chris Van Hollen calling this a blunder. We heard him saying that the Iranians realized that they had their hand around the throat of the global economies. And I think it's interesting that there's -- is it good for them to be talking about U.S. defeat, given that Iran is listening. How is this helpful?

MITCHELL: Yeah. I don't -- I don't necessarily think it's good for them to, you know, have a defeatist attitude, but I think what we hear Democrats saying is there was no plan. There was no apparent end game, there was no apparent justification. There have been a lot of downsides to this war with Iran. And at the end of the day, that is on Republicans, because Democrats have tried repeatedly to pass war powers resolutions to give Congress some control, and Republicans have blocked that. Of course, this is Trump's war, but Republicans in Congress, for the most part, have tried to help Trump justify in the war.

CORNISH: Yeah. Although, there's been weird politics tonight, wasn't it? Just last week, there was a Senate war-powers' vote, where all of a sudden, you had, like, one of that, who was it who flipped?

CANCRYN: Senator Bill Cassidy.

CORNISH: It's Senator Cassidy. OK. I just want to turn here to the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where you can see the vice president, the defense secretary, and where President Trump will be laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We're going to listen.

(LIVE VIDEO OF ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY)

[12:15:00]

CORNISH: OK. That's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, President Trump, J.D. Vance, who are all at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia today, where they are honoring the dead at the tomb of the fallen soldier. We're also going to hear of the unknown soldier. We're also going to hear from the president himself. He's going to give some Memorial Day remarks shortly. I'm going to take you back there live as soon as he starts.

In the meantime, I want to talk about something going on in Texas, because everything is bigger there, including the attack ads. And I'm going to show you the new Republican hit on James Talarico attacking his masculinity and giving him a new nickname.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: So, the president's pick for Texas Senate is scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton, and he sounds pretty confident heading into tomorrow's runoff. The Trump endorsement may be all he needs to defeat the incumbent Senator John Cornyn.

And now the state's party chair is trying to turn down the temperature in what has been an acrimonious primary. He called on both candidates to finish the campaign on a positive note, including pulling all negative advertising, and Paxton seems to be on board, team Cornyn not so much. This was his pitch to Trump supporters just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Ken Paxton, as you know, is a flawed candidate. He's got scandal that follows him everywhere. If James Talarico, who raised 26, $27 million in the first quarter of this year alone. If he gets a chance to litigate all of these issues in the general election, when there's just not Republicans voting, I think that the seats very much at risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. So, I wanted to bring it to the group, because Cornyn, obviously long-time hand in the Senate, we were all talking about, he's pretty much an institutionalist. Ken Paxton is warrior. He is the attorney general who goes after liberal policies and really won Trump over. Adam, can I start with you? What does Trump's sort of leaning in all in on Paxton say, about him as a candidate when people often complain about candidate quality?

[12:25:00]

CANCRYN: Yeah. Well, I mean this one is all about loyalty, right, and loyalty to Trump. Ken Paxton really put a lot of effort in over the last couple of months in getting this endorsement.

CORNISH: But is there anything like, we're not afraid of Talarico, we're not afraid of any Democratic momentum there. CANCRYN: I think for Trump, he's not afraid of, you know, he doesn't think that, you know, Democrats have much of a chance in the midterms. The people around him, I think, would beg to differ, but when it comes to this choice of Cornyn or Paxton, for Trump it's not a matter of, you know, candidate quality or how they play in the state.

It's a matter of who's with me, who does my base like, and who, if they get into the Senate, is going to end up supporting me and voting the way that I want. And he went with Ken Paxton, who has really done a lot of work in the last couple months to align himself as closely with Trump as possible.

CORNISH: OK. And also, you have people like the Lone Star Liberty PAC, just to give an example of how they are kind of playing Talarico's history against him. To your point about kind of what works on the ground there. This is an ad that they just ran on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The Democrats have a weird, a weird chat today.

REP. JAMES TALARICO (D-TX): God is non-binary. There are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six. It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption.

(PLAYING AD)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Low-T, the insult of all insults. Second only to do you eat meat, which Talarico actually couldn't do anything about the low-T, but here was his response to the meat-eating thing. His spokesperson posted this on X. And yeah, that will get them -- that'll convince them, but I don't know what will.

MITCHELL: Yeah. I mean, I do think that ad could be effective because they are clips of Talarico saying things that are considered super woke. I'm sure that -- well, I'm not sure, but perhaps these are things that, in hindsight, because they are old comments, but in hindsight, that even he would say, you know, in a bubble, don't sound great. The question will be, for voters, you know, what is the climate, I think in November, you know --

CORNISH: Even in a Texas?

MITCHELL: Even in a Texas. If gas prices are super high and the economy is top of mind, maybe voters will be willing to vote for someone they think is a little bit more woke, if they think it's going to get some change in Washington. Now, again, you know that will -- it'll be a big get for Democrats.

CORNISH: They'll lose their minds if they win.

MITCHELL: Yes, absolutely. CORNISH: I mean, that will be -- it's been a white whale, like somehow winning something in Texas. I don't know if Talarico is the guy to do that, given just the popularity there. But to your point about the economy, they're thinking about it. This is House Speaker Mike Johnson. He was speaking on Sunday, saying, like, look at the end of the day, it's the economy, stupid, just like we always say. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We put in all those conditions in the economy to let it take off like a rocket, and we were doing that at the beginning of the first quarter, and then the Iran skirmish began. So, when this settles out, gas prices come back down to earth, that means your grocery prices come down again, because of transport costs and all the rest can be a big factor. The kitchen table issues are going to decide the midterm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Lot of ifs.

FISCHER: Yeah. Well, he's basically saying that these things will happen, and that's going to work in our favor, but that's such willful thinking, given what we just discussed a few minutes ago. Even if the Strait were to be magically reopened in coming days, there's going to be a lag time. It's going to impact the midterms. And people aren't going to just magically forget about the fact that they were paying almost $5 a gallon on average across all 50 states for gas throughout their summer.

So, I think that that's very, very hopeful thinking from the House speaker in terms of what's happening in Texas. How bizarre? You have the situation where John Cornyn is considered sort of a shoo-in to retain a seat in a competitive midterm. And to come out and endorse somebody because they are more politically loyal to you. You know, it's not like John Cornyn was coming out here saying impeach Trump.

CORNISH: Right.

FISCHER: He's voted with Donald Trump, 99.9 percent of the time. The issue that he is, I think, Trump has taken with him is that he was late to endorse Trump in 2024.

CORNISH: And Adam, you've been doing some reporting where you find that the senators in general, now that they're past primaries are suddenly having the courage to say on background, we're not happy. We're not happy with the way he's leaning on some of us, where we feel like we're at odds with the White House.

CANCRYN: Yeah. I mean, what makes this different from, I guess, the other complaining that we've heard now for, you know, going on a decade at various points of Trump's presidencies, is they feel like he's not, they want to help him, and he's not helping them retain these seats. He's doing things that are counterproductive, both for, you know, candidate quality, quality like John Cornyn. And also, just policy-wise, focusing on things like the ballroom, and not on, you know, grocery prices, or gas prices, or the things that people are actually making a decision on come November. And that's where you're getting the frustration, is their jobs are now on the line and they're asking the president, you know, help us, help you, and he's refusing to do that.

CORNISH: Yeah, because he doesn't think he needs them. I mean, especially when you look at those primaries where he was able to put his finger on