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Inside Politics

DOJ Launches Criminal Probe Into Trump Accuser E. Jean Carroll; Trump Promised Retribution, Revenge During 2024 Campaign; Talarico, Paxton Draw Contrasts As Texas Senate Race Heats Up; Texas Clash Could Be Most Expensive Senate Race In History; Millers, Dems Trade Brutal Personal Shots In Online Feud; The Atlantic: Jill Biden's Memoir Reveals Blunt Debate Assessment. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 28, 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]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: That's amazing. I wish I had been there with you, Wolf. You have to take me next time.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: For sure.

BROWN: Next year. I know some other CNN colleagues who went as well.

BLITZER: Yes, I know Pamela, you would have been dancing in the dark as well.

BROWN: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Yeah, for sure.

BROWN: And I love that some of our songs of the day come from Bruce Springsteen. Some of our favorite songs for this Situation Room.

BLITZER: He is one of the best. There is no doubt about it. All right. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

BROWN: Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Dana Bash, starts right now. Have a great rest of your day.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: The DOJ targets a woman who accused the president of sexual assault.

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

You remember, how President Trump pitched a second term to his base.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I am your warrior, I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: It turns out he is his retribution, and there's now an extremely personal example of this. CNN was the first to report that the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll. The president was found liable in a civil jury trial for sexually abusing Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s and for defaming her by repeatedly denying it.

Federal prosecutors at Trump's DOJ are now looking into whether Carroll committed perjury during a deposition related to those civil cases. When she said she didn't get any outside money for her lawsuit. Later, it was revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman paid some of her legal expenses. Unlike other people on the president's enemies list, Carroll is not a public figure or a political rival. She's a private citizen who courts concluded Donald Trump seriously wronged.

I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here. And as we do, Jeff Zeleny, I'm going to bring you in. I want to talk about E. Jean Carroll, but also just put on the screen all of the other individuals that the president has gone after, some successfully just in the indictment phase, and others who are under investigation, and yet others who he wants his DOJ to continue to investigate.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, you're almost running out of room there on that one screen. I mean, it is getting more and more this retribution list is getting longer. When Donald Trump was talking about, as a candidate, I will be your retribution. At the time, he was talking about on behalf of the grievances of voters, on behalf of how people have been in his view wronged by the Biden administration or during that era.

Well, he clearly is talking about himself. And the challenge here for the White House and the president, none of this does a lick of good for the ultimate goal for the Republican Party of trying to hold on to power in this midterm election. Now, the president yesterday bluntly said, I don't care about the midterm elections. He was talking about not being pressured into making an early deal on the Iran of war as we enter the fourth month.

But the bigger picture is some Republicans I talked to wonder if he does care about the midterm elections because there just does not seem to be the focus at the White House, or certainly in the Oval Office that would require that with so much on the line.

BASH: And just before coming to air, Abby, we got information that the CFTC, these are regulators -- government regulators, are trying to withdraw a $5 million penalty against Trump donors who have a crypto company, people probably remember them from the Wayback Machine when Facebook started the Winklevoss twins.

ABBY LIVINGSTON, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: So, the CFTC regulates commodities, and this is where many people argue the financial crisis got started with the lack of regulation. And so, if anything goes wrong with crypto and the economy, this is -- this is where people are going to look. And so, OK --

BASH: And these are, no -- and these are two individuals who have been diehard Trump supporters. LIVINGSTON: And who are very famous because there was an Oscar-winning movie about that. And so, they're very -- you know, I see the same thing as Jeff. This is -- the midterms are coming, and they are coming fast, and there is every other traditional White House is totally geared toward things like unemployment, inflation, and we keep seeing stories like this come out instead, and I just wonder how that's sitting with many voters.

BASH: Let's go back to 2024. We played at the beginning of the program. I am your retribution. Here's something a little bit deeper with Dr. Phil on a similar topic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PHIL, TV PERSONALLY: You have so much to do, you don't have time to get even, you only have time to get right.

TRUMP: Well, revenge does take time. I will say that.

DR. PHIL: It does.

TRUMP: And sometimes revenge can be justified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I mean, he talked about this, right? He did talk in the campaign about retribution. This was reported, this was put out there for voters to also -- to also process. But I keep -- you know, each of the examples we're talking about here, and I do think it's worth just emphasizing again, you know, this investigation into E. Jean Carroll, this is an escalation, right? This is not normal. This is another level of this retribution, sort of tour that we've seen the administration go on.

[12:05:00]

And I think that -- I think about also often you hear from Justice Department officials, former Justice Department officials who have talked about the concern and how it's becoming normalized, the president's control of an agency that would usually be or have a norm of being independent, but that being said, back to what your point on the politics.

I remember Susie Wiles being quoted in Vanity Fair last year, saying that this retribution tour would be temporary, right? And then you would start --

ZELENY: 90 days.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- 90 days. And then you would start to see the administration fanning out into the country, talking about their agenda, meeting voters where they're at, with talking about the issues that they're concerned about. These examples here point to the break between a president focused on his legacy and the party focused on the voters throughout the country and the elections in November. BASH: I'm going to ask you this because you're not quite old enough to have lived it, but you're close enough and we're going to play the what-if game. What if Attorney General Janet Reno approved an investigation into Paula Jones, who is accusing Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct. What would Republicans have done? That's a rhetorical question. You don't have to answer the question.

ZELENY: I mean, I think we know.

BASH: Yeah.

ZELENY: Yeah.

BASH: And what would Democrats have done rather?

ZELENY: I mean, look, the reality is, I didn't cover the Clinton administration with everyone since then. But look, the reality is, it is a whole different. The rules for Donald Trump do not apply with any other president, but this is an escalation to your point. And who else is out there? I mean, the reality is there are so many other potential things I think we are going to run out of one screen to put them on.

BASH: Well, and this is a slightly different flavor of the same kind of topic that I don't want to lose sight of, and it's hard because there's a lot happening. The president and the people in his administration are very, very busy. This is some terrific and very important reporting from our colleague Tierney Sneed about this deal that the president apparently got into with the IRS that led to this big one point -- almost $1.8 billion account and this has to do with his taxes.

The deal's language forbids not just tax-related reviews, but any government claims related to Trump pre-settlement conduct that fits under the agreement's conception of lawfare or weaponization. Those terms have no legal meaning, but another part of the agreement defines those concepts in extremely broad terms, meaning this is key. The deal seeks to forbid all sorts of federal enforcement actions or reviews that could be aimed at past conduct by Trump, his family, or his businesses.

LIVINGSTON: So, I think the Democratic messaging is going to revolve a lot around arguing that the Trump administration is corrupt. And so, I think when things like this happen, it gives them more fodder to make these allegations. And I just wonder if you're sitting, if you're a Republican congressperson in a battleground race, what you're thinking as this comes down and if you're going to have to answer questions about things like this.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Absolutely, and you know, it's just one, and yet another example of the president mobilizing the full sort of arsenal of the government to protect himself, right, and benefit himself. And I do think the point you made to have like, there's a lot going on, right? When you have all of these different issues we often hear heard of flood the zone. There's also a bet that maybe voters won't register this as well with the other concerns that they have across the country. BASH: Just a little bit of a tell that maybe the some people in the administration do think that some of this will register went a little under the radar because there's so much going on, but J.D. Vance talked to NBC on Tuesday and talked about this big fund for the weaponization fund, or whatever the president is calling it, and the vice president said. I understand the resistance. I think in some ways the discussion around the fund distracted from the underlying principle, which is very important.

KANNO-YOUNGS: And we are also -- while the president and some of the administration are moving ahead right, without any hesitation. We are starting to see some pushback on the Hill from Republicans as well, right? Compared especially to the beginning of the year when it looked like Congress had pretty much abdicated their duty of oversight --

ZELENY: Because we're closer to the election and members of Congress are hearing it from their constituents --

BASH: Members of Congress, but and again, he's not -- he's not totally dissing it, but just the fact that he's even suggesting that he gets the resistance as the guy who wants to stay in the White House.

KANNO-YOUNGS: He's thinking of the future.

BASH: Exactly, really interesting. All right, coming up. The Texas Senate general election race is barely hours old, and it's already very, very ugly. You're going to see how both Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton are trying to turn the other into a political caricature. Plus, there aren't many issues that bring red and blue America together, but right now there is one that's filling town halls. We're going to explain.

[12:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: The Texas Senate race could be the most expensive in U.S. history. And just hours into the general election, both sides are racing to define it. Here's the choice Ken Paxton wants voters to focus on.

(PLAYING VIDEO)

[12:15:00]

BASH: Now, Talarico is admitting some of his past remarks about gender and race didn't age well, but he wants voters focused on different things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: There are statements that I've made where I've missed the mark. I'll be the first to admit that, but Ken Paxton is intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption. Ken Paxton has a criminal record. I have a legislative record. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: My panel is back now, including the one and only Abby Livingston, who knows all things Texas as a native Texas, and you've been doing some excellent reporting, most importantly on this race. What are you looking at right now, as we said, these candidates are just going just to the wall, trying to define each other.

LIVINGSTON: So, I think there's two big things to pay attention to in this race. And so, the first thing is, in the fundamentals of it, Democrats have never had been in such an ideal position. They got the nominee they wanted in both Talarico and Ken Paxton. He -- Talarico cleared the runoff early, so he was able to spend time while the Republicans were spending huge amounts of money beating each other up.

And so, they're almost at equal footing at this point. You might give it to the Republicans because it is Texas, and it is still a Republican state. But at the same time, I think a lot of this is it's going to be a battle of opposition research books, and nobody in politics really knows what works anymore, both between Donald Trump and just the changing times.

And so -- and then on top of that, the elimination of John Cornyn in this context is a massive thing because he could raise money for himself, but it also means he's not raising money for other senators, which has traditionally been the role of the Texas senior senator.

BASH: Let me read some of your -- of your great reporting on Cornyn in a piece called Texas hold'em. It may just be a matter of time before Texas Republicans reconcile themselves to the candidate, as they did Cruz and Trump. Republican strategists are betting that donors, at least, will come around, even if Paxton is reviled in blue-blooded Highland Park and River Oaks, but others may simply check out. This is one of the key sort of questions on how Republican donors and voters are going to act and react in the next five months.

LIVINGSTON: I have asked every Republican I can find that question, and nobody knows the answer. The assumption is some donors, and some voters will come over, but maybe not all of them and that could be crucial. And you have to remember Ken Paxton has been impeached in a bipartisan way in the state house. A lot of Republicans don't really like him. So, it's really pick-your poison, and it may be just not voting, and that could put Talarico over.

BASH: So, let's talk about some of the -- not just opposition research, but the kind of sense of how each is trying to define the other and focus for a second on Talarico. And the fact that I mean, you saw in some of those clips, Republicans are already trying to call him, you know, all kinds of names and use some of the things that he has said that sound now, some would call it woke to say that he's not a real man. Listen to what Talarico said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TALARICO: In a time when there's so much debate about what it means to be a man. My dad showed me. Every Saturday morning, he would mow our lawn. And then, without telling anyone, without anyone asking him, he would go next door and mow our neighbor's lawn. She was elderly, she was a widow. He never talked about it, he just did it. That's what a man does. He serves those around him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Look, he is making the bet there that there is a weariness and people are tired of this, of what we have sort of experienced over the last 10 years. He is making a bet on kindness. It's an open question, how that sells in this environment. But the White House and Republican strategists are sort of vacillating between, is he weird or is he weak. And I think they're going to settle on weak because they believe that they can cast him as a weak type of figure, but it's very much an open question, I think, how that actually works.

I remember spending some time out with him on the road when he was running in his primary early on, and he's an astute campaigner. There's no doubt. He's not faced anything like this, but how he matures as a candidate, and how Ken Paxton matures, and sort of changes if he does, will be the appointment.

Hanging over all this to your point about the suburbs and things. This is the end of the Bush era. There's no doubt about it. It's over. But what do all those Bush voters do? Are there moderate Republicans who still exist in Texas who decide that this is the bridge too far and vote for Talarico? Maybe some, but certainly not all.

[12:20:00]

BASH: So, all of this is going on kind of on the surface. And then online is a whole other campaign, and this is the kind of thing where you know, maybe my parents or other people's parents aren't, you know, looking at Twitter all day long, but it really is fascinating how ruthless this is already getting. Here's an example. Stephen Miller posted about James Talarico the following. The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender Senate candidate.

Now, just for the record, Talarico is not transgender, but then the Democratic Party's official ex account fired back, writing, shut up, you ugly blank. So, then Miller's wife, Katie Miller, got involved, and she posted that the woman who runs the Democrats account is 30 unmarried and with no kids. What a sad, unhappy female. And what, that's what a sad, unhappy female looks like.

OK. That prompted the DNC staffer to make a social media announcement. Well, now it seems like a good time to share that I'm getting married. We just put down the deposit on the venue and bought my dress, lol. Now this is not, you know, to take time to drudge up garbage on the internet. This is to show that these are people who are senior positions at the White House --

KANNO-YOUNGS: Some of the most powerful people in the White House.

BASH: And this is how they are choosing to try to spend their time as they engage in the 2026 political debate, and it's not just the White House, it's the way that the Democrats responded. KANNO-YOUNGS: Yeah. It's increasingly becoming difficult to see this as an exception to the rule of politics, and more so you have to come around to perhaps this is a distillation of our current moment in politics. You attack one candidate over gender issues and transgender issues, then there's another person that, you know, attacks someone over their looks. Then you go on TV and complain about the political -- about the level of vitriol, and then another party also complains about the level of vitriol.

This is becoming increasingly normal in our current stage of politics. It doesn't address the concerns of voters. To go back to what we talked about before, and what polls show over and over again remain a priority for voters, which is gas prices and economic issues.

BASH: And real quick. How do you think this kind of talk, which is only going to get worse, is going to play in the race?

LIVINGSTON: I mean, Texas has a rough history of politics, but it's also a place where the state motto is friendship, and people are trying to be friendly, at least your face. I will add one quick thing --

BASH: Bless your heart.

LIVINGSTON: Yeah, bless your heart. And I'll just add one quick thing. The Democratic primary was very contentious between Jasmine Crockett and Talarico on Twitter. I went back to the state during the election, almost nobody on the ground was paying attention to it, so I would take it with a grain of salt.

BASH: OK. Up next on Inside Politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, 46TH U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That was the day after CNN's June 27 2024 debate, on that Joe Biden now says, she was watching and worried her husband had a stroke during that history changing debate. We're going to talk more about that after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Just in time for the Democrats' summer midterm push. A new memoir revisits one of the party's most painful moments, the end of the Joe Biden campaign. Former First Lady Jill Biden previewed her new book, View from the East Wing, in a sit-down with CBS News. They discussed the moment everything changed, the CNN debate, moderated by Jake Tapper and me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RITA BRAVER, CBS NEWS SUNDAY MORNING, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Were you horrified as you saw it unfold?

JILL BIDEN, FORMER FIRST LADY: I wasn't horrified, I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before, or since, never since. Yes.

BRAVER: You've never seen him like that?

BIDEN: Never, no.

BRAVER: What happened?

BIDEN: I don't know what happened. I mean, when I -- as I watched it, I thought, oh my god, he's having a stroke, and it scared me to death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, the Atlantic published an excerpt of the memoir, which comes out next week, and it recounts the same moments with different reactions. She writes, quote, oh God, will people watching assume this is how he is all the time? And then the Atlantic goes on to quote the book, saying, as the president walked off the stage, he whispered to his wife, I really effed up, didn't I? And she writes, yes, you did, I whispered back.

My panel is here now. I mean, that is fascinating to hear, because Jake and I were still in the studio as President Trump exited the stage, President Biden and the then first lady walked over to us to talk to. And in that moment, there was an indication that President Biden knew that he was off. He actually said, sorry about my voice, I have a bad cold. The first lady said, you know, was sort of doing some chit chat, he was very clear that she was ready to leave, no indication, at least by their -- maybe a little bit by their faces, but not in what they said that they had that exchange that she's now revealing.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Right. And there was that moment where also you had the first lady telling the president after the debate, you know, paraphrasing here, but you did so great. You answered all the questions as well. I do think it's important for people to remember to the first lady, as well as the President Biden's