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Trump: "It's One Of The Hardest Things To Do As President"; Trump Attends Dignified Transfer Of Four Troops Killed In War With Iran; Trump To Appear Alongside Embattled Senate Candidate In Georgia; Ossoff Spars With Hegseth Over Claims Iran Military Was Defeated; Candidate Snake-Up In Wisconsin Primary Tests Democratic Divides. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 22, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: The ultimate sacrifice for fallen service members return home as Americans seek more answers on what they died for.

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

President Trump said this morning it's one of the hardest parts of his job, receiving the remains of fallen American troops. Right now, the president is at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer of four U.S. soldiers killed over the weekend in Jordan and Iraq. He says Iran will, quote, pay a big price for their deaths. He met with their family members this morning.

The four fallen soldiers are Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, Private Isabella Gonzales, Sergeant Angel Rampersad, and Staff Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton. The president says, Iran will again pay a big price for their deaths. The question is, what does that mean, and what is happening right now at Dover?

I'm going to go straight to the White House. CNN's Betsy Klein is there. Betsy?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Dana, at a very solemn moment, as President Trump is paying his respects at this dignified transfer. This moment really underscoring the human toll of this increasingly popular -- unpopular war with Iran. The president now honoring these four fallen service members, marking 18 service members who have died since this conflict began back in February.

The president honoring the service and sacrifice of 25-year-old First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, 30-year-old Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 28-year-old Sergeant Angel Rampersad, and 19-year-old Private Isabella Gonzales. Now, the president is going to observe as the remains of the slain service members are moved in transfer cases from an aircraft to waiting vans, transfer vehicles there.

This is the third time in this conflict that the president has attended a dignified transfer, putting on that hat of consoler in chief as he meets with those families, a very human moment for this president. He said it is one of the hardest things that you do as president. Now this comes at a particularly violent moment for this conflict, an 11th straight night of U.S. strikes on Iran, as the president plots a path forward.

The president warning that any time Iran strikes ships in the Strait of Hormuz, that critical oil thoroughfare, that the U.S. will bomb and destroy one bridge or power plant, warning that that could happen in the capital of Tehran. Now, of course, all of this comes as this war is deeply unpopular.

Washington Post Ipsos polling out last week says that 68 percent of Americans say that this war with Iran is not worth fighting. The price of gas ticking up to over $4.06 a gallon as of now, and all of this weighing on President Trump with less than four months to the midterm elections, Dana.

BASH: All right. Betsy, thank you so much. And as we talk here at the table, I just want to tell our viewers we are waiting for the recording, the tape of the dignified transfer to be available to us. As soon as that happens, we will air it as it comes in. In the meantime, we're going to discuss this moment in the solemn moment in the war against Iran. And I want to start by listening to what President Trump said this morning.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We're going to Dover, some of you are going with us to honor our heroes, and they are indeed great heroes, actually. They said, and they -- all of them said very strongly, we can't let -- we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. They won't have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Josh?

JOSH DAWSEY, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, I mean, as you said -- as Betsy said, I mean, it's a horrific day for any president to have to do this. But you know, President Trump has wanted for several months to get a deal with the Iranians. They struck this memorandum of understanding. He's tried to look for a way out of this war. And five months in, you know, the strikes are continuing. He's having to go back to Dover for a dignified transfer.

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There have been more military service members and officers who've been injured than we previous knew the Iranians. He said they were going to totally destroy their capabilities, and while they've limited them, they clearly are still sending missiles into our bases, into our troops, and there's no really end in sight for this war.

You saw the president of Brazil yesterday when he was asked how you could get out of this conflict, and he said, you don't know what you're talking about, our reporter. But our reporting, just privately, the president does really want a way to get out of this, and it's a reason that a lot of presidents previously have not wanted to get entrenched in a conflict in the Middle East because they are difficult to get out of, right? You can't just get out of them easily.

So, you have a president who's a few months before the midterms, as Betsy said, you know, he's particularly concerned about gas prices. His advisors are huddling to talk about how to get gas prices down. He's concerned about what you do with the Iranians if they keep sending missiles. Do we keep sending missiles? And what do the Israelis do? It's sort of a volatile time. The war is not particularly popular. It's a hard moment for the president.

And obviously today, I mean, he has to go back to Dover to meet with these families who are heartbroken on tragic lives of their young- loved ones. One of those officers --

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, POLITICAL & POLICY COLUMNIST, BLOOMBERG AND CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: So, we know, right? Yeah.

DAWSEY: He was 19 years old. I mean, it's just absolutely heartbreaking. You just feel for those families so much, and you know, it's just -- it's a tough situation all around.

BASH: Yeah. And we are going to talk a lot more about these individual soldiers when we actually get the dignified transfer. Go ahead.

HENDERSON: Yeah, listen. Isabella Gonzales, 19 years old. She graduated just last year from high school. So, you're always struck by how young these heroes are. You know, you heard there Donald Trump talk about them and say that -- they apparently said, they didn't want Iran to get a nuclear weapon? Maybe they said it. Maybe they didn't.

But it gets to Donald Trump's continuing -- continuous search for a reason for this war and to convince Americans that it is a good reason and a valid reason to go to war. He is really yet to do that. You look at some of the pollings and Americans, by and large, say this isn't a good reason to go to war. They don't think that anything's going to come out of it that was better than Obama got with his nuclear agreement with Iran.

So, this is a president who is facing a very skeptical public and an increasingly impatient party who wants to get out of this war and see that it is not going to be a good thing for their -- for their prospects in the midterm, you know, and at some point, we'll obviously talk about this the huge loss it is for these families.

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, right. I mean, in the -- in the brief conversation with reporters earlier today, he pointed out that Americans, by and large, support what he is doing. And I do think Americans do support just the broader goal that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. But poll after poll shows that they do not support this conflict. His choice of how to achieve that goal, and that is the political problem for the president right now. And he knows it and the Republican Party knows it. And again, today is just such a -- such a stark reminder of the human toll. You know, I've covered these dignified transfers with President Biden. You do see, you know, the families are there, you know, watching this transfer. Each of the -- each of the -- each of the deceased in the -- their remains are put in a transfer case, draped with a flag as a reminder of their sacrifice to this country.

And one by one, goes by as the president salutes, as other dignitaries, you know, members of Congress from their home districts observe and pay their respects. And it's just really, you know, every American should just really watch that moment once we have the tape, and just be reminded of just the human toll, the human stories, and the sacrifice that they made.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, individual stories, and again, we'll talk a little bit more about it, but you know, one example is Tyler James Feehan was about to get an MBA. He also was about to get married, and instead of getting married, planning a wedding, his family is planning a funeral.

Let's actually sneak in a quick break now, and we are going to be monitoring and waiting for that tape to come in, and we'll bring it to you as soon as it happens. President Trump observing the dignified transfer of four U.S. soldiers killed in Jordan and northern Iraq.

We are going to talk a little bit later about the politics that President Trump is going to engage in later today. He's going to the Atlanta suburbs to campaign for the Republican challenger to Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff. Stay with us.

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BASH: Republicans have been begging President Trump to help them campaign outside of Washington. Today, Trump's handpicked Senate candidate in Georgia, GOP Congressman Mike Collins will get the opportunity to appear alongside Trump in a vital suburb of Atlanta. The question, of course, is how much will the president help when he campaigns with this congressman, considering the fact that President Trump is not the most popular of all time?

My panel is back here. And I do want to start with that, Nia, because let's just look. This is a Fox News poll from a couple of weeks ago. Question is, concern that Mike Collins is too close to Donald Trump, extremely very 53 percent, not very, not at all, 46 percent.

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HENDERSON: Yeah, listen. Republicans are eager to have him in these districts, and so are Democrats because of what you see there with that poll. And Mike Collins, I think, particularly given sort of his MAGA background. So, if you're Jon Ossoff, welcome. You know, welcome to Atlanta, Donald Trump. He has been doing very well. Jon Ossoff, I think people thought that Georgia would be much more competitive than it is, at least according to polling. And Republicans are afraid that that is a race that is getting away from them.

And so, enter Donald Trump, and you know, I think folks are going to welcome him there. We'll see what he says, right? I mean, we sort of know what he's going to say. He's not going to stay on message. He's not going to talk about the real issues that are concerning most Americans around affordability, gas prices, all of that. So, you know, we'll see how often he gets out there.

BASH: It is such a fascinating political calculus that we see with many presidents. The question was whether Democrats wanted Joe Biden to campaign during his first midterm, and so on and so forth. And the calculus so far with a lot of these Republicans in swing districts, or in this case a swing state, has been -- you got to goose the base, you got to get the base out, and the only person who is going to do that is Donald Trump.

The choice of Cobb County, this Atlanta suburb, which is densely populated, is really fascinating, and here's why. I'm just going to try as hard as I can to make my handwriting legible because this is very -- so you're looking at Cobb County here. In 2022, Brian Kemp, who won, OK. He -- how are we doing? He had -- looks great. I can see it, yeah. He won the state, but he still lost Cobb County by 4.5 percentage points. Herschel Walker, OK, lost by 16.3 percentage points. He lost the state. So, it kind of gives you some math there of how you -- the Republicans really need to get -- make their losses less bad --

KIM: It's right, right. I mean, it shows you how crucial suburban voters are to these elections and how the Republican Party is really seeking to minimize the loss because they're not going to -- they're most likely not going to win, especially if you look at Brian Kemp's numbers in that state. But they just really need to close the gap a little bit, and the plan for the White House to do that is actually very smart.

What they were planning to do today, they're going to go. President Trump is speaking at a high school. He's talking about the Trump accounts for the newborn and the -- and the young children to have this investment account grow over the course of their lives. It's an -- it's an idea that even Democrats have supported. But as we know, all President Trump he is most likely not going to stay on message. So, the headlines and the (inaudible) rounds will be whatever he says later today, which will, you know, if past this prolog, not beyond what he is talking about.

BASH: And let's just talk for a minute about Mike Collins, the Republican candidate. There has been some important CNN reporting and also elsewhere about some ties that people, even in his family, have to white nationalists. This is from the KFile, our colleague Andrew Kaczynski. GOP Senate candidate, this is Mike Collins has close ties to white nationalist influencer who happens to be his son-in-law. Why was the chief of staff for a leading Republican Senate candidate on a group chat with famous white nationalists and so on?

DAWSEY: I haven't done any reporting personally on that, but I mean, but Mike Collins is certainly like a candidate that Donald Trump has known for a long time. He has a close relationship with, and I think the goal is to go down and to, you know, make Ossoff look more liberal to really attack Democrats.

The strategy of the Trump operation going into the fall is to focus less on him and less sort of on -- sort of what Republicans have done in some places and more on making Democrats seem liberal, out of touch, highlighting some of their past positions, going, you know, on and on and on about what they view as democratic sexes that don't poll well. I think that's what you're going to see them try to do here today.

BASH: All right. Let me ask you a question that I -- that sort of feeds into that, which is Jon Ossoff himself, because he is somebody who isn't on cable news a lot. He does a lot of focusing on Georgia, and also, tries to use his time wisely when he has a moment as senator, particularly in the committee hearing that happened yesterday with a hearing that Hegseth was testifying before.

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SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): You will not answer whether your statement made on the 14th day of the war that Iran's military had been, quote, destroyed and made combat ineffective was a truthful statement to the American people, as you sit here and ask for tens of billions more for the conflict?

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The senator's time has expired.

PETE HEGSETH, STATES SECRETARY OF WAR: We've had a historic and effective military campaign against the largest state sponsor of terrorism that will ensure they never --

OSSOFF: Won't answer the question.

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DAWSEY: So, what you're seeing there is a concerted effort by a number of Democrats, just including Ossoff, to talk about how the president and Hegseth and others said the Iran war was -- they were demolished, they were devastated, and yet they're continuing to send missiles in. We're going to continue to send missiles in. He went the -- that exchange went for more than six minutes. Actually, watched it last night, and it was over and over and over, Hegseth was saying the Iran war, we've decimated their capabilities. We've done X and Y, except, but on day 14, you said they were totally destroyed.

They're continuing to send missiles into us. Do you stand by that statement? He asked, Hegseth answered a different way. And then he said, OK, on day 14, you said X, Y, and Z. Do you stand by that statement? It was clearly in a line of questioning that was meant to show the administration has made all sorts of comments about how they have totally decimated the Iranians and that doesn't quite seem to be the case.

BASH: Yeah. And that is the backdrop that Donald Trump is going to be campaigning against?

HENDERSON: Yeah, I think that's right. This is a country that, you know, is sort of at pains to understand why this war is ongoing, why gas prices dipped a little bit? There was supposed to be sort of this ceasefire agreement, and now the war is hot again. And so, yeah, I mean, you mentioned that the strategy is for Trump to focus less on himself and more on the excesses of Democrats. Good luck with that.

KIM: I just point out another Democrat who made a national profile for themselves by questioning Trump administration officials in committee hearings, former Senator Kamala Harris. So, the fact that these clips of him questioning Pete Hegseth, Jay Clayton, have gone viral should tell you something about how a senator can break out into the national conversation.

BASH: Yeah, that's a good point. All right. When we come back, I'm going to speak to the Democrats rather by Wisconsin's political leaders to stop a Democratic socialist from becoming their nominee for governor.

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BASH: The Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor just got a major shakeup less than a month before primary day. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is back in the race vying for the nomination against former Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes and State assembly woman and Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong. Today, Crowley launched a new TV ad making his case.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Republicans have made their choice, spending millions of dollars to prop up candidates they know they can be. It's time for Democrats to make our choice. I am David Crowley, backed by Governor Tony Evers.

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BASH: Here's the interesting twist. Two weeks ago, Crowley dropped out of this primary with no clear path to the nomination. Then the sitting lieutenant governor's campaign collapsed, leaving just Mandela Barnes and Francesca Hong as the likely candidates. So, Crowley jumped back in with the immediate backing of the sitting governor Tony Evers.

Joining me now is David Crowley. Thank you so much for being here. When you relaunched your campaign on Saturday, you said Democrats cannot afford to head into this general election with a nominee who lacks the experience, who lacks the record or the coalition necessary to win the race. Your two main opponents, Mandela Barnes and Francesca Hong are lieutenant governor and somebody who's been in the state House for six years, respectively. So, who are you referring to?

DAVID CROWLEY, (D) MILWAUKEE COUNTY EXECUTIVE: Well, I'm referring to the fact that we don't need Republican Governors Association, who has spent 2.2 million dollars in the Democratic primary here in the state of Wisconsin, to pick and choose a candidate they believe that they can beat. And so, you know, I dropped out of this race because of the information that was available to every Democrat in this race.

And so, as information has came out, this is really about defeating Tom Tiffany. And so, I believe that I can answer that call. And having the backing of Governor Evers really speaks to his judgment in my leadership.

BASH: And I just want to be clear. When you say, the information, did the information show that Francesca Hung was doing well, or it was that the candidate who was no longer in the race was the likely winner? Can you just kind of explain that decision to drop out and your decision to get back in?

CROWLEY: Well, the information that was available to us was really related to not just the polls, but the dollars that each of these the different candidates had. And so, to see the lieutenant governor, you know, she called me up to let me know what was happening or was going to continue to back her. But then she dropped out of this race because, unfortunately, she had a campaign mishap with her campaign finance reports.

But when I think about the information that we have available now, we know that we need somebody who has the experience, right? Being able to build a coalition. I not only spent seven years in the state capitol, but I'm the only candidate in this race with executive experience, leading the largest county in the state of Wisconsin.

BASH: I spoke to Mandela Barnes yesterday, who -- by the way has more money and is higher in the polls than you are. Again, you just got back in a couple of days ago. Here's what he told me yesterday when I asked why Evers (Ph) isn't supporting him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANDELA BARNES, (D) WISCONSIN GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: And I have zero interest in maintaining the status quo. I have zero interest in upholding a broken system that continues to make life hard for people. This is what I fought against my entire career. I've gone against the grain time and time again.

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