Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

51 Days Until Election Day: Trump At Irish Golf Tournament; NYT: Obama Urges Dems To Make A.I. Oversight Key Focus; Trump Kicks Off Midterms Push In North Carolina. Trump Kicks Off Midterm Push in North Carolina; Tomorrow: Will Politics Spill Onto the Emmys Stage? Aired 8-9a ET

Aired September 13, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:20]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): On the ballot.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You've got to pretend I'm on the ticket.

RAJU: With just 51 days to go, the president takes a detour. But as he and the GOP pour millions more into ads, will they convince their base to turn out?

And doomsday warning.

DARIO AMODEI, ANTHROPIC CEO: The world has to work together.

TRUMP: It's going to be fine. We'll always have something to stop them, right?

RAJU: Tech titans say A.I. should slow down with humanity at risk, as the left urges action. What will Washington do?

Plus, Carolina clash.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just have to not screw it up.

RAJU: I hit the trail in must win North Carolina, where Democrats are hoping to flip a seat. But in a state Trump won three times, will that be harder than they think?

ROY COOPER (D), NORTH CAROLINA SENATE CANDIDATE: Someone asked me what my biggest concern was, and I said that people take this race for granted.

RAJU: Complacency.

COOPER: Complacency.

RAJU: INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU (on camera): Good morning. And welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Manu Raju.

The GOP midterm strategy s coming sharply into focus, as Republicans throw enormous piles of cash to save their imperiled majorities. At the center of that strategy, Texas, where the GOP cavalry is now marching in to salvage the candidacy of Ken Paxton and avoid their nightmare of a critical Senate seat turning blue.

For Trump -- well, he finds himself overseas spending crucial campaign days at a golf tournament in Ireland. But with just 51 days until Election Day, many Republicans are just thankful he's finally putting his money where his mouth is and deploying vast resources to prop up his party.

And Trump is not the only one. GOP groups are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure voters see ads like these.

(BEGIN VDIEO CLIP)

AD NARRATOR: Talarico supported using taxpayer dollars for sex change surgeries on young children, and even said denying your child's gender identity is abusive.

Radical liberal James Talarico for they/hem, not you.

AD NARRATOR: She was 14 years old for sale in a motel off I-35. Now her traffickers are in prison because Ken Paxton put them there. Forty years for the trafficker, 20 years for the woman who posted the ads.

The unit that locked them up, Ken Paxton built it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: All right, let's break this all down. My excellent panel of political experts, NPR's Tamara Keith, "Punchbowl News'" John Bresnahan, and the host of "The Chuck Toddcast", Chuck Todd.

Good morning to you all. Happy, happy Sunday.

Some of those ads were running through the wild Texas-Ohio State game last night. So we know a lot of these Texas voters have seen this, but the amount of money is pretty staggering.

Just look at how much has been spent by James Talarico and how much will be spent by Ken Paxton and his allies. There was 41 million bucks, almost 42 million spent on the Talarico side up until now. Future reservations until Election Day. This could change, but at the moment, $4.7 million.

Then you go to Ken Paxton, who had been getting swamped on the air, particularly as of late. Talarico had the airwaves almost to himself. And then we see the Trump team come in the big outside group linked to Senate Majority Leader John Thune coming in and now $33.5 million in additional ad reservations. They're now being outspent about roughly 5 to 1 until Election Day.

Chuck, what do you make of this? What are the -- what's the impact here? And what does this tell you about the Republican effort to hang onto the senate majority?

CHUCK TODD, HOST, THE CHUCK TODDCAST: Well, I think we're going to learn a lot in the next two weeks because it came in everywhere. It's not just Texas. It came in in Ohio and Michigan. You just saw, you know, Democrats have basically outspent Republicans for most of the summer, but you kind of knew where this was going, and an enormous amount got dropped and you saw these different groups.

It's interesting, by the way, that MAGA Inc. created a new subsidiary, because I think they realized the first time they ran an ad that came paid for by MAGA Inc. It was like, not exactly what they were.

RAJU: Don't take that on air.

(LAUGHTER)

TODD: Not exactly what they were, what they were looking for there.

So look, I think we'll learn. Can they move the base? Right. It started with that convention last week, which I think events overtook it, to be honest. Let's -- we'll see if that had that much of an impact. But I think the next two weeks, if they're not improving their numbers by the 1st of October, then we'll say that maybe the money didn't --

RAJU: Yeah. And the question now is for Democrats, do they -- look, Texas is such a money drain and we know how Texas is. They keep thinking they can get Texas. They don't get Texas. It's been decades since they actually won a statewide a statewide race there.

[08:05:01]

So can they actually will they match that money, dollar for dollar? Will they try to put money in there and say, well, let's say we have other targets on the map to get the majority and let James Talarico, who has been outspending Ken Paxton, let him fend for -- fend it for himself?

JOHN BRESNAHAN, PUNCHBOWL NEWS CO-FOUNDER: Well, dramatically outraised Paxton also. I mean, he's done very well. So I think we'll see a lot.

I think we'll see Democratic money move there. There's no way they can win the Senate without Texas. I just don't see it because remember, Democrats have problems in New Hampshire and Michigan now. Those are races --

(CROSSTALK) TODD: They need a fifth seat. There was a time it was a luxury. It's not a luxury.

BRESNAHAN: But they -- and they need Texas now. And I will say in the House side, we'll talk about some of the spending. Unless the Senate side, it's defensive. In the Senate, it's also defensive.

There's defensive in nature. I mean, they're defending --

RAJU: I mean, this is what John Cornyn everybody was warning about.

BRESNAHAN: Exactly.

RAJU: Why are you going to force the party to come in and spend 50 million bucks before election day?

BRESNAHAN: But they're going to --

RAJU: Just spend it elsewhere.

BRESNAHAN: But they're doing it in Ohio. They're doing it in Alaska. They're having to do it -- they're having to try to save a seat in Iowa. I mean, so, look --

TODD: And Kansas may come on the board.

BRESNAHAN: Kansas is now. I mean, it was a tough debate last night for Marshall. So, you know --

RAJU: We'll talk about later in the show. Don't get ahead of the show, John.

BRESNAHAN: Oh, sorry.

RAJU: Oh, you could tease it. That's fine.

BRESNHANA: Could be coming up soon.

RAJU: It's an interesting thing happening in Kansas this week.

But this is how James Talarico responded to those ads because he's obviously not backing off and he's going after Paxton himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD NARRATOR: This is Adam Hoffman leaving jail after he admitted to sexually abusing a child. He should have spent his life in prison. Instead, Attorney General Ken Paxton offered him one day in jail. See, Hoffman's lawyer represented one of Paxton's biggest donors.

Ken Paxton's corruption endangers our kids. We don't need any more pedophile protectors in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Whew. That's a tough one. TAMARA KEITH, NPR SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, all of

these ads are tough. They're -- there's just so much money getting thrown around.

According to Ad-Impact, at this point, though, as you point out, Republicans are set to outspend Democrats on air based on the current reservations everywhere except for Georgia. And Georgia as a state where Republicans may see that the car is too far ahead to catch up.

But this is, you know, the majority is on the line, right? And so, Republicans are willing to spend a lot of money. They have a lot of money. Republicans have been sitting on giant piles of cash. In particular, MAGA Inc. has had giant piles of cash.

And Democrats do not in -- the candidates have lots of money, the individual groups, the DNC, the -- all of the -- all of the party groups, Republicans have just vastly more money.

RAJU: And now that they have that Supreme Court decision on their side, they can spend much more money.

TODD: And remember, last midterm, the 22 midterm Democrats were able, because of this law, they were able to essentially, they moneyball their money better, right? They were able to essentially go ad for ad even though the super PACs on the on the right outspent them. This time with that coordination, number one, and you don't have this overwhelming amount of campaign cash that they were able to offset it with, I do think, look, Democratic money made '22 harder for Republicans. Republican money may make '26 harder for them.

RAJU: Democrats, no question. But speaking of the money, just you mentioned that Trump, a new group. It's not -- they don't call it themselves MAGA Inc., but they're MAGA. It's a Trump-linked super PAC. This is the amount of money they just announced, 80 plus million bucks in more money, $17.5 million or the most of this, they currently announce, of course, that is in Michigan, a seat that they desperately want to flip and to block the Democrats from moving ahead here.

Ohio, of course, a huge problem for them to hold on to that seat. Jon Husted, the incumbent Republican senator going up against Sherrod Brown, that's second on the list. And then Alaska -- I mean, what a complicated state that's become for the -- it says Arkansas in the map. They meant Alaska. Alaska. It's 11.2 million bucks going to there.

John, to some extent, it seems like the firewall strategy seems to be, hold on to Texas, flip Michigan. Hopefully, they think they can hang on to Maine as well, but they flip Michigan and Texas. That path to the Democratic majority is so, so narrow.

BRESNAHAN: Oh, yeah. I mean, they can't -- they can't do anything wrong. They have to have -- they -- you know, it has to be an inside straight. They have to do the whole thing. I mean, I, you know, look, Collins is losing in a poll in Maine, but she was losing last time. So I don't trust any polling. I mean, that's -- I mean, and a problem for some of these races is the

polling is so sporadic. And I mean, they're talking about Kansas. I've only seen one poll recently in Kansas where you have lots of polls in some of these other states. So, look, I think New Hampshire is another one. I mean, that's a good pickup opportunity. And Pappas -- Chris Pappas, the Democrat running there, is warning Democrats. We've got to do it.

Look, Democrats knew this tidal wave of money was going to come. But really seeing it hit the ground is a different thing that you were talking about.

[08:10:07]

RAJU: And it's happening in the House races, too. I mean, look at the MAGA, the Trump linked group, the amount of money they're spending here, $6.7 million to try to pick off. That's an offensive strategy to pick off a seat. Jared Moskowitz is the Republican -- Democratic incumbent. This is a redistricting seat gerrymandered to help Republicans. That could certainly flip here. They're -- they're trying to pick off here a another Democrat, Don Davis, 1.6 million bucks in this North Crolina 11th congressional district. And then you look at New York 17, Mike Lawler, someone who Republicans really -- he's one of the three Republicans in a Kamala Harris won district. If he can hang on, the chances of the Democratic path to the majority are so much more narrow.

So there is a clear -- the Trump team clearly recognizes they've got to spend in these House districts as well.

KEITH: Yes. And I will note that Mike Lawler also appeared at this Republican convention in Dallas --

RAJU: Yeah, which is really interesting.

KEITH: Yes, he is. He is going with the strategy of hugging Trump close. And he is getting money infused into his district by the Trump linked PAC as a result, or maybe not as a result, but certainly he is someone who has decided -- well, I can't separate myself, so I'm just going to hug him close, which has been fascinating to watch.

A lot of candidates did not go to that convention.

RAJU: Yeah, and because Trump is going to be the issue no matter what, so some candidates are saying -- well, might as well take the good with Trump and have to deal with the bad as well.

All right. Coming up, as leaders in A.I. urge a slowdown amid doomsday warnings, President Obama is reportedly adding his voice to those calling for action.

So, are Congress and President Trump, well, are they changing their tune?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:15]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you have any concerns about A.I. leading to human extinction?

TRUMP: No, I don't have any. I have concerns that if we don't win A.I., we're going to be put in a very bad position.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: This weekend, warnings that A.I. could wipe out humanity are leading to a reckoning across America.

But in Washington, perhaps not so much. "The New York Times" reporting that during a recent fundraiser, President Obama urged House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to put A.I. front and center if Democrats retake the House, saying, quote, "This is something that's moving very fast in private hands. And if we don't get on top of it, I think it can be dangerous."

So with Congress back this week, will they actually do anything about it? My panel of insiders is back. I think we know the answer to that question.

But just on the Obama of it all, he's also urging them to make this a poll issue heading into the midterms. He says he said, according to this times report, he said he suggested that candidates running for president in 2028 ought to make A.I. one of their central agendas and have a very clear plan for responding to safety and economic concerns around the technology.

But we're seeing -- what we're seeing, all these concerns among the electorate about data centers and about -- now we're hearing about these doomsday warnings, how much -- is this -- how effective of a political strategy is this heading into November for Democrats or Republicans to try to tap into that anxiety among the electorate?

KEITH: Yeah, I think that data centers are sort of the physical representation of the anxiety that a lot of people and voters have about A.I. and, you know, the robots coming to destroy us. But and more to the point, take jobs and change life as people know it.

And so it has really catalyzed around A.I. data centers, but I think it is bigger than that. And you are seeing candidates on both sides of the aisle realize, oh gosh, data centers, this is toxic. We need to campaign against them. You've seen this in races all over the country.

It's in direct conflict with the way president Trump talks about A.I.

RAJU: Yeah. You just heard him right there saying yeah.

KEITH: He has -- he has really leaned in in support of A.I. There was the social post where he said, if you don't want data centers, you just want to be backward. Not an exact quote, but pretty darn close.

So I think Republicans have a harder time with this because Democrats in most cases are able to just be like, yep, this is bad.

RAJU: And we've seen this shift among Republicans to some in some races. You saw Greg Abbott in Texas, how he's dealt with data centers, and then the Ohio Senate race, Jon Husted, the Republican, is getting hammered by Sherrod Brown on this issue.

BRESNAHAN: Every ad Brown is running is about this. I think, you know, they've talked about like select committees on this. This is -- look, I've been covering the social media stuff. They still haven't passed legislation on kids online. And that's been years, I -- we saw --

RAJU: Bipartisan support --

BRESNAHAN: Bipartisan -- we saw in both the House and Senate committees on antitrust legislation, on social media -- that didn't go anywhere. I think there's, you know, there's the competition with China, but also there's an economic issue here.

These companies are so powerful in these individual states to look at the spending in Louisiana, with a look at what Meta's spending there. And I -- it happens in different states. They're so powerful. There's going to be a real economic -- there's going to be real economic costs if you slow this down.

And I think that's part of what Trump. There's an international competition. But this is the thing that's carrying the American economy right now.

RAJU: And they just don't know how to get their arms around it.

TODD: Well, look, the public is begging for politicians to get into this. And this is -- it's even bigger to me than A.I. and data centers. This is 15 years of you've destroyed our kids with social media. By the way, what's the one bipartisan issue in America, keeping cell phones out of schools?

[08:20:04]

Red legislatures, blue legislatures. They've all passed this unanimously. It's about this.

But I have something for these tech companies. Stop us before we kill humanity. We don't know what we're.

Give me a break. You know, like, get your own arms around your own problems here, and there's no doubt we've got to do some regulating. But I worry about this town. It is so awash in cash.

I mean, look at this crypto business. Why don't -- why is it paralyzed? Because the town's awash in cash. You had Chuck Schumer tell Senate Democrats stop criticizing crypto because we can't afford Sherrod Brown lost -- lost his Senate seat.

So they've all shut their mouth on crypto. And that's kind of what's happening here. This disconnect. The country is on fire about this.

RAJU: Yeah.

TODD: Washington has been bought off. They have enough on both sides.

BRESNAHAN: How is this -- how is this new? We've had this on health care for 20 years because they have so much money.

TODD: The public is so pissed. And this town has been -- this is one of those they've been bought off.

KEITH: I mean, crypto has been begging to be regulated and they can't get a bill through.

BRESNAHAN: Well, they're going to try this week. But, you know, but this is like, this is where these powerful companies can influence individual lawmakers and the leaders can go on TV and Obama can -- it's easy for Obama because he is -- he doesn't have anything.

(CROSSTALK)

BRESNAHAN: Right. I think he can be perfect on it. But it's like there is so much money. They have so -- they have P.R. firms, they have think tanks, they have lobbyists, they just dozens of them.

And we've seen this with health care. We've seen this with the banking industry, these powerful industries regulating --

TODD: This on another level.

BRESNAHAN: So, Congress is just ill equipped to do.

RAJU: And in the meantime, we've seen this explosion of A.I. ads on the campaign trail as well, more than we've seen in any other cycle. This is just a taste of some of them in the past recent weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And God said, let there be six genders. And there were.

Then God so loved the world that he gave us his only son, who is a radical feminist.

AD NARRATOR: Senator Jon Ossoff spends more money than any Washington politician on hair and makeup. I know what you're thinking. Yes, even more than the ladies.

Thousands on hair and makeup. What a phony. The dude voted to raise taxes by two grand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They'll never see us coming. They really think we're just Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: I mean, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, they identified 164 ads and at least 80 million A.I. ads spent this cycle, 80 percent of them were identified as from Republican candidates or Republican groups.

TODD: Geez, do you think they're going to believe us anymore? Yeah. I mean, this is I mean, you know, here's the thing. We're seeing this. There's no regulation to it.

There clearly should be this stuff. We I think this will be the last cycle. This is allowed. I would assume the one thing a bunch of elected officials who are petrified of A.I. taking them down, this might be the one regulation they unite around. Hey, let's make sure you can't do A.I. ads making fun of us.

RAJU: Do you think that voters will think that, hey, that's Jon Ossoff? I mean, maybe some low information?

TODD: No, I think they're going to -- I think they're going to assume you're not going to believe anything. I think the minute they introduced Sora, that that piece of software, when you could when everybody could start making these A.I. videos, that's the moment. Nobody is going to believe any video they see online.

KEITH: Age of cynicism is here.

RAJU: Yes, yes, it has been. It's probably going to get a lot worse, as you all are saying, I totally agree.

All right. Coming up, I hit the trail in North Carolina where President Trump is also heading this week. Some Democrats think that they can actually easily flip that senate seat, but their Senate candidate tells me something else he's saying, not so fast.

I'll tell you why, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: It's tough for a Democrat to win a U.S. senate seat in North Carolina. This is going to be anywhere from a one to three percent race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:28:13]

RAJU: If Democrats thought that the Senate race in North Carolina would be a cakewalk -- well, their prized recruit is warning it's turning into more of a dogfight. Former Governor Roy Cooper is facing a GOP onslaught to boost Republican Michael Whatley in a state that President Trump has won three times.

This week, Trump himself heading south to rally with Whatley. So how close is it? I traveled to North Carolina to find out. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: What about the Democrats. The Democratic brand, is it popular? Is it unpopular here?

MARK MICHALSKI, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: They just have to not screw it up.

RAJU (voice-over): Roy Cooper, the former two-term governor, is key to Democrats' quest to take the Senate, a mission that would almost certainly be derailed if he fails to defeat Michael Whatley, the former RNC chairman and close ally of Trump's.

COOPER: He will do and say whatever the president tells him to do and say.

RAJU: A lot of Democrats have written off North Carolina. They think they have it in the bag. But why would they think that? Donald Trump has won here three times, and there's been no senate Democrat who's won statewide in a Senate race since 2008.

There have been polls that have shown cooper well ahead in this race. But at least one poll from High Point University actually showed this race to be much tighter, a five point race that's within the margin of error, meaning there's no clear leader in this race.

[08:29:42]

There's this view in Washington that you kind of have this race in the bag. I mean, but the polls actually show that this is actually a tightening race.

COOPER: It really is.

RAJU: So what has changed here on the ground?

COOPER: Well, nothing's really changed that we didn't anticipate. North Carolina hasn't elected a Democrat in almost two decades, and only two in almost the last 40 years. So it's tough for a Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina.

This is going to be anywhere from a 1 to 3 percent race. Someone asked me what my biggest concern was, and I said that people take this race for granted --

(CROSSTALKING)

RAJU: Complacency.

COOPER: Complacency. They've been pounding us with false, negative ads for -- since July, and the race is tightening just as we knew it would.

RAJU: Republicans clearly have not given up, reserving more money for TV ads in the final eight weeks of the campaign, with more than $50 million. With Trump's approval sagging, Cooper is barnstorming the state,

attacking Whatley over high cost caused partly by the president's war with Iran and sweeping tariffs.

COOPER: I know costs are way up, and it's a senator's job to do something about it.

RAJU: As Cooper was seizing on cost-of-living concerns in a suburban charlotte county that Trump carried three times. about 120 miles southeast From there, Whatley was attacking Cooper's record in a Democratic stronghold. and I caught up with Whatley to ask whether he was aligned with Trump on Iran and tariffs. Whatley's careful not to break from the president.

since the president came into office, Inflation is still higher than when he first came in in January 2025. I'm wondering specifically when it comes to the issues of Iran and tariffs, should he change course at all, given how much more people are paying here in North Carolina?

MICHAEL WATLEY (R-NC), SENATE CANDIDATE: Well, what I would say is inflation as a whole lot less than it was under Joe Biden, right? So they are significantly lower than they were, and they need to get them even lower still, right.

When we talk about the war on Iran, obviously we need to ensure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons, that they do not have a capacity to build or to deploy nuclear weapons. And so I think the president took decisive action. And we're moving forward with that.

RAJU: So you -- are you 100 percent behind him when it comes to Iran and tariffs specifically?

WHATLEY: Well, what I would say is that we cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon that they can develop and deploy.

RAJU: And tariffs, too. You're 100 percent behind him on his tariffs policy as well.

WHATLEY: What I would say is we need trade policies that are going to help North Carolina farmers, manufacturers and small businesses. We need to have a conversation about where those tariffs are going to be.

RAJU: Whatley has centered his attacks on Cooper's record on crime, criticizing his rival over a court-ordered settlement that Cooper reached as governor with civil rights groups to reduce the prison population during the COVID era.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Behind the numbers are real victims and families who will never be whole. We paid the price when Roy Cooper put criminals before the innocent. 40 years is enough.

RAJU: The centerpiece of the Republican campaign against you is this deal that you had -- settlement deal that you reached about the prisoner release -- roughly 3,500 prisoners or so released earlier.

When you look back at the way that that was handled by you and your administration, do you have any regrets about the way you handled that?

COOPER: This is something that the state had to do because the court ordered it. And I think a lot of people believed, if you asked the plaintiffs, they were very frustrated that more weren't released. And this was something that we wanted to do to make sure we worked to protect the public.

Public safety officers made decisions about this. They followed the lead of President Trump's team. President Trump released 13,000 prisoners at least during this COVID era. He signed a bill to do that.

And what's -- the problem here is that they are lying about all of these cases that they're trying to connect to this. And the trail of lies is long when in fact, I'm the one who's actually prosecuted violent criminals and put them behind bars.

Michael Whatley actually appointed a convicted child molester who served six years in prison on the sex offender registry Above the objections to many Republicans in his party to a position that would have access to children and teenagers. That's what we need to be talking about.

RAJU: Because some of those who were released did end up committing murders afterwards.

COOPER: Well, I'm not sure about that. But what I do know is that they made the decisions that they could at the time. Most of the people were toward the very end of their term, who would have been out very soon anyway.

RAJU: One of the things that we're hearing a lot from voters who plan to support Roy Cooper is that they think that these attacks on crimes could actually work.

SPENCER HAMILTON, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: I think it's an unfair attack, honestly.

RAJU: Do you think it might work?

HAMILTON: Probably, yes.

RAJU: Yes. And if that happens --

(CROSSTALKING)

[08:34:46]

HAMILTON: I think it does work. I think fear-mongering about crime works. I think it's bad, but I think it works.

RAJU: Cooper has found a response, attacking Whatley for appointing a man who pleaded guilty to sex crimes to a position in the North Carolina Republican Party.

Roy Cooper is going after you about Harvey West, the appointment of him for the North Carolina GOP. He's, of course, a convicted sex offender. What do you say to him? And do you regret how that was handled?

WHATLEY: I didn't hire the guy. I absolutely did not hire the guy. He was a volunteer with the party beforehand. But I think when we talk about crime, Roy Cooper is the one with the record. Roy Cooper is the one who let 4,200 criminals out.

RAJU: Do you want Trump to campaign for you here?

To win over Trump supporters, Cooper has to make sure his party doesn't bring him down.

How much of this has to do with the Democratic brand? How damaged is the Democratic brand here in North Dakota?

COOPER: I think that there are enough people in North Carolina who are skeptical of national Democrats, and that's why we have more success in electing Democrats as governor and attorney general and secretary of state than we do sending them to Washington.

RAJU: I've noticed in your stump speech right now, you really didn't go after President Trump in the way that a lot of Democrats do. A lot of Democrats want to go talk about investigating the president, maybe even impeaching the president.

When you hear calls on that within your own party, what do you say?

COOPER: So Michael Whatley says that his agenda is the president's agenda. So I'm able to run against Michael Whatley. And all of those things are there. Michael Whatley supports the tariffs. He supports the war in Iran.

RAJU: Has he done anything -- worthy of impeachment, in your view?

COOPER: Well, I think, you know, the Senate operates as the trier of fact in that kind of thing. So I don't think that's something that I would want to get into right now.

RAJU: We've seen this shift to the left, particularly this election cycle. These Democratic Socialist candidates winning in a number of primaries. Does that concern you?

COOPER: Well, I can work within the party and across the aisle with the other party. And that's what I've had to do here in North Carolina.

RAJU: One of your first votes, if you win, will be whether or not to vote for Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader. Would you vote for him?

COOPER: Well, first, I've got to get elected. Second, I've made no commitments to anyone. I'll make that decision when I get there.

RAJU: You could have been Kamala Harris' running mate.

COOPER: I was not.

(END VIDEOTAPE) RAJU: Next, our panel weighs in on Trump's new plans in North Carolina. And why is the vice president campaigning in the Red state of Kansas this week?

[08:37:17]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Voters are already mailing-in their ballots in North Carolina, one of the battleground states expected to determine the next Senate majority. So as President Trump heads to North Carolina this week, how will it turn?

Let's bring back my panel of experts.

John Bresnahan, these attacks on crime against Roy Cooper's record that we just saw in my piece in the last segment, we have seen these attacks in Democrats being on the defensive in cycle after cycle. Sometimes it works. In this case, they're going after Roy Cooper, a deal that he had cut during the COVID era to reduce the prison population.

Now, every crime that has been committed, they're essentially linking back, the Republicans are, to Roy Cooper. We're seeing these attack ads.

Do you think that those will work and could make this race a nail biter?

JOHN BRESNAHAN, PUNCHBOWL NEWS CO-FOUNDER: The guy you interviewed in the street talked about it. I mean, look, they run these ads because they're effective, right? You know, it gets to like a seminal issue.

But I think there's so much this year on the economy and, you know, affordability and prices, I think it's just hard. Is it enough to get through? I mean, you look at the national polls, crime is a big issue but it's wildly overwhelmed by the economy and stuff.

And I do think that, you know -- you know, we were talking after watching your piece, I mean, Whatley is not an exciting candidate. He's got this one issue.

I do think it's also interesting that when Trump is going down, he's going out for one night. It's a rally and he's going to Gastonia Airport, which is in Gaston County, which is like overwhelmingly Republican.

He's not -- it's you know, he's not on the ground there for a couple of days. So, you know, he's there, they're spending money. But are they really going in there? So it's limited.

CHUCK TODD, HOST, "THE CHUCK TODDCAST": Well, look, North Carolina is a -- is a -- is a swing state without swing areas. Like it's one of those, it's a turnout. So this --

RAJU: It's expensive, you know. TODD: This isn't the -- you know, if you're going to -- this is a

swing state that like, look, if I'm Jon Husted, I don't know if I'm bringing Trump into Ohio, but I actually understand Whatley bringing him into North Carolina because the way you win North Carolina is about -- is did you turn out your own base?

And, you know, I think one of the other hidden issues here is African- American turnout. It was through the roof in the South, particularly after the voting rights decision.

You saw a surge in African-American turnout in places like Alabama and Georgia. And in North Carolina, where Democrats outpoll Republicans in a lot of these primaries.

That's why I think Cooper is such a -- why it feels like he may only win by 4 or 5, but he feels almost like hard to -- hard to catch because African-American turnout, as long as it stays on the levels it was in the primary, it's probably how that tips the balance in North Carolina.

RAJU: And just look at Trumps approval rating in these battleground states. I mean, he is underwater pretty much everywhere. According to a "New York Times"/Siena polls and North Carolina, he's 14 points underwater there, 21 points in Maine. Susan Collins, of course, tries to -- runs away from Donald Trump here.

[08:44:47]

RAJU: But you know what's interesting? When I tried to pin down Whatley on the issue of Iran and tariffs, he sidestepped those questions. And you're seeing that, you know, we saw the Republican convention last week. There was not a whole lot of talk about Iran and tariffs. And perhaps those are the two biggest issues.

TODD: Well, the president brought them up.

TAMARA KEITH, NPR SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

TODD: He brought them up.

RAJU: The other candidates did not, though.

KEITH: Yes. No. Everybody else was pretty quiet on it at this Republican convention. You might think that everyone on stage was running against Abdul el-Sayed in Michigan based on their speeches. No one was talking about tariffs. No one was talking about the war in Iran except for one man who went on for an hour and 44 minutes, and a lot of it. I was shocked by how much he talked about the war and how much he talked about tariffs and defended his very unpopular policies.

These things are an albatross for Republican candidates.

RAJU: Yes.

KEITH: And, you know, at a time when people care about the cost of living and things being more expensive, the president sort of downplaying those concerns, it just --

TODD: Can I just say he is just created a nightmare for everybody that touches I-35, ok. You know, I-35 goes from the border of Mexico all the way to the border of Canada, right through the middle of the country.

He has hit him on tariffs, hit him on immigration, hit him on Canada stuff. It has just been -- and if you look at it, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota even, right. These are -- these are they Republicans may win most of those races, but they're all in trouble because of these policies, all up by I-35.

RAJU: I want to turn to what's happening in Kansas, of all places. This is where J.D. Vance is headed tomorrow for a campaign event.

And why Kansas? Look at the map here. Trump won Kansas overwhelmingly back in 2024 by 16 points there on the map.

But you know, you zoom out here, we look at 2022. Yes, the Senate Republican Jerry Moran won very easily in that race. But some of the ballot initiatives a little alarming for Republicans is that abortion initiative back in 2022 of the abortion rights effort won by 19 points. The governor in that race, Laura Kelly, won narrowly but still won here.

So JD Vance, in this case, the race against Roger Marshall, Adam Hamilton. Roger Marshall, the incumbent Republican senator. Are they really worried about Kansas?

BRESNAHAN: Yes, they are, because I -- we were talking about this before. There's -- the polling there is nonexistent in public polling. And the only poll that was out there showed Marshall up by five.

The Democrat, the Reverend Adam Hamilton, he's a good candidate. There was a debate last night, and Marshall actually got booed.

RAJU: Yes.

BRESNAHAN: So, I mean, he backed away from Trumps 5K dividend -- $5,000 dividend payment after he supported it.

So like -- and then, you know, they've got tariff issue. Bombardier has -- Trump is threatening to cut off sales for the Canadian airplane manufacturer. Well, they're a big employer in Kansas.

RAJU: Yes.

And then there's beef imports, another issue.

TODD: Yes.

BRESNAHAN: You're talking about this.

I mean look, everything -- Trump is killing these guys on these big issues that are the number one issues with the voters. He won't let go of Iran. He won't let go of tariffs. He won't let go of all this other stuff.

TODD: And there's been a slow change in Kansas. I've always said Kansas and Missouri have been switching places. Missouri gets redder. Kansas gets -- because of the Kansas city suburbs.

RAJU: Yes.

TODD: This is going to be a very close Senate race.

RAJU: Yes. No question about it.

All right. Before we go to break, we have an update on Republican congressman in Wisconsin, candidate for governor, Tom Tiffany, who is recovering after his plane was forced to make an emergency landing on a lake in Wisconsin.

In a social media post, Tiffany said the plane he was on lost power yesterday as it approached the airport. That's where the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in Lake Wausau.

As the plane began to sink, Tiffany and the pilot got out and swam to shallow water where they waited for rescuers.

Audio captures the dramatic moments as first responders rushed to their aid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two victims in the water. We're just pulling them out now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When feasible, make sure they're all accounted for out of that plane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: The FAA is expected to lead the investigation into what caused the emergency landing.

All right. Coming up for us, the Emmys. Well, they're tomorrow night. So what are TV's biggest stars going to do? Do they go after President Trump? Our report, next.

[08:49:08]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Tomorrow, the 78th annual Emmy Awards takes center stage in Los Angeles, and as politics have become deeply embedded in film and TV, will the biggest stars use the stage to take on President Trump, rail about immigration or even Gaza or any number of topics?

Joining me now is CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister. So Elizabeth, what will you be watching for this year?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Manu, Mariska Hargitay from "Law and Order" is hosting. So NBC clearly is not going for the politics that some comedians might bring as hosts.

But as we know, it's often the winners that get political at the podium.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNAH EINBINDER, ACTRESS: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) ICE and free Palestine. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER: That was Hannah Einbinder last year, not holding back. And of course, she's nominated again this year for "Hacks" final season. So expect at least one hot mic moment if she wins.

And of course, look to the Red Carpet as well. That's where stars make a statement with their looks. Einbinder's "Hacks" costar Meg Stalter, who's nominated for her first Emmy this year, wore an outfit to last year's show calling for a ceasefire in the Middle East.

[08:54:52]

WAGMEISTER: Javier Bardem made headlines not just for what he wore, but for a series of interviews he gave not about his nomination, but about Gaza on the Red Carpet.

Now, Bardem is not nominated this year, but Mark Ruffalo is. And we all know how outspoken he is, not just on Israel and Gaza, but he's also been leading Hollywood's charge to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, the latter being the parent company of CNN.

Now, Manu, it's not just the Emmys. In recent years, stars have increasingly utilized award shows for their activism. Everything from the MeToo Movement to protesting ICE to Trump. So we shall see.

But this is Hollywood, and anything can happen.

RAJU: Yes, indeed. Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much for that.

And to see how it all plays out tomorrow, tune in to "CNN AND VARIETY'S RED CARPET LIVE TV'S BIGGEST NIGHT", streaming live tomorrow with an all-access subscription.

And that's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY.

Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Jake's guests include House Speaker Mike Johnson, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego and National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.

[08:56:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)