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Inside Politics

Emergency Hearing on Trump's CNN, MS NOW, Politico Ban; Iranian President Defiant at U.N. After Trump Threatens Annihilation; GOP Lawmakers Call for Donald Trump Jr. To Be Subpoenaed; CNN Poll Finds Only a Quarter of Americans Are Satisfied With Leaders of Either Party. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 23, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: -- also arguments that are going to be made, just not about the First Amendment, but other constitutional protections like due process. All three news outlets are arguing extensively that they are being discriminated against in violation of the free press and the constitutional foundations there, that they are being retaliated against by this president because he doesn't like generally the negative stories that he says these outlets have reported, and also the outlets are saying they were not given due process that these passes, including Betsy's, were pulled very, very quickly on Saturday morning, abruptly, with no notice in advance.

This national security argument though, we'll see how that comes into play in the court. There is law on the books that has been in Washington, D.C.'s federal system for 50 years, saying that White House press passes just can't be revoked that abruptly because the White House decides so -- decides to pull them. There has to be some level of due process, some level of back-and-forth with news organizations. We'll see if the judge is going to rule today as well.

He ruled very quickly in 2018 on Jim Acosta's case. That was CNN correspondent the White House tried to block from accessing the White House. His pass was restored. Judge Kelly though, he's a Trump appointee, and there hasn't been another case on this since the first Trump administration about these sorts of White House passes and this sort of move that has been made. Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND CO-ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': All right, Katelyn. We've already seen Trump attacking the judge preemptively. We'll see how that factors into all this as well. Katelyn Polantz on the latest from here in Washington, thank you so much.

And up next for us, Big Sky Country has only gotten redder over the last decade but one independent Senate candidate thinks he can persuade Montanans to turn away from the GOP. Seth Bodnar joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:36:13]

RAJU: Two years ago, Montanans voted for President Trump by 20 points. But a new poll from the Montana Free Press shows a majority of Big Sky Country has soured on him. 53 percent of registered voters disapprove of Trump's job performance, 42 percent approve. My next guest, Independent Senate candidate, Seth Bodnar hopes that discontent will lead voters to reject the Republican running for the open seat. But there's a wrinkle, he's also running against a Democrat.

Mr. Bodnar, thank you so much for joining me.

SETH BODNAR, (I) MONTANA SENATE CANDIDATE: Thank you. It's great to be here.

RAJU: Absolutely. So let's start talking about just hot (ph) this race because there was this big pressure campaign for the Democratic candidate in this race, Alani Bankhead to drop out. She dug in. She's in this race night right now. How could you possibly win this race given that she's going to drain a lot of your support?

BODNAR: Well some, but you know, this race has never been about getting anybody to drop out, right? Was it easier if my Democratic opponent dropped out? Of course, it's easier if the Republican drops out too. But this is about giving options to the voters in Montana who feel that their political system is not accountable to them. And you're seeing us moving the polls. I mean both the Republican and I are in the 30s. I'm within striking distance, out polling the Democrat two-to-one.

Our momentum's building. The largest voting bloc right now in Montana is not Democrat. It's not Republican. It's Independent. And that big block of Independents and moderate Republicans, moderate Democrats, they deserve a voice and that's the coalition we are building.

RAJU: But you look at this -- look at -- dig a little bit deeper here on this Montana Free Press poll that's out there, because you're trailing the Republican, Kurt Alme, by eight points here in this poll. And the Democrat there, Bankhead, she's drawing 16 percent of that vote. So she clearly is taking away your support. She could torpedo your chances.

BODNAR: You know, but this is not about (ph) again.

RAJU: But just look at the numbers.

BODNAR: Oh I am. Oh I am. Look, we are behind, we are gaining momentum. Over the summer, we've gained seven points in the polls. Both the Republican and the Democrat have fallen. And you know, more importantly, when you look at voters that have heard the messages of our campaign, of the opposing campaigns, they're shifting our way.

And right now, in the final six weeks, this is about getting our message out to voters who are fed up with a broken system that's not serving their interests, Republicans, Democrats alike.

(CROSSTALK) RAJU: But if you could that you need those Democratic voters.

BODNAR: Oh, absolutely. We need those Democratic voters. We need Republican voters.

RAJU: How do you draw the line? Because you say you are not a Democrat, and -- but you need those Democratic voters.

BODNAR: Yeah.

RAJU: So, how do you threat that line?

BODNAR: By speaking to the issues that Montanans are facing, the challenges that Montanans are facing. Skyrocketing cost, diesel $6.30 a gallon right now, Montana farmers in crisis, rural communities in crisis. They're looking for people who are going to represent them and bring solutions.

They're not looking for party labels right now. They're looking for people who are going to be accountable to the people of the great state of Montana and nobody else. That's the coalition we're building.

RAJU: You know, you look at some of the polls that -- we just put out a poll, CNN did today about the level of support among leaders here in Washington, Democratic leaders in particular. Just about a quarter of Americans, that's it --

BODNAR: Right.

RAJU: -- are happy with Democratic leaders. I mean, they're barely above Republicans. They are also underwater, but specifically about the Democrats, what do you think they're doing wrong here in Washington?

BODNAR: They're not listening and they're not they're not answering the concerns of voters across the country. You see skyrocketing costs, housing, healthcare out of reach, no solution, power ping-pongs back and forth, nothing gets better. That's why nearly 50 percent of Americans, when asked their political affiliation, are now saying Independent.

The problem is they don't have people representing them and that's where the hunger is. That's where you've seen this movement.

RAJU: Yeah.

BODNAR: More and more Americans saying I want leaders who are accountable not to a party boss in D.C. but to the voters who sent them there in the first place. That's what we're off of (ph).

[12:40:00]

RAJU: You've not said which party you would caucus with. You said you'd listen to see who does the best for Montanans. But don't you think voters in your state deserve to know because, look, you could be, if you win, you pull off this upset, you could decide who the next majority is. So shouldn't your voters know who you would caucus with?

BODNAR: Well, I've said I'm not going to caucus with either party.

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: But you have to. You have to caucus. I mean, how are you going to get your committee? You've got to get your committee assignments. And that's through caucuses.

(CROSSTALK)

BODNAR: You know, the same way other Senators do. Negotiate for those assignments. You know, you don't have to caucus.

RAJU: But they negotiate with the leaders they're caucusing with.

BODNAR: Right. And every Senator has an important vote. And one vote in a closely divided Senate makes a huge difference right now. One vote is the difference between Pete Hegseth being approved as Secretary of Defense or not.

RAJU: So you would not -- you're saying you would do this rather unusual move of not caucusing with the either. Seems very impressive (ph). Covering Capitol Hill, you need this --

(CROSSTALK)

BODNAR: You think the system's working now?

RAJU: That's how you have to get your committee assignments. So you may have to sit on a committee, if you will.

BODNAR: Oh, you can go -- you can go to committee meetings. You can sit on --

RAJU: You can sit in the audience, perhaps, but you may not ask questions to the witnesses.

BODNAR: Yeah, you can. And you can have amendments. You know, there's real power for an Independent who says, you know what, folks, I'm going to work with either side when it makes sense for Montana, when it makes sense for the United States of America. And I'm going to stand up to either side when it doesn't.

Montanans are sick of straight party-line voting. Last year was the most partisan year in the history of the U.S. Congress. Look where it's getting us. What we're doing right now isn't working. That's why those approval ratings that you just saw are so low. Americans want something different.

RAJU: I want to ask you just a little bit about your race, because you attacked -- your campaign went after Alani Bankhead for, it seemed, suggesting she had pro-MAGA views. There was a discussion in one of the press releases your campaign put out in September citing a church she belongs to, to make that case that that church harbored anti-abortion and pro-MAGA views. What are you guys accusing her of exactly?

BODNAR: We just want voters to understand what their elected leaders actually believe. Not what they say. What do they believe? And I think it's important.

RAJU: Do you think she's a MAGA plant or something?

BODNAR: I don't, you know, I'm not saying what anyone else is. We're just saying, hey, look at what your elected representatives, or people seeking to represent you, actually believe. You know, what does -- what does Kurt Alme believe, my Republican opponent? You know, what does Alani Bankhead stand for? And I've been very clear about what my views are.

Montana voters deserve to know those things.

RAJU: Speaking of your views, there could be a vote this week in the Senate to check President Trump's war powers when it comes to Iran.

BODNAR: Yeah.

RAJU: If you were a Senator, would you vote to check the president's war powers?

BODNAR: Absolutely. It's shameful that we've seen Republican leaders in Congress abdicating their constitutional obligations. The founders made it very clear that Congress is supposed to have the power to declare war, to send America's sons and daughters to shed blood on foreign soil.

When Congress abdicates that responsibility, when they don't force the commander-in-chief to lay out why this is an imminent threat, what the strategy is, what the exit plan is, that's how you end up losing a war in Iran. The Senate needs to do its job. Republicans need to step up.

I'm glad to see some of them finally doing it. I wish they'd have done it six months ago.

RAJU: Yeah. All right, we're going to have to leave it there. So, Independent Senate candidate from Montana, Seth Bodnar, thank you so much for joining me. Really appreciate your time.

BODNAR: Thank you very much.

RAJU: Absolutely. All right, coming up, the U.S. is fighting Iran overseas while protecting Iran's president here at home. John Miller will explain why. That's next.

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[12:47:41]

RAJU: Yesterday at the United Nations, President Trump announced he's weighing a decision on Iran, make a deal or annihilate the Islamic Republic. Today, Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian stood on that same stage and said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translator): The United States president described us as terrorists. We have been the victims of terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: A few minutes into his address, the sole U.S. delegate in the room walked out. But while the Iranian president is in this country, the Secret Service actually must protect him. So I want to bring in CNN's Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst, John Miller.

So, John, is this the first world leader who spoke at the U.N. while at war with the U.S.?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT & INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: As far as my research goes, it is. This is the first sitting world leader of a country that was currently at war with the United States, who actually came to the United States and addressed the U.N. Saddam didn't do it during the war in Iraq. Not the first time. Not the second time. The Taliban wasn't recognized as the leaders of Afghanistan.

So this is a first in many ways. And I mean, it's ironic in that the president of Iran may well have been on a U.S. target list at some point to be taken out on Iranian soil. And yet, the U.S. Secret Service and the NYPD are sworn to make sure that no harm comes to him while he's here on the ground in New York City delivering his message.

RAJU: Wow. And John, while in town, what kind of freedom does the Iranian president have?

MILLER: So that's going to be very limited, Manu. Basically, the instructions from the State Department is that the Iranian delegation, whether it's the foreign minister, the president, or others, can travel from the U.N. to the Iranian permanent mission to the U.N., which is on the Upper East Side off Fifth Avenue, with no real stops in between unless they're approved.

So all of those things that world leaders and their teams love to do when they come to New York, which is to go to big-box stores, do all kinds of shopping, nightlife, and so on, is going to be pretty tightly controlled to zero in this case.

[12:50:00]

RAJU: All right, John Miller on the latest from New York, thank you so much.

And up next for us, why Donald Trump Jr.'s recent wedding is causing more Republicans to call for the Senate Judiciary Committee to subpoena him. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) RAJU: Republican Senator, John Curtis says he has not heard back from the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee about his request to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. over his recent wedding.

[12:55:00]

But the Utah GOP Senator did say he is not alone in expressing concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CURTIS, (R-UT): I do feel a little bit like it's my responsibility to say what others are thinking. And it's not just my colleagues, all right. It's, I think, the good folks back in Utah and around the country have questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, fellow Republicans Thom Tillis and John Cornyn also publicly joined Curtis' call for a probe. This was all sparked by that ProPublica report that a Russian oligarch helped fund parts of Donald Trump Jr.'s nuptials on a private island in the Bahamas. President Trump said his son and new wife will pay it back, or paid it back. A spokesperson for Don Jr. said Umar Kremlev is a friend and does not have any business with the Trump family.

Donald Trump Jr.'s wife, Bettina, posted on Instagram that Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us after our wedding. It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend.

My panel is back here and you wrote about this, perhaps not passing the sniff test as the headline says it, but you said, the younger Trump's P.R. strategy takes a page right out of President Donald Trump's playbook. If it's out in the open for all the world to see, it can't really be that shady. Also sometimes a wedding gift is so obviously corrupt that it has to be reimbursed but only revealed after it was -- but only after it was revealed to the public.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I mean clearly at some point, Donald Trump himself realized that this was not a good thing, that his son had accepted this fairly lavish, hundreds of thousands of dollars for this party.

You saw Bettina Trump come out early and just basically said, oh this is just a gift, why is anybody suggesting that it's nefarious? You know, I mean, you think about the national security implications of this, to have, you know, dozens or so Russians who were there. And they did spark, you know, intrigue among the wedding guests who were there.

And you had Eric Trump essentially say, oh, I don't know who these people are. So yeah, I mean, I think Republicans have to do something to look into it, and you have on the House side, Robert Garcia saying -- RAJU: But do they have to do something? Because the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, is not doing -- he said he's still -- he's not committed to an investigation. And the two Republicans who have spoken out, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, they ain't coming back, David.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR & WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: No, they're not. And they've been happy to speak out about a lot of things of late. So they -- and the Cornyn. I mean, I think Grassley said he's going to pursue this the way he would any other inquiry.

But no, they don't have to do anything. To your point about Donald Trump realizing it was a bad thing, the thing that caught my attention was the speed by which Donald Trump realized it was a bad thing. Like, it wasn't something he, like, spent weeks defending first.

It was pretty darn quick for Donald Trump to be like, well, I think it's been paid back.

RAJU: He thinks it's been paid back, but has it been paid back?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We have no indication there. This was the first time we even heard about them potentially paying something back. I mean, in Bettina's post, she essentially said, you know, this was a gift and we accepted it. Thank you to him. You know?

(LAUGH)

HOLMES: And then, you had Donald Trump saying, but they're going to -- they paid it back already. So we had not heard anything like that. And again, even, you know, Don's spokesperson who gave that comment did not say anything about actually reimbursing. But that might be something they're looking at now.

RAJU: And his new wife, Donald Trump Jr.'s new wife, Bettina, said after it was -- she said it was a gift. She said it was a gift, a wedding gift. So do you pay back a wedding gift? Is a loan a wedding gift?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON SUN: I don't know. I mean, I've never gotten a gift, anything like that.

(LAUGH)

RAJU: No one's paid for one of your weddings in a lavish island?

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: That's right. But I will say, look, we started this show talking about all these Republicans who are just, you know, distancing from the president, getting away from him. That's not happening in this case, right? This is a huge, huge story that is locked in. Everybody knows about this story.

Everyone's talking about it. And in the exception of these two Senators that you're talking about who are on their way out, already been defeated by Trump, essentially. We are not seeing Republicans kind of standing up and talking about this. That's a huge risk.

If this does kind of break containment and become a problem for this president, corruption is a big, big topic with this White House. And unless they can sort of keep their Republicans around them on this, they could really, really have a problem down the road.

RAJU: Yeah. I mean, John Curtis, the one, of course, who is not on his way out the door, but he's not up for re-election this cycle. What does he do in the next cycle? It's interesting. He decided to stick his neck out now. Will any other Republicans join him? That's a big question.

Thanks, guys, for joining me. Thank you for joining "Insight Politics." "CNN News Central" starts right now.

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