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CNN, MS NOW, Politico Allowed Back Into White House After Judge Orders Administration To Reinstate Press Badges; New NYT Polls: No Clear Leader In Michigan, New Hampshire, Maine; Peltola Campaign Denies Abuse Pattern Alleged In NYT Report, Acknowledges Her Struggles With Grief; Mortgage Rates Top 7 Percent For First Time Since January 2025; Wisconsin Democrats Trying To Win In Majority Rural District. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 24, 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]

ADAM WREN, CO-AUTHOR, POLITICO PLAYBOOK: -- ability is a pressing issue for many Americans. They say it's a disconnect and that it hobbles his efforts for Republicans across the map.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Tia, let's just listen for a minute to what the President is saying in the vein of politics about Democrats and communism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Communism is very easy to sell. It destroys everything.

Communism is the enemy of free people everywhere.

Communism is a loser and it always will be.

With communism, everything turns to (INAUDIBLE).

Communism is the greatest threat to our country in history.

We will never surrender our constitution and we will never allow our country to even think about being a communist or even a socialist country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Tia, I want to bring you in, but I just want to report a little news by way of our colleague, Brian Stelter, that Politico is now on the White House campus as well. So it is obviously CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, all three are there. Tia?

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes, that's good to hear. And back to your question about how Trump is approaching President Xi with also the criticism from Republicans we've seen throughout the midterms of the rise of democratic socialists, which they often equate to communism. And I think the most telling example is how quiet many national Democrats have been this week.

I think the reason why they've been quiet is they've said, you know what? We're going to sit back. We're going to let this happen. We know that Trump is ready to, you know, be chummy with President Xi all week. And he's just giving us a gift that in the future, when he tries to attack Democrats and say they're communists, say they're socialists, they're going to just roll the footage from this week and say, so which one is it, President Trump?

And I think that's what Republicans know. That's what they fear is going to happen, that, you know, Trump will be, quote, you know, "too soft" towards President Xi, too accommodating, and that it's going to really step on their message that they've been using to attack Democratic candidates across the nation.

BASH: OK, everybody, stand by. We do have some more breaking news on our top story. The Justice Department just filed their response, which was due two minutes ago. We're going to tell you what that said when we come back, and also talk a little midterm politics. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:37:14]

BASH: More breaking news now. The Justice Department just filed a response to a request from CNN, MS NOW and Politico for an emergency hearing in the fight over White House access.

I want to get straight to Evan Perez. What is the DOJ saying in this filing, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, then, have they complied with that 12:30 order from the judge to respond to this? And this is a declaration that they filed in court from Micah Stopperich, who is the head of White House Operations Office. She says that they were notified at 7:10 this morning.

Remember, the judge ruled overnight around 1:00 a.m., was notified this morning that they needed to restore access to the reporters who were affected and who had sued as part of this lawsuit. And they laid out a timeline of when these badges, this press badges, were supposed to be reactivated.

They say that by 9:55 a.m., the booth at the gate there, the Secret Service had possession of these badges and had restored access to the reporters. Of course, we know that that is not true because Betsy --

BASH: That's true.

PEREZ: -- Betsy Klein was there after 11:00 a.m. She had tried 6:00 a.m., she had tried a couple of other times this morning, and then at 11:00 a.m., she was still being denied access. We just foresaw that she was finally allowed in during earlier this hour. And so what this tells us, though, is that at least for the next 14 days, Dana, this temporary restraining order from this judge is in force. The White House appears to be complying with this part of the order, which is that to restore access to the reporters. Of course, you guys have been talking all hour, this hour, about whether CNN will be able to do the -- fulfill its part of the duty today as the press pool for the events with the Chinese premier who's visiting Xi Jinping later today.

We'll see whether that part -- that is still being complied with. But for now, at least, we know that the White House is now saying that everything has been restored and everyone has the access that they were supposed to have.

BASH: Evan, can I just go back to what you just reported on the content of this administration filing with that judge, that they said in a court filing that the badges taken away would be back in place and ready to use at 9:30 a.m.?

PEREZ: The filing says the White House --

BASH: Because that didn't happen.

PEREZ: Right, it did not happen.

BASH: Like you said.

PEREZ: Yes. This is a sworn declaration from the head of White House operations, and they say that the press team dropped the badges off at the entry gate at 9:55 a.m. and that the Secret Service said everybody had access at that hour.

And again, as we pointed out, Betsy Klein and MS NOW reporters went there and they were still being denied. So that --

BASH: Yes.

PEREZ: -- did not happen for another hour after the White House claims that they were already being provided access.

[12:40:08]

BASH: All right, Evan, thank you so much for giving us that important reporting.

Coming up, three states, three crucial Senate races, and not one clear leader. You're going to see brand new polling giving both parties plenty to worry about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: The battle for Senate control will hinge on a handful of states, and brand new polling from The New York Times shows three battlegrounds are virtually even. In Maine, there's no clear leader in the race between incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins and her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson. In Michigan, an open seat Democrats need to defend.

Democrats Abdul El-Sayed -- excuse me, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers are also within the margin of error. And in New Hampshire, another Democratic held open seat. The poll shows Chris Pappas has an edge over Republican John Sununu, but it is, again, within the margin of error.

I want to go back to our great reporters. Tia, just to kind of put this back up here, these are three of the most competitive races, obviously, and that is clear with the -- no clear leader. But the fact that Democrats are trying so hard in so many races to flip Republican seats, and yet, as you see, Michigan open Democratic seat, New Hampshire open Democratic seat. They're also playing defense.

MITCHELL: Yes, there is a level of defense. You know, I think that it goes to show you that in these battleground states, it is going to be close. You know, I think both parties think they'll be able to run away with it, and that is just not how things happen in this political climate.

There are Democrats who are going to vote for the Democratic candidate no matter what. There are Republicans who are going to vote for the Republican candidate no matter what.

[12:45:06]

And the question is, how many people are persuadable in the middle? And no matter what, it's going to be close, which is why there's so much money being thrown at these races. That's why people are paying such close attention to the President's approval ratings and other things like that that could affect independent and swing voters.

BASH: And Alayna, I want to show two of the sort of polls within the poll in Maine. Let's just focus on Maine because that is a must win for Democrats if they do want to take over the Senate, which they do. The first one is the question, who would be the more effective U.S. senator? And in this poll, Susan Collins, the longtime incumbent, has 54, Troy Jackson, the Democrat, has 43.

So a comfortable lead for those who are asking that question and thinking this is where my vote is going to depend. But then there's another bigger picture question that was asked, which is, what do you prefer in the U.S. Senate outcome? 55 percent say Democratic control, only 43 percent say Republican control.

And it seems that this is the rub in a place like Maine, whether or not voters are going to go and say, you know, Susan Collins has been effective for us. She will probably be effective for Maine again if she wins another six years. But I don't know, because I really want to have a Democratic controlled Senate. And it's which way are these voters going to go, what is going to be their top priority.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And I mean, of course, Maine is such an interesting state and particularly for the Senate seat. I mean, Susan Collins is not a typical Republican, certainly not a typical Republican in the second Trump administration, where most of them have shown time and time again that they will be loyal to the President.

Susan Collins is one of the few Republicans who is willing to frequently not just at times, but frequently buck President Donald Trump. So I do think that's part of why these poll numbers are a bit different. And one anecdote I just want to share with you, though, Dana, I was actually talking to a Republican strategist the other day about the state of the map, and they brought up how Democrats are obviously very eager.

They want to flip Maine, but they also are looking at Texas. And this Republican actually said, you know, there could be a scenario where they flip Texas and not Maine. And the fact, I mean, to hear that from a Republican, I mean, to think of Texas flipping, you know, blue --

BASH: Yes.

TREENE: -- in a Senate race over a state like Maine to me was just remarkable and I think lays out kind of where things are across the map. But this is a huge problem, I think, in many of these more purple states, particularly when it comes to the Senate, the struggle there over, you know, a lot of people who aren't necessarily happy with President Donald Trump, even if they were Republicans had voted him for the past. It really depends, I think, on the specific candidate.

BASH: Yes. I mean, Texas, Kansas is competitive.

TREENE: Yes.

BASH: It's just -- it's a very interesting time. And on that note, Adam, in the political playbook, which you write, you have the following quote, "The mood is very bad right now, a GOP operative working on multiple races and granted anonymity to assess the state of play candidly told Playbook. The polling is dropping like a rock. The map is expanding and the knives are out among consultants.

There is a world where we win everything if folks can turn it around. And there is a world where this midterm is a historical blowout. People are very on edge."

That's quite a quote, Adam. And I will just add another data point to that, which is a conservative talk show host Steve Deese is -- was out there talking about some Iowa numbers that he said publicly. Iowa House Republicans were informed by the pollsters that if you're in a plus 15 district, that means you're with in the margin of error right now. That's how underwater the President and Republicans are.

WREN: Yes, it's a bleak and bleakening environment, Dana, and we're seeing this all across the map in unexpected places. Alayna mentioned Texas. You know, one of the things that's happening that's fascinating is Talarico there as a Democrat is pulling away so much Republican money from some of these other states like Iowa, which is a less expensive state to advertise in.

And so what he's doing in some ways is sort of helping Democrats in the middle of the country kind of gain headway in places like Kansas with Adam Hamilton, the Democratic Senate candidate there. So the dynamics here are fascinating to watch.

BASH: Yes.

WREN: I talked with a Democratic pollster who really is kind of eying 1994 as an analog, except instead of a Republican wave, a Democratic wave, a blue revolution, if you will.

BASH: Yes.

WREN: And it's lifting candidates across the map.

[12:50:00]

BASH: And real quick, Tia, I do want to get, there's a New York Times report about a Senate race, Alaska, that Democrats are really banking on. Mary Peltola, the candidate, is described as angry and profane with outbursts, sometimes directing at aides, sometimes others, and has a lot more color.

The Peltola team responded that she denied any pattern of abusive behavior. The campaign acknowledged that she sometimes struggled to deal with the grief of losing her mother and her husband over a few months in 2023. Tia?

MITCHELL: Yes, I mean, and this is similar to some of the reporting we've seen, for example, about John Fetterman and quite frankly, other members of Congress. We have to remember that they run each office as kind of independent small businesses. So there aren't a lot of checks and balances. There is no H.R. for their staff to complain to.

And quite frankly, Dana, these types of stories come so often because we who are in the sphere and talk to staffers know that member by member, there are a lot of quirks and personalities and some members are perceived as easier to work for than others. The question will be for this case, does that affect, you know --

BASH: Right.

MITCHELL: -- the Senate race? Does this turn off voters who feel that perhaps some of the points about her demeanor, which of course her staff chalks up to grief and having a lot of losses, but they say, is this the type of character that we want representing us, the Senate? But I will say there are plenty of staffers who read that article, Dana, and said, oh, that's nothing.

BASH: Fantastic.

Tia, Adam, Alayna, thank you so much. But don't go anywhere because for Democrats, winning back the House majority might require them to do -- will require them, frankly, to do better in farm country. I'm going to talk to a Wisconsin Democrat candidate Rebecca Cooke on how she plans to win back a majority rural district. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: If Democrats are going to win back a majority in the House, it's going to be through districts like Wisconsin's third. It's a majority rural district that President Trump won by nearly 8 percentage points in 2024 after narrowly winning it in 2016 and 2020. It was represented by a Democrat for many years until Derrick Van Orden, a Republican, won there in 2022.

My next guest, Rebecca Cooke, thinks she can beat him in November. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.

Just a little bit of news. We learned that mortgage rates topped 7 percent for the first time since January of 2025. Many younger Americans don't think it's likely they're going to own a home anytime soon, maybe ever. If you get to Congress, what will you do to change that?

REBECCA COOKE (D), WISCONSIN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Well, thank you so much for having me, Dana. You know, I spent yesterday and I spent a number of days talking with students. We have 68 campuses and universities across the third congressional district. And that's something that I'm hearing from a lot of young people.

[12:55:12]

They're concerned about being able to get out of college and find a good paying job and pursue their version of the American Dream, which for a lot of them looks like buying a home or that big truck. And I think that it's important that we have tax credits for first-time homebuyers.

There's a lot of concern, I think, for young people about what jobs look like after graduation. I'm interested in raising the federal minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. I'm a waitress while I'm running for Congress, and we have a tip minimum wage here in Wisconsin of $2.33 an hour. And so, those are just some of the things that I think that we can do to make things a little bit better, so.

BASH: I mean, the Congress passed a bill, One Big Beautiful Bill, which had a lot of things in it that Democrats didn't like, but it included no tax on tips as a waitress. Would you support that individually?

COOKE: Individually, I would. Yes, I think that, you know, there's -- I'm running as a middle-of-the-road Democrat, and I think we've got to work across the aisle to actually get things done. And that's the sort of piece of legislation that I would actually support from this administration and from this Congress.

BASH: OK, your district shifted even more towards Donald Trump in 2024 than it had in the prior two presidential runs. What makes you think you can win?

COOKE: Last cycle in 2024, I was a nominee, and I outperformed every Democrat on the ticket. I outperformed Harris by 9,000 votes. I outperformed our senator, Tammy Baldwin, by 5,000 votes. And we almost slipped the seat from red to blue, and that was in what was considered a red-wave year. And we came that close because we really worked to show up in rural communities and working-class spaces that I feel like the Democratic Party has left behind. And we're really talking about the issues that were keeping people up at night, and I've doubled down on that.

You know, we're up by four points in this race currently, and it's because I think we're out there talking to people about their greatest concerns. And a lot of that leads back to the failure of this administration and the failure of Derrick Van Orden, who has been Donald Trump's lackey, has voted lockstep with all sorts of policies that have really harmed, in particular, our rural communities.

You look at this war in Iran, which has increased diesel prices and fertilizer prices, a war that no one voted for. I was just talking to a farmer today who's frustrated by that. A lot of people that voted for Trump and voted for Van Orden voted for an America First agenda, and what we're seeing is the opposite. We've seen reciprocal tariffs really decimate our soybean producers and cranberry producers in this state.

And then the failure to expand the ACA tax credit premium. I've been talking to folks, you know, when I was growing up, we didn't have health insurance unless my mom had a good job in town. So when the ACA passed, a lot of folks opted for that, for marketplace insurance. And people have seen their premiums go up from $400 to $1,800 a month.

BASH: Yes.

COOKE: And some folks are canceling their insurance together. And so, people are really struggling and feeling the squeeze in a big way, and I think are looking for something different than politics as usual.

BASH: So you mentioned that you're going into rural areas, which is critical to winning, given the fact that it's a majority rural district that you want to represent. When you go in there, what do you offer them aside from saying, what is going on with Republican rule is bad?

COOKE: Trust, I think is the thing that I offer most because of my shared lived experience. I grew up on a dairy farm in this district. I grew up showing cows in 4-H, but when I was in high school, we had to sell our cows because of the low price of milk and competition with larger dairies, which was tough.

And our family has had a farm in this district for 150 years. So being able to communicate and talk with people and speak that rural language, I think is what a lot of our party is missing. And I think a lot of people just feel left behind. And, you know, I think we've got to work to pass a farm bill that works to support small, midsize ag.

BASH: Yes.

COOKE: I think we've got to work to protect our farm from being bought up by foreign nationals or taken over by big data centers.

BASH: I have about a minute left, and I do want to ask about data centers, because you are repeatedly pointing out that Derrick Van Orden supported tax breaks as part of that One Big Beautiful Bill that benefits data centers. He said that what you have done is you support or you work for the Wisconsin Technology Council and the Third Way. Both organizations have also advocated for data centers.

Quickly, what would you do in Congress on data centers if you win?

COOKE: So that's fundamentally untrue. I called for a data center moratorium. I put that in paid advertising. You know, I think that we've got to have more time to understand the threat to rate payers and our utility rates, making sure that we're looking at environmental protections. And having a federal data center moratorium offers that.

We need more trust in our local and federal elected officials, transparency in the process and time to really understand the impact that data centers are going to have on our communities. Derrick Van Orden, meanwhile, voted, like you said, for, you know, an $80 billion tax break for these companies that taken the maximum contribution from Elon Musk --

BASH: OK.

COOKE: -- SpaceX. He's the opposite. He's being bought and paid for by big tech.

BASH: Rebecca Cooke, we are out of time in this program. Thank you so much for being here. We have asked Congressman Derrick Van Orden to join us, too. He's welcome anytime.

Thanks for joining Inside Politics on this very newsworthy day. CNN NC starts right now.