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Inside Politics
El-Sayed, Rogers Are Deadlocked In Crucial Michigan Senate Race; Polls: No Clear Leader In Michigan Senate Race; Trump To Return To SC Thursday To Boost Darline Graham; GOP Rep. Ralph Norman Bashes Trump And Graham; Obama's "Cheesecake Factory" Dig Roils White House; Locals Priced Out As Affordability Shapes NC House Battleground. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired October 27, 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:]
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- math here. He needs to run it up. Kamala Harris could not get the support here because of anger at the Biden-Harris administration over what these voters believed was too much of a green light to Israel in Gaza after October 7th.
So this year it's all about coalition building. Abdul El-Sayed thinks he'll get bigger turnout here, but, but we know from our All Over the Map voter conversations, he's also going to lose a lot of votes that would normally go to Democrats. We've spoken to a number of Jewish voters here who have never voted Republican before, who say they simply cannot vote for Abdul El-Sayed.
There are other Democrats who are frustrated by that, who say they understand the pain of the Jewish community. They wish those voters would look at it differently. Here's just a little bit of the sample of the emotions here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAUREN SLUTSKY, MICHIGAN VOTER: I'm a lifelong Democrat. I've never voted Republican a day in my life, but I feel so strongly about El- Sayed not winning because I don't believe that he supports the Jewish community and the safety of the Jewish community that I actually -- I'm happy to place my vote for Rogers as much. Like I said again, I've never voted Republican ever, but that's how much I don't want him to be elected.
JADE GRAY, MICHIGAN VOTER: Well, I mean, midterm elections are supposed to be your response to the presidential administration. Maybe not supposed to be, but that often ends up being how they work, right? So, you know, if you're happy with the pointless war in Iran, high gas prices, high grocery prices, people being murdered in the streets, ICE going unchecked, and a completely incompetent conman convicted felon in the office, then maybe you should vote for MAGA Mike Rogers, who's committed to doing his bidding and who is going to work on behalf of his corporate donors and not Michiganders. I am going to approach this race voting for progress, voting for
change, voting for Abdul El-Sayed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: And so Dana, you hear the emotion and the frustration there. Again, lifelong Jewish Democrats saying, I'm sorry, but I just can't do it. I don't like Donald Trump. I hope the Democrats win the Senate, but I'm going to vote Republican for Senate here, even though this state could be absolutely critical to that Senate math.
And then the frustration of a young progressive who says this is a chance. Remember, this is not just about, you know, coalition building. This is about the message of the election. Imagine if Abdul El-Sayed could win. Medicare for All is a signature issue in a purple 50-50 presidential bellwether state. That would give Democrats that issue, health care broadly, Medicare for All specifically, a big boost heading into what we talk about after the election. But we'll see.
This one's going to go down to the wire. Everybody knows it, as you know, as well as anybody. The Democrats need to hold this seat. They need plus four. If they lose this one, then they need to win five somewhere else. And we could go across the map.
Can they do that? Yes. Is it difficult? Extremely.
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: I will say that Jade probably has a future in politics if she wants one. That was a remarkable conversation that you had. What else are you seeing on the map there in Michigan?
KING: So you just look at Michigan. Again, if you look at Michigan, you see all that red, right? That's Donald Trump. That's a decade of Trump. It's also Republicans have long had an advantage in rural America. Trump just put it on steroids. But remember, gas prices here are high as well.
Another issue is, can you do coalition building? One of the issues I'm showing you, Wayne County, that's Detroit. This is the Democratic base. It's the biggest county in the state.
Abdul El-Sayed, remember, did not. He won the primary. Haley Stevens, the Democratic congresswoman, had deep support in the black community. So one of the issues for El-Sayed is turning up voters there. We're going to go to a phone bank in a little bit. It's a UAW auto phone bank. That's one of the challenges there.
So, again, it's a 50-50 state, a battleground state that Trump has won twice. There are also a couple of competitive house races here and a big governor's race here as well. Middle America, places where Donald Trump has run strong, Dana, incredibly important in the midterms. That in and of itself tells you that Republicans are on defense. But one week from tonight, we count the votes. And this one is expected to be among the closest.
BASH: All right. Looks like a pretty day there.
Thanks so much, John. See you tomorrow.
And up next, Barack Obama dished out cheesecake. The White House clearly has a beef.
Up next, the food fight putting an American institution on the campaign trail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:38:36]
BASH: President Trump is returning to South Carolina on Thursday for the second time this month to boost Republican Senator Darline Graham. And when he gets there, he'll find a party divided over the nominee that he personally chose himself.
CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju is in beautiful Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. OK, Manu, you win. But let's talk about the substance of what you're reporting there --
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Parts of returning, Dana.
BASH: Yes, I know. Tough assignment. You are hearing about lingering GOP divisions in South Carolina over their candidate.
RAJU: Yes, and that's one big reason why the race is so tight, because the Republican voters have not yet come home for Senator Darline Graham. Another big reason why Donald Trump is coming here for a second time in consecutive weeks, just days away from the midterm election in a state that he's won three times overwhelmingly.
One is a data point to show you about why there's Republican divisions. Listen to what Congressman Ralph Norman told me this morning. He, of course, he ran against Darline Graham in the Republican primary, but he's very much concerned about her.
He says she's simply not a, quote, "true conservative in this race." I asked him why this race is so close. He criticized both Annie Andrews and Darline Graham. He said the voters have not settled on a candidate that has been propped up by special interest groups and a Republican president spending millions of dollars, spreading false narratives about why Darline Graham is qualified to be elected for the next -- as the next U.S. senator for the next six years.
[12:40:10]
He said this election is about attempts to force a candidate on the voters of South Carolina. And regardless of the outcome, it didn't have to be this way, as the great people living in South Carolina deserve better. And his son, Dana, Warren Norman, actually wrote an op-ed just a few days ago saying he would not vote for Darline Graham.
I asked Norman about that. He said he's going to vote for the Republican ticket. But he also agreed with the criticism in that op- ed, where he said that Graham was not a, quote, "true conservative in this race," a big reason why Graham is appearing with Donald Trump and with top Republican surrogates across the country, trying to convince them she is a true conservative. And warn them if the Democrat Annie Andrews wins, the chances of a Democratic-led Senate increase significantly. Dana?
BASH: Yikes. Thank you so much for that reporting. I appreciate it, Manu. See you soon.
And back here at the table, just real quick. Phil, what does that tell you, especially given the reality that South Carolina is still South Carolina and its DNA is still very red?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: There's history. There's obviously bitterness in the wake of the race. But it was the double exclamation points in that text message that made me say, damn, you know?
BASH: Right.
MATTINGLY: No, look, the fact that that exists, that the fighting is real, that money going in there is real, that Trump has to be down there is real, underscores that in a really tough environment, where a lot of races are coming online that Republicans didn't want to have to fight over or didn't want to have to deal with, certainly didn't want to spend in, this just makes life harder for SLF. It makes life harder for John Thune. Like, it makes life harder for MAGA Inc.
BASH: Yes. OK, let's talk about what's really at stake here --
MATTINGLY: Yes.
BASH: -- and that is the future of the Cheesecake Factory.
MATTINGLY: It's great, by the way. I'm just going to -- I'll throw it at you.
BASH: I know. Wait, yes, I know. You're going to get to talk about that in a second. But in all seriousness, President Obama started this by saying that the White House looks like Saddam Hussein's palace and the Cheesecake Factory. And then the President has responded. We'll show you what has happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, 44TH U.S. PRESIDENT: He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened the Cheesecake Factory.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Mr. Secretary. Some interesting lunch choice today. What did you order for the Cheesecake Factory?
SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Well, all right, what I always had, the French dip cheeseburger. I would tell the Martha's Vineyard set to give it a try.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He said, this isn't a Cheesecake Factory. Can you believe it? Which is a very successful company. It's not money, it's peanuts. He spends all his time thinking about the ballroom. That has to be pristine.
And I would try and explain that to a guy like Obama, but he wouldn't understand. Nobody loved it like I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Jamie?
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes?
BASH: I know -- the Scott Bessent move was one to remember.
GANGEL: Yes. So, you know, Scott Bessent calling Barack Obama elite. I believe that Scott Bessent is, according to his financial disclosures, worth somewhere between $500 million and $600 million. He eats most often, according to my reporting, at a very nice restaurant in Georgetown called Cafe Milano. If you don't know it, look it up.
So -- and there was that camera, Fox camera, just waiting outside to catch him. I'll leave the rest to Phil.
MATTINGLY: And of course Sabrina.
SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, POLITICS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I would just add, I mean, this episode does remind me a little bit of in 2024, when like Trump got on the garbage truck to try and take a dig at Biden and when he went to McDonald's to try and take a dig at Kamala Harris. But we're in a very different time right now than we were in 2024 and that lead up to that election.
And right now, I think this is the trying to divert the attention. But -- and as we were talking off camera, you know, this is like the moment before the election. This is what we're talking about, or this is what the President wants to draw attention to. I think just speaks to the moment we're in. And it's not the same as in 2024, when sort of the wind was at his back.
BASH: I know you're pro-cheesecake factory. I'm the same.
MATTINGLY: Stop it. Stop it. This is my safe space, my nirvana, my utopia. Leave it alone. I don't want any of you talking about it. Leave it alone. You're ruining it.
The only thing I care about other than my children and wife.
BASH: At the cheesecake factory.
MATTINGLY: Well, I take that. Yes. Of course.
BASH: Yes.
All right, up next, priced out. Phil Mattingly, who is very passionate about his restaurants, went to North Carolina to talk to Americans who did everything right, but are barely getting by in today's economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: You don't feel like anybody's listening when --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're not listening. Right now, it's not a good time to ask me to vote for anybody. My light's off. Can you help me get them on?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:49:17]
BASH: In North Carolina's newly redrawn first district, tourists are checking in while locals are getting priced out. Phil Mattingly traveled from the Outer Banks to Rocky Mount to talk with Americans who have worked hard and played by the rules and are still struggling to get by.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY (voice-over): For a dozen years, the Outer Banks was the promise kept for Stu Laird, driving wild horse tours across the northern Outer Banks.
STU LAIRD, OUTER BANKS RESIDENT: When I first moved down here, I was pretty happy with my life.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): He says he made $50,000. When the house he'd rented for eight years went back on the vacation market, the money wasn't the problem.
LAIRD: Now it's back to a weekly rental. Homeowners can make a lot more profit --
MATTINGLY: Yes.
LAIRD: -- renting to vacationers.
[12:50:03]
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Stu moved into employer housing, beds his employers needed back every spring for seasonal hires.
MATTINGLY: At what point did you realize you were going to be living in your car for a period of time?
LAIRD: When I moved out of the second employee housing, there was nowhere to go.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): So he lived in his truck, moving from parking lot to parking lot. Then in January, it snowed.
LAIRD: My battery had died in my truck. I couldn't start it and run the engine. And after a couple of days of that, my feet felt pretty brittle.
MATTINGLY: How much pain were you in?
LAIRD: I'd say on one to 10 scale, I was probably at nine.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Frostbite, three hospital stays, a fall and a broken hip. Now he's 65 and assisted living an hour and a half from the beach, waiting on his Social Security.
LAIRD: When I was living in my truck, that was a pretty dark time.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): So how does a place built on hospitality run out of room for the people who provide it? Nearly half the homes in Dare County are vacation homes. This June, short-term rentals here averaged about $617 a night. At the same time, the wage it takes to rent a modest two-bedroom has jumped from $22 an hour to $27.50 in just three years.
MATTINGLY: And that's forced employers here to come up with their own solutions, solutions like buying homes just to house their labor force in order to have a labor force.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The break came with COVID.
CHRIS MARIK, OUTER BANKS BUSINESS OWNER: We saw real estate doubling, tripling.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Chris Marik runs Ocean Atlantic Rentals.
MARIK: The housing stuff came out of necessity and we would not be in business today.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): For Matt Khouri, the biggest worry used to be inventory.
MATT KHOURI, OUTER BANKS BUSINESS OWNER: I used to have shrimp dreams. Now it's more so about the people and I need to find a way to get housing for these people.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Chris spent his first summer here living in a garage. Three decades later, he has a business, a home and three daughters.
MARIK: My kids will probably never live here. I mean, where are they going to buy? What are they going to do? Live in my downstairs? Yes, I mean, it's heartbreaking.
MATTINGLY: So we're driving on US-64. We're driving west about 150 miles. This one highway connects two very different economies in the same newly redrawn congressional district. It's a toss-up district at this point, but it's those two economies that really underpin the scale of the affordability crisis across the country.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): One highway connects two communities, redrawn into a single house district. But tourism money flowing into one end hardly reaches the other. Tobacco fields and textile factories once supported a thriving local economy here in Rocky Mount. The industries hollowed out, just like its population. And those left behind are still absorbing the financial aftershocks.
MATTINGLY: I'm Phil.
SHEILA SCARBOROUGH, ROCKY MOUNT RESIDENT: I'm Sheila.
MATTINGLY: Very nice to meet you.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Sheila Scarborough is a retired veteran, living on the V.A. disability and Social Security she earned. She moved home from D.C.
SCARBOROUGH: I wanted the good old days my grandmother had. That's why I moved back here, because D.C. was getting too expensive.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Rocky Mount's shaky finances fueled a crisis at its municipal power company. In April, the city raised utility rates about 15 percent.
SCARBOROUGH: It's not supposed to be hard. This is not what I worked all those years for.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): In June, she went to the utility office to set up a payment plan on her past-due bill.
SCARBOROUGH: She tells me, if you don't have $1,100 right now, I'm going to cut you off Monday.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): $1,100 is more than a week's pay for the average private sector worker in Edgecombe County. And she needs insulin, which has to stay cold. Yet her power was off for nearly two months this summer.
SCARBOROUGH: I slept in my car. Either I can cut my air conditioning on in my car if I'm hot. Might have to spend more on gas, but that's how I survive.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Before she retired, Sheila's job was helping homeless veterans get the benefits they'd earned. Now she was the one sleeping in her car.
SCARBOROUGH: It can happen to anybody.
MATTINGLY: Yes.
SCARBOROUGH: Nobody's safe out here.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Help finally came from a veteran's charity donor. Sheila kept her home. Many of her neighbors are not so lucky.
Edgecombe County has the highest rate of eviction filings among renters in North Carolina. Two people, opposite ends of one congressional district. He needs first month's rent and a deposit. She needed $1,100 just to keep the lights on.
MATTINGLY: Both worked hard. Both did all the right things. Both ended up in the same place. One priced out. One was pushed out. This is the affordability crisis.
[12:55:01]
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Stu knows exactly where he's going when his benefits come.
LAIRD: Finding a room along the beach somewhere between Kitty Hawk and Nags Head.
I made a pact with myself when I moved down here that I would go to the beach every day. And I did that up until this past winter. I miss the beach.
MATTINGLY: You don't feel like anybody's listening when --
SCARBOROUGH: They're not listening. Right now is not a good time to ask me to vote for anybody. My light's off. Can you help me get them on? So until you help me get my lights on, don't ask me about voting for nobody.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Wow. Phil, I mean, the entire piece is just so powerful and so incredibly sad. And the fact that they opened up to you and told you the reality, which unfortunately is the reality for so many people right now. But that last remark --
MATTINGLY: Yes.
BASH: -- I don't want to hear it from anybody in politics until you can do the most basic thing. It's the most basic that voters, so many of them, need and want.
MATTINGLY: And it's the most basic that they want. That's all they want. They don't want handouts. They want the most basic things for survival, essentially, at this point in time.
And I think what she said was something that I heard often over the course of six months of reporting this out. They hate everybody, with good reason. It's an incumbency thing. It's anybody who's a political official.
And so while I think, obviously, the polling looks like it's heading towards Democrats, the economic cost of living are certainly an issue. People are just mad right now.
And over and over again, you understand why. And they want big changes. Who will deliver those? I think that's going to be a question that goes far beyond what happens a week from today.
BASH: And just the highway and the new district that literally splits the haves and the have-nots --
MATTINGLY: Right.
BASH: -- it's really powerful. Thank you so much for bringing it to us.
Thank you for joining Inside Politics today. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
