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State of the Union

Interview With Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY); Interview With Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Interview With Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN); Interview With Fmr. Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX); Interview With U.S. Special Envoy For Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired July 20, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Epstein explosion. President Trump tries to tamp down fierce blowback from his base.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's all been a big hoax, and then foolish Republicans fall into the net.

TAPPER: But can he contain the crisis?

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): I don't think we should ever stop asking what the heck went on.

TAPPER: Judiciary Committee Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar and then Republican Congressman Tim Burchett next.

And homecoming, 10 Americans freed from Venezuela, swapped for U.S. deportees from a notorious El Salvador prison. Next, is a cease-fire deal with Hamas also on the horizon?

TRUMP: We have got most of the hostages back. We're going to have another 10 coming very shortly.

TAPPER: The man who brought the Americans back from Venezuela, U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler, is ahead.

Plus: power play. Texas makes a controversial plan to boost Republicans.

FMR. REP. BETO O'ROURKE (D-TX): We are a democracy right now in name only.

TAPPER: Will Democrats fight back?

Former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke coming up.

(END VIDEOTAPE) TAPPER: Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, where the state of our union is thinking, wow, a lot can happen in just six months.

Today marks half-a-year since President Trump took office again. And already his second term is shaping up to be even more consequential than his first. The president has followed through on promises to ramp up deportations, impose tariffs, target his political enemies, including the news media, reduce the federal bureaucracy, and slash U.S. aid to foreign countries.

Even as he does fall short on some promises, such as the one to immediately end wars in Ukraine in the Middle East, to fully preserve Medicaid, to end inflation, and very notable this past week, his administration's early vow to fully release all of the Epstein files.

Trump this morning said, in these six months he -- quote -- "totally revived a major country" -- unquote. The Democratic National Committee, not surprisingly, has a different take, saying this half- year mark means your life is worse off, unless -- quote -- "You're a billionaire licking your lips over a tax windfall or a CEO receiving fat government contracts."

But what about the American people? What do the American people think? A new CNN poll this week shows 58 percent of the American people disapprove of the president's job performance. And, in fact, the president appears to be losing ground among voters on some key issues that have historically been his strength, such as handling of the economy and immigration.

But if there is one thing the president has always been able to count on, it is the enthusiastic support of his base. That support in question this week, however, as the president tried to brush off the controversy over a decision to not release the full Justice Department files on disgraced pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

But after fierce blowback from his base, President Trump did call for the release of some Epstein grand jury material.

Joining me now is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrat Amy Klobuchar from the great state of Minnesota.

Thank you for joining us, Senator. Appreciate it.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Hey, Jake.

TAPPER: So, right now, we're in the middle of a procedure. The president, frustrated with this issue, has asked his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release what he calls the pertinent grand jury testimony from cases involving Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who's in prison.

And that information, however, even if it's released, will only be about crimes committed by Epstein and Maxwell. And experts say it will almost certainly not mention the other wealthy and powerful individuals who may have gotten away with crimes that they were not charged with. You're a former prosecutor. What do you think is responsible to be

released?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, Jake, this has gotten to the point, because of promises made by the president -- by the way, another host of promises not kept, whether he promised he was bringing prices down. He has not -- promised he would keep people on Medicaid. They're getting kicked off.

And now promises that they're going to release these Epstein files made while they were in office, while the attorney general was in office, promises made by the man who is now the FBI director. So you get to a point, and this is how I view it as a former prosecutor, you have to protect the victims if you release documents. That's fairly easy to do.

You just redact the names of victims, and you have seen documents like that before. But this has gotten to the point where they have just sown distrust in the justice system. They have promised that these documents would be out there. They literally gave people binders that said, part one.

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And now suddenly, with a whistle-blower reporting that 100,000 documents were reviewed by the FBI to look for the president's name, they have suddenly pulled back and said, no, we're not releasing them.

So, to me, as a former prosecutor, there are times when you release things for the good of the country. This is one of those times, and you don't go and say, oh, we're just going to see if a judge will let us do part of the evidence, part of the files that are over here in this grand jury proceeding, after dissing judges forever. Give me a break.

TAPPER: I want to place something your Senate colleague Ron Wyden of Oregon said on the Senate floor earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON WYDEN (D-OR): Somewhere in the Treasury Department, Mr. President, locked away in a Cabinet drawer, is a big Epstein file that's full of actionable information, follow-the-money details about his financing and operations that await investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Julie Brown, the investigative reporter whose "Miami Herald" story in 2018, really brought this Epstein case back into the forefront, she says that file of financial records would be a trove of information in terms of finding other guilty parties.

Do you think the Treasury Department should release what they have on Epstein too?

KLOBUCHAR: Like I said, things should be released. We should know what happened here. And it is a claim that this president has made time and time again, and the American people have the right to know what happened.

TAPPER: So President Trump posted on TRUTH Social Friday -- quote -- "If there was a smoking gun on Epstein, why didn't the Democrats who controlled the files for four years and had Garland and Comey in charge use it? Because they had nothing" -- unquote.

After "The Miami Herald" story broke in 2018, you said there was something not right in the Epstein case. But it's true that -- the president says there. Democrats didn't really seem to do anything about the Epstein files throughout the four years of the Biden administration.

I mean, should you have? You sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Marsha Blackburn for years has been trying to get flight records and other information about Epstein released, and she seems to have been the only one on that committee trying to do so.

KLOBUCHAR: So the president blaming Democrats for this disaster, Jake, is like that CEO that got caught on camera blaming Coldplay, OK?

Like, this is his making. He was president when Epstein got indicted for these charges and went to prison. He was president when Epstein committed suicide. And then there was another case, as you know, that continued during the Biden administration.

But he was president back then. So all of us would believe they know what's in these documents. They know what's there. They have been claiming forever that they should be released. And it is the Trump administration that gave a bunch of binders that said volume one to reporters just in the last month.

It is the Trump administration that has made this promise that they're going to release it. So I am blaming -- Democrats for this, to me, I'm sorry. This is -- the people that have been fomenting this are right- wing influencers, members of Congress. People who have a reason that they want to know what's in there. They believe the president when he said there's stuff in there that people should see.

"Wall Street Journal," these are not bastions of liberalism or wild progressives that have come out and said the public have a right to know what is in these documents.

TAPPER: You visited New Hampshire last weekend to campaign for Congressman Chris Pappas in his Senate race, New Hampshire, of course, an early primary state. Now that Joe Biden is no longer in office, New Hampshire goes back to the front of the line.

Are you considering at all presidential run in 2028? And what do Democrats need to do to get their -- your dismal approval ratings up?

KLOBUCHAR: I think every Democrat, national Democrat, including myself, is focused on this upcoming election, which is the midterms, OK? That's why I was there to help Chris Pappas, who's a tremendous candidate. And what you have seen is, we have got now incredible candidates that

are running all over the country. We are going to be focusing on a forward-looking agenda to counteract all the crap that's been going on with this administration.

And when you look at the enthusiasm of our voters that are showing up, the people in the middle, moderate Republicans, independents that hate the chaos and the corruption and the costs going up, I am feeling better and better about how Democrats are doing every single day.

And the polls show that the president, some of them, including one FOX News poll, similar to some of the things that you have been showing, the president's approval ratings are way underwater when it comes to his handling of the economy. And that's what people are talking about in New Hampshire and Minnesota, any state across the country.

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They go in the grocery store, and the president can tell them inflation isn't a factor, but they just see the prices going up, a doubling of the price of coffee. That's what they're seeing out there right now. And he can say what he wants.

He can do what he wants on TRUTH Social and blame FOX News when they put a post on and say, hey, we don't like them, except maybe some of their anchors are great, and bully on the media, but the facts are there for the American people the minute they walk into a grocery store.

TAPPER: So, 2028, you're not ruling it out, fair to say?

KLOBUCHAR: I am focused on my job in the Senate. And I'm really focused on our great candidates that are up all across the country. And anyone else that's not doing that right now, I think that they better look at what Donald Trump is doing to our economy and doing to our democracy and our Constitution.

TAPPER: Senator Amy Klobuchar of the great state of Minnesota, thanks so much.

Joining us now, a Republican who has called for the release of all the Epstein files, Congressman Tim Burchett from the great state of Tennessee.

Thank you so much for joining us, Congressman.

So, Attorney General Bondi asked the federal judge to release grand jury testimony from the Epstein case. But, as you know, that's only a fraction of the so-called Epstein files and evidence amassed as a result of the investigation. You have co-sponsored legislation with your colleague Thomas Massie to release all of the Epstein files.

So I can't imagine your content with this small, discrete grand jury information being released. That's not enough, right?

BURCHETT: I think it's the start, Jake. And thank you for your fair reporting on this up to this point.

I think Senator Klobuchar, as she likes to say, as a former prosecutor, where the heck was she the last four years? Dick Durbin, you're correct, he did effectively try to and did block my senator, Blackburn, from getting those files released.

And it's clear what the Democrats are up to. They're tanking. The country knows it. Their biggest candidate in the whole country, Jake, is a guy in New York, a guy, people are accusing of a communist. And what's he say? Oh, hey, I'm not a communist. I'm a socialist, as if that's a selling point.

That's what the Democrat Party has fallen into. Where the heck have they been the last four years? I'm ticked off at everybody. Look, this thing should have been handled. Now we're at the point they're going to start dumping files. And my biggest fear in this, Jake, you got 1,000 children that were abused by this dirtbag who's burning in hell right now. And he should be.

And yet the American public is all pulling the finger trying to play politics with this thing. And it's not accurate. I applaud the president for wanting to release those files. I think it's a good start. I think -- I think we -- they keep saying he talked about it repeatedly. And that's just not accurate.

He was asked two different times during the campaign about it. And he said, sure, we're going to release them. He also says he's going to release the UFO files and the Kennedy files. And we're still working on all that, because it is a daggum process.

You have got innocent people on those flight logs that flew. President Trump has admitted he flew on those flights. And dozens of other Americans, I'm sure, rode. I know a lot of wealthy people, Jake. And they fly on these daggum planes, private planes. If one is broke down, they say, hey, I got a seat on this guy's plane. Can -- you want to ride with us to New York? And that's what happens.

And so I caution America, though, when -- if -- we need to have some sort of way to filter out the innocents in these things.

TAPPER: Yes.

BURCHETT: And for Dick Durbin to start making his point now, I think that you all in the media should bust his tail for that, because that is very disingenuous. And that is clearly a cover-up by the Democrat Party.

TAPPER: Yes. No, without question, Senator Blackburn has been trying to get the flight logs subpoenaed and other information about the Epstein files for years.

But, as you know, there are people in these files who are innocent, who didn't do anything except flew on Epstein's plane, for example, in the 90s. Epstein was first, I think, arrested in 2005, 2006. So he wasn't scandalous until then. So it certainly can be understood if people, whether RFK Jr. or Bill Clinton or whoever associated themselves with him before then.

But there are also individuals in these files who weren't prosecuted, but probably did commit some criminal acts.

BURCHETT: Right.

TAPPER: Let me just ask you about this effort to get these files released. As of right now, there are 10 Republicans, including yourself, who signed Congressman Massie's what's called a discharge petition. It forces legislation onto the floor of the House for a vote.

It requires 218 signatures. Presumably, a lot of Democrats are going to support it too. A lot of Republican leaders seem to want this issue to go away. Do you think you're going to get 218 signatures on the discharge petition to force it for a vote? And how many Republicans do you think will join you?

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BURCHETT: I have no earthly idea, Jake. And you know town buries secrets. You wrote a book about it. And it's doing very well because America agrees with you. This town buries secrets.

I mean, do you honestly believe Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy from the front and the back? And this miraculous lead bullet that had hardly a scrape on it was found on a gurney in a hospital shortly after the president passed away.

This town does not give up its secrets easy. And it's just -- it's fighting and kicking. And the reason I'm worried about these files now is the fact that the Biden administration, who, in my opinion, has a history of corruption, has tampered with these files. And we're never going to get to the bottom of it.

And I think stuff could have been placed in those files. Do I have proof? Well, no, I don't. But I have a gut feeling and I have a historical reference, which is every daggum time something like this happens in this town, it gets covered up. And it needs to stop.

And I salute President Trump for pushing to move mood forward on those -- on those records that they have, because -- but I do want them to be -- I would like them to be filtered a little bit. I don't want the 1,000 innocents and some of those people that flew, as you mentioned earlier.

TAPPER: Right, but you do want more than just the grand jury testimony that he has called for. You would like more in a responsible way, but as many files as possible that can be released?

BURCHETT: Yes, sir.

TAPPER: All right, Congressman Tim Burchett...

BURCHETT: Yes, sir.

TAPPER: Yes.

BURCHETT: And the president -- yes, sir. I agree. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you.

TAPPER: No, no, go ahead. You were going to make a point. I'm sorry.

BURCHETT: No, I was going to say the president takes a lot of heat for what he said earlier.

But Trump has an incredible strategy. They said, oh, the Big Beautiful Bill won't pass by July 4. What happened? Trump worked it. It came out by July 4. Senator Hagerty's bill on cryptocurrency, they said they wanted it to the president's desk by Friday. There was no way it was going to happen.

I'm sitting in a meeting with the speaker and Whip Emmer, and about 10 or 12 fellow conservatives that had problems. Trump calls, answers every one of our daggum questions. And guess what? He signed that bill on Friday. And that -- he has an incredible gift at strategy and winning. And that's what he does.

TAPPER: Congressman Tim Burchett, thank you so much, sir. Good to see you again.

Next, we're going to take you on board the plane, as American hostages flew home. What kind of treatment did they face in that Venezuelan prison?

U.S. hostage envoy for the Trump administration Adam Boehler will tell us about that and a potential new deal next.

Plus, Beto O'Rourke on a huge political fight in Texas this week. It's about to go national.

Stay with us.

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TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

Some good news. On Friday, the Trump administration secured the release of 10 wrongly detained Americans from Venezuela in exchange for the release of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants whom the U.S. had deported first to the notorious El Salvador prison, now to Venezuela.

My next guest played a key role in getting this deal across the line, bringing those Americans home.

Joining us now, U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler.

Adam, first of all, again, congratulations. You just flew back to the U.S. from El Salvador with these Americans. What's their condition right now? How were they treated in Venezuela? ADAM BOEHLER, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR HOSTAGE AFFAIRS: You know, they

weren't treated so great for the most part. Some were in different cells, but they were sometimes beaten, sometimes deprived of basic food.

Before they came out, they put them in shackles, they shaved their heads, and left them in prison uniforms. Now, we knew they would come out like that, so we were all able and ready when we picked them up in the bus to have USA hats, USA T-shirts, and changed them so they looked strong.

TAPPER: This exchange involved negotiating not only with the Venezuelan government, but also the Salvadoran government. How complicated was the negotiation? How long was this exchange in the works?

BOEHLER: It was months in the works, and there were a lot of very focused people doing it. We have got a great, unbelievable team in terms of people on the ground, career people that folks don't ever hear of, and they were driving this bus really hard back and forth.

The reality here is Bukele had -- who's been great, Bukele had a number of people there at CECOT. He made a deal with Venezuela, and then Venezuela released all Americans, and so our portion of that deal was to make sure that all of our boys got home.

TAPPER: The administration, the Trump administration, has repeatedly told the public and the courts that it has no influence over what Bukele does, what happens with the hundreds of deportees the U.S. has sent to El Salvador.

Doesn't this exchange show the Trump administration does, in fact, have the ability to work with Bukele and to get people released from this El Salvador prison when they want to?

BOEHLER: Well, what it shows is that the president has been very clear. Bringing Americans home is a critical priority. We don't accept when other countries take people.

Now, Bukele, President Bukele, has been a good friend, friend enough to know what's important to the United States, and so we appreciate the fact that he cleared a deal with Venezuela to release these Americans that came home.

And I will tell you, once they're in our buses, their faces are totally different. They come in downtrodden, surprised, not knowing what's happened, because these guys don't tell them. They pull them up in the middle of the night. They have no idea they're going anywhere, and then they get into American hands, and the picture changes dramatically.

I will tell you something. There's nothing like seeing their faces when they come in.

TAPPER: Yes, that photo that was posted on Friday was pretty moving. Are there any other Americans that can be exchanged that are being

wrongly held in places like Venezuela, other cases that might involve deportees who are currently at CECOT that might be released to other countries to get Americans back?

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BOEHLER: Venezuela has people from other countries. We will work closely with our allies to get them back. I will tell you right now we're working hard. We have got people in Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, and some other places, random places in the world. And I think it's high time that every country realize, if you're holding an American, it's a real problem.

We have not been going out. We have not been giving hundreds of millions of dollars. The way to get in America's good graces and to have discussions is to release those hostages unilaterally and then begin discussions, because we do appreciate that.

So I would say, Jake, we have got to get them all home. And the other thing is, I need to make sure that Americans are not taken again. I want people proud to be an American knowing the American government via Trump is going after you if they take you and it's going to go well.

TAPPER: Let's turn to the Middle East because you said that a deal to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza is closer than it's been before. We have heard that before. How close is a deal with Hamas? What are the remaining sticking points to get the hostages home?

BOEHLER: I am optimistic, because, look, Steve has been leaning in really closely on a deal and he's done it with Israel. And I think post-Israel winning in Iran, there's a new sense of ability to get something done.

The Israelis want something done. Now, I will tell you, because I have been with them, Hamas is very hardheaded. They have been offered many things that they should take, and it's time for Hamas to release the hostages. So I'm more optimistic than I was because all of those factors are there. We have got an A-team negotiating it.

Now what I really want to see is Hamas take action. And if they don't, I will tell you something, Israel's going to have to take some kinetic action.

TAPPER: What do you think it will take to get Hamas to agree?

BOEHLER: I mean, these are down to little details. This is why I said Hamas is hardheaded.

I would say Israel at this point is bending over backward. They're redrawing maps. At this point, what you do is you say, look, we're going to take this deal. We're going to let at least 10 hostages go. We have got two dead Americans there. We have got the Chens and we have the Neutras. We need to get those Americans out. We need to get the other hostages

out. And then what we have done is, we have said, hey, there's a firm pathway to negotiate peace. That's the best they're going to get. And they should take on the offer, take the offer that's there. They haven't in the past.

Every single time they don't take it, it goes down and goes down and goes down. So, my recommendation to Hamas would be take the deal that Israel, that the United States is offering you. Let's get some people home. And let's move to end this conflict.

TAPPER: Adam Boehler, again, congratulations on getting those last remaining 10 hostages being held in Venezuela home, a great achievement by you, by your team, by the Trump administration.

Thanks for coming on right now.

BOEHLER: Thank you, Jake. I really appreciate it.

TAPPER: Republicans in Texas calling a special session this week. My next guest says their goal is to screw the people of the Lone Star State.

Beto O'Rourke joins us on this week's brewing political battle. That's next.

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TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

Texas Republicans are on the hunt. They're throwing out their congressional maps and drawing new ones to try to increase the number of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and hurt Democrats.

Right now, Texas, the nation's second most populous state, has 13 House Democrats and 25 Republicans. President Trump and Governor Abbott want to make that even more lopsided.

Joining me now, former Democratic Texas congressman and 2020 presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke.

Thanks so much for being here. Really appreciate it.

So the Texas legislature run by Republicans, their special session begins tomorrow. Democrats say they're going to use whatever means necessary they can to block this redistricting effort. But Democrats are the minority, as you know. Realistically, what are the Democratic options to block this?

O'ROURKE: First, just in case folks don't know what redistricting is, that's the process by which members of Congress choose their own voters. Typically, that happens after the passage of the decade, the new census. It is very rare to happen in the middle of the decade. Why are they doing this? Donald Trump's policies, whether it's the Big

Beautiful Bill that's going to take nearly two million Texans off of Medicaid or transfer nearly a trillion dollars of wealth to the richest 1 percent at the expense of working families, his policies are deeply unpopular.

He doesn't want to face accountability from the voters, and he's worried about keeping his very slim majority in Congress. So he's trying to pick up five seats through this redistricting process in Texas.

Now, to your question about how we fight back, there are a number of things that we can do. One, the Democratic state legislatures can deny their Republican colleagues a quorum to be able to move forward on this.

TAPPER: We you seen this before with legislators leaving the state and that sort of thing.

O'ROURKE: Absolutely. And I think they at least have to try this. And all of us, wherever you live, have to get behind them, because if we fail to support them right now, it's not just going to hurt the people of Texas. It's going to hurt people all over this country.

But there's more that we can do. Governor Gavin Newsom in California has talked about a redistricting in his state. I think it's time that we match fire with fire. I think Democrats in the past too often have been more concerned with being right than being in power.

And we have seen Republicans only care about being in power, regardless of what is right.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: So you support the Newsom effort? Because California right now has an independent commission that does districts in as fair a way as possible and nonpartisan as possible. You're saying Democrats should, even though you don't approve of it, Democrats should do it too?

[09:35:08]

O'ROURKE: We have to get serious. We have to be absolutely ruthless about getting back in power.

So, yes, in California, in Illinois, in New York, wherever we have the trifecta of power, we have to use that to its absolute extent. And then the last thing, this may end up biting Republicans in the ass. You have the possibility that they will disperse Republican voters to make up these three or four or five new congressional districts and put those districts in play.

So, in Texas, we have got to get out there and register and meet the voters who are going to decide the outcomes in these next elections if they're successful with this redistricting. Our group, powered by people, is doing this right now on the ground. We can't wait for 2026. We have got to do the work right now in 2025.

TAPPER: So House Democrats are exploring doing this in other blue states, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Washington. It's already done quite a bit in Illinois. And there's some examples of it, of Democrats taking advantage of it in Nevada.

But you were in North Carolina this week and you told voters there that they need to end the process of gerrymandering. Doesn't it sound like -- it sounds like you're saying that they should end the process in a Republican state or a Republican-leaning state, but do it in a Democratic state?

I mean, shouldn't there be like a consistent point of view here?

O'ROURKE: It's confusing, isn't it?

You heard Democrats in 2024 often talk about saving democracy. People in America didn't understand what they were talking about because we really don't live in a democracy right now. When one person can spend nearly $300 million to elect their preferred candidate for president, that is not a democracy.

When members of Congress can choose their own voters, that is not a democracy. When Texas makes it nearly impossible for millions to cast a ballot, that is not a democracy. So, the first order of business is winning political power. And then, yes, Jake, we have got to get big money out of politics. We have got to get politicians out of the process of redistricting.

We have to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. And we have got to make sure that we overturn decisions like Citizens United that equate corporations with people and money with speech. That will produce a real democracy.

But until we are there, we have to use every lever of power that we have right now to our advantage to make sure that we're in office, because no one wants members of Congress choosing their own voters. But we have no ability to change that until we start winning some elections.

TAPPER: Well, you say it sounds confusing, but others might say it's hypocritical that you're saying this is a horrible thing and it's members of Congress choosing their voters instead of the other way around, and now Democrats need to embrace it.

O'ROURKE: You know, I think that Democrats have been so scared of being branded as hypocrites or coloring outside of the lines that it has absolutely paralyzed them in this struggle for power in America.

You don't see the other side worrying about any of that at all, Donald Trump defying the Constitution, the rule of law, the courts, trying to dismantle our very democracy in front of our eyes right now where we sit. We have got to fight back. We cannot roll over. We cannot play dead. We cannot submit to them, as Democrats for far too long have done. We have got to fight back with everything that we have got by every single means necessary. If we don't do that, Jake, we are going to lose this country, and the people that we serve, that we represent, that we want to fight for, they're going to be hurt even more than they are right now.

TAPPER: Very quickly, if you would, there's obviously a Senate race coming up in Texas, John Cornyn, the incumbent Republican senator, facing a challenge inside his own party from Paxton, the controversial attorney general.

And Democrats obviously are going to be running as a candidate as well. I know that you have been in a conference call with other potential Democratic candidates. Are you going to run for that seat?

O'ROURKE: I don't know.

Right now, I'm holding these town halls all over the state of Texas, across the country to listen to people to bring them together and to channel our anger into action, registering people to vote, organizing with voters right now.

But I'm very optimistic about Democrats' opportunity in 2026. In Trump's last midterm in 2018, when I was running against Ted Cruz, not only did we come close to defeating the sitting senator, but 12 insurgent Democrats defeated 12 incumbent Republicans in the state House.

Colin Allred, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher defeated entrenched well-funded Republicans. You had 17 black women win judicial positions in Harris County, in Houston, Texas. It was transformational for the state of Texas.

There will be a price for this extremism from Donald Trump from the people that he's hurting across the country right now. And I think we will see that play out in 2026.

TAPPER: All right, Beto O'Rourke, former congressman from Texas, Democrat, thanks so much for being here. Appreciate it.

O'ROURKE: Thank you.

TAPPER: Coming up next: six months of Trump 2.0. The president says he's revived the nation. What do Americans think?

My panel weighs in. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:44:26]

TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

Today marks six months since President Trump returned to office. He says it has been a massive success. What does the rest of the country think? My panel joins me now to discuss.

Congressman Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York, six months in, what do you think?

REP. RITCHIE TORRES (D-NY): Well, the majority of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump. He promised to end the war in Ukraine, and so far has failed. He promised to release the Epstein files, so far has failed.

He said he would never touch Medicaid. He's cutting it by a trillion dollars. And his economic policy has wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy. Since Donald Trump's inauguration, we have seen an 11 percent decline in the value of the dollar, the steepest decline in more than a half-a-century.

[09:45:10]

And a 10 to 11 percent decline in the value of the dollar raises the cost of imported goods by 10 percent. So it's the equivalent of a $300 billion hidden Trump tax on American families and businesses. So it's been a disaster.

TAPPER: Former Republican Congresswoman Herrera Beutler, I assume you disagree?

FMR. REP. JAIME HERRERA BEUTLER (R-WA): Well, I think that he's doing the things that they expected him to do. Whether or not they're feeling the impacts of that yet is what remains to be seen.

Inflation went up last week from June, right? So these are things that are coming. Double-digit premium increases for health care, I saw in several states next year. So people will feel it, but, right now, he's actually -- he took the chain saw to things that they believe were broken anyway.

I mean, the government's broken. This further Epstein debacle is evidence that it's broken. So I don't think -- I don't think -- I think it's way too soon to say that they think they're unhappy with what he's doing. I think he's doing what they expected.

TAPPER: Let's go to the polling, if we could, in the control room there for number two.

The CNN poll shows that nearly 60 percent of Americans disapprove of his job as president. And he is losing ground on some key issues; 42 percent approved, 58 percent disapprove. And when it comes to key issues, disapprove, 60 percent on the economy and 58 percent on immigration.

I'm surprised to see numbers like that on the economy and immigration. Are you?

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Very much so. But I'm not surprised in the sense that, if you look in the first term, when they tried to pass the first tax package, it was very unpopular then and you saw the numbers take a hit.

But then you sort of fast-forward 18 months later, you saw the result of that package and his numbers improved significantly on the economy. I think it's still too early to tell. I think, for his base, a lot of it will say mission accomplished, promise made, promise kept. And he's done that, DOGE. There's other factors.

He's invested more in Ukraine, which is something that the base didn't want to do. But I think overall the first six months, they have got to be very happy where they are, especially if they believe what took place in the first term. There's a lot of criticism of the tax package. I think it was less than 55 percent of people approved it. And it turned out to be the most popular thing it took place in this administration. They're banking on that same result.

TAPPER: I want to bring up the Epstein files, because, Karen, you and I were talking offline about this.

And, to you, this is reminiscent of a different scandal.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And one actually you and I talked about when it happened. It is reminiscent of the scandal in the Catholic Church, because ultimately that was about an institution trying to protect itself over children who had been harmed.

And we are again in a situation, it feels like, we're talking about girls who were trafficked, raped, assaulted, abused. So in this moment, the Trump administration has the opportunity to say, are you going to stand with the powerful, the men who are -- were the clients, or are you going to protect these girls? And we have seen -- and these young women.

And so I think that's -- and I think, for his base, that's part of what we were hearing this week, not just the promise made, promise -- this is a broken promise, but this sense of the powerful once again getting one over on people who are more vulnerable.

And I will just say, in talking about this poll, part of what I think is interesting when we look towards 2026, so if they're not able to satisfy some portion of that base, I'm not saying they will vote for Democrats, but they may not vote for Republicans.

And then across the board on the issues we have just been talking about, and I would disagree with you that what the polls have been showing consistently for months, people don't like the way he's going about what he's doing. They may say he's doing what he said, but he's actually increased support for comprehensive immigration reform among Republicans.

And when these DOGE cuts hit and when these Medicaid cuts hit, those impacts, people -- it's only going to increase the people who are going to be, I think, looking for someone else. But Democrats have to do the work to earn the trust back in 2026.

HERRERA BEUTLER: And that's the key point. In this poll, they're talking about Democrats having the lowest favorability since polls have been taken by CNN, 28 percent.

TAPPER: Right.

HERRERA BEUTLER: So all that you say could be true if Democrats could find their -- the leadership could find their backside with both hands.

That's the one thing that's propping this up right now is that they're not showing that leadership.

TAPPER: Yes. And let's talk about that because there's this Democrats 2024 autopsy that is happening, and a "New York Times" story says that it is described as avoiding the likeliest cause of death, as it were.

The audit, which the committee is calling an after-action review, is expected to avoid the questions of whether President Biden should have run for reelection in the first place, whether he should have exited the race earlier than he did, whether Kamala Harris was the right choice to replace him.

Congressman Torres, isn't that a mistake? I mean, isn't what happened with Joe Biden, his abilities, the hiding of his abilities and all that, isn't that part of the reason that your party's approval ratings are so low?

[09:50:04]

TORRES: We should be open and honest about the failures that led to the 2024 debacle. An autopsy should address the actual cause of death.

And I felt like, if the Democratic nominee, including Vice President Harris, had had the benefit of a full primary process, she would have emerged from it from -- a better candidate. A wise person once said, that which does not kill you makes you stronger. And I feel like we are all make better, stronger, and wiser by the rigors of a full primary process.

TAPPER: I think it was Nietzsche, and it was also the title...

TORRES: It was Nietzsche.

TAPPER: It was Nietzsche and also the title Bruce Willis' second album also, by the way.

(CROSSTALK)

LANZA: But the thing is, is excluding those things, it goes back to the issue of the Democratic Party and why they don't have the people's trust right now.

It's a trust issue. They have no path to regain that trust. This autopsy could very much be that first step, but they say, trust us, but we're going to take the key components of why we lost out.

FINNEY: So, actually, in this story, there's three different things happening. There's the DNC one. There's two other efforts. But what I would agree with is, part of the reason we lost is, we're

not doing our job. We're not talking to voters. We're getting outmanned and outgunned in digital spaces. So I hope that those efforts come back and -- hold on -- and show us that, because one of the things many of us have said, you cannot show up six months before an election in certain communities and just expect we're just going to show up.

Republicans spend off-years spending money doing persuasion. We need to run a permanent campaign. And we haven't -- we're not doing it yet.

HERRERA BEUTLER: I think you have just got to be focused on the issues of the American people. They have had enough. They don't trust institutions, covering up the whole Biden thing and not answering the question.

TAPPER: Yes.

TORRES: What about the Epstein files? I mean, he -- the slogan of the Trump administration is promises made, promises kept.

HERRERA BEUTLER: Do it. Do it.

TORRES: He made a promise to release the files. He should keep it.

TAPPER: OK. Thank you, one and all. I appreciate your being here.

Coming up: He was a 102-year-old TikTok star with an incredibly heroic past. We're going to remember the life of World War II hero Jake Larson, who just passed away.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:55:35]

TAPPER: This morning, we're remembering an American hero, 102-year- old World War II veteran turned TikTok star Jake Larson, who passed away this week.

He worked as an aide to a colonel who helped plan the famous D-Day invasion and much later racked up more than a million followers with his viral TikTok account, Story Time With Papa Jake. Larson's family says he was cracking jokes until the end.

Papa Jake, wherever you are, thank you for your service. May his memory be a blessing.

Thanks for spending your Sunday morning with us.

"FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" is next.