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State of the Union
Interview With Michigan Senatorial Candidate Abdul El-Sayed; Interview With National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired August 09, 2026 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:00:15]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Reality check. As the economy flashes a warning, President Trump says everything is fine.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The economy is the greatest economy we've ever had.
TAPPER: But are Americans buying it? White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett is next.
Plus: left hook. After a bruising race, progressives score a big win.
ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I'm so proud to be your Democratic nominee.
TAPPER: But will he unite the party or hand a must-win seat to Republicans?
MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: You have a home with us.
TAPPER: Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed joins me ahead.
And fault lines: another Midwest test this week, as Democrats face an identity crisis. And Trump undercuts his party's midterm message.
TRUMP: They're not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.
TAPPER: Does either side remember how to win? Our political panel breaks it all down.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, where the state of our union is realizing November 3 is right there. We're only 12 weeks out from the midterm elections and wrapping up a week that is likely to shape not only those elections, but also potentially the 2028 presidential race.
Democrats are trying to figure out how to unite after a progressive won Michigan's Senate race by 1 percentage point in what was a rough proxy battle for rival party factions and as the run-up to 2028 begins in earnest. We're going to talk to Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed about whether he can bring the party together and appeal to those vital independents in the Wolverine State. That's coming up.
But let's begin with President Trump, who is facing his own frustrations this summer. Congress confirmed his attorney general, but left town without passing the president's top priority, his voting security bill.
Yesterday, as U.S. officials said they were closing in on another deal with Iran, Iran issued a list of demands for the U.S. before they would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a list that is widely seen as a nonstarter, and, on Friday, a disappointing jobs report raising fears about the U.S. economy, the most important issue in any election for voters, as polls suggest voters have lost patience with the president, three out of four Americans saying he has the wrong priorities.
And as we went to air, the president's last five social media posts were about various construction projects.
Joining us now, chair of the White House National Economic Council Kevin Hassett.
Kevin, thanks so much for joining us.
KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Thanks, Jake. Good to be back.
TAPPER: Let us start obviously with the latest jobs numbers.
The economy, according to BLS, lost 23,000 jobs in July, when economists were expecting a 95,000-job gain. The job creation you boasted about for the previous two months, unfortunately, those numbers were also sharply revised down. It turns out 100,000 jobs were not created in May and June.
You said in June that this was -- quote -- "the strongest job market in your lifetime." By what metric?
HASSETT: Yes, I think that one of the things we're seeing is that these jobs numbers are getting revised left and right. You can remember over the last couple of years there were millions of revisions.
And the bottom line is that, if you look at the overall economy, then things are really, really booming. As an example, there are 83,000 construction workers building factories right now. That's a number that we have never seen before. Initial claims for unemployment insurance are the lowest they have been since World War II.
There are more job openings than there are unemployed workers. So all these things that suggest that the numbers should have been really strong. And when it didn't come out strong, we sort of dug in and we saw that -- the two things that made it negative.
One of them was a reduction in government workers, and it was mostly teachers in states taking July off. And the other thing was that the FIFA ended, and so that we had a whole bunch of hospitality workers file for unemployment in July.
And so, anyway, so you take those two out and you get back to what the consensus number was about 100,000 job creation. And the point is, if that were in isolation, I wouldn't be caring about -- caring about like throwing this or that on the side because it's a special story.
But the fact is everything else is so strong that I think that it makes sense that the consensus was about right.
TAPPER: Well, we can look at one month here or there, but let's take a look at the overall jobs record under President Trump.
HASSETT: Let's do it.
TAPPER: There have been job losses for six out of the 18 full months of President Trump's second term. That's a third of them. And the Trump administration has only added 548,000 net jobs so far, which is considered very slow growth. It's growth, but very slow.
Two million jobs were created in the last 18 months of Biden's presidency. Are you really arguing that your numbers are better than that?
HASSETT: Well, I disagree with your number. We will have to follow up on e-mail, but I just looked at the latest number. It was that job creation under President Trump since January 20 is about 880,000 jobs.
But we won't argue about 800 or 500 factually on a show right now. But the fact is that the thing that really jumps out at us is that those are really good jobs. They're manufacturing jobs. They're construction jobs. The number of manufacturing jobs under Joe Biden dropped by 230,000.
[09:05:14]
And the reason that matters is, the intuition that candidates of both parties understand that these blue-collar jobs in construction and manufacturing, they're really high-paying jobs. And so the typical construction or manufacturing worker of the U.S. has seen an increase under President Trump of $3,000 or $4,000 to salary.
And under Joe Biden, it was about negative that. And it dropped about $3,000. And the reason is that manufacturing was collapsing, and so the high-paying jobs were going away. And so I think that we will take our record over his every day.
TAPPER: Well, you're talking about manufacturing jobs. I'm talking about the overall job market. Let's -- even if we go with your number, which I think incorporates
January 2025, when President Trump was inaugurated on January 20, and I'm not going to bicker on that.
HASSETT: Yes, let's not bicker, yes.
TAPPER: Yes, it's 800,000, according to you, versus two million under Biden.
And I think the issue is that there are two things right now that the economists say are weighing on the economy. Both of them are specifically Trump policies. One is obviously the Iran war, which has led to high gas prices. The president said that that war would take four to six weeks. We're now in month six.
And the second policy that's having an impact is tariffs, which, according to a recent report by the Fed, those tariffs were passed on to customers, consumers, in the form of higher prices. So it does seem as though the president's policies have led to this economic situation where the job growth is slower than in the last 18 months of Biden's administration.
HASSETT: Well, let's unpack these things.
First of all, if you look at the latest inflation numbers, right, the Consumer Price Index was negative for the month of June. Core was zero. That's the thing that the Fed cares about. The PCE index, which is the Fed's number one index, was negative both for core and top line.
And so all of the price data have been decelerating. Now, there was a big inflation in the previous administration, but there's been rapid deceleration of inflation under President Trump. And so, if you're going to tell a story that tariffs are causing some kind of positive shock to inflation, then you got to come up with some counterfactual that explains why it is that right now inflation is running at about zero.
And so I don't think that that's an issue. And I think that, again, going forward, if you look at imports -- so the trade policy has made everybody want to onshore their stuff. If you look at imports right now, 50 percent of imports of the U.S. are capital goods, which are going into those factories that are being built by the 80-something thousand construction workers of the factories.
And so that's a very, very successful trade policy, because it's creating jobs that we will see in the second half of the year when the lights go on in those factories.
TAPPER: It's not me that's saying that those higher tariffs were for -- that those costs were passed on to consumers. It's the Fed in a recent report that I'm sure you have read.
HASSETT: Right.
TAPPER: But let's talk about gas prices. They're high because the Strait of Hormuz is still closed because of the war in Iran and Iran taking the strait hostage.
A month ago, you said that you were -- quote -- "bullish that there's going to be a heck of a lot of traffic moving through every single day" -- unquote -- and that you expect that this will -- quote -- "cruise to normalcy some time really, really soon" -- unquote.
No, that is not the case right now, and Iran most recently has delivered this set of demands that must be met to open the strait, and that set of demands includes the lifting of the naval blockade and sanctions, war reparations, the release of frozen Iranian assets, an end to attacks on Iran's allies.
So I guess I just don't know when really, really soon is.
HASSETT: Well, it's happening already, Jake.
And, first of all, I don't negotiate with the Iranians, and I don't think I'd be very good at it. But the fact is that right at the peak of the conflict early on, you saw that oil prices were going way north of $100 a barrel. Right now, they were like high 70s late in the week. I think they're running about 80 over the weekend.
And so the reason oil prices have come down is that our excellent U.S. Navy has been escorting ships out of the Gulf. But also we have taken a whole number of steps, including -- including increasing production of the U.S., waiving the Jones Act so that right now 100 million barrels of Gulf of America-produced oil are now shipping to the East and West Coasts because we waived the Jones Act.
That's put downward pressure on prices. Now, prices are still higher than we would like, but we have taken a lot of steps so that, when the Gulf situation is resolved, then we could expect prices to go way, way down because of all these new measures that we have taken.
TAPPER: I know you don't negotiate with the Iranians, but you do talk about the economy, and you said you're bullish there's going to be a heck of a lot of traffic moving through every single day.
(CROSSTALK)
HASSETT: Right, like...
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: I wouldn't call it a heck of a lot. It's not a heck of a lot, though.
HASSETT: But the price went down about 50 percent. So that's kind of impressive.
TAPPER: All right.
The numbers released on Friday show that wage growth is not keeping up with inflation. Average hourly earnings barely rose from June. Inflation is at 3.5 percent. That's above the Central Bank's target of 2 percent. [09:10:04]
A CNN poll a few months ago found that 61 percent of Americans have said that they had to cut back on groceries. Is that not a problem?
HASSETT: Well, it sure is a problem. Grocery prices way too high. It started out with we basically printed money and helicopter-dropped it into the U.S. and created a 20 percent inflation in the past.
I go to the grocery store, I do the shopping, and I keep an eye on prices every week, and there's stuff like the price of beef that's still really, really high and very problematic for people. The thing is that you mentioned the one-month number, that if you aggregate over the Trump term, then, again, the typical overall worker is making $1,000 more after adjusting for inflation, and $3,000 or $4,000 more if they're in a blue-collar job.
And so those people have more money for groceries, but grocery prices are still high, and we have still got a lot of work to do. Now, one of the things that we have been doing is that we have been taking steps to address these issues. So we started out with avian flu, and everybody was talking about egg prices.
Egg prices are really low right now, and we just have this massive effort by Brooke Rollins to address this pest that's coming in and made it so we have to shut the border to Mexico so that the pests wouldn't spread all over the U.S. And we just reopened the border for Mexico, so there should be good news on beef prices right around the corner.
TAPPER: How do you square you saying just now, we still have a lot of work to do, with you saying that we are living in the greatest economy in your lifetime?
HASSETT: Right.
Well, OK, so people are losing their jobs at the lowest level since World War II. Losing your job is a really bad thing to have to happen to somebody. And the labor force is way bigger than it was back then, so that's a remarkable piece of data.
Keynes argued that the business cycle is being driven by investment fluctuations. We have got capital investment in the U.S. about the highest I have ever seen. And so we have got all the cyclical things that we normally look at saying that this is an economy that's in liftoff stage.
And so, yes, I stand by it. I think the other thing is, with A.I., we have got lots of estimates that say that productivity growth is around 2, 2.5 percent right now, which is sort of -- sort of core growth rate you should have in a typical year going forward, even before you spend money on new machines and new workers.
TAPPER: Kevin Hassett, thank you so much. Always appreciate you coming on here.
HASSETT: Thanks, Jake. Great to be here.
TAPPER: Coming up next: President Trump says voters are angry, but they're not angry at him.
Hmm. You sure about that, Mr. President?
Plus: He beat the party establishment in a must-win state. Is the hard part yet to come? Michigan Senate nominee for the Democratic Party Abdul El-Sayed joins us ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:16:57]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If I don't run, will those people go out and vote? A lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you.
QUESTION: Why is that?
TRUMP: They're very -- I don't know. I mean, they're angry at Republicans. But they're not angry at me.
QUESTION: That's an interesting...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... about why.
TRUMP: They're not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: As Harry Truman said, the buck stops over there?
My panel joins us now.
Governor Walker, is that a message that Republicans want the president out there saying when they're up on the -- for reelection on the ballot?
FMR. GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R-WI): No, it's cost of living, cost of living, cost of living.
Kristen knows. She's actually done polls for us at Young America's Foundation. Even young people, overwhelmingly, cost of living consistently has been the top issue for them, higher than the economy, higher than climate change, abortion, anything else. And it's bigger than just burritos.
It's really about housing. It's about living the American dream. And I think, in his mind, he's thinking back, end of his first term in Wisconsin, medium home was under $200,000. Four years later, under Biden, it's 310. So he's thinking, oh, big difference. That's why there was a shift, not only with voters, particularly younger voters, from Biden to Trump in that four-year cycle.
But elections are about the future...
TAPPER: Right.
WALKER: And that, right now, two years later, that home costs $360,000. And so conservative candidates across the country have to have a clear plan. And I think they have to contrast it with democratic socialism, which we know fails in places like Venezuela.
TAPPER: And, Kristen, the president's approval rate numbers are hitting new lows, whether or not he's being told that or not. He's -- they are. People are mad at him. They are holding him responsible. The latest CNN poll has him at 30 percent or less when it comes to his handling of the economy, inflation, gas prices, the war in Iran.
Is he right that they're not mad at him?
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Those numbers indicate quite a bit of anger; 30 percent job approval on the economy is extraordinarily poor.
And it's very poor for Donald Trump, because, even during his first term, there were a handful of voters who said, look, I don't know if I like this guy, I don't like the tweets, but, but he's a business guy, he's good at the economy.
And he has lost that as a brand attribute with any of those swing voters who may have come around and said, look, I'm not into Biden, I'm not into Kamala Harris, let me give Trump another chance, because at least he will fix this cost of living stuff.
He's had two years. And if his message was, we get it, we haven't made enough progress, but let's keep the faith, we're going to keep trying to work, I don't know that would stave off really bad losses in the midterms, but it'll be much better than this like, la, la, la, everything's fine, and if it's not fine, someone else did it. That's a terrible message.
TAPPER: Kevin Hassett just now standing by his comment that this is the best economy of his lifetime. President Trump in Vegas said the economy is the greatest economic -- economy we have ever had by far, taking it even past Kevin Hassett's lifetime, ever.
How do Democrats capitalize on this? Because that's obviously not what voters think.
NEERA TANDEN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DOMESTIC POLICY ADVISER: Yes, I mean, it's not just the polling data. Consumer confidence is at a 70- year low. That means it's lower than 1978, when we had stagflation, 2010, when we had 10 percent unemployment, 2022, when we had 9 percent inflation.
[09:20:03]
And I think the real issue here is that the American people are quite smart. They look at Donald Trump and say, you have raised my prices. You have had -- you did tariffs. And you have this expensive Iran war that we are paying for.
So I think the real problem for Donald Trump is not his messaging, but really his policies are making working-class people's lives harder, when they thought he was going to make their life better. And that's why they feel fundamentally betrayed, and that's the real opening for Democrats.
TAPPER: Republicans have these headwinds.
CORBIN TRENT, CO-FOUNDER, BRAND NEW CONGRESS AND JUSTICE DEMOCRATS: Yes.
TAPPER: Do establishment Democrats have some headwinds too when it comes to this, because the DSA or DSA-aligned candidates like Abdul El-Sayed, who we will talk to later in the show, or AOC or others, are out there with more populist, progressive solutions?
TRENT: I think everybody that represents the status quo -- I mean, like hearing these people talk about now is the best economy that we have ever had, hearing -- hearing the Trump administration and all of their talking heads saying this reminds me very much of the Clinton campaign, or reminds me very much of so many campaigns that we have -- that I have watched for the last 30 years.
Every -- every step of the way, people in the status quo will tell you, this is working, this is going great. Neoliberalism has worked out for everybody, the selling off of our assets, the shipping off of our jobs. Trust us, if you don't know how good it is for you, then you're just bad at reading spreadsheets.
Look at the purchasing power, look at this, look at that.
TAPPER: Look at manufacturing jobs.
TRENT: Look at many -- and the problem is, is that it doesn't translate in reality. You can have all the math you want that tells you that things are great, but if people in their lives feel that actually it's not great, the stories that my grandpa told me or my great-grandpa told me, these are not the life that I'm living anymore.
The Wisconsin idea is dead, right? The funny thing is that all of these states, whether it's Michigan, Wisconsin, Tennessee, West Virginia, these states that we lost as a Democratic Party since 2008 that just dropped off of the map as possibilities, have -- they have rich histories in doing amazing things for people.
And we quit asking how to do that.
TAPPER: You know a little bit about Wisconsin, and you're agreeing with a lot of -- I saw you nodding to a lot of what Corbin said.
WALKER: Yes, there's no doubt about it.
I mean, you have seen the shift the last 36 years, for example, in the governor's race. A midterm election in a swing state, all but one election's gone opposite of the party in power in the White House, and that's because there's a core group of swing voters who just the last couple cycles have been upset.
They were upset at Republicans in power. Then they're upset with Democrats in power. Whoever's running, in this case, Tom Tiffany, in Wisconsin, for example, as governor has to make a compelling case about what he's going to do, not what Donald Trump, not what Republicans in Washington are doing, but what he's going to do.
And that's going to be the key to success, not just in Wisconsin, but any of these swing states.
TAPPER: Everyone, stick around. We're going to talk more about what -- the next interview we're going to have, which is the question of, can a progressive win in a purple state?
We are about to find out. Abdul El-Sayed joins us next, the new Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:27:05]
TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.
Abdul El-Sayed's victory in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary this week is a major win for progressives, but Republicans sense an opening to flip a Democratic-held seat. The question now, can a candidate from the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party win in a state that voted for Donald Trump twice?
And joining me now is the brand-new Michigan Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed.
Thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it.
EL-SAYED: Jake, thanks for having us.
TAPPER: So, the Trump administration, as you know, is trying to paint a rosy picture of the economy. You and others are pointing to the affordability crisis affecting people in Michigan and elsewhere.
Democratic voters are frustrated, as I don't need to tell you. They don't think that your party's doing enough to fight Donald Trump on these issues, especially like affordability. If you're elected as a Democratic senator with a Republican president in November, what can you actually do about that?
EL-SAYED: Well, look, let me just tell you the picture from my state. We have been up and down the state now. I have been at this for 15 months, been to 110 cities, over 500 public events.
Everywhere I go, people say the same thing. It just shouldn't be this hard. It shouldn't be this hard to afford your groceries or fill up your tank or worry about getting sick without having to worry about losing everything too.
And we ran this campaign to do three things, get money out of politics, put money in your pocket, past Medicare for all. When I'm elected to the U.S. Senate, the first thing we need to do is start holding the Trump administration accountable.
You know, when we win, God willing, I will take my seat as a member of a Senate majority. That gives us subpoena power to be able to investigate all of the ways that this administration has used their power for their gain and enrichment and against ours.
And I think that means hauling them up to really understand all the conversations that were had about who got to get refunds after this terrible tariff policy, who got to get excluded from those refunds.
It means hauling up people like RFK Jr. and holding them accountable for the DOGE-ing of our public health apparatus, for which we now need to be dodging lettuce across the state of Michigan, for fear of getting explosive diarrhea, which nobody ever thought would be a consequence of electing Donald Trump, but here we are.
So it's those powers and then the ability to set up to build the runway for a president in 2028 who can come in and start doing the things to hold big corporations accountable, to start enforcing antitrust policy, to start rethinking our tax system, so it's less burdensome on everyday people and we're taxing billionaires their wealth, and to stand up for unions, who have been critical to winning fair wages.
TAPPER: One of your main campaign issues, as you noted, is Medicare for all. Senator Bernie Sanders' proposal right now only has 17 co- sponsors in the Senate.
Even if Democrats do take back the Senate November, it doesn't look as of now like you and Senator Sanders would have the votes to pass it. Are there more immediate things that Democrats in the Senate can do to lower the cost of health care right now? Or do you view any of these more minor ideas as weak?
[09:30:07]
EL-SAYED: We can walk and chew gum at the same time. And we need relief. There's a lot that's about to hit and hasn't even hit yet when it comes to cutting ACA subsidies, when it comes to cutting Medicaid for people who desperately need health care.
I think we need to start with making those whole. I also think we need to ban some of the middlemen in our health care system, like pharmacy benefit managers and organization -- or a set of organizations that most people haven't heard of, but they're a big reason why you pay more for prescription drugs.
I also think we can start enforcing antitrust policy when it comes to big health care, partnering with my friend Senator Elizabeth Warren on taking on the consolidation in the health care system. But Medicare for all is where we need to go. And my hope is, both
coming out of the 2026 midterms and then out of 2028, that we're going to be on our way to a Senate majority to be able to get this done.
I have also been clear, I think the filibuster is antidemocratic on its own terms. And so I do hope that the Senate is willing to actually deal with the fact that we cannot allow the entire Senate to hide behind the filibuster of one senator, and we need to actually have democracy in the U.S. Senate again.
So, yes, Medicare for all is where we need to go. In the interim, we're going to do everything we can to start lowering prescription drug prices and health insurance premiums and prices, but we need to get to Medicare for all to guarantee every single person the health care that they need and deserve.
TAPPER: In your vision of Medicare for all, would that be the end of private health insurance?
EL-SAYED: No, not necessarily. I travel the state and I talk to union members all the time, who say, look, we gave up increases in wages to be able to win good health care, and we're worried about what that might mean.
To me, Medicare for all is not about what it takes away. It's about what it offers, guaranteed health insurance from cradle to grave that you don't lose by turning 26 or turning 65 or getting married, getting divorced, getting a job, losing a job. It's there for you as you need it, and it will be good wherever you need to get your health care.
It's not about taking anything away. It's about adding the guarantee, the security of having health insurance in your life in the way that seniors across this country have been able to benefit from. And it would make this more sustainable for seniors as well.
The best single thing you could do to make Medicare more sustainable for our seniors is to make sure young people, who tend to pay more into the system than they take out, are in that system, instead of paying money into the pockets of health insurance CEOs.
TAPPER: Your victory on Tuesday was big, and you beat the Democratic establishment, no question. I'm not trying to take away from it. But you want a plurality, not a majority, and more than 700,000 Democrats in Michigan voted for your opponent.
And now Mike Rogers, your Republican opponent, is trying to talk to those voters. What kind of work do you have to do to unify Democrats behind you in Michigan?
EL-SAYED: Yes, it was a hotly contested primary, and we aired our differences.
But, in the end, the voters in the Democratic Party in the state of Michigan voted, and they picked a future where we get money out of politics, put money in your pocket, pass Medicare for all. But the differences that we hashed out are so much smaller than the
similarities that we share, a responsibility to stand up to Donald Trump and the ways that he's used his power for his own gain, for his family's finances, rather than to improve your family's finances, the recognition that Mike Rogers is nothing more than a corporate shill.
He's never seen a corporate PAC check he didn't want, helped to architect the opioid epidemic back when I was in high school, voted 19 times to raise prescription drug prices, moved to Florida, made $14 million he doesn't really want to explain.
So this is a guy who has no business in the U.S. Senate, and all of us agree. And so you're seeing folks come together and say, listen, despite the fact that we hashed out our differences in that long, hard-fought primary, this is the opportunity right now to unite around what needs to be done.
And that's holding the Trump administration accountable, rather than sending a guy who's going to be a rubber stamp on everything that Trump wants to continue to do that's making life less affordable for Michiganders and life harder for the rest of us, for all of us.
TAPPER: One of your former Democratic opponents, state legislator Mallory McMorrow, supports you, endorsed you right out of the gate. But she says she told you that, in her view, you need to improve on -- quote -- "being able to recognize that there are good people who just have a slightly different world view. It's not turning everybody into an enemy" -- unquote.
It was a similar criticism to what we heard from "New York Times" columnist Michelle Goldberg, who wrote that you have -- quote -- "a blind spot, one endemic to his movement, and inability to grasp how and why people of good faith might see the world differently" -- unquote.
How do you respond to those criticisms?
EL-SAYED: No, I understand that we might see the world differently, but we also recognize the responsibility to come together.
I was grateful for the conversation I got to share with Senator McMorrow, and also grateful for the conversation I got to share with the "New York Times" columnist. We have an opportunity right now to recognize that whatever differences we might have less to do with a moral bankruptcy and a lot more to do with differences in perspective.
But what I will tell you is this. When you look at what Donald Trump is doing, when you look at what Mike Rogers wants to do and has done when he was in Congress, there are big moral questions to be asked. Should you be enriching yourself and your family, to the tune of $2.2 billion, via the presidency?
[09:35:06]
Should you be using corporations as pawns in this game to enrich yourself and giving them favor, so that they can raise rates and prices on all of us? Should you be in a scenario where you're questioning the outcomes of democratic elections? And I question the moral bankruptcy at the heart of that.
Now, look, I have had a lot of different disagreements with some of my Democratic colleagues. And those are disagreements built on good-faith differences when it comes to policy. But this is the time for us to come together now to take on the moral rot at the core of the Trump administration and the moral rot at the core of the corporatism that drives a guy like Mike Rogers.
And I'm looking forward to locking arms to do that.
TAPPER: Speaking of President Trump, last night, he posted on social media a photograph of him and first lady Melania Trump in formal attire next to a photograph of you and your and your wife. You appear to be in a in a restaurant booth or something. Your wife is a psychiatrist. She's wearing a hijab.
The caption was "two very different Americas."
What was your response when you saw that?
EL-SAYED: Yes, he's right, one in which your overlords are two people who don't like each other, but joint in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you, or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family and know that that family is going to have the good things.
So, yes, you got two different visions of America. Donald Trump's vision is the one you're living in right now. Can you afford your gas? Can you afford your groceries? Do you believe, when you look your kids in the eye, that they're going to have a better future than you did?
And Sarah and I are running because, when we look our daughters in the eye, Emmalee and Serene, we want them to believe that they're every bit as able to have a better future than the one that they could have had under the Trump administration, that they can live together with their sisters and their brothers in America in a way where they lock arms to build the good things that they deserve together.
Where they know they will have the health care that they need and good jobs, and that they don't have to go 15 minutes and know that there are kids who live 15 minutes away whose lives are very, very different than theirs because we have been for far too long OK with a level of inequality in this country.
I want them to live in an America where they can breathe clean air and drink clean water. And, actually, Sarah and I like each other. I don't know about the first lady and the president, but, from what I have heard, it's a bit of a rocky road.
TAPPER: Breaking this morning is the news that you spoke with President Obama. Is he going to campaign with you? Tell us about the conversation. EL-SAYED: I like to keep private conversations private, but it was a
really, really warm conversation. I was really grateful for his advice.
And we have got a long road to go here, but we're perfectly unified in the need to win Michigan, take back the Senate, and hold Donald Trump Accountable. And I was just really, really appreciative of him, his advice.
I mean, this is a guy who I watched come up. I never saw myself in politics until I saw him give that 2004 speech on the DNC floor. It's the first time I ever saw myself reflected in politics at all. So it was just really an honor to get to share a conversation, to hear his advice on the campaign.
And I'm looking forward to moving forward here in this campaign with that advice to think through how we build the kind of political movement that gets money out of politics, put money in your pocket, and passes Medicare for all.
TAPPER: He won Michigan twice, as I'm sure I don't need to tell you. Do you expect that he will come and campaign for you?
EL-SAYED: I hope so. But, obviously, we have got a lot more to do here. But it was a really, really warm conversation, and I was really, really grateful for his advice and his mentorship.
TAPPER: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, thank you so much. Congratulations again.
EL-SAYED: Thank you.
TAPPER: I should note that we also invited the Republican Senate nominee, Mike Rogers, to join us. We hope to have him on the show soon.
Coming up next: The Democratic Socialist candidate in Wisconsin has come under a torrent of criticism this week, but, on Tuesday, will she win anyway?
My panel is back after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:43:27]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE BUTTIGIEG, FORMER U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: It's no secret that we all may not have voted the same way on Tuesday. That's OK. That's how it works. But however you voted in Tuesday's primaries, there is a reason you went out and voted in the first place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Relatively new Michigander Pete Buttigieg rallying Democrats behind Abdul El-Sayed.
Can the party unify? Do some divisions run too deep?
My panel is back to discuss.
Neera, I'm curious as to what your take is on Abdul El-Sayed. He is, my view, very on message.
TANDEN: Yes.
TAPPER: And it really shows what primaries can do for a candidate.
TANDEN: I think, when he's talking about how to how the biggest concern for working-class people is the costs that Donald Trump is creating, I think that's a message very unifying for Democrats, and also puts Rogers on his heels.
I think that's where the conversation should go. And when it's on that plane, that's a plane that can unite moderates, liberals, and even attract independents and hopefully some Republicans.
TAPPER: We are all watching your home state of Wisconsin this week, because the heated Democratic primary for governor, your old position, is going to come to a close.
Democratic Socialist candidate Francesca Hong is soaking up a lot of attention here in D.C. She is, I think, according to polls, leading in the polls there a multi-candidate primary. What do you see happening?
WALKER: I would be shocked if she didn't win, and by a significant margin. I think it'll be much, much bigger margin than what we saw in the close Senate race there, in large part because the governor, Tony Evers, just recently came out for a different candidate, said that she thought -- or he thought that Hong couldn't win.
[09:45:07]
But I think it's a little -- too little, too late. And as Republicans, we like to phrase it as common sense versus crazy. I would say, in this case, she wins, we will phrase it as common sense versus dangerously crazy, and things like abolishing the police and pushing back on the economy and embracing policies that have failed in places like Venezuela.
TAPPER: What do you think?
TRENT: I mean, I think that's a standard response from any Republican, right?
I think that Hong is more in line with the Wisconsin that I respect and admire, one that led the progressive movement, one that enabled -- it was the first state to enact unemployment benefits for workers, right? I think that Wisconsin has a rich history, and I think Hong, sort of with her cranes and trains and her idea of moving $2 billion from building data centers, maybe, instead of that, we build schools and hospitals and infrastructure with that money. I think that Hong actually, if you get beyond some of the stuff that
we like to play on TV or on social media, she much more represents the history of what Wisconsin is and who it is and who those people are and what they're trying to do.
And she's looking at, what should the government do for you, as opposed to just, what's the latest polling going to do? And I think that's important.
TAPPER: This is not Bob La Follette's time.
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: But -- but he is right that there is a socialist history to the state of Wisconsin.
Can a populist economic message, the like -- the likes that Corbin was just saying, beat her -- her comments in the past about how there shouldn't be Thanksgiving, et cetera?
SOLTIS ANDERSON: I think that this is a Tea Party moment for the Democrats. And when I say that, a lot of my Democratic friends recoil, because they think, oh, the Tea Party was icky, gross. Like, we're not doing that.
But the Tea Party movement on the Republican side did, I think, completely transform, in some cases reinvigorate pieces of the party. You have some people who were elected out of that movement who said, look, the establishment is tired, they're old, we're done with it, and you had folks like Marco Rubio come out of that movement.
TAPPER: Yes.
SOLTIS ANDERSON: But you also did in the 2010 election have some seats that get left on the table because parties in primaries chose someone that was just outside of the mainstream of what their state would do.
And so Republicans could have had Senate seats in Delaware, in Nevada, in Colorado maybe even that year that they left on the table because of candidates coming out of that movement. And right now on the Democratic side, this sort of increasing DSA power within the Dems, it's mostly been confined to blue areas where it hasn't really led to they have lost a governorship, they lost a Senate seat.
TAPPER: Right, the Philly congressional seat or Mayor Mamdani in New York, right.
SOLTIS ANDERSON: Right.
This would be one of the first times where we're really seeing them actually throw a seat away or put a seat in serious jeopardy by nominating someone so far outside the mainstream.
(CROSSTALK) WALKER: Well, you mentioned the Thanksgiving tweet. Now, that's a minimal thing in the larger picture, but it is interesting, because, in my state, a swing state that goes back and forth, can elect liberal, conservative, what they like, whether it was me, Tommy Thompson, Tammy Baldwin, even Russ Feingold, is people who are authentic, who are actually who they were.
She started out with a tweet earlier in the week that said cancel Thanksgiving from the past. Then it was, oh, no, no, on CNN, she said, oh, actually, I cook for Thanksgiving, but this is a painful time for some people in our community.
By the end of the week, it was, I love Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday. Next week, she will be wearing a Thanksgiving outfit. I think people say that -- look at that and say, this is someone who now wants to say anything to get elected.
Contrast that to Tom Tiffany, who's low-key, but steady. That's the kind of person who wins in a swing state.
TAPPER: Neera, I know you have seen and weighed in on an interesting back and forth between Francesca Hong and David Axelrod, the Democratic consultant. Here's the post that started it.
Axelrod said: "It would be good for Abdul El-Sayed if Francesca Hong loses her bid to become the Democratic nominee in Wisconsin. He is a serious person. She is a font of zany liberal faculty lounge exotica, but the Republicans hoping to deflect attention from an unpopular president, blah, blah, blah, would surely try to link Abdul and Hong as philosophical kin."
Hong responded in part: "This tweet is a perfect example of why the consultant class keeps losing elections."
Your thoughts.
TANDEN: I mean, I worry about this race. Some of these comments are going to put this race in jeopardy.
I mean, I obviously think Tom Tiffany is a horrible governor candidate and very right-wing for the state. And so I hope they -- there's a selection on Tuesday that makes this race clear and easy for voters to actually distinguish.
But I worry, I genuinely worry that a lot of working-class people are looking at this race and saying, who represents me? And I totally understand the history of Wisconsin, but this is also a state that Trump won twice, not 20 years ago, not 40 years ago, not 30 years ago.
(CROSSTALK)
TRENT: And the question is, why? Why did Trump win it? And that's the thing that I think really divides the Democratic Party, is because what they don't under -- what -- the question is, why?
I think he won these states, states like mine, the states that Bill Clinton won twice, Tennessee, right, I think that we, the Democratic Party, lost these states because we stopped caring about people's lives. We stopped -- we got caught in this sort of like prism of what's possible. And it's so narrow.
[09:50:03]
The ability of government to improve lives became so narrow that we stopped trying. And I think that people are tired of that. And that's why they went to Trump.
TANDEN: Yes. And this is...
TAPPER: Final word.
TANDEN: I will just say, I think this is a perfect distillation, because I agree with you that the Democrat and Republican Party have to have to represent working-class people.
But I think one of the reasons why some of the progressive candidates are losing working-class people, and you have to -- you have to acknowledge that -- even in these primaries is because working-class people can be more moderate on some social and cultural issues. And that's the real problem in this state.
And they can be very populist, and they should be, on working-class issues and economic issues.
TRENT: And yet they're not.
TAPPER: This is a phenomenal panel. Can we -- control room, can we have them back?
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: When we come back: How do Republicans solve a problem -- how do you solve a problem like Max Miller? They may not be able to.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:55:32]
TAPPER: It looks as though time has run out for the Republican establishment to resolve their Max Miller problem.
The two-term Ohio Republican congressman has been under pressure from his party to drop his reelection bid amid allegations of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, allegations he denies. Republican Party leaders technically have until 4:00 p.m. tomorrow to replace him, but that window may have already realistically closed, as the law requires two days' notice.
Congressman Miller told me last week he's following a very clear precedent in crisis planning here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAX MILLER (R-OH): In 2016, when President Donald J. Trump faced the most extreme allegations in the world that hit him day after day after day, guess what? He stayed in and he was resilient. I'm going to continue to push. I am going to win this race.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: He is following the Trump model.
Thanks for spending your Sunday morning with us.
"FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" starts next.
