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State of the Union

Interview With Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD); Interview With Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA). Aired 9-10a ET

Aired August 16, 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)

[09:00:40]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Calling the shots? President Trump works to upend vaccinations for American kids.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nothing bad can happen.

TAPPER: My next guest says the president is flat-out wrong. But after the president's order, is it too late? Republican Health Committee Chairman and doctor Senator Bill Cassidy joins me next.

Plus: Whose party? Establishment Democrats pull off a key win, but the progressive influence is growing. What message are Democratic Party leaders taking away?

GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD): We don't govern on ideologies. We govern on results.

TAPPER: Maryland Governor and potential 2028 hopeful Wes Moore is ahead.

And off to the races. With his influence and presidency on the line, new signs this weekend Trump is turning to the midterms.

TRUMP: I will never apologize. I did the right thing.

TAPPER: And how is 2026 setting the stage for 2028? My political panel breaks it all down.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, where the state of our union is looking ahead to the midterms and beyond.

America has seldom felt more divided in the modern era. And with just months until voters are able to voice their frustrations at the ballot box, the nation's leaders on both sides are feeling stressed.

The Democratic Party yesterday emphasized their need to come together again after a bruising primary season where Democrats have disagreed sharply about how to capitalize on their voter anger with President Trump, as there are more signs this weekend, the president is engaging to try and stave off major GOP losses.

CNN has learned Trump has given the green light to spend millions from his personal PAC on midterm races. The president is said to finally be preparing to ratchet up his own campaign appearances, one adviser said.

But President Trump has dug himself into quite a whole politically. He is brushing off concerns about higher gas prices and conditions for U.S. troops overseas amid the war on Iran.

This week, he took another step that is unpopular with a wide swathe of voters on vaccines for children, signing an executive order aimed at reducing the number of childhood vaccines, as he made a number of false and misleading claims that threaten to further undermine trust in science and medicine at a time when measles cases are growing.

Joining me now is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is also a physician.

Chairman Cassidy, thanks for joining us.

So, President Trump said he wants to split the MMR, measles, mumps, and rubella, vaccine into three separate shots. So that would be a total of six shots, despite objections to this from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, and Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Here is what the president said:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Nothing bad can happen from what we're doing. Nothing bad can happen. The worst thing that would happen would be nothing happens. We're not going to lose anything. At the same time, we could gain tremendous. We save hundreds of thousands of lives, millions of lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: This is all really confusing for a lot of parents out there. You're a doctor. Is the president right that breaking up the MMR will save millions of lives and that nothing bad can happen because of these changes?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): If it wasn't so potentially tragic, you would break out laughing at a comment like that.

But let's just take it from the perspective of the parent. Now, instead of going to the doctor twice to get their child vaccinated, they have to go six times. Instead of the child getting two jabs, they get six jabs.

Instead of mom or dad missing work twice, coming out of their pocket, if you will, to take their child to the doctor, they have to miss work or take vacation or personal leave six times. This is inconvenient. It's going to contribute to an increased loss of income.

By the way, instead of the insurance company paying for two doctors' visits, they're paying for six, which is going to ultimately drive up premiums going after affordability. And it will do nothing for things like autism. So -- in fact, it'll be counterproductive.

And so it is wrong on so many levels. And this is, frankly, why the -- I think the president's accused of losing focus on affordability. This is working backwards on affordability.

Now, by the way, MAHA wants fewer jobs, not more. This substitutes two jabs with six jabs. And so even the people he's trying to appeal to have to scratch their head and think, what in the hell is going on here? So the president's wrong. There's a lot of bad things that will come out of this.

[09:05:13]

TAPPER: But what about the effect potentially on children's health?

CASSIDY: Totally.

Again, as a physician who has seen people either die or get seriously ill from diseases that can be prevented by vaccines, this has the potential to decrease the protection that a child would receive against diseases which can be deadly.

And so that's why Jay Bhattacharya, by the way, the NIH director, a physician, the president's appointee, when he said that this has nothing -- that vaccines have never been shown to have any influence over the incidence of autism, is kind of like, the only rationale for this, a doctor with credibility from the administration saying there's no rationale for it.

So I will go back to, if you want to do something which is good for the child's health, for the parent's pocketbook, for the convenience of the family, this is the wrong thing to do. And we should be focused on those things. We should be about the parent, not about some prejudice that somebody has.

TAPPER: So President Trump also claimed that the combined MMR vaccine could be -- quote -- "quite lethal." He referred to it as sort of like a nuclear weapon. He said he's seen proof that the size of combined vaccines are comparable to what he called a bottle of soda, a large vat, or what seemingly looks like gallons being pumped into a child's body.

You said someone needs to stand up to -- quote -- "crazy, stupid things being said that undermine faith in immunization" -- unquote. Is President Trump saying some of these -- quote -- "crazy, stupid things"?

CASSIDY: Yes, that's a crazy, stupid thing.

And, by the way, let's go back to it. Instead of the child getting two shots, they're getting six. Instead of mom and dad missing work twice to bring the child to the doctor, they're missing six times. And instead of the insurance company paying for two visits, they're paying for six, which is going to drive up the cost of the premium.

So it's -- the child is going to get more jabs, the parent is going to lose money, and -- directly. And, indirectly, premiums are going up, which works against affordability. This is why the president's poll numbers are going down, because people don't perceive that he knows the reality of their life.

The reality of their life is that the current regime has been put in place precisely for the convenience of the child, for the convenience of the parent, and to prevent disease.

TAPPER: Yes.

CASSIDY: This is going backwards. We need to go forwards.

TAPPER: The new CDC director, Erica Schwartz, said that she would follow the Hippocratic oath and first do no harm and never compromise on the science. You said this week you expect she will -- quote -- "do the right thing."

What is the right thing?

CASSIDY: The right thing is to listen to the people that have studied, how do you make this more convenient for the parent, how do you make it more affordable for the parent, and how do you make it most likely to prevent disease?

And that's the current regimen. By the way, it's more likely to prevent disease. Who wants their child to be sick? But the president's proposal is going to end up with more children being sick. And so who wants that? No one should want that. And I'm pretty sure, in fact, I'm positive, that Dr. Schwartz will not want children to be sick.

TAPPER: Dr. Paul Offit, who's a vaccine expert, told me this week that this new push by the president and RFK Jr. will lead to more deaths. Do you agree?

CASSIDY: If -- the potential for a child to miss a follow-up visit is going to be greater if the child has to have six follow-up visits, as opposed to two.

There was a case...

(COUGHING)

CASSIDY: I'm sorry.

There was a case a few months ago about a woman who was pregnant and she was exposed to someone who had not been vaccinated. She got -- she -- I think for measles or mumps. She got infected when she was pregnant, and the child spontaneous -- her unborn child spontaneously aborted.

If you're pro-life, you should be pro-vaccine. This child was lost because someone was not immunized. By the way, when someone is pregnant, their immunity, their innate immunity can decline. So it's important to have people around them immunized to protect the mama, whose immunity may fall during pregnancy. That is being pro-life.

And so, yes, if someone's less likely to be immunized because, my gosh, now it's six visits you have to follow up on, instead of two, then someone -- absolutely, there's an increased risk for going to the hospital -- for getting sick, going to the hospital and/or death.

TAPPER: Last week, when you were asked if you regret your vote to confirm Secretary Kennedy to HHS, you noted that you couldn't see into the future at the time. You couldn't see that he was not going to honor his promises to you to get your vote.

How do you respond to the criticism that you didn't need to look to the future, you just needed to look to the past, because Secretary Kennedy, RFK Jr., has been spreading disinformation about vaccines for 22 years?

CASSIDY: Yes, again, people always want to bring that up.

[09:10:00]

And all I can say is, you have to you have to live life living forward. And, in fact, I think actually people bringing this up now distract from actually what we should be speaking about. We should have positive -- in fact, you're playing into this.

Yes, we should have positive policy to improve the health of the American people. We should be really about making America healthy again, and that means that we should be working to increase immunization rates, not to decrease them.

And the policy that the president just put forward is going to decrease immunization rates, aside from being less convenient and costing families more. And, frankly, that should be -- that is where the focus should be.

TAPPER: I want to ask you about Todd Blanche, because I know you had misgivings before you voted to confirm him as attorney general.

A few days after his confirmation, he appeared at an event alongside President Trump and the Republican candidate running for the governor of New York. And the event seemed to be pretty partisan. And then, at the event, Attorney General Blanche praised the Republican running for New York governor.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We just heard from our great Nassau County executive, Bruce Blakeman, who is doing everything we need him to do to back the blue, to support law enforcement.

(CHEERING) (END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: We're just a few months from the midterms. No Democrat spoke at the rally. A lot of Democrats considered it to be overtly political.

Do you think it's appropriate for the attorney general of the United States to be participating in an event like that 81 days before the midterms?

CASSIDY: All I saw was that little snippet. So I'm going to reserve comment because I was not aware of that before this.

I will say that Republicans are very strong on law enforcement. And the president has been strong on law enforcement. And Todd Blanche has been strong on law enforcement. But -- but, Jake, with all due respect, I had never heard anything about that rally until this very minute, so I will reserve comment on that.

TAPPER: I know you and some other senators, mostly other retiring senators, want to reform Social Security before you leave office in January, because the Social Security trust fund's going to start to run out in only six years. And people would see their monthly Social Security checks cut by 22 percent, if not more.

You want to set up a process to present bills that force votes and put Congress on the clock to shore up the program. Do you think there are enough members of the Republican Party willing to take this on heading into the midterms?

CASSIDY: Yes, so far -- simple answer, yes.

And, of course, there are Democrats who would too. Unfortunately, there's key -- there's key people who don't want to do so. Last week, I proposed something that would set up that process. I'm working with Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership. Ron Wyden came down and said, no, we don't even want to set up a process. We don't even want to take on the issue.

And Congress has got to do something. Senators should step forward to say, we need to do our job, not play politics with an issue. By the way, what we're trying to do doesn't tell us what the solution is going to be. There's going to be lots of public input. It just sets up a process where a solution would be presented to Congress to vote on.

And so, if a senator comes down and says, no, we don't even want to process, they clearly don't want to take on the issue. They don't want to do their job as a senator, which is to address a major issue for the United States of America, which is making sure that senators still get their Social Security.

Incredibly frustrating. The Congress needs to do its job.

TAPPER: Chairman Cassidy, thank you so much. Appreciate your time today, sir.

CASSIDY: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: My next guest is on the ballot this year. Does he think Democrats are having their own Tea Party moment? Maryland Governor Wes Moore joins me next.

And President Trump revealing more about his midterm strategy. Will it work?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:03]

TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

It is official. The Democratic Party voted yesterday to move South Carolina and Nevada up to the front of their 2028 primary calendar, part of their goal to elevate the more diverse voices in the Democratic Party.

And it all comes at a time of confusion for Democratic Party leaders, as voters give mixed signals about what kinds of candidates they want.

Joining us now is Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore, who is up for reelection this fall.

Governor, thanks so much for joining us.

So, this year, we have seen many Democratic incumbents losing to more progressive candidates or even Democratic socialists. In an interview you did with The Root earlier this month, you said -- quote -- "When people start looking to other people or other places or other ideologies, generally, it's because they're not happy with yours" -- unquote.

And you suggested that means -- quote -- "Maybe it's time to look in a mirror" -- unquote.

So, let's be direct here, Governor. Which Democratic policies or Democratic leaders do you think need to change?

MOORE: I think any Democratic policy that's not focusing on what people are feeling right now and the status quo protection has got to go.

And I think that's not just a message that we are hearing loud and clear right now. Frankly, it's a message that we heard loud and clear four years ago, when I was first elected as governor. I had never run for political office before in my life. I'd never come from a political background or political family.

But I said that we're going to come in and we're going to take commonsense policies, we're going to move with a sense of speed, and we are going to disrupt the status quo, and we ended up winning overwhelmingly.

And so I think we're seeing how this is a continued trend, where people want us to focus on pathways to work and wages and wealth. Are you making things more affordable inside of your communities? Are you making sure that you can build housing faster? Are you ensuring that you can have safe streets?

Because, if you're just leading in a way that's doing a protection of the problems that have been -- that people are feeling right now, then I think the people are speaking loud and clear that they do not want you representing them.

[09:20:04]

TAPPER: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seems to have acknowledged the overreach of the 2020 era of progressivism last week. She said -- quote -- "Woke one was crazy. Woke 1.0 was crazy."

You were asked about that. You said you didn't know what woke one was. So I have been trying to figure out how to ask this question. There's no official definition. I think woke one generally refers to what are now viewed as excesses of the progressive movement, defund the police, a far left view of the world that views the world in terms of only oppressor and oppressee, language policing, holiday policing, cancel culture, positions that turned off a lot of middle-of-the-road voters.

What is your take on that era, even if that wasn't part of how you ran or thought or governed? And what does the Democratic Party need to do if you if they hope to win outside of blue states and congressional districts?

MOORE: Well, it's funny. It's true. I said I don't know what woke one is, but, frankly, I don't know what woke two or woke three is either.

Just last night, I was over at -- watching our Shorebirds play, which is our Single-A affiliate for the Baltimore Orioles over here on the Eastern Shore. And I was speaking to a woman who was just saying how difficult it is right now, when she was saying how gas prices just continue to spike, and she's a person who's on disability.

She says she can't work because of her back, and she's now noticing that just getting anywhere, to her doctor's appointments are now becoming oppressively expensive because of gas prices. And I think, when we're talking about those issues, what she didn't come up to me, she didn't come up to me and say, what's your political ideology? She didn't say, what wing of the party do you represent?

She was talking about the fact that gas prices are too high.

TAPPER: Yes.

MOORE: And I think that that's the thing we have to better appreciate is, when people are talking about this, Washington oftentimes can play this political science 101 game.

But that's not where people are. They are just hurting. And they're looking for someone who is going to honor their promises because, as the woman last night told me at the Shorebirds game, she's like, the president said he was going to do something about this, and it's only gotten worse under him.

That's the thing I think people are so frustrated about, and people want to see real results being delivered, like what we're working to do here in the state of Maryland.

TAPPER: So let's talk about affordability, because I hear that too all the time from people outside Washington, D.C., and inside Washington, D.C.

One of the big issues is gas prices, as you note. Another one is health care costs. And I know you have been working on lowering the cost of health care for Maryland residents through subsidies or through expanding programs that are there.

And on a more basic level, though, the CEOs of two top health insurance companies reportedly earned close to $23 million last year. Another received a one-time $60 million in equity, while the price of health care coverage for an employee's family has risen 26 percent over the past five years.

I guess, just as a more basic question, do you think the health care industry, in terms of the record profits of billions of dollars, in terms of these CEOs making tens of millions of dollars, is the health care industry extracting too much money from the system so as to pay executives and satisfy shareholders? And, if so, what needs to be done about it?

MOORE: Yes.

And, also, I think you're seeing that not just in the health care industry. I think you're seeing that across industries. Right now, we're watching how the stock market continues to explode. We're watching record highs within the stock market, particularly in equities, particularly driven by like seven different companies, and at the same time you're watching unemployment go up.

And so what have we done inside of the state of Maryland? For example, you take a look at utilities. We passed the Utility Relief Act in Maryland, which didn't only put hundreds of dollars back in the pockets of the people of Maryland.

But we also put restrictions on executive pay as well, that, if you look at what happened with the state of Maryland for health care, that we have been one of the most aggressive states in the country when it comes to things like affordability and accessibility, having the -- having our PDAB, our Prescription Drugs Affordability Board, which is bringing down the cost of prescription drugs for our people in Maryland, and specifically our seniors.

Being able to make sure we have greater access to not just prescription drugs, but also generic drug access, that can come back and help to bring the cost down, and being able to make sure that we can get more people covered, and having a unique payback model with our hospitals and our institutions.

And so I think, if people were going to really understand how we can drive down these costs in a real and a scalable way, look to the states, because I think the states are actually doing an important -- are really doing important work. And our states really are becoming these laboratories of saying that affordability, accessibility should not have to be mutually exclusive goals, and there has to be accountability for our executives as well.

TAPPER: You're a veteran, so I wanted to ask you about a big story in the news this week.

[09:25:04]

Conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is deployed in the Middle East, 200 family members of the crew voiced concerns over mental health and safety conditions on the ship to senior military officials last week. President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth have been dismissing those claims, pooh-poohing them, saying the media is suggesting we're un-American for reporting on these, saying that we're not representing the troops.

You served in the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan. What's your reaction to this story?

MOORE: I mean, not only are these conditions and the reports of the conditions heartbreaking. The response of the president the president of the United States pisses me off. And it should piss all of us off.

But you know what? I would have hoped that, since he's never been forward-deployed, since he's never put on the uniform and sacrificed for this country, that he would have more compassion for the people who are willing to, that he would have more compassion for their family members, who are willing to offer their loved ones to this country because they love this country so much.

And instead of saying, I'm going to look into this, and I'm going to get to the root of this, and I'm going to figure out what's going on, and we are going to make sure we're protecting those who are willing to protect us, his response is, their deployments haven't lasted long enough, while he continues to rake in billions of dollars on a war that nobody understands and that all of us are paying for.

And so the same frustrations that I had when this war first started about you are -- you're putting us into a situation where our military can do anything, but we shouldn't be asked to do everything, and now we are continuing to fight this foreign forever war for a commander in chief who seems to have not one modicum of concern for the people who are out there fighting it, nor for the family members who are not in contact with their loved ones.

And so I would just hope that, as the president of the United States, but, more importantly, as the commander in chief, you would actually have more concern for your people and have more concern for not just their well-being, but also putting them in missions that are explainable, that are understandable, and that are winnable, because, right now, frankly, we're not seeing any of those things taking place with this with this war in Iran that he started.

TAPPER: Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Democrat, thank you so much for your time today, sir.

MOORE: Thank you so much.

TAPPER: What the family of a service member aboard the USS Lincoln is telling me about conditions on that ship, as the president brushes it all off, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:32:00]

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's infuriating that they're not taking accountability and not having any sort of sympathy for our service members that they claim to scream and shout that they support when it's politically sound for them to use, support our troops, support our troops, until our troops need support.

And now suddenly everyone's lying, and it's a fabrication and it's a misrepresentation? It's infuriating.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: That was the wife of a U.S. service member aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln talking to me on Friday about President Trump and Secretary Hegseth downplaying concerns about conditions aboard that carrier.

My panel joins me to discuss.

What do you make of this controversy?

KRISTIN DAVISON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, first of all, we need to not let the politics distract that, obviously, we have service men and women who are out there putting their lives on the line for the United States and respect that.

I think the president was asked a question about how long a deployment should be. Of course, he's not going to say something is too short or long and signal to our enemies around the world what our timeline would be.

But I do think there is an opportunity here to show empathy and to get information out there, right, get information out there. I do think the Democrats that are pouncing on this should also reevaluate their decision not to support the $17 billion in military operational funds, which probably could help making sure these vessels are stocked as they go through these deployments.

Kristin was referring to comments that President Trump made. Let's roll those comments, when asked about the conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Family members of U.S. service members are concerned about the conditions on board the USS Lincoln.

TRUMP: Well, no, that ship is moving.

No, they're not.

QUESTION: Have the deployments gone on too long?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: No, no, no, not nearly long enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Your thoughts?

FAIZ SHAKIR, FORMER BERNIE SANDERS 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, we know that there was very little planning that went into this war.

It started as a whim, I think, influenced by AIPAC and others, and there was -- as you see, there's little supplies, there's little weaponry, and now we have got conditions for soldiers worsening. And there's no end in sight.

I mean, it's almost a game for the president. He will play games. Maybe tonight, he will he will tweet or put up a post saying, Iran is maybe angry or that we're close to resolution. God only knows. Meanwhile, small business owners, who are relying on energy input costs are struggling. They can't plan week to week.

You think of the workers who are struggling with just the costs, thinking about the next two months, how am I going to deal?

It feels like there's just a callousness, a hubris, a sense that I don't really care or am connected. This week, the president said economy's going great from the perspective of Wall Street. Yes, it is going great from the perspective of Wall Street.

You should go meet regular America and tell me about how the economy's gone, and maybe it would drive you to ending this war, as it needs to be done.

TAPPER: Scott?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, the fact that the George Washington is on its way, I think actions here speak louder than words or talking points, and sounds like they want to relieve the Lincoln. Sounds like a good decision.

I agree with Kristin. I don't think the president should be communicating ever what the limitations of our military are. In fact, I think people who are talking about the weapons issues or missiles, whether we have enough, whether we don't, anybody leaking information like that is doing a great disservice to the men and women who are in theater who are fighting this war right now. So...

[09:35:13]

TAPPER: You're talking about the depletion of the stockpiles.

JENNINGS: Yes, I mean, we heard it here this morning.

And so I question the leaking and the distribution of information that would give our enemies around the world any sort of aid and comfort or any sort of idea that we're not up to the challenge. I think the men and women of the U.S. military are the finest fighting force in the world. I think they ought to have as good a conditions as you can give somebody in an active war zone.

And I think you ought to give them the most weapons they could possibly have. And when you do those, we cannot do those.

SHAKIR: You don't think we have enough defense spending in this country?

JENNINGS: Absolutely not. We need more.

SHAKIR: If you want to get the backs of these soldiers, you're not saying, hey, if you have a problem, we're going to just overlook it and not talk about it?

JENNINGS: We need more defense spending, and the Democrats in Congress ought to support resupplying our military and beefing -- it's a dangerous world. We need more.

TAPPER: Daniella?

DANIELLA GIBBS LEGER, FORMER OBAMA SENIOR ADVISER: Listen, I don't want to gloss over what has happened here, is that the president of the United States and our commander in chief downplayed, gaslit, and just made people who are talking to their loved ones in real time on the ship feel like they're not supported by the person who's sending their loved ones into danger.

I don't expect the president to talk about intricate military details. That's something for somebody else on his staff to leak to the press. But I expect him to actually lead. I expect him to show some sort of empathy. I expect him to not just say things are going great, when, obviously, they're not, and to make these families who have been suffering and are worried about their loved ones feel like they shouldn't be, when their own president's saying everything is fine.

TAPPER: As you noted, one of the effects of this war, obviously -- obviously having to do with Iran shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, is higher gas prices.

And President Trump has gone from promising $2-a-gallon gas prices to, well, a different message. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think you're going to be at $2 a gallon with cars very shortly, $2. It was $4, $5 under the Democrats. For you to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline, we don't want

to have them have a nuclear weapon. So, remember that when you have to pay a little bit more. You're at $4. It's OK. I mean, it's -- I'm not -- I'm not -- I will never apologize. I did the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I mean, going from criticizing Democrats for $4 a gallon to now saying it's a little bit more, $4 a gallon?

DAVISON: Well, I think the president have a certain has a certain way of communicating, and we have learned that no one can do it like him.

I will say, I think Senator Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania has been one of the best on this. He recently -- last month, an interviewer, he said, look, there was a decision here. The president made a decision to make the world a safer place to make sure that Iran did not have a nuclear weapon. That was a decision he made. Now, when I go to Pennsylvania and I see my constituents, they're still paying $4 for gas. So we have to show that we understand that, and we're there with them.

So I think there are two different messengers here. The president, he has an entire decades-long experience of communicating, which is different. Each member, each person that is either in the Senate or the House or governors, whatever leadership position you are, has an ability to go and say, yes, this was the goal, to make our world safer, we know you're hurting, it'll be over soon.

SHAKIR: President Trump is correct that oil and gas companies are raking in huge profits during this time. And he's called out people like Chevron, Exxon.

And then the question is, well, what are you going to do about it? I mean, obviously, we got to end the war. Why wouldn't you be imposing an oil profits windfall tax, for instance, right now, really getting some of the money back and delivering it in the form of a gas stimulus check to working families?

I haven't even seen any proposals or suggestions along these lines. And if you really cared about gas prices, you don't just complain about it, talk about it. You say, here's a proposal, a solution. We know who's profiting off of this right now.

TAPPER: All right, everyone, stick around. We have a lot more to talk about, new midterm polls and what they show about progressives rising in the Democratic Party.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:43:21]

TAPPER: The Democratic establishment pulled off a narrow win in Wisconsin this past week and just announced a new 2028 primary calendar aimed at elevating more diverse voices in the Democratic Party.

My panel is back with me.

Let's talk about the fact that South Carolina is now going to be the first primary for Democrats, followed by Nevada, followed by New Hampshire. Good move, bad move? What do you think?

GIBBS LEGER: Great move.

I think it's really important that, if you're going to win the nomination, you need to be able to compete everywhere and compete amongst different constituency groups. So I think this is a great solution. I know they have been talking about this forever. I think it's a good map.

TAPPER: What do you think?

JENNINGS: The last attempt to keep the socialists from taking over the Democratic Party. I assume you hate this, because that's all it is.

SHAKIR: I don't.

JENNINGS: It's a naked partisan political play to try to keep the establishment Democrats, which are fading away right now, in power.

And we will see if it works. I think, if you talk to Democrats behind the scenes, they're cackling about how they have pulled one over on the socialists. And so I don't I don't know if it's going to work, but that's what it is.

TAPPER: Well, you're the progressive at the table. Do you hate this as much as Scott...

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS LEGER: Hey. I'm right here.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: OK. I apologize.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: I just -- he worked for Bernie Sanders. He worked for Bernie Sanders. That's all I meant. You are progressive as well. I apologize.

(CROSSTALK)

SHAKIR: I am happy with the calendar. I'm happy with the calendar.

I mean, the most important thing is, you're going to have 500 people run for president here. And you're going to have a winnowing that has to take place. And so the key is that South Carolina will play in an ordinate role, an important role in winnowing. But then you have got to go through the states that you mentioned and Michigan and New Mexico and some others, right, Virginia, I believe.

And so I do think that that process of delaying a Super Tuesday...

TAPPER: Yes.

SHAKIR: ... and allowing a winnowing to take place one by one, and the diversity that you're mentioning of a lot of different class and economic statuses coming out of these primaries will be great.

[09:45:08]

TAPPER: What do you think?

DAVISON: You know, I think they have figured out the logistical path to nomination. Now the Democrat Party has to figure out the soulful path to their identity.

I mean, there's a huge internal war between the far left and the establishment. You look at Wisconsin. I mean, the socialist got 300,000 votes, and she didn't even run a TV ad. I mean, the reason why she lost is because she didn't really campaign, not because she's building up that part of the movement.

That could work in a Democrat primary for president. It's not going to work in a swing state like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin.

TAPPER: Let's look at...

SHAKIR: One point real quick. Just want to make the point that you don't -- you want to fight the influence of big money. And the ability to campaign in some of these smaller states and do it for a full time is important to countering the influence of big dollars buying this election.

TAPPER: So let's look at the midterm polls right now. And let me just caveat it with this is just one set of polls, and this is August. So I don't know.

But this is a FOX News poll. It's a respected poll, despite everything else. Georgia has Democrat Ossoff up 13. Iowa has Democrat Turek up four. North Carolina has Democrat Cooper up nine. Texas has Democrat Talarico up three. Maine has Democrat Jackson up two. Ohio has Sherrod Brown up eight. The only bad news for Democrats in this poll is Michigan, Mike Rogers is above Abdul El-Sayed, plus-four for him.

What do you think, Scott?

JENNINGS: All these races are going to be dogfights until the end. I mean, I do think Democrats have made a huge mistake with Abdul El- Sayed in Michigan. But I think all these races are going to be close. I think the Republicans do have good candidates, and I think the Republicans are going to have plenty of resources.

And I think they have got a story to tell. Just Friday, we learned that, for the first time in 60 years, prescription drug prices are falling. Every single politician everybody here has ever worked for us said they were going to do it. Trump and the Republicans finally did it. There is a story to tell, and there is a bright line contrast to be had in this election.

It's not good enough just to call them socialists. You have to say what you have done and you have to say what the impact of their policies would be. But I think we have got enough candidate quality and talent to do that.

TAPPER: Is a blue wave coming?

GIBBS LEGER: I think so. And, like you said, it's early, so I'm not going to put a whole lot of stock in those numbers.

But I think you're right. There is a story to tell. And the story is that Republicans have been in charge for the past several years. And has your life gotten better or has it gotten worse? That's what people are going to be voting on, not what we say is some narrative about the party and this and that.

That -- we can talk about that around this table, but around kitchen tables across America, they're like, how am I going to put food on the table? How am I going to pay rent? How am I going to make my mortgage? And has my life gotten better since Trump and Republicans took over D.C.?

TAPPER: And, I mean, polling indicates that she's right, that people are saying that their lives are more difficult now.

DAVISON: Right.

I think what we're -- we need to look at this election in different lens. The question, which party, which candidate cares about me has been so important for decades. Democrats had a strong hold on that throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Republicans took it back a little bit in 2010. Trump broke the mold.

We for the first time led on that in 2016, and then Democrats roared back in '18. Right now, it's tied. Right now, both parties, voters are angry. They're angry at both. And they also don't know which party cares about them. So all these races, the tight polling, the up-and- down polling shows to me that neither party has made that case yet.

And so right now we need to do two things as Republicans. We need to, to Scott's point, show here's what we have done so far, but we also understand that you're still hurting, and here's what we're going to do. It's not enough to dismiss that second part.

TAPPER: Faiz, final word? I mean, let me just ask you. I mean, Abdul El-Sayed is the outlier there. Did Democrat establishment candidates and voices have a point when they said they were worried if he could win?

SHAKIR: No. There's another pull out this morning that's showing the fair margin over Rogers. What's going to happen here, I think, is we're going to see young

people turn out in massive numbers for Abdul, which is going to be really fundamental. They didn't -- they weren't on campus in August. They will be in November.

And then I think there's going to be a test of whether the issues of AIPAC, the issues of expanding health care in America, the issues of taking on corporate monopolies, the issues of A.I. regulation, what is different about Abdul is, he's going to come forward with solutions, right?

He's going to suggest, here's an agenda. If you want to solve the problems of health care in America, here's how we could solve it. I do think you have some others in the Democrat who are -- in the Democratic Party who are doing less of agenda-setting.

And I hope that they're watching. We're all watching the Abdul race because I think it'll inspire more people to turn out and I think speak to people who are independents and conservatives who are moving off of Trump, saying, hey -- you look at Mamdani's coalition in New York. He is winning over people who like Trump, who supported Trump.

JENNINGS: Before you speak to all the Republicans and independents, you might want to speak to the black voters in Detroit. They're none too pleased with Abdul El-Sayed. They're interested in Mike Rogers.

I think that's the biggest weakness in these socialist candidates. The Democratic coalition depends on black voters, and they're not there on the...

(CROSSTALK)

SHAKIR: It's a fair point. We're going to have Democratic unification occurring, and I hope President Obama will get out there and others, and I think we will be all right.

TAPPER: All right, thanks, one and all, for being here. Really appreciate it.

Coming up: a grim anniversary and a warning when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:54:31]

TAPPER: It was five years ago this weekend that Kabul and Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, bringing a disastrous end to America's longest war.

The horrific scenes that followed still to this day shock the conscience, the crowds of desperate Afghans on the tarmac or packed into planes trying desperately to escape, or the 13 American service members killed in the Abbey Gate bombing, along with countless Afghan civilians.

[09:55:01] Five years later, more than two million Afghan girls are currently

blocked from attending school by the Taliban, according to UNESCO. It's now legal in Afghanistan for men to beat their wives, as long as they don't break any bones or leave any lasting injuries.

Meanwhile, many Afghans who fought with the U.S., risked their lives for the U.S. remain stranded abroad after the Trump administration halted the Special Immigrant Visa program. And many of those who did make it to the United States to this day live in fear that their green cards will be revoked.

With that legacy from the war in Afghanistan, you can forgive the American people for wondering why they should trust our leaders when they tell us that our brave service members are engaged in a vital mission and when today's leaders glibly dismiss questions about their current mission in Iran, what the endgame is, what's the plan, whether there are adequate protections for our service members in Jordan or Kuwait.

Whether President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are covering up the deaths of Iranian civilians from U.S. strikes or hiding poor conditions for sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. They are just the latest in a tradition that we would struggle to call proud.

Thanks for spending your Sunday morning with us.

"FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" starts next.