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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Marjorie Taylor Greene Quitting Congress Amid Feud With Trump; Trump Says It Was A Great Honor To Meet Mamdani; Democrat Eric Swalwell Joins Race For California Governor. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired November 22, 2025 - 00:00   ET

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

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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: You too Laura, have a great weekend and we start "The Story Is" right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

MICHAELSON: We begin this hour of CNN with breaking news. Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is resigning from Congress. The Georgia representative says she will step down in January, which comes days after her public falling out with President Trump. Greene and Republic -- Greene and Trump, of course, were once staunch allies, but their relationship soured, especially over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. A source says that Greene spent more than a week thinking about resigning as threats against her, escalated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Loyalty should be a two way street, and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district's interests, because our job title is literally representative. Standing up For American women who were raped at 14 years old, trafficked and used by rich, powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So last week, President Trump rescinded his endorsement of Marjorie Taylor Greene. He called her a traitor, as he just said, and she said that those comments have radicalized people and put her life in danger. At the time, President Trump dismissed those concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Marjorie Traitor Greene, I don't think her life is in danger. I don't think -- frankly, I don't think anybody cares about her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So compare those comments about a one-time ally to the reception President Trump gave to a political opponent. This is the President gushing about his meeting today at the White House with New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani. He called it a great honor to sit down with the self-described Democratic socialist. He also admitted they have more in common than he thought.

This comes after months of attacks against Mamdani, who President Trump has repeatedly called a communist. Today, the President says they could work together on crime, housing and cost of living in New York. Interesting. They posed in front of the FDR portrait there. They spent more than a half an hour meeting before reporters arrived.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, look, I hope they have great leaders. This is a man that right now, I think, is focused on New York City. I really think he has a chance to do a great job. We're going to help him, but I really think he has a chance to do a great job. But I'll let you answer that. Do you consider yourself the leader of the Democrats? I think it's more appropriate for him.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, NEW YORK MAYOR-ELECT: I consider myself the next mayor of New York City, and I keep my horizons firmly on New York City.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So a lot to unpack with our political panel, CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein and Matthew Bartlett, Republican who President Trump appointed to the State Department in his first term. Ron let's start with you. It was a week ago tonight where we had you on live and I asked, what's up with Marjorie Taylor Greene? And now, I guess we know. And what do you make of this?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I mean, what a striking development. You know, on the one hand, I am sure President Trump is going to view this as another scalp on the wall is another indication that if you cross him, you essentially have no future in the Republican Party, because she said she did not want to put herself or her district through the difficulty and the expense of what could be a primary challenge against her from Trump.

But I have a feeling that she is not going to go away as quietly as say Thom Tillis, who made the same calculation a few months ago and stepped down, you know, announced he would not run again in North Carolina. She's not -- this statement tonight is striking. It's not Liz Cheney saying that Trump is a threat to democracy. It's not someone saying he's abandoned the Republican Party. It's basically saying he's a bully and he's asking for an unrealistic degree of personal loyalty all the time from Republicans who share his agenda.

And I think that argument could strike some sparks in an unpredictable way. And I have a feeling she's going to cause some headaches for Donald Trump before she fades from the scene.

MICHAELSON: Matthew as a Republican who knows the president, how do you read this?

MATTHEW BARTLETT, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: No, I think -- I think Ron is largely correct there. You know, it was a week ago we saw Marjorie Taylor Greene, the scion of the MAGA movement, a female figurehead, having -- you know, posting reactionary, her private communications, her text messages with the president around Epstein now today.

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You know, just a shocking move of announcing her resignation, as Ron said, this was planned, this was a letter. This was a 10 minute video. This may be the end of her congressional career come January, but I think this is not the end of Marjorie Taylor Greene. It seems as if she will continue to criticize now with an outsized role from the sidelines.

MICHAELSON: So where does she go now? I mean, do you think she runs for something? I mean, there's the Georgia Senate race, which it didn't seem like President Trump was going to endorse her for, or maybe run for president. Matthew, your thoughts?

BARTLETT: You're asking the right questions. The answers remain very unclear right now. You know, some of her recent moves have been principled. You think around obviously the Epstein files, even some ideological issues around H1B visas, some of this has been around partisan rhetoric and evolution of saying it's just too nasty, and that even admitting she was a part of that, and some of this, as you just said, maybe posturing.

It seems unclear that she could win a Senate seat in Georgia, even the governor's race, but a potential presidential run could happen. Could there be some sort of media component to this? She seems to have enjoyed her time being on CNN and certainly even other networks and platforms. So again, how she chooses to use her voice will be up to her, but I think we're certainly going to hear more.

MICHAELSON: Ron, the MAGA base has always been with President Trump and everybody that's gotten into conflict with him, he keeps his peel. Is this a turning point, or are the people ultimately still with him?

BROWNSTEIN: Look, I think it's very hard to pry the MAGA base away from Donald Trump for anyone, even -- even Marjorie Taylor Greene was so identified with it. But, you know, she said in this video, you know, if you play the clip, it's pretty striking, I refuse to be a battered wife, right? And she basically says, I have been with Trump, up and down through the years, even flying to Washington to vote against impeachment when my father was in surgery for brain tumors, and because I broke from him on defending the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, he turned against me.

And that is a very personal kind of indictment, not of Trump's direction, although she has, you know, at times differed on that, but -- but essentially on the way that he manages the Republican Party, and she's portraying him as a bully and functionally as an abuser. And I don't know if that peels away, you know, the hardcore MAGA base, but I don't think it helps Donald Trump with voters who are anywhere, you know, one circle beyond that hard core, and it also, I think, raises the question for other Republicans.

I mean, it kind of creates more room for other Republicans to say that what Donald Trump is asking of them is unrealistic. We talked just a few nights ago about the gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey who would not criticize him, even when he was taking actions that were demonstrably hurting their state. They both lost over 90 percent of people who disapproved of Trump and lost in a landslide.

I think, you know, these are the two polls that Republicans now face. You can go down the line with Trump in a place where he's not supported, and you can get, you know, annihilated on election day, or if you criticize him at all, maybe you end up like Marjorie Taylor Greene, and having to, do -- you know, end your career.

I think a lot of Republicans after tonight may question why those are the only two choices they have.

MICHAELSON: And this is Marjorie Taylor Greene, who literally wore a hat to Joe Biden's State of the Union that said Trump was right about everything. So Matthew Bartlett, let's, let's talk about this other big Trump meeting today. Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist in the White House, getting significantly better treatment than Marjorie Taylor Greene. How do you read that situation? Is President Trump playing some sort of 3D chess here?

BARTLETT: Yeah, this evening has been just a heck of a year in politics. Whiplash, earthquakes. MTG out, Mamdani in, in the Oval Office, in just what was an extraordinary meeting. Two New York, guys from -- from Queens, you know, paling it around like old friends, finding common ground around affordability.

But again, the juxtaposition of the political ups and downs of this was just wild to watch, whether it was both of their rhetoric around each individual, name calling from a fascist or a despot to a communist, seemed to be water under the bridge, and then this notion of making New York succeed and having some sort of a mutual admiration.

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I've heard that White House staff were just aghast, floored, and that, again, many in Republican politics certainly did not see this coming, as it undercut much of what has been said around not just Mamdani, but Democrats in general. Yet, you know, anyone who's been a student of Donald Trump knows that he likes to be liked, he likes to be a good host, and it seems as if that is what we saw today.

MICHAELSON: I mean, Ron, is it possible that this helps both of them? I mean, it also potentially could hurt both of them. How do you see it?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, well, first of all, it's kind of consistent with the kind of what we've been talking about, that Trump's sole loyalty is to Trump. I mean, who has been more slavish to Trump than Elise Stefanik, and he just threw her under the bus the core message -- message of our campaign that Mamdani is a, you know, kind of an unacceptable radical who will endanger the state.

That's what she wants to run on against the Governor Kathy Hochul but as another New York guy from Queens. I mean, the third one in this equation, just color me a little skeptical. And let's revisit this in six weeks. The administration is seeking, not only in New York, but in every city in the country, to condition virtually every dollar the federal government provides to local governments on them adopting a whole series of conservative policies that Mamdani is not going to accept, that he's going to fight in court.

They've canceled the Gateway Project because, allegedly, because of the city's DEI policies on contracting. Tom Homan is threatening, you know, an ICE crackdown in New York. Let's revisit this in six or eight weeks, when some of the policies actually come into collision, and I will see whether they are as chummy as they appear today. That's why he looks at this other guy from Queens anyway.

MICHAELSON: We got to see you and Trump and Mamdani at like Flushing Meadows together. That would be a show that I would pay a lot of money to watch. Ron Brownstein, Matthew Bartlett, thank you both for being with us on a crazy night of breaking news in politics. Really appreciate it.

We've got more breaking news here in Southern California, where a cargo ship in the Port of L.A. has caught fire. L.A. Fire Department officials say crews are keeping an eye on hazardous material, which, according to the ship's manifest, is on board. Marine fire-fighting teams have been trying to cool the ship from the outside to help with those still on board fighting the blaze. The good news is all of the ship's crew members were taken to safety and have been accounted for.

There are hundreds of firefighters fighting this, including from fire- fighting boats, which you see right there. Of course, the port of Los Angeles and San Pedro and Long Beach, 40 percent of all goods that come into the United States. So far, no injuries have been reported. Still ahead, the story is Congressman Eric Swalwell running for Governor of California. He is here in our studio for the first TV news sit down of his campaign. A lot of news, first time we've heard from him, and it's only here on "The Story Is."

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MICHAELSON: Now to some big news in California politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): I'm running to be the next Governor of California.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: That is California Congressman Eric Swalwell making it official on Jimmy Kimmel that he is running for California governor. And here on "The Story Is" for his first sit-down TV news interview since that announcement -- SWALWELL: That's right.

MICHAELSON: -- is Congressman Eric Swalwell.

SWALWELL: Yeah, congrats on your new show. This is the only place I'd do it.

MICHAELSON: Thank you very much. And congrats to you on the new run.

SWALWELL: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: We want to get into all of that. But of course, as you sit here, we have breaking news.

SWALWELL: We do.

MICHAELSON: Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of your colleagues announcing that she's resigning in January. What's your first reaction to that? What do you think is going on there?

SWALWELL: I don't know what to make of it. I do know that we need her vote to put the Obamacare subsidies back in place, because everyone's premiums are going to be going up on January One. I hope Republicans have received the message from like national voters, constituents, who are saying, don't let that go away on January One, and she has been an advocate, actually, one of the only Republicans.

So I hope that's something she gets done before she leaves, because California is going to pay a lot more if we can't put that back in place.

MICHAELSON: But why do you think she's leaving?

SWALWELL: I don't know. I -- you know, Donald Trump has aimed death threats at her, essentially. You know, he has called her a traitor. And when you call someone a traitor, is someone who has had Donald Trump go after me, it brings this army of death threats at you. It can be quite uncomfortable and change everything about your life. But I'm not going to speculate.

I just hope, as I said, consequentially, we need as many votes as possible to lower health insurance. I hope she sticks around to get that done.

MICHAELSON: So this potentially changes the balance of power in the House.

SWALWELL: Thinnest margin ever essentially, yeah.

MICHAELSON: Now, Republicans have a one vote margin, including Thomas Massie, who doesn't vote with them all the time.

SWALWELL: And Thomas, if you want to switch parties, today would be a great day to do it. Because Hakeem Jeffries a speaker.

MICHAELSON: Yeah, because, I mean, if anybody else leaves for any reason --

SWALWELL: Speaker Jeffries.

MICHAELSON: -- there's Speaker Jeffries. That's a big deal.

SWALWELL: That's exactly right. And that just shows, at least for us, how important it is to find allies across the aisle on issues that matter. As we did to get the Epstein files released, as we have to do on insurance subsidies, as we're going to have to do, you know, to keep the government open, because funding will again lapse in January, and so I, if I'm just being completely honest with you, we have had conversations, you know, privately, with Republicans who have said, privately, they don't like what the Trump administration is doing.

They don't like the way Speaker Johnson is leading that -- come to our side. We can make you a chair, and you'll put us in the majority. No, but I'll tell you --

MICHAELSON: People are thinking about that?

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SWALWELL: They think about it. But the number one reason they won't do it, and they tell us this, is personal security. They said, the second I do that, my life changes, the death threats come at me. And you know that, like your spouse and your kids are saying, don't do that. I mean, that's the environment we're in right now. You know, for crying out loud, the President of the United States is essentially calling for people to be hanged. He did that on social media just this week.

So by the way, I would just say to that to anyone did a different job, like, if you can't be in the arena and understand, like, what the stakes are right now, maybe this isn't the job for you, and maybe that's the case with Marjorie Taylor Greene.

MICHAELSON: That's what she's doing.

SWALWELL: But the stakes are too high right now to just, you know, think about your own security when others are suffering because of the (inaudible).

MICHAELSON: It is interesting that you guys are having those conversations. That actually happened in the Senate before where one person was able to change.

SWALWELL: Willie Brown became speaker in California when Democrats are in the minority because he struck a bunch of deals.

MICHAELSON: Another big news of the day. Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist, mayor-elect of New York in the White House with President Trump looking very chummy. Is there a lesson for you there, potentially, as California governor, that maybe it's better to get along with the President, that maybe we get more funding for California if you do something like that.

SWALWELL: My default is to collaborate. And I'm the son of two Republicans. My parents have to go on another network if they want to see me on television. However, I don't wake up every day to fight Donald Trump. I fight for Californians. He just gets in the way. But if he wants to collaborate, of course. I would go to the White House too to fight for Californians like that -- that has to be your party. But I'm not naive.

I don't think the Mayor-Elect is naive. And you know you -- you have to, you know trust, but you know, verify, certainly with this guy.

MICHAELSON: So let's talk about the run.

SWALWELL: Distrust, then verify, and then trust.

MICHAELSON: OK. The decision to run.

SWALWELL: Yeah.

MICHAELSON: Why are you running? Why do you want to be governor of California?

SWALWELL: This great state, you know, we say it's the fourth largest economy in the world. It is, I love to say that, but what does that mean if you can't afford to live here? And so I want to be its fighter, protector against a president who has people running through the fields where they work, who's taking cancer research, who has troops in our streets.

Yes, you have to do that for the next two years. But I also want to be a champion to bring prices down and lift wages up. And you may not know this, but before I went to Congress, I was a city councilman and a planning commissioner in a town called Dublin. Our neighbors called us Scrublin. I graduated in 1999, 25 percent of us went on to college. I hated being called Scrublin when I played on soccer teams like in other cities.

I came back home after college and law school, the city was in renaissance, and we brought in builders, developers, building trades, labor, and we rebuilt the city. We had the developers pay for the schools, pay for the fire houses, pay for the ball parks. We put high expectations on them. Today, that high school that I graduated from, 96 percent of the kids go to college. We have Fortune 500 employers in the city.

We even have a Whole Foods that no one can really afford to shop at. They don't call us Scrublin anymore. I want to do that for the whole state, particularly on housing.

MICHAELSON: Wait till you guys get a narrow one.

SWALWELL: Yeah.

MICHAELSON: So let's talk about the cost of living, though.

SWALWELL: Yes.

MICHAELSON: We've got a graphic to put up on the screen. I mean, right now, California has the highest cost of housing, highest cost of gas, according to AAA, most homeless people. We know that, and -- and California has --

SWALWELL: Can I add a few. We also have the highest unemployment rate in the country. We also have the fewest new small business starts, and I want us to be a start-up nation again as a nation state. I'm going to give a tax holiday to every small business for their first three years. I don't want you to worry about your taxes. I want you to create jobs, increase business to business revenue for those small businesses that have been in existence, and just, you know, add on new businesses in California and set a tone that you know, California is open to business, particularly small business and entrepreneurs.

MICHAELSON: But right now, the state's leadership is all Democratic.

SWALWELL: Yes.

MICHAELSON: Democratic governor, two Democratic senators, Democratic super majorities. Don't Democrats bear some of the responsibility, or most of the responsibility, for the fact that it's so expensive in this state?

SWALWELL: Well, look, we are suffering inflation across the country --

MICHAELSON: But you've been having this problem before, all the inflation issues.

SWALWELL: Sure, and I'm not going to look to the past. I'm running to be the governor next year, and so what I'm telling you what I'm going to do day one, declare a housing emergency in every part of the state and require every agency in the state to make a decision within 90 days on any pending housing project so that we can get these projects moving.

I want to be a get-shit-done governor. That -- that is my priority. On small business, as I said, we're going to be small business growth by tax holiday for the first three years. As it relates to TV and film, that's the bread and butter of our state. We also film TV and -- we do TV and film up in the Bay Area, believe it or not, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Yes, you do. Yeah.

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SWALWELL: But I want an above the line credit. I want us to be the easiest place to film, not the hardest place to film. And so yes, I'm -- I understand the issues that face this state, potentially an 18, you know, billion dollar deficit, but I have a plan for growth, and I look forward to putting it into place immediately.

MICHAELSON: OK, so let's go through them. On housing, a little bit more on that. You said you declare that emergency. Your colleague and friend Stephen Cloobeck said that CEQA, which is the California Environmental Quality Act, which is the environmental regulation, should be paused. Do you agree with that? SWALWELL: For the -- for the housing emergency, to make those

decisions in the first 90 days, yes, but I'm going to work with the legislature, and there's going to be a proposition likely on the ballot to put CEQA forms in place. We are always going, you know, to honor our obligation to the environment. You know, as a state, a leader in the country, and we did that, by the way, in Dublin.

We won national awards for the environmental projects that we did using green materials, but also doing blended, affordable and market rate housing. I did it in Dublin. I'm going to do it across the state.

MICHAELSON: And on terms of gas prices, there we have seen oil refineries leave the state.

SWALWELL: Yeah.

MICHAELSON: Some Democrats think that's a good thing. Antonio Villaraigosa, who's running for governor, says it's a bad thing.

SWALWELL: Yeah.

MICHAELSON: What say you?

SWALWELL: I don't want -- I don't want anyone leaving the state, period. I want to --

MICHAELSON: So what do you do to keep oil refineries here?

SWALWELL: I bring them to the table, and I also work to increase where we get energy for the state because the administration has declared war on California. We've lost the Inflation Reduction Act funding. We've lost the Infrastructure and Jobs Act funding that goes to clean energy projects. So of course, we want to expand solar that we have in the state. I will take in all of the above.

If it's safe, we should make it happen. All of the above. If it's safe, make it happen.

MICHAELSON: On homelessness, we see more homeless people here than anywhere else in the country.

SWALWELL: Yes.

MICHAELSON: We have seen some marginal improvement in some places, but not big improvement. Is there a radical change that needs to happen? And if so, what is that?

SWALWELL: Well, first, private public partnerships need to be expanded upon, and I'm familiar of the work of the LA Dream Center and centers like that, and the work they're doing, but legally, I can also tell you, as somebody who has gone through the streets of San Francisco to find a loved one who was homeless, that too many of the rights are given to the person who has no ability to take care of themselves, and loved ones and family members have no rights.

And so I would take this loved one, I would put them in a rehab facility, and I would call the rehab facility the next day, and I'd be told they can't give me any information whether they're there or not. I think there are compassionate reforms that can be made in the state so that people who love our homeless can be better advocates for them.

MICHAELSON: So basically what you're saying is more enforced treatment where people are compelled to go there because right now, there's a lot of people want to do that, and they don't have much of a mechanism. There's the care court system that a lot of people have struggled to even with that.

SWALWELL: I think if you can prove that somebody isn't somebody is not capable of making decisions for themselves, you should have the resources of the state better able to help them again. I've lived that you know that tragic, heartbreaking experience. So many Californians have to and the frustration I hear across the state is I wish I could do more to fight for my loved one.

MICHAELSON: Let's talk about your place in this race. Katie Porter so far has been the leader in many polls. You served with her in Congress.

SWALWELL: Yeah.

MICHAELSON: What do you think of her? What do your colleagues think of her? What do you make of her?

SWALWELL: I respect why she's running. I'm friends with everyone who's running. I bring a different candidacy. I'm in the arena right now taking on Trump. I helped, lead the Russia investigation with Adam Schiff. Speaker Pelosi asked me to help lead the impeachment team against Donald Trump. Hakeem Jeffries just asked me to lead the effort to not rewrite January Sixth, and so I'm doing that right now.

I have the only surviving lawsuit against Donald Trump for his role on January Six. I take this guy on every single day. I never flinch when he acts corruptly. I'm in the arena right now, but I'm a dad of three little kids, so I understand what Californians are facing, as far as like, what the housing crisis means to young families. Also, Elex, we are a state that leads the way in A.I.

However, as a parent, A.I. is terrifying. It's terrifying because you worry about, like, what it means for privacy for your kids and what gets put in front of them. I also worry about, will my kids have the resources in their classroom to learn it so they can use it and go, you know, in -- and reap the benefits of like, the positive side of it, which is hopefully creating more jobs, and so I will be like a champion and a bridge to the future tech economy in California to make sure that we don't have two classes of kids, those who learn it and those who don't.

MICHAELSON: I know you, from a style perspective, respect what Governor Newsom has been doing in terms of taking the fight to Donald Trump. I know you're close with him, but from a policy perspective, is there any major change?

SWALWELL: I want to modernize the state. And, you know, he wrote a book called Citizenville, which I read when I was up and coming. He laid out a lot of, you know, great ideas then, and he implemented some of them.

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And he, you know, was a modernizing force. He's leaving. And so there is going to be a void. I want us to be able to vote by phone. I think every California --

MICHAELSON: Vote by phone?

SWALWELL: Vote by phone, yeah. If we can do our taxes, do our, you know, our -- make our health care appointments, you know, make, essentially your -- do your banking online. You should be able to vote by phone. Make it safe, make it secure. But it's actually already happening all over the United States.

I want us to be a blue state that doesn't do just a little bit better than like Georgia or Alabama when it comes to like voting access, I want us to max out democracy. Also, as it relates to democracy, if you wait in line for 30 minutes or more, if you do want to vote in person, I think you should fine every county for every minute that a person has to wait longer.

We have to be better, not just a little bit better than the other states. The DMV. I don't think Californians should have to go in person to the DMV anymore. I think we can do that virtually. I think you can have the DMV employees do it virtually, but that's a lot of real estate.

MICHAELSON: Is that the most popular position --

SWALWELL: We can digitize DMV. We can modernize the state. And I look forward to bringing these ideas to Californians.

MICHAELSON: Let's talk a little bit more about you. As you've mentioned, you have two Republican parents.

SWALWELL: Yeah.

MICHAELSON: How has that informed your world view?

SWALWELL: I keep saying my mom just passed. So I think I'm still -- I say parents. My parents are Republican. My dad still with us, Republican. My brothers, many of them are cops, a little more conservative. It helps me understand, like, where they're coming from, how to talk to them, like what the triggers are that make them walk away, you know, as soon as you go to a certain issue.

And believe it or not, like before Donald Trump came along, the biggest knock on me was that I was too bipartisan, and so the day after Trump --

MICHAELSON: That's not the knock right now.

SWALWELL: The day after Trump, when he leaves, like we are going to have to, you know, write a new chapter, as far as for our country and for our state. And I know how to collaborate and work with everyone. I look forward to doing this as governor.

MICHAELSON: What's the most important lesson your mom taught you?

SWALWELL: My mom would always say, if you want something done, ask a busy person. But she also was just dogged and resilient in her fight against cancer. And by the way, the last text message that she sent to me was she asked like if I had been eating because she saw me on TV and thought I looked too thin and she had been watching NCIS, and I guess in the show, someone had -- a member of Congress had been given an anthrax shot, and she asked me, if I get anthrax shots?

I was like, no, mom, don't believe everything you see on TV, but she was dogged in her fight against cancer, and for me, that's why it's so personal when the president attacks, you know, the universities that are doing cancer research in California, like UCSF. To me, cutting cancer is the dumbest -- cutting cancer research is the dumbest thing in the world. Like a budget is not just a moral statement, it's an IQ test.

We should do everything not to kill cancer research, but to kill cancer.

MICHAELSON: And lastly, we like to have some fun on this show.

SWALWELL: Yeah.

MICHAELSON: We do something called Rapid Fire to get to know your -- your favorites culturally. First thing that comes to mind. What is your favorite TV show right now?

SWALWELL: White Lotus. My wife works in hospitality.

MICHAELSON: That's great. Of course, part of the -- our company owns it, so we love it. Favorite kids show, because I know you've got kids.

SWALWELL: Oh my god, Bluey. Like, I can just --

MICHAELSON: You can't go wrong with that. Best book you've read lately.

SWALWELL: The last book I led -- read was Llama, Llama, Red Pajama and then Good night moon. But I just read "Strong Floor, No Ceiling," by Oliver Libby. It really describes how I approach governing, which is to not hate on success, but just expect that we're a place where more people can be successful. "Strong Floor, No Ceiling."

MICHAELSON: Favorite band or musical artist.

SWALWELL: Taylor Swift. Come on. Is there any other?

MICHAELSON: That's a politician, right there. Best thing about being a Californian?

SWALWELL: The burritos and the taquerias. Los Pericos in Dublin is they've got a super burrito there that I should eat fewer of.

MICHAELSON: And lastly, what is your favorite quote or motto?

SWALWELL: Wow, I would say, JFK once said that the American people are like builders, entrepreneurs and risk takers and like, there's nothing they can't do, like, if called upon to do it. And I just -- I think, right now, to bring a new California where, you know, we recognize we're the fourth largest economy in the world. That's great, but everyone should have a stake in it. Everyone should share in it. And that's what made me want to do this, and I didn't think I'd do it, Elex.

[00:35:00]

This is not something I planned, but I just saw, like, the existential stakes that we're facing right now, and I'm ready to do it.

MICHAELSON: Thank you very much. A lot of news in that interview, a lot just came out of that. We really appreciate you coming here first, Congressman.

SWALWELL: Thank you. Of course.

MICHAELSON: Bets of luck out on the campaign trail. Eric Swalwell, Democratic candidate for Governor of California. We'll be back with more of "The Story Is" right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:00]

MICHAELSON: And welcome back to "The Story Is", I'm Elex Michaelson. Let's take a look at today's top stories. World leaders are gathering for a G20 summit in South Africa. On the sidelines, many of them are discussing a U.S. draft peace proposal for Russia's war on Ukraine. Kyiv is facing a deadline of Thursday to accept it.

Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will resign from Congress in January. In a statement, Greene says she wants to avoid a nasty primary. This news comes just days after President Trump pulled his endorsement and called her a traitor. A surprisingly friendly meeting at the White House between New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and President Trump. After months of attacking each other, they both made a point to emphasize their common ground, with Mamdani calling their talks productive.

Joining us now is everybody's favorite deep data nerd, CNN's Chief Data Analyst, Harry Enten. It is a great Friday when we can see Harry and Harry, when I think of the New York region, I certainly think of you. So when we think of these, these issues that we're talking about with Mamdani and Trump, there's some issues in common, that Trump may see something in Mamdani, right?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yeah, I think, you know, the two Queens boys and I'm a Bronx guy myself, we all come together. Nothing can break apart New York bros, that's what I say. And nothing can break apart Queens bros and they do have something together, right? You know, if we think about it, the top issue that they beat their opponent on back in 2024 Trump won on the economy, beat Kamala Harris on that issue by 63 points.

Look at Mamdani, very similar. Living cost, the cost of living, that was his top issue this year. Won it by 37 points. They both were able to win what will be Mamdani's first term in office come January and Trump winning his second term because they spoke to the economic concerns of voters.

MICHAELSON: And when we see that Trump graphic, it says 2024. It doesn't say 2025. How is that issue going for him right now, the cost of living?

ENTEN: Yeah, maybe he can take some lessons from Zohran Mamdani, because if we look right now in terms of Trump's net approval rating on inflation, two thumbs down. I mean, this is called the slippery slope down to the bottom. Look at this in January on inflation, his net approval rating was plus three points. Look at where he is today, 34 points under water.

Elex, I know you're right next to the to the Pacific Ocean. I'm next to the Atlantic Ocean here in New York. I can say that Donald Trump, at this point, on inflation, is swimming with the fishes.

MICHAELSON: That's not the only thing you have in the rivers near New York City.

ENTEN: No, no, no. Although we tried to clean them up, we've cleaned them up. We've cleaned them up. You know, this is why we recycle.

MICHAELSON: Speaking of though, President Trump's overall approval rating, where is he at now?

ENTEN: OK, you know you see this. You see him down at 34 points on inflation. I think Americans think that Donald Trump has lost the plot and that, of course, has had a massive impact on his overall approval rating. Because, of course, inflation is the name of the game. These days, the economy is the top issue.

Look at this, Trump's net approval rating second term lows. And I got five numbers for you going across the screen. The best is the Marquette University Law School poll. 14 points under water. Then it gets progressively worse. 17 points under water in Fox. 17 points underwater in Marist. 22 points underwater in Ipsos. And then rounding out, we have the AP North Poll, Donald Trump is 26 points under water.

My goodness gracious. He is performing about as well as the Buffalo Bills offensive line did last night. Oy, vey, oh, my goodness, gracious. But then I think the key question is, right, can you really take advice from Zohran Mamdani when it comes to a national audience, and we look at the net favorable rating, which is a nice, close brother, the net approval rating has similar numbers, but not exactly the same.

But look at this, the net favorable rating Donald Trump, 13 points under water, perhaps slightly better than his net approval rating, but still way under water. Look at Zohran Mamdani nationally, 11 points under water. They are brothers in more than just speaking to the economic concerns of voters, at least trying to. They are brothers when it comes to their popularity nationally, not doing too hot to trot.

And again, I throw it back to you by just saying some Buffalo Bills reference, because that game on Thursday night made me very, very sad.

MICHAELSON: Is it time to focus on college football maybe for you?

ENTEN: Do you know what I will be going to the Harvard Yale game on Saturday, 12 o'clock, the first time that any Ivy League team will be taking part in a playoff game since at least 1945 when the Ivy League opted out of the college football playoffs. And so it will be very interesting to see who wins that game, not only gets to claim great pride over the other school, they also get to claim a playoff spot in the division 1-AA or, I believe it is now the Football Championship Subdivision.

MICHAELSON: Well, they call him man of the people for a reason. Harry Enten, hanging out at the Harvard Yale game.

ENTEN: Oh yes. Oh yes. You know me. You know me with my monocle on, I'm hanging out with all of the wonderful elitists of this world.

[00:45:00]

MICHAELSON: All right, sounds good. Thanks, Harry. Have a great weekend.

ENTEN: You as well, my friend.

MICHAELSON: Got to bring out my monocle sometime soon. A live picture from the White House. We'll talk about big news with Ukraine, a member of their parliament joins us live when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Ukraine is facing agonizing choices, faced with a. Thursday deadline to accept a new draft U.S. peace plan. It gives Russia almost everything it wants, including territory, limits on Ukraine's military, keeping Kyiv out of NATO. President Zelenskyy described his options as being between a rock and a hard place.

[00:50:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice, either the loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner, or 28 difficult points or an extremely harsh winter.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MICHAELSON: Russian leader Vladimir Putin says the proposal could be a

starting point for a final peace settlement, while U.S. President Donald Trump is suggesting that Mr. Zelenskyy will have to get in line because the alternative is worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He'll have to like it, and if he doesn't like it, then, you know, they should just keep fighting, I guess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Lesia Zaburanna is a member of Ukraine's parliament. She joins us live right now. Your reaction to this plan. Is this something that you could live with?

LESIA ZABURANNA, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Hello. First of all, I would like to say thank you for the attention to Ukraine and for the most important Ukraine issue for now. And also, I would like to say that we are deeply grateful for every American family whose tax dollars help, save our lives, Ukrainian people lives, and if we talk about peace plan, we highly appreciate for the starting this negotiation process.

But I am absolutely sure and our president, our government and our parliament, we are ready to have the dialog with the United States about all points in this peace plan. And we need, of course, together, to develop this peace plan which will ensure for Ukraine, the main aim what we need, a just effective and lasting peace in Ukraine.

MICHAELSON: Could you vote for this plan? And if not, what's a plan that you could? A plan that you would support?

ZABURANNA: First of all, the main principles for us is about the international law principles. It's about the total integrity and sovereignty of our country. Also, I would like to say that it's impossible now to have any changes to the Constitution, because now in Ukraine, we have Marshall law, and it's impossible to implement any changes in our Constitution, about NATO membership, about other things.

Also very important things, not only for President, Parliament, but for all people in our country. This is security guarantees. You remember then in 2014 when the war actually started in Ukraine, we had some guarantees. We had Budapest Memorandum, but now we see that it's not effective instrument. So for us in future, it's very important to have strong security guarantees from the United States.

And actually, now I'm in Halifax, we are working as an international security forum. We met with the United States delegation of U.S. senators, with the head of delegation, Senator Shaheen and we discuss the possibility, actually, about the treaty which will be ratified in U.S. Senate about security guarantees for Ukraine, because, as I mentioned, our main aim is long lasting peace and stability in our country.

MICHAELSON: Lecia Zaburanna, thank you so much joining us live from Canada. We really appreciate it.

ZABURANNA: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: We'll be right back. More news after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Well, if you're planning on traveling for Thanksgiving this week, brace yourself. According to the FAA this year's holiday travel season is shaping up to be the busiest in 15 years. More than 52,000 flights scheduled next Tuesday alone. TSA expects to screen over 3 million passengers on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, a potential record for the agency.

And if you're hitting the road to avoid the stress of the airport, AAA expects 81 million Americans to travel at least 50 miles by road for the holiday, more than a million from last year. Well, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Mariah Carey's holiday favorite, "All I Want For Christmas Is You" has re-entered the Billboard charts this week.

If you can't get enough of the pop star, you can now visit her holiday themed pop-up bars in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. She's not there, but pop-up cut outs of her are. The organizers say, "All I Want For Christmas" plays every 30 minutes. It's apparently time, as she would say. Thanks for watching. The next hour of "The Story Is" starts right now.