Return to Transcripts main page

CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

Jobs Report Shows Economy Lost Jobs In July; Cassidy To Back Blanche Despite Criticism Of "Poor Judgment"; Rogers Appeals To Michigan Democrats After El-Sayed's Primary Win. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 07, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:04]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: For the full story, go to CNNHeroes.com.

And THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT starts right now.

(MUSIC)

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's great to have you with us on this Friday. Happy Friday.

Right now, new signs of cracks in the economy as the president once again shows us his priorities. The jobs numbers out today showing we actually lost jobs in July. The unemployment rate ticked down, but only because of the number of people who simply gave up on trying to find a job.

The president responding on Truth Social this afternoon, writing this, quote, "Two Obama and Biden appellate court judges just voted against the desperately needed military center. Oh, wait a second. I'm sorry. Is that the wrong one?

No, no, no, President Trump today isn't posting -- oh, I see -- about jobs or the economy. OK, he's talking about his ballroom after an appellate court ruled that he's violating the law with his favorite construction project. Oh. The case now headed to the Supreme Court as the president appeals that ruling.

But back on the thing that most Americans tell us they care about, the economy, remember how the president was talking about that, about the economy, earlier this week?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're doing an unbelievable job. Costs are coming way down. I inherited, you know, they talk about costs. I inherited very, very high costs, and they're all coming down now. The food, the groceries, it's all coming down. We've done a great job.

You know, I think we should be given an A-plus on the economy, but I think that's coming. People are starting to talk about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: Oh, they're talking about it. What are they saying? The latest poll finds some really dismal numbers. President Trump's tariffs are supported by just a third of Americans. His handling of the economy, inflation, the cost of living, gas prices, all with an approval rating of 30 percent or less.

I mean, look at that number on gas prices, 21 -- 21 percent. An obsession with a $600 million-plus ballroom not making it any easier for members of the president's party who are running for re-election.

The president, though, hardly seems to care.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If I don't run, will those people go out and vote? And that's the one thing I can't - I'm going to ask them to. The question is, will they vote? Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you.

INTERVIEWER: Why?

TRUMP: They're angry -- I don't know. I mean, they're angry at Republicans. But they're not angry at me.

INTERVIEWER: It's an interesting thing. Why, though?

TRUMP: They're not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, let's get off the sidelines, head into THE ARENA. My panel is here.

CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams; CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel; former DNC communications director Mo Elleithee; and former Republican governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker.

Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here.

Governor Walker, we haven't even started to have the conversation about burritos, which has actually, I mean, it's honestly, we laugh. It's a social media phenomenon kind of unfolding in real time. But in some ways, it does really, it's one of those things, one of those anecdotes that really helps explain an entire phenomenon. It's a lot easier to get your head around how much a burrito costs and why that feels like such a problem.

But the president, is not focused on that. I think that what the burrito situation exploding into social media kind of shows is that everyone else is really focused on it. What's going on with him?

SCOTT WALKER (R), FORMER WISCONSIN GOVERNOR: Well, that I don't know.

(LAUGHTER) WALKER: I wouldn't confer the cost of living. I mean, at Young Americans Foundation, we do polling all the time of young people. We did it under Biden. We did it under Trump. We're continuing today.

And the last four or five years, it's been two to one. I mean, for all the talk, people say the young people care about the climate, abortion, not even close. It's about two to one top issues, cost of living. Second issue is the economy.

It's something that's particularly -- I think more than just food, certainly that's part of it. The bigger issue is housing. When you've got the median the age of a median, first-time homebuyer at 40, Americans feel like their American dream is slipping away, and they were upset two years ago at Biden and Kamala Harris, and they voted for Trump.

They're upset with anybody who's in charge right now, and any Republican running needs to make the case as to why they're going to do better, which, at least in my state, Wisconsin and maybe Michigan, having a Democratic socialist where they can point to Venezuela and say it only makes it worse, might be their best alternative.

HUNT: Jamie Gangel, the governor points at the cost of housing, right? And there has always been this-- Jamie Gangale. The governor points at the cost of housing, right? And there has always been this -- listen, how many times were, I don't know, perhaps you or others told that your parents walked uphill both ways to school in the snow, OK?

[16:05:05]

There's always an element of the older generation telling the younger one, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But when you really dig in to the numbers, when you look at wages compared to the cost of what it takes to buy a house, and even if you adjust those numbers for inflation-- I was actually looking at a "New York Times" story the other day, a woman had bought, for very little money, a home in one of the boroughs, and it was now worth something like a few hundred thousand dollars in that money, right, adjusted for inflation, but it was over a million bucks today to buy, right?

Like, the costs are far outstripping what Americans can keep up with. And I mean, this burrito debate is so interesting because you are seeing a lot of people on the MAGA right saying, young people, the American dream is dead. Is that -- is it going to be a wake-up call because -- for -- and is it just a wake-up call for one party or the other? Or is it for all elites?

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: So, you can't tell people that what they're experiencing isn't true. And as far as President Trump saying A-plus economy, I don't know that A would have to stand for alternate reality for him. It's just whether it's housing or food prices or gasoline or medical expenses.

I do think that you add to -- you just had the president saying that people hate Republicans, not him. Take a look at his poll numbers. This is -- it's simply not true. What I don't understand is, no matter how he tries to spin it, it is not in his interest for the House to go to Democrats, for Republicans to lose. So even though he doesn't seem to care about other Republicans, you would think it's in his self- interest to care about them.

HUNT: So Matt Drudge, Moe, who you may remember from your time running comms for the DNC, he wrote it this way, "Trump in ruins, ballroom blocked, jobs disaster, even Fox running away."

Now, Matt Drudge has not necessarily been -- certainly not a Trump sycophant in recent years, doesn't seem to necessarily be a Trump fan. But when you put it that way, it's awful stark.

MO ELLEITHEE, FORMER DNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Yeah, not a good day, not a good week, not a good month, not a good beginning to the second Trump administration. I couldn't agree with Jamie more.

If there's one thing that Joe Biden taught us politically, it was do not tell people that their lived experience is not real. Do not tell people that they are doing well when they do not believe they are doing well.

And this president took that to a whole different level, "I'm great. You can thank me now," is essentially what he's saying. I just filled up my gas tank this morning. The gas pump shut off when I hit a certain price, right? Because it was just so expensive. It capped me.

Walking down the grocery aisle. Buying homes. I work with young people, too. And this is what they talk about.

So, the president is out there saying, you're great. But here's the thing I'm going to get pissed off about -- the ballroom. That is the Democratic campaign in a nutshell, right there.

HUNT: And this was Maggie Haberman, Elliott, talking about what she learned in the context of reporting her book with Jonathan Swan, "Regime Change" about just how often the president is thinking about his renovations, the ballroom and his other projects, compared to the things that are most important to Americans. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CO-AUTHOR, "REGIME CHANGE": If you looked at like a chart of his mind share, like this I will say about getting into his mind, like 70 percent of it would be on his renovations. It's a legacy thing, it's what can I do that cannot be taken away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: What can I do that cannot be taken away?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yeah, that cannot be taken away, and I will note that as we saw in the news today, if they're going to the Supreme Court, it's just going to take more time. This -- the whole issue of the ballroom or the National Security Center as the president -- as they now are talking about it, it's just going to occupy headlines for much longer. Supreme Court cases, as we all know, take a long time to percolate and certainly through the elections in November.

Now, can the president exercise the discipline not talk about this ballroom as this case -- is a part of this National Security Center as this case is percolating. No, he can't. And this will, I think, impair the ballroom as this case is a part of this National Security Center as this case is percolating. No, he can't.

And this will, I think, imperil Republicans up and down the ballot who just simply want to talk about the things that you all were talking about. particularly housing, which really sticks with the young people.

[16:10:07]

ELLEITHEE: I mean, he gave a prime-time address about voter fraud that was non-existent. He's out there today tweeting about the ballroom. Every day he's talking about something. other than the thing that people are screaming they want him to focus on.

WILLIAMS: And I would add to that, you know, particularly on the voter fraud issue, it's not that there are a ton of influential voters who are clamoring for that issue, right? There are people who care about it, certainly. There's no doubt about that.

But what people care about is housing, the price of housing. My wife has a young kid who just got out of college looking for housing that she works with here, and these young people are boggled, mind boggled talk about what housing costs right now.

WALKER: And looking forward, not backwards, because if you're the president, you look back and you say first-term interest rates and gas prices were lower than they were under Joe Biden. That's true, but that's not what the race is about. It's about looking forward what's going to happen next.

And that's the key. You've got to have candidates focusing on that.

HUNT: Yeah, so just to bring it back to burritos. I mean, how much do you think a burrito should cost in your town? How much does it So the spokesman for Turning Points USA, OK, which is, of course, the group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, wrote this on X and created an Internet firestorm.

"One of our TP USA college students gave me his take on affordability. A burrito shouldn't cost $20. Yeah, a lot of this is a hangover from COVID and Biden era inflation, but the lived experience is the same. It just feels like basic things. cost too much."

Now, he got into it with some members of the Republican elite. There you have Dan Crenshaw, worth noting Dan Crenshaw actually lost his race, but he says, "Stop whining, get a job, eat ramen like the rest of us did in college on a budget with four roommates."

And this is kind of, Governor, what I was getting at in terms of the walking uphill both ways. I actually ran, and a lot of these comments, I got way into the comments on this thread, I will admit, I try to stay out of them, but there were a lot of people in the thread saying, oh, it's only that if you tip your DoorDasher and you're too lazy to get off your couch.

So, I ran, OK, what would it cost me to walk down the street, pick up a burrito at Chipotle? I did put some guacamole on it. That was three extra dollars. But it was like 17 bucks. And then, of course, I don't know if you guys have been to one of these takeaway restaurants lately, but the screen will say to you, would you like to tip? Okay?

Obviously, hardworking people behind the counter, you tip 20 percent on that, you're looking at $20 for a burrito. And yes, you're eating out at a restaurant. That is true. Maybe the argument is, cook your own meals. I personally didn't have a way to do that when I was living in a college dorm. But hey, you know, aside.

But, like, this is -- this is something that seems very emblematic. Like people can really get their head around how much more it costs to feed themselves. And they're talking about this as a student meal. I mean, imagine family of four at the grocery store, right, trying to buy healthy foods for them. Like, what are we going to do as a country about this? Because it does occur to me that, in some ways, this is not even Republicans and Democrats, right?

WALKER: Well, seriously, two years ago, a lot of those same voters, young and swing voters, which a lot of young voters are not unlike swing voters in states like mine, swing states, were upset at Biden and Harris and so voted for Trump because they didn't think enough was being done in costs. Two years later, they're upset with the people in charge as well.

So, the case that'll be made, I think, has got to be this fall, is for candidates running Republican, Democrat alike, who's got the most compelling message that not only that they understand, but they've got a game plan? If I'm running like a Tom Tiffany in Wisconsin, I only lay out my game plan, I look at someone like Francisco Hong, the likely winner Tuesday in the primary, and say, she's going to turn you into Venezuela. Prices I mean, things are out of control. Democratic socialism ruined that country. You got to make that case while saying that's not enough, and here's my plan to help get costs under control in this particular state or district.

ELLEITHEE: Will that message penetrate, though, when what they're hearing is the Republican elite essentially saying it's your fault? It's your fault. If you are going to pay, if you're buying that burrito and not eating ramen, that's on you. What voter like to hear that?

WILLIAMS: I think focusing on the burritos is getting a little bit off topic. It's about the gas prices, right? That is the thing that, number one, every single person, every single person at this table, every single person in America has to confront, number one. And number two, it also helps drive up the price of goods because of how much the use of petroleum costs for farming and transportation and so on. That is at the core of all this.

ELLEITHEE: There's no ramen alternative to gas. WILLIAMS: Right, exactly.

GANGEL: Can I just add, though, Donald Trump is the leader of this party. He's the president. He has the biggest attention for all the Republicans down ballot.

[16:15:01]

The political tone deafness of carrying on about your ballroom --

WILLIAMS: A National Security Center.

GANGEL: -- or the gold in there, or your arc do whatever, or your reflecting pool --

WILLIAMS: Arc de Trump.

GANGEL: -- it is, you know, they're vanity projects at the end of the day. And I would just substitute for a moment the burrito. It's like, let them eat cake. You have to understand what people are really going through.

HUNT: Let them eat the $20 burritos.

GANGEL: There you go.

HUNT: All right, coming up next here in THE ARENA, Democrats getting ready for what they're calling a massive rally in Michigan as Republicans ramp up their efforts to win over Democrats who could be up for grabs after a divisive Senate primary.

But first, the final Republican holdout saying he'll support the president's attorney general nominee despite reservations that Todd Blanche has shown in that senator's words, poor judgment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I'll be criticized for this vote. What's new? But people of Louisiana can be assured that I worked hard to understand the issue and to make the right decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:46]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASSIDY: Mr. Blanche is not perfect, and he will tell you this, but the choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche. It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively. This is not a referendum on President Trump. It is a decision regarding Mr. Blanche in very specific circumstances.

All considered, I will vote for Mr. Blanche. I'll be criticized for this vote. What's new?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: What's new?

President Trump's attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche, securing that critical vote today, the one he couldn't afford to lose. The Republican Senator, Bill Cassidy, who will be leaving Capitol Hill in January, clearing the way for Blanche's narrow confirmation by announcing in a dramatic floor speech that after much consideration, he would be supporting Blanche.

The Louisiana Republican who met with Blanche yesterday addressed his concerns about, quote, episodes of apparent lawfare under a Blanche- led DOJ, but ultimately determined that if there was ever going to be an A.G. who could restrain the president, it would be Blanche, once Trump's personal attorney. The decision appeared to be an emotional one for Cassidy, who choked up at the end of his remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASSIDY: People of Louisiana can be assured that I worked hard to understand the issue and to make the right decision. With that, I yield.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. CNN Crime and Justice. correspondent Katelyn Polantz joins our panel now with more.

Katelyn, a pretty remarkable moment on the floor there from Bill Cassidy, who was getting in line ultimately. But this argument that he was making there, that he was essentially convinced that if there was anyone who could rein in the President's worst instincts, it's his personal former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, have you found in the course of your reporting that's the case?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Kasie, I was just making a list actually of the things that we know that Todd Blanche has either not pushed back against Trump on or has been unsuccessful in pushing back. Those things include the anti- weaponization fund where it actually needed to go to end. We're still in a somewhat of a limbo, even though Blanche is saying and writing and also has said in court and also under oath that he is not moving it forward, that that could be something where January 6th rioters are somehow protected.

He also has not put in place any parameters around the presidency, the immunity around Donald Trump has expanded during the time Blanche has been at the head of the Justice Department or the deputy attorney general and especially when he was Donald Trump's personal lawyer earning a vote of criminal immunity for the presidency from the Supreme Court in the January 6 case.

Also, there has been the firing of dozens of FBI agents and Justice Department personnel, especially people who were very experienced, very well respected in the Justice Department, but who had been assigned to work on the criminal cases against Donald Trump. Those people fired under Blanche's deputy attorney general, and there has been a continued rewriting in the court record attempted by the Justice Department of the Capitol riot and the actions of January 6ers essentially aiding Trump's decision to pardon them.

That said, the person that delivered this message to Bill Cassidy that really stuck out in his remarks earlier was Bill Barr, the one attorney general under Donald Trump who pushed back against the president in 2020 when Trump was asserting there was election fraud. Barr left his office as attorney general and has still been very well- respected and at times been somewhat critical of Donald Trump since he left that position. Bill Barr is the person that spoke to Cassidy and convinced him if there's going to be a guy, I guess it should be Todd Blanche.

[16:25:03]

Here's a little bit more from Senator Bill Cassidy's remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASSIDY: When former Attorney General Bill Barr endorsed Mr. Blanche, he said Mr. Blanche will run the department as effectively as anyone can under President Trump. Some have called that faint praise. I don't think that it is. I think it is a reality.

Barr specifically addressed the allegation that Mr. Blanche would be a yes-man for the President. He said that any attorney to represent a client well has to have tough conversations and confront a client with difficult truths, that because of his previous attorney-client relationship with President Trump, Mr. Blanche would be precisely the person to push back on President Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: Now, until Todd Blanche was nominated to be the attorney general permanently, there had been many, many weeks where we at CNN were covering all of these cases where Donald Trump was trying to prosecute political enemies or where investigations were happening in some way.

There still is one that we know of going on in the Southern District of Florida that is a vast conspiracy allegation against everyone who had essentially worked on cases opposite Donald Trump. That's what we have heard about it so far. There's been no charges there.

But there's a question for Senator Cassidy whether there will be political prosecutions in the future. He does not want that. And Blanche or someone at the Department of Justice has assured him that some have been dismissed, others have ended investigations. We'll have to see once the confirmation vote happens if that indeed will hold -- Kasie.

HUNT: Really interesting reporting. I mean, Jamie Gangel, what would you add? I know you've been kind of

talking to sources about this. I mean, are any of the assurances that Cassidy received to get here going to hold?

GANGEL: Not if past is prologue. I mean, I think it's so interesting how Katelyn outlined all of these cases where Todd Blanche has not pushed back. Maybe Bill Barr knows something that we don't know, but I would say that Todd Blanche, at least publicly, has not been Bill Barr in reality.

I did think the moment at the end of the speech where Senator Cassidy choked up is worth thinking about on another level. He has been criticized for his RFK vote. And to me, that moment seemed like PTSD. He's a doctor, and, you know, does he have regrets about that vote?

HUNT: Yeah.

GANGEL: But here we are again.

HUNT: Yeah. Governor Walker, I mean, I get why -- I mean, or at least I can intellectually understand that there's political pressure from the base. If you're someone who wants to retain your seat, you may act the way that you do. We've been short-handing Bill Cassidy and then Tom Tillis and John Cornyn as the YOLO caucus because they're all on their way out, right?

They, in theory, don't have anything to lose. However, it seemed clear from watching that that Cassidy really didn't want to do this, the way that he choked up. And I guess the question that I have watching this is, why does he feel like he has to?

WALKER: Well, I don't think he does. I mean, politically, I guess you could make the case that he could have made a statement, but in this case, this would have been a defining vote. But I think in a larger context, if you've gone through a primary, you're not running for something else, you've got nothing else to lose.

If he adamantly believed that, that this was wrong. He could have voted that way. There was no political ramifications. I actually think he did -- he did believe what he said when he went through that.

I should just add an aside, because we were talking politics before.

HUNT: Yeah.

WALKER: I look at my state. I hope the new attorney general, more than some of the other issues we're talking about, continues to hunker down as the Justice Department is on the fraud that we've seen with Medicaid and Medicare fraud, not just in Minnesota. We actually had it in our state and elsewhere, because the people I talk to, they're not talking about the issues we were just talking about a moment ago. They're talking about issues like that fraud.

HUNT: Mo, I mean, it's also worth noting, I mean, this is how the president has talked about Bill Cassidy. And again, I think it's worth remembering if you think about the way

President Trump has focused really his entire second term. I mean, so much of it has been about -- I mean, he said it on the trail. I am your retribution, right? It's his legacy, and it's his retribution.

And there is no one that he has targeted more than those Republicans who voted against him in the impeachment trial, especially after January 6. I mean, there was only one, Mitt Romney, the first time around. So, this -- Cassidy was one of those people, okay, who voted the wrong way. He was one of the few people left.

Here are the things the president said about him, "In the last two weeks, I've taken out many bad political leaders and pundits, including Bill Cassidy."

Bill Cassidy now shunned in his own Senate as a disloyal lightweight, and it's a beautiful thing to watch."

"His disloyal to the man who got him elected is now part of legend. It's nice to see his political career is over."

"Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is a disloyal disaster. He's a sleazebag, a terrible guy who is bad for Louisiana," among other things.

Mo, is some of this about -- I mean, I'm sort of caught on this. Bill Cassidy is now shunned in his own Senate. Is that part of this, too, right, like the idea that people want to be part of the crowd?

ELLEITHEE: I don't know. I honestly don't know, because we were talking earlier about legacy.

And I think Bill Cassidy is now going to leave behind a legacy. He's the guy who gave us RFK, and he's the guy who gave us Todd Blanche. And you know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, he voted for RFK because of the assurances. And none of that came to fruition.

He's now saying, I got these assurances from Blanche, but they're not real assurances.

WILLIAMS: The most ridiculous thing in all of this, really quickly, the idea that Todd Blanche is going to be the guy to rein Donald Trump in.

ELLEITHEE: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: Ten people have served as Attorney General or acting Attorney General under Donald Trump, mostly because he was never satisfied with the work they were doing. He's either fired them or they've left or whatever else.

What universe is it in which this guy, who's his former personal attorney, is now suddenly the bulwark that's going to be the check on Donald Trump's worst impulses? That's the dumbest thing I think I've ever heard from a senator and he knows that.

HUNT: Yeah, maybe he talked to Bill Barr, maybe he didn't.

WILLIAMS: One of the people who also didn't work for Donald -- who didn't work out for Donald Trump.

HUNT: All right. Katelyn Polantz, thank you. Always appreciate your reporting. The rest of our panel is going to stick around.

Coming up next here in THE ARENA, the great political minds, David Axelrod and Mike Murphy are here with us live as Democrats prepare for a show of unity in Michigan and the Republican in the Senate race makes a direct appeal to voters on the left. Our "Hacks on Tap" are back, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: If you're among the majority of Democratic voters that woke up on Wednesday feeling, well, hopeless because the person who won does not represent your values, well, just know there is still hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:36:43]

HUNT: All right. Right now in Michigan, the race is on to unify a Democratic coalition roiled by a bitter and combative primary. State Democrats holding a unity rally next hour in Detroit, where the Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed will appear alongside the other winners of Tuesday's primaries, as well as Michigan transplant former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

El Sayed's Republican challenger Mike Rogers, meanwhile, hoping to capitalize on the Democratic divisions, sharing this new video with CNN in which he made a direct appeal to wary Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGERS: If you're among the majority of Democratic voters that woke up on Wednesday feeling, well, hopeless because the person who won does not represent your values, well, just know. There is still hope.

To the vast majority of people across Michigan who do not want to throw their support behind a campaign filled with anger, divisiveness, calls for violence, and the views that are out of touch with your values -- well, you have a home with us. The fight is far greater than just left versus right. The fight is for the very soul of our nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining me now in THE ARENA to discuss CNN chief political analyst, former Obama senior advisor David Axelrod and Republican strategist Mike Murphy. They together are, of course, the "Hacks on Tap" podcast.

Gentlemen, always great to see you. Thank you so much for being here.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you.

HUNT: David, as I was listening to the layers behind the way Mike Rogers is framing this, it's worth noting Abdul El-Sayed would be the first Muslim senator were he to be elected. The words that Mike Rogers used, you have a home with us, right, a home in Michigan, a soul --

AXELROD: Or Florida, in his case.

HUNT: Et cetera. Well, sure. But like, I mean, the visuals, the language, it says a lot more when you pull that apart than it does directly. I think my question to you as the Democrat here is, is it going to work?

AXELROD: Yeah, look, I think that they have to try because Donald Trump is sitting in Michigan with a 35 percent approval rating, and people are really unhappy about his economic policies that have pounded that state more than many. And so, Democrats have a big advantage in this race.

So, I think they need to change the subject, and obviously they're going to that place. But when you talk about, you know, anger and appeals to violence and so on and shared values and so on, I think the Democrats are going to make the argument that Republicans have lost connection with the values and concerns of people in that state.

And I think it's going to be -- that's a powerful message. It's going to be a battle, there's no doubt about it. But, you know, I think that Rogers starts with a heavier burden.

HUNT: Mike, do you agree?

MIKE MURPHY, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Sort of. I mean, I think generically where a week ago the race was going was it's a blue wave and Donald Trump's numbers are terrible in Michigan. He's an anchor around the neck of any Republican candidate, right? Mike Rogers was in trouble.

[16:40:02]

But now, by betting on El-Sayed, on one hand, they picked a great political athlete and a good communicator. On the other hand, he is controversial enough on some of his lefty positions that now Mike Rogers has something to talk about, a way to move the debate from punish Trump and the Republicans for your economic pain to, oh, there go the crazy left-wing Democrats again, who is this guy?

So that's not so good. It gives Rogers something to work with.

I think the other problem, if you look at the votes in the primary in Michigan that Haley Stevens got, she was getting the manufacturing towns. She was getting the older Democrats, the more lunch pill Democrats. El Sayed was doing great on the campuses and with the wealthier kind of yuppie liberal Democrats. Those older, more culturally conservative Democrats who are for

Stevens are going to be torn between wanting to go out and punish Trump and get rid of the Republicans, but also not so sure about him. So El-Sayed's got to be the best pivot artist in politics, or he's going to be talking about himself too much and not about Trump enough to win the race.

HUNT: Really interesting.

AXELROD: Yeah, I mean --

HUNT: Yeah, go ahead, David.

AXELROD: No, no, I agree with that. You can't be the tribune of the working class without the working class, and he needs to make that connection to win this race. But he does have an economic focus, and he has to -- you know, the art of this -- you win primaries one way, you win general elections another. The art of this is to talk about the things that are most important to the largest number of people, and he needs to focus like a laser those economic issues.

And Mike Rogers' burden is that he's tied himself to Trump and he really can't separate himself out from Trump. And that is going to make this a really interesting race.

HUNT: Yeah, he sort of faces the same problem that any moderate Republican has faced recently, which is you can't win with Trump, but you can't win without him.

Sorry, Mike, I interrupted. Go ahead.

MURPHY: No, no, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. Rogers has also tied himself to all the Trump policies that are killing Michigan, the dumb tariffs, the war against electric vehicles. So, you know, other than this card trick with El-Sayed, so El-Sayed can learn a little Houdini stuff here, back off some of the scary faculty lounge stuff that got him the primary, go wider and stay on the attack. Republicans shouldn't be too cocky like this thing is now back in the bag.

The truth is, generically, the headwinds are for Rogers. The question is, can El Sayed make it about Rogers now?

HUNT: Yeah. So, listen, big picture here -- I mean, you guys have both worked in politics for a long time. The story of our politics has often been that Americans are fairly middle of the road, right? They want a check on unified government. They kind of come back to a mean. But in recent years, we've seen the wings, the bases of both parties really come to have more power.

And I think we saw it with the Tea Party rise in 2010. Now Democrats are grappling with a version of it. I think we're still learning what the contours are and just how comparable exactly these two things are.

But I mean, I remember being in Michigan in 2016 and seeing how many of the progressives who would come to Bernie Sanders rallies, I covered him for months, would say that their second choice was Donald Trump, right? And we've often talked about this horseshoe kind of politics.

We pulled together a montage that shows some members of the sort of populist right, I guess is how you would put it, and the populist left. I want to play it for you guys and we'll talk about it on their side. And, you know, I won't prejudice you by trying to say what it shows. I'll let you draw that conclusion, but I think you'll share a sentiment.

Let's watch.

AXELROD: You think we're smart enough to get it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS HOST: A.I. is going to eliminate any life possibilities for an entire generation of younger people, and baby boomers are still thinking about how to put a new roof on their place in Sea Island.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We're seeing lots of companies talk about how many people you can lay off with this technology. What is the plan?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): Gas is almost $5 and diesel is almost $6. They're talking about this big ballroom they're going to build.

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: People are paying nearly $5 in gas because of a war he started, and half the time, if he's not talking about me, he's talking about the drapes in his ballroom.

CARLSON: I don't think the United States owes Israel anything. I don't think the United States should give Israel anything.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Not another nickel to the extremist Netanyahu government in Israel.

MASSIE: This is the Epstein administration.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): When you stand up for the working class over the Epstein class.

FORMER REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): We voted for no more foreign wars.

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK: We always have money for war and not to feed the poor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I mean, David Axelrod?

AXELROD: You know, the thing is, Kasie, in this era, you could get a similar group of clips.

[16:45:03] There may be some differences among people across the range of officeholders and politicians in both parties, because we're living in a time where 70 percent of Americans say The system is corrupt and rigged against them.

And so, they -- you know, I think that there's a wide audience for this. Now, on social issues, it's different. On economic issues and on issues of campaign finance and corruption and so on, I think there's a broad majority that is really discontented.

And that's the sweet spot in our politics right now.

HUNT: Mike, you've got 10 seconds.

MURPHY: Yeah, the politics of alienation sing in harmony. It is a horseshoe. The same energy is there. But the question is, how do you get to 50 plus one? Because you're alienated based in either party isn't enough.

HUNT: Yeah, for sure.

All right, Mike Murphy, David Axelrod, thank you both. Always love having you.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:29]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think running for Congress while you're being accused of this stuff, no, man. Just set it down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like you've voted for some farm stuff that's helped us out over the years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I haven't seen any actual facts or video or anything that would support her allegations, but I don't want to say that she's lying, you know? And I also -- we support Moreno. So, it's really kind of a challenging situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Republican voters in Congressman Max Miller's Ohio district reacting to the growing calls for him to resign amid domestic abuse allegations. Miller denies the claims and insists he can win reelection, so much so that he's lending $1 million to his own campaign, according to "The Wall Street Journal".

This, as one source tells CNN, there's an intense push by party officials to get him out of the race, though those efforts so far have been unsuccessful.

My panel is back. Governor Walker, I mean, can he win?

WALKER: He's toast. He's just toast. I mean, there's no doubt about it.

I mean, he would be toast just on the facts and the way he presented himself to begin with. But you add your ex-father-in-law as a U.S. senator is very well liked. You see all the other Republicans coming out.

Actually, it's kind of, I know it's a different issue, but it's an interesting contrast to what happened to Maine when you had a guy with a Nazi tattoo on and all those allegations, it didn't nobody else pushed him out to go he was losing. And Max --

HUNT: Well, I wouldn't say the list of Republicans that have pushed him out publicly has been terribly long. I mean, there are a handful, like Jon Husted just did it yesterday.

WALKER: Yeah, well --

HUNT: Right.

WALKER: I needed the list.

HUNT: I think there's plenty of others, but I think they're giving deference to the senator. And the fact that if anybody knows that situation who's elected better than the senator, I think they're giving deference. I think you'll see more in the coming days.

WILLIAMS: Question I have for you is, do the voters in the district care? Like, certainly Washington does, and there's no dispute about the fact that sort of us here, you know, Republicans in Washington, have huge concerns with the conduct. Don't be entitled to serve. Do the folks in the district care?

WALKER: If it didn't involve another elected official, it may not. But I think this elevates it to a whole different level. And that one voter, I think, was a good reflection of -- they probably liked him for other reasons. They don't like the allegations. They don't know all the details.

But then they like Bernie Moreno. And they're like, OK, if he's saying that, I got to take --

WILLIAMS: Real quick. The remarkable thing about it is taking his word against hers, which was what one of the voters had said for disregarding that there were actually a history of at least three women who come forward and potentially a little kid involved.

ELLEITHEE: Yeah. And let's be clear, one of the big differences between this and the Graham Platner situation, Graham Platner hadn't been vetted. My party got to the right place late, should have gotten there much earlier, but it got there as more information came out.

Max Miller's been vetted. These allegations have been out there since before his first election to Congress. So, they knew what they were getting. The Republican establishment knew what they were getting, what the party bosses thought, they knew all this.

And he isn't doing himself any favors when he sits there in the video he put out himself to defend himself, says, guys, think about it. If I had really abused her, would she have cooked me dinner a few days later? Yes, because that's what happens in abusive relationships far too often.

So, like, he just keeps digging the hole deeper for himself. And if you really do want to defend yourself, don't do it on the campaign trail because your daughter is at stake. You have a kid at home.

Do the right thing for your family. Defend yourself off the campaign trail. Leave the race. Take care of your family. And he's clearly not doing that.

HUNT: It's worth noting that one of the reasons why Bernie Moreno started to speak out was in no small part because of that appearance on video. And then we've since learned -- and this has become so evocative, this little blue bunny that the senator says his former son-in-law continues to withhold from his granddaughter.

GANGEL: No question. First of all, as we say, he has not acquitted himself well. That interview with, you know, Jake Tapper, Jake was pitch perfect, and Max Miller was anything but. He just -- it was.

But to your point about the blue bunny story which his father-in-law Senator Moreno told, that is just sitting there waiting to be the campaign commercial of the year.

[16:55:08]

And this is about math. He is putting a seat in play that Republicans don't want in play right now.

HUNT: All right.

On that cheerful note, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Thanks to my panel. Really appreciate y'all being here. Have a great weekend.

Thanks to you at home for watching as well. Please do have a great weekend. And don't forget, you can spend part of it with THE ARENA tomorrow. THE ARENA SATURDAY airs at noon 4:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. I would love to have you join us.

But of course, don't go anywhere. Jake Tapper is standing by for "THE LEAD".

Hi, Jake. Happy Friday.