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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

Dem-Led States File New Case Against Trump's Mail-In Ballot Limits; Remembering Dolly Parton: Musician, Philanthropist, Icon; Just In: Judge Approves Meta's $18 Billion Settlement With States. Aired 4- 5p ET

Aired August 26, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Why didn't the chicken cross the pond? Can't swim, can't swim. Maybe didn't get a visa.

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The flock of chickens guys.

(LAUGHTER)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Anna Stewart --

KEILAR: Anna Stewart --

SANCHEZ: -- thank you so much.

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 Wednesday.

As we come on the air, dramatic new turns in the fight over how you cast your vote this November. Today, multiple Democratic-led states filed a new lawsuit just days after the Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump the green light to implement new restrictions on voting by mail. This comes less than three months out from the midterm elections, as President Trump once again blames Joe Biden.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I inherited a mess in so many ways. The border, which I solved very quickly. I inherited so many different problems that this was a bad administration. This was an incompetent administration. But I inherited a high prices -- and then, from the first day, they started using the word "affordability". They looked at me -- affordability.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HUNT: It's not his fault, he says.

For months, the president has seemed to be bracing for a brutal midterm election, likely losing the House and maybe even the Senate. But remember, according to him, it's not his fault.

This afternoon, the president reposted a supporter saying, quote, "I don't think the GOP fully grasped how badly they are effing up right now. I'm very worried that the GOP is sleepwalking toward a midterm reckoning they don't see coming," end quote.

But the president has a solution, more Trump. "The Atlantic" reports that at an Oval Office meeting this month, the presidents advisers, quote, told him that the poor polling reflects the fact that the voting public still does not know about many of his accomplishments. In turn, the president, quote, "suggested that the ad makers mine his own on camera statements as building blocks," telling them, quote, "go look at the clips. I cite accomplishments all the time," end quote.

Trouble for the president is that even Republicans don't agree that everything he's doing recently counts as an accomplishment. Many Republicans are furious over his latest tariff moves, worried they'll drive up prices just as voters are going to the polls. But of course, President Trump today doubling down on all of it.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TRUMP: The prices are coming down very rapidly. And now beef is starting to come down. You know the meats, the beef is starting to come down. They don't have anything that we have to have. Okay? We can get by.

I mean, there are a couple of things that would make it a little inconvenient, but we can get them elsewhere. And it's time to teach Canada. You can't do this anymore.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Let's get off the sidelines, head into THE ARENA. My panel is going to be here, but we're going to start off with CNN's senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes.

Kristen, there are some mixed messages here from the president, although I suppose the one message that's not mixed is that he believes in himself. The issue, of course, is that those in his party who want to get reelected don't seem to believe in him, although they, of course, can't really live without him either. it's been kind of the perennial bind for Republicans here in Washington.

Walk through what you know, what the presidents thinking and why he's doing all this.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think looking at President Trump and the kind of messaging he's putting out right now shows what the poll numbers reflect when it comes to the midterms in both the senate and the house around the country, which is it's not looking great for Republicans. Now, there are still a few optimists that believe they can turn things around, that certain races aren't going to be as bad as the polling shows.

But some of what the president is doing and even saying is not helping that cause, as you mentioned, this trade war with Canada. Let's look at some of the most critical (VIDEO GAP) would like to win. Those are all also states that do a hefty amount of business with Canada, who will be greatly impacted. Businesses there, individuals there, by these tariffs and by an ongoing trade war. So that is not helpful to the Republican Party.

And you can see President Trump really trying to abdicate responsibility when it comes to whatever the results are going to be at the end of this 10 weeks. One of the things in this post is that it clearly points out, this is the social media post that you were just talking about this kind of conservative social media personality that he reposted, and it says this, people are pissed off that they voted for Trump into office, and then the GOP continues to slow walk at every reform people want.

It talks about the SAVE Act. Of course, that's something that we know that senators have said they just cannot get done. John Thune has told President Trump that, something that Trump has really tried to bully these senators into taking up, that is his voter reform act.

But in general here, it really goes to show you where the landscape is and where Trump sees the landscape. And the other thing to point out, he talks about how he inherited high prices. He did inherit high prices. But the other side of that is that he entered into a war that has now increased prices beyond what they were, and taken out any gains that were made at the beginning of the administration to try and combat this affordability issue.

There are problems across the board here for Republicans. Now, the really big question is, how do they campaign on this? Because what I'm being told by these lawmakers across the country is there's really no escaping Donald Trump. Whether or not you're standing next to him at a rally, whether or not he endorses you, every Democrat in the country that is up for reelection are up for election, they are running on a platform that includes Donald Trump, because Donald Trump's poll numbers are just so bad right now.

Now, there is a conception inside the White House that they really do need to be selling more of what the administration is doing. But part of the problem of why the public does not get that information is because President Trump himself distracts from that messaging. He is up there talking about the ballroom. He is up there talking about the Iran war. He is talking about issues that are outside of the scope of what everyday Americans want, which is talking about this, what they feel is an economic crisis.

And that's what Republicans feel if he would actually turn his attention to, they might be able to claw back some of these poll numbers that they think right now are incredibly dire in various races.

HUNT: Yeah. When you've -- when you've won reelection by campaigning on the economy, saying you'll lower prices and saying that you'll keep Americans out of wars, and then we find ourselves here two years later. No wonder the numbers are where they are.

Kristen Holmes for us at the White House -- Kristen, always appreciate you. Thank you so much.

My panel is here in THE ARENA, White House correspondent for "The New York Times" and CNN political analyst Zolan Kanno-Youngs, CNN contributor and host of "The Cari Champion Show", Cari Champion is here on our panel; former senior advisor at the DNC and CNN political analyst, Xochitl Hinojosa; and CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings, who we also do need to note is reportedly being considered to be the next White House press secretary.

We are also joined by constitutional law professor at Georgetown University, Michele Goodwin.

Thank you all for being here. Really appreciate having you.

Scott Jennings, I don't know if you're still, I guess, well, just -- you cannot -- you can continue your audition here because if you go down the list of things that the president views as his own accomplishments, and then you talk to voters about what they want, and you look at their approval, the net approval, okay?

Prices, inflation, he's 48 points underwater. Okay, 48 points. Health care, 30 points. Foreign policy, 27 points. Education 20 points. Immigration, he's 15 points under water.

And he wants to air a bunch of ads featuring his own words in the midterm elections. Like, what would you say? Like if you want to keep the House and the Senate, should he not be, I don't know, going about it differently.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: First of all, I don't audition or beg for anything, A. B, if I were running ads in any campaign this fall, and, you know, if the president decides to unload some of his war chests, which I understand he's going to, I would focus on a few things that are absolutely going right.

The border is closed. Drug prices are falling faster than they have in 60 years. Taxes are cut. And crime in this country is lower and violent crime is lower than it's been in 100 years. These are all quality of life.

HUNT: He's 13 points underwater on crime.

JENNINGS: That's the purpose of a campaign, is you have to tell people and you have to stay relentlessly focused on it. And that's what ad campaigns are for.

And this is where the Republicans do have an advantage. They have a massive war chest at the committee level, at the independent expenditure level, and even at the candidate level, the purpose of a campaign is to refocus the electorate on the things that you're doing that are going right in the zones that they care about (VIDEO GAP).

Well, he believes in tariffs, and he believes that Canada has been taking advantage of the United States. And he thinks Canada needs us more than we need them. That's been his long-standing view. And maybe they'll work something out. But we're the big player in this relationship, not Canada. And he does

not believe Canada has been treating many American products fairly. That's a long-standing view of the president.

HUNT: But it occurs to me that perhaps part of why were hearing this from the president is, of course, he's not going to be on the ballot. But if Republicans lose, then he is going to be extension -- by extension, potentially be considered a loser himself. Let's flash back to previous presidents who faced midterm elections and what that looked and felt like when they had to acknowledge what had gone wrong.

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Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: With the Democrats in control of both the White House and the Congress, we were held accountable yesterday, and I accept my share of the responsibility in the result of the elections.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm obviously disappointed with the outcome of the election. And as the head of the Republican Party, I share a large part of the responsibility.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm not recommending for every future president that they take a shellacking like -- like I did last night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: And of course, Bush also called it a thumping.

I mean, Cari Champion, when you cover sports, you know, there's a thing called losing graciously.

CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. And you have to do that. But then sometimes you're a spoiled sport, if you will.

HUNT: Yeah. I mean, can this president do that?

CHAMPION: Yeah. No, I think that that's not even in his he's so not self-aware, nor is that in his vocabulary. And Scott started pointing out, let's just start looking at things that we are doing right. And if you're a single-issue voter, perhaps that'll work.

What I've said before, over and over again, Americans feel it. You can't say, let's point to the border. Let's -- I'm pointing to my pocketbook. I'm pointing to what doesn't feel right. I'm pointing to education. I'm pointing to prices when I go to the market. That's what I know and that's what I feel.

This president is actually blaming the Republicans. We see day in and day out that he's blaming them for what is wrong. When you pointed out that, I guess the tweet that you put up from that conservative blogger and he's like, yeah, it's the Republicans they're mad at. They're not mad at me. And he's giving them a shellacking.

I'm -- if I was a Republican and I was in office right now and he's telling me what I'm doing wrong, I'm like, are you serious? How dare you? Because I'm doing everything to help you in the shenanigans that you're up to and acting as if nothing is wrong. And now you're blaming me?

And on the other hand, the Democrats aren't the same. You know what I mean? They're just the same as what I'm trying to say.

HUNT: All right. We have to stand by for just a moment. We're going to continue this conversation about midterms here after the break. We'll also get a live report from Tennessee as new tributes come in from across the country and around the world for Dolly Parton, including a message for the queen -- for the queen of country from the king and queen of England.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dolly Parton was the closest thing that I had to religion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's going to be missed. I mean, she is a legend. She is the queen of Tennessee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If America had royalty, you know, right, she would be one of them. It's like losing Princess Diana.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's left her mark on this planet tenfold. And I don't think anybody can do it like her. So, I will always love you, Dolly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Oh, won't we all? It's been a little over 24 hours since we learned that Dolly Parton had passed away after a brief battle with cancer. And the world has been in mourning. It's really a testament to her global reach and impact. Tributes have been pouring in from all corners of the planet, from the biggest celebrities to presidents and prime ministers across the political spectrum.

Dolly has played her role as unifier one last time.

CNN's Sara Sidner is in Nashville at the Music City Walk of Fame.

Sara, what's it been like to be there in -- I mean, really, Dolly's town?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it really is. She came here and performed at 13 years old at the Grand Ole Opry. But

then the minute that she graduated from high school, the very next day, she came here as an 18-year-old to live. And she was clear she wanted to be a star. And boy, did she make that happen.

I will give you some sense of what it's been like. We've been all over town. We have been where she had a studio. There were flowers there. Here on the Walk of Fame, flowers being put down on her star.

And there are -- she's got a hotel that was very close to opening here. The SongTeller Hotel, and it says Dolly Parton' SongTeller Hotel, that is set to open here. She has marks all over this city, but most people here are just remembering her for her beautiful lyrics that many different people ended up singing, and for the way she was, her wit, her -- the way in which she would be able to say things in such a way that would make you laugh, but actually make you think as well. And really, her genius and her humanitarian work.

Now, one thing that I think a lot of people may not know is that Dolly Parton left a gift for all of us, beyond all of the music that we already know. There is a song that she has not released that is supposed to release in 2046, when Dolly would have been 100 years old. It's been kept in a locked box in the sort of Dollywood Dreammore Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and she expects that to be released in 2046. So, a gift from her, the gift that keeps giving her music.

She also talked a little bit about what she wanted for her funeral. And this is over time, where she's been giving some interviews and a lot of people thought, well, Dolly, surely is going to want "I Will Always Love You" as a song to play her out, if you will. And that was not what she wanted.

Instead, she was pretty adamant that she wanted another song, a song that meant so much to her and her family. That song is called "If We Never Meet Again", it's an old country gospel hymn.

[16:20:00]

And it's special to her because it was her father's favorite song, and he had it played at his funeral.

The funeral, according to the family, is going to be a very small affair, exactly the way Dolly wanted it. Private with family and the closest people to her. But with such a big personality, people needed an outlet. They needed a way to say thank you to her, to mourn her.

Many people still shocked today that she is gone at 80 years old. I talked to several different people, including the receptionist at the hotel who said, look, I'm not able to concentrate a whole lot right now because I'm in mourning and I'm in mourning for Dolly, our North Star, but also the lead singer of the Oak Ridge Boys.

He is in his 61st year of playing, and he played with Dolly at the Grand Ole Opry. And he says, you know, I was talking about her with her wit and everything. You would imagine that Dolly is. Well, that is exactly who she is, and much more. He said he completely lost it when he heard that his buddy and a

genius in the music world had died.

Guys, back to you.

HUNT: I'm sure.

All right. Sara Sidner for us -- Sara, thank you so much for that.

Joining our panel is "USA Today's" music reporter Bryan West to join us as well.

Brian, thank you so much for being here. The legend that was -- it's very hard to say that -- I suppose is for all of us still. Dolly Parton will really leave an impact, clearly left an impact. And I know you've covered some younger artists as well. It's really impossible to overstate the inspiration, the number of people that she informed, the way so much of the music that we listen to today is informed by Dolly.

BRYAN WEST, MUSIC REPORTER, USA TODAY: That's exactly right, Kasie. Thank you for having me. The world is a little bit less colorful today. Nashville is overcast. It's gloomy. It's almost as if the heavens are also crying.

If you talk to anybody in the music industry, they all worked with Dolly, songwriters, producers, fellow singers, and they will all tell you today is just a really sad day. It's still shocking. It's hard to believe that Dolly Parton is no longer with us. Even waking up today was a harsh reality of realizing that the queen of country music is no longer with us. And so, it's just an incredibly sad day.

What is the most interesting about Dolly? And it really, truly speaks to her character is she didn't just work 9 to 5. She also worked 5 to 9.

There are so many projects that are still set up, still underway, still ongoing, that will continue through next year. We're talking about the hotel, the museum. She has Dollywood. She has a travel stop. She did a line with Purina.

She also has a biopic, a docu series. I mean, this was a woman who just kept going and her life just kept shining up until the end.

HUNT: And lucky for all of us that those are the -- that's the case. I mean, Cari Champion the power that that she has in music, but also in culture and the way that this outpouring has crossed all lines, political, racial lines, geopolitical lines.

CHAMPION: She was everyone's favorite. I, you know, I'll say this, I'm on social yesterday. An it was this -- culturally, it was this conversation.

They were like, you took the wrong one. She's our favorite white lady. Why would you take Dolly? We love her so much, you know?

And it was really funny, but it was this this thing about Dolly Parton. No matter whether you love country or not, the way she writes music. Obviously, we know that Whitney Houston covered one of her huge, huge hits, "I Will Always Love You", and you're thinking, oh, Dolly wrote that. Just more connections.

I saw Eminem post a letter that Dolly Parton sent to him, acknowledging that she loved his music. Who she is was just bigger than life, and it transcended whatever your race was. Because at the end of the day, she was just a good person, and she wanted to see everybody do well. And I think we felt that.

HUNT: Yeah. I mean, Scott Jennings, you were talking about Dolly had this way of thinking about people who had challenges that -- and they were used to perhaps other people not considering those challenges or thinking about them. And Dolly did. And that generosity was foundational to her.

JENNINGS: She really did. I actually interviewed a lady today who's an advocate for families that have children that have autism and other sensory challenges, and she was talking about how at Dollywood, the theme park, she was one of the first sort of major attractions to install a calming room for families to take their children to so that they could come to a theme park and enjoy it, but have a place to retreat and deal with those challenges.

I've been reading all these stories. There's countless examples of stories like that where she thought, you know, we could make this a little bit better for people and make it a little bit more hospitable for people. I think Dolly Parton is a true American patriot.

And, you know, she stayed out of politics, too. I saw a clip today of a reporter trying to drag her into -- getting political, and she just wouldn't take the bait. She stayed out of it, and she stayed true to her fan base on that.

I think -- I think a lot of Hollywood entertainment people could take a lesson from Dolly Parton, to be honest.

[16:25:03]

HUNT: We showed yesterday her clip saying there's enough boobs in politics already, and she shook them at the camera.

(LAUGHTER)

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But it's like, she could do that. Only Dolly Parton could do that. Right? And like it was.

And the point about politics, I think, is an interesting one these days. There is really no person that can get the praise from Republicans, Democrats, people who are not partisan the way that she has.

And she was someone who was of deep faith. But as you mentioned, she also really wanted to help the most vulnerable and treated everybody equally. There's talk about how she was for LGBTQ rights, while also being a person of faith. And so, she wanted to make the biggest difference. I mean, the COVID

vaccine in itself, I mean, that is, you know, the money that was put towards that was, all was changed America. And so, the -- I mean, I think she will go down in history as, yes, a great American and someone who just made every -- the lives of children better, whether it be her museum, whether it be the books that all of our kids have at home, the Imagination Library.

There's so much she has done.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And not just Democrats and Republicans, but you saw yesterday a statement from DSA and a statement from Donald Trump, both Dolly Parton hitting the Venn Diagram, right? Like to unify that sort of faction is pretty interesting. Even just yesterday reporting, you know, every source call you took, people like had a moment of gasping and taking a moment to be like, oh, did you see the news --

HUNT: I know, I know.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- about Dolly Parton?

HUNT: Well, luckily her music is going to be with us always. And it turns out we're going to get another song from her when she would have been 99 years old, is what she said about it.

All right. Bryan West, thank you sir. Always appreciate having you.

Coming up next here in THE ARENA. Why one of the biggest names in social media is agreeing to pay $18 billion to settle a multi-state lawsuit.

But first, more on the slate of new lawsuits. Democratic led states are filing against the president to try and block his efforts to restrict mail in voting ahead of the midterms.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:25]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

Democrats today ramping up their efforts to block an effort by the president to restrict mail in ballots ahead of the midterms. Attorneys general in more than a dozen states filing a new lawsuit today, just days after the Supreme Court let the presidents order temporarily go into effect.

Joining me now is Democratic congressman from South Carolina, Jim Clyburn, of course, a longtime member of House leadership.

Congressman Clyburn, thank you very much for being with us here today.

I want to start you there. What concerns do you have at this point about the way these restrictions, these temporary restrictions seems under the Supreme Courts ruling are going to have on the midterm elections coming up in just about 10 weeks?

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, first of all, thank you very much for having me. I have grave concerns about that because this Supreme Court has made it very clear over the last several months, almost a year now, that they are allowing things to go forward, even things that lower courts have decided are, in fact, unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court is stepping in to say, well, it may be we don't know until we hear all of the facts.

So, because we don't know, let's just let it occur and we'll get to that determination later. We saw that with the Callais decision. That was a decision that allowed redistricting to go forward, even though the support of the lower court has said is unconstitutional. That happened in South Carolina a year ago, more than a year ago. Well, it may be, but we'll just let it go forward.

And that's what they're doing now. We've got a state, in fact, just about an hour and a half ago, I was on a radio -- a zoom event with people in the state of Washington, 100 percent of their voting is by mail. So, what this court is doing is putting entire electorate in the state of Washington at risk, because this administration will do everything it possibly can to suppress the vote.

That's what the SAVE Act is all about. My acronym is an acronym for my the title of it. It is "suppress Americans voting efforts", suppress Americans voting efforts. That's what the SAVE Act is all about, and that's what they are trying to do. Suppress this vote.

HUNT: Congressman, let me ask you about some of the politics at play here, because, of course, the midterm elections could make Hakeem Jeffries, the speaker of the House. And your party has been wrestling in many ways between progressives and pragmatists, if you will. And some of the progressives have really criticized Hakeem Jeffries here in the last few weeks.

Do you think that Hakeem Jeffries is making the correct balance here among the factions of your party?

CLYBURN: The proof is in the pudding.

[16:35:01

We've been winning. How many special elections have we won this past year? Record setting.

How many discharged petitions on the floor of the United States House of Representatives have we gotten to the floor for a vote? Records.

If that's not inside, outside record setting, what is? You know, when I was growing up in politics here in South Carolina, I used to get a whole lot of criticism for my, quote/unquote, "progressive leanings". And I used to say all the time, you show me a person who's never been criticized, and I will show you one who's never done anything.

And most of these people who are criticizing have never done anything. This man is running our caucus in a very effective manner. We are having success on the floor of the House of Representatives. We're having success in this elections.

The elections that really count when you have an intramural battle. And that's what primaries are. And we have competing interests in primaries. Let them fight it out. And once the primary is over, then let's go coalesce around the winner.

Now, I have picked losers in primaries. I have been a loser in the primary, and I've always endorsed the person I lost to. And I would hope that continues to be the case in this instance. So, this whole stuff about does Hakeem Jeffries have what it takes? The proof is in the pudding.

HUNT: So speaking of primaries, you endorsed in the Michigan primary, Haley Stevens, who, of course, lost to Abdul El-Sayed. One of the reasons why Stevens actually probably overperformed on election night compared to the polling was because Black voters, especially in and around Detroit, backed Stevens.

What do you think El-Sayed needs to do to win over those voters that were skeptical of him, especially those black voters?

CLYBURN: Continue to do what he's doing now. I had a long conversation with him yesterday. We are going to have another conversation. Our staffs are meeting over the weekend. I'm looking forward to going up to Michigan, to be as helpful as I possibly can to him.

I'm going to Florida next weekend to be as helpful as I possibly can to voters down -- candidates down there. Some are progressive, some are moderate. All are Democrats. And I'm going down there to help all Democrats.

HUNT: All right. South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, always grateful to have you, sir. Thank you so much for being here.

CLYBURN: Well, thank you very much for having me.

HUNT: All right. Let's bring our panel back in to continue this conversation.

Michele Goodwin, I want to go to you on what these attorneys general are doing on mail in voting, because this, of course, something that the president has really gone to war over after he lost the 2020 presidential election. And the fact that the court is pushing this so close to the election itself could have significant repercussions.

MICHELE GOODWIN, PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Well, that's absolutely right. So, here's what Letitia James has said about it, that across the country, states are already deep into preparation for the 2026 midterm elections. And now, at the last moment, at the 11th hour, the federal government, according to her, is attempting to meddle in those preparations and potentially threaten countless Americans right to vote.

And that's really important to understand that this is not a Democrat or Republican issue. We have to understand that there are people in the military who rely on mail in voting. There are people who live in rural communities who rely on this. There are students in universities, colleges across the country that live in areas where for college but are not their domicile residents, where they vote.

All of these individuals rely on the ability to be able to vote by mail. And let us not forget, especially given the prior segment on Dolly Parton, support for people with disabilities, people who live with disabilities, many of them rely on the ability to mail in their ballots rather than being stuck in lines. That could be two, three, four hours long, or even more.

So this hurts, potentially Americans of many different stripes and many different capacities. And we haven't even talked about people who are elderly, living in community centers, but still very much care about their right to vote. And amongst those people are people who come from communities where during Jim Crow, they were shut out from the right to vote. And they feel very seriously about their ability to contribute to America's democracy by being able to cast a vote.

[16:40:02]

HUNT: It's also worth noting, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, one of the most famous Americans who has voted by mail, is the current occupant of the White House.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yeah, yeah, multiple, multiple times.

HUNT: President Trump.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Multiple times.

I do think it's worth noting here that with the Supreme Court, with the Supreme Court emergency opinion and this decision today, I think there's a lot of confusion about all of this. One, we actually don't know just the long -- they haven't ruled on the legality of this yet, right? We have a temporary emergency opinion on this.

So, they -- the administration can move forward. Now we're talking about the executive order to restrict mail in balloting that affects DHS, as well as the postal service. They can move forward now, but we may see an update on the legality of this and this get blocked or advanced down the line. So, this story certainly isn't done reporting on this, though.

What we do know, which is already happening now, is that regardless of this executive order, the president has taken a number of steps to assert more control over the postal service. That includes nominating a number of politically aligned officials to be on the postal service board of governors.

Usually that's bipartisan. You have two officials from each party that they've broken from that, and also, regardless of what happens down the line, you do have rising concern among not just Democrats, but also just secretary of states across the country who are worried about the confusion that these sort of whipsaw legal opinions are causing. And just the number of actions that we've seen when it comes to something that is under the responsibility of the states that be managing the electoral process.

HINOJOSA: Well, and that's funny that you say that about confusion, because the ultimate goal of the Trump administration is to limit people voting if they are not successful in court, which in a number of different instances, whether they have brought charges against their enemies, et cetera., they're not successful in court. The whole purpose is to scare people and cause confusion, right?

So, it is a two-pronged approach here, and they understand that because of the legality and the law is not on their side here, that if they can cause as much confusion as possible and get as many ballots thrown out as possible, that ultimately benefits them in a year where they don't believe that they will be successful in retaining, keeping the House and potentially the Senate.

And so, I think that the Democratic Party is going to have to do a lot of educating of voters to ensure that people are filling out their ballots and doing so. And a lot of resources are actually going to have to be poured into that effort instead of pouring in money to help our candidates.

HUNT: Scott, your face just you'd like to jump in?

JENNINGS: What -- what people? You say they don't want people to vote. What --

HINOJOSA: Americans. They want to limit voting.

JENNINGS: What evidence?

HINOJOSA: They want conservatives voting. You heard the president of the United States.

JENNINGS: The president does better in higher turnout environments. You know that, right?

HINOJOSA: The president of the United States actually said that they weren't going to win the midterm elections, and therefore, they need to do something about it. He has said that. He -- this is exactly why he wants to pass the SAVE Act.

I mean, we all know that whether it is voter ID laws, whether it is limiting vote by mail, whether it is redistricting, every -- every tactic that they have used has been to limit voting so that they can ultimately win in the midterm elections.

JENNINGS: So, A, Trump and his coalition do better in higher turnout environments.

HINOJOSA: Not this -- not this election, people --

JENNINGS: B --

HINOJOSA: There are people crossing over in independents --

(CROSSTALK) HUNT: Not when he's not on that ballot. There's no proof of that when he's not on the ballot.

HINOJOSA: And independents are --

JENNINGS: No, you're proving my point. The point is, if turnout were higher, his party would do better. She is arguing erroneously, without any evidence, in a reckless fashion on this network that somehow the president of United States, is trying to stop people from voting. There is no --

HINOJOSA: He's trying to limit voting. He's absolutely --

JENNINGS: The only -- the only -- the only people --

HINOJOSA: Have you asked the president this directly because he is trying to limit voting.

JENNINGS: The only people they care about are people who shouldn't be on the voter rolls like illegal aliens.

HINOJOSA: No, there are --

JENNINGS: Or people who aren't eligible to vote. And the problem with the mail in ballots, which are inherently less secure than voting in person, is that in a lot of states, they don't clean up their voting rolls, and they send out millions of mail in ballots to people, whether they ask for them or not. And many addresses get multiple ballots, and there's a lot of ballots out on the street.

HINOJOSA: So you --

JENNINGS: These states refuse to clean up their voter rolls. That's absolutely true. And you have to ask yourself, why would you want fraudulent registrations on your voter rolls?

HINOJOSA: No one -- no one wants fraudulent. No one wants --

JENNINGS: Of course, they do. They do that all the time.

(CROSSTALK)

HINOJOSA: Come on. The reality is, is that you have a president of the United States, who continues to go back to the 2020 election and say that the 2020 election was stolen. And so now, we're all of a sudden, here to believe that what Donald Trump wants is a secure election so that so many people can vote when he won't even take the results of the 2020 election, Scott. That is the president of the United States, the president of the United States --

(CROSSTALK)

HINOJOSA: -- does not want people voting.

JENNINGS: He wants people who are legal, eligible American citizens to vote and not have their votes diluted by people who are ineligible or illegal.

[16:45:00]

HUNT: I'm going to give Michele a quick last word here.

Michele, we're up against a break, but please jump in.

GOODWIN: If we could come back to what the case actually says. So, the executive order is actually not in effect. This was a procedural decision, but we should pay attention to what the dissents were -- Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson speaking to what the risks are if this executive order is able to go into effect.

And the last thing that I'll say, this stoking of confusion and misinformation, let's remember the last time we saw that in big scale was, in fact, the storming of the Capitol on January 6th. And we can't lose sight of that being part of the thread of this conversation.

HUNT: All right. Michele Goodwin, always grateful to have you. Thank you so much for sticking with us through the show.

The rest of our panel is going to stand by.

Ahead here in THE ARENA, the social settlement where an $18 billion payout is going and whether there could be more to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:19]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREA CAMPBELL, MASSACHUSETTS ATTORNEY GENERAL: Companies continue to stand by the First Amendment, and we are ready to continue to stand up to say you do not get a free pass by citing the First Amendment as a way in which to continue to harm our kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, agreed today to pay $18 billion to settle a lawsuit brought jointly by over two dozen states in which they claimed the company intentionally designed addictive features that hooked young people and then misled the public about the risks.

Meta denies the claim and did not admit wrongdoing, as part of the settlement, though it did commit to enacting a number of platform changes, including -- let's go to technology journalist Jacob Ward, for more on that.

Jacob, what did Meta agree to hear?

JACOB WARD, TECHNOLOGY JOURNALIST, THERIPCURRENT.COM: Well, Meta has agreed here to, as you say, not admit wrongdoing and to basically be out of the line of fire when it comes to these states, when it comes to these particular questions around child privacy and addiction. But what they have agreed to in exchange is the $17 billion they're going to be paying out.

And the changes that include things like a two-hour limit on the time a kid can spend on a feed that will be a default setting from now on, a block from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., that will be a default. Only parents can change those kinds of settings, and these are big changes, you know, to the way that our kids interact with this stuff. But there's some important things that are not included in this that include things like direct messages.

If your kid uses Instagram to DM with their friends, they'll be able to do that all through the night and interacting with A.I., which is, of course, a centerpiece of Meta's future plans. A.I. is exempted from this as well.

And so, it's a very mixed bag. I would say. There's also a funny provision around how the money gets paid out, assuming that other competitors get involved as well. We can get into that if you like.

HUNT: Jacob, did Meta do this because they were more afraid of what would happen if they didn't settle?

WARD: Well, we don't know. Meta is certainly not saying that, and we haven't heard, you know, I tried to ask lawyers in the courtroom this morning about it, and they wouldn't talk at this time. But, you know, certainly this happened very early in the case. This was not even two weeks into this.

We saw Adam Mosseri take the stand yesterday for just a little while. And then he was supposed to come back this morning, the Instagram head, Zuckerberg was supposed to show up in a couple of days.

So, it certainly seems like this was an effort to try and get out in front of what would have probably been some tough testimony from both of them, and the evidence that was being compiled here was very damning. We saw exhibit after exhibit in which internal teams at the company said, we have a big problem. There's a big gap in our reporting. There's real harm being done to kids.

Meanwhile, in public, the company was saying something very different. That was what was at the heart of the states' case here. So, it certainly seems, Kasie, if you go just by the timing of this, that they were eager to stop this case before it went any further.

HUNT: Cari Champion. I mean, we are now litigating social media as A.I. is coming at us like a freight train.

CHAMPION: Yeah.

HUNT: And frankly, the public seems to be turning on all of it.

CHAMPION: Yeah, I think -- I think we are fed up in a lot of different ways. Even myself, I find myself I wish they could do adult monitoring, stop scrolling, especially at night. But when I was listening to him talk about this settlement, I really thought that this was a slap on the wrist because from what I read this past quarter, they made $60 billion, $60.8 billion to be exact. This $17 billion with some carve-outs. You know for an additional $5 million if YouTube and Snapchat and everybody else joins in, then they'll pay.

But they won't admit fault. It feels to me like another way of them getting around what they already know, ultimately will be a bigger issue. And I don't know if the American people will ultimately live by the sword, die by the sword, that type of attitude. Like, I really don't know what the future looks like, but I just feel as if with social media, especially with A.I., were not heading in the right place.

KANNO-YOUNGS: This does seem to be another sort of issue that that has some bipartisanship, though, which is sort of, you know, for the left, it might be saying, look, these tech titans are part of a sort of oligarch class on the right. it's also about, you know, criticizing these tech companies.

And actually, what language they're allowing to be promoted as well and how they're managing apps like this. The thing I hear across the board when I talk to public officials and policy experts is this seems like the moment similar to that of combating the tobacco industry, like this is that modern day moment here. And you saw actually a legal strategy that echoed, uh, what we saw in terms of combating the tobacco industry as well.

HUNT: Yeah. You have to think that -- well, if that's what's being said, they're going to be learning, of course, from settlements like that potentially, I guess.

[16:55:05]

All right. Jacob Ward, thank you sir. Always grateful to have you and your expertise here on the show. I really appreciate it.

On that note, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:59:50]

HUNT: All right. Thanks so much for my panel. Really appreciate you all joining today.

Thanks to you at home for joining us as well. Don't forget, you can now stream THE ARENA live. You can catch up whenever you want. It's all in the CNN app. You can scan that QR code on your screen to find it. You can also catch up by listening to THE ARENA's podcast. That's a separate QR code right there.

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