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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip

Ex-Republican, MAGA Republican Will Face Off To Replace DeSantis; Trump Endorsement Stumbles Continue In Florida Primaries; Hegseth Campaigns In Iowa Despite Ongoing War, Navy Scandal; Pete Hegseth Campaigns For An Iowa Senatorial Candidate Despite The Wars In Iran And Ukraine, And Scandals Involving U.S. Navy; Jon Ossoff Denounces Trump As A Draft-Dodging, Crook President, Adding Trouble To The White House. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired August 18, 2026 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Tonight, the results are in as more MAGA candidates seek primary wins while their leader faces historic low approvals.

Plus, the defense secretary campaigns in Iowa despite a six-month war and a Navy ship reportedly in crisis.

Also --

SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): The draft-dodging crook president.

PHILLIP: -- after striking MAGA's nerve with a dig about Trump and his aide, Jon Ossoff hits harder.

OSSOFF: I do not want Eva and Lila to grow up in a world defined by the values of Donald J. Trump.

PHILLIP: And while the establishment debates how to handle socialists, some Democrats are opening their arms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe it's time for big ideas, which many of these candidates are throwing out.

PHILLIP: Live at the table, Tara Setmayer, Noah Rothman, Rodericka Applewhaite, Brianna Lyman, and Charlie Dent.

Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here they do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip in New York.

The results are rolling in on this election night in America. Voters in four states cast their ballots, including the state that President Trump calls home, Florida. Tonight's contests are testing the president's influence there, and like the race to replace Governor Ron DeSantis. That's where the Trump-backed candidate, Congressman Byron Donalds, is projected to be the GOP nominee. Donalds will face Democrat David Jolly, who used to be a Republican, but left the party in 2018 amid frustrations with the direction it was going in.

And in the race for Florida Senate, the Democratic socialists can tick off another primary victory after Angie Nixon won her party's nomination in a shocking upset. She'll face GOP Senator Ashley Moody, who is serving out the rest of Marco Rubio's term. Meanwhile, the president's endorsement stumbled tonight after the candidate he backed, Catalina Lauf, lost to Jim Schwartzel in the race for Florida's 19th Congressional District. Cory Mills, also endorsed by Donald Trump, lost to former news anchor Ryan Elijah in the GOP primary for the state's Seventh Congressional District.

Before we open it up to the table, as always, we're going to invite you at home to join the debate. Go to cnn.com/abby. Weigh in there. We'll get to your comments as we go throughout the show.

A lot of interesting themes playing out in Florida tonight, because this is a state that, you know, congrats to them, they count their votes fast. We know what happened there. But let's start with the, the mixed picture of Trump's endorsements in the state. I mean, Byron Donalds won a very clear victory, but he made two other endorsements, including Cory Mills, who is under ethics investigation. He is a very controversial figure. The president had endorsed him earlier in the year, but did not rescind that endorsement after all of this followed, and he lost. So, what is -- where are we now in terms of Trump's endorsement, do you think?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it doesn't mean as much as it used to. It's not necessarily determinative. It helps. And in the case of Mills, I mean, he's scandal-plagued. And the laws of political gravity still apply in some cases, as he found out, and I suspect we might find out in Ohio too at some point. So, I think that's part of it.

And I thought it was really interesting in the race where also he failed in his endorsement. You had, I think, three former congressmen --

PHILLIP: Yes. That was the one where Madison Cawthorn was running.

DENT: Cawthorn and Chris Collins and Jim Oberweis, who ran for Congress two or three times in Illinois, and lost again.

PHILLIP: Yes. In the governor's race, there was this weird dynamic where Byron Donalds was sort of like the kind of establishment figure, but he was being challenged by someone who frankly came out of nowhere, James Fishback, and was appealing to a kind of younger constituency in the Republican Party.

And, you know, I think that there are some that have suggested that Fishback was -- he was trying to channel this like very online right. [22:05:00]

It seems like that failed spectacularly tonight. Is this the end for that?

NOAH ROTHMAN, SENIOR WRITER, NATIONAL REVIEW: And deservedly so. Did it -- is this the end? I would never say that. Is it something that Republicans can afford to sleep on? No. However, we could make more of it than it deserves. It's a 10 percent vote out of a vote share, which is not an especially impressive showing, did very well in college campuses, which is again, something that Republicans have to be worried about. Is this merely a protest vote? Are they just being provocative? Or is this a sign of things to come?

This candidate plays with racist themes, anti-Semitic themes, white nationalist themes, and that's how he generated as much traction as he did. But even then, he got 10 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, Kurt Mills is gone, Tennessee, Andy Ogles is gone, in North Carolina, Chuck Edwards is gone, very flawed candidates, competitive races that they would have run had they been the general election candidate. Democrats now have to wonder if those seats are even on the board anymore.

TARA SETMAYER, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, THE SENECA PROJECT: Well, that 10 percent should be interesting in the governor's race because are those white supremacists and the anti-Semites going to vote for Byron Donalds, or are they going to stay home? And --

PHILLIP: Well, some of them have told reporters they won't. But these are also some -- some of these people are people who are not even -- they're kind of like the old school Trump supporters. They're not even in the political system. They're not people who are typical voters.

SETMAYER: But what in -- but in this election year, when you have a strong candidate on the Democratic side, like David Jolly, who is much more moderate, who can appeal to a larger group of people in the state of Florida, this poses a problem for Byron Donalds.

I'm very curious to see how that works. I lived in Florida for a couple of years. I ran -- I worked on races down there, and Florida has changed over the last 20 years. Republicans have done a lot of work there to have strongholds, but that's starting to break. We're starting to see that because you're starting to see a lot of this extremism come out from Republicans, and a lot of -- Donald Trump's popularity is not what it used to be in Florida.

I mean, when you started to see people in the villages protesting during the No Kings Marches, you're starting to see some candidates in other parts of Florida questioning what is he doing with immigration. So, Florida's going to be a very interesting proving ground for Democrats because they haven't had the same structure, organizing structure in Florida as Republicans over the last 20 years, and now's the opportunity.

DENT: The problem in Florida and for Republicans are at large is that, you know, getting these Trump voters out who vote in a presidential year and getting them to vote in a midterm are very -- is very difficult.

SETMAYER: Good for Democrats.

DENT: It's going to be tough for Donalds just for that reason, and, frankly, just about every other Republican.

RODERICKA APPLEWHAITE, FORMER DIRECTOR OF BLACK MEDIA, BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: All of that being said, I do think we're being a little bit too dismissive about the fact that over 100,000 Floridians tonight voted for James Fishback after he called Byron Donalds, Byrone after he questioned his blackness, after he called him a slave, and after he said that he would turn Florida into a ghetto.

I will do a small moment of bipartisanship on this show and say that Byron really overcame a lot of challenges in this. And the fact that he is trouncing Fishback by these numbers is great, but still very concerning.

And I do -- I am old enough to remember when a smaller faction of the Republican Party a few cycles back was dismissed until they kind of completely took over the party and, you know, the Tea Party has become very much mainstream.

So, I do want to warn against being too dismissive over somebody who was so flagrantly running a very racist and vile campaign.

BRIANNA LYMAN, REPORTER, THE FEDERALIST: Yes, and I do think on that end, you know, Joe Biden said, If you don't vote for me, you ain't black either, and he still didn't lose a significant share of the black vote. So I do think that --

APPLEWHAITE: Not the same.

LYMAN: I think it is the same.

APPLEWHAITE: No, of course.

LYMAN: I also think that Byron Donalds tonight --

PHILLIP: I mean, hold on one second.

LYMAN: How is it every time I start to talk, I get cut off?

PHILLIP: Well, listen I just want to be clear, like James Fishback, as Ro just pointed out, called Byron Donalds a slave.

LYMAN: Oh, yes.

LYMAN: Okay? Oh, no. To be clear, none of that's --

PHILLIP: So, I mean, I think that those are actually objectively not the same things.

LYMAN: So, , Joe Biden has had his history of extremely racist comments, number one.

APPLEWHAITE: Was Joe Biden on the ballot tonight in Florida? I'm a little lost here.

SETMAYER: And has overwhelmingly wanted --

LYMAN: The point is that, ultimately, I don't think that you're going to see as much of a struggle getting the voters from James Fishback to vote for Byron Donalds. He gave a victory speech tonight. He said he spoke to James Fishback and a few other people, and said that they're going to try and coalesce around him and get him those votes. So, he talked about a united Republican Party, which I do think mimics what Democrats are doing. You see Democrats, when socialists win a race recently, you have moderate Democrats saying, right, we're going to unite as a united Democrat front.

So, I think the playbook that you're going to see in Florida come this general election is Republicans uniting James Fishback, maybe Byron Donalds, to try and defeat a Democrat candidate, which I think will be easy because, yes, Florida has changed, but Ron DeSantis has made Florida decidedly red. That went from a possible swing state to a hard red state. And I'd be surprised if a Democrat fared well in a general election.

ROTHMAN: I mean, I can't believe we're all dancing around the news tonight. This is not a Republican story tonight. The story tonight is the DSA overcoming the establishment Democrat --

[22:10:02]

PHILLIP: We're not dancing around it, but I appreciate the pivot to --

ROTHMAN: Spending advantage and sacrificing what could've been a competitive seat. This is sacrifice.

There's two things I wouldn't want to be as a Florida statewide candidate, anti-Israel and communist curious, and that's exactly what Democrats voted for in the Senate tonight. They basically took this race off the board for themselves.

PHILLIP: You know, it is interesting, because to your point, so Angie Nixon the Florida state rep, she wins this race for the nomination for the Senate, raising over only $1 million compared to Alexander Vindman, who for a time, was a household name because of his role in the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump, who raised $16 million.

And I have to wonder if what this speaks to is, you know, I take your point on the socialism piece of this, but what this really speaks to is the limits right now among Democrats in a -- being just strictly anti-Trump, and that being your sort of political personality.

One of the things that DSA is doing is talking about kitchen table issues, economics, and they're doing it in a way that rubs some people the wrong way, but that's what they're talking about.

DENT: Yes. But also remember too, this is a two-person race and African American women are really the base of the Democratic Party, and African American woman won. She's a native Floridian. Vindman, I don't think, was as connected to the state as she was. And so, you know, I think that makes up for a lot.

And so I think you just, it's hard to parachute into some of these states and say, I'm your guy, it doesn't always work out so well. So, I think that's part of it.

But I do think I agree with Noah. I mean, this is a gift to the Republicans in Florida because now that Senate seat, which was really not that competitive to begin with, was even less competitive now.

SETMAYER: I question whether it would've been that competitive. I think Alex would've been competitive against Ashley Moody. She hasn't really done anything for Florida. She's been a rubber stamp for Trump. And Alex would've been a stronger representative for the state of Florida.

But to everyone's point here, it is difficult when you are new to the state. Florida is, you know, one of those states where you really need to have roots there, especially for a statewide race like that. Maybe if he had run for Congress, it would've been a little bit -- he would've had more success there.

But, you know, I applaud him for trying. I mean, Alexander Vindman is a hero, and he should be applauded for trying to run for Congress, at least -- I mean, run for the Senate. His brother won for -- his twin brother ran for Congress in Virginia and won successfully. So, it is -- you know, this is definitely going to take Florida off the board for us Democrats.

ROTHMAN: But doesn't this lend credence to Donald Trump's narrative that the DSA is a national threat? That you can't really talk about this as a New York thing or a Seattle thing or a Colorado thing, it's a national thing, therefore, we have to nationalize this, the socialist threat, and also to convince Democrats to send as much money as they possibly can to these unwinnable races?

APPLEWHAITE: I think that's a bit of a simplistic view of what we're seeing tonight. There is a lot of narrative around progressive versus moderate. But I think what's really important is the Democratic electorate is looking for candidates that are willing to take the fight in Congress to actually legislate.

They're -- cycle after cycle, voters have been very frustrated with the fact that they send people to Congress who end up being more interested in tenure than legislating and actual problem-solving. And that's kind of the contrast you're seeing across the country. And unfortunately for some of the more centrist Democrats that are running, progressives are doing a really good job of filling that void.

ROTHMAN: I mean, her platform includes a national job registry and inflation adjusted wages and free childcare and nationalizing the health insurance industry.

SETMYAER: I hear you. Listen, I don't support the DSA.

ROTHMAN: Popular is one thing. It's popular to say Medicare for all is popular. People don't like to lose their insurance, though.

PHILLIP: I mean, I think we will find out, right, how the, the DSA candidates fare in all of these different places. I think it's definitely going to be state-by-state, district-by-district, all of that. But I don't think we know for sure how they're going to hold up, because this is an election about the economy at the end of the day.

And when you look at the polls, say what you will about the DSA candidates, the president is in the gutter with the American people. His approval rating is at -- you know, they're at historic lows for him. He's at 33 percent approval in this latest Reuters poll. His approval rating on the economy is just as bad. This is going to be a wave, and perhaps a change election, on the basis of one issue, the economy. And the candidates who talk about it are the ones who have a better shot of reaching the American people, it seems.

LYMAN: Yes. And I think there's three points. I think after this week, we can say that we have to be skeptical of the polls, knowing that polls showing Nithya Raman ahead, showing other candidates ahead, were completely manufactured. So, we have to take these things with a grain of salt.

[22:15:00]

I do think this also hearkens back the $20 burrito debate, if anybody was on X last week, where you had Republicans infighting about how to respond to this. And I think --

PHILLIP: About whether it was even a real thing.

LYMAN: Right. And it actually is a real thing, $20 for a burrito is a lot of money. And J.D. Vance was on Fox News and he said, Look, saying socialism sucks isn't going to be enough. People feel like they're hurting. And if we're not helping them make their lives better, they're going to go vote for a socialist.

And so he think that there's a problem within the Republican Party that they only have about 80 days to fix, which is how do we make people feel like our policies are worth voting for instead of just giving them this slogan that socialism sucks, you should be scared?

The last thing I'd note is, yes, President Trump's approval ratings may be slipping, his favorability. Democrats are also struggling. Typically, in 2006, when there was a war going on, Democrats had double digit favorability ratings over Republicans. There's a lot of polls indicating some of them are only single digits.

So, I do think both parties are in a bad place. Maybe Democrats may fare a little better, but --

PHILLIP: Yes. And I think -- well, also -- I mean, some of that is also, I have to remind people, Democrats are mad at Democrats, okay? And that's why you're seeing the DSA rising, because they are an insurgent force that's trying to come into the Democratic Party.

SETMAYER: Just a couple -- wait, just really quickly. So, the momentum right now is with Democrats. We've seen the crystal ball, Larry Sabato, I'm a resident scholar at University of Virginia, has moved a bunch of races in the Democrat, toward the Democrats, so has Cook Political Report. So, the momentum really, despite whether the Democratic brand is bad or not, the momentum, Republicans are way worse. Donald Trump has mocked the affordability issue and told people that that's not a real thing. So, that's a problem for the Republican brand, a really big one.

And the other issue, really quickly, with the DSA is we -- you know, unfortunately, moderate Democrats are getting -- they're getting punished for experience and not for fighting enough. And that's different than what the DSA agenda is, which I don't necessarily agree with and I don't know that their policies would work.

The problem here is who controls the conversation and the message. And moderate Democrats need to not worry about offending someone or whatever. They need to have be passionate about why their policies will work and that the DSA's won't. That's been part of the problem.

DENT: Look, the midterm election is always about the president and his party, always. This one will be the same. It's about the economy, it's about the Iran war, and the president's conduct in office. Republicans want to turn this into a choice, and the DSA is the choice.

Now, they're going to try to prosecute that case. I don't think they'll be successful. They might mitigate some losses because the Democrats have nominated some real duds with these DSA folks, but it's not going to change the overall narrative. So, just keep that in mind.

PHILLIP: Next for us, the war is dragging into its seventh month. America's munitions are running low, and at least one Navy ship is reportedly in crisis, but the defense secretary is busy campaigning in Iowa. We'll discuss.

Plus, Jon Ossoff doubles down on Trump attacks as MAGA lashes out at him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:20:00]

PHILLIP: Should the self-described secretary of war be on the campaign trail during a war? Pete Hegseth in Iowa this week campaigning for Congressman and Combat Veteran Zach Nunn in a district the Democrats are hoping to flip. The congressman and Army veteran, Jason Crow, calls it a complete failure of leadership, and he argues that Hegseth shouldn't be campaigning while the conflict in Iran is spiraling out of control.

And while there are supply and morale issues on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, it highlights a growing concern about the mixing of military with politics. Hegseth did little to calm those concerns today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We also rebuild our military, and at the same time, we're restoring the warrior ethos inside our department because that matters. We need guys like this man right here having our back in Congress as we get rid of DEI at the Defense Department.

At the Department of War, we do training, not trannies.

It is a day and night difference. Training, lethality, accountability, discipline, readiness, the bedrock of what it means to be an American warrior is the only focus of our department, color blind, gender neutral, merit-based. That's it. We want the best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: In past administrations, Pentagon officials typically kept their distance from campaigns, and the Department of Defense told CNN that Hegseth was in Iowa in, quote, his personal capacity.

I also just listen to that and the broader context of where we are as a result of this war in which there's active discussions about munitions being in low supply, about our bases being vulnerable overseas, about our ships being essentially out to sea for historic amounts of time.

I do think it kind of begs the question, shouldn't Pete Hegseth be busy handling those things and not campaigning?

ROTHMAN: Well, I think there's room for that kind of criticism. I can certainly sign on to it. I would prefer my secretaries of defense to take a light touch when it comes to domestic politics, and, previously, that has been the standard M.O. I think that's a fair criticism.

I'm not sure it's a fair criticism to say that Pete Hegseth should be devoting himself to the acquisitions process, for example, getting domestic manufacturers, private industry to produce more interceptor missiles. That's not the job of the secretary of defense.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, but, wait, hold on. Isn't that his job? Like he's the leader of the Pentagon. His job is to make sure that we are -- he talked -- he just talked about readiness.

[22:25:03]

I can't think of a thing that is more important for readiness than whether we have the munitions to fight wars and defend ourselves.

ROTHMAN: Yes, and that is something that the Pentagon should be focused on. Whether the secretary of defense is cannot be seen in public because he's monitoring our acquisitions process, I don't think that's a fair criticism.

SETMAYER: Here's the answer.

PHILLIP: I didn't say he shouldn't be seen. SETMAYER: Here's the answer. Very simple, absolutely not should the secretary of defense, while men and women are in theater, at war, actively right now, in one that we are arguably losing, should he be out stumping on the campaign trail in Iowa.

I mean, what are we doing here? This is such an insult to the men and women who right now, as we are going to talk about soon, what's happening on the USS Lincoln, while he's out there at the Iowa State Fair, which is lovely, by the way, I've been there, but he shouldn't be out there stumping, eating, you know, butter on a stick and rah- rah-ing for political candidates against the Department of Defense's own policies, by the way, which say that they should be apolitical.

He doesn't get the luxury of being a private citizen now while our men and women are at war, and suffering without proper supplies, without proper plumbing. You have a mental health crisis happening on the USS Lincoln. And then there, Pete Hegseth is out here auditioning possibly for his next political job. Yes, maybe he should stick to auditioning. Be like a hype man and go back to T.V., where he deserves to be, bot secretary of defense.

DENT: Not so long ago, the secretaries of defense, state, homeland security, and attorney general were really not permitted to engage in partisan political activity. I would've loved to have my friend Tom Ridge, when he was homeland security secretary, campaign for me, but he couldn't because of his role. I would've loved to have Bob Gates, secretary of defense, campaign for me, but he couldn't.

SETMAYER: But he wouldn't dare, Charlie.

DENT: And he wouldn't, and I wouldn't ask.

SETMAYER: He wouldn't dare do it.

DENT: So, that's what's wrong. This is a norm or a tradition that's been broken, and especially during a time of war. And I absolutely believe it's the secretary of defense's job to make sure that our troops have what they need.

ROTHMAN: Charlie, that's a very fair criticism, but we're eliding the, the allegation here implied, which is that Pete Hegseth isn't doing his job, and also that there's a mental health crisis on the USS Abraham Lincoln. And, you know, obviously, extended deployments are terrible.

Now, you know, we often hear --

SETMAYER: It's the most extended deployment. Don't under --

ROTHMAN: We often hear about from very concerned liberals that when American soldiers who volunteer for this job, are deployed to do the job they do, it is said, implied, sometimes it's just sort of suggested, that it's untoward to ask them to do the -- take the risks that they volunteered for.

I have a lot of vets in my life -- (CROSSTALKS)

SETMAYER: First of all, I'm not a liberal. Second of all, yes, they sign up for this. Thirdly, it is the job of the secretary of defense and the commander-in-chief to make sure that the troops are taken care of. There is clearly something going on the USS Lincoln, because they have been deployed longer than anybody has ever been in 50 years.

APPLEWHAITE: The ship is not equipped for the length of this deployment.

SETMAYER: So it -- That's correct. They're not getting their training supplies.

ROTHMAN: It's being relieved because it's been a long extended deployment.

SETMAYER: They're not getting proper --

ROTHMAN: This deployment has been very --

PHILLIP: That's why I'm not sure why you're defending the conditions that they're living under.

SETMAYER: Right. What are we doing here?

ROTHMAN: I'm just wanting to know what the accusation against Pete Hegseth is here.

SETMAYER: He's too busy running around playing G.I. Joe instead of being secretary of defense. That's what the accusation is.

APPLEWHAITE: Here's my specific accusation. I am come from a military family. My mom served in the Air Force. My brother is currently active duty Navy. He is very concerned, as somebody who's already served in a combat situation in the Middle East, that he will be deployed once again. I'm concerned about it. His wife is concerned about it, as well as their five kids.

Those concerns pale in comparison to the fact that so far in this quagmire that falls squarely on Pete Hegseth's shoulders, has already killed 18 of our armed servicemen and women, has already wounded 600 service members that we know of, because the Department of Defense is actively engaged in downplaying the collateral damage that already has been constructed in this war. It is a problem.

And the fact that Pete Hegseth has the time, even in his personal capacity, I frankly don't care that he's campaigning. This administration has been very derelict in its duty to the American people. He can spend his time how he wants. However, it's a huge disservice to our armed services, to our armed men and women, and to this country, that he's somehow finds the time to do something else but get us out of this conflict that this administration promised us it would not get us involved in.

ROTHMAN: Again, I have not heard the allegation against him say that the secretary of defense should be getting us out of the conflict that the chief executive got us into, which is not his job. What is the allegation?

(CROSSTALKS)

PHILLIP: I mean, at the very least, the allegation is that while we are in theater, while we are in the middle of a conflict, he should be focused on that. He should be focused every single day on making sure that our men and women who are out there in theater are not being overextended, they're not sitting on boats that are not well-equipped, that we have the munitions that we need in order to fight wars.

[22:30:04]

I mean, I don't think that's that controversial to ask, but I mean, the implication of a lot of this is, what is Pete Hegseth after? Is this him trying to kind of dabble in politics because he thinks that there's a big political future for himself? And maybe he does.

I also just want to note, like, a recent Quinnipiac poll, he is, well, second only to Donald Trump in terms of how low his approval rating is, in terms of Trump cabinet officials, just 34 percent approve and 56 percent disapprove. Pete Hegseth is not a popular guy, and he barely was confirmed to his job. Does he really have a national political future?

LYMAN: Well, I think Pete Hegseth is someone who obviously served in our military, and he's campaigning on behalf of a fellow veteran. So I don't think that's necessarily surprising in terms of secretaries breaking protocol.

Axios wrote an article in 2024 entitled "Biden's Cabinet Moonlights Were Campaign Cash." So cabinet secretaries have gone out and, you know, made themselves a little more political than maybe we would all like them to be. If Floyd Austin disappeared and no one knew where he was, that's worse.

Anyway, let's be clear about Pete Hegseth right now, about the concerns about munitions, about the concerns aboard the USS Lincoln. I recall it being Pete Hegseth and Republicans asking for a bigger defense budget that Democrats fought when Pete Hegseth wanted to make sure that we had the defense budget so we do have accurate and adequate munitions.

Let's also not forget that Pete Hegseth did not bring Democrats on. Let's not forget that Democrats fought because they don't want to balloon the defense budget.

PHILLIP: Yes, but that's exactly what Pete Hegseth was asking for. The defense budget would not have made a difference when it comes to the USS Abraham Lincoln, and you know that.

Listen, the budget request --

Hold on a second. The budget request has nothing to do with the conditions on that ship right now. So address that. LYMAN: Sure, but let me talk.

PHILLIP: Well, I'll let you talk, but don't connect to unrelated things.

LYMAN: Oh, no, they're absolutely related.

PHILLIP: They're not related, because in this moment, his job is to run the defense department with the budget it has today, not the budget they want to have in the future. And so with the budget that they have today, he advised the President to go into a war, and here we are with our munitions depleted. We have ships that are out to sea for historic amounts of time.

What is the explanation for that?

LYMAN: I didn't hear a single concern about munitions being depleted when Joe Biden was sending them to Ukraine and depleted our missions. Second of all, to Noah's point, it is President Trump's decision. The buck stops with him in terms of the war.

PHILLIP: I guess that's actually a very good point, because Republicans complained all day long about Ukraine buying munitions from the United States to fight their war. And I think there's a fair argument to be made about that. But how can you do that and then ignore the fact that this war that we are fighting right now has in fact depleted our stockpiles?

LYMAN: Iran is a direct threat to the United States versus Ukraine. We're fighting a proxy war against a nuclear power with Russia. That's a big difference.

Hold on. Let's go back really quick to our military service members who deserve all the help they need. To Noah's point, they are being relieved.

Pete Hegseth back in October of 2025 created a Barack's task force, because he said, when people have issues like rodents in their room, they have horrible living conditions. I want commanders to be able to address these and fixes immediately. That's how serious Pete Hegseth takes concerns.

Second of all, I remember the same people complaining about nine months ago that Pete Hegseth was feeding them lobsters and are now saying they're not getting the lobsters, basically.

PHILLIP: Why are they dismissing the conditions on the ship?

LYMAN: They're not dismissing the conditions at all.

PHILLIP: The President and Pete Hegseth have both dismissed the conditions.

LYMAN: Okay, let's go over the conditions. We have one confirmed overboard in time. LYMAN: Hold on, let's talk about this. The people who are on the ship right now, because I keep getting cut off, the people who are on the ship right now deserve to be taken care of.

PHILLIP: You're making a lot of statements, and you need to take a deep breath. Just take a deep breath because what I'm saying to you is that you're denying that they downplayed what was going on that ship, and that's not accurate.

They did downplay what went on that ship, and the reason that they are being relieved is because family members have spoken out through the media to raise alarms about what is going on. You have to acknowledge that actually happened. Do you acknowledge that?

LYMAN: Yes, and so let's go over what we know for a fact happened. We have one confirmed overboard incident. We have two reported, specifically detailed jump attempts, and then we have a handful of complaints. I am not saying those things didn't happen.

What's going on? Are you kidding me? You guys let Republicans have a conversation.

Okay, Tara.

SETMAYER: I really do.

LYMAN: I was invited on the show to speak too, so if I can get it out. There are 5000 people on the ship. We have three in total overboard incidents that we specifically know of.

SETMAYER: Three too many.

PHILLIP: No big deal.

LYMAN: I didn't say it's no big deal. What you're saying is that the Trump administration is downplaying it.

[03:35:02]

How dare you try to pretend like I'm downplaying it. What we're talking about is if you're doing a statistical comparison of 5000 members, you're saying the Trump administration is downplaying it. They have acknowledged these problems --

PHILLIP: Okay, so we have to wait until more people trying to jump off the ship in order for it to be a real issue. Is that what you're saying?

LYMAN: Are you saying that the Trump administration didn't say this didn't happen? I think there are a lot of people making it seem like 2500 members are jumping off the ship in time.

Brad Cooper, a senior admiral, said that after he visited the Lincoln, it has quote, among the lowest number of cases related to mental health issues." They're not saying it's nonexistent, but they're saying comparison. PHILLIP: They called it fake news. I don't think that anybody wants to

be in a position where we have to wait for hundreds of people to try to kill themselves on a ship in order for it to be a real issue.

I'm saying --

ROTHMAN: That would be a mental health crisis.

PHILLIP: That would be more than a mental health crisis, okay?

I do think that it's bizarre to say not enough people have been trying to jump off the ship.

LYMAN: That's actually not what I'm saying.

PHILLIP: Okay, Charlie, go ahead and give us a last word and then we're going to move on.

DENT: Can we get back to this munitions question for a second?

I am quite happy that we were sending weaponry to the Ukrainians to degrade Russia's military capacity. They did a remarkable job. That advances America's national security interests against a threat that attempts to undermine us at every opportunity.

And instead, we're blowing off a lot of our munitions in a poorly conceived conflict.

LYMAN: Does Iran not threaten the United States national security with their proxies?

DENT: We don't go to war like this.

LYMAN: So we go to war for Ukraine but not for the United States.

DENT: You talk to the American people.

You talk to the American people. You get an authorization from Congress. You talk to your allies.

You don't go in and then after the fact say, I need --

PHILLIP: Listen, I also just want to note that as Charlie points out, Congress approved aid to Ukraine. Democrats and Republicans. So this is not a Biden did this on their own kind of thing, this was something that Congress approved on multiple occasions.

And so it's substantively different from what's happening right now with this war that Trump never went to Congress on, never sought approval for, and is being carried out with no end in sight, frankly.

So we'll leave it there. But next for us, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff is going after Donald Trump again, this time calling him a draft dodging crook. Is this the playbook now for Democrats? We'll be right back.

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[22:40:00]

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PHILLIP: Tonight, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff struck a nerve within MAGA and in the run up to the midterms. He's not backing down on his attacks on Donald Trump. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): The draft dodging crook President who has plunged our nation recklessly into a war he knows not how to end or to win. I would address the President's few remaining supporters to contrast his promises with the results you've been delivered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Just days after igniting a personal feud by invoking Trump's executive assistant Natalie Harp and her close relationship with the President, at a rally today, Ossoff did not invoke Harp by name, but he continued to dig in on Trump as he emerges as the White House's number one enemy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSSOFF: I've got two little girls at home. Eva is four, Lila is one. They're the light of our lives, I know the same is true for you and your kids and your grandkids.

And I do not want Eva and Lila to grow up in a world defined by the values of Donald J. Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So, Jon Ossoff, who's running for Senate, according to this Republican strategist, has essentially moved beyond his race already. This was a move that was clearly wholly intended to put him on the national platform in a fight with the President, which isn't something you do in a Senate race.

It's something you're doing because you have larger national ambitions. It's like bypassing the playoffs and getting into the Super Bowl. And if that's his goal, the Trump White House has really given him a leg up, they have really made him the most talked about Democrat.

LYMAN: Trump will go back and forth with any Democrat, I think, in any state. I do think Ossoff probably is positioning for a potential bigger run, especially because this is a state that President Trump did win in 2024 and that he narrowly lost in 2020, where Jon Ossoff did win in the runoff.

And so I think if Jon thinks that if he can win this upcoming race, his first full term in a regular race, that would make him a viable candidate for Democrats nationally by saying, look, I want to state that Donald Trump also won, and I beat someone who was backed by the President, who won Mike Rogers won, I think, by 12 points in the primary.

So if he's able to beat him in a general, I would think Jon Ossoff is probably trying to position himself for that name brand recognition, and this is a good way to start it.

DENT: It shows you how comfortable he must feel about his reelection right now, that he's able to take these shots and elevate himself.

PHILLIP: Some of the polls have it as more than 10 points.

DENT: Yes, I mean, this is Georgia. I mean, it doesn't appear that this race is that competitive. So he's able to now go out and do all this other campaigning, and by the way, the only reason why he's in there is because Donald Trump suppressed the vote in the 2020 runoff, and basically had two Republican incumbent senators defeated, and now he's coming back to bite the President.

SETMAYER: This is the way.

Jon Ossoff has been running a hell of a campaign, and he's been running this campaign since last year. He didn't just swoop in this year and then start campaigning. A lot of times Democrats will do that.

He has been running his campaign out there, putting out paid advertising, constantly on the stump since last summer, setting the narrative, and by going out there and speaking to the issues, I mean, he's speaking to the issues that the people not only in Georgia care about, but he's being very reasonable about issues that are obvious to most Americans when they're looking at the failures of Donald Trump. He is the crook-in-chief.

The guy is a flat-out crook, and he is robbing the American people blind, and our economy is suffering for it. He's out here on a personal retribution tour, the tariffs, the war of choice in Iran.

All of these issues are betrayals to not only Donald Trump's own people, but to the American people who are going, how did we get here and why? So what Jon Ossoff is doing, I think a lot of Democrats can take notes from, because he's going to be very successful at it, and it's relatable.

PHILLIP: Alright, so Noah's chomping at the bit to respond, and he'll have his chance. We're going to take a quick break, and we'll be right back.

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[22:50:00]

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PHILLIP: Just before we went to break, Tara was saying that Jon Ossoff is the way. SETMAYER: He's the way.

PHILLIP: Noah?

SETMAYER: You had something to say about that.

ROTHMAN: I was just smiling, because we were all talking, like, Ossoff hit a home run with this remark. And what I've seen is him backtracking off of it for the last 24 hours.

He sat down with Jen Psaki, was confronted with this comment, why did you say Natalie Harvey? He says, I could have said anybody. I didn't necessarily mean that.

Lee Harper could have been a male. It could have been any A, right?

He's not standing by his remarks. In fact, as you said, he didn't mention it once in that comment, even though he's training his fire and he's doing well.

APPLEWHAITE: He doesn't have to.

ROTHMAN: He didn't have to because it didn't work.

APPLEWHAITE: He doesn't have to because the White House has been crashing it down since Sunday.

ROTHMAN: Right after Donald Trump won re-election, Tim Hogan was at the DNC War Room. He said, what we're going to do is recruit candidates who know how to dunk. That's our job, to make internet insults.

Because we've got folks like Tim Walz, who made the point that the vice President was engaged in a lewd and lascivious acts with furniture. That didn't work.

Jasmine Crockett, who ran for the governorship of Texas by saying the wheelchair-bound governor is Governor Hot Wheels. That didn't work. That is not why I lost.

Hakeem Jeffries tried an insult act, trying to make up funny nicknames for Donald Trump and his acolytes. That didn't work.

PHILLIP: I think this is a little mild.

ROTHMAN: It doesn't play.

PHILLIP: Right, seriously.

ROTHMAN: Mild, not necessarily. He implied that this woman was having an affair with the President.

We all speak the English language natively. We know what he was implying.

PHILLIP: We do speak the English language natively. He said he would prefer to build his ballrooms and fly on the Qatari jet with Natalie.

SETMAYER: Which is true.

APPLEWHAITE: Which is true. He told her.

ROTHMAN: None of us, NSA, none of us who can deconstruct everything with academic precision, have no way to understand the subtext here.

SETMAYER: Come on. Listen. It was a snarky remark, it was a funny remark, and you know what? It pissed off the White House.

The fact that they had been crashing out for two days over this made all of these really nasty remarks. They don't like it. So they can dish it, but they can't take it.

So that's how you know it struck a nerve, and frankly, please miss me with the feigning outrage over how offensive a comment this was, and all of a sudden I guess Republicans are feminists now. Like, stop. I'm not stopping.

No, not racist.

ROTHMAN: Republicans have told pollsters for 10 years now what they hate about Trump.

SETMAYER: And they still voted for him. And for a year, they were unfair.

ROTHMAN: They hate it, and I hate it. Which is why I hate it. I'm glad you do, it's called consistency.

PHILLIP: Over on Fox, Jesse Waters was --

ROHTHMAN: He's consistent too in a weird way.

PHILLIP: He was honest enough to admit that he defends Trump when Trump says way worse things. So I guess that seems like a fair point. I mean, if you defend Trump when he calls women fat pigs, dogs, slobs, animals, when he calls women nasty women, when he tells them to shut up, then why are you losing your mind over this?

LYMAN: Well, I think with Natalie Harp, this is a woman who was a stage two cancer survivor because of President Trump's right to try. And that's why she became close to the President because realistically, he could have saved her life because he gave her the opportunity to try a treatment that she was otherwise being denied.

And so I think that this is someone who is not an elected official. She is someone who is in the public, or in the private eye, so to speak, because she's not an elected person, and she's a young woman.

And it implies, if Jon Ossoff believes that she is having an affair, which was implied, it also suggests, as Jon Ossoff believed, that all females who work on political campaigns are, you know, boorish and non-binary. That's a boorish affair.

SETMAYER: Not comparable.

[22:55:03]

PHILLIP: The question that I asked you, which is if you are fine with Donald Trump saying all those actually really terrible things about women who are doing their jobs, asking him legitimate questions, whatever it is, why is Natalie Harp us, like, cocooned from any sort of, like, comments that's not even close to that?

LYMAN: Well, again, I think it's because this is a woman who otherwise had survived cancer. She became close.

PHILLIP: That doesn't seem to have anything to do with that.

LYMAN: The point is she became close to the President after his right to try allowed her to try new treatments that saved her life.

APPLEWHAITE: It's very interesting to me that earlier in the show, we were dismissive about, it's armed servicemen and women jumping off a ship.

LYMAN: You weren't dismissive. You're putting words in my mouth.

APPLEWHAITE: But now, Jon Ossoff mentions this woman for one second, and now we have to wrap an entire bubble of protection around her.

A woman who was, a woman who was so obsessed with the President's secrecy.

PHILLIP: Thank you very much for being here on this election night.

I have a quick programming note for you. Tomorrow night, after this show, you can join me for an inclusive, subscriber-only conversation. The panelists and I will answer your questions directly from you.

All you have to do is sign in on your CNN All Access account. And yes, if you have a cable subscription, you are eligible to do that. So again, that's tomorrow at 11 p.m. Eastern.

But next for us, right here on CNN, "Laura Coates Live" starts right after this.

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