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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Vance Won't Call Iran a War Despite Trump Calling It One; Trump Asks Supreme Court to Okay Changes for Mail Ballots. GOP Candidates' Political Ads Highlight High Prices, Trump Denounces Claims; J.D. Vance Likely to Pair Senator Ted Cruz in 2028. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired September 03, 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, six months in, America's veep says the war is won.
J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: We have won almost none of them until Donald J. Trump.
PHILLIP: But says the war's not over.
VANCE: When will this end? You would have to ask the Iranians.
PHILLIP: And then says it's not even a war.
VANCE: I wouldn't call it a war.
PHILLIP: Plus --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see it every day, gas, groceries, everything's expensive.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I've largely taken care of inflation.
And the prices are all coming down.
PHILLIP: -- Republicans running for office are admitting what the president won't, and more than a decade after Trump insulted his wife, his father, and called him a liar --
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Did it piss you off at the time?
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): No, because I respect the fight, and it was -- actually, it was political genius
PHILLIP: -- Ted Cruz is plotting another run.
Live at the table, Josh Rogin, Caroline Sunshine, Jenna Arnold, Hal Lambert, and Kmele Foster.
Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIP: Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip in New York.
Tonight, the vice president can't seem to get his story straight about the war in Iran. Six months in, JD Vance seems to suggest that the United States has already won the war, but the war isn't a war, and the war is also not over. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: America has fought a lot of wars since I've been alive, 42 years, and we have won almost none of them, until Donald J. Trump became the president of United States.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Will this war be over by the time of the midterm elections?
VANCE: Well, Kaitlan, again, I don't -- I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting. I recognize there is -- there have been places where this has flared up. Major combat operations -- again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks.
You would have to ask the Iranians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Since the war began, Donald Trump and his administration have repeatedly offered arbitrary timelines for how long the fighting would last.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks.
REPORTER: The U.S. would be gone or done with the war in two to three weeks?
TRUMP: I think we're two or three weeks in.
We were in there for two months. And you know what? We're going to have victory very shortly.
I thought it would take four to six weeks, and I was right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: But today, apparently, Vance declined to continue that trend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: Our attitude is we're not going to set an artificial timeline.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIP: Before we open it up to the table here, we invite you at home to join the debate. Go to cnn.com/abby. Weigh in there. We'll get to some of your comments throughout the show.
Josh, it's almost as if the administration forgets that we have the tapes. We have the records of the things that were said over the last six months, which includes many timelines, and it includes the president, until very recently, calling this a war.
JOSH ROGIN, LEAD GLOBAL SECURITY ANALYST, WASHINGTON POST INTELLIGENCE: Of course it's a war, and Vance saying that it's not a war will come as a surprise to the families of the 18 U.S. service members who have perished in this war. It'll come as a surprise to the 750-plus U.S. troops who have been injured in this war. It'll come as a surprise to the 50,000 U.S. troops that are right now deployed under wartime authorities and wartime conditions, under harm's way every single day, and not to mention the Iranians and the people in the region who are getting bombed all the time.
So, to gaslight the American people and say this is not a war is not going to work. People are not going to buy it. It seems callous. It seems to ignore the reality that America is in a war, even if it's just a blockade. Yes, three Americans died in Jordan in July, so, of course, that's war. But even if it -- a blockade is an act of war. As long as we've got Americans in harm's way, that's a war for all intents and purposes, and the Trump administration's not going to be able to fool people into thinking that's not the case.
[22:05:03]
HAL LAMBERT, FOUNDER AND CEO, POINT BRIDGE CAPITAL: Wait, so was Vietnam a war?
ROGIN: Of course.
LAMBERT: But we haven't declared war since 1942.
ROGIN: What difference does that make?
LAMBERT: Well, because that's what he's talking about. Congress hasn't declared war. If he says it's a war --
ROGIN: So, you're saying that he's playing semantics in order to avoid the War Powers Act, which makes it worse, you know?
LAMBERT: Everyone's played semantics for the last 50, 60 --
ROGIN: Not me. I'm not playing semantics. I'm calling it like it is. Are you playing semantics?
LAMBERT: Every president -- I'm not a president.
ROGIN: Is it a war?
LAMBERT: I'm not a president or vice president.
ROGIN: Do you think it's a war?
LAMBERT: Let me finish.
ROGIN: Is it a war or not?
LAMBERT: Let me finish. I'm not a president.
ROGIN: Can you answer the question?
LAMBERT: I can answer it.
ROGIN: Yes, what is the answer? Is it a war?
LAMBERT: Well, the answer, it's not a declared war, no, it's not.
ROGIN: Okay. Well --
LAMBERT: And so there hasn't been a declared war --
PHILLIP: Wait. Then why does the president call it a war?
LAMBERT: There hasn't been a declared war since 1942.
PHILLIP: But, Hal, you know, as I've said many times, the president has called it a war, including very recently.
LAMBERT: Well, we called it a war.
(CROSSTALKS)
LAMBERT: Wait a minute. We called it Iraq a war. We called all these things wars.
ROGIN: And those are all wars.
LAMBERT: Korean War.
ROGIN: Yes.
LAMBERT: But they weren't official wars under the Constitution.
ROGIN: What possible difference could that semantic --
PHILLIP: But how what was J.D. Vance talking about when he said at the very beginning of the sound that we played, he said, in the 42 years that I've been alive, we haven't won a war. What is he talking about if there have been no wars in those 42 years?
LAMBERT: Well, because it's semantics. We all know it's semantics.
ROGIN: So, let's not play semantics here and now. Let's call this (INAUDIBLE) right now.
LAMBERT: Well, we don't have to play semantics here and now.
JENNA ARNOLD, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Hal, a question for you. Why are we not -- why don't you want to call it a war?
ROGIN: Yes.
ARNOLD: Why don't you call it a war? What are you trying to avoid?
LAMBERT: No, I'm not saying it's not a war.
ROGIN: Okay.
LAMBERT: I'm saying semantically, he can't call it a war because then it goes back to Congress.
PHILLIP: Okay.
LAMBERT: It's not semantics.
PHILLIP: This is not making a whole lot of sense because --
LAMBERT: It does make a lot of sense, actually.
PHILLIP: It's not making a whole lot of sense.
ROGIN: If you're trying to avoid both responsibility and accountability for the war you started.
LAMBERT: Oh, my God, please.
PHILLIP: But I do think that there are important factors here. You alluded to this. There were 18 service members who were killed, okay? They lost their lives in this war. And one of them, their family member, was basically saying they can't get the benefits that they are entitled to. Kaitlan Collins asked the vice president about that today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Can you and the president personally ensure that the family of Alex Klinner gets all the benefits that they deserve given he died serving the country?
VANCE: Yes. So, what's her name? You said his name is Alex Klinner?
COLLINS: Yes, he was an airman who was killed in the plane that went down over Western Iraq.
VANCE: So, what I'd say Kaitlan is please if you -- especially if you have the private contact information, we will reach out to her directly as soon as this is over and make sure that she gets what she's entitled to.
Obviously, you know, our heart breaks for every single person who lost their lives in this operation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: I mean, Caroline, that's a mess. He's the vice president of the United States. There have been 18 people killed. Doesn't seem even vaguely familiar with the name, asks the -- a reporter to provide contact information that presumptively he should have. And this is only happening because they want to play a legislative game, not having to notify Congress that we're still in hostilities, and potentially denying these families the benefits that they are entitled to because of a death in theater.
CAROLINE SUNSHINE, DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Yes, I wish the vice president would've taken the opportunity to thank that service member for their service, and to thank his wife, and to thank the family. That's the right thing to do. And I think it's okay to call it a war. It's a war, and the president has called it a war. We've won the war according to the president, so there's no need to play the legislative semantic games. If we've won the war, Congress doesn't need to reauthorize the war or authorize it or whatever it is.
What is important is that when you win a war, which we have, according to the president, you get to go home. You don't have to stay. You win the Super Bowl, you don't have to stay on the field, you get to go home. It's also important to remember that how you define a win in war is also based on depriving your opponent of what they want. And what Iran wants is for the United States to stay over there as long as possible.
Iran is not worried about midterm elections. They don't face their voters. A win to them, the famous saying in the Middle East is, we have the watches. You have the watches, we have the time. Winning to Iran looks like staying over there. It's very clear there aren't any more military objectives to achieve. The administration said even a year ago that we had bunker busted the hell out of their nuclear program. Anybody that said otherwise was fake news. It's very clear that any other efforts needed on this front are economic, or that the surveillance efforts that we have through our Space Force can keep an eye on Iran.
So, take the win. And it's okay to call it a war, and it's okay to say that we won.
PHILLIP: It is very significant, though, what the United States is actually doing right now. Because I think they like to gloss over it. But they've -- there's a blockade, but they've also been escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
That has taken enormous amount of effort. They finally got to 18 million barrels of oil this week for one day, right? And in order to do that, they had to use a range of air, sea, and space assets to continue hitting Iran's capability to attack commercial vessels while simultaneously fending off waves of drone attacks as it conducted the risky escort operations for the ships carrying millions of barrels of oil.
[22:10:14]
The U.S. forces neutralized anti-ship cruise missiles during the escort operation. So, I mean, yes, kudos to the United States Navy for making this happen, to get 18 million barrels of oil through. That's close to where we were before the war. But in order to do so, they were under heavy assault from Iran it seems.
KMELE FOSTER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, TANGLE: No, we're expending a great deal of treasure. The president has expended perhaps all of what remains of his political capital. He is degrading further his popularity. And Republicans themselves are perhaps destroying whatever credibility they might have by having to stand alongside the president while this is happening. And, certainly, Congressional Republicans find themselves in this horrible situation where they refuse to do their jobs, take responsibility for America's war powers and are similarly not willing to call out the president of the United States for what could perhaps be described as an unconstitutional campaign abroad.
There are so many things that we could say about this conflict, and just given that we've been talking about it for six months, I think we've said a great deal of it already. There's a great deal of exhaustion, and, unfortunately, the American people have so many other things going on. They're barely paying attention to what's happening here.
But I think it is vitally important that we try to extract some lessons from America's foreign military adventures abroad. We previously this week actually had a conversation about comparisons between the Iraq War and the Iran War. Obviously, this conflict is very different, but what isn't so different is the lack of perhaps foresight with respect to unintended consequences, with respect to the hubris that is required to presume that you can very quickly dismantle a regime and not have to think about what happens the day after.
And here, we haven't even managed to dismantle the regime. There is not the willingness to put boots on the ground to do the things that were actually necessary in Iraq to achieve that objective. So, one does wonder when this ends if they're unwilling to pull out.
SUNSHINE: And I think the important thing about taking the win and going home is you're going to deprive Iran of their will to continue the fight. Because keeping our military over there allows Iran to keep striking as they go back to their people and say, look, this is justification for us to continue the fight. That creates a rally- around-the-flag effect in their country that only emboldens the regime, does not weaken it. So, taking our military out with its win deprives Iran of its justification to keep attacking.
PHILLIP: Well, we're not going home anytime soon. I mean, Hegseth has extended the deployment into 2027 for many of the troops that are still over there.
ARNOLD: And I will say I don't actually think if we left the region, Iran would not have any more fodder to continue to get our attention.
And, Kmele, I do think that there is one thing, many things, but I do think there is one specific subject specifically on a day like today when we said goodbye to Gloria Steinem that is often not discussed in this, is the movement, the Women Life Freedom movement, that has been fighting this regime for many, many decades.
And while we're sitting over here splitting hairs about the definition of war, this movement that Trump frankly called on recently, saying, where are all the Iranians, has been the whole basis and the whole reason why there is any hope in the region that will not be militarily designed in Tel Aviv or in Washington, D.C.
And this movement, led specifically by Iranian women, has been very explicit with the rest of the world about what it is that they need. They need additional internet power, they need additional targeted sanctions at individuals with power and they need more spotlights on the executions of political prisoners.
And so I just want to make sure that that continues to be the tip of the spear on all things Iran.
ROGIN: I totally agree. Trump said when the Iranians rose up against their brutal regime and were slaughtered in the streets, Trump said, help is on the way, and help was not on the way. And then he told the Iranians to rise up, and then he threw them under the bus.
LAMBERT: Oh, come on.
ROGIN: And that's exactly the same thing he did in -- yes, he didn't give any economic or political support to the actual Iranian opposition.
LAMBERT: What's he doing right now?
ROGIN: What he's doing is he's essentially trying to make a deal with the IRGC, which is the same regime that he -- he killed the ayatollah, and now he wants to make a deal with the ayatollah. The same thing he did in Venezuela. He promised democracy, and he delivered an actual entrenchment of the authoritarian tyrants.
And that is what Trump is about. He's about deals and corruption, and not about democracy and human rights. We see it in Venezuela and Iran, and --
LAMBERT: And so sitting on the sidelines in Iran was about democracy? For the last 40 years, we sat on the sidelines.
[22:15:01]
ROGIN: No, we had a deal with the Iranians that Trump threw away.
LAMBERT: The leader in power, all the ayatollahs and everybody else. That's about democracy?
ROGIN: For me, I'm for the people of Iran now.
LAMBERT: Okay. So, you would be against what the previous deals were?
ROGIN: I would say that if you talk to the people of Iran, and you can talk to them because they're there to talk to, what they will say is Trump gave them hope, and then he stamped out that hope by making a negotiation --
LAMBERT: And what'd the previous administrations do? They gave them hope?
ARNOLD: And, Hal, I would also emphasize that how democratic movements happen is that it has to be led by people within that country, not to say --
LAMBERT: I mean, but if they don't have guns, they all got killed. That's why we have a Second Amendment here. That's why we have it.
ARNOLD: Okay. The Second Amendment has nothing to do with what's happening in Iran.
LAMBERT: I'm just -- it actually does.
PHILLIP: All right. Next for us, Donald Trump goes to the Supreme Court once again for mail-in ballot restrictions.
Plus, the president says the prices are down and America's in a golden age. But that's not what Republican midterm ads are saying.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:20:00]
PHILLIP: Tonight, President Trump is asking the Supreme Court to let him implement sweeping changes to mail-in ballots, setting up a showdown just weeks before the midterm elections. It all stems from an executive order that Trump signed back in March, and under it, the U.S. Postal Service can refuse to deliver ballots from states that do not submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal, or states that don't follow a uniform envelope style. But in an emergency filing today, the Trump administration argued that its rules are only modest requirements.
It's not clear exactly how the justices will act. They set a deadline of Tuesday for the Democratic states to respond to the administration's petition. But just to underscore the urgency of all of this, North Carolina begins sending out its first midterm ballots tomorrow. So, this is a live issue. And just to remind people, the Supreme Court previously said it was too early to deal with this just before the USPS put in place their final rule for how this would all be implemented. That rule is now out there, and so the states are saying, actually, it's not too early. Now's the time. Now's the time to deal with this.
ARNOLD: Yes. I can't see anything other than Trump trying to change the narrative around mail-in ballots as being the reason why this is in the headlines. And I continue to ask what is it and why is it that he doesn't want us to be able to vote, as we have been able to vote for many decades in this country safely and securely under the auspices of Republican governors and Republican election officials. I'm curious to know why. ROGIN: Yes. Can I ask a quick question?
ARNOLD: Trump doesn't want this.
LAMBERT: This is directed at me. I'll let you --
ROGIN: Yes, I want to add an additional question to that. Does he realize that this hurts Republicans in rural places more than it hurts Democrats? Does he understand that, and is he trying to hurt Republicans, or is he accidentally hurting Republicans because he wants to justify something in 2020 in his head? Is that what's going?
ARNOLD: What's he afraid of?
LAMBERT: Wait, so you're telling me the Democrats are all upset because they're hurting rural Republicans? Is that what you're telling me?
ROGIN: I'm saying that like I don't --
LAMBERT: I love that y'all are sticking up for these rural Republicans.
ARNOLD: Well, Democrats would never want to be able to vote fairly.
ROGIN: It's an honest question, Hal. Does he understand that what he's doing is hurting his own party or not? I don't know.
LAMBERT: I mean, I don't know. The Democrats seem to be very supportive of Republicans now all of a sudden, I guess.
ROGIN: I'm just asking you a question.
LAMBERT: Well, I'm answering it, but I'm just going to say this. Here's what's happened. Mail-in ballots have multiplied by the millions, okay? So, it's not the same as it was just a few years ago. It's very different. They all seem to come in after Election Day and they seem to change the outcomes of elections, and they seem to favor Democrats. And they seem to favor Democrats.
PHILLIP: Okay.
LAMBERT: So, like that's what seems to be what's happening. And so --
ROGIN: But you have -- that's just a lot of talk. There's not an allegation that anything's wrong with that.
PHILLIP: There's a lot of seeming happening. Listen, mail-in ballots are cast by Republicans and Democrats, including by your president.
LAMBERT: That's true.
PHILLIP: The president.
ROGIN: And military members.
LAMBERT: That's true.
PHILLIP: Donald J. Trump, who pretty much every time he votes, he votes by mail.
LAMBERT: I would hope so.
PHILLIP: And so -- and then --
LAMBERT: I mean, he doesn't need to go down to the --
PHILLIP: And on top of that --
LAMBERT: He doesn't need to get all the security to go down to the voting booth.
PHILLIP: 58 percent of Americans support mail-in voting. Why? Because it is convenient for them. It was something that if you live in the state of Florida, they've been doing for a long time. They do it in Florida because there are a lot of seniors down there who vote Republican, and they use mail-in voting. So, that is what Josh is talking about.
They want to put in place, though, these really significant changes. We've got 60 days before an election. It would require these states to submit these lists to the Postal Service, making the Postal Service the arbiter of who gets a ballot and who doesn't. They have to submit an envelope that they have to get approved by the Postal Service, again, putting the Postal Service at the center of a process that they have no role in constitutionally. And they're -- again, they're doing this with two months before an election. So, you can see why there are concerns.
SUNSHINE: I mean, great. This is the country that put a man on the moon. I think we can handle this. I think we're up to the job. And to answer everybody's question, this is about returning to normal. The fact is, the only reason we have the current iteration of mail-in voting that we have is because of the pandemic, and we have not returned to the normalcy levels that we had before the pandemic.
Nobody's trying to stop military members from voting. Nobody's trying to stop college students from voting mail-in, or seniors or any of it. But the fact is, I think we can all agree, mail-in voting did change after the 2020 pandemic, and it has not returned to -- we're not in a pandemic anymore, guys. Nobody -- everybody should be getting ballots.
FOSTER: But a slap dash, haphazard --
SUNSHINE: So, this is about returning to normal. You want to go to normal? Let's get back to normal. This is how you do that.
[22:25:00]
FOSTER: A slap dash, haphazard rush towards normalcy is probably going to yield more problems. I don't think anyone should be more inclined not to see this happen than people who actually like the president of the United States. Even if he is doing what you imagine is the right thing, you need a hell of a lot more time than 60-odd days.
If he creates a maelstrom at the end of this because of an, a rapid intervention into the election, that is going to be exceedingly bad for the country as a whole. It's not just going to be a circumstance where you can say, oh, look, they're trying to steal the election. It is going to look like he screwed up the election.
This is bad for them. They should hope that the Supreme Court does not get involved and rule in their favor.
SUNSHINE: This needs to get done, and it should get done urgently. In a proper country, this should get done --
FOSTER: In a proper, orderly manner, right?
SUNSHINE: This is a properly orderly manner, and I'm confident the Supreme Court will rule correctly on this. They've been ruling correctly lately in regards to government overreach and January 6th sentencing, showing that the Biden administration completely misused those statutes and was way too egregious in its sentencing.
PHILLIP: What's the basis, do you think, Caroline?
SUNSHINE: They just ruled correctly on TPS. So --
PHILLIP: What's the basis, do you think, for the Supreme Court to -- I'm presuming you think ruling correctly in this case would allow the executive order to go forward, but on what basis?
SUNSHINE: The basis that before 2020, this is how we did things in this country.
PHILLIP: That's not really how the law works.
SUNSHINE: And we're no longer in extraordinary times.
PHILLIP: That's not really how the law works. I mean, what legal authority does the president have to give the USPS a veto power over how states conduct their voting?
SUNSHINE: Again, we're not in extraordinary times anymore, in a pandemic.
FOSTER: But these are new measures.
SUNSHINE: And I don't see any law saying that he can't. So, I think the court will come down on his side.
PHILLIP: The Constitution saying that states are responsible for the manner --
SUNSHINE: Yes.
PHILLIP: -- the manner of voting. That's -- actually it's in the, it's in the document.
SUNSHINE: Yes.
PHILLIP: So, that is the law.
LAMBERT: But the federal side controls post office.
SUNSHINE: Correct.
LAMBERT: So, the post office isn't controlled by the states.
ROGIN: Right. So, it's a power grab by the feds. But I thought conservatives were supposed to be for states' rights.
LAMBERT: But the states are trying to use the post office to do what they want, and the federal government's saying, no, we control the post office.
PHILLIP: No. That's not how this works. When the Constitution says the states have a certain power, it means that the power is reserved for the states. That's how the Constitution works as a document. So, if the president wants to claim a power, it's got to be given to him somewhere. Where does he get it from?
LAMBERT: No, but we control -- the federal government controls the post office. And at the state -- he's not changing the rules of the state. He's simply saying, okay, if you're going to do it this way, you have to have measures in place to make sure there's not voter fraud. And he's putting measures --
PHILLIP: And what's the -- by what statute?
LAMBERT: Through his control of the post office.
PHILLIP: Did Congress pass a law?
LAMBERT: No. But, I mean, I -- but he controls the post office, the mailing of the post out to the people. That is --
ROGIN: Well, due respect to our postal workers, but I'm not sure we want to put the post office --
FOSTER: Yes, this feels a little duplicitous. And I remember when conservatives used to be skeptical of the of the federal government instituting these kind of sweeping changes.
ARNOLD: I'm just -- I hear about what the problem was that needs to be fixed.
SUNSHINE: Yes.
ARNOLD: I hear your point about getting more people back into voting booths. I disagree with that claim. Why can't we have people mailing in their votes?
SUNSHINE: Because there's no reason to. The only reason we did that --
(CROSSTALKS)
SUNSHINE: Okay. Well, that's not the reason we did it. We did it because we had a once in a century pandemic.
ROGIN: But if it's good, why not keep it? I want to vote online.
SUNSHINE: That is not a reason.
ROGIN: I want to vote online.
SUNSHINE: That is not a reason to keep that practice. Do we still wear masks? I mean, a few of you guys do, but there's no reason to wear masks. There's no reason to social distance. There's no reason to vote as if we are in a pandemic.
PHILLIP: If state-passed laws allowing voting to be conducted a particular way, again, to answer her question, what is the actual problem that you're trying to solve? They've passed a law. It's valid because it's a law. What are you trying to solve for?
SUNSHINE: The problem I'm trying to solve for is the 2020 pandemic has ended. It has been over for several years.
PHILLIP: Oh, okay. So, the problem that you're trying to solve for is that you just don't like that?
SUNSHINE: And everything else that we did differently during that pandemic, including wearing masks or social distancing, we don't do that anymore.
LAMBERT: And, by the way, this has to do with the states that won't turn in their voting rolls to see if they've been purging voters --
(CROSSTALKS)
SUNSHINE: You want to go back to normal? This is what going back to normal looks like.
PHILLIP: Just because you don't like something doesn't make it illegal.
(CROSSTALKS)
ROGIN: At the end of the day, it's just either you want to make it easier to vote or you want to make it harder to vote. I'm for making it easier to vote. There are countries in this world where you can vote online and it's perfectly safe.
SUNSHINE: Then you should want to have the SAVE Act passed if you want to make it easier to vote.
ROGIN: No, that has all sorts of other weird stuff in it that I'm really against.
SUNSHINE: So, I'm really glad that we've come to agreement that the SAVE Act would be a great way to make it easier -- ROGIN: SAVE Act has a lot of weird stuff in it that I'm also against. But there are countries where you can vote online. It's perfectly safe and 100 percent.
LAMBERT: Yes, there's all the --
SUNSHINE: Vote online? You want people to vote online?
ROGIN: Yes, there's a --
LAMBERT: And almost every country in the world has voter I.D. We don't.
FOSTER: Worth noting that we are --
ROGIN: I'm just saying --
FOSTER: -- that we're not talking about --
LAMBERT: Would you say that they have voter I.D., every country in the world?
FOSTER: Worth noting that we are talking about elections and not mail. So, to the extent someone has authority here, it probably isn't the president of the United States.
ARNOLD: But I guess my --
PHILLIP: Next for us -- we got to leave it there. Next for us, Donald Trump says that America is in its golden age and that prices are coming down, while Republicans who are running for office are saying the exact opposite. We'll discuss that next.
[22:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Tonight, it doesn't look like President Trump and his party are on the same page about their midterm strategy. Just listen to what many Republican candidates are focusing on in their campaign ads.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZACH LAHN (R), IOWA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: On our farm here in Belle Plaine, we see it every day. Gas, groceries, everything's expensive. Iowa families are hurting.
[22:35:02]
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Housing costs keep rising, and it's getting harder to afford a place to live.
CHERYLE, STRONGSVILLE, OHIO RESIDENT: When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, the last thing I needed to worry about was money. But bills are overwhelming, and groceries, rent, and gas are more expensive, too. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: It's hard for that message to break through when this is what the President has been saying for months.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I saw polls today on television saying, Donald Trump's polls on the economy aren't good. The economy is the greatest economy we've ever had by far.
With the inflation, I've largely taken care of inflation, by the way.
We have the greatest economy that I've ever had. We had one of the greatest economies in history in my first term. This is blowing it away.
I should be at 100 percent on the economy. And the prices are all coming down.
Now, the word affordability is a fake word made up by the Democrats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: If it's so good, Hal, why are the Republican candidates who are actually running telling people the opposite?
HAL LAMBERT, TRUMP DONOR AND FUNDRAISER, FORMER DESANTIS DONOR, POINT BRIDGE CAPITAL FOUNDER AND CEO, AND MAGA ETF FOUNDER: Look, politics are local. But look, the reality is this. July to July, July of last year to July of this year, prices are up 2.7 percent and wages are up 3.3 percent. So, real wages are actually up over the last year, July to July.
So, Donald Trump is correct, President Trump is correct. He has gotten a lid on inflation. We have gas prices that are high because of the Iranian conflict.
But that's the number one problem from an inflation standpoint. Interest rates are relatively mild, unemployment is low, the economy is growing nicely.
So, the economy is pretty strong. Unemployment is low, people are making money across the board. This is not some sort of disaster.
PHILLIP: Here are some other statistics.
JOSH ROGIN, LEAD GLOBAL SECURITY ANALYST, WASHINGTON POST INTELLIGENCE: I'm not sure that's going to be a winning message. Everything is fine. Don't believe your lying eyes.
PHILLIP: Inflation is up from when Donald Trump came into office. Mortgage interest rates just hit 7 percent this week. Wage growth has been subsumed by inflation for the last two months.
So, the ads that you're seeing there from Republicans, they're not in a vacuum. These are people running in actual states and districts where Americans are telling them things are getting really expensive.
Gas is over $4 a gallon. That's a real thing. That's not a made-up thing.
KMELE FOSTER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, TANGLE, AND PODCAST HOST, "THE FIFTH COLUMN": I like how you're in a very difficult spot. And look, I get it. You have to try to find the best possible way.
LAMBERT: Abby quoted two months, and I quoted a year. Abby quoted two months of wages. I quoted a year of wages.
PHILIP: I'm just saying, what is the current state of the economy right now? Well, the current state of the economy, according to the Donald Trump appointed Fed chair, is that inflation is now the issue that might force them to raise interest rates.
It is likely that they will raise interest rates because the inflation problem is not under control. I'm not saying that.
The guy who Donald Trump at the Fed to lower interest rates, he's the guy saying that.
LAMBERT: Well, I'm going to call it right now. They are not going to raise interest rates.
I just tell you that right now.
FOSTER: Sure.
LAMBERT: That's not going to happen.
PHILLIP: Fine. I'm just telling you what the guy said.
LAMBERT: We have a problem with energy prices, which resonates through the whole economy. I'll agree with that. That's all about what's going on in Iran.
But by the way, we had higher oil prices under Biden, and we didn't have a war in Iran. So, look, this is not that we have oil that goes up and down, up and down that affects the economy. We've got to get that under control.
President Trump has put in place ways to drill more, drill more. Venezuela is going to come online, it's going to take two years. We all know that.
But he's looking for the future of getting energy prices low for the country.
PHILLIP: Thirty-five percent. That is what Donald Trump's approval rating is in CNN's poll of polls.
And take a look at this chart, because it tells you everything you need to know. That is the lowest number that we have seen since, let's go back to 2002, George W. Bush. So, the President is actually, in fact, going into this midterm
elections at a really low point. And we're starting to hear from Republicans. They're worried about this.
ROGIN: Sure. I mean, I think the clear symbol was earlier this morning when Speaker Johnson canceled the September session of Congress. So, when the Congress leaves this week, they're not coming back until November.
They're not even going to come to work for two months. That's, according to my sources, because they know they have to be in their district because they're in trouble. And then he's going to hold this rally in Nevada where he's going to charge every member of Congress $25,000 to attend a rally to help them.
And they don't want to go, but they kind of have to go, but they don't want to go. And it just shows you that he doesn't really care about what the Republican needs for this election are.
He's got a big war chest, $800 million, something like that. They need it.
And in order to do that, they're going to have to pretend that what he says is true about the economy, just like you just did, even though everybody knows it's not true.
And it's not going to work. I don't think it's going to work.
[23:40:00]
PHILLIP: Why won't he spend that money, by the way? This is a live question.
ROGIN: Nobody believes it, obviously.
PHILLIP: Why won't he spend? He has almost a billion dollars. Why won't he spend it?
ROGIN: What's going on with that?
CAROLINE SUNSHINE, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP'S 2024 CAMPAIGN: Well, I would remind everybody that money alone in politics isn't enough to win. If that were true, Kamala Harris would be President.
PHILLIP: Sure, but it definitely helps.
ROGIN: Yes, it's better than nobody.
SUNSHINE: Kamala Harris would be President.
LAMBERT: Michael Bloomberg would be President.
SUNSHINE: Really quick, guys. Is Kamala Harris President right now? No. Did she spend a billion dollars? Yes. But look, there's 60 days or less until these midterms. And I think on every question that the administration takes on the economy, the answer should be, hey, American people, we see you. We hear you.
We're doing everything in our power to bring those prices down. You know what?
In the meantime, in those 60 days, you didn't just elect us to bring your gas prices down. You elected us to close your border, which we have done. We will continue doing that these next 60 days.
There was a report that the Federal Reserve put out saying that housing prices and rent under the Biden administration went up 20 to 30 percent in some areas because of the amount of illegal immigrants we took in this country. So don't ever tell me that it's just gas prices and groceries because housing is the number two most unaffordable cost for people in this country. Tell them how you brought down violent crime and that we're going to keep doing that these next 60 days.
Also remind people that when you're looking for the solutions to bring down gas prices and you're looking for the solutions to bring down groceries, one way that you do not do that is just by electing people who say things like abolish ICE to the Senate and the House.
FOSTER: But in September --
SUNSHINE: That's not going to bring down your grocery prices.
FOSTER: But in September of 2026 --
SUNSHINE: That's not going to bring down your gas prices.
FOSTER: But in September of 2026 --
SUNSHINE: That's just going to put a bunch of people with extreme beliefs in your Congress.
FOSTER: -- the Senate seat in Texas is kind of up for grabs. That seems like it's an indicator of something.
SUNSHINE: Not when people find out that --
LAMBERT: Ken Paxton, I'm calling right now a one by six points.
JENNA ARNOLD, POLITICAL STRATEGIST, AND AUTHOR, "RAISING OUR HANDS": But Caroline and Hal, I do question at what point are we over the blaming Biden for the fill in the blank or the --
SUNSHINE: We're just pointing out that under Biden, inflation was at 9.1 percent. Now it's at 3.4, and we're doing everything we can to get that lower because that's what people want.
That's a fact. It was 9.1 percent.
ARNOLD: I'm outlining all of those things that the Trump campaign from 2024 was enthusiastic about articulating. The Dow Jones does not pay bills. And I admire and I continue to --
I'm encouraging all the Republican candidates who are trying to meet your constituents where they are to do exactly what you have been doing and calling out their real struggle. In some cases, it might be border-related. In some cases, it might be gas price-related.
But nationally, it is entirely focused on the grocery bill. And instead of us fighting about what talking points are correct in terms of whether or not the economy is doing better, let's just all be focused on how amazing would it be if we were sitting here talking about different policies to decrease the grocery bill.
LAMBERT: The Democrat solution for the grocery bill is for the government to run groceries, just like Mamdani wants to do in New York. That's the solution for that party, and that's why you guys are not going to vote.
PHILLIP: We'll see if that works as an argument in this midterm election, because you know it's going to be one of them.
Next for us, Ted Cruz is openly plotting a Presidential run. He says the party is not giving J.D. Vance a quick pass. Well, Vance is responding to that tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Senator Ted Cruz is teeing up a possible White House showdown with Vice President J.D. Vance. Both are seen as potential contenders in 2028, with Cruz already testing the waters. Now he's taking swipes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI VITALI, MS NOW ANCHOR: Is this a party that has coalesced already behind J.D. Vance?
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Oh, no. There's going to be a full discussion about who we are and what we believe.
VITALI: Are you going to be part of that?
CRUZ: There'll be time to figure that out. I'll certainly be part of the discussion, because I care deeply about economically. I think we should be a conservative party.
And on foreign policy, we've got a debate. Are we an isolationist party that withdraws from the world? Or do we believe in American leadership?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: When asked if he would support Cruz's Presidential bid, should he run, here's how Vance responded. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'd encourage any Republican, if you care about the country, and I think all of us do, you should be focused not on the job a few years from now, you should be focused on the midterms. And that's the approach that I've taken.
And on Ted Cruz, I mean, look, man, he's just clearly, Ted is a very authentic and likable guy, and I'm sure he'll do great.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: As they say, it's on. So he said that, and one of his big boosters, Alex Bruesewitz, Trump advisor, says of Cruz, no one takes him seriously as a contender. Will he run? Absolutely, because his ego is ten times bigger than the state he represents.
He has no support, but he'll have a war chest and apparatus because he's done this before.
Kmele, what do you make of this?
FOSTER: In fairness, it is early. Things change.
It is entirely possible that the stars will align and Ted Cruz will be the guy. I don't know how likely that is. I would say that it does seem like his ego is doing a heck of a lot more of the talking.
The thing that most stands out to me is the fact that he is willing to go after J.D. Vance. He'll talk about J.D. Vance being the guy who was supposed to negotiate the deal.
[22:50:08]
Well, who gave him responsibility to negotiate that deal? He will not be critical of Donald Trump at this stage.
And this is a point at which he could be distancing himself and perhaps even demonstrating that he has some cojones and is willing to actually go after the standard bearer of his party because he's that guy. He's that honorable. He has that much integrity.
Instead, it looks like he's playing a game here, trying his best to angle for a position, going after the second in command.
ROGIN: There's gambling in the casino. Everybody in the casino, there's gambling. And there's this assumption that people who run for President really think they're going to --
No, 95 percent of the people who run for President know for sure they're never going to be President. They do it because it's a good thing to do. You get a lot of media attention, maybe you sell a lot of books.
You get your profile raised. Maybe you get a cabinet position. You get 3 or 4 percent.
You get a bunch of money. You trade it for something. You become a kingmaker instead of a king.
Ted Cruz will be running for President as long as he's alive. He just took a break for Trump in the last two, but everybody knows that he's going to run every time.
Because why wouldn't you? It's a fun thing to do. It's a thing where you can get stuff for it.
And yes, I don't think anyone. Nobody in the Republican Party thinks Ted Cruz is going to be President of the United States.
PHILLIP: I don't know if Hal might.
ROGIN: I don't know. I think so. I think he's doing it to do it in no shade. You know what I mean?
LAMBERT: I've been friends with Ted since 2006, so I've known him a long time. I helped him in 2016.
You know, I said in your paper I think that J.D. Vance is going to be the nominee. I think that'll be.
I mean, if you look at it this way, you've got the two most important donors in the Republican Party already saying they're supporting J.D. That's Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.
So they've already said they're going to support J.D., Elon's going to spend a lot of money in this election cycle on a lot of candidates. When you run for President, you need endorsements from senators. You need endorsements from congressmen.
Who do you think they're going to endorse? So to me, I think it's an uphill battle.
You've got President Trump, his number two guy. He picked J.D. Vance. When you pick the Vice President, he's the person you think could be President.
PHILLIP: But they're not. Nobody's clearing the field.
ROGIN: Except for Marco. The thing about Marco, if he wants to be President, the thing he does is not run and wait for 2032 and wait for J.D. to fall in his -- and then come in later.
PHILLIP: Or just stay out of the fray and let the other guys scrap each other up. Let me just play this because this is J.D. Vance talking about Tucker Carlson, which is going to be an issue. This is going to be an issue if he runs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: Tucker is a friend of mine. Tucker is a friend despite the fact that we disagree on a number of things. And I'm not going to play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political agreements with him.
And if you have a disagreement with somebody politically, even over a deeply held issue, you should still be friends with that person because the whole republic depends on people of different perspectives being able to talk to one another. That's how I try to live my life. And I encourage everybody else to do the same.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Well, Tucker is not a friend of Ted Cruz's. And he's going to make that an issue because the accusation against Tucker is not just that he has different views about Donald Trump, but that he is palling around with anti-semites. That's the issue.
SUNSHINE: I think it's important that all of this plays out in a 2028 primary for Republicans.
I think it is so critical that Republicans have an open primary in 2028. Donald Trump had to go up against 17 candidates to get the mantle. And whoever comes after him also needs to go up against everybody else.
We need to have a sharpening of knives and make sure that we're putting up the sharpest person because the reality is in 2028, Gen Z and millennials combined for the first time in our country's history are going to have the most voting power. They're going to supersede the boomers for the first time ever in having the most political power.
My guess is the Democrats put up AOC in 2028. Republicans have to be prepared to meet that political reality. I don't think Ted Cruz is the guy to do it, but I want to see that play out because the party will be better for it and ultimately, hopefully, the country will be better for it to have those debates wide out in the open.
PHILLIP: Okay. Next for us, we're going to get to your feedback from cnn.com/abby. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: And now some viewer feedback from cnn.com/abby.
The first one, Trump has been President for six of the last ten years. Time to stop blaming Biden for our troubles. When you put it that way.
SUNSHINE: Take credit for not being Biden because Biden let in 10 million illegal immigrants and we're getting them out. We're not Biden, guys, and we deserve credit for that.
FOSTER: At least I'm not Biden.
ROGIN: I think you're missing the thrust of that criticism. PHILLIP: Yes, I think the point is the President has been President for most of the last decade.
SUNSHINE: Maybe I'm making a suggestion.
PHILLIP: All right, the next viewer says, I live in Washington and we have been voting by mail for years, way before COVID.
I actually saw this comment in a lot of places tonight. People pointing out Florida, you've got no excuse for mail-in voting. People have been voting by mail in this country for many decades.
[23:00:07]
SUNSHINE: Yes, and they can still continue to do that if their circumstance warrants it. Again, people in the military, people in college, seniors, but we didn't have it for everybody post-pandemic.
PHILLIP: That's not true.
ROGIN: I voted by mail in 2004.
PHILLIP: Yes, that's the point of this viewer's point.
SUNSHINE: But why did you vote by mail?
ROGIN: Because it was easy and cool. And I liked it and it worked.
SUNSHINE: I don't know about that.
ROGIN: And I got to vote and it was great. Nothing bad happened.
PHILLIP: That's it for us. Thanks for watching "NewsNight." "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
