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Interview with Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA): Iran War Hits 6-Month Mark with No End in Sight; Moulton Faces Off with Sen. Markey for Massachusetts Senate Primary on Tuesday; Young Adults Traded Over $5 Billion on Kalshi So Far in 2026. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 28, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Today the war with Iran hits its sixth month mark. It began on February 28th when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against the Iranian leadership and military. President Trump called the conflict an excursion, one that would be over in a matter of weeks.

But the country is now facing an extended fight with no talks scheduled, no ending in sight. Let's talk about it with Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton, who is a member of the Armed Services Committee.

[15:35:00]

He's also running in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary against incumbent Senator Ed Markey. That election is set for this upcoming Tuesday, just around the corner.

All right, Senator, if you win this Senate seat, what's your first action on the war?

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): It's to do everything we can to stop it. This war has not only been a losing effort by Trump and Hegseth, it's totally backfired. It's actually empowered Iran.

I mean, never before has the Iranians basically strangled the world economy the way they are today. And there's a real contrast in this Senate race. I'm running against someone who voted for the last war of choice in the Middle East, voted to send troops to Iraq when we didn't need to.

KEILAR: You obviously served four tours of combat as a Marine infantry officer in Iraq. I do want to ask you about your race, where AI has shaped up to be a huge issue. I spoke with your opponent earlier this week about what was really a fumbled answer on his part on AI in your recent debate.

He defended himself and then he took aim at you, specifically your investment in a company called webAI. He accused you of leveraging your role as a member of Congress in that transaction. I want to play what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ED. MARKEY (D-MA): He has only come to this issue late, except to the extent to which serving on the Armed Services Committee, webAI offered him an opportunity for early investments that would not be available to any other citizen. And he took advantage of that as a member of the Armed Services Committee and has enriched him to the tune of millions of dollars. That should be illegal.

That should be banned. He should divest all of that webAI money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: How do you respond to Senator Markey on that?

MOULTON: This is an absurdly false attack. There's absolutely no truth to it. My wife and I have followed every law, every ethics disclosure, and we've gone above and beyond by disclosing all of our taxes.

And unfortunately, this is coming from a senator who refuses to disclose his taxes. He filed separately from his wife so he could keep half of his family wealth hidden. So we don't even know what funds he's invested in, although we do know that he has invested in a private equity fund with at least 14 companies that deal with health care that affect other jurisdictions of his committees.

So the bottom line is there's a huge difference here, that we have been completely transparent about anything that my family has done. And the other thing that's amazing, Brianna, is he makes this attack in a way that suggests it's my work that made these investments possible when it was actually my wife's success. And my wife has an amazing Instagram response that people should check out online if they haven't seen it.

But it's also important to say that he starts by saying that I haven't done anything on AI. Now, that's very far from the truth. I've co- sponsored a number of pieces of legislation, voted for legislation to regulate AI.

And actually, just this year, my congressional office was given the award by the Congressional Management Foundation for integrating AI most successfully, essentially for doing the best with AI of any office in Congress. And we need people who understand this technology if we are going to regulate it. And of course, Senator Markey has demonstrated repeatedly that he doesn't even understand what the technology is.

I mean, the other part of your interview, you asked him a question about AI, and he responded by talking about social media. So if you can't tell the difference between posting pictures on Facebook and a technology that could displace millions of American jobs, how on earth are you going to be effective at regulating it in the United States Senate?

KEILAR: I also want to get your reaction to a guest essay in The New York Times opinion section yesterday. Your race is getting a lot of attention. You're getting attention here. This was written by a political reporter, and it's talking about in a time when in the Democratic Party progressives are doing pretty well electorally, that younger center-left Democrats are, quote, struggling to articulate a message of change that isn't necessarily progressive change. And it says, "Mr. Moulton's biggest idea is that new people are more important than big ideas." Is your argument just in with the new, out with the old?

Is that really, is that how you'd sum up your campaign?

MOULTON: No, absolutely not. It's, is the status quo delivering? Are you happy with the Democratic establishment right now?

Because if people are, they can vote for an 80-year-old senator who's been in Washington over 50 years, who came to Washington before I was even born. But if you're not happy with the status quo, if you're with more than 7 out of 10 Democrats in Massachusetts who believe that Democratic leadership is failing, failing to stand up effectively to Trump, failing to stop this MAGA Republican governorship of all of Washington that's raising costs across the country, then you vote -- need to vote for a new generation with new ideas.

[15:40:00]

One of my biggest ideas for Massachusetts is to actually build high- speed rail across the state. I'm the author of the American High-Speed Rail Act, the most significant piece of high-speed rail legislation before the Congress today. It would reduce the journey from Springfield to Boston from 2.5 hours under Senator Markey's plan for a train that's literally slower than the same trains in the 1950s to about 45 minutes. Now, some people may say that's ambitious, but the rest of the world is doing it.

And I think that my generation comes forward with a perspective that we should be as good as anybody in the world, and we should bring lower-cost housing, lower-cost electric bills, lower-cost health care, health care for everyone to the country today where the previous generation has just failed to deliver. And I give them credit for trying. You know, Senator Markey has tried for 50 years.

He and I actually agree on most policies. I mean, like, for example, we do both support improving transit access, but his vision is not big, and it hasn't worked.

KEILAR: The Chuck Schumer as leader of Senate Democrats, that has been an issue. You're calling for someone different. Markey isn't being pinned down.

He said everything should be on the table, but he can't really be pinned down on whether he would ditch Schumer as leader. Who, if it's not Schumer, and you don't want Schumer, then who should it be? Can you commit to someone that you would like to see run for that job?

Who should it be?

MOULTON: Brianna, I'm not going to commit to it today, but I'll tell you there are several next-generation leaders. And the important thing is that I've been willing to say I'm not voting for Schumer, and Markey initially said he was supporting Schumer, and now he's waffling on the question and refusing to answer it. And in the meantime, he just took $62,000 from Schumer from the Senate Victory Fund that's dedicated to flipping seats across the country, Senate seats that we need to win in Maine and Ohio and Texas and Alaska.

He took that money away from the party to bail out his own campaign. I mean, maybe that's not technically illegal, but Democrats across the country have given $5, $10 to this fund to flip the Senate, and Markey just took it for himself, which is kind of the definition of clinging to power in Washington rather than building the team, investing in the majority. Now, in contrast, as you know, I've supported candidates across the country who have flipped 24 seats from red to blue through my organization, Serve America, including Abigail Spanberger, governor of New Jersey, who just came up to endorse my campaign, Elissa Slotkin, Andy Kim, United States senators today, Pat Ryan, Chrissy Houlihan, Jahana Hayes, real leaders in the House.

That commitment to building a majority is going to be absolutely critical in the future. Senator Markey is doing the opposite. He took that $62,000, just like he's taken corporate PAC money in this campaign, taken fossil fuel lobby money.

This is very well documented, although he continues to lie about it to voters. So there is a real contrast here between someone clinging to power at 80 years old and someone who wants to deliver next-generation leadership, because I just don't think the status quo is good enough, because our leadership, Schumer included, they're not getting the job done, and we need to take on Trump and the MAGA Republicans harder.

KEILAR: Congressman Seth Moulton, thank you so much for being with us. We do appreciate it.

And still ahead, as the prediction market industry explodes in popularity, a new CNN analysis finds young adults are one of the big reasons why. We'll have more on what we're learning about that in a major court ruling on these markets next.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A new analysis by CNN shows young adults are cashing in on prediction markets. The frenzy's so intense, our data show that so far this year, people between the ages of 18 to 21 have already traded more than $5 billion on the site Kalshi. We're talking about a group of people, young people, legally barred from most gambling casinos in the U.S. CNN senior reporter Marshall Cohen is here with more analysis. So what else did your research find, Marshall?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, we found $5 billion in the estimated trading volume this year from this very important group. Why do we care? Why are we talking about 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds? It's because of this loophole, Boris. Like you mentioned, in most states, gambling, sportsbooks, it's 21-plus. But prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket and other sites, under the current law, are treated as financial markets, like the stock market, which is 18-plus.

Critics say it's a loophole, and look at that, $5.4 billion. The young people are loving this. Most of it's sports.

$4 billion of that this year is sports, and we're just about two weeks away from the start of the NFL season. Everyone I talk to is expecting these numbers to rise significantly. Now, for its part, Kalshi does say they take this very seriously.

They say they have internal safeguards and tools to protect younger users between 18 and 21, like deposit limits and warnings on the app if they identify patterns of unhealthy trading behavior. But look, this is a big deal, and the states that typically regulate gambling, they have something to say about it. Look at all that yellow.

All those states want to regulate Kalshi and Polymarket as if they are gambling, not a financial market. They have banded together. Those are red states, blue states, battleground states.

There is a large consensus on that.

[15:50:00]

By the way, CNN has a partnership with Kalshi. We use this data to cover major events, but we don't use prediction markets.

SANCHEZ: That's right. It doesn't touch our editorial in any way, shape, or form.

COHEN: Correct.

SANCHEZ: On that note about the states, there was a major ruling today about whether individual states could set regulations on these prediction markets. Walk us through that. Huge victory for the states.

COHEN: Huge victory for the states. This came out of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal court that said, in its opinion, no, these are not financial derivative swaps. They said it has all the hallmarks of gambling and states can go ahead and regulate it.

But, Boris, of course, everyone thinks this is probably going to go ultimately to the Supreme Court.

SANCHEZ: Yes, most likely. Marshall Cohen, thank you so much for that reporting -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. Dramatic video capturing the moment that a cargo plane's tires catch on fire while landing at Los Angeles International Airport. DHL says the Boeing 737 suffered a brake issue that caused it to overheat and is now being inspected.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. All crew members were able to exit safely.

And a California mother has been arrested for vandalism after this, allegedly breaking the glass on a school bus door and climbing through a window. Video shows her then confronting the driver. The school district says the driver was waiting for law enforcement after a student hopped out of a window, but some parents had gathered outside demanding their children be released immediately. The district says its driver followed all protocols.

And this iconic prop from the Jurassic Park movie franchise just sold at a live auction for more than $400,000. You may recall seeing this fossilized mosquito in amber from the opening scene of Steven Spielberg's 1993 masterpiece. An executive from Prop Store Auction House says, quote, few objects capture the premise and enduring cultural impact of a film so immediately.

The votes are in, and one special bomb-sniffing canine was just named the TSA's top dog. We'll have that story.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Art and music can help veterans process trauma that may be difficult to put into words.

KEILAR: CNN hero Richard Casper experienced that healing power after returning from war and started his non-profit to share it with other combat vets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD CASPER, FOUNDER CREATIVETS: I just always wanted to serve other people, but I didn't know how to ultimately do that. Then all of a sudden 9-11 happened when I was a junior, and everything changed.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): In 2003, Richard Casper joined the Marines and was deployed to Iraq. Within the first four months, his Humvee was hit four separate times, and he watched as his best friend Luke Yepsen was shot and killed by a sniper. When Casper came home, he struggled to process the trauma.

CASPER: You just don't want to talk to people about it because you feel like you're weak. They never gave me my vulnerability back.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Casper enrolled in community college and found himself in an art class. He began to express himself in ways he couldn't before. In 2013, he started CreatiVets to bring the healing power of art and songwriting to other veterans.

CASPER: I tried to explain to him in the beginning, it's going to be easier to tell your story once you create your art piece because you're not going to be talking about you, you're going to be talking about your art piece and focus on it.

COOPER (voice-over): Casper was honored as a CNN hero in 2022, and his work continues to grow. He recently purchased an abandoned church in Nashville to create a facility with art studios, songwriting rooms, performance spaces, and more. The goal is for part of the space to eventually be open 24-7.

CASPER: Arts and music is not something veterans are drawn to, but they need a place to go when PTSD hits. It always seems to come at like 1, 2, 3 a.m., and the only places you can go is to be destructive. Instead of going to a bar somewhere and just letting it go, I want them to come here, have a place where they could beat up some clay, they could write a song, they could do anything that they need to, to really get it off their chest, but also to turn all that pain into something beautiful that they can just sit with and process it in a completely new way.

COOPER (voice-over): As the new facility takes shape, Richard hopes it'll inspire more veterans to discover the power of creativity and a path toward healing.

CASPER: I want them to know that art's an option for healing. It's what allows you to understand that it's OK to not be OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And right now we are keeping our eye on Massachusetts where the Lindsay Clancy trial has adjourned for the weekend. Jurors there spent 3 1/2 hours deliberating yesterday. They've spent all day today.

Lindsay Clancy, and this is stipulated, this is admitted, that she murdered her three children, Cora, Dawson, and Callan, in 2023, but this is a case that has garnered a lot of attention because as the prosecution is alleging that she knew right from wrong when she did it. The defense for Lindsay Clancy has been that she is not criminally responsible for this, that she had postpartum psychosis. It's attracted so much outside attention from so many people.

SANCHEZ: No doubt, and there was compelling testimony on both the defense and the prosecution side from expert witnesses. The jury has a lot on their hands to figure out.

[16:00:00]

We learned that earlier in the day they asked to see specific evidence about pills that Clancy was consuming as well as the knife that she used to attempt to take her own life. We'll, of course, keep you posted with the very latest.

Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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