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Just In: CNN Denied Access To White House After Trump Threat; MS NOW Denied Access To The White House This Morning After Trump Threat To Ban The Network, CNN & Politico; Vance's Midterm Message. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired September 19, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt in Washington. We are coming on the air this Saturday morning with breaking news from here in the nation's capital. Just moments ago, President Donald Trump apparently following through with his latest threat against journalists and the free press here in the United States.

A CNN reporter denied access to the White House grounds after the president said late Friday, he was banning this network, as well as MS NOW and Politico. This morning, a reporter and photographer from MS NOW were also denied entry to the White House campus when they arrived to work. Let's get right to our senior White House reporter Betsy Klein. We are also joined by CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter.

And Betsy, we did just get a statement in from CNN, so I'm going to read that here. CNN is saying today quote, "Early today, CNN journalists were denied access to the White House grounds. CNN's mission to report on the U.S. government will continue regardless of any attempts to restrict physical access to the White House and other government buildings, or any other attempts to impede our journalism.

We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do our reporting without hindrance or interference from the government, and this ban is an illegal assault on this fundamental right. We will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account, and we will continue to report on the actions and processes of this administration without fear or favor. CNN stands fully behind our White House team."

So, Betsy, of course, it was you who went to the White House today, as you do when you have any shift, when you are working as a journalist covering the White House, you of course have the press credentials that allow you that access. We refer to them as hard passes here. Tell us what happened this morning.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Kasie, just to give you a little bit of context, I have covered the White House for CNN in some capacities since the Obama administration in 2015, first as a producer and now as a reporter. And every day that I come here to do my job at the White House, I arrive here at this intersection, 17th Street Northwest in Pennsylvania Avenue. I go through a checkpoint right behind me with Secret Service. I show

them my hard pass, and then I walk past the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and into the Northwest Gate. There, I put my stuff through essentially what looks like airport security conveyor belt, and then I tap my badge onto a card reader. I type in a four-digit PIN. I did all of that today.

The only difference is that there was a group of cameras waiting outside that gate to watch me walk in, and also there was a military band practicing ahead of a China state visit expected later this week, playing "Battle Hymn of the Republic," rehearsing from the White House North grounds. So, I walk in, I tap my badge, and it beeps a couple of different times. It turns red, blue, and green, and it didn't accept my PIN number.

The Secret Service agent in the guard house, with whom I have been friendly in the past, asked to see my badge, and I handed it over to him. He told me that it had been deactivated. I asked him if he could provide an explanation as to why it had been deactivated. He said he had no further information. I asked him once more if he had any more details he could share with me, and he said that I should be referred to the White House press office to the wranglers for more information.

I asked if I could have the badge back. He said he would be keeping it. He did, however, hand me back this clear case with a lanyard that it came in. I also collected my things and then returned out the gate that I had come through. But we had heard President Trump earlier this week say that he was going to ban CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from White House grounds. The president clearly following up on that promise.

But one thing that I had reported was that sources at the White House were unaware that this was happening. They were not given a heads-up ahead of the president's post, and that included people in the White House press shop. So, it took some time for the logistics of how exactly this would be enforced, how it would work, to actually get through. And that is why this morning we were no longer able to access White House grounds.

There are a number of outstanding questions, including the White House pool rotation. The networks have a five-network rotation. They go through in these small group settings and traveling with the president, asking him questions in the Oval Office, places like that.

[10:05:00]

There's a lot of questions about what happens with that because CNN is part of that rotation. Additionally, questions about what happens when the president travels. He's expected to pick up his travel schedule in the coming weeks. He's going to the United Nations next week. He's also expected to do a lot of midterm travel.

So how that will be impacted for CNN and these other outlets remains to be seen. Now we are still seeking clarity on those questions from the White House, but many First Amendment experts, lawyers, and legal experts that we've heard from on CNN have said that a ban is likely unconstitutional.

The president was asked about that point in previous cases. He said it's good to point it out, in his words, bias by the media, whether it survives or doesn't. He went on to say that it depends on the judge. But Kasie, obviously, we are going to continue to do our job, whether it's inside the White House grounds, or right here at this intersection, we can do our job anywhere.

HUNT: Betsy, I just want to talk a little bit more about some of the things that you underscored here, and some of the differences between what we've seen from this second Trump Administration and what we've seen from White House's past.

For any of our viewers who hear the word 'press pool' and don't quite understand what that means, it is a small group of reporters that always travels with the president of the United States, and this is long-standing tradition to have people with the leader of the free world.

So that in the event that something happens that impacts all Americans, there are objective eyes and ears near the president with the president, for him to be able to speak to the American people, and of course for the journalists to be able to put that in context and report it in a straightforward, neutral way.

The rotation that you referred to is, of course, the five news networks. And CNN actually was pool with the Vice President J. D. Vance just yesterday in Iowa. This is a system that has been running for quite some time. And Betsy, one thing I was hoping you could speak to is historically this has been managed by the press itself. Of course, the press works with different administrations as they come in.

All of them have, you know, some particular quirks, maybe small differences, but ultimately, it's been a relatively self-governing system run by the White House Correspondents' Association, and some of the changes we've seen to the White House press corps under this second Trump Administration actually began there. Can you walk through kind of what has happened in terms of how this administration has taken more control over what reporters are in that room and why as we now grapple with this major change, with CNN being denied access?

KLEIN: Well, this was something that we had anticipated could happen very early in the president's second term. Just as we saw him take action against the Associated Press to cut them out of the press pool, they started to reorganize who they let inside that press pool. Very typically, it was always a wire, it was a television network, it was a print -- multiple print outlets, still photographers, and they have sort of reorganized that pool rotation to suit some of their needs.

So now there is, in addition to the television networks ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox. There is also a new media television rotation that has other networks in it. Some of them more favorable toward this administration. Some of them less so. But that is one way in which it's changed. Of course, the litigation with the Associated Press continues to play out. The Associated Press wire photographer remains a frequent part of the

pool, but the print is in that pool less frequently. But to your point, historically, the pool was actually set up as a result of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan at the Washington Hilton back in the 1980s, and it was set up so that there, to your point, is always someone with the president recording that first draft of history, and we saw that so critically on September 11th, 25 years ago.

We saw that you know there was even a pool with the candidate -- then candidate Trump, in Butler, so that the president always has someone with him recording that first draft.

HUNT: Yeah, when I was a -- when I was a wire reporter, I always used to travel in wire one, and that that shift that the -- the president and his administration made with the -- with the AP is a significant one from that perspective. Brian Stelter, I want to go to you to talk a little bit about the big picture implications of this. You and I obviously were talking on the air yesterday as well about this, and now, of course, the president and his administration have followed through.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: This is a direct threat to press freedom in the United States, and it is a blatantly undemocratic action by the Trump Administration. And it's so much bigger than CNN. Yes, our network happens to be involved, but we would be saying the exact same things this morning if it were The New York Times, or NPR, or ABC, or CBS, that were being banned by the White House.

[10:10:00]

So yes, this happens to involve CNN. But I'm trying to zoom out here and recognize this is a free-speech test in America. Trump came out in his second term and said he was going to be the most transparent president with the most transparent administration defending free- speech rights, but many of his actions since have contradicted and undermined that promise.

And this is actually the most dramatic yet because he did get into a skirmish with the Associated Press. He did try to ban the AP from the Oval Office and from Air Force One last year. That set off a legal fight. It was resolved to some degree, although it still is a legal battle going on about the AP, and now he's taking a much more severe step by banning three news outlets all at once.

And yesterday, Kasie, when he announced this on Truth Social, there was no immediate follow-up or action. As Betsy said, some White House staffers were caught off guard by Trump's declaration. So, we wondered this morning, was there going to be any follow-through? And now we have seen that there is. MS NOW had a reporter and a photographer turned down when they went to work this morning at the White House.

Oddly, the MS NOW producer was allowed onto the grounds, even though the reporter and photographer weren't. That must have been some sort of mistake on the part of the White House or the Secret Service. But MS NOW has been rejected. CNN, the press pass there has been seized. We don't know yet if Politico has also tried to arrive at the White House grounds this morning. I expect an update about that later this hour.

But access to the White House campus, yes, is practically very important. It's important to be able to talk with sources in person and ask the president questions. But it's also a symbol of something much bigger, and that's what I hope viewers appreciate about this moment. Access to the White House is a symbol of the president's transparency, of the government acting in a democratic way, and of First Amendment rights being upheld.

So, when we talk about the First Amendment today, it's about that symbol, and I can tell you, Kasie, there's going to be more on this in the coming hours, but both CNN and MS NOW are both signaling that there will be legal action as a result of these press passes being seized today.

HUNT: Yes, of course, and of course, it's also worth underscoring here that press access to the White House, fundamental part of our democracy. There is a significant difference between saying no press or no one could come onto the campus and saying that people that write certain things cannot come on. That is discrimination in a way that is noteworthy. I'm sure we're going to see that play out in the courts. All right, Betsy Klein, thank you very much for your time. And Brian Stelter is going to stay with us, but my panel is here to discuss further.

CNN Media Analyst, Media Correspondent for Axios Sara Fischer; White House Correspondent for Bloomberg News, Jeff Mason; CNN Political Analyst and Historian Leah Wright Rigueur, and we are also joined by former Federal Prosecutor Berit Berger. Thank you all very much for being here. And you know, Berit, let me actually start with you, just because we Brian was touching on the potential legal implications of this. Can you talk about what the First Amendment says and how it applies in this case?

BERIT BERGER, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yeah. So, it's very well settled that the First Amendment prevents the government from punishing or somehow treating journalists differently because of their editorial choices. So federal courts have repeatedly found that once the government opens up a certain space, so this could be a press area, press pool, something inside the White House, that now has become a public forum, and so they can't restrict that area based on somebody's viewpoint.

So, they have found that simply not liking what a news outlet says does not give the president authority to restrict them from public spaces. So, it will almost certainly be found to be unconstitutional. There is this ongoing litigation with the AP case, but I think here, where you have very widespread access that's being denied, this will very surely fall into this public forum space, and this is very clearly viewpoint discrimination.

HUNT: All right so, with that ground work laid, Jeff Mason, you have been a part of the White House press corps for decades.

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG: Yep.

HUNT: And I remember you actually helped me. I think make my first wire call on Air Force One.

MASON: I'm glad.

HUNT: I may -- I may be misremembering that, but this is something that if you are a working journalist in Washington has a set of traditions, a set of norms that has been longstanding.

MASON: Yeah.

HUNT: And what we are seeing happen here, I think it's -- it's worth underscoring that the reason why that all has existed, it's not for the sake of the organizations, right? It's for the sake of the audiences, for the people in the country who need direct information, who deserve direct information from government officials that they have elected, right? This is -- this is a democracy, and that's the role that we're supposed to play.

[10:15:00]

Can you talk a little bit about what this has been like over the course of your career, and what this means, this action means, what it would be like for you to go to the White House, beep your badge, and have it taken away?

MASON: Sure. Well, we'll start with the question that you posed to Betsy, which is what control or what role did the Correspondents' Association initially have over the formation of the pool? And that's I'm answering my question by asking it that way. The Correspondents' Association, which is the group that represents reporters and news organizations at the White House for decades, has had influence over or really control over the setting of the pool.

HUNT: And you were the President of the Correspondents' Association.

MASON: I was in 2016 and 2017, which overlapped with the first six months of President Trump's first year in office during his first term. And what he's doing now started then. The president has had a beef with news organizations for years. He's used the term "fake news" for years, but implementing that view of -- of the press is what he's been doing as president, and this is an escalation of that.

It is also a continuation of a pattern that has escalated within this administration since day one of his second term, and so I would -- we would be remiss not to mention the Pentagon, where our Pentagon reporter colleagues from the mainstream media, anyway, were essentially kicked out of the Pentagon for not signing an agreement saying that they would be willing to curtail their reporting.

Just in the last couple weeks, the Treasury Department did not give credentials to a number of news organizations, including Bloomberg News, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, for a meeting of finance ministers.

HUNT: So, all of our top financial papers were denied essentially access to this?

MASON: Correct. So, this is -- this is -- this is a continuum, and what the president did yesterday is -- is the next step in that, and there may be more, which he forecasts as well.

HUNT: Yeah. So, when we think about the significance of having reporters at the White House on behalf of the American people. It's worth noting that it's not just about what the president is doing. There are other crises, other things that can happen, and there's a moment that I want to play for you.

And of course, we were remembering this just -- just recently, the 25th anniversary of September 11th, and at the time, of course, the president was traveling. He had reporters with him, I believe it was Ann Compton of ABC News, who was the pool reporter traveling on behalf of television networks with the president that day.

We here at CNN had a reporter on the White House grounds, and it was, of course, you'll know him well, John King, who then, of course, was evacuated from the White House grounds, but was there to see that happen to help people understand what was going on amid, of course, what was so much fear that day. Let's watch a little bit of John King's report from that time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDY WOODRUFF, PBS ANCHOR: Now to our own Senior White House correspondent John King, who's just about a block and a half from the White House, on top of an office building up above the 10th floor, there. John?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Judy, a few quick bits of information. As we have been reporting, the president is on his way back to Washington, and we now -- can now say definitively that when he arrives in Washington, he will address the American people tonight.

I am told by sources; plans are for an address from the White House. We see now on the grounds of the White House, which was evacuated hours ago, some bomb-sniffing dogs and other security personnel securing the area around the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Leah Wright Rigueur, I mean, from a historical perspective, I mean, it's -- it's these moments, and you never know when they're going to happen. Most of the time, as Betsy noted, right? It's run of the mill. You go, you show up to work, you cover the few things that happen, you go home at the end of the day. But the point is that in moments of crisis, Americans need information to allow them to make decisions in their daily lives.

LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: We Americans not only need information, but history needs the documentation of that information. We need to know what's happening. So, it's not just September 11th, of which we have an enormous amount of information that comes directly from reporters who are on the ground, not just not just in Washington D.C. but on -- on the president's beat, right? So, they're with the president.

We also have the inauguration of the new Director of the FBI. Press are covering that, and so they are able to see that reaction. We also see that there are reporters in New York who are covering September 11th live and as it happens. I'd give you another example, which is January 6th, right?

So, this rally, and you have press that are there that are covering it, and who are watching this kind of explosion of activity in real time, including press --

HUNT: I was there.

W: Right? So, who are sitting with -- including press who are with President Trump at the time, so -- and President -- and press who are on the Capitol, but historically we need that information. This is the job that the press does, which is to serve as kind of the fourth estate, to serve as the eyes and ears of the people, and to get those stories and to get that information and then to analyze it.

[10:20:00]

And so, to cut that off, one, the Supreme Court has said the American public has a right to that information, and so therefore the press has a protected space. Even the president of the United States cannot overstep that boundary. But the other part of this too is that without that, the American people don't have the kind of access to that information.

And so, for an administration that calls itself the most transparent administration of all time, of history, this is actually a step in the absolute opposite direction. This is the antithesis of transparency.

HUNT: Yeah. All right. Well, for our viewers who are just joining us now, we do want to recap what has just happened this morning. A CNN reporter was denied access to the White House after President Trump said Friday that he was banning this network, as well as MS NOW and Politico. We do have a CNN statement, and we want to read it again in full. "Early today, CNN journalists were denied access to the White House grounds. CNN's mission to report on the U.S. government will continue regardless of any attempts to restrict physical access to the White House and other government buildings, or any other attempts to impede our journalism.

We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do our reporting without hindrance or interference from the government, and this ban is an illegal assault on this fundamental right. We will not be deflected from our duty to hold the government and other public bodies to account, and we will continue to report on the actions and processes of this administration without fear or favor. CNN stands fully behind our White House team."

All right, Berit Berger, Brian Stelter, I want to say thank you to you. The rest of my panel is going to stand by here. Coming up next, Presidential Historian Tim Naftali will be here with us live on the president's latest attack on the First Amendment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD NIXON, 37TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: President Eisenhower, in his farewell address, wrote about and warned against the power of the military-industrial complex. I didn't get a chance to make a farewell address. I think I would warn against the media elitist complex. You know, the media is always talking about the imperial presidency, the power of the imperial presidency. I think we ought to hear a little bit of discussion of the imperial media and its power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: As President Trump blocks CNN and other outlets from the White House, it's worth remembering he's far from the only American president who has had an adversarial relationship with the press. Richard Nixon, of course, as you just heard, is chief among them. I want to read what The New Yorker wrote in 1973. So, this is at the height of the Watergate scandal, when Nixon sought to vilify the press as his presidency came crumbling down. Here's what they wrote.

"Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln were portrayed by contemporary newspapers as backwoods yokels, clever schemers, and evil tyrants. Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson suffered widespread attacks, both on their policies and on their characters. Franklin Roosevelt was subjected to an unparalleled 10-year campaign of abuse and vilification. Harry Truman was held up to ridicule and contempt by the press.

John Kennedy felt he was dealt with unfairly by the press. And Lyndon Johnson believed that the entire press was so nostalgic for Kennedy and so dominated by snobbish Easterners that it was incapable of appreciating his own accomplishments.

All these presidents resented the attacks on them, despised the press for willfully distorting the truth as they saw it. Still, they knew that nothing could be done to prescribe bounds to the press, because its freedom was guaranteed by the Constitution."

Joining me now is CNN Presidential Historian Tim Nafatali. He is the former Director of the Nixon Presidential Library. Tim, thank you so much for being here, and of course, this is a historic moment in many ways. President Trump banning CNN, MS NOW reporters, potentially other outlets from the White House grounds.

And as we just read through, President Trump is not the first president to be unhappy with how he was covered, but this seems to be the first action of this kind. What does it mean?

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, Kasie, as you explained, President Trump is not the first president to be unhappy with the way in which his administration is being covered, nor is President Trump the first president to -- to act in in in a destructive way against the press. The press has been wiretapped by presidents. President Nixon, President Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and President Kennedy, all wiretapped members of the press at a certain point in their administrations.

[10:30:00]

But what's different this time, and this is why we should underscore the significance of President Trump's most recent action. The president of the United States is -- is declaring that he has the right to ban, to dictate, and ban media outlets that he doesn't agree with. That's a power that no previous president has sought to exercise because no previous president thought that they had that power.

Again, let's be clear. Donald Trump is not the first president to view the press as adversarial, nor is he the first president to engage in actions that Americans wouldn't be proud of with regard to the press, but he is the first president to seek to ban elements of the press from being able to do their job. That's a big difference, and that is why this is a moment where we need to reflect on the extent to which we can have a nonpartisan commitment to the First Amendment.

HUNT: This, of course, is so long standing. We're talking about the origins of the press pool at the White House. It goes back many decades, and we don't have any video of President Teddy Roosevelt for obvious reasons, but he had some remarkable things to say about the importance of the press. I want to play for you.

This is former Senator Jeff Flake reading us some Teddy Roosevelt, because Teddy Roosevelt, of course, not on camera to have read it to us himself. But I think the words are relevant and important for the conversation that we're having today. Let's watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER SENATOR JEFF FLAKE (R-AZ): A president, a Republican president named Roosevelt, had this to say about the president and a citizen's relationship to the office. "The president is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole."

He continued, "Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that there should be, or that that there should be a full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile." President Roosevelt continued, "to announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by a president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: Tim, that that last line from Teddy Roosevelt: to announce there

must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by a president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

NAFTALI: I wish that President Trump would reflect on the fact that the concept of guardrails is not something he should take personally. Our entire system depends on a set of guardrails. We call it the separation of powers. The fact that we have three co-equal branches, they're guardrails on each other. The press is another guardrail.

In the second term, President Trump has sought to eliminate every guardrail around him, and of course that is not the American way, and of course he is the first president to attempt to do so, and of course this represents a threat to the very constitutional system we all love and are loyal to.

HUNT: I also want to show you, Tim, there -- the president has actually been very -- this president has been very forthcoming about why he wants to do this, and he doesn't always say it. You know, he's often asked, and -- and he -- he has said specifically in -- in the -- in the case of this particular ban, he said yesterday at his press conference, there was no specific incident. It was a collection of things he said.

But he explained in a big picture way during an interview with Lesley Stahl some years ago as to why it is that he undertakes these attacks on the press. I want to watch this moment. His explanation, and we'll talk about it. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The media is fake, and frankly, if I didn't have social media, I'd have no way of getting out my voice.

LESLEY STAHL, CBS NEWS HOST: Do you know what you told me a long time ago when I asked why you keep saying fake media?

TRUMP: Yeah.

STAHL: You said to me. I say that because I need to discredit you, so that when you say negative things about me, no one will believe.

TRUMP: I don't have to discredit you.

[10:35:00]

STAHL: But that's what you told me.

TRUMP: You discredited yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Tim. I mean, that speaks volumes about the president's thinking. NAFTALI: It does, and -- and by the way, listen to the president,

because the president reveals almost everything about how -- about how he understands the freedom -- freedom of speech.

He has revealed a lot in his comments recently. He's made it clear that he believes he alone, he alone, not the Republican Party, not the executive branch writ large, but he alone can determine what's truthful, and that the American people shouldn't hear what isn't truthful. That is beyond narcissistic. That is a dangerous approach to the presidency.

HUNT: Tim, can you walk through -- and I know we touched on some of this when you and I spoke yesterday. But even Richard Nixon, you know, on whom you are an expert, and we played some of what he had to say about this at the top, didn't go this far. Why, and how did that impact history at that time?

NAFTALI: Well, look, Richard Nixon is -- is -- is his own tragic and troubled story. But one thing about Richard Nixon was that Richard Nixon believed in the institutions, the constitutional institutions of this country. He had pled before the Supreme Court as a lawyer.

When push came to shove in the summer of 1974, and the Supreme Court said, Mr. President, you're going to have to reveal, turn over the tapes as part of our legal system, the president thought about it. He wasn't happy at all, and he knew this meant the end of his presidency. But in the end, what did he do?

He -- he gave the tapes as -- as request as demanded by the Supreme Court. So, Richard Nixon understood there were actual red lines. One of the reasons why he was so secretive was that he knew he was acting wrong. He -- he had a sense of shame. He -- he knew his enemy's list was -- was wrong. He knew you shouldn't use the IRS against journalists or anyone else. He knew that was wrong. He tried to do it secretly. He tried to go around.

This is -- we have a president now who doesn't seem to know right from wrong when it comes to our Constitution. He doesn't seem to care about -- I shouldn't say that. I don't know what he cares about or doesn't, but he speaks as if he doesn't believe in the basic concepts that Richard Nixon understood were the American constitutional way.

Sometimes he went around them, but he understood that in the end --

HUNT: Didn't always abide by it.

NAFTALI: -- he, as a president, would be judged by that.

HUNT: Fair enough. All right, Tim Naftali, always grateful to have you, sir. Thank you very much for your perspective. I appreciate it.

All right, coming up next here, Vice President J. D. Vance taking his midterm message to Iowa. We're going to dig into his newest way of asking voters to give Republicans another shot at keeping control of Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J. D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I always tell you, ladies and gentlemen, whenever you hear me talk during this midterm campaign, I'll say Rome was not built in a day, because we know there's a lot of work to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right, welcome back. Gas prices climbing higher this morning to $4.48 a gallon on average. That is up about 40 cents from just a month ago, and about $1.50 since the war with Iran began. The diesel story is even worse. $6.49 a gallon today. That is yet again its highest price ever. If the trend continues, diesel is soon going to cost $3 more than it did before the war.

Numbers like this may be the biggest issue facing Republican candidates in November. Vice President J. D. Vance was in Iowa on Friday, but he didn't mention oil or gas prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: It was under Joe Biden's leadership that, for the first time, the United States became a net importer of our own food. I always tell you, ladies and gentlemen, whenever you hear me talk during this midterm campaign, I'll say Rome was not built in a day, because we know there's a lot of work to do.

But just two years in, not even two years in, President Trump has cut that deficit by 42 percent, and it's falling even faster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The Vice President there talking about trade deficits once again, blaming Joe Biden, and saying that he and President Trump just need more time. The question now: whether voters will do advance requested earlier this week and give Republicans "another chance." Here's how Republican Senator John Kennedy put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): The issue is cost of living, and we're locked. because the Democrats don't have a plan either, and both sides right now -- here's the strategy for both sides. The other guy's worse than me, and -- and that's it's tough to win an election like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The Democrats don't have a plan either. Of course, Senator Kennedy is, he can speak a little bit more freely because he's not up for re-election, but many of his colleagues are, including Kansas Senator Roger Marshall, who said this about gas prices on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROGER MARSHALL (R-KS): Overall, wages have been growing faster than inflation under this president. Here it is, it's going to be tax- day very soon, and I bet Americans are going to get an extra $1000 or $1,500 rebate as well. So, I'm sorry that gas prices are going up, but help is on his way. And your national security, yes, is even more important than your pocketbook.

[10:45:00]

HUNT: All right, my panel is back, Sara Fischer. I mean, as we look at kind of the midterm landscape here, with prices going up the way they are, it's worth noting that, according to CNN analysis this week, that just 1 percent less than 1 percent of ad spending by Republicans is for ads that mention President Trump.

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Yes.

HUNT: Like that is how little they want to talk about him.

FISCHER: Let me tell you why that's fascinating. In March, I pulled an analysis of all midterm advertising on the Democratic side and on the Republican side, and Donald Trump dominated on the Republican side, a lot on the Democratic side too. But their biggest issue was affordability. The reason you often see that in primaries is because you want to make sure if you are intra-party that you are cozying up to the main you know executive.

In this case, it's Trump, currying his favor and trying to win out in the primary. In the general, we've always seen that people shift away from whoever that main executive is, but never ever to this extent. The -- the flipping that we've seen from messaging around Donald Trump on the Republican side to where it is now in the general, we've -- I've never seen anything like it. And I cover midterm advertising every single year for the past like six cycles.

I think it just speaks to how skittish Republicans are about affiliating with him when the gas prices are still so high, when inflation is still there, and when there's overall sense of dissatisfaction around domestic issues here in the U.S.

HUNT: Yeah, and I mean Jeff Mason, that -- what J.D. Vance said this week, I feel like we're going to be hearing again and again between now and the midterm. You know, he's like, give us another chance. It's like I think it was Charlemagne tha God who said, "This is the chance. OK, this is the chance you have right now."

MASON: It's a hard sell. I mean, when your -- when your entire campaign in 2024 was based on, we're going to bring prices down, not start new wars, and now two -- two-ish years into the second term of the president, those promises are not ones that he's been able to keep, and largely because of policies that he has put in place. I also hear in J.D. Vance's request for more time, potentially a request for and give me a shot in 28. HUNT: I would really like some extra time.

MASON: Extra, extra time.

HUNT: Maybe four years, maybe eight years.

MASON: And you saw that as well at the Republican midterm convention when he -- I think quite interestingly referenced slain Charlie Kirk and said one thing that Charlie Kirk would say or did say is we disagree on things but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater on Iran and so the -- the vice president there and perhaps here was also maybe beginning to create a little bit of distance between himself and the president.

HUNT: Yeah, Leah, let's watch a little bit of what James Carville had to say because he points out rightly that while -- well, his words, let's watch. We'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: The way I would frame it is the Democrats have the momentum, but remember the Republicans have the money by more than a little bit, and the Democrats are going to get outspent easily $150 million - $200 million. Now, we can debate how much that counts, and I'm not exactly sure, but it counts for something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, it potentially does count for something. I mean, this is going to be one of the most expensive midterm races probably ever.

WRIGHT RIGUEUR: Absolutely, but you know what? The 2024 election was one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, races ever between the two candidates. With the Democratic candidate spending billions of dollars more than any candidate had spent in history before, and she still lost. And I think this is actually a lesson for this moment.

Money matters absolutely. The kind of war chest that the Trump Administration or the Trump Super PAC MAGA Inc has just unlocked is incredible. It is an -- like insane amount of money. I think it's $400 million, $400 million or something like that, and it's going to give Republicans across the country a real push as we head into the last couple weeks before the midterm elections, but is that enough to overcome the mood of the country, the anger of the country?

I mean, we have been talking about inflation, affordability, rent, mortgages, all of these things. And one of the things that I've found fascinating is in the last week alone, all of these polls have come out that have shown on issues that were Republican strengths. Donald Trump on the economy, Donald Trump on immigration, Donald Trump on gas prices.

Right, all of these things, Democrats now lead by a healthy margin in these areas, meaning Americans trust Democrats more than they trust Republicans on issues that used to be central to the Republican platform, you can't discount that.

FISCHER: A.I. and data centers is another one. Republicans were all in on that issue. Now you're seeing it become a bipartisan concern, and especially ahead of the midterms, I think that you're going to see Democrats start to take charge of that momentum and make sure that that becomes their issue, not the Republicans.

HUNT: Well, and Sara, I mean. Another, you know, sort of piece of this too is that even though there may be the momentum, there may be a wave building, there are structural differences about this midterm, right?

[10:50:00]

There are more gerrymandered seats. The redistricting really made it so it's possible that the number of seats, if Democrats do in fact take back the House, that number may seem lower than what the fundamentals actually are telling us.

FISCHER: That's correct. And another massive shift that I've seen is that all the -- you mentioned the money doesn't matter as much. One of the reasons is that all of the things that we know about messaging have been in an era for the past 30 years around an internet that had nothing to do with A.I.

Now everyone's getting their information differently. Advertising's less effective, and so I think these campaigns are being caught off guard. And for what you're saying, it definitely impacts how we are predicting to what margin the Democrats can take over.

HUNT: For sure. All right, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right, recapping the hour's top story for those of you just joining us. Journalists from CNN and MS NOW have been denied entry to the White House this morning after a threat by the president to ban the news organizations. The president also vowing to ban Politico.

We're going to have new reporting on this at the top of the hour. Stay with us right here on CNN. We'll be right back.