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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Holds Convention As Iran War Intensifies, Oil Prices Soar; New Filing: Election Officials Push Back On Trump's Mail-In Voting Plan; CNN On Front Lines Of War That Could Drive Oil Prices Even Higher. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired September 09, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:22]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Party like it's not 2026. Trump holding an unprecedented midterm convention tonight, on the same day oil prices surge and the Iran war deepens.
Plus, the head of the U.S. Postal Service Union with more than 200,000 members speaks out right here. Why he says Trump's plan for mail-in ballots is going to wreak havoc.
And an exclusive from the front lines as two major forces are on the brink of a much wider war in the Middle East tonight.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, the Trump Show. President Trump throwing himself a big party in Dallas tonight. A celebration to tout with the RNC calls Trump's historic results for the American people.
Now, this is a two-day midterm convention. My emphasis on that word is to just make it clear that this defies the norms. Conventions are usually in presidential years. That's the whole deal. But not this time.
This one is breaking the norms because it's all about Trump. It features a who's who of his loyalists. RFK Jr.'s there. His former Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is there. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche also defying norms by speaking at a political convention. He's going to be speaking there. And Trump's Senate candidate in Texas, Ken Paxton.
And there's more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN PAXTON (R), U.S. SENATE NOMINEE IN TEXAS: The press, the courts, and the establishment all tried to take President Trump down but he's won every single time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And Trump himself isn't just speaking tonight. He has cleared his schedule so that he can speak tomorrow night as well.
But all of this comes on the same day, that oil went back $101. I mean, that is the highest closing since May because of the Iran War. Diesel set an all-time new record, $5.94 a gallon.
This is a reality in both cases caused by Trump's chosen war in Iran, which now he says will end after Election Day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the war will end immediately after the election because they can't hold out any longer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, since the weekend the war started nearly seven months ago, Trump has been saying this war was going to end in weeks. And according to the latest NBC poll, 31 percent of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the war in Iran, 31 percent. I mean, that's actually even marginally worse than Trump's own approval ratings.
And it's not the only example where Trump is defying voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Canada has been ripping off the United States for many, many years, for decades, many decades.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, a CNN poll just released tonight actually found that two-thirds of voters in Maine and Michigan are against the tariffs. Why did I pick those states? It's not just the Canadian trade is important to them. It's that they are must-win Senate seats.
Republicans have to win both of those races. And Trump's trade war is hurting them in a major way. And then there are the places Trump spends so much of his time, right? The vanity project projects in Washington that voters did not ask for.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The ballroom is all. It's going to be a tremendous, tremendous thing.
We have other fountains, beautiful fountains. Most of them are now open.
We are building a great heliport.
We got rid of the asphalt here and this is granite.
I'm fixing up the Trump Kennedy Center.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, a recent CNN poll found that 58 percent of Americans are dissatisfied or angry about Trump's pet projects.
So, it all comes down to the fact that the number one issue for most Americans is not fighting a war in the Middle East, and it is not a trade war with a variety of countries right now, including Canada. It is not a ballroom. It is the economy.
Trump, though, has made it clear how important he sees that issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So, we have the greatest economy in our history.
Affordability, affordability, they go. That's a fake word that they use.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It may come as no surprise then that more than 100 Republicans, according to Axios, are not showing up for Trump's party in Dallas, and especially ones in competitive races. One Republican who did not want to be named told "Politico" that the whole event is a, quote, "waste of time".
So, Trump was confronted with that point today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, several Republicans in competitive races are not coming to the convention. Do you understand why they're deciding not to come?
TRUMP: Everybody that's -- everybody is coming to the convention. Everybody wants to come, but we only want, and the people that are coming, by the way, we're going to be sold out tonight, just so you understand.
Who are you with?
REPORTER: ABC News, sir.
TRUMP: ABC Fake News, one of the worst.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And, kind of let that trail off because where it goes at this point.
Alayna Treene is OUTFRONT live in Dallas at the site of Trump's convention. So, Alayna, what are you seeing and hearing where you are?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, Erin, this is very much reminiscent of all of the different events I went to on the campaign trail for the president in 2024.
If you look back here, you have what they call the front row Joes, the same people who show up at every single Trump event. Over here is where the president is going to be sitting later tonight watching some of these. But it's not just who we're seeing in the crowd, Erin. It's also the themes that are very reminiscent of what we've heard then as well, culture war issues, going after candidates for what they're arguing are supporting men in women's sports and also the same themes as well on who are the kind of the Democratic boogeyman.
You've seen images here of them criticizing their Democratic foils and showing people like the former President Joe Biden, the former Vice President Kamala Harris, her running mate Tim Waltz, not really actually the Democratic challengers will be facing. Many of these Republicans will be facing, I should say, in November, more of the progressives like Abdul El-Sayed or AOC, for example.
But look, a lot of what I've been told from the president's own members of his own political operation is that this is supposed to really be a Trump-a-palooza. It's supposed to be about raising the president's own approval ratings at a time when they are very low and his team recognizes that they believe that really the singular focus for this convention is, of course, they want to boost Republican candidates, but it's more about boosting his own popularity because they believe they need to turn out the fiercest members of the president's base in order succeed in the November midterm elections.
But, look, I also today, while I was in Texas, Erin, spent some time with one of the candidates who's actually putting fear in a lot of the eyes of Republicans, especially here in Texas. And that's James Talarico. He's someone who's also faced a lot of these culture war issues.
You know, Republicans calling him a vegan, attacking him over his support for trans youth. Listen to what he told me about those specific attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: I think these nicknames that they're throwing at me don't do anything to lower the cost of groceries. These nicknames don't lower the cost of gas or healthcare or childcare. I think Texans and Americans are really fed up with this professional wrestling of politics, right? These old men lathered up in their fake tans, throwing these corny nicknames at each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: So, look, Erin, James Talarico, trying to argue, you know, he's not going to rise, he's not going to, you know. take the bait from these Republicans who are throwing these names around. He wants to go above, rise to the occasion here.
But I'd argue there's a reason that this convention is in Texas, and that's partly because they recognize Texas is in play, despite it being a very red state that the president has won in years past. We just heard from the Attorney General Ken Paxton, who's running against Talarico asking directly from the podium here for money. So, I think that just gives you a sense of how Republicans are feeling just 55 days to the midterms, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Alayna, thank you very much on the floor of that midterm convention. So, you know, as she gets more, we'll go back to her.
Everyone is here with me now.
Dasha is also there in Texas at the convention.
So Dasha, just looking at the event as Alayna's describing it. Is there any concern from the White House or even from Trump himself about the convention right now? I mean, there's the fact that "Axios" is talking about, what, 100 Republicans who don't want to be there. There's also, of course, the power of the image of how this does and performs, but you've got NFL games against it both nights as well.
DASHA BURNS, POLITICO WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah, Erin, there's no concern from the president about this actual convention happening. I mean, he wanted this in part because of all of the points that Alayna made there. He is not happy that he's going head-to-head with the NFL both nights. I've heard from multiple sources that he's really frustrated about that and sees it as an unforced error.
But when you talk to folks on the floor here, people are putting on an energetic face with that. It's a little bit different. Once you peel back the curtain, Erin, as I've been talking to sources here, there are a lot of whispers of -- oh my goodness, we are in trouble come November. I had a source at a donor event last night telling me that the vibes were, quote, very, very bad. People feel like if the election were tomorrow that Republicans would not fare very well at all, that they could potentially lose both houses.
There's a lot of frustration that they have to defend in places like Texas in places like Iowa and places like Kansas. We've learned recently that MAGA, Inc. Trump's super PAC is finally going to spend that massive war chest.
Well, they're happy that the money is coming now, but a lot of the operatives I talked to wish that that money had been deployed months ago. They wish that the president, what he's going to do here tonight, that he had started doing that on the campaign trail months ago.
So, this is important for a lot of Republicans, but there's behind the scenes a whole lot of hand wringing, Erin.
BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, Paul, interesting, you know, in recent days, there had been reporting that a lot of Republicans were saying Trump wasn't going to spend that money on them and instead was going to save it for things like his own library.
[19:10:06]
I don't know whether that reporting had anything to do with the sudden unleashing of the gates of part of it or not. I mean, who knows, right? But you see a spectacle like this. What does it do? I mean, is this going to help turn out down ballot because people who love Trump decide they still love Trump? Or what's the point?
PAUL RIECKHOFF, HOST OF THE INDEPENDENT AMERICANS PODCAST: I think it's going to be a prime time flop. I think it's a miscalculation. They might raise some money off of it, but he's a TV guy and he's up against the opening night.
BURNETT: Right, I said the NFL --
RIECKHOFF: The opening night of the NFL and the U.S. Open and September baseball and watching paint dry is probably more exciting than watching this. So, unless you're like a diehard C-SPAN watcher, most folks aren't going to see this. It's not going to register.
He's trying to capture that magic again. He's trying to motivate his base, but even his base is now upset about the Iran war. They're not showing up and it's a bad sign.
But they are in Texas and they are raising money. And they can continue to deploy dark money. I think that's often underestimated.
BURNETT: Congressman, the price to go to this, if you were a House member, I guess you had to dip into your chest of money that you'd raised and fork $25,000 of it over to Trump. That would be sort of like when one arm of a company pays another arm of a company, money shifting around.
But my point is, it's expensive for delegates to go -- delegates, sorry, Congress people to go.
CHARLIE DENT (R), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: Yeah, the money's flowing the wrong way. The money is supposed to be going from the party and the party apparatus and Trump's fund to the candidates, not the other way around.
So, and again, if you're in a battleground district, why would you waste $25,000 of precious resources paying the president and the party when you need that money? And by the way, that convention is not going to do any good. for any member in a battleground district. They're smart to stay a million miles away from the place. I'm not against having a convention.
I think it's actually smart if the message is going to be to appeal to both the base and those soft independent voters. But I'm afraid the message is going to be, it's all about the president, we're going to get into the ballroom, mail-in voting, grievances, all the usual stuff, which isn't going to help. So, I don't understand why anybody would pay $25,000 to go to a convention, that's not going to help you.
BURNETT: And to give money -- again, it's the point you made the money's going the wrong way. I think it's just really important.
RIECKHOFF: Which is now what he's required, especially in the primaries recently.
BURNETT: So, Dasha, you spoke to Republican Senator Bernie Moreno today, and obviously he's been, you know, very much in the news because of his former son-in-law running for a congressional seat and that he took a stand against him. But you asked him about the fears that Trump's going to hurt Republican chances in November, right? Specifically that if he comes near some of these races, especially swing races that are up for grabs, that it's anathema.
Here's part of what he told you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE MORENO (R-OH): No, thinking like that is going to help -- hurt these candidates. I mean, that's catastrophically stupid. President Trump is the reason why Republicans won in 2024.
BURNS: But where do you think this is coming from within the Republican Party itself?
MORENO: I don't know. Dumb consultants probably would be my guess. Weak candidates, candidates that don't understand that the reality is President Trump is the leader of this party. He's the one that drives turnout.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay, so he's black and white about it, but there are others in the Republican Party who believe the exact opposite about Trump's presence in these races. I mean there's a divide in the GOP.
BURNS: Yeah, I mean, that's been prevalent even here, Erin. There are two schools of thought within the party right now. One is what you just heard from Senator Moreno, which is bear hug Trump with all that you've got. He's going to carry you over the finish line.
And there's the other school of thought which we reported in Playbook yesterday, which is operatives telling me that they're actually seeing polling that shows that the candidates that are able to distinguish themselves from the president that are able to distinguish themselves from the National Republican Party at large in general, running away from the national Republican Party, running locally, are the ones that are going to be successful.
And the ones that are running with the Trump endorsement stamp all over them are the ones that are going to be struggling because the president's unpopularity, his low approval ratings, the Iran war, the high gas prices, everything that we're seeing in the political environment right now is dragging folks down.
BURNETT: You were shaking your head, Charlie, when you were watching Senator Moreno with Dasha. DENT: I'm just astounded. Having been in one of these swing districts, I know when the Republican brand is at a bad place, you shouldn't hug it. You certainly shouldn't hug the president because the president, his image ratings are worse than the party's. In 2008, when Obama was popular, I had to win a district that Obama won by 13 points. I won by 18. I didn't do it by just simply, you know, just drinking the Kool-Aid. You have to show separation. You have to show why you're different. You have to show why you have a brand that's separate and independent from the party writ large.
So just to say to hug Trump, that's what guys say who --
BURNETT: It's also fascinating, by the way, Senator Moreno who took a stand against Max Miller, right, running for that seat when the White House is backed Miller. You know, there's a lot of layers just to that personal situation there as well.
[19:15:03]
But Paul, is it possible that Trump, I mean, he has -- when he wanted to topple Thomas Massie, he toppled Thomas Massie, right?
There are so many examples in this primary. A primary is a primary, right? It's a race of the faithful. But he has been victorious in many of those, not on the governor's side, but certainly when it comes to Congress.
RIECKHOFF: Yeah, he has a history of delivering turnout and he's been effective there and he can do that in Texas where Republican turnout will be key, where the Democratic brand has real problems in a state like Texas. And on the left, the socialists and the DSA have been proving they can drive turnout for the left and the progressive wing.
Here's the challenge, they're fighting over independents. And Trump's got less than a 20 percent approval rating among independents. That's the battleground. That's what he's fighting for.
And a place like Maine, a place like Michigan, his brand is not going to help. It's pushing away from him and pushing away from everything, which is where we're really seeing moderate candidates against the Democrats, against Trump, against Republicans, against all of it, that's been a winning message in moderate districts.
BURNETT: All right, thank you very much. I appreciate both of you.
And Dasha down in Texas, thank you.
And next, the emergency evacuation slide suddenly deploys on Trump's Qatari gifted Air Force One jet today. Trump then said something about it being a test. But it may not surprise you to learn that our reporting shows that is not the case.
Plus, new analysis tonight about the crucial Senate race in Texas from a top election forecaster, what they're learning about Hispanic voters and who they're backing. And New York City firefighters outraged after a new report finds the
air around Ground Zero was not safe, despite the fact that they were told it was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM BROSI, PRESIDENT, UNIFORMED FIRE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION: It is appalling that they did this to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:02]
BURNETT: Breaking news, President Trump delayed going to Dallas aboard the Qatari-gifted Air Force One. The reason, a military aide working on the plane accidentally deployed an emergency slide, sources are telling CNN, that this calls into question the unprompted explanation from Trump about the emergency slide, who immediately implied that it was all part of a plan, it was a test.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They were doing a check on the slide, you know, the emergency. So I think it takes about 15 minutes. They want to make sure everything works perfectly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. The Trump administration revoked his security clearance last month for comments the secretary made about Trump's Qatari gifted Air Force One, regarding the security and communications capabilities. that he believed may be missing since the plane was rushed into operation right within one year, instead of what it ordinarily would have taken for a new Air Force One, at least five.
So, Secretary, let me just ask you, because the slide, obviously, initially, Trump's initial thing was, you know, basically it's all part of plan. It was a test. But our reporting is that it was apparently deployed by mistake.
What's your response? Are you surprised to hear that, that it was deployed by mistake? I mean, you've got the, you know, creme de la creme training here for these crews.
FRANK KENDALL, FORMER SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE: It's true, but the alternative explanations aren't very likely either. You know, these are not designed to deploy accidentally. It would be catastrophic if it happened in flight.
So, they're designed, and it's a commercial design, so there's no reason for it to do this on its own as a mechanical failure, for example. The most likely thing by far is that somebody triggered it by mistake and how that happened, there'll be an investigation and training should have prevented that, but apparently in this case it did not.
BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, as you point out, and I think it's just obviously, it's a basic thing, I know, but you're saying that's catastrophic if it just happens in air. So, for something like that to happen by mistake is obviously very significant.
I want to ask you, Secretary, about Iran, because President Trump is promising more attacks on Iranian oil tankers.
Obviously, the U.S. military say they destroyed 10 of them in the Gulf in just the past week. Iran has been firing missiles at U.S. naval ships for the first time, and obviously, mass attacks on U.S. bases throughout the region, specifically in Jordan.
But something specific stood out to you about the sophistication of the attack by Iran on the U.S. naval ships. What was it?
KENDALL: The nature of the missile they used. The reporting was, and all this is from public reporting, I'll be careful, I'm not saying anything classified here, right?
BURNETT: Yes.
KENDALL: The missiles that were used were reported to be hypersonic ballistic missiles, anti-ship missiles. If you want to hit a ship underway, you've got to have something on that missile that can look out and see the target, and then you have to maneuver the missile to actually hit the thing you're trying to hit. You're not just going to point on the ground, and that's a fairly sophisticated set of capabilities, particularly a hypersonic missile.
It leads me to believe that China very well may be helping Iran with this technology. I would expect that, based on what I know China has done in this area. It's also a significant escalation in the type of attack against the United States. Imagine, if you will, that one of those missiles had hit one of our ships. There would be large-scale casualties, almost certainly, if that happened. It would be a major setback.
We're trying to impose a blockade -- I'm sorry, a blockade, and doing so requires we put ships in proximity to the things we're trying to stop. It would be very hard for us to continue to do that if this kind of a threat were credible to our ships. So, it's disturbing.
Iran announced that they had this missile, it's called the Qassem Basir, about a little over a year ago. How many of them we have? I don't know. But if they were successful, it would be a major setback.
The response has been to sink or to attack and disable tankers that are generally being blockaded inside of Iran anyway and aren't going anywhere. So, it is causing some economic damage to Iran.
[19:25:01]
But it's not really changing the situation as far as air availability of oil and so on. This is an escalation in which if it keeps going, it could get much
more serious. We could be back into a much hotter conflict than we've been in for the last few months.
BURNETT: And so much pressure, obviously, is on the military. You know, I'm thinking of that non-concur where you had leaders of Central Command in Europe, Indo-Pacific, SOUTHCOM, all saying that it was too much.
In that context, "The New York Times" is reporting that 50 members of the military joint staff in Hegseth's Pentagon were subjected to mass polygraph tests. So basically, the secretary of defense, obviously calls himself secretary of war, not trusting those around him in leadership. This has never been done before in modern history and it follows news reports that detail the depleted stockpile of crucial weapons, right? Specifically the missile inventory that has been depleted worldwide because of this war in Iran.
Are you hearing anything about this and what effect do you think it has on the Pentagon and on an already strained leadership that they're being subjected to polygraph tests by their boss?
KENDALL: You know the atmosphere in the Pentagon is very dysfunctional right now. You've got a situation with so many people having been fired and pulled off a promotion list and so on that there's a climate of fear which is unlike anything I've ever seen.
It's very debilitating. It makes it very hard for people to give honest feedback to the secretary and to others. And it's really having a very severe impact on everybody's morale. This polygraph thing, this mass polygraph thing is another layer of that added on to the things that are already going on.
You know, polygraphs are not very reliable. They're not very good at gathering evidence, but they are a way to intimidate people. And if people are frightened that they're going to be polygraphed and asked about who knows what, they're going to be, it's going to have another negative impact on the force.
So, it's unfortunate. I don't want to say anything. Leaking classified information is a serious offense, and people should not do it, period. So, getting after these people and preventing this is an important objective, but this is not the way to do it.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Secretary Kendall, I appreciate your time, and it's good to have you back. Thank you.
KENDALL: Thank you. Good to be with you.
BURNETT: All right. You, too.
And next, Trump won the Hispanic vote in Texas last election. Okay, he won it, and it was a big and important story. But that appears to be changing big time. A new author of the Cook Report with new numbers next.
And the head of the U.S. Postal Service Union joins us. Why he says he's very worried about Trump's new plan for mail-in ballots.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:31:38]
BURNETT: Breaking news, these are live pictures out of Texas of the first ever Republican midterm convention. Texas, of course, home to one of the most closely watched Senate races of the entire election.
James Talarico, hoping to become the first Democrat to win statewide in over 30 years.
And it's really only a conversation because of who he is facing, Ken Paxton, who took the stage at the GOP gathering just a few minutes ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAXTON: I will fight to preserve the American dream. James Talarico is running to destroy it. He is a Democratic socialist who never met a tax increase he didn't love.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Talarico, of course, is not a Democratic socialist, and here's what he just told CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: Through his position as attorney general, he increased his net worth by 7,000 percent since taking office. He now owns 15 homes. I don't even know what one person does with 15 homes, but he has it on a government salary. This is corruption, plain and simple, and I think people in both parties are just tired of this corrupt system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Interesting they're going for substance.
OUTFRONT now, Amy Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief of "The Cook Political Report".
And Amy, you know, as I said, Texas is a conversation in no small part because it is Ken Paxton, not John Cornyn, running against James Talarico. And that is because of Trump, and he backed Paxton.
So, you've got new numbers out of Texas. What are you learning?
AMY WALTER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE COOK POLITICAL REPORT: Yeah, that's right. With our partner Univision, a poll was conducted of Texas Hispanics and we looked specifically at that very question. How do voters now who, as you noted earlier, voted for Donald Trump by 10 points in 2024? How do they feel about Trump? How do they feel about the Senate race? How about the congressional districts? The Rio Grande Valley has three very critical races going on there,
and the answer is they don't feel so great about the Republican brand. In fact, the coalition that Trump brought together of these Hispanic voters really has fallen apart. His approval rating with Hispanic voters in Texas Trump's that is is at 33 percent. Talarico is leading Paxton two to one and when you look in that Rio Grande Valley voters there by 14 points say they prefer a Democrat over a Republican.
Really the issue here, Erin, it's not surprising. It's similar to what we're hearing in other places across the country and with other groups of voters. The economy is a very big issue. By two to one margin, that's what voters there say they care about.
And they really are feeling the pinch and the frustration about cost of living. And they, even though they voted for Republicans in '24, largely on the basis of the economy, hoping that the economy would improve with Republicans in charge. They don't feel that way today.
BURNETT: So, Trump, here's what he's saying about his party's chances in November. Here's what he just said. Let me play it for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They say that Trump does great when he's on the ballot, but when he's not on the ballot, his people don't come and they don't vote for senators, congressmen, and other Republicans.
[19:35:09]
And that these people, they're running, they're great. But if Trump isn't actually on the ballot, so what I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I guess it's good there he finally used the first person there after third person all the way through. But does this ring true to you based on what you're hearing from voters, that if Trump were on the ballot, it would be GOP would be doing better?
WALTER: There's nothing new about this. President from going far back, I remember Barack Obama saying the same thing. Please show up even though I'm not on the ballot and Obama voters were more interested in voting for President Obama than they were down ballot.
But I think the real challenge right now for Republicans on the ballot this time, it's not that the voters who really like Donald Trump say they're going to stay home. In fact, if you look at polls and separate out Republican voters into categories of people who align themselves with MAGA and those who just align themselves as party first.
What you see is that the MAGA voters are really excited about voting. They feel much better about Donald Trump. They don't hold him as accountable on the economy as those non-MAGA voters.
So, in order for those voters -- the voters that Trump needs to turn up are the very ones who right now are most disappointed in what they're seeing out of -- out of Washington.
BURNETT: So, you just wrote a new column for the Cook Political Report, Amy. You spoke to several Democratic candidates trying to flip districts that Trump had won by double digits. And you write about the tariffs. You say one candidate from the Midwest says that the tariffs have meant that their district is losing jobs and paying more. Another candidate in an agricultural-based district that Trump carried by more than 10 points said voters in his district feel a sense of betrayal about the president.
How big of a player in in in some of these swing districts and you know, talk about Michigan and Maine and others are the tariffs?
WALTER: I think the tariffs are part one, but if you're living in rural America, it's more than just that one tariff. It is now the cost of diesel fuel, which I had one candidate tell me something like $500 to fill up your farm equipment and that is just a bridge too far for these farmers who never expected that.
So, you take the original tariffs, you take the Iran War, which has raised the price of diesel and fertilizer gas prices, and then finally, if you're close to the border in Canada, potential for new Canadian tariffs. Oh, and also lifting the tariffs on beef.
BURNETT: All right. Amy Walter, thank you very much on "The Cook Political Report".
And as we're talking about the polls and the elections, more breaking news on how people will vote. A number of state officials asking the Supreme Court to block Trump's plan to change mail-in voting. Now, the request comes from 38 current and former election officials from 10 states. That includes five Republican secretaries of state.
So that is just very significant to understand here, that this is bipartisan, or maybe the right way to say this is nonpartisan, as actually counting the votes should be. And it is happening just weeks before the midterms as ballots have already gone out, started to go out in North Carolina. Alabama started sending out ballots today, and 15 more states are days away from doing the same.
Now, Trump's plan requires state and local election officials to upload lists of their mail voters to a portal, and then officials have to track the votes using barcodes. So, like, if one barcode gets scanned incorrectly, you know, been to a grocery store checkout line recently, then all the votes in that batch could be thrown out. So that could be, you know, thousands. So obviously it could cause a lot of chaos.
And the USPS, there's a whistleblower there saying the plan could result in thousands of legitimate ballots being rejected.
OUTFRONT now is Jonathan Smith, president of the American Postal Workers Union, who represents its 200,000 members.
And, Jonathan, I appreciate your time. So, as I said here, adding this up, 17 states have either already sent
out ballots or days away from sending them out. If Trump's plan goes through these barcodes, all of this happens, what do you think actually happens?
JONATHAN SMITH, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION: Well, this is about trying to create a solution for a problem that does not exist. And I think that a lot of people want to put the blame on the postmaster general, which he owns a lot of the blame. But we're not talking about who really runs the post office. The Postal Board of Governors has been silent on this. The Postal Board of Governors clearly legislatively has the responsibility to run the post office.
In fact, the chairperson of the Postal Board of Governors, Amber Reynolds, is a proponent for vote by mail.
[19:40:01]
One of the reasons that she got on there and she was supported by the unions at that time because of her position on vote by mail.
So, we are very concerned with what's going on, like you said so eloquently, that if one name is wrong, one bar code, you'll take a batch and a batch could be as many as 10,000 votes and throw out the other 999,999 votes because one was wrong. It does not pass the test of common sense and we're worried about it.
BURNETT: So the Office of the Inspector General for the Postal Service is investigating allegations from a whistleblower. And I mentioned this whistleblower.
This person says this is all rushed and untested. It's a system that the whistleblower says postal workers have described as a bleep show. You can insert the expletive there. And then made the point, right, about if even one barcode is wrong, then 10,000 votes could be rejected.
You know, Jonathan, how worried are you that this could actually disrupt the election?
SMITH: I'm worried about to make sure that we do not mess with a system that obviously works. We have the same vote by mail system in 2020, 2022, and 2024. And the Trump administration has challenged it in court time and time again and has lost. There is nothing wrong with the system.
Now, the Postal Service problem is they're trying to build a portal that would normally take more than a year with testing and do it in a few months. What we're saying is that the goal is to create chaos, to disenfranchise people that would normally vote. What we're saying is you can trust the people that I represent, but if you're going to vote, vote early, give us the opportunity to get your mail count, get your voice heard and your vote counted because we will get the job done.
We got the job done doing Sandy. We got the job done during Katrina. We got the job done during COVID and we will get the job done now, but the Board of Governors should step in. It's their job to stop this chaos before it even happens.
BURNETT: So, President Trump, as you know, votes by mail. Okay, that's how he votes. But he obviously repeatedly attacks others who vote by mail, you know, saying that that can be fraud.
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It's a concept of mail-in ballots. It's immediately corrupt. Mail-in ballots have proven to be a disaster. Mail-in voting, which is so crooked. Mail-in ballots are a big fraud. Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating. I call it mail-in cheating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You represent a union of 200,000 people who deliver those ballots to the voter and back. How do you respond to that?
SMITH: I respond to it that he has already responded to it. He talks one way, but his action says something different. He votes himself by mail. So, if it's so corrupt, why is he voting by mail? So, we are insulted because it's not only a question of the vote by mail, which is already being debunked, it's a question of our integrity.
We are very proud of what we do. Our integrity goes unquestioned. We have always delivered. We have always done the best job. That's why we are one of the most trusted government services out there because of the job that we have done and we have done that job for more than 250 years.
The vote is sacred and we take pride in our democratic responsibility to make sure you have to realize there are eight states that fully sent out a ballots to every voter including D.C. So, these voters should not be disenfranchised. What about that person that can't get there at a specific time on a specific day that elderly person that can't get out their home. That student did nothing but go to school away and now they won't have the ability to vote. That veteran who served this country, they deserve the right to vote. And we need to stop this nonsense because the postal service, the postal service can reject an executive order.
They are an independent agency, independent. If you look at the legislation, the legislation says in the Postal Reform Act, it says that we're independent of the federal branch. The Postal Service I know knows this because back in 2019, and when they were trying to invoke the debt ceiling to make sure that they could borrow money and the Treasury said that we want you to give us all the information with your deal with Amazon.
We want you to give us your labor plan and we and they sent them a scathing leather quote in the Constitution about their independence and what they're asking them to do is illegal. So, now, all of a sudden, the Postmaster General is saying we have to comply with the presidential order.
You can't talk out of both sides of your mouth. Either you're independent or you're not.
[19:45:03]
Which one is it?
BURNETT: All right, Jonathan, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
And next, Trump is doubling down on his claim that firefighters carried him out of a building after the attacks on 9/11. And we will take you to the front lines of what has become a dangerous front in the Iranian war that could drive oil prices even higher.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, Trump responding to widespread criticism after he claimed yesterday that after the 9/11 attacks, two firefighters lift him up and carried him away from a building near Ground Zero. According to numerous brutal fact-checks, there is no evidence this occurred. Trump posted a series of videos on social media showing him around Ground Zero and days after the attack. All of it comes as those who were at Ground Zero and 9/11 in the immediate aftermath are speaking out.
Jason Carroll is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROSI: It is appalling that they did this to us.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Outrage coming from New York City firefighters who gathered to publicly respond to newly released 9/11 air quality records, which reveal first responders, residents, and others were told the air quality around Ground Zero was safe when it was not.
BROSI: For all those people that said they would never forget, they went through great lengths to making sure you did not know the totality of the situation.
CARROLL (voice-over): Jim Brosi, front and center at a briefing today, was one of those firefighters at Ground Zero.
[19:50:00]
BROSI: Angry and frustrated. We had known the quality of the air down there was terrible.
CARROLL (voice-over): We first spoke to him three years ago, just after his father, Lieutenant Joe Brosi, a veteran of the New York City Fire Department, died from stage four lung cancer.
BROSI: He was as good as they come. CARROLL (voice-over): Rosie worked alongside his father and brother, also a former firefighter who says he now suffers from a 9/11-related illness.
So much illness in just one family, so many years of trying to get people to believe there was a connection between first responders getting sick and dying from their work at Ground Zero.
Only to learn 25 years later, paperwork shows they were right all along. The air was not safe, and some knew it just months after the terror attack.
BROSI: Some of the people that were our biggest supporters are some of the people that actually those administrations are the ones that withheld the information.
CARROLL (voice-over): For years, the 9/11 Health Watch, an advocacy group, demanded the city turn over those records. Just this week, the city releasing more than 170,000 pages of documents.
ANDREW CARBOY, ATTORNEY, 9/11 HEALTH WATCH: It appears the city was more interested with losing lawsuits than with losing lives.
CARROLL (voice-over): Several months after 9/11, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who succeeded Rudy Giuliani, said the following.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Every single test done by the federal, state and city government say that the air quality here is perfectly safe.
CARROLL (voice-over): A spokesperson for Bloomberg declined to comment to CNN about the newly released documents. The EPA administrator at the time, Christine Todd Whitman, told CNN in a statement this week, everyone at the EPA did the best they could with the information, tools, and knowledge available at the time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The residents of the building had kind of gathered together and said this isn't safe.
CARROLL (voice-over): Marissa Ramirez de Ariano (ph) remembers living near Ground Zero and being allowed to return home just weeks after 9/11 to an apartment and balcony covered in ash. She suffered from a lung ailment for years and says she has little faith in the government.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did not know that they had stored documents and other things and basically hidden them, but it does not surprise me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Captain Frederick S. Sims.
CARROLL (voice-over): Four hundred thirty-eight firefighters and EMS personnel have died from 9/11-related illnesses, exceeding the 343 who were killed that day. Two funerals taking place just this week for retired firefighter John
H. Marsh and retired Lieutenant Gerard M. Riley, as the city continues to lose its heroes 25 years after they answered the call that day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And, Erin, those that we spoke to say what these newly released documents really show is that there needs to be a continued monitoring of those who are out here at Ground Zero 25 years ago, whether they be first responders or residents, and that there needs to be continued health care for anyone who was down here who ended up with some sort of health-related issue. Those who are out here basically telling us that this is not just a monetary issue, they say it's a moral issue -- Erin.
BURNETT: Jason Carroll, thank you very much at the 9/11 Memorial here in New York.
And next, our Nic Robertson on the front lines of the Iran war, an aspect of this war that could cause an even bigger spike in oil prices.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:27]
BURNETT: Tonight, an exclusive look at a dangerous new front in the Iran War that could drive oil prices and prices at the pump even higher.
Nic Robertson is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC (voice-over): Yemen's Navy is taking us to Perim Island, the heart of a little-known local war that's getting pulled into America's war with Iran.
ROBERTSON: So, what happens here next could affect us more than the Iran War already has. These islands, this vital waterway, the price of oil, it is all vulnerable right now. And what happens here could impact President Trump's political fortunes.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): In recent weeks, Iran-backed Houthis have hit several Saudi oil tankers on these waters. They're a bypass to the Strait of Hormuz. As we find out, Houthis are a constant threat here.
ROBERTSON: Suddenly, we just had to turn around. We're told it's because drones have been reported in the air. This is a hot war, and this is one of the epicenters of that war.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Our second attempt, getting closer.
ROBERTSON: This here that you're looking at out across the Red Sea, the Bab El-Mandeb Strait, the narrowest point on that Red Sea.
Those ships out there, that's what this is all about.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Commercial shipping, critical for the global economy.
Eventually, we make it, a greeted by Yemeni government forces, keeping the vital waterway open.
Not many outsiders make it here. We're the first international journalist they've seen in years. But we're not going to have long. The Houthi drone is still a threat.
ROBERTSON: And it looks for all the world like the place that time forgot. It is really stuck out here in the middle of the ocean. Looking out across the ocean this way.
Yeah, Bab el-Mandeb, Bab el-Mandeb. And looking across out there.
You can see Africa across there. Djibouti literally just across the sea there.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Perim is at the strait's narrowest point, just 12 miles from Africa. Since Iran blocked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi diverted its oil exports through the Red Sea, helping keep global oil prices down. Ten percent of global oil used to flow through here.
ROBERTSON: It's down to about less than half of that, or about half of that now. And if the Houthis get control of the Red Sea, if the Iranian proxies, the Houthis get control of the Red Sea, they can shut the oil flows here down to almost nothing.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): What we don't see on our short visit is a military force that measures up to the scale of what's at stake for the rest of the world.
For the commander in charge of this region, that's a worry.
ROBERTSON: Because the Houthis would try to kill you, right? The Iranians would love to have you down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So many times.
ROBERTSON: So many times. I know.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Vice President Tarik Saleh is a rarity at the moment, a political leader still in Yemen and still fighting the Houthis.
TARIK SALEH, VICE PRESIDENT, YEMEN PRESIDENTIAL COUNCIL (through translator): We told the world that this is an Iranian plan, but no one listened to Yemenis back then. That this is a battle that would not only affect Yemenis, but the region and international community.
ROBERTSON: This is Iran trying to put pressure on President Trump.
SALEH: Exactly. ROBERTSON: Are you getting any support from the United States?
SALEH: Just talk.
ROBERTSON: Just talk. How do you feel about that?
ROBERTSON (voice-over): "Disappointed," he says.
Nic Robertson, CNN, in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Thanks to Nic and thanks to all of you for being with us.
Anderson starts now.
