Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Emboldened Trump Lashes Out Amid Signs of Resistance; Sen. Booker: Trump Is "Thrashing Our Constitution". GOP and Democrats Battle to Shape Contours of Key Midterm Races; U.S. Support for Israel Splits MAGA World & Democrats; Kids of Fired Federal Workers Hit the Hallways of Congress. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired August 03, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

[08:00:26]

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST (voice-over): Popping off. An emboldened President Trump reshuffles the global economy. What's his next target?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have sent to the region two nuclear submarines.

You know what I did? I fired her.

RAJU: Plus, Democratic dreams. What's giving the party hope as it tries to retake power? And how far will they go to block a takeover in Texas?

I go one on one with Senator Cory Booker who says. His fellow lawmakers need to do more.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): This is a moment in history where people are going to ask, where did you stand? Did you bow to an authoritarian leader, or did you stand strong and fight?

RAJU: And, camp democracy.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Shame on you for firing my mom.

RAJU: As Trump's cuts mount, fired federal workers bring their kids to Congress.

INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU (on camera): Good morning and welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Manu Raju.

President Trump's economic vision is finally becoming a reality as he forces countries to accept steep new tariffs. But as he's feeling newly emboldened, the president is also lashing out when things do not go his way. In just the last few days, he fired a government statistician when job numbers came in weak. Demanded the Fed chair resign, repositioned nuclear submarines following critical comments by a Putin ally, slammed several GOP senators for breaking with them, and then told the Democratic leader to, quote, go to hell.

And now, news this weekend that the administration is probing the former special counsel, who previously pursued charges against Trump himself. It all underscores Trump's unprecedented use of executive power and impulsive responses to crises at home and abroad.

There is a lot to unpack this morning with my excellent panel, including CNN's Jeff Zeleny, Tia Mitchell with "The Atlanta Journal Constitution", CNN's Aaron Blake, and "The Wall Street Journal's" Olivia Beavers.

Nice to see you all.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

RAJU: Good morning.

Trump is angry. At least he was yesterday. And look, the anger is often talked about with Trump because its drives his decision making in a lot of ways. He could be impulsive, volatile. And when he's angry, its important to know.

And just look at what he said about Chuck Schumer yesterday. He said this, of course, came in this dispute he was having with the Senate Democratic leader about confirming his nominees. Democrats were slow walking them. He demanded the Senate stay in session. He didn't get what he wanted. Trump didn't. The Senate is now home for recess.

And he says, tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his party, the radical left lunatics, to go to hell in all caps. But look, in another era, a president saying this about an opposition leader would be a story in and of itself, but it just speaks to for Trump, this is par for the course and also speaks to his mindset at this key moment.

ZELENY: So presidential, right?

But, look, it's sort of striking, the week that the president had because he started out the week in a pretty strong posture, having a fairly successful foreign trip, a mix of business and pleasure, signing a trade deal with the E.U. But clearly, the jobs numbers and the economy, the weakening and slowing in the economy has really gotten to him.

And I think what we saw on Friday, firing the head of the BLS, really underscores something that we have seen in some respects, but not to this degree. The authoritarian streak and other things. But it doesn't change the economic numbers. So that is what really worries the White House, potentially worries the president are his tariff policies finally sort of coming home to roost, if you will. So, the economic numbers, the May and June revisions really infuriated

him. He said, who, puts these numbers together? They told him, obviously she was a Biden appointee, but confirmed by the U.S. Senate 86 to 8, which, as you know, almost never happens.

RAJU: Yeah, J.D. Vance voted for her.

ZELENY: Marco Rubio did. But firing her does nothing to change the underlying issues with the economy. Where are those manufacturing jobs? Virtually no manufacturing jobs added in the month of July. All of them were from the health and social services sector. So that's a worrisome sign.

RAJU: But the firing of this official sends a message to the rest of the government? I mean, these are statistics that are generated. It's not, he says it's rigged. There's no evidence that it's rigged, but it sends a message that even if the statistics or data is out of line or out of line with his message, you could be on the chopping block.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yeah. And I mean, I think it's not just troubling for the employees who now kind of live in fear, operate in fear that you've got to stick to what Trump wants you to do, or it could be your job.

But now we, the American public, don't know if we can trust future labor reports. And that's just adding to the list of American institutions that are being, if not dismantled, weakened under the Trump administration. You know? And so, how are we going to be able to -- you know, how are elected officials going to be able to make decisions if they can't trust the data?

How are voters going to be able to make decisions about how to spend their money, how to choose their leaders, how to operate if they can't trust the data, if they can't trust what our bureaucracy, what our leaders are telling us is true, or are they just saying things to coddle to one person, which is President Trump?

RAJU: Yeah.

MITCHELL: So, it's really troubling.

RAJU: In -- how do Republican senators feel about this firing, there was a bit of a split response on Capitol. The Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there's a lack of trust in those statistics already. He sounded like he was siding with Trump on this.

And then Cynthia Lummis, who is a conservative Republican senator, told our colleague Morgan Rimmer, said, if the president is firing the statistician because the numbers are unreliable now, that would be good to know. But if the president is firing the statistician because he doesn't like the numbers, but they are accurate, then that's a problem.

Aaron, you wrote about this Orwellian turn of sorts by this administration. AARON BLAKE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. And I thought it was pretty

remarkable. You know, certain people after Trump does something like this, we always see a number of people kind of putting forward justifications that don't happen to be the ones that Trump is actually offering. When Trump is interviewed about this after he did it, he basically said, no, it's because I don't like the numbers. The justification that he gave and our colleague Daniel Dale has been doing fact checking on this was that there was a big revision downward that happened after the 2024 election.

No, that actually came two months before the election. So, the justifications he's putting forward here are not the same ones as the kind of more high minded ones that his allies are putting forward. And that just reinforces that this is a very punitive thing that he's done here.

And so, I think if you look at the way these Republicans are talking about it, that Lummis quote is, is significant. We also saw this from Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky, Thom Tillis from North Carolina, basically raising this concern that maybe this isn't a good thing, like maybe he can do this, but maybe he shouldn't do this. And so, it's going to be interesting to see whether this is kind of a bridge too far for them.

OLIVIA BEAVERS, WALL STREET JOURNAL CONGRESS REPORTER: Well, I find -- we're talking about the consequences but let's boil it down to where the motivation is. Trump ran on the economy. If he is coming and he is not able to turn it around, if the numbers start looking bad, he was able to pull different swing voters because he said Biden's economy is hurting you. I'm going to turn this around. And if he is, then not able to make it greater with tariffs, with other aspects of the economy. That's why you see him going after Powell, the fed chair. I think that he's going to be in trouble. And that's why the midterms and the economy are such a big issue.

RAJU: And look, we are in a lot of ways in heading into a new chapter of this second term where congress is heading home for its recess. We're now through seven months, and now we are in this next phase of this tariff policy. He had threatened these tariffs to go into effect on Friday, and I would expect it now to go into effect on August 7th on a whole host of measures. Now, the economy and people may very well start feeling the impact.

So how have prices been impacted by all of this? Just -- there have been price increases from May to June from everything from regular commodities to apparel to appliances, very small amount, some more significant like windows, floor coverings and other linens. But big retailers are now threatening to increase prices even more. That is going to have a significant political impact as well, if in fact, consumers start feeling that.

ZELENY: Without question. And look, I mean, every president gets jobs reports that they don't like. I was talking to an Obama administration official over the weekend sort of understanding this BLS, how it works. And they had a Bush -- a BLS official, obviously. And in 2009, the jobs numbers were so bad, they're like, we wish we could have fired him. But obviously that's not how it works generally.

But prices, it's a huge concern. I mean, to Olivia's point, it's what President Trump ran on. So, if prices are up this year into next year, it's a problem.

RAJU: What do you -- what are you hearing about how Republicans are they with him? Are they still standing? They've been you know, you heard like some like Senate Majority Leader Thune, he is not a tariff guy. He's been opposed to tariffs his entire career.

But now he's saying, you know, he's hoped that these would be temporary, but these are now here to stay. And this party is now stuck with it.

MITCHELL: What we're finding in Congress is that there are plenty of Republicans who privately disagree or are hesitant to fully embrace what President Trump wants to do, but that's privately.

[08:10:05]

Publicly, there are very few Republicans who are willing to challenge him, or even question him. I think what they're trying to use is back channels to ask the questions, to make the suggestions, to be cautionary, but publicly, there's just so much hesitation to be perceived as challenging or contradicting what President Trump wants to do.

And I mean, I think it goes to the overall theme of congress just not having congressional Republicans, just not having much incentive or interest in going against President Trump for their own political reasons, for their fear of the base. And I think some of it is genuinely saying, hey, he was elected on this message. Let's give him a chance to try these things that he wants to do and set his own agenda.

Now they've given him a long runway. It has not yet paid off. I think some of them are still hoping it does. But again, I think privately, there's a lot more concern than what we see publicly.

RAJU: And a lot of this, too, has to do with how he's handled the Jeffrey Epstein matter has not gone away. And that's been a question all along to this story that sort of flew under the radar on Friday involving Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's associate, suddenly was moved. She's serving a 20-year prison sentence, suddenly moved to a lower security prison after speaking to the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche. And there hasn't really been any explanation about what she told Todd Blanche and why this move ultimately happened.

BLAKE: Yeah, the Bureau of Prisons hasn't said why this move was made. Ghislaine maxwells attorney is not talking about the reason why this was made. I think this adds to a whole host of questions that the White House and the broader administration haven't put to bed on this. Trump keeps saying very odd things about this, you know, leaving open the possibility of a Maxwell pardon.

You know, last week we had the administration come forward and say clemency isn't on the table for her. And then he's asked about it again and he again leaves it open. I mean, he at the very least seems to want her to believe that this is a possibility for her, whether or not it is.

RAJU: But why? But why? That's still the question.

BLAKE: I mean, if I had to guess, it's, you know, the things that she says are going to be impactful on him. You know, she's talking in addition to talking to Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, she's talking about coming in and testifying in front of Congress, although that appears to be delayed right now.

There's just a whole lot of weird stuff going on right now, and they haven't really addressed it all, including about his own relationship with her and the timeline of the employee being stolen from Mar-a- Lago. There's so many questions here, and they just seem to be snowballing at this point.

RAJU: Yeah, that's been the Trump wanted the focus to move on to that. But still, questions continue to linger.

All right. Coming up, a clash you rarely see on Capitol Hill, a Democratic senator confronting his fellow Democrats in a heated argument on the Senate floor. What Senator Cory Booker told me about that fight, his party in 2028 -- that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:27]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): This to me is the problem with Democrats in America right now is we're willing to be complicit to Donald Trump to let this pass through when we have all the leverage right now there is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: An eye-popping scene on the Senate floor this past week when New Jersey Senator Cory Booker lashed out at fellow Democrats who are trying to push through a series of policing bills with the support of the GOP.

For months, Booker has been fighting the Trump administration, contending it is improperly withholding sizable sums of public safety funds to blue states like New Jersey to force them to adhere to the president's agenda.

Booker blocked those bipartisan bills because he said they failed to protect Democratic states like his own. But there was a larger message. The senator later told me was also at play.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Things got really heated this week on the Senate floor with your Democratic colleagues over these policing bills. You obviously are concerned about the impact that this would have on your state, but you're really also trying to send a larger message to your party about how to fight back against Trump, are you not?

BOOKER: First of all, I will always defend New Jersey police officers and getting them the resources they deserve. But you're right, there is a larger message not to Democrats, but to Americans. This is a president that is trashing our Constitution. And as a result, in this case, it's indicative of a lot of things we're seeing here, cutting people's health care, cutting key grants for public safety, cutting resources for hungry children. It is outrageous what's going on, undercutting the Constitution and hurting people.

And we've got to stand and fight. How far are we going to let him go until we draw a line and say, I don't care where it is on the floor of the Senate, within our communities, we're going to stand and fight against this authoritarianism.

RAJU: Do you worry that cutting deals with him on a bipartisan basis will embolden him?

BOOKER: Well, I'm all for cutting bipartisan deals that are going to help people and solve problems. I'm still involved in bills right now that are moving. I was a co-sponsor of some of these bills. We should do that.

But when Donald Trump passes an executive order that undercuts those bills and says, wait a minute, I have the power now to decide which states and which cities get these grants. And I'm going to exclude all of New Jersey, all of New York, all of California, all of Washington, that should be unacceptable to everyone.

RAJU: And for your party, more specifically, I'm wondering how you see the way forward for your party. You see public opinion polls. The Democratic brand is worse than the Republican brand, and several polls. One, how much does that concern you? And two, what do you have to do to regain credibility as Democrats with voters?

BOOKER: So, Democrats will lose credibility if they're concerned about the Democratic Party?

[08:20:02]

Democrats will gain credibility when were concerned about the American people.

I love this about my caucus. Where the doors are closed and the 47 of us are in a room, the conversation isn't about the party. It's about how are we going to fight for health care? How are we going to fight against all the firings of veterans? How are we going to fight against these tariffs that are raising costs to focus on people and let the politics take care of itself?

Because this is a time where there's declining trust in all of elected leadership. And I think the way you earn trust and build trust is to show that you're willing to stand and you're willing to fight. RAJU: Are you worried that there's not enough that's happening right

now in your party?

BOOKER: I'm going to continue to do what leadership is. Leadership is not a title or a position. It is action and example. And what I want to see more people doing is not doing what some law firms have done -- bend the knee to Donald Trump. Not doing what some universities have done -- bend the knee to Donald Trump. We see major corporations who want some merger approval not standing up on principle, but bending the knee to Donald Trump.

That, to me is outrageous. History is going to remember these people for their complicity in what is a guy that's going to severely try to undermine our government, who already incited a riot on our Capitol? This is a moment in history where people are going to ask, where did you stand? Did you bow to an authoritarian leader? Did you stand strong and fight?

RAJU: I'm wondering if part of the issue with your party, do you think, is not embracing enough of the energy on the left flank of your party? You're seeing what's happening in your neighboring state in New York. Zohran Mamdani, he's the Democratic candidate, Democratic socialist candidate there.

Democratic leaders are not supporting him. Is that a problem? Do you support him?

BOOKER: So, you and I are going to have this conversation. I'm going to say to you one day, I told you so. This is not a left-right issue. It really isn't.

It is an authoritarian versus people who want pragmatic government that makes a difference in the lives of American people. I'm one of these people that says the lines that divide us in America are not nearly as strong as the ties that bind us.

Big corporations. People want to keep our eyes on the screen, want to pit us against each other and tell us how much we should hate each other. I'm sorry. The left-right lens is not the right lens to look at this right now. Right now, it is, can we get back to the pragmatic work of governing?

RAJU: Zohran Mamdani, are you going to support him?

BOOKER: I have learned a long time ago let New York politics be New York politics. We got enough challenges in Jersey. I got a governor's race. I'm supporting Mikie Sherrill. I got legislative races. That's where my energy is going to go going into November.

New York City, I love you. You're my neighbor. You're about ten miles from where I live. You guys figure out your elections. I'm going to focus on mine.

RAJU: On the issue of policing, because that was an issue of obviously, what part of the issue that you fought on the floor about. Youve been really involved on that issue. He Mamdani just got a tweet from earlier this that's gotten surfaced, gotten a lot of attention this week about defunding the police. It's from a few years ago.

Are statements like that still problematic for your party?

BOOKER: I think, again, I'm going to speak for Jersey. Newark, New Jersey, a majority black city, five days after the George Floyd incident, if you had pulled my city and said, do you want more police, less police for the same amount of police, Newark would have overwhelmingly voted for more police.

We don't want police violating our rights. We don't want police endangering our lives, but we want safety and security. It's a fundamental foundation of Maslow's pyramid. We want to have security in our community, and the police are part of that, an essential part of that equation.

So, anybody who's saying defund the police is wrong, and within the Democratic Party or within the nation, I will always fight that. We have well-funded, well-trained and highly accountable, high professional standard police departments that control us.

But I will say this by not investing in mental health. Remember, Donald Trump took a bipartisan bill, the first gun bill in 35 years, where we, in a bipartisan way, funded grants for mental health, because Republicans are always saying when there's a mass shooting, well, we need to deal with mental health. Well, we did it. Those grants were going to New Jersey.

And what did Donald Trump do? He froze them all.

RAJU: You're obviously very concerned about Republicans maintaining control of the United States House and Senate. There's this effort in Texas to add five new Republican seats by redrawing the maps there. Theres a lot of talk about your state, New Jersey, doing the same to redraw the maps there to add Democratic seats.

Would you support that effort?

BOOKER: Look, I remember one of my best basketball games of my life, where we were down at halftime and I looked at my coach and I said, coach, they're fouling us. And the ref isn't calling them.

And then my coach looked at me, then you fouled them. And so, I'm telling you right now, I want to see election reform. I'm sick of the gerrymandering.

But if Donald Trump is going to push to gerrymander Texas, he's going to break the rules in order to win. He can't win by the rules they are right now. So, he thinks you should break the rules.

For Democrats to sit back and just say, okay, were going to play by the queens rules -- no, I'm telling you right now, we need to win in the midterm. We need to stop him from cheating, from lying, and from stealing the election.

[08:25:00] And if they're doing something to add their congressional seats, we need to look at our ways of doing that right now. But we have to restore democracy. That kind of stuff actually undermines democracy as a whole, and we need leaders who are going to say, this is wrong, and we need to get back to passing the legislation that Democrats have proposed, which is an end to partisan gerrymandering -- partisan gerrymandering on their side, partisan gerrymandering on our side.

And that's why I'm supporting the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. That's why I'm supporting what was H.R. One in the last time the Democrats controlled it, which are to end these kind of voting games that are being played and allow for fair elections. And we should all be standing up and saying that.

RAJU: And I know you got to go. My last question to you is everything you're saying here sounds like a 2028 platform. Is that right?

BOOKER: I just want to say to Jersey, I am running for reelection in 2026. Please support me. Go to corybooker.com, please. He's talking about '28, I want to talk about reelection. If you want me in this fight, help me.

RAJU: Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate the time.

BOOKER: Thank you.

RAJU: Thanks for chatting.

BOOKER: Thank you very much. I appreciate you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

My excellent panel is back. I mean, this is obviously a debate about tactics within the Democratic Party when they have not been able to figure out their footing at this moment.

BEAVERS: No. And I think you've seen this fight happening before. We saw it with the last government spending bill where Democrats were divided about whether they do an intense, aggressive fight going after Republicans in the Trump administration, or if they step back and let them -- let Republicans eat their own and swallow their -- their mixed messaging.

RAJU: Which Booker very much does not want.

BEAVERS: No. And he's clearly leaning into the idea that he needs to be a voice pushing back. And you brought up the polling, which I thought was a fun question, because Democrats are underwater in terms of polling. So, what better thing to do than to go after your own party?

RAJU: Yes.

BEAVERS: To kind --

RAJU: To help you in 2028, perhaps? BLAKE: Yeah. The polling is really interesting here because Donald

Trump is underwater on a host of issues. But if you ask people about those same issues, do you prefer the Republican Party? Do you prefer the Democratic Party? Republicans still tend to lead on those issues.

RAJU: Yeah.

BLAKE: People just don't trust Democrats to lead on this issue.

So, I think it's the choice for the Democrats right now is do we just set ourselves up as a against at all costs, against Donald Trump type party? That could be a winning message because there is significant enthusiasm against President Trump right now.

RAJU: Serious 2020 contender, Booker?

ZELENY: For sure if he wants to be. But he was not that successful the first time around. He spent a lot of time with him on the campaign trail. He didn't quite click.

But the answer to the question that you asked -- of course, this is about 2020. It's the opening bell for that. But Trump used to unify Democrats. Now he's dividing them and they need to figure out a way beyond that.

RAJU: Do you think he's going to run?

MITCHELL: I think he's hopeful to be in a posture, to run.

RAJU: Yes, that's a good, good way to put it. That's no question about that.

All right. Still ahead, all of a sudden Democrats are feeling a bit better about their very tough road to take back the Senate. We'll tell you why.

Plus, it's a do or die time for Texas Democrats. Will they go on the run to try to block a new Republican map?

Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:37]

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST: The midterm elections are exactly 15 months from today, but the big moves happening right now will help determine the next House and the Senate majority.

Just yesterday in Texas, a key committee in the state house advanced new maps that could give the GOP five more House seats. As Democrats there now weigh whether to boycott to try to derail those plans.

And then there's the fight for the Senate, where Democrats have an uphill climb to win back power. But some recent developments give them some newfound hope. My panel is back.

Some of those possibilities for Democrats in the Senate. They got their candidate in North Carolina. That is going to be a marquee race in North Carolina.

But there's this messy primary that's evolved. It's happening in Texas that Democrats hope will help them get to the promised land.

Then there's the Maine Senate race where Susan Collins, of course, is perennially difficult to beat. Perhaps they'll get their candidate there. Democrats still need to get a candidate there.

And now there's this talk of Sherrod Brown running for reelection -- running again in Ohio. If they'd have to run the table -- but that's four seats right there.

AARON BLAKE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: The stars really have to align for Democrats. I mean, they've got to win four -- take over four seats. And so you're talking about winning in places like Texas. You're talking about winning places like Ohio, in addition to holding the ground that they hold in states like Michigan and Georgia.

So it's very difficult. And all these things could help them. You know, if Ken Paxton wins the Republican primary or things just get really messy in Texas, maybe that helps them. Still a very red state that Democrats haven't won statewide in I think like three decades or something like that.

RAJU: Yes. They always think they're going to win Texas, and they always do not win.

BLAKE: Exactly. Ohio has drifted right in recent years, certainly. And so, you know, any average midterm year, this would be a great opportunity for Democrats but the map is just so tough for them.

And so -- but again you don't have to necessarily take things over. You know, the degree to which you chip away at things also matters because that makes it easier to take things over at a later date.

And so Democrats, I think, will want to at least narrow that majority.

RAJU: So they want -- they really run the table, have a perfect night to win the majority. We'll see if that ultimately happens.

But it is the primaries that is causing the concern on the GOP side, particularly in Texas.

[08:34:48]

RAJU: That's where the incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn, is running against the state attorney general, Ken Paxton.

Donald Trump has stayed out of this, even though the Republican leaders, including the Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, just told me that he wants Donald Trump to get behind Cornyn. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: In Texas, how concerned are you about Paxton upending your ability to keep the Senate?

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Well look, I mean, it's a free country. And he, like many other people, are certainly, you know. It's their decision to run. And I think that, you know, obviously, I'm backing John Cornyn, who I think wins not only the primary but the general election.

RAJU: Do you think that Trump should get off the sidelines and get behind Cornyn here to help you guys out?

THUNE: Well, I mean, I would love to see that happen, but I think he's waiting to see how the race develops. I do think that there's clearly, you know, it's one of those races around the country that we're watching where we have an incumbent and, you know, in a primary election that could be competitive and very costly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Key words -- very costly.

OLIVIA BEAVERS, CONGRESS REPORTER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes. And I think that that's a concern that they might be fighting and putting so much money in to try to keep Cornyn, Aaron just mentioned it there. But the concern for Republicans is if Ken Paxton wins the primary, Democrats have a much greater opening in the general.

But I think what you're also going to see here is I've heard from Republican sources, they want to see if Cornyn can get his polling numbers up.

The concern right now, and he's also, I think, trying to shift his image to seem more MAGA, and he's taking steps to do that, whether that's the Trump -- or excuse me, Biden mental --

RAJU: Acuity.

BEAVERS: -- acuity hearings, thank you. And some others like that.

So Cornyn is trying to position himself. But yet Trump stays out.

RAJU: Yes. Trump doesn't want to get behind someone who could potentially lose. But there's also that messy primary in Georgia that you've been covering.

BEAVERS: Yes.

RAJU: Republicans are having a hard time getting behind a candidate there, and that could divide Brian Kemp against Donald Trump.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes, that's the Republicans are starting to choose sides. But the concern in Georgia is they're not on one accord. And so you have who we think is the Kemp candidate. And then who's not even in the race yet officially but --

RAJU: Former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley.

MITCHELL: Yes, Tennessee coach is the is the key term there. And but then you have Mike Collins who's got a lot of support from a lot of Republican leaders in Georgia. Several incumbent members of Congress are choosing to support Mike Collins over even another congressman, Buddy Carter.

So you've got all these factions now at work, and there's going to be what could be a somewhat messy primary, particularly the Kemp candidate in Dooley versus Mike Collins is starting to establish himself as the MAGA candidate.

And if they have to spend a lot of money going after each other, then that does kind of put Republicans in a more vulnerable situation going into the general election.

RAJU: That's the Senate. Meantime, there's this house, there's this battle over this mid-decade redistricting in Texas, which, you know, it happens usually at the beginning of a decade to reflect a new census.

Trump is pushing this to change now because he's going to add five Republican seats. There is a key decision that Democrats have to make there. They could try to boycott the state legislature to try to derail these plans, but they've tried this in the past multiple times. You've been around for some of those back in 2003 to 2021.

Ultimately, Republicans got their way.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: They did. And it's hard to imagine in Texas they wouldn't get their way. The bigger question is what happens in other Blue states. You asked Senator Booker about it. The possibility in Illinois.

One thing we do know it's bad for the process to have more gerrymandering, but it looks like that's where this is going.

Back to the Senate for one quick thing. Watch Joni Ernst, is she going to retire? We'll see. She hasn't announced, difficult for Democrats to hold that seat, but that would make one more competitive seat in a state where the governor is competitive as well.

So the Senate is going to be more interesting than we previously thought. Still tough for Democrats, but some interesting chess pieces on that map.

RAJU: Yes, there's no question about it. Because always we know in these cycles things change. They develop, races become more competitive suddenly. And then maybe something's on the table. Maybe someone retires.

We'll see what Joni Ernst does. Susan Collins hasn't officially said if she'll run yet either. So a lot of big questions that are going to develop in the weeks ahead. All right. Coming up, is there a shifting tide among both parties over

Israel's actions in Gaza? Well, a chance of ceasefire now (AUDIO GAP) deep-red Kentucky at yesterday's annual fancy farm political picnic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCH MCCONNELL, FORMER SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: If anybody --

CROWD: Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:39:33]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Some of President Trumps loudest supporters, from Joe Rogan to Megyn Kelly in MAGA world, are calling out Israel. Are they outliers or a sign of a changing tide? Meanwhile, for Democrats, the issue has become a major litmus test amid the starvation crisis in Gaza.

Reporters are back.

And the polling does bear that out. You look at the support for Israel's military action in Gaza, according to Gallup, just 8 percent of Democrats, according to this poll, support what's going on there. And 25 percent of Independents. The numbers higher for Republicans, 71 percent.

[08:44:47]

RAJU: But -- and then but this is a large part driven by younger voters. This is a striking number. 9 percent of voters 18 to 34 years old support what's going on there.

MITCHELL: Yes. And I think when you go back, I think there are a generation of younger voters who've always been somewhat skeptical of what they perceive as the United States' kind of blind protectionism of Israel.

They've always said, why is Israel a country that, you know, we kind of don't question, especially under Netanyahu's lead.

But after October 7th, I think widely, the American public said, yes, Israel has a right to defend itself and retaliate. But in those ensuing months, what has come out of Gaza has been very troubling to a lot of American voters.

And so they're starting to lose patience. And we see as a result, a lot of elected officials on both sides of the aisle are, too. And I think that's what the polling is reflecting.

RAJU: Yes. What about the politics as we head into the 2028 Democratic primaries, start talking about it. It's becoming a litmus test of sorts on how these potential candidates are dealing with this issue. ZELENY: It definitely is. I mean, the politics of this are upside

down. This is one of the sort of rare generational shifts that we are seeing here. Younger voters are simply fed up and frustrated with what they're seeing there.

So the politics of 2028, absolutely it's a dividing line. It's going to be a red line here in terms of how other candidates approach this.

And we're already seeing some slight differences. Rahm Emanuel, as he is talking about potentially running for president, may not have the same view as some of the other liberal potential candidates. So this will be one of the essential figures here.

RAJU: Yes.

ZELENY: But look, by then, hopefully the humanitarian crisis is somewhat resolved --

RAJU: Yes.

ZELENY: -- in Gaza. But this, politically speaking, is going to be a new line.

RAJU: And you hear some folks on the right Marjorie Taylor Greene calls this genocide, and she's joining folks on the left on this issue.

You're seeing this hard -- the hard right and hard left converge on calling Israel what's happening in Gaza a genocide.

BEAVERS: Yes, I think there is a little bit of surprise from the Republicans that that was Marjorie Taylor Greene coming in with the word "genocide". She has seemed to be splitting with the Trump administration a little bit more after she was told not to go for the Senate.

But here she's aligning with the president in putting it on Netanyahu and saying, you need to fix this issue. They're trying to say you can have both condemn Hamas and be concerned about what is happening in Gaza, which is starting to be a shift that suggests, I think, like Tia was saying, you don't have to be unwavering in your support of Israel.

RAJU: Yes.

And does this have an impact on the president? These MAGA supporters, MAGA allies speaking out against Israel?

BLAKE: Yes, I mean, I think it has to, to some degree. And that's in context here. You know, this is not just an Israel-Gaza issue, but this comes after the strikes on Iran, which a lot of the kind of more non-interventionist portions of the MAGA movement weren't necessarily on board with ahead of time. They all came around to it afterwards certainly.

But you know, there is this wing of the party that that just really doesn't want to get involved overseas. And if you're going to make that argument to some extent, that has to include Israel.

And so that's what you see reflected in comments like Marjorie Taylor Greene and some of these other folks. And I think that matters to President Trump.

RAJU: You saw Trump sort of break from Netanyahu, sort of about there is starvation happening in Gaza, he said. But then very much aligning himself with the policy in the days ahead. So we'll see ultimately, if there's any divergence between Trump and Netanyahu.

And coming up for us, a warning to senators, don't be surprised if the next lobbyist you see is a two-year-old. Why kids are joining their parents on Capitol Hill.

That's next.

[08:48:31]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: High-powered K Street lobbyists are not the only ones bending senators' ears these days. So are little kids who are now flooding the halls of the Senate to deliver a very personal message.

With school off for the summer, kids have joined their parents to lobby senators about the federal firings that have hurt their families and upended their lives.

The parents call it camp democracy, a chance to both teach their kids about the democratic process and to show lawmakers about the toll of President Trump's purge of the federal workforce.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELISSA BYRNE, "CAMP DEMOCRACY" ORGANIZER: Part of being here is that when you fire people en masse, you're not just firing the worker, you're firing the whole family. It impacts the whole family.

We started in February where most of the kids were in school. And now that it's summer, we turned it into camp democracy.

Because at the root of this action, this is practicing democracy. And that's why we're here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Former employees of places like the Food and Drug Administration and USAID walked the halls with their children and sometimes their strollers in tow as the kids hand deliver "thank you" notes to supportive members of Congress and what they call "shame on you" letters to ones whom they want to do more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSA AND MALENA RIVERA, DAUGHTERS OF FIRED USAID WORKER: We are writing letters. Yes, we're writing letters to the senators and enjoying donuts and

donut holes.

I'm going to write a "shame on you" letter to Senator Cassidy. Shame on you for not standing up for what's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: This past week, two Democratic senators, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Peter Welch of Vermont, spoke with the kids and their parents.

I caught up with Van Hollen afterwards.

[08:54:50]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): It's been very moving right, to see kids coming up here.

It also shows just how poorly treated their parents were. With their parents, they're also, I hope, learning about democracy and the lessons of how you try to fight back.

But I do think that if families show up, not just here in Washington, but federal employees live in every state in the country and if they're also showing up and trying to meet with their senators back home in their states or their House of Representatives members, that that can begin to have an impact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And now, just like members of the House and Senate, the camp democracy kids are out for recess.

That's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X @mkraju. Follow the show @INSIDEPOLITICS and follow me on both TikTok and Instagram.

And if you ever miss an episode, you can catch up wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for INSIDE POLITICS.

Up next "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Kasie Hunt is in today. Her guests include the former commissioner of Labor Statistics Bill Beach, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin and Colorado Governor Jared Polis.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.

[08:56:02]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)