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Trump's Meeting With Putin Sparks Fears In U.S. & Ukraine; Trump Allies Look To Hold House By Redrawing Maps Beyond Texas; Has RFK Jr. Lived Up To Vaccine Promises He Made To Congress?; Interview with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). Aired 8-9a ET

Aired August 10, 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)

[08:00:30]

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST (voice-over): Russian roulette. President Trump bets big on a meeting with Vladimir Putin.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace.

RAJU: While he stays silent on Israel's expanded plans for Gaza.

So after pledging to quickly end the conflict, will Trump finally deliver?

Plus, standoff.

DUSTIN BURROWS, TEXAS STATE HOUSE: A quorum is not present.

RAJU: As a Texas GOP tries to grab power, Republicans nationwide amp up the threats.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: The Democrats always come back.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), CALIFORNIA: This is self-defense for our democracy.

RAJU: But can Democrats actually stop them?

I'll go one on one with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, who's leading the charge in California.

And broken promises. RFK Jr. slashes vaccine funding. Is he breaking commitments he made to Congress?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just makes it up.

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.

As President Trump prepares for his high stakes meeting this week with Vladimir Putin, the world is wondering where Trump will ultimately come down and whether Putin will get his way to occupy big swaths of eastern Ukraine, despite unleashing the bloodiest war Europe has seen since World War II.

Now, Trump has yet to slam punishing sanctions on Russia. Despite threats to do so by this past Friday, and even suggested that land might be swapped in a new peace deal. But just yesterday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted that his country won't cede territory. All as uneasy European leaders met in the U.K. yesterday, with Vice President Vance to press their demands, but it could all come down to Trump, whose relationship with Putin over the years has evolved from warm praise to frustration, to now a new openness to cutting a deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

TRUMP: I believe that he feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election.

Don't meddle in the election.

I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine totally settled. I'll have it done in 24 hours.

I've always had a good relationship with Putin, and you know, he wants to end the war.

He's killing a lot of people. And I don't know what the hell happened to Putin.

We get a lot of bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED) thrown at us by Putin if you want to know the truth.

President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace and Zelenskyy wants to see peace.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

RAJU: All right. Joining me now are CNN's Kristen Holmes, Zolan Kanno-Youngs from "The New York Times" and "The Cook Political Report's" Amy Walter.

Nice to see you all. Good morning.

I mean, this has to be you can feel free to disagree, but the biggest meeting, the most important meeting of Trump's second term right now, maybe even arguably the first term. Two, you look back at it, the future of Europe is at stake here. The future of this deadly conflict, the world order, Russia's power in the world. You reported overnight that there's some discussion, perhaps, that

Vladimir Zelenskyy could be part of this meeting. That seems probably less likely. It seems, reading through this.

But you cover the White House, Kristen, what is the expectation going in, and is there any belief that Trump may accept what Putin is suggesting here, which is a ceasefire in exchange for occupying significant portions of Ukraine?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly possible. I mean, when he was asked about it last week. He basically said, well, some territories might have to be swapped, and some might be given back to Ukraine. He wouldn't say no in terms of making a deal that would cede some of Ukraine's territory to Russia.

So that's certainly on the table. We also know that this is a discussion that they were having with European allies, because they are trying to get some European buy in before that actual sit-down meeting between the two of them. And just on Zelenskyy in that part of it. It is not that there would be any world in which they sit down first for a trial at with the three of them. There were always --

RAJU: Trump has suggested that privately.

HOLMES: But -- but they were always going to have just a Putin and Trump bilateral meeting. Trump wants that meeting. Putin wants that meeting. They want to sit down face to face.

The only indication we have that Zelenskyy might be involved is that afterwards, they decide its time to have a meeting with all of them.

RAJU: But it's interesting you think that potentially that Trump could accept what Russia's suggesting here.

[08:05:04]

HOLMES: I think we have to see how this meeting goes. I mean, I know right now that they are focused on trying to hammer out exactly what it is that Putin wants that he presented to Steve Witkoff in their meeting that then Witkoff brought back to Trump, and then also what European allies would be willing to sign off on.

RAJU: And that's what concerns the U.S. European allies. That's what concerns Ukraine. Zelenskyy multiple times on social media over the last 24 hours, raised concerns about ceding any territory to Ukraine.

This is what he said in one of those posts. He said, we will not allow the second attempt to partition Ukraine. Knowing Russia, where this is a second, there will be a third.

You know, this meeting is what Putin wants. Putin wants to break up the European order here, which is why there's real fear in the rest of the world that this meeting is taking place.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And Putin has wanted a conversation just with the United States, sidelining Zelenskyy, essentially to make this a real estate negotiation, right? Even though it's about a real sovereign nation here, Zelenskyy's fear is that this will once again be another example of two large powers in the -- in the globe, carving up the territory of a smaller nation -- of a smaller power without him having the necessary buy in for peace for his nation at this point.

It's just when you look at the arc of the United States stance and approach to Ukraine, it's really remarkable change, you know, and the Biden administration, they used to say, we're not going to go to the table unless Ukraine is there.

Now, we have a situation where the two sides at the table don\t involve the nation that was invaded in the first place as well.

So, you can see Zelenskyy's concern and outspoken concern at this point. It will be interesting to see just the details of any of any potential arrangement, particularly what would happen with the Donbas region that just a couple a little while ago, I remember the United States struck a deal to also access critical minerals in that region as well. So, seeing how the details of this work out, we'll have to watch.

RAJU: Yeah, that's going to be so instructive. But how does the American public feel about Trump, as, of course, he is now at the center of this, how this ultimately plays out determines his determinative of what his position here. What are the -- what does the American public think?

Overall, just 33 percent of all voters support the way he has handled this. This is among the lowest of the issues that tested in this Gallup poll. But even among Republicans, it is at 70 percent. And that is yeah, that's high, but that's lower than all those other issues, which is 80, 90 percent with Republican voters.

AMY WALTER, THE COOK POLITICAL REPORT PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Some of it is the clip you played leading into this of "I can solve this in 24 hours". Obviously, it is a lot more complicated than that.

The thing for me, Manu, it -- and you appreciate this as well, is watching Congress just being completely sidelined by all of this.

RAJU: Even as they're pushing sanctions.

WALTER: Even as they're pushing sanctions, that got put on the back burner, they left for recess without handling this. The president has effectively been able to make this a one-on-one deal. But this is really the president going, making a deal. Congress really sitting back, and we'll see whatever comes out of this, will this be the opportunity for congress to step in if they dislike what comes out of this.

I'm skeptical of that --

RAJU: Yeah.

WALTER: -- because they haven't stepped in at all. But the degree to which the legislative branch has now become basically ancillary in really in every domain. But in this one, it's been quite remarkable.

RAJU: Especially since, you know, there were 80 plus cosponsors --

WALTER: Yes.

RAJU: -- on this bill that would impose 500 percent sanctions, secondary sanctions on people who purchase Russian energy. Trump has suggested, much less. He was going to do that on Friday. He decided not to move ahead because this meeting is taking place.

But even so, that all that support in Congress, they're not really saying a whole lot here, which is really interesting, which is one of the reasons why there's a lot of concern in the world about this meeting with Putin is what happened the last time they met back in 2018, in Helsinki.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Would you now with the whole world watching tell President Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you warn him to never do it again?

TRUMP: So, I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Extremely strong and powerful, talking about Trump -- Putin over the intelligence committee, U.S. intelligence committee. But regardless of that, it's the general fear that Trump could get played by Putin.

HOLMES: Yes, of course. And this is kind of the all over fear that everyone even close to Donald Trump will have because of the fact you have him surrounded by people like Marco Rubio, like J.D. Vance, who do believe that Putin is a master manipulator and that he is trying to manipulate this situation, too.

[08:10:05]

Now, I will say we are slightly different situation than we were then, only given the fact that President Trump has been embarrassed by Putin now on several occasions he has said one, that he was going to solve this crisis in 48 hours, 24 hours.

The reason he hasn't is because Putin has been playing him, has been giving him, as he says, lip service, saying he'll do one thing. And then the next day he bombs another city in Ukraine.

So, if there's some skepticism there, that would be might change the dynamic. However, whether or not that comes forward when the two are actually face to face --

RAJU: Yeah.

HOLMES: -- that remains to be seen. We know Putin knows how to talk to Donald Trump.

And the other issue you mentioned, Trump trying to end these wars immediately, Gaza. And we have Trump saying, you know, we have the Israeli security cabinet approving a plan to take control of Gaza City. Netanyahu, of course, is pushing this. But Trump hasn't said much at all about it, even though European leaders, leaders around the world are condemning what Israel is doing here.

Is Trump essentially greenlighting this effort?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Well, we -- you know, when you look at when Trump first came into office, you had these statements of bravado ending the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, talking about a -- what essentially experts would say was a forced displacement of civilians from Gaza as well, and saying that he could strike a deal there.

Trump is transactional on the world stage and sees these issues as wins and losses. I don't think he sees this as a winning issue here. Therefore, you're seeing him distance from something that's becoming increasingly intractable and a humanitarian catastrophe.

RAJU: And we'll see. Ultimately, he decides to weigh in on that obviously huge, huge issue with so much at stake.

All right. Up next, fines, expulsions and arrests. Will any of those threats in Texas actually force Democrats to come home with control of the house on the line?

Plus, my interview with the top Democrat leading the charge to redraw House maps in California. What she says about their plans to fight back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:27]

RAJU: Furious Texas Republicans have launched an increasingly aggressive effort to force Democrats to return to their state after the Democrats six-day walkout has stalled President Trump's push to redraw Texas's maps and add five more GOP seats in next year's midterms. And now Republicans want the Texas Supreme Court to expel 13 of them and are even asking the FBI to track them down with threats of arrests and steep fines.

But while the Texas fight escalates, both blue and red states elsewhere are now jumping into the fray trying to gerrymander districts of their own. And Republicans now have their eyes on several states from Nebraska and Missouri all the way down to South Carolina and Florida. My excellent reporters are back. To put this in perspective.

And, Amy, I'd love to tap into your brain. You follow this so closely here. The big question is who's got the advantage?

WALTER: I know it. RAJU: Because this is now in the arms race. We're in this arms race that we have not really ever seen before. Mid-decade redistricting, which is supposed to happen at the beginning of a decade now, happening now because of -- started by Trump. Democrats are responding.

As you look at the map, which party comes out on top?

WALTER: Well, I think most realistically, we're going to see Texas. I don't know how realistic some of these other states that, we're talking about. The Florida, the South Carolina's could happen, but you've also. Got court cases that might -- they may get caught up in that.

RAJU: But I do think Republicans have more opportunities than Democrats do simply because over the years, Democratic states have passed laws that have independent commissions drawing the districts. So, they took it out of the hands of the legislature. It's very hard to get it back.

To me, the most fascinating case is going to be in California. So, for all the talk that you hear from Democrats about, we've got to fight fire with fire. We can't let Trump do this. This is outrageous. He's taken the guardrails down. It's now California voters who get a chance to determine whether or not this is how they want to fight Donald Trump. If they think fighting fire with fire is appropriate, because in order to get these new lines drawn so they could get five seats in California, just as Texas has their five seats, voters in the state have to approve this in a special election ballot initiative.

And it's not very clear that voters, even as they're upset with what they're seeing, want their state to retaliate. And that's going to be really the big question, I think going forward.

RAJU: And we're going to talk to Zoe Lofgren later in the show to hear. She's in charge, leading that effort in California. We'll hear her perspective on how she plans to deal with this.

But getting back to Amy's point here about the map and the GOP advantage here, this underscores that there are 15 states that have Democrats in power in the legislature and in the governorships. There are just eight of those states that have some Republican congressman there.

That means the ability of Democrats to redraw the lines and push them out, but really, only three of those states don't have any of those ballot initiatives or some sort of constitutional amendment to restrict this partisan gerrymandering. But then you look at the Republican states, there are far more opportunities there. There are 23 states with total GOP control, 12 have Democratic representatives, and none of the three states with independent and bipartisan commissions have any Democrats in them at all.

Really just shows you why Trump is so insistent on pushing this. J.D. Vance in Indiana. They're talking about doing this in Florida because they have more opportunities to add Republican seats in all these states.

[08:20:03]

KANNO-YOUNGS: Sure. And this is how an end around or a concern that comes with incumbency right after you win election, that your party, the controlling party of the White House, is going to face pains in the forthcoming midterms. Here, rather than just go and give speech and talk about your agenda to energize voters, you're trying to actually just increase the number of seats, which is, again, not the way this traditionally worked.

This process of redrawing maps traditionally, again, was supposed to happen when the census came out every ten years. Here, you're just seeing both parties try and gain a partisan edge through this process, even if that ends up being legal based off of the courts.

WALTER: Well, and going back to the thing we talked about -- just about the legislature and their role, the fact that state legislators are allowing this national whether -- conversation into their states. Usually, this is a one thing state legislators have, and they love to be able to do this, right, every ten years, they get to draw these lines. The fact that once again, we're seeing legislative power being ceded to the executives, and that is very new.

RAJU: You know, as a result, there's all this outcry among blue state Republicans like Mike Lawler, Kevin -- in New York, Kevin Kiley in California, that -- that they're going to be squeezed out because of this.

WALTER: Yeah.

RAJU: Is Trump even considering the fact that this could have ramifications for those members who are essentially the majority makers in the House?

HIOLMES: No.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: I think this goes to a strategy that is outside of just, you know, trying to gerrymander your way into more seats. This is a strategy that we also saw in 2024, which is there are voters that are never going to vote for Donald Trump or Republicans. So how can we fix the system to get more votes for Donald Trump or Republicans?

And you saw part of that being they had an entirely different reach out plan for Republicans to go into communities of generally white men and get them to vote. People who had never voted before, knowing that no one's going to, no one who says they're not going to vote for Donald Trump is going to change their mind based on anything. This is another way to change the system to benefit them.

RAJU: And meantime, in Texas, we've seen these quorums, these walkouts, these boycotts happen before. It's happened several times. This one is six days and counting. The last time was 38 days in 2021 over voting legislation that Democrats protested there. How long is this Democratic boycott going to last?

WALTER: I know beyond the threats on for legal action. Remember, these are part time legislators. They have jobs back at home. And of course, many of them, they have families. They have responsibilities. It's a lot to ask somebody to leave the state without coming back and dealing with that.

RAJU: And losing salary --

WALTER: Losing salary, exactly.

RAJU: -- fines, and we'll see how long that lasts. And Republicans, if and when they push that plan through.

All right. Next, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just slashed half a billion dollars in funding for developing new vaccines. So, is he breaking the promises he made to get confirmed as the nation's top public health official?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:27:34]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY. News reports have claimed that I'm anti-vaccine or any industry, I am neither. I'm not going to substitute my judgment for science.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: That was Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his confirmation hearings for secretary of Health and Human Services earlier this year, and despite saying he was not anti-vax, many of his moves on the job have sent shockwaves across the public health community, including one this past week to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for vaccine development.

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell joins me now.

So, Meg, is RFK Jr. walking back, some of the promises he made.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manu, one of the earliest promises that RFK Jr. made as he was coming into this position was that he wasn't going to take anybody's vaccines away from them. But when it comes to COVID vaccines, there's a lot of confusion over who will be eligible to get an updated booster this fall. And that's because of regulatory changes at the FDA that Kennedy oversaw, as well as changes to the CDC's recommendations on who should get updated COVID boosters.

And, of course, we should also mention that in June, RFK Jr. replaced the entire panel of outside vaccine advisers to the CDC, putting in a new slate of people, some of whom have held anti-vaccine views. And at their first meeting, one of their first orders of business was to say that they want to reexamine the childhood vaccine schedule.

Now, of course, this is something that public health experts point out safely protects children against a number of different dangerous diseases. We also are expecting at some point soon, the Trump administration will release the next stage of its Make America Healthy Again report. And in the first part of that report, they focused on the childhood vaccine schedule.

So, it's possible this could be sort of a next leg of RFK Jr.'s focus on vaccines, which is alarming to the public health world -- Manu.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:29:38]

RAJU: All right. Meg Tirrell, thank you so much for that.

And my excellent reporters are back. So look, Trump 2020 was touting vaccine development. COVID vaccines. He was -- he was -- he thought this was going to help him win reelection there.

And then now we're watching the dismantling of this by RFK Jr. among all these other steps that he has taken. And as Zolan, your paper put it this weekend, he just shrugs, Trump is, as Kennedy undermines his vaccine legacy.

That's really it. Trump is watching him do this and is not doing much to stop him.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, NEW YORK TIMES WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It wasn't too long ago that we saw Donald Trump actually holding up his administration in the first in their first term in office, that their work, getting out the COVID vaccine so fast, as an example of his government actually working for folks.

There was a time during the campaign that he was touting, you know, vaccines as well. And now we have a situation that scientists really feared. Scientists across the globe. And that's that you were going to have a situation where now bringing in RFK Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services we're seeing these cuts to these programs that scientists have said are so important in guarding the United States against any sort of disease outbreak.

It's really a concern that you would hear from experts studying pandemic preparedness. And they say we're now at that moment. And it is just shocking when you square again Donald Trump, first term -- Donald Trump, even during the campaign that you were following so much.

And now a situation where he has somebody who has long been known as a vaccine skeptic, leading the nation's health department.

RAJU: Yes. And how does the White House view him? Is it vulnerability or is it an asset to the administration? Perhaps we can learn a little bit from the polling to answer that question.

Among Independent voters, the question is, have RFK Jr.'s vaccine policy, will it make people safe, not safe, less safe. Less safe -- 41 percent a plurality there. But 29 percent still don't know, but still significant number less safe.

And then what about MAGA supporters and non MAGA supporters? This is from a KFF poll asking that question. These are Republican voters, ones who identify themselves as MAGA, ones who don't identify themselves as MAGA. 77 percent of MAGA supporters trust RFK Jr. more than their doctor, compared to 75 percent who trust their doctor.

And that is flipped when it comes to non MAGA Republicans. 84 percent of non MAGA Republicans support their doctor versus RFK Jr. just 48 percent.

What does that tell you about how this is translating within the White House and how they view RFK Jr.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, one of the things to keep in mind here is that there was a lot of speculation during the transition that RFK Jr. would not get a position as secretary because of the fact that he is so volatile, because of the fact that he is really so highly charged and so many people feel strongly against him.

That ended up playing into RFK's favor, which was that Donald Trump said, you helped me get elected, and now I'm going to reward you with the spot that I promised you.

And part of that is because of this MAGA base, this idea of make America healthy again. Donald Trump actually believes that that make America wealthy again helped propel him into the White House.

He was trying to siphon votes wherever he could. He believed this was a sect that wouldn't have come out and voted for him unless he had endorsed RFK and had his support.

Now, it is going to be interesting to see how this plays out in the long run. Right now, what you're seeing is Donald Trump shrugging it off, as that article said, saying, oh, that happened a long time ago. I'm going to meet with him on it.

They never met, as far as I can tell. I talked to several White House officials who couldn't tell me that a meeting took place. But how this plays out in the long run.

RAJU: Yes. And that's so interesting because it's Independents. Democrats, Republicans who are non MAGA supporters have concerns, not the MAGA supporters and those are the people that Trump is speaking to there.

But what about the senators that he convinced RFK Jr. convinced to win confirmation, including many who were concerned about his views on vaccines? Bill Cassidy, the most significant among them, sits on the Senate

Finance Committee, could have stopped this nomination there, but ultimately he supported him after getting those assurances on vaccines.

He tweeted after the announcement of this cancellation of the vaccine development, he said it's unfortunate that the secretary just canceled half a billion dollars' worth of work wasting the money, which is already invested.

But there have been so many controversies over the last several months that Cassidy has responded to, whether it's how RFK Jr. has handled the measles outbreaks, his plan to lay off 10,000 employees from Health and Human Services, and his firing of key members of the vaccine advisory panel.

I asked Cassidy about all of those.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I'm very concerned about the measles. The vaccine is safe. They need to speak to the position.

RAJU: Should RFK say that, though? Should RFK say that?

CASSIDY: I think everybody should be emphasizing it.

RAJU: How do you feel about the HHS restructuring and the firings? The HHS firings, 10,000 people. That's a lot of jobs.

CASSIDY: Yes. I'm trying to understand it.

RAJU: So are you supportive of it?

CASSIDY: Well, I'm like I said, I'm investigating.

[08:34:50]

RAJU: Do you regret your vote on RFK Jr.?

CASSIDY: You know, I've, Manu I've -- you can refer to our tweet on that.

And we -- I know you're asking different questions but you're trying to give us something similar. And this is not going to come (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: That last comment came after the firing of those vaccine advisers. But he has a primary challenge, which really explains all of it, or maybe a good amount of it.

AMY WALTER, COOK POLITICAL REPORTER: Explains pretty much everything, his decision to support RFK Jr. in the very beginning. Look, I think the big question will be, as Kristen pointed out during the campaign, Trump thought that RFK Jr. brought along a lot of voters and he rewarded him for that by getting him this position.

Is Trump going to do the same for Senator Cassidy and give him his endorsement, which is, of course, very helpful when you have a primary, even though Cassidy, of course, voted to impeach him in the first term.

RAJU: Yes. And I'm sure Trump is, of course, he remembers that. And Cassidy does as well.

All right. Thanks, guys. Great discussion.

Up next for us, a big week in California is ahead as Democrats there race to respond to Texas. I'll go one on one with the Democrat leading the charge.

[08:35:59]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Democrats in California are under the gun, racing to gerrymander House districts of their own to respond to Texas Republicans. With the House majority on the line, they plan to release their new House maps this week, and the state legislature must act fast by August 22nd to turn it into a November ballot initiative.

So what are the implications of all of this? And what is the ultimate goal?

Joining me now is someone who has been deeply involved in California's redistricting plans. The chair of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining me today.

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): Happy to do it.

RAJU: Absolutely. So there are lots of questions about what California plans to do to redraw the district lines for House seats in the midterms. And I know the California House speaker has promised to unveil these maps this coming week.

But you've had a key role in these discussions. So what can you tell our viewers about what the plan is in California to give your party more seats in the House?

LOFGREN: Well, first, let me say that we, as a state, embraced independent redistricting commissions. And we weren't looking any of us to change our seats. But when Texas and Trump move forward to rig the next election, we decided to take a look at what we might do in response.

And the first question was, could you even consistent with the Voting Rights Act, because that's a value were not willing to trample on, could you actually pick up five Republican seats? And looking at it, we discovered that, yes, indeed, you could, consistent with the Voting Rights Act put five Republican seats in play. We are working with, the state legislators, the leadership there, as

well as the governor. We've had several discussions with, some members that they've designated to work with us, and we're sharing the information we have.

Of course, they're the ones that have to legally adopt maps, but I think we're a team effort on this. And the delegation has looked at what's possible, and I say we're unanimous that we want to move forward.

We can't allow California to be attacked continually by Trump without a response. I mean, he's stripped millions of Californians from their health care.

RAJU: Congresswoman, Congressman -- we've heard that these five Republicans in particular are going to be targeted by this plan. That includes Congressman Ken Calvert, Darrell Issa, Kevin Kiley, David Valadao, and Doug Lamalfa. Is that accurate?

LOFGREN: Well, I'm just going to let the legislators, reveal their proposals next week. But, you know, there's only nine Republicans in California, so that's a pretty good guess.

RAJU: Yes. I mean, could there be a sixth Republican targeted potentially like Republican Young Kim, who represents parts of Orange County.

LOFGREN: Well, I'm just going to let the speaker of the assembly and the pro tempore go ahead and release the data next week. I don't want to step on their lines.

But I think, our goal has been number one, to be consistent with the Voting Rights Act. Also, to keep in mind the principles that our commission utilized trying to keep cities and counties together and the like, and then to match what Texas did, which is the five seats.

RAJU: Congresswoman, last year, more than 6 million voters in California actually voted for Donald Trump. He won nearly 40 percent of the vote in your state. But if you have your way, your party has your way, there will just be four of the 52 seats in the U.S. House delegation occupied by Republican.

So I'm wondering, are you concerned at all that those 6 million voters could be disenfranchised in your state?

LOFGREN: We are going to put whatever map is agreed to on the ballot. California voters will make that decision, not our delegation and not the legislature.

[08:44:48]

But going back to my first comment, we did not initiate this. Trump and the Republicans are not only targeting Texas, they're now talking about Ohio, perhaps Indiana, Florida to try and rig this election. And we're not just going to sit back and do nothing in response to that. RAJU: Yes. And I understand your argument that you are responding to

Texas. But look, if both parties go down this road and gerrymander district after district in state after state, as it seems, that's where we're headed, the general election voters and it's Independent voters Congresswoman, who could actually lose out here because the politicians are choosing their voters on which voters should participate in those elections.

I'm wondering, are you concerned? Isn't that dangerous for democracy?

LOFGREN: We are for independent commissions. In fact, I'm the author of the bill in the House of Representatives to require independent commissions in every state.

When Democrats were in the majority, we actually included independent redistricting in our big reform measure, HR-1. Not a single Republican voted for that.

So, you know, Democrats are for that, but it's the Republicans that have initiated this. If they stop, we'd be happy to stop and build independent commissions in every state.

RAJU: And you mentioned that. So essentially you're going against what you believe, are you not? And pushing this plan in California, you've been a champion on the independent commission.

LOFGREN: What I believe, is that we should not be a punching bag to Donald Trump. The state of California is losing big because of Trump policies.

He has refused to provide the disaster relief that every state gets. He's cut millions of Californians away from their health insurance. He took nutrition programs away from schools. He just reduced funding for science projects in every university in the state of California.

So we're going to stand up for Californians. He needs a -- he needs a break. And that break will be Democrats controlling the House of Representatives after next year's election.

RAJU: And, Congresswoman, I want to -- a lot of red states that haven't imposed the same kind of limits on gerrymandering that many blue states have. But now, as we're in this arms race of sorts, do you think it was a mistake for Democrats to enact some of those restrictions and essentially unilaterally disarm?

LOFGREN: Well, we were happy with independent commissions. And as I say, we were trying to institute that across the United States. The Republicans stopped us from doing that when we were in the majority. The Senate blocked it.

I -- if we gain control again, which I hope we do, I would like to institute independent commissions for House seats in every state. That would be a goal of mine.

But right now it's not an option for Democrats to just be a punching bag for Donald Trump. RAJU: So, Congressman, do you think that the outcome of this fight

that's happening right now in state after state, this redistricting fight to redraw these House lines? Do you think that this will decide the next House majority?

LOFGREN: I think the voters will decide the next House majority. And I do think, you know, they wouldn't be doing this if they weren't afraid of losing the House.

(CROSSTALKING)

RAJU: This is going to have a huge impact.

LOFGREN: -- hugely unpopular.

RAJU: But this is going to have a huge impact on the next majority, is it not? The outcome of this fight?

LOFGREN: They are they are in trouble because what they're doing is deeply unpopular in the United States. From the tariffs, which is crushing small businesses across the country raising prices for ordinary Americans, taking health care away from Americans so they can give tax breaks to billionaires. Those are not popular policies.

That's why they're engaging in this rigging, because they don't want to be held accountable. Our job is to hold them accountable.

RAJU: All right. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren from California, thank you so much in joining me and sharing your perspective over this very, very significant fight. Thank you so much.

LOFGREN: Thank you.

RAJU: Coming up, what President Trump is now saying about pot and the high expectations he's setting.

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RAJU: We top our political radar this Sunday by getting into the weeds. President Trump has been privately discussing how to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana. Now, Trump bluntly told a recent gathering of donors that, quote, that's something we're going to look at. That's according to two people who were there.

Trump has in the past signaled support for removing marijuana from the same legal category as dangerous narcotics like heroin. But to succeed, of course, it will need to be a joint effort.

Next, could Trump mark -- tomorrow mark the beginning of the end for the penny. Back in February, Trump called for the end of penny production, calling it, quote, "wasteful", and it made the Treasury Department confirm they'd be phased out.

Now, the Treasury secretary is suggesting the next step is coming as soon as tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: For those of you who have an interest in it, I will be going to Philadelphia and killing the penny on Monday.

So we will -- we will -- we will -- no one will be making pennies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And finally, also tomorrow, President Trump, writing on Truth Social he'll hold a press conference that quote, "will essentially stop violent crime in Washington, D.C.

Now, this past week, the Trump administration ordered a surge in federal law enforcement to D.C., even as he has flirted with a federal takeover of the district. But last year, violent crime in D.C. was actually at a 30-year-low.

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

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

Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH. Dana's guests include U.S. ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

And later tonight, remember the remarkable life of John F. Kennedy Jr. And his lasting legacy in a new "CNN ORIGINAL SERIES, AMERICAN PRINCE JFK JR." That's tonight at 10 p.m. on CNN.

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

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