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Nine Days Left: Biggest Races Of The Year In Final Sprint; Trump Puts Canada In Penalty Box Over "Hostile" Reagan Ad; Interview with Sen. David McCormick (R-PA); GOP Grows Uneasy over Rising Healthcare Premiums and Shutdown; Elon Musk and GOP Senator Pressure Trump over NASA. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired October 26, 2025 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:10]
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MANU RAJU, CNN HOST (voice-over): Final stretch. As early voting gets underway and charges of islamophobia rocked one race, both sides roll out the heavy hitters. So, will voters give Trump a reality check?
And slapshot. President Trump puts Canada and Americans' wallets in the penalty box as he lands in Asia for a high stakes economic trip.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think we're going to have a good deal with China. They want to make a deal.
RAJU: But will he rock the boat overseas? Plus, health scare with the House still out of session, are rising health care costs rattling the GOP. My new reporting as I go one on one with a swing state Republican.
SEN. DAVE MCCORMICK (R-PA): They're I think irresponsibly imposing pain on the American people.
INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.
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RAJU (on camera): Good morning and welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Manu Raju.
It's time to bring out the heavy hitters. With just nine days until this year's marquee elections and President Trump facing his first major test at the ballot box, early voting is now underway in the three key races. And some of the biggest names in politics are now barnstorming through New Jersey, New York and Virginia.
And later today, Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will rally with New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
In the New Jersey governor's race, Democrat Mikie Sherrill was joined by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, while the Republican candidate in New Jersey, Jack Ciattarelli, got a boost from President Trump at a rally just a couple days ago. And coming soon, former President Barack Obama.
So, let's break this all down with my excellent panel of reporters. "Semafor's" David Weigel, political reporter and author Molly Ball, Tia Mitchell of "The Atlanta Journal Constitution", and John Bresnahan of "Punchbowl News".
Good morning to you all.
JOHN BRESNAHAN, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Good morning.
RAJU: You guys have been on the campaign trail. Mr. Weigel, you have, too, as well. You've seen what's been going on.
Just a sense of where things are in these two key races for governor here in New Jersey. A six-point race, tighter race there between Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli. And in Virginia, the Democratic candidate, Abigail Spanberger, has a pretty healthy lead. Most polls do bear that out.
David, you've been on the campaign trail. Is there any sense that Republicans could pull off an upset in either of these races? I mean, we know campaigns, things break late in campaigns. Are things breaking late in a positive direction at all for the Republicans in either of these races?
DAVID WEIGEL, SEMAFOR NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: The one exception, the stories of the last month have not been good for Republicans, with the one exception being Jay Jones' text scandal, Democrat running for attorney general in Virginia. That did knock Democrats off course.
RAJU: When you said very terrible things about Republican or Republican state house leader.
WEIGEL: Yes.
RAJU: About shooting him and then later apologized for those text messages when they were leaked out just recently.
WEIGEL: Yeah. And you can tell that Democrats are really unhappy with how that played out. Spanberger is not concealed. Her annoyance that this is this is crowded the news out and she's getting asked every day.
However, you saw the polling. You also see -- you're not seeing Republican surrogates flood down to these states. There is a quiet acknowledgment that these are not places to test the president's popularity. These are not ideal places. They'd much rather the first election testing his popularity be in Ohio or something. In New Jersey, there is Democratic angst because four years ago, Phil Murphy, led by much more than she did and barely won reelection. They do think the electorate has changed since then.
But what -- what's this electorate going to look like? This is the first time you're going to see New Jersey vote since Democrats did so much worse in the suburbs of New York, did much worse in nonwhite places like Union County and Essex County. Did -- Obama is going to Newark to excite the Democratic base that has been sleeping on Democrats, even in special elections. They've won, and Republicans are hoping, can they thread that?
If this looks like a Trump electorate, like Democrats are less excited. Can they win? But Democrats have been really excited in every -- every news cycle has been feeding these this new Democratic coalition of educated white liberals who are on fire and angry all the time about what's happening in D.C.
They have been turning out. Turnout is very good for them in Virginia so far. We're going to see how it is in New Jersey.
RAJU: And we'll be able to see the liability that Democrats still carry over from the last election, and particularly when it comes to New Jersey and whether Trump can replicate what he did. I mean, he only lost New Jersey by six points to Harris. He did improve on his performance about 10 points from 2020. Then Trump has been leaning into New Jersey. He did this rally just a couple of days ago. He's been putting out Truth Social posts.
And Jack Ciattarelli himself, the Republican candidate, has been embracing Trump. What do you make of that strategy given that look, yes, Trump is doing done better in New Jersey, but it's still a blue state. It's still a state that he lost multiple times. Smart move to embrace President Trump at this moment?
MOLLY BALL, POLITICAL REPORTER AND AUTHOR: Well, I think it's a reflection of how the Republican Party has changed. If you remember, Jack Ciattarelli was also the nominee four years ago, and he ran away from President Trump. And there's a feeling within the party that that ship has sailed.
If you're going to be a Republican these days, there's only one kind of Republican, and that's a Trump Republican.
[08:05:13]
And so especially because the dynamic that Dave was talking about, right, the only way these Republicans are going to have a chance to win is if they can get that Trump base out and voting. Otherwise, the Democrats advantage, their demographic advantage in a low turnout election is just going to be insurmountable. So, you've got to get those Trump voters, including the new Trump voters that showed up for Republicans in 2024, got to find some way to convince them that this is an election that they should vote in, even though Trump is not on the ballot.
So maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. But if you're Jack Ciattarelli and the dynamic is against you, you got to try everything you can. RAJU: And from the Democratic side, you have these profile, these two
more centrist, very cautious Democrats, Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger. Is that -- is that what the Democratic Party wants at this moment, or do they want the more fire breathing, anti-Trump, progressive? I mean, I guess this will -- this election will test that.
TIA MITCHELL, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Will test that, because then in New York City, which quite frankly, the population of New York City is pretty comparable to the population of the entire state of New Jersey or the entire state of Virginia. And of course, they have a very progressive nominee from the Democratic Party for mayor.
So, I think some of it comes down to just how the primaries play out. And you can't always read too much into it. But I do think the results of, quite frankly, all three of these elections are going to give Democrats a lot of insight as to where voters are, how far you can take them, whether you are progressive candidate or someone who comes from a more eccentric standpoint.
What is the messaging on Trump that is going to resonate with voters? And of course, the most important thing for all of these races is the turnout. Getting your voters out, whether, you know, there are a lot of Democrats that are going to possibly hold their nose and vote for Mamdani, even though they think he's too progressive.
And of course, on the other way, there are some Democrats who maybe want more from Spanberger or Mikie Sherrill in particular, think they're, you know, not the strong particular Mikie Sherrill thinks she's not the strongest candidate, but they're going to vote for her anyways because they want a Democrat to win.
RAJU: Meantime, there's this development on Friday about Democrats in Virginia calling for a special session to get involved in this redistricting fight that were seeing play out in state after state. Trump initiated this fight in Texas.
And then California Democrats trying to respond in kind. There's actually a ballot initiative also on the ballot in November in that state. The polls there show Democrats are -- have a very good chance of winning in that ballot, 62-38 is the CBS poll from just a couple days ago about whether they support that measure.
But when you're looking at the redistricting wars, the Democrats are a are in a deficit in trying to fight -- to keep up with Republicans here in a number of states in which Trump has been pushing.
But in Virginia. The question is, how does this impact the governor's race as well? Winsome Earle-Sears, the lieutenant governor, says she's got to come off the campaign trail and deal with this special session. And Abigail Spanberger is not even commenting about whether she thinks this is a good idea or not, to actually do it.
BRESNAHAN: She commented earlier in the year, she did -- she said she didn't like it. This has come kind of at the last second. The Virginia Democrats
control the legislature in Virginia, narrow margins, but they control it because of a technical possibility, because the technically they're in a kind of an emergency session. They can do this, right, even as the election is started -- early voting has started in Virginia already.
Governor Youngkin was on yesterday. He did an interview, I think WTOP or something, local, just, you know, breathing fire on this. I'm going to do everything I can to stop it, but it may be too late for them.
I do think you -- I mean, this is not the only place as happened. You have Illinois, Maryland, where Democrats are under pressure to do something, to respond to Texas, to respond to -- they're talking about Florida, North Carolina. I mean, there's -- there's redistricting fights everywhere now.
And the thing is, in the long term, what is it going to do to Congress? And don't forget, the Supreme Court case out there. The Supreme Court case out there on voting rights, on whether you can have a majority/minority districts, opportunity districts, they call them. And that could be a huge change.
RAJU: This is massive impact. And it just, you know, again, redistricting fights typically happen at the beginning of a decade, not in the middle of a decade. This is totally unusual and has massive ramifications.
Also New York. So, we've seen what happened in the last couple of days. And Zohran Mamdani's race and this back and forth he's had with the former Governor Cuomo.
Cuomo said in a radio interview. God forbid another nine 9/11. Can you imagine? Mamdani in the seat? The radio host responded, Sid Rosenberg, he'd be cheering. Cuomo paused and laughed and said, that's another problem.
[08:10:03]
So, charges of islamophobia have been all -- have been dominating this race the last couple of days. This is what Mamdani said last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE: And this is all the Republican Party has to offer. Cheap jokes about islamophobia so as to not have to recognize what people are living through, attempts to pit people's humanity against each other. And I think whether it's J.D. Vance or it's Andrew Cuomo, it is the same kind of politics. It's a politics of division.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: And J.D. Vance himself responded to Mamdani. He gave speech outside a mosque on Friday, raising concerns about islamophobia and how his family was treated post 9/11, and Vance said, "According to Zohran, the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie, who got some allegedly bad looks."
This is getting pretty ugly.
WEIGEL: Yes, but I think the vice president knows what he's doing, which is helping Mamdani at the moment when people -- people have been voting this weekend, I imagine Bernie and AOC are going to respond to this today. If the story line is that Cuomo is so offensive that you, as a Democrat with conservative Mamdani, need to vote for Mamdani will help him and the White House, did they come out and say this? No, but we all know they'd rather have a figure like Mamdani branding the Democrats for the next year.
And progressives say bring it on. They think he'll be a success. But that's how I read that tweet.
BALL: Well, and you hear what Mamdani cleverly did in that interview, positioning this as Republican, right?
WEIGEL: Yes.
BALL: Mamdani wants to remind people he's the Democratic nominee, even though Andrew Cuomo is also -- was also a two-term Democratic governor. But he wants to position this as Democrats versus Republicans because New York is an overwhelmingly Democratic City. And that's been the reason that he's up so much in the polls.
He is also, though, a personification of the changing demographics of the New York City electorate. This is a city that has nearly a million Muslim voters now. That's a population that's been growing. The Jewish population has been declining. Andrew Cuomo trying very hard both in the primary and now to convince Jewish voters that Mamdani is a threat, in part with these sort of dog whistles about his Muslim faith. And so, the question is, do the changing demographics make that not a successful strategy, as it might once have been?
RAJU: If you want to weigh in?
MITCHELL: Well, I just think there are a lot of Jewish voters who are also concerned about the language that's being used towards Mamdani about Palestine in general, and maybe the messaging that Cuomo thinks will appeal to Jewish voters isn't the same messaging that many Jewish voters want to hear right now.
RAJU: We'll see how it ultimately impacts things come nine days from now.
All right. Next, Trump is icing out America's neighbor from the north, all ahead of what could be his most important meeting of the year.
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[08:17:08]
RAJU: Overnight, President Trump touched down on Asia on a high stakes diplomatic trip, signing a peace accord with Cambodia and Thailand during a summit in Malaysia. But the world is on edge for Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this Thursday, perhaps Trump's most significant meeting this year.
On his way to Asia, though, Trump turned his attention to a nation closer to home, U.S. ally Canada, slapping an additional 10 percent tariff on America's neighbor to the north after the government of Ontario released an ad featuring an anti-tariff speech by Ronald Reagan.
My panel is back. Well, first, on this meeting with Xi, this is what Trump said about that this morning in Malaysia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think we're going to have a deal with China. We meet, as you know, in South Korea, with President Xi. I think we're going to have a good deal with China, and they want to make a deal, and we want to make a deal. We've agreed to meet. We're going to meet then later in China, and we're going to meet in in the U.S. in either Washington or, or at Mar-a-Lago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: And the reason, of course, is that the world is on edge is that Trump had threatened to impose 130 percent tariffs on Chinese exports. That was back in October.
How big? How set the stakes for this meeting coming up?
BALL: Huge, huge. And there's -- and there's some reporting this morning that there's been some kind of preliminary agreement on a framework.
RAJU: There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes.
BALL: A lot of work behind the scenes, but nothing -- but even this meeting with Xi that Trump talked about is not firmly on the books yet. We do not know for sure. It hasn't been confirmed from the Chinese side that they're going to meet. But I think that underscores the fact that the stakes for Trump are really high here, because he has been saying he can get some kind of deal all year, but he hasn't been able to close it.
And because of the size of the Chinese market, because the size of the Chinese economy, because of the amount of U.S. imports that come from China, just the impacts are enormous of any kind of tariff on China. So, this is something that the entire U.S. business community is sort of hanging on tenterhooks watching every move of these negotiations, hoping they can work something out, because these tariffs have were already seeing them drive up a lot of prices -- prices for consumer goods, prices for raw materials. And if and the uncertainty as well as the tariffs have been a real obstacle for businesses.
RAJU: Meantime, Trump went ahead and for another big trading partner, one of Americas biggest trading partner, Canada, posted this last night on Truth Social, "Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, I'm increasing the tariff on Canada by 10 percent over and above what they are paying now. Thank you for your attention to this matter."
Of course, this comes in the aftermath of this feud with the government of Ontario, released this ad of Ronald Reagan, who is long time been a critic of tariffs, who were using his words. They said the White House said his words were misrepresented. It's not clear to me exactly how they were misrepresented, other than maybe using it a bit out of order.
But because of this personal sleight from the president feels as a result, this could have huge ramifications on Americans.
MITCHELL: Right. I think to me, that's even bigger than, you know, whether Ronald Reagan was taken out of context or whether it was a smart move by Canada to, you know, speak to Trump. This was the way they decided to try to make their case with Trump was through this ad that probably was never going to go over well.
So, you know, we can talk strategy. But at the end of the day, this is about now that there are policy implications. There are tariffs that, you know, again, are taxed. They're going to trickle down to everyday Americans because Trump feels slighted by that ad.
And that's kind of just the latest example of how, you know, policy decisions are often tied to personal grievances regarding just the president, you know, not even, you know, a general attack on America, but one man feels attacked. And now all of us have higher taxes. And that's kind of how Trump has been governing.
RAJU: Yeah. And Canada said they're going to pull back on that ad. It did run last night in game two of the World Series. I know you were watching that, Bresnahan, but the question, too, is about how the political the political impact is of all this. The economy always is the first top tier issue in every single election cycle. So how do Americans feel?
Republicans overwhelmingly approve of Trump's handling of the economy. Democrats, it's amazing just how opposite that is 98 percent Democrats disapprove, 88 percent Republicans are approved. But it's that independent number that's going to make Republicans nervous. They're just 30 percent of independents approve of Trump's handling of the economy.
BRESNAHAN: His numbers on the economy overall have slid significantly. That's what I was thinking when we were talking about before Virginia and New Jersey races. Will that show? Will that play with the ICE stuff, with the immigration issue? I don't know.
But on this issue, this is -- this is -- this was the reason Trump got elected. The economy and fighting inflation and this none of this stuff helps that. But they've been very -- as Molly was talking about Wall Street and U.S. manufacturers and U.S. businesses, U.S. importers are very closely watching the China issue, and they're watching, you know, Canadas our second biggest, I think is our biggest export market and our biggest import market -- even dwarfs what we do with China.
So, this is a huge economic issue that affects every American, drives, you know, we have car plants in Canada. We have all sorts of manufacturing where they do, you know, they do some assembly there and some in the United States and back and forth. And, you know, steel, aluminum, these are huge issues. So, impact every American down the line.
RAJU: And meantime, while all this is going on overseas, the economic impact, there's so many headlines in Trump world that just fall off the front pages. And just a matter of days because of so many other things that are happening. He demolished the East Wing of the White House, raised $350 million for that new ballroom.
And then there was this $130 million donation from an anonymous friend to pay for service members. It's unclear whether that was legal or not, because those people are military members are not being paid during this government shutdown. Military strikes on the boats in Pacific and the Caribbean.
And he's considering plans to target cocaine facilities in Venezuela. Some of these things are clearly without the consent of Congress. Clearly not. Or pure violation or potential violation of federal law. Trump is still doing whatever he wants, and that's just been the hallmark of his second term in office.
WEIGEL: The theme is congress under Republicans giving up its power to Trump. Tariffs is the most impactful example for everyone watching the show. I am watching what the Supreme Court does on tariffs because it's the majority in the court. It's general position for the year has been if the president wants to do it and he says it's an emergency, he has the power to do it.
No one is harmed, as the president would be if he's not allowed to use his power. If that doesn't happen, that would surprise Republicans who believe that that if American voters, 49.9 percent of them voted for Trump, then he has the right to do whatever he wants. And that has put Democrats not in a good position. They're not popular. But as the party that would benefit if any of this doesn't work.
RAJU: Yeah. I mean, in that -- if he loses that Supreme Court case on tariffs, oh boy, that will be huge ramifications. They may have to reimburse other countries will be a big, big mess. But Trump's been winning in the Supreme Court. So, we'll see. Ultimately happens a huge case ahead.
All right. Coming up, I sit down with a Republican senator who won a nail biter race last year, nearly a month into the government shutdown. He has some choice words for Democrats, but which Democrat is he actually praising? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:28:59]
RAJU: It's day 26 of the government shutdown and there is no end in sight. President Trump is out of town for a week and so is the House, with just days until two looming deadlines, food stamp benefits are about to run out and a key health care enrollment period begins. This week, I caught up with Senator David McCormick, a Pennsylvania
Republican who won one of the closest Senate races in the country last year, and he had some pointed words for Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: There are polls that show that more Americans think its Republicans who are more responsible than Democrats. There's really blame going around on both sides. Voters are just not happy about this situation. So I'm wondering, given that this is dragging on and Democrats are just not budging from their position, is it time for Republicans to sit down and negotiate right now and try to figure out a way out of this?
[08:30:00]
SEN. DAVID MCCORMICK (R-PA): Well, honestly, I think Republicans have just -- are in the -- on the right. We're in a reasonable position here. We voted 12 times to open the government.
And the thing we --
RAJU: And they say -- they're saying no, they want to negotiate right now.
MCCORMICK: Right. So the thing we're asking for is for them to vote for a continuing resolution, same budget to keep the government open. That's something Republicans supported 14 times during the Biden administration.
What's being asked by the Democrats is to essentially politicize something that's not been political, and to use the government and the pain inflicted on ordinary citizens to get leverage in a negotiation of pulling back some of the things that are in the Big, Beautiful Bill and extending the COVID subsidies for Obamacare.
RAJU: But you're a business guy. You have to work with people. Why not work with Democrats right now? Listen to what their concerns are, try to cut a deal, reopen the government.
MCCORMICK: Well, the main reason is you can't negotiate with a terrorist. So what's happening right now is that the Democrats are trying to ask for something extremely unreasonable.
We can have any discussion. The president said this, Majority Leader Thune said this. You can have any negotiation discussion you want about extending health care benefits, but you can't start with you're going to shut down the government to get that.
So let's open up the government and we can get to the business of determining what we should do with the health care subsidies and what we should do with the appropriations process.
RAJU: We'll see if there's ultimately a deal.
You said they're acting like a terrorist. Are they are they acting like terrorists right now?
MCCORMICK: They're -- they're -- I think irresponsibly imposing pain on the American people, doing the basic thing that government should do, which is support those essential services. They're holding that hostage to try to get a political win. And that's just unacceptable.
And the basic thing you should ask yourself is if what they're doing is reasonable why did Republicans support clean continuing resolutions 14 times under the previous administration?
RAJU: Let's talk about what they're demanding, the Democrats. One of the things they're calling for is an extension of these Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID era in health care costs.
If those expire, those subsidies, there are estimates that in your state, in Pennsylvania, that premiums could go up by 82 percent if they expire. Does that concern you?
MCCORMICK: Sure. I mean, health care costs in general concern me. Obamacare 15 years ago was a failure. Prices are ratcheting out of control. You have less access than was promised and you have less quality than was promised. So in achieving its goal, Obamacare has failed.
Now, the subsidies were meant to try to essentially overcome some of that failure. I am worried about the implications, particularly for working families, because a lot of people in Pennsylvania live paycheck to paycheck. And if their premiums go up dramatically, that's going to be a big deal.
RAJU: Should they -- should you support extending those for one year?
MCCORMICK: I certainly support having that conversation, particularly as it affects working families. There's a number of people that are getting subsidies that make significant more income. And so I think we need to have a conversation about what makes the most sense.
But certainly I'm worried about working families and what the premium expense is going to be to them.
RAJU: Prices are still increasing, including groceries. and there's this trade war going on, potentially tariffs going on against China. Are you -- can your constituents in Pennsylvania -- can they stomach higher prices like this?
MCCORMICK: Well, I think -- I think you're wrong about that in the following sense. Prices under President Biden went up more than 20 percent. Inflation was up. Real wages --
RAJU: Inflation is still ticked up.
MCCORMICK: Inflation is down significantly from where it was under the Biden administration. We need to make sure we continue to focus on fuel, focus on groceries. There's no doubt that we still have inflation, but inflation has come
down significantly from where it was. And the best way to get affordability under way is to deliver on the promises of tax relief for middle class families, which we did in the Big Beautiful Bill, to get foreign direct investment coming into the country which we have now at levels beyond what's ever happened before, get fair trading deals in place which is happening through those trade negotiations.
So the way I think about it is you think about a sailboat, there's lots of wind at our back -- deregulation, energy dominance, the tax certainty, the foreign direct investment and the more certainty we get on the trade deals, I think the more the economy is going to continue to pick up. But the economic growth now has been extraordinary.
RAJU: There's all these things that Trump is doing without the consent of Congress, whether its demolishing what's happening in the East Wing, the strikes in the Pacific Ocean, whether it's, you know, dismantling federal agencies, even firing a member of the Federal Reserve Board.
Congress has really not had many hearings about any of this. Should there be a check from this branch of government?
MCCORMICK: Well, there is a check. But what you're saying is exactly what you weren't saying, what the media wasn't saying, and what Democrats weren't saying under Joe Biden.
So, I mean, you have this moment where --
[08:34:45]
RAJU: You often see -- I mean, you often see a party -- one party does not do much oversight of the other party. But you're new, you're a freshman here over the same party.
MCCORMICK: Wait a second. No, no.
(CROSSTALKING)
MCCORMICK: But you're saying a bunch of things are happening that are outside the boundaries. I'm saying no, no, no, I don't believe that. I could go through each one of those.
But what I'm first saying is that you, the media, and also the Democrats, when there was concerns about Biden's senility and whether he was with it in the Oval Office, or when there's anti-Semitism or when there's socialism. Democrats who are saying all these, you know, speak up, aren't saying anything now. They capitulate completely.
So, there's certainly lots of evidence that the Biden administration was overstepping the bounds on free speech during COVID or on student loan forgiveness.
What the president is doing on the narcotics and the boats -- listen, I campaigned on this. I said we should identify the cartels as terrorist groups. I said that we should be willing to use our military forces. We're losing 4,000 Pennsylvanians a year -- 100,000 Americans a year, that's, you know, orders of magnitude.
RAJU: But should you guys have hearings on that?
MCCORMICK: Yes. Well, listen, I would like to get more updated on what's exactly happening there. I just heard the president on a press conference saying Pete Hegseth should come over and update the Senate on what's going on.
Wut what he's doing is consistent with what he said he's going to do. And sure, I'd like to know more. And if it was a president I didn't trust, I'd want to know a lot more. But what he's doing is consistent with the promises he made.
RAJU: And you're comfortable with seeing what's happening to the East Wing of the White House right now?
MCCORMICK: Sure, yes. How many presidents have come in and made changes to the White House?
I read the same sort of hysteria when there was proposed changes to the Rose Garden, right. I was in the Rose Garden the other day. It's spectacular.
If you want to have a residence that's fitting to welcome foreign dignitaries, fitting of the leader, whoever that is, of the greatest country in the world you're going to have to renovate it and update it periodically. What's unique in this case is there's no taxpayer money going into it.
So what the American people are going to get is a great White House that's going to have the ability to host major events.
RAJU: You're not concerned about the optics during the shutdown that's happening?
MCCORMICK: Well, listen, the project was underway and it's not being paid by taxpayer dollars, not really. I actually think that question is sort of small ball and tiny in comparison to Middle East peace, whether we're going to stop fentanyl from killing people, whether we're going to continue to have the progress we have on Russia and Ukraine.
Those are the kinds of issues the president is dealing with every day. And he's on offense.
RAJU: As we wrap here. John Fetterman, you mentioned him before. You've had a really positive relationship with him. You want to challenge him at one point as you ran for -- in your -- in your first effort to win this seat. Do you think that he deserves to be reelected?
MCCORMICK: Well, listen, I think he's been an extraordinary partner to me. I think he wakes up every morning thinking what's best for Pennsylvania. He's had the courage to stand up for what he believes in. We have found common ground. And when we find it, we work together. We
disagree on many things. So I think he's been extraordinary, and I think he serves the people of Pennsylvania excellently.
RAJU: What about -- what about reelection? Does he deserve to be reelected?
MCCORMICK: Well, we'll see. I'm not sure what he'll decide to do, but I would say then what I've said now, which is he's been a great partner. He fights for Pennsylvania. I trust him. You can't always say that about people in Washington these days.
I trust -- I trust John Fetterman to do what he thinks is right and what he thinks is right for Pennsylvania.
RAJU: Have you urged him to change parties?
MCCORMICK: I haven't talked to him about changing parties.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU: All right. After the interview, Senator McCormick told me he did not mean to refer to Democrats as terrorists, but a more apt term he suggested was hostage takers.
All right. Coming up on my new reporting on rising fears among key Republicans about an upcoming crisis.
Plus, have the wheels fallen off the campaign for the Bernie Sanders- backed Senate candidate in Maine.
[08:38:25]
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RAJU: Anxiety is rising among Republicans over a looming issue at the heart of the government shutdown -- health care costs. The fear Republicans don't have a plan to deal with skyrocketing premiums that could be felt as soon as next week.
My new reporting with my colleague Sarah Ferris details how some Republicans fear their party could lose control of Congress without a plan.
My panel is back.
A lot of these Republicans are from swing districts. They're in line with their party leadership strategy to pressure Democrats to vote for this bill. And to wait for talks for later.
But the fear is that they don't have a plan to deal with this. And their voters are going to start to feel the pain over health care. What are you hearing from your sources?
JOHN BRESNAHAN, PUNCHBOWL NEWS CO-FOUNDER: All the same thing. And, you interviewed a bunch of moderates. And as you're talking about members like David Valadao, Brian Fitzpatrick -- these are moderate, centrist Republicans and they're in tough districts, and they're worried about this.
They've supported a bill to extend these Obamacare premiums for another year. They supported that even before the shutdown began. So that's been out there.
But now they're seeing some of the price increases and how this is playing. For instance, you saw in Georgia the costs are soaring. And that's going to be a huge issue for Jon Ossoff.
So I think this is something that they -- that they have to deal with. And again, two things. One, Trump was president, kept promising health care plan in his first term. Didn't do anything, ok. His plan was to get rid of Obamacare. And he moved on. Ok.
The second part of this is that in the one Big Beautiful Bill, they had all these huge Medicaid cuts, but they come after 2026. That kind of guaranteed the 2026 election, that was going to be a huge issue.
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BRESNAHAN: Now you have the price increases in this going, starting January 1st. That's going to be a problem all year for Republicans.
RAJU: Yes, politically.
In the meantime, the House has been out of session. Mike Johnson has decided to keep the House out since September 19th, which is part of the reason why there's some anxiety in the ranks about needing to get back.
Some members believe -- this is a great quote from Annie Carney's piece in "The New York Times" -- Trump joked to some people who overheard his conversation,
"I'm the speaker and the president," he said about that. There is some pushback among some Republicans, including Senator Lisa Murkowski, who says it is time for Republicans to sit down with Democrats.
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SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): I think it is time for --
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RAJU: Given the impact.
MURKOWSKI: -- both Republicans and Democrats to be sitting down together to talk about how do we end this impasse.
We're all Talking about The potential impact of SNAP benefits, with benefits of everyone's pay That is either on pause or the military that was paid for at least one pay period this month, but uncertain about the next one. There is so much uncertainty right now that my answer to it is -- it's
not just Republicans that need to sit down. It's not just Democrats. If we don't sit down together, it's not going to happen.
I don't know that there's -- that we've ever had a shutdown -- and I've unfortunately been through more than my share of them. I don't think we've ever had one where the -- where the president was not engaged at the end. And so I think that that would certainly help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: She's saying probably time for Trump to get involved, which Trump has not gotten involved yet to end the shutdown.
TIA MITCHELL, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Yes. No. I mean, being on the Hill, I think it's just so surprising how little they're talking to each other. How little Republicans are really addressing this elephant in the room that is the expiring subsidies.
And it's not just swing district Republicans. Of course, they're concerned. But when you have someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene going out there and saying, no, this is a problem, and she's as, you know, far right as you can get.
And -- but they're just not talking about it. You've got Republicans not even coming to Washington. And they're now having to face that concern from their constituents. It looks like they're literally sitting at home collecting a paycheck.
RAJU: In the meantime, this is all playing out as the midterms are going to start to intensify.
There's big races all around the country, including in Maine. Of course, that's where the Democratic candidate there, one of them, Graham Platner backed by Bernie Sanders, has just been in this controversy -- spiraling controversy for the last several days recently about a Nazi symbol as a tattoo that he got back in 2007 as a marine.
After it was revealed, he said he didn't know about it. He covered it up and it turned out he did know about it, according to our colleagues at KFILE who said that he did know about it before.
Is he going to recover from this controversy or is this -- could this spell the beginning of the end of his campaign?
DAVID WEIGEL, SEMAFOR NATIONAL POLITICS: It's definitely not the beginning of the end. The campaign has rebooted in some ways that are a little bit awkward. There are NDAs for staff, et cetera.
But you saw Bernie Sanders come out for him, and you saw he had a town hall right after some of these stories broke, not the latest, with 500 people.
The mood at the town hall was, we want the establishment to get off your back. We want regular people like you to run for office. That's how they're spinning it is that the Democratic Party is too censorious, too cancel culture-oriented and this is an alternative.
A little convenient, but that is how the campaign is pushing it.
RAJU: Do you think that it's the end of his campaign?
MOLLY BALL, POLITICAL REPORTER AND AUTHOR: No, I think they're purposely inoculating him now by getting this stuff out a year and a half before the election so that he has a chance to recover.
Now he's a first-time candidate so this is going to be a crucial test of his ability to perform and to convince those voters. But I think they want this all out now so it doesn't come up in a year.
RAJU: Yes. It's interesting. Insurgent candidate versus the establishment candidate, Governor Janet Mills, who Chuck Schumer wants. It's going to be a huge primary with major ramifications for control of the Senate.
All right. Coming up, Elon Musk has a new feud with a top Trump official, he called a dummy. Could it affect the United States space race?
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RAJU: It was a sight to see earlier this year when the world's richest man and the most powerful man had a public meltdown. At the heart of Elon Musk's fury with President Trump was about NASA. Musk, the head of SpaceX, was angry when Trump abandoned his close ally, Jared Isaacman, to lead the space agency.
Trump dumped Isaacman in part because some of his past donations went to Democrats, also noting he was, quote, inappropriate for a Musk friend to lead the agency.
Instead, Trump named his Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, to lead the space agency.
But now Musk is back with a plan to dump Duffy and have Trump renominate his ally to the post, which seemed to get under Duffy's skin because he suggested NASA may sideline SpaceX.
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SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: SpaceX, an amazing company. They do remarkable things. But they're behind schedule.
And so the president wants to make sure we beat the Chinese. He wants to get there on his terms. So I'm in the process of opening that contract up.
(END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: Then Musk wrote on X, quote, "Sean Dummy is trying to kill NASA" and quote, "the person responsible for America's space program can't have a two-digit IQ."
But new this morning, a close Trump ally tells me he's putting his weight behind Isaacman and that's Senator Tim Sheehy, who ran an aerospace services company and he says he's made his case directly to Trump.
[08:54:50]
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SEN. TIM SHEEHY (R-MT): I've known Jared for years. Him and I are both pilots. We've flown together quite a bit.
I think the world of Sean Duffy. I think he's doing a great job running DOT. And I'm sure Sean Duffy can run NASA, and he can run DOT. He can't run both.
These are different organizations, separately, congressionally chartered. NASA has been an independent agency answering directly to the vice president since 1957. That's an important organization with a critical mission.
I mean, space is the ultimate high ground, and we need a leader of that organization who is 100 percent dedicated and immersed to that organization and that organization alone.
It's not a part-time job. It's not an extra duty. And Jared, the fact that, you know, he's had donations in the past, that doesn't reflect any on his ability to run this organization. And I think he'd do a great job.
RAJU: And you've spoken to Trump about this?
SHEEHY: I have, yes, I've made my views clear.
RAJU: And how did he respond when you --
SHEEHY: He thinks he's great. Listen, this is -- this is a classic kind of inter-family, you know, squabble where, you know, you got two brothers you love.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: The White House has remained tightlipped about what's next for NASA.
That's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X @mkraju and follow the show @INSIDE POLITICS. You can also find me on TikTok and Instagram.
And if you ever miss an episode, you can catch up wherever you get your podcasts. Search for INSIDE POLITICS. Up next "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Jake's
guests include former California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy.
Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.
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