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Trump Orders Postal Service To Police Mail-In Ballot Eligibility; Early Voting Underway In June 2 California Governor Primary; AOC On 2028 Plans: "My Ambition Is To Change This Country". Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 11, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Even if they have the correct postage, don't send them to or from anyone whose name is not on these approved mail-in voter lists that states would be expected to send along to the Postal Service before the midterms.

The White House says it's to make sure that only eligible voters are getting these absentee ballots, but it's already sparked these lawsuits, several of them from voting rights groups, from states who argue that this is unconstitutional to take that authority away from states and have the Postal Service do it.

And as you mentioned, that concern and others right now very much are present inside the Postal Service. Yes, they wonder, do we have the legal authority to even do this, to be comparing lists and potentially rejecting ballots that have postage because someone's name is not on the correct list?

And do we have the capability, something they've never done before, that they'd be expected to implement this massive program before the midterms that could impact tens of millions of voters potentially? And, by the way, this is an independent entity, an independent agency. And so there are questions, could they push back on or even reject the President's order?

But one thing that I find really interesting, just talking to sources close to this, is that as of now publicly, it does not appear that they're doing that. They've started that rulemaking process, which they're expected to do by the end of May, where they essentially are trying to figure out, OK, how would we implement this?

And they seem like they are trying to comply, partly because they really don't want to have a confrontation with Congress or the White House right now, because they are in big financial trouble --

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: That's right.

COHEN: -- at the Postal Service. The Postmaster General a few weeks ago told Congress that they could run out of money within a year, and they've been asking for this financial overhaul, but they need cooperation from Congress and they need it from the White House. And so, we will see how it plays out in the coming weeks, but this may just not be the hill that they want to die on.

BASH: Right, which is why perhaps they're leaving it up to outside groups and lawyers who are saying this is just not constitutional. One of those lawyers challenging Trump's order, I think, put it really succinctly in terms of how they feel. "USPS is no longer merely a carrier of ballots. It is instead transformed into a gatekeeper of voter eligibility."

COHEN: Yes, and look, there are concerns right now about what that would mean for the midterms. I will say, there's a good chance that this could get struck down in court. We'll see how it plays out, but there are a lot of questions about the chaos it could create on the state level given that it conflicts with some state laws that we see in place.

For example, this order says that those lists we were talking about have to be handed over to the Postal Service 60 days before the midterms, but that's much before the deadline that many states have where people can register to vote. So, again, the big question is, would it disenfranchise voters? Are we going to see the Postal Service potentially accidentally reject ballots?

By the way, the Postal Service has had other questions about its operations and getting ballots delivered in time. We've heard that from states like Washington and Oregon that rely most heavily on it.

BASH: And almost regardless, Stephen, what this does is it sets up a point of complaint, rhetorical complaint that the President can put out there if the Democrats do, in fact, take over the House.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER: Exactly.

BASH: It's just one example.

COLLINSON: If this makes the election a mess, even if it fails in the courts, it serves some kind of political purpose. And as you say, it creates a political and rhetorical thing for him to come back to and say, see, we lost the election, but it wasn't fair. Whether that would be any use in overturning the result is debatable, but at least politically for the President, that would work.

And it's yet another occasion when he is wringing every single piece of executive power that he has, and quite often executive power that he doesn't have, to try to change his own political situation and go in advance of his goals.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's also one of these issues that just confounds so many Republicans here in Washington, because a lot of them want to embrace mail-in voting because they seem --

BASH: Yes, there is that.

RAJU: -- to have a percent success. BASH: Yes.

SHELBY TALCOTT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, SEMAFOR: The President himself in recent years, most notably at the end of the 2020 election, started sort of telling people to do mail-in ballots. So it's been a little bit of a back and forth in the administration.

BASH: Yes, because he was told to do that by his political advisers.

All right, everybody -- thank you, Gabe, for that terrific reporting. When we come back, Katie Porter will join me live on her campaign to be the next California governor. Early voting is underway, and it seems to be a wide-open contest.

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[12:39:05]

BASH: Early voting is underway in California's close and crowded governor's primary, which has been a remarkably unpredictable race. In California, all candidates, Republicans and Democrats, compete in one primary, and the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

Joining me now is one of the Democrats in the race, former Congresswoman Katie Porter. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.

Voting is already underway, and polls still have you hovering around 9 or 10 percent behind about three or four other candidates, including two of your fellow Democrats. What's your message to voters who are still undecided about you?

KATIE PORTER (D), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: There's three weeks of voting left. A lot of people haven't even gotten their ballots yet or they're just arriving here this week. And look, this question for California is, do we want somebody who spent their career working on making life more affordable for their families?

That was my background long before I got into politics, working on credit card debt, families in bankruptcy, helping people who were facing foreclosure or eviction.

[12:40:09]

And when I went to Congress, I stood up to special interests, took pharmaceutical executives to task, for example, for price gouging. The other candidates in this race are a billionaire and a 35-year, 37-year career politician who's funded by corporations.

I'm the candidate here who knows what it's like to drive a minivan, to push a shopping cart, to worry that your kids are not going to be able to afford to move out and will wind up living on your couch. And that's a perspective that's going to drive my laser focus on affordability in a way that I just don't think a billionaire can. BASH: Congresswoman, polls are showing support is growing for one of the candidates that you alluded to, the former congressman, state attorney general and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. At CNN's debate earlier this month, some of your fellow competitors pushed him a little bit on the fact that his former chief of staff pleaded guilty to charges related to stealing money from Becerra's campaign account.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XAVIER BECERRA (D), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: If you violate the law, you will be prosecuted. No one is above the law. You will be held accountable. If I had been involved, the U.S. attorney would have had me in that indictment. I was not involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Is that sufficient?

PORTER: It's not. Look, there's still an active investigation going on. Two of the three people who were initially implicated are negotiating plea deals. And in those plea deals, they could name Secretary Becerra. I don't know if they will, but that is a risk.

And so, I don't want to see what happened with Eric Swalwell, what happened with Xavier Becerra. This race is too close. It's too chaotic. And there's no reason to take a risk.

Look, the simple fact is, Secretary Becerra cannot promise Californians that he will not be named as a co-conspirator in this corruption charge. It was his campaign account. He signed off on it. It was his 25-year chief of staff who was receiving the money via this scheme.

There's just too much of a risk there for me, given the stakes of having the potential to have a Republican in charge of California. We have a top-two primary. If we make the wrong choice here, there is no write-in process. You are stuck with the other top-two candidate, which looks like it's going to be Republican Steve Hilton. So I do not think that is a risk Californians should be taking.

BASH: And just to be clear, he has said multiple times, including at CNN's debate, that he did nothing wrong. Are you saying that you don't believe that that's true?

PORTER: He said if someone has broken the law, they should be held accountable, which is a generic statement of truth that I would agree with. He has said at times that he didn't know about the money. He had no, quote, "no vision" into what was going on. And at other times, he's admitted that he signed the papers showing that $10,000 a month was going out for account maintenance.

But he had another campaign account where he was paying $1,000 a month for maintenance. Why would you be paying 10 times more? It just raises a lot of questions. I do not have the facts here. But the people who are currently negotiating plea deals in Sacramento do. And if they implicate him, I have zero doubt that he will be indicted.

So we just don't know where this is going. It's still an open issue. And I think at this point, this close to the end of the race with our top two, with no possibility for a write-in. I think it's too big of a risk to take.

BASH: And to sort of make an analogy to Eric Swalwell, that's pretty explosive.

PORTER: Well, look, a lot of the same people who endorsed and supported Eric Swalwell are now endorsing and supporting Xavier Becerra. And as you know, Dana, there were rumors about Eric Swalwell, and people discounted those rumors. There are rumors about what's going to happen in this plea deal and how it's going to unfold, what's going to happen in this ongoing corruption investigation.

And I don't think that's a risk worth taking. The conduct, the allegations, the risk, completely different. Eric Swalwell was a sexual predator, full stop, very, very different conduct. But look, the stakes here are about whether Californians should risk having a Republican governor. And for me, the answer is unequivocally no.

And the plain truth is, Secretary Becerra cannot and has not guaranteed or promised the people of California that he will not be named as a co-conspirator and indicted. And if he is, and the top two include him and Steve Hilton, we would wind up with a Republican governor. And that, as a mom, as a Democrat, as a woman, is just devastating for Californians. It's not a risk worth taking.

[12:45:03]

There are other Democrats, of course, in this race and doing relatively well, including Tom Steyer. He just did an interview with Pod Save America, where he said he was the only candidate who could stand up to corporate interests. He was asked specifically, well, what about Katie Porter? This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's hostile to special interests, but she doesn't have your money to get ads up, right? That's a real thing.

TOM STEYER (D), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: So the question is, can someone win and do this? That is the actual question, John, not can someone be good hearted? There are lots of good hearted people who I would be happy if they won. The question is, can someone actually do this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: What's your response to him?

PORTER: Well, given that Tom Steyer is the person who leaked the video with me and the staffer from five years ago, he pretty clearly didn't think that I would -- he pretty clearly wanted to be governor bad enough to knock me down to do it. BASH: How do you know that?

PORTER: And I apologize for that video many times. Because I am confident that is the case. I've been told by many people. It's a Department of Energy video. It was only held by the Department of Energy and people can follow the trail to who his campaign staffers are and understand what happened there.

And the truth is, look, Tom Steyer is a corporate special interest. He's made his billions off being behooved into corporations, making money off fossil fuel, oil, coal. He is even in this race taking corporate contributions. Even in this race, I am the only candidate who is not.

So Tom Steyer is in this race for the same reason he was in the presidential. He's now spent half a billion dollars trying to get elected. I have no problem with competition. If Tom Steyer wants to run, he should run.

But to suggest that somehow he's in this because there's nobody else who will stand up to corporate special interests or that he's not in this for his own ego, I think everybody who's seen his face plastered over TV for six months knows that's probably not the case.

BASH: Congresswoman, thank you for coming on. I should note that there -- we don't have evidence that Steyer leaked that video of you. If you have it, please bring it. And also, you said some pretty tough stuff about Xavier Becerra. If he wants to come back on the show, he is more than welcome to do that as well.

Thank you for being here today. I appreciate it.

PORTER: Thank you.

BASH: Coming up, upper chamber or Oval Office. We'll show you what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said to growing speculation about a potential 2028 presidential run.

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[12:51:59]

BASH: What does Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want to do next? She could stay in the House, challenge Chuck Schumer in the Senate or run for president. Well, our colleague David Axelrod asked her about that on Friday, and a lot of progressive Democrats spent the weekend analyzing her answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D), NEW YORK: They assume that my ambition is positional. They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat. And my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country.

Presidents, come and go. Senate, House seats, elected officials, come and go. But single-payer health care is forever. A living wage is forever. Workers' rights are forever. Women's rights, all of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Manu?

RAJU: Yes, so purposely vague. And I think she herself is not entirely clear about what she wants to do. Of course, to effectuate the change that she wants to see happen, she has to actually be in a position to do that. And what is the position to do just that?

Look, if she ran in the Senate in 2028, she would have a very good chance of defeating Chuck Schumer in a Democratic primary. There is no doubt about it. We'll see if Schumer even runs. There's some speculation that he may not even run for re-election. We'll see what he decides there.

But if she did, she would be a force in the Senate race. No question about it. But can she win a general election? She could win a primary, potentially, in a presidential race in 2028, too. She's got the energy. She's got social media following. She can raise money. But a general election, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, totally different question.

BASH: Yes, but I totally agree with all of those points. The question is, what is she trying to say? She's being intentionally vague, which is fair. I mean, it's early. But what is she trying to say when her answer is about the ambition is much bigger than any particular role? What do you think?

TALCOTT: I think she's talking about the direction that the Democratic Party should be going to, right? She's talking about, here are the policies that our party should stand for. And for what it's worth, you know, when I talk to people close to the President and Republicans about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and those comments, they're hoping that she ends up running for president because their belief is that she is too much of a progressive for the Democratic Party and will bring them down a path that will ensure another Republican victory, like a lot of the arguments we heard being the reason that Trump won this last election.

BASH: Let's listen to a little bit more of what she said on that point about why she thinks she's considered so controversial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OCASIO-CORTEZ: When you fight really entrenched power, that power will fight you back. They know that the message is potent, and so they can't be seen attacking the message because that makes them look bad. So what they can do is attack the messenger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Stephen?

[12:55:09] COLLINSON: Yes. She sounds like she wants to lead a political movement, and there is a political movement that is going to be looking for a leader, those millions of Democratic voters that were with Bernie Sanders for the last two elections. So timing is everything in presidential campaigns.

If this is her moment for a populist, progressive, economic affordability campaign, maybe that is it. But she has a very wide window of presidential viability, potentially. She's still very young in terms of that window.

Is going to the Senate and learning to speak like a senator really a good way to talk to the American people?

RAJU: Be a freshman.

COLLINSON: It hasn't really --

RAJU: Yes.

COLLINSON: -- you know, worked out that well --

BASH: Yes.

COLLINSON -- in recent years. So maybe that's what you do. But I agree with your point about the general election campaign, and we're back to talking about, you know, Democrats need to widen their aperture in elections, and is she the candidate that will be able to do that.

BASH: Worked out OK for a guy named Barack Obama.

COLLINSON: That's true. You stayed, what, four years, two years, four years?

BASH: Five minutes, five minutes approximately.

Thank you all. Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

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