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Inside Politics
FBI Director Spars With Senators Over Drinking Allegations; Early Voting Starts Monday in Texas GOP Senate Runoff; South Carolina Supreme Court Overturns Alex Murdaugh Murder Convictions, Orders Re- trial; Texas Electorate Grows More Diverse in Last Decade. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired May 13, 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]
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: -- normal that you have an FBI director who is essentially an attack dog for the administration that appoints them because that's above all what I took away from that exchange.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': Speaking of the new normal, you did hear Van Hollen say that he challenged the FBI director to take what's known as an AUDIT, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Well, you see there that Van Hollen posted that he did. He said, given all the lies he told yesterday, I imagine he'll fudge the numbers here. But let's see yours, Director Patel.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Which I'm not sure if Director Patel is going to continue this or not.
(LAUGH)
CHALIAN: Or, as you said, it's a lot of theater. Concern about Director Patel certainly does go beyond Democrats. There's no doubt about that. He's been getting the SNL treatment on "Saturday Night Live" for the last couple of weeks.
This is the kind of stuff that when it starts bleeding through to the culture and Donald Trump starts picking it up elsewhere, you just wonder how much Donald Trump is still very much in Kash Patel's corner or not.
BASH: Well, and it also, I think it speaks to, I mean, we didn't even talk about this here, something that actually really did happen, which is when Kash Patel was at the Olympics --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
BASH: -- he was on video drinking beer. I think that's probably a sort of calm explanation. Oh, there you see it. You see what happened there. And the president was not happy about that.
SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Yeah. I mean, I believe the FBI said, look, obviously, Director Patel has been a longtime hockey fan, celebrating with the USA hockey team. We all were very happy with the team's victory, but certainly, yes, these are questions that he's going to face for some time.
But I was just watching that hearing and I know we've talked about this several times before, but it is just really amazing to me to watch over and over just how much these cabinet officials perform. It really does seem for an audience of one and how ferociously they go --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
MIN KIM: -- against the lawmakers in this term. I mean, this happened a lot in the first term, obviously, but in this term, you had the shouting matches with Scott Bessent and members of the Financial Services Committee. Certainly Pam Bondi, which was the Attorney General, kind of chastising lawmakers for not praising President Trump enough. So you did --
BROWNSTEIN: Didn't help her keep her job though.
CHALIAN: Exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
MIN KIM: Yes, yes. But you just see at so many different venues, they do have to really emphasize that loyalty to the president.
BROWNSTEIN: And to your point, fundamentally rejecting the idea that the opposition party in Congress has a legitimate role in the system to question you. I mean, he is like basically challenging --
BASH: Yeah.
BROWNSTEIN: -- the validity of the idea of Van Hollen questioning his behavior. And as you say, with Bondi and others. And I think the most revealing part of that was the window it showed into how he conceives his job.
BASH: It's literally the Senator's job. Like that is what it says --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
BASH: -- in the Constitution. OK. Up next, fighting maps with maps. We have new CNN reporting on Democrats' plans to turn the Republican redistricting playbook against the GOP. You're going to want to hear this new reporting. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:37:14]
BASH: Moments ago on Capitol Hill, Hakeem Jeffries defended the Democrats' new approach to partisan gerrymandering.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES, (D) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Republicans have concluded that they need to cheat to win. That's what they're celebrating. Republicans can't defend their policies. They can't defend their failure on the economy. They can't defend this reckless and costly war of choice. They can't defend the fact that they've ripped health care away from millions of Americans.
They can't defend the fact that they're stealing food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors and veterans. And so we're not going to unilaterally disarm. Not now, not ever. And this redistricting war is just getting started.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: It's really the first fulsome remarks that we've heard from Hakeem Jeffries since over the last week or two, Republicans have racked up wins in various ways, pushing back on Democrats' attempts to try to even the playing field on these redistricting wars.
So, here's the new CNN reporting on what the Democrats are now planning to do. Our colleagues, Sarah Ferris and Frederica Schouten have reports on the strategy for the Democrats. And part of Jeffries' plan is to go hard after red House seats in states controlled by Democrats. Won't happen this year, in 2026. It's about the 2028 election.
And David Chalian, I'm going to read a quote from this really great reporting. Jeffries and his allies have designed plans for the next two years to push Democratic-held states to set aside non-partisan redistricting rules or gerrymander even more aggressively. And they're willing to put an uncomfortable spotlight on members of their own party to do it.
It's quite literally the Trump playbook in order to try to get these blue states to change their rules in order to take what is now a fair number of Republican districts and turn them blue.
CHALIAN: Yeah. I mean, when all of this is said and done, if we have no more competitive districts in America --
BASH: Yeah.
CHALIAN: -- I don't think democracy is going to be served all that well.
BASH: Yeah. There is that.
CHALIAN: But just because you're not responding to the needs of the broader swath --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
CHALIAN: -- of voters. But it's interesting to hear Hakeem Jeffries do this now because Democrats are so hungry, as we know, we've seen for a fighter and putting a fight in. They don't have much to fight about for '26, even though that's where most of this redistricting war has been focused on for the last year. And so he's trying to tell his base, no, no, we're fighting and then we're going to fight through to the next one. So be patient with us.
[12:40:00]
And if you're a Democrat who's queasy about this, get out of the way, is the --
BASH: Yeah.
CHALIAN: -- other thing he's saying inside the tent.
BROWNSTEIN: You know, I think when the dust has settled on this, when this is finally over, there will be minimal partisan advantage and maximum civic damage.
BASH: Damage.
BROWNSTEIN: I mean, people don't recognize, you know, there are 25 states that voted three times for Trump, all three races. Those are basically the red states. They control 185 House seats. There are 19 states that voted three times against Trump. They are basically the blue states. They also control 185 House seats.
Democrats have more barriers in the way --
BASH: Yeah.
BROWNSTEIN: -- but ,ultimately by 2028, given what's happening in the South, particularly with Republicans erasing black representation at a level not seen since the unraveling of Reconstruction, the pressure on Democratic states, on New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Maryland, they could get unified control in Minnesota.
It's going to be insurmountable. You're going to end up with very little partisan gain and just massive, as David said, loss of competition.
BASH: Well, Democrats -- first of all, I don't think anybody is arguing against what this does for --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
BASH: -- civil discourse, for partisanship, for all of that. I mean, it's just terrible. But on the partisan gain, what Democrats are trying to do is not necessarily gain, but get at least to the point where it's a wash. Maybe they'll have a gain. Let me show the map here, because --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
BASH: I think it would be very helpful to our viewers to see what we're talking about. So we're talking about, you know, we've been talking a lot about these red states that are controlled by Republicans that are trying to do away with Democratic seats. These are the ones controlled by Democrats. And so, these are the targets that Hakeem Jeffries is pushing the state legislators and other leaders in these blue states to try to change some of the rules.
Let's just take, for example, Colorado here, OK? So Colorado, right now has four Republican districts, congressional districts. It's right now run by Democrats. So the goal for in Colorado is to change that over the next two years. It's not so easy. It requires either two- thirds support of both chambers, 55 percent vote on a ballot measure, or signatures equal to five percent of the vote.
So there are lots of hoops to getting there, understandable. OK, then let's look at New York. This is another Hakeem Jeffries' home state. This is another place where obviously what is very much run by Democrats. You need a constitutional amendment introduced by both Houses of the legislature. The attorney general has to have an opinion. There has to be an amendment by two consecutive legislatures. Point is -- you get my point. It's really, really difficult. It's an uphill climb.
It's not insurmountable, but it's going to take some time and a lot of arm-twisting.
CHALIAN: Yeah, and by the way, you remember when Trump, Patrick Maloney, was in charge of the DCCC from New York --
BASH: Yeah, exactly.
CHALIAN: And he tried to do a redistricting?
BASH: Yeah.
CHALIAN: And it blew up in their face.
BASH: And by the way, this they could get about seven, and here again, they could get, could, a four.
CHALIAN: So again, there are, as Ron was saying, there are more barriers in this Democratic landscape --
BASH: Yeah.
CHALIAN: -- than there are in the Republican landscape, but the fight is the thing as well, is that what Jeffrey's trying to display this year.
BROWNSTEIN: There are 42 Democrats in the 25 red states in the House. There are 39 Republicans in the 19 blue states in the House.
BASH: Yeah.
BROWNSTEIN: They both have a lot to work with, and I think the pressure on Democrats to get out of the way and get on board with this is -- given what's happening in the South, I can't imagine any blue state is not going to do everything it can to respond.
BASH: Yeah, I agree with you. Coming up, how far is Senator John Cornyn willing to go for a presidential endorsement? His latest route includes 1,800 miles of Trump interstate. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:48:05]
BASH: Now to the Texas Senate race consuming the GOP. Early voting starts on Monday in the runoff between incumbent Senator, John Cornyn, and Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton. President Trump said an endorsement was coming soon in March. He said it again last week. So far, crickets.
If you want to see just how far Cornyn is willing to go for that nod, this social media post pretty much sums it up. "I am proud to introduce legislation to rename U.S. Highway 287 as Interstate 47." Get it? "In honor of our 47th president, Donald Trump."
What's going on with that endorsement, Seung Min?
(LAUGH)
BASH: What are you hearing from the White House?
MIN KIM: The president does love having things named after him. So you do see what Senator Cornyn is trying to do there.
BASH: Oh, yeah.
MIN KIM: I don't think anyone --
BASH: It's not subtle.
MIN KIM: Not subtle at all.
(LAUGH)
MIN KIM: Like, subtle like a sledgehammer. I don't think anyone expects the president right now to actually wait. And especially because when he first said back in March that he was going to endorse soon, we expected that in a matter of days, if not a day within hours of him saying that on social media. And he clearly has held off.
He says he has two friends in the primary that he doesn't want to anger one side or the other. I think the really interesting dynamic, no matter what, you know, depending on what happens in the runoff later this month, is just how or if the party is going to be unified behind their candidate. Because the establishment, Republican, the Republican leadership, the outside committees, they have gone after Ken Paxton really hard in really personal terms.
It has been an ugly primary. We know that in primaries the party can kind of patch up and kind of ignore what happened, especially for the general election. But on this one --
BASH: Yeah. MIN KIM: -- it's going to be really hard.
BASH: Let's look at some of the changing demographics --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
BASH: -- again.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
BASH: You're welcome.
BROWNSTEIN: I am here.
(LAUGH)
BROWNSTEIN: I'm here for you.
BASH: In Texas, from 2016 to --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
[12:50:00]
BASH: -- the last presidential election in 2024. The one that I think is obviously the most interesting are non-white voters --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
BASH: -- in Texas. This change here. I mean, it's not dramatic, but it's pretty significant.
BROWNSTEIN: Oh, it is. And from the --
BASH: And then the college-educated white voters down a little bit, non-college white voters also down.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, down more. Yeah. Look, I mean, the Texas, this from the great Bill Frye, by the way, the Texas electorate continues to evolve in a way that should benefit Democrats. The reason why Republicans have been able to do so well there despite these changes is that Democrats haven't been able to maintain their margins with the non-white voters, particularly with Latino voters. They're winning.
You know, Trump won by all accounts a majority of Latino voters --
BASH: Yeah.
BROWNSTEIN: -- in Texas after Beto O'Rourke in 2018, which is kind of the model for the closest recent race that Democrats have won there. Beto won two-thirds of them. So where are we now? I was just in South Texas last week and McAllen and Corpus Christi. There's no question that Trump's position has eroded from 2024 among Texas Latinos, both because of immigration enforcement and because of inflation.
But has it eroded all the way back to that 2:1, nearly 2:1 advantage that Beto had in 2018? Probably not, which means that if Talarico is really going to make this a race, he has to do even better than Beto did among those college-educated whites who are better for Democrats (inaudible).
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: And I'm glad you brought up James Talarico, who's the Democratic nominee. You mentioned the question of whether or not the bitter feelings that happened in a primary can come together than (ph) the GOP side. It's also a question on the Democratic side.
Barack Obama, the former president, was with James Talarico and also Hinojosa who's running for governor. And I think he was there yesterday. And the question is whether or not he can help Talarico with the very important, not just the whole Democratic coalition, but specifically the black vote, which was fractured after the Crockett- Talarico race.
CHALIAN: Yeah. And not fully healed. I mean, still, obviously, this is the work of trying to put that --
BASH: Precisely.
(CROSSTALK)
CHALIAN: -- back together. There's no doubt about that. To Ron's point about whether or not it can go back to the Beto O'Rourke levels, on a statewide thing, that's no doubt a big challenge. I will just say, back to our redistricting conversation, some of these districts --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
CHALIAN: -- though, that have been drawn, banking, the Republicans are sort of banking on performance of Latinos where they were with Trump in '24, which may not pan out. That can have real consequences.
BROWNSTEIN: Three (ph) in South Texas.
CHALIAN: Yeah.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
BASH: Thank you, guys. Don't go anywhere. Up next, a shocking reversal in one of America's most high-profile murder convictions. We'll tell you how Alex Murdaugh's case could actually impact the South Carolina race for governor.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:57:25]
BASH: A stunning development in one of South Carolina's most high- profile murder cases ever. The state Supreme Court overturned the murder convictions of Alex Murdaugh. In 2023, Murdaugh was convicted of murdering his wife Maggie and youngest son, Paul. The case generated massive media attention from podcasts to multiple TV series and documentaries.
CNN's Dianne Gallagher has been covering this since the beginning. Dianne, of course, I want you to tell us about this decision, but if you could, since this is "Inside Politics," weave in the impact on the governor's race because the state attorney general is one of the candidates.
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He's considered to be one of the leading candidates in the gubernatorial race. And there's at least one competitor who is already out with a statement on this.
But I want to get to what Attorney General, Alan Wilson, who was in the courtroom with us for much of those six weeks of the Murdaugh trial back in 2023. Alan Wilson said, "While we respectfully disagree with the court's decision, my office will aggressively seek to retry Alex Murdaugh for the murders of Maggie and Paul as soon as possible. Let me be clear. This decision does not mean Murdaugh will be released. He will remain in prison for his financial crimes. No one is above the law. And as always, we will continue to fight for justice."
Now, that is important because the court, of course, reverses the verdicts and vacates the sentences, but then it remands it back to the circuit court. So it is the attorney general office's decision on whether they retry this case again. And that has been discussion leading up to us waiting for this decision.
Now, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who is also a GOP candidate for governor in South Carolina, noted, quote, "South Carolina managed to bungle the biggest murder trial in the state's history. This is what happens when no one is ever held accountable. South Carolina's justice system is broken, victims have no faith the criminal ever go to jail. Our state has given them no reason to. As governor, I will change that."
Now, the high court of South Carolina explicitly laid blame not on the state attorneys or defense attorneys or anybody, but at the feet of the former Colleton County Clerk of Court, Becky Hill. The justices say that she engaged in "shocking jury interference." And they noted it was, in their opinion, outside the knowledge of the outstanding trial judge and "superbly competent and professional counsel for the state and Murdaugh."
Now, you may remember there was an evidentiary hearing before where they determined that she made some improper comments, like watch his body language, but did not influence the verdict.
[13:00:00]
The high court does not agree with that and said that it did and therefore violated Alex Murdaugh's constitutional right to a fair trial. We will see what as soon as possible means for getting this together. It of course would be very expensive and potentially difficult to find a venue in South Carolina.
BASH: Yeah, this is a really big deal. Thank you so much for bringing it to us, especially the politics. Thank you for joining "Inside Politics" today. "CNN News Central" starts right now.
