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Trump Admin. Threatens To Withhold Millions In DHS Funds From States Unless They Adopt Election Changes; Left-Wing Candidates Look To Unseat Incumbents In NYC Dem Primaries; Three PA Races Loom Over The Midterms With Power To Decide The House. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 22, 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: -- percent of that money, which could be for a lot of places, millions and millions of dollars. So what are they specifically asking for? Well, these are the reforms. They're talking about having states transition away from electronic voting systems, the kinds that use QR codes and barcodes, because they want them using hand-marked paper ballots.

It's something we have heard Trump allies and this administration talk a lot about over the past year. They want states conducting manual election audits, but I thought keynote, they want them using methods that are established by this administration and specifically by the Department of Homeland Security. So they want to be in the driver's seat when it comes to those audits.

They also want states using a government-approved system to verify the citizenship of all workers at various polling locations, and they want states to run their entire voter list through the SAVE system at DHS, the Citizenship Verification Tool that we have talked about on this show. It's very controversial across the country because there have been these false positives, including eligible voters who have been pulled from the rolls because the whole design is we're looking for non-citizen voters or ineligible voters, but it doesn't always work out that way.

I will just note, DHS told me the rules have not yet been sent out to the states, so nothing is final yet, but they did say any recipient of federal funding should expect accountability for how taxpayer dollars are spent. And I think that quote really sums up well what the administration is saying, which is if we're going to send you federal dollars, you need to be ready to implement our priorities.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Right. And this is also clearly the administration trying to get around the fact that the President's top legislative priority, which is what he calls the SAVE America Act, which has a lot of these new requirements that they're going to send out, Congress, particularly his fellow Republicans, won't do it. This is clearly going to get challenged by states once that goes out.

How much is this about the President getting his hands on voter rolls? COHEN: Well, it seems like that is certainly a piece of this that can't be lost when we talk about forcing states to run their voter lists through the SAVE system. Also remember, as we've talked about on the show, right now the Justice Department is suing 30 states across the country who are refusing to hand over their voter lists.

The Department of Justice saying we want those voter lists so we can give it to DHS and have them run those audits. They have made it clear that they think states are not doing enough to clean up their voter rolls, and they want the states to be forced to hand over that data to the federal government.

And what we're seeing here is the administration just using one more tool to say, you know what, this is a leverage point where we can pressure states and say, if you really want this money that you consider critical, just go ahead and hand over those lists.

BASH: Yes, and a lot of those lawsuits have been blocked by judges because constitutionally it's the states that are supposed to run elections. That's how it was designated to work.

COHEN: Correct.

BASH: Thank you for your terrific reporting. I know you'll keep doing it as we get closer to the elections.

COHEN: Thank you.

BASH: Thanks.

And when we come back, it's election eve in New York City, where Democratic socialists are hoping to send at least two more of their own to Congress.

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[12:37:40]

BASH: Tomorrow is Election Day in New York City where we're watching four really contentious Democratic primaries for Congress. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has endorsed and heavily campaigned for three candidates, two of whom are challenging sitting House Democrats. He says the slate, if elected, would seek to transform the Democratic Party in Washington, and boy would it.

Let's just start with these House raises and in particular the three -- I guess you would call all of them challengers, even though two of them are only actually sitting members of Congress. And the fact is two are still Democratic socialists. One, Brad Lander, who's running against Dan Goldman, used to be, he left the party after October 7th.

But what is your sense on doing -- I know we're going to talk about another specific report you have on a different race, but what is your sense of how things are going in this sort of vibe among Democrats in New York? EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Mamdani won big last year, and what he did afterwards is think about how he could really capitalize on that power and this is his attempt to do so. He's going against two incumbent members of the House, that is a big move. And he also went -- the third race, there is a woman who he is supporting who was not the choice of Nydia Velazquez, the outgoing congresswoman, which has been notable because Velazquez was the first big endorsement that Mamdani got when he was running.

So Mamdani is trying to flex this power here and we're going to see how it goes. There is a lot of feeling that Dan Goldman is in worse shape going into this than Brad Lander is. That race may be the easiest one to see where it goes.

But with Adriano Espaillat, with his challenger, it is dynamics that are about Latino politics in the city, black and brown politics, all that sort of stuff, dynamics that then are going to hit Washington with a lot of people who are incumbents mad about what's going on. And then this larger question of what happens if some of these people are elected who may be trouble to the House leadership if and when they win the majority.

BASH: And that's really the key. I mean, there's obviously a lot of characteristics that these candidates have that we can talk about one in particular, but broadly, it's about Mamdani, but it's also about where the Democratic Party is.

[12:40:06]

And if you are going to elect Democratic socialists, New York City is obviously the playground for them because there are so many who have gotten a lot of attention, especially since Mamdani is a Democratic socialist and has supported a lot of them.

You mentioned the incumbent Adriano Espaillat, and his challenger, her last name is Avila Chevalier, she has come under scrutiny, let's say, for a lot of things that she tweeted when she was an activist before she started running. And also places that she has gone, namely to a what turned out to be a pro-Hamas rally, it was pro-Palestinian for the Palestinian people, but there were a lot of explicit pro-Hamas people there. And she was there on October 8th, the day after the October 7th attack on Israel.

This was part of the debate that she had with the sitting congressman last week. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADRIANO ESPAILLAT (D), NEW YORK: Not even a month or two later, the day after she was spotted, seen there, celebrating the death of innocent people. The difference between me and her is that I believe in a two-state solution --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

ESPAILLAT: -- she doesn't believe in the existence of Israel. DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER (D), NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I was there at that rally on October 8th because I remembered what happened in 2014, and I knew that the reaction would be an outsized reaction that would cause the death of thousands upon thousands of people. And that is what I was there to protest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: How about the death of the almost 2,000 people, violently, civilians, at the hands of Hamas that happened --

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BASH: -- the day before?

RAJU: It's pretty stunning. And, look, she appeared in an ad with Zohran Mamdani. Zohran Mamdani is pushing --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

RAJU: -- this candidate --

BASH: Very much so.

RAJU: -- not just her, but also those three other candidates you mentioned, including Brad Lander, including the other challenger as well, and they're trying to -- he's trying to push them as a ticket, but her positions have put another candidate that Mamdani is pushing, Brad Lander, in a complicated position.

I asked Lander, do you support this candidate? Not just her comments --

BASH: Chevalier.

RAJU: Chevalier -- not just her comments about October 7th and October 8th, but she has a whole host of positions --

BASH: Yes.

RAJU: -- on tweets about policing and the like, that have really caused a lot of attention and scrutiny, and he backed, Lander backed off, said, I'm only worrying about my own race --

BASH: Yes.

RAJU: -- even though he appeared in a campaign ad with her and Zohran Mamdani.

DOVERE: And (INAUDIBLE) too.

RAJU: Exactly.

BASH: I want to get to your great new reporting about New York's 12th District, which is also up for grabs. Jerry Nadler is retiring after 30 years there. I'm going to put up the candidates who are the biggest contenders, Alex Bores, George Conway, Michael Lasher, and Jack Kennedy Schlossberg, and he is the focus of your --

DOVERE: Yes.

BASH: -- story. Your headline is, "What is there to teach a Kennedy about politics? Jack Schlossberg has found out, a lot." I'm just going to read a little bit from your story, Isaac.

Everyone -- this is a quote from him, "Everyone says it's time for a new generation. The Democratic Party has got to learn to do things differently until someone actually tries, then they don't want to." And then about him and his pedigree, "I feel like people cannot accept the fact that I might be a smart, hard-working person who is just really trying because that's unacceptable for some reason."

DOVERE: Yes, that's the district that is Manhattan-based, the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Manhattan, Chelsea, West Village. Schlossberg is new to politics, but he came in with a lot of attention on him, a lot of buzz because of who his grandfather was, JFK. And he has had a real hard fall from that.

There's a lot of scrutiny on him, definitely more scrutiny on him than on many of the other candidates in the race, and he has had some trouble dealing with it. That included a New York Times article that came out in May that was really devastating for him, that said that he took a nap, but he was going to see his sister who was dying. And there's much more in the piece to see.

BASH: Yes. Well, I want everybody to read the piece because it's very, very good and it's a fascinating race, as are all of them.

Up next, CNN's John King goes to Pennsylvania where three districts could decide at the House of Representatives.

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[12:48:52]

BASH: Up now, John King visited Pennsylvania where three congressional districts could foreshadow the fate of the entire House in November.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to Pennsylvania, and a journey through a critical slice of the midterm map.

KING: Right here in eastern Pennsylvania, three districts that run 105 miles from just outside of Philadelphia up to the New York state border. If this stretch here flips from red to blue on election night, then the Democrats are taking the House, without a doubt.

KING (voice-over): Stop one, Bucks County. Suburban, upscale, moderate. A short commuter train hop to Philly.

KING: Luckily I read my gardening for dummies book last night.

MICHAEL PESCE, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: Quick and easy thing, see.

KING (voice-over): Michael Pesce likes his Republican congressman, yet he is almost certain to vote for his Democratic challenger.

PESCE: Big picture, Trump is the problem that I see. The President is not doing what I think a president should be doing, and that's disturbing to me. One more person in the Congress that is going to stand up to Trump, that's going to get my vote.

[12:50:05]

KING (voice-over): Pennsylvania 1 is represented by Brian Fitzpatrick. He's in his fifth term, first elected in 2016. Fitzpatrick won with 56 percent in 2024, and he is one of just three House Republicans from districts won by Vice President Harris.

The first is Pennsylvania's most affluent district. The median annual income, $114,000 a year, and the median home value, $440,000. Pesce was a Reagan Republican when we met three years ago. A registered Democrat now because he won't be in Trump's party. A Coast Guard veteran, angry at the price of a war he says makes no sense.

PESCE: I fill up my tank once a week. I was filling it up for $35, now it's $60 to fill up my tank.

KING (voice-over): Cold beer? Yes. But the news and politics, off limits at Booze Brewing.

KAREN GIORDANO, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: This is a place to escape. This is a place where people want to come and get away from all of that.

KING (voice-over): Business is pretty good, but owner Karen Giordano says the math is harder of late.

GIORDANO: We're watching the cost of everything go up, of the propane that we need to cook for the meat.

KING (voice-over): Giordano is not a Fitzpatrick fan and would love big change in Washington, but she rolls her eyes at talk this is the year the first district will flip blue.

GIORDANO: We thought that in the last cycle, right, when Trump was in, and that didn't happen. So I don't see it happening this time either.

KING (voice-over): North now, the Lehigh Valley. Bob Brooks is the Democrat running for Congress here. A firefighter looking to dent Trump's blue collar appeal.

GERARD BABB, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: Not even five years old yet and you can write your name.

KING (voice-over): Gerard Babb is listening. Babb works the assembly line at Mack Trucks, voted Trump three times.

KING: One of the arguments you're going to hear between now and November is elect a Democrat so the Democrats can take the House and stop Trump.

BABB: Yes.

KING: That would be stop the President you voted for. Does that argument hold any sway with you?

BABB: As of right now, I -- President Trump is kind of -- he's acting like a regular old politician to me and no love --

KING: So do you think it would be a good idea then to have some checks on him from the Democrats?

BABB: Yes, no love lost in my opinion.

KING (voice-over): The congressman in Pennsylvania's 7 is Ryan Mackenzie. He won his first term in 2024 with just a 4,000 vote margin. President Trump won the 7th by 13,000 votes. The 7th is more blue collar. The median income, $82,000 a year. The median home value, about $300,000.

Hispanic voters make up about a quarter of the electorate. It's the highest Latino percentage of Pennsylvania's 17 congressional seats.

VICTOR MARTINEZ, RADIO HOST: (Speaking Foreign Language). Good morning.

KING (voice-over): Allentown's La Mega morning show is feisty.

MARTINEZ: Hey! Hey! Hey!

KING (voice-over): And the host, Victor Martinez, is a Democrat, so consider the source.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Foreign Language).

MARTINEZ: This is interesting. He voted for Trump. And the one thing that bothers him the most is the corruption.

KING (voice-over): Still, calls to his daily political segment tell Martinez big change is coming.

MARTINEZ: Everybody thought, all right, well, Biden is gone. Things are going to change. He promised he was going to fix it. Let's see. Here we are a year later and things are actually worse. And so I think that's why people are pissed off.

KING (voice-over): Two down, one to go.

KING: We started in Pennsylvania 1. We're in Pennsylvania 7. We're about to cross into Pennsylvania 8. Democrats absolutely have to get 7 and 8 or else they're not having a good night.

KING (voice-over): The 8 is represented by Republican Rob Bresnahan. He's also a freshman. First elected in 2024 with 51 percent, a 6,000 vote margin. President Trump won the 8th with 54 percent, a 33,000 vote edge. The 8th includes reliably Democratic Scranton, but then a giant swathe of Republican-leaning small towns and rural areas. Its median annual income, just shy of 70,000. The median home value, 213,000.

Scranton is the birthplace of Joe Biden. And the city's mayor, Paige Cognetti, is the Democratic candidate for Congress. Biden and Democrats, less popular as you move out to the rural areas.

Honesdale is the Wayne County seat. Conservative. Trump won 58 percent here in 2024.

TOM FASSHAUER, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: I don't know what's going on.

KING (voice-over): Tom Fasshauer's father started this shop in 1948. Congressman Bresnahan rented his wedding tux here.

FASSHAUER: Four, five, 30, and 50.

KING (voice-over): Fasshauer is a big fan.

FASSHAUER: I like him. I think he's doing a great job.

KING: Yes. Why?

FASSHAUER: We had an issue in town here a year or so ago where there was a tremendous amount of rain runoff that kind of went in the wrong place and caused a lot of damage. He was here, I think, the next day physically helping to repair that damage. I think he cares about the people in this district.

TANNIS KOWALCHUK, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: All right, hop in, John.

All right, here we go.

[12:55:02]

KING (voice-over): Damascus is as far north as you can go in Pennsylvania. That's New York on the north side of the river. The Willow Wisp Farm is 25 acres. It's mostly vegetables, but two strips set aside for flowers Tannis Kowalchuk crafts into bouquets for farmers' markets.

KOWALCHUK: You want to just clip at the bottom.

KING (voice-over): Of late, a 25-cent surcharge on every bouquet and every vegetable bunch to cover rising costs. To Kowalchuk, a Democratic House, just step one in closing the Trump era.

KOWALCHUK: A country old or new needs a stable leader, and we've lost that. Something's happened. He's stopped. He's stopped being anything like a leader.

KING (voice-over): She is vastly outnumbered here. Trump won 68 percent of the vote in Damascus. Bresnahan won 67 percent.

KING: And what do you do? What kind of performances?

KOWALCHUK: Oh, plays that are --

KING (voice-over): But this self-styled performer sees evidence a plot twist is brewing. Kowalchuk built this performance space on the farm and also started a resistance choir for locals unhappy with Trump.

KOWALCHUK: 30 people, 40 people coming to this choir in a Republican's town. It's interesting, you know.

KING (voice-over): A step, she hopes, in a different direction.

KOWALCHUK: They are hungry to say something and do something about it. They want change.

KING (voice-over): 105 miles as the bird flies from where we began. Three key pieces of the midterm puzzle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Thanks for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

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