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New York Results Highlight Democratic Split Over Israel; Democratic Socialists Flex Power With Big Wins in NY Primaries; Trump Has Lunch With Senate Republicans After Abruptly Canceling Housing Bill Signing Ceremony. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 24, 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]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': The question is whether or not there is a future sort of Biden type of win in a primary, largely, or whether or not the moderates can overcome where the passion is right now in the party.

ANDREW DESIDERIO, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: The number of them is dwindling and the passion of them, the word you used before about talking about the DSA folks, is also -- also appears to be dwindling a little bit too.

I think on the issue of Israel specifically, you look at the Senate, I mean the last two years, you know, since October 7th of 2023, the Senate has held multiple votes on ending certain weapons sales to Israel. When Bernie Sanders first started forcing those votes on the Senate floor, they got maybe 18, 19 votes, you know, it was a blowout type of thing, but Bernie Sanders wanted to make his point.

By a couple of months ago, which was the last time that they had these votes that Bernie Sanders forced, the number was almost 40. That's 40 out of 47 Democratic Senators voting to cut off certain weapons sales to Israel.

So you see that sort of, that sentiment building, and a lot of these Senators who voted for those what are called joint resolutions of disapproval, did so because they realized that's the direction their party may be heading, not necessarily because they intellectually agree with the idea of it.

And so they're having to sort of adapt to what is a new Democratic Party and looking ahead to 2028 in the process.

BASH: And yet, also in New York City, Micah Lasher, who is definitely not a Democratic Socialist, he's a progressive, but he's like a regular progressive. He's an establishment mid (ph) figure. He worked for years for the outgoing Congressman Jerry Nadler. He's not there. Maybe it's because that's not where his -- what will be his district is. Listen to what he said this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICAH LASHER, (D) NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I, you know, I'm very proud to represent the most Jewish congressional district in America, or to hopefully represent the most Jewish congressional district in America, pending the results in November, and ran as a very proud Jew.

And I think there are real questions, real concerns that people in my community and Jewish community around the city are feeling about anti- Semitism being normalized, and that is something we are going to have to confront.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR & WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Despite this being Zohran Mamdani's district now, where he lives in Gracie Mansion, this was the race he did not get involved in.

BASH: He didn't.

CHALIAN: And there were other folks and factors in this race, but it was not this DSA moment. And as you noted, because the district is a different district. This covers the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

This conversation I don't think is going away. I think that much we do know. Like, this issue over support of Israel or disapproval of Israel is a current that is coursing through the Democratic Party, and I don't know that it will be determinative in a 2028 nomination race, but it's going to be central to a lot of the debates that we're going to see.

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NOTUS: And I think the conversation that Democratic strategists are having with these emerging campaigns is, where do we land on taking money from APAC? Obviously, we know that folks like Cory Booker, who traditionally has been very close to groups like that, have shied away from it.

We're seeing more and more of that question come up, and I don't think to David's point that that is going to end anytime soon, and you're seeing across New York that it has been determinative in certain races.

BASH: Yeah. All right. When we come back, Mayor Mamdani's top strategist, Morris Katz, joins me on last night's victories and what they may mean for what we've been talking about, the future of the Democratic Party. We'll also talk about another one of his clients, Graham Platner. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:37:59]

BASH: Last night's primary results amounted to a big victory for progressives and Democratic socialists, and a pretty bad night for the Democratic Party establishment. Before the results were in, House Democratic Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, also of New York, said this about the stakes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES, (D-NY) MINORITY LEADER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: There are 215 members of the House Democratic Caucus, a handful of primaries that go in one direction or the other in a given state or two aren't going to reshape who we are as House Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I'm going to bring in Morris Katz, a top strategist for Mayor Mamdani. Morris, thanks for being here. I should say you also worked for a number of last night's winning campaigns, Micah Asher, Brad Lander, Claire Valdez. I want you to respond to what Hakeem Jeffries said about the way he sees the House Democratic Caucus and whether or not the votes last night will or should change it.

MORRIS KATZ, TOP STRATEGIST TO ZOHRAN MAMDANI: Look, I think it's Leader Jeffries' job to support his members and those were before the results came in and you know, he's got a lot of different interested balancing every moment. I think what's clear is that the mayor laid out a slate and a vision for a city that we could afford and to turn the page in a politics of big money and small ideas, the same themes he ran on last year, but showing that it cannot be dismissed as a one- year standalone.

It cannot be dismissed as a referendum by Andrew Cuomo, but rather it's the very politics that people are hungry for in this city. And I think that if other Democrats don't want to take lessons away from that, that's up to them. But I think it follows a pattern we're seeing across the country of a deep hunger for outsider candidates, who are going to challenge the status quo, who are going to challenge a broken establishment, and who are not just going to take the fight to Donald Trump, but think about a vision for the Democratic Party that goes even further beyond that.

BASH: What's next? How do you grow the ideals particularly behind the Democratic socialism? Beyond New York City and other deep blue cities.

[12:40:00]

I mean, we've seen it here in D.C. and in Seattle, but how do you get beyond that?

KATZ: I mean, to me, this is less about any specific label and more about a fundamental question of who is our government going to work for and does it work? And I think right now, the answer is our government does not work and our government works for the wealthy and the well-connected, for lobbyists, for those with the money to buy power, and it doesn't work for anyone else. And we need to change that.

And New York City and New York City DSA had an incredible night last night with the slates of candidates across the city winning. There are a lot of other places where you're seeing similar things, but I think it's not restricted to any one label. And we talk a lot about the party being a big tent party and we should be. I think the question is, what is that tent going to be? And can it be united around the affordability crisis and taking on corruption?

BASH: Well, you said that it shouldn't be one label, but some of the wins, most of the wins that you and the mayor had in New York were people who did label themselves as Democratic socialists. And it's because that aligns with their beliefs. And of course, Democrats, really, they make up the vast majority of New York.

I don't need to tell you that. Kamala Harris got like 70 percent of the vote in these places. Nationally, I just wanted to look at some of these figures. Two-thirds of independents oppose moving towards socialism. Is there a swing district, Morris, where you think a Democratic socialist can win?

KATZ: I think that we spend a lot more time talking about labels than the average swing voter thinks about them. You know, I think we've seen the mayor is a Democratic socialist. He's a proud democratic socialist. But you see people interact with policies, campaigns and ideas not predicated on the label they're applying to themselves, but how are they going to make their lives better?

And I think a politics that, you know, invests in domestic priorities in schools and in hospitals rather than in wars abroad, a politics that refuses to accept money, whether it be from corporations or lobbyists, people who are the architects of the crises we're facing right now, that is what people are looking for. That's what people are hungry for.

And I think, you know, you can look at some of the people who've overperformed the most over the last few years, even when coming short, people like Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown, those are more populist candidates than many of the Democrats we see, even in far safer seats.

And I think we can have a big tent populist party where people can -- candidates and voters have the right to call it by whatever name they seek.

BASH: Yeah.

KATZ: But what people are looking for is a different kind of politics.

BASH: Right. But Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester lost.

KATZ: But they did overperform by a margin with which, if we applied that across the country, we'd have majorities in both chambers and certainly the White House, which we don't right now.

BASH: Yeah. OK, that's fair. I do want to ask about Brad Lander, who you work for. He beat the incumbent Democratic Congressman, Dan Goldman last night. Lander denounced an incident at Poetica Coffee where his opponent, Dan Goldman, who is Jewish, was told he's not welcome there because of his support for Israel. I want to play what Mayor Mamdani said when he was asked about that incident. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI, (D-NY): I have many political disagreements with Mr. Goldman when it comes to his votes and his views on Israel. I think that what we saw online goes beyond that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Morris, that wasn't exactly a full-throated condemnation on an incident against a Jewish Congressman.

KATZ: I mean, I think he was saying that it went beyond what he believes to be fair criticism. And so in the context of a press conference or something, it's easy to pull the clip or mince the words. But I think what he was saying is that we can have disagreements, strong disagreements, as he does with Congressman Goldman's policies, and also believe that there is not room for incidents like what we saw take place there.

BASH: There's a lot of debate, I don't need to tell you, about U.S. aid for Israel, variations on what it should or shouldn't look like. But I want to ask you about something more fundamental. Do you think any Democrat who supports Israel should be primaried and defeated?

KATZ: Do I believe that any Democrat-- no, I don't believe that. I believe that we should -- any Democrat who is -- I think that the Democrats who are most closely aligning with APAC pose an electoral risk to the party.

BASH: But why? Why APAC and not other dark money organizations of various subjects and others?

KATZ: I feel this is the same one -- so you asked the question about Israel -- BASH: OK.

KATZ: I think the same thing could be true about many sectors, whether it be private equity or crypto. I think many of those apply the same. And I think when people talk about this issue, there are a number of voters for whom this is a defining and important issue.

[12:45:00]

But I think the shift that we're seeing amongst the Democratic primary electorate, amongst general election electorates at large, is less driven by a unilateral focus on Israel and more focused on them picking up on the dishonesty of the politics that comes with it. And I think it's a belief that a politics that sells anyone out will eventually sell everyone out.

And when you see politicians telling people to not believe what they see with their own eyes, when you see politicians saying, we don't have enough money to not cut Medicaid, but we have enough money to write another blank check to Netanyahu, that undercuts a faith in government, it undercuts a faith in the ability to take on special interests. And I think that's where you're seeing this issue grow out of. And I think a lot of the politicians who then try to conflate the issue of criticisms of APAC or criticisms of Israel with anti-Semitism do a disservice to the ability to stand up to anti-Semitism, which is very real, which is on the rise --

BASH: Yeah.

KATZ: -- and undercut the ability to engage in that.

BASH: Yeah, and I think that there are legitimate criticisms of everything and all of the above, but the issue also is that there is a lot of conflating of what you just discussed going on.

I want to turn to Graham Platner, and he is somebody who you helped find and recruit to run for Senate in Maine. A lot has come out about his past statements degrading women on Reddit, the tattoo that turned out to be a Nazi-related tattoo, which he said he didn't know about and he covered up, accusations of aggressive behavior as a boyfriend, and so on.

Are you totally sure that nothing else will come out about Platner's past that could be detrimental to his candidacy?

KATZ: I think from the opening of this campaign, Graham has talked honestly and openly about getting home from war, about struggling with PTSD, about going through dark periods of his life. And the story he's told across Maine is one of redemption, one where he moved home on the same road he grew up on, met the love of his life, found hope through his community. And I think in telling that story, he has been honest with the people of Maine. He's been transparent.

And so it's up to the voters of Maine what they think is stories are talked about or litigated through paid media and TV ads. But I think the reality is Mainers know Graham Platner.

BASH: Yeah.

KATZ: And they know the same story he's been telling, which is one that's honest and one that's going to happen when people who never thought they'd run for office (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: I noticed that you didn't say no there. Just one last question. As somebody who helped recruit him, did you do a full vet of him? Did you know about things that came out already? And does that also mean that there could be other things that come out, regardless of the explanation that you just gave?

KATZ: So a standard vet process was conducted. And I think I'm not dodging a question there by not saying no. I'm kind of challenging a premise of what we consider a scandal in the political landscape. And so, will people continue to litigate Reddit posts? Will people continue to try to look through moments of his life he's been honest about struggling with? I'm sure the NRSC and many will do everything they can to search. But I think that the voters have shown Graham, who got more votes than any Democratic nominee in the history of the state of Maine, is that they know Graham Platner. They believe Graham Platner.

I think the scandals that people on the ground in Maine are focused on is a scandal of Susan Collins saying that she would protect Roe v. Wade, then putting Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court to overturn it, the scandal of her enriching her lobbyist husband --

BASH: Yeah.

KATZ: -- the scandal of her saying she'd run for two terms in that (inaudible).

BASH: I know. Yeah. I appreciate you saying you're not dodging my question, but you didn't answer the question. I also understand the arguments that you're making and that these are going to be issues for the voters of Maine to decide. And it is going to be probably the most fascinating race we're going to watch. Please come back again and we can talk more about this and everything else. Thanks, Morris.

KATZ: Thanks for having me.

BASH: Coming up, President Trump is heading to Capitol Hill to break bread with Republicans after torpedoing their major legislative win, a big bipartisan win yesterday. Awkward. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:53:52]

BASH: Any moment now, President Trump is expected to leave for lunch with the Senate Republican Conference. There may be some fireworks after the president helped oust two of the more popular Republican Senators in primaries. He's ramping up attacks on leadership for not killing the filibuster to pass his, what he calls, SAVE America Act which is new restrictions on voting. Not to mention just saying that he is not going to sign this bipartisan Housing Bill that passed yesterday.

What do you suspect is going to happen in that lunch?

DESIDERIO: I mean, to be a fly on the wall would be very fascinating, number one.

(LAUGH)

DESIDERIO: Number two, John Thune has acknowledged, every time we ask him about this, he said, you know, the president, yeah, he wants to attach the SAVE America Act to everything these days, right? Kind of dismissing it as an empty threat. And the president has backed off of a lot of those threats, right?

But the recent ones that he's threatened, like attaching it to an extension of FISA Section 702 which is still dark, by the way, and what he said this morning --

BASH: It allows the intelligence community to surveil, which they say (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

[12:55:00]

DESIDERIO: Warrantless wiretapping essentially, yeah.

BASH: Warrantless wiretapping, yeah.

DESIDERIO: An intelligence community tool. And then what he did this morning, saying he's not going to sign the Housing Bill until the SAVE America Act reaches his desk. I think the more interesting aspect of this though is not what John Thune can do, because he can't twist enough arms to get rid of the filibuster. He himself doesn't want to get rid of the filibuster.

The issue is that Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican Party and the most influential figure in the Republican Party, can't even twist enough arms to get rid of the filibuster.

BASH: And let's just drill down, because we talked around it a little bit, and because the president is making such a big deal out of it. We've covered this a lot on this show, but because it's front and center, what is the SAVE America Act?

Well, these are just some examples. It would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Just for the record, you can't vote unless you're a citizen. And part of the rub here is that it's not so simple in a lot of places to prove citizenship. Photo ID when voting. This is like an 80/20 issue. A lot of Democrats support that part.

States take more steps to remove ineligible individuals from voter rolls. Election officials face criminal penalties if they register a person who has not met Bill's proof of citizenship requirement. And then there's also, as Andrew, you mentioned earlier in the show, the idea of mail-in voting, which he can't stand, even though in a lot of places that are very red and rural, it helps Republicans.

WRIGHT: And the president will have some allies in that lunch today. Speaking of Senator Mike Lee (ph), we talked about earlier, to advocate for him and turn to his Republican colleagues and say, why aren't you supporting this bill? But if you talk to Republicans privately, a lot of them don't even like this bill because of the mail-in voting component, because of this idea that it's not just going to suppress people who are Democrats, but it will suppress people who are also Republicans, affecting their own races.

And so there are a lot of reasons, not just the filibuster, of why this thing is not going to get passed. I mean, you could talk to a wall in Congress right now and it will tell you it doesn't even have enough votes. But yet, you're going to see the president and some of his allies on the Hill today really trying to pressure and make it happen. And it's just that Senator John Thune, not him personally, I've been told by White House officials, but it's that he's in that role --

BASH: Yeah.

WRIGHT: -- which is why he is getting his feet put to the fire right now.

BASH: Final quick word.

CHALIAN: I am so fascinated to hear what comes out of this, because John Thune is in an entirely different moment in his relationship with Trump than when this Congress started.

BASH: Thanks, everyone. What an hour. Thank you for joining "Inside Politics." You've got to stick around to see what happens in that lunch. "CNN News Central" starts after a break.

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