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Team USA's Star Folarin Balogun At Center Of Birthright Citizenship Conversation; Folarin Balogun Is Team USA's Top Scorer In 2026 World Cup; Democratic Socialists Flex Power With Big Wing In NY Primaries; House Dem Leaders Brace For Wave Of New Far-Left Members; How Ted Cruz Is Gearing Up For Another Presidential Run. Aired 12:30- 1p ET

Aired June 25, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:31:39]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours, the U.S. men's soccer team will take on Turkey in their third World Cup match, but the politics off the pitch are engulfing Team USA's star striker, Folarin Balogun. And he is only able to play for the U.S. because of birthright citizenship, something President Trump has gone all the way to the Supreme Court to try to end.

In 2001, Balogun's mother was seven months pregnant with him and tried to fly home to London from New York, but flight attendants wouldn't let her fly because she was so far along. Balogun was then born in Brooklyn and moved to London when he was two months old.

CNN Sports Anchor Don Riddell joins me now. Don Riddell, sorry about that. So the conversation around Balogun's story is only growing louder and it will only continue to do so next week when the Supreme Court is expected to rule on President Trump's push to end birthright citizenship.

DON RIDDELL, CNN ANCHOR, WORLD SPORT: Absolutely, Dana, especially with him being such a prominent member of this team. He really is their breakout star scoring twice in the USA's opening win against Paraguay. And it was also his run and cross, which induced the own goal against Australia in the second game.

He won't play in the match against Turkey tonight because he's on the yellow card. They don't need to win the game and they don't want him to be suspended. But he will be very important in the knockout phase of the tournament.

This is how he explained how he came to play for the team in 2023.

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FOLARIN BALOGUN, SOCCER PLAYER: So initially I went to them and said it was something that I wanted to do -- represent the United States. And they agreed. They for -- my mom was saying, what took you so long? For me, to represent the United States means a lot more than people know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: You know, his backstory is absolutely fascinating. And the timing of this is just remarkable. Sport and politics colliding on the biggest stage. And if there are any American soccer fans who support President Trump's agenda, his story might give them some pause.

BASH: And yesterday, the House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked how Americans should square celebrating immigration with regards to the men's soccer team while President Trump tries to end birthright citizenship. Let's listen.

OK, we don't have that soundbite. I will just tell you the gist of what he said is, like all good things can be abused. The birthright citizenship goes back to the root of the country. And he just kind of went around a little bit in circles, to be honest with you, talking about the constitutional reasoning for birthright citizenship and saying that it has been abused. Know what? Let me toss to it. We do have it now.

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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Like like all good things that can be abused and birthright citizenship goes back to the, you know, root of the country, the history of the tradition. You look at the original intent of the Constitution and the founders and what they were doing, of course, they were facing a very different set of circumstances than we're facing now.

We know that it's been abused in recent years because people have literally just come over the border just to have a baby. I don't think it's inconsistent at all. I think we can celebrate immigration, legal immigration. We are a nation of immigrants, as we all recognize.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:35:05]

BASH: So the obvious question is, is it abusing the system to be born in the U.S., grow up in London and then come back because you're a star soccer player or not? And this is why it's such a fascinating story.

RIDDELL: Absolutely. And it is interesting that the Department of Homeland Security tried to jump on the success of the USA team with a couple of tweets before and after the Australia game last week. The first tweet stated our soil with the message defend the homeland.

The image featured a trio of players, including Balogun. And then after the game, they posted another message stating, built the wall. Congressman Ted Lieu replied to the DHS saying, quote, "Did you know our starting forward as a U.S. citizen through birthright citizenship? You're trying to strip away that right. Did you know an additional 16 USA players were born outside U.S. soil? Did you know half the team are dual citizens? Also, Happy Juneteenth."

After tonight, the USA's next game will be next Wednesday. And as I say, Balogun likely to be prominently featured. And for as long as the USA keep going in this tournament, the backstory of his citizenship will be harder and harder to ignore.

I shouldn't think the team will be welcoming this as a distraction. So I don't expect the Balogun will be in a position to be taking any questions on the subject. But just the very fact that he is so prominently involved with this story going on at the same time can only draw attention to it.

BASH: Yes, absolutely. Don, thank you so much for being here.

And when we come back, will the progressive march to Washington stop at the Hudson River's edge? I spoke to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and we'll tell you his reaction after the break.

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[12:41:12]

BASH: Democrats are still sifting through and debating the national implications of three Mamdani backed progressives scoring primary victories in New York City this week. And today, those questions start to go before voters in the critical state of Michigan, where ballots are now going out for a fierce Democratic Senate primary, again, pitting the establishment against insurgents. But this time in a really critical toss up battleground state.

My panel is back now. Jeff Zeleny there, obviously, as I said, is a big debate. Just want to show you some examples of reaction on Capitol Hill from Democrats. This is from Axios. Steve Cohen from Tennessee predicted it will be difficult to rein in these newly elected Democratic socialists. I think people that follow that ideology will cause problems.

Another House Democrat said people are electing candidates who say they're going to fight, not solve problems. What they're going to get is fights. Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, there is no doubt that the Democratic Party is going through a rebranding exercise and there is no clear consensus of what is the best strategy to try and regain power. But it's yet unclear if any of the gains we're seeing in blue districts in New York City, perhaps in Los Angeles, perhaps here in Washington, D.C., are going to play well on Main Street in America. But that is about to be tested, as you said in that Senate primary in Michigan, as well as in a primary just next week in Colorado.

A 30-year member of the House of Representatives, Diana DeGette, is facing a very strong primary challenger from the left. We will see if these are playing out. There's a race in the Wisconsin governor's race as well that's coming up in August. So, look, there's some consternation among Democratic establishment members, but it's clear the energy is on the left-hand side of the party.

What that means long term, we still don't have a clear sense of that. But Republicans obviously are trying to seize on these left-leaning wins to try and brand the entire --

BASH: Yes.

ZELENY: -- party in that way.

BASH: I'm in Pennsylvania, and I was with the governor this morning, Josh Shapiro, and asked him about what happened in New York.

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BASH: Democratic voters in New York chose three candidates backed by Zohran Mamdani, far left and Democratic socialist candidates. What message do you take from that about where your party is?

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Well, you know, those were races in individual districts in a whole other state. I think you're seeing very different-looking congressional races and certainly different Democratic candidates here in Pennsylvania. I think what is important are the people who are making a lot of noise, who are engaging in these performative politics, have to now figure out how to deliver results.

It's one thing to speak in platitudes during a campaign. It's a whole other thing to actually deliver for people who are genuinely hurting, who genuinely need to see cost of living go down, meaning their ability to make ends meet, you know, go up. Fixing a broken health care system, reining in excesses, being able to, you know, give people the promise of liberty that we've talked about.

I think we, as a party, need to find our way toward candidates who actually can deliver for people and make their lives better. I think what our party has to go through that will be very healthy and something we've not really done since the 1992 election cycle is to have a battle over what we believe in, to have a battle over the ideas that we are going to hold on to and campaign on and then deliver on as a way to make people's lives better.

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[12:45:12]

BASH: And Amy Walter, a point that he made, I think, is one that you've been making, which is that here in Pennsylvania, the Democrats who won primaries to challenge Republicans in swing districts, which these in New York are not, are very different kinds of Democrats than what we saw in New York.

AMY WALTER, PUBLISHER & EDITOR IN CHIEF, THE COOK POLITICAL REPORT: Yes, this seems to be, at least at this point, and this is why Michigan becomes so important, thus far, the biggest success that the more progressive far left justice Democrats have had are in deeply blue districts. Now, those aren't going to matter for control of the House.

Michigan, though, is a swing state. It's a state Trump carried twice. And the kind of candidate that Democrats put forward here, their success or failure, will say something about the strength ether of the establishment, who is behind one candidate, or the more progressive left wing of the party backed by Bernie Sanders.

But to the point made earlier by Jeff about like what it means for the caucus, should Democrats get into power, having a center of gravity now that has shifted left is going to be challenging for leadership if they should be in control.

BASH: Toluse?

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Yes, there's the question of control of the House, which Amy is right, will not be impacted by these far left candidates running in these blue districts, but actually controlling the House, having leadership able to rein in and control how legislation moves within the House.

That's something that could be very much impacted by the presence of these new far left candidates who are likely to win in November and have made it clear that they're going to want to push leadership to the left on a number of policy issues and on a lot of issues that Democrats have not found their voice on.

And to the governor's point, they have not had a battle over issues of what exactly they should do on Israel, what exactly they should do when it comes to the minimum wage and health care, whether they should go all in on Medicare for all. So I do expect those battles to take place. But if they are taking place in January and February next year on the House floor, that could make for a very unruly and chaotic scenario.

And so I think a lot of Democrats are hoping that they'll be able to have those battles behind closed doors before they get into power if they're able to get control of the House in November and not have this all spill out into public the way that it has started to do in the -- on the campaign trail.

BASH: Good luck with that.

All right, guys, stand by. Everything old is new again. Well, maybe as a former presidential candidate, current GOP senator spending a lot of time in the Palmetto State and speculation is ripe. Is he lacing up his 2028 running shoes? Stay with us.

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[12:52:22]

BASH: Quote, "I would be shocked if he doesn't run." That's what a longtime Ted Cruz supporter told my colleagues here at CNN, Patrick Svitek and also Steve Contorno, that after St. Cruz starting to make the rounds in early primary states. We have brand new reporting from that dynamic duo on how Cruz's presidential ambitions are roughly some feathers in Trump world.

Let's go straight to Jeff Zeleny, who is here, and we're going to get Patrick momentarily. Jeff, starting with you. We've covered Ted Cruz for a very long time. Cruz is sort of being cagey. He's saying he's just on the road campaigning for other candidates. JD Vance told Megyn Kelly it's a done deal, but also that Cruz probably will run. What is your sense of how Cruz is getting up and running?

ZELENY: Well, look, that's what ambitious politicians in both parties use a midterm election cycle for, is to help other candidates and to get sort of some support of their own along the way. It was Bob Vander Plaats, the Iowa conservative leader who gave that great assessment of Ted Cruz to Pat Svitek and Steve Contorno in this great new story.

And look, I mean, let's not forget, Ted Cruz won the Iowa caucuses back in 2016. Donald Trump came in second place. Ted Cruz still has a lot of supporters out there. But, look, it is an entirely different moment in this Republican Party.

But Ted Cruz is doing everything that you would want to do, including some new things like a podcast. His podcast is extraordinarily well listened to out there. So he is putting himself out there.

He also has a lot of detractors. There's no doubt about it. So we will see sort of how far this goes. But he is making clear that the Republican primary might be a little bit more wide open than some may think.

BASH: Yes, he certainly wants to. He was one of the first sitting members of Congress or even elected officials to have a podcast.

Patrick, what exactly are you hearing? And how would you sort of define and explain what people around Ted Cruz are trying to get out there?

PATRICK SVITEK, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: You know, I was there for at least one of his events in South Carolina on Monday, and I spoke with voters there. And they at least expressed an openness to him. What I thought was interesting was they all acknowledged that JD Vance is kind of the front runner in waiting.

But they thought it would be healthy for the future of the party for there to be a little more of a competitive primary, whether it's Ted Cruz going up against JD Vance or someone else going up against J.D. Vance.

[12:55:06]

And you have seen Cruz take some positions that put a little bit of ideological daylight between him and the Trump administration, whether it's between him and President Trump or between him and JD Vance. You know, he is more of a skeptic on tariffs, for example, I would say, than other members of the administration.

On foreign policy, he's emerged as, you know, a skeptic, if not outright critic, of some of the negotiations surrounding Iran. And so you do see these ideological schisms emerging that point to a Republican Party that's not entirely unified going into 2028. And some of these voters that I spoke to said, yes, they'd like to see a debate happen about those ideas.

BASH: We saw a little bit of a preview of that when Ted Cruz went and sat down with Tucker Carlson and he posted, Cruz has -- it's about -- it's really been about getting a leader on the right and fighting antisemitism, accusing -- Cruz accused the influential right-wing leader like Carlson, also Nick Fuentes, of promoting bigotry.

I actually want to put on the screen what Ted Cruz said about Tucker Carlson. This has been obvious for some time. "Tucker Carlson hates Trump Republicans, Israel, Christian Zionists, you. Tucker loves Qatar, the Ayatollah, anti-Semite crackpites, shirtless Putin, Sharia law." Not sure if you could get any more blunt and biting than that.

SVITEK: Yes, well, I don't doubt that Cruz believes that about Tucker Carlson. This is also kind of a political proxy war with the Vice President, who is closer to Tucker Carlson --

BASH: Exactly.

SVITEK: -- and has -- you know, the Vice President has spoken out against antisemitism but has not kind of rang the alarm bell inside the party the way that Cruz has. And so this is kind of -- you know, every time that you see Cruz going after Tucker Carlson, you can't help but think that that is putting some political pressure on JD Vance.

BASH: Fantastic reporting. Everybody should check it out. Thank you to you and Jeff and everybody else on today.

Thank you for watching Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after the break.

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