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Inside Politics

Trump Faces GOP Fireworks In Lead-Up To Fourth Of July; Will Hammering Trump Hand Ossoff Win In Key Senate Race?; GOP Georgia Senate Candidate: Ossoff Is "Losing" This Race. Can Republicans Defeat Sen. Jon Ossoff and Flip Key Seat?; An Inside Look at Trump's Threats and Wild Speaker Fight; Will Mystery Around Missing Congressman End This Week. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired June 28, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:25]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Party in the USA. President Trump puts himself at the center of America's 250th. But amid fireworks in his own party and tensions with Iran, is he losing his audience?

And just peachy. My exclusives with both candidates in the race that could determine Senate control.

SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Congressman Collins is a person of low integrity and poor character.

REP. MIKE COLLINS (R-GA): This guy is weak. He's woke and he will be defeated.

RAJU: Can a Democrats take it to Trump's strategy win him a purple state?

Plus, socialist surge.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Communism is very easy to sell.

RAJU: With another upset possible Tuesday. Are Democrats panicking?

INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

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(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU (on camera): Good morning. And welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Manu Raju. It has been a tense week in Washington, with President Trump once

again engaged in pitched battles with, yes, his own party. And it punctuated last night in Louisiana, where his handpicked candidate, Congresswoman Julia Letlow, won the GOP Senate nomination to fill the seat now occupied by Senator Bill Cassidy, who fell victim to Trump's campaign of retribution.

And as many in Trump's party are desperate to turn the page for Iran ahead of the midterms, the U.S. and Iran trading a fresh round of strikes just yesterday, with Trump warning that if the fragile ceasefire collapses, then, quote, "The Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist".

Now, all this amid what could be one of the more memorable weeks of his presidency, as America is set to celebrate its 250th anniversary. And as Trump has put himself in the middle of all of it.

Let's break this all down with my excellent panel of reporters this morning. NPR's Tamara Keith, CNN's Stephen Collinson, and "The Wall Street Journal's" Olivia Beavers.

Good morning to you all. Nice to see you on this Sunday.

The news over the -- overnight over the Iran. So I want to talk about that first because we had this fragile ceasefire. We had this memorandum of understanding. We had Vance last week in Switzerland talking very positively about how things were going.

And we've seen this escalating tension and strikes over the last several days. Just to remind viewers, this all has to do with what's going on in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran attacking a ship near the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. conducted around air strikes on Friday.

Then yesterday, a back and forth between Iran, U.S. going after military targets in Iran. Iran responding to gulf states attacking gulf states where there were U.S. assets in those states.

Tamara, you cover the White House. What are you hearing about whether this ceasefire can actually hold or whether we're going to see all out war again?

TAMARA KEITH, NPR SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president frequently puts threats on social media. He doesn't always follow through on them. Clearly, this White House wants this war to be settled. The way the president talks about oil prices coming down, which they have, indicates exactly where he wants this to be, which is stable.

The problem is the president's wishes don't actually -- aren't actually commands when it comes to Iran. And Iran is saying that actually this MOU says they control the Strait of Hormuz and whether ships transit through, which is not the U.S. understanding of that MOU.

RAJU: Yeah. And Iran is saying that these diplomatic processes may not go forward. Now, in light of these strikes, they're accusing the United States of violating this MOU. But the challenge is it was so vague what was in that MOU. They're arguing the details aren't clear. And as a result, we're seeing both sides disagree about what it actually means.

And it's leading to potentially more violence. It is leading to more violence but potentially war once again.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. The MOU is not going to provide the finality that the president was hoping for at the end of the war. I think what is going on is this escalation is showing that making peace with Iran is going to be almost as painful as being at war with Iran for the president politically. Iran is trying to show that it has this new leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, that it intends to exit this process, controlling the strait, controlling the traffic and using it to create revenue for its economy. And it's trying to stress that to the United States before the next round of negotiations.

The only good thing about this, I think, is that often Middle East ceasefires don't stop the shooting, but they do stop a further round of escalation.

[08:05:04]

There's enough reason to think that it's in the national interest of both parties, the U.S. and Iran, not to go back to full scale war. The president has already told us he's not prepared to create a great depression, in his words, by going on with the war. And Iran knows that. So it knows it can push him.

So there are reasons to hope that this doesn't get a lot worse. But going into the midterms, I think we might see Iran using this leverage over and over again.

RAJU: Iran knows the political pressure the president is under. Of course, the president said this is going to be over within a matter of a handful of weeks, and this could persist and get much worse.

All right. We'll obviously continue to monitor that.

And there was other news overnight when the president's hand-picked candidate in the Louisiana Senate race, Julia Letlow, congresswoman from Louisiana, won her runoff. That was against Congressman John Fleming.

And remember, there was a primary last month in which the incumbent Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican senator who was backed by the GOP leadership here in Washington, was pushed out because Trump was furious and on his campaign of retribution, because Cassidy was one of the senators who voted to convict him after January 6th in the impeachment trial. Cassidy has been a very loyal Republican since then, other than a few recent flare ups after he lost.

Olivia, you covered Julia Letlow very closely. How do you see her fitting in, in the senate GOP? Is she going to be the MAGA warrior that that Trump expects her to be perhaps? OLIVIA BEAVERS, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: You

know, Manu, I don't think she's going to fit into that, like, you know, bold and fiery sort of persona that you see with some of the other people that he calls a MAGA warrior. I was on the campaign trail with her before the runoff, and she seemed to even struggle to just throw kind of punches and attacks, even though she was facing a deluge from her other opponents in the sort of 11th hour of the campaign before the first primary poll night, she started doing negative ads.

She's someone whose career catapulted into politics after her husband died because of COVID, right before he was set to be sworn in. So in 2021, she won a special election, and since then she has just seen her career jump. Now she's entering the Senate after almost three full terms.

RAJU: Yeah. That's very quick. And to remember, this is a chairman of a key committee in the senate, Bill Cassidy. So it was a pretty monumental to see an incumbent go down. Now --

BEAVERS: Welcome to Trump's America. Trump's America, January 6th years later, is still something that he's able to wage a campaign on against an incumbent.

RAJU: Yeah. All right. Let's talk about what's going to happen this week. America 250 Trump very much putting himself in the center of this major American celebration of a handful of things the president is doing.

Among the things he's doing, he's going over to the Teddy Roosevelt presidential library, North Dakota, Mount Rushmore on Friday, and of course, the big National Mall 4th of July celebration, which I want to ask you about, Tamara, because he said in a post to social post that we're going to host the most spectacular Trump rally of them all, a tribute to America on July 4th.

Is this going to be a Trump rally on July 4th, which is typically an apolitical time?

KEITH: Well, if he says it's going to be a Trump rally, then he's going to make it a Trump rally. The president of the United States, typically on a July 4th, will, if they say anything, will deliver very perfunctory remarks. You know, rah-rah, America, let's watch the fireworks.

He's saying it's going to be a Trump rally. They are controlling access to the National Mall. It is. It is fenced off. This is not a normal year in Washington, D.C. for the 4th of July. And he -- they're going to be military flyovers all day long.

He says it's going to be the biggest fireworks show in the history of fireworks shows. Probably can't verify that. But if he if he says it's a rally, he's going to treat it like a rally.

RAJU: And he's speaking late at night. It could go on for a long time. The fireworks may not happen until afterwards.

KEITH: Like 11:30 is when they're saying the fireworks might happen, which is late. If you're trying to stay up.

RAJU: Late for me, late for a lot of people.

And meantime, we're seeing all these things he's doing. I mean, this new passport, this commemorative passport, limited edition travel document was here it is of America 250 of Trump staring at you in your passport, which you can get right now if you're renewing your passport. And then, you know, this comes of course, we're seeing Trump's picture all over Washington, all over federal buildings of the Justice Department, Interior Department, Labor Department, Agriculture Department. You drive around, you just see Trump's face all over Washington.

Stephen, this is not normal.

COLLINSON: No, but it's not surprising. Ever since the president came on the national scene, what, 11 years ago, he's been one of his political tactics is to place himself in everyone's social media feed, in the culture, in their lives. At some point, though, you wonder if it does kind of almost move towards a little bit of self-parody as much as it makes Americans who don't support the president perhaps feel a little bit unwelcome in these ceremonies, and perhaps that will be remembered in years to come as perhaps not a wise decision by the president.

[08:10:07]

RAJU: Yeah.

COLLINSON: In the bicentennial, 50 years ago, Gerald Ford was the president, and they took extreme care that even when they were talking about the political situation in the economy, that they weren't partisan. There was a memo from David Gergen, who was then an aide to ford, making this clear. I think this shows just how different our political times are. You how different the president is.

RAJU: Yeah, no question about it. And just as we go to break the interest in America is 250th anniversary, 57 percent of total of them are interested in it, 43 percent. But then when you break it down along party lines, more Republicans than Democrats interested independents about split 50/50.

All right. Still ahead, my exclusive interviews with Georgia's Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and the Republican fighting to unseat him in November, Congressman Mike Collins. The big bet Ossoff is making in this marquee race.

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OSSOFF: I never want to hear these two pretend they give a damn about working people again. Because while hundreds of thousands of Georgians lose their health care, Mike Collins builds Trump a ballroom. They worked harder burying the Epstein files than they ever worked to lower your grocery bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Many senators who run in purple states often tout their work with the president of the opposite party, not Jon Ossoff. The Georgia Democrat is positioning himself as a leader of the anti-Trump resistance and betting that aggressively campaigning against Trump will energize his base in a midterm that could be a referendum on the president. It's a gamble in a pivotal battleground, given that Ossoff is the lone Democrat up for reelection in a state Trump won in 2024.

So will it work? In his battle against GOP Congressman Mike Collins?

I asked the senator himself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: So, Senator, thanks for talking to me. I appreciate it.

You're the one Democrat who's running in a state that Donald Trump won in 2024. And listening to your speeches, you're very much running against Donald Trump, not as someone who works with Donald Trump.

I'm wondering, is that a risk in a purple state like yours with so many independent voters?

OSSOFF: I think the president has earned the criticism and earned disgrace. His economic agenda is a disaster for the country. He's doubled health insurance premiums for more than a million Georgians. His tariffs have driven up grocery prices and the prices of just about everything else. He's been globally humiliated in Iran.

Just last month, Americans faced record high prices for groceries, for health care and for housing. This under a president who promised he would lower prices on day one. And all the while, the president and his family are enriching themselves to the tune of billions of dollars. And the president is trying to build a monument to himself.

I think it's obscene. I think he's a failed president and he's deeply unpopular in Georgia.

RAJU: But, I mean, obviously, but Democrats, too are unpopular. I'm wondering what you think needs to change in your party to convince voters that you'll actually deliver in a senate majority.

OSSOFF: Well, the coalition that I'm building in Georgia stretches far beyond just Democrats. There are independents in a growing number of Republicans who are supporting me. And my office has distinguished itself through the quality and caliber of constituent service that we've provided to communities across the state, the oversight and investigations that I've led into corruption and civil rights abuses in our federal prison system, into the mistreatment of military families and privatized housing on bases across Georgia. The work that I've done helping Georgia's agricultural sector expand market access all over the world. And what you're seeing right now is a growing number of conservatives who are unwilling to support my opponent, Congressman Mike Collins, or saying that they're going to support me because they know I've done a good job for the state and because it's widely understood in Georgia that Congressman Collins is a person of low integrity and poor character who is known as a bigot and an anti-Semite, and who has voted to double Georgians health insurance premiums, voted for war and voted for tariffs.

RAJU: But should things change with your party, should you have a new leadership, for instance, in a Senate majority?

OSSOFF: Look, I think all that will be aired out over the next year, but what I'm focused on right now is my obligations to my constituents in Georgia and this crucial battleground Senate race in Georgia. And it's worth remembering that I am the only Democratic senator in the country running for reelection in a state the president won. And I expect national Republican groups to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the effort to unseat me. In Georgia, this will be a razor thin, competitive U.S. Senate race.

RAJU: You talk about alleged crimes of the president. You talk about corruption for the president. If you guys take back the House and the Senate, should you convict? Should you impeach the president and convict him?

OSSOFF: Look, as I've said in the past, it is my view, looking at the facts and the conduct and misconduct of this president that he has already engaged in gross misconduct that exceeds the standard previously set for the impeachment of any president. What I think is that there has to be accountability, and that is --

RAJU: Does that mean impeachment?

OSSOFF: Let me -- let me just say accountability, as I've said, I think that his misconduct has already exceeded the standard previously set for presidents when it comes to impeachment.

[08:20:02]

The bottom line is there has to be accountability. And I think we have to distinguish between accountability, which is different from vengeance.

I'm not talking about a punitive partisan effort. What I'm saying is that we have to make sure the truth about what's happened in this administration becomes public, and that there's accountability for misconduct, whether that misconduct is the overt corruption that we've seen, this unprecedented self-enrichment by the first family.

I mean, just consider the fact that the man leading United States nuclear diplomacy in the Middle East, Jared Kushner, is not just the president's son in law with no relevant qualifications to be engaged in high level international diplomacy with immense stakes for American national security. He's also someone whose business has received billions of dollars from Saudi royals and who, as he engages in Middle Eastern diplomacy for the United States, is at the same time soliciting billions of dollars more from Arab princes.

This is unprecedented in terms of the corruption and conflicts of interest. And there has to be accountability.

RAJU: So you talked about the Republican Party. What about the Democratic Party? We're seeing this shift to the left that has happened, whether it's in the New York Democratic primaries, the main Democratic primaries on the left. Collins is very much trying to tie you to the leftward shift in your party.

Are you personally concerned at all about what we're seeing in the rise in the left this election cycle?

OSSOFF: Here's what I think we're seeing across the country, and it's happening in both political parties. We are seeing a growing revulsion at the corruption of an entrenched political class that, especially since the Citizens United decision, opened the floodgates to limitless secret corporate funding of politics, has been less and less responsive to the needs of the American people, and more and more responsive to powerful donors, whether they're corporate interests or the ultra rich. And I think that that is driving some of the dynamics we're seeing in both political parties right now.

RAJU: I know you got to run. So the buzz is out there about you in 2028. I know you don't like to talk about it. You want to talk, focus on this race.

What do you say to those people who are talking about you in 2028? And is that something that you've ruled out?

OSSOFF: Yeah. Let me reiterate. I am not running for president in 2028. I have no interest in running for president in 2028. I am laser focused on this Senate race in Georgia, where I'm facing a disgraced congressman, one of the most extreme members of congress in the country. An election denier who has made excuses for those who violently sacked the U.S. Capitol five years ago, whose chief of staff has been revealed to be conspiring with white nationalists to try to get a Holocaust denier freed from prison.

This is a sitting congressman who, in addition to being pro-tariff and pro cutting health care, has viciously engaged in the antisemitic harassment of a Jewish reporter and refused to apologize for it, and praised young men who were mocking a Black woman on a college campus making monkey noises.

He is understood in Georgia by both Democrats and Republicans to be unfit for office and unfit for promotion. And there's a reason Governor Brian Kemp worked so hard to try to prevent him from getting this nomination.

RAJU: Do you have any thoughts on the nicknames Trump has given you?

OSSOFF: I don't care about nicknames, but I think what is widely understood across the country and the entire world is that this president has humiliated himself through the failure of his foreign policy in the Middle East. His approval rating sits at 34 percent, while Americans pay more than they ever have for just about everything.

He adorns his office in gold. While cancer patients face down the prospect of losing health coverage, he builds a monument to himself. I think this is a failed lame duck president who has cemented his legacy in disgrace.

(END VIDEOTAPE0

RAJU: So, as you just heard, Senator Ossoff very clearly trying to tie his Republican opponent, Mike Collins, to President Trump. So I also caught up with Collins to get him to respond.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: I talked to Senator Ossoff today, and not surprisingly, he had some not so nice things to say about you. He called you a bigot. He called you an antisemite. He said, you're a person of low character.

What do you say to him?

COLLINS: You know he's lying. And the reason he's losing and he knows he's losing.

RAJU: You think he's losing this race?

COLLINS: He is losing. He's going to lose this race. This race is going to be about record of -- record of results. Both of us are one- termers. He's one-term senator. I'm a one term congressman.

You take a look at what I've done in my first term. I've had two pieces of legislation signed into law by two different presidents of two different parties. You take a look at what he's done. He's accomplished nothing.

Now, he Jon Ossoff has voted for that, just massive spending bills out there creating inflation and skyrocketing costs out there.

[08:25:03]

He voted for open borders. He voted to allow men to play in girls sports.

This guy is weak. He's woke. And he will be defeated because at the end of the day, Georgia's going to have a choice.

And that choice, Manu, is clear as day. You're going to have the choice to pick between someone, me who has delivered. I mean -- and delivered, not just in the private sector, because that's what I was for 30-plus years, but also in Washington and just making life more affordable, making this country safer, just making Georgians life better off.

Or you're going to get a choice of Jon Ossoff. This is a trust fund kid. He's never had a real job in his life. Now, what he has done is he's made our life more expensive and less safe. We've seen that and left Georgia worse off. RAJU: He said, you know, the things that he has seized upon, in

particular, some of your past posts on social media and the like, a lot of them have gotten you into some hot water. Do you regret any of the things that you've said on social media?

COLLINS: If I were Jon Ossoff, here's one. You're talking about somebody that voted against Israel twice. You're talking about -- why doesn't he condemn Hasan Piker out there for his anti-Semitic -- he's an anti-Semite streamer, and he endorsed his campaign, the same guy that helped get those socialists elected last night in New York. So maybe Jon Ossoff should look in the mirror.

RAJU: Do you -- but do you regret any of your past social media posts?

COLLINS: You know what? I've always checked my social media posts as much as I could, but when things happened, I took care of that problem just like any good business person would do.

RAJU: Will there be any other controversies from your past or associations with people that may get you in trouble in this race?

COLLINS: You know what? We're going to stick to the issues on this thing. That's what's going to win it. The people of the state of Georgia deserve to know his record versus my record, and we're going to keep pounding that pavement with that. And at the end of the day, I will win that race.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, Ossoff's campaign responded to Collins by pointing to the senator's comments at his rally yesterday, in part attacking Collins for denying the results of the 2020 elections. Next, you won't want to miss what Collins said to me about that.

Plus, could a 29-year-old Democratic socialist notch up another anti- establishment win this week?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:46]

RAJU: Welcome back.

You just heard my new interviews with the two Georgia Senate candidates -- Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and Republican Congressman Mike Collins in that critical race.

My excellent panel is back to unpack this all.

Olivia, what do you think of the senator's strategy here, which is run against Trump? Tie Collins to Trump in a state that Trump won.

OLIVIA BEAVERS, WALL STREET JOURNAL CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: You know, it's curious because we saw in the last election cycle Democrats trying to lean a little bit more into the kitchen table issues. There was a little bit of a pitfall in their mind of being only against Trump.

But Ossoff is pretty creative in how he does these sort of pithy comments that they very quickly cut and then post online. He's sort of catering to this a little bit more online community maybe for fundraising and to reach younger voters.

But he's also trying to paint Mike Collins as corrupt. Now Collins has had several controversies with his former chief of staff, who, you know, he's someone who actually came in already full of controversies for kicking a dog and for, you know, battery and trespassing convictions.

So for him to then have issues in the campaign and say, I took care of it, is not really the most, you know, biggest bragging point for Collins.

RAJU: Yes.

And Collins has a lot of big social media history. He's facing a House Ethics investigation. Collins has said he's not done anything wrong. And as you mentioned, he's getting -- Ossoff is generating enthusiasm from the base. Just look at their fundraising numbers. 32 million bucks on cash on hand for Jon Ossoff. That is a massive amount of money compared to Mike Collins.

So he has a significant cash deficit. We'll see if the GOP outside groups really play in this race.

Now, one of the things that when Trump came in late and endorsed Collins late in this primary season, he cited the fact that the other Republican in the race, Derek Dooley, had said in a private fundraiser that Trump actually lost, which is factually true. He lost the 2020 election in Georgia, and that's one reason why he backed Mike Collins.

I asked Collins if he believes that Biden was the actual victor in Georgia in 2020.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: When Trump cited his endorsement, he cited that said that Derek Dooley believed that it was Joe Biden who won in 2020 in Georgia.

What do you think? Did Joe Biden win Georgia in 2020?

REP. MIKE COLLINS (R-GA): I have said this over and over and over again. You don't change the rules in the middle of the game. And that's what happened in 2020. They changed the rules up.

You don't all of a sudden turn around and start mailing out absentee ballots to everybody. You don't set up drop boxes all over the place for people to just start this mass harvesting -- ballot harvesting.

RAJU: Do you think Trump won?

COLLINS: Trump won that race? Yes, yes.

So --

RAJU: Got it.

COLLINS: You know, and the thing is, we're going to were going to make sure in 2026 that we spend -- we send Jon Ossoff home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Of course, there's been not proven and that there's been widespread fraud in Georgia. We've seen that it's been established time and time and time again.

But this is a rite of passage for a Republican candidate seeking Trump's --

[08:34:46]

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. It's the price of entry into Donald Trump's political world. And that's what you have to pay.

It's interesting that, you know, this is a long-time feud going back to then between Trump and Governor Kemp. And obviously, Representative Collins is not Governor Kemp's candidate.

And that, I think, gets to the point of what you were saying about the Ossoff campaign. He's running almost a national campaign against Trump.

Trump's approval ratings in Georgia are low, just like around the country. And he's consistently underpolled the governor. There's like a 4 or 5 percent difference there.

So it makes a lot of sense what Ossoff is doing as well as he also seems to be, you know, setting the groundwork for perhaps a national campaign later on.

RAJU: Yes.

All right. I want to quickly talk about what's happening in Alaska. This is another critical Senate race in which the current incumbent, Senator Dan S. Sullivan, one of the candidates running against him is another Republican, Dan J. Sullivan.

And this retired teacher says he's got a legitimate case in running against the senator. The senator thinks this is all an effort by Democrats to try to confuse the electorate and pull away support for him and help the actual Democrat in the race Mary Peltola in what could be another pivotal race that could determine the majority.

Tomorrow is a big day because the state supreme court will determine whether Dan J. Sullivan can stay on the ballot. This has Republicans freaking out.

TAMARA KEITH, NPR SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, you have the initials written down in front of you, and it's hard to keep straight. RAJU: And I covered this.

KEITH: And you covered this. Now imagine being a voter looking at a ballot that has two of the same name and you're like, what's the initial? And look at their logos. They look very similar. They're -- there is a long tradition of hijinks or whatever you want to call it, to try to help out your candidate or to, you know, get the primary challenger, you know, get the person that you want in the general election.

We've seen this going back probably as long as there are elections.

RAJU: Yes. Ok. Now I'm going to turn to another big issue that's happening in the midterms. And that is the rise of the progressive left.

We saw this happen in New York, where a number of Mamdani -- Zohran Mamdani-backed candidates, three of them, won in House primaries, two of them ousting incumbents.

We may see that again in Colorado on Tuesday. There's a candidate Melat Kiros running against Diana DeGette, a sitting Democratic progressive congresswoman.

But you know, Kiros is a Democratic Socialist and could very much win this race.

What are you hearing from Democrats in the House about this growing trend?

BEAVERS: Well, first of all, DeGette has been in office since 1996, and she has not faced a tough challenger until this race from someone who is basically using the Palestine-Israel issue to create a wedge as long as -- well as sort of economic reasons.

And DeGette is progressive, as you said. she's pushing for Medicare for all and some of these other issues, but now she has to be fighting someone on her left flank. And there is this influx from the establishment of millions of dollars to try to keep her in office.

The question is, can some of these more progressive, Democratic Socialist candidates win outside of New York? That's something that all Democrats are watching, because they're also the ones who are saying, let's get rid of this leadership, or we're going to be really pushing the party to the left, sort of the Democratic version of the House Freedom Caucus.

They're going to kind of come in as rebels.

We thought that was going to be when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came in and the Squad. They kind of settled down and started working with the team. So we're going to see if that's actually how they work with the party.

RAJU: Yes. It's going to be so interesting because if the Democrats do take the House majority, it probably will be a narrow House majority. That means Hakeem Jeffries may have to rely on folks on the far-left to get things passed.

And we've seen how that's gone for Speaker Johnson and folks on the far right. So that's going to be a big dynamic to watch. Big day on Tuesday.

All right. Coming up, Congressmen getting physical, Trump screaming expletives, alliances made and broken. Sounds like a must watch reality show. But it was part of four crazy days in the Capitol.

A new book from the man in the middle of it all shares the dirt. That's next.

[08:39:04]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: "What the F are you guys doing?" That was just one of the expletive-laden threats my next guest says he heard President Trump yell at his fellow Republicans.

John Leganski spent more than ten years working for Republican Kevin McCarthy, working his way up from an intern to floor director, a right-hand man to McCarthy, including during those wild four days that made McCarthy Speaker of the House in 2023 after 15 ballots and one of the longest and ugliest speaker fights in U.S. history.

He's out with a new book, "Glory, Grief and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House". And he's here with me now.

John, great to see you.

JOHN LEGANSKI, FORMER AIDE TO REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY: Thanks for having me.

RAJU: Of all the titles, though, that you have, perhaps the most important one is that you're a fellow alum of Hinsdale South High School, like me in Darien, Illinois, the western suburbs of Chicago.

LEGANSKI: That's right.

RAJU: Exactly.

LEGANSKI: Go Hornets.

RAJU: Go, Hornets.

You're a little bit younger than me, so viewers may be able to tell. So we didn't quite overlap, but fellow Hornets it's so great to have you here.

[08:44:44]

RAJU: John, this is a great book and this is it right here. It's really rare for an aide who has this kind of insight to write a book. It's typically reporters like me who talk to you, and then we end up writing books and stories. But you had this -- such a unique perch.

Why write this book? And what were your biggest takeaways from this?

LEGANSKI: Yes. Well, as you said at the top, this was the longest speaker election since the Civil War. The first multi-ballot speaker election in a century.

So there was literally no one we could talk to about how to go through this. And so I wanted to put some of those takeaways in there, some of those key rules and strategies that we employed that week.

I think they're clearly applicable in the modern era, but also in a lot of other arenas outside of politics as well.

RAJU: And I read one of these excerpts that got a lot of attention, because you heard that it was so tense on the floor of the House in January 2023. This -- the infighting, the ballot after ballot after ballot and Trump's role in all of this.

One of the things that you write here is about Andy Biggs, who was one of those Republicans who was a thorn in the side of Kevin McCarthy. He says, "Before Biggs could realize what hit him, Donald Trump proceeded to unleash a tirade of expletives of the Arizona congressman.

"What the F are you guys doing?" Trump screamed at Biggs.

"Mr. President, Mr. President, we're just not going to change," Biggs stammered.

"I'll never effing support you if you don't support Kevin," he shouted back.

I, Mr. President," he tried to interject.

"Where's Crane?" Trump asked, referring to the fellow Arizonan, Eli Crane, who had won his primary election in part because of Trump's endorsement in that race.

"He was third -- he was in third place until I saved him," Trump shouted. "I'll find an effing challenger to him so fast his head will spin,"

Listening in on speakerphone, it was truly something to behold you, right?"

Talk about that moment.

LEGANSKI: Yes. So that was right before the 14th ballot. We had a group of six that had not yet gone with us. We broke off 14 of the Freedom Caucus members, and Kevin had always had a good relationship with President Trump.

He merged him in. And like I said, it was really something to behold. I'd never experienced that. He's very buttoned-up in public, obviously, the president, but in private. RAJU: Is he buttoned up in public?

LEGANSKI: He does not have the square in front, right. He let it fly. And I said I'd not want to be on the receiving end of that. And those guys obviously did break shortly thereafter.

RAJU: And speaking of the people who were a thorn in the side of the Speaker, former Congressman Matt Gaetz, he was --

LEGANSKI: Who?

RAJU: Yes, exactly right. He was a former congressman.

LEGANSKI: Yes.

RAJU: He, of course, held out initially to support. He voted present in that initial speaker's fight, helped get McCarthy the speakership. Then he led the ouster of McCarthy just about a year and a half later.

You referred these are the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy in that historic and unprecedented move. You call them "eight useful idiots" on your book. You also referred to, said at one point you wanted to punch Gaetz in the face.

What were your interactions like with Matt Gaetz about why he was holding out, and also why he led the push to oust Kevin McCarthy?

LEGANSKI: Yes. Well, every story needs a villain, and he was certainly our villain, our chief nemesis. I never really got to the bottom of it. Why he and Kevin had such beef.

It was clearly personality driven, though. And I write about that in the book. I think members who read this are going to take away that this was not a policy fight between Matt and Kevin. It was a personality fight.

And obviously you saw the downfall of his career as well. I write in the book as well. There's nothing for jokers to do when the Batman is gone. Six of those eight members are not going to be in Congress next term, and I think that's for the best.

RAJU: Yes. That's an interesting -- yes, it's surprising a couple of years later most of those guys are gone.

You talk about Speaker Johnson, too, in his role in all of this, even though eventually a lot of these conservatives, they got behind, of course, Johnson. They were not happy with him at the beginning. You write about that.

Talk about how that played out and how he's handling that flank in his party right now.

LEGANSKI: Yes, well, you and I are both golfers, Manu. I like to say there's no pictures on a scorecard, right. It's never pretty in the House Republican conference, but they've gotten results. They got the reconciliation bill done. They kept the government open when Democrats wouldn't vote for ICE or border patrol.

I support Speaker Johnson. I know a lot of people on his team. I think he's doing a great job. And especially with these tight margins, these are the margins you got to work with in the House moving forward. So my hats off to him and his team.

RAJU: Yes. And you also call them structurally unstable, the House GOP conference.

LEGANSKI: We have some issues. We got to work them out. Again, I think you could see Democrats have similar issues. You saw the DSA Party rise this week in New York. That's the feature of the House I want people to recognize.

We have these tight margins. It's always tough to govern, but the guys doing it up there are doing a great job.

RAJU: All right. Fellow Hinsdale South Hornet John Leganski, thanks so much for coming on. Great book. Really appreciate you coming on with your insights. Everyone go check it out.

And coming up for us, the missing GOP congressman gone for months. New details after the break.

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RAJU: It's the mystery that has consumed the political world for months. Where is Congressman Tom Kean Jr.? Well, it seems we may actually learn his whereabouts this week.

Now, for those who have not been following, the congressman who hails from a swing district in New Jersey, has not been seen in Washington for 115 days. He's missed more than 100 votes since his last one on March 5th, which, of course, is a major headache for a party that already has a razor thin majority.

Now, Kean originally addressed his absence by saying he's dealing with a personal medical issue, but has refused to provide any details about it.

And on June 2nd, the same day he won his primary, he said he would return to work within a matter of weeks and he would be, quote, "completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition".

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RAJU: Well, fast forward to now. The "New York Times" is reporting that Kean will return to Congress this Tuesday. And Politico is reporting he'll hold a fundraiser later that same day.

And this past Wednesday, a "New York Times" reporter actually spotted Kean at his New Jersey home. They saw him wearing a suit and tie when he answered the door just before 8:45 p.m. And he said, quote, "I'll talk to you next week", while declining to answer any questions. Now, his disappearance is already becoming fodder for his difficult reelection bid this November, with his Democratic foe Rebecca Bennett making it a major issue on the campaign trail.

I tried calling and texting Kean just yesterday to no avail, and his staff has not responded to multiple questions from CNN about his possible return. Nor have they provided any specifics about his medical condition. But what will he say when he returns on Tuesday?

That's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY.

Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Jake's guests include Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock and North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.

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