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Inside Politics
Supreme Court Lets States Receive Ballots Mailed After Election Day; Trump Pushes GOP Senators To Pass SAVE America Act After Supreme Court Rebuffs Him On Mail-In Ballots; Sen. Ossoff Banks On Trump Attacks For Re-Election In A Purple State; Trump Moves Forward With D.C. Golf Course Makeover Despite Federal Judge's Warning. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired June 29, 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]
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: -- two weeks is not, or a month is not, and perhaps you see future legal challenges to other states and their rules there. But as of right now, it's just, you know, an election is defined as the electorate picking its candidate of choice.
MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
WILLIAMS: And that's it, not necessarily one day.
RAJU: And if Trump reacted to this, reiterated his support for the issue that has really just dogged his Republican majority in the House and the Senate, this so-called SAVE America Act that would impose a wide range of rules here on election-related issues. He said that this needs to pass this bill. This is a stymied action in the House that we have seen and has really upended the Senate GOP.
He called out the five Republican senators who have opposed this, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy, and Mitch McConnell, saying there can be no more excuses. Is this going to just make things more complicated for Republicans?
TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: It does. It does. Because it's led to a lot of infighting among Republicans in the House and in the Senate. Now we have some House members who are holding up floor action on completely unrelated bills because they're mad at the Senate for not moving forward with the SAVE Act.
You have these people wanting a talking filibuster, not really thinking about what the implications would be if Senate Republicans pulled that trigger. It would shut down the floor likely through the end of the year. And so there are so many -- and I think we cannot forget that mail-in balloting in particular was something that was pushed in Republican-led states by Republicans.
Look at the Supreme Court ruling that has to do with Mississippi, a red state. There are plenty of Republicans who it's not just like the procedures in Congress that they disagree with being able to pass the SAVE Act. They don't necessarily like all the provisions in the SAVE Act.
There are plenty of Republicans in Congress who want wider access to mail-in voting. They don't agree with President Trump, even if they're not as willing to say it as plainly out loud.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Yes, noted mail-in voter, President Trump.
RAJU: Yes, exactly, right.
MATTINGLY: I think Tia makes a great point, and this kind of cuts two things that are really important in the kind of intraparty warfare that's going on right now, which is Republicans are excellent at mail- in ballot chase operations in specific states. In fact, kind of really drove it in Florida to their now, I think, super majority in both legislatures, and the governor's mansion as well.
They're very good at it in some states. And I remember talking to people back in Pennsylvania in 2024, where you had McCormick's team and House candidates being like, can somebody please call the President and tell him we need the mail-in balloting if we're going to win this thing?
RAJU: Yes, why not have all of your voters vote if they can.
MATTINGLY: Yes. The -- yes. What a novel concept there, Manu. And so I think what's also difficult here is this is a state role, and states drive this. And if you're into federalism and how this is all supposed to work, there's a lot of lawmakers, Republicans who say, I like that my state does this. I hate how that state does it --
RAJU: Yes.
MATTINGLY: -- and there's definitely fraud over there, but don't mess with my state. And so that's why this gets really, really complicated really fast. The President is just going to make it everybody's worst nightmare and the Republican Party for the next couple of weeks.
RAJU: Yes. Yes.
MATTINGLY: You get to cover it, Manu.
RAJU: Yes, I do. I do. And the midterms will have a big impact. We'll see. Trump wanted to change how it would, you know, impact this midterms, but maybe it'll be status quo. We will see.
All right, up next, I talked to Senator Jon Ossoff about Democrats who hear him on the Senate campaign trail, and some of them may actually daydream about him running in 2028.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JON OSSOFF (D), GEORGIA: These aren't a race. We're a people, united, not by ethnicity, but by shared convictions. And that is what makes us exceptional and a beacon to the world.
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:38:28]
RAJU: Senator Jon Ossoff's viral weekend rally clips are routinely leading Democrats to think beyond Georgia's 2026 Senate race. But the reality of a reelection fight is clear to Ossoff, who can recite the state's tight margins. Six of seven recent statewide elections were decided by two points or less, including his own.
I spoke at length with Senator Ossoff and asked him if his laser- focused attack on President Trump risks alienating swing voters that he will need this November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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 healthcare, 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, -- 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.
[12:40:01]
OSSOFF: Well, the coalition that I'm building in Georgia stretches far beyond just Democrats. There are Independents and a growing number of Republicans who are supporting me. 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. (END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: Now, I asked Congressman Mike Collins to respond to those attacks, and he says that Ossoff is, quote, "lying."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSSOFF: The President was so humiliated in Hormuz.
CROWD: Yes.
OSSOFF: He threw his --
REP. MIKE COLLINS (R), GEORGIA: He's going to lose this race. This race is going to be about record of and record results. He voted for open borders. He voted to allow men to play in girls' sports. This guy is weak. He's woke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: Tia, you covered this --
MITCHELL: Yes.
RAJU: -- for the Electoral Constitution. Tell us your take on this race.
MITCHELL: So, it's interesting. Both men came out pretty sharp attacking each other immediately after the runoff, where it was decided that Collins would be Ossoff's appointed. And Collins, for the most part, has tried to broaden his appeal to a general electorate. So he's talked about bipartisanship and being able to get bills passed into law, one signed by President Biden, one signed by President Trump, both with bipartisan support.
But Ossoff continues to go after Collins because of his controversies. And Collins, you know, he said things like, oh, it's a nothing burger about the ethics investigation. You know --
RAJU: The House Ethics probe that he's facing.
MITCHELL: Yes. And so, I think he's got to come up with a little bit sharper attacks. And then, on the other hand, of course, he says Ossoff is woke. And, you know, that's something that we've seen Republicans use repeatedly against Democratic candidates.
And quite frankly, it has not stuck. And the difference is Ossoff has been in office for six years. Georgians -- this is not an unknown. A lot of Georgians already have an opinion about him. So, I think, I really think it's up to Collins right now to sharpen his attacks. Because as you've seen, Ossoff is sharp already.
RAJU: Yes, he's tying him to Trump. And Collins is running with Trump. They both are making a Trump calculation. Isaac was at this rally in Savannah on Saturday. I want you to look at some of the things that Senator Ossoff said in his first general election rally of this campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSSOFF: And was so humiliated in Hormuz.
CROWD: Yes.
OSSOFF: He threw his toys out the stroller and refused to sign the affordable housing bill. Did you see that?
CROWD: Yes.
OSSOFF: This is what happens when you send your son-in-law, Jared, to cosplay as a diplomat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: And as Isaac goes out with great new reporting this morning, the headline, "Behind the scenes with Jon Ossoff, the 2026 -- and maybe 2028 -- Democratic viral hit." What happened in that rally?
EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, look, I spoke with Ossoff before the rally and after the rally, and was really trying to get a sense of what is -- what's going on here. Because these clips, he does one of these rallies once a month. Some on his staff joke that it's like taking everyone to church once a month.
And the clips explode online. People talk about it. He has a bigger theory of what he is doing here that goes to, you can say it's high- minded. He said at one point, said highfalutin, thinking about constituent services and investigations that he's doing in the Senate, but also really just going hard after Donald Trump for corruption in a way that is very full, lots of different examples in every one of these speeches, but also is very rooted in people's lives.
So one of the things that he talked about, for example, on Saturday is think about all the things that Donald Trump has done for donors, and they gave him money, and they're giving money for the new ballroom that he's building at the White House. And that's same people who benefited from the tax cuts that were funded in part by cutting the healthcare subsidies that has cost people in Georgia money.
That kind of argument is something that Democrats are really responding to around the country in a way that --
RAJU: That's why he's raising a ton of money.
DOVERE: Raising a ton of money, getting a lot of profile in 2026. A lot -- you know, he told me he still feels like the underdog with those numbers that you were posting about history in Georgia elections, but he is in a place that is very strong in a lot of people's minds. There's a guy named J.B. Poersch who runs something called the Senate Majority PAC. It's the big PAC that helps Senate Democrats. And he said to me, Ossoff comes off not like an incumbent. He's young, he's full of energy, and it's part of the reason that they're not thinking that they have to spend all this time and money thinking about that race in Georgia, which is stunning for Democrats.
[12:45:03]
RAJU: Yes. And it's such a different calculation than other purple state members who are running, and they say, oh, I work with the President, I cut deals with him. He's making a calculation, this is a base election, choose the base.
MATTINGLY: A base election, and one in which, despite the fact that it is a red state with red legislature and a red governor, Georgia's got a little bit of history with the guy in the Oval Office right now, and he believes that he can peel some people off, and that going as hard as he's going, at the issues he's going at, is not just being extraordinarily partisan, he's pointing out things that people are actually talking about on a regular basis.
When you talk to Democrats, I think the thing that you hear most about it is, one, we don't even think about him being in the top tier of our most endangered, which is crazy in a state like Georgia, but two, is he's able to thread together all of the million different things that we're thinking about and enraged about on a daily basis in a coherent soundbite that captures why people are mad, whether or not that plays over time, I have no idea.
DOVERE: But it's one of the things that gets a lot of Democrats talking about --
MATTINGLY: Exactly.
DOVERE: -- oh, is this guy going to run for president?
MATTINGLY: That's what you hear the most.
RAJU: Yes, show the flags.
DOVERE: Yes. Now, this is from the rally in Savannah, but if you look at the logo, that, O, it's very reminiscent of another O logo that was there (INAUDIBLE). That's one of the things, along with like the way that he's talking about these things and the eloquence --
RAJU: Yes.
DOVERE: -- that comes across, that is getting a lot of Democratic juices flowing. He denied to you that he was --
RAJU: Yes.
DOVERE: -- interested in 2028. He said to me it's fantasy football, but he also said that he thinks that Democrats should be judged on how much they're doing to help out in swing states -- RAJU: Yes.
DOVERE: -- for people. I said, what does that mean for you because you're the one on the ballot? And he said, no, no, no, no, I'm just running in this race.
RAJU: Yes. (INAUDIBLE) I'm not, quote, "running in 2028."
DOVERE: But that article is up on the website.
RAJU: And we know he's running in 2026. Yes, Isaac (INAUDIBLE) up on the website as well.
All right, up next, President Trump is combining two of his passions, golf and D.C. makeovers. But critics say this project may be headed for the rough.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:51:19]
RAJU: President Trump is teeing up his next Washington makeover. The developer-in-chief says he's shutting down the historic East Potomac public golf course on September 1st, promising to transform it into a venue capable of hosting major pro-golf events. But critics warn the President's plan has serious tradeoffs, citing the cost, environmental concerns and fears the public could lose access to low-cost golf here in the nation's capital.
Phil and fellow golfer is here with me now. So Trump spent his Sunday touring East Potomac golf course, shutting it down. It was raining, so we'll see how many people were actually out there at that time. And going with the golf course architect Tom Fazio, who has designed some Trump courses as well, along with the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, there's a war going on, you know.
MATTINGLY: Yes.
RAJU: Why is the President so obsessed?
MATTINGLY: I don't have a great answer for you other than it very much tracks with a lot of things we've seen in the midst of a conflict that, over the course of the 48 hours of this weekend, including the time he was visiting the course, seemed really kind of on the brink of getting back to a hot war, seems to have pulled back a little bit. Look --
RAJU: It was just hours after he said that Iran would cease to exist if they violated this law.
MATTINGLY: Yes, but when you think about exactly that, we go back and forth a lot. It kind of depends on the day. I think that the degree to which I have tried to understand it, and I'm not doing a great job, maybe I'm more of a policy guy, I guess, but is the reason you're seeing all this is he cares so deeply about legacy and what he's going to leave. And if the second term means anything to him and if he's proven by his actions what matters the most to him, it's whether or not he can leave his imprint on not just Washington, D.C., not just on the federal government or the White House, but really on the entire country in terms of how people look back at him. Why he wants it to be an arch or a golf course or reflecting pool, I don't totally understand, but it is very clear that he is nothing if not consistent on the things that he views most important to him and how he thinks he will be viewed after the fact.
RAJU: Yes, and Trump has 16 golf courses to his name. There are five more on his way. He said in this post yesterday that the course is, quote, "dilapidated, worn out, dangerous." It's not --
MATTINGLY: Not dangerous.
RAJU: It's not dangerous.
MATTINGLY: It's not great, but it's not dangerous.
RAJU: In fact, yes, look, it's a municipal golf course. It's meant to, you know, be available, accessible to golfers of all skill levels. I actually went out and got paid to play golf. I went out in April to with Mike McCartin, who is the head of the National Links Trust, which is in charge of the restoring East Potomac and other D.C. golf courses.
And I asked him this very question about whether this could actually host a major championship and whether this -- how much it would actually cost the taxpayer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE MCCARTIN, CO-FOUNDER, NATIONAL LINKS TRUST: There's only about 200 acres of golf course here. And in order to host like a major championship, you need at least 350 acres.
RAJU: And it would cost a lot of money.
MCCARTIN: It would cost an enormous amount of money. You would be building a ton of infrastructure that would be just for a tournament that doesn't really benefit the everyday golfer here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: How did you get that?
RAJU: It's a great -- it's a self-assignment. It was a self- assignment.
DOVERE: Well, look, I guess unlike you, I have actually never even held a proper golf club in my hand. Well, mini-golf, I'm decent at. But --
RAJU: There's a mini-golf course there, too --
DOVERE: There is.
RAJU: -- that potentially could be out and gone.
DOVERE: And it's not great. That one is really troubled. But, look, I think going into this year, the President kept saying that he was going to switch to a focus on affordability. Here we have him focused on something, on a hobby, a sport that is not something that is affecting people's grocery prices and their gas prices while they're thinking about those things.
It is a question always of where his attention is, whether it's on Iran or on that. But for -- when it comes to the question of taxpayer money --
RAJU: Yes.
DOVERE: -- or just money overall that's being spent, what message is he trying to tell the American people here?
[12:55:09]
RAJU: And he said it would cost an enormous amount of money. That's what Mike McCartin told me. Just look at all the different things that have cost taxpayers or potentially could cost taxpayers with all these Trump makeovers. He has said that some of this will be provided with public money. But it's not clear how much will actually be private versus public. And the taxpayers could be footing the bill.
MITCHELL: And there have been reports of things that he said, oh, that's going to be privately funded, comes back to be taxpayer funded. It's already been proven true. I think what Trump's allies are going to have to wrestle with is the fact that it's -- he's choosing these as his priorities.
Even if he says affordability or they beg him to focus on affordability, he chose on a Sunday morning to go look at a golf course.
RAJU: Yes, he did. And we'll see what he ultimately decides to do. A judge has said, come to them first before deciding on how to move ahead with that golf course. We will see what he decides to do.
Thanks for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a very quick break.
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