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Inside Politics

Rep. Kean Returns To Congress, Says He Suffers From Depression; Trump: Congress Should Start Work On Birthright Citizenship Legislation; Democratic Socialist Looks To Knock Off Incumbent In Colorado; Jeffries Rejects Concerns Over Rise Of Democratic Socialists; Alaska Supreme Court Rules Dan Sullivan Can Stay On Primary Ballot; Talarico Leads Paxton By 27 Points Among Texas Independents. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 30, 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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[12:30:51]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: New Jersey Congressman Tom Kean Jr. is back on Capitol Hill. And the Republican's first order of business, dispelling any notion about what could have kept him away for nearly four months and 100 votes. Kean announced he had been hospitalized with a depression diagnosis.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is there on Capitol Hill for us live. So Arlette, what did the congressman say about how he decided to share the details and why he waited until now to divulge them?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manu, Congressman Tom Kean explained why he was missing from Congress for nearly four months, saying that he was being treated for depression, but he has yet to say why exactly. He did not disclose this matter to the public earlier. He said that he thought he would be returning much sooner to Congress, but that healing does not have a timeline.

Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM KEAN JR. (R), NEW JERSEY: People hear the word depression. Many people think, simply feel it means feeling sad. But depression is so much more than that. It is physical. It is emotional.

And until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be. The doctors recommended that I remain in the hospital to address my illness. They explained to me that this would be the fastest way to recovery.

And to be honest, I was hesitant. I didn't think that I had time for it. When I said I hoped to return in a matter of weeks, I believed it. Those were the best estimates that the doctors could provide.

But as the over 48 million of my fellow Americans being treated for this illness have come to discover, there is no timeline for healing. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, there have been several instances where reporters have tried to ask Congressman Kean why he waited so long to make this disclosure, but so far he has not provided those answers. The congressman has been receiving some bipartisan support for lawmakers -- from lawmakers since he made his diagnosis public, including Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, a fellow lawmaker from New Jersey, who he had worked with on a mental health bill for children's research.

There is also Congressman Mike Lawler of New York, who said that Kean should be afforded some grace during this process. Kean is not the only lawmaker who recently has checked into the hospital to be treated for depression. Back in 2023, Senator John Fetterman had checked himself into Walter Reed Medical Center to be treated for clinical depression.

His team did disclose that very shortly after he entered that facility and he had stayed out of Congress for about two months. So we now have more news from Congressman Kean about why exactly he had been missing from Congress, but he still has yet to answer why he kept this quiet for so long from his constituents.

RAJU: Yes, and that just led the mystery to unfold and a lot of speculation, and Senator Fetterman, to your point, did announce that soon after he checked himself into clinical depression and people reacted the way that they did.

All right, Arlette Saenz, tracking the story from Capitol Hill. Thank you so much.

And we're also following breaking news from the White House. President Trump just reacted to the Supreme Court shooting down his executive order to end birthright citizenship. This is what he posted moments ago on Truth Social.

He said, quote, "The Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, which is too bad for our country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through legislation with the support of the President that has now been determined during this process. No long and unwieldy constitutional amendment is necessary. Congress should start today."

All right, coming up for us, is the Democratic socialist surge spreading across the country? Today's Colorado primary could tell us.

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[12:39:17]

RAJU: The fight for the soul of the Democratic Party moves to Colorado today. One week after Zohran Mamdani's political allies swept their races in New York, another Democratic socialist is now trying to topple a longtime incumbent.

29-year-old Melat Kiros is challenging 15-year-old -- 15-term Congresswoman Diana DeGette in Denver's first district, turning a safe Democratic seat into the latest test of the party's generational and ideological divide.

My panel is back. So first off in this race between Melat Kiros and Diana DeGette, it's in this Colorado, it's the first district of Colorado. It's a very blue district. I mean, Harris carried this 77 to 21 against Trump. But Diana DeGette has been in Congress for 15 terms. She is one of the more progressive members --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

RAJU: -- of Congress. Very liberal. She is an age difference in a large part. 68-year-old DeGette, 29-year-old Kiros. Is -- what we saw in New York last week, was that a one-off or is this starting -- the start of a very significant trend reshaping the Democratic Party?

[12:40:23]

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Listen, I don't know that it's so significant yet. You have seen what are these ideological splits in Somerset. It's also a generational split, right? You've got these Congress folks who've been around for a very long time. They're not necessarily used to such challenges.

You saw that in New York with Espaillat (ph). And you see that now in Colorado. What you also see, though, is voters -- Democratic voters, still, I think, electing in these blue districts or, you know, districts that are slightly less blue and maybe purple. They still seem to be nominating more centrist candidates, right?

But in these deeply blue districts, they seem to want to plant a flag on people who are much more progressive, particularly around issues around Gaza and Israel. There is a much more of an appetite for change, for fight, and attitude.

RAJU: Yes.

HENDERSON: And you saw that -- I mean, we're talking about these districts. But we also have seen that in Washington, D.C., right?

RAJU: Yes.

HENDERSON: The incoming mayor is herself a Democratic socialist, 38 years old, a generational shift and break, I think, from Mayor Bowser.

RAJU: Yes.

HENDERSON: So you see all of these dynamics at play.

RAJU: And, of course, D.C. is bright blue, just like --

HENDERSON: Yes.

RAJU: -- this Colorado district. And it's not yet affecting the race for the House. But Trump is trying to make it affect the race in the House because he's calling this as -- he's saying the Democratic Party is now full of, you know, he calls them communists. I think he's a godless communist.

TYLER PAGER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, I mean, I think this is the fear I've heard from some Democrats, both running for re-election and running in some of these tough races. And it's something we hear from both sides when they have these sort of party splits, is that the most extreme candidates, or the furthest to the left or the furthest to the right, become avatars for the whole party.

We saw Trump try to do this with Representative Ocasio-Cortez and the squad in previous elections. And Republicans are gearing up to use some of these candidates and some of the language and comments they've made or the posts they've made on social media to brand them as representative of the entire Democratic Party.

RAJU: Yes.

PAGER: And this is not a new strategy, but it is causing some heartburn among some Democrats who are going to -- who feel they have to distance themselves and clarify and get themselves into sort of these rhetorical knots about where they differ from these other members of the party.

RAJU: Speaking of knots, I put the question to Jeffries, Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, about how he feels seeing the rise of these Democratic socialists across the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Do you think that all these socialists who are coming in here, is that good for your party right now?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D), MINORITY LEADER: The parties going to continue to focus on winning seats currently held by Republicans and flipping them blue.

RAJU: Yes, but they're going to come in and they're going to demand the moon and you're not going to be able to deliver the moon.

JEFFRIES: Well, let's cross that bridge when we get to it.

RAJU: Are you concerned with the perception that your party may be viewed as too extreme?

JEFFRIES: No, we're going to win because, you know, Democrats are actually focused on trying to make life better for the American people. So he's trying to essentially --

AYESHA RASCOE, NPR HOST, "WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY" AND "UP FIRST": Yes.

RAJU: -- paper over this.

RASCOE: Yes, yes.

RAJU: We'll worry about this later. RASCOE: Well, I mean, because he's basically like, let's just get people who are representing the Democratic Party, even if they're saying Democratic socialists, just get them in there, just get the blue in there. And I mean, that's kind of been the Republican strategy, right? Like, I mean, when you're talking about extremes, like when you look at the Tea Party at a time, that was extreme, right?

But now they have become the mainstream. I think it's harder in this day and age to talk about extremists and to throw these labels around when you have Donald Trump in the White House who has pushed and pushed and pushed. So at this point, what is extreme? I think it's very hard to define.

And I also think that socialist does not carry the same stigma that it had in the past. I think that people right now are open to just breaking the system. They've done that on the right and the left. And I think that's what we're seeing as a country.

RAJU: And probably one reason why is because Republicans have been calling Democrats socialists for decades.

RASCOE: Socialists forever, yes.

HENDERSON: Obama was a socialist, apparently.

RASCOE: Yes.

RAJU: Now there are actual socialists who are running so we'll see how that ultimately plays out and how Jeffries has to deal with it if he's becoming the -- if he's the next Speaker of the House.

All right, next, a brand new poll out of Texas. Do Democrats have a real shot at winning the Senate seat there for the first time in nearly 40 years?

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[12:49:02]

RAJU: It could be Dan Sullivan versus Dan Sullivan in the GOP primary for the Alaska Senate race. Alaska's state Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Dan J. Sullivan can appear on the primary ballot, pitting him against incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan. The ruling reverses a decision by the state's top GOP election official.

Senator Sullivan has been fighting to get his opponent's name removed from the ballot, accusing Democrats of encouraging the other Sullivan to run in order to help his main Democratic challenger, Mary Peltola. Accusations both Democrats and Peltola's campaign deny.

My panel is back. Just a little Dan S. Sullivan. The senator told me about Dan J. Sullivan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. DAN SULLIVAN (R), ALASKA: No, it's cheating. Democrats recruited a guy by the name of Dan Sullivan. He is a liberal progressive, right? We've seen his donations to all the far-left groups. He's donated to Peltola, OK? And his whole purpose of running is to confuse Alaskans to make them think, Alaskan voters, that somehow he's me so they could rig the vote in favor of Mary Peltola.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:50:17]

RAJU: All right, a couple things here. One, Democrats deny any involvements whatsoever. The other Sullivan, Dan J. Sullivan, says he's running because he doesn't think Dan S. Sullivan is doing a good job. He's a retired schoolteacher.

But the real reason why Republicans are very concerned is that all the candidates are on one primary ballot on August 18th, and the top four go to the general election. And if Dan S. Sullivan is on the same ballot as Dan J. Sullivan and all that distinguishes them is that they are both Republicans, how does an average voter know? And maybe a few voters may think they're voting for the senator and vote for Dan J. Sullivan, and voila, Mary Peltola is the next senator from Alaska.

PAGER: Yes, so two things here. One, Alaska voters have shown a willingness to buck the trend. The --

RASCOE: Yes.

PAGER: -- Lisa Murkowski won a write-in campaign.

RASCOE: Yes.

PAGER: So I think we should --

RASCOE: Yes.

PAGER: -- point that out just for viewers that this is not unusual that Alaska voters have been asked to do unusual things on a ballot. The second thing is Republicans are mostly nervous not because of confusion but because Mary Peltola, poll show, is running quite a strong race against Senator Sullivan.

And Mary Peltola, the former member of the House of Representatives, she is running a race that Democrats are feeling confident about, that this is one of their pickup opportunities. So it's not just the confusion, but I think it's also the political climate we're in in which Senator Sullivan is actually vulnerable this time in a state that Democrats have not largely been competitive.

RAJU: Yes, they haven't. This is a red state. But Democrats think they have a chance here because they have a candidate who's well-known in Mary Peltola. And the economy and health care in particular have hit Alaskans very hard.

RASCOE: It has hit them very hard. And they have shown a willingness -- you know, as you said, I think it is important to point out that, you know, that voters in Alaska do seem to be a bit more savvy and, you know, because Lisa Murkowski did win that write-in vote.

I mean, I do think that what you're seeing, though, in Alaska is Lisa Murkowski has been tacking against the President, and she's, you know, trying to cater to Alaskans. And Alaskans clearly haven't been benefiting as much from the President's policy.

RAJU: So --

RASCOE: And that's the problem.

RAJU: The problem also for Democrats is to win back the Senate, they have to win in a red state. They have to pick up a net of four seats. Alaska is in the center of that. And then maybe they can -- they have to hold their seats, including in Michigan, where they have their own messy Democratic primary.

But also Texas is a state in which they are looking at very, very closely. After John Cornyn, the longtime incumbent, lost to Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general who's had a whole host of controversies from his past, James Talarico, the Democratic candidate there, a new poll out from the Senate -- from the New York Times has this race essentially tied. There's no clearly -- there it is -- a margin of error of 4.5 percent, but 47-47.

Now, Texas has been a mirage for Democrats for decades. Is it a mirage still?

HENDERSON: Yes, yes. It's still a mirage, despite this poll. You know, listen, I think if Talarico was up by like 10 or 15, I might believe it, but the fact that he's tied, I think is a sign that he's a fairly weak candidate. In Texas, right, these cultural issues are going to prove very harmful for his candidacy. Granted, Paxton has a, you know, closet full of baggage himself.

I think in Texas, given the demographics of that state, given that Democrats themselves are fairly socially conservative in Texas, black and brown voters there, and those are the very voters that a Talarico candidacy, to be successful, will need to rally, I think some of these issues around transgender identity, gender identity, and faith are going to trip him up. And that is why Republicans are leaning so heavily on his record of comments in regards to faith and gender.

RAJU: Yes. A couple of points that are interesting here from this poll when you dig a little deeper, who has the right moral values among likely voters in Texas? 52 percent actually think it's Talarico compared to 39 percent for Paxton, which is one big reason why the Talarico campaign is trying to make this a character campaign against Paxton, but Cornyn tried to do that too, and that did not succeed in the GOP primary there.

But then this other question about independent voters. Talarico's winning by a lot. 58 to 31, that's huge, but the flip side is it's still tied. It's still tied, even though he's got --

RASCOE: Yes.

RAJU: -- a lead of this magnitude. It just shows you the hill they have to climb because there's so many more Republican voters.

RASCOE: And it's Texas. I mean, we have heard this over and over again. I've been around almost two decades now, and it's always like, Democrats, this is the year. This is the year. It's never happening. I'm not saying it's never going to happen, but I got to see more. I got to see more before I'm thinking this is going to happen.

RAJU: Yes.

RASCOE: I think it's just -- it's a long shot.

[12:55:03]

RAJU: And it's a ton of money, and how much money will both sides invest, Democrats, too? Huge questions in this midterm cycle.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a very quick break.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: The Supreme Court delivering its opinion on a critical case, deciding who gets to be a U.S. citizen. Also sending a message to President --