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Abdul El-Sayed Narrowly Wins Michigan Senate Democratic Primary; Progressives Celebrate More Big Wins Over Dem Establishment; Rogers Calls El-Sayed "Radical," "Complete Insanity"; Miller Claims All Three Accusers Are Lying About Abuse Allegations. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 05, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

HADAS GOLD, CNN AI CORRESPONDENT: Now, Anthropic did say in a comment that these models were tested under deliberately permissive conditions that are not representative of any of our production models. They went on to say that no evidence here of an escape from a secure environment. But as you noted, it's the latest string and several strings that were seeing of AI agents with these super advanced capabilities, escaping their environments or doing things that they were not supposed to do. And this is a really big moment, both in AI and cybersecurity, guys.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Hadas Gold reporting for us. Thank you very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media @wolfblitzer and @pamelabrowncnn.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: And we'll see you back here tomorrow morning and every weekday morning at 10 Eastern. Inside Politics today with our friend and colleague Manu Raju starts now.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Progressives prevail in Michigan's bitter Democratic feud, but will their win complicate the party's path back to power?

I'm Manu Raju in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED, (D) MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: Power of our many is greater than the power of their money. What we showed is that if you're willing to build a movement brick by brick, if you're willing to go and travel your state and have the conversations in rooms big and small, starting in moments when people aren't even paying attention to an election, but are paying attention to the price of gas and the price of groceries and the price of housing and the price of healthcare, that you can build a conversation that builds into a movement that defeats Goliath. This is what you all show. And my hope is that our democracy will never be the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: That was Abdul El-Sayed, moments after CNN projected him the winner of Michigan's Senate Democratic primary. It was a very close race. Just one point separates El-Sayed from his opponent, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, but the victory is monumental for the progressive left. The race was a brawl, heated, personal, the most expensive Democratic Senate primary ever, and saw a historically high turnout.

It also exposed deep fractures inside the party and the challenge now for Democrats as whether they can coalesce around El-Sayed to defeat Republican Mike Rogers and one of the most purple states in the nation. There are just 90 days until the election day in November.

So, let's get right to CNN's Jeff Zeleny who is live for us in Detroit. So, Jeff, this was a huge win for progressives, and you spoke with El-Sayed earlier today. What did he tell you?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Manu, it is a huge win, but it is not the sizable win that the progressive movement was thinking. I mean, when I talked to Abdul El-Sayed last evening, he said that he wanted to give his speech in Prime Time. He wanted to reintroduce himself to Michiganders and the country. That did not happen because the race was so narrow. It's still 15,000 votes out of 1.5 million votes cast here that are separating he and his opponent. But a win is a win. There's no question.

But for all the talk about whether this would resolve the battle inside the Democratic Party, the fight for the soul of the party, that is an open question that will not be fully answered until November on election day, but it certainly did expose the divisions inside the party. But there's no doubt that party unity begins right now. It's already started here in Detroit. But Wayne County, of course, the biggest county in the state, African, American voters were a core of Haley Stevens' support. That is the biggest piece of work he needs to do. I caught up with El-Sayed earlier today to ask him about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Here in Wayne County in Detroit, obviously African, American voters are key to any win. Specifically, with that cohort of voters, what do you say to them? What do you do to win over their support because many voted for Haley Stevens?

EL-SAYED: You're right. And look, that's the impact of $70 million of outside spending that we defeated, an eleven to one margin of spend. I think, look, my relationship with the black community, especially the community here in Wayne County, didn't start when I started to run for office. It started when I came to rebuild the health department alongside Detroiters and Wayne County residents back in 2015.

And so, it's going to be continuing to do that outreach, continuing to share the story of what we accomplished together. And I know that folks in this community are fired up to beat Donald Trump. They hate what he's doing and corrupting his office. And so, there's a lot that we're going to be able to build on to continue to build that relationship and move forward. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So clearly, he is hoping that the dislike and distrust in the Trump administration and the interest in having Democrats win this seat will unify the party, and that is probably true to a point. But talking with a few black pastors this morning here, they say that they need to be convinced of his support, and he needs to earn their support. So, we will see that play out. Time is short, as you were saying, but one support is coming from Haley Stevens, of course, his opponent. This was a hard-fought race.

As you said, both of these rivals in the final day said that they would support the other, but now it's Haley Stevens who had to concede, and she sent this conciliatory message just as shortly after the race was projected. She says this, I want to congratulate Abdul El-Sayed on winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. He is a doctor, a community health official, a Rhodes Scholar, and a dedicated Michigander. I am proud to offer my support as he takes on Mike Rogers in the general election.

[12:05:00]

So, there's no doubt that most Democratic officials will support him. But Manu, the question is some of these voters, and the bottom line is Mike Rogers has been watching all of this play out now, the battle is fully joined. But the question of electability that really was a central one in the ending days of the primary will remain one until November. As El-Sayed said, you can't prove electability until you actually win, Manu.

RAJU: Jeff, just 90 days until the midterms, and not much time for him to unite through a bitterly divided party. Jeff Zeleny live for us from Detroit. Thank you so much. And progressives notched two other big wins last night in Michigan seven. Bernie Sanders backed William Lawrence will be the nominee in that critical swing district in the for the House. This is a toss-up district that Democrats worry will be harder to him to win with him on the ballot.

Lawrence is joining Inside Politics later in the show to talk about that. And Democratic socialist Donavan McKinney knocked off an incumbent in the 13th district. But in Missouri, far left former Congresswoman Cori Bush lost to incumbent Democrat Wesley Bell.

I'm joined in the room by a terrific group of reporters, including our political analyst, David Chalian. So, look, it was a win, a huge win for Abdul El-Sayed, much narrower than a lot of people thought going into this race. What is your big takeaway from how he pulled this off and what's next?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR & WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, I think what's next is the proving ground of November because this is a huge moment in this story that we've been covering all summer long about what's happening inside the Democratic Party, no doubt. But now the concern, I mean, as you saw, Haley Stevens was within 15,000 votes from the establishment side of the party. The whole reason so much of the establishment was coalescing around Stevens was because they have a concern that El-Sayed makes the general election tougher for them to hang on to this seat, and we won't know the answer to that until November. So, this moment is a huge moment for the left progressive wing because it's not deep blue New York City. It's not Denver, Colorado. This is a major battleground state in a big statewide primary.

But now we got to see if the progressive left's belief is, no, we can bring all the energy and actually win in a battleground state in a general election with a general electorate and be broadly appealing, or if the establishment concerns prove out to be true here.

RAJU: And just to look at his path, Abdul El-Sayed's path to victory, where he did well, where Haley Stevens did well. There's one county here, Washtenaw County, that's the home of Ann Arbor. University of Michigan is there, very academic, very educated district. He did extremely well, really ran up the score against Haley Stevens, winning there by 20 -- 60.8 percent to Haley Stevens 36 percent.

But then when you move over to Wayne County, that's the neighboring district, Detroit. There, Haley Stevens winning in Wayne County, working class voters, a lot of black voters there. She wins by six points there. And then some of the swing districts that will be absolutely pivotal come November. Macomb County, the home of Reagan Democrats. You can see there Haley Stevens again beating Abdul El- Sayed, this time by about eight points there in that race in the neighboring county, Oakland County, more Democratic area, still suburban Michigan area. Again, showing where El-Sayed has to make up ground, losing by six points in that suburban county.

SHELBY TALCOTT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, SEMAFOR: Yeah. I think this shows that, yes. I think anybody who believes anything can look at this race and take away what they want from it, right? Progressives won, and that's a huge win for the progressive base. But they woke up thinking that they were going to win by a lot more, and it was a lot narrower than some of the polling showed leading up to this race. And so, that's a concern for the progressive base, and in a way a win for the establishment Democratic Party.

And so, it does show that despite El-Sayed winning, there's a lot of ground that he's going to have to make up in this general election, and that's what Republicans have been banking on. I've talked to Republicans over the past few months, and they've been open about it. They wanted him to win this race because they feel like the messaging is going to be easier.

There's going to be more to attack, and you're already seeing even this morning how they're coming out and attacking him, right? They're targeting some of his more extreme ties. They're targeting some of his more progressive beliefs. That would have been much more difficult if he had lost.

RAJU: And we get more into the GOP strategy in the next block. The issue about Israel, the outside spending, AIPAC spending. I mean, we're just remarkable here. $32 million was spent by an AIPAC aligned Super PAC in this race. That's more than any other primary really, ever that it's been involved with 32 million bucks. The next closest with $15 million a couple -- a couple cycles ago, actually the last cycle in 2024.

[12:10:00]

And then the overall outside spending for Stevens was 64 million bucks on her behalf. A lot of this was that AIPAC spending. And then when you -- when you drill down in the numbers too, Andrew, even further, you go to Dearborn, which is the home of a lot of Muslim American voters. El-Sayed really ran up the score there, 78 percent to 20 percent to Stevens. He got more votes in this primary in Dearborn than Kamala Harris got in the general election, in the primary versus the general.

ANDREW DESIDERIO, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Right. I was in Michigan a couple of weeks ago at a rally that Abdul El-Sayed had with Bernie Sanders and other prominent progressives. And Senator Sanders had a line that stood out to me. He said this primary is not a race between Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens, it's a race between Abdul El-Sayed and what he called the billionaire class.

In other words, he was setting up -- setting it up as a test of whether progressives and that grassroots passion and energy can defeat all of that money that was coming into the state, sort of on the behalf of their opponent. But you know, I find this really fascinating too in terms of being a test case for the future for progressives and some -- and helping cement Bernie Sanders' legacy as well. Because if you look at that contingent of progressives in the Senate right now, all of them come from these cobalt blue states, right?

This is a chance for them to not only grow their ranks, but grow their ranks with someone who represents, who would be representing a purple state. And I think that's a big deal for progressives because it under -- it flips the conventional wisdom about electability on its head. And of course, you saw Chuck Schumer endorse Haley Stevens because of -- in his view, electability because she had proven that she won tough races, all of her House races, examples.

RAJU: Speaking of Chuck Schumer, who did get behind Haley Stevens, and now is backing Abdul El-Sayed as they head into November. I asked him yesterday about the rise of the Democratic social swing and the party. What he thinks about that?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Is the rise of the DSA good for your party?

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Look, we are a big tent party, and being a big tent party is a strength, not a weakness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I guess that's a yes.

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: I guess so. I mean, what else could he say. And this is something that even on the House side, Hakeem Jeffries is going to have to deal with. The reason why is because regardless of whether the majority is flip in Democrats' favor or not, the margins are going to be narrow, and the DSA is coming in with an agenda, and clearly a win like this in Michigan.

We'll see if El-Sayed can pull it off in the general, but it still gives them the argument that we are fighting against corporations, like the establishment class, all of that. They're going to be putting, and I've heard this more on the House side. A lot of those DSA candidates are going to start drawing some red lines and saying, hey, if you want to be speaker, if you want to be able to get your agenda done, these are the kind of things you have to address first.

RAJU: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: We'll see how that all plays out.

DESIDERIO: It's kind of like what the tea party did.

SOTOMAYOR: Exactly.

RAJU: Exactly. Where Mike Johnson has to deal with on the right every single day in the House. So, we'll see. We're going to talk more about that. And also, coming up for us. While Democrats were focusing on the primary, Mike Rogers was focusing on the general. You'll hear his pitch for a race that could help decide control of the Senate. And no, Congressman Max Miller is not resigning or dropping out of his race. Instead, his strategy is straight out of the 2016 Trump playbook. Those are his words, not mine.

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[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: While Democrats were duking it out in the Michigan primary, Mike Rogers is already making his case for November. Here's what the Republican Senate candidate said on Fox this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROGERS, (R) MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: So, we have the excitement in the Republican Party here has never been higher. Our numbers in the Republican Party are off the chart. People are ready for a change in Michigan, and that's what people have to understand. Democrats have been in charge here 10 years in Lansing, or better part of a decade, and over a quarter century in the United States Senate. And only thing has happened is we are worse in every metric category we have here in the state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: David Chalian, what are you watching for as Mike Rogers' pivots to the general election? CHALIAN: Well, it wasn't just Mike Rogers, but his allies, like the campaign committee and the Super PAC, SLF, put out digital ads this morning. You can just see they're immediately framing it to make Abdul El-Sayed as far outside the mainstream as possible in this battleground state. And I think you heard from Abdul El-Sayed today. I think you'll hear it, no doubt, from Democrats as they sort of start unifying in Michigan.

They will paint Rogers as a total Washington D.C. insider, only looking out for corporate interests and not your personal interests, another sort of just vote for Trump, right? Like that'll be -- and so those two messages, I mean, that's going to be the general election for Michigan as we head into these final 90 days. And you saw Rogers there just immediately wanting to get out as soon as this primary closed to start framing Abdul El-Sayed in that way.

[12:20:00]

RAJU: And this is how the two campaign committees framed the general election as well, putting out ads just this morning.

(PLAYING VIDEO)

RAJU: Hi. In Sayed, actually -- El-Sayed actually made that point in -- actually that press conference today, where he noted that they're saying his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, which I'm sure you'll hear a lot more of.

TALCOTT: Oh yeah, oh yeah. We're already -- again, we're already seeing exactly how this is going to play out and it's going to be a really tight race. One of the --

RAJU: Really ugly race too.

TALCOTT: --ugly race. One of the most interesting things I think in Mike Rogers is the fact that he is not really commenting on national politics at all, which is a really interesting strategy. It's essentially the opposite strategy of what we saw in New York in the mayor's race, right?

RAJU: When he gets asked about these issues, he really hasn't been asked a ton about these issues.

TALCOTT: He hasn't. My colleague asked him several questions about national politics. He's pretty much punted on all of them. He said he's focusing on the local issues, which is an interesting strategy because you know that Democrats are going to be, as you said, tying him in with Donald Trump, and that's fairly easy to do.

I think people forget that he was one of the last contenders to be FBI director before it went to Kash Patel, and so he is very close with the president. And you're seeing how he's going to try to go that fine line between not breaking with the president, but also not directly talking about that --

RAJU: Yeah, and it's interesting. Yeah, they want to talk about local issues, but guess what? You're a senator. You're going to deal with some national issues. And that's --

DESIDERIO: Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

RAJU: Exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

DESIDERIO: That means like, he's got that background. Yeah, exactly.

RAJU: Exactly. So, you know, what he also did before is that after January 6, he was very critical of Donald Trump in the aftermath of this. Back in 2024, when he ran, remember he ran against Elissa Slotkin for Senate. He barely lost that race against Slotkin, and Trump carried Michigan, but he aligned himself very closely with Trump and made sure that he was on the same page despite his past criticism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGERS: I think yesterday broke the spell that so many people had about Donald Trump. Clearly, his actions led to that, you know, what we -- there's no great way to describe what happened yesterday sedition --

RAJU: You even said that he was clearly responsible for the acts of January 6. Do you stand by any of those?

ROGERS: Well, I didn't say he was clearly responsible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: We just played that ad, but he did -- he did say that. You spent some time with Rogers as well. How is he going to navigate Trump in this environment?

DESIDERIO: Well, he's repaired that relationship with Donald Trump, so they're in a better place, obviously, right? Trump was hesitant to endorse him last time around. This time around, he got the Trump endorsement over a year ago, right? So, he notched his primary, you know, well before the Democrats, you know, had a chance to even start duking out -- duking it out over their primary.

But what I think is going to be different this time around is that, you know, Mike Rogers couldn't win with Donald Trump on the ballot, right? Can he win with Donald Trump not on the ballot? And I think that's the big question here because he keeps talking about how, oh, you know, I just need 85 percent of the people who showed up for me last time and voted for me to show up this time.

The problem with that is you've got these low propensity Trump voters who only show up because of Donald Trump being on the ballot. They vote for him and then they don't vote for any of the down ballot races. And last cycle we saw four states. Michigan was one of them where Donald Trump won that state, but the Republican Senate candidate lost.

RAJU: Yeah. And just as Trump, as he does, now sowing doubt over the elections. He said Wayne County in Detroit is one of the most corrupt voting areas in the United States, if not the world. He says, get ready for another rigged election very quickly, Marianna. I'm sure we can hear a lot more of Trump sowing these baseless claims.

SOTOMAYOR: Absolutely. And I expect Democrats on the Hill to be watching every one of those claims. They're already preparing for what could happen if he officially tries to invalidate the election in any kind of way.

RAJU: Yeah. And we're already seeing that, and we'll see what happens come November. All right, coming up next. Congressman Max Miller, facing very credible allegations of domestic abuse, he strongly denies them and he's vowing to stay in his reelection race, no matter what. Jake Tapper's exclusive interview with the Ohio Republican, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Embattled Congressman Max Miller is defiant, despite multiple abuse allegations. The Ohio Republican refusing to end his reelection campaign. My colleague Jake Tapper spoke exclusively with Miller about the accusations from three different women, including his ex-wife Emily Moreno.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Are all three of these women who don't know each other are all three of them lying?

REP. MAX MILLER (R-OH): Yes, it's very easy, and I can tell you why. Every single time, and people have asked me, you know, what are you going to do? Are you going to drop out of this race? Are you going to resign? You know, are you going to get out before the deadline? And my answer to you, Jake, is no. And I can tell you why.

In 2016, when President Donald J. Trump faced the most extreme allegations in the world that hit him day after day after day. And people in the media are very much like yourself and others said that he would have no shot at winning, that he should not be the president of the United States. But guess what, he stayed in and he was resilient. And what the American people can see.

[12:30:00]