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Inside Politics

Max Miller Denies Abuse Claims, Won't Drop Re-Election Bid; Blanche Confirmation Can Only Lose One More GOP Vote; Progressive Wins Democratic Primary in Toss-up Michigan District. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired August 05, 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]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. MAX MILLER, (R-OH): -- 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, 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 is that they can see that somebody is fighting who is resilient, and that is a quality that the American people cherish. And so for no second am I going to sit here and continue to be debased by false and baseless allegations and be pushed out of the seat I have worked so hard to represent and done a terrific job for our community.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: But you understand that the reason that this is a story is because it's not the first time a woman that you've been intimate with has accused you of violence and abuse. That's the reason.

Now it has nothing to do with political vendettas. It has nothing to do with Senator Moreno. It has to do with the fact that there are two women on the record and a third who has talked to reporters -- or a reporter about what happened in high school.

MILLER: And all I can tell you is this, Jake, is that I hope that you and the rest of the media do the same amount of digging as you are into me, as you will into those other two. Because as you can see right now, there's -- and I understand I'm the member of Congress, so I've deservedly so, the spotlight, the attention, the media.

But throughout this process, objectively, how come people aren't asking the tough questions out of them? I mean, it's been a free runway of just me being a punching bag without articulating my points and presenting the evidence that we have here today and others.

TAPPER: They're not accused of physically abusing you. I mean, it's pretty simple.

MILLER: Well, Jake, I got to tell you, in this country, due process is a thing and everyone is entitled to it. (END VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND CO-ANCHOR OF "INSIDE POLITICS": My panel is back. Marianna, does this Trump playbook work for anybody else besides Trump?

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: I'm not sure about that, but Republicans are stubborn that it can work for them. And that is a big difference. When I've been talking to Republican lawmakers and even to past staffers of Speaker Paul Ryan and Boehner, it was just a different era. We all remember in like 2017, 2018, I'm going to throw out some older names, Trent Franks, Tim Murphy. They also had a lot of allegations against them just for -- including being very creepy to women on their staff, which resonates a little bit more with what Chuck Edwards is alleged to have done.

It was a different time when a Speaker could talk directly to these members and say, hey, the party is going to be against you. If you run again, there's no money coming your way. And the lawmakers would credibly believe that and they would step aside.

RAJU: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: This is a different time. Trump has basically, essentially normalized that if you stay in, if you fight, you show MAGA that you're a fighter, it's possible that you can get re-elected.

RAJU: And Mike Johnson weighed in on this, telling Politico that these are serious allegations, but he pointed to the Ethics Committee process that is still playing out. He said, again, we have to allow this process to play out. It's just begun. The process did play out for another Republican. That's Chuck Edwards, who represents a district in North Carolina.

And he was facing allegations of sexual harassment that came out of a House Ethics Committee probe. The committee recommending censure for him because of sending late-night personal texts to female staffers, purchasing pricey jewelry, among other things, vacations for young female staffers. At one time, he skipped House votes to decorate a staffer's Christmas tree at her home at 3:32 in the morning, when Andrew was checking Twitter and up late, and Chuck Edwards (inaudible) did post, after much prayer and reflection, I've decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign. So he's going to complete his current term, he says.

But a sigh of relief for Republicans, who did want him out because they were worried that he could cost them that North Carolina seat.

ANDREW DESIDERIO, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Yeah, exactly. You've seen this with Congressman Cory Mills as well, a Republican from Florida. But you also saw it on the Democratic side earlier this year with Congresswoman -- former Congresswoman, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who the House Ethics Committee was preparing to recommend her expulsion. And Hakeem Jeffries was giving the same responses that Mike Johnson did, which was essentially, let's wait for the process to play out. They held a rare ethics trial for her. And then eventually, she ended up resigning entirely in order to prevent an expulsion vote. We saw the same thing happen with Eric Swalwell as well. I just think this underscores the whole -- this whole idea that Congress really hasn't gotten it right when it comes to how to sufficiently and fairly and justly address these instances of ethical abuses and also just, you know, H.R. style things, like harassment of staff.

RAJU: Yeah. That's been the story of Congress and increasingly so, particularly this Congress, we've seen so many scandals. All right, coming up next, Todd Blanche's nomination as Attorney General hanging by a GOP thread.

Next, could Senators actually reject the first Cabinet nomination since the 1980s? The no vote that is now triggering these concerns.

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[12:39:25]

RAJU: Todd Blanche can only afford to lose two Republican votes if he wants to be confirmed as Attorney General. Now, he can only afford to lose just one more after Maine Senator Susan Collins said she can't support him over several actions that have further eroded the Justice Department's independence.

All eyes are on two other GOP Senators who have some history of bucking the president, Lisa Murkowski and Bill Cassidy. Neither has revealed how they intend to vote, something I pressed Senator Murkowski about just yesterday.

[12:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AL): No comment.

RAJU: No comment?

MURKOWSKI: I ordered that lunch today. Can anybody else say that to you?

RAJU: Oh, yeah, I've gotten that a lot.

(LAUGH)

RAJU: Are you still --

MURKOWSKI: That's because that was the one thing that we talked about at lunch.

RAJU: OK.

MURKOWSKI: Is that, you know, how freeing it is to say no comment.

(LAUGH) (END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: My excellent panel is back. She's still no commenting.

David, Colins' decision to come out early was interesting. She cites a number of reasons why she voted against him -- plans to vote against him, one of which was a promise that Todd Blanche made to an anti- abortion group that he would prohibit mailing abortion medication. And of course, she's got an abortion issue with Brett Kavanaugh in the Maine Senate race.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR & WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Sure does. It was also that Mark Kelly, Elissa Slotkin video that she cited, which I was surprised to see that on the list as well. Listen, as soon as that Colins statement came out, my first thought was, wow, she must really think she's in a tough race for re-election.

I mean, that she wanted to be out early and be in this position to just shut this down as an issue for her, I thought was pretty telling.

RAJU: Is the White House nervous that Blanche could go down here?

SHELBY TALCOTT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, SEMAFOR: No, I think that they're extremely confident that at the end of the day, Trump is going to get what he wants. And he does a lot of times, right? They have a pretty consistent track record, although it is becoming less consistent.

But I think the tell here is how much Trump cares about this issue, because he doesn't always care this much. And when he does, I think it puts even more pressure on Republicans to get it done. People on Blanche's team have been working for weeks on this. People inside the White House have been going to Capitol Hill and talking to lawmakers.

That's going to continue, because for whatever reason, this is something that the president feels extremely strongly about. And so I think that they're going to manage to strong-arm enough lawmakers or get the vice president in there at the end of the day.

RAJU: You walk the halls of the Senate with me every day. What do you expect Cassidy and Murkowski to do here?

DESIDERIO: Well, I talked to Senator Murkowski about this last week when Senators Cornyn and Tillis were trying to negotiate that deal with DOJ to formally kill the anti-weaponization fund and then put some restrictions on President Trump's audit immunity deal. And she largely deferred to those two Senators and said, you know, whatever is going to be fine with them is going to be fine with me.

Yet at the same time, she said, I want to make sure it's a durable agreement, right? Some of the criticisms of what Senators Cornyn and Tillis ended up agreeing to was that it was too flimsy and it doesn't -- or it provides the president some wiggle room to either revive the weaponization fund or expand, you know, the parties involved in the audit immunity deal. So I think that will be part of her calculation. I think Senator Cassidy, you know, my prediction is he probably will end up voting for Todd Blanche. He hasn't mentioned any real substantive criticisms of him.

RAJU: He's worried about lawfare, he said in the past.

DESIDERIO: Yeah. Right, and he's in this position where he's, you know, he's already lost his primary. He's got nothing to lose. And I think he enjoys a little bit of the drama.

RAJU: Really? A Senator enjoying some of the attention here?

(LAUGH)

DESIDERIO: Well, with Susan Collins, you know, to David's point too, it's like, you know, she -- you know this, Manu. She usually waits until the last possible second to announce her vote.

RAJU: Yeah.

DESIDERIO: So the fact that she did this early, I think, is a tell.

RAJU: And what do you think about Cassidy? I mean, he has come back to be a thorn in the side of Trump sometimes, but then he's fallen in line. We've seen that, whether it's on war powers or about past votes as well.

SOTOMAYOR: Yeah, we have seen this time and time again where some Senators do enjoy the spotlight, they like to get a little bit of attention, and then they fall in line. I wouldn't be surprised, especially since there's jet fumes in the air right now, that this will get done this week.

RAJU: Yeah. All right. I think it's very possible. We'll see if something surprises us.

All right. Coming up next, we'll talk to one of the progressives who won a big victory in last night's Michigan primary. But can a far-left candidate win a swing seat in November?

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[12:48:11]

RAJU: There was another big progressive win in Michigan last night. Bernie Sanders-backed climate activist, William Lawrence beat two establishment candidates to become the Democratic nominee in Michigan's 7th District. This is a critical seat for Democrats, one of the few true toss-up districts in the country. And the party is worried about his ability to beat incumbent Republican, Tom Barrett.

William Lawrence joins me now. Congratulations, Mr. Lawrence, and thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate your time.

So, as I mentioned, this is a swing district. Democrats desperately want to flip the House. But last night, you won the primary with less than 45 percent of the vote, meaning most Democrats voted actually for someone else. Isn't that a position of weakness heading into the general election?

WILLIAM LAWRENCE, (D) MICHIGAN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Thanks for having me on, Manu. We're feeling very strong. We actually built a coalition across every county in the 7th District. And we performed very well here in the Lansing area. But we also won Livingston County, where a lot of people said we would struggle. We won Eaton County.

And we really put up impressive margins throughout the district. So I'm confident about our ability to move into the general election and take on Tom Barrett, who has done nothing but raise the cost of health care for Michigan families while voting for these disastrous wars that are hiking the cost of gas and groceries.

RAJU: But, Mr. Lawrence, you've called to abolish ICE at one point. And at one point, although you've walked it back, you called for defunding police. You ran an organization that essentially helped develop the Green New Deal. I'm wondering about these very progressive positions and if you're concerned that they could turn off some swing voters in a district that Trump carried in 2024.

LAWRENCE: No, we're building this campaign on face-to-face conversations with voters across the district who are sick of corporate-funded candidates.

[12:50:00]

And they're looking for someone who is real and is going to fight for the working class against these billionaires in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. So we're finding tons of common ground on issues like stopping A.I. data centers, stopping these stupid wars around the world, and investing in housing and health care that we can actually afford and count on. And those are issues that are bringing together Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in every corner of this district.

RAJU: So you have the support of Bernie Sanders, but you're not running as a Democratic Socialist. But you were once a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. When did you leave that organization and what drove you away?

LAWRENCE: I let my membership lapse because I just want to make very clear that I'm here to represent the people of this district and focus on the issues that are bringing people together. And we just want to stay laser focused on these issues that we're hearing concern about all across the 7th District, the cost of housing, the cost of health care and gasoline and groceries, and the fact that we have criminals, frankly, in government who are getting rich on the public expense and there's no accountability.

So we're here to unite the 7th District by beating Barrett in November.

RAJU: So when did you leave the Democratic Socialists of America? LAWRENCE: It was within the last month, I let my membership lapse. I've got a lot of respect for DSA and the work that they're doing around the country. But I felt a need to make it very clear that the platform we're running on here is the one that has come up based on the conversations we're having across the 7th District.

RAJU: So did you let that membership expire because of the general election?

LAWRENCE: No, it's just because I want to make clear to my constituents that I'm here to represent them. And my one and only job is to represent the people of the district by stopping these A.I. data centers, stopping these stupid wars around the world, investing in a life we can actually afford.

RAJU: But where do you differ from the Democratic Socialists of America?

LAWRENCE: You know, I don't want to comment on any -- I'm happy to comment on any particular policy if you're of interest. But the point is that I'm an organizer and coalition builder, and we are laser focused here on reaching all the voters across this district with an agenda which is really being built on the priorities we hear coming up locally.

RAJU: So Mr. Lawrence, this was a pretty contentious primary. The Congressional Black Caucus' political arm came out against you in 2020 because of comments that you made in 2024 saying that older black leadership is a pillar for, quote, "establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power." And those black leaders, quote, "defanged the white left."

Now, I know you said that you regret your word choice and the way that it's been portrayed and been taken out of context. But isn't that going to be harder to unify, to get the Congressional Black Caucus, to get the party behind you with comments like that?

LAWRENCE: As I've said, I regret those comments, and I look forward to having conversations very soon with members of the CBC to unite so that we can beat Tom Barrett in November. But additionally, I'm very proud of the work I've done alongside the black community here in Lansing, especially on the issue of housing, where I've worked alongside black-led organizations to stop unjust evictions, build affordable housing, and create pathways for people into home ownership.

So I'm proud of that work and those relationships. We're going to keep building it here on the ground and begin to restore some trust in D.C. with some of the members you mentioned.

RAJU: And one of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus is Hakeem Jeffries. Have you spoken with him since you won? And do you plan to vote for him to be the next Speaker of the House?

LAWRENCE: I do plan to vote for him to be the next Speaker, and I look forward to speaking with him soon. RAJU: You haven't spoken with him yet. I'm just wondering, you and Abdul El-Sayed won last night, and you both have taken a very strong position against the Israeli government. You say that the U.S. must stop arming Israel and accuse Israel of pursuing a genocide in Gaza. Is this now a litmus test for Democrats who want to win their primaries, especially in Michigan?

LAWRENCE: Certainly, people are sick of seeing more of our tax dollars go to fund war crimes in Gaza and in the West Bank, and this war of aggression in Lebanon, as well as this disastrous war that the U.S. and Israel have participated in together in Iran. They see that this is not making the American people any safer or more prosperous, and it's resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties in Palestine and elsewhere.

We've got to put a stop to this. We've all seen too much, and people are ready for candidates who are going to stand up to the war lobby and vote to stop arming Netanyahu's government.

[12:55:00]

RAJU: I think I believe that right before the 2024 election, you referred to Elissa Slotkin as a warmonger. I'm wondering, do you regret that word choice?

LAWRENCE: You know, I've been a fierce critic of the way that people in both parties have voted for forever war. I'm a millennial. I've seen one war after another in theaters all around the globe for most of my life. And you know, I will continue to be a fierce critic of those decisions and work to set our priority state as a country, so we can invest in the American people instead of endless war.

RAJU: And I suppose you haven't spoken to Elissa Slotkin since you won.

LAWRENCE: No, but I look forward to speaking with her soon.

RAJU: All right, we have to leave it there. William Lawrence, thank you so much. Congratulations on your victory. We'll follow your race as we head into November.

And thank you for joining "Inside Politics." "CNN News Central" starts after a very quick break.

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