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Inside Politics

El-Sayed Victory Sends Shock Waves Through Washington; Michigan Democrats Eye Unity With 89 Days Until Election; Mike Rogers: El-Sayed Is "Radical" And "Dangerous For America"; Senate Panel Votes To Hold Fauci In Contempt Of Congress; Two Trump Allies Running Against Each Other In TN Gov. Republican Primary. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 06, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:15]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Abdul El-Sayed says his win shook the world. Now Democrats are mapping the aftershocks.

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

It's been 24 hours since Abdul El-Sayed's victory in Michigan Senate Democratic primary, and it seems everyone in Washington has a take on him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): And it's kind of exciting to think about having him here.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): I desperately need him in the U.S. Senate to help me, and others move toward a Medicare for all single payer program.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: He doesn't love Israel. He doesn't love Jewish people. He hates them. He hates them with a passion that burns in his heart.

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): He has a real little man syndrome thing. I dare him to campaign with Piker to win and be the Republican.

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): People are electrified, and being on the ground with Abdul, I can tell you he is an electrifying candidate.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): My God, $60 million was spent against him to try to stop him because he does want to shake up the status quo.

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT: He basically represents the modern Democratic coalition, which is self-hating white liberals united to people who just came to the country for the first time.

SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): I think he just needs to start reaching out to folks, which I'm sure he will and that has to start immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: There are just 89 days until the general election. Not a lot of time for Democrats to recover from the incredibly heated and divisive primary that El-Sayed only won by one point, and unified to take on Republican Mike Rogers in November. Today is just the beginning of that effort.

I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here at the table, including a couple of those who are on the ground in Michigan just in the last couple of days, including Jeff Zeleny. You talked to El-Sayed yesterday, Jeff. What do they realize? Do they recognize the challenges that they have ahead in trying to unite this very fractured party in such a small amount of time?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: They definitely do. I mean, if you look at the results from Michigan, a much closer race than Abdul El-Sayed or his supporters expected. So, the closeness of that really shines a light on the challenges of unifying the party, but I think they were also listening to the greatest unifier of Democrats of all yesterday, President Trump. I mean, he lit into Abdul El-Sayed extensively at a speech that was intended to be about the economy in Las Vegas. But the president is clearly fixated on him as are Republicans as the new boogeyman.

So, talking to Michigan Democrats and others this morning and last evening, they believe that President Trump will do some of that unifying for them, and I think that that is clear if they are still talking about him. And the president went after him in some very personal and racial terms, quite frankly. So, I think a lot of that work will be done, but there's no doubt there are divisions and they are going to linger. So, we are going to see, particularly in the African American community in Wayne County of Detroit.

RAJU: And Isaac, you wrote about this too for an excellent story that's up on CNN right now. In your piece, you say, wow, the microphones are on, political leaders are confidently -- political leaders talk confidently about how they know the party can come together behind El-Sayed against Mike Rogers. Then they often ask to go off the record to say how terrified they are that the wounds are too deep and festering to heal.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. I've had a lot of those conversations over the course of the last couple days in Michigan. I got back yesterday. And it's not just the elected leaders who feel that way. I mean, talking to voters who were at Haley Stevens events leading into the primary at various polling places.

I was in Dearborn, in Detroit, in Birmingham, where Haley Stevens is from. And all over the place, people who are voting for Stevens were saying, they do not know that they can vote for El-Sayed. They were saying that they might take a look at him. They might vote for Mike Rogers.

[12:05:00]

Now, it's important because this was such a divided primary to note that a lot of El-Sayed voters were saying the other thing -- the other side of that, which is that if Stevens won, they didn't know that they would vote. A lot of them are saying they would stay home. But this is -- this race got very deep, very personal between the two of them. And it also is about a lot of issues that people got very upset about, particularly the issue of Israel and Gaza and Palestine, where El- Sayed has been very far out there.

He's posted a video that he -- of a live stream on Sunday where he said he wanted to have a t-shirt printed saying, he's the most dangerous candidate for the U.S. Israel relationship. Obviously, there was all this AIPAC spending against him that motivated a lot of people in both directions. This is going to be really a big thing going into November.

RAJU: Who's the frontrunner in this race, El-Sayed or Mike Rogers?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND BLOOMBERG POLITICAL & POLICY COLUMNIST: Listen, I don't think we know, right? I mean, I think if you pivot to 90 days or so, we'll probably get a similar result, meaning that it's going to be very, very close, and we'll be here until the wee hours waiting on folks to count. But listen, I do think Mike Rogers, he came close when he ran before in 2024, lost by something like 20 -- 20,000 votes.

RAJU: When Trump was on the ticket.

HENDERSON: When Trump was on the ticket, he didn't do as well as Trump. Obviously, I think he got something like 100,000 fewer votes than Donald Trump did. You know, I mean, I think the problem for El- Sayed is these lingering tensions. You mentioned the African American community, right? There is lingering tension over what happened with Kamala in that state and whether or not Arab Americans were as solidly behind her as they were for Joe Biden. They were not. Obviously, El- Sayed did come out and endorse Kamala Harris. He was kind of --

RAJU: He also didn't do as well as Haley Stevens in Wayne County with a lot of black voters.

HENDERSON: Right, exactly, exactly. You know, I do think that -- I think one of the things you look at is I do think these, particularly African American voters, these are sort of reliably Democratic voters, older voters as well. They're not sort of the protest voter, third party type of voter. They're certainly not, I don't think, going to vote for Mike Rogers.

So, in that respect, I think he probably does have a good chance of unifying and bringing on that community on board, those communities on board. You know, there is -- and you wrote about this in your piece. There's going to be a sort of unity rally on Friday.

DOVERE: Yeah, there's unity breakfast this morning -- rally tomorrow, yeah.

HENDERSON: Yeah. Headlined by Pete Buttigieg, which not sure that's the person you want to headline at unity rally in Michigan.

DOVERE: Especially if you're trying to rally black.

HENDERSON: Exactly, exactly. So, you know --

RAJU: Yeah. There's work to do. Now, as the focus shifts to the general, as the focus shifts to Mike Rogers versus El-Sayed. El-Sayed is trying to make the case -- trying to really tie Rogers to some of the more unpopular Trump policies. Let's listen to what he said to Kaitlan Collins last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED, (D) MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: I think Mike Rogers, for his own part, he's running away from Donald Trump himself. When you're asked Mike Rogers about his position on the war or his position on Trump's tariffs, he is mum. So, look, I'm looking forward to tying Mike Rogers to Donald Trump all day, every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: You know, Betsy, it'll be interesting to see how much Trump is on the trail for Rogers? We've seen him do it already. Will he be there all the time? Will Rogers tie himself to Trump the way he did in 2024, or will there be some decision to distance himself given Trump's numbers right now?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It's certainly a great question. I don't think we know yet just how closely President Trump will be involved in this particular race, but the White House view right now is that this is a gift for Republicans. You know, Trump has repeatedly hammered this anti-communism messaging. And so, the real challenge I think for Democrats, for El-Sayed, and more broadly is going to be to explain to voters how democratic socialism is different from communism. They have a lot of work to do on that.

RAJU: And part of this, as you mentioned, AIPEC, Isaac. This question of AIPEC, whether they're going to get involved in the general election. The New York Times writes about this today, saying they weigh a second effort to defeat El-Sayed. Remember, they spent more money than any other primary ever before to try to defeat El-Sayed, and coming up short, more than $30 million they spent in this primary.

And part of the thing that you're going to hear this messaging about El-Sayed's views on Israel, but also his connections to Hasan Piker. He's of course that left wing streamer who's had very controversial views. He said he made a comment years ago about how 9/11 -- America deserved 9/11. Now Piker has tried to clean that up since then, walk that back. But now you're hearing Republicans associate that comment with El-Sayed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROGERS, (R) MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: I am shocked that I am running against a guy who believes that 9/11. We just -- America deserved 9/11. I mean, it's just shocking to me that we have gotten here. I mean, it is -- he's just absolutely dangerous for America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: I mean, that certainly is something that could rally the Republican base that is dispirited otherwise. But I think that Hasan Piker has disavowed those comments. But there's no question that going forward, this is going to be a decision for Abdul El-Sayed --

[12:10:00]

RAJU: Because he can't pay with Piker during the final days of the campaign at the primary.

ZELENY: I asked him about that yesterday, and he said, look who Mike Rogers pals around with, and he linked him to Donald Trump and his various criminal things. So, look, I'm not sure that this is going to turn a lot of votes, except Jewish voters in Michigan, which is an important slice. It's not a huge slice, but it's an important slice, and that could be a challenge in a close race.

DOVERE: Look, and I think it's important that 9/11 comment from Piker. He has disavowed, but he said a lot of other things and keeps saying them, including shooting a video at El-Sayed's event on Tuesday night, the party that wasn't a full party, where he said El-Sayed shouldn't reach out to people, they have to reach out to them. If not, then they're Islamophobic.

He just this past weekend was saying that he thinks that Israel is to blame for the Moroccans who went into that Spanish colony in North Africa. There is a lot of stuff for -- when it comes Piker, and that El-Sayed is not distancing himself. I mean, he not only was there, he showed up to the event on Monday night with Piker.

RAJU: Does he do this in the general election? That's going to be big question. And if we go to break, just so viewers see just the significance here of Michigan, why it's so important. Democrats, let's look at the map real quickly here. Democrats have to pick up four seats to pick up the majority. Light blue is seats that lean Democrat. This is a Republican seat, North Carolina. Let's say they pick up North Carolina. Let's say they pick up Maine, also a very difficult state. Toss up right now. Then they pick up, say, let's give them Ohio. That's three seats, and let's say, OK, they pick up Alaska. OK, also another difficult state, that's for --

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: OK, very generous. Let's just give them. Let's just say they do. Then all of a sudden, OK, Democrats lose Michigan, not in the majority right now, and we'll see Iowa, Texas, leaning Republican right now. We'll see if anything changes as we get closer to the midterms.

All right, next. A call to prosecute Dr. Anthony Fauci will actually be hand delivered to the Justice Department today. What the contempt of Congress referral really means?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Today, Republicans took a big step forward in their effort to prosecute Dr. Anthony Fauci. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee voted along party lines to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions last week about the COVID-19 response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence. The witness had many chances to answer the questions pertinent to our investigation and he made his decision 111 times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Did receive a preemptive pardon from President Biden on his way out of office, but he invoked the Fifth Amendment over concern that he could be prosecuted for something said under oath or led by GOP states.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, FORMER DIR. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words, quote, behind bars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Republicans plan to hand deliver a criminal referral to the Justice Department and district court today. My excellent panel is back. Nia, this is part of a years long drive by Republicans to go after Anthony Fauci. What is behind this relentless push to prosecute him?

HENDERSON: Well, I mean, they -- I mean, if you transport yourselves back to 2020, this has been a longstanding. I mean, he calls it obsession, hatred. I mean, I think you can use the strongest word possible to describe the way in which MAGA and which Trump's acolytes feel about Fauci that he essentially misled the public.

He covered up for China in terms of the source of the virus. He shut down businesses. You know, they put a lot of the blame on what happened with COVID at Fauci's feet, so it isn't a real surprise that has ended up this way. He's sort of on this enemies list, and there were a lot of people on the enemy's list. So, you can imagine that the DOJ gets this and that they follow through with it, right? Particularly given the constitution of the DOJ now.

So, listen, Fauci has been enemy number one when it comes to sort of COVID, and is also sort of part of rewriting the reality of COVID, right? And what we all experienced, and this idea that these scientists weren't dealing with this unknown virus and doing the best that they could. So yeah, I mean, it's not a surprise that we ended up.

RAJU: I mean, the implications for public health to us.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

RAJU: But what happens next time there's a pandemic, right? I mean, how will -- how will the United States respond? Will people actually have faith in public health officials and providing assurances to the public? But from the immediate issue involving Anthony Fauci, is he actually in legal jeopardy? Remember what happened a couple years ago -- several years ago, involving Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon when they were held in contempt of Congress. Elie Honig, our legal analyst, reminded us about that.

[12:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This has been done in different circumstances, but in recent memory. For example, Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon, both were prosecuted. They were indicted. They were tried. They were convicted. And both went to prison for four months for contempt of Congress in relation to the January 6 investigation back in 2022, '23. So, this is real. I mean, the stakes here for Dr. Fauci could potentially be, depending what DOJ decides, a criminal indictment and prosecution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: A lot still has to happen here. This is likely going to be a very protracted process. First, Vice President J.D. Vance needs to officially sign off on Congress circumventing the process, then the Justice Department --

RAJU: They certainly will do.

KLEIN: Yeah, almost certainly. Then the Justice Department needs to decide whether they're going to bring formal charges. Assume they do. Then we do expect a very lengthy legal battle, so we won't have an answer for this for quite some time.

RAJU: Yeah. I mean, this is all part of, you know, we've seen. I mean, it seems like this will be a very -- I think we know which way the Justice Department is going to go, right? Like we've seen what's happened in this Trump Justice Department. And before you jump in, Jeff, just look at the targets list. Without even Fauci's included in this list of people that Trump's Justice Department has gone after.

Whether it was James Comey, his indictment, indictment dismissed, of course, Letitia James. There was John Bolton, who pleaded guilty. John Brennan, people under an investigation like John Brennan and Adam Schiff, and there are all these calls to investigate. Every single one of those people are people that Trump doesn't like, and this is what the Justice Department has done in the second term of Trump. ZELENY: For sure. I would say one difference here is that people in America and, you know, across the spectrum know who Anthony Fauci is. So many people who are on Trump's revenge list are not household names at all to most of the country, but Dr. Fauci is different. I mean, he has truly became kind of the symbol of this very polarizing moment in the pandemic. So, it's a way to rally the MAGA base, if you will.

I mean, the Republican base is a bit dispirited. So, it's a way to do that. But what it doesn't do, I mean, is address any of the concerns that actual Americans have about affordability and other things. So, this is basically a sideshow, but it's a serious legal one. There's no doubt about it.

RAJU: Very quickly.

DOVERE: I mean, back in March 2020, Rand Paul, who's the one leading this, was he had COVID. He went to the Senate and didn't wear a mask. He managed to get himself tested at that time when nobody was getting tested. Never explained how he got a test. And then he -- after he was positive and recovered, he said he was immune to it. He said that as a doctor, he's an ophthalmologist.

There were a lot of people who were saying things that were not quite right, especially in hindsight. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a lawyer, but that's part of what this is too. And yet it is, as Nia said, this obsession with Fauci because he is a celebrity figure, and based on his journal, he sort of liked being a celebrity figure, having Barbra Streisand and others sing to him.

RAJU: And of course, Paul and Fauci first clash in 2021 in a hearing, and there's been a feud ever since. All right. Two Trump allies, no Trump endorsement, and there can only be one. We're talking primary day in Tennessee, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Today is election day in Tennessee, and no, you don't need to check your calendar. It is Thursday, and that's when the volunteer state holds their primaries. Voters are headed to the polls to pick their nominees for governor. Republicans are choosing between two Trump allies in Congress, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Congressman John Rose, but President Trump has not endorsed either. My panel is back. Interesting that Trump stayed out of this.

ZELENY: It certainly is. I mean, he's been very gun shy on some of these endorsements, where he's not exactly clear who the winner is. And I would put this race in that category, ever since the congressional or the governor's via race in Iowa, where he endorsed Randy Feenstra, who lost. The White House and the president has been very reluctant. In South Carolina, he endorsed a second person since his first endorser was not winning. So, I think that's why he stayed out of this. RAJU: Because he's concerned about angering John Rose, who held out and wanted some key vote several months ago because he wanted Trump to -- wanted Trump not to endorse in that race.

ZELENY: For sure, for sure. But I mean I think at the end of the day here -- and look the polls are open for several more hours yet, so who knows if he would weigh in at the end here, but I think he, you know, does not want to be wrong in these endorsements, very sensitive to it.

RAJU: This was actually a very, I guess somewhat viral ad that came out just a few weeks ago from Marsha Blackburn.

(PLAYING VIDEO)

RAJU: Crushing those porch and cookies.

HENDERSON: Yeah, you should have like thrown in April.

DOVERE: But the things is that porch and cookies is an American invention.

HENDERSON: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, details. I mean, this is obviously cringe. This is -- but it sort of breaks through, right? I mean, because it's so cringe. You know. I mean, she's obviously been a MAGA stalwart. We'll see who comes out ahead, but it's just another reminder of Trump's imprint on the party and the ways in which people are presenting themselves around these issues. Trump obviously has made China and America's relationship with China, key to his brand, and so we'll see what happens in this race.

DOVERE: I think it's something that -- as we head into the next presidential election.

[12:30:00]