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Soon: Opening Statements Begin In Tupac Shakur Murder Trial; South Carolina Officially Replaces Iowa In Dem 2028 Contest; Sen. Collins Urges Against New Trump Tariffs On Canada; GOP Sens. Speak Out Against New Trump Plan On Beef Imports. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired August 24, 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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[12:30:54]

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: -- camera footage that's actually taking him into custody. And I remember when that happened, I was talking to our colleague Jack Hannah, our senior producer at CNN, who's just off camera. When that news broke that there had been an arrest in the murder of Tupac Shakur, we both looked at each other like, wait, what?

Three decades later, there is now an arrest. And what is so fascinating is it appears that much of the evidence that is going to be used against Davis, it's his own words. He did a number of media interviews. He wrote a book about the topic as well.

Interestingly, several years ago, he was interviewed by the FBI as part of a separate investigation involving drugs. He was provided immunity to speak with them about what occurred that night here near the Las Vegas Strip. He told them that he was there, that he had handed a firearm to the backseat of this white Cadillac that pulled along Shakur.

He said that it was his nephew who fired the shots. But interestingly, that -- he was immune from using that. The prosecutors were. But since he gave so many different interviews publicly, it appears that is what will largely be used against him.

It will truly be fascinating to watch. And for that matter, to see if there's other evidence that maybe we don't know about that investigators have been gathering. But he has been indicted by a grand jury. Prosecutors say they believe that they have enough not to charge him with pulling the trigger, but for being the so-called shot caller, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, so he did a lot of interviews. But that memoir that you refer to, it's called "Compton Street Legend." That is where he wrote about getting a gun, riding in a white Cadillac with three other people looking for Tupac, slipping the gun into the backseat. Now, the defense says that's not true, that he was just trying to sell a story, sell books. Is that how you expect the presentation to go as this trial begins?

CAMPBELL: Yes, and that's just yet another fascinating element of all of this. I mean, he's been on the record describing these things. And now it appears, according to his attorney and from his own, you know, words, saying that, look, I made all of that up in order to take -- make money.

He was interviewed just a few weeks ago by an affiliate here in Las Vegas, KLAS. Take a listen here. They asked him about that night. They asked him about that book.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you have anything to do with the murder of Tupac Shakur?

DUANE "KEFFE D" DAVIS, EX-GANG LEADER ACCUSED OF ORCHESTRATING THE DRIVE-BY KILLING OF TUPAC SHAKUR: No, ma'am. No, ma'am. I wasn't even in Nevada. I didn't write that book. You know, because I don't know nothing about no Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra. Just read the book. You know, I didn't write that book.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: And what is interesting about all of this, once it actually gets presented to the jury, is that typically it's flipped. You have the prosecutor saying, no, this person's a liar. Don't believe what they're saying. Here, it's the opposite. They're saying, believe him then, don't believe him now. And again, it will be interesting to see how that all resonates with the jury.

BASH: Yes. And one of the things that I'm watching for, and I'm sure you are too, Josh, is whether or not Suge Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records, is going to testify. What a fascinating trial to be able to cover.

CAMPBELL: That's right.

BASH: Thanks for being here, Josh.

And up next, Democrats officially shucked Iowa from their 2028 calendar. Which White House hopefuls could benefit? Stay with us.

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[12:38:49]

BASH: It's official, South Carolina is now the Democrats' new Iowa. The Democratic National Committee locked in its primary calendar for the 2028 presidential race, and that happened this weekend. South Carolina will lead the pack, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia. What do you think about this, Phil? I mean, it is extraordinary that after all of these years, I mean, how many times have you heard from Democratic leaders, from activists, that the way that the calendar was built was not representative of the Democratic electorate, and now they finally made a move to change it.

And I just want to give some demographics here and some statistics that will really, I think, help hit home what we're talking about. If you look at the 2020 voter demographics, this is based on exit polls. This is the last time there was a competitive primary, when there were actual voters who went to vote.

Iowa, 91 percent white, 3 percent black. South Carolina, 40 percent white, 56 percent black. I think that just tells you the whole story of the way and the why of 56 percent black. I think that just tells you the whole story of the way and the why of scrambling this calendar.

[12:40: 12]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, I think that, first off, we should make this about us. As a reporter, we've spent a lot of time in Iowa in the last several decades, and I'm going to miss our focus for the better part of like six months leading into the caucuses.

BASH: But Republicans --

MATTINGLY: You and I have spent a lot of quality time there.

BASH: Republicans aren't changing anything, so you'll have time there.

MATTINGLY: Joking aside, I think, to your point, we have heard this cycle after cycle --

BASH: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- from Democrats since probably around the time I started. And while everybody looks back fondly at what it meant for Barack Obama's campaign in 2008 and how it launched and how it changed everything, the Democratic Party, the shape of the Democratic Party, and I think the recognition over the course of the last several cycles of what is the backbone/cornerstone of the Democratic Party, and that is black voters in particular, this reshapes that, not just in the first contest, but I think when you look across the locations of kind of the first five or six throughout the last week of January, first week of February.

You understand that for Democrats, these are critical races. They think they better reflect where the party is, where the party needs to be, and where the party is going to have to be if they're going to win in 2028.

BASH: And there's so many theories and sort of predictions about what this will mean for which candidates succeed and how they do. And again, just to put up the calendar again, if we could, South Carolina, as we said, then it is followed by Nevada, which is a caucus generally, which has a very high, excuse me, Hispanic, Latino representation, followed by New Hampshire, which does not. It's very, very white, then New Mexico, Michigan, and Virginia.

But on the question of sort of the candidates and what kind of policies, what kind of sort of character would succeed in a way that perhaps didn't with Iowa first.

ADAM HARRIS, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Yes, you know, it was interesting watching even this last presidential cycle, where Joe Biden was sort of flagging until he got to South Carolina, right?

BASH: Yes.

HARRIS: At every stop, he kept saying, you know, just wait until we get to South Carolina, wait until we get to South Carolina. And then on that election night, on primary night, he's like, you know, South Carolina, you brought me back, right? And Jim Clyburn sort of saying that we know Joe and Joe knows us, right?

There's a sort of style of establishment Democrat that actually does really well in a state like South Carolina state where, you know, black voters tend to not necessarily be politically conservative as much as they are sort of socially conservative in a way, where the policies are sort of more moderate and ensuring that they are holding on to the gains that we've --

BASH: OK, so that goes to what has, you know, kind of been unsaid here. But just to say it bluntly, there is a theory that not only does this give access to a more representative part of the Democratic electorate, it also makes it harder for more progressive DSA type candidates who tend to be buoyed by white, liberal, college town, Democratic voters make it harder for them to succeed.

HARRIS: That is the argument, yes, that it would make it harder for someone save like AOC. It was harder for a Bernie in South Carolina, right, and in his connection, even though he did draw out large rallies in South Carolina. Once you sort of think of the electorate, who is actually going to the polls, it's typically the older sort of black voters who are going to the polls who supported folks like Jim Clyburn, right, where it is a -- as far as sort of Democrats and having a hold on the state, it is functionally a Jim Clyburn's state.

BASH: I just want to quickly mention the fact that the Republicans are going to try to have a convention -- and I'm doing the air quote thing -- September 9 and 10 in Dallas, with the point being to try to get some energy.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.

BASH: And they're very sort of not energized base.

TREENE: Yes, this is a huge problem. I mean, you keep hearing the President referred to as a mini convention, you know, and I did a story on this actually over the weekend. There's a lot of concern, even though it's of course not being spoken publicly about their chances in the midterms and everyone, even, you know, surprisingly, some Republicans in more moderate districts.

The goal has been that they need to get Trump out there, mainly because the way that they're going to win in November will be by energizing the President's base. They recognize independence, more moderate voters, it's going to be a lot harder to get them out. They need to get the base out.

But the problem with that too is those are the type of voters that don't typically show up in a midterm election with Trump's name not on the ballot. So that'll be very interesting to see if that helps at all.

BASH: All right. You guys are all going to want to see this next segment because from the White House press secretary to the President of the United States, Allison Janney loves a political drama. I should say we all love Allison Janney in a political drama. CNN sits down with the award winning actress next.

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[12:51:47]

BASH: Welcome back, and we are back. There was a technical issue across Warner Brothers Discovery Channels that resulted in losing our signal. We're very sorry for the interruption. We are very happy to be back.

And my fellow reporters are here at the table still. Let's pick up Adam Harris where we left off and we were talking about the political impact of the President's new renewed trade war with Canada on more than a handful of really important Senate races that will determine the outcome of the election.

HARRIS: Yes. I mean, if you think about Maine, you think about Michigan some of those states where we've seen really tense primary elections and the Democrats think that they can sort of pick up seats, these are states that have really close trade relationships with Canada. And so any sort of alteration in that -- any sort of fear hesitancy that might come out of that is going to likely affect the way that voters are thinking about moving into this midterm cycle especially with the President saying that he's going to increase the tariffs on Canada beginning in -- at the beginning of 2027.

BASH: And let's look at what Susan Collins, the incumbent senator from Maine, one of the most, if not, the most vulnerable Republicans on the ballot this year said. "The on-again/off-again trade talks between the U.S. and Canada lead to higher costs risk and uncertainty for Maine businesses. If the administration proceeds with these tariffs, they will increase costs for Maine families as most businesses will have no choice but to pass on the tariffs to their customers through higher prices."

She said, "I urge both sides to return to the negotiating table." Her Democratic opponent Troy Jackson said, "Having spent most of my life working along the border, I know how vital trade with Canada is to Maine. Trump's tariffs are a direct tax on working families. Susan Collins can criticize them online all she wants, but when given the vote to stop them from raising costs, she voted no." Marianna?

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Yes, I mean, this is giving Democrats an upper hand in an argument regardless of which race we're looking at as we saw there with Troy Jackson being able to say well Susan Collins is a Republican, she has been voting with Republicans. And I was just texting with a House Republican lawmaker who is in a very vulnerable position who told me that many House Republicans especially in the last couple days if you remember Trump's decision to now import beef that's affecting a ton of farmers across a number of districts.

They have been trying to tell the White House for some time to please talk to them about a number of these decisions and what this one lawmaker specifically says that I don't know if the admin understands how much this hurts us with voters in our districts.

And it is so difficult now especially the closer we're getting to Labor Day voters paying attention to kind of differentiate themselves from these decisions that Trump is making. And there's no it seems communication, at least not much from the White House as to how they should be communicating about this.

BASH: I spoke yesterday on State of the Union with Mike Pence, the President's former Vice President who, throughout the first term, was one of those who somewhat successfully kept the President from doing what he wanted to do which is all of these tariffs. Here's what he said about this new trade war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:55:01]

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the last thing we need right now as our economy is getting back on its feet is a trade war with Canada. My hope is for the sake of American families and for the sake of the American economy that what we're looking at here is negotiation and not confrontation in a trade war and that that's how I would advise the President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: But the President likes confrontation over negotiation. That's how he negotiates. He puts this forward saying, you know, there's going to be this 50 percent tariffs with the hope that that brings people back to the negotiating table and they give whether or not it works here.

I mean it works sometimes. Other times it completely falls flat as we've seen. We've seen that he is the one who actually backs down. The issue though now is that all of these threats, all of these taunts whether it's about tariffs and waiting for them to come, as you said they're start -- they would start in 2027, so they're kind of lingering above everybody. But with Iran, any kind of taunt that he's doing now, we are so close to the midterms. And as you said, people are actually paying attention now. And so as they're looking at the economy in the current landscape, those things matter far more than they did a year ago or even six months ago.

BASH: And one other sort of thread on this is that the President announced Friday that the U.S. would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported for the next 90 days without quota tariffs. And he said, the reason was to substantially lower the price of ground beef which of course suggests -- actually says that the tariffs are increasing the costs of ground beef in the United States.

But it has a complicated result or at least impact on Iowa, for example, where there is a very tight race. And the Republican candidate Ashley Hinson was not so happy about this announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ASHLEY HINSON (R), IOWA SENATE CANDIDATE: I've actually spent the last week at the Iowa State Fair and was with our cattlemen when that news came out on Friday. So as you can imagine, got some pretty swift feedback here in Iowa from our producers.

I definitely want to see those prices come down because I do think it is a consumer issue. We need to focus on affordability. But I think this isn't the way to do that. I think we need to focus on helping our cattlemen grow their herd.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, the reason why Iowa is in play is affordability, it's affordability, it's agriculture economy, it's farmers who have been hit by high fertilizer prices, it's the impact on the tariffs. And Trump going ahead with more tariffs makes things problematic for people in Iowa.

And then pulling back saying, I'm going to, you know, give some relief to imports makes these farmers angry because they're already being hit on by higher costs on a whole wide range of areas. It's interesting to hear Ashley Hinson come out and criticize. She has been in line in lockstep with Trump on pretty much everything.

But it just goes to show you that she recognizes this race is in play. Affordability is central to it. And she's hearing a lot from her farmers who are getting hit very hard by all these decisions and the uncertainty of all of it as well.

BASH: Right, exactly. I mean, it's so true that, on the one hand, take Iowa still for the example, the farmers there are being hurt because of the Iran war because of tariffs sort of on other issues like fertilizer and the fact that what the products that they grow aren't sellable in the way that they were before. And now they're being told one of the key products, beef, that they're going to be hurt because the U.S. is able to import the beef now.

It's like the last thing someone like Ashley Hinson --

RAJU: And Zach Nunn too. And Zach Nunn too, who is in a swing district --

BASH: Yes.

RAJU: -- also speaking out as well.

BASH: And the governor's race.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BASH: I mean it's all up for grabs in Iowa.

HARRIS: Yes. And even kind of across the board, I think this is emblematic of the way that Republicans are sort of understanding how the economic policies from the administration are functionally affecting their races, right? Even hearing Representative Donalds sort of saying that we don't know this -- we try to nationalize the Florida's governor's race but this is really a local race, right?

We're worried about affordability here sort of trying to distance themselves from the conversation that's happening nationally. But even talking about affordability at a state level is to acknowledge that the economic policies from the administration are harming the voters at the moment.

BASH: Yes. And JD Vance is up in Maine today. We'll see what he ends up saying. But his message on this not so much tariffs but affordability has been interesting because he's been trying to do what vice presidents have to do when they're thinking about running for the top job, which is not criticize the administration for which they serve but also acknowledge some of the pitfalls. And that is he says, look, I understand people are hurting out there.

HOLMES: Yes. And he has a specifically hard tightrope to walk just because it's President Trump. And you've seen these Republicans for the last several months beg the White House, beg the President to stay on message about affordability. And he won't. So you don't even have a President who is showing any kind of empathy out there.

And the other part of this to take -- to keep in mind is part of the reason that Trump was able to win in 2024, one, was the economy. But, two, they were able to micro target low propensity voters, people who don't vote often to bring them out with the assumption that people who are paying attention are either they like Trump or they don't like Trump.

If you're not paying attention you could still vote for Donald Trump. I was told that they were going to do the same thing with midterms to try to target these voters. The big concern though is everybody is feeling the pinch right now.

RAJU: And you know who's not up with JD Vance today in Maine?

BASH: Yes. RAJU: Susan Collins.

BASH: She -- her -- one of her aides said that she had a personal schedule.

RAJU: Yes.

BASH: So --

RAJU: I'm sure.

BASH: -- she didn't have time. But they have a good relationship, she said.

RAJU: Yes.

BASH: Thank you for joining us today. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.