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Inside Politics

Trump Awards Artemis II Crew With Congressional Honor: Trump Renames Lake Ontario "Lake America" Amid Canada Feud; Sen. Collins Urges Admin. To Roll Back Canada Tariffs; Does James Talarico Have A Jasmine Crockett Problem?; Talarico Gains New Admirer In Mark Cuban; Now: Deliberations Underway In Lindsay Clancy Murder Trial. Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired August 28, 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]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Michael Smerconish, as always, thank you very, very much. And Michael is live every Saturday morning, 9 am Eastern, right here on CNN. You'll want to spend an hour with Michael Saturday's mornings as well. 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. We'll see you back here Monday morning, every weekday morning for two hours. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash. And we want to show you live pictures from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where any moment now President Trump will award the Artemis II crew the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. These four astronauts went farther into space than any humans before them, circling the moon on a 10-day mission. They brought home never- before-seen images from deep space, completing the first crewed journey to the moon in more than half a century.

Steve Contorno is at the Space Center for us. It's nice to be covering something happy, I'm sure, Steve.

STEVEN CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. And there's so much pride and excitement in this room, not just for the historic Artemis II mission, but what is still to come from this Artemis program and NASA in the coming years. We just heard from former New Mexico Senator Jack Schmitt, an astronaut on the Apollo 17 mission, who walked on the moon 54 years ago and looked ahead to returning to the moon, which Artemis IV is expected to do in 2028, as well as the potential building of a moon base and beyond.

You know, we're just several hundred football fields away from a facility where there is currently a crew simulating what it would be like to live on Mars? They've been living in this, basically, a warehouse for months and months and months, living in isolation. So, there's just a lot of energy and excitement right now for what's happening in the space area. And Donald Trump has made space a priority as well.

Recently, he announced that there would be a quote, golden age of space transportation and trying to increase the number of space rocket launches by more than a thousand by 2030. Of course, that is sometimes a political football in Washington as well. And funding for space research and NASA's budget has been cut by the president, or proposed to be cut by the president, even as he puts more money into the Artemis mission, and he will address the astronauts behind me in the coming moments here, of course, also, this visit doesn't take place in a vacuum.

He is here to fundraise for Republicans as well. He appeared at a fundraiser in Houston yesterday, and as well as that Senate race that the whole country is watching between his ally, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and state lawmaker Talarico, so a lot of subtext to this visit as well. And President Trump has said he intends to spend a lot of time in Texas in the weeks ahead, Dana.

BASH: All right. Well, keep us posted. We hear the music starting to swell behind you. So, when the ceremony starts, raise your hand and we'll come to it. Steve, thank you so much. And President Trump may be celebrating history in space, but he's also trying to rename it here on earth. The president took out his anger on Canada via Sharpie, announcing Lake Ontario will now be called Lake America. But if the intention is a show of strength to get under Canadian leader skin, it may have backfired.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WAB KINEW, MANITOBA PREMIER: You know, when like a rock band is really over the Hill, and you see them like in a casino playing some song from like 50 years ago. I think that's the part of Donald Trump's presidency we're at now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: We're joined by a terrific group of reporters. For the record, I don't mind a rock band that's a little old going to see them, but I understand his

S.E. CUPP, HOST, IHEARTRADIO'S "OFF THE CUPP" PODCAST: Exclusively prefer it.

BASH: Exactly, his analogy, which is, you know, certainly told the story without kind of hitting it on the head.

CUPP: Yeah. For first, can I volunteer for that self-isolating warehouse in Texas that's pretending to be Mars? It sounds amazing, but no. I mean, there is a cohort of MAGA voter that loves this stuff, right? That is titillated by this stuff. Maybe they watch Kill Tony or the Nelk Boys or the Tate Brothers or whatever, but like they're into this.

For everyone else, imagine you're a single mom working two jobs because you can't afford to pay rent and medical bills and groceries. And you're watching the president rename Lake Ontario to soothe his ego in this awful trade war with our neighbors to the north, I think you're feeling pretty left out of the political system. And if you're a Trump voter, I would assume you feel pretty betrayed. [12:05:00]

BASH: Yeah. And look, this is a classic Trump troll, and some Democrats are saying, OK, we can play this game. So, this is what's going on social media right now. Here are some examples. Governor Tony Evers, the outgoing Democratic governor of Wisconsin. I just renamed Lake Michigan Lake Wisconsin. See, I can sign napkins that say things too. And here's the Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

(PLAYING VIDEO)

BASH: So, if you couldn't read that, going through what kids in Michigan, she says, learn in fourth grade and how they learn the names of the lakes.

MADISON FERNANDEZ, POLITICO REPORTER, CO-AUTHOR, "NEW YORK PLAYBOOK": And hearing and seeing some of these Democratic responses, the word that's really stood out to me is juvenile, and Democrats are going to use this to create a contrast that they've been trying to create all year. That the president is focused on things that aren't affordability.

And to your point, I mean, who is this really resonating with? There is his base that appreciates it, but Democrats are going to be making that contrast, and some are even convinced that it's going to help in pretty red areas. There's the upstate New York district that's very deep red, and Democrats have been saying that this fight with Canada is putting it into play, and this is just another instance of that.

BASH: So, let's look at something, obviously, the president is amplified by not just some of the conservative online influencers, but members of his own administration, the Department of Labor has an AI picture of Trump crossing out Ontario on the map. There's Lego map with Lake America on it. The White House has a TDS, Trump derangement syndrome trigger warning. Lake America officially on the map. And then from the Department of Interior, a picture of a wolf holding a bird in his mouth.

And Aaron Blake wrote something today, which kind of encapsulates what you both have said so far about perhaps a disconnect politically. He wrote, while these kinds of stunts may have felt a little cuter when Trump was riding higher earlier in his term, they now risk reinforcing how preoccupied he is. You could say he's playing the hits, but it's really playing the flops.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Which gets us back to the Manitoba officials' comment about how Trump is acting like a played-out band, which, as you pointed out, is fun in real life, you know, for fun. But we're talking about the president and what he is spending his time doing. You showed Gretchen Whitmer doing the acronym that kids learn in school to remember the names of the Great Lakes.

Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, added to that. She said that the acronym now spells shame as a result of this change. Of course, Buffalo and up, and you know, the northern part of the state where Kathy Hochul is from, very familiar with the Great Lakes. And it's a central part of culture there and the economy to cross the border back and forth and people are being affected by it.

So, to the point that S.E. made at the beginning, I do think, you know, it is important the fact that the president, as he often likes to do and is able to do, change in the conversation so that it's not about these real issues, affordability, childcare, the fact that people can't afford to buy their first homes, the cost of housing, the cost of rent, and instead, you know, putting this focus on this name change. But he's showing that he's willing to make even something like a body of water that really he doesn't actually have the power to rename other than -- within the U.S. to make it a central --

BASH: Well, he's changing the conversation, but not the reality for people, which is the point you made. And this is posing some challenges for the Republicans on the ballot. I mentioned Wisconsin, Tom Tiffany is running to try to turn that governor's mansion red. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM TIFFANY (R-WI): I believe the Great Lakes are the Great Lakes and should stay Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Ontario. I mean, unless you're suggesting we name Lake Michigan, Lake Wisconsin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: He is a big Trump supporter.

CUPP: Yeah.

BASH: It takes a lot for him to even ingest a push back against the president. Susan Collins, different story. She, of course, is running for re-election in a blue state in Maine. She wrote, Canada is not China. Canada is one of our closest allies and largest trading partners. When I spoke with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer this week, I stressed the negative impact U.S. tariffs will have on Maine.

[12:10:00]

CUPP: Well, so 95 percent of Mainers get their home heating oil from Canada. If I'm Troy Jackson in Maine, if I'm Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, if I'm Sherrod Brown in Ohio, If I'm Mary Peltola in Alaska. All four of these are incredibly important trading partners, whose residents feel the immediate impact of rising costs on aluminum, on steel, on car parts, on fuel, on crude. I wrap my arms around this very real issue. The lake thing is sort of a funny distraction, but the real issue is the rising cost of goods for all of these four states, which coincidentally have very competitive Senate races going on.

BASH: Right. And then at the same time, different but related issue, he changes the tariffs on beef, which hurts other --

CUPP: Well, he's having to undo a lot of the things that he did right, and not acknowledging that the things that he did in the first place are why he's having to undo them, either for political reasons or real reasons, practical reasons. But you can't flip a switch on tariffs, they take a really long time to do and undo. So, definitely nothing in time for the election.

BASH: Yeah. Well, OK. Everybody, stand by. Speaking of the election, months have passed since Jasmine Crockett lost the Texas Democratic primary to James Talarico. Will she support him?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: You are often an energy magnet when it comes to voters. We've seen the turnout that you can produce. Talarico might very well need that magnetism. Will you campaign with him?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Crockett's answer is next. Plus, why native New Yorker President Trump is skipping the Ground Zero ceremony for the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. And a live look at the Johnson Space Center, where President Trump is due to award the Artemis II crew the Congressional Space Medals of Honor, should happen very soon. We're going to bring it to you live.

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[12:15:00]

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BASH: If a Democrat really has any chance of winning statewide in Texas, they need a lot of support from black voters. In the Democratic Senate primary, Jasmine Crockett lost the race but won black voters by a wide margin. The now nominee James Talarico is hoping to win those voters over, but an obstacle could be Crockett herself. She spoke to my colleague Laura Coates last night and again refused to say that she would campaign alongside Talarico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Will you campaign with him?

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX): I will be campaigning down ballot. I think that what matters most --

COATES: Why the decision?

CROCKETT: Because when we're looking at a state like Texas, we've tried this where we've got one amazing candidate that's running at the top of the ticket. Beto is a very good example of this, raising all the money, doing all the things, running around the entire state, but it's not enough. I think it has to be something a little bit more in a state like Texas.

And so, for me, I think that making sure that people that maybe are getting overshadowed because it seems like it's only about one big race, I think amplifying them, making sure that I can raise their profiles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Madison, the question that I have listening to her is, why can't you do both?

FERNANDEZ: I mean, it's absolutely possible to do both -- to do both. But you know, I would just like to point out, it's not like Senator Cornyn, the outgoing Republican is the biggest fan of Ken Paxton either. So obviously, you would want to pose united front on both sides, but you know, there's obviously still some tensions there from the primary, and she can be helpful on the trail.

I don't know how much of a detriment she won't be by not being there. When you look at polling, you see that Talarico is polling pretty well with black voters right now. But to her point, she's really talking about how can we excite voters, excite black voters in particular? And I think if she was on the trail, that could possibly help.

BASH: Yeah, yeah. Which is why there's a lot of questions about, you know, for her, can -- if this is really is -- if this really is a chance and we don't know for Democrats to finally win again statewide after decades in Texas, why not throw the kitchen sink out there? And it is tough. I mean, primaries in particular, because it's a family feud, are very, very hard. And Haley Stevens, for example she made pretty clear in the primary, she's not a fan of Abdul El-Sayed, who beat her, and yet she is going out there and supporting him. Same goes for the Senate race in Minnesota. Watch a couple of examples.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HALEY STEVENS (D-MI): The time for all this negative, nasty, the disunity stuff. It's over. I think I just told you I was already campaigning. You know, I might -- well, oh, you're talking about -- whatever he wants me to do, you know what I mean?

REP ANGIE CRAIG (D-MN): Every person that supported me, I ask you tonight to support and elect Peggy Flanagan as the next U.S. senator from Minnesota.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Gloria?

PAZMINO: I think, you know, this kind of messaging is hugely important in this moment. If Democrats are going to try and actually win, and you talk about Crockett's star power and her ability to excite voters, that is something that I think James Talarico would benefit from. I would imagine that it's some energy and excitement that he would want.

[12:20:00]

And I think Democrats, the last two that you showed, are showing that they are willing and able to kind of move past these really ugly primaries, right, in the El-Sayed, Haley Stevens race. That was a really hard fought, ugly primary, and that they have to be able to move past these increasingly ideological primaries to unite in the general election and kind of put the party first, right, and move past the primary fight.

So, I think Crockett, like you said, it's clear that there's still tension there. She brought up the fact that Texas is a big state and that that is one of the impediments, according to her, to not be able to kind of be everywhere all at once. But of course, it's possible. But clearly, there's still some unresolved tension there, and some work for Talarico to do, when it comes to getting some of those voters that she got in the primary to come over to his side.

BASH: S.E.?

CUPP: No, no, no one on either side has the luxury of staying home, or I'm going to focus on other things. I understand her, frankly, her spin on this, but it's hugely unhelpful. And these are not direct comparisons because Texas and Michigan are very, very different, and these are different candidates. But during the primary, Abdul El-Sayed was polling double digits under Haley Stevens with black voters and working-class voters. They voted for Haley Stevens, and he has a lot of work to win them back.

But Haley Stevens, coming out and saying he's not that scary, he's going to fight for you. He's united. He's on the same page as us. That is exactly what he needs to win there, and that will put him at an advantage. James Talarico needs the same thing from Jasmine Crockett. And the fact that she's not willing to do it, I think it's bad news for that race.

BASH: And yet, James Talarico is getting help in different corners, including from Mark Cuban. The two of them are going to campaign together to talk about a plan to break up healthcare monopolies. And you know, look, one -- that's one of the questions. I mean, obviously, Mark Cuban is a Texan. He is a very well-known Texan.

And so, this kind of talk, particularly on this topic of healthcare, which is so resonant this year, and the notion of breaking up healthcare monopolies in particular is probably kind of a bullseye in what voters want to hear. But it just kind of makes me think about the fact that it's one thing to campaign with someone like him, and he would love to do it with Jasmine Crockett, no doubt. But what tends to happen later in the cycle is people come in from the outside and they think they're going to help, and it doesn't always work.

FERNANDEZ: Yeah. I mean, I was just going to say it's August right now. A lot of voters still aren't tuned in. They will be soon. And I mean, who knows? Maybe something might change in the coming weeks once we get closer to the election, where maybe she'll show out more. But it's -- I wouldn't say, it's a death knell right now. But because voters still aren't completely locked in but we're getting to that point where you really have to be thinking about who are your surrogates, who are you bringing in here?

BASH: All right, everybody. We are going to sneak in another quick break. And coming up, we are keeping a close eye on a courtroom in Massachusetts where deliberations are underway in the Lindsay Clancy trial. And we are standing by still for the president to arrive there at the Johnson Space Center to award the Artemis II crew the Congressional Space Medals of Honor. Stay with us.

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[12:25:00]

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BASH: We're following a developing story in Massachusetts where a jury is deliberating in the Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial. Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murdering her three young children. Her attorneys do not deny that she killed them but argue she should not be held criminally liable for their deaths. They say she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time.

I want to get straight to CNN's Jean Casarez outside the courthouse. Jean, the jury just sent a note to the judge. What do we know about it?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A little bit ago, they've been continually deliberating. This is their first full day of deliberation, but they are requesting, and I'm sure they have them now in the jury deliberation room. Two zip lock bags, our affiliate said they saw go to the clerk, a prescription medication. And Kevin Reddington told us this himself that they were asking to see prescription bottles of Lindsay Clancy's and also the knife.

Now, in regard to the prescription bottles, Lindsay, between September and January 24, went to a number of professionals and she got a number of medications. I would say a little over a dozen. Now, some of those she took, some she chose not to take, others she chose to just take a few pills out of the bottle and that was a part of the evidence here.

A nurse Jelata, a nurse practitioner, said when she started her on Remeron, she only took four pills, and she was trying to tell her that it took a couple of weeks, even up to a month, to have the full effect of the medication. Now, the knife is in regard to the suicide attempt, the very serious suicide attempt that both sides agree on.

The theory is that after the killings, this would be the prosecution theory.