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NYT: Group Of Jewish Leaders Back El-Sayed For Senate Despite Concerns Over His Views On Israel; Trump Leans Into Crime Message In North Carolina Rally; Florida GOP Congresswoman Breaks With Trump In New Ad; Hasan Piker: U.S. "Has Caused Tremendous Terror"; Poll: Nearly Half Of Michiganders Says They Wouldn't Consider Voting For Muslim Presidential Candidate; Kamala Harris In No Rush To Make Decision On 2028 Run. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired September 17, 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]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Is President Trump trying to take the 2026 midterms back to 1988?

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

There are 47 days until the election, and we are tracking the races, candidates, and stories that could shift the balance of power here in Washington and across the country. Here's what's on our midterm radar. President Trump took his midterm push to North Carolina, rallying for Senate candidate Michael Whatley and signaling the issue he really wants to be at the center of that 2026 fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Pro crime politicians like Roy Cooper have tried to bully you into silence while they turned your cities into blood-soaked killing fields, flooded your communities with migrant criminals, destroyed your schools with gangs and drugs, and filled your streets with lawlessness, filth, and squalor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: He mentioned crime at least 16 times during that speech. More on that in a bit. Now to Michigan, where a group of Jewish community leaders are rallying behind Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El- Sayed. In a letter obtained by the New York Times, reads in part, some of us are enthusiastic supporters of El-Sayed, some of us have reservations.

There are disagreements with El-Sayed on important issues, including aspects of his approach to Israel and the language used by some of his allies. These concerns remain serious for many of us, and we will vote for El-Sayed. And we understand that a vote is not a valentine, it is a strategic chess move. This comes a week after a coalition of Michigan rabbis and Jewish leaders threatened to withhold support for El-Sayed unless he changes his rhetoric on Israel. Let's go over to Florida. Republican just released a blistering ad, taking direct aim at President Trump. This is from Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

BASH: This from an incumbent who the Cook Political Report rates as in a race that is likely Republican. And one of the most famous Republican operatives plans to vote for a Democrat for only the second time in his life. Karl Rove, a Texas voter, says he will not vote for Texas Republican Bo French for Texas Railroad Commissioner. French is a Republican who posted racist comments on X about South Asian and Hispanic students attending a University of Texas football game.

In a new Wall Street Journal op-ed, Rove writes in part, the GOP has a growing number of Bo French's. These people are diminishing the Republican Party, not building it. I'll have no part of it. The GOP's stables need a cleaning. This is a good place to start.

I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters at the table. OK, so Nia, you're South Carolina, but not North Carolina, but you know, close enough for these -- for these conversations. I know you don't agree with that. But I do want to go back to the president and this message that he has in North Carolina, which is, and we've been reporting on this the entire midterm season that this is the most likely Democratic pickup right now because Roy Cooper, the governor, is popular and he is running against Michael Whatley, the Republican, the president went to campaign for.

We have known, and Manu Raju did a terrific piece earlier this week that the Republicans are focusing on crime. We heard it from the president at the beginning of the show. But the president was very explicit in the strategy that they're using, harkening back to 1988 and what Republicans did against Michael Dukakis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Michael Dukakis, you remember, who had a very substantial lead for president. He was going to win easily, but he allowed a man named Willie Horton out of jail. Overnight, Dukakis took a rousing lead of 15 points and lost the election in a landslide because of that one advertisement. They put it on just like we're putting this on because we have to make sure that Michael Whatley gets into office, not this guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:05:00]

BASH: He's just saying the strategy out loud. And by the way, a strategy that is widely considered to have been very racist. We'll put on just at least some video for the youngs who watch our show and don't remember this strategy. Willie Horton was somebody who Michael Dukakis, when he was governor, was let out of jail, and then Willie Horton committed a crime. What's going on in North Carolina is that there was a court order for Governor Cooper to release a bunch of inmates. He didn't want to, but he was ordered to release them. And so, the tough-on-crime argument that Republicans are pushing against him now that he's running for Senate is, it's his fault if those released inmates committed other crimes.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Listen, you know, I think it's a -- it's basically all that Republicans have, right? There is this attempt to make Democrats out to be the soft on crime party and this is something that Republicans have run on for years, I mean, go back to -- Willie Horton, exactly. And so, it's a familiar hit. It is a bit surprising that he's being so explicit about it. This ad that, as you said, was denounced as racist.

So yeah, we have the president, fear often works in campaigns like this, sort of racialized fear sometimes works even better. I think the real problem for Republicans in this race is Michael Whatley, is a lackluster candidate. He's kind of a lazy candidate in terms of his approach. He's not very dynamic, and so you have the president in there essentially throwing a sort of bomb and chum into the water with this issue of crime.

And listen, there'll be crime. It'll be sort of xenophobia will be in there, and sort of immigration and this idea that Democrats are the party of socialists. They're going to take your country away from you. They're going to give all the power to the brown people, and the brown people are going to maybe kill you. I mean, that's essentially what it is if you listen to what the president is saying.

BASH: Yeah. And once again, he's just boggles the mind in that he just says it out loud. He reads the stage direction like we're doing Willie Horton. Everybody, watch this. And this is up against polling. This is national polling, not in North Carolina, but it's pretty stark, Aaron, about what people really care about the economy and cost of living, duh. You all know that, 48 percent, but where is crime? 2 percent and even among Republicans.

AARON BLAKE, AUTHOR OF CNN'S 20/26 VISION NEWSLETTER: Yeah. Crime is a much bigger issue when the other side is actually in power, which is why they're going back to something that happened a few years ago with Roy Cooper in North Carolina, which, by the way, the ads that they're actually running weren't -- aren't about an inmate that was released in North Carolina. It was an ad about somebody who was released in South Carolina. So not even somebody he's responsible for.

But it is more difficult to make this issue salient, just like it's more difficult to make immigration salient right now because these issues aren't top of mind. The administration will talk at other points about how much they've reduced crime and how great that situation is. Immigration is not as much of an issue because the border has been largely shut down over the last couple of years. So, they can talk about that as a success story about how they've driven down crime, how they've secured the border, but it's not necessarily motivating for people because it's not as much of a fear factor at this given moment in time. BASH: And going back to the ad that we played at the beginning of the show with Maria Salazar in Florida to camera saying, Mr. President, your immigration policy is like gone too far. The idea that this is a Republican who, on paper at least, what we're seeing doesn't look like she should be in trouble, signaling perhaps she is in trouble to the point where she's willing to go out there on this issue.

If you combine that with the votes, the two extra votes from Republicans in Iowa this week against the president on Iran and several other issues, is this now a story that is becoming more clear?

DAVID WEIGEL, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Yes. And I think it relates back to North Carolina because the problem is that Democrats have made themselves more robust against these sort of attacks that worked in 2024 over the last two years. They've had stops and starts and mistakes, but they got Roy Cooper in the race because it has been very hard to convince people that this governor, as you said, who had to settle with the NACP (Ph), did not want to release these criminals. That he is the new Michael Dukakis.

It's hard for them to convince Iowans that Josh Turek is going to put-- as he -- as he put it, biological boys in girl sports. He said he won't, and I did notice that after Turek clarified, she put that ad -- she put the ad out about her bipartisanship because Democrats realize why they lost in 2024. And a lot of Republican themes I've seen this year have been, let's pretend it's 2024 again. We're going to snap right back to that if we lose this election.

[12:10:00]

BASH: Yeah. I hear you. I think that is definitely one of the dynamics, but the other is this, it's not -- certainly not a race away from Donald Trump. It's like, you can sort of see the backpedaling slowly. That's starting to get faster.

WEIGEL: Yes. And that was a theme of the convention from these Republicans. They're all on stage, shared by Trump both nights. They are comfortable saying that he has achieved things on tax cuts and he's achieved the border. And this happens to every part, it's in power, it succeeds on something. I'm just saying it because the border is sealed, to use their terms. It is not salient.

BASH: Yeah.

WEIGEL: And so, what is it that Trump is doing now? They can right now in September that they can run on. It's very tough. You find this when you talk. How much was Iran mentioned at the convention? Not at all until Trump said it was about to end.

BASH: But it seems as though they've been so -- they've stuck to him like Velcro, and they're not.

HENDERSON: And I think they are mirroring Republican voters --

BASH: that's what we're trying to get --

HENDERSON: -- you know backpedaling and a splintering at least around the edges for these voters.

BASH: Before we go to break, I just want to take a moment to go back to North Carolina, not the president, the attorney general of the United States. This was a political rally. The attorney general of the United States was there and spoke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ATTORNEY GENERAL: You're doing better too. Blue-collar wages saw their largest growth in nearly 60 years. Real earnings rose. The stock market has hit more highs since President Trump took office. Every day is a new high, and that's not going to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Why? Why? I mean, we know why, but like, there's norms that have been busted, and you know, that happened. That train left the station a long time ago, but like, this is not normal.

BLAKE: Yeah. And what's really striking here is that Todd Blanche is not a particularly compelling surrogate. You know how many voters in North Carolina are looking at that speech and saying, oh, Todd Blanche is for Michael Whatley. Like I really need to get on board with this guy. You know there was reportedly a competition among members of Trump's cabinet and his high-level staff about who could get out to as many swing states as possible. You know, people who are supposed to have day jobs that they're doing, and Todd Blanche is pretty high on that list.

BASH: Yeah. But again, attorney's general generally stay away from politics. This is like diving from the high dive into the deep end. Up next, far left streamer Hasan Piker just said something so stunning, even by his standards. Did he just write the Republicans' next attack ad for them? That's a rhetorical question. And speaking of ads, a Democrat is already turning this week's AI debate into a campaign message. We're going to look at some of the new campaign ads. Stay with us.

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[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: A lot of Democrats are hoping far-left streamer Hasan Piker will just stay quiet. Much to the delight of Republicans, he's not, and he's giving those Republicans, especially in Michigan, a lot to work with. The latest example, what he said in an interview with Alex Thompson at Axios.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX THOMPSON, AXIOS, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think America then is worse than al-Qaeda?

HASAN PIKER, LEFT-WING COMMENTATOR: Pound for pound, as far as the number of deaths, yes, we have caused tremendous terror all around the world. One clear example, this is what we did in Minnab, right? There's no distinction between blowing up a school, triple tapping it with Tomahawk missiles. If you're killing 140 schoolgirls, that is an act of terror. This doesn't mean that all Americans are terrorists, but the reality of the matter is we have to create an environment of accountability to ensure things like that never happen again.

BASH: Dave Weigel, I know you've spoken to Hasan Piker as well. I should just say that El-Sayed's campaign did put out a statement saying that he doesn't agree with his sentiment on al-Qaeda, probably because he's running in a democracy to be part of a democratically elected government, other than as opposed to al-Qaeda, which is an actual terrorist organization.

WEIGEL: And this is a landmine that El-Sayed has set for himself because he decided to bring Piker to Michigan. I mean, that's one thing I talked to Piker about. A lot of candidates have been inviting in. Those candidates have mostly been in plus 30 Democratic seats, plus 40 Democratic seats, El-Sayed, and you can go back and watch the clips of their tour. Said, I'm not interested in denouncing people. He kind of bundled it together with cancel culture. I'm not going to denounce everything somebody says, just the way that Republicans don't denounce everything Trump says. And these are different -- just this -- these come from a different place.

Piker's views are that America is an evil empire that does a lot of damage around the world, especially when it's in concert with Israel. That's not something that really any Democrat is running on. It's not something El-Sayed once to run on. And he does talk in the way a lot of young left-wing people talk. Look at polls and look at what people think of American foreign policy in Israel. If they're under 30, that's not where most voters are, though.

Look at the same polls of people over 60. That is the risk that El- Sayed created himself. You've seen he's tried to dismiss him as a Twit streamer, and Republicans just keep going back to that clip when he was much more confident of his ability to say, I'm willing to campaign with controversial people. What's wrong with that?

BASH: Here's what, Aaron, what El-Sayed told Manu yesterday when he was in Washington.

[12:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED, (D) MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: The reason I talk to Hasan isn't because of Hassan. It's because of the 3 million people who pay attention to what he has to say, and I think it's important to be able to offer those folks a pathway back into our politics. I understand that that's exciting conversation in D.C., but I would encourage you to come to places like Michigan and have conversations with people. I promise you, they don't think that a streamer in California is raising the price of their gas or their groceries. You know who's doing that? The guy right down there, who lives in the White House, he's doing it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLAKE: I mean, I don't disagree that people are more concerned about affordability than Hasan Piker. But as Dave noted, this is a person who he chose to campaign with. You make that decision, even if it's during the primary, and you think it's going to help you in the primary, maybe not so much in the general election and you're going to own that decision moving forward.

And I think that as we move forward in this campaign, we're seeing some polling that suggests that El-Sayed might be OK in Michigan. Some of the early polling was a little bit concerning for Democrats. It's gotten better since then. I think the decision to campaign with him in the primary could be one that we ultimately look back on as pretty pivotal, not just for the general election, but because maybe it helped him get over the line in the primary, which wound up being very close. So, I don't think this story is going away by any means.

HENDERSON: Yeah. And listen, I think he has some decisions to make, right? You had Debbie Dingell say, she hopes that she doesn't see Hasan Piker campaigning in Michigan. You obviously hear El-Sayed saying, listen, I'm talking to the 3 billion people that listen to him on Twitch or whatever. How many of you -- of those people are in Michigan, and how many of those people are the sort of independent, older white voters that he needs to actually win?

So, I think you're right. I mean, to the extent that he's lagging some of the other Democrats on the ballot, it's partly because of his association with Piker. And I mean, listen, it's also partly because he's Muslim, right?

BASH: Right.

HENDERSON: And he's, you know, that is -- he has to do some work, some sort of cross-cultural work because of that.

BASH: Well, I said right to that because we have new data about that that I do want to get to. First, let's just look at the overall polling that Aaron you were talking about. There is a brand-new poll out from the Washington Post this morning that shows El-Sayed at 48, Rogers at 45, with the margin of error. It's a statistical dead heat. And then the question, which kind of goes to the strategy here, perhaps by some voters who are thinking about the balance of power in Washington. What is your preference for party control in the U.S. Senate? Democratic 53, Republican 45.

Now let's get to what you were just talking about, Nia. Would not consider voting for a presidential candidate who is atheist 46 percent, Muslim 45 percent, Jewish 20 percent, Christian 7 percent. These are Michigan voters, the people who are going to go to the polls to decide between Rogers and El-Syed. 45 percent?

HENDERSON: Yeah. I mean, listen, Barack Obama had to deal with this, right? I mean, he had to deal with the reality that some people in 2008 were not comfortable voting for a black man for president, a black man that people thought was Muslim, and all, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, you know, if you listen to Abdul El-Sayed, he says, oh, there are -- there are many Abdul in Michigan. And take my name out your mouth if you can't say it correctly. But the reality is, there are biases out there, and he's got to figure out a way to address them. It doesn't hope that he is essentially campaigning with Piker well.

BASH: Yeah. I mean he did -- he did one time. Now he's trying to distance himself-ish. It's one thing to sort of suggest that it's another thing to say or to have respondents from this poll. 45 percent say they would not consider voting for a Muslim. First of all, it's just gross --

HENDERSON: Right, right.

(CROSSTALK)

HENDERSON: And what was the Jewish factor, I mean, what's the Jewish number?

BASH: It's 20 percent. I mean, it's gross, but that is what he's contending with. And let's also say that a lot of what Mike Rogers is campaigning on, yes, is the economy, but he's also not so subtly talking about issues that Hasan Piker talked about, about 9/11 and so forth.

BLAKE: I mean, right after the primary ended, you saw a whole bunch of Republicans come out and basically, you know, say Muslim, Muslim, pointing their finger at him. They were using his full first name, Abdulrahman. Senator Tommy Tuberville called him a terrorist on X. It's not very subtle. And I would add on that poll, by the way, you make a very good point, which is that 45 percent is the number of people -- the percentage of people who are willing to tell a pollster that is a problem for them.

BASH: Exactly.

BLAKE: How many more people could this maybe not be a complete deal breaker with? But it's kind of in the back of their head, and I think that's where the Piker thing comes in because they're basically saying, look at the people he associates with, maybe that's who he really is.

BASH: All right. Coming up, Kamala Harris has the field of Democratic presidential hopefuls waiting and seeing. That's the mode they're in. Wait and see. New reporting about Harris's thinking on 2028. After a quick break.

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[12:25:00]

BASH: Just days after potential presidential candidate Governor Gavin Newsom said he wouldn't run in 2028 if Kamala Harris runs again. Harris is keeping him and the rest of the hopeful Democrats waiting. Our colleague Isaac Dovere has brand new reporting, which you have to check out. In it, he says, Harris tends to stick closely to her public line that

she's thinking about it. Her allies think she has the authority among Democrats and the right to decide on her own timeline, even as other contenders and many voters are convinced that Democrats need a contested primary, whether or not