Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Today: Vance Campaigns In Iowa But GOP Sen Candidate Skips Event; Iowa Candidates Keep Trump At Arm's Length Ahead Of Midterms; Poll: Dems Hold Major Advantage On Inflation, Data Centers; GOP Rep.: Hispanics "Feel Betrayed" By Trump Immigration Actions; Mullin: "If You're An American Citizen, You Have No Reason To Fear". Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired September 18, 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: Well, we're looking forward to this program. David Chang, thank you very, very much for doing it. It's going to be fabulous. Be sure to tune in a new episode, a new episode of the CNN Original Series, The Detour with David Chang. It airs this Sunday, 9 pm Eastern.

And to our viewers and our listeners, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media @wolfblitzer and @pamelabrowncnn.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: And we will see you back here next week, 10 Eastern, for two hours. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts right now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Is ghosting the administration the new midterm move for vulnerable Republicans?

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

We are 46 days until the election, and we are tracking the races, candidates, and stories that could shift the balance of power in Washington and across the country. First up, Vice President J. D. Vance is on his way to Iowa. It is, or has been for 10 years, a red state, but it's looking a little bit too close for comfort for the Republicans.

In fact, GOP Senate candidate Ashley Hinson is skipping the rally, citing quote previously scheduled events. We don't know what she's doing, but usually when the vice president comes to campaign in your state, you find room on the calendar. And Hinson's absence comes days after two other Iowa Republicans in tight House races broke with the Trump administration.

Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn flipped their previous votes on a measure to limit the president's ability to conduct the war in Iran without congressional approval. This time, they voted with the Democrats, no. And it is not just Iowa. We're seeing more Republican candidates choosing to keep the White House at a bit of an arm's length, while the party devotes time and money to places that used to be reliably GOP turf.

Just look at the V.P.'s travel schedule this week. We mentioned he is in Iowa, also Kansas, two states President Trump won by double digits in 2024, just two years ago. Republican Senator John Kennedy is also planning to stump in those red states. He summed up the situation pretty colorfully.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): This weekend, I'm going to Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa to help raise money and campaign for our very good candidates. If you told me six months ago, I was going to be having to spend my time in those three states. I wouldn't have believed you. Those ought to be fat guy layups for us. Now we're going to win there, but the races are close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters today. Jeremy Peters, so nice to see you. Nice to see all of you. We haven't been able to had Jeremy on in a while. I'm going to start with you. What's your take on the current state of the Republican Party, specifically the Republicans on the ballot? And as we end this week, what we saw vis-a-vis President Trump?

JEREMY PETERS, CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: This year is turning out to be one of those years that really could swamp a lot of strong Republican candidates, who in other years would be pretty much shoe ins. I mean, John Kennedy and his way with words, showing through once again. He's right. These races should be layups, but President Trump's low popularity and not just his low popularity, but his insistence on making himself the focal point, the center of attention in most of these races, really does put an albatross around the neck of a lot of these candidates.

And I think if you -- J. D. Vance is one thing, right? Ashley in Iowa can skip a rally with J. D. Vance and it won't be that big of a deal. Could she do the same with Trump if Trump were to come to Iowa? I don't think so. I don't know that he's going to go to Iowa to campaign. You know, sometimes he has a tendency of showing up in these places where he's not really welcome, but he's insisting on making these races all about him and I know a lot of Republicans beyond John Kennedy are not too thrilled about that.

BASH: Abby, let's listen to a little bit of Ashley Hinson with regard to the president, first on her election night for the primary when she won the primary, and then more recently, about in a political ad talking about why she wants people in Iowa to elect her. Obviously, she needs that those voters beyond Republicans. Let's watch.

[12:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ASHLEY HINSON (R-IA): It used to be that reaching across the aisle wasn't just OK, it was expected. Some people in Washington forgot that. I never have. I want to say thank you, President Donald J. Trump. Hear that, Mr. President? Iowa is cheering pretty loud for you. And we know that no one has fought harder and persevered through more, sacrificed more, just to do the right thing for our country than our president has.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So, Abby, there's an ad that was the first thing that you saw, which is where they're putting their money to say, look, I'm going to reach across the aisle. It is not unusual for a candidate in either party. It's what you do. You run to the right or the left, depending if you're a Republican or Democrat in the primary, and then you try to work your way towards the middle. That's kind of old school politics. We don't even see it as much as we used to. But in Iowa, in this situation, it does feel and ring a bit different. What do you think?

ABBY LIVINGSTON, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Absolutely. And so, what I find so fascinating about Congresswoman Hinson is that she is one of the brightest talents in the Republican Party, and she is one of -- I mean, this is where candidate quality matters. And Iowa is clearly in unique circumstances for a litany of reasons, but rural America is reeling right now.

And so, if someone like her -- number one, we're seeing her instincts of how she's tacking to the center and that is probably the smart way to go if she's the one doing it. But also, a wave. The definition of a wave is when candidate quality begins to matter -- begins to not matter. Campaigns don't matter. That people start coming into Congress, candidates lose who shouldn't lose in any other cycle. And so, that's why I think this Iowa Senate race is absolutely fascinating.

BASH: Yeah. That is such a good point because there's not a Democrat or a Republican that any of us will talk to who will not say that Ashley Hinson is, as you said, one of the biggest stars and the best candidates on the Republican side, so that's an important point. What is working against her, and other Republicans are just the numbers and the reality of how people feel.

Gloria, this is a Fox News poll that came out this week, which party would do a better job on series of issues from inflation and prices, Dems are up 15 percentage points. Data centers, 14. Corruption, Democrats are up 11. Foreign policy, Democrats are up 10. It's just immigration, and Republicans are only up one on that issue. Gloria?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And that's right. And I think what's telling about this poll is that historically we see Republicans get more credit when it comes to the handling of the economy, right? But over and over in this poll and in so many other polls that we've seen in recent weeks, the economy continues to be the top concern for voters.

And I think what we're seeing in Iowa, in terms of the point that was just made about Middle America and Middle America reeling right now, we're seeing her really try and strike a balance and sort of distance herself from both Trump and J. D. Vance, right? He's going to be in town. She's not going to be campaigning with him.

The math is on her side when it comes to Iowa, right? There are more registered Republicans, about 180,000 more registered Republicans in Iowa than there are Democrats. So, the math is on her side, but I think if we look at what she is campaigning on, right, talking about bipartisanship, talking about economic issues, affordability, talking about issues that affect Iowans.

I think we're trying to see her kind of make this race about her and make this race about Iowa. That's what she talks about in that ad, not making it about the Republican Party, not about Trump, not about Vance, but more about these kitchen table issues that these polls show over and over are actually what people are worried about.

BASH: Yeah. And in Iowa, it is the Iran terrorist first, the president's policy, and then the Iran war also, which the president engaged in that for various reasons have really hit that state hard economically. All right, everybody, stand by. Don't go anywhere. Coming up, a Republican congresswoman says President Trump's immigration crackdown has gone too far. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin will be here after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back. I want to get right to our next guest because there is a lot to talk about. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin is here. Thank you so much for being here, Mr. Secretary. I want to start with Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, who launched a new ad yesterday criticizing the administration's deportation policies. Here's part of it.

(PLAYING VIDEO)

BASH: She's a Republican representing a district that is majority Hispanic in Florida. Sounding the alarm about the policies of the department that you run, what's your response?

[12:15:00]

MARKWAYNE MULLIN, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Well, at DHS and ICE, every single day we enforce our nation's laws. That's it. We don't pick and choose which law we enforce. We enforce the immigration policy that Congress passed and obligated Department of Homeland Security to enforce, that includes ICE. And so, that's our job. A political campaign is a political campaign ad. I completely understand it, but that's not going to keep us and the men and women at Department of Homeland Security from doing our job.

BASH: So, what do you consider to be that job? Because the argument that she and other even Republicans now are making is the president promised to seal the border, effectively done. Put that in the W column. MULLIN: That's right.

BASH: The president says that he wants to get criminals who are in the United States illegally out. And then there's the question of people who are in the United States who are either seeking asylum or perhaps did break an immigration law but have become upstanding members of American society. So, do you -- on those last two, where do you think the focus should be? Because what she is saying, and she's using numbers that come from your department that the focus is way too much on non-criminals.

MULLIN: Well, you got to understand what is our statute. Our statute for us is enforce immigration policies. Every single person that chose to step over our northern or southern border and cut the line of our true immigration policy. They chose to break our nation's laws, regardless if it was 20 years ago, 30 years ago, or four years ago. You still chose to break the law.

Now, when we go out and we serve an administrative warrant or judicial warrant. When we go out there and serve that warrant on the individual, that individual very seldom, in fact, ever is actually by themselves. You never see them living in the house by themselves. You never see them driving by themselves. And when we, because of the statute that Congress passed, when we make contact with an illegal, we are obligated not just simply to be able to just say, OK, you're legal. Go on your way.

Law enforcement -- local law enforcement has that authority. Federal government, through ICE's authority, we have to detain that individual and process them in. They have to have a hearing or be paroled back in with a -- as we do it with a tracking device. So, when we serve these warrants on individuals, administrative or judicial warrants, we have an average over three individuals that's usually in the house or in the vehicles with them.

We detain those individuals at the same time, because regardless, they still broke our nation's laws. Regardless, we are still enforcing our nation's laws, and I can't say this enough. We don't pick and choose at the Department of Homeland Security which laws we enforce. If Congress wants to change it, then Congress has the authority to change it.

BASH: Mr. Secretary, are you aggressively going after even people in the United States without criminal records because you are trying to reach a quota that is being set -- a daily quota that's being set by the White House, Steven Miller?

MULLIN: I've never talked to anybody at the White House about any quota. We do our job every single day using that actively.

BASH: There's no quota.

MULLIN: We never have had any conversation at all with anyone at the White House about any type of quota. We are out there. Our focus is to go after the worst of the worst, but we make contact with an illegal, regardless of how many years you've been here. We are obligated by statute to, at that point, arrest you and to make sure we know who you are, because if we want to have a safe and secure country, which is what the president of the United States ran on, which the American people voted overwhelmingly for him to do, then we have to know who's in this country.

And so, when we make contact with an illegal, regardless of how long they've been in the country, we're going to find out who you are. You'll be surprised at how often we run individuals that may not have a so-called criminal record, but they're wanted internationally because of what they ran from when they came to the United States to begin with. They're still wanted criminals at that point.

BASH: Well, so you said a couple of times when we make contact with or we come across a, an undocumented immigrant -- illegal immigrant. It's not as if you just kind of trip over them or bump into them in the supermarket --

MULLIN: No, I said that while ago.

BASH: -- going after them.

MULLIN: No, no. I said while ago when we pull over an individual, we're serving a warrant on, administrative warrant or judicial warrant, or we go to their house with a judicial warrant. When we show up, they're never by themselves. So, when we go after one individual that we have a warrant because they have a criminal record, in which -- which is what's frustrating about this is most time we shouldn't even be having to pick them up because they're -- they got released out of a jail or out of prison from a sanctuary city or a sanctuary state that release this criminal back on the streets and they would just honor their detainer. We wouldn't even be doing this.

So, this is a two-way street. These politicians that are from these blue states and these race states that are making these or -- these blue states and in these sanctuary cities that are making these claims, they could have easily sent the person to us and honored a detainer when they get -- when they walk out of their prison. But when we serve that warrant, most of the time they have someone else with them, and on average, it's three people that they have with them that are also illegal.

[12:20:00]

BASH: OK. So, I just want to be clear. Just going back to the crux of what Republican Congresswoman Salazar is saying. She is citing numbers that were FOIAed. You all are not putting out numbers. They had to be FOIAed to get from the Department of Homeland Security. And in July, 50 percent of the 50,000 people detained had no criminal record. You are totally comfortable with that and you'll continue on that.

MULLIN: I will say that's actually not -- I'll say that's actually not true. Every one of us criminals because they broke our nation's laws when they came across our borders illegally.

BASH: Beyond that, beyond that. MULLIN: Well, so what level of criminal activity are you willing to accept? We are tasked with enforcing the nation's laws. I can't repeat this enough. I don't pick and choose our men and women that chose to serve this country and work for the Department of Homeland Security, which we have the greatest men and women working for us with their 80,000 strong law enforcement agencies.

We don't pick and choose. The Congress is the one who set those laws. We are enforcing them. When you broke the law and you came in this country illegally, you chose to become a criminal at that point. Regardless if you consider a criminal being a pedophile or not, a criminal is a criminal.

BASH: One other important group of people that your department is going after are people who are in the asylum process that are doing what they are supposed to do correctly, and because you have all their information, you're going and getting them and many times taking them. We have lots of reports of getting them without somebody who is --

MULLIN: Actually, that's not accurate.

BASH: -- officer at airports and taking them.

MULLIN: So, let me tell you how this works.

BASH: OK.

MULLIN: Is when they claim asylum, they get paroled into the country. When they get paroled, they give us that address, they give us a phone number where they're staying. And if they've got a job or where they have plan on working, they're supposed to update. When they don't update, it's just like anybody that gets released from prison on parole. They're supposed to stay in contact with their parole officer if their status changes or whatever the requirement is.

When they choose not to change or update their status, then we do because now they have a parole violation and we go and find that individual. They are no longer eligible for parole, and their asylum case at that time is a lot of times bogus, anyways, because they came across the southern border underneath the Biden administration and said the magic words.

BASH: Yeah, but not, not all. You know that there are people who have come from places that the United States deems legitimate--

MULLIN: They still have an obligation. Listen, if we have an American citizen --

BASH: And it's not always that case. I want to show you a video.

MULLIN: Yeah. But if have an American citizen that is -- if have an American citizen that is paroled by our -- by their prison system, either state or federal, and they change their status and their address, their phone number, their job, or something like that. They are required to update it with their pro-officer. An illegal immigrant is no different. If you chose not to, then you chose to break your violation. We'll still register at that point.

BASH: And in the case -- yeah, absolutely. In the case of -- in the case of some of these people, they are following the rules and then they go and they say, hi, I'm here, and then they're taken and they're deporting --

MULLIN: And that's not -- that's absolutely not accurate. That's not accurate.

BASH: I want to ask you -- I want to show you a video. I want to show you a video, Mr. Secretary, of an ICE altercation. This happened on Friday in Alamo, Texas. There were two teenagers, both U.S. citizens. The driver is 17-year-old Luis Ochoa, and according to his own mother, he was on his way to enlist in the United States Marines. His attorney says they saw immigration officers detaining someone, and at least one of them got out of the car to film it. This is what happened.

(PLAYING VIDEO)

BASH: Is that acceptable? That use of force.

MULLIN: I haven't seen what was happening on the ground. I haven't reviewed the film. That's the first time I've seen it. For me to sit back and say from a video that was filmed on a phone to say was acceptable -- was not acceptable. I don't know what the resistance level was. Obviously, they were struggling with the individual. You can clearly see that they were struggling with the individual. The person wasn't cooperating.

Here's what we know when we entertain somebody in ICE is that it's usually a fight or flight every single time because they know they're going to jail, and they know they're going to be deported. That's why so often you see individuals trying to get away. We are going to -- we're going to restrain them. And whatever that level is, we try not to escalate it, but we have to match whatever resistance they're having.

So, I don't know what was going on. I haven't seen the video, but you can obviously tell there's two individuals that are trying to arrest this person. You see videos all the time with one little person arresting some big guy because they're not -- they're not resisting. They simply put their hands behind their back, and they get walked to the car. You can clearly say -- you can clearly see that person was trying to get away.

[12:25:00]

BASH: As I said, the man who was driving, the teenager who was driving was going to sign up to serve the United States of America. He's a United States citizen.

MULLIN: They wasn't arresting him.

BASH: Do you think Americans now need to be -- do you think Americans now need to be carrying around proof of citizenship? And he was arrested. He was then later released, but he was arrested. Do Americans need to show proof of citizenship now carrying them around?

MULLIN: If you're an American citizen, you have no reason to fear. Just like if you're not breaking the law, you have no reason to fear law enforcement. We have law enforcement -- we have law enforcement in every community around the country, and every county around the country, and every state around the country and in our territories. And law-abiding citizens don't have to fear law enforcement. It's those that have broke the law that should fear us and we will find you.

That's our job. We have been tasked with this. We're not going to back down. We're going to continue to enforce our laws, and we have the best men and women that work in the Department of Home and Security that enforce our nation's laws every single day. We go after the worst of the worst, and then -- and then we also go after those that chose to break our nation's laws.

That's what ICE is. ICE is the enforcement of our, you know, enforcement of our immigration policy. And we are tasked to do that, and Congress tasks us, and we will do it. And I don't even know why this is political. It's ridiculous that you sit here and think about it. You and I have spent the entire time talking about enforcing our nation's laws. Why is this even a political thing? Why shouldn't we all be OK with enforcing our nation's laws to understand everybody that's in this country? We should know who you are if you entered this country as a guest or illegally.

BASH: I'm going to -- I'm going to quote your fellow Republican who is on the ballot, who is a congressperson who represents a huge, as I said, a majority Hispanic district in South Florida, one that President Trump did extremely well in. Be careful what your advisors are telling you about immigration policy. The same Hispanics who helped get you in the White House in 2024, feel betrayed today. That's her answer to your question about why this is even a topic of --

MULLIN: Those individuals that voted for the president -- those individuals that voted for the president did it the right way. They came into this country the white-right way. They became United States citizens, and that's why they're able to vote in the election. We're not coming after you. We're coming after those that chose not to do it the right way. They cut the line. They thought they know it best. They don't have to follow the laws of this country. Well, I'm sorry, you do have to follow the laws of this country.

BASH: Can I just ask you because, you know, up until a few months ago, you were a Republican in Congress. And the fact that Congresswoman Salazar, she's doing it publicly, she's trying to sound the alarm. But you know, a lot of people are also saying this privately that there are real political problems for this administration because of the way that you're doing interior law enforcement. And are you at all willing to engage in the notion that this could politically backfire against the president and your party when voters go to the polls in November?

MULLIN: President Trump ran on restoring law and order into our streets and he was over -- he was elected overwhelmingly and he's keeping that promise. Why is it controversial for us to enforce our nation's laws? I've said this multiple times. Politicians are the ones that are making --

BASH: No, there is no concern about that --

MULLIN: -- politicians are the ones that are making this political. Enforcing our nation's laws should never be politicized. Why is it? It's because they want to make some divide in the country.

BASH: So, you don't think that people who are upset that they say this isn't what we necessarily voted for. They thought they were just going to get the worst of the worst --

MULLIN: We do go after the worst of the worst every single day.

BASH: -- and terminology that we heard, they shouldn't be upset.

MULLIN: We go out to the worst every single day. But when we make contact with an illegal, because you're hanging out with the worst of the worst, we're also arresting you because by statute, I'm required to, because we got to know who that person is. We want to know why you're in this country and how you got in this country illegally and where you came from to make sure you're not wanted in other countries or wanted in other states. It is our job. That's what we do.

So, the American people remember they got tired of the lawlessness that was taking place under the Biden administration. They were tired of our open borders because the Biden administration. Keep in mind, we've arrested 2,150 terrorists that were led into this country underneath Biden, and we've arrested them underneath President Trump's leadership. Guess what? Every one of those terrorists gave a fake name.

Yes, 2,150 terrorists, not terrorist watch list. Terrorists. Every one of those that came in that country -- came in the country gave a fake name. So, I got to make the assumption every time we arrest somebody that is -- that came in this country illegal. I've got to assume that I don't know everything about you and I'm not going to take your word for it. I'm going to run you in to make sure that I know who you are and who you say you are.

BASH: One other topic that I want to get to, but just before we button this up, talk about taking your word for it. Part of the issue