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Inside Politics

Today: Trump Promises Big Investment In KY "If The Republicans Win"; New Poll: 7 In 10 Say Gas Prices Are Unaffordable; AAA: Average Diesel Prices Up 74 Percent From A Year Ago; Darline Graham Breaks With Trump On Russian Sanctions Waiver; Troy Jackson Details His Medicare For All Proposal; Vance Pressed By Service Member's Widower On Iran Failures; Vance's Enthusiasm Problem Among MAGA Republicans. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 19, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:10]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: The GOP's midterm nerves are written all over President Trump's travel schedule as he hits seven states he won two years ago.

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

There are just 15 days until the election, and we're 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. First up, get out and vote. Early in-person voting starts today in eight more states, including three that could have a major impact on Senate control. We're talking about Alaska, South Carolina, and Texas.

CNN's Ed Lavandera spoke to some voters at a polling station in McKinney, Texas, this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT JACOBS, PAXTON VOTER: I voted for Ken Paxton. I think he's done well with the A.G.'s office. I think he did well in the legislature.

JESSICA HYNDMAN, TALARICO VOTER: I'm tired of the way that Texas has been handled by the people in charge, and I'm ready for a change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: They join more than 9 million people who have already cast their ballots. Today, President Trump heads to ruby red, Kansas, kicking off a seven-day, seven-state campaign blitz. His itinerary really underscores Republicans' anxiety in the home stretch. He's visiting all states he won in 2024 and in some places by healthy double digits. And the president isn't just asking for votes, he's also offering some incentives. After dangling that $5,000 check to every adult, he made this promise to Kentucky over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If the Republicans win the Department of War, we'll be investing $100 million in the pharmaceutical company Anthea to revitalize a gigantic drug manufacturing facility in Winchester, Kentucky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: New Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll shows Democrats maintaining an eight-point edge in the battle for Congress. 52 percent of likely voters choose the Democratic candidate, and 40 -- excuse me, 44 percent pick the Republican. The poll also shows people trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle top issues like the economy, which is certainly a flip from a couple of years ago, immigration and education. The only issue where Republicans are ahead is crime.

Now to the Texas Senate race for Democrat James Talarico is taking a page from the Friday Night Lights playbook. He posted this video with cast members from the beloved show, using language Texans know by heart.

(PLAYING VIDEO)

BASH: Texas is taking that famous motto on the road. Talarico is rather calling his final campaign swing across Texas the Clear Eyes, Full Hearts Tour.

I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here, including my old friend Mark Preston. Mark, let's just take a look at this campaign schedule that the president has, Kansas today, North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa, Florida, Georgia, Michigan.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. A lot of states that he shouldn't have to go to, certainly at this part of the campaign, right? These are states that, in many ways, are traditionally Republican. Not all of them, but of course Michigan isn't necessarily. But if you look at, you know, where he's going, Kansas, Iowa. You know, another thing that ties them all together is that they're also agricultural states.

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You know if you look at Kansas, look at Iowa, even look at North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida has a lot of farms as well. These are all states right now that are hurting because of these high fuel prices that we're seeing caused, in part because of the Iran war. And we're also seeing Donald Trump take missteps as well, waiving Iran sanctions -- excuse me, Russian sanctions, with the idea of lowering fuel prices. But if you talk to folks who are in the industry, they'll tell you that that doesn't help.

And I will tell you, taking these steps that he's taken is not helping him with Republicans, is not helping with Republican candidates who have to oppose him when he's making these decisions. So, Donald Trump trying to get out the MAGA base because those are voters that he needs and that his candidates need but we don't know if it's enough. BASH: Yeah. And put a pin in that on what happened in Russia. I do want to go back to that first excellent point you made about the agricultural states, and this is a set of numbers that just blew me away. We're going to put it on the screen. If you go back to February, this is a poll on whether or not gas was affordable. 78 percent said yes, it is affordable. 21 percent said no, it is unaffordable. Now that is completely and exactly flipped. Just 21 percent of people polled said it is affordable, 78 percent say it is unaffordable. Again, this is February to now.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: When did the war start?

BASH: Exactly, March.

KUCINICH: I mean, exactly. So that -- and this is fully on the president's shoulders. Also, on the president's shoulders when you look at where he's going to go. In Michigan, the Canadian tariffs that is hurting Michigan. That even Mike Rogers, who had said, OK, this is a good thing or this is -- this is about fairness, is now saying probably not the best thing. So truly, even when the president is going to these states, he's also reminding these voters, he's not going to say this, but who is at fault for a lot of these policies that are making their lives unaffordable.

BASH: Shelby, you covered the White House. What are you hearing from Trump sources about the real deal of how they feel? I mean, we know the answer by watching the president's schedule, but what are you hearing?

SHELBY TALCOTT, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, SEMAFOR: So, a lot of the people that I've spoken to both inside and close the administration, sort of have acknowledged that the House is going to be extremely tough for Republicans, and they say that if Republicans can hold on to the Senate or do well in the Senate and in some of these governor races, they think that the president will be satisfied. That's sort of how he's viewing things at this point, which I think is how Republicans overall are viewing things.

But as for things like the tariffs and things like the president's recent shifts on Russia, the president himself is 120 percent on board with these decisions, and you're seeing that because he's not making changes, or in Russia's case, he is defending his decision to make these changes. But there are some inside the administration who are getting a little bit concerned, and who I've heard express some sort of skepticism about the decision making that have been made. But at this point, I think everybody in the administration acknowledges that there's only a few weeks to go. They just kind of have to bulldoze their way through it. There's not much they can do to change things at this point.

BASH: And you mentioned the president is 120 percent, and he put on Truth Social, the following. This is about the fact that they put on pause the Lindsey Graham Russian sanctions that passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, and he signed. I am in the process of negotiating peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don't want to do anything that will drive foolishly Russia away from the bargaining table. He went on to say, Zelenskyy doesn't care, and frankly, with all of the money Europe is giving him, and that crooked Joe Biden gave him in the past, he doesn't want to end the war and probably never did. He could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now.

So, the two things going on at once here is the high price of gasoline, and perhaps with the diesel deal that he made last week with Russia, combined with what he's doing with these sanctions, he's hoping that at least there could be a trickle. We'll see if that's true. Then the other thing I talked to the energy secretary on State of the Union yesterday is he insists it's not just about that, but as Trump said, trying to find an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WRIGHT, ENERGY SECRETARY: This is a motivation for Russia to figure out how they can actually export some diesel.

BASH: So, what do you say to so many people, including many fellow Republicans, who say it's not a motivation, it's a capitulation?

WRIGHT: No, because they misunderstood this. People -- energy is complicated, unfortunately. We are giving them a specific thing, diesel. What do you use diesel for? You make war with diesel. Your industry runs on diesel.

BASH: So, what you're saying is that --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I mentioned that the president's going to South Carolina, one of the places where he would never go if not for this environment. And of course, if Lindsey Graham did not pass away and he wasn't on the ballot. Darline Graham is on the ballot. Look at what even she said about his change on Russia.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DARLINE GRAHAM (R-SC): Look, the president and I share the same goal, which is to end the war, to get gas and diesel prices down, and the sanctions bill is one of the tools he can use to do that. Personally, I would choose to keep the pressure on Russia to end the war and get the gas prices down because I don't trust Putin and I don't trust Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: Most of America doesn't trust Russia and doesn't trust Putin. And you know, going back to what the energy secretary said when he said, you know, energy is complicated. It's difficult. Well, guess what? Life is complicated and it's difficult. What you're seeing right now is the president is saying that he's going to bring the end to the war in Russia. He's going to bring the end to the war in Iran. We haven't seen an end to the war in either of them.

We talk about these rising gas prices and say, wow, the truckers are really feeling it. The small businesses are feeling it. Well, guess what? So aren't we because when you have rising fuel prices, you have the rising price of food. You know that also collapses into the rising prices of healthcare and it just goes across the board. So, President Trump is saying everything that he wants people to believe him, but he hasn't been successful in actually executing on what his promises are.

BASH: All right, stand by. Up next, you're going to hear my interview with the candidate crucial to the Democrats' path to the Senate majority. Plus, artificial intelligence, very real campaign cash. We'll explain why AI has become a $140 million midterm issue.

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[12:15:00]

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BASH: Without flipping Maine, the Democrats' path to regaining control of the Senate gets really tricky. I traveled to Maine to sit down with the Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson for CNN's State of the Union. He's running to unseat five-term Republican Susan Collins. I asked Jackson about his plans to address healthcare's spiking costs.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BASH: Healthcare, you were a really early supporter of Medicare for all. There are people who like their private insurance plans. Would they be able to stay on those private plans under your --

TROY JACKSON, (D) MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: I think on elective surgeries and things like that, yes. But I mean, overall, basic healthcare, Medicare for all should have, you know, everyone covered in that.

BASH: So, it would be a public plan. For example, Bernie Sanders, who I know you endorsed and campaigned with when he was running for president here, he -- his plan would be to phase out private plans over a four-year period. And then after that four-year period, it would all be public health.

JACKSON: Right. Yeah, I mean, that's what we have seen here in Maine too. Whenever we have tried to do this, is like, everyone has to get into the plan. I mean, I think the controversy over this is that the healthcare industry, big pharma has made people feel like they're not going to get as good a coverage, you will be getting something less than. But I actually see a scenario where this is going to be great coverage. You will have eye, ear, dental, you know, you won't have to pay the obscene co-pays and things like that.

BASH: You have said that it could be paid for by money that currently funds ICE, America's wars abroad. If you kind of back of the envelope on those prices, it's about $123 billion. In 2020, Senator Sanders' plan was estimated to cost between $30 to $40 trillion. So, how would you make that up? How would you pay for this?

JACKSON: Well, that's the overall healthcare. I mean, that's not just the added people that we're bringing -- that we would be bringing in. And that's not the only things I said that, I mean, I think that we need to have a fair taxation system. I don't want billionaires getting tax cuts. I mean, I believe that we need to roll those back.

I mean, we always have money to spend on aircraft carriers and things like that, but as soon as you -- the wars in Iran. As soon as you start talking about healthcare, people start acting like there's no way to do this. I mean, every other country that I know that's industrial has been able to pay for healthcare. I'm pretty sure we can do it here too.

BASH: Have you looked at the math? You think that the cuts that you're proposing will take care of Medicare for all?

JACKSON: Well, what I have looked at is, in states like Maine, whenever we have done studies on self-insured and whenever we have done studies across the country, every time we have shown that we're already paying the cost of this that this is already being paid, but unfortunately, it's going in executive pockets. Greed is running this healthcare system. And when we cut the administrative burden, the greed out of it, I'm sure that we can afford to pay for it.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BASH: So, as you heard, the candidate says that he wants to pay for his plan in part by raising taxes. He talks a lot about raising taxes on the wealthy. We talk more about the specifics there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Look, you mentioned taxing the wealthy. That's another question I was going to ask because you say you're going to tax billionaires when I get to the U.S. Senate. Can you be specific what kind of tax are you thinking about?

JACKSON: Well, income tax.

BASH: But at what percentage?

JACKSON: Well, I'm sure we'll figure out what that percentage is going to be when I get there. But no more income tax cuts and rolling back the cuts that they've already got.

BASH: But rolling back to what point? Meaning, like how much do you want to tax wealthy people, and what do you consider a wealthy person at what income bracket?

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JACKSON: You know, people that are making millions of dollars a year that are getting, you know, tax cuts. People that are not paying anything on their earnings, you know, no taxes on that. I mean, those are all-- there's all kinds of opportunities to make a fair taxation system. And I'm sure that we'll have to sit down and work with our colleagues, both on the Democratic and Republican side to come up with exactly to what extent that's going to be, but you know, there's lots of -- there's lots of time to do that and come up with something that'll pay for those things and make a fair tax system where middle class people don't pick up all the burden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: We've asked Senator Susan Collins for an interview before the election. We hope she accepts soon. Up next, Vice President J. D. Vance is all over the campaign trail. In one event, he was challenged by a man whose wife was killed in the Iran war. It's a moment you're going to want to see for yourself. That's next.

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BASH: Vice President J. D. Vance's campaign travels, today take him to North Carolina, then Ohio and Nebraska this week. Over the weekend at a CBS News town hall in Michigan, Vance faced a tough question on Iran from a voter who knows its cost personally. Listen to this exchange with a man whose wife was killed in the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOEY AMOR, HUSBAND OF MASTER SGT. NICOLE AMOR, KILLED IN IRANIAN STRIKE: Though the Iranian drone was the weapon that killed my wife There were a lot of mistakes and a lot of fundamental failures that led up to that. I believe CBS has reported on that. My wife has told me things before she passed. There are other soldiers that know things that are being quiet about certain aspects of this. There's a failure in the leadership and I want to know how this administration is going to start holding those leaders accountable for the actions and the deaths of the soldiers that we -- that we honor and that we love.

J. D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT: So, Joey, first of all, look, I owe, and the whole country owes your family a debt of gratitude that is quite literally impossible to repay. I won't pretend that anything that I say is going to make it better or easier. If there were failures, and I don't doubt that there were, I just -- this literally the first time I've heard of this is this conversation, and I want to fix that stuff. I do not want this stuff to happen.

I will say, Joey, we have tried to learn because warfare has changed. Drones are cheap. They're very deadly. They're easy to manufacture and we have changed a lot of our tactics to try to suppress that drone fire, to try to protect our troops, to make it so that more people don't have to pay the ultimate sacrifice. But I want to understand what we can do better and what those soldiers are seeing.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Jackie, that was quite a moment.

KUCINICH: It was. It was quite a moment, particularly when you realize not just the human cost there, but when you know that this is not something a war that J. D. Vance was behind, and now he's being forced to defend it and he was very delicate there as he should have been. But you really wonder once we do get past the midterms, how much, you know, is going to go on behind the scenes when it comes to the war, and how much accountability there will be as Trump becomes a little bit more of a lame duck, and some other people want to start filling those shoes.

TALCOTT: Yeah. And I also think just looking ahead to 2028, this is going to be sort of a key question that the vice president, should he run, is going to have to figure out how to answer. How can he sort of remain as the vice president and still back the Trump administration and what the president is doing, but also get across his own policy views, which I think, particularly when it comes to foreign policy, have differed from the president a little bit and I think that's going to be a real challenge.

BASH: And on that, our colleague Donie O'Sullivan obviously has spent a lot of time, including doing an hour special just last night on MAGA supporters, and he made a list of the five things he says he hears the most from MAGA supporters. Number one, many young conservatives feel betrayed by the Iran war.

Number three, appears to be little enthusiasm for J. D. Vance. Those two things are kind of an interesting, this I don't know, it's a clash, but an ironic statement, especially given the fact that J. D. Vance, we know from reporting from all of us was where these young conservatives were, who are mad about the Iran war.

PRESTON: Well, the person who brought him to the show could also be the person who prevents him from staying in the show, right? You know, as Jackie and Shelby said, J. D. Vance is carrying the baggage of a president who's making really stupid decisions, right? He just is. I mean, these are decisions that aren't good politically. We know that the country is not behind them.

You know the Iran war, like perhaps even the Russia waiving the sanctions in Russia. Like the fact of the matter is, J. D. Vance is there because of President Trump. He has to be loyal in order to get that MAGA base to stay behind him in order to win the Republican nomination, but at the same time, by doing so, does he alienate everybody else? And that's really the fine line that J. D. Vance is walking down.

BASH: All right, everybody, stand by. Up next. You're going to hear Michigan's Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers respond to President Trump's attacks on his opponent, Rogers' opponent, Abdul El-Sayed. Stay with us.

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