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Smerconish

France On High Alert Ahead Of Next Round Of Protests; Trump And Republicans Blame France's Immigrants For Riots; Democrats Need Net Gains Of 3 In House, 4 In Senate. Democrats Make Plan For How They Will Wield Power If They Take The House. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired October 24, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:15]

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: Bismillah, c'est les tenebres. I'm Michael Smerconish in the Philly burbs. Another round of protests and demonstrations are underway across Europe. In France, more than 600 protests are planned for today, with authorities there deploying some 70,000 police officers nationwide.

Last weekend's protests gave way to rioting and looting in several cities. Tomorrow, the Steelers and Saints are scheduled to play just outside of Paris. The league says that it will heighten security. It has already canceled a Steelers fan event.

But the connection to America goes well beyond football. This began as a student protest. It has become something much larger, involving unions and other groups and grievances that Americans will recognize.

Students at a high school outside of Paris began protesting last month over staff shortages, class conditions and funding complaints about schools that then expanded into demands about living costs and economic opportunity. The public services available to European communities for decades are becoming unsustainable. People have taken to the streets in at least eight European countries. Protests over housing, wages, inflation have spread to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Albania.

The New York Times describing the situation this way, "The protesters gloom reflects a continent that is struggling to find a way forward. Europe's populations are aging. Its debt is rising as governments struggle with growing expenses for pensions and other programs. And governments are reluctant to raise taxes. Immigration is polarizing electorates."

Does any of that sound familiar? Europe has previewed our politics before. Remember, British voters chose Brexit in June of 2016. Five months later, Americans elected Donald Trump, who had called himself Mr. Brexit.

Europe doesn't predict our future necessarily, but it gives us reason to pay attention. And right now, people see the same images and they draw four different lessons. The first lesson from President Trump to him, it's about immigration. At his Monday rally in Kansas, he connected the violence to our midterms, saying, quote, "When you see burning steeples and raging fires in France, just remember that's what the radical Democrats want to do to America."

President Emmanuel Macron rejected claims that France has been invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists, calling those claims completely false. Macron blames radical far left groups and looters. The causes of the violence remain disputed.

The second interpretation is about government promises. The centrist group No Labels sent me an email this week arguing that France offers a warning about commitments that governments cannot afford. In that telling, America should examine its own budget. As No Labels puts it bluntly, socialism does not create prosperity, it creates dependency.

Then it brings the argument home, pointing to the Democratic Socialists of America. France shortened its workweek to create jobs, and studies found that it didn't. France had a wealth tax and wealthy people left until France repealed it in 2018. The DSA wants both here and No Labels says that our own deficit as a share of the economy is now larger than France's.

The third comes from the protesters. What future can they afford? Even their humor reflects the divide. The New York Times reporting that students had adopted an Arabic French phrase, Bismillah, c'est les tenebres, which means in the name of God, it's the darkness. They suspected that police had used it while impersonating young people online.

The Times couldn't verify that, but students embraced it to mock authorities they felt didn't understand them. Behind the joke is a serious question. A psychologist protesting in Lisbon asked, "What's the point of working and then not being able to afford a house, pay our bills at the end of the month, and have a family?" Those concerns don't stop at the Atlantic.

The fourth possibility is that none of these images will change many American votes. Pollster John Della Volpe arguing that Trump's message is about mobilizing his base rather than persuading voters. Americans have their own cost of living concerns. Images from France may not change how they vote.

But here's what I keep coming back to. Immigration, government spending, a generation questioning its economic future. Concerns about both artificial intelligence and climate change. Those arguments already shape our politics in America. And with the midterms less than two weeks away, Americans have an opportunity to register their frustration at the ballot box.

So what does Europe offer us? Perhaps a warning about what could happen here? And are we listening closely enough to understand what that warning actually is? Today, I want you to go to smerconish.com and answer this poll question, Europeans are protesting high costs, low wages, failing schools and a bleak future. Are Americans better off? [09:05:04]

Joining me now live from Paris, CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward.

Clarissa, nice to have you here. Authorities have stepped up security after last weekend's violence. What are you seeing and hearing thus far on the streets today?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So far, I would say it's pretty calm, Michael. You can see if we just swivel round behind me there are thousands and thousands of people who have gathered. But the French authorities at the last minute changed the location and the route of the protest. They moved it to this area that's really right on the edge of central Paris. The result of that is that it took all the protesters kind of a minute or two to coalesce and come together.

They have now begun their march. It's been going on for about 40 minutes. There is a massive police presence about 500 yards that way in that direction. Twenty percent more police on the streets today compared to last week, that's per the interior minister. They desperately French authorities do not want to see a repeat of last Saturday with all that violence.

Now, I will say, though, when you're in the crowd with the protesters, it's predominantly young people, it's people with the unions, it's people from the school unions. We do hear over and over again, Michael, this chant of ACAB, ACAB, which is literally an acronym for all cops are bastards. I hope I'm allowed to say that on live television. I'm not sure.

But I would say more broadly that so far, the mood seems to be very much about protesting, cost of living, lack of investment in France's school system. It does not feel at this time at least, antagonistic. But it's still early in the day, so let's see how it plays out, Michael.

SMERCONISH: President Trump has blamed immigration for the unrest. As I mentioned at the outset, Macron says that's false. What's your assessment from the ground?

WARD: You know, it's so interesting because there are very few things right now that people in France agree on. There is a lot of political extremism as we see in so many places, to the left, to the right. Not a lot of love for the center at the moment. But one thing that people here do all tend to agree on is that they categorically reject President Trump's assertion that this is a result of migrants and jihadists and communists. People here say this is about very real concerns about high cost of living, about soaring fuel prices, about a decrepit school system.

And there has been a lot of concern as well throughout the country about the police violence towards the protesters particularly in the early days of those protesters. Now, last week, obviously, we saw a very different scene. There were looters and opportunistic. There were the casseurs, as they're called here, which literally means like the breakers or the wreckers, people who often might be affiliated with anarchist groups who come in, who stage direct actions that then lead to the kind of violence we saw last week. But the majority of people who are out in the streets so far are ordinary French people, many of them young, as I said, who simply do not believe that their country is in a good place, Michael.

SMERCONISH: Clarissa, thank you for the report. We'll stick with it all day long on CNN.

Joining me now, CNN political commentator Jonah Goldberg. He's the co- founder and editor in chief of the Dispatch and just wrote an article about this situation under the heading, "What the French Protests Can Teach Americans, Capitalism isn't the source of France's woes and more government spending is not the solution."

Jonah, President Trump blames immigration. You just heard Clarissa Ward say that's not her view from the ground. Macron says it's completely false. Your thoughts are what?

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm an all of the above guy on this. I think France does have legitimate problems with immigration, which are compounded by the economic problems. I mean, you can't look at some of these protests and see the sea of Palestinian flags and not think that there are other exogenous issues going on here than the ones that were leading the peaceful protests want to say it's all about.

That said, France is a mess. It's wildly in debt. It has not had a -- it is -- it has been borrowing money to fund its government for 51 years, since 1974, and it has got a massive pension problem. And you know, one of the reasons why the schools are in such crappy shape, and I actually believe, take a lot of these people at their word, that the schools are in bad shape is because a third of the education budget goes to pensions for retirees in the education ministry. So it's actually not ending up in the classroom.

[09:10:14]

And so I think, you know, Orwell has this great line where he says a man can feel himself a failure and take to drink and become all the more of a failure because he drinks. I think France has got a bunch of problems that make all the other problems worse when you compound them together.

SMERCONISH: And we here in the states have $40 trillion in debt. I guess I would say it's not apples to apples because we have wealth, wealth that they lack. But nevertheless, we've got some significant issues that track similarly what they're dealing with. What parallels do you see?

GOLDBERG: Yes, I mean, again, I think our immigration problems are actually much better than France is. We are very lucky for the fact that big -- we are very good at assimilation here in the ways that the French are not. But that's part of it.

The bigger part on the -- on the economic side is our biggest advantage is it's not just that we have wealth, it's that we have growth. We have grown 50 percent more in the last 25 years as a percentage of GDP than France does. France has big wet blanket on economic growth. Economic growth alleviates a lot of the problems that these people are talking about.

You just had the French government announce that private shop owners are going to have to hire their own security to protect themselves because the state can't do it. A state that consumes almost 60 percent of GDP, which is what they have in France, that can't protect its citizens from rioters, is really falling down on the job. That said, you can view it as, you know, as you were sort of alluding to in the beginning, it is a bit of a canary in a coal mine because we are embracing policies that I think are anti-growth. We have constituencies in both parties that want to expand entitlements when Social Security and Medicare by their own accounting are set to go insolvent in the next five to 10 years. You know, maybe we should learn from these guys about how not to do things because it's going to take a long time for -- the best way to avoid the kind of crisis that France is in is to not get in it in the first place.

SMERCONISH: I was disappointed to hear from Clarissa Ward, and I realize where she's coming from on this, that the parties that benefit from this type of a situation in France are at the extremes. I mean, Marine Le Pen's party in next spring's elections may bring a very conservative right wing, some would say leadership to France. And the left is similarly inflamed. Where it leaves the center, where I like to spend my time, I'm not sure. Comment on how you see the ideological ends benefiting or not from this situation and what applicability that might have here in the States.

GOLDBERG: Yes, look, it's a very well established finding in social science that social unrest, violent social unrest, fuels reaction, fuels a snapback. And you know, one of the reasons you got -- you know, Trump reelected in 2024 was because of the rioting and the mayhem that we saw during the COVID years and that sense of unease. And I think that the problem that they got in France is that, and I think the economist as their cover story about this this week, is pretty good on this, Emmanuel Macron, who was seen as the centrist solution to these things, he's just a spent force. He's lost his credibility with people. They're out of new ideas.

And again, part of the problem -- I want to be really clear about this, I think part of the problem are the French people. Everyone wants to talk about failures of leadership, failures of followership are important too. When Macron did the right thing and tries to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, for some people, that's when you got the Yellow Vest riots, right? France is addicted to a certain subsidized lifestyle which makes things more expensive. And then they go around blaming capitalism for it when the reality is what they're blaming -- what they need to be blaming is themselves and for the sclerotic, anti-growth sort of quasi socialistic system that they've got. And the more the center fails to deliver on practical solutions to these problems, the more it gives a license to parties of the left and the right that all are that are solely interested in demonizing and blaming other people rather than asking for shared responsibility from the citizenry itself.

SMERCONISH: Quick answer from Jonah Goldberg. Put up the poll question. Let's make him answer it today. I think I know which way he's going.

Today's poll question at smerconish.com, Europeans are protesting high costs, low wages, failing schools and a bleak future. Are we better off?

[09:15:09]

GOLDBERG: We are absolutely better off, but we're not as good as we should be.

SMERCONISH: Jonah, thank you for being here. Appreciate your insights.

What are your thoughts at home? Hit me up on all the usual social media platforms. Maybe I'll read your response, X, Facebook, YouTube.

Democratic Socialists are like spoiled children given free, free stuff like free education and health care, they're not satisfied as children they stop their feet, as socialists they riot in the streets. Everybody pointing politically here in the States to what's going on in France and drawing separate conclusions. And that's certainly one of them.

I thought that Jonah ticked off a lot of similarities that we have in terms of debt, in terms of our difficulty in sustaining the societal safety net, in terms of some among us, young people. You've seen the poll. We've talked about it here, rejecting capitalism in favor of socialism. Yes, it's definitely a canary in a coal mine as far as I'm concerned.

Up ahead, the Cook Political Report has just shifted another 19 House races in the Democrats direction. With 10 days to go and over 26 million votes already cast, one of the nation's top election forecasters, David Wasserman, joins me after the break to discuss his latest findings.

Sign up for my newsletter smerconish.com when you're voting on the poll question. You'll get the work of illustrators that include Steve Breen.

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[09:20:46]

SMERCONISH: Ten days until Election Day and more than 26 million people have either mailed in their ballot or voted in person. At stake, control of both chambers of Congress and whether Republicans keep their majorities for the final two years of Trump's term. Here's the math. Democrats need a net gain of three seats to take control of the House and four to take control of the Senate. The latest House forecasts shows their opportunity growing.

On Friday, the Cook Political Report shifted another 19 House races in Democrats direction. It now favors Democrats in 220 seats above the 218 needed for a majority. Its most likely outcome. A Democratic gain of 12 to 22 seats. But forecasts aren't results, and early voting data tells us who has voted, not which candidates they've chosen.

Election analyst David Wasserman has been studying voters he calls the doubly disenchanted they disapprove of Trump but haven't committed to voting for a Democrat. His analysis of a September survey across 37 competitive House districts found that many of these voters backed Trump in 2024. Some may switch parties, others may simply stay home. Their decisions could help determine whether Democrats win narrowly or make much deeper gains.

So let's break it down. David Wasserman, senior elections analyst for the Cook Political Report, joins me now.

Here we are, the Saturday 10 days out front page New York Times above the fold Alaska. I didn't have Alaska on my bingo card. The fact that the administration is taking this preemptive action in the event it's a close race tells me they think it's going to be a game of inches. Will it be?

DAVID WASSERMAN, SENIOR EDITOR & ELECTION ANALYST, THE COOK POLITICAL REPORT: Democrats have armies of lawyers at the ready to try and block what the Justice Department is doing. But this signals how ugly the post-election period is going to be.

Look, the math for Democrats is they need to win four Senate seats. North Carolina is in the bag. Ohio and Alaska look like they're leaning Democrats way and then either Maine or Texas or a combination of the two would get them over the line. I think Iowa and Kansas are, you know, Democrats, 52nd or 53rd seats potentially. But Alaska's right in that mix.

And so it makes sense why Republicans are trying to allege that this race has been tainted by the presence of two Dan Sullivans on the ballot. However, the Alaska Supreme Court --

SMERCONISH: Could make this up, by the way.

WASSERMAN: -- state courts already adjudicated this matter and determined that both candidates were eligible to run and that they were distinguished by their middle initials. Senator --

SMERCONISH: Wait. And also -- and also the incumbent is identified plainly as the incumbent.

WASSERMAN: Correct.

SMERCONISH: There's another Sullivan, right, who wanted to be in this mix or Republicans wanted to be in this mix? WASSERMAN: Well, several cycles ago Republicans tried to recruit Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan to who's neither of these Dan Sullivan's totally unrelated to run for this Senate seat and that Sullivan has endorsed the senator over the public -- the retired public school teacher from Petersburg. So this wouldn't ordinarily matter in any other state. But because Alaska has such a wonky election system where the top four finishers in the primary, regardless of party, advance to a ranked choice runoff in the general election, enough voters were confused in August that 3 percent of them voted for Dan J. Sullivan. Now you have a general election ballot with four candidates, including one Democrat, Mary Peltola, and three Republicans, including two Dan Sullivans. It may not matter that they end up splitting their votes because Peltola is on the precipice of winning about 50 percent support in a lot of the polling that we're seeing.

However, if she ends up with 47, 48 in the initial first round, she could end up still prevailing with these exhausted Republican ballots, voters who forget to rank a second or third choice.

SMERCONISH: You're making me think of 2000 and Pat Buchanan and Florida, but we won't take that diversionary path now.

Let's talk about Michigan. The President had some interesting things to say about the Michigan race. Roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can't have him in the United States Senate. And I look forward to -- I tell you what I look so forward to Michigan and I think it's going to be wild. But I look so far because he's a total phony. He's a little phony. And everything about him is fake and he's a liar and he talks about all these things about like he's a moderate, he's not a riot (ph), he's a jihadist.

[09:25:18]

He's a vicious, violent jihadist and he has no place in our government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Is calling Abdul El-Sayed going -- a jihadist going to win it for Mike Rogers?

WASSERMAN: No. And in fact, Rogers would prefer that the president stay as far away from the race as possible so that he can localize this as a choice between kind of a mainstream Republican and a very progressive Berniecrat.

Look, almost every voter in Michigan knows an Arab-American. It's not just Detroit, it's in other parts of the state as well. And El-Sayed has overcome the other flank of cuddle (ph) aggression. Whitmer wing of the Democratic Party narrowly to win the nomination. Now he needs to consolidate key constituencies including blue collar white Democrats, African-Americans, and that would allow him to just narrowly get over the 50 percent magic line here. But keep in mind that Trump's approval rating in Michigan is in the mid-30s. Nationally he's at 37-61. So negative 24. When you look at the generic congressional ballot, would you vote for the D or the R? Nationally it's more like 50 to 41 for Democrats. And so Republicans would rather have that narrower gap to overcome than any time Trump comes into the mix and issues these kind of far out accusations that polarize things towards how voters feel --

SMERCONISH: If you're calling it today, you'd call it for who?

WASSERMAN: For El-Sayed.

SMERCONISH: For El-Sayed.

WASSERMAN: Based on the Canadian tariffs that have hurt the auto industry and made a lot of voters in Michigan skittish, I think that pushes them towards Democrats just narrowly.

SMERCONISH: Quickly, Texas, is this finally the year that Democrats get to take a Senate seat?

WASSERMAN: A month ago I would have told you this race would break Democrats heart by a point. What has changed my mind a little bit is looking at the data by district in Texas where we're seeing Ken Paxton hemorrhaging Republican support among kind of Greg Abbott Republicans, John Cornyn Republicans in places like Tarrant County in the, in the Dallas Fort Worth suburbs or in the Rio Grande Valley where you have some Hispanic areas that voted for Trump by 10 points, where now you're seeing Talarico in the lead by 20-25 points. It will come down to the extent Hispanic voters revert back to their Democratic roots.

SMERCONISH: But as of this moment in time, 10 days out, you think it's Talarico?

WASSERMAN: By a hair.

SMERCONISH: OK. And finally, quickly, the House, the wave is coming. How high it will be, you don't know.

WASSERMAN: So Democrats are going to take the House back. It's a question of, do they get 15, 20, even potentially 25 seats? Right now we're seeing some shocking polling numbers in districts that Trump carried not just by five or 10, but by 15 or 20. So I think we're looking at a result that is similar or perhaps a little bit higher to the seat count Democrats ended up with in 2018, which is 235.

SMERCONISH: David Wasserman, thanks. Always appreciate your insight.

WASSERMAN: Thank you.

SMERCONISH: Let's see what you're saying via social media. You can reach me on all the usual platforms, X, Facebook, YouTube.

When I see the blue wave actually happen, I will believe it. Dems shot themselves in the foot in 2024 when it all seemed just too -- well, if that's the case, everybody -- look, it's never over till it's over, right? We're going to -- we're going to know a week from Tuesday. And I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here either, but all of the prognosticators and the betting markets, it's not only the experts like David Wasserman and the pundits who are paying attention and saying this is the way that it looks, but I pay attention to those predictive markets as well, and that's what they're saying.

Still to come, more of your social media reaction. And if the Democrats win the House, they want to pass Medicare for all, raise the minimum wage and end the war in Iran. But can they get it passed the Senate? And even if they win both chambers, what about that veto pen of President Trump?

I want to remind you, go to my website at smerconish.com, answer today's poll question, Europeans are protesting high costs, low wages, failing schools and a bleak future. Are Americans better off?

Be sure to sign up for the newsletter while you're there. Speaking of what's going on in Europe, check out what Eric Allie drew for us this week.

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[09:34:18]

SMERCONISH: Follow me on all the usual social media platforms. Maybe I'll read your response during the course of the program.

Do we suffer from high costs, low wages and failing schools? I would say check, check and check. No doubt. But we are far from a bleak future and can still keep our country from falling into a similar socialist downward spiral.

I agree with that. I mean, that's why I said at the earlier part of the program, yes, we're $40 trillion in debt. And that's alarming. That needs to be dealt with.

I think we need some type of a Simpson-Bowles like reform movement. We haven't talked about this for 15 years on a serious basis, but I'm mindful of the fact that measured against the wealth that we have, it's not as terrifying as what's going on in France.

[09:35:02]

Worrisome, sure, needs to be dealt with. I got into this yesterday, as a matter of fact, with conservative economist Stephen Moore and asked him, are we headed for the same situation as France? Watch our exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Are we headed for France?

STEPHEN MOORE, ECONOMIST AND WRITER: God forbid. I mean --

SMERCONISH: What's the difference? How do you assess what they're going through and what we're going through? MOORE: Well, guess what country in the -- of all the developed countries has the highest taxes? France. Guess what country in the highest -- has the highest government spending as a share of GDP?

SMERCONISH: So, France makes your points, right?

MOORE: Yes. I mean, they have -- so much massive. And the irony is here's the country that has the highest taxes and the highest social welfare spending. And what are these people protesting about? We want more taxes, more social spending, you know, so that will bankrupt the country.

And, you know, I always say, look, if you think socialism -- because I'm worried about this, I mean, I'm worried about what's happening in the Democratic Party in this embrace of socialism.

SMERCONISH: The democratic socialism.

MOORE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Watch that debate. Maya MacGuineas is the other participant. It's an hour long just focused on debt called, Can We Agree? Google it.

Time for one more. Can I get one more in? I think -- social media, can I do another one? There we go.

I'm not sure if it's Europeans protesting anything. It looks more like mob violence.

Some of them are unruly, there's no doubt about that. But John, it's taking place all over -- let's see what happens today as the day unfolds in Europe. But you've got tens of thousands of people coming out in a whole variety of countries with similar grievances.

Maybe we're about to have a release valve in this country in the form of an election. Obviously, people here are upset as well.

Don't forget to vote on today's poll question, which deals with all of the above. Europeans are protesting high costs, low wages, failing schools and a bleak future. Are Americans better off?

Still to come, what happens if Democrats win control of the House? They've got a big wish list, but do they have the power to get any of it done? The vice chair of the congressional progressive caucus, congressman Ro Khanna, on his party's plans in just a moment.

Subscribe to my newsletter while you're voting on today's poll question. You'll get the exclusive editorial cartoons of the likes of Rob Rogers.

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[09:41:30] SMERCONISH: So, what do Democrats have planned if they win the House? California Congressman Ro Khanna laid out five priorities in a post on X. He said, raising the minimum wage, passing paid family leave, ending the war in Iran, holding a vote on Medicare for All, and taxing billionaires.

But how much of that agenda could actually become law? Anything that passes the House would still have to face the Senate. Even if Democrats win both chambers, they still need enough votes to override a presidential veto.

But winning the Senate that would contain a bigger prize. Democrats would then control the confirmation process. We're talking cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, and most importantly the federal bench.

Joining me now to discuss is vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, representative of California's 17th congressional district, Ro Khanna. So, Congressman, respond to that. Aren't you setting a high bar that you can't meet because maybe you would pass such things in the House, but they're not going to become law without Donald Trump's signature?

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Two things we absolutely have to do. We have to end this war in Iran. I mean, I was in Reno, Nevada, and someone was talking about the price of milk being $7.15.

The reality is the reason that the price of food is high, and you know this, is because the cost of diesel. The reason that the gas prices are high is because of both -- the Strait of Hormuz restrictions.

And so, we've got to end the war in Iran to bring food and gas prices down. And the House and the Senate has the authority to say, we're not going to fund it. That's how we ended Vietnam. This president ran on ending these wars, and he cares no more about losing wars in the Middle East than the middle class.

The second thing is we've got to get more money in the pockets of folks. Yes, there's a cost of living crisis, but what about increasing the wages for folks?

I was talking to Diana. She was making $12.00 an hour at Dunkin Donuts. She works near Albany, Georgia. Her radiator broke down in her car that has 175,000 miles, and she couldn't fix the radiator. I mean, why aren't we giving her a living wage?

SMERCONISH: I know that you said recently you think that Congress can walk and chew gum at the same time. Both carry out some legislative responsibilities and go through an impeachment process if warranted.

Donald Trump was elected after twice being impeached and then indicted four times and one conviction. It all seemed to play right into his hands. Do you worry that if you go after this administration you'll only help this administration?

KHANNA: I don't look at this from a political lens. I look at this from right and wrong. Donald Trump says, show me the person. I'll show you the crime.

My view is, how about we look at the crimes and find the people who are accountable? Holding Donald Trump accountable for what he did, indulging this country without constitutional authority for the pay to play schemes is about saying this is wrong, this is unconstitutional.

We'll impeach him, but then we will be focused on improving the quality of life for Americans. You can do both.

SMERCONISH: There are many grievances taking shape, right as we speak, in France that are similar to what are bringing people out to vote largely for Democrats, we think, in our current election. What parallels does Ro Khanna see in what's going on right now in Europe?

KHANNA: First of all, it's important to understand why we went so ahead of Europe economically.

[09:45:02]

As someone who represents Silicon Valley, which has one-third of our nation's wealth, $25 trillion in my district, let me give you three points, we got 80 percent of people in high school when Germany, U.K. had 20 to 30 percent because we invested in high school in America.

Second, we, after World War II, made massive investments in DARPA, in NSF, in higher universities. French economists will tell you they never did that. Third, we had agreements with our universities like Stanford to be able to commercialize that technology.

So, the thing that I find so disheartening is this president is reducing funding in science and technology, in education, in DARPA, and in places that actually fuel economic growth. I am for productive investment in America, investment in our health care, investment in our education.

I'm not for investment in overseas wars. I'm not for investment in a bloated health care system or bloated defense contractors that is not productive. And I have a plan to reduce our deficit, our debt, by $12 trillion over ten years, and yet invest in the productive capability of the American people.

SMERCONISH: I played a soundbite from Can We Agree, which is a debate program in which I'm involved, from Stephen Moore, the conservative economist, just a moment ago. And he said, look, France, they're the biggest spenders and they're the biggest taxers. And the Democratic socialists, or the most progressive elements of your party, they want to take us in that same direction. You would say, what to Stephen Moore?

KHANNA: France does not have productive investment spending the way we do. The question is, what are you spending on?

First of all -- so, France is about 57 percent of GDP, public spending. And we're about 40 percent. But we also have a privatized tax here on health care. They don't have that. They have about 11 percent of GDP on health care. We have 18 percent. So, you have to compare the numbers with that in mind.

But what I would say is if this country stopped investing in these overseas wars, stopped wasting money on private health insurer executives, and big pharmas' excessive profits, stopped having bloated defense budgets, started investing in the education, health care and child care for people we would have explosive economic growth, and we would deal with economic inequality.

And Gary Becker, who was one of my teachers at University of Chicago, a Nobel laureate, University of Chicago school said, in a technology age, the biggest investment is in health care and in education, in human capital. So, I think it's not just what you're investing -- again, is it productive investment or not?

SMERCONISH: But you don't see it as a cautionary tale for out of control government spending?

KHANNA: Well, I see it, first of all, as Macron cut taxes for people who were billionaires and doing well. And I said there are $989 billion. I'd love you to ask Stephen Moore this question. There are $989 billionaires in America. They were 22 percent of the economy, literally 22 percent of the economy. They have three times the wealth concentration in the -- as the gilded age. They're almost -- half of them are in my district or the surrounding areas.

Now, we have not been able to tax them fairly. Most people, investment bankers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, firefighters, they pay an income tax on their W-2 or they pay capital gains tax. These folks have huge fortunes that keep accumulating, that haven't been taxed.

And my view is if you had a 5 percent tax on them, you would raise $4 trillion. You'd be able to lower some of the deficit. You'd be able to invest in health care and education.

SMERCONISH: I'm out of time. Give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If I bring Stephen on, will you have that debate right here?

KHANNA: I'd love to. I have respect -- I respect him, and but --

SMERCONISH: OK. I see the thumb. OK. All right.

KHANNA: We have a different view.

SMERCONISH: I'm going -- OK. I'm going to hold I'm going to hold you to that. I want to air it out right here. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. Congressman. Congressman Ro Khanna, by the way, he's really from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Come home.

Let's check in on your social media comments. What do we have? From the world of -- where do we go?

I'm not sure if it's Europeans protesting -- oh, that was old. OK. If Democrats read taking back a majority, I guess that should be really take back a majority in Congress as a mandate. Oh, read. OK. As a radical agenda and anything but a rejection of Trump, they will hand the presidency, the Republicans in 2028. I'm reminded, Robert -- Doug Sosnik, who's a brilliant guy, just like David Wasserman in terms of his analysis. And Doug's the one who has instilled in me the idea that regardless of what happens a week from Tuesday, and I'm not taking away anything from the anticipated result, but it's got nothing to do with what's coming in 2028.

Twenty twenty-eight is a total fresh slate, because the people who come out in the midterm election do not reflect those who come out in a general presidential year.

[09:50:03]

You still have time to vote on today's poll question at Smerconish.com. And here it is. Europeans are protesting high costs, low wages, failing schools and a bleak future. Are we better off, we Americans better off?

Sign up for the newsletter while you're voting on the poll question. You'll get the work of illustrator -- oh, come on. Speaking of that subject, what's going on in France? Steve Breen drew that. I love it.

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SMERCONISH: So that's a live look at Paris. Protesters gathering in the streets. Not sure what that guy is up to, but things look peaceful so far. That's good. We hope it remains that way.

We'll keep our eye on it on CNN all day long. And it relates to today's poll question. Let's see where that stands as of right now at Smerconish.com.

[09:55:03]

Interesting, 29,000 and change. Europeans are protesting high costs, low wages, failing schools and a bleak future. Are Americans better off? Fifty-four percent say, Americans are not better off.

Social media. I've only got time for one. What's come in? Let's see what it is.

Way to gaslight this, Michael. I love our country and always will. Can we all come together and stop rooting --

I'm not rooting against the USA. I'm just looking at what's going on overseas today as we are on the cusp of the midterm election result, and I'm wondering what can we glean from it?

Because when Brexit occurred, three or four months before Donald Trump's election, people didn't see that for the warning or the harbinger of what it was. So let's not ignore what's going on around the globe because things that start there, especially in this populist wave that we've seen, end up coming here. OK? And yes, mingling is the answer. Strengthen the middle, water down the extremes.

If you missed any of today's program, you can always listen anywhere you get your podcasts. We thank you for watching and we'll see you next week.

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