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State of the Union

Lawmakers Push For Proxy Voting; Interview With Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO); Interview With U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; Interview With Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). Aired 9-10a ET

Aired March 23, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:39]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST (voice-over): School daze. President Trump guts the Department of Education.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not doing well with the world of education.

BASH: What specifically is his plan and how will it affect America's kids? Trump told my next guest, "Your mission is to be fired."

Education Secretary Linda McMahon is here exclusively next.

And rising anger.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): The American people are prepared to stand up and fight.

BASH: Democrats take their message into Trump territory. But as their own party sounds off, what kind of fight do Democratic voters want? Congressman Ro Khanna is campaigning in red districts and joins me ahead.

Plus: taking the heat. Elon Musk becomes a political flash point.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We're going to send a message to Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

TRUMP: He's paying a big price for helping us cut costs.

BASH: Is Musk helping Trump politically or not?

My panel of experts weighs in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Hello. I'm Dana Bash in Washington, where the state of our union is in the ring.

Another hectic week in Donald Trump's America, and the president watched the NCAA wrestling match last night. But front and center back here in Washington is the education of America's children, after President Trump made good on a longtime conservative talking point and took major steps to shutter his own Department of Education.

The president said some of the duties of the Education Department, like distributing funding for students with disabilities and managing student loans, would be handled by different departments. But there are urgent questions about how those changes would happen,how they would affect students who need the help, how any of it will help turn around learning for American kids.

Here with me exclusively is the woman winding down her own department. Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.

There's so many concerns and questions from parents about the real consequences of all this. So let's talk about it. Hopefully, we will get some answers today.

The president's executive order said that the Department of Education should begin to shutter. You well know, and you said this under oath, you can't do that without Congress changing the law. It doesn't seem like right now there are the votes to do that.

So, if you can't close it down, what exactly will the Education Department be doing now?

LINDA MCMAHON, U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY: Well, I think, first of all, thanks, Dana, for having me this morning. It's nice to start a Sunday with you.

BASH: Thank you.

MCMAHON: I think the president was very clear.

The outward-facing programs that are going to be affecting students are -- there's not going to be any defunding for those programs. When he talked about student loans, that would be going to the Small Business Administration. And also then the programs for students with disabilities will more than likely rest in HHS, which, by the way, is where they began.

I think we're looking at putting things in different departments where they can operate very efficiently as we look at how we can shut down the Department of Education.

BASH: Do they not operate efficiently now?

MCMAHON: Not as well as they should be.

As a matter of fact, the president campaigned on the fact that he wanted to close down the Department of Education. And what we saw with our scores recently with the NAEP, which is our country's report card, I mean, it's unacceptable where education is in our country today. And so the Department of Education does not educate one child. It does

not establish any curriculum in any states. It doesn't hire teachers. It doesn't establish programs. What it is, is more of a pass-through of funding, which is appropriated by Congress, by the way.

And so we want to make sure that that funding continues in departments where it needs to be, but at the same time give states the opportunities to be innovative and creative with their teaching.

BASH: So you mentioned that there are lots of data -- there's lots of data that shows that, I think, to put it mildly, education could be better in America.

MCMAHON: Absolutely.

BASH: But you also just admitted, and it's just fact, that most of the funding, most of all of the curriculum and everything that goes into educating our students happens on a local level.

[09:05:05]

So I'm not quite sure how eliminating the Department of Education is going to make those test scores go up.

MCMAHON: A lot of the funding that goes into states now goes with a lot of red tape, a lot of strings attached to it.

And so governors and state superintendents of education have said, look, if we have the funding coming in which allows us to be more creative, how can we spend that? The president believes, as I do, that the best education is that that's closest to the students.

And I want to look at some of the states that have been incredibly great over the last couple of years, like Louisiana. Their NAEP scores showed that they had improved the most of any states. Those are programs that were put in place by the governors, by the superintendent of education, not having anything to do with the Department of Education in Washington.

So what we need to do is to make sure that the funding has a clear path, the funding continues, but that the states are allowed to spend the money where they need to spend it, to hire teachers, increase their salaries, make sure that our students with special needs are taken care of.

And that's what we want to make sure that happens.

BASH: I just want to ask a sort of a fundamental philosophical question. And that is, do you believe that the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that all children, rural children, urban, rich, poor, special needs, have access to quality education?

MCMAHON: That is certainly the goal of the president. He has said that he wants to make sure that there is equal access to quality education for every student in our country, which is why he is such a proponent of school choice. He doesn't believe that any child should be trapped in a failing

school, that we should have parents have the ability to choose where their children can be able to go to school so that they -- if they are in a failing school, they have an opportunity to have better education somewhere else, that they have the tools to be able to do that.

BASH: But, if I may, it's a goal of the president, but is it a federal responsibility to ensure that every child in America has access to a good education?

MCMAHON: I think that was the purpose of public education when we first began it in our country. And I think that the federal government, state governments, we owe it to all of our children.

After all, that's the next generation of our engineers, our scientists, our quantum mathematicians, but also our welders, our plumbers, our HVACs, our welders, all of that. We have to make sure that there's educational opportunity available to every single student so they can be the best they can be. That's how we compete in the world.

BASH: You mentioned students with disabilities.

Of course, currently, your department enforces the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which does guarantee, it's a federal guarantee for free public education for children with disabilities.

Can you guarantee to those parents and those students that there won't be any disruption with their education, the guarantees for their education?

MCMAHON: I certainly hope -- I would like to see even more funding go to the states for that. And if it rests with HHS, which is one of the suggestions, that funding clearly is going to continue to come from Congress.

And we want to make sure that those students do have that those special services and those needs which they have, which is really monitored and taken care of at the state level.

BASH: So it's funding, but I'm not hearing so far any federal promise from you, who is still in charge of federal education policy and the laws passed by Congress that you are still in charge of, to protect children who need it, that those protections are still going to be there and that they won't be disrupted.

MCMAHON: They're not going to be disrupted.

And it really does rest from the federal level on the funding. So the funding is appropriated by Congress.

It flows through to the states. But let's -- am I, the secretary of education sitting in Washington, going to have a view into a schoolroom where a teacher is trying to take care of a student with special needs, or is that going to happen better at the local level, where that teacher, in cooperation with the parents and the local school officials, has more opportunity to make sure that student's needs are taken care of?

That's where it needs to lie.

BASH: Well, on...

MCMAHON: But if they don't have the funding, they don't have the support from Congress to continue to appropriate that money, then that's where the students can really fall through the cracks.

BASH: OK, so let's -- you talk about funding. Let's focus on funding.

There are a lot of Republicans, including many state officials, education officials, in particular, who want you to change Title I grants for students in low-income or low-performing areas into what's known as block grants, which is just a lump sum of money with no strings attached.

[09:10:01]

Now, there are some advocates, some experts who think that that no- strings-attached concept will mean that the money won't get to those who need it. It could end up with also larger class sizes, fewer after-school programs, fewer resources.

How do you do a block -- and, first of all, I guess the question is, do you want to do that block grant?

MCMAHON: That's one of the suggestions.

And, as I have talked to governors around the country, many governors, Governor Youngkin in Virginia, who said, clearly, I think that we have eyes on the education in our states, and if we have the funding that we know how to spend it, where to spend it, without the government trying to say from their bureaucratic perch in Washington this is where you should be spending that money, and Governor Youngkin or other governors could say, no, but if I take that money and I spend it in this district or I spend it over here for teacher salaries or I spend it here, I'm going to raise the level of education in my state.

I'm the one with the bird's-eye view and I'm the one with the accountability.

BASH: How do you on the one hand say that the federal government is still in the business of, which is still the law, protecting those students with disabilities, for example, and then send money without any guarantee that that's where the federal dollars, federal taxpayer dollars, will go?

MCMAHON: Oh, well, let's be sure that we're understanding, when you're talking about Title I versus IDEA money, which is the money that is being passed by Congress for students with disabilities, that will go for that purpose.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: So, that won't be block-granted? MCMAHON: That's not going to be block-granted in with Title I money. No, that's separate money that would go, because they would clearly have that responsibility to make sure that money does get to those students.

BASH: I mean, that's an important distinction.

MCMAHON: Oh, it's a very important distinction.

BASH: And I don't think that was clear to people.

MCMAHON: That's a very important distinction.

BASH: Just on the idea of Congress, you mentioned this, that the president wants to move the student loan program to the Small Business Administration, which you were in charge of in the last Trump term...

MCMAHON: Yes.

BASH: ... and then move others to HHS. Why do you think President Trump has the legal authority to do that, when these programs are inside your department through a law of Congress?

MCMAHON: Well, certainly, President Trump has said he will move things in accordance with the law and in cooperation with Congress.

He certainly knows that, if there are statutes or laws that are governing where they need to be, we will have to abide by the law.

BASH: So, that means you're not going to move them, because the votes aren't there.

MCMAHON: No, that means we will work with Congress, we will partner with Congress. We will find out where the laws that govern these are. How do the laws...

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: But you have to change the law.

MCMAHON: Not necessarily. We are going to look to see how we are governed. And if we have to change the law, if we need to work with Congress, if Congress doesn't agree, then we will find out.

BASH: Yes. Yes.

MCMAHON: We will find out.

BASH: Well, and...

MCMAHON: I want to work with -- I want Congress...

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: The votes aren't there.

So it sounds like, I think, what people should know in listening to is, none of what we're talking about is going to happen imminently.

MCMAHON: I have been on the job, I think this is my third week coming up.

But during my confirmation process, as I talked to senators on both sides who did have concerns, and I said, look, I want to work in partnership with you, because our goal is to make sure that we are providing the best education for students in our country.

We cannot be last in the world in education, because we are impacting our national security, we are impacting those next, second, and third generations that are coming along. It is up to us and our responsibility to make sure we are giving them the best access to education.

BASH: Can I just quickly ask you about RFK Jr.? He is going to -- if this were to happen, and if you were to work with Congress and move some of the portfolio over to HHS, he would have control over education portfolios, including 50 states mandate -- the idea that 50 states mandate some vaccinations of schoolchildren against diseases like polio, diphtheria, and chicken pox.

Would he be involved in vaccination of children at schools?

MCMAHON: That's a little bit outside of looking at making sure that we have funding for children with disabilities. Whatever is coming under the department of HHS, I think that's...

BASH: So that's a no?

MCMAHON: Well, it's not necessarily a no. I'm just saying that, right now, the Department of Education through the funding for children with disabilities is not controlling vaccinations and that sort of thing in states.

And so what I'm saying, then, in terms of what I'm responsible for, if that is moving over into HHS, I think that Secretary Kennedy, with whom I have had conversations about that, has an absolute passion about looking at students with handicaps and disabilities, because he himself talks about how difficult it has been for him with the neurological aspect that he dealt with all through his life of trying to get over his own handicap with his voice, which is painful for him when he speaks.

[09:15:10]

He understands where children who are having to deal with that kind of a handicap and need help. I think that would be a passion of his own heart.

BASH: Just real quick before we go, Columbia University unveiled that they have sweeping new policies to restrict protests, new disciplinary procedures. They did so in response to your administration threatening to -- or they actually did freeze $400 million in funding.

Are you satisfied with that response? Will the freeze be lifted? MCMAHON: I have had such great conversations with Dr. Armstrong,

Katrina Armstrong, and we have gotten now to that first level.

Columbia has agreed. There were about nine things we put in place. Her -- when she and I met, she said her -- she knew that this was her responsibility to make sure that children on her campus were safe. She wanted to make sure there was no discrimination of any kind. She wanted to address any systemic issues that were identified relative to the antisemitism on campus.

And they have worked very hard in a very short period of time. She and I exchanged personal cell numbers. We have talked. And I believe that they are on the right track so that we can now move forward.

BASH: Does that mean that the money will be unfrozen?

MCMAHON: That means that we are on the right track now to make sure the final negotiations to unfreeze that money will be in place.

BASH: OK, so not yet?

MCMAHON: We're working on it.

BASH: OK.

Secretary McMahon, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it.

MCMAHON: Thank you, Dana. It was a pleasure.

BASH: Thank you.

And Democrats are turning out in huge numbers this weekend. What exactly do they want?

Congressman Ro Khanna is campaigning in GOP districts, and he will join me next.

Plus: President Trump lashes out at his critics. Many are falling in line.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:12]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is Congress going to do for us? What are you going to do for us? And what can we do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That's a voter who was emotional, as you just heard, about future funding for cancer research. It was at a town hall yesterday hosted by my next guest, who is

campaigning in Republican districts, trying to capitalize on anger that voters are feeling.

Here with me now is Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California.

Thank you so much for being here.

We do have a lot to get to, but I want you to talk to me for a second about education. You heard Secretary McMahon make the case that the status quo isn't working, test scores are low, a lot of key functions in the Department of Education, like protections for students with disabilities, could be done elsewhere in the federal government.

They were before the Department of Education existed. Is she wrong?

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Dana, I would just invite Secretary McMahon to my district, because, yesterday, in a town hall, it came out that 92 teachers for Head Start are given the pink slip, the staff is being laid off, and this is because there is no certainty that they are going to get the funding from the Department of Education.

We have asked. The Department of Education isn't giving any guarantee that the funding is going to continue. And the same uncertainty exists with Title I funding for schools in working-class neighborhoods and funding for kids with disabilities.

So she is saying that that funding is going to continue, but she may just not be on the ground. I welcome her to come, and I'd love for her to assure my district that those Head Start teachers not get fired.

BASH: Yes, well, I'm sure she will be happy to come there, and we will make sure that she gets that message.

I do want to talk about what you are doing in California. You are currently in Bakersfield. If people think that is a town that sounds familiar, it is because it is the former district of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

What you are doing is holding town halls in districts like that. It's primarily Republican. And I know Republicans have been facing blowback at town halls, but so have some Democrats. Do you think that there is a new Tea Party brewing in the Democratic Party?

KHANNA: Well, Dana, first of all, in America leaders aren't supposed to hide from people. You are supposed to show up and take questions.

And you are right. There is anger mostly at the cuts in Medicaid and veterans being fired, but there also is anger at Democrats. In fact, in one of the town halls, people were upset that we weren't doing enough to protect these cuts.

And the main thing is that I'm going so that the representatives from these districts actually show up and take tough questions. That's the heartbeat of democracy. And I also hope that our leaders are going to fight harder next time that there is a budget showdown to make sure that they get some concessions and stop these cuts.

BASH: But, Congressman, what about the anger -- just to drill down on this, the anger that you are hearing among Democrats, rank-and-file Democrats?

I mean, if I hear it every day, I'm sure you hear it every day as well. Is that something that is going to brew and erupt into a scenario where the Democratic members of Congress are going to get thrown out by their own members, much like we saw back in 2010 start to happen with Republicans?

KHANNA: Well, there is no doubt that there is anger there, and people were very, very disappointed in the Senate for not voting no on the continuing resolution without any concession, without getting a concession to keep Social Security offices open, without getting a concession to stop firing veterans, without getting a concession to continue Department of Education funding.

[09:25:02]

Are there going to be challenges across the country? Absolutely. Is it going to be a Tea Party? No, because the Tea Party wanted to basically destroy the government, tear down the government. Many Democrats, there's anger, but there's also aspiration. We want to build things, like Medicare for all, like a living wage and a lot of other policies.

So you're going to see a new generation come in with a compelling economic message.

BASH: Well, speaking of new generations, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, who, of course, you're referring to the fact that he voted to keep the government running, and there's a lot of anger about that.

Do you think that he should be primaried? Should Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, who is very much a -- part of the new Democratic generation, should she challenge him in New York?

KHANNA: Well, that's really her decision. I will say that there were a lot of people at the Democratic retreat who had encouraged her, and I was just in New York, and I was surprised how much support there is for her.

BASH: Are you one of those who encouraged her?

KHANNA: But, obviously, she will -- I haven't talked to her directly, but I think it's for her -- but here's what I will say.

The American people are fed up with the old guard. There needs to be a renewal. In Silicon Valley, when a company isn't doing well, you don't keep the same team. And I think there's going to be a new generation in this country. They want to see a more compelling economic message.

My biggest problem and disagreement with Senator Schumer, in "The New York Times," he said, we did everything right. We just have a P.R. problem. No, we didn't do everything right. We didn't get a living wage. For

many decades, this country has offshored jobs. There hasn't been a compelling vision for manufacturing and the working class. We haven't articulated a vision for Medicare for all. It's not just a P.R. problem. People are upset with the status quo, and we need a new generation of leadership.

BASH: I want to move on, but I know you said it's AOC's choice to make. Of course it is. You haven't talked to her about it, but it sounds like -- well, you tell me.

Would you encourage her to take a look at it?

KHANNA: She's perfectly capable of making the decision. She's got so many options.

BASH: OK.

KHANNA: She's got an incredible future. It's really her decision.

But all I could say is, there's real anger, and there would be a lot of support for her if she decided to do it.

BASH: Just on the issue of the, not the comms issue, but the policy issue, I'm sure you heard Steve Bannon had some uncharacteristically nice words to say about a Democrat, and that was you recently.

He -- let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: One of the best is Ro Khanna, Ro's economic patriotism, which we always kid him is just ripping off Navarro and my economic nationalism, is -- he's an economic populist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Of the three best economic populists in the party, he said that you are one of them. Is that praise that you welcome?

Or can you explain briefly what that means to you and what it should mean to where the parties are aligned right now?

KHANNA: Well, for too long in this country, we have seen our industries go offshore, Wall Street profits double, manufacturing profits be halved, places like Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Warren, Ohio, Youngstown, decimated, and wealth pile up in districts like mine in Silicon Valley.

I think Steve Bannon and others on the right were correct that we should not have allowed unfettered globalization, that we did not pay enough attention to these towns. Now, I have a different vision of how we rebuild them, through economic patriotism.

We need to say that, if you build it, the government will buy it. That's how Silicon Valley came about. We need to invest in the work force. We need skilled immigrants from different parts of the world to help rebuild the factories and we need to also invest in our universities. I mean, our universities are at the cutting edge of new science and technology that we will need.

But in terms of understanding that we have let down a lot of factory towns in America, there is an understanding among some on the right and the left that the old policies did not work. And it's one of the reasons we have such income inequality in this country and such anger.

BASH: Congressman Ro Khanna, thank you so much for getting up early for us out there in California. Appreciate it.

KHANNA: Thank you, Dana.

BASH: And President Trump is putting the smackdown on his political opponents.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:33:58]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: We got 20,000 people here in Tucson. And we got hundreds of millions of people all across this country.

(CHEERING)

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Are we ready to fight?

(CHEERING)

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Are we ready to win?

(CHEERING)

OCASIO-CORTEZ: And we will never, ever, ever give up.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

Some big crowds and enthusiasm you saw there for Bernie Sanders and AOC this week. Democrats are actively searching for a path forward.

And my panel joins me now. Hello, everybody.

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

BASH: Congressman Crow, I want to start with you, because you are one of the Democrats. You're pretty out front on pushing for what that path should be.

And one of the things that you write about and you talk about is that Democrats should reach out to the people who take showers after work.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Right, right.

Listen, we have to take an all-of-the-above strategy. You saw Bernie and Alexandria out there on the stump rallying folks. That's important. We have to be doing that too.

[09:35:00]

I come from a working-class, Upper Midwestern background. I worked minimum wage jobs to help my family in high school. I worked construction to help put my way through college. So I'm focusing on those areas, rural areas, red areas, districts that voted for Trump. How can we break through and start winning in areas and bringing people back into our coalition who we lost?

And that requires connecting. That requires listening. It requires a very different approach than we have been taking the last couple of years.

BASH: You were at the DNC. What do you think about the congressman's path and other ideas like Bernie and AOC?

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, in 2017, we actually put at the DNC Bernie on the road for quite some time doing a similar thing, trying to talk to people and rally them.

The reality is that the Democratic Party wants to see some wins. They want to see not only Democrats fighting for them in the House and Senate, but people aren't going to feel confident in the Democratic Party until there are electoral wins. I think it is smart for the party to lift up its young dynamic leadership like Congressman Crow and others.

I think it is that they want a new generation. Chuck Schumer angered a lot of people all across the country in states red and blue because he didn't have a strategy. And I think it is time for them to continue to lift up sort of the younger dynamic leaders who can talk to voters and relate to voters.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I welcome this AOC and Bernie Sanders being at the forefront in politics contrast as a currency of victory. I welcome debating the fact that they advocate for economic socialism over capitalism.

I advocate for the fact that they want a very socialist cultural America that most Americans are saying some of these ideals are too far to the left for the vast majority of us. Republicans will win every single time.

Democrats tried this playbook before with Bernie Sanders. They elevated AOC before. It did not work well electorally for them. So if this is the direction that they are going to go in, I welcome it, Dana.

BASH: Doug, I'm going to bring you in one second. I want you to respond to that, Congressman.

CROW: Yes, people can throw all these terms out. They can label certain economic policies. They can talk about the Nasdaq. They can talk about the stock market.

None of that matters to people, actually, right? What matters to people is their actual lived experience, how they are feeling in their day-to-day life. What people know is that they can't buy a home. They can't send their kids to college. They can't retire in dignity, that the American dream, which is your children and grandchildren's lives will be better than yours, is out of reach for over half of America, if not more, right?

And that's what we're going to talk about. We're not going to talk about these economic ideological things. We're not going to engage in the culture war. We are here to make people's lives better. We are here to not ensure an outcome, because, where I'm from, people don't want an outcome ensured for them.

All they want is a fair shake and they want a level playing field. And that's what the Democratic Party is about.

SINGLETON: Congressman, I think you're 100 percent correct and I agree with you. You sound more like a moderate Republican, if I have got to be honest.

That's not the argument been advocated for by AOC or Bernie Sanders. They are advocating for more government control. You're right, Americans do want dignity of work. They do want to make sure that they're making more money. But they don't want the government, Dana, to assure that.

And that's what those two extremely progressive left-wing individuals in your party are advocating for and arguing for.

CROW: I couldn't disagree more. You want to talk about big government and big government control, you talk about the Trump administration.

They are all about big government. They want big government up in everybody's business right now. They want it in our Social Security system. They want it in our Medicaid system. They want to dismantle DOE because they actually want control over local school districts, and they want to go away from local control, like we have in Colorado.

BASH: Let me bring in Doug.

And, Doug, what I want to ask you about is what I asked Congressman Khanna about earlier, which is what you experienced firsthand.

HEYE: Yes.

BASH: You were a deputy chief of staff to Eric Cantor, who was a Republican House -- one of the Republican House leaders. And he was defeated by angry voters in his district, Republican voters.

Do you see any similarity to the anger that we're seeing among Democratic voters right now with what you experienced in 2010?

HEYE: It's not exactly apples and oranges, but it's not apples and watermelons.

And I think what we see in common is a lot of that same terminology. How often do we hear the word fight? And so when I saw Congressman Ro Khanna on earlier, he said, Democrats need to fight harder.

Fighting harder is exactly what I heard in every House Republican Conference meeting. Somebody would leak it. You would text me. I wouldn't take the call because I didn't have a good answer for you. It happened over and over again.

(LAUGHTER)

HINOJOSA: At least you're honest.

HEYE: And -- oh, she knows.

But the reality is, fight harder is not a strategy. And what we saw quite often from the Freedom Caucus and I think we're seeing now from a lot of Democrats is, there's no strategy to land a punch, win the round, win the fight. And if you're going to whether it's Denver or somewhere else and your slogan is, fight oligarchy, you're not addressing the things that the congressman was talking about.

[09:40:01]

Politics is always about people. People do not wake up in the morning thinking about oligarchies. When they shower after work, they're not thinking about those things. They're mad because they can't afford housing. Eggs are too expensive. Gas is too expensive, all their things in their daily lives. You have to talk about that.

HINOJOSA: Yes, I think that's right.

I do agree with you that people want to see Democrats talking about how the Trump policies are impacting the American people. The reality with all of these town halls, whether it is the Democratic town hall or the Republican town hall, is, people are angry at the administration.

We are seeing it in the polling. We are seeing it at the town halls. It is not just, we're angry at the Democrats not fighting hard enough. They're not fighting hard enough to stop the Republican Party.

BASH: Exactly.

HINOJOSA: In the Republican town halls, you are not stopping, you're not standing up to Trump.

And so there's this -- this is where we can all unify, both Republicans and Democrats is, people are angry about what's happening. BASH: Well, I'm glad you mentioned that, because, Michael, that is

another dynamic. People are -- a lot of people are supportive of what the president is doing, but a lot of people aren't, particularly those -- I mean, you talk -- you talk to people in focus groups all the time.

There are concerns among people...

SINGLETON: Sure.

BASH: ... who -- some of whom held their nose and voted for Donald Trump because they wanted the price of eggs to go down. And that's not what they're seeing.

SINGLETON: I mean, look, there's always the expectation for immediate results in politics. We have all worked on campaigns. You're a congressman.

And I think you have to level-set with the American people at some point in time and say, look, this is going to be a lot more challenging than we expected. And I don't think that people would necessarily be against President Trump or the administration if he were to say, there are four years of policies that we have to attempt to correct, that we have to roll back.

The price of eggs, economic inflation, et cetera, these things didn't happen overnight. It took four years for us to get to this place. The previous administration did nothing effectively to address them. I think given the president more time to address some of these concerns and issues, I think is the right course in direction.

BASH: You have like 15 seconds.

CROW: Listen, Donald Trump campaigned on reducing costs, and he also campaigned on culture warfare issues. And there was a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump that said, no, this is just bluster, this is just talk. He's not going to take away our health care. He's not going to pull out a NATO. He's not going to cede American leadership around the world.

But guess what? He is. He's doing it. So now we're not campaigning against Donald Trump in theory anymore. We're campaign against the real pain that he's going to inflict on American people.

SINGLETON: There were four years of pain, Congressman.

CROW: And I am excited -- and I am excited for where we are right now, because the energy is high, the tide is shifting, and we are going to meet the moment.

SINGLETON: Four years of pain. Democrats did absolutely nothing.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Shermichael, you're good.

(LAUGHTER)

BASH: Thank you so much. Thank you very much for coming in, all of you.

And we have come a long way from men wearing white wigs and debating bills in candlelight, but some new moms in Congress say change is still needed, one in particular.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BRITTANY PETTERSEN (D-CO): Sam's first outing was being on the House floor, which is wild.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:47:18]

BASH: New parents in Congress are tired. Now, they're tired for obvious reasons, but also because they say Capitol Hill needs to get with the times.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETTERSEN: Thank you all for caring about this.

BASH (voice-over): Sam's mother wishes her newborn baby could beat home in Colorado, not on Capitol Hill.

PETTERSEN: I rise today with my newborn, Sam.

BASH: But Sam's mother is Brittany Pettersen, a member of Congress.

PETTERSEN: Unfortunately, I wasn't given the opportunity to vote remotely after giving birth.

We went straight from my house to the U.S. House.

(LAUGHTER)

PETTERSEN: So Sam's first outing was the -- being on the House floor, which is wild.

BASH: House rules require her to vote in person, but she and others want new parents in Congress to be able to vote remotely, by proxy, for up to 12 weeks around the birth of a child.

PETTERSEN: It's about changing Congress and making it -- bringing it out of the Dark Ages and doing things that are in alignment with 2025. We should be able to be parents and still represent our constituents.

OK, I hear you.

BASH: Pettersen is a Democrat. She teamed up with Republican Anna Paulina Luna, who gave birth during her first term in Congress to her son, Henry, who is now a year-and-a-half old.

REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-FL): It's effectively telling members of Congress to -- women specifically, that you either have to choose between having a family and representing your constituency or you come up here and vote and put your life and your child's life at risk, depending on if there's medical complications.

BASH: Luna is bucking her Republican leadership by pushing for this rules change.

LUNA: I have gone to the speaker, both Speakers Kevin McCarthy and the current speaker, on this. I have met with them. I have looked at the legality of it. And they said that it was not constitutional because, when the Constitution was written, it said that you must be present to establish a quorum, right?

Well, in an effort to make sure that it's in line with the Constitution, we actually remove that. So this will simply allow you to vote, not to establish the quorum.

BASH (on camera): When the Constitution was written, it was written by men for men.

PETTERSEN: You're right. This place is not built for young families and it's definitely not built to meet the needs of young women.

BASH (voice-over): Proxy House voting was allowed during the coronavirus pandemic, but House GOP leaders oppose returning to the practice.

(on camera): The argument is that it was abused.

LUNA: Correct. But I would say that in itself is not a good argument for this, because we're siloing it. It's very specific. It is to female members who have given birth and male members who have just had a child, their spouse has given birth. And sometimes they need to be there for that recovery process.

I mean, everything that we have campaigned on being pro-family, pro- life, yes, it's a massive slap in the face.

[09:50:02]

BASH (voice-over): In a statement to CNN, the House Republican leadership said -- quote -- "We sympathize with our colleagues who face circumstances that prevent them from being present, but proxy voting raises serious constitutional questions. It also changes more than 2.5 centuries of tradition, abuses the system, and creates the risk of a slippery slope toward more and more members casting votes remotely."

(on camera): He's such a good baby.

PETTERSEN: He's -- yes...

LUNA: He's like... (CROSSTALK)

PETTERSEN: Yes, he's making this look a lot easier than it can be.

BASH: We all know it is not easy.

PETTERSEN: We have life events that happen. And giving birth, having a baby,we want to make sure that those members still have a voice in Congress because we don't want to lose the representation of parents who understand the struggles of -- that families are going through, who are currently going through it and not what it was like so many years ago.

LUNA: Perspective is important.

BASH (voice-over): Luna was just the 12th sitting member of Congress in history to give birth, Pettersen the 13th.

(on camera): You are in the minority, not the political minority, but the age minority.

LUNA: Birthing age minority.

PETTERSEN: My joke is that, when you go to Congress in your 40s, you're young again.

(LAUGHTER)

LUNA: It's hard, and then you have to choose. And so that's why you see a lot of younger families not stay in Congress, which is unfortunate. But that's why we're trying to reform it.

PETTERSEN: Yes, we all lose when we lose that voice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now, the congresswomen did make a major advance in their effort. They gathered 218 signatures, enough to force GOP leaders to hold a House vote allowing for proxy voting for new parents. That vote should happen in the next seven legislative days.

Now, up next, a very different congressional controversy. Anita Hill sits down with CNN.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:55:32]

BASH: It was 1991, an accusation against the Supreme Court nominee. And it sparked a decades-long conversation about the role that gender dynamics play within the government and the court of public opinion.

My co-host Jake Tapper sat down with Anita Hill for his series "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL." Don't miss an episode, the episode where he talks to Anita Hill. That is tonight. "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL WITH JAKE TAPPER" airs at 9:00 p.m.

Thank you so much for spending your Sunday morning with us.

Fareed Zakaria picks it up next.