Trump & GOP’s growing divide on midterms | Debate roundup

Is the president’s strategy actually a smart move?  The party is growing increasingly anxious about Trump’s ongoing war with Iran, his trade spat with  Canada, the skyrocketing prices for Americans, concerns about his beef imports, and his sinking  approval rating. And on top of that, there are reports that a number of Republicans plan to skip  the president’s so-called Trumpooa convention that is scheduled for next week. They list  a a variety of reasons, but there are some   who are hesitant about being associated  with Trump this close to the election. And adding to their jitters is this. Today, the  president’s super PAC launched its first ads that seemed to come straight from the All About Me TV.  We gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security. The largest tax  cuts in American history. The price of eggs is down 60%. He’s fighting for you  every day. Help him finish the job. Before we open it up to the table here, we  invite you at home to join the debate. Head to CNN.com/aby. Weigh in there. We’ll get to some  of your comments throughout the show. Uh, Peter, is it a smart strategy for the Trump super PAC to  spend their many hundreds of millions of dollars uh on ads that are entirely focused on Donald  Trump who is polling in the low30s? Um, and do you understand why many Republicans right  now are asking, “Does he really care about us?” You know, if you were running for Senate in New  Hampshire, if you’re a Johnson, if you’re there,   you do not want the president campaigning  with you. If you’re Ken Paxton in Texas, you absolutely do. If you’re Dan Sullivan in  Alaska, you absolutely do. And part and parcel of   that is getting those Trump voters out, but then  also reminding some of the folks who are getting wobbly on the right who maybe don’t feel like they  want to show up the some of the accomplishments   of this administration. I mean, everything has  been doom and gloom. That’s one of the reasons why you’re seeing his approval ratings being so  low. Um, going into this midterm, talking about those accomplishments, I mean, that’s just good  politics. Um, it’s also just worth noting that I am old enough to remember when not so long  ago Republicans were celebrating that Paxton was running against Taller Rico, telling us that  this would be an easy race and now all of a sudden   it’s literally a panic situation. Let me just  play uh what Ted Cruz said about this on Monday. And I got to say, some of the the Republicans  that are throwing rocks at at at Ken Paxton, my message to them is enough. Stop your  bitching. We had a $200 million primary and Ken won.

You want to complain, complain  in the primary. It’s over. And by the way, I will say every moderate Republican when they win  a primary, they tell conservatives, “Now, shut up and support the nominee.” My answer to everyone  whining, “Shut up and support the nominee.   And John Thoon, the leader in the Senate,  said, “This is the ball game. If they don’t win in Texas, it’s effectively over.” So, that  seems to tell you a lot about the environment   the Republicans are in. Well, it’s interesting  because I’m like, you hit your wagon to somebody whose approval rating looks that low. I’m going  to give the Republicans the same advice that a   lot of people gave the Democrats when Joe Biden  was sinking. Why are you still attaching yourself to something that’s a losing proposition? Really  hard for me to feel any sympathy. You guys have   gone all in on this candidate. all in on Donald  Trump. Not a candidate, but all in on Donald Trump for all of this time. You got to dance with the  girl that br you in some ways. Like, this is kind   of what you deserve. There were many opportunities  that you all had to distance yourself from him and you didn’t do it and now you’re paying the price.  All the things that he’s saying in those ads   are not only not true, but it reinforces  something that we’ve always known. Donald Trump only cares about him being in office.  He doesn’t care about you being in office. And that’s playing out right now. And frankly, to  me, they’re just lying in a bed that they made.   This is already a brutal state in which to try  to run statewide. You got 20 media markets. That’s bonkers. It’s going to cost you millions  of dollars in Texas to run statewide. So, you have a candidate who seems to be as popular with this  party as like carrot sticks are with kids. Like,   they’re okay with it. They going to try to eat  around it, but you know, we we’ve got this thing on our plate. We’re going to deal with it.  Here’s the thing, and there’s no way around   this. They have been trying to marginalize James  Tarico, the Democratic nominee, by making this juvenile locker room argument that he’s like  low tea, low testosterone, not Texas enough.   He’s the one, Terico is the one accepting the  debate invitations from Dallas, from Austin. He accepted CNN’s debate by today’s deadline. I don’t  see where Ken Paxton is. That doesn’t seem to be   Texas strong. That seems to be low tea. Also, the  more Trump puts his thumb on the scale come the midterms, the more it seems like he’s screwing the  Republicans. There was a choice between Cornin and   Paxton and Trump chose Paxton like Trump light.  Paxton is somebody who is incredibly corrupt. His own party turned him in for corruption. He cheated  on his wife. I mean, Trump probably thinks he’s   like a lot like him. They’re similar in a lot  of ways. But as we get closer to the midterms, this is going to be a referendum on Trump’s first  two years. And the closer that he gets to these   Republican candidates, I think the worse they’ll  do. I think that people will think of Trump and think of the Iran war that is failing. We have  no way out of it. Think of the tariffs that are   spiking our prices on a daily basis. Think of the  lack of transparency with the Epstein files and the corruption. These are all ingrained in Trump’s  first two years. And the more he connects to these   candidates, the more that their campaign will be  about that same thing. Ellen, do you think that Trump has the right priorities? I think the in  terms of the ads and in terms of the midterms, politics is a lot about who you are and it’s also  a lot about who you aren’t. And the fact is in Texas, a guy who thinks that God is non-binary and  that white men are the biggest domestic terrorist threat in this country is just not going to play.  And so Donald Trump is not somebody that says   that. They’re not panicking. I think you guys  aren’t very in touch with Texas. Trumpough time you’ve all spent in Texas, but that’s not going to  that’s not going to work. I’ve spent a lot of time   in Texas. They’re there the the the message this  week is that Paxton is in trouble. the the polls, there are many of them, some good, some bad,  but they all seem to indicate a race that is pretty close to tied, if not maybe with Terico  in the lead. If if all of that were the case, why would Ken Paxton be struggling?  Because I think you guys are going to   call me after this election and realize that  this is Betto 2.0. How’d that go? You know, I mean, James, although this is not the same type  of candidate, Jameso is worse. I I if it were me,   I’d pick Betsto over James if I were you guys. But  I’m not I’m not in the business of giving advice to Democrats. Can you admit that Peps uniquely  corrupt though? Like, can you admit that with   all of the corruption of the past, him cheating  on his wife, he’s a uniquely weak candidate? I’m not convinced that that’s going to matter  to voters. I’m convinced that what’s going to is   they’re going to take Paxton and his positions,  which I do think Ken needs to get out there and work a little bit harder. I really believe  that that I always say when I come on the show,   if you don’t go talk to people, they’re going to  believe the worst about you. Ken needs to get out there and talk to the people. Some of this comes  down to how many doors do you knock. Some some   of it comes down to how many rallies do you hold.  That’s not really his strong point though. He’s in London like that’s not his strong point. So  I I think that is my advice is get out there,   go on offense, say who you are, but also be very  clear about who James Holler Rico is. I mean, do you think it’s okay that he said that white  men are the biggest domestic terrorist threat   to this country? They’re all white. Wait, is he  campaigning on that or was this some comment from like 2019 that was kind of cringe that we’ve  all made? Also, people aren’t held accountable   for their past comments. Ken Paxton in very Ken  Paxton in very recent history. Are you the biggest domestic? Of course, I don’t agree with that. But  James Tyer Rico isn’t running on that. When James   Tarico and Ken Paxton are facing off, they’re  talking about the economy while Ken Paxton is cheating on his wife. James Tyico is talking  about money and politics while Ken Paxton is   taking money out of the hands of his voters. Like,  you realize his own staff binary. Who cares? This is just such a what do my prices look like? Okay.  What’s interesting about this exchange is that that maybe this is exactly an encapsulation of  the race and and I’m I’m telling you Caroline, you are making the argument that has been Ken  Paxton’s campaign and it seems to not be working and it doesn’t look like President Trump and his  party are on the same page about their midterm   strategy. Just listen to what many Republican  candidates are focusing on in their campaign ads. On our farm here in Bell Plane, we see it every  day. Gas, groceries, everything’s expensive. Iowa families are hurting. Housing costs keep  rising and it’s getting harder to afford a place to live. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer,  the last thing I needed to worry about was money.   But bills are overwhelming and groceries,  rent, and gas are more expensive, too. It’s hard for that message to break through when  this is what the president has been saying for months. I saw polls today on television. I say  Donald’s Trump polls on the economy aren’t good. The economy, it’s the greatest economy we’ve ever  had by far. With the inflation, I’ve I’ve largely taken care of inflation. By the way, we have  the greatest economy that I’ve ever had. We had one of the greatest economies in history  in my first term. This is blowing it away. I should be at 100% on the economy. And  the prices are all coming down. Now,   the word affordability is a fake word  for but made up by the Democrats. If it’s so good, Hal, why are the Republican  candidates who are actually running telling   people the opposite? Well, look, politics  are local. But look, the reality is this. July to July, July of last year to July of this  year, prices are up 2.7% and wages are up 3.3. So real wages are actually up over  the last year, July to July. So   Donald Trump is correct. President Trump is  correct. He has gotten a lid on inflation. We have gas prices that are high because of the  Iranian conflict, but that’s that’s the number   one problem from an inflation standpoint. Interest  rates are relatively mild. Unemployment is low. The economy is growing nicely. So the economy  is pretty strong. Unemployment’s low.

People are   making money across the board. This is not some  sort of disaster. Here’s some other statistics. I’m not sure that’s statistics. Everything’s fine.  Don’t believe your lying eye. Inflation is up from when Donald Trump came into office. Mortgage in  mortgage interest rates just hit 7% this week. Uh wage growth has been subsumed by inflation  for the last two months. So the the ads that you’re seeing there from Republicans, they’re  not in a vacuum. These are people running in   actual states and districts where Americans are  telling them things are getting really expensive. Gas is over $4 a gallon. That’s a real thing.  That’s not a madeup thing. I I like how I I mean, you’re in a very difficult spot. And look,  I get it. You have to try to find Abby quoted two months and I quoted Abby quoted two months of  wages. I quoted a year of wages. Here’s what I’m saying. What is the current state of the  economy right now? Well, the current state of the   economy according we’re almost alltime highs in  the market according to the Donald Trump Fed chair is that inflation is now the issue that might  force them to raise interest rates. Is likely that they will raise interest rates because  the inflation problem is not under control.   I’m not saying that. The guy who Donald  Trump put at the Fed to lower interest rates, he’s the guy saying that. Well, I’m going to call  it right now. They are not going to raise interest   rates. I can I just tell you that right now. It’s  not going to happen. Fine. Look, I’m just telling you what the guy said. We have we have a problem  with energy prices which resonates through the   whole economy. I’ll agree with that. That’s all  about what’s going on in Iran. But by the way, we had higher oil prices under Biden and we didn’t  have a war in Iran. So look, this is not that we   have oil that goes up and down and up and down  that affects the economy. We’ve got to get that under control. President Trump has put in place  ways to drill more, drill more. Venezuela is going   to come online. It’s going to take two years.  We all know that. But he’s he’s looking for the future of getting energy prices low for the for  the country. 35%. That is what Donald Trump’s uh approval rating is in CNN’s poll of polls.  And what take a look at this chart because   it tells you everything you need to know.  That is the lowest number that we have seen uh since let’s go back to 2002. George W. Bush.  So, the president is actually in fact going into this midterm elections at a really low point  and and we’re starting to hear from Republicans.   They’re worried about this. Sure. I mean, I think  the clearest symbol was early this morning when Speaker Johnson cancelled the September session of  Congress. So, when the Congress leaves this week, they’re not coming back until November. They’re  not even going to come to work for two months.   That’s according to my sources because they know  they have to be in their district because they’re in trouble. And then he’s going to hold this rally  in Nevada where he’s going to charge every member $25,000 to attend a rally to help them. And they  don’t want to go, but they kind of have to go,   but they don’t want to go. And it just shows you  that, you know, he’s not really care. He doesn’t really care about what the Republican needs for  this election are. He’s got a big war chest,   $800 million, something like that. They need it.  And in order to do that, they’re gonna have to pretend that what he says is true about  the economy, just like you just did.   Uh even though everybody knows it’s not true.  And it’s not going to work. I don’t think it’s gonna work. It doesn’t mean they’re going  to lose. It just means it doesn’t This is a   This is a live question. Leaves it, obviously. Why  won’t he spend He has almost a billion dollars. Why won’t he spend it? Yeah. What’s going on  with that? Well, I I I would remind everybody   that uh money alone in politics isn’t enough to  win. If that were true, Harris would be president. Really quick, really quick, guys. Is Kla Is  Kla Harris president right now? No. Did she   spend a billion dollars? Yes. But look, there’s  60 days or less until these midterms. And I think on every question that the administration  takes on the economy, the answer should be,   “Hey, American people, we see you. We hear you.  We’re doing everything in our power to bring those prices down.” You know what? In the meantime, in  those 60 days, you didn’t just elect us to bring   your gas prices down. You elected us to close your  border, which we have done. We will continue doing that these next 60 days. There was a report that  the Federal Reserve put out saying that housing   prices and rent under the Biden administration  went up 20 to 30% in some areas because of the amount of illegal immigrants we took into this  country. So, don’t ever tell me that it’s just   gas prices and groceries because housing is the  number two most unaffordable cost for people in this country. tell them how you’ve brought down  violent crime and that we’re going to keep doing   that these next 60 days. Also remind people  that when you’re looking for the solutions to bring down gas prices and you’re looking for the  solutions to bring down groceries, one way that   you do not do that is just by electing people  who say things like abolish ICE to the Senate and the House in September. That’s not going to  bring down your grocery prices. But in September   of 2026 September 2026 that’s just going to put  a bunch of people with extreme beliefs in your kind of up for grabs. That seems like it’s  an indicator of something people find out by six points. Okay. But but Caroline and  H I I do I do question like at what point are we over the blaming Biden for the fill in  the blank or the blaming? We’re just pointing out that under Biden inflation was at 9. Now it’s  at 3.4 and what you’re doing to get a little bit lower cuz that’s what people want. You  did a beautiful job all of those things   that the Trump campaign from 2024  was enthusiastic about articulating the Dow Jones will the Dow Jones does not pay  bills. And I admire and I continue to I I’m encouraging all the Republican candidates who are  trying to meet your constituents where they are to do exactly what you have been doing and calling  out their real struggle. And in some cases it might be border related. In some cases it might be  gas price related. But nationally it is entirely focused on the grocery bill. And instead of  us fighting about who is who what talking points are correct in terms of who uh whether  or not the economy is doing better, let’s just   all be focused. How amazing would it be if we were  sitting here talking about different politics? Here’s the problem. The Democrat’s solution  for the grocery bill is for the government to   run groceries just like Mandami wants to do in  New York. That’s the solution for that party and that’s going to that’s why you guys are not going  to sending the Iran. That might help. We’ll see if   that works as an argument in this midterm election  because, you know, it’s going to be one of