Face the Nation: Cox, Salvanto, political panel

[0:00] We turn now to Utah Republican Governor Spencer Cox. His new book is titled Off-Ramp, [0:06] How to Be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt. He joins us from Salt Lake City. Good morning, [0:12] Governor Cox. Good morning, Weijia. It's great to be with you again. [0:17] Thank you for being here. Let's start with AI because just this morning, [0:20] House Speaker Mike Johnson said we don't need everyone to panic and Congress should resist [0:26] jumping in and imposing some sort of moratorium. But I wonder what role does the federal government [0:31] need to be playing right now? Well, a much bigger role than the role [0:36] that they're actually playing. I don't think the speaker has to worry at all about Congress not [0:41] acting. That's kind of all they do. They're very good at that. And I think this is a very important [0:47] moment for all of us. We've seen the reports. We know what's possible. The hugging face incident [0:53] that you've already talked about should be very concerning to everyone. And the people that know [0:58] the most about this are the most concerned right now. And I think that that means that Congress [1:03] actually should get together and at least have a conversation. I'm embarrassed by the response [1:09] from Congress to just about everything in our country right now. And have you spoken to any [1:13] members, any Republicans about this lack of urgency? Yeah. So in the past, just in the past 48 hours, [1:23] members of my team have reached out to a couple members of our delegation who share our concerns. [1:27] We're looking at, of course, at what Dario and Sam and Elon have all been saying now, [1:34] just in the last 24 hours, I think our thinking on this is, is kind of moving for sure. But it's very [1:41] clear. And we've known this now for a little while that, that the possibility of an existential event [1:47] happening is growing and growing much more rapidly than anyone projected. And it's really important [1:53] that the government gets involved. And we can do this in the right way. I'm not saying a moratorium. [1:58] I'm not saying shutting things down. Government doesn't get this right often either, but we [2:03] should be at the table working together. And that's what we've done in Utah. We have a pro-human AI [2:07] approach. We actually have these companies at the table with government working together [2:12] on making sure we protect the public. Governor, we have so much more to talk [2:16] to you about, but we have to take a quick break. We will be right back on Face the Nation. [2:26] Welcome back to Face the Nation. We return to our conversation with [2:30] Utah Republican Governor Spencer Cox. Governor, I want to turn to the midterm [2:34] elections because we are still waiting for a final decision from the Supreme Court [2:39] that could have a huge impact on mail-in ballots. In your state, 95% of voters [2:46] used a mail-in ballot in the June primary elections. And I wonder, would the new Postal Service rules [2:54] in the president's executive order make it harder for people to vote? [3:00] Well, it would certainly have an impact here in the state of Utah. Unlike many other states, [3:04] we took about a decade to implement vote by mail. We have tremendous security measures in place and [3:10] we're adding more all of the time. So I understand some of the concerns that have been brought up, [3:14] especially in other states. We do it very well here in the state of Utah, but we'll be prepared for [3:19] whatever decision happens and make sure that we're ready so that everyone gets to vote. Everyone who [3:24] should be voting will be able to vote in Utah. Well, no matter how people vote, [3:29] prices and inflation remains a essential issue for them. And we know that gas prices nationwide are [3:37] still over $4 a gallon. Inflation is still at 3.4%. And hourly wage averages dropped slightly by 0.1%. [3:46] And here's what President Trump had to say about affordability at the recent midterm convention. [3:52] They used the word affordability, right? It's fake. They are so fake. Because it was them [4:03] that caused the affordability, to use their word, crisis. And I'm bringing the prices way down. [4:10] The President's message does not match what many Americans are feeling right now. And I wonder if [4:18] this disconnect is going to hurt Republicans in November. [4:22] Well, look, affordability has certainly been on the ballot now for several years. We understand that. [4:29] And the conflict, the war that's happening in Iran right now is, I mean, it's no secret that that's [4:36] been really hard on gas prices. There are lots of other pieces of this that I think are important. [4:41] And we appreciate the work that the administration has been doing to bring down housing prices. We have [4:46] to build more. We really have to change the mentality. We need permitting reform. We're [4:50] getting a lot of that out of the administration. But again, we need Congress to act so that we can [4:55] build the infrastructure that will help us to bring down prices, especially around housing, [5:00] which is still, I think, the worst part of the affordability crisis right now is that we have an [5:06] entire generation of young people that aren't going to be able to afford a home. And you can't start a [5:10] family if you don't have a home. There are just so many downstream effects on this. We have to be [5:14] able to build again in this country. That's happening now more than it has in the past. [5:20] But Congress still has to get permitting reform done. And we're very anxious and hopeful that [5:25] Republicans and Democrats, by the way, who all agree on this, my Democratic colleagues, governors [5:29] across the country and in Congress believe in permitting reform for the first time in a generation, [5:36] at least. And so we can get this done and show that America is back and that we can start building [5:41] again. Well, one way President Trump wants to make ends meet a little bit easier is to give every [5:46] American adult $5,000 if the Republicans win the midterms. And he says he doesn't need Congress's [5:52] approval to do it as a fiscal conservative. What would you advise the President about this $1.2 trillion [5:59] cost? Well, look, I think a lot of us are really worried. I know I have been for a long time about [6:07] the national debt. We just passed the $40 trillion mark. It seems like that's unsustainable. And we [6:14] know we had an inflation crisis because of the funds that were handed out during COVID. And that led [6:21] to a significant spike in inflation that we're still dealing with from the past administration, [6:25] from the Biden administration, where we saw inflation rates that we haven't seen since I was [6:30] five years old back in the late 70s and early 80s. So I'm very concerned about those inflationary [6:37] pressures that we're seeing. Again, I think there's other things that we can do to help bring down [6:42] prices. But I will also say, look, at a time when, I mean, you're going to talk about the polls later, [6:48] the polls haven't been great for Republicans heading into these midterms. Then the Democrats decided to go [6:54] full socialist on us and really handed us Republicans a big win. And I think that it's going to be closer [7:01] when it comes to the midterm. So I'm feeling much more bullish about our chances as we head into [7:07] November. Governor, let's talk about your new book about political polarization. You call for Americans to [7:13] disagree better. You write about the hours after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and you urged [7:20] Americans to find an off ramp or it's going to get much, much worse, you warn. Here's what the [7:26] president and vice president said at the midterm convention this week. They're not socialist. [7:32] They're not Democrats. They're communists. We will reject these radical left lunatics. [7:38] We will demolish the extremists, fanatics, lunatics, and criminals who want to destroy our country. [7:46] They want to destroy the country. The Democrats are the party of hatred. They're the party that [7:52] despises America and the people who built it. Does this language help America find an off ramp [8:00] governor? Well, I, you know, I wish you had cherry picked some, also some clips from, from the left [8:08] saying similar things about Republicans. This is the, this is the nature of the discourse right now in, [8:13] in our country. And we just, you know, we just, we just commemorated, sadly, it's been a year since [8:21] Charlie Kirk was assassinated right here in Utah. You were front and center for another attack against [8:29] the president. You were on stage at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. I, you, you spoke very [8:34] eloquently afterwards about what that, what that felt like. What I do is I talk about all the political [8:40] violence that we've seen, the significant increase over the past 10 years. Threats against member of, [8:45] members of Congress has, has increased 10 fold, have increased 10 fold in the past 10 years. Not a [8:51] 10% increase, a 10 times increase. And that's what I'm, I'm so concerned about. We should be able to [8:57] have policy differences. We should be trying to persuade. We should be very passionate about our [9:02] beliefs and pointing out the things we disagree with in our opponents. That is fair game. It always has [9:07] been, in fact, it's critical to our country's survival. But, but, but I, I'm not, I'm not a huge [9:14] fan of, of name calling and, and just, again, the, the attacks that we, we, we place on each other. [9:21] Governor, I'm not a huge fan of cutting you off, but I'm sorry we have to go. And I appreciate your [9:26] time this morning. Thank you so much. Thanks, Weijia. Last week, the U.S. and Iran continued to exchange [9:36] fire. The latest, an escalation at an American air force base in Jordan. CBS News has learned [9:42] that the U.S. used more than 30 Patriot missiles to defend against those attacks, adding to concerns [9:49] over the rapidly declining stockpile of missiles, among other types of precision munitions. 60 Minutes [9:56] correspondent Nora O'Donnell spoke with the commander in charge of the war in Iran. Admiral Brad Cooper [10:02] about those concerns about dwindling supply. You have testified about this, a shortage of munitions, [10:10] especially to defend against Iranian missile and drone attacks. That's become a big issue in this war. [10:15] How concerned are you about that right now? I'm not concerned at all. We're well armed and [10:19] ready for any contingency. So even though there are estimates that the U.S. has already fired 45 percent [10:25] of its Patriot missiles and use more than half of its THAAD missiles, you're not worried about any future [10:32] threats. I'm not. Nora joins us now for tonight's season premiere of 60 Minutes. She spoke with [10:38] Admiral Cooper about the rescue of American aviators who were shot down over Iran earlier this year. [10:45] Nora, it was such a remarkable mission. What can you tell us? That's right, Ouija. You know, [10:51] top military officials call this one of the largest and most complex rescue missions [10:57] in U.S. military history. Remember, this happened back in April. An F-15E strike eagle, a fighter jet, [11:04] was shot down over Iran with two American aviators on board. They ended up stranded, [11:11] alone in Iran, working to evade capture. There was an Iranian bounty on their heads, [11:17] one of them severely injured. So our story is about the 50-hour search and rescue operation [11:24] for one of those officers. His mission call sign, Bravo. He's the backseater or what you call the [11:30] weapons systems officer. And you know what? No one from this crew has ever spoken publicly about what [11:38] happened in that rescue operation. But for the first time on 60 Minutes, you are going to hear from [11:44] Bravo. And it is quite an extraordinary story. You know, we're talking about that rescue to get him [11:51] involved more than 155 aircraft, close to 100 special operators on the ground to rescue one man. And so [12:02] you'll hear new details, including some newly declassified video from the Pentagon as well. Ouija. [12:09] Yes, President Trump said it was like finding a needle in a haystack. We can't wait to see it. [12:14] Nora, thank you so much. Thank you, Ouija. [12:18] You can watch Nora's story and more on the 59th season premiere of 60 Minutes tonight at 7.30 p.m. [12:25] after NFL football. We'll be right back. We're back with CBS News Executive Director of Elections [12:32] and Surveys, Anthony Salvato. Anthony, I want to start this morning by playing a clip of the president [12:38] that is now a familiar plea to try to get Republicans to the polls. [12:44] You've got to pretend I'm on the ticket. I'm on the ticket. I'm on the ticket. He's on the ticket. [12:48] I'm on the ticket. Okay. So Trump says he wants people to pretend like he's on the ballot. That [12:55] may be aimed at his party, but it seems like Democrats are hearing that message too. [13:00] Yeah, I am here with news, Ouija. I found something that Republicans and Democrats agree on, [13:05] and that is- That is news in Washington. [13:07] Exactly. They both see this midterms as being about President Trump. Republicans and voters [13:15] to support him and Democrats and their voters to vote against him. In fact, the levels at which people [13:22] say that Donald Trump is on their minds as they go to the polls this year would surpass even his mark [13:30] from 2018 for a president being influential in the midterms. But there is another part of this. [13:37] Democrats are winning people who say that prices for them, that inflation has been difficult or a hardship. [13:44] So what we do is we take voters' preferences and we put that into our House seats model. [13:50] What that does is it translates the way votes are going right now into how many seats would swing [13:56] come November if it stays this way. That puts the Democrats right now at 228 seats. [14:02] That's more than the 218 needed for a majority, and there's a range around that. The Democrats could [14:07] go higher. Republicans still have a chance to hold on in our model. So this is not a done deal, [14:14] but there aren't that many competitive House districts out there this year, partly because of [14:18] partisanship, partly because of redistricting. So that playing field is really narrow, but that's the [14:24] seat number the way it nets out. And there is still time. So I wonder what the Democrats have to do. [14:30] What challenges do they have to overcome to make this a reality? [14:34] This is a lot about opposition, but it's not necessarily an affirmative case, which is to say [14:40] most people voting for the Democrats say they're doing it to try to stop the president and his policies [14:46] rather than to try to help the Democrats get theirs. Is that enough to win an election? I think that's a [14:52] debate. Although they have an edge, the Democrats are not seen by voters as if they win, voters will [14:59] become financially better off. In fact, they think neither party can make them financially better off. [15:05] Finally, you know, we saw a lot through the primaries about Democratic Socialists. That label, [15:11] while it basically splits the Democratic Party, is net negative for other voters. So how does that play [15:18] out more widely? I think it's going to be a big theme. And what about for Republicans? They obviously [15:22] want to stay competitive. What do they need to do? So the first one comes back to this turnout [15:28] motivation. The MAGA base is listening to the president, as they often do. They tell us they are [15:34] just as enthusiastic about this election as they were two years ago. They want to support him. That's not [15:40] all Republicans. And so the non-MAGA Republicans, they're not considering Democrats by and large, [15:46] but they're a little bit less likely to tell us that they're going to vote. So extending that [15:50] motivation beyond the MAGA base is a challenge for Republicans. The other part of it too is, [15:55] if you go policy by policy, voters tell us that they'd prefer a candidate who opposes the [16:02] administration's tariffs program. They see that, of course, related back to prices. Opposes the Iran [16:08] conflict. They see that related back to gas prices. So it still circles back to that inflation dynamic, [16:14] and that's the Republicans' hurdle. Well, that's everyone's hurdle right now too. [16:18] So thank you so much, Anthony. We'll be back with you in just a moment with our panel too. [16:25] We're back with our political panel. Anthony Salvato is joined by CBS News senior White House and [16:30] political correspondent Ed O'Keefe and Amy Walter, the editor-in-chief and publisher of the Cook Political [16:37] Report. Good morning, guys. Good morning. So Amy, Anthony just laid it all out for us. Both sides [16:41] want Trump to be on the ballot. He says, bring it on. Do Republicans want that? [16:47] Well, what Republicans really need, it goes to the slide that Anthony showed there at the end. [16:52] What they really need to do is figure out how to get those people who say, [16:55] I'm not necessarily MAGA-identified, but I'm a Republican. I'm just not that interested in [17:01] turning out to vote. And here's the challenge of getting them to turn out to vote. They are also [17:05] feeling the most squeezed on the economy, or at the very least, they don't give Trump the benefit of the [17:11] doubt on the economy. A lot of these kinds of voters are sitting in places like Iowa or other [17:17] parts of the Midwest. Maybe they're a farmer. Maybe they're seeing the cost of diesel or fertilizer. [17:22] They're obviously all filling up their gas tanks. So for them, what they really, what would really [17:27] motivate them is an economy improving, and that's not likely to happen between now and then. So [17:33] instead, what we're going to see is Republican candidates themselves are going to try to make the [17:39] race a referendum on the Democrat by spending as much money as they can, demonizing the Democrat, [17:44] hoping that is what gets those reluctant Republicans off the couch. [17:49] And Ed, you are fresh off a reporting trip from Texas. You were at the convention. They didn't [17:53] talk about the economy. They didn't talk about prices. They didn't talk about tariffs. What was that for? [17:59] It was for, and it all lays out here in this poll. I mean, it all makes sense now, [18:03] once you see these numbers. Because if you're someone who is opposed to President Trump, [18:09] this was not for you. If you're someone who's on the fence about, do I show up and give them [18:13] that support despite the fact that diesel's high? I don't like the tariffs. This was designed to reach [18:19] you. And I think the vice president probably had the most effective argument to make, which was, [18:23] I was friends with Charlie Kirk, died, was killed a year ago this past week. We disagreed on a lot of [18:29] things, but he understood that ultimately we were the better option for the country than the Democrats. [18:33] And what does this polling also show? That there's a real issue for Democrats in defining what they [18:37] are and who they are right now, which is why the Republicans spent so much time this week trying to [18:41] define them, because they can't sort it out for themselves. And if you can keep that up and convince [18:46] that 71% non-MAGA to show up because, oh, the Democrats are dangerous. They're too liberal. They're too, [18:52] you know, socialist or what have you, that is ultimately what they think gets them over the line in [18:57] enough of those house races so that at least the margin maybe isn't 228. Maybe it's more like, [19:01] you know, 220 and never reaches the 235 that it could get to. Because when I asked those people, [19:07] okay, would you consider a Democrat? By and large, what they say about them is, never mind the economy, [19:12] they don't think the Democrats agree with them on cultural values. And you get these really big [19:16] numbers. So when we talk about whether or not they'd stay home, it's because the Democrats haven't [19:21] sufficiently lured enough of them back over the economy, notwithstanding. And that's one of their, [19:26] that's one of their challenges as well. And these independents aren't showing up for Democrats [19:30] either. To Ed's point about soul searching, how much does that play into why, you know, [19:35] they're just still right there? So I think it's important that both sides are seen as not [19:40] necessarily helping your finances right now, because if you take this as a longer arc, we saw people [19:45] worried about inflation during the Biden years, and now it continues during the Trump administration. [19:50] To your point, Amy, there was that transactional component. A lot of folks behind Donald Trump who [19:55] thought this would be fixed by now. And so when they don't see it, yeah, maybe they start to stay [20:01] home. But this is also why you've seen former President Obama now in the last few days say [20:05] the Democrats focus on AI, on stopping the construction of data centers, because this issue [20:10] came out of nowhere just in the last few months, and it's suddenly galvanized both sides to understand [20:15] people are concerned about this, they think it's dangerous, they think it could be detrimental to the [20:19] economy. And it's such an easy one, because so many Republican governors were the ones pushing to get [20:24] these things built. And now like Greg Abbott pulling back the idea of doing so. It's an easy one for them, he argues. [20:29] It's also an affordability conversation, right? And that's where so much of the anxiety about data centers, [20:34] we can spend a great deal of time talking about what's behind the anxiety, but a lot of it is cost. [20:39] And this is what's going to be interesting about the data center debate. We're also seeing Republicans running ads [20:45] against data centers or saying we should put a moratorium because for this is still kind of a [20:51] jump ball. Republicans, Democrats who are voters don't necessarily attach data centers or AI to one [20:58] party or another right now. And so this is an opportunity for individual candidates to say, [21:04] oh, look what I'm doing to help save you money. I'm going to make sure that these data centers aren't, [21:10] you know, taking our water or are stressing the grid. It's a manifestation of this [21:15] larger concern. We see it in the polling that AI is going to take jobs. And this has been going [21:19] on for a while. People have an easier time always remembering the past and applying that [21:24] than imagining the future. And they don't necessarily think this is going to create more jobs. [21:29] So that's where that concern starts to come from in a broader sense as well. [21:33] And Amy, I want to talk to you about Texas. [21:36] Yes, indeed. [21:37] Because obviously, you know, the tangling over the redistricting in courts, [21:42] maybe at an end. What are we seeing in terms of the gains and losses now? [21:46] Yeah. Just in terms of like what Texas could look like? [21:50] Mm-hmm. [21:50] Yeah. [21:50] Yeah. Well, we, in partnership with Univision, [21:54] conducted a poll just of Texas Hispanics that came out of the field this week. And what we find is [21:59] all of the gains that Donald Trump and Republicans made with those voters in 2024- [22:04] And they were huge. They were huge. [22:05] They were so critical. [22:06] Trump won Hispanic voters in Texas by 10 points. Right now, [22:10] we have the generic ballot, which asks, would you vote for a Democrat or a Republican, [22:14] with Democrats up 27 points. In the Rio Grande Valley, they're up 14 points. The Rio Grande Valley [22:20] is the heart of where the battle for three seats in Congress and where a lot of this redistricting [22:25] happens. So just imagine a place that Trump carried really easily by double digits, [22:30] the Rio Grande Valley, that is, in 2024, now voting overwhelmingly for Democrats. [22:35] This, I think, goes to the heart of the issue that Anthony was talking about. These were, [22:40] many of these voters were bought in on the idea that Donald Trump was the one who's going to fix [22:45] the economy. He was the one who's going to make their lives a little bit easier. They still give him [22:49] credit on the border. Many of these folks in the Rio Grande Valley support border patrol. They support [22:55] restrictions on immigration. They don't like what's happening with ICE, [22:59] and they especially aren't happy with state of the economy. If they fail to, [23:03] if Republicans fail to win at least three of those five, this will have been a disastrous, [23:08] expensive waste of time, money, and political focus. It was built on the premise that that [23:14] Latino support would hold, and that they would get at least three of those five seats that way. [23:18] If it's disappearing, it will have robbed them of an opportunity. And look at all that it's done [23:23] across North Carolina, Missouri, California, everywhere else, because the president was banking on [23:27] holding that support. And why doesn't he hold it? Chiefly the economy, but then because of what's [23:32] happened with immigration. And finally, of the districts that we rate as the most competitive, [23:36] there are 37 of those. About a dozen of them are districts where the Hispanic population is at least [23:43] 20 percent. So it's not just Texas where Hispanic voters are going to be critical. It's, [23:48] as you said, it's in places like the Central Valley in California, in the Denver suburbs. These are places [23:54] where it wasn't just Texas where Hispanics shifted in favor of Republicans. It was in a lot of these [24:00] places, too. But Anthony, you said earlier that people are, you know, they don't see a solution in the [24:06] Democrats. So is it going to be enough to turn out votes for them on the economy? Look, I think that's [24:12] why you might see, and perhaps some would say, unfortunately, a very negative campaign going forward [24:17] because they don't have positive views of either one. All right, guys, I wish we had more time, [24:21] but we're out of it. That's it for us today. Margaret, we'll be back next week. For Face the Nation, [24:26] I'm Weijia Jiang.