We're seven days out from the midterm elections and President Trump is in Texas tonight for the third time this month. I'm Kaitlan Collins and this is a special edition of The Source, live from Capitol Hill.
One week from tonight, and the balance of power in the building behind me could look a lot different. Whatever the voters decide next Tuesday, it will impact just about everything for the final two years of the Trump presidency. And that's why the president himself is holding not one but two rallies in Texas tonight, including a return to Corpus Christi, the same city where President Trump was preparing to land last March when he actually gave the final go-ahead to launch an attack on Iran. As my colleague Kevin Liptak noted today, eight months later, this was part of his closing message to Texas voters.
We're now in the throes of having an even greater victory against Iran and stopping them from ever having a nuclear weapon. It's going to end very soon. They have no military. They have no name. They have no air force. Somebody asked me yesterday, it's very interesting, if you had to do it again, would you have attacked Iran? I said absolutely. Is it one of the greatest things I ever did?
History will be the judge of that. But American voters will issue their own judgment in just seven days from now. They appear to be in a deeply sour mood over the war's effect on the economy right now. Nothing illustrates that frustration really more than this: the average price of a gallon of gas nationwide is now $1.29 higher than it was before the start of this war. And in state after state after state, we're hearing voters say things like this.
I think just the way we were promised, you know, just basic necessities, you know, lower gas prices, we want to be able to buy a house, we want to be able to have a family, and I haven't seen those things that were promised to us. I voted for him, I can't lie. But seeing how he's just been a tyrant with his power, to be honest with you, is the best way to describe it. Starting wars that were not needed to be started. Gas prices have continuously gone up.
I've seen it like a lot with my parents, how like gas prices, grocery prices, how before it was way easier to buy all that stuff.
Mainly gas prices is crazy. Food prices are really ridiculous. You know, we're just trying to make a change.
How are you feeling about gas prices?
What do you think is to blame for that?
I'm not sure if it's what's going on out in the East with the Hormuz. I don't know, but I know he needs to get them backed down.
How are you feeling about gas prices?
How are you feeling about gas prices?
You know, they're rough right now.
Even with that sentiment shared widely among voters, the president, in his final sprint on the campaign trail, continues to tout how much money the big oil companies are making because of the war.
By the way, your oil price, so it's coming down, but your country is making an absolute fortune because of the situation in the Middle East. So Texas is now producing more oil and gas than at any time in its history. So somebody, the fake news will say they've already done it because they've said this. They said, 'Isn't it terrible? He forgot about the price at the pump.' No, your price is going to come down, but your country is making a fortune, and that's really good, right?
Don't say, 'Oh, you don't think about the person.' No, it's going to come down.
If you're thinking, 'I've heard that before,' it's because you have.
When the war is over, gas will fall down at levels that you've never seen before. As soon as it's over, you're going to see gasoline and oil drop like a rock.
It's going to come down like a rock.
The oil is coming way down. You're going to see the prices drop through the floor, and oil prices are going to drop like a rock.
Gas prices will come tumbling down.
Oil is going to drop way down. Diesel is going to come way down. Everything is.
Yet this is what the president was saying about those same oil company profits just over two months ago.
They made too much money. Too much money. Chevron, too much money. ExxonMobil, too much. Too much money. When you look at one company where they made 12 times what they made the year before, they're going to give some of that back to the public.
Now, the president is all out of time to make that happen before Election Day, a week from today. And it comes as almost 5 million Texans have already cast their ballots in the midterm elections. As President Trump today was also talking about what he is describing now as the one-day war, as he calls it, that the US had with Venezuela. That was when Nicolás Maduro was captured and is now in the United States awaiting trial. Ever since then, the United States has been deeply involved in Venezuela's oil industry. And the president is touting the arrival of what he says is a million barrels of Venezuelan oil in Texas today.
You have a little ship. See that little ship out there? It's got 1 million barrels of oil on it from Venezuela.
And we're celebrating the greatest oil victory in history. To the victor belong the spoils, right? But thanks to our big victory in our recent war with Venezuela.
On Truth Social, the president also said this shipment would mean, quote, 'Gasoline and diesel prices will soon come plummeting down. Just watch.' As we start the show tonight, I want to invite you to join our conversation that we're going to have. You can go to cnn.com/engagepolitics. We're going to answer some of your questions throughout the hour here on The Source. My first two political sources tonight are Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist, and Kevin Madden, who is the former campaign adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. And Kevin, you know, when you hear the president as he was talking there about how much the United States is making off this war, what do you think Texans who the president is speaking with tonight or in their state have to say to that?
Well, look, I think Texans probably more than many other states have an appreciation for the energy economy. They recognize how much work and investment goes in, not only from people, but from infrastructure, into producing the energy that the American economy needs in order to run. But when you think about how voters look at this and how they live their daily lives, they only really have one metric by which they gauge whether or not the economy is working for them, and it's often the price of gas. And so I think right now the everyday reminder that they're getting when they go to the gas pump to fill up their car or fill up their truck and they're seeing those prices high, that is for them a strain on many, many, many budgets. And so when they hear the president talking the way he does, that just creates a very discordant understanding of where politicians' priorities are and sort of is Washington working for us. It creates that tension right now. And when you're one week from Election Day and the titular head of the Republican Party, with many members of the House of Representatives and the Senate running for reelection underneath that Republican banner, that does create some electoral challenges, to say the least.
Well, I mean, Paul, speaking of those electoral challenges, James Talerico, the Democrat running for Senate in Texas, says this is an election basically he describes as a fight between David and Goliath. He's running, of course, against Ken Paxton, the president's chosen Republican candidate in that state. You're our resident Texan here tonight. Do you think these two rallies today that the president held will be enough to get Ken Paxton over the finish line?
I don't, and I understand what the president's trying to do. He's trying to rally the base, and I respect that. The problem is a good bit of his base is angry with him and even angrier with Ken Paxton. You know, I don't think that more Trump out there is good for the Republican Party. Trump is the problem, not the solution. And I think Talerico would probably be perfectly happy to see the president come to his state. You pointed out gas prices are up. They're up for Texans, too. And by the way, it doesn't create jobs in Texas to bring oil from Venezuela any more than it helps American beef producers in Texas that he's importing beef. It's like he doesn't even get his audience. And it seems to, I think, just disrespect them. You know, my father spent his whole life in that business. He was a salesman in an oil patch, and you want those rigs turning to the right, and that's good. He said that, but when you're unloading a tanker full of Venezuelan oil, it doesn't exactly create jobs for the folks in an oil patch. Watch Landman, Mr. President. It's a great show. You'd learn a little something.
Kevin, what do you make of that? Do you think that that is something that the voters there are impacted by?
You know, I think again, you know, if you want to understand how your economy is working, open up your fridge and fill up your cart with gas. So I think when you look at how this campaign is right now being conducted, and many of these issues, gas prices is just one part of it. It's the everyday nature of the affordability issue that is creating a challenge right now. Again, you go to fill up your car with gas, prices are higher. You go to the supermarket to pick up some food, food prices are higher. Health care costs, energy costs, education costs. These are the strains right now that are being placed on family budgets. And what folks want to know in an election cycle right now is, do you understand the problems of people like me, right? And what are you doing to fix it? And I think that's what this campaign has been about. And you know, every time that the folks in Washington aren't talking about that, or the folks on the campaign trail aren't addressing those affordability concerns very directly with voters, it's a missed opportunity.
Yeah. And you know, as we've been watching these two rallies, the president was just in Lubbock for his second stop tonight. And Paul, you know, one thing he's been talking about a lot is Ohio Senator John Hoeven, the Republican he's trying to pull across the line there, his physique. But Ken Paxton caught a stray in the middle of all of this today. This is what the president just said on stage a few moments ago.
I made the mistake of studying his anatomy and explaining it to the audience, and the audience loved it. By the way, he went up 12 points that day. He went from being down to being up.
Maybe I should do that with Ken Paxton, but I'm not sure your body is going to qualify.
Paul, you're a longtime political strategist. What did you think of that?
Well, when he's right, he's right. I know Paxton's a beautiful human being, and we love him. But good night, is he trying to tank the race for the Republicans? I mean, believe me, nobody wants to hear about John Hoeven's rear end, much less we certainly don't want to hear about Ken Paxton's. It's as if he's trying. And here he is. You think if you're Talerico, you have the most powerful man on earth coming into your state for two rallies today. You have the wealthiest man on earth, Elon Musk, spending millions and millions and millions. Somebody told me it was over 100 million, maybe more, attacking him. And then he's got as his opponent the most corrupt politician in Texas, and he needs help. Talerico does. Now I have to say he's leading in nine out of the last 10 polls, and the 10th they're tied. So I can't find a poll that's got Paxton winning. And I don't think that President Trump telling us that his rear end is not as nice as John Hoeven's is actually going to put him over the finish line.
I can, like, there are very few guarantees in politics. I can 100% guarantee this election is not coming down to either one of those candidates' anatomy.
It had to be said. Thank you, Kevin, for that. You know, one thing that was notable to me about this race today is there was a former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice. His name is Tom Phillips. He put out an op-ed endorsing James Talerico today. He said that that was because, quote, 'Paxton's long-standing reputation will embarrass Texas in ways our state simply cannot afford.' Do you think, Paul, that that's going to swing any of those Democratic or any of those Republican voters when they hear that?
Yeah, I know Chief Justice Phillips. He's a very conservative jurist. He was supported by Bush in the Republican Party. He's certainly no liberal. He's no Democrat. But he's a man of integrity, and he cares about the rule of law. And I think this creates, I think what the shrinks are telling us is a permission structure, right? It makes it okay for normie Republicans, for Cornyn Republicans, for Chief Justice Phillips Republicans, for Bush Republicans to either support Talerico, as President Bush's own brother is doing and President Bush's daughter, or at the least stay home. Like, if you can't quite stomach voting for a Democrat, I respect that. I think they're telling me you can stay home. So, yes, that permission structure is extraordinary to allow Talerico, who then makes it easy, right? He's not in your face. He's certainly not far-left DSA type. He's what he is. He's a seminarian who used to teach middle school. So that makes it kind of an easier journey for those voters, too.
Kevin, I mentioned that we have viewers submitting questions throughout the hour. They have a lot of questions, of course. Well, we're watching next Tuesday in a bunch of these races, including in Texas. One of them asked, you know, how long should it really take for gas prices to go down? What's a reasonable lead time in terms of what this is looking like?
Well, there's a lot that goes into the production lines. There's a lot that goes into everything from insuring tankers to transporting energy around the globe. It's a very dynamic marketplace. It's a very complex marketplace. So it doesn't just happen overnight. I think that's one of the things that politicians always have a hard time with on the campaign trail. They want to make promises in the room with 100 people in a gymnasium somewhere in Corpus Christi. But they also have to recognize that these are much more difficult problems to solve. So it is one of those things where it is going to take some time. I mean, refining capacity takes a while to build. We saw the disruption that many of these conflicts in both the Middle East as well as in Eastern Europe have had on the infrastructure that doesn't get repaired or replenished overnight. So this is a long-term dynamic market that we're going to have to watch.
Well, I mean, to that point about what politicians are saying on the campaign trail, Paul, another viewer is asking, what is the Democratic plan to lower prices for Americans? Because that is the number one thing that you're seeing Democrats run on. If they win on Tuesday, do they have a plan in place to act on those promises?
Yeah, I think a lot of good Democratic candidates are. There's not a unified message. We're a very divided, diverse party right now. But if you look at what these candidates are running on, first they're saying they want to end the war in Iran. And if they vote to end that war, gas prices will come down if the president obeys Congress. Second, Congress, not the president, has the power to levy tariffs. These tariffs, I believe, are unconstitutional. Congress should repeal those tariffs. Tariffs are taxes that raise the prices of all the groceries that Kevin was talking about a minute ago and every other consumer product that the tariff is placed on. I think Democrats ought to raise the minimum wage immediately. That hasn't been raised in decades, and that'll help your cost of living. It'll make you a little bit more money for most folks. And the president in that clip you played, I didn't remember him saying this, he seemed to support a windfall profits tax. Let's do it. Democrats want to raise taxes on those oil companies that are making money through no hard work of their own. This is just because of Mr. Trump's war. Take that money, plow it back to consumers. That's something Democrats can do to cut the cost. I think there's a lot, but they better come with that agenda, Kaitlan. If they come in there wanting to impeach Trump on day one, it will blow up in their face. And I mean, I can't stand Trump, but he commits three impeachable offenses before his second bucket at KFC. But they shouldn't do that. They should move on people's cost of living first and leave impeachment alone, elect a new president in two years.
Well, let's see what happens in one week from tonight. Paul Begala, Kevin Madden, great to have you both here.
Thanks. Great to be here.
Thank you both. Up next, as the cost of oil and high gas prices are looming over these midterms, I'm going to talk to one of the president's top energy advisers. Plus, our panel here tonight will answer your questions at the midterms. Go to cnn.com/engagepolitics to submit yours right now.
You can now add Venezuela to the list of nations or territories that the president has mused about making the 51st state.
It will become a prosperous country, and who knows, maybe someday soon it will become a prosperous 51st state. That's possible. Let's make it the 51st state, and instead of a president, we'll have an election for a governor.
Venezuela is now on that list alongside Greenland and Canada. As the president also said today, quote, 'We took over Venezuela very successfully.' Earlier in the day, he announced the arrival of a tanker in Texas loaded with Venezuelan oil. That oil is part of a deal that the White House announced back in August. My next source took part in the negotiations with Venezuela after the former dictator was seized by US forces in what the president is now describing as a war. Jared Aen is an assistant to the president and the executive director of the White House National Energy Dominance Council. And the president today was talking about this Venezuelan oil deal and was describing it as a gift that he was given after they went in and captured Maduro. He said a boatload of a million barrels of oil, I'm giving that to the United States of America. How does it qualify as a gift?
Well, Kaitlan, let's take a step back and look at what has happened here. Let's look at what happened over the last 24 hours in Venezuela. You had the opposition leader Machado freely going through the streets of Venezuela, not arrested, people surrounding her. This was a sign that you want to see in Venezuela. On top of that, here in Texas, the president welcoming a ship with a million barrels of oil. That is unheard of a year ago, the fact that that happened. Here's how this deal got done. The president went in, he got rid of Maduro, he opened up a new deal. The Department of War is going into a deal with the biggest independent company in Venezuela on the 17 best fields of oil in Venezuela. They sent their first shipment. It's 65 billion barrels that are going to eventually make its way to the US. This was the first shipment, a million barrels coming to the US, no cost to the taxpayer. That's going to get refined in Texas. It's going to go into the US system, and it's going to eventually help lower gas and diesel prices in the US. We've got more crude. This opens up. Look, Texas is at the max. Texas is drill, baby, drill. Texas, the Texas pipelines are at capacity. Having a million barrels coming into Texas is only going to help the US market.
Well, some people might watch the president as he was touring that tanker today and say, 'How soon is that going to bring down my gas prices?' Do you think that this will impact these voters who are filling up their tanks anytime soon?
