CNN was seemingly engaged in some stochastic terrorism during Wednesday’s Inside Politics as host Dana Bash gave a platform to and promoted incendiary Democratic Party conspiracy theories claiming President Trump was going to steal the 2026 midterm elections. At no point did she try to poke holes in the idea, instead she praised Democrats for “sounding the alarm” and said Trump’s past claims of election rigging were the only “erroneous” ones.
Bash opened the segment by highlighting how Governors Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and JB Pritzker (D-IL) were “increasingly sounding the alarm that a free and fair election may not even happen.” She followed up with these two soundbites of the Governors making unsubstantiated and incendiary accusations:
NEWSOM: People actually think this guy is serious about having another election? You think he's joking about 2028? [Transition] I'm not calm and I'm not going to submit myself to niceties. Not when this guy is trying to wreck our God damn country.
PRITZKER: He'd like to stop the elections in 2026 or frankly, take control of those elections. He'll just claim that there's some problem with an election, and then he's got troops on the ground that can take control.
After introducing her guest commentator Dan Pfeiffer of Pod Save America and the Obama administration, Bash marveled at how outspoken Democrats were with their allegations and bluntly asked him: “[H]ow do we know that there not going to be messed with?”
“Yeah. Look, I think we should be very concerned that Donald Trump can mess with these elections,” Pfeiffer backed up the lies.
At no point did Bash admit that Democrats were making their claims ‘without evidence;’ the tag line they often threw onto something Trump would say despite the facts.
Urging Democrats to “prepare for the worst” for “when Donald Trump does the worst,” Pfeiffer predicted that Trump would send “ICE agents” to take over polling places:
I think a really signature moment that did not get enough attention was when Gavin Newsom held his press conference to announce the California ballot initiative to do redistricting here in California. There were ICE agents outside the press conference. Right? So what is why should we not expect that Donald Trump will do something similar, as Governor Pritzker suggested, at polling places in key Democratic districts or precincts, that he's not going to do everything we can.
Instead of asking for evidence, Bash wondered: “So how do you prepare for, in your words, the worst?”
Pfeiffer’s predictions grew more unhinged as it became clear that Bash was not going to ask any critical questions. He claimed Trump would use the military against polling places and House Speaker Mike Johnson would get involved:
[W]e should be prepared for national deployment of troops. We should be prepared for masked ICE agents outside of polling places, and we should be prepared for shenanigans from Speaker Johnson and the House Republicans when it comes to seating Democratic members in close races, if control of the House is at stake.
Ironically, it was Democrats who tried to play such games with seats when they tried steal the seat out from under Congresswoman Miller-Meeks (R-IA).
The only criticism Bash offered didn’t question the veracity of the allegations. Instead, she feared that talking about a stolen election would hinder Democratic Party turn out. “The flip side of the coin is that this sounding the alarm could suppress the Democratic vote, saying, why am I going to go vote if it's not going to matter?” she fretted.
These incendiary and unsupported allegations were absolutely dangerous to the wellbeing of Trump and Republicans. If another mentally unwell liberal heard them, they could be once again incited to commit acts of violence against people on the right.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Inside Politics
September 3, 2025
12:36:55 p.m. EasternDANA BASH: Governors Gavin Newsom and JB Pritzker are two closely watched Democrats who may run for president in 2028. Both are increasingly sounding the alarm that a free and fair election may not even happen.
[Cuts to video]
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): People actually think this guy is serious about having another election? You think he's joking about 2028? [Transition] I'm not calm and I'm not going to submit myself to niceties. Not when this guy is trying to wreck our God damn country.
GOV. JB PRITZKER (D-IL): He'd like to stop the elections in 2026 or frankly, take control of those elections. He'll just claim that there's some problem with an election, and then he's got troops on the ground that can take control.
[Cuts back to live]
BASH: Let's talk about all of this with Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Obama, currently a co-host of Pod Save America and author of Message Box on Substack. Thanks for being here, Dan.
I want to start with what JB Pritzker said, because this is the thing that I hear most from Democrats, which is just the first election nationally that we're going to see the midterms. And that is how do we know that there not going to be messed with? I mean, it's the kind of thing that we heard on the Republican side, pushed by Donald Trump erroneously going into 2020 and others. But I haven't heard Democrats this concerned talk about the ecosystem and versus the reality that's driving that.
DAN PFEIFFER: Yeah. Look, I think we should be very concerned that Donald Trump can mess with these elections.
I think a really signature moment that did not get enough attention was when Gavin Newsom held his press conference to announce the California ballot initiative to do redistricting here in California. There were ICE agents outside the press conference. Right? So what is why should we not expect that Donald Trump will do something similar, as Governor Pritzker suggested, at polling places in key Democratic districts or precincts, that he's not going to do everything we can.
We already know that he is taking the extraordinary step of trying to have several states redistrict to hold on to power in the House. I think we have to be prepared for everything. And there is a real like there is real concern out there. And I think that both Governor Newsom and Governor Pritzker and a few others are speaking to that. And it's I would rather prepare for the worst and hope for the best than be caught flat footed when Donald Trump does the worst.
BASH: So how do you prepare for, in your words, the worst?
PFEIFFER: Well, I think the first thing is to call it out. Right? To start talking about it now. There's obviously things that campaigns can be doing in terms of legal strategy. We've seen some courts that have pushed back on Trump's use of troops. So, we should do those things. But make everyone aware. Right? Get people fired up, make people understand that these things are coming so they're not surprised when they happen. Right? So that they know we can have poll watchers. We can have Democrats in attendance to help people understand what's happening. But we should prepare for every eventuality.
I don't think Donald Trump is going to cancel the elections. That's not something he can really do. But we should be prepared for national deployment of troops. We should be prepared for masked ICE agents outside of polling places, and we should be prepared for shenanigans from Speaker Johnson and the House Republicans when it comes to seating Democratic members in close races, if control of the House is at stake.
BASH: Well, you're saying the Democrats should be fired up. By the way, where'd you get that term? I heard that once. [Laughter]
PFEIFFER: We seem fired up, ready to go is an open question. But we’ll see.
BASH: Well, that's – So that's where I'm going to go with this, which is just to covering politics for a long time. The flip side of the coin is that this sounding the alarm could suppress the Democratic vote, saying, why am I going to go vote if it's not going to matter?
PFEIFFER: I think I've heard that argument before. We've heard that that is one of the things that campaigns have talked about in the past. I've been part of discussions around that. I think we are better off preparing people for what is likely to happen, than to have them show up expecting a normal election, and see these troops.
If you can normalize the fact that this may happen. I think it can increase turnout. It can keep people in line, keep people going to the polls. I just really think in this day and age, in this media ecosystem, trying to hide information from people to try to manage their emotions cannot work. So, you should just be brutally honest with them about what may happen and try to help them prepare for how to navigate those situations when they come.
(…)
