CNN's Jeff Zeleny Complains House Republicans Are Now ‘Very, Very Conservative’

Nicholas Spinnato
November 10th, 2026 3:24 PM

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A week after the midterm elections and victories for Democrats leading to them regaining a majority in the House and Senate, Tuesday’s Inside Politics complained that House Republicans were now “very, very conservative” after losses, with no true discussion of the ideological makeup of Democratic majorities.

Bash began by celebrating the losses of some notable congresspeople who lost, like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC).

She then joked about current “diversity” of Republican ideologies now compared to the coming Congress: 

I mean, you were talking about such a – I wouldn't say it was a diverse – kind of number of Republicans, but it's more diverse than what we're going to have now in the House of Representatives

 

 

CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny then complained, “I mean, this is going to be a very, very conservative House Republican conference."

He added, “But if you look at the names there, I mean, Mike Turner from Ohio comes to mind. I mean, he's a former chairman. He has been there for so long. But Ann Wagner, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, a former ambassador to Luxembourg, I believe she kind of embodied the shift in the Republican Party from the country club Republican era to the MAGA era. But she fell short.”

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However, Politico's Alex Gangitano, mentioning losses of the moderate members of the House, like Fitzpatrick and Lawler, added, “It's from both sides of whether you could be helpful to Trump or not in this next upcoming Congress that lost.”

Unsurprisingly, there was no sustained mention of the far-left candidates elected in both the House and the Senate on the panel. 

Given the conversation was about the House, there should fo been discussion of the far-left, DSA-aligned, or DSA member representatives poised to impact Democratic policies, like Darializa Avila Chevalier, who once posted “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me,” or Melat Kiros, a DSA member from Colorado who has refused to call the attacks on a Jewish rally in Boulder, Colorado, an antisemitic attack.

Some have also insisted some of the possible new Democratic senators, like Annie Andrews in South Carolina and Scott Colom, were poised to be moderates for the state.

In the case of Andrews, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski revealed her 2021 Twitter bio was that of someone who was anything but a moderate:

 

 

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Earlier in the show, Bash showed support for Colom’s possible win in Mississippi, featuring his “pick a new protein” ad against the incumbent Republican senator. Bash then claimed a Mississippi voter roll cleanup may have been “ultimately disenfranchising voters.”

 

 

While also being portrayed as some by a moderate, Colom personally asked former Vice President Kamala Harris to campaign with him, against his advisor's wishes, and campaigned with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and has appeared on Lawrence O’Donnell’s The Last Word on MS NOW, which can be described as anything but moderate or bipartisan.

The transcript is below. Click "expand":

CNN’s Inside Politics

November 10, 2026

12:50:30 PM Eastern

(...)

DANA BASH: There are so many notable people who come on cable news and elsewhere, who you’d recognize, who were not coming back. We have a list: Lauren Boebert, Brian Fitzpatrick, Richard Hudson we've been talking about, he ran the campaign committee, and the list goes on.

I mean, you were talking about such a – I wouldn't say it was a diverse – kind of number of Republicans, but it's more diverse than what we're going to have now in the House of Representatives.

JEFF ZELENY: There's no doubt. I mean, this is going to be a very, very conservative House Republican conference. But if you look at the names there, I mean, Mike Turner from Ohio comes to mind. I mean, he's a former chairman. He has been there for so long. But Ann Wagner, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, a former ambassador to Luxembourg, I believe she kind of embodied the shift in the Republican Party from the country club Republican era to the MAGA era. But she fell short. 

So this happens, obviously, in every wave election, but just kind of absorbing who some of these new members will be and not seeing some of these very longtime members.

ALEX GANGITANO: I think the diversity is interesting in the sense that there are members that President Trump stuck his neck out for. Like Turner, Van Orden in Wisconsin. And then there's members that, like Mike Lawler or a - they did help Lawler, but like him, or Fitzpatrick, that were sometimes issues for their agenda. And so it's from both sides of whether you could be helpful to Trump or not in this next upcoming Congress that lost.

BASH: And Mike Lawler in New York, Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania. Those are two of the only three. Kamala Harris won districts that Republicans were representing. Those were the swing districts, the frontliners we were looking at, not Scott Desjarlais. I mean, that's what's remarkable.

(...)

12:40:52 PM Eastern

BASH: I mean, this is just one illustration of one voter going to great lengths to vote. Many people don't have time for that. Do you think this attempt to clean voter rolls, as the secretary of state in Mississippi said that they were trying to do, is ultimately disenfranchizing voters there?

ANDY LACK: It's risked that for sure. Experian is the organization that did it. Their credit rating service people know them. It's a it's one of the biggest in the country. It's unfortunate, no question, how to calibrate just what its impact is, I don't know, but I do know that he's ahead and those votes aren't going to be contested, as far as I can tell. And now it's a waiting game between tonight, when the last votes are counted or cast, and by Friday we'll know. We'll have the answer. And no, but he, I think he feels pretty good about where he is.

BASH: And he got here. I know you believe and certainly we've talked about this viral video a lot. Yes. That got him where he is today. I want to show a little piece of it.

(...)

12:42:11 PM Eastern

VOTER IN COLOM AD: Pick another protein? She done lost her damn mind. I'd rather pick another senator

[Cuts back to live]

BASH: And just in case there's anybody watching this show who doesn't know what that's about, it's about her being asked about the price of beef, and she's saying, okay, well, just – She said, pick another protein,” and that was his response video.

LACK: It really is representative of who he is in terms of his personality. He has an authenticity that is very appealing to voters, and they buy into him for that reason. And it's personal. It's deeply personal. And he's worked the state with that understanding and the the the folks in Mississippi have responded well to it.

BASH: Before I let you go, the reason you're here is because Mississippi today is part of your mission to support local journalists who are checking claims, holding people accountable, people in power. They're doing it every day. The rest of the country is focused elsewhere, particularly national media. Does this Senate race show why – This is a rhetorical question – why this work is so essential to our democracy?

LACK:  Oh yes, we've got 38 reporters on the ground in Mississippi. It's one of the smallest states in the country. But we we're in the capital. We've been there with the best team of reporters we could assemble for the last decade. And we take that part of it, holding power to account as the real mission of what our news organization is, and everyone in the state knows it. So, we've built a level of trust, which is the key word, as you know, as a journalist, we built trust with community after community in the state, small and large. The capital city. And that's how we've put the organization together. I'm very proud of it for that reason, mostly.

(...)

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