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Germany’s Merz defiant after historic state elections defeat, vows to press ahead with reforms

2026-09-20T14:26:21-0400 / CBS/AP

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz remained defiant on Sunday, vowing to press ahead with potentially painful reforms to Europe’s biggest economy, after suffering a bruising electoral setback in two state elections.

Exit polls by public broadcaster ARD indicated that Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, came in with just 5% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – the lowest result ever since World War II for the party in any state. Meanwhile, the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party made significant gains.

Merz acknowledged that the result was a “disaster” but said he would still move ahead with his government’s reform agenda. He argued that Germany’s economic and political problems made difficult and potentially unpopular reforms more urgent, not less so, and pledged to press ahead.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks at the Konrad Adenauer House following the elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany on Sept. 20, 2026. Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images

“What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness, and patience,” Merz said in a statement shortly after the exit polls were announced on public television. “I will demonstrate these qualities as chairman of the CDU and, above all, as chancellor of our country.”

In Berlin, the CDU was projected to come in second with 20%, behind Die Linke (The Left Party) at 24.5%, according to ARD’s exit poll.

“In our city, love and justice have triumphed over hatred,” said Die Linke’s lead candidate Elif Eralp, the daughter of Turkish migrants, celebrating her party’s triumph over AfD.

Merz’s authority was already damaged by the CDU’s stinging defeat to AfD in the Sept. 6 election in the small eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. That result shocked many Germans who had believed their country had developed an immunity to nationalism and assertions of racial superiority after confronting the horrors of its Nazi past through education and laws to outlaw persecution.

On Sunday, AfD was projected to make big gains in both states. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it garnered 37% of the vote, and in Berlin it achieved 15.7%, according to ARD. But it was nowhere close to being able to form a regional government.

Die Linke (The Left Party) lead candidate for Berlin Governing Mayor Elif Eralp celebrates with party supporters at the party headquarters, Karl-Liebknecht-Haus, in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 20, 2026. Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images

AfD’s national co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, told ZDF television that “the chancellor’s statement today really was more than feeble — he announced that he’d carry on as before, instead of finally drawing the consequences and resigning.”

However, in an apparent reference to the far-right party, Merz said that his government’s reforms would be “the antidote to the poison of authoritarianism, which is penetrating ever deeper into our society as the fascination with authoritarianism grows.”

The CDU has run Germany’s government off and on for the vast majority of its post-World War II history.

Merz, 70, became Germany’s leader 16 months ago with promises to turn around an economy that has barely grown in years. But his government is grappling with a weak economy, and many voters who had hoped the former corporate executive would fix that have become disillusioned with delays in implementing financial and tax reforms.

While Germany is again seeing moderate growth, the labor market deteriorated last year. In August, more than 3 million people were unemployed, an increase of 36,000 from the previous year. Demand for labor remains weak, according to the Federal Employment Agency.

The strong showing of AfD in the Saxony-Anhalt election, where it has the best chance yet of forming the country’s first far-right regional government since World War II, has further weakened the chancellor’s standing on the national level as well.

In the past two weeks, there have been calls, even from within his own party, for him to be replaced as chancellor, although no top-level allies have called publicly for his departure, and many have warned against “personnel debates.”

Apparently anticipating a tough post-election period, Merz abandoned a planned trip to New York next week to attend the U.N. General Assembly. Despite the strong headwinds, he has repeatedly said that he’s determined to stay on and finish his term as chancellor.

Transcript: Sen. Bill Cassidy on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Sept. 20, 2026

2026-09-20T12:02:41-0400 / CBS News

The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sept. 20, 2026.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by Republican Senator Bill Cassidy. He is the chairman of the Health Committee, and he joins us from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Good morning to you, Doctor. A lot to get to. I want to start first on something that grabbed our attention. President Trump claimed Friday that his son has now repaid a Russian billionaire named Umar Kremlev, after it was reported that the Kremlin-linked billionaire paid for parts of his son’s wedding celebrations in the Bahamas. Don Jr. originally called it a gift, but your Republican colleague from Utah, Senator Curtis, called it corruption. Your colleague from North Carolina, Thom Tillis, said it was “beyond bad.” Do you think it’s corruption, and does repaying the funds make a difference?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: Repaying the funds does make a difference. Anytime someone gives a $250,000 gift and they have strong ties to the Kremlin, that’s- that’s wrong. You- with that proximity to power, being the president’s son, you’ve got to give faith to the American people that Washington is not a swamp, and even though in your mind it might be a gift, the appearance of it is really bad, and so I’m glad it’s been repaid. Would be nice to have that kind of verified and no, it shouldn’t have been done in the first place.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, it was the free press that brought it forward in the first place- it was a publication called ProPublica. Important reporting there. Let me ask you about an issue that I know is on your radar, and that is the debt we are in. As a country, we are 40 trillion in debt. President Trump said he’s going to pay out $5,000 to Americans if Republicans win in these upcoming midterm elections. I know the Treasury Secretary says he’ll avoid going to Congress for that money, even if it’s not fiscal spending. Is- isn’t it inflationary, and is it actually a good idea?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: It’s absolutely inflationary. If Joe Biden had proposed that, conservatives would have been all against it, and I say that because if the government borrows money, it’s going to drive up how much somebody pays for their mortgage, for their car note, perhaps for their credit card. And so, for that family struggling to buy their first home or to refinance a home or to buy a car, it becomes that much more out of reach to you. We need to actually pay attention to our national debt, and I can tell you that if we can control our debt, that will be a stimulus to somebody. That will help them be able to afford life better. That’s a better way to go.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Anything like that going to happen post-midterms to control the debt?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: Well, so as you know, I’ve been pushing to address Social Security, and the nice thing about addressing Social Security, which I would still love to do this Congress, is that- is that not only do you ensure the benefit that has been promised to the American people, but you also take care of 20% of our nation’s indebtedness, and so that’s why I’ve been so pushing for this. If we wait six years until–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: –the trust fund goes insolvent, my gosh–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: –that’s too late. We need to do it now.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Absolutely. Let’s talk more about it in a minute. I’m going to take this commercial break, Senator. And we’ll have much more with Dr. Bill Cassidy. Stay with us.

[ANNOUNCEMENTS]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We return now to our conversation with Louisiana Republican Senator and Dr. Bill Cassidy. Senator, you- as we mentioned, run the Health Committee. President Trump spoke at length on Friday again about vaccines, and he said he’s going to demand that drug companies split up kids’ vaccines into five doses. He said it will lead, quote, “to a massive reduction in autism.” Take a listen.

[START SOUND ON TAPE]

DONALD TRUMP: So you have shot one, shot two, shot three, shot four, shot five. So instead of having a massive dose of 82 or 88 different vaccines pumped into your arm, we’ll take out certain vaccines that people are a little worried about.

[END SOUND ON TAPE]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you know what vaccines he means, or whether vaccine makers are actually going to do what he just promised?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: I don’t know that. There needs to be, though, radical honesty. Have the president come forward- what is he basing this on? Who’s giving him advice? And I approach this as a physician. I spoke to a pediatrician the other night who says that patients are so worried. Patients’ mothers are so worried. And so we need to address that worry where it is, not by coming up with stuff which may have no- I have no clue where it’s coming from, but kind of in a radically honest way, explain what you think. If you want to be radically honest, the vaccines are safe. They’ve been proven to be safe, and the current regimen has been timed to be most convenient to the parent. At any point, the parent can say, “I want something different,” but I would just ask the president to be aware that people are listening to him. If he discourages immunization, there’ll be fewer people immunized, and if we’re speaking of measles, there’ll be more people sick in the hospital or even die.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, and just on the math of it all, he’s talking about more shots, adding shots rather than reducing them, but your committee holds a hearing this coming week on the nominee to be the next FDA commissioner, Dr. Heidi Overton. She was standing beside President Trump a few weeks ago when he falsely called the MMR vaccine lethal. You said it was a “nonsensical executive order” that he was signing to change the childhood vaccine schedule. She’d be involved with the vaccine makers here. You said her presence and involvement was “almost disqualifying.” Why not automatically? What do you need to hear from her to be persuaded?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: I need to hear that she understands that calling the measles vaccine lethal is absurd, and we need radical honesty. Tell us, Mr. President, why do you think this vaccine is lethal? Have you ever seen a case of lethality? And what about the people who are not vaccinated, who are getting sick and even dying? By the way, a 40-year-old and an 18-year-old most recently, and what do we say to those families in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where a child- an older child with active measles, walked through, exposing those children in that ICU? We should have a common voice of radical honesty of- of trying to help the American people understand what is safe. And if the president calls it lethal, then where are you getting your information, Mr. President? And if- if you really don’t have it, why are you willing to risk the lives of fellow Americans?

MARGARET BRENNAN: And on this program, Dr. Oz did admit that it was not lethal when we pressed him, but- but no one did on camera.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: And Margaret–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: –and Margaret, can I also point out–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: –that the president’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Saphier–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: –just said in committee hearing last week that it’s not lethal, it is safe, and people should be vaccinated.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Did she earn your vote? And if so, when will we see her confirmed as surgeon general?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: So she did earn my vote, and she’ll be part of, I’m sure, the en bloc- you know, there’s a whole group of people that’ll be all approved at the same time. But when somebody is willing to be honest to the American people and say that vaccines are safe, you should be taking it, and the consequence of not can even include death- well, what else can you ask for when it comes to vaccines?

MARGARET BRENNAN: You mentioned a moment ago the concern that the Pennsylvania Department of Health has said about the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and exposure of babies, infants in NICU. A baby’s not immunized until around 12 months of age, so these infants are at risk here. And Dr. Paul Offit, who heads the Vaccine Education Center, said the United States is severely underestimating the epidemic of measles right now. So we have had for about two-and-a-half weeks now a new CDC director, Dr. Erica Schwartz. In her very first interview, she said the CDC is working on a definition of what a measles-related death is. Is that really what the CDC should be focused on- the- the nuance around the language?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: So Dr. Schwartz and I have communicated on multiple occasions, and- and there is a difference in medicine between “caused by” and “associated with.” Of the four deaths in Pennsylvania, one was associated with measles, but the coroner did not say that measles caused the death. The other three- other three, a coroner- by the way, all Republicans have said that the deaths were caused by measles. Now, there’s apparently a lag time between the records being sent, received by CDC from- from Pennsylvania, and being posted. But the coroner in Pennsylvania has three- three different cases- have said that these deaths were caused by measles. And I’ll repeat, Margaret, one was 40 and one was 18 years old. Having measles is not a kind of victimless kind of experience. It’s a little bit like drunk driving. You- you can drive drunk. You know, you can drink and get drunk, but if you drive, you’re going to hurt other people. You can get measles, but when you start spreading it to other people, a 40-year-old dies, an 18-year-old dies. Children in a neonatal intensive care unit are at risk. People have got to realize, and the government has to realize it. The president should be saying, “Be vaccinated. It is safe and effective.”

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you think this is going to hurt your party in the midterms?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY: If you look at polling, women, who make most of the health decisions for a family, overwhelmingly support childhood immunization, and so if- if the American people feel as if there is a message coming out which is not good for the health of the United States and which is confusing people, I can tell you it probably does hurt.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Dr. Cassidy, Senator, thank you for your time today. We’ll leave it there. We’ll be right back.

Transcript: Rep. Ro Khanna on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Sept. 20, 2026

2026-09-20T12:04:00-0400 / CBS News

The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sept. 20, 2026.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We begin today with California Congressman Ro Khanna, who is the top Democrat on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and he joins us from Fremont. Good morning to you, Congressman.

REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Good morning, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So China and the U.S. are in an arms race. You’ve proposed this idea that Chinese AI firms should cooperate with American companies. You sent letters to DeepSeek, Alibaba, other firms, urging them to follow the lead of the American firms like OpenAI and Anthropic to slow the rate of AI advancement until society develops guardrails, as you put it. Have any of these Chinese firms responded to your proposal?

REP. RO KHANNA: They have not. Winning an AI war is like winning a nuclear war. It is catastrophic for civilization. And what we have asked is that they agree to some basic terms. Look, there are two dangers to AI: either the loss of control or misuse, and the Chinese firms have taken no actions on either of them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I’m looking at what the FBI, the NSA, and Homeland Security, their division CISA, they have all warned that China-based AI companies are targeting and copying American artificial intelligence at what they describe as an industrial scale. So, how can you ask competitors to collaborate? Isn’t it inherently at odds if they’re stealing technology?

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, they’re right that they are engaging in distillation. Basically, they are copying American models. That’s one reason, frankly, to regulate American models because they’re copying them. Some of the safeguards would protect the world, but at the same time, we also need an international agreement with Xi Jinping to have basic standards. That should include international monitoring, it should include checks through the data centers where you can tell whether a model is being used for inference or training, and it should use enforceable and verifiable tools. Now, obviously, you can’t just trust the Chinese, but like any agreement, like an arms control agreement, as Reagan said, you need to trust and verify. And the world has done this before. There’s no reason we can’t do it when it comes to AI.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I’m looking at Bloomberg’s figures. They report China is preparing to spend about $300 billion over the next five years to build data centers across that country, which will be operated by state-owned firms. As you know, there’s really no wall between the state and industry in China. So, when you are acknowledging they commit human rights abuses and their AI firms help the state to commit those abuses, aren’t you asking the CEOs to- to do something that’s at odds with what Xi Jinping is- is seeking to do?

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, the first ask is of Trump and Xi Jinping to come up with an international agreement, and two of the core principles should be one: banning any self-improving AI, recursive self-improving AI. That’s basically AI that continues to improve itself, and where we could lose control. The second is to have safeguards so that AI can’t be misused by people for biological nuclear weapons. The letters to the Chinese companies were simply seeking information about what they’re doing. It wasn’t intended as a solution. What it was intended to do was highlight the need for the Chinese government and the U.S. government to come to an agreement, and that needs to be the first agenda item on the Trump-Xi Jinping summit.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we know it’s going to come up. We just don’t know the details of exactly what it is the U.S. is proposing at all. We’re going to watch for that in this next week-long set of meetings with China. You sit on the Armed Services Committee. Yesterday, President Trump posted on social media that his plan is to create an AI czar and form the “AI Force, much like I did the Space Force.” I’m not exactly sure where he’s going with that, but you yourself have called for a new government agency to be set up to deal with AI. So you both seem to agree that the existing infrastructure isn’t enough. Why can’t you just have Cyber Command handle all of this? What does the executive branch or Congress actually have to do?

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, we need to set up an AI agency like the FDA. I mean, I don’t know what Trump- President Trump’s vision is. I don’t know if he’s using AI in an offensive capability, which would give me a lot of pause, especially because when you have things like the shooting of the Iranian school, where you had AI information basically feed something into a- into a general, and then you had pro-forma sign off. That gives me concern. What I’m talking about is what Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, has said, which is that this can be regulated like we regulate nuclear energy, electricity, aviation, have independent technical experts make sure AI is safe. And Margaret, one of the things that really annoys me is when you have these tech CEOs out there saying, “Oh, this is too complicated. People in Washington don’t understand this.” Give me a break. We have regulated very complex things. We know we can appoint independent, smart people from universities. This is not complicated. We need to have an independent federal agency.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, respectfully, Congressman, Congress hasn’t regulated a lot of things or come forward with much legislation of late. But to put that aside, I take your broader point. I want to ask you about another important topic at this meeting with Xi Jinping and President Trump, and that is the fate of Americans who do business or travel to China. Secretary Rubio has designated 2 U.S. citizens as wrongfully detained by China, and one of them is your constituent, scholar Min Zin. He has been held for 100 days now by the Ministry of State Security without access to a lawyer, he has no court date, and I spoke with his wife on Friday. Take a listen.

[SOUND ON TAPE]

SYLVIA ZIN: He’s been charged with endangering national security, and that’s all we know.

MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s a big charge.

SYLVIA ZIN: It’s a huge charge. It’s a, you know my daughter looked it up, and she, I think that really freaked her out. That’s when she was like, “What is going to happen to Dad?” You know, and yeah, it’s- it’s a shock, right? I mean, he’s a scholar, he’s an academic, he’s not a spy.

MARGARET BRENNAN: What did you think when the U.S. government explained to you this charge?

SYLVIA ZIN: That was what I asked. Like, what does that mean? You know, and they like we don’t have more information. This is all we’ve been told.

MARGARET BRENNAN: When the U.S. government says that the safety of Americans is their highest priority, do you believe that?

SYLVIA ZIN: Well, President has brought home over 100 wrongfully detained Americans home, right? So, I’m hoping my husband is the next one.

[END SOUND ON TAPE]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Now, this scholar was disappeared shortly after he landed to a conference he was invited to. A lot of Americans go to China to conduct business. What are you and others in the government doing to help those who are detained when they’re doing work there?

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, it’s appalling, and while I have my disagreements with Secretary Rubio, in this I stand in complete solidarity with him, as does the China Committee. We cannot have American citizens or scholars in America be detained or disappeared because of what they say. And when I was in China about a year ago, we raised this issue not on this specific case, but we had heard cases of Chinese students in the United States who were not being allowed to continue because they may have engaged in some protest or had an errant social media tweet. We had heard cases of people who were detained, business leaders or people doing business because they disagreed with the Chinese government, and that is unacceptable to the United States. And then, of course, there’s the whole situation with the Uyghurs. We just had a hearing last week on the Uyghurs situation, extraordinary human rights abuses, and we need that to be front and center in this meeting as well.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman Khanna, we thank you for your time today.

Transcript: IBM vice chairman Gary Cohn on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Sept. 20, 2026

2026-09-20T12:51:00-0400 / CBS News

The following is the transcript of the interview with IBM vice chair Gary Cohn, who served as an economic adviser in President Trump’s first term, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sept. 20, 2026.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re joined now by Gary Cohn. He is the vice chairman at IBM. He previously served as a top economic advisor to President Trump during that first term. Welcome back. It’s always good to have you here.

GARY COHN: Thanks for having me.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So we have a lot of pressure points right now. One of them is diesel prices at this record high, motor oil jet fuel costs. They’re all affecting consumers. And this is not just in America. I mean around the world. The video alone of what’s happening with protests in some of these countries in Syria, Philippines, Guatemala, all gas price protests. How concerned are you about the state of the consumer and the global economy?

GARY COHN: Well, Margaret, I think you went through the exact topic that the consumer in the United States is most concerned about, it’s energy and energy products. You know, you start with gasoline. The most obvious thing, people go to the pump daily, weekly. And they sit there and they hold the nozzle down and they watch the numbers tick, and they see these numbers are higher than they were last week, and they’re higher than the week before. Is this ever going to stop? So directly they see it then indirectly when you talk about diesel, diesel is really the feedstock for food in this country. You know our farmers go through diesel to, to grow their crops, to pick their crops, to deliver their crops. The transportation network is all dependent on diesel. So they see the second hand effects of diesel in the economy as well. So the consumer sentiment has turned quite negative. And then throw on top of that the- the unknowns of AI is really concerning people because they see very high prices. They’re unsure about AI, they’re unsure about the job market. And so sentiment has become quite negative recently. It’s become negative. And yet, you hear Treasury Secretary Bessent and others saying we’ve got all these positive data points, right, with like, you know, the poverty rate in this country, really at a historic low. This morning, he was posting about that on social media as he’s getting ready to meet with the Chinese. He says there’s strong foreign demand for U.S. assets. He refutes the idea that investors are balking at treasuries. But there does seem this concern about America’s stability in fiscal health.

GARY COHN: You know, we’re- we’re in a very funny place here. The overall economy is quite stable. So if you look at some of the headline indicators, you look at GDP, you look at employment, you look at consumer spending. The numbers are pretty good. They’re pretty good to very good. So what’s actually going on in the day to day economy that Secretary Bessent’s talking about. He’s right. But when you ask consumers about how they feel about the economy and where they think they’re going to be in a month from now, a quarter from now, a year from now, then you see this very negative sentiment of all of these issues flowing through. But we have not seen a slowdown in consumption. That said, we have seen real wages turn negative in the last few months, meaning that wage growth is slower than inflation growth. So your purchasing power goes down. But people have decided to use their savings and savings is diminishing. They’ve decided to use their savings to continue to consume products the way they have always consumed products. Now that can’t go on forever. We will run out of savings.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It says a lot about us as Americans, isn’t it?

GARY COHN: Well, we are very good consumers in America.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, this past week we had this significant move, though, by the new Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh. I know you know him personally. He came out and said the economy is strengthening with new hiring, private sector earnings, capital investment. But the Open Market Committee unanimously said we’ve got to hike rates because of persistent inflation. Did it surprise you?

GARY COHN: Not at all. As you know, the Fed has a dual mandate. Mandate number one is full employment. And in the chair came out and talked about how strong the employment was. I just talked about how the strong employment picture in the United States is. Point 2 that they deal with, the second part of their mandate is something called stable prices. Stable prices means that they’re trying to shoot for a 2% unemployment rate. The chairman has made it very clear, very clear that he is going to fight inflation. He said it in his first meeting. He said it in his Jackson Hole. He said in any interview he’s given, he’s told you he’s going to fight inflation. So we now come to this meeting last week and we still have inflation up in the high 2%, two point closer to 3%. And he did exactly what he told you he was going to do. And more importantly, he did it with the unanimous vote of all of the governors in the Fed. I think it’s been many, many meetings. I don’t want to guess exactly, but it’s probably been six, six plus meetings since we have had a consensus unanimous vote inside the Fed.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And on the cusp of an election that’s surprised so many people. But the president said the Fed did the wrong thing—maybe he meant politically—but practically speaking, what will this hike do?

GARY COHN: So practically, it’s an interesting hike because we all know that the inflation is being driven from the supply side of the equation, meaning that we don’t have enough supply in the system going back to energy, if we had more energy in the system, the price of energy would come down and we’d see some of the deflation come out of the system. So this is not—this cut can’t change the amount of oil that’s in the system, it can’t create diesel, it can’t create gasoline. But what– what this increase does—sorry about that—this increase does is it makes the cost of borrowing more expensive and that’s the intention. The intention is to have consumers buy less product, therefore there’s less demand that offsets with the lower supply that we have in the- in the system. It’s really a balancing act in here. Now it’s 25 basis points. And remember, it’s federal funds, which means it’s the very front end of the interest rate curve. So they raise the rates in the front end of the interesting curve. An interesting thing actually happened—the longer dated securities interest sensitive actually got cheaper or the rates went down on them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The government bonds.

GARY COHN: So the key- the government bonds. So in essence the curve which had been fairly steep, meaning the difference between the overnight rate and the 30 year rate, it technically flattened. So the differential between those two rates flattened. So to the extent that people are getting a mortgage, or they’re getting a car loan, or they’re financing their credit card, the rate of which the banks used to set that really did not change or went lower over the course of the week. And the rate at which depositors can get money overnight on their deposits actually went up.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you- thank you on the yield curve and bonds because that’s where I was going on Bessent. The Treasury Secretary buying $5 billion in US debt. Does that improve anything or is it really just Congress has got to cut their own spending?

GARY COHN: Well, ultimately Congress has to cut their own spending. And it’s not only just Congress. We have enormous demand from the data centers and the AI world. There’s more debt being issued by corporates as well as the governments than we’ve seen in a long period of time. But what Secretary Bessent was doing is exactly what Chairman Warsh is doing. They’re both trying to make the longer end of the curve, the part of the curve where you and I borrow money. When we get a car, we buy a home. They’re trying to make the longer dated maturities cheaper. They’re trying to drive the interest rates down on the long end of the curve. Secretary Bessent used the tool he has available to him, and Chairman Warsh used the tool he has available to them, and they’re both driving the same outcome.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we’ll see if it works.

GARY COHN: We will—we will hope it works.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll hope it works. Gary Cohn, always good to have you here.

GARY COHN Thanks for having me.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll be back in a moment.

Rep. Salazar tells Trump on Hispanic voters: “Preserve that fortune that you have brought” to the GOP

2026-09-20T13:44:00-0400 / CBS News

Washington — GOP Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida said on Sunday that she urged President Trump to “preserve that fortune that you have brought to the party” with support from Hispanic voters, after warning in a campaign ad that his immigration enforcement policy has “gone too far.”

“Sir, you have this moment in history where you can keep the pot of gold that you brought to the GOP in 2024,” Salazar said she told the president.

Last week, Salazar released a campaign ad that gained widespread attention as she warned that Hispanic voters who propelled Mr. Trump to the White House in 2024 “feel betrayed” by his administration’s immigration policies. Salazar, who is Cuban American, has been critical of the administration’s deportation efforts in the past, but the ad marked a new distance the Republican put between herself and the White House just weeks before the midterm elections.

Salazar told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan on Sunday that she spoke to the president after releasing the ad, describing it as a “very good conversation” in which Mr. Trump was “very receptive.”

“No other president was able to convince the Hispanics to vote 55 points for a GOP president,” Salazar said she told the president. “Please preserve that fortune that you have brought to the party. Why? Because we need to continue winning elections. Because we have this very big threat called the socialists on the Democratic side.”

Salazar cited her closeness to the Miami community, noting that she’s the daughter of political refugees and a first-generation American. She said she wants to “preserve the American values that are entrenched in the GOP and that the Hispanics share.”

In the ad, Salazar pointed to the administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement campaign, which has resulted in some cases in individuals being detained who have no criminal record. The Florida Republican called immigration a “very complex topic,” citing public support for immigration reform, while distinguishing between “the narco and the nanny and the gangster and the gardener.” She argued that the president understands that distinction.

“He is a construction and hospitality guy. He gets it more than anybody. And I told him during our conversation, you could fix this mess that has been happening for 40 years,” she said. “He’s the only person, because he gets it, he’s a businessman.”

Salazar argued that the president’s advisers may be to blame, warning that they are “compromising his legacy.”

“There are no attacks here,” she said. “I’m just forewarning him and advising him as a member of Congress from the South Florida area that some of his advisers are just not presenting the whole picture.”

Salazar has been in Congress since 2021 and is seeking reelection in November in a Miami-area district where nearly three-quarters of the population is Hispanic, according to Census Bureau data, and which leans Republican. She said she’s a “proud Republican.”

“I’m coming from a good place,” she added. “I’m telling him, ‘Sir, look what you did. Don’t squander it.’”

Salazar is facing Democratic candidate Eliott Rodriguez, a former news anchor for CBS News Miami, in November.

Rodriguez said in a statement in response that Salazar “refuses to take responsibility,” noting that she’s supported the president’s agenda.

“She waited until weeks before an election, and until her own political future was in danger, to speak out,” he said. “I support secure borders and the aggressive removal of dangerous criminals. But I will never support terrorizing hardworking families, separating children from their parents or treating people who have lived, worked and paid taxes in our community for years like criminals, as Congresswoman Salazar has.”

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Trump to meet with Mamdani in New York amid high-stakes midterm push

2026-09-20T14:45:41-04:00 / Fox News

Monday’s meeting will mark the third face-to-face sit-down between the NYC mayor and the president

By Amanda Macias Fox News

Published September 20, 2026 2:45pm EDT

Mamdani describes his ‘honest’ relationship with Trump

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani discussed his “honest” and “productive” working relationship with President Donald Trump on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will meet with President Donald Trump at Gracie Mansion on Monday to discuss issues affecting New York City and its residents, the mayor’s office confirmed to Fox News.

The discussion will take place at Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City’s mayor. City Hall said it will focus on issues affecting America’s largest city.

DSA-BACKED CANDIDATES ARE WINNING PRIMARIES AND THEIR VISION FOR AMERICA IS VERY DIFFERENT

President Donald Trump meets with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office during their first face-to-face meeting in November 2025.(Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

A time for the meeting has not been announced, and the White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional details.

Monday’s sit-down will mark the third face-to-face meeting between Trump and Mamdani. The two first met in the Oval Office in November 2025, shortly after Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral election, and met again at the White House in February.

DSA-BACKED CANDIDATES ARE WINNING PRIMARIES AND THEIR VISION FOR AMERICA IS VERY DIFFERENT

New York City hosts the annual United Nations General Assembly each September, drawing heads of state and government from around the world.(REUTERS/Al Drago)

It also comes as New York City prepares to host world leaders for the United Nations General Assembly and the campaign for November’s midterm elections enters its final weeks.

Mamdani has become one of the nation’s highest-profile progressive mayors as progressive Democrats and Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates have won several high-profile primaries this election cycle, fueling a broader debate over the Democratic Party’s direction ahead of the midterms.

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Mamdani has made affordability the centerpiece of his administration, with lowering New York’s soaring housing costs among his signature promises.(Caean Couto/Getty Images)

During their first Oval Office meeting in November, Trump and Mamdani said they had discussed housing, affordability and other issues affecting New Yorkers despite their political differences, and both expressed optimism about working together where they could.

Monday’s meeting will be their latest opportunity to continue those discussions.

Amanda Macias covers the intersection of business, economics and politics, with a focus on how policy decisions shape markets, businesses and American workers.

GOP Rep. Salazar says she spoke with Trump and he is ‘very receptive’ to her warning about Hispanic voters

2026-09-20T19:46:04.960Z / CNN

By Alison Main

Updated 16 min ago
Updated Sep 20, 2026, 3:46 PM ET
PUBLISHED Sep 20, 2026, 3:46 PM ET

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar talks to reporters following a House Republican conference in the basement of the US Capitol on September 1 in Washington, DC.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

GOP Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar Sunday said that President Donald Trump was “very receptive” to her warning that Hispanic voters feel “betrayed” by his immigration agenda ahead of the midterm elections.

The Florida Republican told CBS’ “Face The Nation” that she had a “very good conversation” with the president after releasing a campaign ad Thursday featuring her dire message that “some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.”

“He was a gentleman, very courteous, very receptive,” Salazar said Sunday, adding that she told Trump, “You have this moment in history where you can keep the pot of gold that you brought to the GOP in 2024.”

A White House official confirmed to CNN that Salazar and the president spoke by phone but didn’t elaborate on the conversation.

The Miami-area congresswoman said she emphasized to Trump her desire to maintain Republican power in Washington in order to stave off the “very big threat” of socialism.

Salazar represents a majority Hispanic district in South Florida that voted for Trump by nearly 15 points in 2024. Recent polls have shown a portion of that voting demographic straying from the president as his overall approval rating sinks.

Pressed on her break from the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement, Salazar told CBS that the topic “very toxic” and said the “average American” wants some kind of immigration reform.

In her ad, Salazar highlights statistics she said show that 50% of the people detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in July “had no criminal record.”

“The average American understands the difference between the narco and the nanny and the gangster and the gardener,” she said Sunday.

Despite the president’s previous aggressive rhetoric about deportation, Salazar argued Trump “gets it” because of his background in construction and hospitality.

“He’s a businessman, and he has the political ability to convince both parties to vote for this legislation or any immigration reform,” she said, referring to a bipartisan bill she has introduced that provides some undocumented immigrants without criminal records a renewable period of legal status.

Salazar reiterated her concern that some of Trump’s advisers are “compromising his legacy” on the issue of immigration, though she wouldn’t elaborate on who she was talking about.

“It’s my duty not to attack. There are no attacks here. They’re just for warning him and advising him as a member of Congress from the South Florida area that some of his advisers are just not presenting the whole picture,” she said.

Trump made clear Friday that he disagreed with Salazar’s message, telling reporters, “I’m very strong on the borders, and she isn’t” and taking credit for her political success.

“Maria won only because of me,” he said, adding “she got a little bit soft on the border. I understand that. I understand that, but I just don’t happen to be there.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Sunday on ABC, that “even amongst Republicans, we have disagreements on how to actually get to the secure border that we have and how to handle the interior problems that we still have, that were created by Joe Biden.”

Scalise said he did not agree with Salazar that Hispanic voters who gravitated to Trump in past elections feel betrayed.

“I love Maria, and we’ve talked,” he said, explaining the issue they’re grappling with is “how do you then reestablish a sense of law and order in America and get back to the rule of law, which, by the way, most Hispanics wanted and voted for in 2024.”

Ukraine’s Zelenskiy says he and Trump agree to meet in New York

September 20, 2026 7:13 PM UTC / Reuters

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands during their meeting at the sidelines of the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2026. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Sept 20 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had ​spoken with US President Donald Trump ‌and the two agreed to meet in New York for talks that “could change a lot” in terms ​of finding a resolution to the 4-1/2-year-old ​war with Russia.

The two leaders will be ⁠in New York in the coming week ​for the UN General Assembly.

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“We agreed to meet ​in New York, and this meeting could change a lot. There is diplomatic momentum,” Zelenskiy wrote on the ​X social media platform.

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Zelenskiy said he thanked ​Trump for this month’s visit to Kyiv by US ‌envoys ⁠Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

“The peace track is our number-one priority,” he said.

“There are ideas for de-escalation steps and for addressing fundamental security ​issues – energy ​security, food ⁠security, and the protection of human life,” he said.

“We are working ​together with the American team and are ​ready ⁠to take really serious steps.”

Zelenskiy again thanked Trump for signing into law the Russian sanctions ⁠bill ​championed by the late US ​Senator Lindsey Graham.

Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru and Ron ​Popeski; Editing by Toby Chopra and Edmund Klamann

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Trump to meet Mamdani tomorrow in New York City

Updated on September 20, 2026 / 2:57 PM EDT / CBS News

By Jared Ochacher

Jared Ochacher Multi-skilled Journalist

Jared Ochacher covers national breaking news at CBS News. He is based in New York City.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Trump are expected to meet Monday at Gracie Mansion, the official mayor’s residence in Manhattan, a city official and the White House confirmed Sunday.

“The meeting will focus on issues affecting New York City and New Yorkers,” the official added, but did not specify what time the meeting will take place.

A White House official confirmed the meeting would be happening.

Monday is set to be the first time the two meet in New York City. Mamdani has traveled to Washington at least twice to meet with Mr. Trump at the White House.

In November, they pledged to work together to make the city better and more affordable. In February, they spoke again about housing development.

Mamdani says that, outside of their in-person discussions, he and the president remain in touch on a number of issues.

Earlier this year, Mamdani told CBS News that he prefers to keep the “frequency and the nature of those conversations private, because that’s the premise of them.”

The cordial meeting in November 2025 came as a shock to many as Mamdani, a democratic socialist, had run for office critical of Mr. Trump and the president, in turn, strongly opposed Mamdani during the mayoral campaign and even threatened to arrest and deport him.