On this “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan:
- Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California
- Rep. Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut
- Rep. Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska
- Chris Krebs, CBS News cybersecurity contributor, and Ben Buchanan, Biden adviser and now a professor at Johns Hopkins and an adviser to Anthropic
- Rye Barcott, Marine veteran and With Honor founder
Click here to browse full transcripts from 2026 of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m Margaret Brennan in Washington.
And this week on Face the Nation: President Trump’s choice of national intelligence director has a chilling effect on the intel community and Capitol Hill.
Plus, Democrats reckon with a Senate candidate who’s drawing national attention for the wrong reasons.
President Trump’s grand plan for the Washington, D.C., skyline isn’t the only thing shaking up the city this summer. Last week, he appointed a man with no intelligence experience to head up the top agency in the intelligence community.
Bill Pulte, who serves as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is the heir to a building fortune and close to the president. He’s rubbed some Cabinet members the wrong way.
(Begin VT)
SENATOR THOM TILLIS (R-North Carolina): Did you actually tell Pulte you were going to punch him in the face?
SCOTT BESSENT (U.S. Treasury Secretary): No, sir. I actually said I was going to kick his ass.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: And his appointment has sparked concern among even Republicans trying to reauthorize a surveillance program that’s due to expire this week.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Jim Himes, and Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon will also join us.
Meanwhile, Democrats are keeping close watch on Tuesday’s main Senate primary, as their candidate faces some alarming allegations of past aggressive behavior. We will talk with a top Graham Platner supporter, California Democrat Ro Khanna.
Finally, should the government have more control over the exploding field of artificial intelligence?
It’s all just ahead on Face the Nation.
Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation.
We have a lot to get to today, but we begin this morning with Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California.
Good to have you here in person.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA (D-California): Good to be back.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re just back from Maine.
And, on Tuesday, there’s a primary there for Democrats. It will help to determine who is going to challenge Susan Collins for her seat. She is the longtime Republican senator who has held onto it. This is all ultimately about who is going to control Congress, control the Senate.
There’s been a lot of excitement around Graham Platner, who we mentioned there right at the top. He’s a veteran, an oysterman with this anti- establishment progressive message. Why are you still campaigning for him after all of these questions about action, comments, activity in his personal life?
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Well, we had a rally planned.
And I want to be clear. His actions were misogynistic, they were shameful, they were wrong. But they didn’t come as a surprise to a lot of the folks in Maine. People in Maine knew that he had had two tours of duty in Iraq. He came back broken, in a dark place. That doesn’t excuse his behavior, but they knew this. He was in Washington.
And then he went back to Maine, and he started an oyster farm. He took accountability. He himself has said it was shameful, and he had redemption. And now he’s running on a platform of national health insurance, when Susan Collins is voting to cut it.
He’s talking about taxing billionaires. Susan Collins is for tax breaks to billionaires. And he’s opposed to this foreign war, where Susan Collins supported the war in Iran, and that’s why I’m still supporting him.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But I want to go through some of what we’re referring to here in specifics.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Of course.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The campaign acknowledged the candidate sent sexually explicit texts to multiple women while he was married, quite recently. He’s acknowledged he had a tattoo with Nazi symbols that he’s since covered up, but he claimed he didn’t know the linkage and the symbolism.
And he’s had social media posts insulting rural people, downplaying sexual assault. He has apologized or said he regrets some of that behavior. As you just alluded to, he has also referred to the fact he has dealt with PTSD and some alcohol issues. Are you confident all the damaging info is out?
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: That’s what he says.
My sense is, before the primary, a lot of this has come out. Obviously, look, if there was evidence of violence. I would not support him. If there was evidence of sexual assault, I would have zero support for him. He acknowledges that he was misogynistic, it was shameful.
One thing I want to make very clear, we should not be attacking the women who came forward. We should not be attacking the journalists. Some people have been attacking the “New York Times” journalists. They’re – they did their job.
We should focus on acknowledging it was misogynistic, acknowledging it was wrong, moving on with redemption, and then focusing on his issues, which are stopping the war, taking on the billionaire class.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You said there was no evidence of violence. You – in your view, there’s nothing credible at this point?
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: My view is that, even according to the “New York Times” piece, they said there was no harm, no injury.
There was toxicity, and there was verbal intimidation, which I condemn. But Graham has made it clear that there was no evidence of violence. That, to me, is a red line.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
Well, because there’s this woman, Lyndsey Fifield, who dated him for about two years’ time, and she’s been posting on social media, speaking on the record about their relationship. She said he left an AR-15 lying around his Capitol Hill apartment when he lived here, told her if anyone broke in he’d rape them to show he’s dominant.
She did say he never hit her or punched her, but said he could be rough, and she described being grabbed by her shoulder. She described him pulling her arm as she was refusing to get out of a car. Years ago, the mantra was, believe all women. Do you believe her?
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Yes. And I don’t think our side should be attacking her. And I appreciate her courage from coming forward.
I know some people are saying, oh, she’s a Republican. I think that is irrelevant.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: I believe her. I think Graham acted shamefully, and he acted, as “The New York Times” characterized it, as a toxic relationship. It is shameful. It is ugly. It happened in a dark period of his life.
And the Maine voters that I met said they don’t like it. They knew that he had these chapters. They are willing to extend him grace and redemption, and they’re focused now on what he’s running for. But I do not think we should be attacking her.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So it is his campaign, the Platner campaign, that described the accuser as a GOP operative that – who has dedicated her career to electing Republicans. She is a conservative.
Would you advise the campaign to stop attacking her?
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Absolutely. They should not attack her. They should not attack the “New York Times” reporters who wrote the story. I know those reporters. They have written things critical of me. That’s what journalists do. Donald Trump is the one who attacks the press. Our party doesn’t attack the press.
Our party believes that you treat women with equality and respect in all aspects of their lives. Graham Platner did not do that in the early 2000s.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: He should just say what he has said to Maine voters. That was a shameful period in his life. He’s ashamed of that conduct.
And that’s what makes him different, is that he’s taken accountability for that period of his life. Others, like Trump, have never taken accountability.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you mentioned the PTSD, and he has been very open about that, what he went through, coming back from, I believe, three tours in Iraq, and then he worked in a private capacity in Afghanistan.
But some veterans groups have said that, you know, he’s basically using it as an excuse for bad behavior…
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: I don’t think…
MARGARET BRENNAN: … and maligning them in that way.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: It’s not an excuse. It doesn’t justify him being in toxic relationships or saying misogynistic things.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Because it sounds like it’s being used as an excuse.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Well, I don’t view – in fact, in my remarks, I said it’s not an excuse. It’s – but it’s the truth. It’s his truth of who he was.
But what it should tell us is, we broke a lot of people in this country by sending people to Iraq. Susan Collins sent people to Iraq. And now, on the 100th day of a war in Iran, we’re breaking more people. Gas is through the roof.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Food is through the roof. And this Iran war is an illegal war, immoral war, an unstrategic war. And Graham Platner is running to stop it.
That is the big issue that Maine voters were talking about…
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: … the war that’s increasing gas prices, the lack of health care.
But I don’t believe PTSD should be an excuse for bad behavior. But we do need to recognize the toll these wars are taking on people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
And Platner did protest against the war, but that was before he enlisted in the Marines…
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: … and then subsequently worked in a private capacity in Afghanistan, another war zone.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Well, he was patriotic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Look, I ran against the war in Iraq in 2003. That was how I started. He was opposed to the war.
We made a mistake by getting into the war in Iraq.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Now, he served the country, but one of the reasons he went into PTSD, if you talk to him, is, he said, I realized that my service did not have a purpose for doing good.
And now you’ve got Susan Collins, who has been an apologist for the war in Iran on this 100-day – what have we achieved? You still have an Iranian regime there.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: They still have the nuclear fuel there. The gas prices are through the roof. And why is Platner in the race? Because he’s saying, stop these foreign wars.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
So, it just – I raise this because I have heard Democrats argue over this issue, and the worry that they are ceding the moral high ground that they want to hold in order to stand on it and criticize Republicans, right?
CBS News has spoken to a former campaign official who expressed concern about the lack of vetting of Platner.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Well, look…
MARGARET BRENNAN: This sounds like it’s just – you know, this is just politics.
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Like I said, the people in Maine were not surprised. I mean, it was a surprise to the national story.
They knew that, when he was in D.C., he had shameful parts of his life. Then he came back. He started an oyster farm. He was on the ocean for years. He found himself. But the big issue for voters, in my view, is, are you for these wars? Are you for taxing billionaires? Are you for national health insurance?
And that’s the contrast. And the campaign is a vetting process, and the voters of Maine are asking these tough questions.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The campaign is the vetting process?
REPRESENTATIVE RO KHANNA: Well, the primary campaign. I mean,…
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