Full transcript of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 8, 2026

On this “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan: 

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts 
• Rep. French Hill, Republican of Arkansas 
• Calley Means, former White House senior adviser and top adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 
• Rep.-elect Nancy Lacore, retired Navy vice admiral 

Click here to browse full transcripts from 2026 of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”   

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MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m Margaret Brennan in Washington.

And this week on Face the Nation: In the aftermath of Tuesday’s blue tsunami, Republicans regroup, President Trump makes a major staff change at the White House, and Democrats now face daunting challenges when it comes to getting stuff done.

Last week’s decisive repudiation of the Trump agenda now puts Democrats on the spot. The pressure is on them to fix what voters say is wrong with the country. And that Democratic to-do list is a daunting one.

(Begin VT)

JOCELYN BENSON (D-Michigan Governor-Elect): Let’s lower costs. Let’s raise our wages. Let’s end corruption.

SHERROD BROWN (D-Ohio Senator-Elect): We will fight to end these tariffs. We will end this war.

(CHEERING)

REP. CHRIS PAPPAS (D-NH) (Senator-Elect): It’s expanding access to health care and childcare, saving Social Security.

(End VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Democrats may have won a healthy majority on Capitol Hill, but not a veto-proof margin. Can the two branches of government actually work together?

(Begin VT)

DONALD TRUMP (President of the United States): I will get along probably with the Democrats, unless they want to be destructive. But I have to power of the veto.

(End VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: We will talk with two key players about the potential of bipartisanship when it comes to banking and financial legislation, Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Arkansas Congressman Republican French Hill.

At the White House, the finger-pointing over what led to the devastating defeat for the GOP intensifies, as Susie Wiles departs and Stephen Miller becomes the president’s powerful chief of staff.

We talked with former White House health policy adviser Calley Means, who’s gone public with damning accusations against Wiles and other top White House aides, saying they put special interests ahead of the MAHA agenda before the midterm elections. Did Means’ allegations lead to Wiles’ ouster?

(Begin VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Was it your intention to get her removed?

CALLEY MEANS (Former White House Senior Adviser): Yes.

(End VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s all just ahead on Face the Nation.

Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation.

Voters on Tuesday were loud and clear. They want action when it comes to high prices, and they want it now. How will the president handle working with the legislative branch to get that action Americans are demanding?

We will hopefully get some insights tonight, when 60 Minutes correspondent Ross Douthat’s interview with President Trump, which was taped Friday just before news of Susie Wiles’ ouster broke.

Here is a preview.

(Begin VT)

ROSS DOUTHAT: There’s a “Forbes” story that said that your net worth – maybe it’s changed with the stock market recently – but your net worth went up by $3 billion since you returned to…

DONALD TRUMP (President of the United States): Well, so did everyone. OK, you ready? So, here’s…

ROSS DOUTHAT: Everyone’s – my net worth did not go up by $3 billion, for the record.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, you should have had stock.

ROSS DOUTHAT: I should have…

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You should have had stock.

ROSS DOUTHAT: I should have had stock.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Excuse me. So, I devote – I devote…

ROSS DOUTHAT: How did it go up by $3 billion?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, let me explain.

I devote almost no time to my net worth. I don’t care. I make – I have a lot of money, and far more than I ever thought I’d have. And I guess it’s gone up. I don’t even know. I have a son who’s a very straight, good guy.

He watches over money. I don’t even talk to him about it. He watches – he gives – they gave my money – I have a lot of cash. I have had a lot of cash long before I came in here.

ROSS DOUTHAT: Yes.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t take a salary, you know?

(End VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you can watch that interview with President Trump on 60 Minutes tonight at 7:00 p.m.

We go now to Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren, the expected incoming Senate Banking Committee chair. And she joins us from Cambridge.

Good morning to you, Senator.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Massachusetts): Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you have written an outline here, an op-ed about what it’s going to look like with Democrats in the majority.

You said: “Democrats won by being populist economic fighters who are unafraid to call out corrupt politicians and corporate interests who have rigged the system at the expense of everyone else.”

That has echoes of President Trump’s populist economic message, not what he said there, of course, but certainly what he has said to voters again and again. What specific policies do you think you can work with him on?

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Look, President Trump himself said that he wants to reduce interest rates on credit cards to 10 percent. I got the bill. I’m ready to go.

President Trump says he wants to do more on housing. We’re ready. We have the bills ready to go. And, besides that, we got a whole bunch more that the American people have told us that they want on price gouging, on protecting our rural hospitals, on making sure that people have access to health care.

We have a lot of work lined out that we can do. In fact, one of the best parts of this election was how many Democrats stood up and didn’t just say, I’m for the middle class. They said, here, I understand what is broken. Here are my specific plans to fix it, and I am committed to doing that.

So you end up with this situation where, in Michigan and Texas, you have got the candidates saying the same thing, break up big medicine. You end up with a situation where, in Kansas and in South Carolina, you have got the Democratic candidates saying, we love that ROAD to Housing bill, but we want to go bolder, bigger, more housing, a situation where, in North Carolina and Alaska, we have got candidates saying, hey, we need to break up the grocery monopolies and stop price gouging.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Iowa and Maine, where – where the Senate candidates there said, we’re going to shore up Social Security and make billionaires pay their fair share.

And, you know, Margaret, those may sound like lots of different pieces.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: They’re not. They’re all about economic power.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well…

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: And people have told us that’s what they want, and we have got the team to deliver now.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I mean, I don’t have to tell you it’s different to campaign than it is to actually legislate.

But President Trump has said he does want to work with Democrats on a few things here, immigration, tax cuts or – cuts or – quote – “maybe certain things having to do with taxes to make it more convenient, a lot of economic development initiatives.”

Does that track with your expectations of how this White House will be able to work with you, run by Stephen Miller and, of course, President Trump?

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Look, let’s be clear. The American people are the ones who’ve really set the agenda here. They’re the ones who have told us what they wanted.

And they didn’t just tell Democrats. They delivered a message to the Republicans pretty loud and clear.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: And I just follow through on what happened in the – just this last summer. We put together a bipartisan housing bill that is going to expand the supply of housing and help bring down the cost of housing…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: … and, for the first time ever in American history…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: … going to ban private equity.

Donald Trump didn’t even sign the damn thing, and yet it is now law. We have got a lot of ways to deliver for the American people, whether Donald Trump wants to be part of it or not.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Because you got a veto-proof majority on that particular bill. That’s going to be perhaps more challenging.

You have said you want to bring big tech CEOs, Wall Street executives, and giant corporations who may have broken the law to face consequences. To be clear…

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: … is your focus going to be legislation or is it going to be investigation?

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Well, we have to do both.

But I do want to be clear. If you have been making your profits by cheating American families and scamming your investors, you better get ready for some investigations, serious ones.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Who do you have in mind there when you say that?

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Anyone who’s been cheating. That’s what investigations are all about.

MARGARET BRENNAN: OK. So you don’t have a list of people you plan to subpoena yet, you – even though you’re going to be in this chair?

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: I – it is important that we go through the steps for investigation.

MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Because, look, the American people are just damn sick of this.

(CROSSTALK)

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: They are sick of a White House that wouldn’t enforce the laws even when they got cheated. They are sick of a White House that dropped investigations, that said, oh, if you make a nice contribution to Donald Trump’s ballroom…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: … then there won’t be any enforcement of the law when you have cheated millions of American customers.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I want…

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: That has to end.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Under – and we saw that in the polling, a concern about corruption.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Mm-hmm.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Chris Coons, who is slated to take over Senate Foreign Relations in the new Congress, has said he wants questions answered about, it appears to be Nvidia, the chipmaker, and its CEO, Jensen Huang.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: “The New York Times” says he may have had a close relationship with a spy from China. Is there anything you can tell us about that? Is AI going to be a focus for you, and specifically this tech – this chipmaker?

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Well, on the chipmaker specifically, this is an issue where we have actually substantial bipartisan support in the Banking Committee.

We have got – we have got Republicans and Democrats. I’m on bipartisan bills in order to put more restraints on the ability to export our chips to China.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: In fact, we have worked on a bipartisan basis to try to stop Donald Trump from encouraging Nvidia, permitting Nvidia to send these chips to China. And now we’re seeing some of the consequences of that.

So we have got a lot of places where work needs to be done and a lot of different avenues to do it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well…

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: But the central part is going to be lowering costs for families and rooting out the corruption. It’s not a long agenda.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, one of the things Democrats promised was to end the war with Iran. There are a few more weeks left in this Republican majority.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You sit on the Armed Services Committee. There are senators like Senators Bennet and Senator Mark Kelly who have said something to the effect of Democrats should cut off funding for White House operations in order to pressure President Trump to end the war.

There are people in the House making noise like that. I mean, what does this look like? Are we looking at cutting off all government funding? Are we looking at a government shutdown in the next few weeks?

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Look, the pressure is building to end this war.

People have told us they want us to stop the war, a war that is illegal, that is halfway around the world, that to this day the Trump administration can’t explain what their goals are and what their exit ramp looks like. They want us to stop it. They want us not to spend money over there.

They want to be able to buy gasoline and heating oil fuel, because they want this economy to work again. The way I think of this is, the wind is at our backs to end this war. We have got a lot of different tools on the table to get this done.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Leverage, you mean?

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: But this is a democracy. And – yes.

And the American people have spoken. And it is time to listen to the American people. Democrats are ready to fight for that, and we invite the Republicans to join us.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We will watch for what that looks like.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, thank you for joining us today.

Face the Nation will be back in one minute. Stay with us.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Republican Congressman French Hill. He is currently the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, and he joins us from Little Rock, Arkansas.

Good morning to you, Congressman.

You survived a tough race down in Arkansas, usually ruby red. You finished just over 4,000 votes ahead of your Democratic rival. What went wrong for so many other of your Republican colleagues here?

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL (R-Arkansas): Well, Margaret, it’s good to be with you. It was a very complicated, tough election cycle this year.

Look, we told the American people in 2024 that we’d secure the border, we’d make our communities safer, we would lead in the world, but we also told the American people that we would continue to fight to lower costs.

And I think what we saw, no matter how many efforts that we made in the Republican House, that Americans are still concerned about the impact of 20 percent inflation that they experienced during the Biden administration, and that, while it’s down from 9 percent to 3 percent, it has not gone lower.

And that I think was a principal issue, the costs that the American people are having and experiencing and all of our families.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: So, we have more work to do there.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes, costs eating into wage gains, particularly over the past six months.

But let’s talk about what’s possible now. President Trump has changed his chief of staff, as you know, Stephen Miller now in that role. Your Republican colleague Don Bacon of Nebraska said Miller is not a good choice because he’s antagonistic, he hurt Republicans during the election, saying he – quote – “took the immigration issue for President Trump from a 2-1 favorable to a 2-1 unfavorable.”

Do you agree with him? I mean, what does putting Miller in the chief’s role signal?

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: Well, first, I think Susie Wiles is leaving. President Trump has the right to promote Stephen Miller to be the chief.

That responsibility means that, during this 120th Congress, he will be the point person for the president in discussing policy matters with Congress.

I will tell you, though, on the immigration issue, I think we should focus on immigration reform, which I voted for twice back in 2018, to resolve the issues about how to seek asylum in this country, how we handle temporary protective services, and how we deal with children in this country that are here with legal green card holders, like our engineering community that’s across the country, as well as those who’ve come in the country illegally, but their kids are legal.

We do need to resolve it. I think it’s a place where President Trump can lead. And this is an area that Stephen Miller is keen on, which is secure the border, yes…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: … but can we now reform the immigration system and make it better for our country?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: And that will, I believe, answer the questions about the deportation issue.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I understand the aspiration, but, credibly, you believe Stephen Miller can persuade Democrats and be persuaded himself to go for the kind of asylum you just spoke about?

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: Well, look, this is what President Trump has said for years, that, if the border was secure, he wanted to try to reform our broken immigration system.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: And that was the – an issue that came up in his first term. This is an opportunity that perhaps we could, on a bipartisan basis, find that solution in the next Congress.

MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.

I – there’s a lot of business for you all to get done. Your Republican colleague Thomas Massie is spearheading an effort to impeach Pete Hegseth, the secretary. There is action expected this week. Some of your colleagues, like James Comer, has said: “With a high level of confidence there’s a lot of questions about Hegseth, and Republican voters are upset.”

Should Hegseth be impeached?

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: Well, the question is, for the president, should he continue to serve as the secretary of war?

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re going to be asked to answer this, though, by Representative Massie.

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: Yes, that’s right.

Well I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment, versus some other disciplinary action or action by the president, if he’s not getting the job done in leading the Department of War. That’s the issue.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you satisfied with how the war has been handled?

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: No. But, I mean, I think the commander in chief has to take the responsibility for the strategy of conducting the war and how it’s been conducted.

But I will tell you one thing. There’s nobody in America that wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Of course not, right.

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: This has been a goal of the United States for five decades.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: Well, look at the 1990s, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well…

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: President Clinton had the opportunity to prevent North Korea from having a nuclear weapon.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: And it didn’t happen.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. And…

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: And that’s a big issue for North Asia and for the U.S.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And CENTCOM just put out a $20 million reward offer for information about Iran’s nuclear program. So it’s clear the U.S. government doesn’t have clarity, nor has it completely obliterated the program.

But just to go back to Hegseth, do I hear you right? You don’t necessarily approve of how the war is going, but you’re undecided about whether he has committed an impeachable offense?

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: Right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you open to considering impeachment?

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: Right, right. Here – look – look, this is – no, this is the issue. If you don’t think he’s done a good job conducting his job, that doesn’t mean, per se, that he’s committed an impeachable offense.

He’s an executive officer of the executive branch, and if he’s not conducting his mission in the right way, then the president ought to make a change there. The question is, are we leading at the Pentagon in the right way or not the right way?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: That’s very separate from whether or not somebody’s committed an impeachable offense.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you don’t want to commit on how you will vote today.

Have you reached a conclusion on whether you will vote for Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan for Republican leader?

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: These are two excellent leaders. They both could lead the conference successfully. We have, as you know, new members.

We have about 60, 65 members of our 170 majority that have only been in Congress two years or less. And I think we need to have our family meeting and discuss it. But both Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan are fully capable of leading in the minority, and I look forward to our discussion in conference this week.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Well, we will see who ends up, and we look forward to seeing how you end up voting on Secretary Hegseth as well.

French Hill joining us this morning from Arkansas.

REPRESENTATIVE FRENCH HILL: You bet.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Stay with us. A lot more Face the Nation when we’re back.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: In last week’s midterms, nine out of 10 voters cited corruption as a crucial or major factor in their vote for Congress.

Late last week, a former Trump White House official named Calley Means made allegations of corporate influence against a handful of top Trump officials, including now former Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. His remarks were made in a podcast that dropped Friday and set off a firestorm in Washington.

Means is one of the leaders of the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement and helped form the alliance between RFK Jr. and Donald Trump in 2024. We spoke to him Saturday.

(Begin VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: President Trump has announced that Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has left the White House. The departure coincides with this resounding Republican loss in the midterms. But, also, you went public with some very specific allegations of corruption and a call to clean house.

Was it your intention to get her removed?

CALLEY MEANS (Former White House Senior Adviser): Yes.

I think President Trump has been subverted by people that are beholden to special interests and not what President Trump ran on and what voters voted for. I led the MAHA initiative at the White House. And Stephen Miller said it recently in a speech. The heart of MAHA is that we are the only primate, humans, that deal with pediatric cancer and rampant cancer rates.

And it’s obviously because of our environment. It’s because of pesticides. It’s because of that 70 percent of a child’s diet is ultra-processed food. It’s because we’re not out in the sun. It’s basic, basic stuff.

And that, I think, was really the heart of the MAHA movement and I think a heart of what President Trump ran on.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.

CALLEY MEANS: And there’s very simple things. And Americans voted to change those things.

And I think, underneath Trump’s nose, in many cases, you had a group of former lobbyists catering to the vaping industry, catering to the ultra- processed food industry, catering to the pharmaceutical industry, catering to the pesticide industry, and doing their bidding with an excuse that we need their money for the midterms and really need to actually go against what voters said, but we need their money.

Explicitly, that’s what they said. And I think that…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. Who’s they?

CALLEY MEANS: Susie and her cohort, Susie and Richard Walters, who is actually not someone most people know, but was one of the most powerful people in the country, was the de facto chief of staff when Susie was getting cancer treatment, Walker Barrett and James Blair, a very close-knit crew, who explicitly catered to special interests, against the will of the voters.

I think a lot of this happened without Trump’s full knowledge. I don’t think President Trump fully knew that some of these advisers were taking money from the industries we ran on fighting against at the time they’re giving explicit policy advice.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Directly taking money?

CALLEY MEANS: Directly, of course, yes.

Tony Fabrizio…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Is a pollster.

CALLEY MEANS: … is one of the most powerful people in the country, and every single Cabinet secretary was conniving on how to convince Tony Fabrizio of their policy positions, because any policy went through Tony Fabrizio for a political check.

He was in the White House all the time, every single week. And…

MARGARET BRENNAN: He runs an outside polling firm that the White House relies on.

CALLEY MEANS: Yes, but that’s a name. I mean, he was a – he was one of the most impactful players in White House policymaking, one of the most powerful people in the country.

He had a huge say in any policy that got done. And as he is opining on the political relevance of doing healthy food and healthy school lunches, or taking on the pesticide industry or taking on big pharma, which President Trump ran on, he was getting paid by Pfizer, by Pepsi, to this day. It’s on his Web site right now.

You can see it on the Joe Rogan podcast I just did. We pulled up his Web site. It’s advertised right now. He solicits clients right now and lists those people as his clients.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you think all of his polling is compromised?

CALLEY MEANS: I’m just stating facts. I’m just stating…

MARGARET BRENNAN: That that’s your theory that you’re putting forward.

CALLEY MEANS: Yes, I’m just stating a fact that we were trying to get a 90 percent support policy done of defining ultra-processed food.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

CALLEY MEANS: And he said, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze on this, and advised against it, while being paid by Pepsi.

(End VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: We have reached out to Tony Fabrizio for comment, and not heard back.

Richard Walters told CBS News he submitted his resignation Friday. Susie Wiles told us that – quote – “The president did more for MAHA than any president before or likely any president in the future.”

We will be right back. More of our interview in the next half-hour.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: We will be right back with a lot more Face the Nation, in addition to more with Calley Means, and an interview with Democratic Congresswoman-Elect Nancy Lacore. She will be the highest-ranking female military officer to ever serve in Congress, joining what will be a record number of women veterans and women in the new Congress.

Stay with us.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to “FACE THE NATION.”

Reaction to the announcement to Stephen Miller’s promotion has been mixed, even among a handful of Republicans. We continue our interview with former White House Adviser Calley Means.

(BEGIN VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, RFK Jr., the HHS secretary, who you’re very, very close to, said “Stephen Miller is the strongest MAHA supporter in the administration. It’s time to unleash the Kraken.”

What do you take that to mean?

CALLEY MEANS (Former White House Senior Adviser): What I take it to mean is actually an opening for Republicans and Democrats. Unleash the Kraken means doing things that matter to the American people. And when it comes to healthcare, these are completely nonpartisan things.

I mean, I spent every single day with Bobby Kennedy. As you said, probably more time with him than almost anyone. And what he says, what he pushes his team on is the exact same things that Democrats are running on. It is taking on corporate capture. It’s taking on corruption. It’s taking on big pharma incentives. It’s making our food healthier. That is what he is pushing his team to do.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, on that point, I hear that you believe Stephen Miller is an ally to the cause. But in terms of an – being an operator in Washington, I mean he’s radioactive to Democrats. They’re already calling for him to be fired. He was the architect of the mass deportation policy that proved very unpopular in these midterms.

CALLEY MEANS: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Why do you think he can actually help you get things done on this cause.

CALLEY MEANS: Immigration, which is not my issue –

MARGARET BRENNAN: No.

CALLEY MEANS: I will say that a lot of polls said that that was one of – like actually solving the border crisis, Stephen Miller did do that. That was a core campaign promise. That was an existential issue. He is very competent and he has dramatically reduced those numbers. So, I can speak with most authority from the mob perspective.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

CALLEY MEANS: Let’s talk about healthcare, Stephen Miller wants to get transformative things done with Bobby Kennedy and President Trump that are not partisan but structural. He wants to get the same things done that Elizabeth Warren and El-Sayed and other people are running on. And I think there is a major opportunity to come together and get some big things done, which, quite frankly, we have to do.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You told Joe Rogan that if you’re a special interest group you pay Susie Wiles’ daughter to get something done. What specific policy are you talking about here? What do you mean by that?

CALLEY MEANS: Margaret, everyone knows, including you, that this is how it works. They know that Continental Strategies, their revenue didn’t go from zero dollars to $30 million a year by accident.

MARGARET BRENNAN: This is a political lobbying fund.

CALLEY MEANS: They – Ballard Partners, where Susie worked, became the highest revenue generating lobbying firm in the history of human civilization. That did not happen by accident. These companies that give those firms money are not acting irrationally. Like, more people – and I encourage more people to just say the truth. President Trump said the truth during the campaign. And this culture that Susie engendered was treating the American people like they’re stupid and often, frankly, I think treating President Trump like he’s stupid.

Obviously, Continental Strategies’ revenues exploding was tied to Katie Wiles working there.

And what’s an example? The fact that Katie was seen in an anti-American, pro-Russian government, Republika Srpska, recently and then magically leaders from that country have a meeting with Susie.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You do know, though, that there’s been reporting that some of the president’s own family members have their own financial interests and businesses here. You don’t think that is compromising as well?

CALLEY MEANS: I think every question should be asked. Sure. I can’t speak to that. What I can speak to is that I have never seen President Trump has a policy inclination against going aggressive on MAHA policies. And I can also substantiate that a lot of the things that have been slowed down were done under his nose.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, after Susie Wiles left, Secretary Kennedy publicly said she brokered his partnership with Trump. And then thanked her for helping to bring in disruptive leaders into HHS. He didn’t say any of the things that you are saying here right now.

CALLEY MEANS: I feel very comfortable with what I said. I feel very comfortable with the hundreds of calls I’ve gotten from lawmakers and senior administration officials thanking me for what I’ve done.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Did Secretary Kennedy know you were going to go public with these allegations?

CALLEY MEANS: No.

MARGARET BRENNAN: If you look at the recent MAHA conference that was just held here in Washington –

CALLEY MEANS: Right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: There were major corporations associated with it.

CALLEY MEANS: Right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Walmart. UnitedHealthcare. And then there were also companies aligned with MAHA who have money to potentially make in peptide policy changes that Secretary Kennedy has, you know, championed. There are other wellness initiatives and people who financially could benefit from some of these policies. Doesn’t that also risk compromising integrity?

CALLEY MEANS: I don’t think – I don’t think –

MARGARET BRENNAN: Those are also companies set to make money.

CALLEY MEANS: Yes. Yes. I can’t speak for what an outside group does. I don’t think any American thinks of Bobby Kennedy as compromised by special interests.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Were you comfortable with that?

CALLEY MEANS: No, I don’t – I didn’t want it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All those corporations being aligned?

CALLEY MEANS: I didn’t want the framing of it. No. I – it’s not – it was not my event. I didn’t – I didn’t love that. You’re talking about one small conference and one small group.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It was pretty big.

CALLEY MEANS: I don’t want the optic.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I mean the secretary spoke at it. Dr. Oz spoke at it.

CALLEY MEANS: I don’t want the – I don’t like the optic.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Russell Brand, the actor, whose –

CALLEY MEANS: I don’t think any American thinks Bobby Kennedy is compromised. And I think every single corporate interest should be scrutinized.

But let’s be honest, right, supplement companies aren’t making Ballard Partners the highest revenue generating firm in the world, right? Peptide companies and compounders are not getting meetings with Ballard.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have been in the crosshairs of some congressional Democrats who are now going to be in power in this new Congress. They’ve alleged you have your own conflicts of interest because you’ve owned between 25 to 50 million in stock in a company called True Med (ph) through November 2025. At that time I understand you had a different status. You were a special government employee. Then you became an employee, a permanent one, at the White House and some of the arrangements changed. But for those who look at that period of time, how can you address what they say are ethical issues that you had?

CALLEY MEANS: Yes. Everybody’s conflicts should be highly scrutinized. I started a company to drive medical spending to exercise and healthy food after writing a book about exercise and healthy food. Through that advocacy I met Bobby Kennedy, met the Trump administration and was put into government. I became and SGE. And as you said, fully divested that company when I decided to go in full time. We raised around (ph) before the Trump administration started.

So, I started a company to promote healthy food and exercise and fully divested that company against my economic interests to come into government.

(END VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: A spokesperson for Continental Strategies, speaking for Katie Wiles, told us that, quote, “Mr. Means’ claims regarding Continental Strategy are inaccurate and baseless,” and said the firm has, quote, “never met with Mr. Means, lobbied for glyphosate, Monsanto, Baer (ph), vapes (ph), kratom (ph) or similar policies.” Also that his allegations regarding Katie Wiles’ participation in the Srpska elections are false, as has been previously reported, they say, by other media outlets.

We’ve also reached out to Ballard Partner, plus HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and his aides for comment, but we have not heard back.

We’ll be right back with the final part of our interview.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re back with the last part of our interview with Calley Means, which was taped Saturday morning.

(BEGIN VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: In a recent interview you said the administration was blocking health policies that you were trying to get passed. And you said specifically, they were doing it to take money from the sugar industry. You also talked about big tobacco. Explain that. What did you see?

CALLEY MEANS: So, last night, like yesterday, as Susie Wiles left, her deputies were still relentlessly pushing HHS to find a pathway for fruit- flavored vapes. The issues that came from Susie’s world were not healthy food, were not, you know, cleaning up pesticides, were not, you know, these core issues that Bobby Kennedy ran on. I had to steamroll any of those policies through them with President Trump’s support, you know, in using outside, you know, advocates, like Joe Rogan.

The issues that were being pushed hard in the previous regime were things like vapes, which are a huge donor to Ballard Partners. Are things like gas station heroin.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Kratom.

CALLEY MEANS: Marty Makary bravely put a high tolerance, you know, a low tolerance limit on those – on those products, which are causing devastation. You basically have opioids being sold at gas stations. He was pushed out and that tolerance limit was increased 20x so that there’s still an ability for people to, you know, buy multiple products and get high, which was the direct intention of that policy. These are the types of policies that are being pushed – were being pushed. And again, we should be looking forward. It’s a new day. But that’s just demonstrably true.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The former FDA commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary, resigned in May. And sources close to him said it was due to pressure from tobacco companies to make more available what you just said, fruit-flavored vapes. These e-cigarettes.

But there have been allegations that the president himself, Donald Trump, pressed for the FDA to allow more favorable policies for big tobacco because of donations to the political action committees for the midterms, that he himself knew.

CALLEY MEANS: I – maybe that’s leaked by Susie. I don’t know. I – what I saw a lot is that they would set up a quick meeting with President Trump. They would flag something, oh this is an important issue. He would say something and then they would jam it down, jam it down saying it’s a president’s priority for their priorities. I don’t think President Trump ran, you know, as a primary purpose to help these industries.

MARGARET BRENNAN: No, he didn’t run on it but –

CALLEY MEANS: I don’t – and I don’t think that’s what he wants. Honest.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You don’t think –

CALLEY MEANS: No, I don’t. From –

MARGARET BRENNAN: He knew?

CALLEY MEANS: I don’t think that’s why he is serving as president. I think he talks to Bobby Kennedy about doing very transformational things. And what I know, and what I saw, is that there are systematic efforts, working with Ballard, working with these other people to help these industries. This was the single – this was the single most emphasized area for James Blair, who really led policy. You know, James Blair wasn’t –

MARGARET BRENNAN: He’s a political strategist.

CALLEY MEANS: James Blair wasn’t pushing, you know, calling me in and saying, how can we, you know, promote more healthy food. How can we get more healthy food to kids? How can we, you know, talk about this MAHA principles? That never happened. I had to – I had to bulldoze to him. He was relentless on helping the fruit-flavored vape industry. So, that’s what I saw.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, to that point. So, the tobacco company, Reynolds American, donated $5 million to a political action committee backed by Trump a week before the administration rolled out a new tobacco policy.

CALLEY MEANS: Yes, and that was a big reason why there was – that was a big argument from Susie’s team on why we need to do this. That, you know, I didn’t hear this specifically with vapes, but with the sugar industry I – you know, it was a direct conversation about how we need the sugar industry’s money for the midterm. So, you know, when you have the midterm strategy and a belief that money for the midterms is more important than voter promises, you are basically able to excuse everything.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, “The New York Times” reported that tobacco lobbyists had actually been at the president’s Florida golf course with him at lunch advocating to the president he picked up the phone and he called RFK Jr.

CALLEY MEANS: Yes, but –

MARGARET BRENNAN: Did that happen?

CALLEY MEANS: I don’t know. Brian Ballard was at that meeting, and I knew that Susie set up a lot of meetings with Brian Ballard to get a talking point, that the president support something. Again, I do not think fruit- flavored vapes or gas station heroin is any percentage of what President Trump is thinking about or wants to do.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Because there is a pattern here. It was in the first Trump administration that the FDA tried to crack down on kratom, what you’re calling gas station heroin. They also tried to crack down on fruit- flavored vapes. The FDA commissioner at that time, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, left.

CALLEY MEANS: And I said –

MARGARET BRENNAN: And yet in the second Trump administration, the very same issues are surfacing again. Are you sure the president isn’t OK with it?

CALLEY MEANS: I am – I am sure that the president is – realizes that he has a generational coalition with Secretary Kennedy. He respects Secretary Kennedy. He wants to go hard on the issue of improving health for children. I think he had severe – poor advice from people I think who treated him like a baby in my respects and used him.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The president’s staff treated him like a baby?

CALLEY MEANS: Of course. They would – they would block access to – and information to him all the time. I would be not surprised at all, you know, if they had very short conversations on these issues, you know, where the president is extremely busy and the president said, OK, whatever, and then they use –

MARGARET BRENNAN: Or he’s not interested.

CALLEY MEANS: Yes, then they used that. Like it’s all – it is all like the president wants this.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Secretary Kennedy has endorsed Dr. Heidi Overton to be the next FDA commissioner. He said she’s exceptionally dedicated, meticulous attention to detail, strategic leadership to every policy she touches. You accused her of writing a policy to relax standards on fruit- flavored vapes.

CALLEY MEANS: I’m not going to speak for Secretary Kennedy. Heidi Overton was the biggest block to MAHA policies I encountered in the government on healthy food, on mental health treatments, like psychedelics. She was a stone wall and she really mindlessly, in my opinion, did whatever Susie told her to do.

Marty Makary was her mentor. And she, in a meeting, told Marty and I that she couldn’t help Marty if he didn’t approve a drug that he thought scientifically should not be approved, an mRNA flu vaccine. And it’s just a factual statement that after Marty left, partly due to the vaping issue, she drove the creation of the relaxed vaping strategy.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, in this new regime, with a the new chief of staff, do you think her nomination’s going to be pulled? I mean she’s already testified to Congress. She’s still got to face a vote.

CALLEY MEANS: My opinion is Heidi Overton should not be – she does not have the character or integrity to be FDA secretary – or FDA commissioner.

(END VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: A spokesman for Dr. Heidi Overton responded to Means’ criticism of her qualifications and told CBS News that two former FDA commissioners think otherwise.

Dr. Marty Makary provided us the following statement, quote, “big tobacco exploited their connections to administration and HHS officials to put repeated pressure on me to approve fruit-flavored vapes that appeal to children. I wouldn’t do it. The Kratom/7-OH lobby ran the same playbook to undermine my efforts to make this new ‘gas station heroin’ illegal. As FDA commissioner, I always rejected political corruption just as voters across the political spectrum did last week.”

Now, we did also contact Susie Wiles, who told CBS that she had nothing to do with the tobacco industry meeting with the president at his golf club.

In response to Means’ allegation, James Blair told CBS, quote, “I didn’t promote flavored vaping specifically at all. I was tasked with driving FDA to make its process for approving or denying nicotine delivery device applications work the way current federal law dictates it works, which is that applicants get a yes or not approval in six months. Calley is intentionally misrepresenting my role and my responsibility because he opposes the issue entirely. Even though the president himself has made his position on spoking and smoking alternatives known very publicly and has provided clear direction. Calley just doesn’t like it.”

Now, President Trump has publicly stated that he saved flavored vaping during his first term to get people off smoking and he vowed in his second term to save vaping again, as you can see there.

More context and a full transcript will be available on our website. CBS News will continue to report on this evolving story.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: We spoke Friday with Democratic Congressman-elect Nancy Lacore, a former Navy vice admiral and a mom of six who flipped a seat in South Carolina as part of last week’s blue wave. She’s a former registered Republican who says she left the party in 2016 because of President Trump. We began by asking her what areas she thinks she could work on with the president.

(BEGIN VT)

NANCY LACORE (Rep-elect, (D) South Carolina): I see a lot of opportunities because of what the new Congress is going to look like. You know, there’s a significant majority this time. There are a lot of veterans who are now, you know, elected, you know, soon to be official congress men and women. And as veterans, we don’t really care what your political affiliation is, we just focus on achieving the mission. And I think that’s what you’re going see out of this new Congress.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you said on the campaign trail that your mission would be bringing down the cost of housing, medical care, healthcare, getting rid of tax breaks for data centers. That’s a long to-do list. You have a sense from Democratic leaders what the first initiative will be in the new Congress?

NANCY LACORE: The things that I’m going to focus on, on day one, first of all, will be to end this war, because that has driven up costs extraordinarily high across the district and the country. We also need to look at repealing some of these tariffs that have driven up a variety of other costs, including those of building new homes. And the one big, beautiful bill. There are some great pieces to the one big, beautiful bill, but there are some very – pieces that have done a lot of damage and made things a lot more unaffordable. I’d love to talk about the fact that we’re not paying taxes on tips or Social Security, and I think that’s great, but we need to make that permanent because right now those are going to expire with the end of this administration.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Nine out of ten voters said government corruption was a crucial or major factor in their vote. They put it right up there with the cost of living.

Leader Jeffries, likely to be Speaker Jeffries, has said there should be accountability but, “the American people don’t want us to get even, they want us to get things done because life is too expensive.”

So, what does accountability look like? Do you need investigations or do you need legislation?

NANCY LACORE: It probably depends I think on what specifically we’re talking about. We need to put some rules in place to make sure that our elected officials are not trading stocks. That is one area that we’ve seen I think extensive corruption there with insider information. But, you know, we also need to overturn, end Citizens United and make sure that we are getting that dark money out of politics so representatives can answer to their constituents and not, you know, insider interests.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, when we look at your bio, you will be the highest ranking female military officer ever to be elected to Congress. No female admiral or general has ever served before. You were chief of the Navy Reserve until you were relieved from your position by Secretary Hegseth in August 2025. He has said he’s cutting the number of high-ranking officers by 20 percent, but he’s also said he’s ending diversity initiatives, or DEI. Do you have any idea why he targeted you?

NANCY LACORE: I don’t. you know, I was never given a reason when I was removed from my position in August 2025. I don’t think any of the other generals and admirals were ever given reasons either. And, frankly, at this point, it doesn’t really matter. You know, it opened a door for me to do what I’m doing now and continuing my service in Congress.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Hegseth released a video Thursday arguing that attempts to oust him from office are about his rebuilding of the force Here’s a clip.

(BEGIN VC)

PETE HEGSETH (Defense Secretary): Diversity is not our strength. Our unity is. Men and women, they’re not the same thing, but in the military they must be held to the same standard. Strong young men who believe in something greater than themselves are admirable.

(END VC)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Went on to call being transgender a mental illness. He dismissed a reference to white rage. He said that seemed to be maybe about renaming military bases and taking confederate general names off of them.

Of all of these initiatives, what do you think the impact has been on the U.S. military?

NANCY LACORE: You know, I’ve said since I launched this campaign, Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified secretary that this nation has seen. He has caused significant damage to us as a country and put us at risk and really damaged the readiness of our entire military force. He is focused on the wrong things. He should be focused on strategy and readiness instead of these things that are down in the trenches.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, what do you think would be an impeachable offense? Because I know there is an effort underway in this Congress to do so. You’ve said you hope that gets taken care of before you come to Washington.

NANCY LACORE: Yes, I mean, I think there’s probably plenty. And I do believe that this will be handled before I get there. You know, we can talk – we can tie this war as one thing that is extremely damaging to our country. Some of the things that we saw going on down – off Venezuela as well. But really it comes back to, you know, it’s all a part of the problem with the corruption and the lack of strategy which is doing nothing but really driving up costs for people. And that’s what people really care about. And so, that’s what I want to focus on when I get to Congress.

(END VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll be right back.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s it for us today. Thank you all for watching. Until next week. For “FACE THE NATION,” I’m Margaret Brennan.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

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