The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Lisa McClain, Republican of Michigan, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 6, 2026.
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that → follow → Sept.
We turn now to Congresswoman Lisa McClain.
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She is the chair of the House Republican Conference, and she joins us today from New Haven, Michigan.
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You also work on messaging.
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I want to ask you about President Trump's plan to hold this big gathering in Dallas.
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His approval rating currently is 39% according to CBS.
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rating → accord → CBS
He says put the focus on him, though, for these midterms.
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Pretend he is on the ballot.
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he → pretend → ballot
Isn't doing that possibly helping the opposition?
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Well, I don't think he thinks so, and I don't think so either.
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Listen, Trump is absolutely on the ballot, right?
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But the whole goal of the midterm convention is to get Republicans together and share the stories of what we've done through this Congress and the past two years, and get our base fired up and united.
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base → get → Congress
And I'll remind everybody what Republicans did was secure the border.
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We passed the largest tax cuts in history.
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We want to keep more money in your pockets.
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And what our goal is with the midterm convention is really compare and contrast the two roads: one communist crazy versus traditional American common-sense values.
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So that's the goal of the midterm convention, and I'm pretty excited to go.
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Well, Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report said of your party's prospects in the midterms, Republicans should brace themselves.
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Republicans → say → themselves
What he was zeroing in on are the tariffs and the fuel and fertilizer costs that are hitting rural voters.
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that → zero → voters
I know out in North Dakota, Senator Kevin Cramer said farm country serious trouble for Trump.
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Listen, I've had the opportunity to be in the district and talk to the rural voters.
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Right, we have a lot of farmers in our communities, and what the farmers are excited about and actually applaud the president for is actually standing up to Canada and try and level the playing field with the tariffs.
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are → have → tariffs
Since the 1990s, Canada has had a 250% tariff on our farmers for things like milk and cream and poultry.
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He's trying to level that playing field.
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Number two, the president for our farmers also is- is enacted 20 new trade deals.
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president → is- → deals
The last time we had a trade deal was under Barack Obama, and we had three.
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we → have → three
And the third thing that our farmers are really applaud the Republicans and President Trump for is actually the death tax.
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farmers → applaud → Republicans
We want to keep more of those family farms in the family, so we want to make sure that they can pass that generational wealth onto the next generation.
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they → want → generation
We are going to take a quick break.
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You're freezing up a bit.
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I'm hoping we fix that during this break.
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Stay with us if you could.
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We continue our conversation now with Michigan Congresswoman Lisa McClain.
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Congresswoman, you were talking about how Michigan was navigating some of the Trump tariffs.
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The National Taxpayers Union Foundation said those tariffs cost your state $23 billion since January of 2025.
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It's going to hit this aluminum, dairy, steel, appliances.
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How much is this going to hurt?
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Yeah, listen, I shop at the same grocery stores as everybody else does, but what the president's trying to do is actually level the playing field because what we're not happy with is we want a trading partner with Canada, and right now they're not being a great trading partner.
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they → listen → Canada
And I'll give you a great example, is we have trading- a tariff, for example, country of origin tariffs, for example, on China.
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What our trading partner Canada is doing is say, hey, China, put your goods through Canada.
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doing → do → Canada
…and 35 more, not listed.
The Aporia
