Now that his book tour was over, CNN’s Jake Tapper was back to hauling water for the Democrats. During the Tuesday episode of The Lead, the former Democratic operative turned CNN “journalist” dismissed his party’s widespread gerrymandering in several states, suggesting infamous Illinois was an outlier, and falsely proclaimed “most of the worst offenders when it comes to gerrymandering are Republican states.”
Following a soundbite of New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul threating to further gerrymander her state, Tapper brought on New York Republican Representative Mike Lawler and put the blame for Hochul’s desire on Texas and President Trump:
It does look as though there is about to be this redistricting arms race, which seems, at least as of now, prompted by President Trump pushing Texas to take this unusual step to try to offset losses in the midterms. If you had your druthers, would you tell Texas to cut it out?
“Well, obviously, the veneer of partisan redistricting is off, and you have states across the country seeking to interject themselves into this fight,” Lawler pushed back. Unlike Tapper, the Congressman pointed out that Hochul’s ambition to further gerrymander the state would be illegal under a law he helped to enact (Click “expand”):
Obviously, Texas is proceeding forward. The challenge here, you look at New York. Kathy Hochul has some, you know, chutzpah here. The fact is, she tried to do partisan gerrymandering back in 2022, and the New York State Court of Appeals threw out the map because it violated the state constitution.
I was executive director of the state Republican Party just over a decade ago when, in fact, New Yorkers went to the polls and adopted a constitutional amendment to ban gerrymandering and require an independent redistricting commission. That is the law of the land in New York. It does not allow for mid-decade redistricting.
Tapper snapped back at Lawler by falsely suggesting that Republicans were the only party that engaged in gerrymandering and that infamously gerrymandered Illinois was just an outlier for Democrats.
“So, if you look at the map, you have some exceptions like Illinois. There's blatant Democratic gerrymandering. But most of the worst offenders when it comes to gerrymandering are Republican states such as Texas,” Tapper scoffed.
Tapper followed up by insisting: “personally, I'm against gerrymandering all over the place. I don't like it in New York. I don't like it in Texas. I don't like it in California, et cetera.”
Matt Whitlock, host of 10 Minute Drill, called out Tapper’s lies and countered them with the cold hard facts. In an X post, Whitlock drilled down on 11 states with gerrymandered districts; highlighting how large the Republican electorate was in each state and how many seats in the House they had.
Five states stood out (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Rhode Island) in that Republicans made up a third or more of the electorate but held ZERO seats in the House. New Mexico was particularly egregious in that Republicans represented nearly half the electorate (44%), and yet they held zero of the three seats.
New Jersey, where the GOP made up 43 percent of statewide votes but only 25 percent of the seats, was also singled out by Lawler to Tapper. The Congressman noted that a member of the state’s purportedly "independent redistricting commission" said “Republicans got to draw the map last time. So I'm going to give it to the Democrats.”
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Lead
August 5, 2025
5:41:33 p.m. Eastern(…)
JAKE TAPPER: Let's bring in Republican Congressman Mike Lawler from the state of New York. Congressman, you've been openly against redrawing the maps in your state from when they just took effect in 2023. You are just one of seven Republicans in 26 total districts in your state. You beat your Democratic opponent in 2024 by 6.4 percent.
It does look as though there is about to be this redistricting arms race, which seems, at least as of now, prompted by President Trump pushing Texas to take this unusual step to try to offset losses in the midterms. If you had your druthers, would you tell Texas to cut it out?
REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): Well, obviously, the veneer of partisan redistricting is off, and you have states across the country seeking to interject themselves into this fight. Remember, back earlier this year in Wisconsin, there was a Supreme Court race, and the main focus was about whether or not they would engage in redistricting. And ultimately, even though the Democrat candidate won, they chose not to allow for a mid-decade redistricting.
Obviously, Texas is proceeding forward. The challenge here, you look at New York. Kathy Hochul has some, you know, chutzpah here. The fact is, she tried to do partisan gerrymandering back in 2022, and the New York State Court of Appeals threw out the map because it violated the state constitution.
I was executive director of the state Republican Party just over a decade ago when, in fact, New Yorkers went to the polls and adopted a constitutional amendment to ban gerrymandering and require an independent redistricting commission. That is the law of the land in New York. It does not allow for mid-decade redistricting.
So what the Democrats would have to do is pass a new constitutional amendment in two successive state legislatures and then get the voters to adopt it at earliest in 2027 to allow for a mid-decade redistricting. That is not what voters want. It's not what New Yorkers have, you know, voted for when they adopted this constitutional amendment back in 2014.
TAPPER: Right.
LAWLER: And in 2021, rejected an attempt by Democrats to weaken it with a constitutional amendment.
TAPPER: So, if you look at the map, you have some exceptions like Illinois. There's blatant Democratic gerrymandering. But most of the worst offenders when it comes to gerrymandering are Republican states such as Texas. And what's going on here is President Trump is worried about what happens with almost every President, midterm election losses in the House. And to offset that, he looks at Texas and says, ‘oh, we can gerrymandering -- we can gerrymander five Republican seats there in the middle of the decade.’
My question for you is, I get that you don't like, and personally, I'm against gerrymandering all over the place. I don't like it in New York. I don't like it in Texas. I don't like it in California, et cetera. But like, what's going on now is there's about to be an eruption of this because not only are California and New York, Democratic states, threatening to do it. Trump is trying to push Missouri and Ohio as next states, Republican states, to try to squeeze out a few more Republican seats.
Wouldn't you like it all to stop? Wouldn't you -- I mean, what's your message to President Trump or the White House, party leaders about let's just stop it right now and stop it in Texas, stop it in New York, stop it in California, et cetera?
LAWLER: Well, let's be clear. This has obviously been happening for decades. It's why in last November's elections, only 35 seats were decided by five points or less. As you pointed out, I won by 6.4 percent. And yet I'm a district that Kamala Harris won, one of only three Republicans to represent a district Harris won. So the problem is across the country, gerrymandering has been happening after each successive census and it has created less competitive districts.
TAPPER: Right.
LAWLER: And so there's very little room in terms of trying to pick up seats. And so, yes, I think it's wrong what Texas is doing. I don't support it. I think it is wrong what has happened in Illinois or New Jersey, for instance, which has a quote-unquote "independent redistricting commission" where the tie-breaking vote made this declarative statement: ‘Republicans got to draw the map last time. So I'm going to give it to the Democrats,’ even though it meant resulting in three Republicans getting elected.
We have to actually have neutral districts across this country. It would serve the country better. I am going to be introducing legislation to outright ban gerrymandering, let alone during mid- decade redistricting, but to not allow it at all. This is fundamentally why Congress is broken. You do not have competitive districts. And so most members are focused on primaries –
TAPPER: Right.
LAWLER: -- and not actually engaging in a general election.
TAPPER: All right. New York Republican Congressman Mike Lawler, come back when you introduce that legislation. We'd love to have you on.
LAWLER: Will do.
