Transcript: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Nov. 1, 2026
The following is the full transcript of the interview with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, a portion of which aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Nov. 1, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. So, Governor, you're campaigning for re-election, and you're also trying to help some of these Democrats get elected to Congress. According to our CBS polling, 57% of likely voters believe Democrats have not offered a clear plan for what they would do if they do win control of Congress. What is it that Democrats are running for, or is it simply in opposition to President Trump?
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO: Well, certainly for me, it's not about opposition to Trump. I'm running as a GSD Democrat—a Get Stuff Done Democrat. I think what people have seen in my leadership here in Pennsylvania is someone who listens, who goes back to the Capitol, and then delivers, executes for the people of Pennsylvania, and I'm working hard to elect these members of or these challengers to the members of Congress here in Pennsylvania who run on a similar platform, common sense things, making sure people have access to health care, making sure that there is actually accountability in Washington D.C. so that the corruption doesn't take money out of people's pockets here and enrich the folks in D.C. Those are just two examples of the kinds of things I see from our challengers here in Congress. And as I crisscross this Commonwealth, what they're seeing from me is a Democrat who understands how to win, but more importantly, understands how to deliver for them. And that's what these candidates are running on.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How optimistic are you that you're going to be able to take four seats I think you've said?
GOV. SHAPIRO: I mean, look. Right now, it seems like there might even be five competitive congressional districts here in Pennsylvania. Obviously, four have received the most attention. I think we're seemingly ahead in at least three of them. But look, I never pay much attention to these polls. I think it's all a jump ball, and the most important thing is to do what we're doing on this bus: show up everywhere, talk to people, let them know what's at stake, how important it is to not just re-elect their governor, but that we can finally have a check on Donald Trump's chaos, cruelty, and corruption in Washington D.C. If they get out and vote for their candidate for Congress.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And they're still going to have to work with a Republican president for those next two years when they get there. If they get there.
GOV. SHAPIRO: Yeah. But there'll be a check on his corruption, and hopefully have real leverage to roll back the Medicaid cuts, to roll back the SNAP cuts, to make sure that there's real responsibility and accountability in Washington D.C. Something we have not had when Republicans have had a trifecta there.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me ask you about what's going to happen here in this state in terms of administering the election. Homeland Security claimed earlier this year that as many as 14,576 non-citizens could be registered to vote here. Has the federal government provided enough information to you–
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MARGARET BRENNAN: So Homeland Security said that in this state there are as many as 14,576 non citizens that could be registered to vote in Pennsylvania. Did they provide information to back up that claim? And what did your own investigation find?
GOV. SHAPIRO: Yeah, could is the operative word. As soon as we received that from the federal government, we immediately responded and said, "Look, if you have information of illegal voters who are on our rolls, we want that information because we don't want them casting a ballot here in Pennsylvania." I'm very serious about it. Look, I'm the former chief law enforcement officer of this Commonwealth. I have prosecuted election fraud cases. I don't want anyone voting who's not a legal eligible voter–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Did they back that up?
GOV. SHAPIRO: And of course, of course, when we responded to the Trump administration, they provided no backup. So it was a press release designed to get some attention for their false narrative. Listen, the first appointment I made when I was elected governor was the Secretary of State. That's the person that administers elections here in the state. A Republican named Al Schmidt. I chose him, even though I'm a Democrat, because I think the administration of elections should be nonpartisan. Al Schmidt, in his career of running elections, has done more to root out corruption than anything that's ever been done in the Trump administration. We take that very, very seriously, and the Trump administration has never provided a shred of evidence to suggest that there are people on our rolls who are ineligible. If they have it, I want it, and we will act on it immediately.
MARGARET BRENNAN: A recent CBS investigation found Pennsylvania was one of the states where Homeland Security has been going door to door. They've been knocking on doors and asking about the immigration status of people who live there. What can you tell us about what DHS has been doing here? And did the administration coordinate with you as governor in any way?
GOV. SHAPIRO: No. And I want to make very very clearly the Pennsylvania State Police does not do DHS's work for them. Does not do ICE's work for them. We do not ask immigration status. In fact, when ICE came here and tried to bully their way into building two massive detention centers here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, one in Berks County, one in Schuylkill County, I fought back and won and drove those detention centers out of Pennsylvania.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How many non-citizen voters did you find?
GOV. SHAPIRO: Well, what they said was that there were, whatever the number was, over a thousand people. So we said, great, tell us who they are, so we can check their status. They never told us who they were, and so it is impossible for us to be able to check the people that they claim to have identified. I will tell you, we've got very, very strict guardrails in place, led by Secretary Schmidt, constantly making sure that the people who are on our voter rolls are legal, eligible voters. And if we find that someone is not, if a mistake was made in a county where someone was registering, as an example, we immediately get on that. We work with prosecutors to ensure that they are not in a position to cast a ballot. As I said, I was the chief law enforcement officer of this Commonwealth. I prosecuted election fraud. It was a handful of cases. By the way, some were Republican, some were Democrat. None of it impacted any elections. But still, we can't allow that to happen here in our Commonwealth. And what I would ask of the Trump administration is, instead of sending me a press release, send me actual evidence, actual data, and we will review it promptly.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you did speak recently with Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board, and you told them that you think President Trump and his allies are going to try and stop votes from being counted.
GOV SHAPIRO: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You also said you expect Speaker Johnson to make efforts to delay seating new members if Republicans lose the majority. Why are you raising these concerns now? And do you think at all that you might be undermining faith?
GOV. SHAPIRO: Yeah. Well, respectfully, I was answering their question as to whether or not I thought the Trump administration would take steps to try and undermine our elections. So just to offer some context to that, and I did issue those answers, and I'll tell you why. Because I have lived through this before with the Trump administration. Back in 2020, I was the attorney general, and Trump lost the election here in Pennsylvania and tried to undermine the counting of the vote. In fact, he and his enablers sued me 43 different times to try and throw out the votes of certain Pennsylvanians. Heck, even my opponent went to court to throw out the votes of people in Bucks County. I won every single one of those cases. Went 43 and 0, Trump went 0 and 43. And so we are prepared should they try to do that again this time. In fact, we put together a task force more than a year ago when Trump began to hint at the idea that he would once again take that tack. So we are prepared in the courtroom. Should they go forward and try and undermine the right to vote. Now, more recently, we've seen further evidence of this president trying to undermine the right to vote in signing that bogus executive order, trying to make it so people here in Pennsylvania and across America couldn't vote by mail. I sued him. I won, and we protected the right to vote. So again, this was A) in response to a question, and B) based on a history of dealing with a guy who is constantly trying to undermine the right to vote here in our Commonwealth.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So I want to ask about you. Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents Bucks County, Republican here in Pennsylvania, describes you as a good man, a friend. He said you're smart, competent. He said he thinks you're going to run for president. And Senator Chris Coons, who was just here earlier, of Delaware said a Democrat. If you win Pennsylvania, you win the whole presidency. It's a good argument for you as a candidate. It's a Republican, It's a Democrat speculating. Are they wrong to speculate like that?
GOV. SHAPIRO: Well, I wouldn't be focused on speculating. I'd be focused on these midterms, which is all I'm focused on. You know, we talked here today not just about my re-election, but the fact that I'm working hard to elect four more Democrats to Congress to tilt the balance of power, take the gavel away from Mike Johnson, working hard to win a trifecta here in Harrisburg, something that hasn't been done since 1992. We have some gerrymandered state senate districts, but I'm hopeful that we're going to be able to get that done this time. So my focus has only been on these midterms, both getting myself reelected, but importantly providing a check on this president, a check to his his chaos, his cruelty, and his corruption, and to show that here in Pennsylvania, when you run on a GSD Democratic platform, that you can win up and down the ballot.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you are close to winning re-election. You said you're focused on the midterms, but how soon after you're going to make a call on your own presidential run?
GOV. SHAPIRO: I appreciate the confidence you have, or Brian has, or Chris has, but the reality is—
MARGARET BRENNAN: I'm just talking about the polls.
GOV. SHAPIRO: I always run like I'm 20 points behind. I'm running through the tape. I'm on this bus for 10 days, crisscrossing this Commonwealth. I showed up in a district yesterday that I think Donald Trump won with about 80% of the vote in the last presidential election. I take absolutely nothing for granted. I'm competing everywhere for the support of certainly Democrats, but Republicans and Independents as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you're laying out an agenda that would require some time to achieve.
GOV. SHAPIRO: I'm not sure I follow your question.
MARGARET BRENNAN: If you win re-election in this position now to be governor, to get everything done you want to get done, do you have to serve the whole term?
GOV. SHAPIRO: Well, I'm going to focus on getting done what I've pledged to get done here, and continuing to listen, see, and do, and make a lot of good things happen for the people of Pennsylvania as their governor.
MARGARET BRENNAN: People like me are just going to continue to ask you.
GOV. SHAPIRO: Well, and you're welcome to ask. And look, I'm humbled that you would ask that question. I'm humbled by the responses the senator and the representative gave you. But the only thing I'm focused on is here in Pennsylvania, winning up and down the ballot.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So when you spoke to the editorial board recently, you said six people were recently charged in the past nine months. They reported as making terroristic threats or ethnic intimidation against you or your family. You've said it has—it's weighed on you.
GOV. SHAPIRO: Yeah.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What did you mean by that?
GOV. SHAPIRO: You know, a year and a half ago, my family and I finished celebrating our Passover Seder with the community. And you know someone broke into the governor's residence, threw Molotov cocktails throughout the home, destroyed about a third of the residence, and was running through the residence with a metal hammer that he said he was going to use to beat me to death when he found me. And he's behind bars now for the next 50 years. But since that time, even more people have threatened me and my wife, our family. Threatened us based on how I worship, and it weighs on you, certainly, to know that there are people out there trying to do you harm. But I would also tell you, it motivates me to keep doing what I do to not let the bad guys win, to not let those—
MARGARET BRENNAN: I mean, you look at this campaign right now, some of the rhetoric in states out now- Ohio, in Michigan, it's downright hateful.
GOV. SHAPIRO: It's dangerous. It's dangerous. It's hateful.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I mean, how do you get rid of that? How do you lower that?
GOV. SHAPIRO: I think what you do is- is try and lead by example, as we all here- as we are trying to do here, as I am trying to do here. Try and bring back kindness in the face of the cruelty that we see from this president. I've got profound differences from the person I'm running against, from the president and others, but I don't think engaging in cruelty is the answer. I think it makes everyone less safe. But what I was saying in response to your question a moment ago, it weighs on me, but- but it doesn't control me. In fact, my family and I met before, you know, we decided to run for re-election, and everybody agreed, can't let the bad guys win. We've got to keep going forward. You got to stand up against the hate. You got to lead by example, and you got to try and bring some decency back to this country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to get to some of the politics here in Pennsylvania in a moment, but I want to ask you quickly about what is happening in Alaska. The Justice Department has now issued subpoenas to people believed to be connected to what the New York Times reported was the Democratic effort to stack Alaska's Senate ballot with candidates to siphon off votes. I know you must have been following this story. The Democratic candidate said she had no knowledge of the scheme. What do you think this does to election integrity, and do you think that this undermines Democrats' argument that they are the party trying to protect election integrity?
GOV. SHAPIRO: I've been focused, obviously, a lot more on Pennsylvania than Alaska, but what we're seeing from Trump is not super different from what we have seen from him here in Pennsylvania- trying to prejudge an outcome, file a bunch of lawsuits to silence the voices of the voters before they've had their say, and he's already showing that he is going to go to court should the result not be what he wants. Because what Trump doesn't like is when someone thinks different than you, or votes different than you, or has a different perspective than you- he tries to go to court to silence those voices.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But in terms of what has been reported by the New York Times, as one Democrat said to me, "may not be illegal, but it looks like dirty pool." Does it look like "dirty pool" to you? I mean, if you saw something like that in this state, you were an attorney general.
GOV. SHAPIRO: I- yeah, well--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Would you try to prosecute?
GOV. SHAPIRO: You're asking- respectfully, I think you're asking two different questions. Is there something illegal here, or is there something that seems sort of political?
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
GOV. SHAPIRO: I don't know enough to be able to weigh in on this, but what I do know is that- to weigh in with any new information- I want to be clear, happy to answer your question. But what is clear to me is that Donald Trump tries to use the Justice Department to silence people who disagree with him, to try and silence the voices of those who might make a different choice in the ballot box than he would want.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But I can't imagine you condone these kind of tactics on the Democratic side.
GOV. SHAPIRO: I'm not engaged in it, I'm focused on these races here in Pennsylvania.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Let's talk about Pennsylvania. This state is in the midst of one of the worst measles outbreaks the United States has seen in three decades. In this county, a school here had to close for a day earlier this month--
GOV. SHAPIRO: Yeah.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --because of a confirmed case of measles. This is highly transmissible. How do you get this under control?
GOV. SHAPIRO: We've got five deaths in Pennsylvania. 1,500 people sickened by measles, a disease that was eliminated in the year 2000 in the United States of America, and it's come roaring back, largely because of vaccine misinformation and disinformation promoted by quack conspiracy theorist RFK, who Donald Trump has now put in charge of our nation's healthcare system. Now, here in Pennsylvania, I believe in making sure people have access to the information, that there is vaccines available to them, it is a personal choice if they wish to get it. But what is critically important is that they hear from an actual medical provider, an actual medical expert, not RFK, who can explain that the MMR vaccine, that's the measles vaccine, is highly effective, and the best way to protect yourself against this measles outbreak. Make no mistake; you can draw a straight line between the nonsense that RFK has been spewing for years and now his work as the leading public health official in this country, and people getting sick here in my state and across the country. How do we get control of it--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
GOV. SHAPIRO: --now, it's the second part of your question. You do what we're doing here in the Commonwealth, bringing all of our healthcare partners together, and working to provide actual medical information to people in our Commonwealth, and making sure they get access to the vaccine, and encouraging them to take it. Now, here's some data for you. Typically, our Department of Health, working with our healthcare partners, would vaccinate around 25,000 people a month. Since the measles outbreak and my encouragement, and Dr. Bogen, our health secretary's encouragement to get vaccinated, we're now up to 55,000 vaccines being administered a month. So, Pennsylvanians are doing what we do best: coming together, looking out for our neighbors, and trusting science- something RFK continually tries to undermine.
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MARGARET BRENNAN: So you clashed with HHS Secretary Kennedy in September, pretty publicly. You had a back and forth over what happened, what was driving the measles problem in the state. The CDC now recognizes three measles-associated deaths. That's fewer than the five--
GOV. SHAPIRO: Right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --that your state health department has seen. You just accepted CDC help. Do you have any regrets about how you handled this?
GOV. SHAPIRO: No, and respectfully, that's not accurate. First, RFK denied that anyone died here in Pennsylvania. Literally poked his finger in the eye of these families here in Pennsylvania.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, he disputed deaths due to the measles or--
GOV. SHAPIRO: No, first he said- respectfully, first he said I fabricated it. First he said I lied about it, which we didn't. We know these people died. It's been confirmed not just by our state health department, but also by independent coroners. Then they tried to play games with the number of deaths, and you correctly point out that he's only acknowledged three of those deaths. As it relates to working with CDC, we've had people embedded here from CDC in our state Department of Health before the measles outbreak, and we did accept one additional person that they were asking us to accept.
MARGARET BRENNAN: An Intelligence Service Officer, right?
GOV. SHAPIRO: Yeah, one- one person to help with tracking. By the way, this isn't like they're sending 1000 people here to vaccinate folks. It was one additional person, and we gladly accepted them and CDC had been here for, you know, again prior to this outbreak. The fact that RFK claims that we're lying about this, he's doing that because it doesn't fit his narrative. Remember, he's the guy who went to Lancaster, the epicenter of this outbreak, and said, "You don't need the vaccine. Just take a bunch of chicken soup, and you'll be fine."
MARGARET BRENNAN: You're talking about before he was HHS Secretary?
GOV. SHAPIRO: This guy- this guy is not fit to be the head of public health in this country. He's not a health expert. He's not a doctor, and he preaches fabricated--
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GOV. SHAPIRO: Look, he is not qualified to serve as America's top public health official. He is not a health expert, and he is constantly undermining public health here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and across the country. He's unfit to lead. Donald Trump should remove him, and that will help all of us do a better job of beating this disease that was eliminated in the United States back in the year 2000, but has come roaring back sadly because of his vaccine misinformation and disinformation campaign.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But do you worry at all that the degree to which this has now become a political fight or the politicization of health will make it that much harder--
GOV. SHAPIRO: To be clear--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --for you to persuade people to go get the shot, that are so--
GOV. SHAPIRO: Not at all. Not at all. RFK politicized this. RFK is playing games with this. And in fact, if you look at the work we're doing here in Pennsylvania, it's working. We went from vaccinating about 25,000 people a month to over 55,000 people a month because people trust actual public health experts here in Pennsylvania, not the nonsense that is being spewed by RFK Jr.
