The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts and Senate primary candidate, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 23, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re going to turn now to another congressman, and that is Seth Moulton, who joins us from Salem, Massachusetts. And Congressman Moulton wants to be Senator Moulton. He’s launched a primary challenge to Ed Markey. Good to have you on the program, Congressman. The last–
REPRESENTATIVE SETH MOULTON: Good to see you, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Last time we saw a young challenger go after Senator Markey’s seat, Markey won. How do you get the partisan enthusiast to show up for you when he’s got Senator Bernie Sanders and AOC behind him?
REP. MOULTON: Well, as the Boston Globe said in endorsing me, which was a switch for them, by the way, because they endorsed Senator Markey six years ago. The future is now. The world has changed, and Senator Markey is very much running the same campaign he did back in ’20 when all those same people endorsed him. But in the last debate that we just had this week, he explained to Massachusetts voters that he can’t understand the different apps on his phone. He doesn’t know which ones use AI, and then he tried to clean it up by explaining that AI is like an automobile, and we need to regulate it the way we regulate seatbelts. So, the point is, the world has just moved on. It’s not a personal thing with Ed Markey. In fact, he and I agree on most policies. It’s about whether one Senate seat should–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
REP. MOULTON: –belong to one person while the world is moving on without him. He’s been there for- he’s been in Washington for 50 years, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, and you have focused on that need for generational change for some time. You tried to oust Nancy Pelosi from leadership in 2016, 2018. You pushed then for generational change. You ran for president in 2019. In 2024, you were the third member of Congress to say Biden should not run again. So, big picture, it looks like you’ve been saying the Democratic Party has been on the wrong path for a very long time.
REP. MOULTON: Yes, that’s fair. I mean, this is very authentic to me. From the very first time I ran for Congress against a nine-term incumbent in my own party and had many of those same establishment endorsers of Ed Markey campaigning against me, I’ve been willing to challenge the establishment when I don’t think it’s getting the job done. And I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not always popular, right? It doesn’t always resonate with people. But right now, it’s desperately needed. More than seven out of 10 Democrats in Massachusetts say they want new Democratic Party leadership. On day one of this campaign, I said I’m not going to vote for Senator Schumer for senator leader- for Senate leader.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
REP. MOULTON: Well, not only is Markey supporting Schumer, he just took $62,000 from Schumer’s fund to flip Senate seats. Money that Democrats raised across the country to go to Maine and Ohio and Alaska to flip said seats from red to blue, he took that away from that victory fund to bail out his own campaign. So, this is just a time when we do desperately need to challenge party leadership, and it is, as you said, very authentic to my history.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about something you were also out on a limb on, and that was five years ago this week, 13 service people, 170 Afghans, were killed in the attack on Abbey Gate during that chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. You were very critical of President Biden and how he carried that out. And you said Washington should be ashamed of the position we put our service members in. Right now, the current president has banned Afghans from entering this country. What are you going to do to help those people left behind?
REP. MOULTON: Well, first of all, we’re literally working on this issue every single day, Margaret, behind the scenes, and my office got–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Not much is happening though.
REP. MOULTON: Look, my office got so much experience working with all these cases and trying to get individuals out of Afghanistan, we were able to, on our own, just rescue dozens and dozens ourselves. And in- in the face of this horrific Trump administration, where their policies are basically just racist, essentially, in saying that they don’t want anybody who doesn’t- isn’t a white person coming into America, they are basically ground the immigration program from Afghanistan to a halt. So, the first thing we’re doing is behind the scenes, we’re still working with veterans from across the country to get Afghans to safety. The second thing we’re doing is we’re fighting on policy because we have to change this policy, we have to fundamentally reform immigration, and of course we should support the allies who put their lives on the line, not just for their country, but for ours, alongside our troops. But the third thing I’m doing, which is really the- the key point here with all of this, is I’m fighting to get majorities in the House and the Senate. While Senator Markey is taking money away from the Victory Fund, I’m raising millions of dollars through Serve America, as I have for years, to support Democrats who are going to flip seats across the country. We’ve already flipped–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Wow.
REP. MOULTON: –24 seats from red to blue.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
REP. MOULTON: We need to continue that work so we win majorities.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Well- well, we’ll see because you got this interparty fight first, September 1st. Seth Moulton will be watching what happens. Thank you for your time today. We’ll be right. Back.