The following is the transcript of the interview with Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts and Senate primary candidate, which aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on August 23, 2026. MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re going to talk now about another congressman, and that’s Seth Moulton, who joins us from Salem, Massachusetts. And Congressman Moulton wants to be Senator Moulton. He has issued a primary challenge to Ed Markey. Good to have you on the show, Congressman. The last one: REPRESENTATIVE SETH MOULTON: Good to see you, Margaret. MARGARET BRENNAN: The last time we saw a young challenger go after Senator Markey’s seat, Markey won. How do you get the partisan enthusiast to defend you when he has Senator Bernie Sanders and AOC behind him?REP. MOULTON: Well, as the Boston Globe said in endorsing me, which, by the way, was a change for them, because they endorsed Senator Markey six years ago. The future is now. The world has changed and Senator Markey is largely running the same campaign he ran in ’20, when all those same people endorsed him. But in the last debate we 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 tried to clarify by explaining that AI is like a car and that we should regulate it the same way we regulate seat belts. So the thing is, the world has just moved on. It’s not personal with Ed Markey. In fact, he and I agree on most policies. It’s about whether a Senate seat should… MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. REP. MOULTON: –they belong to one person while the world goes on without him. He’s been there for… he’s been in Washington for 50 years, Margaret. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes, and you’ve been focused on that need for generational change for some time now. He tried to oust Nancy Pelosi from leadership in 2016 and 2018. He then pushed for generational change. He ran for president in 2019. In 2024, he was the third member of Congress to say Biden should not run again. So, generally speaking, it sounds like you’ve been saying that the Democratic Party has been on the wrong path for a long time.REP. MOULTON: Yeah, that’s fair. I mean, this is very authentic to me. Since I first ran for Congress against a nine-term incumbent in my own party and many of those same Ed Markey establishment supporters campaigned 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 is desperately needed. More than seven in 10 Democrats in Massachusetts say they want new Democratic Party leadership. On the first day of this campaign, I said I’m not going to vote for Senator Schumer for senator leader, for leader of the Senate. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. REP. MOULTON: Well, Markey not only supports Schumer, but he just took $62,000 from Schumer’s fund to flip Senate seats. The money that Democrats raised across the country to go to Maine, Ohio and Alaska to turn those seats from red to blue, he took out of that victory fund to rescue his own campaign. So this is exactly a time when we desperately need to challenge the leadership of the party and, as you said, it is very authentic to my story. MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about something that you were also taking a risk on, and that was five years ago this week, 13 service members, 170 Afghans, died in the attack on Abbey Gate during that chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. You were very critical of President Biden and how he carried it out. And you said Washington should be ashamed of the position we put our service members in. At this time, the current president has banned Afghans from entering this country. What are you going to do to help those people who are left behind?REP. MOULTON: Well, first of all, we’re literally working on this issue every day, Margaret, behind the scenes, and my office has… MARGARET BRENNAN: Not much is happening, though.REP. MOULTON: Look, my office gained so much experience working on all of these cases and trying to get people out of Afghanistan that we were able to, on our own, rescue dozens and dozens ourselves. And in the face of this horrible Trump administration, where their policies are basically racist, essentially, by saying they don’t want anyone who is not a white person to come into the United States, they are basically crippling the immigration program from Afghanistan. So the first thing we’re doing is behind the scenes, we’re still working with veterans across the country to get the Afghans to safety. The second thing we are doing is fighting politically because we have to change this policy, we have to fundamentally reform immigration and, of course, we have to support allies who risk their lives, not only for their country, but for ours, along with our troops. But the third thing I’m doing, which is really the key point of all of this, is I’m fighting for majorities in the House and the Senate. While Senator Markey withdraws money from the Victory Fund, I am raising millions of dollars through Serve America, as I have for years, to support Democrats flipping seats across the country. We’ve already changed… MARGARET BRENNAN: Wow.REP. MOULTON: –24 seats from red to blue. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. REPS. MOULTON: We need to continue that work to win majorities. MARGARET BRENNAN: Very good. Well, well, we’ll see because we first had this fight between parties, on September 1. Seth Moulton will be attentive to what happens. Thank you for your time today. We will be right. Back. 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