Before I began, I want to take a short pause
to send our love to Nancy and Paul Pelosi.
I've been on the phone with Nancy
arranged for her to be able to get from Washington out to
out to see her husband, Bobby, who says he she's in a plane
now heading out there and you've seen the news.
He was attacked in her home.
And when I spoke to the speaker, she said that he's doing okay.
He went to the hospital, was operated on, and he seems to be come along well.
He's in good spirits with the whole families.
There.
While this invasion is ongoing,
the news reports indicate
it was intended to be an attack on Now in the House,
Nancy Pelosi is the third
ranking person in the United States in line to be president.
You know,
if reports that the same chant
was used by this guy they have in custody
that was used on January 6th and the attacks on the U.S.
Capitol. I'm not making this up. This is being reported.
I can't guarantee it.
I can tell you what's been reported.
The chair was Where's Nancy?
Where's Nancy?
This is despicable.
There's no place in America.
There's too much violence, political violence,
too much hatred, too much vitriol.
And what makes us think
a one party can talk about stolen elections?
Call it being a hoax.
There's all bunch of lies and not affect
people who may not be so well balanced.
What makes us think
that it's not going to corrode
the political climate?
Enough is enough is enough.
Every person of good conscience
needs a clearly and unambiguous
stand up against the violence in our politics.
Regardless what your politics are
always
All of us together
as Americans.
Knowing Paul and Nancy, the families, I do.
They're tough as they come.
But we're praying for him.
We're optimistic for his full recovery.
Democrats are desperately trying to hold on to their slim majority in Congress.
Let's go now to CNN White House reporter Kevin Liptak,
who is with President Biden in Wilmington, Delaware.
Hi there, Kevin.
How is his time on the campaign trail going
Yeah, good morning, Amara.
The president,
the vice president, they're both trying to sharpen their message here
in the closing stretch as Democrats grow increasingly
anxious about their prospects.
Their closing argument really centers around this warning about
what would happen if Republicans were to take the majority in Congress.
Of course, the president has focused on official events this campaign season,
really trying to highlight his accomplishments.
But there is this persistent frustration among Biden's team that that isn't
breaking through to voters.
And so in this final stretch, they've made the determination
that in addition to arguing for his own accomplishments,
he should also be arguing about what the Republican alternative would mean.
Yesterday in Philadelphia, he said that this was a reference,
not a referendum, but a choice between two distinct visions for America.
Listen, to a little bit of how the vice president framed this last night.
Contraception is on the line.
Marriage equality is on the line with Republican Party leaders in charge.
Health care is on the line.
Social Security would be on the line.
Medicare would be on the line.
Good jobs and fair wages for working families
on the line.
Now, nowhere is this message more resonant than in Pennsylvania.
This was the president's 19th visit to the state.
He, of course, was born in Pennsylvania.
And last night he pulled up a pant leg and showed a Phillies sock,
of course, there in the World Series.
Now, the president is not on the campaign trail this weekend.
His wife, Dr.
Joe Biden, will be in New Hampshire.
Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Maryland.
The president does plan to cast his early vote today.
Early voting opened in Delaware just yesterday.
He'll be accompanied by his granddaughter, Natalie.
She turned 18 this year.
This will be her first time voting.
And hopefully we will have
pool cameras there when the president goes to cast his ballot.
Kevin Liptak reporting from Delaware, thank you so much.
And of course, late campaign
twists could have a real impact on three consequential Senate races
that will decide whether Democrats remain in control of that chamber.
For more on this.
Joining me now is CNN senior political analyst Ryan Lizza.
He's also the chief Washington correspondent for Politico.
Ryan, long time.
Good to see you.
Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
I want to ask you about Pennsylvania, because know I've heard it pegged often
by a lot of political analysts as the most important
race in the country for several reasons, including the fact that it will shape up
to be probably the biggest battleground state in 20, 24.
Do you agree with that and why
Yeah, look,
Pennsylvania for the Senate is the sort of
the majority maker here.
If the winner of Pennsylvania is likely to take control
of the United States Senate and a lot of these are the Senate races
that are the key toss ups right now happen
also to be presidential swing states
and few as important as Pennsylvania.
If Joe Biden or whoever the Democrats nominate
in 2024 can't win Pennsylvania.
They likely don't have a path to the presidency that's at least the way
it was in 2020 And the reason all the you know the Senate the Senate
and for the Senate and for presidential races voters are more
and more voting the same way you very rarely see these days
senators or voters
vote differently for their statewide Senate candidates
than they do for the presidential races not that long ago is pretty common
to just split those.
Now we're approaching a country where all 50 states statewide
elect one party or the other up and down the ballot,
with some important exceptions. Yeah.
And if you don't mind if I can jump in there,
because I do want to ask you about that debate in Pennsylvania.
Right?
I mean, it was obviously very uncomfortable
and painful to watch Fetterman on the debate stage. Yes.
He is recovering from a stroke.
But I mean, do you think his shaky performance
is going to cost the Democrats, knowing that the Senate I mean,
there are a lot of elderly, I would say almost half,
I believe, are in their seventies.
Senators and a lot of them are ailing as well or some of them are.
So is that what is going to come down to, you think, in Pennsylvania?
That is a good point.
There is this kind of not such a great tradition
in the Senate of health issues cropping up with senators
late in their career and Senate offices not being very transparent about that.
That is a little different than this happening in the
in the middle of an election, of course.
And that debate happened just as as it was creeping up on Fetterman in the polls.
So it came at a bad time.
And look, these debates are are are
voters have come to we pundits and voters have come to expect debate performance
to be one of the criteria that senators should be good at.
Right.
If when we elect them and we see these debates, it's such
an important sort of ritual in a campaign.
So it
some voters might not understand that his troubles in that debate
had nothing to do with his cognitive abilities.
They were just this auditory processing issue.
Right.
That's a complicated thing to get across to a lot of voters.
But I think the campaign and the media have done a decent job explaining that.
And we're in a very polarized environment where not a lot changes
these campaign is on one side or the other.
So I think at the end of the day, it had minimal impact and to the race in Georgia.
Ryan, I mean, we heard there on the hot mike you know, Senator
Chuck Schumer is saying that the the race is going downhill for the Democrats.
And I think he was referring to obviously the race between Democrat Senator
Raphael Warnock against Republican Herschel Walker.
What do you think that race is going to come down to?
I mean, do you think people are just going to simply vote along party lines
as long as they get a majority in the Senate?
I mean,
this this is a great example of what we were just talking about.
When being dramatic events sometimes don't change races
or they have the opposite impact than what we think they might.
So a lot of Republicans in Georgia across this thing,
the fact that all of this information is coming out about alleged abortions
that Herschel Walker paid for despite his swearing that he's
he's pro-life, a lot of Republicans are processing that, as,
you know, Democratic hits on this guy.
And it's reinforcing his base rather than turning Republicans away.
So who would have thought that those allegations coming out
late in the campaign
coincide with Chuck Schumer saying, hey, the race is slipping away for us?
Right.
We're a polarized environment
and it takes a lot to shake voters on one side or the other off.
They're off their preferred party right now.
Well, Ryan, it was great to see you.
Thank you so much for the conversation.
Hope to see you again soon. Thanks so much.
Good to see you.