This past weekend, this past Labor Day weekend.
Like many before it marked the traditional kickoff of the midterms general campaign season,
both President Biden and for former President Trump are campaigning in battleground states,
including
in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
States will be talking about a lot, I'm
sure on Thursday at the Democratic National Committee meeting in
Maryland, President Biden made his pitch for electing more Democrats.
Imagine if we just selected two more Democrats in the Senate and
keep the House of representatives.
Imagine
Will codify Roe v. Wade.
Will ban assault weapons will protect Social Security.
Medicare will
protect voting rights will pass the luxury for
Meanwhile, Republicans have been accusing President Biden of wasting
money and hurting the economy.
Here's Senate Minority Whip John Thune
taking aim at the president's Student loan forgiveness program.
The Democrats demonstrated once again, they don't care about fiscal
responsibility.
They don't care about debt or deficit reduction.
Right now.
They care about one thing, and that is buying votes going
into the November election.
Joining the conversation now is NBC news
correspondent Dasha Burns.
She's been running all across the country,
so let's discuss the racist to watch ahead of November's election.
So Dasha, like I said, You've been crisscrossing the country going
to battleground states, including Pennsylvania.
Talk a bit about what you're reporting has shown about what this
What's at stake in this midterm election what voters are talking
about, and how Pennsylvania in particular, it's sort of a microcosm
of what's going on out there.
Yeah.
You mean, you know, I've been spending a whole lot of time
in Pennsylvania.
So have you and we're about to spend a lot more
time there.
I think just about all of our lives are going to become
more absorbed with this state and the races that we see they're not
just because it's probably the Democrats best shot at picking up
a Senate seat, something President Biden was pointing to in his sound
bite You played there, but also because it really is pretty representative
of politics in the age of Trump.
Look, you've got Dr Oz, a celebrity
candidate who
Nobody really ever thought would be running in a race like this people.
Still voters that I talked to to this day are a little bit confused
to see a celebrity doctor reality TV star running for Senate, but
he is and he's received Trump's endorsement.
On the other side.
You
have his opponent, Democratic candidate John Fetterman, the lieutenant
governor of Pennsylvania, who himself is a bit of a larger than life
character, right, this six FT.
Eight guy with lots of tattoos who's
painted himself very much as an hour.
Outsider, and I'll tell you you miss the language that I hear voters
use when they talk about that.
Armand is pretty similar to the language
I heard voters used when they talked about Trump in 2016 and 2020
saying, You know, this guy is not
A difficult politician.
He tells it like it is.
So you've got these
two battling it out, as as recently really been focusing on Fetterman
attacking him as soft on crime, not willing to debate.
Meanwhile,
Fetterman and we'll talk a little bit more about this.
I'm sure has
started to put abortion as an issue that's front and center On Sunday,
he's going to hold an abortion rights rally in Pennsylvania.
So you've
got to talk about that a lot of sort of absolutely fighting it out.
And Amy when you think
About this, And I want to put up this.
This poll from NBC Affirm
director from NPR, PBS news hour and mirrors, and it shows that it's
an engine Eric about it battled ballot for another 48% of registered
voters are saying they prefer a Democratic candidate and 44% say
they prefer a Republican.
Of course we have you on your so excited
to get you on the program because you can break down what's at stake
here.
What are the big trends that we're seeing when you think about
that poll?
So we have seen some movement in the so called generic
ballot, right where you
You ask voters that question Who would you vote for in November Democrats
or Republicans?
Republicans had been up a couple of points earlier
in the year, so it's been, you know, we'll call it a 345 point shift
in Democrats favor the most fascinating thing, though you mentioned
it's what has
Even people who have been doing politics for years and years and
years.
Folks like talk to say, This is the strangest election I've
ever been through because the president is still really unpopular,
even though his approval ratings not as bad as it was say at the
end of July, when it was at 38% at 42%.
That's not a great place
to be when you're the party in power.
But underneath it we're seeing like you just put that number of Democrats
at 48%, even though the president somewhere like is that 41%, so
Democrats somehow outperforming the president.
That's not something
that you typically see.
And the real question again.
Another head
scratcher is
Um, what role is abortion going to play in this abortion?
I wanna
actually quick follow up, Which is New Hampshire.
Why is that interesting
to you?
What stands out there?
So this is sort of the last chance
here for Republicans earlier this year, they thought they were going
to be able to put 45 Senate seats in play because the environment
looked good.
And the incumbent senator, there are first reelection
campaign not doesn't have a strong of numbers
in that state.
But they have a primary on Tuesday between surprise surprise, a Trumpian
type of candidate and a more establishment candidate.
Right now,
the more Trumpian candidate is ahead.
It's going to be very hard
for that candidate to survive.
This is another place where had trump
not been engaged.
He hasn't endorsed here, but he was really responsible.
For making it really hard for the most popular Republican in that
state, the governor to say yes to a Senate run and yes, so we'll
look back.
If Democrats do hold onto the Senate will look back to
a place I just lost program.
What could have been lost
and Nia?
I want to come to you.
We see we've seen Biden and Trump
fighting it out and going to states like Ohio.
What's what do you
sort of hearing when you think about sort of how these two presidents
are dueling it out when there are so many issue
Use like abortion like inflation on voters minds.
Well, listen.
I mean, you obviously hear Biden trying to make this
a choice Election rather than a referendum election.
He gave that
big speech are really pointing the finger on Trump and his more ordering
followers as a danger to the country as a danger to democracy.
And
you have trump doing what Trump does going to different states.
Pennsylvania.
I'm sure he'll be in Georgia and and these other states, Ohio, for
instance, where he's got a big following.
They are attached.
For his message about 2020 being a fraudulent, fraudulent election.
They are attached to his message about him being a target of which
hunt from the FBI from the DOJ and from everyone and their mother,
and so that very much resonates with his voters.
I think the problem
that Republicans are seen and you can sort of see a kind of firing
squad already circulating among these Republicans.
Who I talked to
is that some of these trumpets candidates might be great for primary
voters.
But not so great for independent voters.
Not so great for suburban
white women voters who, of course, are reacting to a lot of the news
we're seeing, particularly around the Dobbs decision.
You see something
really happening in the data.
Inflation is certainly a huge issue.
I think it's the number one issue among among voters the second most
important issue abortion.
The third is healthcare.
When you bring
up abortion, I wanna think of talk about sort of the such importance
that it has dash.
Uh, you've been out there talking to candidates, especially Republicans
who have had a sort of shift their messaging.
I think in Washington
state, tell us a little bit about what you're hearing on the campaign
trail.
Well, look, I've had the privilege of being on the ground in several
states that were sort of bellwethers that gave us that signal that
abortion was really going to become a big driving issues issue for
voters.
I was on the ground in Kansas in the months leading up to
that.
That big decision where voters voted down the anti abortion
amendment and what's really interesting initial when I've been talking
to voters when I was talking to them in in 2020, and over the last
couple of years, there was a lot of focus on politics of personality,
right?
Is this a candidate that
I like Is this somebody I want to get a beer with somebody I trust.
Is this somebody that's authentic.
That's really how Donald Trump,
you know, went over a lot of voters recently, especially since Dobbs
it's been much more a politics of policy where for the first time
in a while, I'm hearing voters really bring up these issues like
abortion and like inflation that are actually impacting them that
they feel that direct connection that whoever I elect who I vote
for is going to impact my life.
And it's true running as a
Publican in the post Dobbs era is a bit of a challenge.
I heard that
in Washington state when I was there last week, I interviewed Senate
candidate at Tiffany Smiley, who has made it very clear she's tried
to make it clear that she is pro life, but she would not vote for
a federal abortion ban.
You saw Blake Masters right.
NBC News reporting
that he scrubbed his website of
Of of anti abortion language.
And when I was reporting on New York's
19th district race, a generic Republican versus a generic Democrat,
no offense to them, But it wasn't a personality contest.
It was really
a contest of issues.
Republicans running on inflation Democrats running
on abortion.
The Republican in that race also kind of walked back
the message and saying, Look, I think the Supreme Court upended what
I thought was was lost.
So you're seeing the shift in messaging and
you are seeing vote.
Damage very much coming out to the polls.
Based on this issue.
So
many folks that I've been talking to polling places I asked them.
What did you vote on?
What did you think about when you cast your
ballot and they said, Bro?
Um and Amy last 30 seconds here when we think about sort of race
and crime in the conversations.
What do you say?
Actually being told,
10 seconds.
How much is sort of these other cultural issues Paying
a factor?
Um, it's definitely a factor.
And look, you're gonna We're
already starting to see Republicans.
They want to change the conversation.
Talk about crime.
Talk about inflation.
Talk about the border.
Democrats.
You can see ad after ad really focusing in on row and
abortion and that issue, so it's gonna be a fight.
We'll definitely
more than talk about.
Thank you so much to our panel for joining us and sharing your reporting.