President Biden is on vacation in South Carolina and Congress is
on August recess. But the news in politics has not slowed down. Primary
elections are being closely watched in Wyoming, as Laura just reported,
and in Alaska, the president is set to sign the inflation reduction
Act tomorrow.
And fallout continues from the FBI search of Donald Trump's home
to analyze it all or our regular politics. Monday Team Amy Walter
of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of
NPR. Hello to both of you. It is time for politics Monday. And as
we just heard from Laura Baron Lopez Tam, there is a lot to talk
about. We've got some big primaries this week. Everybody's watching.
Wyoming. What what's at stake in this race for for Liz Cheney? Let's
Cheney is running like someone who has nothing to lose. And in fact,
she basically does have nothing to lose. At this point. She made
a decision
you know, back around January 6th calculation that
Standing up for the Constitution was
More important to her than her congressional seat because there are
plenty of people plenty of Republicans who agree with her, but none
who are going to have a straight to camera TV ads, saying that former
President Trump lied and incited a riot. Um, and as a result, she
is almost certainly going to lose. There are not enough Democrats
in Wyoming to help her win.
Um And and that said she has certainly elevated herself as a voice
in politics. And she obviously comes from my has the Cheney name
and is unlikely to disappear from the political scene. Certainly,
yeah. I mean, you know, you hear a lot not just here. There are a
lot of Democrats who are changing.
Their registration
Democrats nationally who are writing checks to her. She has a very
big bank account. Right now she's not going to spend it all down.
Even in this primary. You can't spend that much money in Wyoming.
But I do think the issue of the short term and long term consequences
is really important here. Almost everybody who voted for impeachment
will have paid a short term political costs. I think what Liz Cheney
is looking at is
In the future, maybe in the not so far away future how history is
going to judge her. But the other important thing, Judy is is how
primaries are structured is a really important point. I think Alaska
is also holding a primary.
Tomorrow. Lisa Murkowski, the senator, Republican senator from Alaska,
voted to impeach Donald Trump. She is going to survive in Alaska
because, for the first time ever, Alaska now has a top four primary.
Everybody runs on the same ballot. The top four vote getters will
go on the other people who voted in the house against impeaching
Donald Trump. They also are from states that have a top two primary
ballot. Everybody runs on the same ballot. So some of the issue is
yes. If you have a Democrat Republican
Primary that is
That is hard to win. If you go up against your party or in this case
goes against the former president. But in these other the process
is another important piece of all of this process is no. No question.
But once again, Tam former President Trump is at the center of what
we are talking about American politics and we are just, you know,
just a week ago. Today we were. We were looking at the news of the
FBI having searched the home.
Um
At Mar a Lago at the former president, Florida state and the repercussions
keep coming. What What do we see right now? As the political consequences
of what's going on there? The political consequence or the political
take away from me? Is that this consolidated support behind Donald
Trump? It proved once again that he is sort of this all powerful
figure in the Republican Party because you have Republicans of all
stripes rather than some are just
Sort of ignoring the What did he have in his house and just attacking
the FBI? Others are defending him, even even without knowing all
of the facts.
Mhm, the he I mean, he is sitting back and watching people who could
be 2024 primary challengers instead criticizing the FBI. And, you
know, I would love to talk about the the degradation of trust and
institutions. But here is just example. You know, number one.
Attacking the FBI is seen as completely acceptable by Republican
politicians attacking it and violence and we saw a man you know,
shot consequences. Exactly. Certainly for this,
um and look, I think it may help consolidate some support around
Donald Trump. Maybe even help him in 2024. I don't think it's good
for his party in 2022 for Republicans in this midterm election, the
path to victory
Marie has been pretty clear for a long time now make the election
about Joe Biden.
Who has an approval rating right now around 39 or 40%, and about
the economy in which voters are pessimistic and think that Biden
and Democrats aren't doing a good job and believe Republicans would
do better. That's what you make the campaign about. The more the
campaign is about Donald Trump January 6th abortion, the better It
is for Democrats, It becomes a really a choice election instead of
a referendum, and even if it is a referendum between Biden and Trump,
that's probably
Pretty good for Democrats. Not very good for Republicans, so the
White House may not have set out for this to happen. They say they
didn't know anything about this FBI search Tam but it it may turn
out to be because it elevates the former president
turn out to be something that works to their benefits, and I had
been reporting even before all of this happened that President Biden
had been mentioning Donald Trump's name more in his speeches that
and you know the take home from President Biden.
Owns pollster and from others that I talked to was well, nothing
motivates voters more than Donald Trump. Now that's also true of
Republican voters. But it's it's very true of Democratic voters.
That said President Biden and the White House are trying to put a
focus on all of these things that they have actually accomplished.
Despite months of everyone, assuming that there was no way that they
would actually accomplish those things, and let's be really clear
to the reason that Donald Trump is in the spotlight is because Republicans
or keeping him there they very easily could have said
You know what? We should wait for more evidence. We should step back
and let the department and the FBI do their job and then we'll come
out. But when you have the House minority leader immediately, saying,
when we take control of Congress were investigating this and we're
going to oust the department of the head of the Department of Justice.
That's not sort of sitting back and letting the election be about
anything else. I mean, they said to the attorney general, Clear your
calendar exactly coming after
him. What about this? So you mentioned the Democrats. Now they have
something they can talk about the the inflation reduction Act passed.
Is that something that could work to their benefit? Is it something
that voters can hang on to? What is it? You know that I saw this
ad today that Raphael Warnock put out the senator from Democratic
senator from Georgia.
All about the burn pit legislation. That's bipartisan legislation.
It's focused on something that people care about veterans care about,
Um, do you have now any number of pieces of legislation that senators
can put out ads about progressive senators can say Look, we've done
something about climate change. This is the most sweeping climate
change. Other progressive candidates can say. Look at this gun legislation.
Yes, it was less than we wanted. But this this
Gun legislation actually accomplished something, so they have things
to point to and and again going back to the president's pollster,
he said. You know, like two months ago, they didn't have that many
things 2.2. Now they do. Can it make a difference? I would say The
thing that made them has made the most difference and probably is
helping Democrats. The most is the fact that gasoline has gone down
a dollar since the beginning of the summer. And that is the pinch
that people are feeling is a little bit less. We're seeing a little
bump right now in consumer confidence and
From people who aren't feeling quite as as pinched
in their day to day expenses, although inflation still is taking
a big bite, and I do think that still is going to be a big, big,
big issue in the 22 midterms, inflation numbers seem to be easing
off. But in terms of what people seeing exactly feeling feeling,
it's the gas pump. It's a grocery store.
And of course, there are a lot of Republicans who wish they could
just focus on that and not trump, right. But we keep talking about
these other things. Don't we go