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to wherever you are. because the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like powered by cable. >> we are going to pause to look at what is going on in 2024 politics. julia manchester is joining us and is our national politics reporter. thank you for joining us again. i suppose the starting point might be the recent polls that came out not only from the washington post and nbc looking at joe biden and donald trump both, for what the finding -- what do they mean for the men as they go forward to win the white house? >> for the men i think it means this is not a given on either side. we have heard for quite some time that joe biden's team has been wanting to run against donald trump and he would be the prime candidate. we are starting to see him

perform better with biden leading in some cases but it will be a close race. we are a year out. they both have to get through their own respective primaries. this is something we are watching closely. >> one of the things that the men will intersect on is visiting striking workers on tuesday. talk about the visits and what is behind the visits when it comes to their campaign. >> it is fascinating to see them both take these trips to visit the striking workers because in a way these workers play an integral role in both of their campaigns. for job out in -- for joe biden he has touted himself as the most pro-union president in american history emphasizing support from the administration for union. and his background supporting the unions. and talking about his sway and support for blue-collar workers. that has been integral to the

democratic brand. for donald trump, we saw the same voters in 2016 swaying towards him in states like pennsylvania, wisconsin michigan. joe biden wants those voters back in 2024. but i think donald trump is making a place for them a play for them by going to speak to them. and while he is speaking to the uaw voters in michigan republican primary candidates without him will be in california at the reagan library. it is another opportunity for donald trump to counter program in an effort to get more visibility than his republican opponents and fox news. >> when it comes to the debate, who is expected to participate? what was the level of participation criteria? >> there was a polling threshold

and a fundraising threshold. some of the big names from the last debate ob there including ron desantis, nikki haley, mike pence. we can expect to see round two of this, but what i am really looking out for is to see how ron desantis in particular is able to stick out on stage. n milwaukee, we were also not predicting him to be enemy or target number one for the rest of the republicans on the stage but that did not happen. instead, it seemed like ramaswamy was target >> i think desantis sort of interjected when he could and had a few strong moments, but for desantis, this is a big moment for him. we are seeing increasingly more speculation about his campaign and what is going to happen going forward.

we see it has not really gained traction in the national polls and even in new hampshire. it was a cnn and university of the hector paul that showed him slipping -- new hampshire poll that showed him slipping behind nikki haley and ramaswamy. this is a big moment for him nationally. his campaign put a lot of stock into iowa. that is the number one priority. they think that will propel them to the finish, but we will have to see what happens on the stage and whether this is really a sugar high after the debate or if it has a lasting impact on the primary. host: a written piece on it on the hill. that is where you could find it, thehill.com. recently president trump gave an interview and talked about the issues of abortion. how did that go about with those in the pro-life community and does it spell trouble for him with the comments he made? guest: those in the pro-life

community are not happy about this because they see him as compromising on abortion. in a way, he was talking about compromising. we have seen nikki haley for example suggest or make similar comments, not essentially compromising, but saying we will not get a federal ban because of the makeup of government right now. i think in a way, trump and haley are trying to be realistic about the political impact of all of this and how it could check out in the midterms. if donald trump watched the 2020 two midterms last year, he saw a number of republicans lose their districts and their seats and their races because of the abortion issue and because they could not really message clearly on abortion. they did not have a clear directive. pro-lifers and those in the antiabortion community would say that they would agree with

the fact that there needs to be a clear directive but republicans should have run away from the issue. this should say they are pro-life, stick to the 15 week federal ban, and flip the script on democrats and paint democrats as extremists on the matter. ask democrats, how far are you willing to go when it comes to abortion? is it legal up until nine months, birth? we will see more of that messaging. donald trump being much more careful on that end. host: i suppose the debate on wednesday will reflect on those things as well and other themes related to the campaign. what other things do you think will be different as far as what they will talk about this week than they talked about previously? guest: i think obviously in the first debate we heard a number of topics that were discussed, including the economy and trump's legal issues. obviously, that director coincided with the debate. trump was booked in the fulton

county jail and got his mugshot the day after. that was the topic of conversation. what i imagine the economy to be a big part of this. it is on the foxbusiness network. want to focus on business and financial related issues. a lot of candidates are inching to comment on that. a lot of these candidates have records on the economy. the governor of north dakota, governor desantis, nikki haley, you will see these candidates want to hit the biden administration on the state of the economy and inflation. and then of course the big elephant in the room or who is not in the room, donald trump, who will be in michigan. he will be talking to the uaw workers, so i am assuming it will be a question about that strike and how the strike impacts the economy and how if they were president they would approach that. host: as far as the intersect between campaign 2024 and a potential shutdown, what does it mean for all involved? how are they looking at the possibility of the government

running out of funding this week? guest: it is sort of an awkward situation for some of them because i think a lot of these candidates have a tie to the staunch pro-trump or very conservative base. for tim scott, i think it more directly impacts him logistically because he is obviously a senator. he is involved in the logistical part of this and the process, some insider knowledge on that -- he is involved in the logistical part of the process and will have some insight, some insider knowledge on that. we see mccarthy and dissenters trade some barbs this week. ron desantis not so long ago was a congressman and knew a number of the lawmakers pushing back on mccarthy. he knew mccarthy himself. this is not unfamiliar territory for him. host: julia manchester reporting

for the hill on national politics. miss>> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined now by seto bagdoyan. here to talk about a new report looking at potential fraud within unemployment insurance and other related things. thanks for your time this morning. can you explain some people get a sense of what you do at the government accountability office . what do you do? guest: government accountability office is the audit and investigative of the congress appeared we work at their request and also legislatively mandates.

you made recent news taking a look at pandemic related issues, particularly in the area of unemployment insurance. a new report coming out. before we talk about the details, what prompted you to look into it? guest: this has been at the request of two committees on the republican side. there was great interest by the priority issue because of the concern and the extent of fraud that occurred in the program, he designated the unemployment insurance program as a high risk area for additional attention in terms of fraud, waste, abuse mismanagement that was done. host: before we talk about details, during the pandemic, what happened in the area of unemployment insurance? guest: sure.

unemployment insurance spending skyrocketed. we are looking at about nine hundred billion dollars in expenditures both federal and state funding over time. most of the programs expired in september of 20 21. the regular ui program is still in place. host: you have to elaborate. the reason for these programs, why do people get ui money in the first place. what happens during the pandemic to extend that? guest: during the pandemic a lot of people became unemployed due to covid restrictions shutdowns. they were eligible to receive regular unemployment. congress decided that needed to be supplemented. they created a number of special programs as well as a program

that provided federal resources and unemployment. host: let's talk about the numbers. if you want to ask questions, (202) 748-8000, republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8001. i will just redo the top lines and you can fill in the blanks. estimated fraud during that time , that representing about 11% and respectively of the toount of ui benefits that were paid out. the full extent of this type of fraud will never will be known

with certainty. guest: the methodology was complex. we crated this at the request of our congressional clients. yeah. given the nature of fraud, it is insidious nature. the fact that it takes a long time to investigate fraud cases, that makes it difficult to pin down exactly the magnitude. the estimates are the best guess basically. take fraud risk seriously.