good morning. welcome tofa the nation." last week was an extremely troubling one in american politics. we now have just eight days left until election day and the country is feeling deeply unsettled. our cbs news battleground tracker poll out this morning shows that a stunning 79%, that's nearly 8 in 10 likely voters, say that the country is out of control. that's an ominous sign for the democrats, who hold power in washington. of those 79% expected to vote next tuesday, republicans have a more than 20-point advantage.

two issues -- the health of the economy and the health of american democracy -- have taken center stage in this campaign. it's the latter and the rhetoric that is under fresh scrutiny following friday's attack on paul pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of house speaker nancy pelosi, at their home in san francisco. cbs news congressional correspondent scott mcfarland has more. >> reporter: the day after the horrific attack, house speaker nancy pelosi expressed gratitude for law enforcement and her husband's medical team and said she and her family were heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack. president biden spoke with the pelosis on saturday. >> don't know for certain, but it seems this was intended for nancy. kept asking, where's nancy, where's nancy. >> reporter: 42-year-old david depape will face a serious.

de pape's social media posts are saturate ready conspiracy theories, holocaust denial. republicans must do more to denounce the violence and end the baseless claims that could fuel threats. >> that's the problem. whoa can't just say, i feel badly about the violence. we condemn it. condemn what produces the violence. vience. talk produces the >> reporter: the attack on paul pelosi is the latest in a growing wave of threats and plots against elected official. capitol police records obtained by cbs news show nearly 10,000 investigations into threats on members of congress last year. georgia's raphael warnock has spent thousands on protection. >> there are people trying to stir that up for short-term political gain. it's dangerous stuff. >> reporter: meanwhile, an

intelligence bulletin obtained by cbs news warnss of a heightened threat from domestic extremist groups on and after election day. of political officials, political rallies and possible attempts to intimidate voters or use claims of fraud to justify violence after the election, especially in cases where it takes additional time to certify the results. >> despite baseless claims of fraud, the 2020 election is considered the most secure and successful in u.s. history. and voting so far in 2022 has been safe and secure. so far, more than 20 million people have voted early and election officials say they're being vigilant and coordinating with police, emphasizing everyone should feel safe coming out to vote. margaret? >> scott, thank you. we go now to jen easterly, the director of the cyber security and infrastructure security agency, also known as cisa, the homeland security agency tasked with securing america's cyber security infrastructure and

coordinating with states on election security. you're going to be very busy. i'm glad you're here with us today. >> glad to be here. >> i want to ask about this bulletin, first off. it warns domestic violent extremists may view election-related infrastructure, personnel and voters as attractive targets. are you aware of immediate and credible threats? >> no. let me be very clear at the top. we have no information about specific or credible threats to disrupt or compromise election infrastructure. i want that to be very clear. we are putting out information like the warnings that you mentioned to make sure that state and local election officials have the information that they need to protect their voting systems and their election infrastructure. that said, margaret, it is a very complex threat environment. you have cyber threats, you have insider threats, you have rampant disinformation. yes, very worryingly, you have threats of harassment, intimidation and violence against election officials,

polling places and voters. let's be really clear. that has to stop. it is unacceptable behavior. it's undemocratic. we all need to work together to ensure that this is a safe and secure election. >> and it is the states that administer the election. you are providing support to them. what is the election day plan for security and then communication? what are we going to hear and see? >> on election day, actually, we at cisa are going to be in our own operation center. we'll have federal government partners, private sector partners there, and then we'll be in direct communication with all of the state and local election officials chose job it is to run and administer elections. we'll be working to share information and we're going to be working to respond to anything that happens. but remember, at the end of the day, the relationship between local officials and local law enforcement is incredibly important. i was really encouraged by the opinion piece that came out

yesterday with the sheriff in massachusetts, one in colorado, talking about the fact that ensuring election security is a nonpartisan issue. and threats to election officials have to stop. so, that connectivity at the local level, the information sharing, the planning and exercising that's happening is really important to ensuring security at the polling place and at the ballot box. >> we talk a lot about rhetoric and the risk of triggering violence. social media is the place where false information often spreads. i want to ask you about what's happening now. at twitter it's privately owned by billionaire elon musk. this morning he tweeted a conspiracy theory about nancy pelosi's husband. given how charged our environment is, are you concerned about how this platform might change and that it's going to make your job more difficult? >> well, first of all, horrific attack on mr. pelosi and thoughts and prayers go to their families. that is a decision that social

media companies, that twitter will make. they make their own decisions based on terms of service. i am laser cfocused -- >> this is the owner himself. >> i'm laser focused on the next nine days and what comes next to ensure security. i want to be very clear on this, though, margaret. these elections, election officials these are not faceless back room bureaucrats. these are our relatives, friends, neighbors. they're in our community. they're dedicated public servants working day in and day out to secure elections. they deserve want just our support but our admiration and respect. we all need to be responsible about ensuring that's a safe and security environment. >> which is why i'm asking you about the place where these conspiracy theories spread. the fbi report, when we looked at it in terms of those direct threats to election workers highlighted arizona, colorado, georgia, michigan, nevada and wisconsin as places where voter

intimidation and threats to election workers have been seen. are these the areas of greatest concern for you? >> concerned across the board. we have cyber threats from nation states, insider threats, physical threats, as you talked about, and we have disinformation. disinformation, foreign influence that can be used to sow discord, undermine confidence in election integrity and used to incite violence. what are we doing? we're doing a couple of things. we're putting out information about tactics and disinformation and how to build resilience against disinformation. we have a rumor versus reality site that's basically election literacy. but most importantly, we are amplifying the voices of local and state election officials. they are the trusted voices that understand how elections work. if anybody has a question about voting or what -- how it all works, they should go to their local election officials.

>> so, that's who they should be following on twitter and social media, find your local election official? >> exactly. exactly. i should point out, the national association of secretaries of state, nas.onas.org as well as national soergs of election directors, frequently ask questions. that's the best place to go. they know how elections happen. if you've seen one state in an election, you've seen one state. it's surprisingly technical and complicated. that's why i welcome people asking questions. you know, the beauty of democracy is that it's parti parti participaty. the more transparency, the better. >> i want to ask you about the foreign threat, there are questions about what china is doing right now. how effect tive by beijing has been and are there other state

actors or nonstate actors you're worried about? >> we've seen iran, china, ru russia playbook. if you see information on the internet and you're not sure whether it's true, be critical about it. ask questions. look at the source. investigate it. don't spread that information any more broadly. and give -- basically give foreign adversaries a chance to manipulate americans and to sow discord and create lack of confidence in our elections. i want to be very, very clear. i have confidence in the elections that are going to be run because of the massive amount of work that's been done across the federal government at state and local election officials with election vendors to put multiple, multiple layers of resilience and security controls in place. i am confident elections will be safe and secure and the american people should have confidence in the integrity of elections when

they go to the ballot box, when they cast their vote. >> good luck to you. turn now to the chairman of the national republican congressional committee, minnesota congressman tom emmer. good morning. good to have you here. >> good morning. >> i have to ask you about what we've just been talking about here. how concerned are you about the risk of political violence and how should it be minimized? >> there's no place for violence, period, in our society. physical violence or violence against someone's property. i think you've already covered that here this morning. the incident in san francisco, tragic as it is, i think we need some more information about it, but we should all be feeling for paul pelosi and his family. hopefully they'll be 100% recovery. >> just to be abundantly clear, you denounce any kind of attack on the pelosi family? >> absolutely. there should be no attacks, period. there should be no violence in our society. again, whether it's political or otherwise. there's no place for it in the civilized society.

>> well, i'm glad you said that because i want to ask you about something in our cbs news poll that shows that even as republicans are poised to lead this contest and take control of the house, we see suspicion, specifically among republicans, about the voting process. a big majority of republicans support the idea, private citizens challenging election officials as they process and report vote counts on election night. we're seeing that on the screen now. two-thirds of republicans support private citizens patrolling around ballot drop boxes and polling places. this is just republicans. we don't see this with democrats. we do not see this with independents. would you urge private citizens not to patrol polling places? >> words, margaret. i would say it is republicans, democrats, independents, all american citizens are very acutely aware, as your previous guest just mentioned, about our election process. i think this is going to be a very good election because people are awake, they're paying

attention. they should volunteer as poll watchers. it's a state-based system. whatever your state requires and allows, you should definitely be involved. and i think it's going to help the process. >> just to be abundantly clear, poll watching is different than voter intimidation, which is unlawful. >> nobody should be intimidated when they're exercising their most precious right to vote. >> when you see video as we've seen in a place like in arizona, where you see individuals with tactical gear, when you see individuals with weapons outside drop boxes, how do you classify that? >> again, no one should feel intimidated when they're examiner sizing their right to vote. >> that isn't intimidating? >> you have stories on both sides of the aisle, stories in states where people feel their rights were infringed on. i think cooler heads need to prevail. you have 15 million plus that have already participated in ea country. i thyou'll have a big turnout in nine days from now on the election. i think, again, republicans,

democrats, and others are well aware of the issues we had during covid. people were stepping up and trying to do things to make sure we were protected and safe. but they were adjusting election laws on the fly. i think a lot of that has been resolved. i think you're going to see a really good experience in nine days. >> okay. so, you would urge citizens not to patrol polling places? >> i urge everyone, get involved. whatever your state allows, involve. volunteer, exactly what your previous guest suggested. >> this bulletin also talks about a linkage in drawing -- undermining confidence in elections because of 2020. and you are on this list that we have of 307 republicans running for office who have raised doubts about the integrity of the election. i mean, drawing a direct line here between sowing distrust then and what we are seeing right now. do you regret sowing doubts yourself? >> what you're referring to, i've never sowed doubts about

the election. >> you signed onto this texas amicus brief that went to the supreme court to overturn it. >> what that said, margaret, that amicus brief, a lot of governors, secretaries of state took unilateral action during covid changes election laws -- >> so you don't -- >> if i could finish. changing election laws themselves to make sure we were safe while we exercised our right to vote. that particular amicus brief, all it said was that we need to reaffirm that state legislatures and legislatures alone make their election laws. as we go forward, once we're out of covid, we have to go back to that. >> to be clear, you don't consider yourself an election denier? >> absolutely not. >> and joe biden is the legitimately elected president of the united states of america? >> he has been sworn, he's serving, he is the president of the united states. >> he is the president of the united states, but you -- >> we've had an election in nine days we've been working on for the last two years. you reported in the intro that 8 out of 10 americans in that same

poll you were referring to is concerned with where this country is. they say it's out of control. >> but you're not meaning to undermine confidence in the 2020 election? >> 8 out of 10 americans right now think we're on the wrong track. that's what they're going to be voting for. >> i know. i would love to talk about something other than people being worried for their lives, but, unfortunately, that's where we are. i want to ask you about this when it comes to political violence. on your twitter feed you posted this video we're going to show just a few days ago where you're firing a gun and it says, enjoyed exercising my second amendment rights, #firepelosi. why is there a gun in a political ad at all? >> it wasn't an ad. i was -- >> #firepelosi with a weapon. >> well, now -- >> wouldn't a pink slip be more fitting if it's about firing her? >> it's interesting, margaret. >> why a gun. >> it's interesting we're talking about this this morning when a couple years back when a bernie sanders supporter shot -- >> which was horrific, which sh

why we should be putting weapons -- >> i never heard you or anyone else in the media trying to blame democrats for -- >> we did extensive coverage of what happened to steve scalise. >> excuse me? >> one tried to equate democrats' rhetoric. >> i'm not talking about rhetoric. i'm talking about what you posted. you're shooting a gun. our viewers just saw it. #firepelosi. >> exercising my second amendment -- >> that's not a debate about second amendment. #firepelosi. do you understand not that's suggestive to people in a bad state in a current environment how risky that is? >> i disagree. >> you're talking -- why leave that up? >> again, i never saw anyone after steve scalise was shot -- >> i'm talking about right now. >> equate -- >> what's happening now. >> equate democratic rhetoric with those actions. >> please don't do that. >> looking at your candidates,

republican candidates have spent more than $116 million on ads that mention speaker pelosi by name in this cycle. if this is about the issues, why don't you make it about the issues? why not depersonalize it? >> it is absolutely about the issues. it's about the fact that we have double digit inflation -- >> you don't think -- >> -- exploding cost of living. we've got a crime wave across this country that is a direct result -- >> in this moment we are eight days out. don't you think this needs to change? why not pull some ads? why not delete your tweet? >> i'm sure people would like to talk about anything but what the democrats have done to this country, which is exploding cost of living, exploding crime wave which is defund the police and cashless bail. you look at new york city where you put someone in jail at 9:00 p.m. for assaulting someone on the street and they're back out on the street at 9:00 a.m. committing crimes again. you look at my state of minnesota, minneapolis has 6,000 assaults since the beginning of the year, margaret.

those are the issues that are top of mind for every voter in this country. that's why they're going to show up on the -- on november 8th and that's why republicans are going to win in the midterms. >> that's what our projections are showing. iwould suggest more pink slips, fewer weapons in our ads in this environment, sir. thank you for joining us. "face the nation" will be right back. stay with us.

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do want to create an environment of fear. i think they want election officials to be scared and they want voters to be scared, to some degree. i think it's really remarkable that voters have responded with over 20 million voting already. we have 1.6 million of them vr already voted in georgia alone. the environment is really scary from a lot. we see that from the polling, we see that from what scott was talking about earlier as well. >> these are people in your community you know. >> yeah. >> this isn't, big, bad washington. >> no. i talk to election officials regularly. i was talking to an election official in florida last night who was dealing with an issue at a polling place. i talk to election officials in arizona, including those issues we've seen in maricopa county, arzona. important to note -- >> those men in the tactical gear. a federal judge says is permitted. >> right. at least for now. it's been appealed in the ninth circuit and will be heard next

week. we'll see if that's still the case. under federal law there are multiple statutes that prohibit voter intimidation. as a former lawyer who used to serve in the department of justice, that videotaping or photographing voters against their will, following them, that has been the kind of activity that the doj has viewed as intimidating in the past. >> i want to make a very clear distinction here, because we were talking about with congressman emmer, the call for people -- and you've heard it from the head of the rnc -- to come and watch voting occur. that is not illegal. >> no, it's not only not illegal. properly trained poll watching by both parties is a really good thing. extreme transparency is something that's practiced by election officials all over the country. they want people to come in and see what they're doing. that is a really good thing. they serve as flies on the wall. if they see a problem, they're supposed to report it to the proper authorities. when we see vigilantes, and this is only happening in a few places, start to take matters into their own hands, those people are not properly trained.

people who want to volunteer to be poll workers, working for the actual election jurisdiction or poll workers working for their campaigns or political parties, as long as they're well trained, that's a good part of the process. >> but voter intimidation is unlawful. >> yes. >> we were looking in our research here that the ap has a report saying the most litigation ever filed before an election is happening right now. most of those lawsuits by republicans. what does that sig to yo well, y atune to what's going on with the election process. that's not necessarily a bad thing. we're also seeing efforts to change rules in red areas as well. things to install hand-counting of ballots, which is a really bad idea. really comes up with inaccurate counts. takes a lot longer, breeds more concern about the process. a county in nevada is doing that. but resolving these kind of disputes before the election is a good thing. if we're having a lot of litigation, it's important for everyone to know the rules by

election night. it's not okay to question those rules after the election. you mentioned that texas lawsuit that came in december 2020. that was a perfect example of that. >> all right. thank you very much. >> thank you, margaret. >> david becker. we'll be seeing a lot more of you, i know, in the coming days and weeks. we'll be right back. so is an oral-b. round cleans better by surrounding each tooth. so clean, you'll feel like you just left the dentist. oral-b. brush like a pro. ♪♪ woman tc: my a1c stayed here, it needed to be here. doctor tc: ruby's a1c is down with rybelsus®. oral-b. brush like a pro. man tc: my a1c wasn't at goal, now i'm down with rybelsus®. son tc: mom's a1c is down with rybelsus®. song: a1c down with rybelsus® anncr vo: in a clinical study, once-daily rybelsus® significantly lowered a1c better than the leading branded pill. anncr vo: rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. anncr vo: don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. anncr vo: stop rybelsus®

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♪ welcome back to "face the nation." we go now to the chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee, that's new york congressman sean patrick maloney. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> i want to start where we just left off with our other guests. how concerned are you about the risk of political violence? and can you say, unequivocally, that you and your fellow democrats will accept the outcome of your elections? >> of course we'll accept the outcome of the elections. always have, always will. and we're very crned about the integrity of our elections, especially when people are trying to intimidate people with weapons, when they're engaged in these tactics to try to undermine confidence. we're going to accept the results of the ti