yamiche: countdown of the midterms. >> shame on joe biden shame on his entire administration that said inflation wasn't a big issue or it's not here to stay. yamiche: with just overwo weeks to go until election day, republicans lean into voter fears about inflation. >> today, i'm announcing three critical steps that my administration will take to reduce prices at the pump. yamiche: president biden releases millions of barrels of oils from the reserves. >> the polls have been all over the place. i think we'll see one more shift back to our side the closing days. yamiche: and hits the campaign trail. >> how long will you watch and do nothi? >> i'm 100% life.

because i believe that innocent human life is worthy of the protection of our laws. yamiche: abortion -- >> our guy thought it would be a good idea to raise money for those people who stormed the capital. yamiche: and the future of our democracy, next. announcer: this is "washington week". corporate funding is provided by -- consumer cellular. additional funding is provided by, ku and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our community. saundra and karl delay magnuson. robert and susan rosenbaum. the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again from washington, moderator yamiche alcindor.

yamiche: good evening and welcome to "washington week." midterm election day is 18 days away. and early voting is already underway in some states. republicans are feeling confident about their chances of winning control of the house and the senate while democrats have been holding out hope, they can hold on to bower. but gas prices and inflation are on the rise again putting the economy back at the top of voter concerns. and according to the the latest "new york times" sienna college poll voters said economic concerns are the most important issues has increased from 36% to 44% far higher than any other issue. the polls also show that 49% of likely voters plan to vote for a republican for congress. that's 4% more than the 45% who say they plan to vote democrat. and georgia's republican governor brian kemp is rung against stacy abrams. he was quick to pounce in the shift of voter sentiment.

>> georgians should know that my desire is to continue to fight through 40-year inflation and high gas price and other things that our georgia families are facing right now. quite honestly because of bad poll -- policies from washington, d.c. and the democrat who is have complete control. yamiche: president biden announced he will release 15 million barrels of oil. but biden said he will prioritize passing abortion rights if his party can hold on to power. >> if you care about the right to choose, you you have to vote. that's why these midterm elections are critical more senators and more democrats to keep control of the house of representatives. folks, if we do that, the first bill thatly accepted to the congress will be to codify roev. wade. yamiche: joining me now is ri kline, director for abc news.

he can be seen on "power trip." it offer as behind the scenes look of the campaign trail covering the mid terms. joining me here in studio, laura barron-lopez. abha battarai, economics corporate for "the washington post." and nikole killion from cbs news. we've got to start with you, abha. you're covering the economy. what does your reporting say about whether or not there could be a recession, how bad the state of the economy or maybe this is being overblown? abha: by many measures the economy is good right now. unemployment is at historic low. people are getting raises. people are continuing to spend. businesses are continuing to hire. but the dark cloud over all of this is inflation. and that's really weighing on consumer sentiment. it's weighing on businesses and that's sort of what's driving all of this doom and gloom that we're seeing here in washington and around the country. people now for over a year have

been seeing higher prices at the grocery store at the gas pump. they're depleting their savings that they piled up during the pandemic. they're racking up more credit card debt. and they're feeling the sense that the bomb is slip out. they're not sure when things are going to get better. yamiche: and using words like dark cloud and doom and gloom -- how much of an impact can the white house really have on all of this? abha: the white house can do bits and pieces here and there. but this is in the hands of the federal reserve which is charged with raising interest rates which is charged with slowing down the economy and slowing down inflation. it's unclear whether that can happen and more and more economists a predicting a recession next year. yamiche: our friends at play book, they wrote this headline. it's the gas prices, stupid. it's been reported that ron

clain checks the gas prices. tell me how concerned the white house is about the inflation and talking about abortion and trying to deal with inflation. laura: it's something that the white house has long been concerned with. they thought that the economy will be the ultimate top concern for voters even after the mid terms even after the dobbs decision was handed down. that's why a lot of people are asking why isn't the president talking about abortion rights. and part of of that was because the people in the white house that i've spoken to says that ultimately, he wants to try to sell his economic vision even though a lot of the things that democrats have passed to date well, it's stuff that they tried to achieve for a long time like prescription drug reform and that ultimately can help people's pocket books. it's not going to take effect for probably another year or. so and so it's really difficult for the white house to sell that right now when people aren't necessarily feeling it right

away. and right now, they're looking at gas price. to your point about ron klein he is constantly tweeting when he can say that gas prices are still low. that was the argument from the white house that look, the president is taking this action on the strategic petroleum reserve becae we're trying to have this bridge carried over the winter to make sure that gas prices stay low as soon as possible. yamiche: laura is talking about some people might not feel about these things for a year out -- and we're 18 days out from the midterms. tell us what you're hearing from voters? nikole i've been in georgia and wisconsin. the sentiment is true that many people are concerned about the economy. when you ask them what's most important to them are the high gas prices, high grocery prices, high energy prices. that it's difficult to make ends

meet. abortion rights still rises to the top for a lot of female voters that i have talked to over the last couple of weeks on the trail. but by and large, the economy is still kind of rises to the top. and just to talk about the point with respect to the white house, you know, i had a chance to speak with d.n.c. senior advise or cedric rich month this week and he said what the president is doing is intentional stirring away from these campaign rallies and talking more about the policy and trying to sell what he has done and you heard the president reference that in his remarks earlier today. it is something where i think the administration feels proud of what they've accomplished and is trying to sell that messaging to people even in spite of that potential disconnect. but i was told that we will see the president on the trail a little bit more in these final weeks. yamiche: that will be interesting. there's a lot of debates, right? this week, a number of candidates in key races well, they faced off.

>> no, senator, i don't think it's ok for a 10 year-old girl to be raped and have to carry the seed of her rapist. no, i don't think it's ok for you to make decisions for women and girls -- >> she supports taxpayer funded abortion on demand for any reason at any time up until the moment of birth that's what she supports that's the extreme position. >> we need a governor who believes in access of the right to vote and not voter suppression which is the hallmark of brian kemp's leadership. >> i'm t person who created the online voter registration system. where any georgia voter can register. yamiche: you covered the herschel walker debate. why have there been such few debates? erry i that is a hallmark of what we've seen this cycle even

trying to get these candidates to the table has proven quite difficult in the case of georgia did take a while. there was a lot of back and forth between the war knock campaign, the walker campaign. obviously, they did that debate last friday. their one and only debate. there was a second debate. herschel walker declined to appear at that. even if you look at the other races across the country, in most instances we're seeing them debate the same thing between deemings and rubio. that was there. it's depriving voters of the opportunity to see t candidate on multiple occasions and in terms of georgia and talking to voters, there were so voters who said yeah, i watched and i think that's enough. but there were plenty of voters who said i would like to see more. that debate they didn't get into the issue of immigration for instance. there are reasons and protocol for why you have multiple debates. but even in the case of arizona w're seeing there, the gubernatorial candidates they're not facing off at off

what does that say going forward about how things are conducted? yamiche: and that's why like you, nikole because you transitioned me to rick because rick is sitting there in arizona. you've been talking to both candidate who are running for governor. katie hobbs is not wanting to debate kari lake. tell me about the race and what it tells you about the overall landscape of the mid terms right now? rick: in this case, you've got the democrat who says that she's not willing to talk to the republican face-to-face. and the reason that she says that, that katie hobbs says -- in her view, she doesn't want to elevate that b even having the conversation. but boy is that risky. for two reasons, kari lake is a long-time tv anchor right here in phoenix. she's very well known in the phoenix media market. she does multiple news conferences, interviews all the time. she talks to people. every opportunity she has.

katie hobbs is the secretary of state. she's not the same kind of political performer. and the other thing that's dangerous in all of this is that you have an opportunity, a possibility that someone that denies the legitimatey of the the previous election is in charge of the next one. you have attorney general candidate, and statewide candidates, congressional candidates up and down the ballot here. and in battleground states around the country who bring view that is says this election was -- was -- somehow fixed or stolen. they have -- promoting false information about that and they're casting doubt on whether they would concede in 2022 or certify results in 2024. that's an area that the stakes get even higher around the midterm elections. it's not something you hear a lot from voters. it's not something that voters are listing as a top of mind issue or when you discuss it with them. but sit a real consequence to have people who say that the last election was somehow stolen

being in a position to oversee future elections. yamiche: while we have you and what's going on in arizona, i want to ask you about the other races. the power trip is going around the country. tell me about what you're seeing in other states? i'm thinking of ohio, florida, pennsylvania. what connects these races together and tells us the story of this midterm season? rick: it's really interesting to go out there and talk to voters and candidates because we see all sorts of different types of candidates. a lot of them have been people who have been recruited b donald trump. candidates like dr. oz in pennsylvania and herschel walker blake masters here in arizona. j.d. vance in ohio. none of them have ever run for office. none of them have ever -- would ever run for office if it weren't for donald trump that's created a new class of politicians. those are the kind of people

that you're talking about. and i've seen also with our reporters on the ground some interesting twists about what it means to be a democrat. to look at someone like john fetterman or tim ryan. they don't look like a democrat. they're trying to bring a working class appeal to states who are in the purple side or in the case of ohio more republican-leaning. and they're trying to use performances on the trail trying to connect with people by traveling around in a different way. it still matters these days even in the age of tens of millions of dollars being dump into the campaign to make personal connections. our reporters are talking to voters that say that the economy is front and center. and i think the democrats have a couple of issues here, one is that some of the issue that is voters may be on their side on like election integrity like abortion rights just aren't top of mind. there's something that aren't thought about ier every day.

you don't tend to go about your every day life thinking is the next election going to be stole or not? you do think about gas prices. there's a visibility representation of what's going on every time you pass by the gas station every time you buy lunch, you see those price. i'm intrigued by some democrats who hav been breaking with the white house who says look, you should be more aggressive. we've heard mark kelly say that the white house has made mistakes on the border. we've heard tim ryan saying there's been mistakes in not confronting inflation as a bigger let for american familiesle i feel like it's something sometimes when you go against your party that you have an opportunity to break through a bit and maybe -- maybe just cut against the national narrative that we see developing over this, just the last couple of weeks. yamiche: i wonder what you're hearing from voters especially as we've seen democrats try to do this thing where they're balancing and talking about inflation and abortion. what are you hearing?

>> i was struck by how many long-time democratic voters making these decisions that they never thought they would be make. they wonder if they should prioritize, abortion, gun control. but they feel like they have less and less of a choice when they are struggling to pay for grocery and electricity and these other essentials as one woman in nashville tol me yesterday, we can no longer afford to prioritize our principles over inflation. and so they're really rethinking sort of their entire belief system in some cases. yamiche: fascinating to hear. and laura, talk a little bit more about the white house's approach by this? i was struck by a question na president biden got. top domestic issue innation or abortion. he basically said we should walk and chew gum. what you hearing from white house officials. >> this question was posed early to his staff to corrien

jean-pierre. she said the top is inflation make making that distinction, economic not necessarily entirely domestic. i mean, we're seeing the final argument from biden happening this week which is, we had the speech from him about abortion. staying you election two or three democrats to the senate, then he would codify roev. wade. part of that is going to be the argument that he -- that his agenda is trying to keep this economy balanced, trying to make sure it doesn't fall into a full-scale recession and the argument from the white house is that look, the economy does have a lot of -- of factor that is in terms of unemployment like being low, the fact that jobs -- there's a lot of options for jobs. that's what they're trying to focus on as well. i think the other thing is today the president was focused on

student debt. and so he again is trying to make this argument to very key constituencies across the democratic base including young voters. i've talked to democratic strategist saying that if the youth voter turnout doesn't reach 2018 levels, we don't have a chance of holding the senate. and definitely not the house. so these key stitch went sys also with black voters, if they don't reach a certain threshold in places like georgia or -- or pennsylvania, then -- then again, democrats don't have a chance of holding the senate and definitely not the house. yamiche: when you think about what drives voter attention and feelings, nikole, is this feeling of how scared are they? you think about the way the measures have being given to them. part of it is former president

president's -- trump. steve bannon was imprisoned four months in pson for defying the subpoena to come testify. what's your sense of how these developments surrounding trump and the trump orbit how they impact voters' minds in these midterms? nikole i don't know if it will make a wave and that's because it's built into the bigger discussion, it's the economy, stupid that's what people are caring about. how concerned are they going to do be about a subpoena, i'm not sure. what i did find interesting about the subpoena is that the committee has been clear to say that they are not going to do anything around the midterms. we saw them hold the hearing last week, you know, in terms of their report. they say that that's not going to be tied to the mid terms in anyway. and yet, the subpoena drops where they want the former president to produce documents, a feways before election day

and then they want him to show up for this deposition a few days after election day. obviously, they're under a time crunch. they're trying to get their work done by the end of the year the timing around all of that is interestg and whether or not the former president cooperates is yet to be seen. we know he has bashed this committee as the unselect committee. his attorney accusing this committee of flouting the nor will we see any compliance? the committee would hope so but unlikely it seems. >> before i want to turn to some stuff that's going on in florida, i wonder if you can chime in here when it comes to conservatives. they made the case that republicans are better at dealing with the economy? are you hearing that from voters abha: absolutely. for a long time the messaging was this is just temporary this is because of supply chain issues. and when it didn't happen, it was well -- this is putin's

fault. so it's taken a while for voters to think that they're listening to them. we're likely to have seen extremely high inflation high gas prices even with the republican president in power. but right now this is joe biden's problem and they're able to capitalize on that. yamiche: the party in power is to be held accountable in april, republican governor ron de santis signed a bill to dedicated to pursuing voter fraud. these week "the tampa bay newspaper" has reported on arrests. >> i guess you have a warrant. >> if what? >> for voter stuff. yamiche: florida officials say that these are felon who is voted illegally. that allowed them to cast ballots. i want to come back to you. what are the actions of the florida election force tell us

about the overall g.o.p. approach to elections right now? connect what we're seeing in florida and with these videos to what's happening politically? rick: i think it's a significant development. and just today we saw a judge in florida throw out one of the 20 case that is the governor de santis was highlights as part of the saying that the prosecutors were trying to bring the case didn't have the jurisdiction. we've been reporting this pretty extensively and talked to some of the lawyers involved. governor de santis was trying to make a major point. he was trying to -- to -- to signal to republican voters the importance, the priority that he was putting on election security. it's something that's been echoed across republican campaigns. and instead of looking back at 2020, the signal that sent throughout is clearly one that's intended to -- to -- to discourage someone or have any questions whether doing so at all. you can view that as a good

thing. you had individual who is were told by state authority that is they had the right to vote. there was confusion around the types of felonies they committed and whether the would be able to re-establish their franchise under new law. there are other states who have similar laws and at the time it felt like governor de santis was trying to one one-up one of his republican colleagues. but as a case like this falls apart you realize the toll that it taken on people, and the count less number of people that might have the right to vote but might be questioning whether they should everyone try to do that because they see an action like this. the body cam footage was striking because police officers were unable to explain what exactly those charges were and you had people befuddled about the fact that they were being arrested when they were told by state officials they had the right to. do that is manifestation of t mistrust that's been placed into the round of elections. we know election workers are

undergoing unprecedented threats in addition to people who are running for office saying they won't necessarily trust election results. you have this widespread mistrust as people are about to vet and are already voting in record numbers around whether you can even cast that ballot. yamiche: it's a lot of confusion when you look at the people -- and confused by what's going on. rick: i'm curious to see whether frankly if any of them stick. grimm the last 30 second this we have here, laura, you interview add polster who said this could motivate black voters. laura: he said that he thinks it could backfire because when people watch those videos particularly plaque voters that it could motivate them to turn out in states like florida and also georgia. he kw that is some democratic campaigns are going to start using that footage and ads in the final week of the election. yamiche: watching that video is confusing. you can tell the cops were

confused. one cop saying there might be a loophole if you were given voting material. we'll definitely have to keep watching what's going on there. thank you so much to our panel ist. you can see more on rick on the docu-series about "power trip". tune in sad to pbs news weekend for a look at how children's mental health is being treated falling recent recommendation that kids over over the age of 8 be screened for anxiety disorder. thank you for watch watching "washington week." >> corporate funding is by -- >> our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that helps you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> additional funding is provided by ku and patricia yuen

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