welcome to tuesday. it is "mtp daily." i am kasie hunt in for chuck todd on developments surrounding voting rights. in a few moments, president biden is leaving the white house to deliver a major address from national constitution center in philadelphia. it comes as texas democrats are ramping up on the president for a clear strategy for federal voting rights legislation through congress. more than 50 elected democrats fled texas as part of an effort to block passage of voting restrictions. they authorized the sergeant-at-arms to find the

lawmakers and potentially have them arrested. they are now here in washington where they held a press conference at the capitol, begging democrats, congress, and the president for help. >> intent to stay out and kill this bill, use the intervening time, 24, 25 days before end of session to implore the folks in this building behind us to pass federal voting rights legislation to protect voters in texas and across the country. we are looking forward to seeing what the president says in his speech today on voting rights in philadelphia and we hope what we'll hear is an even stronger commitment and clear plan of action as to how we can break the gridlock in the senate and pass federal legislation immediately this summer. we can't hold the tide back forever. we need congress and federal leaders to use that timewisely.

>> the problem facing the president and democrats in washington is that they don't have the votes to pass that new voting rights legislation. don't have votes to change the filibuster. what it means is texas democrats cast a huge spotlight not just on republicans but on fellow democrats and the president, without a clear path forward and the clock is ticking. texas democrats made it clear time is not on their side. the state's republican governor, greg abbott, redoubled commitment to get voting restrictions passed one way or another. >> i can and i will continue to call special session after special session after special session, all the way up until election next year, so if these people want to be hanging out wherever they hang out on taxpayer paid junket, they have to be prepared to do it for well over a year. as soon as they come back in state of texas, they'll be arrested and cabined inside the capitol until they get their job

done. >> mike memoli is in philadelphia ahead of president biden's remarks and priscilla thompson in austin, texas. priscilla, let me start with you on the latest of the delegation, what's done to get texas democrats back into the state. what have you heard on the ground. how is this playing out in texas, what's next for the legislators who fled. >> reporter: kasie lawmakers are inside the house, the doors have been locked. they're not allowed out, and that comes after the vote earlier today which fell on party lines with 76 republican house members voting in favor, four democrats voting against, allowing sergeant-at-arms permission to send for the missing lawmakers. now the sergeant of arms has that power, he can appoint any

other officer in the state to send for the lawmakers who are absent without an excuse and arrest them if necessary in order to bring them back here, but of course that jurisdiction only falls within the state. we know that democratic lawmakers in washington, d.c. have messaged that they do not plan to come back during the special session, and i had an opportunity to speak with one of the republican lawmakers before he went inside to cast that ballot, and take a listen to what he had to say about the democrats' decision to leave. >> i think that most voters across texas, hard working people, have regular jobs and recognize that when the job gets hard, you don't get to not show up and don't get to flee to another state to avoid having to do your job. i think their voters in 2022 will ultimately decide if that was the right decision or not. >> reporter: republicans are saying that democrats should have stayed, tried to continue to legislate the bill, that there were still sort of opportunities for them here, but

of course democrats don't think their voters will feel that way. some of them telling me they've been receiving emails and phone calls from constituents telling them to leave, not stay, try to do everything they can to block new voting bills. >> so mike memoli, this puts pressure on the white house, certainly a spotlight on voting rights not just in texas but across the country. what's the response to the pressure, how does it play into the speech the president is set to give today? >> reporter: well, this is a speech the president has been talking about giving, which progressives and voting rights advocates have been wanting him to give for some time. the question is is the substance of what he will say going to satisfy those in the party, including some of his closest allies, that think he hasn't done enough on an issue they feel is a matter of true urgency at this moment.

what white house officials are telling me, the president wants to make a number of points. to really criticize his predecessor, talk about the big lie which is at the root of voting changes happening across the country. he is going to praise the institutions that held firm thus far, point to the 2020 election as actually an example of something that the country should be proud of in terms of outpouring of voters, despite covid and the other adversity they faced in order to do so, and also to really push back, to elevate the issue, to raise the stakes for a moderate middle of the country that hasn't necessarily been as engaged in this fight as so much of both parties bases at the moment. he will be very stark describing what he sees as the very real threat to election integrity that voting changes represent. what we aren't going to hear the president do is talk about the filibuster, and ultimately any path toward the kind of legislation advocates wants to see, for the people act and john

lewis voting rights act will probably require breaking of the filibuster or some sort of carve out for that to take place. the president sees a longer term fight, he recognizes there aren't votes to change the filibuster now. he wants to make sure it is clear in next year's midterm elections and state elections between now and then that there are political consequences for republicans pursuing these kinds of change. >> mike, the conversation on the hill around the filibuster today and over the past few days has been about potential ways to adjust it, not get rid of it necessarily but change the way it operates to make it politically more painful, the way budget resolutions aren't subject to filibuster, define constitutional rights as something exempt from the filibuster, right now, we don't necessarily think that there's anyone ready to take that step

but there are conversations going on about it. what has the white house said about that and as someone that listened and watched joe biden for so many years, what's your sense whether those might be some things he ultimately could take a public stand in favor of? >> reporter: where there's frustration on the part of the white house and the president specifically about pressure he is facing from the party is that they don't necessarily think there's an easy solution here other than waving a magic wand and the president has talked about that. what the president has been doing, i talked to former senator richmond about this the last few days, working quietly, speaking often with the likes of senator joe manchin who ultimately will be the key decider if and when there can be a carve out of the filibuster. the president said he supports

this. he feels there should be a little political pain for the republicans who continue to stand in the way of this. what they're also doing, i was reminded voting rights act, john lewis voting rights act hasn't been written yet. there are conversations happening about what could be included in there that might attract broader support. richmond telling me our goal is still to sign legislation from this congress in this year if possible. >> priscilla, what's the ultimate end game for the texas house democrats? i talked to one of them this morning said they're going to stay out of the state until special session runs out. at the end of the day, it is unlikely they can stop the bill from becoming law, no? >> reporter: right. this is a gop controlled legislature. you played the sound bite from governor abbott. he plans to call another special

session, he will continue to do that. the reality is democrats cannot leave the state for another month every time that happens. democrats are hopeful it may have a bigger impact, went down, more than 20 of them and now more than 50. when they come back, face a gop controlled legislature intent on passing these bills into law. >> priscilla thompson, mike memoli, thank you. we want to bring in one of the texas democrats that fled austin, tray martinez fisher, represents the san antonio area. mr. representative, thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. let me start with the latest twist, the authorization for the sergeant-at-arms to come track all of you down, try to bring you back to the state. what powers do they have to do that, what is your plan over the course of the next week as they

try to figure out how to bring you all back to texas to get the session started again. >> well, thank you, kasie. the sergeant of arms has the authority to make arrangements for our return and possible detention by our state police, that would be department of public safety, there will be paperwork like a warrant, have some civil demand for return to austin, and then they can go pursue the requests like investigations. unfortunately, they're going to be limited to state of texas. it was tried before in 2003, troopers tried to enforce paperwork in state of oklahoma, were turned away. of course, the same troopers tried to prosecute or use demands to bring back senators from new mexico. they were denied by state of new mexico. i guess if they want to try to do it in district of columbia, wish them luck with that. we are here to talk about voting

rights and stand with the nation, here to rally the nation, and we want to wake up the senate so they can hear us and understand why we need a national standard when it comes to voting in america. >> so it is an up hill battle in washington to pass federal voting rights legislation. how do democrats your group talked to here explained to you what the hurdles are, whether or not they have reason to be optimistic? >> well, politics is hard in general, doesn't matter whether you talk about voting rights or scheduling the caucus lunch. if the goal of republicans is to object and object and object, you're not going to find any bipartisan solution. you want to find a pragmatic response when it comes to fundamental voting rights and those rights, many of which will determine the winners and losers of elections. this is full contact sport politics. we have to really understand

what's important here. the important thing here is democracy. what's important is our constitutional rights to vote. i am in the legislature. we have house rules and house practice, but the rules and practices do not trump our constitutional rights. very good example, we have a right to be in the house chamber, by rule, but we have a constitutional right that says we can leave in a quorum, shut down business of the legislature, and that's what we did. we shouldn't let a senate tradition infringe on somebody's constitutional rights to bring voting rights and democracy in our country. >> i understand your argument, i want to flip it around a second. the filibuster is designed to protect rights of the minority, there's likely to be a time even in the not so distant future that perhaps republicans are in the majority in the senate. do you see any contradiction between using essentially a tool of the minority to block legislation to come to

washington to protest the tool that the minority has to block passage of legislation f you understand what i mean? >> i understand completely. there was no disregard on the date of when mitch mcconnell wanted to add another supreme court justice to the supreme court, people use the rules to their advantage when in power. that's the nature of the beast. people use working quorum if it suits them. the fact is you have the right to use them. democrats need to use every tool in the bucket, use the rums they have, when they don't work, make rules that work and allow this country to have democracy. >> so how confident are you that this issue is going to be one

galvanizing enough to change it. you want to change public opinion, things are calcified in the senate. what are the chances that that actually happens and if you can't pull it off and make the change at the federal level, what do you need to do on the ground as activists to try to counter act what you're opposing here? >> sure. great question. if we did nothing today, there's 100% chance we're going to lose. if we do something, there's a chance we can prevail. that's something right now, to rally the nation, to wake america up, to understand the stakes. the president of the united states, the busy united states -- busiest man in the world is talking voting rights. we need to rally and rise to that occasion. right now, seems to be a juggernaut in the u.s. senate. it is our job to make sure the senate is hearing us.

it is our job to make sure they're going to act and that action needs to be passage of the for the people act, while we speed things up on other federal voting rights legislation, the focus on for the people act. we need to get it done. it is a now or never moment for our country. >> thank you so much for spending time with us today. we appreciate it. >> thank you. tonight, a clear reminder politics of voting rights goes way beyond the ballot box in the capitol complex. the fight effected our national past time, baseball. it will be played in denver at coors field, not in atlanta where it was originally scheduled. mlb changed the venue in response to georgia's sweeping voting rights legislation. there will be an ad attacking the radical woke left crowd. president biden plans to

speak on voting rights, many in his own party say action is needed when it comes to changing filibuster rules as we have been discussing. later, what dr. fauci told my colleague, andrea mitchell, as concerns grow over the delta variant and another warning surrounding the j&j vaccine. g surrounding the j&j vaccine. a pool floatie is like whooping cough, it's not just for kids. whooping cough is highly contagious for people of any age. and it can cause violent uncontrollable coughing fits. ask your doctor or pharmacist about whooping cough vaccination

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i'm not out there to take a vacation in washington, d.c. when i look at the african-american museum, i thought about the struggle of my people fought to get the right to vote. that right is sacred to my constituents that i represent back in houston, texas. i'm not going to be a hostage. my constituency' rights will be stripped from them. we fought too long and hard in this country. >> welcome back. that was at the capitol today. longest serving woman and african-american in the texas

state legislature, laying out what could be at stake for her community as she tries to delay passage of restrictive voting rights bills in texas. texas democrats are meeting with senate majority leader chuck schumer later this afternoon. as we said, they're calling on congressional democrats to pass two voting rights bills currently called in congress. democrats in texas and washington, d.c. are against the wall, wanting to enact voting rights changes but without votes to do it. we have the latest on where that legislation stands on capitol hill, and the legal defense and educational funds. thank you for being here. let me start in terms of you have a story out outlining where we are. we talked about it with mike memoli in terms of what joe biden may or may not be willing to do. where is the conversation on capitol hill right now about the filibuster and voting rights? >> the conversation on capitol

hill is simply that every debate on voting rights is ultimately debate on the filibuster. they have the votes to pass voting rights legislation with simple majority. it is not going to be the for the people act. joe manchin, senator from west virginia, doesn't support it as is, but supports major components of it. democrats have a path to get ago lot of it through but don't have 50 votes to abolish or weaken the filibuster sufficiently to a point it can pass with simple majority. ten republican votes to pass. and then the overlap between the parties on issue of voting rights is vanishingly small. republicans say the federal government shouldn't be stepping in at all. states should run elections as they see fit. >> so briefly there were some discussions about perhaps if we don't eliminate the filibuster, we could make people pay a political price for filibustering issues like voting rights.

my sense is republicans would be happy to filibuster this. what have you been hearing from senators at the capitol? >> reporter: that's right. the idea of a talking filibuster, something that senator manchin expressed openness to, something that president biden called for, the kind of thing that may get certain pieces of legislation through where the minority party can be shamed into ultimately surrendering the floor, letting something pass. that's not the case with voting rights. mitch mcconnell made it his priority to kill the democratic voting and election bill. this is not the type of issue as you correctly point out that republicans are going to back away from. they can take turns holding the floor as long as it takes to keep the block. the only way to get this done is nuke, allow it to come down to 50 votes, doesn't appear to be in the cards now, or nuke it entirely, more of an up hill climb. senator manchin is meeting with

texas legislators, asked him whether he supports filibuster carve out, didn't say yes or no. he said he is anxious to talk to them. he expressed skepticism about a carve out on any issue for the filibuster. >> for sure. your organization has been in meetings with the white house, a lot of pressure brought to bear on president biden. let's start with him since we're about to hear this speech in a little while. what do you hope he says in that address, and then discuss what's going on on capitol hill. how far do you want the president to go in saying he supports this, calling for action. >> we hope he sounds the alarm that our democracy is in great peril, that our right to vote is fundamental, preservative of every other right we hold dear, to the extent it is used as a political football, it is threatening to undermine the

safety and national security of our country. if we want to live in a representative democracy, we need to ensure that every eligible voter is able to cast a ballot that will be counted without impediment, without barriers, and without discrimination. he must emphasize that congress is charged with protecting the right to vote. congress has been invited by the supreme court to enact new legislation to protect the right to vote. it is high time congress acted. if that means we need to change the filibuster to create an exception for democracy expanding legislation, then that's what it takes. that is i believe our democracy is worth it, and that is a necessary measure that he should endorse. >> so the reality is to get done what you outlined, you have to move joe manchin on this issue. and he clearly is feeling the

pressure, in conversations you can tell he knows this issue is going to come to a head in some way, that there's going to be some other attempt to pass a major bill, he is thinking seriously about what sort of potential changes to the filibuster might he be willing to support, even if he is firm in 60 vote threshold question. do you think there's a scenario where you can bring enough pressure to bear, he would be willing to make a carve out for constitutional rights when he has been so definitive here? >> i think there is. he's got to see the chaos this is creating, the fact that legislators in texas had to take a stand and leave their state and are willing to stake out time in d.c. until the special session that governor abbott called in order to pass what is clearly racially discriminatory voter suppression legislation tells you that people are willing to make dear sacrifices to preserve the right to vote

and if they are willing to do so, our congress, our elected congress members should be willing to do so as well. right now, he's standing between the protection of the right to vote we need at the federal level and what will continue to be a very difficult and chaotic scenario at the state level if that legislation is not passed. so it is incumbent on him to respond to what is happening and unfolding across the country, when you look at the wave of voter suppression bills passed, it is an absolute demand for federal legislation. restoration of voting rights act, voting rights advancement act, passage of for the people act. >> very briefly, the john lewis rights act which manchin expressed some support for, it needs to be tweaked to take into account recent supreme court decision about arizona restrictions. how confident are you that that particular piece of legislation can be adequately rewritten and

passed? >> i am fairly confident. that legislation can do two things. one, can respond to shelby county versus holder decision in 2013 which rendered significant provision of voting rights act in operative. as i mentioned earlier, in the course of that decision, chief justice roberts invited congress to enact new legislation to modernize the standard on the voting rights act, and that's exactly what the voting rights advancement act does. the latest decision the supreme court issued on the voting rights act a couple weeks ago actually confuses how we can interpret the remainder of the voting rights act, the main provision that protects the right to vote in that section, too, so that's an invitation for congress to clarify what it means, to make it clear that the way in which the supreme court interpreted section 2 was erroneous, and this is an opportunity for congress to be

unequivocal, and to issue a direct mandate voting rights of americans must be protected against racial discrimination and that we can use the tools at our disposal, congress has enforcement powers to do so. >> all right. thank you both very much for the important conversation today. we really appreciate your time. coming up next here, after thousands of cubans took to the streets in the largest anti-government protest in decades, the communist government beefed up policing, shutdown social media. now president biden is facing a lot of questions about his administration's cuba policy or lack thereof. lack thereof

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welcome back. cuban authorities appear to be blocking internet access to prevent organizing more protests. they accuse citizens of using social media to coordinate the biggest anti-government demonstrations the country has seen in decades. associated press reports the cuban police are out in force, patrolling streets in a country where dissent is not tolerated. a foreign correspondent for "new york times" covered cuba and the caribbean for years joins me now. francis, lovely to see you. thank you so much for being with us. can you talk a little about the latest development, cutting off of internet? we have reports that say that

all of the -- disruptions to what's app, facebook, instagram, a lot of services the cuban people use to communicate with each other. >> there's no question that internet is the oxygen that gives this movement breath. without internet, the government will be able to succeed putting a stop to it. when people see the videos of their neighbors and people in other cities around the country attending protests, they say i'm motivated, i'm going to do it too. can be a domino effect. so the government shut that down. makes it difficult, impossible for people to do facebook live videos and things of that nature. not impossible to get a phone call through, but difficult to get a video live streamed on the internet. >> francis, what is your sense how the biden administration is handling this? i think we have a little sound

to play of president biden on cuba. this was him talking yesterday. take a look at what he had to say, then i want to ask you about it. >> cuban people are demanding their freedom from an authoritarian regime and i don't think we've seen anything like this protest in a long, long time, if quite frankly ever. the united states stands firmly with the people of cuba as they assert their universal rights. >> he calls them universal rights, says the u.s. stands firmly with them. what do you hear as someone that covered the region a long time, what are protesters hearing from the biden administration now? >> well, they're not hearing much. they're hearing support, but the question is what does that mean, what is support. one of the things you see, the big change that happened, depending whether there's republican or democrat occupying the white house is the kinds of restrictions cubans have in terms of receiving money and

visitors, flights, things of that nature. right now, restrictions that are in place are ones that president trump put in, and it is notable that president biden did not as first order of business take his pen, reverse that, put it back to how it was when he was vice president in the obama administration. what does that silence mean? does that mean he supports the sanctions? that's very unclear. >> so what is your sense of what the most effective way, i mean, if the goal is to give more voice to the cuban people, does lifting sanctions, i understand obviously it gives more leeway to people in cuba, but talk to people like senator bob menendez, a regime hawk, seems to think lifting them ultimately keeps the regime in power lessening pressure on them. what's your sense from the region? >> i mean, this is the big

question. these are two divided camps on this issue. under the obama administration, they were saying let's visit more, get more money in there, get people in there in cuba opening businesses and when they opened their eyes, see how wonderful it is to live a capitalist life, that's how freedom comes to cuba. then the camp, the complete opposite opinion is that you have to put them in a choke hold, cut off the money. cutting off the money cuts off the regime, brings it to its knees. that's what you're seeing right now. right now, between the restrictions and covid restrictions which keeps people from traveling to cuba, if people can't travel to cuba, you don't have couriers with cash to give to families or neighbors. without that cash, you have people that are hungry, you have people, there is no medicine to buy, and that's where we have the situation we're in now, the

people are starting to realize, wait a second. this is an unsustainable situation. >> so before i let you go, i want to ask about the latest report frg haiti. i know you covered the region broadly. the investigation into the assassination of the haitian president and involvement of a florida doctor, it is a little hard to wrap your head around. what is your latest reporting? >> you know, i interviewed some people last night who attended meetings with him earlier this year where they said he was an impressive person who seemed motivated, he wanted to be a transitional leader to bring democracy to cuba, never in a million years did they dream he would do something like this. i am not saying he did it. it is what the government is saying, the investigation will find out whether it bears true, but the people who know him say they had absolutely no hint of it.

>> all right. thank you very much for your reporting. appreciate you spending time with us this afternoon. >> thanks for having me. coming up next, coronavirus cases are now on the rise in more than half the country, and in some places, hospitals are getting overwhelmed again. we go live to the state where health officials say they're getting nervous. lsia say they're getting nervous. leaves the table until your finished. fine, we'll sleep here. ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ it's a new dawn... ♪ if you've been taking copd sitting down, it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler,

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people need to understand pharmaceutical companies don't make decisions, it is the fda and public health recommendation with the cdc and their advisory committee on immunization practices. >> welcome back. that was dr. anthony fauci talking to andrea mitchell this afternoon, a day after a meeting where pfizer presented the biden administration with data about the potential need for a vaccine booster shot, which health officials say is not necessary

now. dr. fauci called it a, quote, courtesy meeting. health officials are calling for more to get the first vaccinations as the delta variant spreads in communities with low vaccination rates. nearly all the covid hospitalizations and deaths are now occurring among the unvaccinated. joining me, infectious disease physician, medical director of infection prevention and control with university of kansas health system. dr., thank you for spending time with us today. your community is right on the line between kansas and missouri outside of kansas city there. what are you seeing now in your hospitals with covid infections, how bad is it? >> yeah. right now in the metro areas, in urban areas, it is not too bad, specifically in kansas city area. it is not bad. all the hospitals around us are

increasing. we have taken some transfers from hard hit areas of missouri, like springfield, missouri as well. overall, numbers in the hospitals in the past week to ten days have been increasing with acute infections. i should add the majority, 75 to 80% of people coming to the hospital are unvaccinated. >> so that of course means a handful of people are likely vaccinated. can you explain, do those people tend to have underlying conditions or what might prompt a break through infection that would land you in the hospital if you do have the shot? >> absolutely, that's the second point to understand about this. you know, all of the vaccines are not 100%. but these vaccines we currently have still do significantly protect you from the severe disease and hospitalization and death. those patients that we see in the hospital now, i am treating a couple in the icu and on the regular medical floor, have

significant comorbidities, underlying heart disease, lung disease. there's a couple that have active cancer, undergoing chemotherapy, active hematologic mag lig nan see, don't have the immune system to work correctly. that's an important point to continue to address is that the people that have gotten vaccinated that we have seen in our hospital have significant comorbidities. even if they aren't specifically ill from covid itself, that disease process of covid may tip them over the line as far as other conditions go, like heart disease or underlying lung disease. >> so bottom line, get vaccinated, obviously. what kinds of reasons, do you encounter people regularly in your job who are not vaccinated who talk to you about concerns around vaccination or other health care workers in your hospital? what are the reasons people are giving now after all of the evidence that the vaccine works

so well is out in public. >> yeah. i mean, i had a friend text me today who still doesn't really believe in it. unfortunately. it is very difficult. i have patients in my infectious disease clinic that declined to get the vaccine. there's a continued concern that with vaccination we are being subject to experiments and we are like guinea pigs. there are a myriad of questions around this. myriad of reasons. there's still that misinformation about the vaccines causing infertility. we have to address these head on and we try to address those on a daily basis and listen and provide thoughtful answers. you have to understand, there are people that want to continue to be obstinate for one reason or another. there is that division. we look at this as a pure health issue, we are addressing it as a

pure health issue. politics do not matter, ethnicity, race, other concerns do not matter. we are addressing this as a health issue. our goal is to keep you healthy, to keep people that you love and are around healthy, keep our whole community healthy. >> all right. dr. dana hawkinson, thank you for your time. we appreciate your insights. coming up next, we keep getting new reporting about trump's 2020 election lies, republicans keep demonstrating their loyalty to both him and the election lies. we're going to dive into how that commitment to trumpism is already effecting key midterm races, coming up next. already e races, coming up next. so the house comes with everything you see. follow me. ♪ (realtor) so, any questions?

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one more bite! ♪ kraft. for the win win. welcome back. even though it's been 8 months since donald trump lost his bid for reelection, his power over the republican party doesn't seem to be waning and may be getting stronger. the midterm elections are turning into a trump loyally test. in what is normally a highly unusual move, lisa murkowski of alaska just lost the support of her state's republican party. the crowded primary field for the open senate seat is becoming

a race to be the trumpiest candidate. the republican party is betting big on trumpism in 2022. the question now, whether it will pay off or whether it will scare off independent voters. henry gomez is a reporter based in the midwest. he joins me from the suburbs of cleveland, ohio. lovely to see you. you and i have spoken many times in the state of ohio on the campaign trail. there's no one i'd rather talk to about the critical ohio senate race. it's a pretty good example of how republicans are falling all over themselves to get in line behind trump. sherrod brown's description of what's happening there is pretty evocative. what do we need to know? >> sherrod brown, the democratic senator who's not on the ballot in 2022, sums it up as five candidates are basically on the playground saying donald trump likes me better than he likes

you. it's partisan but it's a distillation of what this gop primary has become in ohio. you have five an nuannounced candidates who have gone to varying lengths to demonstrate loyalty to president trump, how early they endorsed him, whether they said something nice about him, whether they raised money for him. there's no tie too small to flaunt in this race if you're a republican running for the seat. >> pretty remarkable. when you talked to vance, the author of "hillbilly elegy" who criticized trump, you pressed him on whether joe biden was the legitimate nominee and whether there was room in the party for people who believe that biden legitimately won the election.

i thought his answers were pretty interesting. >> you know, vance did not directly answer the question. he basically said, i'm just asking questions and there are irregularities that need to be pointed out and we need to ask questions about. it really sidesteps around the direct question of do you believe joe biden is a legitimate president. you know, actually that's a milder approach than some of the other candidates in this race have taken. josh mandel has said there was election fraud on a level that deprived trump from winning. of course, these are things that are not true or cannot be substantiated. vance is, rather than telling the truth and saying that joe biden won, donald trump lost, he's sort of nibbling around the edges with his answer. i think that's what some republicans who aren't willing to fully commit to the lie are trying to do. it's interesting to hear. you have to listen closely to

the answers to found out what they're saying and not saying. >> that's true. henry, big picture here, heading into the midterms the senate is going to be on the line for sure. it's 50-50, but there does seem to be a little bit more confidence among democrats that they're going to be able to find a way to hang onto the chamber. it's really the house where things are potentially dicey. that has to do with redistricting. i'm just curious your sense, there are a lot of districts across the midwest where we talked a lot heading into 2020 about the blue wall the president needed to rebuild across the midwest. he did it and it gave him the white house and wins in georgia and other places that are turning blue. i'm curious to your sense of where things stand now in some

of those really tricky house races. what are you hearing about policing and crime and voting rights and whether or not they are buying into arguments that democrats are going too far or if they don't like all the trumpism we just outlined? >> there's a combination of that. it's hard to put any voter especially in the midwest into one box. when you have a message that says something as explicit as defund the police, it takes a couple of conversations at least to explain to a voter what that means and what that doesn't mean. when you get into the more nuances of things, you can have a conversation with these voters, maybe have an interesting debate. but getting, you know, headlines and a couple snippets here and there, especially in these tv ads, what both parties are worried about or watching going into 2022 especially with redistricting is how these suburbs are carved out, what

districts they go in, house that affects the makeup of the map. the suburbs were big for biden in 2020. democrats hope they are again in 2022. >> right. henry gomez, thank you very much for your reporting today. it's great to see you. thanks to all of you for being with us. catch me weekday mornings 5:00 a.m. on "way too early." too ea" . and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. i was drowning in student loan debt. then i discovered sofi. lower interest rate. my principal is going down. sofi is a place where you can start to tackle those money goals today. ♪♪ this past year has felt like a long, long norwegian winter. those money goals today.

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good to be with you. i'm jeff bennett coming to you live from outside independence hall in philadelphia where we are awaiting the arrival of president biden at any moment. later this hour, we are expecting the president to deliver what could be one of the defining speeches of his term about what the white house calls the moral case for voting rights. our mike memoli reports the president plans to blast w