this is sunday, a political earthquake. >> excitement. joy. >> next, stunning pro abortion rights, voting red kansas. >> not overreach into our personal rights. >> i'm astounded at the turnout. >> reporter: beating back a move by conservatives to build on the overturning of roe v. wade. >> we are in this because we believe very strongly in protecting both women and babies. >> what does voting in kansas tell us what might happen in november's midterm election.

my guest nancy mace and stacey abrams. democratic governor of georgia. democratic candidate for governor of georgia. democratic candidate for speaker pelosi's visit to gover. taiwan. >> i came here to send an unequivocal message america stands with taiwan. >> china reacts. >> there is no justification for this extreme disproportionate and escalatory military response. >> i will talk with chris van hollen. democrats looking to pass their climate, health and tax bill. >> reduce inflation and lower prescription drug costs and we will fight climate change. >> all against total republican opposition. >> this bill has nothing to do with the real people in the real world worried about every single day. we'll have the latest. >> join me for insight on

cornell belcher and anna palmer and pat mccrory and susan page. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. it is fair to say there are two conclusions we can draw from tuesday's important voting. one is that the history of abortion being more of a motivator for republicans than for democrats. maybe just that. history. when kansas voters defeated an antiabortion that the roe v. wade decision would energize their voters particularly in the suburbs. remember, this was kansas. the issue sparked a turnout that abortion opponents are

overreaching. nobody saw this kind of landslide result coming. the other lesson remains that the gop remains very much d.o.t.'s party despite a more robust anti-trump insurgency. very much donald trump's party despite a more robust anti-trump insurgency. look no further than arizona. the candidates all won their republican nominations. the race may have been closer but the trump team won. are they easier targets for democrats to take down in november perhaps but far right candidates could refuse to survive any victory by any democrat in 2024 in that state. we will start with that abortion vote earthquake. the latest data point that tells us this. it is time for us to rethink everything we thought we knew about this november's midterms. >> i'm overjoyed. >> after 18-point defeat of the

measure that would have stripped abortion rights from the state's constitution, democrats are hoping to take the post-roe backlash in conservative kansas nationwide. >> kansas was just the start. if it's going to happen in kansas it's going to happen in a lot of states. >> turnout more than double midterm primaries in kansas approaching presidential levels on an issue where republicans have a historically had the enthusiasm advantage. >> i'm astounded by the turnout. >> our movement has endureed so much over 50 years. this setback is not going to stop us. >> roger marshall called the results a gut punch. >> it tells us a lot of people interested in the issue in kansas. there's no doubt about that. >> democrats in kansas are making it clear on the air waives they are all in. >> he supports a total ban. >> you make it illegal and you

punish the doctors. >> blake masters is too dangerous for arizona. >> millions of women lost their right to choose. keegan is celebrating but she wants to make abortion illegal. >> reporter: abortion will be directly on the ballot in a handful of states, including battleground michigan where a pending ballot measure would enshrine abortion rights with a constitutional amendment and democratic governor gretchen whitmer is trying to make her race against tudor dixon a referendum on abortion rights. >> life and mother. >> grand solid. >> on friday in indiana, governor eric holcombe signed a near ban on abortion. the first state post-roe to pass sweeping restrictions. the law ends legal abortion completely in indiana which has been allowed up to 22 weeks of pregnancy but it does include exceptions for the life of the mother, fatal fetal anomalies and some exceptions for rape and incest which some indiana house and senate republicans tried to remove completely.

>> does this apply to a fifth grader who has been a victim of incest? >> it -- it does. >> in the end indiana republicans splintered. national republicans are counting for inflation and the economy to define the electoral map. >> we don't have a plan to solve the inflation that is created. >> but as democrats work to turn individual races into referendums on abortion right, the republican candidates, worried about their party's move to the right, are softening their own positions. >> no exceptions for rape or incest? >> unless a mother's life is in danger. >> but now? >> i've been unclear previously, i want to be clear now. rape and incest, along with endangering a mother's mental or physical health are acceptable exceptions. >> i don't give way for exceptions either. people of pennsylvania you decide what abortion looks like. you decide on exception. >> joining me now is republican congresswoman nancy mace of south carolina.

welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning. >> i want to start to get your reaction to what happened in kansas. when you look at kansas and south carolina, in some ways, at least on their presidential vote, mirror each other 56% i think for trump in one and 55% in the other. and here you saw this resounding 59% of kansans reject the idea of essentially getting rid of a constitutional amendment that could have led to rolling back rights to an abortion. your reaction? >> well, i think we are seeing it in on both sides now the extremities of both sides. on the far left you have folks who want any -- states are trying to assure that no abortion for any reason including rape and incest victims in girls and that is not okay with the electorate either. i see it in my own district and own state and the vast majority

of people here are okay with some guardrails but they don't want the extremities of either side. they are seeing states push forward with legislation like in my state of south carolina, there is legislation that would ban the word abortion on a website or a website server. there are folks who want to ban women from traveling out of state and folks like in my state that want to ban abortion for women who are victims of rape and girls who are victims of incest. and that is just, you know, both sides have these extremities where the vast majority of people just are not there right now. there has to be a place for the center on this very emotional issue. >> let me ask you this. everything you describe about sort of the fallout from this, there was a simple way to avoid this fallout and that was keeping roe. i know you were somebody who thought you wanted to see roe v. wade overturned. is that a mistake? >> well, i am staunchly pro life but there were issues with roe, even justice ruth bader ginsburg had issues constitutionally to

the right to privacy and right to equal protection under the law. you saw joe biden 40 years ago trying to look to doing away with it as well. i think there are issues with roe in terms of the constitutionality of it and overturning of it now leaves it to the states and state legislatures in particular, but also congress can have a role here. the problem that we have today, chuck, i know you see this every single day are the political divisions. because of such of an emotional issue, this is a place where we should be working together. if you look across the pond and you look at european nations if you're even allowed to have one, there are gestational limits and most countries in europe you're looking at 12 to 15 weeks there. there are other exceptions that we should be looking at. we should be ensuring that life of the mother in every instance is being protected, and we should ensure one of the reasons i was one of eight republicans, a few weeks ago, to vote to

ensure that women have access to contraceptives. the vast majority of people agree on and aren't fringy on the other side of the aisle. not what we are doing right now. >> no, it's not. i guess i'm curious. how do you propose -- you bring up the issue i think is maybe impossible to create, which is if you believe in this, if you view abortion through the eyes of morality, there's no such thing as moderation. so how do you -- how do you legislate moderation here when neither side is comfortable with that compromise? >> well, i actually don't think it's that -- that difficult when you're looking at it from that perspective, too. if you look at it from congress from our role, i mean, there can be gestational -- reasonable gestational limits for most people. 75% of americans want some guardrails and support guardrails on abortion whether pro choice or pro life.

only a percent are on the fringes of either side of this issue. gestational whether 15 weeks or 20 weeks or protections for fetal abnormalities or rape or incest victims things we can all agree on as americans and particularly in a state whether it's south carolina or any other state that is banning abortion altogether or trying to, then women's access to contraceptives has got to be a guarantee. we have rural counties in south carolina without a single ob-gyn doctor. how is a woman supposed to get any kind of care, health care, medical care, prenatal care, for her infant when those resources don't exist? 75% of america is put in guardrails that they are comfortable with and let's move forward and we can do this at the federal level and give some guidance to states or states do it as well and we will continue to see extremities until congress steps in and see extremities on both sides. which is not where the american

people are. >> it seems like you think congress has to step in here. you brought up the aib issue. -- the ob-gyn issue. 15 states right now want to criminalize the doctor, want to make basically if there is a crime committed here, it's not the woman, it would be the doctor. as you know, you already talked about the problem of getting obgyn into practicing in rural south carolina. a lot of these obgyn don't want to practice in states with restrictive laws because they have to sit here and wait to declare an emergency to intervene medically and so they figure you know what? i'm going to practice medicine in a state that makes the abortion law safe. how do you do this? how do you fix this federally? >> it is going to be an issue. i do think that congress, because roe v. wade was overturned, that we do have an opportunity here to work together to ensure that those things don't take place. and you can do that at the federal level with legislation but in this particular issue, it's going to take republicans and democrats working together

to get it in a place where you can do it in a bipartisan fashion and pass legislation. i think you can look at gestational limits most reasonable for most americans. one of my concerns you got states that are going to try to ban women from traveling that if you're raped that you got to report it to the police. i was raped when i was 16. and it took me a week to tell my mother. by that time, any evidence would have been gone. and the violation of a woman's privacy, i can't tell you how traumatic that event was in my life and my own home state, they want women to be required and mandated to report when they are raped and i just can't even imagine a world where you're a teenage girl and raped have to report those things. handmaid's tale is not supposed be a road map, right? this is a place we can be in the center, we can protect life, and we can protect where people are on both sides of the aisle. and so it's important to take that perspective and that is the

perspective that congress should have on everything that we do but as you know we are so divided. >> bottom line. do you think it is bad if the republican party becomes the party of abortion bans? >> well, i am staunchly pro life. i am 100% pro life voting record. i do think it will be an issue in november if we are not moderating ourselves and including exceptions for women who are raped and girls victims of incest and in every instance where the life of a mother is at stake and that is a position i have staked out and important to me personally. that is where the vast majority of women are in my state. i'm going to continue to fight for those things. we can't go to the far corners of the right or the far corners of the left because the left wants abortion for any reason up until the birth of a child which is insane to me and insane to most america. so somewhere in the middle is where we have got to meet and i do believe that congress has a role and i want to play a part in that role and shaping policy for the future for every american in our country.

>> congresswoman nancy mace, republican from south carolina, her district basically represents a large part of charleston, south carolina. congresswoman, thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective. >> thank you. joining me is stacey abrams the democratic nominee for georgia and rematch with brian kemp who defeated her four years ago very narrowly. welcome back to "meet the press." >> my pleasure to be here. thank you for having me. >> look. let's start this conversation about the impact what we saw in kansas. and, obviously, post-dobbs. how front and center do you believe the abortion debate should be for democrats all around the country, let alone your campaign? >> it is an essential conversation and it is about the freedom of women to direct their lives. it is about health care freedom. and it is cut across demographics and ideology and cutting across the questions that so often dominate elections at this moment. because for women, this is a

health care conversation. it is an economic conversation and a conversation about whether our citizenship is equal to men in this country, depending on which state i live in. >> it's interesting. you seem to be arguing the ups and downs of the economy that may motivate you on one hand but, hey, these laws are longer term. do you even think, in your mind, that the abortion right, the abortion issue is almost bigger than the economy long-term? >> i would say that the economy, economic -- are going to continue and i would never under play how important it is for us to think about putting, you know, money in people's pockets and putting a roof over their heads but we know for women these abortion rights fights are about their ability to control their lives to have the ability to participate in the economy. to have the ability to determine whether forced pregnancy is in their future. yes, i would urge every voter to think about the economy is going to go up and down but the laws will change the future for every

woman that you know. when they become solidified. >> i want to get clarity on your position. i want to put up what you said very recently on this. quote. how do you put legislation around that? >> you put legislation around that by returning to what we know is the structural framework of roe v. wade and do it by not setting arbitrary gestational limits, and we know that those rarely actually reflect medical decision making. what we are saying we respect the responsibility that women have and the obligation that doctors have. politicians are not scientists and we should not be setting into law these moving targets

that do not reflect the reality that women face when they are sitting in that doctor's office. >> look. the person on the right who wants to see some restrictions on abortion is going to argue that even though you're not saying you're for abortion all the way up to the end of that, essentially that law would allow abortion all the way up to the end of a pregnancy. would you want to have legislation to put guardrails on that? >> the guardrails are holding the physician accountable. i think where we get far afield. no woman at eight months has not cherished the notion of this pregnancy. if you have conversations with women, you know that that is one of the most difficult moments and the reality is that to put an arbitrary date in a law devalues the pain and the tragedy of that moment. a doctor is not going to take an action that is not medically required. and what we are seeing is that

this is a medical decision. i understand that there are those who would feel better if we picked, plucked a date out of the air, but we know that is not scientifically supportable, but we also know that the tragedy of exceptions. you cannot write every exception into the law and that is where we find ourselves today in georgia. brian kemp does not permit these exceptions to be real. and in the state where we have 82 counties without an obgyn and 64 counties without a surgeon and 18 counties without a family doctor and nine without a doctor at all, setting arbitrary limits are not grounded into the reality of what women face is deeply problematic and, ultimately, cruel. >> you're having a science conversation and medical conversation which is the conversation most women are having. there is also the political reality. if you get elected governor you probably will have a republican legislature. so in order to -- you may have to compromise in order to get a better law that won't be what

you want. are you willing to do that? are you willing to essentially go from what it is now to 15 weeks if that is what you are able to do as governor, because you are, you sort of, you write your laws with the legislature that you have, not the one that you want. >> where we stood in georgia prior to brian kemp was a 20-week ban i also found deeply objectionable. what brian kemp has done is go so far afield that 72% of georgians disagree what we have now which is almost a total ban. when you say six week ban, it is about 54%. when you understand it is roughly a total ban on abortion, we know that regardless of your political posture, you disagree with where we are. as someone who served in the legislature for 11 years and was lauded by both parties for my ability to navigate, i will certainly get the best law we can but we begin making decisions based on what it should be and, yes, you work towards what you can get. but we have to start with a

governor who actually believes a woman should have the right to control her body and to control her economic freedom. >> you're not going to be rigid to the point if you don't get it your way, you're not going to change the law. >> that's not how politics has ever worked, unless, of course, you're brian kemp who believes your extreme agenda should trump everyone's decision making and everyone's needs. >> let me ask about your race. there is a pattern developing. if you look at the polling, rafael warnock seems to have a steady lead on herschel walker and other polls need to have a narrow lead on you. it does appear that he has acquired teflon by taking on trump. is that making it hard to defeat the issue? that it's harder to make him a trump ally? >> brian kemp is doing and excellent job showing he is a extremist who has a hard right agenda not in the best there through georgia.

$15 million coming out of the economy because brian kemp weakened gun laws in georgia, at a time when it is number one killer of our children and we are the number nine state for gun violence in our nation. what he has benefited from is having, yes, a primary that was fairly lackluster in the end, but what people are realizing and why he remains below 50% is that georgians realize we do not have to make a choice between a strong economy and an extremist agenda. i'm the only candidate who is proposing a comprehensive plan for how we build our economy and protect our freedoms. brian kemp refuses to do so. and so i believe that this election, as we move into labor day, that people are going to continue to pay attention to his extreme position on abortion, his extreme position on gun, and his extreme position on refusing to take action to help the people of georgia when we are suffering from a health care crisis and a housing crisis, and the more they pay attention, the more they will realize that his high water mark is on that

primary. >> stacey abrams, in a race we will all be watching closely from here. stay safe on the trail. >> thank you. >> we invited governor kemp on and we did not receive a response. coming up, speaker pelosi's visit to taiwan sparks growing tensions between the united states and china. when we come back, i'll talk to senator chris van hollen of maryland about that and the all-nighter that they pulled in the senate. stay with us.

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welcome back. china is choosing to react with fury over speaker nancy pelosi's visit to taiwan. the chinese military is carrying out days of threatening exercises on all sides of taiwan which china considers part of its territory. in addition, china has cut off talks with the united states on all sorts of issues including drug trafficking, clirmt, and our mid-level military, back and forth. and the government sanctioned pelosi and her family. joining me is chris van hollen

of maryland on the senate foreign relations committee. senator, welcome back to "meet the press." i'll be honest. looks like you guys have had an all-nighter. >> chuck, we have been here all night and we are still going on the inflation reduction act. republicans are offering an amendment after amendment to try to sabotage the bill but i'm confident we will get it over the finish line. >> let me ask you this. let me ask you a couple of questions about the bill. the biggest thing that happened was right before the bill went to a vote and that was the parliamentarian's decision on the prescription drug benefit, and here's the bottom line. this should lower drug costs if you're on medicare. now that there is no longer a part of this bill that will effectively protect those not on medicare, should folks not on medicare expect to see the prescription drug companies say we can't make money over here so we will raise prices over there?

it certainly seems like that is more likely to happen than not. >> chuck, first of all, as you said, the centerpiece of this bill was finally giving medicare the power to negotiate drug prices and that will reduce drug prices for seniors, in addition to the fact that we have a cap of $2,000 and out of pocket costs. look. i wish we had gotten this other provision in. if we had ten republicans, we could get it done. we are going to have to come back to that. and we will be watching the pharmaceutical industry like a hawk and, hopefully, if they made that kind of move, we would have enough votes to respond. but i just want to stress the fact that since i've been here in the congress and including my time in the house, we have been trying to get medicare the power to negotiate drug prices. looks like we are finally there. >> getting them there, it doesn't impact -- what can be done? do you think you're going to have to pass a law to do this or

are you hoping the pharmaceutical industry, out of the goodness of their heart, doesn't raise prices for the rest of us? >> well, let me first say, we may have a vote later this morning on a 30 dollar monthly cap on insulin. so republicans will have a chance to join us in that. according to the parliamentarian, we need their votes to get that done so that will be some test. but look. we are going to keep at this. we want to make sure we lower drug prices for every american and it is an important start to get this in place for the medicare program and tens of millions of seniors around the country, including a million in maryland who get medicare. >> look. i invited you on because i want to talk what happened in taiwan and what is happening to taiwan. let me state this. speaker pelosi's trip, again the chinese chose to be outraged. this is on them, not on her. was her trip worth it, given all of the fallout?

>> i think it was, chuck, because we need to be very clear that china doesn't get to dictate which u.s. officials go to taiwan and when they go to taiwan. as you know, we send congressional delegations frequently. a former speaker of the house has been to taiwan in the past. and what president xi decided to do was manufacture a crisis over pelosi's visit. as you know, he's got, this fall, the communist party congress is coming up. he is seeking an unprecedented third term as leader of china. and this is saber rattling and chest bumps by president xi. >> it looks like that is what it is so in the moment we are trying to de-escalate. what do you want to see the united states, what do you want to see the biden administration do in the next say three to six months, to reassure the

vietnams, the japans, the philippines, who are nervous about what china is doing here, and they are nervous if we are going to have taiwan's back, do we have to send a message again that we will have their back? >> well, i think we have been very clear, and the biden administration has been clear, we are adhering to u.s. policy, which is that we recognize our one china policy, but we have also been firm and straight from the very start that we will oppose any effort to reunify taiwan by force, by violence. and we have reassured our japanese partners and others of that. in fact, chuck, i think this chinese action of putting missiles into japan's economic zone, exclusive economic zone, is going to backfire. i think it's going to cause japan to increase its defense spending and seek even closer military engagement and cooperation with the united states, which is already good. so i think this is going to backfire on china. yes, we have to de-escalate.

we also have to be firm in making our policy clear. >> do you think it's inevitable that china is going to make a run at taiwan in the next five years? >> i don't think it's inevitable. we need to help taiwan make that as difficult as possible for china and we have been doing that by supplying china -- excuse me. by supplying taiwan with military assistance. we need to continue to do that. to make taiwan into the porcupine so that when, you know, china looks at taiwan, it realizes that this is going to be a hell of a fight and not a winnable fight. and i do think when they look to what putin tried to do in ukraine, they will see how a determined people can thwart someone like a dictator like putin who, of course, thought he was going to walk into kyiv in a matter of weeks. and that was not -- that was not possible. >> look. for a long time, no u.s. official wanted to describe our relationship with china in

strictly adversarial terms. how do we not look at the cutting off of military ties and climate ties and immigration ties, all of these things and not say we are in a cold war with china? >> well, i don't think we are in a cold war with china yet. a lot of that depends on what china does next. there is no doubt that president xi has escalated, you know, china's actions against taiwan even before the pelosi visit and has been more aggressive throughout the region. at the same time, we have been trying to cooperate with them on these other measures, as you say. i believe they will be back at the table on those measures. it is important that we have that military-to-military dialogue, but it is important that we also confront and check china where it's trying to export its model of authoritarian impi -- thoern

tarianism -- authoritarianism around the world and in africa and middle east and other places. >> senator, it's been a long night. you were very flexible for us i know with back and forth. you've got to get back to voting and i appreciate you spending a few minutes with us and our viewers to get the latest on this. thank you. >> thank you. good to be with you. >> when we come back, the abortion vote in kansas and one thought what we thought we knew about the midterms is not actually true at all. welcome back. panelists here anna palmer and panelists here a nna palmer and dt s l .

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welcome back. panelists here anna palmer and cornell belcher and pat mccrory and susan page here with me. you're a kansas native, susan. >> i am. >> you even said you didn't leave the state until you went to college. >> it was a shock! >> you know this speaking of shocks, kansas native susan page how shocked were you? >> i was shocked. i was surprised. maybe not necessarily that the

amendment went down but the margin of the victory i thought was quite stunning and a sign that kansas is a conservative state for sure. it's a state that is very reliably republican when you look at the presidential race but it's also a state with a populace history and independent streak. consider this. the last ten elected governors in kansas, five of them have been democrats, including the current one. >> an amazing stat. you shared it earlier. that is one of those that people are going to go, oh, maybe i didn't understand kansas the way i should have. >> it's a pragmatic state and conservative state. this was a shock to people i talked to in my home state on both sides of this issue. >> eisenhower, bob dole, similarity there. pat, your reaction? how shocked were you? >> maybe this proves that the supreme court was right in returning the decision back to the states. >> really? >> and clarifying -- i'm a constitutional conservative who believed in overturning roe versus wade and letting the states make a decision and

kansas made a decision and probably represents what the majority of kansas people believe, and that's what the supreme court majority said should happen. now the dilemma is this. this is part of the game. every republican and democrat who just got through a primary had filled out surveys either by planned parenthood or by a pro life group which they put their absolute answers on because i have had to fill out these surveys where are you for or against and in absolute measures. and every person who is running for office has filled out one of those surveys. now, all of a sudden, you even see stacey abrams kind of clarifying her remarks and i guarantee you there is a survey somewhere out there where she did absolute in order to win a primary to begin with. this is the dilemma for all of the politicians on the right and the left. the people are not on the absolute side and you heard that from the congresswoman from south carolina too, that people are in favor of some restrictions but reasonable

restrictions, and that is going to be the interesting debate at the state and possibly federal level. republicans on my side a little hypocritical saying return it to the states and later they said let's have a federal legislation. i think they will be backing off. >> i wonder if mitch mcconnell regrets that remark. >> i think a lot of senators don't want this issue, but are pressured now to have these rules and bills that are mandates and if you're a democrat, this is the gift that keeps on giving. the culture wars have shifted abortion. i require get -- i remember 20 years ago, trying to have different state amendments so they could turn out and gin up voters. democrats will use it this time all the way to the election. >> you think? cornell -- >> oh, gosh. i'm wearing the white suit here. >> if stacey abrams wins, she

will win on guns and abortion item i love the governor is arguing process. if you're arguing process in politics it's a problem. chuck, we have talked about this conversation. i've said the moment suburban moms, they are voting on abortion on the right but the moment that suburban moms think that they are -- their right to choose is going away is a vote issue and could change the dynamics and that what you're seeing. not only turnout just in kansas. we are getting poll after poll six months ago, i thought a lot of signs along the road here that looked like 2010 for someone who sat in 2010 a part of the obama team, it looked like 2010 going in but doesn't you look at the enthusiastic for young women and women voters. 2019, 29% of african americans said that election was more important than the past. last week, 60% of african

americans say this election is more important than past elections. they have woke a sleeping giant with this issue. >> you may have peaked too early. i think we are going back to the immigration and -- >> he is convinced of your theory, no, no, no, this will revert. this feels different, susan. >> you know why it's not going to fade away? economy will be important no question about that. people will be reminded every day about this issue because states are taking action and look at indiana this weekend and the stories we see about the repercussions of the court decision is on front pages of newspapers. who does not know the story of the 10-year-old girl raped in ohio forced to go to indiana to get an abortion? that is going to keep this issue front and center. >> i think the consequences will keep trickling out. this is not going away. the economy is a top issue every election cycle.

but freedom is on the ballot now and it's becoming not only -- >> senate and houses, both the senate and house seats are gerrymandered not like the u.s. senate and now that the primaries are over, i don't think you'll see -- >> i get a sense that in this issue, too many republican-elected officials thought that their pro life constituents were more mainstream than they actually were. roger marshall's reaction to this, the kansas senator, saying i can't believe this. it was like wow, you didn't believe your own polling? if you would have polled the voters you would know where you were. >> i think they have staked out the plans because outside groups 50 years have been pushing this issue finally got what they wanted roe versus wade and now moving the whole ball into a whole other game. >> what is pro life now? define what a pro life -- i say

this -- i heard nancy mace say i'm pro life. some pro lifers say if you want the exceptions you're not pro life. >> i think both sides, what is pro choice is another question. stacey abrams was giving you a transition from pro choice. i think what you're going to see is some reasonable guidelines of what abortion is, but be careful, democrats, on this issue. don't overplay your cards because on surveys, people are still more conservative on the abortion issue but they aren't willing to go to the extreme. >> one quick thing. when you win with 60% in kansas not just democrats and you see polling some republican women may not be pro choices but don't like the idea of the government taking away their rights. >> they become single issue voters then? >> i think that will tell us a lot in november. >> before we go to break, we want to let you know about something you need to be subscribing to right now. our excellent newsletter. our daily political newsletter

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we will be right back. what e e we going on in welcome back. data download time. what else are we going on in kansas? people like to think of that state as ruby red, rural. in terms of racial diversity and education, it's actually a state that looks a lot more like the rest of the country than one might think. the results of the abortion amendment this week could give us some clues about november. look. overall, the no vote overperformed joe biden's totals in kansas across the board at 59%. it was across the board no matter county. johnson county kansas, outside of kansas city, kansas. this is a county that joe biden carried with 53%. look what the middle vote did here. 689%. and overperformance of 17 points from the biden vote. that actually was duplicated across the state. in some rural counties, even

better than that. here is russell county, kansas, home of bob dole, mr. republican. look at the no vote. 45% overall rural kansas. no vote performed somewhere in the 30s or higher. it is one of the explanations for why this won so big. the other thing we saw here was a spike in voter turnout and new voters showing up. look at this. new voter registration since the dobbs decision in kansas spiked here. you see that over 8,000 new voter registrations. 68% of them women. in colorado and michigan, two other states that we expect to see abortion referendum on the ballot, we are seeing a similar spike in new registrations favoring women but not like kansas. could this shift even more? this is something to watch. trust me. when we come back, dick cheney takes on donald trump. >> he is a coward. a real man wouldn't lie to his supporters. >> that is from a new campaign ad the former vice president just made for his daughter liz.

and he had a lot more than that to say about mr. trump. stay with us.

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welcome back. president biden got some good news just this morning. he has tested negative for covid and he is out of isolation on his way to rehobeth beach, delaware. may be the end of his best week ever. the killing of the al qaeda leader ayman al zawahiri and much more. the falling gas prices. the all night for the inflation adjustment act. pretty good for a guy with approval ratings in the 30s. cornell, look. i do think that this midterm has separated out presidential approval from where we are. i think donald trump has had a hand in that. but if joe biden can't see his approval ratings rise after a week like this, you got to ask yourself, is this something he can ever pull out. >> well, yes. we have seen it before.

the narrow arc of presidency is different. they are a four-year arc here. in 2010, obama's numbers weren't great, either, but he had a story to tell. i think after the midterms, i think biden will have a really good story to tell sort of tackling inflation and strong economy and major investments and clean energy something our base really wanted and supporting women's choice. i think he will have a pretty strong record to stand on after the midterms. i think the arc of his narrative will start going up. >> his legislative record is looking pretty good. who gets the credit for it? a schumer and pelosi show or biden's white house deserves more credit than they are getting? >> all of the things you just mentioned, the common denominator joe biden was not leading the charge on any of them publicly. on the hill i think democrats want to be as far away from joe biden as they can be right now. this is going all to chuck

schumer, the fact that he is an untested leader, and got a lot of things done here, and everybody thought it was going to be a much smaller package when it came to the reconciliation bill and out with the sneak aipac and mcconnell and much larger package giving democrats something to run on. democrats have been kind of dead men walking on capitol hill and now i think they feel there is some momentum there. >> weird thing is -- matter assess lot in midterms especially if they are as low as they are for joe biden. you have unprecedented situation you have two presidents are big factors in this mid term. you got joe biden and donald trump. maybe donald trump is more of a negative for republicans, more of a positive for democrats than joe biden is for either one. >> i've heard this, pat. basically, hating trump is better for the democratic base than hating biden is for the republican base. >> consultants like cornell will want biden to go back in the basement. that is how he became president and he had his best week. you're right.

nancy pelosi overshadowed him without his permission. chuck schumer did the agreement with joe manchin without him. actually, the best thing was for the democrats, i hate to say, was jon stewart. jon stewart put us republicans regarding veterans on the defensive and one lesson to both the woke democrats and conservative republicans is don't pick a fight with a comedian like jon stewart or bill moore or david chappelle. they will win. they are quicker than us politicians. i think right now the only guy on the offense was the governor of florida desantis and, yet, trump will not let him share any spotlight. >> speaking of trump. i can't let the show go without -- i mean, it's -- this ad i think is going to be remarkable regardless of what happens to liz cheney and that is this. dig cheney, direct -- dick cheney, direct camera rebeaute of donald trump. take a look.

>> in our nation's 246-year history there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than donald trump. he tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. he is a coward. a real man wouldn't lie to his supporters. >> susan, this feels like a declaration more than it feels like some sort of ad campaign for a house race. this feels like a declaration that team cheney is coming after trump wherever he is regardless of what happens in wyoming. >> remember when dick cheney was the gop? dick cheney, 14 years since he left the white house. it is no longer the george w. bush or dick cheney. it's donald trump's republican party. we will see that in the primaries and we see that, i suspect, in the wyoming primary next week. >> was it cheney? i thought the first biden re-election ad. >> anti-trump forces and the republican party got closer. you know? one of these things. you look at arizona and these

places. trump won but it was harder but he still is winning. sort of -- i don't know what the anti-trump forces do. >> i agree with you. when you look at it he is not at strong, right, the tail is not in the same place that it was two or four years ago. but to your point, those are the people that are still on the ballot in the midterms and he is not going anywhere. looking at cpac. that is trump's party and it is on display. >> do you think you will ever be invited to cpac gain? >> me? >> i never was. >> i think the big question for the senate candidates do you accept a trump invitation? the democrats have already decided they don't want biden anywhere around. >> i think that depends. >> we shall see. all we have for today. thank you for watching. i'm sorry to see juan soto go. i was hoping he would stay last week. go padres? we will be back next week if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

this bill will kickstart the era of affordable clean energy in america, it's a game changer. it's a turning point. and it's been a long time in coming. to americans who have lost faith that congress can do big things, this bill is for you. to seniors, who face the in dignity of rationing medications or skipping them all together, this bill is for you. >> senate democrats finally pass a major bill to address key pieces of president biden's agenda. we'll go through what's in