right now on "andrea mitchell reports," house speaker

nancy pelosi, one on one, just three weeks before election day. republicans regain momentum over concerns about inflation and crime. can the speaker and the democrats hold on to the house? also this hour, president biden trying to reignite outrage over the supreme court decision overturning roe v. wade. why is he waiting until after the election to propose protecting abortion rights nationwide? russia hammering ukraine, knocking out power, hitting civilian targets. will their terror campaign weaken western resolve? good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. a critical moment for democrats as gas climbed 20 cents in the last month and a new polling shows republicans gaining the edge in the generic ballot as the economy and inflation become

the dominant concerns for voters. a growing portion of the electorate, include something democrats and independents, say they will vote for election deniers if they like their stance on other issues. joining me now to discuss the midterms and other important topics, the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. welcome, madam speaker. thank you very much for coming. >> my pleasure to be here. >> let's talk about rising inflation concerns along with crime, giving momentum, new momentum to republicans after the democrats were closing the gap, the historic gap. >> yes. >> after the supreme court ruling, there was huge outrage. that has seemed to subside, at least among overriding concerns. despite all the legislative accomplishments -- i want to cite them, i want to say it's been an extraordinary session, you and the president have done so much in terms of domestic concerns, the economy. why is this message -- why do

you think the president hasn't gotten it through to the voters? >> first of all, let me say that i think much of what you have said i don't agree with. that is to say, "the new york times" poll is an outlier. >> it's the real clear politics average showing similar issues. >> but that was one that brought down the -- it was an outlier. it wasn't that big a sample. i dismiss that. i have been -- since congress adjourned, i have been in an average of five states a week. i can tell you that women's concerns about their freedom are very, very much still very significant in terms of how they will vote. in fact, 80% of people who care about a woman's right to choose say they will -- it will determine who they vote for. again, washington has always been -- republicans are going to win, there's no question, for a year and a half. now that that has diminished in

terms of that certainty and there is a real race on, the republicans are pouring endless money, dark, undisclosed special interest money into the campaigns. but we're holding our own. it's a matter of who turns out to vote. there are issues that we -- of course, we want to fight inflation. it's a global issue. but some of the inflation in our country sprang from the fact that this president created nearly 10 million jobs -- at least 9 million jobs working with the private sector. the private sector creates a lot of that. and when you -- as the distinguished chair of the fed told me when i was a new member of congress, chairman greenspan said, when you are talking about inflation, unemployment can be dangerously low. so they are not unrelated. so we feel pretty good about it. i track these campaigns very carefully.

i believe that we will have the mobilization on the ground to turn out the vote, the clear message we want to give women freedom of choice. they want to have a ban on abortion. we want to support and strength medicare and social security. they want to use a debt ceiling to cut that. we want to -- we have lowered the cost of prescription drugs for seniors. they want to reverse that. we want to save the planet for our children in the future. they say that that is a hoax and that's the argument they used on the floor to oppose the inflation reduction act, which made historic gains for fighting the -- >> why did the president wait until now to make this major push for what he says will be a post-election call for a fast track on abortion rights nationwide? the house passed it in the fall after texas. the senate failed to win the vote in the spring.

why didn't the president push for that last fall when outrage over the draft opinion showed the handwriting was on the wall? >> the president has been a very strong supporter of a woman's right to choose. in your preview you said, why is he waiting until after the election instead of doing it now? we don't have 60 votes in the senate. if we could get two more -- >> you don't think he could have pushed harder on the senate? >> you think we would have gotten ten republican votes? you think we would have gotten ten republican votes? come on. let's -- with all due respect, the fact is, we needed to get two more democratic votes to push back the filibuster, and therefore, be able, with 51 votes to enshrine roe v. wade into the law. that will be on the 50th -- around the time of the 50th anniversary of roe v. wade supreme court decision. when the court decision came down on dobbs, we were ready.

we were ready with great candidates, mobilization at the grass-roots level, discipline for the districts we have to win and for money. we are outraising the republicans. we don't need endless. we will have enough. >> one of the issues that's going to be at stake on this election is democracy and the end of the january 6th investigation, if the republicans take over the house. it dies with the end of this congress. all their evidence gathered. you stood up to donald trump throughout your tenure, ripping his state of the union speech and standing up and walking out of the cabinet meeting with the leadership. you put him on notice. now we have seen you said on day of the riot, you said if he led the rioters and came up to the hill, you would have punched him

out. >> i don't like to talk about him. >> you did say would you have punched him. >> i would have gone to jail. i would have been happy to do so. >> would you have done it? >> he wouldn't have had the courage to come to the hill. he is all talk. let me just say, our democracy is at stake when you define democracy as integrity of the vote. they want to suppress the vote. they have been doing that for a long time. they want to nullify the results of an election. they are even proposing that after an election, if they don't like the result, they will change the rules that would have governed that election retroactively. you have to recognize that they are undermining our democracy. if people think that can -- they think they can be casual, they don't realize how serious the republicans are. >> let me ask you about that. in one new poll, 39% of voters

say that they would vote for an election denier, this included some democrats and independents, if they liked their stance on other issues. how do you explain that after all these hearings? >> i can't explain it. i think it's a tragedy for our country that people don't value the vision that our founders had about a democracy. what our men and women in uniform fight for, here and other places in the world. what that means to our children. we have to give them -- many children born now will live into the next century. we have to make sure they have a planet that's safe, that a democracy that is strong and values respected and agreed upon. that's not the path the republicans are on. by the way, social security and medicare, they want to cut that in order to support lifting the debt ceiling. every age group you can imagine, whether children, women of

childbearing age, seniors and the rest, you are greatly harmed by what they might go out there and do. they have been very clear about it. prescription drug, lowering the cost, reverse that. >> let me ask you about january 6. drilling down on that and your anger at what was happening in real time. despite your anger, and everything you were going through, you got on the phone with mike pence and expressed concern for his safety. tell me about that conversation. >> the very idea that this mob would be sent by the president of the united states with the claim that they were going to hang mike pence should tell the public that, yes, our democracy is at stake. we were taken to an undisclosed location. he was still in the capitol. i was very concerned, because the capitol was being overridden, and the president -- the then president was not doing

anything to stop the horror of it all. i was concerned that -- he said, if i leave, it will cause -- attract more attention with my entourage, the caravan with the vice president leaving. i wondered if he could trust the secret service to take him to a safe place. i don't know. but i do know that he was in danger in the capitol and i wanted to be sure that he was protected. he was the vice president of the united states. we owe him -- i mean, it seems self-evident that the president should have been making those statements, but he wasn't. >> how concerned are you at new testimony, new evidence from the committee just last week and from other sources, from some of these trials, that the fbi had early warnings, the secret service had warnings, they weren't probably communicated to

the leadership? had you your staff hiding under a table for hours with people banging saying, nancy, nancy, where are you, nancy? >> they were coming for me, too. but the vice president had a higher profile. here is the thing. this committee is a committee of this congress. so it's not a question of the republicans come in, they are dismantling it. it's a committee of this congress. the members who serve on there are members of this congress. a democrat is not running again. two republicans are not even running again. it's about this congress. they will get their work done. in their own time. i keep my distance from it. on that day, they were -- look, what they did to our democracy is a terrible thing. people don't value it, i can't answer for that. i know that many people care about how much they're going to pay in taxes, very wealthy people are pouring money in, because they care more about their tax bill and they care

about the defense of our country that needs taxes to pay for it. but in terms of what they did -- i'm number two in line to the presidency. that's never going to happen. but nonetheless, i have very strict identification and all the rest because of succession. i have a lot of security. the secret service would say, we didn't think we had to tell them about her because she's not our responsibility, it's inconsistent with the other aspects of security that i have. but you would think that they would have told us to protect everybody else. i will never forget the people who stormed the capitol for the trauma that they caused in our young people, our members of the press who were covering that day, our staffers, the

maintenance crew, the people who keep the capitol neat and clean and the way they disrespected them in language and in poo on the floor and the rest of that. this was a disgrace. and the president instigated an insurrection, refused to stop it and as those films show would not in a timely fashion allow the national guard to come in and stop it. that is sinful. >> you support a criminal referral if he refuses to honor a subpoena? >> that's up to the committee. >> it's up to the full house. >> it's up to the committee to make a recommendation, if they decide to and i don't -- i'm not in on that discussion. the department of justice is doing its investigation. the fact is, we want to talk about the future. elections are about the future. it's about our children, the world they will live in, whether that's a democratic country or

an undermined one, a safe planet, whether that's called a hoax to say we want to protect the planet, whether our seniors are taken care of with medicare and medicaid. by the way, senator scott and senator johnson are joining the leader mccarthy in the speeches that they have made about medicare and medicaid. it's not an entitlement. it's an insurance program people have paid into. they are treating it as if, we could make this optional in the future or just cut it off and decide in five years whether we want to continue to do that. >> let me raise a tough issue for you, which is members of your own caucus, lisa slotkin -- they are talking about

leadership being over 80. the president is also if re-elected going to be in that category. let's talk about what she said on "meet the press." i want to play that for you. >> i have been very vocal, including with my own leadership in the house, that we need a new generation. we need new blood, period, across the democratic party, the house, senate and white house. i think the country has been saying that. >> what do you say to your own caucus, to these young members? they are obviously in tough fights. they want to see the change. >> i say, just win, baby. just win. if that's what you have to say to win, fine. we will not in any way do anything but totally support, mobilization, message, money for those people to win their races. we need generational change. of course we do. in some cases, there's no

substitute for experience. i think that what we had been through with the legislation under the leadership of president biden, who has done a spectacular job -- he has had a better two years than most presidents you can name, certainly in the recent generations. he has with the rescue package, with the most recently inflation reduction package, with the chips and science act, the pact act for our veterans, for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. he has had a remarkable record if that's part -- if they are after us, look, just win. that's all i'm saying to people. i just want you to win your races, because nothing less is at stake than our democracy. nothing less is at stake than our planet. nothing less is at stake than our freedom, a woman's right to choose. as has been indicated by the

republicans, other things, contraception. nine republicans voted for us when we said women should have a right to contraception. so many things at stake in the election. these are very valued members of congress. we respect them for what they believe and what they do. we want them to be re-elected. i don't have any problem with anybody criticizing me. >> let me ask you one issue of concern to women around the world, and that is, what is happening to women in iran. we just had a climber who is heading home and competed in south korea without her head covered. lordknows what is going to happen to her. what can america do? >> we can make sure everyone is paying attention to it. we cannot make it -- have the regime there say, america is instigating this. they don't know their own people. this is organic.

it is initiated by the women, by the women. we should take great pride in that. we have issued some sanctions, some sanctions there. i think the bright light has to be shed on it. how about these women? aren't they remarkable risking their lives in a dangerous situation? that's really women around the world are being subjected -- ukraine, children 11 years old are being raped, moms are being raped in front of their children and parents. i wear this ring. this is from afghanistan. as a constant, to keep it close to my heart, the women of afghanistan for what they are subjected to there. women of the world, revolt. there's a short story when i was young -- it was a long time ago -- that was revolt of

mother. revolt. these women in iran are just so remarkable. again, we don't want it to look as if -- to give grist to the leadership saying this is instigated by america. it isn't. it's their own people. if they don't want to understand what's happening in their own country with their own women, then they do follow that line at their peril. we have to keep showing support for them. there's going to be an initiative at the united nations security council about this. let's see if -- there won't be a veto of that at the security council condemning them for what they are doing. we have to use every angle that we can. but again, not to the extent where they will say this is external rather than indigenous to iran. >> madam speaker, thank you so much for your time. >> my pleasure to be here. thank you. >> thank you. the waiting game.

president biden expected to speak at any moment. planning to fast track a bill -- try to fast track a bill to codify roe v. wade in the next congress, assuming democrats keep control. why wait? that's the question for the white house. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. o severea still disrupts my skin. despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. it disrupts my skin with rash. but now, i can disrupt eczema with rinvoq. rinvoq is not a steroid, topical, or injection. it's one pill, once a day, that's effective without topical steroids. many taking rinvoq saw clear or almost-clear skin while some saw up to 100% clear skin. plus, they felt fast itch relief some as early as 2 days. that's rinvoq relief. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal, cancers including lymphoma and skin cancer, death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older with

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with the election around the corner, president biden is putting the spotlight on abortion rights in a speech moments from now, expected to talk about fast tracking a bill to codify roe v. wade if democrats retain control. it comes as the political landscape has shifted and the economy is the top concern for voters now. joining me now is kristin welker, yamiche alcindor and

robin mcquad and sam stein. without two more senators, ten senators, you couldn't get it -- it was on the floor but you couldn't get it passed. >> that's right. that is the defense that you are hearing from democrats, that they didn't have the votes. and yet, what you are hearing from some quarters of the democratic party is, why not make this a central issue on day one of coming into the white house? because, of course, there was a conservative majority within the supreme court. i think there was a concern that, look, there was a sense that it was hard to see that roe v. wade would be overturned, certainly from the perspective of a number of people within the administration. i think that played into it as well. the bottom line and the argument as you heard the house speaker

lay out to you in that fantastic interview you did, they didn't have the votes. the math did not add up. what is striking now is that you are seeing president biden -- he is to some extent led the messaging on this, double down on what he has said will be an energizing message to voters and as you laid out at the top, andrea, today, we expect him to announce if democrats retain control of congress, the very first piece of legislation that he will present will be a bill to codify roe v. wade at the national level, federally. so, of course, the question becomes, given the fact the economy continues to be the top issue for voters, andrea, what will this look like at the polls? >> yamiche, the speaker told me inflation is a concern, but insists abortion still is a concern. you have been out on the trail. the polling isn't showing it as passionate as it was back when the supreme court first ruled,

understandably. what are you hearing from voters? >> what i hear from voters is that they are very interested and concerned about the inflation in this country and the price of gas and the price of groceries. i have to tell you i hear from women who say, i'm concerned about privacy. i'm concerned the government is in my doctor's office. i'm hearing that from young republican women in particular who are going to have less rights than their grandmothes and mothers. there are people that are animated and focused about pocketbook issues. that's the reality of politics and has been for a long time. i think abortion continues to be something that women are worried about, that women are focused on. what you hear in nancy pelosi when she says we didn't have the votes, it's democrats feeling like they got caught off guard. they said democrats didn't do all they could have done and codified roe in years before. i'm talking about decades before under president clinton when they did have the votes in congress.

why they didn't do it then. i think there are democratic voters who are looking at democrats saying, you should have been more on top of this issue. that's why i think you hear this tussle and why president biden is coming out saying, i'm going to make it a top issue now. >> sam, let me just play something that came up with the ohio senate debate, the exchange last night on abortion. tim ryan, the democrat, versus jd vance, the trump republican. >> jd in his extreme crew, they want to have a national abortion ban. they aren't happy with people going to illinois. they want people to go to canada. largest governmental overreach in our lifetime. he called rape inconvenient. this is not a guy ready to protect the rights of women. >> i think it's reasonable to say, you cannot abort a baby, especially for elective reasons, after 15 weeks. no civilized country allows it. i don't want the united states to be an exception.

>> how is this going to play in the next three weeks? >> well, it remains to be seen. obviously, the concerns of the electorate are predominant right now, heading into the midterms, inflation concerns are going to drive voter attitudes. the question is, how much of that energy after the dobbs decision is still there? how much did it matter in terms of voter registration? what you saw in the kansas referendum and state registration numbers is that a lot of women were registering to vote, including first-time voters. does that manifest itself in a democratic spike on election day? that's to be determined. i would say, it's interesting to see both tim ryan and joe biden today lean in so aggressively on these issues. neither of them were considered champion -- vocal champions of abortion. of course, they supported abortion rights. but they didn't talk about it predominantly. biden barely used the term, the

word abortion in his rhetoric. now they are leaning into it aggressively. goes to show you they think it's a winning issue. the promise he will introduce legislation on day one if they retain the majority is obviously an attempt to reinsert this into the election narrative with three weeks to go. >> the polls are showing that while it's a lower priority, this legal battle is still fierce, state by state, over abortion. 14 states banning or restricting abortion. medical professionals on the front line trying to navigate a patchwork of laws and all kinds of liability concerns. how do we rationalize this? >> andrea, when you overturn 50 years of precedent, as the supreme court did when it overturned roe v. wade, legal chaos is the predictable result. that's why we adhere to precedent so people can rely on it in their behavior. there's a fundamental tenant of

criminal law that people should be on notice as to what the law prohibits. there should be clear lines so people can conform their behavior to comply with the law. the due process clause of the 5th amendment says vague laws are illegal and unconstitutional. it has a chilling affect. when people don't understand what is and isn't lawful, then they are going to tend to want to stay on the legal side of the law. as you have all of these old laws back on the books, using language that is archaic and no longer reflects current science or medicine, people will tend to be shy about crossing that line. women in need of abortion care are going to find it increasingly hard to find. the devil is in the detail. what does it mean to perform an abortion to save the life of the mother? does it mean that if you discover cancer that might be okay to leave unaddressed for six or nine months is a life-threatening condition? or would you give the advice you

would give in the absence of the law to abort the fetus and give the care necessary? >> thanks to all of you. lockstep alliance. russian drones bought from iran taking out critical infrastructure inside ukraine. what the partnership means for the future. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. covid-19 moves , and now you can too by asking your healthcare provider if an oral treatment is right for you. oral treatments can be taken at home and must be taken within 5 days from when symptoms first appear. if you have symptoms of covid-19, even if they are mild, don't wait, get tested quickly. if you test positive and are at high risk of severe disease, act fast. ask if an oral treatment is right for you. covid-19 moves fast, and now you can too. ♪ what will you do?

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russia is striking ukrainian cities daily, destroying the infrastructure, hitting civilian targets. ukraine's president zelenskyy calling for more air defenses. richard engel reporting from ukraine. richard? >> reporter: russia is hitting ukrainian cities daily and with impunity. this was the main flower market here. it was attacked overnight as was an apartment building just down the street, killing at least one person, according to ukrainian officials. ukrainians believe the reason russia is attacking places like this, that have no strategic or military value, is to break the will of the ukrainian people, to get them to give up this fight.

over the last several days, we have been talking a lot about how russian is relying on iranian-made drones, these small kamikaze drones, to hit targets. the drones can fly a great distance. they are very maneuverable and accurate. they don't carry a lot of explosives. not enough to cause damage like this or to leave behind a crater of this magnitude. you can see it went deep into the soil and actually uncovered some earlier foundations of this city. president zelenskyy commented on this. he said that it is more evidence why this country needs air defenses, it needs them urgently. he described this attack as murderous and called on russia to be held accountable. >> thanks to richard engel. joining us now, the co-founder and chairman of the think tank silverado policy.

you are a great student of the military and the strategy on all sides. what should we be providing? what more should we do? more air defense? should we go for long-range artillery we have been reluctant to provide? >> the administration does not want to provide long-range missiles. they are afraid of potential for escalation. the russians are signaling they would hit back, potentially at nato, maybe our bases in germany or poland if we were to do that. we should providing artillery. we should focus on iran. the same sanctions that we have applied to russia, which are crippling their industrial sector, not being able to import chips and the like, we should do to iran. companies that are using the property overseas in europe and elsewhere are able to provide them with machinery, with chips. that needs to stop. >> do you think we were holding back on doing that on the hopes

for the longest time that we could reinstate the nuclear deal? and now that they have given up all hope on that, it would be very hard for the u.s. politically to agree to anything with iran right now, given what's happening with the women there, do you think we should now go for it and try to do more sanctions? can we do that unilaterally? >> we can. just like we did with russia. we can use the foreign product direct rule, which prohibits foreign companies relying on american company from selling to, in the first case was with russia, and now we can apply the same to iran. that would have a major impact on their ability to produce drones, the missiles that they are supplying to russia. >> apparently, the ukrainian foreign minister said the west is going to provide anti-drone defenses. will that help? >> it absolutely will help. these drones that the iranians are using are simple, very cheap. they cost about $20,000. many are self-directed.

plug in gps, the drone heads that way. then it finds anything with a large heat signature and slams into it with a bunch of explosives that will destroy the target. it's not very difficult to shoot down these drones. they don't have a lot of protection and stealth associated with them like some of the more advanced american drones. basic drone defenses can be a great help to ukrainians. >> let me talk about starlink and the critical link that that is providing with russia having knocked out internet communication services and how important elon musk's starlink is to ukraine. concerns musk has been leaning towards russia in what he has said about negotiating and zelenskyy making concessions. how reliable do you think starlink is? right now it's the only backstop for internet communication there. >> it's essential not just for civilian communication, but for the military advanced the ukrainians have been making in

their counteroffensive. they use it for military communication, for intelligence, reconnaissance, being able to guide artillery. it's absolutely critical to their success. the ukrainians are concerned about elon's tweets latlately, support for the peace plan that would have them give up territory to russia. they don't know if they can count on elon to keep the service up and running, particularly in areas where they need to use it on the front lines. >> should we be paying for it? >> i think we should. it's not a charity. they should be reimbursed like lockheed and the other defense contractors are providing services and weapons to ukraine are getting reimbursed today. the issue is not payment. the issue is, who is going to decide where the service is going to be turned on within ukrainian internationally recognized borders? i think it should be the ukrainians deciding where to turn it on and off and not spacex. >> thank you very much. good to have you here today.

>> thank you. it's day two of early voting in georgia's key senate and gubernatorial races. we are seeing record-breaking turnout. it nearly doubled that of 2018. last night, governor brian kemp squared off against democratic challenger stacey abrams in the first debate since their narrow 2018 matchup. blayne alexander is there. and sam greenblast is with us. he is a former nbc new bureau. good to see you. did either performance move the needle? >> that's what both camps are hoping. it's interesting that voters heard from the candidates on the first day that they went forward and were able to cast their ballots. this is a very close rematch four years in the making. in many ways, it seemed like the candidates spent four years

preparing for that face-off last night. very different candidate than what we saw in 2018 for governor brian kemp's part, he has a record to run on. when you have spoke within republican sources, they make it clear that back in 2018, he was running as a closely trump aligned candidate. now he had a public split with the president and he has four years of a record to run on. he is leaning into that. you saw him at every turn kind of pivot back to his record saying that business is doing well herein georgia because of his decision to reopen the state early during the covid lockdowns. stacey abrams is rebutting all of that, saying the policies make it more dangerous. take a look. >> i have the support of sheriffs. unlike mr. kemp, i do not make it my plan to list every person who supports me. i have to have conversations with the entirety of georgia. i don't have the luxury of being a part of a good old boys club where we don't focus on the needs of our people. >> look, i would just tell

people -- i know miss abrams is upset and mad because these are things that she said. this is not me making this up. >> reporter: we talked about the early voting numbers, the record numbers. when i have spoken to democratic strategist strategists, they say that means good things for democrats. it's important to note georgia has 1.6 million more registered voters today than we did in 2018. >> sam, very briefly, the president is getting up to speak, your reporting that the suburbs are not delivering wins for democrats as they have in the past? >> georgia suburbs in metro atlanta are some of the most contested political battleground in the state and in the country. these are places that were historically republican strongholds that delivered democratic wins in 2020. it's now -- >> thanks for being so quick.

we have to go to the president right now. >> especially when it comes to the right to choose. on january 22, 1973 -- i hate to admit this. i was a freshman in the united states senator and the supreme court issued a decision on roe v. wade, establishing a constitutional right to choose. nearly 50 years later, on june 24th of this year, the court issued the dobbs decision, a woman -- all across the country, starting in my house, women lost the right. i want to remind us all how we felt that day when 50 years of constitutional precedent was overturned. i'm going to use this mike, if it's okay. the anger, the worry, the disbelief, the unbelievable fact that for the first time in our history, the supreme court

didn't just fail to preserve a constitutional freedom, it actually took away the right that was so fundamental to americans. it took away aright. the fear that now that now most personal decisions may not only be made by the woman and her doctor but by politicians to make that decision. the dobbs decision, the court practically dares women to go ahead and be heard. one of the most extraordinary parts of that decision in my view was when the majority wrote, quote, women are not without electoral -- are not -- excuse me, are not without electoral or political power. let me tell you something. the court and republicans who spent decades trying to overturn roe are about to find out. [ cheers and applause ] as they say in one of the times,

they ain't seen nothing yet. look at what happened in kansas. [ cheers and applause ] come this november, we will see what happens all over america, god willing. it's only been four months since the dobbs decision, but we to longer have to imagine the chaos and heartache it's causing. in just four months, abortion bans have gone into affect in 16 states. 26.5 million women of reproductive age already live in states subject to these bans. today in america, there are women who have been turned away from emergency rooms while having miscarriages, losing wanted pregnancies and told they need to wait until they are sicker before they get the care they need. there are survivors of rape and incest who have been denied access to health services in their home states and been forced to travel to states that do provide that care.

there's so much confusion and uncertainty that doctors and nurses fear they could face criminal charges for just doing their job responsibly. patients are being denied prescriptions that they have been taking for years for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, because pharmacies are concerned that those drugs could also be used to terminate a pregnancy. they're not giving them their prescriptions. that's not all. i have warned about how this decision risks the broader right to privacy for everyone. there's a thing called the ninth amendment that says there's a right to privacy. that's how it was interpreted back then. guess what folks? roe recognized the right to privacy that served as the base for many more rights to come and we have taken for granted. they are engrained in the fabric of this country. the right to make a decision, the best decision pore your

health, the right to birth control, the right that i pushed hard and finally got changed, the married couples in the privacy -- i'm thinking about the dobbs. i will get to that in a second with clarence thomas. the right to mary who you love. [ applause ] justice thomas said as many in his concurring opinion in dobbs writing, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this court's substantive due process precedents, including griswold, relating to the idea of contraception. contraception. meanwhile, i just want to make clear, i know you all know, talking about the right to use contraception and the right to marry who you love. i mean -- anyway. i don't want to get started.

meanwhile, congressional republicans are doubling down on extreme positions. kevin mccarthy, the republican leader of the house, said if they take control of the house our work is, quote, far from done. he wants the united states congress to pass a law that would ban abortion nationwide. senator lindsey graham called for an abortion ban that criminalizes doctors and nurses to provide medical care for patients in need. if republicans get their way with a national ban, it won't matter where you live in america. so let me be very clear. if such a bill were to pass in the next several years, i'll veto it. we can't let it pass in the first instance. immediately after the dobbs decision came down i signed an order and my administration took a number of actions to protect the access to reproductive health care including emergency medical care, to protect a

woman's right to travel from a state that prohibits abortion to a state that allows it, and to protect the privacy of sensitive health information preventing states from tracking women who are seeking help, because that's what some will do. but as i said when the dobbs decision -- we're fighting a battle in the courts. as i said in the dobbs decision, i want to repeat it again, the only sure way to stop these extremist laws that are putting in jeopardy women's rights and health, to put it into law. we should codify roe once and for all. right now we're short a handful of votes. if you care about the right to choose, then you have to vote. that's why in these midterm elections they're so critical, more democratic senators elected to the senate and more democrats

to keep control of the house of representatives. and, folks, if we do that, here is the promise i make to you and the american people, the first bill that i will send to the congress will be to codify roe v. wade. and when congress passes it, i will sign it in january 50 years after roe was first decided to be the law of the land. and together we'll restore the right to choose for every woman in every state in america, so vote. you have to get out the vote. we can do this if we vote. folks, i also have a message for the young people of this nation. i've always believed that this generation, this young generation, represents the best educated, most talented, least prejudiced generation in american history. and that today we face an inflection point. one of those moments that only

comes around every several generations where there's so much change happening technically, politically, and socially, that the decisions we make now are going to determine the future of our nation and the future of your generation for the next 30 or more years. and it only happens once every five, six generations. i know that you may feel like it's an added burden on top of all you've already been through. my grandchildren and children have been through. i'm not saying you have to shoulder the burden alone. the task at hand and the task ahead is the work of all of us. what i am saying is you represent the best of us. your generation will not be ignored, will not be shunned and will not be silent. just look at what happens when you speak out. two years ago perhaps many of you voted for your first time in an election or volunteered for work in your first election, you understood the choices and the

stakes. and because of your experience and power to vote you elected me president and kamala harris vice president. and since then with your help we've delivered enormous progress for the nation, the most significant gun safety law in 30 years. and, by the way, if you give me a democratic congress, we're going to ban assault weapons again. i did it once. i will do it again. and the most significant infrastructure law in seven years -- you know, we rank in the 20s in terms of infrastructure. we're the united states of america, for god's sake. we made the most significant to protect our environment ever, ever, ever, $360 billion. now with your help we're forgiving student debt.

by the way, we really worked hard to get the system right how you apply. just since yesterday 4 million more people applied. i'm keeping my promise, no one should be in jail for possessing or using marijuana and should not be in jail. together we're making sure our democracy delivers for people. we know there's much more progress that needs to be made, and we know that there remains real options. in 2020 you voted and delivered a change you want to see in the world. in 2022 you need to exercise your power to vote again for the future of our nation and the future of your generation. so let me close with this. i'm asking the american people to remember how you felt, how you felt that day the extreme dobbs decision came down and roe was overturned after 50 years.

i'm asking you. by the way, it's not just affecting your young generation, it's affecting children, moms, grandmoms, grandpops, entire generations, all the way across the board. i remember asking, and i want you to remember that the final say does not rest in the court now. it does not rest with extremist republicans in congress. and finally say -- finally say about your right to choose that it rests with you. and if you do your part and vote, democratic leaders of congress, we'll do our part. i'll do my part. with your support i'll sign a law codifying roe in january. together, let's remember who we are. we are the united states of america, and there's nothing beyond our capacity. so vote, vote, vote. god bless you all and may god protect our troops. thank you.

>> and with that, the president of the united states wraps up that appeal. with us now the chief white house correspondent peter baker, co-author of the bestseller with susan glasser, his spouse, "the divider: trump in the white house." the president's push now and, of course, pushing into his 80th year. nancy pelosi with me, i asked her about generational change, and she said that's not an issue. you hear them focusing on young people. >> well, it's true. polling shows young people are the most likely to vote democratic this fall. they're trying very hard to get the younger cohort to show up. that's always been the problem for democrats. they lead among younger voters. they can't historically get to the polls in the same numbers as different generations. so if they're going to wane this election this fall, in the next

month, the next couple of weeks, they need a high turnout among young people polls show are much more supportive. that's why he's focusing on abortion rights, this matters not just to you but to everybody and has a special resonance among younger voters. and he's gambling he can make that a bigger issue than, say, inflation, which obviously is hurting the democrats heading into the midterm. >> and one of the other concerns i was raising with the speaker is this "new york times" poll, one of the other issues in the poll is how many people, 28%, won't trust the election results. >> yeah, that's a real problem and it suggests a real corrosion in the faith of our democracy. democracy has always been based in america on the idea that we believe in the vote, that we believe this is, in fact, a legitimate outcome of an election and so the fact so many americans are is a real problem and has been encouraged by former president trump who goes out of his way to tell them they

can't trust the system. the system is safer, more reliable than any time in american history. >> and, peter, finally, donald trump and anti-semitism, what he said, do you have a 15-second comment? >> well, obviously he has appealed time and time again to divisions in our country. i called the book "the divider" because that has been his strategy. this is one more example of that. >> thank you very much, peter baker. thanks to everyone for being with us. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. with just a few weeks to go and the midterms still too close to call, today president biden is putting his time and his energy behind an issue that, frankly, most americans say is not