hey, everybody, good afternoon. i'm yasmin vossoughian in for chris jansing today. right now we are waiting for remarks from the president. he's expected to make a major announcement to lower gas prices amidst recent cuts by opec. we're going to bring you that live. meanwhile, in russia, president vladimir putin announcing that the country will impose martial law in the ukrainian regions he illegally annexed last month. plus, the former president being deposed right now in the

defamation case brought by writer e. jean carroll who alleges the former president raped her in the '90s. with early voting already underway in dozens of states across the country, we are requesting to take a look at the key races in arizona and florida as well including last night, a pretty heated debate between senator marco rubio and val demings over everything from abortion to gun safety. >> the government is in that room because she brought them in there. she wants the taxpayer to pay for that abortion. that's government involvement pay for them all over the world. >> how long will you watch people being gunned down in first grade, fourth grade, high school, college, church, synagogue, a grocery store, a movie theater, a mall and a nightclub and do nothing? >> all right, up first, though, the president is set to give a really major speech any moment now.

as soon as it comes up, we're going to bring it to you, expected to announce the release of 15 million barrels of oil from the strategic reserves. this move of course is aimed at bringing those gas prices down, right? coming exactly two weeks after opec announced cuts in oil production. we're going to bring you the president's remarks as soon as they get started to talk through all of this, we want to bring in shannon pettypiece, cnbc market reporter pippa stevens and "politico" white house correspondent eugene daniels who's an msnbc political analyst. thanks for joining us on this. let's get started on kind of the way in which the white house is positioning the speech ahead of this speech to get started in about 14 minutes or so as of this moment. and what else we're expected to hear from the president this afternoon. >> well, just for some context, yasmin, nothing the president is going to announce or lay out today is expected to have any sort of impact on oil prices, essentially these 15 million

barrels are a drop in an oil barrel. they are just a fraction of what the united states uses in a week, and it's part of a much larger release of these emergency oil reserves that the president announced months ago. so it's just sort of the latest tranche of that. we also expect the president to sort of lay out plans for how the u.s. is going to replenish that emergency reserve in case there's some sort of other urgent scenario that would come along where we need to tap into that. then he's also supposed to ratchet up the pressure on oil companies, again, accusing them of benefitting from this what he considers a crisis in the markets right now and taking advantage of consumers. we have heard that sort of rhetoric from the president before, though. however, the timing of this is of course, notable. we are three weeks out from the election. democratic strategists and pollsters are increasingly telling myself and my colleagues that they have a lot of concern that democrats are not doing enough to talk about inflation and the economy. and while the president does regularly bring up inflation and

the economy, they are concerned that the message isn't getting through to voters about what actions the president is taking now, specifically at the areas of their pocketbook getting hit the most and what, more importantly, democrats and the president will do going forward if they're given another two years in office when it comes specifically to inflation and the economy. we hear a lot from democrats about health care, abortion, crime and safety, but they've struggled to land on a message with the economy. you can see the white house today starting to move in that direction and give an indication of what the closing arguments are going to look like here in the coming days. >> and we're going to be watching for those remarks and bring it to you live as soon as you get started. i know you've got go, i appreciate you sticking with us right now. pippa, let's talk through some of this, this 15 million barrels of oil that could strategically be released from the oil reserves.

it says we're doing something, the biden administration putting the message out there we're doing something. if you thought we weren't doing anything, this is us doing something. >> yeah, shannon said this won't really have that much of an impact because it is part of that larger 180 million barrel release that the administration announced back in march, and to put this 15 million barrel in context, we use about 20 million barrels per day every day here in the u.s. so this is really not going to have that much of an impact, but gas prices, of course, are a key sticking point for voters ahead of the midterms, and so this is the administration, as you said, trying to signal they're doing something when the reality is they don't really have any control here, but neither do big oil companies. the white house has repeatedly pointed the finger at oil executives, but these are global markets. they do not set prices and the latest move by the white house reportedly looking to limit businesses doing business with saudi arabia, as one source told me, why would they seek a full on confrontation with saudi arabia right before another round of sanctions against

russian energy. so to put it -- to sum this all up, this is a basically a band-aid for a much larger structural issue. >> how are u.s. businesses, how are they reacting to the possibility that the biden administration is trying to limit them from doing business with saudi? is it something they would even be on board with? at the end of the day, they are a business, and they're concerned about their bottom line. >> well, i think one of the issues here is that there are a lot of conflicting signals. we have reports that that could happen, there are also reports about limiting product exports and so there's a lot of people saying we don't really know what's going on with these conflicting signals. at one point the administration is saying, please, pump more, and then they're also tapping the spr. why would that incentivize new production. i think within that environment, business leaders are very reluctant to make any big type of move or announcement, particularly with the ongoing uncertainty around russian energy and how those sanctions play out. >> eugene, let's talk about your

thoughts on this closing argument. yesterday we heard about abortion rights. a lot of folks criticizing that saying you need to be talking about the economy. "the new york times" sienna college poll, the number one issue for so many voters ahead of the midterms was the economy. here is the president now today, right, about to talk about oil prices and subsequently i am sure the economy. >> absolutely. and everything that's been said is exactly right. you have 80% of voters in a "politico" morning consult poll saying that inflation will play a major role in their result. that is democrats, republicans, and independents say that that is going to drive them or affect their vote in a few weeks. and i think the thing that this administration and democrats writ large have kind of been hoping to do is make this not a referendum on president biden and his economy but about a choice between republicans who they see as trying to take

rights away and democrats. some of those trends that we saw a few weeks ago where democrats were getting a lot more excited about this, that has dissipated as more concerns about the economy, people keep hearing about the possibility of a recession and so now the administration has to get people focused on what they've done and also what they plan to do moving forward. i think that's one of the things that democrats have kind of struggled with because they're also, as they talk about abortion as the number one issue that the president's going to take on after the midterms, if you send him enough senators to get a bill passed into his desk, people are saying, okay, but what about the economy. and the economy right now, it's hard to sell people on it. it is not just inflation, but there are good things, right? unemployment is down. but when people look around and they can't afford gas or they can't put all the food on the table they could last year, that is what they're thinking about when they go voting. >> you talk about gas prices. i think it's important to kind

of put these numbers out there so we all know what's going on. a lot of folks are confused as to where we are right now. current average $3.85. tlas week $3.92. we're down this month. last month, 3.678. last year $3.34. the peak over the summer, june 14th, $5 a gallon back then was the average. eugene, pippa mentioned this, and i want to see if you have any reporting on this. i know "politico" talked about this specifically with their reporting. they had aired complaints to executives over their ballooning profits and threatened drastic new restrictions such as limits on company's fuel exports if the industry refuses to help ease the price at the pump. that's according to to some of your reporting at "politico." wondering if the president is likely to address any concerns like this in his speech today. >> yeah, i think, you know, it's possible. we're not really sure what the president's going to say. this is something that is likely to come up and a question about whether the president's going to

tell people to not work in saudi arabia or whatever in businesses, we talked about that and asked that question to karine gianpierre, the press secretary yesterday. she wouldn't even touch it and said the white house feels like businesses should do their business. but still, there is the reporting and we have been hearing that the president is thinking about doing this, that he wants to go after some of these businesses because of what saudi arabia did and talk to them and say, hey, let's not go over there. but then where do they go? you have to give them a place to build. that's another question for this administration as they try to convince folks that they are doing all they can. and in the last few weeks of this cycle as we get close to voting, if you can't convince voters that the issues that they care about are taken care of, that is what it comes down to. it's turnout and persuasion. if you can persuade people you have done everything you possibly can, that is going to get them to vote for you. that's not really what democrats are seeing.

they're starting to get a little more nervous than therm a few weeks ago. >> talking about doing business and not doing business with the saudis, it's an extreme sensitive geopolitical topic, especially when you see what's going on in iran as well. it's understandable as to why they're being cautious in the way they're talking about this. pippa stevens, eugene daniels, thank you, and thank you to shannon pettypiece who did have to go early. we are still awaiting those remarks from the president on gas prices, the economy, again, we're going to bring you those comments as soon as they get up and started. let's head over seas now, everybody. you've got explosions once again rocking the ukrainian capital of kyiv today as the war reaches a critical point. and a short time ago, the russian president declaring martial law in the four regions of ukraine he illegal annexed last month. nbc's cal perry is live for us in the capital city of kyiv. so two things here first i want to hit on with you, cal. first is kind of just getting us

the latest on the ground, the feeling on the ground there in kyiv specifically and what this kind of declaration, right, of martial law means for these occupied regions. >> look, i think people here in the capital are weary, tired, it's nine days in a row where people had to flee to bomb shelters because of incoming drones and rockets. more than 230 drones shot down in just a month. today alone, eight rockets and ten drones. those drones coming this time from the north, from belarus. this city is now in the cross fire in the same way that the east has been. now this city is taking incoming. as for the martial law in keir sean, this is where ukrainian troops are about to breakthrough. they're about to liberate this city, and russia is forcibly removing citizens from this city and moving them wear from the city of kherson towards russia. they're depriving the ukrainian army of the ability to liberate

the city. it could basically troy this destroy this city. >> two places we're able to see the content, it's on television with us of course, cal, it's oftentimes on your instagram as well, which i follow pretty closely and this morning i saw something pretty disturbing. i know that you've been shooting inside schools telling the story of kids getting educated on how to deal with nuclear war, the possibility of nuclear war. what did you see? >> reporter: this was a particularly difficult shoot to go on to film these kids, these are high school students who are drilling, as you said, for nuclear war. it's not just the high school kids, it's some of the elementary school kids as well. this was our third day trying to get to this school. we had been stopped three days in a row because of incoming rockets and drones. i asked the children if they're scared. they all said they're not, that they're not scared.

that they're tough and that they don't fear anything, and then you ask the teachers and you ask the parents and they say of course they're terrified. it's incredibly frightening to put on these biohazard suits, to drill, to run down to the bomb shelter. the other thing i found difficult, the younger kids were given swim caps by their parents because they don't have the proper nuclear fallout gear, swim caps, swim goggles, the stuff that you and i dress our kids up to go to swim practice is what parents are putting on their kids to go to bomb shelters. it was a very difficult scene to watch. >> the possible reality of that is just terrifying. all we want is for our children here and abroad to be safe, and this is the reality for so many ukrainian children there. cal perry, as always, we thank you. all right, everybody. at any time now the former president facing a deposition in e. jean carroll defamation rape

lawsuit. joining me now is gabe gutierrez and harry litman. what do we know so far? how long is this thing going to last? >> reporter: hey there, yasmin, good afternoon. e. jean carroll tweeted a short time ago that this deposition was underway, but just a short time ago she has apparently deleted those tweets. so right now the timing of all of this is still fluid. we do not know for sure whether it is underway. i can tell you "the new york times" has reported that this was expected to take place at mar-a-lago. we're here outside the law offices for e. jean carroll's attorneys. she has not commented on this, and trump's legal team has yet to comment on this today. as you know, this all dates back to a lawsuit filed in 2019, and this has been in legal limbo since then because the trump legal team a judge said last week was trying to delay this. trump's legal team had been trying to argue that mr. trump denied these allegations while

he was president, and so he was acting in his capacity as a federal government employee. e. jean carroll's attorneys said, no, the judge ruled that this should move forward, and again, these allegations that e. jean carroll alleges that back in the mid-'90s, mr. trump raped her at a department store here in manhattan. trump for his part has said that that this is a con job and has denied the allegations. the judge ruled this deposition should move forward and it could be significant, no matter what happens with this specific defamation lawsuit, e. jean carroll has indicated she does plan to sue the former president later this year, next month when a one-year window goes into effect. earlier this year, new york passed a law that would allow adult victims of sexual assault to sue even if the statutes of limitations had gone away. so that lawsuit could come next month, and this deposition could

also play a part in that, yasmin. >> harry, before i go to you, i want to remind folks what you see on your screen there. as we're having this conversation, we're keeping an eye on the white house, expecting the president to speak any moment when it comes to some action he's taking on oil prices. two things for you, if you could respond to what we're trying to figure out when it comes to these tweets, is that because we feel as if the deposition has not gotten up and going or is it more because she's not supposed to be putting that information out there, one? and then to follow is in this type of situation, this type of civil matter, can the former president essentially just plead the fifth, right? avoid giving any answers in this deposition as he has in the past. >> so the first i'm going with choice two. she tweeted it out because it really did start. you really shouldn't -- these are confidential proceedings. her lawyer slapped her, i think it is likely it has in fact started. on the second can he plead the

fifth? yes. he can plead the fifth. this is a real case now. it's a civil case, and that can be held against him. we're talking now unlike sort of legal skirmishes in the political realm where he got away with it, it's a defamation case that at the end of the day a new york jury will staten island -- decide how much he lows. a pretty high price tag. he has just doubled down really imprudently on calling it a hoax and a lie and that paints him into a corner for today. he can't just say, oh, i don't think i remember. really, mr. trump? why two weeks ago then did you say this, et cetera. i think he's fairly committed to very strong categorical denial, and if she has any collateral proof, for example, she says she kept the dress now almost 30 years, that he -- that she was wearing when he assaulted her,

it could blow any defense out of the water. and even if she doesn't, it's just going to be a credibility, he said, she said before a new york jury. >> harry litman, thank you. gabe gutierrez, thank you as well. still ahead this hour, everybody, again, the president should be taking to the podium any moment now to announce more actions to address gas prices. we're going to have it live for you. also, with the midterms approaching, we are live on the campaign trail in florida and arizona. we'll be right back. we'll rbeight back. what will you do? will you make something better? create something new? our dell technologies advisors can provide you with the tools and expertise you need to bring out the innovator in you. (vo) with their verizon private 5g network, associated british ports can now you need precisely orchestrate nearly 600,000 vehicles passing through their uk port every year. don't just connect your business. right on time. make it even smarter. we call this enterprise intelligence.

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welcome back, everybody. we are continuing to wait for the president, set to speak at any moment now on the administration's efforts to ease gas prices. we're going to have that live for you as soon as it gets up. we are just 20 days or so away from the midterms. florida congresswoman val demings went on the tack after a fiery debate against marco rubio for that state's open senate

seat. today on morning joe she said her opponent has no clue about his primary responsibility to floridians and to the american people. but recent polling showing rubio maintaining a small lead over demings, i want to bring in nbc's shaq, we predicted it, it came, it was fiery. and here we are this afternoon talking it through once again. give us the key moments that really stood out to you. >> reporter: yeah, you know, yasmin, one of the reasons why we knew it was going to be contentious, why we knew there would be attacks flying because both campaigns telegraphed those attacks in comments they made to reporters but also when you watched tv and saw the campaign ads that were out there, those ads and that line of messaging transferred and made its way onto the debate stage. marco rubio painted himself as a successful senator, talking about his bipartisan accomplishments, saying that val

demings hasn't passed any legislation and would be a party line vote if she were elected to the senate. val demings going after marco rubio for flipping positions after the parkland shooting saying he made promises to the parkland parents that he didn't plan on keeping and talking about how he played politics with pandemic funding and some economic issues. and then there was abortion. we knew this was going to come up. i just want you to watch that exchange between the two candidates. >> the extremists on abortion in this campaign is congresswoman demings. she supports no restrictions, no limitations of any kind. she voted against the five-month ban. she supports taxpayer funded abortion on demand for any reason at any time up until the moment of birth. that's what she supports. that's the extreme position here. >> senator, how gullible to you really think florida voters are. number one, you have been clear that you support no exceptions, even including rape and incest.

now, as a police detective who investigated cases of rape and incest, no, senator, i don't think it's okay. >> reporter: that tone that you heard there, that back and forth that you saw there. you saw that throughout the night during this hour-long debate. this is something that voters were watching. it aired in many of the major television markets across the state of florida. there's an uphill fight that val demings is facing here in this increasingly conservative state. the average of polls shows marco rubio with a lead that's tighter than the governor's race, but still a lead nonetheless. you talk to officials statewide and republicans have an advantage in terms of the voter registration. there's an uphill battle for her. you saw she was putting up a fight last night on the debate stage and marco rubio was fighting right back. >> we will be watching that race incredibly closely. tune in to "meet the press

live." he will be joined by brad raffensperger, and atlanta mayor andre dickens. let's turn to arizona where next hour, kari lake, the republican nominee for governor is set to campaign with virginia governor glenn youngkin. this is happening after last night appearing at an event with tulsi gabbard who ran for president in 2020 as a democrat but left the party last week and now supports lake, the trump-backed candidate. nbc's vaughn hillyard is in arizona. what a switch. wow, vaughn. take us through it, right? first and foremost last night's event, and then the expectation from governor youngkin's appearance today alongside kari lake. >> reporter: right, there's several layers to this. kari lake also voted for barack obama herself, was a long-time registered democrat until donald trump came around.

those two women being on stage together you could say was a perfect pairing. i want to let you hear between the two of them last night just a little bit of their exchange. take a listen. zl i feel like a rock star up here, tulsi. >> you are a rock star, kari. >> if mlk, reverend martin luther king jr. were alive today, if jfk were alive today, if our founding fathers were alive today, they would be america first republicans. i really believe that. >> reporter: this is all a part of kari lake's effort to appeal to a broader swath of the electorate. you could say there's nobody that has been arguably a more favored candidate to donald trump than kari lake over the last year, and they believe that they're going to have a great turnout, particularly in the rural parts of arizona. those voters that came out in droves to support donald trump in what was a narrow loss for him in 2020. but then you come and turn your attention to what's happening here today, and glenn youngkin a half hour from now, will be

campaigning here in tucson alongside of kari lake. you'll recall one year ago on the campaign trail. in virginia, it was glenn youngkin that kept an arm's distance to donald trump. he was laying claim to building a big tent that would include never trumpers and forever trumpers, and that is where you saw last night. i asked kari lake about her decision to come with glenn youngkin, and she said look -- >> vaughn, the president is speaking now. let's go to the white house. >> 30% from the summer highs. now it's down about $1.15 a gallon from their peak during the summer. gas prices have fallen every day in the last week. let me repeat, gas prices have come down and they continue to come down again. they're now down more than $0.27 a gallon in wisconsin in the past week, $0.27 in oregon, $0.16 in ohio, $0.25 in nevada, $0.17 in indiana, and just the last ten days, that's progress. but they're not falling fast

enough. families are hurting. you've heard me say it before, but i get it. gas prices hit almost every family in this country, and they squeeze their family budgets. the price of gas goes up, other expenses get cut. that's why i have been doing everything in my power to reduce gas prices since putin's invasion of ukraine caused these price hikes, these prices to spike and rattle international oil markets, excuse me. i focused on how we can protect american families from that spike and give folks just a little bit of breathing room as my dad would say. today i'm announcing three critical steps that my administration will take to reduce gas prices at the pump. first, the department of energy will release another 15 million barrels from a strategic petroleum reserve, extending our previously announced release through the month of december. independent analysis -- excuse

me, independent analysts have confirmed that drawdowns from the reserves so far have played a big role in bringing down oil prices, bringing them down. so we're going to continue the responsible use of that national asset. right now the strategic petroleum reserve is more than half full with about 400 million barrels of oil. that's more than enough for any emergency drawdown. with my announcement today, we're going to continue to stabilize markets and decrease the prices at a time when the actions of other countries have caused such volatility. and i've told my team behind me hear to be prepared to look further, look for further releases of the months ahead if needed. we're calling it a ready and release plan. this allows us to move quickly to prevent oil price spikes and respond to international events. secondly, we need to responsibly increase american oil production

without delaying or deferring our transition to clean energy. let me -- let's debunk some myths here. my administration has not stopped or slowed u.s. oil production. quite the opposite. we're producing 12 million barrels of oil per day, and by the end of this year, we will be producing 1 million barrels a day more than the day in which i took office. in fact, we're on track for record oil production in 2023, and today the united states is the largest producer of oil and petroleum products in the world. we export more than we import. i still heard from oil -- and i've heard from oil companies that they're worried that investing in traditional oil production today will in case of -- in case demand goes down in the future ask they're not going to be able to sell their oil products at a competitive price later, we have a solution for that.

today i'm announcing a plan to refill the strategic petroleum oil reserve in the years ahead at a profit for taxpayers. the united states government's going to purchase oil to fill their strategic petroleum reserve when prices fall to $70 a barrel. that means oil companies can invest to ramp up production now with confidence they'll be able to sell their oil to us at that price in the future, $70. refining and refilling the reserve at $70 a barrel is a good price for companies, and it's a good price for the taxpayers, and it's critical to our national security. to put it in context, since march, the average price of oil has been more than $90 a barrel. the highest since 2014. by selling from the strategic petroleum reserve at the higher price of $90 earlier this year and then refilling it in the future at a lower price around

$70 will actually make money for the taxpayers, lower the price of gas, and help bolster production all while totally consistent with my commitment to accelerate the transition to clean energy. so my message to oil companies is this. you're sitting on record profits, and we're giving you more certainty, so you can act now to increase oil production now. the third thing i'm doing is i'm calling oil companies that pass the savings on to consumers. consider this, in the second quarter of this year, profits at six of the largest publicly traded oil companies were more than $70 billion. that's $70 billion in just one quarter, 90 days. 70 billion. so far american oil companies are using that windfall to buy

back their own stock passing that money on to their shareholders, not to consumers. in fact, in the first half of the year, those same companies spent $20 billion buying back their own stock and most importantly, buying back -- the most significant buyback in the last almost a decade. that's great if you own a lot of stock in oil company or if you're an executive in an oil company. it puts a lot of money in your pocket. that is how you get paid. but it's not the case for the vast majority of americans paying at the pump. here's another thing, when the cost of oil comes down, we should see the price of the gas station at the pump come down as well. that's how it's supposed to work. but that's not what's happening. in the past two weeks, the price of oil has fallen $4 a barrel, and thanks in large part to the steps we've taken this year, the price of oil has fallen nearly

$40 a barrel since mid-june. that's a 30% drop in the price of a barrel of oil. but guess what? gas prices haven't fallen that much, and it's not right. gas prices at the pump should be lower. in fact, if retailers and refiners were earning the average profit they've made over the last 17 years, americans would be paying at least $0.60 less per gallon for every gallon they buy. say that again, $0.60 less for every gallon they buy. that makes a big difference in the family. my message to the american energy companies is this. you should not be using your profits to buy back stock or for dividends, not now, not while a war is raging. you should be using these record breaking profits to increase production and refining. invest in america, for the american people. bring down the price you charge at the pump to reflect what you

pay for the product. you still make a significant profit. your shareholders will still do very well, and the american people will catch a break they deserve and get a fair price at the pump as well. one more thing i want to mention today, our country needs to pass reform to accelerate the development of clean energy. right now the process of getting clean energy projects approved is too cumbersome and too time consuming so i'm asking the congress pass a permitting bill to speed up the approval of all kinds of energy production from wind to solar to clean hydrogen because we need to get this moving now quickly, now. it would take, you know, if we do this, it would take clean energy investments that i signed into law and put them into

action. in fact, one independent analysis has already estimated that the $369 billion we're making in federal investments that will generate just that, will generate $1.7 trillion in total public and private investments in the years ahead. you can increase oil and gas production now while still moving full speed ahead to accelerate our transition to clean energy. that way we can lower energy costs for american families, enhance our national security at a very difficult moment. let me close with this. i know it's been a rough four or five years for the country. for a lot of families, things are still tough, the choices made by other countries are affecting the price of gas here at home. that's why i've been acting so aggressively. without the steps we've taken

over the past several months to ramp up production and lower prices and get relief to consumers, gas prices would be higher than they are today, and we'll keep doing everything we can to keep it going, to ensure that our energy independence and security is available and to lower gas prices here at home. and to give folks a little bit of breathing room. we just have to remember who we are. we're the united states of america, for god sake. there's not a single thing we can't do when we put our minds to it, and we can strengthen our energy security now and we can build clean energy economy for the future at the same time. it's totally within our capacity. totally within our capacity. gas prices are coming down, we're going to do everything we can to make sure they continue to come down and companies act responsibly so it's reflected at the pump. thank you all and may god bless you, may god protect our troops. thank you. >> mr. president, what is your response -- >> i don't hear, can you speak

louder? >> what is your response to republicans who say you are only doing this as pr release to help democrats in the midterms? >> where have they been the last four months? that's my response. >> is it politically motivated, sir, this move? >> no, it's not. >>midterms? >> it makes sense. i've been doing this for how long now? it's not politically motivated at all. it's motivated to make sure i continue to push on what i've been pushing on. that is making sure there's enough oil that's being pumped by the companies so that we haves ability to be able to produce enough gas that we need here at home, oil we need here at the same time, and at the same time keep moving in the direction of providing for alternative energy. that's what i've been doing. the problem is these guys are asleep. i don't know where they've been and they seem, you know, the price at the pump should reflect what the price of a barrel of oil costs, and it's not going

down consistently. >> martial law in part s of ukraine, what does that say to you sir about where his thinking is on the war in ukraine right now? >> i think that vladimir putin finds himself in an incredibly difficult position, and what it reflects to me is it seems his only tool available to him is to brutalize individual citizens in ukraine, ukrainian citizens to try to intimidate them into capitulating. they're not going to do that. thank you. >> sir, do you want to ban the export of u.s. petroleum products? >> the president there at the white house making his pitch, right, three weeks out from the

midterms. you heard it right there, economy, the number one issue for americans. the president is telling you here is what we're going to do about oil and gas prices in this country right about now. we know what's happened with saudi arabia. we know what has happened with opec plus, and here is the president's response to that for the american people. he has made a commitment to do everything in his power as he said to make sure gas prices remain low, and he mentioned, of course, some of the numbers that we've been seeing out there, gas prices down since last week as well. kind of going through a three-step process, take a look at my notes to make sure i get it right. first and foremost is the release of these 15 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve from the department of energy. number two is responsibly increasing oil production and providing incentive to oil companies to get on board with this saying this, listen, you increase oil production domestically, we'll buy that oil when we look 15, 20 years out and there's less of a need for that oil, especially as we're moving more towards efforts to

institute clean energy in our country, and then number three, asking oil companies to pass off their profits to the consumer, right? or their savings as he put it. talking about the profits that oil companies are making right now to pass those numbers off to the consumers, something that "politico" reported that we talked about a little bit earlier. want to bring in former press secretary under president obama and now an msnbc political analyst, robert gibbs. great to talk to you. the president making a major pitch, three weeks out from the midterms as i mentioned. one of the top issues for americans right now, the economy and specifically oil prices, the writing has been on the wall there, right? essentially since this decision came out from saudi arabia along with opec plus, and the president now saying here's what we're going to do about it. let me first get your reaction to what we just heard from the white house. >> well, obviously i think it's very smart policy to increase the amount of oil that's out there on the market. the increase in supply should, as the president talked about, drive down the cost of that oil

and drive down the cost of refining it into gasoline. we know that it takes gasoline to move products from and through the supply chain. so every part of transportation is really vital to our economy and driving down gas prices whether it's for consumers or businesses as they move their products should help alleviate the cost, the high cost of inflation. >> what do you make of this incentive the president is essentially pitching to oil companies across this country. we see this country is moving towards clean energy, 15 to 20 years out. the writing is on the wall for these oil companies that the need is not necessarily going to be there as it is right now. so you've got the president essentially saying, listen, let's increase domestic oil production, get on board with this plan, and we will buy it back, if you're selling it to us $70 a barrel.

>> yeah, i think it's also a smart policy. i mean, look, we know what happens to the price of oil during recessions because the demand for it goes down, which means the price of a barrel of oil goes down. if you're an oil company and you don't want to produce or drill for or, you know, capture that oil at that moment because let's say oil is $40 a barrel, then there's a disincentive for you to begin to do that. if the president and the administration describe a price floor that companies can get and are guaranteed to get, that should increase their incentive to not worry about the market going up and down, particularly if we were to find ourselves in a recession. >> tell me what's going on behind the scenes here, if you will, right? you then have the president saying to oil companies, pass on your profits to the consumer. we have heard this across the board for the last couple of months. you got customers paying $5 at times at the peak, right over

the summer, a gallon of gas. but you have oil companies making record profits in lock step with this, right? so behind the scenes, is the president having conversations with these oil companies to say you got to do something. you cannot continue to profit this way while the american people continue to suffer, and what would incentivize them to get on board with this plan? >> well, i'd imagine whether it's the president, the vice president or members of the cabinet that are having these discussions, i would absolutely believe that's the case. i mean, they've probably been having these discussions for a while, and i'm sure ramped those discussions up at the announcement of opec and opec plus changing their output numbers. so i think it's incredibly important that the president and his administration stay in touch with these business leaders. look, everybody wins if the economy continues to grow, if inflation comes down, and i

think that's what the president and the administration are trying to guide these companies to be good actors in doing. >> you know what the president did today, even in this pretty short speech, he kind of talked the american people through what has been done, what is actually happening, right? he even talked through some of the things he feels are misnomers that are out there about the process of gas prices ask oil prices. i'm wondering if you feel as if the administration is doing enough of that when it comes to inflation as well, right? we're continuing to see inflation go up over and over again, along with you got fed chair jerome powell increasing interest rates over and over again as well, and the market's just going crazy. is the administration doing enough to explain to the american people that you kind of have to be patient with a process like this. we're not necessarily going to see results from essentially these rate hikes, right, and lowering inflation in the immediate future. >> yeah, i think the administration is doing a good job at this.

look, it is hard to have a message of economic patience at a time in which prices are high. i do think it was important you heard him say here that he understands what's going on in the economy and he understands what the american people are going through. i think it's important that a leader that speaks about the economy speaks about it and lives in it in the world in which consumers are living in it. look, he'd love to wave a magic wand and be rid of this. the challenge that we see is countries all over the world are dealing with this, right? we know what's happening in great britain. we know what's happening throughout europe. we're seeing even higher inflation costs in those places because of supply chain constraints coming off of covid, ask then what's happened with ukraine. i think it's imperative that he keeps pushing this. he keeps having this discussion, and look, as politicians are on the ballot in three weeks, they've got to have this discussion with voters too. >> so what else needs to be

done, robert, right? because you're absolutely right. you see what's happening in the uk specifically their energy prices are insane right now, inflation is through the roof. they're having major uphill battles, especially when it comes to their leadership as well and what's happening there. but when you are an american at home and you're going to the grocery store and i say this every day and you're paying $200 for a family of four, you can't afford that every week, right? so what are they not doing. what should they be doing that you feel as if they are not doing. >> i don't know that there is a list of things. i doubt there's a list of things that they could be doing that they aren't in reality. i can't imagine that this isn't part of every day's worth of meetings at the white house, figuring out whether it's something that they can do through the strategic petroleum reserve like they did today or other things that help alleviate the costs of everyday products for everyday americans. again, it is one of those things

as i said, the economic message of patience is both a harder one to deliver and probably even a harder one to hear. but i think they're actively involved in this. look, it's why to your point, if you look at where we are versus europe, we're paying higher prices but less than they're paying. so look, i think some of what we're doing is working even through really the impacts of a pandemic and really through the impacts of, you know, somebody as crazy as putin doing what he's done in ukraine. i mean, we've talked about this for a while, right? we knew that he -- this incursion into -- invasion into ukraine was going to going to cause wheat prices to spike. what was that going to go to cloeble prices for food? we knew what was going to happen and we talked about it for a while. this really is something that is, that is having to be managed globally and i think they're doing the best job they can. >> robert gibbs, thanks for

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