do you buy it, amy walter?> i want to be on team joshua, but, but unfortunately, i get asked that question all of the time, what is going to break the fever? where do we go from here? historically what breaks it is something really devastating. we brought together by events that are so overwhelming and tragic whether it's a war, depression, something like. th that. i don't want that to to be the case for a unifying event that is so terrible, but right now, i don't see that one person is going to be able to rise up, heal all of the division and get us all on the same place. >> and eric, you have had to deal with the conspiracy theory os on your site, and sometimes people are mad at you thinking that you are helping to traffic the conspiracy theories, and i know that there are others -- but whose job to get rid of this stuff and purge this stuff and educate the americans to the facts? >> we all is have an obligation here. let me address conservativism for a minute. last week you had people pushing maybe this bomb

then we hear from political strategist james carville and mary matalin and political analyst amy walter with their take on the upcoming election. later, a debate for nebraska's 2nd congressional district seat and another in new york's 31st district -- 2 the 1st district u.s. house race. .. the reason that we are weary are today, is because of decisions that were made all the way back in 2002. after the florida presidential debacle, for the supreme court essentially decided the presidential outcome, the lawmakers in congress and senate wanted to get rid of the punchcard and where they thought the problem in the election. so the past station called the help america vote act, which was divine design to get rid of punchcard machines. they gave states $3.9 billion to upgrade election administration processes and procedures. also the voting machine. they couldn't use that money on punchcard machines. it really pushed states into buying electronic voting machines and many of the states, the majority of states at the time chose to move into paperless, what we called direct recording electronic

rally mo amy walter, take a>> listen.ut the democrats ladiesgentlemen, speaker nancy pelosi for the next three years. you have the haters and the to hate. they a foolish and very stupid people i can't call her pocahantas anymor think will anyway. doou mind? this moment with president trump,p, he seems to be strugglg with it. or maybe n >> this is the mode that he's been in since he was a candid politi never about nuance. it's a zero sum game when you are campaigning. it's u them. but when you become an elected offici and the united states, the campai supposed to stop for a while and you go into the mode of unifying this i president who's never been interested in unifying. he has been interested in keepinngaged and enrage and he's done an amazing. but at any moment he believes that it's still the middle of the the other thing i want to bring up just with all of this is, you know,look, our country has a y long hist division. who is an american? who's not? it to me the time we're in right now what i feel like is no one is ta

. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: tamara keith and amy walter break down the latestitical news.ou we continue r look at fall films with the dramatization of the 2011 norway terror attacks. and author casey gerald shares his humble opinion of the american dream. but first, sears, one of the legendary names of american retailing,iled for bankruptcy protection today. the company, which also owns k- mart, will continue operate as executives try to reverse a downward spiral. john yang has our story. >> yang: for generations, sears lived up to its one-time advertising slogan. >> sears is where america shops. >> yang: it was a symbol of american culture and consumerism, home to some of the countr s most iconic brand names. "craftsman" meant tools,"k more" meant appliances... and "die hard" meant car batteries. once the nation's largest hotailer, it was one-stop shopping for maneholds. >> why do i shop at sears? its easy f me i can pick up tennis balls, children's clothing, tourque wrenches, and a dish all in the same shop. >> yang: until the 1940s, sears even sold houses th

amy walter, tamera keith, thank you both. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: our fall films series continuesport on "22 july," about the events and aftermath of the deadliest attack in norway since world war two. jeffrey brown has our look. >> brown: july 22, 2011: 32- year-old norwegian anders breivik has set off a bomb at a government buildg in oslo and now, posing as a policeman, prepares an even more gruesome act. >> you hea about the bomb in the city? i've been sent to secure the island. where's the ferry? >> the ferry got cancelled. >> get it over here. i need it now. >> brown: the film a dramatization of a real-life horror story: a right-wing fanatic's massacre of young people gathered on an isernd for a summetreat. 77 were killed in the attacks, more than 200 wounded. tho left a nation shocked t its core, and the world wondering where it might lead next. >> this was attack on ourme governnt and on our children. we are a long way from understandinwhy. but what is clear is that our nation has been attacked by someone who would see it changed. >> brown: british dictor paul greengrass ti

but demographics alone don't explain the changing politics, according to amy walter of the cook politicalrt. >> what is helping a democrat in this kind of year is the fact that so many suburban, white, college-educated women really do not like donald trump. >> alcindor: the g.o.p. still has nearly 40,000 more registered voters than democrats. that means rouda will likely need to win over some moderate and disaffected republicans. >> it's great to see the huge blue wave here, thanks for coming out! >> alcindor: rouda himself isca a former repubturned- democrat, and he thinks voters turned off by president trump will back him. >> whether he's mocking journalists or women who have been sexually harassed, it's wrong. so it's certainly causing many people to rethink their support for republicans. a indor: but rohrabacher, and his supporters, are more determined than ever. an harley doesn't represent of the interests of these people. my people know me. and despite the fact my opponent is outspending me two or three to one, my people know who i am, and they know i'm on their side. >> our congres

what do you say to amy walters? this gives you where the president is visiting. it is strategic.r the senate and has given up on the house? >> i don't think so. there is a big focus on the senate and on key governor's races. that is why you see the president going to georgia and florida. in addition to the senate race in florida, we have important governor's races there. the president is hitting two or three places a day. he is focusing extensively on the house races in addition to helping senate candidates when they overlap. david: you have been very close to vice president pence. you were his press secretary. it does appear on the outside they are strategically deploying too many of the tougher district to campaign in. president trump going to the ones they are pretty sure they will win. e is president penc going to the tough ones. is goingresident pence to the smaller ones where you can get in and out more quickly. he did three stops in one day. three stops in florida later in the week. today, he is in michigan. he's going to alabama later this week. he will focus on the race

aplus, amy walter and tam keith on where things stand, two weeks from election day.first, the culture wars over gender, sexuality and identity may be heating up again. a story in the "new york times" says the trump administration is preparing to reverse obama-era policies on protecting transgender individuals.li as w brangham explains, the latest battle is over the very recognition of more thansg one million trder americans, and their rights to specific services. >> brangham: just to be clear, it was the obama administration that expanded rad loosened felaws about gender during obama's second term. that administration-- in response to changes ithe legal landscape and to the lived experiens of thousands of trans people-- began to recognize that a person's gender could be how ty self- identified, not just how they were born. that change, of course, led to big fights over school bathrooms and dormitories. ast president trump's team argued that those changes went too far,nd is now allegedly proposing a near-total reversal. the "new york times" obtained a draft memo that

nk you vry much, amy walter of ook political report," tamera keith, thank you both. >> naz: finally tonightffrey brown has the latest installment in our now read this book gro. >> brown: it's the roahetrip intopast about settling a continent and creating a nation and to the future of amrica's role in the world. "earning the rockies" has been our september book, and it's stirred quite a biof discussion and debate among readers.ka author roberan is here to answer some of the questions you sent in. welcome and thanks for participating. >> it's a great pleasure for me to be here, jeff.: >> brood. i want to go right to the first question because it helps set uy whu are after. >> okay. why did you choose to frame your argument in terms of the form of memoir of a road trip? >> memoir, policy -- i've never done a book likeut my fatr who inspired me to travel because he spent theli '30s tra in 43 of the lower 48 states. the second chapter is about great forgotten american writer bernard devoto who traveled all ove country, wrote all about the settling of the we but though he was ast, continentalist,

judge amy walters -- amy barrett. >> i think would have been better choices, and they're very conservative, by the way. i don't know why they fought and died on this hill. i don't know. >>> kaylee, as we're, kayleigh, sophia brings up a point. do you think that brett kavanaugh for the good of the supreme court and the country in general would have been better, had that nomination been withdrawn, whether he did it himself or the president did it, and you had gone with something like pore candidates, both of whom were vetted, names were out there for quite some time, even as the president was taking office. those were put forward by don mcgahn. >> justify kavanaugh has exposed the democrats that they will go to no length to stop them from trying to smear a man and stop a nomination. that has become clear. what i will tell you is the women merring right now, there are a lot of women out there, myself included, and i below evident a majority, who do not stand with the women at the women's march, who call susan collins a rape sympathizer, because she pointed out facts. she's not a sympathizer,

and someone who needs no introduction, the great amy walter, national editor of the cook political report. amy, let's get started. i will put you in the hot seat. just try to explain the lay of the land of what has been going on. ago,ally seemed six weeks we all just sort of hotly democratic wave is building. they are going to win a huge amount of house seats. stay even or pick up a seat or two in the senate. it feels like something dispersed that wave. choose your metaphor, people. give us the lay of the land. amy: i think the best way to think about where we are today is that we are having elections in two different americas. there is an america where trump is really popular, and a lot of those states are where the senate battlegrounds are taking place. control of the senate runs through places like indiana and missouri and north dakota and virginia. all of those i held by democrats, and they have to hold onto all of those. even the places where they need to pick up seats if they want to either gain or in this case i think the best case scenario is mean,publicans -- i democrats not to l

amy walter who is a national editor for the political report in the take away, on wnyc. listen, it's been a week. i think -- i can't think of two people who could understand more how to disagree and live civilly together so i guess i'm just. [laughter] you have any thoughts about this state of our political discourse and whether it will have an effect on -- >> start, come back and look at this era. november, early december of 2000, bush gotten back you dow, wrote a memo. he to memo, elections are no longer one between voters in the middle, they are one by turning out your own borders. he's a good guy and he was the weather man. he was telling you what the weather is outside. i became, after the 2000 election, proud of that for keeping doctor in the politics, you had to go to get you nomination for newer inspect toward the center. everybody decided it was no value in the senate. racism now wanted -- you look at the outrace of 92, my mind all of the time, somebody in ohio or florida or new mexico met if voted for reagan but voted for john kennedy -- those were the price po

turning point usa, a nonprofit group for prepolicies and limited government and no introduction, amy walter, the national editor of "cook political report." >> amy, let's get started. i want to know, i will put you in the hot seat, just try to explain the lay of the land of what has been going on. it really seemed like six weeks ago, we all just sort of thought, the democratic wave is building, they're going to win a huge amount of house seats, and you know, stay even or maybe pick up a site seat or two in the senate. it feels like something just burst that wave, maybe it is a smaller wave, maybe it is a tornado, choose your metaphor people, give us the lay of the land. >> you know, paul, i think the best way to think about where we are today is that we're having elections in two different americas. there's an america where trump is really popular. and a lot of those states are states where the senate battleground is taking place, where the control of the senate runs through places like indiana, and missouri, and north dakota, and west virginia, all of those of course are held by democrats

amy walters was talking about that house race where barbara comstock is trading.emocratic challenger. since setting aside the senate for a moment, i'm curious what you think about the galvanizing for democrats and the numbers of new registered voters are really big. i don't think the republicans are at the advantage there. >> that's exactly right. i think most pollsteres are missing that. this is a registered voter election not a likely voter election when you look at the polls. this looks like 2012 to me where a lot of pollsteres miss that because democrats are registers so many more women, so many voters of color. they're not on anyone's list. they're not being polled by anybody. but boy did they turn out in 2012. this is gonna look more like a presidential election than a midterm election. i'll remind josh, more voters than ever are women. not left, not right, not center. there are more women voters than anyone else. >> dana: are you concerned republicans are behind on new voter registration? >> no, no, absolutely. >> dana: the numbers were astounding to me. 13

amy walter, and marc thiessen.s. >> i know we are weeks away from the most important election in the history of the republic but it's shocking how people on the left have gone to blaming donald trump for this. philippe rein said, this is on it you with every fiber of your rotten being. the idea that donald trump is responsible for these attacks is patently absurd, any more so by the way than the fact that hillary clinton was responsible for the shooting of steve scalise. if you recall, the shooter and the steve scalise case he tweeted out that, the republicans are traitors, the republicans are the television. he compared republicans to the tell van, compared donald trump to the, said republicans were the enemies she was most proud of the next to the iranians. that rhetoric does not mean she is responsible for political violence, and the problem we have in this country is that there is hatred and vitriol in our politics coming from both sides. and it none of these politicians are responsible for the acts of a crazy

josh crush hour, political editor for the national journal, amy walter, nash monitored her for the cookand mollie hemingway, senior editor at the federalist. so what does that do? it was a surreal moment on tv, we hadn't seen anything like that in the oval office. what do you think it does for president trump, or the election in any way? >> it certainly was a surreal moment. president trump loves celebrity. he loved the beach boys and had another celebrity in the white house today but it reminded me that it could be a lost opportunity for president trump. if you focused on the criminal justice reform which was why connie west was at the white house and the first place, that could have been an opportunity early on in his presidency to expand his coalition and went over some african-americans to the trump side. it was an amazing moment where we had one of the most famous african-american celebrities hugging president trump, but it feels like it's late in the game for that and it doesn't feel like this came at the right time for this president. there are certainly some opportunities as we

. >> let me bring up amy walter. sort of channelled her column that i wanted to use to get you guys talking. she noted the difference between or the similarities to 2016 and she writes the clinton camwiign le a message that emphasized her stability and his, meaning trump's, lack of judgment and desscency. this year they're leading to tweets and leading to the capable tv panel let me put up the issue numbers. these are the gaps on the generic ballot among those who say the economy is number one. republicans haveoi 28 advantage. among those that say immigration is their top issue, they have a 19% advantage. those on the republican side. look at this advantage for who care among those about health care which is with the economy one of the topwo issues and it's a 47% advantage. >> and that's what -- that's why democrats are going to keep talking about health care and pre-existing conditions. you're going to hear that phrase until 's ringing in your ears. there still could be a blue wave or might not be any wave at all. t

amy walters with charlie cook put it in more realistic terms a way that is 35 seats or more someme of us were in that timeframe during watergate going back to two great wave elections and that the republicans lost 97 seats almost one quarter of congress but then in 20 democrats lost 59 seats. if democrats need 23 seats will they get 2 25, 27 nobody's predicting much more than that right now sdr after the court packing attempt law 70 and 38 and truman and 46 lost 54 and control over in 30 lost 53 seats and control fdr in the first year of world war ii lost 50 seats lbj 66 lost 48 and in the first midterm of the nixon lost 48 we will not see a wave of that magnitude the look at those 13 nonpresidential elections this is the most important statistic to come out any time the president's job approval is below 50 percent to the party has lost an average of 40 seats lbj ford was at 47 lost 48 event ronald reagan sitting at 40 percent or lost 26 seats bush down at 39 percent obama was at losing 36 seats and 42 percent four years later trump is probably sitting at 43 percent approval right now

. >> let me put up something amy walter wrote, my friend at the cook political report. this battle isn't unique to the trump era. simply the latest in a never ending war by both sides to justice their partisan behavior. voters aren't making distinctions on policy or procedure or hypocrisy either, they rally behind their team and rally for war in the future. essentially the body politic left and right has actually embraced the trump style of politics. >> i think that's absolutely true. you saw that when you saw lisa murkowski go to the floor after she voted no and there was nobody hardly in the chamber watching her and nobody to applaud her. she was the one who took the stand and said we need to be viewing this differently. there aren't many republicans who are doing that anymore. even those giving lip service to civility, ben sasse, jeff flake, first of all, what will they actually do? will they run against the president? seconds of all, will there be any voters constituency behind that. i'm not convinced. people have embraced this president from top to bottom. i think

amy walter is a is the national editor of the cook political report and host of the take away on wnyc and a political contributor at pbs "newshour." so listen it's been a week and i think, can't think of two people who could understand more how to disagree and live civilly together pics i guess i'm just -- [inaudible] do you to have any thoughts about kind of the state of our political discourse and whether left any impact on next weeks election? >> i think what happened is, the story, november, early december 2000 bush got -- wrote a memo. in the memo matthews said elections are no longer one with swing voters in the middle. they are one by turning out your own voters. and he's a good guy and he was the weatherman turkey was just telling you what the weather was outside. that became, after the 2000 election, .2 that strategic doctrine in politics was that u.s. four to the left with a retro to go to get your nomination and you is inch back toward the center, a kinder, gentler, different kind of democrat you would always be here that kind of thing. but then everybody decided that there

matalin, distinguished professor at honors college of louisiana state and republican strategist and amy walter, the national editor of the "cook political report" and host of "the takeaway" on wnyc and a political contributor at pbs news hour. listen, it's been a week. and i think -- can't think of two people who could understand more how to disagree and live civilly together. so, i guess thyi'm just wondering -- >> you haven't been to our house. >> do you have any thoughts about the state of our political discourse and whether it will have any effect on next week's election? >> i think what happened is, the story that's come back and look at this era, they'll find out november, early december of 2000, a bush guy by the name of matthew dowd wrote a memo and in the memo, matthew said, elections are no longer won with swing voters in the middle. they're won by turning out your own voters. and he's a good guy, and he was the weatherman. he was just telling you what the weather was outside. and that became -- after the 2000 election, prior to that, strategic doctrine in the united states politics

let me bring up amy walter, because you channeled her column that i wanted to use to get you guys talking. she noted the differences or similarities to 2016 and she writes, the clinton campaign led with a message that emphasized her stability and his lack of judgment and decency. that didn't work out so well, so this year they're leaving the debates to the cable tv panels. so these are the gaps between, on the generic ballot, between those who say the economy is number one, republicans have a 28-point advantage in the generic battle. among those, immigration is your top issue. you have a 19% advantage. those on the republican side. but look at this advantage for democrats among those who care about health care, which is, with the economy, one of the top two issues, and it's a 47% advantage. >> and that's what -- that's why democrats are going to keep talking about health care and pre-existing conditions, you're going to hear that phrase, until it's ringing in your ears. you know, there still could be a blue wave. or there might not be any wave at all. the only thing that feels like 2016 t

then we hear from political strategist james carville and mary matalin and political analyst amy walterh their take on the upcoming election. later, a debate for nebraska's 2nd congressional district seat and another in new york's 31st district -- 2 the 1st district u.s. house race. ..

benefit of senate candidates and house candidates i would say on election night but i agree with what amy walter was saying on election night republicans will not know who has the majority in the house. >> i think we will know by 9:00. [applause] . >> we are out of time. thank you very much. [applause] . >> [inaudible conversations] . >> npr news minnesota has eight seats and at least four of them are competitive this year. one of those is in the first district of southern minnesota because the representative is running for the governor including several good-sized cities manchester mankato and worthington. let's meet the candidates on the republican side to 112600 votes short of winning prior the first time he is working for the treasury department the other candidate is t9 men working in the defense department during the obama administration thank you very much, much to be here

joining us now, amy walter and can steve kornacki. new book is "the red and the blue, the 1990s and the" -- >> it is so good. holy cow. >> we're just going to clip that and put it on the back of the paper back. >> the new blushes, yes. >> just some noises of approval. >> let's look at tennessee. we mentioned that, the tennessee senate poll. marsha blackburn is in a statistical tie with phil bre s bredesen. i mentioned there was a "new york times" poll that had 14 points for blackburn. what is going on in tennessee? >> the time length for that particular poll is a little long. we've seen four polls now this month in tennessee. it's been blackburn by four, blackburn by 8, blackburn by 14 and now blackburn by 3. we can say i think that over the summer what we were typically seeing in this race was bredesen's popularity. kavanaugh, maybe that was the event. maybe it was inevitable. but since around the start of this month, we have seen a trend towards what you call political uncertainty reasserting itself. >> this was never a 14-point rac

amy walters, with charlie cook with credit to mat cone, put it in more realistic terms that a wave election is 35 or more seats, and the party wins the competitive seats by a large margin. to give you historical context, and some of us were in the public arena back percent watergate years and even earlier david. i don't go quite back to the two great wave elections that were presidential waves. fdr following hoover in '32, the republicans lost 97 seats, almost a quarter of the congress. and then harding after wilson in '20, the democrats lost 59 seats. the midterm elections now we're talking about the democrats need 23 seats, will they get 25-27, 30? i don't think anyone's predicting much more than that right now. harding in '22 lost 76 seats, fdr, after the court packing attempt lost 70 seats in '38, and control. obama in '10 lost 63 seats and control. truman in '46 lost 54 in control. clinton in '94 lost 94 seats and control. hoover in '50 lost # p3 seats. fdr in the first year of world war ii, in '42, lost 50 seats. lbj in '66 lost a48 cease, and ford in '674, his first midterm would hav

. >> sam stein, amy walter was on ""meet the press" this morning and she made the point nobody is steppingnges in rhetoric. not the president, not republicans, not democrats. at the end of the day, how does this get fixed? >> i know. i've been really struck by sort of the complete and utter absence among anybody to be honest in the wake of these tragedies. you know, yes, the media has its problems. i think that's a fair assumption, a fair statement to make. we can go through them. one of them is sensational and the devotion to conflict and we can be better about that. that's something we as people in the press core should recognize. at the same time, the elected officials who are elected to solve our country's problems have exhibited virtually nothing about this. i was struck by a tweet from john cothis morning, managed to find an old story from a week ago from the quoted nancy pelosi talking about confrontation. i don't know how he found that story. it was a week-old tweet. the purpose was clear. in this moment, creating equivalent is not productive. we had the tragedy, how do we get beyo

walter december mon. high scho he was arrested and today he went before a judge. amycho is live to explain what happened today. amy? >> reporter: the judge called him a danger to the community andt prosecutors t they're worried he could want revengepen thle reported him to police. this is 18-year-old luis cabrera, accused of threatening to shoot up his old high school after he learned he wouldn't be graduating because he missed too ma classes. he won't snap chat saying school shooter, i hate wj and ha ha, i'm going to shoot up the school. >> the people to whom he sent the threat need to be protected. >> who ows, what weay m stop here, is what the judge said in >> reporter: they didn't expect him to be violent. >> did it surprise me that anyone in the wj community would do something likethis. >> reporter: when police arrested him last week, he had two loaded rifles and extra dloom and police think he may have had access to even more guns. >> it is what could have curred. >> reporter: if convicted, he faces up to a decade in prison. >>> a manassas ninth grar under arres

. >> amy walters a national editor and is well known to all of us for columns and insights into the nationsmedia. i have an evening cocktail with her every monday. >> thank you for being here. we will ask amy to start off with her views about this issue from a national perspective. unfortunately, she has a plane to catch so she will make comments and then she has to duck out. amy it's all yours. >> thank you to everyone who is here and all the panelist, this is impressive. i don't know of anybody who can tell us in greater depth and detail, not just about how redistricting works without politics and i will works. we've got it all figured out. we guys give us the answer to the 2020 caucus, what's going to happen? we will get that all figured out. okay. good. i thought what i would do is try to pull us up to an even higher view, a 30,000 foot view , especially since i can't possibly compete to the detail and level of knowledge that the folks on the panel have. i'm going to start where david started among political types and voters, we've seen more polarized than ever where legislative bodies