nbc bay area political analyst larry gerston joins us with his thoughts. there's so much to cover, but what's the significance if you can boil it down of these events? >> let's start with the economy, absolutely, the economy, 3.7% unemployment. it's quite an accomplishment for the president. no doubt about it. but it's a political fact of life, kira, that presidents take credit when the economy is good. >> right. >> they get blamed when the economy tanks, even though they have little control in either case for that matter. so the conditions here for the current economic recovery, they were put in place by the obama administration during the great recession, and the economy, fair enough, continues to hum to this day. president trump has seized this moment as his, and you know what? he has been wise to do so. >> indeed. let's turn to the kavanaugh confirmation which was surrounded by controversy because of the allegations of sexual misconduct and judge kavanaugh's own behavior during the hearing. what do we make of that? >> here we see another victory for pr

larry gerston is here this morning. the kavanaugh confirmation more controversial than really anything in recent history, particularly neil gorsuch. that was a breeze comparatively. >> yes and a couple of factors to decide here. first, kavanaugh himself had to deal with the sexual abuse scandal, all the allegations, scott, and really, an issue that didn't arise with gorsuch. that dispute held up his confirmation for at least two weeks, and it really is also one not likely to go away in the very near future. in fact, post-confirmation polls about this whole thing show that a majority of the public opposes still kavanaugh's selection. there's another reason, scott, an important reason. gorsuch a conservative replaced another conservative, antonin scalia which left the court's balance between liberals and conservatives intact. conservative kaf in a replaced anthony kennedy who was a conservative but sided with the lib roll block about 15% of the time. that might not seem like much, but kennedy was the deciding vote on a wo

larry gerston joins us now. >> it's a mess. everybody has a different story. but president trump has taken his own unique position. it didn't happen here. it's not our deal. remember, the president said, we sold them $110 million of arms. do we want to be worried about this? it's a problem for them. >> since it is with turkey and involves saudi arabia, should we even be going into this? why are we putting ourselves in the middle of what could be a problematic international situation? >> that's a question because it really gets to this issue of moral leadership. since world war ii the united states has taken the lead in dealing with countries that are harsh, dictators hurting their people, speaking out -- maybe not necessarily sending troops there but at least speaking out and saying is this the way you want to run things? we're about democracy and taking care of our people. the country is not perfect but it's taken that kind of tone. you have the president embarking on his own course. think of what happened with vladimir putin. 17 agencies say he interfered in

we have nbc bay area political analyst larry gerston here to explain, okay, this is interesting.televised debates for u.s. senate nor for governor this year. how could that be? >> it's fascinating, isn't it? >> it is. >> but it's very serious. here we are, kira, the most populated state in the nation with the fifth largest economy in the world, and somehow no organized televised debates for either the u.s. senate or governor. the newsom and feinstein team bear the largest responsibility for this absence, in as much as front-runners, they potentially had the most to lose, but on a larger level, voters really have lost the most. >> what is it about televised debates that make them so important. we've covered them, sponsored them, aired them. what is it about them? >> we start with the fact that california is really much too big for statewide candidates to stump house to house in what we call retail campaigning. the best we can do is show, as you said, televised debates, where the two major candidates discuss the issues. now we watch their body language, observe their temperament, l

nbc bay area's political analyst larry gerston joins us to explain this contradiction.ou have to ask yourself why are we seeing elected officials trying to suppress the vote? >> good question. very simple rule, marcus, when it comes to voting. the easier it is to vote, the more likely that larger numbers of people will participate. the harder it is to vote, it follows that fewer people participate. with respect to voter suppression, officials in some states may shorten early voting period, require strict identification, or provide fewer election sites in certain parts of the state, but nothing, nothing is easier than finding ways to remove voters from the voter rolls, those removed tend to fall into three categories, college students who no longer live at home, older citizen answand most of people of color who may not be aware because of their economic position or lack of education. the result to be an electorate not only much different than otherwise but an electorate more friendly to those in power. >> so we see this voter suppression, is it pretty common or really ho

larry gerston said the president's threats will play well with his supporters but won't help the situation. >> the fact is these governments are totally dysfunctional. gangs are running the country. the fact is, at least fear, is that the president cuts back this federal aid. >> they gave legal help like those a caravan seeking asylum in april. she said there will be another fight to say. >> there is a hot journey ahead for that group. they are about 1,100 miles from the texas border. >> in just a few hours, there will be more news about the journalist. it is what he called the naked truth before parliament tomorrow. this comes as gena has pelt is on her way to turkey to investigate the death of jamal khashoggi. turkey also released security showing a man walking around in his clothes and glasses after he was presumably dead. saudi leaders are denying a hit on khashoggi. instead claiming he died. >>> and this man said the weed killer made him sick. the judge cut the punitive jury award to $39 million. the same attempt jury awarded for other damages for a total of $78 million. >>> on the is

. >> reporter: political analyst larry gerston says there is a lot of speculation on what affect this confirmation will have in november. >> if we see lots of republican areas turn out in greater numbers or democratic, that will tell us where the enthusiasm lies. >> reporter: cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >>> now in california, the race generating heat is the one for governor. gubernatorial candidates gavin newsom and john cox squared off in san francisco today, but it wasn't your typical forum. they took each other on over the radio. >> well, you know, criminals don't care about gun control. they'll break the law. that's why they're criminals. >> but those same families, john, have the right to go and drop their kids off at school without worrying. >> i agree. >> the hour-long debate focused on policy and mostly avoided personal attacks. today debate i primary. it's also likely to be the last before the upcoming midterm elections. a san francisco republican group was targeted at a street fair. e log cabin republicans say a man poured red juice all over their table at the castro str

. >> our political analyst, larry gerston joins us now. republicans are energized. democrats are angry. what goes on these next four weeks? >> we may know a lot before november 6th. that's because nine states have already started voting early. california's first day was today. ohio and indiana tomorrow. arizona later this week. what's going to happen, pollsters are going to be seeing where these people come from, not necessarily what they do. this is a republican area, this is a democratic area, and by doing that, they're going to get an idea as to which groups if any, are surging. we know it's turnout. it may not be low turnout this year. >> typically, if there's not a presidential election you get a lot less people. can the momentum that each group has yield any results in the midterms? >> this has been, the last few weeks, like a whipsaw. for the longest time, the democrats had an edge in the enthusiasm factor. they were 20% more likely to go out and vote. that's a big jump. the republicans came roaring back to within 2%. now the question is, do republicans maint