brendan buck, if abortion is at the top of mind in a political campaign, is this good or bad for thety in 2022? >> absolutely bad. there has been this -- we have taken for granted a number of years now that abortion politics animates republicans and it's good for republicans. i just don't know that that holds true anymore. look at the kavanaugh fought. we lost in the midterms, lost in the house. look at 2020. donald trump nominated three supreme court justices. he lost. i don't know that we can assume that republicans are going to get animated in the way that democrats are. you are seeing incredible energy among democrats coming out saying that they're upset. i don't know that this is going to be a conversation that any republicans want to have. in evidence of that, do you see any republicans talking about this right now? >> i had formers on to talk about it for a reason. >> no one is celebrating on the right. it's an uncomfortable conversation that they don't want to have. and i think democrats are eager to take advantage of that. >> one thing i want to add, if you talk to the leade

contributing columnist, matt bai, sw betsy woodruff swan of politico and republican strategist brendan buck. >>> el come to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> announcer: this is plets with chuck todd. >>> a good sunday morning. the u.s. enters this labor day weekend suffering from two viruses, covid and polarization. it is not and exaggeration to say we are more divided than at any time. perhaps 1960s and frankly, maybe since the civil war as one of our guests today put it, we used to be divided over issues like abortion and guns, we're used to those divisions. we're still divided on those issues. now we can't even degree on covid or january 6th. covid has become an mri of america's soul. who would imagine that masks, wearing or refusing them, would become such a political statement. this morning we'll take a look at how and why we're so divided primarily through the lens of two issues. one is covid where the seven-day average of infections has risen to more than 161,000 driven by vaccine hesitancy and refusal. the other is abortion, the supreme court letting stand, at least for now, the res

. >> peter baker and, of course, donna and brendan buck, thanks to all of you. >>> coming up, what couldcongressional fix for republican rollbacks and voting rights across the nation. is it at stake in one last bipartisan push in the senate. the latest compromise coming from moderate joe manchin and proposal expanding voter access make election day a public holiday. but key senate republican moderates have already come out against the proposal saying it is federal overreach and mitch mcconnell is shutting it down. democrats right now are short of a filibuster proof majority. joining me now one of the senators co-sponsoring the new compromise angus king of maine. is this the last gasp and what do you do with mitch mcconnell saying flatly, no. >> i think we continue to have to try to talk to some of the republican senators who might talk to reason on this. this is a moderate bill and a bill designed to basically protect americans right to vote. it is absolutely clear that congress has the authority to take this action. section 1 article 1, section 4 the constitution expressly says that the

moderator of "washington week" on pbs, washington post contributor matt bai, republican strategist brendan buckwoodruff swan. brendan being the only happy college football fan at the table this morning. congratulations to your bulldogs there. i want to start with joe biden and where things stand in the democratic party. yamiche, you cover the white house very closely. i want to put up his poll ratings, 43, 44, 46. we had him at 49. two weeks ago it was clear he was still going down. he hadn't hit bottom. perhaps this is bottom here. does the white house think they have an afghanistan problem or covid problem? >> i'll say this. these numbers underscore a real fact which is that presidents try to create agendas, but real life events and circumstances actually define their agendas. here you had a president who took such fierce criticism over his withdrawal from afghanistan, plus the idea that he declared independence of the virus or something close to it, talking about the idea of a return to normalcy on july 4th only to have americans say we have to put our masks back on, we have to see children