. >> i want to bring in maria teresa kumar, and mark mckinnon. ome have pointed out, there's nothing to expunge if you have been acquitted, which trump was, plus you've got multiple republican centrists making it clear today they don't support this, a vote could hurt them back home in their swing states. so, what is the point of this, marÍa? >> i think he is just trying to kick the can down the road. he doesn't want to be beholden to the extreme right of the republican party. and so, he is hoping that he will wait it out. he recognizes, though, that he does have a very thin margin in congress, and so we need to protect those republicans as best he can. but let's -- i mean, we have mccarthy on tape before he made these really ambitious votes, anti-impeachment, thinking that trump wasn't guilty. so, what we have is a duplicitous speaker trying to do anything that he can to retain the minimal power that he has, alicia. >> mark, it's so striking to me that the reporting that this move came as a way of getting out from under trump's pressure to issue a

joining me now is maria teresa kumar, president and ceo of -- an msnbc contributor.mer deputy director of african american outreach for obama's campaign in 2008, and fernanda mahdi who is back with us well. all right, teresa, let's just ask that question does mainstream feel-good then since biden is asking folks essentially to say, hey, you feel good, right? >> i think what we are seeing is an incredible civilization coming out of a pandemic. and the recession that people kept promising, it just hasn't happened. if anything we are seeing wages stabilize, we even see red states stabilize. and eventually, planted this is where most people are getting sick and this is where most people are saying, hey, the economy is not great. eventually we are also gonna see the prices of, food of, milk affects, also come down. so i think what biden is doing is that he's preparing the narrative for next, year he is preparing the groundwork because we have to give it to him, richard, he has been the best president in terms of delivering that we have had a recent history. just one of th

joining me is maria teresa kumar, stuart stevens, senior adviser for the lincoln project, and robert jones, president of the public religion institute and author of the upcoming book, the hidden roots of white supremacy. i want to start with you because the thing i really can't understand, i do want to ask all of you about this, but i want to start with you because you're my numbers guy, is that abortion is not even a close call issue in terms of whether people think it should be legal or illegal. and that includes most american christians, right? i mean, talk me down on that if i'm wrong. i don't think there is a majority that's bigger than maybe 15% of people who want for instance a national abortion ban. >> joy, that's exactly right. you talk about reading the room. they might want to read some polls, both nationally and in iowa. again, 6 in 10 iowans support the legality of abortion. it's two-thirds of americans that support the legality of abortion. if you look at iowa, let's be clear, this is a near total ban on -- very few exceptions. we ask people even in iowa, we think of th

joining me now to discuss is maria teresa kumar or the president and ceo of voto latino.st of the show. msnbc contributor and former public and consider joel should illinois. he's also here. irregular on the program. maria teresa, as i discussed with the congresswoman. encounters at the border are at their lowest in two years. so the question really, as why henry seemed such an escalation from governor abbott right now. >> we are in the eve of the 2024 election. what the republicans have decided it is that they want to make that a national referendum on our own humanity when it comes to treating these individuals. simone we have to remind ourselves many of them are asylum seekers. once you cross the border you can rightfully ask with having international on side you can ask for asylum. it's up to the judiciary committee to decide whether or not this is true. greg abbott has decided that the fastest way for the republicans to gain the white house is through unfortunately demonizing already marginalized individuals. >> congressman along, those lines republicans are constant

maria teresa kumar is with us and brandon buck.starting with the politics here, the senate map is brutal for democrats in 2024. why is that? and what is behind the strategy of speak abortion rights early and often? >> reporter: it is a brutal map because you look at some of the places where they're playing defense on seats. there is such a slim majority in the senate. playing defense is the key to protecting that. you're looking at states like montana, west virginia, all of these are places that tilt red and it is going to be incumbent on the people who are incumbents there to be able to maintain those seats. but abortion becomes a big issue when you look at states like arizona, nevada, wisconsin, all of those are things that the head of the democratic senate campaign arm gary peters told me this is going to be a central issue at play there, in part because of the enthusiasm that we watched democrats be able to leverage in the first election post roe. for those of us covering politics, for republicans it has been a promise of toppl