that's an american ideal. >> lisa, you worked at the nrcc.lican nrcc, or -- senatorial commit if i they're looking at this race? >> you look at majority of americans, you look at poll after poll with senator ted cruz on this issue, yeah, they're probably going to agree more. what i find frustrating is that president trump actually has done a lot on the issue of criminal justice reform. if these players were to choose to take this off the field where they're working in the private sector, for their business, i don't think they have the right to the protest on the clock, while they're working. but if they were to take this off the field there would be areas of compromise with president trump on criminal justice reform. i find that ironic if they took it off the field and had a conversation with them. it would produce something positive. >> harris: an interesting point. the president touched and weighed in heavily on prison reform many times of the we think back just recently, oh yesterday, when he and jeff sessions actually were going back and

president trump, vice president pence, governor kasich, the nrcc and others all pitched in to help.arly voters were energized. and, you know, we are in the business of winning seats, period. we have won 869 special elections this cycle more than we have i will congratulate meredith on dccc on. they don't get a lot of votes on congress. i am yet to see any big results. >> dana: meredith, respond to that i'm curious how you answer. obviously democrats have done better. the turnout in the "the washington post" surge by the end of june 13.6 million votes have been cast in democratic primaries compared with 10.4 million in republican primaries. so, since 2014, the last midterm the republican turnout 24%. democratic turnout had surged by 84%. that trend appeared to continue on tuesday in kansas and fitch began. to matt's point if republicans can point to winning 8 of 9 of these elections, how do you respond to the democrats' chances then you? think you are confident of taking back the house in november. do results show that as a sure thing. >> sure. i have three main reasons that matt and

when you account for that, the nrcc is just about keeping pace with them if not even outpacing them.hen you aggregate everything together, republicans are doing quite well. we know how to save our money and spend it that's why we are solving at the rnc and nrcc. >> harris: kobach slid in your thoughts. >> he slid in and did it with the support of the president. nearly every poll had him losing to the incumbent. he won because of the endorsement. >> it means everything these days. >> harris: kayleigh mac any, i wanted to talk about the numbers because we are starting to get them. 83 days until the midterm election today. good to see you, thank you. >> good to see you, too. >> harris: another fox news alert now. closing arguments underway in paul manafort's tax fraud and tax evasion trial. the prosecution wrapped up a short time ago. the defense will be upcoming next. a lunchtime recess is what we are in right now. the jury could begin deliberating as early as the end of the day as well. catherine herridge live outside the courthouse in alexandria a virginia with the very latest, cathe

i got called to the carpet by the nrcc. they said that never happened.alendar, the date, the time and the room. and ever since then they've shut up about it. but that is whoever wins this race tonight is going to be looking at a serious fund-raising hole. lawrence, one thing to watch in the morning is this. what does the donald trump wing of the party -- actually it is the party, the 90% that is donald trump republicans. what do they say about this? because the republican candidate in ohio, though he has notionally embraced donald trump, he has not gone full make america great again. i actually think you're going to see the president and his minions say the reason this was so close is because our candidate in ohio was not donald trump enough. and they're going to lay the blame on the candidate in ohio for underperforming. they're going to say if he was closer to donald trump he would have done better tonight. >> and cornell belcher, we have a report from governor kasich, republican governor of ohio, who said that the republican candidate troy balderson d

i can say for a fact that the nrcc, the national republican congressional committee, they have specificallyitment efforts to recruit solid candidates like we see in minnesota and across the country. they have one-third more women running for office than they did back in 2016, because they do see this can be a critical year. unfortunately, the president's approval ratings amongst women in the cnn poll this week, women view approval about 35% and disapprove by two-thirds of that. so that's the challenge. the challenge is to stand by the policies. if you have to, if the president is not popular in those districts, then you have to separate yourself. >> just really quickly, the challenge also with women, college-educated women and women in suburbs, is going to be turnout and who is going to go where. what we saw in ohio 12, in that district, which was solidly republican, that the president won, you saw -- it became a lot closer than it should have been. is that potentially because more democratic women are inspired to come out and vote against trump or what they see as the incivility in politic

republican congressman -- tweeting congressman of ohio has done a fantastic job as chairman of the nrccgressman tough on crime and borders, an inspiration to our military and vets. big on second amendment. get out an vote for steve on august 7th. he has my full total endorsement. tonight, the president will be in pennsylvania for a make america great again rally. switching gears, everyone. permian basin in midland, texas, the most important oil field in the world. experiencing such incredible massive growth, you know what? it can't keep up with all the demand that comes with it. what are they doing? very own connell mcshane is live in midland, texas with more. fill us in. reporter: this is fascinating. read about the boom going on in the permian, we learned a lot about it. you are right about the challenge. they are pumping up so much oil out of here no way to keep up with the pipeline demand. they say it will be 12 to 18 months to catch up. look at pipeline or any machinery in the oil business, a lot of steel a lot of japanese steel behind me. the president's tariffs added a further ch

nrcc chairman steve. where's steve? steve, thank you. and i called you, steve, the other night.ou weren't there. thank you, steve. great job. you're doing a great job. and they're doing great in ohio. and anthony gonzalez, a very big thank you, anthony. thank you. and a very big congratulations to troy on his win. whoa. [cheers and applause] troy? here's where is troy? thank you, troy. you would have made me look bad if you hadn't pulled that out. they had that group. with ell you, i was there jim. jim if they don't win this thing. as soon as you won they started packing up and leaving. they didn't want to talk about it. but i understand you're in great shape. they spent a lot of money against troy. i want to thank a man who really is a fantastic person with an incredible wife, even greater than him but these are minor details. but senator rob portman who really is a very special, very special person. i've gotten to know him. first i didn't know him. i came to ohio. i knew of him, i respected him, by name only. but we got to be friendly and he has been a tremendous help in the s

you can see the nrcc has been outraised by the dccc by $50 million.ey. house republicans are beginning to do a lot of tryiage on these seats. they have a 23 seat majority. there's 45 members in danger. they want to save as many as possible. and i think the main reason are those investigations. i would correct you on one thing. that is i don't think that the president is all that comfortable with keeping the senate. because just today he went to twit tore say that he was doing to go campaign for ted cruz in the largest stadium that he can find. >> and ted cruz is in a battle. >> he is. >> neil: the latest single poll shows a one-point gap. so it's not a give me. i didn't want to present as that. so phil, let me ask you, is it your sense because i hear this from a lot of republicans that tell me, neil, you can't quantify the good will of these markets picking up people, looking at 401(k) statements. feeling good about their job prospects, getting more in terms of bonuses and pay increases. that is something that is not translating in these numbers. even

. >> mike brought up, if you work at the nrcc i was thinking about the days i was on campaigns and things. you never want to spend this kind of money on a special election. there's been millions of dollars spent for a special election in august in a plus 7 republican district. that's never a good sign. if you have to spend that kind of money and it's either this close or we lose. that's not a good sign going into november. that means have you to spend that kind of money in many districts in order to keep the house. the get out the vote effort is what matters at this time. democrats are the ones that are more fired up right now. >> can i ask you something? >> democrats are motivated, republicans are not motivated right now. what is the bottom line here, is this an anti-trump sentiment happening? >> there's no other explanation for why a district that looks like this. other than donald trump is stepping all over his own message in question. it's not getting through because of the tweets. because of his controversial attacks on people, the more educated suburbs and districts are saying, we d

in 2018 when kevin mccarthy and folks coming out of nrcc meetings saying this is about localizing our races, raising money and talking about the issues that matter in our districts, that means you have a problem. now they have good "frontline" candidates that are at risk that could win, could win because they raise money. when you look at the sheer scope and scale of the map, when you're talking about the need to localize races at a time when it's very much a national conversation, that adds to the hurdles. >> hard to localize elections with donald trump in the white house. >> there you go. >> hard to do it anyway now but -- >> quickly, chris, the union vote in missouri. >> yeah, i think not unimportant. this is -- right to work is something that -- >> a big deal after the supreme court decision. >> huge deal. and we've seen union power somewhat reduced in elections. in the 1990s democratic endorse ment left. so what's difficult is this is missouri. josh hawley, they got the candidate they wanted, republicans did. when you have enough elections, there's the good over here where you ca

meeting with republicans both nrcc and the outside groups, that's what they -- the other outside groups's a reason this is being done. not just because. >> stick around. coming up next, two mysterious meetings today. one of a woman who ran a high profile prostitution ring part of the special counsel investigation. stay with us. ♪ ooh, heaven is a place on earth ♪ uhp. i didn't believe it. again. ♪ ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? ♪ i want to believe it. [ claps hands ] ♪ ooh i'm not hearing the confidence. okay, hold the name your price tool. power of options based on your budget! and! ♪ we'll make heaven a place on earth ♪ yeah! oh, my angels! ♪ ooh, heaven is a place on earth ♪ [ sobs quietly ] ♪ ooh, heaven is a place on earth ♪ if yor crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough, it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom

bean in illinois, we had no idea that joe walsh was going to win that seat when i was working at the nrcc. we don't know how it's going to play out. we'll know more after labor day and where things are swinging. republicans should be concerned. even just historically, one republican had both sides in congress and the white house. >> if i can say, president trump, we're in communications, so great at marketing. i've heard him say troy on tuesday, troy on tuesday, troy on tuesday. as he repeats that, it's meaningful the way he goes out and helps market for candidates. >> leslie, i saw you, as lisa was talking, nodding your head. why? >> what she said, republicans need to be concerned. remember, this is not -- this district in ohio is not going to be the indicator of a blue wave by a victory necessarily. but also looking at a margin. no, no, no, melissa is going to like, this i'll say something, she'll say i like it. numbers, you like numbers. this comes down to numbers. there are more republicans, the more republican monty now coming in before the democrat was up on the dollar and the democ

so when you're in the house and you're looking to hold the house, and you're at the nrcc, the campaign committee, you're looking at the map, you think that's fine for donald trump to go to senate -- help senate republicans in states he won by landslide margins. he can't go to swing districts in the house if they risk losing, and they need to defend their majority. he is welcome in safe districts, but they aren't the ones that they need to hold. >> and those are a moving target too. >> so that's really -- right. >> the definition of safe. >> if you look at the political report data that republicans -- that's making them so nervous, it's that if you -- they did a comparison recently from august of 2006 to november. august of 2010 to november. there are more competitive seats this august, and those numbers always grow. and they have no -- it's 53 right now. they have no idea where it's going go november 6th. >> think of the day the president is having today. his campaign chairman on trial. >> deputy campaign director is the star witness. >> the star witness. his first supporter in congres

. >> it happens that i was running the house campaign committee at the nrcc, all during the watergate trauma and so forth. and therefore, i was in a very tense position. but i am taking this microphone for two reasons. one is to compliment you. i think you have dealt evenly with president nixon. >> thank you. >> he was an extremely complicated man. a wonderful intellect, by the way. i admire his mind tremendously, but he had a character flaw, we all have to admit. the second thing is, i had a lot of differences with bob. bob haldeman. i hated his goddamn guts. but i am convinced that he was the man who stopped those idiotic, presidential vocal orders, more than anyone else. >> we don't know. >> and i think he gets credit for that. he did what a good chief of staff should do. he disregarded his boss's orders when necessary. >> well, you may know about it than i do. i have not seen recorded anywhere who stopped -- not a lot was stopped, after all. some of the middle of the night calls, i think, they'd get together and say, what do we do now? it's the boss again. except for the brookings

our friend, john harwood spoke to the chairman of the nrcc.he said. >> we've seen at crunch time in some of these races you guys have been involved in, your candidates go not to tax cuts, the economy, immigration, i.c.e., ms-13, all that sort of stuff. does that tell us that in this year, it's not the economy stupid? >> we've run ads on the economy in every single special election. but that doesn't mean that's what we will run on the whole time. >> what do you think of that, noah? >> if it was an economic election republicans would not be staring down the barrel of a democratic wave. the economy is doing pretty well. it's not an economic elections, foreign policy election, values election. the values on the table are donald trump's. i think there's a broad misperception what the tax cuts have done. in my state, new jersey, recent poll came out, 13% or so of new jerseyans think their taxes went down, in other words, taking home more money. that perception does not match reality. when you're explaining you're losing, they have seeded the table t

head of the congressional leadership on, which is the major pac supporting republicans besides the nrcc. from investor who managed rob portman's campaign. there are very few excuses for republicans to lose the seat. host: and they had a candidate they want alright? 00 host: and they had the candidate of a once, right? $20 and said he would be open to raising the retirement age for social security, and democrats are kind of going back to the populace playbook to gain back ground in districts that won, and we have wenerable will get sees that call trump serve zones, that voted for obama in 2012 but for trump in 2016. maine, southern illinois, heavily white working-class districts where you are seeing democrats who voted vertro maybe behaving more like the democrats than you city in 2018. host: let's go to trea shreveport, louisiana, democrat line. caller: good morning. a they do not get much of turnout, have you considered what happens to trump politics, election war, unprecedented out of a really ugly election year? host: thank you, steve. guest: keep in mind the president did visit penn

president trump wrote, congressman steve stivers of ohio has done a fantastic job as chairman of the nrcca great congressman tough on crime and borders and an inspiration to our military and veterans. big on second amendment. get out and vote for steve on august 7th. a special election for ohio's 12th congress' district takes place on august 7th, but stivers represents ohio's 15th congressional district. the president later tweeted looking forward to being in the great state of ohio saturday night where i will be campaigning hard for a talented future congressman troy balderson. the republican nominee who will face democrat danny o'connor in next week's special election. that mixup aside, if president trump manages to back the accurate candidate in a race, it could be a deciding factor between a win and a loss. let's bring in national political reporter for axios, jonathan swan, looking at how much value a trump endorsement has for some of these midterm candidates. so is there a lot of value, jonathan? or does it depend on where exactly? >> well, trump among republican primary voters, the