Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Republicans are spooked 'Hayes on Democrats gaining in red districts amid surging prices'

Transcript

Republicans are spooked 'Hayes on Democrats gaining in red districts amid surging prices' · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Good evening from New York. I'm Chris Hayes.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: It's Tuesday, which means it is election night in America
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: once again. Tonight is unofficially the end of primary season
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: before the big one, election night. Polls are now closed
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: in the state of Delaware, where Democratic Senator Chris Coons
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: is seeking a third full term against some lesser-known primary opponents.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Congresswoman Sarah McBride is running unopposed in her primary for
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the state's lone congressional district. We've interviewed her here on
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: the show. She's definitely one to watch. We're going to
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: keep you posted on how those shake out. But by now,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: 49 days away from Election Day, the country is decisively
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: pivoted towards a general election. And while things could certainly
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: tighten or change between now and November 3rd, we always
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: say that because it's true, as they stand right now,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: it's looking like Democrats are going to be competitive in
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: a lot of unexpected places. And according to a New
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Times-Siena poll, Democrats hold sometimes double-digit leads on basically every
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: single issue with the electorate. Healthcare, immigration, the deficit, the economy,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: the cost of living, foreign wars, Israel-Palestine. Voters trust the
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Democrats more on basically everything, by a significant margin as well.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: In fact, interestingly, the only issue where respondents favored Republicans
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: was on AI, and it wasn't by that much. Trump's
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: party holds a meager two-point lead, well within the margin
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: of error. I think voters don't quite know where the
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: parties are on this issue right now.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: They're looking for guidance.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Now, you know, none of this is that surprising.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Things are not going great.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Trump has been escalating the war on Iran with no
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: end in sight, and Iran has been escalating right back.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Some of his administration are privately saying that the war
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: could drag into 2029. Keep in mind, voters across the
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: ideological spectrum were already skeptical of the war when it
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: started seven months ago.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: They like it even less now.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: And that is for one obvious reason above all others,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: considering that gas prices and diesel prices specifically are way up. Diesel,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: in case you haven't noticed, I'm sure you have, is
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: averaging over $ 6.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: A gallon for the first time ever.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: In California, where much of your produce may be grown,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: it is well over $ 8. And that in turn makes
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: everything else more expensive because it's all shipped on trucks.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Many of your groceries, for example, arrive by diesel powered trucks.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: The president isn't even pretending he's going to fix the
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: problem in the next 49 days.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: I would say this shortly, but right after the election,
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: because they'd like to have it that way. But right
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: They're going to be tumbling down and we'll get them down.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: I think for gasoline, we'll get them below two dollars
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: a gallon.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: But not until after the midterm. I think it's going
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: to take.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: A little bit longer than the midterm.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Don't worry, right around the corner.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Now, it probably won't come as much a surprise to
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: you then to learn that the same New York Times-Siena
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: poll has Democrats with an eight-point lead in the generic ballot.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Other recent surveys have them up as much by 11.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: In an environment like that, again, this is a snapshot
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: in time, and there could be systematic polling error. But
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: if that is the environment, what you start to see
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: are Democratic candidates competing in places that no one thought
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: they could have a chance.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: So here's one example. I have my eyes on this one.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: This is in Alabama, and it's an interesting one.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Alabama, of course, one of those states controlled by Republicans
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: where Trump ordered the state's party to redraw their congressional
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: districts to benefit the GOP. And Alabama, with the aid
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: of a Supreme Court that gave him the green light,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: was able to disenfranchise black Democratic voters. by changing its
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: congressional districts to favor white Republicans instead, right? They redistricted
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: an incumbent black Democrat out of his district. And that
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: was supposed to be the case in the state's second
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: congressional district. And that is where incumbent Democratic Congressman Shomari
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Figures had his district redrawn to favor the other party.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: It's a Republican plus seven district. That's not what we're
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: seeing so far. In fact, the nonpartisan Sabato Cristobal recently
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: shifted the race from likely Republican to leans Republican. That's
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: a competitive seat. Again, in a seat that was specifically
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: drawn just weeks ago to be a pickup for Trump's party.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: It's a fight. And look, anything can happen.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And I'm certainly not saying that seats a lock for
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Democrats can be an uphill battle for figures. But winning
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: elections nationwide means having to prioritize where you spend money
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: and resources.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: And based on what we're saying, it's clear.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: That Republicans, they've got a lot of money, but they're
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: going to need that money to play a lot of
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: defense in a lot of races they were not expecting to.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Another example, I've had my eye on this one as well. Montana.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Montana should be a cakewalk for Republicans.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Do you know that Donald Trump carried the state of
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Montana by 20 points in 2024?
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Statewide race should be easy.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Yet there is now a dead heat in the state's
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Western District House race. Outgoing Republican Congressman Ryan Zinke won
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: it handily two years ago by eight points in a
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: very blue environment without an incumbent. It could now be
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: in play.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Same in deep.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Red Nebraska, where Trump got nearly 60 percent of the
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: vote last time. A new outside poll shows independent Dan
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Osborne leading incumbent Republican Senator Pete Ricketts by four points.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: That's might be an outlier.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: But get this, today, a new super PAC tied to
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: the Republican Senate Leadership Fund, that's the big one, right?
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: And they've got lots of money.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: They dumped over a million dollars into that race in
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Nebraska to prop up rickets. Again, that's money that could
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: be going to other races. Heck, there now even seems
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: to be a real race brewing in.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Kansas of all places.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Kansas, that's a Trump plus 16 state, won it by
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: 16 points.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Two years ago.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: That's in part because the incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: is really going through it. Last week, the New York
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Times reported that during his lengthy career as an OBGYN,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Marshall sued more than 700 patients with outstanding bills. And
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: most of them lived in rural Barton County. It's a
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: poor area with high uninsurance rates. At least two of
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: the suits resulted from patients who suffered miscarriages and needed surgery.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: The bills range from mid four figures to just about
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: 100 bucks. 81 of the patients were ultimately arrested for
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: missing court dates. One lawyer who represented Marshall in many
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: of these cases defended those arrests as necessary to ensure
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: debtors followed court orders, adding that Marshall wasn't involved in
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: decisions about arrests.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: That said, not a great look for a candidate.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: One woman told the Times she was arrested three times
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: over an unpaid C-section bill of about $ 4, 000. She tried
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: to get on a payment plan but said the interest
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: was too much to keep up with. There was often
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: a choice between paying her electric bill or her medical debt.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: It is within that context that Marshall is running for reelection.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: You may have even seen a viral clip from his
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: most recent debate where his opponent is a guy named
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Adam Hamilton.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: He's a Democratic nominee.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Really worked the crowd. And keep in mind two things
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: when you're about to hear Hamilton talk. One, he's on
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: a timer because it's a debate. So he's gone pretty fast.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Two, the guy's a mega church pastor.
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: I went to the Wizard of Oz Museum, and while
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: I was there, I get to watch a certain clip
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: from the Wizard of Oz. You've got Dorothy with Toto.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: She's on the Yellow Brick Road. They're going to see
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: the wizard and her three trusty sidekicks. You remember the Scarecrow,
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: the Tin Man, and who? Cowardly Lion. And I'm saying
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: it's been 20 years since I watched it.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I said, okay, what did the Scarecrow need?
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: Do you remember?
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: He needed a brain. He needed a brain.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: What did the Tin Man need? We needed a heart.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: What did the Cowardly Lion need? We needed courage. And
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: I had to laugh when I thought, this is what's
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: wrong in Washington, D.C.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Right now.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: We got a lot of people up there. We got
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: a lot of people up there who have lost their minds.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: They're no longer using critical thinking skills to solve problems.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: They're not thinking for themselves. They're doing whatever their president
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: or their party tells them to do. That's not good
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: for Kansas. We have a lot of people who lost
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: their hearts in Washington, D.C. That's easy to have happen.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: You go to Washington, you live there for 180 days,
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: you go to Florida for a while, you come back
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: to Kansas, and all of your stops are photo ops
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: in front of Cabela's or somewhere else. You got five minutes.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: You don't actually stop and listen. You got to listen.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: You listen to your people. When you do, you find
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: a heart because you see people suffering.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: You hear their pain.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: And you say, I got to do something about that.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: And I can't keep voting for things that take away 51,000 people's.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Health insurance in the state of Kansas.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: 18,000 kids who don't get SNAP benefits anymore.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Finally, you've got to have courage.
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: And courage is when you stand up to your president
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: and your party and you say, this is hurting people
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: back home. And you say it, even if your president's
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: going to bully you, pick on you, primary you, and
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: call you names, you still say, this is not okay.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Pretty good.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Again, that's not to say, I mean, Roger Marshall clearly
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: favored in that race. Again, he's dealing with an electorate
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: that's plus 16 for Donald Trump, right? It's not to
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: say Democrats are going to win. any of these races even.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: But the point is they're competitive and they're way more
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: competitive than they should be. And Republicans are spooked. Again,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: look at their behavior, right? The million dollars they poured
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: in Nebraska. They just sent the vice president to campaign
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: in Kansas.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: They're sending him to Kansas instead.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Of, say, Georgia, where it looks like Democratic Senator John
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Ossoff may essentially.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Walk to reelection.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: And the Democrat in the governor's race there, Keisha Lance Bottoms,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: could be the first of her party to hold a seat,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: hold that seat in nearly a quarter century.
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: Hey, it's me, Rachel Maddow. If you like the story
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: you just watched, you should know about a new way
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: to see even more from my show and from all
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: of MSNOW live or on tape. It's the new MSNOW membership.
• 9:28
  Speaker 6: You can watch everything we do on your phone or
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: your tablet or your computer. Plus, you can join conversations
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: with me and the other hosts and with Other folks
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: who care about the news as much as you do,
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: MSNOW membership. During September, you can sign up for just
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: 40 bucks a year, which is like just over three
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: bucks a month. Just click on the MSNOW logo right
• 9:49
  Speaker 6: here or go to ms.now slash membership.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Hope to see you there.