AMNA NAWAZ: There has been a flurry of political news already for a Monday, and it certainly doesn't feel like the usually slow August in Washington, D.C.

Here with us to take a closer look is Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

It's great to see you both.

This Monday has felt like a busy week already.

Let's jump right in.

Tam, you heard what Lisa was asking Congressman Doggett there about Democrats meeting this moment, about frustration in the base, their lack of fight perceived in their base, at least.

And I should point out too, in terms of fund-raising numbers, there's a big gap between the DNC and the RNC.

The numbers at the end of June showed the DNC reportedly had $15 million on hand.

The RNC had $80 million.

There's another sign of that frustration among Democrats.

But what did you make of Congressman Doggett's response and the larger Democratic approach right now?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Right.

And he talked about how there are multiple Democrats who are trying to push back on Trump.

And I think that that is where Democrats are right now, which is that there isn't one voice.

There isn't sort of one top-down marching order on how to proceed.

Democrats are trying to figure themselves out.

And they are struggling.

I think that over time you will see eventually a coalescing around a candidate.

And that candidate will give voice to what Democrats want.

I mean, we have seen this cycle after cycle.

In 2020, the only thing that Democrats wanted was someone who could beat Trump.

And they ended up with Joe Biden.

That sort of thing, that sort of coalescing just hasn't happened yet.

It's still really early.

And they are definitely still in the wilderness.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's still a lot of time, yes, Amy, but what do you make of someone who's getting a lot of attention right now?

It's California Governor Gavin Newsom, who sort of adopted Trump's approach and is taking it right back to him?

Is it working?

Do you see other Democrats taking that tack?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Right.

Well, it's working in his home state.

In fact, there was a poll out just the other week that showed that Governor Newsom's approval rating in the state is actually now up eight points since April.

So he has definitely coalesced that anger about Trump or that frustration among many who don't like Donald Trump that there wasn't enough pushback from Democratic elected officials.

I think he's benefited from that, both in his style and then, of course, going on the offense when it comes to the redistricting.

But what I think is also a challenge and part of the reason why Democrats do feel like this, I think you said, lost in the wilderness is that while every one of these high-profile Democrats, whether it's Governor Pritzker or Governor Newsom, is showing themselves as bulwarks against Donald Trump, ways in which they're going to -- quote -- "fight fire with fire," very few of them are really showing a new or different path forward for the Democratic Party.

Who are they outside of being against Trump or anti-Trump?

And, also, you have a Democratic Party, much like where the Republican Party was in 2015, feeling as if the norms and the systems and the status quo just isn't working in a way.

They don't want those same kinds of voices, or at least they're looking for some voices that are going to be outside of the sort of traditional status quo kind of language and policies that they have -- that Democratic voters have heard before.

So I think that's an opportunity for somebody who maybe we haven't been hearing from right now or an opportunity for some of these Democrats who are not currently on the front lines against Donald Trump, but who can come up with some ways in which they can define the party as being more than just the anti-Trump coalition.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, we know the immigration debate, Tam, obviously was a big part of what helped to propel President Trump back into office.

We reported earlier on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is now facing a second deportation, this time to Uganda, a country to which he has no connection.

And this one case has become sort of emblematic of the entire Trump administration's approach.

But when you look at how people are viewing that approach, there's a new Economist/YouGov poll that shows, on immigration, president has a 43 percent approval rating and a 53 percent disapproval rating.

Do those numbers say to you that people feel like he's gone too far?

TAMARA KEITH: You know, when President Trump sat down with "Meet the Press" with Kristen Welker before he even took office, he talked about his immigration policy and he said that there was a risk that there were going to be stories of families or people that were sob stories that get put on television and those stories are going to affect the perception that people have of his immigration policies.

Well, those stories are all over the place now and they are affecting the perception that people have of mass deportation.

What I will say about the Abrego Garcia is, it really does exemplify the Trump administration approach, which includes, among other things, trying to make it really uncomfortable for people who are in the country without legal status or who have sort of questions about their status, making it really uncomfortable for them to stay in the United States.

They don't have enough capacity in detention facilities for all the people that they would like to remove from the country.

And so they are working really hard to get people to self-deport.

The risk of being deported to Uganda or to being put in a detention facility that is scary is something that they are actively promoting to try to get people to do the work for them to leave the country.

And you will see at immigration court signs that say self-deport.

Here's how.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, Amy, there's a difference here, we should point out, between the mass deportation campaign, which is enforcement of immigration violations within the country and across the country, but there's also the crackdown at the U.S. southern border, which is where there was a lot of dissatisfaction among both Republicans and Democrats who saw record high numbers under the Biden administration.

And to President Trump's credit, those numbers have now come down to historic lows.

So why do you think there's still such high disapproval on this issue?

AMY WALTER: Well, Amna, that's a really good point.

And how you ask the question is also incredibly important, especially when it comes to polling.

And, in fact, there was a poll out in the last week by a group called Equis that just looked at Latino voters and, more specifically, Latino voters in these congressional districts that have a significant Latino population.

What the poll found was that, in those competitive districts, Trump's approval rating on handling the border issue was positive.

More people thought of it positively than negatively.

On the issue of immigration, he was very deeply unpopular.

The other thing that was fascinating about this poll, Amna, is that, even as Latino voters are sour on Donald Trump right now, his overall approval rating is just about 31 percent, they dislike what he's doing on immigration, it is the economy where he's seen more unpopularly with these voters.

In fact, it's almost -- I think it's like a 15-point difference between their disapproval of Donald Trump's handling of the cost of living versus his handling of immigration.

In other words, while immigration still is a very important issue for these voters, it's the fact that stuff still costs too much that has really soured so many Latino voters on Donald Trump, at least at this point.

AMNA NAWAZ: Before we go on, I want to ask both of you briefly just to respond to what we have seen in the last few days, which is a number of vocal critics of the president, from John Bolton to Adam Schiff to Chris Christie, being targeted either by federal action of some kind or online with threats from the president.

Tam, how do you look at this?

Is this the retribution presidency that John Bolton said we'd see?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, it's in fact the retribution presidency that President Trump said we would see.

When he was campaigning, he said, "I will be your retribution."

Then there was a lot of pushback from critics who said, whoa, that sounds like dangerous territory.

And he said, no, no, no, no, no, no, my success will be my retribution.

No, retribution is retribution.

We have seen time and time again not just these investigations now that are with the Justice Department, but also security clearances being taken away, protection from the Secret Service being stripped of people who are under threat, any number of firings up and down the Justice Department and other agencies.

There's a lot of retribution going on.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, you have got 30 seconds left.

What's your take?

AMY WALTER: Yes.

And it's working.

Amna, I mean, you have seen now, whether it's law firms or universities or individuals who are deciding to try to negotiate or to step away, rather than taking the fight to Donald Trump.

This is what he did not just in political office, but obviously this was how he also operated when he was in business.

He often would just grind folks down with lawsuits until they essentially just threw up their hands.

And, as president, he's been able to really get more with this intimidation than getting pushback from those who are the victims of it.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, we will have to leave it there, but I feel like we have a busy week ahead, ladies.

So thank you very, very much.

Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, great to see you.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.