Clip: Analyzing the debates as midterm candidates meet face-to-face before Election Day

Yamiche Alcindor : The other thing that was happening is a lot of debates, right? This election season has been notable for the limited number of debates. But this week, a number of candidates in key races, well, they faced off.

Val Demings : No, Senator, I don't think it's okay for a ten-year-old girl to be raped and have to carry the seed of her rapist. No, I don't think it's okay for you to make decisions for women and girls.

Marco Rubio : She supports taxpayer funded abortion on demand for any reason at any time up until the moment of birth. That's what she supports that's the extreme position here.

Stacey Abrams, (D) Gubernatorial Candidate Georgia : We need a governor who believes in access of the right to vote and not voter suppression which is the hallmark of Brian Kemp's leadership.

Brian Kemp : I'm the person that created the online voter registration system in the state, where any Georgian can vote, register to vote 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Yamiche Alcindor : Quite the back and forth there.

Nikole, I want to come to you again because you were out and you covered the Herschel Walker debate. Why have there been so few debates and what's the impact of the ones that have happened?

Nikole Killion : Well, I think that is a hallmark of what we've seen this cycle. I mean, just even trying to get these candidates to the table has proven quite difficult. I mean, in the case of Georgia, it did take a while. There was a lot of back and forth between the Warnock campaign, the Walker campaign. Obviously, they did that debate last Friday, their one and only debate. There was a second debate after that. Herschel Walker declined to appear at that.

But even if you look at some of these other races across the country, I mean, in most instances we are only seeing these candidates debate one same thing in Florida between Demings and Rubio. That was their only debate. So, it really is kind of depriving voters of the opportunity to see these candidate on multiple occasions.

And in terms of Georgia and talking to voters, there were some voters who said, yes, I watched and I think that's enough. But there were also plenty of voters out there who said, no, I actually would like to see more. And, for instance, that debate, they didn't even get into the issue of immigration, for instance.

So, I mean, there are reasons and protocol for why you have multiple debates. But even in the case of Arizona, what we're seeing there, the gubernatorial candidates, they aren't facing off at all. So, what does that say going forward about how things are conducted?

Yamiche Alcindor : And that's why like you, Nikole, because you literally transitioned me to Rick because Rick is sitting there in Arizona. You've been talking to both candidates who are running for governor. Katie Hobbs is not wanting to debate Kari Lake here. Tell me a little bit about that race and what it tells you about the overall landscape of the midterms right now?

Rick Klein, Political Director, ABC News : Yes. And this is a little bit different than some of the other debates over debates. Because in this case, you've got the Democrat who says that she's not willing to talk to the Republican face-to-face. And the reason that she says that, that Katie Hobbs says that, is that she sees that Kari Lake is someone who denies the legitimacy of the last election and traffics in conspiracy theories. And in her view, she doesn't want to elevate that by even having the conversation.

But, boy, is that risky for two reasons. One is Kari Lake is quite good in television. She's a longtime T.V. anchor right here in Phoenix. She's very well known in the Phoenix media market and she's very good on camera. She does multiple news conferences, interviews all the time. She talks to people at every opportunity she has.

Katie Hobbs is the secretary of state of here. She's not quite the same kind of political performer. And the other thing that's dangerous in all of this is that you have an opportunity, a possibility that someone that denies the legitimacy of the last election could be in charge of overseeing the next one.

It's not just Kari Lake. You've got secretary of state candidate and attorney general candidate, as well as statewide candidates, congressional candidates up and down the ballot here in Arizona and, frankly, in battleground states all around the country who bring views that say that, look, this election was somehow fixed or stolen. They have -- promoting false information about that and they're casting doubt on whether they would concede in 2022 or certify results in 2024.

That's an area that the stakes get even higher around the midterm elections. It's not something you hear a lot from voters. It's not something that voters are listing as a top of mind issue. It's not something that they're talking about when you go to discuss it with them. But it is a real consequence potentially of these elections to have people who say that the last election was somehow stolen being in a position to oversee future elections.

Yamiche Alcindor : And, Rick, while we have you and talking about sort of what's going on in Arizona, I also want to ask you about the other races. I know the Power Trip is going around the country. Tell me about what you're seeing in other states. I'm thinking of Ohio, of Florida, of Pennsylvania. What sort of connects these races together and tells us the story of this midterm season?

Rick Klein : Yes, thanks, Yamiche. It's really interesting to go out there and talk to voters and talk to the candidates because we see all sorts of different types of candidates. A lot of them are people that have been recruited by Donald Trump, candidates like Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania and Herschel Walker in Georgia, Blake Masters right here in Arizona, J.D. Vance in Ohio. None of them have ever run for office. None of them probably ever run for office if Donald Trump wasn't president, if Donald Trump didn't consider them to be friends of people that urged on. And that has created a kind of a new class of politicians. Mitch McConnell has talked about candidate quality. Those are the kinds of people that you're talking about.

And I've seen also with our reporters on the ground some really interesting twists on what it means to be a Democrat these days, to look at someone like John Fetterman or Tim Ryan. Frankly, they don't look like a lot Democrats. They've been going to a lot of redder parts of their states. They're trying to bring a kind of working class appeal to states that are either on the purple side or a little bit, in the case of Ohio, more Republican-leaning.

And they're trying to use performances on the trail, trying to connect with people by traveling around in a different way. It still matters these days even in the age of tens of millions of dollars being dump into these campaigns to make personal connections. And, yes, a lot of the -- our campaign reporters, our embeds, they are talking to voters that say that the economy is front and center.

And I think the Democrats have a couple of issues here. One is that some of the issue that voters may be on their side on, like election integrity, like abortion rights, just aren't top of mind. There's something that aren't thought about every day. You don't tend to go about your everyday life thinking, well, is the next election going to be stolen or not? You do think about gas prices. Because every time you drive by a gas station, there's a visible representation of what's going. You do think about inflation, because every time you buy lunch or buy groceries, you see those prices. That's what people feel.

And I'm intrigued by some Democrats that have been breaking with the White House and saying, look, you should be more aggressive. We've heard Mark Kelly say that the White House has made mistakes on the border. We've heard people like Tim Ryan saying that there's been mistakes in not confronting inflation as a more existential or a bigger threat for American families. So, I feel like it's sometimes when you go against your party that you have either an opportunity to break through a bit and maybe, maybe just cut against the national narrative that we see developing over these last couple of weeks.

Yamiche Alcindor : And, Abha, what Rick is talking about really cuts straight to your beat about the economy. I wonder what you're hearing from voters, especially as we've seen Democrats try to do this thing where they're both balancing, talking about inflation while also talking about abortion. What are you hearing from voters?

Abha Bhattarai : I spent the week talking with voters around the country. And I was really struck by how many longtime Democratic voters said that they were suddenly sort of having to make these decisions that they never thought they would be making. They're wondering if they should prioritize the economy or abortion rights, gun control, these issues that are all very important to them. But they feel like they have less and less of a choice when they are struggling to pay for groceries and pay for electricity and all these other essentials that have been going up in price. As one woman in Nashville told me yesterday, we can no longer afford to prioritize our principles over inflation. And so they're really rethinking sort of their entire belief system in some cases.

Yamiche Alcindor : That's fascinating to hear.

And, Laura, talk a little bit more about the White House's approach to this? I was really struck by a question that President Biden got. It said, top domestic issue, inflation or abortion. And he basically said we should walk and chew gum, talking about Democrats in his party. What are you hearing from White House officials?

Laura Barron-Lopez : I mean, this question was also posed earlier this week to his staff, to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. And she essentially said that the top economic issue is inflation, making that distinction economic, not necessarily entirely domestic.

I mean, look, we're seeing the final argument from Biden happening this week, which is we had the speech from him about abortion rights, staying if you election two to three Democrats to the Senate, then his first bill to Congress would be to solidify, codify Roe, Roe v. Wade. And he clearly is going to continue making that argument in the two weeks.

Part of that though is also going to be the argument that he -- that his agenda is trying to keep this economy balanced, trying to make sure that it doesn't fall into a full-scale recession. And the argument from the White House is essentially that, look, the economy does have a lot of factors that, in terms of unemployment, like being low, the fact that jobs, there's a lot of options for jobs, that's what they're trying to focus on as well.

I think the other thing is, today, the president was focused on student debt. And so he, again, is trying to make this argument to very key constituencies across the Democratic base, including young voters. I've talked to Democratic strategists who say that, look, if the youth voter turnout doesn't reach 2018 levels, then, yes, we don't really have a chance of holding the Senate and definitely not the House.

So, these constituencies also with black voters, if they don't reach a certain threshold in places like Georgia or Pennsylvania, then, again, Democrats don't really have a chance of holding the Senate and definitely not the House.

Yamiche Alcindor : And the other thing, when you think about sort of what drives voter attention, drives voter feelings, Nikole, is this idea of sort of how scared are they, right? You think about sort of the way these measures are being given to them by Democrats and Republicans. Part of that, of course, is Trump. It's former President Trump's grievance politics.

We had some news just today, Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump adviser, he was sentenced to four months in prison for defying the January 6th Committee's subpoena to come testify. You also saw an official subpoena go out to former President Trump to say, you need to come to the committee. What's your sense of how all these developments surrounding Trump and the Trump orbit how they impact voters' minds in these midterms?

Nikole Killion : It may make ripple. I don't know that it will make a wave and that's just because it's kind of baked in at this point into the lager discussion we've been having again, it's the economy, stupid, right? I mean, that is really what people are caring about day-to-day. So, how concerned are they going to do be about a subpoena to the president? I'm not sure.

What I did find interesting about the subpoena that went out from the January 6th Committee is that the committee has been very clear to say that they are not going to do anything around the midterms. I mean, we saw them hold the hearing last week, you know, in terms of their report. They say that that's not going to be tied to the midterms in anyway. And yet, the subpoena drops where they want the former president to produce documents a few days before Election Day, and then they want him to show up for this deposition a few days after Election Day.

Obviously, they're under a time crunch. They're trying to get their work done by the end of the year. But I just think the timing around of all of that is interesting. And whether or not the former president cooperates, it all remains to be seen. We know he has bashed this committee as the unselect committee, his attorney today already accusing this committee of flouting the norm. So, will we see any compliance here? Obviously, the committee would hope so, but, again, unlikely it seems.

Yamiche Alcindor : And I'm going to -- before I want to turn to some stuff that's going on in Florida, I wonder if you could just chime in here when it comes to conservatives. They've made the case that Republicans are just better at dealing with the economy. Are you hearing that from voters?

Abha Bhattarai : Absolutely. I think a lot of voters are feeling this way, that they don't think Democrats have really been on top of their game when it comes to inflation. For a long time, the messaging was, this is just temporary, this is because of supply chain issues, it will go away. And when it didn't happen, it was, well, this is Putin's fault.

And so it's taken a while for voters to feel like Democrats are listening to them. And the other thing that Republicans have going for them is that this isn't their economy. I mean, we're likely to have seen extremely high inflation and high gas prices even with the Republican president in power. But right now, this is Joe Biden's problem and they're able to capitalize on that.

Yamiche Alcindor : Yes, the party in power is the one that's being held accountable.

Now, we have to turn to what's going on in my home state of Florida. In April, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill to create an election police force dedicated to pursuing voter fraud. This week, the Tampa Bay Times released videos of people being arrested by the unit that have drawn fierce criticism.

Unidentified Male : I guess you have a warrant.

Unidentified Male : For what?

Unidentified Male : I'm not sure.

Unidentified Male : It's for voter stuff, man.

Unidentified Male : For voter --

Yamiche Alcindor : So, Florida officials say the people arrested are felons who voted illegally. Advocates say, in many cases, Florida issued these people voting materials that allowed them to cast ballots.

So, Rick, I want to come back to you. What are the actions of the Florida election force tell us about the overall GOP approach to elections right now? What are we -- connect what we're seeing in Florida and with these videos to what's happening politically.

Rick Klein : Yamiche, I think it is a significant development. And just today, we saw a judge in Florida throw out one of the 20 case that the Governor DeSantis was highlighting as part of this saying that the prosecutors were trying to bring the case didn't have the jurisdiction.

And we've been reporting on this pretty extensively and talked to some of the lawyers involved. And, clearly, what happened here is that Governor DeSantis was trying to make a major point. He was trying to signal to Republican voters the importance, the priority that he was putting on election security. It's something that's been echoed across Republican campaigns. And it's something that moves things forward.

Instead of looking back at 2020, the signal that sent out there is clearly one that's intended to discourage someone who might have any question in their mind as to whether their vote is allowed to be cast or not from doing so at all.

And you can view that as a good thing. You can also recognize that, in this case, you had individuals who were told by state authorities that they had the right to vote. There was confusion around the types of felonies that they committed and whether they would be able to re-establish their franchise under a new law. There are other states that have similar laws and some of the regulations. And at the time, it felt like Governor DeSantis was trying to one one-up some of his Republican colleagues, maybe in the 2024 contention.

But as a case like this falls apart, you recognize a real toll that it takes on people, the individuals who were arrested, and also the countless number of people that might have the right to vote but might be questioning whether they should even try to do that because they see an action like this. The body cam footage was striking because you had police officers who were unable to explain what exactly those charges were. You had people who were just befuddled by the fact that they were being arrested for something that they were told by state officials they had the right to do.

So, to me, this is another manifestation of the mistrust that's been placed into the round of elections. We know election workers are undergoing unprecedented threats in addition to people that are running for office saying that they won't necessarily trust election results. You have this widespread mistrust as people are about to vote and are already voting in record numbers in early vote around whether you can even cast that ballot. And I feel like this a big --

Yamiche Alcindor : It's a lot of confusion when you look at the people that are really confused by this and confused at what's going on.

Rick Klein : I'm very curious to see whether, frankly, any of them stick.

Yamiche Alcindor : And, Laura, I want to come to you, because in the last 30 seconds that we have here, you interviewed a veteran Democratic pollster who told you this could motivate black voters, in particular, to come out.

Laura Barron-Lopez : That's right, Colonel Belcher, who worked on President Obama's former campaign. And he said that he thinks it could backfire. Because he thinks that when people watch those videos, particularly black voters, that it could motivate them to turn out in states not just like Florida but also in Georgia, and that he know that some Democratic campaigns are going to start using that footage and ads in the final weeks heading into the election.

Yamiche Alcindor : Well, certainly, watching that video is very confusing. You can tell the cops were confused. One cop saying there might be even a loophole if you were given voting material. So, we'll definitely have to keep watching what's going on there.

Thanks so much to our panelists for joining us and for sharing your reporting.