0 but, -- i have her to think for the road i'm going down now. >> i think should be pretty proud of you. >> i hope so>> i hope so welcome to "morning joe." special hour. we're officially 100 days away from the midterms. and over the next hour, we will take a look at what's at stake in this pivotal election. it's an extraordinarily important election. and that of course includes control. house and the senate and key governors races in states like pennsylvania, georgia, and arizona. these midterms come as fallout from the january 6th insurrection continues. and the country braces for a likely 2024 campaign announcement from the man who inspired that attack. former president donald trump. a series of monumental decisions from the supreme court will also be top of mind for so many voters this november. none greater than the unprecedented decision to overturn almost a half century of privacy rights in roe v. wade. coming up we will be joined by georgia's democratic nominee for governor, stacey abrams, here to talk about everything that is on the line this fall. but first, let's bring in an incredible round table, we have former chairman of the republican national committee, michael steele, former white house press secretary under president obama, robert gibbs, host of msnbc's politics nation and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton, former george w. bush white house and state departments, elise jordan and former white house director of communications, to president obama, and director of communications for hillary clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, jennifer palmieri. michael, let's start with you. you ran the rnc. i need you to explain something to me. how could it be that the republicans have, i would say, the best environment, if you just look at leading economic indicators right now, as they've had since ronald reagan's massive victory in 1980 and yet look at the senate race, behind in all of the key states, behind in pennsylvania. they're behind in ohio. they're behind in georgia. and their candidates, talk about a leading indicator, republican candidates are getting wiped out when you look at the money that both sides are raising. what's happening out there? >> well, i think there are a couple of things that are coming into focus, as we get ourselves really through the midpoint in the primary season. we still, at this point, have a number of primaries left, and on the ballot, you have a lot of candidates that have been pushed up and forward by a hardened right fascist base. they are about owning the livs, the revenge politics that was stoked by donald trump and mitch mcconnell, the big nest this, is they have lost control of this process. unlike what i was facing in 2010, when i had to deal with the candidate, the worst thing she was saying i'm not a witch, today's republican party has to deal with candidates who literally believe that president biden is an illegitimate president and should be thrown out of office. >> also, still believes in all of the lies, all of the eis and a lot of all of the election lice and won't criticize january 6th. elise, i always tell the story, when i talk about the impact of this abortion decision and what it may do in the 2022 election, i always talk about the georgia focus group of trump republicans and they follow donald trump on every issue and one of the people you were talking to that, just let's be blunt, bought into so many conspiracy theories, and said what about roe, should roe be overturned, before the decision was overturned, and he said, what are you talking about? i'm a man. that's not up to me to decide. and i heard so many republicans, so many life-long conservatives, so many people that actually consider themselves to be pro life, they look at the supreme court decision, and they look at thomas' concurrence and they look at privacy rights under attack now, they look at a 2-year-old girl having to flee her home state because she is going to have, the state is going to force her, to carry, 10-year-old girl having to flee to her home state because she is going to have, the state will force her to have the rapist's brother and the mothers to i don't -- rapist's baby. and the mother is on the table, independents will be chasing swing voters with a lot of these policies. >> joe, the person you're talking about in georgia, he is pro life and those who identify as pro life doesn't necessarily mean they want abortion banned outright. in the race this cycle that i'm really watching is what is going to happen in pennsylvania because the republican nominee, doug mastriano who was a marcher on january 6th and part of the insurrection, he had said that if he wins, he is immediately going to ban abortions in pennsylvania. the fifth largest state in the country. and a very purple state, i would say. and so is that actually going to help or hurt the down-ballot candidate like dr. oz? is he going to be lumped in or are there enough independent voters that it gives democrats an advantage in a state like pennsylvania where abortion could be front and center on the ballot. >> abortion, we talked about the abortion ruling from the start, we talked about how it's going to definitely impact republicans with suburban moms, with suburban women, with college-educated, whatever, soccer mom, whatever we want to call swing voters, women swing voters in the atlanta suburbs, in the philly suburbs, in the i-4 corridor, and yet there is another side to that story, isn't there? older hispanic voters may actually move the republican party's way because of that. so this decision, this decision has put a lot of cross-currents in the political waters, hasn't it? >> there is not a blueprint for these type of midterms for those who live in the post trump world and all of the midterms go out the window, and he has a decision that comes down and you look at the candidate like gretchen whitmer, she has gone all in on abortion, she is starting from earlier this year, when she filed a lawsuit about it, so some people have already made their decision, we're going all in, but it is not, you know, even though there might be culturally, hispanic voters could be more conservative, that is certainly my experience, and presidential campaigns, but i think now, when i look at, if i were running a race and i were looking at voters of color, black, hispanic, aapi, they are, you know, they are walking away from democrats in a very disturbing way. i suspect that's about inflation. i suspect that's about the economy. these are the sort of people who are most affected by that, so i think for democrats, who are probably going to be looking at running the race, where you need to, do we look at abortion, but you got to do the basic economic issues first. >> and reverend al, there is something you talked about for many, many years, we talked about this for many years, democrats have long considered, especially white woke democrats, have long believed, that people of color, the black voters, the hispanic voters, are just as progressive and just as woke as them, you have been saying all along that the latte liberals as you call them have it all wrong. you now look at joe biden's polling numbers, he is leading support from black voters, and massive support from hispanic voters. do you think it may be because of this disconnect between the democratic establishment in washington, d.c. and where people of color live politically? >> certainly, a lot of it that. when you look at the fact that it seems that a lot of those in the democratic party leadership are playing to quiet those that are noisy rather than deal with the base voters who are concerned about inflation, that are concerned about the crime going up in many areas, that are concerned about issues like roe v. wade, and are concerned about policing and other issues, and i think that what has seemed to bother me a lot is that this tendency of whoever yells the loudest, that's who they are dealing with, rather than understanding they don't represent the overwhelming majority of the people that you need to come out and vote. and one of the things that i've seen is the democratic candidates, democratic presidents, you brought up biden's numbers, were more effective when they knew how to compartmentalize the noise makers, president obama was very good at that, and even clinton some degree, and i think that what we've seen, even those who have made noise, understand we were getting attention on certain issue, we are looking at something that i've not seen where just the noise makers are being heard by the leadership in the party err than understand they have a part that we need to hear but we got to deal with the mass base and i think they have been captive of their own noise makers which is to their detriment. you know, robert, we're always seeing political analysis, coming on this show, coming on every show, looking at the last election results, and talking about how this is the future of the republic, the political future, it's cast in stone, of course, 2008, we heard about that emerging permanent democratic majority, 2010 it was the tea party, and then in 2012, after president obama won, another massive victory, we heard everybody talking about that blue wall that democrats had set up with the electoral college and there was no way republicans would ever win the electoral college again because there was a blue wall that protected the democratic candidates. i want to ask you about three states that i find to be the most fascinating, most perplexing, since president obama left office in 2016, wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania. those are three states that i always call fool's gold for republicans. because they would always throw money to those three states and other than michigan, it seems they always lost. now, you go county by county, let's go and put iowa in there, too, you know, county by county, president obama did so well, in a lot of counties where, you know, he may have lost a county, but instead of loeg losing it by 60 points, he would lose it by 30 points, and you added that up and he owned the industrial midwest. what has happened to the democratic party's lock on the industrial midwest? >> it's a great question, joe. i think what you've seen and you saw this with acceleration starting in the 2014 election, and the advent of donald trump in 2015 and 2016, is he was really able to capture those noncollege, particularly noncollege white voters, that democrats and particularly president obama had done well with in many of those upper midwestern states, and you know, we see this even now in the national polling, that the democratic party is now more aligned with voters that are college educated, and the republicans with noncollege educated voters, and i think you've seen, you can throw in ohio, a state that president obama won twice, that now feels potentially out of the grasp of democrats for quite some time, despite having i think a great senate candidate there. but i think you have really seen voters that have been talked to about their fears, and their concerns but really their economic anxieties that has changed the fortunes fort republican party, particularly in the rural areas of those states. >> i would ask about those same three states. you look at some of the races right now, tim ryan is looking pretty good in ohio. right now, gretchen whitmer is looking pretty good in michigan. at the end of the day, of course fetterman in pennsylvania, looking pretty good but my god the ads that he keeps throwing, the tweets that he keeps throwing dr. oz's way, just dizzying, keeping him offbalance every single day, i'm curious, i'm curious, does this tell you that at the end of the day, so much just depends on the candidate pers, the candidate himself, who is the best political athlete? >> yes, this is a clear advantage that democrats have across the board and in an historically difficult year is, they have very good candidates and particularly in michigan, very good candidates and a ton of money, and the democrats are pretty much, the gubernatorial candidate, outraising the republican counter parts across the board. in michigan and pennsylvania, you have two really great stars that are very well suited for the states that they are running in. with both whitmer and fedderman. i've never seen so much fun running a senate race. and the other thinking, i think a few months ago, i might have thought they were in a tough spot, but abortion, jan 6, and guns, they may be marginal issues, but they may be marginal issues that get those two candidates over the top. >> coming up next, how republicans may just manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. with some of the extreme candidates the party has nominated in key races. our special look at the critical midterm elections, now just 100 days away, continues after a short break. ys away, continues a short break.