Enthusiasm among likely voters with the Midterm Elections just 23 days away. Nc well have a live report just ahead. I want to begin with that voter enthusias enthusiasm. 77 of voters surveyed say they are certain they will vote those elections. Compare that to october 2014, the last mid terms. Thats up 12 percentage points. 54 surveyed say they disapprove of the president s performance. Tonight an interview airs on 60 minutes. Here is one interesting exchange. The president was asked if james m m mattis is going anywhere. Will more people go . I have some people im not thrilled with and i have other people im beyond thrilled with. He may leave. At some point everybody leaves. People leaves. Thats washington. Thats washington. Joining me is jeff bennett. Jeff, let me start with you and ask you for your take away that we saw today, how does that enthusiasm translate to the midterms here three weeks from today. Reporter officials here at the white house, at least sources ive talked to who advise the white house feel pretty good about those numbers. Im told that the president does want the midterms to be a referendum on him. He thinks this is a fight he can win. He told his supporters on the campaign trail that if democrats take the house and senate, it means no border wall, no more conservative justices. Even a president ial impeachment should democrats choose to do that. Hes deploying the key tenent of trumpian politics which is to reduce everything to a partisan choice. Youre with us or against us. The president s advisers think that worked well in 2016, they are deploying the same strategy in 2018. I want to ask you about the gender gap. This is something you have written out recently. Its wide and getting wider. We have seen gender gaps before. Different pry yiorities are important to them. Weve never seen one that looks like the one well see in three weeks. More likely to support the idea of impeachment and much more likely to say they will vote for a democratic candidate than a republican one. We hear about the kavanaugh effect. That is not netted out the data we saw today. Whats your sense of how that will drive voters to the poll come november . I dont think we really know what the kavanaugh effect is except to say its definitely energized both democrats and republicans. I think well see this in the senate races because its the senate that confirms judges. President trump has made appointing conservative judges a hallmark of his administration. Youll see republicans campaigning saying, look, youve got to keep the senate in republican hands because we need to control judicial no, maam nei no, maminations and youll democrats say we had a travesty, in their opinion, we need to put democrats in charge of the senate. Unlikely the democrats will take the senate. I think that the bottom line is that the kavanaugh effect is to just gin up enthusiasm among voters of both parties and were also seeing that reflected in the polls as you mentioned. I suspect maybe a relationship between the president s Approval Rating ticking up and the media blitz screen hes put forward. He will appear on 60 minutes tonight. Whats he trying to do here . As we reported at the daily beast this past friday, the fact youre seeing the president crop up not just on the Campaign Trial but across different tv networks and publications he doesnt do as much as fox news is no accident. In midseptember, he told some of his top advisers including Sarah Huckabee sanders and bill shine that he didnt think he was doing enough tv or print interviews. He wanted to do something akin to flooding the zone in leading up to the 2018 Midterm Elections. Were not sure if him doing as many interviews as possible will amount to anything much more than president ial therapy for him. If it will translate anything to akin to getting his message out or drive republican enthusiasm. He and his closest advisers know the closest thing they have is the wave of democratic enthusiasm. Even if it doesnt retake the senate, it could launch to a democrat house with subpoena after subpoena seriously hobbling his second part of the term. These are national numbers. You look at elections for senate and governors for states across this country. Its an interesting question. President trump will be on the stump this coming week. Hes going to three states in support of republican gop senate candidat candidates. Hes going to try to help the republican who is trying to unseat the two term incumbent john tester. Her own political life had to cling closer to donald trump and refashion herself as a trump supporter. The consequence of that is that race between her and the democrat is seen as a toss up. Later in the week he goes to elko, nevada in support of dean heller. In fighting for dean heller, donald trump is fighting for his own political future because hes made clear what would happen if democrats take back the senate. That is refashioning once as a trump supporter. Last night you had Mitch Mcconnell on stage in kentucky. The president calling him a tough cookie. Embracing him on stage in kentucky. Whats your sense of degree in which the president is helping as we look at these races going to the election . With President Trump tough cookie is high praise especially with a guy with whom he was very critical of Mitch Mcconnell after the debate over repealing the Affordable Care act didnt pass. Theres only trump republicans. It seems to me every republican just about running in this country fashions themselves as a trump republican. Thats a real switch in just two years. A degree to which President Trump has become the face of the Republican Party and has injected himself in a Midterm Election in a way that we have not seen previous president s do. Just went through the schedule that the president has. President s with Approval Ratings of only 41 do not spend four or five days a week out on the stump. Were seeing this president doing that. Turn out this year, its always about turn out when you look at the midterms. Lets look at texas. Voter enthusiasm nonwhites, 72 in this survey. It was 48 in 2014. Turn out is important. Its democrats who are counting on an energized voter race especially minorities, young people and women. Those are groups that traditionally dont turn out as much. They also dont turn out as much in midterms. Democrats will need to boost that enthusiasm to get their candidates across the line. You raise the cruzbeto orourke race. Hes trailing in the polls. They will need all the help they can get. Lets put a bow on the week, i dont know if you watched what happened in the oval office when this newly freed pastor came in. Theres a circus quality at the oval office this week. With that going back to kanye west visit just a few days previous. Absolutely. That feeds into what the president of the United States has been trying to do with these past couple of weeks and with the weeks forward in terms of the upcoming elections. He wants to command as much attenti attention, particularly on cable news. Hes engineering these different events including the kanye west press in the oval office because his rallies just arent getting the tv time that they used to in terms of uncut and carry ied without abbreviation. What is the sense of how that went . Was that a victory for the president . It was in this way. I was talking to someone close about this. Someone called him a racist. Hes now able to point to two prominent black supporters, kanye west and jim brown who sat across the resolute desk in the oval office. If he ever needs to bring up any two names, he can go back to that moment. In this discreet, political way it was a win setting aside the nonsense that kanye west disputed and all the the questions that resulted from it. It was a whole lot of that. Big thanks to all of you on this sunday afternoon. Coming up, burning questions. What the president s legal team is reading to answer that perhaps more tellingly what questions they are not expected to be asked. Re not expected to be asked. These people, they speak a language we cannot understand. [ telephone ringing ] whoa. [ indistinct talking ] deductible . Definitely speaking insurance. Additional interest on umbrella policy . Can you translate . Damage minimization of civil commotion. When insurance needs translating, get answers in plain english at progressiveanswers. Com. He wants you to sign karens birthday card. Its a high honor. Discover. O. Ants you to sign karens birthday card. I like your card, but im absolutely not paying an annual fee. Discover has no annual fees. Really . Yeah. We just dont believe in them. Oh nice. You would not believe how long ive been rehearsing that. No annual fee on any card. Only from discover. Introducing fidelity stock and bond index funds with lower Expense Ratios than comparable vanguard funds. And we now offer the industrys first true zero Expense Ratio index funds directly to investors. Plus, we have Fidelity Mutual funds with zero minimum investment. How many other firms give you this much value . Absolutely zero. Why dont they do what they say say what they mean baby, one thing leads to another welcome back. Right now President Trumps legal team is working on the answers to a series of written questions from the special counsel. That comes after months of back and forth between the two of them as the president continues to deny theres anything for him to talk about. Are you preparing written answers for the special counsel team . Are you preparing . I dont talk about that. I just say this and Everybody Knows it, no collusion. There never was. There never will be. F the real story may be dw questions they are not tackling. Barbara, let me start with you. I want to pull out a piece from Jonathan Turley who teaches law. The argument he makes in the piece is he doesnt think will be a charge of obstruction. He outlines three reasons why that is. The first has to do with the criminal code. None of the allegations raised fit within the criminal code. He points out if Robert Mueller were investigating obstruction, he and Rod Rosenstein should have removered themselves. The third thing is bob mueller didnt ask about obstructions in those questions we have seen leaked from the lawyers. Your reaction to this. We can take it one by one. Lets start with the criminal code and the difficulty of charging one with obstruction. It is a difficult charge but it is charged from time to time. Not infrequently. What you have to show is someone attempted to impede an investigation and they did so with a corrupt intent. I disagree with professor t turleys argument that the president cannot obstruct justice. I think you can if the facts bear that out. The other two arguments he makes are interesting. One is that Rod Rosenstein did not recuse himself. He did draft that memo that President Trump based his decision to fire jim comey. I dont know thats dispoz positipo dispositive. It may be a calculation by Robert Mueller in which trumps team said we will not answer questions about that. He is locking him into whatever he can get. Giving President Trump a chance to tell his side of the story so he can move on with the investigation whether it does or does not include investigation. I want to get your read of where we are at this point. Weve had no shortage of reports over they are. The source more often than not is the not the special counsels office. It comes from lawyers representing the president of the United States. Your reaction to this. The latest reporting of what the legal team is tackling. Its hard to know what to credit when youre only hearing one side of the story and thats the side from the president s lawyers. They have an obvious agenda because they are playing to cou to the court of Public Opinion and not the court of law. What is bob mueller want from an interview with the president and what does bob mueller need from an interview with the president. What he wants, i suggest, is more evidence and direct evidence of the president s intent when he was engaged in certain conduct. That is when you asked director comey to lay off flynn, what was your purpose . What was your intent . What was your motive . When you went onto fire director comey, what was your intent, purpose and motive . Its always better to have direct evidence rather than circumstantial evidence. I think thats what bob mueller wants and the other thing that he wants is to give the president an opportunity to have his side heard which i think is going to be important once bob public scho mueller tips his hand and discloses his findings. Then hell be able to say i gave the president the opportunity to be heard. What does bob mueller need out of an interview, i suggest he needs relatively little because hesita hes elected up so much information about what the president has done. Every tweet is evidence of his intent that koulcould be used against him. I suspect he doesnt need much to wrap up his i venvestigation this point. Bryan kemp is running for governor, secretary of state has called into the rquestion the registration of some 53,000 africanamericans. Without question its modern day Voter Suppression. This goes to the question of was there a discriminatory intent of creating the exact match law. We dont know that. We know its had a discriminatory impact given the percentage of africanamerican voters. Now knowing that kemp is in charge of this Voter Suppression initiative while being candidate for governor. If it stinks, it stinks. Thats whats going on in georgia right now. David, this is a two decade strategy, if you will, really sin since the advent of Newt Gingrich when republicans began to focus on state capitals to figure how to jergerrymander ant protects republicans. Barbara mcquaid was talking about this suit against bryan kemp. Lets listen. The challenge is twofold. One is that we know this is a flawed system that has a disproportionate affect on people of color. It had the ability to erode trust in our system. This has been a theme over many months here many the u. S. Kwha whats your sense of the case thats being argued here. The brief that was filed in georgia. The idea of eroding trust is matter of Public Policy and a matter that voters ought to care about. Thats what theyll be looking for is a violation of equal protect they can argue. If they can show an impact on special groups. In this case africanamericans. They may have a case there. Its part of a larger trend we are seeing across the country, an attack on voter rights. When one Party Controls the state government, they also have the ability to change voting districts and gerrymander wing ways that can skew the outcome of leks. Elections. This is part of a bigger issue. This is part of a bigger issue. This is part of a bigger issue. This is part of a bigger issue. This is part of a bigger issue. This is part of a bigger issue. This is part of a bigger issue. This is part of a bigger issue. This is part of a bigger issue. Thats where i want to go with david jolly. Theres a piece in the washington post. The headline is Midterm Elections are likely to change the calculus for post2020 census redistricting. You were talking about state capitals a moment ago. Help us understand whats at stake here. Whats at stake in redistricting. This happens every ten years. Congress has influence over the census bureau. I served on the committee with oversight. Ten years ago it was to sartarv the bureau so they couldnt get the most accurate information. The current debate is ask over someones current citizenship. You create a fear over the minority communities so they dont answer the census. What that does is we dont have an actual census of the size of the communities. As a result, those numbers get translated to proportionate reputation and you naturally have fewer people of color counted. It would seem to benefit republicans. This is p nnot a new strategy b donald trump. Its being aggressively pursued by the Trump Administration now and congress is supporting that, republicans in congress. The fall out from Hurricane Michael continues across the southeast. 19 deaths are being blamed. What did you see along the way . Whats the scene look like there . Reporter david, smaller cities in the panhandle are also left utterly devastated. I spoke with the mayor earlier today. She tells me 95 of the homes here were damaged. In these circumstances is when you start to see communities ban together through resilience and hope. Its really remarkable what we have found here. This is a Community Led effort in the back of their city crumbled hall where thousands of people are lining up for food, supplies. This is all community organized. We have seen thousands of people sign up for temporary shelter, tsa vouchers. Its incredible to see people you ni unite. Mexico beach, theres nothing left. So many areas are lit just as hard. There are people stuck in homes. My son had somebody come up to him yesterday saying help my find my dead sister. Theres old people stuck in homes far out. We had a small group of people all the way from south walton up to bade said enough, we need help because these people are being forgotten. All they talked about on the news was mexico city. We came here and people were stuck in homes. They are still trying to saw people out. We fleneed everybody. We need all the help we can get. Im grateful to the president he is sending everything. Im proud of him. As he comes here tomorrow, what is your message to him . Please dont give up on us. Dont leave in week or two and say we have fema here. I understand they take days to do things but the problem is you have to fill out paper work. You have to do all these things. Thank you. I got to let you go. Thank you for the work youre doing. Please everything, send everything.