On this “Face the Nation” broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan:
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Rep. Maxwell Frost, Democrat of Florida
Anthony Salvanto, CBS News director of elections and surveys
Click here to browse full transcripts of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m Margaret Brennan in Washington.
And this week on Face the Nation, we will get a new poll on where the presidential race stands in the final weeks before the election, plus new concerns over disaster funding after two major hurricanes hit the Southeast in recent weeks.
Vice President Kamala Harris returned to North Carolina for a second time in two weeks, packing supplies for hurricane victims and campaigning in the all-important battleground state still cleaning up from Hurricane Helene.
And on the heels of Hurricane Milton slicing through Florida last week, communities across six states now face a huge price tag to rebuild.
We will get the latest from Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas.
Meanwhile, as former President Trump tries to make the storms a liability for his opponent…
(Begin VT)
DONALD TRUMP (Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate): Biden and Harris have done a horrible job on North Carolina and some of the other ones.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: … we will check in with House Speaker Mike Johnson on disaster relief, the campaign and more.
Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost will also join us.
And as the campaign enters the homestretch, we will take the temperature of voters in a new CBS poll and get their thoughts on the future of the country in a focus group interview.
It’s all just ahead on Face the Nation.
Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation.
With just 23 days until Election Day, large portions of the Southeast are in recovery mode. And presidential candidates are campaigning from coast to coast to get out the vote.
Our new CBS News polls shows the race for the White House remains a toss- up, with Vice President Harris up just three points over former President Donald Trump nationwide 51 percent to 48 percent. That’s one point tighter from last month. Among voters in the seven battleground states that will decide this election, it’s just a one-point difference 50-49.
Meanwhile, repair and cleanup efforts are under way in both Florida and North Carolina, where more than 260 deaths have been blamed on two major hurricanes. President Biden is in Florida this morning surveying the damage. Vice President Harris will hold a rally later in North Carolina.
And we begin this morning with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Welcome back to Face the Nation.
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS (U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security): Good morning, Margaret. And thank you for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, you oversee FEMA. There is still seven weeks left in hurricane season. FEMA’s director says they’ve already used nearly half of the $20 billion in disaster relief Congress allocated to them.
But the speaker of the House says FEMA has plenty of resources, they have been slow to respond and that FEMA hasn’t actually distributed the money. Can you clear that up?
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Margaret, FEMA has the money to address the immediate needs of individuals impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, but we need Congress to act swiftly to fund FEMA, and specifically its Disaster Relief Fund, because hurricane season is not over.
And, also, seasons are less and less important now, given the effects of climate change and the increasing gravity and frequency of extreme weather events. And I should say, FEMA has not been slow at all. It already has distributed more than $470 million in relief to individuals impacted by Hurricane Helene.
I take great pride and this nation should take great pride in the extraordinary work of our FEMA personnel and all first responders.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, this is obligated versus distributed. That’s where you two are sort of disagreeing with each other, but – it seems.
But, before Hurricane Milton hit, you said October 2: “We do not have the funds,” FEMA doesn’t have the funds, “to make it through the season and what is imminent.”
So, if another hurricane hits before the election, are there funds to deal with that kind of emergency situation?
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: We will address the immediate impacts.
But, remember, immediate impacts speak of immediate needs, meals, potable water, and the like. But, also, we have to ensure that individuals can recover from these extreme disasters, such as rebuilding their homes, repairing damage and the like.
And so we need Congress to act swiftly to fund what should be a nonpartisan, apolitical phenomenon, and that is providing relief to all individuals with respect to the impacts of these extreme weather events.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, immediate versus rebuilding. So, you could wait until after the election? Do you know how much you’ll need?
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: We don’t. We don’t know.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: But we are still, for example, assessing the damage from Hurricane Milton, which is of historic strength.
And it also led to approximately 27 different tornadoes. So we don’t know the impacts. We don’t know what’s coming tomorrow.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: … whether it’s another hurricane, a tornado, a fire, an earthquake. We have to be ready.
And it is not good government to be dependent on a day-to-day existence, as opposed to appropriate planning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ve seen some dangerous misinformation being amplified online.
Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis hit back hard at some of these claims that, if you got help from the federal government, somehow, they’d seize your assets in his state. FEMA has been trying to counteract some of these lies as well.
Are you concerned when you see this and how widespread it is that it’s a preview of what’s to come with the upcoming U.S. election as well, attempts to manipulate people?
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Incredibly concerned.
And the misinformation – I should say it’s disinformation – false information deliberately spread to impact people’s behavior and perceptions, it is extremely pernicious. We have individuals in need of assistance who are entitled to assistance who aren’t seeking it because of the false information.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Who is driving it?
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Well, I will tell you what we need.
We need individuals, elected officials, people who have the platform to really debunk this false information. And we’re not seeing enough of that, and I find that to be incredibly irresponsible, and irresponsible to the people who are survivors of these extreme weather events.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have a big portfolio at Homeland Security. And, of course, the U.S. border is part of that. Border crossings are now at a low for the Biden presidency.
But our CBS polling shows 65 percent of Trump voters believe the Biden administration is trying to intentionally increase the number of migrants at the border. And among the people who do believe that, three-quarters of them say it’s because the administration wants them to vote.
And the Speaker of the House just told us that he thinks noncitizens are going to vote, even though this is already illegal under established law.
What mechanisms can you tell the public about that exist to prevent this from happening?
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: So, what a – what a powerful example of disinformation.
There is no facts underlying these assertions. They are extremely damaging. It causes people to lose confidence in the integrity of the election system. And we need people in positions of authority to actually communicate accurate information to the voting public. We – the numbers that we are experiencing now at the border are actually lower than they were at this time of year in 2019.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: And so it’s not just over the last three years, but well before them in the pre-COVID times.
And the notion, the notion that we in law enforcement have sought the – to intentionally allow individuals to cross the border illegally for the purpose of voting is preposterous, and everyone should condemn that rhetoric, everyone, regardless of party affiliation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, on the issue of the actions you’ve taken to bring these border crossings down, this was President Biden’s presidential power.
He’s essentially disqualifying most of those who are entering illegally from being able to get asylum. This was meant to be a temporary policy change. So you took this without having to go to Congress and change the law, in short.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: We took it after Congress failed to take the enduring step…
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: … of legislation, which was bipartisan in nature.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But – but, just in doing that, by doing this through presidential power, aren’t you essentially doing what Republicans said was possible throughout, which was, with the stroke of a pen, President Biden could stop all of this?
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: No.
And remember where we were. We were enforcing Title 42, the public health authority, until May of last year. We then sought from Congress additional funding, additional Border Patrol agents, additional Homeland Security Investigations personnel. They did not fund the Department of Homeland Security to enhance our border security.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: We sought that funding again, again rejected.
A bipartisan group of senators actually presented a…
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: … the most dramatic change in legislation in over 20 years. Congress was poised to pass it, and then politics got in the way.
Some people would prefer the problem to persist…
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: … deliver a solution for the American people. The president acted.
And, remember, we had to build the capacity to implement so successfully the president’s proclamation, and that is indeed what we have been doing month after month.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So – but on this issue of who is in the country I know, practically speaking, it is very difficult to deport, for example, to the country of Venezuela.
Donald Trump, on the campaign trail, talks a lot about a prison gang from that country, and he argues there’s already laws on the books that would allow for the Biden administration to dismantle criminal networks. He says he’d do it.
Are there those laws? You know, are you doing everything you can to combat this transnational criminal organization?
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Yes, we are. And I think you’re speaking of Tren de Aragua, TDA.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Margaret, I was a prosecutor for 12 years. We had criminal gangs to battle back then. We are indeed doing everything we can to dismantle criminal gangs and transnational criminal organizations.
And, quite frankly, we’ve devoted an unprecedented level of resources and personnel and focus to this effort. This is not a new phenomenon, but we are bringing new tools, new capabilities and new resources to the fight.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Can you quickly explain what the status is with this arrest this past week – or this prosecution we learned of this past week of this Afghan national who was apparently planning an Election Day terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS?
He was in this country. He had immigration status. Was he radicalized before he came to the United States?
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: So, Margaret, it is an ongoing prosecution, so I won’t speak of the facts.
But the viewing public is getting an idea of the breadth and diversity of the missions that we in the Department of Homeland Security tackle.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it gets to the issue of vetting versus whether he was radicalized here.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Well, remember, the individual came in through parole, an Afghan national. And when we vet, and we do so intensively, when we vet an individual, it’s a point-in-time screening and vetting process.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: If we obtain information subsequently that suggests the individual could be of danger, we take appropriate law enforcement action. That is exactly what we did in this case,
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood.
Secretary Mayorkas, thank you for your time today.
SECRETARY ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Thank you, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Face the Nation will be back in a minute. Stay with us.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We spoke earlier with House Speaker Mike Johnson.
And we began by asking him whether Congress will approve more disaster funding for hurricane victims.
(Begin VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have visited some of these disaster zones yourself.
And Punchbowl News quotes you as saying that Congress may eventually have to pass an aid package that could reach as high as $100 billion.
Last Sunday on this program, Thom Tillis, the senator from North Carolina, said to us he’d like for Congress to provide some certainty by voting now on aid and then come back after the election to do more.
Lawmakers aren’t scheduled to come back for another month. Why do you think it can wait?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON (R-Louisiana): Well, it can wait because remember, the day before Hurricane Helene hit – made landfall in Florida, and then went up through the states and wound up in Senator Tillis’ state of North Carolina, Congress appropriated $20 billion additional to FEMA so that they would have the necessary resources to address immediate needs.
And so we put that into the coffers. I just checked, Margaret. As of this morning, less than 2 percent of that funding has actually been distributed, right around 2 percent of it. So we need FEMA to do its job. That – those funds, that money is provided so that storm victims can have the immediate necessities met.
And then what happens after every storm is that the states have to assess and calculate the actual needs, and then they submit to Congress that request. As soon as that is done, Congress will meet and, in bipartisan fashion, we will address those needs. We’ll provide the additional resources.
But it would be premature to call everyone back now, because this – these storms are so large in their scope and magnitude, it’s going to take a little bit of time to make those calculations.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the FEMA director says there’s only $11 billion left from that $20 billion that was allocated. So, that’s a different accounting than this 2 percent you say was distributed.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: Yes.
So they’ve obligated some funds, but they’ve only distributed 2 percent. The rescue and recovery effort is still going on, and then we address the rest of it.
But FEMA was slow to respond. They did not do the job that we all expect and hope that they will do. And there’s going to be a lot of assessment about that as well in the days ahead.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But hurricane season, as you know, lasts through the end of November. You’re from Louisiana. You’ve dealt with this before.
NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is forecasting this could be one of the busiest seasons on record. So – so, why not get ahead of this? Isn’t it a bit of a gamble to wait?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: No, it’s not.
Margaret, as I just said, Congress can’t meet and just send money on a guess or an estimate of what the damages are. The way supplemental disaster funding is provided is that, you know, the state sends in actual needs. It’s assessed by Congress and then handed out that way.
But, again, remember, they have billions, tens of billions of dollars that were already sent to FEMA…
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: … one day before Helene made landfall. So they – they have plenty of resources.
And, in fact, the administration Secretary Mayorkas said himself, DHS – FEMA is a division – a division of Homeland Security – he said just a few days ago on his telecast to the media that they have what they need right now.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And that $100 billion is a correct assessment that you made?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: Well, look, that’s my guesstimate.
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: But, you know, I – I was on the ground in the worst-hit areas in Florida. I went where Helene made landfall. Whole communities are wiped out there. It’s devastating. It goes all the way inland. The agricultural areas are devastated by it as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: And then you go up to the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, it is a broad scope.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You are the speaker of the House, which means you are one of the officials with some say about the security situation leading up to January 6 and election certification.
Can you assure the country we will not see the violence that this country experienced in 2021? What are you doing to stop it?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: Yes, I don’t think we’ll see anything like that.
I certainly pray and hope that’s true. There’s a lot of great work that’s been done at the federal, state and local level to prevent the chaos that ensued after 2020, the COVID election year, when all the states were changing their laws and regulations without the legislatures approving that.
That brought up constitutional questions. There were all sorts of concerns about fraud and irregularity and all those things. The – the good thing is – and I think everybody should be encouraged that, since that time, most of the state legislatures went to work to shore up their systems to ensure that those kinds of things didn’t happen in the future.
And I think that that’s going to give us a high degree of certainty, and certainly hope that this will be a free and fair and legal election. Congress will follow the Constitution. I can guarantee you that. I have made a career of that.
You know, I have demonstrated it over and over and over throughout my life and as speaker of the House. And we will take care of this. So, everybody can – can have a sense of certainty about that.
Now look, there – there are members on both sides of the aisle who may object to slates of electors. That is commonplace now. In fact, Democrats have objected to slates of electors after every single Republican presidential victory this century.
So there’s nothing really irregular about that. And when people say that they’ve got to watch it closely, they’re saying that they’ll do their job. So…
MARGARET BRENNAN: But back in…
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: We’re going to have the peaceful transition of power. Yes, I believe President Trump’s going to win, and this will be taken care of.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But, back in 2020, you supported a legal challenge to the outcome of the election.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The Supreme Court rejected that attempt to challenge it. Since then, the Electoral Count Reform Act has been passed.
Are you certain that, at the nation’s Capitol, the lawmakers who you work with won’t be challenging the outcome?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: Look, we’ll see what happens. I can just tell you that we’re going to follow the law, and we will ensure that our colleagues follow the law the Electoral Count Act and the Constitution itself requires.
The reason for the objection in, you know, the last election cycle, in 2020, was what I referenced earlier, is that we had all sorts of changes to election laws in the states, and choosing electors, the mechanism by doing that under Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2, says that only the state legislatures can choose those systems.
So, when elections officials and secretaries of state and some state court judges and whomever, the governors, when they changed their rules because of COVID, they did it in an unconstitutional manner. And that was an important legal question. The Supreme Court never addressed it, because, remember, they just rejected all that on standing.
But we’re not relitigating what happened in 2020.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, and 62 legal – no, I’m not. But 60…
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: No, we’re talking about 2024 and…
MARGARET BRENNAN: Exactly. And 62 legal challenges, as you know, failed with the Trump challenges to the outcome.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: Yes, but not on that basis. Margaret, Margaret, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Not on that basis. That legal question is, I think, objectively proven to be true.
Obviously, everyone knows the legislatures weren’t meeting in 2020 because of COVID. So it’s Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2. Everybody, Google it and read. It says only the legislatures can make those rules.
But, look, I’m confident I can tell you, I think, this year…
MARGARET BRENNAN: But on the security picture…
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: … that’s not an issue, right?
MARGARET BRENNAN: On the security picture at the nation’s Capitol, what measures are you taking?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: Yes.
Look, we have an all-hands-on-deck approach on this. The Capitol Police and the architect of the Capitol and everyone have done extraordinary measures. They’ve hardened the facilities around the building to prevent anything in the future from foreign terrorists or anyone else who might want to, you know, try to invade the Capitol, OK?
That’s taken care of. But I think the greater issue and the bigger story is that you’ve had really great work done in most of the states to shore up their systems and to make sure that we have a free and fair election.
Now, look, as President Trump says all the time, and I agree, our side, what we say at the rallies, you’ve heard, is, we’ve got to make it too big to rig. I think that’s really important. I think there is going to be some cheating in this election. I think noncitizens are going to vote.
Look, case in point…
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know that it is against the law…
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: … Glenn Youngkin, the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia…
MARGARET BRENNAN: … for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. That’s established law.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: Of course it is. Of course it is, but – of course it is, but here’s the problem.
There’s a number of states that are not requiring proof of citizenship when illegals or noncitizens register to vote. We know that’s happening.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But, respectfully, Speaker, you…
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: We want – everybody should want the law to be followed
MARGARET BRENNAN: Absolutely.
Respectfully, Speaker, you both, in the course of this interview, said that you do believe that states have taken measures that will help the integrity of this election…
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: That’s true.
MARGARET BRENNAN: … and then you just also seemed to undermine confidence in the integrity of the state elections.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: No, no. Margaret, hold on. Wait a minute. Wait. Wait just a minute. It’s not me undermining it. It’s the actions of the Biden/Harris administration and some of these states.
Noncitizens are not allowed to vote under federal law.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, if your issue is with certain governors, shouldn’t you be talking to them?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE JOHNSON: We have been. We have been. And the Republican governors have done heroic work. They’ve done their own audits of the – their voter rolls to try to ensure and do their best duty to make sure that this we – this is a free, fair and legal election.
We’re calling on all the governors to do the same thing, Democrat governors as well. And Democrat-led states in the legislatures, they need to do the same thing. A lot of good work has been done since 2020, but there are still questions out there.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, thank you for your time.
We’ll be right back with a lot more Face the Nation. Stay with us.
(End VT)
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Florida Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost. He joins us from Orlando.
Welcome to Face the Nation.
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST (D-Florida): Thanks for having me on.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman, President Biden is in Florida today to assess damage from Hurricane Milton. At least 60 Democratic lawmakers, some from Florida, have called for Congress to immediately return to Washington to vote for aid.
You haven’t joined that call. Why?
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: I believe I have joined that call. But – but, if not, I do believe that Congress needs to return to make sure that we pass money for more aid.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But how immediately do you need that to happen? How in need is your community?
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: Our community’s very much in need across Florida.
But the thing we have to understand is, yes, FEMA has the resources necessary to deal with the current situation, but like was mentioned in the previous segment, NOAA is predicting and we’ve seen that this is one of the worst hurricane seasons we’ve seen. And we’re not done with this hurricane season.
It doesn’t end really until the end of November. And so I think it is important. Why leave up to chance when we can ensure that FEMA has the resources it needs, and not just FEMA. SBA also has a program, and different agencies have programs that help us to respond to these hurricanes.
Why would we leave it up to chance and wait until something happens, when we can make sure that we do that work now, especially when a lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are working at politicizing these storms, when we can actually do something about it?
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you need this vote to happen before Congress is set to return November 12, or you can wait until November 12?
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: I think we should do it as soon as possible. Why wait until November 12? We don’t know what’s going to be happening in terms of natural disasters or storms.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: I think it’s important that a agency like FEMA have even…
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: … not just what they need, but even more than what they need to ensure that they have…
MARGARET BRENNAN: I…
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: … the resources necessary, of course, to help with the current operation…
MARGARET BRENNAN: I have got to…
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: … which they have but also with future things.
MARGARET BRENNAN: … take a break here, Congressman, and continue our conversation on the other side of the commercial.
Stay with us.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation.
We return to our conversation with Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost.
Congressman, you are the youngest member of Congress, it looks like, and you’ve been on college campuses trying to shore up support for Vice President Harris. In our CBS polling from earlier this summer, before Harris entered the race, we did see, among 40 percent of young people who responded, they said politics over the last few years makes them feel like there’s nothing else they can do. Another 40 percent said they want to tune out and watch something else.
Young people may not be apathetic, but they certainly don’t seem to be excited about the political system as a way to effect change. How do you change that?
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: Well, I appreciate the question.
And it’s not just up to me, right? It’s up to all of our leaders, all of our organizers, people on the ground to make sure that young people understand that, if they step away from their civic power that they have, there’s people who don’t have their best interests at heart that are more than happy to step into that power for them.
I mean, you mentioned, you know, a number that comes before Kamala Harris being the top of our ticket. I have seen, as I have traveled this country – – did a back-to-school tour just a few weeks ago – a lot of enthusiasm and excitement around this election, especially with young voters wanting to vote for Kamala Harris.
And, you know, there’s this notion that young people are not being involved in the political system. And we can do better, but people should know that young people are voting at the highest numbers in our country’s history. 2020 was the highest youth voter turnout in the history of our country. 2018 and 2022 – 2022 are the highest youth voter turnout in a midterm in the history of our country too.
So we’re really – we’re trending in the right direction. We just need to continue to reach out to young people, not take those votes for granted.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. And there’s that question of enthusiasm actually translating to votes. You’ve said vibes don’t mean votes, I saw you say.
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: Mm-hmm. Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: On another issue that we know is of concern to the Harris campaign, I want to ask you about remarks that Former President Barack Obama made earlier this week.
He was speaking to campaign volunteers in Pittsburgh, and he raised the concern about low enthusiasm and turnout specifically among black men. He said – quote – “Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
Do you share the former president’s concern that this is a dynamic impacting the race? How much of an issue is it for Vice President Harris?
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: I think it is an issue with a lot of different voters across this country.
And it’s something that our country – you know, we’ve come a long way, as – in terms of women’s suffrage. We’ve come a long way in terms of making sure of equity in this country.
But there’s still a lot of this bigotry in this country in terms of sexism, in terms of racism. And we still have to work at getting over that. Those things are still here. They still exist in a lot of communities. And we still have a lot of work to do here.
And so I think President Obama was just having some very serious, tough talk, right, tough love, with a lot of – especially – he was speaking directly to young black voters, young black men specifically, and making sure that they understand, look, sometimes you have to take a step back and look at your own bias.
What’s the bias you have? What are the real reasons you’re voting against someone or for someone? Is it a legitimate policy thing, or does it have to do more with the vibe of something And then look more into that as well. I think it’s really important.
This, like, politics of vibes, we see it a lot here in Florida with someone like Ron DeSantis, who claims to be someone who’s for the people and for democracy, yet, every chance he gets, he acts like an authoritarian.
Then I go to voters who have family members who have escaped countries with authoritarian leaders, and I ask them, why are you voting for someone who’s emulating what your parents escaped, and they can’t quite explain it. It has to do with the vibes, with the atmosphere the politician has created.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
REPRESENTATIVE MAXWELL FROST: And I think we still have to contend with that as a country. And that’s what the president was talking about.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman, thank you for sharing your insights. We’re going to have to leave it there for today.
We’ll be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: For more on the race for the White House and our latest poll, we’re joined now by CBS News executive director of elections and surveys Anthony Salvanto.
Anthony, the polling show’s an already close race has tightened further. Why is that?
ANTHONY SALVANTO: Let me start by reminding people just how tight this is.
When you look at our estimates across each and every one of the battleground states, one after another is effectively even. So it’s a race that either candidate can and may win.
But one reason I think this week was highlighted is that you see how differently these candidates and their supporters define what is, not just what ought to be going forward.
Let me show you a couple of different examples. Start with the debate over hurricane relief. Trump supporters say that they believe hurricane relief is not going to people impacted by the hurricane. In fact, they accept the claim that FEMA money was diverted to people in the country illegally.
And Harris voters say speed of FEMA was just about right and that aid is going to people impacted. But that’s just one example.
Take another, the economy. Harris voters say that the economy is largely good. They say or are more likely to say that the stock market is up this year, that the U.S. has been adding jobs, Trump voters much less likely to say those things.
And one more example, the border. Harris voters say that crossings of the border, the U.S. and Mexico border, are down. Trump voters say that crossings are up.
So what that does is, it all underpins this idea it’s not just competing ideologies going forward. It’s different views of what is right now in the country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s no agreed-upon set of facts…
(LAUGHTER)
ANTHONY SALVANTO: Exactly.
MARGARET BRENNAN: … on things that are measurable, arguably.
So, if they get their information differently, who do these individuals trust to provide it to them?
ANTHONY SALVANTO: We started by asking people how much they use social media. And both camps, both Trump and Harris voters, do use it. They don’t necessarily trust everything they see on it.
But one thing they say is that they feel social media makes it easier for them to find people that they agree with. And that’s a reminder to everyone, when we look at the role of information, it’s not just that people are maybe getting right or wrong things or are steered in different direction. It’s that sometimes they very affirmatively go out and look for things that reinforce existing beliefs.
The other part is, look at sources of information. For Trump voters, Donald Trump is a trusted source of information, as much as their family and friends and more than a lot of what’s called experts. But they’re not as trusting across the board of all those things, whereas Harris voters also trust Harris very much, but they also trust other sources, like the ones that I mentioned, across the board.
One thing we saw that both camps share is, they’re concerned about foreign interference, that foreign countries are trying to influence them, the voters, to try to steer this election.
And what tends to happen is, each camp thinks that Iran, China, Russia wants the other candidate to win this. Where all this comes out is, when you look ahead, what happens after the results are counted, Donald Trump’s voters are more likely than Harris’ to say that his camp should challenge the election if he loses.
And they’re more suspicious that there will be widespread fraud in this election. That’s something, talk about different views of what is, that we need to keep an eye on once the race is over.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Interesting.
Anthony Salvanto, thank you.
ANTHONY SALVANTO: Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We will be back in a moment.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We spoke late last week with a group of voters from all seven battleground states to discuss the election, their outlook for America’s future and more.
(Begin VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: How many of you voters are going to cast your ballots for Donald Trump?
(SOME VOTERS RAISE THEIR HAND)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mary, you raised your hand. You are in the very important state of Arizona. What’s driving your decision?
MARY (Trump Supporter): Well, my decision is, I live right on the border in Yuma, Arizona.
And I know, in the last 3.5 years, we have had just horrible, horrible problems in Yuma with a lot of illegal immigration coming through. Our economy is awful. Yuma’s unemployment is 16 percent.
So the economy is a big factor as well, just a combination of things. Our groceries have gone up. Just – just everything has just really gone downhill in the last 3.5 years for us in Yuma and Arizona completely.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Cole, you are in Georgia, also a very key state. Why do you plan to vote for Donald Trump?
COLE (Trump Supporter): For me, I do not look necessarily at the candidate specifically, but just the broader party and the direction they’re hoping to take America.
For me, some of the top three issues would definitely be our economy, immigration, and then I would also say, as we have come out of the pandemic, just seeing how the two different political parties handled the pandemic.
I think Kamala Harris and the Democrats are a little bit too extreme on the issue of abortion. I do not support the idea of allowing abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy, and certainly not with no restrictions. And so I would prefer candidates who are more aligned with my pro-life position.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mike, you’re in Nevada. You said you will be voting for Donald Trump, but he makes it hard. He makes it hard for you to feel good about that vote.
Can you explain what you mean?
MIKE (Trump Supporter): There’s parts of Donald Trump which I admire and parts of Donald Trump which I cringe, for lack of a better term.
And in the debate, when he said – they just asked him, January 6, would you change anything, I think he had an opportunity there to step up as a leader and take some ownership. People went to jail. I think – I think that would have showed a lot of courage for him to do that.
So, I like things on the economy, tightening up inflation, yes, yes, and yes. I think those are the primary issues in this election. You know, as you get into the periphery and just how he conducts himself sometimes, it’s – you know, it’s hard to put a Trump sign in the front yard based on some of his behaviors.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you’re still doing it. Why?
MIKE: Well, because I’m a fan of the economy and a fan of success, right? I think there’s been – there has been no driver in the driver’s seat in our economy for the last 3.5 years.
And I think we have suffered mightily for it. That drives a lot for me. I don’t have to like people personally. I don’t have to agree with some of the stuff they do, but I have to kind of go for the greater good.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Christopher, you are in North Carolina. How are people doing there amidst the fallout from this storm? And what makes you an enthusiastic Republican right now?
CHRISTOPHER (Trump Supporter): I have always been enthusiastic Republican since I voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980.
I have been fortunate enough to be part of Trump’s ground campaign in 2016. And I met some very amazing people. I really, really like the maturation process that he’s gone through. He got his feet wet in 2016. He learned the hard way. He got tagged a few times. He stepped in it a lot.
It’s easy to look in the rearview mirror and say coulda, shoulda, and woulda. But when you’re in the moment, you make the best decision you can at the time. I trust him to do that. I trust him to make a decision.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But do you, Christopher, ever feel uncomfortable, like Mike said he did, with things that Donald Trump says?
CHRISTOPHER: At some times, I have.
But in this day and age, with the – what we’re being faced with the – on the global stage and the not-so-nice characters that will look for a weak spot in the United States of America to bring her to her knees, I’d rather have in a – in the ocean full of bloody water shark – great white sharks, I’d rather have an orca in there than Flipper protecting me.
And I know Donald Trump will get in there and he will fight for us. He may not say what we want to hear, but he will execute on our behalf. And it’s obvious. The man nearly – nearly died.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm.
CHRISTOPHER: He took a bullet for us and he got back up again. And you cannot dismiss that. And his instinct was to say, fight.
So, that right there tells me this man doesn’t – he doesn’t have to be there.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How many of you are planning to vote for Vice President Harris in November?
(SOME VOTERS RAISE THEIR HAND)
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to dive into exactly why that is.
Lynda and then Kathy, why are you supporting Vice President Harris for president?
LYNDA (Harris Supporter): I first voted for Reagan in ’80 as well. And all of my voting years, I was told character counts.
And as I look at Donald Trump, I either have to say character counts and not vote for him or say it doesn’t count anymore. I did vote for him in 2016. I voted for Joe Biden in 2020. And I will vote for Kamala Harris this year.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s interesting that you voted for Trump, then Biden. Now you’re going to vote for Harris. These are very different people.
What is driving your decision now?
LYNDA: I have listened to Kamala Harris and the things she has to say. I truly believe she cares about people. I think her life shows she cares about people. And she truly wants to work to make our day-in-and-day-out lives better now.
And I care about now, but I have grandchildren, and I care about what kind of a world we’re going to give them to build on as they become people to vote in the next few years. And, again, I go back to character counts. And Donald Trump is a proven liar. He has said and done too many things that I think should be disqualifying, from January 6 to those poor people in Springfield, Ohio.
They must just be terrified.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Kathy, you’re in Pennsylvania. Why are you voting for Vice President Harris?
KATHY (Harris Supporter): I hear and see the fears that people have just contemplating another four years with Donald Trump.
I don’t have anything that I can think of that I would say I agree with him on. And I, like Lynda, would say, to me, character counts. So Donald Trump is a no for me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What about you, Mauricio? You are joining us from Wisconsin.
MAURICIO (Harris Supporter): January 6, to me, is beyond unacceptable. That’s sacred territory that was stormed. He riled up that – it was not a protest. That was an insurrection.
The plans were to overthrow a legitimate election. That will never be tolerated, in my viewpoint.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you believe that Vice President Harris, if she is elected president, that she will be very different from Joe Biden? Or do you see her continuing the issues and agenda that he has pursued for the past four years?
MAURICIO: I’m sure she’s probably a little bit more liberal. But she would accept the results if she lost. And that’s big to me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Lynda, back to the original question I asked Mauricio as well.
As a Harris supporter, do you believe that the vice president would continue Joe Biden’s policies? Or do you think she has a different vision for the country?
LYNDA: I think she will do some of the things President Biden has done. And some of the things Biden has done has helped our country quite a bit.
I would like to hear more specifics of what she plans to do, but I would rather see someone want to give tax breaks to the middle class than the most wealthy people in our country, which is what Trump wants to do.
COLE: I just wanted to follow up on this idea of how a President – a future President Harris might or may not be different than President Biden.
And I will be honest with you. I do not envy Kamala Harris, because she has to defend President Biden, and she also has to kind of thread the needle of following his policies, maybe making some of her own.
Well, listen, there have been some failures in this administration. And I think whether you’re on the left or the right, you can hopefully see that. And, for me, some of those – those things off the top of my head were, we did not have a good withdrawal from Afghanistan, prices are through the roof for consumers. And we can debate how we got at that.
But at the end of the day, inflation is out of control. And there have been a record number of illegal border crossings under the Biden administration. And so I understand that she has to appeal to the base and she doesn’t want to alienate any Biden voters.
But it’s very shocking to me that there’s not one thing that she could think of that she would have done differently than President Biden.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Show of hands, who is concerned about the issue of abortion and reproductive health care going into this election?
(SOME VOTERS RAISE THEIR HAND)
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
Mary, you’re not raising your hand. You live in a state where abortion access is currently permitted up to 15 weeks. You’re good with that, where it is? It’s not a motivating factor for you, even though abortion will be on the ballot in Arizona?
MARY: The way I feel is that I’m more concerned about women’s health. And I think that we need to concentrate on prevention, prevention of unplanned pregnancies, not using abortion as birth control.
That’s the way I feel. I’m a mother and a grandmother, and I think that that’s what it should be. I think 17 weeks is a good amount of time. Now, of course, just like everyone else had said, rape, incest, problems with the pregnancy, things like that, of course, I can understand having an abortion, and you find out later in your pregnancy that something’s wrong with the baby.
OK, that’s a different story.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Would you, Mary, like to hear candidate Donald Trump and candidate J.D. Vance echo your beliefs? They avoid talking about the specifics.
You were very specific at 17 weeks. Would you like the candidates to be that specific?
MARY: At the federal level, and the reason why it was brought back to the states, is that different states have different feelings.
California is much more liberal than Arizona or Texas or Oklahoma or Georgia or other areas of the country. And just like Trump said, look at Kansas. Kansas has become more liberal than they used to be. And that’s very true.
But I – the main focus is women’s health. Women and what’s taught in schools, nothing anymore.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Kathy, you raised your hand that this is an issue that’s important to you.
KATHY: It is. I have daughters and granddaughters. And I would hope that the decisions of something that serious would be allowed to be made by them and their health care provider, not by someone sitting in a – on a bench or in a boardroom or wherever making that decision for them to be able to or not to be able to control their own body.
And it’s not realistic to believe, if you like this liberal law better, you – everyone can just move where they want to. Those things just aren’t realistic.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: You can see the extended interview on our YouTube page or our Web site.
We will be right back.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s it for us today. Thank you all for watching.
Until next week, for Face the Nation, I’m Margaret Brennan.
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