Trump Is Running Out of Time to Fix His Economy

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: MSNOW chief political reporter Chris Jansing, former White House reporter, a longtime friend, Ron Fournier is here. And University of Michigan economics professor, we usually do it long distance with Justin Wolfers. We decided to come see you in person. Justin, appreciate your being here. Chris, I want to get to what the president was just saying. He is saying that he'll accept the results if they are honest. Now, let's acknowledge that he is at the same time preemptively trying to sow doubt in what's happening in Alaska, in California. You pick the state, there are already efforts underway. What are you hearing from people here and what are sources telling you about the preparations and the concern? [00:00:31] Chris Jansing: I've been following this since early in the spring and even before that, remember, when the FBI did the raid in Georgia. And so, look, this is something that elections integrity people, folks who work in this field, have been talking about for a long time. It's why there are record numbers of lawyers all across the country who are ready to go. But since we just got this quote from the president, I wrote to the head of Fair Fight. That is a national organization that was founded by Stacey Abrams in Georgia, but is looking in particular at, obviously, the states, the battleground states like here in Michigan, where there will be very close races. This is a quote. This is what she just sent me reacting. This desperate president is wielding the DOJ like a weapon against the American people, but the voters will have their say. Now, this is founded in a confidence that they have been gaming out for months, literally months. They have been gaming out what they think is every possible scenario of ways that state officials and the federal government might try to interfere. They feel like they're ready. This doesn't surprise them. It does, however, concern a lot of the voters that I've talked to. [00:01:41] Speaker 1: Well, I want to ask you about that, Ron. First of all, I'm glad to see you here. You've been a good mentor to me from Long Distance Covering Politics. Welcome to you, Frank. Thank you for having us. So I want to ask you, she said the final say will come down to the voters. You live further upstate. You made the long road trip down to be with us here. You've chatted with a lot of those voters that you've known for years. And what are you sort of gleaning from those conversations, and what are you watching moving forward? [00:02:01] Ron Fournier: I spent about half my year in northern Michigan, in one of the Trumpiest counties in the state. And what I'm seeing is what is reflected in the polls, that about one out of every five Trump voters is dissatisfied with the president's leadership right now. Those voters are either staying home, some of whom I know are actually voting for Democrats this time. So that's a problem that Mike Rogers is going to have. Of course, he's trying to play the race card. He's trying to play on people's... [00:02:28] Speaker 1: Does that resonate? Is that working? [00:02:30] Ron Fournier: Yeah. There's a poll in the Detroit Free Press today that shows about 38% of Michiganders say they're unlikely to vote for a Muslim. Now, here's another thing. 52% of Michiganders say they're unlikely to vote for somebody who's been endorsed by the president. [00:02:42] Speaker 1: I'd rather have Abdul Syed's cards right now than Mike Rogers. Justin, let me ask you about this, because at the end of the day, this is all about affordability and the economy. The president, you know, who said the war would end in four to five weeks, is now saying it'll end shortly after the election and gas prices will just come plummeting down. Folks in Michigan, I've said this once, it's worth repeating, are paying 30 cents more a gallon now than they were one week ago and $1.70 more than they were just a year ago. At the end of the day, is the economy what's going to drive it? And is there any reason to believe that the president could turn this around with the flip of a switch like he claims? [00:03:14] Justin Wolfers: Look, the president's trying and he's not making any headway whatsoever. If you look at what's going on in the oil markets right now, if you haven't liked the last six months, guess what? It's not getting better anytime soon. I also want to come back to what you were talking about as well. Yes, the economy matters and cost of living affordability is very much at the front of people's minds. There's also faith in whether this president is executing economic policies that are good for people like us. Yeah. And I also want to take this democracy conversation and say that's also an economic issue because if we, the people, don't have the ability to kick the bums out when we're being misgoverned, that's not just a question of ethics and democracy. It's also going to affect our backpuffets directly. [00:03:55] Speaker 1: Chris, at the end of the day, this is a turnout race like every other race in the country. It's the biggest cliche in covering politics. But here, this state, there's so many different communities that matter. And one that we were talking about is young voters right now. Bernie Sanders was there in Ann Arbor just yesterday trying to help give Abdul Syed a little bit of a bump right now. Is that something you're watching? What sort of community are you watching in particular that you see as sort of a data point? [00:04:20] Chris Jansing: The people I talk to who operate, and you know this, they're looking at the breakdowns. They know that early voting is strong, but they also know it's strong 65 and above, people who are in their late 50s, early 60s. The smallest number, which is low single digits, is young voters. We know that young voters tend toward Democrats. We know that the reason Abdul Syed was able to win the nomination against the odds is because he had literally an election army of young people all across this state who were working for him. I saw them. I met them. They were fired up about the idea of extreme change. Now we have to wait and see, will they turn out? Now, it's also true that young voters often do vote later. Older voters vote earlier. But it is something that the people I've talked to over the last couple of days looking at these very early, early voting results are a little bit concerned about. [00:05:15] Speaker 1: Before we go, the key, Ron, the key thing, what specifically are you going to be watching with your expertise in this waning week? [00:05:20] Ron Fournier: I'm going to be watching what happens to these late deciding voters. It's really been alarming if you're a Democrat to watch this race tightening the last couple of weeks. Is Abdul Syed going to be able to get out large numbers of young voters or do they stay home? Will the voters who voted for Donald Trump vote for him this time? Will people who are prone to the race card let that race card, let themselves be exploited by hate again? That's what I'd be watching for. [00:05:45] Speaker 1: Last thought, Justin, for you. What's the one thing you think could drive things in the final week? [00:05:49] Justin Wolfers: Mate, I yesterday was teaching 500 bright, shiny faces at the University of Michigan and those young folks go blue. Those young folks, they're talking about all sorts of issues, the intensity and passion with which they're watching things. If you feel jaded about our democracy, come and meet the young folks. They were talking about AI. We spent the other day talking about international trade. They're excited to talk about inequality. They take this seriously because this is their future. [00:06:15] Speaker 1: Guys, this has been a pleasure. Ron, always good to see you. Justin, thanks for being with us. Chris, go way back. Go Ohio State. Hey, careful, careful, careful. We'll save that conversation for a future road trip. [00:06:24] Chris Jansing: I ultimately have to go home. [00:06:26] Speaker 1: Thank you for spending this hour with us. A huge thank you to the big city of Detroit and the folks here at New Lab and Michigan Central. We appreciate you hosting us.