i'm told mccrae in doha. these are the top stories on al jazeera. you, as president joe biden says the midterm elections will be a defining moment for the fight of america's democracy. biden addressed to democratic railey and pennsylvania. he's been campaigning with form of president brock obama. vote his head to the polls on tuesday. raw folks, 3 day, 3 day. until one of the most important election. one of the board elections in our life time is good of shape. the outcomes are going to shape our country for decades. the gum and the power to shape that outcome is in your hands. it's a choice, a choice between 2 vastly different bridges of america. vastly different or former president donald trump has been campaigning for republican senate candidates minute ahl's. he took aim at top democrats, under vine pelosi schumer and the radical democratic congress. your commonwealth is being totally destroyed. our country is being destroyed, biden. and the far left lunatics are waging war on pennsylvania, energy, crashing pennsylvania jobs, gutting, pennsylvania communities and strangling pennsylvania families with soaring prices like you've never seen before. helen fisher has more on trans possible reasons for backing certain candidates. he believes that the republicans will do him a huge favor if they win the house in that they will stop the january 6th investigation. and it's only 24 hours ago that we were talking about at his legal, tim, ignoring subpoenas for documents and the fact that he was due to testify in the coming weeks there as well. so he would like to see a republican majority. iran has admitted to supplying russia with drones that are being used to hit ukraine. but it says they were delivered before the invasion began. you cranes, president has accused of lying about how many drones it sent to russia. moscow is demanding evidence that iranian trons we used in the conflict. meanwhile, jim and chancellor le schoultz says, russia must declare that it won't use nuclear weapons in ukraine. their mac wants which for east of life, and we are not kidding ourselves. russia is and remains a great military power, and russia has nuclear weapons, and that is precisely why it is very, very important that we say no. it is not allowed. it is unacceptable to use nuclear weapons. and this complet recall on russia to clearly state that it will not do this. that would be a limit that must not be crossed, that north korea has been accused of launching for ballistic missiles on saturday. the latest in a series this week. north korea is launches coincided with joint military exercises between the us and south korea. the allied to drills involved around $240.00 military aircraft. tony ching has more now from sol. it's clearly a reaction to, to the escalation we've seen initially with the north korean ballistic missile tests. then the escalation over these military exercises aerial military exercises, which have been happening over the last few days. i think the hope is now that the, the south african american area exercise is finished. that might bring an end to what we've seen as a, quite an escalation of test tensions in the region. but we remains to be seen. i think some military analysts here and solar are expecting further developments from north korea in the next couple of days. pakistan's prime minister has rejected them run cons, accusations, the government figures were involved in the attempt to assassinate him, shall sharif, says, the former leader is damaging the country with cheap conspiracies. sharif also pledged to resign if there's evidence he was behind the attack and protest isn't gonna capital calling for the president to step down. so ring inflation has squeezed families, budgets. presidents, no, not a cooper. auto has been hoping to get support from the international monetary funds . well, those are the headlines. the news continues here on al jazeera after the bottom line up next. oh ok. hi, i'm steve clements and i have a question which just a few days left before the mid term elections. will americans decide to punish the democrats or the republicans? let's get to the bottom line. ah. every 2 years americans get their chance to clean up all 435 elected members of congress and start all over again. but most of the time they just reelect the same folks, but some races while they're genuinely competitive and every cycle bring some fresh spaces. what could really shake things up? the next week is the party that controls the most seats in the house of representatives. 2 years ago at lean democrat, this time, most polls are pointing to a republican read wave taking over the senate. well, that's been evenly split and both parties are working hard to flip a handful of seats in their favor. even flipping one seed for either party makes a huge difference for president biden. well, it's sort of a referendum on his popularity, which is not so hot right now. if his party loses control of either house of congress, the senate, or the house, it'll make it almost impossible for him to pursue his agenda anymore. republicans are focusing on inflation crime and immigration democrats, on abortion rights, donald trump, and a functioning democracy. so what'll it be to day we're talking with grover norquist, a long time republican activist who founded americans for tax reform, which argues for smaller government. and amy, daisy, a veteran, democratic activists who was the c e o of the democratic national committee. during the 2016 election and currently had the signed institute a policy in politics at american university. thank you both for joining me. let me just start out with you, amy. say, you know where few days away from this one. i want our watchers to get a feel for is what's on the dashboard of the voter day. what. what do you see? and we've got republicans and democrats, we also have, frankly, a lot of independents that are out there. but what do you think are the big drivers right now? the passions, the anxieties that americans are feeling right? this is crunch time for anybody who's an operative and done the 7 days out. we have had 23. many people already vote early vote, so that small group that were, you know, everybody's trying to scare scramble to on election days. important. so, you know, in these key races, i think a lot of it's turn out, i mean to have 2 former presidents and a current president all go to the same state to try and make sure that as many of their voters are getting out is important. and this is the time where, you know, these candidates are making their last minute please to say we're, i'm the answer. i'm, you know, on these issues on the things you care about. i'm the solution for some of your biggest problems today. and so this is what's happening now. they're small, it's smaller than you would think. like you mentioned at a 4345 races in the house. really, the only have 30 districts, you know, in place be a lot about our democracy. and you know, you know, the competitiveness across the country, but you know, i think as you said, it's about, listen it's, it's not just the issues that matter. it's issues that motivate, i think, all issue matter. i don't think democrats don't care about the economy or don't care about inflation. it's what's going to motivate them and get them to the polls . and this is what candidates their teams and their you know, people on the ground or trying to figure out in these final dates. grover, i paid a lot of attention to polls. maybe i shouldn't have posters rock so wrong. but one of the things i look at is that, you know, weekly or monthly, you see things rise for a while. it was a supreme court decision on abortion really dented this country. now you see inflation, the costs of just surviving and gas at the pump. food at the grocery store is certainly an economic anxiety crime. the border and i'm just interested, as you talk, not just to the people you know out there. but as you kind of take us back, cuz i know you're both, you're, we're all junkies for this stuff. what do you think right now? are the passions that are driving a lot of americans that will be defining in this election, political parties and consultants, and the establishment press, all like to think that they can shape the conversation. and there been efforts early on there was an after say this is all about roe v wade. and that lasted until it was and for our, for our audience will be what it is, abortion. yes. the abortion issue. whether the sprint, whether abortion be dealt with at the state level or through the courts. and so there was an effort to make that the issue and that the challenges when people walk buyer drive by the gas station, or many gas stations every day. it's like a paid political advertisement to say, biden, and the democrats brought you higher gasoline prices before them. it was someplace else. and the same thing with inflation in general when you go to the grocery store . so you have an effort by the republicans who might wanna, we'd like this to be about this for the democrats about that. the rise and crime which has been taking place across the country, the day to day assault of inflation, wages growing slower than inflation and the collapse of people's life savings. and for when kazan irish, those have forced themselves on to the agenda. even though smart people go will, you should care about this or the presses you should be obsessed with us. people make up their own mind and those issues that matter are cutting against the deis this time. and that's the challenge that headwinds, the democrats face. can i ask you a question though, grover about the gas price issue, and i thought about it is the question of, do you expect the american public just to sort of be simply say ok, gas prices are rising. that's the fault of the president, or is it the fault of vladimir putin? is it the fault of a, an agent in the world that is weapon, ising energy, and creating that sort of dynamic. and if any thing, the release of strategic oil reserves and others was a response to that, i guess my question is, i know that the complexity of the strategic goal reserve is there and the americans may not see that that reflected in the price and the way they want, but i'm just interested in do we have to dumb everything down for an american voter or do you, do you tell them that there are certain points where the world is complex. you know, we've got climate change. we have, you know, a guy invading another country and that stuff matters. i'm just sort of interested in depth. well, i mean, politically going back to clinton and gore, the modern democratic parties. goal is to raise the price of gasoline and home heating oil and coal. so that to force people to use more expensive alternatives. so to raise the cost of energy in this, this is their stated goal. when the secretary of energy was asked, what's your plan to reduce the cost of energy? she laughed in the face of the journalist. we don't have one, you idiot. our plan is to raise the cost of energy. and the left has an interesting view of why that's a smart idea. and the american people have a hard time understanding why it's a good idea. and if you ask them what you willing to pay for for climate change, it's a much smaller number than they've already been asked to pay for. so the 2 parties are different. one one's low cost, abundant energy. trump was always talking about fracking and so on. and the others looking to shut down, tracking and drilling and make america less independent, which gives you put in and other people being in charge of the cost of energy. why is there not a greater sense that everybody's on the same boat, even if they have to wrestle over policy differences? well, listen, elections are about contrast government about consensus. so when you're in the middle of an election is about about, do you share our values, you know, do you share our opinions on these things? i don't think the democratic parties in the business of trying to make life harder for people and maybe they're long term strategy is something that they're looking at posted with the republicans or, but i think that's toxicity. this is it's, i think it's having less competitive places having less conversation. i think in an interesting way, these razor thin margins in places should we have these, we call them try factors where the governors office, the state senate in the state house or all of the same party having a diversity of ideas. and the power structure can only help with that. now we recently did a pull on at the sign institute that looked at impressions for 18 to 34 year olds. and this can be generational to, there seems to be there is areas that they do seek more consensus on an effect. the most striking thing that came out of that pull is that they think if they work together, they can actually solve younger folks younger, far more consensus range that, that's new for me. yeah. well, i mean, this is why we wanted to, you know, look into the poll and say that they, they, you know, they don't necessarily trust the institutions that exist. now they don't think the current power structure allows them to change. they think if they ban together that they can, and they think that that's important. now, there's still a lot of differences between even young, you know, republicans and democrats. but here's the other thing that i think is huge and what both parties have to look at. there's an anger, there's an anxiety, there's an angst out there and you have to tap into that. you have to say that you understand that that's the situation. and how are you the better party then to to, to answer that. but the other thing is, i think sometimes we suffer from on both sides of the aisle, is you have to be, you can't just be against something, you have to be for something. and so a lot of these candidates in the final day is they, they should be able to reflect that. and my, my final thought on that, which i'm very getting very concerned about, is that we're electing people who think the day after they're elected. that they only represent the people that voted for them, you know, once they're elected, they represent their constituency. and so i think we have to have conversations. they have to be more open to, to look at a lot of different, you know, variations when they come to the table. and hopefully people are rewarded rather than chastise if they reach across the aisle to have some of that conversation. grover, take your republican hat off for a minute, just be, you know, sharp, like what would you do to help buy and biden is about 42.3 percent approval, which is low. you know, it's your kind of, you know, at this moment, but i mean, he wasn't the thirty's before donald trump isn't very so we want to be careful that others have been in this, in this level and have come back. but and the disapproval, though is, is always a harsher number up about 54 percent. why when you've had infrastructure past and you had support in the american recovery act passed and you had the chip sag pass that was basically about american competitiveness. you had the student loan forgiveness program past why, from your perspective are his number so low, not as a republican. and if you were advising this president and his team on how to do better, so what would you advise him to do? don't do any of the 4 things he did. if you ask people how they feel about having their money taken to pay 14 percent of the public, many of whom are graduate school students who are going to be much richer than them all their lives. is that a good idea? no, it's a bad idea and it's an unpopular idea. we don't talk about it very much. the idea that we should do that give money to people to build chips here instead of somewhere else is it's been tried all throughout the world. it's leads to argentina . this, this, this not have international competition. and then having the government make these decisions. japan suffered greatly for having the exactly that strong that didn't work. the other one is the massive tax and spending program, which hasn't even completely hidden on the taxes yet. but you see the stock market and people's life savings way down as a result of those, those passing bills, if they do bad things is not a helpful thing to do. he didn't focus on the things he said he was going to focus on, or he didn't do the things he said he was going to focus on, and that's been expensive. he should go talk to his base because they still like him. amy, are your thoughts on that as well and will add on as you know, i, i listen to my friends in the progressive side. the issue it's powerful for them is this sense that american democracy is dying? we're feeding away and crumbling. there's a lot of focus on donald trump as an liberal autocrat about the january 6th attack on congress. and so i guess my question is, does maintaining a democratic rules based country get out voters? i mean, i think it's important. again, i'll go back to it might be an important issue for people, but i believe that they agree with the group. or if you, if you're faced with, you know, challenges for your family, for cost of living, what you need for to make sure that you're able to meet basic needs, good paying jobs. that's something that, you know, could be come at the forefront and it's not so you don't care about it, but it's about like when i'm going to vote and my vote matters, i want to make sure that i'm investing, you know, for a future that's good for me and my family. so i think candidates, democrats, you know, are figuring out ways to do this, you know, as well as republicans about how do we then share with them that, that were, that were the ones who are going to bring you down that path. it's interesting, you look at a race like, why homing, i mean, that became, you know, for list cheney this, this, let me test on democracy in a sense, in an interesting way. i watch for a little while the debate between, you know, the 2 opponents who are vying for this, you know, congressional to get through this congressional primary. and there wasn't a lot said about what they were going to do for my willing or what you know, what's going on. so i think these matters of democracy. we have a shared responsibility, both democrats and republicans to care about this. and certainly to, to say, there is a problem with january 6 and how are we going to do this? there are 2 things happening. one is during the lifetime of ronald reagan, the 2 parties separated out along issues of principal. there used to be republicans, you would raise taxes, they used to be democrats would cut taxes. they used to be republicans who it's joey gonzales to be democrats who wouldn't steer. you've got that's gone. ok. the democrats around the last pro life person out of office that exists parts of the catholics. so you've got to competing forces where they were being a republican, mean something on all the key issues being a democrat, i mean something on the key issue. go back to 19 fifties and sixties that were southern democrats who were conservatives. and there were northern republicans who were liberals that sorted out, the 2 parties, our principal parties. and so there's going to be much more partisan and all disagreements are partisan disagreements weren't partisan already. logical, but they weren't partisan before. the 2nd part is the 2 parties are fairly evenly split. okay, i mean, this is a huge difference for from 1932 to 1994 and the republicans capture the house and senate. the republicans were elected to control congress for 4 of 62 years. they weren't players. okay. there were the washington generals, and they never got to win ever and see at a one party state in congress which runs america. presidents come and go, they can start wars, but that's about it. otherwise, congress runs america, they raise taxes. they do spending from 94 on which i point out is when the republicans all signed the pledge never to raise taxes and kept that promise as the party that won't raise taxes. they've won congress 60 percent of the time, never to 60 percent. if you're a democrat, your idea of democracy is complete. democracy means we run the house and we run everything. all of a sudden they have to struggle to have a say in running government the way they used to do it for 62 years uninterrupted. in terms of congress, now they have congress less often than not, and they're about to lose it again perhaps. so there's a lot of angst there ran people stay, there's no democracy in the mean. my team's not winning. so is, is, where is the country? so polarized polarized right now that most folks are just going to vote, party line votes. and if, and if no matter who's running the franchise, of the democratic party or the republican party, and where are independence right now, what, what, you know, because i, last time i looked, ah, independent, still account for more republicans or democrats, you know, self defied. i'm just sort of interested in this arduous, she independent were party whose main issues carry the independence wins. okay, you got a carrier base, but you got to convince the independence that the issues you're running on matter. so some of the issues, abortion, and january, 6th, a fine for the democratic party. do they, when you independents, the republicans go, we want to keep your energy costs low. we want you to have more money. we want your 41 k to matter. that's an eat, that's a better sell for independent. so riling up. your base is one thing. but who wins the independence winds again? to what degree amy, are we seeing a precursor of the 2024 presidential race? so we're in mid term races. where basically, every, almost all these different local and state level seats are up and you know, all the house seats in one 3rd of the senate, but not the presidency. but is this a litmus test? basically for the 2024, whether it's biden and donald trump, is it going to be somebody like biden, and someone like donald trump in 2024. and that's what we're seeing as early 2012 shore. it is like underneath the underneath conversation for everything you, these are not to separate elections and a lot of respects because i think presidential politics is like chest, you make one move because the next 2 moves are gonna get you, you know, maybe where you want to go, so a lot of, you know, put on the line. i think you have somebody like a desantis down in florida who would say if he does really well in the election, does that position him in a different way for 2024? you know, structure. if democrats lose, you know, the house and the senate, what does that say about, you know, how they position themselves for the next national election? i think the question is to, is like, you know, you're going to have a lot of new members of congress. you know, in some of these districts across the country and how will that, you know, influence a national election that's coming. but there's so many factors that come into play for a presidential and, and again, just seeing how we, you know, go through to figure out who the nominees are. and i'll go back to something that you kind of mentioned, i think the other big challenges, the independence get to the site, a lot of general action, but they're not assigning who those candidates are that go on the ballot for the general lesson. we both have a problem in the parties. i think where we're seeing smaller entities decide who are nominees are in these in these things and party affiliation is that decreases and goes away. that can be challenging for both sides because what are the count candidates that are getting on the ballot and the general and are they representing the values of the party? and are they somebody that an independent can align themselves with steve for your international audience? everyone looks at the congress and the president that's vague, the interesting, they're going to be locked like this accomplishing very little in terms of moving the country one way or the other. right? 50 states are having elections, 50 governors, 7000 state legislators. and right now the republicans control most of the governorships and 30 of the state legislatures. and they have been shifting the playing field over the last several years. passing school choice across the country once considered a dramatic issue. homeschooling is to be a go to prison issue back in 1986 in $48.00 states. now it's legal everywhere. private schools are legal everywhere, and school choice is expanding everywhere. the 2nd amendment now, once really beaten up, now at the states, $45.00 states are passed. law say you can carry concealed carry permit. if you want to 27 states, you don't need a permit and you can carry if you want to. so on these and taxes, you've got a whole series of $24.00 states, red states, cut taxes over the last several years. and you've got 5 states voted to go to a single rate tax. now that progression, that's the single rate tax and the noise democrats state wanted to go to a progressive tax that was voted down massachusetts about to have a vote for the 6th time. should we go to a progressive and i'm back that if that path is, that's a very answering, if it fails, it's the 6 time liberal. massachusetts said no to a central tenet of the modern democratic party. well, let me ask you both quickly. some people have characterized this almost in the way that you did generationally, that there are generational change and also racial divides in the country. and i'd love you to tell me where this equation is wrong. where use the youth and those of color vote for the democratic party. the elder whites in america vote for the republican party. they seem to be doing well. but what does that not account for in terms of the dynamism of the modern, you know, stablish means groups aren't monolith right. so we can't look at the hispanic community as having all the same. a lot of people do a lot of people and to say that that's an issue with the democrats. but if you look at the shift panics, african americans, women, their persuadable voters, you can't, you know, you can say based voters like there's, they're not a monolith. you have to go to them and talk about the values that you have, the issues that you want at what, what, how you can make their lives better. and i think that's the big challenge. even young voters, you know, a young college age, you know, voter who decides to go to college versus somebody who doesn't. you know, these are all differences within these groups. and i think sometimes we treat them like a monolith, and that's a big mistake. and we have to think about how we're communicating with robert central or central mistake at the democratic party over the last 40 years is to treat mexican americans, puerto rican americans. cuban americans are all a spanish, or then they give them new names. a bunch of white professors go, we think will call you latin next and take that will tell you what to do and what to think. they did that to the black community for years, and that's getting tiresome. and the spanish committee is breaking free step by step ethnic group by ethnic groups state by state the spanish hispanic vote. the people whose parents spoke spanish that vote is different in every state. not just among the cities and the democrats were building this sand castle with something that didn't wasn't going to stay there. go over what was the book you wrote a few years ago, the title of the book, and they basically said, keep your hat, leave us alone. it was gun god and guns god and tax actually got awesome therapy. oh god was not there. what were the 3, keep your hands off for our money in our, in our guns, money and guns, and i, and i sort of think that, that was a very interesting thing for me because i'm just wondering, it was a sort of a libertarian ethic there. and you kind of look back and say, well, in one hand, what grover wrote, his really was precious, but at the same time you see a lot of republicans wanting to federalized their views used to be states rights. or we can see a battle within the republican party, a divide over when you have authority from the above forcing everyone to do so. and how's it going to go? you have a bunch of intellectuals who are unhappy that they have no original thoughts that they want to sell, but you have those guys over time, republicans do what revenue theory who black, that'll be great, not one. and we deal with this all the time that people want to come up and have the news of the universe in 20 fact, the modern republican party, the conservative movement, is made up of groups that on their vote, moving issue not all issue their vote living that low returns, but they vote living issue, they want to be left alone. whether it's their face, their guns, or their kids education or their money, or their life savings, or their taxes, or not wearing helmets or not getting shots or, you know, whatever it leave me alone, then you're in. and that, and that is a coalition that holds together because there's no conflict on a vote with an issue when you try and bring the other stuff in. could we steal money from him and give it to me? no, no, no, no. then you pushing people out of the circle, but we'll have to end it there. grover, norquist, presidents of americans for tax reform, and amy dacy, executive director of the sign institute, a policy and politics at american university. really great discussion. thank you both for joining us today. thank you. so what's the bottom line on one level, these elections are about 2 very different visions for america's future. one defined by donald trump and one defined by joe biden, but that's not necessarily what's on americans minds when they go to vote. they're thinking about their wallets and they see crime everywhere. some feel that america's border with mexico is out of control. others feel they have to save democracy, or stop trump or stop biden at all costs. and some are motivated by women's rights, the climate or racism, or all of the above. each party is trying to figure out what the voters anxieties are. and they're promising to fix it. on another level, they're already thinking about the 2024 elections where some sort of trump like figure will face off against some sort of biden like bigger if not those to themselves. but for now, this crazy mix of fear, pope and promises is the name of the game, at least for a few more days. and that's the bottom line, ah, counting the cold stay historic. come back to lula to fill the infidel willie that feed and happening poverty. central bank hike, interest rates, the tame inflation for japan. take the different approach. plus the dazzling rise of lab grinding time, answering the call on out there. in the light of the open seas heights at dark secret men forced to work without paying inflate for youth. but a glimmer of hope remained for the fickle from fishermen. as a group of activists stove deep into the illegal fishing industry, demanding justice and freedom ghost fleet, a witness documentary on al jazeera lou.