after the house speaker's husband was violently assaulted during a home invasion, we're told. what we know about his condition and the man maybe behind that assault. welcome, even, i'm neil cavuto and yet another busy weekend as we get closer to the midterms. but growing questions as to how the speaker of the house's husband could get so brutal brutally attacked in his own home. she was, of course, in washington. she's with him now in san francisco. mark meredith has more. >> reporter: investigators have yet to say what they believe motivated the attack, but police believe the break hip and the assault inside the speaker's california home was intentional. police say it was around 2:30 friday morning when 42-year-old david depape allegedly broke into the speaker's san francisco home through a back door. he was reportedly shouting where's nancy, but the speaker, as you said, was not there. she was in d.c. it was her husband that was in the house. investors believe 82-year-old paul pelosi was able to call 911 and also tried discreetly to let police know he needed help, but he was making the call without alerting the suspect. investigators are now crediting the dispatcher for realizing the urgency of the situation. >> she basically figured out that there was something more to this incident than what she was being told. her actions, in my opinion, resulted in both a higher priority kiss patch and a faster police response. i think this was life saving. >> reporter: police say upon arrival at the house officers found both pelosi and the suspect fighting over a hammer and even witnessed the suspect striking pelosi at least once. depape was taken into custody shortly after, he is expected to face multiple charges including attempted homicide, elder abuse and burglary. president biden denounced the attack in remarks last night. >> enough is enough is enough. every person of good con toscience needs -- conscience needs to clearly and unambiguously stand up against the violence in our policies regardless what our poll -- your politics are. >> reporter: paul pelosi was treated yesterday for a skull fracture as well as injuries to his right arm and hand. the good news, he is expected to make a full recovery but, neil, the speaker is back in california. he was supposed to be in tease for a speech tonight but she's, obviously, with her husband right now. neil: i was surprised, mark, and you probably know this far better than i, you know, that given the fact that she's second in line after the vice president for the presidency that security for her would be a little different both at her home in san francisco and certainly the capitol when she's there. that was not the case here. there's been a great deal of talk back and forth on the hill about beefing up security or at the very least for higher ranking politicians. do you know where that stands? >> reporter: there has been a lot of talk about that, but you can imagine what capitol police are saying because she's got multiple properties. it's not just her, but for anybody else in the congressional leadership. so obviously the priority has always been with the protectee, but there is going to be talk about what can be done, and we've seen this after the attempted assassination of brett kavanaugh if early in the year. you imagine there is a lot of folk because -- focus because so many of the leaders in our country are the target and, of course, their families as well. neil: mark meredith, thank you. surprisingly tight gubernatorial battle going on in new york right now with governor hochul facing lee zeldin. claim has been the dominant theme and has made it as close as it is in this notoriously blue of blue states. alexis mcadams has more. >> reporter: as early voting kicks off today, polls show the race for new york governor just continues to tighten. take a look at the laterrest quinn by back -- latest quinnipiac poll. you can see it there, 50% to 46% for hochul. that gap closing in a deep blue state as crime remains the hot topic. zeldin says he'll kick the manhattan d.a. right out of office for not doing his job and is trying to tie hochul's soft on crime policies to the rise in violence across the state. last night governor hochul talked to our local fox affiliate here in new york and answered several questions about her new crime-fighting initiative and addressed a controversial comment she made during the debate when she said she did not understand why crime is so important to her opponent. >> i didn't mean i didn't say crime was important. that's a mischaracterization. crime is very important. people are concerned about it. there's a lot of fear out there. but for that to be extrapolateed because i don't know why i are have to keep telling him why it's so important, it's because i already know. >> reporter: neil, she says she's running like an underdog as her lead windings, she's just energized if by the polling. she said she's not playing too close attention and is just keeping her eye on fighting and moving forward, neil. neil: thank you very much for that. the fallout from this whole crime issue right now with susan crabtree of real clear politics and david -- susan, first to you and the impact of crime that, you know, more in new york i would imagine, let's say, in georgia. but, of course, it depends on the district and where you're voting from, i get that. but in new york, it's end ended up being the defining issue. how big do you think it will be toward deciding, let's say, the gubernatorial race there? >> well, we saw -- [audio difficulty] quinnipiac poll 28% of people found it was the most important issue. so, obviously, that has definitely propoled -- propelled lee zeldin, and he needs to really -- he's doing worse in new york city, of course, as a republican. he needs to turn out those voters in suburbs and upstate new york. so i think it's still a competitive race at this point, but we have seen that last surg- [audio difficulty] if people don't feel safe to go out on the subways, people don't feel safe to -- neil: all right. susan, i apologize, but we're having some audio trouble with you. i apologize for that. i do want to go to david. this attack on nancy pelosi's husband has sort of brought this issue to the forefront again on both sides. i'm just wondering the national implications of that. >> you know, it remains to be seen, obviously it was a horrendous incident and, obviously, everyone's hearts go out to paul pelosi. i mean, nobody if should have this happening to them whether it be anchors, pollsters, politicians, whatever. i mean, this kind of discourse is uncalled for. it may polarize some democratic voters, but it also, you know, to your point about crime, you know, it may point to the a republican polarization as well in places like new york. neil: all right. guys, i want to thank you both very much. in the meantiming we've got lee zeldin here, this has been the signature issue for him. of course, he's been pounding the economy as well, runaway prices, the adverse or business environment as he's described it throughout the state. governor hochul has spoken on that. hay had ap e -- they had a debate last week. he's kind enough to join us now. congressman lee zeldin, thank you for taking the time. >> thank you, neil. neil: let's talk about this attack on paul pelosi. he's expected to recover but, of course, you're no stranger to violence and attempted violence. the fellow that tried to get you with some brass knuckle type quite, right next to you, then a couple of months later your daughters are at home, and through no fault of their own, they're caught in a stray bullet, you know, attack going on, a random attack right in your neighborhood. so you're familiar with crime and threats. what do you make of what happened in san francisco and what's happening in the nation's tone and temperament now? >> when something like that happens to me, when it happens to my family, when it happens to other people like we saw yesterday, it's a reminder that this can happen to anyone. i mean, here you have the husband of the speaker of the house recovering from injuries from an assault. my daughters was sitting there at home at the kitchen table on a quiet sunday afternoon just a but weekends back, and there was a drive-by, gang-related shooting in my front yard. two people were shot, laying down on the ground in my yard. this can happen to my family, it happened to my family, so there's a lot of new yorkers who realize it can happen to them. routines are changing, people's behaviors. maybe they used to ride the subway, they don't know. maybe they used to ride the subway with their yamaka on but now they take it off. there are individuals who when they do ride the subway, they're grabbing a pole or guardrail because they're afraid of being pushed onto the tracks. i live 1 hour away from new york city depending on traffic. in other parts of the state you have in the last few weeks people who have been killed from a dad going to visit his kid for a parents' weekend at maris college, he was getting a cup of coffee and checking out of the hotel, and there was a mother who was murdered just outside of buffalo a couple weeks back in front of her three kids, and she was so scared of being mored by this person, she was actually -- murdered by this person, she was actually wearing a bullet proof vest at the time she was shot. this is a way of life. new yorkers don't want to be told it's just a perception. they want boldness and and courage understanding this can happen to anyone whether it's for them, other people in their lives. they want to see d.a.s enforcing the law, they want law enforcement to be supported, and they want to roll back pro-criminal laws like cashless bail. neil: you know, you mentioned cashless bail, congressman. the suspect in this particular case in the attack on nancy pelosi's husband, this david depape, 42 years old, he was arrested on attempted murder and burglary charges. the fellow who attacked you on stage back in the summer, he's a veteran. he had some issues. he is to be released from custody in the matter of a few days into an alcohol treatment program. what do you think of that? he was not a arrested on trying to potentially harm or even murder a u.s. congressman, but he is going to be released from kansasty into a treatment -- custody into a treatment program and, i assume, free after that. what do you think? >> and i hope that he gets help. he's a veteran, he has mental health issues. i was told that he had alcoholism issues, and i hope that he gets the help. what happened -- neil: but you don't see -- there is a bit of a double standard there, right? i mean, a threat is a threat. >> yeah, no, and it's a really interesting case because the only reason why he was even detained this entire time was because i'm a member of congress. so on july 21st he gets detained. within hours he was released because of new york's cashless bail law. the defense then had to get involved in -- the feds had to get involved and charge him because i'm a member of congress. but if i wasn't, he would have never if have been detained at all. the feds wouldn't have been able to get involved with that charge. i just told you the story of the woman who got murdered just outside of buffalo. the person who murdered her was her husband who was charged with a slew of domestic violence charges. her name is keira hudson. her husband adam was are released on tuesday, and keira rah was saying you can't release him, he's going to murder me. the judge releases him on tuesday, on wednesday he murders her in front of the three kids. we had another story recently with there was two mexican kartal drug smugglers got -- cartel drug smugglers who were instantly released on cashless bail. there are other cities and states looking at whether it's d.a.s who aren't enforcing the law, looking at pro-criminal laws like cashless bail and thinking about emulating this elsewhere. so goes new york, so goes the rest of the country. so rises new york, so lifts up the rest of the country. and i would encourage every other state out there no make sure that you are not looking at new york's cashless bail law as a model, and it shouldn't be viewed as a republican versus democrat issue. even the mayor of new york, eric adams, says judges should have the discretion to weigh dangerousness. he's right but that's also not the law. neil: he also says this is much more a problem about guns and fire arms and, like governor hochul, has talked about restricting them. that's where you part company. >> well, i think that it's important to look at all the different crimes that are committed. there's more to be done with an illegal firearm, a criminal committing crime after crime after crime, i've said my first action is telling alvin bragg that he's being fired. there are people who are out on the streets who don't have a prosecutor in manhattan who's willing to hold these criminals accountable. so at our debate the other night, we were asked question after question about crime, and that's great. but you could see i was trying to do kathy hochul a favor. she hasn't yet spoke about the whole lock are up the criminal part of criminal justice, you know, putting handcuffs on the bad bays instead of on the justice system. and she responded by saying she doesn't understand why that's so important to me. and when she says that, it's really saying she doesn't understand why it's so important to everybody out there who's concerned about this issue. they want to support law enforcement, they want t.a.s to be able -- d.a.s to be able to do their job. if it stands for defense attorney instead of district attorney, go be a defense attorney. now, all sorts of crimes are being committed and we were just talking about illegal firearms, but we also is have people who are concerned about being thrown in front of oncoming subway cars, people being stabbed. that's an issue. people who are getting robbed, they're small business owners. it's happening all day long throughout the week, and this is just no consequences. and small businesses and larger businesses are folding up shop, and they don't have the people in government doing what they need to do to actually enforce these laws. and when alvin bragg came in, his day one memo, he said he wasn't going to enforce all different kinds of laws including fare jumping. the other impacts of these policies is now the mta wants to enact something called congestion pricing kathy hochul supports this plan, a new fee to get into manhattan, and we should be looking at this across the entire country, what's happening in new york. because as we look at what happened in london, it resulted in more congestion, ironically, and that's going to happen here in new york. they say they need more money for the mta. if you want more money for the mta, how about you improve rider shepship experience -- ridership experience instead of reaching into the pocket of the driver? there are economic consequences. there are the consequences of new yorkers leaving the state more than people fleeing any other state anywhere else in the country. and we have to turn this all around, and we have an opportunity just ten days away. this morning was the tart of in-person early voting. we're on staten island right now, rochester last night. we're working as hard as possible, and we're feeling great about the momentum, the energy. the issues are on our side, we're all in. and we're not going to -- [inaudible conversations] neil: congressman, you have made crime the central issue of your campaign. never theless, we learned that two years after endorsing donald trump the new york city police benevolent association has given $25,000 to your opponent, governor hochul. now, while they are taking no sides in this race, i don't believe -- and you can correct me if i'm wrong, sir, they haven't given you any money -- how do you feel about that? >> we've had over 50 law enforcement organizations throughout the state endorse us including the 50,000-member police conference of new york. if as far as the report that came out last night with the new york post story, i are have to tell you that's far less than 24 hours ago, and we have heard from a lot of nypd officers who are pissed off learning that their money went to kathy hochul who is pandering to these pro-criminal allies in the state legislature. listen, i come from a law enforcement household. my lieutenant governor, my running mate, is actually 25 years nypd. so hope my over the course of the rest of the campaign, you know, the decisions that get made up at the top of the leadership structure, it would be great for them to support us. but we have a very -- neil: so that decision on their part to give money to governor hochul, your opponent, that surprised you? obviously, they might if change their minds and give you money as well. they seem to be betting that she's going to win. it might be teague, but it's at some level you made it clear among system of your vocal supporters, it does. i know governor desantis is going to be campaigning with you later today, i believe, and i was just thinking of the battle he had with donald trump who's also backing you. how do you feel about that? i mean, i guess any support is great. you have two rising stars, already stars in the republican party, but they don't seem to flip over each other. your thoughts. >> we're getting a lot of support coming in. and it's not even just republicans. many a couple days, by the way, we also have jen youngkin coming in to new york. yesterday i was in the bronx with a democrat former state councilman, rubin diaz. there's a bun 67 of sitting and former elected officials all throughout new york city who are publicly endorsing our campaign. the support is coming in from republicans, democrats and independents, and the more the merrier. whoever else is out there and listening, get involved. this is an opportunity to save our state. so we certainly welcome max support. neil: i don't want to go back and rehash old issues, and you were one of 4 $147 -- 147 house republicans to -- but i i just was wondering if you lose this race as close as you've made it, would you accept the results? >> well, first off, we're not going to lose this race. losing is not an option. but just playing along with your question, of course. you know, any election that you lose, you concede. however, in ten days we plan on listening to a concession speech delivered by kathy hochul. neil: okay. is you've defended donald trump who did not accept that defeat. finish. >> yeah. so as i articulated in the past, which is something, as you pointed out, i till articulate today is that we're going to have other emergencies in the future. and the u.s. constitution statements that state the legislatures determine how an election is administered. and this is an important question for the future because what we need to make shower is that let's say it's a hurricane, it's a health emergency, it's some other type of natural disaster or some other excuse. you can't have non-state legislative actors deciding, in the future, that they're just going to change how that election is administered. you have to go through the state legislature. it's a constitutional question, and it will be an issue in the future. and by the way, election integrity going forward, looking forward, i happen to be somebody that believes regardless of whether your candidate comes in first, second or third that we should all always be with concerned about election integrity and finding ways to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. i'm in a city right now where they actually passed a law, a court overturned it, where they were allowing hundreds of thousands of non-citizens to be able to vote in the november 2023 election, next year, here locally. i i opposed that. we're each allowed to argue our position, our side on that debate. i believe it dilutes the constitutional principle of one person, one vote, which is a principle that belongs to united states citizens. let's debate, let's respect each other's opinion. i happen to believe that moving toward non-citizen voting is the wrong answer. going forward, regardless of whether your candidate comes in first or second, we should welcome conversations about election integrity, and it also should be noted that at no point have i ever called the 2020 election illegitimate. neil: all right. on that point, i'm sorry, i misunderstood it. you didn't call it illegitimate, but you did want to stop to certify joe biden. can you have it both ways? >> so as far as if what happened in pennsylvania and arizona which is where the two votes took place, my position is i was just mentioning that you can't have these non-state legislative actors changing how the election was administered. it should be noted that while the violence you saw at the capitol, the looting, the people breaking into the capitol, that is not welcome on any day. it wasn't welcome that day, it can't be welcome in the past or at any point. i was on the house floor. as soon as i learned of it, i instantly condemned it. it's not welcome. as far as what happens on the house floor, every single time a republican has been elected president over the last few decades, congressional democrats argue their objections on the floor of the house. it's part of the constitutional process. so as far as that process that takes place on the floor of the house, that wasn't something that, you know, was new or unprecedented. i was on the floor of the house on january 6th of 2017 when congressional democrats were objecting that the russians got donald trump elected. by the way, if the congressional democrats wanted to argue that martians got donald trump elected, they could stand on the house floor and have that debate and that argument. and i'm sure it's going to happen again when we -- republicans win or democrats win, there will be debates and objections. that's your time to do it. don't take matters into your own hands and break into the capitol and start stealing things and breaking things and hurting people, you do it through your elected representative. neil: and you did, spoke out quite forcefully, vocally. lee zeldin, thank you very much. we're watching your race, it is probably the most stunning developments we've seen in this blue of blue state, a republican has the chance of taking the governor's office, just unprecedented. we'll have more after this. i apologize, we're going to go to charles watson. my bad. charles watson is in atlanta, georgia. big contest going on right there for the governorship and, of course, the senate contest. one looks pretty close, the other so far not. what's the latest there, charles? >> reporter: yeah, hey, good morning, neil. raphael warnock and stacy antibiotic racks are back out on the campaign trail after a big assist from former president barack obama at a friday night rally here in metro georgia, metro atlanta, rather. mr. obama made his case for the two candidates in front of thousands of excited democrats, telling the crowd that warnock and abrams are the type of leaders who are not only hard working, but also have values. mr. obama's appearance on the campaign trail came as new polling showed abrams trailing incumbent republican governor brian kemp and incumbent senator warnock losing ground to his republican challenger, herschel walker. speaking of their respective opponents, mr. obama was particularly sharp in his criticism of walker who he called suspect as he questioned walker's desire to actually help people. listen. >> seems to me he's a celebrity who wants to be a politician. and we've seen how that goes. and if a candidate's main qualification is that he's going to be loyal to donald trump, it means that he's not really going to be thinking about you and your needs. and you deserve better. [cheers and applause] georgia deserves better! you deserve somebody who's independent and who's going to go work every day and fight for you! >> reporter: yeah, and so democrats are hoping the former president's strong showing will energize their base and hopefully translate into votes particularly among black voters who have felt the chilling effects of high pyrety issues like -- priority issues like inflation and rising crime urn the biden administration. democrats have been weak on those issues this election cycle and walker, for example, has been someone who has used that as an opportunity on the campaign trail. listen. >> have y'all seen the crime in the streets? people are going crazy, have they not? i'm, like, what has happened here? i'm going to tell you what has happened, we've got people in washington that have become weakment yeah, they making criminals like heroes. >> reporter: yeah. as of friday 1.4, nearly 1.4 million georgians have voted early, that's about 95,000 votes short of the same time period in 2020 but still expected to be tight races. neil in. neil: thank you very much, my friend, charles watson in atlanta on that. there are key races all across the country. ohio, for example, the buckeye state, as it goes generally so go presidential election contests. everyone seems focused on the senatorial race between j.d. vance and democrat tim ryan, but there is a gubernatorial contest on. the governor is trying to get reelected, the woman who wants to make sure that doesn't happen is the democratic ohio gubernatorial candidate nan whaley. we did reach out to governor dewine, we've had him on in the past. by the way, we have reached out to governor hochul in new york to get her on. hope springs eternal. anyway, very kind of nan whaley to join us,. thank you for coming. let me get your sense of the issue you think will define it for ohio voters that you hope to clinch. >> neil, it's good to be on. what i see across the state of ohio, frankly, is the freedom being lost in this tate by mike dewine's extreme action around the 6-week with abortion ban that happened 7 hours after roe fell. and we've seen the impact that that has already had like a 10-year-old girl who was raped in columbus that had to go to across state lines to terminate her pregnancy. when the governor was asked about her, he doubted she existed and she was probably lying. when columbus police arrested her rapist and he confessedded, mike dewine had two words, if they were no comment. these issues are pleatly out of -- completely out of bounds to common sense ohioans. this is a state that cherishes that and wants to make sure these tough decisions like they were on june 23rd are made between the woman, her family and her doctor. neil: it's obviously a galvanizing issue for many in the democratic party, that i certainly understand. but polls being what they are, they don't seem to think it's going to bring you to the finish line, that a far more dominant issue is the economy and inflation. on that a lot of people are pointing to the white house and the party in control, democrats, and saying that weighs more than this whole roe v. wade thing. what do you say? >> well, i think the economy is a big issue too. and keep in mind, neil, mike dewine's been in office since i was 10 months old, and i'm 4 -- neil: not always governor. >> yes. been in state politics, frankly, we've seen ohio slip further and further behind. just this morning ohio ross the most jobs of any state in the country under mike dewine's watch. we have put forward efforts on how we can help ohioans deal with inflation recognizing that it is an international or national issue, there are still things the governor can do to help working families, and mike dewine has done none of them. we also live what what the fdi -- fbi calls the most corrupt statehouse in the country. so you put together the fact that we have the most corrupt government in the country which takes some work and add to the fact that he is taking away women's freedoms every day, ohio deserves better, and i think they're going to call for better. the second thing i'll point out when we talk about polls is polls have underestimated over and over again this year how upset women and the men who support women are on these extreme, out of step actions. and we see that underreporting both in the kansas race and also in the new york special in august -- neil: but don't you see women or men, of course, who are angry about some of these extreme issues being more ang i when they go to the grocery store, when they fill up their car, when they try to fly out and are seeing sky-high prices for tickets? do you think you're campaigning on the wrong issue? >> no, i don't. and, i mean, we're not not talking about the economy as well. i think those two together are key issues for our state because mike dewine hasn't done anything to help ohioans out. i've called on the governor to do a gas tax suspension so we can give people, you know, some relief at the pump. he's not done it. i've called on him to give an inflation rebate so folks can deal with gas and grocery costs, nothing. i've called on him to stop price gouging -- neil: got it, got it. we're coming to a hard break, nan whaley, i apologize. you've expressed yourself very well. we've reached out to governor dewine, hope springs eternal, just like for kathy hochul many new york. we'll always try to be fair and balanced. meanwhile, taking a look at that new hampshire race that now in the senate has gotten tight as a tick. remember when it looked like a blowout. what happened? after thisis. with merrill. moving his money into his investment account in real time and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. this isn't just freight. these aren't just shipments. they're promises. promises of all shapes and sizes. each, with a time and a place they've been promised to be. a promise is everything to old dominion, because it means everything to you. hi, i'm jason and i've lost 202 pounds on golo. for me as a veteran, it transitioned from active duty service to the civilian community, it brought out a lot of stress. and a lot of us go through having sleep issues. mixed and complicated with a bad diet, i started gaining weight. golo and release has helped me and allowed me to transition into a healthier lifestyle. when you start feeling that your life is coming back to you, it's an amazing feeling, and that was thanks to golo. (mellow music) ♪ neil: this is the time, bringing out the big guns for candidates they view particularly vulnerable, so while new hampshire and maag by hasan seemed to have a double-ding visit lead, suffice it to say she does not right now. let's get the latest from who's there to support the candidates. lucas tomlinson at the white house. >> reporter: good morning, neil. last month jen psaki said if the midterms are a referendum on the president, democrats are lose. speaking in philadelphia last night, biden offered the following rebuke. >> let's be clear, this election is not a referendum. it's a choice. a choice between two vastly different visions of america. >> reporter: the president called the attack on house speaker nancy pelosi's husband despicable and also lash out at oil companies for making the following claim: >> the most common price for gasoline across america now is $3.29 a gallon. back in june the most common price was over $5 a gallon. we need to keep making progress by having energy companies bring down the cost of a gallon of gas to reflect what they pay for a barrel of oil. >> reporter: neil, a close look at this price chart sews -- shows, yes, gas was over $5 back in june, but the average price of a gone of gas -- gallon of gas right now is $3.76 according to aaa, about 60% higher than when biden was sworn into office. it's carrot just the -- it's not just the price of gas, it's all household gads. >> wages up 5% but inflation up 8.3%. do math there, people are getting poorer. >> reporter: in 1991 former president, hen-president george h.w. bush had an 8 # % approval rating after winning the gulf war, an all-time high, neil. the next year he was voted out of office due in large part to the economy. neil? neil: that's true. you never know. things can change. thank you, lucas, at the white house. let's go to democratic strategist. lay -- ladies, i want to draw your attention to new hampshire. it wasn't that long ago that maggie hassan was enjoying a double-digit lead. right now almost a statistical tie and, obviously, that is now bringing some of the big guns to the granite state. what do you make of it, noel? [audio difficulty] all right. we're having problems there. sara, what do you make of it? >> absolutely. you know, they're sending out the big guns because, frankly, republicans stand to gain with more this year, and democrats are doing what they can. but what's really interesting this year is that blue states are more likely to go red, and red states are more likely to go blue than what we usually see. blue statements will have a strong tinge of red this year because historically midterms are lost for the party in power and, of course, we're seeing really strong inflation. but the majority of the country still wants abortion rights, and that will bring out blue votes in red areas. there will be upsets on both sides. it's going to be a purple year, and they are sending barack obama, the big gun, to where he can to help that. races to watch, pennsylvania always. i'm excited about wisconsin. mandela barnes is running a great campaign, and i imagine obama will go there. but regardless of whether or not barnes wins, i'm looking at wisconsin as a really good indicator of how the whole country is leaning. this race will be studied when all things are done. but, of course, georgia will keep us on our toes. and we saw obama there this week. democrat rafael warnock and republican he shell walker -- herschel walker or, it's going to be a real test of the republican strategy to put up less than ideal candidates -- neil: we'll see, sara. we don't know that. you were quite with right to mention barack obama, he is a rock star in the party. >> yeah, of course. neil: unfortunate -- unfortunately, he's not on the ballot. we, of course, remember the 40 seats that he lost in his first midterm election and then the follow-up loss, i think about 14 or 15 states, in his second midterm election. so sometimes the lust arer isn't there if he's not on the ballot. we'll see how that sorts out. let me get your take, know well, on how republicans play this. having just spoken to nan whaley, the ohio gubernatorial candidate, who has been pounding the abortion issue, and she's getting some passionate support, but it's far there if closing the deal for her. what do you make of that? >> absolutely. and i think that republicans have the right to be a little bullish on a lot of these races right now because what you're looking at is a lot of the democrats -- just look at new hampshire. maggie hassan, she's got the burden of carrying around biden's briefcase. and when you unpack it, open that briefcase, what do you have? you've got inflation at the top of the ticket, you've got crime, you've got crisis still at the border, and we've also got upcoming heating, high heating prices just in time for november. so what you've got is a big mixture of a lot of issues that the democrats only have one issue to come up against, and that is abortion. you just put a poll up there that says 37% top voter issues are inflation and the economy. who better to tackle that than the republican platform? and i think that's why you're seeing the last minute turn around. and we always get with bumps right, you know, the pendulum will swing hard either way. and right now the national wave is with the republican party, and that's why you're seeing these tooth and nail races down to the wire -- neil: well, it's something, to your point, something's going on. sarah, let me ask can you about that that because i know you feel about maybe this energy that's not there that a maybe we're not appreciating or seeing, but when i hear maggie hassan now take over the administration over its handling of the wall when she goes to the wall itself and the border herself to highlight it as a problem and and arizona senator mark kelly in the fight of his life in arizona does the same and more democrats are taking on the president about inflation and gas prices, they're worried. and they're not looking to him to help them out. like you said, they'd prefer barack obama than joe biden any day. what does that tell you in. >> i do too, honestly. yeah, i think the majority of people are pretty lukewarm on biden. but, you know, i think this year will be a study of two things. one, economic and social issues, high inflation versus abortion rights, you know, always inflation is going to hurt the democrats this year -- neil: all right. >> separately, the other study will be with trump playing kingmaker and picking less than ideal candidates. it will be a reflection of how much the candidate really matters. and, of course, how much trump is -- neil: and whether any support from big guns, right or left, really matters. we'll watch closely. sarah, thank you. noel, thank you. to rich edson in philadelphia. a couple of key races going on there. >> reporter: neil, there are, and both sides are calling in the heavyweights especially when it comes to the pennsylvania senate race. it's a close one, it's got national attention. we have the latest coming up. to have a visitor. it looks like - looks like you paid too much for your glasses. ... who? anyone who isn't shopping at america's best - where two pairs and a free exam start at just $79.95. book an exam today. becoming a morning person starts the night before with new neuriva relax and sleep. it has l-theanine to help me relax from daily stress. plus, shoden ashwagandha for quality sleep. so i can wake up refreshed. neuriva think bigger. i remember when i first started flying, and we would experience turbulence. i would watch the flight attendants. if they're not nervous, then i'm not going to be nervous. financially, i'm the flight attendant in that situation. the relief that comes over people once they know they've got a guide to help them through, i definitely feel privileged to be in that position. ♪ ♪ neil: all right, the one thing about traveling all over the country covering a race is people like rich edson, a darn good reporter, get their, you know, airline points and millions of them. right now parking himself in philadelphia with the key keystone race. see what i did there? anyway, rich, i heard of what's happened in pennsylvania, but it's quite the holy grail, isn't it? >> reporter: it really is, neil. and honestly, don't forget about the hotel points either. that's a really good thing to have in your back pocket. you've got democrat john fetterman, republican mehmet oz. this is a national race, it has national attention, it is extremely close. 9 you put on top of all of that the fact that you've got john fetterman having a stroke in may, debating just a few days ago and a number of democrats quietly saying maybe you shouldn't have done that, either way, philadelphia's the spot for the fetterman campaign today, the student center here, he's going to be appearing with state representative malcolm kin yacht that -- kin yacht that, one of the democrats who fetterman beat back in may, one of the several democrats who ran in the primary race. last night pennsylvania democrats brought out the heavyweights here. president biden was in the area, vice president kamala harris also at this event with fetterman in which there was a fundraiser trying to boost the candidates here. you've also got a governor's race in this state, joshua shapiro running, he's the attorney general, looking to keep the democratic structure on top in the governorship. now, some democrats is are quietly questioned whether fetterman should have debated on tuesday evening. oz had spent several weeks criticizing fetterman for failing to do so. oz's campaign said it had replayed tuesday's debate on a mobile screen outside this democratic fund if raiser here -- fundraiser here in philadelphia. as for the presidential and vice president is, visit, oz's communication director said, quote: joe biden and kamala harris refuse to stop the flow of deadly drugs across our border and combat skyrocketing inflation and gas prices. there's no distracting from this dangerous agenda. so it is a unique race here in pennsylvania. all the national themes are really running through this state. you've got crime and inflation, that's manager that oz is really highlighting many his -- in his campaign. fetterman is cam campaigning very much so on abortion as national democrats are. you take these questions, take these answers, to to a number of battleground states cocross the nation, and you're are going to get similar ans. also on the national scale you've got biden and former president barack obama, they will be campaigning for john fetterman late next week and former president trump, he's going to be campaigning for dr. oz late next week. you want to talk about national attention, neil, pennsylvania's it. back to you. neil: meanwhile, good luck with the hotel points. you richly deserve them. [laughter] speaking of rich, the world's richest man and his plans for twitter, after this. today, everything costs more: gas, groceries, cars. we all need cash in the bank to stay ahead. well here's great news for veterans who own a home. home values have climbed to near all-time highs, too. that means the cash you need is right there in your home. newday can unlock it with the newday 100 va cash out loan. it lets you borrow up to 100% of your home's value. not just part of it like some other loans. pay down high-rate credit card debt, consolidate your second mortgage and car loans, and have the security of cash in the bank. the va has granted newday automatic authority. when banks so “no” to a veteran, newday can say “yes.” ♪ neil: you know, i read a statistic on elon musk. he's lost $90 million on paper in the market decline and yet he's still the world's richest man. i don't know what it is, but he can do nothing wrong, and he is still untouching bl, and he just scooped up for $44 billion -- some say way too much to purchase twitter, now he's the boss there. he's firing people there, and charlie gasparino on what he plans to do there. what are we hearing, charlie? >> it's all over the place, neil. i'm hearing that he's looking, he's kicking around some fairly radical changes, making twitter not just a forum for conversation and, you know, trolling and all the stuff it's known for including, or you know, causing revolution. twitter has been that impactful at times. but he's looking at something that looks a little bit like a payment system, an app that you can instantly talk to people and engage at the same time in various financial transactions. so he's throwing a lot of tough up in the air. neil, i know this sounds like -- no one really knows and no one does know. i don't even think he knows. i think the first thing, from what i understand, it's mainly going to be trying to get his hands around content moderation, you know? how far does he push the freeway speech aspect which is -- free speech aspect which is why he wanted to buy twitter because he thought there was too much censorship by the past management, how much does he push that in terms of allowing free speech but, you know, disallowing certain very violent forms of commentary that does appear on twitter with at times. so i think that's the first thing. the next thing the hard part, and that's creating a business. we should point out that twitter is going to have, you know, massive -- and it's a private company now, so it's on him, he's going to have a massive debt load to repay. i think the yearly interest expenses from what i read somewhere is going to go from, you know, a couple hundred million to a billion this year because this deal is, essentially, a leveraged buyout. he's using a lot of debt to buy thing. and this deal itself has been criticized roundly by wall street because he overpaid for it. dan ives, the tech analyst, told me that it's probably the worst lbo in the history of tech given how much he overpaid for this. now, yes, he's got a lot of money. we should also point out he's got a lot of paper money. how much money he's going to be able to fund twitter at, and is he's going to need some funding here, it's all depending on how well tesla does. that's his bank account right there. so that's kind of where we are right now. i don't think anybody really knows, he's throwing around a lot of ideas. neil: all right, thank you, my friend, very much. by the way, we're just learning that gm has temporarily suspended its advertising on twitter in light of elon musk taking over, just wants to see what he plans to do, i guess. i don't know anything more than that. in the mane time, i do know that a lot of finish in the meantime, i do know a lot of people are still wondering how the heck paul pelosi could be in such harm's way. he is still in the hospital and people are still asking questions. 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