fine line as he ramps up his campaign. here is the conundrum for ron desantis. on the one hand you have to attack trump to beat trump. on the other hand you have to attract trump s voters to win. how do you do that? if anything, i think the diehard trumpers, millions in the republican primaries, they are going to they are punishing desantis for his new attacks on trump. politics is about the art of what you can t see not what you can. and i think trump has a tremendous advantage right now. harris: very busy weekend of campaigning ahead. seven big-name g.o.p. candidates in the race and they are about to get company next week. former vice president mike pence and chris christie and doug burr gum will announce their bid for the white house. rich edson is in iowa where former president trump is set to speak shortly. again, we ll bring you that live. rich. good morning, harris, you know the security is here, the supporters are here, the media is here. just waiting on presi
law in those regions he annexed illegally. my interview with an iranian human rights activist, a star of popular shows, spotlighting the heroic women fighting for freedom in iran. good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell in washington. president biden is taking steps to try to help democrats in close races, trying to hold on to congressional majorities. today s focus, bringing down gas prices. he will explain his plan to release another 15 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve in december, with more potentially coming later this winter. it s a relatively small release, but what does it mean for the long-term? joining me now, gene spurling. we have seen the polls. voters say their focus is on the economy and inflation. this release will not happen until december. maybe the price comes down because markets are anticipating it. what s being done to anticipate hurting americans right now as we head into the midterms? let s remember that this 15 million
schumer on a major reconciliation bill that would lower prescription drug costs and invest hundreds of billions of dollars to combat climate change and clean energy programs. sinema s support is crucial to get the bill through a 50/50 senate and to the democratic house for a vote. vladimir putin s top spokesman was annoyed the u.s. had gone public about ongoing talks for a prisoner swap to free brittney griner and paul whelan. tony blinken is expected to call sergei lavrov for the first time since the ukraine invasion after shunning him since the invasion in february to talk about a possible swap. president biden spoke with china s president xi this morning as tensions have risen over potential congressional trip to taiwan led by nancy pelosi and the passage of a senate bill increasing competition with china in the semiconductor market. we begin with the president and the economy. joining me now, nbc white house correspondent carol lee, nbc capitol hill correspondent ali vi
i hope that s not the option here. i hope so, too. harris: i don t know if you caught it earlier robert f. kennedy junior wants the chance to debate. the american people are owed that particularly where this president is with questions about acuity and we ll have kennedy on tomorrow and see what happens down the road. we would love to cover that debate if it ever should happen. ben, thank you. good to be with you. harris: the u.s. supreme court set to issue an opinion on president biden s student loan forgiveness plan any day now. it is expected to cost takes payers $4 hundred billion with a b dollars if it stands to pay off other people s debts. plus speaker of the house mccarthy got it done. the bill to avoid default passed the house last night. the largest deficit reduction bill in the history of the country, $2 trillion in savings and claw back billions of dollars in covid money. we ll get people back to work.
what more can i do? he is open to doing anything he thinks will help. there were reports that among those persuading joe manchin to support the reconciliation bill, which he did in negotiations while he was quarantining with covid in west virginia, that larry summers, who has been such a hawk on inflation and was predicting what happened this year, was one of the people who persuaded him to go along with it. i don t know, andrea. i have been fully focused on getting chips across the finish line. that could be true. as i said, this is a deficit reduction bill. if you are worried about inflation, getting spending under control is certainly a good thing to do, as well as bringing down prescription drug prices. the commerce secretary, thank you very much. a busy day. thanks for making time for us. we appreciate it.