Midterm countdown: 20 days out until Election Day

Thanks for joining us on another busy night. Of all things people, power, and politics, this is The Pulse. I'm Rup Raj. Just 20 days to go until Election Day. And in that spirit, our show is all about the big vote tonight. Journalist Sam Robinson is in Studio C to preview President Obama's visit, supporting Democrats on the ticket. And Oakland University political science professor Dave Dulio is here. The candidates have fewer than three weeks to drum up your vote. And some of you might have already voted. Dave takes a closer look at the races up and down the ballot and financial planner. Dan Casey takes a closer look at the economy and how it could affect voters this year. We begin with another issue. Voters are talking about this election cycle. Yes, we're talking about data centers. That debate does continue. A lot of people are saying, not in my backyard when it comes to these facilities. And they're upset with lawmakers who allow them. That includes the governor herself, who's championed multiple projects. But another member of her party, Senator Alyssa Slotkin, joined the calls for a pause on these projects. And she was asked about the governor's moves as well. Here's what she had to say. At least in my state, like, it started happening so fast and accelerating so quickly that communities were being bullied into signing agreements. They were signing them under the cloak of darkness of an NDA. and without total understanding of who was responsible if the company goes bankrupt. And what was adding to all of it was this sense, because Michigan is very used to inviting in industry, right? We've got no problem if you want to bring in traditional manufacturing and use electricity and use water, have jobs there at the end of the rainbow. But I think we have to acknowledge that part of the fear of these data centers is because the people heading the AI companies are weirdos they are talking in weird ways they are talking in doomsday like if you get asked do you think humanity should continue and you have to sit and pause and be like okay that is out of step with normal people Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was one of the democrats who did welcome these uh data centers and pitch uh kind of the rise of AI as an opportunity for industry in the state? Was that a mistake? Look, I think everyone's going to have to live with the decisions that they made. We should point out Governor Whitmer has proposed safeguards for these centers to pay the full cost of not only their construction and operations. Companies signing the pledge would pay all energy and grid upgrade costs as well. That's just scratching the surface, so let's pick up the pace and run through some of the other big stories we're on top of right now in the world of politics. We'll start here. Federal authorities seized Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's phone and have issued more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas. Now, those subpoenas include some of her relatives. Federal authorities are looking into possible fraud in the Minnesota Democrats' immigration paperwork. U.S. Attorney Janine Pirro said there are several investigations going on, including concerns about her financial disclosures. Omar has called it an attempt to weaponize law enforcement, adding she won't be silenced. Well, speaking of immigration, a government report says ICE should make sure body cameras worn by officers are automatically activated. They say it would be helpful in situations where unexpected incidents just pop up. But ICE rejected that call, saying it could lead to an invasion of privacy for victims or informants. The agency added cameras are required to be turned on at the beginning of pre-planned enforcement. ICE has come under scrutiny after several incidents, including deadly shootings and aggressive arrests as well. And the Justice Department threatens California with possible legal action over allegations non-citizens got mail ballots. You see, California mails ballots to all registered voters. But a letter to California Secretary of State says officials in Los Angeles County got a thumb drive with names the feds think are likely non-citizens who are sent ballots. They have 48 hours to review that list or face legal action. Los Angeles county officials say they're working with the state to figure out how to move forward the Trump administration has prioritized searching for non-citizen voters even though it's something that's extremely rare all right well let's turn to the election now because we're getting some big names coming to Metro Detroit in the next few weeks one of them former President Obama who will be in Detroit next week and of course President Trump also planning a visit as well J.D. Vance the vice president coming to town. Sam Robinson with the Michigan Chronicle is in studio. See with us with a preview. And it's always good to see you. Thanks for joining us here tonight. Good to see you, Rup. Let's talk about what it is that these big visits do for the electorate. First of all, in your mind, how much of a splash does it mean for this race for former President Obama to come into town? You know, I think it's really hard to tell. We heard from so many Haley Stevens voters during the primary cycle, telling me that the ads featuring Barack Obama's sort of non-endorsement endorsement, it was video from a 2018 rally, that he said that he appreciated Haley Stevens' work during his administration. A lot of people told me that that was the reason why they voted for Haley Stevens. So we're going to see if Obama's endorsement is going to be able to win over those skeptical, hesitant Democratic voters. 66% of voters in Detroit, 75% of the population there are black voters, you know, we're going to see. There's been a lot of talk nationally and locally about whether or not Detroiters, black voters across the state are all in favor of Abdul El-Sayed. Yeah, and I do find that noteworthy because you have this huge movement right now, as we all know, where there are Mike Rogers, Democrats for Mike Rogers, and they have these big events in the city of Detroit. You've been to a few of those. Set the table for us. What is that like? I don't know if I would call it big events, but they are events happening. Small events, yeah. Certainly. That's what I mean. Frame it for us. There was one early on, Cody High School, talking about a reading proficiency program that has been successful with some students there on Detroit's west side. He was at Eastern Market last month, not at Eastern Market, but outside a school nearby, talking about health care, making it more affordable. His wife, Christy Rogers, was on Detroit's east side today. Harper and Cass at the Freedom Fuel, the Trump-branded gas station. Today is actually 30 cents cheaper. If you're on the east side, you might want to go over there. It's usually about 10 cents different from the other three gas stations that are on the exact same corner. 30 cents down today, it was like 4.10 or something. And Christy Rogers highlighting Mike Rogers' call to suspend the state gas tax. She says that $10 represents savings there. So she handed out gas cards to people, said, hey, here's $10 for your gas. Put on a Mike Rogers for U.S. Senate sticker and consider voting for my husband. Is that solid work in your mind from a campaign? A lot of people were asking me if it's even legal, right? That's what I'm wondering. Are there ethical questions about that? I think the word consider voting for my husband went a long way in some of the conversations that Christy had today with people that told me that they were voting. I talked to one guy who told me that he hasn't seen Abdul El-Sayed campaign in his east side neighborhood and that it did matter to him that the Rogers campaign were showing up here. So you and I have talked about this before, but I want to bring it up again because it's important. When the Kamala Harris camp did visits in Detroit, they did a lot of pop-ins and some high-end shops on Woodward Avenue. They went to big arenas. But in terms of going into the neighborhood, draw that line for us how important that is to actually go, whether you're Republican or democrat to go into the neighborhoods talk to churches talk to people on the streets talk to community centers that's different than going to the Gem Theater isn't it yeah i think so i mean that's what we saw from Haley Stevens during her primary campaign i think she uh you know obviously was benefited by those advertisements the outside spending was ridiculous yeah uh but she also did the work on the ground she was on the ground there that has been a criticism of Abdul's campaign they know that they were just today at the Shrine of the Black Madonna on Linwood in Detroit, hosting a town hall with an endorsement organization called the Black Slate that actually endorsed him over Haley Stevens, one of the few organizations, black institutions in Detroit to do so. So it is interesting. I think both campaigns are targeting Detroit. Certainly, overwhelming amount of Detroiters are going to vote for the Democratic candidate. It is a question of how Republicans are able to peel away some or keep some voters at home. Some people say they were frustrated that Abdul El-Sayed supported the uncommitted movement in 2024, say they're gonna return the favor, be uncommitted for him. And we also know that there's been a dubious history between Arab American shop owners and the black community. And there are some who we've had on our show, political commentators who've said that could affect how people perceive putting a vote forth for someone like Abdul El-Sayed. Have you seen and read that sentiment at all on the streets? It certainly is. I do think that some of the ads on the television, you know, pointing out whatever his connections to controversial Twitch streamers or organizations have also played a factor in that sentiment. And I just, I do think that, you know, racism and xenophobia is at play here as well. I just hear it constantly. It's really a generational thing. I think older black folks are traumatized to a degree. So when President Obama comes to town, does he draw a parallel between at the time that He ran in 2007, 2008, saying things like, look, people thought my name was strange, too. This is a talented political athlete. You should vote for him. I mean, are they going to draw parallels, do you think? That's certainly what Abdul El-Sayed has done. He criticized Barack Obama after he was elected in 2012, calling him somebody that was perpetuating war, criticizing his expansion of drone warfare, criticizing Obamacare itself, right? It didn't go far enough. Abdul El-Sayed has, of course, promoted health care for all. We just saw in an advertisement for Abdul Obama do the same thing. Obama even talking about he wants to keep our money here and not be spent on endless wars. I mean, that's pretty remarkable from the former president. And we know that current Vice President J.D. Vance will be in town very shortly to be talking to Republican voters about what's happening geopolitically and also with our economy. So big visits happening here for good reason, because this is an important place and a purple one at that in which people have a lot of decisions to make. Sam Robinson, thanks for your time here tonight. We appreciate you being here. Appreciate it. We're keeping the conversation about the midterms going after the break. We said it before and we'll say it again. Twenty days until Election Day. Dave Dulio with Oakland University diving into all of that. You're watching The Pulse on Fox 2. Back now on The Pulse, looking at all things people, power and politics. Here to keep the midterm countdown going, Oakland University political science professor Dave Dulio. And Dave, thanks for joining us here tonight. Thanks for having me. Fewer than three weeks to go. If the election were held tomorrow, based on sentiment and momentum, who has the edge in the Senate race? I think there are competing factors. So I think both candidates have something that they can hang their hat on and give them some energy going into these last three weeks. I think the El-Sayed campaign has momentum. I think they're feeling really good about the campaign that they have run. I think the Rogers campaign believes that the Democrats for Rogers is a real thing. And I think they are actively growing that group of voters. And when an election is this close, any little bit helps. any little bit or i should say it this way a very small shift can have a big difference at the end of the at the end of the day and so you have uh the geopolitical weight as we've been talking about with uh whether uh you know israel should be considered a jewish state the question being asked to Abdul Al-Sayed multiple times i had the chance to talk to him about why he didn't comment more on october 7th anniversary, to which he said he didn't want to politicize a painful moment the Jewish voter out there, they're not a monolith. There are people who feel differently about this candidate. Are they just completely split at this point? Split, I think, I'll put it this way. I think there's a wedge that has been driven into that group of voters. And it's not enormous in Michigan, but it's big enough That where, again, even a small shift, even a defection from a small percentage of what's typically a pretty reliable Democratic bloc toward Mike Rogers can make a difference in this race. And I think that that moment in the debate where you asked those follow-up questions in the spin room afterward, but where El-Sayed did not answer whether or not, he couldn't pick between Iran and Israel as more of a danger to the United States. I think that was the moment of that debate. We'll see if he changes his tune at all in the one that's gonna come up next week. And I think that's what Jewish Democrats were looking for. I think they were hoping to hear something from him on that. And I don't think they got what they wanted in that last debate. So to what he lost perhaps in the Jewish vote, does he gain with an Obama visit with the black vote? I think that's their plan, right? And I have no reason to doubt Sam Robinson's analysis. He knows what he's talking about, that's for sure. I think, look, no campaign wants to play it safe at this point, right? They wanna make sure they do everything they can, even the smallest, trying to attract the smallest number of votes they can. So bringing President Obama here to shore up what to this point has been soft support for Abdul El-Sayed in the black community, I think is a smart move. I think it's really smart that you keep pointing out that this is gonna be a matter of a few thousand votes. Because if we look at Senate races in Michigan, the last one in 2024, Alyssa Slotkin and Mike Rogers, Mike Rogers lost it by just by a hair. Then you look at Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed, Haley Stevens lost it just by a thread. And so when you know that this is a matter, if you can get 5,000 to 7,000 votes more than your competition, you're talking about putting you over the edge. For sure. And I think in a year like 2026, and Sam talked about this in the last segment, The concern is not only that this voter or this group of voters is going to vote for somebody, it's that they're going to vote at all, right? Because if African-Americans stay home and don't vote for Abdul El-Sayed, that's a win for Mike Rogers, right? Having them not cast a ballot who would normally cast a ballot for Democrats, that's a win for the Republicans. And there are Republican voting groups out there that are in that same position. in 2026, that I'm sure Abdul El-Sayed is hoping that they stay home as well. And Mike Rogers makes a point in the spin room after the last debate at Wood TV in Grand Rapids when he said, look, I've been hitting the streets of Detroit. I've been talking to black voters, and not just once, not for a photo op, but really talking to people on the streets. That does move the meter for people when you shake hands and when you look at someone in the eye and you ask them what their concern is in the community they live in. Yeah, no doubt about it. We know empirical evidence demonstrates that the best way for a candidate to get somebody's vote is to ask them for it. And in an era when it's wall-to-wall television ads, it's every post on your social media feed is a campaign statement. That really is refreshing to some degree, I think, where folks really appreciate that. And it might not move that many votes, but- You don't need that many. You don't need that many. So finally, Channel 7, the debate next week, the playbooks, how do they change after what happened at Grand Rapids for both these candidates? That's a great question. I think you could see it go a number of different ways. You could see, and Chuck Stokes, the dean of Detroit television media, maybe he goes to them before and says, look guys, cut it out. We're not doing that tonight. They might even think that it's in their best interest to appear more conciliatory or at least more- More like a statesman. More like a statesman. He wants to be a senator, right? Absolutely, right? But who knows? They might just start lobbing those grenades back and forth at each other again and talk about something that is gonna drive people away from the polls. It's that kind of tone. And you wonder if the media, if the political analysts out there are looking at both their candidate square in the eye and saying, whatever we did in Grand Rapids, we've got to change. Let's go the opposite. Let's go into an emotional plea. Let's get into some calm energy here to look at the camera and tell the voter, here's why I'm going to make a difference in the state of Michigan. You could totally see that. You could also see that once it starts going sideways, it just reverts back to- It's hard when someone throws punches at you to not throw a punch back, right? That's the bottom line. No doubt about it. It's going to be interesting. We'll be watching it very carefully, albeit that debate across the street at our competition. We'll be watching it carefully, and we'll be keeping our eyes on it. Thank you, Dave Duglio, for your time. Thanks, Ru. We're keeping the midterm conversation going after the break, but turning to your money, how the economy could affect people's votes, next on The Pulse. It is people, power, and politics, and it's money, too. Welcome back to Detroit's only nightly political talk show, The Pulse. Here to dive into money and politics, specifically with the midterms, Dan Casey with Panic Proof Retirement, and Dan is a regular on our shows talking about uh you know bottom line kitchen table economics and how it affects us we're talking about this election, Dan um you know it's going to be pocketbook issues that drive people to the polls that and also it's not it's not safe to say it's just that one thing it may be geopolitical issues maybe religious issues maybe but that's one the pocketbook how important has that played uh in our elections in the past it's everything right like the uh the political strategist James Carville said, it's the economy, stupid, right? And a recent poll said economy was, of course, number one. Second one was the future of our democracy. Third was healthcare. Fourth was immigration. So those are the big things that are going into this political and everybody votes through the prism of their checkbook, right? So that's what's going to happen this time too. And I think the affordability issue is going to cause some swaying possibly. So we'll see. But again, it's how you look at that affordability issue too, through what prism. Did we get there because inflation caused by higher gas prices of a war that we should have gone into? Or was it from inflation from the Biden administration? It just depends on what prism you look through of why we're in this mess to how you could possibly vote. It's important to note that, of course, Mike Rogers in the last 10 days has come out and pretty clearly said, look, we need to end this war. And we're not just talking about the war in Iran. He says we also need to end this trade war with Canada. He broke in a sense from President Trump, who of course is still sticking with those plans. Although I think the president has made it clear too that he thinks that the war in Iran needs to end as well. Yeah. Gotta find a way out. But how does that help Mike Rogers with voters who care about all of these political and I think it's important. I think it was probably like a Hail Mary right at the trying to try to separate from the I think the important issues because nothing matters more to Michigan than Canadian trade, right? amount of our trade. So I think it was probably pretty intelligent to separate, at least with that issue. Yeah. And now you have Abdul Al-Sayed, who's talking about affordability as well. And he's specifically talking about Medicare for all. That seems aspirational when you're one of 99 other people in a room. You can't really make that happen. No. But it is what he believes in. He's telling me what he believes in. What does that tell the voter? You know, that's a tricky one because I would think, you know, nowadays voters know that this is just something that just, We've tried that, and I just don't know if it's a possible thing, because I don't think anybody wants the health care like what Canada has. And it seems like that's kind of what it would be leaning towards. But it'll be really interesting to see how this comes out, because inflation is the big thing that seems like that bothers people the most. And if you strip out the big things like food and energy, inflation is 2.5%. It's really not that bad. So if you think that this is a temporary issue because of the war, then you might vote that way. If you're not, you might vote the other. When you hear about Medicare for all, you know, the big question, of course, that's been asked of Al-Sayed is, so if we give health care for all, then don't our taxes go up? But you're also saying, put money back in your pockets, health care for all. How can those two things be true? Of course, Al-Sayed has come up with some math that he says does make sense. But again, when you're with 99 other people in a room, you got to figure out what the budget looks like. Is that something that people think is feasible? I don't think, I don't know, to be honest with you. I can't imagine, when you look at our top two expenditures in the US government, Medicare, Medicaid is 1.7 trillion, and Social Security alone is 1.2 trillion. So to throw in healthcare for all in there, at this point, we just can't afford it, right? We're already way massively in debt as a country. I do find it curious that we have a $40 trillion national debt. I don't know that there's any way, no metaphor, no picture you can build for someone that would explain what $40 trillion in debt looks like, does it surprise you that these candidates talk about programs that would add to that instead of talking about how to eliminate that? Yeah, and it doesn't matter what political background or what Democrat, Republican, we're all contributing to it. And I think the best metaphor to kind of put it in perspective to end this is, if I'm looking at my watch for 1 trillion seconds, we'd be here for 32,000 years. So that's just 1 trillion. So you can imagine what $40 trillion is, it's a dangerous number and I think it's not sustainable. So at the end of the day, when people are watching this, they're going to be watching for this next debate. How important is it for them to build out a picture of why they're the right guy for this job when it comes to money? Yeah, it is coming down to the wire. And they're going to have to address the affordability issue and how they can help the average day American because for some it's rough. If you own stocks, it's awesome. If you don't, not so much if you're dealing with living off of wages. And so many people don't have stock and are living off those wages. They care deeply about it. Dan Casey with Panic Proof. Thank you so much for your time here tonight. Thanks, Rup. That is the Pulse for tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rup Raj. As always, it was good to be with you.