SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And NPR's Ron Elving joins us now with political news of the week and a look ahead. Ron, thanks for being with us, as always.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: President Trump suggested he would reveal new information - his remarks Thursday night on election security. So far, NPR hasn't found anything actually new. What do you think the purpose of the president's speech was?
ELVING: He may have had several things in mind, starting with the need to deflect attention from other news, such as the renewed war with Iran following the failure of negotiations to open the Strait of Hormuz or the ICE shootings we just heard about. And let's not forget the festering story of the Epstein files. It's complicating the effort to confirm Trump's former private attorney Todd Blanche as the nation's attorney general, among other things. And it's an irritant to many Trump voters who took seriously his pledge to reveal all the Epstein files immediately when he came back to office.
And there are also many in Trump's camp who don't like the stream of stories about self-dealing and the enrichment of Trump and his family and friends. But you asked about purpose, and the speech was really, ultimately, a pitch for passage of what Trump calls the SAVE Act. It's a bill to raise requirements for people registering to vote or coming to the polls. That bill would also cut way back on voting by mail.
SIMON: Little more than three months out, what's the landscape for November midterm elections look like to you?
ELVING: We may have seen a preview of that landscape on the president's face as he spoke on Thursday night. He looked way more than worried, and he surely knows how to read a poll. Now, Trump's own approval has fallen below 40% in major national polls. That's usually been a flashing red light in past midterm elections. So it's no surprise that polls and other soundings are also showing the Republican Party losing control of the House, possibly also the Senate this fall. And right now, on the issues that matter to voters, Trump and his party are moving away from the interests of most voters.
SIMON: Ron, what's the likelihood that Iran will still be a major issue come November?
ELVING: It depends on what we mean by major. It is not going away, and it is not turning into a positive for the president. The war itself has been less than popular. Heating it up again, expanding it is likely to be less popular still. But some of the economic damage from the war - higher gas prices, food prices - that's likely to persist through the fall, and in that sense, Iran will persist as an issue even if the fighting ends.
SIMON: We saw some testimony this week from nominees to two important posts. What were your reactions to the appearances of Todd Blanche and Jay Clayton?
ELVING: Blanche has, by far, the bigger problem because he has had to ride point on the Epstein files, and the outrage over that debacle has been truly bipartisan, so it could cost him his confirmation. But both men were also compelled to support, or at least to entertain, Trump's election denials. That might be understandable given their desire to have these jobs, but it also ties them to their boss in a way that suggests they'll have no independence from him, no freedom to tell the president what he may well need to hear.
SIMON: And finally, Ron, are you expecting any new major legislative initiatives by Congress this summer or fall?
ELVING: Right now, it seems unlikely. There will be serious pressure to pass the SAVE Act we mentioned. But votes aren't there yet in the Senate, and a speech such as we had this past week, is not likely to make the difference. There just wasn't enough new or enough substantive to move the ball or change the score. And there were admissions afterwards, even from some of Trump's people, that they simply didn't have evidence of votes being flipped after previous elections, including 2020.
Now, we can hope that it's also possible this Congress could still produce some serious work addressing affordability. But that would mean getting Trump to focus on what voters want and not on what he thinks they ought to want.
SIMON: NPR's senior contributor Ron Elving. Always good to speak with you, my friend. Thanks very much for being with us.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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