People want cheaper gas. They want cheaper groceries. They want more money in their pockets. It's time for Trump to perhaps, I don't know, resurrect the old theme song. Now, this is what the American people care about. The brutal unassailable truth is, three and a half years with Biden in the White House has left Americans, half of Americans, struggling to stay where they are financially. Everyone's paddling, trying to stay above water. No wonder Biden doesn't want to talk about his record. He wants us instead, with his aparatchiks, to wallow in the images of January sixth or the Hush Money conviction, because they know that Trump's record as President delivered strength at home and abroad. Joining us now is Kevin O'Leary, chairman of O'Leary Ventures. Kevin, I Again, people get stuck on, Oh, it's about democracy or someone's tone or the way someone talks about the press or whether he's nice to cats and puppies. But is this election, again, about the economy.

It is, but it's more about the future than the past. Some of the issues you just detailed are historic in nature and in some cases, long forgotten. The challenge for the administration currently is that inflation has really hurt on food prices. They're up 30% since pre-pandemic on housing and energy. That's not going away. For the average American who doesn't care what the stock market is doing, that is a big debate. Border security, also huge. Which, foreign affairs, every day in the news, whether you're pro or con, whichever side, these are big debate issues. But I think we should address the 5,000 pound elephant in the room. This debate, I don't I understand why it's happening. If I were Biden and the polls are closing, I wouldn't do this debate. I wouldn't even take the risk because unless he's very sharp in it, this could be very costly. I think that's what people are talking about. Given that he may default in anyways because you're going to vote against Trump if you don't like him, and I get that. If you're an independent, you don't like Trump, you'll vote for Biden. But Biden has a lot of guts to do this.

Team Biden must be saying, We've got to show up and we've got to perform warm. We've got to be really clear, concise, and sharp on that debate.

Let me just take issue with something you said, that Biden has a lot of guts to do this. I think it's the only card they have to play. When Frank Luntz, who is an absolutely ardent never-trumper, he tries to smooth it over now, but he's a never-trumper, it's fine. But when he's talking as a polster about Minnesota and others seeing Maine and Virginia and New York state tightening to eight points, a state that Biden won handily, double digits in 2020. That's big. Biden has got to change them. I don't think they had any choice except to do this debate. His strategists aren't dumb people. They're pretty smart.

That's all they have. They have to do it. You may be right. I ran into him in Washington. We talked about exactly what you're talking about. I still say, why? I mean, if you think there's any risk- Because he's going to lose if he doesn't do it. You've got to perform that night. You've got to perform that night. You've got to be sharp. You've got to bring it. If you don't bring it, that's going to really be bad.

Well, I think people have thought about this. It's not a novel point, but the expectations for Biden, I think, are quite low. I'm going to get into this next segment because I have my whole debate advice angle coming up. But the expectations for him are quite low. But I want to get back to this point, Kevin, about what matters to people right now. What matters. Is January sixth the economy? Is it how much money they have to spend every month just to get by? It seems like that because this new Monmouth poll- I'll rank them for you.

Yeah, go ahead. I'll rank them for you. Inflation, number one, inflation, number two, inflation, number three. You got to deal with those first. Then there's border security, then there's foreign affairs, then there's everything else. But if you're at the kitchen table in Champagne or Ben, Illinois right now, you don't care about anything except the fact that you're getting squeezed by 38% increases in protein, by 20% increases in energy, by housing that's not affordable. That's it. That's what matters. That's what the debate's about. Everything else interesting, not as important.

I think when you looked at real median income, families' wages in the first three years under Trump. I always take out COVID because it was a once in a lifetime, we hope, nightmare for America. But in those three years under Trump, for the first time in a very long time, blue-collar wages were rising. Now, there are a lot of people run big companies in the United States. They don't necessarily like that. They like the never-ending flow of cheap labor into the country. But that was good news to middle America and also, Kevin, to new immigrants. So people had They had a little money in their pocket. Felt good. They could maybe go on a vacation every once in a while with their families, which a lot of people can't afford to do right now. That was then, and this is now. Biden doesn't want to talk about that comparison. He can't.

I'm sure Trump will. Your buying power has been eroded by 30%. There's no getting around that. Inflation always hurts the incumbent. You don't want it in an election year. You do not want inflation because it's the one thing that touches people every single a single day. They buy the bread, they buy the chicken, they go fill up their car, they pay their rent, and wham, you feel it. You just can't get away from it. That, I think, is going to be the number one election issue. Now, how these candidates talk a little bit about how they're going to solve this problem. That'll be interesting. But this debate will be more... This will be watched by more people than the legendary Hillary Clinton Trump debate. I'm rolling out the carpets. We're doing the popcorn. We've got guests coming. This is going to be the show. It's going to be a very, very large... A massive cohort watching this. This is going to be huge. It's each candidate's chance to address the independents who will decide this election. This is the show of the season. It's going to beat Shark Tank ratings, I can tell you that.

Kevin, do you think this big announcement that Melinda Gates, one of the richest people in the world, is supporting Joe Biden? Is that really the a message they want out there to connect with the regular working class people? Or does that solidify they live in a bubble and they don't care how bad the economy is? It doesn't really matter to her.

No, she would have been better off to give every independent voter $4,200 that they've lost in buying power since January first. That would have been better. That would have been way better. That could have worked.

That is good, Kevin. Thank you. Great to see you, as always. All right, as Kevin said, that big debate showdown is one week from today.

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