Lea, I feel like you've been quietly filming the Blair Witch Project over there while we've been setting up.

That's what you always say. If you see me on my cell phone looking like I'm terrified, breathing with my phone all messed up, It's because I'm like sorting data in

Excel and really stressed out about it. It's like there's no one after me except

for numbers. The number. Hello and welcome to the 538 Politics Podcast. I'm Gailin Druk. We've been

spending a lot of time on the campaign trail recently, but today we're going to

start off with what's happening in Washington. A bipartisan group of negotiators has been hammering out a deal

on border security and the details have begun to emerge, although the full text

has not yet been made public. President Biden said on Friday that the bill would give him

quote a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed and

that quote if given that authority I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.

We're going to talk about the politics of the deal

and whether it would change the public's view

that Biden has not handled the issue of immigration well.

We're also going to play a round of guess what... not handled the issue of immigration well.

We're also going to play a round of guess what Americans think.

The primary is not technically over.

Nicki Haley is busy campaigning in South Carolina,

but both Biden and Trump are behaving like the general election has begun.

So we're going to lay down some markers at the informal start of this general election phase

for how Americans are thinking about the state of the country.

And later on in the show, we're also going to reveal our latest pollster ratings.

Who is the best pollster in America, you might ask?

...