AMNA NAWAZ: The fierce political debate around abortion access comes as President Biden is preparing to launch his reelection campaign this week.

Here to discuss Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Good to see you both.

(CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: Let's begin with that abortion access issue, which we know now rests with the Supreme Court.

It's interesting to see.

It's an issue when it comes to medication abortion that Republicans Democrats are actually largely aligned on.

When you look at our latest "PBS NewsHour"/NPR/Marist poll asking if medication abortion should be banned, 64 percent of all Americans said, no, it should not be banned, and that includes 55 percent of Republicans.

It seems like the real divide here, a larger divide, is just within the Republican Party.

We heard former President Trump say it should be left up to states.

His former Vice President Mike Pence disagreed.

Here's what he had to say this weekend.

MIKE PENCE, Former Vice President of the United States: I do think it's more likely that this issue is resolved at the state level.

But I don't agree with the former president who says this is a states-only issue.

I think looking to the Congress of the United States, creating a minimum protection, 15 weeks, that is supported by some 70 percent of the American public at the federal level.

AMNA NAWAZ: Amy, how does that divide within Republicans fit within the larger national conversation?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: It seems as if every Republican learned a lesson from 2022, which is, Republicans are on the wrong side of this issue.

And if we're going to win over the swing voters we need in battleground states, we have got to find a better position on it.

What the answer is, is a big question mark.

Interestingly enough, in the rest of that clip, Mike Pence did go on to say that he supports the banning of the mifepristone, which, as we noted, is not particularly popular.

What Republicans seem to be doing right now -- we saw it in Iowa this weekend, where there was the Faith and Family Conference, where he made that statement, and what we're hearing, just if you're paying attention at all to the Republican primary, is that the issue of abortion, which used to be a unifying issue for Republicans, has been replaced instead by gender and racial ideology issues.

And it was interesting.

I was looking through a poll done by a group called Echelon Insights.

They asked Republican voters only, what do you think is the more important issue, gender, racial ideologies, or abortion and religious liberty?

By 10 points, Republicans picked the gender and racial issue.

So, abortion, which was an issue that certainly Mike Pence made a central part of his entire political career, no longer having the same place as this issue.

But it doesn't mean that Republicans have solved it, necessarily, for the general elections.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tam, how do you look at this?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Right.

So, former President Trump, he kind of wants it both ways, because he wants to take credit for the Supreme Court that gave conservatives the Dobbs decision.

He absolutely wants to take credit for that.

But he also is a very smart politician who looks at things like polls and looks at public opinion and says, oh, this is this is not actually an issue that you -- that you want to be out front on as a Republican.

And so he has this sort of balance, where he's like, well, you should thank me, but maybe we should just leave it with the Dobbs decision, leave it to the states, and let's not talk about it too much, because, as Amy said, this is -- this is one of those issues where, when it was abstract, when it was like Republicans saying, well, we just should have fewer abortions, it was an easy issue for Republicans.

It was a great base issue.

But now that it has been -- something has been taken away, now Republicans are in the position of having to talk about specifics, 15 weeks, six weeks, this abortion pill, which is used in 55 percent of abortions in the United States.

And when you're talking about specifics, it becomes a much more difficult issue.

That's why it was a difficult issue for Democrats before when Republicans were trying to get them to talk about so-called late-term abortion.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, speaking of Democrats, Tam, I want to ask you about this.

It's been clear that sort of Vice President Harris has stepped out as the lead messenger on this issue from the administration.

What does that say to you about where they see this issue and also her role in the White House?

TAMARA KEITH: Right.

So she had been, I think, for some time sort of struggling to find an issue that she could own that wasn't a total loser problematic issue.

Like, owning immigration is not a great issue for the vice president, because it is intractable politically and it's just... AMNA NAWAZ: No easy solutions there.

TAMARA KEITH: No easy solutions.

And it's a big, ugly bunch of headlines for the administration.

She had taken on voting rights as an issue that she was pushing forward on.

But then this abortion issue came up with the Dobbs ruling.

And it is a base-motivating, it is a broader-than-the-base-motivating issue.

And so, as a woman, as a woman of color, she is in a unique position to be able to talk about this in a way that an 80-year-old male president can't talk about as comfortably.

And that's setting aside the fact that he's Catholic, and has sort of challenges with that.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, we are speaking in a week that we do expect him to make his reelection official announcement, we believe.

That's as polls show that some 70 percent of Americans don't want him to run.

That includes 51 percent of Democrats.

Why announce now?

What changes when he announces officially?

AMY WALTER: Well, I think it goes directly to that piece right there, which is, you have a Democratic base that isn't very excited about the upcoming election.

And they are not feeling very emboldened by their sitting precedent, right?

They want to feel like they can only this race.

He needs to, hopefully by announcing, hopefully for -- when -- the way his campaign thinks about it, what it will do is help to energize the base.

It will help to bring the base back to Biden.

One thing I want everybody to -- I think we do remember this, but when he was first running in 2020, he never had this sort of enthusiastic support behind him, right?

AMNA NAWAZ: Right.

AMY WALTER: You look at in this most recent poll that you put up on the NBC poll asked, did you vote for Biden because you liked what he stood for or did you vote for Biden because he didn't like Donald Trump?

Democrats evenly divided or voters for Biden evenly divided on that question.

So he does not have the support around him personally that, say, a Barack Obama did, certainly a Donald Trump does.

But waiting to jump in would only help to focus on the fact that the base remains sort of placid and not engaged.

It's not going to change these numbers overnight.

But I think it allows the campaign to say, no more chitchatting about this, no more speculation about, am I running or not?

I'm absolutely doing this.

And, Democrats, let's get on board.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tam, well, as you know, there is - - there are questions about his age.

At 80, he's already the oldest president.

There's some frustration among journalists -- you know this as the president of the White House Correspondents Association -- about access to the president.

What is the White House saying about all this?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, in terms of access, what the White House is saying is, he does all of these things where you shout a question, and he answers quickly, and so he's super available.

I quibble with that, as president of the White House Correspondents Association.

We would all -- I think the American people would benefit from more press conferences where the press prepares, the president prepares, and the president gives longer answers that give the public more insight into his thinking.

Putting that aside, the White House says that there are lots of people who are 80 years old, 82 years old, 86 years old who are super performers, and he is someone who is certainly not sitting around watching cable all day.

He's the president of the United States.

And he is actively using his mind.

And, also, they say that they really have -- the White House doesn't say this -- officials, not the White House, say that he has consolidated the support of the Democratic Party.

He is the party's candidate.

There isn't someone waiting in the wings right now.

And there is this sense that, if he were to face a legitimate primary challenge, that you could end up with a situation, like Jimmy Carter or George H.W.

Bush, where they were -- where they were hurt by the primary.

And this is a little weird to say, but Democrats are a bit risk-averse, and they don't want to take any chances, especially if Trump is the nominee.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now we're left to see, will he or won't he?

AMY WALTER: Yes, Donald Trump continues be the greater motivator for Democrats than Joe Biden.

AMNA NAWAZ: Correct.

Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, always good to see you.

Thank you.

AMY WALTER: Thank you.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.