Sec. Chris Wright, Sen. Mark Kelly, Zach Lahn

Margaret Brennan (0:01)

I'm Margaret Brennan in Washington, and this week on Face the Nation, one month away from midterms, and the pressure on the president to do something about high prices is building.

With control of the House and Senate at stake, President Trump has been on a red state road trip to get Republicans to the polls. He now concedes that his party might have a messaging problem when it comes to the economy.

SPEAKER_2 (0:27)

We're doing a phenomenal job, but maybe we're doing a bad job in selling it.

Margaret Brennan (0:31)

And our new CBS poll has troubling news for the president's party, with nine in 10 voters saying they rate the economy on the basis of prices. Seven in 10 say that Trump's policies are making food and grocery prices go up. And nine in 10 say the conflict with Iran is making US gas and oil prices either a lot or a little higher. With early voting now underway, is it too late for Trump to turn things around?

We'll talk with Energy Secretary Chris Wright about new efforts to get gas prices down. Plus, we'll ask Zach Lahn, the Republican running for governor in Iowa and Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, what they're finding out on the campaign trail. All that and more is just ahead on Face the Nation.

Good morning and welcome to Face the Nation. We begin with one of the Trump administration officials tasked with working to lower those high gas and oil prices. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, good morning to you.

Chris Wright (1:40)

Good morning, Margaret.

Margaret Brennan (1:41)

So it's good to have you here. You said this past week that Americans can expect lower gasoline prices and diesel prices by election day.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board has a piece outlining that the campaign to squeeze Iran financially is working, but they can still knock out significant Gulf energy infrastructure. They could be planning an October surprise before the US midterms. We are still seeing Iranian attacks on ships now. I mean, how can you be so confident prices are headed down?

Chris Wright (2:14)

Well, because we've got increasing supplies coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, and they've continued to rise over the last months, over the last recent weeks. We've got US gasoline production today at record high. We have demand for gasoline as we come out of the summer driving, seeing starting to go down.

Similar stories with diesel. Diesel's mostly been infected by the Russia-Ukraine war and also by China's decision not to export diesel or gasoline into the marketplace. And of course, we're living with two refineries that were recently closed, large refineries in California that Gavin Newsom forced the closure of. And frankly, 15 years of Democrat policies that have been energy subtraction, trying to close coal plants, close refineries and shrink our capacity, which means when you get in crisis, we're just less resilient than we should be.

Margaret Brennan (3:05)

But you still think that in the next four weeks, prices are going to go down.

Chris Wright (3:09)

Absolutely. Diesel prices have been going down, gasoline prices have been going down. I expect that to continue.

Margaret Brennan (3:14)

I want to talk about diesel in a minute, but I was reading that the US was sending more defensive equipment to the Gulf countries to protect their oil infrastructure. I see there was a gathering of national security advisors at Camp David on Friday to talk about Iran and the conflict in Yemen.

Can you share any outcome from that? I mean, is the US about to escalate? We did just see a third carrier strike group get sent to the region.

Chris Wright (3:41)

Look, the president has taken a strong stand that Iran, the world's greatest terrorist regime, cannot and will not have nuclear weapons. So of course, we're looking at every avenue to achieve that goal, economically, to be prepared for what comes militarily, but we cannot pass to the next administration and Iran armed with nuclear weapons. Not only is that a threat to peace and stability, that's a massive long-term threat to energy prices.

Margaret Brennan (4:08)

Right, but he's also said that they're not seeking a nuclear weapon. He said that just the other day, that they might have actually already stopped. But in the immediate sense of threats to our neighbors who have refinery and production capacity, how do you guarantee that there is no October surprise that sends those prices go in the opposite direction?

Chris Wright (4:25)

Hey, well, there's no guarantees. There's no guarantees in conflict. There's no guarantees in life. But everything we're doing is to grow the supply of diesel, to grow the supply of gasoline, and frankly, again, to reverse years of policies that have been directed exactly the opposite, to shrink our ability to produce, refine and deliver hydrocarbons.