This Sunday, the new campaign. After President Biden withdraws from the race, Donald Trump faces a new opponent in Vice President Kamala Harris, upending the campaign dynamics. With just two and a half months until Election Day, I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot of respect for her.
If you want to know who someone cares about, look who they fight for. Will the renewed enthusiasm help Democrats? My guest this morning, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Plus, her story.
Kamala Harris prepares to make the biggest speech of her political career at the Democratic convention in Chicago. Now is the time to chart a new way forward. What is Harris's vision for the country, and how will it differ from President Biden's? Joining me for insight and analysis are NBC News senior White House Correspondent Kelly O', Donnell, NBC 5 Chicago political reporter Marianne Ahern, Simone Sanders Townsend, former chief spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris, and Republican strategist Matt Gorman.
Welcome to Sunday. It's Meet the PRESS from NBC News in Washington, the longest running show in television history. This is MEET THE PRESS with Kristen Welker. Good Sunday morning as we come on the air after a brief pause for the Olympics, the race for the White House has dramatically shifted.
With Vice President Harris now at the top of the ticket, she has reset the race and the electoral map. And tomorrow night, all eyes will be on Chicago as the Democratic National Convention gets underway. We are running a campaign on behalf of all Americans, and when elected, we will govern on behalf of all Americans. A month ago, President Biden trailed former President Donald Trump nationally and in key battleground states.
But now Harris has narrowed the gap with Mr. Trump nationally and is leading her, tied with him in six out of seven battleground states. That's according to the Cook Political Report, within the margin of error. The New York Times Sienna College battleground poll confirms a highly competitive presidential race in the Sunbelt states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.
Just a month ago, just a third of Democrats were satisfied with Biden as their nominee. Now in a CNBC poll, 81% of Democrats say they feel that way about Harris. The volatility in the election has benefited Harris, but now the race is on to define her. How much will her presidency be a continuation of Biden's policies?
And where will she break from? Him may get more answers on Thursday night. For his part, Mr. Trump has struggled to adjust to the change in the race he was once winning, allies urging him to stay focused on policy differences.
Instead, he has often veered into personal attacks. The most unpopular vice president in the history of our country, and then they decided to get politically correct. We have to put her in. They put her in.
She's not smart, she's not intelligent. And we've gone through enough of that with this guy. Crooked Joe. This woman is nuts.
Look, people say be nice. Have you heard her laugh? That is the laugh of a crazy person. That is the laugh of a crazy.
It's a laugh of a lunatic. Some Republicans, including former rival Nikki Haley, are warning Mr. Trump to stay on message. The campaign is not going to win.
Talking about crowd sizes. It's not going to win. Talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win.
Talking about whether she's dumb. It's not. You can't win on those things. The American people are smart.
Treat them like they're smart. Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position when it comes to what did she do as attorney general on crime question, what did she do when she's supposed to take care of the border as a czar? The winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see. It's fewer insults, more insights.
And that policy contrast. In a press conference on Thursday, Mr. Trump fired back. I think I'm entitled to personal attacks.
I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence. And I think she'll be a terrible president. And I think it's very important that we win and whether the personal attacks are good, bad.
I mean, she certainly attacks me personally. She actually called me weird. Some people say, oh, why would you be nice? But they're not nice to me.
They want to put me in prison. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a co chair of Harris's campaign, is expected to sneak this week in Chicago. Whitmer's out with a new memoir, True Gretch, what I've learned about life, leadership, and everything in between. And Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitman joins me now.
Governor Whitman, welcome back to Meet the press. Glad to be with you, Kristen. Well, it's great to have you on a big Sunday. As I just laid out, Vice President Harris has momentum right now.
The question is, can she keep it? Given that President Biden had historically low approval ratings, given that he was running behind Mr. Trump in a number of different issues, almost every issue, in fact. Do you believe that Vice President Harris should be doing more to distance herself from President Biden?
I think President Biden is gonna go down as one of the Greatest presidents we've had in a long time in this country. And Kamala Harris has been a big part of this administration. They've been partners, they've delivered to the American people. So we've got to tell that story.
I also am excited about this new chapter in American politics. Kamala Harris and Tim Walls, I think, are a wonderful compliment to one another. They're real people who live middle class lives. They know what people in this country are going through, and they know how to address the problems, whether it's affordable housing or bringing down the cost of groceries, or helping you if you're raising kids in your household or just simply fighting for fundamental rights.
So there's a lot of energy. It's exciting. But I'm from Michigan, so I can tell you this is gonna be close race all the way through. Let's delve into some of the policies.
The vice president laid out some of her economic policies this week. Among other things, she's proposing a ban on price gouging. Here is what Obama administration economist Foreman had to say. He said, quote, this is not sensible policy.
And I think the biggest hope is it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and not reality. There's no upside here, and there is some downside. He warned effectively that price controls could ultimately stifle economic growth. So do you think that's the best way to bring down prices in Michigan?
Well, I think people are reading too much into what has been put out there. We know that Kamala Harris is gonna be focused on building up more affordable housing. We know that Kamala Harris has already delivered on making sure the health care is more accessible and affordable for Americans and will protect Obamacare. That's a million people who have healthcare in Michigan right now that Donald Trump are trying to rip away.
That only adds costs onto people's backs. And so that's why I think this opportunity economy that Vice President Harris's is talking about laying the broad strokes for, I think is shows we're. We really do. She sees every American.
She understands what people are struggling with and wants help you keep more money in your pocket. The biggest part of our personal budgets go toward housing, go toward health care, go toward the fundamentals. And she's got a plan on all those fronts to help more Americans be able to get a path to prosperity. Well, Governor, I hear you saying that folks are reading too much into it, and yet it is what the vice president is proposing.
You have former President Trump calling the policies communist. The Washington Post editorial board called it a gimmick. Is this plan to ban price gouging anything more than a gimmick. Governor, I think it speaks to Kamala Harris's values that she wants consumers to keep more money in their pockets.
She wants hard working Americans to be able to get ahead. She wants to make sure that there is corporate responsibility. We know we got to have business growth in this country, small business growth, big business growth for good paying jobs. But we also know that you can't gouge and hurt the American consumer just to pack your bottom line.
And I think there's, there's a balance there. I think that's what this is all about. So you think it's more policy, Governor? You know, I, I think that any effort we make to keep more money in Americans pockets is worth walking the path and having the conversations and figuring out how do we make this economy work for everybody.
Let's talk big picture. The campaign's only a month old. Obviously everything that she said in the past is starting to come into focus. When she ran in 2020, you recall, she called for banning fracking, supporting single payer health care, eliminating private health insurance.
The campaign says she no longer supports those positions. The Trump campaign, though, is calling her a chameleon. Do you think that Vice President Harris needs to do more to explain why she has shifted on those positions? Well, any, I think insult from the Trump campaign is laughable when you think about his years in office and who he fought for.
He fought for himself. And that's, he's laid out nothing in terms of a vision for America. He's feeding into people's anxieties and anger. That's what he always does.
But he's never done anything that makes someone's life a little bit better. In fact, his time in office, we had record job loss. We saw so many deaths from COVID because it was, he put out misinformation, denied that it was even a problem. I mean, this is a guy who, he calls other people names, but offers nothing of value to the American people when it comes to a vision or a plan to make people's lives better.
And that contrast is stark. What you're gonna see this week and Chicago is a bunch of happy warriors who understand the middle class, understand how we pull more people into the middle class and make sure that every one of us can have that path to prosperity and live our American dream and take care of our families. We. Well, let me ask you about her running mate, Tim Walls, and particularly on the issue of immigration.
Obviously some of his policies in his state have come into Focus. He signed into law initiatives allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses, quality free for free tuition at public universities, and enroll in the state's free health care program for low income residents. Would you like to see the Harris administration adopt those same policies, Governor? Well, I can tell you, you know, Tim Walls is a pragmatic guy.
He's a Midwesterner, just like me. And I think some of the wonderful things he's done in Minnesota resonate with, you know, Americans in all states. We know that when you give, when you provide free breakfast and lunch for all the school kids in your state, you're saving parents 850 bucks a year per student, not just on the grocery bill. So I think what you see in Tim Walls is a pragmatist who wants to make sure that we are a beacon that people come to.
We need to come legally. We need to secure our borders. But we also know that the great history of this country is that we were the place that people came to for an opportunity, and that's got to be the great future of it. But so do you.
Would you support the Harris administration if she were to be elected adopting those proposals I just laid out for you, for example, driver's licenses for those who are undocumented. I think what we need to do is have a system, an immigration system that works. Number one, we need to secure the border. We need to make sure that when people are in this country that they have access to have some form of id.
That's really important. And I think the spirit of those things, I think should be a part of any vision for the country and our security and how we bring great people into this country legally. All right, let's talk about the convention coming up this week. Organizers are bracing for tens of thousands of pro Palestinian protesters to converge in Chicago.
I want you to take a look at how Vice President Harris responded to protesters at a rally in Detroit just last week. Take a look. I'm here because we believe in democracy. Everyone's voice matters.
But I am speaking now. You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I'm speaking.
Governor. Do you think she handled that moment well here? I'm not going to go and second guess it was kind of in the moment. I can tell you this.
Kamala Harris cares about every person. She cares about Arab American voters and Muslim voters and Palestinian voters. She cares about Jewish voters and Jewish Americans as well. You can both want peace in the region and a cessation of violence and the return of hostages.
We are a country that continually falls into these false choices. You can do both. And I think that's why we need a leader like her. She's been meeting with people in the communities, all of these communities.
Her campaign cares about everyone, and I think that's evident in her policies and the seat of the table she's making for every person. And I know Tim Wallace feels the same. There's more work to do because there's a lot of pain. And I'm hopeful that the Biden administration will have something that can be announced soon.
But Netanyahu's comments and what we're seeing from Hamas looks like they're making some progress. I know they're hard at work at it. I'm still very hopeful about that. Yeah, a lot of people watching those talks quite closely, that's for sure.
Let me ask you about your book here. It is True Gretsch. In it, you write about when you were out campaigning for governor in 2018, and when a voter asked you if he would run, quote, as a woman. And you write that you did run as a woman, but not only as a woman.
What's notable, that was just two years after Hillary Clinton's historic presidential campaign. She made a point of reminding voters that she was trying to break the glass ceiling. Do you think that Vice President Kamala Harris should be leaning in more to the historic nature of her campaign? Well, you know, it is historic, and I think so many of us see it, we're excited about it.
I remember going to Philadelphia in 2016 with my daughters in the car with me and thinking my girls grew up, had grown up with eight years of an African American president. And we were on the cusp of perhaps having a female president. And those were things I never, ever could have conceived growing up in this country when I did. And so I do think that there's.
It is historic. And women in leadership, I think you see the results. I've got seven colleagues who are female Democratic governors doing great work in all of our states, and Kamala Harris is gonna make a seat at the table for every person. And I think that's a uniquely female characteristic in leadership.
And I'm excited. That is one part of what we're gonna be talking about this week, the historic nature of it. But also, she's a pragmatist. She's a great leader, and she just wants to get stuff done.
And I think that's the most important thing. Governor, I have to ask you about another part of your book. One of the more Powerful parts. When you talk about the 2020 kidnapping assassination plot against you, you write that the experience changed you.
You said, quote, it's not that I live in fear, but there's a heightened awareness now that I didn't have before, not just as a governor, but as a person, as a mom and as a wife. Here we are in this heated election campaign cycle, and of course, there was just an assassination attempt against former President Trump. Do you fear for your own safety right now, Governor? I don't, but I do fear for everyone around me.
I've got the Michigan State Police, and they worked very closely with FBI when that plot was, was, you know, being when they were executing all the different steps that they were going to do in preparation for the kidnapping and, you know, killing of me. I never felt personally unsafe. But I do worry about the people around me. And I think that's a very real thing that I will always take, and I write about that.
But I also write some of the lesson in the book, which is, you know, you can't take all these. That might surprise people that I want to actually sit down and understand what drove these men to do this, because I do think listening is a superpower, whether you're in the private sector or public sector politics or anything else. Understanding, seeing the humanity in someone and learning, I think is really important. And listening.
So the book I talk about 10 things I've learned in my life that helped me navigate the last six years. It's an effort to put some inspiration out to the world and heavy time. Maybe it's just a little light reading or you can laugh at my expense, but that's what True Crush is all about, to put some leadership skills out in the world, but also some lightness, too. Finally, Governor, I have to ask you, last week, President Biden said he was not confident there would be a peaceful transfer of power in 2025 if former President Trump were to win reelection.
Are you confident there will be? If he were to lose reelection, would you be confident there would be a peaceful transfer of power? Well, I think he's already trying to stoke the, you know, suspicions of people, and I think that's an effort directly to, to play into his ability to discount the outcome of this upcoming election. If he doesn't like the outcome.
That's not how democracy works. I think it's important that we're all vigilant. I know in Michigan, we've strengthened our election laws protecting election workers, et cetera, but I still anticipate that they will use similar tactics to what they used for years ago. And I think that we should all be very concerned about that and what that, what that could mean for safety, for integrity of our democratic institutions and the future of this country.
All right, Governor Gretchen Whitman, thank you so much for your time this morning. We really appreciate it. We will see you at the Democratic National Convention next week. And and we do have a quick note to our viewers.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had planned to join us this morning. He unfortunately is not feeling well. We look forward to him joining us in the near future. When we come back, can former President Trump pivot his campaign to face his new opponent?
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham joins me next. Welcome back. While Democrats hold their convention in Chicago, former President Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. vance planning a series of counter programming events beginning tomorrow with a Trump speech on the economy in York.
Penny. While Vance campaigns in Philadelphia. Joining me now is Trump ally Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Senator Graham, welcome back to MEET THE press.
Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you for being here. Let's start with some of the concerns that former President Trump's allies have had about him not staying on message in a way that he is talking about his new rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Here's what Nikki Haley had to say about that. Take a look. The campaign is not going to win. Talking about crowd sizes, it's not going to win.
Talking about what race Kamala Harris is, it's not going to win. Talking about whether she's dumb, it's not, you can't win on those things. I think the campaign needs to focus. That's the main thing.
Look, this is a winnable election, but you need to focus. Senator, do you agree with Nikki Haley's assessment? Yeah, I don't think. I don't look at Vice President Harris as a lunatic.
I look at her as the most liberal person to ever be nominated for president in the history of the United States. She's going to the Soviet Union playbook, the lower prices called price control. She wants to eliminate private health care. She's for reparation.
She's against fracking. She's for the Green New Deal, on and on and on. So I would make it about policy. A nightmare for Harris is to defend her policy choices every day.
We're not talking about her policy choices as vice president. And what she would do as president is it is a good day for her and a bad day for us. And of course, her campaign said she's actually not opposed to fracking. But the broader question here Senator Graham, how can you be for the Green New Deal?
Wait a minute. How can you be for the Green New Deal and not be opposed to fracking sbs? Okay, let me ask you a big question. Big picture, bottom line here.
Do you think former President Trump should stop talking about Vice President Harris's race and intelligence? Yeah, I think my view is that me and Nikki need to go to Georgia. We're giving advice on TV to President Trump. He's got a lot of critics, he's got a lot of advisors.
But to Nikki Haley and DeSantis and Young and all these great people we have, let's get together and actually campaign for the guy rather than just give advice. But in the advice giving column, here's what I would say. Donald Trump. President Trump can win this election.
His policies are good for America. And if you have a policy debate for president, he wins. Donald Trump, the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election. So I'm looking for President Trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he will do for our country to fix broken borders, to lower inflation.
The numbers that Americans are living with under Harris Biden are terrible. 50% increase in gas prices, mortgage rates going through the roof. Grocery costs are really high. That's what I would focus on.
Policy is the key to the White House. All right, let's talk policy forces to get new inflation numbers this week. They're lowest level since 2021. But I do want to talk to you about policies.
Former President Trump talking about tariffs when he was at a rally in Pennsylvania yesterday. Of course, his proposal to impose tariffs on all goods coming to the United States. Take a look what he had to say. A tariff is a tax on a foreign country.
That's the way it is, whether you like it. And a lot of people like to say, oh, it's a tax service. No, no, no. It's a tax on a foreign country.
Senator, do you acknowledge what almost every economist agrees to, which is that ultimately consumers bear the burden of tariffs? In theory, yes. But how do you get people to change your behavior when they're cheating you? You put a tariff on their products.
I want to put a tariff on every country who buys oil from Iran to stop them from buying oil from a terrorist country. So if you're Russia and you're China and you're buying oil from the ayatollah going around sanctions, I'd like to put a tariff on products coming into America so you would stop helping a terrorist. Here's Trump's policy on Tariff that I embrace without hesitation. Whatever you do to us, we're going to do to you.
His number one view of tariffs is reciprocal. If you put a tariff on our products, we're going to put one on yours. Let's try to eliminate tariffs to the extent we can. That makes a lot of common sense to me.
Trump was strong against China. He actually put tariffs on China's cheating practices and they changed their behavior. He threatened to put tariffs on Mexico unless they help us with immigration, and they actually did. Tariffs as a tool to change behavior can be good.
Well, just to be clear, the nonpartisan tax foundation determined that those tariffs that you mentioned impose some billion of new taxes on consumers. So just to be clear, you would support his plan to impose tariffs on all goods coming into the US Just to be. Just to be clear, I support his idea that whatever a country does to us on tariffs, we're going to do to you. So if you make a car in Europe and we put a 10% tariff on it, and we make a car in America and sell it to Europe and they put a 30% tariff on our cars, we're going to 30%.
That's the Trump policy that makes imminent sense to me. So those who are watching what Trump may do in the second term, I think he will use tariffs to change behavior and I think he will try to impose tariffs on people, impose tariffs on our products. Let's all go to zero if we can. All right, well, look, we are all about to watch what happens at the Democratic National Convention.
I want to talk about something that happened at the Republican National Convention. The Republicans rolled out their platform and on the issue of abortion, not call for a national abortion ban for the first time in 40 years. Senator, you of course have supported a 15 week national ban on abortion. Here's what you said about the platform right before it was rolled out.
If we change our platform and we buy into the narrative, being pro life is bad politics, being strong for the Second Amendment is bad politics. We're going to be net losers because the people who believe like we do are going to abandon us because we've abandoned what makes us different. Senator, do you still think the party's new position is a mistake? No, I think what they were able to do is kind of thread the needle here.
They talk about, you know, the unborn child has a constitutional right to life. President Trump is a states rights guy with exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother. I believe most Americans want those exceptions. They're opposing any law that makes a rape Woman carry a child.
Like 80% of Americans are against that. But also most Americans are against late term abortion. But he's our nominee. He believes the states rights approach is the way to go.
The platform I'm okay with. We'll continue to have this discussion, but we're not going to win or lose based on abortion. We're going to win or lose based on can we change the policy trajectory of this country? Can we lower gas prices?
Can we control the border? Can we lower your food prices? The good news is we can because we did. You know, we're not going to the Soviet Union playbook to fix the problems of America.
We're going to capitalism, American competition, entrepreneurship and common sense. The lower prices for America. Senator, would you advise Mr. Trump if he were to be elected to support a federal ban?
I'm going to keep being me. I think most Americans are opposed to late term abortion. 70%. Well, I'm going to keep saying that there should be.
At some point the baby feels pain. You know our policy in France, they limit abortion at 14 weeks. A 15 week ban doesn't ban abortion. It protects unborn children from an excruciating death.
This is a debate worth a great country to have. But this election is not going to be about abortion. It's going to be about the economy and a world on fire. And the nightmare for Kamala Harris is to have to defend her policy choices and explain to the American people why the world is not on fire.
Governor Winter said Biden was a great president. He's been a disaster. And the disaster will continue with Harris. Well, let's talk about the rest of the world since you bring it up.
And I want to start by talking about Mr. Trump's running mate. You have expressed criticism of Senator Vance in the past, particularly on the issue of the war in Ukraine. You've called his arguments against military support garbage.
You are just back from a trip to Ukraine. We're going to get to it in one minute. But first on this question, do you think that Senator Vance has enough foreign policy and national security experience to step in the role of president on day one? If that would be necessary?
Yeah, I completely support him. I think he'd be a much better choice than Walsh that JD could go into office and pursue an American first agenda. His concern about Ukraine is we're stretched too thin. We're giving them weapons we may need to fight China.
And here's my response to what he says. The best way to prevent fighting China is to be strong on Ukraine. If China sees Putin winning by force of arms, taking character of Ukraine and getting away with it. They're going to take Taiwan.
This disaster of an invasion by Putin is really biting him. NATO is stronger. He's an indicted war criminal. He's lost the entire European continent almost for gas customers because of his invasion.
So I want to deter China. And the best way to deter China, I think, is to get Ukraine. Right. And I just got back from Ukraine.
I'm in all these people. We were told he would fall in four days. Well, two and a half years later, they're taking Russian territory. They're in Russia.
They've taken half of what Putin sees from the initial invasion. And we need to pour it on and help these people when it comes to dealing with this Russian invasion to reset the world. All right, well, since you told us about your trip to Ukraine, let me ask you about the Middle east very quickly. President Biden has said on ceasefire talks in Gaza, quote, that they are in the end game.
Do you think that is accurate? Do you think they're close to getting a deal to release the hostages? I hope and pray. But right back to Ukraine.
The number one request of President Zelensky of me was to go to President Biden, ask him to lift the restrictions on how they can use weapons. Canada did this. We need to go all in allowing them to use these weapons to get put to the negotiating table. We're not going to win in Ukraine by military conquest of Moscow or Kiev, but we got to get put to the table.
And he will come to the table. When the pain gets too great, lift the restrictions present by on the weapons that have been late to get the Ukraine. As to the ceasefire, I'm hoping and praying the hostages come back. But I'll say this until I can't say it anymore.
What is the day after life? If we get a ceasefire and we don't have the Arabs come in and take over the Palestinian file, we will be right back at it again. So normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel is the key to a permanent peace in the midst. And I've been working with President Biden to achieve that goal.
And I still think we can. Well, you take me to my final question. You've been working with President Biden for quite some time, including in the Senate. Do you think your former colleague in the Senate made the right decision by deciding not to run again?
Senator Brown? Yeah, I think he did. I think he did for the country and for his party. I've always enjoyed my relationship with him.
We have deep and wide policy differences. But to President Biden give Ukraine the ability to fight back in this war on favorable terms. I will help you land the biggest deal and in decades in the Mideast. I will help you find a way to have Saudi Arabia and Israel normalize.
I will push Israel to do what they need to on the Palestinian pile to get MBS to take over Palestine and reform the West Bank. I wish you well. Let's end on a high note here. President Biden, Senator Linda Graham, thank you so much.
When we come back, Vice President Harris is about to face the biggest test of her political career at the convention in Chicago. The panel joins me next. Welcome back to panelists here, NBC News senior White House correspondent Kelly o', Donnell Marianne Ahern, little reporter from our NBC station in the convention city of Chicago, Simone Sanders Townsends and former chief spokesperson person to Vice President Kamala Harris and host of the weekend and Matt Gorman, former senior communications advisor for Tim Scott for America. Web rape panel, thanks for being here.
Kelly, Kick it off for us because, boy, this was going to be a very different convention with President Biden at the top of the ticket. Now you have Vice President Harris, her running mate Tim Walls set the stakes. There's usually years of planning. It's all condensed into a reworked, remade process.
And what you will see is sort of a love letter and a thank you note to Joe Biden. And that will be a way to honor his service, to talk about his accomplishments. And you will see the words, quotes from Joe Biden that will decorate the set and the scene. And part of that will be to make the transformation because implicit in the praise of Joe Biden will be his decision to step aside and that this will be a chance to honor him.
And it is different than other conventions because normally from the get go, it's all about the nominee. Not in this case. They want to give him a moment and then show that he is, in fact the one responsible for choosing Kamala Harris as is running a maid and then endorsing her and making this possible. So we will see that play out and it will be very emotional starting Monday.
And the optics are, as you say, Kelly, going to be so powerful. Marianne, I hope you're prepared to vote. We're all going to get in a plane and descend on your city. What are you going to be watching for?
Set the scene in the moon in Chicago? Well, I do think politically we're going to be checking to see how unified is the party. We saw at the Republican convention. There was a lot of unity.
So we See it outwardly at these rallies, but inside the convention hall, is it going to be quite that unified? Perhaps it will. But then in Chicago, of course, everyone is concerned operationally. How is this convention going to go off?
There is almost a sense that we spoke to someone who said it feels like pre hurricane mode. There have been some businesses that have boarded up, just concerned about the protests along the route. There, of course, are businesses that have told people, stay home, don't work, don't come into work, don't come downtown. The city says it's ready.
The mayor says it's ready. The governor and the police say they're ready. But when you hear the federal judges, they've wrapped a fence around the federal courthouse. And the federal judges will stay home and work from home, as well as doctor's offices, calling and saying, your routine appointment, perhaps you might not want to come next week.
So there's the politics and there's the operation. And I think after next Thursday night, Chicago's going to go. Thank you so much, but that was great. The operation.
I cannot imagine how complicated it is. Everyone is ready, as Marianne says. Simone, is Vice President Harris ready? The biggest test of her entire political career.
It's fascinating because she's been a sitting vice president. She's tried to cast herself as the shiny new object to reintroduce herself. And that's gonna be her goal on Thursday. I mean, look at the vice president does represent change for so many people because of the sort of nature of her candidacy.
She was the first, obviously woman, first one of color to serve as vice president. And so for that, it just feels different for people. And so she's not necessarily saddled with what an incumbent vice president. Right.
Would be usually saddled with in a race like this. I also know it's been a while since the sitting vice president ran for president in an active administration. So this is something that the electorate has not experienced in a number of cycles, and she's benefiting from that. So I think this upcoming week, you're gonna see, I think it is the flowers of people for Joe Biden, but also how the vice president's campaign and her eventual presidency, if she's elected, to build on what Joe Biden has done, while also distinctly carving out a space for herself.
It is a line, a tight line of walk, but something that I think the vice president is very familiar with. Meanwhile, Matt, allies of former President Trump I was just discussing with Lind say that he's struggling to figure out how to approach this new competitor that he has he's been going after her personally last night again saying, I'm much better looking than her. I'm a better looking person than Kamala. What are people saying inside Trump row?
How much concern is there? I mean, this takes back to even go back 2016 when Carly Fiorina had a moment, he had really had trouble calibrating, running against that rule, running the playbook against Joe Biden, very different, to say the least, than running against a black woman. And look, the best argument, the best attack against Kamala Harris, it's not purely personal. It's not political policy.
It's that she doesn't have politically core principles. She doesn't have, you know, a color chameleon. And I think what Gabe Evans said my Republicans have been encouraged by the last 72 hours is she's taking great pains through non assays to walk back a lot of her positions from 2020. But then the person she puts her name to is pretty far off and got like criticism, as you point out with Jason furman, Washington Post, etc.
Yeah. And of course, the Republicans, as you saw Lindsey Graham, have been seizing on those positions from 2020 as well. Let's zoom out, Kelly. Where are we in this race?
You look at the polls and boy, nationally in the battleground states, it's competitive again. It's competitive. And no one should think that it is not going to be a tight race because it will be. And it is still the core group of six, seven, eight states that are critical now.
The movement is there. You're seeing a bump for Kamala Harris right now. The Trump side definitely believes this is still structurally favorable to President Trump and they believe that they can do that. At the same time, Democrats are very energized.
They see new momentum. And the Harris campaign is looking at, for example, the persuadable voter who is typically not involved. It typically doesn't think their vote makes a difference. Can they make some in roads there?
And they're also doing things like advertising on Fox News during the daytime where they think Nikki Haley voters and more moderate Republicans, they might be able to appeal some of those photos. So speaking about outreach, I mean, there's a lot of pressure on Kamala Harris to get out to do more interviews. She hasn't done any interviews yet. Of course there's gonna be a debate.
Do you think she's gonna shift the strategy? She says she's gonna do one after the convention. Oh, yeah. Look, I think that the context here matters.
And a month ago, Biden was nominating so When a vice president has sit down to interview, she's going to have to answer questions specifically as to what Matt said. Why? What has changed? What is the difference here?
Talk in depth about her policy proposals. And that is not something that Franklin One could get ready in a week and a half or two weeks and a switch. And frankly, if it was ready, I would have been concerned if there was some shallow situation going on because that runs counter to everything that I know, you know, the vice president believes about support, loyalty to the president. So I think we'll see an interview soon right after the convention.
And that makes sense to me, not quickly. And then we'll get to Marianne. No, I mean, I think what happens is we don't just see if Tim Malls will allow storylines like things, whether it's a military service, the drunk driving circumstances. Fester.
JD learned that he's doing more interviews. She is speaking plain sight. So. Yeah, she hasn't talked to you on the plane.
Marianne, quickly, Chicago as a location of significance. So, all right, New York has Broadway, LA has Hollywood, Chicago. We've got political convention 1968. Yes, 1968.
This is our 26th convention to host. So, yes, 1968, the most infamous one. The fight was not only outside, of course, you've seen that chaos, but it was inside. Fighting over where delegates were going to sit, who is going to speak.
There might still be some of that, as we know that there are 30 uncommon delegates doesn't sound like a lot. That represents 700,000 who represent Palestinian human rights. They don't know if they'll be able to speak. All right, well, everyone stick around.
We're going to have more with you guys. But when we come back, I'll look back 20 years ago to a convention speech that captured the attention of the Democratic Party and the nation army. The president is next to welcome back. Former President Barack Obama will address Democrats in Chicago on Tuesday night, 20 years after he delivered the keynote speech in Boston, calling for an end to divisions between red states and blue states.
Then a state senator from Illinois and a rising star in his party. Mr. Obama joined meet the Press from the convention hall ahead of his historic address. Traditionally, the keynote is a governor, a senator, a congressman to the first state legislator in the history of the party.
The New York Times said this today. Already seen as a rising star within the party, Mr. Obama could win wide acclaim or dim his fortunes. Are you nervous?
You know, I used to play basketball, and if you weren't a little nervous before the big game, you probably wouldn't play So I think the adrenaline's gonna be pumping, but I think we're well prepared. I'm very happy with the speech. And what I'm gonna be trying to do is tell the stories that I'm hearing on the campaign trail about workers who are being laid off and are looking for jobs that can support their families, about young women and men who want to go to college, have the will to drive, but don't have money. If I'm as eloquent as they are when they tell me what their hopes and dreams are, then I think I'll be successful.
When we come back, the running mates. What are voters telling us about their first impressions? We have more with the panel next. While the back of the panel is still here, in addition to Vice President Harris, former President Trump, all eyes are on their running mates.
Hell, o', Donnell, Tim Walls has his biggest night coming up this week. He certainly doesn't have say they are building the plane and flying it at the same time to get ready. I learned that cool things about how they're going to expect coach, teacher, veteran storylines where people from those chapters of his life will appear in person and on video. And one of the changes that we'll have is that first lady of Minnesota, Gwenwolz, will not speak in person but will narrate a video about him.
That's a change up and in part in order to make way for some of these other individuals who can talk about Coach Walls. Expect a lot of that de emphasizing to a degree some of the questions about being a veteran. Also, one of the things I was really struck by is advisors say that he is particularly comfortable playing second to a woman unity. He is a governor.
He is the executive of his state. And yet they're already finding in chemistry and body language they think that he's comfortable there and that is something they think Harris needs. Well, that's fascinating because one of the big storylines, obviously not women, that we're watching right now is what is a growing gender gap Right now Kamala Harris has a significant lead among women. And there is some concern that some of these past statements have been unearthed that JD Vans have said maybe hurting Donald Trump.
When it comes to women, we talk about rollout. Right. Normally VPs get at least a week or two before the convention and find themselves take a breath. You didn't have a luxury.
Right. Because the post Biden debate fallout, they didn't want to step on that. Trump is shot and he's announced money at the convention and we're rolling. So and of course Biden dropped out later that week.
So coming out of the convention we talked to Vance folks and their image favorability was worrying a little bit. They hit a reset consistently doing more media. Their images improved, expecting them to do consistently more of that. In contrast at Waltz, well, to borrow a page from my mentor and former moderator Tim Russer and also John Carol University alum there, I am about floor Florida, Florida in 2000.
But it is about women, women, women for sure. Think about it. 2016, 53% of white women did not vote for Hillary Clinton. It's not just about race.
It's also about age. Young people energized. What about older voters? They' reliable voters.
And then finally those soccer moms, the soccer moms are saying it's gas, grocery, daycare, you know. So where do they line up for both of them? Well, the policies this today think about 2016 as well. During, during that election in general, there are lots of younger women who said they thought that they had another opportunity to elect a woman president and they decidedly did not cast ballots for Secretary Clinton.
Now personally that was a mistake on the park because that ushered it down on Trump. Here we are. So now are those voters going? Are they feeling differently about this election?
I talked to some young women voters, millennial black women voters from North Carolina recently, Melissa Murray and I did and they keep refraining food as a switch from abiding to Vice President Harris. And they said they think it's a story. They're excited for her, they want no more and they are not sure yet if they're gonna cast about it. This is where the issue of abortion becomes so challenging, quite frankly for Republicans and I've talked about this for a long time have Republicans sounds repeating how to talk about that issue.
First of all they're doing in Referendum station rising text Merritt look, you know there's absolutely there's a subsequent voters who will go to polls solely on abortion. What I'm watching now is does immigration also count with the left pushing abortion, the right pushing immigration, who wins that side that coins can tell us a lot about where we are November. Kelly, 30 seconds left. One of the things that Tim Waltz has learned is that you can have your record tested when you're running for Congress or running for governor.
And it's a whole new level. When it's the national spotlight and they're having to adjust to that, it's not just setting a record straight. It's that those are enduring attacks Tim Waltz in the press and made about that. I'm confident in his middle.
Fantastic conversation. Marianne, thank you for traveling here. I'm traveling. Thank you.
Before we go, a programming note. Watch live convention coverage from Chicago all this week. Video at 4pM Eastern with Meet THE PRESS now on NBC News now and at 10pM Eastern on NBC News. And tune into next Sunday's broadcast.
You don't want to miss it. My exclusive sit down interview with Republican vice presidential nominee Senator J.D. vance. That is all for today.
Thank you so much for watching. We'll be back next week because if it's Sunday, it's MEET THE press. I'm Craig. Mel.
Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. I've always been a glass half full kind of guy, and now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way, too.
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