AI was supposed to take over the parts of the job you hate. Turns out, made your job even harder. Instead of doing the work they gave you homework, ServiceNow's AI specialists get work done from start to finish. Cases get resolved.
Loops get closed. With ServiceNow, you can do the parts of your job you're best at and delegate the rest. To put AI to work for people, visit ServiceNow.com this Sunday. Breaking point.
You don't have the cards right now. A dramatic Oval Office meeting with Ukraine's president turns combative as tensions rise over efforts to make a peace deal with Russia. You're gambling with World War 3, and what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country. This country.
You're either gonna make a deal or we're out. Are we witnessing a realignment of the US and its allies? Plus spending showdown. As President Trump prepares to address con Congress and the nation, Republicans are promising nearly a trillion dollars in spending cuts.
Can they do it without cutting popular programs like Medicaid? It won't be read my lips anymore. We're not going to touch it. And legal challenges.
If we don't do this, America will go bankrupt. That's why it has to be done. Elon Musk's efforts to slash government agencies are being blocked by multiple federal judges. Will the court rulings hold?
He's tearing down our institutions for fun. It's a game. It's not public service. My guest this morning, speaker of the House Mike Johnson, independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma.
Joining me for insight and analysis are NBC News Washington managing editor Carol Lee, Televundo news anchor Julio Vaquero, former Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, and Republican strategist Brendan Buck. 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 Welken.
Good Sunday morning. The stakes are incredibly high as President Trump prepares to address a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. It comes as newspapers around the world are highlighting what appears to be a realignment of US Alliances and a stunning turn towards Russia on Friday. In a heated confrontation in the Oval Office, President Trump and Vice President Vance paraded President Zelensky in an explosive and unprecedented televised showdown.
Now, U.S. officials say the path to a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine is deeply uncertain and wholly dependent on the Ukrainian leaders next steps. Since the clash, Trump administration officials have also discussed whether to pause U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
According to two administration officials, though it's unclear whether or when the President would take such a step. The meeting took a sharp turn when the Vice President mentioned talks with Russian President Putin. The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy. He broke in the ceasefire, he killed our people and he didn't exchange prisoners.
We signed the exchange of prisons, but he didn't do it. What kind of diplomacy GD you are speaking about? What do you mean? I'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country.
Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media. The meeting then descended into a shouting match. You're in the world, everybody has problems, even you.
But you have nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the future. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. We're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what we're going to feel.
I'm not telling you because you're in no position to dictate that. You're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel. Very good. We're going to feel very good and very strong.
You're right now not in a very good position. You've allowed yourself to be in a very bad position from the very beginning of the world. You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now with us.
You start having cars right now. You don't. You're gambling with the lives of billions of people. You're gambling with World War Three.
You're gambling with World War Three. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, far more than a lot of people said they should have. You said thank you once again. Ukraine's ambassador to the US at one point hid her face in her hands.
A White House official tells NBC News that following the confrontation, President Zelensky was asked to leave the White House. A planned joint news conference abruptly canceled. A minerals deal that was completed left unsigned. President Trump posting on social media, he disrespected the United States of America and its cherished Oval Office.
He can come back when he is ready for peace. The confrontation comes just days after the US Sided with Russia over Europe at the United nations, opposing a resolution condemning Russian aggression. On the third anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine. The Oblova showdown was cheered in Russia.
Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev writing, quote, the insolent pitch finally got a proper slapdown in the Oval Office. As US Military support for Ukraine hangs in the balance, President Zelensky weighed in on Fox News. So I'm not Hearing from you, Mr. President.
I thought that you owe the President an apology. No, I respect president and I respect American people. And if, I don't know if I think that we have to be very open and very honest, and I'm not sure that we did something bad. This is so sensitive, you know, just a ceasefire without security guarantee this so sensitive for our people.
I'm speaking like a president of a people who are in the struggle three years and they just want to hear that America on our side and that America will stay with us, not because Russia is with us. And joining me now is the speaker of the House, Republican Congressman Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Speaker Johnson, welcome back to Meet the Press. Hey, Kristen, great to be with you as always.
It's great to have you back, Mr. Speaker. As you know, reaction has been pouring into that Oval Office meeting on Friday. Democrats and even some Republicans say it only emboldened Vladimir Putin.
A Kremlin spokesman saying today that the U.S. foreign policy shift, quote, largely coincides with its vision. Here was the Wall Street Journal editorial board, quote, putin wins the Trump Zelensky Oval Office spectacle. Was Vladimir Putin the winner here, Mr.
Speaker? No, he wasn't. Listen, I participated in a lot of bilateral meetings in my time with heads of state and other dignitaries. There's always a certain protocol that goes along with this.
I've never seen anything like President Zelensky's behavior there. He berated and interrupted his host. And instead of express expressing gratitude for the extraordinary help that the US has provided his country and effectively helped him stay alive and stay in power. So the way that that went down was, was very disappointing.
I hope and pray, frankly, that President Zelensky will come to his census, come back to President Trump, express gratitude, as he should, you know, apologize for his behavior there and accept this mineral rights deal, because that is the best way for us to get to a point of peace over there in that region. And it's in the interest of both countries. Well, I want to play you what you said almost a year ago when you argued in favor of sending more aid to Ukraine. Take a listen.
I believe Xi and Vladimir Putin and Iran really are an axis of people. I think they're in coordination on this. I think that Vladimir Putin would continue march through Europe if he were allowed. I think he might go to Balkans next I think he might have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies.
To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys. Mr. Speaker, do you still believe that Ukraine is an ally who the United States should support over Vladimir Putin and an axis of evil? Yes.
It's pretty absurd for anyone in the media or Democrats to somehow proclaim that President Trump, the White House, Republicans in Congress are on Putin's side. It's a joke. We understand that he is a dangerous adversary, and he's the one that provoked the war. When we did the Ukraine to the aid to Ukraine a year ago, the entire point of that, and I was consistent from that moment until today, the whole point was to position Ukraine for peace talks, to make sure that they could hold the line until President Trump returned to the White House, which we knew was going to happen.
President Trump is the only figure on the entire globe was powerful enough to bring both these parties to the table, and he was in the process of doing that. He was very, I think, excited about the deal that was going to be consummated yesterday. But President Zelensky went in and blew it out. And it is such a great disappointment for everyone.
We need to get back to the table. We need to get Ukraine to express gratitude, of course, for all we've done for them. But. But to bring it in this conflict is that it is in America's interest to get this done, and it is certainly, obviously, in Ukraine's interest and all of our allies in Europe and around the world.
But, Mr. Speaker, you're saying that we all know that Putin provoked the war. Actually, President Trump said that President Zelensky provoked the war. The week started with the US Siding with Russia and North Korea at the UN Refusing to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine.
It ended with this Oval Office confrontation with Zelensky. Is President Trump realigning the United States with Russia here? No. President Trump is trying to get these two parties to a point of peace.
And it takes certain maneuvers and certain strategies to do that. You have two parties who, to this point have not shown any interest, apparently, in getting to peace. What President Zelenskyy did in the White House was effectively signaled to us that he's not ready for that yet. And I think that's a great disappointment.
We have to get this settled and we stand with our allies. We always do, but they have to be reasonable. You've got to bring it into this, this war. And for Zelensky to come in and make demand that he wasn't even making a Year ago, I think, shows that his priorities are in the wrong place.
And I certainly hope that he will, he'll come back to us. Since President Trump has been very clear about this, that if he is ready for peace, then we can negotiate a deal. And Kristen, this mail rights deal is a win win for everyone. It will give us access to rare earth minerals that we need and it will provide level of security for Ukraine.
They will effectively be an economic partnership with us at that point. And we will definitely always defend our interest in our investments. Russia knows that, China knows that. Iran, North Korea know that.
And that's a very important message for us to say. Mr. Speaker, you're saying that the United States stands with its allies, and yet what we saw there in the Oval Office was the President and Vice President berating an ally in front of cameras. Just to put a fine point on this, is the United States abandoning Ukraine?
No, they're not abandoning Ukraine. I was with the President a day before that meeting, and he was excited about this mineral rights deal. He believed it, and we all believe it to be in the best interest of both countries. It is not the president and the vice President that berated Zelensky.
I saw it the other way around. I saw Zelensky registering the Oval Office. Instead of being gracious and saying thank you and looking for a way out of this mess, he did quite the opposite. Look, that's why people, members of Congress are frustrated.
That's why American people are frustrated about this. We have to, we have to stand for America's principles, America's priorities. And I think this would accomplish all those things. It's really unfortunate the way that it developed.
Mr. Speaker, Senator Lindsey Graham on Friday floated the idea that President Zelensky may need to resign in order for there to be a peace agreement. Do you agree with that statement? Well, something has to change.
Either he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country to do that. I mean, it's up to the Ukrainians to figure that out. But I can tell you that we are, we are re exerting peace of strength. President Trump has brought back strength to the White House.
We knew that this moment would come. We worked hard for it to come, and now it's here. But we need these parties to go along with this. We need President Linsey to do what is necessary.
This war has drug on far too long. He's lost hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children. We gotta bring into it. And I think our European allies are hoping that that is the case, and we are as well.
Okay, so just to put a fine point on that, you are saying that it might be necessary for President Zelensky to step down and not put. Do you want to see Putin step down? I'd like to see Putin defeated, frankly. He is an adversary of the United States in this conflict.
We gotta bring it into this war. It's in everybody's interest. All right, Well, I do want to talk about the big budget bill that passed through the House. Your plan calls for almost $900 billion over the next 10 years in cuts from the Energy and Commerce Committee.
As you know, it's gonna be nearly impossible to reach that level of cuts without touching entitlements. I know you have been asked this before, Mr. Speaker. I need to get on the record here again our cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security off the table.
Yes, and don't take my word for it, Chris, and go do a word search of the budget resolution that we passed on Tuesday. There's not one mention of Medicare, Medicaid are so security. It's not in the bill because we haven't set the policy. What we're trying to do is get America back on sound fiscal ground.
We have a 36 trillion dollar federal debt and ballooning deficits. The Republican Party is the party of fiscal responsibility. The American people want us to review the expenditures of the country and get our fiscal house in order, and that's what we must do. At the same time, we've got to extend the Trump era tax cuts so we can make sure that every American does not receive the largest tax increase in U.S.
history at the end of this year. We have very serious work. We can do both of those things simultaneously and not affect benefits for anyone who relies upon those and is eligible to receive them. President Trump's been critical here about this, and we have as well.
But in those programs, we have lots of inefficiencies. In Medicaid, for example, there's an estimated $50 billion a year that is lost in fraud alone. Clean that up. And the people want us to do it.
That's what we're talking about. Ensuring efficiencies, insurance, the programs are strengthened so they can remain solvent and help the people they're intended to help. You say there won't be any cuts to entitlements. But on Friday, Elon Musk, who President Trump has of course put in charge of making cuts all across the government, called Social Security, quote, the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.
Mr. Speaker, is that a sign that Social Security is Elon Musk's next target? No. Well, I've met with Elon about this multiple times.
We meet late in the night in his office, and we've looked at that. What he's finding with his algorithms crawling through the data of Social Security system is enormous amounts of fraud. People want us to. No, no, Kristen, do not.
Don't words my mouth. What I am saying is we have a moral responsibility to ensure that those programs are conducted in a way that does not allow for this. This massive fraud and abuse. And that's what he is finding.
He's finding, for example, that one Social Security number can be assigned to dozens or maybe hundreds of people, so that every time there's a check distribution because of all those different addresses, there was no safeguard in the existing software, the Social Security, to prevent that from happening. That is outrageous. And when these examples are presented, American people, they're going to be on the side of Doge and Elon. President Trump and the Republicans in Congress, we look forward to cleaning it up.
It's worth noting the Social Security Administration's internal watchdog found that less than 1% of benefit payments were improper. I do want to get to my final question, though, which is about the shutdown. Don't believe it. Don't believe it.
All right. Okay. Well, in two weeks, there is a potential government shutdown. Mr.
Speaker, a lot of people worried about this. Can you guarantee that the federal government will stay open? We are working hard to do our responsibility to keep the government open. Democrats have to help negotiate this, and they, to this point, show no, no interest in finding a reasonable solution for that.
We're looking to pass a clean CR to freeze funding at current levels to make sure that the government can stay open while we begin to incorporate all these savings that we're finding through the DOGE effort and these other sources of revenue that President Trump's policies are bringing to the table. And then for FY26 for the next fiscal year, you're gonna see a very different process and a lot more efficient, effective spending for the people. We look forward to that. But, Mr.
Speaker, of course, Republicans control the White House, the House, and the Senate. So isn't it on Republicans to keep the government open? And will you do so? Well, government funding is always bipartisan.
We have to have partners on both sides of the aisle to do it. And we need our Democrat colleagues to come to the table and be reasonable about that. They want to use government funding as a sort of weapon against President Trump administration. And that's not the way this is supposed to work.
Republicans are going to do the responsible thing. We're going to do our duty and keep the government open. And we're working in good faith, negotiating in good faith with our colleagues in Congress to get that done. I hope everyone come to the table and do their job.
All right, covered a lot of ground today. House Speaker Mike Johnson, thank you very much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Thanks so much.
Great to be with you. When we come back, Republican Senator James Langford of Oklahoma joins me next. Welcome back. And join me now is Republican Senator James Langford of Oklahoma.
Senator Langford, welcome back to MEET THE press. Thanks. Good to see you. Great to see you.
You have been a longtime supporter of defending Ukraine. In fact, back in 2022, you co sponsored legislation that called for the US to protect Ukraine, quote, before, during and after the invasion. Based on what you witnessed in the Oval Office, Senator, are you concerned that the United States is turning its back on Ukraine? No, we're not turning back on Ukraine, nor should we.
Putin is a murderous KGB thug that murders his political enemies and is a dictator there. And so we've seen that. We've seen his aggression. Countries around him have seen that.
Obviously, the Ukrainian people have seen that. The challenge is now we're at a stalemate. This is a World War I like trench warfare, and it is best to be able to get to at least a pause. And what I hear President Trump saying over and over again is we need to get to a stop and fight and find some resolution.
I understand Zelensky is rightfully concerned that Putin has violated every single agreement he's ever signed and that he can't be trusted. He's looking for some kind of security guarantees which the French and the UK Are saying they want to put troops in. But we need to get these two folks at the table, get to some kind of resolution to something that may look like north and South Korea for a long time and have a line where people are looking at each other, but not an act of war. As you know, extraordinarily, the Kremlin is cheering what it saw in the Oval Office.
Let me ask you about something I just discussed with Speaker Johnson, which is that Senator Lindsey Graham has said that President Zelensky may need to resign in order for this peace process to move forward. What say you, Senator? Do you think President Zelensky might need to resign? I don't agree.
I don't. I'm not interested calling on the resignation of other world leaders. I'd like it when Chuck Schumer asked for Netanyahu to be removed. I don't like it when other members of the Senate asked for Zelensky to be removed either.
But frankly, I think that would spiral Ukraine into chaos right now trying to find who is the negotiator to bring an issue to peace. If you remember in that press conference in the Oval Office just on Friday, it began with President Trump saying that he is a friend of Zelensky. He is interested. They've had good conversations.
I think they understand each other. Obviously, there are differences where Zelensky wants more in the way of some kind of security guarantees. The United States is not willing to be able to troops on the grounds we're not willing to do that. But President Trump obviously met with Zelensky first.
Everybody was talking about Trump was going to work with Putin. He had foreign ministers working with the Russians. He wanted to meet personally with Zelensky first. I think that's a very clear sign of where he is and where he stands on this.
But he wants to get both sides of the table, get into the fighting and the death. A lot of people are curious, Senator, about the bigger implications of this moment. Are you concerned that what happened in the Oval Office, the fact that the United States sided with Russia and North Korea in that UN vote, for example, the fact that President Trump accused Alinsky of starting this war, could that be sending a signal to China that it has a green light to invade Taiwan? No, it sure should not.
So that if China somehow receives that, they're receiving the exact wrong message of the United States with our ally Taiwan, and we, like the rest of the world, want to see peace in that region and to continue to be able to have relationships all across that region. But China should not misread this at all. What President Trump is trying to do is try to get both sides of the table. This is the interesting challenge that has not been done.
And now that through this entire war in the last three years, to be able to get both sides and figure out how to be able to stop the fighting and then be able to keep the fighting stuff, that's the next part. That's the biggest next challenge. It is. We'll have to see if these talks get back on track.
I do want to switch gears. Talk about the budget bill you just heard. We're discussing that with the speaker as well. Of course, what passed the House deals with the president's deportation plan.
It extends the 2017 Trump tax cuts. The argument that the speaker, other House Republicans are making is that in order to get tax cuts done, the best chance is to do it together in this, what is called a big, beautiful bill. Do you agree? Will you commit to voting for the bill as it stands?
Well, no one has actually seen the bill as it stands. What we pass right now is called the budget framework. It is just a we should sit down and start making a plan. It's a very general statement of their we need to be able to preserve our tax cuts.
We need to be able to actually reduce spending. Now let's sit down and figure out how to be able to do that. So there is no real plan on the table at this point. Now it's time to make the plan that was literally step one on it.
And the key things we've already outlined some of them. We've got to be able to do border security. I think a lot what's been lost this week, even in the all the multiple headlines are out there. We had a day this week we had less than 200 people trying to illegally cross our border.
Less than 200. It was just a little over a year ago. There were 12,000 people a day that were illegally crossing our border. So we've had a dramatic shift in what's happening on our southern border.
There's a lot of work that's happening, as everyone's seen, trying to be able to get the economy back on track, to be able to push back on fentanyl coming across our border from the north and the south and with China. So there's a lot of things that are spinning in the air right now. It's a matter of trying to figure out what the right thing and what stage is every part of the negotiation in. Well, in terms of what may or may not be in the final package, some of your Republican colleagues have said point blank they are not going to support legislation that cuts Medicaid in any way.
So, Senator, let me put this question to you. Would you support a bill that makes cuts to Medicaid or any other entitlement? So I heard the speaker mention this as well. No one's talking about cutting benefits on this.
They're talking about how do you actually cut fraud between Medicare and Medicaid? We have, according to government records right now, the Government accountability office, almost $100 billion in what they're called either fraud or waste or just we don't know where it went. $100 billion is a lot of money. I think there is an expectation for the American people that are saying when Is someone going to step in and actually going to fix that?
So I think that's a reasonable thing to do. If in your credit card, if somebody swipes your credit card a thousand miles away from you, you get a warning immediately that says, hey, someone's trying to use your car. The federal government, you can have a hundred billion dollars in waste and no one notices. Year after year after year, that has to come to a stop.
There's lots of other areas of efficiency on this, but that's been an area that both Republicans and Democrat presidents have worked on for years. But this president is saying it's time to actually solve this. I'll just talk about it. I have to ask you, Senator, about something that right now is impacting a number of states, including your neighboring state.
Child in West Texas died from the measles this past week. Tragically, Senator, it's the largest outbreak in the state in nearly 30 years. A majority of those who are impacted are not vaccinated. Measles was, of course, declared eliminated back in 2000.
So, Senator, let me ask you, will you encourage your constituents to get vaccinated against the measles? Well, I do. I already do encourage people. I've been vaccinated for measles.
My children wear out one day when my grandson. I'll encourage them. That's a vaccine. I think it's very important.
What we've seen in some of these areas are, in some of these are folks don't agree with the vaccine and that, that they have the rights of abuse. Some of them are in religious communities that don't believe in vaccines at all on it. So I understand some of that. We're respectful of that.
But we also understand the measles vaccine has been around for a long time. It is a deadly disease, especially for infants. So it is incredibly challenging for us to be able to keep this under control, to make sure that we're protecting children that are one years old and younger that can't get the vaccine. They're not, they're not eligible to be able to get it because of their age and their development at that point.
So what we've done as a culture is try to be able to keep measles down, to be able to protect those that are exceptionally vulnerable in those infants. All right, well, I know we'll continue to all watch that closely. Senator James Langford have a lot more questions for you, but we are out of time, so please come back soon. Thank you so much for joining us.
We really appreciate it. Thank you. Good to see you again. Great to see you.
When we come back, Senator Bernie Sanders joins me next. Welcome back. And joining now is independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Senator Sanders, welcome back to MEET THE press.
Great to be with you. It's wonderful to have you back, Senator. Let me start with Ukraine and that Oval Office meeting. The reaction continues to pour in.
And just heard me speak with House Speaker Mike Johnson. He left the door open to the possibility that may be necessary for President Zelensky to resign in order to get to a broader peace agreement. Let me ask you this question. Do you think that President Zelensky needs to resign in order for there to be a peace deal?
I think that is a horrific suggestion. Zelensky is leading a country trying to defend democracy against an authoritarian dictator, Putin, who invaded his country. And I think millions of Americans are embarrassed or ashamed that you have a president of the United States who says that Ukraine started the war, that Zelensky is a dictator. He's got it exactly backwards.
The people of Ukraine have lost tens of thousands of soldiers. Their cities are being bombed as we speak. And our job is to defend the 250 year tradition that we have of being the Democratic leader of the world, not turn our backs on a struggling country that is trying to do the right thing. And I want we will continue to follow that, of course, Senator.
We have a lot to get to. So I'm going to talk about budget cuts and switch topics here so we can get to that as well. You heard Speaker Johnson argue that there's massive amounts of waste, fraud and abuse and entitlement programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Security. In fact, the Government Accountability Office does say that both Medicare and Medicaid made more than $100 billion in payment errors in 2023.
Let me ask you, Senator, Democrats were in charge for four years. Should the Democratic Party have done more to address some of those issues with the insolvency of our entitlement programs? And Trump was in power four years before that. Look, if there is race and fraud in the Defense Department, which is the largest single budget item that we fund, which has not been able to fulfill an independent audit in the last seven times where there's massive waste and fraud, we should go after waste, fraud, abuse in every agency of government.
There's no argument about that. But let us be very clear. What Republicans are trying to do right now is to make massive cuts In Medicaid, over $800 billion, cuts in nutrition programs which feed hungry children. Why are they doing that?
Because they want to be able to use those savings to provide over $1 trillion in tax breaks for the richest 1% for the Elon Musk's and the Zuckerbergs and the Bezos of the world. In my view, you don't take food away from children, health care away from struggling people, to give tax breaks to billionaires so we don't have to waste and fraud in every agency of government. Yes, we do. Well, let me ask you about Social Security and you raise Elon Musk, Senator.
So let me follow up with you on this very point because he's made some very pointed comments about Social Security I referenced earlier in the broadcast. This was to Joe Rogan. I'd to hear and get your reaction on the other side. Take a look.
Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. Basically, people are living way longer than expected and there are fewer babies being born. So you have more people who are retired and get that live for a long time and get retirement payments. So the future obligations.
So however bad the financial situation is right now for the federal government, it'll be much worse in the future. Senator, President Trump says he's not going to touch Social Security. Elon Musk calls it a Ponzi scheme. Do you agree?
No. I think what Musk, the wealthiest guy in the world just said is totally outrageous. That's a hell of a Ponzi scheme. When for the last 80 years Social Security has paid out every nickel owed to every eligible American.
Quite a Ponzi scheme. What is in fact a problem is that if we don't make reforms, improve the funding mechanism over the next nine years, the Social Security Trust Fund, which provides about 20% of the funding, will go broke. So what we have got to do, and I think most Americans agree, I just introduced legislation to do that, is you lift the cap on taxable income. Right Now, Musk, worth 400 billion contributes the same amount into the Social Security Trust Fund as somebody making 170 million.
You lift that cap, we can extend the solvency of Social Security for 75 years and you can raise benefits. Kristen, right now in America, half of elderly people are trying to get by on 30,000 a year, 22% on $15,000 a year. We've got to raise Social Security benefits. We've got to expand Medicare to include hearing, dental and vision.
Not go after these programs which are so important to millions of our seniors. I want to talk about what you have been doing recently, Senator. You've been crisscrossing the country talking about, warning of what you say is an oligarchy in the United States. We're seeing some video of that right here.
Some Democrats argue the best action right now for the party to counter Donald Trump is to do nothing at all. Democratic strategist James Carville wrote this quote, roll over and play dead. Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the American people miss us. Senator, what say you?
Do you think that's a good idea? No, I don't. In fact, the problem is that Democrats have been playing dead for too many years. 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck.
We have more income and wealth inequality than we've ever had in the history of this country, where the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country, millions of seniors are struggling to heat their homes and put food on the table. I don't think you play dead. I think you stand up for the working class in this country and make the point that right now the Trump administration is clearly an administration designed to represent the interests of the muslks of the world. 13 of the people that he nominated to head agencies are billionaires.
You know, Kristen, when Abraham Lincoln was in Gettysburg, looking out of the field where so many had died to defend freedom, he talked about a vision of America where we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. What we have right now in Washington, let me be very clear, is a government of the billionaire class, by the billionaire class, and for the billionaire class. And these guys want to get their greed. Their greed is uncontrollable.
More tax breaks for billionaires, cuts, the programs for the elderly, the children and the poor. We gotta fight back. That's what these trips to Wisconsin and Michigan will be about. Senator, very quickly, we are just 12 days away from a potential government shutdown.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says Democrats have a significant role to play to keep the government open. Some Democrats are saying they're not going to vote for a government spending bill that includes Elon Musk's cuts. Will you. Will you vote for a bill to keep the government open if it includes those cuts?
Well, we don't have a bill right now. But I will tell you this. Last I heard, the Republicans control the White House, the House, and the Senate. And I hope they present us with a budget that works for working people, not just for the billionaires.
All right. Senator Bernie Sanders, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Good to see you.
Thank you. When we come back, are we witnessing a realignment of the US and its allies? Aren't the president is next. Welcome back.
The Oval Office clash between Presidents Trump and Zelensky, a rare public showdown in the White House marked a significant shift in America's approach to an ally at war with Russia. Back in 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy joined MEET THE PRESS with this warning about the Soviet Union and its growing influence. We've been living off our fact for the last three or four years.
Militarily, the Soviet Union made a great breakthrough in space and in missiles and therefore, they are going to be ahead of us in those very decisive weapons of war in the early 60s. What is true militarily is true economically. Their rate of increase is greater certainly through scientifically and in the image they give to the world of a country on the make. And I do believe that today, October 1960, we are the strongest power in the world.
But the point is the curve, the wind of the curve is going to meet. The Soviet Union's relative power has been growing steadily in relation to ours, including its military power, especially in the field of missiles. Now, the point I make is by 1961, 2 and 3 is the crucial time. How we're going to be head there, I'm not sure we are.
We're not going to be in 1962 and three the most powerful country in the world. When we come back, more on the clash of the Oval Office as the president prepares to address Congress. The panel is here next. Welcome back.
The panel is here, NBC News Washington managing editor Carol Lee, Julio Vaccaro, anchor of Noticia Telemundo, former Democratic Congressman Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Republican strategist Brendan Buck, former advisor to House Speakers Ryan and Boehner. Thanks to all of you for being here. A lot to get to. Carol, you have been talking to your sources throughout the weekend.
Overnight you have new reporting on what the thinking is right now behind the scenes at the White House about any potential path forward for peace deal. It doesn't look good. No. And one of the things that we learned in our mornings, administration officials say there have been discussions in the past 48 hours about potentially pausing aid to Ukraine.
Now, it's not clear when that would happen if the president were to make that decision or there's something that would also take place that would trigger it. But the fact that that discussion is happening really underscores the level of frustration within the administration with President Zelensky. Now, from President Zelensky's perspective, he President Trump as leaning more closely to Russia than to Ukraine. But I'm talking to officials again.
They don't know where this goes next. They say that this was not a setup. They think it's still possible to deal with Zelensky when officials had the ball is in Zelensky's court. He needs to make it right.
They don't know exactly how he would do that except to say that he needs to recognize the paradigm ship. I thought Speaker Johnson outlined a potential roadmap for President Zelensky saying that he needed to show gratitude, apologize and sign this mineral steel. But you know where this goes from here? We don't really know.
And the one thing about that person is that President Zelensky irritated President Biden too. We were reported in 2022 they had a phone call and then President Biden lost his temper with Lindsay. Felt like he wasn't showing off gratitude. The difference that was in private and support free Americans was pretty high.
And President Biden wasn't trying to negotiate an end to the war. President Trump promised to do that. This doesn't really get any close. I'm so glad you brought up that call with President Biden, Brennan, because it does speak to the fact that President Zelensky is someone who's defiant.
He does not back down from these requests. There was a discussion. Did he misread the room in that moment and push the request too far, get under the skin of another president? I thought it was notable.
The other thing that we heard from Speaker Johnson today, a roadmap about how relations could be prepared, but also opening the door to, yes, maybe he does need to step down. Something initially floated by Senator Lindsey Graham. What do you make of it? Well, you certainly have a pretty big divide.
I think you divide between people who have clear eye views about what's going on in Ukraine as it relates to Russia, and people are more interested in keeping up with whatever Donald Trump just said. Mike Johnson in that latter category, I think both Johnson and Langford were pretty clear. And they said some things that that frankly, the president wasn't willing to do, that Russia is the enemy here, that we want to defeat them. Frankly, what Zelensky said in the Oval Office was relatively unremarkable.
He basically outlined those things and that was so offensive to Donald Trump that we had this enormous blow up. These two men just said the exact same thing. But we're in a situation now where we are blaming an ally, a person who is fighting for the very survival of their nation. We're piling on him because he stated the obvious, because that was too disrespectful to him.
And I think we are missing the bigger point. We need a resolution to this. I think Donald Trump's narcissism caused what happened here. I'm hoping that Donald Trump's narcissism will actually bring us back together because ultimately we need a resolution.
I think Donald Trump probably still wants to get a deal. So I don't think this is the end of the story. That's the question. If he gets a deal, we'll all be forgiven.
Stephanie, at the same time that the United States, Ukraine's allies watching very closely, President Zelensky meeting will with the British prime minister. He's going to be holding other meetings with his European leaders. What are the broader implications as the United States allies on the world stage. Watch this.
They've already expressed concerns. Could Russia be looking to go into other or to neighboring nativ nations? I should say I think the allies and adversaries alike are looking at this and what is crystallizing for them is what an America first foreign policy looks like. And this is abandoning decades of what has given America competitive advantage on the world stage.
And that has been the strength of our alliances built on shared democratic values and shared interests. We're not trading all of that for short term deals and relationships in which there's a transaction cost for dealing with the United States, whether you're an ally or an adversary. And so that's really shifting what people are thinking. I think in capitals all across the world, leaders are trying to recalibrate to the new America.
Yeah. How do you think this plays out and what are you watching for as we wait to see if these talks do get back on track? I mean, I think the big question is, is this a major shift in American foreign policy or is it President Trump doing things differently to achieve what he wants, peace in Ukraine. But the fact is that I've been able to talk to some Ukrainian refugees that I met a few years ago and they've expressed this hopelessness and the fear that they don't know what's going to happen to their country.
It's basically trapped between Russia and the usa. And I feel like this uncertainty is shared by other allies. This is bigger than Ukraine. This is about American allies.
Just look at Mexico or Canada. They are neighbors, trading partners and they might be facing tariffs next week. So a lot of uncertainty in the middle of this. Fascinating to hear from refugees and that real world impact that that blow up is having.
Carol, this is the backdrop as President Trump prepares for just the nation has joined your dress on Tuesday night. What are you watching for Tuesday? Well, what White House Officials say is the president, unsurprisingly, is going to walk through what he sees as his accomplishments over the past six weeks and including during his first term. He'll down some of some of those as well.
He'll have a lot of what one official said were made for TV moments. But the thing that I'm looking for is, you know, President Trump told you right after he was elected that he wanted the border of groceries. What does he say about those costs for Americans that they're still dealing with that he promised to bring down on day one? Julio, the fact that he's not going to be able to say prices have tighter, the fact that he's not going to be able to say we're on the path to peace.
What do you think the stakes are Tuesday night? I think it's a very important night for President Trump. And I agree he made two big promises during his campaign, right? Fight inflation, fight immigration.
And so far, consumer satisfaction is dropping. Consumer confidence. I mean, inflation might be coming up and deportations are not where he wants them to be yet. So he still has big challenges in front, higher than it was under the end of the Biden administration, but not, not quite where he wants it to be.
Brendan, how do you see this unfolding? I anticipate he's going to tout the cuts that Elon Musk is carrying out, but it's a fine line he's got to walk there. Yeah, we heard a lot this morning about waste, fraud and abuse. And at the same time, the government, the president trying to talk about we're going to balance the budget to see how he claims to outline that it's frankly nonsense to talk about.
We're going to balance the budget through waste, fraud and abuse. They're talking about $100 billion a year in proper payments. We announced $2 trillion deficit just this past year alone. And there is no waste, fraud and abuse line item in the budget that they could just outlaw.
Now, I'm also for getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse. And if Elon Musk can actually find places to do it, that's fine. But there is such a disconnect by saying we're going to balance budget and we're never going to have Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. That's just simply impossible.
And I wish there'd be a little more honesty about how we can get there. So take a look at the grand salt when I say it won't bounce. Senator Sanders was he said it's not going to happen. Medicaid and other entitlements will be touched.
Do you think Democrats are pushing back? Have they found their voice in this moment yet? I think they're starting to find their voice, but what they really need to do is get out of Washington and get into their communities. I think this last election then treated that voters didn't feel like Democrats shared their concerns.
And I'll tell you, having stood in front of town halls, your community, when you talk to the people, they'll tell you what they care about and the intensity with which they care about it, as well as how to talk about it. And I think those are all things lessons that Democrats could really use in this moment as they try to understand what the chaos of the slash and burn of federal agencies and federal programs has on actual Americans. Yeah, then we've been watching those town halls already start to play out. Great conversation.
Thank you all. Before we go, a quick programming note. Join NBC News on Tuesday for special coverage of President Trump's address to come. Congress coverage begins at 8:00pm Eastern on NBC News now and at 9:00pm on NBC News.
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. Hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of the Drink.
This month, Demi Lovato is my guest. The global superstar tells me that she is the happiest she's ever been right now. But getting there, it wasn't simple. Demi opens up about starting in Hollywood young and why she now thinks she may have started too soon.
She talks about recovery, her new marriage and the deeply personal reason behind her new cookbook book. The Drink is always about the journey to the top. And this was an honest conversation about what that takes. Hope you listen and follow the Drink wherever you get your podcast.