Meet the Press NOW — April 1

It's here. The Ford it's a big. Not yet. The Ford it's a big deal.

Oh, guys, just wait. The Ford it's a big deal. Event is on. Really?

Now. Hurry. Until lease of 2026 Maverick XLT Hybrid all wheel drive for 197 by weekly at 5.29% APR for six months. With 2,995 down, that's like $99 a week.

The Ford it's a big deal. Events. Visit your Ontario Ford store or Ford ca. If it's Tuesday, polls are open and voters are voting in two states where President Trump's political standing and his administration's sweeping agenda are effectively on the ballot for the first time since November, plus 21 hours and counting.

Senator Cory Booker has been speaking on the Senate floor since yesterday, blasting the Trump administration's policies, saying he'll speak for as long as he's physically able. As Democrats look for ways to fight the Trump agenda. And the White House admits it made a quot administrative error in deploying a Maryland father to El Salvador. As a judge drinks a blow to the administration's efforts to end temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants.

Hi there. Welcome to be the press now. I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington, and if it's Tuesday, voters are voting. Polls are open right now in Florida and Wisconsin in races that could have major implications nationally as the first real political stress test of the new Trump administration.

The size of the Republican House majority is at stake, along with the ideological balance of the top court in a battleground state. Let's start in Florida, where Republicans should be expected to cruise to victory in today's special elections to fill seats left vacant by Trump appointees Matt Gates and Mike Waltz. A President Trump carried both these districts by more than 30 points. But in these unprecedented times, Republicans are swaying the margins and Democrats are hoping to ride a wave of anger to overperform expectations and claim momentum against President Trump's agenda.

Even President Trump couched his expectations in the Oval Office on Friday. When it comes to Florida, you have two races and they seem to be good. It's a Trump plus 32 area. The one thing is they're spending like $12 million.

And our candidate doesn't have that kind of money. Spending much less than that. Like maybe 1 12th about a million dollars, a little bit more than a million dollars. So the airwaves are blanketed and you never know what happens in a case like that.

But North Carolina Congressman Richard Hudson, he's the man in charge of getting Republicans elected to the House, told NBC today that he's not worried and has the proverbial champagne on ice. Are you concerned about all Democrats? No, we're gonna win both seats. Absolutely.

Love a victory party tonight. Then there's Wisconsin, where voters are casting ballots in high stakes, high spending Supreme Court race that will elect a judge who could determine the fate of issues like abortion and congressional redistricting in a key battleground state. An outsized factor in this race, White House advisor and the world's richest man, Elon Musk. His super PAC is the top outside spender in Wisconsin and he's made a personal appeal to voters there, complete with a cheesehead.

But he's also been a presence in ads boosting the liberal candidate who's accusing him of trying to buy the race. Now, as we watch for what message voters are sending to Trump in these elections, we could also learn a lot about Musk's political power in tonight's results. Here's what Wisconsin's respective party chairs told us about it. Donald Trump is unpopular in Wisconsin.

Elon Musk is even more unpopular in Wisconsin. You know, if you ask the average voter out on the street, they will say that they don't like what Elon Musk is doing. They're terrified about it. Is there some risk that Elon Musk and attention that he gets has on this race?

Yeah, I think the benefit of Elon Musk far outweighs whatever potential negatives that the Democrats see. Let's bring in our team of Election Day reporters. Shaquille Brewster in Madison, Wisconsin. Marissa Para is in Daytona Beach, Florida, which is the heart of Florida, 6th District.

And Steve Baraki is. Where else would he be? At the big board with what to watch for when the polls close. All right, check.

Let's start with you. Happy Election Day. Obviously, a lot colder where you are than where Marissa is right now in Wisconsin. Wisconsin, always one of our perennial battlegrounds.

You've talked to a lot of voters over the past couple days. What are you seeing and hearing? I know I never cover enough summertime elections here in Wisconsin. It's always spring and fall.

But I'll tell you, I was at a polling location earlier today and a lot of voters telling me that they feel the pressure of this campaign, of this race. Some people saying that it doesn't feel like a normal Supreme Court race that I participated in before and. Right. That's because it's not.

You mentioned the spending, more spending in this court race than has ever been spent in a state supreme court race in U.S. history. And much of the rhetoric around that has been around Elon Musk. Elon Musk for the Democratic side, clearly an attempt to drive their base, to boost turnout, to tell Democrats here in the state of Wisconsin that if you don't like what you're seeing out of Washington, D.C.

well, you can fight back against it at the polls today. And then on the Republican side, it's about boosting turnout among those who don't always show up to votes or elections like the one today. I want you to listen to some of the conversations we had with voters earlier today. It's like they were trying to buy it and it, it was upsetting.

So I wanted to make sure that I had a little, a little bit of say. So you normally wouldn't come out, but Elon Musk got you out here. Pretty much, yeah. This is your way to fight back against what you're saying in D.C.

i was a fan of what Elon was doing with the money, but ultimately I still support where grad's coming from in terms of pro life issues. So ultimately, that's what I always think about when I cast my vote. And you heard that gentleman mention some of the substance here of this election. Wisconsin Supreme Court is up for grabs.

This is a court that you and I have talked about several times in the past, that they've taken up pretty thorny issues over the past couple of years, everything from abortion rights to voting rights to state and congressional legislative maps. So this is a court that we talk about regularly. It has a lot of influence, has a lot of power. It also has some national implications.

And I think that's part of the why you have so much attention focused on this race. Well, there's a reason you spend so much time in Wisconsin. Check. And that's because the races there are always so close.

The last three presidential races I decided by less than a percentage point. Now, from your perspective, and you kind of already touched on this, but could this race tell us something right now about where the country is? Is Wisconsin a true bellwether? You know, I'm glad that you played that sound from both party chairs as you were introducing this segment.

And I say that because you have party leaders here in this state on both sides saying, yes, that is the case, that people are going to look to Wisconsin to gauge how voters feel. This is a state that, yes, President Trump won in November, but it was his narrowest win in the country. It's a state that regularly flips back and forth that has a Democratic governor, has a Republican Legislature, it's the purplest of purple states in this country. So this will be a good sense not just of how voters are feeling, but a sense of how much influence can have on both ends of the political spectrum.

Also Wisconsin, one of the few states to still have a Republican and a Democrat representing them in the United States Senate. Right, Jack, thanks so much. Well, I'll look for your tonight as it returns roll in. Let's move to the warmer climate of Florida.

Bar is in Florida 6th district. Now we were talking about how close things are generally in Wisconsin. The exact opposite is the case where you are in Florida. This is a district Trump carried by 30 points back in November.

But it is giving Republicans some anxiety. What are voters telling you? I'm a Trump lover, people. You know what?

I do hope we can come back to you in just a moment. Okay, we'll come back to you in a second. Marissa. Let's find out from Steve K.

What the situation is like at the big board there. And we'll come back to Marissa. Steve, what's the situation now? First, talk up to us about what's happening in Wisconsin.

Yeah, let's take a look at what's got. You put those numbers on the screen a minute ago. How razor thin the presidential elections always are. Certainly have been in the Trump area in Wisconsin.

But it wasn't the case the last time there was a state supreme court election in Wisconsin. That was two years ago, 2023. And in that election the Democratic aligned candidate won by 11 points. That's a landslide by Wisconsin senators.

Now why did that happen two years ago? It informed the important question we're looking at in this election. These court races, state supreme Court races, early April. These are much lower turnout elections than a presidential election.

That's the highest turnout you're getting a presidential here. It's a lot more folks who are super, super motivated turn out to vote in. The problem for Republicans and the good news for Democrats in the last few years has been the Democratic base, or a chunk of it is a lot more motivated for an election like this than the Republican base, than the pro Trump base. And that's what carried Democrats two years ago.

Huge turnout imbalance. There' places in the state we can look, we're gonna be looking at tonight and it really told the story two years ago. One is this is the heart of the Democratic base. That's the state capital, Madison University of Wisconsin.

This is the second largest county in the state, population wise, 600,000 people. And what's it full of? It's full of voters with college degrees, professional class voters, higher incomes. Those are demographic characteristics that are now at the core of the Democratic base.

And those are the voters. Those Democratic voters in those demographic groups have been using every election it seems in Wisconsin, elsewhere as a chance to go out and register their objections to Donald Trump. Any level, any race, anytime in the calendar, doesn't matter. They turn out so Democrats have that going for them.

Meanwhile, on the Trump side, one of the areas where Trump did the best last year, why you want to say they call this the driftless area? Well, the name geographically has something to do with glacial coverage tens of thousands of years ago. We're talking about here is sort of, this is the Mississippi river here, these counties along the Mississippi river just a little bit. We're talking about small town rural Wisconsin, blue collar.

We're talking about white voters generally who don't have college degrees. It's the core of the Trump base. The problem for Republicans is they've been there for Trump. They weren't there in that race with state Supreme Court two years ago.

Let me show you what this looks like as we compare. As we compare. Let me pull this out. Here it is as we compare Dane county and the driftless area.

This is what I mean. Dane County, 54% college educated, college degree, driftless, only half that income, much higher. Dane county over driftless. And then the results in last year's presidential race.

Big Democratic winning Dane, double digit Trump in the driftless area. And here it is in that 2023 Supreme Court race, the Democrats did even better in Dane County. Look what they squeezed out of there. And meanwhile, in that court race, what happened?

The Republicans didn't even win that driftless area I was just telling you about. And this is why if you use that turnout level of last November's presidential election as a benchmark in Dane county in that court race in 2023, it was 2/3 of last November's level. That's astronomical for a state Supreme Court race. Meanwhile, in that rural driftless area, it was 51.

Just much more motivation, much more energy in a huge core Democratic area that powered Democrats in 2023. Less motivation in a Trump surge area that actually allowed the Democrat voters in the area to punch above their weight. That's why Democrats, their candidate, their line candidate was so successful in 23. That dynamic has to change tonight for Republicans or it's gonna be a repeat of 2023.

Okay, Steve, stand by. Let's go back now to Florida where Marissa, I think has got things a little More settled. Marissa, literally on the front lines. Yes.

Tell us what you're seeing here. Obviously, district Donald Trump carried by 30 points. What's the feeling here now? Well, you can tell it's passionate.

There's definitely passionate voters here. I can tell you that for a fact. We all saw that. But in terms of how the campaigns are feeling, I mean, everyone's feeling the heat and more wish than when we saw how cold Shaq looked in Wisconsin.

But these races, there's a lot of parallels to be made. So we are seeing actually a surprising number of first time special election voters. And I think that's an important part of what we're hearing from the campaigns when it comes to their strategy. What we're even seeing in terms of the visuals, in terms of the language that's being used, I mean, special elections is not the same kind of turnout you expect in even a midterm or a general election.

And so you have people who have primarily predominantly voted for President Trump. Of course, these Republican candidates performed very, very well in these districts. But we're hearing a lot of voters who are coming out for the very first time in the special election. Let's hear what they have to say on sling on the other side.

I just hope that the other Republicans out there aren't too lax and that they realize these elections are very important too and they should come down and vote. Did Trump's endorsement of Randy Fine affects you not voting for him because you're not happy with the president's decision so far? I think it has more to do with the administration and a lot of things they're trying to push through. Not necessarily the endorsement, but where and how things are moving.

So let's talk about campaign strategy as it relates to what they're hoping to see with the voters here. So we have Republican Jimmy Petronas, and here in this district, Republican, we have Republican Senator Randy Fine. And these are two President Trump endorsed candidates. We have seen President Trump endorse a bunch of social on extra social media posts, even last week during a virtual town hall.

And so there has been a lot reliance on Trump's endorsement by Republican candidates here. But then on the flip side, you have the Democrat candidates, Dave al Mount in six congressional District 4, the Panhandle. And then you also have here a Democrat, Josh Wheel, and they're trying really hard to target those voters that are perhaps dissatisfied with President Trump's decision so far, as well as trying to do a grassroots efforts to really engage Democrat voters who have never voted in a special election. Like this one.

So, Ryan, obviously, both parties hoping to see that it makes a difference. Democrats, at the very least, hoping to close the gap here. We'll see how it pans out tonight. Okay.

Marissa Barr, thank you so much for that reporting. We appreciate it. Coming up, as the world wakes to find out exactly what the new Trump tariffs are all about, Ontario Premier Doug Ford joins me for the view from Canada. But first, Senator Cory Booker showcasing Democratic defiance against the Trump agenda with a marathon speech on the Senate floor.

We'll check in on that. Plus, House Republicans buck their leadership over a measure to allow a new new parents to vote by proxy. You're watching ME the Press now. Welcome back.

A day before President Trump is expected to unveil a sweeping round of new tariffs, the president has dubbed tomorrow Liberation Day, saying he will unveil a sweeping round of reciprocal tariffs. Although the White House is yet to announce the details of the size and scope ahead of tomorrow's announcement. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has threatened to respond with tariffs of his own if his country is among tomorrow's targets. President Trump is in the process of trying to fundamentally restructure the US Economy.

And that means that our economy here needs to change dramatically as well. And as I made clear to President Trump in our call last week, I will reject, I will reject all attempts to weaken Canada, all attempts to wear us down, to break us down so that America can own us. And I'm joined now by someone at the front lines of what is becoming a trade war between United States and Canada, Doug Ford, who is the Premier of Ontario. Ms.

Ford, thank you so much for joining me. We appreciate it. You told reporters last week that you and top Canadian officials have prepared retaliatory tariffs for whatever President Trump announces tomorrow. Will the severity of your response depend on what you hear from President Trump?

That's right, Brian. First of all, I always start off every interview say Canadians love Americans. They love the U.S. i love the U.S.

i spent 20 years of my life. There's. But yes, we're going to retaliate. We're going to retaliate appropriately, but hard as well.

As I've always said, we have the two greatest countries in the world. Let's build an MKM fortress. You know, President Trump ran on growing the economy, creating jobs, and that's not going to happen. It's going to hurt the American economy.

I don't call Liberation Day for Americans. I call Termination Day because there are people going to be laid off something. Lines will shut down. You can't just cut off your largest customer in the world, and that's Canada.

And we're at a fever pitch right now in this country as my American friends are just going on their daily business. Every day there's 40 million Canadians that are ramp up, literally going down retail shopping aisles looking to see what's made in Canada, what's made in the U.S. i've never, I've never seen anything like it. And you said so that you spoke to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about what to expect for Ontario tomorrow.

And I didn't even know. What does that tell you about how the way the administration is handling all of this? Well, you know something, I'm not too sure how the administration's handling this. Sometimes I wonder, do they really not know or are they just going smoke?

I think a lot of them really don't know. At least the, at least the senators and governors and congress women and men, they aren't too sure what's, what's going on. And to be very frank, we aren't too sure. So let's see what happens tomorrow, April 2nd.

The market's going to respond negatively. These are people's pension funds. Americans will be hurt. And that's the last thing I want to see.

I want to build a strong and can fortress to protect Canada and us. We have the critical minerals, we have the energy, we have the potash and uranium. The list goes on. And there's no one else I want salty more than our greatest allies and friends in the entire world.

Well, I have to imagine though that that level of unpredictability makes it very difficult for you as well. Talk to me a little bit about how just not knowing what this outcome could be and the impact that that could potentially have on both the economy of the United States and Canada. Well, I know it makes uncertainty. Americans don't like uncertainty.

Canadians don't. Businesses don't. The market doesn't like uncertainty. It sells investments.

That's the last thing we want to do. Especially with turbulent times happening around the world. You have to stick together. We're part of the family, as we believe for 200 years.

I know a lot of Americans feel the same way. We're there to support our greatest friends and allies. We'll always be there. But we can't be under attack by one person.

When we spoke to you last month, you said that rescinded your threat to impose a surcharge on electricity in ports of the U.S. are you prepared to go forward with that charge if the new tariffs are imposed again against Canada and Ontario in particular. Well, the reason we did that, I want to bring the temperature down. I want to sit in front of Secretary Letnick and get the whole story.

And yes, he, you know, we got together, had a good conversation, but the only thing acceptable is zero tariffs. We need, you know, Americans and Americans need Canadians. We have such an incredible relationship together. I've talked to endless CEOs of businesses.

I've yet to find one CEO that agrees with this. It's just going to hurt their economy. That's what it's going to come down to. And people are going to be laid off in the US So that's the last thing we want to do.

I always say you can't unscramble an egg. You have to make the helmet larger. And who better than with your closest friends and allies? And so we're prepared.

We have additional $65 billion of retaliatory tariffs on the table. We've already done 60 billion. That is going to hurt and it's going to hurt a lot. That's the last thing we want to do.

But we just aren't going to rol. I gotta apologize to the American people. We absolutely love you. I'm sorry you've been put in this position, but we have no choice.

Let's play a bit of what your Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters today about the situation you're facing. Take a listen. We will not disadvantage Canadian producers and Canadian workers relative to American workers. So there are measures that we can take that at a minimum level the playing field with the United States and again, it depends on the broad measures they take tomorrow is indeed they do against Canada.

Maybe. Explain what sort of measures is he talking about there? Well, I agree with the Prime Minister 100%. We just want to see the list per se of the tariffs that we're going to be facing.

And then we'll go tariff for tariff for dollar for dollar. And it's unfortunate there's so many other countries that aren't our friends. Let's say we need to be focused on China, not your closest friend in the world. Part of the family, Canada.

It's just wrong thing to do. We're the number one trading partner to 28 states across the country. Just Ontario alone. Nine million Americans wake up every morning to produce products for Ontario alone.

And what's happening with retailers and other people? They're trying to onboard the people that make a certain widget. Let's bring them to Ontario. We'll give them an incentive.

The government will help you build the building, give you tax breaks, just on board into Ontario or somewhere in Canada. And that's going to cost American jobs. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Let's work together.

Let's be the two strongest nations in the world. All right, Premier, four as western New York spent a lot of time in your province, a beautiful part of the world. So it was great to talk to you and let's see what happens tomorrow. Thank you so much for joining us.

God bless America. God bless Canada. Let's get through this. I asked the Congress, Senate and governors put pressure on the administration.

This can't, can't move forward. Okay. Thank you, Premier, for. We appreciate it.

We have to turn down some breaking news on the Senate floor. That's where New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is showing no sign of slowing down in his marathon speech. He's been holding this, I've been holding the floor, I should say, for more than 21 hours and counting. I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able.

I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis. 71 days so far. The Trump administration, when we get to 100 days, catastrophic things could have happened. 12 hours now I'm standing and I'm still going strong because this president is wrong.

He promised to lower your grocery prices. They're higher. He promised I'll be a better store of the economy. It's worse than we inherited.

Over and over, he's breaking promises and doing outrageous things. This is a moral moment in America. Where we stand. It's time is John Lewis.

So keep repeating it. He says it's time. Time to get into good trouble. Now is the time to get angry.

But let that anger fuel you. Now is your time to get scared for what's happening to your neighbors and let that fear bring about your courage. Senator Booker is now just about three hours away from breaking the record for the longest speech in Senate history, which is held by Senator Strom Thurman, who was speaking in opposition to civil rights back in 1957. Joining me now, NBC News senior national political reporter Sahil Kapoor.

So first, Ihil, what prompted this marathon speech from Senator Booker? Why today? What point is he trying to make? Well, Ryan, the why is simple.

Democratic voters are furious with the Trump administration and they believe that Democratic leaders have been a little too passive in their response to Trump and not done anything to convey the country. This is the crisis. So that's where Senator Booker is trying to step in. And show that what he's doing is not business as usual.

He says he's rising to highlight the grave and urgent threat posed by this administration to American values, to the American way of life. Booker says he says rises to the level of the crisis of the moment. What he's doing and trying to convey. He's talked a lot in the last 21 hours.

He's protested Trump's policies, criticizing for trying to accumulate power. He has talked about how he's deported some people from the United States without the due process protections that are generally afforded in those circumstances. And you just played some footage of him talking about his hero, the Lake John Lewis, the former congressman and civil rights icon, talking about good trouble. He's the business he's holding up right now for the immediate purposes include Matthew Whitaker, the Trump nominee to be U.S.

ambassador to NATO. And depending on how long this goes, this could all have an impact on that major budget resolution that Republicans are trying to pass. Of course, Ryan, hour 21. If he does break the record, which he's three hours away from doing, that would be quite the symbolism for him to be breaking Strong Thurman's record, which he set while protesting the Civil Rights act of 1957.

We see that he's already passed Ted Cruz on the list of longest speeches ever. That happened just a few minutes ago. Let's turn now to the House. There was actually some big news there, too.

Some infighting within the Republican conference over Congresswoman Annapolina Luna's bill and proxy voting. What's the latest on that fight? Yeah, Speaker Johnson was dealt a serious blow on the floor of the House when he tried to package a rule that would sink this discharge petition by Congressman Luna, which has enough bipartisan support the past that would allow new parents to vote by proxy while they're taking care of their newborn. The speaker tried to package this with a rule vote to bring up various bills that are widely supported by the MAGA base, that ridiculous supported within the Republican Party, including the SAVE act to require proof of citizenship and Boeing.

But Congressman Luna and eight other Republicans voted with Democrats to take down that rule, which meant none of those bills can come up, which meant that discharge petition to allow, you know, new parents to go by proxy is still valid. Luna triggered that discharge petition, which means it has to come up under the rules over the next two legislative days. So what does Speaker Johnson do? He immediately adjourned the House, and that cannot come up for the rest of this week.

The strange situation, Ryan. The House is gone until next Monday. They can't do any of the business that they want to do because Speaker Johnson has determined not to let that proxy voting resolution happen. The reasons are, you know, he worries about the substance of it being a potential slippery slope.

If you make one exception, you gotta make more exceptions than he doesn't want a small minority of Republicans to be able to override the will of about 95% of Congress. Yeah. And I know it's in the weeds, but these rule votes are usually perfunctory. This is not something we talk about.

The fact that Speaker Johnson lost so many of these rule votes just shows how unsettled that Republican conference is. Asahel, thank you so much for that report. We appreciate it. Up next, mass layoffs underway across the country's health agencies.

Just how deep the cuts go and what we know and still don't know about the potential ripple effects. You're WATCHING me, THE PRESS now. Now. Welcome back.

Widespread layouts began today at the Department of Health and Human Services. The department is aiming to cut 10,000 full time jobs as part of Elon Musk and Doge's efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce. This was the scene at the HHS office in Rockville, Maryland, this morning as hundreds of employees waited in line, some over two hours to access the building and see if they were impacted. The cuts are also part of HHS Secretary RFK Jr.

S wider goal of reshaping the government's public health institutions. Joining me now on set is NBC reporter Julia Jester. So what we don't know yet, Julia, is who's getting laid off at HHS and which of these health agencies are most impacted. Where can we see the first real world impact of this decision?

Well, the HHS is billing this as a restructuring of the entire agency. It's 13 agencies within it. And we're seeing major cuts at specifically CDC with 2400, FDA 3500, NIH 1200 and the CMS 300. And you look at something like the FDA, Food and Drug Administration and that affects drug approvals.

And they're basically entire comms teams laid out so many public database about newly approved drugs and how that might affect people. We can start to see some real world impacts as ripple effects of this. Everything from childhood vaccinations to infertility and ivf, which has been a big push with the Trump administration. And so it'll be a bit of time until we see some real world impacts.

But we're already looking at where those might be when it comes to anything from New Drug approvals to providing health insurance across these many, many agencies. And then separately, Democratic attorneys general are suing the Trump administration over its decisions to cut federal funds to their states. What do we know about this? So around two dozen Democratic attorney generals have argued that the Trump administration arbitrarily and abruptly terminated $11 billion in grants to their states.

And it's not just Covid funding. It affects a lot of other areas. You look at, for example, Michigan was saying that over $300 million from the government might just disappear because of this. And so they're saying that the termination of these funding grants is illegal and could affect everything from vaccine clinics for children to opioid substance abuse to mental health crisis centers.

And so the states are saying that this is illegal. We deserve those grants. It's not just up to the federal government to arbitrarily decide to terminate them. Ryan, just thank you for that reporting.

We appreciate it. Turning now to a massive misstep by the Trump administration, the US Government admitting a court filing yesterday the federal agents accidentally deported a man who was in the US Legally landing him in El Salvador's notorious mega jail. The administration is calling him, quote, administrative error. And Justice Department lawyers say they don't have jurisdiction to get the Salvadorian government to release him and return him to the United States.

Joining me now, NBC News senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley. Julia, what more do we know about this individual and how he ended up getting deported to El Salvador? Well, we understand that he's a father. When he was arrested in Maryland just a few weeks ago, his five year old son, whose lawyer says that officer was in the backseat of the car.

Now, this is something who crossed, someone who crossed in 2019 and was told by a judge that he had an order that was withholding of removal, meaning that he could not be deported. It's not really a way someone can live for a long time in the United States. It doesn't really give them legal status, but it does keep them from being deported until other parts of their case can be worked out. There was also a time he was accused of having a connection to Trinidad Aragua, but police were not able to hold him because there was no evidence that connected him formally to the gang.

And so he was later released. That's why the Trump administration now is saying they made an administrative error, because this was someone who was actually barred from being deported from the United States. The other people who have been deported, or at least what we know, we don't know all the details, were deported maybe without final orders of removal. That's why Trump invoked those wartime powers.

But they didn't have explicit orders that they not be removed. Right. That's why this is so critical. It's bringing up a lot of questions about the process the Trump administration went through in order to find and pick the people who they put on those first planes to that prison, El Salvador.

So you say the administration has admitted that this is an error. It seems, though, that this needs to be a problem that should be fixed. Now. Do they have any plans or means returning back to the United States?

That's right. Yes, Carolina did say from the White House coding today there was an error, but that she doubled down that he wouldn't be tied to the train. Dear Agua Venezuelan gang and no, right now the administration is saying that this is outside of their power and outside the power of federal courts to be able to have any kind of power over this man, to be able to bring him back to the United States, or even saying that habeas petitions, which is how you file in court, that you are being wrongfully detained, would be basically meaningless in US Course, because this man is in the hands of El Salvador. We should point out, Ryan, there may be some gray area there because the entire reason why El Salvador is holding any of these men is because of agreement with the United States.

So we also have some news on the temporary protected status program for Haitian and Venezuelan migrants in the United States. What's the latest on that? That's right. That status was set to expire just next week, which meant that over 350,000 people would lose their right to live and work legally in the United States.

And it would tee them up and make them eligible for deportation. Of course, you know, Venezuelans and Haitians along with in the crosshairs of the Trump administration's deportation plans, especially as we talk about Venezuelans who Trump says many of them are tied to this train day Aragua gang. Now, taking away this status would not only make it eligible for deportation, but for many cities they saw it as a lifeline to be able to allow the mass number of Venezuelans who entered the United States in the last administration to be able to work if something democratic mayors in cities like New York asked the White House for under the Biden administration. But now a judge has said that the Trump administration cannot take away that status so quickly.

It wasn't set to expire until October 2026. And he said that doing so would have irreparable harm on not only as individuals, but also on the US Economy all right, Julia Ainson, thank you. After the break on this April Fool's Day, Republicans are on the defense over what is and isn't a joke when it comes to talking about a third term for President Trump. You're watching Beat the Press now.

Welcome back. In an exclusive overview this weekend, President Trump told NBC Christian Welker that he was, quote, not joking about wanting to see a third term in the White House. But that isn't keeping a number of Republicans in Congress from downplaying it and insisting it is a joke. Listen.

Oh, that's funny. I got going he does that keep y' all stirred up and a lot of things like, like that we got this little problem that's probably for mapping but, you know, I think it's more fun. What do you make of President Trump against majesty? He could be open to a third term.

I think he's got a great sense of humor. Reminder, he said he wasn't joking. Others simply denied the president would seek another term or they even could. Is there a legal constitutional path for him to seek a third term and would you support him if he went down that road?

Well, I just thought I better read the Constitution. There's constitutional paths that you have to amend the Constitution to do it and that's a high bar. If he were to run the third term, would you try to stop him certain that you do? Well, just, I mean Constitution here.

How much do that? I'm rather fond of the Constitution and I've read it several times and it seems clear to me that you can always work in terms. But maybe the president does something wrong. A reminder, the Constitution bars anyone from being elected president more than twice.

And changing that would require passing a constitutional amendment. So join me to talk more about this. On set shall be topics with the White House for semaphore Amisha Cross, Democratic strategist and former Obama campaign advisor and Mike Dunk, former White House communications director for the first Trump administration. And more importantly, a card carry member of Bill's mafia.

That's right. So let's talk about this. I mean, I know and I spend a whole lot on Capitol Hill. Every time you approach a Republican about this, they roll their eyes, they don't want to talk about it.

But there does appear to be two camps, people that continue to insist that he's joking. He's said he's not joking. And then there's another state. It's just unconstitutional.

What stretch you out this debate? I mean, I think it's notable because this is the first time the president has mentioned this before and it's the ultimate question of is Donald Trump trolling you or is he being serious? I think that's really the question of a lot of things that the president said over the years. But it's funny, you know, Caroline Levitt was asked about this yesterday and she kind of brushed it off.

She said, you know, the president was asked about this. He answered the question. This is something we're two months into the administration. This is not even something we're kind of thinking about right now.

And, you know, I don't know. I do think it would be an incredibly high bar. And I think, I think a lot of Republican lawmakers would object to that. I'll just jump in here.

There's some things going on here. One, we've got a whole week of signal, signal, gate, whatever you want to call it. This was very effective in changing the subject. But more importantly, this administration has fundraised in a way and used outside advertising in a way that we haven't seen from any other administration.

We have 18 months approximately in this term. We've got guaranteed Republican House and Republican Senate. They need to continue to raise money. What better way to do it?

The best fundraiser in the GOP is Donald Trump. What better way to do it? But does he do that? You have a misleading way, though.

He suggesting that there's a path right there. There may be a path if you talk. He's enjoying the cat and mouse game that comes with and even doing this since 2016, he knows that he grows in the output of the press is going to chase. He also knows how to ship the media married better than anybody else.

We see that the stock market is a bit shaky. We see that his terror plans have caused a huge problem. We see that more and more Americans, the very thing that he ran on, a good economy, an economy that worked for working class people, is actually not doing that. And single gate, he didn't want to talk about any of those things.

So while I'm going to be in the White House again for a third term, we all know that's not going to happen. But we also know is that this is the President who isn't afraid to challenge the Constitution. He's right now essentially throwing the middle finger up to all things judicial. And we're watching him do that on a daily basis.

But will he actually step forward in the third term? Absol. But what he's signaling, though, is that it definitely won't be Jack. A lot of people have been telling this over and over again.

This Is what you shift the narrative. He's joking. Exactly. Talking about it.

I feel like there's been numerous times over the course of Donald Trump's career where he has said something that's crazy and outlandish and we all kind of brush it off as not being serious and then it happens. I mean, shouldn't he be taking this seriously if he says it over and over again? The cardinal rule of everyone in this, in this administration should be take the President at his word. Is he looking at it?

Have people been tasked with looking at this? I'm sure that's the case. To your point, you have to look at the realities of the situation, his age in another four years, like, I think all of that matters a lot when we're talking about considering this is a real possibility. And to both of your point, I do think part of this is kind of a head fake to get the conversation off of signal gate.

When I talked to White House officials at the height of signal gate, which maybe the height is still going on, one of the things they noted was they thought it was blow over because there was so much other news that was gonna be coming out of the administration over the next few days. All right, so let's shift and talk about these elections happening today. We have the situation in Florida with the two special elections there and of course the Supreme Court race in Wisconsin. Amisha, we saw Donald Trump push Elisa Vonnik out of her post at UN Ambassador in part because they're worried about the margins there.

To you, does that mean that they actually might be concerned about losing one of these races in Florida, not necessarily Florida. I think that for them this is a bell weather for what could happen for the midterm. So their eyes are on that. When you have a district and in their case two districts where you have double digit victories for Republicans year after year, I don't think they're really at risk of losing those.

What they have seen is that an overwhelming amount of Democrats did show up in the, in the early voting, for early voting totals, but nobody actually works to be really bad because these are really belated Democrats. What they do know is that it's messaging strategy, they know the messages that get Democrats hyped. And if you can get them hyped in Florida, then there are other places where you can also signal those things. To which point, Mike, I think back to 2017, John Oss offering for House seat back then over performed.

He lost. But then the next year Democrats pick up a dozen seats. I mean, for you, how concerned would you be in terms of where the margin. I think this whole margin aspect of this conversation is really inside the But I agree with all the other points that you made.

A win is a win is a win. At the end of the day, whether you win by three points, you win by 30, it's a win. What we're seeing in Florida is a referendum on Donald Trump. I'm in agreement with you.

And folks are going to spin that any way they want to. When we look at Wisconsin, you know, what I've been struck with is that Elon Musk showed up in person. And I almost feel like Wisconsin is a referendum on Elon Musk rather than the president. Maybe that's on purpose to take the heat off the president, but that's probably the real race tonight when people are looking at it is what happens in Wisconsin both ways.

Right. Show Elon Musk does turn out Republican voters who love him, but he's also pretty polarizing for Democrats. Absolutely. We heard from voters on the ground who are saying that they don't like what Elon Musk is doing.

And we've seen Democrats try to sort of message around what Doge is doing. But I do think that Wisconsin is a really big concern for the White House compared to these Florida races. I also think when you're talking about comparing, for example, how Donald Trump turned people out over the presidential election versus this Florida election in Wisconsin, it's a little bit different because a lot of people voted for Donald Trump who do not vote in sort of smaller statewide elections. And so I think that's important to know.

And speaking of Elon Musk role and all this, I want to reel a little bit of what Jonathan Martin is reporting, talking about April 1st. He says an April 1st massacre would be a beautiful thing, said one of the GOP lawmakers he talked to. They didn't give him their names when he talked to him because of what they said because it would rouse congressional Republicans to the damage that Musk is doing and hand political capital of the lawmakers facing the most difficult races next year. Mike, is there any outcome here that makes Donald Trump think maybe Elon Musk is a little too involved in what's happening here?

I've been amazed when you look at Donald Trump's numbers, he's at the highest at 47%. The NBC poll, I think that was out this weekend. I've seen some 49% numbers. He's at a much higher rate than he was in Trump 1.0.

Part of that is because I think Elon Musk is taking some of the heat off of him. He is a great heat shield, if you want to keep it in the space metaphors here for Musk. So I'm not sure that, that, that might be why he's up in Wisconsin, but I'm not sure the President wants to get rid of Elon Musk anytime soon because he's performing a very valuable job for him. So we'll have about 30 seconds.

He shot. How does, how do Democrats break through that, break through that heat shield and blame whatever they don't like about Elon Musk on Donald Trump? I agree 100% of what you said. They go back to Project 2025.

They go back to what this man ran on. Because as much as we see audiences throwing a lot of upset at Elon Musk, he's not elected. He doesn't care what his poor ratings are. He said, absolutely fine, you've got to direct this towards Trump because there's nothing that Elon Musk is doing that does not come out the direction of Donald Trump.

So I think that there are people within the Democratic framework who have to have this conversation and move it away from Elon. Elon is the face of it because Donald Trump is playing a very exquisite trick. He wants everything to slide off and roll on Elon and can still have very high, you know, writing, high pool ratings. And thus far that has worked for him.

You guys agree too much being here. Still to come, leveling the playing field. Senator Ted Cruz helped me about his efforts to regulate the millions upon millions of dollars pouring into college sports. You're watching.

Welcome back. As we await for the upcoming NCAA Final Four college basketball games, teams are in the midst of another competition. Competition trying to land some of the more than 1600 players hoping for a new team and a big paycheck. As college athletes look to cash in on name, image and likeness, or nil, opportunities are getting bigger and bigger.

More lucrative nil deals have become a major reason that student athletes transfer schools. More than 2,000 men's college basketball players entered the so called transfer portal last year, according to the NCAA. And more than 3,700 college football players transferred after the 2023 season. Recently, I spoke to Texas Senator Ted Cruz about his efforts to stabilize what's become a tumultuous and chaotic system.

Well, look, I think it's a wild west right now. You've got a situation where athletes are engaged in a fight for the top bidder. Many of them are not remaining with their schools. They're not necessarily loyal to their schools.

They switch to school through the transfer portal year after year after year. And I think we're at a real risk of seeing college athletics permanently damaged. I'm seeing a handful of giant super schools with all the money, recruiting, all the top talent, and the rest of the schools being left in the dust. And that's not good for the fans.

That's not good, good for the sport. And so part of what you're hoping to do here is at least standardize this process because it's real, Patrick, right now, right? I spent the last several years listening to colleges, universities, most of the schools in Texas I've sat down with, listening to conferences, listening to the ncaa, listening to all the stakeholders. And I think there's a real need for Congress to act and set some uniform rules.

And so I've drafted legislation. This legislation is the product of spending a lot of time listening to stakeholders. And that legislation does a couple of things. Number one, it empowers the NCAA to make rules concerning how.

How nil will operate and how the transport will operate. It doesn't put Congress in charge of it. So some other approaches have had government somehow setting the rules for college sports. I think that's a really bad idea.

If, God forbid, politicians are suddenly deciding what constitutes pass interference. That ain't a good world to have. My legislation protects the rights of athletes to be compensated for name, image and likeness. That's fair.

I think it's fair that you should enjoy the fruits of your labor, the benefit. If you've developed an incredible skill, you ought to be rewarded for that. But at the same time, it also ensures that college athletes are not treated as employees. I think treating student athletes, athletes as employees would do enormous damage to college athletics.

And my hope is we'll see Republicans and Democrats come together in a bipartisan way to pass this legislation and to really do everything we can to save the beauty and wonder that is college sports. I know you talk to a lot of coaches and guest competitors, associations. What about fans? I mean, how frustrated are your constituent voters about the way that this is shaped?

Fans are very concerned. One of the amazing things about sports is it brings us all together. And it brings us together in a way that it cuts across racial lines, ethnic lines, partisan lines. We can all get together and cheer.

You know, there's another aspect of sports that is really important, which is college athletics has been this amazing pipeline for millions of young men and young women to get an education. Couldn't have got that otherwise. And one of the tragic consequences if we allow the status quo to continue is that many of those programs are going to dry out. Thank you to 10 crews.

And that's it for us today. But the news continues with Hallie Jackson right now. Hey, everyone. I'm Dylan Dryer, co host of the third hour of say and mom to three Wild Boys.

I've learned a lot in my years as a parent, mostly that I don't have it all figured out yet. And I'm not the only one. This is my new podcast, the Parent Chat. Each week, I sit down with someone new for honest conversation and real world advice about parenting.

I'm over here just, like, winging it. Hey, I'm trying not to screw my own gift. I'm on the video search, parent chat on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.