If it's Wednesday. President Trump's latest economic u turn as he reassures the markets that tariffs on China will come down and that the Federal Reserve chair's job is safe as the administration signals a softening of its rhetoric after warnings of market turmoil. Plus, a federal judge issues a new scathing rebuke of the Trump administration, accusing the federal government of willfully refusing to comply with the court in the deportation case of Kilmar Obrego. Garcia and top of White House officials pull out of a high level round of Ukraine peace talks as President Trump lashes out of President Zelensky for rejecting the idea that Russia could maintain control of Crimea.
Hi there and welcome to be the press now of Ryan Nobles in Washington, where we begin with breaking news. As stocks rose for a second straight day with President Trump walking back his threat to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. And the White House signaling de escalation in its trade war with China. Stocks finished a day higher for the second day in a row.
The Dow rose more than 400 points at one point. It was over 1000 points over the last two trading sessions. The major indices are up roughly 3 to 5% now. The improvement in market vibes comes after President Trump publicly echoed private assurances made by his treasury secretary to Wall street bankers that sky high tariffs with China will have to come down.
Here's the president yesterday afternoon and this morning signaling changes to the current 145% tariff on Chinese imports. I'm not gonna say, oh, I'm gonna play hardball with China. I'm gonna play hardball with you, President Xi. No, no, we're gonna be very nice.
They're gonna be very nice and we'll see what happens. But ultimately they have to make it 145% is very high. And it won't be that high. It's not gonna be that high.
It'll come down substantially, but it won't be zero. Used to be zero. We were just destroyed. China was taking us for a ride and just not gonna happen.
It's not gonna happen. We're gonna be very good to China. Every country wants to support Jake, even countries that have ripped this off for many, many years. China as an example.
We're gonna make a lot of money for our people. We'll be able to lower taxes substantially and we'll be proud of ourselves. Attorney Secretary Scott Besson told reporters today that either China nor the US Believe that these tariffs are at sustainable levels. He's calling it the equivalent of a trade embargo that lives in Suit anyone's interest.
It comes under escalating pressure, though, on the White House after Axios reports that American retail titans personally warned the president this week that his trade policies could soon disrupt supply chains, leading to higher prices and empty shells. And we've also seen a constant drumbeat of warnings from investors worried about the president's impulses and his threats to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who Trump himself appointed to the job less than a week ago. The president publicly said, quote, powell's termination cannot come fast enough. On Monday, he called Powell a, quote, major loser, comments which roiled the market.
But yesterday, the president essentially rescinded those threats. I have no intention of firing him. I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates. It's a perfect time to lower interest rates.
If he doesn't. Is it the end? No, it's not. But it would be good timing.
It would be. It could have taken place earlier, but. But no, I have no intention to fire now. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Treasury Secretary and the Commerce Secretary were instrumental in getting Trump to drop his threats against Powell, warning him that trying to oust the head of these independent central bank would trigger legal challenges and chaos in the markets.
Of course, all of the headlines right now about the President's softening on the Fed and China are just that. They're just headlines right now. And in this political environment, we never know what could happen next. Joining me now is NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez, NBC News business and data correspondent Brian Chung, and Jason Furman.
He was the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Obama White House. He's now professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. So, Gabe, we'll start with you. The Trump we've heard the last 24 hours seems to be a lot different than the Trump we heard earlier this month.
What went into this change in posture? Was he spooked by the markets and the economic developments? Hey there, Ryan. Will.
Certainly a softening of tone from the president, as you just laid out. Look, it was a confluence of fact here. They've really been building the last several days. You talk about the markets.
Just a couple days ago, we were getting that headline that the markets were heading towards their worst April since the Great Depression. Now, add that to the fact that There were several CEOs from major retailers here on Monday from Walmart, Target, Home Depot. Lowe's was supposed to come here, but we understand that they didn't. Either way, they had a conversation with the president here at the White House about trade, about tariffs.
And that all led up to yesterday when in that Oval Office meeting with reporters, the president dramatically shifted his tone, not just about tariffs on China, but also about potentially firing. Jerome Powell just blamed. He said he wouldn't do it. So it was several things leading up to this.
Certainly a lot of people in his ear, including potentially the Treasury. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen and his Commerce Secretary, Howard Mutknak may have led that softening of the town there. And there does appear to be a bit of confusion gave about the talks with China right now. What is the latest there with Chinese terrorists?
Are the two sides actually engaging at all? Trump says the talks are active. Do we even know what level these talks are taking place at? Well, that appears to be moving target, Ryan.
The president earlier today did say that active talks were underway. But around that same time this morning, the treasury secretary was speaking with reporters and he said that the talks hadn't actually started yet. And then a senior administration official telling NBC News that the talks were indeed underway, but they were happening at a lower level than a sub cabinet level. So we still don't know exactly what is happening here with regards to the talks.
I want to play a little bit of what the president told reporters earlier today here at the White House. Can you clarify fair deal with China? It's going to be fair. Are you talking to them actively now?
Actively. Everything's active. Everybody wants to be a part of what we're doing. So again, the president there saying that active negotiations were underway.
Press Secretary Caroline Levitt this afternoon saying that they were in discussions with many countries right now. But as it stands now, Ryan, we don't have any clarity on exactly what level these talks with China supposed to have. And another issue we're looking at clarity on is the future of Elon Musk. He says he's scaling back his time with Doge.
What could that mean? Well, several things there. So yes, yesterday during an earnings call, Elon Musk profits were down 71% of Tesla. He did say that he would scale back his time here at the White House with Doge, saying that his work with Doge had largely taken place, that he'd established his Department of Government Efficiency and they probably only work here in the government one, two day, one or two days a week if the president would have him.
But the fact is, Ryan, that Elon Musk is facing increasing pressure from the financial world to pay more attention to Tesla, given the fact that his political work has led to that steep drop in stock price, also vandalism against Tesla viewerships as well. And the Trump White House had been saying that he was going to work here until his end of his time as a special government employee, which we believe to be in late May. But he has lost some influence, at least in the last couple of weeks because remember, it was his pick for acting IRS commissioner that was appointed. Then it was that the commissioner was dismissed just a few days later at the urging of the treasury secretary.
Okay, Gabe, thank you for starting us off from the north long. Let's go now to Brian Chung. Another roller coaster day. Brian, break down what we saw on Wall Street.
Does it appear that the markets like what they heard from the House this week? Yeah, well, it appears that they did because the markets had a pretty nice close in the green. They did start the morning looking like it would be even higher in terms of those gains. Now it seems like maybe investors are a little bit sobering up to the idea that maybe those conversations and the temperature of those conversations China, aren't as substantive as we thought.
Given that based off what Gabe was just talking about, we don't hope those conversations are really in progress right now. But nonetheless, this does underscore that the volatility is still present there in the markets. And I think if you talk about the Overton window shifting, it seems that we are now at the stage of this trade conversation where it seems like markets are going to be very much at the whim of what those negotiations or communications between the United States and China and China look like. This is very similar.
I want to point out the 2018, 2019 trade war that the Trump administration in its first iteration went about with China, where there were a lot of attention was paid to Robert Lighthizer, the then U.S. trade Representative, and whether or not he was having discussions with China, you saw market swings very similarly like we're seeing now. That might be a story in the months to come, just in nature and whether or not those discussions are happening. And I wonder if investors habits are changing as a result of this kind of unprecedented way that Donald Trump is kind of attacking the economy.
I want to put up a line from Bloomberg. He said that previous treasury secretaries would have met with investors and said things like, wow, the world's two largest economies will find a way work together. And investors would have said, sure, of course, and it would have been particularly market moving. But now when the treasury secretary tells you that, your reaction is, oh, wow, that's a drastic policy shift from yesterday and then you rush to buy stocks.
Does it seem as though investors are reacting to every little thing that's happening that comes out of this administration? Because they can't possibly be confident that this is the end of the de escalation. Right. Is it about short term gains right now?
How's the market overall reacting to this? Yeah, I mean, that would be a great read. I do want to point out that, you know, when it comes to that kind of perspective, that's probably not a good thing for markets because as an investor, you want certainty in the types of investments that you're making. Generally, when you buy a stock, you are hoping that you're going to get capital accumulation or that stock price will go up based off of future cash flows.
But you don't know what the future cash flow is going to be if you don't even know what the tariff rate is going to become tomorrow or come an hour from now. So I think it's speaks to the uncertainty that's underlying markets. Right. I think the bigger question is really it's not about the s and P500, the Dow, that's concerning a lot of economists and financial ties.
It's really what's happening in bond markets, which did apparently convince the President to scale back those tariffs on all those countries around the world. Okay, Brian Chong, thank you for that. Let's go on Jason Furman to get his take on all this. First, Jason, I want to start with your reaction to what you've seen out of the Trump administration in the last 24 hours.
To you, does this look like they're caving or is it really just a short term effort to juice the market? Look, they have done a lot of damage through their policies on trade and their rhetoric on the Fed. And it's good that they've undone a fraction of that damage, but it's only a fraction of that damage. Moreover, I am worried the China talks are going to be harder than they think.
Maybe we're going to settle for a token concession, call it off, that would be fine. But if we want something big and meaningful, we haven't set it up in the right way to, to achieve that. What do you think it was that led to Donald Trump walking this back a little bit? Is it the bond market that he's worried about?
Is he worried about empty store shelves? The kind of the alarming message he got from these big box retailers? What do you think was kind of the final straw for him? Yeah, I don't know what the final straw was.
Two weeks ago it was the bond market, maybe this time it was the retailers. One week it's Jamie Dimon. Next week, it's something else. It's good to know that he is reactive and responsive to these pressures.
But that's a reminder that everything coming out of these policies is pretty much bad, especially the yelling at the Fed. Nothing good comes out of that for anyone. And so there's just everyone has a motive to try to talk him out of it. And sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn't.
It's interesting you bring up Powell. Do you think that the assurances he's given about Powell's job is enough, or is there always the concern that he could turn back on it again and be angry with Paul again and call for his removal? Look, I think the words he used was for now, so I'm not sure. But you know, Powell's term ends in May of next year.
I'd love to see him reappointed. Sadly, that's not going to happen. And it is obviously a legitimate choice for the President to choose and nominate someone else and see them through the Senate. So I hope his people can convince him.
You know, just wait a year and you can solve this so called problem. And finally, you kind of already alluded to this, but given all the uncertainty and Trump's mercurial nature, what if he does end up getting some sort of concessions from his trading partners? Will those disruptions be worth it? Is there a big enough win to go through all the pain that we've seen in the economy over the past couple of months?
No. Most of these countries have pretty minimal barriers to American exports. So Vietnam could lower its tariffs all the way to zero and it would help our economy by 0.0001% or something like that. So causing known certain damage for concessions that would help our exports a tiny bit to a few countries around the world.
There would have been a much easier way to get to that outcome. It's just not worth this pain. Okay, a lot of uncertainty still ahead as we continue to go through this. Jason Furman, thank you so much.
We appreciate it. Coming up, NBC News exclusive reporting on how two Venezuelans living in the US Seemingly with protected status, ended up in El Salvador's notorious mega prison. We're live in San Salvador with that story, plus my interview with a House Democrat fresh off a congressional trip to El Salvador as he pushes for due process and the release of Kimar Abrego Garcia. You're watching me, the press now.
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Welcome back to Maryland Judge in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation to El Salvador is once again rebuking the Trump administration for trying to obstruct a court order discovery process and is accusing the government's lawyers of acting in bad faith. The judge said the government provided, quote, vague, evasive and incomplete answers to questions about Abrego Garcia's deportations, setting a 6pm deadline today for to provide additional specific and factual answers to supplement its response. Joining me now in studio is NBC News senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley. And NBC David Noriega is still in El Salvador for us.
Julia, let's start with you. The judge in the Bergo Garcia case once again expressing her frustration with the government's lawyers. What did she say and what happens next? Yeah, mercy judges across the country really throw the book to put a fine point on at the top of the situation for not providing more information.
Obviously, this is the most high profile, but I've been reading transcripts from federal judges across the country saying that they don't think the Justice Department is providing enough information on these people. And in this case, she could be looking at a content order if they don't provide more information she needs to show or they need to show her rather that they're doing a good faith effort to facilitate his return. That includes depositions with Trump officials who have first seen out of any efforts to bring him back. Because unless they can show they're trying, it's hard for them to check the box and say, yes, we are doing everything we can to facilitate his return.
Remember, the Supreme Court said they didn't have to go as far as to effectuate, but they haven't even come close to the definition of facilitate yet in her mind. And so they need to provide those documents. The other thing she wants them to provide is some kind of contract between the US And El Salvador. So she can say, all right, if you say your hands are tied, let's see.
Why. Why is it that these two countries that seemingly have such wonderful diplomatic relations with civil leaders together all the time, you can't facilitate this return. And so clock is ticking and meanwhile the Trump administration is actually asking for a seven day stay on this order for discovery. Yeah, let's talk about that.
I mean, does this seem like a delayed tactic? And it also doesn't contradict the claims that they need to move fast if these people out of the country. Yeah, that's a good point. Well, it seems that they move fast to get them out, but when it comes to bringing them back, the clock moves in the other direction.
And so we've seen this at the DC level when they were arguing about why they couldn't turn those planes around initially that that disc really hit a stop there. They weren't able to hand over a lot of that information and a lot of cases. I saw one just recently where Eastern District of Virginia. They weren't able to hand over information to tie someone to the Trinity Robert gang.
These are some pretty basic evidence that usually a prosecutor would come to court with that they're just not bringing in these cases. And so it's unclear if that's a strategy to just delay or if they do think they may head toward contempt and they're willing to have that fight with the judicial system. So you also report about how the administration plans to expand their immigration detention capacity, but they're running them into some roadblocks. What's happening there?
Yeah, strangely terminated a $3.8 billion contract to build a Mass 10 city in Fort Blessed. Right. If you remember, this was the plan B to Guantanamo. Remember Trump said we're going to put 30,000 immigrants in Guantanamo Bay.
He said that early on it was really kind of the first big scary tactic they had that fell apart because they weren't able to really get the conditions going. They were able to get logistics into it at a cost effect. You have to meet certain conditions. Federally mandated conditions on ICE detention for safety and health reasons they weren't able to meet there.
And it looks like in this case they're tearing up this contract once again. Perhaps it could be because it is so hard to build soft sided facilities, basically tents for so many people. This gnar provide air conditioning, running water. If someone is a threat, they have to be able to secure the safety of the people watching over them.
So logistically really complicated and typically it's about two to three times more expensive to house an immigrant for a night and a tent rather than in a brick and mortar facility. So all that to say I know this kind of in the weeds, but this is plan B now falling through. And I'm still scratching my head to figure out why the Trump administration isn't using more legally available pathways to make good on this promise for mass deportations. Want to hire more immigration judges?
Use more of the space you already have? I don't really know the answer to that. Right, okay. And they're not really providing answers to the question.
Thank you for your report, as always. Let's go to David Norega now, who is in El Salvador. David, you have some exclusive reporting about two more individuals who were deported from the US and are now being held at Sea Cow. What do we know about their situations?
Ryan, we've been hearing from Trump administration officials for weeks now that everybody who was deported to the sick mega prison here in El Salvador was a Known Member of either 13s are Burn Gang. They pose a threat to public safety in the United States. We have new information about two additional cases in addition to all the others that we've heard about where the families and lawyers of these men are denying that that is the case. I'll start with the case of escape.
He's 26 years old. He was living for a few months in North Carolina. Before that he lived for a few years in Chile and then before that, of course, Venezuela. We looked for a criminal record in all those countries, found none, although we did find a traffic violation in North Carolina.
His family says that he got swept up in this because of his tattoo. But his tattoos, Rhino, are things like olive branches symbolizing peace or a portrait of his ex girlfriend. His lawyers in the United States insist that he's not a gang member and are trying to get some kind of relief for him. We also heard from Salvadoran human rights attorney here in San Salvador about the case of Orlando Barreiro.
He's 34 years old, who was living with his wife, also Venezuelan, in Utah. They were both picked up by ice. His wife was actually on that plane to Saclof, close to El Salvador. That was one of the women that was turned back to the United States because the bail administration was not willing to accept women into this prison.
And notably Ryan B. Obtained paperwork showing that both of them had temporary protected status at the time of their deportation. Temporary protected status is a legal form of status in the United States. It's supposed to protect them from deportation.
The US Government, of course, can provoke it, but there usually has to be a reason for that. And we haven't found any indication that there was a criminal record for either of them either. Now, their lawyer here is not the original purpose petition, but in this country, that is more or Less a symbolic move because this prison system is really designed to offer inmates very little recourse. Right.
And speaking of that, you've been on the ground there in El Salvador. What do you learn about the conditions inside their prison system? Well, let's start with Sickle, right? The mega prison that we've all been hearing about.
We've all seen the footage of the human rights defenders, advocates, lawyers, etc. That I've been talking to here. One of the things they've been consistently telling me is that prison, in spite of the overcrowded cells, the, you know, metal bunks with no mattresses, the 247 bright lights on, that is actually one of the more humane prisons in El Salvador. Other prisons are notoriously difficult.
There are systematic abuses. Sorry, there are allegations of systematic abuses like torture, starvation. We visited a prison, an infamous prison here in San Salvador yesterday. I wouldn't go inside.
We weren't allowed to inside, but we spent time outside and met with some families who were buying basic goods for their loved ones inside because they provided those goods and everything from toilet paper to clean clothes like the prison uniforms, need to be bought by the loved ones outside. So this is really a prison system that human rights centers here have been trying to call attention to for some timeline. All right, David, Maria, thank you for that reporting on the ground. We appreciate it.
And as we learn more about El Salvador's prison system, more Democrats are traveling there to call for the release of Tilmar Abrego Garcia, making that case that fixing his mistaken removal to El Salvador is a matter of due process. Yesterday I spoke with Congressman Robert Garcia, who was among the Democratic lawmakers who traveled to El Salvador. I began by asking him about what he felt like he accomplished with this trip. Look, I think what's really first important is that we know right now that we have Supreme Court as voted 90 to ensure that Kilmar is sent back to the United States.
The Trump administration has been clear that they have no intention of doing that. They've also no admitted they sent him there on accident. And now that is being defied, which is incredibly serious for the process in this country. We took the group House Democrats and asked for official code from House Republicans on the House side.
If they get permission from the majority, they refused to do so to the granted Russell delegation. And so we decided to go ourselves. It's important for us to continue to go, but Senator Van Holland is absolutely the right thing. We want also to be the last group of me more House Democrats that will go.
We met with the US Embassy area. The ambassador on the ground had a classified briefing, got a lot of important information. We made continued demand for Kilmar's release. We also asked about other folks that are there wrongly imprisoned, like Andrew Amera, who's an LGBTQ asylum seeker, and others.
We also met with Kilmar's in front of Kilmer's family. And a lot of organizers and advocates are also in El Salvador working on Kilmer's release. And so a lot of the progress of the work isn't done until Kilmart is Kilmer back home and Donald Trump follows the Supreme Court. You mentioned your meeting with the ambassador.
I know much of what you talked about was classifying, but did you get any sense that the admissions the Trump administration, I mean, is making any effort to secure Obrego Garcia's release? No. In fact, it was pretty clear. What I can't say it was pretty clear that the US Embassy has no indication and has received no direction to begin facilitating that return.
And so that's incredibly concerning when the Supreme Court has been clear that the facilitation of the return needs to happen and the embassy has not received that indication. We got information directly from them on the ground. What we were able to secure is there's a second case of Andrew Romero, who's the asylum seeker lgbtq, who's wrongly been sent to this prison, having an appointment that we gave him to our asylum process. The embassy did, for the first time, acknowledge this individual and actually request that we get a healthy wellness check on him so that the first thing that's happened, we hope to hear about that in the next day or two.
Now, throughout the trip, we saw you and your colleagues going to social media to, like, TV interviews and your credit. This was just about political posturing. How would you respond to that? Oh, look, the number one issue that folks in my office back home are calling me about is this one.
And in the last two weeks, we've heard more about this case, the attack on democracy, the violence of the Supreme Court, than any other issue that came to our office is incredibly important to the people back home and people across the country. We also support that. We have to build support in El Salvador right now. We met with human rights activists, with advocates, with people in the faith community that are building support to release Gilmar and others have been wrongly imprisoned illegally in El Salvador.
And remember, they understand this is bigger than just immigration. This is a due process issue in the United States, in the United States of America, everyone has a right to do process, whether You're a citizen or you're a non citizen. Whether you are in a student visa, you still have that right. And that is being stripped away from people right now because of the Trump administration.
I want to put up what Speaker Johnson had to say about your trip. He said, quote, today House Democrats travel to Health Salvador as part of their obsession to bring a violent illegal alien and member of Ms. 13 back into the United States. Could the contrast be more clear?
He wrote, house Republicans remain committed to doing everything we can to protect American families and keep dangerous gang members of our country. We should point out there is no direct evidence that Abra Garcia was a member of Ms. 13. But Republicans have been working very hard to try and show, or at least create an optic that you are working on behalf of a suspected gang member.
Are you at all concerned about the political optics here? I'm not, because it's important. At the end of the day, we're working in the truth and facts. Mike Johnson basically now is just a mouthpiece for Donald Trump.
And if he wants to repeat Donald Trump's lies, he can continue to do so. But the truth is there's no evidence that he was in that gang. He was sent there wrongly. The Trump administration has already admitted to that.
And so we can't hide away because we think something is bad politics or because we can't be debating multiple things at once. We should be able to forcefully, forcefully demand that Kilmar is returned, that people get due process in this country. They're not sent in an asylum process to foreign prisons in El Salvador, and at the same time advocate for Social Security, for no cuts to Medicare, that Elon Musk is a raiding federal treasury. So we should be able to talk about all these things.
And Mike Johnson unfortunately now has no issue lying on Donald Trump. This is really sad to see. Now, the public didn't buy the Democrats arguments on democracy in the 2024 election. That was a big push that your party used in the 2024 election.
Donald Trump still won even. And during that election, he pledged to deport undocumented immigrants. Do you think that this is a political winner for you? And how do you make it a political winner?
Why? Also, there's also been a recent polling just a few days ago that over 60% of Americans don't believe that we should be sending undocumented people to foreign prisons. And so I think we're not able to explain this issue to the American public. Most simplest terms, which is this is Donald Trump defined Supreme Court, Supreme Court Rule 9 to 0.
This is not just an immigration debate. This is a debate, broader debate about due process. Everyone in our country deserves the right to a lawyer, to a fair trial in court. And our laws are clear.
Whether you're a citizen, whether you're an immigrant, whether you're a student visa, whether you're protesting something that you believe in, if something you are arrested, you have a right to a judicial process that is fair, that is now being denied to people in this country. I think all Americans should be concerned about that. Okay. Congressman Garcia, just back from El Salvador.
Congressman, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you. And up next, are Ukraine peace talks on the brink of collapse?
We have an update on where negotiations stand as President Trump lashes out at President Zelensky accusing the Ukrainian leader of harming efforts to end the war. Or you're watching with the press. Now let's kickstart your bombers journey with the Garteria Workouts meal plans. It's your fast track to a healthier you.
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It's more context and clarity from the reporters you trust. Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more. Welcome back. In the latest escalation between the Trump administration and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the president posting a lengthy message to Truth Social accusing Zelensky of derailing peace negotiations when Zelensky rejected the idea that Russia be allowed to retain control of Crimea.
President Trump saying that Zelensky's inflammatory statements are making it difficult to end the war. It comes after Vice President J.D. vance called on both sides to accept the U.S. peace proposal.
It's now time I get to take, if not the final step, one of the final steps, which is at a broad level, the party saying we're going to stop the killing, we're going to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are. Today. We've issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and Ukrainians. And it's time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, withdrew late last night from high level peace talks in London, canceling plans to meet with his British, French and Ukrainian counterparts. Special envoy Steve Wikoff also pulled out of today's meetings in London. The White House said yesterday that Wikoff will be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia later this week. Overnight, Russia fired 134 attack drones into Ukraine, killing at least nine people, according to Ukrainian officials.
And joining Me now is NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent, chief Washington correspondent Andrew Mitchell. So, Andrea, I know there's a lot to break down here about these high level peace talks that were scheduled for today that broke down. But we did just hear for President Zelensky. Indeed, President Zelensky is trying to move this over, praising the lower level technical talks that were held with the Ukrainian foreign minister and representatives from the US Keith Keller from the US and others from Germany, Britain and France.
But this is not the foreign minister talk. So it was definitely downgraded. So he says emotions have run high today. It's good that five countries did meet.
And he's saying, I'm sure that, you know, we share the same vision as Ukraine and other Europeans presented their inputs. We hope that it's exactly such joint work that will lead to lasting peace. We're grateful to partners. Ukraine will always act in accordance with its constitution.
And he has said separately today, telling the Wall Street Journal the Ukrainian constitution does not let him give up Crimea to Russia. The US Proposal is to give up Crimea to Russia, which was occupied in 2014 by Russia. And in his blast that you referred to on social media, the president criticizes Zelensky and Ukraine for not fighting to get Crimea back before this all happened. Zelensky wasn't the president of Ukraine in 2014.
You know, they had A democratic election afterwards and after that whole uprising. So even though Zelensky might be encouraged by these low level talks, these big issues are still so unresolved. And in fact, that's what leads Secretary Rubio to talk about, you know, question how long the US May want to stay in this. Listen to what he said on a podcast earlier.
If at some point we determined that we're just too far apart and now enough movement is happening, we may need to move on to other priorities. There are a lot of important things happening in the world. This is not our war. We didn't start this war.
We got to keep saying this, right? Just walk away, right? He said, he said to us when we were in NATO in Brussels two weeks ago, going on three weeks now rather. And he said it last week, he's saying this today.
But it's Russia that hasn't accepted the 30 day ceasefire. Ukraine accepted the 30 day ceasefire. Russia accepted an Easter cease fire and it was fighting even on Easter Day. And again, as you pointed out, that there was a missile attack that Ukrainian officials said last night killed nine people.
So it is lopsided. The proposal from the US that advanced detail today, so now it's on the record has Crimea going, going to Russia and NATO not ever being an option for Zelenskyy. That's not a deal. It also has upper reach of the largest nuclear plant in all of Europe going to Russia.
They now control it, they've occupied it. And Zelensky says that that's not acceptable. If Rubio is right that there is a point that the US Walks away, what does that mean for Ukraine in their hopes of winning the war? The plan I think would be if these talks collapse, I think what you're going to see, the US Is going to stop military aid and stop intel again.
I mean that's the implicit threat. Oh, I just misspoke. It wouldn't be the US Would take control of Zaporizhzhia. That would not be part of Russia control.
But it is definitely a lopsided plan and it's take it or leave it to Zelensky. And Wykoff is going to Moscow according to at least the Russians are now it seems pretty far away from Donald Trump promising and this war on day one to where we are now. All right, Andrew, much thank you much. I appreciate it.
I turn down to the Vatican and you're looking and you're about to look at live pictures of St. Peter's Basilica where thousands of mourners have been filing throughout the day. Some Waiting in line up to six hours to catch a glimpse and possibly say a prayer for Pope Francis. This morning, accompanied by cardinals from all over the world, the pope's coffin was carried through St.
Peter's Square, moving past 20,000 worshippers who gathered to pay their specs. The crowd erupted into applause as the coffin entered St. Peter's Basilica with a late punif with Lionsgate for three days before his funeral on Saturday. Morning.
Morning. The Vatican says it may keep St. Peter's open beyond midnight tonight to accommodate a large number of visitors hoping to say farewell to the Pope. Coming up, the second highest ranking Senate Democrat announces his retirement, setting the stage for a major debate about the future of the Democratic Party's leadership.
Our panel's next. You're WATCHING me, the president. Welcome back. Ending a few weeks of speculation, longtime Illinois Senator Dick Durbin announced today that he will not be seeking reelection at the end of his term in 2026.
Listen to what he had to say. The decision of whether to run for reelection has not been easy. I truly love the job of being a United States senator. But in my heart, I know it's time to pass the torch.
Durban is the second most senior Senate Democrat. He's tied for fifth most senior senator, having been elected almost 30 years ago in 1996. His departure next year will open up space for new leadership among Democrats and on Judiciary Committee. It's also expected to launch a very competitive Democratic primary to fill his seat.
Joining me now on Saturday is Miami Scene is Kamal H. Khalil Kapoor. Megan Hayes, a former special assistant to President Biden and Brendan Bakker, former advisor to Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Paul Ryan. He's also an NBC News political analyst.
So, Sahel, I wouldn't say that this came as much of a shock to those of us that cover Capitol Hill. We've been expecting Senator Durbin to the size of sources, if he only raised $40,000, probably the biggest hell. But I think this really does set off a pretty big scramble for who could potentially replace it. Yeah, I put this in the category of well anticipated but still a really big deal on Free From France.
The first is and most immediately opens up a safe blue seat in Illinois in the Senate, which doesn't happen very often. It's already been jockeying behind the scenes from some candidates who are looking at it. The names that have risen to the top who are very much in the mix right now are three members of the House. Lauren Underwood, Roger Krishnamorthy, who, by the way, has $19 million and $40,000.
Yes. He's not going to need that for a safe. He's looking at something bigger. And then there's Robin Kelly, of course, Lieutenant Governor Julianne Stratton.
Also watch what Governor David Pritzker wants. He tends to get his way from time to time in Illinois. That's going to be an interesting primary in the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, they're going to be a new ranking member. That was probably going to be Sheldon White House because Democrats in the Senate lived in die by signority.
He's next in line. I'd be surprised if anybody else gets and finally the whip job. This is a really interesting moment for the Democratic Party. It's changing who's going to you know who's going to take advantage of that moment to rise at the top is going to be someone younger like Brian Shots if someone like could be a dark horse if she wants it.
And there's also the possibility that maybe this is towards the Schumer Stan, whoever fills into that slot could be next to the so there's a lot on the line here. So Megan, I don't know if we're quite ready to call the trend here, but Durbin, now the fourth Senate Democrat we've seen that's opting out of a reelection bid. We've usually seen some of these guys hang on into their late 70s and sometimes even 80s. Do you think this is a coincidence or could this be fallout from what we saw happen with the Biden campaign in 2024?
I think that's really follow up we saw the Biden campaign. I also think that these Democrats are reading the tea lecture. The Democratic Party wants to move to much younger generation of leaders and want to shift their focus forward. And he's in his statement 80 days, 80 at the end of another term with Renegade.
That's an extraordinary you're making decisions for generations to come that really are you have no understanding of what's happening. And I do think it's the right decision for some of these members to search retirement. It's also a recognition that Senate Democrats have a very uphill climb to kick back the majority and they're probably going to be in minority for a while and the Senate is not a great place to be in general these days. But the senator is not the job that they thought it was going to be.
And so why stick around when it's not a lot of fun and you're not going to actually be able to. And so Durbin, Brennan, as we look back on his career he does hail from an era in the Senate where they did make deals, right, Where Republicans and Democrats came together and tried to get stuff done. He was a member of the gang of eight. They tried to come to a grand bargain with one of your old bosses on immigration.
You kind of already alluded to this. But is that era of Congress in the rearview mirror? Are we not gonna have these kind of dealmakers like we once had something as frequently as we had now? We have seen those things recently.
There was the bipartisan infrastructure law, there was some gun legislation that happened. So it still happens sometimes. But that spirit of cooperation has gone away in large part because it's not rewarded. Nobody can go home and talk about the bipartisan deal they cut.
They wanna know what did you do for conservatives or for progressives. So people like that who are used to getting those deals done, it's what's the point because whenever you try you're headache off the quotes and time again. So Sal and Miller, this we've seen Democrats kind of recognize that voters are asking for a generational shift. We're not necessarily seeing that on the Repub.
You've seen people like Chuck Crassley decide to run for reelection despite his age. President Trump of course turning 79 in June. Is this, are we shifting the kind of arguments about who's the older party now when you know we have President Biden's the standard for Democrats before Firstly, Chuck Crass is going to be 95 at the end of his current term. But yeah, I think the Republicans have decided they want Donald Trump to be the leader right now.
It's not a generational question for them so much as this for Democrats. For Democrats it's partly generational. It's not ideological as much as it was in 2016. You know, the Bernie versus Hillary moment that's passed.
The contrast I see is active versus passive. They want leaders who are less than, you know, the old school dick urban style politics and more who know how to use modern media, who know how to lend levers of their platforms to rally go orders. Especially in this Trump era. It's not just literally more moderate Democrats who enraged about what they're seeing.
And they want fewer determinants frankly in the Senate. They want more AOCs, more brine shots. It's not necessarily ideological, but people who know how to make some. Yeah, I want to change case a little bit.
President Biden, a popular topic of President Trump's on the campaign trail. It's continued in the Oval Office despite the fact I don't Think president ever run for anything again. Take a listen to the president of the past couple days. We were losing $5 billion a day.
When during the Biden administration. Remember when the, when the bunny took Joe Biden out. He's not going to take, he's not taking Trump out. This was Biden's war by the way by me getting involved.
You know they'll say oh Trump, this is not Trump's work. I rebuild our own forces in my first term almost entirely rebuilt. Then we had a catastrophe known as Biden. I want you guys to listen to this.
Our colleagues cards and numbers. They found that Donald Trump has spoken about Biden or his family or his administration at least 580 times either on public marks or on social media since he took office. Making that six times an day. What's the goal here from Donald Trump?
I find this really entertaining. Joe Biden is definitely right for Donald Trump. We don't see Joe Biden being in Deler thinking about Donald Trump. So I think it's really interesting.
I just think it's, you know, Donald Trump is upset that Joe Biden wasn't beat him and he couldn't have reacted to Joe Biden. We're just gonna hear about this for the next four years and blame everything. But the problem is they're calling the come up he's underwater on every single issue including immigration. Does not letting the American people focus on Joe Biden and what Joe Biden wanted to do to him.
And it's just, it's humorous to me to foil he'll have someone to have grievance with. I mean this has not been a successful sarcasm, let's be clear. I mean early on they moved quickly. They got some things done and it looked like maybe they sort of figured out how to run a White House early on but obviously the economy potentially going into recession and all the pickups he's had, the courts, he needs genius, he needs someone to point the finger at at this point.
And look, let's be clear. If the economy goes into a free fall right now, he'll have a hard time blaming anybody else but he will try and that's what Donald Trump does. He's always the victim. So I think that's what this is.
But that's how there's a poll that shown that people that voted for Donald Trump don't regret that vote at this point. Is Brennan right? I mean if the economy continues the direction that it seems to be headed in, will he be able to avoid the blame for that or will his attacks on Biden, accusing Biden being responsible for this, could that still resonate with voters? I don't think it will for the simple reason that Donald Trump was chosen by swing voters in this election overwhelmingly because they saw him as better on the cost of living.
They saw him better on dealing with inflation. They see him as good suited to the economy. I know some people think that's a crazy idea, but generally voters saw that in 2016. They saw in 2020 until he overperformed overwhelmingly.
You know, that's the biggest reason that he won in 2024 through his first term, even during COVID he was seen as a good steward of the economy. Now that he's underwater deep on cost inflation that persists, he loses his most important political firewall. Speaking of foils can make this wild point that Elon Musk is still out there. He's a dream foil for Democrats.
Democrats would love to see Elon Musk continue out there on the campaign trail because as far as they see it, he brings all the downsides of maga, you know, including the abrasive rhetoric, the far ideology, the conspiracy theories without any of the charm of the human charisma that Donald Trump brings that makes him like morally tolerable. So as far as spoils go, his part that help Trump, though, act as a he shield, he can blame at some point Elon Musk for some of these problems to accept it didn't help in Wisconsin. At the end of the day, this isn't going to impact on Trump. It's going to impact Republicans who are riding in the term.
So Donald Trump can kind of do every wants to link up president. Say no. All right. Appreciate you being here.
Still to come, new drama and fallout at the Department of Defense over secretary he said leadership and reported misuse of sensitive information. I report from the Pentagon's next. You're WATCHING THE PRESS now. Welcome back.
The latest controversy surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his decision to share information about imminent military strikes with his wife and brother continues to cause turmoil at the Pentagon as he faces renewed scrutiny over his handling of sensitive military information. Today, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee slamming the defense secretary and his management of the Defense Department. Apparently, Secretary Hexset cares more about his own arrogance than he does about fixing problems. And now he's got multiple staff members having been fired, multiple staff members saying that the department is dysfunctional.
It seems fairly clear that he is not up to the task of managing the Pentagon. It comes, as we are learning, two of the Former aids that Hexafire have now been exonerated for allegedly leaking classified information to the media. Joining me now is NBC News senior national security correspondent Courtney Q. Issues at the Pentagon.
So Courtney, what more do we know about the investigation into the leaks and how these senior officials end up being fired? Yeah, I mean here officially the Pentagon is not really giving us any information about this investigation, even neither explaining whether it's ongoing or not. And what's particularly head scratching about this is we had the Secretary of Defense and we're having senior officials here who are defending the fact that these four officials, these three officials were walked out of the building, escorted out of the building last week amidst this investigation. Link now the individuals included Darren Selig who was the Deputy Chief of staff to Secretary Hexev, Dan Caldwell who was the senior advisor to him.
They have both now been exonerated. Ryan. And again the most, the most fascinating and really startling part about all this is when they were walked out of the building last week and then fired only days later, they were never given any actual evidence that they of what leaks they were accused of actually being involved in. They had no idea what the stories were or they had no evidence that was ever presented to them.
So we have very little information at this point. We believe this overall leak investigation continues. But again it's hard to say not only were those three escorted out, but Texas Chief of Staff. The Secretary's Chief of Staff, Joe Casper was also taken out of his job last week with very little information because days even to get the information that he was no longer in the job.
So if these two form rates have been exonerated, does that mean they're getting their jobs back? That's the question that we've been asking all day. We can't get an answer to that either. Yeah, so now he's fired his inner circle.
I mean what support does Pete Hex have right now inside the building? There's confidence in his leadership. Is that starting to. So as far as like his inner circle or the front office, I have, I've never seen now maybe back to when the very beginning when Secretary Mattis came into the job.
But other than that, I've never seen a time where a secretary has had so little direct support. Sort of that inner circle around him, those very close advisors he can lean on on a day to day basis. Right now it really depends on the person who's a junior military. And now basically he's acting Chief of Staff, he's a Marine colonel and then the chief spokesperson here Sean Parnell.
They are the two who really seem to be the closest to century high stuff right now. Okay, Courtney, qb, thank you for that. We appreciate it. And we're gonna be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press.
But as always, the news continues today. It's Tom Cassello who's in for Hallie Jackson right now on NBC News. Now. Thank you so much for watching.
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