If it's Thursday, Florida gunner Ron DeSantis could make a move in a matter of days as the aspiring presidential candidate faces a double dose of political problems. Donald Trump and Walt Disney plus accused pack on Laker Jack Teixeira appears in court while seeking bail as the Justice Department warns that he still poses a national security risk and could have access to even more classified material if he's released. And slowdowns and showdowns. New data shows the US Economy losing steam a bit faster than expected.
Why Wall street thinks that's good news as Washington grapples with a looming debt ceiling crisis. Happy Thursday and welcome to MEET the PRESS Now. I am Chuck Todd reporting from Washington as a closely watched presidential cand taking shape and taking hits before it gets off the ground. NBC News broke the story last night that border governor Ron DeSantis is poised to jump into this race officially for president as soon as the middle of next month.
That's according to multiple Republican operatives that are familiar with the timeline. DeSantis is acting like an emerging candidate. He's making moves at home to bolster his conservative credentials and making moves abroad, trying to build some foreign policy credentials. He's in Israel today where he addressed RNBC reporting about his 2024 plans during the press conference in Jerusalem.
I've been focused on this mission that we've been doing. We're gonna end up making it pretty much around the world by the time we're done. And if there's any announcements, you know, this will come at the appropriate time. But it's not if anyone's telling you that somehow they know this or they know that, that's just inaccurate because there's not been any decisions.
But folks, with the presidential announcement reportedly in the planning stages, DeSantis has been collecting problems, not supporters. His most recent and perhaps most problematic headache comes from one of the state's most powerful employers, Disney. In the latest escalation in an ongoing feud between the company and the governor, Disney has filed a federal lawsuit against DeSantis and other state officials. The lawsuit alleges, quote, a targeted campaign of government retaliation orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney's protected speech.
Over the last year, DeSantis has seemingly tried to damage Disney for the sin of publicly opposing his state's so called, don't say gay education law. Florida. I don't think, I think it's political. I think they filed, you know, in Tallahassee for a reason, because they're trying to generate, you know, some district court decision.
But we're very confident on the law. That was Governor DeSantis responding to a question about the lawsuit. Florida has revoked that self governing status in the area around the theme parks. DeSantis has also threatened to perhaps build a competing theme park, even stuck his son in his cheek claiming might even build a prison there.
But bottom line is DeSantis eyes a political battle for the Republican nomination. He has for some reason picked a fight with a well funded and popular corporate opponent. All of this comes as he's faced a number of stumbles already. He's losing grounded Donald Trump on multiple fronts.
He trails the former president by double digits of hardly since he's seen his poll. And he's losing coveted floor endorsements to Donald Trump, 111 in his home state. It's the same goes in politics. Good gets better and bad gets worse.
And right now DeSantis is in one of those ruts where everything looks worse. He does not appear well positioned when I fight against Donald Trump or Disney. Gabe Gutierrez is traveling with Governor DeSantis in Jerusalem, covering the trip there. In a moment, I'll be joined by BC National Football Club reporter Natasha Grecki.
And I'll also be joined by defense lawyer and NBC News legal analyst Andy Sabal to break down the Disney case. But Gabe, let me start with you. You've had some access to Governor DeSantis, more access to Prime Minister Netanyahu who loves to dabble in Republican politics in this country, though he claims he does it. What did you learn and what's your big takeaway?
Hey there, Chuck. Well, yes, I did manage to get a few questions to the Governor DeSantis this morning. I can tell you, Chuck, this was his element, right? He's been to Israel before.
He came as a congressman in 2017, as governor back in 2019. But as you said, it's hard not to look at this trip as overseas trips. Not just Israel, but he's been to Japan, South Korea. Tomorrow he's going to the UK Widely seen as a trip to bolster his foreign policy credentials.
He was greeted as a bit of a rock star today when he walked into delivered that speech in the news conference afterwards. Chuck, you mentioned that you know, he may have a political problem here with Disney. Of course. But I took it when he answered my question.
He didn't shy away from it. He was almost eager to fire back at Disney today, despite what I pointed out to him how it looks for a supposedly pro business Republican governor who's making this overseas trade mission to attract businesses to Florida and Yet the biggest employer in his state right now is calling him anti business and filing this federal lawsuit. And he is calling it political and without merit. But this seems to be a fight he wants to pick, much to the astonishment of some Republican political operators I've been speaking with that can't really understand that.
Of course, he's gotten pushed back from other prominent Republicans as well. I did speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, who met with DeSantis this afternoon. And he's walking a very fine line, of course, a staunch ally of the former President Donald Trump. But he is calling both former President Trump and DeSantis.
Friends of Israel, take a listen to my exchange right after that meeting. You are fresh off a meeting with Governor Ron DeSantis. What did you talk about? Talk about Iran, talk about Israel, US Religions.
He's a friend of Israel and Israel has been blessed to have great friends on both sides of the aisle. What do you think of him on the international stage? Is he someone you could work with if he were to run? Well, we didn't talk about American politics.
I have a politics here, so I've avoided stepping into that field. So, Chuck, he was very coy right there. But I did notice saying I also asked Prime Minister Netanyahu about his reaction to what President Biden had said several weeks ago about the judicial protests here. And President Biden asked him to walk away from these proposed judicial reforms, I should say.
And DeSantis, when I asked him about those judicial reforms today, there was basically no daylight between him and Netanyahu. He was saying that this is, you know, not something that the US should be involved in, that the US should butt out of Israel's internal affairs, of course, trying to strike contrast between himself and the current president, you know, President Biden. So this is a very interesting dynamic here. But Netanyahu, of course, walking that fine line, a smooth gig.
What Governor DeSantis is doing is frankly something in the pre Trump era that would have been condemned by every elected official in this country, which is to somehow go overseas and dispute American foreign policy. Because it is the American foreign policy on this right now when it comes to Israel. It is a, this is not something responsible elected officials normally do. This is a pretty irresponsible thing that he did to do this on the world stage, to politicize this is look, it's Israel and a lot of things, Israel get politicized in this country.
But it is something that's quite striking, certainly. I mean, look, times have changed, certainly. Chakas, as you know I did notice and you know, my interactions and personal governors have been limited. I did notice some sort of restraint here.
He didn't actively as aggressively call out the Biden administration on this overseas trip as he has been known to do before. Still, he was very clear. He's very tough talk on Israel. And of course, there's a larger backup that a larger and increasing percentage of Democrats have sympathized over the last several years with Palestinians.
That came up today. Also my conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu. So certainly, yes, the governor did implicitly criticize the current Biden administration. Didn't do so as forcefully though, as he would at a press conference in Florida.
By the way, I should point out he did take time out of that press conference to sign a piece of legislation that is for the legislature passed just yesterday about anti hate legislation in Florida. He highlighted that, of course, today, again, to a very friendly audience. All right, Gabe Gudierre is traveling and covering Governor DeSantis in his real force. Gabe, thank you.
Let me bring in Natasha correctly here. So, Natasha, is this another instance, and it's interesting here, is your sense that mid May was always the plan or are they again, it looks like they're very, it's a very reactive operation, not a very proactive operation. And I'm trying to figure this out. Is it truly as reactive as it looks or are they cockfight floating?
They're trying to get their seat lights here. I think there's a lot of debate inside of desantis world right now, and that's really what we're getting from our sources. Yesterday there was a push to go May 11, there was a push to go way later. We're not gonna be ready by then.
So then you're hearing about this exploratory committee that's sort of like, you know, this is the middle grounds. We can kind of dip. He's not really gonna announce, but he is gonna announce or he wants, he wants to kind of have a way to only be one foot in what our sources are saying. Several of them said he will be in by mid May.
One of the sources did say exploratory first, then a full launch. It gives him a little bit of flooding. I think what they're trying to do. Yes, it's reactive, but there's a lot of people complaining that he is not reactive enough and not quickly enough on lots of issues.
But in this case, that's gonna appease a lot of these donors and supporters who are just really apprehensive right now, who's in charge of this operation because you have this super PAC that has a lot of well known national people, Jeff Rowe and Cuccinelli, but if they're in the super pac, they can't really be involved in the day to day, at least legally. Susie Wiles, who orchestrated his initial run for governor is with Donald Trump. Is it just Stacey DeSantis and Ross Santa's taking these calls and who is it that has to be here? Well, Rhonda sentence destitute.
It's always been a very, very tight knit operation there and that is kind of what we're hearing right now and what people are saying. That's what we're seeing right now. It's too tight. They're not listening to enough people.
They're not doing the kinds of things they need to do politically, calling people back, you know, just basic things like you know, trying to curry favor with some of these donors, maybe getting them to stay along with them, getting the endorsements from these congressmen and so forth. And they, a lot of people that we talked to over the last couple days are saying that's because it is just too insular, it's too tight knit, it's too intellicacy right now. Is this the case? And we've seen this before, right.
Chris Christie won big in 2013 and he thought he was untouchable. Does Bridgegate political career is over. Ron DeSantis Twin XY20 clearly he's got some political acumen here and but is it, is this a case where you know, he thought wow, I'm untouchable and I can do anything I want and they almost have an over zealous view of themselves. Yeah.
When you hear him lay out his Florida blueprint, which is what he's been doing in the early states, it's a series of see I was right. See I was right and Disney fight feels like mistake to me, like you're picking a fight. Why are you doing that? And that interestingly enough used to be part of that blueprint and then it really got condensed.
No, it's just, it's just a quick reference. Donors do not like this fight. You know, it was fine in the beginning. Maybe he had something back and forth that seemed like he won it.
Now it's protracted, it's going on and on. Whether he wins legally or not is irrelevant. Politically, it's a loss for him. Good politicians will declare victory and he had an opportunity to clear victory over Disney while ago and he forgot.
Natasha, terrific recording. It's a fascinating world to Try on back. Thank you. Good work.
Let me bring Danny's novels. Danny, I'll go through a timeline here for you because I'm curious to see how much merit you think Disney has here. They believe it's political retaliation. March 20, 2022.
DeSantis signs the what opponents call the don't say gay bill. Disney criticizes the law in the form of a couple of different ways, but it's an executive. Bob Iger was one of them when he was former Disney executive. At the time, the current CEO was pressured to speak out against it.
The very next day, DeSantis warns Disney, I think they crossed the line. The day after that, a GOPC lawmaker floats dissolving Disney special district as punishment. Twenty days later, DeSantis asked the legislature to revoke the special status. They do.
And then of course, before Disney loses its control of their board, they essentially defanged the replacement group that's coming. DeSantis appoints his new board. The board vetoes the self governance agreement. Disney files suit.
This timeline alone looks pretty damning to me. What say you? The real question is, is this kind of retaliation, which I think Disney can make out pretty clearly, that timeline alone could end up as an exhibit in a trial. But is retaliation by the government against a company, is that even something that is actionable in court?
And the challenge here is that Disney is such a unique corporation, it's not just a massive source of revenue for the state of Florida. It also occupies a very unique space in that it has its own self governing district that we just talked about. So what constitutes improper targeting in this case? Disney is claiming that this action violates the Constitution's contracts laws.
Basically, the state government cannot pass a law that interferes with or destroys contractual obligations of a private entity. But that rule itself has a lot of exceptions. You can imagine all kinds of legislation that affects private contracts and imposes additional burdens on a private entity. But in this case, Disney really does have a case that it was targeted specifically.
Now the defense may argue instead, well, hey, we're just dealing with somebody who has a very unique situation and we're dissolving this self governing entity that they have. It's not targeting because this is such a unique singular entity, but it's about motive. Right. And how important is it for Disney's case that they can prove motive?
Yeah, that's the challenge here for the defense of the state of Florida and Ron DeSantis is that how are they possibly going to argue that this was not targeting? I believe DeSantis has arguably admitted as much in public statements that this was a retaliation for a company expressing its thoughts. Now, keep in mind, Disney is also alleging a First Amendment violation. But here's a little trick you can tell to figure out how powerful how much the plaintiff Disney in this case believes in its cause of action.
It puts the contracts Clause violation number one front and center in the complaint. The First Amendment counts are at the end, so Disney must believe much more in the contract case. And I tend to agree it's the strongest. Very quickly, Danny, how long?
How long? When does discovery begin? Are we looking over the next six months, nine months? Is this by year?
What's the timeline? Because it matters to those of us covering the campaign in federal court, the parties required to have a Rule 26 conference to figure out discovery and talk amongst themselves. If they can't, they go to court. But that's usually the beginning of discovery.
And from there it can take months, if not years. But you're in federal court, so federal court always moves a lot faster than state court. So you think this calendar year will have some form of discovery? Absolutely.
Will be started by the end of this calendar year. May not be completed. Boy, in the middle of a presidential race, what gets discovered? Days of office.
Our legal expert. Thank you. Coming up, President Biden says the US Economy is strong despite new GDP data coming in below expectations. Of course, Wall street love that.
Oh, yeah, yeah. What it means, why it matters, and how it could impact the Fed's fight against inflation. Next plus, is there a real potential for peace in Ukraine brokered by China or on the rank with the latest. You watching the press?
Welcome back. The Dow, of course, closed up over 500. Why? Because investors were really happy with the bad economic news.
Okay. And the good corporate earnings as well. Economic growth was lower than expected in the first quarter, rising just 1.1% below the expectation of 2% growth. But that might not entirely be a bad thing since slower growth is what the Federal Reserve has been trying to orchestrate as it's been hiking borrowing rates in effort to team soaring inflation.
And despite those rising prices and rising borrowing rates, consumers are still spending. I'm drawn now by CNBC senior Adams reports to be placement. You'll see. The minute I saw this bad economic news, I was like, oh, markets are love this.
And sure enough, they did. Is this a sign that the Fed can now pause its rate increases at least for a quarter while they wait to see? Yeah, I think you're wasting your time anchoring the show here, Todd. You want to be.
You want to be working the computer in the morning, listen, we got a little bit better. Consumption numbers seem to be hanging in there. The inflation numbers were not better. They were actually a little bit worse than expected.
It does suggest, given the overall weaker numbers from say, Q4, that there is some traction to what the Fed is doing. But I don't think it's enough to say the Fed can stop here. They are likely to hike again next quarter, and I think that the next, next week, I think there's going to be a debate about whether or not they need to do more, depending what happens to the inflation numbers. These corporate earnings have all been good.
Is it they're good because they were so bad a year ago, or are they actually good earnings reports? There's a little bit of that. But actually companies have found a way to make money as, you know, even as prices went up, they were able to raise their prices along with it, in some cases higher. They maintain their profit margins.
And fundamentally, Chuck, the consumer has not really relaxed very much here. Unemployment is very low. So it is possible here we get out of this without a recession. I'll give you a little inside very wonky details.
If you see a big part of why we had this weak number was inventories. Were we. If companies can get their inventories in line for slower economic growth, it means we can have perhaps a soft landing. It's when things shock companies.
All of a sudden they got a lot of stuff on the shelves they don't need to sell. If they get sold, that's when you may get a recession. But if we can get things in line with a slow, slow economic growth, we could have slow growth, not necessarily recession. Well, I was just gonna ask you what's the likelihood we're gonna have a quarter, we'll have negative growth between now and November 2024?
I think it's quite possible because here's the thing, this may be the last whole number in front of a GDP report we get in a while. The expectations that I'm seeing in our surveys are down to 0.5 even negative for the third and fourth quarter, but just slightly negative. So it could be that we do have some negative quarters in the next mountain of the year. Well, if there are two in a row, right?
That's the supposed definition of the R word, which folks in the White House we know are petrified of before November 2024. Steve? Well, actually, Chuck, it's not exactly the definition of. It's kind of a rule of thumb.
And the NDR is one that determines it. I get it. But you have two negative quarters. That's not going to stop the political spinning.
You know that. Why I do know that, which is precisely why I'm an economic reporter. Do not get involved in that stuff. Good for you.
Someday soon I should trade jobs. Steve Leesman, you gotta go. More reporting for your. Thank you, brother.
Thank you for making us smarter about today's economic news. Up next, Trump on trial and on the trail. You're looking live at Enhancer with a former president holding his first campaign event since his New York arrest, by the way. And Biden's re election announced the lady from the ground next.
You're watching me press now. Tim Cahill, welcome back. The happiest man on earth about Florida gunner Ron DeSantis's ongoing flight with the happiest place on earth is probably Donald Trump, who's right now on the campaign trail speaking in New Hampshire. You're looking at live pictures of him right now is if you're wondering how taking roll call he's shouting out supporters still so very early in his remarks.
The Trump campaign sent me some excerpts. They sent me that excerpt where he's gonna go after Biden and he's gonna go the economy for what it's worth. But Vaughn Hillier is following the former president in New Hampshire. One thing Vaughn, I know you've learned and I've learned is whatever the Trump campaign tells us the president's going to be saying his remarks is perhaps just a suggestion.
Chuck, you know, you got to follow those excerpts pretty closely because usually they do not deliver line by line. I think it's notable what is in those excerpts. So that is him taking like Joe Biden directly. No mention of disantorning of their Republican rivals because here, just days after Joe Biden's re election announcement, he is essentially trying to frame this as a 2020 general election rematch instead of even paying acknowledgment to the other Republican rivals trying to hone in on the contrast that is his administration versus Joe Biden.
Do you the campaign, I know they're gleeful of this DeSantis stuff. I'm curious, how do they how do they talk about DeSantis to the traveling press versus how much they want you talk about Trump. Right. There is a constant underfunding before the governor at play here, pointing out a clip of him when he was fumbling in response to the question delivered to him earlier this week about his standing in the polls making the suggestion he's not even a candidate yet, but it's clearly for them essentially trying to consolidate the support around them.
You see the number of folks, state legislators, they have on stage with them. This is a machine that, you know, the campaign points out has been built over eight years. They have identified over eight years individuals who voted for them in general elections, in primaries. And they're putting pressure on these lawmakers here to get on board now.
Get on board early. Trump remembers he was there with them in one of the early days here. And that is where this is sort of behind the scenes after about the primary stage, knowing that they can try to consolidate support. Look, it seems like their whole goal is to make this inevitable.
He's going to be the nominee of the thinking of not doing the debates right. They don't want to do, I've been told, the August debate, despite RNC asserting that it will happen in Milwaukee in August. And you know, when you look at the polling here, University of New Hampshire just released polling that shows a 32 point swing. This is one poll, but a 32 point swing in Donald Trump's favor over the last four months, which just hits add the fact I was talking with one woman dead out in mind here.
She told me a couple months ago she was considering DeSantis, but she felt like he had been dispoiled in his veiled attacks on Donald Trump. I don't know how you're supposing against Donald Trump. You don't take him on. But for her, she felt like it was a slight against the former president, somebody who she by every account believes the other Republicans should be loyal to.
And she said that she's here today and she is divinely behind him here. The partner says a lot. It's one anecdote, but it does seem to reinforce a narrative that seems to be developing. Bonding hamper.
Thank you. You know, Yamiche, Joe Biden wants to set this up as a contrast between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Donald Trump wants to set this up as a contrast between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. These two need each other.
It's fascinating and I think you're right. They do need each other because they want to just focus on we're already at the top of the ticket. Let's just go after and see if we can change this again, especially if you're a Jo Biden and you're having people question your age and having people question whether or not your vice president is capable of doing her job. There are all these different questions for Joe Biden and really he has campaign wants to point out, do you really want that guy again?
Do you really want somebody who, in his mind, messed up the entire Covid response, who, in his mind has the things that are blatantly racist in his mind, who is someone who has torn apart the country in a lot of ways? So this is exactly the one, of course, on Donald Trump's side. He is wanting to paint Joe Biden as someone who's unqualified and old and all the other things that he's been saying. So it is very interesting that these two managers going after each other and in some ways, with Ron DeSantis.
I mean, I was talking to some young Republicans yesterday, and it was embarrassing in their minds to see him go after Disney. That went against, in their minds, conservative values. When you look at businesses in the free market, which I hadn't heard all that much about before from a conservative point of view, in terms of conservative values and businesses. I got two former congressmen here, Joe Crowley, Rodney Davis, dnr.
The codependents. Rodney. I mean, this is a codependent relationship. Like the rest of us are like the children of divorced parents.
Go, what the hell is going on here? You know, I'm going to volunteer Crowley here to be your therapist. They can go in and solve this problem. You're right.
They are dependent on each other, and each of them wants to run against each other. They're only relevant if the other one's there. Yes. I don't mean if.
I do think that the only one that each can be is each other. But right now, I mean, the last time we talked, Ron DeSantis had a very good few months. Ron DeSantis has not performed well when being attacked by Trump. The Trump team has done a great job defining him.
Moving ahead, however, I will caution President Trump. I was up 32 points on my opponent before he endorsed her, and I still lost. So don't get cocky. Yet.
I'm told breaking news is that the Trump campaign wanted to know that he had a new nickname for Joe Biden, and He's borrowing the 2016 nicknames. He was going with crooked. He's from Sleep to Cricket, which is the same name he had given Hillary Clinton. So one thing about his nicknames, he doesn't really put a lot of thought into.
But anyway, Joe Crowley, it's. Look, this is. I get that Biden wants to run against Trump and Trump wants to run against Biden. This is.
This is not. This is not the most publicly presidential campaign overall, by the way. I certainly think having that difference in terms of Age would be distinctive, I think, in terms of not having that happen. You have a 78 or 79 year old.
I'm not sure how old Trump is going to be able to run. It does. It diminishes that factor tremendously. But it's also, you know, Joe, Joe Biden, incumbent, I would argue he's had a very successful four years, maybe not the last two make of the House, but the ira, the American Rescue Plan, the CHIPS Act.
There are a lot of bills that he can run and move on. I think positively running against Trump. I think part of it is still yet to materialize in a lot of those projects, but I think that'll be there and I think it's going to be much stronger from that point in time. But, yeah, look, you know, Trump is a flawed candidate.
I think even Republicans will say that. And so, you know, he's been dealing with trials. He's been dealing with the issue of a rape trial in civic civil cases in New York. He's got all these other criminal cases potentially happening.
You know, I've seen countries where, you know, vote for the guy in jail. I mean, that was something that works in the case. And you'll be called the Republican lady, but not the United States. Trump's gonna have this trial over here.
He's got this and this and this and all this stuff. But now Ron DeSantis has a Disney trial that is gonna be sitting here. And this is a fight. You know, the smart politicians know how to declare victory and walk away.
He won this fight and then he found a way to lose it. It's the strangest. This is his handling of this, frankly. I think it's an eye opening about whether or not you think he can handle the president.
Exactly. And I mean, I go back to the conversation I had with young Republicans or millennial Republicans just last night, and they look at this and say, how in the world are you picking a fight with Disney? How long are you picking fight with people who have jobs and with a constituency where people's jobs in Disney are connected to the base that you want to win. And it's another thing that I had thought of.
There are 190, it's in some ways obvious, thousands of jobs in Florida where blue collar people can go and work for a decent wage. And that is also resonating with Republicans. I do want to say, though, when you go back to sort of this rematch idea, it is interesting that Joe Biden is sort of leaning into cultural issues. We talk so much about Republicans, culture wars and all of that.
But when you talk to Democrats, they're pretty pissed about banned books, about abortion, about what their children can and can't learn, about the consequences of slavery. So in some ways, in some ways, the realization the Democrats are saying, wait, our voters are also very mobilized on this. We also get people to the polls, not only just talking about inflation and the economy, what you've accomplished, but also, do you want to live in a world where politics are telling you what you can eat and what you can learn and what you can do with your own body? Ronnie, Brian Balor called you up here.
God, in this Disney situation, I think you said it, take the win. At some point, you got to walk away and figure out how to bring in voters who are not necessarily on the polar ends of the political spectrum. That's. That's the voting block that you will need to beat Donald Trump in any Republican primary.
He has the polarized voters, and he's gaining those polarized voters as we move forward. However, if Rod Desantis, if Rod's biggest problem, and my opinion, is not dizzy right now, it's the fact that because he doesn't have the same personality Donald Trump does, he's not a kind of a grassroots, get to know you backslapping guy. Trump was really good at that. Ron has lost the endorsements of members of Congress in his home state when he won by the biggest landslide we've seen in a generation.
What kind of relationships you have? I had a great relationship with him. Ron was a great guy. I didn't have that problem.
I'm surprised that Dave Trott felt so passionate about his issues with the Santa, said he was willing to say what he said. He said, I'm not surprised. I know Dave. I like Dave.
I like Ron. I'm not surprised. You might know if he was bit by Goofy as a kid, because what's happening now is absolutely Goofy in terms of politics. And if he loses, he loses.
And if he wins, he loses. There's no win here at this point in time. Disney World is only one of the bigger fights since he won the bigger fight, which is over time. It's over now.
State has control of this board. He's taking it too far now. He took it too far. They lose control of this.
Yeah, absolutely. Because if he loses the score fight that goes back, people think of the same. You're pretty proud of Goofy. I like the Goofy thing.
I want to talk about this idea that Biden's trying to take the word freedom back from the conservative movement. I would argue that there is a borderline cancel culture that has shown on the right that two years ago seemed to be an issue like, no, we don't want Bud Light, we don't want this. You know, there's this line that I wonder, are they gonna lose their libertarian way? It's an interesting way to sort of commandeer what Republicans have wanted to talk about for the last two years.
For the President to say, actually we want to focus on your freedom and talk about reproductive health, talk about, even talk about voting rights, talk about civil rights, talk about just your freedom to read which books you want to in your libraries. It's a strategy that I think works for the President, but also in their mind, it's also a strategy that the Vice President has been leaning in on. As someone who has become the face of their fights on abortion, Ronnie, I. You're the type of Republican that wouldn't enjoy being having the words restrict.
Yeah, that's the thing. It looks like the word restrict is showing in front of a lot of Republican. A lot of Republicans have seen how successful Democrats have been in pushing cancel culture. And when looking at the polarized ends of the political spectrum, once again, that cancel culture, social media, cancel culture has worked in their mind to get Democrats elected.
And Donald Trump's brand of Republicanism is not the free market. It's a heavy handed government approach that actually. What happens to people like this? What happens to this?
No, I hear I lost. Where does this, where do these voters go? Because they're not comfortable with the progressive left. I understand that.
And they don't like this retaliatory. Right. Well, suburban America has gone toward the Democrats and that's a big problem for Republicans. Look, we are the blue collar party of America right now.
The laborers, the carpenters, those who use their hands to build things, they are voting Republican in droves. The problem is they usually live in areas that aren't as populated in states like mine. Suburbans not survey is not doing that. I think the example of the bill of cash yesterday though, the cuts that we made in terms of the debt ceiling movement.
Half a billion dollars. Sorry, Half a trillion dollars in cuts to veterans, cutting student loans, cutting, you know, healthcare across the board. That's a tough vote, especially for those marginal Republicans right now. Speaking to supportive Americans, say $4.8 trillion.
That's a great Republican message. You don't want to vote for something that's not gonna become law though. That's. We do it all the time, People can tell you that.
I also think that when President Trump reform. President Trump is going out to Ronan. He's also saying he wants to cut Medicare, Medicaid. I don't.
That's also interesting. It tells you about where the Republican Party Donald Trump's Republic. And it's also DeSantis hasn't figured out how to deal with that yet either. He's got a lot of work to do.
Ronnie, Joe, thank you guys. Have the breakfast. Prosecutors to close some new details behind the accused leaker secrets warning that if he is out on bail he could still cause exceptionally grave damage to national security. The latest on that story next.
You're WATCHING ME the PRESS now. Welcome back, Jack to share. A 21 year old national Guardsman accused of leaking top secret Pentagon documents. A burial court today for a previously postponed detention area.
Prosecutors are arguing that Teshira poses a serious flight risk and may still have access to classified information that would be valuable to a foreign adversary. The defense, however argued to share should be released to his father's custody. The guardsman has been charged under the SPIJ act with possessing classified documents pertaining the national security. Possessing national defense material.
It could face 25 in prison. Join me now for moreness of Penn correspondent Courtney qb. Courtney, this idea that they still think if he goes out of Bailey, they still think he has access to this. Why would he?
We don't know. They've not. I'm sorry, are they that concerned about the vulnerability of their documents? We don't know.
But it's the reality. They don't provide the actual evidence for why they make that claim in these documents. There's two things we do know. According to these documents, he smashed a bunch of stuff before he was arrested.
So a laptop, some sort of gaming console. And there's concerns now that he was looking up all of these other things including some racially charged events like the shooting in Buffalo and he's making these comments that were racist and extremely violent on social media. But they haven't found all the potential documents that he may have been using or looking at at that time. So I think the concern now is they have no idea what the actual universe of documents he may still have that may not have been found throughout.
Is there's no evidence that he still have access to classified information? Courtney, some here's and I'm sure you don't have the answer to it. It sounds like the Pentagon still doesn't know what he got. Yes, I think that's absolutely fair.
They do not yet have figured out everything he downloaded. How is it that there is not at least a cookie crunch now now that they know the dead so it's not just what he downloaded but remember in one of these chat rooms he was just describing information so it wasn't even necessarily the documents themselves. From the time this broke it's been very clear that the entire universe of what he may have exposed here is unknown. And I have to say several weeks into this now it's clear that they are still looking the other room is still looking at what he may have had.
They think he was doing this longer than they first thought, Correct? Yes. And in more than one chapter room by the way now and do we have any idea of motive other than impress his friends? No.
And you know the impress his friends motive is I think it's just one the fact that now he was looking up these racially charged events and that he was talking about killing people mass kill feelings of people. You know I, I think I'll have to look at other potential options here for what he may have been doing and what his motivation. Any update on changing the process of who gets to be it in the military? No.
Just random National Guard in Massachusetts. No. And remember and we're also learning more about his background including his when he was in high school and you know the Pentagon press secretary today was pressed on that. Are they looking at when why some people, especially some younger people, you know who don't have a long history that you can look at if you're looking at someone's history for classified document access over 10 years but he's 19 or 20 years old.
Yeah. So you're looking at a 10 year old. Why did any 19 year old have that? I mean how I I look we can have this today about why we hand 19 year olds to kill people but we do in the military.
I get that but you know there's a lot of you know why why was it seems like this is a. That there ought to be some experience level I doesn't see. I don't get any sense that that's going to change based off of this. I do think that we'll see other things that will change so more process changes that they will look at.
I think there's going to have to be more aggressive monitoring of people wilder to the security clearance process as well and then as well as something that looks a little bit deeper when we're actually going through the initial process again her term rental car has more is tougher about 19 and 20 year olds federal government classified back in. Thank you. Let's turn out the ongoing war of Ukraine. China is playing this special representative of Ukraine for talk about political summit.
Suddenly comes after Chinese President Xi and Ukrainian President Zelensky had the first phone call since the beginning of the war. She had been saying he was gonna call Zelensky and he waited and waited and waited and waited. He finally did. Zelensky called the conversation long and meaningful, adding that no one wants to speak more than Ukrainian people.
China is looking to expand its influence around the world. Alison Barber is on the ground force in Kiev right now. And Alice said to hear Zelensky, anybody that says they want to have peace, he always embraces it. How much of it was public rhetoric and how or how much of it were his comments serious?
You look at where Russia and Ukraine are when it comes to even the concept of peace talks, right? Peace talks, they make a whole lot of progress again with when they were being held. They have since solved. But just from a big picture perspective.
What Ukraine has consistently said is that they do not see a scenario for peace unless their 1991 borders are restored. When you look at the readout we have of this call between President Xi and President Zelensky from President Zelensky's office, he mentions at least twice that they need to have those 1991 borders restored, and that includes Crimea. Russia, on the other hand, have pretty consistently said that if there were to be some sort of revolution to this war in negotiations, then they would want to see a scenario where one people acknowledge the annexation of Crimea that happened in 2014 and then also have countries and Ukraine acknowledge the territories that Russia annexed since they began the full scale invasion. There are four of those, Lukhansbinets, Kherson as well as Zaporizhzhia.
That's not something Ukrainian officials would ever agree to, particularly when it comes to those four, that they have held these referendums since the full scale invasion began. One thing that's interesting just in the last little bit, now, a reference of our colleague here, Simmons reporting here is the envoy that China says they are going to send. It's one by the name of Li Hui. According to Kir Simmons reporting, this is someone who's spent decades working in Moscow, in China's embassy there as a ambassador for a decade prior to that, having first and second secretary positions in the embassy.
All of that for Russian academics that here have spoken to. They say that means this is possibly a positive appointment from Moscow. We haven't heard from Ukraine officials directly on that yet, but we're already starting to see analysts and activists in Ukraine writing opinion pieces about that special envoy saying because of his history working in Moscow, they're not sure he's someone they trust here at all. And they think China is sort of playing games.
Again, that's opinion commentators, not the administration here in Ukraine just yet, but maybe gives you a window into the issues that might still exist here. Well, we know that in the United States there's a ton of skepticism here about the Chinese are up to anyway. Alison Barber on the ground force in Kiev. Allison, please stay safe.
Come up. We're talking a little debt ceiling. Disney and DeSantis, 911 the floor. Republican lawmakers.
Byron Donaldson, Welcome back. Turning out a couple of issues facing Republicans in Congress. The future of their party, future of the economy is on the docket, as we noted early already. All right.
Republicans so far largely rallied behind former President Trump as their choice in 2024 over 40, Governor Ron DeSantis. Meanwhile, House Republicans yesterday rallied behind House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in his bill to raise the debt limit while trying to cut some spending. A mostly symbolic vote design to at least get the White House to come to the negotiating table. So Journey now is one of the top Republicans in the House these days who's got his, I think, ear and finger on the pulse of what's happening.
Republican Byron, Donald's Congressman, thank you for spending a few minutes with me here. Let me start with, I don't get into the specifics of debt ceiling because we know it's at the beginning of a negotiation. But I'm curious about your Trust in Kevin McCarthy. If Speaker McCarthy and President Biden strike a compromise, are you going to support that deal if Kevin McCarthy comes to you and says, look, it's not what you wanted, but it's as good as I was going to get considering the circumstances.
You trusted me with this. Do you trust him enough to take whatever deal he cuts with Biden? Well, Chuck, let's, let's make sure we get this question absolutely right. What has Joe Biden ever negotiated that's actually worked out for the American people?
I mean, you please tell me, because I've been observing his record for the last couple years and I've been observing politics for a long time. I mean, he's been here longer than I've been live, not that long, but I've watched enough. He's never really negotiated anything I've worked out with the American people. The last Iran deal wasn't a good deal for us.
He was part of those negotiations. And look at what his American rescue plan did. Massive inflation Unleashed on the American people obviously didn't work out for any American. So let's start there.
Number two, more importantly, when they get into a room, what Kevin McCarthy has in his pocket is a prescription for actually getting America back on track. It's something that takes us to pre pandemic spending levels, something that 75 of Americans think we should be doing since, you know, the pandemic's over. So I want to actually see what happens before I bring a judgment on what my opinions are going to be. But I default to what does Joe Biden ever negotiated that's actually worked out?
Look, I got to get into a political debate. I think a lot of people would make other arguments on his behalf, but I don't work for him. But I go back to the question, do you trust Kevin McCarthy on doing this negotiating or not? Of course I think he's gonna do a good job for our conference.
Conference and getting the best thing possible for you. Let's not leave out Chuck Schumer's been out there running his mouth, talking about how our plan was done arrival. But I'll ask you, Chuck, do you have 50 votes or 60 votes for a clean debt ceiling? The answer is no, you don't have those votes.
If you haven't, you would have brought it already. So I think it's time for Chuck Schumer to McCarthy, Joe Biden to get in the room, sit down, and figure out ways that we can actually responsibly take care of our spending and then also raise the debt ceiling. Because the markets will tell you it's not just Congress's ability to raise the debt ceiling. It's Congress's ability to get their fiscal house in order in the short and immediate and long term.
Are you comfortable if a clean debt ceiling vote were put on the House floor? Because a clean debt ceiling boat probably would pass with a handful of Republicans and Democrats. Would you? If a majority of the House House voted for clean debt ceiling, what's wrong with that?
Are you comfortable saying that could happen? No, I am not comfortable with that whatsoever. And the reason is very clear, very simple. We are running up debts faster than we'll have any ability in a very short while to ever pay them down.
That imperils the United States economy long term. Look at what's happening around the globe. China is trying to negotiate around the US Dollar with other countries. They're trying to remove us from currency reserve status in the world.
That's a major issue for our country. So why would a member of Congress for anybody from any party, for that matter. Vote for a clean debt ceiling. When Joe Biden made that statement, it was just ridiculous, ignoring the fiscal and economic realities that we face as a nation.
I've seen some chatter that you may have your eyes on the governor's mansion, perhaps in 2026. So let me ask you a question about Disney. How would you handle this Disney situation going forward? Well, look, for me, I think the original hand slap that happened last legislature, last legislation, thought was appropriate, Disney had stepped into some areas that, frankly, was none of their business.
I know that people are allowed to comment, but it's not just about commenting on politics. They were trying to use their corporate weight, their corporate pressure against the state legislature and against the governor. And they frankly didn't read the law. So they messed around and played the game that they had no business in.
So I think for me, that's where I would have left it. Now I've moved on. There are other maturation machinations that are going on right now between Disney and the governor. We'll see where it lands.
So you think that there's a point where you don't necessarily use government to retaliate against a corporation. Listen, you're talking to a member of Congress who is admonishing Democrats from trying to stop them from monitoring energy companies, from spending money, talking about climate change. That happens right here in Washington, D.C. i do not think that members of Congress or any state body body should be wielding large amounts of political power against a entity.
I don't believe that. But again, there's a lot of stuff going on between Disney and between the governors. We gotta play out a little bit. Look, the fact that you're behind, you went ahead and endorsed Trump over DeSantis, and you're not alone in your delegation.
What's your explanation of why the governor can't get Florida elected Republicans to rally around him? I don't think it's that people in our state understand the type of Governor Ron DeSantis has been. I called him America's governor, plenty of time. Because let's be very clear, he's the best in the country that's doing the job.
But when it comes to hitting the ground running on day one, a lot of congressional Republicans, when we look at our economy, we look at the border, we look at foreign policy, which is a real problem in our country right now, we see very clearly that Donald Trump is the guy that can get the job done on day one. And for a lot of your viewers who might disagree with me, and as such, I would say to them, we've seen Joe Biden, we've seen Donald Trump, who did a better job, period, End of story. Donald Trump is floating, not participating in these Republican primary debates. He supposedly pulled you and others at Mar a Lago, according to some reporting by Jonathan Martin.
And a lot of you obviously like, no, you should do the debates. But if he skips the debates, you have a problem with that. Look, he's gonna make a decision. He's gonna look at the facts and decide what's in his best interest.
Me personally, I say going to be, I like the B things. I like it, I enjoy it. It's fun. And I also think it's important to show the American people what your ideas are, what you view as the role that you're asking for going forward, what you want to do with it.
Now, President Trump's been very clear about what his goals are. Just watch any video he puts out. He'll tell you directly. But I think he stepped into the arena.
I think he's going to do that. But of course, he likes to take input from everybody and get a full idea of what's going on before he makes his decision. That's a good thing to do. Congressman Brian Donalds have a lot more for you, but I'm running up against the clock here.
I hope to talk to you soon again. Thanks for your time. Sure, anytime. You got it.
Thank you all for being with us this hour. I'll be back tomorrow with more media press now. NBC News now coverage will continue here in a few seconds with Tom Costello who is sitting in for Hallie Jackson right now. I'm Craig.
Mel. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
I've always been a glass half full kind of guy and now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way, too. It's really fascinating. Folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges, their stories are funny and I can't think so. I hope you'll join me each week.
Who knows, you might just come away with your own Glass apple. Search Glass Apple with Greg Melvin From Today on YouTube. Wherever you get your product.