Meet the Press NOW – August 10

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If it's Thursday, disaster in Hawaii where raging wildfires have tilled at least three dozen people and mass evacuations are underway to try and get thousands off the devastated island of Maui. Plus breaking news, the US and Iran strike a rare deal to release five Americans imprisoned in Iran. It's part of an exchange that includes the release of Iranian prisoners and $6 billion in frozen Iranian government assets. Plus new developments in the trail and then the Trump trials as prosecutors propose starting the former president's D.C.

federal trial just two days before the Iowa caucuses. Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Chuck Tott reporting from Washington and we are watching more breaking news out of Hawaii. It's a devastating scene.

Multiple wildfires are burning on the island of Maui. The historic town of Lahana is in ruins. At least 36 people are dead. Officials fear the number will rise.

The fires which ended up spreading quickly on Wednesday were fueled by an 80 mile per hour wind and a lot of gusts and it's now among the deadliest wildfires in US history. Second only now to California's Camp Fire which killed 85 people in 2018. Thousands of locals and tourists which included the mayor of San Francisco, London Breed had to be evacuated from the northern part of the island as the fires quickly spread. Many are now in shelters as firefighters were contained.

Three fires that remain active. Airlines included Hawaiian Air and Southwest are now operating evacuation flights off the island. You can see how narrowly people escaped the fires that quickly took over the main part of town in this shocking video here. Over 270 structures have already been destroyed by the flames including the house in this footage.

More than a dozen people were rescued by the Coast Guard after they simply jumped in the Pacific Ocean in a desperate attempt to escape the flames. This afternoon President Biden proved an official disaster designation for the fires meaning the local efforts can now be supplemented by FEMA legally and federal aid. We'll be speaking with the FEMA administrator in a moment. The National Guard also activated over 130 guardsmen today to aid in the response.

Here's what President Biden had earlier. It's as quickly as possible to fight these fires and evacuate residents and tourists. In the meantime, our prayers were the people of Hawaii but not just our prayers. Every asset we have will be available in them and we've seen them fixing their homes and their business destroyed and some of the lost loved ones.

And it's not over yet. R.M.E.C. News correspondent Dana Griffin has the latest on the ground in Maui. Chuck, we are at one of the largest evacuation centers here in Maui where some 300-400 people spent the night here.

Several people have also slept in the distance in the parking lot inside their cars. We're seeing a lot more people show up the day to get food, water, and clothing. I can tell you one of the more remarkable things about all of this, I'm literally talking to people who have walked out of here who say their homes are gone but they still have a smile on their face and they are talking about gratitude. Grateful that they are alive, grateful that they still have loved ones.

As you know, at least 36 people have been confirmed dead and that number is likely to grow as crews get out and assess the damage. It's still unclear how much surface level has burned and if there's a containment level, we are waiting to get those updates. We know the road to Lahaina, the historic town that really thrives off the local economy, the tourist economy, has been decimated. It'll take years and at least a billion dollars to rebuild that town.

We're not sure when they will reopen the road so that people can go into those neighborhoods to assess the damage. I can tell you many people are returning and we'll not have a home to go back to. Thank you very much. I'm joined by NBC News meteorologist Michelle Grossman.

She's here to help break down the origins of this fire and how it's spread so fast here. I hate to use this analogy of quote-unquote a perfect storm but it seemed like there were a lot of events that had to happen for this to become as devastating as it is. Walk us all through it here. I feel the same way I know I use that term too because it really was three ingredients that came together for this disaster to happen.

So first we had an ongoing drought. It's a really dry vegetation. That kind of acts as kindling, right? And then we had relatively low humidity which is so so low and we had really gusty winds.

It wasn't just from the hurricane because we keep focusing on Dora but this is what happened. We had a category four storm, now a category two storm. 200 miles south of the Hawaiian Island chain interacting with a big area of high pressure. So really strong systems interacting together to kind of create this wind tunnel here and really strong winds.

We mentioned it before of the 80 miles per hour. The good news is we're seeing better, better conditions but that all came together to create this and we saw those flames really fast and really, really furious because we have some really dry land there. We are seeing that drought continuing. So the winds will continue to subside.

I just love we saw winds gusting around 22 miles per hour, much better than the 38 today, much better than the 70-80 we saw yesterday and it will continue to decrease as we go throughout the day. So we've dropped all wind advisories, all wind warnings, all high wind warnings and the red flag warnings have also been dropped. That is good news. Now as we go throughout the night, we're looking at very dry winds continuing on the leeward side.

We're looking at a little bit of light rain falling but that is on the other side where we don't need the rain. We need the rain over these fires. We still have three active fires burning. So by midnight tonight we're looking at winds around 10 miles per hour and check us.

We go throughout the next five days. I look through next Wednesday. We're looking at really sunny conditions that's going to be really dry, low humidity still and also really low winds. At least the winds are going to keep it on the low side but we're looking at the drought continues.

We go throughout the next couple of weeks at least. And describe their drop. I read it was, look, we know that extreme weather seems to be the norm wherever we live now. But this was moderate drop conditions.

This was an extreme drought conditions, right? I mean, is there something the locals should have been more prepared for? Is this really a bizarre anomaly? Yeah, I love how you said that.

We're not an extreme drop. We're not severe. We are in a drought, which is not, you know, it's never good, but it's not severe. But it was just, and they were warned.

So the National Weather Service out of Hawaii warned them starting Sunday night that we're going to have these conditions with the really gusty winds, the dry grounds. I think that's really the biggest culprit. You are just looking at kindling, just blaming these fires and also the relatively low humidity. So we're not getting those storms.

We're not getting the rain to help kind of, you know, bring them oyster in. So yeah, we're not looking at extreme drought. Like, we always want to, you know, connect to climate change where there's no huge red flags that are connecting this. We're going to continue to look at it.

But nothing is out there that's saying this is exactly why this happened. It was really those three ingredients coming together. Well, and that's the point with climate change. It's their accelerants and it's not always directly.

And we all know that anyway. So Grossman, thank you. I'm joined now on the phone. My Congresswoman, Jill Zucunda, she represents the second district of Hawaii's congressional districts.

That includes the island of Maui. She's trying to get home. She was on a congressional delegation, bipartisan visit to Israel. She's cutting that short, trying to get home, even as people are trying to get off the island.

Congresswoman, I know you're trying to get information like the rest of us. You obviously know people. What do you know? And based on what you're hearing, what do you think the island needs right now?

First and foremost, this is just a heartbreaking, devastating situation for everyone. I have talked to individuals who have lost loved ones, but lost homes, businesses. This is really going to take us not just weeks and months to come back from this, but literally generations and years. Right now, we need people.

It's on the ground. And we have seen them come through from the U.S. Coast Guard to our defense partners, to every single county to make sure that we can put out these hotspots and these fires. It is now a search and rescue and recovery effort.

We don't even know the full extent of the damage. We've got assessment teams on the ground. I know the governor's going in. The superintendent of schools is going in to really determine what is the extent of the damage.

And then we can really start to look at stabilizing life for people. You've seen it in the videos. Literally food and shelter are necessary. And so we've got to be able to provide the most basic things for our residents right now.

You know, many Americans are used to hearing about wildfires in California. Wildfires in Hawaii are not familiar to folks. Talk about this threat that has been there for years, I guess. How often and what kind of what kind of preparations are made on a moderate drought year like this?

Well, you know, we have been experiencing pretty severe drought conditions in recent years. And we're familiar with Saudi brush fires that have taken out huge aperages of land on all of our islands. I think what made this particular situation very unique is we had our eyes on the hurricane itself. That was the danger.

And yet 800 miles away, those winds picked up to levels that really, as was said, created a perfect storm where those dry conditions, those heavy winds literally whipped in to the worst wildfires we've ever seen. I think what exacerbated that was much of this happened in the cover of night early morning. People were literally running and fleeing for their lives. And in some cases, nowhere to go but jump into the ocean.

And so, you know, this really was something unexpected and definitely not something that we had been able to anticipate our plan for. Look, Maui's economy is tourism. Pure and simple, right? I mean, there really isn't a second economy per se.

So rebuilding for tourism is what needs to be done. How hard is this going to be? How many, you know, you said generations. I mean, is there going to be different ways that have to things have to be rebuilt or that this is just a case of we're just going to rebuild?

I think we saw this, sadly, if you think back decades ago, when Hurricane Iniki literally leveled the island of Kauai. When I saw the pictures from the air, it took me back to Iniki and what Kauai looked like. It also took me to war zone pictures that we've seen. If you take a look at the footage of just burnt out cars and buildings, rubble, nothing absolutely left.

And similar to Kauai, tourism is the main, you know, stay of the economy for Lahaina. And so I do think this is going to take us literally years to determine how we rebuild and what the economy of Lahaina and Maui as a whole starts to look like. It was definitely at its peak right now in the summer season. It's come to an absolute halt.

This is why the federal declaration by the president made such a difference today when he did this quickly, allowing us to happen to need to be sources for this community interstate. Well, speaking of federal assistance, I'm about to have the FEMA administrator on anything directly you'd like to ask her for. Please send everything you can our way. We are going to be on the ground helping people to sign up for those programs.

We need everything from most of our people's head to making sure that they can have transportation to work, rebuild their businesses. Life is grinded to a halt for too many of our residents and they need help now. And it may be months at a minimum that they're going to need assistance like this. Congresswoman to travel safe.

We know you need to get there. We know you want to get there as soon as you can. Thanks very much. Let me turn now to FEMA administrator, Deann Chris, well, administrator, Chris, well, thanks for coming on.

Talk about the unique challenges. Look, you FEMA's got to be there for US territories, for islands, Hawaii's in a state that's in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It only adds to the difficulty of getting needed help there. Just describe that extra challenge and how important is the US military assets here?

Yeah, Chuck, you're exactly right. We deal with the unfortunate impact of these disasters, you know, across the United States. And every time one of these happens in one of our island, either states and Hawaii or our territories, it just adds another level and another dimension of challenge and to our ability to respond because of the time and distance. I think what's fortunate for us is we have an office because of this in Hawaii, Anuahu, we also have a logistics center, distribution center that has food and water and cots and supplies, so we can have it ready to go.

And we're using that today to go out and start to help those that have been displaced by this fire. The one thing that we have to keep in mind because of this is that time is so precious. And so we really have to anticipate working with the governor and his team on what is going to be needed, not just today tomorrow, but next week and the week after that, so we can begin moving those resources today. And then if we don't need them, we'll turn them around, but we want to get them moving as quickly as possible, even if we think we might need it, but we're just not quite sure yet.

Is getting these fires put out now part of FEMA's job too? What we will do as part of the disaster declaration is reimburse the cost that the the state is experiencing and encumbering to put out these fires, but it also gives us the ability if they need more resources, we now have the full ability to bring in all different federal resources to come in and support. So it gives us that ability to bring in additional federal partners to come in and support, but also reimburse for some of those expenses that are eligible, which is the majority of them for the cost that they're incurring to try to continue to put out these fires. So many of us are used to, you know, having to prepare for disasters, we can at least anticipate, you know, a flood, a hurricane, a tornado, no one says that they're playing, but there's there's a mindset.

This almost feels like, is this a disaster a resident could have prepared for? You know, I think the biggest thing that we need to focus on is that communities across the United States really need to have a better understanding of what their risks are today, because the risks and severe weather events we're seeing are much bigger in scope and scale than we saw five or 10 years ago. We've also had a lot of people move to different parts of the country that may have never experienced a wildfire, whether it's here in Hawaii or other parts that are used to it. So we've been really focused on how do we get that message out?

How do we help communities understand what their risks are so they can take the measures that they need to make sure that they have plans in place to protect themselves and their families? And we focus again, not just with the individuals, but with all of our emergency managers around the nation. How do we help build your capacity and put the right plans in place? I think as we're seeing this unfold today and we're seeing how quickly it intensified, this has been the type of severe weather events that we've been seeing across the nation, as they have just intensified so much more rapidly.

So we really have to work on how are we preparing our communities to respond to that faster? So we have time, we don't lose time and we have the right amount of time to get people out of harm's way. But you know, there's some communities are experiencing extreme weather that those communities never had before. I think about tornado warnings in Maine.

Okay, Maine and really, you know, not to say it's never been recorded, but it's really recorded, not anymore, right? We're now starting to see those things. I mean, I say this, I don't think many people living in Maui probably thought wildfires were going to be the first thing they'd have to worry about. Certainly, you know, I guess that's part of this education process is you almost have to have an imagination now for extreme weather.

When I think it's maybe imagination, yes, but we have resources, right? We have technology through NOAA and NASA that have great tools to help us model and anticipate the types of severe weather events that communities are going to experience. And so when I talk about helping people understand risk, we have to bring the science in, we have to bring the data in in the modeling to help them visualize what is potentially going to be a disastrous event for them in the future, because it's certainly not the same as what they've experienced five or 10 years ago. Just like you mentioned in Maine, we're seeing these kinds of events, but even just record-breaking events, record-breaking rain events where they get rained, but they've never seen it at the scale that they're seeing it today.

Do we have an idea of how this fire started? Is it an accident? Was it a campfire? Is it, you know, a bonfire that got out of hand?

Do we know yet? Is there an investigation? Yeah, I would certainly defer you to the state on the cause, and I'm not sure where they're at in the investigation. I think the biggest thing is that we know that it was amplified by these severe winds that came forward and pushed it into the communities.

The human administrator, Dan Creswell, with the latest on all the efforts there. Good luck. Thank you. Thanks very much.

Still, at the Special Council's newly proposed trial timeline, former President Trump booked the 2020 election interference trial on a collision course with the start of 2024 voting. Plus, an Ecuadorian presidential candidate is assassinated days before the election, moments after a campaign round, and just the latest on of an increase in political violence around the world. This one is connected to one of the cartels that controls the fentanyl trade around the world. All of this is connected, folks.

You're watching me The Press Now. Welcome back. Turning now to some important breaking news for a lot, for quite a few worried families out there out of Iran. The White House has confirmed that four Americans who have been wrongfully detained at the notorious event prison in Tehran have been released from that prison and placed under house arrest as part of the first phase of a planned prisoner swap.

A fifth US citizen who is already under house arrest has also expected to be part of the deal. As part of the exchange, an unknown number of Iranian debt that are detained here in the United States will be returned to Iran. And the US is going to release roughly $6 billion with capital B dollars in Iranian government assets that have currently been blocked under US sanctions. We should know that the White House has negotiations remain ongoing, they're delicate, and nothing's done yet.

But if the agreement proceeds, Iran will only be able to access those funds for food, medication, and other humanitarian purposes with Qatar overseeing those funds. But of course, we know that money is fungible and you know what that means. But joining me on set is Andrew Mitchell, who's been tracking this story. So Andrea, it looks like we basically paid a ransom for a kidnapped Americans.

Is that is it that simple? Not exactly. Because this is Iranian money, it's been held in South Korea. So Iran was able to under the sanctions.

Why in South Korea, by the way, were they just a third party? Several countries have been permitted to buy Iranian oil for their needs under the sanctions, as long as the money is held in their countries and is only released to Iran eventually for their use for food or medicine. So in this case, this is the South Korean, Trump, if you will, the $6 billion. And it's going to be sent to Qatar, which is going to transfer it into European currencies.

I mean, they have to go through several steps to get it. Some people call that laundering. I mean, it would be thought if it wasn't doing it this way, it would be called London. It's a legitimate treasury transaction to get it into a currency that Iran can use.

So that's it's not to clean it. Fair enough. Fair enough. It's to be able to buy the food and the medicine.

And Qatar is going to be responsible for dispensing it. It's not going to go to Iran. Qatar will be responsible for making sure it doesn't go for, let's say, let's just say, the American drones that go to Russia. A lot of bad things.

A lot of Iran can take money that was using prevention and move it to dry. I mean, that's what I mean by money is fungible. We can claim it's there's a silo, but there's not going to make that good. Fair enough.

But I'm going to say that these Americans, you know, you've got Seamak and Mazi's been there for almost eight years in Evan Prism. They don't know what kind of condition he's in. They are now in under house arrest. Are they in the Swiss embassy right now?

They're in a hotel with the Swiss ambassador eyes on. The Brits have an embassy in Tehran as well. So we have allies there helping. The Swiss were really key to getting this done and better.

You know, all of these allies, Oman, other countries in the area. The fact is that these people, they need, some of them didn't even have trials. They were just charged sentence to it was Alice in Wonderland, you respond espionage. So we have five Americans every week.

How many more Americans did the Iranian side? There aren't any more American citizens. We are told there are people with American green cards. They're not US citizens, and they have not, they have not one man, Mr.

Diali, we've been talking to family members. I've been talking to their daughters, some of these people who are being released. Their stories are just, you know, Mr. Tabaz, around Tabaz's wife, Vida, was in Tehran and was not given an exit visa.

So these, these daughters have not seen their mother or their father for years. And now they will be united. Any American with Iranian descent probably shouldn't be traveling to Iran. They are, they are going to be the Iranians.

Now, I mean, doesn't this almost raise the risk of more American citizens of Iranian descent to get kidnapped? Just like Americans should not go to North Korea, Americans should not go to Russia. That's what they will tell you because of Evan Gerskovich. So many correspondents have left.

Well, as a journalist, sometimes journalists are, you know, you get that, the people that like hike for the fun of it. You know, like, what do you remember that? I was there when the hikers were released. In fact, so I talked, we interviewed Jason Razian today from the Washington Post.

You know, he was there for 588 days in Evan prison. He still feels the PTSD. He doesn't want to be in small spaces. He said he knows what they're going through and they will not be released until that money is transferred.

And once they are released and homebound, that's when the Americans will be released. Many other Americans will be released. That's when the Iranians will be released. How many other South Korea's are out there?

American allies are holding Iranian money where the Iranians are looking for it. Yeah. And here's what's also happening. My colleague, Andrew Lewis, our colleague has been working on this portion in February.

There are secret, separate talks on the nuclear issues, which will be informal, not a treaty that can pass, but you freeze it below weapons grade. They've already gone past that. They are weeks away from having enough nuclear fuel for a weapon. So in theory, this is not supposed to be a part of this, but having this done might open the door to that.

That's the whole thing. Okay. And just one other thing. Senator, you know, I mean, Senator is already complaining, Republican senators and President Obama did the same thing and was hammered.

So this is, you know, everybody's attitude on this change is when it's somebody they know that's been detained. That's something people need to figure out. So smart. Andrew Mitchell.

Thank you for this. Up next, former President Trump and one of his co-defendants, played back guilty in the latest charges in the classified documents case, as even more potential criminal charges loom over the GOP front matter. You're watching the president. Go back.

So special counsel Jack Smith wants Donald Trump's election interference trial to begin right at the start of the 2024 campaign season. And finally today, the special counsel requested the trial to begin on January 2nd, saying it would vindicate the public's strong interest in a speedy trial. That date is less than two weeks before the Iowa caucuses and a four to six week trial. That's on the short end of things.

People think it'd be longer than that could keep Trump largely off the trail during the key early loading states of New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, and of course, Iowa. This is just a proposed start date. And we know Trump's legal team has until next Thursday to respond. That proposed trial schedule comes on the same day that both of Trump's co-defendants in the classified documents case appeared in a Florida courtroom with one of them, Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira, still not able to be arraigned two weeks after he was indicted, because he's yet to secure an attorney, which has become a bigger problem in that case for more join by our panel, Peter Baker.

She's why I'll respond for the error times. And if he's seen as political analysts, give him the active store, Boston Globe columnist, NBC, political analyst, and Sarah Chang, Republican strategist and president and CEO of Republican Main Street Partnership. All right, let's do the trial calendar here. Peter Baker, the likelihood is Trump's gonna ask for something and my guess is they're gonna go to December, right?

You know, in a negotiation, you know, but realistically, we're still looking, we're probably looking at somewhere in the spring, right? Yeah, and look, this judge is not sympathetic to President Trump as the other judge in Florida, so he may not get quite as much leeway as he got in that instance in the classified documents case. But just imagine for a second that this is actually gonna happen, right? Trial one, January, trial two, March, trial three, May.

I mean, you don't have to necessarily be in court every single day, I suppose, but that's a lot of support time. Sure. Well, you've got it, J.D. So you know the, what's the, what's the likely scenario?

So prosecutors ask for this. Defense is gonna ask, what does we expect this judge to be, you know, on the speedier side? So what would be your educated guess here? I think if the defense comes back with something reasonable, and that is a big if, you know, they're gonna ask for more time.

I think they're gonna ask for that. And in that case, the judge will probably be more inclined to make it on the earlier side if they seem to not be acting in good faith. Clearly, Jeff Smith has laid out a case. He says, this is how long it's gonna take me to put on.

We're ready to go. This is how long it'll take to present a prosecution and defense and that we could do this. So unless they present a reason beyond just what there's an election coming to put this off. I mean, if you were in there choosing, like, look, we don't, we kind of, we want it sometime between the primaries and the convention.

Yes, for it. Yes, for it in June or July. That would be a good reason. It would be, this is what we need to be able to put on an effective defense.

And if they can't show that, then it'll be very difficult. I know what you wish would happen. But what do you expect campaigns to do? Are they gonna continue to do what they're doing, which is ignore Trump on this stuff?

I think they will, because what we see over and over again is every time he gets indicted, his polls go up. I've never seen anything like it. That's why he's called Taflon Don. It's shocking.

What's happening here? Speaking of shocking, I want to play this ad because that he's running right now, a quick, an attack at on the next prosecutor. In Atlanta, they bought at cable TV. It's a million dollar ad buy.

It's Atlanta, Washington, DC, and New York. It is designed. It basically the Atlanta community and then the media capitals. Take a look at it.

And Biden's newest lucky Atlanta DA, Fawnee Willis. So incompetent on her watch, violent crimes have exploded. So tainted. Willis was thrown off one case for trying to prosecute a political opponent.

I should know that Willis not like you to put on an email to her staff after this attack at aired. We have a job to do in this office. We prosecute based on the facts of the law, the law is nonpartisan. No employee, this office may make any public comments related to the noise.

Your instruction for me is to ignore all the noise and keep doing your job with excellence. Peter, I'm old enough to remember when the first time you attack Mueller, everybody went, what is going to happen? Whatever you think of the Clintons, the Clintons muttered about Ken Star more in private and blind quotes. They didn't overtly go after him.

But now this is like, oh, just every day. I mean, we're numbness. This is perfectly legal and absolutely an erosion of the democracy. I'm completely unusual, unimpressive to that baby.

We weren't too much, but the problem is Trump has normalized so much of this that you kind of shrug and say, okay, it's just another week in the Trump show. She's prosecuting him. That's weak. And it used to be a killer lawyer, I'm not.

But I mean, the idea that you attack a prosecutor. And by the way, he's attacked judges and juries and grand juries, he's attacked everybody. No, we go back. You know, the judge who was of Mexican descent, and it's just sort of, this isn't even though I don't have any comment.

This is a hat. This is a paper by the campaign for us. I mean, they make sure to pay for their own campaign. I mean, I don't want to be a politics.

To cover some legal. To quote Bob Dole. Where's the outrage? Yeah, we're not to it now.

There's so much of it that we've, I'm sorry to say, but we've prepared to turn it off. But it's not just politics though. It's also an attempt to try to destroy the legal process so that he can later claim, oh, it was unfair. It was broke.

He's taken a sledgehammer to it so that he can later claim that it's broken. And therefore, he can't get a trial. Right. He's the turn attack.

And then says, well, she hates me. Correct. You know, like, actor, she must. It's like, it feels like, right, it's a never-ending loop.

And there's, there, there doesn't, I mean, again, I go back to it. This is perfectly legal. Yes. Yeah, it really is.

And that's why he's doing it on the political because he got a lot more leeway running a political act. Yeah. But diminishes, as you're saying, it diminishes the credibility of the system. That's what he wants to do.

He just wants to be, oh, it's, you know, Democrats are Republican. You've seen this before. That's all it is. It's not about the legal system.

It's not about an impartial justice system. It's about politics. That's what he wants supporters to believe. And they do believe it.

And they do believe it. I mean, that's what's shocking. They really do. So is there, is there any, are we now, I started to worry that our coverage now just assumes none of this matters.

Yeah. Are we now over-calibrating on that front? Sure. Yeah.

It doesn't matter. You don't think it'll matter. He's based when he said, and we all were shocked when he said he could go kill somebody on Fifth Avenue. And we're like, no way.

He might be able to. I mean, I don't know what is going to road his base. They don't care. They love this.

I think the only thing that can happen is for reasonable people, Democrats and Republicans alike, to support and defend our institutions and say, look, you can, like, or just like whoever you want as a candidate, but our justice system is important. And we need to believe in it. You know, it's funny to say that. I'm trying to think of all the elected Republicans that have stood up and said that in the last couple of weeks.

And you name any? Right. Right. Chris.

Right. Right. Right. Who was sort of sitting there saying, look, no matter what you think, everybody who is indicted thinks the system's unfair.

Right. Okay. I think we now know that. I get that.

Okay. But if we live in a society like this, what are we going to have? Right. But I think the elected officials have become known to this as well.

I mean, I think that we have this whole, like, what is going to break us out of the trans that we're all in? And the destruction issue that he's taking advantage of. These are Democrats. And they are elected officials.

That is in New York and in Georgia. And obviously, Merrick Garland and Jack Smith are appointed by Democratic administration. So they may be doing everything exactly right. They may be following the whole point of a point Jack Smith was to take politics out of Jack.

Which he knew would never happen, right? Because it was inevitable that Trump was going to make him political, whether he was or not. And Jack Smith can invent every single thing, right? Follow the book entirely, and Trump will still be saying all this stuff.

Joe Manchin, let's do something that's a little more normal as far as political debates or concerns, which is the future of Joe Manchin. What party will he be in? What office is he going to run today? He floated the idea of being an independent, which frankly, I think some people are wondering why is he still a member of the Democratic Party, other than the chairmanship of the energy committee?

He's coming for a long time, that's a surprise to know one. But depending on what his next aspiration is, he's in a system that just doesn't work. If you wanted to run, say, for president as an independent, how do you do that when we have the electoral count system? If there was some sort of plurality kind of system like we've talked about before, that could be a future.

But right now, with the polarization, that is only being fomented with everything we've talked about. I just don't see where that goes. This is no country for an independent. Is this what a guy who wants to win a reelection would say in West Virginia, though, sir?

No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. And he can't win. I think that's done.

I think Governor Justice will defeat him. The question is whether Joe Manchin runs for a reelection? I don't think he will. I don't think he wants to lose.

He's looking for a way out. This is the presidential stuff. You say all this stuff is you're looking for an out, I think, right? It sounds like you're looking for an out.

Because you have the independent float now. I mean, it does feel like he's setting something up, right? And he is up in 2024. So he's got to make a decision in one way or the other.

He's going to keep the remarkably successful over the years and a really hard state for Democrats. You know, give him credit for that. But there's no sign that there's a national following there for him. The irony is that the Republicans are going to have Jim Justice, which is the version of Joe Manchin of the Republican Party.

He just joined. After the break, 2024 presidential candidates descend on Des Moines for one of the primary seasons, most beloved and buttery traditions. And a former Republican presidential candidate will join me on set. Talk about what that's like.

You're watching me press now. Welcome back. The Iowa caucus season is officially underway. Because today is the opening day of the Iowa State Fair, the best state fair in the country, unless you live in Minnesota, Wisconsin or Indiana.

Because you'll think your state fair is better. But over the next 10 days, Iowa is from all 99 counties. We'll flock to Des Moines to pay their respects to the butter cow, sample the latest food items, being fried, and put on a stick. And here, from just about everyone running for president, except for Kristen.

North Dakota Governor Doug Bergam and former vice president Mike Pence were on hand for the opening day. Bergam gets the honor of being the first candidate spotted in an apron, grilling pork, with the governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds. Former president Donald Trump, Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, both will make their Iowa State Fair pilgrimage on Saturday. Joining me now is someone who knows a lot about running in Iowa and running against the home trumpets, the former governor of Wisconsin, Republican Scott Walker.

He is now the president of the Young Americans Foundation, which is going to be a participant in the first debate. Right. And we're going to be asking questions. And this is the old Young Americans for freedom.

Yeah. We branded back when we were in school, they were the young Americans for freedom. The Reagan wing of the college Republicans. That's exactly what I might call it, back in the day.

Let's talk about this race. Where is it? Is it sometimes I look at it and think we have two primaries, the Donald Trump events. And then there's sort of who's going to be the chief alternative to Donald Trump, which is some similarities to your race in 60.

It was eight years ago. There was a lot of that. In fact, I remember wearing that same apron. You were talking about Doug Bergam, I had a pork chop in one hand, a line in Google on the other hand with Kim Reynolds as well.

That felt like the good old days of Kim. That was the fun stuff. Oh, yeah. That is good news.

Some of the other attacks, not so much. But I think you're right. And it's not just a national part. It depends on what are you doing in Iowa, New Hampshire, in our case, South Carolina, Nevada, those early states.

That's where it really makes the difference. And in each of the states, you see Tim Scott, for example, picking up some ground in Iowa, you see Chris Christie playing around a little bit in New Hampshire. I think it's wide open in terms of who that alternative is. And really the best thing.

Do you think voters want an alternative? Well, you know, one of the polls that came out about a week and a half ago actually showed that a significant number of people who identify as Donald Trump supporters are at least willing to listen to another candidate if someone's elevated through the debate process. It's why I've argued, if I was advising Donald Trump, don't be conventional, actually come to that first debate. Make the case.

I saw him firsthand on the stage. I was standing right next to him. He took charge of those debates and that pretty much we'll put it into it. You know, and in June, you and I spoke, did a podcast and it was based off an op-ed you wrote that certainly many of people like me interpreted as some advice to the governor to Santas.

And let me pull an excerpt. Primary voters admired what I did in Wisconsin, but wanted my plans for the U.S. to be as tenacious as they were during my time in office in retrospect. I should have embraced risk.

Late on an aggressive agenda. Without a distinguishing pitch, I'd lend it in with many of the other candidates. The only one who really stood out was Donald Trump. Do you see DeSantis making too many of this now in hindsight, same mistakes that you made make?

Totally. Well, it's particularly DC based consultants. You should, you know, dance with the date that you went to the dance with. And I think too often you start listening to people and say, play it safe.

In his case in mind, both distinguished records, people love it. We did as governors. But that just gets you on the stage. That doesn't win the race for you.

And so I think in less than two weeks when he and the other show up in Milwaukee for that first debate, he's got to come out swinging. He's got to show that he's got a bold agenda that it's not enough to just- What is this agenda? Well, I mean, that's the- It's funny you say that. I don't know what it is.

I know he talks about what he did in Florida. Right? I mean, I think he's got to go to the swamp and to this or that, but like Mike Pence just put on an energy plant. You know, I haven't seen that.

Well, it's got to nail down into a plan. But what are those things? That first debate on we knew Donald Trump was going to drain the swamp, he was going to build a wall. One thing.

When you agreed or not with any of those things, you knew every person from the primary voter to general election voter. And that's when someone like a governor said, I think you can do it. He's obviously very effective and not only getting elected, but getting reelected and a state that up until recently had been a battleground competitive state. But you got to go past the consultants.

You got to loosen up and you got to take some risk. So I didn't do it. And I didn't do it. Right.

But is it possible that maybe this is too big a state for him? I mean, I think between his background and the House of Representatives, having been governor in a state that's effectively like a major, you know, you're talking to Texas, California, New York, and Florida. Those are the big states. I think he can step up to it.

I think he's proven that as governor. The question is whether or not you're willing to take that risk. What do you make of so many candidates not taking on the former president with all the political, whatever you think of the legal problems he has, whether you think it's politicized or not, it's baggage to swing voters. Why do you think there hasn't been a more effective case against?

Well, there's two parts of it. So you said swing voters and there's primary. And the primary vote is it's like attacking a member of the family, even if it's not your favorite member, when an attack is against one of the family members, the rest of the family says, hey, we handled this internally. Don't go out to the bar and start complaining about your friends and neighbors.

And I think that's really what's happening right now. And even with general election voters, I said this when the indictments, at least the federal indictments came out. I said there's a risk for the left of that background as well because, you know, one of the things we saw last fall was candidates who spent too much time on the Republican side talking about the last election were the ones left in the wayside. The governors who were at for election were talking about the future.

They won big. That was where the true red wave was at. The ones who talked about the past did. If you're granted the indictments aren't being done by the party, but if you're a liberal saying, hey, this is going to, this is going to counter swing voters.

What are you going to do next? What are you going to do about the future? Right. But how is a nomination of Donald Trump going to be a campaign about the future?

How does the Republican Party avoid a referendum on Trump in the past if he is the Santa Bear? Well, he's going to have to. And I apply what I said in that editor, not only to run the Sanchez, but to the President. So he can't just talk about what he accomplished before, what the problems were before.

He's going to have to wait up. What are you going to do about the economy? What are you going to do about bringing inflation down? What are you going to do about helping parents control their children's education?

What are you going to do about how keeping a cost of power is tuition down? Those sorts of things and plenty of others are going to have to be at the forefront of his campaign. Let me ask you about what happened in Ohio. Because in some ways that the Supreme Court justice raised, you believe that was a resource problem, not a messaging problem.

I hear I'm hearing the same thing from conservatives in Ohio. Oh, no, it's a resource issue. Not a messaging issue. At what point is it a message issue?

At what point is it a substance? Well, maybe you have the wrong position. Well, I mean, look at Mike DeWine. Mike DeWine signed some of the most pro-life laws in the nation and he won in Ohio last fall by 25 points.

One million more votes were cast for him than the Democrat running on a very pro-abortion position. What that tells me is if Republicans are just focused on one issue, they're going to have a bit of a challenge. If you do it not just DeWine, but can Reynolds, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, all these other governors who are pro-life dead and run on a full-scale agenda, I think they've got a shot. If it's just one thing for an amount of abortion, you don't win right now in some of these days.

Because the money's not on the side of the pro-life position. Why is that? Well, because there's not a financial interest for this. It's a moral issue, but it's not a financial issue.

All right. Scott Walker, there's always a lot more to talk you about. Good to see you. Good to see you.

Go Packers. Go Packers. Jordan Love. Up ahead.

This country of corruption and a drug cartel may have gotten him killed. That's next. You're watching me through this now. Welcome back.

I'm Greg Dorian, presidential candidate for Nando Villasencio. Was assassinated yesterday, just ten days before voting was set to begin. Sulfone video captured the moment as he leaves the campaign rally, surrounded by security. But before we show this footage, we're going to warn you it's disturbing and you may want to simply look away.

And while Villasencio was not the front-runner in the election, he was an outspoken critic of corruption, had vowed to crack down and organize crime, and he was considered one of the major candidates prior to the shooting. He said he had received multiple death threats, including from affiliates of Mexico's Cinaloa Cartel. He was also a journalist and an activist who was known for his work investigating and uncovering corruption in the government connected to the cartel. And Ecuadorian political scientists told the New York Times that, electorally, this year in Ecuador is the single most violent in the country's history, adding that it's going to change the way we can see for politics, because from now on, it becomes a high-risk profession.

This is true now in Mexico. Now it's in Ecuador. This is very troubling. I mean, I was a real Freeman fellow for Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

And, well, when you see Cinaloa Cartel connected to this, you know, this is not just an Ecuador story. This is a story of what's happening to politicians in Mexico. We saw this 20 years ago in Colombia. Is this a cartel problem?

We're right that they are disturbing similarities. Ecuador already seems to be pretty far down the path that Colombia took 20 years ago, that Mexico took 10 years ago. But I think at this point, we have to be cautious. We don't know yet who was behind the assassination of an U.S.

Six aspects have been taken into custody. Another dad had been issued out with police. It's true that V.S. had been receiving death threats from one of Ecuador's largest gangs, Los Chomeros, who do work with one Mexican cartel.

But at this point, we still don't have all the facts. And finally, Gregorian President Guillermo Lasso has invited the FBI to lead an investigation, which will begin shortly. Until then, I'm not sure that we can say we know who was behind us. So let me ask you this.

I saw that in response to this, there seems to be some powers that the current president of Ecuador is putting out there. Should we be concerned about the future of this democracy? Absolutely. I think it was already a reason to be concerned, all the more so now.

Ecuador is a country which has been dealing with surging crimes since 2020, used to be known as the island of peace because it was much more peaceful historically in Colombia or Peru, its neighbors. And on top of that, the country is dealing with a really intense left-right polarization. There is a populist ex-President, Rafael Correa, who's loomed large over the country's politics whose candidate for president is now actually in the lead. He and his followers and his opponents are clashing constantly, actually putting a solution to his crime crisis further out of reach.

So I think there's a number of reasons. We should be very worried. It might not be the biggest country in South America. It might not be the economy that's most important to the U.S., but this is a hotspot of insecurity in violence.

But I was just going to say, the region feels like we're seeing governance issues in Central America. Obviously, look, the fact that Northern Mexico is not governed tells you we've got governance issues in Mexico, even if Mexico's government would dispute that. What could the U.S. be doing more of that it isn't doing here?

Sure. So when I was in Ecuador a couple of months ago, speaking to cabinet level ministers, advisors of the president of the last, so what I heard time and time again is that the interagency process in D.C. is too slow. Ecuador needs help yesterday, not a week from now or a month from now.

There needs to be more assistance in terms of intelligence gathering investigations, making sure that the justice system in Ecuador can actually dismantle the organized crime structures and their financiers behind these terrible crimes, like the killing of the U.S. It is interesting. Colombia invited us in when we finally were able to help them. Ecuador is inviting the FBI to expect them to invite more U.S.

help in this front. Everything hinges on the outcome of this election. Now, as I mentioned the front-runner, she is an ally of President Rafael Correa, who cut off all cooperation with the DEA, who had quite a frosty relationship with the United States. If Luis Gonzalez is candidate wins, I do expect that Ecuador in the U.S.

will just have to continue to cooperate because of the severity of his problem, but I expect that cooperation to be dialed down. Without any of the other candidates, I do think that the security partnership will deepen. You saw what that Ecuadorian political scientist said, look, this is now a high-risk profession. It feels that way in Mexico now, too.

Absolutely. I think the worst case scenario for Ecuador is that it ends up somewhere like the North of Mexico, as you mentioned, an area in which, in many places, state officials are co-governing with organized crime groups with cartels. I think we're already, frankly, seen that in parts of Ecuador, specifically in the Pacific coast, but the real fear is to go national. And when you look at the Sinaloa Cartel, I mean, I know we don't know yet, but is this sort of what they have tentacles all over Latin America, do they not?

Increasingly, they do. It used to be the Colombians that ran the drug trade in Ecuador after the Peace Accord in Colombia. Those structures were dismantled, but the Mexican cartels swept in, took advantage of that. And right now, we have two of Mexico's biggest cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco new generation cartel, which are actually battling for control of drug trafficking in Ecuador through local proxies.

And this is just Ecuador. These two cartels, which used to be, I guess, it's a splinter of the one, right? They're having these turf battles all over. Are they not?

Yeah, I think Ecuador is the biggest hotspot, but you do notice them cropping up elsewhere. Brazilian organized crime, also very press, is like Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay. So you're seeing these organized crime groups that start in one country, branching out to many others. Yeah.

I think it's going to be more than the front burner until we face a crisis like this. Will Freeman, I really appreciate you adding your expertise to this conversation. Thank you. Thanks so much.

I thank you all for being with us this hour. I'll be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now. NBC News Now coverage continues with Erin Gilchrist, who's in for Hallie Jack. Hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of The Drink.

This month, Demi Lovato is my guest. The global superstar tells me that she is the happiest she's ever been right now. But getting there, it wasn't simple. Demi opens up about starting in Hollywood Young and why she now thinks she may have started too soon.

She talks about recovery, her new marriage, and the deeply personal reason behind her new cookbook. The drink is always about the journey to the top, and this was an honest conversation about what that takes. Hope you'll listen and follow The Drink Wherever You Get Your Podcast.