Meet the Press NOW — August 15

If it's Thursday. President Biden and Vice President Harris hold their first joint event since President Biden ended his re election bid, appearing before an enthusiastic crowd at the feel of a campaign rally as they celebrated lowering prescription costs for millions on Medicare. Plus, former President Trump is set to take questions from reporters this hour. One day after hammering Democrats on the economy and rising prices, while also lobbying the kinds of personal attacks on Harris that allies have been urging him to avoid.

And an urgent round of ceasefire talks underway right now in the Middle east without Hamas officials at a negotiating table. And with the threat of Iran retaliation still looming. Welcome to MEET the press Now, I'm Kristen Welker. In just a few minutes, former President Trump is set to hold his second news conference in as many weeks at his Bedminster Golf Club.

We will bring you that live when it begins, but we begin with President Biden, Vice President Harris holding their first joint event since President Biden stepped aside and Harris became the Democratic nominee. The two of them receiving a warm welcome from the crowd as they touted the administration's effort to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Now, the White House today announced an agreement with drug makers to lower costs under Medicare for 10 common prescription drugs, which include medications for diabetes, heart failure, blood cancers and more. Medicare was prohibited by law from negotiating lower drug prices and those costs then got passed on to our seniors.

But not anymore. Today, I'm proud to announce a Medicare agreement with all manufacturers I all 10 drugs selected in the first round of negotiations. And although this was not a campaign of that, President Biden delivered a fiery speech as he lauded his VP and pledged to take a fight to Republicans. Folks, I have an incredible partner.

The progress we made. She can make one hell of a president. You may have heard about the Maggie Republican Project 2025 plan. They want to repeal Medicare's power to negotiate drug prices, but Big Pharma back and charge them everything they want.

Let me tell you what our project 2025 is. Beat the hell out of them. Today's event comes ahead of Vice President Harris's visit to North Carolina tomorrow, where her campaign says she'll lay out her vision for the economy and call for a federal ban on corporate price gouging in the food industry. Yesterday, former President Trump held his own event on the economy, also in North Carolina.

Now, in his address, the former president pledged to slash energy prices, hit the Biden administration over inflation, and claimed credit for lower insulin prices. But he also downplayed the importance of the economy as an election issue, even though polls show it's top of mind for most voters. They say it's the most important subject. I think crime is right there.

I think the border is right there. For personally, we have a lot of important subjects because our country has become a third world nation. They say it's the most important subject. I'm not sure it is, but they say it's the most important.

Now, Yesterday's speech for Mr. Trump also frequently veered into personal attacks against Harrison Biden. In a potential preview of what we can expect from today's news conference, even his GOP allies urge him to stay focused on policy. Joe Biden is a very angry man.

You know that, right? Because they, they took it away from him. They usurped it. The most unpopular vice president in the history of our country.

And then they decided to get politically correct. We had to put her in. They put her in. What happened to her laugh?

I haven't heard that laugh in about a week. That's why they keep her off this thing. That's why she's disappeared. She's not smart, she's not intelligent.

And we've gone through enough of that with this guy, Crooked Joe. Joining me now from the side of today's Biden Harris event is NBC's Mike Natalie. And NBC's Von Hilliard is in Bedminster ahead of the former president's news conference. Mike, let me start with you.

And this announcement on drug prices, who does it affect and how significant is this announcement? Well, Kristen, you were with me in the White House booth all those months in the first half of the Biden administration when we were covering the daily slog of trying to get the infrastructure bill, the Biden administration trying to get the components of that build back, better legislative package implemented. The president expended a significant amount of political capital. A lot of things had to fall out of that proposal as he worked to negotiate with Democrats.

And so this piece allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of prescription drugs was one of the most hard fought parts of that. And it really underscores the story of Joe Biden as he talked about it today. It was the first bill he introduced as a freshman senator in 1973, 51 years ago. And so the president and the vice president really wanted to top this moment now that this is finally taking shape, coming into force.

And it's going to benefit millions of Americans. One in seven older Americans will benefit from this. It's going to save the taxpayers $6 billion according to the Biden administration, $1.5 billion in out of pocket cost that seniors will benefit from. And you're looking at that list there, some hundreds, even a few thousands of dollars in price reductions for drugs that cover everything from diabetes to arthritis colitis, a range of symptoms that so many Americans are dealing with.

It doesn't take effect for two more years, but under the terms of this law, this will be just the beginning of a series of drugs that will be negotiated each year that follows. And part of the message today was to make the point that Republicans, if they took office, both with President Trump and Republican Congress, would try to undo these proposals. And it was all about who you're fighting for against Big Pharma, is what the Democrats were saying today. Well, Mike, I remember those days in the White House booth with you very well and very fondly, of course.

You know, I've been watching reporting throughout the day. One of the things that you've talked about is the choreography of this, the optics of this. How extraordinary qu it is to see President Biden Vice President Harris at the same event after he has now passed the torch to her. Talk a little bit about this delicate dance that Vice President Harris has to do right now.

Well, his word for beating. This is such an unprecedented moment to have this kind of shake up at the top of the Democratic ticket so close to the election. It's been a herculean effort to try to make this as smooth as possible. And today was just another step along the way for the Biden team and the Harris team to show that the Democrats are still united.

It was so significant to see, as we see on screen there, Vice President Harris standing for the first time since she became the top of Democratic ticket behind the seal of the president instead of the seal of the vice president, which is what we've seen over the last three weeks. We saw her speak so glowingly so praising of the partner she's had in the White House for the last three plus years. And really that moving moment where you can see the president really the motion on his face as the crowd was chanting thank you, Joe, encouraged by the vice president in the process. There obviously has been a surge of enthusiasm from Democrats since Harris and Walls now are leading the ticket.

But there are still pockets of Biden supporters and let's put it slightly Biden's themselves, who have some mixed feelings about the way in which they felt he was treated. And so today is an important beginning of that effort to make sure that those feelings are dealt with. A big part of that also, of course, is gonna be on Monday, the first day of Democratic Convention. We will hear the latest of the farewell series of speeches from President Biden.

Yeah, a big week coming up next week, that is for sure. The question is, can she keep the momentum going through and after the Democratic National Convention, like memory. Thank you so much for your great reporting there, Vaughn. Let me turn to you because, so look, we know that in his speech on the economy yesterday, former President Trump was urged to stay on message.

He did in some parts of the speech, but he certainly veered into the personal attack zone and other parts of the speech. What were your big takeaways? Right. I mean, 48 hours ago, right.

It was the likes of Nikki Haley that went on FOX to all but beg Donald Trump to not focus on Kamala Harris's race or crowd size, but instead focus on substance and policy. That's what led to yesterday's North Carolina rally. It was an event not dubbed to be a rally, even though it looked like one, but instead it was supposed to be an economic address. And as you noted, there were some mentions of the economy and some policy, but largely he went off topic again, personally attacking the likes of Kamala Harris and even said himself.

He said that I was told suggesting his campaign and told him that the economy was a major issue of the campaign, but that he wasn't so sure himself. And to his point, you know, there are immigration by the crime. There are other matters that Donald Trump has consistently come back to and has felt like he has been keen on making a key part of his campaign here. And we're now outside of Bedminster Club, Kristen, where I can tell you that yesterday he didn't have props with him, but today there are Oreos and crustables and boxes of cereal in a clear indication that we are likely to expect him here at what is being dubbed the press event, a press conference to talk about the grocery prices throughout the Biden administration and the high price that we have seen over the course of the last four years of those prices of those goods and grocery stores.

No way. At time, though, we've also seen inflation dip below now 3%. Yeah. Inflation now at its lowest level since early 2021.

But let me ask you, speaking of prices and what we heard from the former president yesterday, he said that he was responsible for lowering insulin costs. What's the fact check on that? Right. The fact check is that when he was president in 2020, he signed an executive order that would create a program that would allow some Medicare recipients to receive insulin, just a $35 cap.

But what was different that took place under the Biden administration was an actual codifying of a max of $35 for all Medicare recipients, not just for some. And so we have seen Donald Trump very upset at events like he was last night in which he says that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are taking credit. But for the Democratic administration, it was then that actually through Congress passed legislation that capped insulated $35 for all Medicare recipients, not just some. As the executive order was signed by president and President Trump did.

Well, breaking down all the facts there before I let you go, a little bit of a campaign addition, a new addition, if you will, a campaign announcing to hire Corey Lewandowski, of course, famously the 2016 campaign. What does this move signify? And you know, Corey Lewandowski, just as Trump is someone who's considered to be a counterpuncher, right. This is the first time that Donald Trump has really had his back up against the wall of this 2024 cycle, that he launched this bid back in November of 2022.

And largely the two cocaine managers for Donald Trump this go around Susie Walls and Chris Lavita have allowed Donald Trump to be Donald Trump. He is the one that has controlled his messaging and his efforts. And largely they have not kept anybody away from him. So we haven't seen that sort of infighting or palace intrigue that we did in 2016 or 2020.

But now with now Donald Trump down and several key battle around the same polls, you see Donald Trump here this afternoon welcoming his very first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, as well as other old campaign hands back onto this 2024 campaign with now just two and a half months left. And so it's notable Corey Lewandowski coming on as a senior advisor. He actually been fired from the super PAC back in 2021 that was Ally with Donald Trump. And so really the question mark going forward at a time in which Donald Trump is again seemingly controlling his own message despite the campaign, for example, yesterday going out of his economic address here.

The question is, do some of these new campaign advisors that are formally coming in, do they change the tone or the tenor or convince Donald Trump to run his campaign differently? There's a lot of questions that frankly folks who are allied with Donald Trump are even looking for some clarity themselves. Boy, it's going to be a fascinating stretch, Vaughn. And add to that list of questions, how is he going to interact with the likes of Chris Lacivita, Susie Wiles, Jason Miller, the folks who have been running the campaign th thank you so much for your great report.

Good luck Today and the press conference we will be watching. Let's turn out Chicago preparations are well underway ahead of next week's Democratic National Convention. Shaquille Brewster is there to preview it all. He joins me now.

Shaq, great to see you. So let's talk about this, set the stage for us. What kinds of preparations are taking place right now? Hi there, Kristen.

Good to see you as well. And you know, there are preparations that you can see, and then those that are happening behind the scenes, I think around the United center, you see these big metal fences that are being brought up all around the United Center. We know later this weekend those vehicular screen barriers will start to come up as well. But behind the scenes, this is something that you have law enforcement saying that they've been preparing for for about two years now at this point.

There's training that's been going on for months that we've been able to see that the police department has been doing. You know, earlier this week, we saw all the agencies come together for a final tabletop exercise, essentially a final exercise to make sure that they're all talking to one another. So, police department, you have local officials here saying that they are ready to secure what is a massive undertaking with this Democratic National Convention. Well, in Shaq, part of that massive undertaking, of course, is that police, those who are going to be at the convention, all bracing for the fact that there will be protesters.

What are police saying about that? How are they planning for the protesters? No great point there. And despite the legal battles that we've been seeing over the past couple weeks and months, there's literally a court hearing today.

You can expect there to be massive protests here in Chicago. The organizer of one of the coalition groups, the largest group that we know about, says that they're planning for about 20 to 25,000 protesters on Monday alone. I want you to listen to what the superintendent of Chicago's police department told me about that because he said he welcomes the peaceful protesters. But for those who have bad intentions, he has a pretty clear message for them.

Listen here. So do we want to clash with people? Absolutely not. Do we want to have fights in the streets with people?

Absolutely not. But I want to make one thing clear. I want to make this perfectly clear. We need to know the difference between writing and protesting.

He told me his officers have received de escalation training, training on first and Fourth Amendment. They also are having other departments come in to help backfill the secure zone so that it's Chicago Police Department officers that are out interacting with the public system. Well see you there next week, Shack. Rooster, thank you so much and see you soon.

And speaking of the dnc, we will be kicking off NBC special coverage of the Democratic National Convention starting this Monday at 4pm with a special edition of Meet the Press now live from Chicago. We will be there live through the convention. You do not want to miss it. And coming up, hoping for a breakthrough, my interview with the parents of an American hostage still being held by Hamas as negotiators look to broker an urgently needed cease fire deal.

You're watching THE PRESS now. Welcome back. We've reached another grim milestone in the Israel Hamas war. The Hamas run health ministry says the death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 40,000.

We do want to stress NBC News cannot verify that number, but it comes to negotiators from the U.S. israel, Egypt and Qatar gathered in Doha for the latest round of ceasefire talks as they work desperately to salvage the framework laid out by President Biden almost three months ago. Now, notably, Hamas says they will not send anyone to those talks. Yesterday, a top Hamas official said the group was losing faith in the US As a mediator in those discussions.

With me now is NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell. NC WASHINGTON Corps Chief, Washington correspond as well. Thank you for being here. So, Andrea, talk about these what is the expectation?

Hamas is not at the negotiating table and yet there is so much urgency to get a deal. There's urgency to get a deal. The hostage families, as you discover when you talk to the hostage families, are desperate for a deal. But it is so unlikely there's not.

I mean, I would be shocked if there is a deal. And U.S. officials are telling me they do not expect anything positive other than incremental change. What they have not been able to do is obviously get Hamas to release the hostages, which they could do at any time, but they've not been able to move Israel.

And that is primarily the prime minister and his very hard right coalition members, even the defense minister Gallant criticizing Netanyahu, Netanyahu criticizing him. It's now out in the open for moving the goalpost and for creating new obstacles even after this agreement from May 1 had been announced. Help people understand, Andrew, because these talks have stopped and started and stopped and started. You've been tracking every single development.

What are the biggest sticking points at this time? Is it about what happens once this war winds down? Well, it's first of all, Netanyahu is saying that he still has yet to achieve the main goals in Gaza. The US and the IDF and the Defense Minister say that's not true.

They have accomplished what they have accomplished. They don't have sin war, but they have basically reduced the fighting capability of Hamas. John Krabby repeated that again today with me. But the clouds, as he described it to me today, hanging over this are he acknowledged the assassination of the Hamas negotiator Haniya.

He's a terrorist, a terrorist leader. He's the Hamas leader, but he was living in Qatar. He was present behind the scenes at the talks and traveled extensively, wasn't, you know, eliminated, and he was killed in Tehran. So now there's a threat from the supreme leader in Iran to retaliate at any moment, and that certainly is a big thing as well.

As he acknowledged other actions Israel has taken recently, and those actions are demanding control of the area in Gaza along the border with Egypt, known as the Philadelphia Corridor. And also how to decide moving the Hamas fighters from the south back to the north. Andrew, very quickly, in terms of the threat from Iran, what is your latest reporting about when and whether that is going to happen? The US does not know.

Israel does not know. Their hope is that this huge deployment of US Military force will be one deterrent as well as diplomatic pressure, including the engaged China. China Foreign Minister Wang Yi calling Iran and everyone, to a certain extent, greater and lesser extent, maybe China, not so much urging, don't escalate beyond a certain tolerable amount. But the fact is they believe there has to be some interaction.

They cannot tolerate an assassination of the mosque leader in the capital in the hours after meeting with Ayatollah. There's going to be something and how big it's going to be. Well, we know that you will continue to track every single development. Andrea, thank you so much for being here.

It's great to be with you. It's great to see you. Really appreciate it. And among the hostages that would be a part of any ceasefire deal reached in Doha, eight Americans, five of whom are still believed to be alive.

Earlier today, I spoke to the parents of one of those Americans, Hirsch Goldberg, Poland, who was taken by Hamas on October 7th and has been held hostage now for 314 days. I began by asking his parents about their level of optimism that the ongoing talks of Doha I was just talking to Andrea about could lead to a breakthrough. And when they last heard from the administration on the status of those talks, we were in touch with the administration exactly six days ago on Friday. And that's the last direct communication that the US Families have had that I'm aware of.

You know, there are eight Americans still being held hostage among the 115 hostages who hail from 23 different countries total. And in terms of how optimistic we are, we are always trying to stay optimistic and hopeful. And we are in a constant state of extreme ambiguous trauma, as anyone who is a parent or has ever had a parent can imagine. And so we try to remain realistic and positive, and yet that we've been in this excruciating place now for almost 11 months.

As you know, Hamas is not attending this latest round of talks. Does that concern you that Hamas is not going to be at the table? Or do you think potentially that could allow an actual breakthrough to happen? I mean, Hamas has been represented pretty consistently by some combination of the Qataris and the Egyptians.

And that's the case today and tomorrow as well. Ultimately, what we need to happen, and we need to happen immediately is what are called proximity talks. We're waiting for the time when Israeli representatives and Hamas representatives are sitting in adjoining rooms and mediators are literally going back and forth to finalize every detail. And we're really hoping that coming out of the talks, staying tomorrow, it immediately proceeds to those proximity talks.

I don't know if even for those, Hamas will actually have people in the room or will be there, Egyptian mediators, but that's what we're shooting for. And whoever it is who can speak today on behalf of Hamas, that's who we need the table, and that's what we're shooting for. I want to ask you about some of our latest reporting. NBC News has confirmed that Prime Minister Netanyahu has apparently added some new conditions which may have complicated negotiations.

Middle Eastern official telling our reporters that when proposals were taken back to Jerusalem, Prime Minister Netanyahu then, quote, unquote, moved the goalposts. What's your reaction to hearing that? Do you accept that characterization? Well, we're not privy to the details that are in the actual deal.

And so we are kind of at the mercy, as most of the masses are, of getting our information from the media, from the press. And it depends who you're reading or who you're watching. So we don't know what's real and what's not real, if indeed anyone is playing games and moving goalposts and creating drama and theater for reasons that are not in the best interests of all of the innocent people who are caught in the crosshairs of this horrifying tragedy. So that's not just the 115 hostages and all of their families, but it's also hundreds of thousands of innocent people in the entire region, I mean, the Gazan people need relief desperately as well.

And I think that at this point, we really need everyone who is a responsible leader, an elected official, to be the grown up in the room to do what is right. Looking ahead to next week, you are, it's my understanding, planning to attend the Democratic National Convention. Talk a little bit, if you will, both of you, about that decision. What are you hoping to hear from Democratic leaders?

What do you want to hear from them? Well, it's an interesting transition period for the Democrats, but what's relevant for us and hostage families is that President Biden and Vice President Harris and the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, all three of them have been consistent with their messaging. Now is the time to do a deal. We cannot miss this opportunity.

And so we are hoping to hear that the Harris campaign, the Harris Wall campaign is going to be pushing that message hard, that they're not going to be letting their feet off the gas in the transition from President Biden to a Harris administration potentially. And we're really looking for them to continue to hammer the message and the actions they've been doing, which is, number one, we need to release these hostages. We need to bring them home. As part of that, the expectation is there's going to be a halt or a ceasefire that's going to offer much needed relief to Gazan civilians and in general, decreased tension in this region.

We've got the Hezbollah heating up in the north. We've got the Houthis, we've got Iranian threats. And it's such a tense, stressful time. And we are in the same camp as the Americans.

And Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield spoke about this at the United nations yesterday. The singular event that can reduce tension in this region most immediately is to do a deal to release the hostages and have all the other things become less tense as part of that. I'll add to that, by the way, that it's very clear that the hostage issue is not a political issue. And so we're going to this convention as people pleading for a humanitarian relief in this region that is not politically based.

We've had tremendous support, bipartisan support, which we've been so heartened by and has been really helpful to all the hostage families. Well, we will end it on those powerful points and our thoughts are with your precious Hirsch and your entire family at this incredibly difficult time. Thank you for taking time to speak to us, Rachel and Dumple, and we really appreciate it. Thank you for sharing your family story.

Thank you. Thank you for telling this important story to the American people. Well, as we mentioned, we are waiting for former President Trump to start his press conference in New Jersey. We will take you there when that happens.

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Hey guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I sit down with one of the biggest bands in the world, Mumford and Sons as we get the boys together to talk about their new number one album Prize Fighter and the evolution of that irresistible foot stomping sound. You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts. Welcome back.

Another day, another set of polls showing momentum and movement in Democrats favor since the change at the top of the ticket. Check out these new numbers and battleground state Senate races from our friends at the Cliff Political Report. Democratic Senate candidates in Nevada, Pennia, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin with big leads over their Republican opponents, most of them gaining on their margin since May. And in each of these states the Democrat is at or above the all important 50% mark.

And hopefully we will get those numbers to you in just a minute. But there is a major caveat to remember when talking about the race for the Senate. Even if Democrats win in all of those races, they are facing an incredibly difficult Senate map. All the Republican held seats that are up for re election on red states whereas Democrats are defending multiple seats in red states.

John Tesser for example Sherrod Brown are running for reelection in Montana and Ohio and what was Joe Manchin seat is now open in West Virginia. Democrats can only afford to lose one of those races if they want to keep control of the Senate in a potential Harris administration. Joining me now to go over all of the state of the race and the Senate battlegrounds is Jessica Taylor. She is the Senate and editor of the Cook Political Report.

Jessica, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it it thanks for having me. So let's start with the new polls in the battleground states. Democrats are leading Senate races across the board.

Most of their leads have increased since Harris place Biden at the top of the ticket. How do you see the overall state of play? Well, as you mentioned is the three states this is part of our battle, our swing state project, a little report with a Democratic firm BSG and a Republican firm, GS Strategies that we're doing periodically. And there's other states that could really, really make up the crux of it.

You know, I think that it's good news for Democrats certainly that they are leading in these swing states and that in many cases they are outperforming Harris. Even before this was the top of the ticket, they were outpointing Biden even in our poll in May and other polls that I had seen even when Biden was at his worst. So that was good news for Democrats. But it really comes down to you mentioned the West Virginia seat.

Democrats have a 5149 majority but I think this is 5050 because Democrats can see that that open West Virginia seat is going to go to Repub John Tester earnings is most in trouble. We've seen a couple of polls come out recently that he's down to his Republican opponent, Tim Sheehy. He needs to outrun Harris by he doesn't say that Trump won by 16 because margins increase that it becomes increasingly difficult in Ohio, another one that we did not poll. But other polls have shown the share ground is ahead by single digits.

But when you look at these other states that would grow a potential Republican majority, it's good news for Democrats that you know, because the Republicans I was talking to when Biden was at his worst were thinking, you know, he could get to 54, 55 seats and that gives you a much more flexible majority to do things with. But you're seeing again double digit leads in Pennsylvania and Nevada. Notably Nevada in our survey was the only state where Harris is currently behind. Now I don't think Jackie Rosen leading her Republican Party there, Sam Brown is going to be an 18 point race but certainly a very good trajectory for her.

And based on that and fundraising edge is also key for Democrats in these states. They've been able cement some of these early leads because they have such money advantage. They've been on the air early and that's helped them build these leads going into the crucial campaign season post Labor Day. Yeah.

Let me ask you and follow up with you on the state of Nevada because as you say, you have the Senate race, Rosen is ahead, but in the presidential race, Trump is ahead. Should Democrats write off Nevada at the presidential level or do you think that it's still gettable for Harris? I mean, the fact that it's close is, you know, she is still within the margin of error in our poll at this juncture. You know that even as Trump +9 state in Magnox, Trump +3.

So it's still getable. And I think you're going to see them invest resources there. But you know, I think that at the Senate level at least what we are seeing is a lot of women independent voters moving and that's good news for Harris as well. I think the issue of abortion, this is another state where abortion is going to be on the ballot to codify that into the Nevada state constitution.

That's driving a lot of these voters. You've seen her opponent, Sam Brown, former Army captain, go out with an ad this week where he's very much on the defensive abortion, emphasizing he would not back the national abortion ban. So the movement that we've seen in these Senate races is a lot of independent women. There's a lot of non college women too.

So it's not just these college educated suburban women, especially on issues with abortion. That's something that we are seeing a split in these Senate races between that and presidential race. And of course it's on the ball in Arizona as well. Now when you think about the race in Arizona, Carrie Lake, when you think about North Carolina, Mark Robinson, how could those candidates impact Trump's standing in those races?

I mean, they're behind where he is. I think actually all of these Republican candidates are running behind Trump. So that gives them room to grow there. But I think someone like Carrie Lake, where she has her unfavorables really are baked in from that controversial race for governor.

But I think she is. There's just opinions about her. And then you mentioned that in important North Carolina governor's race, we have this race tied in May. Now Josh Stein, the Democratic attorney general is up by eight points there, 48 to 40.

And again, that's the movement we've seen particularly among non college women in that poll. And So I think, again, issues of abortion sign has just been crushing Robinson on here, using his own video on words he said, demeaning comments about women and on abortion. Robinson, another candidate, has gone up with a defensive ad on abortion with his wife, talking about the abortion that they had before they were married. And, of course, former President Trump was just in North Carolina.

Harris will be there on Friday. Thank you so much for joining us, Jessica. Really appreciate it. Let's head out to Bedminster now because former President Trump is voting the protest.

We have a lot of interesting things to talk about. We have some very specific things. So we'll take our time. We have plenty of time.

I think you have plenty of time. I hope you like the weather. It's very nice. Nice place, nice location, and I do thank you for being here.

And we don't have very much heat, so I'd say it's perfect weather for this where the rain is not imminent based on the fact that there are no clouds. So it's really nice. It's really nice. And let's go over some big facts and some very substantial truths about where we stand as a country.

Because we're failing nation because of the way it's been run for the last three and a half years. We're failing nation. People are coming into our country by the millions and millions and millions. We have no idea who they are, where they come from.

But we're also a failing economy. Kamala Harris is a radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border, and broke the world, frankly. Very destructive to the entire world because as we go, oftentimes the world goes, she destroys everything she touches. And if she wins, your finances in your country will never recover.

You're never going to recover. A radical left person wants to put price controls all over the place, which will end up driving up your prices, not down your prices. Harris has just declared that tackling inflation will be a day one priority. For her, it's gonna be day one.

But day one really for Kamala when? Three and a half years ago. Where has she been and why hasn't she done it? Why hasn't she done it?

I hear her complaining all the time. She was the border czar, but she didn't do anything. The worst borders are in history has never been a border czar so bad. She's been unbelievable in terms of her badness to some of our allies, some of our great allies.

You know who I'm talking about. Here is the record of economic calamity that Kamala is desperate for voters to ignore. She cast a tie breaking votes that caused record inflation. She cast the votes.

She's trying to blame Biden, as you know. So it was Biden, but I'm gonna do a better job. But it was her. And if she wants to do a better job, she's still got five months left.

Right? But she can't do a better job because she doesn't know how to. And she's of a. She's of a place in life where she wouldn't know what a better job is gonna destroy our country.

And as a result of Kamala's inflation price hikes, of course, the typical household, a total of $28,000. These are numbers coming from government. They're not coming from me. $28,000.

She's cost a typical household. Commonization nightmare continues to cost the average American family $1,100 every single month. $1,100. Again, government numbers.

You're paying 148 more a month on food. That's every month. Average family. Because Kamala and her ideas and Joe Biden two, like I mentioned him, but he said it all started with the debate.

I should have been a little bit easy. Somebody said your debate performance was horrible. I said, why? Because you forced him out of government.

But I believe she'll be just as bad. I believe she's maybe in many ways gonna be worse because he wasn't really a radical left. But she is. She's real.

He wasn't real. So I think she's going to be in many ways easier to beat than Joe Biden. What they did to him was disgraceful, by the way. And it really is a threat to democracy.

It was a coup by people that wanted him out. And they didn't do the way. Not the way they're supposed to do it. $129 more on energy and $241 more.

This is all per month on rent. So you have that one 48, 129, 241. And then many other increases. Basis, you add it all up, it's thousands and thousands of dollars that she and he have cost people.

The cost of a typical monthly mortgage has doubled since I left office. And that number was about three months old from government. And now it's tripled. We had mortgage rates at around 2%, close to 2%.

And they're now at 10. And you can't get a mortgage. So that means it's a lot higher than 10. I guess it is.

Whatever. Whenever they want to give over the money. And that's a lot more than 10%. So when you think about double, they've actually quadrupled or more than that.

Look at that. Quadrupled, which really kills the American dream for young people. Young people are being devastated by what they've done to our country. Grocery prices have skyrocketed.

Cereals are up 26%, red is up 24. Butter is up 37. Baby formula is up 30. Flour is up 38, and eggs are up 46.

And many items are up at much higher rates than that. Now, Kamala is reportedly proposing communist price control. She wants price controls. And if they worked, I'd go along with it too.

But they don't work. They actually have the exact opposite impact and effect. But it leads to food shortages, rationing, hunger dramatically more inflation. Their Inflation Reduction act, by the way, was a disaster.

It's what caused the inflation. Their Inflation Reduction act was a con job. They actually admitted that it wasn't really for inflation, that they did it. They don't know why they did it, but they named it the Inflation Reduction act, which was a very nice name.

Name got approved based on that. Unfortunately, people didn't understand it. I understood it. I said, that's going to cost tremendous inflation.

And it did, among other things, like energy. She's running on the Maduro plan. We call it the Maduro plan, like something straight out of Venezuela or the Soviet Union. This announcement is an admission that our economic policies have totally failed and caused really a catastrophe for our country.

And beyond that, a catastrophe in the world. A little bit unrelated, but not totally unrelated. We have wars breaking out in the Middle East. We have the horrible war going on with Ukraine and Russia.

All these things would have never happened if I was president. Would have never, ever happened. And they didn't happen since Harris took office. Car insurance is up 55.

And they just announced it's going to be substantially higher than that. Within the next week. They expect big increases in car insurance. It's out of control.

And insurance generally, thanks to Kamala's war, American energy. Electricity Prices are up 32%. Gasoline prices are up 50% and going higher. Meanwhile, real incomes are down by over $2,000 a year.

So they're. The incomes for people are down 2000 on average a year. Government numbers. The typical American has seen a 4% pay cut under Kamala and Biden.

Crooked Joe. Crooked Joe Biden. Credit card debt has exploded by 50% under Harris to a record high. Is now a record high.

Never been anywhere close since March. And by the way, people have to start paying that it's not going to be a pretty sight for the next period of time. It could be a substantial time since March of 2022. You're listening to former President Trump, who is beginning his second news conference in as many weeks at his Bedminster Golf resort.

They are hitting Vice President Harris on the economy. Of course, if you look at the polls from President Trump actually rates higher. Americans say they have more trust in them to handle the economy. So that's why you see the focus on that issue.

A couple of fact checks we just want to make out at the top here before I start my panel discussion. He was talking about the rate at which prices have increased. It is worth noting that inflation has actually slowed. It's at its lowest level since 2021.

Prices on all food items are up 2.2% as compared to a year ago. It's not entirely clear what the benchmarks are that when President Trump was using, where exactly he was getting his data from. For example, he said the butter was up over 30% based on the data that up 6.1%. So, yes, we are seeing price increases.

But again, it's worth noting that inflation is at its lowest level since 2021. He also accused Democrats of pulling off a coup. Of course, there's nothing unconstitutional about replacing the person at the top of the ticket prior to the convention. And then just finally, he said that the foreign entanglements that are unfolding across the globe wouldn't have happened if he were in office.

Of course, no way to categorically prove that point. Just a few of the fact checks. As we begin today's panel discussion, Francesca Chambers, who's White House responsible for USA Today Wendy Tolliver, Democratic strategist and NBC News political analyst and Brendan Buck, former advisor to Republican House Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner, who is also an NBC News political analyst. Thanks to all of you.

I'm sure I left some fact checks on the table there. Trying to get a few of them. Francesca, just zoom out a little bit here. He is holding another press conference.

He's clearly trying to stay on message. His advisors are urging him to stay on message because of course, we have seen him veer off message in their opinion, in recent weeks. As we've seen Vice President Harris's poll numbers rise. He's needed a number of personal attacks against her questions.

Her intelligence today is clearly an attempt to reset. And yet the question portion hasn't started yet. And that's where things can get a little interesting. But it's also an attempt to Stay in the news.

And we see this with candidates all the time that they don't want to take questions when they're in control of the narrative. They feel like things are going well for them. So I do think it is a reflection on Donald Trump and how they view this campaign going at this point that he is now holding, as you noted, his second press conference in recent weeks. When you talk about the prices that he was referencing there.

The Harris campaign isn't disputing that the prices are higher than what they were. Indeed. That's why she's going to be putting out these plans for what they're disputing is what caused those price increases. What would these two candidates do differently?

She's going to come at it by talking about what they call price gouging and talk about the Federal Trade Commission and what he's saying it is the Inflation Reduction act and Republicans said they want to repeal that. Brendan, what's your take when you make it this strategy? We should know we already go back to Trump when he starts taking questions. Yeah.

All the Republicans who've been asking him to get a message and there's a lot of them who are cheering what they just saw that was extremely focused on the issue that voters willingly say is most important to the economy and inflation, of course driving that. You want to keep him focused around with props. So he got to pass his. But that is the primary issue that people have anxiety.

Prices have gone up a lot. We can speak how much they go up but it's a lot of people are unhappy about it doesn't have a great answer for that. That's not a real solution. That's a political answ.

And they made videos that president's been talking about going for price gouging for years. It's not a thing. It's not anything you can really do. It's the best she has it maybe what she can work with.

I don't know if she wants to necessarily get into dispute about that. It's not also the only thing she has. Right. The other split screen moment of the day was Vice President Harris and President Biden on the trout telling how they've lowered prescription drug costs.

They are talking about what their administration does. And for the vice president to be able to say I cast that deciding tiebreak vote in the Senate as well. It demonstrates her ability to deliver something for the people. Not just granted monotone and shout things that require repeated fact checks.

And I do want to also on the fact check point. I feel like at this point it's got to be a public service to have that running ticker every time he says on full team checking it because NPR reported 165 lies in his previous press conference at Mar a Lago four days ago. And so I think that's also something that needs to be done. One of the backdrops to this decision to hold a press conference by the Trump team is is that Vice President Harris, Francesca has not yet held a press conference.

She has not sat for a long interview. Republicans are really trying to put the pressure on her for that. They think that if she does that there'll be some type of slip up that will allow them to have an opening. But at some point she is going to do it.

But talk about what your reporting tells you inside the Harris camp. How soon is that going to happen? What are you hearing? Well, that's what I was referring to before.

As far as Democrats are concerned, why would she need to do something like that? Right? She has. You know, the polling's been going well for her.

She's had the momentum so far. When you have Donald Trump who's out there and he is only across conference or having these rallies and he is saying some of the things that led Republicans and independents in the last presidential campaign to ditch him for Joe Biden, why would Democrats think that they need to do something like that now? Of course we want to do that. Many questions I'd like to ask Vice President Kamala Harris, of course, but from a strategic standp point when they're looking at that polling in the battleground states and she is doing better than President Biden was in many of them, they haven't seen the need clearly to do one so far.

I also want to add to that, we still have gone back to Trump. He's still not taking questions right. Like I think that part is also reality here. When I think about Vice President Harris, even though she hasn't done it, she has been in front of millions of voters every day since July 21st.

It's not the same though. I mean Trump has not we're not back on track yet. Still no question. It's also not the same to do and she does.

Trump reporters on the plane also. But that's also not the thing. I can't tell you what she said. That is true.

And Trump has said he is going to answer questions today. So again, we will go back to that when it happens. Brendan Buck, he has brought on Corey Lewandowski back into the fold. A lot of people surprised to see that he is someone who is quite frankly a controversial campaign staffer back in 2016.

He's had an on again, off again relationship with Trump world. But here he is as a senior advisor in his campaign. How do you think that's going to play? Will he help Trump to be more disciplined?

Well, it's obviously a sign that there's some trouble in paradise. You don't bring in your ex campaign manager if you're happy with your current for improper touching of a woman, a donor of Donald Trump. So this is, I don't think you can spin this as a good sign. This is also, I think obviously Trump's had some troubles in figuring out how to move forward with the change of candidates.

He feels like he needs a change. What's strange is that this is just all a throwback. Everything's a regret. It's all the same old character.

There's everything new or fresh. I don't know exactly what Corn Lukewarlowski brings that is more appealing than it was in 2016. He just likes to have people who are around him make him feel comfortable, remind him of the good old days. I don't think there's much strategic value to this.

It's probably more just a comfort blanket. It's probably not a decision by his gang people. Let's keep him happy. Let's throw a bone.

Let's give somebody that he's familiar with. Yeah. We are going to, of course, see Vice President Harris on the trail, as you mentioned, tomorrow to be in North Carolina talking about this price gouging initiative. How much meat does she need to start putting on the bones?

Notwithstanding interviews and press conferences, how much do you think voters, Francesca, are hungry to hear the details of her policies. Does she need to start filling in some of the blanks more quickly? Well, I've been warned that that is not what we should necessarily expect over the next week. Not even necessarily.

In her Democratic National Convention speech, Democrats are seeing that more as like a party unity moment or rah rah, get the momentum behind her. And also recall that her campaign is now put in a new ad buy $90 million ad buy that will be used to uplift her message coming out of the convention. So it's unclear when we might hear some of those more detailed plans, although I know that they have been soliciting ideas for them from Democrats. I have some degree of sympathy for having to put together a campaign in a short amount of time.

But at the same time, this is all very sort of unsettling. Like if you've been talking about the importance of democracy for many years. And you think this is at risk. Telling voters what you're forward.

Answering questions, questions in the press is pretty fundamental, basic. I know you can say that Donald Trump doesn't answer enough questions, but we should never lower her standards to a Donald Trump. I agree. Never lower that beyond just sort of like it's the right thing to tell people what you're going to do.

I think the political benefit to going out and doing a good interview, doing a good interview is a good campaign tactic. Telling people that you have a policy that's going to kill stuff is a good campaign tactic. I think it's just a lack of confidence as a candidate. If they want to put her out there and do a good interview.

It's not hard to do if you're a good candidate. It doesn't necessarily help you in the long term either. Recall that Ron DeSantis said after his campaign that he cheated. He wished that he had engaged with the media more.

And earlier. Earlier. Well, I think the other reality is let's keep watching for what does come because I know those conversations are happening. I know that the different groups who have special interest in advocacy campaigns are engaging with the Harris campaign.

And so I fully expect something with phones. Well, obviously there's a lot of focus on the vp, not the news as well. I'm not going to toss this down because at any moment we could have go back to Donald Trump. But These remarks from 2021 have resurfaced from D.

Vance. I'll just read them, get everyone's reaction on the other side. He said, when the big corporations come against you for passing abortion restrictions, when corporations are so desperate for cheap labor they don't want people to parent children. She's right to say abortion restrictions are bad for business of whoever was interviewing him.

And what that means for those of us who want to protect the dignity of the unborn is that we should be for abortion restrictions. Restrictions, even if they are bad for business. How damaging are these comments, do you think, in an election where we have seen abortion rights are quite energizing? Well, I haven't seen the full comments that JD JD Vance made.

That being said, abortion rights has, to your point, been very energizing. Earlier we were talking about these races up and down about the Senate, the Senate races as well in Nevada. This was the playbook that they ran in 2022 when Catherine Cortez Mastow was able to eke out a narrow win. This is what we're seeing with Jackie Rose in the cycle too.

This is how Kamala Harris and her campaign believe that they will win in Nevada too. Yeah. What do you make of it? You know, in the context I think it's Warden appreciated that's when he was trying to win a primary to become a senator.

I think he has shown himself to be something of a chameleon. He's trying to figure out what is it that Republicans want to hear. He was never Trumper for a while and they decided under the run Senate one primary race on his. And the way he talks about these things in Republican politics for a long time the way he talks about these things is jarring still.

That is not the way you typically hear a pro life person talking. And it seems like he's playing a character what he thinks a conservative wants to hear and so uses his very over the top language. That of course is going to come back Biden at this point. Abortion, the issue of reproductive rights now on the ballot in eight different states.

How do you think overall and do you think Democrats are doing enough to capitalize on that? Oh, I know the local abortion groups that have been pushing these ballot measures for months and years are absolutely doing the groundwork because we know that these issues are something that they collect signatures from individuals across partisan lines, across gender lines, across age. And so this has brought a pillage like we saw in 2022, 2023. I fully expect voters across partisan lines and gender lines to support these equipment measures that will undoubtedly give Democrats I'll post in November.

All right, you guys, thank you so much. And again we will be going back before President Trump once he starts answering questions which we anticipate will happen very soon. So stay tuned for that. Francesca.

I mean to Brendan. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for the great conversation. We are back tomorrow with more media press.

Now the news continues with Tom Costello for Kylie Jackson right now. I'm Craig. Mel. Cheers.

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