Meet the Press NOW — August 28

If it's Wednesday, the Harris Walls campaign is on the road again, busting through battleground Georgia, reaching out to rural voters as the campaign looks to chart a path to the White House through the South. Plus, Trump running mate JD Vance says Vice President Harris, quote, can go to hell over the Biden administration's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. And Israeli forces launched one of the largest military operations in the occupied west bank in years, raising tensions in a region already rocked by the war in nearby Gaza. Welcome to Beat the PRESS now.

I'm Dave Gutierrez in Washington as Vice President Kamala Harris is hitting the ground in Georgia with her campaign looking to expand its reach in two key southern battlegrounds and appeal to rural voters outside the Democratic Party's urban strongholds. And moments ago, VP Harris landed in Savannah, Georgia, and she and her running mate, Governor Tim Walls, prepare for a two day bus tour through the southeastern part of the state and their first sit down interview since becoming the Democratic nominees. The bus tour part of an effort to reach more rural and redder parts of the crucial swing state as Democrats hope to limit losses in those areas this November while also mobilizing supporters in counties around Atlanta, which were key to Biden winning Georgia in 2020. But as one voter in Savannah made clear to us today, that Harris campaign can't afford to take any voter in the state for granted.

We always vote Democratic here. So you have to keep this stronghold. And if you don't, if you don't come here, you can lose some votes. We're always, we're half and half.

We'll do. But even me sometimes I'll report Republican. I don't know what I want as far as like elected officials here. Do you think it's gonna be close across Georgia?

I think it is, but I do believe we'll be purple. I don't think we live. I do think we'll be pur. I think she's gonna win, George.

I do. I believe it. Just 12,000 votes tipped the state to Biden and Harris in 2020, highlighting the risk and reward for the Harris Walls campaign. With less than 70 days until the election.

And while the Trump campaign is stumping today in arguably the most important battleground, Pennsylvania, before heading down to Georgia, Harrison's running mate, Tim Walls also highlighting the campaign's efforts to boost its appeal to blue collar workers as he addressed the firefighters union at this year's convention. We know exactly who built this country. It's people like the folks in this room. It was you who built the middle class.

And we know that when unions are strong, America's strong as a union member. Our union halls are the purest form of democracy, the opportunity to speak your mind, elect leadership, speak what you want on your platform and then go advertise, go advocate for it. That's how democracy is supposed to work. It comes as a Harris campaign has closed the gap in some polls in North Carolina, I think Democrats haven't won since 2008, but Trump only won by just a percentage point in 2020.

And our friends at the Cook Political Report are now moving to Tar Heel state from lean Republican to toss up, along with moving Minnesota and New Hampshire to likely Democratic. And so joining me now From Savannah is NBC's Mike Nemelek. Steve Karacki is at the big board for Warren, Vice President Harris's Path in Georgia, North Carolina. And with me here on set is NBC's chief political analyst, Chuck Todd.

Thank you all so much for joining me. I want to start with you, Mike, and Savannah. Last time Harris was in Georgia, she was in Atlanta. Well, today she's in the southeastern part of the state.

So take us through the campaign's goals for this bus tour and about turning out voters. Okay, this is a bit of a flex from the Harris campaign. They're trying to take all that energy, all that enthusiasm that we saw last week in Chicago and put it out on the campaign trail and show that they are playing offense. They're on an expanded battleground map.

Remember, the President Biden and his campaign had really seemed to narrow their focus increasingly to defending those blue wall states and so making an intentional choice to come out of the convention and have their first event in a state that, yes, President Biden hired four years ago, but would seem to fall off the battleground map until he was replaced on the tape shows that they can really try to keep that momentum going. And they're not just visiting the battleground state, they're visiting a more red part of the battleground state. Now, this bus power will take them into some blue counties, but into the redder parts of those blue counties. And it's really a strategy that we saw the Obama campaign used successfully, especially in 2012.

I spent a lot of time on the road with then Vice President Trump, Jo Biden, who, especially in a state like Ohio, would go into those more rural counties. And the idea from the Obama campaign at the time was if you can turn a 55% Romney county into a 52% Romney county, then you can deploy President Obama into the big cities and take those margins and you add it up and get a victory. And he did indeed win Ohio. So that's sort of what we're seeing now play out in Georgia and we'll see this new take together.

They're going to have more retail focus on this bus tour, showcase that chemistry, showcase that energy and the positive vibe that they seem to be going on even more than policy these days. But also importantly, do that sit down interview. We haven't yet seen this ticket. You know, Mike, you mentioned the Obama campaign strategy.

How did the Harris campaign strategy change over the last few weeks after she became the nominee at the top of the ticket? Was the strategy different under when President Biden? How did it change? Well, I think what we're seeing is not necessarily a new strategy, but a shift in emphasis.

Right. We have seen some former Obama officials, David Plouffe chief among them, join the Harris campaign who had been on the sidelines, but the infrastructure of the campaign was already in place. I'm still saying the Biden campaign, the Harris campaign with a memo out today, was pointing out that they have had 50 offices in Southern Georgia. That was not something that just sprang up overnight when Harris took over the top of the ticket.

That was work that had been put in for months. They've done 500 events through Southern Georgia. So this is always an important part of their strategy. But again, this is what happens when a campaign feels like it's able to go on offense rather than where we saw the Biden team really shrinking their focus, trying to just defend the ground that they felt safest on rather than pushing envelope a little bit.

Mike Pennily, life for us in Savannah. Mike, thank you. Let's go now to Steve Kornacki. I want to focus on North Carolina and Georgia, two states that we're seeing pretty much out of reach for Democr for President Biden at the top of the ticket and maybe more gettable for Kamala Harris, as we're just talking about with Mike.

Steve, what are you seeing? Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, Georgia and North Carolina both close. They went different ways in 2020, Georgia narrowly Democratic North Carolina, you see Trump won by 75,000 votes.

Of all the states that Trump won in 2020, just in terms of the margin, the percentage here, this was the closest he came to losing any that he won. So the roadmap for Democrats in Georgia, North Carolina, there's a lot of demographic similarities between the two. Let's look at North Carolina here. And again, you see the margin in 2020, 75,000 votes.

First thing you notice is that was a shift from 2016 and 2016, the margin for Donald Trump here was about 175,000 votes, more than 3 points. You see that came way down in 2020. Now what Democrats see when they think there's opportunity here in North Carolina is they see it's blue islands in the state, you know, cities, metropolitan areas. And more specifically, we say metro areas, suburbs, densel, high concentration of college degrees.

We talk about those voters becoming more and more Democratic. You find a ton of them in the Research Triangle area. You find some in the Triad area, metro line where Charlotte is out west, Buncombe county where Asheville is. And the story in these places is they are getting bigger and they are getting bluer.

So to give you an example, this is Wake County. This is where Raleigh is. You can see big Biden win there, 27 points in 2020. Let me go back in time though, to 2008.

2008, by the way, Barack Obama narrowly won North Carolina, but look at this huge, massive county here. His margin was 14 points. Now it's pretty much doubled by 2020 up to a 27 point Democratic win. And you see that all these other areas that were circled here, Democrats think four more years of a place like Wake county growing and in their view becoming a little bit more Democratic.

It's going to add up in all those big population centers to overtake that 75,000 vote. Yeah. The flip side, however they have to worry about is all this red in here. A lot of these are very counties.

A lot of them are rural, but a lot of them are getting redder and redder just as these places are getting bluer. And they add up individually they're small, but they add a quick example, Surrey county, very small. And again, look, Trump won it by 52 points. Run back the clock here to 2008, still Republican, but McCain only won this county by 28.

It's going from 28 point Republican to 52. That's been the Trump effect in those red rural counties. And so it's basically which one's going to give Democrats growing in the metro areas or Republicans? And that Trump surge in the red area, the tension in Carolina adds up to a very close race.

Yeah, Steve, it should be so interesting to see if Harris can cut into those margins. Now I look at why now, you know, big picture, how important are Georgia and North Carolina to Harris's potential pass to the White House overall? Yeah. Let's take a look.

Call up our Friendly Road to 270 map. And again, I think the significance of Carolina, it's twofold here. Basically for the Democrats, it's the only one of these battleground states. You see all the others in gray here.

This is the only one that Donald Trump won in 2016. All of the others at 2020, all of the others went for Joe Biden. So Democrats are playing offense here. If they win North Carolina, those are electoral votes they didn't already have.

They're trying to protect electoral votes in every other state. That means North Carolina could offset for them potentially losses elsewhere. So a perfect example would just be Georgia. What if playing the white game here, what if Trump got Georgia?

That would be a flip. And you can see here that had 16 electoral votes to his column. It went from 219 to 235. But then if Democrats were able to squeak it out in North Carolina, that's a game for Kamala Harris right there.

It's also 16 electoral votes. So the Democrats in this scenario would lose 16 Trump in Georgia, but then they get the 16 right back in North Carolina. Or you know, is there a scenario where Democrats get both of them and then we're talking about losing. Let's say they were to lose Michigan, but again Michigan lost, that is 15 electoral votes and it's 16 in North Carolina.

So if you lose Michigan, the Democrats and you win North Carolina, between those two, you've actually gained an electoral vote. So it offers it really opens up if Democrats could ever win North Carolina, it opens up a lot more possible pathways here so that he has offset losses to give them more of a pad to lose states. Steve Kornacki, thank you so much for walking us through the numbers. Steve Kornacki, the big Board thank you so much.

And I want to turn now to our chief political finalist, Chuck Todd, who's here with me on set. Chuck, what we were just talking about with Mike and Steve, this trip to Georgia by the Harris campaign, Democratic success usually in Atlanta and the surrounding suburbs is this push for other parts of Georgia's getting work. I'm a believer more in North Carolina for them than I am in Georgia right now. I think the biggest factor about Georgia this cycle versus 2020 and actually 2022 in the midterms is Raphael Warner.

He's not a ballot this time. He was on the ballot in 2020. Of course he was on ballot again in 2022 because he was it was a special Senate election would at work and his ability to drive turn his popularity in the state, his popularity with African American voters sort of turned it out in numbers that I, I think in this year of North Carolina having a gunners race that is the national party won a poor of much money and there's a controversial Republican figure who has a lot of sort of quotes in his past that really, you know, it's not quite what we saw in Pennsylvania with public nominee but it is sort of in that neighborhood. I just think there's a lot more tangibles that favor.

In fact, I might be doing a bus trip time two days. I'd be spending two days in North Carolina. I'm not trying to be spending two days in Georgia. Well, the Biden campaign was very excited about North Carolina behind we, you know but for all the reasons it is, there's such a concentration in Georgia.

Basically it's a nine hour bus. Yes, you can, you can sort of sand off the margins in some of the other counties. North Carolina has a lot more opportunities for Democrats. Switching quickly to another topic, Colin Harris is taping her first sit down interview.

It's set to air tomorrow. And I know in your latest column you write quote, her campaign has now raised the stakes for her first one or two sit down interviews. More words and phrases will get scrutinized simply because the campaign and the candidate are behaving as if doing these interviews is about as interesting to them as a visit to the dentist's office. So is she making a mistake by putting her eggs in this one interview?

Well, I just think it's yes, I think that easiest way to diffuse this is to go everywhere, you know, spend, you know, doing local interviews, doing podcasts here, doing she can go friendly places. Go to friendly places. The idea when you sort of try to be, you know, laser focused like this, I mean we're gravitate to the big event. If there are six interviews, we're all overwhelmed with, you know, you know, not one thing, everything gets diluted.

So I really think it only sort of reinforces this negative stereotype that she had coming in this race which is, you know, she hand rings too much, she's a little takes too long and this there's a fine line between being deliberative and being paralyzed by a decision. And the way they've handled this, this media stuff, you know, I get it, it is not as important as we think it is. Right. But the way they've handled it I think is a bit, it's been a can you think of a time in recent memory that a presidential candidate went 38, 39 days without giving a press conference or said that?

I'm sure there has been one. But it is in this day and age, it's hard. And I go back to why. You know, there's this allergy to ever doing something that Donald Trump did.

But the Donald Trump in 2016, not this guy, this version, he hides from mainstream media quite a bit. But the 2016 version was interviews all over the place, left, right and center. Friendly interviews, adversarial interviews. He'd do three or four in a day.

In some ways he preferred that than actually campaigning on his battle. But what he successfully did is never made one interview matter. Right. It ends up that Elaine.

So just the way they've handled this and I just think they're now just playing into her perceived weakness and you know, any fumble now is going to get overly scrutinized in this interview unnecessarily stuff. So turning now to the other side of the ticket, RK Jr Lots of talk about RKA K. But I'm going to focus on one part. He lent his support to Donald Trump earlier this month, but he's still going to be on the ballot in several states, including key battleground states.

So is did Trump get everything he could have from this deal? Because now he's gonna have to deal with at least the name of our Fajr in some key states like Michigan. I think what he could have gotten out of this four months ago, he didn't get now. Meaning four months ago, Kennedy still had a following that had a little bit of folks on the left, center and right.

He was sort of serving as none of the above. He was anti establishment. I think now cutting the deal. Look, not getting off the ballot is a big problem.

You know, there was no doubt they saw the numbers that we were seeing, which was, hey, look at this, Kennedy pulls more from Trump now than he does from Harris. When Biden was on the ticket, it was sort of an equal. He was pulling about equally. The minute Biden got off the ticket, you saw the disaffected Democrats came back to the Democratic ticket.

So it was important that they get him out of this race that was successful. It is important that they got him off the ballot in Arizona, for instance. But him sitting there in Wisconsin, any I think any vote now for Kennedy is likely a vote that takes away more from Trump than, look, Kamala Harris also Cornwall west takes from her, Jill Stein takes from her. Kennedy takes from him.

And any worries he's on the ballast harmful for Trump. Thanks so much for stopping by. And coming up, J. Vance lashes out at Vice President Harris's.

Reporters press in for details about an incident during Donald Trump's visit to Arlington Cemetery saying she can quote, go to hell or the administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Plus, the FBI reveals new details about its investigation into the man who tried to assassinate former President Trump last month. Don't go anywhere. They're watching Eat the Press now.

Welcome back. We got new details from the FBI this afternoon about the investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Federal investigator say the gunman does not appear to have a definitive ideology and that he searched for information on both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention before the shooting in Butler Pen. Officials say the investigation leads them to believe that the Trump rally was target of opportunity.

And while the FBI has not determined a specific motive, they found no evidence of any co conspirators and there is no indication that the shooter was directed by a foreign entity. Turning now to another Trump headline today, Arlington National Cemetery is confirming that a quote, incident took place during Donald Trump's visit on Monday. The former president participated in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to commemorate the third anniversary of the Abigail attack that killed 13 U.S. service members during the Biden administration's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

MEC News cannot confirm what the incident was or when it happened, but the cemetery said in a statement federal law prohibits political, campaign or election related activities within army national military cemeteries to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes or indirect support of a partisan political candidate's campaign. And now Ms. News Senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Hake, he's been covering the Trump campaign. He joins me now.

So Garrett, what is the Trump campaign's explanation of what exactly happened in Arlington on Monday? Gabe, here's what this is all about and why it actually matters. I think what happened here was some kind of scuffle between a campaign photographer and staff of the cemetery over whether or not they could shoot photos or video. It's not entirely clear which in section 60, this is where the most recent of America's war dead are buried and where Donald Trump was invited to join and according to the families to shoot, essentially shoot photos with them on the anniversary of the Abbeygate bombing.

The Trump campaign told me in a statement they think this is basically some faceless bureaucrat was the way they described it, complaining about, you know, Trump's solemn ceremony and that they wanted this access and they got it from the, from the families. That said there are specific rules about creating political content at Arlington and other military cemeteries, which is ultimately exactly what the Trump campaign did. They posted a TikTok video with music attached to it. Several campaign staffers posted their own videos.

So whether or not this specific incident was just about the families, and it may very well have been, it exists in the context of a political campaign in which Trump is trying to look like he is more there for these veterans and their families than is Kamala Harris. Yeah. And the Harris campaign is shot back, and they're trying to make this about, you know, previous reports of Donald Trump disparaging military service members. But, Gary, I want to turn to something else that just happened within the last hour.

J.D. vance, he weighed in on the Abigail attack, and he had some choice words about Kamala Harris. What do you say? Yeah, I mean, look, J.D.

vance's job is to be the attack dog for the Trump campaign. That's what he was doing today. He was pretty aggressive on this topic. And it's related to our earlier point.

Listen, what he said. I explained why he was done. All right, Garrett, looks like we're. Looks like we're having some trouble playing that video.

But it's what I talked about in the open to the show that Jenny Vance was saying that she can, quote, go to hell. Talk us about the context of that. What was the question? How do you respond to that?

The question was about this appearance at Arlington, and Vance's response was essentially getting into the high dudgeon here about the idea that Harris, who was vice president, was involved in Afghanistan strategy, didn't fire anyone, didn't, you know, take some big step to punish anybody who had been involved in the Afghanistan response. And if she's so upset about this, she can go to hell. The conclusion of the quote, why it matters is I think the Trump campaign has tried to argue that everything Donald Trump did at Arlington on Monday was perfectly proper and within the bounds of a visit, apolitical. But everything the Trump campaign is doing up to and including Those remarks of J.D.

vance is trying to create enormous contrast between the two campaigns about this point. It's not just that Trump puts Arlington. It's that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden didn't. It's not just that Trump is embracing his families.

Kamala Harris in the views of J.D. vance is not. So it's all related. And it makes the kind of narrow defense by the Trump campaign that they were just there, invited, the families taking some pictures, ring a little bit hollow.

And Garrett, just for our viewers here, because we didn't get the play, I think the context is important. Exactly how he said it. Let's play that video really quick. Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job.

Kamala Harris is disgraceful. We're talking about a story out of those 13 brave, innocent Americans who lost their lives. It's that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won't even do an investigation into what happened. And she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up.

She can. She can go to hell. Gary, have you ever heard any reaction so far from the Harris campaign and it just happened? No.

Forgive me, Gabe, if we have. I've not seen it. You know, look, I. The Harris campaign wants to fight this issue on a pretty narrow ground here, right?

It's the point you made about the idea of how Donald Trump disrespects service members in their view or uses them as props. I don't think they necessarily want to be battling on the finer points of the Afghanistan withdrawal. So I'll be curious to see how they respond to this if and when they do. Gary Hake, our correspondent covering the Trump campaign.

We really appreciate it, Gary. And turning now to the latest in the story that broke while we were on the air yesterday. Former President Trump is facing a renewed legal battle after special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment over Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The more narrow indictment removes references to anything that might be considered official acts, including conversations with Justice Department officials and conversations with advisors in the Oval Office.

It comes after the Supreme Court ruled last month that presidents have broad immunity for official acts. Trump has already pleaded not guilty to all the charges. And on social media, he accused the special counsel of trying to resurrect what he called a dead witch hunt. Meanwhile, newly released video shot by Nancy Pelosi's daughter shows never before seen comments made by then speaker Pelosi about Trump in the hours after the January 6th attack.

We've taken oath to protect our country from all enem, foreign and domestic. There is a domestic enemy in the White House, and let's not mince words about this. And joined now by Chuck Rosenberg, former U.S. attorney, former senior FBI official, and now an NBC News legal analyst.

Chuck, it's always good to talk to you. So why do you think Jack Smith pressed forward with a super proceeding diagram instead of waiting for a judge check in the rule on each chart of the original indictment? Yeah, it's a great question, Gabe. I think there are two reasons and they're connected.

First, the Supreme Court was clear, as you mentioned in your opinion, that certain official acts are just off limits for prosecutors. You can't charge a president with an official act. You can't deduce evidence of an official act. And so the Smith team knew that stuff had to go, and either they made it go away, as they did with the superseding indictment, or Judge Tutton, the district court judge presiding over this case in federal court, would have made it go away.

So that's connected to the second reason. The superseding indictment wholly replaces the first. The grand jury that heard the superseding indictment evidence did not hear any evidence that concerns official landscape. They're not tainted in any way by that evidence.

The first grand jury, the one that returned the original indictment, arguably was. So Jack Smith and his team killed two birds with one stone. They redact from the new indictment anything that the Supreme Court has said is off limits. And they presented the second, the superseding indictment, to a grand jury wholly untainted by any evidence that the Supreme Court said was improper.

So it was actually a very smart way to handle this. Yeah. So, Chuck, you mentioned that Jack Smith Team NFT2 burst with one stone, but is there any inherent risk to the special counsel strategy here? Well, the risk to the strategy has been the risk all along.

Right. That, you know, trying cases is hard. Convincing a jury by proof beyond a reasonable debt is hard. Finding a jury that will convict unanimously is hard.

And they still have to contend with the whole flurry of motions that the Trump team will undoubtedly bring in this report, including challenging the superseding indictment. So is there a risk? There's always risk, but I think to the extent they could, the Smith team hasn't mitigated it. Gabe.

And Chuck, if we were to take November's election out of the picture here, out of the equation at least. What's the timeline for any potential election interference trial? It's a long timeline. Months and months and months.

There's a whole bunch of battles yet to be fought in district court about this indictment. So if you're asking whether this can be tried before the election, the answer is absolutely not. You know, can it be done within the next year? Year and a.

Certainly. But that will also turn on Whether or not Mr. Trump regains the White House. If he does, I expect that he will order that the cases against him be dismissed.

And turning on some of Jackson's other actions on Monday, what comes next in his effort to reinstate the classified documents case? Answer. Yeah, great question, Gabe. So, different case also in federal court, in this instance in the Southern District of Florida, where Judge Eileen Cannon dismissed The case really on sort of procedural grounds, accepting an argument from the Trump team that Smith was improperly appointed as a special prosecutor, I think she's wrong as a matter of law.

I imagine the 11th Circuit, the federal court of appeals that oversees cases, including out of the Southern District of Florida, will likely reverse her. If they do, then that case will be reinstated as well. Of course, the problem for the Smith team, the ongoing problem, is that the case will be back before Judge Cannon, who has been relatively hostile to the government and its inferior, the case in her courtroom. And do you expect that the Supreme Court's decision last month that we're talking about official acts, will that play into Donald Trump's defense in this case?

If it is, rinse it. By that, by this case, you mean the one in Florida? Yes. Yeah, I mean, I think he'll try.

If I were his lawyer, I would probably take a swing at that. But, you know, it really does not involve the same set of facts and circumstances that you find in the federal case in the District of Columbia. So I don't think the immunity decision in Florida gains much traction. But then again, Judge Cannon has been a bit of a wild card.

And so my official legal answer is, you never know. And Jack, before I let you go really quickly, because I know you have a crystal ball, of course, in your home, and I know you love looking into it. If you had to guess at this point, as of today, which federal case against Donald Trump do you think will have to trial first? Well, my sense of it, Dave, is that Judge Chutkan is just a much better judge.

And by that, I mean in managing her docket, making decisions, making good decisions, and keeping the case moving. Look, judges like airline pilots and dentists and plumbers, you know, come in all shapes and sizes. Some are good at their job, some are not good at their job. I would always like a good judge, even if she rules against me.

At least she rules. And Judge Chucken has proved to be able to manage her docket. So not really a crystal ball per se, Gabe, but a sense that the case that will move most quickly is the case with the best. Judge Chuck Rosenberg, thank you so much for your time.

We always appreciate your expertise. And up next, the Harris campaign hits the trail and hits Trump in Project 2025. The panel's next. You're watching Meet the Press now as the day wraps up, get the scoop on what's been happening with here's the Scoop, a new podcast from NBC News with me, your host, Gasuian.

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It's more context and clarity from the reporters you trust. Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more. Welcome back. As a campaign in South Georgia, the Harris campaign is up with new television ads focusing on a conservative think tank's plan to overhaul the government if Trump wins.

Project 2025 take a list. Donald Trump's back and he's out for control. I would have every right to go after them. Complete control.

I will wield that power very aggressively. And he has a plan to get it. It's called Project 2025, a 922 page blue to make Donald Trump the most powerful president ever, overhauling the Department of Justice, giving Trump the unchecked power to seek vengeance. Donald Trump may try to deny it, but those are Donald Trump's plans.

Well, revenge does take time, I will say that. And sometimes revenge can be justified. And joining me now on set is AKA Garner, White House correspondent for Bloomberg News Chuck Roche, co host of the Latino Vote podcast and founder of Northrop pac, and Jim Garrett, senior political correspondent for National Review and a Washington Post contributing columnist. Thank you all so much for joining me here on the panel.

So Kayla, I want to start with you. Talk about Project 2025. Look, Donald Trump has disavowed this. He says he has anyways campaign claims that he's disavowed it, but we've Been hearing about this not just from Kamala Harris, but from President Biden's back when it was his campaign.

Now, for the last couple of months, is this working? Is this line of attack working to try and get people turned off by Donald Trump's alleged policies here? I do think the goal is to build awareness about what Project 2025 is. It is working.

The majority of Americans now know what Project 2025 is, and that is a really big, remarkable feat for the Heritage foundation because they take split up these policy agendas all the time. They're not usually in the public consciousness. And that is in large part because of Democrats efforts to raise awareness about this project. As you mentioned, Trump is trying to distance himself from those projects.

But if Democrats can at least so doubt that some of the things that Trump says about his ties in the project are wrong, potentially that could be helpful for them. It could be effective, particularly when we talk about things like restricting access to medication, abortion, abolishing the Education Department. These are things that are broadly unpopular with the American public. Jim, what do you make of this?

Again, the Trump campaign then says, oh, It's a project 2025. There's nothing to it. It's, you know, people keep saying that it's tied to me. It's not.

First of all, to quote my friend Rash, the genie gave the Heritage foundation one wish and they said, we want a huge impact in the 2024 election that's coming to pass. What makes that work is the audio and video of Trump and all of the revenge takes a long time. The sheer enthusiasm he has. Even if you never crack the book of looking at Project 2025, we can get into the details.

It just seems like it sounds like a guy who can't wait to get into office and use the power of the executive branch to after anybody who's ever pissed him off. And he's got a ton of enemies, he's got a bunch of people who he feels have been unfair to him, and he's gonna use all the government power he can go after. Is this a better message than perhaps talking about the economy and talking about other issues to focus on Project 2025 and really hammer that into the psyche of America? You know, when you were talking about it, I started thinking about heard about the project.

It wasn't because I was doing some deep diving some policy book or looking up the Heritage foundation, not what Chuck Rocha does. What I do do is I do focus groups and I've been polling and I'm still working practitioner campaigns. And when it started coming up in focus groups, I said Project 2025. I had to do my own research.

And it's just become more prelab. When you ask a voter today, what do you want to see from Donald Trump or from Kamala Harris, like, tell me, Democratic Republican, what you're going to do to make my life better? Or in this instance, what are you going to do to make my life worse? It worries voters when they say, oh, what's the mean?

You want to take away the Department of Education? What does it mean? I don't have a choice. These are where you're drawing a contrast with a super slim group of voters who will decide the election on determining who's going to be with me and who's going to be against me.

In fact, I want to turn to something that we just were talking about in the previous couple segments with my colleague Garrett. Hey, the new comments from Senator J.D. vance saying that, quote, kamala Harris can go to hell in his words, when talking about the Afghanistan withdrawal. What do you make of that rhetoric and how do you think that will be received?

I've run a presidential campaign. You know that I've been on the highest stages of writing these speeches. And the first thing you teach somebody is don't lose your cool. Keep in mind, I work for Bernie Sanderson.

If job loses cool, don't lose your cool. This shows a frustration in a candidate for just a practitioner, Democrat, Republican, independent, don't lose your cool. You can quip and say some little cuss word that makes people go, ooh, but you could tell and see the frustration with him. I think that's what's bubbling.

The doctor do you think he was losing his cool? General, do you think that this was planned? Yeah. If you look back to what JD Vance has said in the past, it's actually kind of par for the course for him, but I think it's noticeable.

So apparently on September 21st, JD Vance is going to appear with Tucker Carlson in Hershey Pen. Tucker Carlson's job is to get attention. It's to be the most controversial, outrageous, provocative guy you possibly could be. These are running by vice presidents.

They're trying to win as many votes as possible. And these past comments by JD Fans that all the childless cat lady, you know, moms kind of stuff, all of that came when he was out here trying to be provocative. They're trying to win a Republican primary in Ohio comes back to bite you when you're trying to be the unifying grand person who's going to a royal audience in 2024. And when we get to the Arlington National Cemetery controversy, this idea like, oh, they may have been filming this video or you know, still photos, I don't know what happened.

But it's not like you could say, oh, something like that would never happen with the entourage of Donald Trump. It just doesn't seem like the personalities they have. Kayla, do you think it has any impact the owning international controversy? Well, I think it is a bad look, particularly because Trump was there to honor these families.

And also the comment that you mentioned from jdb, I think there's no question that the Afghanistan control is one of the biggest stains on the Biden administration. But I think it's harder for him to tie to Harris as it was for him to tie to President Biden. There's no evidence that she was clearly in the decision making rooms for this withdrawal here. And I think voters also tend to give Harris the benefit of the doubt.

And Kayla, I want to turn to something else that we were talking about earlier in the program. The bus were now through Georgia and this focus on other parts of this crucial swing state that aren't Atlanta, aren't the suburbs. Do you think that that will prove fruitful for the Harris campaign focusing not just on rural parts of Georgia, perhaps North Carolina? I think that works.

I think Democrats are really doing this in states like you mentioned, Georgia, North Carolina, also Pennsylvania, with the recognition that rural counties are really had a big difference, particularly black voters in those counties. They found that a lot of these people do not get ads really easily. They may not have access to the same television markets as some of these metropolitan areas, but their goal is basically to lose less in those counties. They just want to it's a difference between 80, 20 versus 60, 40.

As Harrison's Powell Brownstein director put it to us. What do you expect to hear most from these this sit down interview that Harrison Walls are finally going to do the Oyer promotion, certainly the economy. I think Harris has continued to bring the conversation back to the middle class and I think that's exactly what we're gonna see from both of these two together. They've been really highlighting their middle class upbringing, of course here in Oakland, California and him Nebraska.

I think that's what they're trying to do with showing both of these people here who really appeal to different parts of the Democratic base. Chuck, did the Harris campaign wait too long to do this interview? No, I think that we make a big deal about the interview. Folks are getting to make up their mind now.

Ballast talking 30 days. Should she do the interview? Yes, she do it. She do other one.

Did they wait a week or two too late? Yeah, but again, in focus groups I do. They're not like we're not going to focus. She did the interview.

They're saying, what are you going to do? Make gas and groceries cheap. That's true. But they also ask do they ask what her policies are?

A lot of them don't know who she's A good point. That's why I think for sure. So what are the biggest questions you have for Kamala Harris and Tim Walls in this one? Price control.

What exactly are these things? There's a big reference to it in the Raleigh's speech and then kind of backtrack away from it. How would this work? Why do you have.

I went back and I checked her for her first 11 speeches. She did not mention anything about Ukraine. A single word. The Economist went through and said for the same period until last week, she made no reference to China in any form.

She mentioned it once in the convention speech. Kind of a fleeting reference. There are a lot of lengths to be filled in there. And the question about Afghanistan, didn't she say she was the last person to talk about him before he made this decision?

Yes, she has said that before. And you know what comes next in terms of once this interview happens by putting all your eggs in this basket, are the stakes just incredibly high? What happens if she has a poor interview? How quickly do they have to play clean up for that?

Yeah, I've been talking to strategists about this and they say that usually one interview doesn't have that much weight when it comes to the presidency. But that being said, she still has to knock this out the park. She really does have to address some of those policy positions that she's moderated from 2020. She really has to give voters a sense of what she stands for.

I think people are still learning about her getting introduced during this interview and do a lot to fill in those gaps. 2016. Donald Trump didn't have a policy position when he won the presidency because in presidential campaign, if you really care about issue, you've already picked a team. It's about who you trust and who you like to have for the president.

He did do interviews. Thank you all so much. After the break, the Biden administration responds to Israel's sweeping military operation in the west bank as it announces new sanctions targeting settler violence in the occupied territory. We're live in Israel next.

You're watching me, the press now. Welcome back in a Region already bracing for potential escalation. Overnight, Israeli forces launched a massive military operation into the occupied west bank and included deadly airstrikes and railroads Streets videos show bulldozers tearing up streets in the west bank as the IDF says its troops were conducting counterterrorism operations, killing a number of militants it says posed a threat to their security forces. Palestinian health officials say at least nine people were killed in the overnight operations.

In a statement, Israel's foreign minister said Israel will address threats from the west bank in the same manner as it deals with threats from Gaza, saying, quote, this is a full fledged war. Over the course of the war in Gaza, Israel has continued to launch smaller raids in the west bank while Israeli settler violence has also surged. Today, the US State Department announced new sanctions on an Israeli citizen and an organization over that settler violence in the West Bank. Joining me now live, Zen News correspondent Daniel Hamanjan, Jerusalem.

Daniel, thank you so much for joining us. So why this sudden escalation now? And should we expect these kinds of massive raids to continue? And how are people in the west bank reacting to all this?

Yeah, good evening to you, Gabe. And those raids are still ongoing. It's not over yet. It's been over 24 hours and usually those raids last just a few hours.

They happen mostly at night and they don't involve various units from the idf. But this is not the case. Now, the IDF calling this a major counter terrorism operation. And they say that it was launched in response to a wave of escalating terrorist activities.

They say, they cite the use of IEDs under roads, under infrastructure. And they say that they've identified efforts by Iran to smuggle in weapons and explosives into the occupied West Bank. The Israeli foreign minister are saying today that Iran is working, working to set up terrorist fronts, a terrorist front against Israel in the west bank following the model of Gaza and Lebanon. We've just spoken to one local source on the ground in one of the camps that have been sealed off.

And he said the IDF is now going home to home detaining young men and bringing them to a site on the outskirts of the camp for interrogation. The camps, as I say, have been completely sealed off. It's really hard to get in, certainly not for journalists. But I can tell you, and all I can tell you really is from my time based there in the past, I haven't spoken to members of Islamic Jihad, which is the dominant force in the Genin refugee camp.

And they'll tell you. The first thing they'll tell you, Gabe, is that as long as there is an Israeli occupation. There will be an armed resistance. They'll tell you that this is for them the only way to live in dignity.

If not about geopolitics, to them this is about the day to day life, their day to days. And they say that their allegiance is not based on ideology, it's based on funding. Who gives them the weapons, who gives them the money? And it's Iran.

And what fuels their anger, they'll say, is the expansion of Israeli settlements. It's the surge of Israeli of settler violence. It's the provocations and the threats to the Muslim police sites in Jerusalem. Combine all that with years of poverty, of high unemployment and you've got, you know, a cocktail for generating a lot of hostility towards Israel.

And Danielle, we mentioned earlier the USA Department announced new sanctions that are targeting settler violence in the West Bank. So is there any reason to believe that will have any meaningful impact on the ground? Well, I mean, Israel is not repeased by the sanctions. They said that the issue is under any intense discussion with the US you mentioned two entities that was sanctioned.

One is an NGO that's responsible for forcibly displacing 250 Palestinians for fencing them off their village, preventing them from returning. The other individual who's been sanctioned is a security coordinator for in one of the settlements and he was responsible for leading an attack against a group of Palestinians and against and again forcibly removing them from their village. You have to remember the context here. There are far right ministers within Benjamin Netanyahu's government who are settlers themselves.

Who is the finance minister. He's also responsible for the west bank and he's a settler as well. And these sanctions, the first set of sanctions came in months ago. But already in early July, Israel announced the largest land grab in 30 years.

Is it going to make a difference? I mean, many people would say no. Will the United States sanction these two settler ministers? That remains to be seen.

Danielle Manchin, live for us in Jerusalem. Daniel, thank you so much. What to know about rare and deadly mosquito borne virus. There's communities in the northeast on high alert.

You're watching MEET the Press now. Stay with us. Welcome back. Turning now to the growing concerns about a mosquito borne virus that health officials are describing as rare but potentially fatal.

New Hampshire's health department announced yesterday one person has died from Eastern equine encephalitis or Tripoli. It's the first triple E death reported in the US this year. And cases of the virus have also been reported in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont and Wisconsin. While contracting the Disease is rare.

The CDC estimates about 30% of people infected die, and many people who survive the illness have long term neurological problems. In response, states like Massachusetts have begun implementing precautionary measures with some communities closing public parks and outdoor recreation facilities at dusk, when mosquitoes are most active, and spraying pesticides in high risk counties. Joining me now is Dr. Rodney Goldstein, Commissioner of Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Doctor, thank you so much for joining us. What do people really need to know about triple er? Thank you for having me this afternoon. You know, as you said, Eastern equine encephalitis, or triple E, is.

It's a rare disease, but it is potentially fatal. It's a very serious disease for those who contract. I think people should understand where the risk may be, which is in particular in many areas of the Northeast, in particular areas that are wooded or forested areas where these mosquitoes tend to grow and where triple E tends to circulate at certain times of the year. People, though, take very easy precautions to protect themselves.

Things like wearing cedar repellent, wearing long clothes, avoiding going out when mosquitoes are present to make sure that they're not at risk of contracting disease. Doctor, why is the concern or the alarm over this virus more serious apparently this year compared to summers past, and what level coordination has been with officials from other states that are also seeing cases of Tripoli in their communities? Tripoli tends to take a cyclical approach, so we tend to see it every three or four years. And when we see it, there's an intense outbreak, usually that lasts two to three years.

We'll see a lot of activity. We'll see a number of human cases and unfortunately a number of human deaths. And then we'll go into a two to three year period of quiescence. We just came out of that period of quiescence.

So for 2020-2024 in Massachusetts, we didn't really see any cases of triple E, but we were already anticipating that 2024 might be the beginning of a new outbreak of triple E. And with that knowledge, we've been communicating with our colleagues across New England and really across the country. We're all on the same page. We all recognize this could be the year, and we've been working together to get information out.

So with global temperatures rising, how concerned are you about longer mosquito seasons in years to come? And how are public health officials like yourself prepared for that? There's certainly a component here of climate change that is impacting the risk for triple E. We're seeing the mosquito season lengthen.

We're seeing less hard frosts over the winter, which can help decrease the mosquito population. And so it's really important that we all work together to address and mitigate the impacts of climate change. I think from a public health perspective, this is just one of the many impacts of climate change that we're a lot of focus on, the West Nile virus, especially after kingdom that Dr. Anthony Fauci was hospitalized with the virus.

Are you also seeing other mosquito borne viruses in Massachusetts and what should people know about the differences in those viruses? Unfortunately, here in Massachusetts, we're really just focused on West Nile virus and triple E. West Nile virus is a virus that we see every year, doesn't have that cyclical nature that we see with triple E. And so we're pretty clear about precautions that people need to take for West Nile virus every year in Massachusetts.

I think that people should understand that these are different viruses. Triple E is a much more serious disease. As you talked about, up to 30 to 50% of people who get triple E are at risk of death. West Nile virus tends to be less severe, has a less serious presentation.

But there are certain people who are incredibly high risk, in particular those who are older and those who have a weakened immune system. Dr. Robbie Goldstein, the commissioner of Massachusetts Department of Public Health, we really appreciate your time this afternoon. Thanks for having me and thank you for watching.

I'm Gabe Gutierrez and I'm back tomorrow with more Meet the Press. Now the news continues with Christine Romans in for Hallie Jackson right now. 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 of 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 podcasts.