If it's Friday, former President Trump on failed a surprise plan to pay for in vitro fertility treatments, bucking some of his course supporters just 67 days from the election. Plus, in her first major interview as a presidential candidate, Vice President Harris pressed to clarify her positions on key issues. She insists her values haven't changed, even if her policies have. And the World Health Organization says Israel and Hamas have agreed to a temporary pause in fighting to vaccinate more than 600,000 children in Gaza against polio, with the complicated mission set to begin this weekend.
Welcome to Meet the Press Now! Wellker in Washington, for weeks the Trump campaign criticized Vice President Harris for avoiding reporters and avoiding tough questions from the press. But in the wake of Harris' first major interview as a presidential candidate, it's former President Trump who's facing a testifying certainty for an interview he did with NBC's Dasha Burns for comments he made on the hot button issue of abortion and fertility treatments. First while speaking to NBC and then again at events in Michigan and Wisconsin, Mr.
Trump announced a proposal to have the government or insurance companies cover the cost of IVF treatments. Under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment. So we are paying for that treatment. We are going to be paying for that treatment, or we are going to be mandating that the insurance company pays.
So either the government will pay for it or the insurance companies will come up. We are, the government is going to pay for it or we are going to get or mandate your insurance company to pay for it, which is going to be great. We are going to do that. Now the proposal appears to have caught his campaign by surprise as his running mate Senator Jamie Vance seemed to struggle to explain the new policy plan this morning.
Take a look. How is he going to pay for it? Is this an expansion of Obamacare? Is this a mandate?
Well look, I think you have insurance companies that obviously are forced to cover a whole host of services. The president explicitly said that he wants insurers to cover additional fertility treatments. All details get worked out in the legislative process and we are not in the legislative process because we haven't won yet. But I think the president Trump again just believes that we want women to have access to these fertility treatments.
Of course, we are going to respect for religious liberties. We are not going to force anybody to do something that is against their conscience, but we also want to make this fertility stuff available to as many people as possible because babies are good. Now there is widespread public support for IVF, but Mr. Trump's new proposal raises a whole lot of questions on politics and also policies.
So first and foremost, you just heard that clip talk about it, the cost. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates IVF runs patients $20,000 and that is just for one cycle folks. Often treatments require multiple cycles which would cost the government or insurance companies billions of dollars a year. Then there is a question of embryos.
The process of IVF can involve discarding unused embryos which anti-abortion advocates and some of the president's most ardent religious supporters argue are unborn children. Meanwhile, also in his interview with NBC News, the former president created a potentially major headache for his party on the issue of abortion when he suggested he would vote in favor of a Florida ballot measure that would overturn the state's six-week ban on the procedure to protect abortion access through field viability. There is an abortion-related amendment on the ballot to overturn the six-week ban in Florida. How are you going to vote on that?
Well, I think the six-week is too short. It has to be more time and so that's going to build on that. I want more weeks. So you'll vote in favor of the amendment?
I'm voting that. I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks. Now the Trump campaign later clarified that the former president hasn't announced how he will vote on the ballot initiative. Florida is one of 10 states that will be voting on measures to protect or expand abortion access in November.
Among them, key battlegrounds where polls show the proposed amendments are overwhelmingly popular. As the former president looks to stake out a more moderate position on abortion, some of his supporters, including members of the anti-abortion rights movement, are voicing concern with his comments. One prominent group saying it spoke personally with Mr. Trump after his interview and that quote, voting for Florida's abortion amendment completely undermines his position on abortion.
My NBC News colleague, Garrett Hake, is on the ground in Pennsylvania, ahead of the former president's rally this afternoon. MEC's Sal Kapoor is on Capitol Hill with a reaction from Republicans and anti-abortion groups on Mr. Trump's comments. MEC News's Bridget Bowman is with me on set for a look at the polling on these issues.
And also with us as Caroline Kitchener, she covers the issue of abortion for the Washington Post. Thanks so much to all of you for being here with me on this big Friday, Garrett. Let's kick it off. This is just stunning this announcement by former president Trump.
It's been about a day since he made those comments to Dasha Burns. What has the fallout been so far and politically speaking? What does the campaign think the impact will be? Well, splitting those two issues a little bit, Kristen, I think on the abortion issue, the biggest problem that it creates for Trump is that he's going to get asked about this again and again.
His campaign wants to close the book on abortion as an issue. They want to say that it's an issue that should be left for the states and have that be the end of it. But every time Donald Trump makes his position more confusing, not less. But guarantees, the press will continue to talk about it, and guarantees will continue to be asked about it.
Almost any position he takes on the floor to a referendum could be defensible, but no position or confusing position guarantees he has to keep talking about it. On the IBS concept, I think this is something that Republicans will probably support in this day and age. You're traditional like Paul Ryan Republicans. I think we'll be asking more questions about where the tens of billions of dollars to fund it would come from.
That's not going to be a concern of this version of the Republican Party. I suspect base Republicans will follow Trump on this. By issue with it is, we called it a plan and opened to the show. It's not a plan.
It's an idea. How it's paid for. There's nothing about who will actually do this. Where the money will come from?
Or who will be eligible? Same sex couples, for example. There's going to be a million follow-up questions to this for which the Trump campaign as of right now has no substantive answers. Yeah.
Garrett, we're all writing our risks to follow-up questions because there's so many, I take your point on the word plan versus idea. It's a really important distinction because you're right. There are still so many unanswered questions here. Let me ask you about the six-week ban in Florida and that amendment, which would basically overturn it.
He didn't say one way or another to Dasha how he would vote. His campaign's trying to do a little bit of damage control. Do you anticipate, Garrett? The campaign will have to put out another clarifying statement about where he stands and quite frankly how he's going to vote on this issue.
Yeah, look, this is the problem. I don't think anybody would take a statement from the campaign at face value on this point. It was only at that news conference in Marlago less than a month ago where Donald Trump told reporters in that room, including me, that he was going to reveal how he would vote on that bill in two weeks on a referendum in two weeks, his favorite time carrier to saw on and he hasn't given a clear answer. I think only a clear definitive answer from Donald Trump is going to put this issue behind him because it's clear that he and his campaign are not on the same page about it.
That is for sure, Garrett, great reporting, great talking over the cheering crowds behind you. Thank you so much. Syle, let me turn to you now because you have some reporting about how anti-abortion rights groups are actually reacting to this news, what do you have? Yeah, that's right, Kristen.
Trump has certainly angered some of these anti-abortion groups. Conservatives are mounting a pretty fierce backlash to Trump's comments. Some of them saying that Republican voters are going to defect over this, that anti-abortion voters, pro-life voters might end up staying home, that he might have a serious problem on his hands if he doesn't at least clarify what he meant regarding that Florida ballot initiative. One prominent anti-abortion advocate, the SBA president, Marjorie Denning Felzer, called Trump yesterday, asked him for clarity and he told her he isn't taking a position.
She told him in that private conversation that it's imperative that he cleared this up because there's confusion that he may be in support of that Florida abortion rights ballot measure. That's according to a source familiar with that conversation who I spoke to. And Denning Felzer put out this statement, you see this on the screen, she says she spoke to President Trump that he has not committed to how he's voting on amendment for and that doing so in her view would undermine his position against late-term abortion. The issue here isn't so much the six-week ban, there's a debate even within the Republican party about whether to do six weeks, whether to do 15 weeks, it's that Florida ballot measure goes much beyond that.
It's that was broad protections, including exceptions for a woman's health as determined by her health care providers, which is what is anathema to these conservatives. Yeah, you know, the politics of this is just so fascinating, Sahil. And of course we know that these anti-abortion groups have frankly been at odds with Mr. Trump over his abortion views in the past.
Do you think this could hurt him politically with that part of his base or does it not ultimately wind up having any impact? Well, it could if he doesn't play his cards right, Chris, and they need each other. You know, Trump needs these voters to show up and he is in uncharted waters right now because this is the first election in about half a century where Roe v. Wade is not on the books republicans had a good thing going politically when it was on the books.
They could continue to push these anti-abortion measures to rally their base, to rally these conservative pro-life voters without any risk of succeeding, without any risk of a backlash on the majority of the countries that supports abortion rights. Now, you know, this is real, that they're firing with real bullets and not blanks and they have to figure out how to navigate. The need to kind of minimize this backlash from most of the country that supports abortion rights while keeping their voters, you know, enthusiastic and engaged and showing up. It's a difficult balance that Trump is, you know, the first president who has to strike because he is the one who as he frequently brags about was able to overturn Roe v.
Wade after many years and decades of trying. Yeah, and that's the point that Democrats will not let anyone forget Sahil, thank you so much for breaking all of that down for us. Carolyn, let me turn to you on the issue of abortion. As we mentioned, 10 different states are actually expected to vote on an abortion measure.
How much diversity is there amongst these different amendments or do they look quite similar? A lot of them look very similar and I, you know, I've been talking with anti-abortion advocates, especially who are on the ground and who are feeling really down about their prospects. They really think that these measures are going to pass and are really going to reshape what abortion access looks like in this country. Florida is the biggest one that people are paying attention to because the most abortions happen there.
It's the third largest state before this latest ban to the fact which ends abortion access at six weeks of pregnancy, there were 80,000 abortions that were taking place there every year. So that is the one that all of the advocates are really focused on. So I do think that whatever President Trump comes out to say about Florida, that will be a really important thing to watch. I think you're absolutely right about that very quickly.
I mean, Florida is not a swing state. Arizona, Nevada are, and amendments protecting access to viability are pretty popular in those states. Based on your own reporting, are you surprised to see numbers that are this high, 73% for yes and Arizona, 75% for yes in Nevada? I'm not surprised at all, Kristina.
I mean, I've been talking with a lot of pro-choice Republican women, many of whom are getting out there to try to volunteer and make these things pass. You know, they are staunchly for abortion rights. This is something that they care deeply about. It's a very emotional issue, a very personal issue, but they still say they're voting for Donald Trump despite their support for abortion rights, race measures.
And that bottom line point is really the critical one to keep in mind, Bridget, let me turn to you. A majority of Americans say that they support access to abortion. How do you see this playing out? Well, you're right.
We've seen in poll after Florida poll that this is popular among a majority of Americans. In a recent poll, 60% about supported access to abortion in their state for any reason. That includes about a third of Republicans. And we've seen that again consistently in polling at the dear to your point.
And you know, it's a real question of whether these ballot initiatives are going to boost turnout, help boost Democrats up and down the ballot, those polls that you mentioned also showed really close races still in Arizona and Nevada, even despite that broad support for those amendments. So they're still looking at really close races here. Yeah. And I mean, Bridget history tells us part of what we could expect to see, which is that in the midterms, we saw it drive turnout up and in special elections over the past several years, it has had an impact.
Right. We've seen Democrats really capitalize on this issue. In the midterms, for example, according to exit polling, about a quarter of voters said abortion was the most important issue to them. Of that group of voters, three and four supported Democrats, overwhelming numbers for Democrats here.
Now Republicans, I've talked to have said this is a problem for them, that they need to not let what happened in the midterms happen again, or in their view, Democrats are really able to define them on this issue. They want to be more proactive saying what they support, what they don't support, but it remains to be saying if that's going to land with voters. It really does. In Carolina, Bridget touches on such an important point, which is that we have seen this really drive and turnout voters and really enhance enthusiasm in these key races, and Trump has tried to kind of navigate these very tricky waters.
And to some extent, he has, of course, he takes responsibility for overturning Roe v. Wade. And then at the same time, I just interviewed JD Vance this weekend, he told me that Trump would veto a federal ban on abortion. Do the mixed messages confuse voters?
How do they play with voters? It's fascinating, Kristin. I mean, I have been talking with women who, you know, these pro-choice Republican women, who are convinced that many of them, that Trump has actually pro-choice. They, you know, and I say, well, you know, what about Roe v.
Wade, you know, that wouldn't have happened without the justices that he appointed to the Supreme Court. And they sort of, they tend to, I mean, this is all they do, but the ones that I've spoken to can wave out of the way and say, you know, oh, you know, but, you know, he's really, you know, doesn't really care about this issue, and look at the things that he's saying now. I do think that this sort of back-couling, you know, I think that voters kind of see what they want to see in it. Do you think this new announcement on IVF as Garrett points out, it's more of an idea than a plan because there's so many unanswered questions?
Do you think this gains traction? I mean, we started to see this fight play out on Capitol Hill earlier this year when a number of Republicans voted against expanding access to IVF. Well, yes, exactly, and that included Jimmy Vance. I think that, you know, we have to see, this is a very really early days for this policy being announced.
But I, the voters that I've spoken to so far are just a little bit confused. They're not sure. They want to know more. So I think a lot will hang on, you know, the next couple of weeks as they're explaining this policy more.
Is it going to hold up? I think voters will be interested and will pay attention to that. Well, and Bridget, to that point, I mean, voters broadly favor expanding access and supporting IVF. Trump knows that.
That's part of the kind of programming that we saw yesterday when you rolled out this policy. Talk about what you see in the numbers there. Yeah, that's right. Like you said, we do see overwhelming support for this among Democrats and Republicans, too, which you might be thinking, why are we talking about this?
We all agree about this, right? But this is part of the broader case that Democrats are making against Republicans, that IVF broader reproductive rights are at risk with Republicans in charge. And, you know, we haven't seen Trump really be able to move the numbers on his issue. You know, he's insane for months that he supports IVF.
He supports exceptions. But we've seen that Harris continue to have a big advantage. It's one of, if not the best, issue for her in polls when they're tested on a range of issues. What's so striking is, of course, she, prior to taking over the top of the ticket, really became the person who was most outspoken in the Biden administration on this issue.
Bridget Bowman, thank you so much, Caroline. Really appreciate it. Thank you for your great reporting. And coming up next, President Harris speaks out about her day one priorities and what's next for her campaign.
The mayor of Savannah, Georgia, who spoke at Harris' rally in the battleground state, joins me next, plus setting the stage, how both nominees are preparing or not, to debate each other for the first time. You're watching the press now. Welcome back. As we mentioned, Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for her much anticipated first formal interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
Alongside her running, Nate Tim Walts, Harris was pressed on some of her policy positions that have changed since her 2020 presidential one. Her response, which she invoked multiple times, was quote, my values have not changed. Take a listen to a little bit more. Dan, I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed.
We have set goals for the United States of America and by extension the globe around when we should meet certain standards for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as an example. That value has not changed. My value around what we need to do to secure our border. That value has not changed.
I spent two terms as the Attorney General of California, prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, violations of American laws regarding the passage, illegal passage of guns, drugs and human beings across our border. My values have not changed. Joining me now with more on the Harris interview is WBC News White House correspondent Aaron Gilchrist. Aaron, thanks so much for joining me this afternoon.
So there were a lot of questions about whether the Vice President would answer why she had changed for her positions since 2020. How specific did she get? What are the big unanswered questions? Yeah, I think there are still some questions about what wasn't answered during the course of that interview, right?
We do know that this issue of fracking in particular is something that is really important in battle ground state Pennsylvania, for example, and so it was something that we knew was going to come up and that she would have to address. And as you said in her response to that line of questioning was really to say that her values haven't changed. She was talking about the issues around the climate crisis, which she said is a real problem. We know that back during the 2020 campaign, I think when she was still a candidate for President, she said that she would ban fracking.
And then when she became the Vice Presidential nominee, she said that President Biden would not ban fracking. That she would not ban fracking. Last night in the interview, she reiterated that. She made the point again that she said she wouldn't, then and she wouldn't ban fracking now.
And then as you know, there were other things, other topics, other areas where her positions have changed over time. And she spoke to them by saying that she believes it's important to build consensus and to find common ground suggesting that in the time that she's been Vice President Kristin, she's been able to sort of be at the table, be in the room when some of these big issues are being talked about not in a political way, but as a matter of policy setting, looking at the issues as they are real in the moment when you're actually Vice President, potentially that her positions have adjusted to some degree now that she's in the job. Yeah, it's a really great point. And you know, it's interesting, Aaron, because one of the big questions I think so many people have is how would a Harris administration differ from a Biden administration?
Did she give us any clues into that last night? Yeah, I think that was something that Dana Bashner interviewed tried to get at. The Vice President offered praise of President Biden and said that she was proud of the record that the Biden Harris administration has had to this point in the legacy that President Biden will have. At the same time, she did try to sort of separate herself a little bit.
I think she suggested that there are still a lot of serious issues facing the country. The problems that American families have to deal with and that she feels as though there needs to be an effort on her part, there will be an effort on her part to move forward. That's a word that we hear a lot from this campaign, the idea of forward motion for them and trying to address some of the issues perhaps differently than has happened during the Biden Harris administration. She also talked about turning the page in terms of how she believes President, former President Trump has positioned the country.
I want you to hear a little bit of what she had to say about that. I'm so proud to be running with Tim Walz for President of the United States and to bring America what I believe the American people deserve, which is a new way forward and turn the page on the last decade of what I believe has been contrary to where the spirit of our country really lies. The last decade, of course, the last three and a half years, has been part of your administration. I'm talking about an era that started about a decade ago where there is some suggestion warped, I believe it to be, that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, instead of where I believe most Americans are, which is to believe that the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.
And, Kristen, Vice President Harris has been really good about staying on message throughout these last several weeks that she's been the nominee, you saw that again in the interview last night, talking, I think, giving you sort of a longer answer about not going back, something that she speaks about a lot on the campaign trail. I think you'll hear more of that in the debate coming in a little more than a week, Kristen. Oh, I bet we will. Aaron Gilchrist, thank you for breaking it all down for us.
Really appreciate it. Joining me now is Savannah Georgia's Democratic Mayor, Van Johnson. He met with Vice President Harris on her bus tour of Southern Georgia this week. Mayor, thanks so much for joining me.
Thank you so much as a privilege. Well, it's a privilege to have you. Let's start off talking about this visit to Georgia. She was in Savannah.
Why do you think she chose to go to Savannah? Why is that so critical to winning the state? And is it possible to win the state, this election cycle for Democrats? Well, first of all, Savannah is the greatest city on Earth.
So of course she would come to Savannah. But that being said, we are convinced that the road to the White House goes through the state of Georgia. But the lane to that road goes through Savannah and coastal Georgia four years ago, we were able to make history by not only sending President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House, we were also able, in the midst of Republican states, to send Savannah's own Reverend Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff to the Senate. So the fact is, is that Georgia has shown herself to have an independent mind, to think independently.
And certainly, we believe we could do that again. Fortunately for us, we have a record to show about partnerships with the Biden-Harris administration. We have the receipts, so to speak. And so they consider us partners.
And so I was glad they were here, not only to see Savannah, but also coastal Georgia, some of the rural areas outside of Savannah, to see how folks live. You know, Mayor, you bring me to my next question, which is about Senator Warnock. He is someone who has driven up turnout, who has helped Democrats to do that. He's not on the ballot, though.
This election cycle, how concerned are you that that could make it more challenging for Vice President Harris, Governor Tim Walz, to win the state? Well, elections are always about people, but elections are also about message. And so we believe, really, that this race is really big in the Democrats. We believe that Vice President Harris and Governor Walz has a message that speaks to America, that speaks to Georgians.
And not only do we believe that their message resonates with Democrats, we believe it does to independence in a big way, and also to Republicans that have open minds. We want people to vote their interests. And I'll tell you that the folks, not only in Savannah, but in rural Georgia and coastal Georgia, the issues that Vice President Harris speaks to, are issues that folks here deal with every single day. I believe that that message will resonate with people, and even though some people might be staunch Republicans, they're going to vote their interests and interests are best served by Vice President Harris.
Mayor, let's talk about Vice President Harris's first interview last night. One of the big unanswered questions was how a Harris administration would differ from a Biden administration? Do you have any more insight into the answer to that question after last night's interview? Well, I don't, in that case, but of course, I've been around for a while.
And I know I've served as Mayor Pro Tem, so to speak, before I became there. So you have ingredients that have worked really well before, and then you have the opportunity to put your own flavor on it. I mean, she's not going to be the identical to the Biden administration because she's not identical to President Biden. You know, there are things that worked really, really well.
They have shown how they could work collaboratively with Congress to get things done. I think she will take that same energy, but most importantly, her passion, her ability to connect with people, and she will craft her own way in a Harris presidency. So I think, you know, at the end of the day, she becomes who she is. And she has four years of good experience, cities, trust her, states trust her, and we think she'll be an excellent president.
Well, let me ask you, because she was pressed on some of her stances, which she has shifted since 2020, when she ran into primary, including she initially supported a ban on fracking, she supported decriminalizing the border. She said, quote, my values have not changed. Do you think that answer is good enough, or does she need to do more to explain to voters? How has she gotten point A to point B?
Well, I'll tell you this. I'm not the same person I was some years ago. My values haven't changed either. My view sometimes has changed.
You know, when we know better, we do better as we evolve, as we listen to people, as we become more educated, as the conditions change, as we work with others across the aisle to get things done, then our views sometimes do change. And so that's how you get things done. I don't expect a Kamala Harris of 2024 to be the same Kamala Harris of 2020. I don't think any of us are the same person that we are.
And I think we lead the values, we have a record of public service in which she's shown her values, she's shown her North Star. I think some of that is transparency and a commitment to public service. And we use that to be her guiding star as she goes forward through his campaign. You know, she was asked about some of the attacks by former President Trump against our including the recent one where he said she recently turned back.
She said that's just the old familiar playbook. Next question dismissed it. She has not really wanted to talk about race or gender or the historic nature of her candidacy. Do you think that's the right strategy or should she lean into it a little bit more as we saw with Secretary Hillary Clinton back in 2016?
I say good for her. You know, those are dog whistles. It's important for her to make history, but it's more important for her to make sense. Her candidacy makes sense.
She will be the president of the United States that happens to be one of the color. We'll be very proud of that history. But I think we'll be proud of the sense that she makes the common sense approaches. The thoughtful people centered forward thinking innovative approaches as she brings to our presidency.
I don't want her to get caught in the dog fights that President Donald Trump wants. He wants to get into this go to type of stuff. She's rising above that. I'm glad that she is and she's moved on.
She has a country to run and run in a big way. All right, Mayor Van Johnson, thank you so much for your time. We'll be talking to you along the way. Really appreciate it.
I look forward to it. Thank you so much. All right. Coming up next, you are looking at live pictures of former President Trump's campaign rally in battleground Pennsylvania, where he's set to speak just moments from now.
The panel's next. You're watching the press now. Stay with us. Welcome back.
We're now just 11 days from Donald Trump and Kamala Harris' first scheduled debate, and my colleague Kimi Shausendor has new in-depth reporting on how the Vice President is preparing. According to multiple sources, Harris' main goal is to stay calm and avoid being pulled into former President Trump's personal attacks. One source, though, says the team is also focusing on how to rattle the former President and get under his skin. Harris also plans to articulate how her administration would be different than President Biden's, something she notably did not do in that interview last night, as we've been discussing.
For more, I'm joined by my panel. She'll be Talkit, politics reporter for a semaphore. Simone Sanders, talented former chief spokesperson for Vice President Harris, and now a co-host of the weekend on MSNBC, and Mark Lauder, Director of Strategic Communications for Donald Trump's 2020 campaign. And now, Chief Communications Officer at the America First Policy Institute, thanks to all of you for being here.
I want to get through a couple of topics because we have no shortage of them on this Friday before Labor Day. Shelby, let me start with you, and Donald Trump's big announcement on IVF. He says he wants to make IVF free for people and families who want that and need that. A lot of unanswered questions, including at the top of the list, who's going to pay for that.
How do you see this playing out, and could it basically dent some of the backlash from Roe v. Wade being overturned? Yeah, I think it absolutely could. That's the risk of frustrating those anti-abortion activists.
And we already saw, based on both his IVF comments and his comments on the six-week abortion ban, that a lot of these anti-abortion activists were immediately frustrated. Now, do I think, at the end of the day, they're going to go and not vote for him? I'm not convinced, right? But I think it represents how this dynamic has shifted.
Donald Trump no longer believes that he really needs this group. He believes that he's already overturned Roe v. Wade. He's already done all of this for them, and at the end of the day, they're going to vote for him.
Mark, that's the critical question. Will they? Or be an enthusiasm gap, because of exactly, as Shelby's saying, some of them will be disappointed or expressing the fact that they're frustrated, particularly over his comments about abortion, signaling that he might support this amendment that would basically overturn the six-week ban. Well, I think he'll still be a huge champion on the life issue in the states, and so he's very valuable in that respect.
So I would think that pro-life groups and pro-life individuals would still, for the most part, come out and support him. I also think, too, that when you look at the broader issues, it's not just going to be, yes, there are single-issue voters, and this is one of them. But I think most of them are also going to say, my groceries are gas costs too much, the borders wide open. And for all of these reasons, I'm choosing Donald Trump, who's also pro-life rather than Kamala Harris, who believes in abortion up to birth.
Well, and Simone, let me get you- I'm sorry, I had to laugh at Mark, because if I know abortion up to birth doesn't happen. Then I'll allow it. Well, just to be clear, and what Simone's saying is basically that abortions later in term happen when there is a medical crisis, typically, and it's less than 1% of all abortions, but Simone, look, I interviewed Senator JD Vance on Sunday. He said- Thank you.
Thank you very much. He said to me that, yes, Donald Trump would veto a national abortion ban, veto it, if it came to his desk. Senator Elizabeth Warren came on the show moments later and said, American women aren't stupid, we're not going to buy that. But as Democrats see him making these statements, unrolling these positions on IDF, for example, is there some trepidation that it could diminish some of the enthusiasm that they've had around this issue?
I don't think it could diminish the enthusiasm Democrats have had around the issue, but I want to underscore, bold and underscore Shelby's point, because if you- and perhaps into what Mark was saying, because it's kind of similar to, for lack of a better term, the Hamas, if you will, the war between Hamas and Israel on the left for Democrats, right? People who are- that is the issue that is very important to them. It's very important to a lot of Democrats, but are you going to not vote for Kamala Harris if you are Democrat on that issue? Or are you going to say, uh, differences about this, but I'm sitting under the polls and perhaps some of the pro-life folks on the- within the Republican Party apparatus may take that tactic.
They might say, no, this is very important. I'll stay home. I don't think that is what it diminish the Democrats' enthusiasm. However, I think that when it comes to, and you saw this in Vice President Harris' interview last night, she talked about her values when talking about where she is on some of these issues.
The- the issue is people don't know where Donald Trump's values are, and I think when it comes to that, the voters then may say, moderate voters, not based Republican voters, but like moderate voters, independent voters, people who say, I don't really know. On that, I think Donald Trump could be in hot water, because you're- you're all over the place on this. But what do you believe? He believes, but we can't see what he has done.
I actually find that to be hilarious, because we actually don't know what Kamala Harris believes. All the things that she ran on in 2019 and 2020 have changed, but her values supposedly haven't changed. She really doesn't have a policy position moving forward, and people know where Donald Trump is. Low taxes, low inflation, big on American energy, secure the border, end the wars.
This is not a difficult decision. Well, you guys, it took me beautifully to my next topic, which is Shelby, this topic of the interview, and these questions that Kamala Harris was pressed on. I mean, did she do enough to fill in the blanks? She did talk about, yes, my values have not changed.
Do you think there are more unanswered questions about her policy positions? Oh, absolutely. I don't think anybody could answer all of the policy questions in a 20-30-30 minute interview. I could probably sit down with Donald Trump for four hours and still not get all the answers I want.
But what I do think is notable about what Mark said is you saw immediately after Kamala Harris came out and made that comment about how her values haven't changed, but some of her positions have. That was immediately used by Republicans to go on the attack. They've said, okay, well, your values haven't changed. Well, then here's what you said back in 2019.
What about that? And so I think that's going to be something that she's going to have to answer further and figure out how to answer and give maybe a more solid, more in-depth response to. The quote will come back. Maybe I read it wrong, but I actually thought it was a good anger because she said that and then gave an example.
And I thought this example of saying that she cast a tie-breaking vote to allow for more leases, more drilling leases in the United States was a good one. And then where she ended is maybe where she should have started where she said, because then I pushed her and said, what happened that really made the change for you? And she made the point that said, look, I see that you can grow the economy and you don't have to be in fracking. Okay.
But when tasked, when confronted with the question of will you vote to do this thing, she voted for it. Whereas Donald Trump, and I mean, I think that the questions of what they do is really important here, because anybody can say anything, but what do people do? And the former president, he has not, he put the justices on the court, the overtime role versus way. He has bragged about that.
He has said every time, every single time he has been confronted with what to do and what he says, it, it, it, it dovetails with the opposite of what he's telling us now. But he also had low grad grocery prices, low gas prices, a secured border in a world that wasn't at work. Yes. Make me have all the babies where you do not support me and lower the, lower the, lower the gas.
Got it. Guys, this is the backdrop to the debate in just 10 days. I mean, Shelby, the stakes could not be higher. There's a whole debate about the debates, whether the mics are going to be muted, the hairs campaign wants them to be unmuted so that she can jump in because they think the Trump's going to derail himself.
Yeah. And you know, I've said this before. I was actually confused when Joe Biden's team came out and wanted the mics muted because we saw what happened back in 2020. It did not help Donald Trump.
He is better when the mics are muted because he isn't able to, you know, do these distracting aggressive comments. And so it is notable that this time around, Kamala Harris would campaign have realized that maybe they should have had the mics unmuted. Now, will they be muted or unmuted? I have a feeling that at the end of the day, it seems like ABC News has said, listen, these are the rules, we're going to have them muted.
That could help Donald Trump. You know, it's interesting, Mark, because the Trump campaign was asked how Trump is preparing. He famously does not prepare in a traditional way. He's been holding these policy discussions.
One campaign staff said, look, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Do you think that's a smart way to prepare for this face-off? Well, I also think something as simple as, you know, we obviously know that Tulsi Gabbard is helping to prepare him. She moderated a town hall with him last night in Wisconsin.
So he is preparing. She's asking questions. He's kind of game testing these answers out. And, you know, obviously, this is how he likes to prepare and as long as he's on the road and being able to do those things, think he's preparing in his way.
I mean, you mean, I was going to say. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I had to meet you in my head because I was going to say Yamiche has this great reporting on how she is preparing, which includes really trying to get under his skin, Simone.
How can she do that? And do you think that that's effective? I think that dismissiveness is always effective where it relates to Donald Trump. He does not like to be dismissed.
And I think that could rile him up more to, you know, say the one-off comment. But again, his one-off comment can be, Donald Trump is allowed to say anything. And so this not allowing the personal attacks to rile her or to have a response that could be off-kilter is also important to it. And I also think that that's going to be the basis of how this debate goes is can Donald Trump show up and be disciplined and be on message?
Or is Kamiche going to be able to get under his skin and that alone could determine who wins the state? That is always the big question. We saw how important debates are with the last one. Yes.
Yep. Thank you guys. Great conversation. Shelby, Simone and Mark really appreciate it coming up after the break on the very latest from the Middle East to Samas in Israel.
Agree to a rare pause in fighting in some places in order to vaccinate Gaza's children against polio. That's next. You're watching with the press now. Welcome back.
While mediators in the Middle East try to secure a permanent end to hostilities in Gaza. The World Health Organization announced that Israel and Hamas have agreed to temporary zoned pauses to allow the distribution of the polio vaccine. Now earlier this month, Palestinian health officials confirmed that 10 month old baby had contracted polio, leaving him partially paralyzed. It's the first case of polio detected in the Gaza Strip in 25 years.
The vaccination campaign is set to begin on Sunday in central Gaza before moving to southern Gaza and then northern Gaza with the goal of vaccinating 640,000 children under the age of 10. Joining me now is Raf Sanchez in Tel Aviv. Raf, thanks so much for joining me. So let's talk about this plan for temporary causes.
How much confidence is there that this zoned pause will hold? So Kristin, as you said, this is an incredibly complicated vaccination campaign. It's happening in the middle of a war zone. And it depends entirely on these pretty fragile pauses that Israel and Hamas have agreed.
First one starting on Sunday for several hours for three days in central Gaza to begin rolling out these more than a million vaccines. And as we've seen at points throughout this war, all it takes is one Hamas fighter, one Israeli soldier to start shooting, and potentially these cease fires can collapse. The hope here among the United Nations, among humanitarian organizations is that it is really not in anybody's interests for polio to begin spreading in Gaza for the first time in 25 years. That disease could be a threat.
So the broader Israeli population beyond Gaza is obviously an acute threat to the families of Hamas members inside of Gaza. So the hope is that these temporary pauses will hold, but there are a whole lot of challenges here, even if they do. I'll give you just one example. These vaccine doses have to be kept cold in order to keep them viable.
There is very little, reliable electricity inside of the Gaza Strip right now. So the UN is bringing in a lot of cooling equipment, but a big, big challenge at Kristin. What a complicated challenge for sure. We know as you point out so well, Raf, how delicate these pauses and fighting can be.
Let me ask you about what's happening in the West Bank, the raid there. Now, it's their day. Has Israel laid out a clear goal and endgame there? So they say that they are trying to stomp out terrorist groups supported by Iran, operating out of the West Bank and carrying out attacks against Israelis.
It is not at all clear what victory would look like as Israeli forces continue to operate in several cities in the occupied West Bank. And there's no real timeline at this point. Israel says that they are assessing this day by day. They are saying that they killed a local Hamas commander in the northern city of Janin earlier, as well as several of his accomplices.
Hamas are confirming that because this is causing just absolute chaos for the many hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. People are fleeing their homes. And what we are seeing on a fairly large scale now in the West Bank is Israeli airstrikes, which is not something that we used to see previously. Raf, since as you've been covering this conflict from the beginning, please continue to stay safe.
Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. And coming up, we'll have new developments. And another ongoing deadly conflict investigation is now underway after a deadly F-16 crash.
Just weeks after Ukraine's military received the long-awaited US made fighter jets. You're watching at the press now. Welcome back. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hosted his Ukrainian counterpart at the Pentagon today, reaffirming America's commitment to Ukraine and its war against Russia.
It comes as Ukraine's military continues to make gains in its incursion into the Kursk region, claiming control over 500 square miles of Russian territory and capturing hundreds of prisoners of war. While Ukraine is finding success in this latest military offensive, it has also suffered a devastating setback after a US-provided F-16 fighter jet crashed while repelling Russian strikes, killing the Ukrainian pilot. Ukrainian and US officials are now investigating the cause of the crash. It's the first reported loss of an F-16 jet in Ukraine after the US began delivering the planes last month.
Joining me now is retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commander of US Army Europe. Thank you so much, General. Really appreciate it. Thanks for the opportunity.
So let's start right there with this horrible news, this F-16 crash. What are the implications of this and what's your reaction? Well, of course, it's terrible for the family who loses the loss of the pilot and is terrible for his colleagues. But I mean, this is a war.
And the F-16s were never provided not by the United States, but by other European countries. They're not magic. I mean, it's about how they're employed and it looks like Ukrainians were already having positive effect using them in a air defense role. And of course, there may be other losses, but this is what Ukrainians have to do to protect their fellow citizens.
Lieutenant General, let me ask you, do you think that it could jeopardize the Biden administration, other allies providing Ukraine with more F-16s, more fighter jets that are needed? No, not at all. I mean, first of all, of course, there's always an investigation after any aircraft goes down in any circumstances. But this should not affect whether or not nations provide an F-16 to the Ukrainians.
We don't really even know why it went down yet. There's only speculation. The fact is F-16s, air power, is an important part of Ukraine's ability to defend itself. We should have been providing these things two years ago.
They're just now arriving because we, the United States, have hesitated for so long to provide capabilities that Ukraine really needs to defend itself. Well, Ukraine's defense minister was actually the Pentagon today. There are reports that he was there to present Secretary Austin with a list of potential targets inside Russia that Ukraine is looking at potentially striking. Do you anticipate that the administration will sign off on additional targets inside Russia?
Well, of course, I wish they would. These bad policies are about limiting what Ukraine is able to do as a direct reflection of the failure of the administration, which by the way has done so many good things otherwise for Ukraine. But our failure to clearly identify a strategic objective for this war, that we want Ukraine to defeat Russia. If you don't have a clearly defined objective, it's very difficult to have good policy, and that's where we are right now.
Just zooming out a little bit for folks here who care deeply about what's happening. What is the state of this war right now? Because Ukraine has now gone in to Russia, but Russia has not backed down. What is the state of the war?
Is there any hope that there will be peace talks at some point in the near future in the next year even? Well, you know, peace talks is not the objective. The objective is helping Ukraine reestablish sovereignty over all of their country and for the whole world to see that the United States and the West, we are determined to protect things like sovereignty, international law, human rights, international agreements. If we can't do it against Russia, where it's much simpler in Europe, then it will be in the Pacific.
And I think the Chinese will draw conclusions that we're not committed to that. So I think actually it's useful to keep in context that this war has been going on for more than 10 years. And Russia had all the advantages, and they still control less than 20% of Ukraine, and they've lost 600,000 troops. I think Ukraine has changed the narrative of this conflict, the momentum with their counter offensive intercourse.
And I think the Kremlin is very worried right now about what's going on. Let's end general very quickly. We just have about 20 seconds here. How closely do you think folks are watching the election here, the very different perspectives and what their age should continue to Ukraine?
Well, I think the president needs to explain to Americans what happens in Ukraine affects people in Missouri and Oklahoma and California and New York. It's about our economy. It's about deterring China. And we don't want to have American troops in the war in Europe.
So to do that, you make sure that Ukraine defeats Russia. It's the same. All right, General Ben Hodges. Thank you very much for your perspective.
We will be back Monday with more of the press now. And if it's Sunday, it's me, the press on your local NBC News station, I'll have exclusive interviews with Congressman Ro Khanna and Senator Tom Cott do not miss it. The news continues with Christine Romans and for Hallie Jackson right now. Hey, everyone.
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