Meet the Press NOW — August 5

Welcome to Meet the Press. Now I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington as we begin with breaking news on Wall Street after a tumultuous day for markets across the globe. At points today the Dow was down more than a thousand points, driven by uncertainty about the health of the U.S. economy.

The trading day is about to end with a ring of the closing bell. You heard it there. And let's take a look at where all three major U.S. indexes closed today.

All of them in the red. You can see the Dow down almost three points, the Nasdaq down almost three and a half points, and the S&P falling just short of losing three percent today. The sell-off began overnight with Asian markets getting hammered. Japan's Nikkei index fell 12 percent.

It's the single worst decline since the 1987 crash on Black Monday. The losses then swept through Europe where stocks fell more than two percent. Meanwhile, market volatility is at its highest level since the early days of the pandemic in 2020. So what's triggered all this anxiety?

Well, apparently it's in large part due to Friday's weaker-than-expected jobs report here in the United States. NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Romans joins me. Also with me is CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Leisman. Christine, let's start with you.

I mean, walk us through what happened in the market today, both in the U.S. and around the world. Yeah, I guess that's a reminder, Ryan, that stocks don't just go straight up. I mean, you have seen stock market records again and again and again as the U.S.

economy has been just so resilient. And now these first flickers of that resilience might be fading a bit and that all of these said rate hikes are starting to cool U.S. growth. And the question is, is the Fed behind the curve?

Is the Fed going to be able to thread that needle and start cutting interest rates before, you know, the cooling becomes something more dangerous? So that's the tightrope. To have another metaphor here about what the Fed has to do. They're all really scary tightropes as metaphors, as a matter of fact.

But also you talk about what's going on in Japan. This was truly a global event last week in Japan. The Japanese central bank raised interest rates and then you've got a lot of technical things happening with currencies and the Japanese rate moves. And then you've got the jobs report and all kind of just snowballed today with people taking a lot of profits.

I'll also say, remember, the stock market's up a lot over the past couple of years. So any little reason to take some money off the table, I think people want to do that. So put that in the context for us. Is this just a course correction or could this be something scarier?

Well, you know, the Nasdaq composite is in correction territory, down 13 percent from its record highs. So it has already kind of moved pretty decisively here off of its highs. Does it become something worse than that? You know, time will tell.

But certainly there's been so much enthusiasm in these artificial intelligence chip making stocks. You look at NVIDIA, for example. It is double this year. I think it took five percent off today, but double.

So some of these stocks have done very, very well. And one could argue they were frothy. Valuations in some of these stocks were quite, quite high. So now maybe getting back to a more reasonable level.

So how concerned should the average American be? I'm sure everyone would look at their 401k today and be a little nervous about what they saw over the last 72 hours. You know, it's always days like this that people are trying to figure out what's the log into my 401k account. And I always say, if you're scrambling to find the login, that's not the day to sell.

Those are always the kinds of moves that lose money. They call it market timing and market timers generally regular people who try to time the market always lose. You know, there's something if you're a boring buy and hold investor, these are the kinds of days that help you get things back into more normal perspective. Let you buy stocks a little bit cheaper, Ryan.

OK, that's a good way to look at it. Christine, thank you for the optimism. As always, Steve, let's bring you in now and just help me understand how the U.S. economy could gain one hundred and fourteen thousand jobs and then set off a global panic.

What happened here? Well, I think you got to go back a few days, at least to the narrative here. The Bank of Japan unexpectedly raised interest rates on Wednesday. That sort of started this whole thing snowballing.

And then on Friday, you had the week jobs report. This morning, we woke up to a 12 percent really historic sell off in Japanese stocks. Look, there's this process called the yen carry trade. I don't want to bore you with the details.

People borrow in yen at cheap rates in the Bank of Japan. They buy stuff in the U.S. When Bank of Japan raised those rates, those trades start to unwind. The thing you got to know is we don't know how big it is.

It has to play. It's a process that has to play out. And so the jobs report was a catalyst. It made people rethink the idea of how strong the economy is.

But I don't think it is the reason to panic, so to speak, because the U.S. economy has been relatively strong. It has really surprised for a couple of years, as Christine pointed out, the Fed raised rates over a year ago to 5.38, an historic level compared to back to 1980 when we had the stagflation of that period. And we've been living with these higher rates for a year.

They're finally starting to bite. And the Fed is looking like it needs to cut interest rates here and probably should have cut interest rates before. So the key here is that there's only been one really bad number when it comes to the U.S. economy.

Yes, we are weakening, but I don't think that a recession is imminent relative to just this one number. So talk to us about the process then for the Fed to at least consider lowering interest rates. Could this be something where they take emergency action to calm the markets? Or is this just a signal that maybe they've waited too long to cut rates, as you've suggested?

It's a good question. The market is a little bit over its skis here. It's pricing in a Fed that's going to panic. I don't think the Federal Reserve is necessarily going to panic here.

I think what they're going to do is they're going to take in all the data. We've got a couple of weeks where we don't have a whole lot of data coming about the U.S. economy, so the Fed is going to watch it. It doesn't need again until mid-September.

The market is pricing in the possibility of an emergency meeting. I think that's a low probability event unless the data turns hard south in a hurry. And I don't expect that to happen. If it does, the Fed will react.

But right now, the expectation is the Fed takes a series of measured rate cuts over the course of the rest of this year, bringing down interest rates. And by the way, one of the things happening right now is yields on Treasuries have fallen. Along with that comes lower mortgage rates. You've heard that some guys are, some shops are quoting mortgage rates, 30-year mortgages in the fives.

We haven't been there in a long time. As you know, it's been 7 percent or higher and really hard to find a mortgage and then afford a house right now. So that's come down. There is some immediate relief from this that really comes before the Fed even has to act.

And so that's going to be a help. And then finally, this is a politics show, so we always have to get it back to how this is affecting the average American. Is the stock market really a fair barometer of how the economy is affecting most people that are sitting at home watching this? You know, there's a very funny joke here that is not perhaps all that funny on a day like today when people have lost money.

But the joke is that the stock market has correctly predicted nine of the last five recessions. I'm glad you found humor in that. I got it. That's good.

That's good. I always worry about these economics jokes if they're going to land. The story is that the market can get really excited and really concerned about some things. You know, Christine was just telling you there was probably a lot of overvaluation in those artificial intelligence stocks.

So the market does get it wrong and it's going to need to correct. So part of that is concern about those overvaluations. Look, the stock market is an important economic barometer, but it can lead you astray at times. You want to watch it, see how long this thing maintains.

And I want to reiterate Christine's idea here that it's not a very good time to be panic selling. You should have set yourself up in a balanced way so that you can sleep at night if you have these kinds of corrections. And if you have a program to buy stocks and hold stocks or invest in fixed income, it's a very good day to stick to that program. OK, Christine Romans, Steve Leisman, thank you both.

We appreciate that. The economy, of course, going to be a major issue in the 2024 race. And former President Donald Trump wasted no time trying to capitalize on today's market decline. blasting his Democratic opponent in a series of posts on social media, labeling the downturn a, quote, Kamala crash.

The former president has made a habit of taking credit for positive market moves and then blaming the Biden administration when the news is negative. The Harris campaign so far has been quiet on today's stock market turmoil as they prepare to announce the vice president's running Also, both have Israel have its right to defend itself while also keeping in mind the sort of suffering of children in Gaza. So she's really been very vocal about trying to really make sure that people understand she has the foreign policy responsibilities and the foreign policy experience. And just last week, I broke a story that was about a Muslim leadership council.

It's this group of black Muslims leaders who said that they were uncommitted to Biden in the past and did not want to support Biden outright in the past. They're now endorsing her, the first group that I believe of Muslim Americans who were previously uncommitted, who are now going to be supporting Harris. So she's going to want more and more news like that for people to come out and say, yes, we trust you on foreign policy and we trust you on domestic issues as well. Yimachur.

You already have hundreds of thousands of followers on X or Twitter, whatever it's called now. I imagine that's just going to skyrocket because you're probably gonna have this VP news before anybody else. But thank you for that reporting. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll see. All right, Garrett, let's turn to you and talk about the Trump campaign. We shut the schedule.

Harris is gonna be all over the place. The new running mate gonna be with her. Janine Vance in a little bit. Donald Trump's at Mar-a-Lago.

What's the strategy here? I think the Trump campaign believes they'll borrow some of your metaphors that the dust will settle or the sugar high will wear off here. The metaphor that they've used is that this is a honeymoon period for Kamala Harris. She's been the nominee for basically two weeks.

She hasn't taken a press question or staffer interview or kind of had to go out there and do anything other than to get to know you rallies, which candidate who's going to be popular already will be perceived as more popular. So I think what we're seeing right now is a mix of both intentional strategy and also perhaps not entirely having their arms around the best way to go after her is a tactical decision to hang back a little bit here. See where things settle maybe after the convention and then lean in more robustly as we get into the fall campaign season. So tell me how J.D.

Vance is. Vice presidential nominee plays in all this because he's gonna kind of buttress Harris with all the same states. He's somewhat tried to be the attack dog. He certainly doesn't do it the same way Trump does.

What's his role? Yeah, look, this is sort of a traditional bracketing operation. Vance is going to appear in the same state as Harris and almost all of these stops. He's going to be in Michigan and Wisconsin.

He's gonna be in North Carolina. I don't know that he's gonna make it out west. He was already out west last week for some other campaign stops. So I'd be surprised to see him go all the way back out there.

These are not rallies. These are not large scale events. They're basically talking to the press. You know, probably they basically have us meet at a location.

He'll do like almost a mini press conference, but it gets him in the local news. It kind of forces his way into any story that talks about Harris is here today. So too is Donald Trump's campaign. It's a way to keep them in the conversation at a relatively low cost, essentially.

Yeah, we know that as local news reporters. That's right. Do what you sit, right? Exact.

Exactly. Talk to me, though, about you mentioned, I like this idea that they haven't figured out how to wrap their arms around taking on Kamala Harris. You saw him attack Harris in connection to the stock market. Is that a little bit more difficult because her portfolio is a little bit more narrow as vice president.

She doesn't have a connection to every single policy issue that's out there. I think they would look at it the opposite way. I think they would say she is responsible for everything, even if she can control almost nothing. I mean, this is part of the challenge of running for president as a sitting vice president.

You are tied to the president's agenda and to the president's handling of world events. But you are substantively considered responsible for it. Right. Like whatever goes well, you can take credit for it.

We've seen the White House try to position Kamala Harris as an integral player in world events over the last couple of weeks. Well, now this is the flip side of that coin. You become equally responsible for the negative stuff. That said, Kamala crash, I think a lot of people would argue is probably too cute by half.

We know from observing Donald Trump over the last many years that he looks at the stock market as if it were the whole economy. When it goes up, things must be great for the person in charge. When it goes down, they must be bad. I think it's probably a more simplistic view than a lot of voters will use.

But again, it keeps them in the conversation for basically no cost to trash all day on social media, put a video out and they're doing they're in the attack business. I was in covering that runoff in Georgia back in 2020 and Republicans need to win both those seats in order to get control of the Senate. And I remember being at the first rally that Donald Trump held. And the expectation that he's going to come out and rally the troops for Kelly Loeffler and David Purdue.

All he did was attack, right? Yeah, that seems to be exactly what happened yesterday. I mean, what is the strategy here? How does that help him get votes in a state where Brian Kemp is very popular?

Yeah, I don't see a strategy here. I see somebody who's got an X they can't get over. Basically, I mean, Trump is very much hung up on 2020. And Kemp and Raffensperger in Georgia, he considers them to have been personally disloyal to him, especially Brian Kemp, for whom his endorsement was a major part of Kemp being elected governor in the first place.

But as Republicans in Georgia will tell you, there were thousands of people who voted for the Republican ticket down ballot and left the top line blank or who did not vote for Donald Trump in 2020. He risks the same thing happening here again by engaging in these interpersonal tips. Even Kemp, who's tried to not take the bait, had kind of a interesting response on social media or a bit to a previous attack by Trump. He basically said, I'm working to defeat Kamala Harris, keep my family out of this.

You know, bless your heart, as they would say down south. That just doesn't work very well. It seems, especially in a state where you need every single vote. What was it?

Eleven thousand two hundred eighty. You know, Trump knows the number and he can't afford to lose. Yeah. Thank you, Garrett.

Appreciate it. Now, turning to some breaking news out of Florida, where the second hurricane of the year, Hurricane Debbie, made landfall this morning. Since then, Debbie has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but 10 million people between Fort Myers, Florida and Charleston, South Carolina remain under a flood watch. Parts of Georgia and the Carolinas expected as much as 20 to 30 inches of rain today.

At least four storm related deaths have been reported, including a 13 year old boy who was crushed by a falling tree. As you can see on screen, vehicles on the roads are getting caught in a catastrophic rainfall. More than 250,000 customers are without power across Georgia and Florida. Florida Governor DeSantis and Georgia Governor Kemp have both declared states of emergency and mobilized the National Guard.

Meanwhile, the West Coast of the U.S. is also dealing with natural disasters. More than a dozen states are fighting large wildfires with more than 2 million acres burned. In California, the fourth largest fire in the state's history is now 34 percent contained, scorching over 400,000 acres of land across four counties in California.

We'll be keeping our eyes on all of it. Next, bracing for Tehran's retaliation. Israel is on high alert after Iran promises heavy and swift action in response to recent assassinations of senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials. We're live in Jerusalem.

You're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back. Israel is bracing for what could be a multi-day retaliatory attack by Iran and Hezbollah following the assassinations of two senior militant leaders behind the scenes. I should say behind the scenes, the Biden administration is engaging in a flurry of diplomatic conversations in an effort to tamp down tensions.

This afternoon, the president and vice president met with their national security team in the White House Situation Room to discuss the ongoing situation in the Middle East. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart to discuss steps the U.S. was taking to support Israel's defense, while Secretary of State Blinken spoke with his counterparts from G7 nations about the need for de-escalation. According to Axios, in that conversation, Blinken warned that the retaliatory strikes on Israel could start as early as today.

NBC News has not confirmed that reporting. Joining me now is Richard Engel in Jerusalem. So, Richard, what's the mood like in the region, particularly where you are in Israel? Well, people are bracing for an attack that could come at any moment.

People think that maybe it's going to happen tonight. We heard the same thing yesterday and the day before. It is a country that is living on rumors. People are watching the news.

They are exchanging tips. They are listening to the Israeli army, which says as of now, there is no state, no change in the level of national alert. Israeli officials say they are already bracing for an attack and they have started to make preparations. The leader of CENTCOM, the U.S.

Central Command, is here. He's a guest of the Israeli defense ministry. And that's the same situation that happened in April when Mumford & Sons as we get the boys together to talk about their new number one album, "Sighs Fighter," and the evolution of that irresistible foot-stomping sound. You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts.

Welcome back to Meet the Press Now. Two weeks ago, President Biden ended his re-election campaign, and just a few minutes from now, the DNC is set to officially nominate Vice President Harris as their new presidential nominee at the completion of a virtual roll call vote. Joining me now is my NBC News colleague, Alex Seitzwald. So, Alex, we're just a few minutes away from this DNC roll call officially ending.

Is this going to be a unanimous show of support for VP Harris? Yeah, not a lot of suspense about the outcome here. Harris is, after all, running unopposed. There are no other candidates for the nomination.

But there is a question about just how close to 100% of the delegates she will get. After all, all these delegates were elected for Joe Biden, not for Kamala Harris. And he's, of course, endorsed her. But that was not what they were elected to do.

He had just about 99% of all the delegates. There's a handful of others who were uncommitted or went to some other smaller candidates. So those should theoretically all be Harris delegates. And her campaign has worked very hard to get all of them on board.

They've been calling delegates. They've been whipping delegates. They've been treating this seriously. And they want to use that to show that they are not just taking this for granted, but they actually want to win, compete, and win for the nomination.

It's pretty remarkable given how much upheaval there was in the Democratic Party just two weeks ago that we've gotten to this place. I mean, the vote in the books. What comes next? Is this going to be clear sailing for the DNC for their convention?

That's all set to go in Chicago? Yeah, well, it's really unusual for them to be doing this roll call vote ahead of the convention. You know, two weeks after Biden dropped out and two weeks before the convention, this is to get ahead of a deadline in Ohio on Wednesday. It's a ballot access issue where they're worried that Republicans might sue.

So it's a little bit anticlimactic in this moment where, you know, on a Monday evening, she's going to be virtually declared the winner. They will hold at the convention another in-person roll call that they're calling a confirmatory and celebratory or ceremonial, excuse me. So, you know, they're racing to get the convention back up to speed. They had to reprint all those signs that said Biden.

Of course, they had to change the programming a little bit because Kamala Harris wants to put her stamp on it, and everything that had been made for Joe Biden. But it helps that the convention chair already was Mignon Moore, a longtime Democratic strategist, who was one of Kamala Harris's closest advisors. So she, I'm sure Harris felt very comfortable going into the convention knowing that Mignon Moore will do, you know, what she can in the limited time available. And one more funny thing to add there.

They have a new problem, which is a good problem, which is suddenly Democrats want to go to this convention. I heard a lot of kind of grumbling about how sad or boring or, you know, just kind of going through the motions the convention is going to be with Biden. Now they're getting all these donors and, you know, staffers and former officials who were going to skip, who are now suddenly asking for tickets that they have to deal with. All of a sudden it's the hottest ticket in town.

I think reporters probably because in the field the same way that we're initially going to go. But it's a whole different story. Now, Alex, thanks a lot. Thank you for that.

We appreciate it. And as we mentioned, we know when the vice president will announce her vice presidential pick. We know how they're planning to roll out the choice and where they will hold their first rally. But who?

Well, that remains unclear. Let's bring in our panel. They're going to tell us. Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief for USA Today.

Megan Hayes, a former special assistant to President Biden and former Virginia Republican congresswoman Barbara Contex. So, Susan, break the news. What's it going to be? We have a conventional wisdom candidate, and that's Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

The theory being, if you have to win Pennsylvania to win the presidency, it makes sense to choose the very popular governor of Pennsylvania. But we do not actually know if the conventional wisdom is true. Right. And do you think that there's a possibility that there's some dark horse that we're not thinking about?

Or is it pretty much in your mind down to Shapiro, Wilson, maybe Mark Kelly? You know, it's always possible, especially when you have a process that is just speeded up. But I guess I would be surprised by a dark horse. And we have seen some talk that Kelly is out of it.

So but who knows? We'll see. It'll just be hours away. So Megan, from your perspective, is there, do you have a favorite?

Is there someone you'd like to see more than someone else on this ticket? No, I think she needs to go with whoever is gonna make her feel the most comfortable because this is a long, you know, it's only 90 days, but it's still gonna be a slog. Also, this is someone that if you win, you need to be able to govern with. I know when President Biden chose her, it was very important to him to have a governing partner.

So I think that she also needs to be looking for that. I think all three of these men would be great choices. And I think that the American people would be lucky to have them as their vice president. So Barbara, right now, it seems as though the Harris campaign is on a bit of a sugar high here, right?

I mean, everything's going right for them over the past two weeks. Should they be concerned that this is gonna be difficult to keep this sort of momentum? Because this momentum really only got it back to a 50-50 race. Well, I think they've had a flawless rollout.

And obviously, you know, the focus on the vice president is going to be, you know, another great moment to give them, I think, what is actually a very substantive high because it's been a great contrast to, you know, Republicans thought they just had a layup here and it's gonna be great. And they've totally flipped the script. Now, I do think, obviously, that Governor Shapiro is a great pick because Republicans are totally dependent on Pennsylvania. And you have a very popular governor who won by 15% here.

Republicans have been going out, really trying to talk that down. And Democrats can't possibly pick Governor Shapiro. They won't do it. They won't do it.

And so I think that means Republicans will be in an absolute meltdown and panic if Governor Shapiro was picked. Let's talk about the Republican vice presidential nominee in J.D. Vance. He's gonna hit a bunch of these states.

He's also gonna start in Philadelphia. Barbara, I'll start with you because you are the Republican at the table. I mean, talk to me about Vance's role at this point. Can he offer a kind of a buttress to Donald Trump?

Be the attack dog, actually get out and campaign, which Donald Trump's isn't elected to do right now. Well, he's really been unique in that he's gone, he's been negative, received negatively, and his numbers have just gone down since he was selected. And you've had this infighting within the campaign of Mar-a-Lago. Kellyanne Conway, very notably, you know, didn't think he was a good pick and the American people seem to agree.

So he has not gotten footing. The childless cat lady thing has been a disaster. I think we all know here, you know, friends and family who take that to heart and he has doubled down on it. Now his, you know, friends and family have doubled down on it.

That is offensive. You know, this is not something that's going well for him. I would not put him on the ground with him because I think if no matter who is picked tomorrow, I think they should take their whole team on the road with them. You know, everybody that they've considered.

And I think that will be a real contrast to Donald Trump, who's just golfing and attacking other Republican governors. You know, I do have children. I don't have cats. But even I've got it.

I do think that he has been probably the worst vice presidential pick since Sarah Palin. You know, the first rule of choosing a vice presidential running mate is do no harm. And yet what we've seen here is that Trump has been forced to defend what J.D. Vance says when, of course, the rule is J.D.

Vance should be defending whatever it is that Trump is saying. It's interesting that Trump is saying, oh, it doesn't really matter who the vice president is. It's interesting that you compare it to Palin because obviously the history has been written on Palin. But she did at that time provide a boost of energy and excitement in the McCain campaign that they didn't have at that time.

As he did. You know, he was seen with greeted with great enthusiasm at the convention. And when that convention ended, Republicans were convinced they were going to win the White House and sweep the Congress. And up and down the ballot, everything was set.

And then the world turned around. It's pretty incredible to have this conversation different from the one I had last time I was sitting here two weeks ago where everyone thought it was the end of the world for Democrats. Megan, even though things have been solid for them over the past two weeks, this is really still a 50 City. The British government trying to bring this under control, trying to reassure people that this is still a welcoming country for immigrants with new efforts underway to try to clean up the damage and the debris, as well as to make sure that these protests do not last any longer.

All right, Josh Laban, thank you for that report. Coming up, it's this week's big race to watch in Missouri with members of the so-called squad of progressives facing a serious primary challenge, highlighting the Democratic divide over Israel and Gaza. You're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back.

We're just three months until Election Day, but voters in four states are heading to the polls tomorrow for a number of House, Senate and gubernatorial primaries. One high-profile race is in Missouri. That's where Congresswoman Cori Bush is the latest member of the progressive group dubbed the squad trying to fend off a fierce primary challenger. My Capitol Hill colleague Julie Serkin has more.

Democratic Congresswoman Cori Bush is known as a fighter. I believe that we will win. I believe that we will win. It's how she went from being an unhoused single mom protesting on the streets of St.

Louis to a prominent member of the so-called squad in D.C. As progressives, we fight for all the people. Now the activist-turned-politician is fighting for her political life and could become the latest incumbent to lose a primary, facing a competitive challenge from county prosecutor Wesley Bell. Why did you decide to jump in this race after October 7th?

I got in this race because this district needs real leadership. The Congresswoman has a record of giving good speeches, but her record of actually getting things done is just not there. Bush is one of the most vocal critics of Israel's government in Congress, calling Israel's response to the Hamas attack, quote, ethnic cleansing. The only reason Congresswoman Bush has this challenger is because she had the audacity to stand for peace.

A pro-Israel super PAC backed by AIPAC is spending more than $8 million to boost Bell, hoping to repeat the winning playbook that ousted fellow squad member New York Congressman Jamal Bowman five weeks ago. Trying to make sense of why so much money would be spent on a House congressional race when our district has so many needs. bell defending the campaign cash. AIPAC is an interest group.

It's like their clean energy interest groups. Their interest is the Israeli American relationship. Behind Bowman's, the primary Missouri's first district is shaping up to be the second-most expensive in the country, becoming a bitter battle on the airwaves. Wesley Bell is bankrolled by right-wing lobbyists and Trump megadonors.

Cori Bush, the actual Democrat. Cori Bush's attacks are nonstop. But here's the thing, St. Louis, they're not true.

Do you regret anything you've said when it comes to Israel, Gaza? Do I regret trying to work to save the lives of those 40,000 Palestinians who are now gone? No, I don't. I don't regret that because I fight against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

I fight all hatred and all bigotry. The economy, access to abortion, and lowering crime are the top issues here in St. Louis. So can a war hundreds of miles away actually impact this race?

Both candidates say this race is about more than the Middle East. She voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill. She voted against the child tax credit. And I'll be a progressive member of Congress, but I'm also going to be a practical member of Congress.

It was 52 years where, you know, two black men held the seat. I've been in the seat three years and it's enough. He's actually stepping over you as a black woman in this race. Absolutely.

It'd be different if I wasn't delivering dollars to the district. And Julie's back from St. Louis. She joins us now.

And one of the best things about going to a district is you actually get beyond the headlines and you found there's quite a bit of nuance in this race beyond just what the headlines are telling us. There is. Look, it's similar to what happened in Jamal Bowman's race in New York, but it's also not right. This race is not really defined by Israel and Gaza.

Certainly the AIPAC inflow of cash is helping Bell with name ID, get on the airwaves and stand a fighting chance against Bush. But there's also the reality that both Bush and Bell really were the children of the Ferguson movement. Their political careers were sprung by that in different ways. Bell became the county prosecutor, the first black man in that role, while Bush obviously went on to be a black lives matter activist, went on to make her mark in Congress in that way.

And there is also the specter of a DOJ investigation related to Congresswoman Bush. And what's the status of that and how's that playing in the race? Yeah. And Wesley Bell is certainly using that in his attack ads against Cori Bush, right?

This is obviously unusual to have the DOJ investigating a member of Congress when it comes to campaign finances. Bush has said that she's cooperating fully with this investigation. This has to do with now her husband, her romantic partner that her campaign hired to do her campaign security services. So of course that's being looked into also by the ethics committee on the Hill.

Also Bell hitting her for the infrastructure bill vote, which he voted against. She explained that she wanted more progressive policies than that, but you're seeing all those issues come out in this race. But there's a broader conversation too about just the squad's influence, right? They were emerging as kind of a powerful voting block in Congress.

We've seen Jamal Bowman lose. Other squad members have held onto their seats. What will this tell us about the squad's influence? Yeah, Summer Lee, for example, in Pittsburgh, hanging on to her seat, even though AIPAC also infused cash into her opponent.

So obviously these progressive candidates are defining themselves outside of where they stand on Israel, being to the left of their party's mainstream when it comes to that issue. But in terms of working, empowering working classes, you heard Bernie Sanders say as he sort of holds out for his endorsement of Kamala Harris, trying to push this next administration potentially with Harris at the helm to appreciate more progressive platforms. That's not going away even with this issue of Israel and Gaza. And it's a good reminder that we talk about these things inside the beltway, but the politics on the ground are what usually carries the day.

That's gonna be an interesting race tomorrow night. Julie, thanks for going there and bringing that story back to us. We appreciate it. And we will be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now, but NBC News Now coverage continues with 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, 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.