Meet the Press NOW — August 7

If it's Wednesday, the Harris world's battleground blitz begins with back to back rallies in the crucial swing states of Wisconsin and Michigan as the race for the White House and the race to define the Democratic ticket heats up. Plus, Missouri Democrat Corey Bush becomes the second member of House progressive so called squad to suffer a bruising and expensive primary defeat to a Democratic opponent backed by a powerful pro Israel brute. And the Biden administration rushes to ease simmering tensions in the Middle east as Iran and its proxies vow to retaliate against Israel after the assassinations of top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. Welcome to MEET the press.

Now I'm Kristen Welker. The race is on to define the new Democratic ticket as that new ticket hits the trail. This was the scene just ago in Wisconsin as Vice President Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, holding rallies today in two critical Midwestern swing states. The Republican VP nominee JD Vance is also in those same two states today.

The Vance plane, in fact, could even be seen taxing on the Runway right behind Air Force Two at the airport in Eclair, Wisconsin. It comes as the Harris campaign hopes to build on Democratic enthusiasm and momentum while the Trump campaign experiments with new lines of attack. In Eclair, the vice president echoing her newly minted running mate in front of an energized crowd as she made campaign promises on unions and health care. Understand, in this fight, as Tim Walls likes to point out, we are joyful warriors.

Joyful warriors. It comes after Harris introduced Wells for the first time at a raucous rally in Philadelphia, leading into a message launched by the Harris team on day one of her campaign. Look, Tim and I have a message for Trump and others who want to turn back the clock on our fundamental freedoms. We're not going back.

Some of us will not remember when it was Republicans who were talking about freedom. It turns out now what they meant was the government should be free to invade your doctor's office in Minnesota. We respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make. There's a golden rule.

Mind your own damn business. Y' all's also trotting out an attack line that has become a favorite of Democrats in the last two weeks, calling Trump and Vance, quote, creepy and weird. Today, the Trump campaign hitting back in a phone interview this morning, in fact, the former president calling waltz, quote, very liberal while claiming that his election over pen's Jewish governor, Josh Shapiro was proof of anti Semitism inside the Democratic Party. This is a shocking, this is a shocking thing and I think it's Very insulting to Jewish people, and I think it's very insulting to people that want security.

I think it was very insulting to anything having to do with making America great again. The Harris campaign and her supporters say those accusations are patently false. Meanwhile, in Michigan, Donald Trump's running mate, Senator J.D. vance, a Marine veteran, laying into Waltz's military service.

When Tim Waltz was asked why his country to go to Iraq, no, he did. He dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he's been criticized for aggressively, by a lot of the people he served with. I wonder, Tim Waltz, when were you ever in war? When was this?

What was this weapon that you carried in a war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq and he has not spent a day in a combat zone? What bothers me about Tim Waltz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you're not. I'd be ashamed if I was saying that I lied about my military service like he did.

Well, the Harris campaign is responding this afternoon, writing in a statement, quote, After 24 years of military service, Governor Waltz retired in 2005 and ran for Congress, where he chaired Veterans affairs and was a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform. We have a big team of reporters starting us off today. She killed. Brewster is on the ground in Wisconsin following the Harris Waltz rally earlier today.

Garrett Hake is in Michigan, where J.D. vance is campaigning. Also with me as NBC News Washington correspondent Yamich Alcindor. Shak, let me start with you.

You were at the rally in Eclair this afternoon. Talk about the enthusiasm on day two after this Democratic ticket has been unveile. Well, Chris, I'll tell you, among the core supporters here, the people who brave along lines, who came out and dealt with the heat, there was a tremendous energy and enthusiasm around this new ticket. I'll tell you, there are people who are wearing homemade signs that you can tell they made in the past 24 hours because it had the name of both Harris and Walls.

We had people who said that they were taking off work to come here. Look, you see this kind of energy with, with rallies like this. These are things that you normally hear. But when you talk to people, they say this is not how they felt just two and a half weeks ago.

They feel like they have a chance to win this election, and everyone feels as if it's going to be close. But among the supporters, the people who are out here, they feel a new sense of excitement and enthusiasm. You see that working its way up throughout the campaign. I'll tell you, the campaign's about 12,000 people were here.

There's no way to confirm that independently. But there's not just those numbers, but we do know that they raised about 36,000 million into 24 hours after Governor Walz was announced as the running mate. When you talk to local Wisconsin Democrats, they're saying their volunteer numbers, their door knocking numbers are reaching levels that they just haven't seen. So when you talk about the enthusiasm, that translates, the energy, that translates to a ground game.

And you have a lot of Democrats now feeling much more positively than they did just a couple of weeks ago. Well, Shaq, speaking of positivity, a lot of people are taking note of the messaging that we are hearing from Vice President Harris, from Governor Walls. They've been using words like joy. What is the strategy there and what can we anticipate moving forward?

You certainly hear a few things. And you know, one, we know that in terms of this vice presidential pick, there are a lot of people who are frankly unfamiliar with him or have only heard one piece of his biography. So a lot of what we heard on stage was still that introduction for here in Wisconsin. Look, this is almost a homecoming for Governor Walsh because, you know, we were right along not far from Minnesota, we're right along that border.

So there was his family here that he acknowledged when he said Minnesotans, are you in the crowd? I almost want to say the majority of the crowd cheered and raised their hand. So you had a sense that this was a crowd that knew him. But when I talked to people, they didn't know much about him.

They're still learning about him. And that's why you had on stage both Vice President Harris and Governor Walls still introducing themselves to this audience here. But it's truthful because I talked to the head of the Republican, the chair of the Republican Party here in Wisconsin, and he believes that this makes it easier for them. He says that Wallace is too liberal of a candidate, too liberal of a governor, and that's something that they plan to use against him in this battleground state crisis.

Well, that is certainly going to be one of the focal points of this campaign as Governor Walsh tries to introduce himself to American 70% say they are not familiar with him. Shack, Rooster, thank you so much. Garrett Hay, let me turn to you. We, of course today have heard J.D.

vance go very heavy on attacking Governor Walsh for his military service. What is he saying? And talk about the response. This is kind of a classic example of a campaign Trying to use their opponent's strength and turn it into a weakness.

Here you have Democrats are happy to have someone with the military background that Tim Walls has on the ticket. Vance is pointing out two things. Number one, that that Walls basically left his unit, which normally disputes, in 2005, before that unit was set to be deployed to Iraq, Wallace was planning to run for Congress. The Harris campaign points out all the nice things he did for veterans and on the VA Committee once he was in Congress, but the fact that he did not go serve in Iraq, which JD Himself did, albeit as a public affairs officer and US Marines is appoint.

And also there are seizing on a comment that Walls has used in the past to suggest that certain weapons should not be in the hands of regular people. Weapons like what he carried in war. Is the quote from Walls Vance seizing on that and saying, you were never in war, Tim Wall, so what are you talking about there? And the Harris campaign has responded to that too as well, pointing out that Walls both carried trained and deeply familiar with the types of weapons we're talking about here, regardless of having never used them in combat.

So maybe a small thing, but one of the stories that kind of gets out there and could get under some voter skins because it's worth pointing out that the campaign manager of the Trump team, Chris Lavita, you know, the number one or two guy, depending on how you count in the Trump world, is the architect of the Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry. So reaching deep into the playbook here for a very similar way to undermine somebody's military expertise. Well, I think it's so important to bring up that historical reference, Garrett, because I think when you hear J.D. vance make those attacks against dummy of people remembering that moment, you let me turn to you to that point, was the Harris campaign ready for this?

We know that Governor Wall faced similar attacks back in 2022. He was ready for it then. I have to assume he was ready today. 8% of the Harris campaign is ready for these attacks.

But I have to tell you, they're not engaging directly on whether or not he was falsifying his record, his military record. They are, of course, as you said, pointing out that he does have a history of service, both in the National Guard, but also as a teacher, as someone who was a governor, as someone who was a congressional member. So they're sort of leaning on the fact that he someone wants to serve America. And yesterday when he was in Philadelphia, he was also making that point, saying that they want this to be a people power campaign and a people centered administration.

They are elected to the White House. But it's very interesting to see them say, yes, he does have a sort of a long history in the military and joined at 17, has trained people who did go into combat. Sounds what one source told me, but also is not negating directly on whether or not he and Garrett. Let's talk about a little bit more of what we're hearing from the Trump campaign.

This attack line trying to accuse the Harris campaign of not picking, of course the governor of Pennsylvania, Governor Shapiro, because he's Jewish, accusing basically Democrats of bending to what they say is anti Semitism within the Democratic Party. Talk a little bit about that. Did you actually confront the senator about that? That's right.

This is somewhere between a full on attack line and an old fashioned dog whistle where the Trump campaign and their allies, including Nikki Haley, by the way, have either suggested or outright stated that the reason that Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania isn't on this ticket is because he's Jewish and because he has a position that's not compatible with Kamala Harris on the issue of Israel. And basically that Harris might have somehow, you know, bent the knee, to borrow JD Vance's nomenclature, anti Semites, in keeping Shapiro off the ticket. I asked Vance today whether he has any specific evidence of that, especially given the fact that Kamala Harris is married to a Jewish man. Here's what he told I did not say that that was the only reason that Kamala Harris didn't choose Josh Shapiro.

So you should, you know, take a little less DNC talking points when you ask your questions and ask a real question. I have suggested that Kamala Harris was motivated, or at least her party was motivated by anti Semitism. The evidence that I offer for that is what dozens of Democratic activists said in the run up to her selecting her nominee. So Kristen, here, you know, partly an answer, partly way of trying to dismiss or belittle the question.

I think this is one of those things that the Trump campaign hope they could kind of inject into the conversation to create some friction and some disunity in the Democratic Party around this ticket. I'm not sure if it's gonna have any legs, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that kind of whisper campaign continue, particularly at moments where the conflic think Gaza does flare up, does kind of re enter the mainstream of the American public consciousness on this issue, just because I think this is one of the areas where Republicans hope that there is some disunity among Democrats and maybe they can still kind of depress enthusiasm among Democrats on the Gaza Israel issue specifically. Yeah. Watch that closely to see how much traction it does or does not get.

Yamiche, let me ask you about this pick, broadly the decision to pick Governor Walsh. Ultimately, what were the driving factors here? Well, it's a good question and a key question. I just want to engage on what Gary said really quickly, which is that let's remember that the second gentleman you mentioned it there is Jewish American, but he's Jewish American.

He's history making. He's the first Jewish person to be the spouse of a president or vice president. And he's been working on Islamophobia and antisemitism in that role. And I interviewed him a few months ago.

He told me that was really important to him. Antisemitism and Islamophobia especially there are all these Protestants on cause campus. I just want to say that that's a sort of part of what we see when we're talking about sort of their what they were thinking about just making that point that anti Semitism and suggestions of that. They just think that's just not something that would really be accurate.

But that being said, there are a number of things that went into why Walls was picked. And one of them was that he was really just someone that the vice president got in her gut, would be trustworthy, would have her back, would also really resonate with rural Americans and middle Americans that are living in the west states. He's also someone that has just like this biography that you could sort of almost have put into a box and said what are all the things that a VP could be. And here he is with a history of fertility issues with his wife, our name Hope, a teacher, a veteran, a gun owner, a governor, just so many different things that he checks the boxes for it based on my reporting, talking to people in the Harris campaign.

Well, great reporting all around by both of you. Garrett and Namish, thank you so much for starting us off. I really appreciate it. Joining now on set as NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd.

Chuck, great to see you. Nice to see you. So let's talk about we get to your column, but before we get to your col, let's talk about These accusations by J.D. vance that Governor Walson, he was serving the National Guard, left just as the Iraq war was getting underway and he ran for Congress.

That unit was going to get deployed. The Iraq War has been going on for years. Exactly, exactly. But the question is, do you think I mean, Garrett very smartly raises the historical context of this that John Kerry, of course was swift footed and it did become a major issue for him.

Do you see parallels? Well, here's what I would say is at a minimum, I think what the Trump campaign is hoping to do is make it harder to send him into a military community, make it so that this story so when he goes to North Carolina to try to woo where I think he could be helpful to woo military veterans or goes to an Arizona or goes to three states in the battleground that all have higher than average military veteran populations, that at a minimum this story trails them, that at a minimum there's somebody out there asking him a question about it. So this, this is one of those stories where it's sort of does it, does the Harris campaign suddenly not put him in those settings because they don't want. And maybe that's exactly what the Trump campaign is hoping for.

That, you know, this is not, you know, we can, you can sit here and debate. He left. When he left, it doesn't, you know, he was also had kids, maybe he was like, I'm not going and this is the time for me to go. I don't think he'd be the first military veteran who made that decision.

Hey, I had served my time, I had fulfilled my duty that I agreed upon in order to qualify the GI do all those things. But it does probably make it harder for the Harris campaign to deploy him specifically. I have a feeling and certainly what I think the Trump campaign hopes here, I don't think this is one of those where, oh, this, I'm sorry, if you're going to use a phrase he used weapon of war and somehow say he, I think stolen ball is an absurd accusation. If you want to say, hey, you know, he didn't want to go and he decided, you know, look, this is this trail Al Gore, you know, Al Gore never served in a war zone per se, but he went and, but he would never talk about it because he didn't have to go out and see some of the worst stuff.

He used to not talk about it for that reason because he didn't want people to think he was trying to. So look, in the military community this is a very sensitive stuff. And people, you know, now Donald Trump is somebody who got out of serving. So I don't think he can level this, which is why they're having Jackson level this accusation.

But I do think it's more of an attempt to see, hey, is it the way Garrett put it, take what could be a strength and you know, kneecap him on it a little bit. And that could be the end result. I don't look, I don't think he's their explanation. Their best version of it is, yeah, they want to go.

Right. That's not exactly the way to go in with military matters. Yeah. And I think to your point, it will be very fascinating to see if they pull back.

Absolutely. Let's talk about your Colin McAvoy. You say the campaign reset is complete. It's not a Biden Trump rematch.

It's a whole new ballgame. I think sometimes we get jaded covering politics, but looking at the imagery last night, it just struck me the fact that two and a half weeks ago, the Democratic Party was basically warning. Right. And last night, whole different NGC ball game.

It is. I mean, they basically caught up. Here's what hasn't happened, which is why Democrats probably got a temperature enthusiasm. Their enthusiasm has caught up where the Republicans are.

Republican enthusiasm hasn't gotten, you know, we're not seeing, you know, there's a new Wisconsin poll out of one that one's Mark Keppel that shows that, you know, that basically Democrats have now pulled back even on enthusiasm to vote, but still among the most enthusiastic voters, Trump Lee terrorists. So, you know, there is still, they still have a slight advantage on that. So the point is, is that that's what it brings us back to. Essentially we're back to we rebooted the computer and we're back to flatness, meaning we're back to our 21st century norm, which is we're deeply divided, deeply polarized and a small slice of voters is gonna decide to do this very quickly because we're basically out of time.

But that's okay. It was an in depth answer. We needed to hear it. Because of what that your reaction to picking Waltz.

I mean, obviously we haven't seen, you know, since lbj, vice presidential nominee, really helped the top of the ticket win the presiden. LBJ helped Kennedy win Texas. But, well, look, she's one piece of weird history on her side. The last two Democrats to put a Wisconsin state, Minnesota, statewide elected official as a running mate one the presidency.

And both of them didn't get second terms either. It was 76. So, you know, they can look at that. Look, I think when you look at it, which was she has a convention in two weeks.

She's just getting the party back reunited. If thereafter was not reunited. I understand the rationale that says, hey, Shapiro would cause a minor brushfire. Caliwood causes a minor brush fire.

We want no brush fires. Walls gives a no brush fires. The convention's in two weeks. Perhaps this is a different choice if there's a longer run up, but there's not time for brushfires.

From your Perspective Chat. Thank you. Great to be with you. Coming out, the very latest out of Georgia, where the state election board has just approved new rules that critics worry could empower Trump allies to reject or delay the results in November.

But first, the Midwest task. I'll talk to a Democrat who knows a thing or two about battleground voters in Michigan six term. Congressman Dan Kilding joins us from Detroit ahead of today's Harris Waltz rally. That's all coming up next.

You're WATCHING THE PRESS now. Stay with us. Welcome back. After the rally this afternoon, Wisconsin Vice President Kamala Harris and her running matt, Team Wallace are heading east across Lake Michigan for their second event of the day in Detroit.

Joining now from the site of the Harris Walsh rally in Detroit is Michigan Democratic Congressman Dan Kildy. Congressman Kildy, thanks so much for joining. Really appreciate it. Thanks.

Kristen, I want to get your reaction to this extraordinary moment. You were among those who stood by President Biden when some in your party were calling for him to drop out. Now that you see the reception, now that the new ticket is set, what's your take? What's your reaction?

Well, I'm really enthusiastic. I'm all in. I think the president made the right decision. It was my view that he should have given the space to make that choice.

He did. I think it was the right decision for him and the country. This is evidence of what that decision has unleashed. The level of enthusiasm, the number of new volunteers, the incredible outpouring of support, financial support and people coming to events like this is the kind of energy that it's going to take to win what will be a very close race.

Michigan could be a key. Here they are on their first full day as a ticket and here they are right here in my home state of Michigan. I'm excited. I'm enthusiastic.

As you can tell, so are a lot of other people. I can tell them we can hear the crowds behind you. I want to play something that your colleagues, Tom Emmer has to say about Tim Walsh. Take a listen.

This guy who tries to come across as the affable Midwesterner is a left wing radical who under his failed leadership, in just six short years in my state of Minnesota, we've seen taxes skyrocket. Tim Walls is a great pick for the Republicans. It is just going to enhance the radical left shift and the choice is going to be really simple this fall. That Is basically, Congressman, the message that we are hearing from Donald Trump and Republicans across the spectrum.

How do you respond to that? And are you concerned about the policies that Tim Waltz has enacted in the state of Minnesota, that they open up to his attacks? Well, look, I expect that from Tom Emmer, any other Republican operatives. They're going to try to describe anybody who's a Democrat or Republic that they don't like in the most negative terms.

Tim Waltz is a moderate guy who has deployed policies in Minnesota to support families. If they think that that's too far left, to support families that need help or to make sure that, you know, kids have a meal at lunchtime, we can have that conversation, and we will. On the campaign trail, it points to exactly how far out of step with middle America the Republican Party has become. I served with Tim in the Congress.

He and I are good friends. We just spoke last week. He was known to be a guy who was a pragmatic and practical policymaker. They don't like that.

I understand they're gonna try to spin this any way they can, but Tim was a high school teacher. He's a veteran. He's a coach, he's a dad. He's just one of these guys that I think will play really well here in Michigan.

Republicans don't like that, so they're gonna try to create a new narrative around him. My view is let them have them say what they want to say. Tim's authentic con was authentic. That message will break through.

Well, one of his big challenges, quite frankly, is that a majority of voters just aren't familiar with him. In fact, according to the latest NPR Maris poll, 70% of respondents said they don't know who Tim Waltz is and fewer than other folks who almost made the ticket, quite frankly. How does he introduce himself to the American public? And I know he was just picked yesterday, but does he need to flood the airwaves, do interviews?

Obviously, we're expecting to do a debate at some point. How does he introduce himself? Yeah, I mean, I think he needs to be out there for the American people, and we're doing that. He's starting right off, starting in Philadelphia, obviously, in Wisconsin, today here in Michigan.

I'm sure there'll be opportunities for him to sit down and do one on ones, but this is what the campaign is for. We also make sure people know who we are and make sure they understand who Tim Walls is. But here's the thing. They may not know everything about Tim Walls, but they know Tim Walls.

Because Tim Walls is just like the Neighbor down the street. He's a guy who thinks about his family, thinks about his community, and does what he can to make it better for his family and his community. So while they might not know him yet, they actually do know him because Tim is. And he's a friend of mine.

So I say this with a certain amount of bias. He's a guy, once you first meet him, you feel like you've known him your whole life. And I think they're gonna love him when they do that, when they need him. Congressman, I have to ask you about what has really dominated the headlines today.

These attacks that we are hearing from J.D. vance today, questioning Governor Waltz's military service, saying that he retired just as his unit was about to deploy to Iraq to avoid the war. How concerned are you about that line of attack and how do you respond? I mean, the reality is the campaign says, yes, he left after 24 years to run for Congress.

That. But the reality of the timeline has not been questioned. Look, if the Republicans, if Donald Trump, for example, wants to lead a debate over military service to this country and compare himself and J.D. vance, who, while he did serve, you know, we can make an examine his service.

If they want to look at two decades of Tim Waltz's service to this country in the uniform of this country and then serving in Congress versus Donald Trump, who used every trick in the book he could to get out of serving his country, we're happy, believe me, happy to have that conversation. Congressman, are you concerned, though, that this could become a swift vote campaign against him? I think the American people are looking past that kind of. That kind of attack.

We're kind of used to it from the Republicans. Tim Waltz is a wonderful, honorable guy who served his country as a teacher, as a member of the US Military, as a member of Congress, now he's the governor of Minnesota. His record stands on its own merit. They're gonna attack him on everything they can.

They know that his biography is a strength, and that's why they're attacking him. They can always tell when Republicans have fear because they begin to attack. And you know what? Let them do what they want to do.

We're going to tell the story. We're going to make sure we tell a very clear story about the contrast not just between the two visions of America, but between the people on our ticket versus theirs. Again, as I said, if they want to have a debate about the extent to which the candidates for president and vice president have served this country and been willing to do so over the long period of their lives. We are very happy to have that conversation and I think we'll do quite well.

All right. Congressman Dan Kelly, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate your perspective. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Coming up next, the stage is officially set for one of November's most closely watched Senate races. And a prominent House progressive is unseated by her own party of Missouri. Steve Kornacki breaks down last night's key election result at the big board.

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Visit today.comxfinity for full on returns and details. Welcome back. For the second time this summer, a member of the so called squad has lost their primary. Democrat Congressman Cori Bush was defeated by prosecutor Wesley bell in Missouri's first congressional district.

Bush has been a vocal critic of Israel's war in Gaz. And the pro Israel group spent nearly $9 million on ads attacking her and boosting Bell. Her defeat comes less than six weeks after progressive Congressman Jamal Bowman, another critic of Israel, lost in his primary in New York. The stage is also now set in one of the most closely watched Senate races this November.

Sequency is the big board with more on yesterday's results. Yeah, the big headline last night, Corey Bush, incumbent Democrat, member of the so called squad, losing the Democratic primary in Missouri's 1st congressional district to challenge her, Wesley Bell. Obviously, this attracted an unusual amount of attention for a House race. What happened?

Well, basically you could split this district into two parts. There is right here the city of St. Louis itself, Bush. This has been her base in the past she won this by eight points last night.

That's typically what she has done when she won the seat originally in 2020. Similar margin. Where she lost this race last night was an outlying St. Louis county, the suburbs of St.

Louis, she lost that part almost by 15 points to Wesley Bel. When Bush first won the seat four years ago, she unseated a Democratic incumbent. She only lost this portion of the district by four points back then. It exploded about 15 last night.

That's the difference. That's why she loses the other high profile primary last night now that it was competitive at all. But take a look up here. We're going to Michigan in the Senate.

On the Senate side, Republican primary, Mike Rogers easily wins that primary. On the Democratic side, Alyssa Slotkin, member of the House, easily wins that primary. This is an open Senate seat, but this sets the stage for what will be one of the most closely watched Senate races this fall. Senate control obviously on the line.

The reality of the Senate race between Rogers and Slotkin, Democrats, this is really a must to win. See them, they're clean to that tiny Senate majority. They've got a couple of red states where they have seats right now where they're playing defense. They got to get through.

They gotta win two of those three red states and they gotta protect states like Michigan. So obviously this will be a huge, huge race this November. November. See how it plays out.

Thank you so much. We're also following a primary that has yet to be decided in Washington state. Republican Congressman Dan Newhouse is currently trailing Trump back candidate Jared Sessler. Newhouse is one of just two remaining House Republicans still in office who voted to impeach then President Trump in 2021.

While staying on the topic of elections in battleground Georgia, the state's Board of Election has just granted new powers to local officials and Trump allies. The Republican controlled board is now requiring officials to make a reasonable inquiry before certifying any results. Critics worry the vagueness of that wording could wreak havoc come November. Former President Trump, who pressured state officials to overturn the results in 2020, praise the board members by name during a rally in Atlanta over the weekend.

I don't know if you've heard, but the Georgia State Election Board is in a very positive way. This is a very positive thing. Margie country, they're on fire. They're doing a great job.

Three members, Janice Johnson, Rick Jeffries and Janelle King, three people are all pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory. They're fighting. Greg listen is with me now. He's A senior political reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and an NBC News political contributor.

Greg, thanks so much for being here. Really appreciate it. So let's just dive right in. What's the big takeaway here?

What just happened? Well, by the way, I covered that rally on Saturday and some of the loudest cheers went to those three pro Trump members. And what just happened was there's a new rule change that was stalled before because there's now a third member of the state election who's been siding with the pro Trump now majority allowing this rule to go through. And it allows for a reasonable inquiry with the problem here is it doesn't define what a reasonable inquiry is.

And creditory, that basically is a pretext for election board members, not just the state of Georgia, but also county election board members to hold up qualifying, to hold up certifying elections all across the state. And the issue here is it's happened before. Several Republican election board members in two rural counties have refused to certify election results. Earlier, those were overridden.

But now with this new rule change, it could be a major issue after the November election in Georgia, if it's closed at all or frankly, even if it's not close, some major counties can hold up the vote. So just to put a fine point on this, Greg, could this actually mean that election results get overturned? Could that be the result of this rule change? It might be more of a stalling tactic to delay the election results being certified in 2020.

The governor camp, you know, one of the reasons why Donald Trump is speeding with him still to this day is because Kemp certified the election results. He said, hey, the Constitution required me to do so a couple weeks after. In this case, it might not lead to an overturning, but could so doubt it could undermine confidence the election results in Georgia. And we already have that problem.

That poll after poll after poll shows a significant number of Georgia Republicans still have doubts about the elections and still think that Donald Trump won the 2020 race even though he didn't. Well, and just to follow up with you, Governor Kemp, still steering the ship along with Brad Raffensberg. But does this actually take power away from them? How should we think about that relationship?

Yeah, the state election board has shifted some of its power, has more power than it did just a few months ago. Raffensperger is not a voting member of that state election board. It's kind of confusing how it's set up. But you know, it still gives state election board, sorry, Secretary State Brad Raffensperger still has the power to oversee elections.

You, governor camp still has that final say on certifying the vote. So you've been talking to folks there. What has the reaction been there in Georgia to this development? We saw how they responded to the Trump campaign.

But writ large, when you're talking to folks there, what are they saying? Do they have concerns? Well, there's three camps. There are the supporters of this issue who say that the black county election board shouldn't just rubber stamp election results without knowing whether they were accurate.

There are Democrats and voting rights advocates who worry about what we talked about earlier. This just gives a pretext to stall the results and undermine confidence. Then there's the more mainstream Republicans and one of them was the board chair who was appointed by Governor Brian Kentucky, who did not side with this rule. And they also are concerned that these types of rules can be manipulated and taken advantage of and could again sow down election results.

So, you know, it's not a partisan divide here. You have many middle of the road and many, frankly moderate mainstream Republicans who are also concerned about this. All right, Greg Bluestein, always covering all the angles for us. Thank you so much for joining us.

Really appreciate it. Good to see you. After the break, a newly minted Democratic ticket in evolving Republican strategy and the debate over the debate. Bates It's 90 days until the election.

The panel's next. You're watching Be the Press now. I figured I'd come by and the vice president doesn't answer questions from the borders as of set of 4 days. Can you give you guys an explanation for why she won't take questions from the borders?

Well, that was Republican, of course, vice presidential candidate J.D. vance this afternoon during a very interesting split screen moment as both campaign planes and Vice President Harrison's Air Force Two sat on the same tarmac in Wisconsin. As you mentioned, Vance is holding competing events in the same battleground states as the Harris Walls ticket. Joining me now is my fantastic panel.

Priscilla, the founder of the so what newsletter and YouTube channel Navi Nayak, president and executive director of the center for American Progress Action Fund and Sarah Matthews, former Trump White House deputy press secretary. Thanks all of you for being here. They've been kicking us off. Your reaction to the pick of Tim Walt and the crowds that they've been getting so far.

I mean the crowds, you know, any most Democrats are like we haven't seen this since 2008. It's got all of that sort of energy. And I think the thing that other thing that probably getting less attention is very immediately the vice President sort of snapped back a part of the coalition that the President had been struggling with, which was, you know, younger voters, communities of color. And I think that Wall's pick is not only in the short term, but for long term a real play to actually go back and talk to the Midwest, upper Midwest, sort of working class voters that feel like maybe they had lost their place in the party.

It's got the perfect story and I think is an incredibly effective communicator to those orders. Fair Matthews Republicans were concerned that, that Harris would pick Josh Shapiro, Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and that that would be her strength in that critical battleground state. What are you hearing? What is so interesting is actually that both the right and the left seem to be happy with the Walls pick because as you mentioned, they thought that it was gonna be Joshua and that Republicans really worried, especially the Trump campaign, they know that Pennsylvania is gonna be key for victory.

And so they thought that conventional wisdom, she'll pick him because he could help secure that state. But it seems like that maybe they weren't necessarily the fit. What we've seen is that, you know, he kinda has top of the ticket energy and he was saying in these meetings with Harris that he wanted a bigger role as VP if he select or she selected him. And so it seems like Walls was a happy warrior and like, hey, I just wanna go out there and do what I can to help.

And so they seem to be a better fit, they have better chemistry. Like I, I would personally have wanted to be Shapiro, but I also now see that the more I've seen from Walls. I understand. Nice, normal Midwest guy.

I'm from the Midwest. He reminds me of a lot of dads that I know back home. And I do think that people are craving normalcy in our politics. And he provides that.

You make such a great point, Sarah, which is that I think so many people, a number of people spoke with initially were scratching their heads. But then once they saw the chemistry, once they saw that Governor Walsh was comfortable, Crystal was in that number two position to change your position. But here's what you posted on X yesterday, right after nightmares that begin with those times which got our attention, you basically said that it was a weird choice. Has your opinion changed?

What do you think? So a little bit. I thought and I think that Josh Pereir was the better pick. It's simply because I'm a sort of numbers and math guy.

Even though I wasn't creative math, I fashion myself and to me like converters, halfway comes. There are other ways, but it's hard right to get to 270. So my view is, yes, the BP only matters marginally. I accept that if Joshua is on me, it's not gonna be 6040 Kamala Harris in November.

But if it's a point or two and a closer shaft windsu I still think that Shapiro is the better one. But I'm going to steal for the future. I'm just saying this publicly. I'm going to steal Sarah's big atop of the ticket energy line.

I think that's actually true. If you watch that, if you watched that rally yesterday, like just me as like an observer, like Shapiro was really good. Like this one was my politics really on topic. Real charismatic, real energetic and walls was not bad, but different.

Right. And so I think, I think the calculation I make is like, well, who can get you to this vote? I think the calculation that politicians we forget they're people. We can't forget that.

People who run out of Jeffler. And I think she wanted someone after three and a half years of an okay relationship with Joe Biden kind of never feeling that she was someone who she trusted, who she felt like she could be a good partner with. And I think that's important. Someone who was going to put Kamala Harris first, not Josh Shapiro first.

And I think that does matter. Weird was unfortunate. Like many things I put on Twitter look at that's a problem now and then it stays forever. But he's a totally fine, serviceable pick.

We may look back at it. It was a brilliant. I would have picked Japir. But that's also why I'm not the nominal for president.

As we're having this conversation, we are looking at the vice president, Governor Wallace. They are departing Eclair Wisconsin, about to take off head to Michigan for their second rally. That'll happen a little bit later on this evening. Naveen, what about this argument that Chris is making that like, boy, if Pennsylvania's close, you kind of want to Joshua, even though we should caveat.

It's been a long time. You have to go back to LBJ before a vice presidential someone number two can actually carry the state and help win the president. Yeah. And I think the other point is even if you win Pennsylvania, it's not enough.

So like Penny's got to be tagged on with, you know, most likely Wisconsin in Michigan. And Tim Walls is a guy who not only can be really effective in Wisconsin where he's right next door, but it's the same voters. The Democrats have to go win in the middle of Pennsylvania. Right.

In parts of Wisconsin that he is going to be, you know, he can go to place where Democrats have struggled to actually go and show up. And I think he can go there authentically, not like he's there for votes. Like, these are my people. When you hear him talking about it, they really are.

He's comfortable there. Sarah, one of the things that's so interesting, he really was the first person to borrow a phrase from Chris, who used the term weird to talk about Republicans. And it was a shift in the narrative, in a way, because under Biden, there had been so much focus, Donald Trump's gon greater threat to democracy in the second term. And there was, I think, a sense and a concern that that wasn't resonating with younger voters.

So here you had Governor Wallace come and say, like, no, some of their policies are just weird. Do you think that sticks? Does that work? Is it strong enough?

As someone who has talked about your concerns about the second Trump administration. Yeah, I've often talked about my concerns. And it is kind of strange sometimes when you're trying to paint this existential threat of, oh, a second Trump term and what they would do. And I do think that that might not be the right message for certain voters.

And so, as you mentioned, the weird message seems to be breaking through with young voters in particular, and it's resonating with them because they do see some of these policies that Trump and Vance would enact as weird, and they see a lot of J.D. vance's behavior as weird, and he's this kind of awkward guy. And so it did seem to land. And that was, I think, a big reason why Harris picked Waltz is because he's a great messenger and he was able to kind of shift the messaging on the Democr.

You saw plenty of Democrats then pick up that line of weird. Not even just it was other Democrats as well, who started incorporating it, and it seems to be effective. And so I do think that he is a great messenger and is an asset to the ticket in that way. So what's weird?

I know, I know. I apologize. No apology necessary. What's weird, actually, about Trump, to Sarah's point, he seems to be like someone you would think would be easy to attack and get hits on because he says so many things where you're like, holy cow.

Like, that seems wild. And yet it is hard. It has been harder than I think Democrats thought to really cut through in some meaningful way. Right.

The democracy thing didn't really work candidly in January 6th. You know, all that stuff. The weird Thing which is amazing. I'm kind of like off handing like, oh, they attempt to overthrow our democracy.

Not a big deal. But for a lot of voters, it didn't come through. But the weird thing thing sort of did. And I do think like Democrats struggled to find, struggle to find a message that really like cut Donald Trump, you know what I mean?

They really got in there and did actual damage to people who were persuasable voters. Right. Here's the thing. I think we found it though.

It was like we remember Donald Trump has never won a Jordan. I mean, he's been, he can't win a Jordan in this country. There is a solid 55% of Americans who don't like him. I'm not sure that weird is going to dislodge the 46%.

And I think, you know, everything he's done is at that base, but he's not building anything more. All right, well, lot to watch. Thank you all for being here. Chris and Sarah, appreciate it.

Fantastic conversation. Silicon One of the architects of the October 7th terrorist attack on Israel has been named Hamas's new political leader as the US And Israel remain on high alert for retaliatory strike from Iran. We've got the very relation from the Pentagon. Stay with us.

You're watching. Welcome back. Yaya Seymour, one of the architects of the October 7 attacks, has been elevated as the new political leader of Hamas following the assassination of Ismail. The move is a sign of defiance from the terrorist organization and could further complicate ceasefire talks given Seymour's hardline ideology.

It comes as Israel and the entire region are on edge as it waits to see how and when Iran will retaliate in response to the assassinations of two prominent militants. The Biden administration is continuing its efforts to de escalate tensions both behind the scenes and in public remarks. To me now, Courtney qb who is ever posted the Pentagon so court, let's talk about the very latest. It's been a week since the strikes of Beirut and Lebanon on the militant leaders.

What do you make of the fact that we haven't seen any retaliatory strikes yet? Are you anticipating this in the military? Yeah. I mean, there's still a widespread belief there will be some sort of retaliatory action here by Iran.

But you're right, it's been week since we saw that assassination of Ismail Haniya in Tehran. We have seen many at this point public pronouncements from Iranian leaders saying that there will be some sort of a response. But I will say, Kristen, Iran does not always respond immediately. You can look back to when.

So you can look back to 2020. It was when the assassination of a leader then in Iraq by the US it was more than a week before Al Assad air base was actually struck with missiles by Iran. You can look back to just April, it was days before Iran responded, striking, firing off about 300 projectiles towards Israel. So it's not super surprising that they haven't responded yet.

But we do expect something. The big question is what could this look like. Everyone is pointing back to April when those projectiles were fired off. You remember, of course, Kristen, most of them were shot down.

They were intercepted before they actually landed in Israel. It was a multi country effort to do that. The question is will we see something similar this time? And the real we just don't know yet, Kristen.

I mean that leads me to my next question, Court, which is just how much insight does the Pentagon have at this point about Iran's military capabilities, about potential options that they're considering? They know a lot about their capabilities, but the options may not be as clear in this case. So they know they have the ability to fire off drones and missiles, projectiles. They also know that they have a lot of control and influence over many of these militia groups in the region.

We often call them Iranian backed militia groups. The belief is that they could play a role here, according to U.S. officials in some sort of a response. But again, the capabilities are known.

But what exactly Iran has decided to do or frankly if they're still deciding how they want to respond here, I'm assuming there are people in this building who know a lot more than you and I do about this. But at this point we really don't have a whole lot of what this could look like. Again, everyone is pointing back to but it's not 100% clear that's what this is gonna look like. Again, Kristen.

Well, I know you will get the information first when it becomes available. Courtney, thank you. It's great to see you as always. We're back tomorrow with more media pressed.

Now the news 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 podcast.