Meet the Press NOW — August 8

If it's Friday. War and peace. President Trump has set to sign a historic peace framework moments from now with the leaders of Armenia and Aerbaijan as he faces new escalations in the war in Gaza and gears up for a high stakes meeting with Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine. Plus, after threatening to take over Washington, President Trump orders federal agents to patrol the district starting today, vowing to bring law and order despite police statistics showing violent crime is significantly declining.

And Texas Governor Greg Abbott tells NBC News in an exclusive interview that he will call as many special sessions as Republicans need to pass a new congressional map as he prepares to take legal action against the House Democrats who fled the state. Welcome to Meet THE press. Now I'm Kristen Welker in Washington, where President Trump's foreign policy is taking center stage today as he looks to portray himself as a global peacemaker. You are looking at live pictures right now.

The president is hosting the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House to sign an historic peace framework to end the decades long conflict. And at any moment, the three leaders will sign a trilateral agreement aimed at normalizing relations between the two nations. If he takes questions will dip in. But this comes as the deals to end the war in Ukraine and the Israel Hamas war so far remain out of reach.

Israel's military operations appear to be expanding after its security cabinet approved plans for the IDF to take control of Gaza City. And NBC News is exclusively reporting new satellite images that appear to show a military buildup near the border with Gaza, indicating a potential Israeli crown donation. Meanwhile, on the Russia front, a senior White House official says the meeting between Russia and President Vladimir Putin is tentatively scheduled for the end of next, while President Trump's deadline for Moscow to agree to a ceasefire or face sweeping economic sanctions expires today. To break this all down, I'm joined now by NBC News White House correspondent Vaughn Hilliard, NBC News reporter Matt Bodnar, NBC News chief Washington and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell and Michael McFall, former U.S.

ambassador to Russia and an NBC News international affairs analyst. Thanks all of you for starting us off today. Vaughn, let me start with you. What more can you tell us about what's happening at the White House right now, this agreement between the U.S.

armenia and Azerbaijan. Right. I've been listening here in real time to the president here who helped mediate along with Si Witkoff, his special envoy, Kristin, between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Elyev, as well as the prime minister of Armenia, Nicole Pashinyan are sitting there on Both sides of the President.

We anticipate them also commenting momentarily. Dignity, the Cold War. There's up a peace agreement here between these two countries. And this particularly is looking up at the it opened up a corridor between Azerbaijan and its autonomous zone that is separated effectively by armenian land about 20 miles wide.

And this will open up a corridor that the administration says of oil and gas, but also a rail line. And effectively this is for the White House another opportunity, as the President just touted mere moments ago, an opportunity to address ongoing conflicts that are decades long. He's already cited here just a few moments ago, of course, the help of median conflicts between Democratic Republic of Congo in Rwanda, Cambodia and Thailand. And then of course that cease fire between India and Pakistan.

Of course, all of this, including this announcement here on Friday evening though, is happening with the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in war in Gaza and of course in Ukraine's blockchain. Well, let's pick up right there. Today was the deadline that President Trump had set for Russia to either agree to a cease fire or face severe economic consequences. He stepped back from that amid word that there is this tentative meeting that has been set between President Trump and President Putin.

What are your sources telling you about the strategy there? And yet again stepping back from the brink of really imposing significant sanctions on Russia. Right. There's quiteness at this point in time as it comes to actually moving forward with the Friday deadline and the sanctions that the President had vowed to implement, including potentially up to 100% secondary tariffs on countries including China and India that purchase oil and gas from Russia.

And this was a moment here where the president perhaps actually seems more serious about actually moving forward with the deadline, suggesting that he had ordered including two nuclear submarines into the region after a back and forth with Medvedev, the number two on the Russian Security Council. Last week, back in May, the President had suggested there was a two week deadline for Russia to enter into a ceasefire and effectively move forward toward a long term end to this war. But what we have seen now time and again over the first seven months of his administration is a continued deference here to Russia. And that is where we're looking at the potential that the sitting President may very well meet one week from now with Vladimir Putin and notably without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump saying himself that he was willing to have just a one on one meeting with Putin, which of course has caused consternation for Ukraine over the course of the last seven months and even when he was a candidate for president was what terms of agreement would the Americans set with Russia without effectively Ukraine at the negotiating table? I think that is where there's a lot of questions for this administration to answer about exactly what terms the president may be willing to set his parameters to sit down with Putin or if there are any at all about whether this is just a continued conversation between him and the Russians. Well, and of course to the other major conflict. The president has said he wants to bring an end to the ISRA Hamas war amid word that Israel intends to escalate its military involvement in Gaza.

What is the reaction and the strategy there from the White House so far the silence largely here from this White House again or not just the silence, but more so deference person to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We heard directly from the president suggest that this was an Israel decision. We've heard from Mike Huckabee, the ambassador to Israel as well that this is a decision by the Israeli government and the US Supports Israel's efforts here. Of course, we have seen this administration for Sibu Tafua was in Gaza one week ago call for greater humanitarian resources to enter in the Gaza Strip.

But there are still a lot of questions about just what capacity that is actually going to take hold. We know that Israel approved yesterday the takeover of Gaza City. That is a far cry from the words of Netanyahu to take over the Gaza a strip as a whole. But this would be amount to another ground invasion here in one that has not only left a great many US Officials, particularly in the Democratic Party concern, but also we've heard from hostage families and a number of Israelis that have called in question whether they should put a hostage in greater harm's way by moving forward with this sort of an effort.

But this White House time and again has stood by Netanyahu's decisions to move forward outside of as NBC News has learned last week, outside of frustration from the president about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza largely though we have continued to see him effectively continue to provide the necessary military equipment to Israel and funding to Israel. And Vaughn, I know I have you on a lot of different angles here. Before I let you go, let me ask you about some developments back here at home. The administration's investigations in the California Center.

Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, we just learned that the president is dismissing the IRS commissioner. What's the very latest you're hearing on all this? Right. I'm told along with our Ted Coburg as well as Michael Kosner from three different officials that there have been grand juries that have been paneled in the Eastern District of Virginia to investigate allegations of mortgage application fraud by the New York attorney general and in the state of Maryland a grand jury that had been panel to investigate Senator Adam Schiff of California again allegations of mortgage fraud.

Now this is going to be headed I'm told by Ed Martin who was the one time interim U.S. d.C. Attorney. He is somebody who was on the front lines of calling for the parting of January 6th defendants.

He is leading the DOJ government weaponization task force. And so this is somebody who Pam Bondi and told his signed off to move forward with these investigations into two very key perceived enemies of this sitting president. He also mentioned Billy one IRS commissioner here, our colleagues including Fermont, Alban, Julia this afternoon, Kristen, that Billy Long after just two months on the job will be removed from his position, replaced by Treasury Secretary Scott Benson. Notably, the IRS has gone through a lot of the last seven months.

More than 25% of the workforce has been removed. And of course there was a moment in time in April in which Scott Benson removed a then acting IRS commissioner because he hadn't get the sign off an approval. So now he ultimately appears to get another job on his plate of time which show he has a lot of on his hands. Von Hillier covering a lot of ground for us this afternoon.

Please don't go far, Vaughn, in case we hear from the president, I'm going to come right back to you. Thank you for that breakdown. Matt Bodner, let me head over to you. Let's talk about the latest on the situation in Gaza.

What has the reaction been to Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to take over Gaza City? Well, this has all been swiftly condemned by basically the entire international community. Christian though as Vaughn just pointed out, not the United States. It is also sparking backlash within Israel where people are concerned that this will jeopardize the lives of the remaining hostages.

But back to that international response. We have seen a number of statements from world leaders today saying essentially this is not the way to go. This won't do anything to end the conflict. It won't do anything to address the humanitarian suffering in Gaza.

Many states have openly questioned also how this further Israel's own security as well. Egypt did issue a statement saying this was little more than an Israeli occupation plan and basically every Arab state in the region followed suit. The European Union is urging Israel to reconsider individual member states and issue their own condemnations. Germany has gone so far as to say it will suspend military aid to Israel So really, it looks like Netanyahu is risking further international backlash if he moves forward with this.

And it comes amid this horrific humanitarian crisis. And you do have Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that they will get humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. But is there a sense that that's all but impossible against the backdrop of military escalation? Yeah, I mean, aid groups, United nations, everyone's been very clear on this that it would be disastrous for a humanitarian situation as a whole throughout the Gaza Strip.

The situation, of course, is already dire, as we've been reporting in recent weeks, near famine, like conditions in Gaza City. And so the call from the international community, the aid organization, has been very clear. What's needed now is immediate flooding of the zone with aid that's growing louder all the time. And there's just no way that a renewed military operation of any scale at all would do anything but spell disaster by further complicating what little aid distribution is already taking place.

All right, Matt Bodner, thank you so much for your reporting. We really appreciate it. Let me go now and turn now to anti official entry. Thanks so much for being here on seven.

Really appreciate it. Put this into context. How significant, and I know you've been reporting on this for quite some time, is this decision by Israel to escalate its military offensive in Gaza and what could it mean for Israel on the international stage? Well, on the international stage, it has been roundly criticized.

The UN has scheduled a special Security Council meeting. The UN has staff, humanitarian staff in Gaza City. They are endangered by this. The UN is very fearful.

The UN Secretary General spokesman put out a statement earlier today condemning it. It's been condemned by Keith Starmer, the UK Prime Minister, by the German Chancellor Mertz, by the French, by the Australians. 28 countries have criticized Israel for expanding the war. And this is the last piece of Gaza that is not already controlled by Israel.

So Netanyahu put out a statement online, he posted on X that this is just a decision to go into Gaza City. Gaza City is the only area not already controlled by the military. There are a million people there. This is urban warfare.

And I was interviewing Orna Noutra. She is the mother of Omer Noutra, an American who was killed last year. And she and the other, many of the other American and Israeli hostage families. There are 20 surviving hostages say that if this happens, Hamas will do what they did almost exactly a year ago, which was to kill six Americans, if you remember.

And you know, that was, you know, Hirsch, Poe and Goldberg and what they do in desperation, their terrorists is to kill their assets, which are the last surviving hostages. And as we saw from the two videos that they so cruelly released last week, they're emaciated. They like everyone, Hamas says like everyone in Gaza, they're starving. But the point is that they're on their last breath.

That's the fear that these 20 surviving Israelis will not live long, but that this would be a death sense for them, according to the opposition. Also importantly, there is opposition from the chief of staff of the idf. The former defense minister was fired for opposing this just last year. You have gallant.

And now the chief of staff has come out publicly in the last few days criticizing this, but it was approved by the Security Council and that we have seen exclusively, as you pointed out at the top of the show, satellite imagery which seems to suggest that there are Israeli forces massing right near the border with Gaza. And Andrea, as we're having this conversation, President Trump is signing this agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia. And of course, we wait to see if he does in fact answer reporters questions. But he's trying to cast himself as a peacemaker.

We know that he has designs on the spot. Is he taking questions right now? No, he's talking right now. The Nobel Peace Prize.

Talk about the optics, the strategy here. Politically, what is he trying to achieve? Well, you know, he's worked very hard to portray himself as a peacemaker. And Steve Wyckoff has been relentless as a special envoy who importantly has a lot of credibility overseas with diplomats because he has the president's ear.

He speaks for the president. As you know better than anyone, this president changes his position often. And in covering this as a journalist, all of these issues, domestic and foreign, until the president speaks, you really don't know what the policy is. And it can change.

So to have someone like Wyckoff, who is so close to the president, understands him as his complete confidence, which was repeated just in the last few days, that's very important. So for all the, you know, the carting about Witkoff not having diplomatic credentials, diplomats have not been able to do this. I was on the, you know, multiple shuttles in the last two years, since October 7th, almost two years, and it was not achieved. So I think they're trying.

But let me just say, knowing that the Norwegians and the Nobels, let's see what he has to say. This is a very big reach. President Trump taking questions. Let's listen in on a lot of these deals.

We've closed every single one of them all throughout the world. And that's the last of them. And they're losing, Peter, about six, maybe even 7,000 soldiers every single week. Russia, as you know, lost almost 25,000 over the last month and a half, and Ukraine lost just a small number of fewer.

A lot of people are dying, and I think we're getting very close. And we're going to be announcing later on we're going to have a meeting with Russia. Start off with Russia, and we'll announce a location. I think the location will be a very popular one for a lot of reasons, but we'll be announcing that a little bit later.

I just don't want to do it now because of the importance of what we just did. Are you surprised that Zelensky hasn't figured out by now, in years of war, how to deal with you and to deal with Putin without meeting permission to make concessions from his parliament or from a national referendum? Well, he's going out and getting what he needs. You know, he's not authorized to do certain things.

I said, well, you're going to have to get it fast because, you know, we're getting very close to a deal. And he's doing that, and he's working with the European nations, and they're terrific people, terrific leaders, NATO and as you know, I became very friendly with them. They agreed to go from 2% to 5%. 2% that they didn't pay.

The 5% that they've already paid. That's trillions of dollars. So, you know, we're working together very closely. But no, in all fairness to President Zelensky, he's getting everything he needs to, assuming we get something.

But I'll be meeting very shortly with President Putin. It would have been sooner, but I guess the security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make, otherwise I'd do it much quicker. He would do. He'd like to meet as soon as possible.

I agree with it, but we'll be announcing that very shortly. And location. Yeah, please, please, Mr. President, with this meeting with Putin, is this Russia's last chance to achieve peace, and do you expect Ukraine to make any type of territorial concession?

Yeah, I don't like using the term last chance. Look, it's, you know, look, this is two very, very smart people. They've been going at it for. And their predecessors are also very smart.

They've been going at it for 35 years and stuff. And, you know, when those guns start going off, it's awfully tough to get them to stop. It really does. It's a war that should have never happened.

It Would have never happened to Bible President. There was no reason for it. So many people are killed. So much cultural destruction.

You look magnificent towers, the most beautiful in the world. You know, the spires were considered the most beautiful in the world. They're all. They're all in a million pieces, laying on the ground, obliterated, knocked into a million pieces.

So sad, but millions of people have died and very, very much set in their ways. A lot of people were set in their ways. But I think we're getting close. I mean, this was not my war.

This was Biden's war. But the European Union has been great. As you know, they're purchasing equipment from us. They're spending.

They have a lot of money, and they're spending a lot of money on buying equipment. We're not spending money, but we are supplying them equipment. They're paying for it. And I think, you know, I think that a lot of things happened recently that would make this go forward.

I'm not going to mention anything having to do with India, but maybe that had an impact. But what really had an impact was NATO stepped up in terms of their spending on buying military equipment. You know, we're in for, probably through Biden and his people, $350 billion. $350 billion.

When they hear these numbers, you're saying that's a lot of money. $350 billion the United States has spent on that. It should have spent nothing because it should have never, would have never happened. And Europe is in for over $100 billion, which is.

It should be the opposite if we were in for anything, but it should be the opposite. And I will say that Europe is. Europe wants to see peace. The European leaders want to see peace.

President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace, and Zelensky wants to see peace. Now President Zelensky has to get all of his. Everything he needs because he's going to have to get ready to sign something. And I think he is working hard to get that done.

Well, you're looking at territory that's been fought over for three and a half years with, you know, a lot of Russians have died, a lot of Ukrainians have died. So we're looking at that, but we're actually looking to get some back and some swapping. Complicated. It's actually nothing easy.

It's very complicated. But we're going to get some back. We're going to get some. Some switched.

There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both. And. But we'll be talking about that either later or tomorrow or whatever. Yeah, please say it.

If I could ask a question of your guests and also a few of the guests. Will the Armenians from Gorna Karbat be allowed to return? And also do you have any thoughts on the talk about President Trump winning the Nobel Peace Prize and for President Trump, you're working on resolving two other major conflicts in Gaza. You've spoken for settling Gazans.

The country of has expressed potential interest if you were to diplomatically recognize their independence. Are you inclined to do so? And also did President Putin presents an Award to Mr. Wyckoff during the recent visit.

He likes Mr. Wyckoff. I can tell you that that's true. Please go ahead.

I think President Trump, Trump deserved to have Nobel Peace Prize and we will defend that and we will promote for that. And that's obvious. And today's event I think is a very bright expression of that. And hopefully you will invite us front row.

You'll be front row. Yeah, yeah. We are in favor. Thank you.

Thank you. Can I have a suggestion? Yes. So maybe we agree with Prime Minister to send a joint appeal to Nobel Committee to award President Trump with a Nobel Peace pride.

Because from the leaders of the countries which were at war for more than three decades, having this historic signature here, it really means a lot. This is tangible result of President Trump's leadership and no one could have achieved that. There have been many presidents here since beginning of 90s. And the so called mis process, which by the way today we put an end to with my Armenian colleague started in 1992.

So negotiation under the auspices of OSCE continued for more than three decades without any result. So who if not President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize? I don't want to go into the history of some very strange decisions of a Nobel Peace Committee to award the prize for someone who didn't do anything at all. But President Trump in six months did miracle.

So I think that my Armenian colleague will support it. And judging by the reaction of the audience, they think as soon as we come back we will agree to issue a joint letter. And hopefully and I also joined when president is awarded. We hope that he will invite us to the ceremony.

You certainly will be. Thank you very much. Do we have draft to sign now? Well, we'll see what happens.

We would like to sign. Thank you very much. It's very nice. We're looking into that right now.

Good question actually. And another complex one, as you know, but we're working on that right now. Thank you so much. I want to ask you, have you spoken to Russian President Putin.

And would you go to Russia or Ukraine? And what exactly would you say? We'll be announcing a location in maybe a little while and I think you'll be very happy. We'll see what happens.

Right. All we can do is do our best. We've been working on this one for a long time. This is a very complicated one also.

This was extremely complicated, but we made it less complicated. And we had two very brilliant people on my right and my left. They understood what was at stake. I think if it didn't get done now, it might have never gotten done.

So this is very similar with Ukraine. It became more and more complicated as time went on. It was simple at the beginning, wasn't going to happen, but it became more and more complicated. But I think we're getting close.

Yes, ma'. Am. Yes, go ahead, please. Could the location for the summit be Italy location?

I will give it to you. I just honestly, I don't want to do anything these guys, I don't want to do anything where that's like. Because this is a bigger story than a location. A location's good.

I'm a real estate person. I know about location. But there's nothing to compete with this in terms of what we're doing today. It's just such a great achievement for these two, really.

They'll have done as great leaders of what they did. I put them together, but I don't want to do anything. So we'll talk about it later today. Today we'll give you a location.

Today you were talking about sending military forces to fight against the drug cartels in Latin America. Do you think it's worth sending our forces or US forces there to take this on? Cartels where? Central.

Latin America. Latin America's got a lot of cartels. They got a lot of drugs flowing. So, you know, we want to protect our country, we have to protect our country.

We haven't been doing it for four years and we love this country like they love their countries. We have to protect our country. So, you know, we're playing a tough game, but we'll have more to say about that soon. Yes, ma'.

Am. Mr. President, I'm Salah from Azerbaijan Resilience Report. So we are grateful to be here.

It's a. Today you host a truly historic meeting. As a person who varies stiffness and global interaction, do you consider the possibility to visit Azerbaijan? Actually, you mentioned as a question in Armenia, after this meeting to visit our countries, do you consider to visit.

Which one do I consider better? Both. I Think if I ever said that, you would say this guy couldn't have solved the problem. You know what?

I consider them both great. Okay. And you know what? They're going to be even greater.

And they're very different in many ways, but they have a lot in common. But they're both great as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, please. It's an interesting question, right?

That would have been hell of an answer if I said, well, I think. I think I like this one or that one. No, we don't do that. Go ahead, please.

Mr. President, first of all, thank you for bringing peace to South Caucus as something that no one has been able to achieve in 35 years. That's number one. We also notice that you think highly of the commitments that the sides have taken on and assumed.

However, considering the long history of conflict and the fact that this is not a legally binding document, will there be consequences if at some point one of the sides takes a step back? I don't think it's going to happen. I think it's going to be very good. And I told them I gave him a personal commitment.

You know, there's always little problems here and there, right. The big ones have been solved. These are. The giant ones have been solved.

But in this conflict, they both know, they're going to call me. We're going to get it straight now. They're not going to have a problem. Where are you from?

Okay, good. Very good. I was wondering. That was a very unusual question, but it's not unusual considering you're from Armenia.

If there's a problem, we will get it worked out. I told them both, don't let the problem last. We'll get it early and we'll get it solved. Good report you have over there.

Okay. Yeah. First of all, I'd like to say that today we initialed the peace deal, which was in the process of negotiations for quite a while. The fact that it is initial here in the capital, number one of the world, in the office, number one of the world, and in front of the great president of the United States, means that there should be no doubts and no suspicions that any of the sides would step back.

If any of us, Prime Minister Pashinyan or myself had in mind to step back, we wouldn't have come here. So you can be absolutely sure, as well as Azerbaijani community, that what has happened today will result in peace, long lasting peace, Eternal peace in the caucuses. That's a very nice statement. I'm sorry.

Fully agree and nothing to add. That's a Very nice. Two statements. And that's a beautiful, beautifully stated statement.

Let's go a couple more. Yeah, please. Many of the south caucuses have pinned the blame on your predecessor, Joe Biden, and the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, for obstacles in America's bilateral relations with Azerbaijan, in peace in that part of the world. How important is it to you to elevate your country's partnership and your administration's partnership with Azerbaijan, with Armenia, and how important is this for your legacy?

Well, to me, it's very important, but it's, you know, I just, I know the history of what was going on because I do a lot of reading. And they've been vicious. You know, they've had a very contentious relationship for a long time. I mean, it's war.

Most of the time was war. And so to get. And they're great people. I know a lot of people from Armenia.

I know a lot of people from both countries. And they're incredible people. And it shouldn't happen what has happened. I wish we could have been here sooner, you know, if the election would differently be nice today, I'm not going to be controversial and say the election was rigged.

I would have had this thing solved four years sooner. But the truth is. That's right. If the election weren't rigged, I would have been here four years sooner.

We would have signed the same agreement four years sooner. But it didn't happen. And the Biden administration did really very little, actually nothing to get it done, but they did nothing to get really anything done. It was very, this country was in very serious shape.

And I say it over and over again. I met all the leaders of NATO. I meant I met, as you know, the Middle East. I was with the king of Saudi Arabia, the leaders of great countries, right, Qatar and UAE and others in the Middle East.

And everyone essentially said the same thing. We had a dead country. One year ago, we had a dead country. Our country was dying.

And now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. It's not even close. We have the hottest country in the world. And it's an honor to use that, if you call it power or respect or whatever it is to settle wars like we have right here to my left and my right.

And these two guys are very smart. I got to know them, and they're very smart. They're not going to. I don't think they're going to ever have to bother with me.

They may call me just to bug me a little bit. Let me put them to a test. And they'll call because they like to call me. But they're not going to have any problem.

We have a very comprehensive agreement. It's a peace agreement. And this isn't ceasefire. This is in will hold up.

This is a peace agreement. And they're going to end up doing a lot of business with each other. They're going to do a lot of business with the United States. And I'm going to always remember, at least during the time that I'm here, I'm going to remember how smart they were, how good they were.

And when it comes to trade and other things, we're going to always go 100% out. We'll go out of our way to make sure it comes out good for them. They did an amazingly good thing and a very brave thing. It's a very complicated part of the world.

They come from very tough part of the world. It's a tough, tough, but smart part of the world. Smart, tough people and great wealth, you know, great energy, wealth. I was talking to Chris and he was saying, in terms of wealth, it's enormous wealth.

But wealth doesn't often solve problems, takes other things. But they were. They're amazing, two amazing leaders, and it's an honor to be associated with them. How about we'll do one more, please?

Your gut instincts have always done well in terms of business and in terms of politics. What does your gut tell you as it relates to the possibility of an event like this in the next few weeks, the next few months, in which you have President Putin on one side and President Zelensky on your other side? I think my instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it. Okay?

And you'll find that out later on and maybe even today. But we have a shot at it. Look, it's got to be solved. You know, we're not losing people.

A lot of people say, why are you bothering? We're not losing people. We were spending hundreds of billions of dollars. Now we're spending nothing.

We're spending no money. I guess we're making money because, you know, our great. We have the best military equipment in the world. We're selling it to NATO.

But you're losing thousands of people a week. Russians and Ukrainians mostly, mostly soldiers, but, you know, missiles are lobbed into cities and towns, Kiev, lots of places. You've been reading the same stories that I've been reading. And we gotta get it solved.

Committee will make their announcement as it relates to this year's Nobel Peace Prize on October 10th. Friday. October 10th is that date circled on your calendar, Mr. President, I can't say.

I mean, a lot of people say no matter what I did, because, you know, I'm of a certain persuasion, no matter what I do, they won't give it. And I'm not politicking for it. I have a lot of people that are. I know.

I mean, I read the same things as you do, but it would be a great honor, certainly. But I would never politic. I'm not doing it for that. I'm doing it because of.

I really, number one, I want to save lives. That's why I'm involved so much with Ukraine and Russia saving lives of Russians and Ukrainians. It's not American lives. Now, I would say this.

That war could have escalated into something much better. That could have been a world war. I think if we didn't come, Ukraine, Russia would have ended up being a world war. And I stopped that.

That stopped. Now the only question is, when is it going to be settled? And it could be very soon, but when is it going to be? But that would have been a world war if I didn't come along with a very talented group of people sitting largely right here.

But there are others not in the room that are very talented. I think Russia, Ukraine would have had a very, very high degree. I think even probably would have ended up being in a world war. I don't think people talk about that now because they don't see it anymore.

But we brought it down a long way. But that was getting to a point when I first came in, I said, wow, this thing is really bad. And it could have gone, it could have escalated to a level that you people would have been very unhappy with. Yeah.

Your predecessor, Mr. President, President Ronald Reagan, had a phrase as it relates to dealing with the then Soviet Union and also Mikhail Gorbachev. The phrase was trust but verify. Do you subscribe to that same view as it relates to Mr.

Putin and Russia? Well, I do. Relating to everybody. I mean, not just President Putin, but also people and leaders that I deal with.

Look, I'm dealing with trade and some of the worst deals we made, some of the worst trade deals we have. I talk about friend and foe, right? Friend and foe. Two interesting words.

Some of our worst trade deals were not with the foe, they were with the friends. Our friends were just killing us on trade. Not anymore. Not anymore.

We're making, you know, we're taking in trillions of dollars and we're respected and we're settling, you know, through trade even a little bit here. Less here than some but through trade, I got things settled with. I think it was trade more than any other reason. That's how I got involved.

I said, you know, I don't want to be dealing with countries that are trying to blow up themselves and maybe the world. You know, the nuclear nations. That was a big one. Getting that one settled.

I think you'd agree. That was a. That was a big one. And they were going at it.

You know, they were shooting airplanes out of the sky. You know, five or six planes got shot down in the last little skirmish. And then it was going to escalate from there, and it could have gotten to be very bad. No, I want to save a lot of lives.

I love saving lives. That's what it's about. And, you know, when you save lives, you really end up having a peaceful world. Usually that ends up pretty well.

I want to thank everybody, but in particular these two great leaders for having the courage to do what they did today. And they're going to go down in the history books, and it's a great honor to be involved. Thank you very much. You've been listening to President Trump answering questions after a peace agreement signed between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

You heard both leaders say that President Trump should be given a Nobel Peace Prize. The leader of Azerbaijan saying, who, if not President Trump, deserves the Nobel Peace Prize? But the president said, I'm not politicking for that. My colleague and I, Andrew Mitchell, we're just talking about exactly that.

This broad idea. That is something, Andrea, that President Trump has had in its sights. But let's talk about the news that came out of this as it relates to Russia and Ukraine. Some significant headlines there.

President Trump confirming himself at a meeting has been set with President Putin saying he believes, quote, we have a shot at it, meaning an actual ceasefire agreement, saying we're close to a deal. And then you and I set up when we heard this, President Trump said there'll be some swapping of territories. His tone very different, saying he believes Putin does want peace after saying for weeks he was so disappointed and frustrated. This is such a change from the tone in Scotland and in the succeeding days, when he was saying as recently as yesterday he was frustrated by Vladimir Putin.

But now with St. Vikov coming back from Russia, he's saying he seems to have reverted back to almost the way he was during that, you know, famous or infamous, depending on your point of view. Oval Office meeting, saying that he thinks Putin wants peace, wants a peace deal. And say Zelensky, you know, has some constraints, but he's going to get the money from NATO, whatever in terms of weapons, and he's going to have to make some concessions.

That's what he seemed to be saying. He seemed to be saying that Putin, that this war should never have happened again. If he had been president, it wouldn't have happened. So he's not blaming Putin for invading and he's just never accepted that Vladimir Putin invaded a sovereign country and is not one of the victims here, but saying, you know, over and over again that he thinks that there is a possibility that they would announce the country.

There's a lot of talk that it would be in the Arab world, at the uae. There could be some other location that they choose. But it seems like they'll be meeting the end of next week, maybe. Well, I know you'll be tracking it so closely.

Andrea, thank you for being here to help us break down some significant headlines that just came out of that Q and A that we had with President Trump. I do want to go to Ambassador McFaul to bring him into this conversation. Ambassador McFall, first of all, thank you for your patience and listening with us. No, I wanted to listen to that.

I learned a lot. Okay, so what did you learn? What was at the top of your list? Including the fact that, as I was just talking to Andrea, you heard the president say, quote, there'll be some swapping of territory.

Well, the devil's in the details. And the devil's in the details of this agreement that was just signed that I don't think a lot of Americans even know. Why is there a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan right now? Because Azerbaijan invaded and took territory from Armenia and won the war.

Nobody knows that. Right? Nobody's talking about that. And that's why there's a deal now.

It wasn't some major swapping of territory. One side, one. And that's what worries me about this summit that will take place next week. I applaud President Trump for trying to end this barbaric, horrible invasion by Russia into Ukraine.

It's great that he's doing it. And special on my Wyckoff, it's great that they're trying. But it is not sufficient for the president to meet with Putin, listen to what he wants and says that sounds like a good deal to me, and then come out at a meeting like he just did and said we have a peace deal when Zelensky is not there. That to me is a recipe for disaster.

And I hope, hope he doesn't walk into the summit just listening and agreeing to what Putin wants, you know, Ambassador McFall, he repeated something a few times as it relates to President Zelensky. He said he needs to get everything he needs in order. It wasn't quite clear what he was saying. Did you have a sense of what he meant?

Was he trying to say he needed to get buy in from other top officials in Ukraine to in fact, give away some of the territory that Putin illegally claimed in the course of this war? Yeah, I really listened to that part closely, too. That was very interesting. The word swaps and Zelensky and what I would say talking to Ukrainian colleagues over the last 24 hours, it's actually not top Ukrainian officials.

It's the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian soldiers. The idea that Zelenskyy can just give away giant chunks of Ukraine because Trump tells him to do so, that could happen in a dictatorship. Putin could do, but it can't happen in a democracy inside Ukraine. And Zelenskyy in particular has to worry about what his warriors will do, what his soldiers will do who have lost so many of their other soldiers in this war just to say, well, you know, we're just going to give Russia this territory.

He cannot afford to do that. And if I'm guessing, I think that's what the president was alluding to, because I think the president wants to bring about a swap that would compel Zelensky to do just that. Ambassador, I want, because this was significant, I do want to play for our audience again that sound by what President Trump said about the swapping of territories. I'll play it and we'll do a little bit more analysis on the other side.

We're going to get some back. We're going to get some, some switched. There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both. And, but we'll be talking about that either later tomorrow or whatever.

President Zelensky has been adamant throughout the course of this war. That is a non starter. Ambassador McFaul, do you think he may be now ready to give up some of the Ukrainian territory? And do you think, did you hear a shift in tone in terms of how President Trump was talking about President Putin, as Andrea and I were just discussing?

Well, the tone shift is very clear and obviously Wykoff had a good meeting in Moscow and I've read the readouts from the Russian side. They believe that too. But that worries me. That makes me suggest that they're going to give Putin what he wants.

Putin has never talked about swaps. Putin has never talked about leaving Ukrainian territory that they currently occupy. By the way, they occupied that territory back in 2014. The President keeps forgetting that this war started in 14 and lasted four years of his presence.

But we'll leave that for the historians. That is something new. And Zelenskyy also hasn't said it. And Zelensky will never, let's just be clear, he'll never formally say Crimea is a part of Russia or Donetsk is part of Russia.

He can't do that. That's political suicide. Could he agree to only seek reunification through peaceful means? That's the formula.

But in order to do that, he's got to get something in return. And getting Russian forces to leave parts of the territory, listening to what the president said sounds like that might be part of what they are suggesting. Ambassador McFaul, today was supposed to be the day that punishing sanctions went into effect if President Putin did not agree to a ceasefire. President Trump stepped back from the brink of that yesterday.

He said that he wants to give these talks a chance. But what message does that send to Putin? Should President Trump have imposed the sanctions and said, let's talk, but you're still too late to come to the table? Well, I think this has been the flawed strategy of the Trump administration from the get go.

I appreciate that they're talking to the Russians. Not everybody agrees with that. I think that was you have to do that. But what I think has been flawed is it's always been concessions to Russia and pressure on Ukraine.

And I've been part of negotiations with Russians. They're difficult negotiators, including President Putin. I've studied other negotiations. You need a coercive part as well.

You need to put pressure on them. And he could easily do that. He could easily seize their assets that are in American banks right now, 5 billion or so. He could put sanctions on the shadow fleet that is shipping Russian oil and gas out to other countries.

And most importantly, he could increase weapons sales to Ukraine to show that we are not quitting on Ukraine and then later roll those backs. But so far he's chosen just the strategy of concessions. And I hope it works. I just hope it works.

I fear it won't. Ambassador, finally let me circle back to what brought President Trump and the two leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan into the room. This agreement that they signed today. Do you think that deal that was brokered by the US Was possible in part because Moscow was consumed by its own war with Ukraine?

Would it, in other words, had it not been at war, played spoiler to that? That's a great point. That is a fantastic point. Russia has always been the intermediary between these two countries.

They even had peacekeepers there. But when the Azeris invaded Nagorno Karabakh and de facto won the war, I think that's important for people. One side won the war. It wasn't some peace negotiation.

The Russians pulled out. And I think that created an opportunity for President Trump. But I applaud the agreement. I want to be clear about that.

Better to have an agreement than not. But it was because one side won and the Russians pulled out that created the permissive conditions for this agreement. All right. Well, Ambassador McFall, we covered a whole lot of ground today.

Thank you for your insights and for again, your patience and listening to all that with us. We really appreciate it very much. Coming up, an update on the food and humanitarian crisis inside Gaza and the desperate mission to surge aid to the civilians who need it most as Israel prepares a new military offensive. An expert with the International Committee of the Red Cross joins me in studio next.

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It's more context and clarity from the reporters you trust. Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more. Welcome back. As we noted earlier, Israel is vowing to retake control of Gaza City.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeting the IDF will prepare for taking control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones. According to a spokesperson. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is gravely alarmed by the Israeli government's decision, warning that it risks deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians. Joining me now is the spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Steve Dorsey.

Steve, thank you so much for coming back. We really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Let's start right there.

Your reaction to what we've learned from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the IDF is now prepared to take over all of Gaza City. Kristen, we know that the civilians across Gaza are living in unspeakable conditions. From public health challenges to access to food, security to just maintain their own safety. They're sleeping in tents, they're sleeping inside rubble, wherever they can find a place to stay.

This risks exacerbating an already horrific situation. Gaza is 80% in an evacuation zone. So trying to imagine compressing this amount of people into an even smaller patch of land is promoting the idea of chaos, but also risking the lives of civilians and already dangerous area, plus humanitarian workers as well. Well, and the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu is saying we are going to get humanitarian aid to the people outside of the combat zone, how would that work?

Is that even realistic when you're talking about taking control of an entire swath of territory? It's already a tremendous challenge. Right. We've been seeing that for the last few months.

Very little food aid especially, has been entering Gaza since the last time I talked to you. There have been these airdrops happening. A limited amount of trucks and other aid are making it into the occupied territory, but that's really a drop in the bucket. That's not a sustainable solution.

What we need is an uninterrupted surge in humanitarian aid. We need safe spaces for people to access healthcare to, to provide refuge for their own families. That's what Gaza needs right now. And they need to break the hostility.

And what is the message to the United States right now as it watches this crisis unfold and intensify? And as you say, if Israel were to go in, it would just exacerbate the situation. Yeah, we get more help to Gaza. That's first and foremost.

We need to protect the civilians that are there. We need to ensure they have their basic needs met. But we also, of course, need to ensure that we have access to these hostages. We can't forget about them.

And short of that, they also need to be released. This is illegal. And this conflict goes on every day with families in Gaza in anguish and the families of these hostages also in pain. Well, I was just talking to Andrew Mitchell about this very aspect.

It's believed 20 hostages still being held. They are in dire condition. They're families have gone through hell. What does a potential invasion of Gaza City mean for them and mean for their families?

Certainly it's concerning to the hostages families. It's gone way too long for them to even make contact with them. Even family news, delivering family news, an essential part of our services, our responsibilities in reaching hostages, detainees, prisoners in any armed conflict around the world. This just exacerbates pain.

And certainly a lasting ceasefire and political agreement is something Gaza needs of Australia. Do you think that is even possible? We know that we just saw President Trump talking about trying to bring the war in Ukraine to an end. We know that this is a priority as well.

Steve Wyckoff, his top diplomat, has been going to these various regions trying to negotiate a peace agreement. But does that seem remotely possible at this point? Do we can't give up hope. We can't give up hope in Ukraine and Russia.

Obviously some positive signs in Azerbaijan and Armenia that we heard today. These are long running conflicts. Hope is always there. And I can make the minimal path of Red Cross and that's we'll be there and we'll be there to do our best to try to increase the amount of how that we don't feel that need it.

You know, we've heard some people say, and now we're getting reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu said this to President Trump and President Trump was absolutely enraged by this. This is an NBC News report that some of the images that are coming out of Gaza have been doctored. Images of the starving children, for example. What do you make of that?

What is your response to hearing that? And when you hear someone say that, how do you respond to them? Humanitarian action should be removed from politics. Aid should never be reduced to a guardianship.

What is clear is that the images that we've seen outside of Gaza and the accounts that, that I get from my colleagues in Israel, in Gaza, every single day are heartbreaking. We've seen these, they're moving, they are troubling. We know children are searching through rubble and trash to find any scraps to eat. We know children are crying from hunger.

This is real and it needs a response very quickly. Your teams on the ground, have you had to pull them out and will you have to pull them out if in fact Israel is going to go into all of Gaza. Absolutely. It's hard to maintain us our own footprint there.

Getting anything inside and outside, including people, is tough. We had our own security incidents a few weeks ago. A colleague in Gaza was killed. This continues to be a real significant threat for us.

D4C. Thank you so much. Please come back. Keep us updated.

We will be back Monday with more MEET THE PRESS now. And if it's Sunday, it's MEET THE press. On your local NBC news stations, I'll have exclusive interviews with Illinois Governor Jimmy Fritz, Senator Lindsey Graham and former Attorney General Eric Shareholder. The news continues with Yasmin the Sousian for Hallie Jackson right now.

I'm Craig Melt. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.