And to the sound of thank you press, we say welcome to meet the press now. I'm Kelly O'Donnell in Washington. You've just been listening to President Trump taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office. As we are following breaking news on a number of disturbing incidents of violence, both here at home and abroad, starting with an intensifying manhunt underway right now in Rhode Island where authorities are trying to track down the gunman who killed two students and injured nine others inside an academic building on Brown University's campus this weekend.
We're also learning new details about the deadly mass shooting in Australia that killed people 15 people in what authorities are calling a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community. We're also following developments in the investigation into the tragic killing of Hollywood legend Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle with a Reiner son now in custody and President Trump politicizing their deaths. The president also vowing retaliation after two U.S. soldiers were killed this weekend in Syria by an alleged ISIS gunman, all of that, so much of that.
As law enforcement announced today, they foiled a potentially deadly terror plot targeting Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. We will bring you the latest developments on all of these stories ahead. But we're going to begin today with Providence, Rhode Island, where police just released this new video of a person of interest. That's how they're describing the individual in the Brown University shooting and they're calling on the community for help to identify this person.
And it comes after late last night, authorities announced they would be releasing a man they had detained as a person of interest, saying the evidence no longer supported holding him. The mayor of Providence explaining the decision this morning. What we're saying is that after a review of the evidence that was gathered, it was determined that the person of interest needed to be released. But until such time as we have an individual in custody who were confident is responsible, that we're prepared to press charges and then prosecute, we're going to continue to leave all doors open until such time as we're in a place where we feel confident that we've got the right person.
Despite the ongoing manhunt, Providence is mayor, insisting the community is safe. We know that this is likely to cause fresh anxiety for our community. And we want to reiterate what we said earlier, which remains true, which is ever since the initial call now a day and a half ago, we have not received any credible or specific threats to the Providence community. And so the status of safety in our community remains unchanged.
And we believe that you remain safe in our community. Brown has canceled all remaining fall classes and final exams as the victims are being remembered. We are also seeing now video of students sheltering in place in the library as SWAT team members came to rescue them Saturday night. You can certainly feel the tension there.
NBC News correspondent Marquise Francis joins me now and Marquise, give us a sense of what is the mood at Brown University today. Yeah, Kelly. It's really a mixed bag with some people sad, others anxious. A lot of people scared in a lot of frustration, just 24 hours ago, the campus community, they thought that authorities had the alleged shooter with that person of interest.
But of course, today, we know that person of interest is no longer a suspect and has been released. And I talked to a number of students throughout the afternoon and asked them how they were feeling and what the general vibe was for them and their friends like, listen, what they had to say. Yeah, it's going to be hard. You know, walking by these buildings.
And I've had signs in that when the person probably went to six, like five times. I'm hopeful that the security, the cameras, everything about the campus will feel safer. It looks safer. It looks safer.
The technology will be better. Yeah. But yeah, it's a little scary. I think the community is really strong.
And people will never cover. There's definitely a bit of frustration and a lot of fear. I just did a ton of anxiety among all of the students, especially at the moment that it all happened. I mean, nobody really knew what's going on.
As students, we have our own chats. We all are talking about it all. But, you know, there's really not a bunch of communication from anybody from the school. Yeah.
And all of that being said, there still remains a shooter at large. With that being said, the campus is finding a way to come together. If you look right behind me, there is somewhat of a makeshift memorial with flowers being put right at the bed of the building in which this shooting occurred on Saturday. So there's a mixed bag of people's feelings and folks trying to leave town as quickly as possible.
But the feeling overall, Kelly, is really heavy here at Brown University in Providence. Kelly. And you gave us a sampling of how students are feeling. And we heard the Providence mayor saying the community is safe, despite the ongoing man hunt.
He described their no credible threats. Are you getting a broad sense that people feel safe? I was hearing some unease in those comments you shared with us. Yeah.
By and large, the people that I spoke to definitely are feeling a bit uneasy. They kind of are getting this stop and start kind of updates, right? On Saturday, first there was news that a suspect was in custody. That wasn't true.
Later on, the following day on Sunday, there was a person of interest. But we learned overnight that person of interest was now released. And so a lot of people are feeling unease. I spoke to one student who lived in Hawaii, another student who lived in D.C.
And they were both moving their travel arrangements up. They were supposed to be at the end of the week, trying to get out as soon as possible. And so as much as I think the mayor wants to put people at ease, the fact that there is still someone at large, someone who killed two individuals injuring nine others, I'm hearing nothing but unease. Mark East, we hope you can stay warm there.
I have a feeling you may be there a while pursuing all of these questions that are so important for the Brown community. Thank you very much. And we are joined now by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Narona. And maybe you can help shed some light on this.
We understand that there's no basis for the person of interest who was detained remaining in custody. Can you also rule out that person as a suspect? Is that name really off the board? Yeah.
That name is off the board. You know, there was, how do I put this? There was a significant amount of evidence that caused us to focus a lot of our efforts in that space. It wasn't all of our efforts.
We were doing other things at the same time. But as the forensic testing of the evidence, both at the scene of the crime and after we obtained search warrants for his hotel room, and for other other things, when that analysis, which had to be done much of it out of state to get it done quickly and reliably by late last night, we knew that we needed to be headed in another direction. And that's why we had him released. I mean, for where I cycled, I was always, I was not ready to conclude, frankly, that we had the guy.
You know, that's a very dangerous place to go in the sense of you are over promising with the potential of under delivering. I think it's why, you know, as prosecutors and police, we've been trying to choose our words carefully. That is so critical at this point to describing the person as someone you wanted to talk to, but not going beyond that. And certainly once a name is out there, that can make things very complicated for someone who was simply questioned and you moved on.
So when you are looking at this new piece of video that was presented to us, how is it that this piece of video is determined to be the next best way to get the community to help? Are you concerned that there isn't more video available? Yeah. Look, I think one of the challenges has been identifying video that can really help us identify the suspect.
The reality was there weren't a lot of cameras in that part of the engineering building where this murder took place. I mean, as a parent of two Brown engineering graduates, I know that building really well. And, you know, that's an old part of what appears to be a modern building, you know, from, if you're looking at it from where that memorial, that Marquis was showing us. From that point of view, it looks very modern and new.
And that's true. Where the murders took place and the shootings took place is in a building that looks like a, frankly, it looks like a whole high school and my senses are on a lot of cameras in there. So what we're doing is canvassing again today, places that weren't available to us over the weekend because no one home or the businesses were closed and developing more video evidence. And as we find video evidence that we believe will advance the public's ability to help us identify and locate this suspect, you know, we're going to release it.
And we hope to have the right person in custody in custody with charges very, very soon. And should I infer from your comments that there is not video from inside the building? There've been other incidents like this where you could actually see a suspect moving through and going into rooms where potential victims were. So no internal video.
I'm guessing. That's correct. If we haven't, you have, what we do have Kelly is, you know, evidence, video evidence in the newer part of the building of young people fleeing the incident, but they don't show the person we're looking for. You know, those are modern cameras that might be more helpful, but we just don't have this individual on those cameras.
We are going around the Promise Police Department along with State Police. You see there the FBI evidence response team on your, on your footage you're showing are going around not only looking for evidence that may have been discarded along the path of this individual that we're trying to identify and detain and also pull out any additional video footage. And I will tell you, I'm going to state or federal prosecutor for a long time. I remember case double homicide where we saw that case from video we developed, you know, unfortunately that case it took, you know, a couple of weeks and people were really on edge for those couple of weeks.
But we got there in the end by pulling the threads that we needed to and that's what's going on right now. And have you been able to hold back any facts that you would use in the investigation to better determine a suspect is the real thing later on, like, did the suspect say anything while this was unfolding? Did anyone overhear something? Not for you to share it with us now.
But are there other things that you will be able to utilize if you can track the right person? Yeah, for certain, you know, there is evidence that we have not words that I don't want to go there because, you know, someone will take for my answer that somehow something was said, which shows a motive, which we don't, which to my knowledge, we don't have at this point. But there is evidence left at every crime scene that can be used to confirm who committed the crime. That will happen here once we have identified the person and can make those comparisons.
It's what we did with the person we ruled out last night. I mean, that takes time and that's why we detained him as a person of interest, not somebody in custody, you know, ready to be charged, but someone for whom he had additional questions by law. We could detain that person for a period of time and so that's exactly what we did. Well, we appreciate your time knowing you were going to be very busy with important work to do.
Thank you so much for your time today, Mr. Attorney General. I appreciate it. Thank you, Kelly.
We will now make the turn to the devastating mass shooting in Australia where two gunmen open fire and what officials describe as a terrorist attack targeting Jewish people celebrating the first day of Hanukkah on Sydney's iconic Bandai Beach. We should warn our viewers that some of the video we're about to show you is graphic. This was the chaotic scene as people fled the beach as gunshots appeared to ring out in the background. Authorities say 15 people were killed and more than two dozen others were injured, some in critical condition.
Police identifying the suspects as a father who was fatally shot and his son who suffered critical injuries and is in the hospital. Part of the shooting captured on video, including a dramatic moment when a bystander heroically tackled and disarmed one of the shooters, likely saving many lives. Australia's Prime Minister condemning the attack and expressing his support for the Jewish community. What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of any semitism, an act of terrorism on our shores.
This was an attack deliberately targeted at the Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah, which of course should be a joyous celebration and the Jewish community are hurting today. Today all Australians wrap our arms around them and say we stand with you. We will do whatever is necessary to stamp out any semitism. Yesterday President Trump also expressing his condolences.
That was an anti-Semitic attack, obviously, and I just want to pay my respects to everybody. To Australian Prime Minister, to everybody that we know so well, we get along with so well. We have a great relationship. That's a terrible situation going on over there.
Sarah James from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation filed a report for us from Sydney and again some of what we're about to show you is graphic in nature. The Sydney Opera House lit with a menorah in a symbol of solidarity with the Jewish community of Sydney after the terror attack here at Bandai Beach, the worst attack of terrorism on Australian home soil, 15 people killed and dozens still in the hospital. Police say two of them then carried out the attack and the two of them were a father and a son. The father died and the son is still in the hospital and in custody.
The victims of the shooting included a 10-year-old girl, a former police officer, two rabbis and a Holocaust survivor and to already say it would have been even worse if it had not been for the heroic actions of a local shopkeeper who jumped on top of one of a gunman and wrestled the gun away from him. In the meantime, the country is looking at much stricter gun laws, even though Australia already has some of the strictest in the world. The Prime Minister is saying they need to be even tougher and meeting with his national cabinet on that topic. The vigil continues, however, here at Bandai Beach, people coming in all day, bringing flowers, singing songs, talking about how to go forward and how to make sure that the community here is safe.
And our thanks to Sarah James for that report. We're also breaking news out of Los Angeles where the Justice Department has arrested four people in connection with a plot officials say was to set off bombs in the LA area just a few weeks from now around New Year's Eve, Attorney General Pam Bondi, tweeting that the plot was hatched by what's known as the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a far left pro-Palestine anti-government and anti-capitalist group that she says was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on December 31. In a criminal complaint unsealed today, the plan contemplated planting backpacks with IEDs or improvised explosive devices to be simultaneously detonated at five locations, targeting two U.S. companies at midnight on New Year's Eve and in the Central District of California.
NBC News Senior Justice reporter Ryan Riley is with me now. And Ryan, we watched this unfold today and it was very complex, very detailed. What can you tell us about what this criminal complaint suggests could have happened? Yeah, so this is the important thing I've talked about here is that this was definitely an FBI sting operation.
So they had a lot of sort of control and involvement in that from the beginning and I think down the line that's where, when this case plays out, there's going to be a lot of questions about, okay, what role did the FBI play in this plot? Because whenever we see these sort of sting operations, that's sometimes what the defense lawyers will go to. In part, because there was a human source that drew out this plot. Precisely, you know, the government's sort of an FBI employee as well.
But what they were actually plotting to do here is obviously very serious. And like you said, they're doing it at midnight. And the idea there was that they were trying to do it at the same time that fireworks would be going off. So that would sort of be a diversion.
So I think the intent here is pretty clear not to actually injure anyone, but obviously setting off bombs as a federal crime. And so I think that that's why the federal government is getting involved here. And are there political overtones to all of this? We've seen how this administration has said it once ago after certain kinds of groups.
How is that playing out in the criminal complaint? Yeah, precisely. I mean, this is exactly the type of case that I think the FBI and Justice Department under this leadership are very eager to show and give some examples of how this is a looming threat because of the broader political context that they've been going through. But obviously, when you have groups together that have these extremist intents, when the government gets involved is always that really close call.
A lot of first amendment considerations come into play. And so typically, these cases can be very delicate. But overall, the government's usually successful. And even when defense attorneys come forward and claim entrapment, there's a very high bar for you to actually get anything tossed on that level.
But I think that's certainly looking down the line a little bit where we can expect defense attorneys to go here and potentially be arguing that this wouldn't have happened but for the involvement of the FBI. But they have assembled some materials. They're certainly dangerous. They had, and they did that out in the desert.
You know, the question is how exactly that plot unfolded with the FBI? We appreciate the insights. Thank you, Ryan. And coming up new developments in the investigation into the deaths of acclaimed Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle as police arrest their son on suspicion of murder, plus the backlash facing President Trump for his comments about those murders.
We'll be right back with more on Meet the Press. Welcome back. The entertainment and political worlds are mourning the death of famed actor and director Rob Reiner, who was found dead alongside his wife Michelle Singer Reiner in their Los Angeles home on Sunday. Authorities confirmed today that their son Nick Reiner has been arrested and booked on suspicion of murder.
He remains in custody with no bail. Rob Reiner's role in the 1971 TV show All in the Family launched him into the homes of Americans across the country. But he was arguably best known for being a director with a catalog of modern classic movies, including The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, the American President, and a few good men. The Reiner's deaths, prompting an outpouring of condolences from across Hollywood and the world of politics.
Reiner was a longtime liberal activist and Democratic fundraiser and had been a vocal critic of Donald Trump since his first run for president. Mr. Reiner appeared on this program during the 2016 Democratic National Convention, where he spoke about then candidate Donald Trump. We've seen the George Wallace's and people like that, but we've never seen a major party candidate that is this ill-prepared and this divisive and this angry and this hateful.
We have two candidates that couldn't be more diametrically opposed in terms of inclusiveness and allowing people together and healing racial divides than Donald Trump and Hillary. Today, President Trump reacted to Reiner's death with a disparaging post on social media that has generated bipartisan backlash, which is not to show the full post because it contains allegations not corroborated by authorities. But the President in it, he says that he suggests the deaths were related to Reiner's political activism because Mr. Reiner had, quote, Trump's arrangement syndrome and that, quote, he was known to have driven people crazy by his raging obsession of President Donald J.
Trump. Again, police have not released any motive for the killing. And joining me now, from Los Angeles, this NBC's Gotti Schwartz and Gotti, what more do we know about the Reiner's son, Nick, and any relevant history that might tell us why this happened? Yeah, actually, right now, we understand that Nick Reiner was arrested yesterday at 9 p.m.
That would have been about five or six hours after the bodies of his parents were found here at their Brentwood home. We don't know where Nick was in between the times of the murders and where he was arrested, but we understand that it was somewhere possibly away from this home. We also know that five o'clock this morning, he was booked into jail. But first, he was given what appeared to be the opportunity for a $4 million bail.
At this point, it does seem like the opportunity for bail has been removed. He is being held on a suspicion for murder. But at this point, LAPD is still preparing their case, getting ready to present it to the District Attorney. We understand that could happen as early as tomorrow, but no charges yet in terms of double homicide charges, which are the ones that a lot of people here are talking about again.
That could come as soon as tomorrow. And Nick Reiner and his father had worked together on a film maybe 10 years ago or so. And through that time, they talked about his mental health issues, his dealing with a persistent drug problem. Is there anything more you're learning about those factors if they may weigh into this in any way?
Yeah. It's so difficult because LAPD is very tight-lipped about this investigation and they're proceeding very, very cautiously given the high level of scrutiny that this case is going to see. But so many people want to know that motive. And they're looking to that film that was produced 10 years ago, being Charlie.
That was a collaboration between Nick Reiner, who had been in and out of rehab, had struggled for years as early as 15 years old in and out of rehab with those addiction issues, working with his father. Nick Reiner wrote a script with somebody else that he met in rehab, his father robbed, directing that film. The two of them come together during a different press opportunity to kind of talk about the different struggles that they had as a father and son and some of the things that they had been working through when they put this film that was about a kid who grew up in an affluent family who also struggled with addiction issues. Again, that was 10 years ago as for a motive of what has happened here at this home in Grintwood that is still yet to be seen.
So much to learn. Thank you, guys. We appreciate the report. And joining me now is our panel, including Leanne Caldwell, Chief Washington Correspondent for Punk, Jonathan Kot, Democratic strategist and former Senior Advisor to Senator Joe Manchin formerly of West Virginia and Sarah Chamberlain, President and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership.
Leanne, let me turn to you. First of all, we hinted about the president's post today and he was asked about it in that exchange with reporters not long ago. Let's listen to what the president had to say when asked about this post. I was a fan of his at all.
He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. He said he liked it. He knew it was false. In fact, it's the exact opposite that I was a friend of Russia controlled by Russia.
You know, it was with the Russia hooks. He was one of the people behind it. I think he heard himself in career wise. He became like a deranged person, Trump derangement syndrome.
So I was not a fan of Reiner at all in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country. So the question that was posed to the president was, do you stand by that post? And I guess we can discern from his response that yes, he does.
We've heard so much from the president over the years, harsh language, coarse language. And yet this seemed a bit surprising in the sense that there wasn't an obvious reason why the president would need to weigh in on this matter. Yeah, that's the thing. The president has a choice.
He can either say something or not. And he chose to say something in this, you know, the president of the United States doesn't have a lot to say about a murder, you know, issue in Los Angeles with someone who is famous. But it's a repeat, it's a repeat thing of the president who values loyalty and someone being with him over anything else. One thing that really stands up out to me is you talk governor Spencer Cox in an interview last week, he said that the president told him in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk murder that his job is not to unite the country.
And that was just a really telling anecdote of where the president is and what he views his role as as leader of the United States. And Sarah, what we've seen today, and we don't always find that when the president posts something that is meant to be provocative and so forth, there has been some pushback from fellow Republicans and some find the timing, the tone, the weighing in at all offensive. Where do you think this goes? And is there something to be learned from the fact that maybe more Republicans are uncomfortable with this?
I think there are a lot of Republicans uncomfortable. A lot of the Republican leadership members are uncomfortable. This is not a time or place. This is a great family tragedy that has revolved around drugs.
So I think if the president Trump wanted to weigh in, he should have talked about drugs and what he's doing to try to combat the drugs in the United States, not weigh in on this. This is so sad. Is it a fair thing to be reminded of how people were offended and upset about any criticism related to the death, the assassination of Farley Kirk and that anyone who drew in political criticism, this administration at times said they should lose their job, they really push back hard. Is it hypocritical to say that it's okay to comment on Reiner now?
Somewhat, absolutely. Both of these, they're both tragedies. They should have been left out of the political realm and put where they belong to me as tragedies. Charlie Kirk has hit a young family.
Reiner was killed by his son for having said, this is terrible. It affects two families dramatically. This should not be a political issue. And Jonathan, let me bring you in.
Leanne mentioned Governor Cox of Utah, who of course, Utah was the scene of the Charlie Kirk assassination. And this notion that he said that there isn't, that the president doesn't think there needs to be a responsibility. Does the country want a president to weigh in on these issues in terms of toning down rhetoric or choosing, I don't know, a higher bar perhaps when there are tragedies? What do you think the public is looking for from the president?
Normally you would think that's what the public wants and we had that in President Biden. The country seemed to reject that when we had that. We had a comforter in chief in President Biden and the country turned in a different direction. I'm surprised Spencer Cox needed to hear the president say that was his position.
I think we all know that the president loves to divide the country and has no interest in uniting it. I don't know why that was such a shocking thing for Spencer Cox to hear. He's spent the last nine years dividing the country. That's what he does every time we think he could, he can't go lower, he picks up a shovel and digs a little deeper.
So yes, that's what he does. I wish the country had a uniter in chief. That's what we need. It's interesting because the standard for political discourse is judged by all of these events, right?
Whether it is political violence and we've seen an awful lot of that this year or a tragedy like this. I think that there is any expectation on the public's part that the president fills that gap. Jonathan said we had it and didn't seem to move the needle. Yeah, you know, honestly, I haven't seen any polling on this and that would be the best insight so far.
But what is clear is that in these political tragedies or in these tragedies, the country becomes more divided. You have people who are standing up for the president. In these instances, you have his staff or people close to him who doubled down. You have the president who doubled down and you have Democrats who condemn it.
Yes, there are some Republicans who have spoken out, but it's not across the board. Most people are silenced. The default position seems to be where your politics are, that determines it. We're going to continue our conversation in a short while, so Lee Ann, Jonathan, Sarah, you're all sticking around for us and we appreciate that.
We have brand new NBC News decision that's polling to dig into from President Trump's lacklustre approval rating to crack in his MAGA base of support to Americans' views on the economy and more. So stay with us right here on Meet the Press Now. Let's kickstart your wellness journey with the Dr. Aya.
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Hey guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I sit down with one of the biggest bands in the world, Mumford and Sons, as we get the boys together to talk about their new number one album, Prize Fighter and the evolution of that irresistible foot stomping sound. You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts. As the day wraps up, get this scoop on what's been happening with Here's a Scoop, a new podcast for NBC News with me, your host, Gather D'Souguin.
We'll take a deep dive into the day's top stories with NBC News's trusted journalist. It's a fresh take that's sharp, thoughtful, and it's informative bringing you closer to headlines and conversations that are shaping our world on the front page, the Zeitgeist. Here's the scoop from NBC News. Listen daily on SiriusXM.
Welcome back. We're glad you stayed with us. Turning now to our NBC News decision desk poll with some warning signs for President Trump on key issues. Shave among them affordability as voters ranked the economy their top issue and more specifically saying inflation and the cost of living were the most important economic issues.
And this all comes as the president has struggled to refine his message on affordability, sometimes he's rejecting that word. And as this poll suggests, there could be potential cracks among his own base, with a number of Republicans identifying as a supporter of the Make America Great Movement, dropping seven points since April. And NBC News chief data analyst Steve Cornack, he joins me now from the big board. And Steve, take us through this poll.
And how is it concerning? In what ways do you see this being a factor ahead of next year's midterm elections? Yeah, Kelly. Ahead of next year's midterm, certainly in the wake of those humbling elections in November.
You offer your elections for Republicans in Virginia and New Jersey. We see Trump's approval rating in this poll at 42%. Now, back in the spring, start of his second term, this same poll took a look at Trump is at 45%. So it's not a huge drop, but it is a downward tick for him.
His approval rating, of course, both terms as president has kind of existed in a pretty narrow range. This is getting towards the lower part of that range, right? They're certainly consistent with those kinds of results we saw for Republicans for Trump's party in New Jersey and Virginia. And then there's that question about cracks in his own base, potentially.
So taking a look inside the Republican party right here, we were looking at the depth of enthusiasm for Trump. So these aren't folks just who approve of Trump's performance as president. We're looking at the folks who say they strongly approve of Trump's performance as president. And among Republicans, that number is now 52% in this poll.
And again, earlier this year when we checked in on the same question, it was 60% of Republicans who strongly approved of Trump's performance. So that's down eight points there. So maybe a bit of slackening, a little bit of softening there of the depth of that enthusiasm for Trump within his own party. And then you showed this one a minute ago, but I think this is also significant.
Is there a shift going, a broader shift taking place in the Republican party, kind of philosophically here, asking Republicans, do you consider yourself mainly a supporter of the make America great again, movement, Trump's movement, or the Republican party itself, 50, 50 right now is that split when we asked this back in the spring. It was tilted more towards Trump's side, more towards the Magus side, 57, 43. So is that a notable shift there about how Republicans are just sort of starting to think about themselves? Now, in terms of the issue agenda, looking forward to the midterms next year, what matters most to you?
You see the economy number one there? You see health care up there in between. I do think this was interesting. Kelly, 23% say it's rights to democracy.
What that's driven by? That's driven by Democrats, by Democratic voters. When you ask just Democrats, what the most important issue to them is by far in this poll, they say threats to democracy. It's independence and Republicans for that matter who will cite the economy.
But of course, independence, that's where you're going to find a lot of the swing voters who are going to move elections here. When you talk about the economy, what matters most, just from an economic standpoint, it's inflation. It's health care costs. And that is where you see Republicans paying a price in this poll, asking voters here, which party do you trust right now more on rising prices?
That blue means it's Democrats by a six-point margin. So again, you see independence there, not enthusiastic about how Trump's handling the economy. And really part of that moved towards Democrats on the inflation issue and on the question of health care costs. Fourteen points voters say they trust Democrats more than Republicans now on health care costs.
And they trust that at least at this point, figured a loom large over the midterms Democrats, opening up an advantage in this poll, Kelly. Thank you, Steve. There's a lot to chew on there. And we're going to bring back our panel to do just that.
Of course, with me again is Lee Ann, Jonathan, and Sarah. So let me start with you. When you see a softening as Steve takes us through the numbers with Republicans, does it make sense for the president to be back out on the campaign trail? And will there be places where he won't be so welcome in other places where maybe he could be useful to driving the party's mess?
Absolutely. We'd like to say I'm getting right back out there, start talking about what he's doing with the economy, the big, beautiful bill. There's never any really messaging done around that, you know, no tax on tips, no tax and overtime, things like that. So we need him back out there.
Maybe not in every single district, maybe not some of the districts in Pennsylvania and some of the really... There's a drag in some places. There's a small drag and there always has been. That's not unique here.
Sure. But yes, we need him back on the trail talking about what he's doing and trying to drive the mega voters out to vote because they don't tend to vote in mid-year elections. That's key. That's a big part of why they want to do that.
So at the end of campaign 24, you'll remember that candidate Trump went to Mcdonalds in Pennsylvania and he worked the Fry station and all of that. Our colleague, Peter Nicholas, went back to that specific location and talked to people there about this issue of affordability. So let's share what one of those that he encountered had to say, it's going to go slowly down. She said, we haven't given it any time yet.
It's not even been a year. I presume she means the cost of living. She said, she'd vote for Trump again. If she could.
I think he's funny. He's hysterical. He has a personality. She said, well, that was part of our discussion earlier perhaps.
Jonathan, do you think that kind of, again, Pennsylvania, someone at the McDonald's where the president had been? Do you think that sense of the sort of resilience of the Trump support you see that changing and is that an opening for Democrats? Yeah. I think it's clearly breaking.
I mean, you're seeing, I mean, the fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene is breaking with him shows there's some cracks in it. Also, Donald Trump only goes to places where he's very, very popular. So I'm not surprised that that McDonald's location still supports him. He doesn't go to purple districts.
He goes to Ruby Red Maga places. So I agree with you. I would love to have him out there on the campaign trail. This is a bipartisan agreement.
We have he he's the best way to energize Democratic voters in the midterm elections. He should be out there. He will energize our base. But I do think there are a lot of cracks in it.
You're seeing it. You're seeing Senate Democrats for the first time voting against him on some key issues. You're seeing Republicans not in the house, not following him lockstep and barrel down the, you know, down the plank on every issue before when they used to do that. So yes, I see.
I think what they're starting to realize is once 2026 comes, they're all going to be on the ballot when he's not anymore and they have to live in a life post on it. Democrats have the struggle of rooting against and improving economy because of the political imperative of making that an issue. Do you think that if the president is able to slowly get some prices down, which is administration points to gas as one example, there are a lot of areas where it's been very resistant. Is that a challenge for war Democrats to have to hope?
It doesn't get better in order to make their points in November. No, you never want to root against the economy going bad because that's just a horrible thing to do as a person. Yeah, you don't want to go publicly. But we're purely talking strategy.
Just strategically. I would never say to do that. But the health care costs are going to go up no matter what. And prices are still not coming down.
So by the time the midterm rolls around, none of those things are going to really be impactful. Also all the bad parts of the big, beautiful bill, they've pushed off till after the midterm. So they knew there were bad parts of it. They pushed those off.
So I think people will feel the pain when they go to the ballot box. And you expect the messaging to still be about health care costs and affordability even several months from now? Yeah, especially regarding health care. That's what Democrats are betting on, on affordability generally to Senator Schumer is going to unveil on Wednesday some task force to address this issue of affordability, hoping to take care of this message into the midterm election year.
And, but it's not just Democrats who need to have a plan to move forward to campaign on this with also helping them as President Trump by mocking the issue of affordability, calling it a hoax. And he's really playing into Democrats' hands by saying, look, they don't care about this and they don't understand you. So it's going to continue to be an issue. We can fill many more panels with discussions of health care costs and affordability.
Thank you very, for a double panel today. Thank you so much. We and Jonathan, Sarah, we appreciate it. And after the break, President Trump vows retaliation after a deadly attack kills two U.S.
soldiers and an American interpreter in Syria will have details on what happened and the fallout. Keep it here. I need to press now. Welcome back.
President Trump is vowing quote, very serious retaliation after two U.S. troops and U.S. contractors serving as an interpreter were killed while carrying out a counter terrorism engagement in Syria. In a post on social media, President Trump is blaming ISIS for the attack on the U.S.
And the two U.S. soldiers killed have now been identified as members of the Iowa National Guard, Sergeant William Nathaniel Howard and Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, a civilian interpreter, has yet to be named by officials. The Pentagon also says three other U.S. personnel were wounded in the attack in Syria.
And Syria is condemning the attack, calling it a deliberate attempt to destabilize the country and undermine joint efforts to combat terrorism. And joining me now is NBC News Senior National Security Corresponding QB. And what are you seeing here about the retaliation piece of this? The President talked about it.
We've seen him use the force of the U.S. military. What could this look like? So just in the immediate aftermath of this ambush was what it appears to have been.
The U.S. flew some aircraft in. They kind of did some low passes. Sort of a show of strength, a show of presence, a show of force, whatever you want to characterize it as.
Most likely what's going down, what has happened historically is when there has been an attack on Americans, the U.S. has responded with attacks against something that would have potentially been responsible. So it would be maybe a weapons cache, a facility where they build drones, a facility where they do their training, something like that, but some sort of an ISIS presence. There have been times when they've retaliated specifically against leadership.
The reason that I would think at this point, anyway, we're not getting any indication of one or the other yet, but that this might be more of a facility, ISIS still hasn't claimed any responsibility for this attack yet. That's a little uncommon. They usually like to claim credit when there's a high profile attack like this. But I would expect that if history is any historical present for what's going to happen here, I could see most likely them targeting ISIS facilities.
And of course, you're immersed in this day today in knowing where U.S. have forces, even in places where it is. It's not a big public presence. It's been a while since we've talked publicly about what the U.S.
rule in Syria is. Why do we still have personnel there? And what are they doing? Yeah, and I suspect that that is going to be a bigger topic of conversation going forward given this attack is because it highlights the fact that there still are almost a thousand men and women who are serving in Syria, they're primarily in the northeast and the more Kurdish area.
But there's also a presence in the south that is known as a Tom from near the border with Jordan. Yes. That kind of surprised me. I think it surprises a lot of people.
There is a special operations component there. But there are a lot of national guard even in 2019 when President Trump said he was going to pull troops out. The first ones go back in. We're at North Carolina National Guard.
So it's still a defeat ISIS mission, but it definitely has changed over the last year. It's changed at frankly since 2019 when, you know, the fall of bad daddy. But in the last year since Bashar al-Assad, the dictator there fell out of power, the presence has changed still. They are still technically there fighting ISIS or continuing to push back any ISIS presence there and in Iraq.
But there also has been this component about trying to figure out some sort of security situation there with the new Syrian forces, with the Syrian Democratic forces that the US has been partnering with for years now, trying to figure out the security situation going forward. And the president has had at least a hospitable relationship with the new leader there as well. He was here in D.C. That's very unusual.
Thank you, Courtney. We appreciate it. And still to come, Ukrainian President Zelensky has suggested he's willing to drop his push to join NATO. Could that concession pave the way for a peace deal with Russia?
You're watching Meet the Press now. Welcome back. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is holding another day of meetings with the hope of making progress toward a peace agreement to end the war with Russia. Now, according to a readout from the US Special Envoy, Steve Whitcoff, the US delegation, which includes the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with President Zelensky for more than five hours to discuss the proposed now 20-point peace plan.
Whitcoff says a lot of progress was made. Now, this comes after a major policy shift by President Zelensky, who is suggesting that Ukraine would be willing to give up its bid to join the NATO alliance as part of peace negotiations in exchange for Article 5-like security guarantees from the US and Europe. Now, earlier today, President Trump said he spoke with President Zelensky and several European leaders and appeared optimistic about the progress made in those negotiations. We had very long and very good talks, and, again, I think things are going along pretty well.
I think we're closer now, and they will tell you that they're closer now. We had numerous conversations with President Putin of Russia, and I think we're closer now than we have been ever. And we'll see what we can do. Joining me now is NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent and Chief Washington correspondent Andrea Mitchell.
And Andrea, I know you've been very plugged in on this. What do you think the key takeaway is in this moment? They're hinting at some progress. Are you real?
I don't think it's real. I think that Russia and Ukraine are still very far apart because Ukraine is negotiating, and Russia is not making concessions. They're calling it concessions. The White House is, but right now, they're not conceding any territory, and Ukraine is going to have to give up some territory.
And Ukraine has so far not gotten the security guarantees, and the US has put another element into all of this, which is a transactional element of an economic zone, which would be like a DMZ, a place for investment, a place for investment, but who would be the troops? Russia is fuelling out any NATO troops. What would be the troops to guard against Russia than just moving into that DMZ and taking more and more of it? And the president is saying, on the one hand, you know, Ukraine makes some progress and agrees and then doesn't agree and Russia doesn't, but that's really not the objective reality.
The objective reality is that Ukraine is willing to make concessions for security guarantees, but hasn't gotten those article five, like, you know, NATO, ironclad security guarantees, which are if there's an attack by Russia against one, it's an attack on all, and that is not the agreement yet. And you can imagine why that is their top priority, because in a matter of time, there could be another incursion we saw on 2014 prime. It was take- Exactly. And then the war that's now almost formed.
And the U.S. did nothing. I mean, that was the Obama administration that didn't do anything, you know, to counter Russia then. And this could happen again.
Do you sense that, by talking about pushing off NATO and maybe having some other kind of partnership on security, is that way for Zelensky to look like he's moving? Because he said he does not want to concede ground. Everyone kind of knows that NATO is never an immediate option, even a longer-term option for Ukraine. The European Union membership is something that is very much on the table.
That could be a sign. He's a Whitcove and Jared Kushner are now talking about with also the inclusion now of Larry Fink, the head of Black Rock, a major hedge fund, American hedge fund, U.S. based, I should say, is to have some sort of economic relationship with Russia and let Russia back into the world of nations. So after years of sanctions, it would be having a business relationship again with Russia.
Big business relationship. Big investments in Russia. And that is the very appealing to Vladimir Putin. But why should they be rewarded for an invasion?
And are you getting any sense how Europe is responding to these latest? Very nervously. Okay. And wanting to do something with Russian assets as a loan guarantee for Ukrainian reconstruction and that is absolutely off the table as far as Russia is concerned.
Yes, after sanctions, after freezing and so forth. And then is there some force other than NATO that could be in that zone? You'd have to constitute something new, right? Exactly.
And reinvent something or invent the wheel again, which has worked for 75, 80 years. Well, Andrea, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Good to see you and good to have your insights because I know you're tracking this moment by moment and you've been on the ground and we look to you for insights about when there really is a break.
And Andrea, we thank you again and we'll be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now and there's more ahead on NBC News Now.