Meet the Press NOW — December 17

Hi there. Welcome to Ether Press. Allen, Ryan Nobles in Washington. We begin today with breaking news.

New York prosecutors just announced that 26 year old Luigi Mangioni has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The sweeping 11 count indictment includes one count of first degree murder and two counts of second degree murder. One of those second degree murder counts is for the crime of terrorism with the intent to intimidate or coerce the public and the government. Here's Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaking.

Just moments ago, this was a frightening, well planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and, and attention and intimidation. It occurred one of the most bustling parts of our city, threatening the safety of local residents and tourists alike. Commuters and business people just starting out on their day. We also heard from NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who excoriated some members of the public for lionizing Mangioni's crime or suggesting that other CEOs should suffer harm.

In the nearly two weeks since Mr. Thompson's killing, we have seen a shocking and appalling celebration of cold blooded murder. Social media has erupted with praise for this cowardly attack. People ghoulishly plastered posters threatening the CEOs, other CEOs with an X over Mr.

Thompson's picture as though he was some sort of a sick trophy. These are the threats of a lawless violent mob who would trade in their own vigilantism for the rule of law that protects us all. Let me say this plainly, there is no heroism in what Mangioni did. This was a senseless act of violence.

It was a cold and calculated crime. Now Mangioni remains in custody in Pennsylvania where he was arrested last week. A spokesman for New York Governor Kathy Hochul told NBC News that she planned to file an extradition order and paperwork as soon as the indictment was handed down. Joining me now for more on this is NBC News law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winter.

So Tom, walk us through these charges because there are quite foes. The play here, legal experts will tell you, is that if for some reason the intent that prosecutors are alleging here is not met on that first count, that there'll still be stiff penalties for those second counts and the jury could perhaps decide to vote guilty. There potentially term seven counts associated with a gun. So there's probably just several hundred people that are allowed to carry a gun lawfully besides law enforcement in this part of Manhattan because of New York City and New York State's gun laws.

And so the fact he had a gun on him armed at the time, and he does not have that very particular license. Makes him want to follow the law. And then on top of that, there's the ghost guns office. Now, where do we go from here?

First off, you heard the district attorney say this was a brazen target and premeditated murder. He said this was a frightening and well planned murder. Shortly after that clip you played from the New York City Police Department's Commissioner, Jessica Tisch. I've been on the job for just about a month at this point.

She held up a front cover of the New York Post, which showed people putting together a playing card decks of different CEOs. So she's really focused on it. It's because the woman who's standing to her side, the deputy commissioner of intelligence, accountant Charizard from the ypd, Rebecca Weiner. Her intelligence analysts, according to documents reviewed by NBC News, are concerned about the Post.

They're seeing that people are really talking about this as some sort of an act of heroism, she said, as we've seen in post, and that people are really supporting Mangione in what he did here. And that has the police department very concerned because it's a short walk from the healthcare industry to the banking industry to all sorts of other different types of industries. Really, anybody who does something that the general public doesn't like, and that's a huge security and law enforcement concern here in New York, that's initially where we start here on these charges. Right.

And then, Tom, what guidance do we have on when he'll be extradited back to New York? So the next time he's in court is Thursday morning, there's a preliminary hearing, which generally everybody waives in Pennsylvania. It's basically an opportunity, if you have it and you don't waive it, for prosecutors to come in and just unload all the evidence they have against you in open court before you even see a jury or a trial. So that's usually something that defense attorneys will say, no thanks, we'll skip.

We'll skip that process. And then the district attorney kind of indicated, Alvin Bride indicated that he expected that Mancioni, through his def. Defense counsel or himself directly to waive the extradition hearing to come back to New York City and face charges. I think given the indictment, the mechanisms that are in play, it's highly unlikely that he would succeed on an extradition fight in speaking with legal experts.

So if that's the case and he waives that, he could be back in New York City as soon as Thursday night, certainly by the end of the week, Ryan, that's what we're probably looking at in this case. Okay, Tom Winter, thank you for that reporting on the breaking news. And we're going to turn now to politics here in Washington. And like many Americans, Congress had saved its holiday to do less for the very last minute with just three days until government funding expires and the Russia get a bill across.

The finish line comes as both parties have already set their sights on the new year with Republicans about take full control of Washington and Democrats about to learn just how much leverage they'll actually have in a new Congress and new administration. For House Republicans, the action on Capitol Hill, today's reminder just how difficult it's going to be to do anything with such a small majority. Right now we are still waiting for Speaker Johnson and his party to release the actual text of its top gap build upon the government's mid marching House is coming in. The speaker says he expects it to be completed today.

He's been saying that for a couple of days now, telling reporters it's quote, coming together. Senate Democrats, though, are blaming the speaker for holding up negotiations to some last minute revisions and also rankled some House Republicans with one member calling the bill, quote, a dumpster fire. Speaker Johnson pushing back at criticism from within his own party earlier today. What you said had to be added on this bill, but how is this not yet another Christmas tree at the Olives.

Yeah. This book, it's not, it's not a Christmas tree. It's not an omnibus here saying that they called this cram down. They said it was garbage.

Yeah. I mean, don't look, I got a couple of friends who will say that about any interview funding manager. This is not an omnibus. Okay.

This is a small CR that we've had to add things to that were out of our control. So it is not. Anonymous. This is a CR Again, we're not doing all the approach bills.

We're going to see our to patches into the first quarter next year so that we can put our fingerprints on what the final spending bills are. And we're looking forward to doing that. Now. Government for House Republicans likely isn't going to get any easier in the new year when Speaker Johnson will have an even smaller majority and an even bigger agenda to tackle In Trump's first 100 days as the president elect looks to reshape the US government, its economy and its workforce.

That same Republican majority also leads Democrats debating how they'll navigate the new administration and what the future of their party should look like. That debate was on full display as the House Democratic Caucus today as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez lost her bid for the top Democratic spot on the powerful House Oversight Committee to the more senior Jerry Connolly, calmly cutting his experience, the force behind his win and dismissed the idea that he wouldn't be ready to take on a second Trump administration. I think my colleagues who are measuring their votes by who's got experience, who's seasoned, who can be trusted, capable on and who's got a record of productivity, our strategy is going to be to tell the truth and if that hurts, then we know we've made him more. Are you up for the potential combat of the Trump administration?

I did it before for four years and vested them on a number of occasions and I'm we're going to go again. He makes it more bold, but that may also make it more reckless. There is a law on this land. NBC's Sahak4 joins me on Capitol Hill.

Sahoki have been here before. Seems like we're here for six months. The government's scrambling to pass a funding bill before a deadline. Why are we here now?

Is there not just a penalty for procrastination? Let's just get this over with. Yeah, there's no legal penalty, Ryan, as long as they get this done by the Friday midnight deadline. But this is remarkable because it's not a massive trillion dollar omnibus government funding deal that would go through the end of the fiscal year.

This is just a punt. This is just a several month short term bill that would get them through the holidays. They'd be right back at it after the holidays and they would again need bipartisan support because Republicans are taking over the House and Senate. Yes, and the presidency.

But this is subject to the 60 month threshold. So they're going to need Chuck Schumer, Hain Jeffries and Democrats blessing to get a full deal over the line again. What we do know at this moment what Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said is that the funding will go through March 14th. It'll include disaster relief.

Mike Johnson said it would include assistance, economic assistance to farmers to the tune of about 10 billion and we also expect some healthcare provisions in there. Now in terms of the Del Senator primarily chair of the Appropriations Committee, he gave us a handset. They were almost done but unfortunately they were delayed by an 11 hour demand from Speaker Johnson which was I'm told the economic ache for farmers. Now Sahil, I do think this is a preview what spirit Johnson has in front of him once he takes the gamble again next year.

A particular answer that we just showed when he was challenged on the difference between omnibus and a continuing resolution, which he didn't point out. He said it's not an ombuds, it's a cr. But left out the fact that his right flank hates CR as much as they hate omnibuses. I mean, if he can't get it through now, what's it gonna be like next year when the agenda's even bigger?

Yeah, Mike Johnson is facing a lot of the downsides of pursuing omnibus without any of the upside because I mentioned he's gonna be right back at it in a few months. But look, the fact is Republicans are always going to rely heavily on Democratic votes to get us over the line. That's how it tends to work all the time with government funding goes especially in divided government. But Mike Johnson's problem now is that he's got some very angry House conservatives at the way he handled it.

Take a listen to what Eric Burleson, Missouri Republicans. It's a total dumpster fire. I think it's garbage. This is what Washington D.C.

has done. This is why ran for Congress trying to stop this. And sadly this is happening again. I think that it's shameful that people that celebrate Doge coming in, I can't.

And yet we're going to vote for another billion dollars to be added to the deficit. And so it's ironic. Remember, Johnson's majority is going to cut even further in January in just a couple of weeks to 2:20 to 15 before the resignations and exits to join the Trump administration. This is how difficult to get government funding.

Even harder when they rely on party line votes due to big things like border security, energy, tax cuts. Right. Yeah. Let's talk about the Democrats though.

Sound as though they have no problems. Congressman Ocasio Cortez, she attempted to challenge Jerry Conley. It fell by a pretty wide margin. How representative is this of the debate within the party right now?

Are Democrats looking at their election losses and new Trump tournaments? The answer is to maintain the status quo. Or is there still a sizable part of that caucus that would like to see some fresh faces in charge of things? Oh, there's certainly a generational debate happening within the Democratic Party and we're seeing some real cracks to the seniority system.

Yes, AOC lost her bit of oversight pre handling. I believe that the number 131 to 84. But that in itself is a significant crack in the seniority system, which a few weeks ago looks untouchable. We've seen other senior Democrats at the ranking member committee level like Jerry Nadler and Raoul Grabba get pushed aside forcibly by younger colleagues who are challenging them for those positions.

Angie Craig, who's class of 2018, one of the younger, more junior Democrats, just the more senior Democrat for the AD Committee. So I think this is the next step and I think what's gone long running debate when the Democratic Party, fueled heavily by the fact that Joe Biden at age more than 80, decided to run for reelection until very late and in disaster for the Democrats. There's a real desire for new blood. I don't think that I'm here.

Okay. So thank you for that. Let's now turn to the latest on the Trump transition and NBC's Vaughn Hilliard. Vaughn, let's talk to a bit about this latest lawsuit that's been launched by Donald Trump.

He has launched a lawsuit against yet another media company claiming election interference over a poll that the Register release had in the election that had Harris winning Iowa. That obviously didn't happen. Is this a proof of what we could expect in his second term? This is, I think, Donald Trump.

This just comes days after that $15 million settlement that ABC paid paid out to Donald Trump and it's definite in his defamation case against them and George Stephanopoulos and Ryan. This lawsuit that was filed, the civil suit was filed last night, makes a case against the pollster and Seltzer, her polling firm, Gannett Newspapers in the Moyne Register that they violated Iowa law under the fraud claims that they misrepresented and false advertised in order to benefit the political campaign of Thomas Harris. And this is one where when you're looking at the allegations in the suit that are levied against the Moyne Register in the pollster, it is very difficult to see how Donald Trump outright wins this case against them. At the same time, the $50 million set settlement was a clear message that the Trump team is going to put the money in the resources and legal team behind going after news organizations that thinks that they have been treated unfairly by and when you go through these proceedings, as long as the judge doesn't outright toss them out, there is a discovery process and this can take a great period of time.

And so for Donald Trump, they made a decision to go after the Morning Register and there's a question of which other news organizations would they potentially go after in the future, understanding that this could be a potential cudgel to send a clear message that it is willing to go on the offensive. Okay, Von Hillier, thank you for that report from West Palm beach, let's now go to our very patient panel. Joining me now on set, Melanie Zonon, senior congressional reporter for Punchbowl News and NBC News contributor, Navi Nayak, president of the center for American Progress Action Fund and Jay Chandriya, the Republican strategist and former advisor, the Vice President elect Vance. So now let's start with this lawsuit against the more registered conductor settlement from abc.

Is this just the first act of retribution since the election of Donald Trump? Should we expect this to be a pattern or is he just putting everyone on notice and then trying to start over from there? I think it is absolutely a preview of what's to come in this next Trump administration. He feels emboldened.

He's escalating his war with the media. I mean, not toys Rice. He loves lawsuits. He's very litigantistic.

He also hates pollster. So in some way, I'm not surprised to see him take this step. But he is putting actual weight behind something he said he was going to do. He's making good on that promise.

And as someone in the media, Ryan, I'm sure you're hearing same things from your colleagues. We're all sort of rethinking how we're doing our jobs, how we can protect ourselves and what it means when you have someone like Donald Trump and all these people that he's appointed to these key cabinet positions, these key appointments in his administration who saying they're going to go after journalists for doing their jobs in some cases. So, Naveen, is that scary that we are trying to reassess how we cover a president of the United States because of things like lawsuits? I mean, I think this is what people are worried about, which is just a huge abuse of power.

Right. Whether he wins the lawsuit is not the point. The point is to send a message to everyone else that if you don't cover me the way I want to be covered, he's not suing for accuracy. I mean, he was happy with polls that showed him up 15 points.

It was the fact that the polls showed him down. And so it is all about trying to scare people away from doing their jobs, from free speech. Yeah. This is a clear assault on the press and on free speech.

This is not, not a credible lawsuit. It's not meant to be a credible lawsuit. It's not a message. Okay.

I think if you're a member of the media and you're doing your job, you're not gonna be. There's no fear of a lawsuit here. It's not about Ansell czar. It's about the new Register.

I remember being on the campaign trail hearing from Democratic sources that there's gonna be this great poll for Democrats. There is clearly some electioneering going on by some in the media. Look, let's check ABC News. You've got a partisan Democrat in George Stephanopoulos.

There's no doubt he's been a partisan Democrat. He was Bill Clinton's one of the senior strategists. He's been an independent journalist all day. Let's not pretend to say that he's not a part of the hack.

He's been a part of the hack from day one. You don't just like all of a sudden like shed your coat. There are other networks that have Republicans that work in former press secretaries. He runs a Sunday morning news show.

We pretend that he's a nonparson. He acts like a parson. There's no surprise and there's a reason that they settled like you said in discovery, things are going to come out. Maybe that's something that.

But I don't think that if you do your job as a journalist and you're a good journalist, you'll have any fear here. But it will act like a partisan. But that's a concern. I mean that is the scary thing.

It is like suddenly being partisan. What counts as being partisan in this case? If you don't cover me the way I want cover, you should prepare for a lot. It isn't about the truth.

It isn't about defamationary. It's about actually going and tip your head putting your finger on the scale. And for the other side, look, as a Republican we see it all the time in the media. It happens constantly.

It happened in the Boyne Rusher case where the Democrats absolutely knew about this poll going into and they were using it for their benefit before the poll was actually. I don't want to belabor this point on the entire panel to dedicated this but how is that against the law even? I'm not going to accept her premise that anything that Dwindles did was electioneering or trying to put a thumb on the scale because that can be debated in the end of time. But there's nothing in the Constitution or in our laws that even if they were doing that prevents them from doing.

We have a first Amendment that prot that type of speech and there is a whole host of conservative voices and conservative media outlets that are doing what you're actually accusing the one register of doing and none of them are getting lawsuits filed against them or being called into court around it. Let's look at this. First of all, I think the One Register, I think abc, they don't pretend to be conservative news. They tend to be stuck on the middle.

That's one thing. But here's the real key here. There is a reason that George Stephanopoulos and ABC News settled. They settled for $15 million in unprecedented case here because they were afraid of something coming out.

And that's the reason this happened. So we don't know exactly what happened here, but so do we know what the definition elections is with the One Register? Let's find out. Yeah.

Okay. We're move on. Point taken. So Navin, Donald Trump ever been on presidential ballot again, Right?

Does that change his calculus as president? Is that part of the reason maybe he's filing these lawsuits now? Is it change the way he approaches members of his own party and Democrats? How should we take that aspect?

Future it will count. I think since he walked down the elevator in 2015, he's prided himself on being one thing which is unpredictable. And I think that continues to be who he is. I think he's unpredictable to the people closest to him.

Don't actually know what he might do. So, you know, I think he is at the same time and often has been reckless. Right. And I think that is the way he governs.

And I think it is one thing for it to be words he says out in the world and we don't have to pay attention to that anymore. But I think when he starts to become reckless and it costs the American people, when he puts Tulsi Gabbard in charge of national security, that is incredibly reckless. When he puts a vaccine skeptic in charge of our vaccines, that is incredibly reckless and has real consequences for the American people. I think it's going to be really important for people to know that.

I think it's argument on our side is that we have to worry less about the words and really focus on the fact that he is putting Americans at harm with a lot of the different things he's proposing to do. And I think that's worth America. So let's expand on that, Mel, and talk about his policy proposals. Right.

Because you know, my hope is during this version of the Trump administration, it's less about his personality, more about his policy proposals because the American people clearly know his policy or personality and they voted him back in office. One of his big things that he revealed yesterday during this press conference was this idea of privatizing the postal service. You Cover Capitol Hill. I mean, how would this idea get over with some official public analysis?

Is there any universe in which this is something that actually happened? Well, listen, he did flip this and I do this back in his first term. It didn't really go anywhere. But I will say it started to gain more traction now on Capitol Hill because you have this DOGE effort, this Department of Government efficiency.

They're trying to look at different ways to cut back on government spending to make the government more efficient. And this is the thing. I spoke from Margaret Green this morning, and she's going to be leading one of the DOGE subcommittees. She said, I'm for privatizing this.

I'm all for this is something we need to look at. But I think it's a lot easier said than done. It would be a massive shakeup. There's a lot of concerns about which type of company would want to take on a job like that.

Would it end all sneaky universal service with leading the price project? And there's a lot of concerns about how you practically implement something like this. But in terms of you supporting Capitol Hill, I think they're gonferential to a lot of his policy proposals, including this. So how do you do that?

How do you turn DOGE into reality? Especially because everybody's got that project that they like. And if you cut some of your trillion dollars. Well, let's take the US Posters for a second.

You know, Donald Trump has bring this up. He's making this an issue that we're all going to debate. They lost $9.5 billion, billions of B, as Walter White would say, you know, in the year before, they lost $6.5 billion. If we're saying there's not inefficiencies here, there's nothing we can actually do to improve the system, I think we're all fooling ourselves.

And we're all in this bubble with Washington, D.C. like, don't touch anything. So whether they privatize the fully, where they find out the solutions, he's bringing this up and it's going to be better for the American people. So I think that's what DOGE is going to be all about.

It's going to be about identifying these big problems. You're not going to have all the solutions right away, which you're going to debate them. You're going to come up with better governance solutions for the American people. I think that's the test.

Is it actually going to be better for the American people? And I think that really hard to prove. Could you privatize it? Sure you could.

But I think you're going to. Small businesses are going to suffer dramatically. Rural communities are going to suffer dramatically. And that's where again, I think it's to the top of this in terms of what happened in Capitol Hill, governing is a lot harder.

And Republicans have not shown that they know how to govern in a way that the American people actually like. They're clear they're better at campaigning, but not a governor. Remember, he said this is a good idea. He's not said this is the solution.

Let's debate it, let's have the conversation and let's see what we can up with together. Conversation is an important one. I think privatizing it is a real risk. Well, that's the conversation we're having.

And we started right here. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it so much. Coming up, a Democratic congressman on the House Intelligence Committee reacted today's classified drone briefing.

Federal agencies look to reassure the public that there's no cost for harm. Plus, speaking of flying objects, the nation's most iconic bird, the bald eagle. Bald eagle is said to get a long overdue promotion thanks to one Minnesota man's eagle eyed discovery that wasn't officially the national bird. The man, the mission, the omission is all coming up.

You watching me? The press now. Welcome back. It is the story that everyone is talking about.

Federal officials just finished briefing House Intelligence Committee members about the recent drone sightings over the Tri State area. We've heard from a number of Democrats on the committee as they left the briefing and pretty much all of them say that they did feel reassured that the drones are not a threat and that there's been no evidence of any kind of nefarious or illegal activity. Now this classified briefing comes as Homeland Security Department, the Homeland Security Department, the FBI and the FAA and Pentagon are trying to assure the public that the drone scene in recent weeks do not pose a national security threat. They release a joint statement that says, quote, having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed wing aircraft, helicopters and stars mistakenly reported as drones.

White House National Security communications Advisor John Kirby this morning defended the government's response to the drone sightings as local officials and some members of Congress accused the administration of mishandling the issue and minimizing their concerns. As open and as transparent with the American people as we can be. What we won't do is speculate or hypothesize about what you know, something we don't know. And I'm pleased to be joined now by Congressman Ami Berrah, who is a Democrat from California and a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thank you so much for being here. So just give us the top lines. What did you hear in this briefing today? Are you satisfied?

Side. Well, thank you for having me on. I. I am satisfied.

I think the FBI, the local law enforcement agencies, and health communities taking this very seriously, and we're transparent with us today, they see no evidence of anything nefarious. But is that enough for your constituents? Is it enough for the constituents of your colleagues that represent places like New Jersey, New York, that have seen, but they can't explain with their own eyes? Do they actually need to know specifically what each one of these, I guess, aircraft are in order to feel calm, or is it enough for them just to take the government's word for it?

No, I think, again, there's still more to do, obviously, removing equipment into the region to better monitor and detect things. But what was also apparent was, you know, just the rapid proliferation of drones. Hobbyists, you know, Amazon talked about delivery background, because Congress has to do more as well to make sure we have the tools and the ability to identify the radio frequencies that we can identify these drones fairly quickly and rapidly. So, yeah, we're taking this very seriously.

I think the FBI taking it seriously. We understand the public's concern, and we'll continue to investigate the sightings. And do you think the federal agencies that you heard from today have been forthcoming with everything they know about these sightings, or is there a few things that they're still kind of keeping quiet for classified reasons or for whatever reason they feel it's not worth sharing? I feel fairly confident that they shared, you know, in a classified setting, everything that they have today, again, I'm reassured.

Today they've seen that thing that was nefarious activities. So you mentioned this a little bit, but I want to talk more about the Biden administration and their efforts to ask Congress to pass legislation to give federal, state and local governments more authority to deregulate drones. I'm sorry? To regulate drones, not deregulate.

This is what John Kirby said this morning on the data show. Take a. I don't want to. I don't want to downplay the fact that there's an awful lot of drone activity over the skies of the United States.

And we do need better authorities to deal with that growing ecosystem of drones in US Airspace. There are gaps and scenes between the federal government, state government, there are gaps and scenes and local authorities. Congress needs to help us get through this. Do you agree with that?

I do. I mean, you know, my colleagues in Pennsylvania has a great piece of legislation. That's a start. But what's really apparent to us after today's hearing is just the number of folks that are going to have drones.

You know, we're see more drones, not less drones. So we've got to make sure we've got the tools, the authorities and ability to quickly identify the drones. And is this something you could do before you leave for your holiday break or is that unrealistic given all the things you do have to do before you leave town? You know there's a piece of legislation out there, we talked about it in the committee.

You know, it is one that could be brought up and I think you'd find pretty broad support. You know, the FBI, others say this would be a good first step. So I, I would have just pick it up. All right, let's talk about some of the other tasks that you and your colleagues have in front of you before Friday.

The first, most pressing being whether or not you can get the government funded past the deadline of Friday. We still get to see text of the continuing resolution that's being negotiated. Are you confident that you'll be able to get it done by Friday and what if any hang ups right now are part of these negotiations? Look, this is Congress so you can never say with confidence anything, I think we're going to get it done.

But I thought we would see tax over the weekend and now we're running into the middle of the week. So let's get this done. Let's come together and bipartisan life serve the American people. Nobody wants a government shut down and let's fund the government.

And the probably the folks that have been complaining the most about this have been conservative Republicans. If it gets to the point where this bill gets to the floor under suspension, meaning it doesn't go to the rules, but it will require Democrats to vote for it in order to get to the 2/3 majority. Do you think the Democratic votes will be there? Likely.

I mean we want to make sure there's good disaster relief funding in there. We want to make sure we protect the vulnerable. And you know that there's good foreign provisions in there funding our priorities. But this is definitely going to end up having to pass with Democratic votes that knuckleheads in the majority of you are saying they're going to vote no Anyway, so, you know, let's just get this done and get it passed.

And then finally Congress. I want to ask you about kind of the battle over generational supremacy in the Democratic caucus right now. We sought play out with, with a battle between Jerry Connolly and Alexander Ocasio Cortez for the top Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Congressman Connolly won that.

Could you share with us how you voted in that race and what do you think this, what do you think it means for the future of your party? You know, I think what we saw was two talented legislators, talented folks in Jerry Connolly who've been doing this for a long time, and then a rising star in Alexandria, Ocasio Cortez. She's got a bright future here. I just think folks understand that Jerry Connolly had the experience from the first Trump term.

He was very effective in that term. He's been effective member of the Oversight Committee. So this was less about age. It was about, you know, someone who's been doing this for a long time.

That's not to take anything away from aoc. I think if she presented a very strong positive case and she's going to be a valued ally on that committee. Well, let's get part to embrace this next generation of leaders like Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez. And I think we should continue to give her more and more responsibilities.

I mean, we've seen her evolve into a very effective legislator. I served on the AI task force with her and very thoughtful, ask hard questions and wrote good pieces of legislation. So again, they're the future. So, you know, I think she's, if she knows how to communicate, she's got skills.

I'm very intelligent, very articulate. So I would hope that we find a role to tap into those talents. Okay. Congressman, we got a lot in with you during this conversation.

We appreciate it, sir. All right, up next, new details about that school shooting in Mass in Wisconsin as officials say 15 year old female student was a suspected shooter. Shooter. You're watching the press now.

Welcome back. We have new information this afternoon on that deadly shooting at Madison, Wisconsin school. Police now say the initial call to 911 came after a second grade teacher. They initially reported that the call came from a second grade student.

Now police have identified the suspected shooter as a 15 year old girl who was a student at the Abundant Like Christian School. They believe she took her own life yesterday. Shooting left one student and one teacher dead. Six other students were injured with two remaining in critical condition.

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Someone asked if people were specifically targeted. Everyone was targeted in this incident and everyone was put in equal danger. NBC's Kathy park is on the ground in Madison and has more. So Kathy, what more have we learned about what happened inside that school?

So Ryan, good to be with you. Obviously it's another tragic day for another American city. So we heard from the police chief earlier today. He was brief in his remarks compared to some of the other press conferences.

He said right now that the motive is certainly a priority. They're trying to zero in on a motive at this time. Right now there are multiple factors that they are considering. They're reviewing an online document that is circulating and right now they're trying to authenticate, but they can't verify it at this time.

They're also looking through the shooter's digital footprint leading up to the shooting. Perhaps there were more clues there. Also interviewing students who attended the school to see if perhaps bullying was an issue as well. We know that the parents were questioned.

You know they are cooperating that the father was questioned for an extended period of time yesterday. And Ryan, there was a point when a neighbor described hearing flashbangs when they saw law enforcement move into the suspect's home. It's about 45 minutes before they got the all clear. So it sounded like it was quite a dramatic scene that played out.

But still a lot of questions as far as a motor. They're not releasing much information at the time because they don't want to jeopardize the investigation. But you heard the chief say when it comes to individuals being targeted, he said, say, quote, everyone was targeted in this incident. Ryan and I know that several victims are still recovering.

Their situations are not apparently fully clear. But what do we know about the victims? Right. So we were trying to get a little more information about the victims today.

And according to the chief, the status of the victims who are still hospitalized, that has not changed since yesterday. So in total, six people were injured, two are still in critical condition fighting for their lives. These are students who attend the school. The death toll still remains at 2.

A teacher and a teenage student was also killed. But in some promising news and some better news, we do know that two people release overnight. But right now officials are not releasing the names of these victims. Okay.

Kathy park, thank you for that report. We appreciate it. After the break, Russia vows revenge after Ukraine claims responsibility for the killing of one of Putin's top generals in Moscow. I'll talk to a former ambassador to Russia about the assassination, what it means for the war in Ukraine.

You're watching the Press now. Welcome back to Topic to. Russian President Vladimir Putin is following that Russia will have its revenge after Ukraine claimed responsibility for a brazen attack inside Moscow that killed a top general in charge of Russia's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons unit. Ukraine's security service says it was behind the operation detonating an explosive device planted in a scooter next to the entrance of an apartment building.

That's according to a Ukrainian source briefing on the matter who was granted anonymity because they're not authorized to speak publicly about the operation. And joining me now is Michael McCall, former US Ambassador to Russia and an NBC News international affairs analyst. Ambassador, I want to hear your reaction to the assassination of this Russian general. Are you surprised that Ukraine's security service was able to carry out this kind of operation in Moscow style?

Yes and no. I've always thought that they've had this capabilities. They've been developing these kind of capabilities for a long time. They're head of these kinds of capabilities.

General Bond has talked about it, they just never use it in this way. And that's the surprising thing. And I think that should be a signal to the rest of Russian elites that if they want to, they can carry out these kinds of operations. Yeah, expand on that a little bit.

Could this rattle Putin in his inner circle that Ukraine was able to pull this off and actually went through with executing something like this? Well, publicly, people around Putin, the former president, for instance, Medvedev has said there's going to be retribution. Ukrainians are going to regret this. But you've got to be rattled by this.

If they did this in downtown Moscow, this is a senior important general to the war effort. He was a war criminal, according to Ukrainians. I want to underscore that. But that they could do this suggests that that society and penetrated.

And we shouldn't be surprised by that because these two countries have a long relationship. There are lots of Ukrainians that live in Russia. Tragically, there are lots of Russians that could possibly do the same in Ukraine. There's been many thwarted assassination attempts that were done towards President Zelensky, by the way.

But I'm not surprised. They have this capabilities and I suspect they'll be using it more and more. And you mentioned the retaliation threats that have already come. What would you anticipate that could look like?

I think they're going to try to do something against Ukrainian leadership. Now, that will be hard. They live in fortified bunkers. They have lots of air defense systems.

But my prediction is that you're going to see some kind of tit for tat, some senior administration officials, some senior general that will come under attack from Russian special Forces or Russian Russians pockets. All right, let's play something that President elect Trump said yesterday about the war in Ukraine, specifically the need for a deal. Take a listen. Many more people are being killed in the Ukraine war with Russia than is being reported and that includes soldiers.

The soldiers are being. It's a carnage that we haven't seen since the Second World War. It's got to be stopped. And I'm doing, I'm doing my best to stop.

What should the Zelensky, if anything, be careful. Too many people being killed. That is a war. That's why too many people gotta make a deal.

Do you think that Trump's actually engaged in the possibility of a deal here between Putin, Zelensky or he just messaging this year kind of to tell them to get to the table without actually being involved? How should we interpret what he had to say? Yes. Yesterday.

Well, I hope he's not involved Right now because he's not the President of the United States. We have one president at a time. That's a good tradition. We should keep it.

But I hope he will engage when he is president and get to the brass. Tax gets to the nitty gritty, just declaring they gotta make a deal. And then starting with Zelensky has to make a deal. That won't help anything.

Why is all the focus on Putin? He's the one that invaded Ukraine, after all. Zelensky didn't invade Russia. And if he's serious about a deal, then he has to talk about some bigger things.

He has to talk about, for instance, a deal that won't just be for a few years, but forever. I, for instance, that means bringing Ukraine into NATO. That's a permanent peace. That would keep the peace there for years and years.

If President Trump just comes in and just tells Zelensky to give his land, lift the sanctions and declare neutrality, that will not be a deal that the Ukrainian people will accept. And I want to remind everybody, Ukraine is a democracy. It's not like Putin's Russia. Zelensky just can't overnight say, we're going to do this.

There'll be a revolt if he just capitulates. And you mentioned in an op ed you talk about this idea of extending the opportunity for NATO membership for Ukraine, but you say they have to give as well. Right. They gotta give up territory in exchange for this membership.

By bringing Ukraine into NATO, Trump could achieve a significant victory for one of his foreign policy priorities, which is burden sharing. After joining NATO, Ukraine's armed forces would overnight become the best and most experienced European army in the alliance. Ukrainian soldiers could be deployed to other frontline states, allowing Washington to reduce its own troop commitment commitments. But this give from both Putin and really Trump about allowing Ukraine into the NATO alliance would be significant.

And it's something that Trump has said that he's not open to doing. Do you think he could have change of heart once he takes the oath of office? I certainly hope so. I know what he said before, but I also know that leaders change their minds in extraordinary circumstances.

If President Trump wants a permanent deal, not one that last two or three years, but a permanent one, I think this is a necessary condition. It's like what we did in Korea in 1953. It's like what we did with West Germany when we brought West Germany into NATO in 1955. And by the way, everybody said, no, no, no, the Soviets will never go for that.

But the Soviets don't get a vote about who's in NATO and who isn't. And never has the Soviet Union or Russia attacked a NATO country. And by the way, NATO has never attacked the Soviet Union or Russia. So that, to me is a deal that can be made if President Trump changes his view on n.

Okay. Ambassador Mike McCall, thank you for bringing your expertise. We appreciate it. Thank you.

And still, believe it or not, the bald eagle is not America's national bird. But it's about to be. We'll introduce you to man behind the successful mission to finally get the bald eagle its due. You're watching Meet the Press now.

Welcome back. And you might be surprised to hear that the US doesn't have an official national bird. But that's about to change. All it took was a simple piece of legislation.

The Congress didn't have to ruffle any feathers to get it done. Both the House and Senate have now voted unanimously to formally designate the bald eagle as the US national bird. That bill is now soaring to the President's desk. I traveled to Minnesota to meet the eagle eyed man who noticed the omission and work with lawmakers in Washington to make it a official.

On the banks of the Mississippi, a sleepy town in Minnesota has a unique tie to one of America's most iconic symbols. I've been wrong all these years and so did everybody else in the country. At least they thought they did. I mean, were you shocked to find out there wasn't already the national bird?

I'm shocked, yes. I think everybody's shocked. The bald eagle is featured on the Great Seal of the United States and all of her uniforms, flags, insignias, and government buildings. But it's never officially been named the country's national bird.

My teacher told me it was. Yeah, we might need to go rewrite a few textbooks. We have a national tree, a national mammal, even a national flower. And yet the eagle has never received its official title.

But in Watershaw, it was one man, Preston Cook, who discovered the omission while researching for a book and is working to fix it. If you ask the question to anybody on the street, they're gonna give the same answer. It's the bald eagle. We have no national bird.

Right. We never had a national bird. To put it mildly. Cook is obsessed with a bald eagle.

If it had an eagle and I'd buy it. Starting in 1966, Preston collected anything he could with an eagle on it. His collection has grown to more than 40,000 pieces. We see more than an eagle.

We see freedom. We see independence. We see power. So Preston set out on A mission partnering with Wabasha's National Eagle Center.

He wrote a bill that makes the eagle the national bird. Preston Cook brought that up to us years ago and was like, oh, come on, Preston, you're kidding me. So I'm glad we're now figuring that out and they didn't happen. In late July, the Senate passed the bill 100 to nothing, a rare feat in today's partisan Congress.

The House passed the bill Monday night. An amazing comeback for an amazing creature who almost 250 years later, is finally getting the status it has already earned. And I'm so pleased to be joined now by my friend Preston Cook, the co chair of the National Bird Initiative for the National Eagle center and the author of American Eagle A Visual History of Our National Emblem, which is a terrific book that he wrote. Preston, I was with you back in July in Wabasha and you just felt like this was something that was finally gonna happen.

Just give me your reaction to Congress finally passing this legislation that now heads to the President's desk. Well, first, Ryan, it's good to see you again. I had a great visit with you in Wabershire at the National Legal Center. So of course I'm elated.

This is an incredible journey that I've been through that I've been working on for. Well, I've known about it for about 15 years. And last year it was time to do something about it and write legislation and get it through Congress. And we've had a lot of help from the tribes and from the American Legion and from raptor centers around the country to help get this through the Senate and the House.

So I'm real pleased about the outcome and I'm looking forward to President Biden signing this legislation to make the bald eagle our national bird. You know, when I told people I was working on the story, every single time, they're shocked to learn that the eagle wasn't already the official bird of the United States. Talk to us about how you discovered this omission. Well, I was, I was preparing to write a book that you mentioned back in about 2010.

I want to do a chronology of the eagle and how it follows history through Americans culture and through the military, through the government use, through commerce, use of the eagle. And I was looking for this something or another that designated the ball eagles are national purse. So I even went back to the notes of the continental Congress in 1782 on June 20th and found no, no markings, no, you know, nothing that really designated as a national bird. So I wrote to Senator Dianne Feinstein, California senator, now deceased, who at that time charged the Archives, the National Archives, with trying to find out if there was legislation referring to Presidential proclamation and none could be found.

So it's been assumed to be our national bird for the last 240some odd years. And now it is probably going to be in the next couple weeks when President Biden signs the law. I had the distinct pleasure of seeing just a very small bit of your extensive eagle collection. Talk to us a little bit about that, how you became an eagle collector, how this became your passion.

Well, in 1966, I saw a movie called A Thousand Clowns. And in it the protagonist said, you can't have too many eagles. He was an eagle collector. Not to the extent I am, but he has some eagles.

And I walked out of the theater. I'm gonna start collecting eagles because I have a bit of a history and then at 19 of being a collector of things as my father was. So I started thinking that's what I'm gonna collect. But a few months later, I got drafted into the army and I was issued a uniform with these wonderful, beautiful brass, gold plated buttons with a great seal on it.

So two years later when I was discharged, I snipped them off. And I've been wearing them on probably a dozen different blue blazers ever since. So I wear them to this day. So those are the first eagles issued to me by the US government, by the US army back in 1966.

So that started my collection. And your collection's over 40,000 pieces you can see at the National Eagle center in Watershed, which is the setting for Grumpy Old Men. Just a perfect American city. If you're ever along the Mississippi river, you need to check it out.

Preston, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. It's heartwarming to see someone just act on something that they're passionate about and see it come to fruition. We appreciate you allowing us to be a part of it. Good luck to you, sir.

It's been a great adventure. Thank you. And we are going to be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now, but the news continues with Yasmin Dasuyan in for Hallie Jackson right now. Hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of the Drink.

This month, Demi Lovato is my guest. The global superstar tells me that she is the happiest she's ever been right now. But getting there, it wasn't simple. Demi opens up about starting in Hollywood young and why she now thinks she may have started too soon.

She talks about recovery, her new marriage, and the deeply personal reason behind her new cookbook. The Drink is always about the journey to the top, and this was an honest conversation about what that takes. Hope you'll listen and follow the Drink wherever you get your podcast.