Welcome to me, the press. Now. I'm Garrett Hake in Washington, where lawmakers have left behind a mostly empty capital as the southern border grows more overwhelmed by the day. Negotiations on a border security deal will continue virtually for the holiday season.
But the reality on the ground is setting records. Homeland security officials tell NBC News the number of apprehensions at the southern border tops 12,000. For three days straight this week, 10,000 of those migrants crossed illegally between official ports of entry. Those numbers are far beyond what the Department of Homeland Security facilities and personnel they are quick to handle.
A record 27,000 migrants are currently in DHS custody, and border officials say that their processing centers are operating at nearly three times their capacity. In a statement to NBC News Today, the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection called the surge a serious challenge. CPP needs more funds from Congress to address the illegal crossings. That comes as Texas Governor Greg Abbott escalated the political fight over the border, announcing that he sent a group of migrants to Chicago on a government chartered flight for the first time.
You're looking at footage from one of those flights released by the government. It's Abbott's latest move protesting the White House border policies by sending migrants to cities run by Democrats. This comes after Abbott enacted law earlier this week authorizing state law enforcement officers to arrest migrants who cross the border illegally. The White House condemned Abbott's move in a statement today, writing in part, governor Abbott is not interested in solutions.
He only seeks to use people as political pawns. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson sent a staging letter to President Biden today saying that the nation was being quote, overrun and urging him to use his executive authority to regain control of the situation. The intense criticism of Biden on the border issues coming not just from elected Republicans but also from the voters. According to a new poll from Quinn p.
27% of voters approve of the president's handling of the situation at the border. It's his worst issue in this poll by far. In a poll where he struggles on virtually every major issue. Polled is near the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas.
It's another day of an overwhelming search here in Eagle Pass, where you can see the camp behind me, a field that has been used by Customs and Border Protection as an improvised zone, a waiting area for the migrants have arrived. Thousands here all week. We know now today that for three days in a row, DHS officials tell NBC News they've apprehended more than 12,000 migrants at the south border. You can see a lot of them sleeping, some standing around.
You can see a clothing that They've hung, presumably the clothes that they would have been wearing when they crossed the river. All throughout the day, again, we've been seeing large groups arrive after they cross from Mexico into the United States. And the lines, the long lines that they have to get into to eventually be moved over to another area where they are then taken on buses and then they will eventually end up at a processing center. Now, today we've also got more information about these processing centers.
We now know that here in the Del Rio sector, which Eagle Pass belongs to, the processing centers are at three times capacity. That's why it's so difficult for border, Customs and border protection to move the migrants from here and take them to the processing centers. They're just overwhelmed with the numbers. And speaking to some of the migrants today, they tell me that there are groups in Mexico even larger than these.
Most of the migrants that are arriving tell me that they come in groups of 500, 300, 400, and that even if Mexican immigration tries to stop them as they're making, as they're making their way north, it's practically impossible because of the large number of migrants currently in Mexico attempting to reach the US Mexico border here. So this is a situation today, another day again with the overwhelming number of migrants arriving. Back to you. Hello, squad.
Vanaga Squad. Thank you. And I'm joined now by three of my MC News colleagues. Senior national politics reporter Natasha Correcky is in Chicago.
Homeland Security correspondent Julian Ainsley is with me on set to break down those new DHS numbers. And so senior national political reporter Sahil Kapoor, who we rescued from the Hill to bring up the latest on the border negotiations. Natasha, I'll also review. With Gunner Abbott announcing he's flying these migrants to Chicago.
What do we know about this charter flight? Sure. So what we know is Tuesday evening a flight from El Paso was chartered and it landed at Chicago's O' Hare Airport. And on that flight were approximately 100 migrants.
It arrived without warning. There was reports from city officials that there were two individuals on that flight that, that flew with the migrants who fled the scene in an Uber as soon as they landed. And later Governor Abbott claimed responsibility for the flight. And it certainly is an escalation from his.
He did say that he was running into some impasses with the busing with Chicago because Travis already impounding these buses that were coming in and dropping off migrants. So he said he started flying them and he's not going to stop anytime soon. Something about the Uber part, it makes it feel a little more Gimmicky, despite the seriousness of this issue. Talk to me about the reaction from local officials, from state lawmakers.
You get two Democratic senators there in Illinois. I wonder how actions like this will affect them when it comes to eventually voting on some kind of order deal. Well, certainly Democrats have been calling on Abbott to start coordinating with them. What they say is that they welcome migrants, but what's, what's causing the issues is the lack of coordination, the dropping off of migrants in the middle of the night in the cold.
We are now facing some pretty cool temperatures in Chicago at the Willis Tower unannounced. And so there's been a practical clash on the ground of just weird houses, vibrations. And there's been a political clash. We've had the city alderman clashing with the mayor.
We have the mayor's office clashing with the governor's office on funding where to put these. We've had the governor's office calling on Biden to do more, to do more at the border, but also to do more so that to steer Governor Abbott and not give him so much control over where all these migrants are headed right now. And just how stressed are Chicago's resources here? Are they able to handle this?
You said 100 people, a few hundred people. Are they able to handle this continued influx if this is the first of many such flights? They have been struggling. It has been a struggle.
There are a lot of conditions at the shelters that are under review right now. A five year old boy died last year that's been raising concerns. I'm sorry, last week he died and they have been just overwhelmed. There are migrants sleeping in police stations at Chicago's o' Hare Airport because they're getting dropped off without warning.
They're trying to wrestle with where to place these. Also there's been medical attention concerns. They're looking at their medical teams. They're trying to feed these people, they're trying to clothe these people, keep them warm in the cold.
And there's there was also this big environmental issue here in Chicago where the state halted the construction of a new shelter by Chicago. So lots of problems. Yeah. All right.
I think that's correct. Thank you for that reporting, Julia. These are the problems we're talking about with a few hundred people. We're now in the tens of thousands over the last couple days.
On the board. You've been talking this issue for a long time. What is driving this spike right now? How unprecedented is what we're seeing at the border?
It's definitely unprecedented and we hit a record on Monday. And we saved that record for the past few days. I continue to see unprecedented numbers. You saw it why?
I was sitting there. I've been sitting there myself and I've never seen them build that tape like that. And when I talk to people about what happened in Eagle Pass, also in Arizona, which is the other hot spot where I was last week, talk to agents there. What's driving this?
And could be a number of things. One is the migrants think that maybe it's better to get in now in case there's a future Trump administration and there's a crackdown on border policies. Also, cartels are just getting incredibly gutsy and sending people up here on trains and in huge groups to overwhelm Border Patrol and to take over the system where the user try to send as many as could possibly be processed at once. And the resource thought that 10,000 was the most that cartels could move and the CPP could process.
They've blown past that now. And who the folks who are coming now, is this driven by a country or region? Are we seeing people from all over the world comment what's going on? Definitely all over the world.
But the top two countries remain Mexico and Venezuela. Now, Mexicans can be sent back into Mexico very easily. It's different than other people who come here and could go through the asylum process. But Venezuelans can't be returned.
So even though we're talking about the hell, and I know Saha will weigh in on that, when you talk about mandatory detention or deporting everybody, you can't deport Venezuelans. And they're one of the number one countries coming in here. The puts CDP and buying. And that's why the commissioner today asks for more money, because they are so overwhelmed, they're starting to release snipers on the street.
So how much additional pressure does the situation on the ground put on the negotiators who've been at this for a while? They're not going to be at this virtually, at least for the next couple of days. Huge. I mean, every time this is salient in the news, this is kind of eating out the headlines.
It's more pressure on Congress to act and do something. Ultimately, it comes down to them. You know, it's not state officials, it's not city officials that have power to deal with immigration. They're dealing with, you know, pretty bad cards that they're trying to play with.
Pretty bad cards that they've been dealt. And of course, we know the negotiators left yesterday. They're going to Be picking this up virtually starting today through the rest of the holidays. The various negotiators, that includes Kirsten Sinema, the Arizona independent, Chris Murphy and James Lankford all sound very positive about the need to get this done.
Chuck Schumer, Democratically, earlier, the majority leader wants to do it. Mitch McConnell wants a deal. They all want a deal. They have not been able to resolve this issue for the last 30 years.
We'll see where this goes. I'm not expecting white smoke on a deal over the holiday because they usually like to gather members right in, but early when they come back, they're really gonna be up against it given these other deadlines they have to face. The added thing, given a scale we're talking about does feel like a stunt, but it tells us something about at least how some Republicans are looking at this. Right.
It's a finger in the eye of the rest of the country, like, hey, this is now your problem too. How do you see the politics of some of these border state Republican governors? I would put Ronald Sanders in that category too. In Florida, kind of playing in the negotiations.
This isn't a bunch of congenial senators who are going to strike a deal that's just going to fly through. Like this is the constituency that's going to have to be on board with something they put together. Absolutely. We've seen immigration politics nationally shift just massively to the right from a decade ago when there was that so called Gang of eight bill.
Democrats were on offense. They just won an election overwhelmingly with the senior voters. And the consensus that came out of it, which now looks pretty wrong, was that you need to have a more liberal immigrant system to win over the Latin voters. Now Republicans are on offense not only these governors, but also House member Speaker Johnson as hardliner, say nothing less than the more aggressive HR2 bill.
Any less should be killed. Unclear whether these negotiations even have a, you know, a place in the House if they were to reach a deal. But what they're talking about, they're talking about expedited removal, expanding that at least to the border to turn away asylum seekers, not to the interior Democrats. That's a red line because it's.
Julia was just talking about a potential future Trump administration. They worry about how they could use that discretionary powers for president to close the border. They worry about how Donald Trump would use that, even though they're not worried about how Joe Biden would do that when he should have not gotten the dreamers. One of the biggest priorities of Democrats gone.
Yeah. I mean, with These numbers, it's not hard to understand why that would be politically challenging. Talk a little bit about this Mike Johnson letter. Other than the politics of it.
The point of this is to suggest that Biden could be doing more right now. Is there any indication that the White House is considering any more unilateral actions? Reporting on that, too? I know about that.
I think they're waiting on the deal for Congress, you know, before they. Before they figure out any major steps to take. But, you know, Mike Johnson, he has a lot of things that he wants President Biden do and catch. Release and parole, any kind of scale and use it for rare humanitarian individual cases.
Reinstatement in Mexico, expand expedited removal to deport people who can't show asylum before the hearing and build the wall. Now, some of these things, parole and expedited removal, are part of the negotiations. Mike Johnson putting this on a letter saying Biden you can use by yourself. That's an interesting little signal.
Can he really? Well, a big part of this is logistics. A lot of things you mentioned there. When I talk to people, DHS have to carry the south side.
There's no way, again, because you can't deport Venezuelans because Mexico has to be on board with putting back remain in Mexico. If we're gonna start turning people back, it's up to the Mexican government to see how many of those migrants they can absorb into their northern border cities. And so that's a big reason why Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Merck is sitting in these rooms right now. They're clear he's not negotiating the part of the Biden administration, but he's there to talk about what is feasible and what's not.
And the last thing I just like to point out is, you know, even if this deal blows up, what's the inaction here that's really mattering? The funding? Because as they continue, these Republicans won't give a dime to the Biden border security effort. And as things get worse, they're just watching the system implode on itself.
That's the one thing everyone agrees on, the funding. The question is how much is enough for Republicans. When can they get to. Yes, and they'll give the funding.
XYZ policies are enough. We'll keep watching. And I appreciate reporting for both of you guys. It's a complicated issue.
We probably need to get some Mexican officials on that zoom call if the negotiators are having too. All right, guys. Up next, an issue that could help decide the next election in a place that could help decide the next election. It's the economy and it's the decis that's next.
Plus, even with low unemployment and rising wages, many Americans are going hungry this holiday season. We'll explain why. You're watching MEET THE PRESS now. Welcome back.
It has been a rollercoaster economic year. Historically large bank failures, an epic battle against inflation, labor strikes, job gains, big stock market swings. But the economy appears to be closing out 2023 on a high note. Knock the Conference Board reported yesterday that consumer confidence is rising, heading to 2024.
It came on the same day President Biden had his economic record during a trip to battleground Wisconsin. Increase the middle class. The poor have a shot and the wealthy still do very well. The middle class does well and we all do well.
That's what we call bidenomics. By the way. So far we've created 14 million new jobs, more jobs in three years than any president created in four years. Despite those job numbers, the rise in consumer confidence and the cooling of inflation, just a third of Americans approve of the president's handling of the economy, according to the latest CNBC All America economic survey.
And in places like Erie County, Pen, one of the key counties in 2024 that NBC News has declared a decider in next year's elections, voters are not happy with the current economic climate. Dasha Burns joins me now from Erie, Penn. Dasha, why did we choose Erie county in the first place for our deciders? Look, Erie is a swing county in a battleground state.
And we know from history that the way Erie goes tends to be the way that Pennsylvania goes. And you all know the way that Penny goes tends to be the way that the nation goes when it comes to presidential elections. And this is a county that is largely a microcosm of the country. You've got a liberal city center and a more conservative exurban rural area.
This used to be a manufacturing hub that's transitioning to more white collar jobs with a hospital system and insurance company that's moving in to become the bigger employer here. That's causing some tensions. We see some worker strikes over the summer. So a lot to dig into here.
That's going to really be reflective of some of the big storylines we're following nationally over the course of the election here. So why do voters there feel like the economy is in? Is this all about inflation and prices? Well, so this is what's so interesting, right?
Because so many of economic indicators and what the White House has been trying to message and trying to tout is that look, the economy is on the up and up. We've avoided this recession that everyone was worried was going to happen, that inflation is easing, wages are rising, the markets are doing well. But when you get on the ground and you talk to people, that's just not hitting home. Take a listen.
Who feels good about the economy right now? Who feels bad about the economy right now? All right, Shelly, let me ask you first, what do you think is going on economically? What are the charges you're facing economically?
I would think it would be groceries, gas, everything you have to buy every day is way more expensive than previous years. Let me, let me ask you this right now. When you look on paper, right, you've got low unemployment rates, wages are up, inflation is easing, stock market's doing well. What are you feeling any of that?
How do you feel about the economy day to day? I'm not sure I agree with what you just said. I'm better off now than I was four years ago. I retired three years ago.
I never planned on using some of the money that I saved to retire that I had to use because of the economy now. So I don't know if the stock market's up. I must be in the wrong place because I'm not making the same money that I was making before. And look at some Democrats say to me this isn't fair to Biden.
He should be getting more credit. But the reality is this is what you're finding across the board. He's got 33 approval rating on the economy, according to the latest CNBC poll. And in a place like Erie, where he really narrowly won this county in 2020 largely because of Democratic turnout, when you got even Democrats saying, hey, the guy I voted for hasn't delivered.
Whether you think that's fair or not, that's the reality that the Biden campaign is facing. And they've got a lot of work to do if they want to be able to win a place like this. That'd be so critical in this election, Garrett. All right.
Dasha Burns for a decider series from a very festive bar in Erie County. Pencha, thank you. Thanks. Happy always.
And we just heard from folks in Penny who say they're feeling the pain of inflation on things like food prices. Now NBC News senior policy reporter Shannon Petty piece joins me from a food pantry here in Washington which has seen a 16% increase in recipients over the last year. So, Shannon, if the economy is showing these signs of strength that we laid out, why are places like that food pantry so busy right now? Well, In a word, inflation.
That's what organizations and nonprofit executives tell me they're hearing from their recipients. I mean, these are just some of the hundreds of bags that are going to be going out to people just days before Christmas. This organization I'm at, they focus on meals for people who have an illness or a disease. Many people who can't work because they, you know, are disabled.
Those people are dependent on organizations like this for their food. And they're continuing to see growing demand. They'll give out about 2 million me meals this year. That is double what they were giving out before the pandemic.
And I talked to the executive director of this organization about that. Here's what she had to say. The folks that we're taking care of are really not well enough to work. They can't take advantage of those jobs to have higher salaries now.
But they are experiencing the inflation and the increased food costs, and they're not well enough to cook and shop on their own. Even if, you know you are receiving snap, those dollars aren't going as far as they used to. So, you know, even though we hear about inflation slowing, food prices are still about 25 higher than they were before the pandemic. So whether someone's making more money or they're on a fixed income like Social Security or disability benefits, they just say that those increasing benefits or wages aren't enough to offset this increasing cost of food that they've been seeing.
So, Shannon, as our policy reporter, is there anything in the policy pipeline that might address those food costs specifically, help move people off these SNAP benefits, be able to get people to close the gap here on food prices? Well, I mean, of course, one of the first tasks for members of Congress when they get back to Washington is going to be setting a new budget. There's a number of proposals out there by congressional Republicans that would further restrict food benefits. Democrats obviously would like to see a return of some of these Covid era benefits.
Neither side really has the power or the votes to be able to get one of those through. So it's potentially going to be a mashup between the two sides. But one thing groups warn is that even if there is a slight increase in benefits, like for housing assistance or for food stamp benefits, those increases just aren't keeping up with the increase in demand. So there is widespread concern that even budget increases won't be enough to meet the need that's out there right now.
All right, Jim and Pepys, thank you for that reporting. And up next, we are learning more about the timeline for President Trump's legal team to challenge the Colorado Supreme Court ruler. We have that new reporting ahead. You're watching MEET THE PRESS now.
Welcome back. The clock is ticking now for former President Trump's legal team to challenge the Colorado Supreme Court ruling that bars him from the state's Republican primary for violating the 14th Amendments Insurrection Clause. And it will continue to tick perhaps in the new year. A source with knowledge of the Trump team's legal planning tells NBC News it will wait until after the holidays to file its appear at the U.S.
supreme Court. The deadline for that appeal is January 4th. And the moment the appeal is filed, the Colorado ruling will be stayed, meaning Trump will be on the ballot in Colorado, at least for the time being. Me Cs Vaughn hierters here to help us make sense of all that.
So, Vaughn, walk us through your new reporting on this ruling. What exactly should we expect from Trump's legal team and how does the timing here work to their advantage? Right, Garrett, I'm told that the legal team is preparing to put forward or filing to the US Supreme Court their appeal formally after the Christmas holiday, most likely sometime next week but before January 4th. For this team, this legal team, this is, let's be very clear, Garrett, a very important appeal because the ramifications of whether the Supreme Court were to take this up or not are very high.
And in the scenario the Supreme Court does take this appeal, they are going to be determining whether Donald Trump is disqualified from ballot not only in Colorado, but the expectation is that that would amount to disqualification from the ballots across the rest of the country process here. And so, of course, the complexities of exactly who this legal team are are still up in the area of Colorado lawyer that worked and represented him on the Colorado in front of the Colorado Supreme Court. But for Donald Trump and his legal team, they have their focus in many different places right now here. And going for the US Supreme Court adjourned qualification is perhaps the highest among one of his legal teams.
Not loving this moment is political team seems to be there fundraising off of it. It's sort of more armor for him in the primary. Talk about the difference there in terms of how the campaign team is seizing on this right. As we have seen from each of the indictments that Donald Trump has had issued against him to the execution of the search warrant of Mar A Lago by the FBI back In August of 2022, his political team has tried to make the most of what are difficult legal circumstances.
And it's no different. His campaign has sent out multiple emails over the last almost 48 hours now suggesting that this is an effort by politicized justices, a politicized justice system to, in Donald Trump's words, nullify the will of Republican voters around the country. Of course, we will wait from the Supreme Court to make the ultimate decision about whether Donald Trump made them allow or not. And the many ones spammed those teams is Rudy Giuliani, who declared bankruptcy today.
What can you tell us about that? Right. This followed an order from the court just yesterday saying that Rudy Giuliani must comply and must begin to compensate these two Fulton county election workers immediately. The assets that have been filed that Rudy Giuliani currently has is somewhere between $1 million and $10 million.
Obviously, that is a far cry from the $150 million penalty that was put on him here just earlier this week. But so for Rudy Giuliani, filing bankruptcy, per his spokesman, was the understandable first step towards beginning to pay up the compensation. But Rudy Giuliani, of course, this is going to be a difficult time ahead here as he looks to begin to how he can actually begin to pay off what he has owed here at the stage in his career. Naray Von Hilliard, thank you.
And staying on the campaign trail where for the second time in a week, we've now gotten a poll out of New Hampshire that is former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley alone in second place place. Haley has jumped to 30% and trails former President Trump by 14 points among likely voters according to a new St. Anselm College poll. She's gained 15 points in that poll since September, that jive of the CBS poll from earlier this week that also had a rising in New Hampshire and trailing by 15 points.
So what does this mean? Well, for starters, it's proof of some real momentum for Haley. She appears to have broken out of the pack in New Hampshire on the strength of some well reviewed debate performances and a high profile endorsement from that state's Republican governor. But it's also a sobering reminder of Donald Trump's power.
Despite all this, he's still up by double digits in New Hampshire and he maintains a commanding lead in Iowa and in the national primary polls. Joining me now on set is Benji Sarlan, Washington bureau chief of Semaphore, former Maryland Democrat Congresswoman Donna Edwards, and Jim Gary, senior political correspondent for the National Review. So, Benji, these polls don't seem to be a fluke. They've got Nikki Haley in second place.
Those of us in the political media jump on it. But how much should we read into something like that. So to the extent Nikki Haley has a chance at the nomination, this is exactly what it looks like. We've always known this is what it would look like.
If Donald Trump is the Death Star, then New Hampshire is sort of the thermal exhaust for you. Fire one missile too and hope it started chain reaction in that it is kind of uniquely suited for a challenger like her. It has a tend to be more secular, moderate electorate, has a lot of independence who cross over. Historically, there seems to be room for Haley to grow because Chris Christie is still sitting on a significant level of support.
And the hope is that even though Trump is up by more than 50 points in the national poll this week, I mean like absurd numbers, there is a history of wild swings if someone can win an early state. And the hope is that once Trump, once soft Trump supporters are tuning in, they start realizing this is a real race. Maybe they look at things differently now. How likely is that?
That's another story. And for starters, we have a story today on Semaphore. Nikki Haley's own home state of South Carolina, which comes one month later, is very Trumpy. And there's no sign of weakness right there.
We'll talk more about South Carolina in a minute. But many Bothons die to bring us plans. So Jim, I'll give you a crack at this too. This seems to be a challenge here because Valtron's floor is pretty high in New Hampshire.
Nikki Haley's ceiling might not be high enough to surpass it. Can she climb over that line to be above his floor? How do you view it? Well, first of all, it would be really good for her if Chris Christie could be frozen carbonite.
There you go. Chris Christie's running a one state campaign. He's getting maybe 1012 percentage points pretty consistently in New Hampshire polls. If he were to go out and say I'm out and either reindors Nikki Haley.
Look, the Christie's campaign is all about I can't stand Trump. Trump stinks. Trump's a threat to the Republicans. You know, this is, you know, it's very easy to see his voters going over Nikki Haley less so Ron DeSantis.
Nunos, maybe after Iowa, Ron DeSantis is going to look like a dead man walking in the sounds of. He's not looking great now. He's been endorsed by the governor. He's done the full Grassley, he's done the 99.
None of this seems to be helping. He's still well behind in Iowa. So it may be a two person race at the time. He Tested New Hampshire.
And if you're not Trump, maybe McKay Haley's only out only giving him a town. Chris Christie knows how to drop out of New Hampshire and support a candidate. We've seen that before. We're closing in on this right now.
And I think because of this Colorado rule, you have this dynamic where these other Republicans are still defending Donald Trump. You wouldn't run a race like that. How do you come at a guy who you're still having to actively defend, even if it's, you know, only on procedural grounds? Well, this is the problem.
I think that the Republican feel has saved Chris Christie. He has been willing to go at Trump like he's running for first place. Everybody else is running for second place. And guess what?
Nobody ever comes in second place. And so I think that this is really difficult. This is yet again another example where there's an opening to go after Trump and these candidates have taken a pass on that. It makes it really hard to beat the guy in first place if you're never going to attack him as you start to go down this road.
South Carolina now is not necessarily Nikki Haley's South Carolina anymore. Let's, for the sake of running this experiment, say she does either win or come in a strong second in New Hampshire. What's greeting her politically back home in South Carolina? Well, for starters, just about every relevant elected official in the state, save for Tim Scott, and we'll see what happens with him, is ENDORSING TRUMP.
The governor, Henry McMaster, the very first Trump endorsement in 2016, very eager to keep that title this cycle as well. And in polling, he does not seem to have an obvious weakness. I mean, he's over 50%. And unlike New Hampshire, imagine there's not an obvious remaining pool of moderates will naturally accrue.
Now, when our reporters have talked to the Haley campaign about this, they think that there still is an opportunity that voters are familiar with her, even though it's been quite a while since she ran in the state and that that will come in handy, be an asset when they actively are looking at this race as a two person race, ideally in that situation, and they think they can pull off an upset potentially that way. But there's not. If there's a weakness out there, it is not evident in the polls. South Carolina has a history of some pretty pool when it comes to Republican primary races and politics.
Executive General I think it's fair to say if this is close and it's Trump and a woman of color in South Carolina, what are we looking at? This cycle. Well, look, first of all, I think that the South Carolina that Nikki Haley ran in is not today's South Carolina. It's a completely different electorate, and it's pretty dug in for Donald Trump.
And so I don't know that those attributes that Nikki Haley likes to tout nationally really come into play in South Carolina. It doesn't seem to me that she's going to be able to run on the woman of color thing in a state like South Carolina. We like to have these conversations, but Trump is so far ahead nationally, we've run out of, in my mind, like other X factors, other court cases, other things that could kind of swoop in and change the race. We talked about it a lot amongst ourselves as reporters.
Is there anything short of a major health scare for Donald Trump or something like that that can fundamentally change what's been the direction of this race since April? Yeah, the Nikki Haley theory of the case is that, you know, I'm gonna veer from Star wars to 300. The God King bleeds. Right.
Once you see Donald Trump get beaten in a contest, he can be beaten. All of a sudden he doesn't look so powerful. All of a sudden, he doesn't look like this juggernaut is unstoppable. And the idea is that Republican primary voters say, ah, we have a choice.
We don't have to go Trump. He's not inevitable. We can consider our options. I think most Republicans already know that they had a menu of options going back the entire year, and roughly half the party, state polls, national polls, keeps saying, no, we want Trump.
Oh, he's got it. No, we want Trump. Oh, this happened in the news cycle. Oh, we want Trump.
They're not all that easily persuaded. I don't. I see why. If you're running for president, you need to have some theory in which this thing shakes out the way you want.
But something has to change the next month for this to come to fruition. To underscore how completely upside down we are, to add yet another nerdy reference to this conversation, I want to place any. Ron DeSantis told the 700 Club this week when asked if he had any regrets about this primary, I could have one thing changed. I wish Trump hadn't been indicted on any of this, though.
So I think it's sort of the primary, and I think those have kind of been the main issues that have happened because it tells him. Is that what you're saying? And so therefore it's both that. But then it also just crowded out, I think.
So Much other stuff, and it sucked out a lot of oxygen. My biggest regret is that my opponent got indicted. What are we dealing with here? Well, first of all, it's fascinating.
We're already getting into the campaign open phase. I see we're not the only ones who have a word. Doc Oven somewhere on Santa's over, but Ron Xantis has one. But also, it's fasting to pick something that he had no control over.
I mean, this is a campaign that I, I don't think anyone has said has gone well, literally from day one on any level. Maybe you could have prepared for these indictments that everyone knew were coming and come up with some message or some way to lay the groundwork, anything. All they seem to do is run from them. They never seem to find an effective response against Trump.
Donna, seems to me if you're taking questions about your regrets as a candidate, you're probably already thinking that you might be done being a candidate pretty soon. Pretty much done. I mean, I think one of the other problems for Ron DeSantis is that he never really did anything to separate himself from Donald Trump. And so he didn't give even Trump voters or those in the middle a reason to vote for him.
And lastly, I think that Ron DeSantis has not been willing to take his own responsibility for the demise of his campaign. He's done so many things wrong that it's not surprising that Nikki Haley is the one who benefits from DeSantis. The indictments weren't under my control. My super PAC wasn't under my control.
You're not gonna get a lot of stupidity for that. Guys, we have to leave it there. Benji, Jib, Donna, thank you for Toler, our super nerdy sci fi packed reference panel here. But anyway, we gotta leave it there.
Still ahead, the latest on the Israel Hamas war and why ceasefire and hostage hawks seem to be stalled. You're watching me, the press now. Welcome back. The fighting continues in the Israel Hamas war as the World Health Organization warns that only nine hospitals in Gaza are even partially operational, all of them in the south.
Disease, thirst and hunger are taking hold. With nearly 1.9 million people in Gaza internally displaced. And a UN report says more than a half a million people in Gaza are facing starvation. There is not enough food.
Every single person I speak to everywhere I go in Gaza is 100. The time is now. We are dealing with starving people, about adults, children, and it's unbearable. The UN is set to vote on a resolution on enhancing humanitarian aid in a bid to pressure Israel to agree to another military pause.
That vote had been delayed twice amid a debate over who would inspect aid trucks entering Gaza. Meanwhile, the aerial bombardment continues. Israeli airstrikes struck near a hospital in Rafah near the southern border with Egypt yesterday. A Sky news team filming nearby captured the strike and the aftermath as people raced to aid the injured.
Many displaced Palestinians have fled to Rafah looking for safety. Speaking with my colleague Andrew Mitchell, who will join us in just a moment as senior Netanyahu advisor said the strike that sky captured was a quote, surgical one aimed at a high ranking Hamas official. This all comes as efforts to secure the release of more hostages continue. 129 hostages are thought to be in Gaza.
21 are believed to be dead. And today Hamas rejected any deal or talks until Israel stepped stops its military campaign. This even as Hamas launched another barrage of missiles toward Israel this morning. Yesterday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken laid the blame squarely on Hamas for the current lack of progress on the hostage deal.
The problem was and has been remains Hamas. There are any commitments that they made during the first pause for hostage releases and the question is whether they are in fact willing to resume this effort. But certainly something that we would welcome. I know that Israel are welcome and I think the world will welcome.
Joining me now on set is NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell. So Andrea, what is the latest on these talks, if we can even call them that, between Israel and Amasta, to have some kind of new policy exchange? Well, the talks now at the UN are between the US and Egypt over whether Israel or the United nations will inspect the cargo going in through the Rafah crossing. And now the second crossing that's open, which is directly from Israel in the issue is who is better able to look for smuggled weapons and all kinds of other goods that could get in and contribute to the war effort.
And the other problem that is also not being described as accurately is from my sources what to do once the aid gets in. How does it get to where it needs to really get? That's one of the problems that the US officials are having. The US has been really primary, the primary mover starting with a month and a half ago just to get Rafa open to get aid in.
And it's still a trickle and it's not nearly what they need and it's a disaster. And that's just on Aidan. Is there anything active with Qataris or anyone else on another pause for hostages? There's a lot of activity, nothing imminent.
The issue there is Hamas most recently today said that they were objecting to an Israeli proposal for a seven day proposed pause to get more aid in and more hostages out. Primarily they're focusing on the women, the older men. But we've been hearing this for days and the talks are on, off. They're not dead.
They're still actively engaged. Both pressure on both sides to get this done. But of course, Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire. And the US position in the Israeli positions that that would be laying down their weapons while Hamas still is an armed military force living right there next to Israel.
But the US and Israel are increasingly isolated at the UN and internationally for that position. How much are US officials concerned about what that isolation might mean in the longer term? Very. I mean, Garrett, this is really critical because repeatedly the US has twice vetoed resolutions.
The only once the veto, the others, they other support for it. But the US is the only veto last week on that resolution. I think it was Friday night. All week they've been trying.
It's actually three times. It was supposed to go two to four with the resolution. You know this from covering Congress until it's written and they know that everybody signed off on it. They're not going to go and call the vote again.
It does not want to be isolated like that again. And so they see they're seen as the only defender of Israel. Even the UK abstained last time rather than joining the veto. But Europe is really siding against Israel in this and it's because of the devastation, the horror of estimated more than 20,000 dead.
And the President and Tony Blinken, Defense Secretary Austin, they've all said very clearly Jake Sullivan was in Israel last week. They've all said very clearly there are too many casualties, that Israel is not targeting well enough and that they privately said that they're not seeing signs yet that Israel is really trying to limit civilian casualties. Israel, as you heard, they say they are. Last question.
Domestically, what does Netanyahu's political position look like there? The death of those hostages who had escaped seems to have had a major impact in Israel. They had escaped for five days. So it was not only, and that was tragically, you know, friendly fire.
This made it even worse. They could actually escape from their captors, but then, then were killed by Israeli forces. It's terrible. It's perilous.
He is. His popularity is really plummeted. But, and this is a big but, the horrors of October 7th are still raw in with the Israeli public on all sides of the political equation. So they were vastly, you know, you know, damaged by what happened before October 7th.
By all the political infighting for his trying to take over the judiciary. That division led to their vulnerability. Most people believe 10-7- they let her guard down. But since then, he's blamed for October 7th, he's blamed for the hostage taking.
And, and they all still want to defeat Hamas. So they're united against Hamas in support of the war. The Pasha families want a ceasefire. They want to get their people home.
But aside from that, the populace really are not yet ready to change voices in the middle of war. It's a fascinating dynamic. We're glad to have your expertise, Alina, on that. And up next, revolution and regulation, or the lack thereof.
As AI races forward, where do Congress and the tech industry stand on getting meaningful guardrails in place? That's next. You're watching me, the Press now. Welcome back.
2023 may very well go down as the year of artificial intelligence, or AI. It was at the heart of the actors and writer strikes in Hollywood and gave rise to a once little known company called OpenAI and its bot, ChatGPT. Its explosive growth also unleashed a series of cataclysmic warnings from some experts and tech gurus. Despite AI's growing presence in daily lives, there's still little consensus here in the United States on how to regulate the technology.
The European Union, meanwhile, is taking steps to address the issue, agreeing earlier this month on landmark rules aimed at limiting the use of artificial intelligence. Joining now is Kirsten Todd, former chief of staff at cisa, the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency. So, Kirsten, we're about a year in since ChatGPT exploded on the scene. Do we culturally, sort of systematically, the government have any better handle on this issue really than we did a year ago?
Well, what's interesting is that artificial intelligence has really been used by companies, by government for quite a while. But to your point, it really became the center square and everybody's bail card. Vaso. Remember when we started seeing it in the consumer space with ChatGPT, having it used by regular people.
But we know and we've always talked about artificial intelligence is only as good as the data that goes into it. So when we're thinking about the future, one of the key pieces right now is understanding data provenance. And right now there are no industry wide methods that look at how we can see the trustworthiness of data based on how it was sourced. Sourcing implies the generation of the data, the compilation, the collection.
But we are seeing a group of cross sector CEOs come together to draft a set of data provident standards. We're seeing some legislation as well. I'll stop you there because what does that mean? Is that the input.
Is that like not dumping Wikipedia into your chat? Bottom, I mean talk to me, be more specific about what that means. It's understanding. So where does your data actually come from?
How is it sourced? Where was it generated? We have to understand when it was compiled, what are the privacy standards around it. And obviously this is a bit of a boil of the ocean.
So this first group across sector CEO is what they've come together 9 issues to start looking at that it's a draft set but it's a starting point and more importantly it says the first piece to understanding how we're managing AI for the future is to understand what's the data that's going into the AI. Chuck Schumer in the Senate has been very interested in this, in trying to get senators up to speed, but somebody who covers Congress, I worry that it's going to end up being like social media was where it was a bunch of grandpas basically having to get this explained to way them by the their kids. Is our government up to the task of regulating AI, of understanding what we're dealing with? We certainly saw that with the release of President Biden's executive order this fall in November.
And one of the key pieces, one of the key elements, the catalyst for that was to get out in front of this. So we in fact aren't in a situation like we were with social media where we're responding to a concept of move fast and break things in first market, oversecure market. What we also seen is the EU and their AI act and EU is also the first mover, the global standard, etc. And that's really come out with some very strong movements to look at the riskiest uses of AI and how to regulate those.
When we use it for law enforcement, using it for critical infrastructure systems, for hiring, for education. What does us ever make of the EU's plan? Is that a roadmap for us? Do we like what they've done?
I think it's always a roadmap and then we're always going to look to modify. But one of the key elements to the AI EU act, what they've done there has been to look at companies that pose the greatest risk to individual societies, like in hiring, using AI for higher energy. It's saying that those companies have to provide regulators with proof of risk assessment with assurance that the data that's going into the AI is not going to cause potential harms such as perpetuating racial bias. I want to take that.
But why do we see those as the biggest risks here? Why are companies like that the biggest risk? Because right now those are the ones that can impact how we're actually building our society. If we are using AI for hiring and that data has racial bias in it, if that data has other elements to the point about data sourcing where we don't know where it came from, then we're only going to exponentially exacerbate the challenges that we already have.
Those are the cultural and societal risks. What are the national security risks? What are the folks across the river, the Pentagon, concerned about? It's a great question because right now we have to be really careful that we don't let the developers of AI write to the future.
It's sort of like having a company be both the ref and the player. You can't do that. It's not to say that they shouldn't be at the table, but we have to ensure that there's a cross sector group of leaders, both in industry as well as government, writing the regulation for the future to see that secure innovation is not an oxymoron. The future of AI is very much about building innovation with security.
And we don't have to see those two concepts intention with one another. Well, let's try to end this on a positive. Where do you see the biggest opportunities here? Where do you see AI potentially changing world in a positive way as a return of New Year?
Well, the good news is that we're ahead of it. We understand the potential, we understand the opportunities, but we also understand the risks. And so again, this concept of secure innovation, building security into AI, but industry and government working together and this isn't just a US issue, it's not just a national issue, but we're seeing great strides in the US Engagement with international partners, like minded economic nations to come together to say what should these global standards look like and to get ahead of it and to build a more secure, resilient future that's grounded in innovation. It's fascinating stuff.
Kirsten, Todd, thank you for coming and talking about it with us and thank you all for being with us this hour. NBC News now coverage continue. News right now. Hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of the Drink this month.
Demi Lovato is my guest. The global superstar tells me that she is the happiest she's ever been right now. But getting there, it wasn't simple. Demi opens up about starting in Hollywood young and why she now thinks she may have started too soon.
She talks about recovery, her new marriage, and the deeply personal reason behind her new cookbook. The Drink is always about the journey to the top, and this was an honest conversation about what that takes. Hope you'll listen and follow the drink wherever you get your podcasts.