Meet the Press NOW — February 25

Welcome to MEET THE press. Now I'm Kristen Welker in Washington. We will get to the fallout and reaction to the president's State of the Union address in just a moment. But we do want to begin with breaking news out of Cuba.

Moments ago, Cuba's Ministry of the Interior issuing a statement about an armed confrontation between a speedboat that was registered in Florida and Cuban officers. The Cuban government saying the speedboat was in its territorial waters when it was approached by Cuban border guard troops for identification. The Cuban government saying the individuals on the speedboat then opened fire and as a result, four passengers on that speedboat were killed and six others were injured. We are waiting reaction from the White House to the incident.

It comes to Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in the region and his tensions have already been escalating between the US and Cuba following the United States military buildup in the region and President Trump's recent statements about the Cuban regime that was, quote, ready to fall. Joining me now is NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez. NBC News correspondent George Solis is in Miami and NBC News senior national security correspondent Courtney Kibi. Thanks to all of you for starting us off.

George, let me start with you. What more do we know about this incident? Yeah, Chris, it's important to say that all the information that we're seeing right now is coming strictly from the Cuban government. As you mentioned, there forces there saying that they approach this unidentified vessel there in their waters and they're accusing this vessel, which is registered here in Florida, according to them, of opening fire.

First I exchange a gunfire leading to those four deaths, six that were injured. Cuban government also saying individual on board their vessel was entered. Those groups were all transport, presumably there to Cuba. Is happening on an island, a key there in northwestern part of of Cuba.

Right now we're starting to see some early reaction from some lawmakers here in South Florida. I'll read you some of what they're saying. Representative CARLOS Immediate investigation into this massacre. He said United States authorities must determine whether any of the victims were US citizens or legal residents and establish what occurred.

We also have a statement from Congressman Maria Salazar, close to monitoring reports as well, calling for investigation. And then we also just got a statement from the Florida attorney general saying he's rented the Office of Statewide Prosecution to work with federal, state and law enforcement partners to begin the investigation, adding the Cuban government cannot be trusted and will do everything in our power to hold the communist accountable. Again, those are in his words. But again, right now we don't know much about this vessel.

We just know this from the Cuban government that four were killed on board that vessel in six we're injured. Christian well, let me turn to you, George, reading the reaction from lawmakers there in Florida. We haven't got an official response from the president from the White House yet, but based on your conversations, is there any early reaction? Well, Chris, and this is a very fast moving situation as you have been describing.

Yes, we have no official comment yet from the White House. We're not expecting to hear from the president is no open events over the next several hours, but that could change of course at any time. But Kristen, I can't stress just how high stakes this situation is when you consider the president's rhetoric, his administration's rhetoric over the past several weeks following the capture of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro. Administration is trying to choke off Cuba for the last several weeks and right now secretary is actually sent to Nevis in the Caribbean, as you mentioned, speaking with other Caribbean leaders at this point, so many unanswered questions, including, you know, who exactly was on that boat.

But in addition to the four dead and six injured, according to the Cuban government, which we just heard George talk about, the government also says the Cuban government says that one additional border patrol commander from the Cuban side was wounded as well. But as all this unfolds, we are trying to get any sort of reaction from the White House at this point, but certainly high stakes, a high stakes incident coming after the administration has been trying to pressure ramp up pressure on the Cuban government. I should point out President Trump when he has been asked about regime change when it comes to Cuba, he says essentially said that he doesn't think that will be necessary, that he sees the Cuban government falling at some point now that they've cut off resources from Venezuela. Of course, there have been ramped up fuel shortages of dramatic fuel shortages inside that country over the last several weeks.

It's an important backdrop to note, Gabe, in addition to that, of course, the United States did just execute a regime change in Venezuela, according to me. Turn to you on all of this. What are your sources, the Pentagon saying and can you give us a sense what does the military presence look like in the region at this point? Yeah, so far the only thing we've been able to get out of the military is that this was not one of their boats or ships that was involved in the disappears.

It was a civilian. But that's really it. So we I feel like we spoke for months about this military buildup in the Southern Command regions that was in the Caribbean, Eastern Pacific. And that was because they really did start back in August.

They moved all the way to they started this mission called Operation Southern Sphere. That's really counter narcotics mission. But we've seen them do everything from boarding vessels to striking dozens of vessels, killing well over 150 people in the course of those strikes. Because of that, there is still a large military presence continuing that mission, but it's not what it was even a few weeks ago.

USSDRLR4 aircraft carrier and the strike group, they were there for several months. They've moved up into the Mediterranean right now. The belief is that they will be engaged in something in the Middle east if necessary with Iran because of that left a bit of a hole down there. The US still has additional ships.

They have tons of aircraft down there. If in fact there were something that happened. But it is a smaller presence than it was during that doorway. So Courtney, what are you going to be watching for in the next several hours and days?

I mean, I think that the big question now is what do we hear of President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rudio? As Dave mentioned, the secretary happens to be in the Caribbean right now. He's a meeting of CARICOM in the Caribbean community, which is fascinating timing for that. Anything that he happens to say about, he has been very outspoken about Q as a senator and the secretary of State, national security advisor.

And then what do we hear about President Trump specifically? Does the president start talking about threats of retaliation here? But I mean, at this point, again, all we're getting is information of Cuban government. I think a lot more questions than we do answer.

Absolutely. George, based on your conversations, how much concern is there about potential escalation between the US And Cuba? Certainly times, I mean it was earlier this month that you had Cuba's president very rare and lengthy press conference talking about the condition, talking about the rationing of power there in Cuba as of course they struggle keeping the lights on. You also mentioned that the country was ready for a state of war but was open to dialogue with the Americans saying as long as it was essentially on equal terms here.

But of course we know as the days have progressed here, we know there's been a lot more power outages, has just been increasing there in the regions of tensions of course have been growing. But again, with so many unanswered questions about this incident, it's really hard to say. I do want to point out one other thing, Kristen, here. Mexico's President Claudia Scheinbaum was asked yesterday at a briefing related to the capture of the Cartel boss El Venture there in Mexico, asked, well, now that the Supreme Court knocked down those sheriffs, is there a possibility that Mexico will resume some oil shipments back to Cuba?

Her answer to that was, we'll see. There's really no other guidance beyond that. And, Courtney, let me just get you to talk broadly speaking about the administration's posture in the region right now. You touched on it, the fact that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, one of the people leading the charge of regime change in Venezuela, it's something he's talked about as it relates to Cuba as well.

This is something that's in his crosshairs. Absolutely. And he again, on his travels today, was talking about getting more Americans down to Venezuela, increasingly diplomatic presence. The head of the Southern Command who's at the military command in the region, General Donovan, he was in Venezuela several days ago.

So they are definitely very focused on Venezuela. But remember, even in the hours, if not early days after the Maduro raid, we had administration officials talking about how Cuba would be next. So to say that Cuba is in the Trump administration process, I think is an understatement at this point. That being said, that may have absolutely nothing to do with what we saw here today.

We just don't know that the facts yet. But there definitely is a more militarized stance against you right now about this administration. Well, we watch and wait to see what, if anything, that President Trump has to say about this. Courtney, thank you so much.

George Solis, thank you. And Dave, please stand by because we have more for you. We're going to keep our eyes on this breaking news. We'll bring you any developments as we get them.

But we do want to turn to the other major political story of the hour, one day after President Trump's State of the Union address and one week until the first major primary elections of the midterms, as the question remains whether the president can give his party the messaging boost it needs, particularly on that all aboard mission of the economy today, Vice President Jenny Vance insisting the answer to that question after last night is a resounding yes. Do you have enough Runway to get this economy where it needs to be before November? Well, Bill, in some ways, we are pushing a car uphill because the Biden administration left us such a disaster of economy. So I think we've got a lot of momentum here.

But the president said this last night we inherited a mess. Our ask of the American people is let us continue to fix this mess, make your life better. That's what the president is prioritizing. And that's what we're keep doing.

In his remarks, which broke the record for the longest State of the Union ever, the president spoke repeatedly about issues tied to affordability. But he notably offered little acknowledgment of the financial frustration many Americans are still feeling or his slipping approval numbers on the issue, instead presenting a triumphant portrait of his administration's actions and casting blame on former President Biden and Democrats. Our nation is back, bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before. It is indeed a turnaround for the ages.

Their policies created the high prices. Our policies are rapidly ending them. We are doing really well. Those prices are plummeting down.

Just hold on a little while we're getting it down and soon you will see numbers that few people would think were possible to achieve just a short time ago. It comes as poll suggests Republicans have a significant enthusiasm gap to close with voters. With midterms approaching 65% of Republicans say they will absolutely vote in November, compared to 79% of Democrats. That's according to a new Washington Post poll, although Democrats have only a slight lead on the question of which party's candidate voters are more likely to support.

But the margin for Democrats grows among those all important independent voters. Joining now with senior White House correspondent Kim who cares again, senior national political reporter Sahaka Kapoor on Capitol Hill Force and national correspondent Eric Gilchrist is talking to voters in Georgia. Gabe, let me go back to you. What's the reaction been from the White House today?

Yeah, certainly. Let's talk about here on this Wednesday, Kristen. Look, the White House officials I've been speaking with today have been calling the president's performance, in their view, a grand slam. That's not surprising.

What else would you expect them to say? But they really feel the president made his case to the American people. He promised a long speech, said he lots of thought about it. And indeed, it was a record breaking speech in terms of length.

Now, they don't see this being empathetic enough. He's not a warm and fuzzy guy when it comes to these types of things. And he functions best in their view, when he really tries to brag about his accomplishments. The full first half of this speech was dedicated to the economy.

Of course, critics have said that it didn't really have many new policies. Most of the policies he did reference were not new and had been referenced before and didn't really have a whole lot of specifics. But they point to what he did talk about, this idea of corporations trying to calling on Congress to ban corporations from buying up single family homes and trying to lower the cost of homeownership. And also speaking about another policy, giving workers that full encased access to retirement plans that were similar, similar to those that federal employees have.

So the White House officials that I've spoken with, they do say that he did make his case, despite any criticism about not speaking and not being empathetic enough when it comes to the economy. One last point, Chris. You heard the vice president in an earlier interview today ask Americans to let them continue to fix the economy. For the most part, the president tried to make the argument that, hey, we inherited a mess, but we've already fixed it.

So they're gonna have to figure out that type of messaging change for the next few months ahead of the midterms. By the way, those first primaries less than a week away, Kristen. Yeah, we will be covering them for sure. It's gonna be a big moment.

Let me turn to you, Sahil, on Capitol Hill and ask you about one of the new proposals President Trump did put forward. This wasn't a speech that was heavy on new policy proposals, but one that stood out was where he said the federal government will match the retirement savings donations of average Americans, basically setting up savings accounts like employees with the federal government. Have I asked Treasury Secretary Scott Best about that last night. We play a little bit of that and get your reaction on the other side.

We can do it through reconciliation. And again, this is the president coming back for working Americans. Those have been left behind, the ones who don't have the 401ks. Certainly the federal Employees Congress get all these benefits and we'll be rolling that out in the coming weeks and months.

Sahil, give me the reality check. Do you think that that can pass through reconciliation, which would allow Republicans essentially to pass that without Democratic support? So conceptually, Kristen, this is the type of idea that has gotten bipartisan support in Congress in recent years. This project that Secretary Bus and President Trump are pitching is actually modeled on a law that President Biden signed in 2022 called the Secure act.

And it would basically create a retirement account for those who don't have 401ks to their employer and have the federal government match it. The problem is that would require President Trump actually work with Democrats to get this done. He's not shown really indication to engage in that level of negotiation on his economic agenda. Now, in terms of reconciliation, I think Secretary Benson kind of showed his end early, which is that the president is not attracted by prison support for this.

He's going to try to have Republicans do this on their own, which is extremely unlikely. Republicans have gone back and forth with each other about the idea of reconciliation 2.0. And the general consensus I picked up is that it's not going to happen. Kristen, the margins are even smaller.

They barely got the big beautiful bill through. They shot their shot with that when President Trump's popularity was at an all time high. And at this point it's going to come up Christmas tree. Everyone's going to have project of their own.

And Democrats are more power now to try to mess with bill like that. Very unlikely happening. Saha, based on your conversations, what's the reaction been from Republicans to the president's speech last night? Are they feeling more emboldened heading into the midterms?

It's a mixed person. One thing they do think President Trump is good at is as a salesman selling their accomplishments. They know they're going to have to sell the big vehicle building. They're going to have to sell his border crackdown.

And they voters believe that things are better as a result of him being in power. What's missing, what was missing for President Trump is any real acknowledgement of the pain that working class Americans are still feeling. His poll numbers have tumbled on the economy. They're deep underwater now.

For the first time in his entire decade in politics and three elections he had break even or positive views on handling of the economy. That is gone now. Even on immigration, the DS killings of two Americans in Minneapolis have led to many Americans believing that his ICE and immigration enforcement operations have overreached here. So there was no real acknowledgment in those things, you know, which are driving a lot of the Democratic advantage in the round to the midterms.

I think that's where the problems worry that you can't just message your way out of that problem. People have to feel, especially on economic level, that their lives are better. And President Trump did not acknowledge that. The question is, are they going to be able to deliver something to vote between now and midterms?

I think that is the big question. Aaron, speaking of the voters, let me turn to you and I have been talking to voters in Georgia. What are they telling you? Of course, I'd like to hear from a couple of voters that we talked to both last night before the speech and again today after the president's speech.

And we're here in Fayette county in particular because this is an area that is a red county. It's one that went for Mitt Romney back in 2012 by more than 30 points. But for Donald Trump in the last election cycle by only three points. And so it's becoming less and less conservative over presidential cycles in the last decade or so.

And the people that we talked to last night told us, Democrats told us they wanted to hear a single union speech that was hopeful, one that was made an effort to unite people's different perspectives. Republicans we spoke to said they wanted to hear a speech that was heavy on details about what the president has done for the economy and what he intends to do in the future. In both cases, we heard that people felt like the president missed opportunities with the address that he gave last night. Here's a little bit of what we were told by voters here in Fayette county today.

I heard sarcasm and unaccountability. No apologies. I wanted to hear maybe about Iran or Greenland or Venezuela. He didn't apologize to people he hurt.

I mean, he laughed at people losing health care. That to me is unbelievable. That's, that's not a, you know, I think this is going to make more people come out. We're not going to have a democracy if we don't show up.

I give him an A for content. I think he hit a lot of things I ran. I would have talked a little bit more about. I would have been a little more specific about immigration.

I think ultimately we're going to see how the economy works out. It always comes back to what am I paying for groceries, what am I paying for gas, and can my kids get a good education? Those are generally what these elections hinge on. And I think we're going to have to see how the Republican proposals fall out before the midterm election.

Now, we also heard from other voters who didn't want to go on camera necessarily, who said that they did not watch the State of the Union address because they didn't want to have to sort of parse through information that was going to be useful for them in decision making going forward and things that were more for the show, more for an audience to make an opinion about whether they like or don't like the President of the United States. We also heard from some Republicans here that they want the president to really drill down on the trickle down, if you will. They didn't want to hear so much about tariff policy and so much about things that were sort of easy for economic professors to understand, the things that people could really boil down, understand at the kitchen table, if you will, because it's something we talk about so often. And we heard Republicans is the president didn't really simplify his message enough for folks who don't have lots of degrees or don't get into the weeds on these things all the time.

And that may make it harder, Republicans here think for them going forward into the midterms person, to make the president's case for him. Well, it's just fascinating, Aaron, to hear your interviews and to hear the perspective of the voters, because ultimately it is about the voters. Let me turn to you finally and just ask you about the president's comments on Iran. I thought it was notable.

He was very clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he was also very firm in the fact that the United States will not allow Iran to move forward with a nuclear weapons program. Is the administration saying anything about which way the president is leaning when it comes to a potential military strike against Iran? We know there are going to be those critical diplomatic talks tomorrow. Well, I was just going to mention the talks first.

And that is something the administration is waiting on. And look, over the past several days, we have been trying to get from White House officials some inkling on the president's thought process on this. And yesterday you mentioned during the speech he did bring out that he preferred a diplomatic solution here. But then significantly, he also referenced this idea that according to him, Iran was somehow working towards building a missile that could soon reach the United States.

That's not something that we were tracking. We've been trying to get information from White House officials on that today. Previously, the Defense Intelligence Agency had said that that was something perhaps that the Iranians could achieve by 2035. So it was unclear what, if any, new evidence the president may have been looking at for him to make that assertion in yesterday's State of the Union.

Again, we have to ask the president about but certainly the vice president was asked about this earlier this morning and he's reiterating what the president's message, you know, what the administration says is the president's message that he's been crystal clear that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And while the president does prefer a diplomatic solution to this, he's ready to take military action if it comes to that. All right, Gabe Sahil and Aaron, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Coming up, we'll get the view from both sides of the political aisle responding to President Trump's address and what's next for both parties. Midjourn messaging. Republican Congressman Mike Kennedy is in studio with me right now. We'll talk to him after the break.

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Visit manulife.cahealth to learn more ways Manulife can help. Welcome back. Join me now is Republican Congressman Mike Kennedy of Utah. Congressman, thanks so much for being here.

So thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. Let me start off by getting a reaction to President Trump's State of the Union address, the longest in history. Started off talking about the economy.

Do you think he laid out a blueprint for Republicans to campaign on the Internet? Absolutely. God bless America. It is the greatest country in history of the planet.

And we're able to see that vision from President Trump. We brought in our gold medalist from the Olympic Games. The hockey team did extraordinary things against all odds, and they're able to bring back the gold. In addition, we recognized our soldiers, soldiers who put their lives on the line for the safety of the American people.

And I just am so impressed with the people of America. As a freshman legislator, it is a real privilege to represent my constituents. But I tell my team all the time, I represent my constituents, the state of Utah. I represent the United States of America and the opportunity for people to be free.

And President Trump is America first. And every step he takes, he's trying to fight for the American people. And I know there's problems, there's an infinite number of problems, and it will keep us occupied for the rest of our lives trying to solve those problems. But myself and sensible Republicans and Democrats, there's ways for us to find opportunities to work together to fix these compelling problems so that the American people benefit.

Well, I want to get your reaction to what the Wall Street Journal wrote about the speech they write. President Trump told a national audience on Tuesday that he had unleashed a new age of American prosperity. One thing he didn't say, I feel your pain. Do you think that was a missed opportunity?

Should he have shown more empathy with those Americans who still don't feel like the economy is working? I'm a doctor, and I'm a big fan of empathy. That makes a big difference when we're like that. But here's the fascinating thing about the doctor world that I live in.

Some doctors are not very empathetic. They do the job. So I'll take the example of emergency doctor or somebody that needs to have their appendix out is you don't need. When you're in critical circumstances and your appendix needs to come out, you don't need Somebody who's going to be softwarming, cuddly and trying to do this work, you need somebody that's technically able to do that job.

And when president came in and inherited the Biden disaster we've had over the past four years. And I think about the doctor's circumstance is that it takes time. When you move forward in a positive direction, you're trying to do the right thing. Somebody needs appendix out, getting ready for surgery, you got to bring it back.

It takes time for this process to happen. And if the American people can be patient a little bit longer, the big beautiful bill is in process. When people get their tax refunds and they see that they're three to $5,000 ahead from where they were last year just based on the beautiful bill, they will be happy about that. Do you acknowledge though what so many Americans, they feel like there's affordability.

Yes. And when we talk about inflation under Biden was 9% and now it's down to 2.4% is we should say congratulations, but there's still a lot of work for us to do so. Absolutely. My constituents and I, we, we hear plenty from all sorts of people about the various issues they confront.

I want those problems to be resolved, but it does take time for us to execute on these plans that are going to actually make things better. I want to ask you about some numbers I reference at the top of the show. If you look at the midterms, more Democrats than Republicans said they are certain to vote this fall. Here, the number, 66% of all voters say it, 79% of Democrats compared to 65% of Republicans.

How do you close that enthusiasm gap and how concerned are you about it? We know angry people like to get out and we totally on the Republican side, we understand that we are the party that's in charge at this point. People recognize that we also have to deal with the fact we have a 53 seat majority in the Senate. We have seven Democrats on the Senate side.

We need to get on every bill that we pass. So there's a collaboration that needs to go on here. But I and my colleagues take seriously the fact that we need to make sure that the American people understand that we're on the right track. And I suspect that's where the big beautiful bill passing last July, that was a big deal because we passed the biggest tax cut in the history of the United States of America.

At that point. That's not going to be felt until this tax season right now. And people are going to notice the differences in that their own personal economy and economy generally, as they start to see the economy explode in a positive direction over the next several months. Let me ask you about the state of play right now in the House.

Obviously, I don't have to tell you this. The margins are very slow, incredibly slim. There's a lot of focus right now. And one of your colleagues, Congressman Tony Gonzalez, allegations that he had an affair with a staffer who tragically went on to take her own life, absolutely tragic, by setting herself on fire.

There are growing calls for him to resign, including from some Republicans. Now, Congressman Gonzalez has said he's not gonna resign. He says that the public has not seen all the facts and he believes this is a political hit job. Given what is publicly available, though, Congressman, do you think that Congressman Gonzalez should resign?

The fact that the American people, his constituents in the next week can render an opinion about that, what really matters is do those people want to put this man back into office? That's all that matters. The opinions of various other people who say what they think about these sort of things. I'm not a voter in his district, and I believe that those people surrender that opinion, not me.

These accusations. In the United States of America, you are innocent until proven guilty. And I know everybody wants. Wants people like me to say statements about all sorts of other people, but I'm just going to withhold judgment because I don't have all the information at this point.

We need to get as much of that information as possible as fast as possible so people can make that decision in his district. One of your colleagues at Congressman Massey is saying that House Leader Mike Johnson has not called for him to resign. His speaking near side is trying to protect his majority. I understand what you're saying, which is that you want to see all the facts play out first, but is there a point to that?

And is there anything that's as well? I'll just ask Representative Massey what information does he have that other people don't have that makes him rush to judgment as to the circumstance. This tragic death should be acknowledged. And it's a devastating impact for his family, especially goodness sake for these poor people, with this young woman who took her life.

And I just say this is something that Representative Massey has additional information. He can come to me in their public conference and tell us what that is so we can render judgment more accurately. Let me ask you about the government shut. There's a school of thought that the president will deliver his State of the Union address, and then perhaps that would encourage both sides to come together.

Get a deal. Do you think it's time for Republicans to agree to some concessions so that DHS can reopen? Shutdowns are a disaster. Republicans executed on that years ago.

It was a disaster for them. Democrats in the past four months have shut the government down now twice. And I think it's a reflection of the fact that they don't seem to have a policy. They don't have a way forward themselves.

The only thing they can do is make sure tsa, Coast Guard and FEMA are not funded. This is a funding appropriation package that the House sent over to the Senate weeks ago, and we've already approved it. The Senate was in agreement until the Schumer shutdown. Folks saw an opportunity politically to try to score political points.

I think it's shameful. We need to pay those government workers for the work that they're doing. And I think the Schumer shutdown needs to end yesterday. One final question.

President Trump is weighing potential military action in Iran. Do you think he needs to come to Congress first and make his case? I'm always a fan of information because people hold me accountable for these decisions. And I don't have as much information as I want to answer those questions.

I also recognize, Kristen, this is sad is when the president tells us things, sadly, all goes directly to the press. And so nothing is confidential. And if President Trump needs to do things to protect the United States of America and America first is his primary objective and he knows that he can't tell us until after because of leaks, that's our fault, not his fault. But I'm a big fan of the president conveying as much information to people like me so we can explain it to American people.

As to why it's compelling that we do any military action around Congressman Kennedy, thank you so much. Thanks for being here in person after a very late night. We really appreciate it. Coming up next, we will speak with one of the Democrats who was part of last night's State of the Union counter programming about what's next for the party as it responds to the president.

Looks ahead of midterms. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is standing by. Keep it right here. Let me press out.

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Let's just take a step back. It's more context and clarity from the reporters you trust. Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more. Instead of addressing the urgent problems of poverty and disinvestment, instead of restoring the funding that he has cut from healthcare and food assistance, instead of doing anything to address the cost of living crisis, the fact that the rent is too high and wages are far too low in this country, this president spoke of an America that does not exist for hundreds of millions of Americans across this country.

Welcome back. That was Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaking at an alternate event last night named Encountering the president's State of the Union address. In his remarks, Mayor Johnson described President Trump's State of the Union remarks as rambling and incoherent, hearing phrases of nothing and hitting the administration for not doing enough to address concerns about affordability and issue Democrats are zeroing in on heading into the midterms. Joining me now, Democratic mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson.

Mayor Johnson, thank you so much for joining me. Really appreciate it. You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

So we are going to get to the affordability issue, of course, in just a moment. But I do want to start with a big moment that Republicans are seizing on from last night's day of the evening. Take a look. I'll get your reaction on the other side.

Tonight, I'm inviting every legislature to join with my administration in reaffirming a fundamental principle. If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal areas. And today Vice President Vance called that moment a sad commentary on the Democratic Party.

Do you think it was a mistake for Democrats not to stand up? I think it's a mistake for this president to continue to find wedge to divide people in this country. Right. When I think about the history of Chicago established by a black Haitian immigrant and a Potawatomi woman, and they Established what is now the global capital of the world.

That's the story of America. And if this president was serious about ensuring that we had a pathway to citizenship and to ensure that our borders are secure, he would use the fact that he controls every single level of government to put forth legislation that could do just that. This president has demonstrated over and over again that he's more interested in dividing people by race, by whether they are documented or undocumented than he is motivated to actually unite people around the values that working people are concerned about. As the mayor of city of Chicago, when people talk to me about every single day is how we build safe and affordable communities.

That's what my focus has been. That's what we're doing in Chicago. And it's quite disappointing that this president has not caught on with the hopes and aspirations of working people. Well, one of the biggest flashpoints certainly last night and right now is the issue of ice, how it's being deployed.

You have called for abolishing ice. What do you say to Democrats who argue that goes too far and could actually give Republicans the upper hand on that issue politically? Well, what has gone too far is this president. He has worked outside the confines of the Constitution.

We have filed multiple pieces of litigation against this president because he has overreached and we have prevailed in every lawsuit that he has put forth against our city. We have beat back. Look, a dad was dropping his children off to school and was murdered by federal agents. And then they lied about it.

Another woman was shot multiple times in the city of Chicago. They lied about it. Press charges against her. Those charges were later dropped.

We know that, you know, Renee and Alex and those families are still grieving. Grieving because they too were not just shot, but they were murdered. We have seen this president circle black Hawk helicopters over apartment buildings in the south side of Chicago where long guns were placed in the faces of black women and children were zip tied. A black man was put into an illegal hold chokehold, which we know an illegal chokehold is a death sentence for black men in this country.

That has gone too far. This president is not serious about immigration reform. He's certainly not serious about education. And his priorities are not with the priorities of working people.

He's becoming increasingly more unfortunate to live in this country. And this president has done nothing to do that. The only thing that he has done is he has secured the wealth for the ultra wealthy and big corporations which we know the wealth concentrated in the hands of the few people has caused regular turmoil. And that's why In Chicago, we're providing a different vision.

Building affordable homes, invest in education, creating good paying jobs for families. That's what working people want us to do. That's what Democrats have to continue to lead on. Well, let me ask you about the issue of affordability.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices have actually gone up in the Chicago metro area by as much as 7% since you became mayor. Why is that and what's your argument for why Democrats are the party to bring prices down? Well, first of all, what we've seen with this president, with those tariffs that have been deemed illegal, that that created an additional burden of an average $2,000 per household. Right.

So that's, you're seeing a reflection of his poor policies. What we've done in the city of Chicago, I've invested in our education. We also have made sure that our teachers are supported, our child care workers are supporter are supported. We just gave child care workers a raise in our city, an additional $7 million in our budget to do just that.

A half a million dollars into our public education system. We've h young people just to work over the summer, while at the same time I've invested over a billion dollars for economic development and housing, which is the largest economic and housing investment in the history of Chicago. That's what we're doing to beat back against the Trump administration. We have to double down our efforts to ensure that our public institutions are supported and that we're growing our economy.

Look, we have economic development that's happening in the west of Chicago. The 1901 project just outside the United Center. We're talking about $8 billion of new investment on the southeast side of Chicago where there has been investment in over 30 years. Where the steel mills used to exist.

We have a brand new entity, PSI Quantum. Quantum Computing will be the first spot in America for this new technology that's going to draw economic development throughout the entire region. 20% of the world's fresh water. Of course, we have, you know, one of the most diverse economies in the entire country.

And so the economic development that's happening in the city of Chicago is certainly strong. But we are competing above against an administration at the federal level that has a great deal of disdain and animals against working people. What we're doing in American cities across this country is actually working. This president, of course, is opposed to our values and that's what we're going to continue to push back.

All right, Mayor Peter Johnson, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. You're welcome anytime. Coming up after the break, with Texas voters about to head to the polls, Speaker Mike Johnson says he sent a message to Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez as the Texas lawmaker faces mounting pressure to resign after being accused of having an affair with a staffer who died by suicide.

The panel's next on the PRESS now. Welcome back. As we mentioned, there are growing calls for Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez of Texas to resign over allegations he sent disturbing text messages and had an affair with the staffer who later died by suicide. Suicide.

Gonzalez has accused his political opponents of using the allegations to, quote, score political points ahead of his primary election next week. At least five House Republicans say Gonzalez should step down, but Gonzalez is remaining defiant. Some House Republicans, though, agree now is not the time for Gonzalez to step down. That would be the stupidest thing he could ever do.

I'm not the speaker of the House, don't get me wrong. But we've got some very thin numbers. We will have much more on that and more next with our panel. You're WATCHING ME Press now.

Joining me now is our panel, Daniela Diaz, congressional reporter for notice Josh Orton, president of the Mandate justice and forcing your advisor to former Vice President Harris and Rob Louie, president and executive editor of the Daily Signal. Thanks to all of you for being here. Daniel, I want to start with where I just left off, talking about the scrutiny around Congressman Tony Gollas. That's how about it.

And play a little bit of that. Get your reaction on the other side. Daniela, the speaker has called on Congressman Gonzalez to address the allegations. At the very least, what are your sources telling you about how much pressure he is facing to resign?

Chris, my colleague and I talked to nearly a dozen House Republicans yesterday about the specific issue, what they thought should happen between Gonzalez. And most of them said, look, we want to wait to see what that Office of Congressional Conduct report that is going to be released after this March 3rd primary, which is on Tuesday, what that has to say said they concluded an investigation into his potentially improper relationship with his late aide, but most of them said he does need to address this. This is the text message has really changed course on how a lot of people are seeing what's happened in this scenario. And it made a lot of people feel that it was improper.

And that's something he needs to talk about. Look, the Republicans have a very slim majority. They can't afford to lose tonight with Wallace right now. He had a tough primary on Tuesday.

He's being challenged. A lot of his colleagues have endorsed his primary opponent. So really touched the voters to see who Happens on Tuesday, there's a chance he could win his primary and potentially he plans run for re election. So all of it remains to see how it plays out.

I'll pick up on that point because I think Daniela hits at the key issue for Republicans who are wrestling with this. They may not like the optics of it, the ethics of these allegations. And again, there's still an investigation ongoing and. And yet the majority is just so slim.

Sure. They lost two Republicans in January. Right. Douglas passed away and Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned.

So they're down to 218. Democrats have 214. This will bring them to 217. It doesn't get any easier for Mike Johnson, however, because I will say this can't be about the numbers.

The Republicans need to have a higher moral standard. These are abhorrent, these allegations. I think that Congressman Gonzalez does need to address this immediately. He has this test before voters coming on Tuesday and I think ultimately his fate will determine the people of Texas.

Josh, how do you think Democrats should be responding given the fact that some Republicans are already calling for him to step down? There is a primary. He's got to face voters. They will ultimately have the final stage here.

Yeah, I think Republicans are facing a couple problems here. The first is, as Rob said, this is ethically a very clear problem. Right. This was just deplorable conduct.

The public sees that. The second problem Republicans face is they don't have any credibility right now in terms of their covering up offenders. We hear every day about how they're still withholding parts of the ethnic files to try and cover up some of the people who are accused of crimes. And I think the third thing is you see how Republicans actually coming out and talking about in political terms, if you're going to say that there's a problem that this guy needs to address, you can't say, well, we have to think about our numbers because it's admitting that their first calculation is politics and not ethics.

What about that? Yeah, no, that's the real question, right? I mean, Speaker Johnson took a position on George Santos, which put him in a situation now that I think he's trying to grapple with. Do you let the process play out before voters and before the committee or do you call him to step down when it comes to Epstein, I like to slightly push back.

And I do think this administration is going through a lot of information. And as we saw today, it was Larry Sellers who was actually in the new, stepping down from his position at Harvards, which continues to scare Democrats even more than Republicans, I think anybody who's in this false whose wrong doing will face consequences. The thing that I think is fishy is when the Republican Party is is credibly trying to make the claim that they're being transparent when it's clear that the Justice Department is operating with political standards to hold things back because they don't want the repercussions of the president. Well, and it's not just Larry Summer.

Bill Gates apologized to his foundation staff over being mentioned in the Epstein files and some associations with Jeffrey Epstein. Do you see this fallout rock continuing? Where is this going from here? Well, the poll numbers tell us that the American people are dissatisfied with the president's handling of Epstein.

Right. And so I think that's probably why you didn't hear a lot of it last night or any of it last night. You saw some members of Congress try to elevate that issue. I do think it's going to continue to be an issue that surfaces and I don't necessarily know how the president was other than trying to change the topic and focus on the issues that he thinks are more advantageous.

Josh, before we get to the speech itself, do you think voters, should Democrats be using the Epstein files on the campaign trails as something they should focus on? Well, I think the problem is that Republicans comment about this. In some ways the COVID up is actually making this much, much, much worse. Is that the fact that we're seeing and we're getting credible reporting that these files are being held back, some of these three or 200 being held back makes creates this presumption of Bill Christ's image appeal.

And I think that of course Democrats are going to be talking about the ethical and moral issues they're facing the Republican Party. And I think Republicans are only showing self. Daniel, let's talk about the speech. Overall, President Trump started off talking about the economy, number one issue for voters.

He's underwater on it. Didn't exactly give an I feel your pain speech. He gave a rah rah speech. But what are you hearing on the Hill today in terms of how this may play in the midterms?

I think it's going to be major concern. We didn't hear from President Donald Trump on how he plans to proceed this year. Leading up to the midterms. It was a lot of I've been successful.

This is what my administration has done. What Republican lawmakers facing tougher elections want to hear is what can we expect to be able to campaign on going forward? It seems like it's gonna be the one Big, beautiful bill. And it's gonna be what they're gonn advocate for on the campaign trail.

But that might not be enough for these battleground district Republicans who make up the majority in the House and are facing tougher elections, for them to be able to convince constituents to continue to vote for them. Rob, do you think it was a missed opportunity for the president not to say yes, there's an affordability crisis? Yes, we're working on it. But I understand that some of you are still struggling.

Well, he did address it. I mean, in terms of citing several measures of the economy that indicated that they're making progress. I do think that what the president was trying to do, this was a positioning speech. He wanted to show a contrast where he had common sense ideas that he think resonate with the American people versus, as he in his own words said, crazy Democrats who refuse to stand for some of the most basic things that you would expect them to applaud for.

Josh, what about that? The fact that Democrats, they had that dichotomy that the president lay out, they seemed to walk right into take the bait, if you will. Do you think that moment in any way could backfire for Democrats? I think the problem with that stunt is that its author was Donald Trump.

And Donald Trump does not have a lot of credibility with the American public right now, not just on immigration, but anything else. And I think the problem that we saw with the speech overall for Republicans is Donald Trump, especially in the middle, makes everything about himself. He made other people's heroism about himself. He made other people's open pictures of himself.

And in this year, Republicans are going to dance with one the problem. And they're not going to see Donald Trump putting on apron, going to McDonald's. He's going to be focused on any number of other things. And so when you hear him talk about, you know, the issue that might appeal to working people about making sure the Wall street doesn't have housing, you know, he never actually takes on power.

What happened to the 10% cap on interest rates, credit cards? He says things, but he's never willing to take on the corporate world. Now, let me give you the final thought here because more than three dozen Democrats boycotted this speech. Is that a move?

And the protest less might energize debates or potentially backfire. I'm happy to report I watched a lot of that counter programming yesterday. It was such a, you know, contrast to what was happening at one spring that was the city of the media. The screaming counter protest is counter programming.

And it was a lot, Epstein. It was a lot of the economy. And you know, I heard the most person I heard about ICE and DHS shut down, which has lasted two weeks. And that is what Democrats he has the winning issues.

And it's likely that that is energizing. We'll get a preview of things to come. Thanks, guys. Really appreciate it.

We are back tomorrow with more MEET the Press now. There's more ahead on NBC News now. Hey, everyone, I'm Dylan Dreyer, co host of the third hour of TODAY and mom to three wild boys. I learned a lot in my years as a parent, mostly that I don't have all figured out yet.

And I'm not the only one. This is my new podcast, the Parent Chat. Each week I sit down with someone new for honest conversation and real world advice about parenting. I am over here just like winging it.

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