Meet the Press NOW — February 28

If it's Wednesday, a historic shake-up in Congress, as Mitch McConnell the Senate's top Republican and the chamber's longest serving leader announces he will be stepping aside. His message? It's time for the next generation of leadership in American politics. Plus a major stress test moment for the president's reelection campaign.

After more than 100,000 Democrats in the must-win swing state of Michigan vote against him in last night's primary. And the president's son Hunter Biden delivers defiant testimony behind closed doors in the House's impeachment inquiry, telling Republicans his father was never involved in any of his businesses. Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Kristen Welker, coming to you on a very busy day here in Washington.

We have new reaction to last night's primary elections in Michigan with some potential November alarm bells for both parties, presidential frontrunners. But we begin with the breaking news here in Washington, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the longest serving leader in Senate history, announcing today he is leaving leadership and this will be his final year atop the Senate Republican Conference, the 82-year-old McConnell citing his age while announcing his decision on the Senate floor just a few hours ago. I stand before you today, Mr. President and my colleagues, to say this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.

Father time remains undefeated. I'm no longer the young man sitting in the back hoping colleagues would remember my name. It's time for the next generation of leadership. It's an emotional moment there.

McConnell's decision comes after he clashed with the former president and members of his own conference over support for Ukraine and the chambers by part of support ordeal. With McConnell's exit, the next Republican leadership team is almost certainly going to be even more loyal to the Trump wing of the party. McConnell seemed to acknowledge a bit of that political reality on the floor today. Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time.

I have many faults. Just understanding politics is not one of them. Now, all told McConnell has spent nearly 40 years in the Senate, including the last 17 as Republican conference leader. His departure from leadership will mark a change in errors in the U.S.

Senate a few moments ago. President Biden, who served with McConnell in the Senate, said he is sorry to see him go. And we are joined now by NBC, Sahil Kapoor on Capitol Hill. So Sahil, take us behind the scenes.

Why did Mitch McConnell make this decision now? Is it all about his age or is it about 2024 as well? Obviously, we know he's clashed with Donald Trump. All of the above, Kristen.

This was a blend of factors. This was a long anticipated decision from Mitch McConnell. Of course, age was a factor. He's 82 years old as he just pointed out.

He was first elected to the Senate all of 40 years ago. He's already the longest serving Senate leader in American history. And naturally, that weighed on him. There were health concerns that he dealt with earlier this year.

Had a couple of very high-profile freeze-ups on camera, which simply had not happened, you know, for many of us here who had been covering McConnell for years. Health really wasn't a concern for him, even as he was getting up there in age. But also the politics. No doubt had an influence on this.

Donald Trump's influence within the Senate Republican conference has only grown ever since he left office. And as he marches to the nomination, McConnell had a very public and somewhat nasty break with Donald Trump. After the January 6th of January, he said he was going to acquit him. He gave a scathing speech on the floor, holding him personally responsible for that attack on the Capitol.

The two men have not spoken in three years according to our reporting. So it was that factor that had emboldened the McConnell critics within the Senate Republican conference. Had diminished some of that iron grip that McConnell used to have over his party with the Ukraine aid becoming the most abundant, you know, evidence of that a recent bipartisan deal that McConnell negotiated and helped write only got four votes within the Senate Republican conference. That was unthinkable as recently a few years ago.

And it shows that the Senate Republican conference is moving further and further to Trump's direction. And what's so notable, of course, if former President Trump wins reelection, that would mean he would be taking the reins at a time when, of course, he's dealing with a Senate that is more willing to work with him on his priorities. On the other hand, if President Biden wins reelection, he's losing a real ally style. So what does a post McConnell Senate leadership look like?

Well, firstly, I think you have different people in the White House described differently whether McConnell is an ally. They certainly see him that way on matters of government funding, things like the debt limit that basic functions of government. But of course, McConnell has been a thorn in the side of Joe Biden as well as Barack Obama, former Democratic president on a whole host of other issues. So he really did have a complicated relationship with Democrats and of course increasingly complicated within his own party as well.

What is the future of the Senate Republican conference look like? It's almost certain that the next leader is going to be more pro-Trump, further in the mold of Trump, and probably going to have to kiss the ring at least to some degree to win the support of the conference. That's just the way that trends are moving within the party. And there are several candidates who are already being discussed as potential successors to McConnell.

The so-called three John's, John Thune, John Barrasso, John Cornyn, either currently served or previously served as deputies to McConnell, are seen as the front runners for that position. There's going to be jockeying that begins very quickly, probably as early as tomorrow I think they're going to give it the day. But these men have been in the background as likely the would-be successors to McConnell if and when he did choose to step down. There's also some possibility of an outsider pick, someone like Rick Scott, the Senator from Florida who challenged McConnell and lost last time around.

He's unlikely to win. But depending on which way the political wins blow, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some surprises here, Kristen. All right. Well, we know you will continue to watch it very closely.

Sahel, thank you for all of your great reporting. Really appreciate it, as always. We want to turn out to our other top story that we talked about in American politics. The fall out, of course, from last night's Michigan presidential primaries, which has moved the race one step closer to a Joe Biden-Donald Trump rematch this November.

Mr. Trump won another head-to-head victory against Nikki Haley, sweeping every one of Michigan's counties in the process. President Biden also rolled to another big victory, but in a potentially major warning sign for the president, 100,000 Michiganders in the Democratic primary, showed up to vote against the president and his handling of the Israel Hamas war by casting uncommitted ballots. The results leaving some of the president's top allies concerned about what the swing state defections could mean for November.

It's important that the people who voted uncommitted in the Democratic primary be persuaded to join us in November. We need them for victory. As soon as the House that wants to come to an end, and as soon as the relief is delivered, the sooner we're going to see some, I think people sitting back and taking stock of what the real choices are in November. I'm deeply concerned about this election and about holding together our coalition, because there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed to make sure that we're unifying, and we can take nothing for granted.

MVC's Monica Alba is outside the White House. MVC Shakil Brewster is on the ground in Grand Rapids. Mon, I'm going to start with you. We're the 100,000 Democratic primary voters in Michigan chose to vote uncommitted.

This wasn't a surprise. Democrats, the president, frankly, the Democratic governor were bracing for these types of margins. But take us inside some of your conversations today. How are the president?

How are his allies responding? How worried are they quite frankly? Exactly, Kristen. They were expecting this, but it still comes as a pretty sobering warning about what this real movement can turn into when we talk about November, and when we look at some other key battleground states, and specifically this question of young voters, which is something that the Biden campaign knows, and is keenly aware of how important they will be, and needing to really meet them where they are, they say, in terms of trying to communicate that the president understands, and he says, and the White House says, that they really feel that, of course, these people have a right to have their voice heard, but at the same time, in terms of conversations I've had today, officials really believe that these voters will show up for the president in November, that this is a temporary momentary expression of this displeasure, but that when it comes to it, when it comes down to potentially voting for someone uncommitted again in November that could help former president Donald Trump, the Republican front runner, that that's not something that really people who did vote for president Biden in 2020 are willing to do.

Now, that's a bet, that's a gamble, that's something that they're saying, but they're also really trying to walk this fine line up. They, of course, don't want to discredit this. They want to say, we understand and Biden campaign officials and senior administration officials say they're going to continue to travel to Michigan to have some of these conversations with Arab American and Muslim community leaders there to continue this, but really, of course, there's so much pressure on the policy side of this to see if anything is going to shift, Kristin. Yeah, there really is a lot of pressure.

That's the name of the game. That's what this was all about. Jack, let me turn to you on that point. I know you've been talking to some of the folks who are behind this uncommitted campaign.

What are they telling you? Do they feel like they accomplished what they were hoping to with these 100,000 votes, making the case that you need these votes in order to win the state? Yeah, Kristin, they're really celebrating what we saw last night out of Michigan. They had a press conference earlier today and they said they already been reaching out to organizers in other states in upcoming primary contests.

And let's be clear here. President Biden had a clear and convincing win here in the state of Michigan. He won every county in this state. He got more than 80% of the vote.

But while that is true, it is also true that they believe the uncommitted organization feels that they overperformed. They beat out what they said were their expectations. They talked about their low budget, their reliance on volunteers, the fact that they were standing outside of places like Sam's clubs in Pasco to get the word out about this movement. I want you to listen to what we heard from the mayor of Dearborn who was affiliated with this group and listen to how he's been framing what they did yesterday.

We have done our part in demonstrating that this is a core issue that Michigan voters care about and will bring forward to the battle of us in November. It is incumbent upon him at this point in time to determine the path that he wants to take. Will he continue aligning himself and support it and support him to indiscriminately Benjamin Netanyahu, the tyrannical government? Or will he once and for all choose justice and choose democracy and help revive the unraveling of our government here in America?

And if you listen closely there, he is almost extending somewhat of an olive branch. He's not saying all hope is lost for Biden. They're saying they want to see change if Biden wants their vote in November. Yeah, just to follow up on that point, Shaq, where do they see the movement going from here?

Well, they are pointing to some other states, but they were asked directly about the general election. What is the signify for the general election? And they acknowledge that there's some time here in my own conversations with people who voted uncommitted. Some of them say, yes, all hope is lost for President Biden.

But others say, no, we want to see a ceasefire. We want to see direct engagement. We want to feel as if our position is heard. So when you see that 100,000 vote mark, that doesn't mean that that's 100,000 no votes for Biden, but in a swing state when every vote will matter in November, it is still a warning sign and there's still more work that they want to see done, be done by the Biden campaign and by President Biden himself.

Yeah, everyone's going to be watching closely to see if there's any type of policy change that we see coming out of the White House. Monica, let me go back to you because you have these results in Michigan. And then of course, there's a little bit of news today, President Biden had his physical and I know we're getting a few details about that. What can you tell us so far?

And this is something that the president had committed to do and he has pledged transparency. He said that really nothing has changed from last year. His doctor is supposed to be putting out a summary that will be shared widely of how everything went. But today was really just a partial physical.

The last time he did a complete physical was in late 2021, where he actually had a colonoscopy. He had to be put under anesthesia and transfer authorities to the vice president temporarily. That didn't happen today. This was more routine tests and labs and meeting with specialists.

But notably, Kristin, in the White House press briefing, reporters were asking, was there any cognitive tests? Anything having to do with his mental acuity in today's physical given questions that have been raised and things like special counsel Robert Kerr's report about his memory and recall. And green jump here, the White House secretary said there was no cognitive test because his doctor determined he doesn't need one along with his neurologist. Kristin?

All right. Monica Alba, shock rooster. Thank you both so much. Really appreciate it.

Joining me now on set to discuss all of the big stories and politics of W.C. News chief political analyst Chuck Todd. Chuck, thanks for being here. So let's talk about, let's start off by talking about Michigan.

You could argue there warning signs for both parties in Michigan. But let's talk about Democrats because I think that's kind of the most of the focus has been you have these 100,000 uncommitted votes. You and I spoke about this earlier. You said you were watching to see if it got up to 30%.

Didn't get that high, but still not insignificant. I think it really depends. If you portrayed as a hundred thousand votes, it sounds more significant than if you say they couldn't, they didn't win a single bill again, right? They didn't make a fresher of 50%.

So really, I think a lot of it has to do with, you know, it's like, I don't want to take anything away from the activists and their passion on what the message that they wanted to send. But if you're the Biden campaign, you're just looking at this for political and this could have been a lot worse. This could have been, you know, this was a free vote. There were Bernie Sanders, his organization was helping get better or more.

So I look at all of this sort of somewhat institutional support that the protesters got, including from at least one sort of news organization. And they still only got, you know, so I think that to a certain community, this is really highly important. But I think it's contained as a political problem. This could have metastasized.

This could be, you know, I sort of look at it the same way. I look at the New Hampshire writing effort. All the ingredients were there to really embarrass Biden. All the ingredients in Michigan were there to embarrass him.

And just the opposite happened. They not only contained it in some ways, he showed far more strength than I expected. So that's, again, I'm trying to, I don't want to somehow say, oh, well, the protest movement, you know, came up short. I just think it's, this is, there are certain people this might be a voting issue for, but it's a much smaller group of voters than I think many people realize.

Yeah, and it didn't meet that 30% mark that you want. Well, that to me is a, because we've seen 20% in the past. This is a pretty vote. You got into the 30s.

That's a whole different story. Then you have a third of the party. This is why Nikki Haley being in the 30s is a much bigger deal about that. I mean, how big of a dealer are these numbers for Trump?

How big of a warning sign in a general election? The fact that in some of these states, he's missing out on 40% of the voters? Well, and look, I think, I think Trump actually should feel a little bit better about his performance in Michigan. I mean, she didn't get 40.

In fact, she got under 30 this time. Like, and to me, Michigan, again, talking about a state that was designed for her to do well, right? Open primary, the rules were allowed. I actually think the Democrats who decided to stay voting in the Democratic primary probably hurt Haley a little bit.

If you think about it, she got the same amount of Democratic crossover into the Michigan Republican primary that she got in New Hampshire. I guess that she is in the high 30s or low 40s. But he's got these are Republicans who already know he's going to be the nominee, who already knows she can't win the nomination, who are still wanting to show up to the polls against Trump. And once you do it, once you vote against Trump, once it's easy to keep voting against him, it's a little bit harder.

So I think when you look at these two situations, it's not even a close call. Trump's got a much bigger problem than Biden. And I, you know, going into this, I wasn't 100% sure. My gut was that this wasn't going to be what some people thought it was on the left.

And it turned out to be what I thought it would be. Yeah. One of your obsessions, my obsessions was going to happen with a third party candidate. You have a great column out.

I'm going to read a little bit of it. You're basically saying the wind has come out of the sales for a third party candidate. You write the debate over abortion access is something that's always been debated within the frame of the two parties. If abortion is the issue for a large chunk of swing voters, then they aren't going to be interested in a third party's compromise position, no matter what that position is.

If abortion is a voting issue for someone, they'll have a definitive position on which party they want, making reproductive health laws, and appointing judges. The case for a third party alternative for this election cycle is over. There's just not a market for it, given the current issue to rate. And I'll add one more note.

You have big names like Joe Manchin and Larry Hogan, who are out of the mix. So there's not really a candidate. No, there's not. And I go back to, you know, one of the whole pitches of millables is, hey, we want to sort of like turn the temperature down and find some middle ground.

Right now in abortion, you're either for access or you want to restrict access. They're, we're not in a debate about weeks right now. That isn't the conversation. And this is a different conversation.

IVF has sort of brought that into the fold here. So right now, that's where the, if abortion was considered settled, sort of the way things sex marriage is, and I know that certain advocates are worried that it could get revisited, but it's for the most, for a lion's share of the electorate, it's settled. So, okay, that wouldn't be a concern of I guess, can you imagine? No label's trying to come up with a ticket that one is for access abortion and one is against access abortion.

Hey, it just doesn't, there's no, there's no scenario to me that this makes any sense if abortion is as an urgent of an issue as it is. And it is. And just to find one on it, if we weren't in a post-row world, there could potentially still be a lane further. I completely agree.

But I think that I really think that abortion because the voters know, hey, this is the jersey color matters here. And who appoints these judges, who makes these laws, this is one of those, the voters are pretty educated here. And I think they know that the third party actually distracts from this specific issue. Well, it will be fascinating to watch.

Thank you. Thank you, great one. Coming up next, Hunter Biden testifying on the Hill. We have new reporting on what's going on behind closed doors and some heated moments between Republicans and Democrats.

And later, the RNC member trying to stop his party from footing the bill for the former president's skyrocketing legal bills. Stay with us. You're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back.

We want to turn out to another major story developing on Capitol Hill. Right now, Hunter Biden is appearing for a long-anticipated closed-door deposition in the House's impeachment agreement to President Joe Biden. According to his opening statement, obtained by NBC News, the president's son was defiant, telling lawmakers, quote, for more than a year, your committees have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad. You do not have evidence to support the baseless and mega-motivated conspiracies about my father, because there isn't any.

This morning, oversight committee Chairman James Comer was also defiant that their investigation will not end after today's deposition. With each interview, we learned more information. We find more potential evidence that needs to be obtained, more hints, more accusations that need to be investigated. So as long as we keep getting you information in, we're going to continue to pursue.

Democrats meanwhile calling the deposition a waste of time saying that Hunter Biden has corroborated other witnesses who said the president was not involved in his son's business dealings. What we saw, I think, was a rather embarrassing spectacle where the Republicans continued to belabor completely trivial points based on this first hour that this whole thing really has been a tremendous waste of our legislative time and the people's resources. What we just witnessed over the last hour was, I think, a deep-sea fishing expedition because the Republican case has completely fallen apart over the last several weeks. We will hear more from one of the members inside the room for that deposition in just a moment.

But first, joining me on set is NBC News, senior investigative producer Sarah Fitzpatrick. Thank you so much for being here. It is great to have you. Sarah, you do such tremendous work.

It's great to have you here on set to break it down. So Hunter Biden has resisted testifying even behind closed doors for months. But today he's there. What changed and what has come out of this so far?

I think what changed is on both sides. The stakes have just become too high to continue being perceived as dragging this out. Republicans are under a lot of kind of pressure internally and externally that deliver on their promises. And for Hunter, I think this would not have happened had his plea deal not falling apart in the summer because he is facing two separate, completely separate, but charges in two cases related to taxes and guns.

And I don't think a federal judge would look very favorably on him defying a congressional subpoena. So it just wasn't worth the risk and then you'd just sit down. But what our sources tell us is that ultimately, when both sides kind of stopped posturing and came to the table, it was a very straightforward negotiation. They're going to release a transcript very quickly.

The testimony is not going to go longer than a day. It was pretty straightforward once they sat down and actually talked to each other. What's so notable is that you hear James Comer saying, regardless of what happens today, we have more people to interview. The conventional wisdom, the thinking was once they interviewed Hunter Biden, this would be wrapping up.

But he seemed to suggest otherwise, despite the fact that their key witness was just accused and charged with lying and getting information from Russian intelligence as a part of this investigation. I mean, this story just continues to get more fascinating. But I do think that we've seen a change in posture. Up until this point, Republicans have really been focused on Hunter Biden's position as the crescendo is everything leading up to this.

But now we've heard different things that the investigation is going to continue. Comer just said to our cameras recently that he's going to hold a public hearing exactly what that's going to mean. He was going to appear. We haven't heard that before.

That's something brand new. So I think we're going to see a change in posture, but they say that they are on track to release a report about the investigation that would include legislative recommendations or even criminal referrals they have suggested in the spring. So we'll see if they stick to that timeline. And the informant, he's moving through the legal process.

What are Republicans saying about the extent to which these revelations that one of their key witnesses was being fed information by Russian intelligence, at least those in the charges against him? What are they saying about how that impacts their overall case against the president? So I think Republicans are extremely concerned about this. I mean, this is an oversight in a judiciary committee.

This is something that they are absolutely concerned about and asking tough questions about. What I've said one source said to me last night, Smirnoff was a brick in our investigation, but he wasn't the foundation. So that's really kind of they're trying to point towards other contemporaneous documents that they say that they've found other witness statements. I don't think we're going to hear very much about Smirnoff in particular, but what I do think we're going to hear is a new focus for these committees on the FBI's human source program.

How is it possible? That's a human source who was reprimanded if you read the indictment from the special counsel for lying to the FBI continuously over a 10 year period. How is that person able to be there? So I think we're going to start seeing some tough questions being asked about the FBI's program and about these types of witnesses and these kind of informants going forward.

It certainly is a dramatic twist to an already incredibly dramatic situation. And while we were having this conversation, Jamie Raskin has come out and said that the testimony is now over. So Sarah Fitzpatrick, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it.

Great to see you. And I want to bring you the Democratic from the Democratic from Virginia Congress and Jerry Connolly, who as we just mentioned was inside that room during the deposition. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it.

So take us inside the room. What were the key takeaways from you? Did Republicans get any closer to proving their case to making the case that there was some link between Hunter Biden and his father? None at all.

And I think that's their frustration. And I was listening to your investigative reporter and I don't know what she's talking about. I mean, you've got to remember that Mr. Biden, Hunter Biden offered our committee to testify in public.

They didn't want that. They were afraid of it. And that's why we had today's deposition. And it's not that Hunter Biden was afraid of a contempt citation.

It was the fact that Republicans were afraid of allowing him to testify in open session for fear that he would be as effective in the public eye as he was behind closed doors this morning. Secondly, I Sarah indicated that there's going to be the shift and we're going to focus on the value of the FBI human intel program. I don't think so. I think we're going to focus on the fact that the Republicans relied fundamentally on the testimony of three key witnesses.

One of whom is in jail for 14 years for felonies. One of whom is now in jail at the order of a court justice for risk of fleeing for lying to the FBI and being a Russian intelligence agent. And the third is accused of being a spy for the Chinese Congress government. That's their case.

And Sarah dismissed the testimony. Congress, let me just say, we stand by Sarah's reporting. We stand by all of our reporting here at NBC. Why wouldn't there be an investigation into how this could have, I understand what you're saying, but shouldn't there be a follow-up investigation into how this could have happened?

Well, I think there ought to be an investigation of how the Republican on the committee declared this a game-changing set of testimony without any due diligence, without looking at the credibility. And by the way, there were lots of warning signs, including from the Republican Senate, which warned them, this was not credible testimony. They chose to ignore it. So are you getting a sense, take me inside your conversations with your Republican colleagues?

Are they planning to move forward? Because publicly, you hear James Comer saying, yes, he's moving forward with his investigation. He's going to call more witnesses. We don't know who those witnesses are.

But privately, are any of your Republican colleagues saying anything differently to you? Is there a sense that this cannot go forward? Yeah, there are Republicans who want to give up this quest as quickly as possible, because they believe it's further eroding their credibility in an already threatened majority. And that, frankly, there's no there and everybody knows that.

And it's just going to make them, at some point, look silly and shrill. The ideologues, of course, want to pursue it. And so you've got that kind of dichotomy in the Republican caucus. But at the end of the day, I mean, from a political point of view, go ahead and have a public hearing.

We welcome it. We believe that the very strong case could be made, that there is absolutely no evidence or connection between the business activities of Hunter Biden and his father. Well, let me ask you, because your Democratic colleague, Dan Goldman, said that Hunter's former business associate said that Hunter Biden was, quote, selling the illusion of access to his father. Do any of the actions by the president or his family deserve some oversight given that?

What? I mean, if you're the son, daughter, spouse, sibling, of a president of the United States, it is unavoidable that your name has a certain cache to it, whether you sell it or not. Did Hunter Biden, was he cognizant of that? Did he take advantage of that?

I presume he did, like lots of other children of first families. Like, I don't know, pluck a name out of the hat, Jared Kushner. And so that's not a crime. And it doesn't, in any way, implicate the president himself.

Hunter Biden was both less than cursed with his last name. Let's talk about the president. As we've been talking about at the top of the show, there have been some warning signs for him in Michigan last night. 13% of voters there voted uncommitted in the Democratic primary.

Now, it's not as high of a number as it could have been. However, it's not zero. What do you make of that figure? We should put it into historical context.

There have been uncommitted votes in the past that have gotten into the double digits, for example, even former President Obama experienced that. But what do you make of what we saw in Michigan last night? I completely agree with Chuck Todd on your earlier segment. I believe this is overstated and way too much is being read into it.

He got 81% of the vote. Remember, Trump got 68%. In fact, Hayley, Nikki Haley and losing badly got twice the percentage and twice the vote of the uncommitted against Biden. So if you follow the logic that Biden's in trouble because of an uncommitted vote of 13.1%, then Trump must be in dire trouble when Nikki Haley more than doubles that.

I mean, I think there's a danger reading too much into it. I agree that always hire the one would like and it's a warning sign from Michigan. And the president's gonna have to address that. But I hardly think it's the end of the world and it shouldn't diminish from the fact that he dominated the field of Michigan the one place where people who wanted to express their opposition decided to make their stand.

Let me ask you about the other really stunning news on Capitol Hill today. Of course, Leader McConnell announcing that he's going to step back from his leadership position in November. What was your reaction to that? And as we've been reporting a whole range of factors went into that, likely from his age to, of course, his disagreements, his clashes with former President Trump, the GOP front runner.

You know, you can be at top of the world one day and sort of at the bottom of the of the of the Valley the next. I think Mitch McConnell has had a confluence of events happen in his life, political and personal in terms of health issues, in terms of his relationship with Trump, in terms of growing unease within his own caucus in the Senate. And all of those came together, I think to persuade him that at his age, he's done his thing. He's in the history books.

He's the longest serving leader of the Republican side of the island, the Senate, and it's time to hand that torch to somebody else. I think it's a prudent decision. And I'm not entirely surprised, given the events last year. Okay, Congressman Jerry Connolly, thank you so much for your perspective today.

We really appreciate it. Still ahead of reality, check on a potential hostage deal between Israel and Hamas as families fight for the release of loved ones still held by Hamas and Gaza. You're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back to today's after President Biden told reporters he was confident a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was in reach.

Both Israel and Hamas are now downplaying the prospects of a breakthrough toward an agreement, but officials from Qatar, which is mediating negotiations say they're pushing hard for a deal by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 10th. And today, a spokesman from the State Department echoed the optimism that President Biden expressed on Monday. We continue to believe that an agreement is possible. We have made significant progress towards one.

As you heard the president say, as you heard me say, we're going to continue to work towards it. And the senior's international correspondent, Ralph Sanchez, has the very latest now from Tel Aviv. As the fighting rages on in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis and the strip deepens, there is really very little evidence on the ground to support President Biden's earlier optimism that a ceasefire deal is possible by Monday. I spoke to an Israeli official earlier today.

They say the talks at this point are basically stalled that Israel and the United States are waiting for a formal response from Hamas to that framework that was hammered out in Paris with the CIA director over the weekend. We spoke earlier to a senior Hamas official, Basim 9. He confirms that Hamas is still studying that proposal, but he says there are very significant obstacles standing in the way of a deal at this point. He pointed to a couple of them one, this perennial question of whether a ceasefire would be temporary, which is what Israel says needs to happen, that it will resume its military campaign on the other side of any deal, or whether the ceasefire will be permanent, which is what Hamas wants.

They are saying any pause in fighting must lead to a permanent sense of the war. There's also this question about whether Israeli forces will withdraw from population centers inside of Gaza during the deal, or whether they will leave the Gaza Strip altogether, which is what Hamas is demanding. Every day that goes by without a deal, fear is growing for the 134 hostages still being held by Hamas. There is a special urgency about getting those female hostages out following testimony that some of them may be facing sexual abuse at the hands of their captors, and there is also growing urgency about the humanitarian crisis inside of Gaza.

The UN today saying a quarter of all the people in Gaza are just one step away from famine at this point, and that borderline starvation, particularly concentrated in the north of Gaza, where the UN says Israeli military restrictions and a complete collapse of law and order means they can no longer deliver food to the north of the Strip. Our teams in Gaza have seen families that are trying to feed their children with flakes of barley intended for donkeys. They say they are sending their kids out dodging gun battles to try to find firewood because there is no cooking gas, and every day that the fighting continues is another day that this crisis deepens. Back to you.

Just a dire situation there. Thank you, Roth. Still ahead, more in the 2024 race and generational shifts in Washington, as Senator Mitch McConnell announces he is stepping down as Republican leader of the panel's next. You're watching the press now.

I believe more strongly than ever that America's global leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on the hill that Ronald Reagan discussed. As long as I'm drawing breadth on this earth, I will defend American exceptionalism. Welcome back. I was Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell in his speech on the Senate floor today, where he also announced he would be stepping down as the Republican leader.

Joining me now to discuss all of the headlines today is Tamara Keith, who is the White House correspondent for NPR and host of NPR Politics Podcasts. Jennifer Palmieri, former communications director for the Obama White House and an NBC News political analyst and former Illinois Republican Congressman Rodney Davis. Thanks to all of you for being here on a really busy day. Tam, let me start with you.

This stunning announcement by leader McConnell, not exactly a surprise, but it is hugely significant. This is a changing of the guard and he talked about the fact that now is a time for a new generation of political leaders. That certainly is language that will resonate across Washington and beyond. Clearly, there had been concerns about his health dating back in some of his freezes that he's had.

That was a very real thing, a question that's been hanging over him and how much longer he would continue as leader. He also though mentioned that maybe the party had moved on from where he was, that he believes very strongly, for instance, in this Ukraine assistance, this Ukraine aid, and he acknowledged that the party is in a different place, that he is potentially isn't leading the party that he was leading several years ago. And I think that is definitely an undercurrent in this. You saw at CPAC over the weekend, they did a straw poll and he was overwhelmingly disliked.

The party has moved to a different place. Congressman, pick up on that point because how much do you think that played a role in his decision? And what does the Senate look like with a post McConnell leadership? Well, there's going to be a void.

Mitch McConnell, I believe, as history will judge him later, is going to go down as the best legislative strategist that's ever served in the US Senate. Look at this. Look at the Republican accomplishments that he was able to help shepherd through during his time in the Senate. I don't think it's going to look much different.

If you look at the next stable of possible leaders, you've got Senator Thune, Senator Cornyn, Senator Barrasso. I think all of them are going to take what Mitch McConnell did well and hopefully in her twine night in this new MAGA environment. Yeah, Jen, what is your take? And if President Biden is reelected, he's deprived of one of his Republican allies on the Hill.

Do you call him an ally? I mean, he is, I guess he's in terms of trying to do it. In terms of something, I mean, he's a Senate friend. He's a Senate friend.

He's a Senate friend. I think that was reassuring in having Senator McConnell there. And, you know, obviously, there's, they've all been White House, a lot of the, you know, the Merrick Garland nomination stands out as historically problematic. But you knew that when there was a debt limit vote, you knew that when you needed to keep the government open, that Mitch McConnell was going to be able to figure out how he delivered his votes.

And, you know, even, I'm just not, you know, the other senators that Ronnie noted, not quite his experience, that's, you know, that is concerning. I wish it makes me sad that he did it right after that meeting in the Oval Office yesterday. It really, it's, I don't know what you, I don't know if he had a sense of why today was his timing because it suggests that he was giving up on the Ukraine funding, which I hate to think for that. Is that your sense?

It's not my sense. If I know Mitch McConnell and his team, he said this day planned for a while. Well, you know, what's interesting though, let's talk about his legacy because Jen brings it up. I mean, he does have this legacy in which he will be remembered for not bringing Merrick Garland to a vote on the Supreme Court, which quite frankly shifted the direction of the court.

And also for voting not to convict former President Trump during his second impeachment, those are two of kind of the big things on his resume at this point. Absolutely. Those are two things that really stand out. The strategic decision not to allow that Merrick Garland vote to happen really did change the course of the court.

And ultimately, he allowed former President Trump to then end up with three justices confirmed to the Supreme Court. He is in many ways an institutionalist, but he was also someone who was able to find a way to bend the institutional rules in a way that worked for him. Yeah. Well, because Chuck Schumer bent the institutional rules and allowed the nuclear option.

We won't go down the rabbit hole, it's fair. What do you think will be his legacy ultimately? I do think, I mean, I think very effective legislator, that sort of, that tends to get lost though. I mean, I don't mean to harp on the guy, but I do.

The Merrick Garland nomination is, that's a big moment, Congressman. The bigger moment is the fact that we now as Republicans and three more justices on the Supreme Court. And don't for a minute think that a Democratic leader would not have done the exact same thing. No, they don't.

They don't. They don't. This is why we should talk about the rabbit hole. We don't know what would have happened before.

We know what happened with that cabinet on the nomination. Let's talk about, let's talk about Michigan. Let's talk about the lessons of Michigan. I was talking about this with Chuck Todd.

And he said, look, you can't overstate what happened with the 13% uncommitted vote. It's not as high as it could have been. It could have been a lot worse given how organized this uncommitted movement was. At the same time, the White House is watching very closely.

They put out this statement saying that yes, they're listening. Right. And that is 100,000 people who said it 100,000 people in a state that is absolutely critical to President Biden's reelection saying we're uncommitted. Now, at the same time, as the Biden campaign will readily point out, 13% uncommitted isn't much worse than 11% uncommitted for former President Obama when he also faced a largely uncontested primary.

And they point out that turnout was actually really for an uncontested-ish primary. Turnout was quite high on the Democratic side. Jim, what do you make of it? What are Democrats saying about this turnout?

That was a really good operation. And she turned out because it could have been worse. Yeah. Because she turned out.

I mean, the Democrats in that state are very effective. And they've had very tough elections. And they win them. And they win them by big margins.

And they have a great turnout operation. And it's easier to vote in Michigan than it ever has before. And she worked really hard. She did dozens of events.

I mean, it was kind of under the radar, but she did dozens of events to organize phone bank. And they feel good about where they are. It's like, people, there are people in Michigan that are certainly concerned, but they feel like they contained it. And it shows in November, they can get people to turn out again.

And it's not like the White House didn't know they had a problem with Palestine and voters in Michigan. Like, this is not a news flash. It's just a, you know, in hope that by the time we get to November, for lots of reasons that we're in a different place with the ceasefire. Congressman, I think Nikki Haley was hoping that she undoubtedly was hoping would have had a stronger performance in Michigan because this was an open primary.

This was part of her argument. I'm going to do well in New Hampshire. I'm going to do well in Michigan. She cites the fact that there are 11 states on Super Tuesday that are open or semi-open primaries.

Do you think she can stay in Beyond Super Tuesday? No, I do not. But do you think she will? Yeah, those are two questions.

I do. Well, you got to have the resources. And I think she and her team are going to have to take a step back after the drubbing that they took in Michigan last night. And they're going to have to assess whether or not they have the resources to continue into Super Tuesday because you can talk about being competitive in all of these states.

But if you don't have the resources to actually be competitive, then why do you stay in? Jen, you've been in tough fights before. I mean, what does that look like? You're asking yourself if you have the resources.

We're going to go all the way and then you come out of South Carolina. She made her first trip to Michigan on Sunday. Right? And so that's the problem is when you don't have a ton of money, you can't go deep in, you know, and then she just made her first trip to Colorado.

So she says all these Super Tuesday states. I think she meant it when she said a week or so ago, I'm going to stay in for, you know, maybe until the convention because hang around the hoop, you never know what's going to happen. And so long as she was getting 40% of the vote, that seemed worthwhile, you know, last night's a little bit. All right.

Well, we will watch and see what happens. Great conversation. Thank you all to camera. Keith Jumpumarian, former Congressman Rodney Davis.

Really appreciate it. As we've been discussing Donald Trump's hold over the Republican party has been on full display, both with today's news that Mitch McConnell, the critic of the former president, will step down and send a Republican leader. And earlier this week with Ronald McDaniel's announcement on Monday that she is stepping down as RNC chair, paving the way for Trump's daughter-in-law to serve as the RNC's new co-chair. But despite Trump's growing influence, one RNC member is pushing a pair of resolutions attempting to keep Trump's influence somewhat constrained.

One of those resolutions would bar the RNC from treating him as the presumptive presidential nominee until he secures enough delegates. The other would prohibit the RNC from paying Trump's legal bills. Henry Barber is the RNC member who sponsored those draft resolutions and he joins me now. Thank you so much for joining me.

I really appreciate it. Kristin, good to be with you. Thanks for having me. It's so great to have you.

So take me behind your thinking, what prompted you to draft these resolutions and do you think that they are going to come up for consideration for a vote? Well, what prompted me was really to defend the institution of the RNC and the roles. And it's a cornerstone that the RNC and presidential primary is going to be neutral. And so that really is sort of becoming obsolete resolution with the new team recommended by Trump being installed next week.

There's any question that they're going to get elected at the RNC meeting next week. But we are continuing to push the resolution that would prevent the RNC from paying any candidate's legal bills. We believe that the RNC has one job as one in elections, and so the RNC should spend its resources on political operations and not paying any candidates legal bills. I want to follow up with you on that in just a moment.

But just very quickly, do you expect either resolution to actually come up for a vote? So we have to get two members of the three RNC members from 10 states. And right now we have eight states covered, and we believe we have until three days before the meeting, which would be next Tuesday, to get those solidified. So I've got to get a couple more states.

I will say there aren't people just running to me to do this, even though I will say there are a lot of people who agree, including Chris Lasavita, who is helping run President Trump's campaign. He has said, oh, yeah, yeah, we're not going to use RNC funds for paying any legal bills. And I would just ask Chris Lasavita will then join us memorialize what you've said publicly by supporting this resolution and giving RNC donors confidence that their money's going to get spent on political operations and not legal bills. Do you take Chris Lasavita and his word?

Sure, I don't see any reason not to, but it would be firmer, I think, in the minds of donors if Chris and the President Trump's campaign joined us in with the resolution. It just makes it more formal. Have you gotten a backlash from fellow members of the RNC or from Republicans more broadly speaking? 100% of the people I've heard from has been positive, 100%, whether by text or email or phone.

That's not to say everybody loves what we're doing. And that's okay. It's okay to disagree. We're trying to do this in a way that's not disagreeable, but really defending the institution and the roles of the RNC.

I do want to get your reactions, if I could, to the result, your reaction, I should say, to the results in Michigan overnight. We were just discussing it. Nikki Haley did not get, I think the bar that she was looking for in Michigan. She says she's in this through Super Tuesday.

What do you make of that? Obviously there have been a growing number of calls for her to drop out so the Republicans can consolidate around Trump. Well, she's saying as long as she wants to, as far as I'm concerned, but the reality is the race is shifting from the primary to the general. I mean, that's just a fact.

If President Trump stays on the pace of his own, probably by March 19th, he'll have the delegates that are required to effectively make him the presumptive nominee. And just thinking about the bigger picture, Kristen, in the general election, there's a Harvard hair survey that just came out the last couple of days. 82% of Americans say, we need a new president. Yeah.

All right. Henry Barbara, I got to stop it there because we're out of time. But thank you so much for being with us. Come back soon.

We appreciate it. Thank you for being with us this hour. NBC News now coverage continues with Hallie Jackson right now.