Meet the Press NOW — January 17

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Conditions apply. Offer includes 1% loyalty rate reduction for qualifying customers. Visit hyundaicata.com or your local deal for details. If It's Friday, a major shakeup in plans for Donald Trump's second inauguration as the incoming 47th president prepares to take numerous executive actions on day one, with a cabinet of loyalists and Republican controlled Congress ready to pave the way.

Plus, President Elect Trump reacts to the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a national ban on TikTok that's set to begin one day before his inauguration as the outgoing administration says it's up to him to enforce the ban. And Israel's Cabinet is meeting right now with a vote expected any moment on the ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas, paving the way for the first hostages to be released from Gaza as soon as Sunday. Welcome to the Press. Now I'm Kristen Welker in Washington, a city that is preparing for Monday's presidential inauguration in more ways than one in a lot.

Last minute shake up the inaugural plans. The decision was made today to move the swearing in ceremony inside the capital with bitter cold forecast for Monday. The traditional inaugural parade will also be revamped with some version of it taking place in the same arena set to hold Trump's final pre inauguration rally Sunday night, which is scheduled to feature everyone in the Village People at Elon Musk. It comes as President Elect Trump prepares to be immediately implementing an agenda that is fully realized would fundamentally remake the American economy and dramatically reduce the size of government while potentially testing the limits of presidential power.

We know many things he wants to accomplish on his return to the Oval Office, but we don't know where he will start or how far Congress and the courts will allow him to go, starting with executive orders on day one. On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump brought up a lot of priorities for his first hours in office, including ending the war in Ukraine, pardoning January 6th defendants, beginning a mass deportation program and ending birthright citizenship, which is of course enshrined the Constitution. But his team has been tight lipped on the specifics.

Here's incoming Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaking to fox news about Mr. Trump's early border priorities. Look, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, Department of Treasury, Department of Security and all the relevant law enforcement components therein will be given the assignment and the mission to interdict all contraband, to use all financial resources to strangle the cartels, and to end all of the immigration into this country as a top national security mission as president, duty and he will fulfill. Now there's also uncertainty in Congress, with Republicans divided on their best approach to passing Trump's agenda through a narrowly divided House and Speaker Johnson urging his conference to move as quickly as possible.

Surrounding President elect Trump will be a team that has proven their loyalty to him over the years since leaving office, members of Trump's first cabinet, Defense Secretary Mark Asper and Attorney General Bill Barr, have spoken publicly, pushing back against them President Trump when they felt he was trying to abuse his power. Like when he inquired about shooting protesters or try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In this week's confirmation hearings, Mr. Trump's pitch for those key roles signaled their loyalty to him and asked questions about curbing his impulses.

Do you agree that there are some orders that can be given by the commander in chief that would violate the U.S. constitution? Senator, thank you, Service. I reject the premise that President Trump is going to be giving illegal order.

Are you saying that you would stand in the breach and push back if you were given an illegal order? I start by saying I reject the premise that president giving orders at all. Let's imagine that once again President elect Trump issues a director of order to you or to the FBI director that is outside the boundaries of ethics or law. What will you do, Senator?

I will never speak on a hypothetical, especially one saying that the president would do something illegal. Now, to be clear, we don't know what the next four years will look like. As we noted, we don't even know what day one is going to look like. No, he's gonna sign a number of executive orders.

But we do know that President Trump will be the first president inaugurated after the Supreme Court sweeping decision that gives presidents absolute immunity for any official act. And that as he prepares to leave office, President Biden made a point to issue a warning to the country about the U.S. the thing that keeps it on track are the guardrails. That's that there's a Supreme Court that's independent but not but accountable.

There's a Congress that you speak your mind, but you're held accountable to basic standards. There's a presidency that says you have really been the powers. I mean, you're the top dog, but you're not, you can't dictate everything. And I don't know, they seem to just seem to be chipping away at all those elements.

Let's bring in our team of NBC News reporters to start us off. Garrett Hake is covering the incoming Trump administration. Kate Gutierrez is at the White House and Sahil Kapoor is on Capitol Hill. Thanks to all of you for getting us going on this Friday before the inauguration.

Garrett, let me start with you. I know you've been drilling down with your sources. What are you anticipating on Monday in terms of these executive orders? Until you sign it, look at something will be symbolic, the way that you heard Stephen Miller describe it, where it's essentially changing the marching orders of agencies without changing their budgets or, you know, or many of their personnel, because we will not have confirmed directors, directors at any agencies by the time that Donald Trump is sworn in.

And some of it will be also reversing policies that Biden put in place by executive order. But the real work for this administration, I think it's something that they've never been entirely comfortable fully grappling with is going to have to come through legislation and that's just going to be a lengthy process. But to change the culture around the border and to change sort of the stance of ICE nationwide, they can make a big splash. They can try to have some showy moments.

There's only so much they can actually do policy wise, without any money to do it or any of their own personnel to implement it. It's a really important point. Aaron. Speaking of personnel, we saw a lot of confirmation hearings on the Hill this week, some real fireworks.

Is it your sense, though, Pam Bondi, Senator Marco Rubio, who seemed to enjoy a fair amount of bipartisan support, Pete Pegseth, who might be one of the more controversial picks. Is it your sense that at this point all the folks who sat for confirmation hearing seem to be on a path toward confirmation? That's right. Republican senators who are the only audience that really matters for these nominees, assuming they stick together, believe that everyone who came to the Hill this week will be confirmed by this Republican controlled Senate?

Perhaps you see a few people given permission to take a walk, if you will, on if they want to. They can lose up to three votes. They might lose One or two. But everyone else seems on track to be confirmed, especially Marco Rubio, who you mentioned, who could get significant Democratic support as well.

The hardest fights are yet to come in this process. You're gonna see Robert Kennedy Jr. Tulsi Gabbard, Cash Patel. None of their kings have even been noticed yet.

Which means it's unlikely that will happen even next week. Those are the ones I think you might see bigger internal GOP fights on and you might see more energy for those fights. Republican senators are very aware they need to get somebody across the line and into Donald Trump's cabinet, basically, given the fact that all they've done so far is helped take down Matt G. They gotta, they gotta show them that they're willing to work it on some of these things before they can oppose anybody else.

You know, I have a chance to sit down with the President elect one on one. I asked him if he plans to direct his Attorney General to target his political enemies. He said no. He said they're have to determine who they are going to pursue.

Pam Bondi got asked a series of questions around this. Garrett, what were your key takeaways in watching her testimony? Yeah, that was interesting that she basically said there would be no enemies list in Washington. And you kind of pair that with what Donald Trump told you.

I always go back to the testimony of Michael Cohen before the House several years ago when he made a point that Donald Trump doesn't necessarily give orders on these kinds of things. He's going to tell Pam Money to go get Liz Cheney. He's just going to post about Liz Cheney over and over and over again and hope that the people he's putting place are smart enough to take the hint. Paimani is somebody who's been around in Donald Trump's orbit for a very long time.

If there are hints, she will be smart enough to take them. She has credentials that I think even the Democrats on that committee acknowledge qualify her for this job. But there certainly a lack of trust on the Democratic side of the dais that she will be the country's Attorney General, not just Donald Trump. And of course we learned that the swearing in ceremony is moving indoors because the weather is going to be so frigid.

Garrett, what can you tell us? I hope that means you're gonna get to be inside and stay a little warmer. I hope that's too, because I just came from the rotunda, actually where they're setting up a stage to hold the first indoor inauguration since Ronald Reagan's second inaugural in 1985. Obviously there's always a weather contingency plan in place.

Now they're trying to put in place and scale it up. I was told that there are discussions happening literally as we speak on the Trump transition side with the team that's handling the inauguration and the committees here in Congress that control this turf to figure out exactly how many people they can fit inside what the program will look like. And this part's actually the easy part here on the Hill coming up with something to do instead of a parade, we have a mini rally of some sorts downtown, the arena where the co Capitals play or whether it looks more like a parade even for a short distance. It's to me the more difficult logistical question.

The bottom line is raising Donald Trump indoors on Inauguration Day, not outside on that platform on my window here on the center side of the complex. All right, well, a lot to watch as we sort through what we can expect in the parade. So let me turn to you. We are watching new Republican leadership.

Majority Leader John Thune in the Senate and of course the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. He's going to be underneath the press, by the way, this Sunday. What are you anticipating? How do they compare to their predecessors, for example, to Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan?

I would say the biggest shift here is not the men at the helm, it is the conferences that they're overseeing and how much they have changed. Back in 2017, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell were overseeing majorities full of old school Republicans, traditional conservative people who have really bought into the MAGA folds. And one by one, they're either prim to retire or they end up making their peace with the on Trump of the MAGA movement. The House is fully House Republican.

In the Senate, they're two moderates, Susan Collins and Lisa Krakowski, who have really bought into the Trump part. But they, you know, in the precise majority, those two votes are expendable if they need to do things by majority vote, which is one of the reasons I expect pretty much every Trump nominee, if not every one of them, ultimately get confirmed by dissent at this time soon. At the end, Johnson will face unique challenges though soon it's a 60 vote rule of filibuster, which gives Democrats a lot of power to veto much of Trump's agenda. And Mike Johnson, his biggest problem is going to be this wafer thin House majority he's looking at, currently 219 to 2:15, is about to shrink by two more votes, which during these early crucial months of the Trump presidency will give any one Republican the ability to tank a bill Unless it has Democratic support.

You know, Sahil, there's this big debate going on right now between Johnson and Thune. Do they want to approach Trump's agenda, which includes, of course, addressing his plans for mass deportation as well as the slew of tax cuts that he's proposed, extending the Trouble bear tax cuts from 2017. Trump and Johnson want to lump that into what the President calls one big beautiful bill. Senator Soon, Leader soon has said, hey, wait a minute.

It is more strategic and realistic to take this one piece at a time. Has there been any clarity? Are you getting any sense about what we might see unfold? No.

There is no agreement between the two chambers. Even some of Johnson's own members, the House caucus, agree with John Thune over the Senate about a two bill strategy. But here's what I expect to happen. I spoke to Speaker Johnson a few days ago.

He is going to move forward, the House is going to move forward with one bill strategy. He's put a target of April to get it all done. Now, that's extremely ambitious, especially given the complexity of the tax going, the fact that his majority is going to be at its lowest point over the next few months. But he's going to try to do that.

And if by April, by around Easter, he's not able to do that, the Senate Republicans I talked to, they will be ready with a smaller bill that has, you know, border security funding with a low hanging fruit somewhere in the neighborhood of about 100 billion and ready to move forward with that. So right now, the balls and Johnson court. But Senate Republicans frankly don't think he can pull this off. And if and when he fails, there's gonna be a lot of pressure on him and on the Congress in general to give Trump at least one victory.

Well, it's gonna be fascinating to watch it play out, that's for sure. Gabe. Let's talk about President Biden and his stark warning to the country. He warned an oligarchy is taking shape overnight.

With Lawrence o', Donnell, he talked about the erosion of guardrails. You've been working your sources at the White House. What are they telling you about this messaging that he is wanting to put forth in these final days that he's in office? Why the President, with more things change, the more they say the same.

Of course, President Biden coming into office talking about threats to democracy, repeated that during the campaign. And here he is in his final days in the Oval Office repeating that message once again. And as you said last night in an interview that msnbc, he doubled down on that with Lawrence o'. Donnell.

Let's listen. I really am concerned about how fragile democracy is. That sounds corny, but I mean, I really, really, I'm concerned because you've heard me say it a hundred times. I really think we're an inflection point in history here.

We're unrelated to any particular leader. Things are going to change drastically. And Chris, and the president giving out that message, that is a choice. You'll remember that in the days immediately following the election, President Biden was very careful not to mention a threat to democracy.

Of course, that is a message that did not work for Democrats during the campaign. Kamala Harris famously repeated it as well, but voters soundly rejected it. I think it says a lot about what the president feels, counting off five decades in public life, that he's choosing his last few interviews, his last few speech in the Oval Office to double and triple down on that message of a threat to democracy. He's watching what's happening with the president elect.

And also, as you pointed out now, the rise of tech titans Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, all expected to be at inauguration ceremonies. And he's chosen to once again hit that message very hard. He certainly has. And Gabe, President elect Trump is going to be the first president to enter office with these new immunity protections laid out by the Supreme Court.

What are the implications of that? Well, certainly there are huge implications. And that is part of why the president and why this White House has chosen to reiterate this message so much. Now, Kristen, I can't say there is a quite a mood here at the White House.

One person that we spoke with says that the president seems dejected, that others here at the White House feel the same way. There's part of every administration of a losing campaign, that staffers here, they come out and, you know, in these last few days, they're not looking forward to what lies ahead. They seem exhausted. But in this case in particular, they really put everything they had behind this campaign.

They felt that democracy was online. And when you have that type of message and it doesn't go your way, how do you move on from that? So in terms of the implications moving forward, yes, this is something that the Biden White House has been saying repeatedly there in some ways very fearful of what President Elect Trump can do without those guardrails. And after the Supreme Court ruling, remember there was just a few months ago, President Biden chose to give a speech on that Supreme Court ruling.

And the lack of meeting now for future presidents is a huge concern for the president and for White House officials here as they leave office in just a few days. And it's so fascinating to have that reporting about the mood inside the White House right now. Gabe, Garrett, Seyl, thank you all so much for starting us off on this all important Friday before the inauguration. And make sure to tune in Monday, the special coverage of the Trump inauguration starting at 10am Eastern right here on NBC News.

Now coming up, the ins and outs of Jason Pre court decision uploaded on TikTok. It's set to take effect this weekend. And we're the fight over one of the US's most popular social media apps, social gear. Don't go anywhere.

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We have. Welcome back. A law banning Tick Tock unless its Chinese parent company sells the app is set to take effect two days from now. But it remains unclear even when that bill will be enforced.

Today, the Supreme Court upheld the law, rejecting the company's argument that it violates free speech. In a unanimous opinion, the justices wrote, quote, tick Tock sale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justified differential treatment to address the government's national security concerns. Now, even though the law takes effect Sunday while President Biden is still in the Oval Office, his administration said today that it will leave the implementation of the law to the incoming Trump administration. The law would impose billions of dollars in fines against tech companies if they allow access to the appeal.

President Elect Trump responded on social media saying he would review the law and make a decision about TikTok in the not too distant future. NBC News Savannah Sellers, who broke the news during our show yesterday that the Biden administration won't enforce a ban on TikTok, joins me now and also with us as NBC News senior legal correspondent Laura Jerry, thanks so much to both of you for being here. Savannah, let me start with you because I know you have been all over this. What happens now that the Supreme Court has uphold the ban, upheld the ban yeah, Kristen, it is a very, very good question.

So for people who are wondering what is TikTok going to look like on Sunday? We are trying to answer that question for you. And the reason that we don't have an exact answer is because TikTok does not know yet what TikTok is going to look like on Sunday. I know Laura is going to touch on this.

She can handle some of the legal concerns that what's known as service providers would have here. But what is going on inside TikTok is conversations with companies like Apple, like Google, like Oracle. That's what's defined as a service provider or an app store or an Internet hosting service. Of course, those are the places that have the app available for D.

They're also the places hosting the data for TikTok. Are those companies going to be able to have enough protection based on what we've heard from the Justice Department and the Biden administration today, that was quite vague and I assume purposely vague, Kristen, to essentially say we are not going to implement but not expand on exactly what that looks like. Can these companies for sure continue offering those Internet, those Data services to TikTok and not get hit with these fines in the billions of dollars as the law is written? That's a big question right now.

TikTok has said their absolute last resort will be going dark. It seems like that is not an option that they will have to exercise if Biden is saying day one, we are not going to collect fines. And if the Trump administration has made clear they do plan to say TikTok. So there's a very good chance actually Christen on Sunday, on Monday, TikTok looks exactly the same.

They're working out these details right now. Well, it'll be fascinating to see Laura with that. Let me turn to you pick up on that point that Savannah makes. What does happen to these service providers like Apple, like Google, while they wait to see what happens.

Right now, the Biden administration saying we're not enforcing those fines. The Trump administration hasn't really weighed in yet. What are you watching for while the ban is in effect? That's the real crux of the problem for them, Kristen, because the federal law can't just be undone with a stroke of the pen, even if President Biden wishes it wasn't so and even if the incoming president elect decides he wants to so called save it, it's on the books and the Supreme Court, the highest court, has now upheld it.

And so the ad may look the same on Sunday, but there's technically a violation. So that's why for the companies, it's still a risky proposition, because this is a sort of political wind change that's happening right now, as opposed to a legal actual change, because the law now is clear that they can ban this app unless there's a sale and there appears to be no divestiture on the horizon Person. Laura, it's interesting, the language from the high court today writing TikTok scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary, together with the vast loss of sensitive data the platform collects, justified differential treatment to justify the government's national security concerns. What did you make of what the court decided here?

They're very, very clear because they're looking at the record that they have before them and the fact that this was passed in bipartisan fashion, which is rare in Washington, because the national security concerns, at least we thought and at least we were told, were so great. The idea of this mass collection by foreign adversary that can be used to harm Americans, that it can use to be spying on them with the things that we hold in our pockets every day seem like so significant that the court was moved by that. Yep. The Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration has suddenly changed their tune.

And that's why it's a confounding thing. The national security concerns were so grave. How come they're now changed? Well, pick up on that point for us, Savannah, because what message does it send to China?

What message does it send to TikTok to essentially issue this warning and then, at least in the near term, back away from it? I mean, exactly what Laura just said. Kristen, we thought that you said the national security concerns were so brave. And that is what is just so astounding, really, about this, I would say, especially on the Biden administration part, is that nothing has changed.

You know, it's not like there was some new briefing where they learned information, where they said, hey, China's actually not a threat. We're not concerned about what they could be doing with their ties to TikTok. That did not happen. And so if that didn't happen, what changed?

It was also written explicitly in the law that Sunday was the day that this was to go into effect. There was a specific number of days. We've been basically counting it down this entire time. And now the Biden administration is saying, oh, hey, it's holiday weekend.

Oh, hey, there's an inauguration. Those things have also been on the calendar, Christian. And so it sort of looks like this political football of I don't want to be the person who is going to ban Tik Tok. And I've said 170 million American users.

And I would imagine, of course, I'm not speaking directly with anybody who can for sure say what China makes of that. But I imagine if there had been any concern that was graven out, if there was something behind closed doors Islamic crusade, that is this connection to China, as it stands right now, that connection continues, nothing has changed. It sure does, Laura. Just looking ahead a little bit, other companies are probably watching this very closely.

Could today's Supreme Court decision apply to other companies or is it just narrowly targeted to TikTok? No, this applies to any foreign adversary. And so to the extent that there are other apps out there that are also have significant Chinese controlled interest in the same way as bytedance, those two would be covered by the law. As Savannah has been reporting, a lot of users in sort of this protest were flocking to other apps that are similarly controlled by China.

Those two again will be smacked down under this law. But it all comes down to enforcement, right? We think about lots of laws every day in this country. Think about jaywalking, right?

Those are laws in the books that aren't enforced. And so it just, it's going to come down to whether the Trump Justice Department really wants to take this head on. Guys, Guys. All right.

Well, a busy weekend as we track all the twists and turns in the Savannah sellers. Lord J, thanks so much for joining us. Really appreciate your insights and your reporting into this story. Coming up next, a live report from Israel.

We're prime minister's government is meeting right now to approve the ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas one day after Israeli strikes hit Gaza. Say with us. You're watching the press now. Welcome back.

We are following developments in the Middle east where the Israeli cabinet is currently leading to vote on an historic ceasefire agreement with Hamas. If approved, this will effectively clear the last major hurdle in the negotiation process. The agreement would then be sent to Israel's Supreme Court where it will have 24 hours to prevent an appeal. In the first phase of the deal, which could go into effect as early as Sunday, hamas will release 33 hostages, including two Americans in exchange Israel release of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel will also permit a surge of aid into Gaza and pull troops out from populated areas into buffer zones. The World Health Organization says it is aiming to deliver up to 600 trucks of aid a day into Gaza over the coming weeks. Meanwhile, overnight strikes continued in the Gaza strip. More than 117 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire deal was announced Wednesday.

That's according to the Hamas run Gaza Defense Ministry. Joining me now is NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel. He is live in Jerusalem. Richard, thank you so much for joining us.

We know that the Israeli cabinet is meeting as we speak to approve this ceasefire agreement. Take us inside. What your sources are telling you, the anticipation is they will in fact vote yes on this. That is the expectation.

It has already been accepted by the military, by the intelligence. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that pending approval, which officials tell us they expect will come, that the deal will go ahead on schedule on Sunday. What we're seeing now is last minute wrangling among Netanyahu's own coalition government. He has members of the far right who have opposed this deal, who say they will quit the government.

This is a coalition government parliamentary system. So if one member or one group quits the government, other members of the coalition or potentially outsiders would have to come in, join, replace them. So he's not only trying to approve this deal, he also is trying to keep himself in office, keep the government together. But it looks like at this stage the government will hold.

They might lose a member or two. But it seems that Netanyahu does have the support to keep this, to keep himself in power, to keep the deal alive and for this process to go forward. You were just showing a picture a short while ago of Gazans holding up pans, holding up pots, waiting for food to be distributed. That was taken by our crew in Gaza today.

And I was just looking at some of the extended footage from in there and the interviews that we did. And it reveals the level of desperation. People go to these distribution sites in southern Gaza where most of the Gaza population is concentrated right now. They show up with pots so that they can bring them home to their family.

Put the video back up. Now there's collective kitchens. Each one of those pots is going to go back to a family. And as soon as the distribution begins, there is a mass rush of people as they go in, reaching forward.

Some of the pots were being spilled with burning hot food on top of people. We spoke to a little boy who says he comes there every day at six in the morning and sometimes because he's small, he never gets anything. This is what Gaza has been reduced to after 15 months of siege and war. Earlier today, I was talking to the family of an Israeli hostage.

They are also in a desperate situation. They are also anxious to see this war end. And right now they are facing a terrible dilemma because this deal is taking place in stages. You said that 33 hostages are expected to come out in the first phase.

That first phase is spread over six weeks on Sunday. Yes, the deal, if it goes through this last hurdle of the government goes into effect. But on the first day, the hostage families expect that only three hostages are going to come out, three female civilians. Then a week later, only four hostages will come out.

Then perhaps a week after that, another small number. So this is drip by drip. And it is very possible they could collapse, that there could be setbacks. So in Gaza, they are living hand to mouth and the hostage families here are watching these developments, afraid that their relatives might not make it out in time if this deal should collapse.

And just devastating details that you lay out. Richard, I do want to go back to the suffering that you talked about inside Gaza. Those images are just absolutely heartbreaking to look at and yet so important that the world sees them. What might this first phase of the deal mean for the people who are living and suffering in Gaza?

So right now there is very little food, very little water. People are crammed into a small area. They are generally living on handouts. There is not a lot of wood in Gaza.

It's not a heavily forested area. There's not wood to burn. People are cold at night. You can see the clothes that I'm wearing right now is freezing here in Jerusalem.

So they go to collective kitchens because they can't afford to buy food. There are some that are still functioning. Prices, however, are exorbitantly high. So the vast majority of the population depend on these handouts.

And you see the level of desperation, the level of tragic chaos that erupts when the food, when the moment comes, when the food is ready and they start to hand it out. Once this deal goes into effect, aid is supposed to start flowing into Gaza, five to 600 trucks per day. They need reconstruction materials, they need food, they need fuel, they need water filters. They need everything.

The entire infrastructure in Gaza has been decimated. So the people need relief immediate. And the Gaza Strip needs to be rebuilt. And the rebuilding process is going to be incredibly complex and will take years to say the very least.

Richard Engel, thank you so much for joining us. Please continue to stay safe. Really appreciate all your great recordings. Coming up after the break, we are looking back on President Biden's legacy as you look ahead at the future of the Democratic Party and President Elect Trump's day one priority.

Stay with us, panel. Next. You're watching. While the back in the final days of his administration, President Biden is looking to set the tone for how his presidency will be remembered.

It comes as the New York Times is reporting new details about the efforts this summer among top Democrats like Senator Chuck Schumer urging President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race following that disastrous debate performance. Here's what then Senate Majority Leader Schumer told the president privately in July, according to the Times, quote, if you run and you lose to Trump and we lose the Senate and we don't get back the house, that 50 years of amazing, beautiful work goes out the window, Mr. Schumer said. But what you go down American history as one of the darkest figures, that's the end of that quote.

Join me now to discuss that. The panel that I have with me on this Friday, Susan Page, Washington bureau chief at USA Today, Simone Sanders Townsend, former chief spokesperson for Vice President Harris and co host of the Weekend on msnbc and Rob Louis, president and executive editor of the Daily Signal. Thanks to all of you for being here. Susan, I want to start with you.

First of all, what a revelation in the Times about the conversation that Leader Schumer had with President Biden. You were able to conduct one of really two exit interviews that President Biden gave. How did you find him and did you feel as though he really harbors a frustration with those top Democrats who push him out? Absolutely.

I think he is dismayed that he got this pressure not only from Schumer, but also from Nancy Pelosi to plot. He told me that, that he believes he could have won if he had stayed in the race. That is not the conventional wisdom among other Democrats that he would have won. But he also said that he's not sure he had the vigor to serve four more years.

And that is such a fundamental question. If you're, if you're seeking a four year term, it really isn't. And you were the first to get that quote from President Biden. And it was such a revelation.

And Simone there reports that Vice President Harris is really hurt that he is publicly saying, yes, I could have won. Now we should note he's also said Vice President Harris could win, she should run again. What do you make of where the relationship is right now? Well, first of all, I think that the president and the vice president still into a very close relationship through this debacle of the will she get out and she's stay in.

It was a vice president that really was on an island of her own among senior Democrats in terms of stand by the president, not even in private, but she entertained conversation about, well, if he gets out, she would never talk about it. And I think that moment is very important to the president. Look, I mean, I understand if she is saying now, you know, I've seen the vice president. I did not ask her this question.

So I have no news to break here. But look, I just think at the end of the day, Vice President Harris I'm sure feels like if maybe she had more time, she could have done well, even better, she could have won maybe if there are some other things happening there. But I'm also the president feels like, look, all these people told me to the quotes in the New York Times from Leader Schumer, if you get out, you will, we will have a chance and we could win this. And then we feel lost that the Democrats did.

So it's kind of like, well, maybe I shouldn't say so hindsight at this point, you will never know. But what if. It sure is. And I think that question, should he have gotten out sooner?

Will continue to be debated for years to come. Rob, let me turn to you and what we heard from President Biden this week. In his his final farewell address, he warned of an autocracy taking over the United States. And it comes as President Elect Trump is prepared for his inauguration.

He is going to be flanked by a lot of billionaires at the inauguration. What do you make of the warning for President Biden and what's the reaction you're hearing? Of course, it's a bit surprised to me. It's probably anyone else that Donald Trump has been able to cultivate this relationship with some of these tech billionaires, including Mark Zuckerberg, most notably.

Zuckerberg, of course, famously deplatformed Trump after his defeat in the 2020 election. And so you have a situation where I hope that the promises that they're making towards free speech and more open debate are actually carried out in practice. I think that some conservatives are still skeptical based on past experience in terms of his criticism. I found it a little bit hollow in the respect that Joe Biden was the one whose administration was working with the social media companies in some cases to suppress conservatives.

So, you know, there is that fact that I think might get in the way of his arguments. Simone, there's a reaction from some Democrats that's been a little biting. This was Sheldon Whitehouse who said, quote, that was a great speech. Had that speech launched the re election campaign, we'd have won.

Had that speech launched his presidency, we'd have saved America. Now we fight on. Talk to me about the reaction you're hearing inside Democratic circles. Do you wish he had said that sooner.

I think two things. First of all, I, first of all, I'm glad that the President was very specific. I think there are many people who are pin for him to meet the moment they saw him welcome President Trump to the White House. Literally taking photos, standing outside White House smiling.

And folks are like, well, you just said his presidency would be affected democracy and you are smiling. And so that moment from the President's office address is him ensuring that the American people know he is not right out of Richard tail about this moment. I don't think that that particular message about oligarchs and whatnot is the thing that I don't think that necessarily appealed to Joe Biden. I think he has resorted to solving the nation class that those are the things that are authentic to him.

And I actually think he might have been better in the race had he stayed focused on that piece and talked forward looking at that about defeating his record. Susan, I don't know about you, but I was prepared to listen to a speech that was gonna be a look back at his 50 plus years in public service. And when he said that, I was like, oh, oh, some fireworks here. What did she make of that?

Not that speech. We expected nothing. This is what I have done and this is what I owed. It was a look at a warning.

It was intentionally evocative of Dwight Eisenhower's warning about the military industrial complex when he left office. So it was, it was not an argument that he has effectively made before. This is injecting a fresh argument on his part as he leaves the door. You know, I don't know if he would have fared differently if he took the speech earlier.

He would, he would have fared better, I think if he'd been giving more speeches, more news conferences, more interviews to make his case on whatever he was, he believed. I think if you look at his presidency, the failure to communicate clear two Americans play a part in his defeat and in his exit before he wanted to go. I agree with Susan. Lots of talk about the cognitive.

Where are the cognitive issues for the President? And because I didn't see them in the interview the other night, I didn't see it. And interview he did with read on the pages with Susan and I did not see that in the office address. In his worst of all interview, I he admitted that he did not communicate effectively, particularly when it came to communicating about his legislative confidence.

He said Democrats should have put up signs in these construction projects that articulated why they were actually a Democratic bridge. And I'm like, oh good, he had too much policy, not enough politics. And I thought that was very important. Well, speaking of someone who is good at random, President Electronics set to be sworn into office on Monday.

We learned the inauguration is going to be inside, the first time since 1985 during President Reagan's second inauguration. Rob, talk to me about what you're going to be watching for, particularly in these first 100 days. We know we set to sign a number of executive actions on Monday. So first of all, inauguration speech itself will be much more positive than the inauguration speech from eight years ago.

That's a signal that Trump's team has said in terms of day one actions, the border, border, border, I think you can expect to see a lot of work on that particular issue. And then secondly, I'm curious to see if he decides to imposing tariffs on day one in the first week. But the most important thing that I think Trump needs to keep the pressure on is the Senate confirming his cabinet nominees. Those are the individuals who are going carry out the policy.

And so if he doesn't have those people in place, it's going to be more difficult for him to move quickly. So what are you going to be watching for? Well, I'm actually going to be watching for what the folks in the states are doing. You know, there are different kind of governors and Democratic attorney generals have already been telegraphing, particularly on this issue of deportations, how they are girding for what they want to administration might be.

And so while we will be seeing the pop and circumstance here in Washington, there will be real movement, I believe, in the state states when this deportation force of people that the president has promised. This is obviously a lot from cabinet picks to his agenda. We're going to be top of mind for you. Let's watch what the reaction as he gets, you know, eight years ago when he took office, huge resistance by Democrats, by corporate executives, by some foreign leaders.

We're not seeing that this time. We're seeing an effort to accommodate, to cultivate favor with the president by all those, by all those actors, by Republican members of Congress, Democratic members of Congress, foreign leaders, corporate executives. This is a different world for Trump and a different opportunity for him in a second term, I think, than in his first. Really, really seminal point, I think is we prepare to watch the inauguration on Monday.

Thanks to all of you, Susan, Simone and Rob, really appreciate it. Great conversation. We do want to turn to Capitol Hill now, where Congress is poised to welcome two new senators in the coming weeks. Earlier today, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that he has appointed his lieutenant governor Republican John Husted to fill the Senate seat vacated by vice president elect J.D.

vance. The decision comes after the wine Houston met with President Elect Trump last month at Mar A Lago. He's set to serve at least until 2026, a special election where he could face a very crowded primary. And let's go to Florida now, where Governor Ron DeSantis officially have his attorney general actually Moody to fill the open Senate seat left by Marco Rubio, who was on track to become Trump's secretary of state.

Silicon Democratic messaging in the Midwest. All talk to the mayor of Detroit who attended today's conference of mayor's meeting with President Biden about the future of his party in the Midwest and why he's running in the third party in his bid to be Michigan's next. Watching the press now. Welcome back.

As President Elect Trump prepares to take the oath of office, the jockeying has already begun for some key races in 2026, including in Michigan, which will hold a critical gubernatorial election to succeed term limited Governor Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. Today, Republican Senate Minority leader in Michigan Eric Nesbitt announced his bid for governor. He is the second candidate to formally throw his hat into the ring. It follows Detroit Mayor Mike Dugan's announcement last month that he will run for the open seat as an independent despite serving as a Democratic mayor for over 10 years.

Mayor Duggan joins me now on set. Thank you, Mayor Duggan, for being here. Thanks for having me. We really appreciate it.

So you are throwing your hat into the ring as an independent despite that you have served as mayor as a Democrat for 10 years. Why? Well, actually, in Michigan, mayors are elected nonpartis. So I've been certainly not part of the Democratic Party.

But it's hard to describe what Detroit was like in 2014 when I started, of course, in bankruptcy, highest unemployment rate in America, highest murder rate in America, half the street lights out. But the thing that defined Detroit politics then was it was all us versus them. It's the business community's fault, it's the suburbs fault, it's Lansing's fault. And I ran in an 83% African American city.

And I went house to house and I said, I'm not interested in blaming anybody. We need everybody working together. And pretty much nobody thought I had a chance to win. And I won.

I've been elected 72%, 75% the last two reelections because Detroit voters have decided we're not going to do this us versus them politics. They've embraced politics of unity. And that really contrasts with what's happening in the state of Michigan? I thought, you know, maybe.

Maybe there's a lesson to be learned here. I want to play you what Michigan Secretary of state and potential gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson had to say. Get your reaction on the other side. Right now it's clear we need to ensure members of the Democratic Party, our leaders throughout the state, everywhere, are listening to the residents of the state.

And so for me, it's important that in moments like this, we don't flee from the party, but we stay and fix it. How do you respond to that? So I think the parties are going to face reality sometime soon in my lifetime. Michigan has always been closely divided.

I mean, we've swung from Republican to Democratic governors every time since the 1970s. But it was civil. There was constructive engagement. What's happened in this state is nothing short of toxic.

And I think there are a whole lot of people in Michigan who are fed up with the fact that the Republicans and Democrats are more interested in fighting with each other and being in charge than they are in Saul solving problems. And certainly based on the reaction I've gotten in the last month, I think the Republicans are both gonna be surprised how badly people want to Detroit. Historically speaking, though, third party candidates struggle and Michigan has never had an independent governor. Why do you think you'll be different?

So if I could take you back. When I declared for mayor, they had been a white candidate for mayor and Detroit in 50 years. Then I got thrown off the ballot on technicality. So I had to run as a writer.

There never been. Everybody said, you can't do it. Do you know what happens when you sit down with people and say, here's what we have in common? And in Michigan now, our 8th graders are 43rd in the country in reading.

I never thought I said this is the last year. This has been going on for 30 years. We lead America and people under 30 moving out of state. This is what we need to be dealing with.

And I think you have people in Michigan. Neither Republican, Democrats have paid attention to those issues just to help people understand. And when you're out campaigning, is it that ideologically you have shifted or is it that the politics. I haven't shifted at all.

But what people have seen is this. The unemployment rate in Detroit was 20 when I came in. They had been auto plan in 20 years. We landed 5000 employee Jeep assembly plant, 5000 employee electric vehicle plant at General Motors, 2500 employee Amazon plant.

Now we've got the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years because I didn't get into all the politics. People saying, don't have Amazon. They're anti labor. Well, the neighbors came to the meeting and said, no, we want the jobs in our neighborhood.

So by for the last 12 years, I've ignored the politics left and right and said this is what's good for Detroit and everybody in southeastern Mission who now comes into Detroit in huge numbers. You saw the NFL Draft with 775,000 people and no incidents that people are saying, hey, that politics of working together, that's looking pretty good. What do you make of what we heard from Gretchen McMurt this week reacting to President elect Trump's promise to impose 25 tariffs on Canada and Mexico. She talked about the fact that it could hurt Michigan's auto industry.

Do you agree with her? Do you oppose this, Eric? So it's hard to tell how much the president elect is negotiating. That's exactly right.

I tried to ask him but I didn't get an answer. But if he would come to the assembly plants. We have three major assembly plans in Detroit. We have all kinds of parts coming across the river.

Windsor is right across the river from us. It's part of our supply chain. If you put a significant tariff on the parts coming from Canada, it's going to do real damage to the Michigan auto industry. But on the other hand, if there are tariffs in Mexico, most Michigan residents don't really have have a great problem with that at this point.

I'm hoping the president is doing a sophisticated negotiation and I'll wait and see what he actually imposes before I reach a conclusion. We have about 30 seconds. Do you what's your message to Democrats about working with President elect Trump should they find a way to do it? So I don't Democrats are listening anymore.

I'm an independent, but I would say this to everybody, that when somebody is elected, you ought to work with a good faith. Doesn't mean you give up your principles. But and I think you've seen Grant, we're set for the tone that way. Mayor Duggan, thank you so much for joining us.

It's great to have you here in person. Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. We will be back Monday with special coverage of the Trump inauguration starting at 10am Eastern.

And it's Sunday at see the press on your local NBC news stations. I'll have exclusive interviews with Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, plus my one on one interview with Martin Luther King III as part of our Meet the Moment series. The news continues with Compostel in for Hallie Jackson right now. Hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of the Drink.

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

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