Meet the Press NOW – January 19

If it's Friday, it's the final four days of the first in the nation Republican primary. And Nikki Haley is ramping up her events and her attacks hitting the trail and hitting front runner Donald Trump as he clinches another major endorsement. Plus tensions escalating the Middle East. Israel's prime minister rejects calls for a Palestinian state widening a rift with the White House as a task between the US Military and Iran, backed with the rebels intensify.

And Trump claims he saved the world from a nuclear holocaust and became the president for the brand. Those moments and more key takeaways from a newly released tapes deposition that's part of the New York civil fraud case against the former president. Welcome to MEET THE press. Now.

I'm Kristen Welder live from New Hampshire. We are on the ground in Manchester with just four days to go until the first of the nation primary, which could be the last stand for former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. After some criticism earlier this week that Haley's campaign wasn't treating this moment with the urgency it deserves, Haley today is acting like her political life is on the line. And, folks, it is.

Haley has six events today as she tries to take the fight to the front runner, former President Donald Trump. I think the reason that he gets behind the screen and hits me is because he doesn't want to get on a debate stage. He knows I know him very well. He knows I know what his lies are.

And for all of those that are reporting that I'm a moderate, I will ask you or anybody, Trump or anybody in Fox are saying that I'm not a conservative. Name one thing that I wasn't conservative on. But there are signs that this more forceful push could be too little, too late. The latest Boston Globe Suffolk University NBC 10 tracking poll has Haley trailing Trump 52 to 35, with Ron DeSantis in a distant third as he prepares to head to South Carolina tomorrow.

Earlier polls pointed to a tighter race, but the former president appears to have gained momentum after that landslide victory in Iowa. And in a blow to the Haley campaign, a source confirms to NBC News that Tim Scott, her home state senator, whom she appointed to a seat in 2012, will endorse Donald Trump in New Hampshire tonight. Overall, the lower end of expectations has been notable from both Haley and her top surrogate, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu. Sununu predicting an absolute win in New Hampshire when he endorsed Haley.

Compare that to this statement. What I want to do is be strong. We're not gonna know what strong looks like until those numbers come in. But you Guys will all say whether it's strong or not.

So I'm sure that you'll do that. But look, I mean, we want to do better than we deny it. That's my personal goal, is to make sure we do better than we deny it. I think she's win.

We've already exceeded expectations in terms of a one on one race. You know, a strong second is gonna be great. That's wonderful. But now the chance to actually do it, no one thought was possible.

Now Haley can pull off a strong showing. It will be on the strength of independent voters who are allowed to vote in the New Hampshire Republican primary. I talked to one undecided voter earlier today, and she said while she's leaning toward Haley, she wants to make sure her vote goes to someone with the best chance of stopping Trump. I'm leaning towards Nikki.

Why? Because her, her policies and her stances are closer to what I would agree with. You're leaning toward Nikki Haley. Why hasn't she closed the deal?

In part because I, I'm not positive that she's gonna be the person who's gonna pull through. And if we're gonna not have Trump in, then I need to have someone who's gonna be able to rally the rest of the nation around them in a way that we can actually afford and have it be a nomination that doesn't go to Trump. Our NBC News team is on the ground here in New Hampshire covering the final weekend of campaigning in this primary. Ally Vitali is following the Haley campaign in Manchester.

Dasha Burns is following the DeSantis campaign, and Jack Brewster is talking to Trump supporters in Seabrook. Ally, let me start with you first. Nikki Haley went to New Hampshire today with plenty of retail stops across the brand state. I think I counted there about six of them.

Right. What is her closing message and how is she responding to this criticism that she hasn't been barnstorming in a more robust way that her supporters want to see? Yeah, Nikki Haley is basically saying to those critics, watch what I'm gonna do next. She has always said, underestimate me at your own cost.

And certainly anyone who said she wasn't doing enough on the campaigning front is certainly gonna have to eat their words based on what we've seen over the course of the last few days and certainly going into primary day next week. But Nikki Haley is doing this really delicate dance between being on offense, doing all these retail stuff, shaking as many hands as possible, while also being on offense to try to reframe this race as a race between her and Donald Trump while also trying to tie Trump to Biden in the minds of voters. But she's also playing defense because when you get within striking distance of the former president, he is known to counter punch and punch back. You will.

We're watching at least what you pointed to at the beginning of the show, the fact that he's been tweeting or exiting about her. I'm not sure we still decided on a verb for that is on that social media platform. But he has certainly turned his fire on Haley much like we saw him do to Ron DeSantis when DeSantis was the one in second place. And for Nikki Haley, while playing defense on that, continuing to remind folks of her conservative credentials, she is losing steam in the endorsement game.

Now, I'm not one who believes that endorsements necessarily move votes, but it certainly does lend to the idea that the momentum is behind the candidate on the receiving end of them. And certainly when you're Nikki Haley not getting the endorsement of your home state senator who you helped put in that seat in 2012, certainly that is going to stir some conversation. The other thing though, Kristen, is the question I asked her, which is, okay, you're being a little bit vague on the expectations game here in New Hampshire, but what does the path even look like best case scenario over towards the next month? Watch what she told me and Ali.

I think that we do have some of that exchange with you and the former UN Ambassador. So let's take a look at that exchange with Ali, Vitaly and Nikki Haley. Can you detail sort of your best case scenario for the next month? Obviously the best case is you in New Hampshire, but what does it look like after that?

You know, I mean, the thing is y' all have decided you want to talk about what this scenario is going to be. I have told you from the very beginning and been very consistent. I said I wanted to be strong in Iowa. I feel like we did that.

We started at 2%. We ended with 20. I was happy with that. I said we want to be stronger in New Hampshire.

We're going to do that. We won't know what stronger is until the numbers come in and then I want to be stronger than that in South Carolina. Look, that's not necessarily the argument that you heard her making even a few weeks ago when they were saying as person said she was going to win by landslide here in a state like New Hampshire, she is doing well with independence. But you're still watching Trump clean up among the so called MAGA faithful.

No surprise there. They are called the faithful for that reason. But for Nikki Haley, we're watching her shift these goalposts now as to what a win means, which is to say, all right, I did third in Iowa. I do second in New Hampshire.

The thing that she can't get to is first in South Carolina. At least that's not the expectation she's setting. And I think most of us here know why. You're absolutely right.

Great question to her, Ali. And I think it's so important to underscore the point that you are making because if you rewind several weeks ago, she said, look, I'm going to win New Hampshire. I'm going to go on and win my home state of South Carolina. And boy, has her tone, has Governor Sununu's tone changed.

Thank you so much. Ali Vitali, dashboards, let me head over to you. You've obviously been following the DeSantis campaign. He has all but shifted most of his resources to South Carolina, where he's also trailing there.

What is the strategy? What are they saying inside the DeSantis campaign because he's in a distant third place here in New Hampshire? Well, look, they know this is not his state, Right. So I think the idea is to signal to donors, to supporters that there is life after New Hampshire.

But he is not stopping here because in a traditional political landscape, if you're coming in this distant third in New Hampshire, your campaign's gonna have a real hard time moving forward. But he is signaling to say, look, we hope in South Carolina, where my opponent for that second place, mantle, Nikki Haley, is going to struggle because unfortunately for Haley, her home state is pretty much next on the primary calendar. DeSantis, luckily, just because of the way the primary calendar is set up, he doesn't have to cross the Florida bridge for a little while because he's certainly training Trump by a wide margin there as well. But Nikki Haley's got South Carolina coming up a lot quicker.

And he believes, as he believes that that is where she's going to hit a wall. So that's where they might have some fertile ground to turn this into a two person race. Now beyond that, you know, I asked him, Kristen in our interview, what is the state that you can win? He certainly doesn't look like he can win South Carolina right now or any other Super Tuesday state if he decides to stay in beyond that.

But he doesn't look like she's showing any signs of dropping out yet. Here's what he said to Hugh Hewitt, that we won iol. We would have been in a great spot. You know, coming in second gives us the ticket to continue.

But I, I told my people this from the very beginning. I don't want to be vvp. I want to be in the Cabinet. I don't want a TV show.

I'm in it to win it. But I do believe that we have an opportunity in November to do very, very well. We're in this interesting place, Kristen, where you've got both of these candidates, both Nikki Haley and DeSantis sort of living out their own alternative universes right now where they're, they're creating these paths for themselves that they haven't been able to articulate clearly to anyone else in the press or any voters. I mean, we keep asking, I saw Ali press, press Haley about this.

I press DeSantis about this. How do you move forward? What is the actual path? What is the math?

We have not gotten clear answers on that. I don't know that there are any right now, given where we're at and because of Trump absolute dominance. But what happens here in New Hampshire, what happens in South Carolina that might give some, some answers at least as to which of these two alternative, alternative candidates is able to stay in the ring? Oh, I think you're absolutely right about that.

We're going to know a whole lot more after Tuesday, after South Carolina. So fascinating to hear DeSantis say that he plans to stay in this through Super Tuesday and beyond. Thank you so much for your fantastic reporting as always, Jack. Rooster, let me turn to you.

You're along the Massachusetts border in New Hampshire. It is one of the areas where Trump did best in 2016. Is he showing the same signs of strength there? What are you hearing?

You're still hearing a lot of support for former President Donald Trump here in these border towns. As you mentioned, this is where he saw some of his best showing back in 2016 and helped lead him to his first win back in that cycle. And you know, you're seeing that support despite the attacks and the comments that you're getting from Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. I want you to listen to some of the exchanges I've been having with his core supporters who give you a sense of why those attacks for them are not landing.

Listen here. President Trump did not build the wall as he said he was going to, that he didn't repeal Obamacare, that he chaotic during his presidency. What do you think when you hear those arguments? Okay, I agree on the chaos, but you know where the chaotic under Trump it was, but not because of President Trump, it was because of his adversaries.

The minute he came down that elevator, they were against him and they built this case against him in sometimes a fraudulent case. Why Donald Trump? Donald Trump. Because I want to close border.

I want to feel safe again and I want to enforce law and order of land. Did you, did you ever consider any of the other candidates in this primary? I haven't considered anyone until Donald Trump walked down that elevator in 2015. There are other candidates in this primary.

Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley. Did you ever consider supporting anyone but Trump? Well, if he wasn't going to run, I probably would have voted for Ron DeSantis. But I don't, I don't know.

He fell off like a, a few things that he said about Trump supporters and stuff I didn't like and he kind of turned me off. Chris. And I'll tell you, there was a birthday party for a 92 year old here earlier this afternoon and most of the overwhelming majority of that family said that they were planning to support the former president. But this is the venture.

We're in his stronghold right now. And just as we see Donald Trump mobilizes a lot of his supporters to be able to, you also see the opposite effect in that those who are against him or who are offended by him are also mobilized in this race. And in the state, New Hampshire, you have those undeclared independent voters. It's a question of how many of them will be driven to the polls because of that.

Jack. I think that is going to be the big question. Fantastic interviews. Thank you so much for bringing us all that great reporting, your interviews.

Join me now is the chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, Chris Aer. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Thank you for having me.

So let's talk about what we are seeing, the state of play here in New Hampshire. The polls have a double digit spread between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley. Do you think that's what we're going to see on Tuesday or do you think this is going to be a close race? Do you think Nikki Haley has a shot here?

So right now you can feel the passion from the Trump supporters. They're outside going sideways in the cold, the rain, snow, and they're very vocal. They wear their support for President Trump on their sleeve. Very passionate, the Nikki Haley supporters a little bit more subdued.

So in the polling, it's possible that the Trump supporters could be oversampled versus the Haley. So I gotta keep that in mind. The other thing is in 2022, in our Senate primary general Don Boldach, was up in almost every poll by 10%. On election day, he won by less than 1%.

So a lot of these New England voters, New Hampshire folks, sometimes they don't like to tell the pollsters what they're gonna do. So I think it could be closer. But you can definitely feel the passion of the Trump support. Well, that is significant coming from you.

And obviously what we just heard from Shaq underscores that point as well. I want to ask you about the all important issue of turnout. It is the most important factor in any election. We saw that.

It was down in Iowa, of course, last week. Not a big surprise given the record low temperatures they were battling. It's obviously very chilly here in New Hampshire as well. But what are you anticipating when it comes to turnout on Tuesday?

So I'm looking at a potentially record turnout on the Republican primary in the past. In 2016, the turnout was about 287,000 voters. I'm expecting about 300,000 to show up in the Republican primary, about half of that in the Democrat primary since Joe Biden's not on ballot at all. And I think it's from both sides.

It's people who want President Trump back in office and also the people who are against him. So it's kind of polarized, pro Trump and anti Trump. So both of those sides, I think, are going to have a big, big reason to come out and vote. And in New Hampshire, we have less than half the population of Iowa, but we're likely going to be voting three times as many people.

So it's a factor of six of the total participation increase over Iowa. And that's because it's in our DNA. That's what we do. It's our state sport.

It's politics. And so we take it very seriously, looking at the candidates right up until the last minute. So the last minute campaigning does matter. Oh, it sure does.

And I should say that Iowans take their caucuses just as seriously. I was there in Iowa. They were dealing with record lows. So it certainly was an extraordinary caucus night.

I do want to play something the former President Trump said about the New Hampshire primaries this week. He gets your reaction on the other side. You gotta change that rule, that law that allows Democrats to come down. And also this one day deal where they can walk in and just sign up right away.

Voter registration. You're changing stuff. Sununo. Sununo's not doing his job now.

Quick little fact check there. Democrats would have to actually change the party affiliation by early October to be able to vote in the primary. But is there any discussion about changing the rules so that independents, for example, can't have crossover votes on Friday night vote in the Republican primary? Yes, there has been discussion of that.

In New Hampshire, 30% of our registered voters are Democrat, 30% Republican, 40% are undeclared. That 40% can show up in Election Day and decide which ballot to pick. We've been doing that for over 40 years and it hasn't really been a problem anywhere in 2016. Donald Trump was likely the beneficiary of that if he wanted a closer primary.

And independents appear to have voted in large numbers for Donald Trump in 2016. So I'm kind of just to be clear. Yeah. Do you think, do you think it's going to change?

Do you think this rule is ever going to change or you think it's just going to be something that folks talk about? I don't think it's going to change. It served us very well. It's allowed us in the nature of the last three Republican presidential cycles to pick the eventual winner, John McCain, McRemley and Donald Trump, whereas in Iowa, they picked three different people.

So I think it is a very good way to pick our nominee. It gives us a broad spectrum of voters that get to pick. And a lot of those undeclared people, policemen, teachers, business owners who for their work relationships like the state, undeclared, but they vote Republican consistently. Same thing for the Democrats.

And so we want to have as high participation as possible. We don't want to shut people out. And there were very few Democrats at Swiss to Republican, about 3,500 before the October deadline. So it doesn't seem to be a problem.

And you know, it's so Yankee conservative tradition. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. All right, Chris Hager, thank you so much for your time and your perspective. We are looking forward to Tuesday night.

We'll be watching the results and returns coming very closely. Really appreciate it. And coming up, the other primary race, immigrant state as allies of President Biden try to secure him a win even though he's not on the ballot here. And we'll be covering it all on Tuesday night.

I'll be joined by my colleagues Tom Yanis and Hallie Jackson for special primary night coverage eastern at 5pm right here on NBC News now. We'll be right back with more MEET THE press. Now. Stay with us.

Welcome back. President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke by phone today for the first time in almost a month. It comes today after Netanyahu flatly rejected any push for the creation of Palestinian state. The White House says today's call is part of the regular communication between the two leaders and not in response to the prime minister's recent comments.

But it has been the US Policy for decades to work towards a two state solution. And Netanyahu's dismissal of a Palestinian state is likely to deepen the growing divide between his government and the Biden administration. Join me now to discuss. This is Ross Sanchez and Tel Aviv.

Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. So let's delve a little bit more deeply into the stone call. What more did Netanyahu say?

So Netanyahu has carved out a very successful three decade career in Israeli politics by saying no to a Palestinian state, by presenting himself as the Israeli leader who's able to say no to the United States in his words, saying no even to Israel's best friends. And he's been having this argument with Democratic presidents since Bill Clinton. It's interesting looking at the readout the White House gave of this phone call. As you know, Kristen, the president's time is one of the most precious commodities in Washington.

And it sounds like President Biden focused on a couple of technical issues that would have big implications for the Palestinian people. One is about getting flour into Gaza through the port of Ashdod in southern Israel. The others about getting tax revenues, the Palestinian Authority in the occupied west bank trying to prevent an economic collapse there that could lead to a security situation, to more violence in the West Bank. So it may be that President Biden's national security team felt it was not worth repeating this argument at length when there are much more pressing issues going on right now in terms of like death literally for Palestinians in Gaza.

Kristen. And you lay out so well off the fact that there is the immediate unfolding crisis and then there's also the what happens after this war ends. You obviously have been there in Israel for quite some time since this war began, frankly. How are people there reacting to what appears to be this growing rift between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu?

Yeah, I think it's always uncomfortable for Israelis seeing tension between their own government and the government of their most important ally. It's hard to overstate how popular Joe Biden was here is especially in the days after October 7th Hamas attack, so many Israelis felt that their own government had let them down so badly, failing to stop that attack. For the president to come here in the middle of an act of war to throw a literal figurative arm around the shoulders of the grieving Israeli public. It meant a lot, I can tell you for Palestinians.

They hear President Biden repeating the calls for a two state solution. They heard President Obama say that, they heard President Clinton say that it didn't lead to a Palestinian state. And there is so much anger in Gaza in the west bank over what is seen by many Palestinians as American complicity in this very, very large scale loss of Palestinian life inside Gaza. All right, thank you so much for your reporting.

Please do continue to stay safe. I now want to bring in retired for star General Kenneth McKenzie, former commander of U.S. central Command. Thank you so much for joining me General MacKenzie.

I appreciate it. Let's talk about these tensions in the Middle East. President Biden conceded yesterday that US Response to some of the attacks against US Forces has yet to deter the Houthis but the US Strikes will continue against them. These were eyebrow raising comments.

Can you take us inside the thinking of the military from a military perspective? What other options are there to deter the Houthis? Well, Houthis have been waging a very successful low intensity war for several months. You know their stated policy is destruction of Israel and destruction of the United States.

We should take them at their words that they actually believe that they have not had a lot of success firing missiles in Israel. It's the long Israel is very well defended. They've had their success though at attempting to close the vile Bab El Medev strike which as you know if you go through the Suez now you're going to go through the Bab El Medev. And they've had some success now for a period of about 90 days actually beginning to shoot arms vessels there.

But they use are weapons that have been provided to them by Iran which they re engineered and make it even more effective weapons. So the Houthis are carrying out this, carrying out this contest and have been doing so for a while. Our response now is probably a little late. We might have been able to nip in the budget.

We reacted earlier but we're acting now. The thing to remember is this. The Houthis have a finite pile of weapons. And by weapons I mean short range ballistic missiles, I mean drones and I mean lane attack or seated cruise missiles that they can employ.

They get them from randomly and they re engineer them and they employ them. We can reduce that by continuing to strike them. So the military here of the case youe need to continue to strike the Houthis. They will eventually understand it's not in their best interest to continue this conflict or we will remove all of their capabilities to do any of this.

And apologies, I didn't mean to interrupt you. Is that what you would anticipate moving forward, that these strikes will continue at the same tempo? Particularly given what we heard from President Biden yesterday? I think we had an opportunity a while back to stop this at a much lower level of engagement.

We chose not to do that. Now on the good side, we have an international coalition, which I think is very important. That may have been worth the wait. But now we are going to have to continue these strikes and they're going to continue for some time, I would think, in order to let Houthis know that we're serious about this.

And that means striking their launching sites, their command control facilities, where their leaders are. That means striking their radar facilities and their intelligence gathering facilities. Now, one point I think is really important. I don't believe that continuing to strike the Houthis in Yemen will necessarily lead to a widening escalation the conflict in the region.

I don't think it is in Iran's best interest to do that. They're quite satisfied with what's happening in Yemen right now. And I think they will not view that as something that would require them to act directly against us to a greater degree than they already have or strike Israel. General McKenzie, let me follow up with you on that point because a lot of people see what is happening.

They say this is what a wider war looks like. What do you say to those who believe that a wider war is already underway? Well, so what has not happened is we have not had a major Lebanese Hezbollah attack out of Lebanon into Israel. As we know, they're the largest non state military entity in the world.

Thousands and thousands and thousands of very lethal capable missiles and drones they have chosen not to employ. Those elevated has made a strategic decision, at least so far, not to enter the conflict. That's something that's very important. Probably doesn't get enough play.

At the same time, Iran has also withheld entering the conflict directly. That's also they have the capability to reach out and strike Israel with a few dozen, maybe more long range missiles. Israel is probably well postured to defend themselves against that attack, but it would be a problem. An attack from Lebanon would be much more significant.

But neither of those two entities have chosen to strike Israel. Certainly strikes continue from the Houthis, but as we noted before, that's one away from Iran and doesn't directly engage them, allows them to operate, cause pain, disrupt world markets, try back at Israel while still being at one removed from potential consequences. And of course, there's a civil war raging in Yemen. What is the incentive of the Houthis to continue these attacks?

What are they looking for out of this? So, again, I take the Houthis that they're word, they're committed to the destruction of the state of Israel, committed to the destruction of the United States. That's their basic policy. They've not proven very successful in actually governing the country, ensuring that the horrific famine conditions that exist in Yemen are changing at all.

They're much more theocratically oriented to pursue the two objectives that we just discussed. And one other point I'd make is a lot of humanitarian aid has entered Yemen over the past few years. Unfortunately, it has not been well distributed and we have to one number of people for that. But the Houthis are part of them.

But not a single pound of humanitarian aid from Iran has ever entered Yemen. It's all been lethal systems designed to kill people. And we should bear that in mind when we talk about humanitarian situation. All right, General MacKenzie, complicated situation unfolding there.

Thank you for bringing us your insights. We really appreciate it. Thank you for having a good night. Coming up next, ballot battles.

The former president urges the Supreme Court to keep him on the primary ballot in Colorado after an appeals court ruled he was ineligible due to his actions tied to the January 6th insurrection. You're watching me the press now. Welcome back. As he hits the campaign trail here in New Hampshire, former President Trump is fighting to stay on the ballot in Colorado and potentially elsewhere.

Mr. Trump and his attorneys filed their brief before the Supreme Court last night urging it to overturn a Colorado appeals court ruling that would bar him from the ballot because of his actions tied to the January 6th insurrection. The Trump team writes in part, quote, the court should put a swift and decisive end to these ballot disqualification efforts which threatened to disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans and which promise to unleash chaos and bedlam if other state courts and state officials follow Colorado's lead. It comes as a video deposition of Mr.

Trump's business fraud case was released today where he claims that he saved the world from nuclear war and that he became president because of the brand. The judge in that case is expected to rule in that case as early as this month. NBC News legal analysis. Daisy Savalas joins me now.

Break down all of this. Danny, thanks so much for being here. So in listening to all of this, did you get a sense of the Trump team's legal argument about the Colorado Ballot and what it's going to be before the Supreme Court, it's going to be the same two issues that everyone expected it to be. Number one, they argue that Donald Trump is not an insurrectionist within the meaning of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

That was an issue that was actually litigated in the Colorado courts and determined as a fact issue. And then secondly, that Donald Trump is not an officer within the meaning of Section three. That would mean that the, that that part of the 14th Amendment doesn't apply to him and therefore he should not be barred from being on the ballot. They make a number of other arguments, and one of those arguments, at least one, is based on Colorado law.

And the reason I think that's significant is that as other states may join in or there may be other ballot access issues in other states, if the Supreme Court decides a case from Colorado based in part on Colorado law that won't have a lot of preced, say in Maine or in Michigan or somewhere else, it could be the case that the court will, the Supreme Court will resolve globally whether or not Donald Trump is covered by Section 3 as the president. That's something that can be applied globally. But far more interesting is what would happen if all these independent states rely on their own state law. Then arguably each one of them must be appealed separately to the Supreme Court.

So we could see a patchwork, in other words, of cases being appealed to the Supreme Court on state law issues. But I think the court could take up globally the issue of, for example, is there evidence that Donald Trump was an insurrectionist within the meaning of the Constitution? But then even there, there are some issues because each state has made that determination in a different way. Maine, for example, arrived at that conclusion but through an administrative process, whereas Colorado arrived at that conclusion through an evidentiary hearing in the courts.

Keep in mind, one of the arguments the Trump team is making is that the Colorado judiciary, even the proper branch of government to make that determination, it belongs, say, with the legislative branch instead. So a lot of complicated issues, even though there are two core issues that I think could be globally decided. Number one, was Donald Trump an insurrectionist? And number two, is he covered as an officer under Section three?

All right, well, a lot to watch there. Let me ask you about another case. The judge in the Georgia election interference case has actually ordered a hearing into allegations by one of Trump's co defendants of misconduct by the DA There, of course, finding Willis, does this have the potential to dismantle the entire case? What are the potential implications here, Danny?

How serious is this it's a long shot to dismantle the entire case. In other words, I don't believe that the remedy of dismissal is something that the judge will grant. But. But this may be a case of asking for high and hoping to hit somewhere in the middle.

If they can get to these prosecutors, too, that you see right there in that picture disqualified, then that would certainly be an obstacle to the state's prosecution. And often when you're a criminal defense attorney, it's a war fought by a thousand different cuts. You're not gonna win with any one cut. But added up in the aggregate, they may lead to a not guilty.

So it's really a defense attorney sworn duty to try anything as long as it's within the bounds of ethics. There were folks that said that this motion was a little out of mind because it went to a romantic relationship. That may be a point, but the motion alleges more than that. It's about whether or not these special prosecutors were even properly appointed, which is certainly a relevant issue, and also whether funds were disapprophy.

But it's still the motion asking to throw out the entire prosecution. Not likely to happen. But will it throw the Georgia prosecutors off their game? Certainly.

At least in the short. All right. Danny Savalas with all of the legal headlines for us on this Friday. Thank you so much.

I appreciate it. Always great to see you. After the break. Lawmakers have once again narrowly avoided a partial government shutdown with just a few weeks ago until the next deadline.

We'll break down the latest you're watching with the press now. Welcome back. President Biden today signed the stopgap measure to keep the government funded for another couple of months after Congress voted late yesterday on a deal to avert a shutdown for now. But there's an ongoing negotiation for a different funding deal, the supplemental spending bill that would provide additional aid to Ukraine and Israel and additional money for border security if an agreement can be reached by Senate negotiators on what provisions will be included in that border security package.

But Donald Trump is already urging Republicans to vote against it, posting on social media. The GOP should not agree to any border deal that doesn't include everything they want. Joining me now to break it all down is NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles. Ryan, in these negotiations, one side almost never gets everything they want.

So where do these talks stand to try to get this aid package into Israel, Ukraine and the border? Is it gonna happen? You know, Chris, I really do think that this is maybe a once in a generation opportunity to get all these things done in one fell swoop. But it is just that fact that it's a once in a generation opportunity that means that so many different things can go wrong to just blow the entire thing up.

We're in a situation right now where there does seem to be some progress being made to try and convince conservative Republicans that the border package that Senate negotiators are working on is at least getting into the ballpark of what they will agree to to then unlock this a for Ukraine and Israel and the like. But the issue is, the further you move that package to the right, then you start to lose the potential of more progressive Democrats who are already concerned about the situation at the border and these policies may be going too far and also are concerned about things like aid to Israel without humanitarian conditions applied to it. So there's a lot of moving parts here. I do think that they are moving in the right direction.

And we are starting to see even some conservative House Republicans suggest that this is a very unique opportunity that they have to try and get something done on the border. But there's a lot of work to be done between now and the potential of a building on the floor, and that is still gonna happen behind the scenes here over the next week or so. You're absolutely right. Ryan.

Talk quickly, if you would, about. About former President Trump's influence in this process in the 2024 campaign. The fact that a lot of Republicans see this as a potential political gift to President Biden. Yeah, it's so funny.

We talk about the many things that could go wrong in these negotiations. Donald Trump may be the biggest thing that could go wrong. And even some Senate Republicans admitted to that us to that this week, that he has the ability to just put out one of the posts on his True Social page and say that he doesn't like this package and that will be enough for a whole legion of House Republicans just to step away because they do not want the toxic association with something that Donald Trump isn't in favor of. But I had an illuminating conversation this week with Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who is by no means a liberal.

He is conservative in every way, shape or form. And he said that they should be using the election not as a reason not to support this package, but instead as a way to use it as leverage against Joe Biden. They know he needs it, and if they want to get something done, now is the time to strike. Strike.

It's unclear yet whether or not his fellow House Republicans agree. We watch and we Wait and you run around the Capitol, bring us these great updates. Ryan Nobles, thank you so much for all your fantastic reporting. Happy Friday.

Thank you. And still on, presidential candidate Dean Phillips talks to NBC News Mike Memoli about his long shot primary challenge against President Biden and the future of his candidacy after New Hampshire. That interview is next. You're WATCHING ME the PRESS now.

Welcome back. While much of the focus is on the Republican race Tuesday, it's primary day here in New York for Democrats as well. Even though President Biden will not be on the ballot, the Democratic Party chose South Carolina to be the first official contest this year. Since Tuesday's primary is in violation of party rules, there are no delegates up for grabs.

But Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips is still campaigning hard here and explicitly saying Biden can't win in November. I have respect for President Biden, but he will not beat Donald Trump. I do believe Donald Trump's a great threat to this country and explain to you why. But at the end of the day, you know, we can't torpedo our country by trying to win for one of our parties.

Joining me now is Mike Memley who has been following the Phillips campaign in New Hampshire. He had a chance to talk to Dean Phillips. So Mike, break this down. What is he saying about his chances here in New Hampshire, particularly given the fact that he's not going to win any delegates?

Well, Kristen, you're talking about the Republican race. It's all about suspense. Kenneth Haley, close the gap before Tuesday for the Democratic side. This is all about the expectations game.

What is the number that President Biden needs to say even with the right in candidacy to show that he's still a strong candidate for the party for Dean Phillips? How much do you need to do? When you look back to history, that's what Dean Phillips is doing. He's talking about more than half a century ago when Lyndon Johnson also was the incumbent subject to a right in candidacy and that his disappointing showing not to matter the race.

Take a listen to where Dean Phillips says he needs to be on election night, Tuesday, 1968, of course, Gene McCarthy achieved 42% against her right in Canada. President Johnson, of course, you know, happened after that. And I think we're see something similar on the 23rd here in a few days. I'm saying we'll see something where the incumbent president, a good man, is going to be shown to be very weak, not just in polls but in practice.

And if we're in the 20s, that would be extraordinary. So the polls have kind of been all over the place person, it depends. When you ask the question, do you include President Biden or do you leave it up to the voter to say that they're going to write him? But one poll this week just had him in single digits, which would obviously be disappointing, showing he's counting on some level on the same thing Haley is counting on, which is those swing voters, the other player voters can pick which belt they want on primary day.

The secretary today made a brick and he thinks there's going to be a greater turnout on the Republican side and only about 88,000 votes in the Democratic side. That would be a pretty low number considering even with incumbent in White House running the ballot. It sure would be. And it's such a fascinating part of this entire primary process.

I'm glad you were able to sit down with Congressman Mike Memley. Thank you so much for bringing us your great interview. I want to bring my panel, Al Simers Townsend, former senior Advisor to the 2020 Biden Harris campaign and the host of the Weekend on msnbc, and Garrett Bentry, Republican strategist and founder of GRB Strategies. Thanks to both of you for joining me on this Friday before the New Hampshire primary.

Simone, I'm going to start with you because we just heard from Dean Phillips. Let's talk about his could it have an impact on President Biden's reelection? How do you see this playing out? What are you gonna be watching for on Tuesday as it relates to Phillips?

Look, I think in general third party candidates are something that the Democrats should be concerned about. The Biden Harris re election campaign should be concerned about. I don't know if they if the campaign should be as concerned about Congressman Phillips specific candidacy here. Look, in order to be New Hampshire is a place and I saw, I read a lot of Mike Bennett Lee's interview there with Dean Phillips.

They talked to him earlier this morning in New Hampshire. And New Hampshire is a place where you can be an insurgent outsider and come in and you can do well. There are not a lot of other primaries though across the country within the Democratic Party apparatus where that is in fact the case and you can't be the Democratic nominee in this country. Not one since I've been, you know, around and alive that can become a nominee without substantial amount of black voters in the primary.

So I, I think that Dean Phillips candidacy though does speak to the fact that there are some people that again, they want to see some, some variety if you will. But the writing is on the wall and Joe Biden is going to be the Democrats nominee. And I think the sooner Democrats coalesce around that and start focusing on their Republican opponents in this race, I think the sooner and organizing base voters, everyone's talent will be better served doing that. Well, you take me to Garrett on that point.

Let's talk about what's happening here in New Hampshire. On the Republican side, Nikki Haley was hoping for some strong momentum coming out of Iowa. She didn't get it with that third place finished. She has about six events here today her supporters wanted to ramp up in these closing days.

Do you think she can catch Trump here, Garrett? And if she doesn't, it's a game over for her. Yeah, because that's a great question. I think she has about as good chance of catching Donald Trump as Dean Phillips says Joe Biden.

I just think it's gonna happen on either side. I do think that President Trump is getting a lot of money here coming out of Iowa. You're talking about, you know, polling shows him up about 12 or 15 points on Nikki Haley. A lot of the polls we're seeing are really showing high independent turnout, which is a problem here because the record is about 50.

And so you're calculating for about 70% of this poll. There's something that's going to happen. The Tim Scott endorsement, which is expected tonight, is also blow. Haley, you're talking about, she appointed him to that Senate seat and that's a big deal.

Presidential opponent from her state, former presidential opponent from her state endorsing President Trump here. I do think if she loses New Hampshire, just like Ron DeSantis left, IOW, President Trump then runs away with this nomination, she has no path because she's losing by about 30 or 40 points in South Carolina home state. And as you know very well, you can't go to your home state and lose and really surprise politically after that. Simone, what about that and what about the Tim Scott endorsement?

You've obviously been watching this race unfold very closely. What occurred to you when you learned about Tim Scott's endorsement? And to Garrett's point, you really can't lose your home state. I mean, I'll be honest, initially, when I heard about Senator Scott endorsement, I wondered, what did Nikki Haley do to Tim Scott?

And I say that because it is not necessary for Tim Scott to come out at this point in New Hampshire and endorse her. Endorse. Endorse Trump. It's absolutely not necessary.

So this is something that is designed to be a blow to the former governor of South Carolina. And I don't know if the Senator has an axe to grind or a point to be made, but he's definitely accomplishing whatever it is that is on his list. To Garrett's first point, there has not been a Democrat, a Democrat or a Republican who has won the primary, the nomination for their primary, their party's primary, and lost their home state. There have only been two presidents in our nation's history, in our recent history that have lost their home state in the general election and gone on to win the presidency.

One was Nixon. He wasn't on ballot in California that year. And the other was down Trump, he lost New York, but went on to be president in 2016. Nikki Haley is down.

She can't win, can't win South Carolina, but she's not going to even get out of New Hampshire. It's under 10 points personnel. And to be clear, I think that it's still a little early. New Hampshire voters and choicely they make up their mind going into the ballot box.

If she gets under 10 points, I think she survives to live another day. But she's not on the ballot in the Nevada caucus. Therefore, she will not get any delegates coming out of Nevada. The caucus is being ran by the Republican at the party there.

She's staying in the primary and she South Carolina. So I don't really know where her math is and how this is a viable candidacy going forward. All right, well, that's an interesting benchmark. We'll be looking for those 10 points here.

What do you make of that? And let's talk about the other candidate in this race, Ron DeSantis, because he's setting his sights on South Carolina. It's not his home state. His aids tell me they want to take the fight right to Nikki Haley's home state.

Well, guess what, as you say, Trump has a double digit lead there. What is the desantis path? Does he have one? Garrett?

He has the Marianne Williams and path right now. He's done. There's no path around DeSantis. You can't bank everything in Iowa lose by 30 points.

He's going to finish third here in New Hampshire. Then again, Nick, he was to stay in the race. He's probably going to finish third there, too. There's just no path forward.

He's been bleeding, you know, campaign donations, you know, they've laid off a lot of staff here and there's just no path forward. Donald Trump has dominated the primary here and he's going to run away with the New Hampshire, South Carolina, and I think he secures a nomination easily emerge a lot of people have been speculating, what if Ron DeSantis weren't in the race right now? What if he decided to drop out already? Could that have made a difference for Nikki Haley both in terms of momentum and in terms of potential votes?

He's obviously not registering many votes here. What do you make of that? We have about 30 seconds left. I think it really depends on if the candidates are willing to compete.

Even if Ron DeSantis was not a factor, is Nikki Haley willing to compete? And history says in this primary, no. Just now she started to hit Donald Trump even a little bit harder, but has not been willing to go right up to the line. And you cannot win a race without competing.

And these candidates have not competed. All right. Well, what a great conversation. Simone and Garrett, thank you.

Appreciate it. Great to see both of you. We will be back Monday with more MEET THE PRESS now. And if it's Sunday, it's MEET THE PRESS live from New Hampshire on your local NBC News station.

I'll have exclusive interviews with Governor Chris, Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Maggie Hassan. You do not want to miss this, folks. Chuck is going to be there with his analysis as well. And as we mentioned, we'll have special election night coverage starting at 5pm on Tuesday right here on NBC News.

Now the news continues with Hallie Jackson right now. He was a young Marine. She didn't care about convention. They made a life together.

Then one night the Marine died. And then the death investigation took a wild, unexpected and utterly bizarre turn. I'm Josh Makowitz and this is Trace of Suspicion, an all new podcast from Daylight. Listen to all episodes of Trace of Suspicion now, wherever you get your podcasts.